Settling in to HD

I had done some research before getting our HDTV and knew a few things going in. I knew that standard definition programming would actually look a little worse on the HDTV than it did on our tube. I knew that not all channels were available on HD. I knew that even on some HD channels not all shows would be in HD. And I knew that HD shows would take up more space on the DVR than SD shows.

But I didn't know how much more space.

An hour of TV would typically account for a percentage or two on the DVR. So when I got up to 90% full, I knew deleting a few episodes of an hour-long drama would save get me back down to 86 or 87 percent full. The other night I taped the Golden Globes in HD. Watched them And then deleted them. Prior to deletion I was at 80% full. After I was down to 66% full. 3 hours of HD amounted to 14% of the hard drive. Gulp.

The tradeoffs have already started. Two weeks ago I would have set the DVR to record tonight's repeat of the last three Lost hours no questions asked. Now? I didn't bother.

A small price to pay for such a great picture, sure. But I sense some painful choices coming in the months ahead, as Big Love, Breaking Bad, Lost, American Idol, and Battlestar Galactica return.

Until Whenever

The Man Can Write

As you may have heard, Bono will be contributing op-eds to the New York Times intermittently. His first has appeared, and its, well, it's just great. Bono's style is unique, and takes a little getting used to, but once you've acclimated, just how good a writer he is becomes evident. As a lyricist, Bono is very good, but not great; he's a little too quick to fall back on cliche and a little too quick to go for the non-specific and hazy when the concrete would be better to get into the pantheon. But as a writer? Whenever Rolling Stone does one of its lists of the 100 Best Somethings they get artists to write appreciations, and Bono's always come out head and shoulders above his peers'. Give the man a read; see what you think. I think he's got a promising career should he ever need/want to retire from the rock biz.

Until Whenever

2008 Albums

So - did I purchase ANY albums released in 2008 (ish)? A few:

All I Intended to Be, Emmylou Harris
A quiet and very pretty album that I hasn't really hooked me yet.

Atonement, Dario Marinaelli
A gorgeous, piano-laden score. The scoring for the much-commented on single-shot scene at the beach is really just as accomplished as the shot it accompanies. This is rapidly leaping up my all-time favorite score list.

Enchanted (Soundtrack), Alan Menken
Fine Menken, but not great Menken.

Gypsy, Jule Styne
The new Patti LuPone production. Haven't given it a full listen yet, but LuPone is as good as you would guess. The part she was born to play.

I'm Not There (Soundtrack), Various Artists
A great collection of diverse Dylan covers. They're not all keepers, but there are some real gems in here.

Into the Wild (Soundtrack), Eddie Vedder
A beautiful, stirring collection of songs. I have zero Pearl Jam on my iPod, but this collection has created a new respect for Vedder in me. I'm usually dubious of the original song approach to film scoring, but he does wonders with it.

John Adams (Soundtrack), Joseph Vitarelli and Rob Lane
I confess to buying it for that stirring opening titles piece, but this is a great score, full of delicate pathos and stir-the-blood patriot stuff.

Juno (Soundtrack)
A fun listen, but one that yields rapidly diminishing returns on repeated listens.

Kill to Get Crimson, Mark Knopfler
Knopfler's best solo album, and one of the year's best. A gorgeous collection of melodic folk songs.

Life, Death, Love & Freedom, John Mellencamp
Mellencamp's best since The Lonesome Jubilee. A wholly unexpected gem of an album, the likes of which I had all but written off from Mellencamp. sobering, darkly questioning songs about mortality. The song "Mean" is one of the best he's ever written.

The Little Mermaid (Original Broadway Cast), Alan Menken
Not nearly as good as his expanded Beauty & the Beast work, but fun nonetheless.

Lost (Season 3 Soundtrack), Michael Giacchino
The best scoring being done on TV, period. I'll keep getting these as long as they keep releasing them.

Momofuku, Elvis Costello
A pleasingly low-fi collection of stripped-down Costello songs. He's still got it.

Only by the Night, Kings of Leon
Bought last night ($7.99 at iTunes). Listened to most this morning. First reaction? Good. Maybe very good.

Roar! (From Cloverfield), Michael Giacchino
A fun, old-school 12-minute piece from the credits.

The Simpsons: Testify!, Alf Clausen
More bits and pieces from the last several years of The Simpsons. I adore the Evita parody songs.

@%&% Smilers!, Aimee Mann
A solid collection of songs, but not a classic.

Sweeney Todd (Soundtrack), Sondheim
I am very, very happy to have a version of Sweeney Todd featuring such lush, big-movie orchestrations. And the lyric-less reworking of the opening "Ballad of Sweeney Todd" is just great stuff.

Tell Tale Signs, Bob Dylan
The best album of the year, and it;s a collection of outtakes, cut songs, and live versions from the past 15 or so years.

Vampire Weekend, Vampire Weekend
Fun assured pop that reminds me of Paul Simon's Graceland.

WALL-E (Soundtrack), Thomas Newman
The score of the year, and maybe Newman's most beautiful.

Until Whenever

Who Needs a Dream?

Alan Sepinwall is, as is his wont, blogging about the TV critics press tour, and notes in today's entry that this summer sometime PBS will be broadcasting the Chess benefit concert that was done some time last year, starring Idina Menzel, Josh Groban, and Adam Pascal.

(Really bad hand-held video here)


This is exciting news for the subcult of Chess fans, of whom I am a casual member. This 19080s musical was written by the two guys from ABBA (yes, I am too lazy to open a new tab and Google and copy their names, why do you ask?) and Tim Rice and is kind of a notorious cult hit. It flopped on Broadway and, as far as I'm aware, has never been a hit, and yet is performed pretty often, with songs from its wonderful score popping up all the time in cabarets and the like. I'm especially excited by the casting - Idina Menzel, that most belty of big belters, is a great fit for Florence; Josh Groban's psuedo-operatic style will be an interesting fit on the big baritone role of Anatoly, and Adam Pascal has the right attitude for the preening, egomaniacal Freddie (but does he have the range - Freddie is a pretty high part).

The problem I have with news like this is how to note it - if PBS isn't showing this until the summer, how will I remember about it six months from now?

Until Whenever

My New Toy

For the last year or two, we have been toying with the idea of buckling under and buying a flat-screen TV. But it's only in the last month that I started doing serious research. Here's what I found:

If your screen is under 50 inches, the difference between 720p and 1080p is vanishingly small. We ended up going with a 40 inch for our family room (which, while not small, is set up in such a way that the TV and couch are only 8 feet apart.) I was a bit worried that the 40 would be too small. My worries were baseless. The 40 inch is very sizable and perfect for the room. The 46 inch truly would have been a bit too big.

I do not like the color on the Sony TVs. Something about it is a bit neon, a bit oversaturated and artificial. I love the color on the Samsungs.

After much back and forth, we settled on wanting a Samsung, not caring about 1080, and perfectly happy with a 40 inch and not a 42 (Samsung doesn't make an LCD 42, and as our family room is bright, with a big slider to the backyard in the back, a plasma would have far too much glare.)

We ended up with the Samsung LN40A450, which seems to be being clearanced. We got ours for $698 at 6th Ave.

Set up was a breeze. We picked up a very cabinet on floor sample clearance at Fortunoff, which made dealing with the wires and such easy. One HDMI cable between the cable box and the TV. Another between the TV and DVD player. And the output audio RCA jacks from the DVD player to the stereo. The cabinet even has doors for the speakers, so they are nicely tucked away. It also has an iPod dock on the top, with a cable that also goes to the stereo. No more tape adapter to play the iPod.

So far we have watched a few Dexter episodes on DVD, and the quality is great. As is the HD channels we've watched (mostly news.) I can't wait for new episodes of my favorite shows so that I can see them in HD.

Until Whenever

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

These hiatuses are becoming too much of a habit. My blogging energies and impulses are waning seriously these days, and yet I like having this outlet, and I like the body of commentary, slight as it may be, I’ve accumulated over the past few years. So – here’s to a more engaged 2009 from Tosy and Cosh!! Let’s see if that’s one resolution I can keep.

I don’t know that I saw enough movies, or read enough books, or heard enough albums, in 2008 to compile lists for all of the pop culture kinds I partake of. But a top ten total pop culture things I love? That’s easy:

10. The Art of Noise, by Alex Ross
The classical music critic for The New Yorker wrote a compelling, readable, and very layman-geared accounting of 20th Century classical music. He makes a marvelous case for atonality’s strengths and weaknesses, in the process neither trashing or exalting this oft-maligned development. A great book for any music lover.

9. Kill to Get Crimson, Mark Knopfler
Knopfler’s fifth solo album is easily his best, a folksy, tuneful, and quietly beautiful effort that features some of the laid-back vocalist’s best singing in years. As Knopfler ages, he only grows more assured and confident, and you can hear him caring less and less about popularity with each album.

8. Life Death Love and Freedom, John Mellencamp
Mellencamp’s best since The Lonesome Jubilee, which from these quarters is high praise indeed. The easy pop sentiment of his past few albums is replaced by a weary and resigned look at death and the end. Not a happy album, by any means, but a stark and unforgiving one that doesn’t hesitate to look death in the eye and see sadness and loss, not closure.

7. Iron Man
A caveat – I’ve yet to see (all of) The Dark Knight. That said, this is probably the best superhero origin movie yet (I’d still give Spider-Man 2 a light nod overall), with the core classic elements of the character seamlessly integrated into a more modern-feeling whole. Perhaps more importantly, though, is the way the film, and its leaked epilogue, lay the seeds for a compelling and integrated Marvel film universe that will culminate in the coming together of the Avengers on screen. I’m as excited for these next movies (Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America, and The Avengers) as I am for anything coming down the pike in the next few years.

6. The Given Day, Dennis Lehane
Lehane’s long-awaited novel, a fictionalized accounting of the 1919 Boston police strike is a sweeping historical epic sprinkled with finely drawn real-life characters who provide just the right amount of verisimilitude. What surprised me most, being as ignorant as I was of the historical realities at play, is how unafraid Lehane is to withhold easy answers and endings for his characters. Characters we started to see as one-dimensional villains are anything but, and our heroes are pitted with character flaws that provide resonance and heartbreak. A great novel.

5. Breaking Bad
This strike-shortened series is being forgotten in most year-end tallies, which is a shame. Bryan Cranston’s Emmy for the series was very well deserved, as he limned for us the journey of his character from meek chemistry teacher to calculating drug dealer. This was a dark, harrowing first season, and I am very eager to find out where they take this character next.

4. Mad Men
As assured and subtle a series as I’ve ever seen. Deadwood and The Sopranos had this same kind of subtlety and slow-moving feel, but each had bursts of violence to give the slowed-down, so-subtle storytelling flashes of oomph. Not so with Mad Men, which cops to very few fireworks and treats even those few it indulges in with cool calculation. Jon Hamm is the find of the last two years with his remarkably nuanced portrayal of a man playing a part. Just a great series.

3. Lost
After a satisfying but somewhat muddled third season, season four was a tight, focused blast that played with the show’s underlying skeleton without discarding it. And in the midst of this quick run of very serialized episodes were some remarkable stand-alones, with The Constant, especially, reaching heights of romantic expression I don’t think we ever expected to get from Lost.

2. Tell-Tale Signs, Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan took the cast offs from four great albums to make an album that should have felt as much a hodgepodge as the No Direction Home soundtrack did (in a good way), but instead felt like another great album. With each new effort in these later years of his career, Dylan cements further his reputation as the rock era’s most important voice, and certainly it’s most lasting one.

1. WALL-E
That WALL-E won’t get nominated for Best Film, simply because it’s animated, is a travesty. This is one of the great all-time films a gorgeous and gorgeously realized parable about the preciousness of human contact and relationships, of the importance of connecting. For 50 more reasons I loved this film, scroll down.

Until Whenever

Every Year It Gets Worse

Not the Grammy's themselves, or who wins, but my knowledge of who these artists are. So - my annual look at categories I actually know nominees in:

Record and Song of the Year
I like that Coldplay song, sure.

Album of the Year
I'd like to get the Coldplay album, and agree that In Rainbows stands tall with Radiohead's best, so nice to see that there. and the Krauss/Plant album actually sounds interesting.

Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals
"Viva La Vida" again, but I have to note here that I actually (shock!) have heard a few songs off of the new Gnarls Barkley, and am interested in hearing more! That's almost hip, right?

Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album
Up against Michael Feinstein, Natalie Cole, Josh Groban, and Barry Manilow is Rufus Wainwright! Go Rufus!

Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance
Gravity, John Mayer
I Saw Her Standing There, Paul McCartney
Girls In Their Summer Clothes, Bruce Springsteen\
Rise, Eddie Vedder
No Hidden Path, Neil Young

I've actually heard three of these, and am puzzled by the Neil Young song, as there are several much better songs - and vocal performances - on that album. Between Springsteen and Vedder, I'd go with Vedder here.

Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals and Best Rock Song
I like "Girls in Their Summer Clothes," but it almost comes across as pastiche Bruce. "House of Cards" by Radiohead, no doubt. Great song.

Best Rock Album
Like I said, I do want to get Viva La Vida, and the little I heard of Kings of Leon on SNL was actually interesting. But why isn't In Rainbows here?

