And some music ramblings!

I never manage to watch the Colbert Report when it airs, but I normally catch it a day late. Jerome occasionally watches it when it airs, and so he mentioned to me that R.E.M. had been on it on Wednesday night... meaning that I watched it last night.

Now I was a HUGE R.E.M. fan in high school. In fact, I think R.E.M. is a lot of the reason why I became this strange part hippie, part grunge type person (later supplemented by goth and punk). The first time I heard R.E.M. was 1989, when I was a freshman in high school. The song was "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" (oddly enough, in the movie Dream a Little Dream). And so I was hooked.

Of course, I became a fan of the band right as they were finishing up the tour for Green, and then they opted to not tour for several years. I finally got to see them live when I was a senior in college, in 1995. I have very distinct memories of that show--it was September, it was colder than St. Louis had any right to be, and the show sucked. A lot. We missed seeing Radiohead open for R.E.M. because we were running late, and I dropped my new R.E.M. T-shirt at some point during the trek back to the car.



Now I was already on the decline of being an R.E.M. fan by that point. Out of Time was fabulous. Automatic for the People was pretty good, but I was beginning to have my doubts. I hated Monster (1994), though I think if I gave it another listen now, I might change my mind. But basically, by the fall of 1995, I was disillusioned.

And stayed that way, for 13 years. Jerome had been trying to convince me to give the new R.E.M. a listen, but I was grumpy about it. But when I saw them on the Colbert Report, I told Jerome to go find the album (Accelerate) online and buy it. And it's good. It's really good. So it would appear that I have four albums to catch up on, and am going to have to give Monster another listen.

+++++

And, in other news, End of the Work Week Wisdom:

"I love living vicariously through the pain and suffering of others."
--Joe (Andy Griffith) in "Waitress"

Because that single line had us rolling when we watched the movie. :)

Movie ramblings...

So we watched "Waitress" last night, and I'm not entirely sure what to make of it. I get the feeling it was sort of supposed to be a "feel good" chick flick, but it really didn't seem that way to me. There was also a lot of just really strange, abrupt things about it that made it seem kind of disjointed.

That's not to say that I didn't enjoy at least some of it. Nathan Fillion is in it, and that's a good thing. :) Andy Griffith also has a small role, and his character absolutely cracked me up. But I dunno, it just didn't sit right with me overall. I can't really explain it any more than that without giving away too much of the plot, unfortunately, as the part that really sat the worst with me is sort of critical to the plot.

Anyone else seen this movie and either loved it or felt the same way as me? I'm pretty sure I've pinpointed the weirdness/disjointedness, but I'm just curious if other people feel the same way.