Entertainment

Johnny Depp just about has to be the most eccentric actor in Hollywood that you can find and it shows in the roles that he chooses to play. Several of the movies that he has been in number among my favorites, including the animated stuff that he has done as well. I would guess that my two favorite roles that he has done would have to be Edward Scissorhands and Ichabod Crane and Sleepy Hollow. The Pirates of the Caribbean are pretty good but I think that those are more about him having fun rather than any serious acting, although I could be wrong.

I can’t decided if I like Edward Scissorhands because Winona Ryder is just plain hot or because of Edward (Depp). Although the movie was release 17 years ago I still laugh when I think about it. My favorite line of the movie has got to be when the police officer is talking to the psychologist:

Officer Allen: Will he be OK, Doc?
Psychologist: The years spent in isolation have not equipped him with the tools necessary to judge right from wrong. He’s had no context. He’s been completely without guidance. Furthermore, his work – the garden sculptures, hairstyles and so forth – indicate that he’s a highly imaginative… uh… character. It seems clear that his awareness of what we call reality is radically underdeveloped.
Officer Allen: But will he be all right out there?
Psychologist: Oh yeah, he’ll be fine.

Just like a shrink

In Sleepy Hollow Depp plays young policeman Ichabod Crane who has been sent to Sleepy Hollow back in 1799 to investigate the decapitations of three locals.

He falls in love with the character of Katrina Van Tassel, played by Christina Ricci and has to brave the perils of the nearby woods as well as the Ghost of the Hessian killed during the revolutionary war.

“Reverend Steenwyck: Their heads weren’t found severed. Their heads were not found at all.
Ichabod Crane: The heads are… gone?
Notary James Hardenbrook: Taken. Taken by the Headless Horseman. Taken back to hell.”

While I have seen Edward Scissorhands several times I have only had the opportunity to watch Sleep Hollow, which was released in 1999, once. Between the two I think I like it the most out of all his movies so far. The scene toward the end where the headless horseman goes back to hell through the tree has to be one of my favorite parts of the movie.

Johnny Depp is in a movie that’s due to be released this Christmas, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. While I will be working about 20 hours on Christmas and it’s not very likely that I will get to see it anytime during the month of December, I will see it even if I have to wait for the DVD. That’s one of the downfalls of what I do for a living, no time off at all or at least very little.

Anyway, Sweeney Todd is a bit different. It’s the screen adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s musical thriller by the same name. Sweet. That pretty much means I will be watching it by myself since the wife doesn’t seem to like musicals very much. That’s OK, I love them. Everything from the Disney musicals in the sixties and seventies to Oklahoma and all of the other big name musicals from the forties through the sixties. I don’t know what it is, but they are all just great fun. Growing up my father enjoyed watching them on television and I suppose that’s where I get it from. Visit the official Sweeney Todd movie site for wallpapers and you can check out the gallery as well as a synopsis of the movie. You can also join in the fun and visit Sweeney Todd on MySpace.

Johnny Depp plays Sweeney Todd, a man who has been unjustly sent to prison and vows revenge for that as well as for what happens to his wife and daughter. Sweeney Todd, a.k.a. Benjamin Barker teams up with Mrs Lovett and her sinister meat pie shop to rid himself of the people that did him wrong. The setting is in Victorian England it looks to be a pretty cool movie.

Queen is one of the quintessential rock bands of the latter part of the twentieth century. News of the World is probably my favorite album and the one that introduced me to Freddie Mercury and the rest of the group. One of my favorite songs, and according to many the band’s Magnum Opus, is Bohemian Rhapsody. How about a bit of music trivia. After the song of course.

The car scene from Wayne’s World? Dead on freaking target. This song has everything! Metal Riffs and a fast pace, rocking guitars, slow melodic tones, it’s a true rockers anthem. Except for one thing. It IS missing one thing that seems to be present in most popular music then and now. Can you guess what it is? The answer is below the fold.

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Remember Quiet Riot? These guys got my attention in the early eighties mainly because Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Randy Rhoads played with them. They were one of the pretty cheesy early eighties hair metal bands. The actually put on a pretty good show and had some catchy tunes to headbang to.

At 52, Kevin Dubrow was found dead earlier this week at his Las Vegas home. The cause of death hasn’t been announced yet if it has even been determined.

While reading about Hunter S. Thompson last night and doing a little research I ran across a web site promoting a book by Simone Corday entitled 9 1/2 Years Behind the Green Door. As part of the research for a book he was writing Hunter Thompson spent quite a bit of time at the O’Farrell Theater strip club in San Francisco and worked as the night manager for a period of time. The book never actually materialized but some of the experiences there were widely talked about and it was one of the bigger strip clubs to have several different stars come out of.

For some of the big wigs in entertainment and politics, the O’Farrell Theater was a serious hang out back in the ’80s. It was run by the Mitchell brothers, Artie and Jim. They are the guys that directed Behind the Green Door with Marylin Chambers. Corday’s book details the time that she worked at the O’Farrell as well as the fact that she dated Artie Mitchell for almost a decade. She also took part in three of the films that the Mitchell brothers were involved in including the documentary about Hunter S. Thompson, The Crazy Never Die.

“Party Artie’ Mitchell was aptly named and had serious issues with cocaine and alcohol abuse and in 1991 Jim Mitchell had had enough and drove to his house where he shot his brother to death.. He was eventually found guilty of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to six years in prison for the deed.

The book details some of the things that led up to the murder of Arty Mitchell and what life was like for the Mitchell’s and Corday back in the eighties in the midst of the sex industry. If you are interested in the book you can go over to Simone Corday’s web site where you can purchase it as well as read free chapters to see if it’s something you might be interested in.

