mojito - A Genres & Judgments Mixture

Playlists used to be one of my grand specialties in another age, mainly of the 90-minute cassette tape. Hadn't made one for at least 5 years before this one, so I'm probably rusty, but dig it nonetheless.

This being a particularly sweltering mid-July in the Northeast, I had summer on the gray matter. So as I sat in my new apartment and somehow resisted turning on the A/C to keep my dollars in tow for autumn, I cobbled together some of the best music that was new to me in the last two or three months. And I only cheated once with The Explorers Club with that time frame, but they just scream summer and begged for inclusion.

There's a decent mix of styles here which I feel encapsulates the spirit of summer from the mad jam of a house party, to the longing crush you won't see for months, to the drink that tastes just a little better on a day with a high dew point, to the realization that fall's about to kick in and you better enjoy the heat while you still can. I tossed in two fantastic covers (Bob Dylan & Buddy Holly), and limited myself to only two tracks from Best Coast (my current musical obsession).

Btw, I just discovered blip.fm. So if you're feeling so inclined, become one of my listeners to see what music I'm into at any given moment. Without further delay, I present mojito.

Track list and download link after the jump.

Reel Low: The Last Airbender

It’s hard to imagine a movie can fail in as many ways as M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Last Airbender” does.  Given the apparent rich source material, it makes me question Shyamalan’s ability as a film maker and as a storyteller.

“The Last Airbender” is the first of what is presumably a trilogy of films adapting the three television seasons of “Avatar: The Last Airbender”, which tells the story of the boy Aang who is the last of the Air Nomads and prophesied savior of the world.  Aang has been trapped in ice for the past 100 years having run away from his duties as the avatar.  While he’s been on ice, the world has been devastated by war as the Fire Nation has moved to subjugate the world under its fist.  Now that Aang has resurfaced, the armies of the Fire Nation and its dishonored prince pursue him to prevent him from thwarting their plans.  Aang and his newfound friends, Katara and Sokka, set off on a journey so that Aang might learn to bend the other elements and become the hero the world needs.

A pretty standard setup that looks great on paper but is so poorly executed it makes me wonder how Shyamalan was unable to do anything great with it.  The dialogue is poorly scripted and often gives characters lines describing actions the audience has just seen on screen seconds earlier.  I like to think audiences haven’t become that inattentive.  There also seemed to be some disagreement on how names and words should be pronounced, most being pronounced in a way that makes me think the actors were trying to sound either smart or Brittish.

The action scenes felt clunky and poorly shot with a lot of the wire-work standing out as wire-work.  There is little about them that builds tension or excitement.  The only thing about the action scenes and the movie in general that really worked was the music.  Also, Shaun Toub’s performance as Uncle Iroh was one of the few shining points, breathing the only sense of humor into an overall dull atmosphere.

Before “The Last Airbender” came out, there was controversy over casting Caucasians in ethnic roles.  Now that it is out, it can be said that is least of the film’s problems.  This movie was lacking in so many ways that it’s (hopefully) doubtful that the other two seasons will get covered.  If they do have a go at them, I hope they can bring someone else on board who might be able to salvage the mess Shyamalan has left in his wake.

TV Tweets: May 23 - 31

 As always, you can follow me at LowBrowJon to get my boisterous blips, as well as other LBM updates.

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May 24th [Lost, Treme]

Can the haters at least agree that the last #Lost was better than the #Sopranos finale?

I've discussed this show enough in the last 10 days.

Those trailers were a haunting sight. LaDonna probably just moved to the top of my favorite #Treme storyline list after this week.

As expected, Treme continues to be excellent. I'm sure I'll change my mind on my favorite storyline soon enough. Khandi Alexander's heartbreaking performance as LaDonna is the Treme character du jour, but there's just too much good here to stay fixated on one element for too long. Wendell Pierce is lovable. Steve Zahn is electric. Lucia Micarelli is pure talent. Clarke Peters is inspiring. Kim Dickens is a joy. And John Goodman cusses like no other.

May 25th [American Idol]

RT @simonsam Goodbye, Simon Cowell. I'll think of you whenever I see a guy in a t-shirt acting like an asshole, which is pretty often.

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After the jump, I say goodbye to 24, hello to Dexter, and am initially rendered speechless by Breaking Bad.

Grading the 2010 Television Season Thus Far

As I've let the Lost finale marinate in my mind these past few days, I've been contemplating why we watch TV. For me, it's more than just passing the time. A finely-crafted, serialized story is probably the most enjoyable form of art I can think of. A great movie is a wonderful feat, but I prefer the evolving tales of a group of characters since it allows extensive exploration of plot and character if done well. Since there are just so many damn good shows on right now, I've felt the need to analyze and discuss them here on the site. All of that is a long way of saying that this week's Lost made me want to assess each show I watched since 2010 began.
It feels odd only looking at the shows which have just recently ended even though most began back in the fall, but I had to have a cut-off point. Plus, I know I loved shows like Curb Your Enthusiasm this year, but too much time has passed for me to properly rate them after nearly six months time has passed. As a result, anything that concluded before 2010 will be ignored.

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24 
(Season 8, Fox)
Decent ending to a show that should've bowed out a few years ago. I know there's a movie in the works, but this felt rather uninspired for a series finale. This year, the show tried to pull new twists and brought back some old villains, but I think we've all become desensitized to everything 24 has thrown at us at this point after eight days. On a side note, I don't think they really ever topped that absolutely insane decapitation early in season 2.  C

30 Rock 
(Season 4, NBC)
Part of me wants to chastise them for using so many high-profile guest stars and instead focus on more great shenanigans for Jack and Liz, but when they come up with ways to use Jon Hamm, James Franco and Julianne Moore as they did, I have to remind myself to just enjoy the ride instead. Don't need to see Matt Damon again though. Best part of the show is still Alec Baldwin, who slays me each week.  B+

Big Love 
(Season 4, HBO)
I have never hated a main character of a show the way I despise Bill Henrickson right now. Part of me feels I should hate His power trips are purely for self glory; I don't buy this testament bull for a second. The politics angle struck me as unnecessary as it unfolded, but the end result has set up season 5 to have some truly extreme hardships for that family on the horizon. And, man, did I miss Roman this year. They got rid of him too soon. Although the result was more Alby, which I found to be fascinating storyline.  B-

Caprica 
(Season 1, SyFy)
Sadly, Caprica was not as great as I hoped it'd be. There's certainly room for it to improve, but measuring up to it's parent show, Battlestar Galactica, is probably not going to happen. Technically, season one hasn't concluded, which is fortunate since it's midseason finale was only mildly exciting. However, the sooner we all stop wishing it to be BSG, the better.  B-

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After the jump, see the other 11 shows I covered that recently wrapped up.

Reaction to the Lost Finale: Leon Takes Us Outside

I’m not quite sure why I’m writing this.  You see, I never really got into Lost, having been made to endure the first season a few years back on DVD.  By endure I don’t mean that it was a wholly unpleasant experience, however with all of the build up that was heaped upon the show I was left with a very “meh” feeling after.  It should also be said that I was made to watch it all over a two day period having spent three days on the road from Los Angeles for Christmas holiday.  It’s possible that tainted my experience.

In any case, it’s kind of surprising the show didn’t hook me.  It had elements that would have drawn me in otherwise.  First, you had average people in extraordinary circumstances.  Second, there were the oh so mysterious mysteries.  Third, there was Terry O’Quinn who I loved in Chris Carter’s other TV show (no, not Harsh Realm), Millennium.  None of these things helped me overcome the inertia I felt for the show.  Even later when I dropped in for a few minutes with various episodes, I caught glimpses of things that probably should have piqued my curiosity but didn’t really do anything for me,  “Oh, look, why is he turning that thing and why did the island just disappear?”

Now I’m immersed in the zeitgeist over the shows finale as familiar names are flung around, mingled with others that mean little to nothing to me.  Is this the final straw?  The one that makes me run out and buy/rent/borrow the multiple seasons that are available on Blu-Ray or DVD?  Not just yet.  I’m thinking that at some point in the future I might give this show a shot.  Once all of the smoke has cleared and the ashes have settled to the ground, and everyone has stopped talking about it, I’ll quietly sit down and give it a go.  Maybe then I can find myself Lost.

Reaction to the LOST Finale: The Stages of Loss

Consider my Complete Series boxed set pre-ordered.

