Song of the Week: Misunderstood

In 1977, Pete Townshend of the Who and Ronnie Lane of Small Faces and the Faces put out an album called Rough Mix.  A collaboration between two seminal figures of 60s/70s rock, the album contains many gems, among them Keep Me Turning and Heart to Hang Onto.  (It was also reputed to be one of the most alcohol-soaked recording sessions in history.)  A lesser-known song from Pete has always appealed to me:  Misunderstood.  Here are some of the lyrics:

Just want to be misunderstood,
I want to be feared in my neighbourhood.
Just want to be a moody man,
Say things that nobody can understand.

I want to be obscure and oblique,
Inscrutable and vague,
So hard to pin down.
I want to leave open mouths when I speak,
Want people to cry when I put them down.

These words always made me think of my PhD advisor, who was really a fine guy, but he was absolutely unreadable and intimidated the hell out of everyone. Anyway, it's a good melody and the lyrics are very clever.  Give it a listen.

(By the way, travel will keep me for posting for a week or two.)

Movie Friday: The Hobbit--An Unexpected Journey

I saw Peter Jackson's new middle earth extravaganza last weekend, and found it to be a mixed bag at best.  On the plus side, Martin Freeman was very good as Bilbo Baggins, and Ian McKellen held his own as a slightly younger version of Gandalf than we saw 10 years ago.  On the other hand, the dwarves were mostly forgettable; quite a bit less compelling than most of the rest of the Fellowship of the Ring.  The decision to split a fairly brief book into three movies also clearly hurt the story, requiring a lot of filler and extensions of trivial episodes into lengthy set pieces.  Perhaps the most annoying thing for me was the ridiculous overkill when it came to cliffhangers (e.g., the storm giant battle, or the escape from the goblins).  It took all the worst excesses of Jackson's King Kong and amplified them further.  Finally, I saw it in 3D at 48 fps, and found the experience rather exhausting as opposed to entertaining.

Although it seems to be doing all right at the box office, the critical response has been lukewarm, at best.  Here's the trailer.

Song of the Week: The Waves

Wang Chung was a somewhat short-lived 80's band.  They had a brief period of prominence with hits like "Dance Hall Days" and "Everybody Have Fun Tonight."  Pretty light weight stuff, for the most part, for a band that had pretentions of philosophical significance.

Their second album, Points on a Curve, had a number of nice songs on it, including this one.  It's not deep, but I find listening to it very restful.  Give it a listen!

Movie Friday: Annie Hall

I recently caught most of Annie Hall on TV, and marvelled over what a great movie it still is.  Of course, it wrestles with many of Woody Allen's favorite themes:  love, Jewishness, New York, etc., but it also has some truly great lines.  There's the great bit with Marshal McLuhan, but one that I had forgotten about was the exchange during which Allen and Diane Keaton are discussing her wardrobe and she mentions that her tie had been a gift from "Grammy Hall."  Alvy's rejoinder:  "My grammy never gave gifts.  She was too busy getting raped by Cossacks."

Unbelievably, this movie does not hold a 100% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.  Some clown who likes Larry the Cable Guy gave it a lukewarm review.

Here's the opening, including my first exposure to the joke about the two women complaining about the lousy food and the small portions at a Catskills resort:

Song of the Week: Danny Boy

Famous Irish/Canadian tenor Colm Wilkinson recently performed in Sherwood Park.  Most noted for his work as the original Jean Valjean in Les Miserables as well as Phantom of the Opera, Wilkinson has a broad repertoire that includes modern music and classics.  One of his signature songs is the Irish ballad Danny Boy.  Set to the tune of Londonderry Air, this iconic song was actually written by an Englishman, Frederic Weatherly.

Wilkinson is a fantastically talented tenor, able to hit ridiculously high notes, as in Bring Him Home.  Here he is, singing Danny Boy a few years back.

Whither vs Colloquy

Once again, Jeremy has refused to publish a comment of mine.  This particular time, it concerned Kathleen Lowery's high and mighty criticisms of anonymous commenters.  It was not particularly personal, it simply (and correctly) identified her behaviour as that of an internet troll, clearly trying to provoke people in a comment thread.  I think Jeremy is oversensitive on this sort of thing, and with respect to moderation policy begins to resemble a certain other "blog" I was talking about earlier.

Time to Declare Colloquy a Failed Experiment

It's been a while since I looked in on the U of A's Colloquy blog.  As predicted, it has degenerated into a stale, Pravda-like news feed for the University's current propaganda.  For each of the four December entries, there are zero comments.  I see this as a reflection of both the lack of true engagement in the happy-talk posts, and would-be commenters' prior experience with the ridiculous moderation practices of the people who run it.  It's probably time to retire this largely pointless activity, and focus the resources on something more productive.

Song of the Week: Cry Me a River

This week, let's do an oldie, Cry Me a River (not the Justin Timberlake song!).  It has been covered many times, but I especially like the Julie London version from 1955:

Julie's phrasing and smoky voice very nicely convey the sentiment of the lyrics.  The song played a significant role in the film V for Vendetta.  Here's the scene: