Songs That Sound Like Summer

Memorial Day Weekend is upon us, and while here in New York the sequester has managed to cancel Fleet Week, the long weekend still marks the unofficial start to the season of Summer. The season of barbeques, and ice cold bottles sweating in the shade, sandy sandwiches and the sweet smell of tanning lotion, and of course, music. Yes. There is no season more fit to be tied with the sounds of obnoxiously loud outdoor music than the summer…though some songs no matter what time of year you hear them just make you think of summer. It may be that they are actually about summer…or it may just be that they evoke that sense of heat, weariness, and freedom that we all associate with the summer. In the spirit of those songs, I’ve created a list that I invariably connect with the season. This is by no means my ultimate top picks of the summer, but rather just a list that comes to mind with Barbeque season upon us (to be honest any one of these songs makes me think of at least a dozen other songs each). It’s a limited but pretty awesome playlist if I do say so myself.

(Disclaimer- This list may contain songs with “Summer” in the title, which you may construe as cheating. Forget you. Also, some of these songs due to the nature of covers and sampling may be the same song or variations on the same theme, melody, or actual recording)

 

After you check out my summer songs, feel free to share…what are yours?

 

Kool and the Gang- Summer Madness

Lovin’ Spoonful- Summer in the City

RJD2- June (feat. Copywrite)

 

DJ Shadow- Six Days Remix (feat. Mos Def)

Traffic- Low Spark of High Heeled Boys

 

Linkin Park- In the End

Parliament Funkadelic- One Nation Under A Groove

Seals and Croft/ The Isley Brothers – Summer Breeze

Seals and Croft Version

The Isley Brothers

 

Metallica- For Whom the Bell Tolls

Miles Davis- Summer Time

Sublime- Doin’ Time

 

DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince- Summertime

Jack Reacher “Reaches” for a Hit

It started as a normal grocery shopping trip with a stop at the local Redbox, but it all went downhill from there. I was preoccupied on the phone and let my husband pick the film. After a weekend of horror films and TV shows, I can’t blame him for wanting something else, and I also can’t blame him for wanting an action film.

Let’s be honest here, who doesn’t love a good action film once in awhile? It’s relatively mindless, gratuitous violence from fights scenes and generally, lots of explosions. It’s the perfect combination, but usually, the star of the film is a beefcake, not some five-foot tall aging actor trying to revive his career. If you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m talking about Tom Cruise in Jack Reacher.

Now, after this movie had made it into our home, I should have known this wasn’t a good idea because 1.) I really hate Tom Cruise. I’ve liked one film from him in my whole life and 2.) I didn’t hear very good things about this film. I recently made a vow not to prejudge a movie (too hard) before I watch it so I decided to try to give this film a chance.

The film starts with a random guy with an assault rifle, one can only assume he’s a sniper, as he loads his guns. The movie makes sure to pay close attention to certain details (like the fact that the bullets were hand made and yes, this will come into play later) and also how he selects his victims. Once the deed is done, the shooter leaves without a trace.

The police comb the scene for evidence and then apprehend a man they believe is the shooter (even though the watcher can immediately see they look nothing like each other). James Barr (Joseph Sikora) is arrested and faces two fates from the “crime” he has committed; life in prison or the death sentence. The deciding factor is his confession but this jail bird doesn’t sing. Instead, he just writes “GET JACK REACHER” on a piece of paper, and cue Tom Cruise!

Who is Jack Reacher you ask, Detective Emerson (David Oyelowo)? HE IS A MAN OF MYSTERY! A decorated military man of mystery who “only appears if he wants you to find him.” There are so many ridiculous things wrong with this, but I’ll move forward. Of course, as the detective is discussing the illusive Reacher with DA Rodin (Richard Jenkins), a secretary comes in and says “Jack Reacher here to see you.” Where did he come from and why is he here?!

