Little itty bitties (mostly)

I'm well aware of the style of storytelling songwriting, but does it ever seem incongruous to you when well known, famous musicians/singers/bands/whatever sing about something that totally doesn't apply to them? Like I'm listening to Soak Up The Sun by Sheryl Crow and there's a line about how she's got a crummy job. No you don't, you're Sheryl frickin' Crow! I mean, I realize for the purpose of the song you do, but it never sounds quite right when I hear something like that.
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My company is moving in two years. The 'B has sold the building they're in to a development group that wants to turn this entire stretch of Westwood into malls and hotels. Apparently they got booku bucks for it, too. Anyway, that's weird. If I'm still here in 2 years, it'll be interesting to see where "here" is. I vote for San Diego. Although it'll probably be something like Canton or Dedham instead.
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People that take the train, you ever notice that it seems like there's always one conversation that seems so much louder than the rest of the abckground noise? Like yesterday, on my way home, there were two guys talking about math way beyond my ken. "If y approaches 0 as x approaches whatever the value for x is in this case then....." Stuff like that. At first I felt really smart for hearing it. Then really stupid for not understanding it. Then really sleepy.
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Quickie reviews (upon first listen) on the three new CDs I bought yesterday.

King's X, Ogre Tones - I just don't know yet. I want to like it, so I probably will. But it seems kind of hit and miss.

Sheryl Crow, Wildflower - Didn't even know this was coming out until the day before. Sounds good. Slower, mostly. More melancholy vibe. Better overall than her last effort.

Ryan Adams and the Cardinals, Jacksonville City Nights - Head and shoulders above his last release, Cold Roses. I only mention this because there's a big deal about him releasing 3 separate albums this year, and JCN is the 2nd of them. Very country.
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2 quickie movie reviews:

1) Oldboy. Fucking awesome! Korean revenge flick. After being held captive and tortured for 15 years, Dae-su Oh sets to find out why and who did this to him, and take his revenge. I can't really go into more detail without giving away spoilers that are better served found out while watching the film. Let's just say it's pretty twisted, and pretty intense. Definitely worth seeing, but you'll probably want to take a shower afterwards.

On another note, after about 15 minutes, I was thinking, "Hm, this could make an interesting American remake." Despite the fact that remakes usually suck. Because there was an interesting hook. That of being kidnapped and imprisoned for 15 years without knowing why. Then, while watching the last 20 minutes, I was thinking, "Yeah, no way. A remake would suck. Hollywood would totally fuck this up."

Unfortunately, a remake is already in the works.

2) Spirited Away. Also fucking awesome! I reviewed director Hayao Miyazaki's latest effort, Howl's Moving Castle in a previous blog here: http://vman1974.blogspot.com/2005/08/random-thursday-thoughts.html.
(Scroll down). I didn't much like it. But I did love another of his film's, Princess Mononoke. ANd I'd heard Spirited Away was his best, so I'd decided to let that be the tie breaker.

It may very well be the best of his films that I've seen, (although I did really like Princess Mononoke a lot). Spectacular animation. And like all asian cinema, there was plenty that I didn't understand---I may have touched upon the why of this in my HMC review; basically just the difference in storytelling techniques and culture that I'm not entirely used to---but the overall tone was very magical, and it draws you in. It reminded me very much of a well crafted fantasy novel, one where from page 1 you're dropped intoa full-formed world that you don't fully understand, but that feels real, viable, and true.

The story, in brief. Chihiro and her parents are moving to a new town. On the way they get lost and come across what appears to be a deserted amusment park. One of the booths has a full on spread of food, mysteriously enough. Chihiro's parents start to pig out, literally. As they eat, they are transformed into pigs. Chihiro finds herself transported to a sort of spirit world, ruled by a witch who runs a bath house for spirits. It's here that Chihiro must find a way to restore her parents before said witch decides it's time to bring home the bacon.

I'm not particularly doing it justice, but I realized as I was trying to write that paragraph, that it's difficult to describe.

Anyway, good, good stuff.
Good, good stuff.