So you may all already know, or not care... but they're coming to LA next year.

Okay, so I don't know how to review music, but I do know how to grade it and I've listened to a lot of stuff lately (that probably everyone else listened to last year or more) but here's my grades.

Arctic Monkey (Whatever People Say...) - Grade: D
Coldplay (X & Y) - Grade: C-
Elefant (Black Magic Show) - Grade: C-
Gorillaz (Demon Days) - Grade: C-
Hard-Fi (Stars Of CCTV) - Grade: B
Mew (And The Glass Handed Kites) - Grade: C+
Mogwai (Mr. Beast) - Grade: B
Arab Strap (The Last Romance) - Grade: C
The Sounds (Dying To Say This To You) - Grade: B
The Subways (Young For Eternity) - Grade: first half=C Second half=B
Iron & Wine with Calexico (In The Reins) - Grade: C
Ladytron (Witching Hour) - Grade: B-
Sigur Ros (Takk) - Grade: B
Supergrass (Road To Rouen) - Grade: B
American Analog Set (Set Free) - Grade: C
Dandy Warhols (Odditorium) - Grade: B-
Annie (Anniemal) - Grade: B
Editors (The Back Room) - Grade: B+
Charlatans Uk (Up The Lake) - Grade: C
Concretes (Concretes) - Grade: C+
Voxtrot (Voxtrot EP) - Grade: C
Love Is All (9 Times The Same Song) - Grade: C
Orangs Peel (Circling The Sun) - Grade: B

(M) Thumbsucker - Grade: B
This is an interesting movie. It's a quirky story. It's about a guy who sucks his thumb and is embarrassed by it. His father feels it's a shameful thing to do. The interesting thing is all the socially acceptable or at least tollerable things he does to substitute for the most natural thing a person does for comfort as a child. Taking medication, getting drunk, smoking dope and engaging in sex are all substitutes for finding comfort. He feeds on these addictions that are held in higher regard that sucking your thumb. It's an interesting thing to look at and on judging how people comfort themsleves. The father in this movie (played by Vincent D'Onofrio) did an EXCELLENT job.

(M) A Tale of Two Sisters (Ji-woon Kim, 2003). Grade: C- ?
A Tale of Two Sisters begins as the two sisters return home after a stay in a mental institution. Home isn't exactly sweet, as their evil stepmother (yeah) treats them coldly and their father is very distant and stern. There is a strange force in the house that no one wants to talk about, and soon enough, a creepy ghost begins haunting the family. As the story (sorta) unravels, you (sorta) find out the reasons why the girls were in a mental institute in the first place, and why things are happening. I won't say much more, but in the end, you're left scratching your head and wondering why certain things happened, and what the symbolisms were. At times the movie moved at a snail's pace, at other times, it was much more engaging. But overall, too much is left unsaid, leaving the viewer completely confused. I watched this movie with Cup O Noodles and another friend, and we were all confused about the storyline. We even had to go online to get some clarification. It's definitely a movie you have to watch more than once to fully get. I'll have to pass on that one.

Random stuff:

-Rewatched City of God tonight and was reminded of how amazing this movie is. Loooove it!
-Now that another great season of Project Runway is over, what show am I supposed to be obsessed with? Oh yeah, American Idol.
-Who's been watching Am Idol? Favorites so far are Chris Doughtry the rocker, and Tyler Hicks, the old young guy.

Did anybody watch the Sopranos last night? It was so good. Only 19 more episodes left!

This thursday (03/16/06) There is a benefit for the children of Uganda. It's an art show and a brief film with Q&A from a group who went to Uganda. The event is to raise money to send the children to school. $15 can provide school for a child in Uganda and dramatically change their future. The event is free, a $5 donation is suggested, and you can always give more if you want. If you wish to attend the location is:

14988 Sand Canyon Ave.
Studio 6
Irvine, CA 92618
Begins at 7pm

I think I have slowed down on my movie watching which makes me sad but I haven't had time due to work and looking for a new job.

(M) Constant Gardener. (Fernando Meirelles, 2005) Grade: A-

Thoughts: Based upon the bestseller by John Le Carre, Justin (Ralph Fiennes) is a high court British official who meets Tessa (Rachel Weisz), a free spirited thinker and civil rights activist. The two fall in love and get married. Tessa begins to discover what a drug company, KDH, is doing in Africa, which is killing patients to test their drug and the link to the British govt. She is murdered during the investigation, basically as a well to silent her. Justin decides to finish what Tessa started and learns ugly things along the way. Some people felt Rachel Weisz, famous for her roles in Mummy and Mummy 2 - they even said that during the Oscars, should not have gotten nominated for her role because she was barely in the film but I disagree. She was in the film quite a bit and she did such a great job every time she was on-screen. I personally don't think Ralph Fiennes had to really act out of his part. After all, he just had to be an uptight British official, not hard for him. It would have been nice to see him with a best actor nomination though but that category was pretty filled up. I really enjoyed how the film was shot as well.

