Best Song of '07 Gets Oscar Recognition

This did make me happy. Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova won best original song for "Falling Slowly" from the film "Once"
The film was one of the best of 2007, I blogged about it when it first came out, and its soundtrack is one I will continue to enjoy in the years to come.
The soundtrack tells one that the people performing are in it for the love of art.
A superb soundtrack and the song 'Falling Slowly' is simply core-shaking.
Hat tip to the Oscar crowd for recognizing true talent.
graph per billboard

Cuius Regio, Eius Religio?

Hat tip to creative classroom for the tip. Read full text here.

Are the Oscars a Drag?

As it is Oscar Sunday, and no, I will not be watching (see previous blog, why), I found this Times article most apropos. The best bit per moi,

"The system is not exactly winner-take-all, but it does leave behind a distressingly high number of designated losers, among them some of the most interesting and daring films of the year. It should not make a difference that, say, “Into the Wild,” “Starting Out in the Evening” and “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead” are barely represented in the Oscar sweepstakes. Your list of glaring omissions may be different, but if you’re among the passionate admirers of “Lust, Caution” or “We Own the Night” or “3:10 to Yuma,” you are similarly stuck savoring the sour grapes of your own good taste.


In the past it was frequently safe to assume that any relationship between the Oscars and artistic quality was coincidental. The academy was never supposed to be hip, daring or responsive to what was newest and most risky in the world of cinema. It was just what its name implied: the mainstream, the establishment, the old guard. Sometimes, yes, the best picture prize would actually go to the best picture, but more often the academy’s neglect of a film was a reliable index of its merit. The good judgment not only of critics but, more important, of independent-minded, adventurous moviegoers has traditionally been measured by its distance from the consensus of the movie industry.

And that, it should not be forgotten, is what the Academy Awards represent: the self-assessment of a self-interested, self-involved professional clique. It can be argued that, over the past decade or so, this roughly 6,000-member club has become more discerning, more willing to confer its blessings on quasi-independent, medium-budget films instead of the lumbering, middlebrow prestige productions it used to favor. Nowadays the main divisions of the studios — Columbia, Paramount, Universal and the rest — specialize in big-ticket entertainment aimed at a global audience. Their art-house subdivisions — the Miramaxes, Searchlights and Vantages — have taken over the business of supplementing cash with cachet."

Bravo, A. A. Scott! Bravo! This was the most intelligent thing I read today. And the winning sentence would have to be: "...if you’re among the passionate admirers of “Lust, Caution” or “We Own the Night” or “3:10 to Yuma,” you are similarly stuck savoring the sour grapes of your own good taste."

Read full article here.
graph per ny times

Oscar Nominations Do Not Wow

I have little interest in the Oscars this year. The birth of my disinterest was engendered last year when Ellen's [supposedly] humorous attempts reiterated the fact that my decision to work while having the program in the background was indeed a sound one.
However, the true lack of enthusiasm this year has much to do with the choice of the films that came out in 2007. Quantitatively, 2007 delivered, no doubt; qualitatively, however, it failed most spectacularly. 3:10 to Yuma and the little indie Once were the only efforts that made it worth my while. Thanks, Mangold and Carnye respectively.
Going to the movies is not a Cinema Paradiso-esque experience anymore but rather a test to measure one's degree of disappointment.
-So, how's the movie?
-Oh, it didn't disappoint me horrendously.
-Ok, in that case, I'll go see it.
If a movie is lukewarm, we'll go and watch it. This celebration of what I call Jan Brady-esque projects is bothering me to the core. Films are such a powerfully beautiful text; what does the production of such mediocrity reveal about us and our attitudes about art?

And this year, the list of Oscar nominations contains an army of films that don't quite reduce one to tears of boredom. The message of the story: You weren't entirely horrid so I think an award is in order.
But, really, is that what the medium of cinema is all about? Where has the magic of Fellini, Scott, Bergman, Kubrick et al., gone?
I'd like to come out of a movie theater in 2008 and send a text message to someone saying, 'You have GOT to see this.' No texts of this nature have been sent out yet. And we're approaching March.

Utah's Economy Shifting

Having lived in Utah and being a big Beehive state fan, I found the following NY Times article of interest, of course.

'The Rocky Mountain West, partly led downward by Utah, is expected to have the biggest percentage decline in construction jobs and housing starts this year, while the Southeast is likely to suffer least in total job growth. The Northeastern states, the company’s 2008 projections say, will take the biggest hit in total value of goods produced, called gross state product.

But some important old differences remain in Utah, too. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will spend more than $1.5 billion in Salt Lake City over the next few years on a complete renovation of several downtown blocks. That is going to happen no matter what, said Mark Knold, the senior economist for the Utah Department of Workforce Services. “The Mormon Church is recession-proof,” he said.

And so, it would seem, is Ari Bishop. Mr. Bishop, a 27-year-old sales executive, has ridden the wave of economic life. He went into real estate when Salt Lake City was exploding with growth. He bought and sold a house and had two children with his wife, Bene.

Now he sells training packages to people learning to work a new growth sector: foreclosures and bank-owned properties. It was boom times here before, Mr. Bishop said, and now boom times again, sort of.

“It’s a little different angle,” he said. “But we’re just going with the market.”'

But as most things, economy is fluid as well and I'm certain things will make a turn for the better.
Read more here.

Short, Straight from Milan

Straight from the sunny streets of Milan.
What is short hair revealing these days?








graph per sartorialist

Obama: The Choice of The Creative Class

For those out there who think that the internet is frivolous and inconsequential, well, think again.
Thanks to the power of this medium, Obama might get his party's nomination.

The following MTV.com piece investigates Barack Obama's gigantic success with the creative class, the internet-savvy, and the 'hipsters.'

'While Obama has plenty of famous supporters, this group is mostly not made up of celebrities — but many of them are definitely Internet-famous.

Chicago native Billy Wimsatt is the executive director of the League of Young Voters (which he'd originally called The League of Pissed-Off Voters), a Brooklyn, New York-based get-out-the-vote group. He used to be a graffiti artist, plastering city walls with his tag, "Upski." Wimsatt met Obama in New York during the late '90s.

"I ran into him outside of a restaurant and he was just kind of doing errands," Wimsatt recalled. "I had seen him speak about juvenile-justice issues in Illinois. I asked him how that was going and he said, 'Good.' He gave me his phone number and said, 'Call me anytime' or whatever. I was like some nobody kid."

"Barack Obama Is Your New Bicycle" is the name of a Web site created by Mat Honan, 35, a freelance writer who lives in San Francisco. It has since spawned a flurry of "bicycle" parody sites (which have skewered John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Steve Jobs), including "I Am My New Bicycle."

While Honan shies away from the tag "hipster," he does feel a common thread running through the creative class.

"I think something about being a hipster or about people who they call hipsters is this endless quest for authenticity," he said. "That's what drove punk rock and indie rock and a lot of the hipster values."'
Read full article here.

Gendered Rockabilly?

Is this urban rockabilly gendered?



graph per sartorialist

The Bravery Know How to Rock

They have style, they have talent, they know how to put on a superior rock show, they sport oh-so-2008 styles, but more importantly they respect the art form they preach: indie electronica/rock & roll.
Who are they:
The Bravery, an indie rock band from the Big Apple who have been hitting the waves ever so actively since their huge hit 'Honest Mistakes' gave The Killers a serious run for their proverbial money.

The last time I saw The Bravery in concert was back in 2005 in Salt Lake City. Much has happened since them. For starters they have gotten more mature, have produced better and more substantial music. Whereas I have been to countless concerts and I always opt to see them if they happen to be in the same area.

This time around I saw them at the Newport in Columbus, OH this past Friday night. The Switches opened for them and it was a welcomed distraction. Their sound lends itself to easy associations and that is as good a reason as any to enjoy an opening act.

The Bravery hit the stage past 10:00pm and what a show it was!
The lead singer's exuberance and enthusiasm were appealing. His vocal presentation had a nigh paralyzing effect on me and standing but a few feet away it dawned on me just why I like good indie rock&roll: It truly is pleasing to all of my senses. The bands members were sporting time-appropriate attire, their guitar and vocal sounds were superior, and they have that gendered and marginally centered look.

I highly recommend both of their projects and if they happen to play in your area, go see them. It will be obvious to you that these performers love to rock. It will be an energizing and aesthetically pleasing experience.
I know I got online after the concert to check the new Ben Sherman line....

Gendered enough?