Best Alternative Music Album
Because it's here, I guess. When an album is nominated for Album of the Year, doesn't it kind of automatically win the narrower category? I mean, none of the other 4 here were good enough for Album of the Year, right?

Best Jazz Vocal Album
Reminds me that I still need to get Cassandra Wilson's latest, Loverly.

Best Contemporary Folk/Americana Album
I have the new Emmlou Harris, All I Intended to Be, and it is lovely.

Best Musical Show Album
Still haven't gotten to the new Gypsy, but I do have it. Little Mermaid was disappointing for this Menken fan, as none of the new songs were as good as the new stuff he wrote for Beauty and the Beast. The new South Pacific is good as well, but i have to bet Gypsy here, based on even the little I've heard so far.

Best Compilation Soundtrack Album For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media
Juno was good, but a bit repetitive. Sweeney Todd? No contest - great album, with some great film music treatments of Sondheim underscoring.

Best Score Soundtrack Album For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media
A very tough one. Johnny Greenwood's There Will be Blood score is magnificent, but so is Thomas Newman's Wall-E score. Easily the hardest category for me.

Best Song Written For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media
Peter Gabriel's WALL-E song, "Down to Earth," is a great one, narrowly beating out Menken's "That's How You Know" from Enchanted.

Until Whenever

50 Things I Loved About WALL-E

1. That the first sound we hear isn't a spaceship, or majestic orchestral sounds, but Michael Crawford singing "Out there!"
2. That all of WALL-E's movements have a mechanical, logical origin - you can see how he works, and how he fits together. Compare to the very unconvincing spatial logistics of the transforming robots in Transformers.
3. The sheer beauty of those opening shots, as we descend towards earth and see those sad and beautiful towers of trash.
4. The internal logic of WALL-E's daily life - we see how he repairs himself, how he lives.
5. The sound of WALL-E rolling along.
6. The way WALL-E recharges by using a solar charger like a tanning reflector.
7. Fred Willard.
8. That Fred Willard and the others in the B'N Large commercial are real people.
9. The idea of monitors that project on their own, without a frame or surface.
10. The moment when WALL-E grabs a hubcap so that he can copy the dance in "Put On Your Sunday Clothes." The first moment that hit me emotionally.
11. The overall notion that music has that power, the power to move a robot to sentience.
12. The sleek, Apple-y design on EVE.
13. The way WALL-E trembles when EVE first tries to blast him
14. Thomas Newman's majestic score - his best in a while, maybe even since Shawshank!
15. The way WALL-E's low-power sluggishness in the morning resembles human tiredness.
16. That the cockroach buddy never gets cloying.
17. WALL-E trying to get EVE to hold his hand.
18. WALL-E showing off his possessions to EVE to try and impress her.
19. The way that WALL-E never gives up on her after she shuts down upon securing the plant.
20. EVE's voice, just the right blend of real human female and robot.
21. The way EVE's three fingers aren't attached to her hand, nor the hand to her arm.
22. WALL-E's bouncy travel music.
23. The way WALL-E digs himself under the ground to escape the rocket's blast.
24. WALL-E reaching up to run his hand through Saturn's ring.
25. The design and scale of the cruise ship.
26. The switch in the second act, and how it doesn't make the lazy humans bad people.
27. The notion that robots that gain a bit of free will are hauled off for repair
28. The eager industriousness of the cleaner bot
29. Jeff Garlin as the captain - fat people can get a glottal quality in their voice, and Garlin has it.
30. John and Mary rediscovering the joy of touch.
31. WALL-E and EVE dancing outside the spaceship. One of the most joyous and beautiful moments I've ever seen in a movie
32. The animation of the fire extinguisher's exhaust crystallizing.
33. WALL-E's self-sacrifice.
34. The Captain standing on his own to feet.
35. EVE's real panic as she tried to fix WALL-E.
36. Cupcake in a cup.
37. That, while exaggerated, the satire of humans never interacting, or moving on their own, came from a real place - all those people engrossed in their screens felt uncomfortably familiar.
38. That they planted the seed of the hover chairs with the hover chair for Grandma in the earlier commercial
39. That PIXAR somehow managed to make a beautiful family film about the near-extinction of the human race.
40. EVE bringing WALL-E back to life with a kiss. Magic.
41. How WALL-E says "EVE"
42. How subtly the animators distinguished between no-memory WALL-E and recovered WALL-E.
43. That WALL-E wants to introduce himself to everyone he meets.
44. That the animators weren't afraid to make it look like WALL-E is taking a dump when he compresses trash.
45. The massage robot gleefully pummeling the security robots to pieces.
46. The credits, which tell us in evolving art styles how the humans repopulate the planet.
47. Peter Gabriel's song.
48. The ATARI 2600 WALL-E game going on in the margins of the credits.
49. The short about the magician and the sheer inventiveness in the concept.
50. The Mac reboot sound effect.

