Updates

So there may not be an update here for a while. This is mainly for two reasons. One being that I am insanely busy this time of year. The second is that I have started work on a side project which will, hopefully, make its appearance here at its completion. I don't want to give anything away blatantly on the internet, but if you want to know, you know how to reach me.

The Movie Musical

So I was watching Singin' In The Rain on PBS this afternoon, starring Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O'Connor. I began to wonder what ever happened to the movie musical, which happened to be oh so popular back around that time period. It also makes for good watching too. Thinking about it, the last real movie musical was probably Blaues Brothers 2000. Things like Chicago or The Producers don't count because they were simply movie adaptations of stage plays, although I suppose that The Producers is a movie adaptation of a stage adaptation of a movie. But even so, musical movies have fallen out of fashion as well. Even with the Walt Disney Company, which really hasn't had a musical animated feature probably since the days of the Lion King. I suppose this can be attributed to at least two things: one being the lack of good source material, and two being the lack of well rounded star talent. I suppose the major reason surrounding all of this is that people just aren't interested in them anymore, that they'd rather see some formulaic action or comedy movie.

Since the majority of the 'classic' musicals were made into movies several decades ago, there hasn't been much of a need to make any of them ever again. That being said, writers also stopped creating original movie musicals in the style of Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly films. So the well has run dry, and it really isn't much of a surprise that there aren't any more in the works. Although that particularly surprises me when it comes to Disney, or Pixar or Dreamworks. The plan these days seems to be more to take some preexisting story or some variation thereof, add in a catchy theme sung by some pop princess of the day and add in some other odds and ends pieces by various notable artists to fill out the soundtrack and get it flying off of shelves. But where are the days of Aladdin, Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, and Toy Story? But I digress.

The other thing I have noticed, and this one more than the aforementioned and elaborated reason annoys me. There is a definite lack of starpower capable of pulling of such a feat as Kelly and Astaire once did. Which is funny, because the industry papers and what not will tout the hot young stars as triple or quadruple threats because they can act, sing, dance, and chew gum or something else. But in actuality these appear to be very superficial assessments. I think what has killed this once vanguard of American cinema, and it seemed very unique to American cinema, although I suppose there are a plethora of Bollywood pictures that would argue otherwise, is the specialization and separation of the entertainment industry. Things have divided themselves into at least two separate categories, film and stage. It's always a coup when there is crossover from film to stage, at least in a dramatic sense. But there are very few who have the ability to make the crossover from film to musical stage. Off the top of my head, Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick, Christina Applegate, that's all I can come up with. But within this subdivision, roles are subdivided so you have dancers and singers and actors, but rarely one who combines all three to a level of capability. The late Gregory Hines comes to mind.

Bring back the days of Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire. Hell, bring back the days of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr.

Philadelphia Sports: Don't Phight it...

So judging from the title, I want to diverge here a little bit into something I don't talk about in this medium that often, if at all. Sports. Namely Philadelphia sports. At this point it seems like every active team in the city has just given up at this point. Granted, Donovan McNabb tore his ACL yesterday, but even before that, the Eagles weren't playing all that great. In the words of Coach Jimmy McGinty, from the movie The Replacements, "Heart. Miles and miles of heart." I just don't see it these days. And this from the city that brought us Rocky, fictionally of course. The real Rocky was from New Jersey. Don't even get me started on the Flyers. I'll reserve judgement on the Sixers for now, only because they're only 9 games into the season I believe.

On another note, the NL MVP goes out today. From what I've heard, read, etc., it seems to be a two horse race between Ryan Howard, of the Philadelphia Phillies, and Albert Pujols. And in everything I've read, it's always that Ryan Howard faded over the last month of the season, and Albert Pujols led his team to the postseason. What I never see is this:

1. Ryan Howard wasn't getting pitched to most of the time down the stretch. Hence, why the Phillies are trying to sign Alfonso Soriano to protect Howard.
2. The Phillies (85-77) actually finished the regular season with a better record than the Cardinals (83-78). In addition, there are 5 teams in the NL that finished 20 or more games under .500. 1 in the East (Washington), 2 in the Central (Pittsburgh, Chicago) and 2 in the West (Colorado, Arizona). Generally speaking, it looks like the Phillies played better teams, with the unbalanced schedule, including the team with the best regular season record, the NY Mets, whom they played to an 8-11 record.

Damn Dirty Apes

This monkey is so crafty. Just look at those shifty eyes. The article, found here, says the monkey is a bonobo. Which, reading it as a headline goes like this: Bonobo pulls alarm for attention - again. So on first inspection, I thought this was some sort of evil Bono/Bobo the clown hybrid. But really, can Bono get more evil? I think not Bobo could probably turn to the dark side of things, in a kind of Stephen King's It sort of way.

Iron Chef America

So I realize that everything, with the exception of the actual cooking on the show, is just an act, but that still doesn't prevent me from hating it. Particularly the "Chairman." Apparently this guy, who incidentally is actually Hawaiian and the guy from the Crow TV show, claims to be the nephew of Chairman Kaga from the Japanese version. He just seems so much further over the top than Kaga, which I suppose is saying a lot. Every motion is either some ridiculous full body karate chop or a karate bow. And he's got crazy eyes. But I think the major reason why I really don't like the show is that it all seems fixed. It is very rare that the challenger ever wins. Perhaps it's that I cheer for the underdog, but I suppose I don't have the luxury of tasting the dishes. Even so, there always seems to be an effort to screw the challenger out of two points so the Iron Chef wins by one. On a separate note, I actually like the majority of the Iron Chefs outside of the show, except Cat Cora for some reason. She seems like a very angry person.

Van Partridge Family?

So Eddie Van Halen's son, whose name is Wolfgang by the way, is now the new bass player for Van Halen. They're still looking for a lead singer, although word is they've been talking with David Lee Roth, who incidentally has been working as a paramedic. Just to digress for a second, could you imagine if an ambulance picked you up after some sort of accident and the doors kick open and David Lee Roth does a jump split on to a stretcher and rides over to you? But I think the solution to Van Halen, and I mean this facetiously in every sense of the word, is to invite the entire family into the band. Then travel around the country in a brightly colored van. Then twenty years later little Wolfgang can develop both drug and alcohol problems ala Danny Bonaduce and then get a show on VH1, assuming said network still exists.

Debut Rock Album

Til Deaf Do Us Part

Think about it.

I also thought about doing something where you could let the listener determine the track order, like make the songs available online, but include liner notes and a CD-R so they can burn them in the order they like. Better yet, leave subtle hints in each song as to what order they were intended to be in. Like I'd drop a number in the song, but it wouldn't always be 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9... I might have 46 or 71 and they'd have to put them in order that way.