Entertainment

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Rockstar Supernova – A Review

4 Comments Posted on by Snoskred

Just when you thought there was enough (too many?) mentions of Lukas Rossi on this blog, I bring you this review of the new album by Rockstar Supernova. I’ve been meaning to do it for a few days now. People argue about whether it is an album or cd or whatever – it is an album of songs put on a cd, in my opinion. It’s kind of like a snapshot in time of where a band is at.

1. It’s On – The drumming is purely wicked. I’ve seen video of Lukas singing this live and the track just doesn’t quite get to the same place as he does live, but it’s close.

2. Leave The Lights On – The first time I heard this I was reminded of Dilana’s disaster version (take a trip down memory lane here, rock star fans, complete with dancing girls rofl but beware you may need acid to scrub your brain of it after) and in fact could hear her version instead of the one I was listening to, and I thought this song was Doomed with a Capital D. However, more listening and a determined effort to block that nightmare out has resulted in me liking this track. It’ll make you move, make your foot tap. It really belongs in a biker bar. I could see strippers using this track.

3. Be Yourself – I remember reading around the message boards and blog reviews when this song was first sung on the show by Toby Rand. Everyone was going on about the hey hey hey ho ho ho bit. I was quite horrified and not really sure what this band was going to turn out like. Though I adore Toby also, Lukas’s version is MUCH better, especially as he doesn’t try to sing the verses. I love this song now, especially the bits where Lukas just rips up the “Keep it on the level” bit after speaking the verses. Hearing it as it is now, it is easy to see where the *band* was going with this song.

4. It’s All Love – I have grown to love this song in the months since the show because it was one of the two we could listen to. But compared to some of the other songs on the cd, it kind of fades into the background a little. I’m not sure if this is because I’m used to it and I’m really enjoying the newer tracks, or why it is. But I love the progression to the growly Lukas by the end of the track (that’s the clip I used in the mp3).

5. Can’t Bring Myself To Light This Fuse – Considering this appears on the little sticker on the front of the album, I’m thinking they’re going to release this as a single. I can see why, it is easily the most mainstream of the tracks, it is a ballad, and it is also fantastic. It’s a little strange placing the two ballads next to each other and it makes me wonder who decided what order these should go on the CD. The only thing missing from this track is the big evil T.Lee drumming – seems like that’s not even his drum kit, his has quite a recognisable sound. They’ve put some of those big (Timpani?) drums in, which is all well and good but I think T.Lee’s dark drumming would have taken this track to a whole new (not quite so mainstream) level.

6. Underdog – All fans of the Rockstar Supernova tv show will instantly recognise this because in most places, the start was played at the start and end of many ad breaks in the show (all of them in Australia, if I remember correctly). So I guess we all had our ideas of what the actual song would sound like, but what it turned out to be was nothing like my ideas.. how about yours? I love the end product – to me it combines darkness with an insatiable need to move to the beat. This song is full of great lyrics – welcome to the revolution, we are the army of underdogs – light the bomb and say you never did it anyway – but can anyone make out whether he is saying bad dog, lap dog, rag doll in the line “I aint a cheap trick (something dog or doll) you can drag along”. I’ve listened to it heaps of time and can’t work it out.

7. Make No Mistake – This Is The Take – Great drums, especially the start. It’s probably my least favourite track on the album but considering I love all the others and just like this one, that’s not saying anything bad really. I am sure people out there will love it and probably not love my favourite tracks as much. That’s ok. :)

8. Headspin – I loved the original by Rise Electric and I’ve probably listened to it a million times, so it’s no surprise to anyone that I hated what they’d done with this track at the start. It’s growing on me. Slowly. I mean the music is fine, I have no problem with it, I don’t like that bits were taken out of the original that I felt were somewhat important to the song. The original went for 5:12, this version goes for just over 4, so there’s quite a bit missing. I knew it would happen because it happened on the show, clearly they had a time limit, and I didn’t think they would go back to the original once people got used to the show version. If I’d never heard the original I would be ok with it. ;) I still love the original better. :) So sue me. ;) On the other hand, I like the addition of a swear word, and the excellent drums.

9. Valentine – Today’s favourite track, Each day it changes. :) I love the lyrics, I’m fairly sure most of them came from Lukas, he has a way with lyrics.. ;) and he does have writing credits on this track as well as The Dead Parade, Underdog, Social Disgrace and Headspin, though there’s other names along with his on all the tracks, even Headspin.