Until Whenever

The Butler Did It

I know I'm not the first to notice this, but it's kind of remarkable just how much of television drama is at heart, based on mystery stories. The ways in which we and the characters figure out who committed the crime change, but that core of a crime, suspects, and a reveal are at the heart of so many series. I mean, look at the current network lineup:

Cold Case - Cops solve old mysteries (why they can solve them now, and they were unsolvable then, generally goes unexplained)

The Unit - I'm not sure, never having seen it, but I bet there's a mystery aspect.

Medium - Psychic solves mysteries.

Boston Legal - Lawyers solve mysteries (I don't watch BL, but imagine that at least a goodly portion of the cases feature an aspect where we don't know if the defendant did it or not, and the answer gets revealed at the end, after the verdict. That was Kelly's modus operandi on The Practice anyway)

CSI Miami - Genius forensics experts solve crimes using science and a creepy old redhead with a sunglasses removal tic takes all the credit.

House - Genius doctor solves medical mysteries with the help of flunkies (who never actually solve a mystery on their own)

NCIS - Team of investigators solve naval-related mysteries.

The Mentalist - Genius former fraud-psychic solves mysteries by being really observant.

Without a Trace - Investigators solve missing-person mysteries.

Fringe - Super-genius and his son and catatonic FBI handler solve weird, vaguely sci-fiish mysteries.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit - Dogged cops solve mysteries that often start out marked by some deviant sexual angle that turns out to be naught but a red herring.

Pushing Daisies - A sad sack guy solves endearingly quirky mysteries through magic.

Criminal Minds - A team of FBI profilers solve icky mysteries, but only after the killer has killed people, but before he kills the latest victim.

CSI: NY - Genius forensics experts solve crimes using science and the leadership of a slumming quasi-film-star.

Bones - A genius bone scientist solves crimes with the help of a hunky cop/FBI guy (never seen it)

Life - A cop solves mysteries while eating lots of fruit.

Law & Order - Cops and lawyers solve mysteries, while never cottoning to the fact that it's always the least-likely suspect.

Life on Mars - A modern cop solves standard TV mysteries in the 70s while trying to sole the big mystery of how he time-traveled in the first place.

CSI: Genius forensics experts solve crimes using science and the leadership of a slumming character actor.

Eleventh Hour - FBI guys solves vaguely sci-fiish mysteries.

Supernatural - Hunky brothers solve supernatural mysteries.

Ghost Whisperer - Busty psychic solves mysteries with the help of ghosts.

Numb3ers - Math genius solves mysteries using math.

Until Whenever

Meme Pilfery

From his frogness:

1. Five names you go by:
(almost none anymore or in real-life though - in real-life I'm just John)
a. Tosy and Cosh
b. Supe
c) Sweetness
d) Gamps
e) JC

2. Three things you are wearing right now
a. A purple dress shirt
b. Grey slacks
c.) Black shoes

3. Two things you want very badly at the moment:
a. An HDTV TV
b. The complete Deadwood
c. An eggnog latte

4. Three people who will probably fill this out:
? I don't often spread memes.

5. Two things you did last night:
a. Watched the first half of the latest Pushing Daisies
b. Drank some maple tea

6. Two things you ate today:
a. Chicken Marsala pizza
b. Cranberry Vanilla Grape Nuts Trail Mix Cereal

7. Two people you last talked to on the phone
Two colleagues, about a meeting document we are preparing.

8. Two things you are going to do tomorrow:
a. Most likely start a new project at work
b. Finally start watching Wall-E

9. Two longest car rides:
a. New Jersey to Florida
b. New Jersey to New Hampshire

Until Whenever

You . . . Shall . . . Not . . . PASS!

David Foster Wallace is trying to defeat me. But he won't. I am about 220 pages from the end of Infinite Jest and I refuse to be defeated. I will finish it. That said, I don't think I've ever read a book that I'm this conflicted on. There are breathtaking set pieces here that remind me of Neal Stephenson in their epic scope and insane level of detail. There is so much wit and wonderful turns of phrase that it can be like going into sugar shock to read it. And there are passages that are murder to get through, stylistic thickets where about all I can to do is to chop through.

