April 30th, 2009

Amidst the loud fuzz of guitar driven distortion comes the Silversun Pickups sophomore album, Swoon. It improves upon their impressive debut, Carnavas, in its more intricate arrangements and fully realized song structures. Most of the songs on Swoon top four and a half minutes and feature the ballad turned rocker design of one of their foremost influences, The Smashing Pumpkins.

The Pumpkins similarities abound on Swoon; from the album’s artwork, the lead singer’s vocals (which sound a lot like Billy Corgan’s), to the nature of the arrangements which resemble the Pumpkins earlier material. Listen to the “Soma” like influence of “Growing Old Is Getting Old” and the “Rocket” like theatrics of “Panic Switch,” the album’s finest song.

Much like the Pumpkins did in their heyday, the Pickups know how to find beauty in noise. If you like a lot of good guitar work and songs with gorgeous melodies that build to thrilling conclusions, you’ll find a lot to like in Swoon. Needless to say, if you liked Carnavas, you’ll really like Swoon.

One of the greatest times of the year for top notch movies is the summer! Movie execs even change the dates their movies debut in order to take part in this sweltering time of year. Here are six films we can’t wait to see during the Summer 2009 movie season…

June

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen – Summer is an infamous time of year for sequels and 2009 is no exception.  The trailer alone for “Transformers 2” promises amazing action, explosive destruction, CG-palooza and there’s even a plot thrown in there too. Sam Witwicky (LaBeouf) discovers the back story of the giant robots that are causing demolition worldwide – Egypt, Paris and the US. The cherry on this sundae – IMAX footage, which is sure to enhance the already exciting special effects. June 24th.

Away We Go – “Go’s” trailer caught my eye when I saw “Adventureland.” The odd couple of John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph (two hugely funny actors not frequently seen on the large screen) had me scribbling down the release date in the dark theater so I wouldn’t forget. “Go” is a “road trip” film for adults as Krasinski and Rudolph travel to see family and friends to find a place that feels like home before they become parents for the first time. Maggie Gyllenhaal, Allison Janney, Jeff Daniels, and Catherine O’Hara are just a couple of the odd ball friends and family members visited by the pregnant couple. June 5th.

July

Public Enemies – Johnny Depp and Christian Bale – that’s all you need to be sold on this summer semi bio-pic. Directed by the successful Michael Mann (“Collateral,” “Ali,” “The Insider,” “Heat,” and “The Last of the Mohicans”) this film is already being talked about as the only summer film that will be remembered at Oscar time.  “Enemies” is a depression era crime drama about infamous bank robber John Dillinger (Depp) and the clean cut FBI agent determined to bring him in, Melvin Purvis (Bale).  Two stories from behind the scenes recount that Bale was in character 24/7 and that Depp was actually giddy at the opportunity to handle Dillinger’s actual brief case. This is going to be a real box office melter. July 1st.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince – “Prince” should have been on the Fall ’08 list, but the higher ups who made the movie moved it to summer ’09 for financial reasons. The 2nd to last book in the JK Rowling series has a darker story that revolves around the origins of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Through multiple memory type flashback sequences the audience and Harry will learn a lot more about Voldemort’s history. There’s also the prospect of love for some of our favorite Hogwarts’ students (but I won’t tell you who in case you haven’t read the book). July 15th.

August

The Boat That Rocked – Haven’t heard of this movie yet? That’s ok – you’ll be dying to see it because of the cast alone: Philip Seymour Hoffman (“Doubt”), Emma Thompson (“Stranger Than Fiction’), Gemma Arterton (“Quantum of Solace”), Bill Nighy (“Love Actually”), Kenneth Branagh (“Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets”), January Jones (“Mad Men”), Rhys Darby (“Yes Man”), Jack Davenport (the “Pirates” movies), Nick Frost (“Hot Fuzz”), Rhys Ifans (“Elizabeth: The Golden Age”), Kirsty Mather (“Mamma Mia”), and Tom Wisdom (“300”). What a line up! And it’s directed by Richard Curtis who did “Love Actually.” August 28th.

Inglourious Basterds – Yes, the movie title is spelled correctly. Leave it director Quentin Tarantino to find the craziest spelling for his latest film starring Brad Pitt, Mike Myers, B.J. Novak, Samuel L. Jackson and Cloris Leachman. “Inglourious” is two stories in one – the first is about a Jewish girl whose family is killed by Nazis, she leaves and ends up working at a movie theatre, and infatuated with a German war hero and plotting revenge for her family’s deaths. The second story – a group of Jewish-American soldiers who are working behind enemy lines plot their own scheme against the Nazis. How do the two stories relate? The movie theater is the key (how ironic). August 21st.

