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ThinkingBig

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Everything posted by ThinkingBig

  1. I agree, those songs all sounded better live. Fly by night, album-wise is a primitive or simple mix -- hollow, flat. The chops are there, but the mix doesn't showcase them -- but LIVE -- wow!!
  2. People forget how important the long song with the goofy title on Fly By Night is. Fly By Night being the first RUSH (with the lyrics and drums that would define them for 4 decades) album. -- 1. FIRST long format "story" song. 2. FIRST song with that Cinematic/visual quality that becomes a RUSH signature -- no one has to tell us it's a battle going on during the long musical bridge. We hear and see the mythic creatures doing battle. 3. FIRST time the triple drum break shows up. There's a pattern of the triple break combos that show up in the instrumentals over the years -- alternating bass/drums in patterns of 3 (La Villa, yyz, Malignant Narc) Even though By-Tor has a lyric section, the mini-epic is really also the FIRST instrumental experiment with the long musical bridge that tells the story within the story -- the battle. 4. Most importantly -- the first time Neil uses Roman Numerals in a song. Priceless. Neil hits those drum break "to the atom". Perfection. Listening to a live version yesterday -- from R30 -- hearing them play a song they wrote in their 20s with passion and chops - Amazing!! I truly hope their last tour (if there is one) features the epics, starting with the first epic battle between Price By-Tor and the Snowdog.
  3. I still think it would be classic if, after Rolling Stone listed RUSH as one of the must-see live acts, RUSH announced their retirement from live tours. Unfortunate for the newer fans, but hey.... Yet it was for me, not you, I came to write this song...
  4. The First Season was just Okay (spoilers) I figured out pretty quick they were all ghosts, and I remember having to force myself to watch the final episodes -- as I was totally uninterested in how it played out. The Second Season -- OUTSTANDING!! Layer upon layer of evil. I love that they'd introduce an evil and viscous character, then eventually introduce another character that scared the crap out of the first... and then a third character that scared the "hell" out of everyone. They took the audience from hating a character to feeling sorry for her, to hoping she is vindicated and gets her revenge... I loved the musical number -- creepy, ironic, I heard the 3rd season was going to be based on that. Has the third season started??
  5. http://www.reactiongifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Bill-Murray-Caddyshack.gif
  6. http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTMxNDgzMzc2MF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNzgyMzY3NA@@._V1._SX640_SY925_.jpg I do not, for one, think that the problem was that the band was down. I think that the problem *may* have been, that there was a Stonehenge monument on the stage that was in danger of being *crushed* by a *dwarf*. Alright? That tended to understate the hugeness of the object. Why don't you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder? These go to eleven. Can I raise a practical question at this point? Are we gonna do "Stonehenge" tomorrow? *NO*, we're not gonna f***ing do "Stonehenge"!
  7. (spoilers) Very Shakespearean Tragic Finale - **Two minor characters - Badger and Skinny Pete - speaking for the audience: "You know, I don't exactly know how to feel about all of this." "For real, yo, the whole thing felt kind of sketchy, like, morality-wise." **Using another set of minor characters, Gretchen and Elliot, to carry the story beyond the scope of the play -- delivering the treasure to the son, innocent of his father's sins. **Lydia killed with poison. **Everyone dies, bloody violence. **The anti-hero accepts his transgression "I did it for me. I liked it." and therefore his fate -- sliding the gun to Jessie. When Walt finally admits to Skyler why he did it, or kept doing it, he accepted himself as "breaking bad"... It was no longer about a sympathetic science teacher who justifies his crimes as "for my family" -- it was about a good man who became a criminal because he liked how if felt, the power, the rush, the payoff. Walt adapted so quickly to the dark Machiavellian morality in a criminal endeavor -- remember the early episode where they had to dispose of a body with acid. Then watching Jane die (knowing he was rescuing Jessie to be used for his own ends). Many, many more. Great finale!!
  8. Isn't is selfish of us to expect our favorite musicians to continue to tour into their 60's?? I'm sorry if you just discovered RUSH in 2004, but they've already come around the clubhouse curve and are way into the final stretch. If If If they ever tour again, there is the possibility of crossing over into Rolling Stones or Scorpions self-parody land. I don't want to see that happen.
