The Saturday Night Review

Quantum of Solace *

January 20, 2013 by rurugby Leave a Comment

Usually I prefer to give positive reviews on this blog. But there are exceptions.

My wife has been wanting to see “Quantum of Solace”(QOS) the 2nd Daniel Craig James Bond movie before seeing “Skyfall.” I’ve heard “Skyfall” is very good. QOS though is just a hot mess.

From the first action scene I just don’t care about what the characters and often have no idea what’s going on. Nothing is explained about why there are in Siena, what the famous horse race is about or who he is chasing. I realize that QOS is a sequel to the very good “Casino Royale” ***1/2, but haven’t seen Casino Royale in years and don’t remember the connections.

I had heard bad things, but usually when I watch a movie I don’t want to reach for my Twitter and start snarking the movie. Quantum of Solace was more fun to snark at then watch. The plot makes no sense, Marc Forster clearly can’t direct action movies (yet is doing World War Z), and the Bond franchise is lucky to have fan loyalty after all of the years.

The villian isn’t interesting, the plot boring, and the bond girl uninteresting. It’s a hot mess. Skip it.

I did read an interesting piece where Daniel Craig blamed the hot mess that is Quantum of Solace on the writer’s strike. If that’s the case, then just don’t shoot the movie. I’ve heard “Skyfall” is good, but QOS literally has worse writing and plot then a SyFy channel B-movie, amazingly bad.

Django Unchained **** and the Films of Quentin Tarantino

January 14, 2013 by rurugby Leave a Comment

There isn’t too many directors where I have seen every movie they have made and all the movies they make are event pictures.

I would say people like Martin Scorsese or I most definitely love, but I didn’t rush to “The Age of Innocence” *** and still haven’t seen “Kundun”, “Bringing Out the Dead”, “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore”, “Boxcar Bertha…”. Although “GoodFellas” ***** is in my all time top 10.

And I grew up with and love Steven Spielberg, as films like “ET” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark” are what I grew up with. But I haven’t rushed to see and haven’t seen “War Horse”, “The Adventures of Tintin,” “1941”, and “The Sugarland Express.” “Raiders of the Lost Ark” is also thought in my all time top 10 *****.

But, I have seen all of Quentin Tarantino’s movies, and enjoyed all of them except Inglorious Basterds which made me very, very uncomfortable.

My favorite Quentin Tarantino movie now is in quite a suprise for me his most recent movie, the wonderful, bloody and insane “Django Unchained.” I didn’t know what to expect with it. I knew it was set in times of slavery and a homage to Spaghetti Westerns like “The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly” but no idea how that would work.

It starts in the desert, ends in Dixie, and there is a high casualty count. I also think it effectively tells the horror of slavery, although Mandingo fighting is from the 1970s film “Mandingo” not the slavery era in the United States.

The acting is superb from the amazing Christoph Waltz, the best and most frightening part of “Inglorious Basterds” to Jamie Foxx’s heroic, understated, wonderful and underrated performance, and the almost unrecognizable Samuel L. Jackson performance.

The movie is unlikely anything I have ever seen, and just blew me away. And Candyland has a whole new meaning now. ****

2nd would be “Reservoir Dogs”. The first Quentin Tarantino movie. Simple and wonderful. High body count, great writing, interesting performances. Some heists go very, very bad. And pay your share of the tip. ****

3rd “Pulp Fiction”: Probably the movie I have seen most of Tarantino, although I play less attention with the gimp. Wonderful movie that inspired a ton of really, really bad movies. Also an amazing soundtrack. ****

4th “Death Proof”: I am sure most QT fans will find this way, way too high. The beginning is fun but okay, but I just adore the chase scene. Zoe Bell is amazing in this movie, just spectacular. ****

5th “Kill Bill, Volume 2”: Discussing this with a friend at work earlier that it’s really just one “Kill Bill” movie but the segments are so entirely different. Volume 2 is much more character driven and to me much deeper. ***1/2

6th “Jackie Brown”: Very underrated movie. Great writing and Pam Grier is simply amazing in this movie. ***1/2

7th “Kill Bill Volume 1”: Parts of this movie are very, very fun. For instance I love the song by the The 5.6.7.8s “Woo Hoo” that happens in the amazing Japanese fight scene. But I think there is definitely too much of Uma’s feet. ***

8th “Inglorious Basterds”: This movie made me profoundly uncomfortable, although Christoph Waltz’s performance is magnificent. I may need to see it again. Even thought it’s my least favorite QT film, I most definitely recognize it’s audacity. **1/2.

Honorable Mention:
“True Romance”: QT didn’t direct this movie, but he did write it and it brought him the attention needed to make “Reservoir Dogs” happen. Wonderful film. **** (Would be under “Pulp Fiction” on my rankings).

A pretty stellar filmography. I look forward to what Quentin Tarantino does next. But, he still can’t act, he is best doing Alfred Hitchcock + pieces in his movies like he did in “Django Unchained.”

Blonde on Blonde *****

January 13, 2013 by rurugby Leave a Comment

After enjoying reviewing Johnny Cash/Willie Nelson VH1 Storytellers yesterday ****, thought it would be fun to review one of Bob Dylan’s seminal records “Blonde on Blonde.” This is an album that has grown on me. (Stars are iTunes for the songs from 1-5, and plays on iTunes). I have had this album for a while. But I usually listen to tracks off it randomly not the album as a whole, so this will be fun.

1. Rainy Day Women #12 & #35 — The carnival rambunctiousness of everybody get stoned, as it’s often known. So don’t feel so alone, every.. body must get stoned. **** (18)

2. Pledging My Time — Not a song I know as well. Weaker track on this excellent album. *** (2)

3. Visions of Johanna — One of Dylan’s more underrated songs. Captures the wonderful, surreal spirit of this album. And a beautiful rhythm. I really love Bob Dylan’s voice. This song just makes me happy. **** (15)

4. One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later) — Another track I don’t know as well on this album. Doesn’t come together like many of the anthemic tracks on this album, but a nice song. *** (2)

5. I Want You — Guitar with harmonica works as a song. I just love the playfulness of Dylan’s voice on this song. And “I want you, I want you, I want you, so bad” sounds like a trite line, but totally works. Wonderful song. **** (23)

6. Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again — A song I don’t listen to enough. Has all of the storytelling, surrealism and fun of this album. Oh momma, is this really be the end. Reminds me of one of my favorite Dylan songs “Ballad of a Thin Man.” Just got added to my “Awesome Sauce” playlist. **** (2)

7. Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat — Always happy to hear this song. One that I love to sing to. Maybe I should do this for karoeke. Easily one of my favorite all-time songs. Playful surrealism again. I don’t mind him cheating on me, but I’d sure wish he’d take that off his head, you brand new leopard-skin pill-box hat. ***** (29)

8. Just Like a Woman — Absolutely a signature song. And one of the most heartfelt on this often wonderfully silly record. Just makes me happy. She just aches just a like a woman, but she breaks just like a little girl. ***** (31)

9. Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine) — A lot of long titles on this album. Back to the silly, surreal songs. Doesn’t come through for me like some of my favorite tracks on this record. *** (3)

10. Temporary Like Achilles — A nice song. Still a good track, but on “Blonde on Blonde” it seems pedestrian. *** (4)

11. Absolutely Sweet Marie — The playfulness and great melody is back. After two songs that don’t quite reach the level of the best of this album. Wonderful. But to live outside the law, you must be honest. **** (25)

12. 4th Time Around — Very pretty opening. Vocal is a little muddy behind the instrumental on this one. This probably could have used more takes. Good song that could be better. You do in to the melody as it goes on. *** (5)

13. Obviously 5 Believers — Kind of a crazy start, very brassy. Doesn’t flow as well as the best tracks of the album. To me this is an album that you can listen to in pieces. *** (5)

14. Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands — Dylan is good at the long, storytelling song. Effermal and a perfect ending. It’s a really lovely song. Bob Dylan is a master at the harmonica. **** (5)

This is a great album, one of the best I own. Just fantastic. There is a reason Bob Dylan is my all time 2nd favorite music performer to Johnny Cash. So many great songs on this record in ranking order (4 stars plus): Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat, Just Like a Woman, Visions of Johanna, Absolutely Sweet Marie, I Want You, Rainy Day Women #12 & 35, Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands, Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again. 8 of 14 songs on an album being 4 star plus and 2 being 5 stars is extremely rare for me, great and amazing album.

Johnny Cash / Willie Nelson – VH1 Storytellers ****

January 12, 2013 by rurugby 2 Comments

Won a $10 gift card at work for Wal-Mart for being MSR of the Week.

Went to Wal-Mart thinking of getting some journals and CDs or DVDs.

The journal selection at the Wal-Mart in Scarborough is frightfully awful.

And the CD and DVD selection has gone way, way down in our age of Amazon and iTunes.

Got a few things … Standard Wal-Mart stuff like a bunch of wet food seafood friskies for the kitties, and a huge bag of dry cat food. The awesome and fantastic Yardley Oatmeal and Almond Naturally Moisturizing Bath Bar soap. And the great value toilet paper as back-up. Fyi, don’t buy the Great Value toilet paper. Do buy the Target brand toilet paper, up and up in a terrible branding decision. Also a little chocolate milk, and the delicious cheddar cheese pretzel Combos.

