GRIZZLY PEAR
In college I was cast in a modern dance piece that included this song and Dave Brubeck’s “Unsquare Dance”.
(I had no business performing, but males were in short supply.)
A few years later came YouTube and the realization that this song was paired with a great video.
I’ve fallen behind, so let’s declare amnesty and just power through the past half year in reverse chronological order.
Bambi, Algar, Armstrong, Hand, 1942
OMG the animation is mind-blowingly gorgeous. The oil painted backgrounds are luscious and the hand animation holds up against anything you see today. It’s a natural outgrowth of the work the studio did in Fantasia. We watched it on Saturday and I could watch it again tomorrow.
The Muppet Christmas Carol, Brian Henson, 1992
Another classic on Disney+. This one’s status is dependent on the original story and time of the year. I gotta wonder what Michael Caine was thinking about his career as a A-list actor playing with dolls. Did he take in good fun?
Zootopia, Howard, Moore, Bush, 2016
Was fun when we watched it a few years ago, and fun again. The kids really enjoyed it too. Not a masterpiece like Bambi, but certainly in the top third of Disney’s esteemed catalog.
Luck, Holmes, Abad, 2022
The only reason I watched it was because Lasseter was involved. He might have been good in his heyday, but it’s obvious he needed the Pixar team more than they needed him. The story was drawn out and the animation awkward. Absolute mediocrity at best.
Wolfwalkers, Moore & Stewart, 2020
Lovely film to round out the trilogy with Secret of the Kells and Song of the Seas. A welcome respite from the Pixar-Disney-Dreamworks 3D hegemony.
Home Alone, Chris Columbus, 1990
Fun. I didn’t watch it until just a few years ago. I’ve always had something against rambunctious brats (I didn’t get into Calvin and Hobbes until I realized the peerless quality of the Watterson’s drawings). I could see this movie becoming a holiday staple until the kids are old enough to watch Tokyo Godfathers.
Toy Story 4, Josh Cooley, 2019
Pixar knows what their doing, even if I’m not totally sold on Bo Peep becoming an action hero.
Toy Story 3, Lee Unkrich, 2010
A fun caper. Slightly better than Toy Story 2, but the original still holds the crown in my heart, in spite of the dated graphics.
Frankenweenie, Tim Burton, 2012.
It’s OK as a stop motion full length movie. Maybe I didn’t enjoy it as much because we weren’t expecting a black and white film. I should watch the original half-hour show. I wonder if brevity might have shaped a better story.
Encanto, Bush, Howard, Smith, 2021
It was such a big deal the year before. After getting a Disney+ account we had to watch it. It’s fine. I enjoyed the wacky song and dance numbers but the movie just ran too darn long. Then again, they all drag out nowadays.
Kung Fu Panda (1-3), Osborne & Stevenson, 2008, Jennifer Yuh Nelson, 2011, Carloni & Nelson, 2016
Fun popcorn series. I can’t remember a ton from any given movie but I’ve watched each of these films at least twice and wouldn’t argue against watching them again. My wife isn’t fond of the chop suey orientalism, but I’m inured to it.
Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight, season 1, 2022
Awful TV show, but the kids liked it. My wife didn’t even bother to watch this.
Lucifer (ep 1 and 2), Tom Kapinos, 2016
The first couple episodes were fun, but I wasn’t going to invest hours of my life on this show.
Love Death + Robots (seasons 1-3), Tim Miller, 2019-2022
I love animation. This series fulfilled every bit of it’s promise. Each short is a banger so it’s hard to pick favorites. But to name four: “Sonnie’s Edge”, “Zima Blue”, “The Very Pulse of the Machine”, and “Jibaro”. I may have to re-up with Netflix when season 4 comes out.
Arcane, Pascal Charrue & Arnaud Delord, 2021
I finally got around to watching it long after the buzz from it’s release. It’s great. Didn’t realize that a video game company could produce such a good story. The fight at the end of Episode 7 of is one of the best fight scenes I’ve ever watched. Even though the nine episode series kind of runs out of steam at the end, I still spent the week after watching Arcane commentary on YouTube to process the journey.
I’m ripping a CD that I burned in my first year in grad school. Most of it is the excellent Psychograss album Now Hear This.
I had thrown in a few extra tracks in the leftover space at the end, which is now a snapshot of my mental state of that tumultuous time in my early twenties.
The opening bars of each of these tracks triggers a flood of dormant feelings.
I have mixed feelings of Architecture school. It’s inherently traumatic but created memories I wouldn’t want to give up.
If I was in power, I would develop a less vicious pedagogy…but I can’t muster any sympathy for students today, even if Studio hasn’t changed in two decades.
Humans are weird. Maybe I’m more cruel than I dare to admit.
She enjoyed the trailer and this is one of her favorites from the Roald Dahl book set. We gave it a whirl on New Year’s Eve.
The girl closed 2022 by learning the hard truth that adaptations distort beloved stories. She expressed her dismay throughout the viewing. Expecting fidelity is a surefire path to disappointment.
