Bring on the funk

I ended up getting a free ticket to Saturday's Coachella, courtesy of the lovely Emma.  After a day of sweltering temps, dirty feet, and greasy festival food (mm mm how I love it), unsurprisingly the music was the only redeeming factor of the long day, as it should be.  I could go into a long digression about the sets, and the fans, and all of the superfluous hype surrounding Prince, but I think it would be more effective do so in just a few words.   

Portishead= show stealer

Death Cab= dynamic live set

M.I.A= likable but way overrated

Animal Collective= transcendent

Prince= shiny and funky

Rilo Kiley= dependable, verging on tired 

Kraftwerk= es war uberwaltigend

MGMT= over-hyped

Kate Nash= fun but insignificant

Man Man= deranged  goodness

I just have to note that for those who did in fact pay for the 3 day passes, that it would have been well worth the price just to see Portishead.  The set was that amazing and they are one of the most entrancing live bands I've ever seen.  Oddly enough they share the same quality of agelessness as the headliner Prince.  Speaking of age, I've come to the conclusion that I've already peaked, and that my festival days are over.  I feel like I'm getting too old to handle the throes of Coachella, but then again if next year brings another day like Saturday night I just might have to grin, bear it, and reluctantly but gratefully take it all in like I'm so used to doing year after year. 

 

Fa Love Pa?

This blog is a tribute to the 1973 film disaster The Day Of The Dolphin made by notable filmmaker Mike Nichols (The Graduate and Catch-22).  The one good thing to come out of this movie is that it is endlessly laughable.  Starring well-respected actors George C. Scott and Paul Sorvino alongside Fa, the dolphin, only doubles the hilarity.  The premise of the movie involves Scott's character as a lab scientist who teaches Fa (dolphin) how to talk.  He can only speak in one syllable words, and when asked why he speaks in English during an interview (an interview?), Fa answers with the most memorable line of the movie "Fa love pa" (he loves George C. Scott, his pa).  Memorably adorable!  

When Fa starts referring back to his old dolphin ways (not speaking English) they bring him in a dolphin girlfriend to lift his spirits.  Things eventually go down the shitter for Fa when his girlfriend gets taken away by the scientists who now try to coerce him into speaking.  Just wait for it....  wait for it......     The dolphins then get stolen and are to be used in an assassination attempt on the President of the U.S.   Oh, it gets better.  Fa somehow learns that killing the president is "bad" and he tries to stop his "girlfriend" from carrying out the assassination plan.  The moral fortitude of the little feller' just kills me!  By the end Scott and his wife decide the only way to keep the dolphins safe is to free them into the sea.  When the dolphins are released into the sea, Scott's character starts walking away and the last lines we hear from Fa are: "Pa? Paaaaaaaa!"   The end.  In all of it's magnificence.   

So now here I am.  A fan of movies, a fan of dolphins, and a fan of words, I've decided to dedicate this blog not only to things I'm a fan of, but also things I'm highly skeptical and a little afraid of such as monosyllabic dolphin speak.  I welcome you with open arms, with open fins, and with an open heart to my blog.  Ste welcs you..