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Want to win tickets to the upcoming L'Arc~en~Ciel show  ((March 25, 2012 @ Madison Square Garden) in New York City?

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Send an email to contest@popculturebeast.com and tell us your favorite L'arc song! 

We'll choose a winner at random to win a pair of tickets to the show!

Contest ends on 2/29 so get your entries in ASAP.

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PS AIRFARE/LODGING NOT INCLUDED.

Martha Marcy May Marlene is the best film that I saw in 2011, and it is now being released on DVD. This drama succeeds at doing what most horror films attempt and fail to do: it creates a tension in the viewer that never abates from the opening frames right to the end. From its opening static shots of people going about their work on the farm, this film is tense. The first shot with any camera movement is the first shot of Martha, which is interesting for it is she who will soon flee the cult.

But though she leaves, she never really gets away. For her mental state is completely affected by her time there. And while her body may be in one place, her mind is still trapped in another, as demonstrated by the film's cutting back and forth between her sister's house and the farm where the cult members live. Though the farm scenes are mostly flashbacks, they don't feel that way because it's all happening simultaneously to Martha. There is no progression or track of time for her. As on the farm, there are no clocks. I love how in several scenes it takes us a moment to figure out which location Martha is in - just as it seems she herself often forgets.

Her sister's house is in Connecticut, three hours from where she picked Martha up. As soon as you learn this, you can't help but think what Martha is probably herself thinking: Not far enough. And the girl is so traumatized and disengaged from what most of us consider reality that she can't even communicate the danger to her sister. Which makes it all the more intense.

Part of this film's power and emotional impact comes from its silences. It doesn't hit us over the head with some overwrought score, highlighting each emotional high point. It allows a heavy silence to speak and draw the viewer further in.

For those who have read up on Charles Manson, a lot of this film's elements will be familiar. When the movie was released, I attended a Q&A with the writer/director and the producers. At the Q&A, Sean Durkin said that the Manson story was his starting point in researching cults. After the Q&A, I talked with him further about that, and he told me what he learned was that all cults follow that same pattern, implementing the same tactics. Tactics like a change of names (thus the film's title), little food, early wake-up calls, lack of clocks, communal clothing, and so on.

One of the scariest scenes is when Martha "handles" a new female recruit, Sarah. She is so indoctrinated that she in fact indoctrinates someone else, telling Sarah the same things that were said to her when she arrived.

This film has some astounding performances, particularly by Elizabeth Olsen as Martha Marcy May Marlene and John Hawkes as Patrick, the cult's leader. I also love the look of the film. The shots are so thoughtfully and carefully composed.

When you watch this film, do not allow yourself any distractions. Turn the phone off. If you have children, put them to bed.

The DVD special features include the short film Mary Last Seen, which is a sort of companion piece to the film, depicting the arrival of a girl named Mary. Before the short film begins, cards tell us a bit about the short, including that its budget was a mere five hundred dollars. Incredible.

Martha Marcy May Marlene was written and directed by Sean Durkin. It is being released on DVD and Blu-ray on February 21, 2012.

Any astrological chart will tell you, don't fuck with a Scorpio. They're intensely loyal, equally vengeful, contemplative and mysterious, and they set personal goals which they go after with unyielding verve. They are deeply sensitive, jealous and obsessive, and they carry a mean self-destructive streak. It seems to be no accident then that the hero in Drive wears a golden scorpion emblazoned across his jacket as he calmly engages in cold acts of sacrificial, calculated violence to protect and avenge the woman he loves. He is Scorpio personified, and woe to anyone who pisses him off.

I bring this up because Nicolas Winding Refn's 2011 film Drive is, above all else, a character study. Yes, there's a brutal story here involving the mafia and criminal exploits and romantic longing, and the film has atmosphere and style to spare, but the element that drives it all forward is Ryan Gosling's mysterious, detached Scorpio.

He is so cool and mysterious, in fact, that we never learn his name. He is Driver and when he's not brooding with his hands in his pockets or chomping on a toothpick he's fixing up cars or speeding around the race track. He also drives getaway for hire, offering his Scorpio tenacity and loyalty to criminals for a fixed rate. In this element, Driver is his own boss, laying out the rules with inflexible conditions and guarantees. Yet he also works for Shannon (Bryan Cranston), both as a mechanic in Shannon's garage and as a Hollywood stunt driver.

