Monday, November 29, 2010
Foto Ciuman Kim Hyun Joong - Film Playful Kiss
Film Playfull Kiss adalah Film drama korea. Film yang diperankan oleh : Kim Hyun Joong (Baek Seung Jo) dan Jung So Min (Oh Hani), mereka beradu action dalam pembuatan film pertama mereka pada tanggal 24 di daerah perumahan di Sung Bok Dong, Seoul. Foto Adegan Ciuman Kim Hyun Joong and Jung So Min :
F4
F4 adalah Pemilih sekolah dalam Film Boy Before Flower. Mereka beranggotakan 4 cowok tampan, mereka adalah Gu Hye Sun (Geum Jan Di), Lee Min Ho (Goo Joon Pyo), Kim Hyun Joong (Yoon Ji Hoo), Kim Bum (So Yi Jung), Kim Joon (Song Woo Bin).
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Random Bloggings From The Edge: Sometimes You Just Gotta' Write
November has been an interesting month. On the one hand, it's been the best month I've had in two years -- I finally got a job after two years of unemployment and the worst streak of absolute poverty I've ever experienced (thank you, Jesus!).
On the other, this good fortune has not come without some unfortunate side effects. Up until thirty days ago, I was making slow, but steady and methodical progress on the book about Neil Young I am committed to deliver to Backbeat Books next April.
Since I got the full-time day job, this progress has slowed to an absolute crawl.
You know what I really miss? I'll tell ya' what. The good old old days when I worked my day job at the record store, the record company or whatever -- and then came home, cooked my TV dinner, or whatever -- and then wrote my shit for the Rocket or whoever till 1 AM or so, smoke in one hand, beer in the other till I just plain dropped.
Those were the days.
The past two years of being completely stressed out about whether I was going to use my unemployment check for gas, food or rent were another matter altogether. Even so, somehow, I got through them -- and I thank the lord in heaven that those days are over (knock wood, and praise the lord). Unfortunately, the book I'm writing about Neil Young has proven to be the biggest casualty of this good fortune.
See, here's the thing.
In the past six months of staying up all night till the sun comes up (since I've had the luxury of being able to do so), I've knocked out roughly half the book. However, since getting a "real job" again (which absolutely needed to happen), I've had to re-adjust my body clock. No more all-nighters writing, In fact, just getting used to a "normal" schedule of getting up early to go to work has taken about a month to get used to. When I get home at night, all I want to do is eat first, and then crash -- which I usually do on the couch most nights.
Again, I have to ask whatever happened to those days of working a nine-to-five, coming home and writing for a few hours with a beer in one hand and a smoke in the other? Gone forever I reckon...and so be it.
What this means, unfortunately, is that I've written barely a word about Neil Young for the book in about a month. Getting off of that horse was easy, and also absolutely necessary. Getting back on, is unfortunately going to be much tougher -- especially after establishing the vampiric lifestyle of all-night writing sessions I had so gotten used to. I haven't written a word about Neil in nearly a month, and the publisher expects 150,000 of them by April.
The good news is I'm adjusting to working a day job pretty well, and I'm slowly exorcising myself of my other writing commitments. Earlier this week, I finished off my present review commitments for Blogcritics, and also bowed out of doing their weekly newsletter (Wednesdays had become a real bitch for me when I came home so tired each night).
I'm not sure what my future at BC is anyway -- but my instincts tell me things are pretty close to running their natural course there. Things haven't been right there for a long time -- the way they totally dropped the ball on my Michael Jackson story still holds a particular sting -- and new management aside, I don't anticipate things getting much better anytime soon.
That said, I owe a lot to BC -- my involvement in the site has led to many great things, not the least of which has been the Neil Young book deal. Even so, I can't escape the feeling that my days there are numbered.
Anyway, I write this looking to rejuvenate my writing juices on the Neil book in particular. That is one horse I really need to climb back aboard. And I will.
I guess the thing I have to keep telling myself, is the same thing I keep saying to another extremely gifted BC writer who notoriously slaves over every word he writes -- and that is don't fight it, just write it.
At the end of the day, it's a conversation.
Sometimes, you just gotta write.
November has been an interesting month. On the one hand, it's been the best month I've had in two years -- I finally got a job after two years of unemployment and the worst streak of absolute poverty I've ever experienced (thank you, Jesus!).
On the other, this good fortune has not come without some unfortunate side effects. Up until thirty days ago, I was making slow, but steady and methodical progress on the book about Neil Young I am committed to deliver to Backbeat Books next April.
Since I got the full-time day job, this progress has slowed to an absolute crawl.
You know what I really miss? I'll tell ya' what. The good old old days when I worked my day job at the record store, the record company or whatever -- and then came home, cooked my TV dinner, or whatever -- and then wrote my shit for the Rocket or whoever till 1 AM or so, smoke in one hand, beer in the other till I just plain dropped.
Those were the days.
The past two years of being completely stressed out about whether I was going to use my unemployment check for gas, food or rent were another matter altogether. Even so, somehow, I got through them -- and I thank the lord in heaven that those days are over (knock wood, and praise the lord). Unfortunately, the book I'm writing about Neil Young has proven to be the biggest casualty of this good fortune.
