Hodie

I finally saw this last night, and really really liked it.

Best. Villain. Ever.

I think the building of suspense in the second (? the one where the light in the hallway was turned out) motel room was the most masterful I've ever seen.

I love that immediately after telling Moss's wife that "I came from the same place the coin did," that is, from randomness/fate, he gets slammed by randomness/fate. I think that was another nice subversion of our expectations -- the genre tells us the bad guy will get caught by the actions of the good guy, when in fact for all we know, a piano could fall on his head in the next second.

The only place where I was disappointed was with Woody Harrelson's dialogue. He acted beautifully, his character was a joy to watch and a nice crisp clean breath of fresh air in all that darkness, but his dialogue was kind of arch and pretentious. In a film where no matter what weird thing people said, it sounded absolutely genuine, I kinda cringed at the philosophizing of that character. Maybe there was something in the book that would explain it and so make me not frown at it?

I never thought twice about who had the money -- I assumed Chigur knew to look in the air duct, and so he found it when the mexicans didn't. But I agree that it wasn't the point. I just didn't care that much about it by then.

Perhaps having been primed by The Sopranos ( ), I had no problem with the ending, except that it came too soon. I could've gazed at that movie for another three hours at least.

What did y'all think of the show last night?

It beat the New Year's show by a factor of 253 million. Approximately. And I LIKED the New Year's show.

I'm back home and still spent from the show in the very best possible way. Who needs Here We Go when you've got the rockingest Lennon medley of all time?

Many thanks to my concert-going friends, both Chicago-based and otherwise. You all sure do know how to share a good time.

Edit: my face is about to break from my grinning at this youtube:

like yesterday wasn't really a "day" if that makes any sense at all. See you tonight!

Haha, yeah, yesterday did feel a little bit like we were on Pause.

With a day off between Jon Brion's New Year's Eve show and his no-longer-secret secret club show, we decided to go see Atonement today. I normally am a bit put off these days by epic costume dramas, especially if they have Keira Knightley in them, but the book was so magnificent, and the reviews so glowing, that I decided to give it a try. I could not have enjoyed it more.

My favorite compliment for Ian McEwan is that he knows how to create an incident -- you really sink into his scenes and experience them profoundly, whether it's a bunch of skinheads ready to jump you, or a hot air balloon crash, or a broken vase at a fountain. How on earth this movie managed to create that same intense experience off the page, I don't know. I loved the acting, and the soundtrack (the meshing of the typewriter sound with the music was masterful), and the long long unbroken camera takes.

I don't usually re-read books these days -- life's short and there are so many great books to read -- but I'll be re-reading Atonement the minute I get home to grab it off my shelf.

You didn't mention the Jon/John/Pat/Howie (the crowd member/drummer) take on "Sentimental Lady," which I know made at least one person swoon...

Oh, dearest, if that was a shoutout in my direction, thank you ever so kindly. Heehee.

(I suppose there are songs I dislike more than Sentimental Lady, but when it's playing, I can't think of a one of 'em).

zspaul, besides its being great to see you, thanks so much for the soundopinions link. I particularly liked the reality-check folks on p. 6 -- yeah, the singalongs were drunken, and there were lots of fools in the room, and it wasn't Largo, but it was a freakin' fantastic way to bring in the new year. I firmly believe that the best way to sing Auld Lang Syne is accompanied by Jon Brion on multiple keyboards, preceeded by his friendly and enthusiastic exhortation: "Sing, you fuckers!!"

And we fuckers did sing.

From the second row, the annoying fools were mostly just comic relief and fodder for strenuous eye-rolling. To watch a musical genius create a song on the spot that not only used springsteen's typical motifs, but made it funny, and rhyme, and scan perfectly...that's worth the price of admission right there even if you didn't get to stand up and operatically bellow out the few lines of Bohemian Rhapsody that you remember from high school. Which I did.

Honestly, it feel like it's going to be a great year. Starting with last night and continuing with Martyrs. Yeah baby.

The Ramsey Lewis Trio does a version of Here Comes Santa Claus that makes me love a song I normally don't (thanks, Martin), but otherwise I'm all about Christmas Time is Here.

I adore Oscar Peterson's playing and listen to Trio recordings all the time. I once tried to learn Night Train using his transcription. My pathetic skills meant it was hopelessly out of my reach, but it was worth trying anyway.

I don't think it'd fucking kill the band to put the kibosh on one of the 40 or 60 Chicago shows they play every year to pencil in one lousy fucking St. Louis gig.