10. Social Disgrace – Yesterday’s favourite. I still like it today. Again great lyrics, quite dark.

11. The Dead Parade – First of all, let me say that any track which starts with female backing singers singing in a “gospel”-ish sounding way tends to put me right off the first time I listen to it. I’d rather they just start the track without that. I don’t mind backing singers in the chorus. Now that I have that off my chest, I love this track, it is VERY Lukas having heard a lot of his previous work with other bands. Some fantastic lyrics, including “My life is a rollercoaster, bonfires in my head” At 5:28, it’s the longest track on the cd, beating all the other songs by a full minute (the next closest is Valentine at 4:27) and the last minute involves some lovely guitar work (hopefully by Gilby but who knows?) which seems like it might belong on an old school type of rock record – the whole track has brilliant guitar work to be honest. This was the hardest to choose a clip from because I like all of it so much.

Overall, this is a good cd even if you weren’t a fan of the TV show. I have become quite the Tommy fan now. Is it wrong for me to be attracted to him? :) I think they chose the right person to front the band and the performances I have seen really show that. Lukas is having a ball there on stage and I think fans going to the concerts are going to have as good a time as he is.

The only downsides –

– You can’t seem to hear too much of Jason Newsted’s bass most of the time. There’s one track where I really heard it clearly and now I can’t remember which one it was (edited 25-11 to add, it’s actually Headspin). I don’t know if this is because I’m not musically gifted and can’t pick it, or if it’s something else.

– I don’t hear enough of Lukas’s little growly grr rwoars. Lukatics and Rossi Posse people will know what I mean by that. The reason I noticed is because I was going to make a little audio file with them, just for fun. I only found them in Headspin so far – can you guys pick any others?

There were no lyrics in the sleeve here in Australia. I don’t know if they were present in the US or Canada but if so I’d love to have them. *very* occasionally it is hard to be 100% sure what Lukas is singing. I’m ok with it, I even like it, it just makes it hard to sing along.. ;)

So let me know what you thought of my review, and also if I have inspired you to pull the cash out of your pocket or bank account and purchase this CD to add to your collection. I really hope so. :)

music, reviews

Pump Up The Volume

16 Comments Posted on by Snoskred

Reasons why I love “Pump Up The Volume“.

1. The Hair of Christian Slater

cs1

It is almost a character in itself. The way it moves when he is dancing with the golf club.. mesmerizing!

2. The music

There’s a fairly wide range of music played but this movie was my introduction to Leonard Cohen, and I have been a fan ever since.

3. The teenage band of malcontents

While Hard Harry is broadcasting, you see the listeners and their reactions to what he is saying. It’s easy to just accept that at face value, but if you look a little closer you’ll see a lot of details of the lives of these people in the shots.

4. Shep Shepard

– totally the typical stereotype of a reporter – and reminds me much of Shepard Smith from Fox News.

shepard

5. Paige Woodward

paige

– who literally nukes her problems.

6. The maggot puswad school principal

creswood

– she’s totally evil but karma bites her in the ass in the end. That’s what we like to see in a movie.. ;)

7. Nora

nora

– played by Samantha Mathis.

8. The Search

search

Nora does what any sane girl would do in a situation where someone apparently goes to her school is a pirate dj who she’s quite attracted to. She sets out on a search to find him, writing down all kinds of little facts about himself that he mentions during his shows. Of course, because he does not realise he’s giving away these little bits of info about himself, she manages to track him down when he mentions he sits in a stairwell reading a book at lunchtime.

9. Billy Morrissette

billy

I don’t know if he is related to Alanis, but he was married to Maura Tierney (you’ll remember her from ER) and has now written and directed a film which starred Christopher Walken – Scotland, Pa.

10. The half naked scene.

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11. Seth Green

seth

– making a small appearance with long hair!

12. Christian Slater, again

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– it’s a brilliant performance.

The movie has some awesome lines as well, these are my particular favourites –

This is Hard Harry reminding you to eat your cereal with a fork, and do your homework in the dark.

One day I woke up, and I realised I was never gonna be normal. So I said Fuck It, I said So Be It. And Happy Harry Hardon was born.

They think you’re moody, make ’em think you’re crazy. Make ’em think you might snap!

I say rise up in the cafeteria and stab them with your plastic forks.

