Blogrophenia: The Reverend Aton's Site

And the Oscar should go to. . .

Now that I have seen and reviewed all of the flicks nominated for Best Picture I can give you the rundown on who should in fact win. Now note I am not prognosticating here, rather I am opining as to which movie I think is best. Here we go:

5. The Aviator -- Coming in at five we have Scorsese's best work in a while. Now again, this is a good movie, really good even, but it suffers from a few fatal flaws: Leo, while strong, is ultimately miscast, Blanchett occasionally goes over the top and Baldwin lives the whole movie way over the top. Also, the "he's going nuts" scenes go too long and kind ruin some momentum.

4. Finding Neverland -- Another really good movie, fun, interesting, historical and hearwarming but just up against some really tough competition this year. Not in league with the rest.

3. Ray -- Seriously awesome movie. Everything works here. The acting is monsterous, the sountrack/music works perfectly, well written and paced perfectly. Very insightful and right up there in my personal holy trinity of biopics along with Malcolm X and Ali, but again the competition this year is just brutal!!

2. Sideways -- This is just a bad bad break in moy opinion for the creators of this movie, because this is a truly outstanding movie!! This movie has it all: One of the best scripts in recent memory, some hilarious moments, some really thought provoking material, some really deep points and just an almost perfectly balanced movie. I think most other years this movie wins it all but hey dude what can you do?

1. Million Dollar Baby -- It's funny I went back and read my review of this movie (written shortly after seeing it) and it's actually almost kinda negative. Actually it is negative ("Anyway, go see this movie at your own peril. It's a pretty decent movie truth be told. But I am getting really sick of these super depressing over the top flicks. . ."). Also, it was the first of the five movies that I saw. Interestingly, though I choose it as the best of the lot. And no it's not because Hillary Swank is attractive but rather because as I've had some distance from it I've realized just how powerful a movie it really was. Look, I personally don't care for depressing movies, never have and I probably never will and Million Dollar Baby is certainly depressing. But, it's also interesting, and compelling and thought provoking and most of all it's powerful. A movie that really stays with you. For better AND for worse. . .

Enjoy the Oscars. . .

It's the eye of the tiger,
It's the thrill of the fight,
Moses

Movie Review: The Aviator

The Aviator is a good movie. A really good movie. But it's not great one.

The Aviator takes up the fascinating of billionaire/movie maker/aviation lover/mentally ill Howard Hughes. In general it does so deftly, with great cinematography, direction and some really good acting.

The story of Howard Hughes is so great because he is simply larger than life. He did things most will only dream of doing, he accomplished things in more than one field, he dated some of the greatest of American icons, he made billions and yet he wrestled with demons that most of us will never know and they took him to such exagerrated depths perhaps because he had the means to let them or perhaps just because everything about him was so overblown -- both his successes and his fears. . .

Leo DiCaprio is an excellent actor who has impressed me since the first time I saw him years ago in Gilbert Grape. He puts on a characteristically strong performance but I can't help thinking that he was somewhat miscast here. I think his castmate from the aforemention Gilbert Grape (and fellow Oscar nominee this year) Johnny Depp may have been a better choice. For as good as DiCaprio is, he lacked a certain edge that the role called for and that Depp is expert at providing.

Cate Blanchett is impressive as Kate Hepburn but occasionally goes overboard with the accent and sounds like Martin Short doing Hepburn. I feel for her though, that's a brutally tough one to pull off and she does so probably better than anyone this side of Hillary Swank could have. . .

Fordham graduate Alan Alda is terrific as the nefarious Sen. Owen Brewster but Alec Baldwin may as well be auditioning for the role of Montgomery Burns considering how over the top his performance is. . .

All in all The Aviator is a really good movie that entertains, takes you through a twenty year trip through a very interesting period in American history and does it rather effortlessly especially considering it's running time (a bit under 3 hours) that you never seem to feel.

Can't buy me love;
Money can't buy me love,
Moses

Dump your Bonds

Barry Bonds is completely insane, in a weird part Manson part Michael Jackson style interview/tirade/press conference Bonds seemed to argue that:

1. He never did steroids.
2. If he did that's ok because no one's perfect.
3. The media contiues to recycle stories.
4. Everyone of the 100 some odd media people in the room are liars.
5. This whole steroid thing is part racial.

