PS22 Chorus

I just (re?)discovered this tonight. This is a public elementary school chorus from Staten Island that sing contemporary music arranged by their choral instructor. The lyrics are sometimes altered to be more age appropriate(see below) but what is clear is that these kids are having a great time. And they have pipes!

This is a genius way to get around a huge hurdle that stops so many kids from getting interested in music and the arts in school; most kids don't like chamber music or showtunes. I cannot tell you how much Billy Joel and Elton John I've sang in my life. I think if you sing long enough you learn to really appreciate chamber music, madrigals, etc. but it's really important to have a gateway drug like this.

It's how much fun this guy is having. From middle school through graduation I had somewhere between 6 and 8 different choral instructors and none of them had the enthusiasm that this guy displays. And it transfers to his students. They are clearly having a great time and want to be there. He's able to have fun, work on things he is interested in, and still be doing it all for the kids. Watching them sing makes me want to sing again.

Something else I love is how the kids are encouraged, or at least allowed, to move and sway with the music. Something I used to constantly get in trouble for in choir, all the way up through chamber choir, is that when I got really into singing a piece of music and it really moved me, it also literally moved me. I would get reprimanded for moving with the music, sometimes even dancing, without even realizing I was doing it. I think the director thought I was goofing off, but it was actually totally subconscious and completely genuine. Which is not to say this made Mr. Paul a terrible instructor(though he was, for totally unrelated reasons), you do have to learn to stay still if you are going to rehearse like you perform- and I was a senior in high school- but for Christ's sake that's what powerful music does!! It grabs you and throws you around and you can't even control it.

Also, in the interest of full disclosure, I got choked up listening to their cover of Lisztomania. I couldn't tell you why- but it is a great arrangement of a great song.

Final Note: The choral sections on the Passion Pit album "Manners" -in songs like Sleepyhead, Let Your Love Grow Tall and Little Secrets- is the PS22 Chorus! They actually have a section on their blog where you can watch video of them recording with Michael Angelakos. According to their website they have also met every other celebrity in the world, including President Obama. These are the luckiest kids in the world(mostly because of the music, but also a little bit because of the celebrity thing).

Their website can be found here and their YouTube page can be found here.

Final thought: Listening to these kids makes me realize I have mis-learned the words to a lot of my favorite songs.

Random Good Music- 10/18/2010

Here's are the tracks on repeat on my iPod right now that I could find on YouTube, and some I couldn't.

Robyn-Indestructible

I discovered this song Saturday night and, in the two days since, have listened to it 25+ times. "I'm gonna love you like I've never been hurt before" is my current favorite lyric. I am 100% ready to jump on the Robyn bandwagon.

Eyedea- Radio Appearance Freestyle

The rapper Eyedea passed away yesterday at the age of 28 due to a heart attack. I was not familiar with his work, but lots of people I follow on twitter were big fans. I'm having trouble getting into alot of his stuff that I've heard. Lyrically he's amazing but he really loves sampling electric guitar and that just doesn't work in most rap songs unless you are an incredible producer (example: JAY-Z's D.O.A. produced by No ID). This freestyle however, is fucking amazing. Seriously one of the best things I've ever seen. Slug from Atmosphere is good, but Eyedea blows him away.

Ruckus Roboticus- Chicks

I recently bought Adam Warrock's fucking incredible album (more coming on that in a future post) produced by Ruckus Roboticus. Included on it as bonus material was the single off of Ruckus's solo EP- "The Chicks EP." Chicks is an awesome song and I will definitely be picking up the EP.

Well, the digital version of picking it up. Probably Amazon. Bandcamp if it's there. Bandcamp takes the smallest cut, Amazon and iTunes take 30%. If you are buying independent music, try to buy it off that site for the artist's benefit. (end PSA)

Kanye West- Christian Dior Denim Flow

I've been loving Kanye's G.O.O.D. Friday output but, like Monster, I can't stop listening to this track. I am so excited for this album. I love Kanye and I don't even care that he's a total diva. #ITSAPROCESS

This is my favorite track off of Crystal Castles (II). I legitimately cannot get into the rest of the album, even though I like it a lot, because I just keep putting this song on repeat and listening to it instead of anything else.

Dirty Projectors- No Intention

Despite this track being mellow as hell, I sing along to this in my car with the same fervor as I would Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" or any other anthem. This song is a treat. A goddamn treat. I want to take this song out to dinner pay for it.

