Smoke Signals 2: Sports, Movies, SMG, and me

Welcome to Smoke Signals my mini blogger on my blog. Just a bunch of random thoughts I've had recently.

-My Facebook at work is not working, everyone else at work has working Facebook. I even downloaded Google Chrome to see if that helped. It didn't. Our IT guy was on my computer today. I wonder if he did something to it.

-As readers of my blog know, I have a crush on Sarah Michelle Gellar. Just found out she and her husband Freddie Prinze Jr. are expecting their 2nd child soon. Which may but the damper on a second season of Ringer. But for now who cares. Congratulations!

-The NFL draft started yesterday. The Ravens had the 29th pick overall. They ended up trading out of the first round for more draft picks. It makes sense, it makes real good sense, but I kind of wanted the Ravens to draft someone in the first round. I watched the whole thing waiting for it. In the end it was a good move and hopefully we will get some good players.

-The Baltimore Orioles who were projected to be a terrible team with at least 100 losses are now in a tie for first place. Now this doesn't really mean much right now since they tend to do good right out of the gate, liek last year they started 6-1 but soon started to fall badly. However this year seems to be different. Their pitching staff is pretty damn good. And they are getting the clutch hits they need. They are 5-1 against The Toronto Blue Jays who were supposed to be a good power this year. They are 0-3 against the Yankees and 1-2 against the Angels, so we shall see. May will be a big month for them. But now it is fun to watch this team.

-I have a zit. At the age of 38. WTF is up with that???

-My family pet Bonnie is not doing to good. She has not been eating alot the last 24 hours and threw up about 6 times last night. I still blame me letting her go out to eat grass. But she is old and she is showing it. Someday I will write a blog about my adopted cats Bonnie and Clyde. Just pray for her.

-Today April 27th is the last Friday before the Summer movie season starts. It's always seemed to be a weird movie day. Releasing a film a week before the first Summer Blockbuster knowing full well that you will be getting killed in your second week is always interesting to me. I will be writing a Summer Movie Rememberance blog sometime this summer. Should be fun.

-Maybe I will write it next weekend after I get back from the Mighty Marvel Movie Marathon. 6 Marvel Comics movies in order in one day, concluding with a midnight show of The Avengers. Starting at 1130am and going til about 230am. Should be interesting.

-I love watching my kids grow up and start to develop their personalities. I also see a lot of me in my kids. Recently Noelle started making up stories on her own and reading them to us. I used to do the same thing when I was a little older then her. In fact I wrote a lot of them down. I had written like 3 books, all about 33 pages long with illustrations, and my mother typed up some of my short stories and laminated them. I hope we can do something similar for Noelle.

That's it for now.

UPDATE: MISSED OPPORTUNITIES

Just a real quick follow up to the blog I wrote on Monday. Discovered yesterday that White Marsh has opened a second theater for the Mighty Marvel Marathon. And who got a ticket? This guy! So one of my opportunities has opened up and now I have put my money where my mouth is. Can't wait.

TOP 105 R.E.M. SONGS OF ALL TIME (63-43)

Welcome to part 3 of my 5 part list of the best 105 R.E.M. songs of all time. Again to re-iterate this is my list of favorites in my order. If you have a different take by all means let me know what you think in the comments section. Again I will have about 5 videos in here as well. Let's move along:

63. LEAVE: From New Adventures in HI-FI: This is one of those songs where when I first heard it. I hated it. The beginning was too much with some every electronic music which I am usually not a fan of. But when I got In Time the best of REM, on the second CD they had a different version of the song and I loved this new version. Gone was the electronic part. But begrudingly I went back and listened to the original one again and voila I liked it. 

62. SITTING STILL: From Murmur: More classic early REM. Just a fun little song. 

61. DISCOVERER: From Collapse into Now: The first track from what turned out to be REM's last studio album is a catchy grabber of a song that actually makes an appearance in the last song of the album. Blue (which was #81).

60. SWAN SWAN H: From Life's Rich Pagent:  Another great song from a great album. This one is pretty interesting and is one of their slower songs. Still good though. 

 

59. STAND: From Green: One of REM's more popular and well known songs is the epitome of peppiness and goofiness. It was also used as the theme song for the long ago sitcom Get A Life starring Chris Elliot and Brian Doyle-Murray.  But is definitly one of the songs most people remember REM did.

