Angles in the Outfield

The Strokes – Angles


If we let any more time slip by I might just forget about this entirely. So remember how The Strokes hadn’t released an album since 2006 and everybody was like “What’s the hold up?” I even remember hearing rumors that guitarist Albert Hammond Jr being in rehab among other things. Regardless of what the hold up was we finally have a new album here in 2011, it’s called Angles and it’s okay.

I think it’s safe to say there was a great deal of hype around this album. “Could The Strokes really recapture the brilliance of Is This It? once more?” The band was claiming it was their best album since the previously mentioned classic, though I don’t agree with that. I’m disappointed that The Strokes didn’t go back to the catchy simplicity of Is This It? Though I do think they made up for it with some of their best musicianship yet. The arrangements are unpredictable and the production is sleek as usual.

Whereas I was anticipating something more of the lines of earlier Strokes’ numbers, Angles bares more of a similarity to Julian Casablancas 2009 solo release Phrazes for the Young. Most notably in the controversial “You’re So Right” which has been unfavorably compared to Julian’s solo track “River of Brakelights”. Personally, I enjoyed Julian’s solo album so similarities don’t bother me.

I remember being a little worried after First Impressions of Earth, that The Strokes were losing their creative spark. Sure, there’s some nice cuts on First Impressions but the melodies were definitely lacking and the arrangements just fine, not great. Angles is less of shock but still probably in the same boat. Though a definite highlight is “Under Cover of Darkness” which despite it’s ever-changing nature somehow remains catchy. “Taken For a Fool” is a cut I really enjoy. What a chorus, what energy, and what a spectacular showcase of this band’s ability to play off of each other so marvelously.

Though this album may not be the second coming of Christ, it’s adequate. I feel a little disappointed that The Strokes may never return to the sound of Is This It? but then I think “Well why would they need to?” A good band should learn to evolve and adapt their sound overtime and that’s just what The Strokes have done. Hopefully I don’t eat my words when the next Strokes’ album comes out.

Favorite Tracks: “Taken For a Fool”, “Under Cover of Darkness”, “You’re So Right”

The Real America

Red State


Red State is the latest from the mind of Kevin Smith, yet it’s neither associated with Smith’s View Askewniverse or even the comedy genre for that matter, rather it’s an experimental film… A mad experiment! Though why would Smith feel the need to separate himself from the genre that’s made him so beloved by many? Well as Smith explains it, Red State is his edgy/artsy film school flick. It’s his opportunity to let loose and mess with the editing and visuals, obscure the plot, and all that bold stuff. Sure Red State still has some laughs but for the most part it’s meant to unnerve viewers and judging from the audience’s reactions I think it did.

The premise revolves around three horny teachers looking for love in all the wrong places. After receiving an online invitation for sex by an older woman, the three head down to a shady neck of the woods for some hanky panky, but naturally they get much more then they bargained for. So the three end up being the hostages of the notorious Cooper family, a hate group of extreme Christian fundamentalists led by the maniacal Abin Cooper (Michael Parks). Though word spreads quickly about the fiasco and soon enough the Cooper’s are surrounded by the boys in blue led by Special Agent Joseph Keenan (John Goodman). What follows is 80 something minutes of apocalyptic rants and messy shootouts that results in some very unsettling yet satisfying entertainment.

Red State is unconventional in almost every way a film can be. The editing (by Smith himself) is purposefully choppy, the story structure shifts around and the pacing ranges from lightning quick to slow like molasses. If Smith’s intention was to bombard his viewers with a series of visceral images (and I’m pretty sure it was) he has for the most part succeeded, though it does occasionally lack consistency. Take the beginning for example it’s quick n’ punchy and gets you excited from the get go, but then about 15 minutes in it comes to a complete stop as we hear the first proclamation from the devious Abin Cooper. Now sure Michael Parks is great in this role, but this scene just keeps going and going. It’s from here on that the film is always switching around, like it never establishes a steady flow because Smith wants us to feel unnerved, but there’s a difference between being unnerved and being unattached. It’s hard to get sucked into a movie when it’s always shifting around.

Now I actually went into this movie with low expectations. The reviews had been pretty harsh and definitely worried me. What if I didn’t like it? I mean I was meeting Kevin Smith after the showing what if he asked me what I though of it? Thankfully it wasn’t half bad, I mean it wasn’t perfect (you heard me list off some if it’s shortcomings) but it was entertaining and off-the-wall and beautifully photographed with the RedOne camera. As Smith brought up after the showing, it’s not supposed to mean anything or send some kind of message, it was just an excuse to mess around with visuals and try to entertain and entertained I was. I’m just thankful I live in a blue state.

An Evening with Silent Bob


Here’s my lengthy retelling of the night I met Kevin Smith. It’s probably littered with errors as I didn’t have the energy to proof-read. I don’t expect anyone to read the whole thing so I hope you enjoy skimming it, snoogans!

