Blue Petal - CD Review

I know I write a lot about another Dallas based band Edie Brickell and The New Bohemians, but in this crazy world of MySpace, you really can discover a jem amongst all the musicians out here.

I first heard Blue Petal because Carter Albrecht posted one of their songs on his MySpace page. Although Carter is gone, he certainly passed along to me a taste of Blue Petal having it as his song. From there I was hooked.

With only three members of the band, Manya Repnikova vocals, guitar - Pete Anderson ketyboard, guitar - Bryan Butler guitar, harmonica they really put together a fantastic sound.
Having put out a 5 song EP so far, I really look forward to hearing more of their music. The Indie realease starts off with an incredible song only lasting 2 minutes, but Move Along is really my favorite. It captures the amazing voice of Manya Repnikova, not only a beautiful person, but a beautiful voice as well.

Turn It Around is the second song on the cd. A nice soulful song with a good acoustic sounds and some great backing vocals, it truly is a wonderful song. Heading into Night Train, we hear the nice folk sound with a slide guitar in the background. It's a great piece of work.
Next up we have Blue Balloon Girl on the cd. Sort of an Alt-Country feeling with the harmonica playing in the background. It's a good song, not sure who plays drums on this one, but it really adds a good touvh to this one.

Host is the last song on the cd and the piano is a nice intro to a great tune. Manya's voice remids me a bit of a mix between The Sundays, Harriet Wheeler and Mazzy Star's, Hope Sandoval. Both have a different style and Manya sort of sits right between the two.
You can sample the cd at either of these two myspace pages Blue Petal's Myspace Page or Manya's MySpace Page. Manya's page also has a great song Good and Faithful Servant which will be appearing on a compilation cd some time this year. I just love it and wish I had a copy on my iPod today.

Check them out for sure. I see them hitting it big in the coming years. There's a lot of talent in Manya and the band.

Go out to iTunes or their MySpace page and pick this one up for sure.

Lenny Kravitz - Love Revolution CD Review

Lenny is back to his old classic self from the days of Let Love Rule. Love Revoltion kicks of a nice vibe that gets you going right from the start. It's down to simple rockin stuff pretty much. Bring It On keeps the simple beat rock going. It's a raw sound but just what I like.

It almost has a bit of a strange Beatles sound to it in some odd way. Good Morning comes in next and is what really reminds me of something out of the Beatles Catalog. Love Love Love comes up next and continues the continuous high energy feeling.

Things slow down a bit at I'll Be Waiting. It almost at the start reminds me of something out of Flight of the Conchords. It's a nice simple, softer song, quit enjoyable. The rest of the cd is really a mix of high energy songs and ballads. A little funk in the rock and here we go.

I really like the sound much more that the last cd Lenny put out. I certainly would go out and pick this one up or download it for sure.

The cd tracks are:

Love Revolution Songs
1. Love Revolution
2. Bring It On
3. Good Morning
4. Love Love Love
5. If You Want It
6. I’ll Be Waiting
7. Will You Marry Me
8. I Love the Rain
9. A Long and Sad Goodbye
10. Dancing Till Dawn
11. This Moment Is All There
12. A New Door
13. Back in Vietnam
14. I Want To Go Home

Lenny is heading off to Europe for a tour in May, not sure if we will see some dates coming up here before. Keep and eye out on his website at www.lennykravitz.com and get updates to what's happening.

Enjoy!

Jack Johnson - Sleep Through The Static - Review

For those of you who are big fans of Jack Johnson you certainly will be happy with the new cd. Jack adds a little of a different feature on this one and adds some electric guitar, but still it hass the same mellow tone as many of his songs from the past.

Having lived in Southern California and being exposed to the waves, sandy beaches and Jack Johnson surf movies this one fits right in. Even though I have recently moved away from my beach shack to a place in the middle of the country, Kansas City, I still miss the sun, waves and warm weather. Listening to a little Jack Johnson, closing my eyes, puts me right back there to my place of comfort.

The new cd was recorded with 100% solar power. I bought a digital copy, so I tried to help do my part a little in the process of helping the environment. It's always good to see artists take a stand and do what they can to influence others.

This cd is filled with some great tunes. They are more on the mellow side, but that's my thing. Starting off with All At Once, you feel that typical JJ beat. It's a wonderful song that sets you in the mood for the rest to come. Sleep Through The Static, the title song is add a little more beat and is a lot like Times Like These from his previous release. Hope keeps the beat up following into a nice little ballad called Angel. Enemy is kind of a day dream song that's how I feel.

If I Had Eyes was the single that was released before the rest of the cd. It's a little more electric, but a wonderful beat and mix of drums, piano and guitar in this one. Much of it it sounds like several other of Jacks songs. I guess I could say that about the whole cd. Really it has a bunch of wonderful songs. Same Girl is a nice acoustic ballad type song, short and sweet.

What You Thought You Need, Adrift, Go On are all great acoutics songs. They Do, They Don't as well as While We Wait, Monsoon and Losing Keys finish off the cd. If you bought the cd on iTunes you get a one minute funny song Goodbye.

I really love it, every song from end to end. I would highly recommend picking this one and if you haven't heard much of Jack's work, you could pick up any one of his cds and be in good shape. Gone are the days of Jack showing up at Lou's and jamming for an hour or playing the small venues. Still, it's well worth your time to get to see him perform live if you get a chance.

Enjoy!

Note from Jack:

My friends and I have just finished recording a new album called Sleep Through the Static. At this point in my life I weigh about 190 lbs and my ear hairs are getting longer. I also have a couple of kids. My wife popped them out, but I helped. Some of the songs on this album are about making babies. Some of the songs are about raising them. Some of the songs are about the world that these children will grow up in; a world of war and love, and hate, and time and space. Some of the songs are about saying goodbye to people I love and will miss.

We recorded the songs onto analog tape machines powered by the sun in Hawaii and Los Angeles. One day, JP Plunier walked into the studio and told us, "It has been 4 to 6 feet and glassy for long enough," and so we gave him a variety of wind and rain as well as sun and so on. And Robert Carranza helped to put it all in the right places.

After inviting Zach Gill to join Adam Topol, Merlo Podlewski, and myself on our last world tour, we decided to make him an official member of our gang. So our gang now has a piano player, which probably makes us much less intimidating, but Merlo, our bass player, is 6'3" so we are still confident.

All of these songs have been on my mind for a while and it is nice to share them. I am continually grateful to my wife who is typing this letter as I dictate it to her. I hope you enjoy this album.

Mahalo for listening,
Jack Johnson

No Country For Old Men - Movie Review

Going back to Drama, the Coen Brothers did a wonderful job of adapting Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men. This mondern day western story deals with one man's struggle over taking drug money from a bloodbath scene in the middle of the desert and dealing with the consequences of it. Josh Brolin plays Llewelyn Moss the cowboy out hunting in the back country who comes across the blood mess of a drug deal gone wrong. He comes across a big bag full money and decides to take off with it. Afterwards, he goes back and when he does, he's hunted down and knows that sooner or later he will be found.

Tommy Lee Jones plays Sheriff Bell, who deals with murders and follows the trail of blood as the bad man, Javier Bardem leaves people dead left and right looking to find the money.

It was quite a bloody film, but what else would you expect from a Coen Brothers film. Lots of violence and brutality, but overall still a good story and one that will certainly pick up a couple of awards this year. It certainly keeps you going as you watch this and wonder, will he get away.

I'd certainly catch this one in the theater.

Kurt Cobain: About A Son - Movie Review

Director A.J. Shnack put together a pretty interesting film pulling together scenes from all over Washington relating to the life of Kurt Cobain, Nirvana's front man. The documentary style film takes audio from 25 interviews that Cobain did with Michael Azerrad for his book Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana.

Cobain tells stories of his life all the way back from his childhood, through high school and on to his days with Nirvana and his relationship with Coutney Love. Shnack put together a great flow of images, music and Cobain's stories.

This will be out on DVD February 19th, 2008 you can pick it up at Amazon.com for about $14.00.