If Driver hardly says a word, Shannon can't shut up, and of course this later gets the two of them in big trouble. Shannon manages Driver's stunt gigs while he tries to land Driver a racing career with a fixer-up stock car. Unfortunately, this requires a tricky loan with the local crime boss Bernie (Albert Brooks) and his mad dog of a partner Nino (Ron Perlman).

Meanwhile, Driver catches the eye of his neighbor Irene (Carey Mulligan), a waitress with a young son and a husband in jail. Driver and Irene spark a romantic friendship full of unspoken passion and buried intensity. He might not show it, but he falls for her hard. And once he does his fate is sealed because he'll do everything he has to to keep her safe when things start to go wrong.

And wrong they go! The deeper Driver gets the more blood he spills. First in self defense and then in defense of Irene. Don't fuck with a Scorpio, indeed.

While the cast is fantastic and the characters riveting, Refn also makes something of a character out of the city itself. Not since Michael Mann's Collateral (2004) has Los Angeles been featured so extensively as a central character in a movie. From the LA River to MacArthur Park, from the Valley to the beach, Los Angeles takes something of a scene stealing role that can't be ignored.

Nicolas Winding Refn (and art director Christopher Tandon) strengthens the movie with the use of a calculated color scheme. Essentially, the entire film plays out within the extremes of cool and calm blues, and warm and passionate reds. Every element of the film (from the sets to the props to the wardrobe to the lighting) is awash in varying shades of these two colors. When Driver is at his most deliberate and calculated he is completely bathed in blue light and as his feelings for Irene deepen he is lit more and more with warm shades of red. Irene wears red to work and on their date, and the supporting cast is almost always wearing one color or the other. (Interestingly, the unpredictable Nino wears purple.) The garage, apartments, hotel rooms and restaurants featured in the movie are all red or blue or both. Even the stock car is red and blue. In this way Refn telegraphs the internal moods that Driver otherwise withholds. As film devices go it works beautifully.

When Driver kisses Irene in the elevator (red) it's as if he knows this is the last moment they have together and he (and the audience) wants to savor it. Moments later, everything changes and when Irene backs away from Driver she does so into a cold, dark parking garage (blue). The elevator scene is probably my single favorite sequence from any movie in 2011.

In fact, Drive is easily one of the best films of the year. Peter Travers named it his #1 movie of 2011 and I'm not sure I disagree.

Refn's deliberate approach to direction is complimented by the pulsating synth score by Cliff Martinez. That score (and the hot pink credits font) caused many a viewer to call this an 80s throwback, but make no mistake, this movie is pure 70s - uncompromising, original, smart, emotional and violent.

The DVD hit shelves January 31st and includes four behind the scenes featurettes and an interview documentary on director Nicolas Winding Refn titled 'Drive Without a Driver'. The Blu-ray also includes UltraViolet, enabling downloading or streaming capability.

9/10

Some great shows coming to Los Angeles next month courtesy of Live Nation.  Check them out below and get your tickets now!

THE WILTERN
March 20      of Montreal

AVALON HOLLYWOOD
Feb 17           Machine Head, Suicide Silence and Darkest Hour

Andrew WK

March 8          Andrew W.K - Performing "I Get Wet" in its entirety with his band!

Sharon Van Etten

March 20       Sharon Van Etten, The War on Drugs

Good Old War and The Belle Brigade

March 25       Good Old War/The Belle Brigade (co-headlining) and Family of the Year

Hmm...it looks...interesting.

Though it has many of the usual and expected beats and elements of a romantic comedy, The Rebound often transcends the genre in surprising and delightful ways. Right from the start it's a joy seeing Catherine Zeta-Jones singing, "I'm a bitch, I'm a lover, I'm a child, I'm a mother" in the car after dropping off her son at school. It made me burst out laughing, and set the tone, letting us know that this film wouldn't shy away from being intelligent and real and a bit goofy. It's not completely tame, like many romantic comedies are. It hasn't been de-clawed. It's wonderful and refreshing to have an R-rated film where children play significant roles (usually, those films want a PG or PG-13 rating - and really, I am in favor of chucking the whole rating system altogether, but I suppose that's an argument for another day).

Sandy (Catherine Zeta-Jones) discovers her husband is cheating, so she moves the kids to New York - all during opening credits. The film doesn't waste any time getting her and her family to the city, where she can meet and fall for Aram (played by Justin Bartha).

