It's My Birthday

They say it's your birthday
It's my birthday too, yeah




They say it's your birthday
We're gonna have a good time.
-- The Beatles, "Birthday"

Or maybe it isn't, but mine definitely takes place during the sublime month of September. Seriously, as they say on Grey's Anatomy--it's the show's catch phrase--I love this time of year, especially when the air turns crisp, the big movies hit the screen (Brian De Palma's Black Dahlia, Martin Scorsese's The Departed, etc.), and the fall TV schedule begins. That said, here are the reviews and other ephemera I'm working on for this month.

Amazon: Fraggle Rock - The Complete Second Season [five-
disc set] (fun stuff--even for a demographic anomaly like me),
Commander in Chief - The Inaugural Edition, Part 2 [two-disc
set], The Groomsmen (the latest from actor/director Ed Burns),
The Road to Guantánamo (Michael Winterbottom and Mat
Whitecross take on Gitmo; see here for alternate take), The Cars - Unlocked: The Live Performances, Flavor of Love - The Complete First Season [three-disc set], Grosse Point - The Complete Series [two-disc set] (I loved this short-lived show), Who Killed the Electric Car?, Wassup Rockers, One Tree Hill - The Complete Third Season [six-disc set], and Kevin Devine - Put Your Ghost to Rest.

Resonance: "Threads"
timeline of singer/guitarist
Kid Congo Powers and DVD
reviews of Bullet Boy and
Fame Whore.

Seattle Sound: Unwed
Sailor - The White Ox
(Burnt Toast Vinyl).

Seattle Weekly: Profile of Brightblack Morning Light.

Siffblog: Interviews with filmmakers Lynn Shelton and Mi-
chel Gondry and reviews of Half Nelson (Ryan Gosling as a crack
smoker and Anthony Mackie as a crack dealer--far better than it
sounds!) and Burn to Shine - Portland. The latter features those
Decemberists characters mentioned above; also the Gossip, the
Thermals, and the Shins with a boss version of "Saint Simon."



Saint Simon

After all these implements and text designed by intellects
so vexed to find evidently there's just so much that hides
And though the saints of us divine in ancient feeding lines
their sentiment is just as hard to pluck from the vine.

I'm trying hard not to pretend
allow myself no mock defense
step into the night.

Since I don't have the time nor mind to figure out
The nursery rhymes that helped us out in making sense of our lives
The cruel uneventful state of apathy releases me
I value them but I won't cry every time one's wiped out.

I'm trying hard not to give in
Battened down to fair the wind
rid my head of this pretense
allow myself no mock defense
step into the night...

Mercy's eyes are blue
when she places them in front of you
nothing holds a roman candle to
the solemn warmth you feel inside.

There's no measuring of
nothing else is love.



Endnote: Since I brought up the Beatles and since this is my
latest review round-up, you may be wondering if I've done any
Fab Four-related writing (as my friend Gillian does frequently).
The only title that comes to mind is George Harrison and Friends - The Concert for Bangladesh. I can't think of anything else, which
is pretty amazing, really. Granted, most of my music writing re-
volves around alternative acts, but I love the Beatles and they've
had a profound influence on many of my favorite artists, so go fig-
ure. While I'm at it, my contact at Sub Pop confirms a new Shins
release for the first quarter of 2007 (looks like 1/23, but that date
is tentative). I was only going to post a few lyrics from "Saint Si-
mon," but decided the whole damn thing, with the exception of a
few repeated lines, was worth a look--no other band writes songs
quite like those guys. Images from Wikipedia and DVD Active.