Grant Catton's Blog

O.A.R. interview

2012-02-06T07:29:00.000-08:00

Before the Super Bowl I interviewed the drummer for the rock band O.A.R. If you haven't heard of them, look 'em up on Youtube...and then read this interview with their drummer, Chris Culos.

http://bit.ly/xoEmzY

I've debated posting the long version of the interview, but...it's pretty damn long. Enjoy!

Quick Film Review: Ides of March

2012-02-01T18:01:00.001-08:00

Movies about politics nowadays always paint it as this low-down, back-stabbing, cut-throat game, which, it probably is. I say "probably," because I'm not privy to real underbelly of this game. I made some calls & knocked on some doors for the Obama campaign back in 2008 but that was like kindergarten compared to the serious, heavy game of professional politics. Having gotten a small taste of it though, I love to see a good political thriller like this one.

And it definitely is a thriller. The tension heats up from the very beginning as Ryan Gosling's character, a campaign manager for a "Governor Morris" (Clooney) gets involved in some double-dealing with the opposing campaign and finds himself in the middle of a very uncomfortable situation between a female intern and his candidate.

Long story short, Gosling learns a difficult and fast lesson in this film, which ends up being both a twist-laden drama and a frank but sad commentary on the American political system. Though I'd actually say erred more on the Hollywood thriller element. But hey, they have to get asses into seats, don't they?

This film makes me long for the fast-paced days of being involved in a campaign: following the news every minute of every day, parsing and dissecting the minutiae of every candidates' speeches, big and small, down to the Youtube video of him speaking to all three members of the Buggy Whip Makers Union Local meeting in Shoe Leather, Idaho. Ah, the churning, grimy, ugly, meat-grinder that is politics....

Watch this movie. It's good.

The Future of the Republican Party

2012-01-25T19:19:00.000-08:00

This just in: The Republican Party as we know it is finished. And thank god. It's become such a weird patchwork of conflicting ideologies and oddball pretenders that I don't see how anyone can take them seriously anymore. There was a time when that party had some respectability, some class, some dignity. But it's to a point now where you can look down the entire list of Republican candidates and not see a single face that you could conceivably imagine winning the Presidential race this Fall.

In my opinion, the GOP will eventually split into two groups: A.) The Bible-thumpers, Tea-Partiers, and other assorted whacked-out fringe types, and B.) the small-government fiscal conservative types who are essentially rational people and who don't care about social issues like abortion and gay marriage.

Group A will ride off into the sunset and become completely ineffectual in national elections and increasingly less effectual at state and local ones. Group B will flounder for a while as it tries to maintain its footing financially and politically without the wackos...but it will, eventually, evolve back into a legitimate organization that has at least a chance of putting someone in the White House. They'll still be wrong, but I'll at least be able to take them seriously again.

It'll be kind of interesting to watch this happen. It'll either have to be some kind of grass-roots movement, like the Tea-Party but with more moderate ideals, or else it'll come from a major decision at the national party level. My sense is it might actually have to be the former, because at the national party level there will be too many already-entrenched politicians who are too worried about abandoning their far-right electoral bases to make any kind of real change.

The good news is, until they get their stuff sorted out they're going to be weak and disorganized. It'll be a chance for the Democratic party to hopefully get on the same page and get some things done in Congress. But, we'll have to wait and see.

One thing's for sure tho: The Republican party cannot survive in its current form. It's only hope is to move closer to the center and try to attract middle-of-the-road Democrats again as Reagan did in the 80s. If they don't do this, then they're going to shrink and shrink until there's nothing left of them.

Cord Count: 12

2012-01-17T19:02:00.000-08:00

My daily life requires twelve (12) different cords. When did things get so f**king complicated? I didn't even count the cords to items like my lamps or the fridge or the vacuum cleaner (not that I actually use it). No, these 12 are cords that I tend to have to tote around with me every day for all of my various and sundry phones, iPods, computers, etc. Not all at once, mind you. But seriously, this is ridiculous.

