On the (internet) radio.Posted: June 20, 2011
Janet and I were on a local internet radio show (“Oh Brother” on Birmingham Mountain Radio) Thursday night. We performed a song in-studio and talked about the Delicate Cutters CD release party (which is happening Friday night–here’s the Facebook event page).
You can hear an archive of Thursday’s show at OhBrotherRadio.com. Janet’s and my segment starts around the 36:45 mark.
Watched on June 17…
Woody Allen makes it look so easy. Midnight in Paris is the feel-good film of the summer, and I write that without an ounce of cynicism. And Midnight in Paris is cynicism-free as well. It’s quick, light, and funny. And beautifully filmed. Don’t read anything else about it–the movie’s many surprises are a big part of the fun–just go see it as soon as possible.
Watched on June 18…
George Lucas cribbed from the Bible, the Lord of the Rings books, and his own Star Wars movies when he came up with the story for Willow. Which is fine. But somewhere between story conception and actual movie (directed by Ron Howard), the whole thing got too broad for my taste. I did like the weird evil dog monsters, though.
Broadcast News is smartly written and directed. But the acting–of Holly Hunter, William Hurt, and the especially-excellent Albert Brooks–is the real reason you should see this movie.
After seeing Willow, I thought I’d re-watch a little bit of Apollo 13, one of Ron Howard’s good movies, on Netflix. It was even better than I remembered. I stayed up till 2:30 a.m. so I could watch the whole thing.
Watched on June 19…
Stacey was nice enough to get me the Star Trek “Original Motion Picture Collection” on Blu-ray. She’d somehow never seen Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, so we remedied that last night. Stacey wasn’t particularly impressed. But I say Khan is one of the great sci-fi adventure films.
I tell ya, those Criterion Collection guys know how to make nice DVD packaging.
Yes, I want a Marvel hoodie.
Blackmail from Lucasfilm: If you want to see the two good Star Wars movies in 3D, you’ll have to support three awful ones first. (I think I’ll stick with the original cuts of Star Wars and Empire on DVD, thanks.)
Wait a minute… George Lucas will spend a bunch of money to 3D-ize shit like The Phantom Menace, but he won’t spend a little bit of money to make a Blu-ray version of the original cut of Star Wars? What an asshole. (When I say a “little bit” of money, I mean by real-world standards, not insane Hollywood standards. I think you could work from a good-quality release print and get the thing mastered and ready for Blu-ray for less than $5,000.)
ToplessRobot.com published a list of eight awful comic books created for people who don’t like comic books. It’s pretty funny. (via Stacey)