My Song Of The Week: Punch Drunk In Love

I know it has been a hot minute since I did one of these but even though I have not been posting music on here I have been making songs like crazy. Over 20 of them since my last My Song Of The Week. Not even sure why I have been such a lazy ass about it. I wanted to make a song with acoustic guitars and it ended up turning into this remix of Drunk In Love featuring Beyonce and Jay-Z and became Punch Drunk In Love. Hope you like it. This, like most of what I make, is meant to be listened to with headphones on. Click here for previous episodes.

(bonus song) Dreamt

This song was done because of a podcast I listened to with Steven Kotler. He spoke of doing creative things as soon as you woke up so I gave it a try with a beat instead of writing like I normally would.

The Review: The Princess Bride

The Princess Bride 8/10

I finally watched the movie The Princess Bride from 1987. I know, I know. So soon, right? I only knew a few things about this movie like the guy from Saw was in this (Cary Elwes), Andre The Giant was in it, and Ruben from Dead Like Me (Mandy Patinkin) was there. So imagine my shock when Wonder Years is being read this story by Columbo. That is pretty much why I gave this a score less than 10. Whenever the movie would stop when Fred Savage would whine or complain I was yanked right out of the movie. It didn't need him or his grandfather and I wish there was a version without their little interludes.

The Review: Zootopia

Zootopia 10/10

I watched Zootopia and this was one of the cutest damned movies I've seen in a long time. My grown ass was sitting here going “Aww...” a few times while watching. I'm not ashamed to admit it. This is about a bunny named Judy Hopps that wants to be a police officer when she was little and everyone straight out laughed at her. Her own parents are even tell her that its never happened before and she should just stay on the farm with them and her 200-something siblings. While protecting a sheep and another rabbit from a fox he knocks her down and scratches her face to remind her that his kind used to hunt hers. I was like “Oh,no he didn't just scratch this bunny! STOP SCRATCHING THAT BUNNY!”

The Review: The Green Room

The Green Room 7/10

A while back I saw the trailer for this movie and while I know it came out in theaters I could not find a place nearby actually playing it. The Green Room was also Anton Yelchin's last film before his death. Or maybe it was that bad Star Trek movie. Either way, he and Patrick Stewart are the people I knew from other things. This is about a punk band that gets hired to play at a gig with some neo-Nazi's as the crowd. They go there and one of them witnesses a crime. The bad guys are like “Its cool, just relax...” and the next thing you know they are trapped in the green room with a big ass dude with a gun and a bunch of bad guys on the outside.

The Review: Swiss Army Man

Swiss Army Man 8/10

Someone at work showed me the trailer for Swiss Army Man and the next day my cousin Jasmine mentioned it because she had seen it. We decided to check it out and I am so glad we did. This is one of those movies where if the trailer doesn't get you interested you should skip it. I saw it and was all in. This stars Paul Dano as this guy named Hank all alone on an island that wants to just die. He is just about to hang himself when he notices a man wash ashore. He slips and for real begins to hang before falling down and pulling the body ashore.

Theater Whore: Nocturnal Animals

Nocturnal Animals 1/10

A couple of nights ago Cam asked if I wanted to see a movie. Of course I wanted to so we went to the Arclight and imagine my shock when I saw how packed the theater was when we were choosing seats. All of the seats are good so we got them and I have to say my body was not ready for this shit fest that we were about to experience. Nocturnal Animals will go down as one of the worse movies I have ever seen in a theater next to Tomb Raider and Mr. Bean. The only thing that made it tolerable was trying not to laugh at things that should have been artistic and Cam's reaction to the most random things that made her crack up with laughter.

The Review: 13th

13th

I cant really give this a number rating for my review since 13th was a documentary. I cant even say that I enjoyed it because it wasn't a laugh fest in any sense of the word. This is a series of interviews talking about the 13th Amendment that states “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction” and how it was used to make freed Black folk into prisoners and in a lot of cases work. They listed some companies that use prison labor like McDonald's where they sew their uniforms, Wal-Mart with prison grown produce, Victoria's Secret (get that image out of your head, ladies), CostCo, Starbucks, and many more. The shit is depressing.

The Review: Predator 2

Predator 2 – 7/10

Oh, so much cheese! A few people at work had mentioned Predator 2 and all I could recall about the movie was that at some point the monster fights a dude with dreads. While watching I realized that I had not seen this movie before or maybe it was on and I saw a few moments from it because when watching I had no idea what the plot was or who was in it. Danny Glover stars in this as a cop that would be fired immediately if this were real because he doesn't listen to shit anyone tells him and just happens to survive. He does. Most folks around him end up carved into pieces and left hanging like me when I plan dates.