See, here's the thing.
In the past six months of staying up all night till the sun comes up (since I've had the luxury of being able to do so), I've knocked out roughly half the book. However, since getting a "real job" again (which absolutely needed to happen), I've had to re-adjust my body clock. No more all-nighters writing, In fact, just getting used to a "normal" schedule of getting up early to go to work has taken about a month to get used to. When I get home at night, all I want to do is eat first, and then crash -- which I usually do on the couch most nights.
Again, I have to ask whatever happened to those days of working a nine-to-five, coming home and writing for a few hours with a beer in one hand and a smoke in the other? Gone forever I reckon...and so be it.
What this means, unfortunately, is that I've written barely a word about Neil Young for the book in about a month. Getting off of that horse was easy, and also absolutely necessary. Getting back on, is unfortunately going to be much tougher -- especially after establishing the vampiric lifestyle of all-night writing sessions I had so gotten used to. I haven't written a word about Neil in nearly a month, and the publisher expects 150,000 of them by April.
The good news is I'm adjusting to working a day job pretty well, and I'm slowly exorcising myself of my other writing commitments. Earlier this week, I finished off my present review commitments for Blogcritics, and also bowed out of doing their weekly newsletter (Wednesdays had become a real bitch for me when I came home so tired each night).
I'm not sure what my future at BC is anyway -- but my instincts tell me things are pretty close to running their natural course there. Things haven't been right there for a long time -- the way they totally dropped the ball on my Michael Jackson story still holds a particular sting -- and new management aside, I don't anticipate things getting much better anytime soon.
That said, I owe a lot to BC -- my involvement in the site has led to many great things, not the least of which has been the Neil Young book deal. Even so, I can't escape the feeling that my days there are numbered.
Anyway, I write this looking to rejuvenate my writing juices on the Neil book in particular. That is one horse I really need to climb back aboard. And I will.
I guess the thing I have to keep telling myself, is the same thing I keep saying to another extremely gifted BC writer who notoriously slaves over every word he writes -- and that is don't fight it, just write it.
At the end of the day, it's a conversation.
Sometimes, you just gotta write.
Friday, November 26, 2010
Macca Gets Back To The Classic Band On The Run
Music Review: Paul McCartney & Wings - Band On The Run (2CD/1DVD Special Edition - Original Recording Remastered)
Although Band On The Run is widely recognized as among the very best of Paul McCartney's post-Beatles albums, I have to admit to being somewhat less than enthralled by it when it first came out back in 1973.
It's not that it was a bad album or anything. But the way that radio played the albums best tracks like "Jet," "Let Me Roll It" and the song "Band On The Run" itself to death back then, had the net result of the album becoming prematurely played out for me. It's the same reason I haven't pulled out my copy of Led Zeppelin IV in years. I also thought the followup album Venus And Mars rocked a bit harder, with tracks on that record like "Letting Go" and "Medicine Jar."
That said, with this newly remastered and expanded edition, it's easy to see why Band On The Run was such a commercial and critical success. The album holds together as a completely realized whole like none of McCartney's other post Beatles work had up until that point (the less said about Wings albums like Wild Life the better). The fact that it was made under such trying conditions (Wings members Henry McCullough and Denny Seiwell had just quit, and the sessions in Lagos, Africa were by most accounts miserable) only makes the overall consistency of the record that much more impressive now.
Band On The Run is also a record that recreates much of the same conceptual feel that made the latter day Beatles recordings seem so special. Less frequently played, but still instantly recognizable (in an "I remember that" way) songs from the album like "Mrs. Vanderbilt" have a familiar feel that recalls both the Beatles' White Album and McCartney's own Ram. The reprises of songs like "Mrs. Vanderbilt" and "Jet" during "Picasso's Last Words (Drink To Me)" are also a nice touch.
The remastered recording here — overseen by McCartney and much of the same crew responsible for last year's Beatles remasters — is also very clear and bright sounding. On songs like "Band On The Run," the high-end is emphasized in much the same way as on the Beatles remasters, without over-shadowing McCartney's nimble bass work.
On "Let Me Roll It," Macca's vocal is also given a nice echo treatment that gives the song the feel of a vintage Elvis or rockabilly recording. The promising jam near the end of "No Words" still fades out way too soon, just as it did on the original. It was frustrating then, and it remains so now. But this is still a largely minor gaffe on an otherwise very satisfying album.
The remastered version of Band On The Run also contains a second disc of recordings from the same period — some of which are rare, and others not so much. You get alternate takes of most of the songs from the album, all recorded live in the studio for a television special called One Hand Clapping, as well as singles like "Helen Wheels."
The One Hand Clapping special is also captured on a bonus DVD, along with music videos for "Band On The Run" and "Helen Wheels," a lengthy video promo for the album, footage from Lagos and of the photo-shoot for the iconic Band On The Run album cover.
Seeing the video for the song "Band On The Run" all these years later is a little strange, as it seems almost like more of a Beatles music film. The animated effects and numerous shots of the Beatles themselves, bring to mind Beatles flicks like Yellow Submarine if nothing else. The other weird part about it, is the fact that if my memory serves me correct, the Beatles themselves were still feuding at the time.
