Summer Suckfest

This has to be one of the worst summer movie seasons ever. So far, I think the best one I have seen is Over the Hedge, the animated kid flick. Steve Carrell was hysterical as Hammie the Squirrel. After that, it goes downhill in a hurry. MI-3 started out promising as a tense, psychological thriller that came completely off the rails in the last third. And could somebody tell me why Brett Ratner is allowed to direct movies that don't have Rush Hour in the title? He completely butchered the new X-Men movie with such ham-handedness that even George Lucas cringed while watching it. It seems Bryan Singer and his Superman movies are the last shot for a decent popcorn flick, but I'm not holding my breath. Kevin Spacey does look like he'll add plenty of cheese, though. Too bad we're talking movies, not nachos. Oh well. Maybe next summer will be better.

Further Itunes Adventures

I just recently purchased three more albums with my itunes gift certificates. They include: All the Roadrunning, by Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris which I highly recommend; this in turn prompted me to buy Private Investigations: The Best of Dire Straits and Mark Knopfler which was a great buy as you get 22 songs for about 12 dollars which is quite the deal; and lastly I bought The Body Acoustic by Cyndi Lauper, where she strips down her old hits and duets with people like Sara McLachlan, among others.

I have to say I'm pretty impressed with all three, and have found that Cyndi Lauper is really an excellent singer. Back in the 80's I didn't enjoy her all that much, but she has aged really well.

The Davinci Furor

Here's a good article from Christianity Today, that hopefully those who picket things for a living will read. I find that its better to be well educated on a subject rather than placing blame and name-calling without knowing what you're talking about

Give me a break

This article covers "Christians" who believe that Jesus was not resurrected. The article quotes someone as saying:
"Marcus Borg really does not believe Jesus Christ was bodily raised from the dead. But I know Marcus well: he loves Jesus and believes in him passionately."

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the Jesus I believe in and the one he follows are not the same Jesus. To deny Jesus didn't rise from the dead is to object to Christianity itself.

My Own Jars Greatest Hits

I spent some time last night composing a Best of Jars of Clay album. Feel free to emulate if you'd like:

1. All My Tears - an itunes original. Meaning this is only found on itunes. A great song featuring Ashley Cleveland

2. Silence - originally appeared on The Eleventh Hour album. I used the itunes reworked version, as I can't find my copy of The Eleventh Hour.

3. Show You Love - from Who We Are Instead. Possibly their best album.

4. Frail - from Much Afraid

5. Trouble Is - from Who We Are Instead

6. The Valley Song - from Furthermore, From the Stage, From the Studio

7. Needful Hands -an itunes original. They first released this song on the Exodus album, which I highly recommend

8. Amazing Grace - from Who We Are Instead. Again with Ashley Cleveland

9. Crazy Times - from the Much Afraid album

10. Frail - the itunes remix. I didn't realize I'd put this song on twice. A pretty good mistake, though

11. Jealous Kind - from Who We Are Instead. Just go get this album if you don't have it

12. Fly - from Furthermore...

13. I'm Alright - from Furthermore...

14. On Jordan's Stormy Banks I Stand - from their latest album Redemption Songs

15. God Be Merciful to Me - from Redemption Songs

16. I'll Fly Away - from Redemption Songs

There you have 1.1 hours of listening pleasure. If you read this an it interests you, let me know and I can get you a copy

An entertaining read

I just finished reading Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas, which is a series of interviews that Assayas conducted with Bono over the course of two years. Assayas is a French journalist who has known Bono since 1980, so the conversations come across as friends talking rather than fawning journalist interviews rock star. Assayas even questions Bono on where his commitment to Africa stems from, as Bono did not go to that country until 1998. This is a fascinating book that any U2 fan would enjoy. Bono offers insight into his family, as well as the relationships with the other members of U2 that are thoughtful and interesting, not the usual patronizing words typically found in celebrity based features. This book is a sharp contrast to the one I mentioned a short time ago. Read this one, and avoid the previous one.

Sonically Splendiferous

I had a very eventful weekend, musically speaking. Friday night I bought the just released Jennifer Knapp live album, and promptly listened to it twice. I highly recommend it if you like her music. The weird thing about her is that she dropped off the face of the earth 3 years ago. I've heard unsubstantiated rumors of what happened, but no facts or interviews have appeared anywhere on the subject. I've always enjoyed her music, and this album clearly shows what we're missing.

