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obtusemedia · 3 years

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Ranking Lady Gaga's albums, from worst to best

Being a Lady Gaga fan can be an exercise in frustration.

Gaga is far more ambitious than most popstars — I doubt we’ll ever see Ariana Grande or Ed Sheeran make an album as left-field as Born This Way or ARTPOP. But she's also far less consistent, with numerous misbegotten projects.

Gaga's undeniably successful, with five #1 hits, an Oscar and multiple iconic music videos to her name. But her messy album rollouts and tradition of underperforming lead singles make her feel like an underdog compared to the more polished, precise careers of her contemporaries like Taylor Swift, Beyoncé or Bruno Mars.

Gaga is kind of a mess. But she's our mess. This album ranking will cover some records I can't stand — albums that make me constantly hit the fast-forward button, or albums I ignore altogether. But there isn't a single record on here that wasn't a bold move. Even the "back to basics" albums made strong aesthetic choices.

So let's dive into the career of the most fascinating Millennial popstar.

#8: Cheek To Cheek (2014)

This really shouldn't count. It's a Lady Gaga album in name only. But, technically it's a Gaga album, so here we are.

I've got nothing against Gaga having fun playing Rat Pack-era dress-up with Tony Bennett. She's a theatre kid at heart, and I'm sure every theatre kid would kill to make a Great American Songbook covers record like this. It sounds like she and Tony enjoyed themselves, so I'm happy for them!

...but I'm sorry. I can't be objective about Cheek To Cheek, it's the opposite of my taste. There's only so many bland lounge ballads I can take.

BEST SONGS: I have to pick one? "Anything Goes" is cute, I guess.

WORST SONG: "Sophisticated Lady"

#7: A Star Is Born (2018)

Let me first make this clear — A Star Is Born, the movie starring Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga? It's a masterpiece. It's electrifying and tragic and I'm still upset it didn't sweep the Oscars that year. There's even a cute dog! You won't hear me say a bad word about it.

But A Star Is Born, the accompanying soundtrack? It's extremely hit-and-miss.

Yes, it includes arguably Gaga's best-ever song and one of the greatest movie hits ever written, "Shallow." And there's plenty of other great tunes in the tracklist too — "Always Remember Us This Way," "I'll Never Love Again," the "La Vie En Rose" cover.

Even the country-rock songs from Bradley Cooper (who, reminder, is not a professional singer) are mostly good! "Black Eyes" RIPS, and "Maybe It's Time" feels like a long-lost classic.

But sadly, there are so many mediocre filler tracks on this thing. The second half of A Star Is Born's hour-plus runtime (Gaga's longest!) is padded with generic songs like "Look What I've Found," "Heal Me" and "I Don't Know What Love Is." The only good one out of the bunch is the silly, intentionally-bad "Why Did You Do That?"

In the movie, these filler tracks serve a point – they're meant to show Gaga's character selling out. They work in the movie when you hear them for a few seconds and see Cooper make a drunkly disappointed scowl. But I don't want to listen to them, and sadly, they make up half the album.

In other words — A Star Is Born would've made an incredible six or seven-song EP. But as an 63-minute-long record? It's a slog.

BEST SONGS: "Shallow", "Always Remember Us This Way," "Maybe It's Time"

WORST SONG: "Heal Me"

#6: Joanne (2016)

After Born This Way and ARTPOP, I get why Gaga needed to make a more lowkey, back-to-basics album. I also understand that many of these songs have extremely personal lyrics for her.

But is a down-to-earth album what I really want from our most outré popstar? Not really.

Luckily, Joanne is better than that description suggests. Yes, there are some bland acoustic ballads and awkward hippie-era throwbacks (two styles that are really not in Gaga's wheelhouse), but there's also some Springsteen-style heartland rockers! And those go hard in the paint.

Joanne works best when Gaga works the record's dusty aesthetics into her brand of weirdo pop, like on the sizzling "John Wayne," the winking "A-YO" or the delightfully extra Florence Welch duet "Hey Girl."

The record also has "Perfect Illusion" — a glorious red herring of a lead single that sounds nothing like anything else on Joanne. It's a roided-up mixture of woozy Tame Impala production and hair metal histrionics, and it rules. It might be Gaga's best-ever lead single! (at the very least, it's her most underrated.)

And there is one slow tune that's unambiguously great: "Million Reasons," another solid Gaga lighters-in-the-air power ballad pastiche.

Despite what some Little Monsters may tell you, Joanne isn't a disaster. There's some great stuff in there, and even the worst songs are just forgettable. But it's still far from her best.

BEST SONGS: "Perfect Illusion," "Diamond Heart," "Million Reasons"

WORST SONG: "Come To Mama"

#5: Chromatica (2020)

When Chromatica was released near the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, it had been seven years since Gaga had released music in her classic gonzo-synthpop vein. I can easily picture the record serving as an "ugh fine, I'll give you what you want" response to the many Little Monsters annoyed with Gaga's half-decade of folksy ballads and Julie Andrews cosplay.

I'll say this about Chromatica — outside of The Fame Monster, it's her most consistent record. There's not a single track that's a glaring mistake. And the three singles — "Stupid Love," "911" and the triumphant Ariana Grande duet "Rain On Me" — easily stand among her best tracks.

But although "all bangers, no ballads" album sounds rad in theory, it doesn't really succeed in practice. Chromatica is solid, but it's also a very same-y record. It feels like Gaga had one really great idea for the album ('90s club music with super-depressing lyrics) and repeated it over and over and over again to diminishing results.

There are some songs that are able to separate themselves: the three singles, of course, as well as the goofy "Babylon" and "Sine From Above," the Elton John duet that's the closest Chromatica gets to a ballad. But by the end of the album, you feel more worn out than electrified.

Also — and this is probably unfair, but still — Chromatica came out just a couple months after another retro-dance blockbuster pop album: Dua Lipa's magnum opus, Future Nostalgia. That's not a flattering comparison.

BEST SONGS: "Rain On Me," "Stupid Love," "911"

WORST SONG: "1000 Doves"

#4: The Fame (2008)

Out of all of Gaga's records, The Fame is most like a time capsule. It REEKS of late '00s/early '10s pop — which isn't an entirely fair criticism, seeing as Gaga popularized that era's sleazy, synthy aesthetic. It's also not a bad thing! I don't mind a little nostalgia!

As you already know, The Fame's singles are masterworks. "Just Dance," "Poker Face," "Paparazzi" — these tracks have titanic legacies for good reason. And although it's probably the least-beloved of this album's hits, despite being a total banger, "LoveGame" should still be commended for having arguably the most Gaga lyric ever (you know, the "disco stick" line).

And even though those tracks are front-loaded on The Fame, there are some gems deeper in the tracklist. "Summerboy" is basically Gwen Stefani covering The Strokes (so obviously, it's great). "Eh, Eh" is adorable. "Starstruck" is the most 2008 song ever recorded, with aggressive Auto-Tune and Flo Rida showing up to make Starbucks jokes.

Sadly, The Fame still feels like Gaga before she became fully-formed at certain points. The back half has a number of songs that feel like generic club tracks forced by the label, and "Paper Gangsta" is one of the clunkiest songs in Gaga's catalogue.

But at the very least, the bad songs on The Fame at least serve as little nostalgia bombs for that era of pop. And the best songs are untouchable classics.

BEST SONGS: "Paparazzi," "Just Dance," "Summerboy"

WORST SONG: "Paper Gangsta"

#3: ARTPOP (2013)

For much of Gaga's career, she's been ahead of the curve. She tries something, and a year or a few years later, other popstars try something similar to diminishing results.

That doesn't just apply to the successful stuff, like Gaga's extravagant music videos inspiring many copycats from 2010-2013. It also applies to the mid-late '10s trend of legacy popstars making a controversial record with risky aesthetic or lyrical choices that backfired: reputation. Witness. Man of The Woods.

Gaga did this first, with ARTPOP — arguably the most abrasive, and bizzare major label album released by a major modern popstar. And she did it better, because unlike Swift, Perry and Timberlake, Gaga's weirdness was for real. And it was in service of some prime, hyper-aggressive bangers.

ARTPOP isn't Gaga's best work — some of her experiments on it are major misfires, from the obnoxious "Mary Jane Holland" to the bland Born This Way leftover (and Romani slur-utilizing) "Gypsy."

But when ARTPOP is on, it's ON. The opening stretch in particular, from "Aura" to "Venus" to "G.U.Y." to "Sexxx Dreams," is chaotic synthpop at its finest. Those songs took Gaga's classic sound to an apocalyptic, demented extreme, and they're fantastic.

"MANiCURE" is a great glam-rock banger, "Dope" is another classic Gaga piano ballad, the title track is some sikly-smooth dreampop; even the misguided, clunky trap anthem "Jewels N' Drugs" is bad in a hilarious, charming way!

Trust me: ARTPOP will go down in history not as a flop, but as a gutsy, underrated record from a legend. Less Witness, more In Utero.

BEST SONGS: "G.U.Y.," "Venus," "Sexxx Dreams"

WORST SONG: "Gypsy"

#2: The Fame Monster (2009)

Objectively speaking, this is probably the best Gaga album.

It's her one record with no fluff, no filler — only 34 minutes and 8 tracks, all of them stellar.

It's the record that took Gaga from "wow, this new woman is a fresh new face in pop!" to "this woman IS pop."

It's the record with her signature track, "Bad Romance," which was accompanied by arguably the greatest music video of the 21st Century. (It also has my absolute favorite Gaga track, the relentlessly catchy "Telephone.")

I don't think I need to explain what makes mega-smashes "Bad Romance" and "Telephone" and "Alejandro" great, nor the accompanying legendary deep cuts "Speechless" and "Dance In The Dark." They speak for themselves.

However — the sleek, calculated perfection of The Fame Monster, while incredible, isn't something I return to often. It's just not the side of Gaga that's my favorite. That honor would have to go to...

BEST SONGS: "Telephone," "Dance In The Dark," "Bad Romance"

WORST SONG: "So Happy I Could Die" (but it's still pretty solid)

#1: Born This Way (2011)

One of my favorite podcasts is Blank Check. The concept of the show is to analyze each movie by a famous director — in particular, those who had big success early on and then got a blank check to make whatever crazy passion project they wanted. Here's a great example: because Batman was a massive hit, Tim Burton got to make whatever Hot Topic-core movies he wanted to for decades, from Edward Scissorhands to a creepy Willy Wonka remake.

That long-winded tangent is just to say: Born This Way was Lady Gaga's blank check. By early 2011, she had conquered the pop universe, notching hit after hit after hit. Every other pop star was copying her quirky music videos. So the label let Gaga do whatever she wanted — and she didn't waste that opportunity.

Born This Way is wildly overproduced. It's both extremely trend-chasing (those synths were cutting edge at the time but charmingly dated now), but also deeply uncaring about what the teens want (I don't think Springsteen and Queen homages were big at the time). And I love every messy, overblown second of it.

From the hair-metal/synthpop hybrid opener "Marry The Night" to the majestic '80s power ballad "The Edge of Glory," Born This Way starts at an 11. And Gaga never takes her foot off the pedal for the album's entire hour-plus run time. Clanging electric guitars, thunderous synths and Clarence Clemons (!!!) sax solos collide into each other as Gaga champions every misfit and loser in the world. It's gloriously corny in the best way possible.

Born This Way is also the perfect middle ground of pop-savvy Gaga and gonzo Gaga. It doesn't go quite as hard as ARTPOP, but the hooks are stronger. And the oddball moments are tons of fun, from the sci-fi biker anthem "Highway Unicorn" to the goofy presidential-sex banger "Government Hooker" ("Put your hands on me/John F. Kennedy" might be the greatest line in pop history).

Born This Way will always be my favorite Gaga album. It's armed with nuclear-grade hooks, slamming beats, and soaring anthems. Although it's not as untouchably pristine as the Mt. Rushmore of '10s pop classics (for the record, that's 1989, EMOTION, Lemonade and, of course, Melodrama), Gaga isn't best served by meticulousness. She's proudly tacky and histrionic, and so that's what makes Born This Way an utter joy.

