Rock, Scores, and the Great Pumpkin

Happy Halloween 2013.

Here is what I am listening to for the holiday, and decided to share the tricks-or-treats. Feel free to hit iTunes and listen along.



Buffy The Vampire Slayer Theme        Nerf Herder
Limbo                                                Rush
Thriller                                                Michael Jackson
Ghostbusters                                        Ray Parker, Jr.
Magic                                                Mick Smiley
Beetlejuice                                        Danny Elfman
Great Pumpkin Waltz                        Vince Guaraldi
Werewolves Of London                        Warren Zevon
Halloween - Main Theme                John Carpenter
Tubular Bells                                        Mike Oldfield
March of the Dead                                Danny Elfman
This Is Halloween                                Danny Elfman
The Fog                                                John Carpenter
Every Day Is Halloween                        Ministry
Dragula                                                Rob Zombie


Whatever happened to my Transylvania Twist?

As Always,
theJOE

Chapter 0

Let's see where this goes...

I think that egg alone maxed out my daily sodium allowance, Ethan thought. The salad was huge. Adorned with slices of red pepper, chunks of tomato that weren’t so much cut into the bowl, but ripped into slices,  dropped onto the iceberg lettuce as per gravity’s law. Flaked tuna. And a sliced hardboiled egg that was so salty it had to have been soaking in brine.

 

Spanish lunch is the largest meal of the day, normally, and the restaurant was packed. Catering to the American’s wishes and internal timing of his stomach, which was still not calibrated to GMT, the company headed out slightly before the lunch-time rush, scoring a choice of seats. Barely 20 k north of Madrid, the restaurant had an Italian feel to it, but the boar’s head mounted on the wall directly up and in front of the American and the large, bronze Shiva to his right didn’t exactly tie the room together but a ciascuno il suo.

 

The half-eaten salad was soon replaced with a steak that was grilled only slightly longer than the time it took for the poor beast’s last moo to echo in the butcher’s shop. Bulbous pustules of fat surrounded the entire filet reminding Ethan of a Mother Goose nursery rhyme read to him as a boy, sitting on his mother’s lap, in his seashore-blue room, both miles and years removed from Iberia. The seasoning on the steak made all in the world right.

 

 

The flight was as easy and comfortable as coach would allow. Getting through customs, always easy on the European continent, and into a taxi took all of two minutes. The American always enjoyed that initial drive from the airport when visiting a new city. He liked to compare and contrast the differences of these views from those that were familiar to him.

 

The trip into Madrid wasn’t too different from any other large International city with a healthy highway system. Older brick apartment complexes gave way to newer glass business towers. Airy condos with gated gardens quickly became studio flats. Graffiti tagged colorful names on any and every  barrier or wall within an arm’s length. The late March sun was out and bright in the blue sky and felt good on his face that for the past eight hours was subjected to US Airways’ recycled air.

 

Then it was into the hotel, out of those travel-weary clothes, up with the window and down with the café con leche.

 

 

The Musea de Prado was beautiful and reminded him much more of the Philadelphia Museum of Art as opposed to the Met or the British Museum. Long galleries with tall ceilings worthy of the Louvre led into smaller rooms where the Intimateness within captured that unique European aversion to showering.

 

Velasquez and Goya were the rock star attractions, but the works of Raphael, Bousch and Van der Wyck, along with the Prado’s solo Carvaggio, were the indie sensations, which is really par for course when concerning Carvaggio. Give me a large art museum in any country, and my time will be well occupied, was Ethan’s confession.

 

 

For an international city, the lack of spoken English was remarkably absent. Perhaps Spanish machismo is to blame. Ethan’s three years of high school Spanish thirteen years back came of no help. Two years, actually. The third year was forced upon him with the allure of joining the Spanish Honor Society, which, according to rumor and counselor pressure, was a gold star on all Permanent Records that colleges take note of. He had wanted to take the school’s only journalism class and the teacher begged him to fulfill his final open elective with that near-elite course. But the allure of that Gold Star – on his Permanent Record! – was one of the final times matters of the head took the place over matters of the heart. That is until entering the Corporate World, where the matters of the heart are scoffed at, disallowed and buried right there along with high school dreams, guilty pleasures and hanging out at diners until one-in-the-morning on a week night. And as for that Gold Star? There was no such thing. Upon learning that the Spanish Honor Society held as much weight for college recruiters  as remembering the terms of office for every President from Kennedy to Clinton or viewing every film nominated for that year’s top Academy Awards, he soon gave up on any such achievement. Too much memorization to be expected  for a high school senior.

 

The Corporate World and all its imprisonments, however, was responsible for this Spanish voyage and 5-star hotel accommodations. And, high-school guidance counselors notwithstanding, Ethan knew how to write. A BA in Journalism with a minor in English Studies soon had him fast-tracked through the Indie mag publishers out by Pershing Square to a brief stint with the LA Times and now smack in the land of weekly high-gloss floppies complete with deadlines and directors, shareholders and solicitors.

 

This steak ain’t half bad he thought and chowed down. A full belly and a glass of Heineken, Ethan turned to the group that he was visiting: a contingent of writers, editors and salespeople from the weekly MAP Madrid. They were still eating. Their conversations drifting between English for the American to overhear and their native tongue, which was as foreign as the green dip sitting in a stainless steel bowl to his left. Ethan stealthily reached his hand into his right jacket pocket, and tapped his Blackberry to life before gazing down. The top of his email queue informed him there was another death. The game was still in play.

 

 

Text and ideas copyright 2013, Joe Kucharski

Rush Kicks - the Playlist

The fun part of creating this playlist was in the creativity of formulating a mix. The easy route of grouping the tracks by release year , or even by theme – although all four parts of “Fear” play together in release order – was deliberately avoided. Instead, the focus was on making the songs work together in a viable and  extremely playable mix: danceable keyboard-heavy rhythms sit alongside the heavier jams that mix into guitar anthems and drum solos that can be beat upon imaginary pads floating affixed in the air.

This playlist has the representation of at least one track from every studio release, including clunkers Caress Of Steel and Clockwork Angels, with the self-titled, non-Neil debut album being the sole exception – and honestly, who really needs to hear “Working Man” yet again. The heavy-handed Hemispheres has only one entry: “La Villa Strangiato”.

Certain hit singles are deliberately absent. “Tom Sawyer”, “Subdivisions”, “Freewill” and “Spirit Of The Radio” being the chief over-played culprits. Also missing is “2112”, mostly due to the run time of the complete epic; separating out just the “Overture” falls into the overplayed category. Included, though, is every studio instrumental with live recordings scattered throughout.

What has been completely enjoyable in the creation of this playlist was listening to complete albums again – some of them for the first time in years – and finding musical threads laid out, deliberately or not, throughout certain eras. The early classic hard, yet progressive, sound of a simple three-piece band; the heavy, deeply-layered samples of the 21^st Century albums; the synth-laden ‘80s; the retaliation of a guitar sound in the ‘90s. Rush obviously benefited from the changes in technology. Regardless of playing prowess, the sounds of their later albums are richer, deeper, than any time period from before. Even your iPod ear buds can discern the fuller sound between Vapor Trails and Signals.

Certain albums just plain kick – Vapor Trails, Snakes & Arrows, Signals – while others don’t play as well as you might remember. Aside from the tracks represented here, Counterparts and Test For Echo are almost completely forgettable. And the releases that bridge the early Prog era with the MTV single craze – Permanent Waves, Grace Under Pressure, Power Windows, Hold Your Fire – still sound great.

Finally, this is not a greatest hits. This is a playlist. One that contains some of the best of the trio, some of those forgotten b-sides, and a few personal selections. This is being posted for enjoyment with the promotion for you to follow using tracks from your own library. But ultimately, this is a personal list. One to be played and enjoyed.

