Album: Them Crooked Vultures

3/5

Since C,S,N & Y, everyone in music is looking for the next big supergroup, be it Traveling Wilburys or Monsters of Folk. Well, when the group has John Paul Jones, you can't look away, or blow it off. That being said, this is a supergroup, and Dave Grohl and Josh Homme are definatly not unsuper. The songs are fast, loud, long and hard, just right for fans of Foo Fighters, Nirvana, Queens of the Stone Age, and Led Zepplin. So why only a 3?? Well they take all the elements that make those groups original, and they mash them into this group, making a Wall of Noise. That being said, the album/band is good, and should not be discarded just by my review. The songs are awesome, and the group is tight, with excellent drums and vocals to boot. The group will last at least for another album I hope, and a huge, and I mean HUGE world tour, similar to U2, or The Rolling Stones, with stadiums, and lights, and smoke machines. Well maybe not that extreme, but enoug that the fans who love the 3 members. So please, Them Crooked Vultures, if you read this pathetic blog, go on tour, and come to Hamilton. Make another album soon, and continue to rock with the guts that has made you 3 guys survive the last 30-15 years.

Last Name Game

Okay, this is the last name change for the band. It is now Fragments of Shards. End Final. Done. Period. Happy Chinese New Year

There Are Places I (Would Like) To Remember

Here we go again, another top 10 list by me(Alek W.). This list is for all the places in the world I would like to visit sometime in the near future(10 years hopefully). So here we go, the top 10 places I wanna see:
10. Berlin(or France, Barcelona,Munich, Sarajevo(actually, Sarajevo, so I can finally meet Miss Sarajevo)
9. China(just because it's China)
8. Fiji(the only island on the International Date Line, therefore, being able to celebrate two birthdays in one day, technically.)
7. Cuba(for the cigars, beaches and....the cigars again lol).
6. England(specifically London, Liverpool, Blackpool, Coventry, for the sites, The Beatles, the rides, and my origins...well on my fathers side anyway).
5. Alaska(for the same reasons as Cuba)
4. The site of Woodstock(somewhere in the U.S. I think)
3. Aberdeen, Washington(the birthplace of Kurt Cobain)
2. New York City(known for its food, culture, drugs, music and.....nevermind)
1. Red Square(Moscow), just to see Lenin's Tomb, and drink Russian beer.

So that's my list, I know it's not that good, but whatever, it's just these places interested me the most. Maybe, someday, I can upload pictures of all these places but till then, you're just gonna have to use your imagination, or Google images, to see them.

Footloose

The play is over, and all is done, and i have to say it was the most fun that I've had in any clas in a long time, this class helped me, when I was down, when I felt like shit, and when everything else was gone there was Footloose. This is a masterpiece of a play, and there are not enough words to describe how much this all meant to me, and i thank you all, from the bottem of my heart .

New Name and New Schduale

Awkward Love Scene is out. Fragment Shards is the new name. Period.

Fragment Shards will not perform this Thursday(8th), due to a production of Footloose that I, Alek Wheeler, am in. Please come out and see this. It's really good.


Seriously, Ms. Soluk, it is.

American Beauty/Almost Famous: Follow-Up

5/5
5/5

As you know, last year I mentioned these films as being among my favourite films that I have ever watched. But I never really mentioned why. Well now I shall, and give my proper review for the movies Almost Famous and American Beauty.
Okay lets start with American Beauty. This movie is very negative, but yet delivers a postive message that all that you want is still there, you just need to find it yourself. Be it by music, weed, working out, working at a fast food joint, or jerking off to the thought of his daughters friend, Kevin Spacey's character is likeable, and you can relate to him on more then one level(just not the last one hopefully). His dughter hates her parents and finds what she wants in her neighbour, Ricky. He shows her all the beauty in the world, and is very gentle and kind towards everyone, whether he likes them or not. His wife finds the beauty through banging the shit out of a realtor and a handgun(in that order). She's more tight then her husband and therefore less likely to cut loose and make a scene, unlike her husband. The whole movie is sad, funny, erotic, artsy, creative, joyful and of course(you know it) beautiful. The movie almost did a sweep at the Oscars that year(1999), but lost the Best Actress to Hilary Swank. But that doesn't matter, because as long as you can find what you are looking for in life, you can be happy again. American Beauty shows that.

Almost Famous came out about a year later, and while it wasn't as successful at the box office, it recieved equally impressive reviews, up to pare with American Beauty. Almost Famous capture the spirit of music, from a director(Cameron Crowe) who actually had first hand experience with the subject. This movie is an auto-biography of what it was like for this man to be going around with bands, learning how they function, why they function and what continues to make them function. Kate Hudson in her best performance to date, is outstanding as a truly free-spirited groupie, caught in the heat of music, and refusing to let it die with her. Frances Mcdormand is also one of my favourite characters, as a mother who is the opposite of her son, and who wants nothing of the music world in her families life. This film has a ton of camoes(including a early Zooey Deschannel), and is always good to watch, although I recommend that, on first view, skip the Directors Cut, andwatch the Theatrical version. This is the first I "watched"(I say watched cause I played guitar for about half the movie)of the movie, and in my opinion the better version, of a great gem of a film.

Now, the reason I love these movies is they combine the themes of happieness and music together, which is something I started looking for(and continue to do this day) after watching these movies. They are two of the best movies ever made. If you have not seen these films yet, you really don't know what you're missing. These movies will find what you are missing.