Music and Movies: A Winning Combination (I got links, kid)

Everyday people are coming up to me on the streets saying things like, "Mark, when are you going to blog again?" or "Your writing is the best thing since sliced bread" and of course I will always remember when a sweet old lady came up to me and said "Listen puke, if you don't hit us off with another blog someone close to you will be abducted" Well, I certainly can't let that happen. So here goes nothing.

Two things that I am very interested in are music and film. I spend many hours either listening to music or watching movies and television. Music and film are great as separate entities, but to me the most memorable film scenes are when they are combined. I love when Film asks Music out on a date and Music has too many glasses of wine and gives it up to Film. Oops, Music is pregnant and in nine months out pops a beautiful movie trailer that has both of their best features.

A movie trailer paired with right song or songs gets me so pumped up to go see the movie. I wanted to point out some trailers that have grabbed me over the years. Try not to get hung up on whether you liked the movie or not, treat the trailer separately. I will continue to search for these so I could see this becoming a recurring blog unless everyone hates it.

Zach Snyder (director of 300) does a great a job of incorporating music in his films and trailers. The first one is the Watchmen trailer paired with the Smashing Pumpkins -The Beginning is the End is the Beginning.

Watchmen - Smashing Pumpkins

Snyder has a new movie coming out in March called Sucker Punch. The trailer features  two songs. When the Levee Breaks by Led Zeppelin and Panic Switch by Silversun Pickups.

Sucker Punch - Led Zeppelin/Silversun Pickups

The Social Network had two different trailers with different songs. Both made me want to see it before it got Oscar Buzz.  The first one is a cover of Creep by Radiohead and the second is with Power by Kanye West.

Social Network - Creep

Social Network - Power

Here's two war related trailers:

Stop Loss opens with Drowning Pool's Let the Bodies Hit the Floor and transitions into Open Your Eyes by Snow Patrol. Two drastically different songs matched perfectly.

Stop Loss - Drowning Pool/Snow Patrol

and Jarhead featuring Jesus Walks by Kanye West

Jarhead - Jesus Walks

Even video game trailers are starting to employ this tactic. I've almost bought the game Dante's Inferno just based on the fact the trailer was paired with Bill Withers - Ain't No Sunshine. The game could completely suck for all I know. Here's the trailer.

Dante's Inferno - Bill Withers

Here's two other video game trailers that grabbed me. Modern Warfare 2 paired with Eminem's Til I Collapse and Dead Space 2 paired with Smashing Pumpkins' Bullet with Butterfly Wings.

Modern Warfare 2 - Eminem

Dead Space 2 - Smashing Pumpkins

Having a song you know unexpectedly show up in a movie can really change your perception of either the movie or the song like in Donnie Darko (song ends at the 2:23 mark).

Donnie Darko - Tears for Fears

I have either went out of my way to purchase a song I heard in a movie or I now listen to a song I already own and had forgotten about regularly because it popped up in movie I was watching. I'm all out of links but here's a few examples:

Audioslave - Shadow of the Sun                    Collateral       

The Pixies - Where Is My Mind?                 Fight Club

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Strip My Mind      The Fighter

There has to be other people out there that also geek-out about this stuff like me. Let me know of any music/film collaborations that grab you.

Seeing it's President's day, I will close with a famous quote from Abraham Lincoln.

"Music and Film, whatever you do, do not stop banging each other."

A Red Sox Off-Season to Remember

So I'm from Massachusetts. I am a Boston sports fan. As a youngster, I remember cheering for Mike Greenwell and Ellis Burks with my father and praying they would hit a clutch home run every time they stepped to the plate. Living and dying with every at bat and every game became the norm for me through the Mo Vaughn/Nomar Garciaparra years. Pedro Martinez was must watch TV, the Manny Ramirez signing was exciting, and the David Ortiz/Ramirez 1-2 punch had me on the edge of my seat night-in and night-out. In 2004 the Red Sox finally broke a media-driven 86-year curse and a weight felt as if it had been lifted. Many generations of Red Sox fans felt joy, relief, and satisfaction with this achievement. Then I got bored.

So what happened to me?

