Notes from a Genius

Film 340 "Generation Um" starring: Keanu Reeves, Sarita Choudhury, Bojana Novakovic, Adelaide Clemens written and directed by: Mark Mann What is so appealing about videotaping/recording everyday life? Is it an escape from reality or an attempt to hide behind a camera in order to avoid reality? And who's great idea was it to put Keanu Reeves in the lead role as the inarticulate, pondering male figure who puts others in front of the camera? He is definitely the wrong choice for such a crappy role. With "Generation Um" Reeves plays John, who has "intriguing" conversations with several people in and around Lower East Side in Manhattan as he walks around and stops at various places like a bakery where he nibbles at a cupcake. John then comes upon a performance art group in a park and he decides to steal the camcorder that was set down by one of the artists. This prompts a foot chase through the streets and subway, until finally John is back home....

Film 337 "Lost Angels: My Life on Skid Row" narrated by: Catherine Keener Here is a documentary that kind of opened my eyes to an area that I have to admit, I only know what the media has portrayed as a very sketchy and lost/forgotten "trapezoid" space of land found in Los Angeles. I learned that it's kind of a misconception to think of Skid Row as a homeless enclave. What I learned from the documentary, though, is that, yes, it definitely has a significant homeless population, but it actually has another offering as well: very cheap single-occupancy housing, in which poverty-stricken people living off government support checks can apply to live in. Unfortunately, there's not enough of it, though, even with the political idea years ago of cleaning up the area of riff-raff and crime, etc. and instead investing government funds in building more of those single-occupancy housing. As you would expect, many of the stories of these Skid Row residents inclu...

Saturday night, Lauren and I went to see a couple of dear friends of mine, a married couple who are also musicians and go by the name: Arborea. Now, if you haven't heard their music, do yourself a favor and check out their music. I think what's most amazing about them is that they hail from my hometown of Lewiston, Maine. I've known Buck (the guitarist/multi-instrumentalist) for many years, dating back to my days working retail at Bull Moose Music, when he used to come in and we would chat about a variety of music; these conversations have carried on over the years, and happened while I was a radio DJ at Bates College (where my sister went). I remember, specifically, he called up my show and we were talking. He ended up dropping by the studio and gave me copies of their first couple of CDs. I fell in love, instantly, with their musical style and sound. It's kind of hard to put their sound in a box, but if I had to pigeonhole them, I would say they lean towards the folk ...

Film 329 "The Paperboy" starring: Zac Efron, Nicole Kidman, Matthew McConaughey, John Cusack written and directed by: Lee Butler I read this book, written by Pete Dexter, before I saw the movie and I must say, the book was really hard to get into, but when I start something I have to finish it. And then, I knew I wanted to see the movie, because of perhaps one, single controversial scene in which Nicole Kidman's character pees (yup, that's right, pees) on Zac Efron- but in context to the story, it's actually not as bad it sounds. The film got terrible reviews and is seen as very trashy, but maybe it's great trash. You know, the kind of great trash you find in a load of garbage at the dump. "The Paperboy" is a trashy version of film noir and because of that, it fails, because it never fully achieves what it needs to in order to grab the viewer's attention. "The Paperboy" stars  Matthew McConaughey  as Ward Jansen, a reporter f...

Saturday night, Lauren and I went to see Metric at the State Theatre (with The Box Tiger as the opening act, who were pretty decent, and reminded me a little bit of Yeah Yeah Yeahs). I've been into Metric for years, since I first discovered them working at the Bates College radio station about 13-14 years ago. They didn't really play much of their old stuff, and I mean, they have 5-6 decent albums into their career. This show definitely focused more on their most recent stuff, the material that's made them popular, which is a smart move on their part. They've been one of the opening acts for Paramore's stadium tour this fall, so it was really great to see them as the main act, because as you can tell, they were able to play a lot more stuff and the crowd was there to see them. Nothing But Time   Youth Without Youth   Speed the Collapse   Ending Start   Empty   Help I'm Alive   Love Is a Place   Synt...