October 31, 2009
In light of Halloween festivities and horror movie marathons, I’d like to comment on horror sagas that just seem to go on and on, and just when you think the subject (or killer) is finally dead, they keep going on. Hey, if nothing else, these flicks can be fun to watch as you sit there, yelling at the next victim not to go in that room, the room you know they will inevitably enter and then…well, you know the rest. But honestly, isn’t there a point at which we can no longer hold the so-called villains responsible for their actions?
Think about it. Mike Myers, Jason Voorhees, these guys are completely unreasonable, heartless, demonic killers; we, the audience know that, and generally, the characters in their movies know that. Shit, in particular, Mike Myers has only risen and killed on Halloween, makes it pretty simple to know when you have to keep your guard up. If you find yourself staring up at this guy just before his knife comes a-swingin’ down at you, who do you have to blame but yourself? You’ve probably heard the horror stories, you know shady things tend to happen on Halloween, if it were me, I would start locking my doors and making Halloween a quiet evening at home after hearing of at least two Halloweens gone awry.
As for parents…I mean, Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers, the poor kids who are sent out to trick or treat by their parents only to find certain doom at the hands of a notorious killer, that’s an excellent example of terrible parenting. At that point, you really have to assess who the real villain of the movie is. These killings have occurred on four Halloweens, and allowing your children to go trick or treating after dark still sounds like a fun and safe idea?
Go down the line in that particular saga a little further to Halloween: Resurrection, the last movie before the Rob Zombie reboot. A group of kids decide to spend the night in Mike Myer’s old house and host a webcast…on Halloween no less! Isn’t that a little bit like a sheep asking for directions to the slaughter? Mike Myers is going to rise up and kill, that’s an inevitability, but if you decide to crash in his old digs on the particular night he is known for rising up (at least 6 times over now), then basically you’re just pissing into the wind and the only one responsible for your death is, well, you.
October 28, 2009
Way back in the Fall of 2003, Dave Matthews briefly changed gears and put out a solo album called Some Devil. It had a much slower and softer sound with a lot less jamming than the albums he would typically put out with the band, and with a few exceptions, the album didn’t really do it for me. But it’s a funny thing about albums; sometimes you’ll hear a new album and it just won’t do it for you, but after awhile, maybe weeks, maybe months, maybe years, you’ll give it another shot and listen in an entirely different way. Suddenly, you’re feeling it.
Thanks to a friend on the twitterverse recently pointing out that there is just something about Some Devil that makes it the perfect fall album, I went back and gave it a listen. Damn. When you step back and view the album on its own, without expecting it to be a Dave Matthews Band album, it’s overall a really good album and truly has something to say, and yes, it totally is an essential fall album.
Some Devil is a darker album where Matthews adapts a more melancholy, brooding sound. The tracks flow together smoothly, and beat along in a bluesy sort of way. As one song rolls into the next, Matthews sings about loss, holding on, letting go, but most of all, it seems to be about having hope in a sometimes sad world. Tracks like “Baby” drive that home as Matthews sings “You’ll be a ship in a bottle, set sail.” He addresses our mortality, and seems to say that sometimes life can seem bleak, and some days are hard, and other times things just plain suck, but all we can do is try and rise above it all. The tracks that follow, “Up and Away” and “Too High,” reinforce that idea…have hope, dream big, because life’s going to go by pretty fast, so do something while you’re here and there’s still time to do it. The slow hands are quickening.
October 23, 2009
Today it finally came to my attention that I’ve never had grape soda. I mean, yeah, I’ve always known that I’ve never had a grape soda, but it really never quite struck home with me. I’ve always seen it as an option in the vending machine or in the fridge at the grocery store, but I’ve just always bypassed it, with absolutely no curiosity. Well somehow that came up at work today, and my co-workers laughed at me for never having had grape soda. I was suddenly ashamed, and at that moment, I was the one who insisted that I would drink my first grape soda at lunch.
Well dammit, at lunch I bought my first grape soda, and dammit, I drank that grape soda. It was not good in an earth-shattering way, but nonetheless, it was a pretty good soft drink. It basically tasted like a grape jolly rancher served as a beverage. Not my favorite flavor of soda, but it definitely gave me another option in the wonderful world of lunchtime beverages.
But as I enjoyed that first grape soda, I realized that here I am, 22 years-old, nearly 23 years-old, and this is my first grape soda? That’s a big WTF moment. Suddenly grape soda carried much larger implications, it represented much more. What other perfectly ordinary things had I missed out on? Well, I haven’t seen The Godfather trilogy. I’ve never gone to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I’ve never climbed the Statue of Liberty; I think there’s an elevator you can take to the top, and I think I did that, which seems like it’s cheating. I haven’t learned the entire “Thriller” dance (everyone should aspire to learn the entire “Thriller” dance, come on). I’ve never taken a real stab at applying for a reality show, which isn’t that ordinary, but something I’ve always wanted to do. So screw it, today’s a new day with a few additions to the bucket list. Maybe I’ll try tofu.