Windy & Carl BLUES FOR A UFO (2017)

An elegy for Detroit.

THE FLORIDA PROJECT dir. Sean Baker (2017)

The Little Rascals meets WorldStarHipHop meets The Dubliners. Mr. Baker is tremendously talented behind the camera, and the contributions he gets from these young first-time actors is extraordinary. Willem Dafoe deserves his Oscar rolled to him on a cart. Magic has always belonged to those who know how to see it.

BLACK PANTHER dir. Ryan Coogler (2018)

If they were going to set events in motion in 1992 on the West Coast I wish it could have been Rodney King and the L.A. riots, but that was probably a bridge too far for Disney.  Still glad the youth get a version of Malcom v. Martin souped-up with women saving the day left and right. When we were in middle-school, we got what--Episode I? Our politics was fucking trade policy and blockades on Naboo?  Now they get oblique criticism of America's neglect at home and brutality abroad. It only takes a bit of iodine in the salt.  The kids are and will be alright.

On the subject of moons and the value of indirect light:

LOGAN LUCKY dir. Steven Soderbergh (2017)

Like a dunce, I let the Amazon rental expire before getting a proper screencap, but that is sort of apropos for a film that didn't know how to poster or name itself, but manages to be dynamic, heartfelt and unfussy. Everything with the Logan family was lovely, as Tatum and Driver perfectly play the young gifted, cursed and waiting.  Insanely stupid Seth MacFarlane subplot + Hilary Swank swamping up the pace nearly derail things in the third act, but there's still more than enough grace and thought to go around.  Katherine Waterson appears like an avatar of benevolence, David Denman and Jim O'Heir add NBC heuristic depth, shorthand currencies, and the divide between West Virginia and North Carolina is its own character, in the way that New York City gets credit for spiffing up every half-cocked movie set there, but better as it illustrates the random, easy opulence on one side, the rundown allegiance of the other.  Goes without saying? Starving makes you hungry. Hungry makes you brave.


ps
We lived a couple blocks over from Peabody Energy HQ, largest privately held coal company in the world.  King Arthur met dogs owned by employees around there and it was chagrining, meeting these young folks doing the gearshifting of evil but not being evil, just being willfully ignorant, its own kind of despicable but maybe forgivable.  Forgivable doesn't mean forgiven.

Rhye BLOOD (2018)

I'd been looking forward to this practically all 2017.  They released maybe a single per month and each fit snugly but uniquely into their fractalized-Sade aesthetic. In some realms, these are lesser times--there's no record label money for a house band of hot session guys, there's no album sales for Rhye to get points and go rogue.  Minimalism is less a choice than necessity.  And they turn that interiority into a strength, like the poetry of Carl Philips, no one can limit your access to self-excavation and myths are open source.

My Morning Jacket OKONOKOS (2006)

Best concert I've ever seen and bests Live Rust as favorite live album.  Still haunted by guilt that I forgot to text Scott about the Crystal Ballroom show. WHAT IF PEARL JAM WAS GOOD???

Harold Budd/Robin Guthrie BORDEAUX (2011)

We spent a few days in Bordeaux at the end of our trip two summers ago.  It was a vibrant, smelly, lovely town with barrels of history, down to the 3rd century roman amphitheater ruins that humbly sat at the end of an avenue of apartments, functioning more as bird sanctuary than tourist destination.  The Euro Cup was going on, we celebrated a French penalty kick with some convenience shop owners who signaled us to duck in, we watched the Portuguese fans go nuts and drive and honk and wave flags for hours after their win.  With all the hubbub and extra security, it was still oddly serene being in a place of constant human habitation for two millennia, where all had been weathered. That kind of peace that monasteries and abbeys have, as if preserved structures are some sluice for time where grace can wash across centuries.



Kids, always where a helmet when winebiking in a foreign land!

Nils Frahm ALL MELODY (2018)

Let me welcome you to the Frahmily.

MOONLIGHT dir. Barry Jenkins (2016)

Clarity can only clean out your pockets, clarity won't put you in debt.

Camila Cabello CAMILA (2017)

I'm just going to quote the Fluxblog here.  Matthew Perpetua is one of the best critics still hanging around, a last lion of the aughts who survived the machinations, buy-outs, and culture wars with integrity intact. You should subscribe to his TinyLetter and stay smart.

"Camila Cabello is charismatic and has a good voice, but I think the major reason she’s been so successful in the past few months is that her songs pivot away from rigid production and nondescript ambiance of so much mid-10s pop music and embrace things like… chords. The piano chords in “Havana” are crucial to the song’s appeal, and they’re not something that just blends into the mix, or signify cheap sentimentality. You’re meant to hang on the sound of them, to feel the groove and the reverb and the slight imperfection of someone playing a piano in a room. It feels alive in a subtle way that makes it seem vibrant in comparison for doing something that in the grand scheme of recorded music is more normal than not. And she does this without selling “authenticity.” It just is, and it makes the more modern elements like the very Rihanna-ish chorus pop a bit more than if it was presented with the same airless production as everything else. “Inside Out,” an album track I have to assume will be issued as a single sometime this year since it has a very “song of the summer” feel to it, does the same trick by contrasting acoustic piano and steel drums with a glossy approach to the vocal production. All signs point to Cabello being just ahead of a stylistic curve, and frankly, I’m relieved."

I think Selena Gomez could make all these songs better but girl just got a fresh kidney so her understudy is more than welcome to take the spotlight and keep the bops 100. Never Be the Same- Radio Edit needs a further Kygo trophouse remix; it's just on this side of bland, and the falsetto needs some focus taken off it. I will never understand why they didn't throw OMG on here.  Quavo is the trap-Chance and everything he touches gets that succinct zest. Funnily enough, it's the one song I don't think Selena would do better.  Camila does an awesome Rihanna imitation, the Caribbean hey-batter hey-batter patter sounds effortlessly cool, breezy: take it or leave it, I don't care, but we both know you're going to take it.

INGRID GOES WEST dir. Matt Spicer (2017)

Terrific ensemble, Aubrey Plaza in her deranged wheelhouse, and a clever, cogent investigation of our image-obsessed, curated generation, where every bowl of ramen is a branding opportunity. Especially poignant are the two scions of fame (sons of Ice Cube and Kurt Russell) who bring tender, wounded masculinity-once-removed to the film. 

Here for a good time, not for a long time.