between_time_and_42 | Entries tagged with thoughts

Okay, I just have to infodump about everything that’s been going on with Nickel Creek lately, because it’s living rent-free in my mind right now.

I guess I should start with: Celebrants, their new album, is INCREDIBLE. My first reaction, when listening, was 1. Chris Thile is dominating their songwriting and I’m not mad, and 2. it’s impossible to go through and pick the best songs and just listen to those. This has to be experienced as a whole every time. It’s definitely Nickel Creek’s finest album in my opinion, and I could talk about it a lot more, but I won’t.

SO, first off, before the tour started, they posted a video of them teaching the stomp-clap rhythm for their opening song “Celebrants” (which I really love). Chris was wearing my two favorite colors, pink and yellow, and bounced around in excitement at the beginning, which was very endearing. Sara was also wearing pink. My heart melted. THEN my heart melted even more a few days later when Sara posted a video of her being (lovingly) attacked by a bunch of puppies backstage, and she was rolling on the floor laughing while they were climbing over her and I’m pretty sure that’s the best video that I’ve ever seen. 💗

Then I looked up their setlist. Was vaguely disappointed to see that they aren’t playing a few certain tracks from Celebrants, or the song “Rest of My Life,” but given that they have so many great songs, and that Celebrants really should be performed as an entire album all in one sitting, I understood their choices, even if I was disappointed. Still was super excited to see them!

Then, a show in Birmingham got cancelled because Chris was recovering from the flu, which led to that stress-dream I had about my mom and I getting into a screaming match over Nickel Creek’s musical value. I’m not sure why I dreamed about this considering that she is literally the one who got the concert tickets and was going to accompany me to the show, but okay. The day after the Birmingham show was cancelled, my mom made a group chat for me, her, and her friends who were going to the show, so we could make plans. It was all happening!

…until it wasn’t. Just yesterday, my mom texted the group chat saying that the show was postponed, and that she had insider info but wouldn’t reveal it. The insider info came out in a statement a few hours later. Chris’ flu, which he’d had on the heels of a sinus infection, had turned into potential vocal damage when he tried to sing through it, and now he was on vocal rest for two weeks. Well, IS on vocal rest, I should say. I found myself more worried about him than bummed about the show. “Get the man some rest!” I texted my mom, although what I was thinking was “Get the man some chicken soup and tea!” I wasn’t sure what she’d think about me expressing my domestic tendencies towards a 42-year-old mandolinist 😅

So anyway, the show’s postponed, which means their two-night residency in Nashville was going to be postponed… but then Sara and Sean announced that to make up for it, they’re going to do a special touring edition of Watkins Family Hour and invite some friends!! I can only imagine who the friends are, considering I’m sure they know a LOT of people in Nashville. Everyone who had tickets to the Nashville shows are able to get in free, and according to social media posts, the line was all the way down the block by 6:00. A lot of people commented saying that they had traveled far to make it to the show, and now I’m so happy for them that their trip was not in vain!

Shortly after that, the news came in that all the postponed dates had been rescheduled. The one I was going to see is now in June, the day before the music festival I'm going to, and the week before the Sparks concert. Whew :'D I'm going to have a LOT of fun those last two weeks in June, I just know it.

Finally, Chris posted a photo of him masked on an airplane, with a very sad look in his eye, giving us all a hand-heart. He said he was upset that he couldn’t perform, but he knew what was best for him and was flying back home, where he would relax for two weeks and maybe use the time to perfect his latte art skills. I look forward to seeing the results. Right on cue, Claire Coffee, Chris’ wife, posted some cute things on her IG story- one was a picture of a mask that had “I can’t talk right now” written on it, along with a whiteboard message that said “Sorry for your (vocal) loss :(,” and the other was a stick figure drawing of a dude with messy hair and an instrument looking sad onstage in front of a bunch of other stick figures. I hope that Claire gets him some chicken soup and tea. :P (if he even likes those things, idk. I know he said he’d be limiting his coffee and refraining from cocktails, so I can only imagine how hard THAT’S going to be…)

Anyway. It’s been an interesting time following the news. Nothing like this has happened before in this fandom, and in fact the only time I can remember anything like this happening in a fandom I’ve been in was when Bono had a cycling accident on the week that U2 were supposed to do a residency at the Tonight Show. That, and when Bono injured his back and they had to cancel their Glastonbury set… man, that fellow sure is accident prone… But anyway, I feel very connected to my fellow fans at this time and very protective of Chris, and I hope everything turns out okay. (I especially hope that he’s recovered for the show I’m seeing him do on May 19th, but I understand if they need to postpone that one too.)

