Hello to all! This is the weekend edition of my journal!
Wow, I have tons of stuff to write about including more musical entries (this time with photos, hopefully they will make this an even nicer thing to read (?) haha
1. Philip Roth's "American Pastoral": I am loving this, it has some amazing character developmet and deep psychological insight into what american citizens felt during the post-Second World War years, including the sixties and seventies. I am finding it hard to get to the end because the writing deals with a very hard situation for a parent to be in. It relates to everyone that has ever loved but has been hated in return, but particularly to love that only parents and children can have. It is also scary, scary to know that your kid can grow to hate you no matter what. And also the loneliness that ensues, because the sadness the main character feels is unique and cannot be shared, so as to make the burden a little more bearable. A great novel indeed... I want to read more stuff by him, probably his stuff regarding Left politics in the USA.
2. I went with my dear Inocencia to watch "V for vendetta" and we loved it!! We went today to the matinee at Plaza Las Americas and we were surprised by how much we liked the picture. We got to the mall at 9:30 PM and we ate breakfast at La Patisserie, which we loved, it was my first of hopefully many times to come of getting breakfast there.
Afterwards I had a very pleasant surprise because we bumped into my ex-boss who is also a very dear friend and I miss her terribly. Her name is Jessica and she is very pretty and also a good friend, hopefully I will see her more frequently now, we'll see.
Okay, now, about the movie itself, well, I expected it to be very bad, because Alan Moore (the author of the source material and also one of the best writers alive of any medium) said it was awful and took his name from the credits and gave all the royalties to the illustrator of the original book, Dave Lloyd. He has hated all the other movies made after his books so it is not any surprise that he hated this one too, but still, I value his opinion a lot. By the way, go read the "V for Vendetta" original graphic novel, published by Vertigo, it is very good!!
I will not spoil the movie for those still wating to watch it or to read the book but I think the movie with most of the topics raised in the book and they are dealt with mostly the same level of depth, plus the acting is very good, surprisingly eve Natalie Portman is able to keep up with the great Hugo Weaving, which is great as always.
3. I am listening to a very good bubblegum pop band from Spain named Formula V!!
They sound like a hybrid between early Beatles and the Monkees, and they had some big hits during the sixties, mostly inoffensive songs about love and banal stuff, but I LOVE IT!!! Beautiful and fun stuff.
4. This is one of my favorite bands right now, and everyone should run and listen to them in Myspace, they even are giving away a four-song ep thru an online record label. They are Balun!
They are a trio from my Island which I discovered close to two months ago, but they have been around for a few years playing locally in underground places right here in Puerto Rico. I think they are as good as anyone in the world at playing dreamy pretty ambiental pop. I strongly suggest you check them out!!!
The following two pics are a group shot and the other one is from the gig where I first saw them perform live, at the Cafe CE (the best place to watch a live act in Puerto Rico in an intimate way at least):
5. Thinking about adding more chapters to my musical autobiography I started remembering how I discovered the great New York City band, SONIC YOUTH! THey are probably one of my top ten favorite bands of all my life. I especially hold very close to my heart this album: and this one:
I first met them by watching an MTV show which probably some of you out there remember: 120 minutes and its sister show, Alternative nation. This two shows where to me like a contemporary musical apreciation course. Because in my country radio stations are mostly useless in order to learn about Sonic Youth, Flaming Lips and the Fall you had to have a very cool friend to introduce you or by reading magazines (I have to write about my life in relation to musical magazines and writers on another time), that is unless you had cable tv and were able to stay awake on sunday nights to watch videos by "alternative acts", people like the Archers of Loaf, Bad Religion, Velocity Girl, the Juliana Hatfield Three (Delores like them a lot!), REM (before ""Out of time"), Dinosaur Jr., Joy Division and New Order, the Afghan Whighs and many many great bands. I remember watching THey might be giants videos, watching The Pogues "Fairytale in NY" video for the first time and having goose bumps, so impressed I was by them that I did not even got teary eyed, which I get usually when I listen to that great song, and tons of other great musical memories. Well, I saw the video for "Kool thing" out of "Goo" and it was love at first sight. I fell for them, thought they were incredibly good and cool and all that, especially Thurston and Kim, and I envied him when I discovered they were married. To this day I think they are one of the coolest most prettiest couples alive on this planet, at least.
After I watched this video I bought the "Goo" cd and I loved it, even thought I felt a little puzzled by it, because at the time I had not heard anything like, all that noise that somehow made sense, no guitar solos, long songs with dreamy spaced-out parts, etc. I felt so lucky to had discovered them. I even felt that the cover was incredible, and to this day I think the Sonic Youth albums have some of the greatest cover arts ever. Afterward I got into "Dirty" thru a friend, the same one that gave some time afterwards the Caifanes tape that made me a different person. I love all the songs from that album: "100%", "Youth against fascism", "Nic Fit", etc. I strongly reccopmend both this albums, run and get them NOW!
I think I will end this now but hopefully I will write more by midweek, bye to all, have a great weekend
edited because I saw that the whole photos feature did not work, but I will figure what is wrong hopefully now.
