Sir Ian McKellen is to return to the Shire after accepting the role of Gandalf in the next instalment of JRR Tolkien’s Middle Earth fantasy. The 68-year-old star played the part in the hugely successful Lord of the Rings trilogy directed by Peter Jackson and yesterday told Empire magazine that he would return as the all-powerful wizard in a two-film adaptation due to be filmed in New Zealand. “Yes, it’s true,” said McKellen. “Obviously, it’s not a part that you turn down; I loved playing Gandalf.”
Movie geeks, film fans and fantasy freaks are rejoicing across the world as we speak!
This year’s three-day Coachella Music & Arts Festival in Indio, CA was light years ahead of the same event I attended two years ago when Madonna, Tool, The Scissor Sisters and Daft Punk performed. The complete organization and prompt concert line up were very impressive.
I highly recommend Coachella to all concert lovers, Burning Man fans, and people who love to meet new people and see exciting art installations. The vibe is positive all around and people are more pleasant than you would think. Add to that a brilliant line-up, comfortable camping conditions, constantly cleaned porta-potties, private showers, an expansive and eclectic food court and giant beer gardens. I cannot say strongly enough how much this event is a must for anyone looking for a fun group annual outing.
WE WERE THE SECOND GROUP OF CAMPERS TO ARRIVE AT THE HUGE POLO FIELDS FOR THE GROUP CAMPING
Here are reviews for each of the acts I saw this year :
COACHELLA DAY ONE:
THE “SAHARA” DANCE TENT
DJ MEHDI -
I had no idea who this DJ was but was pleasantly surprised by his 80’s dance/pop-influenced mix. Mixing Janet Jackson and other pop divas, DJ Mehdi blew the roof off the dance tent. This was the perfect set to start off a blistering hot day of bumping beats.
MIDNIGHT JUGGERNAUTS - Of all the dance acts, this Australian threesome had me the most excited. Unfortunately they didn’t deliver the same freshness I recently heard on their debut CD “Dystopia.” I was pleasantly surprised to see the members playing instruments instead of tweaking out on a sound board and keyboards.
THE BREEDERS - It was fun to see Kim Deal and company go back to their grunge rock roots at a festival again (I saw them at Lollapalooza about 15 years ago). The classic modern rock group played all their hits including “Divine Hammer” which took me back to 1994 and had me dancing like a fool all over again.
WATCH VAMPIRE WEEKEND PERFORM BELOW:
VAMPIRE WEEKEND - The year’s most hyped and creative band (so far) played a breezy, fun set to an overheated crowd as the sun began to go down. Their music was perfect for cooling off and feeling good. The young hip college kids couldn’t get enough.
GOLDFRAPP - After playing two of their new, slower singles the crowd began to thin out, allowing me to get closer just as Alison Goldfrapp and company began to rock the house with their futuristic brand of disco funk. Their loss was my gain and I danced like a rock star again.
WATCH GOLDFRAPP PERFORM BELOW:
THE VERVE - Even though I only saw The Verve perform their breakthrough hit, “Bittersweet Symphony,” it was worth it just for bragging rights. Richard Ashcroft never looked or sounded better.
APHEX TWIN - This set was the most aggressive, scary, annoying, mean sound I heard at the whole festival. I’m not saying that they weren’t a hit with the crowd — I’m just saying that they made me want to beat someone up.
SHARON JONES & THE DAP KINGS - I am so pissed that I only got to see one song from this soul sensation, but the song I saw Ms. Jones perform was a mind-bending experience. She lost her mind and got the Holy Ghost barefoot singing out her heart. This was a powerful performance and it was just one song.
WATCH SHARON JONES PERFORM BELOW:
FATBOY SLIM - I was hoping for a bit more from this set but wasn’t let down by Fatboy’s live mixing style. He sounds less gimmicky and cheesy live then he does on some of his full-length CDs, but I must say that I wasn’t that impressed.
COACHELLA DAY TWO:
THE BIRD & THE BEE - This cutesy all girl group was a sweet way to start the day. Their airy brand of 60’s elevator music was fun and innocent enough to enjoy.