58. LOSING MY RELIGION: From Out of Time: This is the song that made REM. This was by far their biggest hit, another of the songs they are mostly known for, and it is grossly misunderstood. It is not an anti-religion song. Listen to the lyrics. It's about losing yourself, not your faith or religious beliefs. Losing My Religion is a Southern term. The video however made it out to be a song about losing the literal religion, that may be where some of the confusion comes from. Regardless, this is the song that propelled REM into the stratusphere and sent them on an incredible journey that most bands would love to have. In the end it is not one of favorite songs, but it is tolerable.

57. TRY NOT TO BREATH: From Automatic for the People: Love this song. A song that tries to be dark and depressing ala Everybody Hurts, but is actually a song about hope. And one of the neatest songs out there.

56. UNTIL THE DAY IS DONE: From Accelerate: One of the songs that slows the speed of Accelerate down, but is another glorious soft song full of hope.

55. SWEETNESS FOLLOWS: From Automatic For The People: The last three songs are a pretty good group to listen to in one sitting. A good retort to Everybody Hurts that is absolutely wonderful.

54. BEAT A DRUM: from Reveal: Another great song to go with the three previous. Another soft hopeful song that REM has been known for. Has kind of a Summery feel to it to go along with the album being called the Summer album.

53. IT HAPPENED TODAY: from Collapse Into Now: What I love about this song is that the actual singing is only about 2 minutes long, and it's a great catchy song. But what nails it for me is the Minute and a half of just music and humming. The Mandolin that was so prevalent in Out of Time makes a reapperance here as well.

52. SUPERNATURAL SUPERSERIOUS: from Acclerate: This was the first song in a really long time by REM that was played on the radio. I remember hearing it on 98 ROCK a number of times. This in turn helped Accelerate get REM back on the charts. It also is a fun song that has some rememberances of going to camp when you were younger.

51. LIFE AND HOW TO LIVE IT: from Reconstruction of the Fables: Like much of Fables I did not like the songs until I started listenting to it more. This one is a good old fashioned rocker, very REM-esqe and I am still surprised at myself for not liking it more when I was younger.

50. SO. CENTRAL RAIN: from Reckoning: "I'm sorry, I'm Sorry..." While a good old fashioned Southern rock song, it is also an apology to a scorned loved one. So. Central Rain is one of their classic songs that when you hear it know immediately that it is REM. It is also one of their first ever televised songs.

 

49. RADIO FREE EUROPE: from Murmur: Their first ever single. Their first ever song that made REM storm onto the scene. At the time it was an Indy wonder. Now it is one of their best songs that epitomizes who REM was.

48. EXHUMING McCARTHY: from Document: REM has always been a political band and this song is another one of their political songs. Though not has overt has Ignoreland or Revolution, this one in a peppy no nonsense way tries to let everyone know that McCarthyism is still around. They even dip into history and pull out a section from one of the McCarthy hearings. "Have you no sense of decency sir?"

47. THE SIDEWINDER SLEEPS TONITE: from Automatic for the People: With it's title it is supposed to make you think of The Lion sleeps tonight, though both songs are nowhere close to being near each other. This song though is a fun one that would have probably felt better suited for the more fun out of Time then the contemplative Automatic For The People.  But there it is, and it is a nice palatte cleanse for the more slower album that is Automatic For the People.

46. BANG AND BLAME: from Monster: The second single from Monster after What's the Frequency Kenneth? This one is one of their classic rockers but without as much electricity as What's the Frequency Kenneth? had. The chorus is a little earwormy, but it has a good opening and is a great fun rocker.

45. DRIVE: from Automatic for the People: The first single from what I still think is their best album leads you right into their contemplative state of mind that the album is mostly about, it also differentiates itself from their previous album Out of Time.

44. MORAL KIOSK: from Murmur: Moral Kiosk is a quirky song that keeps the upbeat tempo of their first album in tact in a fun song that will also earworm you as well.

43. WORLD LEADER PRETEND: from Green: A truly amazing song, a deep song, and one you won't stop thinking about.

That's it for this countdown. Sorry for the delay. Hopefully the next one won't be as late.

Missed Opportunities

Before I get into today's blog. Let me say that I do not like the new blogspot set up. It's cluttered, too much going on, needs to be simpler. I am not a professional blogger who has time to take a look at all the nuances it offers. I just want to write down my damn thoughts. Ok enough bitching.

