Old Movie Obsession

I've recently been absolutely obsessed with watching old classic films. I've been watching atleast one every day for the past two months or so. And a lot of them have been amazing. I saw Now, Voyager(1942) and Casablanca(1942) not too long ago. God, those movies are way too romantic. I mean they're great, but damn do they just fill you with grief.





See what I mean? When he lights that goddamn cigarette in that way he always lights it and gives it to her, knowing they'll never be together, doesn't that just suck ass? I mean it's crappy for them. And damn, people in those movies smoke like hell. Always, someone's got a cigarette outside. Bad influence.

I think I'm really becoming an Ingrid Bergman fan. Her, and Bette Davis.

The 60s movies are probably the ones that paved the way for movies as they are today. I mean, when I watched Bonnie and Clyde(1967), I was absolutely not expecting an ending that gory. Well, I mean, I didn't know how it was going to end exactly. I figured they'd both be shot to death the ways things were going, but I didn't think it would be a full-on Scarface machine-gun murder-fest. I just thought it would be some off-camera implied thing, like the shower scene in Psycho(1960). I mean, in Psycho, they didn't show anything at all except for the blood, really. And that was only 7 years before Bonnie and Clyde. Well, the ending shocked the crap out of me.

Bonnie and Clyde ending. Just a few minutes before, everything was going swell then BAM! out of nowhere. It's actually quite funny just looking at it on its own, without the rest of the movie.



Clearly, it's not exactly a subtle death. The trend of increased blood and sex in the 60s continued on into the 70s though. While the 60s changed movies a lot, especially beginning to use color more and more in films, the 70s just went crazy with nudity and all that. Probably those damn hippies...

You know, a lot of musicals are really entertaining. I mean they've got singing, dancing, AND acting. Like a triple combo of entertainment. I just watched Funny Girl(1968) and it wasn't bad at all. It was the first time I ever saw Barbra Streisand in a movie (or anywhere for that matter). I want to see Cabaret(1972) with Liza Minnelli but I haven't had the chance yet. It's supposed to be really good. But my favorites have to be My Fair Lady and West Side Story. Well, from what I've seen so far, they're the best ones. My Fair Lady is really entertaining on more than one level.



I wonder how they dubbed over with lip-synching that perfectly...

These last two movies look sort of stupid in bits and pieces. Well, musicals have stupidity in general, because that's just the way they have to overemphasize things, but Bonnie and Clyde really was great!

Anyways, I'm currently watching Vertigo(1958) because it's supposed to be a good Hitchcock thriller. Then afterwards I think I'll watch It Happened One Night(1934) or Rear Window(1954). Rear Window is also supposed to be a great Hitchcock film, but I've gotta take a break from his movies. I've already watched like 3.

My favorite film though, has to be They Shoot Horses, Don't They?(1969) It's about a 1920s dance marathon. A lot of people used to compete in those for the cash prizes, since everyone was going through the Depression. After watching that I felt like I just wanted to shoot myself. Really depressing. IT'S NOT A HORSE MOVIE, BTW. But amazing acting and portrayal of the events. I mean, it's not my official "favorite", but it's up there. It's basically a dance competition to see who could dance the longest, and it went on for more than a month. They would dance continually, day and night, with only a 10 minute break every 2 hours. Really harsh.

Here's the trailer for it. They make it seem like it's a race or something they're competing in, but the race was just like once a week or so to attract a big audience to watch the exhausted dancers battle it out.

Halloween Costume

This is the inspiration for my halloween costume.

From the show pilot "Phoo Action" based on a mini-comic by Jamie Hewlett. Dammit I wish the show became a series. The ending was such a teaser.

And I'm going to be the girl, in case you were wondering. But without showing off my "midriff" as the school would call it. I think I'll make the sweater. Or I'll get just my mom to make it, really. I don't even have to do that specific outfit, cause there are more than one in the comic. So it's all good.

In case you hadn't noticed, I love Jamie Hewlett's work.

The characters as made for the show:

Gorillaz

If you don't know me, which I'm betting you don't, Gorillaz is my favorite band ever. So this post is dedicated the people who make up the band.

Anyways... I still remember the first day I really actually fell in love with their music. I always liked Feel Good Inc. when it popped up on the charts, but I never really listened to the band properly. Well one day I was surfing youtube when in the "Related videos" bar (or whatever it's called) I saw a Gorillaz song. The first thing I thought of was the video my brother showed me back when I was really small(I'm guessing around 2001/2). I remembered the dancing zombie monkeys in the video and the fact that we each assigned a character to a family member. I was 2D, the guy with the two missing front teeth, because I actually was missing two front teeth when I watched it.

I decided to watch the youtube video and (although I don't remember the song) I became an instant fan. I actually remembered by brother playing the songs "Clint Eastwood" and "Rock the House", but he only listened to the songs because of the rapper, Del, who was in them. He was a pretty big Del fan and listened to a buttload of songs by him. I on the other hand, like both Del and Gorillaz. I liked all the Demon Days album songs from the moment I heard them, but their first album took some warming up to. I now love it, though.

The guys behind the band, Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett, are two major influences on what I like. I pretty much like all of Damon's music (except for some Blur stuff which was crap), and I'm planning on buying and reading Jamie's comic Tank Girl. I think his art style is just great.