Yeah, sorry, I’ve kept it on the down-low but this thing is still very much consuming my life 😅 anyway, here are some thoughts that I find are overflowing lately:

-Do you have any idea how hard it is to write dialogue for characters who don’t have canonical voices?! When I write fanfiction, it always helps IMMENSELY if I can hear the characters’ voices in my head as I write, which is usually the voice of the actor who portrays them. If the source is a text-based work, the characters usually have enough dialogue that I can invent voices for them in my head, and focus more on their way of speaking instead of how it specifically sounds. And if I’m writing my own characters, I’m in control of their voice and don’t have to worry so much about the way it sounds in my head. So Mylo & Xyloto I have no problem with, because they’re essentially OCs that just happen to have been inspired by the songs from Coldplay’s album (just like how Julie & Jack from WTC? are both OCs inspired by specific songs from Diamond Dogs). Ziggy I have no problem with either, as he basically just sounds like David Bowie and I’ve heard his speaking voice enough times to easily conjure it to mind on demand. But with the rest, we run into some problems because, well. Johnny (the Jesus of Suburbia) has been portrayed by multiple actors onstage, so I’m not sure which one I should consider the “canonical” take. Rael, although created and portrayed onstage by an Englishman, is not only American, but half-Puerto Rican as well, meaning that he probably sounds absolutely nothing like Peter Gabriel (though tbh, thank god PG didn’t give him an actual speaking voice, it’s bad enough that he did brownface while portraying him on tour 😅). And the worst one of all is Pink, who not only was only given one speaking line in the filmed version of The Wall, but that line is screamed at the top of his lungs, so I have no idea what his voice ACTUALLY sounds like. And if you’re thinking right now that hey, why not just use his actor’s regular speaking voice- Pink is English. His actor, Bob Geldof, is VERY Irish. Although I’m fairly familiar with Geldof’s speaking voice and could probably conjure it to mind on demand, I just can’t imagine Pink speaking with an Irish accent. Which means that his voice is impossible for me to imagine, which means that I’m constantly having trouble writing his dialogue throughout SF: ALS because I can’t HEAR him saying it and when I can’t hear a character’s voice in my head, it just becomes my voice, and NO ONE WANTS THAT.

(And if you’re also thinking “well, how is that any different from writing fic based on a book?”- It is very different, because the dialogue in books is written as dialogue. On these albums, everyone speaks in LYRICS. Which means they’re not really speaking those words, which means it’s not the natural rhythms of their voice, which means I can’t find my way in.)

-Two little signs of growth/progression (or regression, in one case?) in relation to my work on this story that I wanted to share:

Original angsty OTP headcanons: Ziggy is tragically killed after spiraling into drug addiction and Floyd never mentally recovers, before dying himself a few months later.

Current angsty OTP headcanons: Ziggy survives his near-death experience, beats his drug addiction, and goes to live with Floyd, eventually spending over forty (Earth) years with him. Although he still struggles with his mental health, Floyd finally has the time, space, willingness, and ability to process and begin to heal from his trauma. They help co-parent Ziggy’s son, who grows up to get married and adopt children, and make a lot of new friends in their community, as well as strengthen their relationships with old friends. …And then Floyd dies of natural causes in his 80’s, and Ziggy and the rest of his friends/family mourn him. (Essentially, I don’t know if I’m saying that it’s funny that this bittersweet but ultimately heartwarming scenario is the saddest headcanon I can come up with/care to subject myself to, or if I’m pointing out how odd it is that after creating such a happy, fluffy ending, I’m still bothering to think of what happens after one half of my OTP dies. Maybe it’s both…)

-Me at 16: The Wall is awesome but I don’t really understand Pink.

Me now: The Wall is awesome and holy shit, I AM Pink.

(On the one hand, it’s NEVER a good sign if you relate to Pink, but on the other hand, at least revisiting this story has caused me to realize some things about myself?)

May 1st, 2023, should be known as MAYDAY MAYDAY 2023 because that's the day I'm seeing Nickel Creek in concert and after watching a few of their recent videos that they've done to promote their new album, I've realized that there's no way I'm going to be able to hide the way I feel about Sara Watkins when I see them and that wouldn't be too bad if it wasn't for the fact that I'm going to the concert with my mom and some of her friends and I don't want to make a fool out of myself screaming for Sara in front of them. But that's probably what's going to happen. :'D She's so pretty and talented that I'm melting into a puddle, ahhhhhh.

On another note, I wanted to quickly share the lyrics to their new song "Goddamned Saint," because I'm having a strong emotional reaction to it. I hope to write more about this album later, because there's a lot for me to mull over in regards to it, but this will have to suffice for now.