I hadn’t read the book, so I thought it was fine. It was a welcome respite from the current Pixar aesthetic. The story and characters had a delightful edge (which Disney studiously avoids). I haven’t watched Wes Anderson before, but I now grok his reputation. I’d watch him again.
After the kids went to bed, I read the book. It’s a fun, quiet story. I get why my daughter felt let down.
We discussed it further on New Year’s Day —
The director added all that stuff to fill a 90 minute movie.
But why did he make these changes?
Those are plot devices to manufacture tension.
Were they necessary? The book was better.
I agree, but the mass market demands more excitement in their movies.
As a father, it hurts to feel her sense of betrayal. Then again, she’s embarking upon lifetime of disappointing movie adaptations.
Best that we got the initial shock out of the way, last year.
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last night
she reread
still prefers
the source
What’s not to love?!
What’s a better Disney film?
As I grow up, my tastes regress.
Continue the trend and this will become my favorite movie!
(Though I can’t envision how it could dislodge Pom Poko.)
We watched it with her years ago.
No memories.
As I pulled up the movie, she was unimpressed by my excitement.
Then it started.
She LOL’ed throughout.
The boy watched intently.
During our dinner break, he smiled and proclaimed
That was a lot!
(But refused to elaborate.)
I’ll re-interrogate him on film criticism during breakfast.
Should we watch the sequels?
I’m a timid gambler.
I’d quit while I’m ahead.
But if the kids insist…
Beautiful music video! A gorgeous meld of music, setting, and dance.
I love it when the team does something interesting. Especially when they avoid the tired party scenes that dominate the EDM space.
This was the Post that started my #MondayNightMusic hashtag. We’ll see how long I keep it up.
Practical effects!
A nostalgic reminder of life before CGI.
Movie magic still dazzles the kids.
I wanna sleep inside a blue Lego brick!
A slim, tight story.
(I’ve lost patience for protracted narratives.)
One denouement is enough.
A fun show with one blemish.
It’s a uniformly white world.
Growing up, my non-existence was status quo.
A perpetual bystander to a world of beautiful alabaster teens.
The sting lingers.
But I hope it’s not as pointed for them.
Today’s media is more diverse.
One homogenous film doesn’t feel like erasure —
Just a tart anachronism in today’s sea of color.
~
I used this trailer to convince the girl to cancel Netflix for Disney+.
We got sidetracked by everything else for a few months.
Happy we finally watched the movie.
Hoopla lets us borrow a certain amount of titles per month, and I used up my last few credits in October to try a variety of albums. Keith Jarrett’s Koln Concert blew me away. A commenter on a youtube video called it “the sound of God”.
Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane — two immortals. Even if Jarrett is my artist of the month John Coltrane is the “voice of God”.
Clifford Brown and Max Roach — another pairing of greats. Delilah is an awesome opening track.
Know what I Mean? — Cannonball Adderley with Bill Evans, I prefer the slow rendition of Waltz for Debby in its original incarnation.
The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings — I get the appeal of hearing everything, but give me the curated experience of an album. Maybe I’ll dig this after I become a real jazzbo.
Unity — I’d buy the album for the cover, but the organ doesn’t do it for me.
Paper Moon — Another great album cover, but Brubeck feels uninspired. It must be endlessly frustrating for musicians to pour their souls into an album only to be so casually dismissed.
Song for My Father — Horace Silver was the only (non-christmas) artist to cut through the dominance of Jarrett. This album swings.
Koln Concert — as noted in the intro, this overwhelmed everything else this month. It’s the most sold solo jazz album of all time for good reason.
Concerts Bremen / Lausanne — His first solo piano concert album. Very good, including Rick Beato’s “Most Beautiful Two Minutes in Music“.
Koln Concert — I borrowed it twice.
Facing You — His first solo piano (studio) album. Very good.
Paris Concert — It starts on a classical note and stays in that tone while being jazz. Remarkable. Not as accessible as Koln Concert but I’m intrigued.
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With the passage of Thanksgiving, and the advent of the holidays, my spare Hoopla credits in November were spent on holiday albums. Here is all the Christmas cheer you can handle — the kids insist.
A Charlie Brown Christmas — Last year, it started our jazz kick. This month I’ve found two great companions with Ella Fitzgerald Bobby Timmons.
Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas — I’m not a connoisseur of vocal music. This needs to change in 2023. She’s amazing.
Holiday Soul — Bobby Timmons plays just enough Christmas to make this a holiday album, but I could play this all year. Per the title, it’s got soul.
A Dave Brubeck Christmas — Solo piano. Unremarkable.
The Original: Gene Autry Sings Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer & Other Christmas Favorites — Fun album, starts with popular songs on side A and carols on side B.
White Christmas — Bing Crosby takes the opposite tack and serves the veggies first.
The Christmas Song — Nat King Cole sings traditional Christmas songs. I love his voice, my kids want cheery pop. In the war against Christmas they are partisans for the “Holidays”.
James Brown’s Funky Christmas — Definitely James Brown, need to listen to it again.
Elvis’s Christmas Album — Our kids’ introduction to Elvis.
