DadReaction: The Mummy 3

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When I’m putting things like The Mummy 3 in my top 5, you know it’s been a bad year at the movies.

That said, the photography is just great. There’s a long prologue that takes place in 56 BC or something: it’s just filmed amazingly, knocks your eyes out. All the Asian actors are all really great, you just buy them as part of this epic. Really intense, especially the women, you can’t take your eyes off them. That section is really a highlight.

However, there is one point later on when the movie just stopped. They’re at the Fountain of Youth and all of a sudden they start talking about family stuff and I turned to your mother and said “Did the movie just stop?”

But everything else was enjoyable. Very “Indiana Jones meets Lord of the Rings”. The filming is tremendous, the special effects are out of sight, just wonderful and the credits are great, featuring this really cool Asian art.

Worth seeing, a nice ride.

[Wow, my dad can really sell a not-great movie on the few great things about it, can’t he? 🙂 Honestly, sometimes what I WANT in a movie is mainstream escapism for a few hours. And this certainly sounds like it was better than the new Indiana Jones.]

Japanese Crime Novels

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recommended by Becky (no, not you Becky, my cousin Rebecca Becky):

  • “The Salaryman’s Wife” by Sujata Massey
  • “All She Was Worth” by Miyuki Miyabe
  • “Out” by (Natsuo Kirino? I think)

Books to Think About

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I greatly enjoyed the two Tana French novels (1, 2) I read based on Jessica Lee Jernigan’s sidebar recommendations.

Here are two other comments she has up right now that I want to remember to check out.

What Was Lost by Catherine O’Flynn
JLJ: Spooky, funny, harrowing, heartbreaking. One of the best books I’ve read in awhile.

Prince of Annwn by Evangeline Walton
JLJ: I am almost always horribly, horribly disappointed in fantasy novels. But, so far, I’m enjoying this one.

Fighting the end of summer like a toddler you’re trying to put down for a nap.

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Pick yourself up a copy of Shwayze because this is summer lovin’ music of the best kind.* Windows rolled down, sand between your toes, cruisin’, stereo cranked. Totally ridiculous rhymin’ lyrics (“Light ‘er up, light light light ‘er up, like it’s 1985 and we’re high as fuck”), bouncy bouncy beats. This would also be perfect rollerskating music.
Just so you know.

Reminds me of what is probably my all-time favorite summer* song “More Bounce in California” by Soul Kid #1.

It’s true what they say: sometimes a girl just wants to have fun.

*Or it is TO ME which is all I am concerned with isn’t it.

You say it’s urgent, so urgent. So urgent, just you wait and see, how urgent our love can be. It’s urgent.

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Songs I have listened to this afternoon include:

  • “Dream On” Aerosmith
  • “Janie’s Got a Gun” Aerosmith
  • “Beth” KISS
  • “Tom Sawyer” RUSH
  • “I Want to Know What Love Is” Foreigner
  • “Juke Box Hero” Foreigner
  • “Back in Black” AC/DC
  • “Hell’s Bells” AC/DC
  • “You Shook Me All Night Long” AC/DC

As well as the song in the title. Apparently I am stuck in another decade this afternoon. These are all selections from my “Late Night Cruise on Lake Shore Drive” playlist. You should have one.

You play tricks on my mind. You’re everywhere but you’re so hard to find.

My Awesome Dragon*Con Mixes

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What would you give me for a copy of these? Wanna trade?

