Tears of a Rapper

If you hadn't noticed, Bret & Jemaine are back for Season 2. Get me a small man's wet suit, please.

Not to Mention the Hypotenuse

Telly and James Blunt together at last. I especially like the slow motion dance sequences. Also, since I have nobody else in mind, I might as well declare James Blunt Entertainer of the Month while I'm at it.

Let the Fiery Madness Begin

Euro 2008, the world's fourth most watched sporting event in any given four-year period (behind the World Cup, the Summer Olympics, the Winter Olympics, but ahead of the Super Bowl) is underway in Austria and Switzerland. Since I have no horse in the race, I will jump on Croatia's bandwagon because their team's anthem is "Fiery Madness" (seen below, 3:56) and it was written by their coach. I will have more comments on Euro 2008 at the tournament's conclusion.

Entertainer of the Month: Art Garfunkel

Entertainment News' Entertainer of the Month of May is none other than the "Old Pop Warrior" Arthur Ira Garfunkel. Though he'll always be remembered as Paul Simon's sidekick, to me he represents a time when music was simple and singers could actually sing. One of the best concerts I've ever been to was a few years ago when I had the opportunity to go see Art Garfunkel live with the Utah Symphony as part of his Across America Tour. You see, back in the mid 1980's, Art developed an interest in long-distance walking. Over the next decade or so he spent chunks of each summer walking across America until he finished in 1996. Along the way he would perform concerts. The great thing about going to an Art Garfunkel concert as opposed to a Paul Simon concert is Paul Simon is going to sing his new stuff, whereas Art Garfunkel mainly sings songs you would find on the Simon & Garfunkel's Greatest Hits album. Don't get me wrong, I like Paul Simon's solo work, especially Graceland, but it's not as beloved as the stuff he wrote when he was with Garfunkel. So at the concert in Salt Lake, Art sang most of the hits from the old days like "Scarborough Fair," "Mrs. Robinson," and of course "Bridge Over Troubled Water." In fact most of his albums are a mix of the old S & G hits with some original stuff. Speaking of the hits, below is clip (4:41) from the Concert in Central Park in 1981 in which Simon & Garfunkel performed before 500,000 people. The song is "The Boxer" and early on you can see Garfunkel screw up by singing "I have squandered..." a bit early. I love the look Paul Simon gives him. Up next for Art is a European tour. In October of this year he will stage concerts in the UK, Holland, Belgium, Sweden and Denmark.

Crazy Hobbits

Below are the two greatest Lord of the Rings music videos ever made. The first is "Leonard Nimoy's Ballad of Bilbo Baggins" (1:37), circa 1968. The second, "Frodo, Don't Wear the Ring" (1:45), is from last night's episode of Flight of the Conchords.

Projectionists: One Pant Leg at a Time

In New York last week, families expecting to see PG-rated The Last Mimzy starring Rainn Wilson (Dwight from The Office) instead got the opening for The Hills Have Eyes II which apparently includes a rather graphic opening sequence where a woman gives birth to a deformed baby. The children in the audience were traumatized, especially the 3-year-old whose mother is pregnant. How could this have happened? Easy. The projectionist screwed up. This news story takes me back to my days as a movie theater projectionist. For two years while I was in high school I worked at the Cineplex Odeon at South Towne Mall in Sandy, Utah. You know, the building in the corner of the parking lot that is now an REI. To this day that remains the best job I've ever had, maybe not in terms of pay, but it was the most fun I've ever had at work and the benefits were awesome: free movies and fountain drinks, access to garbage bags filled with popcorn and second dibs on movie posters (first dibs went to the management, but I still managed to get my hands on some pretty cool posters for my collection). I've also got a bunch of movie trailers on 35 mm film. Of course I have no way of watching them. Included among my collection is the music video to Tom Petty's "Into the Great Wide Open" starring Johnny Depp (seen below, 6:32). It's probably worth something now, and will go up in value once theaters are entirely digital. That brings us back to the mishap in New York. I will explain how film projectors work these days. A film arrives at a movie theater a day or two before it opens in big canisters. Most movies are five or six reels long. The projectionist will then take the reels of film and splice them together into one giant reel that is maybe four feet in diameter and put it on a giant platter. Typically, the projector will have next to it a stand that holds three platters. In the case of the mix up in New York, one platter had Mimzy, another had Hills 2 and the third one was empty. During the early screenings, Mimzy runs from its platter, through the projector and onto the empty platter where it is collected. The film is pulled from the center as the platter turns so the film doesn't get twisted. There is no need for rewinding because the film just runs from platter to empty platter. In the evening, it's Hills 2's turn. You can see how the mix up happened. All projectionists screw up. The question is how badly. Luckily, my worst problems consisted of starting a movie 15 minutes late and mixing up the sprocket count so when the movie transitioned from Reel 2 to Reel 3 it jumped out of frame (each frame has four sprocket holes on either side. You can't splice a full frame to 3/4 of a frame or the film won't stay in frame). In my time working at the Odeon, I was able to witness the far worse projectionist errors of others, like putting reels together out of order or worse, putting a reel on upside down and backwards. Good times. Anyway, the whole experience made movie going less fun for me. It bothers me when conditions in a theater aren't perfect, probably more so than average movie goers, although they bother me too, but that's the topic for another post.

