7 reasons why Cloud Cult should be your new favorite band

1. They Paint Live on stage
In fact, their live show is one of the best I have ever seen. Locally, only the Stnng is anywhere near as entertaining (and i prefer Cloud Cult's music overall). Scott West and Connie Minowa both play music in the band but also PAINT LIVE ONSTAGE! The works are typically sold by auction after the show. The paintings are really impressive to watch being created and being a visual artist myself, are really impressive stand alone works. As if you did not already have tons to look at with a full stage of six members, some who play up to 5 different instruments over the course of the show the painting just add that touch of brilliance to their live show.

2. Green Friendly
Every CD is made with recycled materials. The band would rather not exist than leave a negative impact on the earth. Craig and Connie live together on an organic farm.Craig is also currently an environmental scientist. The band even built their entire studio out of found materials, please see #8 for more info about how incredible globally conscious this band is. It is extremely commendable.

3. Their Music
Currently, six musicians play over 8 different instruments to create a very monumental sound. Lead singer, Craig Minowa has a voice and the overall sound has a very Modest Mouse flavor. Meanwhile, each song has an epic arch and I think every member of the band does vocals in some or multiple songs, which adds impact to certain lyrics especially when all 8 are hitting the words together.

4. Minnesota
Damn right. Local boys (and girls). Cloud Cult is a Minnesota based band and proud of it, and therefore I am proud of it as well. No cheesy Fargo accents either.

5. Subject Matter
This is a heartbreaking reason, but the lead singer Craig Minowa and his wife (visual artist & musician) Connie Minowa lost their two year old son in the night a few year ago. Craig, being the main songwriter for the band (possibly the only songwriter) focused subject matter on the very emotional loss of his son. While the songs are depressing in nature they are oddly uplifting and motivating. To know that they went through such a devastating loss, and be able to turn it into beautiful music is a wonderful skill. During the year following his son's death Craig wrote over 100 songs while the band barely hung together.

6. The Meaning of 8
The new CD "The Meaning of 8" is phenomenal. I do admit I do not own it yet, its in the mail on the way to me right now. However, during their concert I witnessed last week they played a number of the new songs and every single one of them blew me away. I do own "Advice from the Happy Hippopotamus" which another mega impressive CD which I highly recommend to anyone, and I am even more excited about "The Meaning of 8". Buy "The Meaning of 8" or their other great albums online at Cloud Cult's homepage

7. MTV
This video should explain the rest: Helping the environment with Cloud Cult.

The Ending was Lame (No Country for Old Men - movie review)

No Country for Old Men
The Cohen brothers are back at it with another challenging film No Country for Old Men. This movies features a baron landscape in the Rio Grande, where a drug deal gone wrong leaves the protagonist Llewelyn Moss (played by Josh Brolin) to pry a suitcase of money from the cold dead hands of the suposed lone survivor. Of course, it becomes a rat race as a killer Anton Chigurh "sugar"(played by Javier Bardem), and the mexican mafia hunt him down. I love the Cohen brothers' character names in this film.

The Ending (No Spoilers)
I am going to delicately tip toe verbally around this subject, and my main source of dissapointment in this film: the ending. I will not give away any crutial storyline, because I hate when I read a review that ruins my own experience. If you've already seent he movie, you will know what I am talking about and if not, you'll get the jist of what is causing me to groan.

I seriously can bet that a good number of the packed audience that was in attendence to see this movie with me also was daydreaming or not paying attention when the credits hit the screen. I was somewhat shocked and felt I may have missed an some juicy verbal conclusion. The movie ends with what feels like a lack of the last chapter, no real resoultion. I was daydreaming about how the movie, given its unpredictable nature up to that point, was going to wrap up. Before I was done making my guess, the movie was rolling credits.