I am a little surprised by the negative feedback this super-sized episode is receiving in the forums, because for my money ($0, granted) the Lost series finale was every bit as emotionally and intellectually satisfying as I could have hoped, perhaps even more so. It was also frequently thrilling on a visceral level, as with that insanely epic showdown between Jack and Locke on the cliff face. I watched the finale as part of a 9-person group, which was an extremely enjoyable and enriching viewing experience, and we all lost our shit as Jack advanced on Locke, leaping into the air to deliver a knockout punch. We also exalted with nerd glee over pretty much everything Lapidus (!) said, including, "In case you haven't noticed, I'm a pilot."

But action-adventure and laughs aside, what really makes this show special is the ideas that it provokes, the discussions it fosters and the communal experience it creates. Lost is without a doubt an anomaly on network television. It is a singularly weird, creator-driven show that completely denies passive viewing and yet somehow became hugely popular. As such, it has transformed even the most conventional of TV viewers into dedicated followers. The images of Jimmy Kimmel and his audience watching the final moments of the show, tears streaming down their rapt faces, were surprisingly poignant and indicative of this odd shared human experience. I've experienced little in my pop culture life quite like the minute-plus of complete, reverent silence among my previously jovial viewing group after the final image of Jack's closing eye. Nor have I experienced much like the hour-plus of spirited discussion that emerged when the dust settled. And in response to this season's critical battle between character and mythology, we definitely weren't discussing food drops and Hurley birds.

I, of course, don't mean to discount the fun of getting lost in Dharma history and contemplating time paradoxes, but these ancillary diversions were always secondary to, and deepened by Lost's emphasis on character. This is a lesson that ABC has failed to learn as it scrambles to replace Lost, evidenced by the trail of cardboard mystery shows it has left in its wake. What seems to be infuriating finale viewers the most - the lack of a concrete explanation of the Island's power - is one of the things I liked most about the finale, and ultimately the series. It is infinitely more intriguing to think that anyone who could even approach understanding the source of the Island's ancient power is long, long dead, and the various characters who have stumbled across it over the millennia (from Jacob to the Dharma Initiative to Jack) are acting on guesswork and pure faith. The Island is in many ways an existential Rorschach blot, and the methods by which the individual characters attempt to interpret its mysteries are far more valuable than any rote "answer" Lindelof and Cuse could have provided as to where "The Light" comes from and who built "The Cork."

The controversial Flash-Sideways storyline follows through on the show's promise of a character emphasis. Just as the Flashbacks at the start of the series fleshed out these characters and hinted at their importance to one another, and the Flashforwards of mid-series emphasized just how much their experience on the island impacted their lives, the Flash-Sideways was an unexpected, moving and thoroughly appropriate coda illustrating the "Live Together, Die Alone" motto so prevalent from the start. Some are arguing that the "purgatory" aspect of the Sideways universe renders the Island reality meaningless. I disagree. As Christian tells Jack, everything that happened to him on the Island is real, and everything matters. So I still don't know why Walt was special. And I don't know who built the statue. I'm happy to theorize. We see the universe of Lost through the characters' eyes, and therefore we can only understand it as they do. And right now, as a fan, in the moment, I have no complaints. The show wasn't perfect, though it very frequently came close. But it didn't have to be perfect, it just had to feel like Lost. And all that really matters to me is that poor John Locke, eternally hopeful and just-as-eternally beaten down by the world, finally found peace. And Jack Shepherd, so emotionally-repressed and frustrated by his unfulfilled need for empiricism, finally let go. I could go on forever. And Vincent... You know, speaking purely as a dog lover, this show gave me everything I could ever want.

Reaction to the LOST Finale: A TV TWEETS Special

Well, I just got home from a little Lost party and, other than the three other people I watched it with, haven't heard any other people's reactions as of yet. We all seemed a bit unsure if we completely liked it, but no one was outraged either. At this moment, roughly half of an hour after the wreckage on the beach rolled with the credits, I think I liked it. Here's why.

For me, Lost hasn't been about the puzzles or the monsters or the fantastic impossibilities for a while. Probably been two, maybe three years since I gave a shit about what those damn numbers meant. But I continued watching more out of just habit and water cooler sustainability. I wanted to see if Desmond was ever going to get to be with Penny. If Jin would ever get to meet his daughter. If Sayid could ever forgive himself. If Jack would stop trying to fix everything. And why were these people doing these crazy things in the first place?

Well, we learned last week that Jacob picked this group (excuse the paraphrasing) because they were flawed, lonely people. And what does Christian explain to Jack in that penultimate scene? That he will be with his fellow castaways, the people he loves, presumably forever in the afterlife. The journey they went on together forged deep bonds of friendship and love, the kind of relationships none of them had prior to crashing on that island. The group became greater than the sum of it's broken individual parts. And they got to be together, forever.

