Random 10 for April 1, 2009
1. Kid Rock, “All Summer Long.” In our busy lives, we often don’t have enough time to hear one song at a time, and the fact that Bob Ritchie took Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama” and Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London,” then improved on both of them with his own wistful remembrance of getting his 17-year-old girlfriend just drunk enough, well, that spells “classic,” not to mention this couplet: “And we were trying different things/And we were smoking funny things.” Not everyone, can pull off a rhyme like that, but that’s why we have Bob.
2. Girlicious, “Like Me.”
3. 4 Non Blondes, “What’s Up.”
4. Will Smith, “Gettin’ Jiggy With It.”
5. Europe, “The Final Countdown.” In creating a classic paean to nuclear disarmament, Europe’s Joey Tempest singlehandedly tore that wall down. We should all take a moment and reflect.
6. Nickelback, “Something In Your Mouth.”
7. Eric Carmen, “All By Myself.”
8. Creed, “With Arms Wide Open.”
9. Los Del Rio, “Macarena.”
10. Heidi Montag, “Higher.” Witnessing the degree to which this extraordinary talent has transcended her stellar work on “The Hills,” sticking her talent straight in critics’ faces and making them eat their words has been one of the highlights of my blogging career. Keep it up Heidi, and playa hatas — don’t hate the playa, hate the game.
Video of the Day: PJ Harvey and John Parish, “Black Hearted Love”
PJ Harvey & John Parish “Black Hearted Love” from Culture Bully on Vimeo.
Smashing Pumpkins LLC Now Accepting Applications
Now that Jimmy Chamberlin has apparently decided that The Smashing Pumpkins is not a growth industry for him, Billy Corgan is now conducting auditions. The cattle call for stick men and women will be held April 10 in Los Angeles. Those interested in keeping time in a ’90s nostalgia act who have a yearning for the rock ‘n’ roll version of working for Anna Wintour, e-mail photos, background information and Web videos of your performance to pumpkinsdrummer@gmail.com.
Random 10 for March 31, 2009
1. Fol Chen, “Cable TV.” Highland Park (Cali) quintet delivers bubble-synthy goodness about the joys of cheap hotels — “the carpet’s filthy, but the ice is free.” The video looks like what would happen if Jive/Zomba reduced Britney Spears’ video budget to one digicam and random Spandex. I think I just came up with a good band name.
2. TV On The Radio, “Hours.”
3. Portishead, “Deep Water.”
4. Siouxsie & The Banshees, “Cities in Dust.” The ultimate in doom. My chief memory of this song is driving around San Diego in July 1986, and 91X playing this track constantly for all the bummed out surfers. Not exactly beach music, unless your particular beach is situated on a coast of infinite misery and certain annihilation.
5. Apples in Stereo, “Beautiful Machine Parts 3-4.”
6. The Buzzcocks, “Boredom.”
7. Miles Davis, “Boplicity.”
8. British Sea Power, “Carrion.”
9. Ween, “Where’d the M———- Cheese Go At?”
10. Golden Silvers, “True Romance (True No. 9 Blues).” This is where the cheese went. I love the Dr. Fink-style keyboards, but seriously — between La Roux and this, I’m starting to think that the entirety of Great Britain has “Life On Mars”‘d itself into 1982.
Video of the Day: Sebastian Tellier, “Roche”
This is a thoroughly silly clip, what with S.Tell dressing like Andrew Gold and the blue women and the giant mouths on the beach and whatnot. That’s just part of the charm.
Josh Freese Has Got the Special Editions
For his latest solo disc, Since 1972, omnipresent L.A. drummer Josh Freese, who has played with every band in that town except maybe Eagles, is offering tons of add-ons for some purchase packages. In an earlier post, I listed the various combinations the Beasties are selling for the Check Your Head re-release, but Freese has created a $75,000 package for discriminating and recession-proof fans:
$75,000 (limited edition of 1)
* Signed CD/DVD and digital download
* T-shirt
* Go on tour with Josh for a few days.
* Have Josh write, record and release a 5 song EP about you and your life story.
* Take home any of his drumsets (only one but you can choose which one.)
* Take shrooms and cruise Hollywood in Danny from Tool’s Lamborgini or play quarters and then hop on the Ouija board for a while.
* Josh will join your band for a month…play shows, record, party with groupies, etc….
* If you don’t have a band he’ll be your personal assistant for a month (4-day work weeks, 10 am to 4 pm)
* Take a limo down to Tijuana and he’ll show you how it’s done (what that means exactly we can’t legally get into here)
* If you don’t live in Southern California (but are a US resident) he’ll come to you and be your personal assistant/cabana boy for 2 weeks.
* Take a flying trapeze lesson with Josh and Robin from NIN, go back to Robin’s place afterwards and his wife will make you raw lasagna.
Sounds crunchy.
Trailer: “Where the Wild Things Are”
This one’s from Hulu, so less likely to disappear. Looks stunning and the Arcade Fire is a fine choice for this piece of hipster nostalgia.
