sports: As I am writing this the first couple of college football games of the year have already come and gone on Thursday night. It is time to look forward to the rest of the season and what it should have to offer us. It is totally insane to think that anyone could cover all of college football in one article, and I have no intention of trying. So I am going to just stick to some of what I think are the most exciting, interesting, and important points.
And what better place to start than some of the marquee match-ups of opening weekend. Probably the two biggest games of the first weekend of college football are Michigan vs. Alabama at the billion dollar funhouse in Dallas and Boise St. on the road playing Michigan St. The Michigan Alabama game is the bigger of the two match-ups, with two top ten non-conference teams playing each other to start the season. Alabama comes into the game as a perennial National Championship contender. Though they would still be considered one of the best teams in the country, their tough opening week game will show if that is going to remain true this year. Alabama lost a lot of their dominant defense from last year to the draft as well as their Heisman finalist running back Trent Richardson. For the first time under Nick Saban the question of whether their defense will be good or great does exist. Also for the first time under Saban their best offensive player will be their quarterback, pocket passing A.J. McCarron. How the Crimson Tide will do without a dominant runner will be something to watch. As far as their opponent goes. Michigan is coming into this game, and the season, on a mission to restore the program to prominence. Coach Brady Hoke has turned the program around admirably from the debacle of the Rich Rodriguez era. The defense is tough, and they arguably have the most dynamic player in college football in Denard Robinson. For Michigan to take that next step from top ten team to title contender, Robinson will have to prove that his dual threat game is more than just excitement, that it is also a winning game. In this opening week game we should see just how much both teams have to offer. Michigan has not faced a team in the past couple of years with the pedigree of an Alabama. And Alabama has never faced someone as dynamic as Robinson. Whoever handles who better should tell us who is a true contender going forward.
The other big game of the opening weekend, Boise St. vs Michigan St. is the story of two teams looking to prove they still belong. The Broncos have now graduated most of the players that are part of the winningest class of college football. They are going to be looking to prove that they still belong amongst the elite programs in college football and weren't just a byproduct of getting some great players. Michigan St. is looking to do the same after having lost their career passing leader, Kirk Cousins, to the NFL draft. While the Spartan's defense should be as tough and physical as ever, that everlasting chip on the Bronco's shoulders will be tough to deal with. This game ultimately comes down to finding out who belongs. In a tough Big Ten where teams are sure to beat each other from time to time the Spartans are looking to show that they are still among the conferences best. And if they win they will have shown they can be that. If the Broncos win, they will have all but solidified themselves as a true program and the only true chaos team, now that TCU has moved to the Big 12.
Having more or less microscoped these two games as part of the bigger picture it is now time to take a look around the country in a broader sense. Lets start with a conference hilighted in one of these two match-ups, and certainly the best in the country recently, the SEC. Although conventional wisdom hasn't served well in the SEC, I am going to go their. Alabama's flaws, or at least questions, have already been pointed out. LSU has lost its star defensive player and emotional leader in Tyrann Mathieu due to off the field problems. To think that they can simply overcome this by plugging some freshman stud, as some have conjectured, is insane. Mathieu's production, both on defense and special teams, was just outrageous, and his way of turning momentum in LSU's favor can't be quantified with stats. Arkansas has easily the best offense in the SEC, led by future first round pick, quarterback Tyler Wilson. But their defense has had problems keeping top shelf oppenents like LSU from putting up enough points to keep up with them in the conference title race. If the Razorback defense can make even a slight improvement while dealing with the coaching and administrative upheaval from coaching scandal over the summer(we'll call this the F you attitude factor), they could be the cream rising to the top of the best conference in football. On the other side of the SEC, Georgia seems to be the heavy favorites. They have most of their starters returning from a top twenty defense, not to mention Heisman hopeful Aaron Murray at quarterback, who is looking to for his third 3000 yard season. If he can limit the mental errors, those killer fantasy stats should turn them into one of the more scary teams facing the rest of the country. As these teams play each other, someone has to lose. And that is where my conventional wisdom that seems to fail every year stands. When great teams face each other someone still has to lose.
The Big Ten, also featured in this weekends big games, looks like a slightly less powerful SEC. There are a ton of good teams but not one that should runaway with the conference. The reason they are less powerful than the SEC is that unless someone does runaway with the conference no one appears to be a legit national title contender, whereas the SEC winner will more or less automatically be considered. Michigan and Michigan St. clearly look to be in the mix for the conference title. Wisconsin has its Heisman finalist running back from last year, Monte Ball, back and is hoping for another transfer quarterback, this time Danny O'Brien, to be the difference maker. And despite their ineligibility for bowl games and a conference title, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Urban Meyer should bring massive improvement to Ohio State, where disappointment is the word that described their season last year. With the Buckeyes out of the picture though, it should be all about Michigan's defense and Robinson, potentially ascending from exciting to great, as the Wolverines prove to be the Big Ten's best team. The Big Ten teams should not only hand each other losses as the season rolls on but should prove to be good but not quite the nations best.