(M) Thumbsucker. (Mike Mills, 2005) Grade: C

Thoughts: I'm still trying to figure out why they made this film. It was not great but it was not bad but there was no point. Justin Cobb (Lou Taylor Pucci) is a 17-year old kid trying to grow up normal, too bad he can't stop sucking his thumb. His dad Mike (Vincent D'Onofrio) is embarrassed by it and his mom Audrey (Tilda Swinton) is trying to be supportive but they have their own problems as well. Justin turns to his orthodontist Perry (Keanu Reeves) and his debate teacher Mr. Geary (Vince Vaughn) for help and he gets some but not what he is looking for. Notice the names I'm using for the cast. I think that was what made people perk up interest for this movie and I have not even mentioned how Benjamin Bratt ties in. The film was like an after school special about being weird and how to embrace it. The main kid Lou Taylor Pucci did a good job but the rest of the movie was forgettable.

(O) Annoying guy who sits next to me at work. (2006) Grade: F
Thoughts: The guy is sooooooooooooooooooooo annoying. Just a few things he does everyday - hums loudly to himself, sings to himself, talks out loud, says phrase like chica chica and bam bam bam bam, cracks his knuckles multiple times a day, calls his girlfriend EVERYDAY, sometimes twice to see what she is doing and talks baby talk to her and just bugs the living daylights out of me. UGH!!! I want to yell shut the f*ck up to him but that would mean I would have to talk to him and I'll pass on that.

Viva Belle & Sebastian!

City Of Lost Souls (Japanese)
Grade: F
I think this movie had no script and was made up as the director went along. It was incoherent and I couldn't even get through it. It takes place in Brazil or something and I don't know, it was just ridiculous.

Spetters (Dutch) - Paul Verhoeven
Grade: B
If you've seen Breaking Away, well this movie came out a year later. If breaking away was the "feel good movie of the year", Paul Verhoeven (Basic Instinct, Showgirls) decided to tell a similar story that was depressing. Where Breaking Away was of bicyclists, Spetters was about dirt bike riders who are hoping to make it in the big time. Each persons life goes through rather significant changes and some stories are sad and depressing. There's no real happy ending to the film. It's basically the opposite of what Breaking Away was.

Audition (Japanese)
Grade: C
This movie was done by the director who did 'City Of Lost Souls' the other movie I reviewed here and gave an F to. This movie was far far more interesting than that other piece of garbage. It would be considered "a scary movie". A man searches out to find a new wife. He and his budy pretend their holding a casting call and audition a bunch of women who respond to the add for the role in a movie but they're really auditioning to become the potential wife of the main actor. Once he picks his women, the story slowly starts to get crazy and crazier. For me though, like a lot of Japanese movies... not everything is really explained and so I am left confused about things. I think a lot of Japanese films seen to just do things because it might be cool for the movie but have nothing to do with plot.

Visitor Q (Japanese)
Grade: C
I really don't know how to discuss this movie. New Wave reviewed Oldboy by saying Korean's are f**ked up. Well... maybe they are... but I gotta say... the Japanese are EXTREMELY f**ked up, or at least their film makers seem to be, especially this one. Basically the movie starts out with a family in comlpete chaos and some mysterious guy comes along and brings teh family back into a cohesive unit. Sounds good right? The path of the movie from beginning to end is plain and simply f'd up. I don't even want to describe all that is portrayed in this movie. I am sure you can get insights about some of it if you're really interested on movie review sites.

Suicide Club (Japanese)
Grade: B-/C+
Why do the youth of Japan keep killing themselves? Is it because they're all lonely, isolated and depressed? Is it because of sadistic wanan be rock star? Is it because of bubble gum pop music? Is it the internet? This was an interesting movie. Enjoyable. I would have liked it more if I was able to follow along more closely as it delved into philosophy. I wasn't expecting to have to try and read and comprehend the meaning of life so I was a little unprepared for that aspect. However, I enjoyed the film.

Battle Royal (Japanese)
Grade: B+
Finally... I get a great Japanese movie!!! You know how on Netflix you rent a movie and it suggests others you may like... well I got on a kick of renting the suggestions and have been watching a few Japanese films and this one was great. I think everyone knows about this film though. A lot of talk re-surfaced after Kill Bill vol. 1 came out since that one asian girl in the movie of Kill Bill is in this one as well (the one with that ball and chain weapon). Anyway, this movie was a lot of fun. It's described as Lord Of The Flies with weapons. Basically a class of kids is kidnapped and taken to an island and they have three days to kill each other, whoever is standing alive at the end of the 3 day period wins and gets to go home. If they don't kill each other in 3 days, the necklace bombs around their necks will explode and everyone will die. This movie was fun to watch.

Okay I was getting more death threats my new wave to blog so I guess I should. Although for the record I did post a long blog that blogger somehow deleted.

Hmm lets see what there is to review

Two trips to Las Vegas (O) 2006: C
Vegas is fun every so often to kick back, drink a little, gamble a little and for me to bowl a little. I did these things in back to back weeks and it was pretty darn tiring. Getting sick in between the two trips didn't help any either. I think I am done going to vegas for the rest of the summer, unless some magical deal happens. I'll just wait until my next bowling trip in about 6 months.

Scrubs (NBC): B-
This is not the best season for this show, I still enjoy watching how weird and quirky it can be, but with the characters all growing up it just doesn't have the same feeling to when it first started.

The Oscars (ABC): C+
There was nothing overly suprising in the show, well except maybe the 3-6 mafia, but even that wasn't so big since it was the biggest movie song of the year. Crash wining was somewhat a surprise but if Brokeback didn't win, I thought it would since it had one the SAG award and seemed to be more highly praised than the other movies around award season. John Stewart hosting was okay, I think he played it safe.

Star Wars Transformers (Hasbro Toys): A
These toys are my two favorite things as a child combined into one. I already have my darth vader that turns into a tie fighter and the general greivous that turns into his circular bike. There are 10 more planned. Yes I'm a dork, no need to point that out.

Lost (ABC): B+
This show seems to be throwing more and more stuff out there everyweek without answering many of the questions we all have, so in that regard it gets frustrating. On the other hand however, many of the characters are still very strong and I enjoy learning about their backstory, which is sometimes better than the island story. I just hope the rest of the season doesn't keep setting stuff up, but answers some things so that I'm not watching going whaaaa??!?!!

Random thoughts:
-No word yet on whether arrested development has officially been picked up by showtime, just a lot or rumors that it has. This show was so great, all the way through the end on fox, why isn't it a done deal yet? Oh but in case you are wondering Freddie is still on....yeah thats fair.
-Baseball season is right around the corner which for me means, many fantasy leagues, going to many games, and remembering useless information to come in handy in the future, okay so it probably won't come in handy but I like to know it anyway.
-I didn't get a call back from Lingo, Vh1's pop culture show, or deal or no deal, i'm pretty upset, i really want to go on a game show now.
-Watch MTV's Parental Control if you haven't already, its soooooooooo bad that it becomes good again. Seriously watch it, you will thank me later.

Okay thats all for now, hopefully new wave won't cut me now.

Crash as best picture?!? Really??!!?? Oh well. I think Academy got it wrong this year. I would personally like to see Brokeback Mountain get it because it was a well made film but I realize it does not have the mass appeal that Crash has. My probelm with Crash was it was a good movie but not great. When did best picture go to movies that were just okay. What happened to the days of Braveheart, Silence of the Lamb, Lord of the Rings, and Titanic? I think Walk the Line and Cinderella Man should have gotten nominations. Oh well.

Addendum: So I have been doing a lot of Oscar reading about people's reaction to the best picture win and some good points have been made. The best one I heard was from 980 AM this morning. A writer/reporter from the LA times gave his outlook. It breaks down like this - Crash was marketed better than Brokeback. Crash cast members went on every talk show circuit and promoted the movie. Crash was send to over 1,000 people to be viewed for consideration. Crash writer and director Paul Haggis got no credit for writing Million Dollar Baby last year so the Academy gave him the honor this year. Crash had the lady who did the marketing campaign for the Miramax company when the Weinstein people were there so she knew how to market the movie i.e. best picture Shakespre In Love. It all makes sense. I agree though the best reason is because Hollywood is not making good films anymore.

(M) Dot the I - Grade A
This is such a great movie. It starts off as any love story does where the girl gets engaged, she falls for another guy and is torned between which guy she really wants. Then you add in a murder and a few video cameras in the mix. Did I mention that this is a great movie? Oh yeah, the setting is in London, but some of the characters have Spanish accents. Weird.

(G) Whittier College 1st Annual Poetry Reading
Grade: A

I don't know if this really qualifies as a "gig" but it was an event. Three professional poets were reading. Each read for 45 minutes a piece. I don't remember who the first lady was, but the last two were fun. Ken Waldman went 2nd. He combines instrumentaion and then reads a poem and then goes back into playing his instrument. This guy had a great personality, a strong voice, and enjoyable material. I'd surely go see him again. The 3rd and final poet was Kim Addonizio who happens to be my favorite poet there is and influenced me to really try and write. This was the first time I got to see her read and she really brought life to her poems. She also hosted a one hour seminar/meeting before the poetry event started. She talked about writing and just had an open question and answer forum. She has one novel, a collection of short stories, and maybe 4-5 books of poetry. The book of hers that grabbed my attention is called Tell Me and was nominated for an award. As a poet she's won many awards herself. Great great great!

(A) Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not (Arctic Monkeys, Feb. 28) Grade: B
Though a strong debut, the album probably won’t change your life or be very relevant in a few years. But anytime the four-letter word “hype” enters the equation, exaggerated expectations about “the new movement of music” spoils the listening experience...

I'm not sure why but this picture makes me laugh. Doesn't it look like Bush is thinking hmm what is under that thing?

A belated birthday shoutout to Rancid and Cup O Noodles - Happy Birthday!

You look like a monkey and you smell like one too.