Tidbits

Thanks to Hugh Hewitt for the plug! And if you've wandered in here off of Hugh's site, welcome...

I saw two excellent movies yesterday, both featuring beautiful soundtracks:

• Wicker Park is the story of a young man who crosses the line trying to find his old girlfriend and finds himself caught in a web of deception. This is the kind of movie which could easily become a mess, but flashback scenes are brilliantly deployed to keep the plot going. And the soundtrack featured some amazing new music, including underground darlings The Shins.


• I have heard many people singing the praises of Garden State, so I finally watched it yesterday, and it didn't let me down. Zach Braff plays a young actor who returns home to New Jersey for the first time in several years because his mother has died. Not much really happens in this film, but it is absolutely mesmerizing. One underlying theme was Braff's character's dependence on prescription psychotic drugs and his desire to quit using them so he could feel again. This, combined with Natalie Portman's portrayal of a girl he meets, reminds me of Elliot Smith so much that it's kind of freaky. And the Grammy-winning soundtrack to this one is unbelievable (it, too, features The Shins).

ESPN.com has an interesting feature called the National Bracket in which they've taken all of the NCAA tournament picks they've received and compiled them into one bracket. Apparently, people like the ACC, as they comprise 3 of the Final Four.

I found a great blog from a Switchfoot fan called Broken Masterpieces. Author Tim recently reviewed Speaking My Mind, by Tony Campolo. I've been meaning to review this one for a while. In the meantime, Tim's review isn't too far off from what mine would be.

Comments

[Tim]

Thanks for the plug.

[Izzy]

The star of the Wicker Park soundtrack is Aqualung as far as I'm concerned. I can't believe I hadn't heard any of this guy's music until I saw that movie. Haunting, beautiful, simple...it's all delish. Do a search on iTunes for Aqualung and you'll find that the US version of the CD has just been released. Get it.

And don't even get me started on the Garden State Soundtrack...posting all of the lyics on my blog has garnered more hits than I could have ever imagined. Best. Soundtrack. Ever.