It’s still difficult to process everything that went down last Monday. Not only did I get to see the latest Kevin Smith film six months ahead of its release date, but I got to meet Silent Bob himself. How did I get into this situation? Well, it starts like this; my cousin Kyle is the Sr. Manager of Artist Relations at Avid (the company that makes editing software) So since Kevin Smith’s latest flick Red State was made with Avid, Kyle went on tour with the film as a representative. Then a month ago I get an email and Kyle tells me the tour is coming to Seattle’s McCaw Hall. Seeing as my brother and I are both filmmakers in our own way, Kyle not only invites us to the show but also with the promise he can get us into a private Q&A. How private? Six people and that’s including my brother and I.

Monday afternoon I head out to Seattle and through a series of taxis, buses, and a pickup from my cousin, I arrive at the prestigious McCaw Hall. There I get my ticket and fancy shmancy backstage pass, a first in my life. I meet the other film students around the same time with two of them hailing from my former Bellevue College and two others from Vancouver Film School, the school that Kevin Smith himself dropped out of after only a few months. I’m curious as to how this group was assembled, I mean I know why I’m there (I’ve got connections) but what about these film hopefuls? Raffles… Wow, the fact that these students are here due to nothing more than chance? It made me feel kind of guilty, especially since Kyle is the one guiding and instructing all the students regarding the night ahead. Paul arrives about a half hour later after accidentally being taken to Renton by a South African cab driver.

The show is delayed by an hour, so Paul and I see this as the perfect opportunity to do what else… Go to Dick’s Drive-In. Kyle comes with and we all chat about this and that while trying to convince Kyle of the greatness of Dicks Drive-In (He lives in Phoenix, Arizona these days). We head back to McCaw a bit before 8 PM where the 100 year old usher guides us to our seats. Seems strange that everyone that works at McCaw is at least over 75. I guess it’s getting harder and harder to retire in this economy. Our seats are far back but the view is still fairly good, not long after the lights dim and Kevin Smith takes the stage.

I was well aware of Kevin Smith’s reputation as a big talker, so I was prepared for a long night. He introduced the film with a simple enough breakdown, that Red State was loosely based on the Fred Phelps family (a real life group of religious nut-jobs) and that it wasn’t a comedy like Clerks but a horror movie like Jersey Girl. I think it’s great that he has such a great sense of humor about both his failures and successes and after a few more dick jokes he presented us Red State!

Rather than going into detail on the specifics of Red State (I’ll do that in an upcoming review) let me skip ahead. So were watching the movie, which is entertaining (despite what some critics have written) when my cousin taps me on the shoulder. As he points behind me I turn to see who else but Kevin Smith on his laptop sitting behind me. I guess he likes to tweet during screenings of his movies, but it just blew my mind that he could submerge himself into the audience like that, awesome?

So about 85 or 88 minutes later (it was a short movie) Kevin Smith took the stage once again. Naturally, I knew what was coming, the crowd Q&A which I’ve heard can last anywhere from a few minutes to hours, this one had to be at least over an hour. I suppose I’d enjoy this more if I’d been a regular attendee, but remember I get to meet him later, so honestly that’s all I can think about. The questions were typical of Smith’s fans; obscure references, questions about Kevin’s podcasts, and of course the couple of d-bags that see this as an opportunity to network. This included a girl with a comic script and a guy who was like “Dude, I have an Epic camera I could help you on your next movie.” The audience were all sighs and shrugs towards these moments and I was no different, but Smith was always gracious and kind.

After what seemed like an eternity of bizarre yet humorous gabbing the show cleared out, though in a way my night had just begun. All the students gathered as we waited for the go ahead from some guy, I think he was Kevin’s road manager or something? We all talked about the movie as we waited and most of us liked it. I was surprised because I went in ready to hate it and no, my mind wasn’t changed because of the circumstances. I mean sure it was disjointed but it had some big laughs and bigger scares. Finally, we get the green light and head to a small room behind the McCaw Hall stage.

The group (chaperoned my cousin and the guy that works for Kevin) takes us into a room where all the students gather around a table and not long after Kevin arrives and takes a seat across from myself…. and what’s the first thing he says? He looks at my X-Files shirt and says “Oh man that’s an awesome shirt.” Awesome, I mean I knew Kevin Smith was an X-fan, I am too, but the fact that he actually mentioned it? That made my day. So we talk about the episode for a few minutes and then launch into the Q&A. Here’s a brief summarization of the questions.

– “How do you feel about critics sites like Rotten Tomatoes?”
: Naturally Kevin hates stuff like that, even though he has a lot of critic friends. He went on to talk about art films saying “If you’ve made an art film and it gets a 75% you’ve fucked up.” I don’t know about that, but it was a lot of fun to hear his opinions.