Uhmm, you know someone was going to call you on this, right?

In 2007, Wilco played Chicago exactly...once.

Even if the dates weren't determined by promoters (which they are), sometimes people love the cities they chose better than the ones they grew up in. I grew up in St. Louis, never in all my life felt at home there, and I DO feel at home in the city I live in now. Not a big deal, and not all that surprising.

The Pre-sale dates say Wed. Jan. 8th. My past experience has always been pre-sale on a Wed., but since the public sale is Thursday is it possible they mean Tues the 8th?

They did fix that, btw: "WILCOWORLD Pre-Sale Wednesday, January 9, 2008. Public On Sale begins Thursday, January 10, 2008"

Awww.

I won't take it at anything too dire, since I'm sure if things weren't still in flux it would've been posted on wilcoworld. But still, awwww.

Well yay to that!

[EDIT: watch hodie and gogo type at the same time! whee!] Brian is a friend of mine -- he's not on VC. I told him about the auction, and he won it. I'm pretty sure when I get a moment to do a search I could find a link to the thread about it.

Thanks for the excellent description of the Basement Shows, gogo, that's just as I remember them I will say that the very first one was quite a bit more free-wheeling, due in part none of us having done it before and having no idea what to expect. It ended up with a ridiculous number of covers and huge singalongs.

"What's the best concert you've ever been to?" is pretty much an impossible question to answer, but the first Basement Show comes to mind more often than any other.

Wow, thats like $670 a person divided evenly. I assume that the VC group didnt win cause there wouldve been alot more posts here. Thats alot of money to pay.

I'm pretty sure all three groups have significant VC presence. In our group (and I imagine the same is true for the others) it's not divided evenly -- everyone gives as much as they can, which means some pay more and some pay less.

It took me 12,420 grains of rice, but I finally attained fifty. I can rest easy again.

The highest level is 50 according to the FAQ on the Free Rice site. It says most people don't get above 48, for those of you who are keeping score for yourselves

Wheee, thanks for that info, I hit 49 last night. And immediately plummeted. But at least I glimpsed glory.

And yes, I did notice the words getting more difficult, even as I saw the occasional repeat.

I'm assuming people found the "Options" tab which saves your vocab level and rice amount even if you close the site?

It took me to 1800 grains, but I finally got myself up to a 47. This is insidiously addictive, huh?

I must admit I'm pretty good at these latinate roots. Even when I don't know the word, I can figure it out. I'm a big fat 45 with 400 grains o' rice.

Kinda fun.

For the first time in a year and a half, I took a bike ride outside today. Some of you know I'm a freak for biking, but because of an injury and the subsequent two surgeries, biking has been impossible. But things are healed just fine, and it was a freakish 70 degrees out there, and so in addition to my amazing friends and wonderful family, today I'm very thankful for orthopaedic surgery, and for whoever thought to invent the bicycle.

I'm #3257, but we're moving up pretty smartly, apparently. My sister and I aren't doing anything in the realm of procreating, so it must be some distant cousins.

Aww, Wendy, it was so fantastic... what joy coming from that stage.

 

 

 

The place went nuclear, Heidi! One of the loudest noises I've ever heard.

That in itself would've been enough to set your hair standing on end.

Whoa, Mart! What a show! And couldn't happen to a nicer concert-goer.

I take it the crowd went somewhat wild with the Prince appearance?

The whole thing sounds like something you'd dream of, assuming you were on REALLY good drugs at the time you were dreaming.

Happy happy birthday, and I'll see you in just 44 days! Wheeeeeee.

To Paul's defense, following the band around the world and taking some time discovering all those foreign places IS getting a life.

Yeah, I gotta say that from the evidence of time I've spent with him, Paul has quite an excellent life.

Glad you got the shout-out, Paul, even though I'm sure it made you cringe.

one of the Lord of rings ones... got so bored after 90 mins or so

I think it had to be the last one, it dragged on and on and on.

I wanted to walk out of Titanic, which I hated completely. But I took a nap instead.

Considering how quickly they explained cancelled shows due to Nels Cline's illness,

Exactly. This is a band that has no problem with sharing information when it can. They have always been upfront with fans before -- if they're not doing it now, there has to be a very good reason. Or at least I'm inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt.

This band has been great to its fans for years. To assume that they've suddenly become cold-hearted bastards overnight is a bizarre leap.