Hi all, I have this bonus song that Owl recorded a little while ago and I think it’s great and you need to hear it! As B said right below, we’re doing an early version of this mix tape for our wedding; feel free to make suggestions or do something yourself!

Additionally, I really am someday going to get a wrap-up post for 2008 (I know, we’re almost half-way through already) and I am still going to print some covers for this. I mean, I have them already and it’s just a matter of settling on a design and breaking the gocco out and pressing them. In any case!

Enjoy!

No One (Alicia Keys) - Alison Smith

(The title is [sic], i.e. an intentional malapropism.)

We are soliciting submissions for a mid-season Infinite Regress Collective Mix Tape, dedicated to Tsal and Owl on the occasion of their wedding. There is a possibility that we’ll be pressing the songs onto vinyl, but we’re only allowed 36 minutes total, so the sooner you submit, the more likely your song will appear on the vinyl. We’ll collect all of the songs and release them as .mp3’s as well, so submit as much as you want.

Some “rules”. Unlike the year-end IRCMT’s, you have your choice to cover whatever song you want. In fact, if you want, submit your own song. It doesn’t matter. The deadline to get on the vinyl is July 15, since I’ll need to gather the songs and send them off to the pressing company. They require something like a month to do the testing and pressing and such, which is why the hard deadline. You can certainly submit songs all the way up to August 29, if you want. Really, just do whatever. I’m cool with that. Preferred format is .mp3, but really I can deal with anything. In fact, you can even send me a Garageband file, and I will gladly mix it down for you. Finally, if you plan on submitting a song, and if it is a cover, and if you want it to possibly go on the vinyl, you have to tell me what song it is sooner rather than later. There are some licensing issues we have to deal with if we want to use other people’s songs, particularly if these songs were released on major labels. I suspect that any songs released on independent labels are fine, covered over Collective Commons or something like that (or perhaps because they don’t have money for litigation - that kind of thing).

Let me know what you’re planning on doing in the comments or by email: “pedenb”, gmail account.

- B

Hey so check it out: I’ve been really busy with work and other things(!) but I’m still alive. I’m hoping to get back to some sort of regular schedule and I’ve got a few movies to write down, but who am I kidding, things are pretty crazy right now. See in 2010, maybe?

68 Planet B-Boy | 12.06.08
69 Love Actually | 12.08
70 Yes Man | 12.20.08
71 Elf | 12.20.08
72 Elf | 12.25.08
73 Frost/Nixon | 12.16.08
74 Slumdog Millionaire | 12.27.08
75 Baby Mama | 12.30.08

Knowing full well I would never reach 100 films 9 or 10 months into the year, I cut down the goal to 75, and I just barely made it. At a certain point, I thought I was basically just watching anything that I could possibly get my hands on, and it started to feel like a waste of time, but in actuality, I feel pretty good about watching crap. I mean, how do you recognize crap if you haven’t seen it a million times? It will also make me think twice about writing scenes where you use a dead body to protect yourself from dying. I’m thinking of Bourne, here, not just Bad Boys 2.

The month of December usually comes with standard holiday films, though this year there really were only two films, one of which is less “traditional” and one that has become a classic.

This is also the time where Oscar Buzz drives the viewing, and I have to say that I enjoyed Frost/Nixon more than Slumdog Millionaire. In fact, I would give F/N a re-watch before Slumdog. The only reason I can give you is because I thought Slumdog was overrated and a bit kitschy in the way it all played out. It definitely has trademark Boyle despair and does a decent enough job of pulling you through, but I thought that it was uneven, even for all the talk of the positivity in it. And it cannot be said enough that I am an avid fan of subtlety in a film, and this was certainly not about that.

I could go on defending the fact that I was not enthralled by it, but that would be too much defense, as it wasn’t as if I didn’t like it at all. But you don’t believe that, do you?

In any case, to prove that I love subtlety in film, I watched Baby Mama as my last film of the year.

That concludes my list. I’m going to try to do a monthly as we go along this year. Have a good weekend!

