The Bucket List Day 2: (500) Days of Summer / Clerks

3. Clerks 
I don't mean to be a film elitist snob when I say this, but I don't get Clerks. I've heard so much about it, so I went in with high hopes. In a movie that doesn't rely on flashy visuals or big-name actors, I expected something that was written with a sharp wit and moved at a quick clip; none of the above were present. The poor acting from Brian O'Halloran as lead Dante Hicks spoiled a film that actually featured a solid supporting cast.

Director Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes provided the few laughs of the film as Jay and Silent Bob, breakout characters from the film. Their ambiguous sexuality provides one of the few successful gags in the film, with Jay continuously just spitting out wild, homoerotic statements before brushing it off due to strange looks from Silent Bob.

Also a standout was Jeff Anderson as slacker Randal Graves. While he wasn't necessarily brilliantly funny, he acted the role of the lazy but lovable Graves to perfection, which is more than you can say about others in the film.

4. (500) Days of Summer
Going from a film I expected to be filled with charm and wit and one that did; (500) Days of Summer features brilliant performances from the two leads; Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel play new coworkers who have completely opposite views on relationships. Gordon-Levitt, in particular, as Tom Hansen, a greeting card writer who's dreams of being an architect have flustered, plays the role to an innocent brilliance, portraying the friend we all have who falls in love too fast and gets his heart broken every time.

The film portrays the five-hundred days over which Deschanel's chracter, Summer Finn, and Hansen harbor a relationship that goes through it's ups-and-downs like any relationship does. It gives you this raw look into how Hansen thinks and feels and how the relationship affects him, and it's an immensely refreshing take on the traditional romantic comedy.

While the movie is largely carried by the strength of it's two leads, the two supporting actors of Matthew Gray Gubler and Geoffrey Arend as the two lovable sidekicks to Hansen. They provide some of the best lines of the film, and both prove to be valuable additions to a small cast.

The film itself has this innate charm and is upbeat and fun. It's just one of those films you can watch repeatedly. Needless to say, perfect date film.


- Preston, 4/116-

The Bucket List Day 1: Big Top Peewee / Sixteen Candles

I don't consider myself too uncultured of a 16-year old. I grew up in a family with a father who put heavy value on the pop culture of the 80's and 90's, and sister's who embraced it. However, it wasn't until I started hanging out with some friends who I swear have seen every movie there is worth quoting that I realized; "I still have so much to see". So I set out to make a list, however long it may be, of the movies that I wished to see before the start of my junior year of high school. The list ended up being 116 movies long. So from today until about August, I will be updating this blog regularly with my thoughts of the various movies on my Bucket List.

Warning: spoilers will abound.

1. Big Top Pee-Wee
I was in the mood to start off with a short, goofy movie, and nothing seemed to fit the bill better than Big Top Pee-Wee. As a large fan of Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, I felt the sequel, clocking in at a robust 85 minutes, would fit perfectly.

Not so much.

The movie lacks the charm and innate hilarity of the first Pee-Wee film. It also lacks an important aspect of a film... a plot. It was about an hour into the film when I realized; "this film is going nowhere!". Even now, I'd be hard pressed to tell you what happened in the film.

So Pee-Wee lives on a farm... Must've missed the memo. There are cranky townspeople who don't appreciate Pee-Wee's wacky antics. A storm rolls in, and an entire circus get's blown into Pee-Wee's backyard. Then he... helps them? Or something. In the process, he falls in love with a gymnast named Gina and in the process, angers his fiance Winnie. For the rest of the movie, he must handle his convoluted love life and convince the cranky townspeople to let the circus put on a show. It's a lackluster, yawn-inducing storyline that would lose you if not for the film's quick timeline.

Most of the films gag's fall quite short. A few come to mind that really sparked hilarity; for me, Pee-Wee's talking pig friend Vance was a highlight because of his ridiculous chain-smoker voice and the general idea of a talking pig. The most notable success however is something that one would expect straight out of Family Guy; as Pee-Wee shares a kiss with the incredibly sexy Gina Piccolapupula, portrayed with perfection by Valeria Golino, romantic music floats in the background and the camera pans out.... and pans out... and pans out. The two keep kissing as the music stops, and it's the genuine discomforting comedy that Seth MacFarlane mastered into an art.

But outside of those few moments, it's a film that revels in it's disappointment. It's a shame my film excursion had to start on a moment of disaster.

2. Sixteen Candles 
The complete opposite end of the spectrum. Believe it or not, I have never seen Sixteen Candles; despite being a huge fan of other John Hughes works, I've never seen the major Molly Ringwald movies. So I went onto Sixteen Candles right off of Big Top Pee-Wee. I was cranky, disappointed and ready to go to sleep.