Read the list below and see if it doesn't this make you long for a simpler time....a time when you had to be home for someone to reach you on the phone, and you had to wait like a week to find out if your photos were any good, and people weren't glued to electric screens for 85% of their waking hours. Was it that long ago? Aye. Life moves pretty fast these days, and a man loses count.

At any one time my life requires:

2 Phone chargers (one with usb, one plain old charger)
1 laptop charger
1 iPod usb/charger cord
1 hands free cell phone ear piece cord
1 pair ear buds (cord attached)
1 pair head phones (cord attached)
1 Kindle usb/charger cord
1 camera usb cord
1 camera battery re-charger cord
1 car audio iPod cord
1 iPod-to-stereo cord (the red/white plug thing)

So, is this just the rant of another reluctantly reformed Luddite bemoaning the loss of "the good old days"? Or maybe simply a man who came of age just close enough before the late 90s tsunami of technology to remember a simpler time and be forever ill-at-ease with modern life? Or even still just a frank assessment of how goddamned complicated daily life has become in 2012 vs., let's say, 1992?

One thing's for sure: there's no going back. As long as Modern Civilization stays intact (and, well, your guess is as good as mine how long that'll go on) we're not going back to the pre-cellphone, pre-internet days. And frankly, I'm a direct beneficiary of the convenience of the Information age. The internet and advanced telecommunications have allowed guys like me to have careers, work at home for long stretches of time, be able to get work into the public eye in a vast number of media outlets that wouldn't have otherwise existed were it not for the net.

In a creative field where attention -- essentially -- is the main goal, the modern age enables me to get that and to gain the kind of traction that before would've cost me years or an entire lifetime to earn. Has there been a real material benefit to all this? Well, let's just say I'm still waiting for the checks to come in. BUT, I'm still writing and getting my stuff seen by people regularly, and that's because of the convenience of the internet.

But, lest we lose sight of the main point of this rambling post: Modern life requires far too many cords.

Movie Review: Sherlock Holmes II

2012-01-15T08:48:00.000-08:00

Let me start by giving this film the most entry-level (though not easily earned) piece of praise I can give a movie: I got my money's worth.

This isn't normally the kind of film I'd shell-out hard-earned money to go see in the theatre, but I've been seeing a lot of movies lately and, well, you have to see what's there and what you're on time to see.

Anyway, this is just a really fun, action-packed buddy film. Set in a sort of "steam-punk"1891 Europe, the film takes place between London, Paris, and Switzerland, as Holmes, Watson, and a female gypsy they pick up along the way, follow the infamous Professor Moriarty across the continent as he attempts to start a war. Moriarty, as it turns out, has been secretly building up a munitions factory in central Europe, with which he plans to supply the warring armies. The film turns out to be sort of a criticism of the Military-Industrial Complex which has so altered the shape of Geo-Politics in the past 70 odd years. Moriarty, it seems, was about 20 or 25 years too early...and his character even says as much at one point during the film, that war between the European powers is inevitable, and all he has to do is wait.

Most of the cerebral element of the old Arther C. Doyle Sherlock Holmes stories has been removed. There are no long, drawn-out explanations of how Holmes solves the crimes: such sequences are reduced to almost frantically choppy sequences of Holmes spotting various clues and piecing the answer together in a matter of five seconds. However, we do get some careful glimpses into Holmes' psychology later in the film as he solves the last riddle.

And, lest I forget, the chemistry between Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law makes this movie especially fun. Downey always brings a sort of frenetic, comedic madness to whatever he plays, and Law has a sort of dignified, innocent pluck: Downey plays the mad, eccentric, fiercely adventurous Holmes while Law plays his more even-keeled & sometimes reluctant partner in crime. Together they balance each other out in the tradition of all great Buddy Films: despite their differences in personality, the strength of their friendship makes them a great team and ultimately saves them from ruin.

