Happy Native American Massacre Day! (Thanksgiving)

Yeah, turkey day! Gobble, gobble, gobble! Macys Parade! Lets all gather around the table and give thanks before shoving our faces with food ’til our stomachs explode! Yay!

In reality we…. well you–’cause I’m not–are celebrating the bloody massacre of hundreds of Native Americans at the hands of the evil Pilgrims! Yay!

Don’t believe me? Here’s my pre-teen eternal crush Wednesday Adams, as embodied by the amazing Christina Ricci (how I hated David Krumholtz for he got to kiss her in the movie!), explaining it all in harrowing details and staging a rightful revenge fantasy.

Take that Pilgrims!

Hands down my favorite scene/sequence in the movie, which is a complete American classic.

Turkey Day!

Yeah you think is all fun and games and eat ’til you drop dead…..until you realize that dropping dead could actually be in your future if you aren’t careful ’cause here it comes………..THANKSGIVING!

White meat! Dark meat! All will be carved!

The Classics: Remy Shand’s “The Way I Feel” and the Strange Case of His Arrival and Disappearance.

THE ALBUM:

Released on March of 2002, Remy Shand’s debut album The Way I Feel announced the arrival of a much-needed fresh talent on the field of neo-soul, and r&b, with shades of hip-hop, and old school Motown.  The critics wasted no time on praising the record and rightfully comparing him to Titans of the field like Maxwell, the legendary Marvin Gaye, and even his purple highness Prince.

You can most definitely hear Prince’s influence through out every one of the 11 songs inside The Way I Feel and yet, nothing reeks of desperate aping or “poor man’s version of” thoughts.  The Way I Feel manages to sounds both: old and new, even innovative; stylish while sounding minimal, funky while remaining smooth, and it keeps revealing new layers upon multiple listenings much in the same way Amy Winehouse’s  (magnificent) Back To Black reignited classic soul with a fresh, contemporary spin that people are still trying to imitate 3 years later.

Remy, like Prince before him (not comparing them is right down futile) wrote, composed, mixed, and played every instrument in The Way I Feel.  His singing matches the falsetto liberating yelps of both: Prince and Maxwell, though not as sexually raw as Prince but just as sensual and full of yearning.  The whole album is nothing but the hard-working pay off of someone who’s spent several years honing his skills and was at last letting the world know just how good he was.  There’s not one misstep through out, nothing but self-assurance without sounding cocky, recalling Lauryn Hill’s stunning solo debut The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill, which was also (not coincidentally) self-produced.

Even the Grammys couldn’t help but take notice, giving the album 4 nominations: Best R&B Male Vocal, Best Traditional R&B Vocal, Best R&B Song, Best R&B Album.  Two of those noms were for “Take A Message” which is the centerpiece of the album and one hot slice of vocal harmonies, smooth instrumentation and the cachiest thing on the album; sounding familiar and excitingly new all at once, which is the axis of all great singles.

Of course, the biggest shocker of the whole deal is the glaring fact that Remy Shand was a white boy from Canada.  How on earth did he managed to pull this off and schooled more traditional r&b crooners from the States? It shouldn’t be possible but that’s exactly what he did.  Proving that music-no matter genre-doesn’t have a color or background or nationality; you don’t even have to had grown up around a church or a ‘hood in Atlanta, Philly, Harlem or Queens either.  All you need is passion and have the music within you.  7 years after its release, The Way I Feel only gets better with age.  Grade: A

 

THE MYSTERY:

Remy Shand, like Lauryn Hill before him, is another example that you never know what curve-ball life is going to throw at you when you least expect it, and how sudden critical praise and fame can be a double edge sword.

He was supposed to have been working on a follow-up to The Way I Feel entitled A Day In The Shade but nothing has ever come to light.  There are reports that his record company was giving him trouble and that Remy himself finished the album and threw it out twice because he ended up changing his mind about the finished product.

There’s also tons of reports that he had been caught up in a nasty divorce with his ex-wife for years and that he even posted or directed fans through a message board, to the court papers so that people could see what he had been going through.

Then there’s the reports that his sudden rise to fame was just too much for him and he retrieved back into darkness unable to rise to the challenge of topping The Way I Feel.

The truth of course is out there, and who knows if we would ever know the actual facts or if Remy would ever come back.  It would certainly be a shame because he’s so talented, but we also have to remember he’s not the first nor will he be the last great musician to come up and sweep us off our feet with a stunning debut only to disappear forever.

Whatever the future holds for him, wherever he may be, we the fans will continue to patiently hold out for his return.

