OK, so who saw that new show Kid Nation? One of the craziest things i've ever seen, but also one of the best. A serious new way to exploit your children, but also a little more entertaining than watching 7 strangers living together on MTV. Here we get 40 kids from around the country aged 8-15 trying to survive while rebuilding an old western city.
The lessons they're teaching these kids are ridiculous. THey're split up into groups based on color. Each group is then separated into different classes. Lower class, merchants, cooks, upper class, and city council. I mean, what kind of business are they trying to teach these kids? I'ms till curious to see how they all are by the end of the show. We all know children are honest and will say some real shit from time to time. Especially views that have been thrust upon them by their parents. I'm just waiting for the little southern beauty queen to say she doesn't wanna lay next to a black kid cause she'll get dirty. Or the bullies to say something about the kid everyone thinks it's gay. Oh man, it could get so real. At least they were smart enough to make sound decisions when they have to choose between 7 more outhouses and a TV set. (they picked the TV)
It's pretty interesting to know that parents had to sign a 20 page contract that pretty much left CBS in the clear if anything happens to their kids. If they break a bone, or if someone gets eaten by the others. This could very well be Lord Of The Flies for the new generation.
Something else noteworthy is that now the kids are competing for cash. At the end of every episode the town council ( 4 kids selected at the beginning) have to choose someone to give the gold star to. And now after the first girl has won it they know that the star is worth $20,000. So there's going to be mad purple nurples and wedgies going around to get to the top. Kids can be just as bad as adults as we all know.
I think CBS has a winner on their hands here. Can't wait for Wednesday @ 8 this week
Monday, September 24, 2007
Across The Universe: Let's Talk About It
So I went to see that movie Across The Universe the other day, and going into it i didn't really know what to expect. It looked like one of those movies that could either be amazing, or really terrible. And judging by early reviews it was viewed as the latter. The one thing i can say about it is that the music was actually really good. All good singers, and pretty good arrangements of the songs. We've all heard awful remakes of Beatles songs but these actaully worked really well.
The music was something that kind of took something away from the actual movie for me. Since I knew most of the songs i was paying more attention to how it sounded than seeing how it actually related to the story. I feel like this movie would be a lot better to a person who had never heard a Beatles song before in their life (which would be hard to find anywhere across the universe). If they'd never heard it they would be thinking of it in a way that tries to follow a story. Maybe i would have to see it again to really take it in. I tried as i was watching, and for the most part all the songs worked perfectly.
Before seeing this i thought it would be really cool to see a musical based on Beatles songs and to see how it worked. For the most part it was all good, but the thing that kind of got to me was character development. The first half of the movie is pretty much introducing everyone because there are so many characters, and you get kind of a vague look into who they are. There's only one character that gets mostly developed, and i'm kind of curious as to why that is since he's not even the main character. And there were also random characters that showed up for no real reason and had no real impact on the story. Probably just a way to throw in another song based on a name (Dear Prudence).
The only main gripe i have is character and story development. Before it came out and i'd only seen the previews it looked like a movie that would need to be a 3 hour epic to really develop everything. But that's not really how it went down. At 2:11 it did work decently, but it could've been a lot better. It's hard to base movie characters of songs that have been aroudn for years because you can't mold the songs to fit the characters. The story does have a pretty decent ending with good use of a classic Beatles song. If anything, go see the movie for the music because it's all pretty good. Or i guess you can just download the soundtrack (32 track version from iTunes).
I say check it out. But don't go in expecting something amazing. If you're a Beatles fan then you'll still appreciate the remakes. I'll give it a solid B-
The music was something that kind of took something away from the actual movie for me. Since I knew most of the songs i was paying more attention to how it sounded than seeing how it actually related to the story. I feel like this movie would be a lot better to a person who had never heard a Beatles song before in their life (which would be hard to find anywhere across the universe). If they'd never heard it they would be thinking of it in a way that tries to follow a story. Maybe i would have to see it again to really take it in. I tried as i was watching, and for the most part all the songs worked perfectly.
Before seeing this i thought it would be really cool to see a musical based on Beatles songs and to see how it worked. For the most part it was all good, but the thing that kind of got to me was character development. The first half of the movie is pretty much introducing everyone because there are so many characters, and you get kind of a vague look into who they are. There's only one character that gets mostly developed, and i'm kind of curious as to why that is since he's not even the main character. And there were also random characters that showed up for no real reason and had no real impact on the story. Probably just a way to throw in another song based on a name (Dear Prudence).
The only main gripe i have is character and story development. Before it came out and i'd only seen the previews it looked like a movie that would need to be a 3 hour epic to really develop everything. But that's not really how it went down. At 2:11 it did work decently, but it could've been a lot better. It's hard to base movie characters of songs that have been aroudn for years because you can't mold the songs to fit the characters. The story does have a pretty decent ending with good use of a classic Beatles song. If anything, go see the movie for the music because it's all pretty good. Or i guess you can just download the soundtrack (32 track version from iTunes).
I say check it out. But don't go in expecting something amazing. If you're a Beatles fan then you'll still appreciate the remakes. I'll give it a solid B-
Sunday, September 16, 2007
2007 MTV VMA's.....What?
Ok lets get it out of the way now. Britney was a mess, and is a disgrace to pop music. Now lets talk about who really wants to watch the VMA's anymore? I only put it on cause i heard Britney was the opening performance and then somehow got sucked into it to see how awful it would really be. After watching the Wayans Bros host all those years ago i didn't think anything could pass that level of ridiculousness. But somehow MTV managed to do it. It's almost like they know that no one cares about it anymore, and it's level of credibility has fallen off. THey say "what the hell" and just let people do whatever they want. Whoever was the director of the show should be fired! People didn't even try to lip sync. Why even give them microphones. It's just a live music video now. We had to deal with people like Chris Brown just staring stupidly at the screen with his jaw hanging open while the verse kept going. I mean, come on!
Now something i just need to put out there. Why do people continue to praise Chris Brown??? His whole act is a hack. He's a Michael Jackson wanna be, and just isn't as good. Some say i'm a hater and i don't know what i'm talking about, but the kid isn't that great a dancer. He's too tall, and all his moves look awkward and confusing. All it takes is a few people to say you're good and then you think your the best thing since sliced bread. His version of "Thriller" i saw at the World Music Awards was a disgrace and Michael shouldn't have even taken the stage after that. At the VMA's, as soon as i saw he was about to perform i wanted to look away because i knew he was going to butcher another Michael Jackson routine. Halfway through i thought, ooo he actually might not do it, and then i saw the fedora come out and i just wanted to punch myself in the face. Billie Jean starts and he does something that wanted to be a MJ routine and looked like something a retarded kid having a seizure could've done better. Now i know some might be amazed at what i'm going to say here, but i'll give Usher props on his MJ copying. I hate him just as much now, but i'll admit that he's better than Chris Brown, and doesn't make it his whole routine. ATTENTION CHRIS BROWN: IF YOU THINK YOU'RE THAT GREAT I CHALLENGE YOU TO AN MJ DANCE OFF. YOU WILL GET SMOKED AND YOU'LL NEVER WANNA SHOW YOUR FACE AGAIN.
After watching that trash Chris Brown did all i could do was hope for salvation in the form of Justin Timberlake. Now aside from the fact that he was clealy drunk the whole time, he didn't fail me. Did a great job, especially throwing a huge slap in the face to those chicks from The Hills. Hopefully it made Audrina's teeth a little smaller.
Lets hope they put an end to the VMA's. They took one step closer by getting rid of TRL. It's a shame that pop music is on a steady downfall. Justin is all there is now. This year has to go out with a bang, and that bang's gotta come from Michael Jackson. We put out faith in you sir. Hit us with something real, and show these folks what realness is.
Now something i just need to put out there. Why do people continue to praise Chris Brown??? His whole act is a hack. He's a Michael Jackson wanna be, and just isn't as good. Some say i'm a hater and i don't know what i'm talking about, but the kid isn't that great a dancer. He's too tall, and all his moves look awkward and confusing. All it takes is a few people to say you're good and then you think your the best thing since sliced bread. His version of "Thriller" i saw at the World Music Awards was a disgrace and Michael shouldn't have even taken the stage after that. At the VMA's, as soon as i saw he was about to perform i wanted to look away because i knew he was going to butcher another Michael Jackson routine. Halfway through i thought, ooo he actually might not do it, and then i saw the fedora come out and i just wanted to punch myself in the face. Billie Jean starts and he does something that wanted to be a MJ routine and looked like something a retarded kid having a seizure could've done better. Now i know some might be amazed at what i'm going to say here, but i'll give Usher props on his MJ copying. I hate him just as much now, but i'll admit that he's better than Chris Brown, and doesn't make it his whole routine. ATTENTION CHRIS BROWN: IF YOU THINK YOU'RE THAT GREAT I CHALLENGE YOU TO AN MJ DANCE OFF. YOU WILL GET SMOKED AND YOU'LL NEVER WANNA SHOW YOUR FACE AGAIN.
