The Pop Culture Addict’s Blog

 

  

I was reading while listening to my iPod which was on shuffle when suddenly I heard the voices of Anthony Kiedis, Flea, John Frusciante and Chad Smith. I checked to see what was on and it was the commentary for their latest album Stadium Arcadium. I ended up listening to the whole thing (an hour or so) because it was so fascinating and entertaining. I never heard John Frusciante or Chad Smith talk so much. It was a download with the album when I got it from iTunes so I’m assuming it’s just part of the package. Here’s the link to the iTunes version but I don’t see the commentary right now: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=152722084&s=143441.

John Frusciante was talking about how he was listening to Wu Tang Clan’s Disciples of the 36 Chambers while they were making this album. He said he liked how the they made their own rhythms and he started playing guitar with the album. That inspired him somehow. Regarding another song, Anthony talks about how he heard John playing and saying some words he liked. So, Anthony first asked him if he could use the melody from his playing and John said yes which was unusual because Anthony said John likes Anthony to create his own melodies. Then Anthony said to John, what were you saying? And John said, nothing. John said he didn’t want him to use his words so he said he was just saying gibberish. Then Anthony said, did you say, wet sand? And John said, yes and let him use those words. That’s how Wet Sand came about.

There’s another good one…of course I forgot the song but the story is that Chad was playing, and he noted that this one song came his drumming. So Chad was drumming when John walked in and picked up his guitar. John started playing and Anthony and Flea just added to their playing. Anthony said something about how Chad and Flea have an unspoken vibe at times and they agreed. Flea also talks about another song being “the Talking Heads song” because the lyrics and the bass playing are reminiscent of them. Flea says part of it is definitely Tina Weymouth-inspired.

Sorry I don’t know the album well enough yet to match the songs to the commentary. I guess I could’ve tried listening to the music as they spoke of it but really, it wasn’t necessary to enjoy the commentary. It was just interesting to hear them speak about the process of song-writing and having feelings about the songs and album. It was a surprisingly fun listen. It helped that I was travelling and had a few hours to spare. But the whole thing was about an hour and went pretty fast. They talk about their favorite songs and ones that grew on them. Again, I don’t know the album well enough to remember but if I listen to the commentary again, I’ll come back and say more on this. But maybe you already have it and were wondering if you should take the time to listen or not. I would say if you like “behind the music” type info and if you like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, you will be glad you listened.

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So I saw a preview screening of A Prairie Home Companion last night. Garrison Keillor was there to introduce it and to participate in a post-movie discussion. The only thing I know about Garrison Keillor is that certain people think he’s droll but Homer Simpson is not one of them! (See “Marge On The Lam” Simpsons Episode 87, Season 5, 1993 where it opens with Garrison Keillor reading his monologue about “Badger Falls” a spoof of Lake Wobegone.) The audience seemed filled with Garrison Keillor fans. I went because I’m a Robert Altman fan.

The movie was pretty good. I have a newfound appreciation for Garrison Keillor. I had no idea that he sang. I enjoyed all the music. Apparently GK wrote most of the lyrics. Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly were good. They were really believable as these cowboy musicians. Very funny. Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin were good as the focal point of the story playing sisters in a singing act. I like Lindsey Lohan alright and she was fine in this movie. I liked everyone’s singing. The fake ads were…quirky. Virginia Madsen’s character was a little jarring amidst the story and other performances. The inclusion of her character was stage-y. But eventually, I accepted her existence and was able to move on. I understood that the characters were sort of stuck in a time warp but Kevin Kline’s character was written a little too wink-wink. Or maybe it was played that way? He’s a good actor though so I also accepted his existence. I would say the movie gets a B+. It was solid. For those who are interested, there’s full background on the actual show here: About A Prairie Home Companion.

I’m still telling everyone to see The History Boys. I just saw a play that made me appreciate History Boys even more – Howard Brenton’s Sore Throats. The second it started, I wasn’t in the mood for it. I didn’t think I’d make it to the end and planned on making a getaway at the intermission but somehow I got into it enough to stay till the end. Susan Sontag really liked this play and I respect her opinion. I think I see what she liked. The play came out in 1979 and has a feminist tone to it as this British woman gets divorced from her abusive husband and tries to get a new leash on life. This description actually makes it sound potentially interesting which is what people in the audience seemed to think. I found it weird and pretentious.             

