Usually I wait until I have a couple music videos to share for my occasional “Don’t Download These Videos” posts, but this here is a video that need to been seen right away nor shouldn't have to share the spotlight with lesser videos or artists.
Yeah, the video could be a little pretentious with all the celebrity cameos, and you can sense early on that Bono would show up eventually, plus the Justin Timberlake into Kate Moss transition was befuddling as well as the dude I didn’t recognize who is air humping in the middle of the video (I’m thinking John Leguizamo and if anyone know for sure who this is or the black dude reading the bible in the limo near the beginning, let me know in the comments section please), you are wonder why Owen Wilson gets the last appearance with Rick Rubin, and it’s not quite as great as Hurt but nonetheless it still gave me chills. I do find it interesting that there are more rappers in the video than modern country music singers. But then again much like the only modern country act in video, the Dixie Chicks, Johnny Cash got blacklisted from country radio turned their back on him a long time ago. Now even though it’s more than a month until I unveil my “Top 100 Songs of 2006” list, but God's Gonna Cut You Down is a lock to make the top ten, and if there was one recommendation you take from me, it’s to download this song. And as an added bonus here’s the video for Hurt (another song that should be in your library) courtesy of YouTube. You can download the video for God's Gonna Cut You Down here.
It’s always a touchy subject when releasing unfinished music posthumously. On one hand, you have the desire of fans to get their hands on everything an artist recorded, but on the other, you are hearing the music not necessarily the way an artist wanted you to hear it. But there is a sense of relief that the latest Johnny Cash album, American V: A Hundred Highways that Rick Rubin is at the helm just like the previous four American recording that have been recorded over the past decade. Notice I said latest, not last album as Rubin is currently working on more songs from the sessions for at least another album.
Much of this album was recorded in-between the five months between the death of his wife June and his own and the melancholy throughout the album starting with the album opener Help Me. If You Could Read My Mind is touching considering the context and even though the song isn’t about death and originally done by Gordon Lightfoot, you can’t but think he’s singing to June. As his voice starts to break at the end of song, so will your heart. But it’s not all heartache and loss as he later sings Love’s Been Good to Me.
The last song that Johnny Cash ever wrote and recorded is on this set too. Like the 309 is a bouncy song that is reminiscent of him as a young man hanging out at a train station. Oddly enough the song starts off with the line, “It should be awhile before I see Dr. Death.” As Cash recorded much of these tunes confined to a wheelchair and nearly blind, his own mortality is touched upon elsewhere on the album most notable on the Bruce Springsteen cover Further up On the Road (which was part of the 9/11 inpired The Rising album). The album closes with a rerecording of his 1962 song, I’m Free from the Chain Gang now which takes a whole new meaning after his death and now he’s free after spending his life being the voice of the voiceless and downtrodden.
If there is a downside to American V it would actually have to be Rubin. After single handedly resurrecting Cash’s career by pushing him to places he hasn’t been before musically, this album is pretty safe and sound like an album Cash would have made had he never met Rubin. The only song here that would fit on the earlier American recording is traditional gospel song God’s Gonna Cut You Down where a chorus of hand claps and foot stomps surrounds Cash’s vocals and sounds like a death march. But it’s not for Cash, instead it’s for the, “rambler, gambler, the backbiter” and all other sinners in the world. The rest of the album though sounds almost as if Rubin wanted to take the safe route in creating the music behind Cash’s previously recorded vocals as to not taint Cash’s legacy in turn making them afterthoughts in the Cash musical vault. But with that said, Johnny Cash afterthoughts are still better than ninety-five percent of the music made today.
Finally woke up, but still a little drowsy so I’m just going to give you all a run down of what happened yesterday on the set of Veronica Mars (some things may be out of order due to lack of sleep, but I think this is everything) and fill in the details in the days and weeks to come.
First off the plane ride to San Diego was fun in a driving over potholes for four hours kind of way. On my connecting flight I sat next to a dude who must have been one pound under the limit under the weight limit where they make to buy two seats. Then after a hour and a half in Atlanta, where I ate lunch at the dirtiest table I’ve ever seen, I was going back to Cali. The plane ride was a little bumpy as the fasten seat belt light was only off for about a half an hour. I saw Walk the Line, and by saw, I mean as I was on a window seat, the overhead compartment blocked about a fourth of the screen. And I don’t think the dude beside me was too happy that I continually kept leaning over.