Wow, I have tons of stuff to write about including more musical entries (this time with photos, hopefully they will make this an even nicer thing to read (?) haha
1. Philip Roth's "American Pastoral": I am loving this, it has some amazing character developmet and deep psychological insight into what american citizens felt during the post-Second World War years, including the sixties and seventies. I am finding it hard to get to the end because the writing deals with a very hard situation for a parent to be in. It relates to everyone that has ever loved but has been hated in return, but particularly to love that only parents and children can have. It is also scary, scary to know that your kid can grow to hate you no matter what. And also the loneliness that ensues, because the sadness the main character feels is unique and cannot be shared, so as to make the burden a little more bearable. A great novel indeed... I want to read more stuff by him, probably his stuff regarding Left politics in the USA.
2. I went with my dear Inocencia to watch "V for vendetta" and we loved it!! We went today to the matinee at Plaza Las Americas and we were surprised by how much we liked the picture. We got to the mall at 9:30 PM and we ate breakfast at La Patisserie, which we loved, it was my first of hopefully many times to come of getting breakfast there.
Afterwards I had a very pleasant surprise because we bumped into my ex-boss who is also a very dear friend and I miss her terribly. Her name is Jessica and she is very pretty and also a good friend, hopefully I will see her more frequently now, we'll see.
Okay, now, about the movie itself, well, I expected it to be very bad, because Alan Moore (the author of the source material and also one of the best writers alive of any medium) said it was awful and took his name from the credits and gave all the royalties to the illustrator of the original book, Dave Lloyd. He has hated all the other movies made after his books so it is not any surprise that he hated this one too, but still, I value his opinion a lot. By the way, go read the "V for Vendetta" original graphic novel, published by Vertigo, it is very good!!
I will not spoil the movie for those still wating to watch it or to read the book but I think the movie with most of the topics raised in the book and they are dealt with mostly the same level of depth, plus the acting is very good, surprisingly eve Natalie Portman is able to keep up with the great Hugo Weaving, which is great as always.
3. I am listening to a very good bubblegum pop band from Spain named Formula V!!
They sound like a hybrid between early Beatles and the Monkees, and they had some big hits during the sixties, mostly inoffensive songs about love and banal stuff, but I LOVE IT!!! Beautiful and fun stuff.
4. This is one of my favorite bands right now, and everyone should run and listen to them in Myspace, they even are giving away a four-song ep thru an online record label. They are Balun!
They are a trio from my Island which I discovered close to two months ago, but they have been around for a few years playing locally in underground places right here in Puerto Rico. I think they are as good as anyone in the world at playing dreamy pretty ambiental pop. I strongly suggest you check them out!!!
The following two pics are a group shot and the other one is from the gig where I first saw them perform live, at the Cafe CE (the best place to watch a live act in Puerto Rico in an intimate way at least):
5. Thinking about adding more chapters to my musical autobiography I started remembering how I discovered the great New York City band, SONIC YOUTH! THey are probably one of my top ten favorite bands of all my life. I especially hold very close to my heart this album: and this one:
I first met them by watching an MTV show which probably some of you out there remember: 120 minutes and its sister show, Alternative nation. This two shows where to me like a contemporary musical apreciation course. Because in my country radio stations are mostly useless in order to learn about Sonic Youth, Flaming Lips and the Fall you had to have a very cool friend to introduce you or by reading magazines (I have to write about my life in relation to musical magazines and writers on another time), that is unless you had cable tv and were able to stay awake on sunday nights to watch videos by "alternative acts", people like the Archers of Loaf, Bad Religion, Velocity Girl, the Juliana Hatfield Three (Delores like them a lot!), REM (before ""Out of time"), Dinosaur Jr., Joy Division and New Order, the Afghan Whighs and many many great bands. I remember watching THey might be giants videos, watching The Pogues "Fairytale in NY" video for the first time and having goose bumps, so impressed I was by them that I did not even got teary eyed, which I get usually when I listen to that great song, and tons of other great musical memories. Well, I saw the video for "Kool thing" out of "Goo" and it was love at first sight. I fell for them, thought they were incredibly good and cool and all that, especially Thurston and Kim, and I envied him when I discovered they were married. To this day I think they are one of the coolest most prettiest couples alive on this planet, at least.
After I watched this video I bought the "Goo" cd and I loved it, even thought I felt a little puzzled by it, because at the time I had not heard anything like, all that noise that somehow made sense, no guitar solos, long songs with dreamy spaced-out parts, etc. I felt so lucky to had discovered them. I even felt that the cover was incredible, and to this day I think the Sonic Youth albums have some of the greatest cover arts ever. Afterward I got into "Dirty" thru a friend, the same one that gave some time afterwards the Caifanes tape that made me a different person. I love all the songs from that album: "100%", "Youth against fascism", "Nic Fit", etc. I strongly reccopmend both this albums, run and get them NOW!
I think I will end this now but hopefully I will write more by midweek, bye to all, have a great weekend
edited because I saw that the whole photos feature did not work, but I will figure what is wrong hopefully now.
first is:
This is Balun!
Group shot and a live performance photo!!
Formula V!!
Sonic Youth's "Goo" and "Dirty", plus Kim Goordon live!