The Big 12 is next, and they only have a few points to address. Oklahoma is in the top five again. And while their defense is going to be as fierce as ever, Landry Jones has yet to prove himself as more than a fantasy quarterback. Sure he is the schools all time leading passer, but in crucial games and big moments, he has come up short. He may be able to grow into that, but until he delivers all year, instead of most of the year, it is hard to get behind the Sooners. The other big note in the Big 12 is that TCU is now there. It is great for the Horned Frogs as they try to prove, like Boise St., that they belong in the discussion of the country's top teams. For anyone out there who love chaos, it is terrible because there is one less legitimate non-power-conference team out there to muck up the works as other teams lose games. But hopefully TCU will not only get the chance that they seem to deserve, but thrive in their new situation. The other Big 12 contender could be new comer West Virginia. Led by the hugely (and physically huge) talented Geno Smith, the West Virginia will be tough to stop no matter what conference they are in. While stiffened competition should be a wake up call to this team, they should be able to out gun enough teams to put themselves in any discussion that involves the best of the best
Now onto the Pac 12. This conference appears to be more or less a two teams race. In the post-Andrew Luck era, Stanford should finish a very respectable third. But this one should really come down to USC and Oregon. The Trojans will be running out an offense with enough talent that every starting player should be in the NFL someday. What they need is a defense that it is merely better than last year. Not great but good, and able to stop the run, so that the offense can out score every other team in the nation, literally. I know I said this about Arkansas, but it holds even more true for the Trojan offense led by Matt Barkley, who is not only the Heisman favorite but the projected top pick in the upcoming NFL draft. For Oregon it is a little more simple. Their fast as hell offense just needs to keep every single team they play on their heals until they totally run out of breath and give up. The conundrum in this conference is that along with a regular season USC vs. Oregon game, they will have to play each other in the conference title game now that the conference is split into divisions. To think that either team could win two games against the other is almost unimaginable considering their quality.
The conference with the best chance to produce an undefeated team may be the ACC. Florida St. had the eighth ranked defense last year and should have a much improved offense led by quarterback E.J. Manuel. With an offense that should catch up to their defense, and a conference where top tier teams shouldn't cancel each other out, the Seminoles have a great chance to get into the mix by the end of the season. Their greatest resistance should be met from Clemson, though their defense, which allowed 70 in a bowl game last year, needs some some massive improvements in order to allow for their high flying offense to win more games for them.
If I had to make predictions before the season has really gotten started, I would probably go more or less chalk. I would take USC and some SEC team in the title game and Matt Barkley edging out Marcus Lattimore, the running back from South Carolina, for the Heisman with Geno Smith making it interesting. But we all know that upsets will happen and some player we hadn't really considered will come about, like Cam Newton and RGIII. As I have looked up and down the conferences and teams their does certainly seem to be more questions than certainties. Who comes out on top will be answered by which team answer those questions. This year its not just about playing to your strengths but dealing with your weaknesses.
Friday, August 31, 2012
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
breaking bad's dead freight
tv: Very rarely, if ever, have I done a review of single episode of a series. With this not being a full time job it gets hard to write every hour of everything that I watch. This week, however, Breaking Bad aired the fifth episode of its fifth and final season, title Dead Freight. As one of the great episodes I've maybe ever seen anywhere on television, it definitely is worthy of its own moment to shine.
With all of the terror and tension that has been built over the first four episodes of the fifth season leaving viewers feeling nothing short of needing to take shower after episodes, Dead Freight offered a change of pace(relatively of course). It picks up right where the previous episode left off. Mike, Walt, and Jesse are dealing with the fact that they believe Lydia planted a tracking device on a barrel of methlamine in order to avoid doing business with this crew after her being investigated by the D.E.A. The way our three guys, that comprise this crew, deal with their suspicion of Lydia is by bringing her to a brutal and cold interrogation that, all involved, including Lydia, believe will end in her death. As the tension mounts and Lydia's life hangs in the balance, the ultra-tweaked, tense, jittery, terrified performance of Laura Fraser brings everything in the scene to a tipping point as she tries to deal with Walt and fight off Mike's urge to get revenge on the hit she put out on him only episodes ago. Her life is saved by a call made to Hank thanks to a bug Walt plants, in one of his coldest and boldest moments, as he plays on his brother-in-laws decency by coming to his office to confess the growing troubles of his marriage. Once Hank leaves the office to get a broken down Walt a drink, Walt plants the bug that proves Lydia is allowed to live yet again. This is when the real fun begins.
Lydia presents a new way for the guys to get enough methlamine to not need her warehouse barrels to keep their business up and running: rob a train. From their on the show becomes a full on heist thriller with small interjections to make one wonder about the future of those involved in the show. But the train job itself is one of the most exciting things maybe ever captured on television. The preparation is well displayed as we see our crew plot their crime while leaving enough unknowns that we can't wait to see the job go down. Then when it does the action goes full tilt. The train arrives at the desired destination and Walt, Jesse, Todd(from Vamonos Pest), and Mike go to work. From their we see what really becomes heist movie play out as the edge of your seat action unfolds. The methlamine flows, complications occur, and of course, Walt pushes the job to its last and most dangerous envelope as we see his recently found arrogance continue to take hold.
As with everything in the world of Breaking Bad, things don't go as smoothly as planned. Mike's foreshadowing during Lydia's interrogation about their being two kinds of jobs, ones where everyone dies and ones where you leave witnesses, comes into play despite Jesse's best efforts to keep anyone from getting killed in his plan. And with a swift bang in the final seconds that bring a halt to the howling of success, we are reminded of the show we are watching. This may have been the best heist caught on film since Heat, but this is still Breaking Bad. Everything has consequences, and because of the horrific nature of Walt's and Jesse's actions, those consequences are almost always horrific. Not only do we see Walt break bad over the course of the series, but we see every action and reaction relating to his decisions break bad as well, and despite the resounding success of the train heist, this is no different.