– “Can you remember anything negative or positive anyone has said about your filmmaking that has stuck with you?”
Wow, a lot talk about his critics thus far, though it was fun to hear him crack wise about the people who hate his work.

– What’s your stance on film school? “Are we just wasting our money on film school when we should be spending it on our own films?”
: That question was mine and I was glad to hear that Kevin doesn’t consider higher education to be a waste of time, even though he’s a film school dropout. Basically, he talked about how lucky he was and that probably wont happen to everyone, so we should hone our craft and get educated for as long as he can. He feels that it’s a great time to learn things and meet people and there shouldn’t be any rush to make a film as soon as you can. He went on to talk about Denny’s and herpes but for the most part the answer I liked to hear.

Next this girl was like “I noticed in the credits that you didn’t have any women on your camera crew?”
: Wow, rude much? Kevin wasn’t sure as he doesn’t do any the hiring on his films so it was then that his manager/friend/guy/associate spoke up and said, “Yeah we did, Mary, she ran focus.” So c’mon, you have this one opportunity to meet Kevin smith and you start calling him out? What’s up with that?

Personally, I feel I hit it off well, some people are so serious. I was just trying to make him smile, think I did alright. Afterwards he signed autographs and took pictures. I got him to sign a copy of his book “Silent Bob Speaks” to which he lovingly signed “Hey John, I fucking love you.” Classic… And the rest is in the books, thanks for reading if you managed to read the whole thing.


“There’s something a little off about this picture of Kevin and Paul.”

C.A.T: The Velvet Underground and Nico

The Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)

How perfect that today’s (or whenever this gets posted) classic album tuesday honors the year 1967, as I’ve recently rediscovered my love for The Velvet Underground. I’m not sure how it happened exactly, but I’m glad it did as my last two weeks have been dominated by this infamously cool classic. As a pinnacle in both beat and psychedelic music, this is an album that takes on many forms, from the velvety softness of “Sunday Morning” to the raw grit of tracks like “Heroin”. It invokes both pain and optimism that’s tied together by the powerful, yet honest songwriting of Lou Reed as he pens songs about drugs, streetwalkers, and some of the notorious superstars of Andy Warhol’s infamous clique of models, actors, and drag queens.

Pop art king Andy Warhol clearly made his mark on this debut serving as the group’s early mentor, manager, producer, and cover artist. The addition of German model/artist Nico was another one of Warhol’s must haves, though it’s been said this pissed the band off. So with all the experimental absurdity that surrounded this album, it’s amazing that it’s as good as it was or still is, it really is brilliant. So much so that it’s difficult to express with words, it merely inhabits it’s own category of art rock ecstasy. How something can be this unusual and yet this cohesive is a testament to the songs, musicianship, and the many bold chances that were taken.

Every member of VU adds a distinct layer to this indescribable sound. John Cale brings a great deal of instrumental diversity tackling; bass, piano, celesta, and that classic droning violin that can be heard on tracks like “The Black Angel’s Death Song”. Sterling Morrison also dons the role of bass player, but more importantly provides the much needed low twang of his guitar. Maureen Tucker provides the backbone with one of the most unusual drum setups I’ve ever heard of including just; tom toms, a snare, and and upturned bass drum, all played with mallets and very sparingly using cymbals. Nico, who clearly isn’t the best singer somehow manages to fit into the equation with her husky accented voice and Lou Reed pulls the strings (I’ve been saying that a lot lately) as any great rockband leader does.

I love all the songs for various reasons but I also love it’s “we do what we want and don’t give a shit attitude.” By which I mean the group’s approach to both playing and recording. For example take the legendary track “Heroin”, it’s just two goddamn chords! There’s no bass and the drums even accidentally drop out at the 5:17 mark. Sure they could of recorded it again, maybe polished it up, but it ruined the raw spontaneity of the song. “European Son” just descends into madness but somehow it just feels right. I mean there’s a little bit for everyone with more accessible tracks like “I’m Waiting for the Man” or “There She Goes Again” but then you have that great weird shit like “Venus in Furs” or other tracks previously mentioned.

It’s still an exciting listen every time I put it on and I wouldn’t be surprised if it continued to inspire future generations of aspiring rockers. I just wish I knew a better way to describe why I liked it, I guess it’s one of those cases where you just listen and you know.

Favorite Tracks: “Femme Fatale”, “Heroin”, “Sunday Morning”

A Source is a Source of Course

Source Code


What would you do if you had less than a minute to live? That’s part of the dilemma that Capt. Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) must face time and time again within the confines of the source code. The second directorial effort from Duncan Jones (Moon), Source Code is a razor sharp sci-fi thriller that boggles the nerves and mind all the way to to a real melon scratcher of a finale. Whereas many rising filmmakers hit that sophomore slump, Duncan Jones has crafted an even more mentally stimulating journey of the mind than his first film and I’m more than pleased to take that ride.