The soundtrack really fits well in the film. They play everything from CCR, Iggy Pop, Bad Brains all the way to Arlo Gutherie and David Bowie. It was quite enjoyable and would be worth pick the soundtrack up as well.

I wasn't exactly sure what to expect when going to see this one, but it was well worth it. It's one of those films that you should sit down, turn off the lights and have a glass of good scotch ready. Put yourself in the right mood.

The Heavy Circles - CD Review

Edie Brickell and Harper Simon team up to create The Heavy Circles. The new CD, self titled will be out on 02/12/2008.

The cd consists of 10 fantastics songs that Edie and Harper teamed up to put together. This cd is a real mix of different styles of music ranging from rock to reggae with a little tast of everything inbetween. From what started out as an invite to jam turned into a great set of songs that are far different than what we have heard from Edie in the past.

Here is the track listing:

Henri 2:48
Better 3:10
Ready to Play 3:45
Confused 3:58
Easier 4:31
Maximo 3:08
Wait & Wait 4:15
Need a Friend 3:06
Dynamite Child 1:46
Oh Darlin 3:52

Henri starts us out with a nice melodic tone, very different from anything else on the cd, has a little bit of a middle eastern tone to it. It's a wonderful song to kick it off. Then we jump into Better which has a nice pace to it and with a more pop like sound makes you want to jump up and down throughout it.

Ready to Play is a good follow to Better. It has a good rockin' beat and takes you right into a dramatic piece Confused. Going to the mellow side we move to Easier and Maximo, both are brilliant pieces of work. Both have a nice feel and a great mix to them. Moving on to Wait & Wait we get a little bit of a still mellow, but more electronic feel.

Need a Friend gets you hopping with some reggae beats jumping you into Dynamite Child which has a great beat and really rocks. The final number Oh Darlin' back to the electronic side is a great way to finish the cd off.

Edie sounds absolutely fantastic and Harper really did a wonderful job of producing this and working with Bryce Goggin to put the cd together. Harper put together an all star line-up of musicians together to help with this cd. Sean Lennon, Money Mark, Martha Wainwright, Yuka Honda to name a few helped with various tracks on the cd. Goggin was used to record Edie Brickell and New Bohemians 2006 cd Stranger Things, which if you don't have is also well worth picking up.

There is one song Hands On that didn't make the final cd, but is available through iTunes. I think it's as good if not better than every song on the new cd and is worth going out and picking up. The guitar work is fantastic and Edie's voice just keeps you hypnotized.

Two other known tracks that didn't make the cd, but have been heard at Eddie's MySpace page at www.myspace.com/brickellephant also at http://www.ediebrickell.com/ are Superpowers and Long Line. Keep an eye out on Edie's site as well as http://www.theheavycircles.com/. Superpowers is unlike anything I've heard Edie do before, it's really rockin'. Long Line is a nice pop like song, upbeat with good lyrics.

You can pick up a download of Henri at muruch's Heavy Circles CD Review if you'd like to hear it before it comes out. I still recommend buying the cd regardless of downloading this fantastic song.

This one is well worth getting off your ass on February 12th and going out to pick up or just sit on your computer and order from somewhere like http://www.amazon.com/. You won't regret getting this one trust me.

Here's a free download of Henri.mp3

Just right click and "save as" Enjoy!

JUNO - Movie & Soundtrack Review

Saw the movie Juno last night. This is the one about the 16 year old girl - Juno who gets pregnantand now has to deal with the reality of either keeping the baby, having an abortion or giving it up for adoption. This film written by Diablo Cody and directed by Jason Reitman is fantastic. They picked a great cast for this film Juno is played by Ellen Page who does a great job playing the role of a 16 year old girl who just got knocked up. She has a lot of great one liners and really does a wonderful job. Her boyfriend/Father of her child Paulie Bleeker is played by Michael Cera, who has been know for his roles in both Superbad and the TV show Arrested Development. Michael does a great job as well playing the dorky boy who really has no clue what all this means and never really comes to grips with it. Juno also has a friend Leah who is pretty funny as well. Leah is played by Olivia Thirlby. Juno's parents played by Allison Janey and JK Simons are your typical disfuntional family that really aren't too suprised at all that's going on. JK Simons really plays a sweet father in this one.

Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner play the potential candidates to be the parents of Juno's baby. Garner plays a cautious, but excited potential mother, who won't believe it until the baby is in her hands. Jason Bateman is sort of lost in his role not sure if he wants the responsibility and not sure if he wants to grow up.

Without giving much away, this is a wonderful film about Juno coming to terms with the pregnancy, her relationship with Bleeker, her disfunctional family and life in general. That's a lot for a 16 year old to take. you really will enjoy this film.

Now onto the sountrack. It's really an awesome sountrack with a lot of different artists playing on it including a song sung by Juno & Bleeker. There are a bunch of songs by Kimya Dawson who has a different way of singing, but it's quite refreshing. Cat Power, Buddy Holly, Mott the Hoople & Velvet Underground are just a few of the artists on this sondtrack. It's really awesome and well worth picking up.

Who knows what we will review next, but tune in and find out.

Into The Wild - Movie & Sountrack Review

So I finally had the opportunity to see the long awaited film based on Jon Krakauer's book Into The Wild. Sean Penn has been trying to make the book into a movie for about ten years and finally was given the rights to do so.

The story goes that Jon Krakauer would only allow the story to be made into a movie with the permission of the McCandless family. So After hearing Sean Penn out and holding him off over the years for various reasons, the movie was made.

I read this book back in 1996 or 1997. I was really intrgued by how they were able to trace Chris's footsteps all across the US for two years leading up to his death in the Alaskan wilderness.
This was originally a story written for Outside Magazine and from that article, many people from all over the US who had encountered Chris, came forward with their little stories of of he was a part of their lives. This is what allowed Krakauer to take the magazine article and make it into a book.

Ok there's my little history of what happend over the course of history from the time of the article to the movie. So now let's review the movie and the soundtrack.

The movie starts off with Chris making his way "Into the Wild". From there it will jump back and forth telling the tale of his life and showing his time alone in the wilderness of Alaska. A lot of the the story was able to be told because of the people who surrounded him. As for the time in Alaska, there were several journals found and well as lists through the time and pictures to trace back what his life was like.

I really enjoyed the film and thought that Penn did a great job of putting it all together and keeping you interested in the 2 1/2 hour movie. Part of what really made the movie was the scenary, long shots and the soundtrack. Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam took on composing the sountrack to the film.

The movie is composed of several songs 11 which make up the soundtrack.

Setting Forth
No Ceiling
Far Behind
Rise
Long Nights
Toulumne
Hard Sun
The Wolf
End of the Road
Society
Guarenteed

All songs written and recorded by Eddie Vedder.

It certaily is a change from the rockin' sound of Pearl Jam, but it fits really well into the movie. Eddie obviously had seen the movie and wrote the songs to fit each part. Very mellow, but fantastic to hear Eddie's voice in a nice raw format like this. He really did a great job.

The movie kept it's pace and kept it interesting, the soundtrack was awesome as well. I would highly recommend seeing this one, you will enjoy it.

Cheers!

Has It Been a Year Since My Last Post?

Wow it's been exactly a year since I last posted anything on my Blog. We will just have to do something about that and get it kick started again for 2008.

Plenty to talk about and add from this past year.

So We will get back to it tonight!

Cheers!

Dave P.

Edie Brickell & New Bohemians Belly Up Tavern 10/15/2006

This Review is running a little late, but thought I'd put it out here.

I'll start out by just saying it was an awesome show and an awesome night. I guess other than the clambake this really was the start of the mini-tour they are doing this month. Unfortunately no one taped the show and I didn'thave a mic so the reviews are about all you will end up hearing on this one.

Here's the setlist - now the 12th song someone is going to need to help me with - Kenny - Brandon or any fan who can figure it out from what I wrote down as far as lyrics - It just seemed like babble and I couldn't figure the song out this morning.

10/15/2006 Belly Up Tavern - Solana Beach, Ca (San Diego)

Wear You Down, Oh My Soul, Nothing, Wheel, Drum Jam> Love Like We Do, One Last Time, No Dinero, Lover Take Me, Long Lost Friend, Air Of December, Improv Song, Strings Of Love, Spanish Style Guitar, Shark Attack, What I Am, Circle Encore: Improve>Belly Up Song, Little Miss S, 10,000 Angels, Mainline Cherry

What a great show. Kenny was awesome, had some great solo stuff and just played well. He just looked like he was enjoying himself and having some fun. Brandon and John had a couple of great jams and really seemed to be having a good time back there. Carter was great on keys. Brad was great to a little sax and mostly bass - pulling out the fretless as well. Edie - what can you say, she sang as beautiful as ever and told some great stories about the band. At one point she talked about not having enough material so they would just make it up as they went along - so she started singing this funny shark attack song. Later she did a Belly Up Improv as well. She was really interactive with the audience. After she finished playing Circle - she stopped and asked me what I was writing down and if I was doing a review of the show. I told her it was a set list - she said if you are reviewing it I'd like to review you and say you are a great audience member - it was pretty funny.

So before the show I met Carter outside and was chatting with him a bit - I din't know he was Carter at the time since I hadn't seen picture of the band is quite a while. He was really nice - chatted about football, etc. told me to swing around back after to see about meeting Kenny and Brandon. So after the show I went back and met Carter - he took my cd to have them all sign and then I ran into Brandon, talked a bit about him living in Encinitas when he was young - sleeping in the car, etc (I'll let him tell the story ) Great guy, glad I had a chance to talk to him.

Shortly after Kenny came out to say as well - again glad to have a chance to meet and talk with him. He brought Edie along with him or at least she came out. So we all started chatting, everyone was awesome - down to earth fun people. I hope the rest of you out here who go to a show at least stop by and say Hi to Kenny and Brandon. So Kenny went off as well as Brandon and the next thing I know I'm hanging out talking to Edie. She invited me in the back and ask me if I wanted something to drink - funny would thhik I'd be getting asked that from Edie. She was so sweet - talk mostly about kids and stuff, but just a great coveration. I had said that she should write a kids book and cd - I thought it would be great to play some kids music from her. She said that her and Paul planned to write a childrens album, but her youngest said to her that those were their songs - that they were for them. So she just couldn't do it. Kind of a nice little story.

Anyway - I just want to Thank Kenny, Brandon, Cater and Edie for hanging out and talking. You guys were all great. It was truely an awesome night.

LA Bound Becks

Well it looks like te picture says it all to what Becks has to say to Real Madrid. So he's going to come and play with my LA Galaxy team, which means that my season ticket prices will more than likely go up about $25 per match. If it does, I'll have to rethink the possibility of renewing. The offer is said to be worth something like $250 million in endorsements and $1million a week.

The last time an American soccer league (NASL) did this they went broke and folded. Bringing players like Pele, Beckenbauer, Best, Kruyff and many others over cost the league so much money they couldn't stay afloat. Let's hope this doesn't backfire on LA. I'd have guess that they would be getting rid of Landon Donovan to cut the salary cap back a bit.

Posh is completely behind this. I just hope he doesn't become a creepy scientologist.

Ryan Adams & The Cardinals - 09/09/2006 HOB San Diego

The night started out with Neil, the guitarist, playing a 30 minute solo set with Ryan joining in on drums for the second part. At one point he even went over and played the piano, but no singing. It was a good opening set to get you ready for the full band to come.

Ryan and the band came out and did a little improve about San Diego, sort of a fun way to kick off the night. From there they tore into Please Do Not Let Me Go followed up by A Kiss Before I Go. They played through a couple more songs when Ryan was really into his solo. He got down on the ground and played on his knees. Somewhere along the way as he jammed he ended up getting cracked in the head by the head of the bass. He did quite a number on himself. He stepped off stage to get some ice. Then came back to play a great version of Rescue Blues and then into To Be Young. At that point he needed a break and took off to mend his head.

He came back sortly after to play a few songs solo on the piano. He played Elizabeth to start, but was getting really annoyed by the crowd. People continued to talk and about half the people wanted to listen while the rest, a bunch of drunk idiots, continued to talk and disrupt the show. Ryan seemed pissed as many of us were too. it really was a shitty crowd. There were a lot of people who really didn't know Ryan Adams, they were just there to drink. It was really a disappointment.