Today was another in a few missed opportunities that while not life changing would have been fun. I missed out on getting tickets for the Mighty Marvel Movie Marathon. Now I am a huge comic book fan and it has been fun recently with all the comic book movies out there. And you have to give Marvel credit their movies seem to be far better then DC's. They have created a whole universe that reminds you of their comic universe and it is very cool. So far 5 movies have been released in the Marvel Universe with the 6th The Avengers opening up on May 4th, 2012.

Now I had heard about this marathon about a month or so ago. Movie theaters starting at 11:30am on Thursday May 3rd will be showing all 5 movies leading up to the midnight showing of The Avengers. All of it was 40 dollars. Course you would be sitting in a movie theater from 1130am-230am. And that was one of the things that had me hemming and hawing about if I should do this or not. That is close to 14 hours in a movie theater.  I did not know how they would do food their, if they would let us bring things in or were we at their mercy. Plus I could not really take two days off in a row from work, so I would get home around 3-315am and have to get up at 530am and help get the kids ready for school and then go to work for 8 hours with very little sleep. In the end I think a once in a lifetime feel came to me and decided to get the tickets. So I sign up today, all sold out. And it is only at this one theater near me and only one theater is doing this marathon. So no new showings will open up and there are really no other theaters it appears that will be doing this in the area. So I missed out because I hemmed and hawed to much. This is not the first time something like this has happened to me, though it is a little different secnario.

As you may or may not know I am a huge REM fan. They broke up last year and I was Ok with it. They had been around since the early 80s, their later stuff was good, but no where as good as their early stuff. I guess about 3-4 years ago they went on tour to promote Accelerate, which was their next to last album. But it turned out to be their last concert tour. They were going to play at Merriweather Post Pavillion which is in Columbia, Maryland which is near me. Their concert was also going to be in June, about two weeks before my birthday, unfortunately it was also going to be on a Wednesday or Thursday night. I told my wife I would kind of like to go for my birthday present, but I guess I did not push it enough because I did not end up going. REM had a blog I read and they gave the playlist of their concert and I was so pissed at myself because it was an awesome playlist. But at the time I did not know it was going to be their final concert. I was hoping that in a few years they would tour again and this time I would make sure to go. To late.

Is my life any worse for the wear? No, but still I think it would have been two events that would make great stories, or at least good blog entries.

Space: the Forgotton Frontier

Got an email from my sister today. It was about the declining health of my Grandmother. The only one I have left. But after letting me know some news, she switched gears on me and told me she was lucky enough to see the Space Shuttle fly over her school on it's way to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. I thought that was kind of cool and it got me thinking about Space, and my own encounters with the Space Shuttle.

I remember the first time it launched, back around 82 I believe, maybe before. However my friend Michael Leavitt was either over my house to play or we had a sleepover that night. I think he just came over to play because I don't remember having too many sleepovers. Anyway we were playing the boardgame Clue on my dining room table in the house I grew up in when my folks called us into watch the launch of the first Space Shuttle. Space had always fascinated me and soon after that I subscribed to the space magazine Odyssey. It mesmerized me and excited me because I always loved space and space exploration. Found it fascinating. Still do now a days though there really is not too much of it going on.

Another Space Shuttle memory. I was in Middle School playing intramural touchball which was a very cool sport that was a combination of many sports that I don't think exists anymore. Anyway my team was awesome and we were playing on one of the lower fields of Dumbarton Middle School. When someone noticed something in the sky. It was a giant plane carrying the Space Shuttle. It flew over us to destination Florida I guess but it was a massive sight. Then 1986 happened.

I was still in Middle School at the time when January 28, 1986 happened. This day alone is probably what sent the space program reeling and it has never recovered. On that day the first teacher ever was going to rocket into space for a full shuttle mission thus giving ordinary people a chance to go into space. However tragedy struck and the shuttle exploded soon after liftoff killing all on board. The Shuttle missions were shut down for at least a year and a half while investigations went on. Now I was in the cafeteria when the rumor started circulating. Apparently one of the teachers was playing the launch in their classroom. Me and my buddies heard rumors that such a thing happened but we had no proof. So we started talking about how that was impossible. And that it never happened. Then we found out for sure it did. I don't think we got out of school early, but I remember going home and watching the constant replay over and over again.  I also recall on February 1, 2003 when Shuttle Columbia exploded as it was returning from space. I had it on with my wife in our apartment. I think we were on our way to her folks house for a visit when we put it on.  So I have lived through 2 shuttle disasters.

