VAGUE SPACE

Su-Su-Sucio

Weeds brought some of the funny back in last week's episode, as Nancy could only play Esteban's dutiful slave for so long and had her fun when the hard-nosed Cesar gives up on babysitting and lets the more easily swayed (and less English-speaking) Sucio deal with Nancy's daily grind.  Nancy eventually realizes that she can twist Sucio into making her life a little easier, although he does have a nasty habit of pulling a gun on each of her family members as they return home from various places, back to Nancy's flock.  But by the end, Nancy has Sucio so under her thumb (as she eventually does with all men) that she convinces him to shower -- finally -- which does not end well for Sucio. 

Jennifer Jason Leigh is back this week as Nancy's estranged sister Jill and in between her renewal of sack time with brother-in-law Andy, we get some interesting insight into the man-controlling ways of Nancy, which began at least way back in her youth, when she used a teacher's crush to get good grades before the lovelorn professor got shipped off for lusting over a 14-year-old student.  We also learn that Nancy was always criminally self-centered and selfish, as she fled town in the midst of their parents' divorce and left Jill to deal with not one, but two lengthy death watches for their mother and father.  Jill was the responsible sister who handled all the funeral arrangements, while Nancy was out being Nancy, or at least a younger, less drug dealery, version.  But Nancy has no time for Jill's pity party (or for her relationship with Andy), especially after Sucio's mid-shower mishap left blood on the patio and a Mexican henchman missing and Nancy, Andy, Shane, and Jill on the run -- again -- from whoever wanted her (or at least Sucio) dead.

Congratulations Jonny

Congratulations to Jonny Flynn on becoming the 6th overall pick in the NBA draft last night, the first Syracuse lottery pick since Carmelo Anthony in 2003.  I lamented Jonny's decision to leave school after his sophomore year, mainly because I know the Orange will be a worse team without him, but also because he was only projected as the 15th pick at the time, about where Donte' Greene had been slotted a year earlier -- and Donte ended up getting picked third to last in the first round, got traded twice, and spent most of the season on the bench for a lousy Golden State team.  So I didn't think Jonny had made such a wise decision -- if he'd come back and led Syracuse to the Final Four (as seemed possible, maybe even likely, back in March) he'd definitely move up into the top 5 or 6 in the 2010 draft.  But you know what, he's there now, and although I'm going to miss him, I'm very happy for the young man.  In his brief two years on my favorite team in any sport, Jonny shot up among the list of my favorite Syracuse alums, along with Melo and Moten and GMac and Wallace and DC and Stevie Thompson and Hakim Warrick and Preston Shumpert.  In fact, other than Melo, I don't think I've become a fan of any Orange player so fast.  Congratulations, Jonny.  Good luck in Minnesota (if they don't trade you -- they inexplicably took two point guards with the 5th and 6th picks).  Orange Nation will miss your smiling face and outsized heart.  I hope you'll be a star for a long time to come.

The Hangover

Starring:  Ed Helms, Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifaniakdiakos
Rating:  3 1/2 stars (out of 4)

The Hangover is the surprise summer hit from the director of Old School, a similarly funny movie that had big box office success but didn't prompt any repeat viewings for me or constant quoting like the recent Judd Apatow comedies The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Superbad.   But while The Hangover does not reach the heights of those Apatow classics, the movie did exceed by a long shot other recent attempts at comedy from the Apatow crew that felt a little more forced and a little too blissfully romantic (Knocked Up, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Pineapple Express).  This movie is not romantic at all, not PC at all, and much like Superbad, brings in laughs aplenty with unabashed R-rated exuberance and ridiculous excess.  Not everything they do in the movie is hilarious, but everything is done for laughs and you really gotta respect that.  And there's a pretty great plot beneath all the adventures and some absolutely wonderful acting throughout.  Just a really good movie.  Very deserving of its success.

Sunset Rubdown Tuesday

In place of my regularly scheduled New Music Tuesday feature, and in honor of today's official hard copy release of Sunset Rubdown's Dragonslayer -- now available at a fine independent record store near you! -- Vague Space declares today Sunset Rubdown Day, a day for all to enjoy the joy and wonder and beauty that is the music of this seemingly ordinary human named Spencer Krug who has spent the past five years making music of the gods.  Any regular readers of this blog knows that Sunset Rubdown is my favorite band right now, so my glowing review of their new album may come off as a little biased.  As such, I've included some quotes from other sources that have been gathered around the Internet this weekend.  Believe me, I'm not alone.  This is some historically, monumentally brilliant shit going on here.  I'm just glad to be listening...