Now I am not necessarily disagreeing with anything of the above (although I think some of the excuses/claims are sort of mutually exclusive the truth I can't rule out any of them for sure. . .) but i think the way in which he delivered his tirade was beyond odd. . .

For the record I don't much care if he did do roids or not. Having Tommy John surgery is even less natural that shooting roids. As for the ethics of it, I have to go Libertarian on this point, man it's his body and his life. . .

In my opinion, I would add though, it was pretty obvious that something was up with this guy when he suddenly bulked up at age 37ish and although he was always really really good he became inhumanely good all of a sudden right around then. . .

Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio;
A nation turns it's lonely eyes to you,
Moses

Giambi reported today, A-Rod yesterday, spring is here folks. I can't wait to get down to Florida. . .

Put me in coach;
I'm ready to play today;
Look at me;
I can be centerfield,
Moses

The Hunter becomes the Hunted

I was first introduced to Hunter S. Thompson when I was in college and I fell in love with him immediately. I still haven't ever gotten around to seeing the Depp movie, but I read the book and I enjoyed his ESPN column. Ultimately, I don't how he will be remembered, but my guess is: pop cultural oddity. That said his style anticipated the very blog you are reading right now. More on him in the future.

For now I'll simply remember the joy his work brought fondly and hope he finds the peace he appears to have never found here in the Afterlife. . .

Been dazed and confused for so long it's not true,
Moses

Geek Love

Probably about seven or so years ago, a book by the name of Geek Love was recommended to me. I never actually got around to reading it but I see it around in the bookstores occasionally and always think to myself that I should pick it up some time.

What brings it to mind today is really nothing about the book but rather the title as a concept. Perhaps better stated as not so much "geek love" but rather love of geeks. You see, I love geeks.
Not Bill Gates style proto nerd geeks, but rather geeks in the sense of people who get really really into things. Like say baseball geeks, music geeks, theatre geeks, fishing geeks, comic book geeks or whatever. People who know what they love and can and will obsess their chosen fixation.

Firstly, I find them humorous. There is something almost inherently funny about grown adults obsessing about most things especially trivial things like the above examples.

Secondly, I find them educational. I really enjoy talking to people who will tell me something I don't know. I like to learn about different things and someone who spends all their time doing whatever is usually a good person to learn from. My time with the geek was fruitful, that it wasn't just wasted time and often they have sort of given me a gift that I can take with me whether it's a nugget of information or an insight or whatever. . .

Thirdly, geeks tend to be trustworthy in the sense that you often know where they stand. You know what they are interested in. What is most important to them.

Fourth, geeks are easy to talk to. You know what they want to talk about.

Fifth, geeks tend to be happiest types because they have a "point in life". The have a passion and that something helps them achieve a meaningful existence. I think we all need something to live for, and it's the geeks who've really found their thing. . .

Sometimes I give myself the creeps,
Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me,
Moses

Shame upon Shame

Recently, a young woman by the name of Nicole DuFresne lost her life tragically when she was attacked and murdered by some hoodlums on the Lower East Side of Manahattan. She literally died in the arms of her fiancee. The 28 year old woman was an aspiring actress and playwright.

I didn't know her myself but I actually knew quite a few people who did know her. She seems to have been a very good person and I haven't heard an unkind word about .Her death was tragic and shouldn't have happened.

A picture of the late, young and very attractive, woman has appeared almost daily in NY Post ever since her death weeks ago.

Certainly, the story is rather sensational, "beautiful young woman dies in the arms of fiancee" will always garner headlines, but I wonder why it is in a BOROUGH that routinely hosts about 100 murders a year, that this story refuses to fade.

I think it is because of a few reasons, in this order:

1. She was white.
2. The accused murderer is black.
3. The story has some sensational aspects to it.
4. She was pretty.

I firmly believe that were this not a so called "black on white" crime and were she not an attractive woman that this story would have faded long ago.

However, the now openly racist and over the top NY Post, refuses to let this story go away. Sure other papers, The Daily News comes to mind, have featured this story almost as excessively, but as usual the NY Post takes the cake here.

