The most surprising revelation about the History Channel realty show Swamp People is how the network manages to portray the families in the series in an honest, non exploitive manner. The show focuses on a number of Louisiana families who make their living in the swamps catching alligators and snakes. Yes the Cajun accents are thick enough to require subtitles, but there are no ridiculous scenarios constructed simply to make…
I always thought that the CDs that were put out by Starbucks’ Hear Music were just normal retail versions of CDs, and in the odd case that they created an album, that it would be a greatest hits album that was reordered. However, they have done a tremendous service to fans with the release of two two-CD sets in their re-release of Paul McCartney’s 1970 and 1980 solo albums. The…
Ray Griggs attempts to show with I Want Your Money how exactly the different political parties view their relationship with their citizenry. Using speeches from Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama, there are a number of differences that are shown. While there is a full hour and a half to this DVD, I still feel as if there could have been more coverage presented. What results in I Want Your Money…
City Center has just released their first full-length album on K Records in “Redeemer”, and there seems to be a certain spring in the band’s step that is noticeable on the disc’s introductory track, “Puppers”. The band works towards the creation of an album rather than the furtherance of a few key singles. This means that there are considerable nods towards other efforts on the same album during cuts like…
I was a little antsy when I learned that A&E was branching off into drama rather than continuing to solely focus on reality television shows. The Glades premiered last year, and ties together a number of up and coming actors with established television personas. Matt Passmore plays Detective Jim Longworth, a transplant to the area from the Windy City. Longworth takes a position at the FDLE – the Florida Department…
It is rare to view a film that has so many nods to different genres. In the case of Payton Collins Serial Rapist, director Toby Ross is able to blend horror, thriller, and erotic elements into what ey calls darkotica. It is this ability to move seamlessly through these different genres is why the film becomes inviting, but the roles turned in by the different members of the cast is…
When a band member goes solo, there is typically some semblance of their original act present in the solo album. Brian Olive just spent a few years in The Greenhornes and Soledad Brothers, and the music that issues forth on “Two of Everything” is considerably different from either of those acts. In fact, there is a marked departure from any of Olive’s previous bands in the opening strains of “Left…
If Queen were to make their debut now, instead of 1973 when they released their eponymous debut, it’s very likely they’d be considered a novelty band, and I’m not even talking about Freddy Mercury’s skin tight cat suits or Brian May’s getting closer to God afro as reasons why. The songs alone, which have proven not only to be fantastic examples of what can be accomplished with hard driving drums…
Iron Maiden has been one of my favorite metal bands for a long time now. The first concert that I ever attended was an Iron Maiden show, and a great number of the tracks contained on “From Fear to Eternity” are their strongest cuts. This 23 track greatest hits compilation could easy have another two or three discs added without any decrease in quality, but Universal has done a tremendous…
The Accel Recovery Bar is integral for anyone that is looking for a healthy snack, recovery after a workout, or for a way to easily increase their health. There are three different types of carbohydrates that will restore fuel to the muscles, while there are a few amino acids present that will allow for muscles to be built up faster and bigger than before. Finally, the presence of anitioxidants in…
It’s been fifteen or more years since the first time I tried to build a website. Back then, there was only three ways to make your website; Learn HTML, pay someone to do it, or to use a tool provided by a web hosting site like Angel-fire or Homestead. The last of those options would work, but it wasn’t always secure, options were limited, and themes were either pitifully slim,…
There is a considerable amount of variation when it comes to pre-workout supplements. While each of them will get you amped due to the presence of caffeine, it takes a good supplement to really do everything that any company promises. To that end, I feel that the GAT Jet Fuse pre-workout is perhaps the best pre-workout supplement that I have tried.
“Lucky You” is an interesting pop track that ties together a current and contemporary sound with the synth-pop of the eighties along with the female singers of the mid-sixties. By bringing back these disparate styles and bundling them up with a bold new approach, what results in the Theory of Tides EP is nothing less than revolutionary. “Stay Away” is my favorite track on this album, as it provides an…
If By Yes breaks conventions. The music that is contained on “Salt on Sea Glass” bounces around considerably, from indie rock to twee to jazz, avant-garde, and a whole host of other different approaches. This is not too surprising, giving the pedigree that the quartet possess. With stints in That Dog and Cibo Matto, If By Yes are mature and have the energy to create an album that is wholly…
Despite the disparity of the material that is covered during Wartorn 1861-2010, the film unites the different actions through the sheer effect that they have on the people that fought them. While the idea of post-traumatic stress disorder is a relatively new one, the symptom has been present in the warrior’s mind throughout the time period covered by Jon Alpert here. The most interesting information obtained in this documentary has…
A Matador’s Mistress is a film set in 1940s Spain, where the love between Manolete (a famous bullfighter, played by Adrian Brody) and Lupe Sino (an actress with a fiery political streak, played by Penelope Cruz) is whipped up into a tremendous scandal. The film is important also in that it was actually finished in 2005, but the political content of the title made it a difficult commodity to successfully…
With the sheer amount of films that are being re-released onto the Blu-Ray format, I feel that there is a good chance that a number of them will be completely missed. While there is a good reason for this for some films, I content that Lorber’s re-release of a number of films from the Sophia Loren vaults should be viewed. This collection (which includes Sunflower, Marriage Italian Style, and Yesterday,…
Fans of Broadway may know O’Hara’s work in the oughts, with stints taken in Jekyll & Hyde, Dracula The Musical, and South Pacific. “Always” is only O’Hara’s second album, the first after eir 2008 debut, “Wonder in the World”. “Always” starts off with “What More Do I Need?”, a track that showcases the warmth and love that O’Hara brings to each of the disc’s compositions. After this “how do you…
The Live At Birdland release captures two days worth of performances by a group consisting of Konitz (alto saxophone), Mehldau (piano), Haden (double-bass) and Motian (drums). It is an important album as it shows the ease in which a talented group can move between a studio and a live setting, with each of the tracks here easily working in either context.
You’d be excused for thinking Shot in the Dark, the new HBO doc from Entourage’s Adrian Grenier, was little more than a predictably sappy tear jerker aimed at the Lifetime crowd. That’s certainly what I was expecting, so I was pleasantly surprised when the film turned out to be a sincere look at Grenier simply searching for answers about the estranged father he grew up without. Out on DVD just…