Chronicle

Saw the film Chronicle over the weekend.  Three friends find a mysterious formation in a hole in the ground outside a party, and then all of them shortly afterwards find that they have superpowers.  Chronicle is a fast moving movie with outstanding special effects and great scenes with teenagers discovering what they can do with their superpowers.  One of them, Andrew, has an abusive father and a stressful homelife, and in his hands superpowers aren't necessarily a great thing. 

Recommended for the special effects and the fact that Chronicle is wisely only about an hour and 25 minutes- it doesn't overuse the special effects, and is a very entertaining movie.

Quick Hit- The Good Feeling by Christian McBride Big Band

I don't know a whole lot about big band music, but I found The Good Feeling to be a very pleasant listen, very upbeat, and very much enjoyed the album's vocal tracks.

Be The Void by Dr. Dog

Be The Void is the new release from Dr. Dog, a group with a retro sound.  I had first heard Dr. Dog on NPR and was caught by what I head from their album Fate, specifically a song called "The Old Days", which remains one of my favorite songs.

Catching up with them a few years later on Be The Void finds them in much the same place in my book- I had heartily enjoyed a few songs off Fate, but found the album as a whole pretty dry.  Be The Void suffers from a lack of catchy, interesting songs and no matter what the emotion, on most songs the vocals have a similar tone, and some are downright silly ("Warrior Man").  The standout tracks to me were "Vampire" and "Big Girl", but for some reason I feel like I've heard these two songs before in some form.

Moneyball- The Movie

Pretty fresh off having finished Moneyball, the Michael Lewis book about Billy Beane and the Oakland A's revolutionary thinking, I was curious to see the film and make a comparison.  I find most of the time the book wins in the book-vs-movie debate, and this was no exception.  

I was highly skeptical when I had heard a movie would be based on Moneyball.  Who would really want to watch a movie about a baseball general manager going against the baseball establishment?  Would stats versus scouts really make for must-see watching?  How to make that entertaining?

Moneyball, the film, takes some dramatic license with the content of the book.  Instead of settling on the book's hemming and hawing of the scouts as they figure out that Beane wants to change the thinking of the organization, there's a confrontation.  There's also conflict between Beane and manager Art Howe that wasn't present in the book (at least not as explicitly as in the film).  And, to make the film connect a little more, it adds scenes with his daughter.

Finally, Jonah Hill's character doesn't exist in the book but serves as a sounding board for Beane's character in the film

Moneyball is a watchable film.  It's not great or even very good.  I'm honestly befuddled at the Oscar nominations for the film (Best Picture), best actor (Brad Pitt), and best supporting actor (Jonah Hill), since the film doesn't really achieve any great highs or dramatic lows.

Area 52 by Rodrigo Y Gabriela and C.U.B.A

Flying fingers and furious guitar solos characterize Rodrigo Y Gabriela, the mexican guitar duo.  On Area 52, they team with several other musicians (and featuring drums, piano, organ, and sitar, amongst other instruments) and I'll admit, after several listens, the jury's still out for me.  The fundamental question in my mind prior to listening:  will the talents of R Y G be lost amidst the rest of the musicians?  Area 52 remakes several of the duo's songs to varying results.  Area 52 is never a snooze, but in places it does wander a bit and I kept waiting for Rodrigo Y Gabriela to make a more pronounced mark.  Like many works in which an artist or group remakes their music, I felt more compelled to play the original songs instead.

The King's Speech

Tonight I decided to visit with an old favorite and see if it still held the same appeal  as the first two times I watched it.

The King's Speech became an instant favorite the first time I saw it, and each viewing has reinforced that opinion. It's an Oscar winning film with many Oscar winning performances, but its inspiring message is what hits home more each time.  The Duke of York must find his voice, and through difficult circumstances works to conquer his stammering.  The scenes between The Duke of York (Colin Firth) and his speech therapist Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush. are extremely compelling, especially the chance to see royalty as royalty might not want to be seen (looking silly, swearing, etc.).  As yet it doesn't quite rank up with my favorite film (Rain Man), but it's still a reliably good time.