Upon arrival I hopped into a taxi but my driver wasn’t exactly sure where my hotel is. It’s never a good sign when your driver asks you for directions. And it didn’t really help that I couldn’t understand half the things the dude said or him with me. Luckily he guessed right and I then took a long shower, met up with my contacts from the show, and had dinner. Then I settled in for the night and caught the Closing Ceremonies of the Winter Olympics which including a performance from Avril Lavigne. Um, yeah, okay.
Unfortunately my inner clock woke me up at four AM PST, but luckily I was able to get back to sleep until 6:30. I had a nice buffet for breakfast, and headed back to the room for a shower. Then after bleeding profusely after thirty minutes after using the razor the hotel provided for me, I met up with the other bloggers on the trip. But after everything that went wrong up to that point (does anyone have fun traveling?) what came next totally made up for all of that.
We started out the day with a limo ride to the set, yes a limo. There were about nine of us in total including a reporter doing an article on the even and an official UPN photographer taking pictures of us throughout the day. We were guided around by a couple of nice ladies from the studio and network, one whom which gave me my daily "Has anyone told you you look like the dude from The Notebook" comment. Needless to say I busted out my usually, "Yeah, now if only I can hook up with a chick as hot as the chick from The Notebook." I never get tired of this. Unfortunately though, no one involved was looking for a dude from The Notebook type for an upcoming project. But anyways.
When we arrived on the set, they took us right into the courtyard set where the characters eat lunch which actually doubles as the front of the school. We walked in during rehearsal involving Beaver and Veronica. We got a seat off set about twenty feet away from the action and when they offered one of us headphones to listen in on the action I jumped at the opportunity. Unfortunately they made me pass them around, but as soon as they came back around to me I claimed a monopoly on them for the rest of the visit.
We then made it inside the school and wandered around the hallway with the hall leading to the school’s office, a classroom, and the infamous bathroom, where the stall still has “Jackie is a …” written on the door that was inscribed during the last episode.
Back in our seats, I saw Ryan Hansen, or as I like to refer to him as Little Dick, come around the corner, and once he saw us he made a B-line to us and say hi. He even mention another Dickism that he just said earlier that day, and you will have to wait until the show to hear it (barring it not getting it past Standards and Practices) but I’ll just say it’s classic Dick. And who doesn’t love Dick? He even stuck around to make an extra apperence as an extra in the scene that was filming that may or may not make it into the show.
Later show creator Rob Thomas (not the dude from Matchbox Twenty, great story coming later this week on that) stopped over to quickly say hi and producer Dan Etheridge also stopped by to welcome us. They ran through the scene we watched about six times and changed the camera angle. While the moved the camera, Kyle Gallner, a.k.a. Beaver who was extremely tired came over to say hello. Then the girl of the hour herself, Kristen Bell came over to chat. Unfortunately she had to go once the cameras were set and I was unable to ask my number one burning question. Hopefully I’ll get another chance to ask that at a later date. But when it comes down to it, it was nice that the namesake of the show was able to devote anytime for us.
Once the scene was wrapped, it seemed Kyle (his grogginess in no way showed up on what I saw on the monitors) finally woke up and he and Ryan spent a couple minutes goofing around with each other, spent some more time talking to us, and took a lot of pictures with us.
Then came our tour of the sets that included Java the Hut, which looked very different in person, but that may have been due to the little lighting that they had. Then we went around to Mars Investigation then to the apartment including Veronica’s bedroom (I totally forgot to see if the Lost numbers were still around to take a picture), the little seen Keith bedroom, and the Living Room, where Rob met back up with us and then took over the tour. He then took us the police station (guess who Deputy Sacks has a file on), the penthouse suite and then took us to the new PCH hangout that will be utilized in future episodes, but I believe we saw in the scene where Weevil was kicked out of the gang.
Then came lunch with Rob where I luckily got to sit right across from him. The food was really good as I had some pasta and chicken. While eating Percy Daggs (Wallace) stopped by to pick up lunch and even chatted for us along with his mom, who is equally as nice.
After lunch we stopped by the wardrobe truck and had a chat with the Salvador, the costume designer. This is the point where Rob had to go. After hanging out at the courtyard again, we made a pit-stop at the make-up trailer which had a bunch of pictures of actors that have been on the show which was the only time they told us we were not allowed to take pictures of throughout the whole day aside when they were filming. Then I saw Jason Dohring pass by the door and then we got to go outside the trailer and have a chat with him. This got everyone else on the trip all really excited (all day all I heard was I hope we get to meet Jason, oh I was the only person there who liked chicks). After some questions and pictures it was time to leave.
We headed back to the airport, but I had to wait about six hours until the planed boarded and they wouldn’t even let me check in for another hour or so. Luckily there were a couple other people on the trip who shared my flight. So we hung out, had a couple drinks, some dinner and talked about how our wait was similar to Tam Hanks in The Terminal. On the way back to Atlanta they showed Elizabethtown and even though I watched the whole time I really can’t remember much of it. Then I said bye to my fellow travelers upon arrival as they were both from Atlanta and had to wait another hour before making it back to Ohio.
Now a wise man once said “There’s nothing wrong with Ohio except the snow and the rain,” and there was plenty of the latter on the ground when I got home. Oddly enough while watching the news in San Diego they talked about a Winter Storm that was coming but apparently a Winter Storm in California just rain. I was offended that they would call rain a Winter Storm, Winter Storms included either sleet, snow or freezing rain.
I will go into more detail including interviews and pictures in the days and weeks to come including my exclusive content. I would like to thank everyone involve in creating this set visit as well as the cast and crew who were great hosts and I hope this becomes a common occurrence especially I didn’t get to ask Kristen any questions and even though I got most of the questions asked I thought up before the visit for Rob, I’ve since thought of even more. Plus since we missed them yesterday, it would be nice to meet Keith, Weevil, Jackie or even some of the bit players like Mac, Lamb, or Clemmons. For more on the visit check out these sites that were also with me:
I have been a big fan of mash-ups ever since I heard somebody put together Skee-Lo’s I Wish with Survivor's Eye of the Tiger and the Breeders’ Cannonball. Ever since then I have searched the internet to find other such musical brilliancy. Some were better than others with the best being Danger Mouse’s Grey Album which combined songs from Jay-Z‘s Black Album rapping over music from The Beatles’ White Album. The latest full album mash-up takes ever song from Green Day’s American Idiot and gives each song its very own mash-up. Unfortunately as soon as the artist, Dean Grey, put the album up on the internet, he got a cease and desist letter from Green Day’s record label because they are evil as seen by my Record People Are Shady series (use "search this blog" function at top). But in a sign of civil disobedience, Dean and a few other people have posted the album one day only. To get a copy of your own head over to the American Edit website and choose from the gracious people who are hosting the album and hear the Green Day album mashed-up with such songs as (but not limited to):
Much like today where you wouldn’t see me in front of the television watching rivalry week (scroll down to read why), one movie you will not be seeing me this at weekend is Walk the Line. Granted you won’t see me at the Harry Potter movie due to the fact I’ve been through puberty, but that a whole different subject. The reason why I will pass on Walk the Line is not because I don’t like Johnny Cash, I quite a few of his albums and one of the few respectable country artist in the genre because he doesn’t insult the intelligent of his audience. The reason why I will pass on the film is because, much like last year’s Ray, why would I want to watch a fabricated bio-flick when I can just spend the time listening to the music.
My ban on the bio-flick goes back a couple years when I heard Will Smith would be playing the title character in Ali. Seriously, the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air as a boxer. And why did Ali even need a bio-flick when you could just watch the documentary When We Were Kings instead? And these bio-flicks take way to many liberties just to make the movies more feel good most notably The Hurricane with Denzel Washington who made the Rubin Carter look like a much better fighter than he actually was. Walk the Line looks like it won’t be an exception. A child Cash had with his first wife complained that the film made her mom look like a villain to the point where Kathy Cash walked out of a private screening.
Another problem I have with the bio-flick is how they are almost automatically Oscar worthy for the actors with both Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon getting the buzz that always surround such film and led the dude from Booty Call to win Best Actor last year. But the thing is that portraying a real person is much easier than creating a completely new character that no one knows. So a bio-flick actor winning an Oscar is essentially like an Olympic diver winning the gold even though he did dives at the lowest difficulty. But when it comes down to it, when I look at the trailer to Walk the Line, I don’t see Johnny & June, I only see Joaquin and Reese. So instead of heading down to the multiplex this weekend, I’ll instead put on The American Recordings and wonder what it would be like to shoot a man in Reno just to watch him die.
The NY Times reported the other day about the songs that George W. Bush has on his iPod. Since the article, White House Letter: President Bush's iPod (free sign up required), said he still has a lot of space left, I thought I would be nice enough to give him some suggestions he might want to add taken from my own personal iPod:
is a lock to make the top ten, and if there was one recommendation you take from me, it’s to download this song. And as an added bonus here’s the video for Hurt (another song that should be in your library) courtesy of YouTube. You can download the video for God's Gonna Cut You Down here.
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on my 
(some things may be out of order due to lack of sleep, but I think this is everything) and fill in the details in the days and weeks to come.
