Category: Reviews

Friday night saw the arrival of rainclouds and guests. Mike’s Mom and sister arrived at the house as Samantha is in town looking for wedding dresses over the next few days. While one may think this is an exciting venture, Sam has referred to it as “somewhat discouraging”. Let’s send her some good luck vibes for the remainder of the week!

I headed to the bus station Friday night to pick up Philipp who was coming in from Montreal. Unfortunately for me, his cellphone was broken so he didn’t get the message that I was going to be there waiting for him and he ended up getting off at the University of Ottawa and taking a bus to Carrie’s place. Doh! I saw some interesting characters around the bus station for that hour, along with a girl who needed to get to Toronto after her boyfriend kicked her out that morning. I don’t know if any of that was true, but I gave her 5 bucks. However, in hindsight, I should have recommended she look at a ride board at the University as you can usually find people going to Toronto for $20 (instead of whatever a bus ride costs).

After having some excellent low cholesterol spaghetti and having Carrie’s mom jump on the opportunity to tell me how to lower my cholesterol (although, I must admit I disappointed her after telling her what I eat every day!), we settled in to play some Settlers of Catan (or Seafarers of Catan…which is a different version).

Now, years ago, Carrie’s family tried to teach me this game and I didn’t grasp it and it left a sour taste in my mouth and I never wanted anything to do with it again.

Years later, here I am wanting to give it another chance. I had an excellent teacher with Ken explaining things along the way and I’m proud to say that I think I did pretty good for my first time out. Clearly, I need to think strategically in the future but whatever…it was a good game to play.

Oh! I should describe the game for those readers not ‘in the know’. Essentially, the board the players settle onto some land. So in order to build a settlement, you need to have a certain combination of cards – like one lamb card, one wood card, and one brick card. To accumulate cards, you have to be settled next to a piece of land and each piece of land has a number associated to it. Let’s say you are positioned between two pieces of land – one with lamb on it, and one with wood and the one with lamb has the number 6 on it. If any player rolls a six, you get a lamb card. So over time, you accumulate cards, which in turn, you may spend to build more settlements, or you can trade them with other players to get what you want. There’s other logistics to the game, but essentially every settlement is worth some points and the game goes up to a certain maximum.

Anything you have to put effort into ends up being a good thing in the end, much like Settlers of Catan.

I know there is a faithful following of this board game out there in Palmer’s World fan-land. Hopefully I can come play with you soon!

Here’s an update on all the new albums I’ve picked up in the last while AFTER I’ve had a few listens. Short and sweet reviews in some cases as…there’s just so much to write!

The Colour and The Shape – Foo Fighters
10 years later, this is the first time I’ve ever heard this album. I’m just starting to get into Foo Fighters and I’ve realized I’ve missed out in the past decade. This album was remastered (read: loudened) and bonus tracks have been added. It’s a killer album with those great singles you all love – Monkeywrench, My Hero, Everlong…classic staples of alternative airwaves in the 90s. Two thumbs up and the cover of Baker Street is beautiful. If you don’t have this in your collection, do yourself the favour.

Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace – Foo Fighters
Not to be outdone by an album they released a decade ago, Foo Fighters have released the follow-up to In Your Honour (which was a double album – one album hard, one soft). They’ve taken the elements of hard and soft and applied them to a slew of tracks on this new release. Essentially, Foo Fighters have built the album I’ve always wanted to create. I love the dynamic of hard and soft within the same song. The entire album is great…no filler tracks here. There’s even an acoustic song that has Mike drooling at the mouth for its great solo. Highly recommend this album for rock fans.

Amnesiac – Radiohead
Seeing that it’s the fall, I picked up a Radiohead album. This is the follow-up/brother of Kid A which is the beginning of Radiohead’s ventures into ‘other than guitar’ rock. Imagine yourself with digital instruments in front of you and being asked to create some music. That’s what Radiohead have done. Upon the first few listens, I believe I like Kid A better than this album. There are some great tracks like Knives Out but overall, I don’t think I will be listening to this one all too much. Time will tell.