Now the Shuttle is gone. No more missions. And to be honest the missions were boring routine things. Nothing exciting like going to the Moon or Venus or Mars. Just orbiting the earth. And I guess that is fine, but the fact is we have not landed on the moon since the early 70s and we have a few robots and satelites visiting other worlds. But no real talk of of re-visiting the moon or going to Mars. And Space has now become boring. Our space program now is hanging on by a thread because of the situation in Washington and many people saying it is a waste of money to go explore Space when there are so many other problems to solve on Earth. I get it, I do. But we are explorers. Always have been. The Geeks and Nerds are the hot things now, and yet we cannot get money to explore or build new spacecraft. Or even look into new forms of fuel or types of travel so we can explore Space. And the excitement of space exploration is disappearing fast. Soon we will never do any exploring of space and that is sad.

I love space, I love Earth also, but I also believe we should get back to Space being the Final Frontier. Someplace mysterious and scary, and dangerous. I would like to see humans on Mars or Titan. I would love to see more exploration of our solar system. 2014 is going to be huge when we get our first views of Pluto which to me is still a planet, scientists be damned. That is exciting stuff man. i'd like to see more pics of Mars or Mercury, or Titan, all of which have satelites exploring them. I love space and hope that there are enough people out there to get us jumpstarted back on the space highway. Maybe when the aliens come in December 2012 we will then decide, hey maybe we should keep exploring space. Science fact is as interesting as Science fiction.  

Greatish Performances: Antonio Banderas in Spy Kids

Welcome to the second blog in my Greatish Performances section. The first one was a few years ago and focused on Gene Wilder in Willy Wonka. As a reminder this is a blog about a performance, not a review of the movie.

Spy Kids was a fun family film that came out at the tail end of the 90s. Directed by Robert Rodriguez of El Mariachi fame and starring his go to guy Antonio Banderas. Antonio has always been known as kind of an intense actor, starting in movies that filmed overseas and soon he made his way here and married Melanie Griffith, and I think unlike alot of other hollywood couples they are still together.

Anyway Antonio plays Gregorio Cortez a father of two kids and loving husband to Ingrid. The secret is that Ingrid (played by the still hot Carla Gugino) and him were spies who were given an assignment years ago to kill each other, instead they fell in love and got married. Then retired from the spy biz and had kids. Living off of their riches and acting as consultants to other spy agencies. However they still have enemies and he and Ingrid have to downplay their "spyness" thus their kids find them weak parents. But one case gets their motors going again, but they get captured and their kids who now know the truth have to save them.

It's a very unique and cute story, but it is Antonio's deft use of humor from the way he talks to the way he moves and reacts to things that make this film a classic and his performance greatish.

Some of the good stuff. When he was a spy early in his career he had a mustache much like the one in the pic above. He is now clean shaven, but when he is required to go spy he slips on a fake mustache. When Ingrid wants to go on an assignment with him, she whispers seductive things to him and you watch as his resolve melts away. Opening and closing the car door for his wife is one big flourish, over exagerrated in a fun way.  His deft comedic timing with lines and improvs shows that he is a top flight comic actor. He allows anything to happen to him, including having his face smooshed against a glass wall. And just his pure joy that radiates from him during the film proves that he was having the time of his life playing this charming yet goofy role and having the acting chops to do both at various times so that you realize when he is charming, he's not acting charming he is charming, and when he is goofy, it's not just to mug to the camera the goofiness comes out of the situation and the type of person he is.

It's a shame that his role decreases in the other two Spy Kids films he was in. However, the final climatic battle between him and the bad guy in the second film is the one time in that film where he appears to recreate the fun and goofiness he had with the character in one of the all time funniest final battle scenes. In the end Antonio Banderas is a killer action actor, killer dramatic actor, and a truly hilarious comedic actor. I hope to see more of that in the future.

Top 105 R.E.M songs of all time (84-64)

Blog # 2 of the best REM songs of all time. Again this is my list, my choices, my order. If you do not agree or have a comment please let me know. I will again be adding 5 videos and little comments on the next batch of songs. Here we go...

84. LOW: From Out of Time: Considering Out Of Time was a trippy up tempo album, there are a few lower key songs. This is one of them.

