Who sets the bar for music these days?

I have been driving tractor this week and been listening to a lot of radio. We have a station in town that plays a lot of top 40 pop rock (95.3) and decided I would listen to it for a while to see if there was anything new that's any good.

Where do I begin?

The Killers - When you were young.
I admit that I loved the killers first CD hot fuss. I was really curious to see if there next CD was going to be as good. I seriously almost laughed out loud when I heard this new song. What key is he singing in anyway? I can't believe nobody in production picked up on this and tried to fix it. Or maybe they did. Either way, Brandon Flowers can't sing his way out of a paper bag. Someone actually told me that his singing is the new style. So singing in 12 different keys is the new style? Rob Thomas must be pumped.

The Fray - How to save a life
Dishwalla called, they want there songs back. Seriously, Matchbox 20 thinks you guys suck. You save a life by giving up music. There is already a band out there that has piano and guitar and good music, they're called Coldplay. We don't need cheap imitations. Also, what's with that guys voice? Or voices, really, since he tries to do so many vocal styles in all his melodies that he's trying to be a male Whitney Houston.

Fall Out Boy - This ain't a scene (it's an arms race)
I will pay anyone $20 bucks if they could understand every lyric in the chorus the first time they heard it. There's no way. I've heard this song 6 times now and I seriously have no idea what they say. Same with Sugar (we're going down) and Dance, Dance. There tunes are catchy no doubt, but can you really sing along with grunts and mumbles?

Snow Patrol - Any song
Snow patrol sucks. No seriously, they are boring and they suck. I'm trying to figure out why so many people like them. A friend of mine who shall remain . . .Dayton Dodge, convinced me to buy Final Straw because he said it was so good. However, it sounded like they stole songs from the Romeo and Juliet soundtrack and made them boring. They seem to me like top 40 filler. Do any of your friends have a snow patrol sticker on their car? Exactly.

I think I will just stick to XM.

(FYI, you can now post comments if you wish. You can disagree with any of the things I've said. If you do though, your wrong.)

My review of Lady in the Water

I have heard good and I have heard bad about this movie. More bad than good to be honest. From the really bad reviews I've gotten (Alex and Eddie) I already had my bar set really really low. So, I watched it.

It's always good to start with the compliments first so here I go.

This film, in my opinion is lit really well. I was really impressed by the mood Chris Doyle set. I really enjoyed watching that aspect. His use of reds were particularly a favorite. (As a side note, I found it interesting that he's member of the Hong Kong society of cinematographers. Perhaps Tak Fujimoto was unavailable . . . or uninterested)

I also really enjoyed the music. James Newton Howard is a great composer in my opinion and did a good job with the "lullaby" themes.

All good things must come to an end though. (Spoiler alert)

When I started this movie, I decided to suspend all my disbelief. I know to some degree we all suspend some sort of disbelief when watching movies but for Lady I purposely suspended it all. I thought to myself, "I don't care how unrealistic it is, how bad the writing, how bad the acting is, I'm just going to buy into it". I figured if I did that I would be able to really enjoy it.

And I was. I was really enjoying it.

Then something happened to the likes of which I never experienced before.

There was a scene in the movie where a little boy interprets the fate of every character from . . .cereal boxes. The final key to solving everything came from cereal boxes. Tony the tiger, magically delicious, and dig'em saved our heroes. I felt like I had been hit by something to wake me out of a semi-interesting dream. It went all downhill from there.

Like falling dominoes, thus went the movie. There were plot holes bigger than Texas, Bela Legosi things M. Night is a terrible actor, the story was so contrived it made Armageddon look like a Terrence Malick film.

I know M. Night did this for his kids. It's pretty amazing to think he gave up a deal at Disney to make the film. I think this would better serve as a bedtime story book, and not a feature film. M. Night, stop making ridiculously pompous movies. You've already cashed in all your credibility the Sixth Sense brought you. Time to make another good movie. If you forget what that is, just give up.

Our pastor is a living Michael Scott

Our church service today focused on a ministry called Reflections. Reflections is a supportive bible study for women who have had an abortion. The service started out with this amazing video interviewing women in the ministry, telling there stories of how the abortion impacted their life and how healing through the love of Jesus has changed their life. Trust me, the video was really, really good.

Of course not to be outdone, our Pastor then gets up to undo all the impact this video had on our congregation.

He leads off with "the official position of the church is abortion is a sin. The official position of God is abortion is a sin". I seriously couldn't believe he started with that. He sort of made up for it by saying "the good news is that Jesus forgives and still loves you". Which I totally believe but by then the train was slowly coming off the track. Our pastor could have gone up and dismissed everyone because the video was so clear in it's message. However, our pastor Michael Scott would not leave well enough alone. He decided it was best to tag a song at the end of his sermon just to bring it all home. The song was so terrible. It was a contemporary christian top 40 song that happened to have words in it that reflected the pastor's semi-good message. It felt like watching the goodness of Shawshank Redemption and then as the credits roll you play Michael Bolton's "Said I loved you but I lied".

I told my friend that our pastor is like Michael Scott, and our congregation is like Jan Levinson Gould. They've know it's wrong, but feel, at some point, they need to give into their urges.

Directed by. . .

Alex Monroe. One of my closest friends is on the verge of becoming a commercial director. He as just launched his website with some of the commercials he's shot for his show reel. Check it out an give me some feedback on the reel and the website itself. Thanks.

www.alexandermonroe.com

The good shepherd

Well, I can't really decide if it was "good" or not. I saw this film on new years day and it clocked in at around 10 hours or so. Man did this film feel long. The pace was so calculated, which I understand. However, it took sooooo long to pay off the thing they set up right in the beginning that by hour 9, I just didn't care. Ultimately, I really wanted to like this film. It was lit by Bob Richardson, Damon was awesome, Birth of CIA intriguing concept. It just need to be cut tighter, or it needed an hour cut off. If that were the case, it would have been fantastic for me. I would also like to note that Michael Gambon was the best thing about this movie.

What is cross processing?

Think Tony Scott's MAN ON FIRE or DOMINO. The film is shot, then it's developed in the wrong processor to create these wild colors and tones. It's a very risky process because there is a chance the film could be ruined. All this to say, I felt like it was a good name for this weblog. For those who know me, I look at the world through different lenses. Most of the time I put my foot in my mouth in attempt to think or observe outside the box. I like putting myself out there to see if the "same ol, same ol" can be seen in a different way. So, hopefully you will enjoy my observations, rants, and things that make me laugh.