Writing this out in paragraphs, not stanzas, because it looks better that way imo (Chris wrote these lyrics and he's a music-first songwriter, so the lyrics he writes are usually shaped awkwardly to fit the meter and it strikes me as more natural to write it this way):

Once upon softer times, I met a man who'd made some records I admired, though he wrote like a sinner (as far as I could understand from the front pew of my choir). But now I watched as he walked the walk like a goddamned saint. And one of the walls I'd built around what I thought I felt came tumbling down, and a trickle of light shone in from somewhere I hadn't been since I'd been told to quit poking around, as if God Himself were saying, "Go on, it'll be okay. You've got a goddamned saint with you now."

Thus upon softer times, we bared our souls in the good old-fashioned hope of changing one another. I recited parables, and he listened with an openness I heard as clear as any words he could've preached or prayed.

Do not fear this world, and it will bring you strength to lay down your sword and shield.

And the other three walls I'd built around what I thought I felt came tumbling down, and a torrent of light shone in. He said, "Are you coming, friend?" I said, what the hell, and went poking around like a goddamned saint who live to seek and seeks to test what they believe.

But then times got harder. I find my choir has ceased to think and my thoughts have ceased to sing, because I won't even have a drink with anyone who disagrees, like I've forgotten that the well I'm drawing from springs from disagreements with people who believe that we can only change someone as much as we're willing to be changed.

This is giving me the exact same feelings that Chris' album Thanks For Listening did back in 2017. He sang then on the title track about how even though he holds some beliefs that some of the people he's met throughout his life deeply oppose, what he finds most important is that he's listening to them, and they're listening to him, and they're making a conscious effort to understand and see things from his side, and he's also making a conscious effort to understand and see things from their side. "Goddamned Saint" now reveals why he has such strong feelings about this- because when he was a snobbish born-again Christian-leaning artist (something he's freely admitted to having been in the past), he was able to become more accepting of others and broaden his worldview by talking to people he admired who thought differently from him, and because they treated him without judgment and listened to what he had to say, he was able to grow as a person instead of feeling like they were attacking him and therefore becoming defensive and doubling down on his beliefs. And now he's saying that it should go the other way. He's saying that he's so dead-set in his current beliefs that he refuses to hear anyone out when their viewpoint differs from his, and he wants to get back into that state of openness and curiosity.

And this overwhelms me, like it did when I heard "Thanks For Listening," because I can't do that. I'll never be a goddamned saint. And some part of me really resents that Thile is able to do this, and finds myself judging him for it. Doesn't it seem rather wishy-washy and centrist to take such a flexible approach to your own personal worldview? The thing is, I wouldn't feel quite so negatively about this if it wasn't for the fact that people are already connecting these lyrics to America's political landscape. And where politics are concerned, there is such an unfortunately thin line between having different ideas on how our government should be run, and supporting basic human rights. And although I believe, from observing how they present themselves and the beliefs that they've publicly shared, that Chris, Sara, and Sean from Nickel Creek have good hearts and would never support anti-trans legislation or the restriction of access to abortion or any of the news that made those horrifying headlines from the last few months... I also fear that when Chris sings something like this, it starts to cross that fine line. And yet at the same time, I wish that I could be more like that. To be open in that way. Because I do agree that you can only change a person's beliefs as much as your own are willing to be changed. It's just that mine aren't, and I don't feel like I need them to be because I'm comfortable with how I experience the world, and I wonder now if maybe I'm TOO comfortable.

I saw a movie trailer on TV and it looked so cool! and Cillian Murphy was in it… wait… is this a Christopher Nolan movie… well, I kind of went off him after TENET came out and it was extremely underwhelming but this looks kinda science fiction-y so I’ll give him another shot? Maybe…

And then I saw the title was OPPENHEIMER and now I’m like. Nope, not interested in watching another Nolan-directed historical film, sorry :/

(Not to say that Dunkirk was bad- I liked it- but I’d rather see him direct an original story, ESPECIALLY if the story is science fiction. Though my favorite Nolan film will always be Memento. I wish he’d scale it back and write stories like that again, which are more about the characters than awe-inspiring special effects.)

(…this reminds me that my father thinks Nolan would be the perfect director for Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle, but I believe that Charlie Kaufman could do it better- and honestly, as great as that would be, if Charlie Kaufman had to adapt any Kurt Vonnegut novel, let it be The Sirens of Titan.)

Current Music: “Walk On” by U2

So, there’s one thing that I see a lot in fandom spaces now that I’ve tried to understand multiple times but I still don’t, and that is the term “pro-shipper” vs. “anti-shipper.”

I don’t get it because I thought at first that it meant you were against all ships in general. Then I found out that “anti-shipper” is someone who’s against anything unhealthy/dark/just generally creepy & gross, like incest, underage, non-consensual, whatever. Which I can get behind because I don’t like any of those things. But then I also learned that “pro-shipper” is someone who doesn’t care what others ship, which is also true for me. Like, I don’t have to personally support something to feel that it should exist. I mean, I’m never in a million years going to touch an incestuous or underage pairing, and I wouldn’t ever read a fic that involves explicit rape or torture or anything like that. And in some occasional instances, I do think it probably reflects the writer/shipper’s morality- like, I can’t imagine anyone writing smut for an underage ship without getting something out of it (I’m not talking about teenagers fooling around, I mean if someone writes like, a teenager or younger with an adult and it’s presented in a positive way), so in SOME cases I feel like it could be the writer exercising a fantasy and that’s obviously bad if they’re fantasizing about actual people who are underage… And also I think there are plenty of villain/hero shipping fics that often involve dark things where the author maybe writes that because that kind of dynamic has been normalized to them and they believe it’s okay in a real life relationship (although that would make them a victim in my eyes, and I wouldn’t blame them for writing that)…

But, I dunno. There’s also the fact that a lot of people who write things like this do so in order to work through their own trauma, and since it’s pretty insensitive and awful to ask someone to prove their trauma in order to justify them writing a certain pairing, I’m not going to say these things SHOULDN’T be written…

I’m just confused lately because I’ve seen a lot of “PRO-SHIPPERS DO NOT EVEN THINK OF INTERACTING!!!” on tumblr lately, and I don’t know if that applies to me or not since like I said, I would never, ever actually read any of these fics that anti-shippers apparently hate, but I also would never tell anyone to take down their fics, or harass anyone over it, or report anyone for writing that (because I think it’s important to remember, since this is fiction, it’s not breaking any laws- I think only if you wrote RPF would it get close to that realm, and RPF happens to be another kind of fic that I deeply hate so I’m not going to concern myself with it much anyway), so I don’t know what this means. I think maybe “pro-shipper” has now become shorthand for “person who ships underage/incest/non-con,” otherwise I don’t get the hate and the desire not to interact with a person who doesn’t ship that, but also doesn’t care in general what others ship. I really don’t know. Fandom is so much more confusing nowadays than it used to be. (This is also one reason why I don’t like labels very much at all. Ultimately I’m probably not going to identify myself with either of these terms because it’s completely irrelevant to my experience of the world. I’m not going to die on any of these hills, I’m just going to seek out the type of fics I want to read on the occasions that I do want to read fic, and ignore everything else that I’m it looking for.)

TLDR: #TooAfraidToAsk What does “pro-shipper” mean????

So I’m finally ready to finish up my thoughts on Annette, which started after my second viewing of the film, and now that I’ve seen it four times, I just really want to finish up this series of posts ASAP. (And I can always go back and edit this post if I think of something to add.)

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I thought I was ready to wrap up my thoughts on this film, but I GUESS NOT so stay tuned for part four (hopefully THIS time it will be the final part...).

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I wish it were more appropriate to, I don't know, maybe approach your co-workers or friends and say "I think you ought to know I'm feeling very depressed" in Marvin the Paranoid Android's voice, so that you've warned them about how you're feeling but you've done so in a light-hearted way so they don't worry too much. Instead people are forced to put on a happy face to socialize, and expected to bury personal feelings. No one wants to be around Marvin the Paranoid Android, not even the other Hitchhiker's Guide characters. I wonder if that was intentional commentary from Douglas Adams, or accidental.

I had a dream I was a producer/guest host on Live from Here. I'd curated the perfect show, including jazz standards from myself, sketch comedy from my sister (who is a writer, but not a comedic one, so I have no idea where that came from), and guest performances by Lana del Ray and Bedouine. However, the show started running overly long, and I ended up having to cut pretty much everything original that my sister and I had created, just to get Lana del Ray and Bedouine to perform on time. I wonder if this was also unintentional commentary from my subconscious- the thought of bigger names desrving more attention than I do.

I saw a quote that I hadn't remembered from Barry, which was Fuches telling NoHo Hank over the phone that he was the "sweetest kid ever" or something to that effect (I can't really rememeber if that was the right context, either- it might have been Fuches meeting Cousineau for the first time?), and suddenly, my mind came alight with the lyrics of Punch Brothers' "The Blind Leaving the Blind, Movement 1, Part 2" (also known as "Red-Handed"):

Sweet young man goes walking down the street wiping blood off his hands.
And it doesn't look good, but he does what he can
To erase the signs of the nightmare he faced at the scene of the crime.
She snuck up behind him as he knelt by her victim.
Whispered "I knew you'd come, but there's nothing to be done,
"And if I was you, I'd run.
"'Cause no one cares about what you felt
"When they see any signs of guilt.
"You kissed its face.
"You held its hand.
"You always were a sweet young man."
He's still a mess, so he hires a car
To take him to the fountain at Balboa Park,
Where he used to play when he was young.
He's gonna wash off in front of God and everyone.
Everyone...

