portuguese, sea adventure, musicfest

So, three things:

The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou is a movie i saw in theatres with my parents and grandparents. My grandparents walked out within forty minutes because it was too rediculous for them.  I liked the movie a lot. In fact, now I have two copies. I've seen it about 5 times.  It's a Wes Anderson movie. He did the Royal Tenenbaums (I didn't like that one much), the Darjeeling Limited (good one), and a couple others. But in this movie, oh man, this movie... Don't even get me started...it centers around Steve Zissou (a spoof character of Jaques Cousteau) and his crew/adventures upon his ship.  I don't know what to praise in particular besides the music.  There's good music: Seu Jorge, David Bowie, The Zombies, Mark Motherbaugh, and other odds and ends. There are scenes in the rain. There are pirates, with guns and grenades. There is Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, Owen Wilson.  There are colorful, fictional sea creatures.  It's filmed in and around Italy.

It's a grand adventure.

See for yourself. I have a copy to lend.

Seu Jorge:

a musician and also an actor, part of Zissou's crew, in the movie.  The soundtrack is studded with Seu Jorge's Portuguese covers of David Bowie songs.  There are also some real David Bowie songs in the movie (good ones). But the covers are worth mentioning. They're quite soothing.  Off the top of my head, there's Five Years, Rock 'n Roll Suicide, Queen Bitch, Rebel Rebel, Starman. All very soothing. Acoustic guitar and vocals in Portuguese.

Festival Express

A movie I've seen a few times so far; once last night.  It's a documentary, of a week during the summer of 1970, following a trainload of musicians "careening across the Canadian countryside". The Grateful Dead, The Band, Janis Joplin, Buddy Guy Blues Band, and some others you haven't heard of, all when they were in their prime. All on a train together, partying day and night, all filmed and recorded.  Some good music, some great music, some decent music. Nothing crappy though.  Highlights: Buddy Guy (killer guitar/stage presence), Mashmakhan (jam with a flute solo at the end), the Band (classic; all singing, everybody has a beard).