Vampire-Weekend

Weird to see Benedict Cumberbatch with a Southern accent (Photo courtesy touchedmuch) It’s been a surprisingly movie-filled week! I don’t usually talk about the sporting events I watched here, but that was a hell of a Ravens game yesterday, wasn’t it! Movies 12 Years a Slave - What an intense movie. Extremely well-acted and a brilliant counterpoint to Django Unchained. Where Django took revenge for slavery, 12 Years a Slave makes it a hell of a lot more personal and is that much better for it. The flick is tough to watch sometimes, but it’s the best movie I’ve seen this year (so far). ...

I bet that’ll be fun to service later. David was in town for the weekend! DAVID! He’s never in town. Stupid Iowa! Movies I tried so hard to get David and Min to watch Star Trek or Fast 6. Neither would agree. Stupid David and Min. TV Arrested Development - Got about halfway through the Netflix season. I think it’s at least on par with the latter half of the third season. I’ve definitely had some gutbusting laughs and it hasn’t felt like a total mishap. I want to see how it all turns out with each of the character vignettes, but so far I’m pretty happy with how this turned out. ...

Nothing says ‘I’m in Florida’ like Zephyrhills water. It’s not the best stuff, but I miss it some days. Not a lot of stuff going on this week because I went home to see my family. Movies Oz the Great and Powerful - Not my favorite movie, but it was passable. It was fun to see Zach Braff again, but the movie was decidedly low stakes and, I think, hamstrung by having to set up The Wizard of Oz TV ...

Thanks to last.fm, I can tell you what my personal favorite music of 2011 has been! Top 10 Artists of 2011 1. The Beatles (1,156) I’d say the number of tracks in my collection that are by The Beatles or by the Rx Bandits far outweighs the number of other tracks. It’s not a coincidence, since I love both bands, but I don’t think you’ll see these positions change much in the future. ...

In a sense, doing this blog is a really strange thing for me. I’m more than happy to share my opinion with anyone about the music, movies, or games that I love, but I get nearly crippling anxiety when it comes to actually compelling them to sit down and experience the media I’m trying to recommend. It makes no sense, of course. Why would it matter if they like it or not, right? I mean, it’s not like it’s life or death or that they’ll stop being my friend, but I still get nervous. ...

One of my favorite tracks from Contra, “Giving Up the Gun”. Looks like the video for “Holiday” is next. I can’t wait. This video is great. Stick around until at least 2:00 or so for my favorite part.

Should be a musical week here at IBNttT and I think I’m gonna start it off with my impressions on OK Go and Vampire Weekend’s new offerings, Of the Blue Colour of the Sky and Contra, respectively. OK Go - This Too Shall Pass from OK Go on Vimeo. It’s been ~5 years since OK Go released one of my favorite album s, Oh No, and started to find some mainstream success thanks to the music video for “Here It Goes Again”. A lot can change in five years for a band so I was curious as to how it would turn out (and sound), especially since I’d heard it was a result of them touring for so long they hardly felt like themselves. Sonic shifts can be completely disastrous or they can turn out like OtBCotS and turn out pretty well. ...