"Still Smiling: A Tribute to the Genius of Brian Wilson"

Came with some music magazine or other. Seems like a good roster of currentish Brian Wilson / Beach Boys-inspired acts (there've probably always been many, but they seem especially prominent at the moment), but hasn't really taken me, for the most part; while I'm all for this kind of hazy sunshiney melancholy, I prefer that kind of vibe when it comes with more melody than is generally on offer here.

Feeling Good: The Very Best of Nina Simone

Pretty unimpeachable, of course. One of those artists whose music genuinely resonates down the years without ever getting old. Also, I don't think I've heard "The Other Woman" before; it's wonderful.

Strength in Numbers - Telluride Sessions

The Heartland anthology is one of my favourite records, and this older album was recorded by some of the same crew (Edgar Meyer, Mark O'Connor, Sam Bush, Bela Fleck, Jerry Douglas). It's kind of a chamber-y, lightly jazzy take on bluegrass - melodic, rhythmic, and good.

The Drones - Gala Mill & Havilah

A pair of urgent, raw-throated, rough-edged rock albums, Gala Mill and Havilah tend to churn along, at times seeming more about texture and dynamics than about songs or melodies or even clear guitar licks, only for sections to suddenly emerge from the general clangour as standouts/highlights (on Havilah, "I Am The Supercargo" and "Oh My", say).

I think I like Wait Long... a touch more than either of these, but there's probably a dose of 'the first one you listen to will always be your favourite' there - and all of them have a great sense of heft, heaviness, which means they continue to have a lot to offer, and to give new things, on repeated listens.

Okkervil River - I Am Very Far

Another good album from Will Sheff and co. Not many bands can match the sheer anthem-ness of an Okkervil River anthem, and on I Am Very Far, the anthems are out in force. The sound on this one is denser, and I think the songs themselves are too; the biggest ones, all of which I remember from their show last year, are "The Valley", "Rider" and "We Need A Myth".

Tiny Vipers - Life on Earth

I say this with absolutely no snide intention, but I hadn't picked up from either listening to the wonderful "Dreamer" or the picture on the front of this album that the singer in Tiny Vipers is female. Does knowing her gender make any difference to my appreciation of her music? Probably not. Anyway, the record is all sombre, intricately written voice-and-guitar pieces, somewhat hypnotic.

Between the Lines 3: Stories of Lovers and Lunatics

Like volume 4 in the series, a high quality 2-cd set of independent and independently-minded music; has perhaps a bit more of a rootsy/folky slant than the other.

Favourites:
* Bob Dylan - "Love Sick"
* Lisa Hannigan - "Ocean and a Rock"
* Okay - "Natural"
* Frenk Lebel - "When Systems Collide"
* Woven Hand - "The Good Hand"
* Howe Gelb - "World Stand Still"

"Love and Devotion: From Persia and Beyond" (State Library)

I went to this collection of 13th-18th century illustrated manuscripts, mostly Persian but also including some Moghul and other related pieces, because Kevin was running a tour - as always, it was impressive to see books that are so old, the fineness of the illustrations adding another layer.

(last time)

The Walkmen - You & Me & Lisbon

A couple of pretty good Walkmen albums - both have their moments.

Game of Thrones season 1 (again)

Watched this through again, this time at a more leisurely pace. Having re-read the book in the meantime, it's apparent how cleverly the show has taken the many elements of the book and knitted them together into something that works very well in the different form; it actually departs from the book in a whole range of little ways, while still managing to be very faithful. The show is less ugly, cleaner than the book - but not by a whole lot. It is well done.

Dirty Three - Toward the Low Sun

Dramatic and fiery, Toward the Low Sun is the kind of record that summons moods and invokes emotional landscapes. Violin, electric guitar and drums shiver, shimmer, crash and chime; the path taken by the album is wending and impressionistic rather than being oriented towards crescendos or clear closure. Favourites - the haunted "Sometimes I Forget You've Gone", guitar-led, Neil Young-y "That Was Was", and gentle, sighing "Ashen Snow".

Red (MTC)

Watching this was a slightly odd experience for me. Rothko's works often provoke a response in me that nothing else comes close to; seeing his Seagram pieces in the Tate Modern last year, for example - their composition is central to "Red" - was an almost spiritual experience (a word I don't use lightly). It's not overstating it to say that he's an iconic artist for me. And having browsed or read any number of monographs about him, I've picked up far more about his approach to art and about his life than I normally do about artists I like (generally, I prefer to try to let the art itself speak to me, without the distracting context of the artist themselves, however artificial that idea may be), and that background knowledge gave "Red" a faintly uncanny feeling, with all of the key ideas, figures, events that it presents already being intensely familiar, and not only that, but all wrapped up with my own feelings, thoughts and associations around Rothko's art.

At first, I found it a bit talky and insular - a bit too self-focused - but the play had largely won me over by the end; I realised that my heart was beating much faster than normal as it came towards its end. It's far from a great play - its construction as something similar to a Socratic dialogue between the artist and his assistant (although it moves beyond that in the closing stages) is limiting, particularly when the ambition of the play is to say something about artistic truth, and the presentation of Rothko himself felt somewhat reductionistic (even as the play itself has Rothko rail against the tendency to reduce the lives of those he considers his peers in just that way). But it does succeed in at least grappling with some of the key concerns that animated Rothko's own work and life, and dramatising them reasonably effectively - if a bit programmatically, principally through the conversations / monologues about 'red' and 'black'.

And it acquires a bit of an emotional charge at the end - the final scene, opening with the assistant discovering the painter lying flat on his back in his studio, red paint streaks on his wrists, is haunted not only by the audience's autobiographical knowledge that that was how Rothko himself was found, dead by suicide, but also by a few lines of dialogue earlier in the play where the painter speaks of 'when', rather than 'if', he will commit suicide, overwhelmed (the play would have it) like his contemporary Jackson Pollock, by a Nietzschean sense of tragedy. Indeed, that last scene, with Rothko setting his assistant free and adjuring him to go out and create new art himself, in the brave new world of Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Lichtenstein, Warhol et al, even though it means figuratively killing those (like Rothko) of the generation before, can be read as a directive from beyond the grave from Rothko himself - and, perhaps, a final affirmatory 'what do you see?' 'red' answer to the 'black' fear of being weighed and found wanting as one looks at once to the past and to the future.

(w/ Cass, Andreas, David, Steph N, Alice)

George R R Martin - "A Song of Ice and Fire" 1-4 & A Dance with Dragons

I re-read the first four as a kind of extended run-up to A Dance with Dragons, but that latest one was really the main event - a chance to find out more of what happens to all, or at least most, of the remaining/surviving characters, not to mention a few significant new ones (most notably more of the various Dornish and the revelation of the young Aegon having been raised in exile).

The storylines increasingly knit together, and the building continues towards what will seemingly end up being an ultimate confrontation between whoever's left standing on Westeros once the game of thrones is bloodily (and fierily) played out and the Others north of the Wall. Exactly how Martin intends to get us there, though, is still to be seen - including whether he'll continue to be as brutal about killing off main characters as he was particularly through the first three books of the series.

