Media Musings

Music

Amazon is having a $5 MP3 album sale, so I snagged a few I've been meaning to pick up and hadn't gotten around to -- Lacuna Coil's Shallow Life, Otep's Smash the Control Machine and Bat for Lashes' Fur and Gold.

(Aside: Will informs me he heard Otep on local radio on the way back from picking up his car. Huh. It's about time they got airplay around here.)

It was interesting to note the presence of the Fever Ray album on both John Allison's and Jason Pitzl-Waters's top album lists for 2009, but I'm still trying to figure out why. (Follow the link to John Allison's blog for samples.) I like the idea in my head, but my heart barely gives it a shrug before heading off blithely to be crushed by the disappointment that is the newest Faith and the Muse CD. Honestly, Fever Ray's music is fine, I suppose, but Karin sounds like a less squeaky Bjork, to me. Then again, I'm not exactly a connoisseur of indie music. I still haven't made it all the way through The Hazards of Love while conscious, as much as it pains me to admit it. Colin's voice grates on me and induces a serious zone-out effect after a while.


Movies

Moving on. We watched Ink (trailer: here) the other day -- it's an indie film, an amazing little modern story about a little girl and her father, and their entanglement with the bringers of dreams (Storytellers) and the bringers of nightmares (Incubi). I loved it; it manages to combine fast-paced action with surreal artistic sequences to great effect, despite the indie production, and the sound direction was spot-on, IMO. Unfortunately, because we watched it on Hulu, the movie was broken up periodically by a commercial, so that threw the pacing in some places.

Highlights:

1. Loved the environmental stasis effect in the first confrontation sequence
   
2. Jacob the Pathfinder manages to steal the show in several spots; he's definitely the character I found most intriguing despite my initial reaction to him
   
3. It has a sequence that is possible the best on-screen example of fate magic, ever
   
4. I found the incubi suitably creepy, and found myself wishing the leader of the Assembly had gotten more screen time
   

Lowlights:

1. Suffers a tiny bit from shaky camera syndrome in spots and some of the combat scenes are a bit hard to make out
   
2. The world mythology is rich enough that I actually would have preferred more of that and less of the main character
   
3. The little girl's dad is a jerk ... but I can understand why, at least
   

I was less pleased with the ending than the rest of the movie, but will refrain from commenting for fear of spoilage. (The ending certainly didn't ruin the rest of the movie for me.) If anyone else has seen it, I'd be interested in hearing their thoughts.

Also finally saw UP, thanks to Edige and Auzumel. For anyone who hasn't seen it, I recommend the UPular Remix by DJ Pogo. Though I confess I can't make out a lot of the "lyrics," it's the remixing of the vocal track bits into musical notes that makes UPular interesting.

I'd still like to see Sherlock Holmes, and probably Avatar, at some point. (I just can't get excited about Avatar for some reason...) Also, the 2008 Swedish vampire flick, Let the Right One In. They are on the Things to Do list. Mom informs me that It's Complicated is hi-larious, as well, and she insists that I must watch it. We shall see.

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Sita Sings the Blues

Sita Sings the Blues is fabulous. Aside from being based on the heart-wrenching tale of Sita told in the Ramayana, I love writers and artists who are able to bring modern relevance to the old stories, and Nina Paley managed to do that both through interweaving a modern-day breakup tale with Sita's story, and by using Annette Hanshaw's jazz vocals as Sita's modern voice. (Also: Todd Michaelsen's three Indian-flavored electronica pieces are awesome. Must download those.) The three shadow puppet narrators manage to be informative (for those who don't have a clue about Indian myth or The Ramayana) and also hilarious at the same time.

The only complaint I have about the movie is that it's too long ... and by that, I could have done without a few of the Hanshaw songs without losing the fun and flavor of the story. They all fit eerily well, mind you...

Apparently there will also be a hi-res download of the film in the archives beginning March 7. Good to know.

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