Archive for January, 2013
Promised Land: film review
Posted by Amy Steele in Film on January 6, 2013
Description: When he’s dispatched to a small town similar to one he grew up in, a salesman [Matt Damon] for a natural gas company grows conflicted.
“You offered us money. All we had to do to get it was be willing to scorch the earth beneath our feet.”
This quiet film shows both sides of the natural gas issue through the eyes of a small farming community that’s struggling with a failing economy. As a natural gas company swoops in to buy up land, various people consider their future options. Will money from the company improve their lives or will the natural gas development exploit them and destroy their values? Wish it covered fracking in a bit more detail. Wonderful, thoughtful script by Matt Damon and John Krasinski and superb acting by Damon, Krasinski, Frances MacDormand, Rosemarie Dewitt and Hal Holbrook.
Promised Land is provocative and even confusing with a great twist. I got a bit teary at the end. Matt Damon’s character gives this speech to a farmer about how he grew up in the Midwest and couldn’t wait to get out of there and how the guy is most likely subsidized by the government and he didn’t understand why he’d keep on doing something that was so unforgiving and so outdated. To me that’s honest and makes complete sense. As much as people don’t want to give up the way things are, sometimes change needs to happen. We could re-allocate our resources in different ways. We need to embrace progress and change and move into the future without harming each other, our environment and animal.
–review by Amy Steele
Starring: Matt Damon, John Krasinski, Frances Mac Dormand, Rosemarie DeWitt, Hal Holbrook
Director: Gus Van Sant
Screenplay: Matt Damon and John Krasinski
Studio: Focus Features
Rating: R (for language)
Release Date: January 4, 2013
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new music: Night Moves
Posted by Amy Steele in Music on January 4, 2013
who:
John Pelant [guitars/vocals]
Micky Alfano [bass]
Mark Ritsema [multi-instrumentalist]
from: Minneapolis
sound:
70s-influenced rock. truly invigorating psychedelic rock. bubbling with cool riffs and layered funky organ configurations. Guitarist/vocalist John Pelant’s soothing, impassioned vocals provide the overall vibe to make you feel awash with glittery sparkle and afterglow. just envision taking two Xanax, drinking a key lime martini and making out on the shores of Antigua. sublime.
album: Colored Emotions
label: Domino
Tour Dates:
Jan 16 Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall (Tomorrow Never Knows Fest)
Jan 17 Cleveland, OH – Happy Dog
Jan 18 Philadelphia, PA – Kung Fu Necktie
Jan 19 New York, NY – Mercury Lounge
Jan 20 Allston, MA – Great Scott
Jan 22 Pittsburgh, PA – Shadow Lounge
Jan 23 Detroit, MI – Magic Stick Lounge
Jan 24 Madison, WI – FRZN Fest
Jan 26 Minneapolis, MN – Icehouse
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in defense of Gwyneth
Posted by Amy Steele in Uncategorized on January 3, 2013
the scene: New Year’s Eve at Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn Jay Z performs with Chris Martin. On stage to ring in 2013 so there is Apple and Moses Martin and Chris’s wife Gwyneth Paltrow and champagne.
Apparently people think Gwyneth can’t dance, hogged the spotlight etc.
my take:
She grooved to the song like any other wife, girlfriend, S.O. Gwyneth stood off to the side mouthing lyrics, getting into the song but not in a “look at me” sort of way. She wore a typical low-key, casual Gwyn outfit: black tank, black flared pants, heels. Have you seen Gwyneth’s legs? If she wanted attention she’d have worn a short dress or skirt. Her golden mane was up in a pony tail not down and glamorous by any means. She danced like anyone enjoying a concert does– uninhibited and feeling the vibe. Clearly happy. Why criticize someone for blissful moments? Her husband Chris Martin is the one people should be buzzing about. I adore the band Coldplay, particularly X&Y, yet live performances prove dull and unemotional. Onstage with Jay Z Chris jumped, danced, laughed and emoted in ways I’ve never seen him do with Coldplay. What’s up with that?
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Choice Quotes: GIRLS
Posted by Amy Steele in TV, Women/ feminism on January 3, 2013
“The worst stuff that you say sounds better than the best stuff that some other people say.”
–Hannah
“Jessa has HPV, like a couple of different strains of it. She says that all adventurous women do.”
— Shoshanna
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STEELE INTERVIEWS: Chelsea Wolfe
Posted by Amy Steele in Interview, Music on January 2, 2013
photo by Charlene Bagcal
One of my favorite singer-songwriters, the beguiling Chelsea Wolfe tours this winter in support of her Sargent House release Unknown Rooms: A Collection of Acoustic Songs. I play this repeatedly. I can’t get enough of her dramatic, haunting vocals and lush arrangements. Honest, heartbreaking, gorgeous, dark, lovely. And live, Chelsea Wolfe mesmerized the crowd with her aura and talent. Now living in Los Angeles, Wolfe grew up in Northern California.
Amy Steele: Your father played country music. How did that influence you?
Chelsea Wolfe: He had a home studio that I’d sneak into and record songs I’d written. Being around music and seeing him go to shows was of course what introduced me to the world of music, even though I wasn’t very involved back then.
Amy Steele: When did you start singing?
Chelsea Wolfe: When I was seven or eight years old.
Amy Steele: What type of musical training have you had?
Chelsea Wolfe: I’ve taken classes here and there but usually dropped out before they finished. I love learning but I’m not very good with institutions.
Amy Steele: Have you been in bands before?
Chelsea Wolfe: I’ve messed around with some rock bands but always ended up doing my own thing.
Amy Steele: What do you like about being a solo artist?
Chelsea Wolfe: I like it because there is a freedom to play alone or play with a group of musicians. And I’m really lucky to play and write with some brilliant people.
