"see that fish? $13,000. makes you almost wanna stop eating sushi, but I guess you have to."

an impeccably delivered line of dialogue (by adam brody aka seth cohen, no less) from jason reitman's feature debut, thank you for smoking, based on the novel by christopher buckley and screened last night as part of the 2006 melbourne international film festival at the stately regent theatre. in this humble cyberspace polluter's opinion, a fine piece of satire and one of the best comedy's of recent years. good cast. well paced. didn't lag. laugh-out-loud funny. intriguing premise. charismatic (and morally dubious) central chracter. great dialogue. see it

now i get it

okay. so, last night i revisited the athenaeum theatre, scene of the triumphant eels orchestra show of 2000, to witness the same "band" (and i use this term advisedly) completely denigrate any fond memory of that venue and that show that may have still lingered after all these years. in a lazy performance, the ever-idiosyncratic E led a three-piece line-up through unaffecting alternative-throwback renditions of his material devoid of emotion, sentiment or passion. while proficient, the musicianship could not be appreciated. the theatricality was distancing and amateurish. the band seemed content to render every song in the eels catalogue in the same vein, amounting to little more than an inconsequential exercise in monotony. it takes a certain kind of arrogance to pummel your audience into submission and charge 60 dollars a pop for the privilege. particularly an audience that has loyally followed an iconoclastic song-writer exorcise his demons throughout years of cathartic, confessional, heartfelt and honest expression and which can rightfully claim a sense of ownership towards "their" band. no joy in performing, communicating or connecting with this audience was conveyed. rather it was an altogether alienating experience which left one dismayed as to the band's motives in putting on this white-boy soul-metal revue. and while the eels have always traded on a certain degree of irony, tonight they cashed in a wealth of respect i once held for them in a heartless, soulless and pointless endeavour