PS: This piece was supposed to be titled „The Secrets of Liking Britney”. Somehow, that extra glass of wine (or is it whine? just kidding!) made me rephrase it and mask it in one of my reviews.
Yeah, there’s a secret! Didja really think this is selfexplanatory and not-at-all ming boggling?
No! Liking Britney sits up there with other ideals, of making people more than their decisions. It’s like liking a fat girl for her personality and a nerd for more than his bank account.
You have to see past the techno tempo, past the glittery S&M bras and past the nakedness. You have to be deep and to pay attention.
You better work, bitch!
PS: that comma is important. Don’t let no one tell you otherwise.
I promised some of you good news on October 1st, so here I am with a big sign over my head:
I started a new collaboration with this awesome website.
Yes, I already found employment in writing for other people, but somehow I find that writing about stuff that I care about is what keeps me awake and sane at the end of the day.
As some of you already noticed, I haven’t published a review for a movie in a long time, but I have the perfect explanation for this.
www.couch.ro
Check it out, if you want to read some of my opinions (because all of you know how opinion-prone I am) for new movies, old movies and full of suckage movies. Those are the best, people! Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
You know that one band everyone loves and you’re the only one that doesn’t get it? I found this band for me a few years ago.
30 Seconds To Mars was always on the news, on the blogs and on TV, everyone thought of them as some Messiah, with the genius of Jared Leto leading them into greatness. I listened to it, but it made no impact on me. I’m not sure how many times I tried to see something there, only to be disappointed with losing my time. Though I love Leto as an actor, as a director and as a creative imaginative being, I think nothing of his music. Sometimes it sounds pretentious without reason, and other times it’s just plain.
I think I found my 30 Seconds To Mars today. Shuffling through YouTube I stumbled upon The 1975. At first, I giggled and my brain started singing „74-75„. I hit the play button, and now I’m stuck in a loop that makes me feel good.
It’s a song that celebrates life and love and the great power of the city. I am a city lover, so I found myself in the lyrics. Their poetry is simple and complicated at the same time, oozing of urban smells, making you breathe concrete, pointing you in all the wrong directions… How can I not love this?!
The video for The City is wild, black and white beauty, with grey undertones and smoke and tattoos and love of all kinds.
Don’t call it a fight when you know it’s a war.
With nothing but your t-shirt on.
And go sit on the bed ’cause I know that you want to.
You got pretty eyes, but i know you’re wrong.
And don’t call it a spade if it isn’t a spade.
And go lie on the floor if you want. The first bit of advice that you gave me that I liked was they’re too strong, too strong.
Get in the shower if it all goes wrong.
Yeah you wanna find love then you know where the city is [x4]
Yeah counting cards was the best job he ever had.
Cleaning up.
He got good with his 4′s and his 2′s.
That community service was the best job he ever had.
Cleaning up.
He got sick on the floor and his shoes.
Oh and she said it’s your birthday,
Are you feeling alright?
The next one’s the MD.
You’ll be feeling just fine.
Your brother is just sat there,
You said he felt snide.
You hope that that boy will be alright.
Yeah you wanna find love then you know where the city is [x4]
Yeah well she said it’s your birthday,
Are you feeling alright?
The next one’s the MD.
You’ll be feeling just fine.
Your brother is just sat there,
You said he felt snide.
You hope that that boy will be alright.
Yeah you wanna find love then you know where the city is [x4]
As some of you might know (or not, if you don’t read this non-sense), I am really-really in love with the work of Tom DeLonge.
Better know as the wacky dude from Blink 182 and Angels & Airwaves, he is a real mastermind when it comes to music. Not particularily singing said music, but the whole concept and his whole work in this field is pure genius and raw talent. Of course, I know people who get really annoyed by him and his squeaky voice, but I can’t help but love it and I won’t justify my musical choices.
I must admit that, even though I was a big fan of Blink 182 in my angsty days (what can you do in highschool but listen to Blink 182?), I really love the work of Angels & Airwaves. Don’t get me wrong, I was sad when Blink broke up. I was uber-happy when they got together and recorded Neighborhoods. I really loved their last 2 albums. But I can relate more to AVA. I feel that their songs have a specific poetry, that belongs to AVA-Tom, and that, even though he made efforts to include said poetry into the latest Blink album, it is simply not there.
