Arctic Monkeys - Brick by Brick

A few years ago, there was an article in Paste Magazine, more of an info-graphic really, of the endangered music animals that were out there. One of the bands they put on the watch list was Arctic Monkeys. And maybe if they had kept with their original sound, maybe people would get tired of them and toss them to the curb. Their ability to reinvent themselves for every album has really propagated the band or animal if you will. From album to album, one of the only ways to recognize that the music is all coming from the same band is through Alex Turner’s vocals.

Brick by Brick has a very retro feel to it which has been the trend with Arctic Monkeys ever since Alex Turner’s side project, The Last Shadow Puppets. I wasn’t instantly a fan of this song, even though I think the music video is great, but it has since grown on me. This is the way it is for most Arctic Monkeys songs though. Once they grow on you, they stick with you.

The Strokes – Life Is Simple in the Moonlight

Here’s a new song that was debuted by The Strokes when they played SNL on the 12^th with an introduction by Miley Cyrus. It’s going to be on their new album, “Angles,” which comes out in the United States on March 22^nd. It’s been too long since The Strokes have released an album and hearing the new music that they’ve dropped has made me that much more excited. The two newest songs they’ve put out (Under Cover of Darkness and Life is Simple in the Moonlight) have been great. Since their last album has been put out, I’ve been trying to fill the void that The Strokes left through listening to their side projects but it sounds great to hear them all together creating music. Even if it turns out that Julian was a bit absent for the whole process.

Pixar Short Films

Pixar’s a winner. They just keep putting out movies that do well. Actually, better than well: they surpass their competition. In a world of creating characters out of often inanimate or maybe just of something other-than-human, they are so ahead of the game. Other studios just can’t match up.

The real gem in this DVD is their behind the scenes look at how Pixar grew to become the animation studio that they are today. Their evolution from a hardware giant to an animation mogul is the result of a lot of hard work and innovative thought. The tools that they originally worked with and the techniques that they developed were truly on a fantastic scale. They made this whole genre of 3D animated films possible with their revolutionary short films. Pixar would take these shorts films to animation conventions and play them on massive screens in front of large audiences. The people would actually cheer for them as if they were cheering for the game-winning goal in a World Cup final.

The short films themselves are a bit of a snore for the most part. There was one or two that really stuck out as being funny but the rest… not so much. Without knowing the context and how they were created, they don’t seem too special.

Knowing what the animators went through to make these shorts possible makes all the difference. There was an option to turn on commentary from the designers which I opted out of but I feel like that would have led to a much more enjoyable viewing experience.

Oh, and here's the short film that stands out the most, "For the Birds."

Songs Inspired by Movies or Books

Face First – The Dukes

Free music - The Dukes

“I had a girlfriend,

A triscuit.

She said a triscuit,

A biscuit.”

If this song conjures up images of fortune teller booths and playing music on giant pianos with your feet at FAO Schwartz then you’ve probably got the movie where this song comes from. That’d be “Big” with Tom Hanks. The fortune teller robot, Zoltan turned a 13 year old kid into an adult rejected by his parents because they didn’t recognize this strange person. Of course he ends up getting a job, a chick and a totally swanky apartment. It just goes to show you that you don’t necessarily need an education to make it.

The lyrics in the song tell the whole story of the movie and even has a sample sound bite in the beginning directly from the movie. It’s a double hit of nostalgia with “Big” being such a classic growing up movie and then, there’s the whole ska thing which didn’t last for too long but peaked somewhere around the time “Baseketball” was made.

Noah and the Whale – Jocasta

“When the baby’s born,

Let’s turn it to the wolves,

So that ice will surely grow,

Over weak and brittle bone”

This song has been the folksiest telling of the Story of Oedipus Rex that I’ve heard. The violin combined with the acoustic guitar with Charlie Fink’s rough voice that is vaguely reminiscent of a mix between David Byrne and Jeff Magnum of Neutral Milk Hotel. Instead of focusing on the story’s particulars, it focuses more on the idea of fate versus free will. The song talks about how the moon controls the tide but what about the decisions that people make? That’s the whole crux of the story in Oedipus Rex. The gods knew of Oedipus’ fate even before he was born. His parents tried to overcome the fate that was dispensed to them but ultimately succumbed to it.

Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

This is the second Malcolm Gladwell novel I’ve read and it did not disappoint. What’s the little push or needle added that it takes for something to be the next big thing or trend. Or new wave in culture.

Tipping Point talks about the different changes in environment that people may not notice but shape their choices and even lifestyle. One of the most exemplary cases of this was New York’s transformation from a city riddled with crime like Gotham into the financial capital of the world and a prime tourist destination. Their transformation started with respecting the environment. Not necessarily being, “green” but taking care of their neighborhood and going along with something called the “Broken Glass Theory.”

I’m a nerd for behavioral stories like this and it was like every page had a new revelation. The data wasn’t presented in a boring, flat statistical format but are instead woven into stories that flow so smoothly.

Gladwell also categorized the population into 4 segments in terms of how they spread trends:
• Mavens
• Connectors
• Salesmen
• Everyone else

It’s hard not to think of your own role and want to delve farther into these classifications to see how they act and react.

I Think We're Alone Now

Maybe because it was before my time but I have never heard of Tiffany before. She’s a pop-star that made it fairly big in the 1980s. Like most people who achieve a high degree of game and even sometimes for those who don’t, she has at least a couple people who follow her and her life a bit too closely.

Stalkers, if you will.

The film takes a close look at two of those stalkers. One was a man his mid-40s with Asperger’s Syndrome and the other was s transgendered woman of a similar age. They both take any chance they can to devote their life to the once famous pop-star and collect an innumerable amount of her press and memorabilia.

The man even goes so far as to buy a device that “enhances his telepathic connection to Tiffany.” It may not be surprising that has a restraining order in place again him.
These people who stalk her have all of these delusions about her and also about themselves. I don’t think they’re lying to themselves though. They truly believe these misconceived notions they have created.

Does everyone lie to themselves? Maybe a bit but hopefully not enough to create these life stopping rules that these Tiffany fans have and hopefully they don’t believe the lies. I thought I was going to laugh at this a lot but I found it be kind of sad. Don’t get me wrong there are some funny parts though. The viewer ends up being just as removed as the stalkers are to Tiffany because there isn’t an interview with her and she isn’t in the movie.

Logan's Run

Logan may have the easiest journey to joining a rebellion than any other movie character I’ve seen. He lives in a world where everything is self-contained inside domed off cities. Everything from the weather to its citizens’ ages is regulated. No one in the city makes it past 30 years. They are all exterminated, or what they think is being renewed in an event called Carousel. Some people don’t want to accept this and run for it.

They are aptly called, “runners” and are hunted down by Sandmen like Logan. Diverting from his normal job, he is tasked by the main computer to find a place called “sanctuary.” After a chance meeting with a would-be-prostitute, he begins his journey.

The main reason I watched this is that so many TV shows and movies reference this movie. It paints such a unique picture of a faux-paradise future that many of the elements are incredibly memorable. Carousel, The Cubs, Logan’s fight scenes and even the modern drab that all members of the city have on has been repeated in so many different forms of media.

The story itself is a bit formulaic and you know how it’s going to end probably even before the movie starts. If you can appreciate the outlandishness of the whole settings and recognize the movie as a simple science fiction idea, it’s worth a shot. People always complain about old behind the wheel of a car and the future in Logan’s Run has found a solution. Even if it is incredibly morbid.

War by Sebastian Junger

Everyone has that friend that just makes golden recommendations. You know when that person says something is good in whatever field is their expertise – cars, books, music, exotic pets – you’d be amiss not to give that recommendation a shot. So to put an end to this drivel, and to reel this paragraph in full-circle: my friend who knows good books recommended War and I really loved it.

