Wilco fans! Much like they did with their last album, Wilco has put the entirety of their upcoming album The Whole Love up on their website streaming for free. It will only be up until noon tomorrow, so make sure to check it out while you can. Also, they provide a link to preorder from their site, if’n that’s your thing.
The Whole Love.
Hey everyone, as promised I’m here bright and early to dust off the registers, draw the blinds up, flip that “CLOSED” sign over and officially declare this Friday post officially open for business.
Truth be told, I’m not actually selling anything, but I suddenly like the idea of “the glass city blog” being some sort of convenience store of the future in which everything is free and somehow related to box office predictions.
BOX OFFICE PREDICTIONS:
Jesus, that is one ramshackle list and I want you to know right now that I take no credit for how inaccurate it will be, unless of course it’s spot on the money, somehow. “Year One” has been getting an indecent amount of exposure lately, and it seems like a pretty sure bet for the #1 spot. “The Proposal” is that Russian date movie I was talking about on Monday, and considering that there are literally no other date movies out right now (with the exception of whatever “My Life in Ruins” is, and the new zombie Nazi thriller “Dead Snow”) I’m betting that it’ll rank like, #2 I guess, but surely in the top 5 somewhere.
I wasn't joking about that zombie Nazi movie.
Indeed, “Whatever Works” does get released this week on some unannounced amount of screens and if it happens to be playing anywhere around here I might try and catch it, although I am rather tempted to just wait until it goes to the $2 theater by my house. I know, I know, Woody Allen + Larry David in a “dark comedy” originally written in the 60’s for Zero Mostel seems like it all adds up, but Woody hasn’t made a descent comedy since “Small Time Crooks” which was almost a decade ago. And, I actually went to the theater for both “Anything Else” and “Melinda & Melinda”, so I have every right to be wary. On the other hand, he’s been on a sort of roll lately with “Matchpoint”, “Cassandra’s Dream”, and “Vicky Christina Barcelona”. Now, if only any of those were comedies…
I’ve recently uncovered a ridiculous plethora of rare Jeff Tweedy/Wilco tracks that’s kind of blown my mind an overwhelmed me, lately. I should explain that I’ve been on a bit of a Wilco kick lately after hearing their new album (which streets ON A WEEK FROM TUESDAY), “Wilco (the album)” so at some point this week I decided to finally complete my Wilco collection in the same way that I spent ridiculous hours searching for every single song that Uematsu or Bob Dylan or The Decemberists ever had anything to do with. This approach has always been trouble for me, as it becomes a never-ending project that consumes my entire life. At least with Wilco, so far, it’s paid off rather well. I ended up downloading a 60 track collection of every song of theirs that’s ever been featured on a CD single anywhere, and there are some pretty astonishing gems in there including American Folk Music Festival tributes, acoustic live duets with Jay Bennett, demo tracks from early albums like “A.M.” and “Being There”, and a song that the band did immediately after the break with Uncle Tupelo that was their demo to get them signed as a new band. It’s all very intense, but it doesn’t stop there. I also realized that they released a few EPs overseas that no one apparently knows about, so I had to track those down as well. On top of all that, there was an entirely separate 18 track demo album for “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” aside from the 21 track demo album that already exists. And one for “Summerteeth”, too. And “Mermaid Avenue”. Goddam. The good news, though, is that (aside from “Summerteeth’s promotional CD single being titled “Summerteeth and Sum Aren’t”) it seems like minus about a half dozen individual songs, I’m about done with all this (which is about what I could say for the aforementioned other artists’ collections as well). I fully realize that only maybe 3 of you out there reading this might be vaguely interested in any of this, but TO THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE, let me know because I’d be more than glad to share these extremely organized and good quality rare tracks with you. Congratulations, you brave, brave three!
The camel's name is Alfred, by the way.
Along those lines, I get to follow along this musically inspired route this weekend where I’ll be playing a solo live show in Rock Cut State Park. It’s part of a mini-tour which I’ve entitled “Woodland Tales & Domestic Ales”. Not really. Anyway, I haven’t quite figured out the tracklist, but I think I’m being paid in appreciation, so, it doesn’t really matter I suppose. So any of you who haven’t bought tickets don’t worry, they’ll be on sale at the event pretty cheap and there are still some seats available. See your local vendor for details? The venue actually seems rather rustic, so my phone might not even work there and I won’t even be able to hook you up unless you get at me ahead of time.
On a related note, have you seen these commercials for the crazy special one-hour Jon & Kate plus 8? Neither have I, but apparently the media everywhere has been holding their collective breath to see what on earth this special episode that promises a “big announcement” could possibly be. Yeah. I’m hoping for some sort of crossover, like with George Lopez or something (like they did on “Freddy”). Maybe the announcement is that there is A SURPRISE MUSICAL GUEST like U2 or Susan Boyle or something. Boy, that’s gonna be one hell of a show.