I can’t go without reminding everyone that Dave Chappelle’s Block Party will be out on dvd on June 13th! I can’t wait for the extras especially anything by Michel Gondry – I’m hoping for a commentary. Also, seeing Dave Chappelle so free and relaxed on film will be nice. I heard that Comedy Central has been preparing what’s left of Chappelle’s Show Season 3 for airing. I’m glad Dave Chappelle seems able to joke about it now as he indicated on Conan O’Brien this past week. At any rate, I look forward to seeing Block Party again.      

One last thing. The Veronic Mars Season 2 finale was a whopper. I’m a fan of Logan. I think he and Veronica could work although the way Veronica and Duncan were portrayed on the baby episode was very convincing. Anyway, it was cool to hear a Paul Westerberg song: Time Flies Tomorrow from Eventually. Maybe Rob Thomas is a Mats fan. Again, let me recommend tunefind.com for your tv show soundtrack queries. In particular to Veronica Mars, these sites will do it for you:

http://veronicamusic.blogspot.com/

http://www.slaverats.com/

You know, Rob Thomas used to be a high school teacher. That would explain some of his brilliant insight into the minds of teenagers. I think it’s also that he has an innate understanding of the high school experience and is a good writer. I haven’t watched Drive Me Crazy in a while but I’m sure it would still hold up. And it’s especially entertaining in light of Adrien Grenier’s Entourage fame.

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Hey, One Tree Hill fans, I had a sighting of the actor who plays Jake. Last night when I was out and about, I ran into a film crew shooting a scene from The Nanny Diaries starring Scarlett Johansson. I kinda saw her from the side. But when I really took a look, there on the brightly lit stairs by the corner of 92nd St and Madison, sat…first I said, oh, that kid from Prime, um…Bryan Greenberg. Then it occurred to me that he was also the kid with the kid on One Tree Hill. I remember reading something about how he was in a reality show on Bravo (?) about young working actors who are not quite established yet (Unscripted) and then he gets his big break in Prime and how you see him staggering into work after a late night. Anyway, he isn’t listed on the Nanny Diaries cast at imdb.com. But I swear, it was him. EDIT: Oh, snap. I was reading US Weekly and there was a picture of a scene from Nanny Diaries and the male actor in the picture cited as the “love interest” was named as Chris Evans, known to some as Johnny Storm in Fantastic Four, known to me as the lead in Cellular, a movie I found very entertaining. So, I’m assuming the dude I thought was Bryan Greenberg was just Chris Evans all shiny and nice. So, my bad. I passed along a faulty celeb siting.

 

 

 I think I’m a little late on this discovery but I have become a Colin Hay fan. Let me do you the favor, in case you hear this chorus and wonder where it’s from:            

Waiting For My Real Life To Begin – chorus (by Colin Hay Band)

And you say, be still my love
Open up your heart
Let the light shine in
But don’t you understand
I already have a plan
I’m waiting for my real life to begin

I heard it at the end of the second ep of What About Brian which I only recently got around to watching. I am interested in following this new show by JJ Abrams and the Freaks and Geeks guys. It’s just hard to keep up with everything – yes, I admit it. This pop culture addict is finding her usual pace slowing down. Anyway, I thought the voice sounded so familiar so I did a search for the chorus and came up with Colin Hay. This name sounded familiar to me and it turns out he is from Men at Work. Apparently, Bill Lawrence and Zach Braff are fans as they have both used songs of his on the Scrubs soundtrack and the Garden State sountrack. Also, this song Waiting for My Real Life to Begin was first used on Judging Amy and then this song or some other song by him was used on Dawson’s Creek. So the word is out. It’s just that I only just heard. So I went to his official site to see when he might be in town and it turns out I just missed him. He was in NYC last weekend! Plus, he had a one-man show in the Village a few years ago called Man @ Work. So if only I had been struck by his voice when I listened to the Garden State soundtrack a couple of years ago, I might’ve been inspired to see his one man show – if it was still up. Or if I had only watched What About Brian last week, I might’ve found out about his NYC show last weekend in time to go. Oh well. As they say, better luck next time. To be honest, I think the break was warranted. That is, I need to refuel before my next round of pop culture antics. And yes, in case you’re wondering, I do have tickets to that Julia Roberts play, 3 Days of Rain. I’ll let you know what I think. Supposedly she’s more than a little stiff and Bradley Cooper is the best thing about it. No word on Paul Rudd but I expect he’ll be fine.

