Monthly Archives: June 2006

Paste Culture Club (1/11/2006): Brandi Carlile

Posted on by

She’s had a couple songs on Grey’s Anatomy: I’ve meant to check her out. Has an odd voice; reminiscent simultaneously of K.D. Lang and Jeff Buckley. Sings to the very edges of her range, just short of breaking into falsetto. Interesting.

Also really loved a song they played earlier on: “Slow New York” by Richard Julian.

Interesting tidbits during the “Arthouse” directors segment (taken from that issue of the magazine): Gus Van Sant is going to be the director on the adaptation of Time Traveler’s Wife. (Not that I’ll be seeing it. Loved the book waaaay too much.)

Enjoyed the Pendarvis interviews Beethoven segment also.

And Nada Surf bookends the show — reminds me, I think I have an album of theirs I’ve never listened to. Probably never even taken the plastic off. Got to get to it!

Leonard Lopate Interviews Ian McDiarmid (6/1)

Posted on by

How weird that I just recently watched Star Wars III where McDiarmid is Senator (and then Emperor) Palatine. This was a really fun interview to listen to. Not only because McDiarmid has a great Scottish accent, but also because he seems very fun loving. Still completely excited by acting, and his co-actors. Not jaded by the industry.

KCRW’s Bookworm: Kurt Vonnegut (4/6).

Posted on by

Great interview. So sad to think Vonnegut doesn’t have that much time left; his mind is still just as sharp and vibrant as ever. Talks a lot about the American public school system. Definitely makes you remember how proudly subversive he’s been for so many years and the amazing life he’s lived — a former soldier. Highly recommend giving this a listen.

Frightening, really.

Posted on by

So there was this moment yesterday when I couldn’t remember whether Susannah Hoffs had been in The Bangles or in Bananarama.
And I thought “MY GOD, senility has finally set in, and I’m only 38. I have to live through (presumably) 50 more years of this crap…”

Actually I am still thinking that.

So Susannah Hoffs and Matthew Sweet (who technically I don’t like even one tiny bit*) did an entire album of goofy duet covers. It’s a little saccharine sweet to take in all in one blow — I wouldn’t say “go buy the album” — but I bought three or four songs off it and they’re all super boppy and poppy and bubbly and sweet. The perfect summer tunes for cruising around in a convertible with sand on your toes and maybe a slushy Big Gulp or frozen coke in your non-steering-wheel hand.

Susannah Hoffs has such an ’80s pop voice. It just takes me back; it’s as if there is no other kind of song she could even sing. (Even tho some of these songs go further back. I think you can understand what I mean. And if not, well…)

*I saw him open for Sheryl Crow once. He was awful. That was back when Sheryl Crow wasn’t quite so fucking annoying but she was amazingly thin. Thin like her entire body was the width of my forearm. And she kept swinging her guitar around to her back and letting it hang there and you kept wondering why her neck wasn’t breaking under the weight of it. Skinny like Nicole Richie skinny. Oh, how I dream of it… (of me being that skinny, not of stupid Sheryl Crow that skinny. Hellooooo, not my type!)

Cable: Prime.

Posted on by

I had actually heard enough good things about this that I was convinced I would like it. Eh – not really. The boy has been on One Tree Hill (as Jake) so I’m a fan of his, but this movie never really showed Uma’s and his characters to have more than just a sexual connection and some of it was just downright dumb. Shocking that it didn’t really have a “Hollywood ending” though. It was Ok but I thought it had the potential to be a lot better, probably starting with a better script to begin with.

Cable: Star Wars III Revenge of Sith.

Posted on by

George Lucas can’t write dialogue to save his life and there’s some horrifically stiff acting in these flicks (by otherwise talented actors even), but I enjoyed the last 1/2 hour or so where they actually made connections to the ’70s flicks, which is really the only reason for anyone my age to watch this garbage.

And Ewan McGregor, what’s up with the wack stiff accent? Eh?

Natalie Portman is so pretty, and (other than the pretty) this role is so unrepresentative of her talents (hello Garden State and Closer are damn fine performances, you Natalie haters).

KCRW’s Bookworm: Jorie Graham.

Posted on by

Maybe not the best choice for the El ride home: the soothing dulcet sounds of Michael Silverblatt and poet Jorie Graham, combined with the rhythm of the train…I could barely keep my eyes open!
That said, Graham did have a lot of interesting things to say about living in the NOW. About finding a way to get through it: life, the poem, etc. Not waiting for things to change, for it to be the perfect situation…
Either she said stuff about that or I dreamed it, who can say.

Wait, Wait…May 14th edition.

Posted on by

Tom Hanks was the celebrity guest and he was really hilarious (and I’m not even that big a Hanks’ fan!). They spent a bit more time on the introductory interview with him than they normally do, involving lots of sass about some of his less ‘intellectual’, shall we say, movies. Really funny. The bits about Marlon Brando were also pretty hilarious.

Also loved the drunk monkeys segment. Monkeys! Drinking! Toooooo funny. I think the female commentator was Paula Poundstone. “From the number of monkeys I’ve reached out to…” She was a riot.

Stephen Colbert at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

Posted on by

Was interested to see you could get this on iTunes as an “audible book” although frankly it’s a podcast.

Thought the first half was hilarious. Second half was hard to listen to b/c apparently he was showing a video he had made (which obviously I could not SEE) and it was harder to follow what was happening.

Really stuck it to Bush and Cheney. Good on ya, SC.

Movies I’ve Never Seen, or Wish I Hadn’t.

Posted on by

Movies I haven’t seen because of the pain and the agony.

  • Schindler’s List
  • Boys Don’t Cry
  • The Shawshank Redemption

Movies I haven’t seen because of the stupidity.
  • Dumb ‘n’ Dumber
  • Ace Carey
  • There’s Something About Mary
  • Shallow Hal
  • Meet the Fockers

Movies I WISH I had never seen because of the pain and the agony.

Movie I walked out of because of the stupidity.