I finished the second novel in the Legend of Drizzt series on Friday.I have since started the third book in the series, but have not forgotten my review of Exile.This blog may not be as long as my usual ones(I always say that, and it always turns out to be a lie, so we'll see)because I am kinda tired and not feeling that great with my knee really bothering me today.
We start off Exile 10 years after the events of Homeland, with Drizzt forsaking his drow heritage in hopes of finding peace and acceptance.Drizzt battles his most deadliest enemy throughout the book...lonliness.He gave up the life of the drow for a life that he hopes more resembles his own personal beliefs.He struggles, living in a cave, constantly defending it from various enemies that may disturb his peaceful new "home".
Meanwhile the Do'Urden house and the Hunett Houses have their long anticipated war, with Malice surprising the Hunett house with another unexpected trick.Matron Malice is now on the ruling council with the 8th house, but with that title also comes a bullseye on her house.She is given a meeting with the ruling house of Matron Baenre, who has a surprise for Malice herself.Even though the Do'Urden House is now on the ruling council, and won their war against the Hunett's, the evil spider queen remains displeased with the Do'Urden House because of Drizzt's behavior and the fact that he has completely turned his back not only to the drow race, but to Lolth.The Do'Urden House must find and kill Drizzt to gain the spider queens favor, or else their reighn atop the ruling committee will not last long.
Will Drizzt go back to Menzoberranen to be with "his" people for companionship?Or will he find other people...of his race or other races who will accept him for who he is, not what the others of his species stand for?Will the Do'Urden House find Drizzt, and if they do, will he help or hurt their cause?Many of these questions will be answered, but many more will be asked by the end of this highly action packed book.
I have a hard time rating any of the books, because one could not read one of the books and enjoy it as much if they haven't already read the others.It is not so much 1 book in a trilogy, as it is 1 huge book split up in three small chapter books.By that I mean that it is like one really long book split in three...which it essentially is.What I am getting at is, how do I do a proper ranking for this?With the Harry Potter, LotR, The Dark Tower series, and the Twilight saga...each book has a definitive ending for each of the books...these only ask more questions for the reader to ponder upon until they read the next book.It is hard to give a rating for a book that answers questions from book 1, and leaves many questions at the end of book 2.If I give a ranking for each book, it is hard because I have to spoil you all will the results from the questions asked from the previous book.Also, do I give a rating for somebody who has read the previous books, or just a ranking for somebody who hasn't read them.Should I review it like I am reviewing it as a newbie to the series or a reader who is reading them all in order?
I will need some help deciphering that question, but will give a ranking for my view on it.As a fan of reading the series, I would rate Exile a 8.0 out of 10 because it answered the questions that remained after Homeland, but took place many years after the first book, and I would of enjoyed something more to tell me about the years in between the end of book 1 and the start of book 2.If I just picked up this book, without knowing that it is book 2 of 3 in a small trilogy inside a much larger saga, I would rate it a very high 9.0 because Salvatore does a good job of explaining the back story and the events of book 1, while not making it seem too much like a review of Homeland within the present.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Monday, May 11, 2009
3 Books In 1 Blog
What's up everybody?I am back again today with a couple of book reviews.I have read three books since my last book review, but haven't really felt like making a blog for each book I've read because I have been reading a lot these past few weeks.I have averaged reading a book just about every 3 or 4 days!I also read a book of short stories, but will not review that collection since most of them are set in different series of books, many of which I have never read any of the novels in the respective series.I just do not think it is fair to get a review on books which may be in the middle of a series that I know absolutely nothing about and therefore may not understand which could result in a negative review.
This blog will probably be a little shorter than my normal blog posts because instead of devoting an entire blog to just one subject matter, I am condensing 3 reviews on 3 completely different books and genres into one normal sized blog...for me.So while the blog length will be about the same length, the review per subject will not be as long as they normally are.Look at my "Butch Blog" and you will get an idea as to how this will go.There will be about a paragraph for each book with a decent description for each.The three books I am reviewing in this blog are New Moon by Stephenie Meyer, The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown and Homeland by R.A. Salvatore.
The first book I will be reviewing is New Moon by Stephenie Meyer.It is the 2nd novel in her Twilight saga, and soon to be a major motion picture.As you may recall, I reviewed Twilight and thoroughly enjoyed the book, but was very disappointed in the film adaptation of it.I was really looking forward to reading New Moon since I finished up with Twilight.I know it is hard for a sequel to live up to the hype and expectations that the original created, but I thought that Meyer did a fabulous job of continuing the series.This novel starts off very fast with a major surprise happening almost immediately in the first few chapters.Like I have stated many times, I will try not to spoil anything, so I will leave it at that.Shortly after the surprise, Jacob Black becomes a very good friend to Bella, much to the delight of their parents.He helps Bella by fixing up some motorcycles that she picked up and teaches her how to ride.Meanwhile, a bunch of mysterious sighting have been occuring and the towns have been having many wild animal attacks and disappearances.Jacob and Bella spot this "gang" of townspeople near where Jacob and Bella ride their bikes and he tells her his opinion of them.He seems to be the only person who dislikes them in his town, but nothing he says matters to his father Billy.With time Jacob and Bella get closer romantically, but Bella still loves Edward...leading to her giving off mixed signs and feeling bad.This little love triangle will set up the next two books nicely, leading eventually to a confrontation between the two.I will not go into much more about the book because I will not give away too much about it for the people who may read this and haven't read the book.This book is essentially the building block for the rest of the series to build off of.Meyer created Bella into the confused girl caught between two men who both love her, and as I stated earlier, the battle between Jacob and Edward over her affections.Many other things happen in the novel that are noteworthy, but it would spoil a fantastic book that sends your emotions on a rollercoaster trip of love, despair, agony and confliction.I view this book as better than Twilight and hope that the movie can surpass the underwhelming experience the Twilight movie gave me.I will rate the book a 8.0 out of 10.
The 2nd book being reviewed today is Dan Brown hit novel The Da Vinci Code.This novel is a sequel to Angels & Demons, although Da Vinci did far better and was created into a movie a few years before the prequel.For the past few years I have heard a ton of stuff regarding this novel and have anxiously awaited reading the book to see what all the buzz is about.I was highly impressed with Brown's previous book and had very high hopes for this book.The book once again stars Robert Langdon, this time in France.We start the book off in a very familiar way for fans of A&D with Robert sleeping and being abruptly awakened with an urgent call.No this isn't the same book, it just starts off almost identically.This time he is asked to help assist helping uncover the murderer and the motives behind the murder of the renowned curator of the Louvre Museum, Jacques Sauniere.The man who is at the helm of solving the murder mystery is Bezu Fache, Captain of France's Direction Centrale Police Judiciaire (DCPJ).He believes that Langdon may have killed Sauniere ishopes to get Langdon to admit to it because Langdon was supposed to meet with Sauniere the night of the murder.Sauniere's body was found in an awkward position (identicle to Da Vinci's famous Vitruvian Man drawing...hence the title of the book comes into play) with writing and a pentacle surrounding his body and Fache believes Langdon can decipher the meaning behind the writing in hopes that Robert will make a mistake and he will be proved guilty.Sopie Neveu is a French National Police cryptographer iivolved in the novel who knows Fache's plans against Langdon, therefore decides to help Robert escape from the Louvre in order to help solve the crime.We later find out that she is personally attached to the crime, because Sauniere was her grandfather.She believes in Langdon's innocence and feels he is the only one who can help sort out this strange murder and help her uncover some hidden secrets her grandfather hid from her, which led to her estrangement form him 10 years ago.The story continues with Fache trying to locate them and put both behind bars, as the real killer is in search of the legendary Holy Grail.The book is a great read for both historians, conspiracy theory buffs and the normal reader who wants to be entertained.Once again, like with A&D, there are many biblical beliefs and conspiracies that some overly fanatical religious people may not like, but like I wrote in my A&D blog, if you can get passed that and have an open mind, you will most likely enjoy it.The movie, which was released in 2006, from what I heard was not as good as it was hyped up to be.I personally have not seen and therefore cannot give my opinion on it, but will hopefully get to see that and A&D in the near future after Sarah reads them.I did not think Da Vinci Code was a bad book by any means, but considering how much hype surrounded it, I do not think it was as good as A&D.It still gets a high rating from me, but I think A&D was the better book and yet Da Vinci Code is the more well known book of the two.I will rate it a 7.5 out of 10 because there were many parts in the book where it mirrored A&D too much and was kinda predictable in some ways.I definately reccomend reading both books and will probably purchase Dan Brown's other two books, Digital Fortress, Deception Point and his future Robert Langdon novels.
The third and final review for today is the beginning of R.A. Salvatore's epic Legend of Drizzt story.I will first tell you a little bit about how I first of Drizzt Do'Urden.My friend Larry and I are huge fantasy and video game geeks.He got me into Marvel Comics, Final Fantasy, role-playing games, and various card games such as Spellfire, Magic:The Gathering, Pokemon, and the Marvel Comics superhero game (not quite sure what the name was).We used to play video games ALL THE FUCKING TIME.In fact we beat Final Fantasy VII's legendary monster Emerald WEAPON...but somebody, I'm not saying who decided to go fight the other legendary monster Ruby WEAPON.He thought he saved, I wasn't sure, so I told him to do it just to make sure...he was positive he saved.Anyways to make a depressing story short, Ruby WEAPON fucked him like a $2.00 whore and it wasn't saved.We both remember that moment very vividly and get a sick feeling when it is brought up.Needless to say, we are fantasy freaks.I bought a ps2 game called Baldur's Gate:Dark Alliance and we absofuckinglutely loved it and it's sequel and spin-off Champions of Norrath and Champions:Return to Arms.In one of those games you can unlock Drizzt as a playable character, and that was how I came to love him.I bought the first set of books in a huge volume with all three books in 1.I had previously read the first book Homeland sometime in 2004 or 2005 and loved it, but lost the book for many years.Once found, it has been sitting in my bookshelf awaiting my pending reading.It took me awhile to read it because I prefer reading smaller paperback books, and this is hardcover size and with all three novels from The Dark Elf Trilogy in it, it is intimidating to look at, much less read.What I was doing was grabbing the smaller paperback version of Homeland and reading a few chapters everytime I went to Barnes & Noble.With my recent knee injury, I hate leaving the house because I take a long time to get ready and then it takes a lot out of me physically and mentally the next few days.Because I am not getting out much, it has led to my increased reading and blogging.To start off my review I will go on the record and say that Drizzt Do'Urden is a very loving and personable character with very good morals and values.He is a drow (dark elf), and lives in the Menzoberranzan, which is a city filled with tracherous drow families in the Underdark, away from the blinding sunlight and their mortal enemies such as the elves, dwarves, and humans.The class structure in Menzoberranzan is based on which drow house is higher up in standing.The top 8 houses are on like a city government committee and are considered the "ruling houses".Each drow family/house is matriarchial and the woman have all the power in the family, and get to treat the males like slaves.The houses...and the people within the families of each house are constantly at battle with each other.The belief system is based on a spider god called Lolth, and the families will do anything to please Lolth to gain her favor...including sacrifices.The book starts off with Matron Malice and Do'Urden house attacking House Devir because it had fallen out of grace with the spider god, and they viewed it as a perfect oppurtunity to attack and destroy the house and move up to the 9th House.Malice is pregnant with what turns out to be the third son in her family.The belief is that if a Matron Mother gives birth to a male child, and two are already living, they sacrifice the third son to Lolth.The third son, Drizzt was about to be sacrificed, when news of the defeat of House Devir comes and even more shocking news comes when the 2nd child of House Do'Urden Dinnin killed his older brother Nalfein to advance in ranking in the heirarcy of his house, thus preserving Drizzt's young life.During the attack however, one of the Devir family members, Alton Devir lived, but got horribly scarred with some chemicals that were in the house.They were for one of the teachers at the drow school for mages and he then took over his identity, with only one person truly knowing his identity...Masoj Hunnett of House Hunnett.The book centers primarily around Drizzt and his early years of training with his sister Vierna, who like all female drows are far superior to the males in standing, but also shows a softness towards him due to the fact that they share the same parents including the house weaponmaster Zaknafein who hates the idea of murdering innocent lives and the drow rules of life.Zak convinces Matron Malice to let him train Drizzt in weaponry as to try and instill his beliefs in him.When the time comes for Drizzt to go to school...one which brainwashes all the drow into believing they are killing machines because all the other races are evil murders, which is exactly what the drow are.Drizzt is top of his class which was to be expected with the amount of training he recieved with Zak.Drizzt becomes unsure as to what to believe in life and what to do about it because of his morals, and that is the dilema he faces throughout the story and probably the entire series.Drizzt's morals and beliefs vs the beliefs of his drow nature and society.Will he do as Zak did and become the innate killer that courses through the drows and let their society brainwash their minds?Will Drizzt escape and live under his own rules along with Zak?Will either of them even survive the violent and deceptive nature of the drow houses?R.A. Salvatore answers these questions with answers and many intense battle sequences which he has become famous for writing.Salvatore's creation of Drizzt is very cliche in the good person in a bad setting and the troubles and personal soul searching that he does, but has enough action and suspense to keep the reader entertained.I will rate this book a 6.5 out of 10 because it is very cliche and predictable at times.I am not saying it is bad by any means because I love it and can't wait to read the other books in the Legend of Drizzt series.I am just saying that if a reader picks it up expecting something new, they may not enjoy it because they may be able to guess the story outcome before it becomes apparant, but it is also only the first book in I think close to 20 books about him, so they had to just give the bare basics of the story for new readers.
Now that the blog is finished, and I am all up to date with my reviews, I can slow down my reading pace.I promise I will try to only include one book at a time because I know it is a lot to read all at once.I am planning on reading the next two Drizzt books followed by the third book in the Twilight saga by Stephenie Meyer afterwards.I will try and keep the blog to a one subject minimun because between the Butch blog and this blog, I am exhausted.I hope you enjoyed.-James
This blog will probably be a little shorter than my normal blog posts because instead of devoting an entire blog to just one subject matter, I am condensing 3 reviews on 3 completely different books and genres into one normal sized blog...for me.So while the blog length will be about the same length, the review per subject will not be as long as they normally are.Look at my "Butch Blog" and you will get an idea as to how this will go.There will be about a paragraph for each book with a decent description for each.The three books I am reviewing in this blog are New Moon by Stephenie Meyer, The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown and Homeland by R.A. Salvatore.
The first book I will be reviewing is New Moon by Stephenie Meyer.It is the 2nd novel in her Twilight saga, and soon to be a major motion picture.As you may recall, I reviewed Twilight and thoroughly enjoyed the book, but was very disappointed in the film adaptation of it.I was really looking forward to reading New Moon since I finished up with Twilight.I know it is hard for a sequel to live up to the hype and expectations that the original created, but I thought that Meyer did a fabulous job of continuing the series.This novel starts off very fast with a major surprise happening almost immediately in the first few chapters.Like I have stated many times, I will try not to spoil anything, so I will leave it at that.Shortly after the surprise, Jacob Black becomes a very good friend to Bella, much to the delight of their parents.He helps Bella by fixing up some motorcycles that she picked up and teaches her how to ride.Meanwhile, a bunch of mysterious sighting have been occuring and the towns have been having many wild animal attacks and disappearances.Jacob and Bella spot this "gang" of townspeople near where Jacob and Bella ride their bikes and he tells her his opinion of them.He seems to be the only person who dislikes them in his town, but nothing he says matters to his father Billy.With time Jacob and Bella get closer romantically, but Bella still loves Edward...leading to her giving off mixed signs and feeling bad.This little love triangle will set up the next two books nicely, leading eventually to a confrontation between the two.I will not go into much more about the book because I will not give away too much about it for the people who may read this and haven't read the book.This book is essentially the building block for the rest of the series to build off of.Meyer created Bella into the confused girl caught between two men who both love her, and as I stated earlier, the battle between Jacob and Edward over her affections.Many other things happen in the novel that are noteworthy, but it would spoil a fantastic book that sends your emotions on a rollercoaster trip of love, despair, agony and confliction.I view this book as better than Twilight and hope that the movie can surpass the underwhelming experience the Twilight movie gave me.I will rate the book a 8.0 out of 10.
