Llamatronic

Just a quick news note today: ABBA will never perform together again. ABBA songwriter/keyboardist Bjorn Ulvaeus has been quoted in Britain’s Sunday Telegraph saying that ”money is not a factor and we would like people to remember us as we were. Young, exuberant, full of energy and ambition.”

The statement came after the Swedish band reunited in Stockholm last Friday for the premiere of the film Mamma Mia!, which features 22 of the band’s songs in its soundtrack.

Both of these stories came from Reuters:

First, a German man tore the head off a wax figure of Adolf Hitler today on the opening day of Madame Tussaud’s Berlin wax museum.

The 41-year-old pushed past 2 security guards before ripping the head off.

Critics of the exhibit claimed it was in bad taste to have the Nazi leader shown in the museum in a mock bunker depicting the last days of his life alongside depictions of celebrities.

Here’s the best part, in a direct quote from the Reuters story:

“It is illegal in Germany to show Nazi symbols and art glorifying Hitler and the exhibit was cordoned off to stop visitors posing with him.”

I can just see the first day of school now…

“Gee, Billy, what did you do this summer?’”

“Gee whiz, Mrs. Daniels, I got my picture taken with Hitler!”

Or the subsequent fudged slideshow pictures at family gatherings…

“And here I am with my old pal Adolf before the Reich fell…”

Even better that that display of opposition to the Nazis is that ABBA reunited for the Swedish premiere of the film Mamma Mia! in Stockholm on Friday! They didn’t perform anything at the opening of the movie whose soundtrack features 22 ABBA songs, but it’s still cool considering they reportedly once turned down $1 billion to reunite.

Fortune teller Madame Marie aka Marie Castello died last Friday at 93. Bruce Springsteen fans know her from the lyrical mention in his 1973 song “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)” that was also covered under the name “Sandy” by The Hollies.

Castello’s stand was next to Stone Pony, the Asbury Park, NJ, boardwalk club where Springsteen got his start. According to the E! Online obituary, Marie and Bruce were friends, and Springsteen would often stop in to see her when he was in town.

Llamatronic spits out 2 short DVD reviews today:

Juno

2007

The script about a teenage pregnant girl is too witty for its own good, the baby’s adoptive couple (well played by Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner) is more interesting than anything Juno or her friends/relatives do, many of the main plot developments come too abruptly and it’s another movie the critics overrated. Other that, it wasn’t bad. Ellen Page is fine in the title role, but I wish the Juno character was a little more likable and a tad less acerbic.

Grade: B

Lars and the Real Girl

2007

The tale of a man and his mannequin. Lars, an introverted, socially awkward man, finds companionship with a plastic doll he orders via the Internet. This slow-moving story is affecting at times, although I found it hard to believe that the citizens of a small town would put up with Lars’ eccentricity when it reaches the point when he’s carrying the fake female to social gatherings. The film does make an interesting point about whether certain kinds of “strange” behavior and mental illness are detrimental when they don’t hurt anyone else or the individual harboring the sickness.

Grade: B-

I’m remembering 2 deaths today: Muppet designer Kermit Love and comedian George Carlin. 

Love died Saturday at 91 of congestive heart failure. He’s best known for designing the costumes for Sesame Street characters Big Bird, Cookie Monster and Oscar the Grouch from sketches drawn by Muppeteer Jim Henson. (No, Kermit the Frog wasn’t named for him.) He also designed the puppets for the 1980s TV show The Great Space Coaster and costumes for works by choreographers including Twyla Tharp and Jerome Robbins.

Comedian/author George Carlin died Sunday at 71 of heart failure. I liked his “Hippy-Dippy Weatherman” character and his forecast: “Tonight: dark. Continued dark until morning.”

Here’s some more of my favorite  Carlin quotes:

“One can never know for sure what a deserted area looks like.”

“If the #2 pencil is so popular, why is it #2?

“The main reason Santa is so jolly is because he knows where all the bad girls live.”

“Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity.”

I like this one because it accurately describes me:

“Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist.”

Finally, here’s Carlin describing his early years in comedy, when he performed routines less “objectionable” than the ones that made him famous. It reminds me of my time in journalism:

“I was doing superficial comedy entertaining people who didn’t really care: businessmen, people in nightclubs, conservative people. And I had been doing that for the better part of 10 years when it finally dawned on me that I was in the wrong place doing the wrong thing for the wrong people.” 