Dead Freight laid in some threads that could be interesting to see play out as the series continues. As the pending danger of Walt's actions envelops the White family, the pieces continue to be put in place for a brutal and messy end to this story. Skylar's continued reminder that the kids are safe at Hank and Marie's is almost certainly an indication that they are not, especially now that both Walt and Hank have had their trajectories meet at the word boss. And as Skylar coninues to chainsmoke her husband's cancer back (or so she hopes) the risen cigarette hides in their bedroom waiting for its moment of use. But what will be remembered from this portion of season five and this episode is how awesome a great heist can be. Whether it be in the great crime films or on certain TV shows we find ourselves on the edge of our seat, and despite our better judgement, rooting for the bad guys to pull it off. Dead Freight gave us that excitement and thrill in a 45 minute episode and thus became one of those rare episodes of television that will not be forgotten anytime soon.
With all of the terror and tension that has been built over the first four episodes of the fifth season leaving viewers feeling nothing short of needing to take shower after episodes, Dead Freight offered a change of pace(relatively of course). It picks up right where the previous episode left off. Mike, Walt, and Jesse are dealing with the fact that they believe Lydia planted a tracking device on a barrel of methlamine in order to avoid doing business with this crew after her being investigated by the D.E.A. The way our three guys, that comprise this crew, deal with their suspicion of Lydia is by bringing her to a brutal and cold interrogation that, all involved, including Lydia, believe will end in her death. As the tension mounts and Lydia's life hangs in the balance, the ultra-tweaked, tense, jittery, terrified performance of Laura Fraser brings everything in the scene to a tipping point as she tries to deal with Walt and fight off Mike's urge to get revenge on the hit she put out on him only episodes ago. Her life is saved by a call made to Hank thanks to a bug Walt plants, in one of his coldest and boldest moments, as he plays on his brother-in-laws decency by coming to his office to confess the growing troubles of his marriage. Once Hank leaves the office to get a broken down Walt a drink, Walt plants the bug that proves Lydia is allowed to live yet again. This is when the real fun begins.
Lydia presents a new way for the guys to get enough methlamine to not need her warehouse barrels to keep their business up and running: rob a train. From their on the show becomes a full on heist thriller with small interjections to make one wonder about the future of those involved in the show. But the train job itself is one of the most exciting things maybe ever captured on television. The preparation is well displayed as we see our crew plot their crime while leaving enough unknowns that we can't wait to see the job go down. Then when it does the action goes full tilt. The train arrives at the desired destination and Walt, Jesse, Todd(from Vamonos Pest), and Mike go to work. From their we see what really becomes heist movie play out as the edge of your seat action unfolds. The methlamine flows, complications occur, and of course, Walt pushes the job to its last and most dangerous envelope as we see his recently found arrogance continue to take hold.
As with everything in the world of Breaking Bad, things don't go as smoothly as planned. Mike's foreshadowing during Lydia's interrogation about their being two kinds of jobs, ones where everyone dies and ones where you leave witnesses, comes into play despite Jesse's best efforts to keep anyone from getting killed in his plan. And with a swift bang in the final seconds that bring a halt to the howling of success, we are reminded of the show we are watching. This may have been the best heist caught on film since Heat, but this is still Breaking Bad. Everything has consequences, and because of the horrific nature of Walt's and Jesse's actions, those consequences are almost always horrific. Not only do we see Walt break bad over the course of the series, but we see every action and reaction relating to his decisions break bad as well, and despite the resounding success of the train heist, this is no different.
Dead Freight laid in some threads that could be interesting to see play out as the series continues. As the pending danger of Walt's actions envelops the White family, the pieces continue to be put in place for a brutal and messy end to this story. Skylar's continued reminder that the kids are safe at Hank and Marie's is almost certainly an indication that they are not, especially now that both Walt and Hank have had their trajectories meet at the word boss. And as Skylar coninues to chainsmoke her husband's cancer back (or so she hopes) the risen cigarette hides in their bedroom waiting for its moment of use. But what will be remembered from this portion of season five and this episode is how awesome a great heist can be. Whether it be in the great crime films or on certain TV shows we find ourselves on the edge of our seat, and despite our better judgement, rooting for the bad guys to pull it off. Dead Freight gave us that excitement and thrill in a 45 minute episode and thus became one of those rare episodes of television that will not be forgotten anytime soon.
Thursday, August 9, 2012
the killers and great american rock
music: The Killers recently released their single Runaways from their upcoming album Battle Born. It is the classic youth love story with a twist. Runaways is the story of a young American guy who falls for the classic blonde American beauty. She is in the process of running away from the life she has to start a new and the guy just can't let her go. He loves her and follows her and eventually wins her over. Despite this youthfully romantic notion, the narrative doesn't end well. After winning over the love of his life and eventually marrying her, he finds himself discontent with the life he now has. He is stumbling home late after a night trying to find his life in a bottle with home not quite feeling like home. And thus the plural of Runaways is born.
Brandon Flowers paints this story with beautiful lyrics. "Blond hair blowin' in the summer wind" as they meet. "I knew that when I met you I'm not gonna let you runaway" as he falls in love. Wishing for the past as he nostalgically talks about confessing their dreams to the summer stars in some forgotten time gone by. And finally "Stumbling like a ghost I haunt these halls.... I recognize the girl but I can't settle in these walls" as the fantasy of that blonde girl playing in the sand is not the life he now has. It is a lyrically stark presentation of a once great love gone wrong.
What makes the song great though is the sound of it. Over the straightforward acoustics that begin the song Flowers sings his nostalgic tale. As he continues through the song, every ounce of it crescendos. The verse builds to a swelling beautiful chorus. The verses gain pace to eventually meet the humongous size of that chorus. The hook isn't infectious but the scope is.