The Big Money	A Show Of Hands
One Little Victory	Vapor Trails
YYZ	Moving Pictures
Cut To The Chase	Counterparts
Dreamline	Roll The Bones
Neurotica	Roll The Bones
Where's My Thing?	Roll The Bones
Distant Early Warning	Grace Under Pressure
The Seeker	Feedback
Totem	Test For Echo
High Water	Hold Your Fire
Xanadu	A Farewell To Kings
In The End	Fly By Night
Entre Nous	Permanent Waves
Bastille Day	Caress Of Steel
Secret Touch	Vapor Trails
Witch Hunt -- Part III Of 'Fear'	Moving Pictures
The Weapon -- Part II Of 'Fear'	Signals
The Enemy Within -- Part I Of 'Fear'	Grace Under Pressure
Freeze -- Part IV Of 'Fear'	Vapor Trails
La Villa Strangiato	Hemispheres
Making Memories	Fly By Night
Far Cry	Snakes & Arrows
The Body Electric	Grace Under Pressure
Leave That Thing Alone	Different Stages
Headlong Flight	Clockwork Angels
Half The World	Test For Echo
For What It's Worth	Feedback
I Think I'm Going Bald	Caress Of Steel
Natural Science	Permanent Waves
Red Tide	Presto
Territories	Power Windows
Superconductor	Presto
Hope	Snakes & Arrows
Kid Gloves	Grace Under Pressure
War Paint	Presto
Workin' Them Angels	Snakes & Arrows
Stick It Out	Counterparts
Anthem	Fly By Night
The Main Monkey Business	Snakes & Arrows
Cinderella Man	A Farewell To Kings
Scars	Presto
Limbo	Test For Echo
Vapor Trails	Vapor Trails
A Passage To Bangkok	2112
Malignant Narcissism	Snakes & Arrows
Open Secrets	Hold Your Fire
Red Lenses	Grace Under Pressure
Turn The Page	Hold Your Fire
Grand Designs	Power Windows
Chemistry	Signals
The Camera Eye	Moving Pictures
Emotion Detector	Power Windows
Ghost Of A Chance	Roll The Bones
Prime Mover	Hold Your Fire
We Hold On	Snakes & Arrows
Face Up	Roll The Bones
The Analog Kid	Signals
Digital Man	Signals
Lessons	2112
Animate	Counterparts
Out Of The Cradle	Vapor Trails
Closer To The Heart	A Show Of Hands

As Always, 

theJOE

A most excellent look at a personage of historical significance

Daniel Day-Lewis steals the show as the title character in LINCOLN, but by all rights, the film itself could have been named "AMENDMENT XIII" as the second act's energy, as well as most of the third, is focused on the debate in the House to abolish slavery nearly leaving Lincoln himself as just a witness to history while a cast of character actors from screens both big and small pound tables and chests alike in a grandiose fashion.

Director Steven Spielberg, and his long-time cinematic director of photography Janusz Kaminski, created a gorgeous movie where they carefully and beautifully frame each shot allowing the audience to play historical witness. Similar to Spielberg's work in MUNICH, the camera is expertly placed, rarely moving, allowing for a perfect spectacle of a scene: be it the aftermath of a bloody battle, the always-smoky rooms where speech itself has somewhere to hide, a rocking chair on a rickety floor that looks ancient even for 1865, or the bright, winter sunlight filtered through the gauze of a window furnishing or a washed-out flag. Likewise, Day-Lewis himself is always framed, the camera accenting on his height, catching the lines in the gray of his face as he bears the weight of a nation divided playing equal parts father, preacher, lawyer and, most of all, grand storyteller.

The film, however, keenly focuses on those individual glances but the overall story itself is not as put-together. A series of poignant, incredibly-acted, well-constructed scenes are displayed; each scene a marvelous production complete with conflict, character exposition and beautiful dialogue. Yet these scenes are nearly staged as free-standing productions by themselves and, other than the overarching story detailing the end of Civil War and the proposition of Amendment XIII, miss any flow connecting them and strengthening that overall narrative. 

Again, it is the presence of Day-Lewis who provides the human touch to the drama of politics. Amidst the yelling and the smoke and the death that incorporates nearly every scene, Day-Lewis' Abraham Lincoln has the ability to smile and, in a move completely foreign to modern-day presidents, sit and speak with the everyday man. He knows this is who is fighting his war and also knows that these very same people will find their own strength to rebuild America. Like a grandfather, he has stories to tell bringing relevance and peace to the chaos of the day, just not his with own family where a slightly-miscast Sally Field, playing Mrs. Lincoln, adds embarrassment and strife while Joseph Gordon- Levitt, as Lincoln's eldest, wants to be the attention-grabbing rebellious son but at least maintains his nobility, even when being ignored. 

