First Two Pages of Frankenstein (The National)

The two tracks that stood out I already knew about as singles weeks or months ago. Otherwise, the Taylor Swift track seemed okay, but everything else felt so basic. I really don't understand The National. They've made so many songs I really like, and so many deeply average songs. It's just interesting they can persuade themselves with mediocre song foundations, taking them all the way through writing, recording, and qualifying for the album. For instance, the intro acoustic guitar lick on "Ice Machines": if I thought of that (not unlikely) I'd immediately discard it, unless I was forcing myself to take any fragment to the finish line as songwriting practice. I'm guessing the intro licks (always four bars) are the foundations for these songs' composition -- but why? So many of them are throwaway; some are rescued by Berninger or others along the way.

It's amazing they still seem hip, attracting younger mega-acts like Taylor, given their age and periodic cheesiness. I thought they abandoned that staleness in the dust swirls of the last album, but here they've regressed. This comes off as one of my least favorite National albums, though it's hard to tell yet. I do like those two tracks. I just don't understand why they dwell in bad pop progressions. They should all know better by now. They've transcended those so many times.

Spirited

I saw Spirited about four months ago, around the holidays. I watched most of it, not all, enough to say it was mediocre in a strange way. I haven't thought about the movie a single time since watching it, but I do remember feeling baffled. Not baffled by the plot, or writing, or music or anything -- that was all easily understood -- but by how none of this apparently-well-designed entertainment was entertaining. I can succumb to cheap pop guilty pleasures, but this was below guilty pleasure for me, as it wasn't pleasant or pleasurable. All stars aligned... and destructively interfered? Into a star-filled void? I would even go so far as to say the execution was tight, but that's impossible, if the movie wasn't enjoyable. It's like it actually lacked that one intangible quality mandatory to all art and joy, which was the very theme of the movie: spirit. It's like AI wrote and performed the movie: everything made sense if you shut off your human spirit. Maybe this movie will serve as an AI detector someday. If a test subject calls this movie a bona fide Christmas classic, they should be investigated for inauthenticity. I suppose this is extremely offensive to anyone who liked the movie.

Pride and Prejudice (2005)

I always have trouble with novel adaptations, but this one was vibrant and sharp, like its protagonist. Still it felt like little more than a hasty recap of the book. In a blizzard of motion and dialogue I hardly had a chance to savor anything, so the dramatic turns felt transient even as they climaxed. I've never wept over SparkNotes.

I have not read the novel; as always I'm looking for adaptations to stand on their own, assert their identity, even when they're inevitably enriched by their source. Pride and Prejudice was a nice bit of novel-adapted filmmaking, but clearly a novel adaptation, and hardly explicable as a distinct film. Adaptations can be made because the source is excellent material for the new medium, or because patrons of the source want to see it in a new form, especially an exciting form like film. This feels like the latter: created to give a new experience of the book, rather than to stand as a good film in its own right. Having not read the book, I imagine this is a good pleasant adaptation; but I'm tired of adaptations that can't justify themselves as films.

I may also be chilly to the drama because, despite myself, I experienced Pride and Prejudice as a lighter, weaker Jane Eyre. It's no secret Bronte is dark and dramatic -- which fits my taste -- but Austen's dark/dramatic moments echoed Bronte's too nearly in my mind, without the gravity. I do realize Austen's came first, but not in my life, and I have historical affection for the darker, more dramatic Jane+Rochester. I think even the first time I saw Fukunaga's Jane Eyre, having never read the book, I savored each encounter. Pride and Prejudice felt rushed, and I never bought the romance. How hindered was I by Succession?

Still I enjoyed it, especially the visual and musical flavoring. This adaptation had character, but not enough to exceed its hasty motive.

Fat Ham on Broadway

It won the Pulitzer, I'm on Broadway, I scored cheap tickets, I've loved almost every play I've ever seen... Why wasn't I more excited? I heard it was some sassy black BBQ take on Hamlet. I thought "well, at least I'm getting some implicit Shakespeare." Yesterday I attended the Guggenheim and Der Rosenkavalier. Today I justified Fat Ham with a dusty white poet. That is, until the show started.

I've seen white audiences guffaw at sassy black humor many times. There's something I don't like about that dynamic, although I'll also say I usually just don't like audiences at all at these shows I love, especially the comedies. There are always numerous members laughing at dumb things you shouldn't laugh at. Then any moment of poetic non-comedy either gets misplaced chuckles or "mmmm"-*snaps*. I don't like all that feedback. I want to be a subtle and admiring observer of art, and I want to respect (leave alone) the experiences of those around me. I am a pretty passive observer.

I also just don't love humor that seems solely rooted in black caricature. Such humor abounds. Not only is it cliché, it doesn't feel very respectable (or respectful?).

Fat Ham had plenty of the above, with a couple of key differences: 1) it was actually funny; 2) it was heroic.

By the end, it was a party, and a joy.

The National again

I listened to every National anthem at least twice, in anticipation of April's album and August's show. That I can comfortably construct this list tells me what I need to know about their role in my life: I like them enough that there are standouts, but not enough that there are no standouts.

The National

Beautiful Head

Theory of the Crows

Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers

Fashion Coat

Alligator

Secret Meeting

Baby We'll Be Fine

All the Wine

Boxer

Fake Empire

Green Gloves

Apartment Story

Mistaken for Strangers EP

Blank Slate

High Violet

Sorrow

Anyone's Ghost

Bloodbuzz Ohio

Lemonworld

England

Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks

Walk Off

Trouble Will Find Me

I Should Live in Salt

Don't Swallow the Cap

This is the Last Time

Pink Rabbits

Hard to Find

Sleep Well Beast

Nobody Else Will Be There

Day I Die

Empire Line

Dark Side of the Gym

Sleep Well Beast

I Am Easy to Find

Where is Her Head

Not in Kansas

Dust Swirls in Strange Light

Rylan

newer singles

Never Tear Us Apart

Tropic Morning News

New Order T-Shirt