David Shafer’s Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is a techno thriller that will eventually be made into a Jason Bourne type film. Don’t think of the novel as Lee Child or Vince Flynn. This is a literary thriller; it’s not beautiful language, but it is descriptive and creative. It reads like you don’t expect it to, and it takes a while for it to develop.
A few days ago I ranked all of my favorite nominees without saying much about the choice. Well, a few coworkers and I were discussing who might win this weekend and we all made our cases for our favorite films. I’m going to do the same here. Don’t consider this a “who will win” post, but why I would vote a certain way if I even had a vote.
Richard Edwards, the singer-songwriter behind Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s, just released a demo on his Soundcloud account titled “Something Wicked.”
Edwards, who has released music under the Margot band umbrella since 2004, has changed his sound over the years. First the band was almost an orchestra with horns and strings. The chamber pop of their first two releases got a little rowdier with Buzzard and even more so with Rot Gut, Domestic. Then he stripped everything down for last year’s Sling Shot to Heaven, which relies heavily on Edwards, his raw vocals, and gentle guitar.
There’s no saying what the new album that he already plans on recording this year will sound like, but it will most certainly feature his intricate lyrics that read almost like extremely short stories. “Something Wicked” is a perfect example. It’s about not caring about a girl’s new man and how certain that the new man is doing her wrong.
Along with releasing the link, Richards thanked fans for buying a little from the band’s merchandise store, but claimed the song probably won’t make the album.
Thanks for picking a few things up from the merch store to help fund recording. Here’s a newish demo of a song that probably won’t be on the record, as a thank you.
It’s slow and emotional. For a demo, it’s pretty perfect. Check it out below.
Of the 17 films nominated for major awards (Best Picture, Director, all four acting, and two screenplays), I have yet to see four. Time just caught up with me, but I’ll see them eventually. Regardless, I have ranked the films in each category by my favorite to least favorite. Nominees I haven’t seen have been marked with an asterisk.
These are by no means my official betting picks. However, they come close. That post will come later.
Alabama Shakes are the band you forgot to make your favorite band to three years ago.
You’ve probably heard of the rootsy Americana band from Athens, Alabama. Their stellar debut Boys & Girls went Gold and it spawned three official singles that made it to some sort of chart; most notably their breakout hit “Hold On.” Plus they were nominated for three Grammys including Best New Artist (which they lost to fun.). They played at those Grammys, they made it onto Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and they even had songs in commercial.
Evie Wyld’s second novel, All the Birds, Singing, reads like it is trying to be a great literary work to be studies in classroom. There is repetition of symbols, dialogue, and imagery. Over and over again. There are the birds, people moving like snakes, the rain, and the quote the human eye senses movement before all else.
Station Eleven is the best novel I have read this year. The 2014 genre-bending, post-apocalyptic, award-winning effort from Emily St. John Mandel was the seventh book I have read in 2015. Admittedly, I didn’t think it would be as good as it was, and I only picked it up because it was so highly recommended.
I don’t always trust reviews from critics; there is less frequency of trust when it comes to friends’ reviews. But I want you to take my word for it: Station Eleven is compelling, well-written, and poignant. It is a novel that you have to read.
There are a lot of arbitrary lists out there giving a ‘definitive’ ranking of the best, and even worst, Best Picture winners. Some of these boil down strictly to preference. A lot take a look at the dominant field they won against. For instance, there was a big hoopla over Crash winning the Oscar in 2005 over the heavily favorited Brokeback Mountain. Especially considering it wasn’t even nominated for a Golden Globe. Then there was Shakespeare in Love‘s win over Saving Private Ryan. How could that be possible? Then there are lists that just say a year was weak and a subpar film had to walk away with the award.
There are so many ways to give a ranking about the Best Picture winners, but I’m going to look at it by the numbers. Every year whichever film gets the most nominees becomes a focal point of the Oscar season. The most nominations means the best film, right? Well there are plenty of years where the most nominated film doesn’t walk away with Best Picture. Especially if it is a year like this year where two Best Picture frontrunners – Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel – lead the field with nine. So you’ll notice that the most nominations doesn’t necessarily equal Best Picture. Look at last year when American Hustle was shut out of winning despite having the most nominations.
I made a series of charts looking at the past twenty five Best Picture winners. The charts include the total awards they won, including Best Picture, and how many more they were nominated for. You’ll notice the most nominations and most wins both belong to Titanic with fourteen total nominations and eleven wins. In theory Titanic could be considered the best Best Picture winner. Then there are films like The Silence of the Lambs which had seven nominations with only seven wins, but those five wins are the major five awards that only two other films swept as well (both prior to my twenty five year cut off). Maybe that’s the best Best Picture.
Anyway, like I said: these lists are arbitrary, but you can take a look at the stats and decide if any of this is even worth exploring.
This was probably the greatest Super Bowl in recent memory. At least the greatest last half minute. But let’s take a look at the five best commercials from the event. I’m going to stay away from trailers for films, because that’s a different ballgame.
I decided to mix things up for my last book of the month. I picked up a hot thriller – so hot that some have claimed it’s the most gripping book of the genre since Gone Girl. I’m not so certain that Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train is going to be the runaway hit that some are predicting. Sure, it will get a lot of sales, but I feel that maybe people will walk away dissatisfied.
ADAM VITCAVAGE 