Oblivion soundtrack scored by M83.

Although it might not be your typical Top 40 material, M83 has been putting in some serious work within the indie circuit.  They’ve scored renown with recent hits like Midnight City and Reunion and have been gaining serious momentum since the release of their latest album Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming.  As if all the hype wasn’t enough, it seems like M83 has scored the rights to compose the soundtrack to director Joseph Kosinski’s (of Tron: Legacy fame) next project, a sci-fi thriller starring Tom Cruise called Oblivion.

Like M83, Tron appeals to a core audience.  Strangely enough, Kosinski’s decision to let French electronica duo Daft Punk score the soundtrack may have garnered more attention than the fact that Tron was getting a sequel.  M83 makes a lot of very surreal and atmospheric music and I feel that it would suit a sci-fi epic quite well, but there may be one caveat. The very crowd of hipsters that studios seem to be pandering to with recent indie soundtracks like Drive‘s are going to catch wind of this nefarious plot and change speeds, perhaps opting to listen to classical in protest, ironically of course.

For more info on the film and the band behind the soundtrack, check out the link to Entertainment Weekly‘s follow up below.

M83 set to score Tom Cruise film, Oblivion

Jenny McCarthy poses for Playboy 2012 cover.

Had to post this. Just Jenny McCarthy, looking as smoking hot as the day I first laid eyes on her on Singled Out.

Rating: Must Buy

Nora Ephron, Dead at 71

Nora Ephron, 71

Nora Ephron passed away June 26, 2012 in the same place she was born and raised, New York City.  Nora contracted acute myeloid leukemia back in 2006 and battled with it up until the day she died from a complication induced by pneumonia. She will surely be missed.

Ephron was a prolific screenwriter, a talent perhaps fostered by two parents who wrote for the movies themselves. Maybe you didn’t know her name, but you definitely knew her work.  Even if you’ve never seen them, When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless In Seattle have both become household names.  Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, Billy Crystal, and Meg Ryan, among others, have commented on how brilliant she was and the impact that she undeniably left on the industry. Let me know what you felt about Nora and what your favorite Ephron movie was in the comment field.

To learn more, check out the link to her IMDB page below.

Nora Ephron IMDB

 

The Big Lebowski 2 Announced!

Walter & The Dude

1998 was a good year. Justin Bieber had yet to begin formulating his masterplan to debase the face of music, and acts with a modicum of soul like Third Eye Blind and Alanis Morissette still topped the charts. The late nineties pretty much ruled and The Big Lebowski was no exception. 

Amassing a staggering cult following since its debut, the Coen Bros. classic has spawned an online religion known as Dudeism and an annual festival called Lebowski Fest. Despite its mountains of swagger and immense clout, no one ever thought they’d see a sequel in their lifetimes. 

Per usual though, it seems like we’ve all been proven wrong.

It looks like the Coen brothers are at it again, and this time the action’s taking place in Washington, DC.  Jeff Bridges and John Goodman will be reprising their roles while Jesse Eisenberg assumes the role of The Dude’s eighteen year old son Mark, the youngest congressman in US history.  As far as plot goes, everybody’s favorite bowling alley is about to be torn down in a week to make room for, *gasp*, public parking! Obviously, Walter & The Dude can’t let this happen, but the duo faces an unforeseen obstacle. The project is being led by megalomaniac land baron “Bavarian Illuminati”, played by none other than Bill Murray.

With Joel and Ethan behind the wheel and what looks to be a star studded cast, I don’t see what could go wrong, honestly. Sadly, it looks like this long awaited sequel isn’t going to be coming any time soon.  Mark your calenders for a 2015 release.  In the meantime, “Fuck it, Dude, let’s go bowling.”

Lev Grossman and The Magician’s Land

Lev Grossman, who many know as senior writer and book critic at Time magazine, has been making waves in the literary world with his dark and often comedic series of novels whose humble roots began with the critically acclaimed The Magicians.  I’m a huge fan myself, and I often found myself empathizing a bit more than I would like with the delightfully misanthropic Quentin Coldwater, one of the main protagonist’s throughout the books.  Obviously enough, I was thrown into a rapturous fit when I discovered that The Magicians wouldn’t be a stand alone work, and that a sequel was well on its way.  The Magician King was everything I hoped for and more, displaying heaps of Grossman’s signature wit and satire. The ending left fans ravenous for closure, and Lev plans on delivering.  The Magician’s Land still doesn’t have a release date, but it appears Lev is well aware of his fan’s insatiable desire for everything Fillory.  The first page of the new novel has been posted on The Brooklyn Book Festival’s website for your reading pleasure.  Check out the tantalizing tidbit by visiting the link below.

Check out the first page!

Breathing life into a dead language.

Typical Facebook User

Facebook.  It’s a term that has already been ingrained within the First World’s collective unconscious, for better or for worse.  Whenever we hear someone talking about “liking” something, or getting “poked”, we can almost infallibly assume that they aren’t speaking of the most literal sense of either.  As someone who believes that the addition of words such as “prolly”and “bromance” to the Oxford English Dictionary is nothing short of sacrilege, the sort of imbecilic nonsense that happens ad nauseum on Facebook is too much to bear.

I’ve decided to limit my Facebook activity and focus my social efforts elsewhere, which will take place mainly “offline”.   At one point my friend list had exceeded the 500 mark, and as studies have shown, the average human being can only handle keeping tabs on about 150 friends before starting to lose track.  I then slimmed down this group to a mere 180 or so, but apparently I wasn’t discerning enough.  It was mind numbing to trawl through the nonsensical Jersey Shore bullshit on a daily basis, and to do so willingly, so I decided to say “fuck it”.

The realization came to me that I only truly care to keep in contact with a minute fraction of the people I had “friended” on Facebook, and that the same was likely true in reverse.  It doesn’t take much of an effort to simply call someone, or shoot them a text message for that matter.  If my friends really want to get in contact with me, they can do so by investing a bit of time into it.

Hopefully getting rid of this pesky little habit will lead to a fruitful outcome.  With the amount of time I spent on the computer poring over incoherent drunken status updates, I could have been losing what appears to be the start of a beer belly, or in pursuit of conquering the subtleties of another language.

Actually spending time fostering relationships and talking to people on a personal level has become somewhat of a dead language in my parts, and I plan to change that, at least on an internal level.

Let me know if you hate Facebook, or if you love it.  I’d love to hear what you think of my unequivocally disputable personal opinion.