As the song soars towards its arena sized end the Killers remind of what rock once was: Big. The song is big and bigger, and then even bigger. Designed for loud radio in a car on a beautiful day. Also designed for those rock sized arenas they are sure to fill on the tour for their new album. This song is no doubt a fist pumper and crowdpleaser.
As all of this epic sense of song is being brought to life by the band, Flowers sings in a way that is also reminiscent of a day gone by. The song itself is not a throwback, nor are his vocal stylings. It is more the way he sings. He sings like the rock gods that have created the anthems that inspired Runaways. He sings as if he doesn't give his all something tragic really will happen in the world. And as he does this he finds something within himself and within the song not found since the tail of Tommy and Gina. It is a song reminiscent of great American rock anthems. I am not going to say that Runaways is as good as something like Glory Days or Born To Run or Living On A Prayer, but it is certainly in the vain of those songs. It feels like those songs. It is something that seems to no longer exist in that way. It may be the new American rock classic. Thank you Killers for going big and not going home.
Brandon Flowers paints this story with beautiful lyrics. "Blond hair blowin' in the summer wind" as they meet. "I knew that when I met you I'm not gonna let you runaway" as he falls in love. Wishing for the past as he nostalgically talks about confessing their dreams to the summer stars in some forgotten time gone by. And finally "Stumbling like a ghost I haunt these halls.... I recognize the girl but I can't settle in these walls" as the fantasy of that blonde girl playing in the sand is not the life he now has. It is a lyrically stark presentation of a once great love gone wrong.
What makes the song great though is the sound of it. Over the straightforward acoustics that begin the song Flowers sings his nostalgic tale. As he continues through the song, every ounce of it crescendos. The verse builds to a swelling beautiful chorus. The verses gain pace to eventually meet the humongous size of that chorus. The hook isn't infectious but the scope is.
As the song soars towards its arena sized end the Killers remind of what rock once was: Big. The song is big and bigger, and then even bigger. Designed for loud radio in a car on a beautiful day. Also designed for those rock sized arenas they are sure to fill on the tour for their new album. This song is no doubt a fist pumper and crowdpleaser.
As all of this epic sense of song is being brought to life by the band, Flowers sings in a way that is also reminiscent of a day gone by. The song itself is not a throwback, nor are his vocal stylings. It is more the way he sings. He sings like the rock gods that have created the anthems that inspired Runaways. He sings as if he doesn't give his all something tragic really will happen in the world. And as he does this he finds something within himself and within the song not found since the tail of Tommy and Gina. It is a song reminiscent of great American rock anthems. I am not going to say that Runaways is as good as something like Glory Days or Born To Run or Living On A Prayer, but it is certainly in the vain of those songs. It feels like those songs. It is something that seems to no longer exist in that way. It may be the new American rock classic. Thank you Killers for going big and not going home.
Monday, July 30, 2012
the dark knight rises
movies: I've been thinking long and hard about the Dark Knight Rises and how to qualify such a movie in words. It really was quite stunning in just about every fashion, and where to begin may have been the hardest part of all of this.
The movie itself was just a stark cold tale of Gotham in the aftermath of the second movie of this trilogy, The Dark Knight. On the heals of the death of Harvey Dent, who unbeknownst to the the general population turned into Two Face, Batman, who is deemed responsible for his death, is in missing from the scene of crime fighting and Bruce Wayne is also in exile, feeling lost without his alter ego. This, however, seems to have helped things in Gotham with the Dent Act, named for the cities fallen hero(or so they say), has gotten mobsters and criminals off the streets. This is a lie. And lies are not met without consequences.
That consequence is a man named Bain. Bain comes from the same League of Shadows that taught Bruce how to become the bat. His goal seems to be nothing but destruction and anarchy as he makes a brilliant speech about about giving the city of Gotham back to the people while activating an atomic bomb to destroy it. As Bruce watches this happen, he knows there is only one thing to do: bring back the Batman. The more or less obvious full circle use of this story pertaining to a League of Shadows member spouting similar rhetoric to Raz Al-Gul in Batman Begins was a great way to bring the story full circle and allow for continuity between three movies that, if it were decided, could have had none.
The story from there unravels into an epic battle between the people of Gotham and Bain and his followers. This battle is lead by an absolutely stellar cast. Joseph Gordon Levitt plays an optimistic cop who believes in Batman to the point of a potentially important future. Catwoman is played elegantly (although without enough insanity for my taste) by Anne Hathaway as the queen burglar of Gotham whose affection for Gotham's dark knight, and his alter ego, ultimately force her to help save the city in which her crime has thrived(the moment when Batman asks her to help save Gotham from destruction by nuclear bomb, you see her think something along the lines of Spike's "I like this world" speech in the final episode of season two of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The meaning being that some people want the world to survive because they enjoy being bad in it.) The always engaging and beautiful Marion Colltiard plays the yin to Catwoman's yang as an optimist who still believes in Wayne Enterprises. And of course, Michael Caine and Gary Oldman couldn't be more brilliant in their returning rolls as Alfred and Gordon.
What we see in this movie that makes it different from The Dark Knight is that this collection of characters and actors bring a sense of total excellence to the movie. There is no iconic performance or moment in this movie. But a collection of greats doing great work.
As the end of this trilogy, the movie did exactly what it was supposed to. It gave a sense of completion and closure the story that had unfolded over the previous movies. In the spirit of all things Christopher Nolan, there was not necessarily an end. It was just a conclusion. The politics most thought would be overt in this movie were left to interpretation quite nicely. Then end may even be subject to debate.
