Author: Eric

The Top Ten (+5): “Weird Al” Yankovic song parodies

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AlYankovic16-v2

Obligatory disclaimer: What follows is my latest list of highly specific things I like, presented in the order I like them. This list makes no allowances for anyone’s taste but my own, nor for colossal, head-slappingly obvious omissions, of which, I’m sure, there are many. It’s pretty much as complete as it’s ever gonna get. By reading further, you absolve me, the author, from any liability related to your potentially scarred psyche – permanently furrowed brows, heart palpitations, etc. Feedback on your own favorites, or what I got wrong or right (or wrong), is both welcome and encouraged.  

My appreciation for “Weird Al” Yankovic has spanned 30 years now, and was built and cultivated authentically, from the ground floor up. “Eat It”, his sterling Michael Jackson parody, is one of the first pop songs I ever remember hearing (it was track 1/side 1 on a mix tape my cousin and I wore out over the course of a summer weekend), and the album it’s from, 1984’s Weird Al Yankovic in 3-D, was the second album I ever bought. In 3-D has the further distinction of being the only comedy-tinged album to sit among my 20 or 30 all-time favorites (alongside Rush and Iron Maiden, Alice in Chains and Tori Amos, AC/DC and Nirvana, The Police and Pantera). It and he are just that good, the latter a truth lost on so many people who might seek to discount or dismiss his prodigious musical output just because it’s so especially, sublimely silly. Continue reading “The Top Ten (+5): “Weird Al” Yankovic song parodies” →

Evasion of the Body Snatcher: Saul “Canelo” Alvarez SD12 Erislandy Lara

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canelo lara

Watching Saul “Canelo” Alvarez doggedly pursue Erislandy Lara around the MGM Grand Garden ring tonight, I could not help but reflect there are some things that, as a boxing fan, you just innately know.

If indeed the axiom that “styles make fights” holds, then a matchup between two brawlers – say the late Arturo Gatti and Mickey Ward – is going to produce a solid matchup regardless of the eventual winner. The same is generally true for the classic puncher vs. counterpuncher fight – think Manny Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel Marquez. These are not deep thoughts. The two pairings I just used as shorthand examples produced a total of seven fights for a reason. Far trickier is the standard boxer vs. puncher fight. Continue reading “Evasion of the Body Snatcher: Saul “Canelo” Alvarez SD12 Erislandy Lara” →

Movie review: “Team America: World Police” (2004)

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team america

“You walked out, Gary. The team went on a mission without you, and, without an actor, they were like pigs to the slaughter! I’m supposed to leave the fate of the world in your hands?!”

Film animation is the great enabler. Untether any movie from the bonds of the “real world” and suddenly its creative possibilities increase tenfold, provided, of course, that the audience buys into the process and accepts the change of venue. Among animation styles, almost every one of which – Disney’s traditional cel, or Pixar’s computer, Nick Park’s Claymation, or Henry Selick’s stop motion craftsmanship – has credibly created rich alternate universes on screen, marionette puppetry is surely among the least used and therefore most novel. There are numerous practical reasons for this, namely the insane amount of work necessary to make marionettes look or behave with the least bit of realism. Continue reading “Movie review: “Team America: World Police” (2004)” →

Concert review: The Dave Matthews Band

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DMBSummer2006

First Niagara Pavilion, Burgettstown, Pennsylvania – June 28, 2014

2014 marks my twentieth year as a fan of The Dave Matthews Band, and almost every year of that twenty, I’ve had the good fortune to see the band live at least once. DMB has, in that time, assumed the mantle of a true successor to The Grateful Dead as the sort of critically marginalized but super-successful live draw that inspires a peculiar strain of fanatical devotion from a surprising cross section of (not necessarily but often) young people. They follow the band around the country, reveling in the live experience like no other fan base I know, collecting live recordings both in person and secondhand, memorizing absolutely everything and obsessing over minutiae with their fellow afflicted. Comparatively, my own affliction is mild. Continue reading “Concert review: The Dave Matthews Band” →

Movie review: “Batman” (1989)

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batman

“And now comes the part where I relieve you, the little people, of the burden of your failed and useless lives. But, as my plastic surgeon always said, ‘If you gotta go…go with a smile!'”

Historically, comic book creators and writers have had to strike a precarious balance between fantasy and reality in order for their tales to work, to create a world where super-powered heroes can battle outlandish villains in a way that, ideally, still carries weight and is grounded enough to be relatable. Tip the scale too far to one extreme or the other and the proceedings risk total collapse, played to the tune of either a cartoony jaunt or a funeral dirge. Continue reading “Movie review: “Batman” (1989)” →

Chuck Noll: An Appreciation

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chuck-noll.0As best I can piece together, the first football game I ever watched was the Pittsburgh Steelers’ victory over the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl XIV. In 1980 I was still a fairly tiny thing, pure as the driven snow, and life was interesting to a degree I found almost overwhelming. From what I could tell, everybody sure seemed excited and invested, practically over-awed, by what was happening on this particular field. There are surely few athletic feats more impactful for an impressionable youngster to witness than Joe Greene engulfing a cowed quarterback or the sick thud of Jack Lambert concussing a tight end. It was striking. Continue reading “Chuck Noll: An Appreciation” →

Movie review: “X-Men: Days of Future Past” (2014)

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X-Men Days of Future Past

“You took the things that meant the most to me…”

“Maybe you should have fought harder for them.”

The clunky, under-heated climax of a trilogy that had breathed new life into its dormant genre and helped pave the way for the pummeling waves of superhero movies we’re enduring currently, 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand, while a financial success, was a creative miscalculation on several fronts. It’s not even a bad movie per se, but it’s also not nearly the film it could’ve been. The project appeared fast-tracked for mediocrity once director Bryan Singer – who pushed the first two X-Men installments to increasing heights at a time when the requirements for a superior modern superhero movie were still being codified – exited in favor of shepherding Warner Brothers’ next to most recent Superman reboot, and was replaced by Brett Ratner, a high concept hired gun (Rush Hour, Red Dragon) known for neither spectacle nor character work. Continue reading “Movie review: “X-Men: Days of Future Past” (2014)” →

Bless this mess, then regress – January, 2014

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broken

I decided by happy accident that every 25th post on this blog was going to be a sanctioned occasion to depart momentarily from established conventions, to drop all the movie reviews, the concert reviews, the TV and sports ramblings and other somesuch, in favor of writing much more from the heart. I received a nice response in comparative terms to my own post #25, a self-indulgent but cathartic essay on the bludgeoning heft and occasional impenetrability of my writing called “Powder Burns and Uncertain Terms”. At the time, I was writing new posts at a pretty steady clip but, as is part and parcel of being a blogger, seeing no real indication that people were reading what I wrote. Some days, I admit, that thought brought me down; on others, it made me defiant. Most days I just plowed ahead with my normal routine, which sadly (for whom I won’t opine) doesn’t often include this blog. Continue reading “Bless this mess, then regress – January, 2014” →

Movie review: “American Hustle” (2013)

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american hustle

“Who’s the master? The painter, or the forger?”

The buildup of David O. Russell’s American Hustle is much more intriguing and satisfying than its payoff, which the film treats like an afterthought, even though the stakes are undeniably high – $2 million (in 1980 money, mind you) in federally-funded bait that may or may not have been, ahem, misplaced, the careers and reputations of ambitious FBI agents and several crooked congressmen, and the tenuous fates of the hustlers themselves. Everything pivots on the presumably predictable human behavior that occurs, late in the game, in a shady lawyer’s office. Continue reading “Movie review: “American Hustle” (2013)” →

DVR Hindsight #6 (5/22/14): The Americans – season two, and finale

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Americans 2

The Americans – “Echo” Season 2, Ep. 13 (FX)

Season two of The Americans exacted a heavy human toll. The damage was both concentrated and collateral, both highly precise and desperately messy, both pointedly patriotic and heartbreakingly pointless. Season two saw our proxies in the American FBI and Soviet Rezidentura escalate operations while simultaneously digging in their heels and steeling themselves against potentially deadly blowback. It began by embroiling its protagonists (and viewers) in a diabolical, highly personal murder mystery and ended with that mystery’s shocking solution. In the claustrophobic hours in between, the Jennings family scrambled for any vestige of security or stability while continuing to execute its increasingly difficult duties. Continue reading “DVR Hindsight #6 (5/22/14): The Americans – season two, and finale” →