1. Super 8 - This movie made me angry. I didn't trust it. Did the whole damned movie have to be one nighttime scare-chord after another? I mean, it was pretty gripping at times, but I'm not the target audience. I don't have oodles of nostalgia for kid-centered 80's adventure movies. Hell, I wish they'd make a cut of Up that edited out the boy scout. Anyway, amazing effects (save for the big secret itself), a really kickass train-derailing sequence, and a good performance by Dakota Fanning's little sister.

2. Matt Nathanson's Modern Love is soooooo frustrating to me. It marks his departure from singer-songwriter music (with a rock template) in favor of polished, unspontaneous and mostly sterile pop music. "Faster", the lead single, is an abortion. Just... no. The title track must have been great as an acoustic demo, but it's piano-horn-pop arrangement sucks the life out of it, though it does bear a good lyric ("I let 'em in, oh man, I let 'em win"). That lyric, though, is the exception: While Nathanson gets credit for operating as a romantic singer-songwriter with a more sophisticated lyrical template than his sensitive rocker contemporaries (Pat Monahan, John Rzeznik etc), such words are used to no real end, amounting to a useless hodgepodge.

Other non-categorized fails include "Run", a jarring collaboration with Sugarland, and "Queen of the (K)nots", basically a Pink knockoff. Oh Matt, just because you tour with people, it doesn't mean you have to sound just like them.

To make sure I wasn't overreacting to the album, I recently listened to his previous work, 2007's much more rock-centered Some Mad Hope, and the difference was immediate. Come back, Matt!

Hey guys!

The SF Bay Guardian's "Best of the Bay" voting is open, and I would really, REALLY appreciate it if you vote for Hotel Utah in the category of "BEST OPEN MIC"

Go here: http://www.sfbg.com/best2011. "Best Open Mic" is on the 2nd page.

Thanks!!!!

I will not go 50 different places to read everybody's blogs.

LJ was in The Social Network, it has cachet! GET BACK HERE.

Every time the Grammy nominations come out, I am reminded that even though I do not consider myself an indie hipster, and even though I feel like I have my finger on something like the pulse of young America... I am off the reservation of mainstream America.

Or maybe the Grammys just really, really suck. Yeah, that one.

( *gulp* )

Does someone have an mp3 of "Lenore"? It seems to have gone missing from my computer, and is... lost.


KEEP SINGING

It's 2am on Saturday morning, and I'm not sure I have much to say right now.

We're a few days out from the mid-term elections, and I have to say, I'm not all that upset.

-The Republicans got a temporary majority in the House. But frankly, that's a feature, not a bug. If the trade-off for a GOP wave election in the House would be the passage of health-care reform, financial regulation, the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, S-CHIP reauthorization, ARRA, etc, I'll take it any day of the week. In short, Nancy Pelosi's congress was the most active, most effective, and yes, most progressive congress in a generation, no matter what you hear from the knee-jerk Greenies who let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

-The Democrats held on to the Senate with a better-than-expected showing, keeping 53 seats. Now why did this happen? Weird that the Democrats underperformed in the House races, yet overperformed in the Senate races.

...Actually, it's not weird at all. The wave of recent "tea party" candidates was tailor-made for the House races, which get much less direct media scrutiny. Thus, the GOP could get their crazier House candidates into office largely under the radar. On the other hand, candidates like Sharron Angle, Ken Buck, Joe Miller, and of course Christine O'Donnell, could not withstand the scrutiny inherent to running for statewide office (their crazy shit didn't fly), and thus they find themselves very much not Senators-elect right now. The exceptions?

-Pat Toomey, who won by thiiiiis muuuch, thanks to Pennsyl-tucky.
-Marco Rubio, who won by virtue of a split vote between Kendrick Meek and Charlie Crist in Florida. (Rubio won a plurality, but not a simple majority, of votes)
-Rand "Aqua Buddha" Paul. There are only about 3 or 4 states in which a candidate as crazy and fraudulent as Paul is could win a Senate seat. Fortunately for him, Kentucky is one of those.

This bodes very, very well for the 2012 election, as teh crazy will be in full force when Obama runs for reelection. These people are like vampires: shine a little light on them and they wilt.



-California was a virtual clean sweep for the Dems. Jerry Brown! Barbara Boxer! Lt Governor Gavin Newsom! Attorney General Kamala Harris! Even a probable come-from-behind victory in the 11th congressional district; glad to see that McNerney's probably gonna survive, as he took his seat from Abramoff-stooge Richard Pombo in '06.

And check this out: I spent nothing to become governor this fall, and I did just as well as eMeg, who spent $140million. Ha! And good riddance as well to Carly Failorina. I understand the GOP liking the idea of a CEO running for office, but why'd they pick the biggest failure of all Silicon Valley CEO's, the one that people hate the absolute most? Might as well have run the BP guy!

-I don't give a crap about Prop 19. The people who really, really want weed right now? Those people already "know a guy", so to speak. I will say that the loss will be felt the most in California's cookie-dough industry.

-Somewhat under the radar, Prop 25 passed, which is a very big deal. Our budgetary process in Cali will be slightly less fucking insane!

Tuesday's Winners: John Boehner, Jerry Brown, Harry Reid, Newt Gingrich, Joy Behar, Dancing With The Stars (Christine O'Donnell's next home?), and Barack Obama (no matter what anyone says, his reelection was clinched that night)

Tuesday's Losers: Meg Whitman, Nancy Pelosi, the target demographic of Super Troopers, Mitt Romney AND Sarah Palin (not a lot of her statewide candidates won their races Tuesday).

NABLOPOLITICO

All these poor San Francisco hipsters, witnessing thousands of Giants fans going wild these last couple weeks.

"Uh, ew? They like something enthusiastically? Without a shred of irony? Weird."

"...Well, at least they like beards."

I'll morph back into my usual hipster-friendly self soon, but man, what a fucking year for the Giants. Been going to games all the way back to 1987 (the "Humm Baby!" season), and cheering for the boys in orange & black ever since. Mom forced me to turn off game 3 of the 1989 World Series right before it was to start; of course, it wouldn't start for another week and a half, as the Loma Prieta earthquake struck while I read The Ugly Duckling as part of my homework that afternoon. I was there for the epic 1993 pennant race, including the "ball day" game, when fans were given baseballs as part of a promotion, and predictably they hurled them on to the field when the Braves hit a series of homers. (Matt Williams hit two of his own, leading the Giants to an extra-innings victory) 103 wins, all for naught.

1997: Team of Dustiny.
1998: Heartbreak in Chicago.
2000: Was there for the first ever game at AT&T Park. This team should have won it all, but the Mets had other ideas.
2002: I don't wanna talk about it.
2003: Jose bleeping Cruz

I'm so glad it was this team, after all this. None of the taint of Bonds. A lovable cast of characters, and... oh shit it's almost midnight. to be continued

NABLOPOMO

Some dude on Reddit decided to take a map of the US and assign each state its most representative movie. Here's the result:



Would you make any changes to this? Here are mine...

EDIT: For Colorado, dump Red Dawn and add The Shining. Duh.

Major League over Gummo for Ohio.

8 Mile over Robocop for Michigan. (guess I never was a fan)

Into The Wild for Alaska.

Does Hawaii have to be a Pearl Harbor movie? I'd go with something that showcases the state better. Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Honeymoon In Vegas and Punch Drunk Love come to mind.

I see this person chose Twister for Oklahoma. How about, oh I dunno, Oklahoma!?

I'm sure Forrest Gump gave My Cousin Vinny a run for its money in Alabama, but you can't really argue against either.

Jesus Camp was used twice, so here's my suggestion. Replace the North Dakota version with Fargo, and then for Minnesota, can I get me some Purple Rain?

Still, golf-clap for the selections for Tennessee, Maryland, Delaware (lol), Vermont, and Maine.

There's a new campaign to get an old song to the top of the UK charts this Christmas, to beat whatever boring corporate slop our friends from X Factor want to promote.

A song of an... avian nature...

(You may recall last year's successful campaign involved Rage Against The Machine's "Killing In The Name")