After all is said and done, I don't think I'm technically a fan of Wallace's fiction. I adore his non-fiction like maybe no other non-fiction reporting, but his fiction is simply too dense and obscure for my sensibilities. It's a failing of mine, not his (to be sure), but there it is.

All the same - he will not defeat me. I will finish this behemoth of a novel. And, in the end, I will be glad I did.

Until Whenever

Random Top Ten

Random Top Ten!!

Top Ten Covers

10. "The End of the World" - John Mellencamp (orig. Skeeter Davis?)
Sometimes you know why songs grab you. Sometimes not. This is a pretty straightforward reading of an oldies station classic, a bit countrified, but man does it work.



9. "The Man Who Sold the World" - Jordis Unga (orig. David Bowie)
I had high hopes for Junga after that first season of RockStar. Alas, her promised solo album never materialized.



8. "My Heart" - Audra McDonald (orig. Neil Young)
Of all the pop tunes I'd imagined Audra McDonald covering, this wasn't one. And that it's the album's best track? Who knew?

7. "Sacrifice" - Sinead O'Connor (orig. Elton John)
A very powerful, hushed rendition.



6. "Shelter from the Storm" - Cassandra Wilson (orig. Bob Dylan)
I love the way the tempo and guitars accelerate as the verses pile up.



5. Come Down in Time – Sting (orig. Elton John)
I still have never heard the original, but Sting's piano-bar version is haunting and beautifully spare.




4. "Can’t Help Falling in Love" – Bono (orig. Elves Presley)
Simple and elegant. A guitar plays the simple arpeggiated chords and Bono sings the song, starting in a very low register, moving up an octave for the second verse, and jumping up another octave to a sweet falsetto for the last. Gives me chills.




3. "Like an Angel Passing Through My Room" - Anne Sofie Van Otter (orig. ABBA)
The operatic alto still stands as the best classical interpreter of pop songs I've ever heard.

2. "Hallelujah" - Jeff Buckley (orig. Leonard Cohen)
A cliche for a reason.



1. "The Rainbow Connection" Willie Nelson (orig. Kermit the Frog)
I've posted on this before. See here.




Until Whenever

Doin' the Friday Shuffle


I haven't done a shuffle in a long while. For today's, I am shuffling only within my "5-Star Rock" playlist - all pop/rock songs I've rated at 5 stars (477 songs, to be precise).

1. "The Only Living Boy in New York" - Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water
This is one of those album cuts that never became a hit (or, I'm guessing, was even a single), but that is no less great for it. A deceptively simple acoustic figure underpins the song, and Simon's vocal is nicely melancholy, but what really makes the song work is the melodic, leaping bass line and the sunny chorus that pops up in the background.



2. "Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm" - Crash Test Dummies - God Shuffled His Feet
I really don't know what this song is about, but I absolutely love that deliberate, oom-pah-like accompaniment and the resigned way Roberts sings the verses. Also, I haven't tested it, but it's my theory that that first "Mmmm" in the chorus is the lowest note ever sung in a rock song. Love it.



3. "Purple Haze" - Jimi Hendrix - The Essential Jimi Hendrix
This is why I hate classic rock radio, and never listen to it anymore. This song is great, with an indelible opening riff. Great. But I can't listen to it anymore. It's been completely neutered by omnipresence.



4. "Rockin' in the Free World" - Neil Young - Freedom
The album-ending acoustic live version. I know I'm not saying anything that hasn't been said a million times before, but, damn, isn't it remarkable what one singer with a guitar can create? (Couldn't find Young's acoustic version)



5. "Love and Happiness" - John Mellencamp - Whenever We Wanted
Mellencamp approximating hard rock. It's actually a very nicely aggressive riff that dominates the song, and the decision to go with an insanely high trumpet solo for the bridge, instead of a tired guitar, is one of my all-time favorite moves in a rock song.



6. "Island of Souls" - Sting - The Soul Cages
I pimp for this album regularly, but seriously, this is some good stuff. This opening track could easily serve as the opening to a misty, somber musical theater piece set in a shipyard, and,as I've also oft-stated, this album has the bones of just such a musical in it.



7. "Give Me On Reason" - Tracy Chapman - New Beginning
A classic case of radio ruining a song. This forgotten post-"Fast Car" hit got a lot of play when it was released, but the solo guitar opening, which runs through the entire verse melody, was cut short to bring in the vocal in quicker, and it just kills the artful pace of the song.