BEST SONGS: "The Edge of Glory," "You and I," "Marry The Night"

WORST SONG: "Bloody Mary"

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yamisnuffles · 5 years

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Falling For You

A week after receiving the thermos of holy water from Aziraphale, Crowley leaves London to try to clear his head. It goes even worse than expected. Luckily he has someone to save him from himself.

Read on Ao3

- - - - -

Crowley was falling. No, not like that. He'd already done that once and thankfully it wasn't the sort of thing you were expected to do twice. Also not like that. That sort of falling, for someone as it were, was something you could do more than once but Crowley never had. Well, perhaps he had but it had all been for the same person, time and again. No, this was a completely mundane fall, the sort humans did countless times a day. Only, this was no trip over a step and he was no human. He was a demon who had accidentally stumbled right off a cliff.

It was stupid. It was so stupid that he couldn’t think of anything else. He really wasn’t looking forward to explaining himself in Hell when he got discorporated. Did he leave out the part where he’d seen an angel, got so distracted by that fluff of hair as white as the cliffs that he hadn’t paid attention to where he was walking? Of course, if he left that out, it just left him with the scenario where he’d gone and stepped right over the edge. For no reason. There really wasn’t a good way to spin it. He’d have to spend however many decades getting mocked for it while he waited for a new body.

Great. Fantastic. What a way to finish the week. Start it by going too fast and end with a quick tumble to his death.

He closed his eyes and readied himself for a crash into the rocks. Instead, he heard the loud whump of something large passing through the air above him and came to an immediate stop. His eyes snapped back open to find that the very angel who had literally just about distracted him to death had come to save him. Aziraphale had his arms wrapped around him and his cloud white wings flared wide to abort their fall.

Crowley thought he should say something but apparently thought was still not playing nice with him. Instead he garbled out a bit of nonsense as Aziraphale adjusted his grip on him and flew back up. Aziraphale had Crowley held flush to his body in an iron tight embrace and Crowley thought he was just as likely to discorporate from that as from the fall.

Aziraphale flew up, up, up, until they were nowhere near the cliff edge and then lay Crowley on the grass. His arms were still draped loosely about Crowley, as though he was afraid if he let go altogether, Crowley would toss himself to the sea. Unlikely, Crowley thought, given that all he could do was gawp at the angel’s still unfurled wings and the light press where their bodies met at the hips on the ground.

“Crowley,” Aziraphale said, in his best, most chastising tone, “what were you thinking?”

Crowley worked his mouth. He still couldn’t get his brain to work, let alone form words. Maybe he had died and he had been granted one last ridiculous fantasy before he left his body.

“Well?” Aziraphale pressed.

“Wasn’t. Thinking.” Try again. “Wasn’t thinking.” This whole impromptu trip was an exercise in that. He’d climbed in the Bentley without a destination in mind and driven until he hit the sea. “Was just sort of-” He waggled a pair of fingers like legs to get across the idea of walking.

“You just walked. Off. A. Cliff?”

“Nnnnnnh…” If he hadn’t wanted to tell Hell that he’d fallen because he’d spotted Aziraphale, he certainly didn’t want to tell the angel himself.

Aziraphale took his nonanswer as confirmation. His face crumpled and his sea blue eyes turned grey. “I know we didn’t part on the best of terms and while I’m quite glad you didn’t turn to the holy water for this, I didn’t think… I had hoped…”

Crowley felt like he was tumbling off the cliff again for the way his stomach plummeted. He waved his hands quickly to stop that line of thinking. “Angel. Angel. Angel.” There were tears falling onto his face now and Crowley couldn’t handle it. “Stop. Hey. It wasn’t on purpose, okay? I was just out here to clear my mind because being in the city was starting to drive me crazy and then who should I see but you and I, er, well. Ijustwalkedoffonaccident.”

Aziraphale blinked quickly to try to rid himself of some of the tears. “What was that?”

Crowley wrinkled his nose, swallowed hard, and sighed. “I said I just walked off on accident. I was so surprised to see you here that first I thought maybe I was hallucinating. Then I thought, hallucinating isn’t good. Then you were running toward me and shouting and I guess I figured that was a weird thing for a hallucination to do. But that meant you were really here. So then I felt stupid for staring and, well, ah, off I went.” He shrugged his shoulders as best he was able while lying in the grass in an angel’s arms. “Whoops?”

It was Aziraphale’s turn to gape. His mouth worked around word that wouldn’t come. Finally he said, “It was an accident? Truly? Why didn’t you fly back up yourself, then?”

Crowley blinked. Good question. “Uuuuuuuh… Could have done that, couldn’t I? Not my finest hour, gotta say.”

Aziraphale pulled Crowley in for a proper hug. With the Principality’s surprisingly strong arms, Crowley felt like he was being crushed. He wouldn’t complain, though. Wouldn’t dream of it. It felt like Heaven or better, really, since it was Aziraphale embracing him like both of their lives depended on it.

“Oh, Crowley. Oh, thank goodness,” Aziraphale said between sniffling breaths.

Crowley felt hot tears soak the shoulder of his jacket where Aziraphale’s face was buried. He let his hands flutter uselessly for a moment before he finally worked up the courage to put them on Aziraphale’s back. “There, there. Wouldn’t do for an angel to cry over a demon,” he said. He moved them in what he had intended to be a soothing motion but the effect was probably ruined by the way they jittered with his nerves. After more hesitation, he reached a little further and let his fingers ghost over feathers. And then, though he hated to say it, “Also probably wouldn’t do for any humans to see those.”

Aziraphale finally remembered himself. He released Crowley with a start and folded his wings safely back into another plane as he shuffled backward. With a water laugh he said, “Right. Silly me.”

Crowley tried to regain some dignity from the day’s events by picking himself off the ground and rematerializing sunglasses that he’d lost in his fall. He brushed off his jacket with his hand to buy himself a moment more. It wasn’t enough. When he looked back at Aziraphale, the angel’s eyes looked startlingly blue against the red that rimmed them.

“So, I guess you were out here for the same reason as me? Get away from London and-” You. He didn’t need to say it for Aziraphale to understand.

The angel nodded. “Funny that we both ended up in the same place.”

“Yeah, funny that.” He scratched the back of his neck. There was still air that needed clearing. “I know you still have your own ideas about why I wanted that holy water and I can promise you that’s not it until I’m out of breath but… What I’m trying to say is… Still the Ritz to look forward to, yeah? Listen, I’m not great with-” He wheeled his hand around in a gesture that didn’t really mean anything. “Anyway, sorry for scaring you, I guess.”

Aziraphale gave him a wide, wobbly smile. “Sorry for being such a distraction that you walked straight off a cliff.”

Crowley laughed, a real whole hearted laugh for the first time since that night with the thermos. “You bastard.” He jammed his fingers into his pockets to keep from reaching out and drawing Aziraphale into another hug. He jerked his chin inland. “Want a ride back? Unless-” Could he say it without shredding his own heart? Two could be bastards and he had a reputation to upkeep. “-You still think I go too fast.”

Aziraphale swatted his arm. “You do drive abominably. But, yes, I believe I would appreciate a lift.” He strode forward a few more steps at the demon’s side before adding, “That is, if you think you can keep your eyes on the road and not drive right off another cliff.”

“Alright. I’m not gonna hear the end of this, am I?”

“Hmmm, no, I don’t think you ever will.”

Crowley groaned. “Look, it’s not like this is worse than marching into the middle of a revolution to get some crepes.”

“Whatever helps you sleep at night, my dear.”

#crowley #anthony j crowley #good omens #aziraphale #ineffable husbands #fic #my writing

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goneontv · 5 years

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Creating our Pitch Document

If you’ve been following our progress with getting GONE on your TV screens, then you’ll already know that we recently asked you, the fans, to send in your fan-art to be used in our pitch document. We were absolutely overwhelmed with the responses we received, and would like to take this opportunity to thank every single person who got in touch! The pitch document is full to the brim with fantastic artwork. Below is just one incredible example:

Credit: Howard by Elina Poznaka

What exactly is a pitch document? AJ and Michael tell all below. Firstly, AJ explains what a pitch document is, and who will see it.

What is a pitch document?

AJ: A pitch document is used to identify key things within the intellectual property, in this case the GONE series. It identifies:

· Who the author is;

· The books publishing history;

· A short synopsis about the world Michael has created;

· Character bios of key characters;

· How the series could be broken down into episodes;

· A detailed synopsis;

· Bios of the production company and producers involved;

· Contact information for all involved; and

· All of the work we received from fans, to showcase the amazing, active audience that the series already has.

As well as all of the above, we also had some key scenes drawn up by a concept artist.

What is a concept artist?

AJ: A concept artist visualises and brings to life ideas, so that they may be ready for production. We do this because Film and TV are visual mediums: the whole experience is centred around watching and listening. Having these graphics created is a great way to illustrate the series on a basic, captivating level. Some absolutely fantastic images were produced - some of which you may have seen already…. Keep your eyes out for more!

If you haven’t seen any of the images, head over to our Twitter (@ajriach).

Who will see the pitch document?

AJ: Most of the people viewing the document will be parties/companies that we’re pitching the project to, be this a studio or another production company. I will be spending some time in LA with Michael over the coming weeks, so watch this space for any updates…

Of course, we are sure some of you are interested in seeing the document too, so over the next couple of weeks we will roll out some screengrabs. Keep your eyes peeled for these, they’re pretty great! Here’s a taster...

Next, Michael shares his experience of putting the document together, and his feelings about bringing GONE to life.

How did you feel when putting together the pitch document?

Michael: I felt guardedly hopeful. I feel guardedly hopeful about most things in life, and I suspect that caution annoys people who expect me to be more excited. But I don’t really do excited, guardedly hopeful is as close to excited as I get. (Gilfoyle from SILICON VALLEY is my spirit animal).

I’ve really enjoyed working with AJ and Ian, as well as Imogen and the two writers, Danny and Ron, who’ve been my mentors in the script-writing work.

Which did you feel was the most exciting aspect?

Michael: Well, see above. The original astronauts had a line about, ‘maintaining an even strain.’ In other words, don’t get too worried by the problems, don’t get too excited about the possibilities, try to maintain a sort of level flight through life. By the way this also answers the question: ‘Why have you never worked in publicity, Michael?’ Also, ‘Why are you not fun at parties, Michael?’

What was it like revisiting GONE more than a decade after originally writing it?

Michael: This will sound like one of those bullshit writer answers, but it’s humbling realizing that something you did a decade ago still resonates with people, that it has a life of its own. You might think that would make me proud or egotistical, but rather the contrary because it’s a reminder of how much the fate of my work is in the hands of other people. I’ve never really seen myself as working for publishers, I work for the readers. I am their dancing monkey.

Were you impressed with the artwork we received?

Michael: It was amazing. When we wrote ANIMORPHS, Katherine (my wife, Katherine Applegate) and I were some of the first writers to encounter the emerging phenomenon of fan-fic and fan-art. At that point no one knew what it all meant. Should we try to stop it, ignore it or embrace it? Our conclusion was that it was incredibly flattering, humbling, and kind of wonderful. So, I’ve always been a supporter of fan contributions.

Now, was I surprised that GONE readers were such a talented bunch? No, not at all, of course they’re talented, and smart, and charming, good-looking and quite frankly the finest bunch of humans ever to tread the soil of this benighted planet! (I’m bad at publicity, but I know how to suck up to fans).

What do you think of the pitch document?

Michael: It’s rather better than the sorts of things I produce on my own with my very limited skills at layout. It’s, like, professional.

How did you feel when you saw the concept art of the key scenes?

Michael: I thought, damn, given the ridiculous time constraints we put on the artist, they were excellent. I know some fans have had concerns, but they need to bear in mind that they’re seeing the embryo, not the eventual fully-formed thing.

What is it like seeing GONE start to come to life?

Michael: Katherine and I were in London looking at neighbourhoods with an eye to moving there. Seriously. I was thinking of a sort of genteel semi-retirement where I’d write just one book a year, hang out in London smoking cigars and drinking Scotch at 10 Manchester Street (my London cigar hideaway) then, whenever the sun deprivation got too bad, hopping down to the Algarve and... well, I had this meeting I’d agreed to and entirely forgotten about until about an hour before. I met AJ and Ian at a restaurant and they basically said, ‘We’d like to try and produce GONE for TV and would you like to write it?’

So, Katherine and I went to dinner that evening and it was instantly obvious to both of us that we were going to do it and that between us we had enough stuff going on in Hollywood that moving there made more sense than moving to London + Algarve. So, because our lives have never been planned in any rational, adult way but always just improvised in a series of ill-considered reactions, we thought, ‘Let’s go to Hollywood! Yay!’ So we pulled a 180 and bought a house in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles where, I believe by city ordinance, all writers are required to live.

Stay Tuned!

That’s everything for now - stay tuned and keep an eye on our social media, where any and all updates will be posted. This blog will also be updated regularly, to keep you in the loop!

Join the conversation using #GONE and #EngageInTheFayz!

Michael’s Twitter: MichaelGrantBks Engage’s Twitter: engageproductions

#GONE #pitch #pitchdocument #michaelgrant #tv #tvproducer #EngageInTheFayz

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mrjdwyer · 6 years

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Pilgrim, Reptile and Back Home- Clapton at his best

For all who know me, you know that aside from Prince, and Stevie Wonder, the musician I love the most is Eric Clapton. My love of his music goes way back to the day I was four and heard his “I Shot the Sheriff” version on Jamaican radio for the first time. Something about Marcy Levy and Yvonne Elliman’s background vocals that resonated with much more than The Wailer’s harmonies. For the record, before I get slammed by my fellow Jamaican Yardies, Marley’s lead vocals are superior to Eric’s laid-back approach on that tune.

But the love affair started there and kind of faded away until I was a teen and fell in love with rock and roll music after coming to the states in 1980. And Eric Clapton was one of the artists I totally fell in love with all over again.

In 1985 he released Behind the Sun, which, to me, a teenager who had barely listened to the thousands of albums that I was yet to own and memorize, it was as perfect an album that I had heard since Stevie Wonder’s “Songs in the Key of Life” came and took me to another level of musical experience and changed my life. The same way Prince’s “Purple Rain” shook me to my core a year earlier.

What struck me about “Behind the Sun” was the incredible album cover (still one of my all time favorites, it just compelled me to listen to it) and the incredible singer that Clapton had become. To me, he is one of the most soulful singers out there that isn’t Black. Of course, his guitar work was incredible as always, but I really liked that this album sounded fresh. “Forever Man” had two fantastic solos and the album featured some great guest musicians, like Lindsey Buckingham and the always recording, Steve Lukather, guitarist to one of my all-time favorite bands ever, Toto.

That album made me a bonafide Clapton fan. I went out and over the years and got everything he ever recorded and bought albums he loved that influenced him. He got me on the quest on going back in time and finding the masters. Through him, I discovered some of the old Blues greats like John Lee Hooker, Blind Willie McTell, Lightnin’ Hopkins and a whole range of old blues artists and then contemporary ones like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Robert Cray, Albert Colins, Buddy Guy and many, many others.

Now most Clapton fans, love him for his guitar work and that fan base is divided into 2 camps: “The Bluesbreakers and Cream years,” and the “Derek and the Dominos and the 70s years.” Almost no one rants and raves about Clapton in the 90s and 2000s years.

Almost. But I am here to tell you that those decades are the years that Clapton really resonated with me.

If you listen to Clapton’s output- especially the 70s material now, and especially after reading his autobiography, you can actually hear the drugs and alcohol. With the exception of Derek and Dominos “Layla and Assorted Love Songs”, whenever I listen to the 70s stuff, I can actually hear the effect alcoholism was taking on his life. It is particularly apparent on Backless and Another Ticket, two incredibly lackluster albums that just sound sloppy drunk to me, from singing to playing. While I love certain tracks off them, I can’t help but feel totally underwhelmed in the event that I actually play them.

During the seventies, Clapton was trying to be a singer-songwriter and not a guitar god. He wanted to be a part of the Band and then he wanted to be a country singer, but a rock god was out of the question, as he tried to drink away the demons that were haunting him in his personal life and his professional one.

Which brings me to what I think are the three seminal Eric Clapton albums that defined him not only as the guitar god that he was finally comfortable being but also as a damn fine, soulful singer— something that he admits he was never confident with, until now.

Those three albums are: “Pilgrim,” Reptile,” and “Back Home.”

To me, if you want to know who Eric Clapton, the man, and artist is today, these three albums, sum it up with grace and class and dignity with fantastic singing and guitar work.

Pilgrim is an album, that Clapton regards in his autobiography as his favorite album. He put his heart and soul into that record. He hung all his emotions out for all to hear. And it worked. He wrote the vast majority of the album, all gems either by himself or with his collaborators like Simon Climie and Greg Phillinganes. There are only two songs by other artists, and those two songs are also masterpieces as well as the others. Bob Dylan’s “Born in Time” is just a beautiful song and is the moving “Going Down Slow.” But the real, true gems on the album are “My Father’s Eyes,” a song about his experience as a father (his son Connor died tragically in 1991) and also about him not knowing what a real father was himself, and the sad and deeply moving account of the last night Clapton spent with his son- a few hours before his tragic death, “Circus.” Both are deep and heavy songs and the rest of the album is filled with plaintive, mournful songs that are actually beautiful to listen to and feel and at the end of the album, there is hope and redemption, which is really what the blues ultimately is about; you sing the blues to rid yourself of pain and to ultimately feel better. Be sure though, Pilgrim is not a blues album. It is a brilliant pop record.

Reptile is a sleeper album. Most of the critics called it a solid album, but ultimately not a revelation. To me, it is, because once again, he wrote half of the album, and the other songs the aren’t his, are once again, premium songs by Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder and Doyle Bramhall II. And there is the fact that The Impressions are there doing background vocals on the album as is Billy Preston. To me, there are 5 standouts on the record, Ray Charles’ “Come Back Baby,” James Taylor’s “Don’t Let me Be Lonely Tonight,” (to be fair, it’s really a cover of The Isley Brothers’ cover of James Taylor’s tune), Stevie Wonder’s “I Ain’t Gonna Stand For It,” Clapton’s own “Believe in Light,” and the rocking “Superman Inside” by himself, Doyle Bramhall II and Susannah Melvoin. The rest of the songs are gorgeous as well, but these songs are just stellar. And his singing and playing are superb.

Now you’ve read me ranting and raving about these two albums which are just incredible listening experiences, but the album that means the most to me is Back Home. There aren’t enough superlatives to describe my love of this album. Released in 2005, this Clapton album, like “Pilgrim” had Eric giving his all and you can hear it in every note. The album opens with “So Tired,” a fun, uptempo number about his being a father and being constantly tired. For me, I was a father just 2 years before that and I could totally relate to the song. The song was also a love letter to his daughters and his wife and his love of the simple, domestic life. I can totally relate to that as well. It is a fun song with some exquisitely understated guitar work.

Then comes the reggae “Say What You Will.” Now some can say that Eric Clapton made reggae and international sensation since he popularized it and then in return the world fell in love with it and of course, the one and only Bob Marley. But for me, Eric’s vocals on the song always seemed just okay. This goes back to the fact that he was just a few months removed from being a heroin addict, and was gong taught into being a drunk and also, he himself was not comfortable with him being a singer, even though he had a beautiful voice. Well not anymore, “Say What You Will” is beautifully performed and sung and it is not a reggae ripoff, but a genuine reggae song with lovely, subtle horns.

The album then takes a great turn into a raucous cover of the late and great Syreeta Wright’s incredible “I’m Going Left” that she wrote with her then-husband, Stevie Wonder. His singing is confident and deeply soulful. His band is also incredible throughout the entire album. The core band features one of the greatest drummers of all time, Steve Gadd, Doyle Bramhall II on guitars, Nathan East on bass, Billy Preston on keys and Hammond organ, Chris Stainton on piano and Michelle John and Sharon White on background vocals. I don’t think Eric has ever had a better band than this one. And this is coming from me who was a huge fan of the Steve Ferrone, Greg Philinganes and Nathan East rhythm section of the Journeyman album and subsequent tour that brought you the 24 Nights live album.

After the rousing “I’m Going Left,” comes one of the greatest songs ever and Eric does a cover of it that not only does justice to the original, but also takes it to another level. Those who know me, know my love of The Spinners. And “Love Don’t Love Nobody” might be their best and one the finest songs of the 20th century. It is a marvel of emotion and song arrangement by genius producer and fellow Jamaican, Thom Bell who was instrumental along with Gamble and Huff with creating the legendary Philadelphia Sound. Clapton’s take on it features a guitar solo, complete with a backing orchestra, that’s so beautiful, that will bring you to tears. Yes, it is that good!

After that emotional ride, it’s time to relax with another great reggae number, “Revolution.” This one might even be better than “Say What You Will.” It’s a great song.

His sweet and sincere cover of “Loves Comes to Everyone” is a fitting tribute to the late, great and often lamented, George Harrison. The simplicity of the song is what makes the song so beautiful.

After “Loves Comes to Everyone” is a fun and sly number written by Doyle Bramhall II and Jeremy Stacey, “Lost & Found.“ As with most things, Doyle Bramhall, it is a funky, soulful tune with a fantastic band arrangement. The infectious rhythm gets you every time.

After that is another Doyle Bramhall Ii penned tune, “Piece of My Heart”. This time his ex-wife, )former Family keyboardist and lead vocalist, and current F Deluxe keyboardist and lead vocalist and identical twin sister of guitarist Wendy Melvoin of Wendy and Lisa fame as well as former guitarist for Prince and The Revolution), Susannah Melvoin, and Mike Elizondo. Can’t say anything except that it’s a great number, as are the next two tunes, the Vince Gill, Beverly Darnall penned “One Day” and Clapton, Simon Climie penned “One Track Mind”.

But the track that gets me every single time is the incredibly moving “Run Home to Me,” another Clapton/Climie collaboration. Let’s just say, if you’re a parent that loves being a parent, there isn’t a song that sums up the love of a parent and their child like this one. It’s a deeply personal song for Eric that happens to evoke the universal love that most parents have for their children:

“When it’s 3 o'clock in the morning, And something scared you from your breast, I will gently rock you in my arms, And lay your little head on my chest,

And when you run, from my arms, Know we’ll always find you. And when you run, out of loving, And run home to me. (Run home to me)

And the years fly by so quickly, Like a plane before my eyes, And you’ve grown up into a woman, Before I had time, had time to realize.

And then you’ll run, from my arms, And we’ll always come and find you. And when you run, out of loving, Then run home to me.

Lord when you run, run out of my arms, We will always come and find you, And when you run, out of loving, Then run home to me. (Run home to me)”

Yes, this is really it. That is love. That is exactly what my wife and I have have done for our child. And it will never stop. I always get choked up hearing this song. Every time. It just gets me in a way that very few songs have done to me. And I can list those songs on one hand.

And the closer, “Back Home” is the perfect song to close this incredible song cycle. It’s all about a road wary Clapton and his need to go home to his family, where he belongs.

Where I belong.

“I’ve been on the road too long Moving in the wrong direction I don’t know where I belong I don’t know what I will do If I can’t get back home”

Perfection.

#Eric Clapton #Clapton #Music #Reptile #Pilgrim #Back Home #Best

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scruffyplayssonic · 6 years

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And the best movies of all the years I’ve been alive are... (updated for 2017!)

Hey folks, I’ve got of a bit of a tradition that I’ve started. It wasn’t a New Year’s tradition previously, but this feels like the best time to be updating

Back in August 2015, I watched a Youtube video by Jeremy of @cinema-sins, where he was answering fan questions. One question that he addressed was, “What is the best movie of every year that you’ve been alive?” While Jeremy thought this was a great question, he didn’t think one video would be long enough to explore it fully, and he wanted to find another way to answer it. This eventually was done through the Cinema Sins podcast, SinCast. Each week, the cast would discuss the movies of a certain year and then vote on which one they thought was the best, starting with 1975 in episode 14, and then working their way through another year each episode right up until episode 54, where they voted on the best movie for 2015. They then took a break for a few weeks to get caught up on some of last year’s movies that they hadn’t seen yet before finally tackling 2016 in this week’s podcast, episode 58.

