After speaking with my friend and co-worker about The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, we ended up having this lengthy discussion about movies we want to see, movies we haven't seen, and anticipating movies that haven't been released yet, but they are on our "to watch list." After hours of discussion, we made a list of sorts of movies I have to see/should have seen by now (I ended up shocking my friend by telling him I haven't seen Schindler's List at all. His response, "That needs to change, like now. How haven't you seen Schindler's List?!")
Here's the list (in full) of the movie list that we came up for me recently (in no particular order):
Being John Malkovich
Children of Men
The Grand Budapest Motel
Moonrise Kingdom
The Book Thief
Jarhead
The Royal Tenenbaums
Rushmore
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Unbreakable
The Sixth Sense
Howl's Moving Castle
Schindler's List
7 Psychopaths
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
A Clockwork Orange
2001: A Space Odyssey
Rain Man
The Godfather Trilogy
Burn After Reading
1984
Avatar
Life of Pi
Kill Bill (Vol. 1 & 2)
Toy Story 3
I'm pretty sure I'll be adding more to this list later, as more films come to mind. EDIT: I'll be crossing out the films I have seen as time goes by.
Over the past few weeks, I've come across familiar faces that don't have an interest in metal (that is, the musical style, not the material itself). Which I can honestly relate since, when I was young (up until 15 or so), I, too, had some disdain for the musical style. For me growing up, I had made the connection that because you were a "metal head" (an aficionado for the music), you were likely to be dumb as a brick and perform miserably in school (and to some extent, life). Of course, this is a terrible overgeneralization and a logical fallacy. Then, when I was finally introduced to the style itself, it was all the screaming//growling and blast beats (the rapid-fire beating of the bass drums) that really turned me off. Now, after all these lengthy years, I'm a fan of the musical style (though, you'll never see me wear the "uniform" of a metal head, curiously enough). So, I thought to show off some of various styles of metal (keep in mind, I try to avoid the traditional elements of metal - I'm hoping to introduce new people to this awesome genre of music, not scare them away!) to those who may not be familiar with the music to begin with. Enjoy (didn't I say I'd choose a more lighthearted topic?)!
1) Blind Guardian (Progressive/Power/Speed/Symphonic Metal) - Journey Through the Dark - These guys are, for the most part, quite consistent over the years. Occasionally, there is a change in the line-up of the band, as well as incorporating (or removing) elements of their music (some are more symphonic and elaborate while other pieces of music are simple and direct).
2) Therion (Symphonic/Power Metal) - Abraxas - They actually started off as a death metal band, but 1995's Theli allowed them to change their musical direction and heavily incorporate symphonic elements (as this song proves). Vovin, Lemuria (from which this song comes from), and Sirius B are, perhaps, their best works.
3) Nightwish (Symphonic/Power Metal)- The Siren - Their musical style becomes more and more elaborate with each forthcoming studio album. Like Therion, they too also incorporate symphonic elements (as well as exotic ones too - in Creek Mary's Blood from Once, the band uses actual Native American chants in their music!). The difference is that they only have the one female lead (where as Therion uses professional alto and soprano singers). With this song, pay extra attention to the electric violin.
4) Trivium (Thrash Metal, Heavy Metal) - Shogun - Although there is some screaming here (sorry, guys!), I'd be a fool not to include one of metal's biggest bands in our modern time. Shogun is just about everybody's favorite from the band. These are a something special - with every new album released, they seem to be getting better and better (compare Ember to Inferno to Ascendancy, their first and second albums, respectively). This song is actually 11 min. long, not 10, but I couldn't find the full song, unfortunately.
5) Megadeth (Speed/Thrash/Heavy Metal) - The Scorpion - Constantly political, occasionally personal or spiritual, and sometimes humorous, Megadeth has stood the test of time (and constant changes in band members). I chose the Scorpion since this is more recent (2004), and the subject matter is the decline of society (which is always fun). Megadeth's 25+ years in the business has shown some of metal's greatest works (Peace Sells, Rust In Peace, and Countdown to Extinction), as well as embarrassments (Risk).
