Author Archives: Duff

Big Screen: Come Early Morning.

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Written & directed by Joey Lauren Adams, “Amy” of “Chasing Amy”. Starring Ashley Judd, who was really wonderful here.

It’s a small film. A “coming into one’s own” film (rather than “coming of age”). A film about, really, just one moment / one turning point. Realizing that you have to make your own choices. That you can’t rely on old crutches, or blame other people and the past they’ve saddled you with for the decisions you’re making today.

A small, quiet movie. But moving. Well directed, well acted. Well worth the admission.

Well worth the drive to Highland Park, somewhere neither of us had ever been, to go to this last night as it was only playing at 4:10 in the city. Somehow we made it before the previews were even over despite getting lost in suburbia.

In Concert: Peter Mulvey and Chris Smither.

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Went to see a couple of goofball male folk singers with Amanda the other night. Both have really deep husky voices Both are extremely talented guitar players. Both poked fun both in song and in banter at the current administration. Very enjoyable!

Amanda has a big crush on Mulvey and I have to say the man did have a very chiseled jaw bone and a very subtle sleepy sexiness. Like old Clooney before he got the ego to match.

Smither’s song “Origin of Species” had some of the best lyrics I’ve ever heard:
God said “I’ll make some DNA, they’ll use it any way they want
From paramecium right up to man
They’ll have sex, and mix up sections of their code; they’ll have mutations
The whole thing works like clockwork over time
I’ll just sit back in the shade while everyone gets laid
That’s what I call intelligent design…

Rachael, I think you’d like both of these guys.

Big Screen: Casino Royale.

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People are calling this the best Bond film in years. Yeah, because it’s not really what we have come to know as the Bond film, it just happens to have him as a character in it.

Ways in Which This Film Resembles a Bond Film

  • His name is Bond, James Bond.
  • Judi Dench is his boss.
  • He works for MI6.
  • Sleeps with more than one girl.

Ways in Which This Film Does NOT Resemble a Bond Film

  • He’s blonde not dark, short not tall, and has actual muscles instead of the lanky Moore/Dalton/Brosnan shape. (Craig is bulked up like a male gymnast in this movie. Quite the contrast from his Munich and LayerCake silhouettes).
  • He takes cabs!
  • He fights with his hands a lot (limited gun usage)!
  • He gets the crap beat out of him several times and is very bloody and battered and completely messed up.
  • Subtle dialogue. No cheeseball stupid lines like “I thought Christmas only came once a year” but instead nice play-by-play (Her: “I’m the money” Him: “Worth every penny.” Moneypenny. Get it?)
  • Only one scene with anything very “gadgety” (and it was medical.) Otherwise straight fists / guns / regular cars / nothing fancy.
  • No Q.
  • Falls in love, bares his soul.
  • Drinks some crazy fruity drink he makes up with 1/2 teaspoon of a billion different things.

Ways in Which This Film May or May Not Resemble Bond, I Cannot Remember
A really sadistic sadomasochistic beating scene that I can only imagine made all the men in the audience cringe with sympathy pain.

It was pretty good. Not a GREAT FLICK by any means, but very enjoyable. Daniel Craig is pretty yummy, even bloody and battered. (As some of us like to say, “I’d tap that.”)

Currently Recommended Reading.

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Towing Jehovah, by James Morrow. Sci fi with a religious focus (but you don’t have to BE religious to understand the references/jokes/etc.).

Sharp Objects, by Gillian Flynn. A murder mystery and psychological thriller-type novel, but very much literature rather than “just genre fiction” as some would pejoratively say (probably including me).

I’ve got to get Jess Walter’s latest onto my reading pile.

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Even if not for all the fabulous reviews it (The Zero) is getting, for the fact that he posted this hilarious quote on the Powell’s guest author blog:

To me, golf is like karaoke: the only thing more pathetic than being bad at it is being good at it.

That paragraph also started with this hilarity: I once broke my collarbone in a golf tournament. Technically, I suppose, the injury was more of a gin-drinking accident than a golf accident, but it still says a lot about my relationship to the game that it’s my fondest golf memory.

In Concert: Barenaked Ladies Are Me…lodious Melody Makers.

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Thought maybe seeing BNL for the fourth time would be repetitious. No such thing! It was brilliant, lots of fun, they seem to get better every time around. Ed was really rocking out on the guitar tonight and the sound was great despite being in a huge arena with half of it blocked off/empty. They sang some of my old faves (Brian Wilson, Call & Answer, The Old Apartment) as well as lots of new stuff, some of which I liked so much better live than on the album mixes. Great concert.

Mike Doughty, on the other hand, as their opener seemed very lost. Don’t know if it was the space or the night or the crowd or what, but he made very odd song choices, did some weird band jamming, and had the most awkward stage banter I’ve ever heard from him. Third time seeing him; previously in smaller venues and as the headliner, he has been awesome. This time not so much. I kept turning to Rachel and saying “How bizarre. What’s with him tonight?”

Side notes to self:
a) there is no heat in the Allstate Arena. do not go there in the winter.
b) hellooooooo what are you doing buying tickets to Allstate when you have no car? it’s basically going to see a concert at O’Hare except the train stop isn’t RIGHT AT IT and the whole bus/train/bus commute is neither fast nor fun particularly on the way home.

Album: Damien Jurado “And Now That I’m in Your Shadow”

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Very much in the Damien Rice/James Blunt/etc. arena. But all slow, all sad, all depressing.

The album gets to be a bit of a drag if you listen to it all in one go. In the same way that other albums (say, Kaiser Chiefs) can be a little too “one note” on the upside, this album is a little too much on the downside. Whereas say Damien Rice or James Blunt do have some songs that are at least at different tempos, if not in slightly better moods.

That said, I loveloveloveLOVE the first two songs: “Hoquiam” and “Denton, TX”. I have listened to the two of them back to back approximately 57 times in the past two days. Sad, so sad. But so pretty!

Album: My Chemical Romance “The Black Parade”

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Sometimes things don’t live up to the hype. But sometimes they do, and in this case, even better than.

Everyone’s talking about Queen and glam-rock, but there are so many other influences obvious here as well. 90s anthem rock (Boston/REO), with a dose of punk thrown in, and several songs that bring Smashing Pumpkins to mind. It’s loud and sassy and upbeat and fun. And the hidden track has a real Morrissey/Smiths feel to it.

Balme, you will love this. And Michelle, I think you would as well.

Big Screen: The Prestige.

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Revenge. Twisted competition. And in the end, through two different revelations, you are brought face to face with the almost unbelievable level of horror humans can stoop to when caught in the throes of such. Crazy ending to wrap your mind around.

Chilling.

(Christian Bale was really great, despite his weirdly all the exact same size, all the way across the top teeth.)