Language Instinct

Their Lonely Betters

by W.H. Auden

As I listened from a beach-chair in the shade
To all the noises that my garden made,
It seemed to me only proper that words
Should be withheld from vegetables and birds.

A robin with no Christian name ran through
The Robin-Anthem which was all it knew,
And rustling flowers for some third party waited
To say which pairs, if any, should get mated.

Not one of them was capable of lying,
There was not one which knew that it was dying
Or could have with a rhythm or a rhyme
Assumed responsibility for time.

Let them leave language to their lonely betters
Who count some days and long for certain letters;
We, too, make noises when we laugh or weep:
Words are for those with promises to keep.

A Thought Provoking Poem

The Hand That Signed The Paper

By Dylan Thomas, 1936

The hand that signed the paper felled a city;
Five sovereign fingers taxed the breath,
Doubled the globe of dead and halved a country;
These five kings did a king to death.

The mighty hand leads to a sloping shoulder,
The finger joints are cramped with chalk;
A goose's quill has put an end to murder
That put an end to talk.

The hand that signed the treaty bred a fever,
And famine grew, and locusts came;
Great is the hand that holds dominion over
Man by a scribbled name.

The five kings count the dead but do not soften
The crusted wound nor pat the brow;
A hand rules pity as a hand rules heaven;
Hands have no tears to flow.

Lollapalooza 2008 In Pictures

Radiohead

Among the best concerts I've ever seen, even though I was not all that close. Their lighting effects were stellar and really enhanced the performance that much. Thom Yorke's falsetto echoed off the buildings of Chicago, and my expectations were exceeded on every level.

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The Go! Team

Another show I wasn't too close for, but still was incredible. The Go! Team's energy was instantly contagious and they had everyone dancing in minutes. Their 8-some members played every instrument you could imagine, and they even had two drummers. Definitely a Team I'll want to catch next time they come to Michigan.

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Rogue Wave

Having seen them before and known their shtick, I wasn't expecting a ton from Rogue Wave. I really enjoyed the performance, but nothing about it was memorable enough to warrant any kind of real excitement. There is nothing like hearing "Lake Michigan" when you're 30 feet from the water yourself.

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Kanye West

I'm not the biggest Kanye West fan, but his showmanship was outstanding and his songs were all expanded in every way you can imagine. A backup band enhanced the sound of every song, and the smoke and dramatic lighting made it that much better.

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Broken Social Scene

I only caught the tail end of BSS' set (to my regret), but of what I saw I was very impressed. Having seen them earlier this year at the Michigan Theater playing Kevin Drew's songs, I wasn't sure how they'd fare performing their own music, let alone Brendan Canning's. The high point was 7/4 Shoreline which Amy Milan sang. It was great to hear one of my favorite female vocalists again.

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Bloc Party (see Kele on right of screen)

Bloc Party was mediocre, but don't get me wrong. I love Bloc Party, but the only person who seemed enthused about their set was drummer Matt Tong. I've seen Bloc Party before, and they were incredible, but something big was missing from this performance. Their set was very short, with their 8 or 9 songs they performed ending them up 15 minutes earlier than they were scheduled to. Maybe it got to them that everyone in the first 40 rows was in the first 40 rows to see Radiohead, and they happened to be just a bonus.

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Mates of State

Kori and Jason sounded great, and it was great to see that they'd brought a violinist and upright-bassist with them. The string arrangements brought out some of the nuances of each song that I'd learned to love, but wasn't expecting live.

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The National

Just as they were when I saw them two months ago, The National were incredible. They started off battling a bass problem on the speakers. The kick-drum literally made my eyeballs vibrate every time it was hit, and I'm a big bass drum fan. Regardless, their set was great, Abel being a standout, and the trumpeteers had improved their skill a ton since the Crofoot Ballroom. This time, the trumpet was used instead of the violin I'd heard during the last show. I kinda missed the violinist from the last show. He was insane, and I don't know where he went, but he will be missed.

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Okkervil River

I was really looking forward to Will Sheff and Okkervil River, and they did not disappoint. I really just got into them earlier this year, and I couldn't wait to hear them play. The band was much bigger than I expected, and the keyboardist they had delivered all the background intricacies of each song perfectly. Our Life Is Not A Movie Or Maybe, one of my favorite Okkervil River songs, was out of this world. The song was lengthened by a few minutes, and lots of details were added. They really killed it.

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Dr. Dog

Dr. Dog was pretty good, and they sounded even better in person. To my dismay, however, they didn't play The Breeze, my favorite song of theirs. However, their set was varied between new and old material and just made me that much more interested in them. Come October, I'll be seeing them again in Ann Arbor!

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Hellboy II: The Golden Rehash

• Huge monster squirming around New York wreaking havok? Check
• Invincible army that's been locked away for a bajillion years and now someone is gonna use it? Check
• Little monsters that fly around and appear cute until some nobody comes up and says "Oh look, he's cute, he's not gonna hurt us" then the little monster bares its teeth and rips the guy's head off? Check
• Underground black market with all sorts of colorful characters and bizarre goods? Check
• White skinned elf types with white contact lenses just like the characters from Guillermo's Blade movies? Check
• Misanthropic smartass main character who is impervious to verbal attacks by damsels or physcial ones by villains, and uses big guns like Will Smith and acts like him too [in Men In Black]? Check
• Tin Man type character who just wants someone to love and relate to? Check

I enjoyed Hellboy II: The Golden Army. It was a lot of fun and exciting and beautiful to look at, but it had almost nothing I hadn't seen before. Whether it be rips from Lord of the Rings, Indiana Jones, Star Wars, National Treasure, The Mummy, Cloverfield/The Host, or Guillermo's previous endeavors, I just found myself yawning at the scenes I'd seen before again and again.

Many people will credit Guillermo Del Toro with his visionary creativity and inspired art direction in movies like Hellboy and Pan's Labyrinth, but this in it of itself does not equate to a good film. The creatures of Hellboy II were unique and refreshing, but put those creatures in environments and plots I've seen a hundred times before, and it adds up to nothing for me. I'll give credit where credit is due (in the art department), but the story department was surely lacking.

All the reviews I'm reading say "ooh la la look at lil Guillermo I haven't seen creatures like that since the Cantina scene from Star Wars a while back". Yes, the creatures were very original, but thats exactly what I expected from Del Toro. After seeing Pan's Labyrinth, I was disgusted [in a good way] at some of the creatures he cooked up. Among them the "skin man" with the eyes on his hands. I found the lack of eyes on the facial area very cool, and terrifiying, and it definitely challenged the way I think about animals and evolution. Ok, interesting. But then here comes Guillermo's next movie. I thought the Angel of Death (pictured above) in Hellboy II looked awesome, but I'm starting to think that among other things, the "eyes on the hands/wings" trick is all Guillermo's got. He invents weird shaped creatures and apparently expects that the sum of all his bizarre creatures will add up to a solid film. Apparently the critics agree. Del Toro's directing is excellent, but without a real story I'm not sold.

The funniest part about all of it is that before Hellboy, a trailer rolled for the new Mummy movie and sure enough in it too there is some crazy millenia-old army that is going to be revived by Jet Li. The special effects look stunning, but that's where the depth of it ends, it appears.