Guest Room (Day 186)

Weezer - "Take Control"
The New Pornographers - "My Rights Versus Yours"
The Thrills - "Saturday Night"
Sparklehorse - "Return To Me"
Keane - "Try Again"
Dolorean - "Just Don't Leave Town"
We interrupt this quasi-music blog for a quasi-movie entry. Basically even though there are a plethora of good songs today on this gym-lengthened playlist, I just feel like I have to comment on the 1975 classic Jaws. What happened was, as I hit the treadmill and got set to do a little running to music, I did a little channel surfing on the machine first. Jaws was on, and I couldn't resist. I have probably seen this move nearly 100 times and it is still so insanely watchable it's borderline ridiculous. Although at 3 I was too young to see it in the theaters obviously, I can vividly remember my mother talking about her reaction to it. She was so scared that she had to get up and go to the lobby as soon as she heard even one bar of John Williams famous score. I got around to it on the ol' VCR (remember those). We were an early adopter in our house and this was definitely one of the first movies we owned. At first I too was scared for obvious reasons. The scene that always got me was when Brody and Hooper find the remains of Ben Gardner's fishing boat and Hoop goes down to inspect the hull only to find a bug-eyed and semi-decomposed head of Benny still lodged in the hatch. That's a run-of-the-mill shocker, but most of the fear comes from the dread - - heightened by the score, right mom? But there is so much more to this movie than cheap horror gags. Upon repeated viewings with my friend CB (and when I say repeated I mean dozens and dozens), it was the humor that stuck with us. This movie is freaking funny in parts. There is a slight moment that for some reason always cracked me up: After Quint squishes a beer can, the egghead Hooper crushes his coffee cup, mocking the old fisherman's machismo. Such a throwaway moment, but not only is it funny, it goes a long way towards developing the two opposing characters. It's seriously storytelling at its finest, and truth be told I (like millions of other kids) wanted to be Steven Spielberg when I grew up. Oh well. In case you've forgotten or - - egads! - - never seen it, behold one of the scenes I saw today while at the gym and how incredible both Richard Dreyfuss and Roy Scheider are - - even on dry land. Keep an eye on Scheider pouring the wine at about 2:12 and Dreyfuss' line about "letting in breathe." Classic.



Spoon - "Don't You Evah"
Vetiver - "Belles"
Jenny Lewis - "Jack Killed Mom"
Devendra Banhart - "Insect Eyes"
The National - "Guest Room"
Coleman Hawkins - "Spotlight"
The Beatles - "Yellow Submarine"
Weezer - "Keep Fishin'"
The Lemonheads - "Rule Of Three"
The Teen Kings - "An Empty Cup And A Boken Date"
Port O'Brien - "In Vino Veritas"
Thurston Moore - "Off Work"
Hüsker Dü - "Pride"

And then I got to work.

Today's Stats
Total songs listened to: 22
Total minutes of music (approx.): 70
Song with the most previous plays: "Guest Room," "Return To Me" - 9
How I Rate Today's Playlist (1-10): 9
Miscellaneous factoid about my trip to work today: Yesterday, 50 degrees. Today, snowing. I give up.