6) Avenged Sevenfold (Thrash/Speed Metal, Metalcore) - The Wicked End - After Waking the Fallen and a subsequent surgery on M. Shadows (the frontman of the group), City of Evil is A7X's critically-acclaimed breakthrough album. The Wicked End is one of the few songs that is different and elaborate when compared to the rest of the album (there's even a Danny Elfman-inspired interlude in the middle of the song)
7) DragonForce (Speed Metal) - Once in a Lifetime - The best part about this band is that they incorporate all that is metal (the imagery, songwriting, and even keyboard solos) without really doing anything that could turn-off potential listeners. Often glorifying war, personal strife, and dragons (in a very medieval way), it's hard not to get sucked into the worlds they construct lyrically. Many a Warcraft player claim to listen to DragonForce before going on to raid dungeons. They're that good.
8) TYR (Folk Metal) - The Mare of my Night - These guys revolve their all their music exclusive to Nordic myth and folklore, so it's easy to get lost in the subject (or could bring intrigue if one is interested enough). Still, this doesn't take away from the fact that their musicianship stands out from other groups.
9) Danzig (Doom/Gloom Metal, Blues Rock) - End of Time - With Danzig, former The Misfits member Glenn Danzig offers a whole new musical landscape for us to immerse ourselves in. By slowing down the tempo, emphasizing melodies, and offering killer guitar solos, Danzig offers music that's dark, moody, and at times, damn sexy (She Rides comes to mind).
10) Rage Against the Machine (Rap Metal) - Know Your Enemy - Blending De La Rochas' rapid-fire spoken word with Morello's insane guitar work (the band even makes a point to say that ALL SOUNDS MADE BY GUITAR, BASS, DRUMS, AND VOCALS in most of their albums), RATM has achieved much success like no other politically-driven band before or after them.
I'm quite aware that this simple list is essentially just the tip of the iceberg, since I'm certain that people will point out that I'm missing quite a bit of music (especially some of the more older material), but that's a chance I'm willing to take. Besides, I could always make up a second list for more metalicious music!
Going back to the previous post, "Been A While..", I mentioned that one of the topics of discussion was to talk about my stolen Teggy, Ophelia. As it turns out, I already wrote about it! So lucky for you (but mostly for me - this saves me some time :P) , that's one less item on the agenda to write about :-)
As of now, here is the list of topics for upcoming posts (taken from the previous post):
My first experiences as a drunk
Ophelia (my Teggy) being kidnapped (read about it here!)
Ender's Game is the 41st book I have completed for my Comprehensive Reading List, or CRL as I call it. As I have mentioned a few times throughout the year, the goal is to read 75% of the 67 books I have listed on that list. As of now, I'm at approximately 61.19% (or 61.19402... to be exact). If I didn't add an additional 10 books to the list, I'd be much closer to accomplishing my goal of reading 75% (I'd be only 2 books away, instead of 10 away at the moment). But I'm cool with it! I made this list to be fluid, being able to add and remove books whenever I wanted. There have been times where I removed a book or two because I felt that I didn't take away anything from a book or reading it felt like a waste of time. I still have roughly 3.5 months before the year is over, so I'm hoping to get really close to that magic number.
Ender's Game was a fascinating read. There were times that I had to be reminded that Ender was a boy of nine years, even though he had the maturity of a young man. I can understand why this book was met with much friction, especially from mothers and school teachers. Events that transpired among students aboard the Battle School seemed illogical for children to commit and attempt, ranging from humiliations, bodily harm, and even murder. "Children should be children, not be forced to be adults at such a young age," I guess is the main argument. However, a book like this can have us reflect our actions and behavior toward others and ask ourselves, "Were my actions justified? Or was I malicious and excessive?" While the characters involved (with the exception of Graff, of course) and overall plot was nowhere near morally ambiguous, the actions of certain people were. I've read somewhere that some branches of the military actually recommend reading Ender's Game for its philosophical implications, especially knowing that many soldiers can and will commit actions that we, as civilians, won't ever comprehend unless we were there in combat also. Maybe somebody can confirm this for me? I personally can't wait for the film adaptation to be released. I'm very confident that some scenes that transpired in the novel will, without a doubt, be altered considerably. I don't mind this at all, as long as the core message of the novel stays the same, which we should always hope for in adaptations.
Next on my reading list is Robert Ellis' The Lost Witness, which I don't know what the novel is about or what to expect. The book was given to me by a friend since he didn't have time to read it and he knew that I have a collection that is constantly growing. I'm hoping it's a good read!
