8gurl’s Neighborhood

KCRW’s online-only music channel Eclectic24 will stream the soundtrack to the latest film in the “Twilight” series tonight at 8pm PST on Monday, Nov 9. “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” OST will also be available streaming ON DEMAND for one week only! You can check it all out here.

The soundtrack includes fantastic new songs from Death Cab for Cutie, Band of Skulls and Bon Iver, among others. Enjoy!

Next week, we preview Norah Jones’ latest “The Fall.”

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Upcoming Live Performances on MORNING BECOMES ECLECTIC with host JASON BENTLEY

Tuesday, November 10, Multi-platinum selling artist David Gray loves KCRW so much, he even dropped by for a performance on his wedding day years ago. We've had him back many times since and he joins Morning Becomes Eclectic for an intimate performance of songs from his latest release at 11:15am.

Thursday, November 12, Colombian artists Bomba Estereo made a splash at this year’s Latin Alternative Music Conference. They combine Afro-Caribbean rhythms with electro, dub, hip hop and more for a sound they call "electro-tropical." Hear it live on Morning Becomes Eclectic at 11:15am.

Tuesday, November 17, Forro In The Dark is based in New York, but they tap into their Brazilian roots to create hip-swiveling grooves. Their fans include KCRW favorites like David Byrne and Bebel Gilberto-- you’ll hear why on Morning Becomes Eclectic at 11:15am.

Thursday, November 19, As a young woman, Rosanne Cash told her father Johnny she wanted to play country music. He put together a list of 100 essential songs for her to listen to and, years later, she’s put together an album highlighting her favorites. Hear it live on Morning Becomes Eclectic at 11:15am.

Friday, November 20, New Zealand soul collective Fat Freddy's Drop is ready to invade the U.S. with their dub reggae vibe, which has now expanded to include elements of jazz and hip-hop. We'll hear their new and improved sound on Morning Becomes Eclectic at 11:15am.

KCRW.COM PRESENTS

Tues, November 24, ROYKSOPP at WEBSTER HALL in NEW YORK.
Fri, December 11, FIERY FURNACES at THE MUSIC HALL OF WILLIAMSBURG in NEW YORK CITY.

KCRW PRESENTS IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

Tues, November 10, INARA GEORGE, ELENI MANDELL, FERRABY LIONHEART AT THE BOOTLEG THEATRE.
Thurs, November 12, ORGONE AT ZANZIBAR.
Thurs, November 12, BURAKA SOM SISTEMA AT THE MAYAN.
Sat, November 14, JENNY LEWIS & FRIENDS AT THE ACTOR’S GANG.
Wed, November 18, SWELL SEASON AT THE WILTERN.
Wed, November 18, ROYKSOPP AT CLUB NOKIA.
Wed, November 18, FORRO IN THE DARK at THE SOHO in Santa Barbara.
Thurs, November 19, FORRO IN THE DARK AT THE MINT.
Sat, November 21, FRIENDLY FIRES WITH THE XX AT THE MUSIC BOX AT THE HENRY FONDA.
Friday, November 20, FAT FREDDY’S DROP AT THE ROXY. Jeremy Sole will host and deejay the evening.
Sat, November 21, BEN GIBBARD & FRIENDS AT THE ACTOR’S GANG.
Sat, November 21, PETER BJORN AND JOHN with FOOL'S GOLD AND EL PERRO DEL MAR AT CLUB NOKIA.
Mon, November 23, EL PERRO DEL MAR  AT THE HOTEL CAFÉ.
Tues, November 24, LISSIE at THE BOOTLEG THEATRE.
Friday, November 27, JULIAN CASABLANCAS AT THE PALACE THEATRE.
Friday, December 4, FINK AT SPACELAND.
Sat, December 5, SARA WATKINS AND TOM BROSSEAU AT LARGO AT THE CORONET.
Sat, December 12, BRETT DENNEN AT THE WILTERN.
Sat, December 12, JOHN DOE with JILL SOBULE AT THE ACTOR ’S GANG.
Wed, December 16, ZERO 7 AT THE ORPHEUM.
Friday, December 18 and Sat, December 19, OZOMATLI AT CLUB NOKIA.
Friday, January 8, SONIC YOUTH AT THE FOX THEATRE IN POMONA.
Sat, January 9, SONIC YOUTH AT THE WILTERN.
Friday, March 12, BRANDI CARLILE AT THE HOUSE OF BLUES (ANAHEIM).

My song is called "Impossible to Know" about how a two year-old, four years ago, said "Why" a lot:

Will add lyrics later.  This is too low for my voice range--but you might get  kick out of the chorus!

Huzzah! Even though Griffin's latest pilot, New Town, wasn't given a full series by the BBC, it did pick up a brace of nominations for the BAFTA Scotland awards, and last night took two of the shiny mask thingies home! One for "Best TV Drama", and one for "Best Female TV actor" (Daniela Nardini)... apparently one of its younger cast members, Rose Leslie, also picked up a New Talent Award for her role, earlier this year. So... yay!!!

Note: Awards only matter when they go to the right people. :)

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Cody's 1st middle school wrestling meet was this weekend.  I dropped him off at the bus around 7 and was surprised to find my emotions get the best of me yet again.  How could my baby be old enough to go on the bus for a sporting event?  The rest of us including my dad, brother, and his girlfriend drove separately.  Cody only had 2 matches that lasted about 80 seconds total between the two of them because Cody pinned his opponents so quickly!  It was awesome to see the confidence he has and how quickly he took care of business.  Of course, the two 8th grade wrestling managers who are adorable each had to give him a hug to congratulate him.

Saturday night, we went to the local "Food and Wine Festival".  We got to dress up and went with my brother and his girlfriend, Amy.  She just moved back to town from Missoula so it was a good chance for us to get to know her.  We saw lots of people and ate lots of food.  I even found myself a non-alcoholic wine so that was nice.  The bad part was there were no tables to sit at.  They had a few bar tables and a few very uncomfortable benches but my feet were killing me an hour into it. 

There was also a silent auction with local artwork including several photos.  I'm debating donating one myself next year.  I'd have to see if any of my favorites look good blown up.  Sadly, I've taken very few photos this year.  We didn't get a picture of ourselves but we looked just like this :)

 

Star Trek: The Motion Pictures

Watching the original series Star Trek films on DVD was like rediscovering them for the first time.  Not only did they look great, but on DVD we get director's cuts.

While alternate cuts are not always the way to go, when it comes to Star Trek: The Motion Picture, the first and worst of the Trek films, it made a WORLD of difference.

My mother-in-law (and I'm sure many other Trekkies) refers to TMP as "Where Nomad Has Gone Before".  The premise was hardly original, it was a bad mishmash of the Original Series episode, The Changeling and Star Trek: Phase II, the next planned Star Trek television series that never came to fruition.  On top of that it was like Gene Roddenberry told director Bob Wise to go overboard on all of the effects shots they could never do on TOS.  We were "treated" to these really loooong and boring shots of NOTHING happening for a good four and a half hours with two minutes of bald chicks and "story" placed sporadically throughout the flick.  Ugh.  What an atrocious film.

BUT WAIT - there's now this incredible Director's Cut wherein the great makers have discovered the "lost" art of EDITING.  Holy cow, what a difference good editing makes.  The Director's Cut of this film not only makes the film tolerable, but enjoyable as well.  I had *never* wanted to watch this film again unless I was having trouble sleeping.  But that's all changed now.  If you'd seen this film on VHS or, dog forbid, caught the television edit and thought, "meh", get thee to a dvd rentery and give this flick another shot.  It's excellent.

What can I say about Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan that hasn't already been said?  Nick Meyer came in and breathed some much needed life into the franchise and directed a classic.

I've always been on the fence about Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.  I used to be distracted by Saavik's perm...it didn't seem logical for a Vulcan to have such a high maintenance hairstyle.  Not only that but the film flits about until the very cruddy ending where they magically put Spock's katra back where it belonged (brain and brain, what is brain!)...I dunno, I just didn't buy it, I always felt it was a little weak.

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home was my absolute favorite out of the TOS films this time around when I watched it.  It's a fun movie and it has whales.  Yep, whales.  How can you go wrong?  And what the hell is up with the mom and dad from 7th Heaven in two Trek movies now?  It's some sort of Christian Family Drama Conspiracy (tm).  I can't really complain, Catherine Hicks is wonderful as the passionate Dr. Gillian Taylor.  ST: IV is funny, charming and exactly the kind of adventure that is a joy to take with the crew of the Enterprise.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.

They producers of Star Trek must've gone down on their knees to beg Nick Meyer to come back and once again save their dying franchise - and he did, with Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.  It really is best in its original Klingon.  Seriously though, when Captain Von Trapp started singing the reprise of So Long, Farewell in full Klingon garb, I knew this was a hit film.

Here's a little side note.  When I watched The Sound of Music as a kid I used to wonder what happened to those Von Trapp kids.  The last I knew they went off to live in the mountains.  Many were teens, didn't they ever get horny?  Was there interbreeding?  What does that sort of isolation do to one's emotional state?  Did they live there forever?  Thankfully at some point in my childhood I saw the remaining VonTrapp kids (who were really damn old) on Oprah and realized they came down from the mountains after a while (or at least before coming to Chicago to film Oprah).

Anyway, the original series Star Trek films, all five of them, were pretty ok if not excellent.  I ranked all of the franchise films a short while ago, but I'll yoink out the pesky TNG ones and share my order of favorites for just The Original Series cast.

4  The Voyage Home
6  The Undiscovered Country
2  The Wrath of Khan
1  The Motion Picture
3  The Search for Spock
5  The Final Frontier