Thunderbolt

Rush opened their regrouping tour at the LA Forum on June 7th. It was one of the most emotional concerts I'd been to in ages. why? Because it was their first concert since disbanding after drummer/lyricist Neil Peart's death. The air was electric that night, filled with hope and anticipation. Geddy Lee (bass/vocals) and Alex Lifeson (guitars) were joined by handpicked drummer Anika Nilles and keyboardist Loren Gold. There were so many high points that to list them all would take up most of your time. Instead, here are my top 5: 1. Geddy's voice sounded fantastic. I was at their last show at the Forum back on August 1, 2015 (that's right, I was at their farewell and their rebirth). Ged had to strain to hit some of the notes and I came away wishing that the band had adjusted the key of the songs to accommodate his age and range. No Rush fan on earth would have questioned the move. Artists get older. Their voices change. That said Geddy went to a vocal coach before...

When I was 17, I worked at American Video, a small business housed in the Great Northern shopping strip. My time there was short, as was American Video’s lifespan. The days of the mom-and-pop video stores were cycling out. Blockbuster had just opened in my hometown and within a couple years, American Video, as well as the store where I first fell in love with movies, First Run Video, would shutter their doors. What I loved about these indie video stores was the variety of choices and the limited number of copies of movies each store had. Come in looking for Back to the Future and it’s already rented? You strolled the aisles until you found something similar like Innerspace , or something completely different, like And Now for Something Completely Different, Monty Python’s first movie. Blockbuster, and its cousin Hollywood Video, may have offered more copies of movies, but they didn’t always have the quality. Maybe your Blockbuster was different.   When Netflix and the stre...

Revisiting the Malchus video archives. It's been at least ten years since I've watched the extended edition The Fellowship of the Ring . Back in 2001, when the director Peter Jackson’s original, shorter film hit theaters, I fell in with his adaptation J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth. I'm a sucker for tales of heroes coming together to save the world, and this film remains one of the best. When Jacob finally expressed interest in watching this one, my heart leapt. My son has particular tastes, although they are broadening, but I felt deep down – hoped – that he would enjoy the three Lord of the Rings films.   The rich themes of The Fellowship of the Ring – loyalty, family, human fallibility, good vs. evil, lost love, betrayal – all must all be attributed to Tolkien’s book. I've never read the book, nor is it high on my list (sorry Colbert). Whether the Jackson epics, which he co-wrote with his partner, Fran Walsh, and Phillipa Boyens, hew closely t...

   For the first time since the Academy Awards expanded to ten Best Picture nominees, I’ve seen all of nominees before the awards ceremony. There is a common theme that connects all of these films: family and community. Here are my feelings in order of preference.  Sinners. On paper the logline already sounds like a cool horror movie: Twin brothers return to their home town to open a juke joint and wind up spend the night fighting vampires. On celluloid, this epic examination of the Jim Crow era south an so much more a cool horror movie. Writer, director, producer Ryan Coogler’s work on Sinners has taken him to another level. With this film, he joins the ranks of Spielberg and Nolan as a filmmaker who can open a movie on name alone and provide an awe inspiring cinematic experience. Michael B. Jordan's is flawless as twin brothers Smoke and Stack. The nuances he gives to each character, and the skill required to play opposite of himself in multiple scenes i...

Burt Bacharach and Hal David 's "What the World Needs Now (Is Love)" is one of those 60s pop songs that skillfully blends heartfelt sentiment with melancholy that I can only relate to that era. Maybe it's the influence of Sinatra's mid-60s heartbreak period , in which the recordings feel like they were done in some desolate castle where the singer was waiting for the end, but there are plenty of 60s pop and country songs that conjure these feelings of isolation. " Wichita Lineman " is a fine example, and anything off of W hat's GoingOn.    Jackie DeShannon and Dionne Warwick are the two artists I most associate with "What the World Needs Now (Is Love)." Their performances are hopeful, tinged with the sadness of their times. The recordings came out when the U.S. was entrenched in Vietnam , and the Civil Rights movement was in full force.  Images of soldiers at war and police brutality against activists in the cities of America dominated ...

  Hey everyone, sorry for the radio silence. This time I really have a good reason.  I was on a work sabbatical that took me from Kentucky into Tennessee, up to Cleveland and  nowhere near a computer for three weeks.  It was a once in a lifetime trip that I plan to write about in the coming weeks. I appreciate everyone checking out the blog and promise to fill you in. Unfortunately, I now have to get my brain back into work mode.  Aloha