'Greenberg', LCD and the Perfect Album Arc

I watched Greenberg for the second time tonight. I really, really liked it the first time I saw it. I really liked it the second time I watched. The key difference there being that extra really. It kind of got bashed around a little bit when it came out by critics, but I like I said, I liked it. It’s a really good film if you’re an asshole guy (or if you’re some innocent-ish girl that’s only sort of innocent-ish in the naivety of dealing with asshole guys and all that confusing, issue-oriented jazz). Or if you dig a cynical Ben Stiller.

But anyway, James Murphy scored the soundtrack for the film! And it came out early 2010, meaning it was a prelude of sorts to This Is Happening, which means that LCD pretty much — in my love-dripping opinion — has a perfect discography arc:

LCD Soundsystem (a very nice introduction)
45:33 (a very nice interlude) 
Sound of Silver (a very nice perfect album)
Greenberg Soundtrack (a pretty nice interlude)
This Is Happening (a very nice classic conclusion)

Anyway, this is the kind of stuff I like posting here: my thoughts. Peace Booches.

Joel Samson Berntsen (The Wall - Yuck)

Rest in Peace Gil Scott-Heron, 1949 — 2011

Boys Becoming Men, Men Becoming Wolves

The Young and the Restless: College Year 1

So, I finished my year semester of college. Am I enlightened? No. Have a learned a lot? No. Have I learned much about useful things? Well, not in class. I do have new friends. That's nice. College is... Well, college is growing up, mostly. (someone punch me, right in my mouth). And now, various shit that involves bullet points, lots of namedropping, and a vague stab at bottling college life. Oh, there's also a playlist.

Favorite Moments of College, Year One:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• Dancing for four hours to the greatest DJ ever at Hoochfest '10.
• Roadtripping to Milwaukee to see LCD Soundsytem with my main motherfucker Brandon Foster, and then immediately driving back and jamming out for, like, five hours to stay alive and not die from a sleep deprived car crash.
• Crossing the street, I asked Hillary Haaker if she'd heard the new Kanye album and she smiled and screamed yes and then her, Dylan Chapman and I jumped around in a circle and screamed with happiness in the middle of the road. 
• When Brandon Foster looked up how to make an Em-Dash for me.  
• The night it snowed at Mark Twain.
• Devouring Season One of Fringe with Peter Legrand and Eric Briesacher.
• (*shaking head back and forth*) "Never Again..." 
• Meeting Rob's springfield crew and being forever hypnotized by that little niche of midwestern greatness.
• The time that rando Maneater staffer went on a room-wide rant about how college is complete fucking bullshit.
• Anytime anyone ever made a Community reference.
• Watching Porco Rosso and Spirited Away with Dylan freaking Chapman.
• Yelling Wavves really loud with Brandon while searching the frozen tundra of Mizzou for our friends
• The Arcade Fire / National Roadtrip with Kristian, Brian, Dylan, and Brandon.
• The first time I played Bryce in Smash Bros in that tournament. Best shit ever. (Also, all other times with Bryce). 
• Meeting my journalism hero, Jimmy Hibsch.
• Staying up all night playing Final Fantasy X with Dylan Chapman and Conor O'brien while I transcribed interviews for an ultimate frisbee article (even though Conor pretty much just slept).
• The Rob/Will all-star moments at the first kickball game.
• When I asked Brandon Foster and Eric Briesacher to guess what else I got at Streetside Records, and they, for no reason, started singing the lyrics Cape Cod Kassa Kassa, and then I pulled out a Peter Gabrial record at the same time they sang "Peter Gabrial Too"

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

College Year One Playlist: 53(Heavy on the Stairs)

1. All Tomorrows's Parties - The Velvet Underground
2. Afraid of Everyone - The National
3. Titus Andronicus - Titus Andronicus
4. Victory Garden - Galaxie 500
5. Common Heat - No Age
6. I'm New Here - Gil Scott-Heron
7. Only Shallow - My Bloody Valentine
8. Month of May - Arcade Fire
9. No Depression - Uncle Tupelo
10. Someone Great - LCD Soundsystem
11. Round and Round - Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

 Seeya Next Semester, Everyone.

Joel Samson Berntsen (New Age - The Velvet Underground)

Tyler, The Creator: "Goblin" — B+

Breaking into the mainstream conscious with the music video for “Yonkers,” an explosion performance on “Fallon” and record deal with XL, Tyler, The Creator has lead his crew Odd Future to gain some serious traction in the past six months. But with traction comes the price of fame, and Tyler’s been having some sobering struggles handling his new-found celebrity; he’s been overly simplified and vilified by one side and hyped, touted and glorified by the other side. This diverged dragging of character has taken an understandable toll on Tyler, and the effects indicated show up full force on his label debut Goblin.

Tyler and Odd Future have been cranking out tapes for years and Goblin isn’t exactly a deviation from the OF norm. It maintains that home-cooked feel of an OF tape and is still littered with disturbia-filled, black lyrics (see “Tron Cat”). But where Goblin strays from the standard is how Tyler addresses pretty much every criticism of character that’s been shot his way over the past few months, be that the stress of producing since Kanye tweeted about Tyler, people saying he’s a role model, or dealing with Bill O’Reilly (“Fuck Bill O’Reilly”). 

The thing to keep in mind, though, is that Tyler is only freaking nineteen years old. Even though he’s achieved a huge amount of success, he still deals with nineteen year old problems like a nineteen year old. He’s got self-doubt, daddy issues, and girl problems, and it’s reflected in Goblin. My pal Bryce pretty much said it best in a text: “heads up its long, really emo, and tyler breaks character :/ it’s still got some bangers on it though.” While a whole lot of Tyler’s stuff deals with super-murky topics, there is another, much more introverted, emotional side to Tyler, which can be incredibly disjointing considering the differing audiences listening to Tyler; when the misogyny-centric track “Tron Cat” goes into the friend-zone-stuck “Her” there’s a distinct moment of “wait, what?” Ultimately though, it’s best that Tyler flashes this delicate side because it shows that he’s not actually an evil Bastard (I mean he does directly tell the audience he doesn’t do any of that shit he says).  

In the end, Goblin is just another Odd Future tape with a price tag. It strides with most of OF’s strengths: in-jokes, alter-egos, and OF culture (Free Earl, SWAG), and Tyler’s synth-haunting beats have never been tighter, especially with the surprising, Bowie-esque instrumental “AU79.” After over three years of giving away his stuff for free, Tyler’s not only deserving of some cash, but he’s crafted an album totally worth the cash (given if you have the stomach)

Joel Samson Berntsen (Africa to America Anthem - The Very Best)

Parks and Recreation, Watch it Already: A+

Originally published for The Maneater.

When “Parks and Recreation” first popped up, it mostly got brushed off as a ploy by NBC to to cash in on the popularity of "The Office"; it seemed like just another mockumentary in another office, except this time the boss was a girl. Shoot, it was even co-created by the same guy. And for a little bit there — for those first couple episodes — it seemed like it actually would just be another carbon copy.

Thank freaking Greg Pikitis that assessment was dead wrong. Not only has “Parks and Recreation” proved itself one of the best comedies currently running on television, it’s proved itself as one of the best shows on TV period. It’s somehow succeeded in finding the sweet spot of golden television. All those "aw-shucks" moments between Jim and Pam on “The Office” have been mastered to a science and applied to pretty much every character on the show. Amy Poehler’s Leslie Knope easily stands as one of the sweetest and most sincere characters in television history.
 
And Poehler isn’t the only embodiment of delightful; the rest of the cast boasts what might just be the greatest ensemble presently gracing TV (Aziz Ansari! Rob Lowe! Rashida Jones! Aubrey Plaza!) and that’s with a chemistry that’s spot on flawless to boot. I mean, really, I love every single character on the show. There's not a single person on the show that I dislike in the slightest. Furthermore, the guest spots shine with such talent (Will Forte as a crazed "Twilight" Fan, Louis C.K. as Knope’s boyfriend cop) that the feeling of sadness always looms after they have their final scene. Louis C.K. and Poehler's brief relationship remains one of my all time favorite TV romances (even if it was just for a couple episodes).

But the greatest trait of “Parks and Rec” is how successfully it blends together laugh out loud comedy with real life. It’s genuinely unlikely that a show has ever handled relationships as well as “Parks and Rec.” The show feels like real life: the break-ups, the co-worker interactions, even the economy mirror the real, which makes everything about the characters a hundred times more relatable than the average show.

