Well, once again, I find myself not wanting to do work, so I'll take some time to explain why I like some of the things that I like. Continuing down the list, I'll cover soundtracks. A few notes I'd like to make here: these are, videogame/anime soundtracks. There really aren't enough movie soundtracks to which I listen with any regularity to make the list, and they would seem somewhat out of place with those represented here. And, once more, I tried to limit things a little bit by including a maximum of one entry per series/composer. Again, while the list isn't presented in any meaningful order, I'll tackle it in the order in which they appear, anyway.
Chrono Cross:
Choosing a favorite from the body of Yasunori Mitsuda's work was a feat. I'm not going to lie. Choosing the best single score from among the Xenogears, Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, and Xenosaga Episode 1 soundtracks isn't fun. For me, Chrono Cross wins out for two reasons:
1. It's largely quite mellow, which is something I enjoy in listening music.
2. Of the soundtracks he's written that hold nostalgic value for me, the sound samplings in Chrono Cross are of the highest quality. With a few exceptions, things sound like real instruments and not mediocre MIDI samples.
Unfortunately for people playing the actual game, the only real dud in this collection is the battle music, the theme that's probably heard more than any other. In any case, the OST itself is a more than worth addition to your music collection.
Cowboy Bebop
I don't know how to begin to describe the body of work written by Yoko Kano for this series. Catchy is really about the best I can do, but that doesn't begin to describe it. The sheer variety of musical styles represented is astounding, and all of it, from the big band jazz and western guitar pieces to the vibraphone march and whacked out electronica is of excellent quality, even if many of the vocal pieces are incredibly derivative of late 90's American pop. Honestly, if you're skeptical and you know anybody who has access to a decent chunk of the soundtrack, ask them to make you a mix of their favorite pieces, and prepare to be shocked by the quality.
Earthbound
Earthbound is a quirky, light hearted game, and its soundtrack fits the mood perfectly. The various battle music tends to be just as odd and captivating as the enemies you'll face, dungeon tracks leave you with a relaxed sense of urgency, and the various town themes will relax all of your fears away. It's really the perfect soundtrack to the game and makes for great listening on its own. I've recently started playing Mother 3 (the sequel to Earthbound which was only released in Japan), and it seems like its soundtrack could accomplish the difficult task of being even better.
Secret of Mana
Few games have soundtracks that do as much to imporve the game experience as Secret of Mana. Though the actual presentation of the story in Secret of Mana is fairly lax, the music does as much to instill a sense of adventure and sorrow as any that I've ever heard. Honestly, if the soundtrack didn't do so much to set the mood, the hours of grinding required to keep all of your weapons and spells up to max level would be next to unbearable. Instead, every time you enter the wild, you feel like something amazing could happen at any moment, and it provides the same sense of excitement to make grinding through text books tolerable, as well.
Okami
Okami's soundtrack is just...good. I don't know what else to say about the general quality beyond this. It's really amazing that audio is just as vivid, energetic, and distinctive as its visual style of this game. It really remains so memorable through the use of traditional Japanese instrumentation and musical structure, which keep it fresh to my American senses.
Shadow of the Colossus
Dramatic is the best single word to describe Shadow of the Colossus' aural component. It takes an excellent and dynamic score to keep your ears as engaged as your eyes when you're desperately struggling to stay atop and kill a moving mountain, but Colossus does it. Swooping scores that swap between movements dynamically, becoming more and more grandiose as you approach your ultimate goal and reverting back down to a foreboding sense of mortal danger as you fall to try again. It really is a treat for the ears.
Katamari Damacy
Seriously, it's just royally fucked up. Random, quirky, and ultimately one of the most enjoyable experiences around describes Katamari Damacy and its soundtrack to a T. Everything from soft techno to rock ballads to mambo to lounge singers to children's choirs make their way into this soundtrack, and I don't know if I could enjoy it more.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
This game really makes the list thanks to the incredible Hyrule Symphony performance. A lot of N64/Play Station era games made the dubious mistake of trying to use "improved" quality Midi samples in their music. Really, these midrange samples sound just enough better that you can tell they're supposed to be real instruments. The fact that they still don't just causes most of them to grate on my ears a bit. Listening to the Hyrule Symphony recording, though, any woes about sound quality in the actual game fly away as I bask in the beauty of Koji Kondo's impeccable work. Everything in the soundtrack is great, but there aren't many tracks in existence that match up to Hyrule Field, The Gerudo Valley, or Death Mountain as heard on this recording.
Dragon Quest V
My favorite Dragon Quest soundtrack, by far. Why? Mostly because the field and battle themes are just so damn good. When the best two songs on an already excellent soundtrack are the two that the player is guaranteed to hear the most, you've done something very right. The little upbeat in Over The Horizon that gives it the deceptive, almost 3/4 feel just gets me every time I listen to it. Seriously, I think I could listen to the track for hours straight and not feel like I was missing anything besides the adventure right outside my window.
Final Fantasy VI
And the dreaded choice arrives. Which Final Fantasy game makes the cut? As much as I love pretty much all of the FF soundtracks, VI gets it for one simple reason. The first 12 minutes of the 21 minute long ending theme. This intricate medley of character themes flows so perfectly and beautifully, and disguises themes so well as it weaves characters together during the escape from Kefka's Tower that I can't confidently say that any piece of game music has been written better. The passage flowing from the Gau's Theme into Celes' and then Locke's chokes me up regularly and the swell from Relm's theme into the nigh unrecognizable adaption of Shadow's theme is absolutely perfect. I want FFVI to be remade on a new console just so that I can hear this piece being performed by a real orchestra. If I were to hear that, I don't know how life could get much better.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Defending My Top 10s: Part 1
It's closing in on 12:30, my roommate is hard at work on a paper and I'm at a loss as to what to do on the work I have left to do when I can't get into the lab. As such, I'm back again, and this time, I'm going to shed some light on why my favorite albums, soundtracks, and movies...are.
So, going in the order in which they currently appear on the side bar. Before I start, I'll explain some restrictions I imposed on myself. Any given band can only be represented once to prevent me from being to heavily biased towards whatever group or groups I'm feeling at the moment; and "Best of" or compilation albums aren't allowed, as they aren't representative of a single release...
Albums
Nickel Creek - Why Should the Fire Die?
Nickel Creek is just an amazing group. Incredibly talented, young musicians applying their skills to a unique hybrid of bluegrass instrumentation and more standard pop sensibilities create a sound unlike pretty much anything out there. Why Should the Fire Die? makes the list over their other two albums for providing a greater diversity of sound and more poetic, poignant lyrics. "Doubting Thomas" probably ranks in my top 10 favorite songs of all time, and the sudden flood of additional meaning provided by the last stanza of "When in Rome" strikes me every time.
Guster - Lost and Gone Forever
Guster isn't a terribly hard band to describe. Just a couple of guitarists and a percussionist who insists on playing all of his instruments with his bare hands cranking out some of the catchiest alt. rock (read: pop, but we don't want to call it pop) music you'll hear. Guster is just fun to listen to, and Lost and Gone Forever is, in my opinion their most consistently excellent work.
John Coltrane - Giant Steps
If you like jazz, you've listened to Coltrane. If you've listened to Coltrane, you're probably sick to death of the song Giant Steps. Don't let that turn you away from this album, though, as the whole thing is excellent, and of the 6 Coltrane albums I own, it's the only one to contain a few of my favorite Coltrane originals (most noticeably Sayeeda's Song Flute). If you're not a big jazz person and are looking for a start, this is about the best introduction to bebop that I can think of.
Cake - Pressure Chief
Either you like Cake or you don't. If you don't, you probably need your head examined, but that's just my opinion. In any case, while I'm a huge fan of Cake's entire repertoire, Pressure Chief stands head and shoulders above the rest in terms of quality on a single album. I mean, on this one disc, you get Wheels, Dime, Carbon Monoxide, Tougher Than it Is, End of the Movie, and their incredible cover of Guitar Man. This is just straight-up too good to miss if you even kind of sort of like Cake.
Beck - Mutations
I tend to go around and tell people that I'm a big Beck fan. That's not entirely true. I absolutely adore about half of his work and can take or leave the other half. Mutations is one of the few albums where every track lands in the former category. Intensely mellow and very easy to listen to, Beck's acoustic opus stands in stark contrast to the rest of his body of work (minus Sea Change, which is also very good, but just isn't as easy to listen to).
DeVotchKa - How it Ends
Oh. My. God. I love DeVotchKa. How many bands combine Eastern European Gypsie, American Folk, and Mariachi musical traditions all into a single album, much less individual songs. Pretty much just DeVotchKa. I don't know what else I can say, as the sound is impossible to describe; any modern band where you can talk about the song and say "yeah, I just love that driving tuba part" is something that needs to be experienced and not explained. How it Ends, proper, is one of those rare songs that I can lie on my bed, half naked, in the dark and listen to and fall into absolute bliss. I'm really sorry for the visual picture there, but it's true.
Bela Fleck and the Flecktones - Left of Cool
I'm sorry that I seem to keep on running into bands that are hard to describe here. Bela Fleck is best summarized as a New Age Jazzgrass Funk Jam Band. Really, it's just an excuse to listen to some of the best instrumentalists on the planet (banjo virtuoso Bela Fleck, the astoundingly talented bassist Victor Woooten, and an excellent saxophonist who I can never remember) devise melodies that nobody else could. Left of Cool is more melodic than some of their other works, and thus makes the cut.
Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
Sufjan Stevens has been alternately labeled as "indie folk" and "baroque pop" among other things, if that gives you any idea of what he sounds like. It probably doesn't, but that's okay. Stevens and his backup band weave a rich musical tapestry with deeply personal lyrics that are more than worthy of the praise they receive (Illinois was the best reviewed album of 2005). Illinois is an incredibly cohesive album that follows a very strong natural progression, but unlike his Michigan album, it's much easier to listen to tracks out of context, granting it the spot on my list. For reference, my absolute favorite Sufjan song is "For the Widows in Paradise, For the Fatherless in Ypsilanti" from Michigan.
Weezer - Weezer (The Blue Album)
The Blue Album is pretty much exactly what a good alternative album should be. It's catchy, it's not terribly repetitive, and it's relatively short. At 41 minutes, listening to The Blue Album is easy, especially since every song from "In the Garage" to "No One Else" is a winner. While the rest of Weezer's albums show sparks of brilliance in places, none are as consistently impeccable as their first self titled work.
Kansas - Leftoverture
Most of you know Kansas primarily for the first song on this album (Carry On My Wayward Son), but I'm fully convinced that Kansas should be primarily famous for what the rest of this album entails. Songs like "Miracles out of Nowhere" and "Cheyenne Anthem" feature jaw dropping, mind numbing displays of what can only be called a mixture of 70's fusion and Bach. Spectacular passages played out mostly on the synthesizer (with violin and guitar support) as intricate as any Baroque piece will make you wonder why Kansas didn't pursue this unique sound more strongly.
Well, it's now closing in on 1:30, and I don't even want to think about starting in on another one of these right now. You can count on it in the near future though. I hope that my elaborations have encouraged you to check out some of these artists that you've passed on previously. Just for reference, honorable mentions include Ratatat - Classics, Sigur Ros - Takk, Psychograss - Now Hear This, Flogging Molly - Swagger, Mustard Plug - Evildoers Beware, and Seu Jorge - Samba Esporte Fine (released in the U.S. as Carolina).
So, going in the order in which they currently appear on the side bar. Before I start, I'll explain some restrictions I imposed on myself. Any given band can only be represented once to prevent me from being to heavily biased towards whatever group or groups I'm feeling at the moment; and "Best of" or compilation albums aren't allowed, as they aren't representative of a single release...
Albums
Nickel Creek - Why Should the Fire Die?
Nickel Creek is just an amazing group. Incredibly talented, young musicians applying their skills to a unique hybrid of bluegrass instrumentation and more standard pop sensibilities create a sound unlike pretty much anything out there. Why Should the Fire Die? makes the list over their other two albums for providing a greater diversity of sound and more poetic, poignant lyrics. "Doubting Thomas" probably ranks in my top 10 favorite songs of all time, and the sudden flood of additional meaning provided by the last stanza of "When in Rome" strikes me every time.
Guster - Lost and Gone Forever
Guster isn't a terribly hard band to describe. Just a couple of guitarists and a percussionist who insists on playing all of his instruments with his bare hands cranking out some of the catchiest alt. rock (read: pop, but we don't want to call it pop) music you'll hear. Guster is just fun to listen to, and Lost and Gone Forever is, in my opinion their most consistently excellent work.
John Coltrane - Giant Steps
If you like jazz, you've listened to Coltrane. If you've listened to Coltrane, you're probably sick to death of the song Giant Steps. Don't let that turn you away from this album, though, as the whole thing is excellent, and of the 6 Coltrane albums I own, it's the only one to contain a few of my favorite Coltrane originals (most noticeably Sayeeda's Song Flute). If you're not a big jazz person and are looking for a start, this is about the best introduction to bebop that I can think of.
Cake - Pressure Chief
Either you like Cake or you don't. If you don't, you probably need your head examined, but that's just my opinion. In any case, while I'm a huge fan of Cake's entire repertoire, Pressure Chief stands head and shoulders above the rest in terms of quality on a single album. I mean, on this one disc, you get Wheels, Dime, Carbon Monoxide, Tougher Than it Is, End of the Movie, and their incredible cover of Guitar Man. This is just straight-up too good to miss if you even kind of sort of like Cake.
Beck - Mutations
I tend to go around and tell people that I'm a big Beck fan. That's not entirely true. I absolutely adore about half of his work and can take or leave the other half. Mutations is one of the few albums where every track lands in the former category. Intensely mellow and very easy to listen to, Beck's acoustic opus stands in stark contrast to the rest of his body of work (minus Sea Change, which is also very good, but just isn't as easy to listen to).