I'm sure there's a mountain of hate and nitpicking going on right now across the interwebs. But, in this moment, I like "The End." A lot. Chalk it up to the memory of that magical first season or my iPod striking a chord while very coincidentally playing Billy Bragg and Wilco's "Hesitating Beauty" on my trip home from that viewing party (key lines for me being: "By the stars and clouds above/We could spend our lives in love"), but in my book it was a fine ending. Certainly not perfect or as grand as we might have dreamed in 2005, but still satisfactory.

I think only the truly depraved amongst us wouldn't want to spend eternity with the most beloved people in our lives. Ultimately, what else is there?

The Longbox

The Avengers

issue: 1

writer: Brian Michael Bendis

artist: John Romita Jr.

publisher: Marvel

Siege is over after what seems like four long months of event and tie-in books.  Now Marvel begins what it calls The Heroic Age with a relaunch of one of its core titles, The Avengers.  This first book in the series does not give the heroes much time to breathe before their first big threat is thrown at them.

The book starts out with a strong two pages as we see Immortus taken down by a group of heroes that bear an uncanny resemblance to the youngsters from the Next Avengers animated movie.  Elsewhere/when, Steve Rogers, having taken over the position vacated by Norman Osborn and Tony Stark before him, is assembling a team of Avengers once again to protect and inspire the world.  It isn’t long though before a super villain shows up to crash the party, namely Kang the Conqueror.  It seems that Kang’s lifeline and all of reality are in jeopardy because the children of The Avengers (guess it really is the Next Avengers team) are wielding some kind of ultimate power.  Kang charges the new team with building a time machine and stopping their offspring before all is lost.

I’m not as familiar as some are in regards to Avengers history, I’ve mainly been an X-Reader when it comes to Marvel books.  Having said that, I found this new Avengers book to be instantly accessible and invoking a feeling of grand adventure that calls back to days gone by.  There’s also that cool factor of having so many A-list heroes in the same room, on the same team.  Bendis skillfully blends his brand of chummy super hero dialogue with some really great moments (the Spider-Man/Hawkeye exchange is pretty nice).  Thor’s response to Kang’s arrival reminds us just what level of hero this team is on.

Here’s where I’ll probably get murdered by fanboys, but I’m just not a big fan of John Romita Jr. when he’s doing these kinds of super hero books.  I love it when he handles more street level kinds of characters, like Daredevil, but with something like this, I’d prefer the talents of a George Perez or an Oliver Coipel Both of whom are just amazing at rendering heroes and action.  Also, I’ve always thought Romita’s women look funny.

In the end, I liked how this book sets up not one, not two, but three different possible threats for the new team right out of the gate without it feeling strained or rushed.  I’m looking forward to seeing what the other new Avengers titles bring to the table this month.  Also, I might just have to check out Next Avengers.


Here is Jon's review of Next Avengers from last year.

TV Tweets: April 26 - May 22

Well, maybe NOW I'm back in the saddle again since the last time didn't go so smoothly. It appears my technical issues are behind me with my new computer from Best Buy (always buy the service plan, boys and girls). Without further ado, away we go...

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April 29th [The Pacific]

I've watched 7 eps of #ThePacific and still the most exciting part each week is the charcoal pencil getting splintered apart in the intro.

Having finished this miniseries now, I need to make a slight addendum to that statement. Yes, I was incredibly dulled by this show. I could not understand why the perspective was constantly jumping from different groups of characters when I hadn't been given a chance to care about any of them. Then during the show's final installment, a bio for each character was flashed up. Somehow I had forgotten that these were all real people and the events were entirely based on historical record. Then the pieces came together. If it were a pure work of fiction, The Pacific would have been a colossal failure. I still don't think it was great, but at least I can understand why the story followed its course in the manner it did.
However, I really was most enthralled by that charcoal pencil during the opening credits. As well put together as the battle effects were done, they simply did not pull me closer to the characters as those first few minutes of Saving Private Ryan did so many years ago. The Pacific is well-made, but certainly not a must-see.


April 30th [Party Down, Happy Town]

Man, I forgot how good #PartyDown can be.