8. "Knives Out" - Radiohead - Amnesiac
Christopher O'Reilly does a great solo piano version of this on one of his Radiohead cover albums.




9. "The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead" - XTC - Nonsuch
Rock bands don't get into the "overtly criticize religion" game much, but this lament at the hypocrisies of organized religion is a classic example of the form. An imaginary tale of Christ's return, and the Church's campaign against him.



10. "Graceland" - Willie Nelson - Willie Nelson Covers
My sister gave me Vampire Weekend a few weeks ago, and I've been really enjoying it. But it took a review by someone smarter than I to point out how African-influenced it was. Reminds me now of this.



Until Whenever

And the Countdown Begins

Until Whenever

Three by Three



Three things I liked about Forgetting Sarah Marshall

• The fact that there was no asshole character, even the Aldous character. Sarah wasn't some horrific bitch, but a mildly self-absorbed actress who in the end couldn't deal with the withdrawn nature of the Segel character.
• The portrayal of sex as more than just some movie-magicked wonderland, but as a real, often clumsy, physical act
  The supporting characters, from Bill Hader's endearing step-brother to Paul Rudd's sly take on the surfer.

Three things I did not like about Saving Sarah Marshall

• The puppet Dracula musical at the end, which wasn't as clever or funny as we were supposed to think
• That Segel's idea of a job to hate is as a successful composer for a TV show. Rough, man. Rough.
• The screenwriter's contrivances - especially Segel's character getting to stay at the fancy resort for free, just because the desk clerk felt bad for him seeing his ex-girlfriend. Really? That's the best he could do?

Until Whenever

Plot Hole?

Maybe I'm missing something and someone can help me out, but:

In Toy Story, it's established that the toys can move and speak in the presence of humans, they just don't. After all, Andy and the misfit toys scare Sid off by talking to him and moving in his presence. So when they flop down when Andy bursts into the room, that's a choice, not something out of their control.

But for two-thirds of the film, Buzz Lightyear doesn't think he is a toy. So why does he become immobile in Andy's presence.

?

Until Whenever

A Bookish Quiz

Jaq's back!! And giving me quizzes to steal!!

What was the last book you bought?
The Given Day, by Dennis Lehane, a historical police drama. I've been waiting for this book for a few years now, as it's taken Lehane longer-than-his-usual to write it. Alas, when it finally came out, I had just started Infinite Jest. And as I'm still plugging away there, I haven't cracked the Lehane yet. I've got about 300 pages of Jest left. So soon.

Name a book you have read MORE than once
I wrote a whole post on this actually. I reread a lot, but the book I've easily read the most is Stephen King's It. Five times. And I will read it again. It's my touchstone.

Has a book ever fundamentally changed the way you see life? If yes, what was it?
I don't think so. But I will say that reading in general has informed to a great deal some of the way I look at the world. A lot of my leftish views, especially on social questions, have been greatly informed by the views of the authors i read, I know that. But one book? no.

How do you choose a book? eg. by cover design and summary, recommendations or reviews?
Recommendations. I almost never read or buy a book because it caught my fancy in a bookstore or library. Almost always it's a book I'm searching for or am aware of; there are simply so many books I know I want to read that I don't make time for ones I've never heard of.

Do you prefer Fiction or Non-Fiction?
I prefer fiction, but only slightly. If I read too much fiction in a row I get antsy, and vice versa, so I typically switch back and forth. That being said, I do read a lot of non-fiction in magazine form, so I'll usually read more novels in a given year than non-fiction books.

What’s more important in a novel - beautiful writing or a gripping plot?
Plot. Great writing can make a book in absence of plot, but that's hard and rare. A great plot can survive even shitty writing.

Most loved/memorable character (character/book)
Paul Welscombe, in the Stephen King novel The Green Mile. The archetypal King good guy.

Which book or books can be found on your nightstand at the moment?
In recent months I've taken to using the nightstand for rereading comics. Right now I've got the Dark Age Astro City hardcover, by Kurt Busiek, and the entire Brubaker run on Captain America, which I've been meaning to reread for a while.

What was the last book you’ve read, and when was it?
Under the Banner of Heaven, Jon Krakauer.

Have you ever given up on a book half way in
Many times. I gave up on Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver twice, the second time after getting 95% of the way through.