Championship Hangover - This happened with the Patriots. The first two Superbowl wins were amazing and thrilling and then when the Patriots won a third Superbowl against the Philadelphia Eagles, I remember nodding my head and thinking "Good, we won" but not losing my mind about it. I felt the same way about the 2007 World Series against the Colorado Rockies.

Fantasy Baseball - Fantasy sports exploded and I started following the whole league instead of just focusing on the Red Sox.

The Pink Hat/Band-Wagon Factor - So you know when you support a band or a stand-up comedian before they make it big? Once the secret is out and they make it, the thing you once wanted for them now kind of turns you off on them. Now the late 80's/early 90's Red Sox teams can't really be compared to an indie band, but they weren't exactly the perennial power house they are now. All of sudden every 15-23 year old was the biggest, loudest, and craziest Red Sox fan you would ever meet.

The Length of the Game/Season - There are 162 games in a year. Games can go for 4+ hours. That's 7128 hours of watching TV during the short period of nice weather during the New England seasons for the Super Fan. Holy Shit!!!

This is not a Red Sox bashing blog or a baseball bashing blog. The point is I was not as interested in the Red Sox as in previous years. Then this off-season happened......

Going into it, my dream off-season was for the Red Sox to package Jacoby Ellsbury with prospects to trade to San Diego for Adrian Gonzalez. Then with Ellsbury gone, sign Carl Crawford who should probably have a restraining order out against me. I was shocked when this pipe-dream essentially came true minus the Ellsbury part which is probably for the better. When does your team unexpectedly do exactly what you want them to do? Not very often.

I like Adrian Gonzalez a lot but I loved the Crawford signing. I have been following this guy since his rookie year and have developed a platonic crush on him over the years. I heard the news of his signing and I felt like I was a kid again and it was Christmas morning. I was screaming like a lunatic on my drive into work that day and I didn't let anything bother me all day. As grown man, its probably ridiculous to feel this way about your favorite player coming to your team and being able to watch him play here for the next 7 years. I don't care, it feels great to throw myself back into this team again.

My love affair with the Red Sox has been re-ignited. I may not watch 7128 hours of Red Sox games this year but I will gladly stand side-by-side with the Pink Hats and Super Fans and cheer this team on.

I'm going blog you so good, you're going to wish I didn't blog you so good

Let's get started shall we?

This is my first official blog so I expect it to be terrible. OK good your expectations are lowered. By the end of this read I want you to say to yourself  "Well, I was expecting absolute garbage and it was only just kind of lousy." Think of it like a movie that by all accounts is bad but every time its on basic cable you will watch it (ex. Bad Boys).

So what can you expect from my blog. Well, you can definitely expect me to rant incessantly about any random topic that is scratching at my brain, hence the title of the blog. You can also expect me to keep a self-deprecating feel to the blog as the previous paragraph clearly shows. You shouldn't be ripping everybody under the sun without ripping yourself from time to time. Finally, I promise to always blog in the nude, now that is one thing I absolutely cannot compromise on.

So I should probably show a picture of myself so you all know who you are dealing with. This is me.



How's that mental picture of me nude-blogging doing for you?

At the risk of alienating myself from my potential readers I wanted to include a list of my likes and dislikes. Many posts may come from either of these lists in the future. If you dont agree with my lists thats ok we can still be friends.

Likes: Wendy's Spicy Chicken Sandwiches, the 3 Major Sports (Sorry Hockey), Keanu Reeves, Real World/Road Rules Challenges, Drinking hard alcohol only when watching Mad Men, When exercising is over, Warm Climates, Good TV (The Wire, Dexter, Boardwalk Empire), Eggs Over Easy, Wheat Beers, A wide variety of music, & the Red Sox Off-Season signings


Dislikes: Onions, Nascar, Poor movie role choices, Motion sickness, Winter, Nickleback, Racism (I know racism is in again but I'm not going succumb to peer pressure), the Red Sox/Yankee rivalry, Nancy Grace, Terrible sports broadcasting, Terry Francona's voice, Drunk guys who like to talk at the urinal & Larry the Cable Guy.

In conclusion, read my blog. It will change your life I promise. Actually you might only get a chuckle out of it once in a while. Who knows. 

Also feel free to check out my twitter feed

http://twitter.com/#!/Mark_Capo