He’s apparently here to help investigate the murders. Which is strange because besides being a cop in the military and the fact that he has no actual ties to Barr, he’s not really qualified to be part of the investigation. From here, the fight scenes are weak (so is the plot twist) and Tom Cruise tries waaaaaaay too hard to be that sarcastic, snarky tough guy. Some of his one liners reminded me of Guy Pearce, but without being suave, attractive or bad ass. Am I being too harsh on you, Tom Cruise?

Listen, I love bad action films (or as I refer to them AWESOMELY bad films) the cheesier, the campier and the more outrageous it is, the better (I don’t care what you say, I loved The Expendables) but some films are just bad. Jack Reacher is one of them. This movie is available for renting now, I wouldn’t suggest it, but you’ll have to decide for yourself.

 

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Written by: Katie Sperduti

The Eat Your Serial App is Here!

Hey Flakes,

As a way to get your Serials and Toast delivered to you in an even easier fashion than coming straight to the source, we’ve tried to develop a way to bring the source to you. Enter the Eat Your Serial App powered by Conduit Mobile. This is our first app, so we expect that its going to be COMPLETELY AWESOME. Awesome in the sense that Eat Your Serial will now be at your fingertips and easily accessible on your mobile device.

Since its a Conduit Mobile App, it is technically a “browser hijacking app”, which is much scarier than it sounds. Essentially its a customized link, with forced buttons that you can send to your homescreen to easily and quickly access all our content. From there it acts just like any other app, except you don’t have to download it…it takes up practically no drive space, because it is a part of your browser. But there’s more. Best part? It’s totally free. TOTALLY FREE. So if you love our content, and can’t wait to get your eyes all over it every day, this app is going to help you get it in your eyes and digested by your mind at breakneck speeds.

As always, we are open to any suggestions you may have to help this develop into a more serviceable and useful tool to get content INTO YOUR BRAIN THROUGH YOUR EYE SOCKETS (sorry, that was dramatic) so please feel free to share your thoughts with us either through Facebook, Twitter, e-mail or comments.

To get all set up just go to this address: http://www.EatYourSerial.conduitapps.com

 

or use your QR Scanner on this image.

 

 

 

 

 

Eat it.

Brandon Melendez

CEO and Editor-in-Chief

Eat Your Serial

The Hobbit

I finally had the opportunity to sit down for three hours and watch The Hobbit over the weekend, and I must say that as overused as the word “epic” is…there really is no other descriptor for a movie of the beauty, scale and scope Peter Jackson’s latest foray into the world of Middle Earth. Now, before I get into the meat of my review I have to admit that I have never actually read The Hobbit, which leaves me at a slight disadvantage when looking at the movie from a book-to-film perspective. While I did read the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The Hobbit just never crossed my path at the right time, however, having read the magnum opus I feel confident in Jackson’s ability to translate the words of Tolkien’s imagination into plausible and magnificent worlds (even if they aren’t the exact images I might have had….though sometimes they are).

These movies start slow, and indeed keep a regulated pace throughout their entire run time and they are visually stunning in every regard, the slow pace and dramatic exposition that is typical and symptomatic of fantasy word may be more than a little disengaging for borderline or non-nerds who haven’t the spirit or attention span for full immersion in such fanciful imaginary worlds. That is certainly a heavy criticism of Jackson’s original Trilogy and a mild one at least for the first installment of the Hobbit movies. One thing that the Hobbit has in loads more than perhaps the entirety of the original LotR series is humor. Certainly, the novel is also a bit more lighthearted…though I haven’t read it…I can assume this due to the classification of the source material as Children’s Literature rather than out-and-out sword-and-sorcery or Fantasy. There is more whimsy in the world of Middle Earth because, I’ll assume, while there is a dragon to slay the impending doom of Sauron and Mordor are not yet nigh; the apocalypse is not a-knockng at the door and so there is more time for some slapstick and whimsy.

The action scenes in the movie are nothing short of stunning and compelling, and the climactic scene of the Company of Thorin Oakensheild battling the goblins is a marvelous roller coaster of magical action and…well…RPG cut scene excitement. And properly so I suppose as Tolkein inspired the entire Role Playing Game Genre as we know it. Though, to be fair while I was watching it I still wondered the age old questions about Gandalf: why does he leave just to save the day, why doesn’t he keep those eagles with him all the time, would he make better plans if he put down the weed for a minute? Unfortunately, those answers SHALL NOT PASS and we will be left with just those questions…forevermore.

Fans of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy will be glad to see that all necessary actors returned to reprise their roles…either as major players or just for brisk moments where their character was required. Though, making some of the actors and actresses look ten years younger can be somewhat distracting (especially in the case of a somewhat thinner of face and airbrushed Elijiah Wood) it isn’t overbearingly so. The movie manages to keep consistently with the visuals of the previous films but also broaden them remarkably and, as always, Jackson calls on his experience as a horror director to inform his choices on what to show, and what to leave to the imagination brilliantly.

If you are looking for a wonderfully fun, though admittedly long and occasionally flat, adventure check out the first installment of the Hobbit on either iTunes, Pay Per View, DVD, or wherever you get your movies these days. It’ll be there. It was kind of a big deal…and for good reason. While the movie is epic as epic as its relatives it manages to have a great deal of smiles in it as well. Check it out.

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Written by: Brandon Melendez

Firefly: It has a Cult Following for a Reason

Even just the mention of Joss Whedon’s hit television show Firefly, a science-fiction/steampunk series set 500 years in the future, often times sparks emotions from the show’s fans that may make them want to hunt down the FOX big wigs and string them up by their toes. After all, even after ten years the show’s fan base has done nothing but grow. But why? What is it that makes this show so popular? Well, I’m here to inform you:

Firstly, you may be asking “what the hell is Firefly?” Well let me begin by saying shame on you for not watching! Hopefully, by the end of this post you’ll be convinced that it most certainly is worth watching. The show’s description says “Five hundred years in the future, a renegade crew aboard a small spacecraft tries to survive as they travel the unknown parts of the galaxy and evade warring factions as well as authority agents out to get them.” But, it’s so much more than that. It is about family, trust, doing whatever it takes to survive, and not taking the small things for granted.

There are many other facets to Firefly that make it an exceptional show. The first being Whedon’s amazing writing. Even back when he was writing Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the characters had a witty, yet serious way about them. Whedon has a way of making his characters, even the bad ones, as likeable as the main protagonists—a skill which I both envy and, in my own way, try to emulate in my own writing. If you don’t want to take my word for it, consider this: Whedon worked as a script doctor on several films. According to www.biography.com, Whedon doctored scripts for Toy Story, Alien: Resurrection, and Waterworld. However, according to the article, Whedon disliked his work, saying “I was wealthy and miserable. I never had less fun succeeding at a job in my life.” But liking the work or not, you have to be damn good at your job to be able to doctor up other people’s scripts.

In fact, one of my personal favorite lines from Firefly is in the pilot episode. Captain Malcom “Mal” Reynolds (Nathan Fillion, whom you may know from the current television series Castle), says to Simon Tam (Sean Maher), a stowaway doctor traveling with is genius sister, River Tam (Summer Glau), “You don’t know me, son, so let me explain this to you once: If I ever kill you, you’ll be awake, you’ll be facing me, and you’ll be armed.” To which Simon replies, “Are you always this sentimental?” It has, as I said earlier, a certain wit and seriousness to it that makes it so quote-worthy, and makes that quote, and many others, stick in your mind.

Another particularly interesting part of the Firefly universe are the Companions. In our present-day universe, prostitution is illegal and labels you as a sketchy individual. One minute you’re pulling your car up to the corner with a potentially sticky woman leaning in your passenger window, and the next you’re sitting in a jail cell with a rather large and potentially sticky man. However, this isn’t the case in Firefly. Whedon has created a universe where prostitutes, who are referred to as Companions. (Unless you’re Captain Mal, in which case you refer to them as “whores” while maintaining an almost awkward sexual tension with Inara Serra [Morena Baccarin], the companion on your ship). In the Firefly universe, Inara provides Mal’s ship—a small “firefly” class cargo ship called “Serenity”—with a certain credibility. While the crew is out looking for jobs and other—more often than not illegal—tasks to make them some money, Inara is looking for customers on whom to use her seductive art—a skill they are taught in a sort of Companion school, sort of giving the ship a reason to be there.

