Jamile: February 2012

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Black Dogs

Creative, witty, and thrilling are just a few words that come to mind after you finish the book Black Dogs by Jason Buhrmester. It tells the story about "classic rock's greatest robbery" and exactly how it got to that point. Set in 1973, it explains the story behind Led Zeppelin's safety deposit box at the Drake and the robbery scandal that went down. Buhrmester's comical additions and attention to detail make this story so realistic you can almost imagine it as if it really happened.

The chapter titles are cunning and at times amusing such as "Jimi The Bear" which is a play on a detail mentioned in the chapter. Most of the other chapter titles follow this as well, being named after a funny or important detail told within that chapter. The easy read makes you forget what time it is and how many pages you've turned. The characters are all entertaining and the author gives them each a chance to show their personalities throughout the story line. The author has you on the edge of your seat throughout the whole book with different plot twists and surprises. Thrilling scenes with snakes, money, jail, cops, rare guitars and stealing are only a few of the reasons why you will love this book.

Patrick, the Black Sabbath fanatic, fled town after his last experience with breaking the law and ends up living in New York. He's working with a caterer and gets to be backstage at many concerts. After a while he comes across a band manager one night at work who got paid a whole lot of cash for the band playing that night's show. Turns out it was Led Zeppelin's manager who had just gotten paid for the band. He tells Patrick that the band always gets paid in cash. Ideas start turning in his head and soon it's too good for him not to give in. Patrick comes back to town as Alex gets out of jail to offer him an idea for the biggest scam ever. Alex hesitates since he's the one that did the time for Pat's last scam. Keith and Frenchy, the other two of the group, are clued into the plan once Alex agrees. Keith is all about the tech and the mastermind to breaking in. He installs and uninstalls stereos as a way to make his money. Frenchy, also known as Pete, is the music lover to another level.

Once they figure out how to make their plan work and go to take the first step of action it automatically turns into a mess. One wrong turn after the next in their oh so perfect plan keep the boys on their toes as they try and fix the issues while they pile on. One of the major fights of the book happens at a carnival and leaves one of the characters, Patrick, in the hospital. He gets visited by a crooked cop and it only causes more interest in the item they stole from one of the town's biggest threat, the crazy motorcycle gang member Backwoods Billy. Backwoods Billy is the leader to the Holy Ghosts. The boys had to break in and steal from Billy's pawn shop in order to make their plan try and continue to work. It was going well until Danny, the knucklehead who always seems to screw up plans, once again screwed up the plan and decided to try and steal Backwoods Billy's safe too. Danny gets even more people involved by taking the safe to get cracked open by a group of guys who really never get a name but are led by Boogie. The crooked cop that visited Patrick is involved with Billy as well. The tangle of problems just keep growing.

Near death experience after the next, it just makes the boys even more determined to accomplish their goal of robbing Led Zeppelin. They end up in Led Zeppelin's hotel in New York with their last chance to make the plan work. Things seem to go smoothly, only do they end up that way? An ending you'd never suspect adds to the charm of this story. Take a few hours and let this book take you on a wild trip.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Princess: A Modern Fairytale

Once you've seen a story about a princess, you've seen just about them all. Or have you? The movie "Princess: A Modern Fairytale" is all about the cliches, just not in all the ways expected. Modern twists such as starting off the dialogue with "We hold these truths to be self evident" almost makes you want to double check what movie you clicked to watch but the opening scene of the castle's exterior with all it's beauty and features reminds you that you are in fact watching a princess movie. "Princess" which is an ABC Family movie, brings the cliche story about a princess who ends up falling in love to a whole new level. This princess, Princess Ithaca, is a healer. No sob story about her parents, no wicked witches, but plenty of mermaids, pixies, unicorns and bigfoot. Princess Ithaca holds a ball every year to raise money for the endangered species, as far as details go, they're kept secret just like what's kept inside the castle. William is not a prince, he is not financially stable, he is although the cliche of charming and attractive. He wins a date with the princess by placing the highest bid, all the money he has, but she mistakes him for "the searcher" because of the pickup line he attempted to say to her. The main plot of the story is not all like the others in search of love, it is a quest to find the next healer princess, whom Ithaca has seen in her dreams and whom "the searcher" is to find before the week is over or "bad things will happen." Of course it has to include the basics such as the care giver of the princess, dragons and beasts, and the time when the princess is in distress. Distress like being faced with a 3 headed dragon not just the casual "pea under a mattress", another cliche line used within the movie itself. Princess Ithaca falls and becomes unconscious shortly after finding the next in line, Calliope. William takes Ithaca and Calliope back to the castle just as time is running out to save the creatures and transfer the powers. Hold on, the most important cliche at all has not been omitted though. You know the one about the princess and true love's first kiss? Yeah, that one. Well with all the twists and turns this movie gives to the typical story about a princess, it's a chance you just might have to take and watch it yourself. The movie finishes with the same lines it started with, still with the twisted ending to the quote, "and at some point in her life, every girl has wanted to be a princess" which will cue you back into your own fairytale dreams as the movie gives you the storybook "The End."

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Homesick

Ready, set, sing some pop-punk verses and bring in the… metal? A Day To Remember’s Homesick album is just as confused as their style or attempt at a this so called pop-punk metal genre. A band that starts the album off with a song called The Downfall of Us All that includes some repeated tones and goes into a typical hardcore scream can only be confused when they throw some soft songs in the mix such as the song Have Faith in Me and If It Means a Lot to You. The repeated melodies, fast drums and predictable sing-a-long verses makes this nearly as bad as Rebecca Black’s song Friday to get out of your head, if not worse since it’s to the tune of Jeremy McKinnon’s vocals. The lack of progression in the band’s creativity since the first two albums towards songwriting is repulsive and hardly understandable as some of the hardcore metal sung verses. However much, if at all, entertaining, catchy and honest this album is to some, it’s not because of the talent. ADTR fans who like the style will think this is just another album to die for, while the rest of the people that aren’t them would consider this an inconvenience and a loss of their time to listen to it. As far as the album title is concerned, that’s one thing they made easy to associate with the album. Homesick is named after a track on the album and it ties all the tracks together by identifying the theme about being on the road. Coincidentally, the stress of being on the road is what made Tom Denney leave the band after this album, although it can be argued that he jumped ship before it sank. This album didn’t even hit top 20 on Billboard’s Top 200. Songs like NJ Legion Iced Tea make me believe that without further question. It starts off sounding like something Fall Out Boy would write except with less musical talent. Creativity isn’t far behind as far as lacking is concerned. They further demonstrated this by naming the song I’m Made of Wax, Larry, What Are You Made Of? after a line in the children’s movie A Night In the Museum. Certainly the track has no relations to anything about it after that. You Already Know What You Are is a song that nearly every listener would be tempted to just hit skip after the first 3 words since they’re hardly even recognizable as words in the first place. As the album goes on and tracks keep playing, they start to blend together and you no longer know if you’re in the middle of a track or at the start of a new one. However, if you manage to make it to the album’s shocking mellow ending track If It Means A lot To You the last few verses of “La La La La La La La…” are suitable to describe and conclude the album, that’s if you’re still attempting to distinguish what’s going on.