Then a friend of mine sent one of the best wedding gifts I received: a gift certificate to itunes. When I sent him an email to thank him he said that my wife should have received one too! It was like Christmas morning and your birthday rolled into one. So armed with my bounty I downloaded the following albums:

Rebecca St James - If I Had One Thing To Tell You
The album isn't bad, but it's not quite up to par with her album "Pray," released in 1998

Delirious - The Mission Bell
I hadn't bought an album by these guys in quite some time, and haven't listened to it all the way through, but what I've heard so far is quite good.

Kelly Clarkson - Breakaway
A guilty pleasure. Plus when combined with gift certificates, a no brainer. Good pop music.

The Killers - Hot Fuss
My sister loves this band, so I'd thought I'd check it out. Haven't had time to listen all the way through yet.

Then on Sunday night, I saw Derek Webb, Sara Groves and Jars of Clay in concert. Derek Webb was phenomenal. I have two of his albums and enjoy him immensely. He writes songs that really challenge Christians, and it ways that aren't always easy to hear. Sara Groves was ok. I hadn't ever heard her before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I really dug a couple of her songs, but the rest were pretty bland. I would probably consider Jars of Clay to be one of my favorite bands, so I was really disappointed by this show because they played so much off their first album which I think is far inferior to the rest of their work. The music and lyrics are blah (although Worlds Apart is ok), and not as interesting as any of their other albums. If I hear "Flood" one more time I will scream. Still, there were some really good numbers, and they played two tracks off the album they are currently putting together which sounded excellent. I did really enjoy the show closer "I'll Fly Away," but I may think I may skip their next visit to town.

Inside the Zoo.....

Books written to strictly cash in on associations are rarely any good, and this book is no exception. Turns out the lady who wrote it was just sued by U2 last year to get back items she allegedly stole from them, which would have been during the Joshua Tree tour close to 20 years ago. So the title should be "my few months with U2." But the phrasing got suckers like me to read the thing. In fact, the author's association with the band begins and ends with this tour, yet the cover of the book has a picture of Bono taken around 2000. Not a lot of new information is given about the band, although it was interesting to note that she portrays her relationship with Bono as close-knit. It makes the reader wonder if she's pulling a James Frey here because when Bono testified in the trial against her he said not many people cared for her, and that she was hard to deal with. Not exactly the words of a close friend. I wouldn't recommend this book to even the biggest U2 fan.

Taxing, indeed

I just finished this book last night. It was an interesting look at the life of an IRS Revenue Officer (tax collector), and the kinds of things they face while collecting from people who owe the IRS money. I would have enjoyed this book more if the author dealt more with his job than his personal life. In fact, the personal parts commandeer the book in the last few pages which is too bad, because his personal life isn't all that interesting. I sure wasn't reading the book to find out how much he loved his supervisor, or to find out how hitting a dog changed his outlook on life. The book goes from semi-interesting in the first half to downright strange in the last half. I'd only recommend this book to people who love memoirs.

The Twisted Logic Tour

Friday of last week I decided that I'd like to attend the Coldplay show at Arco on Monday, Jan 30th. I didn't really care about good seats, as I just wanted to hear them in concert. One of the things everyone always mentions about this band is how much they sound like U2 as this review points out (geez, look at the title of the review), and that may be part of the reason their music appeals to me. When we picked up our tickets at will call last night the lady said they had just released lower level seats, and that we could upgrade our tickets if we'd like to. So for an extra $50, instead of sitting in the nosebleeds off to the side of the stage we sat 8 rows from the stage in the center.
Fiona Apple was the opener, and she was pretty good. Although instead of getting the crowd up for Coldplay she kinda lulled everyone into a mellow mood. She seems like she'd be a great fit in a smaller theater, and not a cavernous arena. I kind of always thought of her as a little bit psychotic, but after having seen her show I'd change that opinion to full on lunatic. She is a very emotional performer, to say the least.
Coldplay didn't take the stage until 9:30, and only played for 90 minutes. For the prices they charge they could have at least gone to 2 hours, and given Ms. Apple 30 minutes instead of the 50 minutes she did have. Overall the show was excellent. Chris Martin is a very charismatic performer who really knows how to work the crowd (I'll give him one more album until he develops the full on Bono complex), and their guitarist appears to have graduated from The EDGE University of guitar playing with flying colors. I guess if you're going to crib from as band, U2 isn't a bad pick.

