2014 Archive Photos: Air Life (The Satellite)

Well, as luck will have it, I'm heading out of Los Angeles for awhile due to work so I'll be going through some archival photos for awhile.

Air Life.

2014 Archive Photos: Meiko (Chintatown Summer Nights)

Well, as luck will have it, I'm heading out of Los Angeles for awhile due to work so I'll be going through some archival photos for awhile.

Meiko.

2014 Archive Photos: Nacosta (Silverlake Lounge)

Well, as luck will have it, I'm heading out of Los Angeles for awhile due to work so I'll be going through some archival photos for awhile.

Nacosta.

2014 Archive Photos: yOya (Brokechella)

Well, as luck will have it, I'm heading out of Los Angeles for awhile due to work so I'll be going through some archival photos for awhile.

yOya.

2014 Archive Photos: Eastern Conference Champions (Chinatown Summer Nights)

Well, as luck will have it, I'm heading out of Los Angeles for awhile due to work so I'll be going through some archival photos for awhile.

Eastern Conference Champions.

2014 Archive Photos: Island Apollo (Silverlake Lounge)

Well, as luck will have it, I'm heading out of Los Angeles for awhile due to work so I'll be going through some archival photos for awhile.

Island Apollo

2014 Archive Photos: Young Beautiful in a Hurry (Silverlake Lounge)

Well, as luck will have it, I'm heading out of Los Angeles for awhile due to work so I'll be going through some archival photos for awhile.

Young Beautiful in a Hurry.

2014 Archive Photos: Young Beautiful in a Hurry (Silverlake Lounge)

Well, as luck will have it, I'm heading out of Los Angeles for awhile due to work so I'll be going through some archival photos for awhile.

Young Beautiful in a Hurry.

2014 Archive Photos: Afternoons (The Satellite)

Well, as luck will have it, I'm heading out of Los Angeles for awhile due to work so I'll be going through some archival photos for awhile.

Afternoons.

2014 Archive Photos: French Style Furs (The Satellite)

Well, as luck will have it, I'm heading out of Los Angeles for awhile due to work so I'll be going through some archival photos for awhile.

French Style Furs.

2014 Archive Photos: French Style Furs (The Satellite)

Well, as luck will have it, I'm heading out of Los Angeles for awhile due to work so I'll be going through some archival photos for awhile.

French Style Furs.

Duke Football vs. Virginia: 20-13

In the first quarter, it really looked like Duke would win this game 40-13.  Their offense was humming.  QB Anthony Boone looked like he could do no wrong.  Then came the second and third quarters where it didn't seem like the offense had any spark.  Was that driven by Virginia's defense or Duke's offense?  I'd say Duke's offense.  I suspect that if Brandon Connette was still with the team that Coach Cutcliffe would have put him in for Boone.  Boone's passes were all over the place.  In fact, I really think that Virginia's QB Matt Johns had the far better game.  Anthony Boone had the better completion percentage; however, it just looked to me that Matt Johns' passes were far more accurate.  What won this game for Duke was the defense that kept Johns in check.

Best play of the game:  Boone and RB Shaquille Powell not connecting properly on the hand-off.  The ball bounces, Powell just picks it up and takes off for a decent gain.

Update:  As with last year, I'm starting to watch the college ranking polls and trying to figure out if it is possible that Duke will make it onto the list come Sunday.  This week, two teams ranked between 20-25 lost:  Stanford and Texas A&M.  I figure both are out of the poll.  In the AP 25, Duke is #28.  In the USA Today, Duke is #29.  UCLA and LSU are ahead of Duke in both the AP and USA Today polls.  In the USA Today poll, Minnesota is ahead.  LSU won fairly easily while UCLA and Minnesota didn't win by much.  On the other hand, West Virginia was ranked behind Duke in both polls and beat Baylor, which was #4 in both polls.  So my thinking is that West Virginia will definitely leap frog us while we might just leap frog UCLA though not LSU.  I figure at a minimum, we'll be at #27 in the AP and #28 in the USA today, meaning we'll need to wait for a future poll to get us into the Top 25.  So here's hoping a couple teams ranked 20-25 lose next week while Duke takes the week off.

2014 Archive Photos: Cloud Cover (The Smell)

Well, as luck will have it, I'm heading out of Los Angeles for awhile due to work so I'll be going through some archival photos for awhile.

Cloud Cover

2014 Archive Photos: Mosco Rosco (The Satellite)

Well, as luck will have it, I'm heading out of Los Angeles for awhile due to work so I'll be going through some archival photos for awhile.

Mosco Rosco.

2014 Archive Photos: Mosco Rosco (The Satellite)

Well, as luck will have it, I'm heading out of Los Angeles for awhile due to work so I'll be going through some archival photos for awhile.

Mosco Rosco.

2014 Archive Photos: Babes (Chinatown Summer Nights)

Well, as luck will have it, I'm heading out of Los Angeles for awhile due to work so I'll be going through some archival photos for awhile.

Babes.

A Movie Review: Gone Girl

Gone Girl. Nick Dunne (Ben Afflect) leaves his house and heads to a bar that he co-manages with his sister, Margo Dunne (Carrie Coon). The bar is owned by his wife, Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike).  It is the day of his 5th wedding anniversary.  It doesn't take long to figure out that his marriage is on the rocks.  Nick and Margo quickly start blasting Amy.

