Today was my 25th birthday, which puts me at about 1/3 of the current life expectancy. My 20s are now either half over or half left, and in this case the optimist/pessimist argument seems to agree with itself. The good part is that I’m having a great time these days and I couldn’t be happier. Maybe I could be a little happier, but if I compare my life to the average earthling I’m doing fine. I have a good job, a good education, creative outlets, and a beautiful fiance. What else do I need?
On Friday I saw the impressive, My Morning Jacket, at the TLA. I’m glad Adam dragged us out to see them. Their band name is terrible, but I really enjoyed the show. I hadn’t really heard their stuff, but I knew they were touted as one of the best alt.country bands, one of the few genres that haven’t been exploited by mainstream music. I wouldn’t call them alt.country at all except for their fashion sense. My Morning Jacket is 5 guys with tons of hair playing a methodical, stripped down, version of rock to surround their singer’s awesome voice. The singer and the keyboard player completely defined the sound. It definitely isn’t what I’ve come to known as alt.country which is usually indie kids playing country music. My Morning Jacket are rednecks playing indie music.
I also took in Kill Bill and I thought it kicked ass. I thought the characters were pretty interesting and Uma Thurman comes off as the coolest chick ever.
The main difference between Kill Bill and Tarantino’s other films are that Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, and Jackie Brown are slick pacakages to deliver Tarantino’s witty dialogue. Their entire plots are designed around the interactions and conversations between the characters. Kill Bill has far less dialogue and it’s obvious that the plot is built around the fight scenes. I’m sure there are a million references in there I missed, but I still enjoyed it. It’s extremely violent, but don’t let that scare you off. The plot is there and I will definitely be there for Volume 2.