• Download Sunset Rubdown - "You Go on Ahead (Trumpet Trumpet II)".mp3
• Buy Dragonslayer
  

Drowned in Sound, Jun. 19 (10 out of 10 review)

Spencer Krug dispatches the line "maybe those days are over, over now..." with such conviction you'd think civilization had come to an end, and we failed… but didn't it make pretty colours as it burned? As the song plays out, "...under all the folds of the dresses that you wear / there’s an ocean and a tide / a riot in the square..." is sung with such reverie that you remember 'apocalypse' just means 'unveiling' – that all this is a dance, and if it's going to end, there's something erotic in having been there… That’s just the opening.

Obscure Sound, May 26 (9 out of 10)

Krug shows he can create vivid folk on “Nightingale / December Song”, nostalgic arena-rock on “Idiot Heart” and “Dragon’s Lair”, and fist-pumping anthems in “Black Swan”, but stylistic multifariousness is not the sole reason for Dragonslayer’s apparent success. It is the consistency, thematic focus, and sheer ability throughout the album that makes this one a potential classic. If anything, Dragonslayer will eventually serve as a reminder of Sunset Rubdown’s dominance after their days are over. After all, this decade deserves quality representatives.

Weeds Season 5

Oh Nancy.  Let's see -- in season 1, she was selling pot to her neighbors in rich, suburban Agrestic, California, relieving their stress for living within their "little boxes" while making enough cash to keep her family in suburban "bliss" after the untimely death of her husband.  In season 2, she started growing her own (pot), but ran into all kinds of problems with her business, forcing her to hire security -- a Mexican gang selling other drugs.  She also had a fling with a DEA agent, while fucking her partner Conrad, and using her feminine whiles to get out of all kinds of increasing troubles that somehow didn't scare her away from her chosen "career".  By season 3, she was knee deep into new issues with a black gang run by U-Turn, who basically enslaved Nancy until he was shot dead by Conrad, a few months after the Mexicans (I think?) put the hit on her DEA agent boyfriend.  The DEA captain was onto her, though, and she ended up burning down her entire neighborhood (or at least the Mexicans did) and fled to the southern border to -- well, continue to spiral down into a drug-infested hell.  And she dragged her two teenage sons and brother-in-law with her (and Kevin Nealon's Doug, just because he's funny) to try to start a new life working at a maternity store front for a tunnel that brought in drugs, weapons, and other assorted things between Mexico and America.  Finally, after 4 seasons of complete and utter loss of sanity and morality and plain-old common sense -- all in the pursuit of -- something? (wealth, not really; power, maybe; a thrill, definitely), Nancy finally came to her senses at the close of last season when she realized the "other assorted things" coming from Mexico were kidnap victims from Russia being sold to Americans.  But when she told the DEA captain about the tunnel, she didn't reveal the mastermind behind the plot, who happened to be her boyfriend, Esteban, the mayor of Tijuana.  Unfortunately, that withheld information was not going to save her when Esteban's henchmen snapped a picture of her and the DEA captain together, and we closed last season with Nancy driving to Mexico with the thought that her luck had finally run out.  We also witnessed a heart-wrenching phone call to a cookie delivery company when Nancy was trying to buy a gift for her eldest son's 18th birthday but realizes how horribly badly she's failed her family after her husband's death and comes to the understanding that perhaps they will be better off with her dead.  But she did have one last ace up her sleeve -- Esteban's baby was in her womb, and she hoped he would spare her life because of that.

Holy Fuck It's Chrysler?

I just heard a Chrysler commercial featuring one of my top 100 songs of 2007, "Lovely Allen" by Canadian group Holy Fuck.  Yes, Holy Fuck.  Apparently, irony is not lost on the makers of Chrysler commercials.  And yes, I do love when a favorite song of mine appears in a mainstream media sort of way (Grandaddy's classic "A.M. 180" was also recently featured in a car commercial -- also for Dodge/Chrysler, I believe).  But I also love having an excuse to say Holy Fuck as many times as possible in my blog. 