59 Rachel Getting Married | 11.7.08
60 Mission: Impossible | 11.8.08
61 Bad Boys 2 | 11.8.08
62 Ashes of Time Redux | 11.11.08
63 Happy Go Lucky | 11.14.08
64 Recount | 11.15.08
65 JCVD | 11.22.08
66 Casino Royale | 11.29.08
67 Four Christmases | 11.30.08

Bad Boys 2 was probably the most ridiculous, gratuitous action film that I’ve ever gotten Owl to watch. I felt a little dumber having watched it as well but it was so action-packed! I think Jonas told me about the part where they throw dead bodies out of a truck in order to slow down pursuers, and I was appalled and then I saw it and was really appalled because maybe I thought he was making that up.

It’s pretty safe to say that I’m a Daniel Craig fan. More so, than, say a Tom Cruise fan, although someone did tell me that Cruise did all that rock climbing at the beginning of Mission: Impossible himself, out on a rock in the middle of nowhere. Believable, yes, insurable? Probably not.

I’ve never been much of a Mike Leigh fan, mostly because his earlier films are wrought with sadness. Happy Go Lucky had some, too, but somehow it wasn’t the same type of despair that made Life is Sweet so hard to watch. Or, maybe I’ve just become a wimp at watching movies that ask something from their audience. I like Happy Go Lucky pretty well, all in all.

We saw JCVD in a tiny littler theater in the East Village, the same place we saw Ghost Town. They some good popcorn over there, and it’s usually pretty empty on Friday nights, which is odd for a movie theater on a Friday night. JCVD was good, surprisingly so, even though I’d read several reviews saying that it was very well-done for a washed up action star (I’d like to see Seagal do something like this… but not really) and it brought back some memories of Double Impact. Awesome film.

54 CJ7 | 10.01.08
55 Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist | 10.03.08
56 The Year My Parents Went on Vacation | 10.17.08
57 Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead | 10.17.08
58 W. | 10.20.08

I came home one night and to my surprise Owl had rented CJ7. It’s directed by Stephen Chow, the same guy that did Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle, but it’s totally wacky in a different way than those other two. Not that much Kung Fu in it at all, but there is some whacked-out alien being in it. I dunno, man, it was just odd though. I’d watch Shaolin again in a second, but CJ7 was just too weird for me, maybe because I kept looking at it through the lens of “kid’s movie”, which just makes it seem weirder.

The rest of these movies I couldn’t tell you a damn thing about, because they were all that unmemorable. I mean, I suppose I have to laugh at Michael Cera’s line about being in a tiny car again, which is pretty good, but I have no recollection of The Year My Parents Went on Vacation whatsoever, even though I’m positive I was awake and attentive the whole time. I’ve seen Rosecrantz & Guildenstern a few times and actually could tell you quite a bit about it, but none of it would make any sense. We’d just seen Hamlet performed in September out at Fort Tryon park, which was a very enjoyable experience, and this just fit right in, even though I think I watched it starting at 1 in the morning and stayed up through the whole thing. W. was, um, forgettable. Am I sensing a common theme here?

46 Big Trouble in Little China | 9.1.08
47 The Bank Job | 9.5.08
48 Nobody Knows | 9.10.08
49 Out of Africa | 9.12.08
50 Man on Wire | 9.13.08
51 Ghost Town | 9.19.08
52 The Corporation | 9.20.08
53 Battle in Seattle | 9.31.08

There are only a handful of films that I can attest to having watched several hundred times as I was growing up. Big Trouble in China is one of them. Others: Ghostbusters, Real Genius, The Last Dragon. They all have earned their cult-classic status forever in my book, and watching BTILC in the theater reminded me that good films such as these are under-appreciated and are of a bygone era. I miss movies like this, and no re-make will ever do it justice. That said, I’d love to see a re-make.

Jonas mentioned that he saw both Man On Wire and Ghost Town just recently, and I we had a brief discussion about Ghost Town, which he, rightly so, was rather dismissive of it. Light and airy. I thought it was funny though, and it reminded me of late-80’s/early-90’s romantic comedy. I can’t put my finger on as to why, but it just did. We couldn’t disagree more about Man On Wire though, which I thought was grossly overrated and frankly, just boring. I fell asleep in the theater, and I never do that. Additionally, I thought the guy was a raging asshole and an egomaniac disguised as a clown. I’m not going to deny that his feat was a amazing, but the person simply just was not.

