clouds were bruised when the day broke

langer:

Mills is right to call Will Oldham remarks about Wes Anderson’s soundtracks what they are: stupid. Oldham says of Anderson that “his completely cancerous approach to using music is basically, ‘Here’s my iPod on shuffle, and here’s my movie.’ The two are just thrown together.” Right, naturally, because all those Mark Mothersbaugh original compositions that make up fully half of Wes Anderson’s soundtracks were just kicking around on the latter’s iPod.

Oldham also seems wrong to me because so much of what makes Anderson’s films our own is precisely that his iPod looks just like ours; his movies wouldn’t be half as memorable if their scenes weren’t so tightly coupled with these songs we grew up with, these songs we know every word of by heart.

Like when Steve Zissou first learns that Ned is his son and marches to the prow of the ship to light up a joint, the distant lights of the bay framing the Belafonte in glimmering panoramas—could that shot be even remotely as beautiful were it not paired with the crescendo of Bowie’s “Life on Mars”?

Or later, when Zissou finally meets his white whale, would the sight of this broken, worn-down, flawed old man, comically stuffed inside the cabin of the Jacqueline Deep Search with his estranged wife, his motley crew of accidental marine biologists, his producer, his nemesis, his beloved, and his bond company stooge—would this scene be able to bring us to tears were it not for Sigur Rós?

Or when Max Fischer finally get his dance with the much older and more mature Ms. Cross, there could be no better coda for this moment in which all the ignorance and bad behavior of this precocious and innocent kid get swept under the rug than for Rod Stewart to deliver a message from Fischer’s future—and all of ours, inevitably—in “Ooh La La”.

Or when Margot Tenenbaum steps off the Green Line bus to meet Richie at the pier and you see her and you’re like yeah you’re Gwyneth Paltrow and you’re a total babe and I’ve had a serious crush on you ever since “Shakespeare in Love”, but add Nico’s “These Days” to the equation and all of a sudden it’s like oh my god you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen and I’d give anything just for you to be my nine-fingered adopted sister so that I could fall tragically in love with you and slit my wrists in the bathroom to Elliot Smith.

justsayjolie:

ouizy:

Anyhow, it’s getting fucking hot here in Sydney. Last weekend, Ben and I participated in something called a Big Gay Flash Mob on Bondi Beach. I’ve uploaded the official video above. Per Jolie’s instructions, I am here to tell you that while I’m not really in it because I’m out of camera range, you can glimpse me at 1:35 and 4:28. You can also see Ben doing the ‘Single Ladies’ choreography at 1:49.

Hope this brightens your day, especially since the Northern Hemisphere’s days haven’t been so bright lately.

This seriously looks like it was the most fun thing ever.