I spent my Independence Day weekend binge-watching Stranger Things season 3, and it is now one of my favorite shows. The long weekend is perfect for taking what is really just a long movie broken up into 8 parts, and I’m now sold on the show’s entire nostalgia/horror/popcorn entertainment schtick. Continue reading Stranger Things Is Pretty Much My New Favorite Show
All posts by Rob Kimbrough
In Defense of Game of Thrones
The game is over. After almost a decade of world-building, the saga of Westeros as told by HBO’s Game of Thrones has come to and end. It is rightfully praised as one of the greatest television shows of our time, and undeniably captured the cultural zeitgeist. And yet it seems that every single person I have talked to, and a majority of the masses online, feel personally bereaved over the ending. “Game of Trash,” I heard it referred to. So many people hated it, felt disappointed or outright angry with how David Benioff and DB Weiss chose to end their epic. Those people, I will argue, are wrong to be so upset. Given everything that has happened in the show over the past 8 seasons, and given the limitations that the showrunners have come up against, I believe that the finale we got is as good of an ending as can be hoped for, and leaves me excited for the final two books in the series. [SPOILERS AHEAD] Continue reading In Defense of Game of Thrones
You Know I Had to Do It to ‘Em: Greta Van Fleet, Rock Revivalism, and Youth
Greta Van Fleet put out their debut LP yesterday, and the rock world at large is finally able to see if they live up to the hype. GVF is one of the most hyped and anticipated groups of the past several years, being slotted at festivals all over and nearly ubiquitous in music publications since they dropped two EPs earlier this year. Usually coverage goes something like this: “These guys sounds JUST LIKE Led Zeppelin! And they are only in high school. They are going to save rock!” Continue reading You Know I Had to Do It to ‘Em: Greta Van Fleet, Rock Revivalism, and Youth
Solo: A Star Wars Review
I’ve long said that Han Solo is my favorite movie character. Cool, capable, and played with a perfect roguish swagger by Harrison Ford. He is someone who you know is dangerous and has been through it all, yet still retains a heart. Solo gets all of the best lines in the original Star Wars trilogy, and he gets the girl too. It’s no surprise that the “Han Solo-type” character has become a modern archetype and go-to example of an antihero: a bad person who does good for selfish reasons, or a good person who is pushed to do bad (both could apply to a certain Corellian pilot at different points in his arch).
It’s also no surprise that Disney turned to Han Solo as the first choice to helm the franchise’s first character-driven spinoff film. The character has built-in, proven appeal, and makes as much sense as any other Star Wars character to lead a movie. Unfortunately the main news story surrounding the film’s production was a change in director halfway through filming, which lent the idea that the studio was unsure of how to proceed. A lack of confidence in direction points toward a messy movie.
A secondary, and I must admit more personal, concern was more esoteric: could anyone portray Han as well as Harrison Ford? Ford completely inhabited and elevated the character, to the point that he pretty much embodies Han in every subsequent appearance. It’s understandable that Disney would recast, as Ford is now 75 years old and people want to see Han in his prime. While I didn’t have anything against eventual cast Alden Ehrenreich, I have to admit that I thought…is it worth it? Can you have Han without Harrison?
Continue reading Solo: A Star Wars Review
Don’t sleep on Screaming Females (Although Tallahassee did)
It’s a tale as old as time: small crowd at a back water spot, and up onto the stage steps somewhere’s hometown heroes, who proceed to lay their life onto the line in a righteous performance. The crowd quietly nods and walks away, the band packs up their instruments into the van. Off to the next city. It shouldn’t be this way – they should always be bigger, always deserve more applause; it never comes. But man, that show.
Continue reading Don’t sleep on Screaming Females (Although Tallahassee did)
Sound & Fury, Signifying Nothing: A Few Quick Thoughts on Thor: Ragnarok
I belatedly watched Thor: Ragnarok last night, and I have a couple thoughts. Overall, it wasn’t a very good movie. It got a lot of hype for being a fun, funny, and cool addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and while I guess it is, it isn’t anything that Guardians of the Galaxy didn’t do before or better.
