18 posts from May 2008

I was listening to Madonna's album, Hard Candy (I know, I need to move to another album ... I promise I listen to a million other things at the same time), and I noticed how the song, "Incredible", has the line, "You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone", which has been a famous line in music history.

I think the line originated in Joni Mitchell's song, "Big Yellow Taxi" ...

Then, the line was used as the title of Janet Jackson's song, "Got 'Til It's Gone", and Joni's song was sampled, too ...

Here is Madonna's song which puts the line in one of the verses ...

In other news, I watched the Woody Allen movie, "Scoop", on HBO today. It stars Scarlett Johansson (2 t's and 2 s's) and Hugh Jackman. It came out in 2006, and Woody Allen's other Scarlett Johansson London-based movie about murder, "Match Point", came out in 2005. The movies are not alike at all, though. Scoop is more of a comedy, and "Match Point" is pretty serious. They do both explore class in London, though. Here are the trailers ...

The last couple of Sundays I have gone to a club/bar in Austin called Elysium with some friends for their 80s music night. The music is usually very good, and the crowd is very eclectic. Here are my two favorite songs they play ...

Real Life - Send Me An Angel (this is the 1989 version, I think)

The original 1983 version of "Send Me An Angel" did not feature as much clapping in the background so it is less fun to dance to. Here is the video for the original version ...

The other song is also from 1983, and it is "Major Tom (Coming Home)" by Peter Schilling ...

Here is the video for the song ...

I watched something on TV about various beneficial effects trees have on a city, and it was really fascinating how much trees can do to help a city. Here are some of the things they do ...

http://www.americanforests.org/graytogreen/energy

I think the above link just talks mainly about how trees can lower a city's electric bill, but the special I watched on TV that time showed a lot of other ways trees can help and improve a city (well, they are nice to look at for one).

Anyway, I looked up tree-planting programs in Austin to see if there were any programs in place, and of course there are (Austin is pretty nature-friendly). One that caught my eye was Tree Folks.

http://www.treefolks.org

Tree Folks helps plant trees in Austin and the surrounding area. They do other stuff besides that, but that was enough to make me want to donate some money to them. If you live in Austin, and you want to keep seeing signs of nature downtown and throughout the area, you may want to donate some money to them.

http://www.treefolks.org/store_donate.asp

I don't have that much money to donate, but I try to give a little here and there. I also donate to the Alzheimer's Association and Barack Obama's campaign.

Here is a Tori Amos song that I was listening to today. It's pretty cool (and old). The ending of it is the beginning of the song, "Horses", from her album, Boys For Pele (which was the first Tori Amos album I ever bought).

Tori Amos - Fire-Eater's Wife/Beauty Queen (demo)

 

This morning I woke up from a long night of partying (it was a friend's birthday), and all I could think about was that I wanted to hear "Voices" from Madonna's album, Hard Candy. Justin Timberlake sings a little on the song, too. It's the last song on the album, and I used to skip over it, but I really like it now. Here it is ...

In other news, there is an updated version of my favorite video game ever, Final Fantasy IV, on the Nintendo DS. Now, I will not buy this because I do not have the Nintendo DS, and I think some of the graphics look downright awful (because they are designed for the Nintendo DS and not a more powerful system like the XBOX 360, PS3, or Wii). However, the little movie parts of the game do look cool, and it is very interesting to see the old characters of Cecil, Rosa, Rydia, Kain, etc., turned into 3-D computer animation. It's interesting to hear the music updated, too. Final Fantasy IV was actually Final Fantasy II in the U.S. Here is the trailer from www.gametrailers.com ...

  I don't have a PS3, so I will not be able to play the new Final Fantasy game (part 13, I think), whenever it comes out, but I will be able to play the new Resident Evil 5 game (which is called Biohazard 5 in Japan) on the XBOX 360. I can't wait for it. I read about the Resident Evil franchise on Wikipedia, and it said that some people believe the franchise was based on a survival horror game for the original NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) called Sweet Home (I don't think is proven, thouhg). I missed out on all of the Resident Evil games growing up because I never had a Playstation or Nintendo Game Cube. I had an NES (the first Nintendo system), a Super Nintendo, and then I went straight to the PC and Playstation 2. You can download a lot of video game system emulators, though, especially the original NES, and play the old games on your PC. I tried playing a little of Sweet Home. It was very much like playing an old Final Fantasy game (well, it was like playing part 1 I guess ... not as good as part II, which was part IV in Japan ... ok, this is getting confusing).

Here is the old NES game, Sweet Home (English version) ...

  I love the cheesy, creepy music.

Here is the Japanese movie, Sweet Home (I think it is "Suito Homu" in Japanese), that actually went with the game (they were released together) ...

Here is the trailer for Final Fantasy XIII or 13 ...

Here is the latest trailer for Resident Evil 5 ...

OK, that's enough nerding out for right now. ;)

I read about this movie on a message board, and I realized that I have seen some of it before (I think). There is a famous swimming pool scene where the water's surface turns to glass and traps Katharine Ross (star of the original The Stepford Wives) underneath. Sam Elliott is also in the movie, and he and Ross are married and have a child together in real life. The Who's Roger Daltrey is also in the movie.

Here is the trailer ...