I have to say that while A Dance with Dragons is an improvement on A Feast for Crows, it does feel a bit like a book 5 out of 7 - there's a fair bit of moving the pieces around, and not a huge amount of actual action or really memorable character moments or set pieces. (Plus, the Meereenese sections are nowhere near as interesting as the others.) But the whole thing is so compelling and so well imagined, and so effectively keeps the reader guessing, and the investment that it induces so great (particularly investment in characters who are genuinely morally ambiguous and who undergo real change and reversals), that these kinds of structural weaknesses are almost beside the point - there's more than enough momentum there to keep it completely engaging.

(previously - 2nd reading 1-3, 4; next reading)

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - "Higher Than The Stars" ep

This one came out between the debut lp and Belong and doesn't offer anything dramatically different from what's on those other two records (it sounds like a transition between the two), but, like those others, it's very likeable, particularly the fuzziness of "103" and "Twins".

Little Scout - "The Dead Loss" & "Different in the Distance" eps

Sometimes it takes me a while to get around to listening to (and writing about) music; I got these two eps pretty soon after seeing Little Scout supporting the New Pornographers back in November 2010. Their sound is pleasantly jangly, lilting indie-pop - there's plenty of this kind of stuff around, including made by Australian bands, but I am very fond of the style. And while Little Scout's take on the genre isn't especially distinctive, listening to these eps this afternoon did make me feel a bit nostalgic - momentarily melancholy - in the usual partly specific, partly intangibly general way.

Peter Gabriel - So

I know that this one is highly regarded by many, but it doesn't do much for me. I like the drama and sweepiness of it and the songs are generally pretty good, but it doesn't excite me ('too 80s', maybe).

A Dangerous Method

Appropriately for a film about the 'talking cure', A Dangerous Method has a lot of talking in it, but that doesn't make it any less absorbing. Psychoanalysis interests me, and Cronenberg's take on Freud (Viggo Mortensen aka Aragorn - v.g.), Jung (this Fassbender that everyone has been talking about lately) and Jung's patient (and later colleague) Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley, effective in a role that calls for the manneredness that comes so naturally to her) - on their characters and interactions - is apt, somehow at once opaque and revealing. The script assumes a working knowledge of many of the key psychoanalytic concepts, but the film is just as interested in the human psyche itself - in the ways that identity and selfhood are formed and made visible - as in the establishment of the field and the men (and, in Sabina, at least one woman) who were responsible for it. Not a warm film or an easy one, but rewarding.

(w/ Steph N, Alice, Andreas)

Saturday Looks Good To Me - Fill Up The Room

Minor jangly indie-pop.

Emilie Simon - The Big Machine

There's something a bit mad about Simon - in a good way - and it may not be coincidental that, on this record, she sounds a fair bit like, variously, Kate Bush and Tori Amos at times. The melodies can be jagged; the mood shifts somewhat unevenly from song to song - but for all that, this is a good album, listenably interesting, and winsome despite its edges.

(The Flower Book)

"2011 - Where I Was, What Was Passing Around Me"

Most of Trang's mixes have only a tangential connection to the mainstreamish contemporary, but this one, a document of her 2011, is an exception. She picks mellower songs from two of the key records of my own 2011 ("I Know Places" from Wounded Rhymes and "Rest Your Head On My Shoulder" from Seeker Lover Keeper) as well as my favourite from another in high rotation last year and this (the title track from Fleet Foxes' last), along with plenty of others that are no strangers to the radio (Little Red's "Rock It", Adele's "Rolling in the Deep", Bon Iver, Beirut). A nice mix.

Janelle Monae - The ArchAndroid

An impressive mix of pop, soul, hip-hop and folk, superbly produced and put together, and highlighted by Monae's remarkable voice. Feels like a journey - epic - with lots of high points along the way.

Dum Dum Girls - Only in Dreams

More glossily produced - less scratchy and clattery - than their debut (neither a pro nor a con, though the more lo fi sound of I Will Be did set it apart a bit), and a bit more even than that other. Enjoyable.

Cold War Kids - Robbers & Cowards

I'd heard a fair number of these songs before - mostly from mix cds from David, I think - and they tended to be the more memorable ones. I've had this for a while but it hasn't really stuck.

Holly Throsby - On Night

Nice - gentle and low key, and with a melancholy undercurrent, On Night has a late afternoon to evening feel, and the Australian-ness of Throsby's delivery (I think this was her debut) enhances the kinds of associations that her music summons.

First Aid Kit - The Lion's Roar

This is a lovely album, richer and more expansive - not to mention more glossily produced - than The Big Black & The Blue (which isn't to disparage that first, comparatively rawer but still strikingly good lp at all). My favourites are back to back in the middle - first the dreamy, meandering "To A Poet", which starts with some pretty 'oooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-oooh'-ing and Joni Mitchell-esque verse trilling, and also shares with Joni (at her best) a captivating compellingness that coexists with the sense that the wending tune is almost being made up as it goes along, and then "I Found A Way", which invokes both Neko Case and Fleet Foxes; it's possible to hear bits of all three of those artists, and plenty of others (piquantly, "Emmylou" namechecks, as well as the obvious, Gram, June Carter and Johnny), throughout the record.

30 Rock 1-5

Amidst the unsettledness of the last few weeks (moving house being neither least nor greatest amongst the causes), have wound up watching this all the way through again - an easy way to distract myself, or as a companion while doing other things. Watching all five seasons in a row made me think that it has actually maintained a pretty consistent quality (on first pass, my impression was that seasons 2 and 3 were a notch above the others); all up, it continues to be high quality, undemanding but intelligent comedy, getting plenty of mileage out of its main characters' many foibles.

(previously)

Lana Del Rey - Born To Die

What I knew about Lana Del Rey about six months ago: She was some kind of internet sensation, with the inevitable attendant backlash.

What I knew about her about three months ago: That sinuous, mournful-sounding, memorable song I heard one morning on the radio that made me think of Nancy Sinatra, Karen O (in downbeat mode) and Marianne Faithfull (if there had been a mid-period between her youthfully pretty tunes and the raspy, cracked voice with which she reemerged years later) - the sort of song that lingers in the mind and summons associations - and then looked up was "Video Games". If that's what the hype was about, the hype was justified.

What I know now: The lp doesn't live up to the promise of that first song. The strings and Del Rey's alto knit it together, but there's not a lot of substance to it.

Eilen Jewell @ the Corner, Thursday 22 March

An enjoyable show. Jewell is ace live, and - as someone called out at one point - a sweet talker into the bargain, and she was backed by a fantastic band (guitar, drums, upright bass) as she she ripped through a set that drew as much on her older work as on the more recent records that I've listened to, Sea of Tears and Queen of the Minor Key. Live, the bluesy/early rock and roll elements of her sound came through most strongly initially, but there was plenty of country in there too, put together crisply and satisfingly.

