Still Chasing the Shadows Away

Thank God Almighty! “Mamma Mia!”, the movie, is getting good reviews.
Posted today on Yahoo Movies this review is full of praise. Meryl Streep’s performance as Donna Sheridan is described as one of her best (and she has had many!) and also that “it is no stretch to think of her performance in Oscar terms”.
“Mamma Mia” is the kind of film that the critics just love to hate. It is a great, big, colourful, fabulous movie that many critics in the more serious press often tear apart, similar to the harsh treatment that “Sex & the City” has been getting.
However, it’s the audiences that make a film a hit and the film has a loyal but hopeful fan-base from the stage show and the various classic Abba songs on the soundtrack. The “must see” factor is something that is only obtained by good word of mouth and reviews.
Good early reviews are a clear indication that the movie will be a very big hit. In the US, it is now the 6th week in a row that revenue has been up on this time last year. One reason for the record breaking box office figures in the US is that going to the cinema is still one of the cheaper forms of entertainment and also that you don’t have to drive far to the nearest cinema.
The other reason is of course that there are a lot of good movies out this summer.
It’s wonderful to see actresses like Julie Walters and Christine Baranski in a movie like this. They are two of the best comedy actresses in the movie business. They play Rosie and Tanya, the best friends of Donna Sheridan as played by Meryl Streep. I love the photo below, especially Julie in her fab Bangles t-shirt. The Bangles play in Dublin’s Vicar Street, on Wednesday, I can’t wait!

Meryl looks fantastic in the trailer and publicity pictures and after the box office failures of her recent movies “Lions for Lambs” and “Evening”, she is back on track. Meryl has appeared, narrated in or been a character voice in 11 films since “The Devil Wears Prada” in 2006, amazing.
The male leads are played by Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgard and their performances, both in acting and singing are all said to be great too. Thankfully, the word embarrassing hasn’t been used in relation to their singing abilities yet.
Amanda Seyfried plays Sophie, Donna daughter who decides to find out who her real father is, prior to her wedding, by inviting her mother’s 3 ex-lovers to the Greek Island where they live.
Amanda is still best known for her role as Karen in “Mean Girls” (as pictured below with Rachel McAdams and Lacey Chabert). The success of “Mamma Mia” this summer, will really boost her profile.

Dominic Cooper, playing Sophie boyfriend, will also get a lot of media attention from his role in the movie. Dominic starred in both the stage and screen versions of “The History Boys” and is currently starring in “The Escapist”.

No matter how funny the performances are or how colourful and well scripted the film is the most important thing is the songs themselves.
Below is a video of Amanda Seyfried singing “Gimme, Gimme, Gimme (A Man after Midnight)”. This was a song that I thought was the most adult thing I ever heard when I was a child. Oh, the innocence!
It is clever of the film’s producers to release this as a publicity video as it is a song which is loved by Abba fans and also known by today’s generation after Madonna used it for her “Hung Up” single.
What is also good is that the musical production is similar to the original but at the same time not a karaoke version.
Mamma Mia opens nationwide in both the UK and Ireland on July 10th. The premiere was tonight, Monday, in London where it is showing just in Leicester Square from next week on the 4th of July.
Mamma Mia opens in the US on July 16th.

Funny How Times Flies….

“Il me plait d’etre là avec tu je ne sais pas ou… ou le temps s’est enfui. Oh je t’aime mon chéri.”
So begins Janet Jackson’s “Funny How Time Flies…(When You’re Having Fun)”. This translates as “I like to be with you. I don’t know where… where the time has flown. Oh, I love you baby.”
The song is one of Janet’s best songs of the 1980’s but was never a hit single commercially.
It was the 7th single from her multi million selling third album “Control” and was only released in the UK. It only charted at number 59.
It was never released in the US where “The Pleasure Principle” would be her 6th and final single which by the time of it’s release in the mid 1980’s had made her into a Pop Icon of her own right. The video for “The Pleasure Principle” was the beginning of a tougher, leaner Janet. “Funny How Time Flies…(When You’re Having Fun)” continued the theme of making her lover wait, a theme that was far more sweet and bubblegum in “Let’s Wait Awhile” the most well known ballad from the album.
“Funny How Time Flies…(When You’re Having Fun)” was, I feel, the beginning of the determined path that Janet has been travelling over the past 21 years as her image and music became more sexual and direct while maintaining it’s dance pop foundation.
Her 1989 album “Rhythm Nation 1814” was the most perfect follow up to “Control”. In a way similar to her brother’s Michael’s “Thriller” after the pop brilliance of “Off The Wall”. “The Pleasure Principle” is the song on “Control” most similar to the dance songs on “Rhythm Nation 1814” while “Funny How Time Flies….(When You’re Having Fun)” was the gorgeous predecessor to songs like “Come Back To Me” and “Lonely” from the same album.
There was never a video made for “Funny How Time Flies…(When You’re Having Fun)” so the clip below is audio only.
This post originally appeared on my other blog All The Way To New York.

The Other Ms Amy

David Sedaris has a new book out called, When You are Engulfed in Flames. This is his first book since 2004’s Dress Your Family In Corduroy And Denim.
On Thursday 11th September David will be reading from his new non-fiction collection in the Westin Hotel, College Green, here in Dublin. That event is brought to his many Irish fans by a certain bookstore. More details here.
“Me Talk Pretty One Day is still David’s most well known book and I think that I am the only gay man who didn’t love that book to death. But maybe I’ll give it another go before reading his newest collection.
A Sedaris who I really love is his sister Amy. She isn’t as well known as her brother in Europe but America loves her and so it should.
Amy has appeared in the greatest Christmas film of all time; Elf, one of the biggest films of all time; Shrek The Third, one of the most underrated Romance and Cigarettes and one or two of her own; Strangers With Candy.
She is a regular guest on David Letterman show and also on the Martha Stewart show which turned out to be one of her funniest TV guest spots.

Here that clip!

The New Pretenders

Here in Ireland this week the nation has been informed that we are now in a recession.
One of the more amusing articles I read during the week of media gloom and doom was where a female journalist was asked by her teenage son; “mammy, what’s a recession?”.
Yes indeed, in 2008, there are thousands, well at least 100’s of pampered teens who haven’t worked a day in their life and worse don’t even know how to do it.
We may finally see what years of “Heat” magazine, Big Brother instant fame, Colleen and her endless wedding party and MTV filmed 16th birthday parties will result in.
There is one Irish Patron Saint that many girls, and some boys, have held a steadfast devotion to. That is Saint Nadine of the Little Lie that got to where I am today.
Nadine is of course, Nadine Coyle, of the greatest female group of the last decade, Girls Aloud. The ones who best continued the Spices good work.
When poor Nadine lied about her age on Irish television’s answer to Pop Idol, it was the start of her brilliant career.
For the past few weeks The Saturdays have been touring with Girls Aloud and their fab new single, “If This Is Love”, is released on the 28th July.
The video is featured on Perez Hilton’s site today. Like all good popstars of today they were featured on Popjustice months ago.
Once again we have a girl band who have gone for the 80’s Top Shop/trashy call girl look and, on their single, the good old 1980’s sample.
However, even though all the gays born before 1980 will know the sample of the song used, very few of the gays and future girl fans, and some boys, born after 1980 will know it.
Too clever.

Here’s the video!

I love it.
However!

The lovely sample has already been used months ago on a mash-up of my favourite song of 2006.

Here it is!

It was a criticism of the music of Stock, Aitken and Waterman in the 1980’s that their music never reflected the times that they were released in. When I was growing up in the 198o’s there was widespread unemployment, every teenager I knew had, or couldn’t get, a weekend job, very few people had millionaire lifestyles. But that’s why I loved pop music then, there were loads of bands, like The Smiths and most Indie bands, whose music will always be a product of their time but the need for pop for the sake of pop should always be part of popular culture.
Maybe that’s why there was so much of it in the 1990’s. The decade of so many girl and boy bands, it went into overdrive.
I am so glad, now, that I was a teenager of the 1980’s. I know I’m getting older when I can’t listen to a lot of the music in the charts, even though the top ten is still the most poppiest as this week’s chart shows again.When I like a pop artist or song these days it reminds me of songs I knew and bought back 20 years ago.
If things are going to change economically then it’s also a perfect time for a pop act like The Saturdays to come along.
On the introduction page on their website there is a great line; “It’s not gone unnoticed that music’s needed a bloody good kick up the arse for some time now”, The Saturdays being the solution.
Pop that dosen’t take itself too serious.
The best kind.