When moving to a new city, are the children worried about going to a new school? Are they wondering if they'll ever see their friends again? No, as they drive to the city, we hear this bit of dialogue from her children:
"Are we going to meet any transvestites?"
"What's a transvestite?"
"It's a person who has a penis and a vagina, and they live in the city." (It's the "and they live in the city" that really makes that bit of dialogue work.)

Then when they arrive, the son pees against the hotel wall with a homeless guy. (And there is also the wonderfully inappropriate scene of a nasty pervert flashing Sandy and her kids.) Scenes like these keep the movie from being a predictably sweet romantic comedy.

We're then introduced to Aram, and see his relationship with his parents (Art Garfunkel and Joanna Gleason), who are chiding him for breaking up with a girl they hated. Her best quality, according to Aram's mom, is that she spoke French beautifully. Aram responds, "She was from there."

So, okay, he's just recently been dumped, and Sandy has just left her husband. It's all set for the two of them to meet. And meet, they do, as Sandy rents the apartment above the coffee shop where Aram works. There is a bit of an age difference, as Aram is 25 and Sandy is 40 - and that is essentially the perceived obstacle to their relationship. Also, neither is really looking for a new relationship at the time. Both are searching for some meaning in their lives. And Sandy is looking for a babysitter. Aram is available for that job.

The movie, of course, isn't perfect. There are some stupid moments, like much of the scene in the self-defense class, and the end of the boxing match. There's an extended montage, and then a series of short scenes with each of them working, going on dates, and so on. We know where it's going, so we don't need quite so much of that. And there's another long montage near the end that glosses over a lot of stuff. Aram takes a job, and then travels around the world. So he quit his brand new job? Or did they give him like a year's paid vacation?

The movie is best when it's being silly and slightly twisted. Oddly, it feels most honest when it's being a bit twisted. And any movie that lets us hear Art Garfunkel say, "They're going to give me a new asshole" cannot possibly be a bad movie. (And the lines after that are funnier.) And there is chemistry between Catherine Zeta-Jones and Justin Bartha.

Catherine Zeta-Jones is one of the most beautiful people on the planet, and it's always a pleasure to watch her. She is one of those few people who is so gorgeous that it's almost distracting at times. And her character, Sandy, is not only gorgeous, but also loves sports - yes, the perfect woman. So what possessed her husband to cheat on her? One really intelligent move this film makes is to not show us the woman her husband cheats with. Because whoever it is, we'd be left disbelieving that he'd choose her over Catherine Zeta-Jones.

The film features a very cool supporting cast. Obviously, Art Garfunkel and Joanna Gleason are wonderful (Art Garfunkel is truly funny). But we also get a sequence with John Schneider that's great. Sandy goes on a date with him, and that scene has a very silly and wonderful moment that had me laughing out loud, but which I don't want to spoil here.

For horror movie fans, there are references to Texas Chainsaw Massacre and other other films, as Aram acts out horror films for the kids while babysitting them.

The Rebound was written and directed by Bart Freundlich, who also wrote and directed World Traveler (2001) and The Myth Of Fingerprints (1997).

The DVD contains snippets of interviews with Catherine Zeta-Jones, Bart Freundlich, Art Garfunkel, Justin Bartha, Joanna Gleason, and even the children. Catherine mentions that Art Garfunkel sang "Bridge Over Troubled Water" at her wedding.

The Rebound was released on DVD and Blu-ray on February 7, 2012.

The Grammys were awarded last night and the show brought in its biggest audience since 1984.  This is sure to be attributed to those wanting to see tribute paid to Whitney Houston and other big names we lost this past year.

While the performances were hit (Adele), miss (Rihanna/Coldplay), and just plain well...odd (Nikki Minaj), it was a show that has a lot of people talking, espeically abnout Adele's whopping 6 wins!

Here is the complete list of winners.  What do you think?  Are the Grammys relevant again?