(w/ Rob)

The Lighthouse Keepers - Ode to Nothing

There are some songs for which the word 'charming' could practically have been invented, and the Lighthouse Keepers' gem "Ocean Liner" is one of them. For a long time, it was the only thing I knew about them, but now this compilation has come out (most of their one lp plus all-sorts) and it shows them to've been a pretty neat band in their time (early 80s), mingling influences in that Australian indie post-punk exemplified by the Go-Betweens (though probably with more variety, and less of a folkish streak).

"The Wild Duck" (Malthouse)

Apparently this was based on an Ibsen play, and while the names and a certain, possibly spurious, 'you see it because you expect it', Scandinavian sensibility to the drama attest to that, it felt very much like a contemporary work; moreover, while its themes and characters are universal, the setting is (for the most part) naturalistically Australian. Cass mentioned that one of her friends had described it as quite televisual and compared it to an HBO production, which I think is a good analogy, not least because of the transparent (glass or maybe perspex) wall behind which nearly all of the action takes place - a staging technique done to death nowadays, particularly by the Malthouse, but effective here.

It's tightly written and quite simple in many ways, drawing on familiar themes and dramatic structures (most notably, the reverberating effects of past misdeeds and trauma in the present day), but the structuring is elegant, and the events of its second half have a genuine emotional impact, including the final, quietly sad, out-of-the-box conversation between Hjalmar (Ewen Leslie - impressive) and Gina (Anita Hegh - equally so), which is partly due to the neat, unadorned way that it's pulled together and partly thanks to the very strong performances from the whole cast, who are able to carry the dramatic moments and convince us of the reality of their characters throughout. Also - there was a real duck on stage, which was more a novelty than anything else, but still kind of cool. It's by no means a perfect play (or production) - Gregers comes through strongly, but sort of just disappears after performing his main plot function of revealing the secret at the heart of events to Hjalmar, for example - but still, it was very good.

(w/ Cass and Erandathie)

Michael Lewis - Moneyball

A very enjoyable read - particularly impressive given its subject, although that said, despite my disinterest in baseball, I was probably a fairly sympathetic audience. Lewis' sympathies are clearly with Billy Beane and his willingness to bring 'efficiency' to the game - there's no suggestion that his statistical methods are anathema to the spirit of the sport, or that they suck the joy out of it - but much of the fascination of the book is the way it interweaves the tales of all of the 'players'...managers, fans (and fanatics), number-crunchers, and the players themselves.

(the film)

Game of Thrones season 1

Pretty excellent, though possibly it would've been more so were I not so intimately familiar with the books and the many twists and turns the series has up its sleeve. Season 1 covers the events of the first book and does a good job of it - I don't think it omits a single major plot event or character, and it's not too far off the mark in terms of mood and feel, either. Looking forward to more.

(w/ Rob - getting through the whole thing in a single all day viewing session)

Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues

Like the first one, but maybe better - kind of more widescreen (nearly always a good thing in my books) and deeper and richer-feeling. Favourites - "Montezuma", "Battery Kinzie", "Lorelai", the title track. Been listening to it for months now, on and off, but I'm pretty sure it penetrated with that pastoral-harmonic feeling of familiarity from the very first listen.

They Will Have Their Way: The Songs of Tim & Neill Finn

I know this is hardly an original sentiment, but there's something about Crowded House. Their music has always been there, but that's not what gives it its power to evoke feeling - that's something that comes from the music itself. Anyhow, the greatness of that source material was a large part of what made She Will Have Her Way so good (though many of the other Finn songs are also v. strong); it's now been repackaged with a couple of extras (including Seeker Lover Keeper's "Sinner") along with the male follow-up that came out a couple of years back; on that one, my favourites are the first three, and possibly the three most straightforward - Oh Mercy's "I Feel Possessed", Chris Cheney's "Distant Sun", and, especially, Boy & Bear's take on "Fall At Your Feet" (my favourite from the original She Will Have Her Way has ended up being Clare Bowditch's version of the same, which may not be all that surprising given that it's probably one of my three or four favourite Crowded House songs full stop).

Douglas Adams - Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

I think I'd read this one before, many years ago. It's amusing, fundamental interconnectedness of everything and all.

Bored to Death season 2

More of the same, in a good way. Smart, funny, sweet, just the right side of overly clever and self-aware, and just acerbic enough.

Inception

The other night, midnight, couldn't sleep, decided to watch Inception to distract myself. On a second viewing I was better able to appreciate the craft of the thing - how elegantly and tightly it's constructed, how smoothly it draws the viewer in. But the main impact of Inception remains the immediate one - the sheer breathtaking excitement of the visuals, the action, the plot, the resolution, and the of-the-moment pitch-perfection of the cast.

(last time)

Bored to Death season 1

What it says on the box - Jason Schwartzman as a writer who gets dumped by his girlfriend and begins moonlighting (via a craigslist ad) as a private detective. Much in the way of moderately deadpan literary NYC situation comedy ensues, with an undertone of the unlikely (even hints of the uncanny) that never quite blooms into the full-blown fantastic. Ted Danson's suave, somewhat unhinged magazine editor a highlight, along with the general literary detectiveness. Not as great as I'd thought it might be, but still rather enjoyable.

Lucinda Williams - Blessed

Williams seems to've hit one of those mid-late career sweet spots; since the classic Car Wheels on a Gravel Road (1998) and then 2003's almost equally great Essence, she's released a new record every couple of years, each one satisfying and rewarding in its own right, and seeming to fit completely naturally within her large, rich stream of work.

Blessed is no exception. It has plenty of high points, and it never seems like Williams is simply retreading old ground, but in both its mellower, more cosmic moments and amidst the most energetic roots-rockers (often, as is her latter day wont, touched by the blues) that it has to offer, it sounds like nothing so much as Lucinda Williams, her voice as characterful as ever, although - surprisingly - a bit smoother on this outing than generally on her other recent albums.

"Dream about changing" & "Keep it like a haunting" (2010 & 2011 cds)

I never got round to putting the 2010 cd up.

Dream about changing (2010)

1. Stillness is the Move – Dirty Projectors
from Bitte Orca (Domino; 2009)

2. Heart Skipped A Beat – The xx
from xx (Young Turks; 2009)

3. Core of Nature – Midlake
from The Courage of Others (Bella Union; 2010)

4. Written in Reverse – Spoon
from Transference (Merge; 2010)

5. Half Asleep – School of Seven Bells
from Alpinisms (Ghostly International; 2008)

6. Dream About Changing – Sally Seltmann
from Heart That’s Pounding (Shock; 2010)

7. Bloodbuzz Ohio – The National
from High Violet (4AD; 2010)

8. Fraud in the 80s – Mates of State
from Bring It Back (Barsuk; 2006)

9. Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) – Arcade Fire
from “The Suburbs” (Merge; 2010)

10. Coming Home To Me – Patty Griffin (feat. Julie Miller)
from Downtown Church (Credential; 2010)

11. House of Cards – Robert Plant
from Band of Joy (Rounder; 2010)

Others originally on the cd, but later taken off because they didn't really feel like part of the soundtrack to the year: Elbow - "Mirrorball", Florence and the Machine - "Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)", Deerhunter - "Desire Lines".

