It's Dai Time

Katie & Scott & Simon & Cecily.

Tag: music (Page 2 of 2)

Day 20: my favorite things, a few of

March 3, 2009 / / 0 Comments

Random question: has anyone played Eternal Sonata?  Is it fun?  Worth playing?  I’m usually not a huge fan of J-RPGs but any game that has Frederick Chopin in a deathbed dreamland fighting monsters with his baton alongside a girl named Polka is intriguing to say the least.

Actually Chopin Eternal Sonata Chopin

Now, here are a few of my favorite things.

Movie: Moulin Rouge!
Honorable Mention: Juno
moulinrougeI didn’t love Moulin Rouge! right away.  I remember seeing it in college in our campus auditorium with several people a few years older than me (Matt Heap, Clare, and Darren maybe?) and feeling like it was a pretty solid movie.  Then, I watched it again.  And a few more times, with the commentary.  I don’t know if it’s the perfect sad love story, the musical numbers, or the frenetic acting through most of the first half of the film, but this is a movie I’ll never turn down.  It makes my lips quiver and my eyes water every time.  In a very different way, Juno makes me laugh and cry and want to have a baby with Michael Cera.  I mean, my wife.

 rockin-the-suburbsAlbum: Ben Folds, Rockin’ the Suburbs
Honorable Mention: They Might Be Giants, The Spine
Although I might not qualify Ben Folds as my favorite artist, Rockin’ the Suburbs is an album that is full of tracks I like and I don’t have to be “in the mood” to listen to it.  And you know, “The Luckiest” holds a bit of sentimental value for me.  Alternatively, The Spine is a really fun album and the only songs I don’t thoroughly enjoy are ironically the two title tracks.

lost-logoTV Show (active): Lost
Honorable Mention: 30 Rock
Lost is nothing short of an amazing show, which has managed to evolve without becoming too pretentious or too silly.  Even through commonly-perceived-weakest season 3, I was engrossed.  It’s an epic story and the fact that there’s a definitive ending date makes it unlike most episodic content we get from our TV.  On the other side of the continuity spectrum is weekly LOLfest 30 Rock.  Any show that makes me regularly laugh on average once every 3 minutes is a qualified success in my book.

TV Show (inactive): Slings and Arrows
Honorable Mention: Arrested Development
slings Two years ago, I had never heard of a Canadian show called Slings and Arrows.  Now, it’s probably my favorite show ever.  Clocking in at only 18 hours of television across three 6-episode seasons, it’s something that can be watched in its entirety in a single weekend.  At times funny and touching, all three seasons are constructed masterfully without a wasted minute on screen.  There’s nothing to do when the final half hour of the series plays other than weep.  All three seasons are on Netflix, so you have no excuse not to watch this show.  I’m also obligated to mention Arrested Development on any list of favorites so I don’t lose my cred.

More tomorrow!

Day 17: a review of non-existent music

February 28, 2009 / / 0 Comments

This album was generated via the latest meme to hit my Facebook Friends.

The artist is from a random Wikipedia article title, the album title is from the last few words on a random quotation, and the art is from Flickr’s recent interesting pictures.

albumcover

I decided to take it a step further and write a short review of said album.

Wentworth’s Folly

When Philip Wentworth burst onto the scene last year with the bizarrely brilliant asks for nothing, it was hard not to take notice.  Combining interesting and rarely heard instrumental arrangements with a knowledge of rock history, the entirely instrumental rock album was a breath of fresh air in today’s top 40 obsessed era.

If anything, it was too inaccessible.  Aside from the emotionally charged and very short “for diane,” none of the tracks got radio play and it felt like Wentworth would be remembered as that odd, talented artist that no one had ever heard of.

Philip Wentworth’s sophomore album has a lot going for it.  In many ways, it feels like a direct response to critics, as half the tracks on this album involve vocals, although not all of them may be considered singing, strictly speaking.  However, it gets mired down by how exceptional asks for nothing was.  There are rhythms and arrangements here that we’ve heard before.

“born to fail,” “the underground railroad,” and “booms in my head” all sound like tired rehashes of better tracks from asks for nothing.  The vocals, while stirring, start to blend together and it won’t be long before you can’t tell if you’re listening to “fascinating scism” or “the sale at macy’s.”

That’s not to say there isn’t original stuff on there.  Title track “what we think of ourselves” flows so smoothly that you’ll feel sad when it ends and it’s one of the few places where the vocals complement instead of clash with the music.

Wentworth’s crown jewel on this album, though, is clearly the gut-wrenching ten minute instrumental that closes it out.  “regarding my beheading after the battle of hexham” is better than everything else on the album put together.  If you’re thinking of buying one Wentworth track online, I heartily recommend it over my previous favorite from asks for nothing, “underwear.”

Still, unlike his first, this isn’t a groundbreaking album and with the odd choices Wentworth makes in many of his tracks, it may have the exact opposite effect than intended.  what we think of ourselves will be a must-get for current fans of his music, but it may even further alienate the general music-buying public.

Day 7: rent

February 18, 2009 / / 0 Comments

Last night, Katie and I watched the DVD of RENT: Filmed Live on Broadway.  I’ve seen Rent twice on Broadway, watched the film version that came out in 2005 a couple times, and listened to the soundtrack too many times to count.  Since I began listening to music as a human being, it’s probably been the album that I’ve listened to the most times.  In all, the show has had a large influence on my life.

I still love the show, and I expect that most musical-theatre-lovers of my generation do too.  It may not be their favorite musical, but it’s hard to believe that it doesn’t hold a special place in the heart of anyone who saw it when they were young and just beginning to appreciate musicals.

What makes it so great?  First, it’s well written.  The songs are catchy and infectious, the  characters just flawed enough, and the plot is touching without becoming trite.  Every time Angel dies (spoiler!), I still cry.

Second, the story of Jonathan Larson’s career and the journey of getting Rent to the stage is heart-breaking and inspiring.  It’s the kind of thing that only seems to happen in made-for-TV-movies.

Most powerfully, for a kid in school, seeing or hearing this musical opened doors you didn’t know were possible.  It let you look past the touring production of 42nd Street you saw last summer and the version of Kiss Me, Kate that your school was putting on this year.  As the opening chords of Tune Up #1 start, it was like Larson whispered in my ear: “do you see what a musical can be?”  It can be dark and full of electric guitars.  It can be set in a abandoned loft in New York City.  It can speak to what people are like today.

Taken together, Rent is so entertaining and so hopeful and so powerful that it has a permanent spot on my iPhone.  I’m sad that I’ll never get the chance to see it on Broadway again, but I feel grateful that I was lucky enough to see it for the first time as a kid.

It also let me bond with a bunch of friends in college quickly and easily.  For example, here are some somewhat embarrassing college pictures of me “performing” Light My Candle and La Vie Boheme next to the fence at CMU late one night freshman year!

rent2   rent4

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