Day 21: Euphonious (with Karen Finch)

 

Day 21: Euphonious (with Karen Finch)

Part of my song-a-day writing project for January 2024.

Lyrics:

They say I have a voice for radio
And a face to match
But if you knew me
You'd know I had too many
Eggs to hatch

I'm an opportunistic
Don't go ballistic
Snatch and run kind of guy
If you got the cash
I got something here
I know you want to buy

I can get you to dance
Get you out of your pants
With a voice like honey
Talk you out of your money
And have you begging for more

I'm an opportunistic
Don't go ballistic
Snatch and run kind of guy
If you got the cash
I got something here
I know you want to buy

With a silvery tongue
I strike the unsuspecting
With my Ponzi-scheme prattling
I leave their minds a-rattling
And walk away with their net worth

I'm an opportunistic
Don't go ballistic
Snatch and run kind of guy
If you got the cash
I got something here
I know you want to buy

***

Details:

I had just come from a birthday party and Karen had just come from a jam session; we both were pretty tired as we put this together.

Someone at the birthday party had said that I had a radio voice. I've gotten that a lot over the years, and though it's meant as a compliment, I've never felt compelled to start a radio show (though I do host a podcast, which is almost the same thing!). Karen was worried that she may have fallen for some sort of pandemic related scam. Anyway, we decided to merge the topics into a character study about a con man with a smooth voice.

We worked out the lyrics first, then Karen figured out the chord progression on the guitar. It came out much quicker than I was expecting. We had written several verses and just realized we had enough to constitute a song. Recording it didn't involve too many takes, either.

I think this is the fifth song I've written with Karen, and it's always a fun time.

Short Reviews: Mutants, Avengers and Nice Guys Singing with Gangsta Cats...

X-men: Apocalypse - Overall, a big disappointment after Days of Future Past and First Class. The first two films in the reboot focused on the competing ideologies of Professor X and Magneto with Mystique stuck in the middle, and that made for a compelling conflict. In this installment, they pay some lip service to the triangle, but mostly focus on introducing new characters and a generically realized villain. Aside from the design work done for some of the new characters (Storm, Psylocke and Nightcrawler look pretty awesome), the film is muddled and shallow. And if you're a comic book purist, you'll be thoroughly upset with the liberties taken with some of the characters.

Sing Street - Director John Carney has made headlines lately after trashing Kiera Knightley's work in his previous film, Begin Again. While I also had trouble with Knightley's casting in that film, Sing Street shows that Carney bears plenty of responsibility for his missteps. Like Once, this film is set in Ireland, but it's about a teenage boy in the 80s who starts a band to impress a girl. There's a certain sweetness and local flavor that lifts it up, but the songs are as mediocre as the ones in Begin Again and fail to fully support the rebellious stance taken by the story. The film is a pleasant, but fails to rise above the level of unreflective adult nostalgia.

The Nice Guys - Shane Black was once the highest paid screenwriter in Hollywood, having penned the highly influential Lethal Weapon series. More recently, he's been directing his own scripts, most notably the massive blockbuster Iron Man 3, but also the cult favorite Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. The Nice Guys follows in the vein of that small, neo-noir buddy film, but doesn't quite match its lofty virtues. The film makes some confusing choices at the beginning and then the last third of the film just sort of happens. However, the chemistry between Russell Crowe, Ryan Gosling and Angourie Rice (stealing the show as Gosling's character's daughter) is glorious and alone probably worth the price of admission. I'm not sure if there's going to be a sequel, but I'd love to see this crew again in a better film.

Captain America: Civil War - For my money, the Captain America series has been the highest quality Marvel Studios franchise to date, and Civil War keeps the streak alive. I'm in awe of the Russo brother's ability to keep a movie this big this balanced. Every one of the huge cast of characters gets their moment in the sun, but unlike other superhero films, Civil War knows which ones are the stars and which ones are merely the supporting cast. The themes of the film are interwoven masterfully with personal motivations, and you also get the best mass superhero battle of all time! Highly recommended. See it again and again...

Keanu - I really enjoy Key and Peele's sketch comedy show and was looking forward to a feature length treatment of their sensibilities. But greatness on the small screen doesn't always translate to the big one, and in many ways Keanu feels like a comedy sketch stretched from 5 to 100 minutes. There are some very funny scenes, and Key and Peele put on some tremendous performances, but there's just not enough to carry you all the way through.

Ricki and the Flash: Cheryl & Dave's Review

Cheryl and I reviewed this film at the request of some of our fans.  I don't think either of us were in love with the film, but we still managed to find lots to disagree about.

Movie Reviews: Into the Woods and Begin Again

Into the Woods (2014) is the second movie I've seen based on a Stephen Sondheim musical (the other being Sweeny Todd), and I've decided I don't much like Sondheim's musical sensibilities.  He's very fond of recitative (talk singing, basically) which is one of my least favorite aspects of opera and musical theater.  And even the main song productions didn't hook me (with the exception of the princes-on-the-waterfall scene... "Agony!").  None of this is to imply that it's a bad film, just that it's hard to like a musical if you don't like the songs, and I didn't much like the songs.

But if you don't mind recitative, and if you like Sondheim's music, then you'll probably love this film.   First off, it looks fantastic-- the costume and set design is out of this world.  On top of that, the acting is uniformly superb.  My favorite performance was by Lilla Crawford, who played Little Red Riding Hood as a cad, but with a really powerful singing voice.  Emily Blunt's lovely voice was also a pleasant surprise.  Story-wise the movie is a bit crowded-- with so many fairy tale characters demanding screen-time, it's inevitably jumbled.  But the story is also crammed full of interesting themes of courtship, coming of age, the relationship between your children when they're young and after they've grown up.  There's a lot to like about this film.  If I liked the music more, I might consider seeing it again.


Begin Again (2013) is a very different kind of musical.  Kiera Knightly and Mark Ruffalo bring some serious star power to this follow-up to Once from director John Carney.  Like Carney's previous film, this one is about two down-on-their-luck music makers who team up to help each other find redemption and realize their dreams.  But unlike Once, this film focuses on those who once had musical success and then lost it, or those who've lost loved ones to musical success while being passed over themselves.

I have two big issues with this film.  Once again, I couldn't get into the music.  This bothers me even more than with Into the Woods, because I don't expect to like songs from stage musicals (they're just not my thing).  But this film, with all its decrying of mainstream music, managed to produce a bunch of bland, boring songs that were theoretically within a genre I like.  The other problem was the star power itself.  The characters are schleppy losers, but the actors feel like Hollywood superstars throughout-- they never look anything other than gorgeous, they never lack room-crushing charisma-- they're distracting.  The story itself is perfectly pleasant, if a bit shallow, but I have a hard time recommending this one.