  9. And for the 2014 Winter/Spring leg of the tour.... THE ENCORE WILL BE!! http://media.nesn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/American-Airlines-Arena-Bob-B.-Brown.jpg
  10. I heard or read the original interview way back when and this writer is putting an overly negative spin on it. Lexst did performance art -- brilliant!! http://i.imgur.com/vmiklub.jpg
  11. Cow bells and large toms cool syncopated rhythms section in the drum solo. http://blog.kikscore.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/SNL_Fever_Cowbell_Black_Shirt.jpg And Lerxst introducing the band.
  12. Opening with Camera Eye? Did you wanna try a realistic idea?
  13. A classic RUSH move would be to immediately announce their retirement from touring ala the Beatles.
  14. At this stage in their career, there is only one band that could open for RUSH... http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2011/11/11/1321007775001/Spinal-Tap---Christopher--007.jpg Talk about mud flaps, my girls got 'em....
  15. When I first got a smart phone with photo/video, I attempted to video a song or two at a concert. Then realized I never had that technology for the first 30 years of going to concerts and live shows -- and I never seemed to feel like I needed. I now prefer to videotape with my eyes and memory. That's enough. I do like taking pictures of friends at the venue before the show starts.
  16. http://www.cityprofile.com/forum/attachments/indiana/3488-fort-wayne-allen-county-war-memorial-coliseum2.jpg http://cdn.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000jRDvFttQ8jc/s/860/860/Red-Rock-Amphitheater-panoramic.jpg
  17. I got a question for the producers -- how did you screw up so bad? They phoned in most of the last season. That last episode sucked, and I loved the show.
  18. This comment applies to many of the new super hero movies -- Why, oh why, must it always be about saving the planet from an extinction level event?? How the hell can we even relate with something of that size and scope? In PG-13 movies they never show innocent by-standers being crushed to death in flying debris and cars, but we have assume that there are dead bodies everywhere at the end of these movies. It's like 9/11 x 10 -- but they only show the debris and explosions -- never the people burning alive. But the level of destruction in these movies, and the inaccessible bad guys, alien forces and indestructible beings -- who the hell can relate with that. The Superman I remember growing up: 1) Flies about as fast as an airplane and usually barely made it in time to save Lois. It's called suspense, people. 2) Struggled to lift giant boulders -- meaning he was super-strong, but not unlimited strength. 3) Had x-ray vision -- and not laser eyes. 4) Never, never, never told Lois and anyone his secret identity. The great moment in every episode: "Oh Clark, you idiot, if only Superman were here!!" Clark rolls his eyes. (that's called dramatic irony and it works for a reason) With this Man of Steal mess -- where the hell do they go from here? He just save the world, going after bank robbers would seem a let down... even Lex Luther and some missiles would be like, yawn... At one point, Superman flies to the opposite end of the planet to take out one part of the big machine and there are these CGI tentacles and things grabbing at him -- at no point am I thinking, he may not be able to bust up this machine, so I'm looking at my watch, totally bored. There were parts that I like, the outcast stuff of his childhood, his father dying, and a few other moments... but mostly, it was so HUGE, the level of destruction, I thought I was watching another 2012 type movie. Who care if most of us are dead? IMO -- the only movie(s) to get it right are Christopher Reeves I & II (which was one film divided into two parts) -- of course it was Mario Puzo's script that created the great arc of the story of Superman. He wasn't indestructible, he had weaknesses and Lois Lane dies because he can't save everyone -- how great was that? I never read comic books, I like Mad Magazine, still read it from time to time -- but these Superhero movies today... it's hard to relate with the size and scope of the destruction, mind-numbing I think. The Batman trilogy was great, especially the Joker. Batman got all busted up, he came home bruised and broken after a night out fighting gangsters and drug dealers. That's a Superhero.
  19. Saw Tosh last year in Chicago, best comedian working today IMO. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ln1Yj17MOd4
  20. The Bobby Fisher reference was funny, but the kid's name in the film was Josh.
  21. These final episodes of Breaking Bad are so bold, brilliantly executed tragedy as the anti-heroes are overwhelmed by the brutal forces that they brought on themselves. It's so emotionally engaging, I'm staring to wonder if we could have handled Meadow Soprano seeing her father's brains blown out as she entered the diner. (that's what happened in case you hadn't figured it out) Had David Chase showed us what Meadow saw in the final moment, instead of what Tony saw -- had Chase opted for the darker version of the collapse of a criminal enterprise and the forces of nature and Karma finally closing in on Tony and family instead of "Don't Stop Believing (in how much you like Tony)"....Would audiences have gone along? After last night, I'm like "Dexter who?"
  22. In the mood. And the as yet unreleased title track to the new concept album "Boner Time."
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