Swimming Pitbull Chase

No Country for Old Men had suspense up the ass. I would compare it to a hitchcock movie in terms of repeated suspense that grows and grows. The sound effect, lack of a soundtrack, cinematography, acting, timing and screen composition were used very effectively to keep me on the edge of my seat. The violence was a bit extreme at times, but far more realistic than any action movie. The swimming pitbull scene was something I loved seeing, as it was very visually appealling and fun to watch.

The Cohen Brothers
Keep in mind this is not a comedy. If you enjoyed their previous work you should indeed see the masterful job they do in creating an effective suspensful action flick. The movie is good enough that I would suggest it to anyone open to new directions in film, as long as they can handle some violence and gore. I do feel the Cohen's play with audience more than most directors, and in this case the effort was worth it, despite the lackluster ending (which was definately a bold and unusual choice). I do respect their fearlessness, and therefore even though the end was not my cup of tea this is my favorite of the Cohen Brothers movies.

No Country for Old Men- Rating: 8 out of 10 (10 being the best)

How it stacks up:
The Big Lebowski 7 out of 10
O Brother Where Art Thou 7 out of 10
Barton Fink 6.5 out of 10

Into the Wild (movie review)

Why this Movie is Amazing
Into the Wild deals with tough issues like parenthood, the silver spoon effect, societies expectations, truth, faith, religion, love, spirituality, lonliness and individuality. The writing and storytelling is crafted in such a way to keep the story compelling til the end. The balance of flashbacks is delicately done with much respect to the pacing of the story. Kudos to Sean Penn and his team for the great work.

Falling into the Extreme
Into the Wild exemplifies a young mans', Christopher McCandless, struggles to contradict societies norm of being trapped in jobs, struggling to make money and own needless objects. 'Supertramp', as he nicknames himself during his voyage, disappears into the world after burning his money and deserting his car in the desert. Eventually he makes his way to Alaska and lives among the animals in a fascinating look at throwing away everything you know and own, to find true beauty in the nature around us. His statement is bold as he faces many dangers. It is never a question of whether or not he goes too far, the question is how far on the other spectrum are we?

Phenomenal Acting
Emile Hirsh gave a very impressive performance, and the rest of the cast was simply superb. I have rarely ever been so excited to see side characters appear and reappaer in a movie in a long time. Their minimal but very poignant time on screen was never wasted. Jena Malone (Donny Darko) and Catherine Keener (Being John Malkovich)were very well casted and fun to see. While Brian Dierker (first time on-screen actor) was the most savory character for me, and Hal Holbrook stole the show with his heartbreaking portrait of Supertramps' newfound friend.

Voluntary Migration
Another reason this movie effected me so much, was because the protagonist's desire to be free and experience new places and new things is something I very much desire to do myself. Forcing yourself out of your own confort zone to learn about the type of person you really are deep inside. It is the reason a year ago, I decided I would go on an Art Tour in July 2008.

Into 'Into the Wild'
See the movie, read the book and learn more about Christopher McCandless.
Visit http://www.intothewild.com/.

Into the Wild Rating: 9 out of 10

Darjeeling Limited: movie review

Wes Anderson's Darjeeling Limited
Wes does not stray too far from his pattern here. Darjeeling Limited is another example of creating quirky familiar characters, with actors we all know and love, and setting up a beautiful backdrop in India for them to run amuck in. I need to mention off the bat, that even I am critical here, that I am a big fan of Wes Anderson's work to date. Especially, Royal Tennenbuams and Bottle Rocket.

Slow Motion to Boredom
I am being a little over extreme here, however, all Wes Anderson movies lately, seem to over use slow motion scenes. I will admit each one was beautiful on its own visually, but as far as advancing or improving the story it is simply too much slow motion. It also seems to me, that slow motion is normally supposed to highlight an important moment, and the moments Wes selects to slow mo the Darjeeling Limited seems relatively unimportant.