I did my own picks for my favourite movie of each year back in August 2015, when I first saw Jeremy’s Q and A video. I really liked that question and was inspired to try and name my own favourites from each year. I reuploaded the updated version of this when the SinCast finished going through it last year, and I’ve been waiting for New Year’s Eve to update it again for this year. I hope you enjoy it. Feel free to comment and/or argue about my choices. And thanks again to @cinema-sins, for providing me with laughs every week in the podcasts and videos they release. :)

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1982: E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial This might be a bit of a cheat, since the film came out in June and I wasn’t born until October, but oh well. It’s still the same year.

1983: Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi The first Star Wars movie I was around to see the cinematic release of, although I wouldn’t see it in cinemas (or at all, shamefully) for another 14 years.

1984: The Terminator The original was pretty chilling. This still gets me every time. “Listen, and understand! That Terminator is out there! It can’t be bargained with! It can’t be reasoned with! It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear! And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead!”

1985: Back to the Future The beginning of what I still believe is the greatest movie trilogy of all time.

1986: Aliens More awesome from James Cameron.

1987: Spaceballs Well, it’s pretty funny. Plus I haven’t seen much else from this year, other than Lethal Weapon.

1988: Die Hard The original and quite possibly the best. More on that later.

1989: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade This was a tough one to pick, as Michael Keaton’s first Batman film, Licence to Kill, AND Back to the Future: Part II all came out this year. But it really has to be the onscreen chemistry of Harrison Ford and Sean Connery!

1990: Back to the Future: Part III At the time, I probably would have picked DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp. Ahhh, nostalgia.

1991: Terminator 2: Judgement Day I’m sure most of you who know me and know my favourite movies saw this one coming. This was my very favourite movie of all time for almost twenty years, but recently something has surpassed it. Silence of the Lambs would probably get second place for this year.

1992: Batman Returns It was a hard choice between this and Aladdin, which was my favourite Disney cartoon for a very long time. But since it’s not in my dvd collection and Batman is… Honourable mention goes to A Muppet Christmas Carol, my favourite of the Muppet movies.

1993: The Fugitive Another tough choice, considering that Jurassic Park also came out in 1993. But I just love the battle of wits between Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones.

1994: The Lion King Another of Disney’s finest. No contest, although True Lies, Speed, and The Mask were all excellent films too.

1995: Goldeneye (007) This was another tough choice, and Die Hard with a Vengeance came very, VERY close. It’s hard to live up to the awesomeness of that first film, but the partnership with Samuel L. Jackson definitely pays off here. But Goldeneye was the first Bond film I saw in the cinema, and I remember that experience vividly. Pierce Brosnan remains my favourite Bond, even though the next three films he starred in didn’t quite live up to this one.

1996: Scream The Rock and Independence Day were my other main picks from this year, but Wes Craven made an instant classic with Scream, which inspired so many other movies and spoofs. If only they’d stopped after the first Scary Movie…

1997: Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (Special Edition) It’s a bit of a cheat, but technically the original Star Wars trilogy was re-released in cinemas that year with new “special edition” footage, which is when I first fell in love with the series. From original movies that came out in ‘97, it’s a toss up between Men in Black, Air Force One, and The Fifth Element.

1998: Rush Hour Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker were hilarious in this one. The Mask of Zorro was another great movie, and Deep Impact, which was waaaaaay better than Armageddon. Of course, a Michael Bay film will be obsessed with making things go ka-boom. :P Yes, yes, I know The Rock was a Bay film too. So sue me.

1999: The Matrix Another of my very favourite movies. The effects, the plot, the action… it was just sensational. The Sixth Sense was another very clever movie, and Austin Powers: The Spy who Shagged Me was hilarious! But… c'mon, The Matrix, man!

2000: The Whole Nine Yards I was still a big Friends fan at the time, so I loved Matthew Perry starring alongside Bruce Willis. There was also Gone in 60 Seconds, which is one of my favourite Nick Cage films, The Emperor’s New Groove, and of course, X-Men. And then there’s Mission: Impossible 2… hey, be nice. I watched this a lot when I was in Virginia and homesick for Australia :P

2001: Ocean’s Eleven Such a clever film with a great cast!

2002: The Bourne Identity Spider-Man came pretty close, but Matt Damon was amazing as Jason Bourne. …well, that most recent movie was kind of hit or miss…

2003: Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl Who would have ever guessed that a movie based on a Disneyland ride could be so good?

2004: The Incredibles It was a good year for animation - there was this one, Shrek 2, and Team America: World Police. National Treasure came out too, which I quite like.

2005: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire There was also The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (a huge improvement on the previous two movies), Batman Begins, and of course, Serenity; the movie that had Firefly fans screaming, “NOOOOOOOOO!!!” near the climax. :P

2006: V for Vendetta I just LOVE this film. Top performances from Hugo Weaving, Natalie Portman and John Hurt. The Da Vinci Code was my second choice. Controversial it may be, and people tend to poo-poo Dan Brown a lot, but I loved this movie too. Tom Hanks was the perfect choice for Robert Langdon, and Ian McKellan was brilliant as always. Casino Royale also came out this year, which brought the 007 franchise back from oblivion.

2007: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix I had to find a cinema playing this in English in Nanjing - no easy feat! But at least they didn’t butcher it like they did with Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (my second pick, after I saw the uncut movie on DVD). Ocean’s Thirteen was pretty good too, if not as good as the original. And of course, The Bourne Ultimatum. I was on the edge of my seat for that one.

2008: The Dark Knight A no-brainer. One of the best films of the decade, let alone the year. Iron Man was a surprise hit too. Little did we know of what was to follow - and in fact, you’ll be seeing a few MCU movies coming up on the list. Taken was great. Oh, and I quite liked Steve Carrell’s take on Get Smart, even if he didn’t quite capture the original magic of Don Adams.

2009: Up One of my very favourite Pixar movies. Angels & Demons was pretty good too, although not as good as the first movie. Plus Tom Hanks cut his hair - I thought his shaggy do in the first movie suited Robert Langdon better. :P Strange that I liked Angels & Demons better of the books but The Da Vinci Code better of the movies. Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock Holmes was great too.

2010: Kick-Ass This one was a surprise, but I loved the deconstruction of the traditional superhero movie they did here. And when I read the original comic, I loved the film even more for the improvements they made. Nicolas Cage was hilariously hammy, but the major star of this one was undoubtedly Chloe Grace Moretz as the tiny killing machine, Hit-Girl. After that, there was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, and Toy Story 3.

2011: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 A fantastic end to a fantastic series. There was also Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which really surprised me. Excellent stuff there. The Adventures of Tintin - an amazing film that tricked me into forgetting it was animated and not live-action several times. Finally, The Muppets, which was such a fantastic return for some of my favourite childhood icons.

2012: The Avengers No surprise there. Honourable mentions go to The Cabin in the Woods, which is a delightfully insane deconstruction of horror movies, Looper, a film I still occasionally stay up late at night scratching my head in confusion over, and Skyfall, which is probably Daniel Craig’s best Bond film so far. I also loved Wreck-It Ralph.

2013: White House Down This one was definitely the film I liked best from 2013What can I say? I love Die Hard, and this was basically Die Hard in the White House, yet it felt original enough to not just be a knock-off. The other ones I liked best would be the Marvels (Iron Man 3, the Wolverine and Thor: The Dark World), Kick-Ass 2, and Gravity, which was absolutely terrifying.

2014: Guardians of the Galaxy Marvel sure knows how to get my bum into the cinema - X-Men: Days of Future Past and Captain America: The Winter Soldier are up there, but Guardians wins out for pure fun (and the delightful company I had in the cinema <3). There was also The LEGO Movie, which I thought was very clever, and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

2015: The Martian When I first made this list in August 2015, my prediction was that Jurassic World would be my favourite of the year. Nope, not by a long shot. The Martian was absolutely amazing - Matt Damon’s ability to keep the audience on the edge of their seats when he’s completely alone on the screen (and on the planet) is a major credit to him as an actor. In fact, I think this film has now actually surpassed Terminator 2 to become my favourite movie of all time. Then of course we have Avengers: Age of Ultron, Mission: Impossible: Rogue Nation, and Terminator: Genisys. …no, really. Stop laughing, I really enjoyed it. :P And then there was Ex Machina, which was a really intriguing film that kept me guessing the entire time.

2016: Captain America: Civil War It’s no secret that I love my comic book movies, and this was definitely my favourite of last year. Civil War (the comic) was the first instance that got me intrigued enough to actually pick up and read a Marvel comic. It really raised an interesting question for me - just how accountable should superheroes be for what they do when fighting crime? Granted, the comic really went too far and made both Cap AND Iron Man look like total dicks, and I was relieved when the film managed to not use some of the more ridiculous ideas, such as a homocidal Robo-Thor-clone or a prison for superheroes in an alternate dimension that literally saps your will to live. On top of that, the film also introduced a fantastic Black Panther, and Tom Holland really nailed what Spider-Man should be. And that airport scene was worth the price of admission all by itself.

2017: Wonder Woman Ohhhhh man, it has been a really good year for superhero movies. We’ve had Tom Holland really prove he is Spider-Man in Homecoming, and the most ridiculous-and-yet-accurate portrayal of Batman ever in the LEGO Batman Movie. Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart’s swansongs in Logan were heartwrenching. Ragnarok and Justice League were a lot of fun (yes, I liked Justice League. Fight me). The Guardians managed to surpass their first movie in Volume 2 with really great character development and humour, and that would probably have been my pick for the year if there wasn’t one other superhero movie I loved even more. But I found Wonder Woman to be truly inspirational. Patty Jenkins,Gal Gadot, Chris Pine and everyone else involved with this movie created something that took my breath away. I cheer every time I see her walk out onto no man’s land, and I scream, “FUCK YEAH!!!” every time that iconic butt-kicking theme music plays. In non-superhero movies... Coco was simply amazing, and is another of Pixar’s very best movies. Star Wars Episode VII: The Last Jedi was fantastic, and I can’t wait to go see it again. And I went into Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle with pretty low expectations, but I really enjoyed it and laughed a lot.

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I challenge any of my friends out there who are avid movie lovers to give this challenge a try - it’s not as easy as you’d think. Wikipedia is your friend though - just browse by “(insert year here) in film.” Comments telling me, “Yes, I love that film!” or, “Are you nuts? How could you forget THIS film?” are quite welcome. :)

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ivanfuller · 5 years

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MY ART JOURNEY FOR WEEK OF DEC. 8-14, 2019

You know how these blog things go, right? You get an inspired idea based on a commitment to write a regular blog that fizzles out after just one or two entries. We can’t all be like that gal who blogged daily about making every recipe in Julia Child’s cookbook!! But what the heck...we’re coming to the end of a decade and I’m gonna try this again with a slightly different twist. Instead of trying to write about every artist encounter I have as individual blogs (which is just too daunting cuz I’m doing something in that arena almost every day!), I’ve decided to set aside some time each Sunday morning to reflect on the week just passed. I’d love to think that what I’ve been experiencing might inspire you to check out some of these same or similar opportunities...books read, TV shows watched, movies viewed, theatre experienced and (most often for me!) concerts attended.

So let’s try this, shall we??

Last week began with minimal inspiration, I’m afraid, though I did happen to spend the evening with my son (another Ivan Fuller). Went down to Philly to first eat at one of my favorite restaurants, Cheu Noodles (shout out to manager and friend, Meredith!), then over to Theatre of the Living Arts for a 4-band show featuring Issues’ Beautiful Oblivion tour. All I can say is...meh. All the bands were trying too hard to be that “thing”...cool, edgy, arrogant, whatever. I didn’t feel much honest sincerity except from the opener, Sleep Token. The others: Lil Aaron, Polyphia and Issues were just not clicking with me. Didn’t help that it was in one of my least favorite venues in Philly. But hey...a date with my boy helped ease the pain :)

On Monday I finished watching Season 4 of “Shameless,” one of my favorite guilty TV pleasures. If you’re also a fan, you know what I mean. It’s definitely not for everyone because the title says it all! If you’re easily offended by shameless things we humans sometimes (often?) find ourselves doing for both good and bad reasons, then you should stay away. But if you thrive on the juicy flaws of humanity, then this show hits a big sweet spot. Funny, naughty, poignant, sexy, beautiful and chock full of love! I’m way behind, though! Season 9 just hit Netflix.

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Finished reading the latest novel by one of my favorites, Barbara Kingsolver, on Tuesday. Unsheltered gives her another opportunity to call us out on our wasteful ways as humans who seem hell-bent on destroying the planet (and each other). But with graceful artistry and humor, she mostly succeeds in helping us make important connections between how we tend to live and the costs of continuing to go down that path. 4 out of 5 stars for me.

