The links at right have been checked and updated, so they should all work again. I added the best songs from the new Doves album, as well as a couple more Vitalic songs.

Huge respect to Nina for using her Pitchfork connection to get me Vitalic's Ok Cowboy on mp3. I am a massive fan of "My Friend Dario," as evidenced by the vulgarity of my previous description (a dead giveaway that I like a song). In fact, after only two days of listening I will put Ok Cowboy behind only M83's Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts in my all-time electronic albums rankings (not terribly meaningful given I only own about six electronic albums, but still). More on Vitalic in the coming week.

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In local news, Marquette decided not to change its name back to the Warriors, but rather than use the inferior but vaguely tolerable Golden Eagles moniker have changed it again. Yes, it's now going to be the Marquette Gold! Fucking lame if you ask me, but I guess that's what you get for having your name picked by a bunch of jesuits. The Journal-Sentinel poll showed 94% of people disapproving the last time I checked...

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Recent films:

Melinda & Melinda [imdb]
I have not seen many Woody Allen movies (and none of his "good" ones). The plot is divided into two parts, as the same basic premise (a woman named Melinda played by Radha Mitchell unexpectedly shows up at a dinner party) is told from both a comic and tragic perspective, which is interesting enough. However, the tragic part (starring Chloe Sevigny and Jonny Lee Miller) kind of blows. Miller is especially weak, his dialogue just never seems terribly believable...like whenever he gets angry you just have this feeling that you're watching an actor trying to act angry.

Will Ferrell's struggling actor Hoby on the comic side basically drives the movie though. And ironically, it works mostly because there's something hilarious about Will Ferrell acting like you've come to expect Woody Allen to act--self-deprecating, funny yet also vulnerable and self-conscious. It's by no means a dramatic role, which I thought it might be, but it alone was worth the cost of admission. Radha Mitchell--playing the central Melinda character--also deserves credit because she manages to have you see this character as two entirely different people. Which I suppose is, like, good acting.

Btw, Will Ferrell is hosting SNL on the 14th...

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room [imdb]
When I wake up in the morning I go to a job where I do things like value power plants, estimate the earnings impacts of electric price uncertainty, and other sorts of ill shit. So if ever there was a movie I should see, it would be this one. Based on the book written by two Fortune writers, the film uses interviews, news reports, shareholder meeting videos, and a few recreations to tell the story of (up to that point) the largest bankruptcy in US history. It's pretty digestible for the casual viewer, because it's basically a really long news magazine piece.

It's gotten very good reviews but it doesn't offer any terribly shocking insights if you have followed the case much. As I was sitting there I never thought it dragged, but I never was totally engrossed either. There's plenty of ex-post humor in seeing Skilling and co. squirm in front of Congress or watching Ken Lay talk about his trust in Fastow the day before he fired him. The soundtrack is also pretty cheeky (example: The Cardigans' "Lovefool" intros the film's chapter on Enron's lovey-dovey relationship with the banks).

The most interesting aspect is the way it tries to uncover what about Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling, and Andy Fastow made it possible for them to let a trainwreck of such proportions ever happen. But that was also the most disappointing aspect, as I was still left wondering more about what these guys were like--for instance, you see Ken Lay's wife briefly, but otherwise not much attempt was made to put them into the context of people with families. Like this for instance. So overall, the picture isn't very complete.

The Fearless Freaks [imdb]
I first got into the Flaming Lips when I heard Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots senior year, and have slowly been working my way backwards through their catalog ever since. But the interesting part about this documentary is mainly because it's not so much about the music as the people making it. Currently the band includes original members (since 1983) Wayne Coyne and Michael Ivins, as well as guitarist/keyboardist/drummer Steve Drozd (since 1992). The band's albums serve mainly as sign-posts throughout the film, which longtime friend of the band Bradley Beese has been making for more than a decade.

Beck unloads on Wayne

It's a candid view of the band and its members, and firmly establishes frontman Wayne Coyne as the coolest, most interesting guy in music (check out their KEXP set from a few years ago for a sampler). The band and family members deal very openly with drug abuse (Drozd was addicted to heroin for five years and only quit before the making of Yoshimi, and at one point shoots up for the camera), prison (both Steven and Wayne have brothers who were in prison), and their general weirdness. What you're left with is a picture of the most refreshing and likable (and least pretentious) band ever.

For some more web-friendly stuff, check out two KCRW sets:

Flaming Lips 8/8/2002
Flaming Lips w/Beck 12/24/2002