Continue reading Sound & Fury, Signifying Nothing: A Few Quick Thoughts on Thor: Ragnarok
All Tomorrow’s Parties: An Art-House Doc for the Music Festival Age
I just saw a very cool movie, one that anyone with an interest in music, music festivals, or even the more broadly philosophical topics of artistic expression and human connectivity should see. It’s called All Tomorrow’s Parties, released in 2009. The film is a documentary about the English festival of the same name, and ends up producing one of the most artistically satisfying time capsules I’ve seen.
Continue reading All Tomorrow’s Parties: An Art-House Doc for the Music Festival Age
Chester Bennington, Nu-metal, Poptimism and Human Dignity
On the night of July 19, 2017, Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington committed suicide. One of the first comments I saw online under the announcement was, “Now that we know it was all real and not just teen angst, Linkin Park is a masterpiece.” Many seemed to agree. The emission struck me on two accounts: first, it fed into society’s wont to lionize newly departed musicians; second, it acknowledges the dirty secret that will be buried behind every eulogy published over the next few days – Linkin Park, for most of its existence, wasn’t considered to be very good. Continue reading Chester Bennington, Nu-metal, Poptimism and Human Dignity
Reenlisting Sgt. Pepper: Remixing the Beatles “Magnum Opus”
As some may know, this year marks the 50th anniversary of The Beatles’ release of their seminal album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. To mark the occasion, Apple Corps saw fit to release yet another edition of the record, this time in a new stereo remix by Giles Martin (son of late Beatles producer George Martin), who worked with them to remix the band’s catalog for the Cique de Soleil Love soundtrack. At first, I rolled my eyes. Again? I remember when they made a big to-do over a remaster for the 35th anniversary or something, then it was released again in 2009 with the band’s entire remastered discography. Do we really need to hear it again? Does Sgt. Pepper still have any surprises up his gilded sleeves?
I have a long history with The Beatles, and know their oeuvre intimately. Perhaps surprisingly, I never considered Pepper one of my favorites. Yes of course it is GOOD, even great, but it seemed to pale next to the revolutionary verve of Revolver, the breadth and depth of The White Album, and the widescreen, crystallized perfection of Abbey Road. In retrospect, I think the “media” is to blame (is there a more 2017 statement?). For the past 50 years, Sgt. Pepper has been held up as the “GREATEST ROCK ALBUM OF ALL TIME,” the moment when rock became Art, and the emblem of 1967’s Summer of Love. Some of this may be true, but as someone born in the 1990s, it’s innovations have been to a degree lost on me. The conventions that the Beatles established have been fully integrated into the modern music scene and pop culture at large: it’s hard to see the forest for the trees. I have always appreciated it, but every time I would hear or see it lauded, I would nod my head and agree with it’s greatness, but never felt particularly fulfilled.
Continue reading Reenlisting Sgt. Pepper: Remixing the Beatles “Magnum Opus”
Out of Touch and Out of Tune: The Grammys
Hello….it’s me, your face in the crowd music fan. I’m not sure whether the Recording Academy can hear me. As with every year, those like me are confronted with the inevitable Grammy controversy, in which some supposedly deserving artist is snubbed by someone deemed less worthy by the cultural media. It happened in 2015 when Beck upset Beyonce for Album of the Year (neither was the best album of the year) and in 2014 when Macklemore & Ryan Lewis beat Kendrick Lamar for Best Hip-Hop album (a crime that only becomes more unforgivable as time goes on).
This year, of course, Adele’s 25 defeated (can’t really say “upset”) Beyonce’s Lemonade for Album of the Year. The collective internet exploded over this slight to Queen Bey, and immediately accused the Academy of having a race problem. They cited both the 2014 and 2015 incidents as examples. I agree that the Grammys have a race problem, but obviously not because the voters are outright maliciously voting against minority races.
The Academy is actually just out of touch – with the current music scene, with modern music fans, and with current artists. Continue reading Out of Touch and Out of Tune: The Grammys
Then Play On 