Heathers

This weekend, while browsing Youtube, I discovered that someone has posted the movie "Heathers" in 12 parts. I had been wanting to see this movie since I heard about it probably years ago on VH1's "I Love the 80s". Given that it was a Sunday on a three-day weekend, I thought, "Why not?" I loaded the first part of the twelve and started watching.

I was completely enthralled from beginning to end, despite the grainy, 80s film and the bizarre, morbid events that happened every ten minutes. The basic plot of the movie is that there is a girl named Veronica Sawyer and she basically abandoned her other friends to be with the Heathers, the late 80s "Mean Girls" of Westerberg High School. She meets a new guy at school named JD and he's a little... off. Within the first twenty minutes, JD pulls a gun out of his pocket and shoots blanks at two guys giving him a hard time in the cafeteria. But this doesn't faze Veronica (or the Heathers, to be honest). Apparently, pretending to shoot someone with a real gun was sexy in the 80s. Now, they'd just be derranged.

But as events in the movie progress, there are real deaths that are passed off as suicides until Veronica decides she's had enough. She's not getting what she wants out of the deaths of these people, she just feels horribly guilty. But JD can't get enough of these murderous thrills. The movie is intense because it keeps you wondering who's going to die next. It's a murder mystery that isn't really a mystery at all. You know who did it but no one besides the two main characters know. It's like your own little movie-long secret.

The climax of the movie is as intense as it is surprising. All I can say is that this movie would never be made these days. With fake school shootings, teenagers committing mass murder, suicide scandals, raging language and bombings, "Heathers" crosses boundary after boundary until you feel like you are watching something utterly taboo. It's a rollercoaster ride of murder, suspense and twists and turns.

What I really liked about this movie, though, is that despite all the morbidity and copious amounts of death, there was no real gore. Even in the climax of the movie, there is minimal amounts of blood and gross things you would find in movies nowadays. This is probably one of the reasons that a movie as sick and twisted as "Heathers" found a place on my favorites movies of all time.


Here's a trailer. It's a really weird trailer. I'd Google another one if I were you.

August Rush

Yesterday afternoon, I settled down into the basement with my parents to watch a movie. My brothers were out and about, playing with the neighborhood kids and so what do we decide to watch? August Rush, an amazing movie rated PG.

The basic storylines of this movie is that a kid named Evan Taylor who runs away from a boy's home and ends up in New York (it is where the music leads him). He meets a kid named Arthur and a man named Wizard (and other, name-less characters) and discovers he has a huge musical talent. There is also the story of his parents, Lyla and Louis, who meet one night while both escaping a party and they fall in love and make a baby. In the present, while Evan (their son) is in NYC, they are in Chicago and San Francisco, unaware of the whereabouts of the other, being sad and not musical anymore, until Lyla decides she wants to find her son after news from her father and Louis wants to find Lyla after reuniting with people from his old band.

There are many moments in this movie that makes you want to yell and scream at the characters and their circumstances because they are SO CLOSE to the truth and yet so far. But there are many sweet moments, many cute moments and many heart-wrenching moments. If you happen to have a heart, you might want a box of tissues. But, as you can predict from the PG rating, everything is happy at the end. But instead of having a cliche vocal-realization moment or a cheesy epilogue, the film has a very classy finish with an unspoken acknowledgment between Lyla, Louis and Evan.

But because this movie is basically half-a-musical, there are many songs to be had. And they are amazing! Some of things Evan/August does with the guitar is magical and many of the vocal performances are terrific. The cello parts with Lyla are also incredible. I don't know of Freddie Highmore (Evan/August), Keri Russell (Lyla) and Jonathan Rhys Meyers (Louis) actually did their instrumenal or vocal performances, but if so, they are outstanding. (I personally don't doubt Meyers' performance, but I doubt that Freddie Highmore is truly a musical prodigy and that Keri Russell has been a life-long cellist, but it's a vague possiblity.)

Gloomy Sunday

On a mix that one of my friends made me a couple of weeks ago, there was a song called "Gloomy Sunday." Before looking at the artist, I thought that it would be some sort of indie-emo song that would be melancholy and pretty to listen to. Instead, I got a hit song from 1941 by Billie Holiday that is called, when not by name, "The Hungarian Suicide Song."

The song has been produced by countless artists since the 1930s. The Holiday version has a beautiful, sad orchestration behind the simplistic vocals. It flows gently from phrase to phrase but there is a definite sense of sentimentality and sadness in the tones of the instruments and with Holiday's soulful interpretation of the lyrics.

