Overheard at the Hotel

This will be a semi-regular column so get used to it. Keep in mind these are real transcripts ripped from the lives of actual people. The names have been changed to protect my innocence.

Guest: I want to talk to your Manager.
Front Desk Manager: I am the Manager and M'am if the world was full of people like you it would be a horrible place.

Wim Wenders: My Golden Rules

Solid stuff from that crazy Kraut who did Paris, Texas. He's got 50 of em', though he should have included 3 more
51 - Always remember: Mel Gibson is overrated.
52 - U2 is overrated too.
53 - Never work with either of them

Still, I can't wait to see Tokyo-Ga on DVD (finally) as part of the Criterion Collection's release of Ozu's Late Spring.

Good Night, And Good Luck

Clooney, you sly bastard. You managed to make a polictal movie about upholding civil liberties while pulling together something worthy of the title: Art Film. You are up there with Linklater and Van Sant now. As you might suspect I don't usually go in for these type of pictures but this is not that type of picture. It not what it seems from the ads and what people have been saying about this, for chrissakes this was shot by the guy who did all the P.T. Anderson movies (Robert Elswit). Clooney may pick a few questionable acting jobs but when he sits down to direct he knows what he's doing.

Destroyer in the New York Times

Rube finally pipes in on Destroyer's Rubies.
Good to see the ol' NYT's hip to Vancouver's greatest songwriter. I've long been a fan of Bejar and his unapproachable genius. Like Mulholland Drive or Donnie Darko we are washed of the clarity that is mediocrity with this boldy ambiguous work of art. I think fatal strategies can say it way better than I can...The Pacific-Northwest's foremost expert on Destroyer

How indie art thou?

This shit is funny. It makes Lubener laugh.

Other Music (Scroll down a few clicks until you see Other Music)

Herb Williams and the Superdogs

Saturday night and I have tomorrow off. This is a great place to be. So many options ahead of me. This will be the first Sunday I’ve had off in recent memory. I am usually stuck working the weekend. It’s usually OK cause when I do get my days off most people are at work. This allows me to write or do creative things without any distractions. What is it that I work on, you ask? Nowadays, I am working on a documentary about Herb Williams and the Superdogs. I will be traveling east soon to do interviews but for now it’s just a lot of administration stuff such as getting the contract for our subjects’ life rights and figuring out what our next move is. Yes, we are in development hell but thankfully we have a contract with the CBC and are still feeling strong about this story. It’s going to be a classic (even if it is a cult classic). I’ll keep you up to date on this as we film and research more.

The Greatest

I've had this album in my computer for about a month. Sorry to say but I'm not very female-centric in my music tastes. I do love Amiee Mann, Lhasa, Neko Case, Julie Doiron and Feist but that is about it. It's just the sub genre of music I have chosen to be obsessed with doesn't have a lot of female artists. I have however been a big fan of Cat Power ever since she came out with You are Free. Since then I went back to her covers album to find an amazing album of reworked classics. On her new album she went to Memphis and with the help of some of the best soul and R and B musicians from the 60's and 70's proceeded to record an album. This is all well documented and you will read about it on the Matador site and in every review. She's notorious for her terrible live shows two of which I've been unfortunate enough to have attended. I think I fell asleep on a table at the crocodile show in Seattle.

On album though, now this is a different story. In this forum she doesn't have to worry about all of us sweaty indie slobs eyeballin' her. That would give me performance anxiety I'm sure.

So lets get to it...

This is the album that all the Neil Young fans of After the Goldrush and Zuma should pay attention to. This is so analogue, so crunchy, munchy, fluid, and just so timeless it just can't be ignored. It's for 16 year olds who haven't yet heard of The Band or Dusty Springfield and for 46 year old who know those by rote. I think it is quite a stunning achievement and this surpasses anything she has done thus far. Her contributions on her last album were great but there were a few duds on that record. Having said that I played that damn You are Free for a good 6 months before I put it on the shelf. I burnt out on that one just like I had on Belle and Sebastian's If You're Feeling Sinister and the entire Pavement Catalog.

The sonic wonder of this album and my current mental state are so congruitous it's almost freaky. When things align in such a way you must write about it so you'll remember that there is still the possiblity for epiphanies in one's usually-dull existence. The songs are so well constructed yet so free of the modern radio sheen that you realize you are getting something accessable but unconventional, a rarity these days. To get to some specifics: the piano playing, the background vocals, non-cheesy horns and all that gorgeous reverb create a world that we seldom hear anymore. To quote Marshall McLuhan: "the medium is the message". Some say this is her Adult Contemporary album. I say to them take another listen cause there's more depth and soul in this little cd than a thousand Norah Jones'.

a dense and exciting universe

To me Cinema is a dense and exciting universe. My favorite Directors are Bergman, Kurosawa, Winterbottom, Sayles, Altman, the two Andersons (Wes and P.T. not that twit who directed Alien VS. Predator) and of course Woody Allen.

I recently re-watched Interiors and Stardust Memories and found the former to be a near perfect study in Bergmanesque angst. I was preparing myself for his latest film, you see and since I hadn't dipped into the Woody Allen boxset in a while I figured I need to get reacquainted before I saw the new one on the big screen.

I went to see match point yesterday. Oh yes, how long has it been since we've seen a serious woody Allen. The last serious picture of his I enjoyed was the sweet and lowdown. It really held up to his classics, this match point. It was just great to hear the Brits getting their mouth around his dialogue. Basically it's a retooling of Crimes and Misdemeanors with all the funny bits chucked out and a heavy heaping of Scarlett Johansson. I really felt the ended worked whereas in so many plots like this the last third just pisses me off.

I've been watching a lot of movies both in the theatre and at home. In November my girlfriend and I bought a widescreen LCD and we've been using the crap outta that thing. Recent discoveries include-
IN THE HOME
Nine Lives
Saraband
Thumbsucker
From the life of the marionettes - Bergman, Germans, psychoanalysis, dead prostitutes, one fine film
Mutual Appreciation- Someone finally gets the independant rock scene right.
Virgin Spring - Essential early Bergman
AT THE MOVIES
The New World - Malick outdoes himself this time around, pure visual poetry
C.R.A.Z.Y. - Best Canadian movie in a long time and this f---er's in French.

I will talk about the music that I'm listening to next time around.

through a blog darkly

Relics from the past that don't want to stay hidden will be revealed on this blog. It will be a forum for me mostly but you can take a peak if you like. I won't tell if you won't.