Re-Used Characters
Another problem with Wes Anderson movies for me is these repeated characters. Always white, flawed, rich, longing for family or fatherly love and acceptance, quirky. It may also have something to do with this repeating cast of actors that appears in his movies (all of which i like). Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Jason Swartzman and many others. When you see the same actors playing similar, but not exactly the same, roles it really starts to become hard to accept them as anything but the characters you've seen them in past movies like Life Aquatic, Royal Tennenbaums ect.

India
The art direction, composition, color were all the best thing in this movie. By far worth seeing just for that. India was a great setting. It was vibrant, unique and refreshing.

Attention to Detail
I have always been impressed with the attention to detail in Wes Anderson's films. The oddball luggage and decals on trains were just two of hundreds of really interesting touches of details to look at in this movie.

Overall
I thought the performances were good. The art direction was superb. The story was subpar and predictably uninteresting. I laughed a few times, but not consistently. Therefore I give this movie a 7.5 out of 10. Just for rating reference, here are my other ratings on Wes Anderson films:
Life Aquatic: 6.5
Royal Tennebuams: 9
Bottle Rocket: 9

Rating 7.5 (out of 10)
10 being the best

Bee Movie: REVIEW

Sneak Preview
Last night a got to witness the sneak preview of the Bee Movie. Starring Jerry Seinfeld as an animated bee who has to doom, and then save the world! If you do not attend sneak previews there is this odd moment before each movie, especially odd when the theatre is filled with kids, when this huge guy steps up before the movie and in a very scary voice threatens anyone who attempts to record the movie with any digital device resembling anything that could in anyway capture the film on video, that they will be thrown out and prosecuted. Apparently they had three secret viewers hidden in the audience to watch over fellow movie goers to make sure audience members are not recording the movie for future profit. All the little kids in their black and yellow striped outfits looked terrified. Even I was; terrified; but I was not also dressed in black and yellow stripes.

Jerry Seinfeld
I have seen Seinfeld live in Minneapolis doing stand up, this was in 2002 shortly after his sitcom Seinfeld went off the air and he decided to never do old material again. He was great. I've enjoyed his show, the documentary Comedian, and his stand-up, and would consider myself a fan of his work. I was excited to see the Bee Movie.

BEEn there BEEfore
The storyline had some good undertones of serious problems; our dependance on bees, food shortages, corporations, cruelty to animals, etc. However, the characters were all stock characters and did not have much depth to them. The story was extremely predictable. Granted, that should be expected in an animated movie, but it left the story feeling very dry. Despite being a cute and quirky adventure, it really has no lasting effect. Honey on your fingers has a more lasting effect than this movie.

Cast
The cast is extremely impressive, with names like Oprah Winfrey, Renee Zellweger, Matthew Broderick, John Goodman, Kathy Bates, Chris Rock and the list goes on and on. My personal favorite Patrick Warburton aka David Putty (seinfeld), although i was not impressed with his lackluster over the top character.

Animation
One of my biggest praises comes from the animation in Bee Movie. The film looked amazing. I really enjoyed the animated faces of the main characters, especially Barry B. Benson's cute face, and most of the bees. Really impressive stuff. Also my favorite part of the movie was indeed the part when Barry gets out of the hive and sees the park for the first time, while flying through a field of kites. This sequence was phenomenal visually.

Closing Credits
I also just recently saw the animated movie Ratatouille. Both movies feature these cookie cutter Pink Panther-esque closing credits. I found both of them very unimaginative and needlessly contrasting to the rest of the film stylistically. I would much prefer credits along the lines of Shrek, in which there is benefit or addition to the story in the credits. At the very least stay consistent to the rest of the movie.

Overall
Despite the my criticism, I laughed a dozen times (mostly when others were not) and found the movie to go by quickly. I enjoyed the animation and thought some scenes were stunningly beautiful. I hope it convinces a number of kids to BEE nicer to insects. Because, if nothing else, that is a good thing to take away from this movie. Respect. Therefore I rate this movie a 7.5 out of 10.

Rating: 7.5 (out of 10)
One being the worst, Ten being the best