EDIT: So I watched the rest of the backlogged eps of What About Brian and noticed they used yet another Colin Hay song at the end of ep 3, I think. So again, in case you’re doing a search to find out who sings this song and what it’s called, let me tell you the first verse:

Beautiful World – first verse (Lyrics & Music: Colin Hay)

My my my it’s a beautiful world
I like swimming in the sea
I like to go out beyond the white breakers
Where a man can still be free (or a woman if you are one)
I like swimming in the sea.

They obviously dig Colin Hay at What About Brian. They seem to love the album Going Somewhere. In the most recent ep, they used yet another Colin Hay song Don’t Wait Up from the same album.

Don’t Wait Up – first verse (lyrics & music: Colin Hay)
Don’t wait up, for her tonight
Cause she won’t be coming home
Don’t wake up till it gets light
By then she’ll be long gone

All of these lyrics are available at Colin Hay’s official site. Oh, and I see that this site has all of the songs used in What About Brian so far: tunefind.com.

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Let me quickly review what I’ve been up to and what I’ve been thinking.

 1) Saw Akeelah and the Bee partly because Armond White loved it. For the most part I thought it was sweet, very fairytale-like and feel-good all in a positive way. But I did notice from the get-go that the Asians were vilified. This movie was all about how people are not always what they seem…except Asians, I guess. The girl playing Akeelah was good.

2) Speaking of which, I saw Angela Bassett in the audience when I went to see The History Boys which I loved. She looked great (at 48). Someone asked me if she had her twins or was it through a surrogate. It was through a surrogate in case you were also wondering. She went to Yale Drama School and is a theater actor so I can see why the play was something she wanted to see. Anyway, I loved the portrayals of Posner and Scripps. They were among the strongest performances. All the teachers were good. Two Harry Potter actors were in it - Harry Potter’s uncle and the French headmistress. Loved the way music was integrated. Loved the staging – the use of video. Enjoyed hearing snippets of Just Can’t Get Enough by Depeche Mode in between scenes. I give History Boys a high recommend.   EDIT: I realized I didn’t say anything about the actual play for those who are unfamiliar. It’s set in a high school in Northern England during the mid 1980’s and these boys have finished all of their high school requirements except for their college entrance exam. The play is relatable even if you don’t quite know what A-levels and O-levels are like me. I mean, I sort of know from friends who went through that system. Anyway, the ensemble cast works. The writing is tight. It has been a critical success in England and has already been filmed in movie version with the same cast and same director. So while I will miss the excellent staging of it, I look forward to the film version. 

Edit #2 (5/13/06): I really liked something I heard in this interview I saw on NY1’s On Stage with Roma Torre. She was speaking with Richard Griffiths (Hector) and Samuel Barnett (Posner). She asked them what it was like to be on Broadway with this show after 2 years with it with the same people. Richard Griffiths said that when they were in Australia just before New York, they were performing to an appreciative audience but the place was a wasteland where there was no other theater. He told the boys, wait until New York. This is what we’ve been working towards. You’ll be surrounded by theater, surrounded by actors, surrounded by people who know and appreciate theater on a different level. Then Roma Torre asked Samuel Barnett what it was like to be in New York and he said it was everything Richard Griffiths said it would be and more. He said it was overwhelming and a fantastic experience. I just liked how it put a different perspective on what it’s like from the actor’s point of view and not just from a jaded theater-goer’s view. It made me really happy for them and their success.

     

  

3) Yes, I’ve been on a theater roll. I went to see Awake and Sing by Clifford Odets. He wrote it in 1935 and it’s more or less set in 1935. He’s known for his kitchen sink realism – one of the first playwrights to focus on regular folks in a regular way. It’s about a Jewish family in the Bronx during the Depression, in between wars. I was drawn to it because Mark Ruffalo was in it. He was great. He had all the best lines. As I’ve said, a long time ago, I saw Mark Ruffalo here in NYC on stage in This is Our Youth which I loved. I didn’t even realize that Ben Gazzara was in Awake and Sing. It was cool to see him – this John Cassevetes actor. The girl from Six Feet Under was good too. It was ironic that Odets wrote this play for the people about the people and here we were sitting in not inexpensive seats in 2006. The 1930’s American vernacular was quaint to hear. I don’t know about the play being terrifically written but it was decent. I think the acting was better than the actual play. But I liked the historical element. It debuted in 1935 in the same theater it’s playing in now – the Belasco I think. 

