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.