Category: Summer

Something Strange in the Neighborhood

7/8/2016

Who are you going to call when the supernatural is unleashed in your neighborhood? Hopefully some professional parapsychologists or the ghostbuster team.

The ghostbuster team is getting a reboot on July 15th and hopefully the ghosts have been getting themselves prepared to do some haunting and get caputred. Their about to get sucked up and spit out all in the magical realm of 3-D.

Ghostbusters is one of the most high profile action films of summer 2016. It's also going to be the funniest. Civil War broke our heart and who knows what the fuck Batman v Superman was about. The new Ghostbusters films follows in the footsteps of the original films and TV shows. Quirky and beloved it was one of the highlights of the eighties, right behind Madonna grinding with her rosary beads.

The cast is phenomenal. All of Hollywood's funniest ladies are here. Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones are all here to reinterpret the originally male driven comedy.

Melissa McCarthy

Kate McKinnon

Leslie Jones

Kristen Wiig

The meninists of the world have cried foul on this reinterpretation, but what is the point of a reboot if not to change and make the old new again? What would Batman be if not the depressingly dark creation that Christian Bale made out of it? Not the blockbuster trilogy that came from it.

It's the most disliked movie trailer on YouTube and much like the Orlando shooting was a hate crime against the LGBT and Latino community, so is the male gaze hatred of the new Ghostbusters driven by sexism. Boys don't like to see women run the show.

The new Ghostbusters is sure to pass the Bechdel test and isn't that amazing?

The movie also features Chris Hemsworth as Kevin, a secretary. Chris gets all geeked out with a pair of glasses. He's the most beautiful nerd to ever step foot on the silver screen and he's the necessary man candy we get to objectify this summer.

Ghostbusters is also set to release a soundtrack to accompany the move the day it comes out in theatres. It features a string of A-Listers and three different versions of the “Ghostbusters” theme song covered by Walk The Moon (“Shut Up and Dance”), Pentatnoix, and the original by Ray Parker Jr.

Buy "Ghostbusters"

The official lead single is by alt-rocker Elle King (“Ex's & Oh's). It's a firey song called “Good Girls” that may or may not be the song of the summer.

Buy"Good Girls"

Other heavy hitters on the album include a new song by Zayn stylized as “wHo”. Punk acting boy band 5 Seconds of Summers has it's hands in “Girls Talk Boys”, Fall Out Boy and Missy Elliott get together on “Ghostbusters (I'm Not Afraid), where as producer Mark Ronson (“Uptown Funk”) pairs Passion Pit and A$AP Ferg on a new song called “Get Ghost”.

The soundtrack is bound to be an eclectic masterpiece just as central to the film as the one to Guardian of the Galaxy's was.

Ghostbusters opens on Friday July 15th in theaters near you and it will be sure not to let you down.

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(I Get So) Sentimental

2/5/2016

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You don't realize quite how sad your life is until someone asks you what you're doing. It was a Thursday night and someone asked me what I was up to. I told them I had my three romantic comedies lined up and a bowl of popcorn to eat my feelings with. I'd spent the better part of the day listening to Taylor Swift, so it was only appropriate.

I was feeling sentimental and it wasn't just because I was listening to the Donna Summer song of the same name. There's something so reassuring about romantic comedies. They have a tried and true formula and you know that no matter what happens at the end, no matter how much they fuck up, they will be there for each other.

These are the three movies I picked that day. I grew up on rom com's and I'm sure there are better ones, but these movies are perfect for February

Buy "Sentimental"

Monster-In-Law
2005
Jennifer Lopez knows how to do a romantic comedy. This list would be incomplete without one of her films on it. This movie is iconic. Jane Fonda returns to the silver screen. Wanda Sykes is there. We got some cute eye candy with Michael Vartan. It's devilishly funny.

Jennifer plays Charlie who gets engaged to Kevin (Michael Vartan). His mother (Jane Fonda) tries to break them apart. She believes Charlie is not good enough for her son. There's love, a bath tub scene. Cake. Wanda Sykes does a great job playing the sidekick to the monster in law. Spoiler, that everyone ends up happy. It's another success in the J. Lo canon that includes The Wedding Planner and Maid in Manhattan.