What is the Source Code exactly? In this film the source code represents an opposite reality, in this case a former real life train disaster that was caused by an unknown bomber. Thus in order to understand the events that took place and hopefully discover the identity of the bomber, Capt. Coulter Stevens must enter the source code through the body and mind of one of it’s dead passengers Sean Fentress à la Quantum Leap. So with only 8 minutes (that being the supposed amount of time the brain is still semi-functional after someone dies) Capt. Stevens must try and try again to solve this mystery and hopefully prevent a claimed future bombing.

Naturally with a premise like this and a filmmaker like Duncan Jones you can imagine that there’s many more twists and turns buried within Source Code. Operating like a Hitchcockian Groundhog Day, Source Code unravels in an unconventional yet fully engrossing fashion that never gives you any reason to turn away. Just imagine when in a movie a character has only so many minutes before a bomb goes off, now imagine that over and again, that’s a lot of suspense but still done in a clever way.

I almost forgot to mention it’s a love story too, as Capt. Stevens continually connects with another passenger Christina (Michelle Monaghan) but fortunately it flows naturally within the premise and in no way feels tacked on. Other characters include Vera Farmiga as Goodwin, a military woman guiding Capt. Stevens through his trials and Jeffery Wright as the creator of the source code Dr. Rutledge. Though you can’t forget all the train passengers, all colorful and mysterious in their own ways and all potential suspects.

As much as I’d love to talk about how this all wraps up I’d hate to spoil the end. Really it’s one of those films that’s more about the ride than what it all comes to mean, I mean that’s cool too but it’s not the main reason I enjoyed it. For the most part I think audiences will enjoy Source Code in that it’s a great thriller that also leaves you with a lot to think about. Fortunately it’s nothing endlessly confusing either, which is a big plus considering it heavily deals with time and realities and what not. Hey, with directors like Duncan Jones who knows how many more years of great sci-fi we could expect. Why this could definitely be a sign of good things to come.

Pro Homo

Dragon Age II

The discussion surrounding Dragon Age II has taken a bizarre turn of late. The game features four potential romantic partners, two women and two men. All of them will express varying degrees of interest in your character, regardless of your gender, and you can take those feelings “all the way,” if you know what I mean. Some people are upset about playing as male characters and having other male characters hit on them and wish the game had a “no homo” feature. That is literally one of the saddest and dumbest complaints I’ve ever heard leveled against a game. God forbid gay characters acting gay. For the record I played a female warrior who got with the lovable female elf mage. It was hot. Well, as hot as my PC graphics card could render.

2009’s Dragon Age inspired me to upgrade and get somewhat serious about computer gaming again. Well, the insane Steam sales of that Christmas season helped to, but it was mainly Dragon Age. And that was a worthwhile investment. Bioware’s knack for character development combined brilliantly with the deep tactics only a PC could truly deliver. Dragon Age was one of the most sprawling adventures I’ve ever played, and I gave it a lot of my time.

So I was surprised to hear that the second Dragon Age game would be out early this year, shortly after Bioware stopped delivering DLC for the original game. It felt like the first game was in development forever, how could the followup rise to the bar that was set before it in so little time? Bioware’s answer, as it turns out, was to make a smaller epic.

That’s not necessarily a bad idea, but it didn’t quite work out. You play as Hawke, a human who flees to the Free Marches during the Blight you battled in the first game. Gone are the various origin stories from the first game, Hawke is who s/he is, and you’ve got to deal with it. You end up in the city of Kirkwall, and you will spend almost the entire game there. You’ll make friends, enemies and rise through society over the years. The main conflicts are more personal this time, instead of a war with villainous monsters, you deal with the political struggles between the humans and the qunari and between the templars and the mages. Sadly, it ends just as things are getting really interesting, a rushed finish that clearly sets up a Dragon Age III.

The gameplay of Dragon Age II has been greatly streamlined. The supporting cast no longer wears armor, leaving only equipment slots for weapons and trinkets. Combat is more fun than ever, with warriors and rogues upgraded to almost match the dominance of mages from the first game. A new mechanic, cross class combos, adds a new layer of strategy to fighting. However, enemies often spawn out of nowhere after you defeat a group, throwing a wrench into your long-term strategic plans. This is probably a huge problem on the highest difficulty, but on the one I was playing on, I was having so much fun I didn’t really mind this admittedly gamey aspect of the combat.

It’s clear that Bioware both rushed Dragon Age II out the door and tried to bring the innovation that made Mass Effect 2 so good to this game. The result is fun and kept me engaged for more hours than I’d like to admit. But the adventure is a lot smaller, building up to an exciting climax we never see. With a sequel to such a sprawling adventure, that’s just not acceptable. Dragon Age II is a worthy sequel, but not nearly as worthy as it should have been.