Langsam wirds eng mit neuen Scrubs-Promo-Videos…aber Eins hab ich noch:

Yeah Ghost est le dernier album en date du groupe anglais Zero 7  (zéro seven).

Ce duo masculin s’est imposé depuis sa naissance en 2000 et de son premier album ‘Simple Thing’ dans le style downtempo. Très vite, on les a mis au niveau des ténors Air & Morcheeba apparu à la fin des années 90. A la différence de ces derniers,  Zero 7 garde toujours cette même fraicheur 4 albums plus tard.

“Yeah Ghost est 1 très bon album qui s’écoute du début à la fin avec l’envie de remettre 1 replay après le 11ème morceau. Il y a dans cet opus 1 véritable identité musicale que l’on retrouve dans les albums précédents.

Néanmoins l’album précédent m’a beaucoup déçu ; “The Garden” sorti en 2006 n’a d’ailleurs pas réussi à conquérir les fans.

Seul 1 titre “Throw It All Away”est largement au dessus d’1 album très plat et vide musicalement.

Tour d’horizon de “Yeah Ghost” illustrée par 4 magnifiques vidéos filmées en live session

Dès l’intro “Count me Out”, Zero 7 nous mets de suite en émoi.

1minute et 30 secondes plus tard “Mr McGee” ajoute cette petite touche pop anglaise facilement reconnaissable au style préconçu de Zéro 7.

S’en suit “Swing”, morceau à l’accroche baladeuse comme un retour à la source de l’album “Simple Thing” (sortie en 2001).

“Everything Up” nous replonge dans l’esprit rythmé des synthés venu tout droit de la galaxie 80′.

“Pop Art Blue” s’enchaîne et on retrouve avec bonheur cette voix féminine  qui ressemble à la voix de Sia, la chanteuse qui fut révélée par Zero 7. Pourtant quelque chose attire vraiment ma curiosité dans cette voix. Après recherche il s’avère qu’il s’agit de Martha Tilston.Le duo anglais applique à la lettre ce mélange voix féminine & downtempo tellement accrocheur qu’ils ont crée il y a 10 ans. La chanteuse Sia, malheureusement absente de l’album est donc remplacée par plusieurs autres voix. Celle figurant sur “Pop Art Blue”  cristallise le morceau et moi par la même occasion.

“Medicine Man” est entrainant, pop, sautilleur, et pourrait largement faire nouvelle vie auprès de jeunes talents remixeurs.

Finalement mon coup de coeur arrive maintenant, avec “Ghost Symbol”. Tout de suite je ressens la même émotion qu’à la première écoute de ‘Untrue’ l’album de Burial et cette façon si magnifique d’associer le dub au 2 steps.

Grâce à cette diversité de titres très éclectiques, Zero 7 avec Yeah Ghost a réussi son coup.

“Sleeper” est passé à la moulinette électronica, un petit coup d’oeil rapide pour vérifier sur quel label ce disque a été signé : Warp ??? et bien non. ça sera ma seule déception.

“Solstalgia” nous plonge dans une petite mélancolie, mais on reprend tout de suite le dessus, grâce notamment à une autre petite merveille intitulée “The Road”, Ce morceau me rappelle la façon dont j’ai découvert Zero 7 et son morceau “This World” .

L’album se termine (déjà ) en puissance avec le titre “All Of Us”, un OVNI expérimental où l’on retrouve la totalité des sons entendus sur l’album.

Vous l’aurez compris, ce disque doit parvenir rapidement jusqu’à vous.  Pour vous motiver, allez faire un tour sur leur site officiel. Celui ci propose l’écoute intégrale de morceaux issus de leurs 4 albums studio.

Du coup, ça me fait aussi pensé qu’il faut voir (et/ou revoir) le film Garden State du réalisateur Zach Braff dans lequel vous entendrez plusieurs morceaux de Zero 7 et d’autres artistes que vous aimerez à coup sur.

Gigandmix

On December 4, Lionsgate will release a film called Brothers, described as a “drama/war” film on Wikipedia. The movie stars Natalie Portman, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Tobey Maguire, and is directed by Irish filmmaker, Jim Sheridan. It’s an American remake of a Danish movie by the same title, directed by Susanne Bier (After the Wedding, Things We Lost in the Fire), written by Anders Thomas Jensen, and released in 2004.

Now why is a film that not many people have heard of from just five years ago being remade? Well, I have some thoughts on that.

On April 26, 2007, Zach Braff made the following announcement on his official blog:

What else? My dream-first choice- hero of mine – actor wants to do the next film I’m set to direct, “Open Hearts”, but I don’t think I’m gonna be able to direct it this summer as I had hoped since I’m due to be back at Scrubs on August 1st.

Open Hearts will also be an American remake of a Danish film of the same name, this one released in 2002…and also directed by Susanne Bier and written by Anders Thomas Jensen. It’s a Dogme 95 film, which in brief means that it’s devoid of all the “fancy” tricks and methods of conventional filmmaking. (You can read more details about it in another post from a few weeks ago.) Essentially, Bier’s Open Hearts is a story of a woman who cheats on her paralyzed husband…with the husband of the woman who caused the tragic accident.

The tone of Bier’s film is uncomfortable, primarily, with a stroke of raw heartbreak. It sounds like a melodrama, but it feels more like a couple’s home videos you were never, ever supposed to see.

What will Zach Braff do with this story? I honestly don’t think I want to know. But I’ll take a guess anyway – I think he’ll ruin it. I think he’ll try to capture the same effect, but while playing a Thievery Corporation song on top of it. I think he’ll cast well-known “indie” actors, and I think the film will look nice and pretty, with well-composed shots throughout. But hey, maybe he’ll prove me wrong. We’ll have to see in 2011, which is currently the estimated release of Braff’s remake.

But back to the more timely matter. Bier and Jensen’s film from 2004, Brothers (Brødre), is not a Dogme 95 film, but it still retains a candid and uncomfortably honest spirit such as in Open Hearts. The plot – again – sounds like a melodrama: When the older brother is declared dead while fighting in Afghanistan, the younger brother starts to take care of the widowed wife and her kids. Within time, the younger brother and the widow fall for each other. However, everyone’s lives get turned upside down when they find out the older brother is actually still alive.

It sounds like a soap opera, but it doesn’t feel like one when you watch it. This is the best trailer I found for the original Brothers, which might give you little insight into the tone of the movie.

What sparked this post was this trailer (Trailer 1) for the remake. No, you can’t always judge a movie by its trailer, but something already seems off about it. The scenes look almost identical to the original, but it feels like a sensational love story that turns into a thriller. “This is not right,” my mind keeps saying as I watch the preview. Hearing Natalie Portman murmur apathetically, “I thought you were dead” doesn’t help matters much either. This is how the film could turn out: forced emotion with bland, uninterested acting and not-so-subtle writing. (One of the reasons these stories worked in Bier’s films is because Jensen wrote them with the philosophy that not everything needs to be said.)

You could easily argue that these are remakes, and given that alone, they are supposed to different. They are supposed to be reinterpreted based on whatever style or mood the filmmakers are trying to achieve. This is true. But I believe these remakes are completely pointless. For one, these are not classic films. Instead, they are relatively unknown, foreign, contemporary films. They were both released less than ten years ago.

But I think Hollywood executives and directors like Zach Braff see these films and are merely struck by their brutal honesty. Then they say, “Hey, that was pretty good…I’m going to tell that story myself!” But the thing is – you’re stripping that story of the rawness and grittiness that made it good in the first place. Without these things, it just becomes another adulterous melodrama, and all you’re left with is the soap opera plotline played out by some well-known actors.

This is not about elitism, or liking something just because it’s smaller and lesser-known.  It’s about the essence of something. And when you change the essence of something unique and specifically good, it just looks like anything else.

In a few sentences? These Danish movies work because they aren‘t Hollywood. Taking something that’s great because it’s not Hollywood and then making it Hollywood? That might be the definition of “counterproductive.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: I will give Sheridan’s Brothers a fair chance and see it when it comes out in theaters. I will also try to be as unbiased as possible when analyzing the film’s quality in a review. This, however, is just a rant/observation.

As those of you who religeously read my blog know, Dave Franco is set to make his debut on “Scrubs” next Tuesday night as the rich, cocky medical student Cole.   And if you knew that, then you probably know I’m ridiculously excited that he’s back spreading his awesomeness on TV again (sadly “Do Not Disturbed” was prematurely cancelled).

So much to my happiness while browsing around YouTube last night at 3 AM due to insomnia and ADD, I found a just released clip from ABC featuring Davey Dave, and I’m happy to say that everything looks very promising for the series.  So click away for your first look at the new and improved “Scrubs”!

**UPDATED WITH NEW VIDEO INTERVIEW!!**

IMAGE SOURCE

image source: http://www.excessif.com/serie-tv/actu-series/news/scrubs-saison-9-premieres-images-5553827-760.html

Das lange Warten hat ein Ende. Nächste Woche Dienstag (01.12) ist es endlich soweit. Eine brandneue Scrubs-Folge wird in den USA ausgestrahlt.

Scrubs die 9te…Neue Informationen zur neunten Staffel der Scrubs, zu den alten und neuen Schauspielern, zum Ort des Geschehens, und das ganze drum und dran…gibt es heute…Scrubs-Day sozusagen
Freut euch drauf…immer mal wieder in kleinen Häppchen, leicht zu verdauen und zum drauf freuen: Trailer, Berichte, Infos, Bilder…

Zur Einstimmung: Was wird sich in der neuen Staffel am Cast ändern?

Fakt ist, dass J.D (Zach Braff) und Elliot (Sarah Chalke) vorerst nur in den ersten sechs Folgen der Neuauflage von Scrubs zu sehen sein werden.
Als bekannte Hauptdarsteller agieren weiterhin John C. McGinley (Dr. Cox) und Donald Faison (Turk).
Und um die Stimmung noch etwas mehr anzuheizen gleich noch der erste Trailer hinterher:

Today, after all of you have seen the final of my favourite TV-show of all time at my 21st birthday, on May 6th this year, I did it too. “My Finale” sets an impressive dot at the end of this wonderful series.

Since the first time on air in Austria and Germany, I’ve watched every episode I was able to. And with all this endless reruns while waiting for the next synchronized seasons, I know can say, that I’ve really seen every episode. And because I didn’t want to wait again some weeks and months ’till the start of the eight season here, I watched Scrubs on the Internet.

Season 8 is really great. One of the best, I think. So many crazy, funny things happens, so many patients to feel with. So many J.D./Turk – fun. All about love, feelings, life and at least: growing up.

Maybe that’s the reason I love this series. Maybe just because it’s just like “Garden State”. A nice, wonderful, breath-taking growing-up thing.

As I’ve read on Wikipedia, ABC comes up with a new season. Renewing nearly the whole cast, planning 13 episodes for season 9, it seems, that they really want to set up a whole new series under the name of “Scrubs”. On December 1st 2009 Scrubs starts again with a double episode “Our First Day Of School” and “Our Drunk Friend”. I don’t know how it will be, but hey: If you see the first episodes of the new season, tell me how they are.

Soundtracks, we all have our favorites and some of us refuse to acknowledge their existence all together. I, on the other hand, have a good relationship with soundtracks, depending on the movie/television show/web series it comes from. These are pretty good choices that I just happen to own, interested? Read on.

#A – Girl Interrupted.My first glimpse into WILCO, a lovely little band that may see a bit on the pretentious side but really have some amazing songs. One of those bands that make you love every song, sound, word, vibe. They start off this semi-depressing group of misfit songs that work well with the movie of the same description. Title works fantastic with the motif of this album, “How to Fight Loneliness”, this first glimpse was not the end of my relationship with Wilco, they are still alive in my soul to this day. This album also has one of the greatest bands and one of my favorite songs from them, Jefferson Airplane with “Comin’ Back to Me”, such a beautiful song, really beautiful is the one perfect word to explain this song, and most of their music as a whole. Other artists include, Aretha Franklin, The Band, The Mamas & The Papas. Take a listen why don’t you?

#B – The Craft.

Witches who just so happen to be a bunch of bitches, makes for a great soundtrack, well its more of a sentimental one for me with a couple good songs that make me reminiscent of the first viewing of the movie. Great pop song with Letters to Cleo’s “Dangerous Type” and some heavy grungy hate music with Sponge’s “All This and Nothing” and a surprisingly good song by Our Lady Peace with “Tomorrow Never Knows”, (you can tell I’m obviously not their #1 fan). A not so good cover of a Harry Nilsson song, Tripping Daisy’s “Jump into the Fire”, I’d rather” they have put the original but they never asked my opinion on the subject. Some other good jams, like Spacehog’s ”Horror” & Love Spit Love’s “How Soon Is Now”, but the gem is Matthew Sweet’s “Dark Secrets” which made me want to own it to begin with, it pleases the ear gods for sure.

#C – Jawbreaker

Yes, pranks that turn deadly mixed with pretty girls who look nothing like the regular high school student, proves great for a rockin’ soundtrack. (Plus, Julie Benz, a young vampire on BTVS, classic). Songs to get you pumped and sent back into the 90’s like a whirlwind. I’ll start of with the favorites, The Friggs ”Bad Word for a Good Thing”, those Frigg girls can belt and rock, plus rock while never becoming famous, some hardcore girl power going on with that song. The icing on the cake? Imperial Teen’s “Yoo Hoo”, again the reason I even wanted the album in the first place, an amazing jam with the most intoxicating sound, voice is prime on this one. Ending it out with one of the most depressing songs I’ve ever heard in my life, The Transisters “Flow”, its beautiful and sad and painful, if I ever needed to be heartbroken with a theme song, this is it. Having a bad breakup? Lost a person close to you? Listen UP.

#D – The Wedding Singer

Get ready for some 80’s! This soundtrack has the “good shit” from the 1980’s, and its a double disc-er! Unfortunately I only have one half the album but that’s alright by me.  The half I have has bands like, Billy Idol, David Bowie, New Order, Musical Youth, Elvis Costello, The Thompson Twins, The Police, Culture Club, The Psychedelic Furs, and so on. If your in an 80’s mood, then stick the sucker in and enjoy your weird flashback that ensues.

yeah, tricked you. I know its not a song, but Buscemi rocks.

#E – Garden State.

We’ve got some good ones on here folks. Of course their is the “what lead me to own it” song, which we’ll begin with. Frou Frou’s ”Let Go”, a very graceful sound and is a basic recap of the movie itself. Jump in, what are you waiting for? Date Natalie Portman, Zach Braff, just DO IT! But any who, next up is another great jam, that I didn’t come in contact until long after I had the Cd, but when a friend of mine did it in a talent show, another song full of beauty, Bonnie Somerville’s “Winding Road”, pretty voice meets pretty sound, good good. The entire beginning of this Cd gets me in a crazy odd mood, I used to listen to it on my Ipod walking through the halls of high school, very surreal. First, Cold Play’s “Don’t Panic”, and No, I am not a cold play fan or freak, its the only song I dig, so get over it. Following it, is The Shins with “Caring is Creepy”, great sound, goes right through to the bone. And after that? Zero 7’s “In the Waiting Line”, one of the other songs I am in love with on this soundtrack, a main reason you might as well just go out and get it right now.

#F – Once More With Feeling – BTVS

A musical episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer belongs on this list, if not dominating it. Joss Whedon, the entity himself, wrote the songs, music, all of it. Which would be good reason for me to love it so, and I do. Its addictive to the highest extent. These actors, just people, who yes, famous, but normal; not singers, (well not all of them, James Marsters, Amber Benson, & Tony Head), just people, made beautiful music together. I probably listen to it at lease a couple times a week. I don’t think I would have the power to actually say out loud, or type, my favorite song from this album. I’ll just go through most of them for you to decide.

So, we start with Buffy complaining shes lost her mojo for her job, we can all sing a long as the demons agree with her and she diss’s the gentleman in distress.

Then you’ve got a group jam with the gang, which turns ugly with Anya, the demon, yelling about bunnies, and ending with a who-even-gives-a-crap attitude brought along by sad-sap Buffy.

A song about Mustard being removed from clothing.

A lesbian love song between the 2 most believable, non-skanked-out-for-the-sake-of-MALES-everywhere lesbians on television ever, and probably will always be. You just gotta love Willow & Tara, for ever, and ever, and so on.

Then we have the couple, demon and construction worker, Anya & Xander, talking about the things they can’t stand about each other that they could never say out loud, without song of course, which leads towards the end with Anya “dancing crazy!”. You have to love a song  that has a line about penis diseases, classy.

One of great writers of the show finds herself singing about a ticket she’s getting for parking in front of a hydrant, which has become one of my favorites to sing in the car.

Then the addictive song of Spike, the whiny love ridden fool song, he even admits he’d be Buffy’s slave, talk about being whipped. Just let him rest in peace, Buffy. Just let him be buried and go get Angel to sooth the pain. Sorry…

Next, a snippet of dawn’s voice before she gets kidnapped, pretty voice while its lasts.

Pretty Ballet instrumental leads to the dancing demon, Sweet, singing out with his great deep man singing voice trying to hit on 15 year old Dawn, Hawt.

A big hit in my car sing-a-long, the Giles song, sad but upbeat and lovely, he doesn’t want to leave Buffy, but needs to, sweet slow-mo scene with some kick-ass dodging of sharp things while pulling off some gymnastic moves, go SMG.

Here we have 2 songs emerge which is a high on the list for me, putting together the two amazing voices of Tony Head and Amber Benson, wonderful actors and brilliant singers. Such a beautiful addition to the already amazing track listing.

Up next, everyone joins in while wanting to walk through the fire, another great song, with some awesome lines, “things are turning out so dark”, “No, I’ll save her then I’ll kill her!” &  “I think this line mostly filer”. The best part is when the scooby gang chimes in and does their little part, is the slayer too far gone to care?

Then us listeners get something to sing about, a glittering world, and a dancing almost-to-her-death Buffy ending with dropping the heaven bombshell.

And to help finish it off, sweet rubs it in all our faces that things didn’t quite go our way with the whole dancing thing, that lead to the death thing, and the “aw we all have so many secrets!” thing.

Ending with the cast leaving confused, not knowing where to go from there. And a big sloppy wet one from Buffy & Spike, which I wish i could scrub from my brain.

If you’ve never see the episode, watch it. If you’ve never heard the soundtrack, listen to it. You’ll have to track it down like I did, since the boyfriend and I bought the only 2 copies in our area. Plus, if your REALLY lucky, like me, you’ll get to take a trip to Indianapolis and watch actors act out the episode, sing the songs, and dance the dances, an amazing experience, especially on the night before Halloween.

#G – Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-Long Blog

How shocking, right? Another Joss choice, you get my love yet? Do you? Do You? Well you’ll figure it out eventually. Now, this sound track is Uh-Maze-Ing, seriously. NPH (For the less hip folks, Neil Patrick Harris) really shows us the talent that Doogie never really did, he sings, and he sings well. Fantastically well to be exact. He’s a villain looking for his big villainy break, to belong to the big-bad’s club, that’s of course ran by a horse, derr. Then we have the love interest, with a killer voice, no other than the beautiful Felicia Day, (who if you don’t watch the guild, START, I’ll explain more later), the helpless-helping-homeless-home-giving goddess that the villain is head-over-heels in love with. But in walks the bad guy, wait no, the GOOD guy. He just happens to be a prick, with a picture of a hammer on his chest. But he is played by no other than the mystical, magical, stud-man-guy Nathan Fillion. The guy crushes of the world surround this guy, which makes it easy for your Felicia, “Penny”, to fall for instead. (sad). So with this comes amazingly catchy songs that, yet AGAIN, Whedon is responsible for, also making it a family affair adding brothers and a sister-in-law. This is another Cd that is found being played in my car multiple times within a week. You’ve GOT to get this soundtrack, like now, LEAVE, GO!

#H – Pick of Destiny

Okay, Tenacious D is the best band EVER. Maybe this statement is not something you would agree with, and if it isn’t, stop lying. Seriously you know the truth, they probably ARE the greatest band EVER, why you ask? Because they have it ALL. What other band can use curse words like poetry, I mean really, “Mother Fucker” never sounded so good. If you haven’t had the chance to gander at the power that is the D, its time my friends. My passion for the D is forever deep, I was hooked the first time I heard them, saw them, and inevitably fell for them. “The Pick Of Destiny” is a movie and an album, and both are glorious. Watching Jack Black and Kyle Gas for 93 minutes straight has to be an experience, and sir, it was. But, the soundtrack that came along? GODLIKE, truly amazing music, which is not surprising from this duo. Another album i could not possibly begin the misery of deciding the best song on it, so you will have to venture out on your own and taste the taste that is TENACIOUS D.

be blown away by Rage Cage & Jables, KG & JB.