* * *

And here is 2011 (along with notes about what the songs make me think of).

Keep it like a haunting (2011)

1. Joints – Holly Miranda
from The Magician’s Private Library (XL; 2010)
Things unfurling; a quiet mystery; a quieter wonder.

2. Committed – Jenny and Johnny
from I’m Having Fun Now (Warner; 2010)
Summertime, rock and roll.

3. This World Can Make You Happy – Amaya Laucirica
from Early Summer (Departed Sounds; 2010)
Every girl I’ve ever been involved with.

4. Sadness is a Blessing – Lykke Li
from Wounded Rhymes (LL; 2011)
Bells, melody, melodrama.

5. Even Though I’m A Woman – Seeker Lover Keeper
from Seeker Lover Keeper (Dew Process; 2011)
2011 in general – if one song soundtracked this year for me, it was this one.

6. Anne With Ann E – The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
from Belong (Slumberland; 2011)
The memory of some hazy Sofia Coppola-touched dream.

7. Zip City – Drive-By Truckers
from Ugly Buildings, Whores and Politicians: Greatest Hits 1998 - 2009 (New West; 2011) [2001]
Bon Jovi crossed with Neil Young, in a good way.

8. Home To Me – Eilen Jewell
from Queen of the Minor Key (Signature Sounds; 2011)
Like the album as a whole: smoulder, smoke and heart-break, seedy dive bars, cigarettes and a hint of sex.

9. Abducted – Cults
from Cults (In The Name Of; 2011)
Wonderful, knowing abandon.

10. Chinatown – Wild Nothing
from Gemini (Captured Tracks; 2010)
Escape – maybe momentary, maybe something more.

11. What I Thought Of You – Holly Throsby
from Team (Spunk; 2011)
That gentle melancholy that settles like a cloak at the end of so many days, especially in summer.

Hugo

A sweet love letter to cinema. For once - and aptly - the 3D actually enhances the film (the only other film I've seen use it as well was Coraline). The two children at its centre are each just right; the many established adult actors around them disappear impressively into their roles: Robin Williams and Sacha Baron Cohen I only picked after watching them for some time; Emily Mortimer I thought I recognised but wasn't sure about; and I missed the fact that Melies was Ben Kingsley altogether until the credits - though Jude Law and the completely ummistakeable Christopher Lee hold up their ends well too. There's a hint of both of those great fantasists Gilliam and Jeunet to Hugo, but it's softer-edged and more golden than anything that either of those others have done (though, for the most part, correspondingly without the shadowy, sinister nightmare edges that really make films like The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus or The City of Lost Children linger); and it's a film utterly in love with Paris. I liked it.

(w/ C)

Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost

I’ve been listening to this album pretty solidly for two or three weeks now (post-laneway), and have spent much of that time trying to figure out what classic – or at least older – acts Girls reminds me of, but I’m increasingly thinking that maybe there are no particular influences or touchstones here, but rather a general vibe taking in a whole heap of iconic, mostly guitar-y outfits from the 60s and the 70s (Beatles, Beach Boys, and Big Star, to name just a few, though really it’s the general  backdrop of which they’re crucial parts, rather than those three bands themselves) with dashes of a more modern guitar-rock sound as well as a surprising folky strand. 

It’s a compelling mixture, and a strong record – high points are the driving, catchy “Alex” (the scything Manic Street Preachers-style guitars are what really make it), the wistful, slightly countrified “My Ma”, “Vomit”, with its gasped/blared ‘looking for love’ refrain, the most anthemic indie-rock anthem I’ve heard in a while, and the pastoral epic “Just A Song”.

“Song Truck”

Not that I make a lot of mix cds these days, but when I do, I definitely tend towards the shorter and more carefully-chosen end of the spectrum; this one (from JF) fits that bill, at a bite-sized nine tracks. It starts off with a song, the Flamin’ Groovies’ “Shake Some Action”, that, wreathed in cascading guitar lines, sounds like a lost classic, and maybe it is; I also particularly like “Oslo Skyline” by an outfit called Jaga Jazzist (an instrumental, dynamic, dramatic, interestingly unpredictable and wendy, and by its ending, heavy as anything) and the frankly uncategorisable “Beg Waves” by Pony Tail (if you threw Life Without Buildings, Love Is All and a fair dose of crazy into a big pot and stirred, the result might be something similar). Elsewhere, there’s a baroque, Magnetic Fields-y song called “Ban Marriage” by the Hidden Cameras, the Chills’ “As Far As I Can See” (reminds me of the Triffids), Destroyer doing his best Talk Talk on a song called “Kaputt”, a sweet folk ditty called “Scarred For Life” (Slapp Happy), David Sylvian’s “Small Metal Gods” and the first Lambchop song I’ve actually liked in “Paperback Bible”.

The Hollowmen seasons 1 & 2

Funny and ever topical.

(last time)

Jasper Fforde - Shades of Grey

The move from his usual realm and the seemingly too-cute premise (a world in which the ability to see colours is limited and determines class and social status) had made me sceptical, but Shades of Grey is actually good - very well-written and quite sharply satirical, though not as funny as Fforde's Thursday Next / nursery crime books.

Harry Turtledove - Into The Darkness

Bought to fill some hotel/airport time in Sydney over the weekend. Finished it, but it's nothing special, though the WWI(I) analogues were a nice touch.

Gotye - Making Mirrors

"Somebody That I Used To Know" is one of an increasingly long list of extremely popular songs that I discovered for myself - in this case, a few months ago, early morning radio hearing followed by groggy lyric googling ("Gotye? Who?"), only to be told when I mentioned it to David that it was then number 1 on the pop charts - being happily innocent of a lot of what gets played on the radio nowadays. (The most amusing example, maybe, being the discovery of Rihanna's "Umbrella" - genuinely a great song - via a live Amanda Palmer cover of it.) Anyhow, it's the song is memorable, the rest of the album less so (though not wholly uninteresting), etc.

Siri Hustvedt - The Summer Without Men

Siri Hustvedt is obvious a very careful writer, and very aware of voice and effect in her writing; The Summer Without Men is not only the first of her novels that I've read to be written from the perspective of a female protagonist (cf What I Loved and The Sorrows of an American) (*), but it's a novel that is overtly preoccupied with femaleness and female experience); taking all of those together, it's interesting that this is also the first of hers that I've read to occasionally strike a false note in its presentation of character and experience.

That said, I doubt there's any particular psychological or even gendered element to the presence of what are, after all, only occasional lapses in what is generally a very fluently written, engaging work, when compared to the near-perfection of those two earlier novels. More likely, they come about because The Summer Without Men sees Hustvedt stretching herself, exploring a looser, lighter style, more playful and with more flashes of humour, and a less overwhelmingly cerebral, emotionally controlled (though still extremely analytical, sensitive, erudite, etc) narrative voice. And while it hasn't struck the same resonances for me, it's still very good - thoughtful, wry, insightful.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Convincingly grey and shadowy; well made, and terrifically (and unshowily) acted by all, especially Oldman.

