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Luc Sante likes him a great deal and I do like Sante. What I want to know, though, has anyone read Sonata for Jukebox: Pop Music, Memory and the Imagined Life, an unfurlingly sensorial memoir from poet, essayist and editor Geoffrey O' Brien? Although it has been a few years since its initial 2004 Counterpoint Press printing, I still remember the airiness of the reviewers' prose and just how willing they were, not only succombing to what the writer remembered feeling when he listened to a particular song but how easy it is to make a defining, intimate connection with what we listen to (and love).
One such reviewer likened the affair to Proust and his indelible madeleine - instead with records (adding to that an affectionate ear). Sounds about right. And to the reason for the solicitation: I saw Sonata while scanning the clearance section the other day. Pretty exciting when you're not expecting to find a familiar title, let alone one that has elicited so much praise. I have some credit left on a store gift card, so it's either this or a special order guide to learn more about writing proposals and grants for grassroots organizations.
Any direction - on either topic, frankly - would be appreciated. You guys are a store of discerning information, varied backgrounds and thoughtful responses: I'll trust what you tell me.
Half Nelson director Ryan Fleck possesses the sort of intuitable partiality that not only dictates a film score made up of 16 or so Broken Social Scene songs but a fairly transparent list of influences, including Paul Auster, thinker-writer-pacifist Howard Zinn, director Hal Ashby, John Lennon, the city of Brooklyn and his dad's website aimed at engaging the interest of kids in how things change. I love this movie, not for merely imbuing "Stars & Sons" with the same relevant generational nostalgia as Simon & Garfunkel's Bookends but emboldening nascent independent filmmakers to tell the story they want to tell with genuine, not overly handled portrayals.
Dan Dunne (Ryan Gosling) is a Brooklyn inner-city teacher with a pronounced ideological rudder, mostly at odds with the people who hired him - but not the kids he is trying to reach. Historical manifests abound during class time, from the charged Berkeley protests to the fatal U.S. installment of General Pinochet. His class not only learns about change but how to understand what occurs between a duality in forces, fist driving against fist as Dunne illustrates in the classroom, using his own hands. It's clear that a resolution, of some kind, must follow.
That Dunne is meanwhile addicted to crack poses some fierce face-in-the-mirror reckoning, especially when student Drey (Shareeka Epps) finds him sweaty faced and high in a bathroom stall, following a basketball game he just coached (and she just played in). Thereafter both acknowledge in the other a mutual desire to connect and a tentative friendship emerges, punctuated by a series of images that are as instructive as the dialogue itself, like Dunne's lip tabbed with a stars and stripes bandaid after a wholly destructive night and the obviously learned street posturing affected by the otherwise quiet Drey when confronting the chubby kid who stole her bike.
Half Nelson affirms how exerting the contemporary (one scene has Dunne railing against the number of people who still believe that Iraq was directly involved with September 11) can actually gird the story's direction rather than overwhelm it, much like the little-seen sociopolitical lobbing of Sorry Haters and Todd Solondz's Palindromes. Ryan Gosling is as strong here as he was in The Slaughter Rule and Shareeka Epps' film debut will undoubtedly earn her a role in an equally worthy project soon. Likewise integral and deserving of mention is cinematographer Andru Parekh who presents a Brooklyn not entirely apart from the glassed-in bodegas, yet the scaling and light appears more intimate, in service to the personal story being told.
What I really wanted to do was post someYouTube from the Independent Spirit Awards - especially the karaoke-like novelty bids for the Best Film nominees. Disappointingly, not one rendition could be found. Rosario Dawson, chosen for the Half Nelson punchline, turned Dusty Springfield's "Son of a Preacher Man" into "Crack-Headed Teacher Man" to the obvious pleasure of the immediate cast (as well as the rest of the room). Don't you just love an awards show that forgoes the usual what-are-they-wearing folderol and encourages attendees to laugh and share in the joke? Anyway, I broke up the above text with a festival Q & A, Parts 1 and 2, instead.
Comments
sounds great. and the broken social scene score is a definite plus. must go check this out.
