My second favorite band has called it quits.  (My favorite band is still with us.)  My journey with them started around 1986, when I saw the video for “Fall on Me” on some obscure cable access college radio show:

Loved the song, and didn’t think about them much for a few years.

When Document hit, they were sort of at the periphery of my vision.  I remember liking “The One I Love” and “It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” just, um, fine.  But it wasn’t until Green that I really paid any kind of attention, by which I mean I bought Green.

I remember it being a really big deal that this was the first time R.E.M. had printed any of their lyrics on the jacket (or, in my case, the inside of the cassette tape liner).  A lot of people considered that “selling out,” especially since it was their first album with a major label (Warner Bros.).  Funny story there.  Apparently I.R.S., their former label, knew they couldn’t compete with the bid Warner’s was making for the band so, in a gesture of good will, they doubled their offer so that Warners would have to up their bid and pay the band more, even though I.R.S. knew they couldn’t actually pay that much themselves.  Another little REM contract anomaly: They’re one of the few signed bands in the world that owns the rights to their own music.

One of my distinct memories of Green was nearly wearing it out mowing the lawn.  But its biggest impact came when I handed this album off to my friend Grant who was a guitarist in a band with me in high school.  He went on to become obsessed with the band and turned me into the fan I am today.  It was his suggestion to stick with Murmur until it hooked me, the first time I learned an album doesn’t have to blow you away on the first listen to be great.  (We would go on to perform a cover of “Fall On Me,” kind of bringing things full circle). Grant also got me into Zeppelin; I owe that guy a lot.

Murmur, by the way, produced one of my favorite videos:

REM became on of my most covered bands.  In college I would perform “(Don’t Go Back to) Rockville” with friends who actually knew how to play guitar (I just sang).  By the time I could play myself I did the somewhat simpler “Everybody Hurts” and “Let Me In”.  I performed “Orange Crush” with my friend Rachel (who also did a mean Kate Pierson on “Me in Honey”) in which the middle eight was replaced with a chorus of “Pull Over That Ass Too Fat” or, on one occasion, the opening monologue from The A-Team.

They also strongly influenced my songwriting.  Listen to “Waif” and tell me I haven’t been listening to Fables of the Reconstruction:

Out of Time came out as I was graduating high school, about the same time as Living Colour’s Time’s Up.  Sense a theme?  While not the “best” R.E.M. album, it is certainly my favorite.  “Radio Song,” “Losing My Religion,” “Belong,” “Country Feedback,” and “Me In Honey” all resonated with me greatly (I could be kind of morose), but the all time winner here is “Half a World Away”.  It’s my second favorite song of all time (first).  R.E.M.’s 3/4 and 6/8 numbers always grab me, but this one, with the interplay between the organ and the harpsichord and the longing, sweeping lyricism of Stipe just devastate me (and kind of uplift me, too).

I only ever saw them in concert twice, once on the Monster tour and once to support Accelerate.  Although Monster is the more iconic album, Accelerate produced the better tour.  It was, in fact, one of the best concerts I ever saw.

My final viewing of R.E.M., as it were, was seeing Michael Stipe at SXSW introduce a bunch of short films he’d produced in conjunction with songs from what we would find out later was R.E.M.’s last album, Collapse Into Now (for some reason he was keen not to call them “music videos”).  Mike Mills also happened to be in the house, so it was kind of like seeing 2/3 of the band.  Although the films were very arty, and generally not to my taste, the short for “Every Day Is Yours to Win,” seemed very of the moment and a good note on which to end.

The reason I link to this article isn’t because I think Morgan Spurlock’s series is going to be the best thing ever or because I think their previous effort was all that.  It’s more for the attitude expressed by the last line of the article, a quote about the series from Hulu Senior VP of Content and Distribution Andy Forssell:

“We don’t need it to be a hit in the first four weeks. It will find a home over time.”

Imagine if that had been the attitude behind Lone Star or The Famous Teddy Z or Firefly or any number of brilliant (or potentially brilliant) but cancelled shows that litter TV’s past.  Forssell may just be saying what he’s saying to lower expectations, but I like to think that the economics of the internet allow for that kind of attitude.  On the other hand, the economics of the internet seem to allow for Hulu being sold (maybe), so what do I know?

But web series as a form and internet companies themselves as the potential future production houses for most of our entertainment might provide more artistically accommodating economics for content.  I hope.

The most e-mailed NYT story this month is Do You Suffer From Decision Fatigue?, a fascinating study which basically says that the more decisions you have to make, the worse you get at making decisions, until ultimately you don’t want to make any decisions at all.  This is why it’s better to be in front of a parole judge earlier in the day, because his version of no decision at all is to leave your ass in jail—it’s the least risky, lowest effort choice.

This made me think of defaults.  When an ISP’s web site gets a traffic boost after making their site the default homepage for their customers’ browsers, it’s because most people don’t bother to change their homepage.  It’s not that they can’t, it’s just that that’s one more decision to make that uses up decision fuel better used on other things.

I’m complicit.  That Firefox version of the Google homepage is still my Firefox homepage because, to be honest, I haven’t thought of anything better, and don’t especially want to spend the effort (also I’m picky and would probably change it every week anyway).

Point is, defaults are powerful.  They are a huge influencer on user behavior.  I’ve known this for a while, but until reading this article, I’ve never had a strong suspicion as to why.  But where the article really gets interesting is in the next to last paragraph:

“Good decision making is not a trait of the person, in the sense that it’s always there,” Baumeister says. “It’s a state that fluctuates.” His studies show that people with the best self-control are the ones who structure their lives so as to conserve willpower. They don’t schedule endless back-to-back meetings. They avoid temptations like all-you-can-eat buffets, and they establish habits that eliminate the mental effort of making choices. Instead of deciding every morning whether or not to force themselves to exercise, they set up regular appointments to work out with a friend. Instead of counting on willpower to remain robust all day, they conserve it so that it’s available for emergencies and important decisions.

It’s as if the people who really know how to control their lives do it by controlling their defaults.  They make it as easy as possible to make the best decisions by making those decisions in advance.  I suppose that’s just a fancy way of saying “make a schedule and stick to it,” but, again, I’m only just now understanding why that works.

So there’s a new episode of the Talking Pictures podcast up.  Kev and I talk about how so much more work seemed to go into the comedies of the 80′s than today.  Not that today’s movies aren’t funny, but they don’t have memorable scores or great cinematography like you find in Stripes or Ghostbusters.

Although the score thing I find to be an issue in most genres these days.  The most recent score I’d probably recognize upon hearing would be from Harry Potter, and I can’t even remember the last score I could hum on cue.  Where did melody go in scoring?  What’s the most recent score you can hum on cue?

There’s also a new Pick 3 up.  The theme is “hot”.  Interpret that as you will.  We did.

I wasn’t expecting much of this summer, but I was struck by how many ideas that looked bad on paper turned out to be marvelous on screen.  And sometimes the opposite.  So here are the surprises, both good and bad, from the summer that was…

Fast Five

I have, for some reason, borne witness to all but one of the Fast/Furious ouevre (I’ve only seen bits of 2 Fast, 2 Furious) and I can tell you that this is the best, followed closely by the original and not at all closely by the others.  Justin Lin (helmer of the worth-digging-up Better Luck Tomorrow) delivers a sort of action film potpourri with sequences that fall into all sorts of tasty categories including your classic car chase, all out brawl, and straight-up race.  Each sequence has its own distinct feel, which is rare, especially in a fifth installment that doesn’t need to try nearly that hard.  Plus it’s all wrapped up in a neat little heist film bow.

Thor

It’s called Thor.  It’s about a Norse god with a gaudy helmet and a big-ass hammer.  Even people who like the comic didn’t think it could work as a film.  But Hollywood has learned that when you put a good director in charge of a comic book film you usually get good results.  And Kenneth Branagh is pretty damn good.  Thor is fun, unpretentious, but takes itself seriously enough to work.  Kind of like Thor the superhero.  Oh, and Clark Gregg’s maybe five or so lines of dialogue steal the show.

X-Men: First Class

After the hackery of Brett Ratner in X-Men: The Last Stand and the sheer drop into abysmal crapulence that was Wolverine, I had lost all faith in the X-franchise.  Even with Matthew Vaughan at the helm, I couldn’t convince myself that First Class could be anything but a disappointment.  After all, Wolverine had the excellent Gavin Hood (Tsotsi) at the helm.  But First Class is smart, funny, and engaging.  And I could watch Michael Fassbender kill Nazis all day.

Cars 2

I have not seen Cars 2, but let the record show that for the first time in history, a Pixar film was not fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.  In fact, it was very rotten (37%), when usually Pixar films are very fresh (pre-Cars 2 average was 95%).  It’s not too surprising because if the streak was going to end, it was probably going to be on a Cars film, given that the first one held the previous record for worst-rated (74%, though I actually liked that one).  Still, it’s sad to see the reign end.  Although the early buzz is that next summer’s Brave is going to put them back on top.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

I don’t know that there was so much of a surprise here except to say that I was expecting it to be good and it was actually pretty great.  Any time you can end a series well, it deserves a shout out.  It is a difficult, difficult task.  I was also surprised to see it beat The Dark Knight‘s opening weekend record and go on to be third highest grossing movie of all time internationally.

Cowboys and Aliens

With a title like that, there was always the possibility that it would be bad.  But with Favreau at the helm and folks like Damon Lindeloff working on the script I hoped for more.  I guess the surprise wasn’t that it was bad, but that it was kind of meh.  With all the talent involved (forget Ford and Craig, we had Paul Dano and Sam Rockwell in supporting roles here) you’d expect something arresting and not sort of, well, okay.

Crazy, Stupid, Love

I’m always suspicious of ensemble comedies.  Even with good casts.  But here I was really wowed.  Everyone brings their A game (though Julianne Moore, to be honest, is kind of wasted).  Steve Carrell is masterful as always.  And Emma Stone proves once again she’s ready for prime time.  But the real revelation here is Ryan Gosling.  As if there was anything left to discover with this guy.  He’s already proved his worth as an actor of inestimable caliber.  But a comedian?  A really fucking funny comedian?  No, I mean a reaaaalllly fucking give him a best supporting nod now kind of fucking funny comedian?  That surprised me.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Again, should have sucked.  The title should have told you that.  The unnecessariness of the reboot should have told you that.  And yet, here’s a solid thriller.  It kind of doesn’t make a difference that James Franco is the lead human, but it makes a huge difference that Andy Serkis is the lead ape.  Once again, he gives an Oscar-worthy, digitally enabled performance.  I don’t know if you need to nominate just him or the whole team, but somebody give somebody something.  Damn.

Fright Night

Speaking of who-cares remakes, this, too should have been scrapped at the idea stage.  But the direction and script are solid and Colin Farrell and David Tennant have more fun that should be legal with their roles.  Tennant is especially fun to watch if you’ve ever seen him on Doctor Who.  (And if you haven’t, go do that now.)  Even the 3-D works in a gleefully gimmicky sort of way.

So I just found out about the Streamys. This helps me with my media consumption because up until now I’ve had no way to navigate the wide world of web series. Now, at least, I have a starting point. That having been said, I find it curious that such a new media prospect as an awards show for web series follows a very old media rubric—separate acting awards for men and women.

Last year, Zach Galifianakis won Best Male Actor in a Comedy Web Series for Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis and Felicia Day won Best Female Actor in a Comedy Web Series for The Guild. In the respective drama categories, awards went to Mark Gantt for The Bannen Way and Rachael Hip-Flores for Anyone But Me. Overlooking for a moment (and I do mean for a moment, we will get back to this) that separate awards are going out for comedy and drama, why is it necessary to divvy up male and female performances? Is it somehow unfair to have them compete with each other?

I say all of this purely as a logical (and somewhat ethical, coming from an Equality-with-a-big-”E” point of view) exercise. I actually like having separate male and female acting awards at my awards shows. But I don’t know why. Is it just because that’s what I’m used to? Or is there some inherent difference between a male and a female performance?

In some sports there is a certain degree of probabilistic logic in splitting up male and female competition. Even in certain types of performance, like music, there are certain things a female voice is capable of that a male voice is not, and vice versa, so you are judging performances that have concrete differences in their parameters. Not so with acting. Still, it seems to make intuitive sense to split these things up, even though, upon further examination, there’s no logical rationale.

Even splitting up comedy and drama, while a somewhat arbitrary distinction that seems to ignore the existence of five or six other genres, still speaks to more substantive differences in the skills on display than the differences in a male or a female performance in any genre.

So do the Streamys continue this tradition simply because it is a tradition, or to give web series more acceptance by mimicking the awards conventions of more accepted media forms? Any new media finds an easier route to mainstreaming by mimicking the conventions of the forms that came before it. Songs have an awards show? Well, then music videos should have one, too.

An why do we do this specifically for performance? We don’t have separate awards for male and female authors or male and female directors or male and female photographers. But, when evaluating their work, we generally don’t see male and female authors or directors or photographers, do we? Is it just when the performer is on display as part of the performance that we feel the need to distinguish based on gender?

What say you?

See this ape?  He expected more of you.

I’m not sure what he expected of you.  Perhaps you made some sort of promise, or even a gentelmen’s agreement, but whatever it was, he feels you did not keep up your end of the bargain.

Were you supposed to DVR Project Runway for him?  I know I’d be pissed if you forgot that.  Or maybe you were supposed to give him a ride to the airport like that other time.

Man, he can’t even look at you. You’re going to have to get him, like, a really kick-ass Edible Arrangement to make up for this shit.

Did you say you were going to read his blog, and then he mentioned something in a conversation that you would totally know about if you read his blog, and then you didn’t get it and it was totally obvious that you never read his blog?

He may be super-intelligent, but you can still break his heart.

On the other hand, it may not have anything to do with you at all.  Maybe he just expected pudding.  You know how sometimes you go somewhere and you think there’s going to be pudding, and you get it all in your head that you’re going to eat pudding, and then you get there and there’s no pudding anywhere, and you’re all, “Man I really want pudding now, and I wouldn’t even care except I thought there was going to be pudding!”?

Yeah, it’s kind of like that face, too.