27 Dresses
2008
The Katherine Heigl led 27 Dresses plays with the tropes of a romantic comedy. Katherine Heigl plays Jane the eternal bridesmaid and never the bride. She is hopelessly in love with her boss who near the beginning of the movie starts dating her sister (!).

But, wait. There's more. Reporter Kevin Doyle (James Marsden) wants to write a story on her. He complements her eccentricities as she does his. They love, they fight, they cry. They sing karaoke to “Benny and the Jetts”. This movie has it all. It honestly breaks my soul how much I have in common with Katherine Heigl.

Music and Lyrics
2007
Drew Barrymore and Hugh Grant are no strangers to the field of romantic comedies. Take Drew's 50 First Dates or Ever After and Hugh Grant's Did You Hear About the Morgan's? or Bridget Jone's Diary as recommendations. The plot of this film pairs aging pop artist Alex Fletcher (Hugh Grant) with plant lady Sophie Fisher (Drew Barrymore) to write a hit song for pop superstar Cora Corman (Haley Bennett) entitled “Way Back Into Love”.

This movie has a great backing cast. Brad Garrett takes a turn as Alex Fletcher's manager and Kristen Johnston makes a stab as Sophie's fun loving sister. This is the most straight forward feel good movie of the three. It has a great soundtrack featuring iconic “Budha's Delight” and heart rending “Way Back Into Love” as well as a few stabs of eighties pop pastiche with “Pop! Goes My Heart”. One of my all time favorites.

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Thrill & Tigerman

9/18/2015

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The last of summer reading is upon us.

Before the school year started up I managed to sneak two books into my schedule before classes started up. The first was a true winner and the second was missing of much win.

No surprise to the living and breathing world of literature, the Jackie Collins novel I picked up was tantalizing. Her books are trashy representations of the upper class. There an escape to the world of the rich and famous. The kind that makes the middle class mom in Iowa glad she never pursued her dream of acting.

Last summer I spent most of my time with Jackie Collins. In fact the last book I read was Hollywood Wives. Her books might be four or five hundred pages long, but it's not implausible that you could knock one out in an afternoon. They're that good. Jackie Collins is a goddess.

Jackie Collins (right) with her sister and actress Joan Collins (left) on the Graham Norton Show

The novel of hers I got from the local library was Thrill! I'd seen it from a distance. I'd picked other books over it. Jackie Collins has titled her books much better. See The Stud and Poor Little Bitch Girl for examples. The cover was also tranquially electric. Momma told us not to judge a book by it's cover and that's what I did.

Thrill! is one of Jackie Collin's books from the nineties. It is not her best. However, I can't believe I thought it would take me four days to read this book. Try two with time to spare. If I hadn't been working Sunday it would have been no contest.

This is not the Jackie Collins novel I would start a fresh reader on. It's not her best. It also is not her most original. It's a little tired if a solid read. The one thing I love is that all the men are pieces of shit. That's the kind of literature I can stand before.

It centers around actress Lara Ivory. Everyone else is subplot. She is the star of the show. I can't say I like the ending of the book. It wasn't satisfying. It did do it's job. I just loved Lara too much for her life to converge in that way.

The final book I read was Tigerman. I made the mistake of judging a book by it's cover. I thought, this looks really cool let me read it. I got books with the twins and Miss Sara Bellum picked up Nick Harkaway's Angelmaker. It's the same man who wrote Tigerman and I thought we would love it. We did not.

Looking at his picture on the flap of the book I just imagine he imagines himself as an Ernest Hemingway. Take that as you will. The book caters to this kind of created masculinity. It's archaic and muscular yet firmly set in the 21st century.

I honestly didn't know if I liked this book for the longest time. The wording was heavy and I was just trying to figure it out. Then, about page 250 I realized that I intensely did not like this book. Fun fact the book is only 337 pages long. I finished it.

Let me tell you what this book is actually about. The flap does not explain anything. The book centers around Sergeant Lester Ferris and his affection for this boy. It's a really sweet relationship. The sergeant just wants to take care of him and make him his son. I actually really liked the Sergeant without enjoying the book. I also like the boy.

