The Best Things #5

There are flying saucers overhead, bringing us afternoon tea. The radio makes the same sound over and over again, so it’s so hard to dance. There’s a holy man outside selling hotdogs and beer. It isn’t raining yet, but god does the sky look threatening.

These are the Best Things Ever for August 26, 2004
August 27, 2004
August 28, 2004
August 29, 2004
August 30, 2004

NUMBER FIVE

The Server Being a Jerk

Weeks back, I was informed this site, graphicmatt.com (And its sister site, graphicmatt.net) would be moving servers on August 24. My ISP informed me that, “during the move you will experience some disruption in service, this is normal. You are advised to backup your site and retrieve any important information before the above stated date and time.” What they neglected to mention was that this ‘disruption in service’ would entail the unleashing of what I can only estimate as no less than SIXTEEN rabid and hungry gremlins with gnashing teeth and destructive tendancies. I haven’t been so annoyed since that time I was forced to watch two Old Navy commercials back-to-back.

I apologize to my dozens of readers for what have must have been confusing behaviour on the part of this site last week. Articles disappearing, and then reappearing — a veritable cyber reenactment of the last twenty minutes of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? — plus a non-responsive message board can’t have been too fun. Plus, the articles that DID appear on the site were about some fucking bus. I’d be pretty pissed off about THAT, too.

NUMBER FOUR

Skies of Arcadia

I love videogames. They’re an amazing effective distraction from the mundanity of life. There’s something about being able to lose yourself for four hours in a virtual world where things explode a lot and everything feels vaguely Japanese. Sega’s Skies of Arcadia is my latest obsession, and man is it a particularly nerdy one. I haven’t played a turn-based RPG (For you non-gamers out there, ‘RPG’ stands for Rocket Propelled Grenade, or sometimes Role Playing Game, depending on whether or not you’re in the mid-east) since Chrono Trigger or Super Mario RPG back in halycon days of Super Nintendo.

Time away from the genre has made me realize just how much I missed it. These games are the videogame equivalent of crack (no, not hosted crack). Sure, on the surface they look like plodding random-battle-infested snoozers with the same lame story spun out again, and again, and again, but once you actually sit down and start PLAYING, you realize that they’re actually plodding random-battle-infested snoozers with the same lame story spun out again, and again, and again that you can’t stop playing.

Skies of Arcadia is driving me crazy. I often want to jump through a plate glass window when I get to a point where I don’t know what to do yet keep having to fight random monsters who appear out of nowhere. The characters, dialogues and sound effects are all cringe-inducing. The story is taking weird turns with no apparent end in sight. I played for six hours straight last night.

NUMBER THREE

Garden State

Zach Braff’s Garden State is yet another flag bearer for a genre of film that’s made a comeback in recent years. Best typified by Lost in Translation, these films follow in the grand tradition of films like The Graduate, The Big Chill and Gross Point Blank by being unaplogetically linked to their (non-orchestrated) soundtracks. These newer films go even further in their reliance on their music. The soundtrack to these films don’t merely provide a subtle audio backdrop to the movie, but rather they stand beside the movie as a vital facet in its composition and artistic success. The films move to the beat of the music; the shots themselves propelled forward by the lyrics, the instruments and the swelling of a crescendo.

The downside to this kind of movie-making is that if the audience member hates the soundtrack, they’re probably going to hate the film. It also tends to lead to slower moving, more visceral films that work a lot better in a theatre setting than they do on video. There isn’t a lot of story. Instead, the director asks us to experience things along with these characters. It’s an emotional style of filmmaking, and one that isn’t going to resonate with everyone.

As far as I’m concerned, however, Garden State represents a fantastic achievement for Zach Braff. It’s rare that first-time directors put together such confident works. Though there are a few scenes I could point out as being too drawn out or unnecessary (Peter Sarsgaard standing there awkwardly as Zach and Natalie kiss? Yeah.), as a whole I felt this was a film deserving of great praise. Natalie Portman gives a stand-out performance, playing second fiddle only to the goddamned awesome soundtrack, in a film that will almost definitely end up on my Top 10 list.

NUMBER TWO

Celebrities

Last week, I presented “Blue Eyes” by Cary Brothers as your Best Song of the Week. It’s one of my favourite tracks on the aforementioned Garden State soundtrack. Proving that I am a popular internet destination, I got an e-mail a few days later from Mr. Brothers:

i was googling to check where my record was being sold online and came across your blog. made me smile, man. i’m happy as hell to have written anybody’s favorite driving song… so cool… hope you dig the film, and thanks for spreading the word…

How cool is THAT? Next stop: Liner Notes! (Maybe a little picture of me in the liner notes)

I was glad to get the e-mail for two reasons. 1) It’s cool to know that my site is being read by more than the same six people over and over again (Though I do love you, six people!) and 2) It confirmed that ‘Cary Brothers’ is actually the name of one person, and not the name of a band made up of two brothers with the last name ‘Cary’. I was wondering about that.

I don’t know if Cary’s album is available anywhere in Canada, but if it is, let me know and I will buy it!

And if any other musicians are reading this site, let me know and I will buy your albums too! I am fucking SHAMELESS.

NUMBER ONE

It’s gonna be a long long time…

I am flying back to Halifax this Thursday. Unfortunately I am stuck at the cottage until Wednesday, so I can’t hang out with awesome people in Toronto like my roommate who has a bass guitar and, I’m sure, other winning qualities. Yes, it would make more sense to send him an e-mail, but I like to be public with my correspondence. It makes me feel more famous.

To make up for my absence from Toronto, here is another song by William Shatner.

And all this science — I don’t UNDERSTAND!

Rocket Man,
Matt