Video of the Week: Jay Z and Alicia Key’s “Empire State of Mind”

I have held back on putting this on here trying to tone down the “I Love NY” sickness, but after their showstopping performance last night during the American Music Awards, my love for this song grew by like 200%.

I mean c’mon! There’s nothing you can’t do! You’ll feel great! Those lights will truly inspire you!

Enjoy both videos:

X-Factor’s John & Edward week 7: Wham!

Somehow they were given the perfect song. Looking like a pair of bubblegum sticks and singing an 80s bubblegum song, John and Edward channeled Wham! to fun, upbeat results while delivering still controversial? messages about choosing life.

Their singing was definitely more in tune than previously and they seem to be managing to take on the choreography a bit more effortless, and that’s where it’s sort of waning down for me.  The fun of watching them was because of their mistakes, their off-key singing, which somehow made them go out and try things a bit more in your face and with complete abandon, now they are sort of “safe”, domesticated even.

Postcards: Angry Hello Kitty

I was fighting making my way through Times Square when I spotted this old Asian lady dressed as a Hello Kitty just outside the giant M&M store (I love that place!) and I promptly walked over to her to take a picture ’cause I have this friend of mine who’s obsess with Hello Kitty shit stuff.

Hello Kitty or Nasty Kitty? Oh but she looked soo cute! Hahaha.

Wouldn’t you know? The woman got angry at me for asking for a picture and muttered something in her language, probably a cuss word, and gave me the cold shoulder and refuse to give me her face side, moving around to avoid me getting the picture.  Apparently she was on her break and I was interrupting her phone call (she was on her cell)…….. bitch.

If she wanted privacy, she shouldn’t be dressed like that in the middle of Time Square.

Quality Assessment: Dennis Lehane’s “Shutter Island”

I finished reading this a few days ago.  It only took me 5 days which is a new record.

I’m not a follower of Dennis Lehane.  This is actually my first book of his. Previously I’ve only known of his work through the movie adaptations of Mystic River (great drama, but how I hated the ending) and Gone, Baby Gone (Ben Affleck did a superb job directing and his brother acting in it).  So as soon as the trailer for Marty S (fourth go-round with Leo DiCaprio) adaptation of Shutter Island hit, I made a point of reading the book beforehand.  I almost didn’t make it because the movie was supposed to come out this past September and I thought I would run out of time, but as infuriating as it was when it was pushed to February, I was glad I had now the chance to get to it.

Though I’m not going to spoil any plot details here, I have to say that I figure out the story’s secret pretty quickly, in fact, Mr. Lehane sort of gives it away himself on the first 4 pages of the book, which I thought was a sort of unconscious sabotage to his own story.  It isn’t implicit, but if you’re a reader worth your salt, you’ll catch it.  Even the back summary hints at it. Seriously.

If you’ve seen the trailer of the movie or know some of the details then you know it concerns two marshals arriving at Shutter Island: a mental institution for the criminally insane, to investigate the missing of one of the patients/inmates.  How this patient managed to escape when technically it all points to it being impossible is the central mystery of the story.  Of course that’s really only half the story.  There’s a hurricane approaching, there are rumors of scientific experiments being done and tested on the patients that violate several laws, and there’s also the ulterior motives that have brought our main character Teddy Daniels to the island.

Except for the fact that he hints at the secret way too early, Mr. Lehane does a very good job of keeping the story moving at a very fast pace yet it flows very smoothly, and he keeps building anticipation and intrigue by two notches every handful of pages until it all comes to a head, though by then the secret is quite obvious and you’re just eager to see how it all ends.

Through out the novel, I couldn’t stop hearing or visualizing in my head Leo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo as the marshals, thanks to the trailer of the movie.  Am I more or less excited to see the film now that I’ve read the book? Definitely more. By the trailer I can tell that some stuff have been altered from the book but it all seems pretty faithful for the most part.

In closing, the novel is fun; it is definitely a good read though nothing life-changing or unforgettable. Just a very good, entertaining thriller.  I would definitely recommend to read the book before the movie for I think it would make the movie work much better.  Grade: B+

(Incoming) January: Dumping Ground for Bad Movies or Hollywood’s New Home For Hits?

Something rather strange happened a few weeks ago when I saw The Box–which I still think is a very creepy, interesting, solid movie no matter how many people supposedly hated it. Hopefully it would find its audience on DVD.  But I digress….

After 15 minutes of preview after preview one thing glaringly stood out to me (and those around me, as it turned out): all the upcoming movies we saw previews for were coming out in…..January?

