Folk’s Future: Slide by Jake Bugg

In one of the most pleasant ways to discover new music, I was first introduced to Jake Bugg’s music through a commercial, a Gatorade one, of all things. Sounding like a new-age Bob Dylan as well as modern-day contemporaries and fellow Brits Alex Turner, Miles Kane and small hints of the Gallagher brothers, Jake Bugg’s body of work seems unbelievably mature for a young man of only 19 years of age. From his eponymous debut album, this is Slide, a testament to his growing potential as a cornerstone of the folk and indie genre.

Finding a Method to Daniel Day-Lewis’ Madness: A Reflection on “There Will Be Blood”

“I, drink your MILKSHAKE!” (I’m sorry, I had to get that out)

I remember first watching Daniel Day-Lewis in The Last of the Mohicans as the film’s protagonist, Nathaniel Poe, or Hawkeye, with his long flowing hair competing with him for screen time. I enjoyed his performance, but to be honest, it doesn’t really take much to portray the prototypical action hero torn between two sides. Then I saw him go nuts as Bill the Butcher in Scorsese’s Gangs of New York, which to a young kid back then, was off-putting and disturbing, in a totally positive way. Day-Lewis has always had this penchant for choosing odd, eclectic and diverse roles, from the aforementioned characters, to Irish painter Christy Brown in My Left Foot, to showing some vocal range as Guido Contini in Nine, and most recently, as Abraham Lincoln in Lincoln, but it was in Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood that Day-Lewis widened the gap between his fellow thespians as one of the acting greats of this generation. He was Daniel Plainview, power-hungry, mad, insane, greedy and psychopathic. If there was a handbook on method acting, Daniel Day-Lewis’s mug should be plastered on the cover. As a guy not brought up in American history and grew up outside North America, he made the California oil boom interesting. He was a man possessed in this movie, and I loved every second when he was on screen. In the same film, Paul Dano portrays the hapless evangelist Eli Sunday (and also his twin Paul Sunday), and while Dano’s performance is entertaining in itself, he is absolutely swallowed and consumed by Day-Lewis whenever both are on screen at the same time, and pretty much for every scene in the film for that matter. He commands the screen in every scene with an almost unquestionable authority, and you can’t help not taking your eyes off the screen no matter how disturbing the scene. Absolute brilliance, and for his efforts, he bagged the Oscar, which would have been a damn travesty if he didn’t.

Six years on and in deep retrospect, I wracked my brain figuring out who could have been Daniel Plainview had Day-Lewis not accepted the role. Nada. Nothing came to mind. Maybe Christoph Waltz could have got the psychopath part down, but he definitely wouldn’t be able to match Day-Lewis’s rage and imposing, primal aura and would probably end up playing Col. Hans Landa again, much as I wouldn’t want to criticize his similar roles in his films. He inhabited the character so well that actor and character seems inseparable like Brando to Don Vito Corleone. You just can’t see anyone else filling in Daniel Plainview’s boots and scruffy facial hair at this point, and the same goes for the other roles he has taken in previous and present films. With There Will Be Blood, Daniel Day-Lewis redefined what it meant to be an actor,  more so the difference between “movie star” and actor. Surprisingly, for a guy who’s been in the industry for over 30 years, he has only appeared in 20 films. He clearly doesn’t do his day job for the box-office receipts. Not everyone does it and not everyone will do it, but he has established the art of acting in a whole new dimension. Acting, in the Day-Lewis sense is like fine machinery: smooth, precise and efficient. A man willing to put himself in physical pain to “pretend”, well in his case, “inhabit” a character is astounding in itself and with his eccentrics both on and off the screen, Day-Lewis, as Daniel Plainview, has given us the best acting performance of the past decade.

In There Will Be Blood’s final scene, as Daniel Plainview maniacally hammers a bowling pin down poor, defenseless Eli Sunday’s skull, and afterwards simply excaliming “I’m finished!” to his butler, Day-Lewis is both scary, menacing and entertaining. To watch a scene as gruesome as this and walk away with a strange feeling of satisfaction and entertainment is a rare feat by any actor, but Daniel Day-Lewis has been doing this all his life. We may wait for 3-4 years for his next film to come out, but that wait will be very well much worth it.

Diamond in the Rough: Thoughts on who should be this year’s NBA Sixth Man of the Year

Basketball is a team game, but success in the NBA itself is decided by a handful of superstars. LeBron, Kobe, CP3, you know the rest, but there’s always that one guy, the x-factor that may be the key to getting the precious W. That “x-factor” is the sixth man. A sixth man serves as the leader of the bench, the guy who provides instant energy, the guy whom coach brings in to change the momentum of a game, and lastly, has the potential to become a superstar himself (e.g. James Harden). With that in mind, and as the ’12-’13 regular season nears its conclusion, three names top my list for this year’s award: Jamal Crawford (L.A. Clippers), J.R. Smith (New York Knicks) and Kevin Martin (OKC Thunder).