And as if you didn’t know, Battle in Seattle was pretty dumb. Also: Nobody Knows was incredibly depressing, The Corporation, really, really long.

36 WALL-E | 8.1.08
37 Step Brothers | 8.7.08
38 In Bruges | 8.8.08
39 Hellboy 2: The Golden Army | 8.9.08
40 Pineapple Express | 8.9.08
41 Wanted | 8.18.08
42 Tropic Thunder | 8.24.08
43 Traitor | 8.29.08
44 Constantine | 8.31.08
45 Hamlet 2 | 8.31.08

August was a good month for movies. I think these posts are really less an exercise in reviewing films and more an exercise in recalling what kind of month I had. This one included a couple of days where I was in NYC and Owl was in Seattle, which was how I managed to catch In Bruges, Hellboy 2 and the Pineapple Express in a matter of 3 days. In Bruges was good, but it was surprising to me that it was nominated for an Oscar in writing—I didn’t find it all that well-written, at least not to the point of recognition for an award. That said, I didn’t find any of the writing in the Oscars this year all that exciting.

Pineapple Express reminded me that yes, indeed, you can still find the things you found funny when you were 16 funny when you are almost 30. The only other film in the whole list that I’d really recommend seeing is Hellboy 2, if you’re into that kind of thing (of course, WALL-E, but we talked about that last post). The rest of these comedies are throw-aways, including Tropic Thunder, which I thought was poor and sophomoric attempt at meta-film. That and I think Jack Black has last all his charm, and Ben Stiller has indeed, never had any. Throw Will Ferrell into the mix and you have a good case of the same-old, same-old.

31 Get Smart | 7.08
32 WALL-E | 7.10.08
33 Full Battle Rattle | 7.11.08
34 The Wackness | 7.18.08
35 Hancock | 7.19.08

I didn’t think I’d hate Hancock as much as I do. I thought it was totally un-inspired and the writing and twist were dumb. I know a lot of people are probably waiting for an anti-superhero film to come out, but Will Smith certainly isn’t the dude to pull that off. In fact, after seeing Hugh Jackman on the Oscars the other night, I don’t think he’s the guy to do it either.

We saw The Wackness at BAM and it made me feel old to see it with all those other people that saw it and laughed knowingly at the BBD jokes and white-boy rap posturing. I think Ben Kingsley was a little over-the-top as the pot-smoking shrink, but he still managed to wring some emotion out of the role.

Full Battle Rattle was at Film Forum and we saw the director and a producer, I think, talk about it afterwards. It was an interesting one and was one of those comedies that makes you a little angry that you’re laughing at it. Steve Carrell made Get Smart funnier than FBR. WALL-E was better than all these movies, and I’m not just saying that because I love cartoons. So good, in fact, that we see it again next month.

That’s it for the week, hope you’re enjoying these. We’re more than half-way through, so we’ll have another full week next week! Have a good weekend. Hopefully we’ll get some more movies to catch up on this week. I have a few other list things that have to do with new year’s resolutions, so those are coming down the pike soon, too.

30 You Don’t Mess with the Zohan | 6.14.08

Ah, back to a slow June. I don’t know what we were doing in June that made us only see one movie, but it probably had something to do with the weather not being too hot so spending time in a movie theater didn’t sound great. Not to say that spending time in a movie theater sounded better because of the Zohan, but I’m also a fan of comedian comedies of Adam Sandler. Also, I saw Smigel and Apatow connected and thought what every other fool thought: It might be good. Secret: It’s not.

23 Breathless | 5.3.08
24 National Treasure | 5.9.08
25 Son of Rambow | 5.9.08
26 Young @ Heart | 5.17.08
27 Raider of the Lost Ark | 5.24.08
28 Indiana Jones+the Temple of Doom | 5.24.08
29 Transformers | 5.31.08

Back in form now, with 7 movies over the month of May. We saw Breathless over at Film Forum and it was the first time Owl had seen it. I don’t know what she thought of it, but it’s still probably one of my top 5 films of all time, which is saying a lot, because I take my lists seriously. It has the right amount of film cred, but isn’t too obscure and you can easily write someone off if they don’t “get” it. Naw, but seriously, I really like the charm and lightness of what really is kind of a tragedy. I don’t really care about that many people in the film, but there’s just something about it.