But Sixteen Candles reversed all that; the witty dialogue and quick pacing made the movie fly. I looked at how long the film had been going at one point, and it was almost exactly 85 minutes; it felt about half as long as Big Top Pee-Wee did.

Intelligent thought of the day: I absolutely loved the juxtaposition of the stereotypes within the love triangle. Normally, you'd expect the popular, suave ladies man archetype (Jake Ryan) over whom our heroine (Samantha Baker) pines over to end up alone, as the geeky but caring boy (The Geek) eventually wins over her heart.

Nope. Our Geek is the lady killer, ending up with a hot senior girl. Meanwhile, Samantha Baker ends up with her dream boat Jake Ryan, who's more caring than you'd think. The plot's simple but effective, truly showcasing that awkward feeling that teenagers in love experience.

Closing thought: if I watch a better performance throughout this experience than Gedde Watanabe as Long Duck Dong, I'll be damned. Absolutely hilarious.

- Preston, 2/116

Review: The Strokes - Under Cover of Darkness

With the recent release of The Strokes new single "Under Cover of Darkness", I thought I'd return to what loop pedal. was originally intended to do. Here's my review of the brand new tune.

The song begins with a cheerful, start and stop chord backing with a fuzzy lead riff. Immediately, the song jumps out with a happy feeling, slight upstrokes hiding behind the layers of vintage Strokes clutter. The song builds though a pre-chorus that sounds like something right off of "Is This It?", before heading into what you think is the climax. The song immediately grows into what is sure to be one of the biggest choruses of the year, a true scream-along melody before recapitulating the intro.

Rinse, wash and repeat in classic familiarity before launching into a triumphant solo, a bit of dissonance added for good measure. The song repeats the chorus once again, with Casablancas screaming "I'm tired of all your friends knocking down your door" in jubilant fashion, before the intro comes back, stopping way too short. The song clocks in at a quick 4 minutes, which causes the repeated use of the replay button. The song leaves you wanting more of the same, much like the Strokes themselves. Welcome back boys, you have been missed.

Cartoons I Used to Love Part 1: Jetix

Like many other teens of this generation, cartoons were a huge role during my developmental ages. Being born in 1995, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network and Disney Channel played a large part in my early 2000's childhood. Although I really started paying attention at the tail end of some of the 'true classics' such as Rugrats, Hey Arnold and most of those Disney classics (Ducktales, Darkwing Duck and others), from about 2000 to 2005, I grew up upon some of what I feel were very fine cartoons. Today, I rant a little bit about some of my favorite cartoons growing up. I'm going to split this up into some of the big programming blocks I used to watch. Today? Jetix.

Every morning from about 4th to 6th grade (which is 2004-2006), I'd wake up at about 7 o' clock, eat breakfast and plop down in front of the TV for an hour before I had to leave for school. And every morning, I was sent off to school with the same shows.

While the block showed some classics like Spider-Man, and some pretty cool anime like Shinzo, the block really revolved around two shows that I'm sure impacted the lives of other kids my age as well; Digimon and Power Rangers.

While the original Digimon aired on FoxKids, as did the second season, it was the third season and fourth seasons that really hit me. Digimon Frontiers was one of the first cartoons that made me cry. I don't remember the scene exactly or exactly why it made me cry, but I'll try and recreate the emotional attachment.

Digimon Frontier revolved around five kids who went into the 'digital world' and could turn into Digimon themselves. Takuya was the leader and became a fire Digimon, Koji was the silent, tough guy of the group, turning into a light powered wolf. Zoe was the girl of the group, who had the power of the air Digimon, while JP was the fat comedic relief who had the power of the thunder beetle. Tommy was the small kid who used ice. It was a stale 'kids have to save the world from an evil monster' plot, but with a video game esque twist. The kids had to defeat five 'bosses' essentially. One was a goblin kinda guy, while the second was a Karakuri puppet. The third was a mermaid girl (who, by the way, was a complete bitch. Not gonna lie), and the final was this real scary guy made out of mirrors.

At this point in the season, you've grown attached to the characters as they try and find the fifth major bad guy. Koji, the dark and brooding wolf Digimon fighter, was a particular fan favorite. Upon meeting the fifth and final villain, Koji finds out that it's really his twin brother he never knew about, Koichi. Koji's parents had gotten divorced while the two boys were young, and the two boys had been split as well. The scene in particular that made me cry was a flashback, where Koichi was told by his dying grandmother that he had a brother. Koichi, in shock, ran out of his grandmother's hospital room and, as he's running, trips down a flight of stairs.

The show went into slow motion and played a heart breaking song as you watched Koichi fall and lie motionless at the bottom of the stairs. Apparently he went into a coma, which, at the moment, I'm finally realizing is completely irrational (if I recall, it was a pretty short set of stairs. How the hell do you fall into a coma from falling down a diminutive set of stairs?!?!). However, at the age of about 10, this hit me pretty hard and writing this about five years later made me try and find this scene online. This was all I could find, but it did a pretty good job of reminding me of a lot of aspects of the show I had forgotten about. Looking back, it was one hell of a set of stairs, which again makes no fucking sense. Why, in a hospital, would you have stairs that looked like 20 feet?!?!

