“Coup de coeur” - 2020 - personal favs

2020, what a year! Good or bad, it was unmistakably tremendous! With so much happening worldwide on the pandemic and social unrest front, art kinda went under the radar. But there were cool things happening too in 2020. Here are some of my personal favorites that helped pass the time during the various stages of lockdown.

The Boys, season 2, an Amazon Original

Season 2 of The Boys did not disappoint and took the effed-up super-hero series to cult level thanks to the inlaid social commentary on boiling contemporary issues in North America such as race, immigration, harassment, foreign policy, mass persuasion and skewed (or screwed-up) politics. In essence, the show asks how people with superpowers would fit today’s society, how they’d be marketed, weaponized and exploited or how they’d exploit their advantage, either way exploring the darker sides of human nature. It’s gore-a-plenty, not at all watered down to flow mainstream. But beyond all the blood, bone and brain, it's an incredibly intelligent and tongue-in-cheek show.

Watch a vast collection of original TV shows and movies on Amazon Prime.
Enjoy Amazon Originals, new releases or old-school classics.

Don’t cover your ears

Greetings to ya’ll! How’s it hanging?

Well, as the planet coughs and puffs, I thought some music might help feed and heal the soul. This blogpost will cover the much loved and equally much hated category of song covers.

Yeah, covers. If they don’t sublime the original track, they chainsaw massacre it. Ain’t no two ways about it.

So, I hopped on a quest to share some golden finds. Don’t cover your ears, you’ll want to take a listen.

“Oh wah ah ah ah!!!”. If you are remotely familiar with metal music, you know the vocal gimmicks of David Michael Draiman—the lead “screamer” of Disturbed. But here’s the thing, Draiman is an awesome singer with or without screams and shouts.

Here are the covers of two very deep and well-known songs. These covers, both performed by Disturbed, will make you think twice before dissing the voice of metal.

Disturbed - The Sound of silence
Original by Simon & Garfunkel

Disturbed – Land of confusion
Original by Genesis

And now a little twist on how to cook up a great cover. You can stick to the recipe and follow the original vibe or—like the British black metal band, Cradle of Filth—you can make it your own thing. Whichever way you go, the secret is to respect the essence of the original track.  

Cradle of Filth – Hallowed be thy name

Original by Iron Maiden

I know black metal music might not be everybody’s cup of tea. So, bye, bye darkness my old friend. Let’s lighten the mood with covers of one of my favorite songs of all time, You Spin Me Round (Like a Record) by the great Sir Pete Burns, lead singer of Dead or Alive. RIP Sir!

Jessica Simpson’s take on this world-famous hit really gets down and dirty. She got the sexual energy down. It oozes out of the vibes, no question about it. Give your ears a treat and give it a listen.

It’s always been a flirty song. A song for the nightlife. A song that Danzel made his own by surfing that wave.

Into more aggressive mating rituals? Dope also caught on to the forwardness of the song and applied it to their stroke.

 

There are literally hundreds of versions of this song. But, once again, what essentially makes a good cover is simply how the soul of the song is grasped and rendered back in a new form. 

To end this musical adventure into the world of covers, here’s a pretty good take on one of the hardest songs to cover (and another personal favorite), Dolly Parton's Jolene. Hats off to IMY2 for such an incredible rendering!

Explore more about Dolly Parton on Amazon

The 4 horsemen of Drowning Pool

Little known fact 

Did you know?

The first singer of Drowning Pool, Dave Williams, was found dead in his tour bus, reputedly in a pool of his own vomit. At least that was the version back in the days. An ill-fated band name perhaps, but a very metal way of signing off. RIP.

(2001-2002) With Dave at the helm, Drowning Pool achieved worldwide fame. His most (in)famous song? Bodies. Of course...

(2003-2005) Then Jason Jones stepped up. But he didn't quite get along with the other dudes.

(2005-2011) Ryan McCombs was the prodigal son who kept Drowning Pool afloat. And his song Feel Like I Do is the reason why I'm writing this post. Somehow this gem went under the radar and the world of Metal missed something. A little known fact that needs to get out there.

Feel like I do

Though he was a perfect fit, Ryan eventually rejoined his earlier band, SOiL. The fourth horseman and current lead singer of Drowning Pool is Jasen Moreno, only one finger and a fist away from the greats. 

At the gates of Rashōmon

If the works of one — and only one — filmmaker had to be passed on to a distant future civilization as a legacy of what we would have achieved in the art of great cinema, then the choice would be as clear-cut as the clean slash left on a bamboo stem by the Katana blade of a seasoned Samurai.

One man rises above the fray to claim legendary status among the fine fleur du 7ème art. That man was born in Tokyo on March 23, 1910, and he lived to create some of the greatest movies of all times. Films that inspired other movie directors throughout the world in shaping our collective cinematic consciousness.