Editor's Note:  It seems that Chrysler has inexplicably pulled the video from YouTube -- why? no one knows -- it's a goddamn commercial for your cars -- you want people to watch the video!!!!!!  That's the whole entire purpose of a commercial, isn't it?  Wow.  Maybe this is why they went bankrupt.  Who the fuck is running this operation?  Anyway, here's a substitute video from the band itself, for the full song:

Watch below...

And here's the full version of the song:

• Download Holy Fuck - "Lovely Allen".mp3
  

Long Island

Well, I made fun of Jersey in a video last week on this site, so I couldn't resist posting this video poking a little fun at Long Island.  This is a little more "highbrow" than the Guido Beach video (courtesy of Robyn -- not Matt, I wanted to clarify) but it's still damn funny.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Long Island Wants to Secede
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Jason Jones in Iran

eMusic Sells Out

I've been a loyal subscriber to eMusic for several years now (I think since 2005) and I've paid somewhere around $12/month for 50 downloads a month, which is under 25 cents a track, a major steal for those of us who want to support our favorite bands but don't have the cash to buy every album of every band we love for $12 a CD.  And eMusic has always been the home to the greatest independent labels on the planet -- from Matador and Rough Trade to Kill Rock Stars and Jagjaguwar and Domino and Barsuk and Secretly Canadian and Arts and Crafts and Saddle Creek and Polyvinyl, of course, Merge -- so it's been home to all my favorite music.  Occasionally there's a band that I love who've "graduated" to a major label that isn't available on eMusic (The Decemberists' Hazards of Love, for instance), but for the most part, every new and old album for an indie rock fan is represented, and what more can one ask for... Well, apparently, if you're the owners of eMusic, founded and presumably successful due to the support (and cash) of independent music fans, you can ask for more cash and more subscribers by pulling this fucking shit --

Today, we want to let our U.S. subscribers know that soon we’ll be adding even more of the music you want from the catalogues of labels like Arista, Columbia, Epic and RCA - that means artists including the Strokes, Bruce Springsteen, Leonard Cohen and The Clash to name a few....  The addition of these bold-face names doesn’t change our mission. eMusic will always be an alternative to mass market digital music stores — a deeper, richer music shopping experience.

Sunset Rubdown Live, 6/13/2009

I see your face when I close my eyes
I see the muscles in your legs from the way you always rise
To the occasion of catching things that fall
Like the statuettes on pedestals I tend to build too tall

Sunset Rubdown appeared at Johnny Brenda's in Philadelphia (down in Fishtown) on Saturday night, performing a set consisting mostly of tracks from their new album Dragonslayer.  And as expected, they killed it.  They didn't come out until about 11:15, for a 9 pm show, and by then my anticipation was tempered by a little exhaustion, but as soon as I saw Spencer and Camilla setting up their keyboards, I was ready to cheer.  And I didn't stop until the set was done -- at around 1 am.  They played thirteen songs -- 11 initially, then 2 in an encore -- and they were all absolutely brilliant.  Here's the set list:

1. Black Swan
2. Silver Moons
3. The Taming of the Hands that Came Back to Life
4. Idiot Heart
5. Coming to at Dawn
6. Winged/Wicked Things
7. Paper Lace
8. Snake's Got a Leg III!!!!
9. You Go On Ahead (Trumpet Trumpet II)
10. Dragon's Lair
11. Nightingale / December Song
12. Apollo and the Buffalo and Anna Anna Anna Oh!
13. The Mending of the Gown

Buy Dragonslayer

Zack Attack!

Continuing with the late night theme of recent posts, this was on Jimmy Fallon the other night -- Mark-Paul Gosselaar, promoting his show Raising the Bar that I never heard of before, appeared on Fallon (the guy who replaced Conan) in character as the legendary Zack Morris from Bayside High (Saved by the Bell).  He mentions the Maxx, his summer at the beach resort, his "marriage" to Kelly Kapowski, and he receives a call on his big cell phone from Jesse Spano.  Ah, memories.  So sad that I find this so incredibly awesome.  Well done, Mark-Paul... err, Zack.