This age old, demented and voyeuristic attraction/revulsion by Americans to things like miscegenation and any kind of interracial violence, bespeaks the sordid and tenuous race relations in this country. From Jack Johnson, to OJ Simpson, to Kobe Bryant, to T.O. and Nicolette Sheridan from Desperate Housewives. This country both cannot handle and is addicted the theatre of racial violence and general race relations.

What happened to that poor girl is a shame, the treatment of this story relative to that of the probably 100 or so some odd murders in Manhattan (much less all five bouroughs of NYC!) speaks of a societal shame that continues to fester in this country, flames fanned by the NY Post and it's ilk.

I read the news today,
Oh boy,
Moses

Movie Review: Sideways

Sideways is an outstanding movie that features a little of everything. It is the story of two middle aged who take a trip through California wine country. The two are close friends who have been buddies since their freshman year at San Diego State, but are two very different men with very different attitudes and problems.

Miles is an unsuccessful writer who has yet to get over his divorce of two years and seems stuck in the past. He is generally a self pitying misreble oaf who refuses to move on or to do anything to help himself. Jack is a hornball washed up has been TV actor, who has not only not lost his zest for life but actually seems thrilled to be alive. He has decided to finally take the big plunge and get married and he wants to really live it. Therein lies the tension between the two.

The movie has a certain Swingers like element to it, but these guys are probably about 15 years older than Favreau and Vaughn and hence the malaise over Miles has a much more ominous gravitas to it. The sense is that he may have wasted his whole life. However, Jack and the Vaughn are quite parallel with the chief difference being that while Vaughn was the epitome of Alpha male, Jack is somewhat pathetic in his refusal to grow up and his failure to commit at a somewhat advanced age.

The movie is funny, moving, thought provoking, excellently acted, well written, visually impressive with it's beautiful California scenary and ultimately a success on almost every cinematic level.

In many ways Sideways is the perfect movie.

This is not my beautiful life,
Moses

Stay tuned for my final preview of The Aviator which will complete my five part review of all of the movies nominated for Best Picture. . .

Movie Review: Ray

(Ray is no longer out in theatres but has been released on DVD, it is reviewed here as part of the five movie review of all the pictures nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture, so far Million Dollar Baby and Finding Neverland have been reviewed, The Aviator and Sideways will be reviewed soon)

I enjoy biopics. They are almost always educational and usually interesting. Two of my favorites are Ali and Malcom X. Ray is right there with both them and may actually be better. Like those two movies race in America figures very prominently in Ray, but it is far from being the only theme explored in the movie.

Ray is an epic that explores the psyche of Ray Charles while telling the incredible story of a blind black man who makes it from the cruel racist South of the 1940-50's to the top of the world in both music and business. Jamie Foxx's (coming off his also stellar performance in Collateral opposite the great Tom Cruise) stunningly uncanny impression of Charles is what the viewer is taken with immediately. As excellent a job as Will Smith and Denzel did playing Ali and Malcolm, respectively, neither performance holds a candle to that of Foxx. But, again the movie is so much more than a two hour and change Ray Charles impersonation. The movie weaves in and out of the childhood and early life of Charles.

His various childhood traumas are slowly revealed while their haunting effect on the young man that Charles has become is also portrayed. Slowly the viewer comes to learn about Charles, his terrible loss as a child, his relationship with his poor, but tough and smart, mother and most all his struggles, as a black man, a blind man and just as a person.

But just as you begin to really admire the man, the movie begins to show you his shortcomings: the drugs, the womanizing and even the disloyalty he shows to some friends, but most of all you are disappointed with the way he often treats his family.

Of course, the movie is replete with all kinds of music, the soundtrack is more than just filler and mood music. It is incorporated into the movie so perfectly and seemlessly that it flows as naturally throughout the movie as it did from the great Ray Charles himself. One scene in particular is magnificant in combining a fight between Ray and his mistress and the creative process as it shows how a song can be born. Another scene showcases Ray deciding on the spot that he won't play the segregated Georgia, in one of the most important stands of the 2oth century. . .

Ray Charles was an incredible musician and an even more amazing man. He overcame so much to reach seemingly impossible heights, it is that struggle that the movie captures. Perhaps, that's why the movie seems so complete despite ending about 35 years before his death, except for one brief scene that takes place in 1979.

In the end Ray was a giant who like the rest of us had his flaws. . .

Excellent movie.

Tell your momma,
tell your pa,
Gonna move you back to Arkansas.
All right, baby what'd I say?
Whoa, all right, baby what'd I say?,
Moses

The word of the day presented via www.m-w.com , I think it might come in handy nowadays enjoy friends. . .

The Word of the Day is:

jingoism \JING-goh-iz-um\ noun
: extreme chauvinism or nationalism marked especially by a belligerent foreign policy

Example sentence: Albert Einstein found German jingoism in the 1930s so objectionable that he left his homeland never to return.Did you know? "Jingoism" originated during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, when many British citizens were hostile toward Russia and felt Britain should intervene in the conflict. Supporters of the cause expressed their sentiments in a music-hall ditty with this refrain: We don't want to fight, yet by jingo if we do, We've got the ships, we've got the men, We've got the money, too!"Someone holding the attitude implied in the song became known as a "jingo" or "jingoist," and the attitude itself was dubbed "jingoism." The "jingo" in the tune is probably a euphemism for "Jesus."

Ash Wednesday

Today is Ash Wednesday and the beginning of the Lenten season. For more on Ash Wednesday vsit this site: http://www.cin.org/users/james/files/ash_wed.htm

Can you take me higher?;
To the place where blind men see,
Moses

Another Way to Fight Terror

Despite what Bush and his minions would have you believe there is another way to fight terrorism besides the savage, brute force, the bullshit "we gotta find theWMD. . . er. . . it's about liberation" excuses, ulitmately creating MORE terrorism method. It's called education and reason:


