Don’t expect too much from me today. I’m still recovering from an amazing GBV show last night. This was the first time I had ever seen them play, and since this is billed as their last show, and last night was the last of the last shows in New York, I guess I caught them just in time. And although I will most definitely be wrecked all day today, it was so worth it. I don’t know how it might rank among other GBV shows, but I can’t imagine there being a more energetic performance. And while GBV are known for playing longer than your average band: three hours!!!! And three hours that flew by in what seemed like 45 minutes. Nobody inside Irving Plaza last night wanted it to end, and even when it finally did somewhere around 1:15 AM, my friends and I were still so pumped from the show, we couldn’t even be sad that we would never see them again. (Of course, Robert Pollard is just moving on to a solo career, which GBV almost was already, and I’m sure he’ll always play these songs and get drunk, so it’s not completely really the end … not exactly.)
So even though I had great experiences watching both Turning Gate and Silmido at the Walter Reade’s South Korean film series, as well as a weekend of biopics with Ray and Kinsey, and I really want to talk about all of them, I’m just too wrecked right now. Maybe tomorrow.
I also plan to weigh in on the National Board of Review, and organization whose yearly awards are becoming as respectable (NOT) as the Golden Globes. A top 10 list including either Ray or Collateral is simply laughable. There were too many good movies this year for either of those mediocre works to be anywhere near a top 10 list, especially Ray. If you’re simply talking top 10 performances, I will gladly agree that Jamie Foxx deserves notice for both, films, but the movies themselves? Feh. They both have too many holes. And while I really liked Finding Neverland, I’m sorry, no. Just, no. Not even. It might crack a top 10 list, but the best?
All this, however, for another time. Besides, it’s Monday anyway. Chances are, you don’t expect anything coherent from me on Mondays. Or Tuesdays. Or Wednesdays. Or ….
Out of Focus 