Oh, Inverted Expectations

It seems like so much fewer than three years ago that Natalie Portman was convincing us that listening to the Shins would change our lives (let’s face it: no review of the Shins will ever again be written without mentioning Garden State, so it’s best to get it out of the way early). But while Portman was quirkily winning Zach Braff’s heart by hypnotizing him with cuts from their first major release, Oh, Inverted World, the Albuquerque natives were turning themselves into indie pop powerhouses with the growing popularity of Chutes Too Narrow. With the release of Wincing the Night Away, many fans expected the band to build on the sunny, melodic, unbelievably catchy tone of Chutes. What they got is an album that’s reminiscent of Oh, Inverted World and has some of the same mood of Chutes, but unlike any Shins material ever heard.

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The Sports Gal Silenced?

With Super Bowl XLI on the horizon, one issue remains at the forefront of my mind. No, it isn’t the fact that Peyton Manning exorcised the devil known as Tom Brady en route to his first AFC Championship trophy, or that, for the first time, two black coaches will meet in the Super Bowl. In fact, the game for me only siginfies the end of the season and, by extension, the logical end of the Sports Gal’s career as a columnist on ESPN.com.

Don’t get me wrong, this post isn’t meant to bash on Bill Simmons. I’ve always though of him as a pretty big part of the reason why I read ESPN.com on a regular basis, and I am in the process of reading his book, which, even though it’s full of recycled material, is quite enjoyable. In fact, the guy usually makes me laugh out loud right before he starts talking about the Patriots or Red Sox or Larry Bird or The Godfather or 90210 for the umpteen millionth time. Therein lies the problem with Bill: too often, he reverts back to being the Boston Sports Guy instead of the Sports Guy. There are legions of fans out there that care not for the Red Sox and would like to see you make fun of their teams for a change.

The Sports Gal’s mini-columns were breaths of fresh air: unbiased, hip observations from someone who, like us, both loves Bill and is annoyed at him from time to time. Here’s hoping that the Sports Guy finds more excuses to include sidebars from his wife and fewer opportunities to blab about yet another season of Real World/Road Rules Challenge that we don’t care about.

Twisted Every Way

It seems appropriate, on the day that Oscar nominations were announced, that I review a film that, for the next few months, will garner attention for its omissions from the “Best Picture” category. Sure, Dreamgirls is getting a good deal of outcry for its absence from the list, and Little Miss Sunshine‘s recognition is delightful, but one cannot see Pan’s Labyrinth and not leave the theatre ready to argue its place on the list. Guillermo del Toro‘s dark, affecting film about escapism from war is beautifully acted, stunningly shot, and wildly original. More to the point, it’s among the most entertaining, engaging films of the past year.

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Babel On

In the biblical story of the Tower of Babel, God punishes mankind for attempting to build a tower high enough to touch the heavens by destroying it and fragmenting the universal language to confuse future such efforts. In Babel, Alejandro González Iñárritu weaves four stories into an ambitious message about culture and miscommunication stemming from that dispersion of languages. Fortunately, the film leaves little room for the kind of backlash seen in the original Babel story. Indeed, the film is well constructed, pulling together four plots that could each earn their own movie but weigh on one another when everything is brought together.

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On Notice: Me

As I sat here at my desk…blogging…on my MacBook…listening to Rilo Kiley on my iPod…drinking a black and white hot chocolate from the new Starbucks location right next to my office, it came to me: I’m becoming everything I’ve always hated.

All I need to complete this picture is to be wearing Abercrombie and surfing in the early-adopter Firefox 3.0 for a hybrid. If that ever happens, please kill me.