Nolan's greatest achievement may have been his most vague point of conclusion though. The fate of Gotham was not written in stone at the end of the movie. Batman saved Gotham from yet another pending danger. It may have been the biggest danger yet faced, a HUGE danger necessary to bring him out of exile. But what ever the fate of Gotham is by the end of this war, there is no assurance that it is going to remain safe. Harvey Dent once said, "The night is darkest just before the dawn. And I promise, the dawn is coming." The night certainly did continue to get darker. But after seeing where this trilogy has taken us, I can't say that I know that that dawn Dent spoke of is ever going to come. The sun has just been given a temporary opportunity to rise. Luckily, Gotham has the hero it deserves to save them if need be in the future.
The movie itself was just a stark cold tale of Gotham in the aftermath of the second movie of this trilogy, The Dark Knight. On the heals of the death of Harvey Dent, who unbeknownst to the the general population turned into Two Face, Batman, who is deemed responsible for his death, is in missing from the scene of crime fighting and Bruce Wayne is also in exile, feeling lost without his alter ego. This, however, seems to have helped things in Gotham with the Dent Act, named for the cities fallen hero(or so they say), has gotten mobsters and criminals off the streets. This is a lie. And lies are not met without consequences.
That consequence is a man named Bain. Bain comes from the same League of Shadows that taught Bruce how to become the bat. His goal seems to be nothing but destruction and anarchy as he makes a brilliant speech about about giving the city of Gotham back to the people while activating an atomic bomb to destroy it. As Bruce watches this happen, he knows there is only one thing to do: bring back the Batman. The more or less obvious full circle use of this story pertaining to a League of Shadows member spouting similar rhetoric to Raz Al-Gul in Batman Begins was a great way to bring the story full circle and allow for continuity between three movies that, if it were decided, could have had none.
The story from there unravels into an epic battle between the people of Gotham and Bain and his followers. This battle is lead by an absolutely stellar cast. Joseph Gordon Levitt plays an optimistic cop who believes in Batman to the point of a potentially important future. Catwoman is played elegantly (although without enough insanity for my taste) by Anne Hathaway as the queen burglar of Gotham whose affection for Gotham's dark knight, and his alter ego, ultimately force her to help save the city in which her crime has thrived(the moment when Batman asks her to help save Gotham from destruction by nuclear bomb, you see her think something along the lines of Spike's "I like this world" speech in the final episode of season two of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The meaning being that some people want the world to survive because they enjoy being bad in it.) The always engaging and beautiful Marion Colltiard plays the yin to Catwoman's yang as an optimist who still believes in Wayne Enterprises. And of course, Michael Caine and Gary Oldman couldn't be more brilliant in their returning rolls as Alfred and Gordon.
What we see in this movie that makes it different from The Dark Knight is that this collection of characters and actors bring a sense of total excellence to the movie. There is no iconic performance or moment in this movie. But a collection of greats doing great work.
As the end of this trilogy, the movie did exactly what it was supposed to. It gave a sense of completion and closure the story that had unfolded over the previous movies. In the spirit of all things Christopher Nolan, there was not necessarily an end. It was just a conclusion. The politics most thought would be overt in this movie were left to interpretation quite nicely. Then end may even be subject to debate.
Nolan's greatest achievement may have been his most vague point of conclusion though. The fate of Gotham was not written in stone at the end of the movie. Batman saved Gotham from yet another pending danger. It may have been the biggest danger yet faced, a HUGE danger necessary to bring him out of exile. But what ever the fate of Gotham is by the end of this war, there is no assurance that it is going to remain safe. Harvey Dent once said, "The night is darkest just before the dawn. And I promise, the dawn is coming." The night certainly did continue to get darker. But after seeing where this trilogy has taken us, I can't say that I know that that dawn Dent spoke of is ever going to come. The sun has just been given a temporary opportunity to rise. Luckily, Gotham has the hero it deserves to save them if need be in the future.
Monday, July 16, 2012
breaking bad
tv: Last night Breaking Bad returned for the first part of its final season. I spent a long time thinking about what I saw, and decided that to digest what I saw I had to start with something of a look back at what I had already seen. The series is the story of a somewhat pathetic high school science teacher named Walter White who turned to cooking meth with a burnout former student of his named Jesse Pinkman in order to provide for his family after being diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. His motive throughout the first two seasons is simply that. He wants money, and as much of it as possible through his new criminal enterprise. As the story continues his motives for continuing to cook change. It becomes more about the threat of the dangerous people he is forced to associate with forcing him to continue what he does. These threats and motives also allow the absolutely terrible things he does to keep his drug enterprise going, mainly the murder of other drug dealers and distributors, to be more or less excusable. After all, he is just trying to provide for his family and stay alive in the process. As the third season ends and the fourth season begins we see both Walt and Jesse descend further into darkness as they are confronted by the all to frightening threat of their boss, Gustavo Frain, played brilliantly by Giancarlo Esposito. That war escalates to a breaking point that leaves Walt in a kill or be killed mode that ends with him willing to blow up a hospital wing at a retirement home in order to kill Gus. When he calls his wife, Skylar, who is now involved in his criminal activities by trying to hide and launder his money for him, all he can find the words to say is "I won."
That moment is where we pick up at the beginning of the fifth season. And with those words, and no discernible threat, besides the pending investigation of the DEA that has been going on throughout the series, we find ourselves now finally atop the mountain looking to finally descend and finish the trip. And descend is where we go. There seems to be a somewhat steep and unforgiving downward trajectory to Walt's character that will continue to the end of the series. It was created, not as an amoral or immoral character to root for, as Dexter or Tony Soprano is, but simply as a study in pure descent from weak, yet decent man, to the embodiment of evil not to be rooted for but just stunned and frightened by. Walt begins the fifth season in as dark a place if not darker than he ended the fourth season. And looking ahead it only appears to get darker.
