Wednesday Morning Watch/Read/Listen

I hope today finds you well.


Read: I just finished Dennis Lahane's book of short stories and a play called Coronado. I wrote about it briefly before as I was just starting the book. I finished it on Sunday and it was really powerful. For those not familiar with Lehane, he mostly writes crime/mystery type stories that center around a particular place. In his previous books, those places almost become another character, taking on a personality and a mood. Two of his novels have been adapted for the big screen (Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone). This latest book is a return to Lehane's beginnings of short stories. Each of these stories maintain Lehane's well crafted style, centering around some sort of crime while the characters (including the setting, which has become a character) try to deal with and adjust to the crime committed. What I love about Lehane is his ability to take this genre to a much deeper level. Its not a brainless murder mystery (see Da Vince Code, John Gresham, James Patterson [nothing against these books/authors, but they are pretty brainless "who done it" type stories]). Lehane has a great ability to make you love his characters, even feel for those low life monsters. This is well worth the read, and I highly suggest it.


Listen: Cold War Kids "Robbers and Cowards" Again, I wish I had something new here, but I really like this band and have been listening to them non-stop. If you don't have this record, GET IT! I don't want to build it up for you, so I'm just going to talk about one of my favorite songs and why. "Saint John" is found about half way through Cold War Kids' first album. It starts at a medium tempo with a simple bass line and some crashes, tambourines, and cowbells banging in the background. As the drums (simply a bass and snare drum) and vocals come in the for the first verse, I begin to feel the amazingly minimalist effect this song has on me. And just when you get into the groove of the song, the chorus kicks in taking the tempo down by about 5 bpm, just enough to make the vocals groove even more. The thoughtfulness of this transition shows how the Kids new just how to take a listener through a song. As the song progress, the snare fills, cowbells, china and crashes fill in the spaces created by the bass. The vocals are infectious, and the backing vocals add to the almost comic feel of the song. Finally, after a few verse and chorus they add a well time, well arranged piano banging away to melody. This song truly shows their ability to be experimental and different, but while not blazing past most music listeners' patiences. In other words, they know how to write a song that is something different, that makes you think, and all the while it could be played on the radio or to the casual music listener without being over their heads. Truly amazing.

***Edit: I just bought a live CD of theirs titled "Live From Parasido" and it is awesome. Wow. One cover of great 60's RB artist Sam Cooke's "A Change is Going to Come", Saint John (the live version trumps (pun intended, they added trumpets to the live version, soooo good), as well as an older song. It cost me $2.97---> so worth it, stop reading and go buy it on iTunes.


Watch: Carrie and I went to see "Dan in Real Life" this weekend and I really enjoyed it. The movie centers around Dan, who is a self help writer raising three girls alone because his wife passed 4 years earlier. Dan and his girls head back to his parents house for a large family reunion with all of Dan's brothers and sisters. As the movie progresses, we realize that Dan is unhappy and that his family is worried about him. On the encouragement from his mother to "get away," Dan goes to a book shop in town and meets a wonderful, yet mysterious girl named Marie. They talk and hit it off immediately, but when her boyfriend calls, she rushes off before they can set another date. It becomes obvious in the next scene that the girl Dan fell for so quickly is his brother's girlfriend. All sorts of funny situations arise within the plot of this movie, but what stands out is the acting. The performances by Steve Carrel (he really, really can act), Dan's three daughters (for kid actresses, they had some really good scenes) and Marie (Juliette Binoche) are really stand out. Is this moving extremely moving and thought provoking? No. But it is worth $6.75 (matinee fare) on date with your girl or guy to get a good laugh? Absolutely. Also, the sound track featuring Sondre Lerche is awesome.

Let me know in the comments what you agree or disagree with.