That was his name in the book.

They live on this island that's going to be destroyed. And, I'm sure somewhere between all the words the author explained why it was necessary for the Sergeant to turn into Tigerman. The comic strip superhero of Mancreu. I'm not kidding you. This is the plot. All of it set in a realism.

This book could have been fast paced. It needed an editor to cut some of the length out. That could have helped my perception of it. However, despite my criticisms of this book I really did grow fond of a few of the characters. Like The Sergeant, the boy, and Africa (you have to read deep into the muck for this jewel).

Also the fact that the book has thirty page chapters is not kosher. It takes ten years to get through one chapter and I have no drive to read another one. Long chapters are deaths to solid literature. They halt the progress it takes to read it.

What made me the most upset was the ending. I spent all this time. Invested all this energy into loving and supporting these characters FOR YOU TO DO THIS TO THEM???

I am still so mad. I was on break finishing this book when this happened to me. NICK HARKAWAY YOU HAVE RUINED MY LIFE.

All of that said. This book does have it's own charm and for some the writing style might not be prohibitive into getting into the novel. I imagine if your a middle aged heterosexual man retired to Bermuda with a snifter of brandy in has hand, you would find this book quite entertaining. AND NOT AT ALL HEART BREAKING AND DISAPPOINTING.

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Every Day (Every Day)

7/10/2015

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The summer is upon us and I have done some reading. I recently finished David Levithan's Every Day. I don't talk about books very often (mainly because I don't have the time to read them), but I have a soft spot in my heart for David Levithan. He's an amazing young adult author.

Don't cringe at the words young adult. I spent the better part of my middle school and high school years avoiding young adult works. Now it's all I read besides Jackie Collins and smut. David Levithan has written with John Green. That probably means more to you then me. John Green is great and all, but he just kind of exists to me.

That book is called Will Grayson, Will Grayson. The Mayor and Miss Sara Bellum give it rave reviews. And, it's certainly on my list of material to catch up on. The book that started me on David Levithan was his work Boy Meets Boy. It's juvenile and completely sweet. The book is adorable. It's the traditional romance just gay. It's honestly surprising how refreshing and original it seems, because of that.

My favorite book by him is Two Boys Kissing. This novel is very real and honest and if you want to understand the gay experience I think this is a good book to pick up. It's well written, timely, and moving. I had to put this book down a few times I cried so much.

Now, the only reason I even read this particular David Levithan book Every Day is because Miss Sara Bellum let me borrow it. To be honest I hope she doesn't read this and remind me that I have to give this book back, but that is the trial of my life.

The premise of this book is that this person switches bodies every day, but every day they are in love with the same girl. The narrator does not have a gender or a sexual identity and David Levithan uses that to propel a lot of ideology. That we are all the same and that we at our core we have very few arbitary differences.

He uses this as a chance to address suicide, racism, family relationships, what it means to be transgender. It's a fast paced read and it really has a lot more to it then just surface level entertainment. Something that David Levithan is always incorporating in his works is acceptance of others. I feel like David Levithan would be a cool person to talk to. He's very conscious of social issues and he tries to address them.

The main character's name is A and the girl that this entity is in love with is Rhiannon. A does everything possible to be with her and talk to her and be a part of her life. The tragedy is that it's impossible for A to be there for her every day.

I don't want to give too much away other then to say you should read it. That it's a fascinating read and was one of the highlights of my breaks at work. If you need something to read over the summer I highly recommend checking out David Levithan's back catalog.

If your more of a magazine, sunscreen, lay out on the beach kind of person. There will be no judgment from me.

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Last Night A DJ SAved My Life

8/10/2014

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There's a possibility that your well aware of the one hit wonder that was “Last Night A DJ Saved My Life”. A group by the name of Indeep sent it to commercial success and failed to produce anything that replicated it's commercial viability after that.