Wait, this review goes off track. I wasn’t planning talking about AVA and Blink and childhood obsessions of a wannabe poet (that’s me).
AVa does not have many videos out there, so I appreciate the hell out of fans with means and love for the band, who create videos that can relate to their beautiful songs, without being tacky, without ruining the magic.
Here comes SlideshowArt. This is a YouTube channel I subscribed over a year ago. Maybe two? I can’t really remember.
These guys have put together little films along the music of Angels & Airwaves and Blink, but they cover other bands too (Incubus, Nirvana, Jimmy Eat World, to name just a few). I would sit and watch Clever Love and Soul Survivor and All That You Are for hours, without blinking (pun intended).
I guess everyone pretends to hate on Glee, but secretely they watch it every week. Or so I like to think. It pissed me many times, with unflattering song choices and bad covers, but at times it was simply amazing. Also, it opened a door for me to find out about new bands and I can’t be ungreatful for that, right?
But this review isn’t supposed to be about Glee; it’s about Smash. The TV show was officially cancelled on May 10, 2013, with the finale airing on May 26. I’ve watched it several times since then (the whole second season, to be more specific) and I still miss it.
I watched it back in 2012 because of Jack Davenport (Derek), Anjelica Houston (Eileen) and Debra Messing (Julia), while taking Steven Spielberg’s word for granted, as he served as one of the executive producers. I needed a new show, so I thought „Meh, a TV show about producing a Broadway musical about Marilyn’s life, maybe it’s fun”.
The first season is a blur, but I remember the animosity between Karen (Katharine McPhee) and Ivy (Megan Hilty), who battled for the role of Marilyn Monroe in Bombshell.
There were a lot of characters I despised, including Ivy, Karen’s boyfriend, Rebecca Duvall (played by Uma Thurman), Julia’s son, husband and lover (those are 3 people there, don’t understand differently, please!), Eileen’s ex-husband, and many more.
Personally, I think that the first season had very poor written characters, the story was as badly written as the characters, there was no development and no dynamic in there. I’ve seen that people point the finger at the playwright and showrunner Theresa Rebeck, but I’m not familiar with her work, so I can’t say a thing on the matter. Only that the second season, when she wasn’t the showrunner anymore, was much better. That’s why last days I’ve been watching only the second season.
Smash started out as this story about a group of people, writers, directors, producers, actors and singers and dancers, who try to tell us the story of Marilyn Monroe. At times, it annoyed me greatly the way they insisted on Marilyn the icon, Marilyn the human, Marilyn the used and abused, but maybe that’s partly because here, in Romania, she doesn’t seem to have much impact (only if you count lost little girls that quote her at every second).
The second season sees Bombshell running into legal and creative troubles, so there’s space for a second show to develop. Karen gets the Marilyn role, under Derek’s supervision, and there are sparks seen there often. But after the boat starts rocking, Karen and Derek leave Bombshell and go on working on Hit List, a show created by 2 unknown geniuses, and Ivy takes Karen’s role as Marilyn in Bombshell.
There are love triangles all over the place. Karen starts falling for Jimmy, one of the creators of Hit List, while still having some kind of feelings for Derek who, because the unrequited-something-he-feels for Karen, turns back to Ivy for comfort.
Eileen goes back and forth with her ex-husband, with her lover and with some New York Times reporter.
Julia is seen flirting with a playwright, an artistic director and later she is seen going back to her first love from season 1, the actor who originally played Joe DiMaggio in the initial Bombshell workshop.
Tom Levitt is seen making out and breaking hearts, I don’t even remember all the men he had sex with this season.
The second season impressed me with better songs, all of them covers or written for Hit List. Even though the characters or the story didn’t improve much, the music was a great step up for me. I wish they could keep Smash and cancel something else, but I guess this has been a wreckage for too long. I’m glad that at least I got to keep a few good songs and I got to root for some of the characters.