The Lagos footage is notable mainly for the inclusion of an alternate version of "Band On The Run" that has the sort of oddly eastern feel to it that one would more likely expect from a George Harrison project. There's also a few random shots of a very grizzled looking Ginger Baker, and actors like Jason Robbards and Christopher Lee, who were so famously featured on the cover.
The complete One Hand Clapping special is the real find on the bonus DVD though. In addition to live in the studio takes on most of the songs from Band On The Run, rarities like "C Moon" and the blazing rocker "Soily" make their way into the mix, as well as other McCartney hits like "Maybe I'm Amazed" and "Live And Let Die." The video quality here is occasionally a bit grainy, but the audio is surprisingly good given its age. There is also an essay from critic Paul Gambaccini.
The remastered version of Band On The Run is also available in a four disc deluxe version that includes a hard bound book of photographs from Linda McCartney, a bonus audio documentary, and high-resolution downloads of songs from the album.
All in all, this is a very well put together package that does the classic Band On The Run album the justice it rightly deserves. I'd forgotten how good this album really is. Thanks, Paul.
This article was first published as Music Review: Paul McCartney & Wings - Band On The Run (2CD/1DVD Special Edition - Original Recording Remastered) at Blogcritics Magazine.
Music Review: Paul McCartney & Wings - Band On The Run (2CD/1DVD Special Edition - Original Recording Remastered)
Although Band On The Run is widely recognized as among the very best of Paul McCartney's post-Beatles albums, I have to admit to being somewhat less than enthralled by it when it first came out back in 1973.
It's not that it was a bad album or anything. But the way that radio played the albums best tracks like "Jet," "Let Me Roll It" and the song "Band On The Run" itself to death back then, had the net result of the album becoming prematurely played out for me. It's the same reason I haven't pulled out my copy of Led Zeppelin IV in years. I also thought the followup album Venus And Mars rocked a bit harder, with tracks on that record like "Letting Go" and "Medicine Jar."
That said, with this newly remastered and expanded edition, it's easy to see why Band On The Run was such a commercial and critical success. The album holds together as a completely realized whole like none of McCartney's other post Beatles work had up until that point (the less said about Wings albums like Wild Life the better). The fact that it was made under such trying conditions (Wings members Henry McCullough and Denny Seiwell had just quit, and the sessions in Lagos, Africa were by most accounts miserable) only makes the overall consistency of the record that much more impressive now.
Band On The Run is also a record that recreates much of the same conceptual feel that made the latter day Beatles recordings seem so special. Less frequently played, but still instantly recognizable (in an "I remember that" way) songs from the album like "Mrs. Vanderbilt" have a familiar feel that recalls both the Beatles' White Album and McCartney's own Ram. The reprises of songs like "Mrs. Vanderbilt" and "Jet" during "Picasso's Last Words (Drink To Me)" are also a nice touch.
The remastered recording here — overseen by McCartney and much of the same crew responsible for last year's Beatles remasters — is also very clear and bright sounding. On songs like "Band On The Run," the high-end is emphasized in much the same way as on the Beatles remasters, without over-shadowing McCartney's nimble bass work.
On "Let Me Roll It," Macca's vocal is also given a nice echo treatment that gives the song the feel of a vintage Elvis or rockabilly recording. The promising jam near the end of "No Words" still fades out way too soon, just as it did on the original. It was frustrating then, and it remains so now. But this is still a largely minor gaffe on an otherwise very satisfying album.
The remastered version of Band On The Run also contains a second disc of recordings from the same period — some of which are rare, and others not so much. You get alternate takes of most of the songs from the album, all recorded live in the studio for a television special called One Hand Clapping, as well as singles like "Helen Wheels."
The One Hand Clapping special is also captured on a bonus DVD, along with music videos for "Band On The Run" and "Helen Wheels," a lengthy video promo for the album, footage from Lagos and of the photo-shoot for the iconic Band On The Run album cover.
Seeing the video for the song "Band On The Run" all these years later is a little strange, as it seems almost like more of a Beatles music film. The animated effects and numerous shots of the Beatles themselves, bring to mind Beatles flicks like Yellow Submarine if nothing else. The other weird part about it, is the fact that if my memory serves me correct, the Beatles themselves were still feuding at the time.
The Lagos footage is notable mainly for the inclusion of an alternate version of "Band On The Run" that has the sort of oddly eastern feel to it that one would more likely expect from a George Harrison project. There's also a few random shots of a very grizzled looking Ginger Baker, and actors like Jason Robbards and Christopher Lee, who were so famously featured on the cover.
The complete One Hand Clapping special is the real find on the bonus DVD though. In addition to live in the studio takes on most of the songs from Band On The Run, rarities like "C Moon" and the blazing rocker "Soily" make their way into the mix, as well as other McCartney hits like "Maybe I'm Amazed" and "Live And Let Die." The video quality here is occasionally a bit grainy, but the audio is surprisingly good given its age. There is also an essay from critic Paul Gambaccini.
