{"id":5578,"date":"2011-02-01T12:03:59","date_gmt":"2011-02-01T16:03:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/?p=5578"},"modified":"2011-02-01T15:05:26","modified_gmt":"2011-02-01T19:05:26","slug":"dugout-chatter-greenberg-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/dugout-chatter-greenberg-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"Dugout Chatter: Greenberg Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The other night I finally got around to seeing director Noah Baumbach<\/strong>‘s latest film,\u00a0Greenberg<\/em>, starring Ben Stiller<\/strong>, as the title character, a depressed 40-year-old former musician who’s house sitting for his successful brother in LA, scene of Greenberg’s dashed music dreams. I liked it, and Stiller was surprisingly restrained in playing\u00a0the sort of\u00a0pathetic dick I’ve known too well and verged on being myself. Greta Gerwig<\/strong>\u00a0co-stars a the cute, goofy, young love interest and\u00a0Rhys Ifans<\/strong>\u00a0plays Greenberg’s old band buddy, who sucks it up and manages to help occupy his old friend’s time in hopes of moving past the dick he was and still is.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As in his previous two movies, The Squid and the Whale<\/em> and Margot at the Wedding<\/em>, the film is populated by\u00a0the sort of liberal arts educated, 100% natural cotton-clad types who tend to dig the daily proceedings in the Halls of Rock.\u00a0With characters who were former bandmates this movie is especially rock oriented,\u00a0and\u00a0the\u00a0Greenberg character\u00a0can’t help but see the world through his rock nerd\u2013glasses.\u00a0The soundtrack was compiled and scored by James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem<\/strong>. Whether you’ve seen the movie or not, I thought\u00a0Greenberg<\/em> touched on some good topics for today’s round of Dugout Chatter. Remember, it’s your gut<\/em> answers that count!<\/p>\n

What’s the best song you’ve heard in a Starbucks?<\/em><\/p>\n

The first time Greenberg meets Gerwig’s he plays her “It Never Rains in California” and asks her if she remembers the days when LA radio stations played that song whenever it rained. What weather-related song do you most associate with radio stations of your youth?<\/em><\/p>\n

SPOILER ALERT<\/strong>…<\/p>\n

What’s the best coke music?<\/em><\/p>\n

If Ifans’ doesn’t immediately bring an image<\/a> to mind he’s the laid-back, tall, gangly, unkempt Welsh actor who typically plays the laid-back, tall, gangly, unkempt buddy of an anxious leading man. I the Stiller-Ifans characters’ musical history was discussed (but never seen), I imagined the tall Ifans playing\u00a0guitar next to the tiny Stiller and thought of a particular\u00a0songwriting duo<\/a> in which the short guy actually\u00a0was a Welshman and looked a bit like Ifans.\u00a0Who’s your favorite “mismatched” songwriting\/guitar duo?<\/em><\/p>\n

If you had to write one cranky customer complaint letter to a figure in rock, how would it start?<\/em><\/p>