And...naturally...to balance out the machismo inherent in a film with two (three, actually) big leading male roles, you need a strong female counterpart. The film definitely gets that in Naomi Rapace, who plays the wild, dark, swashbuckling gypsy whose brother has become trapped in Moriarty's scheme. Rapace (Mdm. Simza(?)) tags along with Holmes and Watson and provides--well--something nice to look at, as well as helping the boyz take down Moriarty in the end.

So...I say two thumbs up. When you shell out for a film like this, you know what to expect. Having said that, the film exceeded my expectations. Visually it had a lot to offer, with dark, quick, well-done camera work, and it was thrilling...as the series has become more of an action series than a mystery series. AND you even get the little underlying anti-war, anti-Military-Industrial Complex message. Not bad for what might otherwise get passed-off as a must-miss box office release.

Sriracha Hot Sauce: A torrid love-affair

2012-01-12T14:02:00.001-08:00

In case you've never seen this lovely, dangerous green-topped bottle sitting on the table at your favorite Asian restaurant...I introduce you to Sriracha hot sauce. It is a devil, a temptress, a delicious condiment and yet a feared adversary not to be trifled with.

I use Sriracha on just about everything you could conceivably use hot-sauce on: meat, eggs, potatoes, vegetables, anything that needs a kick in the ass where flavor is concerned. And believe me, Sriracha will give your food a kick in the ass--and give you a kick in the solar plexus.

The thing about Sriracha is it's not immediately hot when you put it in your mouth. No, when it first hits your tongue it has a complex, earthy kind of chili-pepper flavor. It's thick and robust, like tomato sauce almost, not thin and acidic like the "Nuclear Hellfire" hotsauce you see in souvenir stores or what have you. No, this is actually almost like a chili relish at first.

However, somewhere between swallowing and digesting, it hits you. You will find your esophagus burning and your eyes filling with tears as you dab your next bite of food into it, all the while eyeballing that glass (two glasses) of water you've carefully placed next to you. Then after about ten minutes, that burn starts to set in on your tongue and you're in for a long ride.

Eating Sriracha is almost a contest: can you successfully use it to flavor your food, while not giving yourself an ulcer or a trip to the emergency room??? At the same time, it's like going into battle: you feel a sense of danger, a thrill each time you reach for the bottle, not knowing if you'll be able to do it this time. Wondering if this time...this time the great Sriracha will beat you down for good. But it's a battle worth fighting.

Pitchfork's Top 50 Albums of the Year

2011-12-16T12:00:00.000-08:00

Ultra-hipster music site Pitchfork has unleashed their Top 50 Albums of the Year. If you're looking to update yourself on modern-day indie music, this is a hell of a place to start.

This list has a few of my own favorite 2011 albums on it, such as Iceage's New Brigade, Cut Copy's Zonoscope, and Frank Ocean's Nostalgia Ultra. But the list also includes a few albums, like Bon Iver's Bon Iver, about which I simply can't understand the hype. I found Bon Iver completely un-exciting in any way shape or form. To me he's one of those artists who has simply caught the wave of Hipster Sanctity and can do no wrong at this point. Or else, it's a really great album and I just don't get it. I'm guessing the answer lies somewhere in between, but I'm mystified that it's made the Top Album of the Year. Mystified.

Anyway...give it a look, get a few of the albums. If I had any recommendations, check out the above mentioned artists, but also: Real Estate, tUnE-yArDs, M83, and Bill Callahan. Otherwise, rig-up your Spotify profile and have at it. Broaden your horizons, find something you like, live a richer, fuller life...

Black Lips' First Album: Black Lips!

2011-12-14T14:49:00.000-08:00

So I'm going back through the Black Lips' catalogue...I've got this year's Arabia Mountain & Good Bad Not Evil (2009?), but I decided to start at the beginning with their self-titled debut from 2003. Two words: love it.

It's retro surf/garage rock at its best: simple, repetitive, loud, fun, stupid. Kind of reminds me a little bit of the vibe that local Indianapolis bands The Kemps and Vacation Club are going for. They even get a little psychedelic occasionally, which of course is great. I have absolutely zero problem with bands who play simple, choppy, fast riffs and who like to get weird. Its bands like this that Rock and Roll was built on.