The fifth season begins with Walt and Jesse hoping to evade detection from the cops as the investigation by the ABQPD and DEA continue search for Gus's killer. This finds them needing to destroy the surveillance footage from the lab that Gus was recording. The dark humor of this situation, as with most of the show can only be compared to the scene at Eric Stoltz's house in Pulp Fiction when Uma Thurman overdoses, is brilliant. Walt and Mike, a hitman for Gus, plot, and fight about the realistic possibility, of a way to blow up the evidence room containing the computer that Gus saved the footage (all too elaborately mind you) as Jesse suggests a magnet, with all the memory sucking hand motions and sound effects provided to explain to the two old men of this odd trifecta. Then as they are testing the magnet that they decide to borrow from a scrap yard for this caper, Jesse so typically yells "YEAH BITCH!!!!!!" at their apparent success.
The real defining moment of the episode was the very end. Walt returns home after a seemingly successful attempt to erase the computers memory (it worked "because he says so") and decides to talk to his wife, Skylar, about the fact that she gave all of his drug money to a man she had had an affair with to keep the IRS off of her and her former lovers trials. Skylar, meanwhile, is still waiting to see some sort of contrition and remorse for Walt's role in the gang war that happened in their town and threatened their family. Walt shows no remorse. Instead he acts with the same sort of terror he has grown accustomed to away from his family when he simply holds Skylar and says "I forgive you."
The look on Skylar's face as the episode ends says it all. We are clearly now in the midst of a full fledged monster where forgiveness for our shortcomings, real or not, is all that is keeping us from a horrible end. Walt's steep trajectory into darkness has lead us to a place where there is no forgiving his actions. He is clearly nothing less than a killer and kingpin who feels no fear and no remorse. People have spent the past months leading up to this season wondering who the new villain would be. The answer is Walt.
As the show continues to come to an end I have no doubt that the meticulous nature of how the shows entire universe of characters and stories has been conceived and executed will drive it towards a suitable and logical end. The enjoyment of the ride, in the meantime, will be watching this absolutely morally void main character continue down the path he seems to be set on and how that will effect the place the show is going and the characters that are being brought down by Walt's path of terror. That end, right now, seems to be the showdown between Walt and his DEA brother Hank.
This first episode was shot in a lot of dark settings. I couldn't help but smile and wonder if creator and writer of the episode, Vince Gilligan, was telling the director something to the effect of, "Its fine, we'll just use a flashlight or two and a lamp. I used to do it on X Files all the time." Out of the harsh light of the New Mexico Desserts and cold lights of laboratories, I wouldn't help but see Gilligan returning to his roots not only metaphorically but literally: the darkness.
That moment is where we pick up at the beginning of the fifth season. And with those words, and no discernible threat, besides the pending investigation of the DEA that has been going on throughout the series, we find ourselves now finally atop the mountain looking to finally descend and finish the trip. And descend is where we go. There seems to be a somewhat steep and unforgiving downward trajectory to Walt's character that will continue to the end of the series. It was created, not as an amoral or immoral character to root for, as Dexter or Tony Soprano is, but simply as a study in pure descent from weak, yet decent man, to the embodiment of evil not to be rooted for but just stunned and frightened by. Walt begins the fifth season in as dark a place if not darker than he ended the fourth season. And looking ahead it only appears to get darker.
The fifth season begins with Walt and Jesse hoping to evade detection from the cops as the investigation by the ABQPD and DEA continue search for Gus's killer. This finds them needing to destroy the surveillance footage from the lab that Gus was recording. The dark humor of this situation, as with most of the show can only be compared to the scene at Eric Stoltz's house in Pulp Fiction when Uma Thurman overdoses, is brilliant. Walt and Mike, a hitman for Gus, plot, and fight about the realistic possibility, of a way to blow up the evidence room containing the computer that Gus saved the footage (all too elaborately mind you) as Jesse suggests a magnet, with all the memory sucking hand motions and sound effects provided to explain to the two old men of this odd trifecta. Then as they are testing the magnet that they decide to borrow from a scrap yard for this caper, Jesse so typically yells "YEAH BITCH!!!!!!" at their apparent success.
The real defining moment of the episode was the very end. Walt returns home after a seemingly successful attempt to erase the computers memory (it worked "because he says so") and decides to talk to his wife, Skylar, about the fact that she gave all of his drug money to a man she had had an affair with to keep the IRS off of her and her former lovers trials. Skylar, meanwhile, is still waiting to see some sort of contrition and remorse for Walt's role in the gang war that happened in their town and threatened their family. Walt shows no remorse. Instead he acts with the same sort of terror he has grown accustomed to away from his family when he simply holds Skylar and says "I forgive you."
The look on Skylar's face as the episode ends says it all. We are clearly now in the midst of a full fledged monster where forgiveness for our shortcomings, real or not, is all that is keeping us from a horrible end. Walt's steep trajectory into darkness has lead us to a place where there is no forgiving his actions. He is clearly nothing less than a killer and kingpin who feels no fear and no remorse. People have spent the past months leading up to this season wondering who the new villain would be. The answer is Walt.
As the show continues to come to an end I have no doubt that the meticulous nature of how the shows entire universe of characters and stories has been conceived and executed will drive it towards a suitable and logical end. The enjoyment of the ride, in the meantime, will be watching this absolutely morally void main character continue down the path he seems to be set on and how that will effect the place the show is going and the characters that are being brought down by Walt's path of terror. That end, right now, seems to be the showdown between Walt and his DEA brother Hank.
