The first time I heard "Toxic," I thought it was appallingly bad. It sounded like a big mish-mash of crap that wasn't sure what it wanted to be, with all the effects and instrumental breaks.

Now? I love that damn song. I get it now!

It's not listed on their online catalog

Dude, there's this modern invention called a telephone....

Dude, there's this modern invention called a telephone....

Don't you mock me, mister silverclad.

I need to report something shameful.

I am marrying a woman who...well, I'll just let the stories speak for themselves.

Today, at the pizza place where we got a slice she saw me humming along with the song on the radio.

JZ: "What's that song?"

Me: ???????? "You've never heard it before?"

JZ: "No."

Me: "It's...Freebird. I spent pretty much my entire freshman year of college playing air guitar to that song on a lacrosse stick. All of us did. How can you not know Freebird? This is the literary equivalent of saying, 'Did you say Jean Osten?'"

Then - on the very same day! - we watched the new remake of The Italian Job.

JZ: "What's that song?"

Me: ??????????? "You can't tell me you've never heard this song before."

JZ: "Nope."

Me: "'Money'? Pink Floyd? Okay, this is a cover, but still. This song is both ubiquitous and incessant. It's on one of the biggest selling records of all time. They had to invent a new chart for Dark Side of the Moon because it wouldn't go away. That's why they chart catalog sales separately."

JZ: "Never heard it."

On the same day! Even Angus could ID both of those songs and he goes out of his way to avoid the rock and roll.

Wow. I kind of wish I had never heard Freebird - it's a pretty song if you've only heard it the five hundred times as opposed to the zillion. The only time I have thought it was pretty in the last 5 years was when Andre Braugher sings it in Duets.

I wonder if she ever thought it was odd that it was the same thing shouted at every performance ever when bands ask for requests.

I can't have spent better money in the last month than on the new Iron and Wine and the Sfujan Stevens. They are both 100% perfect albums. And they are oddly similar as well. The only thing wrong with them is that while one is playing - I kind of wish it was the other instead.

Also - I just got home from Kill Bill Vol. 2 and I think I am going to have to buy the soundtrack. QT has the ear for good movie music (that plus the shameless stealing of good movie music from others).

QT has the ear for good movie music (that plus the shameless stealing of good movie music from others).

I'm kind of curious about this because when it comes to pop songs, he feels like they are inviolate. Once you marry a pop song indedlibly to a film scene it's off limits. The anal rape in Pulp Fiction was originally scored to "My Sharona" (which would've been so incredibly funny/disturbing. It's got a real sodomy beat) - but he changed it after Reality Bites used "My Sharona." But stealing actual bits of film score is apparently okay with him. The cue from Ironside? Perfect! Let's use it.

but he changed it after Reality Bites used "My Sharona." But stealing actual bits of film score is apparently okay with him.

My take on this is that for him - stealing from Ben Stiller/other Not-Quentin contemporary filmmakers? Not cool. Stealing/paying homage to canonical and hip films/TV shows: Cool. And Quentin is all about being cool if nothing else.

He is one of those filmmakers that goes into the category of hate the guy - love the movies for me (not just because he wants to be cool - he just annoys in general). And yet I have more of his soundtracks than any other filmmaker - the Reservoir Dogs soundtrack was oddly the soundtrack to my junior year of college.

And Quentin is all about being cool if nothing else.

I've seen that charge leveled at him, but I think it's a little off. First of all, he's relentlessly uncool personally. He's so geeky, he makes Wes Anderson look like George Clooney. With Jackie Brown he clearly indicates that he can focus on character and give it all the shadings he'd like. He's certainly a formalist - but no more or less so than Godard (or Kubrick for that matter).

I think "cool" is just a way for him to create a particular stylistic vocabulary that he's cobbled from other sources. In short, he's got incredible cinematic taste. In this way, he's sort of like early Elvis Costello. EC would direct the band on his first record (Clover, aka Huey Lewis' News) by calling out some chord change, and they'd answer "You mean that Byrds bit?" and he'd inwardly think, "Shit! They're on to me."

Early EC is constantly stealing stealing stealing: bit of Motown, some Dylan, throw in some Bacharach, Spector production, Bob Marley rhythm section. It's a fantastic mash of good musical taste.

QT is the same way. Out of multiple generations of film geeks, he understands (in a reverse engineering kind of way) better than any of them why certain cinematic tropes and gestures work. He draws from a vast array of sources, far beyond the typical film school repetoire. He's not an innovator like Busby Berkeley or Godard or Wong Kar Wai. He's not a superb technician like Kubrick or Spielberg. He's not a sumptuous camera movement stylist like Scrosese. But he'll steal from any of them to get across the effect he wants to put across.

He's arguing - in film - something very similar to the earliest critics from Cahier Du Cinema. That there's a very rich cinematic language that's been overlooked in exploitation films.

Also, he's undeniably one of the very best directors for casting ever. Soderberg has certainly demonstrated that he understands and can put to use a STAR. But QT can suss out really subtle strains of talent and put them on the screen with actors that nobody else would've taken the chance with. Carpenter and Burton are both great directors but when they used Pam Grier it was as an icon. QT pulled something a lot deeper out of Pam than anybody suspected was there.

First of all, he's relentlessly uncool personally.

Agreed. I didn't say he'd achieved coolness. Just that he wanted to achieve it. Lucky for him he is absolutely gifted and has an amazing eye and ear and found the means to put them to use - or he'd be the loudest and most obnoxious video store clerk ever.

Also, he's undeniably one of the very best directors for casting ever.

Absolutely. That he made me like both Darryl Hannah and Lucy Lu in the Kill Bill movies is a feat I would have never thought possible. I wonder who he really wanted for the leads in True Romance - his worst cast movie, imo (though Gary Oldman is perfection as the bad guy). ETA: I just recalled that QT didn't direct TR he just wrote the screenplay - Tony Scott directed (I think) still - I wonder who he really imagined playing the roles when he wrote them.

I have nothing to defend my position - other than he strikes me as someone who does in fact want to be seen as cool. Socially - celebrity-wise if not through his films themsleves (which is why I can love the films and hate the guy without it bothering me too much). He wants to talk about all the starlets he has fucked, insinuate that he and Uma have had an affair - maybe even that he was a factor in the failure of her marriage. That he is BFF with big rap stars, etc. Next to that kind of "wanting to be cool" he makes Wes Anderson look like the dorkiest dork in Dorkland.

I have read interviews where Tarantino embraced his inner geek. But the stories about having hunted down master reels for his favorite obscure movies are always followed by him blatantly namedropping and with the ENDLESS "I'm really tough. No, really. I'd tear a guy's nuts off if he tried to fuck with me. Really." Dude. YOU ARE NOT BIGGIE SMALLS. No one wants to fuck with you. Get some mace and get over yourself already.

But film-wise, I agree with you. If his movies were about him just wanting to be cool - well - they would probably really suck.

Yikes! It's almost 3! Off to bed.

Even Angus could ID both of those songs

Ha ha, I could only ID "Freebird" because Giles sang it on Buffy! (Didn't he?)

Re QT, film music and "cool", I'm just about to go and watch this week's American Idol, devoted to film music and with Tarantino as guest judge. Cool!

but he changed it after Reality Bites used "My Sharona." But stealing actual bits of film score is apparently okay with him.

I had heard that the guy from The Knack wouldn't let him use "My Sharona" for that scene. Like The Knack guy didn't want that song associated with anal rape or something. But your explanation might make more sense.