VHS OR BETA - I have been waiting to see this group for a long time and the payoff was well worth it. The second day of Coachella got off to a rocking start with their catchy brand of rock n’ roll, which sounded a lot like The Cure.
MGMT - This group had a lot of buzz and the tent in which the show was held was overflowing with people in 115-degree heat. They sounded pretty good and original, but the venue was so intense I couldn’t stick around for the whole thing.
WATCH BOYZ NOISE PERFORM BELOW:
BOYZ NOISE - This super fun DJ set was a surprise because of the high energy, techno sound and brilliant samples. The dance floor moved with the fun energy of these remix masters.
KATE NASH - After dancing my ass off, Kate Nash was a great way to cool down. Her voice was a strong and effective blend of sweet girlie lyrics and witty vocal styling. The mostly female crowd ate up every minute of this set.
HOT CHIP - This was my favorite dance experience of the whole three days. Hot Chip knows how to throw a dance party with their loud cheeky dance music. Their hour-long set drew a huge crowd that braved the direct sun just to dance to their music.
WATCH HOT CHIP PERFORM BELOW:
DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE - Besides dissing Prince, Death Cab for Cutie didn’t impress me, although I did sing every lyric of my favorite song of theirs, “Soul Meets Body,” as loud as I could. It was a magical moment that sounded just like their CD.
RILO KILEY - As the sun went down Rilo Kiley played their brand of chilled-out Southern California rock ‘n roll to a crowd of wiped-out fans. This was the best comedown-from-dancing rock act of the day and it was the perfect way to cool off.
ME AT MARK RONSON WITH DAVID HASSELHOFF
MARK RONSON - My favorite experience of the whole three-day event was when Mark Ronson brought out a parade of Brit-pop stars to sing his hits. Kenna, the lead singer of The Kaiser Chiefs, and The Charlatans all helped Mark Ronson give the most mind-blowing set of the entire festival. It was a history-making experience AND I met David Hasselhoff!
MARK RONSON
WATCH MARK RONSON PERFORM BELOW:
PORTISHEAD - Portishead played at the first hint of night with an eerie and somber set that packed the main stage with people in a daze. The electro pioneers played all of their trip-hop hits along with some new stuff to thousands of tripping fans who were mesmerized by their performance.
SASHA & DIGWEED - I love dance music but this show was like popping in a CD at my house, it had no human touch or emotion. There was nothing authentic or original about it. Maybe it was all the awesome live acts I had just seen, but this repetitive electronic dance music just didn’t do it for me.
CALVIN HARRIS
CALVIN HARRIS - Calvin Harris was my second favorite performance of Coachella 2008. I don’t think many people knew who he was or what he was capable of because as soon as he started his act, the roof blew off the tent and people started swarming. I danced my ass off and was in heaven when he played the hot track, “Vegas.” After walking up to him near the beer garden earlier in the day I can confirm that he truly is smoking hot in person.
WATCH CALVIN HARRIS PERFORM BELOW:
PRINCE - Right before Prince began to play, all of the lighting at Coachella turned purple. No other act went up against Prince and that was the right thing to do. Prince played every hit and dissed all of his haters. It didn’t hurt that he brought this friends Sheila E and Morris Day and the Time with him. This was history in the making, folks. He played The Beatles’ “Come Together” and made sure to remind us all “this is my house!”…and it was!
COACHELLA DAY THREE:
PERRY FARRELL - I had no idea Farrell was going to play all of Janes Addiction’s best hits. He even performed a dance version of “Been Caught Stealing,” that made me squeal like a teen girl. This little surprise made me lose my gay mind.
DIMITRI FROM PARIS
DIMITRI FROM PARIS - My favorite DJ of all time made sure he played enough French house and disco inspired tracks to keep the crowd going crazy. I was not surprised he won over thousands of people who obviously had no idea who he was. This was unpretentious old school dance music with lyrics we all knew! His remix of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” tore up the dance tent.
