Rupert

More She & Him

I really like this one song...it has a real 60's kinda popish feel. Looking forward to the album.

I Would Like You For My Own.

Arriving March 18th the debut record from She & Him (Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward) has gotten me all hot and bothered (in the good way). Mixing elements of The Zombies and Dusty Springfield this super duo hits all the right marks with this track just released by Merge. Be sure to catch them Friday March 14th in Austin, TX @ The Parish (Merge Records SXSW showcase) if you just happen to be in the area.

"Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?" by She & Him from the album Volume I {mp3} [BUY]

The end of this track is so much fun that it just raises the entire damn song up another notch. The tune also pleasantly catches that "maybe" grey area of flirting and getting to know someone for the first time. Who doesn't like that time?

Chan Marshall and the Deschanel sisters

So TNT is running Bones in syndication and I started watching it from the beginning. I should like it considering I love Emily Deschanel and well it stars Angel (no I can't spell David B's last name and besides, he'll always be Angel to me) so I should like it. But my friend and host here at Rupert, Anthony, pointed out that in one episode David's character is going through Bones cd collection and he hits on Cat Power and asks what is Cat Power? And Bones says she likes Cat Power. In Winter Passing the entire opening scene features "What would the community think" playing backstage from a boom box. Our original guess was that if the writer's drew Cat Power from Emily's real life taste that her appreciation for Cat Power came perhaps from her sister Zooey and now the circle is complete--both sisters appear to have an affinity for patron saint number 6 million of Rupert Chan Marshall. Although, I think that Zooey is a better singer than Chan, Chan has a bit more in terms of grit and life in her voice. But Zooey is musically talented she plays the piano, the bass ukele, sings and she did the soundtrack to this weird short film that is based on a poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay (patron saint yet again)--the fim is called "Lay Down Lean" and she did the score and it is a great score. The film is film student-esque but you can watch it on Youtube at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggSCd7BuXHM

One more thing

I don't really know any of the details because it was sort of tangential in the Sundance coverage but Lauren Graham has a film due out sometime (at least I hope it has distribution) and she stars opposite Matthew Perry with whom she's been romantically linked (I think they make a great couple)---the last few episodes of Studio 60 on Sunset Strip featured her rather briefly but she and Matthew Perry play off each other well, so I'm looking forward to the film. Although the clips I saw didn't make it seem like a comedy and Lauren Graham is such a natural comedic presence that I hope the clips I saw aren't representative of the film because she sort of seemed to play a Zooey Deschanel-esque character and I'm not sure lost waif is really Lauren Graham's cup of coffee. Speaking of Zooey--I've declared her another patron saint of Rupert because she is funny, sad, intriguing and right now one of my major obsessions. I just saw "Winter Passing" and I thought she was great in a sort of okay but not great film--she was definitely the character that made the film work even when the script died at moments. Although, Ed Harris is good and I usually hate Will Ferrell but he was kind of not a major annoyance in this film. I recently saw "Happy Here and Now" which I loved for the pre-Katrina Nola scene but it tried to be weird and "Winter Passing" had the same quality of trying too hard to be out there. Although Zooey has a great line--when she's confronted with a British girl who is living in her room taking care of her father she asks "what is she, from Wimbledon?" And the soundtrack is great.

Things I am looking forward to...

Carla Bozulich's Evangelista Says Hello
Featuring Silver Mt. Zion members

Photo by Nicolas Amato

Carla Bozulich, onetime Geraldine Fibber and Ethyl Meatplow-er and half of Scarnella (with Wilco guitarist Nels Cline) has forged yet another path for herself and whoever she sees fit to join her. Evangelista, her latest musical endeavor, was christened after her 2006 solo LP of the same name.

Evangelista will issue Hello Voyager, its first full-length missive, March 11 on Constellation, with nine of Bozulich's tunes dressed up in beautiful noise courtesy of bandmates Tara Barnes and Shahzad Ismaily and members of A Silver Mt. Zion. The disc will arrive on CD and 180 gram LP, packaged in custom cardstock with a lyric sheet and paintings by Evangelista contributor Nadia Moss.

Hello Voyager:

01 Winds of St. Anne
02 Smooth Jazz
03 Lucky Lucky Luck
04 For the L'il Dudes
05 The Blue Room
06 Truth Is Dark Like Outer Space
07 The Frozen Dress
08 Paper Kitten Claw
09 Hello, Voyager!

