Movies! Music! Books!

Love Song by Rainer Maria Rilke

2009-05-15T14:14:00.002+08:00

How can I keep my soul in me, so thatit doesn't touch your soul? How can I raiseit high enough, past you, to other things?I would like to shelter it, among remotelost objects, in some dark and silent placethat doesn't resonate when your depths resound.Yet everything that touches us, me and you,takes us together like a violin's bow,which draws *one* voice out of two separate strings.Upon what

Spinal Tap Is Back From the Dead

2009-05-15T09:55:00.005+08:00

Some time ago, watching TV, I saw the trio, “Derek Smalls,” “David St. Hubbins,” and “Nigel Tufnel,” who together compose Spinal Tap – not as the rock band in spandex that they are, but as themselves in real life, Harry Shearer, Christopher Guest, and Michael McKean, respectively, looking old and gray in laidback shirts, carrying their acoustic guitars, singing Spinal Tap songs unplugged and

Carnival Song by Tim Buckley

2009-05-12T16:14:00.006+08:00

I have just discovered Tim Buckley and am at a loss for words. I will let the music sink in first, but here's a sampling of his poetry.Carnival SongThe singer cries for people's liesHe will sing for the day to bring him nightThe circus burns in carnival flameAnd for a while you won't know my name at allBut sing and dance and love for pennies and gold The juggling clown smiles to meAnd every frown

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

2009-05-11T15:07:00.002+08:00

On the one hand, it’s hard not to like X-Men Origins: Wolverine. It does feed that conditioned enjoyment and acquired taste of following Superhero tales. Plot loopholes are not that important, when you are following the movie as you have followed the previous movies, the television series, and the comic books. And if so, that means you have invested the narrative with sentiment and nostalgia,

U2’s Cedars of Lebanon, Breathe, Yahweh, & Grace

2009-05-06T16:20:00.004+08:00

In the last post I made some observations about the direction that U2’s No Line on the Horizon took, especially musically, and how it was in a peculiar sense a kind of homecoming.Lyrically, meanwhile, the songs are a continuous exploration of metaphysical – and many times, very basic – questions. In yet another post, comparing “Magnificent” and “Cedars of Lebanon” to Green Day’s “Know Your Enemy,

The Producers of U2’s No Line on the Horizon (Interscope)

2009-05-05T17:34:00.004+08:00

U2’s No Line on the Horizon has been released to critical acclaim, and while it has been earlier reported that this album was supposed to be experimental, relative to the band’s last two studio albums, All That You Can’t Leave Behind and How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, and with the coming on-board of Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno – both experimental producers par excellence – this record did not

Green Day’s Know Your Enemy

2009-05-05T15:05:00.003+08:00

The new single by Green Day, “Know Your Enemy,” pushes all the right buttons of commercial appeal to set the stage for the band’s new album, 21st Century Breakdown, which is slated for release on May 15. The song is a radio-friendly pop-punk track, and the chorus activates the last-song-syndrome, with its easy-title-recall chanting. The point of the song, lyrically speaking, suggests continuity

War Child presents Heroes (Parlophone / Astralwerks)

2009-05-05T09:53:00.001+08:00

I just got a hold of the newest charity album sensation, Heroes, produced by the War Child organization. As their website describes it, “War Child protects children in the world's most dangerous war zones who have no-one else to turn to… by · reintegrating child soldiers with their families · getting children off the