Rush, big time

A lot of people, now that I'm a confident, outgoing, stylish adult with a killer shoe collection and a makeup box to put Carmindy to shame, believe that I must have been popular in high school. Truth be told, I was neither super popular nor super unpopular. I wasn't the prettiest girl around, but no one turned to stone when they looked at me, either. I had friends, interests, activities, boyfriends from time to time, etc. I was mostly average.

The one thing about me that stood out was my devotion to all things band geek. I was a percussionist (and went on to get a degree in percussion), a drum major for the marching band, briefly sang in the choir, played in the school orchestra and jazz band, did well at Solo and Ensemble, you get the picture. And any high school drummer who devotes time to the instrument eventually hears the musical stylings of Neil Peart and is nothing short of hella impressed. When I first heard a recording of Rush at band camp in seventh grade, I was hooked. I had to run right out and get that recording of A Show of Hands so I could listen again and again to the drum solo track, "The Rhythm Method." Turned out that "The Rhythm Method" was a gateway drug. By the time I was a freshman in high school I had found all of Rush's albums on my own, and if you were the person who wanted to borrow Chronicles from the Niles Public Library that summer, I am really, really sorry.

Rush stayed with me through boyfriends and college and moving and grad school and more boyfriends and a husband and more moving and into my career. Rush was the first concert I ever saw (not saying how old I am, but it was the Counterparts tour, and if you're the person who stole my concert t-shirt out of the laundry at Lawrence, you're going to Hades). I made one of my first friends in college when Jeremy, seeing me walking down the hall in my Rush t-shirt, fell to his knees and said, "A girl Rush fan! A pretty girl Rush fan! Wow." Yes, female Rush fans are few and far between, but look at it this way: I never have to wait in line for the bathroom at their concerts.

Being a Rush fan for over half my life, you can imagine my happiness when I saw that Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage, a documentary following the band's 35+ year career, was coming to theaters nearby for a one night engagement. Here's the trailer:




In short: Three geeky guys form a band, band puts out millions of records, the guys stay geeky, and now that people like Stephen Colbert have a big hand in pop culture, it's cool to like Rush. What keeps Rush relevant? Lyrics that resonate with their intelligent, mostly marginalized audience, and more musical technique in one finger than most bands will gain in a lifetime. The movie also has a 100 percent fresh rating on RottenTomatoes.com. Missed it in the theaters? It'll be available on DVD June 29.

Even if you fall into the camp of "the sound of Geddy Lee's voice makes my ears bleed," consider Netflixing the movie. It's a fascinating look at what Rush has meant to today's pop culture leaders...and what they meant to yesterday's band geeks.

Sandy Clawstrophobia

The reason I don't talk much about movies, in this blog or to anyone else, is because I'm not that big a movie watcher. And when you don't watch a lot of movies, you feel like you don't have an "acceptable" answer to the question of what your favorite movie is. My friends and family all have really cool favorite movies. My sister's favorite movie is Run Lola Run. My mom's favorite movie is The Day the Earth Stood Still. My husband's favorite movie is Star Wars.

My favorite movie depends on who I'm talking to. If I'm talking to someone I have to impress with my intelligence and worldliness, I tell him/her that my favorite movie is Do the Right Thing. If it's someone who I know fairly well, however, or someone that I know won't judge me for my tastes, I tell him/her that my favorite movie is The Nightmare Before Christmas. Thing is, I like both these movies equally. I've enjoyed all the Spike Lee movies I've seen, and all the Tim Burton movies. I know they're about as different as one person's favorite movies can get, but they're my favorites and I'm sticking with them. When you're not sure what a person will think of you when you reveal your favorite movie to him/her, you always go with the more "intelligent" of the picks, yes? I have always found The Nightmare Before Christmas to be witty and fun, but if you tell someone you don't know that it's your favorite movie, their probable reaction will be, "Isn't that a kids' movie?" Yes, just like Harry Potter is a kids' book.

This message brought to you by my enormous happiness at the release of the 2-disc collector's edition DVD of The Nightmare Before Christmas. Because if you can't sing your love for Tim Burton loud and proud, life is no good.

Nick and Norah's infinite soundtrack

The soundtrack listing for Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist As you would expect it to be, it's full of indie rock, both new and previously released. I confess I've heard of almost none of the bands because my taste in music is more Led Zeppelin, Rush, and The Who, but perhaps I shall expand my musical knowledge and check out these bands.

Soundtrack listing is available here: Vampire Weekend, Devo Dude Team for Movie Song.

Trailer for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Who wants to go see it in IMAX with me?



For a higher-quality video, visit Moviefone.

So much squee!

Nick and Norah's Infinite Cast List

At Cinematical, by Eugene Novikov: From Page to Screen: Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. It's a look at Michael Cera's body of work, and how it qualifies him, or not, to play smart emo-kid Nick in the upcoming Nick and Norah movie. I'm not terribly familiar with Michael Cera's work outside of Superbad, but I found the article interesting nonetheless.

Until...

The book tells the story of his whirlwind, night-long courtship with Norah. She's a complicated girl dealing with her own painful break-up. Both have to fight through layers upon layers of insecurities to trust each other and realize that they've stumbled onto something once-in-a-lifetime.

It's not, to be honest, all that inspiring. The novel was written for teens, but is racy enough that the older kids for whom it's suitable might be bored by the writing style, which is annoying in its self-conscious hipness. Moments in it are genuinely sweet, and Cohn and Levithan convey a nice sense of being young, free, and faced with a world full of possibilities. It's a quick, decently engaging read, but nothing earth-shattering.

Uh, what? I don't know where this guy's been, but the older teens for whom it's suitable were not bored by it. It was named not just to BBYA, but to Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults, which weighs the popularity of a book much more than its quality. It's in a high number of BCCLS libraries and enjoys good circulation. Rachel Cohn and David Levithan regularly speak to groups of enthusiastic teenagers. Also, no, Nick and Norah was not earth-shattering, but who says it has to be? There is nothing wrong with quick, decently engaging reads. Personally, I think they make for better movies than a lot of the literary stuff out there. Not that I don't love the literary, of course, but what comes through amazingly well in words doesn't always work well on the screen.

A commenter takes issue with the "not inspiring" line, saying: inspiring?! it's a fucking young adult novel written for, um, young adults. not movie critics, literary critics, or, god forbid, adults. it is a funny, racy, energetic novel about teens. god this is what i hate about the literary world. to be a "worthy writer" you have to use long words. that's bullshit. a writer can pull a reader in, bring up emotions, teach them something, entertain them.

To which Novikov replies: All I meant was that it's not very good -- which it's not. It's a perfectly acceptable, readable teen novel. There are better ones.

Let's put aside the "Is Nick & Norah a good book?" argument. I thought it was. Novikov didn't. He read the book and gave it his honest assessment, which is fair enough for me. But what I want to know is, when he says "There are better ones," what does he mean? I looked through his articles at Cinematical and he didn't seem to have written anything else involving YA literature. Mr. Novikov, if you read this, I would love to know what other YA you read, and what you thought of it. What made these particular books better than Nick & Norah?