Okay, aside from the robust selection of artist recommendations and the regardful give-and-take, I also depend on MOG for vicarious festival seating. So while some of you make real-life travel plans for SXSW or Coachella - maybe call in some favors to secure weekend accommodations at a friend's already small apartment - I, unfortunately, can only anticipate the colorful posts that will end up here, in the Mogos, once you get to where you're going (with your wireless notebook). Admittedly both festivals were capricious after-work talk for me and my sister - as well as a friend whose publicity company will be hosting one of those SXSW kick-off parties - but if a selfless benefactor suddenly appeared with the promise of one ticket, I would lay my heart open without hesitation: Noise Pop. I might even shout a little...have you seen the schedule of performers? I'm surprised that the all-access badges sold out only two days ago, what with all of the shows and events crammed into the Feb. 27-March 4 calendar, including art exhibits, readings, panel discussions and film screenings.
Can you remember the last time you went to a show where you liked everyone on the bill or, better, discovered a band that you soon added to your list of favorites? Of course you do...such serendipity is rare and duly prized. The people behind Noise Pop - founder and local music supporter Kevin Arnold enlisted Death Cab for Cutie's manager Jordan Kurland to help sort out the growing number of venues and performers in 1997 - are likewise pinned to that notion, distinguishing, I think, the Bay Area festival from even those with a higher profile or a (college) music industry bent: "The focus is on the fans. It's a music-lover's celebration: the shows sell out, people have fun, and every year the event grows a little bigger."
Check out the history of Noise Pop here, including past performers, audio samples, merchandise and poster art. You'll find live reviews, interviews and features from Noise Pop 2007 on the homepage:
Noise Pop 2008...who wants to meet up?
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Scheduled to appear
The Actual Annuals Aqueduct Audrye Sessions Ryan Auffenberg Autolux Maria Bamford Ray Barbee and the Mattson 2 Bellavista The Bent Moustache Black Fiction Karl Blau The Botticellis Boyskout Brightback Morning Light Built for the Sea Cake Nicki Chambly The Changes Vic Chesnutt Clinic Comedians of Comedy The Coup The Dandy Warhols Etienne de Rocher Dead Meadow Death of a Party Alela Diane Dios Malos Dodo Bird David Dondero The Donnas The Dwarves Earlimart Elephone Erase Errata Roky Erickson and the Explosives (13th Floor Elevators) Ester Drang Extra Action Marching Band The French Kicks Georgie James Ghostland Observatory Laura Gibson Girl Band Golem The Gray Kid Gris Gris Har Mar Superstar Hella Jolie Holland Honeycut Howlin' Rain Damien Jurado Land Shark Langhorne Slim Lemon Sun Ted Leo and the Pharmacists Loquat Love Like Fire Love of Diagrams Lyrics Born Macromantics Magic Bullets Malajube Willy Mason Matt & Kim Midlake Midnight Movies Minipop Money Mark The Morning Benders The Mumlers Alexi Murdoch New Amsterdams The New Trust Thao Nguyen No Age The Old-Fashioned Way The Oohlas Oranger Patton Oswalt The Other Side Pants Pants Pants Peloton Pilot Speed Pony Come Lately The Ponys Poor Bailey Pop Levi Brian Posehn Push to Talk Josh Ritter Zach Rogue Rum Diary Scissors for Lefty Scrabbel Sea Wolf Sebadoh Send For Help Simon Dawes Mariee Sioux Snowden So Many Dynamos Spindrift Spinto Band St. Vincent Starlite Desperation State Radio Street to Nowhere The Submarines Tapes 'n Tapes Tartufi Trainwreck Riders John Vanderslice The Watson Twins The White Barons Women and Children Wooden Shjips
It might be worthwhile to mention the non-obvious yet relevant fact that NoisePop! takes place in San Francisco. Wish I could be there.... maybe in 2008.
MOG Meter
Comments
I have somehow missed this book, a fact that upsets me more than a little. Will be checking it out instanter.
I did read this book when it came out, based on the evocative reviews and the fact that I used to listen to O'Brien's dad on the radio when he was one of the WMCA Good Guys. It is sort of a musical memoir (although comparing it to Proust is something of a stretch), and I enjoyed it a lot, as I suspect anyone who listens to and thinks about music pretty obsessively would.
Now you've reminded me to go back and read more Proust.