Happy Birthday Bob Hoskins!

Bob Hoskins is 67 Today! Everybody Celebrate!

Lady Luck And Luck's Labor's Lost

Firstly, Apple has made it clear that Blu-Ray will not make an appearance on their latest line of laptops. Just an update for anyone who didn’t know as I reported (hopefully) on the possibility last month.

Then...

Respectively NASA’s bombing the moon, which made people so touchy recently, is not their only feet worth noting. It seems they have picked up trace reports of Organic Molecules around a distant Gaseous Planet. Just another step in the search to understand life, the universe, and everything.

But that’s all just news. And yes, both stories sort of fit into the header... Anyway, I’ve been thinking a great deal about people and taking chances and losing and winning and love and hate and all those things that make life... well... life I suppose. And it’s been hitting me funny that people feel they need to care so much what other people do in the privacy of their own home, or people are honestly willing to crucify someone over an image that is in no way naughty or negative. And guess what? Every time you crucify someone... it’s just counter-productive toward your cause. Yessir. You’d think people would learn from the mistakes of old...

But they don’t.

If our president wins the Nobel Prize, why are we not supposed to be happy? And if our country loses a bid to host the next Olympic Games... shouldn’t we be sad? I was speaking with my friend Gabe recently and we discussed how pointless all of this negativity and hostility truly was. The world is changing. Other nations feel safer in our shadow than ever before. And things are slowly but surely being accomplished. So who’s honestly angry? And who can give me a rational reason to be the same?

At what point did we all forget the rest of the world? And who’s idea was it to dumb down a nation at the head of the pack? If Ford knew there was a simple way to get people to buy their cars... why didn’t they change their dynamic years ago? Shouldn’t that be the kind of thing we get upset about? But instead we kind of point our finger and laugh at dumb people in high positions. People... we all can make a difference. It’s not hard to do. We just need to read...

write...

listen...

speak...

and try to understand. We need to train our memories so we don’t keep making the same mistakes in every single relationship. Mostly, we just need to wake up... not as a country, but as individuals. We need to open our eyes and see the sun and the grass in the morning, smell the bacon frying over the stove, hear the rumblings of our neighbors, and understand that they have a reason for making such a big deal about this and that. It’d be awful nice if everyone you saw walking down the street would smile and say “hello.” I know I do it. I know some friends who do it as well. I commend them for it because we cannot live in fear of our neighbors, our countrymen, or our friends. And we should never extend the arm of hate. Political bias has turned our country into a mess...

But dare I say these crazy moanings of Meghan McCain’s awfulness, or Obama’s undeservedness of that prize, or NASA’s “poor” decision to bomb something that didn’t belong to them in the first place are just a collective death rattle of a way of life that is no longer sustainable. And hopefully, once all of this hate has subsided, we will have peace in our lives. For once.

I’m just crossing my fingers and hoping Lady Luck hears me.

Everyone's Heavy On The Bass

This morning I went out and picked up the special edition of The Flaming Lips’ new album Embryonic. It’s damn good and crazy. But, after my first listening I noticed something I really wasn’t expecting at all. Granted the band is experimental and constantly looking for new ways to push their music into unexplored territory (it may be unexplored for them, but some other bands are already hitting that same point as we speak).

The oddity is the Bass. The production quality pushes the bass up to a new power level. You may recall my short review of Arctic Monkeys’ Humbug which also had this extra umph. It’s really cool.

It used to seem, the bass was naturally overpowered and you’d have to force your radio into submission to get that cool chilling sound, but no more. It’s a step in the right direction. Bass is meant to be loud. That’s why subwoofers exist. To kick your ass with bass. But somehow, on these new albums, it’s there without all the hassle.

So I’m excited because I think it’s a new trend. And that means that everything’s gonna change once again. So color me happy.

Anyways...