We must never get so geeky or opinionated that we can't appreciate a good garage band who just likes to rock and whose music has the power to make people move and--occasionally--make their heads hurt.

Rule No. 1 of Working From Home: Get Dressed

2011-12-06T17:20:00.001-08:00

Rule No.1 for any work-from-homer: Get Dressed.

This may run counter to what is, perhaps, the greatest perceived benefit of working from home: that you get to sit around all day in your jogging pants or pajamas, and don't have to dress up. Well, I'm here to burst that myth for you. Why? Read on...

While it's fun and comfortable to wear your pajamas all day, it's actually counter-productive to your cause. If you're sitting around in your baggy, cereal-milk-stained sweatsuit you're inherently going to feel like a slob and you aren't going to be doing your best work. While you might think you can still interface with the harsh outside world while you wallow in comfort, eventually you'll realize your relaxed sartorial standards are dragging you down in the performance department. When you look professional, you'll feel professional, and you'll act professional. That's it. Period.

I'm not saying you have to wear a business suit as you traipse around the house doing laundry while you take conference calls. No, far from it. But I am suggesting you wear something at least presentable enough that if a stranger came calling at your door you wouldn't feel the need to dive into your bedroom and scurry like a rodent for decent clothes while they wait on your porch. Get it? You don't need to be ready for a meeting on Wall Street, just ready to go meet the outside world for an average day of personal business.

So man-up (or woman-up) and get dressed. If you absolutely must you can dilly-dally until noon or so until you suit-up to face the real world. But when the clock hits midday, you should either be in the shower cleaning up, or already changing into some--at the very least presentable--duds.

Night of the Motorcycle Zombie

2011-11-30T16:06:00.001-08:00

In case The Walking Dead hasn't satisfied your craving for zombie stuff, check out Night of the Motorcycle Zombie, a new novella by famed horror-humor author Thomas Katz.

It's currently available for sale on Kindle right here. Katz claims he will soon be releasing it on other formats as well, but we'll see. He's notoriously lazy when it comes to these types of things.

Meantime, download that Kindle app, buy a Kindle, or E-mail him at motorcyclezombie@gmail.com and if you're lucky he'll let you get a look at a preview!!!

Reached 5,000 Hits!..Thanks to my loyal readers.

2011-10-22T13:40:00.001-07:00

Grant Catton's blog (formerly known as The Libra) has now reached 5,000 hits! Of course, 2,500 to 3,000 of those are probably mine...but who knows! Thanks to all my loyal readers out there...all six of you.

I'll try to post more often and keep things a bit fresher!

"Drive" Soundtrack is Awesome, Naturally

2011-10-15T10:15:00.000-07:00

I've already raved about the film 'Drive' that hit theaters last month, and I think I mentioned that the soundtrack was done by Kraftwerk. That statement was patently false. The soundtrack was influenced by Kraftwerk, but much of it was actually done by former Red Hot Chili Pepper's drummer Cliff Martinez.

But...the soundtrack is still really hot, and you should check it out. Unless, of course, you absolutely hate that kind of thumping, 'driving,' electronic music. It's not dance music tho, don't misunderstand, just stripped-down, simple electronica. If you know anything about Kraftwerk you'll get the picture.

So, see the film or get the soundtrack...or both!

The Latest: Music, Books, and...a Recipe

2011-10-10T16:48:00.000-07:00

And a picture of a rooster...

So it's once again been a while. My own personal Bloggo has been getting short-shrift as I've been busy covering concerts for Indy's NUVO.net (yes, that is a humble brag). It's been a total blast, but occasionally time and my lack of time-management skills get the better of me and I neglect my own personal work. Which is what this is all about anyway, right?