My Gold Mask- I Don't Need The Reason

I couldn't find this one on YouTube but you can download it here, completely legitimately, for free. This song makes me rock out and smile at subject matter that makes me pretty sad. Maybe that's a crude way to put it, but I think it's pretty high praise.

Other tracks I'm hung up on but couldn't find:

Four Tet- Sing

Adam Warrock's fucking incredible album "The War for Infinity"

That hip-hop album I'm going to write one day

Das Racist- Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell (Wallpaper Remix)

Red

Red, the action-comedy starring Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, John Malkovich and that chick from Weeds, is not very good. It's also not terrible. On a continuum with "Epic Movie" on one end and "Road to Perdition" on the other, I'd place it somewhere near "The Rundown"- A movie you'll watch on a Sunday if you catch it channel-surfing and you're too hungover to get off the couch. Except, "The Rundown" is a lot more fun.

When I first read the comic book "RED" by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner I thought it was mediocre. It was only three issues long and fairly decompressed, leaving me wishing that more time had been taken to flesh out the world and characters. In the book the main character is targeted for assassination, survives, sets out to figure out why, then kills everyone responsible. It was straightforward and direct. What was especially note-worthy about the comic, was the experimental way that Cully Hamner tackled "bullet-time" in sequential art. Interestingly, the weaknesses of the film have highlighted the strength of the comic in several ways.

1. Focus

The movie decided to expand the cast, and in order to do this, needed to expand the plot. Unfortunately the movie had nothing driving it forward. So, a problem would arise, which would lead to Bruce Willis deciding he needed to contact the next actor that needed to be shoehorned into the plot somehow. There was usually no logical reason for him to do so. He would then interact with them, solving the problem. A new problem would conveniently arise, time to bounce over to Helen Mirren! None of these problems serviced the plot except to shuffle the characters to the next place they needed to be. The final conflict did not feel like a culmination of everything that had come before it, but rather grew out of information introduced 15 minutes earlier in order to lend some gravitas to the final scenes.

Warren Ellis's comic, no matter what faults it had, was laser focused. This is because it knew what it was trying to say and wasn't trying to be cute (something which the movie failed at, miserably). This brings us to the...

2. Message

The message of the comic was that bureaucracies, especially government ones, do not care about you. They use people and spit them out. Despite years of loyal service, a combination of blind ambition and paperwork oversight can lead to you being the target of a wetworks team. To those in power, people are just a means to an end and numbers on a spreadsheet. It gets this across clearly and succinctly. 3 issues- setup, heighten, conclude, bloodbath.

As I mentioned before, the movie is all over the fucking place. The CIA is trying to kill them! No, wait it's the Vice-President, he's the bad guy! Actually, the weapons contractor is the real bad guy all along! The guy ruthlessly murdering people before grew a conscience for no reason! Now let's plant some evidence, frame some people, and call it a win for the good guys! Hurray!?!?!??

This movie has no idea what it is trying to say. A good twist re-contextualizes everything that came before and makes you re-evaluate character's actions and motivations. Think "The Usual Suspects" or "Memento." I think the people that wrote this script had seen these movies but were nowhere near as competent as Christopher Nolan or Bryan Singer (admittedly, a high standard). The whole thing just smacks of laziness. By which I am referring to the gaping...

3. Plot Holes

They were huge! Infuriatingly huge! Ranging from continuity errors to central plot points.

There were several smaller things that bothered me. Such as a scene where they are being chased by FBI agents shown to be literally, ten feet behind them. They get through a tunnel, the agents hot on their heels, and stop to have a fucking 5 minute conversation. This is not how time works! It's just not! And what's worse the way they end the chase is by getting in a car and driving away. This would be fine, the people chasing them had no automobiles nearby, except that in a prior scene it had been established that the government can track you anywhere with extremely powerful spy satellites that can read over your shoulder. Did they just turn them off for this specific pursuit, despite utilizing them for the previous ones? Is this a subtle commentary on the quality of government work? No. It;s not. It's just lazy scripting.

What is more infuriating is the central flaw at the crux of the plot. What is revealed during the course of the movie is that all the Olds were targeted because they were involved in an operation in the 80's to cleanup after a massacre in Guatemala. A massacre, they discover, perpetrated by the current VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES WHO NOW WANTS TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT OMGWTFBBQ!!