DeVotchKa - How it Ends
Oh. My. God. I love DeVotchKa. How many bands combine Eastern European Gypsie, American Folk, and Mariachi musical traditions all into a single album, much less individual songs. Pretty much just DeVotchKa. I don't know what else I can say, as the sound is impossible to describe; any modern band where you can talk about the song and say "yeah, I just love that driving tuba part" is something that needs to be experienced and not explained. How it Ends, proper, is one of those rare songs that I can lie on my bed, half naked, in the dark and listen to and fall into absolute bliss. I'm really sorry for the visual picture there, but it's true.
Bela Fleck and the Flecktones - Left of Cool
I'm sorry that I seem to keep on running into bands that are hard to describe here. Bela Fleck is best summarized as a New Age Jazzgrass Funk Jam Band. Really, it's just an excuse to listen to some of the best instrumentalists on the planet (banjo virtuoso Bela Fleck, the astoundingly talented bassist Victor Woooten, and an excellent saxophonist who I can never remember) devise melodies that nobody else could. Left of Cool is more melodic than some of their other works, and thus makes the cut.
Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
Sufjan Stevens has been alternately labeled as "indie folk" and "baroque pop" among other things, if that gives you any idea of what he sounds like. It probably doesn't, but that's okay. Stevens and his backup band weave a rich musical tapestry with deeply personal lyrics that are more than worthy of the praise they receive (Illinois was the best reviewed album of 2005). Illinois is an incredibly cohesive album that follows a very strong natural progression, but unlike his Michigan album, it's much easier to listen to tracks out of context, granting it the spot on my list. For reference, my absolute favorite Sufjan song is "For the Widows in Paradise, For the Fatherless in Ypsilanti" from Michigan.
Weezer - Weezer (The Blue Album)
The Blue Album is pretty much exactly what a good alternative album should be. It's catchy, it's not terribly repetitive, and it's relatively short. At 41 minutes, listening to The Blue Album is easy, especially since every song from "In the Garage" to "No One Else" is a winner. While the rest of Weezer's albums show sparks of brilliance in places, none are as consistently impeccable as their first self titled work.
Kansas - Leftoverture
Most of you know Kansas primarily for the first song on this album (Carry On My Wayward Son), but I'm fully convinced that Kansas should be primarily famous for what the rest of this album entails. Songs like "Miracles out of Nowhere" and "Cheyenne Anthem" feature jaw dropping, mind numbing displays of what can only be called a mixture of 70's fusion and Bach. Spectacular passages played out mostly on the synthesizer (with violin and guitar support) as intricate as any Baroque piece will make you wonder why Kansas didn't pursue this unique sound more strongly.
Well, it's now closing in on 1:30, and I don't even want to think about starting in on another one of these right now. You can count on it in the near future though. I hope that my elaborations have encouraged you to check out some of these artists that you've passed on previously. Just for reference, honorable mentions include Ratatat - Classics, Sigur Ros - Takk, Psychograss - Now Hear This, Flogging Molly - Swagger, Mustard Plug - Evildoers Beware, and Seu Jorge - Samba Esporte Fine (released in the U.S. as Carolina).
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
This is what I do...
So, I'd absolutely love to put a bunch of effort into some long writeup relating to a bunch of crap that only I'd care about, but...I'm just too busy. That said, while I'm not huge into putting personal information about the details of my life online, I'm going to go through and let you all know what I'm doing, anyway. Mostly, I'm busy with classes, so I guess I'll start by describing the basics of what that entails.
Advanced Conversational Japanese is a lot more intense than the first two years were. After only speaking Japanese intermittently, mostly for the purpose of practicing grammar patterns, suddenly being dropped in an environment where the professor only speaks English when absolutely necessary is a bit of a shift. Also, it seems that, as a class, our handwriting is terrible. We regularly receive packets of sheets for practicing Katakana and Hiraganna of the variety used by small Japanese children. I'm managing well, though. I haven't scored below a 90 on any of our first three tests and I'm exceedingly well prepared for the test I have tomorrow; mostly, though, I'm just reminded on regular basis that I love this language.
Intro to Psych is...meh. It's an interesting enough class, it's not terribly difficult, and it meets a graduation requirement. There's really nothing bad about it, and I'm regularly entertained by my prof., but I feel like it's time that could be spent just as well elsewhere.
Intro to Public Speaking is a joke. Having been involved with theater since I was 11, I'm more comfortable in front of an audience and have a stronger public speaking voice already than 90% of the class. It will be worthwhile to learn to speak better from an outline and to be more physically involved in my speaking, but we haven't talked about any of that, and I doubt we will (in 6 weeks, we've only actually talked about speaking skills twice). Honestly, the only thing at all engaging about the class is going to be speech preparation. This weekend, I'll be hitting the books and preparing an informative speech about the Catholic theology of Intercessory Prayer (to the Saints) and Purgatory and how these beliefs (and the Protestant confusion relating to them) stem from the differing concepts of the Communion of Saints between Catholicism and Protestantism. When time for a persuasive speech comes about, I'll be tackling the much lighter subject of Graphic Novels and why more people should read them.
Computer Science stuff comes next. I'll try and make it as simple as I can for the lay folk in the community.
High Performance Computing is a class I'm incredibly glad I'm taking. Learning how to write code in parallel has been interesting, and once we get to less "embarrassingly parallel" problems, things only promise to get more interesting. So far, we haven't done much beyond domain decomposition of simple problems and being reminded of the intense performance cost of Object Oriented code, but as we approach more fine grained parallel problems, it will become easier to see the attitudes we're going to need to adopt to make more consumer level programs function in parallel.
...Speaking of consumer applications, Software Engineering has also been a real eye opener already. I'm working as a member of a team of 5 to produce a single product by the end of the semester, and it's definitely a more exciting feeling tackling a larger project and starting to understand the work that needs to be done. The project itself takes a bit of work to describe and make it sound as cool as it is, so I'm not going to try now. Once I finish a final revision of the vision statement as well as our supplemental specification, I may post them here. In any case, the most important lesson I've learned (or am learning) so far is that I can rely on other people in group projects, it just requires effective communication of responsibilities and a willingness to trust. I've donned the role of chief program architect for now (once we're building the database interaction model, I'll suddenly become less useful), so I've done a lot more work than the rest of the team at this point, but they all want to be right there and understand how this is being put together so that they can do whatever they do best to help it along, which is awesome.
Anyway, I'm typing this because I really don't want to work on my High Performance Computing code right now. I much prefer C++ to C, but taking incredibly procedural code and making it OO just isn't my idea of fun (right now =P). Unfortunately, we have a strict schedule of access times on the cluster, so I need to get this done if I want to run my benchmarks tomorrow and hand it in on time. So...have fun, all, and thanks for reading.
Advanced Conversational Japanese is a lot more intense than the first two years were. After only speaking Japanese intermittently, mostly for the purpose of practicing grammar patterns, suddenly being dropped in an environment where the professor only speaks English when absolutely necessary is a bit of a shift. Also, it seems that, as a class, our handwriting is terrible. We regularly receive packets of sheets for practicing Katakana and Hiraganna of the variety used by small Japanese children. I'm managing well, though. I haven't scored below a 90 on any of our first three tests and I'm exceedingly well prepared for the test I have tomorrow; mostly, though, I'm just reminded on regular basis that I love this language.
Intro to Psych is...meh. It's an interesting enough class, it's not terribly difficult, and it meets a graduation requirement. There's really nothing bad about it, and I'm regularly entertained by my prof., but I feel like it's time that could be spent just as well elsewhere.
Intro to Public Speaking is a joke. Having been involved with theater since I was 11, I'm more comfortable in front of an audience and have a stronger public speaking voice already than 90% of the class. It will be worthwhile to learn to speak better from an outline and to be more physically involved in my speaking, but we haven't talked about any of that, and I doubt we will (in 6 weeks, we've only actually talked about speaking skills twice). Honestly, the only thing at all engaging about the class is going to be speech preparation. This weekend, I'll be hitting the books and preparing an informative speech about the Catholic theology of Intercessory Prayer (to the Saints) and Purgatory and how these beliefs (and the Protestant confusion relating to them) stem from the differing concepts of the Communion of Saints between Catholicism and Protestantism. When time for a persuasive speech comes about, I'll be tackling the much lighter subject of Graphic Novels and why more people should read them.
Computer Science stuff comes next. I'll try and make it as simple as I can for the lay folk in the community.
High Performance Computing is a class I'm incredibly glad I'm taking. Learning how to write code in parallel has been interesting, and once we get to less "embarrassingly parallel" problems, things only promise to get more interesting. So far, we haven't done much beyond domain decomposition of simple problems and being reminded of the intense performance cost of Object Oriented code, but as we approach more fine grained parallel problems, it will become easier to see the attitudes we're going to need to adopt to make more consumer level programs function in parallel.
...Speaking of consumer applications, Software Engineering has also been a real eye opener already. I'm working as a member of a team of 5 to produce a single product by the end of the semester, and it's definitely a more exciting feeling tackling a larger project and starting to understand the work that needs to be done. The project itself takes a bit of work to describe and make it sound as cool as it is, so I'm not going to try now. Once I finish a final revision of the vision statement as well as our supplemental specification, I may post them here. In any case, the most important lesson I've learned (or am learning) so far is that I can rely on other people in group projects, it just requires effective communication of responsibilities and a willingness to trust. I've donned the role of chief program architect for now (once we're building the database interaction model, I'll suddenly become less useful), so I've done a lot more work than the rest of the team at this point, but they all want to be right there and understand how this is being put together so that they can do whatever they do best to help it along, which is awesome.
Anyway, I'm typing this because I really don't want to work on my High Performance Computing code right now. I much prefer C++ to C, but taking incredibly procedural code and making it OO just isn't my idea of fun (right now =P). Unfortunately, we have a strict schedule of access times on the cluster, so I need to get this done if I want to run my benchmarks tomorrow and hand it in on time. So...have fun, all, and thanks for reading.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Once: A Singular Experience
Shortly after I got back to school, I heard from a friend of mine. He told me that he'd been to see a movie the week before, and that he was dragging me and any of our other friends that he could get his hands on to go see it again that week. This movie was Once, and I have to say that I owe Nate a great debt.
A movie about a nameless guy - a 30-something aspiring musician who is living with and working for his father - and girl - a Czech immigrant trying to make a life with her mother and daughter - in Dublin and the impact that they have on each other's lives over the short time they have together; Once is a musical - of a sort - that expresses the human experience more purely and poignantly than any movie I've seen in recent memory.
There's not much else that can be said about the film. It's incredibly simple in scope, being driven entirely by the growth of the relationship between these two rather than the context surrounding it. In this way, it's much like Lost in Translation, but with touching panels of musical performance taking place of Lost in Translation's sort of general meandering and sense of cluelessness in the gaps. It's not an especially good comparison, but it's about the best that can be made.
Ultimately, about the best praise that I can give the film is this: The only music that I have received legally in the last 2 years has been as gifts. I started an account in the i-Tunes store to buy this soundtrack because I felt a desperate need to contribute more than the $3.50 I paid for my ticked to the production. I've also listened to the entire album three times in the last 24 hours.
The film probably isn't anywhere near any of you right now. It started showing in limited release in July, and is more than likely out of your nearest indy theater by now. Nothing on Amazon yet about the DVD release, but you can probably expect it in the next 6-9 months. Do yourself and all your friends a favor and check it out when this happens.
A movie about a nameless guy - a 30-something aspiring musician who is living with and working for his father - and girl - a Czech immigrant trying to make a life with her mother and daughter - in Dublin and the impact that they have on each other's lives over the short time they have together; Once is a musical - of a sort - that expresses the human experience more purely and poignantly than any movie I've seen in recent memory.
There's not much else that can be said about the film. It's incredibly simple in scope, being driven entirely by the growth of the relationship between these two rather than the context surrounding it. In this way, it's much like Lost in Translation, but with touching panels of musical performance taking place of Lost in Translation's sort of general meandering and sense of cluelessness in the gaps. It's not an especially good comparison, but it's about the best that can be made.
Ultimately, about the best praise that I can give the film is this: The only music that I have received legally in the last 2 years has been as gifts. I started an account in the i-Tunes store to buy this soundtrack because I felt a desperate need to contribute more than the $3.50 I paid for my ticked to the production. I've also listened to the entire album three times in the last 24 hours.
The film probably isn't anywhere near any of you right now. It started showing in limited release in July, and is more than likely out of your nearest indy theater by now. Nothing on Amazon yet about the DVD release, but you can probably expect it in the next 6-9 months. Do yourself and all your friends a favor and check it out when this happens.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Why did it take me so long?
So, in the last 2 weeks, I've read just over 3000 pages in Harry Potter novels. Those of you familiar with the series will probably realize that, by this, I mean to say that I've read the first 6 books. And I have enjoyed them completely.
I don't have much to say other than that. I've managed to simply borrow books up until now, but my dad doesn't own number 7 yet, and I'm now emotionally invested to the point that I literally can't wait until next week when I'm back at school to finish the series (I'll be shelling out my cold hard cash tomorrow).
I know that Harry obviously defeats Voldemort, and I doubt it will be in some bad-ass wizard's duel in which Harry proves the mightier wielder of ancient megiks, as that would be completely to the contrary of the point that Rowling has been (blatantly) making in the first 6 books: the power of love to conquer hatred and self serving strength. That being love of the variety preached by Christ when he proclaimed the two greatest commandments, not love as found in a dime store Dianne Steele novel.