I have to admit that I didn't know this song. It was only recently when I was watching Madonna's Sticky and Sweet Tour that I heard her sample it in her medley of her hit song “Music”. I looked it up afterwords and it got me thinking about dance music. I must say I love it. The hallmark of a good dance song is one where the beat is so good, it doesn't matter what the words are. Some would argue that this is what makes dance music so throwaway, but it's carefree nature towards life is what makes it an escape.

Over the past few years EDM has been everywhere. I mean everywhere. Recently, not so much. I don't know if this is just a disco backlash kind of situation or if music styles are just evolving. But, that is why I am here to talk to you about my favorite DJ's.

Let's just get the mainstream out of the way. I'm infatuated with Calvin Harris. Now I have not invested anytime on anything he's done before “We Found Love”, so don't go through his archives and judge me. I don't know what it is about him, but I just like him. He's a nice looking man. I appreciate that.

What I really like about him is that deep husky voice he uses in “Feel So Close” and more recently on “Summer”. It has this untrained sexy raspyness I can't resist. I like that Calvin Harris sings. I just can't get into David Guetta the way some people do. Why is this man releasing his own music if he's never going to sing.

That's why I'm fine with Calvin Harris, he uses other people when he needs their voice to add something to a song, but he feels more then comfortable throwing his own vocals on a track when it fits. About, the only thing I like about David Guetta is that Madonna had him do a remix of her song “Revolver”. This man does a remix for her and this song doesn't even go number one in the clubs. That doesn't happen. When Madonna releases music, the clubs play it, and yet when David over here gets his hands on Madonna he fucks it up.You should know Madonna is my Queen supreme and when she gives someone her stamp of approval, I try not to out right hate them. She's the only reason I'm not going to read Avicii right here, right now. That bitch ass bitch.

Buy "Revolver"

When, I read on twitter that he got out of the hospital for some surgery, I wanted to know if we could just send him back. I know that makes me a terrible person, but I just don't care. His style is a watered down version of Madonna's own album American Life and that's why she likes him. He is not forward thinking. Madonna did it ten years before him and she did it better.

…

So, maybe I did read him. He is cute though. Not sexy, but nothing to be ashamed of.

In the department of sexy, though I have got you covered. DJ Havana Brown is my Australian princess. I adore this woman. If you read my article on We Wear Pink you would know how obsessed I am with her. The only thing you might know Havana from is her collaboration with Pitbull “We Run The Night” (Yet, further proof that Pitbull's first name is Featuring).

Buy "We Run The Night"

Buy "Big Banana"

This song was everything. I mean everything, and I heard it on the radio a few times, but never enough to say it got overplayed. Now, Havana really is a DJ. She does these remixes every year called “Crave”. I have not invested in them. I like her music, but I'm just not a remix person.

She really does have throwaway lyrics, though. Take any track from 1-12 on Flashing Lights and you'll find a cliché. But, the music is so good, the words do not matter. I keep telling you that and you continue not to believe me. About the only song that makes me really upset is another collaboration she did with Pitbull called “Last Night”.

Mind you. I like it. I really like it. I just do not like what he is saying about Havana. She was dancing on the water with no clothes on. Apparently there were two girls. And, I'm just like what kind of gentleman are you talking about what you have done with sexy Havana Brown. How dare you.

It makes me upset. He says “what happens in Miami never happened” and yet he's telling you all about what he did with Havana Brown. That is private, sir. You are rude.

Buy "Last Night"

For my final DJ, I don't even know if he counts as a DJ. His name is DJ Mustard. He doesn't release music individually that I know of. He just makes the music for other people.

He's responsible for all my R&B twerk songs as embarassing as that may be. He's kind of like an updated Timbaland and without Timbaland around to entertain us, I will take DJ Mustard any day. You probably know him for his work on “Rack City” (Shameless guilty pleasure), but I didn't know he produced it until I heard the song he did for J.Lo.

“Girls” is quickly becoming one of my favorite Jennifer Lopez songs ever and I had to know who this man DJ Mustard was. That's how I found out he did “Rack City”. He's also responsible for that girl Tinashe's song “2 On” with Schoolboy Q. I really like that song. I don't know how I feel about Tinashe yet. I need to hear some more of her music, but I'll keep my ears to the ground for you.