Five To One

Actually, a couple more thoughts on Match Point. I remember finding the early part very interesting, how Scarlett's character was very matter-of-fact about her tryst with Rhys Myers being a one-time thing, a moment of passion that was now over. I guess it's a bit of a cheat that she latches onto him so hard later that she veers into Glenn Close territory, at least not without some scenes establishing how he broke through her hard shell, but admittedly, there's no movie unless she starts to pressure him. I was certainly unnerved by the main character being named Chris, due to my own personal stuff--stuff very, very different from the plot of this movie, yet I find a certain connection internally to it. I think about someone hurt or embarrassed by associating with me and it makes me sad.

Anyway, right now I'm listening to an EP by Bound Stems, Risking Life and Limb for the Body Plan I think it's called. I had just 10 downloads left on this month's emusic subscription so I took a shot at these seven, plus the first three tracks from a cd I had and lost from Dogs Die In Hot Cars. Other recent downloads include a two-disc best of from Simon & Garfunkel. It's great--they never slipped and got out before their tensions ruined the records. Somehow I knew the song--at least the chorus--from their reunion song, "My Little Town," but I don't know how. I downloaded this after watching their reunion on the second episode of SNL: The First Season. More on that later.

I downloaded a Best Of Bobby Darin that must've been two discs, though I couldn't find when it was released and the place I downloaded it from didn't break it down by disc, so it's just 40 tracks in a row. A lot of it is stuff I would want to hear only rarely, but even at his corniest I like the guy's style. It would be cool if there were two openly gay contemporary singers covering "Two of a Kind." It would be fun. I mean, there's this great, unaffected buddy quality to Darin and Johnny Mercer singing together about hanging out all the time that would be nice to hear in a modern and different perspective.

Got a Best of Harry Nilsson, and that's dynamite. Too bad that guy didn't do more. I'm also curious about some of the covers he did, like if he had the first hit of "Coconut" or what. "Everybody's Talkin'" is one of my favorite songs, because it's great but also because I love its use in the great film Midnight Cowboy. I was pleased to find a similar song also on this disc, "I Guess the Lord Must Be In New York City."

Downloaded the Shaft soundtrack, and it's good, but I think I like the longer Isaac Hayes work more than these short pieces. Glad to finally have the theme song, though.

Nico's Live Heroes cd is all right. It's from a gig in maybe the early to mid-'80s, I think. Her voice is a good deal harsher than on the classic Velvet Underground stuff, and in fact it's pretty depressing a lot of the time. You may lose the will to live during "My Funny Valentine." In fact, it seems aside from Simon & Garfunkel, I got a lot of music by dead people.

Speaking of which, for some reason the other night I realized I had no Doors music and had never owned a Doors cd and had a hankering for some. I used to have a Best Of on cassette but it's been like 20 years! There was an oddball box set about 5 years ago that I found--I'd wanted to find something more like The Complete Recordings or something but this one had each disc devoted to some theme. I only downloaded the first disc so far, "Without A Safety Net," which seems to be some of their oddest or edgiest material. There are some demo versions and live tracks. I admit I was immediately turned off by the live version of "Five To One." I think this might be the same performance recreated in the Doors movie, where Jim Morrison is really out of it and confrontational in Florida(?) and gets arrested. I was expecting something raw and kind of threatening, but Morrison screams for a couple minutes about the audience being idiots and how long are they going to take orders and all this that I really wasn't into it. The rest of the disc is pretty good, though the demos and alternate versions are of pretty non-classic songs like "Queen of the Highway" and "Hyacinth House."

Finally, downloaded a dub cd by Prince Far I based on an emusic article, and it's good, and The Black Angels' Passover cd is very good. A lot of the reviews really played up a Velvets kind of sound, which I don't quite get, but it's squarely in that trippy bluesy sound I like a lot.