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elizabethandthecatapult.com ♥ myspace.com
The last time we mentioned Elizabeth and the Catapult, the song "Race You", went straight to the top ten on The Hype Machine. And it's easy to see why, the song is such a fun and cute pop song.
This Christmas song, "Christmas with the Jews", is also fun and cute (and not to mention quite short). But what you're thinking when you're listening to this song, is "er, aren't you forgetting Hanukkah?"
Maybe you can ask them if you see them live:
- 01/28/10 The Barn Clinton, New York
02/05/10 World Cafe Live Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
02/06/10 8x10 Baltimore, Maryland
myspace.com ♥ twitter.com
Maybe there was a problem with my download, but the MP3 track is 4:56, where the last 30 seconds of the song is complete and utterly garbage... it sounds like it was encoded in error and not part of the song. I've edited out the crap part for you.
The tour information they sent me is as follows:
- January 2010.
Fri 8 USA New York Terminal 5 w/Passion Pit.
Sat 9 USA New York Terminal 5 w/Passion Pit.
Mon 11 USA New York Union Hall.
Tue 12 USA New York Pianos.
February 2010.
Sun 21 Norway Oslo John Dee w/The Temper Trap.
Mon 22 Denmark Copenhagen Vega w/The Temper Trap.
Tue 23 Denmark Copenhagen Vega w/The Temper Trap.
Wed 24 Sweden Stockholm Debaser Slussen w/The Temper Trap.
Fri 26 Germany Hamburg Molotow w/The Temper Trap.
Sat 27 Germany Berlin Postbahnhof w/The Temper Trap.
Sun 28 Germany Cologne Gloria w/The Temper Trap.
March 2010.
Tue 2 Germany Munich Atomic Café w/The Temper Trap.
Wed 3 Germany Frankfurt Nachtelben w/ The Temper Trap.
themanchesterorchestra.com ♥ myspace.com
My favorite track is "One Hundred Dollar", you can simply hear the anger as singer Andy Hull asks to borrow $100. While the song is short and doesn't offer much explanation, you, as the audience makes up your own background to the song. Anyway, the song is from their latest album, Mean Everything to Nothing, they'll probably be playing loads of their new songs on tour:
- 01/29/10
Salt Palace Convention Center^ Salt Lake City, Utah
01/30/10 The Fillmore^ Denver, Colorado
01/31/10 The Black Sheep* Colorado Springs, Colorado
02/02/10 The Marquee* Tulsa, Oklahoma
02/03/10 Juanita’s Cantina Ballroom* Little Rock, Arkansas
02/04/10 New Daisy Theatre* Memphis, Tennessee
^ with Brand New
* with Harrison Hudson
siamusic.net ♥ myspace.com
Finally, we have Sia. This actually has nothing to do with Christmas, unless you count getting a new music video as a holiday gift. But just talking about the video for "You've Changed" isn't enough to warrant its own article, so I thought I might as well stuck her here.
Sia has always seem to me to be this child trapped in a grown-up's body. The latest video is wonderful, it features this weird stop-motion, "dress up" video-gamey feel to it. I don't know who's idea it was, I'll bet it's a combination of Sia's child-mind and director Dennis Liu of @radical.media, but it came together pretty great.
Be sure to watch the high-resolution video of it (you'll need it to read the song lyrics scrolling at the bottom).
12/23/2009 04:58:16 ♥ vu (
) ♥weheartmusic.com♥twitter.com/weheartmusic♥news.weheartmusic.com
Books:
Yes I am way behind on my reading, but still I downloaded the kindle version of InterWorld
People are crazy:
It seems that Brian's movie isn't the only movie under attack. The #2 movie in the country is also under attack. What movie is currently #2? The Princess and the Frog. Yeah... I did just announce that people are crazy. I don't even have the patience to follow this. I'm all crazy people'd out. Best I can tell from the 4 or 5 stories I skimmed -- if you have a movie with good vs evil themes and religious undertones, you need to flat out go ahead and put Jesus or Christians in it otherwise it's just VooDoo mumbo jumbo and bad for your good Christian children. Or something. I dunno. They lost me on this one since I haven't seen the movie though the clips I've seen and the reviews I've seen make it appear to be just your average kids movie. I mean seriously -- kids can't read HP because OMFG they might turn into ev0l witches! They shouldn't watch Princess and the Frog because it's not Christian enough? People are crazy! Where were you people when I was growing up? No one complained as I was watching this. And lemme tell you, that's scarier than anything that kids have now! But then these kids are smarter than their parents, they know that a movie is just a movie, that the bad guys aren't real, that the magic isn't real, etc. And it's not like these movies are porn or anything -- though I bet they let their kids on the net and they can probably find the characters from these movies in porn pics if they search enough. Bet their parents aren't monitoring for that.
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01/23/10 Ampere München
Discography
01/24/10 Studio 672 Köln 01/26/10 Magnet Berlin 01/28/10 Rocking Chair Vevey 01/29/10 Ziegel Oh Lac Zurich 02/01/10 Prinzenbar Hamburg 02/09/10 Thekla Bristol 02/10/10 Hare & Hounds Birmingham 02/11/10 Brudenell Centre Leeds 02/12/10 ULU London 02/13/10 Audio Brighton
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Straitjacket Escape ♥ photo by Dave
The straitjacket incident was obviously the most epic moment of the night, but the theatrics didn’t end there. There was interpretive dancing, rogue boomerangs, and a pretty intimidating box accordion. Throw in a picturesque stage setting and a watering can attached to the drum kit, and it wasn’t an average Webster Hall show. The band managed to take a spacious, relatively normal venue and shift the atmosphere to match that of the album: warm, enthusiastic, and frenzied.
Fanfarlo ♥ photo by DaveWith only one album, they had a limited supply of songs to play. My personal favorite, “I’m a Pilot,” drew from the band’s most appealing quality: their infectious camaraderie. This was most apparent during the encore, when they had run out of songs to sing, so they resorted to the obligatory cover, Low’s “Just Like Christmas,” featuring opening band, Freelance Whales. Anything holiday-related is instantly a cheese-fest, but throw in a cavalcade of instruments and a dozen earnest musicians and it becomes easy to suspend any cynicism.
(I really wanted to end this review by writing, “...and by the end of the night, you could say that the entire audience had shed an emotional straitjacket – and put on a fringed vest of love.” But I won’t. Swearsies.)
Photos by Dave:
Fanfarlo ♥ photo by Dave 
Fanfarlo
Fanfarlo
Fanfarlo & Freelance Whales
12/22/2009 00:12:42 ♥ kateg (
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♥ fanfarlo.com
♥ myspace.com/fanfarlo
Ya know sometimes when book shopping for myself, I have a tough time deciding. What do I really want to add to my collection next. Does that book really sound good -- or horrible. Etc. So when I suddenly have a kiddo that I love as if he were my own telling me that he might want to be an artist and would like to have something to help him learn how to draw, well I want to encourage him. And woah boy. Book shopping for something like that is even tougher than shopping for myself.
I thought going into it that I had it all figured it out. Just stock up on those $4-5 learn to draw your favorite character books for kids until I hit the free shipping rates. But then I started thinking to myself Keegan is above his reading level, so I don't need to dumb down the books TOO much. But they are art books, so they should be fun and it is those kids ones that are fun. But if all I get him is something like SpongeBob he's gonna be bored real fast even if they will teach him basics quickly. And hey, even I like those kinds of art books. So I settled on three -- then if he really puts effort in and shows he likes it and is trying well then we have some other ideas for later. But only if he really gets use of any of these and keeps going with the I want to be an artist thing. For now he's getting these:
Best of Nickelodeon (Nick How To Draw)
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Drawing Manga
Drawing for Dummies
I think he's set. A good late Christmas given all we already sent him for Christmas. I better get a signed piece of artwork someday.
So for all of the OMFG Avatar is the most stunning movie ever and the political debates about it, all I really cared about was one reviewer -- Keegan. He's a big Star Wars geek. His first favorite movie was Scooby Doo at about age 3. At 4 he graduated to Harry Potter. Since then he's been an uber Star Wars geek. He wouldn't know of or care about the glowing reviews nor would he care of the political drama, he'd just watch it with his young innocent eyes. His verdict?
He now wants to learn to ride the alien horses and "dragons" but he has a slight problem -- he's not sure he can grow a long ponytail with "tentacle things at the end of it". So Keegan, is it better than Star Wars? Yes. What's your favorite movie ever though? "Hmm." He paused, clearly thinking this one over. "Avatar." In the background his mom was trying to get my attention, "Yes it's DEFINITELY better than Star Wars." A sentiment she repeated when she got on the phone. Mom, like many found the storyline basic, and the visuals great. Unlike most though she did catch that not all humans were bad -- some were truly good. Probably because she's seen it.
I had been worried at the last second before they went to see it -- Umm the Na'vi speak in a native language, subtitled. Would Keegan be able to read it all? I couldn't remember if any of it would be above his level. But then I figured if it was above his level he'd ask him mom or grandma. Silly me, he's reading 300 page novels and only having to ask for help with words now and then. His teacher told them she wouldn't recommend this usually -- but he shouldn't be reading books from his grade level, but well above. Smart kid.
Some of you will remember that Keegan had plotted out his career choice years ago, after he and Brian drew robots together, he had decided that he wanted to build robots. He told me tonight he's no longer sure about that. Well he loves books and has written some Star Wars fanfic. So I guessed -- "You like to write, so maybe you've decided on being a writer then?" I asked him. Nope. One of the things he had decided was important about building robots was drawing them. Now he's thinking that instead of making real robots, he should work on his art. Make them on paper or the computer and when older maybe Brian can teach him how to do what he does so he can make robots in movies. But he's really upset with his mom because his friend found a learn to draw DS program and she won't buy it for him. So, even though he's got a hefty Christmas from us already I'm going to buy him some How to draw books geared at kids. He already has a tablet for his computer we bought him a few years ago. He says he did make a teddy bear on it by playing with colours but that he doesn't understand how to draw too well yet and feels he needs guides to help him get better. He saved his old drawings so time to encourage that.
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The Zatoichi series ran 26 movies (1962-1982) and a television series ran for five years (1974-1979). Twenty years later, Takeshi "Beat" Kitano reinvented Zatoichi with his version of the character. This was easily one of my favorite movie at the time, I saw it at the independent theater twice in 2003 and ordered a region 3 release of the DVD as soon as it was available on import. Incidentally, to show support for the US market, I also bought the US edition of the DVD, which came with a bonus Sonatine movie (which was originally released in the states by Quentin Tarantino's Rolling Thunder productions).
Considering the movie did quite well, critically and (I'm assuming) in sales, I was hoping for a follow-up movie by Kitano, but unfortunately there's no such plan. However, interestingly enough, one of my all-time favorite Japanese director, Takashi Miike* directed a stage adaption of Zatoichi for live performances in 2007.
I'm happy to report that, I saw a very good re-imagined of the familiar character, reinvented as a female protagonist, called Ichi. I wish the producers had kept the brand of "Zatoichi", as people who hear "Ichi" does not always associate the name with the blind swordsman. To be fair, Ichi is the original character's name. The term "zato" means low-ranking blind person (low-ranking in the Todoza guild). Logically, they could've named this movie Gozeichi, because Goze refers to blind musician women of that time period.
Anyway, beside my gripe about the Ichi name as the movie title, I also didn't like the idea that a model (Ayase Haruka) is playing the part of the protagonist. All that was really not worth worrying, because the whole movie is quite entertaining and enjoyable, and there is only once where Haruka is seen 'dolled up' for a music performance (most of the movie, she's covered from head to toe in dirty rags). However, there are at times when the director Fumihiko Sori choose to stay too long on Haruka's beautiful unblemished face. We get it, she's cute.
The story is uncomplicated, Ichi wanders into some town with an inept sword-drawing samurai Toma (the name is close to a slang "tonma" for idiot or fool). The town is in trouble from the Banki gang, and in Zatoichi fashion, Ichi and Toma saves the town. During the course of the film, there are the tried-and-true Zatoichi moments like slashing out the lights and Ichi triumph in complete darkness, the use of sound to throw Ichi off, and, of course, the Cho-Han Bakuchi dice gambling.
What made the film interesting, at least to me, is that the soundtrack is by Dead Can Dance's Lisa Gerrard! So throughout the movie, you do hear that ethereal vocals, similar to her efforts on Ridley Scott's Gladiator. I suspect she only wrote the vocals, the credit I have for composer is Michael Edwards, who previously worked with Gerrad on her solo material. The soundtrack was a bit of a surprise to me, generally these J-movies' music and production team are usually kept inhouse. Although, having said that, the one outro credit song is by Korean J-Pop singer SunMin.
Ichi the movie will be made available in the US market via Bluray and DVD in two days (December 22nd), just in time for last-minute xmas shoppers. Hopefully those Best Buy tonmas will be smart and order some copies for their store (however, if it costs over $25, I'd rather order it online, or not own it at all - hey times are tough!).
* I love all three billion of his movies! Audition, City of Lost Souls, One Missed Call, Ichi the Killer, Fudoh, The Happiness of the Katakuris, Zebraman, Sukiyaki Western: Django, etc.
12/20/2009 02:06:34 ♥ vu () ♥funimation.com/ichi