Wednesday had me heading back down to Philly, solo this time, for The Tea Club and Bent Knee opening for Thank You Scientist at Underground Arts (one of my favorite smaller Philly venues). This show made up for Sunday’s. Local band The Tea Club was great, only performing two songs, but one was a monster clocking in around 25 minutes, called “Creature.” The big draw for me, though, was band #2...BENT KNEE! I love their prog rocky ways and unique sound they get with the addition of a violin and vocals of their lead singer and keyboardist, Courtney Swain. All Berkeley Music grads, so they know their way around difficult stuff. Thank You Scientist is in the same camp as Bent Knee, but I like them so much more on recordings than live. Don’t get me wrong. They still sound great, but I love a live show that gives me more when my eyes are open. For this band, it’s almost better with the eyes shut. What’s my problem? I just can’t get past the feeling that they’re not into the music as much as they should be...especially when following Bent Knee, who clearly puts everything they have into their performance. But the crowd was into it and their music IS really great.

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Thursday was spent chilling at home and finishing the first book by another favorite author, Amor Towles. Rules of Civility, was almost as much fun as his blockbuster, The Gentleman of Moscow. Insightful look into 1930s New York life through the eyes of a young woman struggling to pay her bills, keep her friends and find love. Really brilliant combo of humor, history and surprises. 5 out of 5 stars on this one.

My week of artistic adventure ended on Saturday at another favorite venue, The Ardmore Music Hall. I tend to find myself there more than at any other spot in Philly these days. Saturday drew me there solely because of the opening act, Chestnut Grove! Fantastic local band that is steadily spreading its wings and getting noticed elsewhere. They played songs off their upcoming new album, as well as “classics” in their one-hour set. I love this band because they hold nothing back and are clearly having a great time up there. Personable, sincere and REAL! And their songs have great variety and artistry to them. Rock’n’roll at its finest!! The headliner, though...we left after the first song cuz it was not going to move me even a fraction of the way Chestnut Grove did. It was TR3 with Tim Reynolds and from what I could tell by listening to their latest LP, it was just a lot of noodling around with the improv form. I don’t usually have a problem with that, but this noodling just doesn’t seem to go anyway and struggles to find a groove that I can get into. But I got what I came for with CG! Check them out in the link below!

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takokola · 7 years

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An Unbreakable Bond

A Splatoon OC Fanfiction written by yours truely

Dewey, Maye, and Marina belongs to me.

Coral (mentioned) belongs to @splattoomy

Olivia (mentioned) belongs to @sharkray24

((On April 20th, Maye and Dewey turns 18 years old. On a special day like this, Dewey has been turned down by his crush. But he won't be sad for long, because he'll be running into a close childhood friend of his.))

"Cheer up, Dew.. There's plenty of fish in the sea.." Maye placed a hand on her twin brother's shoulder. Today is their 18th birthday and Dewey was sitting on the bench, feeling empty inside. Maye was trying her best to comfort him.

If only it was that easy..." Dewey didn't bother to look, directly at Maye. He stared down at the ground, not wanting everyone to see him at this state. About a few hours ago, Dewey was feeling confident enough to confess his love to Coral. His crush. Once he approached to her, Dewey blurted out his confession to her. After what feels like an eternity, Coral just giggled at his attempt. That's the moment where Dewey's heart, sank to the ground. Coral just rejected him with a kind smile. It was perfectly clear that she's not interested in him. Dewey felt so helpless and foolish, right about now.

Dewey kept silent until he finally looked up at Maye. He could see the corncern in her eyes. "Maye.. I appreciate you, cheering me up.. But, it's not enough to fill the hole in my heart.." He said, weakly. "Can you give me some time, alone? I'll catch up with you, later.." He just needed some space and think about his rejection.

Maye frowned at her brother until she sighed. She removed her hand from his shoulder and backed away. "Okay.. Don't be late, mister. Otherwise, I'll have to carry you back to home." And with that, Maye left him alone to himself.

Today has been such a bad start for his 18th birthday. He'd have the urge to cry, but crying isn't going to solve anything. Dewey would think about his udder rejection, but he'd somehow remembered what Fynn said.

("Rejection can take a heavy turn. If I were you, I'd move on and learn from it.") Those were the exact words from Fynn when he mentioned about giving up on his crush on Marie. Dewey had taken his advice, but forgetten all about it for 5 months.

"Tch... This isn't like me at all.." Dewey got up from his seat. He was no longer heartbroken, but filled with determination. "I, Dewey Isaac Berri won't just mope on some silly rejection." Dewey happily, stood proud. Maybe, a little too proud. He can finally catch up to Maye at the train station. The party doesn't start until 8 pm and Fynn and Angela were bringing the food and drinks to his mother, June Berri. Not to mention Maye's girlfriend, Olivia coming over to present Maye with a fantastic portrait.

Before he could catch up to Dewey, he heard some loud footsteps. Followed by a loud shriek from behind.

"L-Look out!!" A female voice filled Dewey's ears and the footsteps were getting closer and closer until... SMACK! Dewey collided with the poor inkling and feel onto the concrete ground. Tons of papers were flying all over the place, when the girl had crashed into him.

Dewey winced a bit after the massive impact. He was about to get up, but there was something large and soft in the way. Dewey was having a hard time to figure out, but he realised what's in front of him. Dewey blushed when he was greeted by a slightly large pair of mammaries in his direction.

"O-Owie..." The tall inkling winced as well. She looked down to see the pink inkling under her. She panicked due to being a Giant Squid. "Sorrysorrysorrysorrysorry!!!" She quickly got off of him. In her appearance, she has a pair of star-shaped contact lenses. And her tentacle was wavy and flowing down like a waterfall.

Dewey was able to get up. He stood on his feet and stared up at the tall inkling. He was a bit shorter than the young lady. If he would've guess her height, she is about 6'2 inches tall.

He'd soon notice the amount of papers that were scattered on the floor. The girl had dropped all of them, during the collision. "It's fine.. Let me help you with your papers." Dewey knelt down to gather up her papers.

"I was in a rush to catch my train.. Sorry, I bumped into you.." She knelt down as well. She was able to get the rest of her papers while Dewey gathered, a few.

Dewey was almost about to pick up the last paper, until he felt a hand. It was the blue inkling's hand. Dewey was startled, a bit by the touch. He stared into her eyes. There was something familiar about her and Dewey couldn't put his finger on it.

She had her hand on the last paper and she stared back at him with curiousness. She wouldn't mind the awkward silence between the two, but she could try to say something.

During their short staring contenst, he'd soon notice the shell earrings. Those were the same earrings that Dewey gave to his childhood best friend, 8 years ago. He let's out a small gas of shock and excitement. "Rinny...?! Is that really you..?!" Dewey's jaw went slack. The name, Rinny was a childhood pet name that Dewey came up with. His childhood friend's actual name is Marina Starling.

"Wait.. how..?" Marina squinted, a bit to get a closer look at him. She can recognize the birthmark under Dewey's right eye bu now. After several seconds of silence, Marina's eyes went as wide as pearls. She brought her other hand to her mouth in surprise. "N-No way..!! D-Dewey..?!" She cried.

Then, she squealed in joy and pounced on him. She wrapped her arms around Dewey in a tight and loving embracing. "I can't, it's you!! It's been ages!!" She cried out, loudly enough for the other citizens could hear.

Dewey can feel the warmth against Marina's body. He would hug back, but he could barely move. Or breathe.

"Nnng.. R-Rinny.. you're crushing me..." He was gasping for air due to Marina's vicegrip. Marina heard his plead and she lossed the hug, letting him breathe for sweet air.

"Oh cod, I'm so sorry..! I couldn't help it.." She is always apologetic towards people. It's in her nature to do so. "Are you alright? I didn't squish you too hard, did I?" She asked with a concern look on her face.

"No.. I'm fine." He said, gasping for more air. He knew, she was able to crush the life out of someone. Marina is a hugger, after all. "So, how are you today? I haven't heard from you, since we were kids." He straightened up his vest.

"Oh! I've been doing well! I've living in Inkopolis Square for almost a decade now. So, what about you?" Marina is eager to hear what Dewey's been up, lately.

"Just plain old high school. I'm still a senior and half-way there til' graduation." High school had been pretty rough on Dewey. He's one of the honor students and able to enroll in one of the finest colleges in Inkopolis. The senior projects were stressful, enough.

Marina got up on her feet, once again and helped Dewey up. "As long as you're hanging in there, champ~!" Marina smiled. She's so happy to see Dewey again, but hasn't noticed that she was running to catch the train.

"It was good meeting you, again. I was about to catch up with Maye.. Otherwise, she'll drag me to the train." Typical Maye. His twin sister would never take no for an answer.

Marina had realized that she was still running late. "Oh my gosh!! I'm still running late!!" She cried. She was about to hurry, until she saw a bunch a papers on the floor again. She dropped them again after she glomped on her childhood friend. She stared at Dewey and chuckled, nervously. "But first, we need to gather up my papers.. again."

Dewey lets out a sigh and got back to picking up her papers. "You are such a handful, y'know that?" Some things never change between the unbreakable bond.

Meanwhile, Maye was on her way to get Dewey. Dewey had been testing her patience, one too many times. Maye had taken the same path that she left Dewey behind for a few minutes. "Stuborn brother..." She mumbled to herself. Maye really meant her word about dragging him to the train station if he likes it or not.

Dewey scanned the rest of Marina's papers. It appears to be flyers for a junior singing competition. "Come on, come all to the 1st Annual Junior Singers Competition.." He read the flyer and looked at Marina with an intrigued look on his face. "So, that's you were in a rush?" He asked.

"Mmhm! I was running an errand from the owner of a music store in Inkopolis Square. I took the train to the printing shop to make copies. After I was done, I realized that I was going to miss my ride.. Well, that's when I crashed into you.." She smiled, sheepishly. "Anyway, what's going on with you?" She asked, moving closer to him.

Dewey's smile would soon disappear. He looked down on the ground, not meeting her gaze. "It's nothing.." He lied.

Marina looked concern. Something seemed very troubling for Dewey. "That doesn't look like nothing to me.. Now, tell me what's been troubling you?" They both slowed down their pace for a minute. Marina wouldn't mind listening to their problems during work hours. She's like the mother, they never had.

Dewey didn't know where to start, but he decided to get this off his chest. He explained about his crush, Coral and how she rejected him. His twin sister cheered him up, but it was enough. "I felt so stupid.. She doesn't like me, like I like her.." He self-loathed, thinking about what happened earlier.

"Oh, dear.. You poor thing.." She brought her hand to her mouth, even more concerned. Who would've thought that crush of his would be so cruel to him. Suddenly, she pulled him into a warm hug. She didn't crush him this time.

Surprised, he looked up into Marina's eyes. "Marina.. I..." He began to say, but Marina interrupted him with a silent "shhhhh..."

"It's going to be alright.. I'm always here for you..." Her soothing tone made Dewey relaxed. Despite of Dewey being shorter than her, he nuzzled against her chest.

"Thanks, Marina.. I'll be fine.." Dewey felt whole, again. The hug felt like an eternity between the two squids. By the time they let go, they turned to see Maye in their point-of-view. Maye had been standing there, motionless for 5 seconds.

"Oh, dear.." He sighed, waving a hand at Maye. "Hey, sis." And the concludes their heart-warming moment between the two.

After a few more minutes of trying to snap Maye back to reality, they were all walking to the train station. Maye had already recognized Marina, after their childhood. The girls were chatting, while Dewey is checking the time. They still have time before the birthday party.

"So, both of ya'll are turning 18 on your birthdays? That's great!" Marina wished, she had a special present for them. But it was too much to ask. "So, are you throwing a party?"

Maye nodded, enthusiastically. "Mom, Fynn, and Angie are hosting a little get-together. Nothing big or special. I'm also inviting my super-artsy girlfriend over, since she's living upstairs~!" Maye couldn't wait to see Oliva's birthday gift. Suddenly, Maye smirked at the two. "You should come, as well. Dewey needed some alone time with you, if you catch my drift~" She winked before giggling.

"M-Maye!!" He said, mortified. His blush increased when Maye mentioned something more intimate.

Marina blushed, slightly until she began to giggle. "Hehee~ I would go, but.." She trailed off her sentence. "I've got a busy night to help with my boss with the flyers." So much for spending plenty of time with Dewey.

"Awww..." Disappointed, Maye understood her priorities. It would've been a complete bummer for Dewey. Sooner or later, they made it to the train station. The trip to Flounder Heights was a 20-25 minute ride. Marina's train ride was longer than theirs.

"Well, we must be off. Mom would worry us if we don't make it." He said, spotting their only chance of getting back home. He turned to Marina and smiled. "It was nice meeting you, Marina. I hope, you'll see each other without bumping into one another."

Marina smiled. She's happy to see Dewey's usual self, once again. "Likewise!" Marina also handed out 2 flyers for the Berri Twins. Followed by Marina's phone number on Dewey's flyer. "If you want, come and visit the singers competition at the Starfish Mainstage! They've got free food and drinks~♪" She chimed, happily.

Dewey noticed the phone number on his flyer. He chuckled, a bit and nodded. "I'll be there." He gave her a thumbs up as a sign of grattitude.

"There's one more thing, before you go.." Marina walked closer to him. Her blush is awfully noticable. Then, she knelt down to Dewey's level and kissed him on the cheek. "Happy Birthday, Dewey.." She whispered into his ear, causing him to fluster a lot.

Maye seemed happily surprised by this. She knew, Dewey would find love at some point. And he doesn't mind, at all.

"Th-Thanks.. L-Let's go home, Maye.." He titled his classic boater down, not letting anyone see his adorbably flushed face.

"Bye-bye~! I'll save you some cake after this~!" Maye said her goodbyes and caught up with Dewey. She can't wait to tell her mom and teammates about this.

Marina waved back at them with a kind smile. Now that they left to catch the train, Marina was all to herself until her train arrives. No matter how bad their separation turned out to be, their bond remains unbreakable for years to come.

And finally, Marina's train arrived.

THE END

#maye #dewey #coral #marina #fanfic #splatoon

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thesinglesjukebox · 7 years

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KATY PERRY FT. MIGOS - BON APPETIT [3.53] In which the Jukebox is told it's not getting any dessert until it's finished its Monday singles...

Rachel Bowles: Musing about cunnilingus is the finest thing a person can do, if she's good at it. Narrowed down to just vagina-as-food songs, Perry's extended mixed-metaphor is still easily outclassed, even by Iggy Azalea. As evidenced in this list, cunnilingus anthems have been largely pioneered and perfected by Black women (Janet Jackson, Lil Kim, TLC, etc.) those with the double curse of misogynoir proudly contradicting the patriarchal capitalist message that vaginas are disgusting and only for fucking. A good cunnilingus song makes women high five on dance floors, feel sexy and genuinely empowered. Personally, I prefer obscene instructional songs (Khia, "My Neck, My Back") over those with faux-coquettish metaphor (Christina Aguilera ft. Nicki Minaj, "Woohoo") but in Blow, Beyonce found the perfect balance: sexy imagery with a direct order, delivered with female solidarity in the echoed "Turn that cherry out!" "Got me spread like a buffet" to some generic summer EDM synths just doesn't compare. [3]

Iain Mew: Weird to hear a Katy Perry single where the lyrical issue isn't awkwardly cramming in sexual references, so much as incoherence as a result of failing to properly commit to the obvious cunnilingus angle. The low-key sweetness of the production and her restraint still makes it a better listen than most, and the two note-four note hop-skip in the chorus works even better than it did in Anne-Marie's "Ciao Adios." [6]

Katherine St Asaph: Christ, without Bonnie McKee's involvement Katy Perry really does go right back to One of the Boys leftovers with an Anne-Marie melody. In a just world, such a demonstration of value over replacement songwriter would earn McKee something, like maybe, I don't know, sales. In this one we get midtempo blahs I guess are supposed to signify sexiness, a cursory Migos feature fresh off their Capitol signing, and likely not even a hit to show for it. [2]

Danilo Bortoli: Fabricating hatred has never been easier in 2017. "Bon Appetit" might have received all the negative press it deserves, but that happened for all the wrong reasons. Over time, however, consensus was formed: this is the most soulless Katy has been in years. Nothing works. Migos are out of place here (as a solo version proves). And, of course, the track seems like the result of a pun contest's last place entry (apparently, this is a real and tasteless thing). No joke intended -- but the song itself, that is. [2]

Alfred Soto: "Five-star Michelin," eh? I'll say this about Katy's latest amuse-bouche: it follows through on its conceit. Confirming their A-list status, Migos gets relegated to muttered quavering non-entities. [5]

Scott Mildenhall: You might feel differently, but Katy Perry singing "got me spread like a buffet" just has to be one of the worst musical moments of the year so far. As extended metaphors go, this one is executed very badly. "Table for two... I'm on the menu" -- is she advocating autocannibalism? "Bon Appetit" has the ridiculousness of Perry's worst, most affectedly wacky singles, yet sounds like it's being played with a straight face, and that's quite a weird place to be. The shimmering production is enjoyable, but the words are so egregious that they're hard to ignore. [4]

Cassy Gress: This is arguably the least sexy sex song I've ever heard. Katy Perry is singing through an A/C window unit, the song just rocks back and forth between B♭ minor and B major with no resolution, Migos stops by and contributes virtually nothing, and it's a bit too close to "GOBBLE GOBBLE" for comfort for me. It manages to come off as clinical despite never explicitly referencing sex; I know I'm sort of squeamish about sex talk, but blugh. I'd rather listen to "Touch It." [1]

William John: Katy Perry whispering unsexy, overwrought metaphors over boilerplate house reads poorly as a primer, but remains a more tantalising proposition than faded xeroxes of 80s synthpop with vacant "let's save the world" platitudes. A few extra marks for the intermittent whoops, which nod reverently to Crazy Cousins' classic "Inflation" (at least in my head) and Migos, who may have phoned in their guest spot but deliver it lithely nonetheless. [5]

Katie Gill: Turns out "Chained to the Rhythm" was just a fluke! No, Katy Perry's going to continue to make songs about sex with dumb metaphors stretched to high heaven, warped into near unrecognition. It's an even tackier version of "Birthday", where the best thing is the Migos break and the worst thing is the impossibly tacky dancehall stylings. Possibly the most interesting thing about this song is the cannibalistic implications -- "I'm on the menu"? Really? -- which has the potential to be thought provoking, so of course that means Perry's going to ignore it. [3]

Joshua Copperman: Between "lemiteiku" and "the worldsbestcherryPIe", this melodic math was a bit miscalculated. And that's before the chorus, which is possibly the worst Katy Perry melody ever, even counting "This Is How We Do". Unusual for Max Martin, as far as I can tell, the chord progression is limited to B♭m-B the whole way through -- apparently they couldn't even be bothered to use four chords. Migos' verses aren't bad, and I smiled at "appetite for seduction," but those are all the positives I could think of for this half-assed song that makes me wish a portmanteau of somnambulance and cannibalism was possible (somnamibalism?). I assumed that "Bon Appetit" would grow on me over the summer, but as it's currently flopping after just one week of existence, I'll never even get the opportunity to hate-then-enjoy it. [3]

Will Adams: Against my better judgment, I clicked on the Tasty video in which Katy Perry prepares the "world's best cherry pie" (take: this is an impossible task because there's no such thing as a cherry pie that's anything but gross). But my regret soon turned into high enjoyment as I listened to Katy ramble incoherently in some misguided attempt to create a Genius annotation live. As with "Chained to the Rhythm," there's so much effort to legitimize the nonsense pouring out of her mouth: 1. She claims there are "easter eggs" in the lyrics; I think she just means euphemisms. 2. What the hell kind of songs has she heard where "cherry pie" was not sexualized? 3. That she's trying to connect this to the cherry Chapstick in "I Kissed a Girl" shows she still hasn't realized she should probably disown that song. It's all so tiresome; "Birthday" worked because it leaned into the cheesiness, but "Bon Appetit" goes serious with its Cobb salad of food-based innuendo, a concept I've rarely heard executed well. Fold in some perfunctory Migos, overdress with the entire world's supply of reverb, and... oh fuck, now I'm doing it. [4]

Anthony Easton: I adore the gossip about Perry's fighting around her new aesthetic with the label, who apparently is worried about sales. I have no idea if this will revive her fortunes; it's not quite anonymous, but it pushes her against Migos, and Migos wins -- working against each other, doubling down on a cryptic chorus, becoming very close to being a hook singer. It's not sexy, even if it is about sex, and this kind of disembodied paen to the abstract idea of desire complicates Perry's previous perceptions. It's not quite a meal, but it does seem to have that vague whiff of nausea after eating too much candy. [8]

Thomas Inskeep: I guess, seeing that "woke Katy" didn't exactly burn up the charts, her camp/label/some-combo-thereof decided "we better go back to the clumsy sex songs, fast!" Because, you know, nothing's sexier than hearing someone say they're "spread like a buffet." (Pardon me while I throw up a little in my mouth.) I'm sad to hear Migos doing a clear cash-in bridge rap here, because they're so much better than this. Max Martin and Shellback's track isn't bad, but it's sonically awfully slight. Ironic to hear Perry saying "bon appetit," because there's no major pop star whose music I find less appetizing. [1]

Edward Okulicz: Pop stars get hot but they don't stay hot forever, and if this uninteresting ode to Katy Perry's vagina returns her to the top spot, then there is no explanation other than massive amounts of payola and a bunch of Capitol Records interns doing nothing but stream this 24 hours a day. I couldn't last 24 minutes of the title's non-punchline squeezed, against the laws of nature, into this non-chorus. [2]

Jonathan Bradley: I have a Spotify playlist of Katy Perry songs that runs for about 50 minutes. That's not an extensive running time for a ten year long career, but it contains some songs that are very good and some songs that are very stupid and also some songs that are very good and very stupid at the same time. Perry has had five songs off a single album reach the top of the Billboard Hot 100 -- as well as a sixth from a re-issued version. She's been risible and racist and homophobic and "woke" and "inspirational" and fantastic, and even birthed a meme from her Super Bowl performance, but on "Bon Appetit," she's nothing. This is a public-domain club groove and a Migos verse that couldn't deliver the rap group unto dance even as effectively as Calvin Harris did. If, immediately after "Ur So Gay" dropped, someone time-travelled to 2017, could you convince them off the strength of this single that, in the interim decade, Katy Perry had been one of America's biggest pop stars? [4]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox ]

#Katy Perry #Migos

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weekendwarriorblog · 4 years

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The Weekend Warrior Home and Drive-In Edition July 3, 2020 – HAMILTON, THE OUTPOST, JOHN LEWIS: GOOD TROUBLE and more!

Well, it is 4th of July weekend and in most years, I’d be scratching my head about how the 4th falling on a Saturday might affect the movies opening over the course of the week. This 4th of July lands just as a bunch of states start rolling back their reopenings, including some percentage of the hundreds of movie theaters that have reopened, not that any of them would have had much impact. Even so, there’s some great stuff hitting screens of all sizes including lots of stuff you can watch from home.

First and foremost, Disney has decided to release the filmed documentation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hit Tony-winning musical HAMILTON onto the Disney+ streaming service this Friday, months in advance of its planned holiday theatrical release, but appropriately, just in time for the 4th of July. I was lucky enough to see the musical on Broadway last year March, although by then, all the key players had pretty much left to be replaced by equally talented performers. I thought it was terrific, basically as good as everyone had been saying, but I was still a little bummed I didn’t get to see Miranda or Daveed Diggs or some of the others who had been in the show since it premiered off-Broadway.

Wisely, Miranda had one of his last performances in 2016 filmed and Disney bought the rights to release it theatrically before the pandemic hit. Obviously, Miranda knew that people were starting to go a little stir crazy from lack of entertainment and releasing Hamilton early for 4th of July weekend was a way he could give back to the fans, while giving people yet another reason to subscribe to Disney+ while there are no new ongoing series ready to go. (Apparently, Disney+ has shut off the one-week free trial so people don’t subscribe just to watch Hamilton and then cancel after doing so.)