This first episode was shot in a lot of dark settings. I couldn't help but smile and wonder if creator and writer of the episode, Vince Gilligan, was telling the director something to the effect of, "Its fine, we'll just use a flashlight or two and a lamp. I used to do it on X Files all the time." Out of the harsh light of the New Mexico Desserts and cold lights of laboratories, I wouldn't help but see Gilligan returning to his roots not only metaphorically but literally: the darkness.
Thursday, July 5, 2012
weeds
tv: Weeds returned for its eighth and final season this past Sunday. The show has undeniably not been its best, despite some great efforts in recent seasons, since it left Aggrestic at the end of the third season. Despite that, this first episode did seem to show promise and shed light on the end of what has been a bizarre show. (this will be all spoilers)
The episode picked up right where the end of season seven left off. We get to see the gruesome outcome of the gunshot that was fired at Nancy as she was making her toast to the Botwin/Wilson/Price-Grey family. Shot in the head, We see Nancy bloody and dazed and needing to be taken to the emergency room with her life hanging in the balance.
As Nancy gets put into a chemically induced coma the family reaction is as classically fucked up as anything one could expect from Weeds. Silas and Shane discuss the many people who could be responsible for this. Shane also tells Silas about his enrollment in the police academy, which for the time being seems to be for real. We also see Kevin Nealon, in classic Doug Wilson fashion, end up feeling up a comatose Nancy as he tries to get the crumbs of a well enjoyed snack off her body. And of course Andy continues to do the wrong thing by sleeping with Nancy's sister and blaming it on emotional distress.
This plot development and typical Weeds hilarity is dealt with while addressing the coming end of the show. Nancy herself says, once again in the glib voice of the show, "Doomsday is coming. Not really, but..... maybe". Andy's run in with a hospital chaplain/rabbi forces asks the question that has plagued his character the entire series, which is whether or not he can change, and go from the impulsive, womanizing, pot smoking child he has been the entire series, to the man of the house his brother, and Nancy's former husband, was.
There are certainly plot points that will have to be dealt with that create a bit of intrigue. Shane's new found desire to be a part of law enforcement certainly being at the top of the list. As a known (by the viewers) murderer and sociopath, as well as son of a drug dealing family, his new path seems to be a rocky one at least. Silas is surely going to be put in the cross hairs with the grow room his mother built him in the house that the police are now scouring while investigating Nancy's shooting. And of course, what is the purpose of making Tim the shooter? Tim being the son of Nancy's former husband and DEA agent, Peter Scottson, who was killed by a cartel to protect Nancy.
Weeds began its run ripping the lid off of suburbia and showing the world what was really going on in those squeaky clean communities in a way that was fresh and snarky. It has come a long way from that. And that long way is not necessarily for the better, but it has built a new and different world. That world is filled with new questions. Most of those questions deal with the two Botwin kids at this point. Shane and Silas are running headstrong into a world that was built for them, not by choice, and has forced them to be men long before they were ready. Despite the fact that this show has seemed to be all about Nancy, with her in a coma as the final season begins, the final season seems to be more about the men of the family: Shane, Silas, and Andy, and where their lives with Nancy will leave them looking into the future that exists beyond the show. What started as a suburban critique, has now become a drug drama. As doomsday approaches, hopefully this can be done justice.
The episode picked up right where the end of season seven left off. We get to see the gruesome outcome of the gunshot that was fired at Nancy as she was making her toast to the Botwin/Wilson/Price-Grey family. Shot in the head, We see Nancy bloody and dazed and needing to be taken to the emergency room with her life hanging in the balance.
As Nancy gets put into a chemically induced coma the family reaction is as classically fucked up as anything one could expect from Weeds. Silas and Shane discuss the many people who could be responsible for this. Shane also tells Silas about his enrollment in the police academy, which for the time being seems to be for real. We also see Kevin Nealon, in classic Doug Wilson fashion, end up feeling up a comatose Nancy as he tries to get the crumbs of a well enjoyed snack off her body. And of course Andy continues to do the wrong thing by sleeping with Nancy's sister and blaming it on emotional distress.
This plot development and typical Weeds hilarity is dealt with while addressing the coming end of the show. Nancy herself says, once again in the glib voice of the show, "Doomsday is coming. Not really, but..... maybe". Andy's run in with a hospital chaplain/rabbi forces asks the question that has plagued his character the entire series, which is whether or not he can change, and go from the impulsive, womanizing, pot smoking child he has been the entire series, to the man of the house his brother, and Nancy's former husband, was.
There are certainly plot points that will have to be dealt with that create a bit of intrigue. Shane's new found desire to be a part of law enforcement certainly being at the top of the list. As a known (by the viewers) murderer and sociopath, as well as son of a drug dealing family, his new path seems to be a rocky one at least. Silas is surely going to be put in the cross hairs with the grow room his mother built him in the house that the police are now scouring while investigating Nancy's shooting. And of course, what is the purpose of making Tim the shooter? Tim being the son of Nancy's former husband and DEA agent, Peter Scottson, who was killed by a cartel to protect Nancy.