So now, on a nice fall evening, it's time to put on some music (Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation) and deliver the goods to my readers. How about this:

Music Recommendation:

Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks latest album Mirror Traffic. Saw these guys the other night at Earth House. Whether or not you were into Malkmus in the Pavement days--and god knows they passed me by--check out this album. Some extremely elegant guitar work and poetic, fun lyrics by Malkmus make this a contemporary classic and a very accessible album. Also a good gateway into Malkmus' extensive musical past.

Book Recommendation:

A Visit From the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan. This is a book about rock and roll or, more accurately, about people involved in the music business in the 80s, 90s, and 2000s. The characters run the gamut from modestly successful to downright tragic, but all characters are infused with very human, very real flaws. Egan has a deft touch with humor, and this book is nothing if not a dark comedy. In the balance, Egan manages to pawn off some trenchant social commentary without sounding preachy, bitter, or like little Bo Peep.

A Recipe for an Easy, Fun Snack:

Slice up a few potatoes, very thin. Boil some vegetable oil. Drop the potatoes in until they are golden brown. Take them out and put them on a plate with a paper towel. Wait about five minutes. Salt them up. BAM! You've got homemade potato chips.

So there you have it: something to listen to, something to read, something to eat. Not bad for three minutes of staring at an otherwise masturbatory form of self-expression, eh?

TV Ghost at Cataracts last weekend...

2011-09-27T13:49:00.000-07:00

Due to that nagging, unshakable curse known as a “full-time job,” I was only able to catch the very last band at Cataracts Music Festival in Fountain Square last Saturday. But it was well-worth driving cluelessly around Fountain Square for twenty minutes to see TV Ghost play a killer set.

Walking down Morris St. in the dark, old Speckman and I followed the sound of symbols and electric bass to the back of a white, two-story house, where Lafayette-based TV Ghost were already playing to about 100 rapt fans in various states of intoxication, some of them jostling and moshing in front of the deck.

Fronted by lead singer and guitarist Tim Gick, TV Ghost play what can best be described as psychedelic horror punk. There’s no better way to put it than that. Even applying the word “punk” to them seems like a cop-out, for they defy categorization. My main memory of these guys will always be the psychotic, zombie look in Gick’s eyes as he jerked his mane of curly hair—stuck up like a rooster’s comb—wildly in the air, gyrating and jumping like a re-animated corpse.

To put a finer point on it, TV Ghost have a kind of dark, industrial sound; heavy, thumping, repetitive beats and a rusty, distorted assembly-line sort of mechanical feel to the rhythm guitar parts. Overlay Gick’s disembodied wail and you get a very freakish, night-mare generating grime. You can almost see the armies of zombies marching toward the one last human being left on earth; if that were the plot of the next zombie movie, TV Ghost would play the soundtrack.

At one point during the set, Gick came down off the stage into the crowd, unstrapping his guitar and lifting it into the air like an offering to the gods as he mouthed the microphone, setting off a few electronic pops and hisses that only added to the erratic element of the band’s music. The pulsing movement of the crowd eventually pushed Gick back onto the stage where he finished out the set to the raucous applause of those in attendance.

No idea when these guys are coming back to Naptown, but they have two albums out: Mass Dream (2011) and Cold Fish (2009).

Cut Copy Absolutely Kill It at The Vogue

2011-09-20T18:43:00.000-07:00

Last night's Cut Copy show at The Vogue was probably the best show I've seen all year.

Check out my review on www.NUVO.net

http://bit.ly/r8T7Yg

Movie Review: Drive

2011-09-18T23:33:00.001-07:00

Drive may be one of the best action movies of the year, and of the past ten years. Seriously. It's that good.

I don't even know where to begin. It's 3:00 a.m. and I'm at a loss for words. It's shot in this really cool, 80s noir style with lots of long, slow camera shots, thumping techno music, sparse dialogue, great chase scenes, and a cool, steady-handed hero...

The main character, The Driver, is played pitch-perfect by Ryan Gosling. He is a Hollywood stunt driver who moonlights as a getaway driver when he needs extra money. Right from there, you ought to be able to spot this as a killer film...

The plot is also perfect: The Driver takes a job to help someone out, but it ends up backfiring as he gets involved in a setup and must exact his revenge before he's hunted down and killed himself.