Pop vocal album: Adele's 21

Album of the year: Adele's 21

Record of the year: Adele's Rolling the Deep

Best pop solo performance: Adele's Someone Like You

Song of the year: Adele's Rolling in the Deep

Short-form music video: Adele’s Rolling in the Deep

Best rock performance: Foo Fighters' Walk

Long-form music video: Foo Fighters’ Back and Forth

Hard rock/metal performance: Foo Fighters’ White Limo

Rock song: Foo Fighters’ Walk

Rock Album: Foo Fighters’ Wasting Light

Best rap performance: Otis, by Kanye West and Jay-Z

Rap performance: Jay-Z and Kanye West’s Otis

Best new artist: Bon Iver

Alternative music album: Bon Iver’s Bon Iver

Country duo/group performance: The Civil Wars’ Barton Hollow

Folk album: The Civil Wars’ Barton Hollow

Country solo performance: Taylor Swift’s Mean

Country song: Taylor Swift’s Mean

Dance recording: Skrillex’s Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites

Dance/electronica album: Skrillex’s Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites

R&B album: Chris Brown's F.A.M.E.

Country album: Lady Antebellum's Own the Night

Recording package: Caroline Robert’s Scenes from The Suburbs, for Arcade Fire

Pop duo/group performance: Tony Bennett and Amy Winehouse’s Body and Soul

Pop instrumental album: Booker T. Jones’ The Road from Memphis

Traditional pop vocal album: Tony Bennett and various artists’ Duets II

R&B performance: Corinne Bailey Rae’s Is This Love

Traditional R&B performance: Cee Lo Green and Melanie Fiona’s Fool for You

R&B song: Cee Lo Green and Co.’s Fool for You

Rap/sung collaboration: Kanye West, Rihanna, Kid Cudi and Fergie’s All of the Lights

Rap song: All of the Lights

Rap album: Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

New age album: Pet Metheny’s What’s It All About

Improvised jazz solo: Chick Corea’s 500 Miles High

Jazz vocal album: Terri Lyne Carrington and various artists’ The Mosaic Project

Jazz instrumental: Corea, Clarke and White’s Forever

Large jazz ensemble: Christian McBride Big Band’s The Good Feeling

Gospel/contemporary Christian music performance: Le’Andria Johnson’s Jesus

Gospel song: Kirk Franklin’s Hello Fear

Contemporary Christian music song: Laura Story’s Blessings

Gospel album: Kirk Franklin’s Hello Fear

Contemporary Christian music album: Chris Tomlin’s And If Our God Is For Us…

Latin pop, rock or urban album: Mana’s Drama Y Luz

Regional Mexican or Tejano album: Pepe Aguilar’s Bicentenario

Bands or Norteno album: Los Tigres Del Norte’s Los Tigres Del Norte and Friends

Tropical Latin album: Cachao’s The Last Mambo

Americana album: Levon Helm’s Ramble at the Ryman

Bluegrass album: Alison Krauss and Union Station’s Paper Airplane

Blues album: Tedeschi Trucks Band’s Revelator

Regional roots music album: Rebirth Brass Band’s Rebirth of New Orleans

Reggae album: Stephen Marley’s Revelatino Pt. 1: The Root of Life

World music album: Tinariwen’s Tassili

Children’s album: All About Bullies… Big & Small

Spoken world album (includes poetry, audio books and story telling): Betty White’s If You Ask Me (And of Course You Won’t)

Comedy album: Louis C.K.’s Hilarious

Musical theatre album: The Book of Mormom

Compilation soundtrack for visual media: Boardwalk Empire: Vol. 1

Score soundtrack for visual media: Alexandre Desplat’s The King’s Speech

Song written for visual media: I See the Light (from Tangled)

Instrumental composition: Bela Fleck and Howard Levy’s Life in Eleven

Instrumental arrangement: Gordon Goodwin’s Rhapsody in Blue for Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band

Instrumental arrangement accompanying vocalist: Jorge Calandrelli’s Who Can I Turn To (When Nobody Needs Me), for Tony Bennett and Queen Latifah

Boxed or special limited edition package: Dave Bett and Michelle Holme’s The Promise: The Darkness on the Edge of Town Story

Album notes: Hear Me Howling: Blues, Ballads & Beyond as recorded by the San Francisco Bay by Chris Strachwitz in the 1960s

Historical album: Band on the Run (Paul McCartney Archive Collection – Deluxe Edition)

Engineered album, non-classical: Alison Krauss and Union Station’s Paper Airplane

Producer of the year, non-classical: Paul Epworth

Remixed recording, non-classical: Cinema (Skrillex Remix)

Surround sound album: Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (Super Deluxe Edition)

Engineered album, classical: Aldridge: Elmer Gantry

Producer of the year, classical: Judith Sherman

Orchestral performance: Brahms, Symphony No. 4 by Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel

Opera recording: Adams: Doctor Atomic

Choral performance: Light & Gold - Eric Whitacre, conductor (Christopher Glynn & Hila Plitmann; The King's Singers, Laudibus, Pavão Quartet & The Eric Whitacre Singers)

Small-ensemble performance: Mackey: Lonely Motel – Music from Slide

Classical instrumental solo: Schwantner: Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra by Christopher Lamb, Giancarlo Guerrero conducts Nashville Symphony

Classical vocal solo: Joyce DiDonato with Kazushi Ono and Orchestre de l’Opera National de Lyon with Choeur de l’Opera National de Lyon for Diva Divo

Contemporary classical composition: Robert Aldridge and Herschel Garfein’s Elmer Gantry

SOURCE

The AP and ABC News are reporting that Whitney Houston has died. She was 48. The cause of death is unknown.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to her and her family.

The Double
Written by: Michael Brandt and Derek Haas
Directed by: Michael Brandt
Starring:  Richard Gere, Topher Grace, Stephen Moyer, Odette Yustman, Stana Katic, Chris Marquette, Tamer Hassan, and Martin Sheen

From the box:

When a United States Senator is brutally murdered, the evidence points to a Sopviet assassin, code-named Cassius, long-thought to be dead.  Two men who know Cassius best are thrown together to catch him.  Paul Shepherdson (Richard Gere, Primal Fear) is a retired CIA operative who's spent his career tracking Cassius around the globe.  Ben Geary (Topher Grace, Spider-Man 3) is a hotshot young FBI Agent and family man who has studied the killer's every move.  Ben thinks he knows Cassius , but Paul knows he is dead wrong.  Now, time is running out to stop this merciless killing machine.  Martin Sheen (The Departed), Stephen Moyer (True Blood), Odette Yustman (Cloverfield) and Stana Katic (Castle) costar in this tense thriller that will keep you guessing until the very last shot.

The Double is a pretty interesting spy thriller, unique in that it spreads some major revelations out over the length of the film, one of which happens rather quickly. Almost too quickly.

Richard Gere plays a retired CIA agent who was obsessed with catching a killer dubbed Cassius.  Topher Grace is an up and coming agent who is now obsessed with finding the same killer, who just happens to be long thought dead.

A high profile murder brings the two together on a hunt to track down Cassius and when the truth is revealed, one of which happens rather quickly, you may find yourself shocked.  It's a well made thriller with some great performances and some good twists.

Fans of Stephen Moyer might be a little disappointed as his role is hardly more than a cameo, same for Martin Sheen.  This movie is all Richard Gere and Topher Grace.  More so Gere, who delivers a really good performance here.  He's pretty intense and it's a good reminder of his talents.  I wonder why he doesn't work quite as much as he used to.  Might be time to give him his own show.

As for the disc, the special features are a little underwhelming.  We have a featurette, trailer, and commentary from the writer and director.  Nothing really worth writing home about.  The movie itself does look nice on the format.  Really clear and crisp.  Nice mix on the sound.  No complaints there.

Overall, The Double is a tight little thriller that delivers on some nice twists with some really good performances.  Fans of spy movies and thrillers will be right at home with this one. 

The Double is available now!

Yes. A thousand times yes.

Bring your love of the hilarious Modern Family home with this new board game! 

Players join in the fun of Modern Family’s three related families as they test their trivia knowledge of this hit TV show. There are five types of special spaces you can land on. Each type of special space has a corresponding deck of cards including: Parenting, Family, Modern, Interview and Event cards. By selecting the cards, players may be asked to answer trivia questions, play out a charade and discuss interview topics and family events. By completing the action on the cards, players receive tokens.

Once your team has collected all 30 tokens, you must get your mover home. The player to visit each household and get back to their TV viewing couch first wins!

Want to win a set of your very own?  Just drop us an email at contest@popculturebeast.com! 

Send us your name, address, and the answer to this trivia question:

What does Mitchell do for a living?

We'll pick a winner at random from those with the correct answer!

Contest ends on February 14!

2011 was a great year for family movies, and one of the highlights was definitely "Dolphin Tale."