Sephy reviewed it a little while ago here, which served to inspire me to make something with screenshots. ;)

If you enjoyed this review, you might also enjoy these other reviews.

Pump Up The Volume
William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet
The Pirate Movie
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Chocolat
Shakespeare In Love
Dead Poets Society

Men I Love To Watch, Movie Reviews

Yay! It’s here!

3 Comments Posted on by Snoskred

Today’s a really cool day. I was just watching Bed Of Roses (and what a great chick flick that is too, too much perfection!) and the doorbell rings and right away I know it’s the other half cos it doesn’t just ring once, it rings like 20 times like we do.. :) and he says he has a surprise, and opens the garage and backs in my parents car, and I figure out fairly quickly that it has finally got here..

surprise

I’ve smudged out his name because he does have an extremely unique name. ;) For the newer readers to the blog, my other half won a competition to go to Thailand and make his own washing machine in the factory there, and then he boxed it up, and it’s been on a boat ever since, and now it is here..

And I still have not managed to look at the photos from his trip yet. I suppose I should get around to it, right? ;)

electrical appliances, movies, travel

This movie may come to you as a surprise..

7 Comments Posted on by Snoskred

The other half and I don’t have the same taste in movies at all. I like to watch movies with him from time to time but it’s a big exercise in compromise for the most part. I have no desire to spend a couple of hours watching cartoons (ie anime) and most of the stuff he likes I just can’t stand. And vice versa. So tonight it came to me as a great surprise that a movie he chose turned out to be utterly fantastic – Gattaca.

I have never understood all the fuss about Jude Law, but I do now. Ethan Hawke was as always incredible. Uma Thurman was gorgeous and tall. The surprise for me was Loren Dean – who I recognised from somewhere but could not put my finger on where from – he played John Aaron in Apollo 13, one of my favourite movies. If you have not seen Gattaca, make sure to check it out. I really enjoyed it.

Oh, you remember the 10 things about me we did a while back? Sephy, I’m Not Craig, Ms Batville, Watershedd (with two d’s) and me all did it, and now Meva who has just returned from two weeks of snorkelling has done it too.. :)

If you are reading this and you are not one of the above named people, consider yourself obliged to post 10 things we don’t know about you, and then say you did it in the comments here. I’ll link to you. And for the NaBloPoMo people, this gives you something to blog about tomorrow/today!

Blog Friends, challenges, movies

Houston.. we have DVD’s..

7 Comments Posted on by Snoskred

dvds

Just a couple. Oh come on, I’ve been a good girl! ;) I have not seen most of these movies. In fact I have only seen Bed Of Roses and Young Guns. So it’ll be fun. And they were all less than $10AUS.

You may have noticed, we also have a new graphic for the header. It’s sequins. I took the pic myself. I know how to get those little stars now, I learnt the trick recently. I’ll put a post on the photo blog about how to do it.. :)

movies

Aussie Music 101

7 Comments Posted on by Snoskred

Today we’re going to talk about travel, and music.. ;) This one is for all the non-Aussies reading this blog.

If you intend to visit Australia, you may find yourself in a “pub” (place where one drinks alcohol) at some point. In that pub, there may be a live band (a group of people with instruments attempting to burst your eardrums by the power of sound and they might succeed!) and if there is, they possibly won’t be playing their own music.

At this pub, they will be playing all kinds of music, and some of it might be from Aussie bands (the greatest music of all time) so it might be helpful to you to be familiar with the bands and perhaps even learn some of the lyrics ahead of time. So let us take a look at the top 5 Aussie bands you may hear music from.

5. AC/DC (Or, Acca Dacca)

The band has a long and interesting history which you can read about on Wikipedia. But for the purposes of today’s post, what you need to know is – they have a guitarist who does this bizzare hopping around on stage thing (look at the you tube clip. Seriously, do it!) and the singer is not the most easy to understand.

You probably don’t need to know any of the lyrics, just growling along with the music will be fine and if you take a look at how the guitarist does his thing you can choose to copy that, or just headbang (ie bounce your head in time to the beat of the music in an angry looking way) and you can pass yourself off as a real Aussie with little effort on this occasion.

4. Midnight Oil. (Or, The Oils)

The oils (read their wikipedia here) have a lot of lyrics. There’s no way you can learn all of them while not in Australia. While here you will pick a fair few of them up, most likely the musical question “How can we sleep while our beds are burning” and “If the sugar refining company won’t save me, who’s going to save me”.