The 2nd book being reviewed today is Dan Brown hit novel The Da Vinci Code.This novel is a sequel to Angels & Demons, although Da Vinci did far better and was created into a movie a few years before the prequel.For the past few years I have heard a ton of stuff regarding this novel and have anxiously awaited reading the book to see what all the buzz is about.I was highly impressed with Brown's previous book and had very high hopes for this book.The book once again stars Robert Langdon, this time in France.We start the book off in a very familiar way for fans of A&D with Robert sleeping and being abruptly awakened with an urgent call.No this isn't the same book, it just starts off almost identically.This time he is asked to help assist helping uncover the murderer and the motives behind the murder of the renowned curator of the Louvre Museum, Jacques Sauniere.The man who is at the helm of solving the murder mystery is Bezu Fache, Captain of France's Direction Centrale Police Judiciaire (DCPJ).He believes that Langdon may have killed Sauniere ishopes to get Langdon to admit to it because Langdon was supposed to meet with Sauniere the night of the murder.Sauniere's body was found in an awkward position (identicle to Da Vinci's famous Vitruvian Man drawing...hence the title of the book comes into play) with writing and a pentacle surrounding his body and Fache believes Langdon can decipher the meaning behind the writing in hopes that Robert will make a mistake and he will be proved guilty.Sopie Neveu is a French National Police cryptographer iivolved in the novel who knows Fache's plans against Langdon, therefore decides to help Robert escape from the Louvre in order to help solve the crime.We later find out that she is personally attached to the crime, because Sauniere was her grandfather.She believes in Langdon's innocence and feels he is the only one who can help sort out this strange murder and help her uncover some hidden secrets her grandfather hid from her, which led to her estrangement form him 10 years ago.The story continues with Fache trying to locate them and put both behind bars, as the real killer is in search of the legendary Holy Grail.The book is a great read for both historians, conspiracy theory buffs and the normal reader who wants to be entertained.Once again, like with A&D, there are many biblical beliefs and conspiracies that some overly fanatical religious people may not like, but like I wrote in my A&D blog, if you can get passed that and have an open mind, you will most likely enjoy it.The movie, which was released in 2006, from what I heard was not as good as it was hyped up to be.I personally have not seen and therefore cannot give my opinion on it, but will hopefully get to see that and A&D in the near future after Sarah reads them.I did not think Da Vinci Code was a bad book by any means, but considering how much hype surrounded it, I do not think it was as good as A&D.It still gets a high rating from me, but I think A&D was the better book and yet Da Vinci Code is the more well known book of the two.I will rate it a 7.5 out of 10 because there were many parts in the book where it mirrored A&D too much and was kinda predictable in some ways.I definately reccomend reading both books and will probably purchase Dan Brown's other two books, Digital Fortress, Deception Point and his future Robert Langdon novels.
The third and final review for today is the beginning of R.A. Salvatore's epic Legend of Drizzt story.I will first tell you a little bit about how I first of Drizzt Do'Urden.My friend Larry and I are huge fantasy and video game geeks.He got me into Marvel Comics, Final Fantasy, role-playing games, and various card games such as Spellfire, Magic:The Gathering, Pokemon, and the Marvel Comics superhero game (not quite sure what the name was).We used to play video games ALL THE FUCKING TIME.In fact we beat Final Fantasy VII's legendary monster Emerald WEAPON...but somebody, I'm not saying who decided to go fight the other legendary monster Ruby WEAPON.He thought he saved, I wasn't sure, so I told him to do it just to make sure...he was positive he saved.Anyways to make a depressing story short, Ruby WEAPON fucked him like a $2.00 whore and it wasn't saved.We both remember that moment very vividly and get a sick feeling when it is brought up.Needless to say, we are fantasy freaks.I bought a ps2 game called Baldur's Gate:Dark Alliance and we absofuckinglutely loved it and it's sequel and spin-off Champions of Norrath and Champions:Return to Arms.In one of those games you can unlock Drizzt as a playable character, and that was how I came to love him.I bought the first set of books in a huge volume with all three books in 1.I had previously read the first book Homeland sometime in 2004 or 2005 and loved it, but lost the book for many years.Once found, it has been sitting in my bookshelf awaiting my pending reading.It took me awhile to read it because I prefer reading smaller paperback books, and this is hardcover size and with all three novels from The Dark Elf Trilogy in it, it is intimidating to look at, much less read.What I was doing was grabbing the smaller paperback version of Homeland and reading a few chapters everytime I went to Barnes & Noble.With my recent knee injury, I hate leaving the house because I take a long time to get ready and then it takes a lot out of me physically and mentally the next few days.Because I am not getting out much, it has led to my increased reading and blogging.To start off my review I will go on the record and say that Drizzt Do'Urden is a very loving and personable character with very good morals and values.He is a drow (dark elf), and lives in the Menzoberranzan, which is a city filled with tracherous drow families in the Underdark, away from the blinding sunlight and their mortal enemies such as the elves, dwarves, and humans.The class structure in Menzoberranzan is based on which drow house is higher up in standing.The top 8 houses are on like a city government committee and are considered the "ruling houses".Each drow family/house is matriarchial and the woman have all the power in the family, and get to treat the males like slaves.The houses...and the people within the families of each house are constantly at battle with each other.The belief system is based on a spider god called Lolth, and the families will do anything to please Lolth to gain her favor...including sacrifices.The book starts off with Matron Malice and Do'Urden house attacking House Devir because it had fallen out of grace with the spider god, and they viewed it as a perfect oppurtunity to attack and destroy the house and move up to the 9th House.Malice is pregnant with what turns out to be the third son in her family.The belief is that if a Matron Mother gives birth to a male child, and two are already living, they sacrifice the third son to Lolth.The third son, Drizzt was about to be sacrificed, when news of the defeat of House Devir comes and even more shocking news comes when the 2nd child of House Do'Urden Dinnin killed his older brother Nalfein to advance in ranking in the heirarcy of his house, thus preserving Drizzt's young life.During the attack however, one of the Devir family members, Alton Devir lived, but got horribly scarred with some chemicals that were in the house.They were for one of the teachers at the drow school for mages and he then took over his identity, with only one person truly knowing his identity...Masoj Hunnett of House Hunnett.The book centers primarily around Drizzt and his early years of training with his sister Vierna, who like all female drows are far superior to the males in standing, but also shows a softness towards him due to the fact that they share the same parents including the house weaponmaster Zaknafein who hates the idea of murdering innocent lives and the drow rules of life.Zak convinces Matron Malice to let him train Drizzt in weaponry as to try and instill his beliefs in him.When the time comes for Drizzt to go to school...one which brainwashes all the drow into believing they are killing machines because all the other races are evil murders, which is exactly what the drow are.Drizzt is top of his class which was to be expected with the amount of training he recieved with Zak.Drizzt becomes unsure as to what to believe in life and what to do about it because of his morals, and that is the dilema he faces throughout the story and probably the entire series.Drizzt's morals and beliefs vs the beliefs of his drow nature and society.Will he do as Zak did and become the innate killer that courses through the drows and let their society brainwash their minds?Will Drizzt escape and live under his own rules along with Zak?Will either of them even survive the violent and deceptive nature of the drow houses?R.A. Salvatore answers these questions with answers and many intense battle sequences which he has become famous for writing.Salvatore's creation of Drizzt is very cliche in the good person in a bad setting and the troubles and personal soul searching that he does, but has enough action and suspense to keep the reader entertained.I will rate this book a 6.5 out of 10 because it is very cliche and predictable at times.I am not saying it is bad by any means because I love it and can't wait to read the other books in the Legend of Drizzt series.I am just saying that if a reader picks it up expecting something new, they may not enjoy it because they may be able to guess the story outcome before it becomes apparant, but it is also only the first book in I think close to 20 books about him, so they had to just give the bare basics of the story for new readers.
Now that the blog is finished, and I am all up to date with my reviews, I can slow down my reading pace.I promise I will try to only include one book at a time because I know it is a lot to read all at once.I am planning on reading the next two Drizzt books followed by the third book in the Twilight saga by Stephenie Meyer afterwards.I will try and keep the blog to a one subject minimun because between the Butch blog and this blog, I am exhausted.I hope you enjoyed.-James
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Butch Walker Music Review
Hello everyone, this will be my first music review I have written.I wrote a similiar one on myspace on Easter, but my computer wouldn't allow it to post and kept timing out.It took me a few hours to write, and I was fucking pissed off majorly so.Since Butch Walker hasn't released a new cd since November, I am going to do a career blog on in and then review his cd, dvd, and side project releases.This should be a monsterous blog.In a bit of a side note, writing the Butch blog inspired me to strongly consider doing more review...and hence this blog was created.
Ok, first off, as you may know, I am a HUGE Butch fan, but will try to be objective and give reasonable reviews on his music.I will start this by telling everybody a little bit about him and his career.Butch Walker is a music producer, song-writer, guitarist, bassist, vocalist and pianist.He is primarily known for his producing ability.He has produced albums or songs for many of todays top artists including Sevendust, Avril Lavigne, Pink, Fall Out Boy, Lindsay Lohan, Bowling For Soup, Lit, Default, All-American Rejects, Simple Plan and The Academy Is.He was also a judge on the show Rockstar:Supernova and then produced the album for the band after the show was over.He is widely regarded as one of the top producers and was the Producer of the Year award from Rolling Stone magazine.
Throughout the late 1980's and 1990's he was in many different bands such as SouthGang, Bad Boyz, Floyd Funk Revival and the Marvelous 3.SouthGang is notable for being one of the first bands to tour China in the early 90's and Marvelous 3 are known for their hit Freak of the Week.The Marvelous 3 disbanded in 2001.The band did not disband with ill feelings towards one another or anything, but because of record label problems as stated in his Live at the Budokan dvd.
After the breakup, Butch decided to do start a solo career.He has released 4 solo albums, 2 live dvds, a live cd version of his Leavin the Game on Luckie St, and created a side project called 1969 where he is the bassist, singer and probably the primary song-writer.His first solo album was called Left of Self-Centered and was released in 2002...which he wrote, recorded, performed and produced.He writes all the lyrics and also does guitar, bass, keyboards, percussion and piano for the album as well.The album starts off with some comedy with Rock Vocal Power, in which he makes fun of himself and the lengths people will go to make money.Butch has no problem writing music that has humor in it.He does that quite a bit in this album with songs such as the songs Suburbia and Get Stupid With You.This album features more of a hard rock/punk rock sound compared to some of his future albums.The sound is found in most songs, but especially in My Way, Suburbia, Alicia Amnesia and If(Jeannie's Song).This album is a pretty fun album does feature some more serious songs such as Sober and Take Tomorrow(One Day At A Time).Butch does a good job at blending the different genres into his writing while making this an album that isn't too serious, too humorous, too hard or too soft.Like I stated earlier, this album features more of a upbeat sound, so most rock/punk fans will enjoy, and fans of good lyrics will enjoy the different emotions he incorporates in each song.I rate this album as a 6.5 out of 10 and reccomend it to most people, like I do for all his albums because it has something for everybody, but especially for fans of pop rock music.
Butch Walker's second album was Letters and that was released in 2004.He co-produced the album and all vocals and probably did most most of the same stuff that he did in his debut album(although it doesn't say who does what on the album).This cd is how I first came to know of Butch Walker.Story-time folks.When I was working at FYE we had a bunch of promotional items that we would give away to customers or to anybody who wanted them.I grabbed this one sampler called Back To School and 2 songs really caught my ear.Those two being Cold by Crossfade and Mixtape by Butch Walker.I asked a buddy of mine at work where I could find the Butch Walker album and as it turns out, he is a Butch fan.He ordered the Left of Self-Centered and Letters albums for me and turned me into the Butch fan that I am today.Back to the review now.The Letters album features more of a pop-rock sound, with more acoustic and piano than his first album had.It is the kinda sound you would find from a Kenny Chesney (island/summer sounding) and Gavin DeGraw (pop/acoustic/rock/piano sounding) combination.That is not to say it is all that sound though.In songs such as Race Cars and Goth Rock, Lights Out and Uncomfortably Numb he has a louder/rockier sound.The lyrics are more personal in this album as he sings about an abused woman who eventually snaps in the piano ballad Joan, wanting to see somebody you love happy whether it is with or without you in the song Maybe It's Just Me and Mixtape, and then the very emotional Thank You note song in which he sings about a cancer patient who is dying.This album is probably my second favorite cd by him, and features some of the different sounds Butch can pull off musically.I will rate this album a 9.0 out of 10 and consider it to be a must listen to album...if not a must have album.The album is perfect for many different occasions, such as just lying down on the beach and watching the sunset, driving in a car on a road trip or just relaxing.
In between the release of his second and third albums he released a double concert dvd.The dvd was called Live at the Budokan.It was released in 2006 and features a short rock concert at the famous Nippon Budokan, and then a longer "Butch" concert in Atlanta from 2003.For those that do not know much about the Budokan, it is one of the most famous arenas in Japan.Here are a few tidbits about it.The Beatles made their first ever Japan concert debut there and were the first rock band to ever perform there.It was originally created for martial art tournaments and was the in host for them in the 1964 Summer Olympics.Bob Dylan, Kiss, Cheap Trick, Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Ozzy Osbourne and other very famous people have performed there and some have even created cd/dvd releases of it as well.It is considered a big deal to play there especially for Westerners who don't usually get to play there often.History lesson 101 there folks.Butch Walker was on tour with Avril Lavigne during her Bonez tour (I believe Gavin DeGraw was the second act and Butch was the opener on that tour.)The Budokan performance isn't what I dub a "Butch" concert because a big part of his headlining concerts is his ability to have fun and interact with the fans.When he isn't a headliner, he has time constraints and can't take his time to talk with the fans and fool around on stage and just have fun.That is the best thing about "Butch" concerts because he has a ton of fun interacting with the other bands, fans, his band and his crew members.The Budokan concert isn't great in that sense, but still ok.That portion of the dvd gets a seperate of a rating since it is a 2 concert dvd.I will rate it from 0-5 and then the other concert will get a rating, and then a overall rating will follow.This concert gets a 3.0 because even though he is limited to his playing time, he includes a bonus documentary with him traveling in Japan and he even speaks some Japanese during the show, complete with American subtitles and a bonus Christmas song that is during the documentary part.The second half of the dvd, This Is Me:Justifies And Stripped is a longer show in his home state of Atlanta.He is able to get a lot of interaction with everybody (including saying Hi to his parents) and fooling around with rapping.He does a good job of mixing in new music from his second album Letters which was not completed at the time, Left of Self-Centered material, and stuff from the Marvelous 3...along with some covers thrown in to be a short intro to his Mixtape song.This concert truly showcases his musical talent because he switches instruments up between playing piano, to acoustic, to electric guitar, and then he showcases his vocal talent as well.He puts a ton of effort in his shows and it really shows in this concert.I give this concert portion a perfect 5 out of 5.If anybody ever wants to know just how good Butch is, they must check this concert out.The overall dvd gets a very nice 8 out of 10.
The Rise and Fall of Butch Walker and The Let's-Go-Out-Tonites was his third solo album and was released in 2006.He signed with a major label for the release of the album and once again has many differen musical styles throughout the album.The primary sounds is a disco rock/dance kinda sound.He sings about dancing at clubs and disco balls and just has an overall retro feel to it compared to his previous albums.That changes about half-way through the album when the music gets softer and starts sounding more like a folk/country album until the end of it.The Lets-Go-Out-Tonites is the name of his backing band that plays alongside him during concerts.As I have stated, this album is kinda split in half with the retro half in the beginning and the country side ending the album.The songs "Hot Girls In Good Moods, Ladies and Gentlemen...The Lets-Go-Out-Tonites and Too Famous to Get Fully Dressed feature that retro sound and the comedic lyrics that Butch so often adds to his music.Bethamphetamine (Pretty Pretty) was the lead off single to the album...which is more of a retro meets current sounding upbeat song.The latter half of the album begins with the 6th track on the album with the song We're All Going Down which is more of a softer guitar/drum song and then has a piano song following it up.The album then has a few country/folk sounding songs such as Rich People Die Unhappy, This is the Sweetest Little Song and Song Without a Chorus.I will say this is Butch's most unique album sound and lyric wise.I like this album a lot because of the diversity and will rate it as his 3rd best album with a 7.5 out of 10.This album is recommended primarily for people who want to hear something different than the ordinary music.
Following the release of the album, Butch's life became somewhat turbulant with the California Wildfires burning his house down in 2007 and burning everything he has.He followed up by dedicating his 2008 year as a major year for his fans and himself.He announced that he planned on releasing something every major holiday in '08, including a cd from his new side project.His first releases were the dvd and cd releases of his Leavin' the Game on Luckie Street.They were released seperately on Valentines Day and St. Patricks Day online.The concert is a "Butch" concert and is highly reccomended.He features songs from his first 3 albums and is more hard rock, with less acoustics than his This Is Me...Justified and Stripped concert from the Budokan dvd is.I consider it a very good purchase for the dvd because you get to see a more rocking side to Butch in one of his headlining concerts.The cd version is only available for download(at least it was when I got mine), but it just isn't the same.The sound seems kinda far away compared to the sound quality of the dvd.The rating for this will once again be split up into the three ratings.The dvd gets a nice 4.0 out of 5, whereas the cd version gets a 2.5 out of 5.The overall rating is a nice 6.5 rating.It is very much like Butch is doing a rock concert and you are in the crowd , where the Justified and Stripped seems more like we are in his home.I would suggest checking out his dvd rather than the cd version if you want to get it.
On April Fool's Day of 2008, he released the debut album from his side project 1969.The cd was titled Maya and features Butch doing vocals, bass, co-production, and probably writing.The cd has more of a electronic/piano sound to it, that kinda puts you in a trance.It is very different, even considering that it is a "different" band and Butch changes the sound of every of his albums from one to the other.The band features a member/members from The Academy Is... and/or American Hi-Fi (I forgot what he said in an interview, but am positive that a member of The Academy Is...is in it).If I find out, I will update and correct the blog.The album is nice, not my personal favorite, but that could also be because I am not a big fan of electronic/trance type of music.I will give it a rating of 6.0 out of 10 with some songs that I like on it being Wreck Me, Alex Where Are You and All Talk, No Action.If you like techno/electronic music and/or a Butch Walker fanatic then it makes a nice addition to your music library, if not, then you may just want to sample the album before you make a decision on whether or not to purchase it.
Sycamore Meadows is his most recent release.It was released on Veteran's Day of 2008.It is easily his most personal album that he has written.He starts off with a fun song The Weight of Her that is a great Summer driving song.It is a very upbeat song, complete with some humor and a Bonnie and Clyde feel to it.The video even is similar to Bonnie and Clyde.The second song on the album is called Going Back/Coming Home and is autobiographical and you really get to understand everything that he was going through when the fire took everything from him in 2007.He talks about his childhood, his family, his start in music, his music experiences with tours, sex, and record label issues.Once again he goes where most artists won't go and talks about getting an std and even "raps" in the song.The next song, Here Comes The...is a duet with Pink in which he talks about the end of a relationship and all the things that accompany it.It is a really emotional song that many can relate to if you ever have a on again/off again relationship with all the feelings that are felt by the two.This album features some very emotional and personal stuff on it, like the aforementioned Here Comes The..., Going Back/Going Home, Atlanta, Ships in a Bottle and "Passed Your Place, Saw Your Car, Thought of You".That is not to say the album is all sad and lower tempo, because The Weight of Her, Ponce de Leon Ave, Summer Scarves, 3 Kids in Brooklyn, Closer to the Truth and Further From the Sky and A Song For the Metalheads are more upbeat and happy, with some humor mixed in.This is my favorite album by him and reccomend it to everybody with a perfect 10 out of 10.It is simply amazing.A definite must own.
I hope you all enjoy the monster blog, and hope everybody gives Butch a listen to.I think many people would really enjoy his music.I want to thank everybody who will actually read this blog and hopefully I can get him some more fans.I have gotten a few people into him already, so who knows, maybe more will take my advice.Thanks
Ok, first off, as you may know, I am a HUGE Butch fan, but will try to be objective and give reasonable reviews on his music.I will start this by telling everybody a little bit about him and his career.Butch Walker is a music producer, song-writer, guitarist, bassist, vocalist and pianist.He is primarily known for his producing ability.He has produced albums or songs for many of todays top artists including Sevendust, Avril Lavigne, Pink, Fall Out Boy, Lindsay Lohan, Bowling For Soup, Lit, Default, All-American Rejects, Simple Plan and The Academy Is.He was also a judge on the show Rockstar:Supernova and then produced the album for the band after the show was over.He is widely regarded as one of the top producers and was the Producer of the Year award from Rolling Stone magazine.
Throughout the late 1980's and 1990's he was in many different bands such as SouthGang, Bad Boyz, Floyd Funk Revival and the Marvelous 3.SouthGang is notable for being one of the first bands to tour China in the early 90's and Marvelous 3 are known for their hit Freak of the Week.The Marvelous 3 disbanded in 2001.The band did not disband with ill feelings towards one another or anything, but because of record label problems as stated in his Live at the Budokan dvd.
After the breakup, Butch decided to do start a solo career.He has released 4 solo albums, 2 live dvds, a live cd version of his Leavin the Game on Luckie St, and created a side project called 1969 where he is the bassist, singer and probably the primary song-writer.His first solo album was called Left of Self-Centered and was released in 2002...which he wrote, recorded, performed and produced.He writes all the lyrics and also does guitar, bass, keyboards, percussion and piano for the album as well.The album starts off with some comedy with Rock Vocal Power, in which he makes fun of himself and the lengths people will go to make money.Butch has no problem writing music that has humor in it.He does that quite a bit in this album with songs such as the songs Suburbia and Get Stupid With You.This album features more of a hard rock/punk rock sound compared to some of his future albums.The sound is found in most songs, but especially in My Way, Suburbia, Alicia Amnesia and If(Jeannie's Song).This album is a pretty fun album does feature some more serious songs such as Sober and Take Tomorrow(One Day At A Time).Butch does a good job at blending the different genres into his writing while making this an album that isn't too serious, too humorous, too hard or too soft.Like I stated earlier, this album features more of a upbeat sound, so most rock/punk fans will enjoy, and fans of good lyrics will enjoy the different emotions he incorporates in each song.I rate this album as a 6.5 out of 10 and reccomend it to most people, like I do for all his albums because it has something for everybody, but especially for fans of pop rock music.
Butch Walker's second album was Letters and that was released in 2004.He co-produced the album and all vocals and probably did most most of the same stuff that he did in his debut album(although it doesn't say who does what on the album).This cd is how I first came to know of Butch Walker.Story-time folks.When I was working at FYE we had a bunch of promotional items that we would give away to customers or to anybody who wanted them.I grabbed this one sampler called Back To School and 2 songs really caught my ear.Those two being Cold by Crossfade and Mixtape by Butch Walker.I asked a buddy of mine at work where I could find the Butch Walker album and as it turns out, he is a Butch fan.He ordered the Left of Self-Centered and Letters albums for me and turned me into the Butch fan that I am today.Back to the review now.The Letters album features more of a pop-rock sound, with more acoustic and piano than his first album had.It is the kinda sound you would find from a Kenny Chesney (island/summer sounding) and Gavin DeGraw (pop/acoustic/rock/piano sounding) combination.That is not to say it is all that sound though.In songs such as Race Cars and Goth Rock, Lights Out and Uncomfortably Numb he has a louder/rockier sound.The lyrics are more personal in this album as he sings about an abused woman who eventually snaps in the piano ballad Joan, wanting to see somebody you love happy whether it is with or without you in the song Maybe It's Just Me and Mixtape, and then the very emotional Thank You note song in which he sings about a cancer patient who is dying.This album is probably my second favorite cd by him, and features some of the different sounds Butch can pull off musically.I will rate this album a 9.0 out of 10 and consider it to be a must listen to album...if not a must have album.The album is perfect for many different occasions, such as just lying down on the beach and watching the sunset, driving in a car on a road trip or just relaxing.