A really great comedy that pretty much no one is watching. Martin Starr's Roman is the man, and my True Blood crush on Lizzy Caplan has become as big as they come for a totally different skill set she unleashes on Party Down. A third season is a pretty remote possibility, so I'm gonna enjoy this great little show while it lasts.

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After the jump, you'll find if Happy Town measures up to Twin Peaks, one of the worst situations to watch The Office in, and how Lost spoiled the end of The West Wing for me.

Longbox Special: Under Siege: The Finale

Here we are at the end my friends.  The end of Marvel’s latest super hero epic.  No longer will we be

I’m going to break with my usual format this time around and just go ahead and talk about this weeks final five books interchangeably.  Where to start though?  Let’s start with how much of a fizzle I felt Siege #4 was.  Up until this point, Bendis had been ratcheting things up with each issue and giving us a little bit of pay off each time.  This issue should have been the big pay off, the last boss battle, the part of the story that should have hit us hard in the face and make us want more after.  It didn’t really deliver that feeling, it felt more like a disjointed sequence of events that didn’t really mesh well.

Opening with Loki’s plea to his dead father to help the heroes overcome the Void seemed to play against what Loki had been working towards all this time.  The argument can be made that he didn’t think it would get as bad as all this but I have to ask just why would it matter to him?  From what we’ve seen in the Siege: Loki one shot, he wanted to be free from all that Asgard represented.  Doesn’t its fall mark the biggest freedom he could get from it?  I can understand a desire to save his fellow Asgardians but he decides to power up the assembled heroes, leaving his brothers and sisters to simply stand by and watch.

Once the heroes are powered up, things really don’t improve much, mainly because there isn’t much difference in how they appear.  We get little snippets of pretty cliche dialogue telling us things like Iron Man’s batteries are charged and his systems are online.  Great.  Iron Man is on par with my car.  The battle itself is underwhelming with the heroes taking shots at the Void until the Void destroys the Norn stones and Loki along with them.  Then a non-suped up Thor proceeds to essentially hit the Void until it doesn’t move anymore.  Why didn’t he just do this in the first place when he had more power at his disposal?  Finally, he kills Bob and whisks his body off to a burial in the sun which lacks any kind of emotional weight.

This lack of emotional weight carries over in The Sentry: Fallen Sun where heroes gather to remember The Sentry.  The book plods along and is fairly unremarkable as a memorial or farewell to the character.  Of course there are the hints that he’ll be back.  Also, apparently he and rogue hooked up.  Great.

Siege: Embedded also managed to fall flat for me.  It was a lot of Ben Urich just watching stuff happen and reminding us how small normal people are in the face of an event of this magnitude.  The problem was that the book just didn’t feel big enough and I wasn’t sold on Ben’s sense of awe.  It does give us a bit more Volstaag, which has always been enjoyable in this book.

Finally, there are two books that wrap up their runs along side the final installment of Siege; Dark Avengers and Avengers: The Initiative.  Of the two, Avengers: The Initiative is arguable the weakest.  It attempts to tie up all of the loose ends of the three stories it’s been weaving throughout the past few months.  It also tries to set things up for the book set to replace it, Avengers Academy (or whatever they’re calling it).  I really liked this book when it was focused on Taskmaster simply because he seemed like such an unlikely protagonist for the story.  Things got bogged down when they started putting focus on fairly uninteresting side stories.

Dark Avengers was the one book that gave a really good send off to itself.  It’s also been the only book to really portray Norman Osborn in something that resembles a sympathetic light.  The coda that Osborn gets at the end of the book is some really fantastic writing from Bendis.  I wonder where that kind of writing was for the last issue of Siege?  If I haven’t mentioned it before, Victoria Hand was also an up point of this book.  I’m happy to see that she made it through this and will be around for what follows.

So that’s it, the end, fin, I’ve got no more to say really.  I had considered throwing The New Avengers Finale into this week’s article but it technically isn’t part of Siege.  Also, it was pretty lacking too.  Siege built itself up pretty nicely as did some of the tie-in books but in the end it didn’t feel like it delivered the goods.  Sure, things are set up for Marvel’s Heroic Age and all that, but it would have been nice to have a better end to Osborn’s Dark Reign.  In any case, it was fun doing these pieces even though it pulled me away from doing proper comic book reviews (if one can call my reviews proper).  Maybe we’ll do this again sometime.  Maybe I’ll just drink myself into a stupor instead.  Take care and be well...