Melissa McCLelland - "God Loves Me"

heard on "Walk the Line" of 2009-07-02.

Slow, evocative, quiet, with hardly any background music. The instruments are mere accents to her voice and words.

Lemonheads - "Yesterlove"

A cover of Sam Gopal.

Sad, soft.

Album "Varsions" has many covers, including Leonard Cohen. Must check it out.

't Zesde Metaal - "Pijs je nog an mie"

Heard on 2Meter live, last thursday.

Compared by the DJ to Spinvis, but much more melodious. Truth be told, the fact that the lyrics can hardly be understood, might be a positive.

Soft, sing-a-long material. With tiny scratchy sounds. Like Radiohead is tinkering with the effectbanks.

Piano. loopingly soft la-la-la-...

Terminator: Salvation

They took care not to call it "Terminator 4" in order to silently ignore number 3. With reason.

Quite enjoyable. Of course, many little details were off, the biggest of them being the inconsistency of CGI-Arnie (CGA?) not immediatly killing John Connor, but smashing him against the walls, basically giving him a chance. Why, why, why.

At least two action scenes were entirely without (Danny Elfman-) music for at least a minute or so. It gave you a wonderful raw feeling, just screaming voices and screeching metal.

Loved the very low rumbling of approaching flying vehicles. Almost a phsyical feeling instead of sound. There were quite a lot of (mostly visual) references to "Judgment Day", most of them executed in a good way which did -not- rub against the wrong foot. Admirable.

Supposedly it is the first of a trilogy. If McG and Christian Bale keep this up, I do not mind.

Harry Potter and the Deadly Hollows

Book will be split in two films, I have been told.

Of course, I was curious to finish it. And it is easy of course, but I do not see a reason to bash it. I must admit though, that the urge to read on, was mostly because I have been reading so much Harry Potter lately. One of the best results of reading these 6 books in a row has been that I was completely immersed in the story.

I particularly enjoyed a few paragraphs of the railway-station in Harry's head when he supposedly died, or is halfway between life and death or --insert-magical-thingy--

Pretending to be dead took a bit too long though. And other details hinted at deus ex machina.

All in all, enjoyable.

U2 - "Halleluiah"

Not sure I'll ever get used to that parlando-triphop-jazz version. But it's definitely a new take. And the lyrics are suitable for this style.

Then again, them being Leonard Cohen's words, that is not very surprising.

And Tori Amos' "Famous Blue Raincoat" makes me shiver. Heartbreaking.

Nouvelle Lectures Cosmopolites - "Allegro Vivace"

Been putting copied CDs into big booklet thingy so as to spare space. Came across many an X-Rated-ish album (not porn, the KinkFM show) including, I bow to you Gods of random luck, this album.

It's still particularly the first song, "Psychoplastic Experience", that I love so much, but don't let that deter you from listening to the rest of the album.

Took a peek at Amazon: used & new from: $79,-

Yikes. Even with the dollar as lousy as she is these days, it's a bit much. Many other albums there too though, interesting...

• The Cereal Killer
• The Book of Laments
• Threatening Devices
• Le Sanctuaire D'Is
• Seabirds
• Friesengeist - Part Pi
• Friesengeist - Part One
• Friesengeist - Part Two
• Unis
• Les Grandes Saules
• Le Domaine
• The Link Cutters
• Moon
• Revocation - A World Of Illusions 1989-2001
• Clean
• Unclean
• Spiritus Rex
• Songs for Landeric ("RARE!" it says: $139,-...)

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Have been slacking, it has been a while. It was ok, though was getting a bit tired of th never-ending Potter vs The World.

This book will be in cinemas within a month, and I am curious to see it. The trailer looked promising.

One thing though, if they make the phoenix sing, there are only two women suitable to bring her voice to life: Emiliana Torrini or Lisa Gerrard.

Alien3 - Resurrection [special edition]

Though a wonderful openingssequence, with etheral voices underlining the alien's attack, this is the worst of the Alien movies so far (still have to see 4, "Insurrection"). The plot is thin (how did the alien get aboard the ship in the first place?), from the beginning the alien is filmed quite directly.

