Welcome back, Popdosers. Did you have a nice Mellowmas break? And is Alan O’Day the best sport in the world or what? I mean, he’s not quite as awesome as Wing, but who is?

Below are magnified fragments of 25 album covers. Most of them are well-known albums, but there are a few obscure covers (or lesser-known albums from well-known artists) mixed in to keep you honest. You must guess both the artist and album cover. In order to keep things simple, live albums, soundtracks and singles compilations will not be used, and with all apologies to our European and Japanese friends, we are going with the covers that appeared in the US record stores…back when we had record stores. Sigh.

The rules are the same as Name That Tune. Each player can make three guesses between updates (“Update” is defined as “The time when I post a comment listing all of the covers that have been guessed correctly”), so everyone will have a chance to contribute. And, just to spice things up, we have a puzzle cover this week, yay! One guess per player of the puzzle between updates, please.

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2) Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome back to The Three Strike Rule.  You’d think I could come up with a better title for this week’s column than that, huh?  Today is my daughter Sophie’s 10th birthday.  When you hear that cliche, “I don’t know where the years went,” believe it.  I have watched a baby grow into an inquisitive toddler, then transform into a bright little preschooler and finally she has become an empathetic (I throw that word around a lot when I discuss my little girl), smart and talented 10-year-old. As I am prone to giving her advice (which she has already begun to ignore), I have opted to dedicate this week’s column to highlighting 10 standout television shows from the past 10 years that I hope Sophie will seek out to be entertained and enlightened.

In the past 10 years, due to DVD box sets, TiVo, and the Internet, we have seen a change in attitudes about television.  No longer is it just considered “disposable” entertainment.  Viewers are seeking out quality programming and making it successful.  Moreover, stars generally associated with motion pictures (once considered the high brow art form) no longer look at television as slumming it.  Instead, actors, writers and directors have taken to TV as a way to create and produce ongoing works of fiction that they wouldn’t be able to do in the expensive film industry.

Since any list is subjective, I’m sure some people will gripe about my selections and what was left off.  I hope so!  he purpose of this great website is ti incite conversation and debates.  In case you’re wondering, my criteria was that the shows selected had to premiere in 1999 or thereafter.  I must confess that I have not seen Dexter and I never went back to The Shield after the first few episodes (i.e. pre-TiVo in the Malchus household).  What I tried to do was pick shows that were consistent in their quality from season to season.  So, even though I loved the first couple seasons of The Sopranos, Six Feet Under and 24, the quality in the writing really started to suffer in subsequent years.  Sacrilege, I know, because The Sopranos is considered by many critics to be the greatest TV show ever.  Oh well, it’s my space, and since this is a special list I want my kid to read someday, these are the shows I feel are the best of the last 10 years.

So, without further ado… Read the rest of this entry »

Resident Evil: Degeneration (2008, Sony)
purchase this DVD (Amazon)

I have to say, I am pretty much the biggest fan of the Resident Evil games. From the moment I played the original version on Playstation 1, I was hooked, and have followed the adventures of Leon S. Kennedy, Ada Wong, Claire Redfield and all the various characters through the years, as they’ve tried to outlive the memory of the outbreak in Raccoon City, which turned the entire isolated community into flesh-eating zombies.

Although Resident Evil didn’t actually initiate the genre of game playing known as “survival horror” as is popularly thought, it did inspire the title, as well as such later iterations as Dino Crisis, Silent Hill and The Suffering, among others. It also spawned its own series of films, each meeting with a fair degree of financial success at the box office.

Now comes the first fully CG movie in the series, Resident Evil: Degeneration, from the game’s developer Capcom and Sony Pictures Entertainment(Japan). It received a release in Japan in actual theaters, and limited release stateside in New York and L.A. before hitting DVD shelves, and with damn good reason; as far as storyline and execution goes, this was a monumental waste of time, money and involvement on the part of everyone from the director on down to the janitor, on a par with the 2001 bomb Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.

The story takes place seven years after the end of the game Resident Evil: Nemesis when the aforementioned Raccoon City was destroyed by a nuclear missile to contain the zombie outbreak. Claire Redfield (voiced by Alyson Court, who portrays the character in the games) is working for an environmental group which responds to bio-hazard outbreaks. She’s meeting a friend at the airport when an unexpected attack upon U.S. senator Ron Davis (Michael Sorich) by an infected man and the crash into the terminal of a plane full of diseased passengers instigates a new outbreak of flesh-hungry Undead. Sent in with a Special Response Team to save the survivors is special agent Leon S. Kennedy (Paul Mercier, who also plays Leon in the games), another Raccoon City escapee. After effecting an escape from the terminal however, Leon and Claire find that even greater dangers lie ahead, as an unnamed terrorist group threatens to unleash the T-Virus (which turns the living into zombies) upon every populated area in the U.S. if their demands aren’t met. The deadline: midnight, which leaves our heroes barely four hours to find and stop the terrorists before America turns into the land of the Undead… Read the rest of this entry »

The Duchess (2008, Paramount)
purchase this DVD (Amazon)

Period pieces have to fight an uphill battle, from the moment a studio decides to press forward and make them. They’re a niche market, to be sure; no computers or other modern contrivances for the characters to use in aid of plot points. No one flying through the sky, either in X-wing fighters or under their own power. Not a lot of rough language, for those of that particular bent. Period pieces have the singularly unique blight of being all lumped together as the same type of story, simply told in slightly different ways each time…in other words: BORING. Aside from 1998’s Elizabeth, which bestowed Cate Blanchett upon the world, one would be hard pressed to find more than a handful of recent period pics that even came close to making their budget back.

The Duchess–released so long ago, back in September of ‘08–was only the latest to not earn returns on its relatively modest $25 mil budget. The U.S. trailer was woefully unremarkable (an obvious result of Paramount Vantage’s marketing division being unable to properly distinguish it), while the U.K. trailer (the film was produced in association with BBC Films)–much more artfully and interestingly done–attempted to draw comparisons between the central character, the Duchess Georgiana Cavendish of Devonshire, and the late Princess Diana of Wales, who was of some blood relation. While the comparisons between their lives–that of women trapped in loveless marriages, unable to fully live their lives as they choose due to duties of family, duty and the confines of aristocracy–are both relevant and accurate, on this point The Duchess was also doomed because of the poor timing of its release. Had the film been released back in 1997 following Diana’s untimely death, it would have done boffo box office biz.

Then again, star Keira Knightley would have only been 12 years old and unable to assume the part…and it is her performance, along with Ralph Fiennes’, which serve as the definitive linchpins of the film. Read the rest of this entry »

…Or at least for a little while. Beginning January 4, Planet Earth’s economic melt-down makes its way to Broadway. And not in the form of a snazzy new musical (which could be ironically entertaining). Rather, on January 4, Broadway shows will start to go down like a kick line of dominoes.  If you have any desire to see these productions, do it now…

13, the Musical, closes January 4
Boeing-Boeing, closes January 4
Grease, closes January 4
Hairspray, closes January 4
Young Frankenstein, closes January 4
All My Sons, closes January 11
Gypsy, closes January 11
Spamalot, closes January 11
Spring Awakening, closes January 11

But not to fear completely, a few new shows will open soon. Spring 2009 will bring revivals of West Side Story, Hair, and Guys and Dolls, as well as a handful of new plays. Although it won’t be a full Broadway line-up, there should be enough playing to keep the TKTS booth open and the tourists happy. And hey, now’s a great time to check out more affordable selections off-Broadway.

Visit theatreiseasy.com for the latest theatre reviews and information.

Well, here we are in 2009. I hope everyone had a great holiday season and didn’t kick anyone in the face or anything. I know I was tempted a few times, mostly while holiday shopping. Now that the holidays are over, we can all get back to our normal lives and our normal insanities, and I can get back to providing you with random movie soundtracks you never knew you wanted to listen to.

I’ve been thinking about what I wanted my first Soundtrack Saturday post of 2009 to be about since early December, but I couldn’t decide. Then, one evening right before Christmas, I watched my tattered VHS copy of a film full of holiday cheer: Less Than Zero (1987). I mean, what better way to get in the holiday spirit than watching rich Beverly Hills kids do drugs and whore themselves out to pay off the debt they owe their dealer? Joy and light, I tell you!

Loosely based on the 1985 Bret Easton Ellis novel of the same name, Less Than Zero stars Andrew McCarthy as Clay, a wealthy college freshman who returns home to Los Angeles for the holidays. He reconnects with a couple of his high school friends, Julian (Robert Downey Jr.) and Blair (Jami Gertz), and discovers they’re destroying themselves in a seedy world of drugs and sex. Less Than Zero also features James Spader as Rip, a drug dealer who’s been hassling Julian about a large sum of money the teenage junkie owes him. I’ve never read Ellis’s book, but I’ve heard he wasn’t pleased with the movie because it has very little in common with what he wrote, aside from the title and the characters’ names. Reviews I’ve read state that one of the biggest differences between the book and the movie is the movie’s anti-drug message. Perhaps Robert Downey Jr. should’ve paid attention to that bit.

Read the rest of this entry »

What is the most important factor in the creation of a movie? Is it a good script, quality acting, or great visuals? Or is it something more? It is my personal belief that it is the filmmaker’s responsibility to create his own world.

Christopher Nolan calls it a “hyper-reality.” One of the reasons his Batman films are so successful is because they exist in a realistic setting. However, this is only true to a point. Strip the cameras away and imagine if this were your world. It is likely that you would be appalled by the actions of Batman.

I like the Clint Eastwood film, High Plains Drifter. It is a surreal Western set in a town called Lago. Eastwood portrays a ghostlike character, almost an angel of death coming to put the sinners of Lago through Hell. It can be argued that this is Eastwood’s cruelest and most amoral character. He rapes women and kills without a thought. Were I to be living in Lago in the 19th century, it’s easy to imagine the disgust I would have for him. However, since it is a very fine film, I accept that it takes place in a world different from my own.

It seems to me that this is the main argument people have when they decry the violence in movies. Most adults realize that films take place in a reality that exists separately from their own. Children aren’t quite able to understand this.

Nevertheless, it must be a reality in the context of the film. Often when films fail, it is because they struggle to form this world. Acting, writing, and cinematography all play individual roles in the creation of this world. Costumes, color palettes, casting, and dialect are all of equal importance. Think about the last film you strongly disliked. Did one of these individual parts fail, thus collapsing the reality? Read the rest of this entry »

Editor’s Note: This kicks off a new series where the Popdose staff reflects on memorable concerts they’ve witnessed. They’re not reviews, per se, but in places may exhibit review-like symptoms.

Some gigs are doomed from the beginning. This one was a failure waiting to happen. First, it was to take place in Worcester, Mass., a town I love for its working-class mentality and music scene that cherishes rock, blues, and jazz. Caught between the major concert towns of Boston to the east and Northampton to the west, Worcester has hungry music fans—lots of them—and a fistful of colleges to fuel the scene. But it just can’t get the top acts to make Wormtown (as the locals call it) a regular tour stop, yet the ones who do find the townsfolk quite appreciative. Covering the city’s concert beat for several years for a local arts-n-entertainment rag has turned out to be one of the most personally rewarding periods of my music-writing career.

Dinosaur Jr. formed out there in western Mass. in 1984, predating college mates and rivals the Pixies by a couple years. They were local heroes. To the fans, at least. Club connections I knew ripped on band leader J. Mascis for being overbearing, demanding, and pompous, irritating them by showing up to sold-out shows (not his own) with large groups of friends and throwing temper tantrums when they couldn’t get in. My assignment was to interview him for an article previewing his upcoming gig at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI, or “whup-ee” as the enrolled like to call it) and he was a flaming dickass to me, answering most of my questions with one or two words and/or a grunt thrown in. He speaks like he sings, by the way, in a half-moaned, half-spoken cadence that recalls Emo Phillips on downers.

