The Virgin Wolves is one of the best bands to come out of the Denton, Texas music scene and, as someone who spent some of the best years of her life in Denton, I’m happy to see them get some recognition. This is the video for one of their best songs, “Crawl.” The video was filmed in Denton, as should be obvious to any former student at the University of North Texas who has ever dealt with the pressure of finals by going out at midnight and getting high in a stranger’s living room.
Have you seen Ben Wheatley’s A Field In England yet?
If you haven’t, you really should. It’s just now getting an extremely limited theatrical release here in the States, though it’s also available via video-on-demand as well. I saw it earlier tonight at the Alamo Drafthouse (which is the greatest theater in the U.S., by the way) and I’m still working out my feelings towards it. It appears to be a film about a criminal, an alchemist, and a group of military deserters who, during the mid-17th Century, find themselves in an English field searching for a treasure that may or may not exist, while some of them have visions that may or may not be real.
Regardless of whether you think A Field In England is brilliant or just pretentious (and I think a good argument could be made for either conclusion), everyone can agree that one of the more memorable scenes in the film is the “tent scene”. You can watch the scene below, though it definitely loses something when taken out of context from the rest of the film.
The song playing as that unfortunate man walks out of that tent is Blanck Mass’s Chernobyl. And it’s also today’s song of the day!
Continuing my series on the best of 2013, here are ten of my favorite songs from 2013. Now, I’m not necessarily saying that these were the best songs of 2013. Some of them aren’t. But these are ten songs that, in the future, will define 2013 for me personally. Again, these are my picks and my picks only. So, if you think my taste in music sucks (and, admittedly, quite a few people do), direct your scorn at me and not at anyone else who writes for the Shattered Lens.
I’ve occasionally been asked what my criteria for a good song us. Honestly, the main things I look for in a song is 1) can I dance to it, 2) can I write to it, and 3) can I get all into singing it while I’m stuck in traffic or in the shower?
Anyway, at the risk of revealing just how much of a dork I truly am, here are ten of my favorite songs of 2013.
10) A Low and Swelling Sound Gradually Swelling (composed by Shane Carruth)
This atmospheric instrumental piece comes from the soundtrack of the best film of 2013, Upstream Color. This is great writing music.
9) Giorgio By Moroder (performed by Daft Punk and Giorgio Moroder)
From Random Access Memories.
8) Saturday (performed by Rebecca Black and Dave Days)
I make no apologies. Much like Friday, this is a fun song to sing when you’re driving to and from work. Plus, I think the video’s clever.
7) Brave (performed by Sara Bareilles)
I have to admit that I loved this song more before it started showing up in Nokia Lumia commercials.
6) Feel This Moment (performed by Pitbull, feat. Christina Aguilera)
5) Haunted (performed by ROB)
This is from the Maniac soundtrack. Much like the Carruth song, this is great writing music.
4) Work Bitch (performed by Britney Spears)
Not a day goes by that I don’t find an excuse to say, “You gotta work, bitch.”
3) A Little Party Never Killed Nobody (All We Got) (performed by Fergie, feat. Q-Tip and Goon Rock)
From The Great Gatsby soundtrack.
2) Just Give Me A Reason (performed by Pink and Nate Ruess)
1) Lose Yourself to Dance (performed by Daft Punk and Pharrell Williams)
What else needs to be said?
Finally, here are two honorable mentions. These are two songs that helped define 2013 for me but, for various reasons, could not be included in my top ten.
First off, Alison Gold’s Chinese Food is technically a terrible song but it’s so terrible that it becomes oddly fascinating. Thanks to the presence of Patrice Wilson, the video is probably one of the most unintentionally creepy music videos ever made.
(I should admit that I happen to love Chinese food myself and therefore, this song is one that I’ve sung a lot over the past few years.)
The second honorable mention is a far better song than Chinese Food: Icona Pop’s I Love It. I Love It was released in 2012 but it’s the song that I listened to nonstop last year.. So, even if it was released a year earlier, I Love It is still my favorite song of 2013.
Tomorrow, I will continue my look back at 2013 with 10 good things that I saw on television last year.
It’s the first day of a brand new year and that means that it’s time for a new song of the day. And what better choice could there be than Neil Patrick Harris singing Brand New Day from Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog.
By the way, Dr. Horrible was right. The keys to shiny new Australia are the perfect way to unlock a girl’s heart…
Traditionally here in the States, Thanksgiving is the forgotten holiday that sits between Halloween and Christmas. This is the time of year that those of us in the States are supposed to think about what we are thankful for. According to the people in Washington, this year we’re also supposed to talk to all of the members of our family about politics. They’ve even made talking points available, just in case you have a relative who isn’t crazy about your personal ideology. To me, though, that seems kind of foolish. Why would you ruin a perfectly good Thanksgiving with politics when you could spend your time thinking, talking, and arguing about movies and television?
After all, Presidents are only around for, at the most, eight years. Movies are forever.
