In general, watch it, but especially watch it tonight. I’m in the audience. In the seats, center/stage right, about halfway back. And let me tell you, somewhere around 98% of the dances are fantastic, and the other 2% are still pretty good.

More later.

In pictures, music, tweets (reposts from Twitter, which I’ve marked as such), and text.

Day One: St. Louis to Amarillo

Or, technically, my parents’ house west of St. Louis to Amarillo. I initially thought about trying to follow Route 66 for some of this trip, but when I started trying to map it through Missouri (using Historic 66.com) it got really complicated and basically just followed I-44 on the service roads anyway, so I figured to heck with it. Plus I tend to get frustrated on non-interstate roads very quickly on trips, so it was pretty much a stupid idea anyway.

Tweet: California or bust!
Tweet: Music recommendation: Babyshambles’ newest release Shotters Nation. Finally picked it up Saturday [yay Vintage Vinyl!] and it’s awesome.

Here are a couple of tracks off that album. I like the way lead Pete Doherty is bringing in some jazz influences, especially in “There She Goes.”

Babyshambles - Carry On Up the Morning
Babyshambles - There She Goes

There’s not a lot of love lost between me and Missouri (besides St. Louis, which I do love), but the stretch of I-44 going through the Ozarks can be quite lovely. Too bad it was a little cloudy when I was going through, but I really like the rolling hills and rock cuts.

Tweet: I’ve lived in Missouri for 25 years and am now moving away having never been to Branson. Huh.
Tweet: Billboard I just passed was advertising ‘Titanic: A Family Experience.’ Because drowning is always good times.
Tweet: My iPod is picking awesome songs. I guess having playlists FULL OF AWESOME helps.

Of Montreal - Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse

Tweet: Oklahoma! Where the wind comes sweeping down the plain…

Oklahoma!

This is advertised to be the World’s Largest McDonalds, stretching across I-44 just west of Vinita, Oklahoma, but I don’t think that’s actually true. Unless, perhaps, you count all the non-McDonalds parts of the building, like the souvenir shop and the ice cream booth. Still, it’s cool to stop at and watch the cars go under you while you eat, but I didn’t stop this time.

Last chance to continue down I-35 through Dallas to Waco instead of taking I-40 toward California! It was tempting to find an excuse to go down and hang out with my friends again, but then I’d just have to say goodbye again, too, and that would suck.

Tweet: Bob Dylan is good stuff. Why did I not know this before?

I never really listened to Dylan until I saw I’m Not There a couple of weeks ago, but as soon as I saw the film, I was inspired to seek out more music, and I quite like it. Different than most of the stuff I listen to, but then a lot of the stuff I listen to wouldn’t exist without Dylan’s innovations.

Bob Dylan - Mr. Tambourine Man
Bob Dylan - Ballad of a Thin Man

Tweet: Hills and cruise control are an annoyingly poor combination. [So are headwinds and cruise control, as I found going through the deserts later]
Tweet: They aren’t kidding when they talk about the wind blowing down the plains in Oklahoma.
Tweet: Apparently I’m not the first to notice how windy OK is; passing the first wind farm of the trip.

Aw, Oklahoma’s trying to do mesas. How cute!

Tweet: Done with Oklahoma. Seems like I was in there forever.
Tweet: My ears just popped! This is the most gradual hill ever, but I’m definitely gaining altitude.

Getting into Texas made me happy, even if it is just the panhandle. This landscape agrees with me a lot more than Oklahoma’s, for some reason.

Then there was this gorgeous sunset.

And then there was Amarillo.

Click through for Days Two (New Mexico and Arizona) and Three (California).

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I’m going to stop doing the monthly recap posts and instead try to write reviews/reactions more consistently throughout the month. Since I haven’t actually posted on anything I’ve watched since February, I need to do a few catch-up posts, which I’ve decided to separate into film categories (New Releases, New DVDs, World Cinema, Great Directors, etc.) rather than by month. Honestly, the monthly format was more useful for me than it was for any of you - after all, you don’t care when I saw a film, so keeping everything as strictly chronological as I used to do is fairly pointless. A thematic arrangement makes more sense.