St Jerome's Laneway Festival, Saturday 4 February

My return to laneway-ing last year at the current Footscray site, following a break after the first three (2005, 2006, 2007), made me think that the organisers had got it right with set-up and facilities, making for an enjoyable festival experience even though the music itself tended towards being merely good rather than in any way exciting. Anyhow, this year was another noticeably smooth operation and the music was overall a notch better, so a definite score.

Looking at the lineup beforehand was another reminder of how out of touch I am these days. It's been a long time since I had any idea what was going on in the pop charts or any real contact with the mainstream of triple j's playlist; it's really the pitchfork/internet music-writing stream that would be most relevant for laneway, but my travels only cross that particular stream from time to time. Still, the absence of any obvious monstrously huge acts was a drawcard in itself, and there was enough there to make me think it was worth a go.

We arrived reasonably early - C wanted to see Husky, who were on at 12 - but I lost a while to needing to organise some work stuff on the phone, so while I heard some of Geoffrey O'Connor (of Crayon Fields fame) from a distance (it sounded good), the first set I caught properly was one of the ones I was most keen on, the Pains of Being Pure at Heart. They were great - listening to Belong at home, it was always obvious that these were songs - anthems - that were made to be played live, and loud, and the band rocked convincingly, with the more subtle elements of the songs preserved too; also given a run were several from their first lp which were equally good in the early afternoon sunshine.

After that, saw a bit of a band called Austra that the booklet compared to Kate Bush and Bat For Lashes - didn't make much of an impression. Abandoned them for Neil Finn's Pajama Club - pleasant but also largely passed me by (though their cover of "Moonage Daydream" was good).

We'd intended to see Laura Marling, but changed our mind and went to see a band called Girls instead - turned out to be a great call. On yesterday's evidence, they're kind of a jangly guitar-rock/power pop band with maybe a few jagged edges, drawing on past greats (Big Star came to mind; also, at times, the cleaner end of the Replacements' repertoire) but contemporary-sounding. A good find.

After that, some r&r on the grass (I'm getting old, and it was a hot day) with Twin Shadow in the background. Then over to see Cults, about whom I was probably most excited, having listened lots to that album of theirs over the last few months. They put in a good set, and only having one album to draw on, played all of their good songs - it would've been better indoors, I suspect...although the late afternoon-ness and river/faux-tropical backdrop fitted their Spector-y vibes, the singer's voice wasn't the strongest and while they were deliberately mixing up the dynamics so that the choruses would hit harder (which worked), it meant the other bits got a bit lost at times. Still, it was fun to see them.

Then, a bit of Feist, who I would've wanted to see anyway (Metals is still getting plenty of spins) but particularly after everyone said how great her Palais show earlier in the week was - she was good, and willing to mix things up a bit from the recorded versions. And after that, over to Chairlift, of whom I didn't actually expect great things, but they delivered a good set. I didn't know most of what they played - it was nearly all new stuff, off a just released (seven days ago) second lp - but it sounded good, poppy and fun.

M83 closed it out - I haven't really listened to them before, but their widescreen shoegazey electro-rockisms were a perfect festival closer.

(w/ C and Rob - ran into Dale B, Julian H and Leana)

"Unanswered" (@ Theatre Works)

A contemporary dance performance - one of C's instructors was in it. Not bad.

(w/ C)

The Space Opera Renaissance edited by David G Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer

An attempt at a definitive genre overview anthology, complete with introductory essay and biographical and contextualising notes about each story's author. Easy to read, but I prefer fantasy.

Nive Nielsen & The Deer Children - Nive Sings!

"Room" got completely under my skin (in a good way) last year, an uncategorisable treat. The album is broadly more of the same - ie Greenlandic indie - though not as memorable as that lead-off track ("Done & Gone" is my favourite of the others, mainly for its crashy ending).

Young Adult

In two minds about this one. It's no Juno, a film about which I still feel very fondly - but nor do Cody and Reitman set out for anything approaching that territory. Young Adult is a comedy of sorts, but it's just as much - if not more so - interested in character and behaviour, and it's unafraid to put a very unlikeable main character front and centre; it's one of those films that excels at awkward. Frankly, I was only lukewarm on it - there just wasn't anything in it that I really sunk my teeth into. Still, I liked the snap and grit of it, and it had enough moments to keep me going.

Laura Marling - I Speak Because I Can

Suddenly - it was probably a couple of years ago - everyone liked Laura Marling. I knew that she was folk, and assumed that plus her popularity meant that her style would be pretty, gentle, somewhat melancholy - nothing wrong with that, but there's plenty of it going around and not much that stands out. But it turns out that I underestimated everyone, because I Speak Because I Can, at least, is much tougher, and also better, than I'd imagined - hard strummed acoustic guitar and a frequently fraught air, along with just the right hints of backwoods weirdness and general sorrow, and songs that grow on repeated listens. Like.

Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi - Rome

The homage to Morricone is overt - apparently Luppi (a composer) and Danger Mouse (an itinerant genre-hopper and collaborator, evidently) tracked down many of the original instrumentalists and singers from those great spaghetti westerns and got them to record for Rome, but it would have been unmissable in any event. What's striking, though, and a bit surprising, is how successful the project is - the instrumental pieces are widescreen epics in miniature, while the tracks with vocals (three each featuring Jack White and Norah Jones, both good) function as both fragments within the record's overall scheme and self-contained songs in their own right.

"Summer of the Seventeenth Doll" (MTC)

I liked this - I wasn't familiar with the play before, but it felt like the production was playing it straight, with the result that the play itself came through well. Strong cast, good, simple set, a straightforward structure (and, in some though not all respects, plot and characters), but well put together, both on page and in performance. The development was clear; the themes resonant.

(w/ C, Sunny, a couple of Sunny's pals (DK/GR), and Steph C only for the first act)

Chairlift - Does You Inspire You

I picked this up cheap a while back, after hearing "Evident Utensil" on a mix cd, and have finally got around to listening to it over the last few days after noticing that Chairlift are playing at laneway festival this year. Most of the rest of the album isn't as loopy and chipper as "Evident Utensil" (although other highlight "Bruises" is) - most of the songs have a bit of a spacey feel, other components in the mix being some droney elements, dashes of slightly 60ish pop, a bit of 90s-type post-shoegaze indie (eg mid-period Lush, Feline, early Drugstore) - and overall it's a bit uneven, though it has its moments.

Arrietty

Nice - not a great Ghibli, but a good one. Doesn't aim for the epic, overflowing sense that suffuses the studio's more imaginatively widescreen offerings, instead sticking to the small (ha ha) details and wonders of the life of the central borrowers and the interactions between the titular character and the small, ill boy who discovers the hidden life of Arrietty and her family.

(w/ C)

Granta 117: "Horror"

The most striking thing about this issue is how few of its pieces are anything close to what one normally thinks of as horror; only a couple (Stephen King's "The Dune" and Sarah Hall's "She Murdered Mortal He") really fit the bill and, at a stretch, perhaps Rajesh Parameswaran's "The Infamous Bengal Ming", told with touches of whimsy, pathos, and subtle commentary on the nature of horror, from the point of view of an escaped human-killing tiger, plus a metafictional (meta-thematic) Bolano story about a zombie movie. That's to be expected, I suppose, from a high brow literary-plus journal perhaps engaging in a bit of self-conscious boundary-crossing in devoting an issue to a form that's often thought of as populist - and so we get a selection of fiction and reportage ranging across personal, domestic, international (war zone) and historical 'horrors' (albeit with a couple of interesting recurring sub-themes, most notably that of addiction), but little in the way of the supernatural, including from luminaries such as DeLillo and Auster - but the overall effect is of an edition whose title is almost a category error, or a concept stretched so far as to lose much of its definitional meaning/capacity, rather than of a genuine reappraisal or reshaping of the notion of 'horror'. It may be no coincidence that the most memorable of its pieces are those first, more recognisably horror-ish, three that I mentioned.

"The same feelings at opposite times": Feist - Metals

If there's such a thing as blue-eyed soul, maybe Metals is brunette soul...or something like that. I've liked both of Feist's previous lps, but neither really inspired me to repeat listenings; Metals is a step forward, a really strong and nicely balanced collection of likeable, interesting songs, and a more expansive effort than those previous records. Favourites: "The Bad in Each Other", "Graveyard", "Bittersweet Melodies" (the melody of which reminds me of Big Star's "Kangaroo"), "Anti-Pioneer".

Nick Hornby - High Fidelity

I saw the film before I read the book, both years ago, when the music/outsider stuff resonated a lot more. This was a re-read in the gaps between other things; it's an easy read.

Drive

A taut actioner with some neo-noir elements - and a good one, engaging and exciting throughout. I liked the 80s stylings, particularly the way the synth-heavy soundtrack was used to create (melo)drama. Gosling is convincingly taciturn; the violence, when it comes, has a real impact.

(w/ C)

Diva

Saw this one on a high school French excursion; I think that we saw Le bonheur est dans le pre on the same day (I remember classmates cheering when the main character got some on a sofa near the end - funny the things that stick in the mind), though maybe that's memory playing tricks. Anyway, it made an impression then, and rewatching it now, I can see why - this is a very cool movie, stylish, suffused in colour (mostly blue) and shadow, shot through with romantic impulses, littered with memorable images and shots, taking in opera, gangsters, warehouse apartments and a cute girl on roller skates.

30 Rock season 5

Keeps up the quality; Kenneth continues to stand out, and the relationship between Liz and Jack continues to develop, particularly in the extent to which they're willing to acknowledge it; of an impressive and enjoyable roster of guest stars and cameos, the stand outs are Robert de Niro's hilarious appearance reading out a list of ridiculous hypothetical future disasters and the all too brief reappearance of Will Arnett's Devon Banks near the end.

(1 & 2, 3, 4)

Fantastic Mr Fox

New year's day rewatch - still good.

(last time)

Andrew Zuckerman - Music

A handsome collection of photo portraits of famous musicians, accompanied by surprisingly substantial written pieces by the musicians themselves, mostly circling around the themes of their artistic and creative practice and what music means to them. Subjects including the contemporary and more or less so (Fiona Apple, Julian Casablancas, Bic Runga, Dizzee Rascal), others whose heyday was just a few years earlier (Billy Corgan, Sinead O'Connor), a bunch of classic songwriters and legends of their various fields (Burt Bacharach, Chrissy Hynde, Dave Brubeck, Iggy Pop, Afrika Bambaataa), a smattering of uncategorisable multi-talents and general provocateurs (Laurie Anderson, Henry Rollins, Yoko Ono), and a range of composers of various kinds (Philip Glass, John Williams, Danny Elfman).

John Rolfe and Peter Troob - Monkey Business

An amusing insiders' account of life in an investment bank written by two former Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette associates.

Hanna

This was a good one. The overt fairytale elements and motifs combine well with the rapidly paced action and the parallel coming of age-type thread; Saoirse Ronan perfectly cast.

Thor

Watchable enough; I liked the way that the magic of Asgard was rendered in a 'technology sufficiently advanced' kind of way, an idea made explicit in an exchange between two of the characters about midway through the film. Nothing special, though - more flash than substance, more sizzle than sausage.

Melancholia

For better or for worse, actors carry something of their past roles with them into every film they make; for me, in the case of Melancholia, this meant that the first half of the film (title-carded, in characteristic von Trier fashion, 'Justine') was underlaid with shadowy echoes of Marie Antoinette, another mood piece with Kirsten Dunst at the centre of a gaudy, elaborately appointed series of events and settings, and like that other, lent both intimacy and distance by Dunst's ability to convey a mingled sense of rich (if inchoate) internal emotional experience coexisting with a sort of listless, alienated affectlessness (here, through the sequence of formalities at Justine's abortive wedding, and in the other, across a series of events and vignettes mostly at Versailles).

The most striking part of the film is its vivid, symbolically-charged prelude, in which the major images and happenings of its second section, 'Claire', are foreshadowed; frankly, parts of the rest of its more than two hour running time drag. But it's certainly an experience - I'm glad that I've seen it.

(w/ Andreas)

Michael Blastland and Andrew Dilnot - The Numbers Game

Enjoyable and at times enlightening - a useful guide to the way that numbers are used and misused in public discourse, particularly by media types and politicians. The sorts of things that any of us would realise about the many number-type facts and figures that are constantly bandied about (expenditures, averages, comparisons, cause-and-effects, etc) if we stopped to consider them, but usually don't...a lot of salutary reminders, the most important being implicit and underlying - namely, to think critically about exactly what any particular number or statistic means.

Conan the Barbarian

Not very good. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, but for some reason I am, a little bit.

13

A nasty, effective Thai thriller/horror about a man is given the opportunity to win a fortune on a mysterious reality 'game show' if he can complete 13 increasingly difficult, violent tasks.

Holly Throsby - Team

I've been sort of vaguely aware of Holly Throsby for a while, and liked her well enough when one of her songs has crossed my path (eg 1, 2). Seeker Lover Keeper is the first time I've really focused on her, though, and one of the highlights of their show the other night was Throsby's "What I Thought Of You", a gradually building and ultimately rousing folk-pop-ish number. "What I Thought Of You" is the lead-off track on her most recent album, Team, and its standout song, but the whole thing is nice - sombre, subtle and good.

Wilco - The Whole Love

They're practically part of the establishment nowadays - almost inevitable, I suppose, when you've been around for a while, become pretty popular, and kept on turning out records of impressively consistent quality every couple of years or so - but there's still a decent-sized contrary streak running through Wilco. On The Whole Love, this is most evident in their decision to put the record's most abrasive track, "Art of Almost", at track 1, though the 12 minute long, wonderfully-titled and wonderful "One Sunday Morning (Song For Jane Smiley's Boyfriend)" is also a decent argument; in some ways more to the point, it's also apparent in the countless small surprises and unexpected nuances and diversions across the set, which shapes out as yet another high quality outing, if maybe not as memorable as most of theirs.