I have been sick lately: fever, chills, congestion, ear infections, drainage, sore throat, etc., and my ears have been completely useless. They hurt, and I can't hear out of them properly. Also, when I sing along with a song, I can tell that I sound tone deaf and my voice even cracks like Peter Brady's on The Brady Bunch.

I went to Austin Regional Clinic (it's open very late!) last night to get some antibiotics (yay!). I have never had an ear infection as far as I know. In fact, it is extremely rare for me to get sick so all of this has been really annoying.

During moments of weakness, songs usually come to me. One of them is "Sleep" by Azure Ray from the wonderful movie, "The Devil Wears Prada". I really like the scene in the movie where Anne Hathaway is walking down the sidewalk as this song plays. I am always surprised by how much I like this movie. I thought it would be too mainstream for me (who am I kidding? ... I love mainstream movies), but I loved the ambition in the movie in several characters such as Meryl Streep's Miranda Priestly and Anne Hathaway's character.

Anyway, here is the song from the movie ...

Azure Ray - Sleep

So I just watched Alien: Resurrection, which was the fourth movie in the Alien franchise. I saw it at the movie theater when it came out back in 1997. I am sure a lot of people did not like it because it definitely had a different style to it than the first two Alien movies. The difference in style was probably due to the director, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who is probably best know for the visually-amazing movie, City of Lost Children (speaking of City of Lost Children, Ron Perlman aka Hellboy aka the hardest working man in Hollywood starred in it and Alien:Resurrection).  I liked Alien: Resurrection, though. I even liked Alien 3, which was done by ultra-dark director, David Fincher. However, nothing comes close to the first two Alien movies. Aliens (the second one) was my favorite of all of the movies, and it was done by James Cameron. I have only watched the first of the two Alien vs. Predator movies. It was all right, but the movie seemed like it was part of a completely different franchise, and it did not have Sigourney Weaver.

Anyway, as I watched the end of Alien: Resurrection, I thought how cool it would be if Sigourney Weaver starred in a new Alien movie, one that had nothing to do with Predator and all of that nonsense. I went to IMDB.com and looked up her upcoming projects. There was no sign of an Alien movie, but there was a movie called Avatar, directed by James Cameron. The plot has something to do with humans and aliens. I don't think it is anything like the Alien franchise, though. Also, the movie may end up looking like Beowulf, where it looks like you are playing a video game or watching a PIXAR movie. I am not too excited about that, but I am hoping I will be pleasantly surprised by the effects. I would much rather see a traditional live action movie, though.

There is a little more information on the movie here ... http://www.avatarmovie.co.uk

I'm surprised that I have never posted this song before. Hoagy Carmichael's "Stardust" is one of my favorite songs ever, and it was mentioned in the Stephen King/Peter Straub novel, "Black House" (which was a sequel to "The Talisman", which King also wrote with Peter Straub), and I looked it up after reading about it. It's a very calm, laid-back oldie, but it has tons of charm and class. Here is some info on Hoagy Carmichael. There are tons of covers of this song.

Hoagy Carmichael - Stardust

The above photo comes from NASA's image gallery.

The more I think about the movie, "Speed Racer", the more I realize that I actually thought it was pretty cool. In an IMAX theater, or on a home theater with a large flat-screen and cool surround sound (which I don't have), it would be really awesome.

I hated reading all the bad reviews of it so I thought I would post a good review of that seems to get it right ...

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1738497,00.html

That review is from TIME magazine.

It's sad when movies are not appreciated in their time. A good example is "Blade Runner", which is one of the best movies ever to me, but it's lifetime gross is only about $32 million (and it was re-released recently).

I'm not saying "Speed Racer" is as good as "Blade Runner", but the visuals of "Speed Racer" blow most movies away.

I have a ton of Hot Chip remixes in my iTunes library, and I put the entire Hot Chip folder on a CD (data disk) recently to play in my car. Well, I discovered one remix that I really liked. Here is the song, "Biting Tongues", by Faultline remixed by Hot Chip.

Here is a video of the original version of the song on YouTube ...

Here is some information on Hot Chip, and their official site.

Here is Faultline's official site, which I think is very well done.

My friend, Travis, showed some videos of a disco group from the 70s called Boney M. I had never heard of them before, but I guess I should have since they seem very popular then and now. Travis thought that M.I.A. may have gotten some of her style from Boney M, and I think he may be onto something.

Here are some my favorite videos of theirs ...

Here is the remix of Santogold's "You'll Find A Way" that is on their official album. I have posted this remix before, but this new one sounds a little cooler ...

The above remix was done by Switch and Sinden.

 

I talked to someone recently about Caetano Veloso, Brazilian music, Marisa Monte, and Spanish music (like Shakira, Juanes, and Julieta Venegas) so I thought I would post some Caetano Veloso songs from a CD of his that I have called Noites do Norte. I am sure there are better Veloso songs out there, but I don't know them all. If anyone wants to recommend a better song from his library, by all means go ahead in the comments section. Eu falo um pouco em portugues. ;)

Here are some from the Noites do Norte album ...

I love that the title of the above song is the name of a famous Italian director, whose movie, L'Avventura, I love.

Here is the first song on the CD ...

Here is the second song from the album. I can't leave it out because it's very pretty. I used to play this song while driving back from lunch to my job, and I remember passing under the canopy of the trees while little bits of sunlight broke through the green leaves. It was a magical moment. Ha! I ususally don't talk like that. It's moments like those that make me want to travel more, but it's too damn expensive!