Weeds began its run ripping the lid off of suburbia and showing the world what was really going on in those squeaky clean communities in a way that was fresh and snarky. It has come a long way from that. And that long way is not necessarily for the better, but it has built a new and different world. That world is filled with new questions. Most of those questions deal with the two Botwin kids at this point. Shane and Silas are running headstrong into a world that was built for them, not by choice, and has forced them to be men long before they were ready. Despite the fact that this show has seemed to be all about Nancy, with her in a coma as the final season begins, the final season seems to be more about the men of the family: Shane, Silas, and Andy, and where their lives with Nancy will leave them looking into the future that exists beyond the show. What started as a suburban critique, has now become a drug drama. As doomsday approaches, hopefully this can be done justice.
Sunday, July 1, 2012
celebration rock
music: The album Celebration Rock by the Japandriods has been out for a couple of months now. I just recently picked it up, and decided that this is something that needs to be talked about. For anyone who doesn't know, The Japandroids are a two person band out of Canada that has built their careers on fun hook filled rock. I don't know if this is the culmination of this effort, being that I have not listened to a lot of their music. All I can say is that it sure as hell seems like it.
Celebration Rock as I listen to it (now over and over again) is one of those albums that seems to embody the spirit of rock. The fun, straightforward, and sometimes raw and raunchy nature of the album is exactly what the genre has been about since its inception.
This is not to say it is in the vain of a classic rock album. This is not AC/DC or Van Halen or Guns 'n' Roses, specifically on Appetite For Destruction. Those albums epitomized rock as a lifestyle. The booze and drugs and girls, especially the girls, seem to be nothing short of a daily occurrence for bands as they worked the sunset strip or toured the world. This was not only the truth, but the feeling you got from listening to their albums. There was a lack of specificity in the feel and style of the lyrics that created a lifestyle as opposed to a more singular and specific experience.
That singular experience is what you get from the Japandriods. Keep in mind that this singularity is no less universal. It is just a vibe. That vibe is not "This is our lives everyday, getting hammered and doing drugs and banging the hottest chicks ever while rocking 24/7/365". When you listen to Celebration Rock it is more of a "I feel like total hell this morning but the more I remember about the night I had that made me feel this way, it was totally worth it". I have no idea under what influence the Japandriods made this album, but that is how it makes me feel. The album sounds like they just had the most amazing night full of youthful exuberance at a party out by the lake where there are 120 people and the sunset was movie picturesque as the kegs were flowing, dudes were sneaking off into the woods to have sex with their girls in secrecy (even though everyone saw them sneak off) and the rest of the party was left to get hammered and smoke up on the greatest night of all of their young lives out by this mythical perfect lake that exists in the mind of all those who have been to "that party". Then they woke up the next morning, and as the haze of that perfectly youthful and carefree night cleared, these two guys remembered what happened and realized, "We need this night to be an album." That album became Celebration Rock. An album filled with hilariously blunt lyrics about booze and sex on the best night of someones lives set to the backdrop of music that is basically two dudes pounding the shit out of their instruments and filling the chorus of every single song with Whoas and Yeahs.
I really have no idea if this scenario I just talked about really happened. All I can say is that this is how the album makes me feel and what it makes me think of. It is the best of the best night in a youth that mostly really exists at parties on lakes with kegs of shit beer. But it is better than that. It is better than the version of that night shown in high school movies scenes like the prom scene in American Pie at Stiffler's lake house, which is the best possible version of that. It is better than that. It is the celebration of that. And a celebration of what those nights are all about: youth and rock.
Celebration Rock as I listen to it (now over and over again) is one of those albums that seems to embody the spirit of rock. The fun, straightforward, and sometimes raw and raunchy nature of the album is exactly what the genre has been about since its inception.
This is not to say it is in the vain of a classic rock album. This is not AC/DC or Van Halen or Guns 'n' Roses, specifically on Appetite For Destruction. Those albums epitomized rock as a lifestyle. The booze and drugs and girls, especially the girls, seem to be nothing short of a daily occurrence for bands as they worked the sunset strip or toured the world. This was not only the truth, but the feeling you got from listening to their albums. There was a lack of specificity in the feel and style of the lyrics that created a lifestyle as opposed to a more singular and specific experience.
That singular experience is what you get from the Japandriods. Keep in mind that this singularity is no less universal. It is just a vibe. That vibe is not "This is our lives everyday, getting hammered and doing drugs and banging the hottest chicks ever while rocking 24/7/365". When you listen to Celebration Rock it is more of a "I feel like total hell this morning but the more I remember about the night I had that made me feel this way, it was totally worth it". I have no idea under what influence the Japandriods made this album, but that is how it makes me feel. The album sounds like they just had the most amazing night full of youthful exuberance at a party out by the lake where there are 120 people and the sunset was movie picturesque as the kegs were flowing, dudes were sneaking off into the woods to have sex with their girls in secrecy (even though everyone saw them sneak off) and the rest of the party was left to get hammered and smoke up on the greatest night of all of their young lives out by this mythical perfect lake that exists in the mind of all those who have been to "that party". Then they woke up the next morning, and as the haze of that perfectly youthful and carefree night cleared, these two guys remembered what happened and realized, "We need this night to be an album." That album became Celebration Rock. An album filled with hilariously blunt lyrics about booze and sex on the best night of someones lives set to the backdrop of music that is basically two dudes pounding the shit out of their instruments and filling the chorus of every single song with Whoas and Yeahs.
I really have no idea if this scenario I just talked about really happened. All I can say is that this is how the album makes me feel and what it makes me think of. It is the best of the best night in a youth that mostly really exists at parties on lakes with kegs of shit beer. But it is better than that. It is better than the version of that night shown in high school movies scenes like the prom scene in American Pie at Stiffler's lake house, which is the best possible version of that. It is better than that. It is the celebration of that. And a celebration of what those nights are all about: youth and rock.
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