JCVD

Jean-Claude Van Damme and metafictional gestures are not two things that one expects to find side by side, but that's just what JCVD offers, in a muted, uncategorisable movie featuring Van Damme playing a version of himself who gets caught in a real life hostage situation, including one extended scene in which the actor addresses the camera, and us, directly, musing on his life and career and perhaps presenting something that resembles the 'real' Van Damme in both the film's world and ours (or does it? etc, etc).

The Story of Mary MacLane by Herself

I wanted to like this one - starring and written by Bojana Novakovic, who impressed in both Eldorado a few years back and Woyzeck more recently, and interesting-sounding in the promotional grabs. But unfortunately it was a bit of a mess - a sometimes engaging one, but overall too loosely conceived to really work, even allowing that its terrain is more a sort of a-narratival, fourth wall-breaking invocation of an idea of a character than that of a conventional drama or depiction of a person's life. Admittedly, it might have helped had I known more about the titular figure before the performance - but nonetheless.


(w/ C)

Moneyball

Well made and real-feeling. Didn't excite me, but I enjoyed it.

(w/ C)

Seeker Lover Keeper @ St Michael's church, Monday 28 November

Exactly the way you'd expect a Seeker Lover Keeper concert in a church to be. Blasko, Seltmann,
Throsby all sounded great, individually and together - often in harmonies. And seemed genuinely nice too! They would've done the whole of their lp (*), plus one of their solo songs each ("Bird On A Wire", "Emotional Champ" and a great Throsby song called "What I Thought Of You") and covers of Neil Finn's "Sinner" (fantastic) and a Stevie Nicks song called "Wild Heart" (makes perfect sense that they'd be Nicks fans).

Support act Henry Wagons.

(w/ Trang, one of her friends (Trinh?) and Meribah)

Bound

Tightly plotted noir/caper film that gets plenty of mileage out of its central protagonists being lesbians. Pretty good.

The Ides of March

An extremely well acted, enjoyable political morality drama, if just a tiny bit heavy-handed at the end. Ryan Gosling impresses again, surrounded by a quality cast.

(w/ Cass, David, Justine)

Nicole Krauss - Great House

It's easy - indeed, a pleasure - to read, but despite the wonderful prose - consistently fluent and clear, and scattered with images, sentences and passages that particularly sparkle - and strong narrative voices and emotional undertows running through the book, Great House doesn't readily or ever fully offer up its secrets and deeper meanings; in that sense, it's much like the towering desk that is its structuring metaphor and pivotal plot object, locked drawer and all.

The book is carefully constructed around that central object and idea, its crucial absences, repetitions, losses and doublings finally interlocking - and at the same time unlocked by Weisz's final disclosures - at novel's end, though with at least one crucial element left unsaid (locked), I think, namely the question of who the father of Lotte's child was. Someone - I can't remember who - once said to me that they thought the test of books with fragmented, non-linear structures was whether they would still be good if the plot were instead presented from start to finish; Great House is all the rebuttal to that idea that's needed, its intricate construction designed to embody its thematic and narratival preoccupations.

Unlike Man Walks Into A Room and The History of Love, there is no overwhelming climactic ending, but only having read the last sentence did I feel that the pieces were beginning to fit; thinking about the book, and flipping back through it again, it seemed me that a buried phrase almost exactly halfway through the book, Isabel in a single sentence referring to a "later' involving her and Yoav, suggested that perhaps, Weisz's vision for the future of his children, Yoav and Leah, with its hint of resolution, might come to pass. It's an aptly subtle suggestion; the other points at which the characters' various stories are left are left similarly unresolved, poised - Nadia's encounters with Weisz and then Dov, Arthur's internal and external paths to something approaching true understanding of the necessary gaps in his life with Lotte, the haunting appearances and absence of Daniel.

I liked Great House a lot; I'll forgive a lot for writing as sustainedly good as Krauss', and indeed, there's nothing here to forgive. There are deep undercurrents in it, and it's moving and poignant without ever being straightforwardly so, and Krauss' ability here to keep the many interconnected themes and underlying metaphors which shape her novel and its characters' lives is impressive. Great House is very good indeed.

The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac

A steady stream of familiar songs; in common with most people my age, I imagine, Fleetwood Mac have always been there in the background for me, and sometimes, their music just fits the moment.

Jasper Fforde - One of Our Thursdays is Missing

A welcome return to the world of Thursday Next, this one related - in a further spiral down Fforde's metafictional rabbit hole - by 'the written Thursday Next'...that is, the character who plays Thursday in the series of five books (one, two, three and four, five) featuring the 'real' Thursday, Jurisfiction agent extraordinaire, over the course of which it transpires that the real Thursday has gone missing (or has she?), dragging the written Thursday into an investigation of her own through both the shifting genres of BookWorld and the confusing RealWorld.

"Way to Blue: The Songs of Nick Drake"

A really pleasant evening of music at the Melb Recital Centre - an ad hoc travelling group, joined by Australians Luluc and Shane Nicholson, doing Nick Drake songs with varying degrees of adherence to the original recordings (ranging from a very faithful, and very effective "River Man" to Krystle Warren's soaring, unexpectedly completely apt gospel take on "Time Has Told Me"), but all with great respect and feeling for the songs.

It was low key, but they got it right - all of the vocalists were nice to listen to, and their contrasting voices and singing styles kept things interesting, along with the novelty of hearing these songs sung live, backed by a full band and six piece string ensemble no less. I liked Lisa Hannigan's contributions, and Vashti Bunyan's wispily pretty, waverily folk voice was a perfect fit, but Warren was the real revelation, her remarkable voice taking Drake's autumnal melodies somewhere new but always clearly recognisable.

(w/ C, Trang and Arthur)

Harvest Festival (Saturday 12 November)

The line-up was promising; a large part of  it could have been targeted straight at my about-a-decade-ago self.

Arrived early afternoon in glorious sunshine. Saw a bit of This Town Needs Guns; they were quite winning in that somewhat mathy, hint of emo-y Dismemberment Plan-ish indie-rock way.

Then the Walkmen, rocking hard and gratifyingly intense, enjoyable; with the exception of a couple of songs (this is probably the comment of a casual listener, but "The Rat" still seems head and shoulders above anything else they've recorded), they've always kind of eluded me, but I liked them last time I saw them live too.

After that, Mercury Rev; for me, it's always been about Deserter's Songs, and they didn't disappoint, doing its three flat out classics, "Holes", "Opus 40" and "Goddess On A Hiway", and drawing their set almost entirely from it and All Is Dream. Frontman Jonathan Donahue came across like a real hippie, striking grasshopper poses and declaiming positivity, but the music came through clearly, with a bit of a psychedelic streak jagging through their baroque, orchestrated pop tunes.

Saw the top and tail of Bright Eyes - enough to appreciate how far he's come since the sparse, wracked self-examination of "Something Vague" and Fevers and Mirrors...based on the bits I saw, he's more in the vein of an alt-country troubadour/rock star a la Ryan Adams nowaday, and pretty good at it.

