Aug 20
AndrewMovies
The irony of The Switch, the new Jennifer Aniston film about finding her baby daddy, is the happily ever after. Maybe it’s expected for this kind of predictable romantic comedy, but the movie opens up with a lengthy voice over from Jason Bateman’s character Wally about how life is a rut. It’s a wholly sympathetic point of view that is too obviously contradicted in a flat finale.
The other irony is that Jennifer Aniston is the star vehicle pushing The Switch, but she is outshined by Bateman and their child co-star Thomas Robinson. Aniston is pitch-perfect as the anguished mom-to-be, then independent single mother Cassie who likes her best friend Wally but won’t consider him as a sperm donor. Instead she finds hunky Roland (played with a kind of crazy-Watchmen glint in his eyes by Patrick Wilson that was missing from his character in the Watchmen) whose donation is swapped with Wally’s and hilarity ensues.
The Switch is funny. It’s cute. It’s formulaic. It’s also insanely fast paced. The only time the movie slows down is scenes between Wally and Sebastian (played with adorable quirkiness by Robinson). Only then does the movie give credit to the story its pushing, and it is in those moments that makes The Switch worth watching.
But that’s the heart of the problem really. This isn’t a boy meets girl romantic comedy (see The Back-up Plan). It’s a story about a father building a relationship with his six-year old son and realizing that its the relationships in his life that gives it meaning and purpose. Even his friendship with his coworker (played by Jeff Goldblum) makes this point nicely, even if you wish you could have seen more of it during the movie. That’s why, when he eventually gets the girl (believe me, not a spoiler), it’s kind of besides the point.
Aug 19
AndrewMusic
Memo to Caleb Followill and Kings of Leon: You don’t need Glee, but that doesn’t mean you should be stupid about turning down the show.
It might be time that Kings of Leon break their “no sell out” policy for Glee considering it’s only one of the most popular shows on television. Followill’s insists he’s never seen the show, so, sir, here’s a primer. The kids turn your most popular songs into their most popular songs by arranging them in choir-esque vocal jam sessions. It’s cute, it’s quaint, and it’s typically wrapped in a bubblegum storyline package that neatly ties together that episode’s themes. It’s also watched by 8 million people which is about 4 times greater than the total number of copies you pushed of your breakthrough album Only by the Night. That means you’re looking to possibly pick up 6 million interested new fans, and don’t tell me it offends your indie sensibility. You tossed that away when you released Use Somebody as a single.
I understand you turned down Ugly Betty. Fine, nobody watches it anyway. Licensing your music to shows and movies doesn’t make you a sell out, it provides you exposure to audiences that might otherwise not know you exist. That is, people who are willing to buy tickets to your concerts and pony up money to buy magazines with your face on the cover. Your attitude is exactly the kind of nearsighted bullshit egomania that you can’t afford.
Man, I hate your band even more now. Your show, which I took a friend to as a birthday gift, was a noisy mess and altogether unenjoyable. But I respected your band for earning your credibility on the road when you’ve been largely ignored by radio before Sex on Fire, but that’s exactly why you need Glee. My respect for you is less for confusing selling out with cross-marketing, for thinking being indie-cool is better than pop giants, and for thinking licensing your music is settling when it’s exactly the kind of lift your band could use to its advantage. In the end, you want the luxury of being able to be your own band, which is exactly why you shouldn’t ignore opportunities like this whether you’ve seen the show or not. Don’t you have a new album, Come Around Sundown, coming out October 19? I’m guessing you wouldn’t say no to increased album sales, so why say no to Glee? You’re smart guys, I guess, but this move was just plain dumb.
Aug 13
AndrewPolitics and Nation
Two weeks ago, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick cockblocked a bill that would have approved resort casino development in the state as well as slot machine licensing for non-casino properties. Patrick timed his rejection of the bill for the end of legislative session, effectively killing any chance for a compromise. The legislature would had to have convened a special session to either override Patrick’s objections or redraft the bill to meet his concessions. The special session did not happen, was never expected to, and casino gambling in the state was pushed off for at least another year.
Patrick’s emphatic contention that he would not award slot machine concessions to racetracks was political posturing. The question is why would he bother at all when he trumpeted the benefits of casino development in the first place, arguing that the increase in jobs and potential gaming revenue more than made up for any potential downside. Did he gain any ground with the anti-gambling crusaders looking to save the state from itself? As recently as the end of last month, he still seemed, if not enthusiastic, at least partial to bringing resort-style gambling to the state. Additionally, his decision to block the bill (particularly at the last second) surely pissed off the labor unions to whom he promised new job creation as a result of casino development. So who’s left to be impressed by his stalemate?
