goodbye, netflix dvd.
Today, I unsubscribed from the dvd/Blu-ray side of Netflix. I’ll keep the streaming side, but gone will be the days of getting that briefly iconic red envelope in the mail. I know I’m one of the dinosaurs, part of a quickly shrinking number of folks who still subscribed. Still, a big part of me is sad to leave.
the legendary roots crew.
The Roots just came to Seattle, playing two nights at The Showbox at the Market. Fortunately for me, Emily got me tickets for Christmas. It was an amazing three hour show. The encore alone included a 30something minute long medley that featured Roots songs and covers (from Guns & Roses to Led Zeppelin), and during which the band expended more energy than any other band I’ve seen does in their entire set. Here are three impressions I came away with after the show. It’s just the tip of the iceberg, but I imagine no one really wants to read 3000 words of my thoughts about the show.
1. ?uestlove is a genius.
I love The Roots. I think that even with, or perhaps because of, all their popularity as Fallon’s band, they are a wildly under-appreciated and underrated band. During their concerts, they take the whole thing to a new level.
The engine/heart/curator/director/producer/brain behind it all is ?uestlove. He is a remarkable bandleader, which is why they are such a skilled and contagiously fun live act. Yet, his direction is always subtle. He is constantly creating contexts for other people to shine. He never leads the band by shouting or making big gestures to make sure everyone knows who is in charge, but simply has a second microphone at his kit that only feeds to the rest of the band and to the folks controlling the levels. Through this he refines each moment of the performance, keeping the band on point, and directing the sound board based on the main feed he gets through his headphones.
It’s hard to find anything more fun than a Roots show, and ?uestlove is the primary reason for that.
2. The Roots Are the Happiest Band on Earth Continue Reading →
bojack horseman.
I don’t know about everyone else, but I love BoJack Horseman. A Netflix original about a horse-man who was a huge tv star on a shitty family sitcom in the 90’s, who now spends his time attempting to distract himself from his own self-loathing. Will Arnett voices BoJack, along with a cast that also includes Alison Brie, Amy Sedaris, Aaron Paul, Paul F. Tompkins, Kristen Schaal, Patton Oswalt, and Stanley Tucci.
The show is clever, funny, and the stacked voice cast is as solid as one would expect. Like the many animal-human hybrids, the show is half witty irreverent cartoon for adults, and half smart, droll, bleak HBO comedy.
Also, I think the opening credits are up there with Mad Men and True Detective.
the lunchbox.
Two lonely people are connected and begin an epistolary relationship after the uncannily errorless dabbawala lunch transport system in Mumbai begins mixing up two lunch boxes. What follows is a charmingly told story of how beauty can find us in our isolation and despair, leading to kindness, connection, desire and hope.
I have much more to write, but it’s spoiler heavy so I’ll put it below the trailer for you read if you’ve seen the movie or don’t care about knowing what happens in the end.
kendrick on colbert.
Snoop says Kendrick is the leader of West Coast rap today. That seems pretty obvious, who is the other contender? Macklemore? Let me tell you right now, as a white man, if another white man is ever widely considered the ‘leader’ of any school of rap or Hip Hop, just shoot me in the face.
Seriously though, Kendrick Lamar isn’t just the leader of West Coast rap, he may be the greatest act that West Coast rap has ever produced. Especially because J5 sounds way more influenced by East Coast Hip Hop than any West Coast sound. Kendrick takes that gangsta sound and brings it to another level. I saw him open for Kanye here in Seattle and he killed it. Absolutely killed it. A short man in a hoodie in Key Arena with no fanfare outside of a live band and he controlled the entire arena.
I already respected him as much as any other working emcee. Then he shut down the musical side of the Colbert Report this week… dude had another gear we didn’t know about and it was on display.
Listen up, losers. The future is now. This isn’t the guy we need running West Coast rap, this is the guy we need running all of Hip Hop.
the intouchables.
Based on a true story, this film is just downright joyful. A heartening story of friendship, a bromance if you will, it is obviously sentimental, but it never felt ham-fisted or needlessly syrupy to me.
Omar Sy and François Cluzet are so fun to watch. Each brought to the screen a genuine sense of how much these two friends delight in each other, while still adding depth and gravitas to what could easily have devolved into the French equivalent of a Hallmark movie. Sy especially is so utterly charming that his glee is contagious.
The stories that stay with me the most are the ones that inspire me to live better than I do. This one helped me see how afraid I am of my need for others when I’m honest about it, and in doing so it also made me want more from my life and myself.
locke & key.
Joe Hill (second child of Stephen King) writes the sort of horror I enjoy, the kind that uses the scary and macabre to tell a story instead of just attempting to manipulate certain reactions and emotions for the hell of it. Too much horror wants nothing more than to scare or disturb people for a moment, which isn’t really that hard to do. There are versions of that cheap sort of manipulation in every genre and medium, but the better storytellers transcend that and use the tropes of their genre or medium as a palette to paint a larger, more engaging picture.
In Locke & Key Hill does exactly that, teaming up with artist Gabriel Rodriguez to create a truly fantastic series of comics. The story follows the Locke family, who after a grisly tragedy retreat to an ancestral home in New England. The three children of the family begin finding keys around the house, each unlocking its own remarkable power.
At first the magical keys are as fun as they sound, but it soon becomes clear that there are much darker things at play within Keyhouse, and that the Locke children will be tasked with stopping an evil presence from obtaining the Omega Key while also trying to put their lives back together and prepare for adulthood in the wake of ongoing trauma.
That’s as much as I can say without spoiling anything, but you should definitely check this title out. They’re all in trade paperbacks
Random warning: don’t let the fact that minors are the focal point of the story fool you. These are very dark, violent books intended for mature readers.
And for those who want to check out Joe Hill but aren’t willing to give graphic novels a try, 20th Century Ghosts