83. UNDERTOW: From New Adventures in Hi-Fi: Another guitar charged feedback style song, but kind of a funky tempo and some good guitar licks.

82. MONTY GOT A RAW DEAL: From Automatic for the People: One of R.E.M. 's best aspects is their bizarre songs. This one about Monty Hall of Let's Make a Deal fame. But as bizarre as it is it's quite an entertaining song. Hear for yourself.

81. BLUE: From Collapse into Now: The last REM song on their last studio album is a haunting spoken word song with background vocals by Patti Smith. It also has a repeat of the beginning part of Discoverer which was the first song on the CD giving it a Full Circle feel.  Has some great lines including "3AM Halloween night had enough to drink to have my own party" Haunting.

80. DISTURBANCE AT THE HERON HOUSE: From Document: Another strange little ditty that again is fascinating.

79. ME IN HONEY: From Out of Time: The second duet with Kate Pierson of the B-52s from this album may not be as well known as Shiny Happy people. But is just as peppy.

78. WHAT'S THE FREQUENCY KENNETH?: From Monster: The first single from Monster was a guitar heavy rocking pounding song. The band did it because after two slower albums in Out of Time and Automatic For the People, they wanted to get back to some rocking music. Hence this song. It refers to an incident in New York City in 1986, where news anchor Dan Rather was the victim of an unprovoked attack by one or two assailants who, between beatings, would ask, "what's the frequency, Kenneth?" The previous statement was from Wikipedia.

77. HARBORCOAT: From Reckoning: A good early song from the band. Took me awhile to warm up to it, but again when I got older liked it alot.

76. ANIMAL: From In Time: The best of REM: A new song to go with one of their greatest hits compilations. This is a raw rocker with Michael Stipe screeching "I'm an Animal..." and it works. A rough and tumble song.

75. KING OF BIRDS: From Document: "100 Million birds fly away..." a great visual in one of these underrated songs that not a lot of people would have heard about. But is a very intense longing of a song. And it's brillant.

74. CAN'T GET THERE FROM HERE: From Fables of the Reconstruction: Fables of the Reconstruction is REM's 3rd album and the original cover had both Fables of the Reconstruction and Reconstruction of the Fables. Most prefer Fables as do I, but either title is approriate. Anyway Can't get there from here used to be lower in the countdown, but the more I listened to it compared to some of the other great songs off the album it got pushed up to 74. A poppy, peppy song that is pretty good.

73. I DON'T SLEEP I DREAM: From Monster: A fantastic rocker off of a mediocre album. Worth it also to hear Stipe's higher register in his singing voice.

72. YOU ARE THE EVERYTHING: From Green: REM has always claimed never to write love songs, but I find that hard to believe considering some of the songs on this list. Of course they may have wanted to distance their indie love songs from mainstream, and this one is a good example.

71. THE LIFTING: From Reveal: I love this song. So unique and another good example of what makes REM unique, strange songs that have you wanting to keep listening to them.

70. NIGHTSWIMMING: From Automatic for the People: This is one of my friend Ellyn's favorite songs. Now I like it a lot, but there are 69 other songs I would like to listen to. But that being said. A bittersweet song about the loss of innocence and getting older while trying to hold onto your past. A very sweet song and part of in my opinion REM's greatest album. Can't beat it.

69. GARDENING AT NIGHT: From Chronic Town: REM's first mainstream album was Murmur, but before that there was Chronic Town that only had 5 songs on it. This is one of them, and there is one other one which I reveal later. This song is the first look at what REM would become, unlike some of the other songs on the album this one is the most like REM.

68. WELCOME TO THE OCCUPATION: From Document: Another great early rocker that started to show the more mainstream of REM. Great song.

67. TALK ABOUT THE PASSION: From Murmur: The Second single from theirdebut album is another sweet song.

66. THE WAKE-UP BOMB: From New Adventures in Hi-Fi: An in your face, explosive song that starts strong and never let's go. Good Rocker on a great album.

65. COUNTRY FEEDBACK: From Out of Time: When I first heard the song. I hated it. I was never a big fan of feedback songs. But as per the course with me the more I listened the more I loved it. And to me it is one of the quintessential songs that proves that REM is southern rock at it's best.

64. DISAPPEAR: From Reveal: Much like Country Feedback. I hated this song upon first hearing it. But again once I got past some of the feedback/background noise it is actually a very haunting song that digs into your brain and may freak you out a little bit.

That's all for now!