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My column last month was to be about the lovely Irish film, Once, but the insightful Miles David Moore wrote a piece about this very film and made my take on the subject an afterthought. I will say this... it is an amazing film by director John Carney, made on a shoestring budget, and it features two musicians, Glen Hansard (of the Irish rock/alternative/indie band The Frames) and Markéta Irglová (of The Swell Season, her collaboration with Hansard).Once is about love and it is about music and it leaves sweet melancholy sounds in your mind that will linger for days.
There are films and music and television programs that inform or celebrate the artist, but there is also pure fun entertainment. When the sun shines bright every morning and the air is hot and the neighbors' kids are barking, all I want to do is play. What better way to celebrate the silly side of summer in the US of A, full of bloated blockbuster big-budget movies, fireworks, water parks, barbecues and drunken patriotism, than to talk about the boob tube? After playing at the beach all day or frolicking with my dog in the dog park, all I want to do is plop down on my couch in my oven-like apartment and burn a few hours watching some diversion. So here's my playlist from the last couple of weeks. And oh-is-there-ever a warm place in my heart for my Direct TV version of TiVo.
It may not be high Art, but it's highly entertaining.
I was recently gifted the entire series on DVD of Wonder Woman starring Lynda Carter. Watch Wonder Woman/Diana Prince as she fights Nazis, evil geniuses, and aliens while flying an invisible jet, looking smokin' hot, and giving Steve Trevor (played by the equally hot Lyle Waggoner) some morning wood. It's so bad, it's good. Or maybe it's just me and my love for feminist expression no matter how fluffy it may be. Power to the woman!
The new HBO series, Flight of the Conchords, premiered June 24 and it's an offbeat musical comedy. It stars Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie, two actors from New Zealand who created their duo in order to "improve their guitar skills". They have toured in the USA, Europe and Australia, won numerous comedy awards, created a BBC radio series, and released an album. The HBO series is just the latest forum for their unique view of music and life. They are pathetic and hysterical and the rock gods of geekdom.
Reality TV has taken over the airwaves and while I try to avoid most of them, I cannot resist nor deny my guilty pleasure... So You Think you Can Dance on the Fox network. Young dancers partnered up to perform every popular dance style you can imagine. They also get to do solos. There is a panel of judges that give their opinions, viewers get to vote, and a boy and a girl are eliminated each week. The last dancer standing wins $100,000 USD and a bunch of other stuff I'm not sure about nor do I care. I don't vote, I only like to watch. I love dance and there is no faking technique. Plus, most of the dancers are short and I like little people.
HBO's Entourage is currently running new episodes. There is something missing this season, probably the spark that comes with newness, but since I live in Los Angeles, it's always amusing to watch Hollywood be parodied. Re-runs of The Simpsons are classic, especially when I can fast-forward through the commercials and save 8-10 minutes to squander on another episode rather than ads for indigestion medicine or the new Lexus. And I cannot escape an occasional Oprah. She caters to my girlie side when she features new beauty products and clothing and she makes writers into bestsellers through her Oprah's Book Club.
Novelists don't make it onto Oprah watching too much TV. But it's my summer, damn it! All work and no play makes me a cranky mean girl with no pop culture references. And Charlie Rose isn't going anywhere.
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