Night 21 at camp is a late, quiet night. After Joe’s medical leave, the Survivor’s are a bit down.  Coach brightens the mood with a warm and fuzzy campfire story.  He tells the cameras, “I just wanted to share a piece of my life with them. I wanted to show them that no matter how bad it gets…there’s always something that’s going to make it much worse.”  Coach’s story: “There are three people in the world that know this story.” (this turns out to be false per Jeff Probst’s blog) Coach tells the story about when he was kayaking in the Amazon and was captured by indigenous people, tortured, beaten, tied up, felt that death was coming, etc, etc finally escaping on his own and kayaking to safety.

The tribe’s mood is not lightened and by the look on everyone’s faces – no one is buying Coach’s fable, but no one can think of anything to say either. It’s quiet.  Brendan sums up this Coach moment, “Honestly, like, Coach is either the new coming of Jacques Cousteau or he’s ya know basically the biggest fraud that is in this game.”

In the a.m. Coach is in the water doing his Samurai poses.  This is the first time the former Jalapao sees Coach’s warrior moves.  Brendan asks Coach about the origins of the poses. Coach responds, “It’s called Chong Ran, and it’s an ancient Tibetan…if you do a Google search on it, you won’t find it. It’s only passed down verbally. You have to go there as a monastery to study it.”  Next Coach makes his first reference this show to being the “Dragon Slayer.”

Erinn and JT talk while fishing. Erinn confesses she likes JT’s tribe more than her own and realizes she has room to play with alliances and votes. She’s coming from a tribe where her only alliance mate was medevaced home into a group that’s low in numbers that could use an extra person on their side. 

The reward challenge has the Survivors split into teams of three and each team has eight ceramic tiles. One person from each team takes turns throwing metal balls at the opposing teams’ tiles. The last team to have all tiles broken wins a white water rafting trip, lunch, and the responsibility of choosing someone to go to Exile – alone.  The teams: Black Team – Debbie, Brendan and JT; The Red Team – Tyson, Taj and Coach; and the White Team – Sierra, Erinn and Stephen.  It’s a close game until Erinn knocks out the last tile for the Red team kicking them out of the game!  Only White or Black could win.  The game remains tight when both Brendan and Erinn chip only some of their targeted tiles. So the game is still neck and neck.  Brendan is up to throw again and finishes the job! The Black team wins. They choose Stephen to go to Exile.  As Stephen is leaving Coach whispers “Be the wizard. Be the wizard Stephen.” (I just roll my eyes).

On Exile – Stephen is given all the clues, but was already aware of where the Hidden Immunity Idol was. He was hoping there would be a third Idol thrown into the game, but there isn’t.  He struggles to make fire – a lot.  He knows that fire = food = survival, which is enough motivation for him to spark a flame! He compares it to having his first child – he’s so proud of himself.

On the reward – JT, Debbie and Brendan really enjoy the rafting adventure. At their picnic Brendan outlines some of his strategy ideas to JT. In the confessional camera Brendan admits that even if JT wins the million dollars, if Brendan is in the finals with JT he would feel like he won as well. (This concept doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense to me. Isn’t the point of being on Survivor to win the million?).

The next morning Brendan discusses with Sierra about not voting out JT but bringing him into their alliance.  Later Brendan and Taj discuss the same thing and Taj is on board.

The Individual Immunity Challenge is next.  Each Survivor is attached to a rope, which is threaded through an obstacle course. The first three Survivors to make it through the obstacles moves onto an larger obstacle course still attached to the rope of course. The game begins and there are clear front-runners and clear losers.  In the front – JT, Tyson, and Debbie.  In the back – Taj and Stephen.  The first three to complete the course and move on are: Brendan, Tyson and JT.  The final obstacle course is three stories tall with all men neck in neck once again.  But ultimately it is Tyson who wins the second individual immunity challenge in a row. 

Back at camp the team congratulates Stephen on his first fire while on Exile. The conversation quickly turns to the vote that night. Tyson advises they spilt their votes, four for Brendan and three for Sierra.  This alliance is Taj, Stephen, JT, Debbie and Taj.  Brendan evokes the Exile secret alliance with added member JT planning the votes for Coach (the two alliances have three over lapping members – Stephen, JT and Taj) – so tonight’s vote will be interesting to see which way those three Survivors go.  And in the final confessional before Tribal Council Coach refers to himself as the “chosen one” and in a quick reality check – refers to himself as “Coach Wade.”

Tribal Council – Jeff asks Taj who tells the best campfire stories and she brings up Coach’s captured in the Amazon story. He elaborates on the details he left out and mentions he’s been in about eight life and death situations so far.  This gets a sarcastic smile from the host and the whole tribe.  Next the hidden immunity idol is brought up. And Taj out right confesses that she does not have it. Next Jeff straight forwardly asks Erinn if she has it, she says no. Jeff asks Stephen, he says no. The Jeff asks Brendan who says yes, he does have an idol.  And now they vote. Once the votes are read Brendan is blindsided meaning that everyone went with how Coach wanted it to go. This scares me.

Until next time…