It is now officially the week of Coldplay. I knew the album would be huge but it has seriously done better than anybody's expectations, and the week is not even over yet. It will for sure be the Sex & the City of the summer. Everyone is expecting it to do well, but this is just craziness. I think it might end up being the biggest debut at Amoeba ever. However, the most exciting release of the week for me would have to be the new Joy Division Documentary. Control really left me wanting more Joy Division in my life, and now I can finally have it.

There has not really been a good Joy Division documentary yet-- a least not one that I have seen-- so it is nice to finally have one on DVD. I just got the DVD yesterday but I have not had a chance to watch it yet, so I can't exactly talk all that much about it, but it is "Fantastic" according to Russ Fischer from Chud.com. This is the quote on the back of the DVD. I really hate quotes on the packaging of DVDs. At least CDS usually have little quotes on stickers on the outside of the plastic. I know they are great marketing tools but it really ruins the artwork. I should be happy at least they put the quote on the back of the DVD. I would think that they could get a quote from somebody more well known than chud.com... but I guess not. I had not really heard of chud.com, so this quote did not influence me to buy the dvd but it did make me check out their website. I might now be a fan of chud.com. I had been looking for some other movie blogs to check out and I think I might have found one. C.H.U.D. stands for Cinematic Happenings Under Development. It seems to be a website/blog for comic book and sci-fi/horror nerds, but I will have to do some more investigation. I do believe them though. I bet the DVD is fantastic. It includes the documentary with all the surviving members of Joy Division and also 75 minutes of additional interviews.

This is the big week that we have all been waiting for. No, I am not talking about the new Coldplay. The world must wait one more week for the album destined to be the biggest album of the year. I am still not sure how Coldplay became as big as they are. I really remember selling the import of their first album almost 10 years ago, back when nobody knew who they were. Now they are the biggest thing ever. I really don't think Coldplay needs much help in selling records. But iTunes has partnered with Coldplay and plays the commercial with the new single about 100 times per day. I have gotten a little sick of the Coldplay...but for some reason I like their new song. I guess it is the power of Apple. I had resisted getting a Mac for so long but am now so happy to finally have one. I guess they somehow got a hold of me. I guess I am not as strong as I thought I was. I was always strong enough to resist commercials and advertising in the past, but I guess I just gave in.

So what is really out this week is the new album from My Morning Jacket. It is called Evil Urges. I know that I have talked about My Morning Jacket a lot lately --at least I feel like I have. Some of those conversations have for sure been in my head, but I know I have also mentioned them on my blog a couple of times. I had held out for a while on My Morning Jacket as well. They got their start back in 1998 and it seems to have taken me almost 10 years to get into them. It took that little movie called I'm Not There to finally bring me around to falling in love with My Morning Jacket. I have slowly given time to each of their four albums and fallen in love with all of them.

Control is finally out on DVD this week! However there is no Blu-ray. This just might have been the movie to push me over the edge and buy a Blu-ray player. I still am not completely sure what a film looks like on Blu-ray since I have yet to see one, but I imagine that this film would look amazing in high definition. It seems like it was out in theater like forever ago, but I guess it was only last November. The film was scheduled to come out a month or 2 ago but was pushed back until this week. I am really excited-- as excited as I can be about one of the most depressing films that I have ever seen. If you are in the mood for another depressing movie you should also check out The Bridge. I had been wanting to watch this movie ever since it hit the theater last year, but I just could not bring myself to watch it until recently. I normally love intense and disturbing documentaries, but this one was especially hard for me to watch. The movie is about people who have committed suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Maybe it was hard to watch because I love that bridge so much. I guess this is sort of selfish, but I have spent many days walking across it and I just didn't want to associate it with death. I will for sure not feel the same next time I cross the bridge.

At least you know what you are getting with the Joy Division movie. You know how it ends. And if you are a fan of the music then you know how the music can affect you. Joy Division is a very unique band for its fans. Many of us didn't even start listening to the band until after Ian Curtis killed himself. I was still too young to be listening to anything but Sesame Street and Mickey Mouse Club records when Ian Curtis took his own life, so I never had that period of enjoying the band while he was still alive. At least with bands like Nirvana there was a significant period when Kurt Cobain was still alive for his fans to still enjoy him. So Joy Division is always associated with death in my mind. I always can hear his depression and confusion in all of his songs, but for some reason I can completely disassociate New Order from that feeling, maybe because they ended up sounding so different.

