Friday, August 28, 2009

Zurich


Well, JesKA sort of called this. I am being nice to JESKa today, because she just sat through a really long show and didn't complain about it...at least not to me. Maybe to my brother, but not to me. Before I went away she said "you are going to go on vacation to Europe and just come back and recommend going to Europe on FR". This isn't completely true, but I do have something that I feel like a lot of you would really enjoy. The whole trip (Venice, Soglio, Zurich) was awesome and I liked them each for their own reasons. Venice for the classic-ness (word?) but was also too crowded and hot, Soglio for it's relaxing-ness (again?) and it's being 3/4 of the way up a Swiss Alp in a town of 200 people, and Zurich for a whole lot of reasons.

My recommendation today is if you are planning a trip to Europe, I highly suggest Zurich be a stop during that trip. My reasons are as follows. I love big cities. I think I will always (at least in the long future) live in a city or live really close to a city. I like the urgency, and being near the center of goings-ons. Something that you miss being in a city however is somewhere to get away...somewhere like vacation that gets you outside of the city. The solution in Zurich to this is there is a huge effing lake (Lake Zurich) right in the middle of it. And the water is clean. And you can swim in it. Imagine if you could walk down to the Harbor on a hot day and jump in and have that be refreshing and normal. I bet most of you can't even entertain that thought. This is what it is like in Zurich. It's a really cool big city with a vacation spot built smack in the center. I can't think of any other place anywhere that has this going for it. Anyone? Now, I don't just recommend Zurich as a place to go. Staying somewhere in a small town, with rolling hills, and mountain air is awesome and is part of the reason I loved Switzerland so much. But I'm just saying...if you are going all the way over there try to make Zurich part f it. Some pictures of the city, lakes and not lakes:




Thursday, August 27, 2009

The Girl on the Bridge

I wasn't going to recommend anything today because it's the end of the summer and I just didn't feel like it. Still, I have two great recommends that I felt compelled to share.

The first is The Girl on the Bridge, by French director Patrice Leconte. I first saw this movie at my at my parents house on the Bravo channel when that was still a movie channel. I never knew what it was called or who was in it, and finally after two years Netflix recommended it to me. The thing about this movie that first caught my attention is the wonderfully attractive actress Vanessa Paradis, though I soon was completely taken in by some of the most beautiful black and white film footage I've ever seen. So many B&W movies are muddy and gray, never exploring either black or white, but The Girl on the Bridge spends its most captivating scenes in a high contract of the brightest whites and the darkest blacks, making for very compelling cinema.

The movie isn't heavy on the plot. A knife thrower rescues a girl about to end her life and takes her on as his assistant. You're never quite sure where the movie is going, and that's largely due to the fact that it never goes far, but it still pulls you in to the world of these two characters whose lives have suddenly intersected and become inseparable If Chris hated my use of the vibrant to describe a book, he's going to really hate my use of the world sensuous to describe this movie, but I think this scene makes a good argument.




The other movie I need to recommend is Inglorious Bastards. I just saw it this weekend, and it's one of the best movies I've ever seen. It's certainly Tarantino's best movie thus far. From the plot, to the banter between characters, to the acting, to the visuals, to the everything. Go see this movie. Tarantino is really at the peak of his career here. I could watch this movie again and again. Here is a trailer you may not have seen yet. There's a little bit of a spoiler in here, but nothing too serious.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Man Show Boy

So in the spirit of the last post, I thought I'd present the Man Show boy. Remember this kid? Inspired by Letterman, Adam Corolla and Jimmy Kimmel sent this kid around and made him say some hilarious stuff to unassuming folks.

This was one where he was selling Girl Scout Cookies.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Diggity Dank

Hey guys!!

So, its been pretty awful around here since Adam left. I really miss that guy. I thought I'd lighten up the joint by embedding one of my favorite David Letterman videos. As a teenager, I always loved when Dave left the studio and did some man-on-the-street stuff and caught lightning in a bottle by accidentally finding amazing secondary characters. I had another great clip embedded featuring Manny The Hippie, but YouTube just removed it! Its possible that you can find it via this link but work is telling me I need to update some software before I watch it. If it plays for you, its well worth it.

Either way, here's Dave having some great fun with Rupert Jee from the Hello Deli.





UPDATE: Here's Dave working at a Taco Bell:



And more!

Thursday, August 13, 2009

The Ground Beneath Her Feet

It's almost not fair that I even post this recommend because I'm not even half-way through this book yet. However, it's one of the most enjoyable, entertaining, vibrant and clever books I've ever read.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51GGW3YTAGL.jpg

This is basically a retelling of the Orpheus / Eurydice story, but set in the 1950's, 60's and 70's in Bombay, London and New York.

Everything about this book feels alive. From the very first few pages, you already have a clear picture Vina Apsara, the "her" in the title. Characters are revealed so vividly, that you instantly know each and every one of them. You can picture the fez on Darius Xerses Cama's head, and you imagine the dopey smile on his crippled son's face.

Rushdie so effectively conveys the passions, worries and fears of each character. Every character's entire personality is told in just a few sentences. And when Rushdie spends a hundred pages devoted to just a few main characters, you feel as if you've lived their lives a hundred times.

The other characters are the cities themselves. I've only been reading Bombay so far and am just getting to London, but I feel like I know Bombay and lived there for decades during a period of great change. Change is really what is at the heart of this story. Lives change, cities change and so does the world around them. Change occurs across generation, and affects politics, music, culture, families and individual lives.

I could describe this book forever and never quite explain it. Rushdie is a master of language in a way that Nabokov was.

I highly, highly, highly recommend this book. And if I finish it and that changes, I'll be sure to let you know. Just to help convince you that this could be awesome, here is a picture of Salman Rushdie.

http://geoconger.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/salman-rushdie.jpg

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Windy City Heat

Hey everyone,
I'm back after a hiatus of buying cars, and taking out loans; which took up a good deal of last week.

Today I wanted to talk about a favorite movie of mine that I'm betting most of you have never heard of: Windy City Heat. This is a made for TV movie from Comedy Central that aired in 2003. It's all a documentary of a fake movie the one star thinks he's making, but it's all an elaborate prank that everyone is in on...The lengths they go to fool this guy are pretty amazing, and the movie he thinks he's making is completely ridiculous. Also, everyone involved in this fake movie introduces themselves to the main guy, Perry, as some funny fake name. Perry never once catches on that the whole thing is a sham. The producer says his name is John Quincy Adams, the casting director says his name is Roman Polanski, the personal assistant says his name is Burt Ward.

One of the funniest things about this movie is Bobcat Goldthwait. He directs this fake movie, and is constantly making Perry re-take awful scenes. One scene they make Perry drink this terrible concoction of milk, beer, chinese food, donuts, eggs, etc, all blended together....Then Bobcat says they didn't get it, and make Perry do it again. Anyway, what I'm getting at is this movie is a comedy gem. Constant laughs the entire way through. Borrow it from me.

Here's a my favorite scene from the movie:

Monday, August 10, 2009

Vacation

Dear faithful readers. I will be on vacation for the next two weeks, so the Monday and Friday posts of FR might be a little bare. If I can get some good pictures or find something Swiss to recommend other than chocolate and cheese, and have an internet connection I will be sure to do so. In my absence I give Chris Myers permission to post on Monday/Friday if he pleases. This might only happen if he has a beer lunch at work though. Sorry for the absence. Hopefully I will be somewhere like picture #1 doing something like picture #2.


Friday, August 7, 2009

Shameless Plug and Jerseyband

Let me begin by saying I need to hang out with Ricky B. This guy has been getting himself into all kinds of things lately, and I want to be a part of it. Ricky, let's make this happen and I'll film you telling the tale of your first and only bar fight.

Today I bring you something that isn't really a shameless plug. At least not on the surface. It is inspired by a shameless plug, though. Since I leave for Switzerland in the middle of next week I've been trying to wrap up a lot of things before I go. One of the biggest being all of the promotion for an upcoming show Quartet Offensive is doing at the Ottobar. Our first Ottobar show, and since that place is so huge I am hoping it is well attended, hence the promotion. Now, I am not posting this blog to promote the show. That would be truly shameful. However, if you are interested it is on Thursday August 27 at the Ottobar with Jerseyband, Soul Cannon, and Leisure Icons. Quartet Offensive will play a one-time-only all Pavement cover set.

Anyway, the reason for the recommends is Jerseyband. This band amazes me, and the more I recommend them to people the more great feedback I get from them. Jerseyband's lead singer/trumpet player Brent Madsen lives in Baltimore. I have the pleasure of performing with him regulary in a band called Turn Around Norman. Anyway, while at The Eastman School of Music Brent formed Jerseyband with some of his classmates (some of who are now at the forefront of the NY jazz scene). They've created a new genre of music called Lungcore, which is like heavy metal but with a full-blown 4-piece horn section. I promise you this makes for very interesting music.

Brent recently gave me a copy of Jerseyband's latest album "Beast Wedding" which is honestly one of my favorite records of the year (right next to The Dirty Projectors "Bitte Orca"). It is awesome. I don't say this because Brent is my friend. I say it because it is awesome. I never use this blog to recommend friends' projects, so this one must be special for me to do so. Anyway, I've included some videos as an introduction to Jerseyband. There is a chance it might not be your thing, but at least give it a chance? You might like it more than expected. I love it.




Thursday, August 6, 2009

Nothing and Everything

Sorry I didn't post anything today. I'm kind of a mess these days, what with my bar fights, drunkenness and devil-may-care attitude.

If Netflix was a little faster, I could have recommended the movie Girl On the Bridge, but I'll save that for next week when I can get a second viewing in.

I am really, really enjoying The Ground Beneath Her Feet by Salman Rushdie. I'm less than a hundred pages into this 573 page book, but it's amazing so far. Anyone else read any Rushdie? I've only heard good things and I enjoyed East | West, but only as much as I can enjoy a book of short stories (sorry Todd).

For now all I can recommend is letting things go and stepping out of your comfort zone. It's been a blast for me.

Oh, and for anyone who was wondering, I apparently gave last week's bar fight guy a real shiner of a black eye.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Summer Vacation Recommends...

I am going to take a break from my short story collections recommendations this week to try something different. I am a school teacher that teaches summer school and this is my first full week off for the summer. This makes me very happy. Last Wednesday was my last day of work until the end of the month. So I've been looking for little things to do to keep me occupied.
This past Thursday I decided to go to Bowie Baysox baseball game that started at 11 am. We got there early, about 10 am, and we were just about the only people in the stadium besides employees and ball players. During warm-ups we were able to observe the players up close and get plenty of autographs. These you minor leaguers are crazy and say ridiculous things. This guy Ambiorix Concepcion kept on stealing everyone Else's hat! Among the notables autographs were Brandon Erbe and Brian Matusz.
When the game started I sat back with a breakfast hot dog and beer and watched a pretty exciting game. Erbe started and pitched pretty well. He lost the game because of an inside the park home run. A lazy fly ball down the right field line turned into an inside of the park home run when the right fielder dove for the ball and after he missed it refused to get up and chase it! maybe he hurt himself, I don't know.
Anyway it was an incredibly enjoyable way to start off my summer break. Drinking an AM beer and watching a ball game. Up coming games of interest in Bowie include, Star Wars Night on the 22nd and Nick Markakis T-Shirt Night on the 11th.

Post script: Please enjoy this video of some pre game warm-up banter....

Monday, August 3, 2009

Funny People (bonus comeback blog)

Hello everyone!