I’m glad they de-vilified Ivy, in the end, even though I hated her storyline, her stringing along by Derek and her pregnancy, so stupidly written, and her happy ending with Derek, which seemed not only improbable, but simply impossible.
I’m glad they thought of Hit List, it would’ve been an awesome show. But I hated Jimmy, the songwriter, and I loved his partner, Kyle. I also hated Jimmy’s relationship with Karen and I think they would never workout in real life, while I loved his relationship with Derek. It made me think Jimmy was a younger Derek, with more spunk in him and a little more rebel. (I have to admit I love Derek more).
I really loved Eileen this season, she seemed more powerful than ever. I hated her publicist, she was nosy and annoying. I also hated Julia, in the first season she seemed more grounded. I also hated Tom, with his sleeping around and his thoughts of grandeur, thinking he deserves it all.
All in all, the second season brought more songs, more entertainment, more development, more characters. And it made me want to see a Broadway musical, sometime in this life. All I’m left after Smash are the beautiful songs in Hit List.
I was never a Leonardo DiCaprio fan. However, I must admit I’ve seen some of his movies. I’ve seen The Basketball Diaries when I was younger. I’ve seen Titanic instead of learning French (because what’s a French teacher supposed to do but play Titanic for us?). I’ve seen Inception and I even paid for it (what a total waste of money!). And I’ve seen Django, as you probably know by now.
My latest visits to the cinema introduced me to the spectacular trailer for The Great Gatsby, played by no other than Leo. At first, I was like „meh”, but I remembered the songs on the trailer and also the great visuals. So I kept it in mind, trying to ignore the fact that DiCaprio makes another dull appearance. With every visit to the cinema, I grew more and more impatient and now I must admit that The Great Gatsby is a must see, even for me.
Here in Romania I’ll have to wait few more days, since the official date for its premiere is 17th May. Meanwhile, I’ll have to enjoy the greatest soundtrack I’ve ever layed my ears on. This year, at least.
Titled Music from Baz Luhrmann’s Film The Great Gatsby and released through Interscope Records on May 6th, the album was produced by Baz Luhrmann and Anton Monsted, while Jay-Z served as the album’s executive producer. When you hear that Jay-Z is involved in a project, you automatically know that it’s going to be good. And also I have to praise the multi-talented director Baz Luhrmann for his involvement in producing the album.
I’ll have to quote Wikipedia for some precious information regarding the work that Luhrmann and Jay-Z did together.
„translating the Jazz Age sensibility of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel into the musical equivalents of our own times, through the blending of hip-hop, traditional jazz and other contemporary musical textures”
On his approach to the project, Luhrmann said: „The question for me in approaching Gatsby was how to elicit from our audience the same level of excitement and pop cultural immediacy toward the world that Fitzgerald did for his audience? And in our age, the energy of jazz is caught in the energy of hip-hop.”
A supergroup-like pack of artists recorded songs for the album, including Lana Del Rey, Florence and the Machine, Jay-Z, The xx, will.i.am, Beyoncé, André 3000, Bryan Ferry, and many more. It is quite the crowd!
Del Rey said of her experience contributing to the project:
„It was an honor to work with Baz Lurhmann on his amazing adaptation of one of the most extraordinary books ever written. The movie is highly glamorous and exciting; Rick Nowels and I were thrilled to write the song for the film.”
Focused on decadence and love and triangles, this whole soundtrack transposes (I guess, I haven’t seen the) movie in a modern way of thinking, while keeping the 20s close. It is a mixture of hip hop and jazz and electronica and indie with slow ballads (performed by Sia and Lana Del Rey) and heartbreaking lyrics. Samples of lines from the actual movie can be heard as standalone tracks or at the beginning of some songs (ie: Jay-Z’s 100$ Bill). Florence & The Machine scores yet another song for a movie (after Heavy in Your Arms from The Twilight Saga: Eclipse and Breath of Life for Snow White and the Huntsman) and this time it takes baroque to a whole new level.
