The Answer to the previous post

So, I guess both Matt Groening and the creators of the Simpsons along with my friend Tech N9ne both borrowed their music from the same guy, Falco. A former Austrian rock, pop, and rap musician whose few hits included the song below.

*Thanks Mac. Oh, and thanks Beckie and sorry I didn't believe you.

Rock Me Amadeus @ Yahoo! Video

Tech N9ne vs. The Simpsons

I heard this Tech N9ne song recently and the first thing that came to mind was an episode from the Simpsons. The music from Troy McClure's Planet of the Apes musical is eerily similar to a Tech N9ne's song I'm a playa. But who borrowed music from whom? I checked the dates and the Simpsons episode came out in 1996 and the Tech N9ne song "I'm a Playa" in 2002. Did Aaron Dontez Yates aka Tech N9ne really borrow music from a Simpsons musical about Planet of the Apes? You decide.

*Note: The similarities come from the chorus.

Im A Playa - Tech N9NE

Swoon

Can street art be beautiful? Swoon makes the case that it can. Her wheatpaste prints and paper cutouts show a different side of so-called grafitti. Very personal, realistic, and expressive, her art combines realistic representations of people, stark colors and transformations between nature or city and the human form. Read a little about her here and here.

2 Years

2 years ago I married the most incredible woman in the world. Loving, fun, talented, patient, creative, and beautiful. Words don't do justice to what you mean to me. Thank you for everything you have done for me. Thank you for being who you are. I love you so much and always will.

Kathleen Edwards

I don't remember how I came upon Kathleen Edwards. Maybe online, maybe the Orem library. It doesn't really matter. She's the only singer who makes me feel sometimes like I'm missing out on country music. Kathleen isn't quite country and isn't quite alternative. More of a mixture of the two. Beckie and I are addicted and being that she sounds better after every listen, I don't see change coming anytime soon.

In State @ Yahoo! Video

Back To Me @ Yahoo! Video

Inspiration

The paintings of Mark Rothko. Complicated, simple, dark, light, creative, destructive, ugly, and beautiful. The ultimate binary painter. But how can something so seemingly simple on the outside have such an complex impact on the interior of a viewer? Maybe it is because one can find oneself in these paintings and in the interpretations that engulf them. Art is a space for search of identity. And even if you're not looking for your identity, you may find it in a piece of artwork, maybe even in a Rothko.

Terry Porter fired

It's about time.
Next: Steve Kerr. Thanks for ruining our team. But what do you except from a former Spurs player?

Alphaville

I watched Alphaville yesterday. The film by Jean Luc Godard, not the 80's band seen below. The truth is that I can't say much. Science fiction mixed with noir and a semi-love story. Nothing like I've ever seen before. I'll definitely need to see it again so I can grasp some meaning from it. Read about it here, here and read a review here.

Banksy

Pickup on South Street = Noir?

For awhile now, I've really wanted to watch one of Samuel Fuller's movies. Unfortunately, not until this weekend, I had the opportunity to do so. I chose Pickup on South Street because I was in the mood for a noir and heard that this was one of his best. I was optimistic. Most of the components of classic noir where there, the black and white contrasts within the cinematography, morally ambiguous characters, murder, etc. But, in the end the story became unfullfilling and truthfully, barely a noir. Yes, the movie took advantage of several key ingredients of the genre but overall it lacked the grittyness and darkness that noir usually portrays.

The key scenes where Fuller failed to grasp noir in its totality where when Moe (Thelma Riter - Rear Window) was shot in her bed, and the final two scenes (the fight and the resolution). The scene with Moe was too generous. The man who came to kill her let her go ahead and give her last will and testament before shooting her. The traditional noir would have showed its true brutality by not letting her finish and instead ending her life before she could end her plead. The final scenes were dissapointing as well. The "femme fatale", Candy (Jean Peters - Niagra), introduced at the beginning of the film turns out to be the victimized instead of the victimizer. She's too good. The "hero", Skip McCoy (Richard Widmark - Kiss of Death) is the morally ambiguous character at the center of this film. But contrary to noir, he does not end up falling for some "femme fatale" who leads him on to a path of destruction. Instead he falls in love with a woman, who despite her participation in passing along government secrets to the communists, is quite innocent. This whole paradigm of hero/femme fatale that is basic to classic noir is non-existent in Fuller's classic.

Despite all of this, it was still a pretty good movie. Not being a classic noir only impedes it from being just that, a noir. If you want to a see a romance mixed with noir elements and tendencies, then go pick up this movie sometime and enjoy.

To read more on the movie click here and here. Oh, and here as well.

La Policia Mexicana

Latest DI finds

So, those who know me well know that I love going to thrift stores and finding books. It's become kind of an obsession. I go almost weekly. But, being the veteran thrift store shopper that I am, I have patience and know that I'm not going to find something every time. But, despite this, I've had some good luck in my quests. My latest find, an excellent copy of Mario Vargas Llosa's La Casa Verde. It cost me 3$ and since then I haven't been able to find it online for cheaper than 25$. The "unfortunate" side of all of this is that we are running out of room on our bookcases.
Latest DI finds:

1. Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby
2. The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
3. A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby
4. The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
5. La Casa Verde by Mario Vargas Llosa