WATCH DUFFY PERFORM BELOW:
DUFFY - Duffy played the perfect set to calm down from a dance frenzy. Her soulful set was calming and she sounded as clear as she does on her debut CD “Rockferry.” I even got to meet her in the dance area know as Do-Lab “The Mushroom Garden” (picture below). Not only does she sound lovely but she looked sweet as pie as well.
DUFFY
JESSE MURPHY (BRAZILLIAN GIRLS) - What a rare treat this performance this was! Murphy’s remix of The Smiths “Big mouth Strikes Again” at the Do-Lab “Mushroom Garden” wet grass dancefoor had me in a gay tizzy! I screamed and danced until I had a heart attack, then I passed out from all the excitement. What fun!
BOOKA SHADE - This dance act was another sweet surprise and a great hour of booty shaking beats. Despite the unbearable heat people couldn’t avoid dancing to the funky fresh dance tracks these guys laid down in the blaring sun.
DANNY TENAGLIA - Once again I became over saturated with dance music in the high heat of the day and I had to leave once Danny’s music became too repetitive and robotic with no sense of real fun.
WATCH GOGOL BORDELLO BELOW:
GOGOL BORDELLO - These gypsy punk rockers from Eastern Europe had the massive crowd at the main stage swirling in a massive mosh pit. Their fun blend of world music and melodic punk rock made me an instant fan.
METRIC - Metric played a soothing and charming set as the sun began to trickle over the palm trees on the horizon. Their soft rock sound was the best way to calm down after a day of non-stop dancing.
WATCH MY MORNING JACKET PERFORM BELOW:
MY MORNING JACKET - My favorite stoner rock band didn’t disappoint their legion of hippy/jam band fans by playing all their hits and some new tracks which have me drooling at the mouth for their new CD out next month. This group knows how to play a sun set and put you in a good space.
SIA - The female voice of the band Zero 7 played tracks from her terrific new solo CD and then she played one Zero 7 song, “Destiny.” After a day that wiped me out this was another great song set to lie out and relax to.
SIA
ROGER WATERS - This was the most anticipated show of the day and people were obviously emotional as Waters played hits from “The Wall”, “Wish You Were Here” and “Dark Side of the Moon” in its entirety. This deeply moving experience was truly breath taking to watch and Waters voice sounded gorgeous. I am so glad I was able to see this show and be a part of something legendary.
WATCH A CLIP OF ROGER WATERS PERFORM BELOW:
SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO - The dance tent suddenly exploded with bouncing heads and a crazy light show as soon as these guys came on. Their crafty blend of dance music and hilarious lyrics had the crowd going insane.
CHROMEO - This group started off with a bang but then became a bit too repetitive and cheesy. The electro-voice recorder sound effects and early 80’s rap knock of their songs didn’t sustain the energy of the first few tracks. This was another slightly disappointing band that I had high hopes for.
WATCH JUSTICE PERFORM BELOW:
JUSTICE - Just like their techno influences (Daft Punk) Justice decided to create an experience rather than just play tracks from their CD’s. These guys built up songs that exploded making a frenzy in the crowd that was crazy to witness. Closing out Coachella should always go out with a similar bang as Justice provided.
The summer movie season started with a stoned whimper this past weekend with the let down sequel to the cult pot smoking comedy “Harold & Kumar go to White Castle”. Unfortunately this movie is no where near the laugh out loud brilliance of its predecessor. But something tells me if you smoke enough weed this movie will satisfy your inner child who still laughs at fart jokes.
The premise of this film would have been funnier if the boys were shown gallivanting across Europe instead of being sent to Guantanamo Bay. The political humor in “Harold & Kumar 2″ feels like it is from another sophomoric comedy, it just feels out of place in a stoner buddy film.
The love story in this film takes over the boy’s endless search for the perfect stoner food, which was the plot for the first “Harold & Kumar” movie, and it ruins the sequel. Somehow this movie became a love story/romantic comedy which is just lame. I’d rather see the boys taking hits off a bong watching TV then hear them talk about girls.
The few jokes that do work in this film only do so because of the charming and moronic relationship between the titular characters. Kal Penn and John Cho are the only thing that keeps the rehashed jokes and familiar gags from sinking this film completely.
I love the silliness and random jokes in the original film, but this movie is just too scattered and ridiculous to be compared to the first. The only thing I can recommend this film for is just to see Neil Patrick Harris tripping balls on mushrooms…it’s worth the DVD rental alone.
“Squidbillies” is an animated television series produced by Williams Street Studios for the Adult Swim programming block of Cartoon Network. The animation is done by Radical Axis, with background design by Ben Prisk.
It was created and is written by Dave Willis of Aqua Teen Hunger Force fame and Jim Fortier, with whom he’d previously worked on Space Ghost Coast to Coast. The show revolves around a family of anthropomorphic hillbilly squids—The Cuyler family—who live in the north Georgia mountains in poverty.
The series has been renewed for a third season of 20 episodes, which began airing and being uploaded to iTunes on January 20, 2008. You can catch reruns of “Squidbillies” in Adult Swim or purchase the season one DVD set (like I did) to catch the episodes you missed.
Not only is this show crass, nasty and warped, but it is downright hilarious and laugh-out-loud funny. Watch an episode of the subversive, brilliant and funny animated show below:
I just purchased a copy of the Midnight Juggernauts debut CD “Dystopia” and my review will be coming next week, but let me just say it is already my favorite dance/electronic album of 2008. I will be seeing this Australian dance threesome at the Coachella Music Festival this week (I can’t wait).
Their futuristic space age rave sound sounds a lot like electro pioneers Daft Punk. The music video below for “Shadows” is sleak and sexy as hell. Here is just a taste of what may be the biggest breakthrough band of 2008 below:
“Hamlet 2″ is an upcoming comedy film written and directed by Andy Fleming and starring Steve Coogan, Catherine Keener, Amy Poehler, and David Arquette. It was produced by the same team that made “Little Miss Sunshine.”
In this irreverent comedy, a failed actor-turned-worse-high-school-drama teacher (the hilarious Steve Coogan) tries to save his department from budget cuts by staging an incorrect musical sequel to Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
Steve Coogan is one of the UK’s most hilarious comedians and actors. He has had little success here in the States, but after viewing this movie trailer I am convinced this film will be a mild hit. Besides being a major crowd favorite at this year’s Sundance Movie Festival, critics are already praising this drop dead comedy as a winner!
The Spirit (also known as Will Eisner’s The Spirit) is an upcoming 2009 American film adaptation based on the newspaper strip The Spirit created by Will Eisner. Frank Miller (”300″ and “Sin City”) wrote and directed the film, which stars Gabriel Macht as “The Spirit” and Samuel L. Jackson as his nemesis, The Octopus. The movie’s release is scheduled for January 16, 2009.
The film series will not begin with an origin story, but will instead open with the adventures of The Spirit already having begun.The film will be more contemporary than the ’40s and ’50s era of the strip and will aim for a “timeless feel.” Check out the trippy comic book style movie trailer below:
Out of all of the guilty pleasures that I am ashamed to admit to in music, this is my biggest folks. I know I sound like a hypocrite with my anti-Britney stance but I can’t get over Ashlee Simpson’s non-stop fun pop song hit factory. Her bubble gum sweet brand of lip synching friendly radio tunes are at their best on Simpson’s third (and best to date) studio album. Packed full of catchy Gwen Stefani riffs and 80’s inspired tracks, “Bittersweet World” is an instant iPod favorite of mine already.
Simpson worked on this album with producers Timbaland, Chad Hugo, and Kenna. It has been described by Simpson as a “fun party album” with a “silly and quirky” side and some influence from 1980s music. She has also described it as having a more beat-oriented sound than her first two albums, “Autobiography” and “I Am Me”, although still retaining some of those albums’ guitar-based sound.