If you did not have a time to watch this movie in the theater. Now is the time. Just get it over with it. I guarantee that you will like this film if you like Joy Division even a little bit. The film is shot so beautifully that you could even appreciate it without liking the movie. I was a bit worried about the movie since I knew it was based on the book by the wife of Ian Curtis. Deborah Curtis consulted on the film so I really worried that the film would not be completely accurate in regards to the relationship between Ian and his wife. While I am sure that it is not really completely accurate, the film does not exactly portray Deborah Curtis as a saint. I tend to always side with the female character in movies, but this was not the case in Control. The movie really made you side with Ian and feel bad for him. I really just wanted to jump into the movie at certain points and tell him that it was going to be OK. We all have had our own relationship problems. Of course, it becomes a bit more serious when you throw marriage, kids, fame, drugs, and epilepsy into the mix. While the movie ends like you would expect with his suicide, I was surprised at how they portrayed his final moments with his wife. It almost seems like it was her fault and as if it could have been avoided...but even if she had acted differently in these final situations, it also seems like he would have eventually killed himself regardless.

The film is cast perfectly. Sam Riley is absolutely amazing as Ian Curtis. He seriously amazed me by how fantastic he was in this film. The whole film just looks like one continuous amazing black and white photograph. They managed to find four guys that looked very similar to the actual guys in Joy Division, if not a bit more attractive and movie-like. The film somehow captures the feeling of a Joy Division song. It seriously gave me shivers as I was watching it. I ended up forgetting that this was a cast of actors and not the actual people.

Cyndi Lauper was right up there along with Madonna and Prince back in the 80's. They were for sure my first favorite artists that I obsessed over. And I was not alone. I blame it on MTV, but you have to give them credit for creating millions of fans out of these sort of weird artists. Somebody who looked like Prince or Cyndi Lauper would never make it on American Idol today. They would be included in the group of contestants who never make it, that everyone laughs at. I know it was a different time back then, but it still is amazing how popular music has became so boring and basic. I try to stay away from American Idol. I just avoid it because I know it will make me mad, but I happened to catch the last 15 minutes of the finale last week. The contestants are always the same. They have decent enough voices but they never have any style or substance to them. They are just exact replicas of the contestants of seasons before them. They have the rocker dudes, the high school musical showtunes people. The boring R&B singers. I would really love to see somebody like Cyndi Lauper on that show-- somebody totally crazy and unique. I don't think it will probably happen. The mainstream music fan has become complacent with boring music and is just not interested in anything a bit weird. Where is the next Cyndi Lauper? Will there every be another Morrissey or Robert Smith? Another Marilyn Manson? Where are the weirdos? The 80s really was all about the rise of the freak and weirdo. It is really amazing Cyndi Lauper became as popular as she did. She was like nothing before her. The songs were pure perfect pop and she had one of those unique brilliant voices. Anybody who was a bit weird themselves was drawn to her. They identified with her for being an outcast and weirdo, but then she became one of the most popular and recognizable singers of the 80s.

Cyndi Lauper is one of those artists that just makes me happy anytime I think about her. I smile whenever I think of her in the "We Are The World" video or in the video for "The Goonies 'R' Good Enough." I hate to imagine my life without her. How could I have got through the 80s without "Time After Time,"  "She Bop," "Change of Heart," and "When You Were Mine?" I remember being excited whenever I heard her on the radio or TV. The 80s would have certainly not been as interesting and fun without her. Maybe Cyndi should have her own reality show. It could be the search for the next Cyndi Lauper or the search for the next weirdo. Cyndi does have a new album out this week as well. Her album from a couple years ago was a pop vocals standards sort of album. This is nothing like that. It goes more back to what you might expect from her. The album is very dancey and very gay friendly. She still manages to make some super fun songs. Not sure I will be listening to it very much more, but I still love her and will most likely be seeing her in concert again when she brings her gay positive True Colors Tour to town.

Maybe you have been wondering why everyone is talking about Square Pegs lately. It is not just because Sarah Jessica Parker and the rest of the ladies are returning to Sex & the City next weekend. It is because the day has finally come for the release of Square Pegs on DVD! Please try to calm down. I have had a couple of months to deal with this already so I am somewhat more calm then I was when I first found out about it.  I do understand if you freaking out right now. Not since the first season of 21 Jumpstreet came out on DVD have I been so excited.  It is nice that this DVD release will coincide with the Sex & the City movie hitting the theaters next weekend. You have a whole week now to catch up and watch the entire season of the 80s show. This DVD release is not just the first season, but the whole series. For some strange reason Square Pegs only lasted one season. I am hoping that some of the bonus features on the DVD will help explain why this show only lasted one season. There are rumors that drug use somehow played a part in this show's short run. But it is true that some of the best shows only last one or 2 years. Same thing happened with Twin Peaks, My So Called Life, and Freaks and Geeks. Those just happen to be 3 of my favorite shows. Maybe those shows would not have been as good if they had lasted longer, or they at least may not have held such a special place in our heart if they hadn't been as short as they were. At least Square Pegs can finally join these other shows on DVD. I don't think shows like Freaks and Geeks and My So Called Life would have ever existed if not for a show like Square Pegs. It was for sure the first of its kind. It was the show for those of us that would later be obsessed with the John Hughes movies like Pretty in Pink and The Breakfast Club. The show may have even influenced John Hughes. It came a couple years before all those movies started to come out. It was a show for new wave nerds and people that didn't always fit in with everybody else in High School.