Amy Steele: Your music is beautifully dark and mysterious. Are you a dark person?
Chelsea Wolfe: Thank you. I can be. Sometimes I get on autopilot and just focus on the work, but then there will be a lull and I sort of stop and breathe and look around and sometimes it can get dark.
Amy Steele: What inspires your songs?
Chelsea Wolfe: The world around me and the world at large.. news stories, films, literature. A mix of reality and mystical or mythical elements. Love, life and death.
Amy Steele: When I saw you perform this past year at the Middle East in Cambridge, Mass. you captivated the audience and truly engulfed everyone in your music. What do you like about performing? How do you transform your music into a live performance?
Chelsea Wolfe: Performing is a challenge for me; writing and recording is a much more natural state for me. But I like the challenge of performing the songs live and I’ve come to enjoy the energies of the audience and meeting the people who come to my shows.
Amy Steele: What’s the greatest challenge about being a woman in the music business?
Chelsea Wolfe: I think because I present my music in an androgynous way I don’t have like, problems or challenges because I’m a woman. The one thing I’d say is that I get compared to other female artists that I have nothing to do with because critics love to group us all together, but my influences are mostly male artists actually. Not a big deal though.
Amy Steele: Why did you want to do this acoustic album?
Chelsea Wolfe: I started working with Sargent House earlier this year and they suggested I release an album of all my orphaned acoustic songs that I would play live or demo but had never actually released on an album. I was excited about the idea and as I gathered the old recordings I decided to re-approach most of them with new instrumentation and also wrote and recorded some new acoustic/folk songs for the record.
Amy Steele: What can fans expect on this winter tour?
Chelsea Wolfe: A much more intimate experience.. It’s going to be pretty stripped down, to guitar, vocals, synth and violin. Sometimes I get a little nervous about how personal it will be, but I’m also looking forward to experiencing it myself and pushing myself to do something I’m not completely comfortable with.
TOUR DATES:
Friday, January 11
Great American Music Hall
San Francisco, Calif
Sunday, January 13
Doug Fir Lounge
Portland, Ore
Monday, January 14
The Triple Door
Seattle, Wash
Tuesday, January 15
The Media Club
Vancouver, BC
Friday, January 18
Triple Rock Social Club
Minneapolis, Minn
January 19
Schubas Tavern
Chicago, Ill
January 20
Crofoot Pike Room
Pontiac, Mich
January 21
The Drake Hotel
Toronto, ON
January 22
Il Motore
Montreal, QC
Wednesday, January 23
The Sinclair
Cambridge, Mass.
Friday, January 25
First Unitarian Church
Philadelphia, Penn
Saturday, January 26
Music Hall of Williamsburg
Brooklyn, NY
Sunday, January 27
Rock and Roll Hotel
Washington, DC
Tuesday, January 29
Local 506
Chapel Hill, NC
Wednesday, January 30
The Earl
Atlanta
Thursday, January 31
Spanish Moon
Baton Rouge, LA
Friday, February 1
Fitzgerald’s
Houston
Saturday, February 2
Central Presbytarian Church
Austin, TX
Sunday, February 3
House of Blues – Cambridge Room
Dallas
Tuesday, February 5
Crescent Ballroom
Phoenix
Wednesday, February 6
The Loft @ UCSD
San Diego
Friday, February 8
First Unitarian Church
Los Angeles
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Elsewhere: book review
Posted by Amy Steele in Books on January 1, 2013
Elsewhere: A Memoir by Richard Russo. Publisher: Knopf (December 2012). Memoir. Hardcover. 243 pages. ISBN: 978-0-307-95953-9.
Richard Russo doesn’t write particularly empathetic female characters. Writers write what they know and any psychiatrist might extrapolate the relationship with his mother from his novels. In Elsewhere, Russo describes a mother so dependent on her son that she follows him constantly, across the country from New York to Arizona and back to Maine. She suffers various afflictions and anxieties though never seeks any medicinal or therapeutic help. Russo’s a fantastic writer but there’s an arrogance to this. He writes, “From the time I was a boy I understood that my mother’s health, her well-being, was in my hands.” Just how much does he resent his mother?
“My mother’s ‘condition.’ This was something the whole family seemed aware of, but no one talked about it. One word, nerves, was evidently deemed sufficient to describe, categorize, stigmatize, and dismiss it.”
Russo left the factory town of Gloverstown, New York in 1967. He writes of it often—Empire Falls, Nobody’s Fool, The Whore’s Child—but he’s never been back. When Russo enters the University of Arizona, his mother tells him she’s left her well-paying job and will move to Arizona as well. She needs a fresh start too, after all. This continues. He finds apartment after apartment for his mother wherever he’s living. While exhibiting a snobby outward appearance she’s becoming increasingly shaky and unsure of herself. She claims independence and feigns disdain when Russo offers assistance.
She can’t understand why her son, an accomplished scholar, a PhD, continues to write about their mired hometown. She’s never satisfied. Russo says one kind thing about his mother and that’s her accumulation of books and her establishment of some sort of library—“If a stranger came into her apartment, a quick scan of her books would give him a pretty good idea of who she was, whereas all he could say about ours was, Boy, these people sure have a lot of books.” When his daughter gets diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder [OCD], Russo ponders his mother through a diagnostic lens. Mental illness can skip a generation. Elsewhere is quite stark yet enthralling, honest. This memoir now becomes part of my library.
FTC Disclosure: I received this book for review from the publisher.
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About Me
covering mostly music and books. focus on alternative/indie and women in music, literature and the arts. feminist. vegan. mostly alternative, a bit bohemian. Masters in journalism from Boston University. BA from Simmons College.
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Based on a work at entertainmentrealm.comCopyright © 2009. All writing, unless otherwise noted, by Amy Steele.
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