Blog Archives
Happy Monday!
“…end extreme poverty by 2030”
–Andrea Beasley, MSNBC
Four years in and the Global Citizen Festival, held in New York City’s Central Park, directs attention to initiatives that support equality and combating extreme poverty by working with organizations, celebrities and world leaders (Malala Yousafzai, Bill and Melinda Gates, Leonardo DiCaprio, to name a few).
While still early in its process, the publicity aimed at this annual musical gathering, with policy speakers and videos scheduled throughout the day, continues to draw some of the biggest bands and performers from around the globe. When I attended the first festival with a friend of mine, K’naan, the Black Keys, a special performance by John Legend, Band of Horses, Neil Young and the Foo Fighters (such an amazing weekend) entertained the crowd of 60,000-plus. It was a perfect day and night in NYC. This year, festival-goers enjoyed Beyoncé, Eddie Vedder and Ed Sheeran.
And this small indie group from across the pond that came equipped with a brand new song…
Have an Inspired Week!
Happy Monday!
Love and Mercy, the tragic and revealing story of musical genius Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys, proved to be the ideal title for this shocking true story.
Without diving into the details and spoiling anything, it’s a movie that emotes joy, anger, sadness and surprise. The underrated Paul Dano portrays Brian Wilson as he’s writing and making music with The Beach Boys in strange, unorthodox fashion as they created one of music’s greatest albums (“Pet Sounds”) and the always down-to-earth John Cusack plays the delicately charming and haunted adult Brian Wilson during the late 1980s. Impressively, Cusack and Dano escaped into Brian Wilson so well that they projected one complete character throughout the film with seemingly identical mannerisms, tendencies and personality.
They were one man.
And Elizabeth Banks (Melinda Ledbetter) and Paul Giamatti (Dr. Eugene Landy) were terrific in their roles.
For the casual fan of The Beach Boys, it was known that they were not all sunshine and fun. Love and Mercy reveals some of that raw tension during their prime in 1960s southern California. However, there were moments of wonderful collaboration that resulted in unmistakably great music. In keeping with that spirit of showcasing this band’s immense talents, here’s a Beach Boys promotional video from 1966.
Here’s to Some Good Vibrations This Week!
Happy Labor Day!
No work today!
Foo Fighters + Led Zeppelin’s Bass + Queen’s Drums + “Under Pressure” =
Enjoy the day off!
A Symphonic Revelation
As Back to the Future I and II taught us, walking the same path as our parents is a mind-trip as wild as traveling through time in a DeLorean. Despite knowing our parents for literally our entire lives, watching them in non-family situations offers genuine surprises and insights into how they acted before they had children.
They behave like…us.
This realization is just one of life’s many entertaining curve balls. As we age, we presume that equates to more knowledge and control. Actually, that’s true, except the age we think that control occurs and when that really happens is much different than we might want to admit.
In the case of the trailer for the upcoming film Youth (December 4, 2015), having Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel say “I told you so” in this regard isn’t so bad.
As a matter of fact, it looks quite silvery.
Jimmy's Daily Planet 