Since the song was released, there have been many urban legends regarding suicide rates. It was rumored that many radio networks banned the song from the airwaves beacuse, when played, suicide rates spiked. More legends can be found at the song's Wikipedia page.

According to Wikipedia, the Holiday version of the song has an additional stanza. Dreaming, I was only dreaming/I wake and I find you asleep/In the deep of my heart here... This gives the song a dreamlike quality and takes away some of the heartbreaking quality of the Hungarian suicide song.

Tilly and the Wall

My friend, Danielle, introduced me to a band about a million years ago called Tilly and the Wall. I didn't really listen to them very much until about... a week or so ago. I'd only heard a fewof their songs ("Bad Education," "Rainbows in the Dark," and "Night of the Living Dead") but looked them up on YouTube to see if they had any music videos or live performance videos. And this is how I found out about the coolest thing about Tilly and the Wall.

Their percussionist is a tap dancer.

Which is only the single most unique thing I've ever heard of or seen from a band. Ever.

I was watching this video and I was like, "Wait a second..." And now I'm totally a slave to Tilly and the Wall. I have found that I have a broken record in my head that can't play anything besides "Bad Education" and "Rainbows in the Dark." Not that I'm complaining.

Tilly is a pretty unique band. The vocals aren't the most masterful. They sound kind of like a mix between Bright Eyes and vairous indie pop bands (which isn't surprising, given that they are signed to Conor Oberst's label, Team Love, and they were in a band with Conor before he went BIG TIME as Bright Eyes). Their lyrics and melodies are catchy and fun to sing along to (if you can figure out the words in time). It's easy to listen to their songs on repeat because they're so fun and loveable.

Their video for "Sing Songs Along" is probably a perfect example of how bright, bubbly and fun Tilly is. They are wearing bright colors, jumping around with a bunch of kids in a gymnastics studio and smiling, smiling, smiling! I think they are, overall, a pretty feel-good band, perfect for this emerging spring and up-and-coming summer.

Super High Me

There is a movie, coming out just in time for 420, called Super High Me. It is being made by High Time's Stoner of the Year, Doug Benson. I have a very strong urge to see this movie. It's a spoof off Super Size Me, in which that guy ate only Fast Food for 30 days. Instead, Benson is smoking pot and being high all day, every day, for 30 days.

Now, despite the illegality of marijuana and the obvious health side effects, I think this movie (or would it be a documentary...?) is going to be a joy to watch. Doug Benson is a pretty funny guy, being a professional comedian and all. I'm wondering, however, how much of the film is going to be humorous filler and pot-talk and how much will be professionals talking and (boring) factoids we have probably learned through our school's drug education program. Given that this is sort of a parody documentary, I am pretty sure that it will be mostly bullshit the whole way through. We'll see, however.

The movie is doing "grassroots screenings" all over the country on 420 but I can't find a REAL release date. You have to be 18 in order to organize a screening and get a (free!) DVD sent to your house. Which is a shame. Because I'd totally love to see it ASAP because I could do with a good laugh - especially this weekend, after the heavy homework load this week has bestowed upon me.

But here is a trailer, as I always post videos. Tell me what you think.

As Tall As Lions

Every once and a while, I like to go to the homepage of Purevolume and look at their featured bands. Normally, I can't really find any bands that I like. But a few days ago (okay, so more like a week ago) I went onto the Purevolume page and found the profile (?) page for As Tall As Lions. I have been listening to this band for days on end, seriously.

I downloaded the free songs from their Purevolume and bought their self-titled CD. I burned all the songs onto one disc of happiness, joy and wonder. Probably half of the songs on the 14-track CD are considered favorites of mine by this particular band. The songs are all different and the same at the same time. They have intensity of emotion lurking behind the layers of instrumentation and vocals. The lyrics are very abstract and storylike and, with the "Ambient / Indie / Rock" influences (thanks, Purevolume!) it makes for an overall enchanting album.

The one thing that has been bothering me through this entire obsession with this band is that the lead singer sounds A LOT like another singer but is obviously a different person. I cannot think of who it is. Sometimes, he sounds a little like the singer of Keane, but then I'm like, "No..." And then he sounds like the singer of the band The Juliana Theory, but that isn't right either. I also considered that he and the singer of Meriwether sounded a lot alike, but I'm not too sure about that either. But listening to songs over and over to try to solve this mystery is only a weak excuse for listening to As Tall As Lions as much as humanly possible.