Here's the thing. None of the olds had any idea why they were there back in the day. None, whatsoever. And apparently no attempt was made to assess whether they had this knowledge or were planning to use it before performing highly public acts of murder. Murder which lead them to seek revenge and eventually attempt to KILL THE VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!! It is also unclear why, even if they had this knowledge they had not chosen to act when he was running for Vice President, but would suddenly be spurred to action during a president campaign. I guess the evil guy assumed that they would find nothing scary about having a psycho as the 2nd most powerful person in the world, but as soon as he moved to #1 WATCH OUT!!

In other words by literally doing nothing, the CIA/Vice President/Weapons manufacturer that was pulling all the strings, could have saved millions of dollars, dozens of soldiers lives and limbs, and (spoiler alert) the VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES FROM GETTING SHOT IN THE CHEST AAAAARRRGGHH!! And, furthermore, his vaguely defined super-evil Manchurian candidate plot would have succeeded! Has he learned nothing from dealing with AARP in Washington? Don't fuck with the Olds!! They always win!

The thing is, I'm willing to forgive shit like this, I really am. I love movies with plot holes much larger than this. But the thing is they are...

4. Fun

And the movie RED is not.

The comic is! Each action scenes continue to top the one before it and the art is gorgeous. The book is far more grim in tone but you cannot stop flipping the pages because it is compelling as fuck and WHOA, did you see how that guys head just exploded!!! In the movie, I could not stop checking my watch.

It's clear the movie wants to be fun. There are dozens of attempted jokes, 3 of which I laughed at. There's a lot of travelling and each scene transition consists of a SUPER-WACKY postcard that becomes animated and then fades into the scene. There are also "hilarious" touches, like using super-racist chinese music when they go to Chinatown. All those Chinese immigrants and their MSG, AMIRITE!!

The problem is the content doesn't match the intent. It's clear that Bruce Willis and that chick from Weeds are trying but they just don't have anything to work with, so they fall flat. John Malkovich was supposed to be offputting, and he was (he always is), but it wasn't in a charming way. blahblahHelen Mirren was greatblahblahblahThe Queen blahblahGMILF. The worst performance of the movie was Morgan Freeman. If you are being paid millions to play an assassin, you need to be able to pretend you have ever punched anyone before ever. And also that you want to be there.

The movie was chock-full of lines like "Looks like we're getting the band back together" which only work if you are invested in the characters or have a working knowledge of their history and can attribute historical significance to their reunion. I could not have cared less for these characters making much of the dialogue cringe-worthy.

That being said Karl Urban is going to be an awesome Judge Dredd.

5. Action

There were two good action scenes in this movie and you saw them both in the trailer. The first is the scene where John Malkovich shoots a rocket as it's being launched at him with a revolver and hit's it right on the nose. The other is the scene where Bruce Willis gets out of the cop car as it's spinning and calmly walks forward as the rear bumper just misses hitting him. That was it. In a two-hour action comedy, there was very little of either. Blegh.

This was the strength of the comic. Balls-to-the-wall action from start to finish. Also it was cooler. Also, it was prettier. Speaking of action, this brings me to my final point...

6. Morality

The main characters, the "good guys" refrain from shooting the weapons manufacturer mid way through the movie because he is "not worth the bullet," even though this would have almost certainly ended the conflict with far less bloodshed and difficulty. It is clear he is a bad person at this point, as he has confessed to several crimes and literally referred to himself as "the bad guy." YET, they have no problem with cold murdering soldiers and policeman who are just following orders and have every reason to legitimately believe that they are doing the right thing to protect their country. What the fuck!

In the comic, this happens too. However, Ellis make no attempt to paint him as a person that is particularly moral or cares who he kills. He is a machine. Bruce Willis, on the other hand is supposed to be a "good guy." oops.

Final Thoughts

This movie basically defines mediocrity. This probably means it will be uber-successful and spawn at least one sequel in theaters before going to Direct to DVD spin-offs with lesser known aging actors whose careers are on the decline. Also, they will be made by National Lampoon and feature cameos by Betty White, who I'm pretty sure does not have action star on her resume (yet).