I blame my parents

When I was 5 one of my favorite things to do was listen to records on the stereo through headphones. I listened to two records in particular: John Denver's Back Home Again (featuring Thank God I'm a Country Boy and Grandma's Feather Bed, which made me always want pancakes), and Neil Diamond's I'm Glad You're Here With Me Tonight which featured my favorite song at the time, Desire'e. Listening to that song now makes me wonder if my parents even checked lyrics. Of course when I was five I had no idea what "Well I became a man At the hands of a girl Almost twice my age" actually referred to. I just thought it was catchy. So there you go: I enjoyed (and still do) John Denver and Neil Diamond. All this to say that I recently bought Neil's 12 Songs CD the other night, and it is quite good. For someone who is the consummate showman, this is a very restrained album. I think Rick Reuben will do for Neil Diamond's career what he did for Johnny Cash: create a late career renaissance.

The Historian

I just finished this book last night. I'm not sure it lives up to the hype that Amazon and other readers have placed on it. I think you could sum up the thesis statement for this novel as "Dracula digs books." At 638 pages it gets very long winded in places. The author is a good writer, but I think I'd settle for a little more conciseness in her prose. I do think you'll see this in a movie theater fairly soon

The Kite Runner

One of the books I recently finished was called The Kite Runner. It is the story of an Afghani man who grows up in Afghanistan and comes to live in the US. It is extremely well written, and is very engaging as it gives the reader a glimpse into Afghan culture. I think the most interesting part of the book is that the author has made the protagonist deeply flawed, sometimes to the point where your loyalties lie elsewhere. And just when I thought I could predict where the book was headed, it twists into something else entirely. It is a highly entertaining read. One caution: there are some disturbing descriptions of traumatic events.

Viva Las Vegas

We spent this past weekend in Las Vegas with some friends and family. The hotel we stayed at was centrally located on the strip, with a decent buffet. All the shrimp and crab you could eat. Can't beat that.
We saw one show, La Reve at the Wynn on Sunday night. It was entertaining, if not a little weird. The only drawback was the 10:30 pm start time. The absolute highlight of the trip was watching football in a sportsbook. It's an absolute smorgasboard, trying to watch 10 games simultaneously. It's almost enough to make me want to move to Vegas. By far, the best sportsbook I saw out of the 5 or 6 we went to was the one in Caesars, probably due to the fact they show the games on screens large enough to show movies. I can't recommend this enough if you like watching football. It would have been better had I won the 4 game parlay I picked. I got 3 right, but stupidly picked the over of 51 points in the Colts/Titans game. Easy come, easy go.

Aloha

I've spent the past week on Maui, and had an excellent time. On Thanksgiving, I ate a turkey dinner at a seafood restaurant, and it wasn't too bad. We stayed in condos that were a short walk from Black Rock beach. I even got to catch up on some reading, finishing two books, which I'll get to eventually. I didn't get to snorkel as much as I wanted to, but I did still spend a great deal of time getting thrown about in the surf, which in itself was highly entertaining. The downside of coming home was going from weather that was in the high 70's to low 80's to freezing upon returning. I'd plan a return trip tomorrow if I could

Watchmen

This graphic novel was recently rated by Time Magazine as one of the all time best 100 novels, so I had to check out the hubub. I enjoy comics, having collected them when I was younger, so I was really looking forward to it. So, after having read it, I don't think I'd even put it in the top 100 of comics I've read. It was ok, but some of the subplots and especially the ending were incredibly lame. I thought Kingdom Come was much better. That's why these dopey lists are so pointless: it's all so subjective.

What a show

I went to the 2nd Oakland show for U2 last night, and it was excellent. It was even better than when I saw them back in May in San Jose. We were a little closer to the tip of the stage this time, to the point where you could make eye contact with the band. The only drawback being all the pot smoke, which is bound to happen when Damien Marley is your opener. He was ok, but not great. It was fascinating that he had a guy on stage that did nothing else but follow him around and waive the Jamaican flag. Pretty good gig if you can get it.
And when Bono remembers the concert over the causes, the performance really amps up. They played Fast Cars and Bad for the first time on this tour, and closed with Bad. It was a fantastic show, getting me excited for the last show of this leg coming up in Portland.
Here is the set list they played.

City of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
Elevation
I Will Follow
Gloria
Still Haven’t Found
Beautiful Day
Miracle Drug
Sometimes You Can’t Make it On Your Own
Love and Peace or Else
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Bullet The Blue Sky
Miss Sarajevo

Pride in the Name of Love
Where the Streets have No Name
One

First Time
Stuck in a Moment
With or Without You

All Because of You
Fast Cars
Bad

Oasis, indeed

Yet another reason why I like Bono so much: his choice of books

The creating process

This is an interesting article on the work spaces of well known Bay Area authors. witw, you may want to skip this to avoid raising your ire.

Interesting book review

I have to admit, this whole Anne Rice thing has me intrigued