Track of the Day - 6/29/11

Santigold feat. Karen O. - "Go"

Here's a relatively new track from Santigold, a.k.a. that one person with that song in that Bud Light Lime commercial who sounds a lot like M.I.A. but is actually a totally separate individual. In all seriousness though, I enjoyed Santigold's 2008 self-titled debut a great deal, and if you haven't heard it you should absolutely check it out. It's all the fantastic production and exotic vocals of M.I.A. without the crazy politics! "Go" doesn't seem like a huge departure for Santigold, and while I'm still a little ambivalent about the guest spot from Karen O. (of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs), the song has a captivating and somewhat menacing sound that's hard to not enjoy. Santigold is supposed to be releasing a new album pretty soon, so look out for that as well.

Previous day's connection: Both The Very Best and Major Lazer are composed of pairs of DJ/Producers; Radioclit and Diplo/Switch, respectively. And while technically Radioclit is now broken up and thus was not acting as a duo for the creation of Super Mom Mixtape, I don't really care, because I can do whatever I want. So put that in your pipe and smoke it.


But don't actually smoke, that shit kills.

Film Review - The Hangover Part II

The Hangover Part II
Director: Todd Phillips; Writers: Todd Phillips, Craig Mazin, Scot Armstrong
Warner Bros. Pictures

Man, it's been a while since I actually saw this movie in theaters, and my memory of it isn't all that great. If I had any journalistic ethics or anything like that, I probably wouldn't try to review the movie now. I think, however, that the reason I can't remember a lot of the gags from The Hangover Part II has less to do with the amount of time that's passed since my viewing it and more to do with the overall mediocrity of Todd Phillips' sequel, so fuck it - here we go.

Track of the Day - 6/26/11

Major Lazer - "When You Hear the Bassline"

Today's track is off the 2009 debut album of Major Lazer, the bass-thumping, party-starting collaboration between producers Diplo and Switch. "When You Hear the Bassline" features flowing reggae vocals to accompany the pulsing production, which is appropriate given their album was recorded in Jamaica. It also transitions really well into "California Dreamin'" by The Mamas and the Papas, if that happens to be after Major Lazer in your iTunes library. Just so you know.

Previous day's connection: A fairly easy one: both "Baba Yetu" and "Super Mom" are sung in African languages. "Baba Yetu" is, as I mentioned, sung in Swahili, while The Very Best vocals are in Chichewa, the national language of lead singer Esau Mwamwaya's native Malawi. So, they are different languages, but it all sounds like "African" to this enlightened critic.

Arbitrary Exercises - Best Movies of All Time. Ever. Period.

I'm starting a new feature on this little old blog o' mine, called Arbitrary Exercises! It's a pretty simple concept: From time to time, I'll come up with some form of list on a random topic, and share it with you lovely readers. You'll realize how completely arbitrary and pointless the lists are and hopefully point this out to me, and then I'll retreat, discouraged and defeated, back to my sad and meaningless existence. And probably call you a rude name. Sound like fun? Alright, well here we go!

Today's Arbitrary Exercise is trying to decide what the twenty best movies of all time are. My boyfriend asked me the other day if I had some sort of list of my favorite movies, because I am definitely the type of person that would have such a list typed out on my computer, in case you couldn't tell by me having this incredibly cool blog - but, surprisingly I did not have such a list! So, technically, this is really just a list of my favorite movies and not a definitive statement of the greatest films in history - considering I haven't seen every film ever made and also am not in possession of the kind of godlike authority necessary for that. I have, however, tried to make sure that these films all had some high level of quality to them and were not just movies that I like. Final disclaimer: this list contains no Godfather in any form - I've seen the first one, thought it was a little meh. And I'm not the only one.

Book Review - Mistborn

Mistborn: The Final Empire
Brandon Sanderson
Tor Books

Brandon Sanderson has had a pretty awesome past few years. His debut novel, Elantris, was well-received by critics and readers, and also caught the eye of Harriet Rigney, the widow of the prominent and bestselling Wheel of Time author, Robert Jordan. Based on his work, Sanderson was selected by Rigney and the editors at Tor to complete the Wheel of Time series, and has successfully published numerous original works as well. Not too shabby, if you ask me. Mistborn: The Final Empire, published in 2006, is the first volume in Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy.

