An example of me plus Imogen!

Me buying CDs today was exactly the kind of thing that gets me weird looks from people who work at the places that I buy things. In one hand the new Imogen Heap CD, the other RA, a hard metal band. The girl, and she was definitely that young, gave me a really weird look after the double take on Imogen's CD. I love that sort of look, so I smiled, explained nothing, and left. I'm entertained by little things.

New Imogen Heap! Ellipse is very good. As I suspected this album is a lot like her previous album, but still a good step forward for her style. There's still no one out there quite like her, and that gap is getting larger with each album. One thing that I was happy about was that this album actually reached back to her first album, i Megaphone, and pulled from some of the darker tones and angst from that album and made them work with her new style.

Individually the songs are great, and I'm not going to review each song, but I like them all. I've listened to the entire album, and I think it's going to take center stage in my car CD player for a while.

I will take a moment to say that at the second to last track I was happy with the entire album, but there was a little niggling voice complaining that while all her songs were great, none of them really blew me away the same way Hide and Seek had. And then I listened to the last track. Musically it's not so different from the rest of her album, but the song punched me in the gut and left me breathless. Half Life is incredible. It almost hurts me to listen to it.

So, yeah, I'm a girl, but it's a great album.

Five good movies in a row...

I've seen a surprising streak of good movies lately, so I figured I might as well talk about them. In order that I saw them, they were District 9, Inglourious Basterds, The International, Defiance, and Ponyo.

District 9. Wow, what a movie. Not what I expected, great story, well made characters, awesome effects, and generally disturbing and at the same time uplifting. No actors you've ever head of, unless you live in South Africa, but still a talented crew. I won't give anything away but to say that it is awesome and you should go see it.

Inglourious Basterds. This movie just drips with Quentin Tarantino. If you find him offensive, then you'll probably find this movie offensive, but if you enjoy his movies then I can almost guarantee you'll like this movie. Again, not at all what I expected, but probably the best Jews killing Nazis revenge movie ever made. Not exactly uplifting, but it maintains an air of humor that helps you get through the truly horrible things that happen in this movie.

The International. Clive Owen being a badass Interpol agent with the gorgeous Naomi Watts playing a NY DA working together to take down an multi-national crime syndicate funding bank? How the fuck did I miss this in theaters? The beginning of the movie is incredible, the end less so, but still good. I definitely enjoyed this movie.

Defiance. James Bond (Daniel Craig) is a Jew who, with his brothers, saves as many of his friends, family, and other Jews by hiding in a forest. It's another movie with Jews shooting Nazis, but a very different movie. It was rough, but again, I liked this movie. It was a great, and apparently true, story of people surviving in the face of severe adversity. And Daniel Craig is just awesome.

Ponyo. I have seen every major American release of a Hayao Miyazaki movie since they've been released in this country. This was, sadly, a movie designed for very young people, but even so, it was an amazing movie. The theater was barren except for me and three young women, and we all loved the movie. There were moments in the movie where I had to cringe, being old and all, but it was still better than My Neighbor Totoro, so I got no complaints. It's just further hammered home the point that I need to watch all the rest of this man's movies. Sigh. Including Kiki's Delivery Service. I will endure, I say.

Next movie on the list: G.I. Joe. I hold little hope that this will be a good movie, but I want to see it, dammit because it may still be bad in that entertaining way. Stupid movie, but stuff blows up, chicks walk around in skin tight leather, and there's a ninja. Could be worse.

What else is there to look forward to? Ninja Assassin of course. :)