The truth is out there.
OK, well that’s it for now. I’ll see you all Monday with the recap.
Typically I don’t go too far out of my way to judge an entire movie before its release, but I’ve actually paid the price of seeing “The DaVinci Code” and have taken the time to read the complete synopsis of the “Angels & Demons” book, so I feel I’m more or less justified in saying fuck this movie. Spoilers in the next two paragraphs, box office predictions to follow.
I guess when Ron Howard and Columbia heard that Dan Brown had written a prequel to their blockbuster hit, they held an immediate board meeting. “Let us make this prequel movie!” someone at Columbia declared. “Wait, wait, but what if we make it a sequel instead?” Ron Howard asks with a sly smile on his mug. “Why on earth would we do that, Mr. Howard?” the confused old gentleman asks. “Why not? I mean, have you read the book? There’s nothing in there that makes it inherently prequel-ish aside from not acknowledging anything that happens in the DaVinci Code. Plus, Tom Hanks ages a much higher rate than any other living actor. I mean, don’t you remember him in ‘The Terminal’? That was only a couple years ago!” Howard replies. “Hm… what’s this one about again?” another board member asks. Howard takes a sip of his daiquiri and scribbles a word on the piece of paper. The board waits in comic anticipation until Howard caps his pen and holds up the piece of paper. “Antimatter? Sold.”
Works in movies, too
Seriously. What happens in this movie is that Tom Hanks discovers that the pope has been murdered by someone who is threatening to blow up Vatican City with a toothpaste tube full of antimatter. Good thing he has this camerlengo (which is like a cardinal but the catch is that he can never become pope… wait a minute… I see where this is going) Ewan McGregor to help him find the culprit. After the guy who killed the pope ritualistically kills four other cardinals (mysteriously labeling each with an ancient Greek element like fire or air or water or Hercules), Tom Hanks eventually finds out (via Illuminati!) that Ewan McGregor was behind the whole thing to convince everyone that science is indeed evil and that if all these cardinals are dead and he helped Hanks save the religion, he should become pope by the rule of he is awesome. I suppose in the movie the entire special effects budget will be wasted on candid shots of whatever Howard thinks antimatter looks like, and naturally the antimatter exploding in the sky over Vatican city while Hanks makes a make shift parachute out of glass and jumps out of a helicopter (yeah, that’s actually the climax of the book).
I guess it actually seems rather tame in comparison to the pseudo-controversy aroused in Howard’s first Dan Brown adaptation, but it’s still the same old half-assed attempt to bank in on conspiracy theories that aren’t particularly well written or based in any solid, relatable fact. I guess it should be like “The DaVinci Code” but half as exciting. Hoorah! What’s really sad that is much like “The DaVinci Code”, Catholics and hardcore Christians are probably gonna take offense at this movie, wrongly claiming that it’s anti-religion instead of rightly denouncing it for being anti-film. Thankfully, Columbia has commissioned Brown to write a third installment (seriously Dan, what have you been doing all this time?) which should be due out next year. So, if you go see “Angels & Demons”, just try to remember that while you’re sitting through every agonizing moment.
To the rescue!
Predictions:
I know, I know, what the hell is “Management”, but I guess it’s a romantic comedy with Jennifer Aniston and Steve Zahn, which I assume will beat a two-week old McConaughey. We’ll see.
Wilco’s new album “Wilco (The Album)” is available to stream free off of their website, and I highly recommend you do just that. I had the opportunity to check it out yesterday, and overall I’ll probably put it on par with “Sky Blue Sky”, not only in terms of style, but in quality of songs. “Wilco (The Song)”, “You Know”, “I’ll Fight”, and “Sunny Feeling” have a very “Being There” feel to them, which is needless to say great. “Deeper Down” and “Bull Black Nova” trend more to the “Ghost is Born” style, which isn’t necessarily bad, but take more than a few listens to accept. The big surprise, at least for me, on the album was Feist’s performance duetting with Tweedy for “You and I”, which is unexpectedly subtle and stirring. Not gonna make me run out and listen to Feist, but her style easily worked for the song. “One Wing”, “Country Disappeared” and “Everlasting Everything” are songs I would categorize as being new Wilco, meaning that they are more or less incomparable to earlier albums with the possible exception of “Sky Blue Sky”, and are oddly my favorite tracks to listen to so far. I mean, it’s Wilco, so I’m gonna buy the album when it comes out June 30th, but I recommend you all check it out anyway. Click here if that sounds like you’re kinda thing.
Also, can you guys think of a worse insect or bug than the domestic cockroach? If so, let me know!
Looking up images of actual cockroaches is terrible.
See you guys after the weekend.
The Glass City 