This year was supposed to be great. New years eve came and went with a palpable anticipation for something you don't get every day: a new Decemberists album. Now I've fallen into this trap before. Two years ago the same anticipation swelled inside me for The Crane Wife, The Decemberists last studio album. It was their major label debut, a distinction they earned by producing three breathtaking albums that were flagship pieces in the indie movement of the early 2000's, as well as the evolution of a live show that was more than worth the price of admission.

The album arrived to rave reviews, and I must admit that even I gushed about it at first. After multiple listens though it revealed itself to be missing the overwhelming charm of their previous albums. It seemed that once, the concept of what the band did had to bend a bit in order to produce inarguably beautiful songs. With The Crane Wife that balance seemed slightly reversed. Now the band would bend a beautiful song to fit within the concept. Still, a little dissappointment is fine. I figured, two more years, and we'll have another masterpiece.

In the meantime we got Always The Bridesmaid, a Single Series. What ended up to be a collection of six songs to wet our whistle for the upcoming album. It seemed to me a return to form and I was prepared for a joyus musical experience. The day of the release came, and before heading out to secure my copy I logged on to Amazon to do a bit of research. Oh no, a concept album. Everyone's reviews were glowing, but one fact resonated the loudest in my brain. Concept albums suck. Many of the write ups I read made mention of the "death of the album," and how an album like this might just save it.

Not being one to let descriptions of an album dissuade me, I grabbed my copy and sat down bound and determined to love this album. Three songs in I was severely dissappointed. After several listens that is still the best description of my feelings toward this record, severely dissappointed. An album like this does nothing to rejuvenate the album format. If anything it says to the listener, "if this is what an album that is designed to be listened to front to back is like, count me out." This album tells one story, which is fine I suppose, but it gets boring and tedious very quickly. I think Colim Meloy's genius lies in his ability to create a character, a world, and a backstory in a few lyrical strokes. He creates these perfect little three minute masterpieces where we really get inside of the characters head. Even in a song like Mariner's Revenge Song, a lively sea shantey, tells it's single woeful tale in 15 minutes. A bit long I know, but it's a single line of thought and it's very good.

They say "once burned, twice shy." I guess now I'm twice burned, but for some reason I still kneal at the alter of The Decemberists. I truly believe in Meloy's songwriting genius, and if the band releases another brilliant album in the future the anticipation and dissappointment will make the payoff overwhelming. Skip The Hazards of Love. Wait patiently for what comes next. This band will rise again.

If we've met and spoken for more than a few moments then you are aware that I am a huge fan of Chuck Palahniuk's literary works.  In general I don't read very much, but when Palahniuk releases a new novel it's time to stop what I'm doing and just read.  Every time someone mentions one of his books I start to proclaim it one of my favorites until I realize I worship everything this man has ever written.Now that we've gotten that out of the way, I have to address a second point.  The last review of this film that I watched compared it to Fight Club.  These films are completely different, and I'm glad that they are.  While I do hold this work up as a masterpiece of film making, and one of the greatest pieces of cinema of all time, I already own it on DVD, and i don't want anyone to remake it.Good, moving along, Choke was not a good movie.  It was boring, poorly acted, and visually dead.  I have read the book, so my expectations were very high.  I remember how the book made me feel.  It is a wonderful piece of literature, and I think what this adaptation suffers from is the same things the countless adaptations of Orwell's 1984 suffer from.  Palahniuk, like Orwell, could write pages and pages about a character looking over their shoulder.  He spends alot of time taking full advantage of everything the medium provides him.  He tricks you into seeing the characters as one thing.  Your mind's eye produces it so vividly, and then when he changes it the experience is overwhelming.  In the film, actions and ideas that took pages and pages to describe are literally one action, and because no styalisitic action is taken to give these actions the weight they deserve, they fall flat.After the film was over I turned to my girlfriend, Amber, who has not read the book, and asked her what she tought.  She said it was okay.  So if you haven't read the book, and go into this film with no expectations, you can expect a mediocre moviegoing experience.  If you're a fan of the book and are expecting something equally as heavy, you will be very upset.  After Amber told me how she felt about the movie she asked me what I thought and I had a little tantrum about how awful it was.  Bad, bad, bad.  Palahniuk's new novel, Pygmy, comes out in may and I am very, very, excited.