Then the National, for whom we managed to get close to the front, dusk arriving, and they were good as expected - there wasn't a song they could have played that I wouldn't have wanted to hear, and - across the last three records in particular - their output is so even that even my favourites are only songs that I like just a little bit more than all of their others. Matt Berninger was charismatic and slightly awkward-seeming in that dapper way of his and sounded better than the last time I saw them; the band was tight; it was good.

And after them, Portishead, who were easily the act that I was the most excited about, and whose set turned out to be the clear highlight, not only of the festival but of the live music year so far. By this point we were basically right in front, in the centre, and so perfectly placed, with dark fully fallen, for immersion in a set that mixed touchstone moments from those first two indelible records with cuts from 2008's unexpected, astonishing Third. I must admit that I had a funny feeling somewhere in my stomach standing there waiting for Beth Gibbons to start singing as the set began, a mix of anticipation and nervousness that she might no longer have it after all this time - but she sounded great, as did all of the music and sounds they conjured up, jagged guitars, heavy beats, and floating keyboards and samples all integral as they nailed, gloriously, one song after another. I'm not sure I've ever really thought of Portishead as one of my absolute favourite artists, but they do occupy a special place in my heart, and this set was brilliant.

Then, finally, caught a bit of the Flaming Lips, but wasn't especially enthused by that point - like their Festival Hall set a while back, seemed more about spectacle than music. And then mass exodus, shuttle bus, train, home.

Good venue (Werribee), well spaced and located stages and other amenities, decent vibe helped immeasurably by the perfect festival weather, singificantly brought down about the absurdly long queues.

(w/ C and her friends Sachini and Mikaela; also briefly saw David + Justine, CStCW and Nenad)

[No connection to the last 'Harvest Festival' I went to, a few years back!]

Richard Matheson - Button, Button: Uncanny Stories

Economical and mildly unnerving, but somehow not of the kind that linger - unlike, say, the somewhat similar stories of John Collier.

Midnight in Paris

It's difficult to tell how knowing, how tongue in cheek, Woody Allen is being in this film, from the familiar-to-the-point-of-cliche picture postcard montage that opens it, to the completely-in-love-with-Paris cinematography throughout, through the almost archetypally apt casting (Owen Wilson as a bumbling, wide-eyed American in Paris, Rachel McAdams his annoying, also American, fiancee, Marion Cotillard an alluring frenchwoman); possibly, the very question is beside the point, so immersed is the film in the Paris of cinema, art and the imagination, and so inseparable Paris from all of those facets of itself.

It's certainly not particularly substantial, but it ischarming, particularly the 1920s sequences, inhabited as they are by a series of scene-stealers - Alison Pill as Zelda Fitzgerald, Corey Stoll hilariously doing Hemingway, Adrien Brody not far behind as Dali - and many pleasing others including Cotillard as the impossibly beautiful artists' muse, Kathy Bates as a sympathetically pragmatic Gertrude Stein, brief cameos from a befuddled Bunuel and cryptically matter of fact Man Ray, and roles of varying significance for F Scott, Cole Porter, Djuna Barnes, Pablo Picasso and sundry others. And for various reasons, some universal and others more personal, it made me feel a touch wistful, too.

(w/ C)

Harvard Business Essentials - Power, Influence and Persuasion

One that PG lent me a while ago; I've been meaning to read it for a while because, ultimately, power, influence and persuasion are what my current - and likely future - line of work is about. It's very much a distillation - hence very practical, concrete, simple - but useful.

Submarine

Quirky and very indie, with something of a sweet side - but has a definite tough streak too, like a bit of tinfoil embedded in its centre. Funny and identifiable-with, and actually pretty cool, new wave / classic gangster iconography, metafictional cinematography and self-reflexive voiceover narration and all.

(w/ C)

How I Met Your Mother season 6

Seems a touch more serious than 1-5, with a focus on both Barney and Marshall's relationships with their fathers, perhaps fewer laughs, and not much progress in Ted's progression towards his kids' mother, with much of the season taken up by the seeming cul de sac of Zoey. But it's still as smart, sweet-hearted, romantic and likeable as ever, and I do want to find out how it's going to end - one of its most striking features is its commitment to long-term story and character arcs.

Loretta Lynn - Van Lear Rose

Her collab with Jack White from a few years back, and it's ace - a sort of honky-tonk blues country record, equal parts ballads and more up tempo tracks, with a couple more out of left field.

Lantana

I remember thinking, when I first saw this - which must have been about ten years ago, it having been when the film first came out, and this more recent viewing being a tenth anniversary showing at ACMI - that I really liked it, and that I was almost certainly too young too fully appreciate it. Now, ten years on, I feel the same way - this is a wonderfully well-made, carefully crafted and truthful film that I think would gain another layer altogether for viewers who were long-term married, and intimately familiar with all that the film suggests comes with the state.

Followed by a Q&A with Kerry Armstrong, Vince Colosimo and producer Jan Chapman.

(w/ Sunny and C)

Lindsay Tanner - Sideshow

When Sideshow was published a while back, it landed to plenty of detailed and more or less informed coverage and commentary - so much so that I almost felt I didn't need to read the book itself. But it's an easy, interesting read, and I've worked my way through it at intervals; its central set of premises - about the relationship between contemporary media, political discourse and the practice of politics itself, and the increasing trivialisation of all of the above - is plainly unarguable (though a proper analysis of their complex connections to each other and to wider trends in society would be the subject of a much more detailed work than Tanner's book sets out to be), and Tanner's experience in the belly of the system adds to the analysis.

Okkervil River @ the Forum, Friday 14 October 2011

A good show! Live, Okkervil River bring the rock, and their songs - already striking on record - are the more exciting for it. I only knew about half the set, but enjoyed it all; Triffids cover was a nice touch too.

(w/ C & her friend Sachini)

The Grates - Secret Rituals

Coming on brightly, rockingly and more than a bit Metric-y, but without the same quality of songs, though still a solid bit of pop-rock.

Laura Cantrell - Kitty Wells Dresses: Songs of the Queen of Country Music

Like all of her records, sweet and eminently listenable. Unlike the others, though, not hugely memorable or captivating, either as a whole or in individual moments. Still, nice.

Wild Nothing - Gemini

Reference points are funny things. One of the most striking things about both Pains of Being Pure at Heart records is the extent to which their influences are so unabashedly visible - and yet, listening to Wild Nothing's rather sweet Gemini, it's the Pains themselves who are one of the most obvious reference points, particularly their first lp. Other albums and artists that come to mind over the course of Gemini - Neon Golden, the Radio Dept, the Cure (especially Disintegration / Wish), the Stone Roses, Cocteau Twins (particularly on "Drifter"), Blonde Redhead (mainly on "Confirmation")...a list of influences and fellow travellers reflecting conspicuously good taste. The album itself is very enjoyable too, more than the sum of its influences, and nicely diverse while in some ways held together by the band's clear appreciation for the greats who've come before them.

Battle of Wits

A surprisingly gritty - children die, the female love interest first gets violently turned into a mute and then drowns alone - and actually more or less anti-war HK film set during the warring kingdoms period in China. Quite good, too.