#I – Nashville

Great movie, wonderful soundtrack. Robert Altman is an amazing director and he did an amazing job on all the movies I’ve seen of his. They always have crazy relationships, and madness masked in innocence and he didn’t shy away from that with this one. Country singers, singing and crawling in drama filled situations; if you get a chance make sure to check this one out, i have a feeling you’ll be pleased if your in anyway cool, or hip, or happenin’ in the way I am. So rent it, steal it, borrow it, either way watch it, and make sure you listen to the songs you hear, it won’t be hard. I’ve leave you with a video of my favorite song from the movie that happens to be a great part of the film. Watch and aw.

So that’s it for now, I might come back and surprise you with more amazing songs that go with amazing movies/tv shows/web series, or I wont, don’t hold your breath. I leave you with a thought… Come back and see me, I mean read me, sometime.

sas

Sam introduces Andrew to The Shins in "Garden State".

(Zach Braff, 2004)

November 19, 2009

by Joel Crary

Recently I’ve come across several articles on hipsters and indie cinema that point to “Garden State” as some sort of (un)holy text, for better or worse. Of note is one written by a personal friend of mine, music and culture enthusiast Matt Buttler, who seems to be arguing on his blog that hipster-dom is a sort of necessary result of the postmodern condition – that is, a culture of anti-ideas rather than ideas, seeming creative dead-ends rather than new avenues, etc. Matt is responding in part to an article printed in Adbusters last year that made the claim that hipsters marked no less than the end of civilization. This week, Vadim Rizov, who may be my favourite film blogger, posted a rebuke of Twitter users who took part in a meme that defined “indie” film as such and such, more often than not incorrectly out of ignorance, citing “Garden State” as the film that kick-started a useless paradigm and stigma about independent cinema.

I don’t think of myself as a hipster, which is, of course, a classic hipster assertion to make. I turned 30 last week and I feel as though I’ve largely outgrown those kinds of definitions. If the definition of a hipster comes down to a lifestyle of constantly attending awful rock shows, making bad or extreme fashion choices, drinking a beer with too many consonants in its name and exhaling sarcasm instead of air, I’m about one for four. This isn’t to say that I’ve never bought an ironic t-shirt, thought that compilations weren’t a spiritual necessity or spouted asinine opinions about contemporary society that had no basis in informed fact. A lot of that comes out of the energy of being young and submitting to the false recognition that life is short, that cool is exclusive or that certain existential dilemmas can’t be solved with a little perspective.

I was first attracted to “Garden State” because of the music. About a year before its release I took the advice of a friend and started listening to online radio stations to discover new songs, and that’s how I came across “Breathe In” by Frou Frou, the former dance pop duo comprised of Imogen Heap and Guy Sigsworth that would come to pop up on “sounds like Morcheeba” Amazon recommendation lists. I bought the record while on a trip to New York City in June of 2003. Less than a year later, the album’s first track, “Let Go”, was featured prominently in the teaser trailer to “Garden State”, which began opening in theatres on July 28th, 2004.

The teaser presents a series of images and brief snippets from many of the more visually alive sequences in the film. Writer/director/star Zach Braff is shown prominently wearing an expression of near catatonia as bizarre things happen around him or to him. A group of people scream for dear life as his plane crashes to the ground. A room full of people move in fast forward as he sits perfectly still on a couch. He is shown wearing a shirt that has been stylized in sync with the wallpaper behind him, causing his torso to blend in to the background. He discovers a torn gas pump handle still attached to his car. Throughout all of these moments, the same expression, the same glassy-eyed acknowledgment that he should be reacting to these incredible circumstances, but somehow can’t. Quotations from Newsweek and efilmcritic.com sell Braff as a young visionary. All the while, Frou Frou’s lilting dance number drives the preview forward, filling the cracks with heart and the melancholy observation that there is beauty in breaking down.

Perhaps my personal discovery of Frou Frou was instrumental in finding “Garden State” so appealing initially. Those who knew of Braff knew him from the popular television sitcom “Scrubs”, in which he played a goofy medical intern with a bizarre imagination. His prominent presence in a film represented something fresh for a young generation, a new and unique kind of auteur that the youth could call their own without admitting to it. His devoted online presence fueled his fandom and drove scores of people to the theatre and video stores, turning “Garden State” into a cult classic. Studios began their cookie-cutting process and the inevitable backlash followed. For some, the movie has come to stand for all that is unbearable about Generation Y, a collection of misguided individuals who assembled their cultural histories from soundbytes and conveniently located hyperlinks that teach them all they need to know about how the world works.

