I hate country music. In all of its forms. I think it’s a pro-conservative, right wing, antiquated form of music best suited for run down bars, filled with whiny, bitching, moaning, chaw chewing, cow poking “stars” who have no idea what good writing is (“Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue” is proof positive), and is a genre so disgusted with itself it’s lost touch with its roots and instead has turned into another form of adult contemporary pop. That being said I like the Dixie Chicks. Not because of their music, granted, they have great voices, but because one day in a concert, they decided to exercise their freedom of speech and tell their fans what they thought of our government. And the fans, the red state hicks they are, hated that, and turned on them.
Tag Archives: Performance
Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic (2005)
At some point, within the tirade of racial jokes Silverman willingly passes, and within the admissions of peeing in her bed, and having unusual body hair, you have to wonder. If she was an ugly utterly huge woman, would we be okay with this? If a heavy woman went on stage and said “I pooed a little,” would we still laugh? It just seems that just because Sarah Silverman is basically good looking, it’s okay to say this stuff, and get out of jail free because—well, she’s hot. And in some way, she seems to know this, and that’s why instead of groaning, the audience simply laughs. I like Sarah Silverman. She’s funny, quick with the put downs, and is very pretty, but “Jesus is Magic” is an uneven balance of skits, musical numbers and stand up comedy, neither of which as uproarious as I would have wished and hoped for.
Manderlay (2005)
The first film in the Von Trier trilogy “Dogville” was a self-righteous parable about evil poor people, the demonizing of impoverished Americans from a man who has never been in America. This is a man displaying his ignorance in “Dogville,” a man who proudly admitted “I’ve never been in America, but this is my perception”. Apparently, this “artist” never thought to research poor people before spitting at us, and he never thought that there are many poor people all over the world. Regardless, I was understandably skeptical about the second film “Manderlay,” but surprisingly, it’s a much better film. I despised this, but I also liked it. It’s not one of those so bad it’s good films, but it’s a film that makes you cringe, and look away embarrassed, but still you end up finding its pleasing in many ways.
Bring it On Again (2004)
Finally, the long awaited–well, not long awaited–finally the much anticipated–well, not anticipated, finally the curiously thought of… well no one actually wanted this. Well, anyway, this sequel of the direct to video status is what you’d suspect is the sequel to “Bring it On”. Now, much to everyone’s surprise, I thought “Bring it On” was an original and very entertaining comedy about cheerleaders and delved in to the sports world of that facet. And it was butchered to death with a company that refuses to know when to quit, and thus, here’s the sequel. Suffice it to say “Bring it on Again” is less a bad movie, and more pointless.
Dogville (2003)
I don’t have a short attention span, I’m willing to invest three hours, maybe four or five on a film that I think will ultimately end up being very good. I’ve seen “Ben-Hur”, and “Giant” and both were movies that were worth spending many hours on. When a film is great, a four hour movie can feel like five minutes and leave you wishing there were more, but when a movie is bad those four hours feel like an eternity, as did “Dogville”. I knew independent art films could be pretentious and rambling, it comes with the package, but I never knew they could be this pretentious and this utterly nonsensical.
Ray (2004)
Ray Charles was a man who took the limits of his skin color that kept him down at the time along with his disability and used it to his advantage with his pure musical genius, his ability to reach beyond the musical genre and discover all sorts of facets of music experimenting. The film directed by Taylor Hackford is a bittersweet inspiring tale of Ray Charles’ life, love, and struggle with drug abuse. Charles played by Jamie Foxx in an amazing performance, is portrayed with the humanity and flaws that give this film the reality it needs and never pulls back. Charles himself picked Foxx after a rigorous test of piano skills and approved him personally, and the film manages to convey all of Foxx’ skill in its entirety.
Standing in the Shadows of Motown (2002)
They were the bass guitars in “My Girl”, they were the pianos in “Cool Jerk” and “You’ve Really Got a hold on me”, and they were the drums in “Ain’t too Proud to Beg” and “Heatwave”, they were “The Funk Brothers”, the most under-appreciated band in music who had more number one hits than the Beatles, Elvis, and the Rolling Stones combined, the people who Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder loved to hang around and learn from as the modern artists featured in the documentary do. Not only does this pay tribute to the artists but it gives them a spotlight of glory that they were never given. The Funk Brothers were a group of men who were a mixture of talented jazz, soul, and club musicians whom were assembled by Motown founder Berry Gordy to play the music to his artists songs, and though some came from different cities and were of different races they became brothers nonetheless.