Embryonic (The Flaming Lips):

The album hums and crackles and turns my blood up. It’s been about three years since At War With The Mystics which had a very slaphappy sound. But this is alittle more “cool and collected” except when its not. But it’s hard to classify Lips albums in general. Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots is a beautiful concept album... The Soft Bulletin is just cool... and if you’ve ever heard Clouds Taste Metallic, oh wow. It’s just beautiful and interesting and totally lucid. All I can really say is, I can’t wait to listen to Embryonic a few more times. And in case you didn’t know, this is a double album... so extra tracks. Hurray!

Oh It's Good It's Good

You’ve gotta enjoy the good when it’s there. Right now it’s good. I’ve been working for two weeks straight which is unheard of in my current position of newbie Los Angelen Actor. But every once and a while the cards just stack in your favor. I only use that phrase because I’ve still got Vegas on the brain. By the way, the cards were definitely not stacked in my favor in Vegas. But C’est La Vie. Yessir. The bright side is that I’m in the bright right now and that’s kind of all I can really hope for... that when the good is here it overshadows the not so good and is that steak I smell? Gotta go bask in that home cooked meal. Very nice indeed.

Who's Coasting?

I’m back from Vegas... I am back from Vegas and just awake again in the middle of the night wondering about all these mysteries. Like who’s happy? Like who’s sad? And who’s just coasting? Who’s coasting on the idea that they think they’re doing the right thing. More and more and more and more I can feel the stitches splitting and lending themselves to the anti. Oh boy, I’m saying. It’s the night and I can almost taste the bad in the air. Hoping tonight’ll be the night I finally explode and husk my stupid cover. Cause who wants to spend life in the nosebleeds? No sir, that ain’t for me, no sir. Why I’m supposed to be a man and I’m supposed to have all of these friends and I’m supposed to make mistakes and I’m supposed be tough and I’m supposed to regret... But I don’t wanna just be those things. I don’t. And I’m sick of all of those stupid decisions we all seem to constantly make like today is the last day of our life and we’re gonna live in fear of that but go ahead and act like nothings wrong. Well something’s wrong. And the man is disappointed with the way it’s all going. He doesn’t wanna have to put up with this constant ‘what if’ and ‘why not’ lifestyle. He just wants to jump and be on the go and be constantly and forever collecting those moments that make life life and make him want to fear death because it’s all too good and short to let slide. But right now, he doesn’t fear the big sleep. No sir, he actually doesn’t consider it a burden or anything. But he doesn’t pretend it’s his last day either... he doesn’t expect the unexpected, he doesn’t improvise like his teachers taught him, he doesn’t move and move and move and move. Most of the time he just sits their in a constant state of buzz buzz buzz. He doesn’t play his whole hand, just enough to get by.

I think I’m gonna stay awake all day and deal with this emotion I’m feeling right now, because if I don’t do something about it then it’s just gonna keep fighting me and forcing me into lamely awkward settings.

You wanna take a jump with me?

The Great Love Mix

While working on a movie set this last week I began to feel a great surge of love... a surprising amount actually. Something shifted in the atmosphere if that makes any sense. So in that spirit I picked out a few tracks to try and capture the essence:

1. D’Yer Mak’er - Led Zeppelin

2. Why Do You Let Me Stay Here - She & Him

3. The Blue - David Gilmour

4. N2U - Big Boy (featuring Khujo Goodie)

5. Soul Love - David Bowie

6. Kingdom Come - Coldplay

7. All I Need - Radiohead

8. Baby It’s You - Smith

9. Sleeping To Dream - Jason Mraz

10. Be Here To Love Me - Norah Jones

11. Give It To You - G. Love & Jack Johnson

12. Imaginary Ordinary - Architecture In Helsinki

13. Hard To Beat - Hard-Fi

14. Chemicals Collide - Cloud Cult

15. It’s What Life Is - Masters Of The Hemisphere

16. Fade Together - Franz Ferdinand

17. Late Night Partner - Ed Harcourt

18. Monsoon - Jack Johnson

19. Do You Love Me Still - The Kooks