Nick heads back home.  When he enters his home, he looks to the right.  A coffee table is smashed in the living room.  This doesn't look right.  He calls out for his wife.  There is no answer.  He quickly calls for the police.  Detective Rhonda Boney (Kim Dickens) and Officer Jim Gilpin (Patrick Fugit) show up.  Based on the evidence in the house, they declare Amy a missing person.

Via flashbacks we learn that Amy and Nick had a great three year run.  Then the aftermath of the Great Recession caught up with them and their marriage started a downhill trend.  Nick lost his job.  Amy's parents were very wealthy (part of the one percent), but they were in heavy debt and Amy's million dollar trust fund needed to get drained to cover that debt.  The last straw to there wonderful marriage was when Nick's mother came down with cancer.  They moved back to his small hometown, a situation that Amy just couldn't handle.    

The answer to what happened to Amy is answered by the middle of the movie, but that doesn't take away from the thrill of this movie.  Nick's character is complex.  He comes across as always being under control, but we start getting a different feel for him as the movie progresses.  He's prone to bursts of anger.  He has a thing for a hot young twenty one year old.  Amy, meanwhile, has subtle psychological issues, driven by her mother.  Her mother wrote a series of books called Amazing Amy that tracked Amy's life.  The problem was that Amazing Amy was way more successful than the real Amy was.

This movie has all the makings for a best picture nomination.  Great acting.  A story line that keeps you engaged.  And a nice toss to how society manipulates these situations.

My one problem:  There is a scene in the movie where Nick is in his house, getting ready for an interview.  Then there is another scene where he is at his sister's house.  Then we go back to where he is back in his house, moments before his interview.  I'm assuming that the scene at his sister's house is a flashfoward.  My problem is that this is the only time this technique is used and I think it causes a touch of confusion.  We're used to the flashbacks, but this one flashfoward seems out of place.  

 

Duke Football vs. Georgia Tech: 31-25

This was the first Duke game of the season that I was able to catch.

Great Duke game though Georgia Tech QB Tim Byerly made it interesting towards the end.  Can anyone actually tackle that guy?  In Georgia Tech's last touchdown, Duke couldn't bring the guy down even though they had him wrapped up at the 1 yard line.  

It looked like Duke was more interested in running the ball versus throwing it.  I'd say 250 yards versus 123 yards proves that point out.  I love the Snead, Ajeigbe and Boone trio.

2014 Archive Photos: The Lower 48 (Harvard & Stone)

Well, as luck will have it, I'm heading out of Los Angeles for awhile due to work so I'll be going through some archival photos for awhile.

The Lower 48.

2014 Archive Photos: The Lower 48 (Harvard & Stone)

Well, as luck will have it, I'm heading out of Los Angeles for awhile due to work so I'll be going through some archival photos for awhile.

The Lower 48.

2014 Archive Photos: Lawrence Rothman (Bootleg HiFi)

Well, as luck will have it, I'm heading out of Los Angeles for awhile due to work so I'll be going through some archival photos for awhile.

A Movie Review: The Skeleton Twins

The Skeleton Twins. Maggie (Kristen Wiig) and Milo (Bill Hader) are twins. They’re known as the Skeleton Twins, driven by the fact that their father gave them toy skeletons when they were young. As the movie starts, they haven’t talked to each other in ten years. What brings them together is a hospital call. Milo has just attempted suicide in California. Maggie flies in from New York to be with her brother. She, in fact, was considering suicide when the call arrived. We also later learn that their father jumped off a bridge. There are some serious mental health issues within this family.

The complexities of this family just grow throughout the movie. We learn that Maggie and her husband, Lance (Luke Wilson), are attempted to have a baby. Well, only one of them is attempting to have a baby. The other, Maggie, is lying about this desire and is taking birth control pills. Meanwhile, Milo attempts to hook up with a former lover, Rich (Ty Burrell), who was his high school teacher at the time.

This movie feels like the comedic take on “August: Osage County.” Perhaps the big fail is that we don’t get to see Academy Award winning actresses going one on one. Add in a wacky mother, Judy (Joanna Gleason), and maybe this movie goes beyond “August: Osage County.” Luckily, we don’t have any incest going on in this movie.

Okay, sorry if it isn’t obvious, I’m not a fan of “The Skeleton Twins.” Yes, the acting is great. Yes, you do get drawn into the movie. My one minor problem with the movie throughout: you have Maggie trying to heal a mentally ill Milo while we all know that she’s just as mentally ill. My one major problem with the movie: the ending. You get this American feel good ending. Hey, I love the American feel good ending, but there is no way these two have even come close to solving their problems as the movie comes to an end and there is no way they deserve the American feel good ending.

2014 Archive Photos: Misun (Bootleg HiFi)

Well, as luck will have it, I'm heading out of Los Angeles for awhile due to work so I'll be going through some archival photos for awhile.

Misun.

2014 Archive Photos: The Cold and Lovely (The Satellite)

Well, as luck will have it, I'm heading out of Los Angeles for awhile due to work so I'll be going through some archival photos for awhile.

The Cold and Lovely.

Flashlights at The Crepe Place (Santa Cruz)

Flashlights.  I only caught the last couple songs.  As usually happens when I show up in the middle of a set, I ended up thinking:  I wish I had caught the whole set.  What can I say about the band:  high energy and fun.