For some reason, that one line- "you always were a sweet young man"- has stuck with me for so long after I first heard it. I keep wanting to poach it for one of my own writing project. Maybe it's the way it's phrased. Actually, the entirety of "Red-Handed" has stuck with me for a long time. The first half of the third movement of "Blind" is my favorite, but this one section is a close second. Funny, because it's also the lyrics that I understand the least. "Blind Leaving the Blind" was written about Chris Thile's divorce from his first wife and his loss of faith (or rather, rejection of organized religion, not necessarily a complete cutting of ties with spirituality as a whole). The closest interpretation I can think of here is that the thing being murdered (notice the "its" pronoun, it's not even personified) is their marriage, and the "sweet young man" is being blamed by his ex for being the one responsible for ending it, while he knows that she was the one to end it. I have no idea if that's accurate. I probably know way too much about Chris Thile's marriage as it already is (and that's not a lot, I've just read the very few interviews where he mentions it) and I shouldn't be speculating. But anyway, "Red-Handed" reminds me a lot of the character of Barry, and how he's trying to symbolically wipe the blood off his hands and start fresh, but he can never go back to being that sweet kid again, not after everything that's happened to him. (Funny now to think of how Sally was the one to use the "out, damned spot" scene from Macbeth, when that's what Barry is trying to do. I know the "tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" scene was a more powerful one to use in the climax of the penultimate episode, given how Barry's guilt-induced breakdown fit the scene so well, but now I almost want to know what that episode would have been like had Sally kept her initial scene, given that both are decent parallels to Barry's situation...)

When I was in California last week, I went to one of the coolest places ever- the Griffith Observatory, which not only is an awesome planetarium/museum, but was also where the climax to one of my favorite films, Rebel Without a Cause, was shot. This connection, plus the space stuff, plus the fact that I had been feeling anxious and then drank green tea on top of that (caffeine does NOT mix well with nervousness or excitement) and we were also on top of a mountain, was so overwhelming to me that I had to lie down after like 15 minutes of walking around. It was an amazing place. The next day I went to Amoeba Music, which is probably the other coolest place in LA, and in honor of the Griffith Observatory, plus the fact that I'd wanted it for a while, I bought Rebel Without a Cause on DVD. Today I watched the DVD, and while I felt I was more looking at than watching the movie- which is to say I wasn't really in the mood to watch it and only wanted to see the scenes with the observatory, so I felt no emotional connection and spent most of the time gently making fun of it (no offense intended, I only mock the movies I truly love), I do have some thoughts on it. Quick thoughts are that the plot of the movie feels a little disjointed after repeated viewings, and I've always found James Dean's acting to be overrated (I think he's a little too affected, though I can't deny it's still a great performance), and also I wish that the relationship between Jim's mother and grandmother had been explored further. But here's a longer thought:

Supposedly, a scene was written (probably not filmed, because I feel like it would have surfaced by now if it had been filmed) where Jim and Plato shared a kiss. I read this on imdb trivia, which is not always accurate all the time, and I also don't know how much the script's draft changed, so the context in which that scene was included might be completely absent from the finished product- but I do think I know where a kiss between them could have been inserted. After the chickie run, when Plato follows Jim home and tries to get him to stay over at his house, I think they could have easily fit in a moment where Plato kisses Jim before saying goodbye to him and leaving. If that had been included, but the rest of the film had played out the exact same way, it would have deepened the story even more. Jim not rejecting him, and as Judy said, "being his friend when no one else was," would have been so important when homosexuality was widely scandalized at the time. On a meta level, it would have been a great sympathetic portrayal. In terms of story, I've always found it really noticeable when Judy tells Jim she loves him and he responds with "Well, I'm glad." He doesn't love her. What if he loves Plato instead? I just wish that this film hadn't been made in the 50's and thus the undertones in their relationship could have been made explicit- then again, I also think it's important it was made in the 50's, for the aspect of Plato confusing his feelings for Jim with longing for a father figure. I don't think that would have translated well today, especially if the movie was still set in LA.