--------

AND also announced on the same day (the serendipity of synchronous people that mean a lot to me):

M. Ward/Zooey Deschanel Album Details Surface

Some nine months ago we made mention of a little bit of collaboration between gruff troubadour M. Ward and the silk to his sandpaper, actress/musician Zooey Deschanel.

Now it seems the unlikely get-together may come full circle as soon as March. According to an interview Deschanel gave January 6 with KCRW (via The Playlist), she and Ward have christened their act She and Him, and together they'll deliver a full-length titled Volume One at some point during the month of lions and lambs.

KCRW also mentions that Ward's label Merge will deliver the album, but that has not been confirmed by the label yet. And unless Matt and Zooey are pulling some Throbbing Gristle-esque fuckery on us, one can only assume the Volume One title means She and Him will be an ongoing project.

During the interview, KCRW played the She and Him songs "Sentimental Heart" and "Why Do You Let Me Stay Here", both lovely little ditties featuring Deschanel's vocals (but none of Ward's).

Deschanel also addressed the possibility of touring in the interview, saying, "I don't know if I will tour exactly, right when [the record] comes out, but I'm sure I will be doing that... to be cryptic about it." Part of the uncertainty may stem from the actress's rigorous filmmaking schedule; among other projects, she's reportedly playing Janis Joplin in the forthcoming feature Gospel According to Janis.

The two halves of She and Him performed together at this past Tuesday's "Songs of the City" event in Los Angeles (video here and here).

Ward has otherwise been quiet thus far in 2008, though he does have that Boston Pops gig to make up. No word just yet when that will happen, so those fixin' for that finger-pickin' will have to sate themselves with the man's contribution to the Natalie Portman-curated Big Change: Songs for FINCA charity compilation for now.

Meanwhile, the film that first brought Ward and Deschanel together, Martin Hynes' The Go-Getter, will play at the Sundance Film Festival next week.

Stream: Zooey Deschanel: Various Tracks
Video: M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel: Lonesome Town (live)
Stream: M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel: When I Get to the Border (Richard and Linda Thompson cover) [from the soundtrack to The Go-Getter]

Characters named Sydney redux

Why oh why is Jessica Alba (one of my most hated celebs) playing a character named Sydney White in The Eye. It almost sounds like a Bataille title so I was intriqued but hasn't "I see dead people" already been done by a 5 year old nonetheless. But then again, I think Jessica Alba has the intelligence of a 5 year old...she's not remotely interesting and her acting is so flat a pancake is more dense than her acting. Yet she continues to suck up fans and bad shows. I guess I'm just not the target audience--an adolescent boy. And I think a part of the resolution to the writer's strike should be that no characters will be named Sydney until at least 2065--by then I'll be dead...