In that trio of names mentioned, one has won the award already (Crawford), now let’s analyze what each player brings to their team. Jamal Crawford has been one of the bright spots in an already deep bench for the Clippers this season, providing instant offense from the bench for the Clips. With a season average of 16.7 points per game, Crawford seems comfortable playing second fiddle to Chris Paul and Willie Green. Not only does he provide instant offense, but he is also second in total points scored for the Clippers this season, behind Blake Griffin and just ahead of Paul. Seems like he’s poised to take this year’s award again, right? Well, one problem has been nagging him this season and pretty much his entire career that may give his other counterparts the edge in sixth man voting: individual depth. Jamal Crawford is no doubt a pure scorer, with his shooting touch and deadly behind-the-back crossover, he can put up points in a real hurry, but basketball isn’t all about offense. He scores well, but there is nothing else. (1.6 rebounds and 2.5 assists just won’t cut it) There are far more intangibles involved, and this is why Jamal Crawford, whether he likes to admit it or not, is a one-dimensional player.

Now we move on to Kevin Martin, OKC’s prized pick-up from Houston late last year. Like Crawford, Martin is a pure scorer as well, and if left wide open, it’s going to be nothing but a pretty “swish” sound. He had big shoes to fill, taking the sixth man reigns from James Harden, now exploding on a nightly basis in Houston. No one ever said he had to fill those shoes, but Martin could’ve at least tried. Martin is a very streaky shooter, and had one of those shooting slumps earlier this year that may have cost OKC gaining the upper hand against the Spurs for the best record in the West. He suffers the same individual problems with Crawford, scoring but little else. He was poised to thrive in coach Scott Brooks’ system, and thrive he did, but it isn’t enough to garner him the award.

Lastly, we come to J.R. Smith, who obviously after reading the past two paragraphs, is my pick for this year’s Sixth Man of the Year Award. Intended to bolster a Knicks roster prepping for title-contender status back during the lockout, J.R. Smith has proven himself to be one of the key pieces of this Knicks team, dare I say only second to Carmelo Anthony in value to the team. This year, he’s averaging a scorching 17.8 points, a career-best, 5.2 rebounds and 2.7 assists. Surprisingly for a bench player, Smith is second in minutes logged per game (behind Melo). J.R. Smith is the definition of a sixth man year. He can pick up where the starters left off. He brings energy to the team. He isn’t afraid to take the ball into his hands at the closing seconds (as evidenced by this and this). Put him on any .500 team and no question he’d be a starter. He even had that 30+ point consecutive game stretch earlier this year, proving that when the offense runs through him, the opposing team better be prepared to defend. There are honorable mentions for this year’s Sixth Man of the Year (Ray Allen, Jarret Jack, Gordon Hayward), but no other player deserves it more this year than the guy in blue and orange, J.R. Smith.

Shapeshifters from New York: A Brief Review of the Strokes’ “Comedown Machine”

“untouchable”….for a few years at least. (Photo from Pieter Van Hattem/NME)

This album, much to my surprise, flew under my radar quite a bit.  Nevertheless, once I heard about it, I happily snapped up a copy of this latest outing from the self-effacing rock wunderkinds, the Strokes. With my ears still a stranger to the music inside, I wondered if this was going to be an Is This It, the seminal album that thrust these New Yorkers into the spotlight, or if it was going to be like Angles, a complete about-face from their traditional style of effortless garage-rock. After hearing this particular 11-track outing, I can safely say that Is This It can breathe safe,  knowing that it still is the best Strokes album, while Comedown Machine in itself may very well be the best post-Is This It album they have ever put out.

Comedown Machine is a good example of an artist continuing to redefine itself, and continues to defy fans clamoring for their older brand of music. It is different from their past albums but their influences are unmistakable. The opening track, Tap Out and Welcome to Japan, reminds one of the synthesizer-laden Angles, with the same playful and rambunctious lyrics like “What kind of asshole drives a Lotus?” that provide reminders of their earlier albums. All the Time harkens back to the more traditional garage rock of Is this It and Room on Fire, while tracks like Chances and One Way Trigger, definitely sound new, well for them at least. As a whole, the track order is discrete, as it was in previous Strokes albums and very much unlike what you’d see in a rap album, for obvious reasons. Most Stokes albums end with up-tempo and upbeat songs, but it’s different this time around. Call it Fate, Call it Karma ends the album on a solemn note, and to me, is the album’s best track. Lead vocalist Julian Casablancas’ falsetto absolutely takes you to a bygone era: the 1930’s and cleverly ties the album to it’s minimalist album cover, a cover that resembles demo tape covers of RCA records during the aforementioned time. 

The Verdict: How far have they come. Comedown Machine is a chameleon, shapeshifting from track to track, keeping the listener guessing. As an album it falters to create a cohesive mood and atmosphere and lacks that standout song, but each track in its individuality succeeds, and has enough eclectic-sounding songs to make it the best, at least for now, post-Is this It album. For anyone looking for a recent and good rock record, this is it.

Comedown Machine by the Strokes, RCA Records:

01 “Tap Out”
02 “All the Time”
03 “One Way Trigger”
04 “Welcome to Japan”
05 “80′s Comedown Machine”
06 “50/50″
07 “Slow Animals”
08 “Partners In Crime”
09 “Chances”
10 “Happy Endings”
11 “Call It Fate, Call It Karma”