Shin Godzilla

I had seen "Shin Godzilla" once before, maybe in 2017, after a blind buy of the disc. I had a rewatch of "Godzilla Minus One" (love it!) recently, so I thought I'd take another look at this one. I remembered liking it a lot back then but couldn't remember many particulars. A monster kid friend of mine had remarked to me some years ago how much he hated it (I think based on how G. looked). A rewatch was in order,

I still liked it! Now, this one is an outlier, for sure. It has an approach I'm not sure I've seen before in these movies. Most of it feels like a documentary, with constant dialog requiring subtitling for this Yank (not to mention almost constant subtitling toward the top of the screen denoting the shot location. I wonder how that was conveyed in the original Japanese release? Maybe those were subtitled at the bottom? Anyway, it's a lot to take in.) As many have said, this is one talky monster movie. And Godzilla does look positively goofy in its first appearance; Toddler G., I guess you would say. Once it's full grown, though, the majesty is back, and it does look damned impressive, if a little dead-eyed. There's probably not quite enough G. in the final act, which is a bit of a shame. The movie is clearly about the human characters and not the monster. Still, I applaud the unique approach and recommend it.

Inglourious Basterds

You know what's fun in the current political climate? Watching something like "Inglourious Basterds," from 2009.

I just finished the first re-watch of that since.....2013, maybe? I think I saw it around four times after its initial release (in those days, I would blind buy media discs....not going to the movie theater that often, and building an insane collection in the process). Back then, I thought the movie was fun, interesting, and certainly entertaining, but I never thought of it as a full-on five-star movie. Not sure why that was. The alternate historical events didn't bother me much; I can't put my finger on what didn't connect with me then. Boy, it's a different story now.

It is truly a film lover's film. When I watched the movie in its first few years, I didn't even know who Edwige Fenech was, so the casting of Mike Myers as Capt. Ed Fenech meant nothing to me. German director Georg Pabst is referenced at least ten times. What the movie has though are several scenes of perfect dramatic tension, beginning with that opening scene....which I think should be in a list of greatest movie openings ever. I feel quite a bit differently about it all now.

I might even follow this up with "Inglorious Bastards"!

Musical Musing for a Wednesday Morning

 Only six days later, and he's back! All right! Or is it seven? Who's counting? Me, apparently.

Right now, I'm listening to the deluxe soundtrack of "Almost Famous," recently released. What a joy for this ol' man. My favorite "rock n roll" movie ever, and this soundtrack has every (I think?) song from the movie in full (rather than just the movie snippets), with dialog pieces thrown in for fun. Fantastic! The kind of thing that almost makes me tear up these days.

I came of age during an odd time in music history. The early to mid 70s was a period where pop/rock music was just beginning to contain more production value, but it was still before the "punk rock" onslaught caused people to abandon many of the artists that are in my musical DNA. I never bought into most of the "punk rock mythos" (I'm one of those who believes it was a marketing tool more than anything). If I had discovered pop/rock music just a little later, maybe I'd feel differently. I know of a few people older than me who thought punk rock was fantastic and exciting, but I think they were also people who'd already had a steady diet of a lot of the (admittedly) pablum that was out there. As of 1973, pop/rock music was new and exciting to me. It mostly stayed that way. And yet, there is plenty of stuff from the punk rock world I enjoyed.

I've run into this issue my entire drumming career. I've ended up in bands with the best of intentions, but ultimately I'll feel musically communal with almost nobody in any of the bands. Usually, I'm playing with people who are significantly younger than I am, and that definitely makes a difference...with this time period involved. It's not that I'm not sympathetic to music stylings of other band members, but you do want to feel yourself reflected in what you're creating, too. I tend to lose interest quickly, if I don't feel that. (Jeez, what did I eat for breakfast?)

I guess what I'm saying is by now, I'll probably never find the perfect band. Or perfect to me, anyway. But I've had a lot of fun playing with the people I have played with. I guess it'll continue a little while longer. Hope all's great in your day.

Valiant Attempt To Continue Steady Writing

 Well, it's been a couple of years, maybe more, but it's definitely time to start writing again. So much has happened!

As of this writing, I am happily retired....and yet I keep thinking about adding some part-time employment. I'm playing in a bunch of bands (some things never change!), and yet I feel the need for just a bit more structure. I'm sleeping too late in the mornings. Retirement has turned me fairly nocturnal again, and that actually surprises me. I don't like playing late shows, mind you....but I'm not to bed by10:30 pm, either. And craving employment isn't even due to being insolvent in any way, although a little extra dough would be nice. I have definitely cut down my "fun" spending.

My health has remained pretty stable, after the blood pressure incident of August, 2022. I take a few medications but nothing you wouldn't expect a gentleman of my age to ingest. I've had various issues with the "bad leg" (largely due to my falling-off-a-stage accident from late 2002), but some physical therapy I had back in June/July (and subsequent exercising) seems to have finally mitigated a lot of that. I'm more mobile these days than I've been in a few years.

Bands? Well, I'm still playing in both the Pocket FishRmen and the Hickoids. The Pocket FishRmen, after some years of what to me felt like "spinning our wheels" had a nice resurgence in the last year. We began rehearsing in the studio Cris is in now (which is much closer than he was before), and the result has been a burst of creativity. Everybody's now contributing to the whole. I had no issue with just dressing up Brant's demos, as we did before, but this feels nice. And more....well, involving.

The Hickoids had the most significant line-up change in some time, with long-time bassist Rice Moorehead moving to Baltimore, ending his lengthy membership. Rather than get another bassist, Tom was moved to bass, with Patrick picking up guitar to add to his key duties. The result has been, well....not the greatest. The relationship between the bassist and the drummer is a special one. You have to lock in with each other to provide a good foundation for the whole band. I find it impossible to lock in with Tom, largely due to Tom's unhappiness in the role. He just doesn't want to be playing bass, and it shows. (This is the only band I've ever played in where I specifically ask the sound person to not put bass in my monitor. If I hear too much of him, I'll lose my way quickly. And this ultimately just makes my job harder.) We probably sound rougher and sloppier, which might please some, but I can't stand it. Still, there's a lot I enjoy about the band, so I'm still hanging around. We'll see how this all plays out....it's been a couple of years now since the major change.

In later 2022, I began playing with a prog/metal band called Rëigncoät. That resulted from me feeling like I had one more new hard rock band hurrah in me, before I head to drumstick pasture. I say "resulted," because I mentioned this while out one night. Carolyn, our singer, heard me, and wanted to start something new, too. Next thing I knew, our line-up was formed. It didn't really turn out like I wanted, but I like everyone in the band a lot. So it's got that going for it. Maybe we'll get a  more collaborative writing effort underway later. That would help my view of it.

Also, I began playing bass with old friends Mike and Rennie, in their band Smooth Move. I ended up doing the bulk of the singing, too. I really was not expecting that at all. It's fun to see friends and jam some...and it was really worth it for me to pick up another instrument. I'm not setting the world on fire with my bass licks, but I admittedly don't practice all that much. This has also led to me talking with another old friend to develop another band where I play bass, using more ideas I've come up with. I'll be spending more time on that in the future, I feel certain.

Okay, that's it for health and music. Perhaps I should write about movies or music more. Or the state of the world. Geez. Well, we'll see.