On one hand this makes me really sad- why the hell can't the American media consumer reward quality with more frequency? For every successful Inception, we have 5 Scott Pilgrim's that are awesome but don't make their money back. And Jackass 3D was the #1 movie in America this week. COME ON!! #thisiswhytheyhateus

On the other hand, I really like the creative team on this book. If this movie does well, maybe we will see more Warren Ellis stories turned into movies. He is one of the best writers in fiction today, so assuming future movies don't pivot 180 degrees from the source material like this one did, we are bound to see something good come out of it.

Verdict

If you were intrigued by the premise, you should buy the comic. If you are hungover on a Sunday and it's on FX, why not I guess.

Two of My Favorite Landmarks in Little Rock

These are two things I drive by on the way to "The Comic Book Store" (It's proper name, direct and to the point) that always crack me up.

"PROFESSOR bowl"

From the road all you can see is PROFESSOR, which makes it seem like someone with a very nice house is obnoxiously proud of their academic credentials.

Just another FUXING Buffet

I realize that this is just an unfortunate instance of a sign maker misjudging the amount of space he had for the size letters he was creating, and that I am 8 for laughing at it. God, sometimes I feel so fuxing immature. It's fuxing frustrating, I'll tell you that.

Like you need two fuxing signs. You got my attention the first time, fuxer.

What I think is hilarious is that these two places are within a half block of each other. Little Rock, you are a delight.

Ted Leo and The Pharmacists Concert, 10/07/2010, Vino's Brewpub, Little Rock, AR

On Thursday 10/07/2010 I went to a Ted Leo & The Pharmacists show at Vino's Brewpub in downtown Little Rock, and it was one of the best nights of my life. I knew it would be excellent going in. I've seen Ted/Rx 6 or 7 times before and every time it is, without fail, one of the best performances of anything ever (including Les Miserables on Broadway). What I didn't know was just how amazing it would be.

Before the show started I saw Ted sitting by the merch table and after texting some friends for courage, I went over and introduced myself. I was super awkward and inarticulate. Ted has been one of my heroes since I was 16 and I had more than a little alcohol in me. I knew what I wanted to say but, like being in High School and talking to that girl you've always liked, it just wasn't coming out right. Not that it mattered. I had heard that Ted was the nicest guy in the world, and it is totally true. I told him that his music had gotten me through some really hard times. He responded, completely sincerely, "Me too, man."

The opening bands, and there were 3, were decent. To be honest I didn't even look at the list, so I'm not sure who I saw. Except for Kevin Seconds, who played directly before Ted/Rx. He was a solo acoustic act that had some really moving stuff. I actually can't remember much because by that time I had been sipping alcohol at a pretty furious rate. I know that I liked him enough to buy two of his albums. This paragraph officially constitutes the worst/shallowest concert review ever.

In addition to those two CDs and a Ted/Rx shirt I also bought two pieces of art- a robot and a dinosaur- from a girl working the merch table. Basically I was her target demographic: people who love robots and dinosaurs (the two great tastes that taste great together). I'm a sucker for merch.

Funnily enough, I remember every detail of the Ted/Rx set. He mostly performed material off of The Brutalist Bricks and some from Living and Living. He has an amazing way of cranking up the energy and tempo on his songs, which are already very upbeat, and owning the stage. After each song he ends with a very honest and understated "Thanks" before launching into the next song and completely killing it. Like everything Ted does, it is raw and sincere and completely blows me away.

Being at the live performance is what I imagine being on methamphetamines feels like. I was singing at the top of my lungs, dancing as hard as I could and jumping as high as my legs would allow. I stepped on a lot of toes that night. By the end of the night my mouth literally hurt from smiling so hard. Looking back, people probably thought I was on some sort of drug cocktail. I thought the night couldn't get any better. I was wrong.

Right before the last song, Ted said "I've been getting some pretty aggressive emails. I'm supposed to give a shout out to Chris Wieman." I screamed as loud as I could "THAT'S ME" and threw my hands in the air. Then he said something else awesome(I can't remember what, I was too excited) and launched into "Gimme The Wire." That moment could legitimately be the peak of my life and that would in no way be disappointing. I think one day I'll probably get married or have kids or whatever; but... I got a shout-out from Ted Leo. Only thing that could top that is going on tour with him and having him be godfather to those kids I may one day have.