A Motown Christmas — With my jazz kick, I’ve lost interest in compilations. I prefer to hear a unified voice in an album.
A Christmas Gift for you From Phil Spector — hard to enjoy this album with the spectre of its namesake.
Christmas with Sinatra and Friends — Sinatra is great but it feels disjointed as a compilation after the grave.
We’ll see which albums have staying power for repeated plays into Christmas after this initial survey.
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from the deep
peace on earth
good will to men
We didn’t get this growing up.
Asians on the big screen, speaking English!
Real characters, not ridiculous caricatures.
Awesome!
Unfortunately, the movie is just ok.
The animations are gorgeous — the tropics are luscious and OMG the water!
But the rest of it…
The story is ponderous (might have been better as a TV show.)
The dialog was a better than Shang Chi, but the plot is stale.
The ending is saccharine.
I’m spoiled, expecting too much from a Disney princess film.
Or maybe it’s a good sign, that we now expect for better than mediocre from a Hollywood film featuring people who look like us.
I grew up in a strictly classical house, but I ended up enjoying an extremely wide variety of music, everything from death metal, to tejano. My tastes run a mile wide and a millimeter deep.
Out of this sea of noise, I do find myself regularly returning to celtic instrumentals, bluegrass, and Bach’s Goldberg Variations. Though I’ve gotten onto a jazz kick lately.
Unfortunately, I never sit down to listen to music. Music is utilitarian noise while I do other stuff, Music has been relegated to third place after audiobooks / podcasts (for brainless chores and commutes) or silence (for focused attention).
Music is for the middle tasks needs a non-distracting background noise to keep my brain from becoming anxious when the work is progressing slowly. Music can lull a mind that is spinning faster than the hand can fly.
Traditionally, the lullaby has been Electronic Dance Music with driving beat and a simple melody. I’m slightly embarrassed by how much EDM I’ve consumed on youtube, but I’m also perversely proud of this odd quirk, like my occasional interest in the Eurovision song contest.
I’ve always been too cheap to pay for concert experiences so my musical life has been 99.5% experienced over recorded media. I grok the appeal of the live experience, but for $16 I can get a plastic disc that can replay that sound sequence in perpetuity. It’s a classic 80/20 problem, especially now that it is all free on the interwebs
In theory I want to learn how to properly appreciate music properly, but what should I delete from my schedule to make room for analyzing different versions of the Goldberg Variations or jazz standards?
Even if I found time for music appreciation, I’d rather practice a musical instrument to some level of proficiency. Much like my musical tastes, I have a wide variety of instruments that I play at an exceedingly beginner level.
I played piano for a very short period as a child. I lasted just long enough to learn the elementary basics of reading musical notation.
In elementary school, I learned the recorder like every other kid. I still have the beige Yamaha recorder from 3rd grade in Mr. Edwards class.
I played trombone in high school with a disastrous stint as a freshman in the UC Berkeley marching band. Music is too ephemeral for my materialist inclinations. I need a tangible deliverable. When I started architectural studios in the spring semester that year, I found my tribe.
For quite a while I didn’t play any music, but after finishing undergrad I road tripped through the Southwest. In Albuquerque I met a guy from Alaska who spent the long winters playing the banjo. He pulled it out for a magical night, noodling on the front stoop of the hostel.
(This was before we all had the internet in our pockets. I wonder if we’ve lost a generation over the last couple decades.)
After the trip I got my own banjo, but never got any good at it. Just like all the other instruments I didn’t practice diligently. I had a short revival of playing the banjo during grad school, but hit a plateau and stopped.
A couple years after grad school, I got into blues harmonica for a few months, playing it during lunch in the empty park next to my office (no one is outside during the Houston summer). I got good enough to bend notes, but stalled out and lost interest. I’m still quite fond of the harmonica – where else can you get a professional level instrument for $45?
About seven years ago, I borrowed my parent’s ukulele which taught me the concept of chords. Playing childrens songs felt like a reasonable goal. I got far enough to buy my own ukulele (a plastic model that is virtually indestructible), but then I came across a book on clawhammer banjo at the library and went back to my old fellow.
With the clawhammer style, I got good enough to play about five or six songs on the banjo but stopped. (For a while I kept it the corner of the playroom, so I could frail on a whim, but the boy broke with the fifth string a year ago and I haven’t fixed it.)
Finally, when the boy was born, I suddenly got entranced by the idea of percussion. I first picked up a djembe (what gorgeous bass!), but settled on a darbuka because I enjoyed the asymmetrical position. But again a lack of dedication meant I never internalized any of the standard rhythms. Maybe I can blame COVID because I stopped going to drum circles and haven’t returned.
I’d like to pick up a cajon to get some snares, but given my two week dalliance with the native american flute last summer (the girl hated the sound), I’m well it would be a frivolous purchase.
If I was to buckle down and focus, I would think the banjo would be my primary instrument, but who knows when I will prioritize doing musical practice.
I enjoy my music to be sure. Just not enough to be expert at any level.
Maybe one day.