I will admit that I did cheat a little bit. ***SPOILERS*** I was so pissed that Harry pulled a Peter Parker at the end of book six that I checked the Wikipedia entry on Ginny Weasley's role in the Epilogue to ensure that she and Harry got together. ***END SPOILERS*** I'm a little bit in love with Ginny Weasley right now (3000 pages in 2 weeks will fuck you up a bit), and I'd be royally pissed if she didn't wind up happy. I didn't read any details of the meat of the book though, or the other character's fates, and am incredibly excited to finish it off in the next couple of days.
My question to you all is, why didn't you assholes force this stuff upon me earlier?
Also, to those of you who complain that your childhood ended with the end of Deathly Hallows, be grateful that you at least picked a winning horse. My childhood ended at the age of 12 with The Phantom Menace, and it ended poorly. I've been randomly binging on mediocre Shounen Anime to revive some spark of it ever since. Speaking of which, I still need to acquire all of the episodes of Naruto Shippouden to the present date...
edit: 8-29-07; 10:30 pm
So, I've just finished Deathly Hallows. Very good close. Nowhere near enough Ginny. Sever Ginny deficiency, I'd even say, but it ends the series well enough. Rowling, in never explaining the rules of her universe too much, remained free to abuse the holes she left to provide a fitting ending. Other than more Ginny, I really just wished there had been a bit more between the final confrontation and the epilogue, but it would have been near impossible to do so without depressing the mood, so it was probably a wise decision.
I don't have much to say other than that. I've managed to simply borrow books up until now, but my dad doesn't own number 7 yet, and I'm now emotionally invested to the point that I literally can't wait until next week when I'm back at school to finish the series (I'll be shelling out my cold hard cash tomorrow).
I know that Harry obviously defeats Voldemort, and I doubt it will be in some bad-ass wizard's duel in which Harry proves the mightier wielder of ancient megiks, as that would be completely to the contrary of the point that Rowling has been (blatantly) making in the first 6 books: the power of love to conquer hatred and self serving strength. That being love of the variety preached by Christ when he proclaimed the two greatest commandments, not love as found in a dime store Dianne Steele novel.
I will admit that I did cheat a little bit. ***SPOILERS*** I was so pissed that Harry pulled a Peter Parker at the end of book six that I checked the Wikipedia entry on Ginny Weasley's role in the Epilogue to ensure that she and Harry got together. ***END SPOILERS*** I'm a little bit in love with Ginny Weasley right now (3000 pages in 2 weeks will fuck you up a bit), and I'd be royally pissed if she didn't wind up happy. I didn't read any details of the meat of the book though, or the other character's fates, and am incredibly excited to finish it off in the next couple of days.
My question to you all is, why didn't you assholes force this stuff upon me earlier?
Also, to those of you who complain that your childhood ended with the end of Deathly Hallows, be grateful that you at least picked a winning horse. My childhood ended at the age of 12 with The Phantom Menace, and it ended poorly. I've been randomly binging on mediocre Shounen Anime to revive some spark of it ever since. Speaking of which, I still need to acquire all of the episodes of Naruto Shippouden to the present date...
edit: 8-29-07; 10:30 pm
So, I've just finished Deathly Hallows. Very good close. Nowhere near enough Ginny. Sever Ginny deficiency, I'd even say, but it ends the series well enough. Rowling, in never explaining the rules of her universe too much, remained free to abuse the holes she left to provide a fitting ending. Other than more Ginny, I really just wished there had been a bit more between the final confrontation and the epilogue, but it would have been near impossible to do so without depressing the mood, so it was probably a wise decision.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
HP5 thoughts
I've got quite a bit to write about the concept of adaptations in general. That's coming in a later post (hopefully this week, as I've been thinking about it a lot). This being the case, instead of filling your heads with all kinds of talk unrelated to the film itself, I'm just going to say a few quick things about this movie that any of you who care about have already seen and any of you who don't probably won't no matter what I say. Alright?
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is a very competent film. The acting is probably as good as the series has been thus far, and the visual direction is very well done. It has been about the poorest rated of the HP films thus far critically, but I believe that has more to do with the source material than anything. Not having read any of the Potter books beyond the first one (which I read at the height of my Tolkien fanaticism in late '99 and thus didn't much care for), I can't say for sure, but trying to take a 1000+ page novel filled with important characterization and condensing it into a 2.3 hour film just, generally speaking, doesn't always flow terribly well. Certain, seemingly important characters (Luna Lovegood, Cho Chang, and a few others) just don't get the time to be properly fleshed out, and seem somewhat forced in with an otherwise outstanding primary cast when their relevancy to the plot deems their presence necessary.