The insanely original catchy singles “Hot Stuff”, “Boys” and “Outta My Head” deserve to blow up this summer. “Rule Breaker” is a deliciously bratty Pat Benatar-like rock n’ roll fist-pumper. The fake punk snarls and rebel girl attitude in songs like “Beat It” and “Rag Doll” would come off silly if it weren’t for Simpson’s fabulously husky “voice”.
Even the ballads “Bittersweet World” and “Little Miss Obsessive” have an original rock edge that caught me off guard, both could even be minor hits. This album is quite the fun little pop find if you can get past all of Simpson’s recent “SNL” and nose job drama that has made her a star up to this point. This album is proof that there is someone other than Britney worthy of the pop princess crown.
“Forgetting Sarah Marshall” was written by the film’s star Jason Segal (”Knocked Up” & “Freaks & Geeks”) and stars Kristen Bell (”Veronica Mars”), Paul Rudd, Russell Brand, Bill Hader (”Saturday Night Live”), Jonah Hill (”Superbad”), Mila Kunis (”The Family Guy” & “That 70’s Show”) and Jack McBrayer (”30 Rock”). This genius comedy is produced by current Hollywood comedy king Judd Apatow (”40 Year Old Virgin”).
Going into “Marshall” it was hard not to hold it up to Apatow brand name and compare it to his past work. I’m glad to report that the sweet and down to earth style we all have come to love from Apatow and his crew of actor’s is not only in tact, but this film is just as good as his best films. “Marshall” is already one my favorite films of 2008 and one the best comedies of the past ten years in my eyes.
Most of the warmth and belly laughs from this movie come from the fresh real guy charm of its star Jason Segal. Segal’s career is sure to sky rocket after this film’s word of mouth makes this another comedy sleeper hit for Apatow. Besides being hilariously funny, it’s also rather insightful, with some very smart dialog.
Props also go to Mila Kunis who gives a career making comedic performance as Segal’s love interest. The hilarious cast of supporting characters also make this an endearing and fresh adult comedy with all the right potty jokes to make it smart and silly. All I know is I had a smile on my face through almost every scene and laughed out loud more times than I can count. This is the perfect comedy to get adults ready for what looks to be a smoking summer movie season.
I stumbled upon this kooky little trailer on the net recently and it instantly charmed me and won me over. Sir Ben Kingsley is one of the best actor’s in Hollywood. This quirky yet sweet premise and trailer are sure to win the hearts of many art house independent movie fans.
THE WIKIPEDIA SUMMARY OF “THE WACKNESS”:
“The Wackness” is about a troubled high school student named Luke Shapiro (Josh Peck), a teenage pot dealer who forms a friendship with Dr. Jeffrey Squires (Ben Kingsley), a psychiatrist and kindred lost soul. When the doctor proposes Luke trade him weed for therapy sessions, the two begin to explore both New York City and their own depression.
I will be the first to admit I have strange taste in movies. Below I have posted some of my favorite genre flicks of all time. Each of the movies posted below has a special place in my wide array of “varying favorite films”.
“Gummo” has to be the most bizarre and disturbing film I have ever talked about on this blog. It is not an easy movie to watch. With a plot that is hard to describe because it plays out like real life, “Gummo” is a strange trip indeed.
“They Live” is in hindsight a low budget cheese fest, but below it’s 80’s camp exterior there is a smart genre defining creepy premise that has been duplicated numerous times by other such mind bending films such as “The Matrix” and “Dark City.” Check it out if you like a good Sci-Fi film and can get over the low production values and bad special effects.
“Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me” is the perfect movie to watch if you are not familiar with the series. Watch this film first, then the 2 hour TV series pilot AND then the complete TV series on Netflix (in that order) and you will appreciate the kooky love affair geeks have had with this show for years.
“Heavy Metal” is a classic with animation fans, late 70’s early 80’s heavy metal enthusiasts and stoners for years. In case you have never seen or heard of this it is not for kids! The animation may seem crude compared to Pixar masterpieces but the adult humor and themes are pretty cool. Animated drug references, exaggerated gore and nudity have a place in animation if done right…and this cartoon does it well.
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