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Dan Carlson
Houston, Texas

I'm a twentysomething white male with ambitions to be a professional film critic and generally spend my days getting paid to watch movies and write about it. A compulsive reader and stubborn cineaste, I take an often contrary stance to my more fundamentalist peers and upbringing by celebrating the pursuit of the good, and the Good, in life, love, art and film. If you watched enough episodes of certain TV shows — for starters, "The Hungry and the Hunted," "The Cut Man Cometh," "The Body," "The Zeppo," "Waiting in the Wings," "Out of Gas," "April Is the Cruelest Month," "20 Hours in America," "Colonial Day," "An Echolls Family Christmas," "Look Who's Stalking," "The Garage Door," "Charlie Gets Crippled," "Wind Sprints," and "Corner Boys" — you would understand me completely, and you'd also realize that much of my worldview and philosophical insights are heavily influenced by fictional works/programs, and many of the good things I've said in my life are just a regurgitation of someone else's imaginings, or at any rate a heartfelt attempt to interpret them. I guess I was made to be a film critic.

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« "Veronica Mars": When Mysteries Aren't That Mysterious |Main| Review: Spider-Man 3 »

May 3, 2007

Music Video Of The Week — 9: Country Explosion In Indio Edition

By Dan Carlson

Sure, everybody and their brother went to the desert last weekend for Coachella, with the heat and the gridlock and the weed and the booze and the girls you will never hook up with. And yeah, it was probably fun to see Rage Against the Machine reunite, if only for the 10th-grade flashbacks it inspired, and the opportunity it gave you to shout "Testify!" all weekend. But for my money, this is the weekend to be in Indio: May 5-6 is the Stagecoach Festival, billed as "California's country music festival," and there are some fantastic acts scheduled to play. Forget the mainstream crap like Kenny Chesney, Alan Jackson, and Sara Evans. Let the fools have them. Some of the acts coming to Stagecoach include such alt-country, bluegrass, and Americana performers as:

Old 97's
Emmylou Harris
Ricky Skaggs
Marty Stuart
Raul Malo
Alejandro Escovedo
Earl Scruggs
Neko Case
Nickel Creek
Yonder Mountain String Band
Robert Earl Keen
The Del McCoury Band
Willie Nelson
Lucinda Williams

Good grief, what a beautiful collection of artists. Anyone who wants to take me is more than welcome. In the meantime, enjoy some tunes by a few of the above bands and singers:

"Behind the House," by Neko Case:

"Are You Alright?" by Lucinda Williams:

"When You Come Back Down," by Nickel Creek:

"Roll in my Sweet Baby's Arms," with Earl Scruggs and Ricky Skaggs:

Comments: 7

Brian

Thanks for the Miss Case

May 3, 2007 11:23 AM

Spender

Wow. WOW!
I would go if only Del McCoury, Marty Stuart and Ricky Skaggs were playing but the rest of the line-up makes it one of the best festivals going. Folks, if you aren't familiar with these artists, take Dan's advice and watch the clips, seek out their music and, if possible, GO TO THE SHOW! You'll love it.

May 3, 2007 3:09 PM

Josh

How can you not love Neko?

May 3, 2007 4:03 PM

loveyouintheface

I don't live anywhere near California because it scares me. I've heard people who live out there tend to use cilantro irresponsibly. However, if I did live in the area, I'd totally take you.

May 7, 2007 7:46 AM

Brian

Review from NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/08/arts/music/08stag.html?ref=music

May 11, 2007 8:49 AM

Robert

Stagecoach Music festival is one of the hot events in California and even in all US. The festival always is an occasion to see star singers and great bands and also to watch great performance. This festival is attended by thousands of people from all around US and it becomes a little difficult to find a ticket. Ticket brokers always find the occasion to sky high prices. I deeply love music and I always attend concerts and festivals. I come to discover a site where to compare ticket prices for free before purchasing a ticket. I can look for the lowest prices and avoid those pricy tickets.
http://www.ticketwood.com/concerts/Stagecoach-Country-Music-Festival-Tickets/index.php
Stagecoach Tickets

Mar 13, 2008 9:56 AM

artiladrealen

Hi People
How are you doing?

Oct 6, 2009 7:42 PM

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"The critic is the only independent source of information. The rest is advertising."
— Pauline Kael

"Film lovers are sick people."
— Francois Truffaut

"I hope I strike a blow for chubby bald men everywhere. I hope they rise like an army."
— Paul Giamatti, quoted in the Los Angeles Times, 12/14/04

"Let others praise ancient times, I am glad I was born in these."
— Ovid

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Remembering speechlessly we seek the great forgotten language, the lost lane-end into heaven, a stone, a leaf, an unfound door. Where? When?

O lost, and by the wind grieved, ghost, come back again.
— Look Homeward, Angel, Thomas Wolfe

Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives.
— John Stuart Mill

We are all under the same mental calamity; we have all forgotten our names. We have all forgotten what we really are. All that we call common sense and rationality and practicality and positivism only means that for certain dead levels of our life we forget that we have forgotten. All that we call spirit and art and ecstasy only means that for one awful instant we remember that we forget.
— G.K. Chesterton

We were, for the briefest of moments, something greater than the sum of our uncertain parts; we were youth itself, in all its painful glory and sharp joy.
— Me, Fall 2003

There is a time in the lives of most writers when they are vulnerable, when the vivid dreams and ambitions of childhood seem to pale in the harsh sunlight of what we call the real world. In short, there's a time when things can go either way.
— Stephen King

Los Angeles, give me some of you! Los Angeles come to me the way I came to you, my feet over your streets, you pretty town I loved you so much, you sad flower in the sand, you pretty town.
— Ask the Dust, John Fante