Paul Blart: Mall Cop

I seriously don't think a big enough deal has been made about the fact that the above movie is has been the number 1 movie in America for 2 or 3 weeks straight. Granted, I have not seen the above movie, but the Metascore (yeah I said it) is 39, and the Rotten Tomatoes score is an abysmal 27%. So don't give me any bull about "Oh, you haven't seen it". I think the most depressing thing is that there are solid movies out there, perhaps even great movies, that are playing in theaters that are not being seen in favor of PB:MC. Gran Torino and the Wrestler both came out very recently, and both are very, very worth seeing. And I hate how people say, "Well the economy is shaky, so everybody wants to see escapist movies." Fuck that, I think that there are few things worse than spending my hard earned money to waste an hour and a half of my day having my eyes bleed to the garbage that is Paul Blart: Mall Cop.

In other news, America is also retarded in voting Fly Khicks safe and Ring Masters not safe. Fly Khicks just had (another) shitty performance (at least this time nobody fell during the routine, unlike last week (oddly enough, in the 1-1/2 seasons that I've been watching this show, that is the only mess-up I've ever noticed) that only gets gets votes because the people voting are douchey horn-dogs that love to see six trollops gallavanting around the stage in short-ass skirts. Seriously, Ring Masters are the most insane performers ever, if they lose tonight I'm throwing something to my TV.

Also, typing Paul Blart: Mall Cop into the label-entry box makes me feel strangely guilty.

Delicious, Bring More

Here goes for momentous first post...

Points of interest of the last week, listed in no particular order

MUSIC
AC - Merriweather Post Pavilion: EVER HEARD OF IT. I'm not yet convinced that this is one of the best albums of the decade, as some reviews have called it (this fact has piqued my interest in whether it is even justly possible to call any piece of art "classic" without a proper historical context, both past and future (interesting connetion regarding this later). That being said, it sounds so far like it may well be my favorite AC album, and "Summertime Clothes" is a total jam.

Arthur Russell - Calling out of Context: I only heard of this dude because Jens Lekman loves him. Apparently, he was a major disco producer/amazing cellist/avant-garde musician. This album is pretty neat, with lots of drum machine complemented by his beautiful vocals. I don't know how I would classify it. It isn't disco or anything, although I think the album gives you a sense that he could be involved in that scene. Any term I give it will probably be hideously artificial and, moreover, lame/elitist-sounding (i.e., I was thinking of saying avant-pop), but I'll just leave it with it is nice to listen to and certainly deserving of your time.

The Presets - Beams: They're on the Modular label (aka, Muscles' label), and that was enough to convince me to get it. I can't for the life of me tell who they remind me of, but they're pretty rad. The songs are kind of hit or miss, but a few are killer. Dance music with heavy bass and effected vocals...oh efff...I just realized that I think it is the Killers that they remind me of (sick!!!) because of the way he sings and the effect they use is very similar to the one used on the Killers' first album. The music itself is more house-based than the Killers (at least it better be because I've got to try convince my hipster self that liking the Presets is still OK), with no guitar and just heavy bass, drums and synth.

BOOKS
David Foster Wallace - Consider the Lobster: This is a collection of some essays that he did, and they are universally rad. He has a way of writing about seemingly anything that is incredibly intelligent yet accesible and all the while he never comes off as pretentious in the least. This is particularly evident (considering the amount of subtlety required to pull off said trick) in one piece that he wrote about the war over usage and grammer in the English language (which was seriously fascinating). I just started one essay about an English professor who was writing a multi-volume series about Dostoevsky and his works. More to the point, this professor was attempting to demonstrate that to fully appreciate his works, one has to understand the socio-historical context they were written in and how they both reflect and comment upon this context. This is what I was getting at with the point about AC. More specifically, I feel like a classic album must exert significant influence among future artists, and, obviously then, any such designations cannot be honestly made without the benefit of time's revelations.

Cormac McCarthy - Blood Meridian: This book is about 10 times as BA as No Country for Old Men. Need I say more. And if you are still unconvinced (i.e., aren't a dude), he is an incredibly stylish and brilliant writer, and the way he tells the story is as good as the story (which involves a kid who travels to Mexico and becomes part of a group ruthless mercenaries that kill Indians to get the bounty money for their scalps). Semi-relatedly, I love in No Country the movie when Llewelyn (sp???) asks re: Shigur (see previous parenthesis), "Is this guy supposed to be the ultimate bad ass or something?" Wouldn't that be the coolest title to have, every? Seriously.

TV

America's Best Dance Crew: At least two reasons why this rules. 1) What they do is so beyond my comprehension of Things that are Possible for Me to Do Ever (esp. Ringmaster, much respect). 2) The judging is great and usually hilarious, and I especially love JC because rather than spouting off random bull (like Lil Mama and whatever the other dude's name is) he actually has meaningful, pointed criticism. Also, Fly Chicks need to lose. Last time I checked, the show is not called America's Best Ass Shakers (HATE HATE HATE).