Koranic duels ease terror
Sun Feb 6,10:20 AM ET
In Yemen, a theological contest cools Al Qaeda hotbed.
By James Brandon, Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor
SANAA, YEMEN - When Judge Hamoud al-Hitar announced that he and four other Islamic scholars would challenge Yemen's Al Qaeda prisoners to a theological contest, Western antiterrorism experts warned that this high-stakes gamble would end in disaster.
Nervous as he faced five captured, yet defiant, Al Qaeda members in a Sanaa prison, Judge Hitar was inclined to agree. But banishing his doubts, the youthful cleric threw down the gauntlet, in the hope of bringing peace to his troubled homeland.
"If you can convince us that your ideas are justified by the Koran, then we will join you in your struggle," Hitar told the militants. "But if we succeed in convincing you of our ideas, then you must agree to renounce violence."
The prisoners eagerly agreed.
Now, two years later, not only have those prisoners been released, but a relative peace reigns in Yemen. And the same Western experts who doubted this experiment are courting Hitar, eager to hear how his "theological dialogues" with captured Islamic militants have helped pacify this wild and mountainous country, previously seen by the US as a failed state, like Iraq (news - web sites) and Afghanistan (news - web sites).
"Since December 2002, when the first round of the dialogues ended, there have been no terrorist attacks here, even though many people thought that Yemen would become terror's capital," says Hitar, eyes glinting shrewdly from beneath his emerald-green turban. "Three hundred and sixty-four young men have been released after going through the dialogues and none of these have left Yemen to fight anywhere else."
"Yemen's strategy has been unconventional certainly, but it has achieved results that we could never have hoped for," says one European diplomat, who did not want to be named. "Yemen has gone from being a potential enemy to becoming an indispensable ally in the war on terror."
To be sure, the prisoner-release program is not solely responsible for the absence of attacks in Yemen. The government has undertaken a range of measures to combat terrorism from closing down extreme madrassahs, the Islamic schools sometimes accused of breeding hate, to deporting foreign militants.
Eager to spread the news of his success, Hitar welcomes foreigners into his home, fussing over them and pouring endless cups of tea. But beyond the otherwise nondescript house, a sense of menace lurks. Two military jeeps are parked outside, and soldiers peer through the gathering dark at passing cars. The evening wind sweeps through the unpaved streets, lifting clouds of dust and whipping up men's jackets to expose belts hung with daggers, pistols, and mobile telephones.
Seated amid stacks of Korans and religious texts, Hitar explains that his system is simple. He invites militants to use the Koran to justify attacks on innocent civilians and when they cannot, he shows them numerous passages commanding Muslims not to attack civilians, to respect other religions, and fight only in self-defense.
For example, he quotes: "Whoever kills a soul, unless for a soul, or for corruption done in the land - it is as if he had slain all mankind entirely. And, whoever saves one, it is as if he had saved mankind entirely." He uses the passage to bolster his argument against bombing Western targets in Yemen - attacks he says defy the Koran. And, he says, the Koran says under no circumstances should women and children be killed.
If, after weeks of debate, the prisoners renounce violence they are released and offered vocational training courses and help to find jobs.
Hitar's belief that hardened militants trained by Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) in Afghanistan could change their stripes was initially dismissed by US diplomats in Sanaa as dangerously naive, but the methods of the scholarly cleric have little in common with the other methods of fighting extremism. Instead of lecturing or threatening the battle-hardened militants, he listens to them.
"An important part of the dialogue is mutual respect," says Hitar. "Along with acknowledging freedom of expression, intellect and opinion, you must listen and show interest in what the other party is saying."
Only after winning the militants' trust does Hitar gradually begin to correct their beliefs. He says that most militants are ordinary people who have been led astray. Just as they were taught Al Qaeda's doctrines, he says, so too can they be taught more- moderate ideas. "If you study terrorism in the world, you will see that it has an intellectual theory behind it," says Hitar. "And any kind of intellectual idea can be defeated by intellect."
The program's success surprised even Hitar. For years Yemen was synonymous with violent Islamic extremism. The ancestral homeland of Mr. bin Laden, it provided two-thirds of recruits for his Afghan camps, and was notorious for kidnappings of foreigners and the bombing of the American warship USS Cole (news - web sites) in 2000 that killed 17 sailors. Resisting US pressure, Yemen declined to meet violence with violence.
"It's only logical to tackle these people through their brains and heart," says Faris Sanabani, a former adviser to President Abdullah Saleh and editor-in-chief of the Yemen Observer, a weekly English-language newspaper. "If you beat these people up they become more stubborn. If you hit them, they will enjoy the pain and find something good in it - it is a part of their ideology. Instead, what we must do is erase what they have been taught and explain to them that terrorism will only harm Yemenis' jobs and prospects. Once they understand this they become fighters for freedom and democracy, and fighters for the true Islam," he says.
Some freed militants were so transformed that they led the army to hidden weapons caches and offered the Yemeni security services advice on tackling Islamic militancy. A spectacular success came in 2002 when Abu Ali al Harithi, Al Qaeda's top commander in Yemen, was assassinated by a US air-strike following a tip-off from one of Hitar's reformed militants.
Yet despite the apparent success in Yemen, some US diplomats have criticized it for apparently letting Islamic militants off the hook with little guarantee that they won't revert to their old ways once released from prison.
Yemen, however, argues that holding and punishing all militants would create only further discontent, pointing out that the actual perpetrators of attacks have all been prosecuted, with the bombers of the USS Cole and the French oil tanker, the SS Limburg. All received death sentences.
"Yemeni goals are long-term political aims whereas the American agenda focuses on short-term prosecution of military or law enforcement objectives," wrote Charles Schmitz, a specialist in Yemeni affairs, in 2004 report for the Jamestown Foundation, an influential US think tank.
"These goals are not necessarily contradictory, with each government recognizing that compromises and accommodations must be made, but their ambiguities create tense moments."
Some members of the Yemeni government also hanker for a more iron-fisted approach, and Yemen remains on high alert for further attacks. Fighter planes regularly swoop low over the ancient mud-brick city of Sanaa to send a clear message to any would-be militants.
An additional cause of friction with the US is that while Yemen successfully discourages attacks within its borders on the grounds that tourism and trade will suffer, it has done little to tackle anti-Western sentiment or the corruption, poverty, and lack of opportunity that fuels Islamic militancy.
"Yemen still faces serious challenges, but despite the odd hiccup, we sometimes have to admit that Yemenis know Yemen best," says the European diplomat. "And if their system works, who are we to complain?"
As the relative success of Yemen's unusual approach becomes apparent, Hitar has been invited to speak to antiterrorism specialists at London's New Scotland Yard, as well as to French and German police, hoping to defuse growing militancy among Muslim immigrants.
US diplomats have also approached the cleric to see if his methods can be applied in Iraq, says Hitar.
"Before the dialogues began, there was only one way to fight terrorism, and that was through force," he says. "Now there is another way: dialogue."