January is notorious for being the month where Hollywood dumps really bad movies; where movies are sent to die in the stupor suffered after too much stuffed turkey, eggnog and God knows what else you pigged on during the Holiday season; all you know is that your belly’s staring angrily at you in the mirror.  So you try to forget about your weight by sitting in the dark and numb yourself with some bad movies: usually some awful horror or despicable rom-com, until you regain your fighting spirit in February.

By the looks of those trailers and the schedule, January suddenly looks crowded.  Of course, the entertainment value of these films is questionable but nevertheless, it seems that Hollywood is aiming for some serious revenue or at least another Paul Bart: Mall Cop crappy movie hit, or another rare good one that becomes a major hit ala  Grand Torino.

Here’s the list of would-be runaway January hits.  Most of them are obviously “January” movies and others…. have to be seen to know if they actually have any value:

Leap Year, with Amy Adams as the de facto January rom-com. Sappy.

Daybreakers, with Willem Dafoe and Ethan Hawke as the horror and even worse? About vampires…YET AGAIN!

Youth In Revolt, with Michael Cera as the awkward, nerdy teen who comes of age.  This type of movie has really become a genre onto itself in the past years, it’s like the new “vampires” really.  Michael Cera and Jesse Eisemberg are really neck to neck on who’s the king of this.

When In Rome.  The less said about this the better. Next!

The Spy Next Door as this year’s Paul Blart.  Jackie Chan what has happened to you? Seriously?! I didn’t even like this when it was released a few years ago as The Pacifier with Vin Diesel.

Tooth Fairy as….. another Paul Blart? I know he can do comedy pretty well but can someone please rescue the Rock from Disney’s evil grasp?!!  And shouldn’t this movie be release like in March? April? I’m telling you, January is hot, hot, hot!

Legion: if vampires aren’t your thing no matter how *in* they are right now, then maybe angels will do the trick?  This is the red-band extended trailer. I really like Paul Bettany, he’s such a good actor even in crappy movies.  Shame on you Hollywood for not using him better.

The Book of Eli, as the mash-up you have to see. Denzel Washington’s very own I Am Legend+Resident Evil+MadMax and it comes out in January? Now this is strange.  Maybe is more Babylon A.D than I Am Legend.

Extraordinary Measures, with Harrison Ford and Brendan Fraser. I don’t know why but this actually looks decent to me even though you know it’s probably directed in the most calculated way to pull at your heartstrings.  Thankfully I have none.

Edge Of Darkness, with Mel Gibson looks very gritty and perhaps excellent. This is clearly aimed at all the people who saw Grand Torino last year but unlike that movie, there’s no “funny, politically-incorrect, grumpy old man” here so I doubt it will make that type of business.  Plus Mel Gibson is a creep.

Neko Case: Live at the Beacon Theatre NYC 16-Nov-09

Last night–believe it or not–was my first time ever witnessing the sheer power and beauty of Neko Case in concert and she was fucking amazing!

I was up in the balcony so yes, the pics look far.

 

Show opener Calexico (a mainly two-man band, were joined at times by members of Neko’s band) was very, very good. Vocalists Joey Burns has a very clear, very expressive and quite powerful voice, and thanks to the excellent sound system inside the Beacon Theatre, he projected that voice up the three floors of the theater til it hit the roof and came back down.  At times he sounded a bit like Rufus Wainwright but I gotta say, he was a pretty convincing male version of Neko’s voice.  Calexico’s brand of Americana, alt-rock and a bit of Tex-mex is most definitely something I would recommend anyone to check out.  I didn’t know of them ’til last night but I’m officially a fan.

After a roughly 30 minutes break, Neko and her band took the stage.  She looked gorgeous on a bright red dress that she joked about several times.  Someone yelled: “I love you more!” and she asked if she’d been called a “whore.”  Of the dress, she said she founded at Cougars-R-Us before saying it had been a shopping mall in Boston.  She also said she felt like talking to her daughter about maxi-pads when she got dressed before hitting the stage, and that though she wasn’t a cougar (promise) she prefered “puma.”

The set was awesome: she played songs from every single one of her albums and each song was accompanied by a group of images or cartoons visuals projected onto a screen behind her.

She also joked about the wattage of the amplifier and her microphone–alluding to her getting shocked by it at her New Jersey show the previous night.

But we come back to her voice.  She truly is one of the best singers out there today.  She makes singing seems so effortless and simple but the clarity, power, and purity of her voice is worthy of awe.  She blew off the roof of Beacon Theatre and all I could say at times was simple: Wow.

the inside of the Beacon Theatre after the show was over.