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On 03/06/2003 andrew said: "What I did on my holidays."
Only a month late, then.
I went over to Chicago/Boston at the end of April.
Movies: On the flight over I watched bits of Catch Me If You Can, which looked excellent except I was reading about Moomins. Say what you like about Tom Hanks, he's a very watchable actor when he's not Emoting (I must watch Road to Perdition), and Leonardo is certainly, er, convincing as an cheeky chappy. I did catch the first time they met, which is a great scene.
Good news: Flights to Chicago get an extra movie. Bad News: it was Maid in Manhattan. It's pretty much as bad as you probably imagine. It has one curiously upscale joke: after the plucky maid and the dashing millionaire are photoed walking his dog (hem hem) in the park, the photo on the front of the newspapers the next day reads "Dog Day Afternoon". The rest is shit, and includes Bob Hoskins stripped of all charm and forced to impersonate Antony Hopkins's turn in Remains of the Day, only dull.
The week I got to Boston they stopped showing Spirited Away except for one cinema out where the buses don't even run, but they also started selling it on DVD, so I did that. It's absolutely great, more imagination than Miyazaki's previous Princess Mononoke and without the Moral For Our Times.
And while I was there I saw X2. I imagine that if you were considering going then a) you'll greatly enjoy it, and b) you'll already have gone by the time you read this. It's a little loose in the middle, but has some great images, decent characterisation for (almost) all and some fine jokes. Plus, y'know: Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellan, Alan Cummings: can't go wrong.
And the plane on the way back was The Recruit. I probably watched more of this that Catch Me If You Can, but turned on the headphones for less. I think Colin Farrell is a very watchable actor, but then once upon a time there was a very watchable actor called Al Pacino... I only really stuck the headphones in for the end, where the plot was explained by not one but two shouty speeches by Pacino.
Music: while I was in Boston I looked around in Virgin Megastores which was having a three-for-$25 sale. I only took one trio: I could well have got more on the basis of tokenism (I need A Guided By Voices album, and this is A Guided By Voices album), but reckoned that you probably don't get the best stuff in the sales. Some lucky kids though, would have walked off with lll Communication, which is pretty much worth $25 by itself.
Aimee Mann: Whatever. This is just great indie-to-AOR stuff (my dark shame), the lyrics are still greatly mopey and the music just sounds right, like old comfy clothes.
Hot Hot Heat: Make Up The Breakdown because they were playing alongside Har Mar Superstar in Dublin for the Heineken Green Energy whatever, and what I'd heard about HMS sounded like someone to watch (more on that later hopefully). Either they were playing while I was in Boston (D'oh!) or they were playing after I got back but I didn't listen to the album first (Double d'oh!). Anyway, Hot Hot Heat are keeping the flame of eighties UK indie alive into the New American Century. Respect!
Gary Numan: The Pleasure Principle: This is the obvious album, being the one with Cars on it, and it doesn't tell me much I didn't already know. Beautiful chilly sounds, lyrics off the back of a cornflake packet. It's strange that what was to be sounds of the future are the most evocative of the past, but I'm guessing I'm not the first person to notice that.
Also got:
Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Fever To Tell. I got this because I loved the self/titled five track EP, (though the two-track one slightly less), and because William had never heard of them, and they were playing the next week in Boston. They're one of those bands that wear their influences (throw a rock in NYC77) on their sleeve, and I don't like their influences all that much, but I love the band. The lurching guitars and percussion is fab, but everything hangs on whether you like Karen O's voice and the things she does with it. There's a great
review on bleed-music.com that gets the perfect line: She's only pretending to pretend.
Destroyer: This Night. Dan Bejar from Destroyer is also Dan Bejar from The New Favourite Band of Andrew's Pornographers, and this album reminds me a lot of the New Pornographers. Review ends. I guess if I wanted more New Pornographers, I should go get the new album. Hey, that's an idea...