The Review: Goliath

Goliath 9/10

Some spoilers. I have seen the poster for this series from Amazon called Goliath at the bus stop for over a month and when ironing clothes for the week decided to give it a try. I hadn't heard a single thing about it and kinda didn't want to watch because of the vague poster and lack of advertising. I am so glad that I decided to watch this! There is a reason I didn't give it a perfect score and I'll get to that soon enough. This stars Billy Bob Thornton as Billy McBride. He used to be a part of a successful law firm in Los Angeles called Cooperman/McBride until something happened. A lot of things happened but two very big things happened to end this relationship. McBride is a half-assed father, alcoholic, but great lawyer when he needs to be. Thornton was great in this and I would say he carried the show but there are so many other strong characters it wouldn't be fair.

The Review: Lucifer Season 2 (I Quit)

With the way TV is set up today with so many good shows (like Goliath on Amazon which I'll be writing about soon) or suggestions from friends and coworkers I no longer feel the need to force myself to power on through a series even though I don't like it the way I did with Stranger Things. That show stunk. Millions loved it, I could not stand that show. Westworld can keep its fan. The pilot was enough for me. With Lucifer on Fox I tapped out after four episodes into season two. I just can not keep watching a show where every episode feels the same with no forward momentum. And when there is its not surprising. Its more like “About time that happened.” I can see this series going one or two more seasons, not watching, jumping back in, and its right in the same spot except maybe Lucifer played by Tom Ellis is dating the lady cop and madness ensues!

The Review: Casablanca

Casablanca

I'm not gonna rate this movie because that would be ridiculous. That would be like watching Goodfellas again and going “10/10!” Some movies are just amazing or classic that there's no reason to slap a number on it. Casablanca is one of those movies. I had never seen this before. I know that is shocking to some people but I grew up on a steady diet of B-movies and shit I shouldn't have been allowed to watch. All's I knew about this movie was something about “play it again, Sam” and that there was an airplane at the end. That's about it. Had no idea it took place most at one location of that ze Germans were involved in any way. Seriously. I would have said the movie was about some detective helping some lady back in the day.

Ross Radio Quickie Show 26

Felt like playing some jams from the 90's which is turns out made some of the best music. I play Blackstreet Don't Leave Me, Keith Sweat Make It Last Forever, Tony Toni Tone Just Me And You, Jade Don't Walk Away, Johnny Gill Rub You The Right Way, Joe I Wanna Know, Silk Freak Me, and K-Ci & JoJo All My Life. Click here for previous episodes.

Theater Whore: Nerve

Nerve 6/10

I was so close to giving this a 7/10 but the more I thought about the movie Nerve the more the ending didn't sit right with me. This will have some spoilers by the way. Jasmine suggested I check this out and I couldn't quite remember what it was until it got started. I remembered the trailer and whoever made it needs to be fired because it really didn't serve this movie justice. Its not as bad as that trailer was. This stars Emma Roberts as Venus Delmonico. She's living at home with her mom played by Juliette Lewis and she wants to leave New York and go to art school in Los Angeles but since her brother died her mother is in full “No one leaves me alone!” mode.

Theater Whore: Doctor Strange

Doctor Strange 9/10

There will be some spoilers. I can never claim to be a fan of Doctor Strange. Never bought the comic books but have watched an animated movie and knew his basic story. Some asshole doctor gets into a terrible car accident that ruins his hands and in desperation heads into the mountains to get cured and ends up learning magic instead. That's pretty much what happened in this but so much more. So much more! I didn't give this a 9 out of 10 because I was surprised by how much I loved this movie. I did because this is a cool ass movie and one of my favorites of this year and Marvel movies in general. By the way, I saw this in 3D at the Arclight in Hollywood and I would suggest watching this in 3D if you can. I'm not usually a fan of them but with a movie like this it worked great.

Theater Whore: Jack Reacher Never Go Back

Jack Reacher Never Go Back 2/10

Spoilers. I finally got around to watching Jack Reacher: Never Go Back and I kinda wish I hadn't. Everything I loved about the first Jack Reacher movie. The acting, the music, the story, the fights, none of it grabbed my attention at all whereas with the first film I've watched close to ten times since the first. As I watched this I just kept asking myself “When is this ending?” I'm not kidding. This movie was just not good.