Vivek’s Blog

I’m finally going to get to see R.E.M. on Thursday at Madison Square Garden.  It will be my first concert at this apparently famous arena and I’m excited for it.  The National and Modest Mouse will be supporting R.E.M. at this show.  I’ve seen The National before and I love their music but I haven’t had the time to give Modest Mouse a spin.  So, I’m going to judge their set on face value - I’ll go in with an open mind and decide for myself how good they are.  But anyway, these are some songs that I would love to hear performed by R.E.M., listed by album:

Automatic For The People
Drive
Try Not To Breathe
The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite

Murmur
Radio Free Europe
Catapult

Reckoning
Harborcoat
Pretty Persuasion
(Don’t Go Back To) Rockville

Green
World Leader Pretend
Orange Crush

Lifes Rich Pageant
Begin The Begin
These Days

All of these songs would be a nice treat, but even if they play 2-3 from here, I’ll be happy.  The ones I want to hear most are Drive, Try Not To Breathe, (Don’t Go Back To) Rockville, and World Leader Pretend.  Let’s see which ones they actually play.  I did not mention any from the new album since they have been playing my favorites off of it anyway.  Two more days!

So while I was looking a for a video to post here, I found a great 14-minute interview with Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree, right before PT’s first ever show in Australia.  Click here to see it or just watch the filler video of the day below:

WARNING:  The video is loud and Michael Stipe is fucking crazy.  Enjoy.

I met with my adviser and talked about my summer research.  Nothing else to report.  So, enjoy the following video:

Four bands.  Four hours worth of heavy music.  Seven hours without sitting down.  One incredible concert.

That may sound like some kind of advertisement, but it best describes my evening.  I was fortunate enough to catch the Progressive Nation 2008 concert on May 21, as it rolled through New York City for the first of two nights.  I was keen to watch Dream Theater live, especially after I’d missed them last summer while I was home in India.  Initially, I was skeptical about the concert, considering that four bands were sharing the bill.  However, I’ve started to like Opeth and watching them play with DT was, quite frankly, fucking amazing.

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This was my second movie in two days.  Initially this was going to be a double bill, but circumstances caused us to split this over two days.  Anyway, here’s my review.

Robert Downey Jr. is freaking brilliant.  He does an extremely solid job as Tony Stark/Iron Man and is helped by a good cast, great acting, a decent script, and solid production.  All these factors combine to make Iron Man an enjoyable experience.  This is a well-made super hero movie and it may or may not please the die-hard fans, but I think no one would argue that the movie is a lot of fun.

The background score is mostly hard rock/metal and it blends well with all the action on the screen.  Keep in mind that this is a “setup” movie along the lines of Batman Begins, so it’s not an all-out action blast.  However, I thought there was enough action in the movie, and I loved the setup parts.  As you’d expect, some of the stuff is over-the-top, but Iron Man/Tony Stark is not the same kind of superhero that Spiderman and Batman are.  His attitude and personality really stand out.

I was quietly laughing at the sections with the terrorists talking in Hindi.  Especially when the “head” terrorist was threatening one of the guys in Hindi, but the on-screen captions were highly inaccurate for most of the scene.

Most of the plot twists were predictable but well-executed nonetheless.  The end was especially great.  And the dialogue in the movie was quite good and funny (at times).  So, overall, I think Iron Man is terrific superhero movie and all the rave reviews it has received are totally justified.  It’s right up there with Batman Begins as one of the best superhero movies in recent years.  To conclude, a one-word opinion of the movie, courtesy a friend who saw it last week:  bitchin’.