He played for approximately 2 1/2 hours playing some classics in the second set like Magnolia Mountain, Cold Roses and Beatiful Sorta. It was getting late and I was really hoping he would pull out a Grateful Dead tune. There it was finishing off the set with a great version of Wharf Rat. He played it better than I've heard Phil or Bobby do with Jerry gone. They finished with a little reprise of the San Diego Improv and the show was over. It was a great show minus the crowd. Certainly well worth seeing.


Setlist San Diego - HOB 09/09/2006:
Set 1:
-------
San Diego
Please Do Not Let Me Go
A Kiss Before I Go
Blue Hotel->
Shakedown on 9th Street->
Door To The Pyramid Jam->
What Sin
The End
Rescue Blues
To Be Young
Dear Chicago

Set II:
--------
Elizabeth
Don't Get Sentimental On Me
Everything Dies
Nightbirds
Sylvia Plath
Trains
Peaceful Valley
Cold Roses
Magnolia Mountain
Beautiful Sorta
Games
Two Hearts
Easy Plateau->
Jam->
Wharf Rat
San Diego Reprise

The Miracle Match - aka - The Beautiful Game

So I picked up this movie last week on DVD. It played briefly in theaters last year and didn't last for more than about a week. So for me it was a matter of wanting to see this because it is a film about soccer. Here's my brief review:

This film is about the coming together of the 1950 US Men's National Soccer Team. There really wasn't a lot of funding in those days for the sport and its popularity was big among the European immigrants. The team was made up mainly of players from St. Louis and New York. Gerard Butler plays the leader of the St. Louis Boys Frank Borghi and Wes Bentley plays Walter Bahr, the leader of the East Coast team.

The movie is more about the building of the relationships of the teammates than it is about the game itself. There were plenty of struggles getting it together. The US Men's National Team played a few warm-up matches that they struggled through. Gavin Rossdale, former lead man of Bush and Husband of Gwen Stefani, plays the English top player Stanley Mortenson. Mortenson brings a team over to the US that just rips them apart. Because of this the US are basically not even recognized in the 1950 World Cup as a contending team. Odds makers didn't even give them a slight chance.

As we already know the US drew England in the first round and basically didn't stand a chance. Against all odds the US team played "The Game of Their Lives." People should already know this as it's in the description of the film so I don't think I'm spoiling anything.

John Harkes, former US player, plays one of the teammates and Patrick Stewart plays the narrator and former player in current day.

It was a good film. It really was more of a movie of the relationships leading up to the final match than it was about soccer. There's some good soccer action, but funny to see Bush frontman playing a top player for England. It gets a little slow at times, but hang in there, it's a good story.

Awesome Picture - What A Cute Kid She Is!

Madeline just wanted to say Hi!

It's Time You Two Twats Move On! Prison Break S1 Review

No movement in the Cashley Cole or Jose Anonio Reyes transfers so far. with all the media hype and now other players are finally getting tired of it. Emmanual Adebayor has come and said that Reyes should just leave. He was quoted as saying "Maybe his family have put pressure on him but in that case he should go because we don’t need unhappy players bringing down our spirit". He's right. The guy might be pretending to be happy at practice, but the reality is he wants nothing to do with the team and this will hurt them if he stays.

Cashley Cole's new book isn't even out yet and it's already set to be in the bargain book section. Hell, it might not actually get published. Here's the sysnopsis of Ashley Cole's My Defence: Winning, losing, scandals and the drama of Germany 2006: His phenomenal skill on the pitch and the controversy which has plagued him off has made Ashley Cole one of the most talked about players in recent years. Here, from inside the England dressing room, he tells the full inside story of their bid for World Cup glory in 2006. But this is also much more than a World Cup diary. Cole talks openly about the 2005 'tapping up' scandal, when he was fined GBP 100,000 by the FA following a meeting with Chelsea's Mourinho and Kenyon in a hotel room, and the media storm that followed. He reveals the ups and downs of his 2005 season at Arsenal, the last at Highbury before the move to a new stadium, and his struggles with injuries and form. And he also, of course, discusses his relationship with Girls Aloud's Cheryl Tweedy and the run-up to their wedding just after the World Cup.