To voters, does the move to block the bill mark Patrick as a decisive politician? After all, he was at least consistent in his message that he would not support outfitting racetracks with slot machines. His actions certainly mirrored his rhetoric on that point. Or does Patrick come across as a political meanderer, wandering this way and that on thorny political issues in order to appease everyone just enough to stay on his side? It doesn’t help that other states are pushing forward voraciously with new gambling facilities. New York City approved the first slot machines in city limits at a racetrack in Queens, and after Ohio voters approved gambling in the state last fall, Harrah’s Entertainment has already committed $600 million to developing casino properties in downtown Cleveland and Cincinnati.
Two weeks later, it appears the answer is simply that Patrick was trying to lay the groundwork for his reelection in the fall. It’s certainly the most believable explanation for a turnabout that looks hypocritical and politically calamitous. And as there is no doubt that the move was deliberate, it was more than a little spiteful too. Remember, this is the second time that gambling has been on the legislative agenda. The legislature failed to pass a gambling bill two years ago, and constituents across the state have been begging for someone to throw some political clout behind the issue. Patrick was claiming to be that heavyweight fighter ready to go into the ring for gambling in Massachusetts.
The question now is who was victorious after this most recent bout? It’s hard to look at this as a complete victory for opponents of gambling. It appears to have delayed gambling in the state, not a buried the issue permanently. Patrick still has a fight ahead of him, with neither side of the issue completely in his corner. Voters have a stake too because they are faced with their own prickly decision. Does reelecting Patrick give them a better chance or a worse chance to see gambling approved in the state of Massachusetts? By rejecting the bill the way he did, it’s not just Patrick’s reelection at risk, more than ever, it’s an entire Commonwealth with someone to lose.
Andrew Marx is the author of On 21: The Philosophy of Blackjack, available from amazon.com and other retailers.
Aug 12
AndrewA Writer's Blog
To celebrate the release of Thank You is Implied, we asked illustrator Jennifer Cosentino to design two “Thank You” cards inspired by the book. See the images below.
Aug 03
AndrewMusic
The big question hanging over Guster is whether anyone is still listening. As a live act, the band has always been a formidably entertaining force on stage. Drummer Brian Rosenworcel alone is worth the price of admission. But their last studio release 2006’s Ganging Up on the Sun was a bit lackluster. None of the tracks really sucked, but that’s not exactly a ringing endorsement either. So today, they finally previewed new music with the release of their single Do You Love Me.
The track, being released ahead of their October 5 album Easy Wonderful, definitely hearkens back to the band’s earlier sound rather than their most recent efforts. It evokes running through a field of flowers hand in hand with your lover, as any poppy love song ought to. It even has the requisite Do do do do, do do do do bridge, which could have been yanked straight out of the seventies. Ryan Miller’s vocals are front and center on this one, but not in a bothersome way. The instrumentation, something that has always been uniquely Guster, seems to have taken a backseat, but again not in a bothersome way.
Fans will embrace this song as a glimpse of good things to come. Do You Love Me amicably questions whether anyone would welcome a little more Guster in their lives, but I think it’s pretty clear from this single that the answer is yes.
Aug 03
AndrewMusic
There’s nothing like an overproduced album of generic emo rock music to make you pine for the Swiss Army Romance days of Dashboard Confessional. The new album by Secondhand Serenade, Hear Me Now, pines for those days too. Ten years ago, emo was a new take on the acoustic, minimalist broken-hearted pining that was perfected first (and still best) by Chris Carrabba. Since then, the term emo has fallen out of favor, mainly because that same heartfelt lovelorn strumming has been replaced by overdone harmonies, added layers of electronica-cheese whiz, and guitars swallowed up in the production values.
That’s where Hear Me Now steps into the fray. The emo-lyrics of heartbreak (the track Stay Away), unrequited love (album opener Distance) and romantic (mis-)connections (You and I) are still ever-present, but there’s something lost in translation. To put it succinctly, this album is boring.
I hesitate to blame John Vesely completely for this turgid mess of an album. I think he’s put together a precisely intended collection of songs. If one wants Hoobastank cited as a musical influence and if one spent their formative years listening to Third Eye Blind, well, there’s not much you can expect than the perfectly tortured agony of Hear Me Now. “Tortured” is a good way to describe the album. The production is tortured, the vocals are tortured, and the lyrics are mindlessly unoriginal and repetitive. “Is there anybody out there? Would you hear me if I screamed or if I cried?” cries out Vesely on Is There Anybody Out There. Well, what would you expect him to sing about?
Having unsuccessfully tried to identify a memorable standout track on the album, I turned to iTunes to tell me which track best spoke to Secondhand Serenade’s intended audience (of which I am so clearly not a member). That proved fruitless, since they are all still pining for 2008’s A Twist in My Story, according to iTunes Top Secondhand Serenade songs list. That left simply looking for the first single release, the track Something More.
To be fair, I went back to hear Something More one last time. With its “Breath in, breath out” lyrics, it’s not nearly as dynamic as a rock track, nor quite as sincere as any Dashboard Confessional song of the last ten years besides Don’t Wait. In fact, there’s pretty much nothing notable about the track at all except my lack of interest in hearing it again. That goes double for the album it came from. And that makes me pine for the emo days of yore too.
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