Sweeney Todd

Have you seen this?

Tim Burton is basically teh hotness, and not just because he's married to Helena Bonham Carter.

Though that definitely helps.

I seen her, ages ago, and lived to tell the tale.

Last month I took a little trip to Northampton, Mass to see little a singer-songwriter named Patty Griffin. And behold, everything that I saw was good.

So Patty was basically her bad self all night long. I've got to say (this being the first time I'd seen her in concert) I had built this show up in my mind more than a person ought to. But Miss Griffin hit one out of the park that night. Except for the first two songs (a French lullaby and a guitarless "torch" tune that I was unfamiliar with), it was a night of day dreams come true.

Patty without her guitar at the beginning was a bit disconcerting, for both the audience and Miss Griffin. She was doing some uncomfortable hand gesturing/dancing that you see women twice her age trying during that concert by The Tokens that PBS kept showing during Pledge Week. But once she strapped on that guitar....good Lord. Songs from all over the place came out -- Living with Ghosts, Flaming Red, 1000 Kisses, Impossible Dream, Children Running Through -- even some love from Silver Bell. My stomach nearly flew out my mouth when she started playing the chords to Truth #2, I kid you not.

The only drawback was how much the damn show actually cost. $30 bucks for a ticket? This is the reason I liked Chicago so much. $14 for Joanna Newsom and The Handsome Family. $12 for Sufjan Stevens. $8 (yeah, $8!) for Damien Jurado. But I guess you can get away with that when most of your audience are Baby-Boomers. And oh how those Boomers showed up that night! I was surprised by how few people my age were there. Except for the nice lesbian couple I sat by, there was no one in my section who was within 10 years of me. Good golly, Miss Griffin. But what can you do?

All in all, a very good night of music. Even if it looked more like a Simon & Garfunkel show that it ought to have. But those tunes! O my those tunes!


Photo courtesy of Rick Harris' photostream. Don't be mad, Rick. I'm real poor. Pity me.

Blusic II: Friday Night Lights

This show has got the goods. Last fall, when I was in full TV overload, Friday Night Lights was just one of a number of impressive pilots offered by NBC. These days, however, it's one of only two or three shows I've stuck with through the entire 06-07 season. Studio 60 sort of fizzled and imploded on its way to a slow, painful death. Heroes got bogged down by a lack of zip and interesting characterization. Kidnapped....well, I'm not sure what the hell happened there. How long did it even last -- three episodes? But FNL. It just kept getting better and better.

One of my favorite parts of the show -- besides the acting and the writing and the camera-work and the attention to small detail and the acting (again) -- is the music. I try to forget how often craptastic music has laid low some of my favorite shows (J.J. Abrams choice of 75% absolute shite in the background and foreground and montages of Alias quickly springs to mind). But Friday Night Lights must have some smart people in their music licensing department. Over the course of 20 episodes so far, we've heard music from Explosions in the Sky, Iron & Wine, Spoon, Jose Gonzalez, TV on the Radio, Heartless Bastards, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, the Old 97s, the Go! Team, Whiskeytown, a Daniel Johnston cover, Camera Obscura, Beulah, Broken Social Scene and the Stooges. Even appearances by Justin Timberlake and TobyMac (yes, that TobyMac) seemed to fit seamlessly into the fabric of the show. And I'll say it again, yes that TobyMac.

It helps, that a show this good doesn't distract by employing a terrible soundtrack. It makes the acting and the writing and the camera-work and the attention to small detail and the acting (again) all the more powerful and moving. That I enjoy this show, and that I enjoy Iron & Wine, and that this show enjoys Iron & Wine, sort of brings everything to a harmonious full circle. Yes, that's cheesy. But it's also transcendent. And it's what elevates Friday Night Lights head and shoulders above most of the schlock on TV these days.

And it's just one of the elements that make Friday Night Lights the best hour of television you'll find, this week, last week, and all season long. Keep your fingers crossed for a second season, because if any freshmen show deserves a year two, it's FNL.


*Screencap courtesy of Friday Night Lights Online.

I watch TV by 1's and 0's (that's on the computer, dummy).

Day Break is back! Well, sort of. ABC has finally resumed their streaming of new episodes on their website, after some bullshit about how they couldn't because of music clearance issues. Of course, you have no idea what I'm talking about because I was one of fourteen people who actually watched Day Break before it was cancelled by ABC a few weeks ago. But it was a fun show; more fun than shit-faced Lost season 3. And I missed it. And now I get to see the how the series concludes, so myself and the 13 others who are fans of the show are very happy campers now. Camp fire!