2 + 2 = 5

1) Netflix.
I finally buckled and joined Netflix. And that's a good thing. For whatever reason, I found the concept of Netflix to be pointless and not something I was down with. I dunno, something about the whole waiting for the mail and then sending it back in, blah blah blah, it annoyed me. So I ignored the whole enterprise. Last week I found myself putzing around the Netflix website and came to the conclusion that it might be the best thing ever and added 70 movies to my queue. I haven't even gotten my first batch of movies (The Thin Red Line, The Straight Story, that excerpt from The Cremaster 3) so this all might be premature. But I doubt it.

2) The 33 1/3 book series.

I love this series of smart, pocket size treatises on landmark albums. I've just started the volume on OK Computer and I love the fact that I'm 60 pages in and there's been really no reference to Radiohead (yet). Instead, I've read an extended essay on audio formats (the album, the single, the ep, the double album, the concept album, the CD album, etc.) That's what's so brilliant about the series: really smart writers take on an album and use that as a springboard to discuss a myriad of related topics. I also highly recommend the volumes on Sign O' the Times and The Velvet Underground and Nico. Oh and Mrs. Josh Gibson has a forthcoming volume on The Replacement's Let It Be.

3) Kill Christ.
I stumbled across this little satire yesterday over at Movie City News. Spencer Somers took images from the Passion of the Christ trailer, recontexualized them with the addition of the song "Battle Without honor or Humanity" (aka that action-movie music that plays during the Kill Bill Vol. 1 trailer), and revealed Mel's film for what it is: a masturbatory meditation on violence and pain (like Kill Bill only without the humor and self-awareness).

4) Bogie and Bacall's horse conversation in The Big Sleep.

I finally saw The Big Sleep over the weekend and... well, it goes without saying that I was deeply confused. (Even worse: I was confused and I had read the book that the movie is based on.) Confusion aside, Bogie and Bacall didn't disappoint. The best was the infamous scene where they talk about "betting on horses." Check it:

Vivian : Speaking of horses, I like to play them myself. But I like to see them workout a little first, see if they're front runners or come from behind, find out what their whole card is, what makes them run.
Marlowe : Find out mine?
Vivian : I think so.
Marlowe : Go ahead.
Vivian : I'd say you don't like to be rated. You like to get out in front, open up a little lead, take a little breather in the backstretch, and then come home free.
Marlowe : You don't like to be rated yourself.
Vivian : I haven't met anyone yet that can do it. Any suggestions?
Marlowe : Well, I can't tell till I've seen you over a distance of ground. You've got a touch of class, but I don't know how, how far you can go.
Vivian : A lot depends on who's in the saddle.

Yowza.

5) "Leaving New York" by R.E.M.

Huzzah! I like a new R.E.M. song. I've not been the biggest fan of R.E.M.'s recent output, but I really like "Leaving New York." It seems an odd choice for a first single (it seems more like a deep album cut), but it's a solid track that I've been playing repeatedly. (You can download it off iTunes or stream it at R.E.M.HQ.)