Spielberg elevates the spirit of the man, in a similar manner to what he accomplished with Oskar Schindler, by bringing relevance and importance to that man's place in history. Spielberg shows a man who was able to work both with and around Congress, wanted peace badly enough to fight for it and was taken much too abruptly leaving any future potential into the smoke of history.


As Always,
theJOE

For your consideration...

Welcome to 2013. Aside from the NFL Playoffs (although…wait… hockey is back just in time to fill in that pre-baseball void making everything alright with the world!), the top race to watch grow, speculate on and bet against is that of the Academy Awards. As with every year there are the sure things and the surprises. The surprises, of course, are what make you take that second breath and make the whole process fun, especially, and mostly in hindsight, when those surprises turn out to be the better choice. After all, as hopefully everyone can now admit, CRASH was a much-better film than BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN.

As the nominations are about to be officially announced, I’d like to take the time to send out a few reminders to Academy for their consideration.


From New Zealand With Love
The HOBBIT trilogy will most likely follow the same golden path as that of its big brother predecessor, The LORD OF THE RINGS, and bag all of the Lonely Mountain’s gold in two years hence with Film, Screenplay, Director and, hopefully, Actor (in Martin Freeman) all gaining top honors. However, the Academy should at least recognize the years of pre-production work prior to filming all during MGM’s financial restructuring – work that was helmed and meticulously overseen by one Peter Jackson. Let’s not make this chap have to wait an additional two years.


Supporting Should Not Mean Forgotten
Think quick, fanboy: what was the best part of THE DARK KNIGHT RISES? Answer: Sir Michael Caine. Caine not only nailed the personae of Bruce Wayne’s aide de-camp and moral guidance in Alfred Pennyworth, but he gave the audience a reason to listen to his words, witness his dream, and see the love for his son. His character’s presence was notably missed during the film’s lengthy third-act. He presented solemn sorrow at the titular funeral, while giving hope and joy in his character’s conclusion.

The only other well-presented father figure in film this year was Robert DeNiro’s electric presence in the otherwise mild SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK.

And Christoph Waltz’s nomination is already in the bag. Right?


Remember the Avatar – and District 9 for that matter
The Academy does not despise Sci-Fi. Okay, they don’t often recognize it either outside of the Technical Achievement categories but hey, even Rush made it to the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame this year, so, similar to Princess Leia’s plea, there is always hope.

PROMETHEUS, then, although not quite reaching the levels of hype and anticipation, was still a cool SF piece with a fantastic look about it. And just as cool was star Noomi Rapace who, alien abortion scene notwithstanding, proved that she was the perfect successor – or perhaps predecessor seeing as how this film is a prequel – to Sigourney Weaver’s action star with acting chops. Also not to be forgotten is Michael Fassbender’s David who was as chilling as Lance Henriksen’s Bishop was cool. Fassbender being no stranger to nominations with a… ahem… swing to it.


Can the Avengers get some love?
Okay, the AVENGERS already have received love, in fact, 623 million bits of love. And although the film won’t be delighting in the honorifics of its acting achievements, where its most memorable performance belongs to a CG-generated gamma giant, writer-director Joss Whedon deserves his props.

As a director, Joss Whedon worked within one of the biggest of studio machines – Disney no less – while creating output that was pleasing to fanboy and tagalong wife alike and appeared… fresh. As a screenwriter, Joss scripted eight A-type characters, each with a unique presence, added as many punch lines as there were punches, threw in the occasional Gen-X pop culture reference, and made the audience cheer (loudly) for the aforementioned CG behemoth.

Whedon has mad skills. More often than not, mad skills do not win Oscar statuettes, but gaining another “Nominated” tagline added to your name raises eyebrows.


Oscar nominations are released on Thursday, 10 January. Certainly there will be many, and all-too worthy, toasts exclaiming, “ARGO (see the move to complete the toast)…”.

I plan to exclaim at least one of those toasts.

As always,
theJOE