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Munchhausen By Proxy

Okay, so I love Zooey Deschanel.  Case in point:

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The short version is she has style, intelligence and is ridiculously cute.  So, she was in Yes Man with Jim Carey this winter.  I thought it was great fun.  Her “pretend” band Munchausen By Proxy has several songs in the movie I recently purchased on iTunes simply because they are hilarious.

The first is “Sweet Ballad” embedded below.

The second is “Uh-Huh” the lyrics of which are reproduced below:

I should have been the one to break up with you
You said, Who are you? Who are you?
I wanna snap your neck and spit on you.
You said, Who are you? Who are you?
If I got a call and said you were dead
You said, Who are you? Who are you?
I’d shrug my shoulders and I say what-ev
You said, Who are you? Who are you?

Hey have we met before? Oh yeah I think we have
Because we only dated for four and a half years
No big deal, I’ve only witnessed you sitting on the couch
Watching Next in your undies,
But its cool that you act like you have no idea who I am.

I saw you Amoeba records last night
You said, Who are you? Who are you?
You straighten your hair and had a henna tatto
You said, Who are you? Who are you?
I wanna shove your face just shove it.
You said, Who are you? Who are you?

My mother thinks youre in the closet
You said, Who are you? Who are you?
Its so weird because when we used to go out you never even liked the TJ wantons
And now we have to drive all the way to marvista or some stupid place and eat
Some stupid butter-nut squash raviolli or something because you took the last bag like some
immature little clown.

I saw you Thursday at the Arclight
You said, Who are you? Who are you?
I was on a date you ruined my night
You said, Who are you? Who are you?
I saw you shopping at the trader just
You said, Who are you? Who are you?
I see you everywhere it really blows.
You said, Who are you? Who are you?

Hey, did you ever meet my friend Ian?
He’s a coumputer hacker.
He helped me erase your Myspace page,
And your band’s Myspace page,
And your Facebook page.
Happy networking asshole.

So remember all the stuff you forgot
You said, Who are you? Who are you?
After you just bought.
You said, Who are you? Who are you?
I’d like to see the look on your greasy face.
You said, Who are you? Who are you?

It sold for sixteen hundy on eBay?
He said, I know you. I know you.
Uh-huh.

One of the reasons I like the movie is that it is very “LA.”  They openly mock the middle of the country (from which I am from, thank you very much), there are a number of prime LA locations in the film (such as SpaceLand, the Griffith Observatory and Downtown LA).  Obviously, a few others are mentioned (and linked) in the song above.

If you’re not from LA, you mght not really appreciate those lyrics, but if you’ve lived here a while, you get the picture that the singer (and her ex) is a bit of a hipster around LA.  TJ’s (Trader Joes), Amoeba Music and Arclight (perhaps the Arclight least) are demonstrative of a hipster lifestyle.  Anyway, its very nice color on the backdrop of Zooey’s character as you are meeting her, essentially, for the second time.  You learn alot about her if you are paying attention during the songs without exposition.  That is always nice in a film.

Anyway, I found the music funny and somewhat sound-nice-ish.  So, I thought I’d share.

What have I learned?

I have been wondering about this.  Perhaps its a bit morbid, but I think it may be a good exercise.

  1. To think about others.
  2. To loosen up a bit.
  3. That you can love and be life-long friends with someone who is not for you.
  4. That one should avoid those who are emotionally unstable.
  5. That a year off can be a wonderful time.
  6. That distance kills.
  7. That almost isn’t good enough and that communication is everything.
  8. Faith is not something to be “supported.”

I’m sure I’ve learned much more, but I want to avoid disparaging anyone.  I’ve loved them each in their own way.

Please, Give me a Second Grace

I am going to cross-link to this post primarily because it’s awesome and I want to be able to find it again later should the need arise.  I’ll do this in the guise of some commentary on commentary…  How appropriate to the web.

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I found the following commentary on music in The Royal Tenenbaums.  In a nutshell, it is awesome.  First, it generally accurately describes the complexity of the two main characters, Margot and Richie.  Second, the author clearly has a greater understanding of the plot and the relationship of the music to the plot than I ever put together in spite of the fact that I loved the music enough to borrow the soundtrack from my then-girlfriend for an entire summer.

Third, reading this article completely changed my understanding of the movie as a whole.  Before reading this, I always felt like the movie was about Royal.  However, after reading this, I realized this is not the case.  Of course Royal is a jerk, but he is also right about virtually everything he said.  He’s brutally, brutally honest, but almost always truthful (lacking in one significant instance, of course).  Though, his observations about the behavior of his family and children are, largely, dead-on.

I realized after reading this article that the movie is actually almost completely about Richie and Margot.  Their improper but inescapable affection for one another is the driving force in both of their lives.  It, essentially, destroyed their otherwise promising careers and life-trajectories.  Interestingly, a loss of love also virtually destroyed Chas.  A lack of love growing up also had a poor effect on their neighbor, Eli Cash.  Seemingly, every character is struggling with a missing love or an unattainable affection.

