Amoeblog

The Darjeeling Limited

Style Over Substance
I must be in an overly cynical mood today.  Regardless, I just finished watching Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited, which has recently come out on DVD.



This movie is yet another suitably quirky Anderson film.  I'm all for directors who put their stamp on their pictures, especially when it's to the degree where you can tell who made it just by looking at a brief clip.  I'm also all for characters that are idiosyncratic and different.  What I'm trying to say is, I really do like Wes Anderson, perhaps mostly because he doesn't make Julia Roberts movies.  Ever.  He has his own voice, and I applaud that.

That said, this movie was all style, no substance, which is what his movies sometimes can be, at their worst.

The Darjeeling Limited is built around a wonderful, interesting concept:  Three adult American brothers unite in India to reconnect.  The brothers are, of course, suitably quirky to the nth degree.  They are played by Owen Wilson (Francis), Adrian Brody (Peter) and Jason Schwartzman (Jack).  These oddball brothers are wealthy enough to stay endlessly at gorgeous Parisian hotels, tear up their return tickets from India and carry an Ipod with a speaker dock all through their Indian trip by train/bus/bike/etc, but they are duly pained by their father's death and their mother's negligence.  It was difficult for me to invest myself in their story-- they come off as exceedingly self absorbed, and while that may have worked for Margot Tenenbaum (in Anderson's highly enjoyable The Royal Tenenbaums), she was not filmed interacting with locals throughout third world India-- rather, she appeared in her natural environment of upper class New York City.  The characters here seemed to have permanently down turned, achingly sad eyes, overly glorified by many closeups and slow pans.  Oh, the pain of great wealth and great luggage!

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Posted by Miss Ess on March 21, 2008 at 08:37pm | Comments (1)

Chris Matthews and Ellen DeGeneres

Dirty Dancing
I've always been a bigger fan of daytime TV than I perhaps care to admit.  I've been sick this year already more than any other time in my life, providing me with ample time to take in what's up on television during the daytime hours. 

The more I watch Ellen the more I actually like it.  It's sweet in a non sappy way, tough to pull off on daytime TV. Maybe I am getting old and soft, but I enjoy all the dancing on her show. It's energetic, it's fun, it's spirited, it's all-inclusive.

But I was completely horrified yesterday by this moment between Chris Matthews of Hard Ball and unsuspecting Ellen DeGeneres:



Wow.  Just thought I'd let you all in on what you are missing out on in daytime television.
Posted by Miss Ess on March 20, 2008 at 04:23pm | Post a Comment

Oh Ok, It's True, It's True

How Sassy Changed My Life
Growing up, my best friend and I were obsessed with reading.  We would spend time together whiling away the summer in the hammock in her yard, voraciously reading through any books that came our way.  My best friend's sister was 5 years older than us.  Although she was basically nerdy too, she was, by age association alone, more advanced and thus cooler than us.  It was through her that I discovered Sassy Magazine at the age of 11.

When I think about the major influences on my life, the bits that I've clung to and that have truly created and informed who I am today, the first thing I think of is The Beatles and the second is SassySassy was utterly unique-- a teen girl's magazine that addressed feminism, individuality and intelligence.  Sassy gave voice to ideas I was too young to communicate and also acquainted me with relevant topics I had never read about before.  It bolstered my already- formed beliefs in honesty and creativity, and it gave me a sense of self-esteem in those dreaded middle school years.  It showed me there was a world outside of my preppy high school-- a world where there was more going on than wearing Gap Jeans and driving a Mercedes.

It was written by a small group of young women (and a few men) in their early and mid 20s who had clearly made it out of adolescence and had, in my eyes, made something of themselves.  They embraced the high and the low culturally and taught me to look with an even keener critical eye at popular culture.  They seemed to have complete freedom in their lives and spent their days, as I imagined it, meeting stars and adequately tearing them down or flirting with them, listening to music, gossiping amongst themselves and of course, writing.

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Posted by Miss Ess on March 19, 2008 at 04:43pm | Comments (1)

Raconteurs Album in ONE week!




Yes, it's true!  Our silent prayers have been answered and The Raconteurs will release a brand new album on Tuesday, March 25 called Consolers of the Lonely

Apparently Jack White didn't want anyone to get a hold of the new tracks and leak them to the internet, thus the sped up announcement/release date, and I'm all for that.  What a fantastic surprise! 

There's even going to be a YouTube video for the first single, 'Salute Your Solution' on the 25th.  I am loving this! 

And, excitement of all excitements, there's even already a tour date in my own fair city of San Francisco!  Here are all the dates:

04-20 Vancouver, British Columbia - Commodore Ballroom
04-21 Seattle, WA - Neumo's
04-22 Portland, OR - Wonder Ballroom
04-23 San Francisco, CA - Bimbo's 365 Club
04-25 Indio, CA - Coachella
04-26 Las Vegas, NV - The Joint
04-28 Denver, CO - The Fillmore Auditorium
04-29 Kansas City, MO - Uptown Theatre
05-01 Dallas, TX - House of Blues
05-02 Austin, TX - Stubb's BBQ
05-04 New Orleans, LA - New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival
06-13 Manchester, TN - Bonnaroo
06-26 Arendal, Norway - Hove Festival
07-12 Kinross, Scotland - T in the Park
07-13 Naas, Ireland - Oxegen Festival
Posted by Miss Ess on March 18, 2008 at 11:08am | Post a Comment

The Employee Interview Part XVII

Andrew Lux
Andrew Lux
3 years employment
Man About Amoeba



ME: So, what brought you to Amoeba?  How did you end up working here?

AL: I've wanted to work at Amoeba ever since it opened. It's basically been my dream job forever. I remember in high school my girlfriend at the time would have to drag me out of the store. Umm... but yeah, I got the job here cause somehow one of my good friends, Jessica, was working at Amoeba, and I had told her about how I love the store, and I really needed a job because I had just gotten kicked off disability, so Jessica called me on the day someone got fired. So I ran down to the store and filled out an application and met one of the managers and next thing I know I'm being interviewed and I'm behind the counter-- crazy right?

ME: Timing is everything!  Ah, I didn't know you and Jessica were friends before you worked here!  Cool.  So what song describes your life perfectly right now?

AL: Man that's a hard one... Umm "Interesting Results" by Ariel Pink cause I have been writing a lot of songs, or trying to at least, and that song really sums up the creative process. Now I just need to think about what song out there deals with buying a new computer... hmm...

Ah yes, my good
friend Ariel Pink!  If you could trade places with any musician, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

Posted by Miss Ess on March 13, 2008 at 02:54pm | Post a Comment
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