It’s not about the politics of wars in overlying ways. But how does a book about war get written without it becoming at least somewhat involved in the politics of the conflict. Or even in politics of the organization.

This book deals with the men of the 2^nd platoon in the Korengal Valley. It’s one of the deadliest places in the war in Afghanistan. The soldiers take fire pretty much daily which is abnormal for a unit. There are some drier seasons but they are constantly getting shot at and the soldiers live for it. It gets their adrenaline going, it’s exciting and they’re really good at it. The soldiers are good at going to war and fighting. They are up against an enemy that can often be right in front of their eyes but they can’t shoot at because of the rules of engagement. They’re also up against enemies they can’t see from snipers hidden in dense forest or mortars firing over a ridge. Or even bombs being detonated from remote locations.

It’s such a rush that it can be hard to go back to civilian life sometimes. It’s almost impossible for me to grasp that during war, there’s such a high chance that anything you do might be your last. Digging a seemingly meaningless ditch or taking a nap could be the soldier’s last act.

There as a story about an intelligence officer who for no reason, changed the direction he slept one night and a bullet came through his tent. It hit him in the leg. It’s a hell of a pain to get shot but he messes with a person’s mind even more to know that their head would normally be in that spot where his leg was.

It’s such a well-paced book and it’s unbelievable to learn about all of the crap these have to deal with daily. And just as importantly, the crap they don’t have to deal with. How often do you think these guys have to go grocery shopping when they’re deployed?

Miami Horror - Holidays

This is a song you should be blasting while driving a boat, or from my experience, it also works well in a car. It has such an upbeat feel to it. “Holidays” has a sound that is almost reminiscent of Cut Copy. There’s the synth combined with an auto-tuned, but not overly done, voice and a fast pace. It’s music that gets you excited and puts you in a good mood.

The guy in the song played against the Pretty Blonde Rule that you might have seen in “A Beautiful Mind”. He went for the girl that everyone was gunning for and beat the odds. He’s pretty about her but we don’t really know anything about the girl except that the guy is the only one she calls now. I feel like one person has more invested in whatever relationship they have. But that’s like most relationships.

Fanfarlo - Finish Line

“Finish Line” by Fanfarlo has the potential to be one of those songs that I listen to over and over again. The way it almost dances into your ears with its melodic introduction has serious relistenability. It is sublime. It’s instant emotion whether to evoke something or merely calm you down.

In some ways, it feels so pessimistic. The song talks about waiting for, “the flag to fall” and for what? He ends up walking to the edge of town for a waste of time. Later he wants it to end, and thinks it will but not from experience.

“I’ve read enough to know,

It will end”

But he recognizes that what he read may not be true as he can only guess that there’s a finish line. It sounds like he’s trying to get over a girl.

Ra Ra Riot - Boy (RAC Remix)

There’s a lot of Rs in there. This is one of my favorite remixes I’ve heard in a long time and RAC – the Remix Artist Collective is one of the best places to go for remixes. Ra Ra Riot’s version of this song is still good but it sounds like such a different song than this remix. It’s much slower.

The remixed version adds something that the original just couldn’t include and makes it feel like a complete song. And I feel like the RAC didn’t even do too much to the song to do that. It’s a little quicker and there’s some other instruments added. Of course, if Ra Ra Riot made their original like this, I’m not sure how it would’ve fit on their CD, “The Orchard.” A lot of that CD is much mellower. An exception of that might be “Too Dramatic,” which is worth a listen.

Albert Hammond, Jr. - Victory at Monterey

There’s such a good hook to this song that makes you want to listen to the whole thing. I think it could be because of the bass in there. It just kind of sucks you into the song. You can always tell with solo projects from Strokes members what band they all came from. Albert Hammond, Jr.’s “¿como te llama?" is no different. It has that lingering Strokes sound.