Point is, if you’ve ever tried to write a 750-word profile of someone you just realize is not actually worth the idolatry and gave you roughly 14 words’ worth of something to say…well, let’s just say it was a tough assignment. I give Mascis a mulligan; if he does that to me again, he’s on my black list. Enough other people have called him “cool enough” that I’m willing to believe he was having an off day.

But the great thing about writing club previews is that you-plus-one is always on the guest list. DinoJr continues to make great, loud, raucous pop, with occasional gems like “Feel The Pain,” “Freak Scene,” and “I’m Insane,” a little Mellotron-driven ditty from the band’s then-current album Hand It Over. Read the rest of this entry »

Transformers Animated: Season 2 (Hasbro, 2009)
purchase this DVD (Amazon)

I’ve never really been a big Transformers fan, even back in my childhood. I’ve never understood the cultural fascination with them, or how said fascination has lasted so long. They’re robots who turn into cars…wow. And when that hideous live action abortion by Michael Bay stomped its way into movie theaters back in ‘07, based on its stupefying success, I figured maybe I was the one taking crazy pills. And so it was with some trepidation that I chose to review the Transformers Animated Season 2 DVD, which compiles all the episodes which recently aired on Cartoon Network.

I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised.

Not so much that now I’m going to buy stock in Hasbro, the company which produces the toy line which incestuously pairs itself in a 69 position with this series. But I have to say that for a kids’ show that pretty much does nothing but have giant robots fighting each other and doing a lot of property damage, it’s really a quaint bit of fun.

The absolutely best thing that Hasbro did when they reinvented this series (the origins of these characters and their arc are significantly different from the show which ran from 1984-1987) is that they detached it almost completely from Michael Bay’s film–the only true connection being that the heroic Autobots and their nemeses, the Decepticons, are both searching for fragments of the Allspark, the mysterious power source which gave life to all inhabitants of their distant home world, Cybertron. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s 2009, kids, and welcome back to another year of Popdose madness. So… How was your holiday season?

Mine was pretty good. In fact, I would say mine was better than it’s been for many years. I involved myself in various “Secret Santa” projects to help assist some of the folks who weren’t going to have anything for their kids during Christmas. It’s easy to dismiss the notion of ‘canceling Christmas’ as a lame plot device for a cheaply animated holiday special, or a sitcom bereft of ideas, or of another Disney scheme to whore out Miley Cyrus (I mean, come on, it’s gone way too far now.) Yet I was surrounded by stories of people not only considering canceling Christmas, but who had no choice.

I did what I could — which, in the grand scheme of things, was like throwing stones into the sea to turn the tide — but the chance to stave off the hardening cynicism of a child or two confronted with harsh realities, if only for one more season, helped to alleviate my own. During this time, though, I was constantly reminded of what I now consider a flat-out American myth. With the disturbance of our current global financial crisis front and center, I could not help but think of those legends of Depression-era generosity, the magnanimous arm-in-arm unification later found in Frank Capra films (critically derided as Capra-corn) and how we know, deep in our gut, it just couldn’t have been that cut and dried.

That was the nice thing about the good ol’ days and their inherent ignorance - you had newspapers to inform you of what was wrong with the world, but aside from that, there was a state of insulation. Sure, you knew times were horribly tough, but it wasn’t shoved in your face like it is today. We have drenched ourselves with so much media and so much information, as well as the need to make things seem as bad as possible to keep the audience glued to the channel or site, that there’s no way we could fashion such an “apple pie, we’re in this together” sort of mythology now, right? Our impression of the past, then, is based upon not what we know, but what we don’t know. Aside from the monologues about Wall Street fat cats plunging from their offices to their deaths, stricken with the reality of a crashing market and the prospect of having to live among the common folk, we are given a sense of camaraderie about the hard-working, upright, moral populace who shared what they had, did what they could for their fellow man and soldiered on with unwavering confidence in a brighter tomorrow, sepia-tones and triumphal background music intact. Read the rest of this entry »