4) Then there was Faith Healer by Brian Friel. It starred Ralph Fiennes, Cherry Jones and Ian McDiarmid. In short, I didn’t really get it and I didn’t really care. But I still greatly enjoyed Ian “I’m the Emperor in Star Wars” McDiarmid’s performance. He had the best written role or something. Ralph Fiennes was amazing in his performance. I just didn’t care for the writing. Sorry Mr. Friel. I’m sure he doesn’t care what I think. Cherry Jones was impressive but I think her part was the weakest. So the acting was great but I wasn’t that into the play. Oh, but I was excited to see Peter Bogdonovich in the audience.

5) I had this nice thing happen where I decided I wouldn’t get tickets to the Tribeca Film Festival this year but felt that I’d be into seeing The Promise for free. And lo and behold, I won tickets to see The Promise at the Tribeca Film Festival. Chen Kaige was there and gave a lengthy, informative introduction. He said it took a year and a half to finish the special effects and he said it was hard for him as it was all new to him. He said he will use far less effects in his next movie. We learned that his wife, Hong Chen, plays the Goddess in the movie. I wouldn’t have known that otherwise. I actually liked the story much more than I thought I would. It was a fairytale from the get-go. Visually, it was great. I heard there have been complaints about everyone’s phonetically spoken Mandarin. But as I don’t know Mandarin, I was spared any aural discomfort in this regard. I felt like the acting was not that strong. They were all good-looking. But there was a lack of depth somewhere somehow. I would give it a B/B- maybe. Anyway, my somewhat middling review matters little. This movie, the biggest budget Chinese movie ever, has already been the biggest box office smash in China ever. I think it will do great in the rest of Asia. In America, I think people will be turned off by the subtitles. Also, the martial arts are less authentic and more special effects generated. So that audience (the more hardcore action, especially martial arts audience) will not be attracted to it. But I definitely scored by being able to sate my curiosity about the movie for free! 

EDIT: I just read Armond White’s rave review of The Promise and had to mention it here. Time Out NY hated it. I’m in between. Armond says:

With The Promise, Chen Kaige joins cinema’s archetypal visionaries from Murnau to Kurosawa, Bertolucci to Boorman. He’s made an action movie rich with adult meaning and paradox—as when the Princess pauses and kisses the General, a kiss that gives orgasmic rest. Chen commits to genre refinement; he shows exactly what you need to see with no excess—but with sudden shifts where dreamlike events take on a realism of supernal clarity. The Promise is a corrective to the HK/Peter Jackson trend where action and speed are abused. Even more, it’s Chen’s pledge to preserve what makes movies great by visually revving-up our subconscious. As Kunlun, the liberated slave, is told: “To achieve real speed you must discover your heart’s desire.”

6) Six? I’ve sort of lost track. I just made it to the Edvard Munch exhibit at MOMA in this final week. If you live in NYC or have been visiting recently, you will be familiar with the hullabaloo surrounding this exhibit. I made two attempts at seeing the exhibit after waiting far too long to get there. The first time, I didn’t allot enough time to stand for 45 minutes in the “Buy Tickets” line. The second time, I already had my ticket and only had to stand in the “Ticket holders” line for 15 minutes. That was painless. I did the audio tour. That was totally worth it (free with museum entrance fee). Was the Munch exhibit worth the trouble? Yes. I’m glad I made all the effort it took to follow through. I liked all of his woodcutting prints. He had a very full artistic life. Munch actually experienced success during his lifetime and seemed happy about it. Well, let’s not overstate it; he had moments of happiness in his life. You can listen to the audio tour on the MOMA website if you are so inclined. 

So those are the highlights. Oh, I wanted to say a few words about Brick. It was pretty good. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a seasoned and strong actor. He held my interest and made me care about what was going on. Next up on my movie list are MI:3, Prairie Home Companion and The Da Vinci Code – because I’m a sucker for blockbuster movies.

 

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