Monday, December 31, 2012

2012 In Review: Movies

**** Moonrise Kingdom
*** Frankenweenie
*** Hitchcock
*** Men In Black 3
*** The Dark Knight Rises
*** To Rome With Love
** Dark Shadows
** Skyfall
** The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
** The Pirates! Band of Misfits
* The Three Stooges

2012 In Review: Music

**** AC Newman - Shut Down The Streets
**** Aimee Mann - Charmer
**** Cate Le Bon - Cyrk
**** Corner Laughers, The - Poppy Seeds
**** Hospitality - Hospitality
**** Kooks - Junk of the Heart
**** Raveonettes, The - Observator
**** Scout - All Those Relays
**** Shins, The - Port of Morrow
**** Shonen Knife - Pop Tune
**** dBs, The - Falling Off the Sky
 *** Beach House - Bloom
 *** Bob Mould - Silver Age
 *** Condors, The - 3 Item Combo
 *** Eux Autres - Sun Is Sunk (ep)
 *** Frankie Rose - Interstellar
 *** Garbage - Not Your Kind of People
 *** Imperial Teen - Feel the Sound
 *** Lightning Love - Blonde Album
 *** Metric - Synthetica
 *** Nada Surf - The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy
 *** Paul Weller - Sonik Kicks
 *** School of Seven Bells - Ghostory
 *** Sleigh Bells - Reign of Terror
 *** Soundtrack of Our Lives, The - Throw It To the Universe
 *** World Record, The - Freeway Special
 ** Anne Soldaat - Anne Soldaat
 ** Bruce Springsteen - Wrecking Ball
 ** Field Music - Plumb
 ** Goldfrapp - The Singles
 ** Invisible Cities - Meet the Lampreys
 ** Jeff Lynne - Long Wave
 ** Keene - Strangeland
 ** Peter Buck - Peter Buck
 ** Stag - Chameleons
 ** Susanna Hoffs - Someday
 ** Woods - Bend Beyond
 * Ringo Starr - Ringo

Friday, December 21, 2012

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)**
Some spectacular CGI, particularly Gollum and the Great Goblin, Ian McKellan is in fine form and Martin Freeman makes a proper Bilbo Baggins, but it is far too long, too repetitive and too much of the same mold as The Lord of the Rings you get the feeling you've seen it all before.
Hitchcock (2012)***
Lackluster biopic enlivened by a superb Anthony Hopkins, a strong Helen Mirren (although miscast) and a stunning Scarlett Johansson.

Monday, December 17, 2012

Haywire (2011)****
It's a shame Steven Soderbergh is planning on retiring after his next film or two. No other director I can think of is so good at using unknown or non-actors to such great effect. A tight, action packed, tense, paranoid thriller, much more effective than any Bond picture, or other mega-million franchise. Highly enjoyable.

Thursday, December 06, 2012

SFGate.com: Roman on read option: ‘The result was not the intent of the play call’:
"Still, does he regret calling the play?

“'I’ll just say the result was not the intent of the play call,' Roman said. 'I always look back and say, ‘Did it work. Didn’t it work? Why? Why not?’ And then move on from there.'

"The play, of course, has inspired more scrutiny and criticism than any other call during Roman’s tenure. He agreed it was a hazard of his job."

Hmm...seems like whenever there was an unusual play called when Mike Martz was OC, it was due to his massive ego only. No mention of the word "ego" in this article. Perhaps Martz is one of the few OC's or head coaches in the NFL to possess such a thing?