1. I've been listening, as I sometimes do, to the original cast recording of the off-Broadway musical God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. As I might have mentioned before, this musical is notable for being the first collaboration between composer Alan Menken and lyricist Howard Ashman, who later went on to write my favorite musical, Little Shop of Horrors, and then a couple of soundtracks for Disney movies- The Little Mermaid, and Beauty and the Beast. (Honestly, when one thinks about it, this songwriting partnership didn't last for as long as other famous partnerships in the industry have- R.I.P. Mr. Ashman- but the works it produced are legendary. The Menken/Ashman partnership is honestly one of the major factors that makes me excited for the upcoming live-action Little Mermaid remake (besides the fact that it's pissing off racists, which pretty much always seals the deal for me- I highly recommend seeing films out of spite). I want to see those songs performed on a big screen. Not to mention, I heard Lin-Manuel Miranda will be working with Alan Menken to write new songs, which thrills me to the core, Lin-Manuel Miranda is one of those celebrities I inexplicably trust, despite knowing little about him. Also, as a child I was obsessed with mermaids, and I always wished that there was a live action movie with multiple mermaids in it that took place mainly in the ocean. It's like my childhood dream is coming true. BUT... I've certainly digressed!)

The other thing that makes God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater notable is that it was based on a book by Kurt Vonnegut, who I've admired for a long time. He used to be my favorite author, in fact. I read the book last year and honestly didn't care for it, though I loved the moral and the conclusions to be drawn from it. But listening to the beautiful, catchy music throughout the music soundtrack has made me fall absolutely in love with the story (and with the character Eliot Rosewater). I swear I'll travel miles just to see it if it ever gets revived. Such an underrated gem.

2. I've also been reading Kurt Vonnegut- I just started a re-read of one of my other least favorites of his books, Breakfast of Champions. Already it's speaking to me a little more now than it did in high school. However, I'm not as big a Vonnegut fan as I was, mainly because there's a vaguely misogynistic streak in his writing that rubs me the wrong way, and also because I keep getting the impression that he was a man of all thought and no action. However, the strength of his thoughts, and the humorous yet poignant way in which he presents them, is what appeals to me most about his writing. Also, the drawings in Breakfast of Champions have me cracking up completely.

3. I saw an announcement for an official Barbie doll made to look like David Bowie (as Ziggy Stardust/Aladdin Sane), and I suddenly became a kid again in my head, with a strong desire to play with it. I was highly offended to read that it was for "adult collectors..." Lol. Honestly, if Mattel released an entire line of rock star Barbies, I would love to buy them all, and then recreate Live Aid with them. That video would surely go viral. Although, what I'd love more than a line of rock stars, is a line of concept album characters. Ziggy Stardust, Floyd Pinkerton, Tommy, Rael... Make it happen, Mattel. I'll be your only customer, but I'll pay well...

4. Speaking of toys, my family recently sold a few old spacemen toys on Ebay, and I just wished I could keep them to play with/display. Look at this good boi: http://www.16bit.com/fotd/110915-astro-nautilus-outer-space-men-alpha-sdcc.asp They are definitely A Friend.

5. On a more personal note... I'm spending a week dog-sitting another good boi, then it's off to Hershey Park for three days.... very excited!

Current Mood: relaxed
Current Music: "Thank God For the Volunteer Fire Brigade" from God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater

-Just heard a new song by Madison Cunningham on Live from Here, and immediately went to pre-order her new album. I've been holding back because I've been on the fence about whether I should get it on vinyl or digital download, but once I heard this new song I headed straight for the iTunes store. I'll probably buy her album on vinyl at the merch table when I see her and Lake Street Dive this October. Anyway, the point is... Madison Cunningham is the greatest and I will continue to spread the gospel of her music for as long as I can.

-Speaking of iTunes, I'm highly disappointed to hear that iTunes is officially shutting down. I only read the headlines so I'm not sure of all the details, but I personally would prefer to actually own the music I love instead of just streaming it. Yeah, I use Spotify pretty much every day, but only in order to listen to music that I've never heard before- a "try before you buy" sort of situation. Everything I really love, I'll buy. And I have no more room for CDs anymore, which is the best option for me right now, since I can rip the mp3's and load them onto my favorite devices so I can listen anytime, anywhere. Plus I can play CDs in my car. Vinyl is fun, but my turntable has shitty speakers and also, records are not portable. So I'd like to be able to download mp3's first, and then get the physical copy on vinyl. So I'm not happy about the idea that streaming could replace purchasing mp3's. Especially since streaming music pays next to nothing, unless you're a hugely popular artist. Yeah... I'm not happy about this.

-I feel like there's a whole category of indie artists nowadays who are highly lauded, but they just do absolutely nothing for me. Examples: St. Vincent (though I love some of her recent stripped-down material), Lucius, Sylvan Esso, tUnE-yArDs, and I'm sure there's more. I just don't get what people see in this kind of music. It's technically good, yes, but is it necessarily enjoyable?

-There's been some recent developments in the U2 fandom and though I don't think of myself as being in the fandom much anymore, I just have to get my 2 cents in. First off, U2 announced a tour in Australia, New Zealand, and Asia. They haven't been there for ten years, and they're touring a show that they toured in the US and Europe a couple years back. And the first reactions I see from US fans are: "Gotta save up enough money to travel to Australia!" Like... what the fuck. How entitled can you be? First of all, even in the depths of my U2 fandom, I never understood the need to see multiple shows on a single tour. At least, I never understood the need to travel all across the country and go out of your way to see them. I mean... okay, I've absolutely had dreams of following Punch Brothers around, but like, as a person involved with their tour, not as a fan. It makes less sense with U2, whose setlist tends to be rigid (until later on in the tour when they usually introduce new songs and then THAT setlist is rigid). And besides that, why would you go all the way to the other side of the world just to see a band you've seen plenty of times before, when there are many fans in the areas they're touring who've never seen the band once in their lives? It's not all about you, folks. Fortunately, these initial reactions have been met with "shut the fuck up" type reactions from other fans, and I gotta say I am firmly in their camp.

Another U2 thing I want to discuss, that ties in with some other thoughts I've had recently, is the fact that U2 has been suggested as the next band who's up for a biopic to be made about them. The reaction I've mainly seen is "hell no," and I'm pretty much in that camp myself, but only for the following reasons. First, U2 is an atypical band in that they've been relatively free of drama and strife. There's not much material to mine for a dramatic biopic. But the main issue is, if the filmmakers stick to the same paradigm of band biopics that's so popular- see Bohemian Rhapsody for a perfect, recent example, and for a more personal example (as in the one that got me to notice the pattern), An American Family which is about The Beach Boys- they're destined to create a poor work of art. This video explains the whole thing better (and is really a fascinating watch), but the bottom line is, the filmmakers have to know what story they want to tell about this band that isn't just "look at these awesome people, they sure did awesome things!" If a U2 biopic ever goes forward, I personally would love to see a filmed version of Bill Flanagan's book U2 at the End of the World, which is an account of the band's history from 1989 to 1994- the making and release of their album Achtung Baby, followed by their acclaimed Zoo TV and Zooropa tours. That is a story worth telling in film, instead of trying to condense their entire history into 2 hours and ending up with a pointless mess.

-I heard Robert Pattinson is going to be the new Batman, which I approve of even though I don't care about Batman because he'll get to display his improved acting skills to a wider audience and prove that he's not just Edward Cullen. The only reason I'm bringing this up is that, as a result of seeing his face in the articles that announced this news, I've come to realize that I actually think Pattinson is pretty handsome- even though when he was first announced as Edward, I was disgusted that THIS guy is playing the supposed most beautiful man in the world??? I have no idea what changed, but he's certainly better looking than Taylor Lautner, which is the exact opposite of my middle school self's opinion.

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: Some song by Guster that's playing on LFH

...Okay. So, I'm not satisfied with my summary of GTA V being "the story was weak, but the shipping was real-" it's been a week since I finished the playthrough and the story is still bothering me so the writer/editor in me feels the need to write up what exactly I took issue with regarding the story, and how I'd like to fix it. (This is in regards solely to narrative structure- it has nothing to do with discourse or looking at it from a social justice standpoint, which is a whole different can of worms, and it also has nothing to do with the gameplay because I don't know the first thing about that, I just like to watch.)

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

Random thought I felt like getting down.

I don't understand when someone says, about any kind of creative work, "it tries to be..." etc. Like "it tries to be charming, but falls flat" or something.

Either you find it charming/interesting/terrifying/funny, or you don't. How can it "try" to be one of these things? Either it is, or it isn't. I guess you could say it's because the creator might intend for it to come off as one thing, while the audience experiencing it sees it in a different way. But it's all subjective. If it doesn't work for you, it doesn't work for you. That's it. That's fine. Nothing appeals to everyone at once.

Current Music: "Good Old Desk" by Harry Nilsson

The Academy Awards (and really, any awards show) are a lowkey guilty pleasure of mine. I say guilty because almost everyone I know holds the opinion that "award shows are bullshit/boring/too political/meaningless." But I just get a kick out of seeing so many celebrities in one place, and I like seeing their reactions to winning awards, and I just like the idea of giving awards in the first place (even though I often don't agree with the winners). I do sort of agree that it's meaningless, though, because just the fact that these films received such a great reception and made so much money and got so many creative people recognized should be enough. If it was a successful film, I'd imagine its creators feel proud of it, award or no award.