With that in mind, here are twelve random things that I am thankful for in 2013.
1) I’m thankful that there are still visionaries like Shane Carruth who can make films like Upstream Color.
2) I’m thankful for actors, like Robert Downey, Jr., who are capable of making mainstream films, like Iron Man 3, memorable.
3) I’m thankful that a show like Breaking Badgot a chance to remind us of just how good television can be.
8) I’m thankful that I actually saw Tyler Perry’s Temptation because, otherwise, I would not believe that such an inept and deeply offensive film could have been made.
9) I am thankful for Icona Pop’s I Love It, which is currently my favorite song to play while I’m dancing around the house in my underwear.
10) I am thankful that the series finale of The Office was everything that it should have been.
11) I am thankful that Dexter finally ended because, seriously, the show was getting so bad that it was running the risk of overshadowing how good the first few seasons actually were.
12) Finally, and most importantly, I am thankful for our readers and for our subscribers. Y’all are the ones who make all of this worthwhile. Thank you!
I love it so much that I once unfollowed someone on twitter when he said that he hated it. And even though I eventually refollowed the guy, it was on the condition that he rewatch An Education and fall in love with the film. Unfortunately, shortly after he promised to do just that, he announced that he felt that Rooney Mara was a better Girl with the Dragon Tattoo than Noomi Rapace and I had to unfollow him and his xenophobic film criticism. So, I’m not sure if he’s rewatched An Education but I doubt it.
As you may have guessed, I love An Education. It’s one of my favorite films of the past few years. The rest of you can have your Rooney Mara and your Avatar. I’m more than happy to watch and rewatch An Education, thank you very much.
Today’s song of the day plays over the end credits of An Education and, with its retro feel and smoky lyrics, it provides a perfect ending to a great film. Performed by Duffy and written by Duffy and Bernard Butler, Smoke Without Fire is the song of the day for June 29th, 2012.
Today, Arleigh and Pantsukudasai have left town to attend the Anime Expo and I find myself momentarily alone here at the TSL Bunker, curled up on the couch in my beloved Pirates t-shirt and Hello Kitty panties, and cursing my asthma. As I lay here, it occurs to me that it’s been a while since I’ve shared a “scene that I love” here on the site. So, why not rectify that situation now?
Norman Jewison’s 1972 film version of Jesus Christ Superstar is a film that I’ve been meaning to review for a while but for now, I just want to share my favorite scene from that film, the performance of Simon Zealotes/Poor Jerusalem.
There’s several reasons I love that scene but mostly it just comes down to the fact that it captures the explosive energy that comes from watching a live performance. Larry Marshall (who plays Simon Zealotes) has one of the most fascinating faces that I’ve ever seen in film and when he sings, he sings as if the fate of the entire world depends on it. That said, I’ve never been sold on Ted Neely’s performance as Jesus but Carl Anderson burns with charisma in the role of Judas.
Mostly, however, I just love the choreography and watching the dancers. I guess that’s not that surprising considering just how important dance was (and still is, even if I’m now just dancing for fun) in my life but, to be honest, I’m probably one of the most hyper critical people out there when it comes to dance in film, regarding both the the way that it’s often choreographed and usually filmed. But this scene is probably about as close to perfect in both regards as I’ve ever seen. It goes beyond the fact that the dancers obviously have a lot of energy and enthusiasm and that they all look good while dancing. The great thing about the choreography in this scene is that it all feels so spontaneous. There’s less emphasis on technical perfection and more emphasis on capturing emotion and thought through movement. What I love is that the number is choreographed to make it appear as if not all of the dancers in this scene are on the exact same beat. Some of them appear to come in a second or two late, which is something that would have made a lot of my former teachers and choreographers scream and curse because, far too often, people become so obsessed with technical perfection that they forget that passion is just as important as perfect technique. (I’m biased, of course, because I’ve always been more passionate than perfect.) The dancers in this scene have a lot of passion and it’s thrilling to watch.
Today has not been a good day to be an asthmatic. Along with a high temperature in the triple digits, the air is full of all sorts of evil things that all seem to serve little purpose beyond inspiring me to reach for my inhaler.
On a miserable day like this, it only seems appropriate to make one of my favorite songs of all time the song of the day.
Ever since I first heard it used in a commercial featuring a Sock Monkey taking a road trip to Las Vegas with his friends, the robot and the weird red thing, I have been in love with the song How You Like Me Now? As performed by the British band The Heavy, How You Like Me Now is one of those songs that always makes me smile. The easiest way to get me excited about seeing a film is to include this song in the film’s ad campaign. Perhaps that explains why it’s shown up in trailers for everything from Faster to the Change-Up to the upcoming Ted.
For me, David O. Russell made perfect use of this song in his Oscar-nominated film The Fighter. Who can forget the sight of Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg strutting through the streets of Lowell while this song played on the soundtrack? It was an iconic scene, featuring an iconic song and I loved it.
