Sincere Flattery

Dear Cold Play,

I love you. I really do.

I don't care if they call you watered down Radiohead. We all already knew that and it's OK. Very few people operate in the Radiohead spheres of Awesome and no one really expects that of you. There's really only room for a few; The Beatles, Mozart, Rachmaninoff, Earth Wind and Fire, and Kurt are up there and that's about it.

I'm writing because I'm feeling a little disappointed. It's been one thing after the other after the other lately. Whats going on guys??! You're all amazing musicians and writers and showman but I'm getting a bit tired weathering your lack of tact or capacity to distinguish the line between "influence" and "thievery".

You're already neck deep in the nasty copyright lawsuit about Vida la Vida...

You're costumes for the Grammys
have sort of been done before...
I mean, what were you thinking?! It may have been cool on paper but truthfully (and I wouldn't say this if I wasn't a friend) they scream "delusion of grandeur" and "overcompensating". You're doing well, but like I said before, you're not there, not yet. Yes you're from England, yes you're brilliant, yes you're all hot but don't get ahead of yourselves.

In your defense you did give proper props and thanks to the original gentleman so you preempted some scrutiny. Well done there.

However, and this is the point of my letter, I recently saw your latest video. I was excited because this my favorite song on the new album (well done there too), however, about 15 seconds in I was a bit ill at ease -



It sported that efforted, non-charming kind of silly, eerily familiar look you've taken to lately. I thought about it for a second and by the bongos it came to me -



Gentleman! Beck did this, like, 3 years ago. There is NO WAY you all could not have known that. Now, I know marionettes aren't exactly a copyrighted medium but come on. Either you need to desperately hire a fact checker, a media specialist, or retain my services because you're batting 0.

Beck is totally known for his performance art versions of a set and especially the marionettes. They centerpieced is 2006 tour. Everyone knows this. Especially the everyones that buy your albums. He even staged his puppets trashing Radiohead's dressing room. Beck is phenomenal. I'm never disappointed in him because he is a bonafide original. I'm considerably less inclined to pay the same compliments and respect to yourselves.

You are artists! You understand the angst of creating something and how you desperately hope it will be respected and received and that whatever you're trying to say will be heard. All of this is quite disturbing because of someone fronting their field YOU. SHOULD. KNOW. BETTER.

You should be setting the standard like the gentlemen who rocked those jackets first did, not skating around the edges of credibility. Get it together guys. Put the beers down and start thinking again dammit!

hopeful that you'll do the right thing and come up with something original on your own and save yourselves from becoming the band version of a formula studio trilogy,
~E

Netflixaions

Title: The Last Kiss
Director: Tony Goldwyn
Original Release: 2006
Awesome Rating: Thumbs Up

Well......

It was the last something. I don't know what it is about movies with the word "Last" in them but it seems to be the kiss of death.

The Last Legion -

Last Action Hero -

The Last Unicorn - I know... HEYWAIT! WARMFUZZIECHILDHOODMEMORIESNOTOUCHZONEALERT. Just go back and watch it. Now. As a grown up. Stellar cast but it gives new definitions to the terms "tone deaf" and "repeat photography". It's a gloriously bad movie, but a bad one nonetheless.

Save the Last Dance - another warm fuzzy flick but lets be honest, its a glorified after school special. Much like Ferngully: the Last Rain forest.

I Know What You Did Last Summer...

There were a few good ones that have dodged the curse:

The Last Samauri
The Last King of Scotland
The Last of the Mohicans
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
X-Men: Last Stand

So any forensic specialist, such as myself (I've completed the 15 hour course of Law and Order viewing - don't worry) can see that only John Williams, super powers, being on foreign soil, or all 3 can or will save you from the Curse of Lastness. This movie had none.

Zack - you let me down man.

Garden State set such a high bar for the faithful indie music jokesters that compile and populate the Zack Braff message boards. We were expecting the back lit 5' Taz plush Fair prize of a movie and what we got was a snaggle-toothed mini-stuffed opossum from a carnie with a strange semblance who looks at you like you ought to be pleased. Those milk bottles are weighted man -

It wasn't a train wreck of a film but it was much like unto teaching a 15 year old how to drive stick in a parking lot with speed bumps. Completely unpredictable, deafeningly irrelevant, angry but with a good soundtrack.

It had all the bones of a good movie, great actors, multiple and entwining story lines, rural town setting... All cinematic properties were in effect except everything employing the art of story telling ie: pacing, editing and writing. They seemed to have been second to a lot of sex and couples endlessly fighting and then making up with a shrug.

If you're looking for realistic relationship type stuff I suggest Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It drives home the point much better.

Sorry to be brutal Zack. I still love you but I gotta write whats on my heart. No snaggle-toothed opossums here.

My Real Friends

Show: How I Met Your Mother
Seasons: Currently running in 4th
Network: CBS
Awesome Rating: Exploding High 5

My reconciliation with television has been a long process. We broke up for a long time. Reality television was catastrophic and I never got into Friends or Seinfield. I know, I know - I'm from a different planet. I never liked 90210. If something its too popular its my knee jerk reaction to abstain. I know - I'm bonkers, but thats a whole other blog.

The last show I really liked before I found Lost was My So-Called Life. After Lost I wandered into the hilarious halls of Arrested Development and 30 Rock, fell in love with Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (RIP - you were ripped off Alan Arkin. I'll witness). I got sucked into Heroes, The Office, Rome, Avatar (more on that later), and for a bit Fringe.

So when I had more than a few people buzz at me about this show my first impulse was "I'm all full up. I'll let Best Week Ever keep me current on the rest" and for the most part I have but some of the clips that I saw of Barney Stinson kept me laughing for days and I decided to put in the little red envelope request and I wasn't let down. This is a great show.

This isn't a ground breaking show of any kind. It's just a really awesome version of the good parts of a lot of different shows. Its told in retrospect like The Wonder Years so there is this overarching sense of closure even though you don't know what's going to happen next. This is a group of much more approachable people who act like adults, very funny adults mind you, but adults, not over indulged adolescents like some other ensemble show that takes place in New York...

The cast is a perfect blend of believable bonkers. Ted (the protagonist) has two very different but believable best friends. Marshall, his college roommate who is a simple, hilarious, slightly oafish Minnesota guy going to law school that sings about every thing he does who has been with his girlfriend Lilly for 9 years who is your typical red headed, buck ten, kindergarten teacher by day, beer chug contest winner by night girl. The other, mine and everyone's favorite, is Barney Stinson. The over the top casanova who you'll never see out of a suit or without a pick up line played by the timeless Neil Patrick Harris who recently earned a Golden Globe nomination for his magic tricks, rapier wit and delivery. Robin is the inital love interest that gets folded into the group is the tolken Canadian and career girl.

Its funny but it feels real. The stories escelate and never die much like they do with a group of friends. The jokes keep running through build on themselves much like Arrested Development did. Everything from slap bets to articles in each other's apartments. Its awesome. They either have great writers or the sense to hire a contunity director, or both.

Its the little things that I really like about this show. Like every character is either eating or drinking something in nearly every scene. TV too often I think doesn't depcit this but real people eat and drink. There is alot of alochol in this show, I'm not going to lie, but people do drink. A lot. The girl's clothes are AWESOME. Stylish without being alienating (like Sex in teh City), its funny and witty without being alienating either.

What I think I like most of all is the intergity of these characters. Like they're all not dsyfunctionally codependent on each other. They all have cohesive lives outside the apartmet or bar and each one is really independent in their own way. Consequently they each bring a really different flavor to the table at McClarens. Much like a group of friends I'd rather be in.

I'm only half way through season 2 at the moment but I really like what I see. I'll keep you posted but I doubt I'll change my mind