Recommendations
You’re busy, in-demand, and just can’t squeeze anything else into your schedule. I know. It’s tough. But let me just urge you to do two things as soon as you can manage. First, go listen to the debut LP from Yeasayer, All Hour Cymbals.
It’s seriously threatening to become the best album I’ve heard all year, a flat out genius melding of the best parts of Sufjan Stevens, Arcade Fire, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, and TV on the Radio. You can preview a couple of their songs here (I recommend “Sunrise” and “Final Path” especially, but “2080” is pretty fantastic as well).
Also, if you live near D.C., go see Blade Runner: The Final Cut at the Uptown. I saw it last night, and the Uptown’s presentation is first-rate, probably the best I’ve seen in D.C. Aside from a few new or modified lines of dialog and a few very brief additional shots, there’s not much that’s significantly altered. But the 5.1 score and the restoration, combined with the novelty of the big-screen experience, are a revelation. It’s like after years of riding in your buddy’s beaten up but still-awesome vintage Mustang, a car in which you know and love every tiny detail, your buddy arrives at your door one day and hands you the keys. And when you walk out to the driveway, the car has been completely restored, a few tiny additional features added, but mostly it’s just been buffed and polished and rebuilt to sparking perfection — and to add to that, you, for the first time, actually get to drive it yourself. On one hand, it’s a very, very familiar experience, but it’s entirely new and thrilling at the same time.
It’s playing for two weeks, so you have a little time, but don’t miss it.