My opinion without having even turned a page of it- CRAP! Don't even waste your time reading this little publicity stunt by Cole. He wants people to think that they will learn the dirt on Arsenal. Complete Bullshit, you need to respect the team you play for and not pull a stunt like this. I think he's just a puppet being handled by his wife Cheryl Tweedy from some crap girl group called Girl's Aloud. He's trying to be too much like David Beckham and won't be able to pull it off.

In non-football news, today we will do a quick review of Prison Break - Season One. This serious which debuted on Fox in the 2005 season became an instant hit. Now the 2nd Season is ready to start on Monday, August 21st and the release of the 1st seasons DVD came out just in time to catch up.
Prison Break is the story about one brothers struggle to save his brother from being executed in the electric chair. Michael Scofield is the brother of Lincoln Burrows, who is on death row. Scofield is a genious and has a very elaborate plan on how to get his brother out. This story is intense from the very first episode all the way to the season finale. You find out about various coverups and conspiracies going all the way up to the top of the political chain. You really can't trust anyone in this show. There is so many twists and turns along the way, you'd wish you had 22 hours to watch this straight through.

August 21st will the start the 2nd season and I can't wait. I highly recommend this one.

Rating: 5 of 5 stars

Talladega Nights Review

In non-football related topics - I saw Talladega Nights this past weekend. If you are a NASCAR or not this moving is pretty damn funny.

The movie stars Will Ferrell as Ricky Bobby who out of nowhere becomes the hottest racer on the NASCAR curcuit. His childhood buddy is played by John C. Reilly and is as equally funny in the movie as Ferrell.

This movie has your typicall Ferrell humor like Anchorman or Old School. Lots of good one liners and a great cast of people including Sacha Baron Cohen (Ali G) as Ricky's rival. Cohen plays a former Formula One French champion who has decided to make a move to NASCAR. Without giving anything away, lets just say he's very funny and has Andy Richter as a sidekick at parts to add more humor to it. Leslie Bibb (Crossing Jordan, ER) plays Mrs. Ricky Bobby and looks as good as ever. Michael Duncan Clark is the crew chief and puts in a good performance as well.

The movie has some good funny moments and some of those typical plot stupid moments as well. Overall it kept me laughing throughout and finished off with outtakes that were as funny as the movie. I recommend seeing it.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Wire & Glass a Review of The Who

The Who released a mini-opera called Wire and Glass a couple weeks ago. This EP is actually segments of the six songs that make up Wire and Glass. The full CD will be release later this year.

The are two parts which include five 1.5 minute segments called Wire and Glass and a full version of the song "Mirror Door". I had a listen through the whole EP a couple of times to get a grasp of the sound they were going for. It's part Quadrophenia and part A Quick One.

The track listing is as follows:
1. Sound Round
2. Pick Up The Peace
3. Endless Wire
4. We Got A Hit
5. They Made My Dreams Come True
6. Mirror Door

I really enjoyed listening to "Sound Round" as it jumps right in and starts strong. From there "Pick Up the Pieces" really continues the beat and rocks. Both with Roger Daltrey on vocals are good songs. I can't wait to hear the full versions of both of them. Next is "Endless Wire" sang by Pete Townshend. This one is a good song, but seems a little out of place unless you are looking at the whole story. The beat slows down and drags on. Now we jump back into "We Got Hit" that is up temp like the first songs. Daltrey back on vocals just rocking out. Now we step back again to a ballad like song sung by Townshend "They Made My Dreams Come True". Again a little more mellow and Townshend, as much as I love the guy, just sounds a bit flat. Hopefully they will re-work this a bit in the final stage. "Mirror Door" is the final song on the EP. It's about a four minute cut. Good sound, good tempo has a bit of a Face Dances feel to me. Still good stuff over all.