Some of the songs I highly recommend are:
A Break, A Pause
Ghost of York
Stab City
Song for Luna
The Carousel (which is on their Purevolume profile)


Video for the song "Love, Love, Love (Love, Love)":

City by the Sea

Two days ago, I watched a movie that I've been drooling over and wanting to watch for probably three days. It was fantastic and it was called City by the Sea.

The first reason I decided that I had to watch this movie ASAP was because James Franco is in it. And he's amazing.

Secondly, I watched a video on Youtube video of clips from the movie with James in them and it was awesome. Plus, there are drugs in this movie. So of course I want to watch it.

From the video I saw on Youtube (which you can view here), I thought the movie would have more to do with James Franco's character, Joey, and his addiction. Instead, it turned out to be more a cop-drama movie, which a tiny bit of Hollywood drug culture thrown in here and there. More of the shots with James had to do with him looking emo rather than strung out, even though, occording to how the plot was set up, he was basically involuntarily going cold turkey. I didn't think of this while watching the movie, but have, obviously, now that hindsight is 20/20 and I'm not sucked into the weavings of the plot.

I will say that some parts of the movie were very nicely editted. Such as when you know that Robert De Niro has sex with his neighbor, but, let's face it... he's kind of old and you don't want to see him doing such grotesque things on screen. Sorry, Robert.

But besides this, the film had other merits. It had plenty of antagonists, such as headstrong cops and an angry drug boss guy named Spider. (Probably spelled with a Y instead, to be a little more hardcore than something we smoosh whenever we see one crawling in our bathroom sink.)

The movie definitely deserves, at least, 3.5 stars out of 5. Some of the characters were thin and some parts of the plot seems a little off with the general vibe of the movie and were just a hassle for the viewing audience. But overall, the movie was really good. The acting was fantastic and the premise was enthralling. I would recommend this movie to my friends. Probably.

Trailer:

Music video ramble

I wish I knew what was going on in that whole video (see above). It's a really cool music video - the scenes and imagery and the music parts are all really neat. But the only thing I get from the whole storyline, if you want to call it that, is that people set them up to make people go through a house like dominos but, like... tilting the universe of each room or something. And eliminating floors, walls and parts of ceilings. Huh what? It's an abstract video which makes it cool, but it isn't abstract enough to keep me from trying to guess what's going on. Which just dizzies my insecure little brain.

Then there are other videos, such as this one:


Though I love this song, and the video is pretty to look at, I honestly have no idea what I'm looking at. The only part of the video that makes any real sense is that she sings "hands on me" and people are later caressing seemingly random partners. And that Vanessa Carlton is wearing some kind of weird... weird-outfit. I don't even know. But the people change so fast that I can't get a good look at any of their outfits. I only know that a flash of pale legs equals the knowledge that Vanessa Carlton just graced the presense of my computer screen impaled eyeballs.

And THEN there are the "just plain cool" and "mostly abstract but also kind of making sense" videos. Case in point:


This video has the coolest imagery and continuous-shot thingies that I've ever seen. Like, the background changes and the pose stays the same. The whole video flows together in a really cool way. It kind of makes sense with the whole rest of the song, but mostly fitting the whiny-but-not-because-i'm-cool attitude of the songs as well as the artist and his video. This video NEARLY has a story, but not quite... it's still lacking serious storytelling elements.

However... this fits a storytelling bill (finally! a video that would make my creative writing teacher proud!)


The Hush Sound's new music video for their first single from their new album! I do some serious name dropping in this post! Oh well! This video has a definitely storyline and, even more (!), some actually character behind the members of the band that helps push the plot along. It's easy to follow and the song is great and everyone matches and they leave off like you can have a sequel!

(This post was mostly aimless... but I wanted to post a few videos because I like to and so I figured I'd talk about the videos I was posting. Hooray!)

The Wooden Sky

If there's one reason I like the Internet, it's people. If there are two, it is people and their music.

With websites such as Blogger, LiveJournal, Myspace and Facebook there's plenty of social networking going on. What I like most about this networking is the fact I can go to various LiveJournal communities and browse what people are offering to give me in terms of music. One community, Fanmix, has been quite reliable in giving me good music themed to a particular show, book, movie, whatever. I downloaded a LOST fanmix a few days ago and the girl who had made it had a song on it called "The Wooden Sky" by a band called The Wooden Sky. The song was beautiful and amazing and I can't stop listening to it.