Movie Review: “Sunshine Cleaning”
Rating: 73
Just as the title implies, “Sunshine Cleaning” is about disinfecting a mess, whether it’s a crime scene or a life filled with mistakes. Someone has to do the dirty job that Rose and Norah Lorkowski take on, and redemption could be found in all those gallons of industrial disinfectant.
Rose (Amy Adams) was captain of the cheerleading team in high school, but that was her high point. About 15 years later, she is cleaning houses for a living and continuing a long-standing and fruitless affair with her high school boyfriend Mac (Steve Zahn). Every day, Rose repeats affirmations in a search for elusive self-esteem, but cannot break free of being the cutest, sweetest doormat in Albuquerque.
Like Rose but without the obvious charm, Norah (Emily Blunt) is just a stoned mess who cannot hold down even the worst fast-food job. The Lorkowski sisters and their father Joe (Alan Arkin) all got damaged individually by a family tragedy, leaving each with a life on the margins and the possibility that Rose’s smart-but-troubled son Oscar (Jason Spevack) is on the same path.
But then after one of their depressing motel trysts, Mac, a homicide detective, suggests that Rose could make a lot of money cleaning up after his cases. She wheedles her way into a crime scene with the recently fired Norah in tow, and they start mopping up blood. Of course they’re not certified for this line of work, but the forms and tests can wait.
If the plot of Christine Jeffs’ film seems stitched together from several independent movie tropes, the characters and actors help “Sunshine Cleaning” transcend those ideas. Adams and Blunt are convincing as siblings who ultimately find some meaning in their lives through mopping up viscera — after all, there were once real people in these blood-stained rooms. While Rose and Norah’s makeshift operation is far from perfect, dealing in mortality could supply some kind of breakthrough for both sisters.
Like “Wendy and Lucy,” also opening in Oklahoma City this week, “Sunshine Cleaning” depicts people barely operating at subsistence level. It’s not where anyone wants to be, but so many people end up there, either by accident or the ugly nature of the economy. These characters resonate as people grapple with their own tough times, whether it’s due to recession or their own difficulties in breaking out of spirals.
Movie Review: “Wendy and Lucy”
Rating: 76
For the working poor, safety nets are not part of the equation — the dominoes start falling hard if just one unexpected expense pops up. Kelly Reichardt’s simple and affecting drama “Wendy and Lucy,” which begins a two-week engagement at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, illustrates this true, day-to-day nightmare, and Michelle Williams makes it seem far more real than most people would care to experience up close.
Wendy Carroll (Williams) does not have many options. While driving with her dog Lucy from Indiana to Alaska, where she plans to find work at a fish cannery, Wendy doesn’t stop at hotels: she finds quiet parking lots and sleeps behind the wheel, hoping no one will tell her to move along. No such luck in Oregon — awakened by a security guard, Wendy soon discovers that her ancient Honda Accord will not start and it will cost money she doesn’t have to get it towed and fixed.
A desperate act in a grocery store (and a run-in with a self-righteous employee) results in Wendy’s arrest, a fine and Lucy’s disappearance. Now facing destitution without her best friend, Wendy spirals into depression as her expenses multiply and her options are subtracted. No one, including family back home, has much means or inclination to help Wendy, and the transition from nomadic worker to homelessness becomes a short fall. Even finding a lost dog costs money.
Wendy is a character with no remarkable characteristics other than being average. She hasn’t fallen on hard times — for Wendy, all times are hard and getting harder. And there might be a way forward, but it will not be a smooth road and any momentum will come with great sacrifice.
Not everything is spelled out, but Williams fills her character with the kind of quiet desperation that tells a life story, one in which all the good breaks went to people with more money, talent, brains, ingenuity, connections or physical beauty. “Wendy and Lucy” does not present us with a pitiful character, but with the worst-case scenario — one that more and more people are facing today.
DVD Review: “Happy-Go-Lucky”
Rating: 80
Whether he is exploring Gilbert and Sullivan’s creation of “The Mikado” or following a World War II-era abortion provider, Mike Leigh packs his films with wonderful improvisational actors. The result is a bracing realism once the improvised dialogue is honed to a loose script, and this is especially true of “Happy-Go-Lucky,” a funny and poignant character study of a woman who always looks on the bright side of life.
Sally Hawkins should have been recognized with an Oscar nomination for Poppy, a grade school teacher with an endless capacity for good vibes. While Poppy seems sealed in a bubble of cheer, the rest of the world is less sunny. When Scott (Eddie Marsan), the bilious counterpoint to her positivity, becomes her driving instructor, Poppy doesn’t quite know what to make of this human wave of anger, but even Scott’s hate storm cannot obscure Poppy’s sunshine.
Leigh’s naturalistic style is well-suited to following Poppy’s good times, whether it’s uproarious evenings at the pub or mornings at school, caring for a troubled student and hitting it off with a school psychologist. Some subplots are just loose ends, but the dramatic centerpiece is the hilarious and unsettling relationship between Poppy and Scott. Hopefully, “Happy-Go-Lucky” will not be the last time Leigh puts Hawkins and Marsan together — their characters’ chemistry is strictly oil and water, but the actors mix it up beautifully.
