even though i’m in love with panda bear, even the notoriously sweet and lovely “my girls” puts me off (due to perceived sexism). c’mon, a man’s role is NOT a woman’s provider, panda bear!
[you’ve seen it before, but now try & spot that sexism, friends! well, it’s really only the line “four walls & adobe slab FOR my girls.”]
“also frightened” is probably my favorite track off the record; like all animal collective songs, very simple, familiar, but with a nice touch of avant-garde.
here’s another man for whom i also surrender my feminist principals. no amount of sexist spewing turns me off of him, and since i’ve been working through his autobiography it’s clear this guy is pretty fucking sexist, perhaps a 7 on the scale due really only to his sexual attitudes...RUSSELL BRAND.
his comedy is fast and long-winded and i imagine he could never share a spotlight because the other guy would come off lazy and useless. his distinguishing characteristic, other than his looks and sexuality, is almost certainly his language skills. he prefers to speak ironically, and by that i mean he imbeds sophisticated vocabulary, that only the more erudite among us could catch, in extremely casual grammar. or, he takes obscenities and put them into stilted sentence structures. quite good! it appeals to me because i also get a kick out of talking like that. at his best, i think, mr. brand turns memories of his own pain, discomfort, and embarrassment into long, wordy, surreal tales.
no good english(wo)man needs to be told about russell brand, i hear. quite famous is he. but i’ve never been to england, or europe even, in any capacity. well, how about this capacity: i strolled into a topshop in harajuku once. here in the u.s. he is sadly only recognizable by those who 1. watch late-night talk shows every night regardless of who’s on or 2. have seen the movie “forgetting sarah marshall”, or maybe that adam sandler movie. if anybody actually watches the mtv video music awards then there he was; i know i would not have watched ‘em if he hadn’t been hosting. the last possibility is me: fanatics of silly, pointless comedy. when it was available to me, i used to enjoy the various british comedies that bbc america would air, and the mighty boosh was a favorite of mine. somehow my obsession with the two mighty boosh guys linked me to russell brand’s comedy. it was just that easy!
russell brand is still “young” in the world of comedy, and by that i mean that one’s comedic success does not necessarily expire with age & loss of beauty, so mr. brand is still improving his comedic techniques. without a doubt he is sometimes too wordy and too obnoxious; he forces his presence into A LOT of television, giving himself too many opportunities to not come off well.
incidentally, i was sure i would hate “forgetting sarah marshall”, but didn’t. must’ve been russell. and PAUL RUDD. he’s not a world class comedian but he’s charming and cute as hell.
bit of stand up:
an example of his outrageous wordiness (improvised, no less):
& an extra: the paul rudd bit that everyone, including me, found hilariousss:
there’s two points i’ve buried in this brand/animal collective duality: one, art doesn’t have to be taken to the height of technical complexity, i think, to be valuable. two, there are “things” in the world of such “beauty” that i’m sometimes forced into reprehensible patterns of hypocrisy. animal collective and russell brand, you should be ashamed of what you’ve done to me and my feminist principals. that said, i will gladly subjugate myself sexually to brand and/or panda bear.
p.s. russellbrand.tv is updated very frequently with blogs and videos of/by russell that will make you truly skeptical that this man is NOT on drugs. weird guy! <3