Turns out my best friend Anne had contacted him in the weeks leading up to the show and asked him to give me that shout-out. And he emailed her back and said he would. Because he is classy as fuck, and she is awesome as hell. You better believe she got a drunk thank-you phone call at 1:00 in the morning, 2:00 her time.

My one regret from the night had been that I had utterly failed in my attempt to tell Ted all that his music means to me. I also wanted to thank him for creating such a bright oasis in the middle of my somewhat drab existence in Little Rock. So I wrote him an email where I tried to summarize all of that. Here is that letter:

Dear Ted Leo,

I'm the guy who was at your show in Little Rock that introduced himself awkwardly by the merch table and was dancing and singing like crazy during your show (and stepping on lots of peoples feet). I wanted to say thank you for giving me a shout out at the end of your show. It really meant a lot to me. I'm incredibly happy that my best friend Anne contacted you about it and that you were super nice, and willing to do it.

I moved to Little Rock two months ago from Connecticut where I was near my family and within a days driving distance of almost all my friends. I don't know anyone here and I'm the youngest person in my office by at least ten years. It's been a very lonely two months filled with solo movie marathons. When I found out you were coming to town, I had something to look forward to and be excited about. Your show exceeded my highest expectations and I left saying the same thing I say every time I leave one of your shows (I think 7 or 8 now), "That was probably the best live show I've ever seen."

I guess the reason I really wanted to write you is to tell you how much your music means to me, which I awkwardly tried to do in person on Thursday. Hearts of Oak came out when I was just discovering music beyond what I sang in choir or heard on the radio. It was like nothing I'd ever heard before. The first time I listened to "Where Have All The Rude Boys Gone?" it was like I was seeing color for the first time. Listening to your music made me want to dance, and run down the street, and ask out that girl I'd always had a crush on and change the world and drive too fast and to believe in something! I don't want to say your music made me the person I am, because that is ridiculous- I had amazing flawed parents and friends and culture and whatever else that makes a person a person. Your music heavily informed who I am, though. Listening to your records, which seemed so honest and refreshing and devoid of cynicism, I realized that it was fucking cool to be a completely genuine person and believe in things and want the world to be a better place. And that might sound trite or obvious, but at 16 I was surrounded by so much cynicism, and so much of the world seemed fucked up(I was just starting to become politically aware), and friends were slipping into forced faux-hipster apathy, judging people based on what they were wearing rather than who they were. You helped me realize that it was important to be the person I wanted to be, and believe in the things I believed in with as much sincerity as I could because that is what is important in life. When you sang "And if you're not content to just believe, and if you don't consent to just let it be..." I really took it to heart. I'm working for a credit card company now, but I'm realizing that there's not enough, if any, meaning in my work. I've been very politically active since deciding to major in Political Science as an undergrad. My plan is to go to grad school for public policy and to put myself in a position to work towards a more equitable society(probably through tax policy). I want to do something that will improve people's lives, that I can believe in and be proud of.

Your music has been with me through the good times and the bad. I mentioned that your music has gotten me through some very hard times. I spent the better part of the last two years doing my best to get over a smashed-up, torn to pieces, broken heart. We had dated for three and a half years and ended with little warning and almost no reason. In fairly short order she was engaged to someone else. But even when I was at my lowest lows and things really seemed dark, when I played Little Dawn and you started singing "It's alright" I knew that things would get better and this wasn't the end of the world. And they have and it wasn't. When I listened to Rappaport's Testament and Old Souls Know I knew that there were things worth fighting for and that there was integrity in fighting for them. I could play your albums and know that there were good things in the world that couldn't be ruined by ex-girlfriends or crooked politicians or whatever else. It's been the soundtrack to my best of times and my inspiration at my worst.

I guess what I was trying to say awkwardly by the merch table is, thank you for all of this. It's impossible to quantify how much your music has afffected me, and difficult to add all the weeks worth of hours I've spent listening to it. While many of the bands I discovered at the same time as you have slowly slipped out of rotation, you and the Pharmacists have a permanent place at the top of my playlist/mixtape/recommendation list. I can't wait to see you in concert the next time you come through whatever town I'm in.

Sincerely,

Chris Wieman

PS. Love your Tweets!

I haven't heard back from him, and it's possible I never will, but that's not really important. Having that concert and having the opportunity to write the letter meant a lot. I fucking love Ted Leo/Rx.