MAY 1 - 6, 2011
Well, only one month left. Man, that's crazy. This semester's just flown by - all that's left are finals!
Anyway, this is just going to be another one of those 'oh, he watched a lot of movies, got some new music, studied, and really didn't do much else so this is going to be a generally boring post' posts. So be warned - nothing too interesting going on here. Not many pictures. Probably.
Pretty boring week: lots of sleeping in and studying, but enough free time to relax and save money. But no more Pens games, which is sad.. Oh well. So this is probably just going to be a summary post - just the highlights of the past week. Here goes:
- I did end up watching 'Das Boot' on Saturday night, which I did very much enjoy. Excellent film, if you can get past the 3.5 hour length. But it keeps you right on the edge of your seat the whole time, and even has you realizing you're cheering for the enemy!
- I think on Sunday I ended up watching Clint Eastwood's Iwo Jima film duo: 'Flags of our Fathers', which I'd seen before, and the excellent 'Letters from Iwo Jima'. The former from the American perspective, the latter from the Japanese, subtitles and all. I still like 'Flags', but I do think it's the inferior of the two.. 'Letters' is just a fantastic character study of the desperate Japanese fighters, with solid acting and great action.
- Monday started off the first week of exam studying.. but before I got down to it, I decided to get some new music:
First off, HOW DID I NOT REALIZE SUFJAN STEVENS HAD A NEW EP AND ALBUM?!
Well, he did. A surprise EP 'All Delighted People' in August, and an album 'The Age of Adz' in October. Both are fantastic, but in their own ways: 'People' is a return to form for Sufjan after 'Illinois', which still reigns as one of my favorite albums of all time. It adds a whole new orchestrated element to the impassioned lyrics and finger-picked guitars, with horns and strings excellently backing the melodies. At just under an hour in length, composing 8 songs, I GUESS it can still be considered an EP - but with two ~10-minute songs and a 17-minute song, it gets pretty lengthy. But totally in a good way.
Sufjan's album, 'The Age of Adz', is almost an entirely new direction of mainly electronic composition and orchestrated pieces. Still complete with classic Sufjan lyrics though. It sounds like a mix between his earlier electronic foray, 'The BQE', with some of his more whimsical songs from 'Illinois'. I'm still giving it the full listen (at almost an hour and a half in length - complete with 25-minute closer - it once again gets pretty lengthy), but I like it for the most part. Definitely some great songs, just sort of a new style to get used to. Awesome though.
- Some of the other new albums:
Bon Iver - 'For Emma, Forever Ago'
One of my favorite albums right now. Just a beautifully simple recording - apparently completed in a cabin in the woods during a 3-month 'hibernation' by the artist. Fantastic, chill indie/folk songs.
Gatsby's American Dream - self-titled album
I'd been meaning to get my hands on this album since it's release in 2006. Ever since I saw GAD live back at Mr. Small's in Pittsburgh YEARS ago, I loved their music. Just a fantastically prolific and unique indie/punk band. Great songs. And awesome references to stuff like the show 'Lost', video games, and science fiction authors.
M. Ward - 'Transistor Radio'
An album I picked up on a whim; the solo project of Matthew Ward, who also works with 'She & Him' (with Zooey Deschanel!) and 'Monsters of Folk' (with Conor Oberst!), so I just had to see what it was like. Has a great indie/folk feel, and some quality songs.
The Morning Benders - 'Big Echo'
Another whim: heard one song and decided to check them out. Pretty good stuff - I'll need a few more listens. But some great songs, and a good indie-pop sound.
Ratatat - 'Classics'
Not a huge fan of Ratatat and their all-instrumental style of guitar/synth duo indie/pop. Still some good songs on this album though.
- Of course after all the WWII films, I had to finish with my favorite: 'Saving Private Ryan'. Still tops them all, in my opinion. I don't even know how I would list them though..
Probably something like: 'Saving Private Ryan', the 'Band of Brothers' series, 'Das Boot', 'The Big Red One', 'The Thin Red Line', 'Bridge On the River Kwai', 'Letters from Iwo Jima'.. who knows from there.
- And where to go after exhausting the best of the WWII genre? I don't know.. how about samurai/kung-fu films? Sure.
- So where to even start with those? How about one of the established greats of all-time, and a huge influence on tons of modern movies of multiple genres: Kurosawa's 1954 samurai adventure drama 'The Seven Samurai' - the inspiration for the western 'The Magnificant Seven'. Just a solid, classic film from a great and influential director. Fantastic characters, subtle humor, great battles, subtitles - what's not to love!
- After that, you have to go with another Kurosawa classic: 'Yojimbo', which ONCE AGAIN was the inspiration for the western 'A Fistful of Dollars' - one of my favorites, and starring Clint Eastwood. Another classic Samurai film with the same elements that made Kurosawa's other movie so great; including using one of the same stars - Japanese acting legend Toshiro Mifune, who appeared in almost 170 films.
So at this point, I know you're saying 'so he just sat around, listened to music, and watched movies all week?!'. Yeah, pretty much. Boring? Yes. Relaxing? Totally. Cheap? Most definitely. BUT it's not like I've been missing out on crazy parties and fun times: it's exam period and paper-writing time for EVERYONE. So everyone's burning the candle at both ends - my first exam just happens to not be until the second week, giving me ample time to both study and watch old samurai movies. Classic win-win situation..
Hmm what else did I do.. on Friday, Mary, Elana, and I went on one of the 'Jack the Ripper Walking Tours', which was pretty neat! The guy knew tons of facts and was a great story-teller; and the locations/stories were pretty cool!
Our tour guide telling stories about the Ripper victims!
A neat church we passed at one point. Just thought it was cool.
On the way home after the tour - the view of the Tower Bridge from London Bridge.
Aaaaaaand that was pretty much week one of May.. Intersperse all that TV and music with studying and that pretty much sums it up. It's not all just chilling by myself - tomorrow we're headed down to the coastal town of Brighton through IFSA-Butler, which should be fun! First final coming up on Monday, so we're getting down to the beginning of the end.. Crazy.
Good music of the moment:
Bon Iver - 'Skinny Love', off his fantastic album 'For Emma, Forever Ago'
I already went on enough about this album earlier, so I'll limit this to how much I love this song. It's awesome. There!
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Sorry about the boring post, and the lateness of it. Been studying, and just finished the first final this morning - one down! I'll get the Brighton post up soon.
Cheers!
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