Heard In The Supermarket On This Day: May 23, 2014

Today, I heard one of my favourite Neil Diamond songs, Brooklyn Roads.

"Brooklyn Roads by Neil Diamond on YouTube"

Heard In The Supermarket On This Day: May 21, 2014

My local supermarket doesn't play the usual "muzak" when you are a walking around trying to find something to eat that hasn't been processed to within an inch of it's life. Sometimes they play some cool stuff. So I've decided to keep a record of the last song I hear as I leave the complex, mainly as a little exercise to amuse myself.

Today, we had "Never Tear Us Apart" by INXS, one of the great songs ever written, in my humble opinion.

Here it is on YouTube:  "Never Tear Us Apart" by INXS

By the way, as I was searching through YouTube, I also found this version from American Idol which I quite like as well:  "Never Tear Us Apart" from American Idol

Movie: Noah

Firstly I want to say that I am not religious. I don't believe any of the tales from the bible, although I do believe that the myth of the flood is based on a true event, just not on a world wide flood. I went so see this movie because I believe the basic story of Noah and the flood would provide plenty of opportunity to create a big cinematic epic, with lots of good looking visuals and thunderous, wall shaking sound effects.

This movie is just plain crazy.

Think the Bible meets Lord of the Rings, with Noah as a kick-ass ninja superhero beating up on the bad guys (all that's missing is a big ass cigar dangling from his lips with which he can light his dynamite..). I can understand why the religious people hate this movie, but I think their cause would be better served with ignoring this movie completely and not drawing any unwarranted attention to it. I suspect it will disappear off the big screen quite quickly.

The most ridiculous things are the ugly rock monsters, who start off as man's helpers (as angels I think), then enemies (when God punishes them by changing them into ugly rock monsters), and then help Noah build the ark!... Now, I'm no bible scholar, but I don't remember hearing anything about ugly rock monsters in the bible.

There was no specific mention of "God" in this movie. Everything was being done in the name of the "Creator".

Not much more I want to say about this movie. Even the music wasn't very good. I did like Emma Watson though, and Ray Winstone always makes for a good bad guy. Oh, and the guy who is Percy Jackson was ok as well.

I see this movie is in 3D as well. I didn't get that option, so, being a big 3D fan, my opinion of this move may have been different had I seen it in 3D.

Springsteen: You Never Can Tell

Absolute proof that the E Street Band are the greatest band in the world right now:

"You Never Can Tell" on YouTube

If you are not a Bruce fan, watch this and then try to resist becoming one...

Springsteen, Perth, 7th February, 2014

I've have just arrived home after attending the second of Bruce's three shows here in sunny Perth. I am a happy, exhausted, and slightly deaf camper.

I've been waiting 6 months for this show, and I wanted to treasure and remember every second, because I'm pretty sure that Bruce will never come back to this city which is, as Bruce himself sang (in Sherry Darling), the most isolated city in the world.

Actually, I've had the tickets for only 6 months, but I've been waiting for thirty years for these precious three hours.

I did take a few pictures right at the end, but only with my mobile phone (I can't connect my phone to my computer anymore, so I had to use my camera to take a photo of the phone's screen). They didn't come out very well, so I decided to get a bit artistic and apply some special effects to try and salvage something:

The show was a bit late starting. Pure genius. Let the punters get a bit restless, a bit anxious, so that when Bruce finally hits the stage, all this nervous tension is released in a single moment. Brilliant.

There were many highlights, as there probably is with every Bruce show. In no particular order, here's what I liked tonight:

The Ghost of Tom Joad - Sung by Tom Morello. What a great voice. It's the first time I've heard him.

Tenth Avenue Freeze Out - Bruce jumped up on the lighting console, which was just a few meters from me. My near brush with greatness. He doesn't look as tall close up.

Save My Love - Rapidly becoming my favourite Springsteen song. A lost gem from the mid seventies, rescued on The Promise CD. It was a pitty that the people around me didn't seem to appreciate it. It was pretty obscure though.

Pay Me My Money Down - with the thirty second timer (to get up out of our seats and shake our Western Australian asses, as Bruce put it...)

Rosalita - Bruce introduced the song as the premier Australian performance. Something just for us second nighters. Bruce managed to mess up one the verses by coming in too early. He's only human after all, folks. Only Springsteen can turn a mistake into a joyful highlight.

Born To Run/Dancing in the Dark - No further comment needs to be made. The place went wild.

Waiting on a Sunny Day - sung by a little kid that Bruce met at the beach yesterday. I don't think his parents will ever let him forget it.

Johnny 99 - A bleak lyric turned into an all out party song. One of the top highlights.

Thunder Road - Last song of the night before everyone went home. Just Bruce and his guitar sounding glorious.

