Top SNLers Who Blew Up. Or Blew Out.

Top SNLers Who Blew Up. Or Blew Out

Blew Up: Tracy Morgan
Blew Out: Chris Kattan and Cheri Oteri
Let’s let Morgan, who stars on NBC’s ‘30 Rock,’ was nominated for an Emmy Award and is releasing his first book, ‘I Am the New Black‘, explain this one. “I had my finger on the pulse of urban comedy, but when I brought my act to ‘SNL,’ those mother——— just felt bad for me. None of the cast I came up with saw this future for me. No, sir. All I have to say about that is, where’s Chris Kattan now? Where’s Cheri Oteri now? That b—- can’t even get arrested.” Not exactly eloquent, but possibly accurate.

// Blew Up: Bill Murray
Blew Out: Brian Doyle-Murray
Bill replaced the highly popular Chevy Chase and was almost run off the show. Fans complained that he was a poor replacement for Chase who left SNL for a career, and a love interest, far away in Hollywood. But Billy, that little engine that could, kept at it, became an SNL favorite, and later starred in such box office powerhouses as ‘Tootsie,’ the ‘Ghostbusters’ sequels and ‘Charlie’s Angels.’ He also became a critically acclaimed actor and was nominated for an Academy Award for ‘Lost in Translation.’ Older brother Brian followed him to SNL and later to Hollywood but couldn’t get out from under his younger brother’s long, dark and awesome shadow.

Blew Up: Eddie Murphy
Blew Out: Tony Rosato
Eddie Murphy almost single-handedly resuscitated a flagging SNL franchise suffering from the exodus of its original cast. But it turns out he was just getting started. With films like ‘48 Hours,’ ‘Beverly Hills Cop,’ and ‘The Nutty Professor,’ not only did he define the role of street-wise smart-ass, but he also became the second-highest grossing actor in motion picture history. Cast mate Rosato? After an undistinguished career on SNL, he was arrested and charged with criminal harassment of his wife due to deteriorating mental health. We hope he recovers.

Blew Up: Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Blew Out: Brad Hall
Let’s be honest. These spouses were both relatively quiet during their time on SNL. But while Louis-Dreyfus has won two Emmy Awards starring in ‘Seinfeld,’ the defining sitcom of the 1990s, and ‘The New Adventures of Old Christine,’ Hall starred in, well, what did he star in again?

Blew Up: John Belushi
Blew Out: Chris Farley
The connections between these two comedians are eerie. Both started their careers in the Chicago Second City. Both were highly explosive performers with an intensity almost too great for the small confines of television. And they both died at age 33 of a cocaine overdose. But while Belushi left us with comedic masterpieces like ‘National Lampoon’s Animal House’ and ‘The Blues Brothers,’ Farley’s filmography and effect on comedy were much smaller. Both left too soon and are still sorely missed.

Blew Up: Adam Sandler
Blew Out: Dana Carvey
While Dana Carvey was coming to the end of an incredible run on SNL (his creations include The Church Lady, Hans from ‘Hans and Franz’, and Garth from ‘Wayne’s World‘), Sandler was just starting out. Unfortunately, heart problems and a surgical mishap slowed Carvey’s career down. After leaving SNL, Sandler quickly became Mr. Hollywood Box Office starring in ‘The Waterboy,’ ‘Big Daddy,’ ‘Anger Management’ and ‘The Longest Yard.’

Top SNLers Who Blew Up. Or Blew Out.

Posted Friday 23 October 12:40 PM By: Dino Sossi

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Fame can be a b—h. One moment, as John Lennon once said, you’re “more popular than Jesus.” The next, no one is returning your calls. The transition from obscurity to popularity to invisibility can happen faster than a New York minute. And one place where that phenomenon has happened more often than most is at ‘Saturday Night Live.’ Some people quickly become big stars and then fizzle after they leave the show. Others simmer on the proverbial comedic backburner and later laugh their way to a box office bonanza.

Here are the Top ‘SNL’ cast members who blew up. Or blew out, starting with:

Blew Up: Tracy Morgan
Blew Out: Chris Kattan and Cheri Oteri 
Let’s let Morgan, who stars on NBC’s ‘30 Rock,’ was nominated for an Emmy Award and is releasing his first book, ‘I Am the New Black‘, explain this one. “I had my finger on the pulse of urban comedy, but when I brought my act to ‘SNL,’ those mother——— just felt bad for me. None of the cast I came up with saw this future for me. No, sir. All I have to say about that is, where’s Chris Kattan now? Where’s Cheri Oteri now? That b—- can’t even get arrested.” Not exactly eloquent, but possibly accurate.

Blew Up: Bill Murray
Blew Out: Brian Doyle-Murray
Bill replaced the highly popular Chevy Chase and was almost run off the show. Fans complained that he was a poor replacement for Chase who left SNL for a career, and a love interest, far away in Hollywood. But Billy, that little engine that could, kept at it, became an SNL favorite, and later starred in such box office powerhouses as ‘Tootsie,’ the ‘Ghostbusters’ sequels and ‘Charlie’s Angels.’ He also became a critically acclaimed actor and was nominated for an Academy Award for ‘Lost in Translation.’ Older brother Brian followed him to SNL and later to Hollywood but couldn’t get out from under his younger brother’s long, dark and awesome shadow.

Blew Up: Eddie Murphy
Blew Out: Tony Rosato
Eddie Murphy almost single-handedly resuscitated a flagging SNL franchise suffering from the exodus of its original cast. But it turns out he was just getting started. With films like ‘48 Hours,’ ‘Beverly Hills Cop,’ and ‘The Nutty Professor,’ not only did he define the role of street-wise smart-ass, but he also became the second-highest grossing actor in motion picture history. Cast mate Rosato? After an undistinguished career on SNL, he was arrested and charged with criminal harassment of his wife due to deteriorating mental health. We hope he recovers.

Blew Up: Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Blew Out: Brad Hall
Let’s be honest. These spouses were both relatively quiet during their time on SNL. But while Louis-Dreyfus has won two Emmy Awards starring in ‘Seinfeld,’ the defining sitcom of the 1990s, and ‘The New Adventures of Old Christine,’ Hall starred in, well, what did he star in again?

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Blew Up: John Belushi
Blew Out: Chris Farley 
The connections between these two comedians are eerie. Both started their careers in the Chicago Second City. Both were highly explosive performers with an intensity almost too great for the small confines of television. And they both died at age 33 of a cocaine overdose. But while Belushi left us with comedic masterpieces like ‘National Lampoon’s Animal House’ and ‘The Blues Brothers,’ Farley’s filmography and effect on comedy were much smaller. Both left too soon and are still sorely missed.

Blew Up: Adam Sandler
Blew Out: Dana Carvey
While Dana Carvey was coming to the end of an incredible run on SNL (his creations include The Church Lady, Hans from ‘Hans and Franz’, and Garth from ‘Wayne’s World‘), Sandler was just starting out. Unfortunately, heart problems and a surgical mishap slowed Carvey’s career down. After leaving SNL, Sandler quickly became Mr. Hollywood Box Office starring in ‘The Waterboy,’ ‘Big Daddy,’ ‘Anger Management’ and ‘The Longest Yard.’

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Tags: 30 rock, 30Rock, 48 hours, 48Hours, Academy Awards, AcademyAwards, Adam Sandler, AdamSandler, beverly hills cop, BeverlyHillsCop, big daddy, BigDaddy, bill murray,BillMurray, Blues Brothers, BluesBrothers, CharliesAngels, chevy chase, ChevyChase, Eddie Murphy, EddieMurphy, Ghostbusters, i am the new black, IAmTheNewBlack, jim belushi,JimBelushi, john lennon, JohnLennon, julia louis-dreyfus, JuliaLouis-dreyfus, lost in translation, seinfeld, snl, The Longest Yard, TheNewAdventuresOfOldChristine, tracy morgan, TracyMorgan, waynes world, WaynesWorld

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Hosted by: Grant Brunner & Marty Keefe

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Chris Boyd, comedian and provocateur, steps back into the studio to join Tom and Sam for a talk about The Invention of Lying, the good bits of Eddie Murphy’s career, National Lampoons, small documentaries about oil, Bette Davis’ face, Toy Story’s third dimension and why people lie about seeing films. They conclude with five high concept movie pitches apiece.

Download The Movie Overdose Episode 37

Show notes will follow in a later post.

Hollywood as we are all aware, has strong liberal sentiments. We watch the armies of Prius scurrying round the globe; vocally promoting the most progressive of causes. An endangered lab rat in Dubai, a boycott of a well known chocolate vendor or political conflict in a far far away land. But when it comes to progression within their own industry, Hollywood is the perfect example of cultural conservatism. Any person who has scouted the papers or dubya’s over the past year would be hard pressed not feel a strange sense of deja-vu. Film and Television it seems, has become obsessed with the past, redressing themes from the old to the damn near pre-pubescent.

Now you can forgive me if some of what I say appears just as unoriginal as the summer Blockbuster offerings. But the trend of remakes, re-drafts and reboots is becoming more and more frequent. The list of upcoming recycled properties is pretty staggering, especially when you look at the great filmmakers behind the texts. Filmmakers who have proven they have the artistic ambition to do something more original – have begun embracing nostalgic, more familiar material.

Step forward Steven Spielberg, the most successful filmmaker of all time announced that he will be ‘reimagining’ Harvey, the 1950 comedy starring Jimmy Stewart. Next we have Robert Zemeckis, another filmmaker with near-perfect credentials. He will be breathing new life into the iconic Yellow Submarine animation. Looking further, we have Bryan Singer’s upcoming remakes of Excalibur and Battlestar Galactica; while rocker turned auteur, Mr. Rob Zombie; still bloodied from the second Halloween set, is trying his hands at the tongue-in-cheek horror The Blob, the films third offering to an ever forgetful public.

Shoot ‘Em Up director Michael Davis is trying on Outland for size. Screen Gems is moving ahead with a new take on Peckinpah’s classic Straw Dogs. Believe me when I say, I wish I was finished – damn you hyperlink! Studio wise, were getting a Columbia Pictures remake of the 1990 sci-fi film Total Recall. Hancock director Peter Berg will have a look at Lynch’s Dune, Brett Eisner will reinvent Flash Gordon and Danny ‘Bhangra’ Boyle’s DNA Films is planning a new Judge Dredd movie. Terminator Salvation director McG will plummet 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, while Twilight filmmakers Summit Entertainment are having a ganders at the Highlander franchise.

There are countless remakes already on the studio release slates. MGM has a new version of Fame sitting atop mount box-office; with a remake of Red Dawn in the works. Sony, which gave us a remake of The Taking of Pelham 123 this summer, has a vehicle for Will Smith Jr in Karate Kid; coupled with our chubby cherub Seth Rogen as the Green Hornet next summer. Mr Murdoch will also be throwing a few flicks in the mix. New versions of Gulliver’s Travels, The A-Team, and yet another Predator offering. Universal has updates of both The Wolfman and Robin Hood, the latter with Russell ‘fighting round the world’ Crowe taking lead and Ridley Scott behind the camera.

No, still not finished. Paramount will have us tapping our feet to Footloose next year and begging Murphy to call it a day in Beverly Hills Cop. Warner brings up the rear with Sherlock Holmes, Clash of the Titans and A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Sadly, the only thing new and exciting audiences will get from Hollywood over the next few years are creative justifications for what is essentially – money for old rope. In an attempt to distance himself from the original Blob, Rob Zombie insisted, ‘My intention is not to have a big red blobby thing – that’s the first thing I want to change,”. Thank you Rob, very nicely put. The only thing I would question is why you would want to call it The Blob then. Just a thought.

So, why are there all these bloody remakes? Apathy? maybe. Economic woes? quite possibly. Is it familiarity? That detective, is the right question.

The figures speak for themselves sadly. Since January 2007, the ten highest grossing films at the box office have all been sequels, reimaginings of established franchises or action movies based on comic book characters. The marketers would suggest that we live in an environment so full of Jeremy Kyle and clutter that having a picture with a little spice of nostalgia is a crucial selling point. If you can sell a film around some form of familiarity, something the audience can latch onto, then you might just hit the jackpot.

We live in a world where the whole concept of originality is being reinvented. Artists are simply hitting the replay button, spending more time re-imagining, rather than rethinking, redefining and re-re-re-re…

If you would like to read this again please press PLAY.

Dré

2010 Vizyona Girecek Filmler

Meinen Eltern zu folge waren meine ersten Kinofilme “Das Dschungelbuch” und “Bambi” von Walt Disney.

http://www.kinoweb.de/film2000/JungleBook/pix/jb03_L.jpg

Bewusst erinnern kann ich mich jedoch an den Beverly Hills Cop 3; wobei die prägende positive Erinnerung sich eher um Coca Cola und Popcorn dreht;-)

Director’s consulting firm hired by Activision

Director Brett Ratner discussed the risky business of integrating brands into movies Thursday at an Advertising Week event focused on “consumer attention in a media-saturated world.” I must say, I was not a fan of Ratner’s and don’t think all the attention he gets is warranted. However, he is onto something. Not only has he started Brett Ratner Brands, he had a strong stance on product placement in movies: “…Ratner argued that forcing a soda bottle into a movie scene makes it seem like a prop and doesn’t have any branding effect because viewers will block it out. “It must be a character embedded in the story,” he said, recounting how he absolutely wanted a Porsche 928 as a younger man because it played a key role in “Risky Business.” (source: The Hollywood Reporter)

Ratner is also trying to find the right car for Eddy Murphy to drive in Paramount’s “Beverly Hills Cop”. He explained that just making a deal with a car company for $ and trying to fit the car into the story is not the right move. He is doing the opposite – making the product itself a character. I bet his agent, manager and Paramount execs are telling him to make a random deal so they can recoup budget costs, but Ratner is splashing the media with his “artistic” announcement saying that brands will come to him, not him to them. Regardless, I think he poses an interesting argument about masking product placement into movies as a character and that viewers will ultimately “buy into” the product organically.

Brett Ratner Brands has recently been hired by Activision to produce branded media for Guitar Hero with Mariah Carey and Miley Cyrus.

To read the full article click here.

Dude I love this movie, it’s all old like (1989)l, but Richard Prior and Gene Wilder… Classic!  I just watched it again… giggled my self silly.

Now I’m totally having a hankering for more of these kinds of movies like, the 1988 awesomeness “Coming to America” .. lol…

Trading places, from 1983… fun!

All of the Beverly Hills Cop movies… (although I think I liked the lethal weapon movies a little more) 

And I hear good things about Blazing Saddles, but I haven’t watched it ( I don’t think anyway ;P)  

Tralala…. I like old movies… I wonder why that is?  What about you guys, any suggestions of old ass crap I might like?

Hoje à tarde estava eu descendo o elevador junto a algumas pessoas, e um garotinho, quando o celular do pequeno começa a tocar. Era a maldita versão que o Crazy Frog fez pra Axel F, que foi um dos grandes hits da era dos sintetizadores, os anos 80.

Aí eu lembrei da versão original da música, que foi até trilha sonora do filme Um Tira da Pesada, um dos grandes sucessos de Eddiy Murphy naquela época.

A música é extremamente trilha sonora, gruda na cabeça e te faz assobiá-la eventualmente depois de a ouvir algumas vezes.

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND—This is a little experiment.

I’m posting this both on my Facebook page and on my blog, “A Tail in Two Cities,” to exploit social networking to its limits and to test the power of this novel and seemingly limitless medium of communication.

I’m hoping that people will not only take the time to read this (for which I am always grateful), but that they will go one step further, forwarding this to people they feel could be interested or who have the resources or contacts—directly or indirectly—to produce a full-length documentary film or television series.

Here’s my spiel…

I’ve always lived my life believing that dreaming was a good thing, inspired by something I heard as a young man—that if you don’t have dreams, you won’t have any dreams come true. I guess that’s something akin to you can’t ever win the lottery if you don’t buy a lottery ticket. I fear that perhaps life has hardened me of late, and I also fear that I no longer believe in the “dream come true” adage. Maybe it’s just me growing up a bit more (naah!). What I have come to believe is that dreaming is a total waste of time, better left to, well, dreamers. Doing, on the other hand, is the only way of achieving anything—after all, doers get things done (that’s why they’re called doers).

I want to make a documentary film (which can alternatively work as weekly reality-style television series). Oops. Key word: Want. Wanting is also a form of dreaming, isn’t it? (Wanting is dreaming’s ugly stepsister!): I want to be a millionaire. I want a Porsche 911 Targa 4S. I want a Twinkie. I want white teeth. I want to win a Pulitzer. All these wants, these dreams, fantasies and desires are what drives people to do extraordinary things with their lives, and Twinkies aside there are indeed people who are millionaires, own Porsches, have white teeth and win Pulitzers. Perhaps they’ve even accomplished these things without ever actually dreaming about them.

Back to my dream.

The documentary—or TV program—in question has the working title “The Long and Winding Road.” Not terribly original, I know, but it’s the perfect title for the film as it best describes what the documentary is about.

The documentary, to all intents and purposes, is the story of my musical life, from humble beginnings singing in my Hebrew school choir and in musicals at the local JCC to my years playing in and fronting bands in Chicago, Phoenix, Los Angeles and Valencia, Spain. It’s also the story of the lives of those directly involved in my musical life, which has spanned four decades. It’s also a story about how sometimes dreams never die…

Thanks to the Facebook phenomenon I have not only reconnected with dozens of childhood friends, former colleagues, family members, teachers, students and a few old flames and rivals, I am now in contact with nearly all of the twenty or so musicians who were, from 1977 to 2005, the backbone, heart and soul of my musical projects—Strange Magic, The Convertibles, The Nots, Café Society and Brusby & Morris.

To begin with, I owe my initiation into the world of songwriting to Todd Berns (today an underground musician and political activist in Chicago known better as his alter ego Flabby Hoffman), who as early as the fourth grade introduced me to The Beatles and later on to songwriters, groups and soloists such as Todd Rundgren, ELO and Seals and Crofts. My earliest compositions, written on my mother’s old Wurlitzer spinet, were actually poems written by John Lennon in his book “A Spaniard in the Works,” a prophetic title as Todd and I would venture to Spain together in late 1987, where I subsequently remained for over two years and where I would return in 1996 to remain until this very day.

In the four or five years that Todd and I were together, we only managed to write about two-dozen songs together under the Berns & Morris signet (compared to the literally scores of original songs he penned on his own and the thousands he has penned since), but our youth-driven musical partnership proved to be the starting point of what was to become my deep love of music, songwriting and performing.

Todd and I put together the last incarnation of our band, Strange Magic (after a song by ELO of the same name) during the summer of 1980 and performed our first, only and last concert at the Dolnick Community Center on California Avenue on the 25th of September 1980, in fact it was the day that John Bonham, drummer in Led Zeppelin, died in Clewer, Windsor, England at the age of 32. Strange Magic’s lineup for that show was Todd and I on guitars, keyboards and vocals, Perry Myers (brother of my high school girlfriend) on drums and Eugene Canning on bass, who I borrowed from Rob Simon, with whom I was occasionally “allowed” to sing as vocalist and rhythm guitarist in his super rock band with Burton Korer (later of my Phoenix-based band The Convertibles) and drummer extraordinaire Dave Rubin.

After high school I moved to Phoenix, where my friend and bandmate from the Rob Simon Band, Burt Korer had moved a year earlier with his parents who opened up a dry cleaning shop in Scottsdale. Burt, a classically trained pianist had decided to try his hand at the bass guitar and we formed a poppy punk power trio with local drummer Monique Bera. Calling ourselves The Convertibles, we played together for about six months covering the local circuit of clubs and sarsaparilla bars around Phoenix, Scottsdale and Tempe. We also recorded what was my very first studio demo—seven original songs—at Camelback Studios in early 1982 that I have managed to digitally preserve. Burt went back to school and became a registered nurse, which would sound funnier than it is had he not started one of Phoenix’s first home healthcare businesses which he parlayed into a brazillian-dollar business.

I moved to Los Angeles in the spring of 1982 and immediately started looking for musicians to start a band with. One day at the gym I interrupted a conversation two guys were having about looking for a frontman for their new band. I mentioned the fact that I was a singer and guitarist and that I had my own material, offering to play them my demo if they were interested. I went to the drummer Ronnie Weiss’ house the next day where we were joined by the other guy at the gym, bassist Craig Nieves and a friend of Ronnie’s, Matt Evidon, who was thinking about joining the band as keyboard player. After listening to my demo, the four of us jammed and decided to become a band. We rehearsed for a couple of months until I had written enough songs for a full-length set and we decided to make a demo to shop to local clubs with the intention of getting our first gigs lined up. We recorded a six-song demo with a great Chinese-American producer and studio owner named Clive in the spring of 1983, just before my 20th birthday. We had quite a time coming up with a name for our new band and before settling on Café Society, we actually played a couple of gigs—the most memorable at Madame Wong’s in Chinatown, where the Police played their first gig in L.A.—as The N.O.T.S., which was an acronym for Name Open To Suggestion. Café Society in the Morris, Weiss, Nieves, Evidon configuration stayed together about two years. Some infighting led keyboardist Evidon and drummer Weiss to leave and Craig and I set out to find a new drummer and keyboard player. The drummer we found after a friend of mine had given me a couple of phone numbers of drummers his band auditioned and didn’t care for was Lee Coltman who agreed to join the band immediately and who was with me until Café Society split up for good when I decided to head off to Europe in the fall of 1987. In June of 1991, Lee, Craig and I—accompanied by Todd Berns, who had been living in L.A. at the time—reunited briefly to record my first seven-song demo of Spanish compositions I had written while living in Spain from 1987 to 1988.

Also back in the early days of Café Society we took on a friend of mine, Scott Metcalfe, to play keyboards. Scott’s grandfather was Mel Metcalfe, Sr., who won the Oscar for Best Sound for his contribution to the development of Sensaround which was featured in the 1974 Mark Robson directed “Earthquake,” starring Charlton Heston and Ava Gardner. Scott dropped out early on as he got a job assisting producer Don Simpson on the “Top Gun” and the “Beverly Hills Cop” movies. Scott was replaced by my girlfriend at the time, Sari Myers, who, when Lee, Craig and I were desperate for a new keyboard player for an upcoming gig, suggested she fill in until we found a permanent replacement. She shocked us all by getting up and playing all the keyboard parts which she had learned by osmosis having regularly attended our rehearsals and secretly practicing on my keyboard at home when I wasn’t around. Sari remained in the band until we parted company in August of 1985, seven years after we started dating after having met while working on a play together at the Henry N. Hart JCC.

During Café Society’s final 18 months, Craig briefly left and was replaced by Chicagoan Jon Grimson, a brilliant Berklee-trained bassist who now works in the music industry in Nashville and keyboardist Ken Lee, a high school friend of my cousin Ross Drucker. At that time, I took on three horn players to give the band that “Chicago” sound and to try and add something different that the other 20,000 local bands we played along side of didn’t have. After working for weeks with composer Dave Cushman on the horn charts, newspaper ads yielded trombonist Dan Levine, who went on to play with Yo-Yo Ma, Frank Sinatra and Ray Charles, and trumpeter Ann Petereit. Struggling to find a sax player I finally got a call from an interested party who told me he had just moved back to the L.A. area and was looking to get involved with “something new.” I had never heard of Cornelius Bumpus, but I had surely heard of the bands he had played in during the 70s and 80s—Steely Dan and The Doobie Brothers. Sadly, Cornelius Bumpus died of a heart attack on a New York to L.A. flight in 2004. He was Café Society’s first saxophone player. After a few gigs, Cornelius went on to bigger and better things and Jeff Delasante took over on sax and continued with the band until the end. Café Society played their last live show at Madame Wongs in Santa Monica in March of 1987. In all, two studio recordings, four live recordings, a number of still photographs and one live video performance filmed in 1985 of Café Society remain.

After the impromptu recording sessions over two nights at a studio in Sherman Oaks, California in June of 1991 where Craig, Lee, Todd and I recorded my Spanish songs, I never reformed Café Society nor did I play with another band again. I did however play a number of shows as a solo singer-songwriter in Valencia, Spain from 1996 to 2001. The following year, just after Christmas, I met and started performing with Ian Brusby, an English singer-songwriter from Hull, England who shared a similar musical past of spending the 80s writing and performing his songs with a number of bands in England. His 1985 six-song demo included three numbers which featured the late bassist from The Who, John Entwistle, whose son he had befriended at the recording studio where Ian had been working on the demo and who had brought Ian’s music to his father’s attention. Entwistle liked the songs so much, he insisted on playing on the tracks. After two years playing at the few pathetic live venues in Valencia, Ian and I parted company. His self-produced first studio album—complete with bonus tracks of the original John Entwistle sessions—is widely available for sale on the internet.

Today, the long and winding road of my musical past has taken me, ironically, back to the place where my love of music began. To Liverpool, England, home of The Beatles, city of the Mersey Sound, which, in addition to Valencia, I now call my home.

* * * * *

The documentary starts out in Liverpool, on the famed Mathew Street where the iconic Cavern Club is located, the place where The Beatles played during their early days and where many up and coming Merseyside bands still take the stage in hopes of finding fame and fortune, perhaps even aspiring to be the “next Beatles.”

From Liverpool I will travel back in time, to Chicago, to the humble middle-class neighborhood where I was born. There I’ll visit the synagogues of my youth, the first places where I sang and discovered the beauty—and power—of song in the rich melodic chants of the old world Hassidic prayers and hymns. I will talk with a rabbi who was instrumental in my Jewish education and attempt to track down Josie Myers, the choir teacher at my former Hebrew school as well as reunite with some of my former Hebrew school classmates to reminisce and sing a few traditional Hebrew songs.

All told, those are the threads which will be woven throughout the entire film: music, friendship, love and the resilience of the human spirit to carry on aspiring to do great things.

In Chicago I will reunite with Todd Berns, with whom I shared my earliest musical adventures. We’ll talk about our youth which was spent passing hours upon hours emulating our musical heroes, writing songs and recollecting the sleepless nights recording “albums” on Todd’s hi-fi. Those days were also memorable for the Beatlesesque rooftop concerts atop his Lake Shire Drive and Irving Park Road high-rise as well as the ones at his father’s condo high atop Sunrise Boulevard overlooking Ft. Lauderdale’s scenic Intracoastal Seaway and the vast Atlantic Ocean during two memorable trips we took to Florida together as teenagers. The Chicago-Berns-Morris segment will culminate with a concert at a local Chicago bar where we’ll reunite with our grammar and high school friends, some musicians, such as Adam Szwarek and Michael Dorontich, who still perform to this day and who will join us on stage for a selection of original songs written by Todd and I more than 30 years ago. Additional material from the Chicago segment will include an interview with Al Jourgensen, musician and producer best known for his band Ministry. Al, along side other local musicians singer Franke Nardiello (known for his stint in the band My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult), bassist Marty Sorenson and drummer Harry Rushakoff (Concrete Blonde) were my earliest local influences.

From Chicago I’ll travel west to Phoenix, Arizona, where I lived briefly from 1981 to 1982. There I’ll reunite with Burton Korer and Monique Bera, bassist and drummer respectively in my first band, The Convertibles. I will also locate and interview the musicians who played in The Jetzons, one of Phoenix’s best loved local bands during the early 1980s and whose shows I saw at Merlins in Tempe, who played a big role in my growth as a performer. Additional scenes from the Phoenix segment will be filmed at my former residence in Scottsdale, Camelback Studios where I recorded my first demo, and one of the clubs The Convertibles played at where Burt, Monique and I can play some of the songs from 1982.

From Phoenix I’ll make a short stop over in Las Vegas, where my earliest mentor Rob Simon lives. Rob was a child prodigy who by the time he was 15 could have taught Jimmy Page how to play “Stairway to Heaven.” I met Rob when my father introduced me to a young man, David Rubin, who he worked with at a Kosher grocery store, The Milk Pail, in Lincolnwood in 1977, the year I started high school. Dave was a drummer in a band led by Simon who had been looking for a new bass player to replace Eugene Canning (who later played briefly with Todd, Perry Myers and I in Strange Magic). They were also looking for a lead singer so I auditioned for both jobs. My bass playing wasn’t up to Simon’s standards back then, but he liked my range and took me on as his band’s lead singer, which in addition to Dave Rubin was rounded out by Burton Korer on keyboards. Rob was a perfectionist and while we were the same age, his musical abilities were light years ahead of mine and I learned a lot from the short time I sang in his band. Additional material for the Las Vegas segment will include an interview with my cousin Ross Drucker, who now makes his home there and who was Café Society’s manager in L.A. during the three years we played most of our live gigs.

Next I’ll travel from Las Vegas to Los Angeles, where my musical life was lived to its fullest from 1982 until 1987. There, I’ll reunite—first individually—with the former members of The Nots and Café Society and then in segments where all of my former bandmates are brought together to talk about our “glory days,” jam and plan and rehearse a show to be given at a local venue. The L.A. segment, which will be the second longest, will include the original members of The Nots and Café Society as well as secondary source interviews from recording engineers, club owners, former fans and relatives who will share their recollections of the music and mayhem we made back in the 80s. Additional material will include a short segment about LAMAR (L.A. Musicians for African Relief), a project that I put together in 1985 during the time when the supergroup USA for Africa released their hit single “We Are the World.” I wrote a song, “There’s a Voice in the World That’s Crying,” that I intended to present to Quincy Jones with the intention of getting it on the USA For Africa album. In a matter of just a few days I assembled a group of about 40 musicians who I knew from the local L.A. band circuit and in one magical afternoon at Sunswept Studios in Studio City, California, we recorded my song. I’ll try to locate some of the musicians who participated in that session as well the owner/engineer at Sunswept or at Amigo Studios where the song was mastered in the studio next to where Exene Cervenka, John Doe and Billy Zoom of the L.A. band X were recording their new album. The L.A. segment will also include visits to venues where I performed, shops, restaurants, hotels and places of significant relevance to my years as a local musician.

The next and penultimate segment will be filmed in Spain, first in Granada where I lived form 1987 to 1988 and where I wrote my first songs in Spanish, and then in Valencia, where I have lived since 1996. I will introduce my Spanish songs performed with a backdrop of emblematic sights in the two Spanish cities where I have lived. I’ll reunite with English singer-songwriter Ian Brusby with whom I performed as part of the acoustic duo Brusby & Morris from 2002 until 2005. I’ll also pay a visit to Tabalet recording studios in the town of Alboraya on the outskirts of Valencia, where over the years I have recorded dozens of jingles, voiceovers, children’s cartoons and television commercials.

The final segment will be filmed at a country estate in the town of Picassent, just a few miles from Valencia, where I will be joined by all of the musicians who have appeared in the documentary, flown over to Spain where they’ll spend a week reminiscing, rejoicing and rehearsing a live concert to be performed under the stars on the grounds of the country house to an audience of friends and family members who will be flown in for the special event.

The film will close with the concert in its entirety; an evening of music, memories, friendship and love beneath a full Spanish moon on a warm summer night.

That’s my dream. To return once again down the long and winding road that has taken me on a far-reaching and meaningful musical adventure, one that I long to revisit, rejoining those who shared the journey, the music and the magic, to try—if only one more time—to recapture just a small piece of the past.

Finally, I’m not famous. My songs have not been made into albums or heard on the radio. I’ve not made videos seen on MTV or VH1. In fact, my songs—both in English and in Spanish—are very simple, most of them three or four chord progressions and highly unsophisticated both musically and lyrically. What my story and my songs do reveal is my lifelong desire to sing and entertain people, a desire that I share with perhaps millions of people all over world who have aspired to be rock stars, pop idols, country music legends or music video gods and goddesses. I’m hoping to be able to tell my story and share my simple songs and to prove to myself once and for all that I can be a “doer,” and that the unfulfilled dreams I’ve dreamed all these years have always been within arms reach.

Brian E
Yellow Light District
Record Label Records
July 15th 2009

“Don’t Stop—Just Slow Down”

This motto on the cover of Brian Ellis’ newest project speaks volumes. Yellow Light District, due to be released as a limited series of 500 individually numbered 12” vinyl in July, is vintage sonic pornography for those who get a hard-on when they listen to the likes of the Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack, or are obsessed with 1988’s Bloodsport…err anything Jean-Claude Van Damme. This record is no conservative, veiled throwback; it is a neon headband inspired synth-feast.

I listened to the LP while jogging through industrial Bushwick and Williamsburg. I quickly transformed into Little Mac training for my final bout with Mike Tyson in NES’ Punch-Out. Yellow Light District’s most penetrating hook is its style; It isn’t intellectual—it isn’t professorial—it is its own weird science. The first track, Theme, flawlessly begins the record with rolling waves of soft synth melodies that eventually starburst into a dance floor beat, textured with free form keyboards. As every track passes, Mr. E never lets up, always reintroducing the listener to an era some wish was long forgotten. But like the venerable Dov Charney seems to believe, some things don’t die for a reason, and there should always be those creatives out there to remind us why.

7/9

-FF

http://www.myspace.com/technoirdisco
http://www.recordlabelrecords.org/

Other Music
Tech Noir
Beast Beats EP

Sinistyle Video Below!

Last night i made Holly watch Beverly Hills Cop II, tomorrow i’ll probably make her watch the last of the trilogy. Stoked.

AAR News

We have a few tours for AAR bands in the pipeline, they’re gonna be awesome so get exited.

Other News

Our mates in Blackchalk have a new track from their forthcoming EP – to be released on the 18th July. They’ve got a new layout, and pictures too so check it all out.

Recording Stuff

Tomorrow i’ll be recording the dudes in Waif And Stray in Leeds. I’m also gonna be recording an acoustic track for an AAR free download release later in July with Chaos Days. I’m still on the lookout for clients so hit me up! (I only charge £15 per song per day for bands in Leeds/Hudds!)

cazzo, inizia a fare caldo sul serio.

Hahahaha… It’s COOL!

Voto: 7 (su 10)

È un film strabico, Mostri contro alieni 3D. Non nel senso che gli effetti tridimensionali facciano diventare strabici. Anzi: il 3D oggi non è più quello goffo, con quei buffi occhialini che facevano venire il mal di testa, proposto a più riprese negli anni 50 e 80. Ma nel senso che è un film che guarda in due direzioni. Al passato: la storia si rifà ai B Movie degli anni Cinquanta, e racconta di un’invasione aliena alla terra. Il governo degli Stati Uniti è ricorrere a dei mostri, strane mutazioni genetiche che stava tenendo nascoste. Si tratta di Susan, colpita da un meteorite e cresciuta fino all’altezza di 15 metri (chiaro riferimento ad Attack Of The 50 Foot Woman), B.O.B., una massa gelatinosa indistruttibile (e qui si guarda a The Blob, uno dei B Movie più famosi), il professor Scarafaggio, dalla testa a forma di insetto (vedi La mosca), Insettosauro, una larva altra mille metri (come non pensare a Godzilla?), e l’Anello Mancante, un essere a metà tra una scimmia e un pesce (che ricorda Il mostro della laguna nera). Ogni personaggio è uno sguardo rivolto verso la storia della fantascienza, e ogni scena gioca con un momento indimenticabile di questo genere: da Mars Attacks a La guerra dei mondi, da E.T.. a Incontri ravvicinati del terzo tipo (spassosa la scena della tastiera suonata con la colonna sonora di Beverly Hills Cop), da Star Wars: l’attacco dei cloni alla war room de Il dottor Stranamore. Questi sono solo alcuni dei riferimenti che abbiamo visto noi. A voi il divertimento e la ricerca di tutte le citazioni.

Con l’altro occhio però Mostri contro alieni 3D guarda al futuro. Il 3D, che oggi si vede con occhialini neri rigidi che ci fanno sembrare Buddy Holly, grazie alle nuove tecnologie è una realtà di grande effetto. Per la prima volta non si punta solo a far uscire gli oggetti dallo schermo fino a farceli arrivare sotto il naso e a farci chiudere gli occhi (cosa che accade nelle prime scene, per far testare subito al pubblico le possibilità della nuova tecnologia), ma piuttosto a farci “entrare” nella scena. Si tratta quindi di una nuova forma espressiva, destinata a cambiare il rapporto con lo spazio: c’è più profondità, davanti e dietro, intorno ai personaggi. E cambiano i movimenti di macchina, proprio per farci entrare nella storia: ci muoviamo spesso in avanti, con discese e cadute (come nella scena a San Francisco). Insomma, lo stupore è tanto. Forse anche per questo la seconda parte del film, passati i fuochi d’artificio iniziali, risulta un po’ più piatta, e soprattutto ripetitiva a livello narrativo, non mantenendo tutte le promesse. Ma quella Mostri contro alieni 3D mantiene quella più importante: la rivoluzione del cinema tridimensionale. E resta un film da vedere. Occhio a farlo in un cinema che lo proietta in 3D. Altrimenti il rischio è quello di fare come i tanti che hanno visto Viaggio al centro della terra in 2D credendo che fosse in versione tridimensionale. E che all’uscita hanno detto: non è che questo 3D sia poi un granchè…  

Da vedere perché: lo spettacolo assicurato, tra vecchia fantascienza e nuova tecnologia. La rivoluzione del 3D è finalmente iniziata!