dreamlog #61

Dreamt that I went to a suburban strip mall to go see a hardcore punk rock show. The bands were lame in a 1990’s Victory Records style manner. I noticed by the third band that all three bands on the bill had rthe same guitar player and bass player and the only thing that distingished all three bands apart from each other were the band names.

So I walked out of the concert and went to the next store front, which was a church that wanted me to pay 5 dollars to fill out a 4 page sprituality (personality) test. I lied and told them that I had no money on me, besides I wasn’t interested in actualy joining or anything, and they said that they would pray for me for an extra 10 bucks. I left there as quick as I could please.

jareddriskill

random item tuesday

1. It’s Thanksgiving week already?!?! This year has flown on by, hasn’t it?  Holiday’s don’t mean much to me so they tend to creep up on me regardless.

Not that it matters to most of you,  but boringly, I have some school projects that I have to complete over the long weekend so there won’t be an new posts on this blog until they are completed. The proverbial whip is beginning to crack behind me, so I better get moving.

2. Last week I had stated that itunes was carrying both Fun Boy Three albums in their US store, this week I found another lost childhood favorite group being carried in the itunes store, Fad Gadget. They may only have “the best of..” for sale, but hearing some of those old songs again had made me pine for the days when music first melded the worlds of dark humor and realization of death for me.  Here’s hoping that itunes will carry all 4 proper studio albums from Fad Gadget and related Frank Tovey solo projects in the future. 

3. My brother called me up the other day asking if I wanted a old fashioned 8 mm film camera with “a shit ton” of film stock for christmas. I was on the fence about receiving a bunch of pretty much useless vintage equipment as a gift until he issued a caveat for receiving this gift: that I’m supposed to use the camera and the film to record his wedding later on next year.

While I appreciate his thoughtfulness, but it begs the question: what makes him think think that I would be any good at using the camera to record his wedding? While I may have some artistic flair, but one has to realize that flair is never synonymous with talent.

jareddriskill

Dirty Pretty Things “Romance At Short Notice”

Dirty Pretty Things/ Romance At Short Notice/ Vertigo Records 2008

I had been harsh on Carl Barat’s limited song writing skills with DPT’s last album, “From Waterloo To Anywhere,” but seeing how he was one half of the songwriting team of the almighty Libertines, I decided to give Dirty Pretty Things another chance with their second (and last, as it turns out) album.

Upon listening to this album, it turns out that, indeed, Carl Barat can write something other than really kick ass punk rock songs. He can also write those lazily strummed, sing song ,crappily played, though instantly catchy, jangly pop songs that The Libertines used to ply their trade in. But it seems that Carl doesn’t have the ability to write an album that utilizes both types of song writing genres.

Or maybe he had simply lost interest in the Dirty Pretty Things project (this is reason he gave for breaking up the group recently) while recording this album and he just wanted to rush out an album to fulfill his recording contract obligations. Or prehaps trying to live up to the standard he set with The Libertines is simply to much for the lad to handle.

Whatever the case may be, I think it is a shame because Dirty Pretty Things had the potential to be a really great group (though not on the par of the aforementioned Libertines) if it weren’t for Carl’s apparently lack of confidence in himself as a solo artist.

Here’s hoping that Carl doesn’t botch up his next project…

jareddriskill

film history #m

In this weeks penultimate edition of this series of film history reviews on jareddriskill.com, we covered that perennial favorite of the film critic elitist class, “Citizen Kane.” As an added bonus, I had been running a low grade fever this week which turned this technically amazing, but boring, piece of cinema into a tripped out, psychedelic mindfuck trip from hell. (Or, in other words, like one of the more “out there” episodes of the Mighty Boosh.)

While watching “Citizen Kane” while on a fever dream trip may sound like a great idea, ( in fact, it may be the only way this film could be enjoyed for pure viseral entertainment) but when you are as ill as I was tonight, it’s endless torture. (Endless, by the way, is also perfectly describes the running time of “Citizen Kane.”) So after the newspaper staff buyout scene, I was running home like a broken man alternating between screaming like a little girl and spouting off dark, obscure, long repressed personal secrets to no one in particular.  

In two weeks (have a happy Thanksgiving next week) on the syllabus: wrap up and odds and sods!

jareddriskill

random item tuesday

1. I had a hankering for a Mars candy bar the other day and I couldn’t find one anywhere and I looked high and low for one too. Did they discontinue Mars bar or is it a regional item? Does any one out there know?Come to think of it, I can’t remember the last time I seen one for sale much less the last time I bought one. I forget what they taste like now.

2. Good things do come to those who wait. Itunes finally has both Fun Boy Three albums for sale in their US store. I hadn’t been able to listen to both of their albums ever since my turntable broke many years ago. Oh, what sweet memories that are now coming back to me as I re-listen to these sonic gems.

Speaking of itunes, the US store also has “Opium” by Matt Berry for sale. If read my review of that album a couple weeks ago, you would know that it is a must buy.

3.I received the best birthday present ever this weekend. my dad bought me a new bed. It feels good to no longer waking up in the middle of the night with you body racked in pain from sleeping on a super thin, worn out mattress on a piece of plywood. Thanks dad! you’re the best!

jareddriskill

Jonathan Ross- “why do i say these things?”

