reviews

watching:
a very long engagement

or, as my wife (update your blog, dude) sagaciously noted, sould have been titled "a very long movie" and there lies the flaw of this very good movie - unnecessarily long and a bit overcomplicated plot. still - very touching, moving, a touch of whimsy to offset some very gritty and brutal imagery - this movie reunites the team from amelie - actress audrey tautou and director jean-pierre jeunet - similar in some respects - style, photography, but very different in tone. amelie is one of my favorite movies ever and this is a notch below.

reading:
lance armstrong's war

a balanced picture of one of the people i admire most. what i like about this book is that it does not portray lance as a saint - but as a human, with many great qualities, and yet who's drive to win seems to overwhelm nearly everything. this is precisely why i could never achieve massive levels of success in any area (not to mention lack of talent), my goal is to have a balanced life. vive le difference as the french might say. it's what makes the world go round. we need those (doctors, dalai lamas, lance armstrong's) to inspire us with their single minded dedication, yet the world might be a scary place is everyone was so singularly focused - well, that's my opinion anyhow. back to the book, also paints a good portrait of some of lance's teammates and competitors.

listening:
the grateful dead: europe '72 and live/dead



i have decided i like the grateful dead. why the hesitation? i didn't know it was possible to like the grateful dead. here are what i have always thought the only possible responses to them:

• who?


• heard truckin' on a classic rock station, saw touch of grey on vh1 classic and wonder what the fuss is


• derision towards them and their fans


• a commitment towards the band rivalled only by, perhaps the commitment of the sadhus of india, which, come to think of it, bear an uncanny resemblance to deadheads
  

truth be told, i have been in all but the last categories, but partly because i had a deadhead cousin, i listened to them here and there...partly thru their online radio station

so anyhow, after admiring jerry garcia's guitar's at the r&r hall of fame last weekend, i decided to purchase some of their music. from what i read, knew and heard, i settled on europe 72 and live/dead - which are very good. now i can't imagine these records to inspire me to sell all my possessions and follow them around (well, assuming they were still torung), but they are good records. i still have a nagging question though - why them? what about them inspired such devotion? i would say, little feat, a band that plays similar music, is better, yet to my knowledge, there are no "feat heads". i think partly had to do with how the band viewed and treated its fans - encouraging them to tape shows etc...and it just kinda snowballed...
at any rate, they have been dominating my ipod for the past few days...