September

“Cry For You” by September has been one of the best pop dance singles of the year. The song was originally on September ‘s second album “In Orbit” in 2005. There were 4 other singles from that album; “Satellites”, “Flowers on the Grave”, “It Doesn’t Matter” and “Looking For Love”.
“Cry For You” has many dance remixes available on the net but below is a great acoustic version of the song as performed on the television show, Nyhetsmorgon.

One song that could be a great follow up to “Cry For You” is another song from “In Orbit”. That song is “Midnight Heartache” and it features one of the most sampled songs of the 1980’s.
Have a listen below.

Superstar, oh, Superstar!

Last Sunday I went to see Dolly Parton in concert. What was extra special about the day was that the concert was held in Kilkenny, my home town. For the past few years there has been a concert in the GAA sports grounds of Nowlan Park, featuring big names like Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, Shania Twain and Rod Stewart. I have never gone before but it would have been a mortal sin to miss Dolly.
The weather has been just awful here in Ireland and the night before in Cork the worst of the worst happened, Dolly’s hair got wet. She didn’t mind as we all know Dolly is a trooper!
The following evening in Kilkenny the mood in Nowlan Park was jovial, the age group was a good mix; mid twenties and upwards.
When I arrived, the front part of the pitch was fenced off with only the Wheelchair section being the best area on the pitch to see the stage. As I thought to myself; “Now where can I get myself a wheelchair and blanket?” the barrier was taken down and it was so funny to see hundreds of people, mainly my parents age, running like bargain hunters at Harrods Spring sale, up to the area in front of the stage.
The reason that the stage was cordoned off became more apparent. The stage-hands were still constructing the stage with only 20 minutes to go to show time. One man was still stapling down a waterproof covering over the electrics and another was swinging out of the roof pulling another covering into place, the concert would go ahead with only half the roof covered.
There was no support but there was a delay of an hour but I think very few people up the front minded, the mood was great. My sister Emma was also right up the front with our friends Mary and Seamus.
At nine pm with a full band, 3 fine backing singers (whom I dubbed Hilary Clinton, Toni Morrison and Armistead Maupin) the show began. Dressed in a trademark ultra tight glittery number in black and white, Dolly started the concert with a super version of “Two Doors Down” and from then on it was a mixture of songs she is so famous for and several from her new album; “Backwoods Barbie”.
Dolly Parton is 62 now but she has never stopped working and if she isn’t recording her own material she is guesting on her contemporaries albums. Nobody covers a song like Dolly but sadly she didn’t sing “Drives me Crazy” or “The Tracks of my Tears” from her new album. However the songs she did do were fantastic especially “Better get to Livin'” which was released as the album’s first single earlier this year. The second single is “Jesus & Gravity” which she did at the end of the show. The title track of the album “Backwoods Barbie” is also a song which she will be singing in years to come.
My favourite song on the new album, “Only Dreamin'”, is below. This is so amazing live. Once again she proves herself as a gifted songwriter.

Dolly sang several of the songs that she is most well known for, such as “9 to 5”, “Here You Come Again” and “Islands in the Stream” with backing singer Richard being Kenny Rogers. Highlights were many, especially the wonderful “Shattered Image” from 2002’s “Halo & Horns” album and “Baby, I’m Burning” from her 1978 “Heartbreaker” album, 30 years old!
For me, the most gorgeous moments were the acapella bluegrass with all her band and “Little Sparrow” from the album of the same name in 2001. If ever there is a modern country song that is destined to be a future classic it’s “Little Sparrow”.
Here in Ireland, it was obvious that the concert didn’t sell out as there had been pages of full colour ads even up to the day of the concert itself. The tickets were €85-€90, which if they had been even €10 less would have better overall. Full props, sets, video screens and costumes had been promised but none of that happened. Instead it was a completely toned down show which I think worked almost better. Dolly had lots of chat and banter throughout the whole show and her humour and personality shone through for the entire evening. Every few minutes she would complain of the cold but this was funny more than anything else. Mid way a jacket was brought from her camper van. The only real bit of silliness was in the form of her muscled country boy dancer. If you ever wondered what happened to Jon Voight’s character Joe Buck, in “Midnight Cowboy”, well he ended up on Dolly’s “Backwood Barbie” tour.
Tonight, Saturday 28th June, Dolly sings in the MEN arena in Manchester and the tour continues for months to come.
To close, here’s one of my all time favourite performance’s of “Jolene”.

Wall-E

The most well reviewed film this year by far seems to be the new Disney-Pixar movie, “Wall-E”.
I have yet to read a bad review of this film.
It has been said before but the Wall-E robot is similar to that of the robot “Number 5” or “Johnny 5” as he was known as in the 1986 movie; “Short Circuit”. It’s stars were Ally Sheedy and Steve Guttenberg. It made $40 million in the US and a sequel followed in 1988 which was called, yes! “Short Circuit 2”.
“Wall-E” is above. “Johnny 5” is below. Discuss!

Short Circuit also had one of the poppiest soundtrack songs ever in the form of El DeBarge’s hit; Who’s Johnny. El Debarge had released their best known song “Rhythm of the Night” in 1985 as well as my favourite song by them; “Who’s Holding Donna Now.
“Who’s Johnny” reached number 1 on the US R’n’B charts and number 3 on the Billboard Singles Chart. The video, which featured singer El Debarge, as well as the movie’s stars; Ally Sheedy and Steve Guttenberg, is below.

Short Circuit is rumoured to be re-made. Why oh why! (Money.)
Wall-E to me will always be Johnny 5’s long lost cousin.
Joshua Rich on the Entertainment Weekly“ website is predicting Wall-E to achieve a $71 million opening weekend but I think it could be even more due to the universal good reviews the film is getting.
Wall-E opens in Ireland and the UK on the 18th of July.
The film’s cute widget, from it’s American website, is below.

Quantum of Solace

The latest movie site to feature a well put together widget is from the Sony Pictures website, for the 22nd James Bond movie; “Quantum of Solace”.
When “Casino Royale” became a critical and commercial success in 2006, this time round Daniel Craig hasn’t had to put up with all the “would he a proper Bond?” as when it was first announced that he would be Pierce Brosnan’s replacement.
I loved “Casino Royale” and this one looks like it could be just as good. “Quantum Of Solace” was originally a short story, which incidentally has been selling well as part of a re-jacketed Penguin paperback edition already..
“Quantum of Solace” has been scripted as a direct sequel to Casino Royale as the story begins “an hour after” the end of the previous film.
It is directed by Marc Forster whose most recent film was the Oscar nominated “The Kite Runner”. He also directed “Monster’s Ball” (2001), “Finding Neverland” (2004) and “Stranger Than Fiction” (2006).
“Quantum of Solace” is released in Ireland and the UK on the 31st October and on November 7th in the US.

Ferras

One of the best websites that features pop music these days is the American site Chartrigger.
This site is run and updated almost daily by D’luv. It has been there that I heard most of the news relating to new music releases by my favourite artists including Cyndi Lauper, Donna Summer and Madonna. Each Thursday D’Luv publishes and has a commentary on the Billboard Hot 100 top ten singles and every Sunday evening he features the top ten singles in the UK chart.
Chartrigger is also a fantastic site for brand new music. One song that has been featured on Chartrigger is “Hollywood’s Not America” by 25 year old singer/songwriter Ferras. D’luv writes about Ferras here.
“Hollywood’s Not America” is the first single off “Aliens & Rainbows”, Ferras’ debut album. There are various videos for the song but one of the best and featured below is Ferras singing live on The Today Show.
He is currently touring America supporting Ryan Cabrera.
Ferras’ very stylish website can be found here.