Jonathan Ross/ Why Do I say These Things?/itunes 2008

Although I loathed to (because I prefer to read an actual copy of a book rather than listen to it be read,) I bought this audio book for three reasons. 1. I was given a itunes gift card by my internship supervisor for my birthday. 2. I have been jonesing for some fresh Jonathan Ross material ever since his recent 12 week suspension from the BBC for a recent brouhaha over a prank phone he did with Russell Brand. 3. Most importantly, I always need new material for my website.

I happen to like Jonathan Ross, even though he is an rich, conceited asshole and this audio book proves how much of a rich, conceited Jonathan Ross actually is. Does the world really need to know what his top 3 favorite Christmas presents ever was, or how many pets he’s ever owned, or about how has fame has really hasn’t changed him: it changed everyone else around him? No, but Jonathan Ross seems to think so, and he does so in a semi-entertaining, half-thought out manner. (Do these traits sound familiar to my faithful reading several?)

I say semi-entertaining and half-thought out because this book was written, or rather dictated, in a single afternoon and alot of his stories go off on long tangents, which are funnier than the actual stories themselves. Hell, some story titles such as “I date raped myself” (actually an not so amusing story about getting Montezuma’s revenge while on a trip to Mexico) are funnier than the stories themselves. If Jonathan Ross hadn’t been all worried about taking his book advance check to the bank before it closed for the day, he might’ve actually had a wholly entertaining audio book. But if you know Jonathan Ross, that’s all part of his charm.

jareddriskill

dreamlog #60

I dreamt that I had gained some sort of minor national infamy by producing a series of semi-humorous christmas greeting cards that had the phrase ”let me give ya a holler before you put on your christmas collar” with a picture of a noose on the front. The inside of the card read “can I have your stereo?”

I ending up being labeled a “villain” by the press and then quickly forgotten the next news cycle because I happened to have the audacity to “mash up” the dark comedy of a holiday season suicide and christmas cheer.

The good thing about this dream is that those of you out there who are on my christmas card list now know what card you are going to get in the mail.

jareddriskill

film history#l

I have some birthday eve (yea me!) bad news for you, my faithful reading several, in re: this “film history” subject heading on this humble little blog, there are only two more film history classes left in the semester. (My, where did the time go?) To further add insult to injury, I had planned on taking the Surrealist Cinema elective course on that is being offered in the spring, but sadly it conflicts with an class I need to take in order to graduate in May. I know this hurts you because I will no longer have any excuse to fit in those sly Mighty Boosh references in my film reviews, and believe me, Surrealist Cinema would’ve dove tailed quite nicely with those said references. But that is alright, I am toying with the idea of fitting Mighty Boosh references in a new series of weekly reviews of my second choice elective: economics!

The bad news does not end there, this weeks subject is that film genre that somehow manages to be more boringly soul destroying, at least in my opinion, than the “gangster” genre, that’s right, I am tyalking about “westerns.” I haven’t quite decided why I dislike westerns so much, but I have narrowed it down to two possible reasons: 1. I have some sort of crazy cognitive association with that now infamous phrase that Sid Vicious made during The Sex Pistols disastrous show in Dallas, Texas, “all cowboys are faggots,” and western films. So I now think that all western films are some bizarre sub genre of gay porn. (This isn’t the first crazy cognitive association that I had made that has led me to prohibit myself from a particular item for life. I have refused to drink milk since I was 5 years old because I somehow have it in my head that milk is actually cow piss… despite the evidence to the contrary! But that’s another story for another time.)

Or… 2: The simple fact that I never seen a western film or tv show in my entire life that didn’t put me asleep after 5 minutes or so.

Anyway, tonight’s featured film was “Stagecoach,” which is considered by some to be one of the best western films ever made. Of course, to me, saying that this is the best western film ever made is like saying that this is a gay midget porn flick starring the world’s tallest midget. Seriously, who cares in the long run?

“Stagecoach” is also the film that made John Wayne an “A” list star, but I was fast asleep, and thus spared, before his ugly face made it on the screen. zzzzzzz………..

next week in the syllabus: The first half of “Citizen Kane.”

jareddriskill

random item tuesday

1. I suppose winter has finally arrived because my knees have become stiff and my mouth is constantly bone dry. I don’t why my body reacts this way to cold weather, but it does. Could it be old age settling in?

2. Speaking of old age, at my current internship at the not-so-local-to-me nursing home, I have come to realize that it takes a certain level of cold heartedness to work at such a place. You have to learn to ignore the end stage Alzheimers residents who cry out for help constantly because there is nothing you can do for them  and you have to ignore the dark unspoken fact that most of the residents there will never leave facility again until they eventually die.

And of course, unless you are in an administrative level job at a nursing home, you have to put up with working long hours for low wages too.

3.That last statement, of course, brings up something that my father used to say all the time about “there won’t be any middle class type jobs in the future you are either going to be a minimum wage slave at Wal Mart working 60 hours a week just to make ends meet or you are going to have a high paying professional type jobs such as doctors and lawyers.” By the way things are looking right now, it looks like my father is right. (Who would’ve thunk it?)

jareddriskill

dreamlog #59

I dreamt that there was an online college course (University of Phoenix, I think) being advertised on all the websites to be a historic riverboat captain. “Live like Mark Twain used to!” was the catchphrase of the ad.

This got me to thinking there can’t possibly be a huge demand for mark twain style riverboat captains are there? Yeah, they may be a few  historic riverboats floating up and down the Mississippi river as tourist attractions, but surely, there can’t be a overwhelming tourist demand for more of them and thus flooding the historic river boat tourism market with cheap knock offs.

Then I realized that it was a dream and I stopped worrying about it.

jareddriskill