In fact, I was quite surprised to get a screener for the movie to review it, although I feel that Hamilton is almost review-proof at this point, even in this new filmed format. I’ll admit that at first, I was skeptical that watching a live performance even on a very large TV set could possibly capture what it’s like to be in the Richard Rogers Theater on Broadway watching Hamilton live, but boy, was I wrong!

Since I had never seen Lin-Manuel Miranda in the title role, that was special in itself, but so many of the other performances just burst off the screen. Leslie Odom, Jr. is absolutely amazing as Aaron Burr, and I was equally blown away by Christopher Jackson as George Washington, a character I barely remembered from my one time seeing the musical. Renée Elise Goldsberry was also quite brilliant as Angelica Shuyler, the woman who had to compete for Hamilton’s affections with her own sister Eliza, as played by Phillipa Soo. (I actually liked the women’s numbers quite a bit more in this format, as Goldsberry and Soo were fabulous.) Apparently, they got Jonathan Groff back as King George for this performance, and he’s deliciously evil as the antagonist of the piece, despite making just three appearances more as a narrator.

On paper, Hamilton’s 2 hours 40 might seem long but the first act (about an hour and 17 minutes) just flies by based on the amazing energy coming off stage. The second half is very different, but it also switches Daveed Diggs over to the role of Thomas Jefferson, creating another stopping block for Hamilton. This is also where Hamilton goes deeper into the politics of the time, framing political debates as rap battles, and delivering some of its biggest numbers. Knowing how this musical helped turn Odom and Diggs into superstars alongside Miranda, it’s great to see some of their numbers that really show off their talent.

All of that said, it’s almost impossible to separate Hamilton as a filmed stage musical from Hamilton the musical itself, because there’s a good reason why it was such a blockbuster hit – because it so damn fucking good. Hamilton (the film) is an exceptional documentation of this musical, which will probably stand the test of time as one of the finest musicals from the early 21st Century. Whether you’ve already seen it or have been dying to do so, it is to Disney and Miranda’s credit that they chose to finally give people all over the world a chance to watch it over and over from home at this particularly difficult time in our country’s history.

Hamilton will also kick off a weekly “Summer Movie Nights” program on Disney+ which will begin this Friday with live Q n As on Disney+ social media (Twitter, Instagram and Facebook). Besides Hamilton, the program will also include The Mighty Ducks, X-Men: Days of Future Past, X-Men: Armageddon, Solo: A Star Wars Story and a lot more extending right through August. (You can read more about that program here.)

There are a number of other really good movies this week, but this week’s “Featured Film” is Rod Lurie’s return to filmmaking with the real-life war drama, THE OUTPOST (Screen Media), based on Jake Tapper’s book The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor about the 2009 assault on Combat Outpost COP Keating in a valley surrounded by Afghanistan’s Kush mountains that was overrun by hundreds of Taliban in one of the Army’s deadliest battles, the Battle of Kamdesh.

A little review caveat: I’ve known Rod for almost 13 years, and I consider him a friend. Heck, he’s bought me a few nice meals over the years, and he gave me some of the best advice I’ve ever been given in my entire life… which of course I didn’t listen to. Rod also knows that I take my role as a film critic very seriously, since he was one himself, and that I wouldn’t lie if I didn’t like a film he made. The good news is that I loved The Outpost, and I think it’s one of Lurie’s best films to date. (For those who don’t know this, Lurie went to West Point, and his earlier film The Last Castle was a good indication of how in tune he is with the military and how to portray them in film. Oddly, that movie was also the very first movie I ever reviewed, if that’s ever asked in trivia.)

Of course, there’s another immediate caveat that needs to be said, because The Outpost is coming out after a couple decades of movies set in Afghanistan, as well as some great war films. It’s something Lurie surely must have been aware of when deciding to tackle this subject matter, and that’s something the movie has to work against since to many, they’ll feel that Afghanistan has been covered enough. Watching the movie makes you realize this is far from the case.

Another general problem with military films is that it’s often hard to determine who is who, partially since soldiers’ heads are shaved to level the playing field, but that also makes it hard to separate Scott Eastwood from Orlando Bloom from every other Joe

Through a number of preliminary situations, we learn more about the individual soldiers, although the commanding officers turn out to be as expendable as drummers in Spinal Tap in that they just don’t last very long. In fact, Lurie does such a great job with the tension and suspense, you never know when the shooting is gonna start or someone might get blown up, which must have been how the soldiers stationed at COP Keating felt. The movie isn’t entirely grim, though as the shocking horrors of war are well-countered by the jovial attitude between the soldiers as they wait for the next big attack.

Surprisingly, it’s Caleb Landry Jones who really stands out from this great ensemble as Ty Carter, who you immediately assume is the fuck-up of the bunch since very few of his colleagues like him. Turns out there’s a lot more to him as a character, and by the end of the film you realize this might easily be one of the best performances of Jones’ career. (I realized this even more on a second viewing.)

Where The Outpost really takes off is at about the halfway point as everything we’ve seen up until that point leads to the actual Battle of Kamdesh on October 3, 2009. At this point, it becomes a brutal battle sequence on par with Peter Berg’s Last Survivor or Ridley Scott’s Blackhawk Down. The amazing work done by Lurie and his camera and visual/make-up FX teams really pulls the viewer into battle with the soldiers. Honestly, I’m a little bummed that more people probably won’t be seeing The Outpost on the big screen where it deserves to be seen. It took many decades for Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket and others to be deemed classics in the way they displayed the horrors of war, and I feel that those who see The Outpost will hold it up fairly to those classics, even (and especially) by those who feel that the war in Afghanistan is “ancient history.”

You can find out exactly where The Outpost will be playing and places to download and watch digitally on the official Screen Media site.

Let’s get to a few of this week’s docs, and another wonderful movie that will be available via Virtual Cinema this week is Dawn Porter’s JOHN LEWIS: GOOD TROUBLE (Magnolia/Participant), which showcases the life and political career of ‘60s Civil Rights activist and Georgia Congressman John Lewis, who has really seen a lot in his 80 years. Porter, who produced and directed Trapped and Spies of Mississippi, follows Lewis around during the lead-up to the 2018 election where winning the House back is crucial for the Democrats, superimposing that with chapters from Lewis’ long life, including some archival footage that even he hadn’t seen. (The title “Good Trouble” comes from a speech Lewis gives while on the campaign trail, saying that protesting and getting arrested is exactly that.) I don’t think I have a lot to say otherwise about this fantastic doc or Lewis himself other than the fact that Magnolia would have been wise to release this movie two weeks earlier, since Lewis continues to play such an inspirational role in the discussion about race and equality, but also about protesting peacefully but persistently to get the changes that need to be made.

Another really good doc that I recommend is Liam Firmager’s SUZI Q (Utopia Distribution), which if you’re over a certain age, you might immediately realize that it’s a doc about ‘70s rocker and feminist icon Suzi Quatro, who had huge rock hits in the UK and Australia, but didn’t really have an impact in the States until she appeared on the hit show “Happy Days” as Leather Tuscadero. There are definitely parallels between this film and the amazing Joan Jett: Bad Reputation doc from a few years back, and not just because Joan Jett plays a key role in the Suzi Quatro story, having been an avid fan who almost modelled herself after the young rock star. I’m sure I learned more about Suzi Quatro watching this doc than anything I knew beforehand, as I’m not sure I ever realized how far into the musical theater world she went in the ‘80s and ‘90s, nor did I know about how her sisters felt left out when she went off on her own and found huge fame. If you’re a fan of rock music or just rock docs, it’s worth your time to keep an eye out for this doc, which is having a one-night only virtual premiere with a QnA with Ms. Quatro. You can learn more about that on the Official Site.

Cannes award-winning Japanese auteur Kore-Eda Hirokazu (Shoplifters) shifts his gaze to France with his new film THE TRUTH (IFC Films), which I saw when it premiered at this year’s “Rendezvous with French Cinema” before this whole pandemic began, and the movie’s planned March release was scuppered. This one stars French legends Catherine Deneuve and Juliette Binoche as mother and daughter, Deneuve as Fabienne, an aging French movie star who is about the publish her memoirs, as her daughter Lumir (Binoche) comes to visit her from New York with her actor husband (Ethan Hawke) and their young daughter.

Believe me, I really wanted to like this movie, but Hirokazu makes his first foray into Western filmmaking by making the kind of boring and pretentious French film withink the filmmaking industry that’s been done much better with Olivier Assayas’ Clouds of Sils Maria, also starring Binoche. I’m not sure why I couldn’t get into this, and it’s certainly not unwatchable if you’re into the cast and some of Hirokazu’s more noodly Japanese films, but there’s really nothing to this film that really jumps out and screams one to watch it, and trying to get through it a second time as a refresher was just a fool’s chore, so I won’t even be reviewing the movie persé. Either way, it will be available in “select theaters,” digital and cable VOD this Friday.

Opening in “select drive-ins” this Friday is Natalie Erika James’ RELIC (IFC Midnight), following its Sundance premiere where it received raves, but it will be available On Demand and digitally (and maybe even in other theaters) next week, so I’ll probably review it then. Oddly, this movie also involves three generations of women with Emily Mortimer playing Kay, who returns to her family’s country home with her daughter Sam (Bella Heathcote) after Kay’s mother Edna mysterious vanishes. Just as they arrive, Edna reappears just as suddenly, but won’t say where she was as her behavior becomes more dangerous, possibly possessed by an evil spirit. Again, I’ll watch this later this week and have a review for you next week.

Now available on DVD, Blu-ray and digital is FORCE OF NATURE (Lionsgate), the new film from the prolific Michael Polish (of the famous Polish Brothers of Twin Falls Idaho). This one is an action-thriller starring Mel Gibson, Emile Hirsch and Mrs. Polish, Kate Bosworth, as a retired detective, a disgraced cop and a doctor who take on a gang of thieves as a Category 5 hurricane hits San Juan, Puerto Rico.

I have to say that I did not go into this movie without some trepidation, because the production companies involved have become almost synonymous with the VOD schlock that Lionsgate will release without any sort of theatrical push. In other words, Force of Nature was never meant to be seen in theaters. This one seems like a pretty simple premise with Hirsch being a disgraced police officer who ends up at an apartment complex as a hurricane and a couple crooks bear down, and he’s forced to team with a retired detective (Gibson) and his daughter (Bosworth) plus a couple others.

Of course, there’s also some trepidation by the decision to cast Gibson and Hirsch due to their various infractions over the years, Gibson’s having just been brought back to light recently. The thing is that their presence and that of Kate Bosworth brings more to what is not a particularly well-written thriller. This type of “bad cop” character doesn’t seem particularly well suited for Hirsch, as he’s still a bit of a “baby face,” but it also seems a little ill-timed to have that sort of character as a protagonist. The thing is that Hirch’s “Cardillo” doesn’t even stay in that mode for very long, as once he encounters Gibson’s character, he just can’t out-badass him. And honestly? Gibson is pretty funny in a role that could be his Lethal Weapon in his last days, but make no mistake that this is not a Mel Gibson movie since his character is discarded then quickly forgotten. On the other hand, Polish was wise to cast the great David Zayas from Oz as the film’s primary baddie, and some of the supporting cast like Stephanie Cayo and William Catlett offer more to the storytelling than the leads.

Even so, it’s hard to get past the bad writing like Bosworth’s character telling how she became a doctor when her father (Gibson’s character) shot up a bunch of turkeys, followed by an even weaker story by Cardillo on how he got his partner killed. These ho-hum moments really slow down any momentum created by Polish in the action pieces, but even those are hindered by the film’s overblown score.

Force of Nature isn’t great and it certainly has its problems -- did we mention the lion in the closet? -- but it also had the potential to be much much worse, especially if (for instance) I actually had paid to see it. Make no mistake that this is a very dumb action movie.

New York’s Film at Lincoln Center is upping its Virtual Cinema with a number of new programs, including John Lewis: Good Trouble (mentioned above), as well as Ulrich Köhler’s 2002 film Bungalow and the self-explanatory Four Shorts by Miguel Gomes from the Portugese filmmaker. These include Christmas Inventory / Inventário De Natal (2000), 31 (2001), Kalkitos (2002) and Canticle of All Creatures from 2006.