Sconefest 9: The Soundtrack

The Official Soundtrack for Sconefest 9: The Farewell Party was finally released this week, putting to rest months of speculation surrounding its contents. Like the previous Sconefest albums, the latest mixes classic rock with the more modern fair and even has a little foreign flavor. It also kicks things off with the mellow "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, as sort of a tribute to Sconefest 5's Opening "What a Wonderful World" by Louie Armstrong. Below is the track list. Somewhere Over the Rainbow - Iz American Pie - Don McLean I Am a Rock - Simon & Garfunkel I Would Do Anything for Love - Meat Loaf Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeplin Superman - The Kinks Take Me Out - Franz Ferdinand Somebody Told Me - The Killers Cells - The Servant Pain - Jimmy Eat World Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana Extreme Ways - Moby Sera - Legiao Urbana Besame Mucho - The Beatles Golden Brown - The Stranglers Concrete and Clay - Unit 4 + 2 Butterfly - Weezer Mbira - Los Angeles Guitar Quartet Free Love Freeway - Ricky Gervais The reviews are mixed. Many critics are questioning the timing of the release. Sconefest 9 took place nearly two years ago, but the soundtrack is only now getting to market. Still, reviews of the album itself are mostly positive as the majority of critics would agree it fits along side the with the other six albums.

Music That Defined a Decade

A look back at the evolution of popular music naturally invites a comparison of rock eras. I've always been of the opinion that the best music came out of the 60's and 70's, but having been a teenager in the 90's, I am partial to much of that music as well. The 80's is sort of a dark spot in music history. It was during the 80's that wuss rock was born and the synthesizer became vastly over used. However, one thing each decade has in common is that there is one artist or musical group that defines it—a group or individual that was not only widely popular, but that took music in a different direction. Below are my selections and I welcome disagreements. Also, help me decide which band/artist is the voice of the current decade. 1950's 1960's 1970's 1980's 1990's 2000's Elvis Presley The Beatles Led Zeppelin Michael Jackson Nirvana

Hell: In or Out?

The bat first came out of Hell in 1977. Then in 1993 it went back into Hell. Now, not only is the bat back out of Hell, but it is apparently loose and some are calling it a monster. Lost somewhere amid the hype and hoopla surrounding Jay-Z's return and Yusuf Islam's (Cat Stevens') first album in a few decades, Marvin Aday's latest effort is worth checking out. Most of you might know Marvin by his stage name. Others might know him better as the guy with breasts in Fight Club, but at 59, Meat Loaf is still going strong. Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster is Loose marks the second follow up to his first Bat Out of Hell album which sold 14 million copies. Critics are quick to note Meat Loaf's talent: "Even with grandiosity back in fashion—The Killers, My Chemical Romance—you can bet that this Texas-bred, Broadway-on-steroids rock Pavarotti's voice and sensibility will still be too ginormous for the cool part of the room" (Chris Willman, Entertainment Weekly). But they also have reservations with grouping this album with the other two. Whatever. Just as long as it has witty lyrics like "You took the words right out of my mouth. It must have been while you were kissing me." Even if you are not a fan of Meat Loaf, you should check out the video to his remake of Celine Dion's "It's All Coming Back to Me Now." It's over 5 minutes long, so if you don't have time for that, below it is the Dr. Pepper ad that finally answers the question of what "that" is that Meat Loaf won't do for love.

Something to Consider

Christopher Guest is coming out with a new movie this month called For Your Consideration. In it, three actors learn their respective performances in the film Home for Purim, a drama set in the mid-1940s American South, are generating award-season buzz. Though not quite a mocumentary like Guest's previous films (Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind), it does have the whole gang with one notable addition: Ricky Gervais from the British version of The Office. And while some of Guest's regulars are pretty annoying, others are hilarious (ie Fred Willard, Parker Posey, Harry Shearer). Guest is one of the few directors whose work I look forward to. In fact, the best characters in his films are often played by Guest himself. He really is a versatile actor (those of you unfamiliar with him, might know him better as the evil Count Tyrone Rugen, a.k.a. the six-fingered man, from The Princess Bride). He has also shown he has musical skills as he often writes the songs for his movies. Speaking of which, something I have always found funny is that the three members of Spinal Tap (Guest, Shearer, Michael McKean), a band created for Rob Riener's 1984 "rockumentary" This is Spinal Tap (Tag line: "Does for rock and roll what The Sound of Music did for hills") are the same three members of the folk music group The Folksmen from 2003's A Mighty Wind. What's more is that both groups sort of became real, doing concerts and musical appearances. Spinal Tap even went on tour and released an album (besides the movie soundtrack) called Break Like the Wind.