Link of the Month: Dinosaur Dracula
Back around the turn of the century, before feed readers were much of anything, in those heady, first-ten-years-of-the-world-wide-web drunkenness, one of my all-time favorite websites was X-Entertainment, by Matt. In fact, it was X-E that inspired me to start thisischris.com. Well, after more than 12 years Matt has decided to call it quits on X-E… and start a new website called Dinosaur Dracula. It launched late last night! It promises to be a leaner, more agile sequel of sorts to X-E, full of hilarious pop culture articles. I am very excited.
Album of the Month: Marian Call: Something Fierce
Marian Call is my favorite geeky & jazzy vocalist. This is a major release, a two-disc, 19-song album that explores an enjoyably large scope of music. Her songs range from fun and slightly silly (“The Avocado Song”) to beautifully wistful (the epic “Anchorage”). Her performance is bright and lively, really capturing the spirit of her live performances, and her voice as always has a lovely burr to it that I just find absolutely charming. Her lyrics are smart and self-aware, and the production is polished and professional. Just listen to “Good Morning Moon” and try not to get it stuck in your head. This is an irresistible album.
Movie of the Month: Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
This is my second-favorite M:I movie (after DePalma’s brilliantly stylish original), directed by heretofore animation director Brad Bird. Coming from animation gives Bird’s action sequences a wonderful sense of space; you always know where everything is in relation to everything else (unless it’s important that you don’t), and action through-lines are clear and exciting. Each action sequence tells a story; it’s not just a bunch of quick cuts and crazy camera moves to generate artificial excitement. M:I-GP was my very first Vidreoview! You can go read it now.
A bunch of my favorite musicians and bands are having a bunch of shows in the area this Spring, so I’ve compiled a list here. There are a lot more shows than this happening, of course, but these here are the ones that I’m either going to attend or would like to attend:
I would love it if all of you could join us for some/all of these shows. Even the ones that I don’t end up going to myself. Can you join someone if they’re not doing the activity? Does that count as joining? THESE ARE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS SHUT UP.
Here’s an adorable live-show-footage video from one of my favorite geeky jazz vocalists (don’t say that combination of words a lot), Marian Call, with some special “guests” to back her up:
Marian has done shows with the bigwigs of geeky music, like Molly Lewis, the Doubleclicks, and she was even involved in w00tstock (but not the one that I went to, unfortunately) and just got back from JoCoCruiseCrazy, the geekiest music cruise of them ALL.
Marian is going to be in Seattle towards the end of this month playing with Kirby Krackle on Friday, March 30th at Seattle’s Hard Rock Cafe.
She’s then going to be hitting a bunch of locations all up and down the Puget Sound sometime in the middle of April. Carrie & I are planning to see her when she swings through Tacoma. You should join us!
Tacoma, WA // Tues. 04.17.12: Mandolin Cafe
The lovely Mandolin Cafe welcomes Marian back for an intimate evening show. 6-8pm, free, all ages, $10 recommended artist donation.
Mandolin Cafe, 3923 South 12th Street, Tacoma, WA.
I decided it was about damned time that I made myself a new mix CD. For your convenience, I’ve included (when I can) links to where you can get these songs for yourself, should you so desire!
Link of the Month: Sleep Talkin’ Man
A sweet, mild-mannered British man falls asleep and lives a strikingly different life than his waking one. He’s suddenly arrogant, boastful, mean, and terrifically vulgar—and hilarious as all get-out. How do we know? Because he talks in his sleep. Loudly and frequently. And thankfully for us, his wife records it all for our (and their) amusement! Listen to the recordings and/or read the transcripts; there’s some absolute gems coming out of Sleep Talkin’ Man’s dreams, like: “My badger’s gonna unleash hell on your ass. Badgertastic!”
Album of the Month: Marian Call: Got to Fly
A good, old-fashioned geek folk album. Most all of the songs on the album were “inspired” by Joss Whedon’s Firefly and the modern Battlestar Galactica, but they’re inspired in a good way; Marian Call takes specific characters and themes from these shows and spins them out into universal metaphors that (almost) never explicitly reference their sources. Her hauntingly beautiful ballad for River Tam, “Dark Dark Eyes,” is a longing song about wanting to protect someone you love from any more suffering. She never actually says the song is about River Tam, so that even if you don’t know who that character is the song still stands on its own. And if you do know Firefly, then the song has another layer of resonance. Here, click this arrow and listen for yourself: Good stuff.
DVD of the Month: Whip It
A very fun movie that I’m very glad to be able to watch whenever I want. It’ll probably be pretty frequently. You can read my full review to see what all I thought of it.
Dinosaur Dracula
Marian Call: Something Fierce
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
– Palmdale
– Anya Marina
– JP Inc.
– Daft Punk
– Bonobo & Andreya Triana
– JP Inc.
– Mtume
– Palmdale
– Bitter:Sweet
– She & Him
– JP Inc.
– Cocorosie
– White Town
– M.I.A.
– Pomplamoose
Sleep Talkin’ Man
Marian Call: Got to Fly
Whip It