Want to win a $150 gift certificate? It won’t be in time to buy a Christmas gift but it would be right on the money to get yourself something for being a good little boy or girl…

I would probably enter the contest myself but since it’s my brother AND I already have a copy of the darned book there might be issues there 🙁

All you have to do to enter the contest is to buy a copy of Republic:

Buy yourself a copy of the book by December 23rd and email the receipt to Charles Sheehan-Miles (you can get his email address from the blog entry) and then go write a review of the book at Amazon. Simple, no? It’s a damn good book and just the thing to stoke your big brother fears!

When you purchase the book and write a review that’s worth one entry and when you buy a copy for someone else as a gift that’s worth TWO!

He will do a video drawing on Christmas Eve and have it posted with the winner by midnight that night. If you are going to enter you had better buy the book early because most likely he will be at my house for the holidays and I don’t want to be up filming at dark-thirty and then have to get back up…

The link?

Oh yeah, the link to his blog entry is here and the gift certificate is for either Amazon.com or iTunes, your choice.

Why is it that the big thing nowadays for celebrities is to go through drug rehabs? I guess this is nothing new but just this year we’ve seen Mike Tyson, Lindsay Lohan and Pete Doherty go through. The big problem is that they are going to skip out on jail time and then they check out early only to go on to the same old junk they were doing before.

Perhaps if the judges that are letting them go would clamp down and give them a bit of good old time in the crossbar motel they might actually learn a lesson or two.

Queensryche has long been one of my Favorite bands. With exception to some of the stuff on DVD I have most of the stuff that they have released since the band was formed in the early eighties including some of the LPs still sealed.

Their newest endeavor is a covers album entitled accordingly ‘Take Cover’. It is currently available online through their web site at Queensryche.com as well as on iTunes and most likely Amazon.

Queensryche is not known for being a cover band. They don’t normally play many live so this was definitely something new for them.

I am about halfway through listening to the album right now and I like it, but this is NOT an album for the casual heavy metal or rock listener. If you are not a ‘ryche fan then this album may or may not be to your taste.

The track list is pretty eclectic. Below is the list of tracks, original artist, as well as why they chose to include each song.

‘Welcome To The Machine’ – PINK FLOYD
“Pink Floyd is one of the biggest influences on us as a band, and we all wanted to play one of their songs. This track meant a lot to all of us growing up. It really captures that feeling of shock at lost innocence when the curtain is pulled back and you realize what the world is really like. We didn’t want to mess with the original, so we gave the song a totally different arrangement.”

‘Heaven On Their Minds’ – Jesus Christ Superstar
“Stone had been playing this to me since he joined the band and, coincidently and so had his predecessor Kelly Gray. I liked the song, but this was one of the rare cases where I thought we could improve on the original recording. Stone put together a really cool arrangement. I think people will be surprised by this song.”

‘Almost Cut My Hair’ – CROSBY, STILLS, NASH & YOUNG
“I thought this would be a great song for us to do. Musically, the guitar and vocal harmonies are amazing, and lyrically, it’s right on the money. It was a lot of fun arranging this song.”

‘For What It’s Worth’ – BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD
“When we’re touring, a lot of radio morning shows invite us to the studio to talk about the tour and have us play a couple of songs on acoustic guitars. This is one of the songs we like to throw in every once in a while.”

‘For The Love Of Money’ – THE O’JAYS
“This was one of the most challenging and enjoyable songs to record and another track that will probably catch people off guard. The vocal phrasing is impeccable and the whole song has such an irresistible groove.”

‘Innuendo’ – QUEEN
“Michael brought this song in and the idea about how we should approach it. I love Queen, but I didn’t know much about this song. I found out later that this was one of the last songs Freddie Mercury recorded before he died. He sang it from a wheelchair like his life depended on it. It’s such an impassioned performance. When I was in the studio recording, I pictured Freddie and tried to imagine what it must have been like for him to sing this song facing his own mortality. I could never hope to top it; I just wanted to pay tribute to his performance.”

‘Neon Knights’ – BLACK SABBATH
“Ronnie [James Dio] took us out on our first European tour and he’s always been good to us. He’s singing with Black Sabbath right now and we’re going out on the road together again. With the tour coming up, this seemed like a nice way to pay tribute to him. I hope he likes it, or I’m sure I’ll hear about it every night of the tour.”

‘Synchronicity II’ – THE POLICE
“This is another song I didn’t know much about. Not sure how I missed it, because that album was everywhere. Our version has a great dark vibe that I really like.”

‘Red Rain’ – PETER GABRIEL
“This is another song I overlooked when it came out. One of the guys played it, and I knew immediately that we had to do it. The melody of this song is flawless. It could go on and on and never get old.”

‘Odissea’ – CARLO MARRALE & CHEOPE
“I really like this song because there is a lot for a singer to sink their teeth into, plus I got a chance to sing in Italian, which was interesting considering I don’t speak a word of it.

‘Bullet The Blue Sky’ – U2 (Live)
“This is one of the rare times that we played a cover live. I don’t remember exactly when or where we played this, but I do remember that we were locked in. Everything came together just right musically, and I evidently had a lot on my mind that night because I wasn’t shy with my social commentary.”

I still haven’t completely finished listening to the album in it’s entirety but once I get home from work I will get it finished. Unfortunately the songs are not among those on iTunes that are ‘iTunes plus’ or unprotected mp3 format, so I cannot listen to them on my PDA while I am in the car. Knowing how much Queensryche have embraced technology and the Internet during their career I must say that I am surprised at this.

Thus far, having listened to about half of the stuff, I must say that Neon Knights, the Black Sabbath/Dio cover is my favorite, as well as Bullet the Blue Sky. U2 is OK and while not one of my favorites I enjoyed this cover as well.