Bruno Mars is one of those artists who - like Katy Perry or Pink (who I'll discuss one day soon) - are on the charts today that you wouldn't normally think I'd like. But I do.
I especially like his latest single Locked Out of Heaven:
It reminds me a lot of early Police songs, around their Outlandos d'Amour and to a lesser extent Reggatta de Blanc phase. As I did with the song Strawberry Letter 23, before I worked up a whole compare and contrast post, I Googled to see if someone else had already done the work. Sure enough, someone had!
First, here are the three Police songs that I think Bruno Mars took inspiration from.
Among the 50 that have been profiled are Irma Thomas, Freddie Mercury, Bjork, Ella Fitzgerald, Donny Hathaway, and Janis Joplin. There are also quite a few artists that I am not familiar with: Fairuz, Khaled, Sezen Aksu, and so on.
Tonight's segment was about Robert Plant. Fantastic.
Carlos and I were talking yesterday and somehow the phrase "Yes we can can" came up. I had heard the song before, but had no idea who sang it. Carlos immediately knew: "The Pointer Sisters".
His music knowledge sometimes astounds me. Though he did admit that he had never heard the song before, but only memorized most of our book The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits. (I say "our" book because he bought it, left it at my house, and I now won't let him take it home.)
Carlos and I spent the Halloween weekend watching scary movies.
Friday night, we went to Jason’s house. He had Shawn of the Dead picked out for us to watch. Everyone at the party was too involved in conversation to really watch it. Since most of the people had already seen it, it was the perfect movie for that part of the party.
We then figured out how to stream movies from Netflix. After some discussion, Julie recommended 1974’s Black Christmas. (She had seen the remake, but not the original so the movie was new to everyone.)
The synopsis: It's time for Christmas break, and the sorority sisters make plans for the holiday, but the strange anonymous phone calls are beginning to put them on edge. When Clare disappears, they contact the police, who don't express much concern. Meanwhile Jess is planning to get an abortion, but boyfriend Peter is very much against it. The police finally begin to get concerned when a 13-year-old girl is found dead in the park. They set up a wiretap to the sorority house, but will they be in time to prevent a sorority girl attrition problem?
The movie stars Olivia Hussey (earlier in Romeo and Juliet with Leonard Whiting), Keir Dullea (Dave from 2001: A Space Odyssey), Margot Kidder (Lois Lane from Superman), and Andrea Martin (from SCTV). Debbie said that she looked like Howard Stern.
Trivia: Andrea Martin is the only actor to appear in both the original version and the 2006 remake.
Jason’s internet connection messed up four minutes before the end of the movie. We don’t know how it ended. I think the man in the fur coat is the killer. Carlos and I are going to watch the finale later today. I’ll post an update.
For Saturday night, I picked one movie that both Carlos and I have seen before, but scares the shit out of us – The Descent.
The synopsis: A caving expedition goes horribly wrong.
I purposely made that very brief. I don’t want to give anything away.
He and I watched the first hour of the movie with just a few candles burning – all the lights off. We agreed to then turn the movie off. We were getting too freaked out.
Carlos said that I should finish watching the movie during the day – after he is gone. I think that misses the point of a scary movie. I have shipped it back to Netflix.
One day, we’ll get through the whole thing.
There is a sequel coming out in 2010. All six of the original actors are listed as being in the cast of the new movie. Hmmmm. There must be a lot of flashback sequences.
Carlos and I then watched Trick r Treat, recommended to me by one of the members of a Yahoo Group I’m in called Queer Fear. Great recommendation! Though I think I liked it a bit more than Carlos did.
He did like that one of the stars was Tahmoh Penikett. He's a huge fan of Battlestar Gallactica.
The synopsis: Five interwoven stories that occur on the same block, on the same night. A couple finds what happens when they blow a jack o' lantern out before midnight, a high school principal has a secret life as a serial killer, a college virgin might have met the right guy for her, a group of mean teens play a prank that they take too far, and a hermit is visited by a special trick or treater.
The tone reminded us of the 1982 movie Creepshow. (Did you know there was a Creepshow 2 in 1987 and a Creepshow 3 in 2006?) The movie was definitely scary and gory, but had some humor about it too.
Here are the trailers for the movie -
Trailer #1:
Trailer #2:
Grades (out of 10): Black Christmas – 6 Shawn of the Dead – 7 (based on past viewing) The Descent – 9 Trick r Treat - 8
My friends and I love to put together and play our versions of TV game shows.
Thanks to Jason, who started it all with Survivor Metairie I, we have played Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader? (supposedly simple trivia questions), The Amazing Race (a scavenger hunt around the city), Jeopardy, Steet Smarts (our version of the game show Street Smarts, so called because of Jason’s creative sign making), and other game shows that I can’t think of right now.
Tangent - Here is the introduction to our Survivor Metairie I video. Debbie put this together.
Recently, I put together Steet Smarts II. For those not familiar with the show: Weeks before we all got together, I asked our six players – Bart, Carlos, Debbie, Jason, Jason, and Julie – the exact same 43 questions. The questions that everyone answered correctly or incorrectly, I threw out. The remaining questions were used for the game.
The game was played in three rounds: Who Knew It (not including yourself, who do you think knew the question’s answer), Who Blew It (not including yourself, who do you think did NOT know the question’s answer), and the finale (one question asked – who knew it or blew it, with money won during the first two rounds bet on the outcome).
Correct answers for the first two rounds were awarded Monopoly-style money that Jason created for Survivor Metairie II.
Here are some of the questions and the quite creative answers given by my friends.
What is a subordinate? - An employee or city worker.
Finish this old saying: “Men seldom make passes at girls who _______________.” - Don’t have asses. …are married.
Skydivers use what billowy object to land safely? - a trampoline or a cushion - a pillow
What do the letters NIMBY commonly stand for? - Not In My Something or other. - National Institute of Male Body Yearning - National Immigrants Mothers Boys and Yahoos - National Independent Market for Black Youth
In the Bible, Lot's wife was turned into a pillar of what popular seasoning? - Cayenne Pepper
What are sisters Mary Kate and Ashley better known as? - Johnson
What is noshing? - Vomiting
According to the nursery rhyme, Jack Sprat could eat no what? - Crap - Sprouts
What is 9,999 + 1? - 1,000,000
The name of the song played during Graduation is called Pomp and what? - Grow
How is a Sadie Hawkins dance different from a traditional dance? - Requires three. - Form
What is the name of the first book of the Old Testament? - The Bible
What was the name of the first pope? - Pope Pius - Pope I - John The Baptist - John Paul - St. Thomas (St. Who)
Which war was originally known as The Great War? - World War II - The War of 1812
How many stars are on the current US flag? - 13
In the movie Gremlins, the three rules are no bright lights, don't get them wet, and ___________. - Don't feed them Skittles.
A satellite radio service is named for a star. Name it. (Correct answer Serius) - Onstar - Sun
In literature, who was Tom Sawyer's best friend? - Becky Allen. I mean Becky Thatcher. - His dad.
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Thank you everyone who played. You all had some great, creative answers.
As I do at work when I'm trying to avoid work, I was playing a round of Really Tough Music Trivia Categories via email with a friend of mine today.
The only rule is that the person who starts the category must also throw out the first example. Then the first person to miss loses. We try to make the categories as tough as possible.
My category today was "Bands that have exactly three members - and all three members are somehow related. First answer: Hanson...Go." We were able to come up with The Jonas Brothers and The Bee Gees before giving up. Can you think of any other answers?
