Shopping Spree

I've allowed music to be the central focus of this weekend. That, and movies.

Melissa and I have been encouraged by everybody we talk to and everything we read to see Wedding Crashers. Ever since Old School, I've been a fan of Vince Vaughn. I'm still not a big Owen Wilson fan as much as I probably should be. But Dallas people gotta stick together, yo. So I was game.

So, last night we saw the movie and fine dined on some microwaved hotdogs and stuffed our mouths with popcorn and Coke when we weren't laughing hard enough to make your stomach muscles ache a bit.

After the movie ended, however, I made a rather unwise and costly detour into Barnes and Noble. I had the intention of only picking out one Bob Dylan cd. Instead, I walked away with a two-cd Dylan set, an Astrud Gilberto, and two cd's Melissa picked out for herself.

Not to mention a book, The Rescue Artist, about the 1994 robbery and subsequent recovery of Munch's The Scream that I've been searching for weeks. The book, not the painting.

This morning, I happened upon a musician I've never heard of before, Alana Sweetwater. I checked out her website and read her biography plus the stories behind her music. She's very interesting. At first, I was impressed because you can type out her entire last name only using your left hand (assuming you follow the proper technique; if not, I guess you can spell just about anything only using your left hand).

Sweetwater's style of music is self labeled as "sexy but un-pretentious. An original from the desert (She's from Tucson). Genuine. Fresh, but not 'in your face'". One review had this to say about her: Listen Up DiFranco Fans -- There's A New Righteous Babe In Our Midst.

She wrote this about one of her songs, Rat Race: "Even if you win at the rat race, you're still a rat" means that while you may get ahead doing whatever you need to do to get to where you want to go, it;s important to recognize that if you are hating who you are being, and have lost touch with your inner integrity, what good is it?". I was hooked.

So before we went to the movies again today, I wanted to find her cd. I called around and nobody had the cd in stock. Most people said I could probably find it at Virgin Records, which was next door to the movie theatre we were going to.

I read a review last week about a British independent movie about a young couple's relationship with music as its leitmotif. Two people, Lisa and Matt, meet at a concert in Britain and begin a passionate relationship. Lisa is an American student traveling abroad; Matt is a British scientist who studies glaciers. At first, the relationship is vibrant and full of new twists and surprises, reflective of the live shows they attend together. Over time, the relationship dulls a bit and they seem to stay together just because of the music. By the end of the movie, Lisa decides that she will return to the States for one year before coming back to Matt and try to pick up where they left off. The movie never says whether Lisa returns or not, but I got the feeling she did not and Matt was not too upset.

The movie is essentially Matt's recollections of his relationship with Lisa as he travels over Antarctica and compares the simultaneous feelings of claustrophobia and agoraphobia while traveling the frozen continent to the same feelings within his relationship with Lisa.

This movie was the complete antithesis to Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. If those movies were the sweet nothings being whispered in your ear by your girlfriend, this movie was the proverbial door being slammed in your face by your ex. Comparing the movies, Jess and Celine had a certain unspoken chemistry that transcended time and distance that Lisa and Matt obviously lacked. While it was an interesting movie, it didn't leave me feeling particularly warm and fuzzy. But I don't think that was the point.

Before the movie, we went to the record store to buy the Alana Sweetwater cd. Their selection is usually quite varied and I was completely optimistic they would have the cd. Not so much. But, I didn't quite leave empty handed as I found a Charlie Parker and Miles Davis collaboration that was recorded in 1948.

So, if you're scoring it from home, that's 3 cd's, two movies, and one book.

All within 24 hours. Somebody, please hide my wallet.