But it’s not all just being scoundrels and running from the law and the Alliance. Things are much darker on the fringes of space. There are the Reavers lurking in the distance. Little is known about them except what is only heard through rumors. They can be best described through an interaction between Simon and Zoe (Gina Torres)–wife to the pilot, Wash (Alan Tudyk), and Mal’s fellow Browncoat—named for the brown coats the rebels wore during the war with the Alliance:

Zoe: You’ve never heard of Reavers?
Simon: Well, campfire stories of men gone savage on the edge of space, killing and—
Zoe: They’re not stories.
Simon: What happens if they board us?
Zoe: If they take the ship they’ll rape us to death, eat our flesh, and sew our skins into their clothing. And if we’re very, very lucky, they’ll do it in that order.

But these are just a few of the amazing things that Firefly has to offer. There are so many more characters who are deep and complex, even in the simplest of ways that make them likeable. Whether it’s Jayne Cobb (Adam Baldwin), the ships hired muscle, doing anything as long as it pays, even possibly betraying Captain Mal; or even Kaylee (Jewel Statie), the carefree and too-nice mechanic who can fix just about anything. The show is well worth watching, and was absolutely finished too soon. Even ten years after its conclusion, fans still suit up as Browncoats and beg for the show’s return.

 

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Written by: Chris Stocking

Hugh Laurie Blues

Picture, if you will, a man in Los Angeles’ Ocean Way Studio, his fingers dancing across a piano as the smooth melody of guitar, saxophones, bass clarinets and relaxed drums fill the room with the recognizable music that is the blues. The man behind the piano belts into the microphone, delivering a message about a pimp named Stagger Lee who murders Billy Lyons. This man is none other than the former Dr. House.

I know, I know, it surprised me too. I heard through Facebook that the famed Hugh Laurie played the blues and I had to check it out. Before long, I knew almost all the words to Stagger Lee and was swinging along with the Louisiana blues-style music.

Whatever fame Laurie carried in with him as Dr. House was immediately replaced with the fame of being an amazing musician. His piano style is relaxed and he throws in accents and trills that keeps the music fresh and new. Laurie is accompanied by phenomenal musicians as well (whose names are apparently impossible to find).

Their drummer’s playing is relaxed and fluid and carries the songs along with smoothly transitioned fills and beats that keep the entire band swingin’. He’s crafty in that he drapes what appears to be pieces of felt or leather on some of his drums to get more of a “thud” sound instead of a sharper crack that most are used to. He also, for certain songs, switches out his drum sticks for what appear to be maracas to add another layer to the music.

The lead guitarist throws in short snippets of freestyle leads that add a certain bluesy flavor to the music (aside from the key they play in, of course). The rhythm guitarist has a calm and casual style that blends nicely with the other musicians.

The bass player—who plays a standup bass—keeps the music flowing with deep, moving bass lines that propel the music forward. He’s able to switch between playing with a bow, giving the bass lines are more droning effect, to strumming the strings, giving the music a punchier sound.

Of course, without these essential players (most importantly the bass and drums), the band wouldn’t be able to function. However, the woodwind players are what really stand out to me. They are both capable of playing multiple instruments including the alto sax, tenor sax, bass clarinet, baritone sax and probably many more. At one point in “Stagger Lee,” the tenor sax player switches between his tenor sax to play the background droning notes along with his amazing solos, and also switches to an alto sax to fill in the music with sharper, higher-pitched fills that only benefit the music.