All we are saying is give peace a chance,
Moses

Mardi Gras!!!!!!!!!

Today is Mardi Gras. Fat Tuesday. Most people know of Mardi Gras as the raucous New Orleans party but in fact there is much more to it, consider:

Considering the raucous nature of Mardi Gras, you might be surprised to learn that the festival has religious roots. Festivities start in New Orleans each year on January 6, the Twelfth Night feast of the Epiphany -- the day, tradition has it, that the three kings first visited Jesus Christ. Mardi Gras, French for Fat Tuesday, is the day-long highlight of the season. While Mardi Gras most certainly has pagan, pre-Christian origins, the Roman Catholic Church legitimized the festival as a brief celebration before the penitential season of Lent. Mardi Gras Day, a legal holiday in New Orleans, is set to occur 46 days (the 40 days of Lent plus six Sundays) before Easter and can come as early as February 3 or as late as March 9.
Mardi Gras is not new. There is evidence that it was being celebrated in New Orleans as early as the 18th century. Mardi Gras was first mentioned in North America in 1699 in the writings of French explorer Pierre le Moyne, Sieur d'Iberville, who camped on the Mississippi River about 50 miles south of the present location of New Orleans. Knowing that the date, March 3, was being celebrated as a holiday in his native France, he christened the site Point du Mardi Gras.
During the next century, the celebration of Mardi Gras included private masked balls and random street maskings in the cities of Mobile, Alabama and New Orleans. By the 1820s, maskers on foot and in decorated carriages began to appear on Fat Tuesday, and in 1837 the first documented procession in New Orleans occurred, but it bore no resemblance to today's carnival.

Enjoy your day and don't forget that tomorrow is Ash Wednesday. . .

I believe in the kingdom come;
Then all the colors will bleed into one;
Bleed into one;
Well yes I'm still running,
Moses

source: http://people.howstuffworks.com/mardi-gras1.htm

The great Max Schmelling has passed, in addition to his being a great boxer he was also a very great man, consider:

Although he had lunched with Hitler and had long discussions with his propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, Schmeling angered the Nazi bosses in 1935 by refusing to join the Nazi party, fire his Jewish-American manager, Joe Jacobs, and divorce Ondra, a Czech-born film star.
During the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Schmeling extracted a promise from Hitler that all U.S. athletes would be protected. He hid two Jewish boys in his Berlin apartment during Kristallnacht (the night of broken glass) in 1938, when the Nazis burned books in a central square and rampaged through the city, setting synagogues on fire. He reportedly used his influence to save Jewish friends from concentration camps.

I don't need to fight to prove I'm right,
and I don't need to be forgiven,
Moses

Sports Notes (Nothing here on the State of the Union, I didn't watch it! and as for Howard Dean. . .well. . . no comment for now. . .)

Feelin' So Sosa Good In Baltimore

Orioles fans should be excited about the pickup of Slammin Sammy Sosa. The team is going no where fast in the formidable AL East with their pitching and they have a new local NL rival. A marquee bat is the perfect balm for what ails them. Sammy's semi historic run towards 600 will provide some excitement in Baltimore and start filling those seats again in Camden Yards.

If you haven't been down there to Camden Yards yet shame on you. Camden Yards is a beautiful retro park (the original!!) complete with Boog Powell's BBQ in right field, excellent sightlines (not a bad seat in the house) and is located right there in Baltimore's fun and scenic Inner Harbor. I wouldn't want to live there, but it's certainly a great place to spend a day. For a fun day go down to Baltimore and take in a game at Camden Yards. Maybe Sammy will even jack one for you.

NHL

Is it time to accept the fact that the NHL as we know it may be done forever?