After watching that trash Chris Brown did all i could do was hope for salvation in the form of Justin Timberlake. Now aside from the fact that he was clealy drunk the whole time, he didn't fail me. Did a great job, especially throwing a huge slap in the face to those chicks from The Hills. Hopefully it made Audrina's teeth a little smaller.
Lets hope they put an end to the VMA's. They took one step closer by getting rid of TRL. It's a shame that pop music is on a steady downfall. Justin is all there is now. This year has to go out with a bang, and that bang's gotta come from Michael Jackson. We put out faith in you sir. Hit us with something real, and show these folks what realness is.
Let's Keep It Real Kanye. Graduation?
At first listen i was appauled at what i heard on this new album "Graduation". The day before i had listened to "Late Registration" and knew i was listening to something amazing, especially tracks like "We Major". Now listening to "Graduation" i didn't know what to make of it. The beats felt forced, and the lyrics weren't up to his usual quality. Which were always best when just talking about everyday life in a clever and witty way. Going through the first 3-4 tracks i heard a couple hits, but it just kept getting weaker and weaker as it went on. One thing to note for all future artists....DON"T PUT LIL WAYNE ON A TRACK! I dunno what he was thinking with that. So at first listen, NO, i didn't like it.
Then the other day i listened to it again, thoroughly, and felt like i could finally give some decent thoughts. I still don't think it's a classic album, but it's better than i originally thought. The beats are below his usual work. It sounds like he gave all his best stuff to Common and didn't know what to use for himself. On one track he says how common passed on the beat, so he made it into a jam. Far from it. Something i realized on this album was that a lot of the beats were so slow, and Kanye rapped over them kinda slowly which makes them less appealing to me. For an example of this listen to "Drunk and Hot Girls" and "Everything I Am". The latter is lyrically pretty good, but the beat just doesn't do it for me. "Drunk and Hot Girls" is a waste of a track, and doesn't use Mos-Def the way he should be used. You give a verse to Lil' Wayne on a track, and have Mos-Def singing your chorus on another? Come on Kanye.
The album peaks at track #6, and then is just so so the rest of the way. The only thing that kinda saved the album for me was to find the bonus tracks from the iTunes version. One song that did it for me was "Bittersweet Poetry". You may have heard the song a couple years ago on the VMA's, but Kanye never released it. But the beats on this song are up to par, and John Mayer is just a cool voice to have on your track.
So yeah, i'm not fully impressed with this. Compared to his first 2 albums, Kanye should view this one as a failure. There's no way it will win Album of the Year, but of course Kanye will still cry like a baby about it. Here's some advice, go back to college as a 5th year senior and graduate with something better next time around.
Then the other day i listened to it again, thoroughly, and felt like i could finally give some decent thoughts. I still don't think it's a classic album, but it's better than i originally thought. The beats are below his usual work. It sounds like he gave all his best stuff to Common and didn't know what to use for himself. On one track he says how common passed on the beat, so he made it into a jam. Far from it. Something i realized on this album was that a lot of the beats were so slow, and Kanye rapped over them kinda slowly which makes them less appealing to me. For an example of this listen to "Drunk and Hot Girls" and "Everything I Am". The latter is lyrically pretty good, but the beat just doesn't do it for me. "Drunk and Hot Girls" is a waste of a track, and doesn't use Mos-Def the way he should be used. You give a verse to Lil' Wayne on a track, and have Mos-Def singing your chorus on another? Come on Kanye.
The album peaks at track #6, and then is just so so the rest of the way. The only thing that kinda saved the album for me was to find the bonus tracks from the iTunes version. One song that did it for me was "Bittersweet Poetry". You may have heard the song a couple years ago on the VMA's, but Kanye never released it. But the beats on this song are up to par, and John Mayer is just a cool voice to have on your track.
So yeah, i'm not fully impressed with this. Compared to his first 2 albums, Kanye should view this one as a failure. There's no way it will win Album of the Year, but of course Kanye will still cry like a baby about it. Here's some advice, go back to college as a 5th year senior and graduate with something better next time around.
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