“vacation”

I’m not going to have a chance to write in this blog for the next few weeks while I try to get my grad school applications together. So I probably won’t write anything until it gets a bit closer to Christmas (my informal goal for having everything sent out).

I will leave with a parting thought and a parting digression. The Barbara Walters’ “Ten Most Fascinating People” special is on right now and I think it’s hilarious. The whole thing is so goofy (not to mention she only talks to each person for maybe 2 minutes).

The digression is that I learned that Jamie Foxx is going to play Tubbs in the movie version of “Miami Vice.” It’s good to see that Jamie isn’t letting his Oscar get in the way of choosing roles that really speak to him (remember, he was in “Booty Call”).

On Tha 6

So I read online today (via the ‘Fork) that the Arcade Fire after getting shut out of the MTVu awards last week played an impromptu performance outside the subway station in Union Square. The performance included some AF classics as well as covers of the Cure (“Boys Don’t Cry”, click the link for video) and New Order (“Age of Consent” is what I’m told, and I’m listening to a version of it from their show on 10/30 and it is phenomenal) and the Pixies (this I’d LOVE to hear hint hint) among others. I’m not even jealous that I missed it because what are the chances of seeing something like this? I can say that if I saw this I would probably never, never stop talking about it.

Pitchfork also said that the version of “Wake Up” that the band performed with David Bowie on the CBS “Fashion Rocks!” program will be available via iTunes (along with “Five Years” and Bowie’s own version of the Zizzou/Ben Grace approved”Life on Mars?”) as a Hurricane Katrina benefit. If you haven’t seen the video of this (which you can get from the good folks at the Us Kids Know forum and bit torrent group) it’s worth seeing if only for Heather Graham staring blankly at the band (and CBS manages 2 separate shots of this!). Personally, I thought that version was a bit lacking (or, to be fair, fell short of my expectations for what a Bowie/AF duet should be) but Mike tells me that when Bowie performed with them at the Central Park show it was kick-ass, so I take his word for it.

All of this AF news today reminded me of how much I love Funeral. As 2005 comes to a close and I start to think about my favorite albums of the year, I can safely say that there hasn’t been a single album that I love as much as Funeral. That’s not to say that there hasn’t been some awesome music this year (to the contrary, I think that there were many very good albums out this year, just not that many “classics”) but just that nothing is as good. That’s just my opinion though, feel free to disagree.

The next time I post I think I’m going to write about Brian Wilson. It’s actually what I planned on writing about tonight until all this Arcade Fire stuff distracted me. And if anyone catches the reference made in the title of this post I don’t know if I should be impressed or just sad that you know what I’m talking about.