Its your old friend, Chris. I used to post on Tuesday. The last time that I posted, I recommended something about one of my favorite TV shows these days, Chuck, and everyone said it was bad! It really hurt my feelings. I felt like you weren't giving old Chris the benefit of the doubt. I really thought I had found something for everyone to like. Some light-hearted fare that would make this crazy, crazy world appear to be a little more manageable, if even for just an hour a week.

Anywho, I saw this Funny People movie this weekend. Anybody else see this? Recommending a Judd Apatow movie is hopefully on par with recommending a Wes Anderson movie. They're no-brainers and unnecessary recommends, right? People sometimes complain that his movies are too long and that he turns an amazing 90 minute movie into a so-so 140 minute movie. Well, people, I respectfully disagree! I could have watched another 40 minutes of this stuff, and I nearly did!! Adam Sandler is a pure delight. Would we have ever stopped loving him if he never made Little Nicky? This movie made me want to hang out with Adam Sandler.

Anywho Part II, I bought the soundtrack to this movie even before I saw it. This Judd Apatow seems to have a thing for Warren Zevon, whom I've written endlessly about at another blog of mine. Early in the film, and I'm not going to give anything away, but this song brings about a very emotional moment in the film:





Zevon wrote that one knowing full well that he was about to die. Does it get any more tragic than that? Cry with me.

Anywho: Whoville Spiez, another song that plays a real pleasant role in this movie is "Real Love," a John Lennon demo, which later was finished by his Beatles bandmates for the Anthology series. This reminded me of something that I think about far too often...and I nearly did! What if the Beatles would have chosen to release this BEFORE the less-amazing Free As A Bird? They both made the Top 40 charts, but I feel like if Real Love was labeled as the "first new Beatles song in 25 years," this would have been an absolutely phenomenon. It would have been like the British Invasion all over again. It would have made Oasis hang up their cleats and admit that there was no use even trying. I've embedded the Beatles version and the John Lennon demo. Either way you listen to it, its just so wonderfully pleasant!





So, my dear friends, I recommend to you..."Real Love."

Beirut--March of the Zapotec/Holland


Happy Monday, Friends Recommend. In an unexpected turn of events I have decided to (at least occassionally) return to the original concept of FR and start dealing with these lists. Over the weekend I bought an album from emusic.com of this band Beirut that JESKa mentions in her list. She recommended the band and not an album in particular, so it figures that the album I bought was one that she hasn't heard. What can you do. She strongly recommends their first album though...she told me this.

I must admit that I was terribly confused at first listen. The album started with this great brass music, which had a really strong vibe of the streets of Mexico or Italy. Like some band of old men that just set up and started playing in the middle of the day. My reason for buying the album this past weekend is that I'm going to Italy and Switzerland in a week and a half and thought this music would 1) put me even more in the mood/get me more excited about the trip, and 2) give me something fun to listen to while over there, eating chocolate and drinking wine at a lake. The first half of the album is exactly what I expected. The first six songs follow this style, and do it in a great way. Then at song seven the album takes an unexpected turn into mostly electronic music, with a lot more vocals. I didn't dislike the electronic side of things, it just came out of nowhere after the first six tracks of really non-american sounds. This left me confused, and I don't think I liked it initially.

My confusion was cured when I came home, searched for the albums and found out that it is actually a double EP. The first half being music written by Beirut and recorded in Mexico with The Jimenez Band. The second EP highlights frontman Zach Condon's electronic side project Realpeople. This makes much more sense now. I must say that while I like the electronically stuff, I definitely prefer the first EP of Mexican brass band music. Like JeSkA said, it is a different and refreshing approach, while the electronic thing is like a lot of other things I'd heard before. If I bought another of their album's (which is likely) I would try the first album Gulag Orkestar, which can be sampled HERE.

Below are two videos from the double EP. The first clip from the first, March of the Zapotec, the second from Realpeople's Holland. You decide for yourself which you prefer: