A Valentine From De La Soul

"Love sought is good, but given unsought better."

-William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night (III.i)

The best valentine that you, or anyone, will receive this year comes courtesy of the legendary hip hop trio De La Soul. In celebration of the 25th anniversary of their classic debut album 3 Feet High and Rising, the group is offering their entire discography for free download. Repeat: the entire De La Soul catalog can be legally downloaded for free via the group's website; from 3 Feet High and Rising and De La Soul is Dead (endlessly inventive albums on which producer Prince Paul completely redefined the art of sampling in popular music) to their more sober-minded '90s work and beyond. This give-away is not limited to studio albums, so even devoted fans can find rarities and instrumentals for download. This is an extraordinary opportunity to familiarize yourself with one of the most innovative musical acts of the last quarter century. But, you've got to be quick about it, as the offer expires when Valentine's Day expires.

Title sequence greatness

Title sequences are easy to overlook; they're often taken for granted because it's the time when you go to the bathroom or go get the popcorn. However, I propose that title sequences are one of the best indicators of whether a film or TV show is worth watching, at least when you have no other motivations (starring your favorite actor, based on a book you read, etc.).

Obviously imagery is important, but instead of taking advantage of this moment, most sequences seem to be an afterthought - let's just film some scenery from a helicopter and throw the performers' names over the shots of countryside. Sure, sometimes this b-reel imagery sets up the place, maybe the time, but it's not especially imaginative. When you sit down, you want to be immediately taken somewhere, otherwise it's too easy to become distracted.

There is a reason that movies are scored and music videos exist; music and movies accentuate each other. Good, deliberate music can convey tone and emotion, and is also a place were imagination is welcome. One loophole: silence can also be effective for setting tone.

The last piece of the puzzle is the font and style used for the titles. Type can actually demonstrate emotion and relevance just as much as imagery, since it too is a visual medium. For instance, use a font such as courier, and you might be reminded of a typewriter, thus the 1940s, and therefore a WWII-era spy thriller (or something like that, you get my drift). Well chosen typeface is key to a memorable sequence. Also, how do the titles flow into one another? This can convey the tone of the movie, such as frantic, lackadaisical, quirky, etc.

Originality in all three aspects makes for great sequences. Of course, sometimes there isn't a title sequence-- which can be cool too as long as it's intentional. Check out a list of some personal favorites after the jump ...

Join the realm!

If you are a fan of Game of Thrones, like I am, you most definitely are looking forward to the third season, which starts on Sunday, March 31. I've grown more and more excited each week and am currently in the middle of re-watching Season 1 and Season 2 to get ready. While seasons 1 and 2 covered the story lines from the first books in author George R.R. Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice series, A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings, season 3 will cover roughly the first half of the 973-page third book, A Storm of Swords.

No spoilers here: A Storm of Swords. Is. Awesome. And heartbreaking. And captivating. And full of surprises. I can't wait to see how the actors, writers, and directors bring this book to life. 

It is known that Game of Thrones includes a long list of characters and settings to keep straight. Do you know the sigil of each house?

House Baratheon: Ours in the Fury
House Bolton: Our Blades are Sharp
House Lannister: Hear Me Roar (unofficial: A Lannister Always Pays His Debts)
House Martell: Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken
House Mormont: Here we Stand
House Stark: Winter is Coming
House Tully: Family, Duty, Honor
House Targaryen: Fire and Blood

At jointherealm.com you can create your own house sigil by customizing the banner background, text, and icons. Here is the sigil I created. There was no squirrel icon available, so I settled on a food theme:

Have fun designing your house sigils!

Return of the Mars

Calling all Veronica Mars fans! By the time you read this the goal may have been reached, but creator Rob Thomas (with support from star Kristen Bell) has started a Kickstarter campaign to raise money in order to make a VM movie. Yes, you read right: A Veronica Mars Movie! And, it's looking good because the $2 million goal has almost been reached in one day.

Shooting is set to begin in the summer, with a release sometime in early 2014. Now, we just have to see if LoVe becomes a reality again ...

The Tallest Man On Earth: Love Is All

The Tallest Man On Earth is the enigmatic stage name of Swedish singer-songwriter Kristian Matsson. He has been recording original music and performing live for several years, but recently received a significant profile boost when he toured with critically-acclaimed artist Bon Iver. All of Matsson's work is guitar-based and heavily folk influenced, and his distinctively raspy voice is a wonderful instrument for his evocative song lyrics. While I would recommend the entirety of his 2010 album The Wild Hunt, it's the song "Love Is All" that has really stolen my heart. The video director Johan Stolpe has collected and edited vintage home movies - seemingly shot on Super 8 - into an unexpectedly moving complement to the song itself.

EW's List of the 50 Best Movies You've Never Seen

Entertainment Weekly published a list of the 50 best movies released in the last 20 years. Check it out here.  I've seen about half of the movies on the list.  It helps that the EW writers seem to like Sam Rockwell almost as much as I do.  Below are my favorites from their list:

Fish Tank (2009).  15-year-old Mia lives in the Essex projects with her single-mom and sister.  Mia has a tough life, her mother pretty much ignores her and the only person who seems to take an interest in her is her mom's boyfriend Connor. Media Corner favorite Michael Fassbender is in it!

George Washington (2000).  If you are only familiar with director David Gordon Green's recent work, including Your Highness and Pineapple Express, this movie will definitely surprise you.  This is Green in his arty, serious, Malickian mode. George Washington is also Paul Schneider's film debut. 

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999).  Jim Jarmusch's film about a professional killer (played by Forest Whitaker) who follows a strict samurai code of ethics. RZA from the Wu-Tang Clan did the score fore the movie and even makes a brief cameo!

Moon (2009).  Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) is nearing the end of his time of a solo three-year stint on a lunar mine.  However, he starting to have health problems and strange hallucinations.  After a bad accident, Sam discovers something unnerving about his mission on the moon. 

My Summer of Love (2004). This film shows how the friendship between two girls, working class Mona (Nathalie Press) and wealthy Tasmin (Emily Blunt), evolves over the course of one summer. 

Safe Men (1998).  An outrageous comedy that has one of the best casts ever: Paul Giamatti, Steve Zahn, Sam Rockwell and Mark Ruffalo are all in it!

My Music Year: 1988

After considerable deliberation, one stopgap exercise, and an awesome assist from Heather, I'm ready to endorse a music year. How did I settle on 1988? Was it my fond recollection of the molded plastic California Raisins that were so bountiful that year? It was not. My actual music-related memories of 1988 are fairly limited: I remember Fine Young Cannibals on the radio in my dad’s car (“She Drives Me Crazy” and  “Good Thing”), and Bobby Brown's "My Prerogative" was getting some serious play from my older sister. Oh, and the treacly "Living Years" by Mike + The Mechanics was an inescapable pop song. Apparently the New Kids on the Block were Hangin' Tough that year, but I don't really recall. (This Billboard compilation offers a fairly concise glimpse of what else people were listening to in '88.)

I was ten years old in 1988, and I was functionally illiterate as far as pop-culture goes. I didn't even have a tape deck. I think my only exposure to rap music had been a surreptitious viewing of the Beastie Boys' video "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party)". It would be some time before I had the opportunity to understand the Beasties' oeuvre beyond that one song, but I did appreciate their sense of humor. (Yes, even I knew they were lampooning themselves.) I was so remarkably ignorant of popular music that I thought Simon & Garfunkel were a current group. (I'm not sure how to account for that misnomer, but I would guess it had something to do with PBS re-airing the duo's 1980 reunion concert.) What can I say? I lived in my own head-space, as many young people do, and I was content with my paperback copies of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Jules Verne.

It wasn't until I was thirteen or fourteen that I began developing musical tastes of my own, and once that happened, 1988 proved to be the wellspring of my musical interests. In an odd way, the music of 1988 would influence me considerably from my middle-school years to the present day. And let me tell you, there are few constants in my life that span those years. (I'm not strictly using "constant" in the Desmond Hume sense of the word, but you are encouraged to interpret it that way.)

The Rise and Fall of Wu-Tang: An Infodiscography

An enterprising designer named Jess Bachman has assembled an "infodiscography" of the legendary hip-hop group, Wu-Tang Clan. These visually striking graphics offer an insightful overview of the myriad Wu-affiliated releases, and are particularly useful for exploring the members' solo projects. The three-part series sets out to highlight the rise, fragmentation, and decline of the group. I would argue that the enduring artistic influence of the Wu-Tang Clan precludes anything like a decline, but it's a well executed project that can be especially useful to beginner or intermediate Wu aficionados. If you'd like to know which of these solo projects are available through the library, you can take a look at the list I've compiled in bibliocommons.

The "infodiscography" graphics themselves are quite large. Check out part one after the jump.

New York Public Library's "Mad Men" Reading List

If you are a dedicated fan of AMC's Mad Men (and I'm just going to assume that you are), you know that the characters frequently reference books and films specific to the show's 1960s milieu. One of the more notable examples would be Don Draper's  moving voice-over recitation of a poem by Frank O'Hara in the second season. But even the more casual glimpses of what books the characters are interested in can be revealing. Don's daughter, Sally, reads age-appropriate Nancy Drew mysteries. Bert Cooper, not surprisingly, extols the virtues of Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand's 1100-page love letter to the free market. The ladies of the secretarial pool whisper about Lady Chatterley's Lover, the genuinely racy D.H. Lawrence novel that was the subject of an influential obscenity trial in 1959. These are just a few of the many literary works that have been spotted on Mad Men. And, for that reason, we can thank the fine librarians at the New York Public Library for compiling a fairly extensive list of the books cited throughout the show's run. Needless to say, you can search our catalog for any of the titles that interest you.

The 'Mad Men' Reading List - New York Public Library

Happy Valentine's Day

Clockbusters: Name that movie

Are you a big film buff? Try your hand at the game Clockbusters from Veer. Three photo clues appear on the screen and you have 60 seconds to type in the name of the correct film. You are able to skip a clue and go on to the next if you don't know the answer. I played the original game and scored 43 out of 50 for my first run. I then tried the clues I skipped and figured out five more.

I still have no idea which movie the following images represent: sword handle, headless doll, and lightning.

My Music Year: Trapped in 2007

Following in the footsteps of fellow Media Corner Blogger Jason and the AV Club before him, I highlight one of my favorite years in music.

There is a certain type of people who seem trapped in a period of their life—for instance, people who relieve their high school glory days well into adulthood.  Similarly, I think some people have a musical peak; they get fixated on a particular period in music and never quite move on.  Their musical taste slowly atrophies into unhipness.  I had a neighbor in college who seemingly only listened to music which was popular circa 1996.  This would have been less annoying, if say he was really into Weezer’s Pinkerton or Belle and Sebastian’s If Your Feeling Sinister.  Instead, I had to wake up every morning to sounds of the Cranberries’ “Salvation” and Harvey Danger’s “Flagpole Sitta” blaring from his dorm room.  The kid must have musically peaked at the age of 12.  How sad, I thought, be in your very early 20s and already nostalgic.

However, when I was attempting to compile my best of the 00's album list (a task I still haven't finished), I realized a disconcerting trend.  Save for Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2001) and Neko Case’s Fox Confessor Brings the Flood (2006), all of my favorite albums were from 2007.  I wondered if this was my own musical heyday…soon I’d be the annoying neighbor blaring LCD Soundsystem’s “All My Friends” and saying stuff like, “2007, that was when music was music!  Not like the rubbish kids listen to these days.”

Thankfully, my music geekery is insatiable, so it's hard for me to get stuck in one year for too long.  Even if I’m still really obsessed with Person Pitch and Jens Lekman. 

My Top Five of 2007:

5).  Cryptograms- Deerhunter
Find it in the catalog!
It took me a while to discover this album.  Deerhunter had kind of a notorious reputation at the time, thanks in part to front man Bradford Cox's sometimes erratic behavior and provocative blog posting.  The first time I heard most of the songs off of Cryptograms was when I saw the band live in 2008.  The eerie moodiness of the album, as well as the spare psychedelia make Cryptograms a classic.

Stand-Out Tracks: Spring Hall Convert, Strange Lights, Heatherwood

4).  Night Falls Over Kortedala- Jens Lekman
Find it in the catalog!
Though he had garnered some fame for his singles "You are the Light" and "Maple Leaves," I somehow missed Lekman until 2007. I saw him described on a music blog as being a combination of Jonathan Richman and Frank Sinatra.  As a big Jonathan Richman, I immediately checked out his single "Postcard to Nina" and I was hooked.  Night Falls Over Kortedala is a funny, quirky, but sincere effort.