Wal-Mart has incredibly bad merchandising. The journal section was trashed and missing all sorts of stuff. I am not sure this is just a problem with Wal-Mart in Scarborough, ME or a national issue.

I also finally found wallet windows too by the wallets, the plastic card holders for my credit/debit cards and stuff was incredibly trashed. But was really happy to find a DVD of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” for $3 and the album I am reviewing today “Johnny Cash/Willie Nelson VH1 Storytellers” for $5.

But I am really here to review the CD and not Wal-Mart. There is a reason I prefer to shop at Target for big box stores, well honestly I really like Target and buying local especially with the amazing restaurants in Portland, Maine. (Including my iTunes stars for the song).

1. Ghost Riders on the Sky – A song I really like. My favorite version is from “The New Riders of the Purple Sage” when I saw them play at a cool bar in Claremont, California. This one shows wonderfully the voices of experience of Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash. It’s clear Willie and Johnny are friends. ***

2. Worried Man — Again great gravitas in these two great men of country music and Americana. And great guitar playing. ***

3. Family Bible — These are Christian men, especially Johnny Cash, even though they are both Highwaymen. ***

4. Don’t Take Your Guns to Town — I adore Johnny Cash’s voice. Guns are part of the American story for a long, long time. One of those songs that sounds better the more you hear it. ****

5. Funny How Time Slips Away — Nice guitar playing, this is one of those records that just makes you happy to hear. ***

6. Flesh and Blood — If there is a singer I want to imitate it’s Johnny Cash. Have a good deep voice and no one tells a story better. ***

7. Crazy — This will always be a Patsy Cline song to me. Willie Nelson plays a nice lead on it. ***

8. Unchained — I like this version better than the one on the “Unchained” album. The richness of Johnny Cash’s voice really carries. ****

9. Night Life — Willie Nelson leads this one. Life on the road ain’t easy. ***

10. Drive On — Vietnam Veterans got a raw deal from the peace movement. A lot of them joined it. Vietnam did strange things to a lot of people. ***

11. Me and Paul — Willie Nelson leading, this an album that is making me appreciate Willie more. ***

12. I Still Miss Someone — Beautiful. I am so happy Rick Rubin and Johnny Cash came together and the American Recordings happened. ****

13. Always on My Mind — The original version of this song is pretty much destroyed by that awful ASPCA ad. This one brings it back to a Willie Nelson song. It is a wonderful song. Good stuff. ****

14. Folsom Prison Blues — One of Johnny Cash’s signatures songs, as it well should be. Cool to hear part of how this was written. Wanted to write a write like he was a criminal. What would be the evil reason to kill someone, just to watch them die. ****

15. On the Road Again — Definitely one of Willie’s signature song. ***

Really nice album, I highly recommend it, definitely exceeded my expectations. Great to hear Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash playing together and having fun.
****.

Amazon MP3 vs. ITunes

December 27, 2012 by rurugby 5 Comments

So I got gift cards over the holidays for both Amazon and iTunes.

I find using the Amazon MP3 store easy, enjoyable and quick to load. There are also tons of sales all the time and lots of free stuff.

I find the iTunes store loads very slow, the search function is slow (really awful on iTunes too) and the prices are absurdly high.

It’s kind of like it eBooks where Apple tried to push the price up. They like charging a lot for things (and I think take a bigger cut).

So I thought I would check out some albums and see the price between each. Will do Amazon CD, Amazon MP3, and the iTunes store.

First is Janet Jackson’s “Design of a Decade 1986-1996” is $13.99 on both, and on CD for Amazon costs $8.80.

Next is a feature on iTunes. I did see it was on sale on Amazon earlier so this could be a cheat. The new Les Miserables movie soundtrack. $5.00 on Amazon vs. $15.99 on iTunes. I could see some change but it’s radical it’s that much.

For comparison wanted to check the Les Miserables 10th Anniversary Concert. It’s $17.99 on Amazon MP3 vs. $19.99 on iTunes. Closer in price. Amazon CD at $14.93 wins.

One of my favorite albums, “American IV: The Man Comes Around” is $8.49 on Audio CD, $9.49 on Amazon MP3, and slow to load the search on the iTunes store and not coming up on initial search. Nor is there anything else I might be interested in finding that could be more money for Apple. It’s actually not available in the iTunes store. That’s pretty bad.

Checked on one song on American IV by Johnny Cash to see where available and it’s only in the “Unearthed” box set. It’s $44.99 on iTunes, unavailable on Amazon CD (new $235, used $129 but not through Amazon that’s 3rd party), and $40.64 on Amazon MP3.

Now I am curious about one of the big albums of the 1980s and my favorite U2 album “The Joshua Tree”. Similar pricing on this one. iTunes is $9.99, Amazon MP3 is $9.49, and Amazon CD is $10.99.