Until Whenever

The Power of Story

For the last month or so, I've been reading The Wizard of Oz (the original Baum novel) to my four-year-old twin girls. Both girls have a history of being skittish about conflict in stories--they watched Cinderella for a while but then got too distressed at the meanness of the step-sisters as they tore the dress. They watched Finding Nemo but after a while couldn't take the dentist scene. And they were very nervous about Beauty and the Beast because of, well, the mean Beast.

They were OK with Dorothy landing on the Witch of the East. Probably because the actual conflict takes place off-stage. Dorothy realizes what happened after. And in the book, the Witch of the West doesn't show up in Munchkinland. They were a little nervous about there being another witch out there, but OK. And they digged the addition of the friends and their very clear goals - Scarecrow wants a brain, Tin Man wants a heart, and Lion wants some courage.

When we started the book, I explained the idea of a chapter book, describing how long it would take to read it. I told them how many chapters and pages there were. Weeks later, we were reading the chapter before they get to the Emerald City. And when I told them that the next chapter, chapter 12, was when they would get there, they were surprised. Because they knew that there a lot more chapters to come. And they thought Dorothy and friends getting to Oz would be the end of the story.

Before that point, they had been cooling off on the book. After all, they knew a witch was coming. But now, they are excited. Because there's been a twist. Because they've been surprised. The wizard didn't give Dorothy and the Scarecrow and the Tin Man and the lion what they wanted. To get what they want, the foursome will have to face the witch. And the girls are very excited to see what happens next.

Stories are remarkable things.

Until Whenever

Sing Out Louise! (II)

My first post here at Tosy and Cosh (after a quickly aborted earlier stab at blogging) was about my ten favorite rock singers. So it was with great anticipation that I saw on the newsstand today that Rolling Stone has put out an issue highlighting the 100 greatest singers of all time, as voted on by a blue-ribbon panel of rock artists, writers, producers, and others.

So - how'd my list stack up against Rolling Stone's? Not too well. But that's because my list was of rock singers only - no James Brown, no Aretha, no Nina Simone, etc. But if I correct for that, and omit singers who aren't really rock singers (an admittedly rampagingly subjective exercise), what do I get?

Tosy and Cosh
10. Corey Glover (Living Colour)
9. Roy Orbison
8. Janis Joplin
7. Elvis Costello
6. Roger Daltry
5. Bruce Springsteen
4. Freddie Mercury
3. Elvis
2. Bob Dylan
1. Bono

Rolling Stone
1. Elvis Presley
2. John Lennon
3. Bob Dylan
4. Paul McCartney
5. Little Richard
6. Roy Orbison
7. Robert Plant
8. Mick Jagger
9. Tina Turner
10. Freddie Mercury

Still not much overlap. To my mind Dylan blows Lennon out of the water and McCartney is ranked way too high. Little Richard is hard too argue with. Robert Plant is just too much of a screecher for me. Not enough weight and depth to his voice.

On the other hand, the only two on my list not to make the 100 are Corey Glover (not surprising) and Elvis Costello (very surprising). And the massive U2 fan in me was pleased to see Bono as high as he is - 33.

Until Whenever

Keepin' with Kelly

After last month's viewing of the first season of Picket Fences, I found myself craving that Kelly fix. But, alas, there is no second season of Picket Fences out, yet anyway, and no seasons of Chicago Hope (except on Hulu, which I would watch if I could get it on my TV and not just my laptop or desktop).

So it was on to the first season of The Practice. Wow. Much better than I remembered, and much, much better at portraying the messy, paper-work-stuffed, scrambling, pizza box-strewn, shaving-in-the-office chaos and grunge that is (I imagine) a typical defense attorney's life. The pilot does an outstanding job of getting us into that milieu in its opening minutes, with Bobby and Eleanore rushing to court, and with the lawyers in their office juggling piles of files and manila folders, or holding files with their teeth so they can pick up another.

But I particularly love the design on the courtrooms. Courtrooms on TV today seem stately and grand, like austere libraries, with lots of wood and beautiful architectural touches. The Boston courtrooms in The Practice are old, peeling and, most importantly, echoey. I love the sound design here, the attorney's speeches sound like they are being given in old VFW halls, flat and tinnily echoed.

And, as with any relatively older show, I love catching all the actors I didn't know back then but do now. John C. McGinley as an oily defense lawyer, sounding like a more-serious version of Dr. Cox. Hermann Edwards as a patrician big-firm lawyer. That Kelly regular who played the transvestite on Picket Fences appearing here as a judge.

I'm only three episodes in but I'm very surprised at how much I like this show. And a bit dismayed at the fact that Season Two is not out.

Until Whenever