Despite his own opinion, Stephen Colbert will always be a second to Jon Stewart. However, last night he was at the top of my list: he had Rush on as guests. It was alot of fun, Stephen had a great time giving his producer grief – or was his producer giving Stephen grief? – about how big a Rush fan the producer is. One of my favorite moments was when the producer asked Rush “will you sign my host?”
This is the first time Rush has been on US television in over 30 years, and Stephen did a good job giving them their due (did you know that Rush is 4th on the list of all time gold and platinum record certifications?).
You can see the whole show (and there’s enough Rush throughout that I think the whole show is worth watching) at:
I watched this movie last weekend and have to say that this is one of the best dramas I’ve seen in a while. I’ve been a pretty big fan of Phillip Seymore Hoffman for some time now and his portrayal of the older brother is off the charts good. I believe everyone else in the movie benefits from his ability to “be” a character; everyone else has to bring it up to “be” their character with him. Although I do have to say that Marisa Tomei impressed me a great deal as well; she’s a much better actress than I had given her credit for in the past.
This movie works because even though it’s somewhat melodramatic (don’t miss the bonus materials) it’s so believable. It so easy for me to see two brothers deciding to do just what they did, and so easy to see how it all goes wrong. Much more realistic than the more stylized things that come out these days (the “opposites attract buddy” stories, the mix matched partner stories, or even things like the Bourne series) where the plots and characters are so extraordinary that you never escape from the reality that you are watching a movie!
You can’t have that realism along side happy endings. This is NOT a feel good movie. It’s a great movie, but it’s a tragedy – one of those like Edward Scissorhands that Kristin won’t watch. It’s a tragedy, but an awesomely great movie because of the craft that has gone into making it, from the director to the actors to the lighting guys; it’s a very, very well made film.
You know how sometimes when you’re reading something the sentence just seems to go on and on, telling of things that happened, then morphing into background discussion, possibly even getting into some conversation before going back to event depiction, all the while just going, and going and you never seem to even have a hint that the sentence will end, let alone see an end coming, or if you do think that this may be the point that the sentence will end, it doesn’t; it just keeps going and going, like that battery powered rabbit that never stops beating that drum, the sentence seems to exist without an end, as if it in and of itself is the very definition of forever, or of eternal and that this sentence will be going on and on through the end of time, just keep running and running and running like that damn rabbit…..?
So it is with the latest book I’ve read, “Love in the Time of Cholera.” Not that the sentences go on forever, but everything else does. This is a book of run on paragraphs that turn into run on chapters that just seem to go on and on without end. I can’t think of a more apt description of this work than that it is a “run on” book. While I found the characters compelling and the story interesting (I’ll want to see the movie), it was just difficult to read.
Here I’ll adopt my Jerry Seinfeld voice: what’s with the use of everyone’s full name – first and last names – throughout the book. There are three main characters, and never are they referred to as Florentino, or Fermina, or Juvenal. It always “Florentino Ariza did such…” and “Fermina Daza said …” and “Dr Juvenal Urbino fell off the ladder…” After I’ve gotten to know Florentino about as well as I could, the last line of the book begins with “Florentino Ariza had kept…” We certainly should have been on a first name basis by then. That relentless use of the full names made me feel like the author had a class assignment to do a work of so many words and he needed to pad it to get there.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. I don’t know why. It may be that it’s just too much of an artistic work, or too scholarly, for my tastes, but reading it was just a challenge.
In a bold move, my son Michael plunged himself into independence about two weeks ago by moving himself to San Francisco. From what I understand, he’s not just in the San Francisco area, he’s in San Francisco, like right downtown San Francisco. I love downtown San Francisco – so many cool places to be and things to see.
You may recall that a couple of weeks ago the Olympic Torch was scheduled to go through San Francisco. Many people chose to use that event as an opportunity to protest China’s treatment of Tibet – in downtown San Francisco. Michael found himself right in the middle of that protest. Being the photographer that he is he got right on with taking some pictures. Here’s a couple of them. You can check out lots more of them at:
The band I play in has made a decision about playing “Sweet Home Alabama” – we don’t. We took it off our play list a long time ago. Unfortunately, we can’t seem to get away from it, it gets requested at just about every gig. Well, Sam has steered me to a version I can appreciate. It’s from a Finnish band called Leningrad Cowboys. Here they’re performing with the Red Army Choir. They’ve also covered Led Zeplin, Metallica, the Beattles, Uriah Heep and many others.
Here’s another from the string quartet I’ve been listening to. It has some more of that “rush desonance” Allison mentions. Historically, Sam has liked this song, though in a somewhat different version…
Despite his own opinion, Stephen Colbert will always be a second to Jon Stewart. However, last night he was at the top of my list: he had Rush on as guests. It was alot of fun, Stephen had a great time giving his producer grief – or was his producer giving Stephen grief? – about how big a Rush fan the producer is. One of my favorite moments was when the producer asked Rush “will you sign my host?”
I watched this movie last weekend and have to say that this is one of the best dramas I’ve seen in a while. I’ve been a pretty big fan of Phillip Seymore Hoffman for some time now and his portrayal of the older brother is off the charts good. I believe everyone else in the movie benefits from his ability to “be” a character; everyone else has to bring it up to “be” their character with him. Although I do have to say that Marisa Tomei impressed me a great deal as well; she’s a much better actress than I had given her credit for in the past. 
