We’re more than halfway through the summer, and while my pace has slowed (other aspects of my social life have taken priority in recent weeks), I still saw a good handful of movies during the month of July — bringing my grand total for the year so far to 40.
So, without further ado, here are movie reviews of everything I saw in the past month. Continue reading
When news broke yesterday that Amy Winehouse had died at the age of 27, the news was less shocking than it was just sad.
After all, Amy was a singer who burst on the scene in 2007 and created an immediate buzz with “Rehab,” a song that would later go on to win the Grammy Award for Record of the Year (she won four other awards that year).
And that song seemed to tell you everything you needed to know about Amy, a troubled singer who had problems with drugs, drinking, and the law: “They tried to make me go to rehab,” she sang, “and I said ‘No, no, no.'”
Ultimately, that’s what derailed her career and now seems to have ended her life as well. Continue reading
Congrats to Amy Winehouse for winning five very well deserved Grammy Awards and basically making the 3.5-hour show worth watching (or at least 10 minutes of it). If you missed the show, I’ve posted her performance of “You Know I’m No Good” and “Rehab.” Enjoy.
Amy Winehouse will not be attending the Grammy Awards this Sunday. This is terrible, terrible news for folks like myself who were rooting for her to be there and win all kinds of awards. Hopefully she’ll still take home a few trophies, despite her recent troubles and her absence from the ceremony itself. Continue reading
I’ve been away from the computer for a couple days, but I wanted to acknowledge that Amy Winehouse earned six Grammy Award nominations on Thursday, and I say yes! yes! yes!
I’ve been listening to “Rehab” and the rest of Back to Black for just about a solid year now and the CD hasn’t gotten old or tiresome yet. It’s far and away my favorite album to be released in 2007. Continue reading
As the saying goes, If You Lived Here, You’d Be Blogging Right Now. I read in the Boston Globe this morning that according to the Web site Outsidein.com, Boston is the bloggiest city in the country, with 89 posts per 100,000 residents recorded in March and April of this year. Good for us. I guess we have a lot to say. But it brings up an interesting question: what was I saying back then? Let’s take a trip in the wayback machine, shall we?
Ahh, March and April. Those were the good ole days of Haley Scarnato. When Dice-K was just bad, not quite awful yet. Back then I was listening to Amy Winehouse and making fun of Best Buy (how times have changed). There were good movies and not-so-good ones. Ah yes, March and April. Those were good times. No wonder I was blogging so much. And to think, we only had one more post than the greater Philadelphia area. I wonder if they counted this one or this one. Either way, I say Ha! Take that, Philly! (And yes, that was said with all due sarcasm.)
Almost like a birthday present to myself, Thursday I finally finished reading Love Is a Mix Tape.
I say finally, but it only took me a month to read (which, believe it or not, is really quick for me).
As I’ve said before, I don’t read books. It’s not that I’m against the medium, but I just don’t seem to have the patience for anything longer than a typical magazine article. And maybe it’s because Mix Tape is written by Rob Sheffield, a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, but damn if I couldn’t put this book down. Continue reading
I know writing about it will serve as nothing more than a jinx, but I just had to mention that I’ve developed some really good T karma lately. For the past week, every day, as soon as I’ve gotten to the Boylston T stop to go home (or within a minute of my arrival), the C line has shown up. There’s been no waiting, and I’ve gotten home within about 20 minutes of leaving the office. It’s been almost as if the car was just idling by, waiting for me to get to the bottom of the stairs so it could pull up and let me get on. Did you hear me? This happens every day. That’s unheard of! It’s miraculous! It’s beyond the realm of possibility! It even happened yesterday, a Sunday, when I went to the movies. I thought I was powerful before. Now it seems I can will a T into arriving at my whim. That’s awesome.
But that’s not all that’s going well lately. We’re now within the last 24 hours of Passover, and I can already taste the hot rolls and pasta dinner that I’ll enjoy at Bertucci’s tomorrow night. The Sox are back at home (and a bonus: Harry Connick Jr. is set to sing the National Anthem before the game on Tuesday). I learned this weekend that Felicity is back (to back) on television, on Fuse. I found MP3s of an awesome live show by Amy Winehouse. And, I’m pretty sure Haley is safe. Now, if only the weather would warm up, then things would be near perfect.
And yes, I expect most, if not all of what I’ve written about to cease immediately (sorry, Haley). There’s nothing like talking about good things to make them end.
I had a long drive ahead of me today, so put in my new mix of songs from Amy Winehouse, Lily Allen, Mika, and James Morrison’s latest CDs. That’s all the mix was — my favorite five or six tracks from those four albums. And if I can toot my own horn about my mix-making ability, then I have to say this was one damned good mix. But it’s not just my arranging that made this mix so good — it was the music itself. Yes, you’ve heard me mention all those folks before on this blog, but if you’ll allow me to do it one more time, I just wanted to give them another plug. If you don’t already own Winehouse’s Back to Black, Allen’s Alright, Still, Mika’s Life in Cartoon Motion, or Morrison’s Undiscovered, then seriously, do yourself a favor and pick them up. Or download a few tracks on iTunes. You’ll thank me.
Sorry to be so single-mindedly focused on Amy Winehouse this week, but I just saw this and had to share. Apparently, Britney Spears has covered Amy’s “Rehab.” Check it out. Ha ha ha.
Martin's Musings 