"Dolphin Tale" tells the true story of Winter, a dolphin whose tail gets caught in a crab trap and has to have his rear fin amputated in order to survive an impending infection. The amputation is a success, but in order to swim, the mammal has to move its tail side to side instead of the normal up and down motion. This new technique causes pressure on the young dolphins spine and, if continued, will eventually cause his demise.

Luckily this dolphin's got two young friends played by Nathan Gamble and Cozi Zuehisdorff who will do whatever it takes to solve the problem -- even if that means getting help from a local prosthetic designer (played here with a stern sense of humor and determination by Morgan Freeman).

The dolphin is played by the actual dolphin that the movie is based on and this adds a real authenticity to the film. There are subplots about a young uncle returning home from war disabled and a possible romance between both of the kids single parents -- played by Harry Connick Jr. and Ashley Judd. But, thankfully these B-stories do not detract from the main focus of the story: two kids doing everything in their power to save Winter's life and help him swim again.

"Dolphin Tale" is the kind of family movie that Hollywood should make more of. It manages to handle serious subjects like divorce, death and physical disabilities in a way that young viewers can understand without being too graphic or heavy handed. The story is serious enough to keep adults interested but has a sense of adventure and wonder for the young viewer as well.

Bonus features on the BluRay include... At Home With Winter: A behind the scenes look at the real Winter's home at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium in Florida, Winter's Inspiration: How the advances in made in creating Winter's prosthetic tail have helped human amputees, Additional scene and gag reel plus many more.

Even if you already know the story of Winter and his outcome, "Dolphin Tale" will be a movie that kids will want to watch again and again.

Drumroll please... 9 out of 10 fins!!!

I love to make lists. I blame Mrs. Moore, my high school journalism teacher. She loved lists too, and she encouraged me in my list-making. So when Garon, the man in charge of Pop Culture Beast, asked his writers to come up with a list of "the top five songs of your life," I was up for the challenge.

But the top five songs of my life? That's a difficult one, difficult to narrow the great list down to five. After all, music has played an incredibly important role in my life since I was four years old. That was when I got turned on to The Monkees and began begging for a set of drums (I finally got my drums when I was thirteen - it took nine years of me banging on every damn thing in the house before my parents finally accepted the necessity of drums). And I couldn't even fit a Monkees song on this list.

This list also lacks an Ellis Paul song, which is insane. I was a teenager in the late 1980s, which was when the folk explosion happened in Boston. The late 1980s and early 1990s were amazing for folk music. There was so much music, and so many venues. And most of the musicians could be heard playing on the streets in Harvard Square and in the subways (Peter Mulvey even recorded an album down there). I remember seeing Cheryl Wheeler, Jan Luby, Brian Doser, Jon Svetkey, Jim Infantino, Jennifer & Jonatha, Patty Griffin, Ani Difranco, Marty Sexton, Dar Williams, Brooks Williams, Geoff Bartley, Vance Gilbert, Greg Greenway, Don White, The Nields. And it all started for me with Ellis Paul at a venue called The Old Vienna Kaffeehaus in Westboro, Massachusetts. And yet none of those people made the list. That's how ridiculous it is to narrow it down to five.

But here we go...

The top five songs of my life. Songs that I love, songs that have played a particularly important role in my life:

5. "Four In The Morning" by Josh Lederman Y Los Diablos. My brother and I always try to let each other know about great new bands. And one year he sent me a few CDs. I popped on one by Josh Lederman Y Los Diablos, with the idea that I would listen to it while cleaning my apartment. Approximately five seconds into the first track I was so blown away that I just had to sit down and listen to the entire CD straight through. And then again. And then again. I didn't answer the phone. I didn't do anything else. Just listened. The first song on that album - the song that completely blew me away was "Four In The Morning." I loved this band so much that I hired them to play my brother's bachelor party just so that I could get a chance to see them. And there were amazing. For several years, I flew back to Massachusetts and saw this band on New Year's Eve at a place called Tir Na Nog. Those were the absolute best New Years I've ever spent, and I can think of no better band to bring in the new year. Unfortunately, they broke up a few years ago. Josh Lederman has a new band: Josh Lederman & The CSARS. They're really good, but not as good as Josh Lederman Y Los Diablos.