This was probably the umpteenth time I saw National Treasure. I freaking love that piece of trash. Haven’t seen the second one, but I hear it’s just as much a waste of time as the first. Rambow we saw in the theaters and was a little weird at the end; uneven, really, which is a shame because I really wanted to like it. Young @ Heart I really liked, but old people just make me cry like a little girl all the time, so I probably never want to see it again.

We tried to watch all the Indiana Jones movies because the new one was coming out, but Owl kept falling asleep and I kept thinking that it was weird to see faces melt on a PG movie. We never did see the new one because people said it was so awful. That didn’t stop me from watching Transformers, nor will it stop me from watching the second one this summer.

21 Horton Hears a Who | 4.5.08
22 Alien vs. Predator: Requiem | 4.13.08

This is weird, only two movies in the whole month. Must’ve been a slow month. I do remember seeing HHAW in Cobble Hill with Josh, and it was a nice little distraction that was totally wacky and unexpected. I still think that I am indeed actually a Jim Carrey fan, and this movie (Yes Man) are proof.

Also, AvP: Requiem was absolutely horrible and was a strange and disappointing turn for the franchise. I just don’t understand it, but I guess I also don’t understand torture-porn like the Saw series.

15 The Bourne Ultimatum | 3.2.08
16 Air Force One | 3.8.08
17 Ocean’s 13 | 3.8.08
18 Paranoid Park | 3.17.08
19 Hairspray | 3.22.08
20 The Band’s Visit | 3.28.08

So, I’m back with these. I’m going to try and run through these fairly quickly so I can get caught up and current with the movies I’m seeing this year. Not much to be said about a lot of these films, except that The Band’s Visit was surprising and sweet, though felt just like a desert, but not as hot. It just felt warm, if you catch my drift.

I remember seeing (and posting about) seeing Air Force One oh so many years ago when I was at the dentist. I finally caught the end, and I still couldn’t tell you what happened but I can probably guess pretty easily. Also, I do recall a story that John Leguizamo was telling on Conan or something about how he was on set and Steven Seagal was all freaked out that he was going to die in the movie and he couldn’t really take it. That’s pretty funny, but not as funny as the soundtrack where Steven Seagal just breathes really hard throughout. It wasn’t Exit Wounds, but it was from that era. I hate that guy.

I saw Hairspray on Whidbey, and it was fun. Gotta love Baltimore and that John Waters guy. Additionally, Paranoid Park we saw at BAM with DO and it freaked us out when that one part where the dude… and the train tracks… you know what I’m talking about. That one was slow and artsy, which is the kind of film I typically only like to see once.

Back tomorrow with April!

No order here, just a laundry list, but long overdue.

(1) Frightened Rabbit — Midnight Organ Fight
I only started listening to this a few days before the end of the year, and the first thing that struck me was that the Scottish accent and the vocal style sounded a lot like Noah and the Whale (see below). But there are a lot less pop-ish hooks and the lyrics are quite a bit more blunt, significantly harsher. Some of it is downright silly, which makes it hard to get accustomed to or to even take all that seriously. But I’m making it sound like I don’t like this record at all, which isn’t true. It’s one of those that I actually like a lot for its anthems. I like that. Even though I don’t like singing “You’re the shit and I’m knee-deep in it.” I still think that it sounds great and at least these guys are being earnest about it.

(2) Bon Iver — For Emma, Forever Ago
And this got its official release a few months into the year, though it was self-released in 2007. Of all the shows we went to this year, this was my favorite, because of the inspired 3-part harmonies and passion in the songwriting. I’ll take Lump Sum any day of the week, but the title track is also especially powerful, even more so live, because it’s louder and rocking with the driving drum beats pounding away. When they played the song Brandon covered, The Wolves, the entire crowd sang along with the chorus and on queue, we all broke into a screaming cacophony—It was a site to see. If I had to give just one recommendation on who to see live, of all the people I saw live this year, it’d be these guys.

