Lodestar

Bruins traded Kobasew to Minnesota for a 2nd round pick, an unsigned prospect, and an AHLer. Cleared up cap space to bring up Sobotka and Marchand and potentially trade away a Sturm, or Ryder type for Ilya Kovalchuck come the trade deadline. With 9 picks in the first 2 rounds over the next 2 years, we're in good shape.

 

And if Ilya finds himself in black and gold come March...look out!

 

Hopefully this will wake the boys up a bit.

It's gonna take a heckuva lot to pry Kovy from Atlanta, impending UFA or not. If they lose him, that's probably the franchise as well, and you can tell that based on the measures they've taken to satisfy him (signing fellow countrymen, appointing him captain, etc).

For the Thrashers to even listen, I imagine you'll have to add a Colborne/Marchand plus at least one 1st-rounder to Sturm/Ryder.

One such moment stands out, above all the anger and ambiguity and fear and comedy: the moment when Max is at his mom's foot, pulling lightly at her stocking. I can't explain it, so maybe I should just stop. But that moment absolutely killed me. I don't feel 'changed' now, and I don't look differently at my life, I'm just awestruck by the filmmakers' accomplishment.

This, I absolutely 100% agree with. The movie's first 15 or so minutes were tremendous, I thought, and that was a particularly memorable scene. I love the story he tells his mother, the aimlessness and innocence of it, and the look she gives him once he's finished. I thought the kid who played Max did a great job overall, which is obviously a big reflection on Jonze as well.

Yeah, nothing changes at all. Oh - except for the hero's view of the world and his perspective of the human condition.

Wow, really? His view of which world? And how does his perspective change?

In my opinion, there is one tone to this movie -- bleak. He escapes his sad real world to go join a sad fake world, and while he momentarily lifts spirits in the sad fake world, he ultimately leaves everyone feeling as sad as he found them. Everyone in the movie, real and imagined, has the same problems in the end as they do in the beginning, with nothing to suggest that they've found any solutions. I honestly fail to see any way in which Max has been enlightened, except maybe something like you can't run away from your problems (or possibly that you can?). Anyway, I don't mean to say I need a happy ending -- on the contrary, almost all of my favourite art is built on sadness -- but change and character arc are vital to story-telling, and this film had neither.

(IMO.)

I always felt like something really bad was going to happen the whole time, but it never did.

 

I just wanted anything to happen the whole time, and it never did. The uneasiness you speak of was there, sure, but it never translated into anything. Like I said before, nothing changes at any point in the movie, and I don't think that makes for very good story-telling or cinema.

I loved the movie, and so did the kids. The only time they got a little scared was a short part at the very beginning, but other than that they loved it.. There were times I thought they got a little bored, but after the movie they started telling me about all of their favorite parts so I knew they were paying attention.

 

 

 

SPOILER ALERT

 

Nothing happened? Nothing is explained? You must have missed the whole point of the movie.. It's very metaphorical. It's about a kid that is making the transition from a child to an adult and all of the confusion that comes with that.. The whole movie is seen through Max's eyes.. The monster island is a dream world that Max created. It's just like when you dream, you will see little bits and pieces of things that have happened in your day. For example; the snowball fight at the beginning is represented on monster island with the dirt fight.. Seeing the giant dog in the desert, that's Max's dog.. When Max is in the in the "monster pile", it's the same as when he was in the igloo and the kid jumped on it to cave it in. It's a very deep film and I thought it was brilliant.

I'm a big fan of the book as well, but sadly I don't think it translated well into a feature-length movie. At all. And I really fail to see how it's "very metaphorical." All of the examples you give are valid interpretations of the book/film/story, and all are probably correct, but they're also pretty easy to see and don't say a whole lot. I won't object to your calling it "brilliant", since that's an opinion, but "very deep"... eh, I don't know. Other than portraying the frustration/wonder of being a child, there isn't really much going on at all. Nothing that happens with the wild things seems to matter in the end, or even in the present. The final 80 minutes or so felt very stretched thin to me.