Okay...great character, great plot....are you with me so far?

On top of that you've got some incredible cinematography, some great, pulsing, electronic music in the score, and some really great 80s noir touches, like The Driver's white silk scorpion jacket and leather knuckle-less driving gloves, and the pink script lettering in the titles and credits.

Cinematography: The camera work in this movie sets a nice, tempered pace without being slow. The camera lingers elegantly on the city of L.A. at night throughout the film. The camera also lingers on close-ups of Gosling, who has very little dialogue in the film, and who seems to have studied under the Marlon Brando "Do Nothing" style of acting. But it works. Oh, does it work. This film follows the "Less is More" principle, allowing the scene and the lighting to add the texture that the dialogue doesn't.

Music: German electro band Kraftwerk did part of the score, loading the film with those pulsing, electronic tracks that add a kind of "driving" sense to the film (hmmm...) and emphasize The Driver's cool, detached, intense character.

Overall, this movie has such a cool feeling to it, it's almost an experience more than simply a film. I wish more action films took this approach; less kitch, better filming, more effort to create a feeling, rather than just a special-effects ridden marketing vehicle (no pun intended).

I could go on and on about this...and perhaps I will. But for now, I urge you....go see this film.

Punk Night at the Melody Inn

2011-09-06T16:21:00.001-07:00

Punk Rock Night at the Melody Inn is always a reliable source of laughter, tears, cheap beer, and face-meltingly loud PUNK ROCK.

Check out my review on NUVO.net!!! http://bit.ly/p5p00a

And here's my favorite paragraph from said review:

Before them were the foursome Squared Away, whose testosterone-heavy swagger (and one awesome moustache) makes them seem like a pack of unruly British sailors from the early 1800s. You can just see chaps like these falling victim to a press gang in some rural Irish town in a bygone era, and then being forced to spend the rest of their lives at sea: loud, drunk, and slightly pissed off, but not so much that they don’t forget to enjoy themselves. They played a few of their own songs and a few great covers, totally grunging-up Steve Earle’s “Devil’s Right Hand.”

Dulce de Leche...or...Now I Remember Why I Gained 20 Pounds in Three Months in Argentina

2011-09-04T19:55:00.000-07:00

I recently made a run to the international grocery super-store in Indianapolis, called Saraga. While it's terribly inconvenient, and not terribly cheap, it's really fun to shop there once in a while. It's almost like going on vacation.

First off, the shopping experience itself is wild. It's this huge grocery store with food and products from all over the world, and with people of all different nationalities there. It's like another world, especially in a place as seemingly homogeneous as Indy. Even if you don't buy most of the stuff--or even know what it is--it's just fun to look around. What is that stuff in the big jar with the Japanese writing on it? The stuff that looks like monkey brains? Should I buy this outlandishly expensive yogurt from Turkey that comes in two-liter soda bottles? No...you probably shouldn't. But it's a treat for the eyes.

Secondly, once you actually make some purchases, you get to have food from around the world in your house all month. Cook up some chorizo sausage from Mexico. Who cares what's in it! Fry up some pre-packaged falafel cakes from Lebanon for a midnight snack. Eat all those Canadian mini-croissants before they go stale, etc. etc. If you've done any traveling, it can also be a comforting reminder of vacations past, as maybe you find that favorite brand of cookie you used to eat for breakfast in Italy, or what have you.

Which brings me to the reason for this post: Dulce de Leche.

A few years ago, I lived in Argentina for about three months. Among other amazingly delicious foods down in the Southern Cone, they have this thing called Dulce de Leche. It's basically a very creamy, spreadable version of caramel, kind of like the consistency of peanut butter. And man, is it good. I used to eat it on my bread in the morning, dip spoonfuls of it during the day, maybe even make a little DdL sandwich at night or spread some on bananas or apples for a late-night snack. It's delicious, and it's good on almost everything.