However, you can get away with not knowing the lyrics if you try to dance like Peter Garrett. This is best done when you’ve had a fair bit to drink. Again the you tube video will give you some excellent insight on how to do this, but if you don’t have the time –

In order to dance like Peter Garret – imagine your feet are glued to the floor, and you really want to unglue them. Then imagine you have ingested two entire bottles of Coca Cola and you have an enormous gas bubble in your stomach, and you’re trying to expel it by burping yourself, like you would a baby.. Wave your arms in the air. Move the top half of your body somewhat wildly. Imagine you managed to step on a foot sized piece of bubblegum, pick one leg up off the floor but imagine long trails of gum stuck to your foot and you’re trying to get them off.

3. The Angels

The most likely Angels song you will hear is “Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again” – not surprisingly, this is the lyric you will need to know in order to bluff like you know this band and their music. But if you want to really make people think you are an Aussie, when that lyric is sung, you can then sing in reply to that lyric “No way get f*cked f*ck off” and people will assume you have been here since the late 80’s, even if you have an accent which says otherwise. ;)

2. INXS

Wiki here. It is really difficult to guess what INXS song you might hear. There are so many of them. Here is an official VEVO account where you can immerse yourself in the INXS.

Michael Hutchence, is pure sex on legs. See for yourself, watch the you tube clips. I believe he was the Aussie Jim Morrison. Unfortunately, he also died in a Jim Morrison type way.

Watch for the girls reaction when INXS is played. Depending on how much they’ve had to drink and which pub you’re in, there may be one or who who uncontrollably sob. This is totally normal and ok. Just act like you didn’t see that.

1. Cold Chisel (known as Chisel)

Wiki here. The ultimate Aussie band. You will likely hear several of their songs while here. However my personal favourite of all the Chisel songs is Cheap Wine. You will hear this a fair bit too. “Cheap wine and a three day growth” is the needful on this occasion – again, sing it loud.. As a tribute to this band, I put both Khe Sahn and Cheap Wine here. ;) And OMG real Aussies, check out the Khe Sahn video below- Jimmy Barnes hair! I didn’t know he had a poodle do.. there is so much about Aussie History I missed out on.. :)

Khe Sahn is very popular. In order to act like you know this song, you need the lyric “The last plane out of Sydney’s almost gone” – you need to sing this at the TOP of your lungs. You need to sing this like it is the last thing you will ever sing. You need to sing this like you want the people back where you are from to hear you. There are long patches of unintelligible lyrics to get through before you get to that bit – it’s the best bit, and they always save the best till last.. My advice, drink more beer while this is going on.

You may actually be lucky enough to see the Jimmy Barnes in person at some point. My Mom ran into him at the airport. He was in town here a couple of weeks ago.

So there you go. You learnt something new today. ;) Hopefully you listened to at least one of these songs. And if you do make it here to visit us and drink cold beer while cover bands murder the Aussie greats, let me know!

Now, the other half just brought home a new stereo, so I’m gonna go enjoy that and play some pool. I’ll be playing some of these Aussie songs and thinking of ya’all. :)

Aussie Culture, music

I got some email..

5 Comments Posted on by Snoskred

A scammer I am baiting sent me some photos. I’ve posted them on the scambaiter blog. You can see them here but be warned, he’s in his underwear.

Speaking of half naked, when we went down to Pebbly Beach there was this chick kneeling down on the ground taking photos of the birds landing on her relatives, showing us enough of her crack that I felt like I could see what she had for breakfast. I am serious! It was a very inappropriate amount of crack to be showing. Inches and inches of crack!

My uncle says to me.. Don’t forget to post that letter… and it took me a minute or two to get what he meant, and then I could not stop laughing. And he kept going, he was saying to my parents “Have you got any letters you need posted?”

I am tempted to get a supply of small coins this summer, and anytime I see a crack I should put a coin in it, see if I can do it without the crack-shower noticing.. ;)

I’m a bit busy today so in the meantime here’s a pic of a lady (not the crack shower) being attacked by birds at Pebbly Beach..

birdz.0

family, funny, New South Wales

Another Lukas Post.