So with no further ado, here’s the first of several catch-up posts; this contains all the theatrical new releases I’ve seen since February: Penelope, Leatherheads, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, Iron Man, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Read the rest of this entry »

I logged onto Facebook this morning, scanned the newsfeed, then popped over to a friend’s profile to leave her a wall post. While there, I saw that she had been tagged in a note from one of my other friends, which had not shown up in my newsfeed. I checked back, and sure enough, Facebook had decided to filter that note from me. And it was a great note. Is there any way to make Facebook show you everything? I’m not a fan of their arbitrary filtering. I like noise. I want noise. I don’t want to miss anything because some automated filtering algorithm decided I shouldn’t see it.

I have all of the sliders on the newsfeed preferences page set to the top (which filters the least), but apparently that’s not enough to convince Facebook I really don’t want things filtered at all. Anybody know any way to get everything? And yes, I do subscribe to the Notes RSS feed (as well as the status updates feed, and I can tell that the newsfeed is only giving me about 3/4 of those), but it always takes several hours for them to hit GoogleReader, and also, it’s the principle of the thing. Ultimately, I want to subscribe to the newsfeed in an external reader, too, because who knows how much stuff I miss by not being able to, I don’t know, PAGE BACK in the newsfeed when I’ve been away from my computer for a while? Seriously.

I’m working on various posts about various things, but I don’t know how long it’ll take me to actually get them finished and posted, so I figured I’d throw up a quickie update for those of you wondering how my crazy move to LA is going.

• I’m in LA! Yay! Safe, fun trip all around.
• I love it here. The weather is gorgeous, there’s cool stuff everywhere, stores, restaurants, theatres, beaches, mountains, the whole bit.
• I love the people here! And by “the people here” I mean the Craws and the other people in their church, who have been very welcoming (to the point of letting me stay with them while I apartment-hunt, even!). And my friend Lis in Sherman Oaks.
• I am still apartment-hunting, but I have a bunch of leads I’m going to call up tomorrow and hopefully get something nailed down early this week.
• Also still job-hunting, but I’m expanding my search beyond universities, and I think I have a few good possibilities.
• Mostly, I’m just still so happy every time I wake up and realize where I am. So there’s that.

Mates of State

Austin-based indie favorites Mates of State released a new album last week; it didn’t take them long to get back in the studio after having their second child! (Kori was extremely pregnant when I saw them at Fun Fun Fun Fest last fall.) I’m not head over in love with this album yet, like I am with their previous release, but then it took me several months to get into them at all. They grow on you, I promise. [note: I wrote the next to last sentence after hearing the album once the day after release; now I have finally gotten it on my iPod and listened to it a few more times, and I am now head over in love with it. It’s a bit mellower than Bring It Back, but there’s nothing wrong with that, and if you’re a fan, you’ll love it.]

Mates of State - Get Better [video and both tracks from Re-Arrange Us]

Mates of State - Now
Mates of State - The Re-arranger

Re-Arrange Us (2008)	Bring It Back (2006)	Team Boo (2003)
Amazon MP3		Amazon MP3
Amazon CD	Amazon CD	Amazon CD
		Amie Street
		emusic

Snow Patrol

I could’ve sworn I’ve shared Snow Patrol stuff before, on account of them being one of my favorite bands ever and having gone to see them in Austin. But I searched through the archives (in preparation for the Glasgow Band Music Monday post I have planned for the not-too-distant future), and apparently I haven’t. Maybe I just included them in one of the iterations of the sidebar music player.

Snow Patrol - Run [from Final Straw]

Snow Patrol - Wow [from Final Straw]
Snow Patrol - You’re All I Have [from Eyes Open]

Eyes Open (2006)	Final Straw (2004)	Songs for Polar Bears (1998)
Amazon MP3	Amazon MP3	Amazon MP3
Amazon CD	Amazon CD	Amazon CD
		emusic

If you aren’t at least a little bit charmed by The Young Girls of Rochefort, you are a hopeless cynic.

(Sorry, couldn’t find any good clips with English subtitles, and not even this trailer has them, but trust me, whatever they’re saying isn’t important. The first ten minutes of music and dancing and almost no talking has me charmed every time I watch it. Pretend the colors are about ten times more vivid than they are in this print, too, because they are.)