Music, Music, Music and Damn Dirty Apes

Last night we finally got around to seeing Once. Yeah, I'm something like a year behind the curve on this one, but it's harder to stay on the cutting edge of pop culture when you've got a little monkey to chase around. I'm always a bit leery about musicals, and I'm not sure why since I usually really tend to enjoy them. This one blew me away. I always expect the music in a musical to be a little bit on the cheesy showtune-ish side, but that couldn't be further from the case with this film. It was pure indie rock goodness. That they pulled off a low budget musical shot guerrilla style on the streets of Dublin is impressive to say the least, and the fact that one of the songs won an Oscar is amazing. Check out this scene where they're recording When You're Mind's Made Up. Another example of me being incredibly slow on the uptake is my recent discovery of Marvin Gaye's 1978 album Here, My Dear. My cousin told me about this one a few years ago and although I've always known her to have impeccable musical tastes, I never got around to getting this one until last week when my neighbor reminded me of it. When Marvin Gaye got divorced from Berry Gordy's daughter, the settlement was that she would get half the profits from his next album. At first he considered just doing a lousy album, but instead he put out this heartbreaking and bitter double album of incredible soul, much of which is him singing directly to his ex. It tanked anyway. There wasn't even a hit single on it. But years later, it's now considered one of the greatest albums of all time. Here's a track called Anger: Gnarls Barkley have a new album out and it's really good, but don't watch their latest video if you even think you might be prone to seizures. I'm not kidding. It's banned from MTV because it could trigger a seizure and I would feel really badly if somebody, even a republican, got one from looking at it on my blog. And lastly, I may not have been a fan of his politics, but I am definitely a fan of his acting and I'm sorry to see him go. This one's for you, Charlton Heston: