Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in L. Bangs' LiveJournal:

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Wednesday, May 14th, 2008
2:13 pm	So You Look Around the Tiny Room / And You Wonder Where the Hell You Are While away from work, I read that Karen Dalton spent some time in Enid, Oklahoma. This made me very glad, then very, very sad. My state - okay, specifically my city - once was weird. It was an isolated oasis where many of the natives explored cul de sacs and dead ends with a liberating freedom and manic drive. Starbucks and channel 23 are symptoms of what went wrong. We're just like everybody else. Even worse, Tulsa strains to be like everybody else. We're like most of the rock music in the mainstream nowadays - smooth, professional, bland, and lacking any kink, spice, or bite hinting at human hands rather than mechanized pistons behind the curtains. We don't deal in Daltons now. We spit out mush like David Cook. We slumber in the poppy fields of nostalgia. We go for that mellow mediocre that scores a record contract rather than the greatness that changes lives. We're John Denvers instead of Bob Dylans, Jerry Bruckheimers instead of Orson Welleses. We live in suburbs. We build arenas and congregate at coffee conglomerates. We snub the forty thousand terrific local Asian restaurants and eat at the boring Americanized ilk of PF Chang's. We look like everybody else. We wallow. I miss my city, and I fear it won't be back. I miss Tulsa. Current Music: Karen Dalton - A Little Bit of Rain (Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 13th, 2008
10:25 am	Forget the Plasma TV / Ain't No Electricity Today is voting day for Tulsa County. The vote affects property taxes and involves Tulsa Community College. Here is an article supporting it. Here is an article against it. I am voting YES. Vote as you see fit. Do some research, though. No matter what anybody says, a dumb vote is worse than no vote. Current Music: Old 97s - Early Morning (4 Comments |Comment on this)
9:54 am	I Didn't Know Nobody / And Then I Saw You Coming My Way Hey, it is Music Tuesday! What's new? For fans of once-indie music, Death Cab for Cutie's latest, Narrow Stairs, is nailing positive reviews. Welsh retro-soul singer Duffy sends Rockferry over to the states; check out her tune Mercy (Amazon has this one for under 7 bucks). Finally, alt-country diehards Old 97's unveil a seventh album, Blame It on Gravity. Beware, this band has a bit more fire than is typical of the genre nowadays. Spin some good tunes! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx I think I'm awake today, which is a marked improvement over yesterday. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx I've seen two trailers now, and I've gotta say, the new Hulk movie looks like puke. Too bad... In fact, the upcoming summer blockbuster I'm really excited about is the new Batman. Maybe the new effort by Indy will be good, but I've little hope for Hulk, Star Wars, Zohan, etc. etc. Of course, I hope to be surprised, but I know better than to count the eggs on those puppies. I still need to get out and watch Redbelt this week. Current Music: Old 97s - Dance With Me (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, May 12th, 2008
9:31 am	Through a Two-Way Looking Glass / You See Your Alice I had an amazing, fantastic weekend! It was perfect (except for the fact I was a rat jerk bastard last night)! I really enjoyed Paranoid Park, although I don't think too many people would. Saturday night was three birthday parties and a mother's day celebration rolled into one! This weekend brought on great times, a few wonderful walks, some much-needed treadmill time, and a homemade blueberry pie! Yum! My girlfriend is the best! (I'm not, but I'm working on it...) Current Music: Matthew Sweet - Looking at the Sun (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, May 9th, 2008
9:49 am	He's Too Scared to Complain / 'Cos He's Conditioned That Way Hey, it is Movie Friday! Sadly, it is the type of weekend when us film lovers struggle not to despair. Why? There are some great films showing in Tulsa, but we know it is pointless. With all this gold, you're probably going to guzzle down gunky trash like Speed Racer or What Happens in Vegas. Alas. Still, I will point out the promising potential out there. The big, huge, honking news is a film opening at the Circle Cinema. Gus Van Sant's celebrated Paranoid Park won the 60th Anniversary Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, and that is quite a big deal. Additionally, I'm hearing it is a phenomenal film. Check out the glowing hot reviews! I'm seeing it tonight. The AMC opens the master David Mamet's new film, Redbelt, and those who have seen it say it is a good 'un. Poor? No excuse! The dollar theater has one of the very best films of last year, Persepolis. This animated film about growing up female in Iran has amazingly made it to the discount theater. See it. Also showing for a buck are In Bruges (pretty good) and The Spiderwick Chronicles (which I haven't seen yet but is supposedly decent). Films I have seen and recommend include Iron Man, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and Girls Rock!. So there you go. While most folks will be hypnotized by the pretty flashing lights and poisonous nostalgia offered by Speed Racer, you don't have to be. There some great stuff out there, even a few good popcorn movies. Spend your money and time wisely! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Somehow, I ended up watching an episode of CSI: NY this week. All aspiring writers should watch a few minutes of this show. If this sort of utter crap can make it on television, there's hope for us all! It spewed some of the worst writing I've heard on the tube in a loooong time... xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx I am going to enjoy my weekend, and I hope you do also! Remember all the wonderful mothers out there! (I am very lucky to have the best one, but there are many great ones around.) Current Music: Barry Adamson - Shadow of Death Hotel (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 7th, 2008
12:32 pm	I Choose to Abuse, Misuse, and Confuse I'm looking into my very murky crystal ball of political predictions, and what do I see? Clinton quits in a week. I may be wrong, but no guts, no glory. Current Music: Belle and Sebastian - Stars of Track and Field (2 Comments |Comment on this)
10:27 am	Put the Crazies on the Street / Give Them Guns and Feed Them Meat I've made a bit of a resolution to start highlighting terrific new album releases every week in much the same manner I point out promising films, but darn it all, there just isn't much this time round. Last week, I did miss mentioning Estelle's Shine, but that's it. Oh, well. Last night I finally made good on a promise and put together a one-disc compilation of The Kinks for a co-worker. This band continues to be sorely neglected in the states, a sad reality only enabled by the absence of the group's best songs from every legal online music service. ( The Tracklist ) That's 25 songs and around 79-and-a-half minutes of pure Kinkdom bliss! (For the curious, my favorite is Shangri-La, and the two I had to chop in order to stay under 80 minutes were Apeman and We Are the Village Green Preservation Society.) Okay, I'll go back to work now and try to awaken my nappin' noggin... Current Music: Dusty Springfield - You've Got a Friend (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 6th, 2008
1:55 pm	Called to See / If Your Back / Was Still Aligned If your buddy gets on an elevator that already has somebody on it, and you hold open the door to have an idiotic conversation with your buddy... ...You are a jackass. And yeah, I'll tell you as I leave the elevator... And don't even get me started about the reasonably promising young man who started here not long ago and is quickly devolving into a typical victim of Dumb Guy Syndrome. (No, I do not want to have a tech convention in Vegas, dumbshit; you'll just have to go to Branson again this summer.) Good thing the weather is nice, or else I might be cranky. I think I just wrapped up shopping for Mother's Day and two upcoming birthdays. =Whew!= When I went into a local eatery and noticed they were no longer carrying the abominable, inept, neocon Urban Tulsa, I nearly danced with joy. (Occasionally, Cory Cheney can write a complete sentence, but it never says anything insightful about film. Seriously, this guy is either a family member or a mistress to somebody up the food chain.) Although the new drama critic is the best critic the paper has every had (and if you know me at all, you know I'm not just saying that because he hangs on LiveJournal). And I haven't had to see Holly Wall on television for at least a few weeks now, so maybe the idiot squad which has an unfortunate death grip on the city's local arts scene is going away... Yeah, I know. I'm a dreamer. And I love all those songs about rainbows... Current Music: Howlin' Wolf - Smokestack Lightnin' (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, May 5th, 2008
10:27 am	Make a Hole with a Gun Perpendicular / To the Name of This Town So, Friday night... Girls Rock! - Of course they do! This documentary follows a group of girls about Rock 'n' Roll Camp, a Portland retreat where young women learn confidence and instrumental expression all at once. The film won't change your life nearly as much as the institution hopefully changes theirs, but this is fun, uplifting stuff, and since the Circle Cinema brought in one of the participants, at the theater was the ideal way to watch this. *** Iron Man - Take the time to develop the origin as more than a snap-crack series of action flashes, hire a great cast, and aim a little over the three-year-olds heads, and by golly, you get a superhero movie that doesn't suck! This isn't the best of its type (Spider-Man 2 and the second X-Men film are some tough films to beat), but for a first installment, this is pretty fun. As is standard issue for this origin films, the ending is a not-entirely-successful attempt to paste some resolution on a conflict that is only marginally worked into the how-it-all-came-about narrative threads, so again, we have good reason to hope the next chapter is even better, but this ain't bad. (Let's also hope they come up with more for Paltrow to do next time round.) If the very title stirs your innards, you'll probably leave happy. *** The ballet was quite fun Saturday. The question the artists bit afterward was interesting, and again, Tulsa is terrific to support this company. The fact that they use wonderful live music with most performance just kicks artistic ass all around the block and back. Today is Monday, but hey, let's not hold that against it. Enjoy! Current Music: Handel - Water Music (John E. Gardiner cond.) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, May 4th, 2008
1:47 am	Gonna to Kill the Fatted Calf Two movies at the theater Friday night, to bed at five, and the ballet earlier... Why am I still awake right now? Yo, well... (Comment on this)
Friday, May 2nd, 2008
11:13 am	Where It Bubble All the Time Like a Giant Carbonated Soda / S-O-D-A / Soda Hey, even with the presence of pure evil in our city, it is still Movie Friday! The biggest news today is Iron Man flying through town. With a good cast and screenwriters who worked on one of the best films of the decade (Children of Men), this blockbuster may actually deliver the goods. The Circle Cinema partly atones for their now-dreadful midnight movie series with their Friday night music-related films. This month is Girls Rock!, and do they ever! The dollar theater has The Spiderwick Chronicles. Films I have seen and recommend include Forgetting Sarah Marshall and, especially, The Counterfeiters. The MOST exciting news, though, is the arrival of Paranoid Park next weekend at the Circle! Yay! Current Music: Ray Lynch - Your Feeling Shoulders (7 Comments |Comment on this)
9:58 am	You Never Turned Around to See the Frowns / On the Jugglers and the Clowns No wonder we had so much horrible weather. The most evil man on the planet is in town! If you hang around downtown, you can watch much of Tulsa's rich and powerful stand in line to suck Dick (Cheney, that is). How did this nation elect this crew twice? No wonder we're going down the drain... Current Music: Roxy Music - Avalon (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 30th, 2008
9:24 am	There Is No Room for Irony Here I still have a teensy-weensy fever, but I'm feeling much better today. Figuring I could sit at home and feel rotten or sit at the movies and feel rotten, I snuck out with my lady love to Chop Shop last night. Every year there is that one film that slips through the cracks, that even the critics don't seem to celebrate enough. Here's your chance to catch it on the big screen. Reviews compare it to The Bicycle Thieves, and that's fair. It is realism, with a spare style and a budget that probably couldn't keep most folks in coffee for the month. The story and acting, though, are terrific, and the simple style is a perfect match to the tale of a young boy and his sister living in the slums of New York. This ain't a pick-me-up. This ain't How to Lose a Guy in 27 Dresses. It is, however, brilliant, and I loved it. I'll be making room for it on my list of the top ten films of 2007. You've two days to catch it at Circle Cinema, so get crackin'... Now, because we're pals, here's a steal, but you have to act pretty quickly. Amazon has The Coen Brothers Movie Collection for $19.49! That includes Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, Miller's Crossing, Barton Fink, AND Fargo, all for less than four bucks average per film. Jump! It won't last long! Have a great day! The heat in my flesh makes my eyelids heavy, but I'll live. Current Music: Robyn - Be Mine! (Comment on this)
Tuesday, April 29th, 2008
1:12 pm	I was out of work and commission yesterday, but I'm back today, if barely. Today at work is not going too terribly well, but I suspect I'll survive. I am hoping to catch Chop Shop at the Circle Cinema tonight at 7:30, but since I'm not feeling great, we'll see... Line 'em up! Four new albums this week, each good and groovy in its own unique way: Portishead - Third Mudcrutch Santogold Robyn (finally getting a US release two years later) I now have a bucket of work pouring over my head I must see to... Current Music: Portishead - Magic Doors (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, April 26th, 2008
9:56 pm	The Dice are Loaded We just watched The Bourne Ultimatum. I think it is the installment in the series that finally lives up to the hype. The action scenes clicked this time, and the film cleverly holds the mirror up to Bush-era America to show that it has indeed turned into the bad guy. I've been a fan since his best film, Bloody Sunday, but now I am convinced Mr. Greengrass is one of the best directors of our current film scene. My poor love burned herself today. :( Randy Terrill and the fact he holds elected office are excellent arguments that us Okies are as dumb as our reputations... I'm posting by phone, so excuse my brevity or format errors. (10 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, April 25th, 2008
10:30 am	You're So Fine / You Blow My Mind! Hey, it is Movie Friday, and we are starting that season when big dumb movies often drown out smaller worthier films. Don't be duped! For example, with all the commercials bombarding you, it would be easy for you to overlook Chop Shop opening at Circle this week. You've probably not heard of it, but search the Internet. You probably won't find a single negative review, and you'll likely discover reviews from the likes of Roger Ebert, Tulsa's own James Vance, and A.O. Scott praising it to high heaven. In other words, it is probably a great film, and it is in severe danger of not finding an audience. Go see it!!! I'd mention the midnight movie showing of Monty Python and the Holy Grail if this wasn't your fourth time in three years to see it on the big screen here. Why is the Circle starting to repeat itself on the late shows (Donnie Darko's returning soon as well, giving that dude with the rabbit mask another chance to pull it out, I reckon...)? Other promising films I haven't seen yet include The Year My Parents Went on Vacation at the Circle, Married Life and Snow Angels at the AMC, and Smart People at the Palace. Haven't heard of them? Have you heard of Google? The dollar theater has The Spiderwick Chronicles. Films I've seen and recommend are Stop-Loss, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and, especially, the Oscar-winning The Counterfeiters. Get cracking! Current Music: Led Zeppelin - When the Levee Breaks (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, April 24th, 2008
2:59 pm	They're Saying Things That I Can Hardly Believe / They Really Think We're Getting Out of Control I don't think this quite counts as a death wish, but I spent a half hour or so this afternoon soundtracking my work with the top ten tunes on the latest Billboard Hot 100 Music chart. And hey, if I had to live through it, you should have to skip over a few paragraphs about it, I reckon. 10) Miley Cyrus - See You Again - This is the sole tune Rhapsody only had in the form of a thirty-second sample, so I can't really judge this, except that the few lines I heard sounded better than most of the tracks in the rest of the countdown. I've no idea if I would still be saying the same three minutes or so later... 9) Chris Brown - With You - I keep reading that this guy is the next Michael Jackson weirdo pop wizard. Not here, he ain't. The guitar is a simple, sheeny strum that almost could have leaked from an Extreme single, and the vocal is by turns robotically marching in rhythmic lockstep and limply strung across weak hooks. This isn't bad, it just isn't much, and the weak melody could only linger in your mind with far too many listens. 8) Sara Bareilles - Love Song - Hey, it is 1997 again, and Fiona Apple is back! Honestly, spin this and deny it! Now, if you're copping a sound, you could do worse than Apple, and if a trillion women hadn't beat her to the idea, this would come off so much fresher. It is actually a decent song, and its style stands out from the rest of this countdown. It is not only unique (at least in this context), it is one of the better songs on the list. The teen girls of the world love me for fessing that up. 7) Ray J & Yung Berg - Sexy Can I - Hands down, this is the worst song on the list. Boring, dull, and utterly void of personality, hooks, or addictive beats. How in the world did this make the list? Lame, limp, and lazy, and to add insult to those injuries, you'll swear you heard this before, since it is a rip-off of dozens of other songs. Yuck. 6) Madonna featuring Justin Timberlake - 4 Minutes - God bless her, Madge has the best song in the top ten this week. Sure, a good amount of the credit goes to the producers and JT, but that is often the case, and the lady knows how to pick the best. She has an ear for these things, and she has a personality, a quality missing in most of the entries you'll find in the top spots of this list. Also, this song is smart enough to do the job and leave, not even lasting the titular time, and that is another lesson this veteran could teach a few other folks round here. 5) Mariah Carey - Touch My Body - Did I mention that last song had personality? Maybe it sucked it all out of here, cuz this song gots none. That's not the Achilles heel (or hell) it might sound like, since this is smooth stuff with a sonic gloss that goes down pretty easy. It is actually one of the bright spots on this list, but bless her heart, Mariah has always had more range than charisma, and this isn't about to change any minds concerning that conviction. 4) Usher featuring Young Jeezy - Love in the Club - This guy is pretty much a funny fellow, a fancy dancer that can woo the weaker, more boring women who don't realize just how goofy his entire act is. If he can land the right producer and guests, he apparently can bring home a decent single, but he's really only proven that once. That lightning doesn't strike twice here, and an hour after listening to this lifeless track, the saddest fact is that I can't really recall much of it at all. It even lacks his patented goofiness, and lord I never thought I'd say this, but it is missed; it at least brought something to the table. 3) Jordin Sparks duet with Chris Brown - No Air - This is mediocre mush. American Idol produces television ratings in greater quantities than star power (For example, why in the wide world of sports would the next Idol need to be able to sing an Andrew Lloyd Webber showtune? He or she wouldn't; it is just a clever gimmick for the ol' telly...). The production is the star, with the fine-tuned backing vocals standing out more than the bland leads. This isn't good, not even a shade close to good, but as cynical as its formula-driven formless mass may be, it sounds like a freakin' masterpiece compared to... 2) Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love - Shit, folks. Pure shit. The woman has a terrific voice and a great range and a song that could suck even more personality from Ashlee Simpson's genericized nose. The lyrics are atrocious, the melody lame, and even the voice tamed into tepidness. This is what Simon thinks is brilliant? No, this is what he thinks will make him buttloads of money. Since this is number two, he is probably right. Shit sells. 1) Lil Wayne featuring Static Major - Lollipop - Well, if you're a fourteen year old boy or, it seems, a convention-goer named after an animal, you can guess where a song with this title is going. Hell, everybody with an ounce of dirty in the mind can guess. The tune isn't very original, even if the beats are better than much of what is here, and I would write off Weezy entirely if I didn't know that his next single, Millie, wasn't twenty times better than this silly-yet-stale single. Plus, at over five minutes, it is at least two minute too long not to have any dynamic elements, evolution, or even catchy hooks tucked away somewhere. That's it, folks. The top ten is seldom the mine to find gold in, so remember there's riches out there! They just take some digging to get at. And now, I sleep. At work. Yeah. Current Music: Lil' Wayne - Milli (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008
9:52 am	I was tagged by bretzysdude. I've been very busy, so I'm only now getting to this! List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they're not any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying now, shaping your spring. Post these instructions in your LJ along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7 other people to see what they're listening to. 1) Rod Stewart - Gasoline Alley - The sheer sound of the guitar throughout this song owns me. One day, the kids will realize this man was once great, which only makes his fall all the more sad. Maybe he'll make that album with The Black Keys he's been publicly pining for... 2) Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Dig Lazarus, Dig!!! - When ex-rockers decide to light the fire again at the age of fifty, they usually only make the audience feel sad. Cave's latest album, though, is one of his best, and gets better with every spin. Here, he imagines the biblical Lazarus (or Larry, as his pals seem to call him) resurrected and plopped into the present day. Are our lives worth saving if we don't do a thing to save ourselves? A great question for a nation suffering chronic apathy. Plus, the video plays like Cave's attempt to remake PJ Harvey's classic Good Fortune promo, and that is awesome. 3) David Bowie - Panic in Detroit - I just scored the best-sounding CD of this album I've ever heard; now a favorite song sounds even better cranked up. There's a point near the end of the song when the masses are bulging the barricades, yelling and glowing red hot. Then, a cymbal sounds, the walls collapse, and all hell riots wild. Ah... It is easy to savor this energy in a day when America giving a damn about anything to the point of getting of the couch, turing off the tube, and running crazy in the streets seems but a dream, but I repeat myself... 4) Simon & Garfunkel - America - I started thinking about this band after being shocked at how many of the duo's songs popped on that list of worst songs bretzysdude is reposting (not his personal list, I might add). I picked up a compilation, and I just don't understand. I guess where many people hear pretentious, I hear ambitious, an entirely different ball of wax. One is lazy, smug, and self-satisfied, while the other is restless, searching, and reaching out for something bigger. If the public can't tell the difference between the two, if it hates The Dangling Conversation for mentioning poets by name, it is the public's loss. This song is one of the group's best, and yeah, some could hear it as grand and pompous. Again, I say ambitious. It strains reaching, it stretches with only one foot left on the unbalanced ladder, and by golly, it grabs that fruit. I love it and feel no shame. 5) The Raconteurs - Carolina Drama - This may be the work of his official group effort, but hardly any song has ever screamed Jack White more than this one. That's a great thing. Hillbilly and modern, full of echoes made new, this is a great example of why many of us feel he is one of the best things to happen to rock music this decade. 6) The Replacements - I Will Dare - This Rhino reissue arrived yesterday. I love this band. While losers were listening to hair metal in the eighties, this group was a cherished refuge for those who loved rock music. This brilliant single reminds me of my youth and my relationship with the divine lilbrigid - how can it not score? 7) Blur - Coffee & TV - Because Blur is still one of the most under-rated bands of the last decade. Because they epitomize Britpop, a term most folks in this country have no clue about. Because they nearly channel Pavement and the looser, folky side of Sonic Youth here. Because it sounds like the band without really sounding much like the band. And because it is playing right now. I tag aeonbluert (don't hear from him much), beaglebot, detonate_for_me, fourwordsapart, kate_spencer, monsterofmud, and tv_casualty13. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Today, I'll have lunch with my love, and tonight, I hope to catch the 7:25 showing of The Counterfeiters at the AMC. It won the Oscar for best foreign film, you know... You should probably also see it before it leaves. (Forgetting Sarah Marshall was good - a solid *** out of **** film.) (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, April 18th, 2008
2:41 pm	When All My Dime Dancin' Is Through / I Run to You Forgetting Sarah Marshall and The Counterfeiters are at the AMC, There you go folks - that's the best I can do for the Movie Friday update today. Now go watch something that isn't crap! :) Current Music: The Raconteurs - Carolina Drama (Comment on this)
9:52 am	You've Got a Lot to Say / I'm Not Jokin' / There Are Some Words They Don't Allow to Be Spoken Arriving home last night, guess what I discovered outside by the front door welcome mat. A package? Flowers? Leaves? No, silly... My bathtub. When we first starting dealing with Westport on the River, we put a deposit down on an apartment they then promptly gave to somebody else. That should have been warning enough. Entering, I found the toilet stool in the guest bedroom. Westport sucks. The executive suite isn't ready for us yet, so they gave us a map to what they called the junior executive. We followed the map and arrived at an apartment that appeared occupied. The key management gave us would not open the door. A few frantic phone calls later, they told us the real address. The junior executive is, in reality, the show model. That isn't too bad, except for one little fact. The lights are on a timer; they go off at 10:15. I'm not sure when they come back on, but it was far too late for me to use the light in the bathroom to do little tasks like shower and ensure my buttons are matched to the proper slits. Again, I say, Westport sucks. The lovely truth is that today is proving worse than yesterday. My back hurts like hell. Why do I even try? Current Music: Gram Parsons - A Song For You (4 Comments |Comment on this)