I guess the biggest fault I found was that for a 100-minute movie, absolutely nothing appears to change. None of the characters change, neither of the worlds change. Like one poster said, characters are introduced, but I don't think a single one of them is every truly developed.

I should clarify that I wasn't actually disappointed by the movie per se, and I'm trying not to seem too jaded about a movie based on a 10-sentence kids book that relied predominately on the reader's imagination. I had few expectations for what Eggers/Jonze would do with the material, and it doesn't surprise me that they ran out of real estate rather quickly. My only real "hope" for the film was that it would make me feel young again, and while it had some of that in the beginning, I just lost interest when it become clear that nothing in the imagined world was going to affect anything or anyone.

There's a video on YouTube of Rawlings and Welch doing "The Weight" with Old Crow Medicine Show, which I must have watched 10 times in the last two days alone. I'd post a link if I could get on YT right now, but alas... just watch it. Willie Watson, who sings the third verse, has the most affecting voice I have ever heard.

Am I reading that right? Does it suggest that a new Gillian Welch album is in the works?

 

(Finally?)

When I saw them in June, it definitely sounded like a new Gillian album would come shortly after the Rawlings one. They played a new song called "Sweet Tooth" that she said will be on her new record.

Rawlings is my favourite guitarist in the whole wide world. I wish he could accompany everybody.

I don't get the Chabon adulation and it makes me sad.

Which ones have you read? I can think of several people who agree with you, and I wasn't an immediate fan at first, having started with Yiddish Policeman's Union and Kavalier and Clay, both of which I found "impressive" but had trouble connecting with... His earlier novels and short stories, though, are what really made me a believer.

From Billboard (via a fellow VCer):

The Dave Rawlings Machine started "accidentally," according to Gillian Welch's longtime musical partner, as a vehicle to semi-anonymously road test some new material. But with the Nov. 17 release of "A Friend of a Friend," Rawlings will take the spotlight in his own right.

 

"You start out singing other people's songs 'cause you love them, and at some point you start to feel like you'd like to sing some of your own," Rawlings tells Billboard.com. "I think that happens to most people. It's just happening to me much later."

 

Rawlings produced "A Friend of a Friend" himself, recording it earlier this year at RCA Studio B in Nashville. Welch appears on eight of the nine tracks (and co-wrote five of them), while other players include keyboardist Benmont Tench from Tom Petty's Heartbreakers, keyboardist Nathaniel Wilcott of Bright Eyes and members of Old Crow Medicine Show, whose self-titled 2004 debut and 2006 album "Big Iron World" was produced by Rawlings.

 

Among the songs are a version of "To Be Young (Is to Be Sad, Is to Be High)" that Rawlings co-wrote with Ryan Adams' for the latter's "Heartbreaker" album, a Rawlings-Welch composition called "It's Too Easy" that will appear on the latter's album in "a very different version" and a pairing of Bright Eyes' "Method Acting" with Neil Young's "Cortez the Killer" that Rawlings says was inspired during a tour he did with Conor Oberst and company in Mike Mogis' stead a couple of years back.

 

"One of the songs we played every night was 'Method Acting,' which was always a song I responded to," Rawlings recalls. "I found myself sitting on a couch a year later, strumming it...and at some point I realized it went into 'Cortez the Killer,' which was a really important song for me when I was a teenager. I have a really emotional attachment to both of those songs, so it's nice to have versions of them out there. It gives me a reason to sing them."

 

Rawlings says Oberst also suggested the "A Friend of a Friend" title for the project. "I thought it was nice and appropriate," Rawlings notes, "because so many people I've worked with over the years and played music with are represented in one way or another on the record." Rawlings plans to tour to support the album, with Southeast and Midwest dates in late November and December and a West Coast run in 2010. The Machine lineup will feature Welch and three members of Old Crow Medicine Show -- fiddler Ketch Secor, who co-wrote the track "I Hear Them All," guitarist Willie Watson and bassist Morgan Jahnig.

