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The Decemberists are about as great as a band gets. This is, of course, purely subjective. I often find that musical tastes and preferences are more disparate and subject to personal subjectivity than those of movies or literature. Not that musical criticism is irrelevant. I just find it to be of very little use. And I’m even worse at reviewing music than movies. But I’m not really a critic. Hence, this post will be filled with hyperbole and raving.

A few weeks ago, the Decemberists gave us their latest offering, The Crane Wife. Its namesakes, “The Crane Wife 3″ and “The Crane Wife 1 & 2″ (tracks 1 and 9, respectively), form an epic and evocative narrative. Splitting the story in this fashion is extraordinarily effective (I’m using e-words!) and provides an enquiring curiosity front that is still emotionally effective. This is what the Decemberists do best: overblown, intensely personal narrative. I love it.

This is not to say that The Crane Wife is the band’s best effort. I’m still reserving that title for last year’s spectacular Picaresque (seriously, check out that site, it has a full MP3 of one of the disc’s best tracks, “The Engine Driver).

Some criticize the band, and especially lead vocalist and lyricist Colin Meloy, of being self indulgent. This isn’t necessarily untrue. Meloy frequently invokes some of what are his obvious pet themes and settings in many songs. The band’s sound is idiosyncratic and often intentionally reminescent of sea chanties. They’ve been called “pirate music” (source forgotten). But, like my affinity for Quentin Tarantino, when masturbatory art is this fucking awesome, I don’t mind. Meloy is a masterful writer of fiction. He often communicates an entire novel’s worth of empathy, setting, and plot in the span of a single four minute ballad (check out “O Valencia!” on the new album or “The Soldiering Life” on Her Majesty).

The Decemberists aren’t to everyone’s taste. I don’t understand why, but I can respect that. But you owe yourself to find out if they’re for you.

The shoot for “The Mustache” began a little late on Saturday, giving us some added pressure, considering the amount of time that we had Mark was limited. It was regrettably moot, though, because in the midst of shooting the second scene, Mark’s car (which was the car we were using and a very important part of the film) ran into a major problem. So we had to cancel shooting for the rest of the day. We’ll pick it up again in a couple weeks when we all have time. Oh well. Such is life.

Instead, a bunch of us ate burgers and watched American Dreamz. It was alright.

But then, later, we watched the Wong Jing-directed Stephen Chow/Andy Lau film, God of Gamblers II. If you’re not familiar with the story, the Chow Yun-Fat vehicle God of Gamblers was a smash hit in Hong Kong. It was insanely popular, which is understandable, because it’s fantastically entertaining cinema. Then Jeff Lau directs Stephen Chow and Ng Man Tat in a spoof entitled All for the Winner, which was also insanely popular and started Stephen Chow down the path to superstardom. Chow Yun-Fat isn’t in God of Gamlbers II, but rather Stephen Chow’s “Saint of Gamblers” character teams up with Chow Yun-Fat’s protege, Andy Lau. And it’s pretty awesome mo lei tau. Hardly Chow’s best work, but it was fun.

The Streets’ new album, “The Hardest Way To Make an Easy Living” streets tomorrow. I already have my copy on hold at work.

Lately, the Decemberists‘ “Castaways and Cutouts” album has not left my car CD player. Honestly, I would say its their weakest album, but that really does nothing to discredit it. It’s still fantastic. I can’t stop listening to “The Legionnaire’s Lament.”

While at Borders today, I came up with an idea. It was a grand idea, and I was very satisfied to have come upon such an idea. “I ought to write some of this down so I can remember it,” I said to myself. I turned to do just that and lost it. Gone. Totally. I have no idea what it was. That sucks.

But I also came up with an idea for a script while at my other job. For a while I was apprehensive that I was aping too much from Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Doppelganger (a film I love deeply), but I think it’s different enough. I’ll think about it for a couple more days and then begin writing it.

That’s it for tonight. I need to do something about my shitty audio recording situation, because I really need to start working on some of my animated projects, but they’re all fucking stalled because I can’t record anything.