This weekend I saw "Year of the Dog" with my friend Hannah, marking my first time seeing a movie at the Grove. In fact, it was my first time at the Grove when not entertaining out of town guests. The movie was.... so sad. Mike White (the writer and director) keeps calling it a comedy that isn't funny, and that's a really great way to describe it. It's also inherently about a nice lady losing her amazing doggie. That is heartbreaking! So, if you're Kim or Sarah or Meighan or Sharon and on and on and on, you will most likely cry or even bawl during this movie.

It is pretty oddball, but I liked it. There are some really great scenes and the acting was all really great. It's just kind of an oddball story that will probably turn off some people. There are tons of cute dogs in it though! Oddly, our screening was full of little kids. Hannah pointed out that Firehouse Dog was playing in the next theater and that the marquees were similar so that maybe some people had watched the movie by mistake. Maybe. I wonder why they would have never walked out though. It's not really adult, but the whole theme of death etc... is a bit heavy for a kid.

On Friday Mike and I saw Ted Leo and it was a really great show. We were exhausted though, and the audience seemed to mostly be pretty tired, which was too bad because he played some of his most upbeat stuff. Dancing to Little Dawn was my highlight because that may be his best song ever. The bearded drummer infuriated me by playing very complicated and fast songs like it was nothing with a big smile on his face. I don't even think he broke a sweat. I am infuriated when someone is seemingly effortlessly talented.

Finally, the new Arcade Fire song sounds a lot like "On the Darkside" from Eddie and the Cruisers (I don't think the new song is on the myspace page... bad choicee me). Mike was singing on the Darkside for about 2 weeks trying to tell me that he was hearing it in the Arcade Fire song and I didn't get it. Then, I was on my way home last week and the AF song came on the radio and I thought "ooh! on the darkside!" and turned up on the volume. So, Luds is so very right. I bow to him on this one.