Way back in 2005, right before the Oscars, me and the homie Geoff realized we had seen very few of the films in contention (since then I’ve seen all except “Finding Neverland”). Little did we know we’d be walking into one of those movies that kind of changes your life. Err..I guess now is a good time to say that if you haven’t seen the movie and want to don’t read any further, because I’m going to talk about it in depth.

I’ve bought two copies of that movie, Geoff had the copy I recently watched for about 2 years before I told him to bring it with him this weekend. I hadn’t seen the movie in awhile and I needed to refresh myself.

I used to relate alot to Miles (I mean it’s even my middle name!) but this most recent viewing forced me to change my perspective a bit. For whatever reason I could always sort of convince myself to sort of forget or at least gloss over the part where he stole the money from his mother. I could never do anything like that. Wouldn’t even think about it.

I am however fragile like him, but gradually I’m becoming less of a Pinot Noir and more “hardy”. I’m becoming more and more like Jack in actual fact, something that is somewhat scary to me. Well maybe I’m not becoming like him, but I definitely see where he’s coming from now. Sometimes you just do things, whether it’s uncertainty about the future that drives the decision or just a wreckless streak, whatever the case, some actions defy logic or good sense, but they take place anyway. Jack was a creature of impulse (something that is in my nature/instinct) whereas Miles was a creature of calculation (what I’ve been for most of my life).

Anyway I watched it this time with the commentary featuring Thomas Haden Church and Paul Giamatti (had no idea he was the former MLB Commish’s son). They seemed to have a genuine friendship which explains alot about the chemistry in the movie. Watching it with that in mind kind of gave me “new eyes” to alter my original view of the movie as a whole.

I gave serious thought for the first time that perhaps they were no longer friends after Jack’s wedding. Also maybe Maya wasn’t at that door at the end. It’d fit with Alexander Payne’s other movies to have an ending as such.

Anyway I still love this movie, probably more than before….in retrospect.

A Tribe Called Quest….it’s like A Pimp Named Slickback, you say the whole thing! Before Outkast there was ATCQ making damn near perfect albums. Fewer of the quirks or outlandishness of say De La Soul (the former) or Ultramagnetic MC’s (the latter), Tribe were the true masters of their domain.

Their debut, “People’s Instinctive Travels and Damn This Was A Long Title That Wouldn’t Have Sold An Album In The New ADHD Ritalin Addled Hip Hop Scene” was one of the first five-mic albums in the Source when five mics actually MEANT something. They followed it up with ANOTHER Five Mic album “The Low End Theory”. Then they went and followed THAT up with “Midnight Marauders” and I don’t give a damn WHAT the Source or anyone else says, that is their best album.

Then in the summer of 1996, the summer of follow ups that either had to grow on people (Outkasts “Atliens” for non-ATL natives) or were just plain disappointing (Nas’s “It Was Written”), ATCQ released “Beats, Rhymes, and Life” to a generally underwhelmed hip hop populace (of course these were just the appetizer to the TRUE disappointment, Snoop’s “Tha Doggfather”, but that’s for another day).

No matter how you slice it, “Beats, Rhymes, and Life” just was not the album Tribe fans were looking for after “Midnight Marauders”. It still isn’t, but what is honestly? They could have released Lupe Fiasco’s “The Cool” and it would have disappointed everyone. And so the album found it’s way onto shelfs and the backs of Case Logic CD books and gathered dust, sans the faithful few who would tout it’s underratedness.

On a whim, while in a musical feeding frenzy I snatched this album from a friend and decided today while making a powerpoint presentation to give it one more hard listen. Not only is it “not bad” it’s actually pretty close to great. There are a few “oops” moments such as:

(Will y’all fall off?) Will Laura fuck Urkel?

Well…uhhh…yeah and yeah! Unfortunately! Tribe won’t ever be known as soothsayers, their par excellence was speaking on the contemporary and well, they did that very well.

On second listen the album sounds like a continuation of Midnight Marauders, which probably contributed to the initial reaction to it. With a few years and the dreck we get handed today however, the album was quality. Just goes to show you that sometimes it’s not all about the first impression, especially when you take expectations into consideration.