The Deluxe edition of the soundtrack includes:
100$ Bill by Jay-Z, with an intro spoken by Leo’s carachter, it is a classic rap song, nothing out of the ordinary for the music mogul. (7/10)
Back To Black by Beyonce & Andre 3000 is maybe the worst cover song on this soundtrack. Andre 3000 doesn’t manage to salvage this one, even with all his charisma. Beyonce’s vocals give me the impression she wants to be the black Lana Del Rey, but she has no chance to occupy that spot. (6/10)
Young And Beautiful sung by Lana Del Rey is another haunting piece by the wild songstress, chanting forever and ever the lyrics „Will you still love me when I’m no longer young and beautiful?”, echoing Daisy’s desperation. The orchestra brings out emotions hidden deep inside of you, and Lana’s voice, so soothing and shy, empowers you. (10/10)
Love Is Blindness covered by Jack White (originally by U2) has a rough sound, emphasized by White’s voice and guitars. I am glad that they didn’t chose this one as a lead single. (6/10)
Crazy in Love by the collective effort of Emeli Sande and The Bryan Ferry Orchestra is one of the best covers I’ve heard in years (this seems a little much, until you find out I kinda hate covers and remixes). Emeli Sande is one of the best female vocalists of 2012, and also a very good songwriter. With The Bryan Ferry Orchestra she manages to bring class (and also a lot of jazz) to Beyonce’s classic debut song. (10/10)
Bang Bang. I couldn’t believe that this song was performed by the actual will.i.am. He makes such bad music lately, it’s hard to believe it’s even him. If you want jazz and Louis Armstrong and (apparently) EDM and electropop, you came to the right song. It also preserves the vocabulary of a real life hip hopper, so +1 for being funny too. (9/10)
I Like Large Parties spoken by Elizabeth Debicki (who plays Jordan) is next aaaaaand… It’s gone. (in the true spirit of internet memes). I won’t rate this one.
A Little Party Never Killed Nobody (All We Got) made me mistake Fergie for a black fat dude. It has additional vocals by Q Tip & GoonRock. It has swing, hip-hop and dubstep, all in one, with Fergie’s powerhouse vocals. She’s so underused in The Black Eyed Peas! (9/10)
Love Is The Drug by Bryan Ferry with The Bryan Ferry Orchestra starts off like an old Sinatra song, but after a few notes you recognize Ferry’s unmistakeable vocals. I am an old fan of Roxy Music, but this version of the song, with its jazzy-jazz and bass and sleazy strings make „oohs” go „oooooooohs”. (10/10)
Can’t Repeat the Past? it’s a dialogue between Leo and Tobey Maguire (yes, Spidey is in this one!).
Hearts A Mess by the Belgian-Australian revelation of 2012, Gotye, is plain boring. Worst. Original. Song. On. The. Album. (1/10) sorry, I’ll +1 this, cause of the jazzy side of it. (2/10)
Where The Wind Blows by Coco O. of Quadron. Piano is strong with this one, but it seems quite repetitive and the voice of Coco O. is quite boring. So this song is not quite it needed to be. (2/10)
The Green Light. Dialogue, apparently.
No Church in the Wild by the Carter Army. Jay-Z and Kanye West featuring Frank Ocean and The-Dream. Best combo on the album (found only on the Deluxe edition). Frank Ocean’s emotion, with Jay-Z’s roughness and Kanye’s straighforwardness. Favorite lyrics? Kanye’s, of course. (11/10)
Coke on her black skin made a stripe like a zebra
I call that jungle fever
You will not control the threesome
Just roll the weed up until I get me some
We formed a new religion
No sins as long as there’s permission’
And deception is the only felony
So never f-ck nobody wit’out tellin’ me
Sunglasses and Advil
Last night was mad real
Sun comin’ up, 5 a.m.
