Classic Movies: Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960)

Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, is probably the director's most famous film. It's now hailed as one of his best, however, critics  weren't very thrilled with Hitchcock's venture into the horror genre when the film was released in June 1960. Whether Psycho qualifies as a "horror" film is open to debate, but the film's macabre elements and the violent way in which those elements were presented was regarded as a step down for Hitchcock who, in previous...

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Top Fives - The Best of The Beatles

According to John Lennon, the Beatle who sang lead vocal on a song was usually the main songwriter. So, here are my favorite Beatle songs determined by who I believe is the main songwriter of the tune. The Beatles started song writing right from the beginning. Their first album included a mixture of original tunes such as Love Me Do, Do You Want to Know a Secret, PS I Love You along with cover songs ranging from girl groups, R & B, pop classics...

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Book Review: The Soundtrack of My Life by Clive Davis

Back in 1974 I read a book called Clive: Inside the Record Business and it remains one of my favorite non-fiction books. Still have the paperback edition. I was not many years from being a musician at the time, so reading about the inner workings of the record business was interesting and enlightening. Now we have Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of My Life which is an updated version of that 1974 book in my estimation, covering his early years as...

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Movie Review: The Master (2012)

Philip Seymour Hoffman is well cast as cult leader Lancaster Dodd in The Master, the 2012 film from director Paul Thomas Anderson. Unfortunately, Hoffman's performance is caught in a script that flounders around from one disjointed scene after another. So many scenes come and go and are never developed. For instance, there's a scene where Dodd's married daughter makes a pass at Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix) while a group of cult followers are...

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Osibisa – Joyful Music

Osibisa hails from West Africa, specifically Ghana but they started recording in London in the late 1960's. The band was a bit of a sensation in the mid 70s and their popularity continues today, even though you've probably never heard of them. They've been labelled World Music, AfroPop, Highlife, but I would call them jazz/funk due to their incredible rhythms and sensational horn solos including flute, flugelhorn and trumpet, along with an amazing...

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Rock 'n' Roll Will Never Die — But it Did (Part 1)

... at least, it did for me sometime in the mid 1990's. The scene had changed. Boy bands, hip hop, rap, grunge, spicy girls dominated the charts and it didn't do much for someone who'd grown up with Elvis, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, the Blues, Otis Redding, James Brown, Sam & Dave, Isaac Hayes, Motown .... I'm not trying to knock the "rock" music of today — every generation has their musical heroes --...

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Book Review: Sanctus by Simon Toyne

Once in awhile I buy a book on impulse, never having heard about the author or the book, but simply due to the cover art and the brief plot summary. In the past, this impulse has led me to some great authors and books, including Relic, by Preston and Child as well as John Connelly's The Killing Kind. If you're into reading thrillers, then standing in a book store skimming a copy of Sanctus will definitely get you excited. The art work is top...

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Random Thoughts - Shadows

We live in a world of shadows. Shadows of our ancestors. Shadows of ourselves. Shadows of lost loves and crossroads never taken. Within these shadows lay secrets and dreams that haunt and mystify. During the darkness of night, shadows blend into and invade our dreams. Thoughts become like shooting stars bouncing around in our brain. Shadows capture our thoughts, infiltrate and inflate our desires and secretly transform what might be into what...

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Damages: The Face of Evil?

This is the face of evil. Take a close look. Glenn Close plays super lawyer Patty Hewes in the series Damages and this is the final shot of the series finale which ended in 2012. The camera lingers on her face for a full 40 seconds, and it's quite fascinating to watch since those viewers of all five seasons of Damages know without a doubt that she really is the personification of evil. Glenn Close has one of those scary faces that just screams...

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Classic Movie: The Name of the Rose

The Name of the Rose is a perfect example of what a great movie should be. It should take you to places you've never been before and it should enlighten you in some way while providing an intriguing story, excellent characterization and ... oh yes, it certainly helps if the director is able to pull off something unique that hits you in the core of your gut and makes you ponder about life and your place in the scheme of things. That's a lot...

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