Rewind #15

Yelle: Pop Up (2008)

Shout it out! That about sums up the energy of Yelle. Anything that you might want to do that requires notching it up to the next level? Well, pop this into your headphones and bounce. French kick-ass dance club euphoria grooves right along with the shake in your leg, hums right with the roll of your step, thrives deep down in the teenage love of rattling the windows at full volume. Julie Budet is a self-made genius as she rose from the MySpace world into pop heaven and I, for one, am so grateful. I need this stuff every once and awhile. We all need it. No matter how much it feels good to relax with our drugs of choice listening to the greatest down-tempo lounge rhythm or space out to hazy mellow atmosphere of ambient culture or cruise with the casual sounds of indie music bliss, there will always be a place in our lives for the type of music that makes you grab the person right next to you and dance with abandonment. I often find myself screaming at Lucas to "TURN IT UP PAPA!" (he tells me it hurts his ears if it's not loud enough, go figure), throw Quinita up into my arms and bounce off the walls! Yelle's music embodies that spirit, just try it out and watch the smile grow upon your face.



The Passenger: Michelangelo Antonioni (1975)

Michelangelo Antonioni is a freak. About a year ago we watched this movie called "L'avventura" and I did not know what to make of it. I'm usually into movies that don't seem to make sense but resting beneath the surface is a wicked snake that can reach out and sink it's fangs, secreting an undue pleasure. On the other hand, I really don't like films made about complete assholes. So the entire time that we watched it I was conflicted. I knew that I was supposed to like it but I kept thinking to myself, "Fuck this prick!" The dialogue Xtimu and I had afterwards made me realize that I missed all of the cool shit Antonioni does on film simply because I hated his main character. Well, once we watched "The Passenger", I got it. Antonioni creates vistas, magical landscapes visually with the eye of the camera. It's a meditation of sorts and as you wander through his movies you discover a world that is elevated beyond the mundane. Even though the stories and characters of the films aren't very complex, they're interesting enough to hold you and pull you into his world. He's very much into revealing the architecture of the universe, man's version as it meshes with the natural one and in "The Passenger" it's dramatic and grandiose at times, while also very subtle as well. By the end of this tale that follows a man who adopts the identity of a dead man in order to escape his own life, I was completely haunted by Antonioni's witchery. I actually rewound the final scene of the day vanishing outside a ramshackle desert town just so I could feel the essence of that moment. It was incredibly stunning and the movie couldn't possibly have ended any other way. I think that there was a moment in 1975 when this movie called "The Passenger" saw through to the other side. It was absolutely in rhythm with everything.