Arena Football. . . and that NY NBA team

Blue and I considering hitting the NY Dragons Arena football opener this Superbowl Sunday. I watched a little arena football last Sunday and I must say that it's quite fun. I think one team outscored the Knicks in their most recent pitiful game against Detroit. Anyway, even if we don't go this Sunday we will go eventually. Mark my words: Arena football is here to stay. . . Speaking of the Knicks I am not ready to give on Isiah OR Starbury as Angry Z recently suggested that I do on my "exclusive invite only sports discussion" thread. However, I should note that I am claiming the Miami Heat as my team so what does it matter? Do you realize that the KNicks won only TWO games in January???? TWO??? GO HEAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Superbowl XXXIX

So I am sure that you like everyone else are sick of hearing about T.O. and whether or not he's going to play. I think that he is going to play (he has said that he will) and that he may actually do well. My opinion is that he should play as this is what you play and you never know when, if ever, you'll ever get back here.

My prediction is that the Pats will win, but I hope that I am wrong and will root root rooting for the Eagles. . .

Go Philly!!!
I saw my reflection in a window,
I didn’t knowMy own face,
Oh brother are you gonna leave me,
Wastin´away,
On the streets of Philadelphia,
Moses

Theatre Review: Good Vibrations

As I have written on this blog before, including as recently as earlier this week, I don’t think that the Beach Boys get the love they deserve. Of the many theories posited for this conspicous lack of popular acclaim, I am mostly of the mind that they are not taken seriously because of their their lack of perceived “depth”. The best comparison is the one between them and the Beatles who are generally considered both by the critics and by fans to be the greatest band ever. If it’s worth anything the Beatles (and Keith Moon of the Who) themselves were great Beach Boys fans. While the Beatles were going from “I wanna hold your hand” to lines like “no one I think is in my tree” and the more bombastic and seemingly almost ecclesiastical “all you need is love” the Beach Boys always seemed to be singing about “surfin”, girls, cars and literally “fun, fun, fun”. I think that the seemingly specious lyrics have served to blur the true genius of Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys.

For me it is Wilson's musical genius particularly with chord structure (and interesting chords his eschews the standard C's G's and A's in favor of much more interesting chords -- that I know from experience are much tougher to play) and melody, his generally happy and positive themes that I love so much. But it's critical that these things not overshadow the third part of the triad of the true brilliance of the Beach Boys: the feeling. The emotional depth, vulnerability and honesty that isn't really available anywhere except in the work of Wilson (and Bob Dylan to be fair) to this extent. One of the highlights of my relatively expansive concert going experience was seeing what’s left of the Beach Boys last year around this time at Gulfstream Track in South Florida.

So it was with great anticipation that I attended the final preview before the opening night, courtesy of a good friend of mine who's in the business, of Good Vibrations. I was not disappointed.

I recently told someone about the movie “The Life Aquatic” that although I liked it I wouldn’t recommend to anyone because I felt that I liked it for sort of unique personal reasons that I couldn’t imagine would generally translate to other people. While I certainly wouldn’t go that far about Good Vibrations I do have a few caveats.

If you consider theatre some sort of holy shrine that is desecrated by musical theatre don’t bother. If you are looking for a compelling book to go with the incredible music don’t bother seeing this show (and incidentally I don't know where to refer you to at all quite frankly). And in general if you are snobby and hypercritical then just sit home and watch The English Patient and The Hours again.

But if you are a normal human being who likes good music and a lot of fun then GO SEE THIS SHOW because it’s a blast. There are beautiful women in bikinis singing some great tunes (and according to my sister, Yolanda Aton, who I took along with me: some good looking guys too).

They do all the standards that you’d expect of the Beach Boys: 'Fun, Fun, Fun', 'Wouldn’t it be Nice', 'Surfin USA', the eponymous -- at least in my sister's mind -- 'Help Me Yolanda' and of course 'Good Vibrations' (which is recovering nicely from Sunkist).

Lead gal Kate Reinders is as talented as she is cute and, my friend, Tituss Burgess is absolutely incredible. Keep your eye on this guy he’s a rising star. Other than that the cast is replete with blond nubile nymphs in bikinis worthy of Hillary Swank status and beyond. Yes indeed, gents and you all know how I feel about her lately. . .

If there is any problem with the show it’s that the book could be better, but show me a musical that doesn’t have that problem and I’ll show a day that Blue Trash wasn’t rooting for the Mets (the day Kazmir was traded in case you were wondering – yes it’s true). Anyway I also thought the choreography was a little dicey in the first act. And while I am nitpicking, and I really am --Yolanda and I had blast, I think the writer is an idiot if he thinks anyone in NY, myself included has any interest in seeing a musical about the Red Sox, which it says in the playbook that he is working on. Come on guy!!