Much more of a monstermovie than a thriller/horror, this film fails to provide the tension and mood of the first two films.

Written by the same guys, "Alien3" is directed by David Fincher ("Se7en", "Fight Club", "The Game", "Panic Room"). The fourth is directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet ("Le fabuleux destin d'Amelie Poulain")... 

The National - "Cherry Tree"

Came across this song in one of my many "MISC" dirs. Love it. Wikipedia says their influences range from Bruce Springsteen to the Tindersticks.
This song is absolutely one of the latter. Wonderful voice.  Sounds familiar, but can't remember from where.
Search for more.

J. K. Rowling - "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince"

Unbeknownst to me reading the whole series, someone told me this is the book in which Dumbledore dies.

Alas.

Better keep notes again. Made me focus.

J. K. Rowling - "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix"

Assuming this was the one which was "a bit out". Good enough, but the actual interesting points were right at the very very end of the story and could've been snugged in in another book.

The whole story of the prophecy seems a bit contrived. First book which made me laugh out loud a couple of times though. The writing is still very good. 

Sia - "Breathe Me"

The "6 minutes soundtrack" at the very end of "Six Feet Down". Particularly like it because it fitted that wonderful endsequence so well. Listening to other stuff by Sia, and it's not bad.

update

Songs are different enough, trip-hoppy beats, slow/fast, almost close-harmony singing.

update 2

compare from "Healing is difficult" the songs George Michael-ih "Blow it all away" and the dance-track "Untitled": "I drink booze to open up my mind"

Low Anthem - 2 meter session

singer-songwriter music of the kind which I am usually not particularly fond of, the softly plinging along kind, but some of these songs were wonderful. Soft and introspective.

Madness ft. Elvis Costello - "Tomorrow's just another day"

Heard at "De Dokter" (smart move, this namechange, since he keeps changing his nom de plût as his mood suits him), a wonderful version which seems to be recorded live in 1983.

Costello definitely puts his mark upon the song, drawing out the words.

Aliens [director's cut]

Bit surprised, didn't realise this one was done by James Cameron. Ridley Scott is nowhere to be seen (from a very quick look into IMDB) but he obviously studied "Alien" thoroughly.

Again, long slow interior shots. Loved them. Again, hardly any music, which I don't think was that common then. The blueish glow that illuminates everything, a good follow-up.

Continuation of the story made sense, watched the director's cut again, impressive with a length of 2h30, but it's absolutely not too long. 

This is the "famous one" for me. All that I remember is the shot of Ripley throwing herself in an inferno as if she's diving. Dunno if that's #3 or #4. Will find out soon.

Alien [director's cut]

Director's cut (Ridley Scott), wonderful to see. Slow, far from boring. 

Love the really slow panning shots of the interiors. And the 70's computer stuff

wfmu.org

Searched for online stream playlists with "Spy-Fi"  in them. Didn't see soma.fm but came across wfmu.org

Pretty crazy so far, Dr Demento-ish. "Serenade out of tune", "Ship of Fools", strange cliq-n-blip snippets...

Saw, on last.fm I think, a reference to Spy-fi that mentioned there were -two- bands with this name: a Dutch one, who collaborated with "Phantom Frank", and an American one. Must still find out to which of those two the "The Shadow Knows" album belongs.

J.K. Rowling - "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix"

Books are increasing in size. I hope I'm not too much influenced by H,D.'s remark that "one of them kind of fell out".

J.K. Rowling - "Harry Potter and the goblet of fire"

Enjoyed the book, though a few things were too scarcily explained: Voldemort and Potter have a wand with a hair from the same unicorn. Bit too much of a coincedence? It is briefly explained that Harry tried a number of wands and he chose the one which "felt best". So ok, we can go along and assuming his ever-existing link with Voldemort, this kind of makes sense.

But suddenly explaining that two wands of the same source can "clash" at which point one of them starts to regurgerate his last spells... nah. Make it a battle of will, power, mind, emotion. This is pulled out of a sleeve.