Music Monday: Quarter Century

Today on this sunny 26th day of May in the year of our Lord Two Thousand and Eight, I turn 25 years old. What an occasion. I've never been one for much external emotion on my Birthday, I've only ever really written anything down a couple of times, but I've always felt the need to reflect on this day. I never reflect at the New Year. It doesn't make sense. Why would I reflect on an odd day in my personal history? It only seems right to reflect on the most personally historic day of your life. And what is more personally historic to you than the day you were born. It keeps things even and symmetrical, and Lord knows I love me a bit of symmetry. So here today as I sit and think about the past 25 years, I thought I'd treat myself and you to something special. A little aural treat that is comprised of exactly the type of stimulus my ears love on such a personally special day. There are a lot of bits here that make me happy, so hopefully they'll make you happy as well. And remember to wish John Wayne, Miles Davis, Levon Helm and Luca Toni a happy one as well.

Music Monday: Quarter Century

1. Jean Constantin - Prologue and The Police Van -- from the film The 400 Blows. One of my favorite film scores of all time for one of my favorite film director's most personal film. You may have heard this playing right before the emotional climax in last year's The Diving Bell and The Butterfly, but what you may not have known is that it was first from François Truffaut's masterpiece. One of my favorite birthdays thus far was when I spent my 23rd in Monaco, enjoying the ocean, the beach, the food, the people, the culture (and forming an exclusive Oceanographic Society). It was a joyfully relaxing day and this track perfectly encapsulates every emotion I felt on that very emotional day. Constantin captured the tender playfulness and heavy emotion of what it is like to age physically yet remain young at heart, a trait that I hope to carry on with me throughout the rest of my time.

2. Mellow - Instant Love -- from the 2001 release Another Mellow Spring. I first heard Mellow when they soundtracked what is one of my favorite films of all time, CQ (which I'll be posting about in the near future). Since that day, they have managed to become one of those bands that remains in the back of my mind for whenever I head into a record shop, so that I may remember their names in my quest to acquire every bit of audio recording they put their name to. This album is just as its and their name implies, just nice and mellow. It is one of the sweetest songs I've ever heard and continues to imbue in my life nothing but happiness.

3. Seu Jorge - Tive Razao -- from the 2004 album Cru. You probably better know Seu Jorge as Pelé dos Santos, the red-beanied, Bowie-covering, weapons expert, Brazilian aboard Steve Zissou's ship. Or you may know him as Knockout Ned from the disturbingly brilliant City of God. Either way, you should also know him as an unbelievably talented solo musician. He is one of the pioneers in the renewal of samba as a commercially and critically acclaimed movement in Brazil. This album is great, though I hear his first (titled Samba Esporte Fino or Carolina) is supposed to be great. I think you can find that on iTunes.

4. The Mountaineers - UK Theatre -- from the 2003 album Messy Century. I mentioned in one of my last Music Mondays that this song was one of my all time favorites and that I would soon include it. Well why not on my birthday list? I don't know why I find this song to be one of my favorites. I randomly found it about two or three months before I first visited the UK, and while I was there it became my theme for walking around London, to and from my classes, out and about. I must've listened to this song on repeat a hundred times, and it has yet to get old. That's how I know it'll stay a favorite.

5. Jean Constantin - Trinity and Finale -- again, from The 400 Blows. I can't say enough about this score, so I figured I'd round it out with a perfect ending. Truffaut and Constantin just hit it completely right with their collaboration and it's something that I'll never forget no matter how many birthdays go by.

An Eventful Week No Doubt

There are moments in everyone's life where it turns out there are no words to sum up what you're feeling, just words to describe what that feeling is like.

This is one of those times. Well, technically this is two of those times.

Dan snapped this one from the pit. Great job Dan.

Radiohead.

Three friends and I had the distinct pleasure of standing mere feet away from five of the greatest musicians of our time that collectively make up the English group Radiohead.

I was smiling the entire time I was in the pit, looking back and sharing glowing stares of disbelief at the fact that Radiohead was right there in front of us. Right there in front of us playing music. Radiohead is one of those (very) few bands that have continued to astound with each new release and nowhere is this more clearly stated than right in your face, live. Lighting packages aside, the show was phenomenal. Colin Greenwood makes you smile with his giddy jumping and his brother Johnny is just downright capable. More than capable really. I'd say he actually verges on tear-inducing. And what a joy it is to see Thom Yorke completely embracing the status of a front man, completely comfortable now (seemingly) with taking the reigns and guiding the beastly stallion that is Radiohead through an entire show. He just looks happy now. The Boomers had the Beatles and the Stones, we've got Radiohead.


Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

I wanted so desperately to like this movie. Imagine my surprise then when I came out of it absolutely loving it. This isn't because I am a complete fanboy, although that really helps, but it is because while it sometimes doesn't look completely like an Indiana Jones movie, it feels like one right from the start. Harrison is back. He's no longer phoning in performances in third rate buddy cop flicks and terrible romantic dramas. He is Indiana Jones. Good grief I feel like I am in 5th grade again. The movie is everything you want it to be, funny, exciting, action packed and filled with sci-fi fun. It is sentimental when it needs to be and it is frightening when it needs to be.

You might hear terrible things about this movie, but I think that the reason you might is because the people saying these terrible things aren't looking at this movie for what it is. Indiana Jones movies aren't supposed to be based in a complete reality. The Ark of the Covenant being found to melt faces off? The Kali Ma ripping still beating hearts out of still breathing human sacrifices? The impostor Holy Grail speeding up the aging process resulting in a corpse drying more and more by the second? NONE OF THIS STUFF REALLY HAPPENS. Somewhere along the line people must have started thinking these movies were supposed to be Schlinder's List because Spielberg was at the helm.

And Shia LaBeouf. As much as I don't want to give this guy a chance sometimes (mostly because he's just getting some amazing roles and I get snobbishly cynical about films) he keeps on delivering exactly what he needs to. The kid's got talent.

There are so many things in this film that will appease the fanboys like me, inside jokes, nods, whatever you want to call them. But there are also genuine moments that will make you smile no matter how old, young, jaded, or fresh you are in this world. It's got a serious heart and a charm that has had me hook, line and sinker since I was a kid.

Show me a world without an enjoyment of Indiana Jones and I'll show you a world I don't want to live in.