So I looked up the band on Youtube and there were a few live performances recorded from MTV or something. So I listened to them, loved them, put them into mp3 format and dropped them onto my iPod. And the four songs I have by The Wooden Sky are now on repeat all day long.

The music is raw and real and passionate. The songs have familiar key tonality (thanks for the term, Pandora!) and the singer is basically amazing. I am eager to obtain the funds to buy their CD, When Lost at Sea, which came out just this month.

They also have a song called "North Dakota" which is basically Chuck Klosterman's life in a song. And the singer guy looks a little, tiny, eensy-weensy bit like CK. So that's funny.

Now enjoy a song:

Goodbye Blues (The Hush Sound)

From the time the Hush Sound released their first album in late 2005, I've been a fan. I first heard them on the beautiful site that is Purevolume. I was basically obsessed. And then, in the summer of 2006, the Hush Sound released their second album (on 6/6/06). I've loved both their albums but because it's been over a year without any hint of something new, I migrated to other artists (Patrick Wolf... Kate Nash...)

But the other day, I was driving around in the car and thinking, "I wonder what the Hush Sound is up to." So I googled them and they have a new CD coming out. On Tuesday. Two days before my birthday. (Atonement is also coming out on the 18th, as well as Enchanted (I think) so I'm going to need a lot of money this year...)

I've listened to their two "released" tracks from the new album, "Medicine Man" and "Honey" and they are amazing! They've changed their sound a bit, but what's a new album without a trace of reinvention? Greta's vocals are more mature, less lovely and flowy and are instead a little rougher and tougher. I like it, however. I can't find any songs that feature Bob's vocals but I hope they measure up. They usually both exceed expectations so I hope the trend continues.

I am giddy with excitement for this week. A new CD from one of my favorite bands ever, two amazing movies coming out and my birthday. Hooray!

Patrick Wolf

For quite a while, I've known that Patrick Wolf is amazing. I've been absolutely in love with his music for a good deal of time and for many reasons.

Firstly, he's a genius. In his first album Lycanthropy, all the songs were vaired and different. He didn't want to be pigeon-holed or pegged down to a certain style so he kept the listener on their feet, guessing what could possibly come next. He experimented with different sounds and styles and vocals. I loved it. I still do. One of my absoutely favorite songs of all time, "To the Lighthouse" inspiried my novel-in-progress immensely and I'll be forever in his debt (even if he doesn't know it).

Secondly, I can't stop listening! Because he's such a variable arist, I can listen to Patrick Wolf all the day long and never tire of him. His second album, Wind in the Wires, is probably his most song-to-song flowy album but I adore the style of every song on the disc. The Magic Position, his third album, is one of my favorites. He experiments with pseudo-dance pop and different moods and it's magical. I had mp3 copies of all his CDs and then bought them because they were so fantastic.

Thirdly, he can't mess up! I've watched many, many, many videos of him on Youtube that are live or music vidoes and his voice sounds exactly the same. He's flawless in every performance (until he gets drunk and forgets his own lyrics). Though vaguely Bowie-style eccentric, Patrick Wolf keeps faithful to his own music as well as his own sense of style. But musically, he is always perfect. I am amazed by the consistency of his voice. I've never heard any other arist who can sound the same from one performance to another, rain or shine (so to speak).

Here is an example of his vocal prowess:


And here is a live version, to contrast:

PS: He talks for about a minute in the beginning but he's entertaining. Also, he is wearing no shirt. Beware of nudity!

Junky (William S Burroughs)

A few weeks ago, I bought and read the book Junky by William S. Burroughs. The book was very matter-of-fact and a lot was said in one or two pages. The book felt like it was 200 or more pages, but in all actuality was only 128 pages, plus the prologue and a glossary and appendixes (which are not necessary, thus not included in the overall page count).

The book is, if you couldn't tell, about junkies (aka: heroin/opiate addicts). Drug addiction is a fascinating topic. There's something really desperate and raw when people are dependent on a chemical reaction. The book was very real and raw and even though it takes place in the 1940s/1950s, it still holds true to much of the problems with drug addiction and the addicts themselves we see today.

In the novel, Burroughs takes us from New York to New Orleans to Mexico City in his search for more (and better) drugs and in his attempts to escape the law. His story is epic and told through a haze, as much is autobiographical and then embellished where his mind let go of details that were lost in a cloud of drugs. The people and events are not always clear, but the experiences are conveyed with exceptional clarity: his first taste of morphine, picking pockets for junk money, the agony of heroin withdrawal. Though stealing money and shooting up opiates aren't things I can relate to, Burroughs lets us see the underground drug world from his eyes and we can suddenly understand the need and the addiction.

