June 28, 2005

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  Had a pretty fun week so far.  Worked a lot and still had a bunch of Gravely Disabled practices.  The hard drive is officially dead, in the meantime click here to visit Torosushi's site to see the posts of our Japan trip photos (don't forget to scroll back til you see all of the posts).  On Saturday after a night shift, Mixygirl took me to see an awesome movie called March of the Penguins.  It was made in Antarctica under the harshest conditions by a French director, and released by National Geographic with Warner Independent Pictures.  The movie follows a group of penguins during their annual breeding which takes more than 7 months.  The penguins march through the harshest winter imaginable to a breeding ground 70 miles from the ocean.  There they endure incredible hardships, many of them dying in order to have a baby.  It was beautifully shot, and not too cheesy in the way it's presented.  Morgan Freeman did an excellent job narrating.  Check this movie out!!!  After we saw the movie, we had a great dinner at Charlie G's steakhouse to celebrate Dinah's graduation from Respiratory Therapy school.  Jober picked the restaurant and it turned out really good.  We had awesome crab cakes and a deep fried lobster tail with honey-mustard sauce.  My veal chop turned out amazing.

  
  

  

  
  

  I forgot to mention that earlier in the week, I caught Batman Begins.  I have to agree with everybody else, that this film was excellent.  It was definitely the best movie adaptation of a comic book, that I have ever seen.   I would say that my prior favorite comic book as movie was the first X-Men, but Batman Begins clearly blows it out of the water.  I think the movie stands on its own as a film instead of just being the typical comic book movie device for stunts and guest stars.  Christian Bale was excellent in the movie.  I've loved him since Empire of the Sun.  I heard that he gained a crazy amt of weight in a short period of time because he had to film Batman right after the Machinist. 

  
  

  

  
  

  This Sunday, Mixygirl and I met up with Bagal, Sedlic, and Damon to see Arcade Fire open up for David Byrne at the Hollywood Bowl.  The show was put together by ultra-indie cool radio station/NPR station, KCRW. 

  
  

  

  
  

  On our way in, we spotted Drew Barrymore with her boyfriend Fab, drummer of the Strokes.  They seemed pretty non-descript.  Drew had her hair down and was wearing an olive colored army jacket.  I guess it makes sense for a star trying to go incognito to sport that look. 

  
  

    

  
  

  The Arcade Fire with their debut album Funeral

  
  

  Fortunately, we caught the beginning of the Arcade Fire right as we walked into our seats.  Their debut album funeral has definitely been on my heavy listening rotation after the amazing Coachella show.  The mood was initially subdued at the Hollywood Bowl.  That's mainly cause people are used to going with a picnic basket and sitting down in their nice box seats to enjoy the performances.  The performance was just too powerful though, and by the end of the set the whole audience was on their feet clapping along to the songs, and heaping thunderous applause on the band.  I thought the set was amazing.  Again, maybe not as good as Coachella, but definitely still special (Coachella brings that extra magic to seeing a band, which is rarely re-created upon repeat viewings).  The band sounded fantastic, and seeing them play all different instruments was cool again.  Regine was an amazing performance for the two songs that she sang lead vocals for.  They also sounded a lot different b/c the Tosca strings who had been touring with Dave Byrne joined them for most of the songs. 

  
  

   

  
  

  Next up was ex-Talking Heads leader, David Byrne.  I have to admit that I wasn't expecting that much from the show, I was there more to see the Arcade Fire.  David Byrne kicked incredible ass however.  He is still an extremely weird and quirky character.  The songs he played did have that worldbeat flavor that most ex-new age/punk rockers seem to favor (e.g. Sting, Peter Gabriel).  I have to say though that it didn't sound corny at all and I really enjoyed it. 

  
  

  

  
  

  The show defnitely got surreal when a marching band descended from the upper levels to join Byrne for the last three songs.  Fleetwood Mac did a similar stunt, but to cheesy effect during their reunion tour with the USC marching band, but this was a different group of people called the Extra Action Marching Band from San Francisco.  They were dressed in G-strings and leather collars and S&M masks.  It was a totally freaky scene seeing David Byrne and this crazy marching band in such a historic place such as the Hollywood Bowl.  They tore into a ripping version of Burning Down the House, and the whole audience went crazy.  If you think that was weird, it got even more surreal as David Byrne launched into his final song, a pitch perfect, and super energized cover of Beyonce's hit "Crazy in Love".  Everyone just lost it after that.  It was a bit of a bummer though because there was no encore (probably due to the Bowl's strict curfew policy).  All in all a surprisingly awesome event, and I'm glad I got to go.  Final kudos to Mixygirl for packing an excellent picnic for the show with homemade red pepper/eggplant tapanade and fresh mozzarella sandwiches.

  • 1:44 pm
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