When we first see Andrew Largeman in a non-dream state, he is tucked tightly in bed in a purely white room, looking up at the ceiling. His phone rings. It’s his father, calling to tell him that his mother has died. Andrew reacts to the message as though he’s trying to do rudimentary math in his head – the previous generation dies and leaves the next alone in mental disarray. We discover that Andrew gets through life on a cocktail of lithium and other anti-depressants that keep him functioning, but only barely. Throughout the course of a weekend, he abandons his meds and allows his emotions to surface, whereupon he is able to forgive himself for his mistakes and deal more truthfully with his own life.

The emotional sad sack with psychological issues is the hipster prototype. Kids understand dour and upset. The world is a massive letdown, but that’s sort of comforting. There is a solace in not being all right. It means that a person can be different, more fully individualized in a global village that has suddenly and dramatically shrunk in size. There is a relief in thinking that no one understands. And that’s how the hipster subculture thrives: by a superficially singular yet mutual understanding of a collective’s ironic apart-ness. Back in 2001, Donnie Darko excitedly turned to Gretchen Ross and asked, “What emotional problems does your dad have?” as though emotional problems were trading cards that could be negotiated for a complete set. In “Garden State”, Andrew Largeman sports a proud collection, as does old high school friend Mark (Peter Sarsgaard), though someone has stolen his Wolf Blitzer.

Sam (Natalie Portman) enters Andrew’s life in the waiting room of a doctor’s office. Her affliction is epilepsy. Her medicine is a sense of humour and music. She dares to utter the name of a band that will change Andrew’s life, pouring on the significance of The Shins before a brief few bars of “New Slang” plays over her grinning face. It’s a moment with little precedent on film. Certainly, characters have luxuriated in music and called artists by name, but an actual, for real “indie” rock band? The past decade has marked a period of time in which pop radio married itself to hip hop and music video channels stopped playing music videos altogether. How would a young woman in Jersey know of a band out of Portland with a couple of 7-inch singles and a full-length debut released on Sub Pop?

It’s unspoken in the film, perhaps because modern narratives still don’t know how to discuss 21st century technology without sounding infantile or corny, but Sam in particular is a child of that technology. The Internet has expanded the definition of what can be called authentic, while simultaneously enforcing authenticity as a prime secular ethic. Anyone can now be the first to hear anything. The moment in “Garden State” when Sam plays The Shins for Andrew, a band he’s never heard of, attracts hipsters by presenting itself as a moment of unbridled authenticity. The boy listens to the girl’s music and it/she changes his life. She pulls him out of his medication-induced clouded haze to realize that life is worth encountering by showing him that a song can still mean something to two people at the exact same time.

Music’s always had that power. The soundtrack to “Garden State” is lathered with good, solid songs. They emerge from the narrative like a thoughtfully chosen playlist, repeatedly evoking the right kind of modern emotion. Every song spirals around the loneliness a person can experience when coming of age. Mark tells his mother that he’s only 26 and that he doesn’t want to feel rushed. At 24, I listened and thought, yes, I didn’t want to feel rushed. There’s something about being 23, 24, 25, 26 that makes the rest of a life feel unacceptable somehow. People speed by like blurs and rarely stay. The future is an infinite abyss.

What “Garden State” does well is sustain a mood and vision that is quite apparently of its writer and director. Braff deserves due credit for it. He has yet to follow it up, and when he does, he won’t be telling the same story. The film is the acute result of being a certain age, feeling a certain way and resisting the belief that everything will change. “Garden State” is about the process of letting go.

Music video for “New Slang” by The Shins:

So, Scrubs is coming back in December, but with an all new format, lots of new intern cast members and no Zach Braff. Its easy to understand why someone doesn’t want to keep doing the same show for 8 years, so we’ll give Braff a past. However, we’re very curious to see what happens when Scrubs Interns or whatever its called comes back on the air. Check out more on our Scrubs page – yes, our site has a Scrubs page! If you have a site, your site should also have a scrubs page because scrubs is EXCELLENT!
enjoy the rest of your weekend!
MyTriState.us

GLEE.
Shut up and look/listen!

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The dreaminess that is Zach Braff! Swoon