I am very eager to read more of Burroughs' work, such as another drug-centric novel, Naked Lunch. He's also been indirectly compared to Jack Kerouac and so he's another author who's standing on my To Read list (as well as F. Scott Fitzgerald; I really want to read his book The Beautiful and Damned but have heard it isn't that good... ?).

Also related to Junky would be Hunter S Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. If you want a book that is less coherent than Junky but undoubtably entertaining and about drugs nearly 100% of the time, that's the book for you.




Burrough's reading a segment of Junky.

Atonement (Ian McEwan)

I've made a writing journal about Atonement once already, but I am currently rereading the novel and I have to make a new spiel about it. Because it is just that amazing and enchanting and trainwreck-y.

First of all: the novel is fantastic and so is the movie. So go read/watch.

I read the novel for the first time around December 28 (just around the new year... I updated my LiveJournal about it). It was rivetting and I finished it in two days. And I was finishing it before I went to bed but the ending was so unexpected and surprising and heartbreaking that I couldn't go to sleep for another two hours. It was devestating and moving.

I then saw the movie in... January/February (?) with my mom. It was perfect and stunning. The characters came alive in the most magnificent ways and the emotions were stark and believable. I was crying through most of the second half of the film... no joke.

So now, as I reread this masterfully written novel, I find myself reading with a heavy heart. I already know the fates of the characters and McEwan teases with little bits such as:

"If she had, she would not have committed her crime. So much would not have happened, nothing would have happened, and the smoothing hand of time would have made the evening barely memorable: the night the twins ran away."

I already know what happens after Briony leaves the window, looking in at her mother, and instead of going inside joins the search party for the twins. And I know about her misunderstanding and everyone's misconceptions and the depth of the situations of the day. But the characters can't see it. And the most frustrating part of rereading this amazing novel is knowing that they never will. As I reread, I look farther into Lola's reactions to Briony's soothing and her questions by the lake. As I reread, I look for a deeper meaning, to find deceptions and cruelties and true intentions because I know they must be there - somewhere - for me to find.

But the truth is that the book is a printed work of fiction and will never change, no matter how much I search for clues that lessen the heartbreak. As much as I wish things would change - because the characters are captivating and wholly developed and you can understand the workings of each of their minds (except for a select two... *cough*LolaandPaulMarshal*cough*) - I know they can't. The novel is beautifully written but then again devestating to read because it is like watching a train wreck: you know what is coming and are helpless to stop it.

Nevertheless, I am sure that I will read Atonement time and time again... and even backed with the film adaptation's beautiful soundtrack, because it fits the mood of the entire novel seamlessly.

On the Dark Side of the Rainbow

This weekend, I watched The Wizard of Oz backed by the "Dark Side of the Moon" album by Pink Floyd. And it was basically one of the most intense movie-watching experiences I've ever had. It was so amazing.

I started the music right after the third roar of the MGM lion (and again, when the Cowardly Lion roars for the third time, because you can do that). At first, some of the music wasn't exactly together but once Dorothy fell off the fence by the pig pen, everything fell together. When Dorothy was singing "Over the Rainbow," it looked like she was following war planes and bombs with her eyes because of the Pink Floyd soundtrack. The music to Professor Marvel was perfect, all the cyclone bits were astounding and the song "Money" with Munchinland was amazing. The saxophones were the dialogue between Dorothy and Glinda the Good Witch and it was mind-blowing. I couldn't believe how well it all fit!

The second play through of the CD with the second half of the movie was just as amazing as the first part. The bit when they met the Wizard and Dorothy and the gang were all afraid and he told them to get the Broomstick was perfect. I was so shocked how well it all flowed together.

I've heard that Pink Floyd didn't mean to make the album synchronized with Oz, and even that one song on the album was improvised, but I can't honestly believe that. It was way too perfect. I find it impossible to believe that the match-ups were a coincidence --> there are too many to count (though if you google it, people have)!

I would recommend that the curious give it a try. It's really cool. Even if some of the spots don't match up the way you might think they should, it gives the movie a whole new dimension and I can assure you that you'll never listen to "Dark Side of the Moon" the same way again. You'll be seeing scenes from Oz instead!