Downtown at the Film Forum, their Virtual Cinema is also showing John Lewis: Good Trouble, as well as Leontine Sagan’s Mädchen in Uniform (1931) and Jacques Becker’s Rendezvous in July (1949), which will be joined by Antoine and Antoinette next week.

Saturday Night Live’s Nasim Pedrad stars in LP’s Desperados (Netflix) playing a woman wh flies to Mexico with her two best friends (Anna Camp, Sarah Burns) to delete an angry Email she sent to her new boyfriend, but once there, she runs into her former boyfriend (Lamorne Morris).

A bunch of new series will debut on Netflix this week, so in order of my interest, there’s JU-ON: Origins, which is exactly what it sounds like, a prequel series to The Grudge movies, while Ben Dunn’s long-running Antarctic Press comic series Warrior Nun Areala has been adapted into the fantasy series, Warrior Nun. Now available on Netflix, Homemade is a quickly-produced anthology series of short films made under quarantine during the pandemic by a number of prominent filmmakers like Paolo Sorrentino, Pablo Larrain, Rachel Morrison, David Mackenzie and more. The Baby-Sitters Club is based on the best-selling book series with Sophie Grace, Malia Baker, Momona Tamada, Shay Rudoph and Xochitl Gomez as a bunch of middle-schoolers who start a babysitting business in their suburban Connecticut town. Also, that George Lopez stand-up special I mentioned last week actually opens this week.

I also want to give a thumbs up to the Jason Reitman-directed Home Movie: The Princess Bride, which premiered on Quibi earlier this week, spinning off of Reitman’s hugely successful live script readings. In this case, he has a number of big stars recreating the scenes and roles from the popular movie using whatever they have at home. So far, the recreations have included Tiffany Haddish, Josh Gad, Adam Sandler, Common, Hugh Jackman with more to come as different actors play the roles as the series goes on. Not sure how they’re gonna cover the entire movie over 10-episodes of 5 or 6 minutes each, but I guess we’ll have to see.

Amazon Prime will launch its own new crime series Big Dogs starting Wednesday that takes place in a number of underworld after-hour clubs called “Speaks.”

I probably should have included this in last week’s column but David (How to Survive a Plague) France’s new doc Welcome to Chechnya (HBO Documentary Films) debuted on HBO on Tuesday, which means you can probably still catch it on HBO Max. This one involves a group of brave activists who are risking their lives to confront the anti-LGBTQ persecution happening in the Russian republic of Chechnya, which includes detention, torture and death from the authorities.

Tonight, you can also catch the doc Born to Play, which will have its premiere on ESPN, following the Boston Renegades, a women’s tackle football team over the course of the season after losing their championship the previous year. I haven’t seen it but I like a good inspiration sports doc as much s the next guy.

Other movies hitting the digital airwaves that I just didn’t get time for this week include Skyman (Gravitas Ventures) and Homewrecker (Dark Star Pictures/Uncork’d Entertainment).

Next week, more movies mostly in drive-ins, you lucky people with cars! Oh, speaking of drive-ins, Amazon Studios is kicking off its “Night at the Drive-In” series tonight with the “Movies to Make You Fall in Love” double feature of Love & Basketball and Crazy Rich Asians. You can find out if there’s a drive-in near you doing this program on the Official Site. I really wish I drove or had a friend with a car.

By the way, if you read this week’s column and have bothered to read this far down, feel free to drop me some thoughts at Edward dot Douglas at Gmail dot Com or drop me a note or tweet on Twitter. I love hearing from readers … honest!

#TheOutpost #JohnLewisGoodTrouble #Hamilton #ForceOfNature #TheTruth #Movies #Reviews #VOD #Streaming #TheWeekendWarrior

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musicoccurred · 6 years

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Tedeschi Trucks Band

Who: Tedeschi Trucks Band Where: Tuscaloosa Amphitheater When: June 30, 2018

Aside from being generally unqualified to write period. I'm uniquely unqualified to write a review of the stellar Tedeschi Trucks Band. They have legions of devoted fans that travel to see them, following the band on multiple runs of shows. Taping and sharing, analyzing and dissecting the various performances. I can relate. As a Pearl Jam fan, I can spot like-minded folks a mile away, even with a band I'm relatively unfamiliar with. But it's my site and I love music so here we are. I've been familiar with TTB for ages, bands I like tour with them and people I like listen to them. It took my Father-in-law asking to check them out that spurred me to finally go. One of my favorite bands, the Greyhounds, were the opener and it was one of the finest nights of music I'd ever witnessed. Fast forward a couple months and they announced a show at the under-appreciated Tuscaloosa Amphitheater with the mighty Drive-By Truckers in tow and there was no doubt I'd be in attendance. One thing I've always admired about TTB, albeit from afar, is they take really good bands out on tour with them. That says a lot about their character, they don't simply drag some cheap band around the country, they promote less-famous but highly skilled artists. Giving them a chance to make some cash and spread their name a little more widely. As a music fan and frequent show-goer, I appreciate this on multiple levels.

TTB are a sight to behold, there's no less than ten, usually more on stage at any given time. Derek Trucks, despite his age, has been around for decades and had his own successful band. Susan Tedeschi had carved out an enviable career as a blues artist and when they got married they essentially merged the bands into a powerhouse soul outfit. Two drummers, a horn section, keys/organ and I hesitate to use the phrase background singers, as they all are accomplished singers that sing lead on several TTB songs. They perform the type of unclassifiable music that is near and dear to my heart. Not blues, not pure-soul, not rock, not jam but a mix of all. Truly Southern in sound.

The music gods smiled on us this blazing hot Saturday. My seats were in the upper bowl of the amphitheater in full direct-why-am-I-here Alabama sun. Fortunately, just as the fantastic Marcus King Band opened their set, it come up a cloud, as they say, and blocked the sun all the way to sunset. While on the subject. I have a confession to make, I hate outdoor shows. I just want to enjoy the music, I don't want to worry about weather or mosquitoes the size of Apache helicopters. When I can, I avoid outdoor shows whenever possible. After attending my fair share of summer music festivals set in the South I found myself asking why these weren't in October? I digress.

Regular readers will note that I just saw Patterson Hood a week prior to this show and wrote about it here. So, I was still glowing from that when I got to see the full Drive-By Truckers experience live and in color. As per usual, I was a little late to the DBT party, but I am driving the bus now. I love the crunchy sound, earnest lyrics and the shared connection with my hometown of Florence Alabama makes it that much better. The Truckers have that "any place, any time" vibe. Want them to open? No problem. They play like headliners everywhere they go. Highlight of the performance was when DBT invited music legend and Patterson's dad, David Hood and some guy named Derek Trucks to join them on stage for "Everybody Needs Love" by the late, great Tuscaloosa/North Alabama native Eddie Hinton. This is truly a great band, deserving of far more success than what they currently have. Although I suspect they are happy where they are.

TTB began the show with "Show Me," a Joe Tex cover, and right away the tightness of a band that size impresses. I asked my friend "have they been playing for two hours backstage?" Despite being quite jammy, the TTB don't play marathon shows, nor a large quantity of songs. However, they play long, elaborate songs that feature ridiculous musicianship and vocals to die for. I mentioned earlier my usual disdain for outdoor shows, particularly those in the brutal Alabama summer. Well pass the salt, I'm about to eat those words.. Once TTB settled in and the evening began to cool I was washed over by not only a soft breeze indicative of a distant summer storm but with a feeling that can only be had by witnessing incredible music amidst a sea of like-minded people outdoors. The Tuscaloosa Amphitheater is nestled against the Black Warrior river with an old elevated rail line sitting picturesquely behind it. As if on cue a train rumbled slowly along while the band played. You can't get that indoors.

Prior to creating TTB, Tedeschi toured extensively with BB King. In both shows I attended they performed "How Blue Can You Get" with Susan delivering a vocal performance that BB would certainly approve of. I must add, Susan Tedeschi has blown me away both times I've seen TTB perform. Yes, Derek Trucks is a wizard, yes, the band destroys. But she commands that stage with a powerful voice that just drips authenticity, and she can shred on the guitar whenever she feels like it. We need more Tedeschi's in this world.

Highlights of the night for me, Eddie Hinton tribute, the train rolling through and forgetting all my troubles during four hours of glorious live music.

-JS

#concert #ttb #tedeschi trucks band #musicoccurred

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scruffyplayssonic · 7 years

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My favourite movies of all the years I’ve been alive.

I did my own picks for my favourite movie of each year back in August 2015, when I first saw Jeremy’s Q and A video. I really liked that question and was inspired to try and name my own favourites from each year. So to celebrate the SinCast crew finally completing this task, I thought that I’d re-post my list, which is now updated to include 2015 and 2016. I hope you enjoy it. Feel free to comment and/or argue about my choices. And thanks again to @cinema-sins, for providing me with laughs every week in the podcasts and videos they release. :)

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1982: E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial This might be a bit of a cheat, since the film came out in June and I wasn’t born until October, but oh well. It’s still the same year.

1985: Back to the Future The beginning of what I still believe is the greatest movie trilogy of all time.

1986: Aliens More awesome from James Cameron.

1987: Spaceballs Well, it’s pretty funny. Plus I haven’t seen much else from this year, other than Lethal Weapon.

1988: Die Hard The original and quite possibly the best. More on that later.

1990: Back to the Future: Part III At the time, I probably would have picked DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp. Ahhh, nostalgia.

1991: Terminator 2: Judgement Day I’m sure most of you who know me saw this one coming. To this day it’s still my favourite movie of all time. Silence of the Lambs would probably get second place for this year.

1993: The Fugitive Another tough choice, considering that Jurassic Park also came out in 1993. But I just love the battle of wits between Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones.

1994: The Lion King Another of Disney’s finest. No contest, although True Lies, Speed, and The Mask were all excellent films too.

2001: Ocean’s Eleven Such a clever film with a great cast!

2002: The Bourne Identity Spider-Man came pretty close, but Matt Damon was amazing as Jason Bourne. ...well, that most recent movie was kind of hit or miss...

2003: Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl Who would have ever guessed that a movie based on a Disneyland ride could be so good?

2004: The Incredibles It was a good year for animation - there was this one, Shrek 2, and Team America: World Police. National Treasure came out too, which I quite like.

2008: The Dark Knight A no-brainer. One of the best films of the decade, let alone the year. Iron Man was a surprise hit too. Taken was great. Oh, and I quite liked Steve Carrell’s take on Get Smart, even if he didn’t quite capture the original magic of Don Adams.

2009: Up My favourite of all the Pixars. Angels & Demons was pretty good too, although not as good as the first movie. Plus Tom Hanks cut his hair - I thought his shaggy do in the first movie suited Robert Langdon better. :P Strange that I liked Angels & Demons better of the books but The Da Vinci Code better of the movies. Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock Holmes was great too.

2012: The Avengers No surprise there. Honourable mentions go to The Cabin in the Woods, which is a delightfully insane deconstruction of horror movies, Looper, a film I still occasionally stay up late at night scratching my head in confusion over, and Skyfall, which is possibly Daniel Craig’s best Bond film so far. I also loved Wreck-It Ralph.

2013: White House Down This one was definitely the film I liked best from 2013 - and yes, that includes Frozen. You may charge with your flaming torches and pitchforks when ready. But what can I say? I love Die Hard, and this was basically Die Hard in the White House, yet it felt original enough to not just be a knock-off. The other ones I liked best would be the Marvels (Iron Man 3, the Wolverine and Thor: The Dark World), Kick-Ass 2, and Gravity, which was absolutely terrifying.

2015: The Martian When I first made this list in August 2015, my prediction was that Jurassic World would be my favourite of the year. Nope, not by a long shot. The Martian was absolutely amazing - Matt Damon’s ability to keep the audience on the edge of their seats when he’s completely alone on the screen (and on the planet) is a major credit to him as an actor. Then of course we have Avengers: Age of Ultron, Mission: Impossible: Rogue Nation, and Terminator: Genisys. …no, really. Stop laughing, I really enjoyed it. :P And then there was Ex Machina, which was a really intriguing film that kept me guessing the entire time.

2017 (so far - I’ll update this at the end of the year): Passengers I’ve only seen two films so far this year, and Resident Evil: The Final Chapter was okay, but not great. I really enjoyed Passengers though, despite all the controversy it has surrounding it. It’s definitely not the same movie the trailers made it look like it was going to be though.

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