The remastered version of Band On The Run is also available in a four disc deluxe version that includes a hard bound book of photographs from Linda McCartney, a bonus audio documentary, and high-resolution downloads of songs from the album.
All in all, this is a very well put together package that does the classic Band On The Run album the justice it rightly deserves. I'd forgotten how good this album really is. Thanks, Paul.
This article was first published as Music Review: Paul McCartney & Wings - Band On The Run (2CD/1DVD Special Edition - Original Recording Remastered) at Blogcritics Magazine.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Black Friday With The Beatles At The Bookstore
Black Friday — the semi-official name given to the kickoff of the retail holiday shopping season in recent years — has become one of the stranger (and more curiously named) ways that Americans have come to celebrate our annual religious holiday traditions, by indulging our equally rabid lusts for rampant consumerism.
Whoever actually came up with the name "Black Friday" — a moniker which conjures images of occult ritual more than anything having to do with Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, Jesus, or even Santa Claus — is anyone's guess.
You've also gotta' feel at least a little sorry for the illegitimate bastard son of a holiday that Thanksgiving has become — what with the trees and lights already up, and the door-busting TV ads already in place. All that turkey on your dinner table asks in return for allowing himself into your gut today, is a little love in return.
More than anything though, the whole "Black Friday" concept serves as a reminder of just how stressful the holiday season can be. Fears of being trampled to death by that angry mob when Walmart opens at 4 AM on Friday aside though, what is perhaps most daunting is deciding which bargain to choose once those gates have been appropriately crashed.
When it comes time to play the real life version of "Let's Make A Deal" does one opt for Doorbuster #1 or Doorbuster #2?
Fortunately, when it comes to buying the perfect gift, there is one thing that nearly everyone can agree on, and that is the Beatles. I mean, who doesn't have a person on their list this year who wouldn't be delighted to find the Fab Four in their stocking or underneath the tree?
The only problem there of course (at least when it comes to the music), is the likelihood that the Beatlemaniac on your list may already have it all — particularly with the music now only a click away on iTunes.
Which is what makes a Beatles book the perfect solution. One of the greatest things about having left behind a legacy as rich as the Beatles did, is the fact that even after all these years, writers keep finding fresh new things to say about the Fabs year after year. The books just keep on coming, and this year is no exception. Here are a few recommendations on making the most of your Black Friday with the Beatles at the bookstore this holiday season.
Released just in time for the 30th anniversary of John Lennon's murder, Keith Elliot Greenburg's December 8, 1980: The Day John Lennon Died is a riveting account of the events leading up to Lennon's assassination in front of his New York home at the Dakota thirty years ago. Written as a series of briefs that read almost like one of those news-tickers you see at the bottom of your screen on CNN, Greenburg's narrative takes you as close to actually getting inside the heads of the key players in this tragedy as it gets, without the benefit of actually having been there as an eyewitness to the crime.
We follow the chronology of John Lennon's day as he shuffles to and from the recording studio, does the famous Annie Leibowitz Rolling Stone photo shoot with Yoko, and makes plans to promote the Double Fantasy album — plans which included serious talk of his first concert tour since the Beatles. We also follow the dark and twisted journey of Mark David Chapman that fateful day — including a chilling account of Chapman shaking the hand of John & Yoko's young son Sean Lennon earlier that afternoon.
In the aftermath of Lennon's murder, Greenburg also provides a stunning variety of perspectives to the tragedy, ranging from those of Lennon's fellow Beatles, to sportscaster Howard Cossell (who broke the story on ABC's Monday Night Football), to fellow musicians Stevie Wonder and Bruce Springsteen (who were both performing onstage in different cities when Lennon was shot and killed).
We also get the reaction of Lennon's New York neighbors, including a local bartender and WWF wrestlers Rick Martel and The Wild Samoans — who were wrestling a match just a few blocks away at Madison Square Garden. There have been many books about John Lennon's murder, but few put you right there with the same "newscast from a time machine" style that Greenburg's book does.
New York Times best selling author Howard Sounes' Fab: An Intimate Life Of Paul McCartney is another must-read for the Beatles or McCartney fan who thinks he has read it all. Billed as the first complete biography of Paul McCartney's life, Sounes' exhaustively researched book more than lives up to that lofty claim.
Fab tells McCartney's story from his birth in England, through the Beatles and his solo years (with and without Wings), his family life with Linda, and finally right up through the present day with albums like Memory Almost Full, his record deal with Starbucks' Hear Music imprint, and of course his disastrous second marriage to Heather Mills.
Through it all, Sounes is both thorough and unflinching in his appraisal of both McCartney's music, and of the man himself. In conducting his research, Sounes interviewed some 200 people — including nearly everyone close to Macca himself — to come up with a portrait of a man who is musically brilliant, financially shrewd and professionally driven, but also more privately flawed as a human being than the public picture has ever previously revealed.
In addition to being the genius behind the concept for Sgt. Pepper, we also learn details of Macca's fondness for both drink and especially for smoking pot, as well as past womanizing and indiscretions. The insecurities driving his sibling rivalry with John Lennon is also given closer examination. But nowhere are these details more revealing than in Sounes' account of McCartney's second marriage and bitter divorce from Heather Mills that takes up the latter chapters of the book.
At 600 plus pages, Fab: An Intimate Life Of Paul McCartney can seem like a daunting read. But once you pick this one up, you'll have as difficult a time tearing yourself away as I did — at least if you fancy yourself a Beatles or McCartney fan.
Other noteworthy Beatles titles to consider at the bookstore this Black Friday include Robert Rodriguez and Stuart Shea's excellent Fab Four FAQ (everything you ever wanted to know about The Beatles) and Fab Four FAQ 2.0 (which covers the post breakup solo careers of the Fabs).
For the Beatles fan who also happens to be a musician or gearhead, Andy Babiuk's Beatles Gear is also an excellent choice.
Ladies and Gentlemen, it's clobbering time. Tis' the season for Beatles fans. See ya' at the mall.
This article was first published as Black Friday With The Beatles At The Bookstore at Blogcritics Magazine.
Black Friday — the semi-official name given to the kickoff of the retail holiday shopping season in recent years — has become one of the stranger (and more curiously named) ways that Americans have come to celebrate our annual religious holiday traditions, by indulging our equally rabid lusts for rampant consumerism.
Whoever actually came up with the name "Black Friday" — a moniker which conjures images of occult ritual more than anything having to do with Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, Jesus, or even Santa Claus — is anyone's guess.
You've also gotta' feel at least a little sorry for the illegitimate bastard son of a holiday that Thanksgiving has become — what with the trees and lights already up, and the door-busting TV ads already in place. All that turkey on your dinner table asks in return for allowing himself into your gut today, is a little love in return.
More than anything though, the whole "Black Friday" concept serves as a reminder of just how stressful the holiday season can be. Fears of being trampled to death by that angry mob when Walmart opens at 4 AM on Friday aside though, what is perhaps most daunting is deciding which bargain to choose once those gates have been appropriately crashed.
When it comes time to play the real life version of "Let's Make A Deal" does one opt for Doorbuster #1 or Doorbuster #2?
Fortunately, when it comes to buying the perfect gift, there is one thing that nearly everyone can agree on, and that is the Beatles. I mean, who doesn't have a person on their list this year who wouldn't be delighted to find the Fab Four in their stocking or underneath the tree?
The only problem there of course (at least when it comes to the music), is the likelihood that the Beatlemaniac on your list may already have it all — particularly with the music now only a click away on iTunes.
Which is what makes a Beatles book the perfect solution. One of the greatest things about having left behind a legacy as rich as the Beatles did, is the fact that even after all these years, writers keep finding fresh new things to say about the Fabs year after year. The books just keep on coming, and this year is no exception. Here are a few recommendations on making the most of your Black Friday with the Beatles at the bookstore this holiday season.
Released just in time for the 30th anniversary of John Lennon's murder, Keith Elliot Greenburg's December 8, 1980: The Day John Lennon Died is a riveting account of the events leading up to Lennon's assassination in front of his New York home at the Dakota thirty years ago. Written as a series of briefs that read almost like one of those news-tickers you see at the bottom of your screen on CNN, Greenburg's narrative takes you as close to actually getting inside the heads of the key players in this tragedy as it gets, without the benefit of actually having been there as an eyewitness to the crime.
We follow the chronology of John Lennon's day as he shuffles to and from the recording studio, does the famous Annie Leibowitz Rolling Stone photo shoot with Yoko, and makes plans to promote the Double Fantasy album — plans which included serious talk of his first concert tour since the Beatles. We also follow the dark and twisted journey of Mark David Chapman that fateful day — including a chilling account of Chapman shaking the hand of John & Yoko's young son Sean Lennon earlier that afternoon.
In the aftermath of Lennon's murder, Greenburg also provides a stunning variety of perspectives to the tragedy, ranging from those of Lennon's fellow Beatles, to sportscaster Howard Cossell (who broke the story on ABC's Monday Night Football), to fellow musicians Stevie Wonder and Bruce Springsteen (who were both performing onstage in different cities when Lennon was shot and killed).
We also get the reaction of Lennon's New York neighbors, including a local bartender and WWF wrestlers Rick Martel and The Wild Samoans — who were wrestling a match just a few blocks away at Madison Square Garden. There have been many books about John Lennon's murder, but few put you right there with the same "newscast from a time machine" style that Greenburg's book does.
New York Times best selling author Howard Sounes' Fab: An Intimate Life Of Paul McCartney is another must-read for the Beatles or McCartney fan who thinks he has read it all. Billed as the first complete biography of Paul McCartney's life, Sounes' exhaustively researched book more than lives up to that lofty claim.
Fab tells McCartney's story from his birth in England, through the Beatles and his solo years (with and without Wings), his family life with Linda, and finally right up through the present day with albums like Memory Almost Full, his record deal with Starbucks' Hear Music imprint, and of course his disastrous second marriage to Heather Mills.
Through it all, Sounes is both thorough and unflinching in his appraisal of both McCartney's music, and of the man himself. In conducting his research, Sounes interviewed some 200 people — including nearly everyone close to Macca himself — to come up with a portrait of a man who is musically brilliant, financially shrewd and professionally driven, but also more privately flawed as a human being than the public picture has ever previously revealed.
In addition to being the genius behind the concept for Sgt. Pepper, we also learn details of Macca's fondness for both drink and especially for smoking pot, as well as past womanizing and indiscretions. The insecurities driving his sibling rivalry with John Lennon is also given closer examination. But nowhere are these details more revealing than in Sounes' account of McCartney's second marriage and bitter divorce from Heather Mills that takes up the latter chapters of the book.
At 600 plus pages, Fab: An Intimate Life Of Paul McCartney can seem like a daunting read. But once you pick this one up, you'll have as difficult a time tearing yourself away as I did — at least if you fancy yourself a Beatles or McCartney fan.
Other noteworthy Beatles titles to consider at the bookstore this Black Friday include Robert Rodriguez and Stuart Shea's excellent Fab Four FAQ (everything you ever wanted to know about The Beatles) and Fab Four FAQ 2.0 (which covers the post breakup solo careers of the Fabs).
For the Beatles fan who also happens to be a musician or gearhead, Andy Babiuk's Beatles Gear is also an excellent choice.
Ladies and Gentlemen, it's clobbering time. Tis' the season for Beatles fans. See ya' at the mall.
This article was first published as Black Friday With The Beatles At The Bookstore at Blogcritics Magazine.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Bruce Springsteen Keeps His Promise By Embracing The Darkness
They simply couldn't have hit this amazing story any better.
But for anyone who hasn't yet seen, heard and otherwise fully experienced Bruce Springsteen's long awaited, just released deluxe The Promise: The Darkness On The Edge Of Town Story boxed set, there are a few bumps along the road to what is otherwise quite possibly the most lovingly crafted and executed repackage of what was already a damn near-perfect record ever.
So, I thought it best we get these out of the way early on.
For many fans, the biggest pull of this set is going be the DVD of the complete performance from the Houston stop on what is now considered the mythical 1978 Darkness tour, and the performance included here does not even remotely disappoint.
For those same fans, the fact that the Houston show has had nowhere near the widely bootlegged exposure of stops in Passaic, NJ (Bruce's "birthday show"), and at venues like San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom is a definite plus.
Captured on a particularly hot night in Texas, Springsteen and the E Street band are nothing short of electrifying here. The extended piano and guitar intros on "Prove It All Night" — long the stuff of legend, and now finally out there for wider public consumption on an official release — are worth the price of admission alone.
The video footage is likewise better than anything that has been gathering dust in a warehouse God knows where all these decades has any right to be. However, the occasional drop-offs in sound quality — especially for those of us who already have soundboard bootleg recordings of those 1978 Darkness shows — are, admittedly, a little frustrating.
When stacked up against the Houston performance — as well as the extra Darkness tour footage from Phoenix — Bruce and the ESB's 2009 run-through of the complete Darkness album before an empty house at Asbury Park's Paramount Theatre also comes up a little flat, at least comparatively speaking.
Don't get me wrong here.
Even now, there is no band in all of rock and roll that holds a candle to the collective tightness of the E Street Band. They remain a well oiled machine that is simply unmatched in terms of tightness and musical chops.
But without the rapturous crowd and communal sing-along party atmosphere of their present-day arena and stadium shows, they also look a lot like what they actually are — which is a bunch of old guys playing the hits. Again, make no mistake here. I have nothing but respect for these guys, and I would pay the big bucks and book the plane tickets to see Bruce and the E Streeters run through Darkness in a New York heartbeat.
But here, it comes off as kind of anti-climactic — especially after viewing the three-plus hours of a young, hungry vintage ESB hitting on all cylinders in Houston seen here on the Darkness tour. Bruce in particular, seems to really be straining on some of the vocals — although in all fairness, he totally nails "Something In The Night."
Which is one of the many unexpected surprises of The Promise: The Darkness On The Edge Of Town Story. Most of the other high points occur on the real centerpiece of this set — an undeniably manufactured, but nonetheless amazing sounding "lost album" of Darkness outtakes called The Promise.
But we'll get to all that soon enough.
What mostly separates this set from similar digital revisions of both historically significant and otherwise classic rock albums though, is the way it so completely tells the story of what actually went down at the time. Coming off of the success of Born To Run, Bruce Springsteen was at a pivotal career crossroads in the three years between the time he was anointed as the savior of rock and roll on the covers of Time and Newsweek and the 1978 release of his followup album, Darkness On The Edge Of Town.
During this time, Bruce didn't so much carry the world on his shoulder, as he did in a notebook of lyrics and half-scrawled ideas, which is reproduced here in one of this sets nicest touches. Rather than the usual essay from some critic or (dare I say it) would-be "Rockologist," this is that all-too-rare boxed set annotation that provides a unique look inside the mindset of the actual artist at the time.
Taken together with the DVD documentary film on the making of the Darkness album here, what emerges is a portrait of a future legend with everything on the line at the time in a true make-or-break moment.
Faced with lawsuits that kept him from recording at the time, Springsteen refused to either compromise or, more importantly, to fold. Some of the best moments of this entire boxed set in fact come on the rare glimpses of Springsteen performing covers like the Animals' "It's My Life" on the road, while he was in a purgatory state of legal limbo that kept him from recording.
In that respect, this is exactly why The Promise: The Darkness On The Edge Of Town Story is so much more than just another digital remaster of an iconic rock classic. This one tells a story, and a very riveting one at that.
But there are lighter, and more humorous moments on the video portions of this set as well.
Seeing a shirtless 1977-era Springsteen sporting what comes close to a full blown Afro, and rare footage of Steve Van Zandt's actual hair are absolutely priceless, as is the way Bruce pokes fun at engineer Jimmy Iovine in the lyrics to "Aint' Good Enough For You."
Mostly though, Thom Zimmy's documentary on the making of the Darkness album is a rare look into Springsteen's legendarily painstaking recording process at the time.
And then of course there is the real meat of this set — the two-disc set of Darkness outtakes, assembled here into a manufactured "lost album" called The Promise.
Many of these tracks will be already familiar to hardcore Bruce fans with healthy bootleg collections, including songs like "Spanish Eyes," "Outside Looking In" and "The Way" (which shows up here as a hidden, uncredited track on the end of the second disc). And of course, there is also the first appearance on an official release of the full E Street Band version of "The Promise" itself — a track long regarded by Springsteen fans as one of his greatest officially unreleased recordings.
More interesting however, is the way these songs reveal the very possibly different path Springsteen's career might have taken had they been released on an official recording at the time they were first recorded.
In the Making Of Darkness documentary on this box, Van Zandt (and other E Streeters) repeatedly bemoan the songs that got away. Hearing them here now, it's hard to disagree.
In addition to songs which became hits for other artists like "Because The Night" (Patti Smith), "Rendezvous" (Greg Kihn Band), "Fire" (Robert Gordon, The Pointer Sisters) and "Talk To Me" (Southside Johnny), a convincing case can also be made that with songs like the lesser known "Save My Love," "The Brokenhearted" and "Someday (We'll Be Together)," Springsteen could have easily made his mark as one of the all-time best writers of the great three-minute romantic pop song.
The evidence offered up on The Promise: The Darkness On The Edge Of Town Story makes it hard to disagree. If the "lost album" they are calling The Promise here actually did come out in say, 1977, I'd rank it right next to Born To Run, The River and Darkness itself in my all-time top five Springsteen albums.
For hardcore Bruce fans, the songs on The Promise also offer a rare look into Springsteen's songwriting process. As the documentary DVD reveals, Springsteen often pieced bits of lyrics floating around in that notebook of his, to eventually form more fully realized songs. Evidence of this on The Promise can be heard in songs like "Come On, Let's Go Tonight" ("Factory" meets "Out In The Street") and "Breakaway" ("The Price You Pay").
Whether you are already a dedicated Springsteen fan, or have just always wondered what the fuss about this guy is all about, here lies your answer. Oh, and by the way, they did a bang-up job on remastering the original Darkness album too.
As these digitally remastered versions of music history go, it simply doesn't get any better than this.
This article was first published as Bruce Springsteen Keeps His Promise By Embracing The Darkness at Blogcritics Magazine
But for anyone who hasn't yet seen, heard and otherwise fully experienced Bruce Springsteen's long awaited, just released deluxe The Promise: The Darkness On The Edge Of Town Story boxed set, there are a few bumps along the road to what is otherwise quite possibly the most lovingly crafted and executed repackage of what was already a damn near-perfect record ever.
So, I thought it best we get these out of the way early on.
For many fans, the biggest pull of this set is going be the DVD of the complete performance from the Houston stop on what is now considered the mythical 1978 Darkness tour, and the performance included here does not even remotely disappoint.
For those same fans, the fact that the Houston show has had nowhere near the widely bootlegged exposure of stops in Passaic, NJ (Bruce's "birthday show"), and at venues like San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom is a definite plus.
Captured on a particularly hot night in Texas, Springsteen and the E Street band are nothing short of electrifying here. The extended piano and guitar intros on "Prove It All Night" — long the stuff of legend, and now finally out there for wider public consumption on an official release — are worth the price of admission alone.
The video footage is likewise better than anything that has been gathering dust in a warehouse God knows where all these decades has any right to be. However, the occasional drop-offs in sound quality — especially for those of us who already have soundboard bootleg recordings of those 1978 Darkness shows — are, admittedly, a little frustrating.
When stacked up against the Houston performance — as well as the extra Darkness tour footage from Phoenix — Bruce and the ESB's 2009 run-through of the complete Darkness album before an empty house at Asbury Park's Paramount Theatre also comes up a little flat, at least comparatively speaking.
Don't get me wrong here.
Even now, there is no band in all of rock and roll that holds a candle to the collective tightness of the E Street Band. They remain a well oiled machine that is simply unmatched in terms of tightness and musical chops.
But without the rapturous crowd and communal sing-along party atmosphere of their present-day arena and stadium shows, they also look a lot like what they actually are — which is a bunch of old guys playing the hits. Again, make no mistake here. I have nothing but respect for these guys, and I would pay the big bucks and book the plane tickets to see Bruce and the E Streeters run through Darkness in a New York heartbeat.
But here, it comes off as kind of anti-climactic — especially after viewing the three-plus hours of a young, hungry vintage ESB hitting on all cylinders in Houston seen here on the Darkness tour. Bruce in particular, seems to really be straining on some of the vocals — although in all fairness, he totally nails "Something In The Night."
Which is one of the many unexpected surprises of The Promise: The Darkness On The Edge Of Town Story. Most of the other high points occur on the real centerpiece of this set — an undeniably manufactured, but nonetheless amazing sounding "lost album" of Darkness outtakes called The Promise.
But we'll get to all that soon enough.
What mostly separates this set from similar digital revisions of both historically significant and otherwise classic rock albums though, is the way it so completely tells the story of what actually went down at the time. Coming off of the success of Born To Run, Bruce Springsteen was at a pivotal career crossroads in the three years between the time he was anointed as the savior of rock and roll on the covers of Time and Newsweek and the 1978 release of his followup album, Darkness On The Edge Of Town.
During this time, Bruce didn't so much carry the world on his shoulder, as he did in a notebook of lyrics and half-scrawled ideas, which is reproduced here in one of this sets nicest touches. Rather than the usual essay from some critic or (dare I say it) would-be "Rockologist," this is that all-too-rare boxed set annotation that provides a unique look inside the mindset of the actual artist at the time.
Taken together with the DVD documentary film on the making of the Darkness album here, what emerges is a portrait of a future legend with everything on the line at the time in a true make-or-break moment.
Faced with lawsuits that kept him from recording at the time, Springsteen refused to either compromise or, more importantly, to fold. Some of the best moments of this entire boxed set in fact come on the rare glimpses of Springsteen performing covers like the Animals' "It's My Life" on the road, while he was in a purgatory state of legal limbo that kept him from recording.
In that respect, this is exactly why The Promise: The Darkness On The Edge Of Town Story is so much more than just another digital remaster of an iconic rock classic. This one tells a story, and a very riveting one at that.
But there are lighter, and more humorous moments on the video portions of this set as well.
Seeing a shirtless 1977-era Springsteen sporting what comes close to a full blown Afro, and rare footage of Steve Van Zandt's actual hair are absolutely priceless, as is the way Bruce pokes fun at engineer Jimmy Iovine in the lyrics to "Aint' Good Enough For You."
Mostly though, Thom Zimmy's documentary on the making of the Darkness album is a rare look into Springsteen's legendarily painstaking recording process at the time.
And then of course there is the real meat of this set — the two-disc set of Darkness outtakes, assembled here into a manufactured "lost album" called The Promise.
Many of these tracks will be already familiar to hardcore Bruce fans with healthy bootleg collections, including songs like "Spanish Eyes," "Outside Looking In" and "The Way" (which shows up here as a hidden, uncredited track on the end of the second disc). And of course, there is also the first appearance on an official release of the full E Street Band version of "The Promise" itself — a track long regarded by Springsteen fans as one of his greatest officially unreleased recordings.
More interesting however, is the way these songs reveal the very possibly different path Springsteen's career might have taken had they been released on an official recording at the time they were first recorded.
In the Making Of Darkness documentary on this box, Van Zandt (and other E Streeters) repeatedly bemoan the songs that got away. Hearing them here now, it's hard to disagree.
In addition to songs which became hits for other artists like "Because The Night" (Patti Smith), "Rendezvous" (Greg Kihn Band), "Fire" (Robert Gordon, The Pointer Sisters) and "Talk To Me" (Southside Johnny), a convincing case can also be made that with songs like the lesser known "Save My Love," "The Brokenhearted" and "Someday (We'll Be Together)," Springsteen could have easily made his mark as one of the all-time best writers of the great three-minute romantic pop song.
The evidence offered up on The Promise: The Darkness On The Edge Of Town Story makes it hard to disagree. If the "lost album" they are calling The Promise here actually did come out in say, 1977, I'd rank it right next to Born To Run, The River and Darkness itself in my all-time top five Springsteen albums.
For hardcore Bruce fans, the songs on The Promise also offer a rare look into Springsteen's songwriting process. As the documentary DVD reveals, Springsteen often pieced bits of lyrics floating around in that notebook of his, to eventually form more fully realized songs. Evidence of this on The Promise can be heard in songs like "Come On, Let's Go Tonight" ("Factory" meets "Out In The Street") and "Breakaway" ("The Price You Pay").
Whether you are already a dedicated Springsteen fan, or have just always wondered what the fuss about this guy is all about, here lies your answer. Oh, and by the way, they did a bang-up job on remastering the original Darkness album too.
As these digitally remastered versions of music history go, it simply doesn't get any better than this.
This article was first published as Bruce Springsteen Keeps His Promise By Embracing The Darkness at Blogcritics Magazine
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Monday, November 15, 2010
Film Drama Korea Di Indosiar "Boy Before Flower - F4"
Judul : Boy Before Flower
Release year : 2009
Language : Korean
Subtitle : English
Episodes : 24
Starring : Gu Hye Sun (Jan Di), Lee Min Ho (Gu Jun Pyo), Kim Hyun Joong, Kim Bum, Kim Joon.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
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