Leave a comment Posted on by Snoskred

The song in my head today is “It’s On” by Rockstar Supernova. You can hear a rocking acoustic version of it here and this is why I love Lukas Rossi. The chorus is the best bit. I can’t wait to get this on the album. My advice, don’t watch the video, just listen. I’m getting really excited about this cd. w00t!

music

Romeo + Juliet – a review..

15 Comments Posted on by Snoskred

A lot of people who have reviewed William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (especially critics) did not really *get* it. People went on about them speaking with American accents and action scenes and a whole load of tripe really. So rather than try to combat that, I’m just going to tell you a few of the reasons why I love this film. ;) With my own screenshots. ;) Be sure to let me know what you think.

leohair.0

Leonardo’s hair. Boy, that were no cheap haircut. Seriously, a hairdresser knew what they were doing there. The color is one of the best pieces of work I’ve seen, ever. See how the light catches the streaks? Lovely!

mercutio.1

Mercutio. Harold Perrineau to be precise. It is extremely brave to take on this role in this movie because Mercutio was to be a drag queen – wearing silver high heels and even dance in them. When you see the dancing scene, Mercutio’s high kick is one of the best I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a few. But he is not just a great drag queen, his acting is excellent. His death scene is heart-breakingly heartbreaking.

john

Also John Leguizamo plays a wonderful Tybalt and as you see, many of the costumes in the movie involve one of my favourite things – sparkly stuff.

fishtank

And the fishtank sequence is breath-taking – extremely lovely. The fishtank scenes add to the color and beauty of this film overall, and really cool to have fish swimming between the actor and the camera. Pretty!

grotto

The pool grotto – very beautiful!

beach

The overall colorfulness of this movie is one of the things that makes it a success in my opinion. The beauty of the cast, the locations, the language, it’s all great. When the beach scenes of Mercutio’s death were shot, there was actually a huge storm blowing in – what is happening to those trees is completely natural. The actors made it through even though they were being completely sand blasted.

If you go and read reviews for this movie on the intarweb, you’ll hear all these comparisions to some previous version of Romeo and Juliet done by Zafarelli or some such name back in the 60’s. This is ridiculous. Why compare two versions of something to each other? Clearly Baz Lurhman was not trying to *replicate* the previous version. Nobody would bother to do that. I have not seen the other version and I have no real desire to. I’m fairly happy with this version of it.

And to be honest, so are *millions* of school kids who have seen this movie as part of their traditional Shakespeare lessons instead of some old and dodgy version which would not grab their imaginations the way this movie does, or contain music which is interesting, or use color in such incredible ways as this movie does..

But the ending is the real triumph of this film, in my opinion. Of course I’m not going to spoil it by telling you they both die, that’s a pretty well known thing, but how the dying scenes have been changed in this instance are a great improvement, I think. Not to mention the fact that the scenes are visually beautiful (love the blue neon crosses) and Leo’s emotion is heartbreakingly lovely, if that’s possible. If you watch it you’ll get what I mean..

final.1

I have seen this film a *zillion* times, I used to have it playing in front of me at work all day long, and yet every time I see it I somehow hope the ending will magically change and Romeo will take his Juliet off to Mantua and they will live happily ever after.

For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo. But I think this version of it tells the story in a way that will inspire kids who really have no interest in Shakespeare to get an interest. This, along with Shakespeare in Love, are two of my favourite tellings of this tragic tale.

Let me know if you’ve seen this film, if you have not and have decided to because of this review, or your general thoughts on this review and my screenshots ;)

Of course, Claire Danes is now starring as Carrie in Homeland. I prefer her in this movie to be honest. Less crazy eyes, less nuttiness.

If you enjoyed this review, you might also enjoy these other reviews.

Pump Up The Volume
William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet
The Pirate Movie
Chocolat
Shakespeare In Love
Dead Poets Society

Leonardo DiCaprio, Movie Reviews, movies

How can I sleep with your voice in my head?

Leave a comment Posted on by Snoskred

Woke up to hear Lukas Rossi singing this morning in my head. And the alarm didn’t even go off. I said to the other half just yesterday that we are so buying the Rockstar Supernova album when it is released, and according to Google I have only 6 days to wait. Excellent!

I can’t think of any song I wouldn’t be happy to hear Lukas’s interpretation of, but the other day when we were out driving, God Gave Rock And Roll To You was playing. I reckon he would do a great version of that.

Well, I have a post about Romeo + Juliet on the way, so I’ll get on with it. It took me longer than I expected cos I am making my own screenshots. :)

music