And...it's also really fattening. And, considering I had nothing to do but eat and drink all day when I was there, I ate a lot of it (along with all that great Argentine wine, steak, cheese, beer, etc.) and gained about 20 pounds. If there are, say, 25 different brands of Dulce de Leche produced in Argentina, I must've sampled them all. I even tried to bring some back through customs, but they caught me at Miami, and said it was a "liquid" so they eliminated all four containers of it. Waaaaaah.

Sadly, I don't remember my favorite brand. However, for the next month or so--or as long as the jar lasts--I can eat Dulce de Leche, drink a gourd full of yerba mate, and remember the good old AR days.

Q&A: Sleeping Bag's Dave Segedy

2011-08-24T16:13:00.000-07:00

Heyo...I'm in the actual print edition of NUVO this week with an Q&A/Preview of the Bloomington-based indie rock band Sleeping Bag. These guys just released a really awesome self-titled album via Joyful Noise Records, and are playing on Friday night at the White Rabbit. Check them out!

And also check out my article in NUVO if you can! The link is below:

http://bit.ly/on4hc2

Songwriters in the Round at the White Rabbit

2011-08-22T11:15:00.000-07:00

Hello, hello, hello...life is short, art is long, and I've been busy as all hell.

But here's my latest concert review: http://bit.ly/qQbmD1 This was a really great night of music. Three songwriters from the Indy-Chicago area got together, reviving a tradition that apparently hasn't been in practiced since the mid-2000s around these parts.

Anyway, Richard Edwards of Margot and the Nuclear So and Sos was, in my mind, the main event. It was really cool to see him playing a solo, acoustic set.

But check out the rest of the review...you shant be disappointed, unless you absolutely hate music.

Latest Review: The Head and The Heart

2011-08-08T10:37:00.000-07:00

As a consolation prize to the cancelled Decemberists show, Seattle-based The Head and The Heart played a solo show at Earth House in downtown Indy. While the performance was energetic and intense, the band seems to be a little too run-of-the-mill Folk-Rock.

Read my full review at NUVO.net:

http://bit.ly/mWTErd

Today's Rant: Wasteful Newspaper Mailers...or...I Thought "Newsprint Costs" Were Driving Newspapers Out of Business?

2011-08-04T18:39:00.001-07:00

Back in the middle portion of the last decade, when a lot of newspapers were going out of business, they often cited "newsprint costs" as one reason they couldn't survive or weren't profitable. They claimed it simply cost too much to print the paper and they couldn't afford it, yada-yada-yada.

Well, that doesn't seem to stop local businesses in Indianapolis from sending me enough newspaper mailers every day--EVERY DAY--to choke a wild hog. Every day (okay, four times a week) I come home and find a three-inch thick stack of newspaper mailers clogging my mailbox. Mostly they are grocery store coupons, sometimes they're coupons to local businesses, and what have you. Not only have I never, EVER used one of the coupons, but I've asked my postal workers to stop giving them to me, and they still leave them at my door.

FURTHERMORE, the damned things are so big and unwieldy that sometimes my actual mail gets lost inside them and I end up being late on my bills or whatever. I know what you're thinking: "That's not the reason you're late on your bills, brother." Okay, maybe I'm out of line blaming it on the newspaper mailer industry. But still...

Aren't we in some kind of a "Reduce, Re-use, Re-cycle" kind of culture, here? What about the "cost of newsprint" and all that? What about the utter wastefulness of mailing out tons and tons mail coupons per year when there are ways--much better ways--to get them to consumers who want to VOLUNTARILY take them? How about E-mail? What's wrong with that? Or how about stop printing the goddam things, and take the money you saved and pass it onto the people who are actually buying your goddam products!!

Meanwhile, we cut down more trees and build more buildings. The world gets hotter in the Summer and colder in the Winter. We have more floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, etc., and we make jokes about the looming Apocalypse when we could actually be doing something about it, and trying to make the world a better, smarter, more environmentally conscious place.

