Duma Key

I am currently about a quarter of the way through Stephen King’s latest book titled Duma Key. Wow! What a great book so far. Folks, this is Stephen King at his absolute best. When this comes out next week (Tuesday, January 22nd), run right out and buy it.

Movies, Best of 2007

2007 was an off year for me. What I mean is that I did not get to see the number of movies I normally do. 26 movies seen makes it very difficult to rate my top ten movies of the year, when there were so many others that I missed that could potentially rate as a favorite. The other part of what make this difficult is that many of the movies I saw in the beginning of last year were movies that were “officially” released in 2006 in order to be considered for the Academy Awards- even though they were not shown in my area until 2007. Do I say that ‘The Lives of Others’ is not available to be my number one movie of 2007 because of that? Who can say?

This year, I will not do a top ten only because I did not see enough films- but I will say that ‘No Country For Old Men’ was the best film I got to see last year friend-o.

The Coen Brothers have achieved many things in their storied careers and this film puts them into the rarified air of top directors. Yes, they also make quirky films but this film shuts up any critic or anyone else who says they cannot make a serious and epic film. Plus, they write too! Bonus for all of us.

Popcorn movie of the year: Juno. What lovable movie this is. I want to go see it again to laugh at the same zany dialog and smile like I did when I left the theatre. Maybe the most fun I had at the movies this year.

Movie I waited for a long time that did not disappoint: The Simpsons Movie. Homer and the gang (should I really say Groening and the Gang?) delivered the Simpsons movie we’ve waited a long time to see. Now I can laugh at the things I missed because I got the DVD for Christmas. Woohoo!

Here is the complete list of movies I saw in 2007:

1) The Painted Veil
2) Notes on a Scandal
3) Children of Men
4) Letters From Iwo Jima
5) Pan's Labyrinth
6) Venus
7) Little Children
8) Breach
9) Days of Glory (Indigenes)
10) The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen)
11) Zodiac
12) Shooter
13) The Namesake
14) Grindhouse
15) The Reaping
16) Shrek the Third
17) 28 Weeks Later
18) Black Book (Zwartboek)
19) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
20) The Simpsons Movie
21) 3:10 to Yuma
22) American Gangster
23) No Country For Old Men
24) Before the Devil Knows Your Dead
25) I Am Legend (IMAX)
26) Juno

Music, Best of 2007

Hello Music Fans!

Here are my top 15 releases from 2007 (In Order):

1) Southern Culture on the Skids - Countrypolitan Favorites
2) Lyle Lovett and His Large Band - It’s Not Big It’s Large
3) Pearl Jam - Live at the Gorge 05/06
4) Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero
5) Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
6) UNKLE - War Stories
7) Sloan - Never Hear the End of It
8) Radiohead - In Rainbows
9) Stax 50^th Anniversary Collection
10) Bruce Springsteen with The Sessions Band - Live in Dublin
11) The Rosebuds - Night of the Furies
12) Stars - In Our Bedroom After the War
13) Imperial Teen - the hair the tv the baby & the band
14) The Bird and the Bee - The Bird and the Bee
15) Feist - The Reminder

When Southern Culture on the Skids released Countrypolitan Favorites early in the year, I was really psyched to hear it. When I finally did, I was a bit disappointed because I wanted the old SCOTS that I come to love over the years. Sure, I liked a lot of the songs on the cd, but the disc did not stay with me… that is until I saw them live. SCOTS has always been one of my favorite bands to see live. Their show at The Rhythm Room in October made me love this album. Let me repeat that: I L.O.V.E. this album. Listening to it for weeks after the show made me realize that the “old SCOTS” that I was pining for was just buried in songs and a style that I normally don’t enjoy: Country… which leads me to my number two album from 2007.

It’s Not Big It’s Large by Lyle Lovett and His Large Band is as classic Lyle Lovett as you will ever get. With his desolate Texas songs & swing sensibility that makes me want to crank up my Bob Wills cd’s, It’s Not Big It’s Large is almost the perfect Lyle Lovett album. If you are a fan of Lyle’s & if you get a chance to see him live do not pass up the opportunity as he is a fantastic live performer.

Other Worthy Releases this year:

Clutch - From Beale Street to Oblivion
Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger
The Shins - Wincing the Night Away
Lucinda Williams - West
Peter Bjorn and John - Writer’s Block
Air - Pocket Symphony

Guilty Pleasure of the Year:

I spent a week in Portland earlier in the year in an attempt to see if it was going to be a place I’d like to move to (it wasn’t). I had a great rental car while I was there (a brand new Nissan Murano with an impressive factory made sound system). I brought a variety of cd’s with me to listen to while I was checking out the surrounding area plus I purchased 10 or 12 cd’s while I was there. The guilty pleasure part of this was just riding around in a new area listening to great music. I don’t get to do that here as my car stereo is limited to radio. While the trip ultimately was a bust for me, I do remember those days driving around- windows down, wind in my face and music blasting. There is nothing like listening to music in your car.

Musical Disappointments of the Year:

PJ Harvey - White Chalk
Arctic Monkeys - Favourite Worst Nightmare
Kaiser Chiefs - Yours Truly, Angry Mob

PJ Harvey’s White Chalk was heartbreakingly disappointing for me. She’s always been one of my favorite artists, but as soon as I heard that warbling falsetto on the opening track, I knew it was just going to suck… and it did. I applaud the effort to try something new, but I hope she does not continue in this direction.

Arctic Monkeys and Kaiser Chiefs suffered the dreaded sophomore slump that is the slayer of many bands. Hopefully they will rebound with better efforts in the future.

Debut of the Year:

I cannot think of one new artist that really blew me away this year. Amy Winehouse made the most noise this year as a relatively new artist (her debut album was issued a few years before last years Back to Black) but now I just wish she’d go away because I am tired of seeing her face appear online and tired of hearing her where I work (not saying anymore about that!).

Trend I wish would go away:

mp3 dominance. I miss good record stores- hell, I miss bad ones too. I have a decent used place here I shop at and I get my hits cheaply at a large big box retailer that I frequent occasionally- but I live in a metropolitan area that has over five million people yet I can count on two hands the number places I could buy music at. I lived in an area in the 90’s that had 250,000 and it had the same amount or more. How can that be? As I talked about last year in my music best of list, the music industry has shot itself in the foot in many ways and now mp3 is their latest target to complain about. It will never be what it was before, but can’t we all just get along?

2007 was a down year for me musically. I did manage to add 122 titles to my collection but a large number of those were either freebies from work or titles I copied from friends of mine. There were plenty of other cd’s I was interested in checking out that I just wasn’t able to. A few examples:

Rilo Kiley - Under the Blacklight
New Pornographers - Challengers
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss - Raising Sand
Joy Division reissues (all three of them)
Taken by Trees - Open Field
Band of Horses - Cease to Begin
Siouxsie - Mantaray
Rumble Strips - Girls and Weather
White Williams - Smoke
LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
John Fogerty - Revival

Hope you enjoyed my list.

Feedback is hoped for and encouraged.

Four

I’ve been in four major relationships in my life that lasted approximately 13 years or so. You’d think I would have gotten the hang of it for once instead of just floundering along like a salmon going upstream to spawn- though I guess the analogy is wrong because salmon have are pre-programmed to have a plan to do something with their lives. This post is not about having a pity party for myself, it is a note for me to read later on- to show myself that maybe its just not a good idea to be in a relationship with anyone when I have not clearly been able to handle one much less handle myself as a grown up. Am I sharing too much? Who knows? At the age that I am now, I am beginning to realize that maybe being alone is not the bad thing after all. I just have to get over the crushing loneliness and alienation that I’ve self-imposed. Wow, this sure sounds like a self-incriminating post to me.

I’ve loved some very good women in my life. They’ve deserved my love because they have all loved me unconditionally. Some of my relationship failures were totally my fault. Some were a combination. Some were more one sided in the other direction… and that seems to change in my estimation from my point of view to the opposite. Some, were combinations of failures on both parts. Sometimes, I do not know who was at fault anymore and honestly, it does not matter because the past is past.

I should not dwell on it, but I do. No one likes being alone or being the cause of someone else’s pain. Yet, I am alone and I have caused pain.

One of these days, I have to learn how to deal with being alone and being with someone else while not feeling so alone.

Clearly, there is much to work on. All I can offer is apologies and try to move on while self-healing as best I can.

Notes on “Dead Boys”

I’ve always said that I’d rather take a punch than get a paper cut. Paper cuts suck. The worst ones near your fingernails really suck. The worst I ever had was in junior high when I was day dreaming in class in stead of paying attention. Paper in hand, I was holding it near my face for a reason that I cannot remember and I proceeded to rub it across the under part of my nose near the top of my lip. The pain it caused haunts me to this day.

Dead Boys is a book of L.A. based short stories by Richard Lange. This is not your glamorous Hollywood variety of mini-prose nor is it crime riddled with “the cops / the D.A.” f*cked me kind of stories either. These are cross sections in the underbelly- people getting by; alcoholic; riddled with despair; criminal; failure; loss. Tee-totaling near the edge of reason, some of the characters cannot possibly function on a day to day basis, yet they wake up for another taste of bars that open at six A.M. or relationships that creep by in mind numbing uneasiness. They live in the minute to minute moments of their lives- minds always thinking, always moving, and seeing everything near the edge of madness.

A man takes his teenage junkie/prostitute roommate across town to get married to her pimp only to have his car break down near the very bridge where he is hounded by the memory of a savage and unexplained personal tragedy.

An advertising guy ends a letter to an old classmate who lives in Alaska with the following: “Remember how you said it’s dark there six months out of the year? Well, it’s dark here all the time. P.S. Don’t write back.”

Dead Boys is like that paper cut I self-inflicted as a teenager- the difference is you have to add sand and rubbing alcohol into the mix. Brutally honest about what lives are like on the far end of the spectrum, Richard Lange taps into a vein you want to hit again & again.

Employee Review

I received my employee review today. It is extremely nice to know that you are well thought of. I maxed out my review in all areas and received a higher than normal raise. I wish I was younger and had the desire to move up in the company because the opportunities are there for me- very high ones. If only…

NFL 2007 Predictions

I know I am nearly a month late in posting this, but these are my real picks for this season. You know it must be true because of who I have in the Super Bowl and how much they are sucking right now.

NFC

East

1^st Dallas

2^nd Philadelphia

3^rd New York

4^th Washington

North

1^st Chicago

2^nd Detroit

3^rd Green Bay

4^th Minnesota

South

1^st New Orleans

2^nd Carolina

3^rd Tampa Bay

4^th Atlanta

West

1^st San Francisco

2^nd St. Louis

3^rd Seattle

4^th Arizona

AFC

1^st New England

2^nd New York

^3rd Buffalo

4^th Miami

North

1^st Pittsburg

2^nd Baltimore

3^rd Cincinnati

4^th Cleveland

South

1^st Indianapolis

^2nd Tennessee

3^rd Jacksonville

4^th Houston

West

^1st San Diego

2^nd Denver

3^rd Kansas City

4^th Oakland

Playoff Seeds

NFC

Chicago (1)

New Orleans (2)

Dallas (3)

San Francisco (4)

St. Louis (5) WC

Carolina (6) WC

AFC

New England (1)

San Diego (2)

Indianapolis (3)

Pittsburg (4)

Baltimore (5) WC

Denver (6) WC

Playoffs

NFC

Dallas over Carolina

St. Louis over San Francisco

Chicago over Dallas

New Orleans over St. Louis

Chicago over New Orleans

AFC

Baltimore over Indianapolis

Denver over Pittsburg

New England over Baltimore

San Diego over Denver

San Diego over New England

Super Bowl

Chicago over San Diego

Yes, I picked Chicago as my pre-season Super Bowl champions. They just got toasted by Dallas the other night & they have a big quarterback issues going on. Dallas vs. New England is looking better all the time.

Fall in the Southwest

It is days like the last few that makes this miserably hot place worthwhile to live in. Finally, I can sleep with my window open for the crisp night air. One day, I won't live in this state anymore and I will get to experience a real fall as well- leaves, frost, and layers of clothes. I cannot wait!

What a night/day/life

Leonard Cohen

But I'm always alone.
And my heart is like ice.
And it's crowded and cold...


I cannot take credit for the words, but that is certainly how I feel right now.