O – Damien Rice
I picked this album up after hearing him perform before the Pumpkins took the stage at the Osheaga Festival. I liked what I heard from 100 meters away. Damien Rice is chock full of acoustic goodness along with some cello. I listened to this a few times while studying this weekend and it put me in a good mood. Very low key but very cool also. He has the power of song on his side. Plus, he can really rock the dynamic of soft/loud…take a listen to the hidden track Prague for an example. It starts out with something that sounds like he is in some empty bathroom in Amsterdam and then ascends into chaotic madness of your brain literally melting…then it tones back down. BEAUTIFUL! If you like low key players like Jack Johnson, please give Damien Rice a chance.

Into The Wild – Eddie Vedder
Eddie Vedder’s solo album which is the soundtrack for his good buddy Sean Penn’s new film – Into the Wild. Dealing with the story of a man who left society to live in the wild, the soundtrack encapsulates that feeling of loneliness and utter silence around you in the woods. I have yet to see the film, but can only imagine watching it with this great soundtrack. What a great time to release this album…a walk around the block in the cold chill of the night is perfect time to listen to this album. In fact, there were a few times this week that I left the house for that sole reason. Just to walk out in the darkness and the gripping cold on my breath. A low key album with acoustic tunes thrown about but with the booming voice of Eddie Vedder. Some of the tracks clock in at a minute long as they are used as filler music for the soundtrack but it doesn’t make them any less spectacular. Highly recommended.

The Limitless Potential
This was the remixed tracks of Nine Inch Nails that I was talking about last month. I have given it a few listens and while all the tracks are pretty great, I must admit that more variety is needed. Most of the tracks are a remix of the single off of Year Zero – Survivalism. It gets tiring listening to 30 tracks where half of them are the same song, but remixed. I would recommend downloading this album (as you can’t get it in the stores) and picking your favourite tracks to listen to. Also, stay tuned for an official release from Nine Inch Nails in the form of a Year Zero remix album called Y34RZ3R0R3MIX3D. For those of you in the know, you’ll know how to read this.

The Best of What’s Around – Dave Matthews Band
I ordered the Dave Matthews greatest hits album off their website awhile ago because it offered a bonus disc which had the longest live track in their repertoire which was recorded here in Ottawa! I figured I needed it if I were going to get into the Dave Matthews Band so I ordered it. Of course, if you’re a fan of Dave Matthews, then this album is naturally a favourite as it is a greatest hits album. I enjoy it. It was a good introduction to the Dave Matthews Band. It was different than I expected as I had only heard acoustic renditions played or heard live tracks (such as Cortez The Killer). There is so much for to the band than a man and his acoustic guitar. This will tempt me to pick up one of their other albums but I don’t know if I’m sold completely on the band yet, although I know everyone and their dog love them. I have the same feelings for The Tragically Hip. I enjoy their music, but not to a point of fanaticism.

Jean-Francois lent us his copy of Doctor Strangelove. I didn’t know what to expect. Here’s what I knew about the film before watching it:

– It was made by Stanley Kubrick. Uh oh, either a hit (Clockwork Orange!!!) or a miss (2001).
– It had a cowboy riding a bomb.

That’s it, that’s all.

Well, I was VERY IMPRESSED with the film. It was so hilarious. I am a fan of dark/sarcastic humour and it was in the entire film. The film revolves around a United States General issuing a nuclear strike against Russia without the President’s authorization and then the United States have to attempt to stop the attack and calm the fears of Russia. However, the plan gets zanier when its discovered that there is a Doomsday Device which is armed to destroy all human and animal life on Earth if there is an attack on Russia. So basically the US have dug their own graves if they can’t get in touch with the attack fleet which has gone under radio silence.

Anyhow, the film is beautiful. I am not familiar with any of the actors but apparently Peter Sellers is a big name actor from back in the day and he played not one, not two, but THREE different characters in the film! Extraordinary!

I enjoyed the critique of the Cold War and it was interesting to see such a critique coming from the era where the Cold War still in effect (whereas nowadays, it has been replaced but other villains like world domination and control of chocolate factories). I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of dialogue and the absurdity of some comments “Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the War Room!”. Classic.

I couldn’t stop laughing when Major Kong ends up riding a bomb out of the plane and how he didn’t plan on it. All these years I just assumed he had meant to do it on purpose. I had a really good laugh at that point.

I highly recommend watching Doctor Strangelove (although I must admit it’s interesting to see how Doctor Strangelove doesn’t really have much dialogue in the film). You won’t be disappointed if you can see the humour in the situation. Stanley Kubrick, I tip my hat to you for this film.

iplaying: Chocolate – Snow Patrol (Final Straw)

Vero and I watched Julie Taymor’s Across The Universe last night. Across The Universe is a film which incorporates 33 Beatles tracks interwoven into the story so that it acts like dialogue. Think a Beatles musical but intermixed with actual speaking (whereas a musical is all singing (of course!)). It’s a love story, set against the 60s.

Hmm…I’ve been struggling with what to say about this film all night long. Sometimes I feel my words can’t do something justice. I have made the word Palmer and BEST MOVIE EVER commonplace. 😉

That being said, Vero and I loved this film and if you love the Beatles, you’ll love this film.

I don’t know what to say really…it transported me to another time, another ideal.

I love Julie Taymor’s stuff. She created the sets/costumes of The Lion King musical. She created Titus (only the greatest Shakespearian film ever). The imagery, the self-indulgence…it’s chaotic but moving.

So…just go see it. This message goes out to the Beatles fans that I particularly know – Sam, Marc-Andre, Benoit, Troy…just go see it. Open yourself up to a fantastical voyage.

iplaying: All My Loving – The Beatles (With The Beatles)

The other night, I picked up the Pearl Jam film, Immagine in Cornice. I call this a film because it’s definitely not your standard concert DVD with an entire medley of songs that pack two hours. This film is by Danny Clinch, who is a frequent photographer for Pearl Jam (as well as other big acts like Springsteen).

Upon starting the film, I admired the man’s film style as he goes for abstract shots – like through the legs of a person, or a reflection in a puddle. Essentially, the film tracks Pearl Jam’s five day stint in Italy and gives us both some great performances as well as some behind-the-scenes action, such as what they do in their downtime, how setlists are changed on the fly because of the feel of the crowd, and general band goodness.

At first I didn’t know if I would enjoy this film as I thought I would prefer more of a concert film which captures the entire 3 hour concert, but I was pleasantly surprised that this film played out like U2’s Rattle and Hum (one of the best band films in my opinion) and it’s sense of style never left me disappointed.

The sound was incredible on the big stereo but the visuals, THE VISUALS! I swore I was watching HDTV! They filmed with both Super 8 (hee hee) and Hi-Definition cameras and it made quite the difference. It’s probably the clearest DVD I’ve purchased.

I was disappointed to see that Betterman was cut, and I think Rocking in the Free World was also? Hard to tell…maybe the original performance missed a verse.

Here’s a sense of the great style…during World Wide Suicide, he switches to different performances of the song over the five nights. It’s really fascinating to see the change. He also does this at the end of the film and you see how every night ended. With a microphone dropped, or a guitar flying, or Eddie taking a flying leap off of a speaker stack. Very cool indeed.

I would have to say that this film is now in my Top 3 band films of all time. Hmm…what are my other choices? U2’s Rattle and Hum is definitely there…I’ll have to think about what my third one is.

If you are any sort of Pearl Jam fan, pick this up. You won’t be disappointed (unless all you like about Pearl Jam is the music. In that case, you get about 40 minutes of it instead of 3 hours).

Recap: Frank Herbert wrote the sci-fi equivalent to Lord of the Rings in his stunning series called Dune. He wrote six novels in the series, which basically span…oh, 5000 years? Yes, it’s insane. But very good books. I won’t even get into what they are about. You can read Wikipedia just as well as anyone.

The seventh book in the series (meant to be the last) was never written because, alas, Frank Herbert passed away. Talk about a cliffhanger!

Fastfoward years into the future when Brian Herbert (his son) finds a safety deposit box of his outlines of Dune 7 as well as back stories galore. What does he do with this information?

Teams up with Kevin J. Anderson (yay!) who write a trilogy of prequels, a trilogy of prequel-prequels and have recently (in the last month) written Dune 7 (which basically have been split into two novels – Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune).

I picked up Hunters of Dune and was worried that I wouldn’t remember where the story left off from Chapterhouse: Dune but I found myself immersed into the story quickly. The authors realized that there were more extreme cases than myself (having read the book in the past few years) whereas some people haven’t read Dune 6 in TWENTY years. So they wrote the prequels to get interest back into the Dune universe before unleashing the conclusion of the series (which, surprisingly has a lot of prequel information within it. Think Star Wars: Special Edition.)

I really enjoy the writing style of the both of them and find this novel highly engaging and was probably one of the more interesting Dune books out there from the main Dune series. One must wonder how much is really Frank Herbert’s vision, but I trust his own son to be true to his father’s plans.

I enjoyed the clashes between the Honored Matres and the New Sisterhood, as well as the Face Dancers taking a larger role (people who can shift their appearance? Always cool!) and the every mysterious Old Man and Woman who showed up in the last paragraph of Dune 6 and people have been wondering for 20 years who the heck they are. You find out in this book which is amazing. Never saw it coming.

In the end, this was just a tease to me because the book basically sets up the major story which will occur in the conclusion – Sandworms of Dune. In hindsight, I should have waited until Sandworms was out in paperback as I hate buying hardcover books. So now I’ll have to wait a year to find out how the Dune saga ends. I’m excited to read it as I’ve invested myself fully in this universe and enjoy even more than the Lord of the Rings world.

I feel I can’t even really talk about major plot lines in this story because one mention of them would ruin the story for potential fans…so if you have enjoyed the Dune series up until now, go out and grab this book. It’s a page turner. But maybe you should wait until you can read Sandworms of Dune because I feel like a Harry Potter fan without his next novel. Helpless and upset.

iplaying: Society – Eddie Vedder – Into The Wild

While I must admit that Sophia Coppola was the worst thing to grace the screen in The Godfather III, she does make a decent film. The Virgin Suicides and Lost in Translation were all decent flicks in my opinion. She has a good grasp of music and imagery.

Enter Marie Antoinette, her latest film which Vero and I rented last night. Heck, I don’t know much about history so we watched this to inform ourselves.

Once again, I was amazed with the imagery and the choice of music (switching from old school Baroque music to New Wave and Punk bands) was great. I like it when films incorporate new music into a historical context (think A Knight’s Tale, but not overdone like it was).

What can I say about the film itself pertaining to Marie Antoinette? Well, I read about Marie Antoinette this morning on Wikipedia so I have a better understanding of where she came from and what her story was. The film does a good job of portraying her role within the French monarchy but if you’re looking for some deep historical facts, shy away as the film focusses more on Madame Antoinette as a person, and one who is still young and growing into the woman she would become.

I wouldn’t say that there was a dose of suspense or grand dramatic stories strewn about…it was a simple film portraying the life of a woman who had to give up her entire country and family to go to France and then hang out and do nothing much at all.

If you are interested in Marie Antoinette, then please rent this film!

Mike managed to score the workprint of Rob Zombie’s Halloween last night so we sat down to watch it. I was hunting around on the weekend for my original Halloween movie but cannot seem to find it. Does anyone out there have my copy? It’s the one on VHS.

I didn’t know really what to expect as I had heard some mixed reviews about the film and Halloween is by far my favourite horror series (next to Evil Dead of course!). Mike Myers instills fear into me like no other. He’s just some guy walking towards you with a knife. Yikes!

The film has a LOT of back story to Michael Myers…pretty well the entire first half of the film is dedicated to showing what environment Michael grew up in and how it made him into a monster. While I enjoyed Mr. Zombie’s portrayal of a twisted environment creating this crazy guy, I must admit that I preferred the mystique of just some random killer coming out of nowhere and attacking the town on Halloween night. I read a great review of the film at Ain’t It Cool News and they hit the nail on the head when they were talking about how everything needs an explanation nowadays, including Star Wars and the prequels. It used to be enough to know that Darth Vader was a bad ass and no one really know how he became one. But then the prequels come along and you see him as a kid and see what he had to go through which transformed him. Meh. What am I saying? I like the prequels so I can’t put them down, but let’s get back to Halloween. I didn’t care for the extended intro to the back story of Michael. While I think it was well done and I understand what Mr. Zombie was trying to do with his remake of Halloween, I think it would have been best if you left him as a killer with no story.

Onto the rest of the film…it pretty well is the original Halloween film and I must admit that I was on the edge of my seat for the entire time that Michael Myers is on his killing spree. It was a great feeling to once again have the fear in me while watching a Halloween film (which pretty well left me years ago…ugh…Halloween: Resurrection anyone? Michael Myers also had a new degree of viciousness to him which was brought to us by our main man Tyler Zane (who played Sabretooth in the X-Men films). It’s like he moved a little quicker and little rougher than our lumbering friend from previous films. And I liked it.

Turns out that the work print version has a totally different ending than the theatrical cut so I suppose I’ll have to rent the actual version when it comes out next year. I have read about both endings and think the theatrical one would probably be better.

Anyhoo…it was amazing and I’m glad Rob Zombie did a bang up job. It’s definitely the best Halloween movie in awhile.

A nice way to cap off the summer was to head to the Westboro Beach with a lawnchair, a few beers, and friends to catch the final movie night in which they played Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

What a great spot to watch a movie! Even though we were seated right next to the Parkway with cars driving by, the speakers were loud enough to allow us to hear every word, and the vista of the Ottawa River along with the sun going down behind the movie screen was amazing.

Now, everyone will laugh when they read this but before the film started, I noted that I wasn’t sure if I’ve ever seen the beginning of Ferris Bueller before. Yes yes, I know it’s on TBS every four hours but I think I had only caught bits and pieces of it throughout the years.

To my surprise I had actually missed out on a whole lot more than I thought! I figured I had never seen the first hour of the film. Imagine! After laughing at the film, I realized that this is the quintessential 80s comedy. Oh Ferris…where art thou now (fast fact, rumour of a sequel coming out. No joke.)

After the film, we headed to the Elgin Street Diner for some excellent poutine before heading home.

If they air more films at the Westboro Beach next year, I am in. It was such a good time.

The long anticipated fifth album by Silverchair does not disappoint. Silverchair have come so far from the alternative band on teenagers (has it already been a decade with them?!). Their last album Diorama was an amazing piece of work – one where you can tell Daniel Johns was learning piano which I find to be a major turning point in the style of music that a band writes (compared to guitar-based only). It introduced different elements and more complex themes into their music.

After a hiatus of 5 years, they have returned with Young Modern which does not disappoint. At first listen there were a few standout tracks but I must admit that I kept coming back for more and more and more during my holidays. I really enjoy this album. It isn’t a heavy hitting album but I almost find that some of their tracks remind me of the psychedelic times of The Beatles. There are some songs which just go against the norm that you can’t help but fall in love with them. There are some straight out rockers, and some soft tunes as well.

It’s a minimalist album which offers a maximum of enjoyment. Pick it up and you won’t be disappointed (unless you’re stuck in the 90s and don’t have an open mind to what Silverchair should be, or become. They are definitely not the band who sings on Frogstomp.)

iplaying: Mindreader – Silverchair (Young Modern)