Thursday, June 13, 2013

More on Music Festivals



“After setting a high bar with its first-day front-to-back surprise performance of 1983's "Kill 'Em All," Metallica closed its second Orion Music + More festival with a more conventional but characteristically ferocious concert on Sunday -- and promised to be back for more next year,” (Gary Graff,  http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/1566387/metallica-leads-heavy-orion-music-festival-tells-detroit-well-be-back, June 10, 2013).

The concept of a music festival is the chance to gain exposure to more than one artist, and they are really popular this year. However, when you do get to a music festival, (or when it is your first festival) how do you make the most out of that experience? Some good advice from Stephen Thompson at NPR Music “That leaves music and logistics, which are often intertwined. Show up early, because it's way more fun to wait outside the gate with your friends at 11 in the morning than it is to sit in standstill traffic while thinking about everything you're missing. When you're dealing with multiple stages — any set-up where you're choosing from a menu of musical options at any given moment — plan ahead and jot down where you'd theoretically like to be. Take advantage of Bandcamp, Spotify and a million other ways to pre-screen festival acts you've never heard of. Many large events have useful apps for your mobile devices to help you plan, but remember that hugely crowded areas full of young folks often get crummy cell-phone reception, so jot down backups on an old-fashioned piece of paper,” (http://www.npr.org/blogs/allsongs/2013/05/07/181996458/the-good-listener-for-music-festival-rookies-a-survival-guide, June 13).

If you could go to one music festival, which one would you choose? If you have been to more than one, which one was your favorite and why?

Sunday, June 2, 2013

The Iceman: Contract Killer



Michael Shannon stars as notorious contract killer Richard Kuklinski in this biopic from director Ariel Vromen (Rx, Danika). To his loving wife Deborah (Winona Ryder) and their growing family, Kuklinski was a caring father. But he was also a man with a dark secret and an unusual talent for covering his tracks. For nearly three decades starting in the 1950s, the suburban family man worked as one of the Gambino crime family's chief executioners, earning the nickname "Iceman" for his use of freezers in obscuring the forensic details of his victim's deaths. By constantly varying his methods, Kuklinski made it virtually impossible for investigators to assemble an accurate profile of the killer credited with taking over 100 lives. A protégé of seasoned assassin Robert "Mister Softee" Pronge (Chris Evans), the elusive contract killer struggles to reconcile his relationship with his sociopathic brother Joseph (Stephen Dorff) while nurturing a close friendship with his Gambino contact Roy DeMeo (Ray Liotta). Then, in 1986, an arrest brings Kuklinski's violent career to a sudden end, “ (http://www.fandango.com/theiceman_v570515/plotsummary Jason Buchanan, Rovi).

As a movie/music blogger, I enjoyed the music better than the movie at times. Based on the true story, Kuklinski killed over 100 people; the movie had a lot of violence. With the music being very mild and almost background music, it was the perfect combination of a bloody story inspired by true events in Dumont, NJ.