Do We Ever Know?

My goodness, I thought
When I first started running this year
The trees were bare
My son was this fragile little newborn thing


He's now smiling, squawking and sometimes giggling
We're headed towards September
School buses swarming, football players getting warmed up
And I'd like to pause it a minute


Sometimes I wonder
Do we ever know
We're in the best time of our lives?


Do we get so caught up in tomorrow
That we forget who's around us today?
Do we spend all our time running around and forget to play?


It's not an original thought that time never stops
We all know it, we've all pondered
Yet the special days, they get away and
We just have memories and pictures


Before we make those holiday plans
Figuring out who is going where
Before the trees again go bare
Let's appreciate the fading summer air

Album of the Week

I have a subscription to a music service, but I found I haven't been good about listening to new music. This week, I decided to listen to eight albums that I hadn't heard before in hopes of hearing something fresh and adding to my collection.  I enjoyed the experience so much that I'll probably do it again in the future, and each time I'll choose the album of the week.

Album of The Week:

Edge of The Sun, by Calexico

There wasn't a track on this album that I would skip, as each song creates a mood, and on Edge of the Sun Calexico accent their sound with strings and excellent harmonies featuring guest vocalists. Different styles abound here, so I never felt that Edge of The Sun was in any way tedious or repetitive.

Best tracks:

"Moon Never Rises"

"Tapping On The Line"

"World Undone"

 Other albums listened to, in order of preference:

Hudson by Jack DeJohnette, Larry Grenadier, John Medeski, and  John Scofield

Different styles of jazz, most of which I enjoyed. I don't really care for stuff that isn't too structured,  and a couple of songs got on my nerves.

Best tracks:

"El Swing"

"Lay Lady Lay"

Sour Bridges by Sour Bridges

Sour Bridges played in the Milwaukee area recently, and although I didn't go, I thought I'd check out their latest. Lively bluegrass, and some songs made me laugh.

Best tracks:

"Meet You There"

"Carry On"

                                                           
First Comes The Night by Chris Isaak

Sarah checked The Baja Sessions, an older Isaak release, and that has a very relaxed sound. I wanted to see what Isaak's most recent release sounded like, and he's a guy who can vary his style from track to track. 

Best tracks:

"Please Don't Call"

"First Comes the Night"

 Windy City by Alison Krauss

I hadn't listened to anything of Krauss's except Raising Sand, which was an album she did with Robert Plant. I highly recommend Raising Sand, but this one wasn't my cup of tea.  She does a great version of "Gentle On My Mind", a classic song by the late Glen Campbell.

You Don't Own Me Anymore by The Secret Sisters

I had seen The Secret Sisters open for Brandi Carlile once, and this album was produced by Carlile and her bandmates Tim and Phil Hanseroth.  The harmonies are great, but overall I thought You Don't Own Me Anymore was kind of monotonous.

Best tracks:

"You Don't Own Me Anymore"

"He's Fine"

                                                           
                                                           

Middle Western by Horseshoes and Hand Grenades

Sarah and I had seen H & HG live, and they put on a very lively show, but I discovered where my preference lies with bluegrass, and it's more along the lines of Sour Bridges. Middle Western was a little too twangy and manic for me.

Best tracks:

"Forest For The Trees"

"Make One Today"

And then we get to Eternally Even by Jim James.  I do run hot and cold on My Morning Jacket, James's band.  I think some of their songs are fantastic, and others test my patience.  My patience was stretched beyond its limits with Eternally Even, which has an instrumental lasting six-plus minutes and doesn't really go anywhere.  The other songs are kind of murky, and there wasn't a song I wanted to hear again on the album.

99 Homes

In 99 Homes, Dennis Nash (played by Andrew Garfield) is evicted from his home. Desperate to move back in to this home with his mother Lynn (played by Laura Dern) and son, he decides to work for the realtor working for the bank that seized it. This realtor (played by Michael Shannon) entices him with the ability to make quick money, but his operation proves not to be above board. Dennis suddenly is able to make the money to at least move his family back into his home, but he's not able to tell his mother and son what he does, and he sometimes has a hard time looking himself in the eye.

 

99 Homes is a very tension-filled film from beginning to end. The film opens with a gut-wrenching sequence in which Dennis and family are evicted and given a short time to collect some of their belongings while the rest are thrown out on the front lawn, and eventually Dennis is in Rick Carver's shoes, responsible for getting people out of their homes so that those homes can be sold. 

I'd recommend the film for the performances of Shannon and Garfield. Michael Shannon almost always is worth the price of admission, and here he plays a captivating villain. Garfield's face shows the constant struggle that his character is undergoing. His heart's in a good place, but his head's telling him something isn't quite right.

One quibble I had with the film was that it was a bit on the repetitive side once Dennis starts working for Rick. Another was that I thought Lynn would have pieced things together a little bit faster than she did.  Overall, though, 99 Homes is a tense two hours with some great performances.  In my movie standings for 2017 (link below) I'm placing it just below Split, a film that to me was even more intense.
 
2017 Movie Standings: https://letterboxd.com/mfrets78/list/matts-movie-standings-2017/