Thursday, August 6, 2009

Things to be excited about


Whats this? A stop-motion animation movie about a talking fox? Wait...theres more... a stop-motion animation movie about a talking fox directed by Wes Anderson with featured voice talent of George Clooney, Owen Wilson, Bill Murray, and pint-sized dream boat Jason Schwartzman. All of this information is pretty much new to me, yet so far I have already heard some premature clamoring about Wes Anderson's adaptation of the Ronald Dahl's classic. They say that it seems to have already missed the mark. There are even some gripes about the animation looking "creepy" and "flat". Personally, I think it looks beautiful. I sorely miss the warm charm of stop-motion animation and hand-drawn cartoons that I associate with my youth. And yes, I'm sure that this adaptation will be chalk-full of all the witty quips and quirky moments that are the trademark of Wes Anderson films. I don't care that over the past years Wes has been crowned "king of the hipsters". I love him, I love all his films and his imaginary world and I'm sure Fantastic Mr. Fox will be just as charming and quirky as ever.


Kitties. I love kitties. All of them. Especially this one at my parent's house. His name is Atticus and he has the longest fangs I have ever seen on a cat his size. They just hang out of his little mouth, making him look like a mischievous little devil (which he is, but the kind of devil you like).


Beck being hard at work at covering the Velvets AND an acoustic version of his latest album, Modern Guilt. This rendition of "Chemtrails" is wonderfully dreamy. There is actually very little this man can do that I don't automatically love. And I know he catches an unfair amount of flack from these music snobs *cough* Pitchfork *cough* for not sounding like Odelay anymore. There are so few artists who have the breadth and range as Beck...every now and then I delve through his discography and am constantly amazed at how well his songs age and how far he has come artistically. No, he isn't exactly reinventing the wheel anymore, but anyone would be hard-pressed to find a musician who has the seemingly unsurpassed creativity that Beck has.

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