4. "Trouble" by Cat Stevens. My favorite film of all time is Harold And Maude. My grandparents showed me that film when I was like eight or nine years old. And then when I was sixteen, my English teacher played a videocassette of it for the class. A few of us loved the film, and a few of my classmates didn't like it all. I never spoke to the ones that didn't like it again. Cat Stevens did the music for the film, though most of the music had already been recorded. He wrote two new songs for that movie: "Don't Be Shy" and, of course, "If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out." Both of those songs are excellent. But the one that always does it for me, the one that makes me cry every single time I watch that movie, is "Trouble." It's a beautiful song.

3. "Primary" by The Peak Show. The best Los Angeles band ever (yes, I mean it) was The Peak Show. I can't even begin to describe the beauty and intensity and FUN of their live performances. Some of the best nights of music I've ever experienced were in Highland Park at their house parties. Artists like Los Abandoned, Go Betty Go, Mother Tongue, Tre Hardson, Blood Sugar and Bad Vic & The Good Intentions would open for them - at their house. There is even a compilation CD out there called Peak Show Parties that features tracks by these bands. But the main event, of course, was The Peak Show. They very quickly became one of my favorite bands, and I managed to catch forty of their concerts before they broke up in October of 2004. Every show was great, but any show that included "Primary" in the set list was guaranteed to be a killer show. This song is awesome. If you haven't heard it, search for it online. You won't be disappointed.

2. "Heart With No Companion" by Leonard Cohen. Leonard Cohen is the best living songwriter. No question. This is not my opinion. It is fact. In fact, is the only fact that I'm completely sure of. Everything else is up for discussion. But not this. Leonard Cohen is the best songwriter. Oddly, it took me a while to discover him. It wasn't until he released I'm Your Man (1988) that I learned of his existence. That is an excellent album, but one of my favorite Leonard Cohen records is Various Positions (1984). The entire record is phenomenal, but one song I always go back to is "Heart With No Companion." And the first time I saw Leonard Cohen in concert (in Toronto - five of us made the trip out there specifically for the concerts), he played this song during the encores. I saw several more Leonard Cohen concerts, but I never saw him play this one again.

1. "Ripple" by Grateful Dead. My favorite song is "Ripple" from the Grateful Dead's 1970 release American Beauty. That entire record is flawless. It's a beautiful album that features songs like "Box Of Rain," "Brokedown Palace" and "Attics Of My Life." But the best song on it is "Ripple." I saw the Grateful Dead in concert forty-one times, but never did see them perform this song. I probably would have completely lost it if they had suddenly played it. My entire body would have exploded from the joy. They played it a lot in 1980 when they were doing acoustic sets, but not much after that, and I didn't see my first show until April of 1988. This song boasts Robert Hunter's best lyrics (and that's saying something). This song always makes me happy, and I truly believe the world would be a much worse place without this song.

So there you have it.

 Wonder no longer as Columbia Pictures has announced the official synopsis for their upcoming Amazing Spider-Man.  Sounds a little bit like Ultimate Spider-Man.

One of the world's most popular characters is back on the big screen as a new chapter in the Spider-Man legacy is revealed in "The Amazing Spider-Man." Focusing on an untold story that tells a different side of the Peter Parker story, the new film stars Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Denis Leary, Campbell Scott, Irrfan Khan, with Martin Sheen and Sally Field. The film is directed by Marc Webb from a screenplay written by James Vanderbilt, based on the Marvel Comic Book by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Laura Ziskin, Avi Arad, and Matt Tolmach are producing the film in association with Marvel Entertainment for Columbia Pictures, which will open in theaters everywhere in 3D on July 3, 2012.

"The Amazing Spider-Man" is the story of Peter Parker (Garfield), an outcast high schooler who was abandoned by his parents as a boy, leaving him to be raised by his Uncle Ben (Sheen) and Aunt May (Field). Like most teenagers, Peter is trying to figure out who he is and how he got to be the person he is today. Peter is also finding his way with his first high school crush, Gwen Stacy (Stone), and together, they struggle with love, commitment, and secrets. As Peter discovers a mysterious briefcase that belonged to his father, he begins a quest to understand his parents' disappearance – leading him directly to Oscorp and the lab of Dr. Curt Connors (Ifans), his father's former partner. As Spider-Man is set on a collision course with Connors' alter-ego, The Lizard, Peter will make life-altering choices to use his powers and shape his destiny to become a hero.



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