One of my dad’s favorite records which is just a phenomenal jazz session is Duke Ellington’s “The Great Paris Concert.” Just had my brother in law digitize it for me. It’s $14.99 on Amazon MP3, $14.91 on Amazon CD (current unavailable) and

Then I noticed through Amazon Mp3 that Duke Ellington’s “Ellington at Newport” was only $1.78 on Amazon MP3, which is a steal. And reasonable at $4.99 on iTunes, and $3.98 on Amazon CD.

The more complete “Duke Ellington 1956” because the original recording was lost and the “Ellington at Newport” was a studio recreation is $13.09 on Amazon CD and not available on iTunes or Amazon MP3.

Really I love to have a lot of this stuff on vinyl and need to set that up. Ok so breaking for Dominion: Dark Ages and going to pick out 10 random albums not through searching Amazon and see what happens.

Then I wrote in some LPs and CDs to check on.

From my record collection: (ACD = Amazon CD; AMP3 = Amazon; iTunes = Apple iTunes Store; n/a = not available)

Donovan’s Greatest Hits: $5.99; $9.99; $9.99
Sweet Charity: Original Broadway Soundtrack $7.99; $9.99; $9.99 – Decided to buy “Big Spender” on iTunes for 99 cents.
Bob Dylan – Street Legal $4.99; $7.99 ; $7.99 Price fixing in the MP3 world on catalog stuff?
Apocalypse Now Original Soundtrack $17.09 on Amazon CD not available on iTunes or Amazon MP3
The Greatest of Nat King Cole — Found the “Very Best of Nat King Cole” but not this record. On Amazon $9.99 for CD and MP3; $12.99 iTunes
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Live 1975-1985 $26.86; n/a; n/a

and records I just thought of

Bitches Brew – Miles Davis – $14.73; $14.99; $14.99 Basically a tie.
Blonde on Blonde – Bob Dylan – $9.75; $9.99; $9.99
Thriller – Michael Jackson – $6.99; $9.99; $9.99
Thriller 25th Anniversary Edition – Michael Jackson – $13.27 on Amazon CD no MP3 and there is a “Deluxe Casebook Edition” for $21.59. Sometimes you just want the record.
ITunes has a 35 track version of the Deluxe 25th Anniversary Edition for $19.99 and a 16 track deluxe edition for $11.99. There is also a Zombie Edition for $13.99 with 21 tracks. Sometimes it gets silly. Might look into the 16 track version. I do need this album on CD.
Kind of Blue – Miles Davis – For iTunes have a regular version for $9.99 and a “Legacy Edition” for $16.99 with a bunch of Bonus Tracks. For Amazon there is a $6.99 CD and a $5 MP3. If you don’t own this it’s worth getting on MP3 at least. One of the greatest records of all time.
Blue Train – John Coltrane – $6.99; $5; $9.99 — Easy win for Amazon MP3. Excellent record.
Document – REM – $9.49; $9.99; $9.99 – iTunes also also a 25th Anniversary Edition for $14.99 which is $13.55 on MP3 for Amazon and $25.23 on CD.
Nevermind – Nirvana – $14.64; $9.49; $7.99. iTunes with a rare victory.
Ten – Pearl Jam – $6.99; $11.99; $9.99/$11.99/$16.99 ITunes has 3 versions available. Audio CD wins again.
Best of the Songbooks – Ella Fitzgerald – $9.49; $9.49; $9.99

In general getting the CD was the cheapest. And on these CDs in general the price was the same for Amazon MP3 and iTunes. Also much easier to search the store when you type in something else and copy the text to iTunes, which is kind of insane.

Then you get something like MP3Splash.com that just looks odd to me but prices are much lower. Not sure how well these are authorized. Looked at a comparison site called MP3 Obsession, haven’t tried the sites they mention, seem very odd let me know if you have heard of sites like MP3 Million

And of course I look at something different completely and get Duke Ellington And The Buck Clayton All-Stars At Newport for $1.78 on Amazon MP3. Not on Amazon CD, or iTunes.

Then I bought “Satch Plays Fats” ie Louie Armstrong plays Fats Domino on Amazon CD for $4.99. Was $9.99 on iTunes and $8.99 on Amazon MP3.

I like Amazon MP3, and am skeptical but curious of these alternate sites, let me know if you know anything about them or have used them. I do believe in paying for music and artists making money. If these alternate sites don’t do that I will just stick with Amazon’s MP3 store.

iTunes made 99 cents while writing this, Amazon MP3 got $1.78 and Amazon CD got $4.99. So that says something too. Especially because I still have $12.51 left on my iTunes gift card, but my Amazon gift card is long gone. I love doing these long and bizarre blogs. My brain really does work this way. And at thousand plus words, it’s time for me to stop.

Edmund