The only way we're going to fix this world and restore our planet to some sense of balance and sustainability is by small, incremental steps. That's the only way anything of value gets accomplished in this world, anyway. Small, persistent, incremental steps, like dropping grains of sand onto a scale until it finally tips. And frankly, it's things like these newspaper mailers that are the things we need to start cutting.

Here endeth the rant.

Netflix, you have made me very angry...

2011-07-12T16:57:00.000-07:00

In yet another sign of our money-grubbing times, my beloved Netflix has decided to raise it's prices. Or, well, they've thinly disguised the price increase as a "split" of their services, offering unlimited streaming for $7.99 and unlimited DVDs for $7.99 instead of having them combined for $9.99.

Frankly, I'm pissed off. Okay, fine...they're a business, they have to make money. I understand. And I also understand what a great deal it is already...however, that still doesn't make it any easier to bear.

Not sure what I'm gonna do. Is anyone else gonna cancel their subscription?

Bill Callahan at the White Rabbit

2011-07-10T06:08:00.000-07:00

Check out my latest review in NUVO.net http://bit.ly/qw1Psd

I went into the show with my typical, stone-headed bias against singer-songwriter type performers, but Callahan is different. He reminds me of a cowboy out on the range, singing songs to whoever happens to be around the campfire to listen...or to no one. In fact, that's kind of what makes his lyrics so great: they are poems that seem sprung from his own lonely, yet hopeful soul. He's not trying to impress anyone, he's not trying to sound smart, he's expressing himself and he doesn't give a damn who likes it....and it works.

So check out my review and also give a listen if you can!

Movie Review: Midnight in Paris

2011-06-27T06:41:00.000-07:00

I recently saw the latest Woody Allen movie, Midnight in Paris. I have to say it was better and more engaging than any of what I'd refer to as the later Woody Allen films (those from the past ten years or so), other than Melinda and Melinda, which I really dug. In the words of a good friend of mine, "It made me smile."

As far as the film's moral scope, its statement on life, I'd have to refer to the main character Gil's (Owen Wilson's) own words in the film: "I'm having an insight. It's not that big of an insight, but it's an insight none the less" [sic].

This film partly takes place during one of my favorite periods of history: Paris in the 1920s. In the film, Gil runs into the likes of Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Picasso, Dali, T.S. Elliot, and others. These characters don't serve any real function in the plot, except to show Gil that even back in the "idyllic" age of the 1920s, people still had problems and even longed for what they felt was a "simpler" and "more romantic" age. In addition, it was just really, really fun to see the likes of Hemingway and Dali brought to life, though the Fitzgerald character was a little bit forgettable.

Other highlights:

1.) Woody Allen's films tend to take place in these very rich, luxurious, upper-middle-class worlds inhabited by smart, beautiful, well-dressed people with baroque problems. And frankly, for that reason, his worlds are really fun to escape into. In this film, the characters dine out every night, go to roof-top wine tastings, debate buying $30,000 living room chairs, discuss months-long vacation plans and international business ventures, etc., etc. In other words, their world is very, very far removed from most of our own. But watching that world is like slipping into a warm bath. It's nice to know that someone, somewhere, is living that life, or that someone still believes that life is worth aspiring to.

2.) Rachel McAdams looks absolutely fabulous. I've always thought she was gorgeous, but she just keeps getting better and better looking. And in this film, they really dolled her up nicely. The film was almost worth it just for the chance to watch her in a white cotton sun-dress and wedge heels, prancing around an outdoor museum beside the comparatively frumpy Wilson.

3.) Hemingway's rants on writing and life are dead-on. You know, the "good writing is true writing," kind of thing. Who knows if Hemingway actually spoke like he does in the film (there simply can't be many people left who knew him back in the 20s), but if there was a way to bring his well-documented writing philosophy to life, Woody Allen did it. His little rants were not only spot-on, but they really struck a chord and made me want to go back and re-read my Hemingway.

In short: If I had it to do over again, I might just wait until the film came out on DVD. If it weren't for the draw of seeing the 1920s Paris people on screen, I might've done just that.