Monthly Archives: April 2011

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Song of the Day #1,001: ‘Evaporated’ – Ben Folds

And so I begin my next 1,000 songs.

‘Evaporated’ is the final track on Ben Folds Five’s sophomore album, Whatever and Ever Amen. It’s slow and angsty and one of the best examples in Ben Folds’ whole catalog of him being introspective.

Folds is so fast and funny so often than he really earns his more somber and thoughtful moments. For a guy so steeped in irony, an earned tear is a rare and lovely thing. He shares that quality with one of his idols, Randy Newman, who has written his own share of songs like this one.

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Song of the Day #1,000: ‘I Want You’ – Fiona Apple & Elvis Costello

Back in early July, 2008, the same month I started this Song of the Day series, I posted this video clip. It was the first song I ever posted on Meet Me In Montauk, just weeks before Meet Me In Montauk became dedicated to posting songs.

As such, I figured I’d give it an official spot in the lineup, and the honor of becoming my 1,000th Song of the Day.

My title for the original post was “Best. Performance. Ever.” and I stand by that lofty assessment of Fiona Apple’s interpretation of Elvis Costello’s classic ‘I Want You’ (with Elvis himself on guitar).

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Song of the Day #999: ‘Poses’ – Rufus Wainwright

I fell for Rufus Wainwright in San Francisco. Appropriate, I guess.

I already owned Wainwright’s debut album, and loved it, but it was the release of his sophomore effort, Poses, that solidified him as one of my favorite artists. It’s that second album that separates the one-record wonders from the true contenders.

I bought Poses while on vacation in San Francisco (with my wife!) and listened to it for the first time on headphones in the hotel room. Wainwright had taken his sound in a new direction, somewhere exciting and cosmopolitan. It was more sleek than ornate, but just as passionate.

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Song of the Day #998: ‘I’ve Been Delivered’ – The Wallflowers

I did a creative writing assignment for one of my high school English teachers that consisted of a collection of poems and short stories. I’m not a real fan of poetry, but I enjoyed taking a stab at it. I actually still have the project and it’s almost painful to read now… a reminder of how tragically earnest and superficially deep I was at that age.

I still remember a comment my teacher wrote on one of those poems. Next to a particular turn of phrase he scribbled this: “Great line! Could drive a whole poem… and doesn’t, yet.”

I think it’s the “yet” that made that comment stick in my brain. Such an odd formulation. Wouldn’t most people write “and yet it doesn’t.”?

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The Lincoln Lawyer

Matthew McConaughey has earned a lifetime pass from me for his performances as two very different but equally iconic characters in two of my very favorite films. I’m referring, of course, to Wooderson in Dazed and Confused and Sheriff Buddy Deeds in Lone Star. That’s a career right there, man, and no amount of shirtless People covers or bland romantic comedies can diminish it.

I root for McConaughey the actor to shed the heartthrob thing and get more selective about the films he makes. He’s had memorable turns in many quality movies (among them A Time To Kill, Contact, U-571, Frailty, We Are Marshall and Tropic Thunder) but I believe he’s more instantly associated with the likes of The Wedding Planner and Failure to Launch.

It’s my hope that The Lincoln Lawyer will change that perception. This is a smart, fun, adult crime drama of the sort you don’t see made very often these days, and it contains some of McConaughey’s best work.

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