Glenn Gaslin's Astonishing Tales of Danger & Wonder

The Last Mixtape of 2006, and Man is it Late

Been trying to pull one of these together once a month, just for the car, but somehow this last one took me three. I blame the flu, the cold, the other flu, everybody else’s cold, and this other cough thing I still have. Far more important things, I have to admit, have gone undone, as well. But. As part of an effort to step back out into the sunshine and warm up my insides, here goes this, with links to YouTube or other streams if possible.

1. “Grace Kelly,” MIKA: This song is like crack.
2. “Whole Wide World,” Wreckless Eric
3. “A Sermon,” The Police: One of many less obvious and even better songs they could have done on the Grammys. Anyway, still gonna pay whatever to see those three in a stadium.
4. “Bookworm,” Margot & The Nuclear So & So's
5. “California,” Mates Of State
6. “Earthquakes and Sharks,” Brandtson
7. “This Conversation,” The Submarines
8. “Girl In the War,” Josh Ritter
9. “Anna,” Ellery
10. “Sidewalk,” Starlight Mints
11. “Welcome to the Black Parade,” My Chemical Romance
12. “Glass Onion,” The Beatles: From Love
13. “How To Save A Life,” The Fray: Hey, at least there’s no Fall Out Boy on here.
14. “The Book I Write,” Spoon
15. “Vote,” The Submarines
16. “Wolves,” Josh Ritter: More wolf music
17. “O Holy Night,” those homeless, crazy talented New Orleans jazz players on Studio 60
18. “Stephen, Stephen,” The Apples in Stereo
19. “Talking in Code,” Margot & The Nuclear So & So's

My Lovely Weekend at the Very End of the World

Saw this Children of Men movie this weekend, and it’s not often that I weep in theaters, but there it was, and I’m not ashamed and I dare you not to, if that’s the only way to get you to go. And I’m serious with this here: There was no better movie released last year, so why the hell isn’t this a big hit, and why isn’t it sweeping the awards? Is it because it’s science fiction, and takes place in the future, but not one so far off? Or that it’s filled with things bleak and evil, depicting a world just on the other side of filthy and used, where humans can no longer reproduce and are spinning our final century as we did all the others: fighting and being ugly to each other, and searching for beauty and hope and finding it?

The thing is this, though: Despite being set in a Britain gone to hell, the movie’s simply and overwhelmingly beautiful. Or rather, the few scenes of beauty are, by hard-fought careful contrast, knock-outs. The chases are breathless, the action intense. There’s little exposition, and the setting and story say it all, very Blade Runner-y, but you knew that. And anyone who’s seen it will talk about it, so here I go: there’s this eight-minute action scene toward the end that’s done entirely in a single take, the camera following Clive Owen through streets engulfed in fighting and chaos. You might not even notice that it’s done in a single take, with a single camera, but you’ll feel the effect, the accumulated tension of being stuck in those streets for so long, and the release in the next scene makes it all worth it. That vague enough for you?

Weirdly, the day before, I saw Idiocracy, also set in the future, also about the decay and decline of mankind, but this time way funnier. And here’s another movie that got screwed last year, dumped anonymously by Fox, almost certainly because of the intense spoofing of popular corporations--500 years from now, Starbucks sells handjobs, Costco has a subway system, Fox News is delivered topless and affiliated with The Violence Channel, and Carl’s Jr. assumes custody of your children if you can’t pay for your burger. It’s got real stars, it’s from Mike Judge, it’s hilarious, and it was only released in a few cities with no promotion or advance warning. Dumped.

Anyway, see it, but see Children of Men first. Two great (weirdly uplifting) movies about the near-end of humankind that taste great together.

"Has Chewbacca been a trouble-maker in the past?"

Man in a Wookiee costume is arrested for head-butting somebody on Hollywood Boulevard. Crafty TV reporter interviews his peers Spider-Man, Pin Head and Capt. Jack Sparrow, who all sell Chewie out as being "irresponsible" and a long-time nuisance. This story is a work of art, on every level.