By now, “Parks and Recreation” has transformed beyond what anyone could have ever hoped. It has totally surpassed “The Office” in every aspect, be that comedy, relationships or just overall adorableness. It is one of the golden comedies of the decade and belongs to be ranked among the greats “Arrested Development” and “Seinfeld.” Now go watch it. Please, watch it! It needs to last seven seasons! Netflix it! Hulu it! Pirate it if you have to! But start with the second season! Because that first one they're still finding their vision, which they find in the second season! Exclamations!

Seasons one and two are available on Netflix Instant Streaming.

Rob Lowe Goes Nuts from Rob Lowe

Joel Samson Berntsen (Frank Ocean - lovecrimes)

SeaLab 2021 Theme Song // It's My Favorite

Dress Your Family In Poor Career Choices, or David Sedaris & the Great, Shaky Dismay

"It's kind of sad that newspapers are crumbling and that no one really reads them anymore."

This was the response I got from David Sadaris after I told him I was a journalism student.

"Wait, what? What the fuck? Aren't you supposed to support writers? Aren't you supposed to offer a pep talk or something about how I'm making the right career move?" That's what my mind said. What I actually said amounted to me blubbering about how things are just evolving to more online centered media. He replied to that with, "I mean the thing I don't get -- is that I've been reading the papers every day of my tour..."

This was after waiting two hours in line without anything to occupy my mind other than my own thoughts and the anticipation of actually getting to meet David Sedaris, which, granted, was poor planning on my part. Two hours for a two minute conversation that didn't really feel like a conversation at all. It wasn't terrible, but I wouldn't say the experience was pleasant at all. He just pretty much talked at me, mentioned  how "once you're in the New Yorker, you don't really care (about papers and journalism stuff) because you're in The New Yorker" and then sent me on my shell-shocked way.

Up until this meeting point, I'd loved Sedaris. I'd read most of his books. Every time I listened to This American Life I'd wait for Ira to mention if he'd have a segment. Up until that meeting point, Sedaris had a very positive impact on life. He made me laugh. He made me think. However, since that brief conversation, I haven't listened or read a thing by him, and this meeting was over six months ago.

Am I bitter? Maybe. Am I disillusioned? Probably. But it's not a conscious he-bad-mouthed-my major-so-fuck-him attitude, I'm just basically turned off by him now. I have an unfinished copy of "Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim" on my bookshelf. I'm looking at it right now. And I have no urge whatsoever to finish it. I'd like to, but odds are I'm not going to touch it for a very long time. 
   
Sedaris was the first significantly important person I admired that I've met. Since Sedaris, I've met two other people I greatly admired: Kevin Barnes (lead singer from of Montreal) and Dan Bejar (New Pornographers side-man and Destroyer Lead). Both of these encounters were very positive, awesome experiences for me. So, I can say that leaving these conversations where you meet people you greatly  admire don't always leave you dismayed. On the other end though, they didn't ask me about my major and we mostly just talked about music.

So why I am I just talking about all of this now? Well, partly because I'm lazy, but mostly because I wanted perspective. I can talk about my first break-up with considerably more articulation than my most recent. If had written this post the week of, it would have been much more pissy and angst-y than this post already is, which would not be good CAUSE PEOPLE GOT PROBLEMS OF THEIR OWN. You don't need to hear my complain about mine all the freaking time.

But what's at the core of this? Why am I so bothered by this encounter? It's because I'm scared of my future (surprise! deja vu). Will I have a job? Will I survive? Having one of your favorite authors talk about how your career path is crumbling is some scary stuff. Eighty percent of the time I am fully confident of my career choice because I like journalism. I like where it's taking me. But, there's times -- mostly in the morning -- where I wake up and yearn for a steady job, a nice family, and a wife to wake up next to. I want the steady job and the steady life because I wake up unsure of myself.

But if I followed that path I would become unsatisfied. I've seen too many people throughout my life depressed that took they took the easy path; they have the wife and kids, but they started right away. They didn't follow any of their dreams. They didn't see Europe or whatever. And now they're in an intense game of responsibility. Revolutionary Road is a very real thing.

Don't get me wrong, I want a family. I just don't want a family till I can completely support one, and that's going to take a while with a major in journalism. There's just a million things I need and want to do before I have a family, which sounds vague, but you get what I'm saying? The best things come to those who wait right? Right? I sure hope so. I hope all my friends don't run out on me.     

So, until next time, I'm telling the David Sedaris of my head to stop fracturing my dreams and maybe it's time for "Dress Your Family" to finally come off that shelf...

Joel Samson Berntsen  (Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) - Arcade Fire)