There were a few classics that did not make an appearance, and I for one am glad they didn't because the show would have felt unbalanced. There was no Born in the USA, Glory Days, not much from Wrecking Ball unfortunately. We got Hungry Heart and Light of Day. He did a killer acoustic version of Girls in Their Summer Dresses. In fact, all his acoustic stuff, of which there was very little, sounded superb. I wish there could have been more. There were a couple of songs from High Hopes, including High Hopes and the Aussie classic, Just Like Fire Would. The Rising was sensational, coming just before the encore. It was so good I would have been happy if the show had ended right there, but then we had the Baseball bat to the head encore with Rosalita, Born To Run and Dancing in the Dark, all brought home with Twist and Shout, just in case your senses hadn't been assaulted enough already. But that wasn't the end. Bruce strapped on the accoustic guitar and finally finished things off with Thunder Road. There never has been, and never will be anything that will ever come close to the epic experience that is a Bruce show. Calling it big just doesn't do it justice.

I can see why many people are addicted to going to show after show. If I was living in America I would be too. Bruce plays every show like it's going to be his last show. You can see it in all the DVD's, and you can certainly feel it when you are actually there. You never want it to end, but you know that when it is inevitably over, there's nothing more that needs to be said.

And of course, I have to mention the lighting guy, whose name I know not, whose performance was almost as entertaining as Bruce's. Now there's a guy who obviously loves his work, and who wouldn't love having the job of turning the lights on and off at a Springsteen show every night?

Movie: 3D The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

First up, I want to say that I haven't read any of the books, Hobbit or Lord Of The Rings, and I really have no interest in the whole Lord of the Rings universe. I did enjoy the extended versions of the Rings movies though, and I saw the first Hobbit, which I found tried to include a little too much story.

I wasn't a big fan of the first Hobbit movie, but that being part one of a trilogy, I suppose they needed to introduce all the characters, and set up the plot for the second movie. Therefore the second movie hits the ground running, and doesn't really stop for nearly three hours. As Laurence Kasdan says in the Star Wars documentary, part two of a trilogy is the most interesting part, because that's where everything goes to hell. And this movie is a roller coaster ride all the way through. Like I said, I have no idea how the movie is different from the book, and I don't really care. I just care about how this movie stands up as a movie, and I found it pretty good fun all the way through. I've read some reviews on IMDB, and there's a lot of criticism going on. I thought some of them were quite harsh, considering it's basically a Saturday morning cartoon action movie, although a couple of story things seemed strange (Why were the Elves protecting the dwarves from the Orcs, after the Dwarves had escaped from the Elves dungeons?...) It appears that Peter Jackson has taken great liberties with the basic story in the book. I don't have a problem with that. A book does not work as a film. The best you can hope for is that the film is a decent summary of the book.

One thing I did like with this film that I didn't like in the first one was the look of it. When I saw the first one, the image was extremely sharp, and reminded me of one of those old seventies video taped TV shows. I found it quite hard to watch (And it was my first 3D movie, so maybe my brain wasn't trained for it yet). Fortunately, this second movie is a lot softer. It's still sharp video, but it now looks closer to regular film. The screening I went to was supposedly in HFR (High Frame Rate), but what exactly is that meant to give you? I honestly didn't notice any difference to a regular 3D movie.

The ending was quite abrupt and unexpected. It would have been nice to have a bit better lead in to the next movie.

Movie: The Railway Man

Boy, how lucky can you get? The two most recent movies I've seen are probably the best two I've seen all year.

I saw Philomena on Sunday, and today I got to see The Railway Man.

I went to the 9.30AM screening of Railway Man (awfully early to see a movie I know) and there was still a healthy crowd. I have to say it was not what I was expecting. I thought it was about a guy on a train who runs into an old enemy, but it couldn't be any further away from that scenario.

The story concerns Eric Lomax, played by Colin Firth, and his treatment at the hands of the Japanese during the construction of the Burma Railway. It is quite brutal in a couple of places. but nowhere near as graphic as the book that the film is based on, which does not spare any detail. That's a good thing, because portraying the violence would have distracted from the core of the story, which is about Eric dealing with his demons.

This film is a joint Australian/British production, and I believe the film was made possible with some Australian tax concessions, so as an Australian taxpayer, I'm claiming part ownership of this film, and expect a cheque soon for my share of the profits....

I believe Nicole Kidman was not the first choice to play the part of Patty Lomax, but now I'm convinced she was perfect for the role. I fell in love with her for the time the movie was on. Colin Firth was excellent as the older Lomax. There was one scene near the start of the film where he awakens from a nightmare, and lets out the most harrowing scream I think I've ever heard in movie. It was chilling.

There's an actor in this movie called Sam Reid, and I was convinced I was watching the comedian Robert Webb. They are absolutely identical, and was cheering on Robert Webb for taking the chance on a dramtaic role. Alas, as I found out later, it was not him.

The only part of the movie I didn't really like was the very rushed meeting and marriage of Eric and Patty. It seemed to all happen in about 10 minutes. It probably would have been better if the movie started off with them already married, skipped the whole rushed romance thing and jumped straight into the core of the story. Other than that, the film is brilliant.