Song: "Spellbound" by Siouxsie and the Banshees

Found myself singing this to myself on the subway the other day for no apparent reason:

Song: "Only You" by Yazoo

I found this great song in 3 interesting flavors on YouTube.

The original (embedding disabled, sadly, but come back once you've checked it out for the other versions):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdhdkzU2xD4

An odd remix (probably the 1999 one) with a strange video:



A really great recent live version by Alison Moyet with a full band:



The acapella cover version by Flying Pickets:



And a really, really, really, really (no, really) horrible cover by Enrique Iglesias:

Movie: "Half Nelson"

I'm reposting this because the movie is finally out and y'all should go see it.

This was one of those quietly amazing movies that come along very rarely. It's not out yet, but I got to see it at the Urbanworld VIBE Film Festival last night.

The festival was a mess, completely disorganized. The movie was supposed to start at 8:30pm, but didn't get going till 9:10pm. Then, at about the halfway mark, they got the reels mixed up and shut the movie down till they could fix it. We didn't get out until midnight, but I guess that just shows how much I was into the movie that I stuck it out till the end. I wish I could have stayed for the Q&A with the director, but I had to get up in the morning for work.

Ryan Gosling, hotter than than hot and an unbelievable actor to boot (check him out in"The Believer") plays Dan, a young history teacher at an inner city high school. He has the young idealist thing down, with an unfortunate drug habit that he thinks he can control on his own, having flunked rehab. He's hunkered down, high on crack, after a basketball game (he's the girl's coach) when he is discovered by one of his students, Drey, played by Shareeka Epps in her feature debut, and they begin a strange friendship. Shareeka Epps is also excellent in the movie. She has a quiet stoicism that occasionally lights up with the radiance of her true personality underneath. Drey is at a turning point in her life. Her brother is in jail, doing time for some unspecified job performed for the local drug dealer, and she could just as easily be headed for the same fate. Dan and Drey find themselves on two different ends of the same problem and their relationship gives each perspective on their own problem. I don't want to give any more of the plot away.

It's a very simple story told in a modern indie style, with tight, fluid camera work. The frame shifts focus to draw out interesting and revealing details, in urban-summery, washed-out colors. The story unfolds slowly in an understated style, but Gosling and Epps are powerful enough performers to keep you riveted. Epps keeps things under control more than Gosling, but Gosling is skilled enough to pull back from the really powerful moments to allow the viewer's emotions to carry the scene without spelling out every beat.

Secondary performances are excellent also: Anthony Mackie as Frank, the drug dealer, Tina Holmes (a favorite of mine from "Six Feet Under" and the ill-fated "Invasion") as Dan's ex, as well as Jay Sanders as Dan's jackass of a father in a single scene that explains so much about Dan.

Report Card:

5 out of 5

Demon Duck of Doom

Paleontologists in Australia have come across a find of 10-million-year-old fossils that include a meat-eating kangaroo with scary teeth and a large carnivorous duck-like bird that the scientists dubbed the "Demon Duck of Doom."

Geek humor at its finest!

Lordy

TV: "Battlestar Galactica"

The season 3 promo that aired this week:



So cruel. I don't think I can wait till October.

Album: "Rattlesnakes" by Lloyd Cole and The Commotions

Lloyd Cole and the Commotions were one of my favorite bands in the 80's and, unlike most of the stuff I was into at the time, remain so till this day. I remember when they came out they were positioned as an alternative to The Smiths. I was never into the Smiths at the time. I saw an interview with Morrissey and Johnny Marr on some Saturday morning TV show and they were such assholes (or, I guess, arseholes, as I was still living in England) that I decided I wasn't going to like them.

Unlike Morrissey and Marr, who created a unique electro-acoustic sound for themselves, The Commotions' sound was a pastiche of euro-folk-pop influences with Cole's arty name-dropping lyrics talk/sung over the top.

Rattlesnakes (1984)

Available still in its original CD format, this was re-released recently with an extra CD of bonus tracks.

My favorite track off the album, by far is "Are You Ready to be Heartbroken", as I've written about already. This one was covered, funnily enough by Sandie Shaw and released as a B-Side to her cover of The Smiths' "Hand in Glove." Sadly, I haven't been able to track the cover down, as it would have been a fun comparison.

Here are videos from the singles, posted to YouTube.com by some obliging contributors.

The first single, "Perfect Skin":



"Forest Fire"



"Rattlesnakes"



This was covered beautifully by Tori Amos on her Strange Little Girls album.

Song: "Trains to Brazil" by Guillemots

Sort of a (I think) Scottish version of The Polyphonic Spree (But not really):

Song: "Lloyd, I'm Ready to be Heartbroken" by Camera Obscura

I fell in love with this song when it came out a few months ago. It has that sweet naivete that reminds me of Everything But The Girl from "Baby The Stars Shine Bright"-era.



And it references one of my all-time favorite songs:

"Are You Ready to be Heartbroken" by Lloyd Cole and the Commotions

This is a fun article about Camera Obscura's album and the two songs.

And here's a great song - "Don't Leave Me Behind" - from the above-mentioned Everything But the Girl album.

Song: "Sheila" by Jamie T

More disposable pop music from the UK. English white boy trying to be black. Silly, but a great fun summer song.



Dropped to #36 from #22 after only 2 weeks in the UK singles chart. That's a shame.

Song: "In the Morning" by Razorlight

I'm really into this song. It sounds like someone else, probably from the late eighties, but I can't think who. I'll also probably be over the song by next week.



Dropped to #7 this week from #2 after 3 weeks in the UK singles chart.

Comedy: "Eddie Izzard"

Here's a funny clip of my favorite comedian, Eddie Izzard: