The One Movie You Should See This Week (3/31/11)

by Andrew Osborne

On paper, my pick for the One Movie You Should See This Week seems like a no-brainer. Hell, just the publicity shots of Ellen Page in a yellow and green superhero suit oughta be enough to seal the deal for Super. Plus, the film (about wannabe superheroes) is the brainchild of James Gunn, the writer and co-star of the charming, low-key superhero comedy The Specials (one of my all-time cult faves). And yet I skipped a chance to see this one at SXSW, and I’ll be skipping it again this week. Why?

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Hayden Childs’ Record Collection: My Morning Jacket to Mystick Crewe of Clearlight

My Morning Jacket – The Tennessee Fire (1999), Does Xmas Fiasco Style (2000), At Dawn (2001), Chocolate And Ice EP (2001), My Morning Jacket/Songs: Ohia Split (2001), It Still Moves (2003), Z (2005), and Okonokos (2006).  Here is an example of a band ruined by their own success.  The first two MMJ albums, Tennessee Fire and At Dawn, are creative and adventurous alt-country.  The EPs from that period are sort of lackluster, though.  It Still Moves, though, heralds an interesting twist: it is as if the band has become bored with their own predictability.

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PetardCast, Episode #13

by Leonard Pierce

Like sands through an hourglass that takes two weeks to work, so go the days of the PetardCast.  Episode #13, which we’re hoping will be merely the most hilarious one yet and not the harbinger of a horrible triskaidekaphobic curse which causes everyone who listens to it to die of liquefied bowel syndrome, is up and ready for your enjoyment.  Why should you spend forty minutes on this audio punchinello?  We’ll tell you why:  more Tit-bits, which are often hilarious.  More Naming Of Parts, which is timely because Charlie Sheen.  More comedic funniness, which always seems to feature me doing a terribly bad foreign accent.  A brand new special guest in the form of Mr. Dennis DiClaudio, author of several fine books and the proprietor of Comedy Central’s Indecision Forever website.  And a skit that involves rival gas companies, which seemingly has no point whatsoever. You will hate yourself forever if you don’t listen to this amazing episode of the PetardCast.

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Amazing Race: I Feel Like a Monkey in a Circus Parade

by Scott Von Doviak

What genius at CBS decided to replace tonight’s episode of The Amazing Race with an hour-long infomercial for Snapple? For many reasons, this was easily the weakest installment of “Unfinished Business” yet, but it’s the rampant product integration that really set my teeth on edge.

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Hayden Childs’ Record Collection: Mushroom to Muslimgauze

Mushroom – Analog Hi-Fi Surprise (1999), Foxy Music (2001), Glazed Popems (2004), Joint Happening (with Eddie Gale, 2007), and Naked, Stoned and Stabbed (2010).  Mushroom is a fine, fine band, mixing jazz, krautrock, electronica, post-rock, and Brit-folk into a heady instrumental stew. Analog Hi-Fi Surprise is the most krautrockish of these albums. Foxy Music has some more jazzy and jammy elements. Glazed Popems wavers between Pentangle-ish Brit-folk and lysergic freakouts. Joint Happening with Sun Ra and Cecil Taylor trumpeter Eddie Gale has an unmistakeable Miles-in-the-70s vibe. Naked sounds like Glazed Popems II up until the Byrdsy final track.  The song titles are often some of the best in the business.

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B-List: Music Has the Right to Chide You

by Leonard Pierce

THINGS YOU CAN DO TO JANIS JOPLIN’S HEART

1. Take it
2. Break it
3. Have it

THINGS IT IS NOT CLEAR WHETHER OR NOT YOU CAN DO TO JANIS JOPLIN’S HEART

1. Shake it
2. Bake it

THINGS YOU CAN’T DO TO JANIS JOPLIN’S HEART

1. Make it start beating again after a fatal heroin overdose

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Survivor: “Their Red-Headed Stepchild”

by Scott Von Doviak

Welcome back to Redemption Island! Carrie is apparently under siege by tornadoes, so I’ll be filling in tonight. Voted out last week, Krista is the latest arrival on Matt Island, and she and her genial host are quick to bond over their mutual religiosity. In fact, Krista’s luxury item turns out to be a pink-bound Bible, which makes me flash back to the very first season of Survivor, in which crusty old Rudy proclaimed that the only reason he’d bring a Bible to a deserted island would be to use it for toilet paper. They don’t make Survivors like Rudy anymore.

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The One Movie You Should See This Week (3/24/11)

by Scott Von Doviak

Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen) has called his latest CGI-riddled action fantasia “Alice in Wonderland with machine guns,” which sounds about right, especially if he’s referring to the retina-damaging, migraine-inducing Tim Burton adaptation of Alice from last year. Sucker Punch concerns a group of attractive young women (including Emily Browning, Jena Malone, and Vanessa Hudgens) attempting to escape a mental institution via an alternate reality made up of whatever their imaginations can conjure. In other words, there are no rules, which I think we can all agree is an ideal scenario for a director with the restraint and understated technique of Zack Snyder.

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Other Shows: Top Shot

by Scott Von Doviak

The History Channel’s foray into the competitive reality genre, Top Shot, hews so closely to the Survivor template, it even pilfered its host from the cast of its venerable predecessor. (That would be Colby Donaldson, dominator of Survivor: The Australian Outback and sad-sack shadow of his former self on the All-Stars and Heroes vs. Villains seasons, but more about him later.) Sixteen contestants are divided into two teams and pitted against each other in group challenges, after which the losing team is forced to eliminate one member.

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Hayden Childs’ Record Collection: Mountain Goats to Mr. T.

The Mountain Goats - Zopilote Machine(1994), Sweden (1995), The Coroner’s Gambit (2000), All Hail West Texas (2002),Tallahassee (2002), We Shall All Be Healed(2004), The Sunset Tree (2005), Get Lonely (2006), Babylon Springs EP (2006),Heretic Pride (2008), and The Life Of The World To Come (2009). I am legally bound to begin by mentioning that John Darnielle, the main – and often, only – Mountain Goat, is one of the best lyricists working today.  He has mastered the art of writing simple songs that rarely overwork their subjects and still manage to pack a gut-punch.

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