Please Don’t Come Back From The Moon

Below is another post which was originally published on my other blog All The Way To New York.
There are some books that I have read and while or after reading them, the thought; “that would make a wonderful movie”, goes through my head.
That thought really applies to the book reviewed below.

In the bookshop where I work we have five bays of Staff Recommends books. These books are a mix of everything from fiction to politics to children’s books.
One fiction book that I added to the wall of books was something I discovered in my wonderfully stocked local library in Cabra, here in Dublin. The book was “Please Don’t Come Back From The Moon” by Dean Bakopoulos, who is pictured above. It is simply one of the best American fiction titles I read in the past number of years.
I liked the title which is used from the composition by the jazz musician Charles Mingus.
The narrator, Michael Smoliji, who is in his mid teens as the book begins, lives in Maple Rock, a small Middle American town. One day the fathers, of the mainly young men of the town, get up and leave the town and don’t come back.
One by one the fathers, all with wives and children leave, leaving behind worried wives and lost, confused sons and daughters. The premise of the book is what happens when the father figure is gone or absent. Who takes his place? Do they ever come back? Where have they gone and the bigger question, why have they gone?
At a beautifully written pace, Bakopoulos, using the completely convincing voice of his lead character Michael, tells the reader that the mother becomes the breadwinner until the eldest son can do so and what happens to their lives thereafter.
The first line of the book is “When I was sixteen my father went to the moon” and as the days turn into weeks, months and eventually years, each eldest son starts to believe that the moon is where their fathers have gone to. This is the only aspect of magic realism in the novel, as what the narration centres on is the reality and sometimes blandness of daily life in an American town where jobs are scarce, factories close down and as hope of Bill Clinton making a better America results in jobs in the local Mall. The theme of hope, a Clinton keyword, runs throughout the book. It is the female characters who become more determined to go to college or study, this is a book where the female characters are well written and each have their own significance to Michael, as he grows into a man, leaving the uncertain child behind, but never completely.
His relationship with his mother and younger brother Koyla is delicate but loving, deep down. Any little thing that Michael tries to do to better his life is noted by his mother and there are some subtle moments when the reader is reminded of the hope our mothers have for us and their never-ending love for us, no matter how often we may rebel against them.
As some of the mothers eventually become involved with other male characters who become unwanted father figures the fact is that any new stranger into the once safe and familiar family home is often tumultuous. There are also tiny but powerful moments like the smell of a familiar aftershave that draws the story back to the underlying theme of loss and uncertainty. This is America more in the vein of Rick Moody’s “The Ice Storm” or the film “American Beauty”.
This book was for me a real example of how fiction can also be a beautiful study of masculinity. This is a book where there aren’t any characters who are gay but the word “faggot” is once used as a term of abuse but the word “pussy” is used more than once and is used, by characters, more frequently as a sharper term of abuse, a more razor like attack at other characters sense of maleness. Reading the book as a gay man it was like an insight to the mindset of the straight male and the fact that everyone has issues in their life that are not easy. I think some gay writers depict their characters as if their emotional crosses are the toughest to bear but a writer like Bakopoulos balances the scale on that theme.
At a later stage of the book Michael goes to work in a bookshop in a mall, something the author had done himself, and it’s depiction was so accurate. It shows how, without wanting to or not having the skills to do other careers, we end up in jobs and we somehow end up staying in them for years and the time slips by. Retail and mall and shopping centre jobs become part of worldwide globalisation. The novel is much more observational than preachy, there are no lectures on these pages.
Throughout Michael’s journey in “Please Don’t Come Back from The Moon” there is not a page where we don’t think of the whereabouts of the fathers and as this becomes a sub plot to Michael’s own story, the hook has a curious aspect of keeping the reader engrossed.
Dean Bakopoulos’s website is here and features more on the story of the book and his own background.