For the records

Storytelling

• film: BIG FISH - brief review
  
  I went yesterday with a friend to see the Tim Burton film Big Fish. Its main actors are Albert Finney who plays the elderly father(Edward Bloom) to adult son Billy Crudup's character(Will Bloom). Ewan McGregor plays the younger Edward Bloom. Edward has been a story-teller all his life, from when his son was a young boy right up to Will on his wedding day. But the stories that Edward tells ad nauseum, that Will once thought to be fascinating, become the source of strife in the relationship between them that eventually lead to Will cutting off communication with his father. It is only because of his father's illness about 3 years later that, Will agrees to see him again. It is at this point that Will tries to investigate the 'truthfulness' of his father's stories which he had assumed were not true or at least embellishments of the truth.
  
  The film neatly switches from reality to visual representations of Edward's stories. There is a dreamlike quality and exaggeration to the visual representations of Edward's stories that one might think that Will is right in thinking that the stories are made up. There's a 'Forrest Gump' quality to the young Edward Bloom; he's a small town boy destined for great things. However, as the elder Edward Bloom tells his stories, one can't help but think that some, if not most, of the things he speaks of never happened.
  
  In the end, whether Edward Bloom embellished or falsified his stories wasn't important. The cynicism that greeted Will as an adult is replaced with an openmindedness that he had as a child. Will gains a deeper understanding of his father because of his stories. And as the film puts it, his father became his stories and lives on in immortality.



• Coachella
  
  This year's Coachella festival is shaping up to be really good with yet another couple of bands confirmed. Billboard.com: Wilco, Flaming Lips Sign On For Coachella Festival
  
  
  
  • Speaking of the Coachella festival, the Coachella website is slowly taking shape!
  
  
  
  


• NBA All-Star Starters
  
  Little late news but: NBA.COM - Carter Leads Voting for Fourth Time
  


• MP3's
  
  Arcade Fire: Came across this website called Undertones.ca which features "the best and new in local music", local meaning Guelph, Ontario. Check out the Arcade Fire mp3's which are about a third of the way down the page. (They're encoded at 96kbps, but the songs are acoustic, so they still sound pretty good.)The Arcade Fire from Montreal, Quebec are a great indie pop-rock band who sound at times like the Pixies and Bjork.