Overall, Hugh Laurie and the Copper Bottom Band impressed me immensely. Their style and musicianship are unlike anything I’ve heard in quite some time. They play well together, and it’s clear through their songs that playing music is what they really care about. Their sound is true to the blues sound that many know and love with a dash of personal style. It’s definitely something I plan to keep up on, and I recommend you do the same.

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Written by: Chris Stocking

The Collection – Review

Originally posted at The Scream Queen Terror Blog

 

Like the villain you thought you finished off in the first movie, I’m back for more!  It’s been a crazy busy time for me. I am celebrating my year anniversary at my job and I have recently gotten married. Now that the water has settled, I am ready to restart and revamp this blog! First off, a new review.

When I first heard of this movie, my thoughts immediately went to the 2009 movie The Collector and it wasn’t because of the titles. Take a look at the movie posters. Anything look familiar?

(2009)

 

(2012)

One can gather from these pictures that:

1. It’s a remake

or

2. It’s a sequel

Well, it’s a sequel and unlike a lot of sequels, this one is as good as the first.

WARNING: IF YOU DIDN’T SEE THE FIRST FILM, THIS MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS.

The Collection picks up where the first left off. If you have learned anything about this killer from the first film, you have learned that he always keeps one victim alive. In this case, it is career criminal Arkin (Josh Stewart).

The movie begins with a series of distorted news clips talking about the massacre and reign of terror caused by this psychopath and shows a picture of the latest known victim (Arkin). The police make a heroic promise to capture this monster and bring him to justice. But how do they catch a killer that they can’t even track? This killer leaves no breadcrumbs to follow, the only sign of his presence is the trail of blood he leaves in the aftermath of his attack.

In the mean time, Elena Peters (Emma Fitzpatrick) is studying when her boyfriend calls her to bail on their date tonight. She’s not disappointed for too long because her friends are already in her driveway waiting to take her to a party. This party is so exclusive you need a password to get in and of course, her friend Missy knows it.

It seems like all is well at the club. The friends are having a blast when they suddenly spot Elena’s boyfriend kissing another woman and he shows no remorse after being caught. Elena reacts by punching him in the face and she hits him pretty hard. She then finds an isolated room to have a private moment to herself to gather her thoughts. Little does she know, she’s not alone.

Elena notices a trunk in the middle of the room. She also notices that there’s something INSIDE the trunk making a noise. When she opens the trunk, Arkin falls out and tells her to get down. Unbeknownst to her, she has begun a chain of deadly events.

*POSSIBLE SPOILERS*

The party is over for these club goers as an contraption that looks like the blades of a lawnmower comes down on them, slaughtering the majority of the crowd in there. The fortunate souls that do survive that attack begin to run for safety and set off another trap of blades. This trap claims the life of Elena’s cheating boyfriend. Karma or bad luck?

The last trap gets any other survivors enclosed in a cage with a ceiling that is coming down to crush them. One of those people is Missy. Elena watches helplessly as her best friend dies a horrible death.  As she tries to escape herself, she notices Arkin getting ready to jump out to window, as he sees this as his only means of escaping. He notices at the last second that the killer is behind her and kidnaps Elena. He jumps out the window (using Elena’s now dead boyfriend as a cushion for his landing).

The next time we see Arkin, he is in the hospital being treated for the wounds and trauma he just endured at the ends of this sadistic killer when he is recruited by a mysterious man to help retrieve Elena. He agrees to lead them there but not to go in. His plans don’t really work out for him.

The mysterious man that wanted to find Elena formed a militia -like group to raid the killers hideout and retrieve the girl. After Arkin gets them to the building, they force him in. Not exactly what he wanted to do.

From here, it’s a bloody and suspenseful search and rescue mission for Elena. If you’re not into a lot of blood and gratuitous gore,  then you’ve selected the wrong movie to watch. I hear rumblings that there may be a part 3 to this series and judging by the ending, which was left pretty open (and that’s all I’m going to say about it), and the track record with horror movies these days, I’d say it’s a done deal.  Before you jump into part 3 of this horror saga, check out The Collector and The Collection.

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Written by: Katie Sperduti-McCarthy