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May 27, 2008

in a town so small there is no escape from you

i know we have been spending an awful lot of time talking about music around here lately - and alot of that is my fault because i tend to be a little bit obsessed with all things music related. and heidi rae has been known to love her sweet tunes as well. but i thought i would take a break from that particular medium if i could and talk about a little television show that has recently seen fit to induct me into its fan club. and in case you are worried that the show i want to talk about is medium starring that arquette girl (you know the one from true romance) i assure you that is not the case. not that i'm condemning that particular show - i just don't feel comfortable watching it because it deals with the spirit world and i know that mom would never approve.

no the show i want to talk about is friday night lights. i've been hearing whispers around the internets for awhile now that it is the best show no one watches or the best written drama based around teenagers portrayed by actors who aren't even close to being teenagers in the history of television - or what have you. and so i caught an episode here and there whenever i could find it on my television. which came to be sort of a challenge because nbc moved it around alot. which is what they tend to do with shows they keep threatening to cancel...but because the interactions were so sporadic i couldn't bring myself to commit to any kind of long term relationship.

but then over the holiday weekend i was wandering around target looking for some sort of visual or aural distraction as i've been sort of laid up with a tragic knee injury - a knee injury sustained by trying to slip 'n slide down the incline. backwards - and so i decided to pick up season one. it was $20.00 (a full $6 cheaper than best buy) for 22 episodes so i figured that made good fiscal sense. even if i wound up hating it i would have a hard time convincing myself that i had been ripped off.

in the interest of full disclosure it's only fair that i confess here and now that i famously hated dawson's creek and felicity and gilmore girls and that ilk during their respective heydeys. felicity had its moments but gilmore girls was just ridiculously overwritten like what juno must be like on steriods. and dawson's creek - well none of those kids were particularly easy to look at and that dawson guy was such a...i don't know...milquetoast maybe? is there a modern day colloquealism for milquetoast that is not completely profane? also am i spelling colloquealism correctly? because it doesn't look quite right to me. i guess it doesn't matter. i was worried that i would be dissappointed. that best case scenario friday night lights would be too much like those other shows i listed above. at worst it would be too much like varsity blues. and aside from being good for a few laughs the less said about that picture the better off we all will be.

anyway so i sat down on saturday evening and starting watching the first season of friday night lights and i must say it was ridiculously enjoyable. i finished it up in two days. with a box of tissues and a tub of ice cream by my side. the writing was good. the acting was good. the story arcs were fairly realistic - i can remember high school being alot like that. with the possible exception of the fact that no one looked like that in my high school. the "kids" at this particular high school are ridiculously and obscenely attractive. oh, and the music they use to punctuate meaningful moments - it's not that grey's anatomy carmel macchiatto crap. i own alot of those albums. i've used alot of those songs on cd mixes. a fact which i find is very life affirming. and any show that uses muzzle of bees and in a future age is okay in my book. i watched the entire first season over the weekend and i plan on picking up season two next time i happen by a target.

so if you aren't already watching you should give it a chance. put it in the netflix queue or drop by 4808 and watch it with me. because like all really great shows it's on the verge of being cancelled. i personally gaurantee that by episode three you'll be hooked. and you'll also be questioning your sexual orientation courtesy of one tim riggins.

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Posted by young_christopher at 6:13 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

May 22, 2008

If only for today, I am unafraid

First of all, I have no idea how the hell the Pitchfork reviewer concluded that Plants and Animals sounds like a distant cousin of Blitzen Trapper. Totally poor comparison. But that's not what this is about.

Last Sunday night Jeff and I attended one of Plants and Animals' little shows in a wee Cambridge venue called TT The Bears Place. I had been stoked about this Sunday for a week. We had new members class at church after which we hopped right on the Red Line to Harvard Square in order to grab Mexican food and margaritas at Border Cafe. Jeff and I constantly crave greasy Mexican food because there is no good place for it in Boston (Cambridge is not Boston as its snooty alt-residents will tell you), so this meal alone was enough to make me giddy with anticipation. The margaritas are always good and strong and we had two each (the better to drink away the sadness at being unable to get a doggy bag for soggy midnight leftovers) and left feeling full and happy.

Dinner - fantastic. We bounced to Central Square to check out the line up and figure out how much time we should kill before the bands we cared about came on. Rock Plaza Central was playing before Plants and Animals and two bands played before them, so we grabbed some drinks at a nearby bar and learned that the Celtics won game seven. The night was going perfectly. We managed to arrive at the end of the first set (it must have gone way over) and the guy who sang next was fine enough, but one random guy and his guitar gets a little long. Finally Rock Plaza Central played and they were glorious. Sadly, their drummer was not there as well as another guy so the songs were stripped down a bit, but still a lot of fun. They finished with "Excellent Steel Horse," and all 30 of us in the audience went crazy.

When Plants and Animals came on, the mood was a little dampened when (totally hot) singer Warren Spicer revealed that he lost his voice in New York the night before (screw you NY!), but will give us all he's got. What he had was pretty much nothing. The mics on the instruments eventually got so cranked you could hardly hear any vocals, which Jeff and I decided was a deliberate move. As the show went on, it got frustrating rather than mildly disappointing. Don't get me wrong, the instrumentals were incredible, but I wanted vocals, dammit! He shouldn't have been singing. He should have canceled instead of risking his voice like that. How did he shred his voice so badly, anyway? It's not like Parc Avenue is some intense death metal scream fest. In fact Spicer's voice has a pretty soft, sexy thing going on most of the time, so...wha happen? My money's on hard partying. Regardless, Jeff and I had a blast together and it made me all the more excited for our next show.

Anyway, here's "Good Friend" - the second song they played. You can imagine how crapped out his voice got a few more songs in:


Posted by heidi at 3:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack