How I Met Your Mother: Does the Identity of the Mother Matter?

Last night How I Met Your Mother broke away from the typical bro humor to deliver one of, if not their most emotional episode ever!  Without giving too much away, the show focused on Robin and used Colbie Smulders (the actress who plays Robin) as the voice over instead of Bob Saget's voice (future Ted).  The episode has divided many fans of the show, but I thought it was a nice departure from the typical direction of the show.  I have also been re-watching all of the rest of the seasons on DVD and came to the realization, I don't know if I care who Ted ends up with.  This can be seen on two levels, incredibly problematic or ingenious.

The show started out focusing mainly on the premise of Ted (Josh Radnor) telling his children the story of how he met their mother.  This show does still come from Ted's vantage point, and the stories are all building to him meeting his future wife, but I have to applaud this show for exploring the concept of friendship well.  The show has had it's ups and downs. Some seasons have been pretty amazing, while other meander as if they have no direction, but this show remains to to have heart, and has brought 5 main characters that viewer connect with.

How I Met Your Mother is not on the level of shows like 30 Rock, Community, or Modern Family, but this show is a unique blend of typical sitcom and a show that takes you outside of that standard realm.  The show is not "smart" humor, but more about relate able humor.  What does that mean?  How I Met Your Mother is about a group of friends, and tells their stories from the triumphs to the failures.  The show uses the day to day scenarios of 20-30 somethings so that people can laugh because they have experience similar situations.

From Barney's (Neil Patrick Harris) man whore mentality to Marshall and Lily's (Jason Segel and Alyson Hanngan) romantic love story this show provides a lot of great laugh out loud moments.  Neil Patrick Harris is brilliant as Barney; he has taken a one dimensional man whore and turned him into a character people root for.  The writers and Harris have given Barney more depth throughout the years proving him with his first relationship, and getting him to meet his birth father.  Colbie Smulder's is one of my favorite funny women on television; she plays robin perfectly.  Robin does not represent the typical portrayal of women in the media; she is a gun toting Canadian, who focuses on her career and for the most part is not always seeking to have children; she is shrewd sarcastic and just plain great.  Jason Segel and Alyson Hannigan are play the perfect couple so well, their comedic timing and chemistry add the richness of the show.

Then there's Josh Radnor's Ted, who can be the most annoying of the characters (although re-watching the seasons I have found less annoying).  The ironic part of this is that Ted is the central character and the viewers are supposed to care more about his search for his wife.  But do they?  When I talk about this show I always reference Barney and his playbook or many rules to dating or sleeping with people.  I also talk about Robin, her Canadian ways, and her going to the mall or "Sandcastles in the Sand."

The creators behind this show are brilliant.  They started with a simple presence but realized they had more they could do with their other characters and developed some great stories.  I do want to know who  Ted is going to end up with, but I care more about the characters I know and love than gimmick of actually caring about who the mother may be.  I love that this show has developed into something that I watch because I care about the characters not the plot device.  Below is a video as to why this show makes me smile, and why I do not care as much about the mother!

Sting Gets Back To Business, And Back To Bass In Seattle

Concert Review: Sting's "Back To Bass" Tour, 12/5/11, At The Paramount Theatre, Seattle WA

Ever since concluding his big bucks reunion tour with The Police a few years back, it's been back to business as usual for Sting. Which, on his current tour, means it has also been "Back To Bass."

Sting is currently touring in support of his 25 Years retrospective boxed set, performing a hits-heavy set mainly in theaters and small venues with a relatively stripped down five piece band. During the first show of a two night stand at Seattle's Paramount Theater (on a freezing cold Monday night, no less), Sting and his band warmed up the crowd of adoring, mostly older fans with an energetic, well balanced two hour set drawing equally from both his solo work, and his back catalog with the Police.

Of course, this is Sting we are talking about here. Which meant that his "stripped down" band, still included two guitarists and a miniature string section (specifically, violin and fiddle).

The newer live arrangements of vintage Police songs like "Every Breath You Take," "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" and "Next To You," while certainly not lacking anything in the energy department, likewise tended more towards an adult-contemporary feel, than his classic eighties period as New Wave's favorite blond cop.

No matter though. With the help of a band that was nothing short of amazing, Sting and company still managed to turn the heat up enough on Seattle's wine and cheese crowd to make them forget the cold outside.

Fiddle player Peter Tickell turned in a couple of particularly jaw-dropping solos, and also re-created the soprano sax parts on songs like "Fortress Around Your Heart" perfectly, with help from Jo Lawry on violin (who also displayed her gorgeous five-octave range on backing vocals). The father-son guitar tandem of Dominic and Rufus Miller likewise had some fine moments (including a couple of cool solos from Dominic using a wah-wah pedal). Monster drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, a recent veteran of Jeff Beck's band, was a dead ringer for Stewart Copeland on the Police songs.

Sting himself often gets a sometimes deserved, but just as often unfair rap for pretentiousness, mostly because of his genre forays into everything from celtic to classical as a solo artist. At the Paramount, Sting was the antithesis of the stuffy performer he is often made out to be, engaging the audience with a humorous sing-along on the ready made for Seattle "Heavy Cloud, No Rain," and name dropping Toby Keith's cover of his country themed divorce song "I'm So Happy I Can't Stop Crying," while adding a disclaimer about Keith's politics.

Sting was likewise in fine voice, showing no signs of his age on vocals, and hitting all the right notes on his signature bass. By the end of the night, Sting had the crowd eating from the palm of his hand, sending them warmly singing their "Whoah-oh's" into the cold Seattle night with an acoustic version of the Police's "Message In A Bottle."

This article was first published at Blogcritics Magazine.

Best Music Writing 2011: They Didn't Pick Me...Again.

Book Review: Best Music Writing 2011 (Edited by Daphne Carr and Alex Ross)

If you enjoy reading music criticism even half as much as those of us who write it, then this year's annual volume of Best Music Writing from Da Capo Press is probably already a major event on your reading calendar.

For those of us poor slobs who slave away writing this stuff for what passes as a living however, this is the closest any of us will ever come to winning the Oscars for music nerds.

Alas, I didn't make it again this year.

But longtime series editor Daphne Carr, and this year's guest editor Alex Ross, have once again put together a fine collection of this year's finest essays from music critics, writing as the few remaining champions of what is left of the rapidly dying art of music journalism.

Like everything else in the present age of internet generated immediate gratification, music journalism has become something of a great, lost art. Both the traditional music business, and the idea of a truly objective journalistic medium, unclouded by the biases of providing infotainment to a ready-made audience pre-determined by demographic labels, have in musical terms long since gone the way of the eight track tape.

No matter. the braintrust at Da Capo have still managed to put together an impressive collection of this year's best critical essays on music.

I'm still not entirely sure what constitutes the judging criteria for inclusion in this book (do you sense my bitterness yet?). But the diverse variety of opinions and genres covered remains as impressive as always. Classical music in particular gets some extra love this year, presumably because of guest editor Alex Ross' bonafides as a symphony scribe.

Beyond that, you'll find some rather eye-opening essays on everything from heavy metal to hip-hop, and everyone from Neil Young and Miles Davis, to Lady Gaga and Keith Moon.

I particularly enjoyed reading Nancy Griffin's remembrances of a once human Micheal Jackson shyly fawning over his "Thriller" video co-star Ola Ray (and the relationship between them that might have been), and Evelyn McDonell's portrait of the tragically lost, late former Runaways drummer Sandy West.

Beyond that, you'll find great music writing here on subjects ranging from the secret diaries of Nina Simone, to Will.I.Am's manifesto for global domination through catchy pop hooks cleverly disguised as street-worthy ghetto jams.

If nothing else, Da Capo's Best Music Writing 2011 is proof positive that good music journalism isn't dead.

Yet.

This article was first published at Blogcritics Magazine.

December: Must See Movies and Movies to Skip

It's the holiday season!  Last week around Thanksgiving time there were a lot of movies released, some were a slam dunk (The Muppets), some were just alright (My Week with Marilyn) and some completely missed the mark (J. Edgar).  December is starting out slow, taking a break from new major releases, partly because there were five plus films released last week.

December 2nd-Shame-Not Just something we all feel around Thanksgiving for eating too much


Shame is part of a rare club, the NC-17 club.  Shame is only opening in limited release, mainly New York and LA this Friday.  The film stars Michael Fasbender (the actor of the year, from the films-X-Men: First Class, A Dangerous Method, and Jane Eyre) as a sex addict.  The real reason I want to see this film is because looks excellent.  My shallow reason is because I want to see Fassbender naked.

See it: Shame (if you live in NYC or LA) otherwise catch one of the Thanksgiving films you missed like Hugo or The Muppets.

(Shame Trailer)

December 9th-Go see the film with that has the better Gary attached!


One of the films I am most excited about this month is Tinkor Tailor Soldier Spy which stars Gary Oldman an espionage veteran forced out of retirement to find a soviet spy during the Cold War.  This is director Thomas Alfredson's follow up film to the Sweedish version of the film Let the Right One In, needless to say this should be awesome!

Gary Marshall is the other Gary who directed the film New Year's Eve; he has become inventive with his titles for films that center around holidays.  I will be dragged to see this (but Zac Effron makes up for it).

Young Adult has brought together the writer/director team that brought us Juno.  With Jason Reitman directing and Diablo Cody writing how can you go wrong.  Charlize Theron looks like she plays one badass sarcastic bitch in this film, and I love it!

The Sitter is Adventures in baby sitting, I am tired of Hollywood taking the premise of film and trying to trick people into thinking they have not made the movie before, it's been done!

We Need to Talk About Kevin is only opening for a week to qualify for the Oscars, but this film looks intense.  The film centers around a school shooting and the reaction of the perpetrators parents played by the under rated John C. Reilly and the brilliant Tilda Swinton.

See it: Everything but The Sitter, New Year's Eve will be bad but it will bring out the light holiday fun you will want for this time of year.

(Tinkor Tailor Soldier Spy Trailer)

December 16th-Sequels that look bad and a play that looks like the adaptation from Broadway will not work.


Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows does not look good, and was Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked was not needed, but the studios needed money.  Carnage is based on the plays Gods of Carnage.  The cast for Carnage is great, Jodie Foster, Christoph Waltz, Kate Winslet, and John C. Reilly, but the preview made me lose interest.

Skip it all!

(We Need to Talk About Kevin trailer)

December 23rd: Santa is bringing something for Everyone!


On December 21st Santa will bring on dark Christmas gift in the form of the film The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  I read the book, and I do not drool over it the way most people do, but David Fincher looks like he did an amazing job with this film.

Santa knows some people like action so he is bringing Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol or we were contractually obligated to have Tom Cruise star in this film.  JJ Abrams (producer( brought this series back to life with the third film.  Brad Bird is directing, and if you see this in IMAX you get to see something from The Dark Knight Rises...I may have to.

Santa knew he need to bring something animated and something for people who love horses, so he talked to Steven Spielberg (ironically) and we get two films from him.  The first is the animated film The Adventures of Tin Tin, which looks pretty good.  Spielberg is also adapting the Tony award winning play War Horse.  I think I would rather see the play because the style of the play with puppets seems like a cool concept, and I just don't feel anything strongly about this film from the preview, but I will force myself to see it.

Santa also knew we needed films that are Oscar bait, and he will be giving us that with the Stephen Daldry film Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.  Daldry has directed three films and received an Oscar nomination for each of them (in directing).  The film centers around 9/11 and stars two time Oscar winner Tom Hanks, and Oscar winner Sandra Bullock (I never thought I would write that).  The preview makes me tear up, thanks Santa!

Santa heard you wanted a puppy, but got you a whole zoo instead.  The Cameron Crowe film We Bought a Zoo which tells the story of a single father played by Matt Damon who moves away from his house with his kids and buys a house with a zoo.  This film continues the pattern of successful single dads movies like Moneyball, and The Descendants.  I love Crowe but this looks too sappy.

(The Adventures of Tin Tin Trailer)

Picks of the Month: Tinkor Tailor Soldier Spy, Shame, Young Adult, and We Need to Talk about Kevin

Hugo and The Descendants Win Big at the National Board of Review Awards

In interesting movie news Hugo was named Best Picture, and the film's director Martin Scorsese was 
named Best Director by the National Board of Review (NBR).  The other film that took won a lot of awards was the quirky Alexander Payne film The Descendants.  The Descendants took home three awards including, Best Actor-George Clooney, Best Supporting Actress-Shailene Woodley, and Best Adapted Screenplay.


According the National Board of Review's website "Its stated purpose was to endorse films of merit and champion the new "art of the people", which was transforming America's cultural life. In an effort to avoid government censorship of films, the National Board became the unofficial clearinghouse for new movies."  In 1929 the National Board of Review honored the top ten films of the year, best foreign language film, and has been the first awards body to kick off awards season, until this year when the New York Film Critics stole their thunder.  Hugo winning makes a lot of sense because Hugo centers around honoring film making.


The NBR still picks the 10 best films of the year, the only film that puzzles me is J. Edgar, but the NBR loves Clint Eastwood.  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 made the list and was honored with a book to film special achievement award. Making this top ten list is not guarantee that a film will even contend within the typical award season.  The film that wins and the other films that garner a good amount of other awards like The Descendants helps push an film further in award season.  


The same can be said for the winners of the acting awards.  For example last year the NBR  picked Lesley Manville from the film Another Year in the Best Actress category, and the only major award nomination she received was a Supporting Actress BAFTA nomination.  On the other hand Jackie Weaver won in the Supporting Actress category for the film Animal Kingdom, and this pushed her to gain recognition she may not have gotten.  If I were a betting man, and I can be when persuaded, I would say the actresses that won today could both be vulnerable. Tilda Swinton won Lead Actress for We Need to Talk About Kevin.  I think Swinton will get a nomination for this film, but the Academy could have a hard time embracing the subject matter.  Shailene Woodley's nomination depends on how much future award show traction she gets, how much Academy voters like her film, and being able to take her seriously, because of her television show on ABC Family.  The other acting winner in the Supporting Actor category was Christopher Plummer for Beginners, and he has a great shot at a nomination and could pull of the win!


Here is the full list of winners


Best Film: Hugo
(Rest of the Top Ten in Alpha Order)
The Artist
The Descendants
Drive
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
The Ides of March
J. Edgar
Tree of Life
War Horse

Best Director: Martin Scorsese, Hugo
Best Actor: George Clooney, The Descendants
Best Actress: Tilda Swinton, We Need to Talk About Kevin
Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer, Beginners
Best Supporting Actress: Shailene Woodley, The Descendants
Best Original Screenplay: Will Reiser, 50/50
Best Adapted Screenplay: Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash
Best Animated Feature: Rango
Breakthrough Performance: Felicity Jones, Like Crazy
Breakthrough Performance: Rooney Mara, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Debut Director: J.C. Chandor, Margin Call
Best Ensemble: The Help
Spotlight Award: Michael Fassbender (A Dangerous Method, Jane Eyre, Shame, X-Men: First Class)
NBR Freedom of Expression: Crime After Crime
NBR Freedom of Expression: Pariah
Best Foreign Language Film: A Separation
Best Documentary: Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
Special Achievement in Filmmaking: The Harry Potter Franchise – A Distinguished Translation from Book
to Film

The Grammy's Spread the Wealth but Crown Adele, Kanye, Bruno Mars, and The Foo Fighters Handsomely

The Grammy Award nominations were announced live on CBS last night, and these awards are always tough for me to predict.  As you can tell I rarely post about music, I like it, but I only talk about when it comes to award shows.  I think the nominees are interesting with some surprises.  This is an interesting year where Pop dominates!

Adele leads the female nomination tally with 6 award nominations including Album of the Year (21), Record and Song of the Year for "Rolling in the Deep", nominations in the Pop categories, and Short Form Music Video.  Adele has had an amazing year and at the moment I would crown her the frontrunner for most of these awards.

The shocking leader of the pack is the man so divisive, Kanye West with 7 nominations.  This is not Kanye's first time having the most nominations he had that honor two albums prior.  Kanye also had two albums out this year which helped him to rack up the largest number of nominations.  The two albums were "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" and "Watch the Throne" his collaboration with Jay-Z.  While Kanye did receive a Song of the year nomination for "All of the Lights" he was shut out of the Album of the Year category.

Bruno Mars like Adele landed 6 nominations.  Mars was nominated for Album of the year for "Doo-Wops and Hooligans"; he also received Record of the Year and Song of the Year nominations for smash hit "Grenade", and some nominations in the Pop categories.

The other big nominee was The Foo Fighters with 6 nominations.  The Foo Fighters netted an Album of the Year nomination for the second time, and they were honored in the Rock category for the rest of their nominations.

 The Foo Fighters are only artist in the Album of the Year category that are not nominated in the Pop Album of the Year.  This bodes well for this group to win this award for the first time.  The other Album of the Year nominees are Lady Gaga's "Born this Way" (her third Album of the Year nomination) and, I can't believe I am going to say this, but Rihanna is nominated for Album of the year with "Loud."

There were a few shocking omissions from the major categories. Taylor Swift, the winner of Album of the year two years ago,  was left out of the general field categories and only received three nominations in the country categories.  In fact the only general field nomination in the Country genre is for The Band Perry for Best New Artist.

The Best New Artist's did a great job with nominations this year; Nicki Minaj has four, Bon Iver also has four, but is the only Best New Artist nominee with nominations in the general field category.  Bon Iver is nominated in Record and Song of the Year for "Holocene."  The other nominees are J. Cole and Skrillex.

Beyonce a 16 time Grammy winner has only two nominations in minor categories.  Her album "4" was not as commercially successful, and divided the fans and critics alike.  Tony Bennett was seen to be a spoiler in the general field categories, but was only nominated for two trophies.

This is going to be an interesting year, with pop dominating.  The general field categories reflects the year well.  There were not a lot of great Albums, but Adele's, and The Foo Fighters were two of the best.  I think this Gaga's weakest album, and Rihanna came back with a stronger album, but I would not have nominated her in this category.  Here is the list of the general field nominations.

Album of the Year

Adele-"21"

The Foo Fighters-"Wasting the Light"

Lady Gaga-"Born this Way"

Bruno Mars-"Doo-Wops and Hooligans"

Rihanna-"Loud"

Record of the Year

Adele-"Rolling in the Deep"

Bon Iver-"Holocene"

Bruno Mars-"Grenade"

Mumford and Sons-"The Cave"

Katy Perry-"Firework"

Song of the Year (award is given to the writers)

Adele-"Rolling in the Deep"

Bon Iver-"Holocene"

Bruno Mars-"Grenade"

Mumford and Sons-"The Cave"

Kanye West-"All of the Lights"

Best New Artist

The Band Perry

Bon Iver

J. Cole

Nicki Minaj

Skrillex

Predicting winners at this point is difficult, but I would say that The Foo Fighters will win album because it's the only rock album amongst four other pop albums.  With that said last years Album of the Year winner was a shock, so this is by no means a done deal.  I think Adele has an excellent shot, and Bruno Mars could be a spoiler.  I think "Rolling in the Deep" is going to easily take both Record and Song of the Year.  Bon Iver will most likely win Best New Artist, but look out for the country voting block.  The Band Perry is the only nomination for country in the major catgeories, and they may team up to make sure that win happens.

Kate Bush's Impossibly Sexy And Snowy Winter Wonderland

Music Review: Kate Bush - 50 Words For Snow

Even for an artist whose music has taken more than its fair share of odd twists over the years, Kate Bush's new album has to rank right up there as being among her strangest. It is also one of her most beautiful, and one that was well worth the wait.

50 Words For Snow, her first album of all new material since 2005's Aerial, takes a couple of spins for it all to really start to sink in. On an initial listen, the seven songs on this album have the same sort of quietly pleasant, but meandering, innocuous sort of quality you might find on any random piano solo album released on New Age labels like Windham Hill in the seventies.

Sure, they might go down fine with a nice glass of wine next to a warm fireplace. But if you can name that tune in three notes or less the next day, you've more than earned that trip to the sudden death round.

Yet, once you get past this simple deception, these are songs — mostly performed solo by Kate Bush on piano and vocals, with minimal accompaniment in a light jazz trio sort of format with bass and drums — that really begin to creep up on you and get under your skin.

Then, they start to haunt you.

The unifying theme of (what else?) snow is equally deceptive. Kate Bush's "Winter Wonderland" is not the same one you'll find on some Hallmark holiday greeting card, but rather one littered with ghosts stranded in a purgatory of romantic longing, and almost impossible loneliness and regret.

Ever since she was first discovered as a teenage prodigy by Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour back in the seventies, Kate Bush's music has always had a strangely ethereal quality to it. At it's best though — particularly as heard on early songs like "Wow" and "The Man With The Child In Her Eyes" — Kate Bush's unearthly soprano voice can also be both wondrously innocent and wildly erotic at the same time (of course, it doesn't hurt that Kate is also pretty hot).

It's no mistake that Kate Bush has been oft-cited as a key influence by everyone from Tori Amos to Florence And The Machine.

On 50 Words For Snow, Kate Bush is still walking this same delicate line between rapture and desire, even as she is doing the nasty with Frosty The Snowman on this album's best track, the oddly beautiful "Misty." Yet, there is also an undeniable sense of loss here, as Kate feels her icy lover "melting in my hand," and then wakes up the next morning to find "soaking sheets" and "on my pillow, dead leaves and bits of twisted branches."

This is about as far removed from Phil Spector's original girl-group vision of an innocent, Christmas Eve encounter with ol' Frosty as it gets.

It should also be noted that veteran jazz studio drummer Steve Gadd's light and airy cymbal brushes provide a perfectly understated musical backdrop here. Although Gadd's contributions to this album are mostly subtle and nuanced, his musical presence is the most deeply felt (outside that of Kate Bush herself) on virtually every track of this album.



On the opening track "Snowflake," Kate is still searching for her missing snowman, while lamenting that "the world is so loud, keep falling, I'll find you." This same sense of longing takes on another shade on "Snowed In At Wheeler Street," which finds two star crossed lovers (Kate and guest vocalist Elton John) yearning for what could have been, from when they "met in '42," to "9/11 in New York" (there's that whole ghost thing again).

Elsewhere, Kate Bush finds a little sympathy for Bigfoot on the surprisingly catchy (for this album) "Wild Man," and plays narrator (in an uncharacteristically deep and sexy voice) to British actor Stephen Fry as he runs down the complete list of "50 Words For Snow" on the title track.

But mostly, this particular snowfall from Kate Bush seems to serve as a metaphor for longing of the romantic variety. It's never a Merry Christmas when you're alone and missing your snowman.

But it does make for a very beautiful record, and one well worth the repeated listens it takes to get there.

This article was first published at Blogcritics Magazine.