Idlers & Vanishing Point

There were fun times on friday. Mags had the great idea to watch some old Bruce Lee. The night obviously led to impromptu wrestling before we went out. The Idlers were great as well. So many happy people and happy music.

Too bad the headliner, BA Johnson, wasn't any good.

I'd heard such good things about him too. I think he was trying to pull off this quirky-lo-fi-humour thing but just came off annoying and stupid.

We took off.

And I finally got to see Vanishing Point and The Great Escape on Saturday. Anyone who's seen Grindhouse (however few of you) will know what I'm talking about. Honestly it really confused and bothered me on first watch but I rewatched some scenes on Sunday morning and it made a lot more sense. There's a lot of the movie that doesn't make any sense if you only catch parts of it. At the beginning he's driving towards a roadblock and turns back before taking off into the desert. He stops there for a minute before heading back towards the roadblock. When you take into account how shitty the driver's life turned out the ending makes more sense, though it still feels really sudden and confusing.

Still, THE CAR CHASES! JEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESUSS! They might be making a sequel with the new incarnation of the Dodge Challenger. I think that the old Challenger name probably hit a high-water mark in the 70s. Trying to remake a cult classic with an inferior model is going to be a hard sell, but if they can pull off a good highway chase that's all I'll need.

Pebbles

Every word I write here is one less that I should be putting into my essays! Three days ago this would have scared me but being near on delirious with the flu for the past few days has left me with an altered view of the world.

Birds are shining, trees are chirping and that telltale lust of Spring hangs in the air like a giant evil kabuki mask from a bad Saturday morning cartoon. Speaking of which, my childhood heroes got sent through the corporate wash, dressed up in fancy new duds and still managed to hold onto some of the magic. I am of course, talking about TMNT, the newest installment in that great adolescent franchise, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Tutles. Pros include badass fight scenes, Raphael being the man, Patrick Stewart as the villain and some reasonably trans-generational jokes courtesy of Mikey. Cons are the ridiculously poorly defined plot, Master Splinter's 'Sonny Chiba meets a twixer of sake' voice acting and how little attention they paid to all the great monsters they designed. Someone must have been crying into their beer at the premier when the huge beast they spent 3 months designing got shunted to a 3 second jump cut.

Still, better then Turtles 3 (why the hell they even referenced that I'll never know) and even #2 now that I think of it. I think I'd watch it again just to see the Raph v. Leo fight.

CSS - Cansei de Ser Sexy

This last week I've been listening to so much Amy Winehouse and Lily Allen and I think that CSS is to blame. Every now and then a group comes along that makes for the perfect segue into a new sound. CSS do that for me with their blend of dance pop and experimental rock. It's just so much fun without coming off as cheap and goofy as you think it should.

I hope this doesn't get me into Peaches. I don't think I could handle the shame.

And as if I was compensating for the dance/electronic phase, I'm back into Glenn Branca lately and his contemporaries, specifically Rhys Chetham. I'm going to give Sonic Youth another shot too. If I can't get into them at this point then I don't think there's any hope for me ever liking them.