Now that I've dumped all that information out there, let's get to the juicy stuff: Mistborn (I'm leaving out "The Final Empire" in the interest of space, laziness, and sounding less like a total nerd) highlights Sanderson's strengths as a writer, as well as a few of his weaknesses. Starting with the positive, though, the worldbuilding and way that magic works in the novel are both utterly compelling and fascinating. "Magic" in Mistborn comes in the form of Allomancy, where certain people have the ability to manipulate the world around them by ingesting specific kinds of metals (For example, someone can ingest tin and use it to enhance their hearing and other senses). It's a system that's fairly easy to comprehend, but also offers up a multitude of interesting and unexpected possibilities. The world of Mistborn is equally simple on the surface, but is inhabited by such captivating characters that it feels rich and lived-in.

Track of the Day - 6/12/11

The Very Best - "Super Mom"

Today's track is from the recently released Super Mom Mixtape, which The Very Best released for free this past Mother's Day. I have no idea what the hell singer Esau Mwamwaya is saying, but it sounds pretty damn happy. And catchy! If you haven't listened to their 2009 album Warm Heart of Africa, you also need to get on that shit - it's the most ballerest African music since The Lion King. And if there's one thing I'm an expert on, it's African music. Oh, and I have no idea what's up with this video, so sorry about that.



Previous Day's Connection: Both "Baba Yetu" and Arcade Fire were Grammy winners in 2011. "Baba Yetu" became the first composition designed for a video game to be recognized with a Grammy, and Arcade Fire became the first band named Arcade Fire to win the coveted, extremely prestigious Album of the Year award. They join the esteemed company of other Grammy winners Lady Antebellum, Celine Dion, and Christopher Cross.

TV Review - Sherlock (S1)

Sherlock
Series One (aka Season One for us Yanks)
BBC (or PBS for us Colonials)

This will hopefully be another fairly short review, since I opted to review the three episodes that comprise the first season of BBC's Sherlock as a group, instead of separately. I'm also by no means an expert on Sherlock Holmes: I've never read any of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's works, I've never seen any of the Basil Rathbone movies - my only real exposure to the character has been through the 2009 Guy Ritchie film (which I thought was solidly entertaining) and an episode of Wishbone based on The Hound of the Baskervilles (also pretty entertaining, from what I remember). My lack of preconceptions or expectations actually probably makes me the ideal audience for Sherlock, which brings the characters into a modern-day London setting.

Perhaps Holmes purists would consider the updated setting an outrage, but I found it to be a fairly astute move on the part of creators Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat (of Doctor Who fame), as it made the idea of plunging into the classic stories and characters a bit less intimidating. And while it is true that Sherlock's version of Holmes includes texting and nicotine patches, the elements that made Doyle's work so iconic remain the focus - namely, the brilliant dynamic between Holmes and his much-beleaguered assistant, Watson.

Track of the Day - 6/1/11

"Baba Yetu" - Christopher Tin (composer)

Back by popular demand, it's a brand spanking new Track of the Day! I'm reviving this feature because so many people were always asking me, "What ever happened to the Track of the Day?" or "When are you going to do more tracks? I'm dying to know the connection between the last two!" Any rumors that it has to do with my being bored, and that nobody really reads this blog, and my writing here is part of a largely sad and meaningless existence, are absolutely false.

Anyway, for those not familiar with this, each day's track has some loose connection to the previous day's, one that probably only makes sense in my strange little head. Today's track is from Christopher Tin, who composed "Baba Yetu" for the insanely addictive video-game, Civilization IV. The piece is beautifully orchestrated, and the vocal component is genius in it's simplicity - the lyrics are The Lord's Prayer sung in Swahili. Check out the video to see it choreographed with some pretty sweet fountain action.

Previous day's (year's) connection: Jesus, you really expect me to remember that far back? God, y'all are so demanding! Whatever, I'm pretty sure it had something to do with the bands playing Lollapalooza. Or something. Just focus on this new connection, okay?

(The previous TotD was Arcade Fire's "Suburban War" from 8/15/10)