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If I were Ryan Reynolds I would absolutely have offered a very public, open, and sincere apology to every woman I've ever known, especially Alanis Morissette, whose new album "Flavors of Entanglement" just came out this week. And then I'd hide from everyone for a while.

Her album is well, stark. She's always been known for her intensely personal lyrics, and this album does not belie that reputation. If anything, this is a return to that mode, which she moved away from a bit on her last album. It shouldn't come as a surprise to her fans that she's got a lot of material to pull from. It's been four years since her last album, and she's gone through a lot of personal upheaval in that time. She was in a happy relationship with actor Reynolds, got engaged, and then broke up after three years. Not long after they split, he proposed to actress Scarlett Johansson. It is within that context Alanis has released her new album.

She's always mined from her past relationships and personal issues for her albums, and with "Flavors of Entanglement" she has a lot to say, and she's not holding back. With song titles like "Not as We", "Incomplete", and "Versions of Violence" and lyrics like the following:

These versions of violence Sometimes subtle sometimes clear And the ones that go unnoticed Still leave their mark once disappeared

This labeling
This pointing
This sensitive's unraveling
This Sting I've been ignoring
I feel it way down way down

(From "Versions of Violence")

Or

Something so benign for me construed as cruelty
Such a difference between who I am and who you see

Conclusions you come to of me routinely incorrect
I don't know who you're talking to with such fucking disrespect

This shit's making me crazy
The way you nullify what's in my head
You say one thing do another
And argue that's not what you did
Your way's making me mental
How you filter as skewed interpret
I swear you won't be happy til
I am bound in a straight jacket

(From "Straitjacket")

And

"I am someone easy to leave"
"Even easier to forget"
a voice, if inaccurate
Again: "I'm the one they all run from"
diatribes of clouded sun
someone help me find the pause button

(From "Tapes")

This feels like her most cathartic album since "Jagged Little Pill" which raged and roared in a way nobody expected.

The difference this time is that the music accompanying her lyrics is near top-notch. "Jagged Little Pill" sold on the basis of Alanis' blisteringly personal lyrics and her commitment to being as honest and open about her anger at everyone's failures. It was not the music that carried that album. For this album however she collaborated with Guy Sigsworth who has previously produced music for Björk, Britney Spears, Madonna. He is also the second half of the band Frou Frou, who I also personally enjoy.

Sigsworth's production, like his work with Frou Frou, is full of electronic beats, ambient noise, and loops, but with this album he also employs big guitars, and the occasional world music elements. What's nice is that it is neither angular or hard to swallow. His work with pop stars in the past shows they trust him to make create danceable music. This album shows their trust is not misplaced. He clearly has the chops to craft accessible music, and Alanis was smart to work with him.

With "Flavors of Entanglement" the music is equal partner with Alanis. It matches her in volume and intensity when it needs to, and stays out of her way when it should. Most interesting though is that even when the subject matter is darkly personal, the music usually manages to maintain a pop flavor, similar to Kelly Clarkson's last album My December, which was both danceable and personal. There are more intimate songs that are typically just Alanis and a single instrument, but there are fewer songs like that on this album.

Given this change in direction, I am sure some people will complain that it is too poppy, or that it sounds too much like Frou Frou or Britney Spears. I honestly don't view this as a bad thing. Sigsworth has not changed the intensity with which Alanis sings, or how rawly she exposes herself. He's only dressed it differently. If anything, this make the music accessible for a younger group of listeners who have listened to Clarkson, Avril Lavigne, and Nelly Furtado, but have no idea who they've been borrowing from all this time.

However, don't let me give you the impression that this album is all sturm and drang. There are lighter moments on the album, like "Giggling Again For No Reason", which has a sweet lemon and summertime feel to it. Clearly her time with Reynolds, and the afterwards, haven't been all bad. She's stated in interviews that she's had a lot of rock bottom moments and hasn't always bounced back from them, but this album is the "biggest bounce".

And that's probably the most charming aspect of the album. It explores the darkness and lightness of the break-up. In that after time when you are free you feel so starkly alone and completely free. It is both terrifying and liberating. You want to collapse, you want to dance, you want to weep in the face of it all and laugh in delirium. And this album condenses all of that into about 46 minutes of music.