Excellent take on the Jeremy Lin buzz

Boy, I thought that ESPN and company went overboard on Tim Tebow- I've pretty much stopped listening to ESPN Radio because of all the Jeremy Lin coverage.  That said, it was great to read this from Grantland.com's Charles Pierce:

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7597844/jeremy-lin-perils-flash-stardom-internet-age

Mylo Xyloto by Coldplay

Viva La Vida was easily my favorite Coldplay album- strong storytelling songs, easy melodies, songs that caught my ear and stayed in my head (including the title track, which I never tired of).  I was interested to see the next direction Coldplay would take, and with Mylo Xyloto, they seem to have sought the right beat first and taken the songs from there.  It's a hit-or-miss approach, at least to me.  There are some classic Coldplay sounds on this one- the anthemic "Charlie Brown" is a bouncy, workout-friendly tune, and "Us Against The World" is similar to Dave Matthews Band's "You and Me"- a lovely "we are forever" song.  But Mylo Xyloto is weakened by too much filler and weak songwriting (sure, "Paradise" has a great beat and music, but Para-para-para-dise can only be repeated so many times, and a collaboration with Rihanna called "Princess of China" is incredibly weak).   Overall, Mylo Xyloto features some good songs, but has too many duds to be called a solid album.

Rare Bird Alert, Steve Martin and The Steep Canyon Rangers

Becoming rarer and rarer is the album that I can listen to all the way through.  Maybe it's the way I've listened to music for the last five-plus years (where I've cherry-picked songs on ITunes), but unless I burn a CD or make my own playlist, it just doesn't happen that often anymore. 

Surprised-I-was (as Yoda might say) that an album of bluegrass tunes by Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers is such an album.  There are a few funny tunes (including the good-riddance song "Jubilation Day" and "Atheists Don't Have No Songs"), but this album has a lot of heart as well- the instrumentals are solid, and Rare Bird Alert contains one of the most beautiful, wistful songs I've heard in a while, "You", a lost-love song featuring the Dixie Chicks.

Highly recommended, and how sweet it is to find such an unexpected pleasure.

Contagion

The movie Contagion doesn't make for the best sick-day viewing in the world.

Then again, a perfectly healthy soul would probably not want to leave the house after seeing the virus-disaster movie.  Contagion, much like the virus portrayed in the film, moves extremely fast, and is an entertaining film from start to finish, but doesn't really leave a satisfying feeling at the end.  It is a star-studded film starring Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Laurence Fishburne, and Gwyneth Paltrow, but moves so fast that it seems to not delve into anything for longer than a minute.  The movie begins with scenes that emphasize how easy it would be for such a virus to spread (chefs not washing their hands, bargoers eating from the communal peanut bowl, hands gripping the rails on a bus), and the chain begins.  Jude Law (with bad-looking teeth) plays a seedy blogger determined to discredit the experts (including Laurence Fishburne as a CDC honcho) and profit from the virus.

Recommended for those looking for an action movie that isn't too thought-provoking.

Moneyball by Michael Lewis

Moneyball, Non-Fiction, Michael Lewis

"That's the way it's always been done" wasn't going to cut it for the Oakland Athletics.

Billy Beane didn't want to build his baseball team the old-fashioned way.  The old-fashioned way meant taking the word of his scouts and relied on their judgment, who they thought would make good baseball players.  Heck, Billy Beane, according to scouts, was to be a Hall Of Famer, having the right physical characteristics for a long-lasting MLB career.

What scouts couldn't measure over the long term was his "makeup"- he was made to succeed, had always succeeded, but was not made to fail and couldn't handle the pressure of failed at-bats. 

Moneyball takes a look at Billy Beane's journey from baseball washout to executive, and Lewis provides a very thought-provoking read, as Beane takes the Oakland A's from a good baseball team to a 100-game winning baseball team with unorthodox methods.  Lewis's description of Beane, his assistant Paul DePodesta, and players such as Chad Bradford and Scott Hatteberg make for a very quick and engrossing read, even for non-baseball fans.

Highly recommended.