The Jayhawks at First Avenue, a Fading Gigolo, Welcome to the Rileys and a Wolf on Wall Street

First Avenue, Downtown Minneapolis

I crossed two Twin Cities icons off my bucket list on Friday night: First Avenue (or "First Ave" as it's popularly known) and saw The Jayhawks play live. You may have heard of First Avenue if you saw Purple Rain). If you're not familiar with The Jayhawks, they are a band that originated in Minneapolis in the mid-1980s and were part of the "Minneapolis Sound" of the 1980s and 1990s; and even though they have taken some break over the years, the 1997 lineup is touring again in support of the re-release of three of their albums ("Sound of Lies", "Smile" and "Rainy Day Music").

I always liked the music of theirs that I heard on the radio, they had great hooks and harmonies and the alt-country sound that I like, but I never bought a CD or saw them play. Over the past year or so, after listening to some music that Gary Louris played on (Dixie Chicks, Dar Williams), I started listening to them again, and held out hope they would play live. It must be my lucky year for concerts (I have a list for those as well) and a few months ago it was announced that The Jayhawks would be playing First Avenue. I got my ticket that day. Finally, the day came, a beautiful fall evening in Minneapolis, cool and crisp. I started to get very nervous because the First Ave is pretty much standing general admission, and the opening act wasn't going to start until 8:30, and The Jayhawks would go on around 9:45, and I was taking the light rail home. For the record, I am usually in bed by 9:30, so this was going to be interesting. I thought about skipping it, because sometimes I'm a pansy. I told one of my pals at work that I might just go home, and he told me I would probably regret it (this is the same friend who said I should go see Dar Williams in St. Louis last year - no regrets), so I sat at work some more, and decided since I was already downtown, had a ticket and had been waiting for this night for months, I should take my old creaky ass and go to the venue. I found a standing place up on the second level and hugged the railing and waited. I didn't check my watch, but I think it was pretty close to 10:00 when the band took the stage. The audience was my age or older so there wasn't a lot of craziness, but everyone was pretty excited when the opening chords to "The Man Who Loved Life" came on. I wish I could give you a rundown of every song and the order they were played, but my brain just isn't that good. They did play a lot of songs from "Sound of Lies", "Smile" and "Rainy Day Music", including "Big Star", "Blue" (one of my favorites), "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me", "Angelyne", "Tampa to Tulsa" (featuring drummer Tim O'Reagan on vocals) and so many more. I heard almost everything I wanted to hear, and if I could have sat down, I would have wanted them to play another hour or three. It really was awesome. I've read that they don't have any plans to record any new material, but perhaps after the great reaction they received from the hometown crowds and hopefully what they'll get from their upcoming tour, maybe they will reconsider. It isn't often you get a chance to see a band that you really like if they have retired or lost members or whatever, so when you do - grab it. Thanks to The Jayhawks for coming back around.

Fading Gigolo, 2013 not nominated

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. I would have to say I lost on this one and I had such high hopes. Fading Gigolo was written and directed by John Turturro, he also starred in the film. The movie, also starring Woody Allen, Sofia Vergara and Sharon Stone, is about two friends, Murrary and Fioravante (Allen and Turturro) who come up with a scheme for Fioravante to be a gigolo. Honestly, I don't care. I'm sorry, if you're interested, you should check it out for yourself (I want the dollar back from the library).

Welcome to the Rileys, 2010 not nominated

Welcome to the Rileys kept appearing in trailers of other movies I was watching and I finally succumbed and added to the queue. It stars James Gandolfini, Melissa Leo and Kristen Stewart in this drama set mostly in New Orleans. Gandolfini and Leo play Doug and Lois Riley, a long-married couple who have been in almost a suspended state of animation since their only child, a daughter, died in a car crash. Lois never leaves the house while Doug carries on an affair with the waitress at diner he frequents after his poker games. Doug goes to New Orleans for a convention and meets sixteen year-old Mallory (Stewart) in a strip club. Doug really isn't interested in the lap dance, but takes Mallory home and asks to stay in her house for $100 a day; there's nothing going on, except Doug fixing the toilet and cleaning up the house, even showing Mallory how to make the bed (which really looked like a lot of work). Doug calls Lois and tells her he is not coming home for a while. While nothing else could motivate Lois to leave home, this compels her to get in the car and drive from Indianapolis to New Orleans to find Doug. Lois comes back to Mallory's house with Doug and she tries to figure out why Doug is doing this. The events surrounding their daughter's death are not shared for probably over half of the movie, but there is clearly enough guilt to go around, even though it was an accident. The Rileys transfer the affection and perhaps even control that they would have had for their daughter to Mallory, who is a prickly pear and leery of their intentions. The movie does not have a clear cut happy ending, but I think it makes sense and may be the most realistic conclusion (sometimes life just doesn't go how we expect). I liked the movie, although it took me a little while, and I found Gandolfini's southern accent distracting, but once I let that go, I was able to enjoy his performance as well as Leo's (these are two great actors). I have to say I could take or leave Stewart; I don't know, I wasn't blown away, but I didn't hate her either. I was much more interested in the Doug and Lois relationship, and it would probably be really daunting to be acting with either one of them, much less BOTH of them in the same scene. The movie made practically nothing back on it's $10 million budget, and this might have been another one of those movies best scene on the small screen; perhaps it will gain traction with other viewers who see the trailers. It was not the best movie I have ever seen, but it certainly is on the pretty good, check it out list.

The Wolf of Wall Street, 2013, nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay

It would probably be really lazy if I just copied the review I did for Fading Gigolo and just changed the names. The good thing, for me, is that this leaves me only two movies from all of the 2013 nominated films to watch and those are not available to me yet. The other good thing is the movie was FREE, because if it wasn't, I probably would whine about getting my money back for this too, I'd still like those three hours of my life back, but that ain't going to happen. First of all, looking at all the other nominees for 2013, there was probably no way that it was going to win in any of the categories, the other movies were too strong. The Wolf of Wall Street was directed by Martin Scorcese and starred Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill and had a lot of little guest spots with Rob Reiner, Joanna Lumley, Jon Favreau and others. It follows the bacchanalian-like career of Jordan Belfort (a real-life toe rag) and his cohorts. It was the greedy period of the 1980s and 1990s, full of drugs, sex and degenerate behavior (no judging here). The movie was categorized as a 'black comedy' and I don't know, I didn't think a whole lot was funny, except one scene, which totally escapes me right now. I will say that Jonah Hill was really good as Belfort's sidekick. The soundtrack was excellent which I have come to expect from Robbie Robertson (who has a very long connection with Scorcese going back to The Last Waltz which featured The Band) who has done compiled and selected the music for other Scorcese films like The Color of Money. If you're a Scorcese or DiCaprio fan, you have probably already seen this, but otherwise I have a hard time recommending it.