In this post, we'll delve into the works of filmmaker genius Akira Kurosawa whose influence still permeates TV screens in the West and in the East.

Da man!

Don't mess with spaghetti...

Kurosawa is the grand master of Samurai movies. Little known fact: that genre heavily inspired its counterpart in the West, namely spaghetti westerns. If you're a fan of For a Fistful of Dollars or The Magnificent Seven, then you are a Kurosawa fan without knowing it. But I digress. We'll get to the spaghetti later.

Back to the man. Kurosawa was a prolific filmmaker and his career spanned nearly three decades. As a young man, he witnessed the pre- and post-war eras of Japan. Crude realism and bleakness are the canvas against which his films are thrown. Despite the roughness of it, this melancholy is beautifully and delicately interwoven into the fabric of human nature laid bare. Kurosawa's movies are timeless windows into the Japanese soul, its ideals of grandeur and the cruel irony of life's tricks. 

Time to explore some of Kurosawa's greatest masterpieces in our artistic quest for truth.

In 1950 came Rashōmon, the movie that first drew worldwide attention on Japan's potential to influence arts & culture on a global scale. The story of Rashōmon is in essence that of multifaceted reality or that of perspective and perception. Without revealing too much of the plot, Rashōmon is the story of four stories resulting from the extremely unfortunate encounter between a wayward rogue, a samurai and his spouse, and a passer-by. Four contradictory stories will emerge out of this single event, yet all of them true from the perspective of its narrator. How can four people perceive the same turn of events differently? The movie tackled this issue with such brio that it gave rise to the concept of the Rashōmon effect in journalism as to the nature of truth(s).

Note: Masaki Kobayashi's Harakiri (1962) also comes to mind when talking about the impact of perspective and perception in cinematographic storytelling. But that's a story for another day.

Kurosawa's most famous film is probably the Seven Samurai (1954), which is, as the name suggests, the story of seven Samurai coming to the rescue of the weak and giving the baddies a tougher chew than expected. The cast of the Seven Samurai included actors of tremendous talent of the likes of Takashi Shimura and Toshirô Mifune. Despite being filmed over 60 years ago, you can still enjoy it today as one of the best movies you'll ever watch.

The Beast Unleashed

One cannot talk about Kurosawa movies without mentioning Toshirô Mifune, the actor whose incredible screen presence made these movies come to life. Toshirô Mifune takes the lead in Yojimbo (1961) as a clever and ballsy ronin for the hire, who enters a village and cunningly plays two local gangs against each other in a bid to free the people of their tyranny.

Whether a lawless vagabond or an unsung lonesome hero, Toshiro Mifune will get under your skin. I've never seen such animality on screen. Toshirô, he's the man, he's the animal - he's the first manimal.

A Manimal screen presence
that will not be chained

    Toshirô Mifune perfectly grasps the essence of the unbound beast, whether for good or bad.

    The actor's relationship with Kurosawa despite their shared success was a rollercoaster ride. One thing however always remained true, their encounter gave rise to perfection made into film.

    As the filmmaker once said of his muse: "I am proud of nothing I have done other than with him."

To conclude this blogpost, here's an interesting video I've found which gives insight into Kurosawa's mastery in the use of frames for his vivid visual storytelling.

Explore the works of Kurosawa

Howling Metal, s'il vous plaît

Time to bash your ears again with an explosion of raw music. With a French touch.

Métal!

Most readers wouldn't be surprised that the French metal scene exists, but there is a saying that goes Nul n'est prophète en son pays meaning that it is sometimes harder to gain recognition in your own homeland. This saying is particularly true for French metal as most French-speakers tend to think of it as a pale imitation of American heavy metal. Nothing could be further from the truth.

French metal has a unique je-ne-sais-quoi. A distinct flavor in the lyrics. Rich like red wine.
The songs abound with double entendre and are often socially engaged and enraged.
 
Enough talking. Let me introduce you to some of the leading misfits.

MASNADA - Metal's most underrated band ever

Their album Maîtres du Je is a true gem. Unfortunately the band never quite came into its own. They remained underground even in France. C’est triste, as they are on par with the biggest bands, French or otherwise. To this day, that’s two decades after and counting, their album still stands as a monument of creativity for the music and the completeness of its concept.

LOFOFORA - King of the ring

Lofofora is nothing short of being the biggest name in French metal for the last 20 years. My personal favorite: Vice et Râle. Getting the drift about the double entendre now? You might wanna check out the lyrics for this song. They are exquisitely libertine to say the least.

This post doesn't delve into subgenres such as gothic, death or black metal. So no mention of, well the more obscure bands. Pun intended :)