Juno+

( photo by: [Zakkaliciousness])


This of course is the artistic mindset left by the music of one of the Wang's favorite movie of the year, Juno. The general gist of the movie is that 16 yr old, sarcastic high schooler, Juno finds out she's pregnant and goes on the movie length journey of understanding love and maturity. Director Jason Reitman of Thankyou For Smoking fame, brilliantly delivers this indie darling of a film with a witty script and slightly off-the-wall comedy.With Quotes like these gems:

Rollo (Rainn Wilson): That ain't no etch-a-sketch. That's one doodle that can't be un-did, homeskillet.

=========================

Juno MacGuff: You should've gone to China, you know, 'cause I hear they give away babies like free iPods. You know, they pretty much just put them in those t-shirt guns and shoot them out at sporting events.

=========================

This movie comes around the corner with its witty, brilliant acting from everyone; from Allison Janney, J.K. Simmons, & even Jennifer Garner, in seemingly small role that turns a whisper of a character into a pretty nice side plot of the story, that seems to comment on the whole question of maturity and relationships. J.K. Simmons as the funny and understanding dad has got to be one of the best dad's in movie history. The Wang only wishes that his future father-in-law would have that kind of humor and open minded-ness. Of course seeing that the title character Juno is pretty much the witty equivalent of a wet dream center fold, plus indie guitar playing skills.



This leads us to the soul of our musing, the soundtrack. The sound track is mainly filled with the works of Kimya Dawson, in her many guises. She's either performing with her old claim-to-fame, The Moldy Peaches, or her solo stuff, or her recent co-lab with The Antsy Pants. Kimya Dawson is labeled as Anti-Folk. Which at first, the Wang was lost to the labeling and genre. Of course after an evening with the Moldy Peaches titular album, smack the concept home in its wordy, witty, & experimental sound. Though overall, the music used in Juno tend to be what the Wang originally felt as some sort of kiddie-folk or twee-folk. With lyrics about love, life, hamburgers and vampires all fueled by Kimya Dawson's childish voice. Her seemingly young and innocent voice is instantly shattered when one noticed the lyrics and topics that smartly flow off her folk-style guitar like verbal syrup.

Also included in the Juno soundtrack is a few songs the movie use to hammer home the character's love of music. Juno of course prefers the 1977 punk era, as her counter point, Jason Bateman defends the grunge era of 1993. Songs include "All the You Dudes" by Mott the Hoople and "Superstar" by Sonic Youth. Check out this great entry by Indiemuse.com which include a few tracks. (SPECIALLY check out Kimya Dawson's Loose Lips) Kimya Dawson really adds to the movie, from its title-opening track to the ending song which cements the movie, "Anyone Else But You" cover by Ellen Page and Michael Cera, originally a Moldy Peaches song by Adam Green and Kimya Dawson.

This leads us to the interview with Ellen Page by Pitchfork, where we learn that:

Ellen Page: [Juno director] Jason Reitman and I were meeting for maybe the second or third time and he simply said, "Well, what do you think Juno would listen to?" Immediately I said the Moldy Peaches, and he, I guess, wasn't familiar with their work, so I hopped on his computer and I played the Moldy Peaches for him. The next thing I knew he'd fallen in love-- rightfully so, they're awesome-- and he was in contact with Kimya Dawson, who is the female in the band, and he added the song at the end of the film, which is a Moldy Peaches song. That song's been in my life for years, actually; there's a lot of sentimental value there. And the next thing we know Kimya Dawson is doing the music for the film. It was really incredible how that all worked out because it just feels perfect.

So the Wang puts two paws up on Juno, and the soundtrack which is now available on iTunes, and in Jan. in hardcopy. Of course you can just get some Kimbya Dawson stuff to work you over till then.

The Moldy Peaches - Nothing Came Out (MP3) : Inspiration for the opening pic..
The Moldy Peaches - Anyone Else But You (MP3) : The song that sets the mood for Juno.

And just to catch up on the old days of WWW glory, a few recent things on the Wang's RSS reading list, paw style:
Tad Safran of the Times stirs the British Hen House with this Op-Ed on how American Women groom themselves better. Of course this lead to a nation-wide (British Nation) fervor and scorn by the ladies, which earned a second article.


Tabula Rasa may not be the best MMO around, nor may it be top dog, but the Wang donated some time, and gives it its just deserves. But what really hits the sweet spot is the fan base that took Richard Garetts new world to heart and created more fanfic and roleplaying than any Tauren cow cosplay will ever do. Here's an example from Massively on Remembrance Day. And from tabularasaroleplayers.com of their fan gathering on Dec. 21, Remeberence Day, basically a memorial honoring the day when Earth fell to the alien invaders, The Bane.


The year end round up video games and games of the year is too long to keep track of. But the Wang was sorely entranced by the Gaming Club on Slate.com.  The Gaming Club is a mimic of Steven Totilo of MTV's Multiplayer Blog and N'Gai Croal of Newsweek's  Level Up Blog 's usual vs Mode. Its normally a series of emails that would debate/discuss a specific game or video game related subject. This time for their big year end round up they included Seth Schiesel of NYT and Chris Suellentrop (most currently of Slate) into their mix. They brought forth an email roundtable that talks from everything from game design to the criticism of video games. Specially in the light of the recent events involving Jeff Gerstmann, which promoted the entire industry a new to critically comment on the field of Video Game Journalism. None the less, this was a great read about video games, industry, and and what it means to be critical.


Also related to video games, the MTV Multiplaer Blog's Tracey John also wrapped up last weeks great series of article of Women Working in Games. Tracey goes off and interviews Morgan Webb (X-Play/G4TV), Janet Pickard (Game Girl Advance), Elspeth Tory (Ubisoft), Brenda Brathwaite, and Tali Fischer (Sega). Of course hidden under the subtlety of the general interviews is the questions about the recent Jade Raymond incident. But overall it's a great set of interviews about the whole industry from journalists to developers to PR. Sure the topic is about women, but it gives a nice view of the field and the people in it. Personally, the Wang comes to the conclusion that the industry seems to be embracing the female influx, but the it's the webtard players that seems to be dumbing it up for the male populace by scaring off most of these women from forums and comments.


On that note, here's a nice review of Bioshock from the Mighty Pony Girl. Yes it has a female perspective. I give her credit for reading Fountainhead before playing the game, just to get the full experience.


And since the Wang hasent been blogging about everything that was cool of recent, here's a cool link to the semi-spoiler-best-ending-ever-for-a-video-game-credit-sequence of Portal: GlaDOS - Still Alive (Youtube link). Of course if you have not experienced it, please give it a try, Portal is one of the best games this past year. Plus its short, fun and well written. It comes in slightly around 3 hrs. (without the repeatable time trials) and packs a great subtle story telling all wrapped in witty dialog. Of course the entire Orange Box is pretty worth it, for it contains Portal, Half Life, HL: Episode 1 & 2 and Team Fortress 2. TF2 is the bastard child of The Incredibles and online multiplayer mindless fun. Plus if you have the time, you should check out the "Meet the ____" videos on YT. Some of them are hilarious.


THANKYOUs:
Level Up Blog, Massively, MTV's Multiplayer Blog, [Zakkaliciousness]