Stand-Out Tracks: Opposite of Hallelujah, A Postcard to Nina, Into Eternity, Kanske Ar Jag Kar i Dig

3).  Sound of Silver- LCD Soundsystem
Find it in the catalog!
Having spent much of 2006 listening to the Talking Heads, New Order, and Gang of Four (thanks Marie Antoinette), meaning I was in the perfect frame of mind to love this album. While all of James Murphy and Co.'s albums are great, Sound of Silver is probably the most consistently awesome.  Best three song stretch of the Aughts?: "North American Scum," "Someone Great" and "All My Friends."

Stand-Out Tracks: The aforementioned three, "Get Innocuous!"  and "New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down." 

2).  Boxer- The National
Find it in the catalog!
Alligator, the 2005 release by the National, had been in heavy rotation in my stereo for about two years when Boxer came out.  It was one of my most hotly anticipated albums of the year and it exceeded my expectations.  Most National albums have to grow on you, but my love for Boxer was immediate.  They just do melancholy so well.  This is an album full of slowly building tension and brooding.  Lyrically, the album focuses on the theme of reluctantly growing up.  Being 23 at the time, I could definitely relate to the early adulthood ambivalence.

Stand-Out Tracks:  Fake Empire, Mistaken for Strangers, Slow Show, Apartment Story, Start a War

1).  Person Pitch- Panda Bear
Find it in the catalog!
If there was one album that was the zeitgeist of 2007, it was probably the solo album of Animal Collective member Noah Lennox aka. Panda Bear.  Person Pitch was named the best album of the year by Tiny Mix Tapes, Gorilla Vs. Bear, and Pitchfork. It has an upbeat sound and is unabashedly Beach Boys-esque. It definitely is a pick-me up record.  When I listen to it, my mood usually improves and I feel more relaxed.  Person Pitch is like a trip to Portugal for your ears!  This album is definitely recommended for fans of the Animal Collective album Merriweather Post Pavilion (2009). 

Stand-Out Tracks: Comfy in Nautica, Bros, Good Girl/ Carrots, Ponytail. 

My Music Year: 1978

The Onion AV Club’s ongoing series My Music Year is a fairly straightforward concept ("In My Favorite Music Year, A.V. Club music writers choose the years that speak to them most deeply, however fresh in memory or far in the past."), but it's given me a lot to think about. While I’m intrigued by the idea of highlighting a particular year in music that has personal resonance, I'm having trouble committing to a specific year. It seems like every year has its riches and its dross, and I can't help feeling that to choose one year is to overlook another. As a means of bypassing this indecisiveness, I have decided to review my birth-year. I'm not sure how I hit on the idea, but I'm excited about exploring the year I was born for hints at my musical sensibilities. How much of the music released the year I was born would end up being a part of my life in one way or another? We shall see.

Da Mystery of Chessboxin

You may not immediately associate the acclaimed hip-hop collective known as The Wu-Tang Clan with the tiny pieces of colorful plastic known as Legos. But, it's high time something was done about that. The anthemic track "Da Mystery of Chessboxin" comes from Wu-Tang Clan's justly lauded 1993 debut, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). And here we have a clever little accompanying video, featuring all the synchronized sword-play and allegorical chess maneuvers you could wish for. Don't expect the slick polish of Michel Gondry's award-winning video for The White Stripes' "Fell in Love With a Girl". What you've got here is relatively low-tech stop-motion animation that nicely manages to capture the humor and menace of the original track. The highlight for me is the hilariously glowering Lego-man that denotes ODB. Green overalls! I also like the inclusion of several blank-faced figures (around the 2-minute and 2-minutes-30-second mark) which seem to correspond with the original album cover. I commend the Wu-Tang aficionado who put this video together, whoever he or she may be. I'm guessing it was done by a particularly industrious and inspired intern at Wu-Tang international headquarters, located in central Shaolin.

Warning: Video Contains Explicit Lyrics and LEGO Weapons


Courtesy of Flavorwire

TV Kisses Mashup

Even if you prefer to celebrate the birthday of women's rights activist Ann Howard Shaw over Valentine's Day on February 14, I don't think you will regret checking out this "TV Kisses Mashup" video from the AOL TV Squad. Lucy and Ricky! Clair and Cliff! Sawyer and Kate! Kevin and Winnie! (aw.) Watch this clip to see if you can spot your favorite TV couples. 

Was anyone else reminded of the montage of kisses at the end of the 1989 Italian film Cinema Paradiso?

The Assassination of Yogi Bear by the Coward Boo-boo

Animator Edmund Earle created an "alternate ending" parody video for the new Yogi Bear movie that is coming out this week.  I'm probably outside of the target demographic for the Yogi movie, but I did enjoy Andrew Dominik's 2007 revisionist western The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (it has Paul Schneider AND Sam Rockwell in it!), which this parody also references.  It's a pretty funny video clip and probably more enjoyable to most adults than the actual Yogi Bear film, but I definitely missed Sam Rockwell acting as moral conscience in this version of the scene. (via BoingBoing).
Note: In case you can't tell by the title, there is bear-on-bear violence in this clip.



Check out the original:
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007).
Find it in the catalog!

Random Juxtaposition?

 

 Certain similarities, however random, are inevitable.

I invite you to draw your own conclusions.

Recipes and baked goods inspired by pop culture

I stumbled across the blog Diamonds for Dessert as I was researching potential recipes for our Harry Potter Movie Release Party. After checking out the Harry Potter recipes I looked at other posts and discovered some of the coolest, most creative baking ideas I've found in recent memory. College student Susan S. runs the blog, where she shares photos and recipes of recent baking/cooking projects (all of them do not deal with pop culture, but everything looks delicious) .

Anyway, if you are like me and enjoy both baking and pop culture, you will definitely find some fun ideas on the Diamonds for Dessert blog. I'm including a few highlights below-- be sure to click on the links to read the posts in full!

Glee Cookies
Too cool for words and perfect to serve at a Glee Viewing Party! We just need to add Brittany, Santana, Sam, Mike Chang, and Blaine cookies to the group!

Eat Me cookies from the 1951 animated film Alice in Wonderland

Sorting Hat Bread from the Harry Potter Party menu

View the full menu from Harry Potter party here. The Butterbeer recipe looks very easy to make and serve; I wish I had used that recipe for last Saturday's party instead of my rushed concoction of ice cream, butterscotch syrup, and vanilla cream soda.

All photo screen captures were taken from Diamonds for Dessert blog and were used with permission.

A Bittersweet Curse

How seriously can you take the idea of romance between an Egyptian mummy and the archaeologist who discovers him? Not terribly, am I right? Such scenarios are generally limited to black and white horror movies and pulpy Anne Rice novels. Singer/songwriter Josh Ritter somehow manages to invest this fantastical relationship with pathos and tenderness, making "The Curse" the standout track of his 2010 album So Runs the World Away. "The Curse" is a lilting waltz with perfectly punctuated horn accompaniment and one of the most elegantly written poetic narratives in pop music. Ritter's drummer, professional puppeteer Liam Hurley, painstakingly created a visual corollary to the song that enhances its already powerful emotional impact. (You can read Hurley's thoughts on the song/video and see photos of the production process on NPR's All Songs Considered blog.) You can scoff at the perceived preciousness of an all-puppet music video, but if you're not moved by the sight of that marionette mummy reaching out to stroke the archaeologists hair (1 minute, 19 seconds into the video), then I'm not sure you're alive. Recommended for: lovers of poetic, finely wrought songs; puppeteers and puppet aficionados; video geeks; and any human being in whose chest the dried fig of a heart still beats.

Harry Potter 7 trailer: The excitement builds!

The trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the seventh and final installment in author J.K. Rowling's popular series, was recently released. This movie will actually be split into two parts. Part 1 comes to theaters on November 19, 2010, and Part 2 is released July 15 2011. What do you think of the trailer? If you've read the book, you know that a key scene, Harry's final battle with Voldemort, is altered in the movie-- the scene is not set in the Great Hall surrounded by the other characters. I will have to see how the scene plays out in the movie, because I thought the way Rowling wrote the scene was quite brilliant. Anyway, I am still unbelievably excited for both parts of Deathly Hallows. Accio anticipation for HP7!