I won’t try and recreate the article here, but it is masterful.  I am all the more a fan of this movie having read this article and having re-watched the movie. You should do the same.

Ignacio Ignacious

So, I’m at the UCLA Medical Center getting my wrist-arthrogram on. My wrist is crazy swollen all filled with the Barium injection stuff. At least I think it’s Barium. Anyway, it’s a good time.

Sounds like there’s nothing wrong. Great. So, I guess that means it’s been on-and-off hurting for like 2 years for no reason? I guess it was virtually immovable for a week and a half for no reason too. Son of a goat. Anyway, say a little prayer for me and a healthy wrist. I gotta get this figured out. I’m too young to be this old.

Papillon Parade

I just really liked this image after listening to Masterfade by Andrew Bird.

Papillion Parade

Nathaniel and Daffyd

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I’m not really much of a fan of American Idol.  Though, my roommate Ricky loves it.  Each time I’ve seen the constestant Nathaniel Marshall, I’ve been subtly reminded of the Little Britain character Daffyd, the self-pronounced “Only Gay in the Village.”  Nathaniel just seems to be trying way too hard.  Piercings, odd clothing, ear-studs, headbands, tattoos and a downright boisterous personality.  I’m just saying there’s a resemblance between the two.

Gibson SG

So, I picked my guitar last night after probably over a year.  It was nice to realize that I still have very aspect of “Say it Ain’t So” and “Everlong” memorized.  I even took the time to learn a new song.  Oh, I’ve missed my guitar.

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Perhaps more interesting was my distant, nostalgia about “Everlong.”  I hope to be there someday about… honestly… so many things.  It gave me hope.  I am also reminded of “The Longest Winter” every other day or so and how I felt after Melissa broke me down and ended me emotionally for about a year or so.  I hopt that’s not where I am, though, here it is 7 months later and I’m still a mess.   Time will heal all things, I suppose.  Waiting on hope…

Parallel Perks

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Imagine, if you will, the mischievous smirk I witnessed on the face of a young woman this evening as she watched her significant other attempt to parallel park on 10th Street in Santa Monica.  She was quite amused by his ineptitude.  I laughed (and smirked myself) at her good humour.  He was not a good parallel park-er.

Cloud Neon

cloud-neon

My mother, predictably, seems to like the pictures I take with my iPhone.  Apparently I set up her picasaweb / google email address to notify her when I upload new pictures automatically.  So, now, every time I upload a new one, I get an email from her talking about them.  I can’t even remember what I uploaded last, most times.  Anyway, this is one of the cooler ones I took the other day.  I thought I’d share it here.

Andrew Bird

I attended the Andrew Bird show on Wednesday evening.  It was a really great time.  Their opener was a banimg_0911d called Lonely, Dear who was also awesome.  I’m not quite sure how to describe the opener.  They are from Sweden and used strange noises in harmony to great effect.  I couldn’t tell much about the lyrics, but they sounded very cool and original.  I am beginning to appreciate hip, original music all the more lately.  The classic four-man rock band seeming a bit overdone, if that makes sense.

The crowd was…excellent.  I saw more girls that I was attracted to in one location than I think I have ever seen.  Basically, they were hip without overdoing it and cute without trying types.  Curly hair, thoughtful eyes, many pairs of horn-rim glasses.  I wasn’t quite sure what to do with myself in that context.  I sat next to this terribly cute couple.  They were probably five years older than me or so.  The woman was pregnant and the guy looked like a more athletic version of me…predictably, in five years.  Anyway, we chatted a good chunk of the time music wasn’t being played.  Seems her brother-in-law is considering becoming a patent attorney, so we chatted about that a bit.img_0914

The Orpheum Theatre was also impressive. The venue is, obviously, very old.  Though, the interior appears to have been completely redone in the last several years.  It was a small, acoustically-pleasing venue.  There are at least two bars, the original from the 30s or so and a newer bar upstairs that included a huge wall-projection of the stage along with suitable sound system so if you step out for a drink you don’t miss a minute of the show or music.  I look forward to the chance to return to the venue for other shows in the future!

Andrew was predictably amazing.  I always appreciate watching and listening to a musician who is good at his craft.  Andrew is that and creates interesting music as well.  Often, the “best” music is also the most predictable, boring or… overstated, shall we say.  He is an excellent lyricist, whistler and violinist.  It makes for an unusual (see above) combination.  He brings it all together so well.  He used a serious amount of looping his own whistling, violin and voice.  He also used a strange spinning speaker-system (seen in the picture below) to add a Doppler effect to much of the looped sound.  All this showmanship came off with appropriate humility and aplomb.  Anyway, it was one of the more fun shows for me in a while.

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