Man oh man. I have been waiting a very long time for this.

But can you explain the Coronas?

Just started Michael Chabon's latest: Manhood for Amateurs: The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son. Good stuff so far.

Ah, I didn't know that was out!

Let us know how it finishes up. I'm a huuuge Chabon fan, even if his stuff has veered away from my tastes over the past decade or so. I read Wonder Boys this summer and loved it, and Mysteries of Pittsburgh may well be my all-time favourite novel.

I'll probably finish Housekeeping today, then on to something else...

I don't see how you can fault any lead singer for how they are on stage. Especially since, in Craig's case, I don't get the feeling that it is anything but genuine. Relax and enjoy the show.

Again, I should reiterate that I'm a very big Hold Steady fan, and I think Craig Finn is one of the best songwriters going today. But watching him... well, he kind of annoyed me. It wasn't a matter of sincerity on his part; I just didn't expect (or want, I guess) him to be such a clown, and it was weird seeing him pander to these aping little frat boys. (Though again, I'm not faulting anyone for having fun... there were a lot of people besides me having fun.)

I was also bummed they didn't play "How a Resurrection Really Feels", which is one of the great songs of the decade IMO.

My least favourite tic is when he sings a line, then steps away from the microphone and shrugs repeatedly while he mouths the line over again...

Also, the entire band was drinking Corona when I saw them. For a bunch of guys from Minnesota who sing predominately about getting fucked up, that was pretty weak.

I saw them in Vancouver about a month ago and was honestly shocked at the number of frat-boy types in the audience. There were about a hundred of these dudes all up at the front of the stage, singing along to every word, hugging each other, high-fiving... I didn't really believe these people existed in Canada, let alone listened to (and clearly worshipped) The Hold Steady. But then thinking about it, what better music is there for teenage and undergrad guys? And like I said, they were all having a blast.

I'm a pretty big Hold Steady fan -- Separation Sunday is where I'd start, personally -- but that was the first time I saw Craig Finn live, and his theatrics did kind of grate on me.

So far it reminds me of what Alice Munro might write if she ever wrote a novel... Enjoying it a lot.

Who said anything about moving on?

This is key. Wallowing is what makes us human.

 

Also, I like when a band announces a show in someone's town/area/within driving distance and they bitch because it isn't the optimal set up for that person.

I feel extremely dirty doing it... but it's just hard not to feel a bit disappointed. Vancouver fans have been waiting a while for this show (they skipped BC entirely on their last Canadian tour), and I don't feel like we'll even be getting a "real" one this time around. The crowd and venue will be nuts, the city will be an absolute shit-show already, and the setlist likely isn't going to reflect what Wilco in an intimate setting is capable of.

But you're right, it's completely selfish to ever feel disappointed about a free Wilco show in your area... and yet I can't help it.

Massey Hall >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> ridiculous Olympics outdoor free show

I really hope it's not another few years before they're back here, and I sincerely hope they play the Orpheum again when they do return.

I'm going as Teen Wolf this year.

Well, I'm not gonna be around anyway, but that kind of sucks. For one, no Victoria -- again. And two, Vancouver is going to be a complete gong show around Olympic time, and combined with the fact that it's a free show probably at some expansive venue... I can't imagine that's what real Wilco fans have been waiting so long for.

No Victoria

Four for me:

October 9, 2004, Massey Hall, Toronto, ON

November 9, 2004, Orpheum Theatre Vancouver, BC

May 28, 2005, Sasquatch! Festival, George, WA

February 2, 2006, Moore Theater, Seattle, WA (Jeff solo -- thanks again, Judy!)

It's been too long!

I've been waiting forever for a Victoria show... Coincidentally, I'll also be out of the country for the first half of 2010, so it'll probably happen.

Anyone notice any albums on there that Pitchfork originally gave not-great review scores? Only one I can think of is The National's Alligator, which got a 7.9 originally, but placed 40th for the decade. Then again, Pitchfork likes to call the band "grower-rock" because it "grew" on them...