I wonder if they got cabs still
Thinkin’ ’bout the girl in all-leopard
Who was rubbin’ the wood like Kiki Shepard
Two tattooes, one read “No Apologies”
The other said “Love is cursed by monogamy”
That’s somethin’ that the pastor don’t preach
That’s somethin’ that a teacher can’t teach
When we die, the money we can’t keep
But we prolly spend it all ’cause the pain ain’t cheap
Preach
Over The Love by Florence + The Machine and I am speachless. I don’t know where to begin explaining this song and I am pretty sure I don’t want to. It has such a power, fueled by Florence’s angelic voice, and it builds up constantly towards the end of the song, filled with book refferences. (10/10)
Together is an overhyped material by the legendary band The xx. I was expecting more from them, I’m guessing this is the „dark” side of the album, but I’m not seeing it. The paino saves it, though, only barely. (5/10)
Into the Past by Nero was the revelation of the album. At first, I confused Nero with Neo (a band that visited our country back in 2008, at the second edition of B’estfest). Slow-tempo and dubstep-ey, the song has an eerie feeling to it. It hears like it’s from the future, blending perfectly with what Lana and Florence and Sia do on this album. (9/10) (I am not very coherent with this one, because I don’t usually listen to this kind of music.)
Kill and Run by Sia wanted to bring more emotion and sensitivity to the album. After you get past by the combo of soothing voice and killing suggestions, you may like it. Or maybe not. For me, it was not. (6/10)
Over the Love (Of You) by Florence and the Machine and SBTRKT is a different take on the said song, remixed and given an electronic sound, but keeping the same rhythm as on the original. (8/10)
Young and Beautiful (DH Orchestral Version) by Lana Del Rey feels, at first, like a waste of time. With little differences applied to the beautiful original, it is a more string-ey version of the song. (9/10)
Gatsby Believed in the Green Light. Dialogue. Stupid dialogue.
For those of you who are keen on seeing the movie, listen to the soundtrack. For those of you who are Jay-Z fans, or Florence fans, or The xx fans, or Jack White fans, listen to the soundtrack. For those of you who love music, listen to the soundtrack.
It’s commercial and all that, but it’s also great.
Last night I checked one more concert for this year (not the last, people, I am not that shallow when it comes to music!).
I went to see Tarja Turunen (I think we can stop associating her with Nightwish) with the awesome Mike Terrana, a beast of a drummer with mad skillz (bro! I always wanted to say that).
While I never liked her with Nightwish (yeah, I’m biting my own tongue now, with association and stuff), I really enjoyed her last night. I found out she’s a funny person and very-very friendly with her fans, and not a diva (as they used to say).
Mike Terrana is a well known drummer (I won’t bother you with history, since that would be imposing from my part and we don’t want or need that) and I haven’t had the chance to „meet” him face to face until last night. I discovered a dude a year older than my mom, with energy to spare, and who could easily be the beauty in all that stuff that happened at Sala Palatului (I thought that because at first, Tarja wasn’t her full-blown awesome self and I was afraid that her recovery was still in progress).
Being a classical meets rock music type of concert, they also had an orchestra, with its director providing high quality comic relief.
The first part of the concert was bent on teaching people great classics (Carmen for life! and also Bach), with a mix of Tarja + orchestra / Mike + orchestra very well ballanced.
I really loved the blend that was Tarja and the orchestra – they felt like they were the same body, coming over you like a wave. This all happened during The Rain – this being the first song that really captured their unity.
At one point, Mike really-really wanted to siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing! But more on that, after the break.
The second part of the show came with a female director instead, who was a very graceful woman, leading a very Tarja-ey cover of Queen’s You Take My Breath Away.
The rendition for Witch Hunt, with the previous director and Mike, was absolutely grandiose, followed by a Led Zeppelin medley (really, really awesome!).
After some Looney Tunes music (as I call it, because I am a blasphemer when it comes to classical music), there was some I Could’ve Danced All Night (which I know from Glee, don’t hit me, please!) and also Mike, who sang some Sinatra, with Tarja on drums, because… Well, if he can do it, anyone can! (To quote Tarja).
After listening to Tarja’s version of I Feel Pretty and Mike’s approach on Mozart, we got to hear I Walk Alone, full power on, speakers blasting, hearts pumping, hearts on sleeve and all that.
I was a magical night, it gave me goosebumps and feeling and shivers down my spine. And if that’s not the sign of a good concert, then what is?