46 minutes of some of the most open, honest and raw music. But it never loses its appeal or power, even on subsequent listens. And because of its accessibility and the context with which it's been released, I think it will get some substantial airplay. Which bring me back to Reynolds. He's bound to get some additional scrutiny from friends, family, and fiancee. The gossip media's already buzzing with questions and innuendo about how much of the album is about him, and the timing of the album's release.

All the while Alanis gets to enjoy the positive album reviews, she coyly deflects this scrutiny, and demurely says she's happy for Reynolds.

Honestly, she probably is. As this album shows, she's gone through hell and come back (again), ready to sing, ready to dance, and ready to move on.

You can buy Flavors Of Entanglement here.

I love Steve Burns, and have for a while, I guess since my kids fell in love with him on Blues Clues. There are some characters that make toddlers happy (like Barney or the Teletubbies) that parents never like, period. But I've yet to find a parent that did not at least appreciate Steve in some fashion, if not outright adore him. There are rumored to be secret cabals of soccer moms that seek to dominate him, but that's another story.

I was excited about his album of rock music "Song for Dustmites" and I listen to the album a lot, usually in a mix with The Flaming Lips, who helped Steve make his album, and Cloud Cult, all of which are similar in tone and philosophy. So imagine my pleasure when I saw that Steve Burns has a new song available on the "Hello Radio" They Might Be Giants tribute album (Amazon link and iTunes Link). While the album itself is getting panned, I think his cover of "Dead" is great, and it's entered heavy rotation. It's got the same dreamy, spacey, wistful, and slightly hallucinogenic feel to it. It also has hints of electronica beats and blips to it, which I also enjoy. It reminds me a lot of Thom Yorke's new album, which is not surprising as Steve has said before that he's a huge Radiohead fan. It's absolutely worth the $0.99 if you're a fan of TMBG, Steve Burns, or The Flaming Lips.

Kudos Steve!

I just got around to watching the Shay's Rebellion episode of "10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America" (Link) from the History Channel.

It was a good episode. I give the producer credit for using animation instead of the typical small-scale 10 or 15 person reenactments that they typically use. I tend to get annoyed when watching the History Channel and I see what is supposed to battle but it looks like a small skirmish. I hope they go with more of this style of shows in the future to mix up the presentation.

I think that the subject matter was a good choice as well. Shay's Rebellion, an act of men in Western Massachusetts in the that period of time when we were ruled by the Articles of Confederation, discussed how a group of poor farmers and family men rose up to protest the seizing of land by courts and the jailing of debtors in debtors prisons. I think that the History Channel gave a fair presentation of the issues and was surprisingly forgiving of the rebellion against the government of the time. I typically find that large channels mock those who oppose the government and want to portray them as dangerous men or wrong-headed idealogues. This was neither.

The downsides were I think that it felt like it ran a little long. It seemed like they couldn't quite figure out how to make the material fill a whole hour, so they stretched it out and repeated themselves a few times. Perhaps if they were pressed for filler, they could have discussed the Johnathan Fries Rebellion, which was another early American rebellion, this time over taxes, occurring during the presidency of John Adams. Also, while I did enjoy the use of animation as something different, once in a while it felt like I was back in high school watching a movie in history class. Maybe that's what they wanted.

I say 4 out of 5 stars.

More about Shay's Rebellion can be found here.

A famous letter Thomas Jefferson wrote about Shays Rebellion can be read here.

My friend Chris passed the book "Debugging Indian Computer Programmers: Dude, Did I Steal Your Job" on Saturday. I finished it tonight, and I wanted to share my thoughts on it.

Heather and I watched The Punisher (version 2, featuring less Dolph and more Thomas Jane) tonight. What an uneven pile of crap. I mean, there were moments of "Hey that was cool" and then long bouts of "Oh this is just stupid".

I wish that people would sit down at Marvel and go "Really folks, we're commited to making sure that comic book movies NEVER SUCK AGAIN, and to that end, Bryan Singer and Sam Raimi will lead seminars". I mean, you would think that Jonathan Hensleigh, the guy who wrote the screenplay and directed "The Punisher" would be half-decent, as he's worked with Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay on many of their best movies (The Rock, Con-Air, etc)...but come to think of it Michael Bay inflicted Pearl Harbor on us...so maybe it's a wash.

This was a movie with uneven timing, uneven flow, and an uneven atmosphere. It seemed like the director was more interested in showing us what the lives of the three madcap misfits that live in the same apartment building as Frank Castle are up to than what he was doing to avenge his family's death. Do we really care that Rebecca Romijn-Stamos' character has been "sober for over a year"? NO! Do we care about them eating ice cream and dancing to Verdi? NO!

Too often, the movie tried to make you laugh, and that took away from the starkness of the Punisher's mission.

So, it was not really worth seeing. Man on Fire took the same basic premise and did it much better. Bad Boys & Bad Boys II does a much better job of combining the laughs with the action.

3 out of 10 stars.

I promise that I'm not ignoring the election results. I'm just digesting it. Plus, you're all probably sick of hearing about it.

Anyway, I've been picking up on some music I really like lately:

The Music: Someone cloned Geddy Lee, or at least, his vocal cords. It's not a perfect match, but holy hell, it's close enough. The band's not quite Rush either. Picture early-Rush, but if they decided to be a party band instead. If you've got iTunes, get your free loving here.

Speaking of cloning...Interpol. I already picked up both of their albums (Turn On The Bright Lights and Antics)
Someone put a whole bunch of Joy Division with a dash of Psychedelic Furs into a blender and poured out diecast replicas of the very best things that Joy Division EVER put out. They're breathtakingly good. Wow. These are my two favorite albums right now, and they're getting a lot of spin.

Frou Frou: Someone burned me a copy of Frou Frou based on the song on the Garden State soundtrack. I don't know what to make of the album, other than I love it. It's hard for me to describe because it kind of lays across a couple of genres I like, and some I haven't paid any attention to. It's simultaneously beautiful and deep, while still retaining some sense of dance and pop. It's like Bjork and Dido got together to make a Top 40 album, but kind of missed the mark. It's very listenable, great for late nights and deep thoughts filled with longing.

The Earlies: As if we didn't have enough free-wheeling, loving Texans making music (Flaming Lips, The Polyphonic Spree, or for that matter ANYONE from Austin), some Texans joined forces with some guys from England and made The Earlies.
Think Polyphonic Spree, think sweet and light music, like a delicate custard, nah, it's heartier than that. And tastier. What a delight.

I know, I'm behind the times, but I wanted to take a moment to review "Hot Fuss" from The Killers.

Alright, I know that this doesn't sound like a compliment, but it really is: If this album had come out in 1983, it would be listed in every critic's Top 10 Albums of the 1980's. In case you haven't noticed, there's something of an 80's revival going on, with bands like Interpol, All-American Rejects, even Modest Mouse, borrowing notes and styles from the best of the 80's. That's cool for me, having grown up in the 80's. It's neat to see as well because, despite popular opinion, some great music was made in the early and mid-80's.

But whereas most of the bands mentioned above are reliving the 80's alternative music scene with a knowing wink and a nod, Hot Fuss has all the sound of a band that deeply means the music they're playing. And that lack of irony is refreshing.

The other thing that's wonderful about this album is that it sounds like the annals of crime for a week in Las Vegas, which, coincidentally is where The Killers are from. You have songs of love, passion, and murder. This is dark music, dark in the same sense as Joy Division, or the movie Scarface. But the darkness doesn't detract from the album, it actually makes it more listenable. In fact, this has my vote as one of the best albums of this year.

I'll tag it with 4.5 out of 5 stars. Go, run to the store, and grab it now. You won't be disappointed.

There has always been a lot of debate from both sides of the aisle as to whether or not guns impact the amount of crime in an area. The problem is that for a long time, both gun-rights advocates, and gun-control advocates would produce contradictory evidence supporting their positions.

One man, John Lott Jr. set out to produce the definitive book which could be used to finish all debates.

One night, Heather and I were returning from our community theatre after a night of play practice, and it was late. To get home we had to drive through a DUI checkpoint. As we stopped and answered questions, the officer wanted to look in the trunk. It felt terribly invasive. It was terribly invasive. For a few days later I felt dirty, like I'd been violated. I wish I'd said "No, you may not look in the trunk", but I didn't know my rights, or what the consequences could be. That was then.

Now, I'm better informed, thanks to "You and the Police!" by Boston T. Party..

I just got done reading Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. I don't think I will ever eat at a fast food restaurant again...