With all that being said, I had some thoughts on the Oscars last night (I didn't watch the entire broadcast. I looked the rest of the winners up later):

-I didn't even remotely miss having a host. They need to do this more often. There's really no reason to have a host when it comes down to it- they're really just a personality for the audience to focus on/to get their attention. I was also relieved there weren't any jokes made about it after the first presenters, because I felt like that would have been too excessive.

-Having Queen open the show was a smart move. (Yes, they are Queen to me, not Queen + Adam Lambert.) There is literally no better "pump up the crowd" song than "We Will Rock You."

-The only Best Picture nominees I saw were Bohemian Rhapsody, A Star is Born, and BlackkKlansman. I did not think Bohemian Rhapsody deserved a nomination- it seems to be an obligatory nomination because it was a biopic and those always win some kind of acclaim, but it really wasn't that great of a film. The other two I thought were great, for very different reasons. One was a heartbreaking story that spoke to me personally as a fellow creative mind/musician, and was also able to stand on its own apart from the versions that preceded it (and unearthed some hidden talent regarding Lady Gaga's acting and Bradley Cooper's directing). The other was fuel for the fire of righteous anger caused by living in this day and age- even though the story took place in the 70's, it was immensely, sadly relevant to our current times. It's the kind of film that makes you want to get out of your seat and go do something to improve society.

-Without having seen any of the other films, my guess was that the Best Picture winner would be A Star is Born or Roma. A Star is Born was practically Award-Bait: The Film (though that's not me knocking it), and Roma seemed to be the most "artsy," which would win it critical acclaim (plus I just wanted to be able to say that a black-and-white foreign language Netflix original movie had won Best Picture). I really do want to see Roma because I've heard great things about it from cinephile friends of mine.

-However, the Best Picture winner was the one I heard bad things about...??? Seriously, all I've heard about Green Book makes it out to be a patronizing white-savior sort of story that's nothing close to what happened in real life. I'm literally dumbfounded by this. (Not to mention I hadn't even heard of it until the end of last year. That always happens, but more on that later.) I mean, 2018 wasn't a great year for movies in my opinion, but that canNOT be the best one that came out last year. (And this is why they say the Academy Awards are bullshit.)

-I enjoyed seeing Gillian Welch and David Rawlings perform at the Oscars. There is something enormously alluring about that duo. However, we ALL knew "Shallow" was going to win. No contest. I saw a dig at that win from one of my Punchy bois (who shall remain unnamed), saying "it's pretty telling that a song called 'Shallow' won," and that has me feeling the same way that I felt when "Let It Go" won Best Original Song in 2014 and U2 fans were upset that U2's song "Ordinary Love" didn't win. Back then, and right now, even though I love U2 and I really appreciate Gill & Dave... I'm not surprised or hurt or outraged because the winner was such a foregone conclusion. Both "Shallow" and "Let It Go" are highly popular standard pop songs, and the Academy seems to favor what's popular, as opposed to what might be a better song. (And "Shallow" and "Let It Go" aren't even bad songs in my opinion. They're just seen as "appealing to the masses" as opposed to "artistic," but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes it seems those upset are less annoyed about recognition of true art, and more annoyed that their personal favorite didn't win.)

-I didn't even hear all the other nominees for Best Original Score but until I do, my mind can't be changed that Terence Blanchard should have won for BlackkKlansman. (Even if I hear them, who knows if my mind will be changed. That score was fucking amazing.)

-I didn't see A Quiet Place (I really want to though), but I'm baffled as to how it didn't win Best Sound Editing. Instead, the award went to Bohemian Rhapsody, which seems too predictable- of course the film about music would win in that category.

-SPEAKING OF WHICH, I feel like Bohemian Rhapsody only won Best Editing because of the Live Aid recreation that closes the film. It probably dazzled the Academy to the point where they couldn't see any of the other films they were meant to be judging... I dunno, it's hard for me to judge editing in a film but I didn't think Bohemian Rhapsody deserved it, is all.

-However, congrats to Rami Malek on winning Best Actor!! That was a well-deserved award in my opinion. I honestly thought Christian Bale might win for Vice and was pleasantly surprised.

-So, during awards season, there's always at least one film (more than one in recent years) that I haven't heard ANYTHING about, had no idea it existed, and then it shows up and wins an award and I'm like "what even ARE you??" This year, that film is First Man. Since it's about space (even though it's not science fiction), I feel like I have to see it now. But it really came out of nowhere for me.

Current Mood: awake
Current Music: "Shallow" by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper