Some new years thoughts

A new year, a new blog. I’ll still be keeping up my reading blog (100 Books at lilmaryanne.blogspot.com), but I thought I’d try my hand at a regular one as well, mainly to have a place to put random thoughts like the following, inspired by random songs playing on my iPod.

I’m always surprised by how enveloping Ozzy Osbourne’s voice is. It has a quality that I really like, and I forget about it, then am pleasantly startled when I hear it again. I have a soft spot for Ozzy, and was extremely pleased when I saw him coherent, clear eyed and clear voiced on that new reality show he’s doing. I’d kind of assumed the grogginess that everyone mocked from The Osbournes was a permanent result of his hard living earlier in life, so it was nice to see him fully functional.

Everyone I know is doing their Top 10 lists for the year- I have trouble doing them because I never remember what came out when or when I saw/ heard/ read it. However, here a couple of my current favorites- again, inspired by the iPod.

Favorite line from a song: “She’s gonna miss you at first, but then she’s gonna buy me things. Thats when I’m gonna lay her across my piano stool and… sing to her” The Marrying Kind by Prince

Favorite Song: Louder than Words from the Tick Tick..Boom Soundtrack Favorite line: “Why does it take catastrophe to start a revolution? If we’re so free tell me why, someone tell me why, so many people bleed.”

Favorite New Band: (Tie) Jem, The Killers

Favorite use of music in a movie: the dramatic crescendo of Life on Mars? as Steve Zissou walks down the deck after meeting his probably son in The Life Aquatic.

Speaking of The Life Aquatic, I really really liked this movie. We just saw it last night, and I already want to see it again. While it hasn’t displaced The Royal Tenenbaums as my favorite of Wes Anderson’s films, it definitly has it’s own place in my heart.
The one thing I thought was missing from The Royal Tenenbaums is that one blissful moment when everything clicks, when the epiphany hits. The Life Aquatic has that moment, and it’s stunning. When Zissou finally sees his leopard shark, the look on Bill Murray’s face, the depth of his expression, is incredible. The whole movie is tied up in that look, everything after it is just epilogue. With it he realizes that the inevitablity of mortality is inescapably tied to it’s beauty, and that no matter how hard we try, sometimes we have to settle for witnessing life, not controlling it. Truly stunning.
I could have done without the gay jokes, they didn’t seem needed (are they ever REALLY needed?), and some short pieces felt disjointed, but on the whole I really liked it. The CG underwater world Anderson dreamt up was gorgeous, I think it served to capture the probably delightful, unpredictable feel of deep sea exploration, seeing creatures that no one has ever seen before. The Portuguese David Bowie songs were inspired, I really hope they’re on the soundtrack.

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