by Low (1999)True, Low’s Just Like Christmas is far more Midwest-indie than my tastes tend to run – and I can vividly imagine it as the soundtrack to a precious, folksy Volkswagen commercial, but it’s undeniably, a sweet Christmas ditty.
Very nice to see new, catchy compositions for the Holiday are being written not just as an after thought to make money but artfully and with genuine heart.
directed by by Satoshi Kon (1997)The bizarre anime Perfect Blue just kind of explodes in front of you. It’s startling, disorienting and rapid. It never allows you to get too comfortable wrapping your head around it. Even the pop songs get truncated suddenly.
While the experience is jolting and one you just have to let take you with it, afterwards the effect is lasting and unsettling. I feel like I’m still not done thinking about it.
The story concerns a pop star turned actress who looses her innocence for stardom and perhaps attracts the murderous attentions of a distraught fan.
People around her start dying (and the movie takes on a Giallo sheen) But to say this is a serial killer movie about a pop star is like saying El Topo is a western.
After lots of twists, Things wrap up neater than expected, I had kind of hoped it would have retained its vagueness- still, this is a wild one and not for the kiddos!
A great companion to the similarly themed Black Swan.
by George R R Martin (1996-????)There’s so much to say about the epic Song of Ice and Fire series but so little you want to give away to those still buried within its thousands of pages.
Like so many others I picked the books up after loving the HBO adaptation… and what a fun time to be reading it. It’s the kind of book you want to discuss with people incessantly and there’s no shortage of fellow readers. Jim even texted me after especially incendiary chapters in disbelief.
With that kind of fervor and enthusiasm that the books evoke, George R.R. Martin has created something truly unique and it’s little wonder that the world is entranced.
I was as well as heartbroken, shocked (repeatedly and effectively), obsessed, angered, relieved, frustrated, awed and now after just finishing Dance with Dragons filled with a venomous ache for justice, some conclusions and frankly for some plot lines to get on with it already… ( I felt like Martin Sheen thinking “Mereen, shit I’m still only in Mereen”)
Yes it’s not without its flaws one cringe worthy sex scene where cock and cunt cant be told apart proves that but what’s harder for this reader is the scattered scope after the whirlwind of awesomeness in book three. The plot splits between two books and beloved characters aren’t seen for hundreds upon hundreds of pages. I can only imagine how frustrating this must have been for readers that had to wait years for the next book as I am about to do for book six.
But despite the flaws and the fact that it might never be completed, this is one extraordinary reading experience. Now I get to see how book two is interpreted on the show… too excited.
by The Sundays (1990)I was sitting in Mike’s apartment and suddenly – flash! I was twelve years old again: I was zoning out with my cd walkman, watching the rain from the back seat of my mom’s car and thinking of poetry about, hmmm let’s see, 7th grade, maybe it was Ralph Lowenstein Danny Jendral I had a crush on? (How soon we forget.)
Anyways – all it took to transport me to those olden days, where bands still looked like hangovers from the 80’s, was The Sundays hit, Here’s Where The Story Ends (now how long has it been since you heard this one?). It holds up pretty well, much better than similar artists like Cranberries and Belly in my opinion.
And since I am so old that kids these days now only know Star Wars as 3D animation on Cartoon Network, this ballad will be new to many of you younger folks, so do enjoy kids – maybe it will make you zone out with your iphone, watching the rain and thinking about poetry about the boy or girl you have a crush on. 
directed by François Ozon (1997)See the Sea is the only film in a while that has left me unsettled and jumping at noises in my apartment. Once you hear the premise, and learn that I am about to vacation on an island, you’ll know why.
A mother is left alone at an island vacation home with her ten month old baby. When a young backpacking woman arrives asking to set up camp in her yard, the mother relents looking for a bit of adult companionship, blind to the stranger’s strangeness. Things get creepy fast but subtly.
Marina de Van is amazing as the wanderer. Rarely do movies offer a villain so realistic and understated and they never cast someone that looks so right too. From her tongue ring, to her vacant stare, from her unkempt clothes, to her only smile in the movie (when she talks of her abortion), she embodies the women you see on true crime documentaries perfectly.
As the mother, Sasha Hails is equally interesting. We sympathize with the loneliness she feels with only an infant as company, (believe me!) but mother of the year she is not. There were so many times I was nervous for the child’s safety, whether left alone on a beach or crying in a bath tub, which only adds to the movie’s overall suspense.
Pretty much the worst thing you can imagine, and you begin worrying and imagining it right away, happens but that the conclusion is expected doesn’t make it any less shocking or the getting there any less tense.
A true gem of understated terror.
directed by Jacques Perrin (1996)I tend to gravitate to movies and books that explore the darker side of life, but every once and a while I just want to relax with something that makes the world seem wonderful and awe inspiring. The French documentary MicroCosmos is such a film.
I remember the movie making quite a splash with it’s amazing technology that manages to capture the most intimate daily moments of insects and thier surroundings. We follow a bee as it polluantes, we are up close and personal with mating snails, we see a drop of rain bounce a lady bug from her leaf and we are mesmerized by it all.
It makes one see the world in a way we’ve never seen it before. We thought it was great that it was shot in what Jim called “just some French countryside” and not some totally exotic local, making the somewhat familiar magical.
The film is mostly set to music, bookended with minimal narration. Funnily, and probably acurrately, the French felt this would be a tough sell with Americans and tried to tie it to Jurassic Park to gain an audience.
Like most things I watch these days, this is available streaming on netflix and looks amazing in HD.
Daughters of the nineties (and particularly sassy sons too), please don’t tell me I am the only one whose inner Funky Diva was let loose when En Vogue hit the airwaves.
With My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It), Something He Can Feel, and Free Your Mind, the Oakland foursome invaded suburbia and no girl was left without day dreams of herself sashaying down a disutopian runway in a push up bra top, or seducing dapper boys in a push up bra top, or denying boys your love in…a push up bra top.
Oh and sampling In Living Color? Hipster bands wish they had thought of it first!
30 Day Song Challenge – Day Twenty Seven: Best Song for Summer Strutting Through Queens:Round the Way Girl by LL Cool J (1991)
30 Day Song Challenge – Day Twenty Four: Best Song for Kicking Your Man to the Curb:
30 Day Song Challenge – Day Fourteen: Best Worst Cassingle to Make a Trip to the Mall for in 1992*:Informer by Snow (1992)
*From Personal Experience