CD Review

Leona Lewis

Spirit

2007, 2008

There’s nothing here to blow your socks off, but there’s nothing particularly bad here, either. Spirit is a solid collection of tunes full of soul and vitality. Lewis deftly navigates a variety of genres from the girl-group style of current hit ”Bleeding Love” and upbeat Supremes stomp of “Forgive Me” to the drama of “Take a Bow” (not the Rihanna song). I also like the we’ll-always-have-the-memories lyrical sentiment of “Yesterday” (not The Beatles song). But with another standout track being “Angel” (not the Aerosmith song) the only suggestion I have is: to maybe get some original song titles?  

Grade: B+

Book Review

Light My Fire: My Life With the Doors

by Ray Manzarek

1998

I can’t stand The Doors, but I still found this book interesting in the same way the excessive tales of Led Zeppelin and Motley Crue - 2 other bands nowhere near the top of my favorite musicians list - entertain with their exorbitant indulgence in the rock n’ roll lifestyle. Manzarek, The Doors’ keyboardist, is a first-class writer and comes across as a genuinely nice guy just tryin’ to keep the ’60s dream alive. He even admits that legendary lead singer Jim Morrison could be a real a**hole at times, but the best details here are Manzarek’s interjections regarding the inaccuracies in Oliver Stone’s 1991 biopic of the band. I wish Manzarek had included more details about his post-Doors career - notes about his briefly-mentioned collaboration with Philip Glass would have been interesting - but it’s still a well-written work.

Grade: A-

Here’s some random thoughts I came up with after yesterday’s post regarding the announcement of a new Smurfs movie:

• As a kid, my favorite was Brainy Smurf, because I thought he looked like me. A few years ago, my local Fox station picked old 1980s Smurfs episodes in syndication and I got to rewatch them. Surprisingly enough, they actually weren’t bad. My favorite now, though, is Grumpy Smurf, the Smurf who punctuated the conversations by complaining about the topic at hand. For example, if you were discussing baking (you can tell I’m hungry), he would interject “I hate cakes!” I find him funny now because he reminds me of how I sometimes see myself. (Yes , I know the first season is out on DVD. I can’t afford everything.)
• Jokey Smurf was the Smurf who ran around giving people prank gifts. When the recipient would open the present, it would explode. Wouldn’t that make him the predecessor of today’s terrorist suicide bombers?
• Updated Smurfs for the new movie: ADD Smurf, Prozac Smurf, Paparazzi Smurf who chases Shameless Publicity Whore Smurf (aka the Smurfette makeover), Jokey the Terrorist Smurf who is pursued by Government Agent Smurf who bugs his mushroom home…
• Gargamel better be in the movie, cuz it’s not Smurfs without Gargamel!

From Reuters:

The Smurfs celebrated their 50th anniversary Tuesday by announcing a movie deal with Columbia Pictures.

The projected film will combine computer-animated Smurfs with live-action humans, similar to last year’s hit movie Alvin and the Chipmunks.

No time frame for production or relase of the film has been set.

Insiders say the movie has already hit some snags.  Smurfette has reportedly refused to cooperate with filming if Jessica Simpson or Paris Hilton are cast in the film because they might be confused with her. Brainy Smurf, when asked about the film, stated that the script would have to be “intellectually stimulating” to warrant his participation after which Grumpy Smurf simply stated, “I hate blockbusters.”

Let’s just hope they don’t update the soundtrack with a song called “Smurfalicious”. The old catchingly annoying theme will do quite nicely, thank you. Maybe they’ll even bring back that Smurfberry Crunch cereal from the ’80s, ‘cuz to this day whenever I hear that part of the Nutcracker Suite, all I can sing is that f***ing jingle “Smurfberry Crunch is fun to eat, Smurfberry Crunch is such a treat…”

From Reuters/Hollywood Reporter:

Leonardo DiCaprio will star in and produce a film titled Atari about Nolan Bushnell, the video game company’s founder.

Bushnell started the firm in the early 1970s with the game Pong that lunched the home video game industry. He later sold Atari and created Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theaters.

According to the article, “filmakers hope (the movie) will play with elements from (the movies) Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Tucker: The Man and His Dream”.  

I love 1980s video games - I grew up on them and I still have Pong on my home computer. I’m just missing how this will be a huge dramatic story.

Will there be a moment like one of the monolith scenes in 2001: A Space Odyssey where Bushnell sees a rectangular eraser on his desk, a light breaks through from the heavens, and he exclaims:”AHA! I’ll base a whole video game on a white rectangular object scooting back and forth!” Or another like Richard Dreyfuss’ mashed potatoes epiphany in Close Encounters of the Third Kind where he forms a mouse out of pizza dough in a cold sweat and realizes that he has made THE NEXT HUGE BREAKTHROUGH IN INTERACTIVE FOOD SERVICE TECHNOLOGY!!!!

I hope the whole soundtrack is composed and performed on very minimalist retro ’80s sounding synths.