I look forward to hearing the full CD along with potentially 4-6 other songs on will be added. "Mike Post Theme" is one of those that they have been playing on tour. Still haven't heard "Man In a Purple Dress", but it is said to be an accoustic song with Roger on vocals and Pete on guitar and no other accompanying them. Keep your eye out for the future release of this cd and check out the US tour coming soon http://www.thewhotour.com/.

Goal! The Dream Begins

GOAL! The Dream Begins was first released in theaters in England about a year ago and didn't have much success there. Well it didn't have much success in the United States either.

This film directed by Danny Cannon (Judge Dredd, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer) tells the tale of a Mexican boy who jumped the fence and snuck across the boarder into the United States along with his father. Like many people who did this, they made their way to Los Angeles to start a new life. Santiago Munez was his name. He worked hard for his fathers landscaping company and loved to play soccer. All he dreamed about was making it in the big leagues one day and then a scout saw him play.

I actually enjoed watching this film even though it resembled the likes of Rudy and Hoosies, just not taking place in Indiana. It's one of those rags to riches stories about the boy who wants to play professional soccer and gets the opportunity but struggles along the way. There's nothing fantastic about the movie, it's just a good fun soccer movie to watch. The downside of the whole thing is that alan Sheerer makes a cameo and I really can't stand the guy even if he is one of the best players.

This is the first in a trilogy of GOAL movies. The second movie will be out in 2006 and takes place with Santiago playing for Real Madrid. GOAL 3 is said to take place with him playing in Argentina, but no confirmation on that yet.

The movie will be out on DVD on September 12th. You can always pick it up or buy it at http://www.amazon.com looks like it will run you $19.99.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Ashburton Grove Opens

Well the new season is ready to kick off and 20,000 fans were invited to members day to enjoy the opening of the stadium and see the team for the start of the new season.

Photo is courtesy of Rick B. Here's a quote from Rick regarding members day: "Not really too much to say about this event. It's a typical training session but in front of a load of fans and schoolkids. Certainly wasn't 20,000 there though!!! It was nice to see Rosicky in a Arsenal shirt for the first time. Aliadiere looks very keen, Barnet as well - lets hope he stays fit.

Stadium - well I suppose it looks ok, the seats are great I'll give them that and I sneaked into the Club Level to see the carpets again - nice. It actually surprised me that when the fans clapped the players, the sound did stay in the stadium, does that mean at least we will get a good atmousphere? We will see on Saturday......" - Thanks Rick for your review.



So there you have it, Saturday is Dennis Bergkamp Day v Ajax. Should be a good time for all those who will be attending. Let's see Dennis off in style.

It will be good to see Rosicky play a match for Arsenal. Wonder if any of the Dutch players will show up this weekend. Can't wait to see how it goes.

Green Street Hooligans Movie Review

Not much new happening the world of arsenal today, so I thought I'd give a review of Green Street Hooligans.

I've been waiting for this movie to come out for quite some time. I noticed it playing in Los Angeles and was waiting for it to make it's way to San Diego. Finally it opened up after 3 weeks of waiting from the initial release.

Greet Street Hooligans is a story of an American who is expelled from Harvard for possesion of cocaine. The problem is that it was his dormmates junk, but he took the fall because of who the kids father was. So with some free time he sets off to visit his sister in London. That's where he meets the sisters brother in-law who takes him to a football match and from there on out he descends into the hooligan football world. It never would have worked if he were an Arsenal fan, but they chose make him a West Ham fan. Could have been Millwall or Cardiff all the same, but neither of them have spent any time in the EPL.

I enjoyed the movie with the exception of one small cheesy point towards the end. Without giving anything away I'll say it involves the sister coming to find him. So taking that piece away, the movie was really well done. It didn't in any way promote joining a Firm and becoming a hooligan. It gave you a little insight into the culture and the way of being. It certainly didn't make me want to go out an join a Firm. I did walk out of the theater feeling a little rage, but that soon went away. There's very little football action shown in the film so if that's what you're looking for you might as well stay home. Thumbs up for me.

If you see this movie and are interested in seeing films of simular content, check out The Firm staring Gary Oldman and Fear Factory.