Loading ...Off The Beaten Track: Music Reviews & Musings by Mary Leary
M-U-S-I-C FOR M-U-S-I-N-G
A Chorus of Storytellers
The Album Leaf: A Chorus of Storytellers (Sub Pop)
Gavin Bryars: The Sinking of the Titanic (Virgin); Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet (Philips)
Kottarashky: Opa Hey! (Asphalt Tango)
In my current dwelling I hear several responses to falling water: The patter-patter into the vent at the top of the wall heater, the dull thudding of the awning above the terrace, and, if the rain is hard, its thrum-drumming onto the street. At this moment, rain’s moderate, persistent percussion mixes with the rather aggressive ticking of a clear, Jujube-orange clock behind me on the window ledge. I am sitting at a Mission-style work table in what others might call a dining room. For me, at this moment, it’s a sitting and thinking and reading and listening room. A Chorus of Storytellers is in the CD player. The rain pauses. As “Summer Fog” starts I am reading the words, “These alternative social practices are like a box of seldom-used tools,” and the rain starts again. I think, “A box of rain,” then wonder if I’ve used that phrase in any of my poetry; then, if anyone has, and then, “Someone must have.”
Some music lends itself to reading. After finding A Chorus of Storytellers less than totally absorbing when approached with a full aural gaze, I am half-listening while finishing Philip Slater’s The Pursuit of Loneliness. Some of the tracks are very good for this. Others have vocals that are too distracting. This doesn’t bother me – one of my favorite forms of meditation being to absorb the thoughts of a writer, then take a break to more fully focus on those in music. Since music can combine thought with emotion and subconscious impulse or message, this combination of foci often yields magic. On the outside, it doesn’t look much like magic: I set my book or periodical down, throw the toy the cat’s placed near my feet, light a cigarette and have a sip of tea. Then I may scribble some words apparently unrelated to the words or music I’ve been taking in, although I always give credit to rain, when present.
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is the latest film from Guy Ritchie who, in the past, has brought us masterpieces like Snatch, Rock ‘N Rolla and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Sherlock Holmes follows the godfather of detectives through Victorian London as he tries to unravel the mystery of an apparent resurrection by the evil Lord Blackwood who is portrayed brilliantly by Mark Strong.
The film is gritty and cold and follows stylistically with Ritchie’s other films. Ritchie loves to put his camera in the gutters of England and show us the filth that resides there. But unlike his previous films Ritchie did not write the screenplay for Sherlock Holmes. Instead Simon Kinberg, writer for such literary brilliance as xXx State of the Union, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Jumper and X-Men: The Last Stand, was part of the creative team to create the script for Sherlock Holmes.
While Sherlock Holmes looks like a Guy Ritchie film it certainly doesn’t feel like one. It would have been interesting to see what Ritchie would have done with Doyle’s Holmes had he been able to write the script. Read more
Distinction Art
If you’ve ever wondered where your lost day-dreams go, Distinction Gallery and Artist Studios is a good place to start looking. Located at 317 East Grand Avenue in Escondido, Distinction is a 7,000 square-foot building that houses an enchanting and fascinating collection of figurative pop art and urban surrealism. Images that are at once familiar and startling line the walls and beckon to viewers to decipher the artist’s code.
Distinction Gallery on Grand Avenue in Escondido, CA. Photo courtesy of Distinction Gallery and Artist Studios.
Currently, the main gallery is holding a collection entitled “Sub 1K: California Style”. All the artwork is priced below $1000 and the artists are from California. A four piece set done with mixed media on wood (seen here) by Richard Salcido is especially haunting. Read more
Review of Ninja Assassin
Ninja Assassin is an out-of-your-mind martial arts film that follows appropriately in the lines of the ninja-movie genre. If you have seen any martial arts films from the 80’s and 90’s then you know the plot of Ninja Assassin. Fortunately, having a good plot in a ninja movie is at the bottom of the director’s list of “Important Things to Remember While Making This Movie”.
In Ninja Assassin a boy is raised by ninjas but rejects their heartless philosophy and tries to stop them. This storyline has been done countless times. But if you go to see this movie expecting a heart-warming tale that will alter your life through its use of extended metaphors, subtlety and brilliant analogy–you will be sorely disappointed.
What sets Ninja Assassin apart from others of its kind is that it has better special effects, better sound editing and tons of gore. It still has mediocre acting, bad dialogue and terrible writing. People in the theater, myself included, were laughing at many of the lines the actors courageously delivered. Normally, this would be cause to leave the theater in anger and demand your money back. But in this genre, good dialogue, pacing and a functional storyline are secondary to showing tons of ninjas dispatching people with throwing stars, swords and kusarigama (a dagger on the end of a long chain). People get chopped in half, decapitated, impaled and dismembered in all sorts of inhuman ways. Men will go to see this movie to satisfy their instinctual need for bloody conflict and combat. Read more
New Moon Rises over San Diego
Photo from zandland via PicasaWeb
With the latest of the Twilight series arriving overnight in San Diego, it is not difficult to see that there is a divide between those who get the mystique and those who don’t. People of all ages and genders hit theaters last night for midnight showings after waiting in long lines for, in some cases over 12 hours.
Like any entertainment phenomenon, there will always be the lunatic fringe who become enveloped by the story and go to extremes to be the first to get the next taste. This is of course true in the case of the Twilight series; but what is striking about this vampire love story is the demographic of its fans.
Theaters were full to the brim with “Twihards”, consisting mainly of women of varying ages and believe it or not several men. The popularity of the book series began to catch fire shortly after its release in 2005 with its expected demographic was mainly teen and pre-teen girls. Quite unexpectedly though the series quickly began to gain extraordinary popularity among moms, older sisters, and eventually into nearly every segment of the population.
As a male who’s significant other, along with nearly all of her friends, became instantly entranced in the twilight series, I could not make sense of the allure of a fictional vampire on my otherwise completely un-vampire loving spouse. After hearing as much as I could tolerate about Edward (the story’s main character), I finally resolved myself to reading the first book. I had to figure out what was so great about this addiction-inducing storyline and character.
The story involves as you probably already know, vampires and werewolves, which is, believe it or not completely irrelevant to the core elements that make twilight and its main characters so alluring. In fact this is the main misconception by those on the outside of the divide. You can always spot these people, because at the first mention of the series, they respond with instant eye rolling and vocal imitations of Count Chocula exclaiming how ridiculous the whole thing is.
But I digress, the allure of the story is obvious once you get into it. It’s so obvious in fact that it was a bit disappointing that there wasn’t more to it. Edward, one of the story’s main characters and heartthrob played by actor Robert Pattinson, is everything that any woman would want in a man. He is (as a result of his vampire status), beautiful, intelligent, supernaturally strong and fast, mysterious, and completely and undeniably in love with the leading female character Bella, played by actress Kristin Stewart.
What’s not to like? The smartest, strongest, sexiest, most alluring guy in your small town is utterly mesmerized by you. Read more
