Category: Medias

My wife and daughter when to listen to a jazz saxophonist at a free library concert but it was so popular they couldn’t get in.

After they got back home, I pulled up some jazz on youtube so it wouldn’t be a complete loss and came across Unsquare Dance by Dave Brubeck.

I’ve heard the song before, maybe even danced in a performance to it. Or maybe it it was someone else’s performance in the same show. I can’t remember, but still it was good to be reintroduced to it.

It wasn’t the Sunday afternoon we planned, but it worked out well enough. And damn those are some killer tambourines in this performance.

Last night, my wife and I snuck off to watch a movie after the kids fell asleep.

Summer Wars had won the 2010 Japan Academy Award for animated film. It is indeed a very nicely done film, but was ultimately just a fun fluffy popcorn flick with lots of action.

It’s a little unfair to come away slightly disappointed, since I find a lot of Disney and Pixar fare just that as well. But still, I guess all these years of watching Studio Ghibli films has made me expect just a little more in its core.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s worth a watch, but unless I’m missing something, it is just what it says it is.

Talk about being late to the party.

Actually I had seen this one, when it came out, on someone’s downloaded screener.

So I finally decided to watch the “real” thing on my 32″ TV.

Wow.

I fully expected for the CGI to feel dated, but it held up great.

I think the movie may have been tarnished by the reputation of the sequels, because I planned on getting bored during various parts of the movie, especially since I already knew the plot.

Nope.

Maybe they got plodding and indulgent in those latter two films, but this first one takes you from here to there and done. It did exactly its job and cut out.

And since I came of age in that era, I still have an affinity for long black trench coats, boots, and leather…though you’ll never catch me in the last one.

“Guns, lots of guns.”

I am way, way late to the party. And I haven’t yet seen one of his feature films.

My favorite director is now Spike Jonze.

In the past, had I recognized the name as auteur, which made me assume he was one of those guys that tries too hard.

The other day, I fell into watching his music videos (thanks youtube!) and was utterly blown away. He is a master of his craft. He was great on a budget, but made fancy ones as well. It felt like every next video was my favorite. He knew timing exquisitely and suspense and climax.

I would find myself jumping out of my seat and laughing out loud.

And half the time I didn’t like the music!

Here are three videos, each a decade apart – 1999, 2009, and 2019.

Fifteen years ago, I came across a bluegrass band at the Tuesday Farmer’s Market. I was so struck by them, I followed them around that July 4th weekend as the performed around town in a wickedly cold San Francisco.

The group lasted for a few more years but eventually disbanded. Their CD’s are still a fun listen, and this song is particularly good.

Maybe it’s a bit too maudlin for mass consumption, but worth sharing.

You taught me the courage of stars before you left.
How light carries on endlessly, even after death.
With shortness of breath, you explained the infinite.
How rare and beautiful it is to even exist.

I couldn’t help but ask
For you to say it all again.
I tried to write it down
But I could never find a pen.
I’d give anything to hear
You say it one more time,
That the universe was made
Just to be seen by my eyes.

excerpt from Saturn, by Sleeping at Last

Maybe I was just in a maudlin mood, but I came across the lyrics and it just hit me hard.

Not so much for me, but as something to tell the kids.

However, I’m not sure I would. Maybe these sentiments are better left unspoken. They see themselves as the center of the world already.

Maybe like sex, drugs, and rock and roll, there will be a time and place for them to learn about this, but not now.

Hopefully I’ll be there to tell them, when it’s time.

I just finished watching the now concluded youtube channel Every Frame a Painting.

You can ask only so much out of this free internet world and we were lucky to be given these little five to ten minute video essays from the perspective of an editor.

I’m not a film buff, but each of those 27 videos were great to watch. Now I gotta figure out what to watch while I take my blood pressure in the mornings.

I was doing the dishes while my father-in-law was watching a trivia game show on Chinese TV. Amidst the hijinks, I snapped to attention when they host quoted in English “government of the people, by the people, for the people”.

My Mandarin isn’t any good so I have no context on what was going on before or after the quote drop, but I’m pretty sure the folks out there had no idea about all that is embodied in this line.

But it was a great reminder to take a moment to revisit this speech as a cornerstone of our shared mythology, defining who we are as Americans.