The Greatest Drum Fill In Music History...

...happens at the 4:35-4:37 mark.



I mean you have this great buildup from 4:20-4:35 and that's the best the drummer could come up with? "Tat-Tat"? You even get a quick shot of him doing it too.

No wonder thrash metal began right around the same time as this song.

The History Of Movies from A - Z - "12 Monkeys"

This will hopefully be the start of another running series...

From 1997-2009 I was a major movie junkie. My roommate at Boston College was the first to get a DVD player back in 1997 (paid $600 for it) and the first movie he bought was "The Professional". We must have watched that movie one hundred times. Anyway, not so far away from where I lived was a Tower Records...you know...an old school record store that sold CD's and DVD's (and magazines too!). Anyway, once I got a taste of good looking picture quality, crisp audio, and the ability to build your own movie collection, I was hooked. Over the course of the next 12 years, I amassed a DVD collection that is probably close to 1,000. A lot of it was buying new DVD's but over the past 6 years or so its been buying used DVD from either Amazon.com or video stores like Blockbuster.

Here's the problem...I have so many movies, I don't know what to do with them. Most of them, I've never even seen. My wife brings it up every now and then to me that I have a custom shelved closet for the DVD's and all they do is collect dust. So I came to conclusion that I am going to watch EVERY SINGLE DVD starting with the beginning of the alphabet. I don't care how long it takes or how bad the movie is...I am going to spend the 2 hours and watch every damn movie.

I actually tried doing this back in 2003 and made it pretty far (the letter "G") but I've since bought another couple of hundred movies so I'm going to restart the process.

My reviews will be different. First they will be short. There will be five pieces of info given. 1.) When, where and how I bought this movie.; 2.) Why did I find this movie desirable to own.; 3.) Had I even seen this movie before; 4.) How long had it been collecting dust on my shelf before watching it.; 5.) What I actually thought of the movie.

Since I have some movies that begin with numbers, I decided to start there....first up "12 Monkeys"

* Where I bought this movie: I picked up this movie back in 2009 when the Hollywood Video near me when out of business. They had a fire sale on all of their pre-owned movies and I picked this up for a cool $2. It's probably the dirtiest DVD I own in terms of several stainson it and the box is slightly torn.

* Why Own It?: Well, it starred Brad Pitt and Bruce Willis for one. It was in the golden sci-fi era of the late 90's. Plus Brad Pitt got an Oscar nomination for playing a crazy person. It also was directed by Terry Gilliam who at the time was very good at making movies that liked to scramble your brain. It seemed to be a cult favorite too so that intrigued me.

* Had I seen this movie before?: Nope...the very first movie sitting in my collection for the last two years and I haven't picked it up once to watch.

* Time collecting dust: 2 years

* What I thought of the movie: I liked it...a little confusing at times and sadly the ending was a little predictable once you pull all of the pieces together. Time travel movies can be fun if pulled off right. I love the character actor David Morse so it was cool to see him in an early role as a bad guy (he played a cop in 90% of the movies he was in). All in all, I was impressed. A good "transition" movie for Bruce Willis as he started going away from action star to more of an actor.

Top 30 Music Videos Of All Time - Number 22 - "Touch Of Grey" by The Grateful Dead

I almost forgot about this video. I heard this song on the radio the other day and forgot how light and upbeat this song was. Then I remembered the video for it featuring skeleton versions of the Grateful Dead and knew I had a lost hidden gem here.

Full disclosure...the Grateful Dead is not my kind of band. I'm not really into the jam bands and prefer songs with more of a melody. These three guys who lived next to me freshman year would always blast this 25 minute live version of a Grateful Dead song "Fire On The Mountain". Then, any time I would hang out with them, one of them would randomly go "Firreeeeeee.....Fire on the mountaaaaaaainnnn". Needless to say, I am not friends with any of those people.

Anyway, "Touch Of Grey" was the band's only top 10 hit and probably their most "poppy" song. I like "Uncle John's Band" but that fits the more country rockish type of the 70's. This was the only music video the Grateful Dead ever made apparently...talk about banging in and out on a high note. Let's take a closer look.



0:00 - I have never been to a Grateful Dead show but they do seem to put on a nice light show. Notice the late 80's effects of human hands becoming skeleton hands. Somewhere James Cameron was nodding in appreciation that effects got better since his horrible attempt to make skeletons move in the original Terminator movie.

0:18 - Ah yes, the stereotypical Dead Heads. You see fleeting glimpses of them throughout the video but the tie dye shirt was the badge of a Grateful Dead fan.

0:30 - Its hard to tell here if Jerry Garcia is human and the rest of the band are skeletons. The early flow of this video is thrown off a bit by lack of consistency. Yes, I take these observations very seriously.

0:42 - Now we're in full skeleton mode. Love the bass picking skeleton hands.

0:49 - Probably my favorite skeleton...the keyboard playing guy. He gets the most herky jerky moves.

1:03 - I have to admit, the way the skeleton moves are pretty darn cool. Love the drummer smoking a cigarette.

1:31 - My favorite GD band member has always been Bob Weir. I can't tell you why but it was probably because of his skeleton. Check out that groove he has going on.

2:02 - Love the drum fill.

2:06 - I like the strings used to move the skeleton are just in plain sight. No green screen back then to remove them.

2:25 - No we're getting a little random.

2:35 - The one shot I always remembered and laughed at as a kid...that dog with the drummer's leg in its mouth cracks me up every time.

2:55 - Ahhh...the illusions ends and the real band members arrive. I lose interest in the video at this point and that's what knocks the video down a few notches. A solid video is solid all the way through or at least has a great storyline. Still this one had a unique idea and they carried it out awesomely.

Bruce Springsteen Workout Video

Happy August all. I will finish the top 30 video countdown sooner than later. Updating this website is like me going to the gym...I'll do it for two weeks straight and then take two months off.

Anyway, this video recently hit the Internet. It's an alternate video of Bruce Springsteen's video "Dancing In The Dark". The original version of this video is a little goofy in itself with Bruce's flailing arm movements but at least he has the band around him doing the same thing. In this video, its just him except for the very end where Clarence Clemmons appears playing his solo in an odd red suit. There are three takes so you get to see Bruce try and outdo his terrible dancing in each one.

Anyway, it reminds me of an old workout video so perhaps I can kill two birds with one stone by updating the website while doing the Bruce Springsteen herky jerky dance moves.