There Will Be Something or Other

Okay. I don't know if I mentioned it before, but I did see There Will Be Blood last week. And honestly, I was a little disappointed. The movie looks fantastic, and Daniel Day-Lewis gives an incredible performance, but the movie seems a little lost, especially in the second half. I liked it better than Punch Drunk Love, but not as much as Magnolia and Boogie Nights. The Filthy Critic's review of the movie consists entirely of saying "Rosebud". I hadn't really thought of that, but he's kind of really right. The progression of Day-Lewis's character is not dissimilar from Charles Foster Kane. No Country For Old Men is still my pick for the best film of 2007, narrowly beating out Juno and King of Kong.

The picture I stole from Deadspin. Apparently, it's not photoshopped. The Chinese have decided to race lions on horses. I realize that this explanation raises way more questions than it answers. I'm not sure which animal one should feel more sorry for. I do know that I've never seen an animal more clearly screaming the words "Oh Shit!" I'm also remembering Seth Rogen's remarks about donkey shows at the beginning of The Forty Year Old Virgin. "You think it's going to be awesome, but then you get there and it's a lion riding a horse. I felt bad for the lion. I felt bad for the horse."

I spent a lot of time this weekend making mix cds for people I haven't seen in five years or more. The movie Juno is partially to blame for this, somehow. Also to blame- my dislike of the music played on the radio, the fact that I'm significantly better at driving when I'm listening to music, Rob Sheffield's book Love Is A Mix-Tape and, in ways I can't begin to understand, the fifth season of Six Feet Under, which I was watching from the Netflix. There's a lot of Big Star on the cds I made. If the world was fair, there would be statues of Alex Chilton in at least three (3) American cities, and possibly cities named for him throughout the Mid-West.

I did not watch the Grammys last night (as you might guess). Actually, I did catch part of the Beatles tribute (which seemed to feature both the Cirque de Soleiel, which I misspelled) and the cast of Across the Universe (which I haven't seen) and I was pretty underwhelmed. I then saw Jason Bateman talking about the Foo Fighters (I wonder if their last album was any good. I don't wonder enough to actually buy the album though. There first three albums were pretty good.) I guess Kanye West and Amy Winehouse dominated the awards. (Although I don't understand how Amy Winehouse won "best new artist" for her SECOND album. I don't care if the first album wasn't released in the US. It still exists.) I like Kanye, although his last album didn't impress me (except for "Stronger" and "Can't Tell Me Nothing"). Amy Winehouse doesn't do a lot for me. I managed to avoid hearing the "Rehab" song until last month, and I don't really see why people are so interested in it. If I wanted to hear someone who sounds like Shirley Bassey, I would watch the opening credits of Goldfinger, or listen to that Propellerheads CD I'm not sure why I have. Springsteen won something for "Radio Nowhere", which is a song I really like. Barack Obama won a Grammy, which puts the score at:
Obama 1, Hendrix 0.

Make sense of that one.