adrian is rad

There was this girl I had a crush on for most of Spring 2003. We went to concerts together. I made her a mixtape, because we all know that mixtape=love (these guys think so too).

I found a copy I’d made yesterday while organizing my CDs. I’d forgotten about it completely but now I’m listening to it at work. I probably made this early May 2003.

The tracklist:

1. Lion’s Mane – Iron and Wine
2. Ohio – Damien Jurado
3. New Partner – Palace Brothers
4. Accident – Clem Snide
5. I See a Darkness – Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy
6. Most of October, All of November – P:ano
7. Silvery Light of a Dream, Pt II – the Apples in stereo
8. If We Can Land a Man on the Moon, Surely I Can Win Your Heart – Beulah
9. Hideaway – Olivia Tremor Control
10. A Duel Will Settle This – Mates of State
11. Sleep the Clock Around – Belle & Sebastian
12. Summer is Coming – Matt Pond PA
13. Away, Into the Light – One AM Radio
14. Who Am I? – Seldom
15. Bad Diary Days – Pedro the Lion
16. No Solid Ground – ms. john soda
17. This Place is a Prison – The Postal Service
18. Consequence – The Notwist
19. Ruby’s Wishes – Unwed Sailor
20. Stanley Kubrick – Mogwai

It’s a nice mix of songs. I still listen to and like most of these songs and bands quite a bit.

I made it on a friend’s computer because I didn’t have a laptop yet so I copied all the songs to the computer individually and then made the CD from that. She loved it; she bought three CDs of bands on the CD within a week because she liked them so much.

She was not smitten with me, though.

I watched Raging Bull from Netflix on Friday and Jarhead yesterday.

I don’t quite remember why I put Raging Bull on my netflix queue. It’s apparently one of the best sports movies and best all around movies ever. Robert De Niro plays real life boxer Jack La Motta and Martin Scorsese directs. It was well-acted and directed well, but it just never engaged me.

Jarhead, on the other hand, I found engaging from just about minute one. It’s about a kid of 20, “Swoff”, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, who has entered the Marine, trains as a sniper and goes to the Middle East in the first Gulf War conflict. There’s something about the characters that one can relate to.* In a way it’s not that political, echoing what one character says: “Fuck politics. We’re here [at war]. All the rest is bullshit.” It’s not the best movie ever, but I thought the direction (by Sam Mendes, who did American Beauty and Road to Perdition) was good, some great visuals. The acting by the principles was solid across the board and Peter Sargaard, I thought, put in a stand out perforamance as the guy who takes Jake’s character under his wing. Some war movies are all about the plot, the mission (the Great Escape, Saving Private Ryan), and some more about the psyche and the aftermath of war (Apocalyspe Now, for example). This one was more toward the later, but had enough of the former that it kept moving.

*I should note that I’ve always had a slight thing for the military. I even briefly thought about going to the Naval Academy… I certainly don’t like all or even most war movies, though.