FAST:

  1. “I Woke Up Today” Port O’Brien
  2. “My Party” Chester French
  3. “California Girls” The Magnetic Fields
  4. “I’m Amazed” My Morning Jacket
  5. “Baby Doll” The Fratellis
  6. “Lollipop” Lil Wayne
  7. “The Underdog” Spoon
  8. “She’s Not Me” Madonna
  9. “Sea Monuments” Sea Wolf
  10. “Backwards Walk” Frightened Rabbit
  11. “Lost!” Coldplay
  12. “The Guns of Camden Town” The New York Fund
  13. “One Girl Revolution” Saving Jane
  14. “Mrs. Officer” Lil Wayne
  15. “So Haunted” Cut Copy
  16. “Gamma Ray” Beck
  17. “Circles ‘Round the Moon” Nana Grizol
  18. “Too Drunk to Dream” The Magnetic Fields”

SLOW:

  1. “If It’s the Beaches” The Avett Brothers
  2. “The Ground that We Stand On” Hawskley Workman
  3. “Heers” Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin
  4. “U and Me” Trina
  5. “For the Birds” Earlimart
  6. “He Doesn’t Know Why” Fleet Foxes
  7. “Slow Me Down” Joseph Arthur
  8. “Hologram” Katie Herzig
  9. “Alright, Okay” Ryan Auffenberg
  10. “On My Mind” Romantica
  11. “Walls” Beck
  12. “Soldier Boy” Mason Jennings
  13. “Smokin’ from Shootin’ ” My Morning Jacket
  14. “Time for Yourself” Earlimart
  15. “Mother and Child Reunion” (cover) The Morning Benders
  16. “Rat Within the Grain” (b-side) Damien Rice
  17. “New Soul” (cover) Yael Naim
  18. “Home” Meg Hutchinson
  19. “The Last Thing on Your Mind” Lights

I make good mix. It’s true.

À la Nick Hornby, books in/books out for August.

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Bought:

  • The Likeness, by Tana French
  • I Was Told There’d Be Cake, by Sloane Crosley
  • Breaking Dawn, by Stephenie Meyer
  • Darkest Fear, by Harlan Coben

Read:
  • The Likeness, by Tana French
  • Breaking Dawn, by Stephenie Meyer
  • Battlestar Galactica and Philosophy: Knowledge Here Begins Out There, ed. by Jason T. Eberl
  • Unmentionables, by Beth Ann Fennelly (poetry)
  • Break In, by Dick Francis (re-read, many times over)
  • Bolt, by Dick Francis (re-read, many times over)
  • The Hob’s Bargain, by Patricia Briggs

July Album Reviews

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Weird month. Loved a LOT. Liked one album I would have been willing to bet money I wouldn’t like and didn’t like one I would have assumed I’d be more interested in listening to. Weird.

Absolutely Love & Adore:

My Morning Jacket “Evil Urges” – Not just my favorite album in August, but my #1 album of the year so far. It’s sexy and funky and sassy and smooth. Love it! Favorite song is “I’m Amazed” followed by “Librarian” (great lyrics) and “Smokin’ from Shootin” (love the chorus). Only one song I tend to fast forward past and that’s “Remnants”.

Earlimart “Hymn and Her” – So pretty. Really cool boy/girl interactions, harmonies, lyrics. Faves: “For the Birds”, “Time for Yourself” (great rhythm), “Town Where You Belong.”

Cut Copy “In Ghost Colors” – Dance, dance, baby. I read a great quote somewhere (dang, lost the link) describing them as a “non ironic Joy Division.” They also remind me of earli(er) Madonna (“Lights & Music” particularly). Really fun. Favorite songs are “So Haunted”, “Out There on the Ice” and the opener “Feel the Love” to which I always yell “YES!!” when it comes on.

Drive-By Truckers “The Dirty South” – OK, I KNOW, I am only four years late to the party on this one. Bygones! I first listened to Jason Isbell last summer, went to see him this spring, and decided I needed to backtrack and find out what Drive-By Truckers were all about. It was recommended I start here. Yay! Love it. Very much an album of Southern rock storytelling. Gritty tales of (often) misfortune. Favorites are “The Day John Henry Died”, “The Sands of Iwo Jima”, “Puttin’ People on the Moon” and “Puttin’ People on the Moon”.

Beck “Modern Guilt” – Love it. Really great. His albums are all such individuals, it’s hard to compare, but “Sea Change” is probably its closest comparison among his previous albums. That said, I actually find this significantly less melancholy than that one. Faves are “Gamma Ray” and “Walls”.

