Best Easter Wishes: 1908 | Shorpy
Continuing the old photo theme…
I used to be darker. Then I got lighter. Then I got dark again.
Archies Hall of Fame: Achewood
2 chickens break up rabbit fight! (via cptsponko32)
Archies time!
Much new music today as indie rock superstars Bright Eyes and …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead released new discs (two in Bright Eyes case). I found the Trail of Dead on Rhapsody (a streaming music service I subscribe to) this morning, and then I went ahead and burnt nearly my entire iTunes gift card on the two Bright Eyes. This was my first purchase through the iTunes store, and while the buying process was very slick, how come I can’t get files at a higher quality than 128 AAC? And I’m sorry, but 99 cents per song (or $9.99 per album) is just a little too much to pay. I just looked and I could have gotten the Bright Eyes discs from Barnes & Noble.com today for $8.38 each and the Trail of Dead for $11.18, complete with case and booklet and higher quality files. Rhapsody lets you burn tracks for 79 cents each, which seems more reasonable, but they have a funky interface that requires that you burn tracks to a CD, *and* I’ve also heard that the new iPod software doesn’t let you play tracks downloaded from Rhapsody. The digital music revolution has been fun, but why is it taking so long to fix problems like these? Oh well, maybe this is the answer. Get here please, future, thanks.
I could never be a music critic—it usually takes me at least 5 or 6 close listens to really judge how much I like a particular album, and these days the car is pretty much the only place I can listen to things at full volume. And even when I feel like I “get” an album, I have no idea whether it will stick—whether I’ll be pulling it out in the months and years to come. I could probably make a pretty good 2002 music top ten list now, but I tried to make one for 2004 last week and utterly failed.
That said, I really enjoyed my new music today. My brain still thinks Trail of Dead are posers, and their lyrics are bad. But dammit, they rock out, and they come up with some mighty memorable tunes. The new disc probably isn’t as good as the punishing Source Tags and Codes, and fans of ToD’s “harder” output will probably be disappointed, but the airy arrangements, prog rock feel and operatic sweep simply make me giddy. It’s a risky album, but it’s progress, I think.
I don’t have as much of a handle yet on the Bright Eyes discs, although the acoustic one is clearly the most accessible music Oberst has ever made, and the “electronic” one isn’t really all that electronic—just straight ahead indie guitar rock for the most part. Lifted is one of those albums that “stuck” for me—I wasn’t too impressed at first, but I kept coming back—so I’d be really surprised if these discs can surpass it, but I’m looking forward to finding out.
And, because we’re fair and balanced here at f.s.m.c., here are two high-profile trashings of the above albums.
And this looks fun, though it will take a few months to become really interesting.
And while I’m linking, please I need this.
Second on the Skandies roundup, this was the first kids movie I actually attended with a kid since I myself was a kid. Believe me this feels much less creepy than sitting there by yourself in the middle of packs of kids and their beleagured parents. Even if your kid is really way too young to actually watch the movie. I have not seen the SpongeBob TV show, though I’m very curious about it due to the almost unanimous praise heaped on it by critics reviewing this movie. I certainly would have enjoyed the movie more if it were 10 minutes long like the TV episodes. Instead, we get the old standby: Our misfit heroes embark on a quest, things look bad, the day is saved, lessons are learned, the learning of lessons is ridiculed. It’s quite funny, though, with an appealingly obnoxious childishness, and it deserves a passing grade just for dispensing with most of the sub-Robin Williams pop-cultural riffing of something like Shrek. And I agree with Greg: the voice of Plankton would be funny reading the phone book. Demerits for featuring [kitschy TV star], who isn’t even up to a [kitschy TV star] cameo.
THE SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS MOVIE runs 1:28, and is rated PG. It contains several animated sponge and starfish butts, lots of underwear, and live-action inflatable male breasts. It would be fine for older children, or children too young to really understand.
My daughter Dulcie, age 17 months, seemed to like the movie, though she often seemed more interested in running up and down the aisles. I would estimate from her responses that she would give the movie a 57. Her favorite part seemed to be the live-action “cyclops” sequence–she waved and said “bye!” to the cyclops as he carried SpongeBob and the Starfish off. I say 64.