(3) Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin — Pershing
These are the guys we went and saw on our anniversary last year, and it was nice to hear the new songs live. I wondered why they aren’t more popular, especially considering these guys are picking up where The Shins left off. A few of these songs are very, very good, but there’s plenty of decent songs on the album as whole. As far as strength of an album goes, this falls a little bit lower on the list, but overall, still one of my favorite albums of the year.

(4) The Tallest Man on Earth — Shallow Graves
One of the few times I’ve been to a show and saw the guy play and was really rather blown away. The site of him was actually a little bit distracting. It’s actually just one dude, a skinny Swedish guy and his guitar and he has finger-picking madness and this voice that carries like the wind over water. I don’t know much else about him except that on the record he sounds a little bit like Bob Dylan. His words are pretty wrenching though, so I picked up the album after seeing him live and listened to it for a week, days at a time on repeat. Of all these things on here, this is the recommendation I have to pick up most for something a little bit off the beaten path of all the other indie-rock crap I’m slinging over here.

(5) Nada Surf — Lucky
Now, as far as general indie-rock crap that I sling, this is probably the winningest of that bunch. Nada Surf, after releasing Let’s Go, put out a couple of other records that didn’t quite catch my attention like this one did. This is another one of those albums that is especially good throughout. Outstanding tracks: “I Like What You Say”, “Whose Authority”. Brandon and I had entertained the thought of covering “The Film Did Not Go ‘Round”, but then I got busy and didn’t do anything for it. Kind of like how I still haven’t printed the covers for IRCMT 2008. By the way, there’s a possibility that someone is going to get me another song sometime soon. G-Dub, you hearin’ me?

(6 )She & Him — Volume One
More M. Ward, I think, but this is a pretty nice album. I don’t know though, the more I think about it, the more fleeting this feels. Ah, who am I kidding, this spent a significant amount of time in the headphones, so it deserves a good mention. M. Ward just came out with a new album recently, I should go get that now.

(7) Noah and the Whale — Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down
The only reason I went out and got this one is because of the Take Away Show they did. One of the songs they do on the train in Paris, which was pretty great and reminded me of taking the train to the Eiffel Tower. These guys seem fun and that fiddle playing is a nice touch. The album itself is a good listen but also rather benign when it comes down to it, and then there’s also the matter of recognizing that one song from that one commercial. These things don’t matter much to me, especially since I hope one day I’ll get paid to hock goods on the television, but it’s still a little odd.

(8) Vampire Weekend — S/T
I like to just complain about these guys no matter how much they get stuck in my head and how much I have listened to them over the past year. The songs are undeniably catchy, but you’ll also hear me complain about how they’re so referential to NE-Ivy-League wink-wink sort of thing, a little like how Beirut likes to give that we’re-not-European-but-we’re-not-going-to-say-we’re-not-European-and-if-you-think-we-are-then-that-well-that’s-cool-too feel. Somehow this is different than Blake from Jawbreaker’s English lilt throughout Dear You. But if you get the headphone time, then you get a place on the list. I like this album, no matter what you catch me saying about it any other time.

(9) Death Cab for Cutie — Narrow Stairs
Okay, so here we are again! These guys will always hold a special place in my heart regardless of what they do on a record, that’s just the truth. Everyone’s going to have their own opinion on this because it’s just that way now, but I really like a few of these songs quite a bit, including: “Cath”, “Grapevine Fires”, the former because the drums sound a lot like old Death Cab—strong pounding toms and kick, and the latter because the lyrics are more thoughtful and crafted than anything I”d heard in a while. I still have quite the soft spot for earlier Death Cab, but I appreciated the self-indulgent minutes long intro on their single and thought that dabbling in slowcore was something they used to do, and they do it well, but it does get a bit tiresome. This was a welcome change.

That’s all I have for now, but I’m sure there is something I’m missing but I’d rather get this up than wait till it’s complete, because it never will be!

I hope everyone’s doing great, and thanks for your patience on all this IRCMT 2008 stuff. I’ll get it done, come hell or highwater. Have a good weekend, kids.