Nana Grizol “Love It Love It” – I think of these dudes as a slightly happier, slightly poppier, and less “harsh” on the guitars version of Okkervil River. But I am likely the only person on the planet who describes them (or any band) that way. Love the horn arrangements. Love “Circles ‘Round the Moon” (yay!) and “Voice Echo Down The Halls…” Only song I skip is (oddly) the last one. Woot. Lots of fun.

Favorite Singles (not on any of the above albums):

  • “Photograph” Eagle Seagull
  • “On My Mind” Romantica
  • “Wreck” The Bittersweets
  • “Murder in the City” The Avett Brothers
  • “Give Em Hell” Hearts of Palm (love the lyrics)
  • “She Does” Locksley
  • “Black Ghost/Black Girl” Starling Electric (90s feel)
  • Mother & Child Reunion” (cover!) The Morning Benders (LOVELOVELOVE)
  • “Word Up” Willis

Other Albums I Liked:

  • Mason Jennings “In the Ever” – Love “Fighter Girl.” Love “Your New Man”. Also “Soldier Boy”. But find it a bit uneven as a whole. Don’t like “Memphis, Tennessee”. Don’t dig the semi religious/Jenny Lewis-type overtones at times.
  • Ryan Auffenberg “Marigolds” – Been singing along to “Alright, Okay” all summer long. Really love “Undercover”. Also “Deep Water” is nice. Not polished throughout, seems to still be working things out. Has a Ryan Adams/Rhett Miller vibe at times (yes those are two very different people. Work it out.).
  • Coldplay “Viva la Vida” – If the world stops turning, I’ll have to take the blame, as it, you and I should all be in shock that I actually like this album. I’ve told you before [more than once] I’m not a Coldplay fan. You don’t want to get me started on Chris Martin and masking tape on his fingers. But someone sent me this album and damn if I don’t quite enjoy most of it. Hate the song “42” (HATE) but really like “Lost” and even the two radio releases “Viva la Vida” and “Strawberry Swing”. Also like “Yes” but mostly because it doesn’t sound at all like Coldplay, ha ha ha.

Not really for me / but maybe for you!:

The Hold Steady “Stay Positive” – Loved their first album, liked their second, didn’t care for the third. Now this one is OK but I just don’t find myself making much time for it. Have kinda lost my moment with this band. Have seen them live quite a few times. Always a really entertaining show. But generally I find myself less excited than in the past. This album: unusual instrumentation for them, some crazy harpsichord-sounding action. Tends to have more “singing” than they’ve done in the past (particularly “Lord, I’m Discouraged”) / less just Craig Finn ranting. But tunes like “One for the Cutters” just make me ask “how many times in one song can you say ‘townie’?” (Turns out a lot.) However, if you are a big HS fan, I think this is a solid album that’s exploring some new ground.

Shamefully have either not listened to at all, or not all the way through, or so few times that I can’t legitimately offer an opinion:

None! 🙂

Three days (Fri, Sat, Sun) to Freedom.

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Tonight: Great Lake Swimmers. Such a long time coming! Had tickets, but didn’t make it, in 2005 and 2006, had a conflict in 2007. [Have you heard Ongiara? Srlsy. You want to.]

Tomorrow: Hot Doug’s. Oh my. Duck fat fries. I said DUCK FAT FRIES. Oh yes.

Sunday: Secondary browsing location. a.k.a. Suckiness of the Suckiest Suck. But then….

Monday: FREEEEEDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM. For two weeks anyway.

First week: Athens and the Twins and Hotlanta and my Future Husband. Rock. Stars. It’s all going to happen. You’ll wish you were there.

Second week: I move no further from the couch than it takes to get a beer or maybe open a new DVD. Srlsy. NO FURTHER. You will also wish you were there. Buy a ticket to Chicago and you can be. I mean, if I like you enough to crawl all the way to the front door. It could happen. Depends. You might want to check before you buy the ticket. 🙂