Ultimately I think it’s a fun show that’s worth seeing. It’s good music performed well and just old fashioned fun with a Grease like plot line. Great date idea too.

And wouldn't it be nice to live together,
In the kind of world where we belong?,
Moses

Opens tonight!!

My advice to a sad friend in an e-mail today:

be disciplined, have goals, write out your goals and work to achieve them,
do unto to others as you would have done to you, forgive yourself and others
and never stop believing in your dreams, your friends, your family, your God
and yourself. . .

We All Shine On,
Moses

As Always Depp's Trip to Neverland Brilliant
Being a Completely Unpretentious Review

As always Johnny Depp delivers a brilliant performance as playwright J.M. Barrie, the wonderfully playful thoughtful and kind creator of Peter Pan. The story begins with Barrie already an established writer who is growing increasingly frustrated with his work. When he meets this foxed out widow played by Kate "I'm a piece but I am not quite the piece that Hillary Swank is" Blanchett, er I mean Winslett he starts neglecting his kinda hot wife played by some actress I don't know. And there is a lot of tension there and anyways, so he ends up loving the kids (who are damn cute and really good actors) and writing Peter Pan and then some sad shit happens and it is kind of a bummer but it's all still basically happy and totally on the hopeful tip. Cool movie Depp rocked, the kids were cute and good and the chicks were all pretty hot. You leave the movie feeling good. I dug it.

All in all, Million Dollar Baby gets the Oscar nod so far for Best Picture, in my humble opinion, between these two but I still need to see Aviator, Sideways and Ray. . .

Oh yeah and Hillary Swank is hot. . .

Do you know how to play Hide and Seek?
To find me, it would take you a week!,
Moses

Top Five WORST Covers of All Time

Well since yesterday's list garnered such a positive response I decided to follow it up with a list of the five worst covers. I don't like to be negative and I am the type of music fan who is more impressed with people who can appreciate music as opposed to people who can tell why everything is bad. Plus I like to actually look for the good in things. Therefore because of that this list is compromised of only five songs that are in fact beyond any sort of redemption. Ladies and germs without further ado I present, the worst covers:

5. Ben Harper Strawberry Fields -- The I am Sam soundtrack is full of tragic attempts to cover the Beatles but perhaps the low point is Ben Harper's attempt to cover Lennon's deeply personal (see #1 below) Strawberry Fields. Harper is supremely talented but this song just doesn't need to be covered at all -- much less "funked up". . . Ugh. . .

4. Sheryl Crow Behind Blue Eyes-- With a few rare exceptions (see Bowie below) I think it's a really bad idea to cover the Who just like the Beatles. You're not going to make it sound any better than Pete, Roger John and Keith could. Add to this that Crow is a low on talent hack and you get what you'd expect. A piece of crap that is not only a complete sonic failure but there such a mismatch between the song's content and everything about Crow that it's comical. . .

3. David Bowie God Only Knows -- Bowie is great. I love Bowie and in fact were it not so obscure I would have included his cover of Pictures of Lily in my top ten list (btw it's excellent!). But this cover of the Beach Boys just bombs miserably. It's a beautiful song that the Beach Boys pull off with characteristic aplomb. Bowie just makes it sound creepy, weird and bad.

2. Britney Spears Satisfaction -- What was she thinking? A slowed version of this rock and roll classic by pop tart Brtiney was just what the world needed. .. This ridiculously bad cover follows Britney's two songs after Oops I did it again on the album. Oops indeed Britany. . . stick to what you do best which is essentially: look good. . .

1. Michael Jackson Come Together Not only does this bomb fail sonically with Michael's annoying vocals and the drum machine on what is a beat that just needs to have feeling but perhaps even more importantly just as with #5 above this a deeply personal song that just shouldn't be sung by anyone but John. Come on Michael how could possibly infuse the lyrics "Ono sideboard" with anything but weirdness? Look I actually like Jacko (as an artist, I specifically express no opinion as to his personal life) but this song is just an abject failure and should never have been recorded, sung or even thought. . .