60 Years On

Sunday and a rather blasé Sunday at that. Watched SNL last night and it was ok. TV Funhouse was pretty funny though. Bill was watching Law and Order on his laptop and I surfed and read and watched TV. Watched ‘V for Vendetta’ and ‘Frida’ yesterday. V for Vendetta was ok. Nothing to write home about. ‘Frida’ was ok as well. I tried watching ‘Frida’ once before but never got into and returned the dvd after giving up on it. Last night it was watchable but nothing that really grabbed my attention though Salma Hayek was really good. Quite a few cameos in it.

I looked around at a few things online last night and wound up looking at amazon.com. They still haven’t closed my account yet and I still haven’t ordered anything through them since that amazon prime nonsense a month or so ago. Surprisingly enough I was looking at Elvis Presley, recordings from when he was at Sun studios. That was before he signed to RCA. The recordings are minimal, just Elvis, Guitar, bass and drum and reverb. I heard a few samples and decided to buy it through iTunes for 9.99 rather than 14.99 then shipping and handling through amazon. Plus I still had that gift card Annemarie, Rex and Earl sent last year for my birthday.

I’ve always liked ‘That’s All Right’ and ‘Mystery Train’. It’s easy to see how Elvis set all those British youth on fire and inspired them to start bands. It all seems rather easy to duplicate. Funnily enough I can easily hear John Lennon or Paul McCartney singing these songs. How did someone just a few years older than Lennon and McCartney record something from several thousand miles away and plant a seed which later bloomed into the Beatles and all that followed them?

I never liked Elvis though. Didn’t do a thing for me. Too much of an older generation thing. I guess you had to be there.

I forgot to mention that I also watched a movie called ‘Stoned’. A drama about the last days of Brian Jones from the Rolling Stones. Brian was the cutest one back then and the most talented but lost the plot. Too many drugs and no one to say ‘that’s enough’ put him on the course. Rehab and interventions just weren’t done then. The movie portrays Brian Jones as cleaning his act up after leaving/getting kicked out of the Stones. It claims that he was killed by a builder living on the grounds of his house. Brian tried to fire him but he wouldn’t go and in the movie he accidentally kills Brian in the swimming pool, leaving Brian to drown. The guy playing Brian Jones had the hair, but that was about it. Didn’t look much like him in the face.

Now I’m watching ‘Shortbus’ by John Cameron Mitchell who made ‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch’. SO far it’s a charming little film, but really graphic and unashamed. All the sex you see on screen is not simulated. It’s not exploitive in any way either. A touching little film with something to say and with a lot to show. I recommend it.

Oh today is Elton John’s birthday. He is 60 years old and playing Madison Square Garden for the sixtieth time. Kudos to him.

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