A Futile Attempt at Catch-up

Did you see Lost last night? Man, I love this show. So many great little details that combine to form the big picture. There may have been some low-points during season 2, but last nights finale made up for it. Enough clues, hints, and details were revealed last night to keep me theorizing all summer long…

Maybe by then I will have forgotten how crappy the Da Vinci Code movie was. But probably not because it was REALLY bad. And not bad in a “poor adaptation of a book” or “watered down Hollywood blockbuster” way but bad in a, “it makes me depressed about the state of American Cinema” way. I can’t even delve into the films inadequacies, I’ve tried for two days to write a blog-post about it and keep giving up in frustration.

I read the book just before seeing the fim, and thought it was OK. A perfect book for a plane-flight or a day at the beach, or a lazy Sunday. I’m note really sure why it became such a huge phenomenon, but Brown’s style is certainly very approachable even though the subject matter tries to be very cerebral. The Da Vinci Code, like lost, is all about the details and the connections made between seemingly disparate elements. And this is the great shortcoming of the film (well that and the horribly stilted and bland direction,) as most of the interesting details and “oh cool!” connections were stripped out leaving only a shaky framework of exposition.

MI:III was a far better summer blockbuster, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I guess that makes me a JJ Abrams fanboy. Regardless there are some fantastic action set-pieces in the film, and the script is smart and takes some risks that really pay-off.

Musically there have been a steady-stream of releases from the long awaited 4th Tool album to the Ditty Bops’ Sophomore record. Tool was… Interesting. I’m not sure how to take the album, which is both more structurally straightforward and ideologically less approachable than their last album. For an iconic band know for their dishonesty and penchant for jokes, gags, and ruses it is difficult to take the album seriously, and it feels very much like Maynard’s attempt at creating a Swan Song record.

The aforementioned Ditty Bops’ disk is, as expected, and though I was familier with most of the songs on the disc from their live-shows I’d like to give it a few more spins before I write about it. The Raconteurs’ “Broken Boy Soldiers” is a tasty summer-treat that features a few stand-out awesome songs. Hearing Jack White color out-side the self-imposed musical lines of the White Stripes is a blast, and this album is going to get a lot of play from me before I forget about it in the fall. Neko Case’s “Fox Confessor Brings the Flood” is alt-country at it whiskey-soaked finest, and I highly recommend it to anyone that needs a little more twang in their musical diet. It really deserves more than a one-line write-up from me, but maybe Julie will pick up the slack on this one and write a record review…

More to come…