Meanwhile, Power Rangers was a huge impact on my life as well. Anyone familiar with Power Rangers knows the show, while being around for nearly 20 years, has never really been connected from year to year. Outside of the first three or four seasons, every year started fresh with a new team of Power Rangers, often completely unrelated to prior season's. The mastermind behind the show was Saban Entertainment, who sold the rights to the show right before Power Rangers: Wild Force, which not coincidentally, was one of my least favorite seasons.

However, the next three are up there with the original three for me. Ninja Storm was filmed in Australia, and featured an attack of two rival ninja academies. When three students (Shane the Red Ranger, Tori the Blue Ranger, and Dustin the Yellow Ranger) are left, they get the power of the Rangers and have to fight off the attacks. The season featured a lot of slapstick comedy, a sensei turned into a guinea pig, two evil rangers turned good (Hunter and Blake, the Crimson and Navy Rangers, who were both completely badass), and the sensei's son, Green Ranger Cam, who was probably the best Ranger. He served as the technological leader throughout most of the season, but he had to go back in time and meet his deceased mother and receive an old necklace from her that allowed him to morph. Nothing really emotionally telling here, just mindless action and slapstick comedy for a young, drooling ten year old.

Power Rangers Dino Thunder came next. This could potentially be my favorite of the three seasons I experienced during my pre-5th grade days. The season featured three pretty likable characters, including a totally smoking Yellow Ranger, who, now that I think about it, totally looks like this chick I've been infatuated with lately. That explains it. However, the thing that really made this season great was the fact that Tommy Oliver was in it. Tommy is the greatest character in the Power Rangers canon by far. In the original Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, he was the badass, evil Green Ranger, who eventually turned into the noble White Ranger. In the forgotten "Zeo" season, he became the Red Zeo Ranger and the bonafide leader, and maintained the role in 1997's Power Rangers Turbo. From there on out, Tommy, a longtime standard of the series, was gone. However, he comes back as the mentor and eventual Black Ranger in Power Rangers Dino Thunder. Throughout the season, he at one point get's stuck in the Power Rangers suit for about ten episodes

Power Rangers S.P.D. could be the beginning of the end for me. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed the darker season, but I just started to lose interest towards the middle of the season before really picking up steam in the end. The season took place in a futuristic world, where aliens and humans live peacefully. There are plenty of Power Rangers, known as "Space Patrol Delta", and separated into teams. The A-Squad, who ended up being evil, were the top team and went on all the major missions. The bumbling B-Squad were our heroes; Sky Tate, the no-nonsense Blue Ranger (who's father was revealed to be Time Force Red Ranger Wes Collins), goofy but loving Green Ranger Bridge Carson, bad-ass female Z Delgado, the Yellow Ranger, and pretty girl Pink Ranger Sydney Drew. To complete the team, street rat and smart guy Jack Landors became the leader and Red Ranger. The team was commissioned by a dog-man Anubis Cruger. Throughout the season, the team expanded to plenty of new team members; Anubis became the badass Shadow Ranger, while his love interest Kat Manx (who appropriately was part cat), became the Kat Ranger (clever naming). The Omega Ranger turns out to come from the future. His real identity was Sam, who in the present of the series was a young boy that was being bullied whom Z defended and befriended. From Sam's time also comes the Nova Ranger, a faceless, rather forgettable character who comes in extremely late in the series.

The show eventually moved to Toon Disney along with the entire Jetix block, and without a digital cable package in our household, I stopped watching the shows I grew up watching. However, with Nickelodeon announcing that they will be broadcasting the next season (Power Rangers Samurai, made by Saban Entertainment, who created the first seasons that were genuine classics), I'll have to give it a shot again. Maybe I'll get that shot of nostalgia that I so dearly miss.

Next Up: Cartoons I Used To Love Part 2: Miguzi

Update.

I have a bit of a confession to make; I have a total of about 6 albums that I'm ready to sit down and listen to (including Cake, The Decemberists, James Blake and others), but I'm just not having the time. I feel a bit of a loss of motivation to write about solely music. So in that turn of events, I'm going to turn this into a complete blog about whatever's on my mind. I like the name 'loop pedal.", so I'm going to keep it, but this is turning into a new blog about anything that fills my 16 year old mind.

Welcome!

Welcome to looppedal., my music blog where I will post reviews of new albums. I'll try to update everytime I get a new album, but there will be no regular posting schedule. I could go months without updating, then post five in one week. It's all up to when I get the records. Stick around and enjoy!