Gorillaz just released a documentary of the making of the film which was aired for free online for a month. I watched it and loved it, and LOL'd several times. The only problem was that it was a bit too "fly on the wall" without any subtitles for mumbled, inaudible phrases. But otherwise it was just great.

So long story short, I've just been really excited about it all when I heard the Gorillaz were coming out with a new album next year. It's only their third over the past 10 years, so I hope it's great. I heard the demos, though, and thought they were amazing. Apparently, it's going to be called Plastic Beach. Can't wait.

Gorillaz="Good" List

Damon Albarn

Yup, it's Damon Albarn, my all time favorite musician. Felt it was proper to start out with him for my blog. Anyways, he's the co-writer behind a successful Britpop band, the musician of the most popular animated band in the world, the composer of a Mandarin opera. He really is innovative.

He first came to fame with the Britpop band Blur. With Graham Coxon, Dave Rowntree, and Alex James, they first made the album Leisure in 1991. Hate to be honest, but it's quite a shit album. Didn't do much for the band. But when they released Modern Life is Rubbish two years later, all hell broke loose. Their catchy songs and witty lyrics quickly caught on and so began their rise to stardom.

I don't want to get into too much detail or I'll be here all day. But, long story short, the band broke up in 2001 over some disputed ideas. Don't know why exactly, so I won't put anything up so I don't fuel rumors. They've gotten back together in summer of 2009 for a long-awaited reunion, but they don't plan on making any new albums.

Anyways, Damon went on to make an album with Malian musicians titled Mali Music. I haven't listened to it yet, but I'll let you know about it as soon as I get my hands on it......

After Mali Music came Gorillaz: a collaboration with Jamie Hewlett to create an animated band fused with the contributions of many artists. Gorillaz also happens to be my favorite band of all time, thank you very much. But anyways, they've only released two albums so far: Gorillaz and Demon Days. But! Not to worry! They're coming out with another album rumored to be entitled Plastic Beach which is expected 2010. Should be interesting. :)

A couple years ago (2007?) Damon worked on yet another collaboration with Tony Allen, Paul Simonon, and Simon Tong. This supergroup was The Good, the Bad, and the Queen. Well, technically, their album is called that name (the actual group was unnamed), but we have to refer to them somehow so........what the hell. We'll just call them TGTBTQ like everyone else.

So I suppose that's it for now. Damon = on the "Good" list. Or was it a "favorite" list? God, I have to figure out how to make the list first...

So if you've got any tips or know a way to make a sort of "Good/Bad" permanent list to go on the side, please do tell me how. Thanks.

Right! So...

Now, I had planned on writing in this a bit more...

Oh, well.

But! I will start from this point onwards! For those of you who read my first post from May, I believe I had put that I am going to keep a good & bad list of my musical favorites. If I post in this once a day, that list might even actually work out.

However, I'm considering adding a separate group for those that I am unsure about. Yes, the "unsure" group! Perfect name! Starting tomorrow I will do a daily article on all my favorite, then least favorite musicians. I think I might do 2 a day: 1 for favorite and 1 for least favorite. Perhaps I'll throw a "unsure" in there when deemed fit.

For those of you who have heard about Kanye West, I think it's safe to say he is a douchebag for pulling that shit on poor Taylor Swift.

For those of you who haven't heard, at the VMAs, when Taylor Swift won (Best Actress?) for her performance in "Love Story", Kanye stormed onstage and proclaimed "I'm sorry, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time". A stunned Taylor Swift was pulled offstage before completing her speech. Luckily, she was pulled onstage later by Beyoncé and given a chance to do her speech.

Kanye West = Asshole of the Month Nominee

Hey! I think I just created a little schtick! Now if only I knew how to make these blogs better looking...

First Post Ever

Hello, all. Seems to be my first post ever. Well, I suppose I should fix this blog up a bit before just posting random, badly-thrown together crap. Or I might just post random, badly-thrown together crap. Either way, I just hope I stick with this instead of ignoring it like all my other projects.

Anyways, down to business: this shall be my first ever music/art/random shit blog. In the next few weeks (I'll be on break) I will try to introduce some of my favorite bands and artists, and continue to update you on who I love/hate.

Actually, that sounds like a remarkable idea. I should keep a list! That's not such a bad idea! First up on the "HATE" list: Britney Spears. First up on the "Love" list: Damon Albarn.

Now to have someone explain to me how to display this list on my blog....

Keep in mind: although this is mainly a music blog, I may just throw out some artists that I am interested in at the moment, be they musicians or not. Hopefully, you're not going to be a stingy bastard about it, but I'll try to keep it interesting. And, of course, I'll update you with any news of the artists mentioned on here.

My first few blogs will feature one artist per post. I'll devote an entire post to the works of that specific artist/band, and I'll keep it going that way. I may even offer an album review or two, but I must admit that I usually just use iTunes for the albums I'm not too keen on buying. My album reviews are usually on good albums, but theire purpose is to zero in on the reasons WHY they're good albums.

I'll try to update this well soon.

Perhaps I might even tell you a little bit about myself! That is, if I get to be really dedicated to this blog. If I persist, hopefully I may even acquire a follower or two! But now I'm just getting myself all worked up.

If you've managed to stumble across this, do check back soon.

-Headphonic