"let's get out of this country" by camera obscura

there is something familiar about tracyanne campbell's songs, something it seems that maybe we've heard before. that is not to say that they are not original, or fresh, because in fact they are wonderfully innovative. it's just that the melancholy, restlesness, and reverie she evokes, with her lilting voice, pitch perfect melodies, and honeyed instrumentation are universal. the majority of the record deals with relationships, and mainly, relationships on the outs. "tell me where it all went wrong / maybe i can make it better" she sings in "if looks could kill," a promise made to a boyfriend in a relationship in limbo. there really isn't a song on the record that doesn't sound like something franz, arthur, and odile would dance to in the film "bande a part." a wonderful listen that is best served in the dark.

band's website

sherrybaby - directed by laurrie collyer

"sherrybaby" staring maggie gyllenhaal, introduces us to sherry swanson, a recent paroled inmate and recovering heroine addict who is trying to re-enter the real world to become available to her five year old daughter. sherry's life is strewn with lecherous encounters with men, and her journey to normalcy forces her to face reality head on. it would be easy to treat such material with sentimentality and put a polish on the "girl with the heart of gold." but this film displays the road ahead in a small and simple way. there are many awkward moments in this film that subtly reveal sherry's transformation without opening every motivation and desire to the audience. gyllenhaal, one of the most complex young actresses to be emulsified in years, is sublime. she gives a wonderful voice to a train wreck of a character, which allows us to become the biggest advocates for sherry's transcendence.

just a reminder

"no country for old men" - cormac mccarthy

how does a man decide in what order to abandon his life?


mccarthy's novel set in the present day borderland between texas and mexico, dances with the notion that the end is near, and there ain't a damn thing you can do 'bout it. in a world where mammon runs wild with kids with blue hair and bones sticking out of their noses, and dope runners make the rules in a society where people's daddy's and their daddy's daddy worked to make a promise regarding the hope and imagination of elysium, mccarthy sets the events in motion that will be as important to literature as they will to the progression of relevant philosophy. "no country" has little room for decisions to be made, only reactions, reactions that prey on the very guttural instincts and beliefs that even the most red-stated individuals base their lives upon. if bill shakespeare, st. john, and johnny sartre got together, they couldn't come up with a more substantial parable for our world today.

"magnolia" revisited

"i don't deny that there should be priests to remind men that they will one day die. i only say it is necessary to have another kind of priests, called poets, actually to remind men that they are not dead yet." - g.k. chesterton

"without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. without innovation, it is a corpse." - winston churchill

last night, i watched the film "magnolia" from director p.t. anderson for the first time since seeing it at the theatre in 1999. i couldn't help but remember the impression it left on me back then. from the opening narration regarding the improbability of chance, to the common refrain sung by the characters, to the plague of frogs, to the end credits, i was captured. it was as if i was watching a birth, or discovering a new land. to me, it was one of the most obedient displays of creativity captured on film that i had ever seen. there were no compromises.

anderson, more so than any other american director i can think of, embodies the role of poet as a filmmaker. he juxtaposed youth and death, sin and salvation, love and contempt, chance and fate, and hope and despair, in the context of both absurdity and reality. without flinching, he propelled characters through a universe that all at the same time, made no sense, and yet was laced with providence and meaning.

there wasn't a single character that had a hold of certainty. every one of his characters could be described as devastated by the labor of life. "life isn't short. it's long," was uttered. and despite that, anderson created a scenario where redemption and restoration came through the common union of people whose lives impact those around him. he demonstrated an influence of existence. a world where strangers, are not strange. a portrait of humanity that diminishes the ideal of happiness, with one of responsibility to each other.

it has been said that historians help us know the common lessons of the past, but poets help us feel the common lessons of humanity. "magnolia" is an excellent example of the emotive nature of cinema.