Obama anger

So I have to vent...I'm really pissed about Obama taking votes from Hillary. No Hillary isn't perfect, but she's more qualified to be President than Obama is. She had an integral part in picking Bill Clinton's cabinet and his cabinet was filled with smart, insightful people who oversaw the rise of our economy from recession to the largest expansion of the middle class across all racial lines. For the first time home ownership and the rise from poverty of people of color was engineered by Reich, Clinton's secretary of Labor. And Hillary also supports universal health care, for god sakes she practically crucified for her work she did early on in the Clinton years and she's still pushing for a better health care plan than Obama. Also, I spent a year studying Hillary's senate bills--she has a comprehensive knowledge of the tax system and how to reform it to stimulate the economy--again across the board in terms of race, Obama does not. All Obama's bills are about starting programs for people--great but he has no plans on how to pay for them. Hillary will balance the budget, get us out of Iraq, fight for universal health care, and Obama has none of these plans and he's gathering support a) because he's a man and b) because Oprah likes him and c) because people find Hillary cold. And it is insane that now people are criticizing the Clinton years. Give me 8 years of Clinton/Gore over 8 years of Bush/Cheney any day. I pray that Obama isn't the only one on the ticket--it seems to me like Hillary wouldn't consider a vice-presidential spot and to be honest in terms of women's advancement we already had Geraldine Ferraro. I don't understand the Hillary backlash. It is all fueled by the right-wing. People who harp on her record and how she hasn't opposed going into Iraq initially well here's news neither did Obama! Do you think Obama has the knowledge to appoint someone like Madeline Albright to his cabinet? I don't see a wide ranging plan for anything and I think he's garnering votes on the cult of personality and it is killing me. Politicians aren't saints and they don't do what you always want them to do but you have to look at the bigger picture and in the bigger picture Obama is empty rhetoric. He would make a good vice-presidential candidate. Ultimately, is Hillary electable--perhaps and Rodham-Clinton/Obama ticket would work. What are the chances. Thank god Rudi Guliani dropped out. Just pray that Huckabee doesn't win. Enough with these conservative Evangelicals who are hijacking our culture and our political process. The right-wing is turning out more lawyers and more people aiming to take over the judiciary and political process and we'll all live in one big Evangelical Lala land and if that happens...I promised to move to France when Bush was elected but I didn't and then France turned conservative so here's the question--where do liberals go? The democratic party is catering to the center--everything is about the center. What about people who want to be extreme? Who believe in full participatory democracy (scary thing that the existence of the electoral college still to this day keeps us from realizing the ideals of the 60s). Did the 70s scare everyone away from the belief that a better society can be built? And for all of those saying Obama is another Kennedy--here's a wake up call Kennedy barely got anything through congress--if it weren't for Lyndon Johnson we wouldn't have the civil rights legislation we have and even that is being overturned. And do I think Obama is so informed as to have ideas about who to appoint to the Supreme court? no frankly, I don't. I don't think he has the experience to be president and I think it is a tragedy that all these people are endorsing him just cuz they don't like Hillary. I think they are scared of powerful women--I don't see her doing anything a male politician hasn't done.

There...I've vented.

Best LiLo page yet

this comes from this site-- go here. it has a slide show of lindsay from little girl to big girl lost...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22491136/

and okay like I wanted to add this photo to my photo gallery but I couldn't figure out how. HELP blogmaster.

But it gets better...

"little girl lost" was a great book...I bought in hard copy. But Drew was like 5 and passed out drunk at the Limelight. Lindsay is like 21 and working in a morgue....

Lindsay Lohan plans to pen her memoirs

OK! Magazine reports that Lindsay Lohan is sold on making a memoir about her life happen.
View related photos

Courtney Hazlett
The Scoop
Between working at the morgue and befriending Italian men, Lindsay Lohan has reportedly found time to begin penning her memoirs, which is part “Little Girl Lost” by Drew Barrymore and part inside look at being an “it” girl.

OK! Magazine reports that she’s sold on making the book happen, but money woes might be her motivation.

The mag says that Lohan, who’s widely reported to be cash poor after spending months at rehab, actually had to borrow $10,000 from pal Steve-O. Lohan’s rep denies this, but pals close to the Razzie-nominated starlet say Lohan is starting to worry. “She regrets all the cash she threw around the last couple years,” one friend told me. “She needs everything to fall into place and get her back on track, and fast.”

What Paris can't lend her some money? Oh right, on TMZ.com there is video of Paris making fun of Lindsay. I think she'd better hope that some supernatural intervention happens in the morgue and she can re-do Tru Calling.

And here's the 1000 words

that the picture is worth:

MSNBC contributors
updated 8:23 a.m. ET, Wed., Jan. 30, 2008
Less than a month after photographers caught a post-rehab Lindsay Lohan drinking champagne straight from the bottle, new reports claim the actress is off the wagon again.

According to the New York Post’s Page Six, Lindsay “took a swig of vodka from a bottle of Grey Goose” Friday night while partying at the Box with all-star ex-boyfriend Stavros Niarchos, “The Hills’” Brody Jenner and “an entourage of blond 20-somethings.” That same night, spies for the New York Daily News spotted LiLo downing “at least two” vodka cocktails at the Beatrice Inn.

“Lindsay is learning how to work through her addictions and, once in a while, she chooses to have a cocktail,” a friend of the actress explained to the NYDN. “People overexaggerate her behavior when in fact on Friday night, many people commented to her on how composed she was.”

Lindsay Lohan--Patron Saint of Rupert

More than Miley, more than Paris, more than the Olsen twins, I'm obsessed with Lindsay Lohan. My favorite recent photo...