That said, the primary triumvirate of Harry, Ron, and Hermione have grown to be quite excellent young actors under the impressive tutelage they've received on the set. Gary Oldman is one of the best actors around (and seems to be part of the reason that our heroes have grown so much) and Imelda Staunton's performance as Dolores Umbridge was absolutely incredible. The story flows well enough despite the slight character foibles mentioned earlier, and it sets up nicely for what I imagine is to follow (hopefully within the next two to three months, I'll actually know what, exactly, that is). I'd also like to say that Yates and Radcliffe did a wonderful Harry seem suitably ornery and mildly angsty without going completely overboard and turning Harry into the screaming emo child that some people seem to have interpreted him as in the book proper. I never once felt that Harry was out of line in his reactions, and, indeed, a couple of times was wondering why people were so shocked by him instead.
8/10
Notwithstanding the fact that I feel like the absolute creepiest person alive every time I'm made to realize that both Emma Watson (Hermione) and Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley) are growing into attractive young women in their own rights.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is a very competent film. The acting is probably as good as the series has been thus far, and the visual direction is very well done. It has been about the poorest rated of the HP films thus far critically, but I believe that has more to do with the source material than anything. Not having read any of the Potter books beyond the first one (which I read at the height of my Tolkien fanaticism in late '99 and thus didn't much care for), I can't say for sure, but trying to take a 1000+ page novel filled with important characterization and condensing it into a 2.3 hour film just, generally speaking, doesn't always flow terribly well. Certain, seemingly important characters (Luna Lovegood, Cho Chang, and a few others) just don't get the time to be properly fleshed out, and seem somewhat forced in with an otherwise outstanding primary cast when their relevancy to the plot deems their presence necessary.
That said, the primary triumvirate of Harry, Ron, and Hermione have grown to be quite excellent young actors under the impressive tutelage they've received on the set. Gary Oldman is one of the best actors around (and seems to be part of the reason that our heroes have grown so much) and Imelda Staunton's performance as Dolores Umbridge was absolutely incredible. The story flows well enough despite the slight character foibles mentioned earlier, and it sets up nicely for what I imagine is to follow (hopefully within the next two to three months, I'll actually know what, exactly, that is). I'd also like to say that Yates and Radcliffe did a wonderful Harry seem suitably ornery and mildly angsty without going completely overboard and turning Harry into the screaming emo child that some people seem to have interpreted him as in the book proper. I never once felt that Harry was out of line in his reactions, and, indeed, a couple of times was wondering why people were so shocked by him instead.
8/10
Notwithstanding the fact that I feel like the absolute creepiest person alive every time I'm made to realize that both Emma Watson (Hermione) and Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley) are growing into attractive young women in their own rights.
Monday, July 16, 2007
Ratatouille is a Treat
I'm going to keep this short, because there's not a whole lot to say.
I really enjoyed Ratatouille. It's visually stunning - I'm talking about the direction and the cinematography more than the animation, which isn't anything we haven't seen before - its simple story is impeccably told; and while the it may be an age old practice, I've rarely seen cooking used as a metaphor for life so well.
It's a somewhat subtler (note the somewhat) film than previous Pixar entries. It generally lacks the gushing sentiment and blunt repetition of its underlying moral present in 99% of animated films, choosing instead to make strong use of its romantic, in every sense of the word, setting to evoke an emotional response. It's due to this manner of allowing you to forge your own attachments rather than forcefully building them up for you that this movie may not appeal as strongly to children, but it's genuinely refreshing to see an animated film geared towards adults with some laughs for the kids rather than the opposite.
Go see Ratatouille when you get a chance, worst case, you should leave with a smile on your face. Don't go into it expecting a traditional Pixar film a la Toy Story or Finding Nemo and you may recognize it as one of their best.
10/10
Also, I'm incredibly excited for WALL*E
I really enjoyed Ratatouille. It's visually stunning - I'm talking about the direction and the cinematography more than the animation, which isn't anything we haven't seen before - its simple story is impeccably told; and while the it may be an age old practice, I've rarely seen cooking used as a metaphor for life so well.
It's a somewhat subtler (note the somewhat) film than previous Pixar entries. It generally lacks the gushing sentiment and blunt repetition of its underlying moral present in 99% of animated films, choosing instead to make strong use of its romantic, in every sense of the word, setting to evoke an emotional response. It's due to this manner of allowing you to forge your own attachments rather than forcefully building them up for you that this movie may not appeal as strongly to children, but it's genuinely refreshing to see an animated film geared towards adults with some laughs for the kids rather than the opposite.
Go see Ratatouille when you get a chance, worst case, you should leave with a smile on your face. Don't go into it expecting a traditional Pixar film a la Toy Story or Finding Nemo and you may recognize it as one of their best.
10/10
Also, I'm incredibly excited for WALL*E
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