Coldplay at the ACC

Good seats. Check. Enthusiastic crowd. Check. Humble and thankful band. Check. Spectacle-like visuals. Check. High quality sound. Check. Friendly company (J, K, Y). Check. Fantastic evening. Check.

People slag Coldplay for being thinly disguised versions of U2 or Radiohead. In two reviews I read today (1 and 2), their July 30th show at the ACC received glowing but qualified accolades. As in, great show, too bad Coldplay's musical legacy is and will always be insubstantial. All I know is that the crowd last night was wholly preoccupied with the band on stage, loving every minute of the energetic set and feeling no need to justify their enraptured state. (Wouldn't it be nice if critics saved the qualifiers and just embraced the band for a change?) The foursome indulged the audience by playing popular old hits, singing two songs among the crowd at the stage-opposite end of the building and changing up the static light and laser show commonly employed at stadium-sized venues. Instead, we were treated to music video-style editing of the concert on the enormous screen behind the stage - quick cuts, colour shifts - and on a series of large globes suspended from the ceiling, as well as butterfly-shaped confetti dropping from overhead. My one complaint - Reign of Love's omission from the set list - isn't fairly lodged. No concert features every song you want to hear. The above image comes courtesy of rainbow xperience on Flickr. More good shots can be found here.

Trailer Watch

Boy A - I've been waiting for this pic to come out since last September when I saw it on the TIFF schedule. By the looks of the trailer it should be riveting. As I understand it, the main character's past is revealed slowly in the film. Not so in the trailer, which basically spells everything out. Be warned.

In Search of a Midnight Kiss - A movie about misanthropes searching for love via craigslist on the most overrated holiday of the year sounds like an improbable love story and a bad film at that; therefore, it has to be brilliant (100% fresh as of today). I'm sensing a distinct Before Sunrise vibe and because that is one of my all-time favourite screen stories I hope Midnight Kiss is more homage than derivative. Trailer here.

Mamma Mia!

I was going to write about Mamma Mia! but the Georgia Strait took the words out of my mouth (although I didn't mind Christine Baranski). Yes, the first thirty minutes features reprehensible, stereotypical screeching behaviour from the female leads. No, this film will not change your life. But you'll very likely leave the theatre in a good mood. As soma, it works quite well. MM's perfect if light and funny is the kind of escapism you are prone to enjoying. It may not be.

Commercial Songs

What's That Called? aims to put you in touch with that song you heard in that commercial that caused your ears to perk up, your toes to tap, your interest to engage. It focuses on U.S. ads only, but the idea is helpful all the same.

Apologies in Advance...

...for how ranty I'm about to be. The Globe and Mail published a seemingly innocuous article on good summer reads in which the author divided her fiction and non-fiction recommendations under the headings "Distract Me" and "Enlighten Me". It really pisses me off when people draw a distinction between fiction and non-fiction along the lines of usefulness/quality/potential for life-changing impact and lump the former into a category devoid of the preceding evaluative measures. Certainly some fiction is frivolous, just as some non-fiction is frivolous (e.g. easy target, Confessions of an Heiress: A Tongue-in-Chic Peek Behind the Pose by Paris Hilton). Fiction is a distraction, but all books are. Reading steals you from the sensory world around you and immerses you in the interior world of the pages in front of you. The temperature and sounds of the place where you sit to read, your seat itself, are irrelevant. You could be anywhere because you are already elsewhere.

If someone must put a finer label on a book than General Diversion they should at least categorize the book according to the writing not according to whether the story is true. Fiction is rife with truth; with precise observations about humanity and jarringly real evocations of human emotion, and it can be just as enlightening as accounts of unimagined subjects. What rankles me most about the Globe piece is that the first example under "Distract Me" is Jhumpa Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth. I haven't read it yet, but Lahiri's other work stands up against anything I've read (non-fiction or otherwise) as enlightening. I'm sure the author of the article meant no intentional disrespect when she formulated her summer reading categories, but maybe it's time to reconsider our collective mindset about the kinds of books that are distractingly enlightening and the kinds that are simply distracting.

John K. Samson Recommends

There's nothing I like more than a musician with an opinion on books, except maybe a writer with good taste in music.

Son of Rambow

Son of Rambow pays tribute to the 80s, to the rough and tumble nature of boyhood and boyhood dreams and to friendships forged by shared outsider status. Bill Milner and Will Poulter are perfectly cast as the class square and troublemaker, respectively, who endeavour to add to the Rambo legacy with their own filmed version. The movie-within-a-movie exploits result in a very funny film that is far removed from the action series from which it takes its name (phonetically, of course). Rambow also gently reminds the audience that childhood is coloured by more than carefree afternoons spent indulging in unstructured fun. There are expectations and responsibilities to live up to at home and kids are grappling with the transition to adulthood's paradoxical decision-making freedom/behavioural constraint even as they hurl themselves from ropes into swimming holes. Even as they learn that play eventually gives way to work, Rambow's young filmmakers discover that a good laugh wipes the stress-slate clean, if only for a time. They'd do well to remember that little trick and so would we.

Ira & Abby

Ira & Abby was written by Jennifer Westfeldt, who stars as Abby and who also wrote and starred in Kissing Jessica Stein. I missed that but remember it getting decent buzz. Chris Messina's Ira is neurotic and nerdy but good-hearted and Westfeldt's Abby is an empathetic charmer who lives just west of centrefield. Without undermining Ira & Abby's merits, a basic encapsulation is that the movie is what would happen if Ross married Phoebe. Others might describe the film as Woody Allen without Allen's involvement. It is set in New York and it is a comedy about the messy romantic entanglement of opposite personalities, but to write it off as an Allen-template trifle isn't a fair judgment. New York and romance are rich, unique experiences that Woody Allen can't rightly trademark. Westfeldt's performance, especially, is lovely and provides an emotional weight that anchors the film. It and the excellent supporting cast (including Judith Light, Fred Willard and Frances Conroy) make the whirlwind courtship of Ira & Abby and its aftermath an enjoyable experience. Liked the Rilo Kiley on the soundtrack too.

Legit Lit

CBC poses the question of whether it's possible to write a good rock n' roll novel here.

Her Mix Tape's a Masterpiece

Mix tapes are all the rage again. Though they've been overshadowed by similar projects in other formats (CDs and MP3 playlists), they never really went away. Devotion to cassettes abounds at Art of the Mix . For obsessive mixers (read: originality and song appropriateness are paramount to the end result), Art of the Mix is an excellent resource for sussing out what songs are making the rounds and for finding inspiring titles and themes that make you want to do one better than the last guy. Best titles from the last week - I accept that it is time for a change but not in places like these with people like this!, Punch with no Judy and Rappy Birthday. Best theme (as revealed by the title) - halcion daze: music to soothe the 60's housewife.

As Herself/Himself

The L.A. Times considers the movie cameo. Cameos can be brilliantly funny in their unexpectedness (Steven Spielberg, Tom Cruise, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kevin Spacey and Danny DeVito in Austin Powers: Goldmember, Bob Barker in Happy Gilmore, Neil Patrick Harris in Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle) or provide gravitas to a role where it's needed (Kevin Spacey in Seven). They can also be painful.

Fiction Fan = Smooth Operator

Reading isn't an activity that requires justification, but if scientists want to trumpet reading as a boon to social astuteness, justify away.

Word Fogs

If you're incapable of remembering lyrics to new songs but ever cognizant of the words that accompany your youthful favourites, you are not alone. Just because translators are paid to remember languages doesn't mean that all the words they work with are equal correlates. Go here for a fun quiz on "Transloosely Literated" books.

A Show

"There are nights in this city when, deep in the core of winter, people need to escape the indoors. Despite the minus-thirty wind chill, despite the flaking of dry skin and a belly full of wine, winter's frustration becomes enough and these soldiers of spring layer on their hats, socks, and coats and leave their apartments. They desert dinner parties; they leave wooden tables covered with candle wax and cheese plates, abandoning rosy-cheeked friends in mid-air guitar solos. They leave these rooms filled with stunned laughter to see a show." - Ibi Kaslik, The Angel Riots

Ditto for ditching air-conditioned spaces or the enveloping warmth of a not too humid summer evening for the sweaty confines of a grungy bar, where dull city sounds are replaced with ear-splitting bass lines. Sometimes you just have to go. Despite my wavering stamina, J and I checked out Woodhands at Metropolis (a very good venue, actually) in Montreal on Sunday night. The two-man band set up their stage like a duel. Keytar and keys facing drum kit and off to electronic battle we go. I can't remember the last time I've seen such an energetic, fly-by-the-seat-of-your pants show, and from an opening act, no less! Awesome. Highlights included: Under Attack (this version recorded live at Sneaky Dee's) and In the Woods. Woodhands plays for free this Saturday at Harbourfront as part of Beats, Breaks & Culture.

Women With Kitchen Appliances

WWKA (Women With Kitchen Appliances) are currently featured as part of The Quebec Triennial exhibition at the Musee D'Art Contemporain de Montreal. Their work is part performance art, part concert, all bizarro entertainment. See a short feature on the women here.

Reframe

Despite the surge of love from festivals in recent years, indie films don't always get the recognition they deserve. Reframe is devoted to making those that slip through the distribution cracks commercially available. Read more or visit the beta site.