Lately, I've been posting archive blogs of posts from Myspace, blogster, etc.
Here's a list of my top 100 favorite songs that I posted on Myspace.com back in 2005, to me, have stood the test of time, both lyrically and musically.
I suppose a new list is appropriately due for 2010 any day now.....
Song/Artist Listed Alphabetically:
25 or 6 to 4 - Chicago
A Day in The Life - The Beatles
Abraham, Martin and John - Dion
Across 110th Street - Bobby Womack and Peace
All I Do - Stevie Wonder
Another Brick in the Wall Part 2 - Pink Floyd
Another One Bites the Dust - Queen
Anyway - Over the Rhine
At The Hop - Danny and the Juniors
Back in the Saddle - Aerosmith
Ballroom Blitz - Sweet
Brooklyn Heights - Down to the Bone
Carefree Highway - Gordon Lightfoot
Come Fly With Me - Frank Sinatra
Creep - Radiohead
Disarm - Smashing Pumpkins
Doctor Who Theme Song - Various
Dress You Up - Madonna
Ebony Eyes - Rick James and Smokey Robinson
Everybody's Talkin' - Harry Nilson
Exodus - Bob Marley and the Wailers
Five Fathoms - Everything But the Girl
Funkytown - Lipps, Inc.
Genuis of Love - Tom Tom Club
Girl from Ipanema - Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto
God Only Knows - Beach Boys
Groovejet (If This Ain't Love) - Spiller with Sophie Ellis Bextor
Half A Person - The Smiths
Halo - The Cure
Hey! Love - The Delfonics
Hurt - Johnny Cash
I Am I Said - Neil Diamond
I Love Music - The O'Jays
I Want To Take You Higher - Sly and The Family Stone
I Want You - Marvin Gaye
I'm Not In Love - 10CC
I'm Only Sleeping - The Beatles
In This World - Moby
Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby (Remix) - Dinah Washington
Jack The Ripper (Live) - Morrissey
Lake Shore Drive - Aliotta, Haynes and Jeremiah
Life During Wartime - Talking Heads
Making Love - Roberta Flack
Man in a Suitcase - The Police
Miss You - Rolling Stones
Money - The O'Jays
Mr. Bojangles - Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Music - Eric Sermon and Marvin Gaye
Narc - Interpol
No Such Thing - John Mayer
Nothing is Better than Love - Luther Vandross and Gregory Hines
One - U2
One of These Nights - The Eagles
Ooh La La La - Teena Marie
Orange Crush - REM
PYT - Michael Jackson
Rainy Day Woman ..12 and 35 - Bob Dylan
Regret (Fire Island Remix) - New Order
Right Place, Wrong Time - Dr. John
Ring of Fire - Johnny Cash
Rise - Herb Alpert
Rock Around the Clock - Bill Haley and His Comets
Rubber Ring - The Smiths
Run Like the Wind - Christopher Cross
Running Down A Dream - Tom Petty
Running Up That Hill - Kate Bush
School Day - Chuck Berry
Sing Your Life - Morrissey
Sinnerman - Nina Simone
Slow Jamz - Kanye West, Twista, Jamie Foxx
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes - The Platters
Song For You - Ray Charles
Sound of Silence - Simon and Garfunkel
Stand Back - Stevie Nicks
Still The Same - Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band
Strawberry Letter 23 - Brothers Johnson
Suddenly - Olivia Newton-John and Cliff Richard
Superstar/Until You Come Back to Me - Luther Vandross
Sway - Bic Runga
Sweet Surrender - Sarah McLachlan
Take Five - Dave Brubeck Quartet
Take Me Out - Franz Ferdinand
The Boxer - Simon and Garfunkel
The Look of Love – Chris Botti and Chantal Kreviazuk
The More You Ignore Me - Morrissey
The Scientist - Coldplay
The Wanderer - Johnny Cash and U2
The Way I Feel - Remy Shand
They Say-Vision - Res
Through the Wire - Kanye West
Time - Pink Floyd
Tower - Big Head Todd and The Monsters
Uptight (Everything is All Right) - Stevie Wonder
Vincent (Starry, Starry Night) - Josh Groban
Walk the Line - Johnny Cash
What A Fool Believes - Doobie Brothers
When Am I Going To Make A Living - Sade
Woman in Chains - Tears for Fears and Oleta Adams
You Should Be Dancing - Bee Gees
You're So Vain - Carly Simon
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Here's some of my favorite videos of songs from the list:
AT THE END OF THE DAY Today, And here after My thoughts Fall on deaf ears. Can I be what I make this life? On the run, During this time With the sun Above my head. Nothing left to lose, Before this day is through. It's too late The day is almost gone. No hour can explain, How it moves so fast. Within a minute, You won't give the time. Within a second, You will shut me down. The night has risen And I'm all alone. Waiting for tomorrow,
If it ever comes.
______________________________________
(c)1996 Torrence J. King. All Rights Reserved. Originally published in "Satellites and Exits Volume 1" 2006 (Exit Press Publications)
I hear the wind blowing. I hear it howl. I hear it weep.
Like a mother for a hurting child.
The sound of shots Ringing throughout the land.
Shots fired! Shots fired!
So many tears fall down. So many heads hang low. So many hearts lost in sorrow. So many questions that surround our very being.
Some have survived Still others are gone. Forever. And ever, By a madman's gun.
No one understands.
The worst of it all Thus far And, so far, we must go on.
No rhyme. No reason. Can we comprehend this senselessness?
No matter of thought Toward many lives yet to be lived.
And, it is now that these lives are remembered. All that's left for us to restore. Reflections on their history. The pictures that tell their story. Of their smiles, Of their dreams, Of their hopes.
For this, we hope Of a better day. A better way.
A hope that this tragedy will not cause us to fear and tremble.
That the lives lost Will shine on For all to see.
Remembering the brave, The bold. Those who stood up That others may live.
For this, We must stand together, One by one. As one.
Holding the hands of those left behind. Praying for those who bore witness. Sharing a whisper of love to all.
We shall overcome And claim the ultimate victory.
The victory over this tragedy.
Never to forget. Determined to stand strong.
That no madman Can take away all hope Though they themselves are lost To their own despair.
For this, A prayer goes forth: Let those touched by the lost of loved ones, Be comforted. Let those who endure with pain, Be healed.
May time and prayers Bring an encouragement To go on with love fulfilled, From all who cry with you And everyone in-between.
May you know the hope we pray and share.
We are one. We are strength. We are the hope of VicTory.
Well, I wanted to wait a while…after the dust settled… with my review of the monster-of-a-movie known as "Batman: The Dark Knight".
Off the bat, (no pun intended) I want to make it very clear, I'm a Batman fan. One of the first comic books I ever read was Batman. I'm familiar with the character's history and place in pop culture. With that said, I'm little bit more critical than those who I consider fair-weather fans.
I also liked the movie as opposed to hating it as some might think. There are things about it that I did not like which I will point out here.
I also spoke to three friends, I will name "Jay", "Ed" and "Rob" and will include their opinions here.
Rob saw the Dark Knight at a midnight showing. Jay and Ed saw it in September, weeks after its release.
I saw it over the first weekend of release.
I found it very interesting on the day of its release, people who saw it that first day including Rob was claiming it was the Greatest Movie Ever. Huh???
I started to backtrack movies I would put in that category…."The Godfather", "Citizen Kane", "The Lord of The Rings Trilogy", etc.
Batman: The Dark Knight….better than all those movies????
Could it be?? Hmmmmm
After seeing it over that first weekend….I concluded with this…
UMMMMM….NO!
OK. Not sure why people were saying that including Rob. I'm still trying to make sense of it.
Alright. Here's my take on the movie. It was good but not better than Batman Returns. Heath Ledger's take on the Joker was very good…but not as menacing as the villain in No Country For Old Men (that guy will give you nightmares).
OK. Now for a breakdown. Batman The Dark Knight had a lot of things going on in a variety of different directions. I think a lot of the problems I saw had to do with the editing. I honestly believe there were some issues in the editing process and because of Ledger's untimely death, they were stuck with a movie that could not be edited to its full potential. I feel this way due to the movie's rapid jump from scene-to-scene and story flow.
Some of the concerns I had were these:
In all of Gotham City, not one cop was good except Jim Gordon?
The Joker comes up with a plan to use two boats, one with prison inmates and the other with innocent people and they must decide who lives or dies by a switch that will blow up the other. What The...??? That sounds more like The Riddler, not the Joker and especially this Joker, who really doesn't care about anything except anarchy. It seemed so out of character.
Batman uses a technology that sends images to his systems based on sounds and cellphones. Using this technology he will attempt to save hostages and prevent the Gotham City SWAT team from unknowingly killing innocent people. At this point, I felt the need to yell at the screen.."Hey, Batman. Don't you think it's time to call the Justice League". That whole stopping-SWAT-using-sound-signatures thing was a bit too much.
There really was no development with the new characters and their interaction with each other especially Bruce Wayne and Harvey Dent. And speaking of which, was it necessary to include Two-Face in THIS movie. Would it not have been a better to leave him out or around for the inevitable sequel?
Now, Jay who recently saw The Dark Knight, says that he like it for its realism. You see, Jay is not a comic book fan or a superhero movie fan. He believes comic book genre movies relies heavily on a fantasy angle. He felt that The Dark Knight was more realistic (another term even used by Rob, who is not a comic book fan but loves the Batman and Spider-Man movies). They both feel that it's realistic in the since that someone can actually by Batman. He doesn't have powers. He's just a man with "wonderful" toys. But isn't all movies a bit of Fantasy? Just because Superman can fly or Spider-man sticks to walls, does that make their characters and movies less than realistic? What is reality when you have the likes of James Bond, Jason Bourne, Jack Bauer, John Mclaine and others portrayed as regular guys who beat impossible odds and villains? Doesn't their extraordinary strength and resolve display an ability in and of itself even if they cannot fly? As a fan of Batman and comic books, I feel that both are coming into understanding Batman, like most, by movie only. I grew up with some Batman stories and art that would make the movie pale in comparison. I was into Batman and comic books when it wasn't cool. Not to say that their opinions don't matter but I think it depends on the viewpoint and motivation. And, by the way, both Jay and Rob agree there is no need to include Batman's sidekick, Robin. That's a subject I will address shortly.
My take on all this is that The Dark Knight is NOT the greatest movie ever. In my opinion, it doesn't make it in the Top Ten of all time. Now you can base it on sales, which it will make a list of top money making movies but as far as a great movie, that's another subject itself. It will, and should be, considered as one of the best super-hero movies. On that I will agree.
The Dark Knight story is pretty average compared to Batman Begins or even the summer's other comic book related moview, Incredible Hulk, Iron Man or Wanted. It has really no development but just a series of events.
One character or actor does not make a movie. Heath Ledger SHOULD get an Oscar for his performance as The Joker. Javier Bardemin from No Country for Old Men won for his performance but critics and moviegoers have said that the movie was great up to its flat ending. I think people are going to remember Ledger's performance more than the movie and that should not be the basis of "Greatest Movie". A movie is a combination of some many factors as well as the people behind it.
The movie has crushed box office records and raked in millions. But so did Spider-Man 2, which I came close to walking out on.
One friend, "Ed", summed it up this way: "The last 20 minutes we could have did without". I agree.
Christopher Nolan is an excellent director but, I feel, this would have been a great time to set up Robin in the story. Not to include him the overall movie itself, there were too many characters in it already. Some may disagree because Robin is viewed as the downfall of Batman. If you read the Batman comics, Robin is the HOPE of Batman. He's not like anything that resembles the 60's camp version. He's lost his family, like Bruce Wayne and is a younger version of Bruce Wayne at a time when Bruce had no direction. Wayne helps to give him direction and purpose. Not including Robin in the story is like denying the legacy of the Batman story which includes an assortment of characters. It's like taking Frodo out of Lord of The Rings because you don't like that fact that he's always complaining about the ring. Robin is a part of Batman just like Commissioner Gordon, Harvey Dent and Gotham City. I have faith in Nolan's ability to include all of the Batman mythology with care and excellence. (That is if Nolan directs anymore of the Batman movies to come)
With all that said, I felt the movie was OK. Great action and, as far as superhero movies go, very good. I would like to see it on DVD when it's made available to hear the commentaries by the director and actors. But the outrageous claims of "greatest" and "best" by fans and critics has me at a loss.
The debate goes on and I guess I will continue to be the odd man out.
Book Review: Brush With Passion: The Art and Life of Dave Stevens Originally posted on Myspace: Sunday, February 22, 2009 _______________________________________ It has been a long time since I’ve written a book review but I’m more than compelled to do so at this late hour with the latest release, Brush with Passion, an excellent tribute and reflection on a great artist and person, Dave Stevens (1955-2008). Well, this is not a typical book review, I must say. Its more or less, a personal take on what I’ve read as well as my personal thoughts on Stevens. Before reading Brush With Passion, my mind went back to the time at the age of 11 when my cousin’s husband, a comic book fan and artist, gave me a set of comic books, mostly all independent publications . Two of them were a couple of Pacific Comics featuring Jack Kirby’s Silver Star and Dave Steven’s The Rocketeer. I thought they were very cool. It was the beginning of a realization that not all comics featuring super-heroes were only about Superman and Spider-Man. Dave Stevens was one of the first artists that I started to study and could recognize his distinctive style. From that point onward, I could spot a Dave Stevens illustration right away.
As the years went on I started to notice Stevens art in comics and pin-ups, especially the illustration he did of golden-age hero The Phantom Lady for DC Comics in their Who’s Who publication, among others. When The Rocketeer movie was scheduled to be released, I seem to be the only one among my friends who knew who “The Rocketeer” was and the guy who created him. I was probably among a “chosen” few who was more excited about it than Terminator 2 which was released around the same time.
Throughout my career, I began to expand my own artistic endeavors, writing poetry and experimenting with different mediums. I would soon find myself illustrating and working with various models, like Stevens, myself. I regret truly not having met Dave. If I had tried harder, I’m sure I could have made some connection. But, like most of us think, we tend to believe some people are untouchable or cannot be reached. I’ve worked with so many people and I’m sure if I had made an effort to contact him, it could have happened. Upon hearing about his death last year along with the young and talented artist Michael Turner, I took both losses pretty hard and have dealt with both emotionally ever since. Not just because they were both very talented artists, but, coming from an understanding of the creative process and the sacrifices made daily, I made my own “creative” connections with them as well as other artists, writers, poets, etc. throughout the years. When they pass on, it seems to take a piece of you with them. Its funny, but I felt more connected with them and saddened by their lost than my own father and my older half-brother who passed away in recent years. This feeling of connecting to these artists have always been my way of finding kindred creative souls. Maybe its because my father abandoned me and my sister when I was 6 and having my half-brother, who tried very little to be a brother to me, unable to get pass the issues of his own life fueled the need to connect to artists like myself. And so is the life of many creative souls, trying to connect to the one’s that influence them to create, making stronger connections than any bond of blood. And so goes my reading of Brush With Passion. When I purchased the book, I could feel that I was in for something special. I would have to read it immediately. That night, I turned on the music of the Irish Film Orchestra, playing a variety of suites. When I sat up on my bed with my new reading light, I opened the book to the first page. Within a matter of time, reading a few lines, the tears started to flow. The music didn’t help in stopping the waterworks but it suddenly fit the mood as I began to remember the times I came across various illustrations of Dave Stevens, finally watching the Rocketeer movie, the rumors I read about his depression after its disappointing box office receipts and other things I came to remember about him.
As I read each chapter throughout the week, I was both encouraged as an artist and satisfied with my purchase. One chapter in particular, Dave digs deep in reflecting on his life. He shows that being an artist is so much less glamorous than most would care to admit. And he hits the nail in his points that, like all of us artists, he started with a love for the printed image, the thrill of the sketch and a pursuit to create. Then reality steps in with everything in-between. But, as Stevens came to realize, one must take it all in stride and learn from each experience and work from there. Stevens, though very hard on himself for so long, eventually realized so much in his final years. That there is wisdom that does not come easy….It takes experiences and the inevitable ups-and-downs. I’m am so very grateful to have read “Brush With Passion”, despite the depictions of Africans that was a throwback to the racist illustrations of the 1940s and 1950s that Stevens strongly points out were wrong to portray.
I feel I got to know Dave Stevens through his words, and his reflections and memories of others. He seemed to be a pretty cool guy. It would have been an honor to have known him but, I know his legacy will live on forever. --- Torrence King ______________________________________ Below is a more detailed review published by greenmanreview.com
Dave Stevens (illustrator) and Arnie Fenner & Cathy Fenner (editors), Brush With Passion: The Art and Life of Dave Stevens (Underwood Books, 2008)
Brush With Passion: The Art and Life of Dave Stevens is an utterly gorgeous book. It's also a terribly sad one. This is not just due to the Stevens' untimely passing from hairy cell leukemia, nor is it entirely derived from the shoulda-woulda-coulda success of The Rocketeer. Instead, it comes from the reader's dawning realization that Stevens' autobiographical notes are the ongoing narrative of a man continually defining himself by what he's not -- not a comics artist, not the guy who's going to make a million doing The Rocketeer, not the guy who's going to replace Vargas doing pinups for Playboy, not this, not that. It's not until the very end of his life that Stevens seemingly figured out what he was, or more importantly, what he could be, and the fact that this was never given time to blossom is perhaps the saddest thing of all. But if there is sadness here, there is also beauty and joy. The joy comes from many places: the shared reminiscences of friends and peers like Jim Steranko and Arnie & Cathy Fenner; the pleasure that Stevens clearly took in sharing his influences and history with his audience, the unabashedly good deeds he did in helping out his muse Bettie Page, and more. This book is, after all, a celebration of the man's life as well as his art, and a celebration it is. One gets the sense, reading anecdote after fondly remembered anecdote, of the sheer love that these wildly disparate people all had for Stevens. Peers, employers, friends, lovers -- they all give testimony as to the depth to which Stevens enriched their lives. The last of these, an epilogue by the artist William Stout, is a graceful, hopeful remembrance that brings the story full circle, and which may just invoke a sniffle or two. That leaves the beauty, and there is beauty here a-plenty. The book is exceedingly lavishly illustrated. This is an illustrated life, after all, and the Fenners don't skimp. Everything necessary to telling the story is here, gorgeously reproduced and given detailed captions for explanation. Childhood iconography and family photos are included; so are pencil sketches, full color reproductions, movie storyboards, reference, and more. The end result is a book that is stuffed -- but not overstuffed -- with everything visually pertinent to Dave Stevens' career, both from his work and the world around him that provided his inspiration. It is, of course, the Stevens work that most readers will be eager to see, and that does not disappoint. Those who just know Stevens as “the guy who drew the Rocketeer” are in for a bit of a shock, as the full range of his work is on display here. That includes his non-PC homages, his Tarzan and Rocketeer work, the studies for the never-realized Mimi Rodin project, and most of all, the pinup art. There's lots and lots of it here, which is to say that anyone who opens the book and isn't prepared for an armada of magnificently rendered nude or semi-nude women is going to have a hard time getting past about chapter 8. The art itself is brilliant, unmistakably Stevens even when he was doing homage or rough pencil sketch. I'm no art critic, but even I can see the absolute vibrancy of the material, the energy that comes through in every image. It's clear that Brush With Passion is a labor of love, a lovingly assembled remembrance of a career that provided a great deal of memorable work. How fortunate we are, then, that Dave Stevens had such friends as these who were willing to produce a work like this; how even more fortunate that he was generous enough of spirit to set down his creative journey without excuses or lacunae. For both the sadness and the joy it contains, this book is a treasure of a kind, and well worth the time of anyone with even a passing interest in Stevens' life and work. [Richard Dansky]