In between the release of his second and third albums he released a double concert dvd.The dvd was called Live at the Budokan.It was released in 2006 and features a short rock concert at the famous Nippon Budokan, and then a longer "Butch" concert in Atlanta from 2003.For those that do not know much about the Budokan, it is one of the most famous arenas in Japan.Here are a few tidbits about it.The Beatles made their first ever Japan concert debut there and were the first rock band to ever perform there.It was originally created for martial art tournaments and was the in host for them in the 1964 Summer Olympics.Bob Dylan, Kiss, Cheap Trick, Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Ozzy Osbourne and other very famous people have performed there and some have even created cd/dvd releases of it as well.It is considered a big deal to play there especially for Westerners who don't usually get to play there often.History lesson 101 there folks.Butch Walker was on tour with Avril Lavigne during her Bonez tour (I believe Gavin DeGraw was the second act and Butch was the opener on that tour.)The Budokan performance isn't what I dub a "Butch" concert because a big part of his headlining concerts is his ability to have fun and interact with the fans.When he isn't a headliner, he has time constraints and can't take his time to talk with the fans and fool around on stage and just have fun.That is the best thing about "Butch" concerts because he has a ton of fun interacting with the other bands, fans, his band and his crew members.The Budokan concert isn't great in that sense, but still ok.That portion of the dvd gets a seperate of a rating since it is a 2 concert dvd.I will rate it from 0-5 and then the other concert will get a rating, and then a overall rating will follow.This concert gets a 3.0 because even though he is limited to his playing time, he includes a bonus documentary with him traveling in Japan and he even speaks some Japanese during the show, complete with American subtitles and a bonus Christmas song that is during the documentary part.The second half of the dvd, This Is Me:Justifies And Stripped is a longer show in his home state of Atlanta.He is able to get a lot of interaction with everybody (including saying Hi to his parents) and fooling around with rapping.He does a good job of mixing in new music from his second album Letters which was not completed at the time, Left of Self-Centered material, and stuff from the Marvelous 3...along with some covers thrown in to be a short intro to his Mixtape song.This concert truly showcases his musical talent because he switches instruments up between playing piano, to acoustic, to electric guitar, and then he showcases his vocal talent as well.He puts a ton of effort in his shows and it really shows in this concert.I give this concert portion a perfect 5 out of 5.If anybody ever wants to know just how good Butch is, they must check this concert out.The overall dvd gets a very nice 8 out of 10.
The Rise and Fall of Butch Walker and The Let's-Go-Out-Tonites was his third solo album and was released in 2006.He signed with a major label for the release of the album and once again has many differen musical styles throughout the album.The primary sounds is a disco rock/dance kinda sound.He sings about dancing at clubs and disco balls and just has an overall retro feel to it compared to his previous albums.That changes about half-way through the album when the music gets softer and starts sounding more like a folk/country album until the end of it.The Lets-Go-Out-Tonites is the name of his backing band that plays alongside him during concerts.As I have stated, this album is kinda split in half with the retro half in the beginning and the country side ending the album.The songs "Hot Girls In Good Moods, Ladies and Gentlemen...The Lets-Go-Out-Tonites and Too Famous to Get Fully Dressed feature that retro sound and the comedic lyrics that Butch so often adds to his music.Bethamphetamine (Pretty Pretty) was the lead off single to the album...which is more of a retro meets current sounding upbeat song.The latter half of the album begins with the 6th track on the album with the song We're All Going Down which is more of a softer guitar/drum song and then has a piano song following it up.The album then has a few country/folk sounding songs such as Rich People Die Unhappy, This is the Sweetest Little Song and Song Without a Chorus.I will say this is Butch's most unique album sound and lyric wise.I like this album a lot because of the diversity and will rate it as his 3rd best album with a 7.5 out of 10.This album is recommended primarily for people who want to hear something different than the ordinary music.
Following the release of the album, Butch's life became somewhat turbulant with the California Wildfires burning his house down in 2007 and burning everything he has.He followed up by dedicating his 2008 year as a major year for his fans and himself.He announced that he planned on releasing something every major holiday in '08, including a cd from his new side project.His first releases were the dvd and cd releases of his Leavin' the Game on Luckie Street.They were released seperately on Valentines Day and St. Patricks Day online.The concert is a "Butch" concert and is highly reccomended.He features songs from his first 3 albums and is more hard rock, with less acoustics than his This Is Me...Justified and Stripped concert from the Budokan dvd is.I consider it a very good purchase for the dvd because you get to see a more rocking side to Butch in one of his headlining concerts.The cd version is only available for download(at least it was when I got mine), but it just isn't the same.The sound seems kinda far away compared to the sound quality of the dvd.The rating for this will once again be split up into the three ratings.The dvd gets a nice 4.0 out of 5, whereas the cd version gets a 2.5 out of 5.The overall rating is a nice 6.5 rating.It is very much like Butch is doing a rock concert and you are in the crowd , where the Justified and Stripped seems more like we are in his home.I would suggest checking out his dvd rather than the cd version if you want to get it.
On April Fool's Day of 2008, he released the debut album from his side project 1969.The cd was titled Maya and features Butch doing vocals, bass, co-production, and probably writing.The cd has more of a electronic/piano sound to it, that kinda puts you in a trance.It is very different, even considering that it is a "different" band and Butch changes the sound of every of his albums from one to the other.The band features a member/members from The Academy Is... and/or American Hi-Fi (I forgot what he said in an interview, but am positive that a member of The Academy Is...is in it).If I find out, I will update and correct the blog.The album is nice, not my personal favorite, but that could also be because I am not a big fan of electronic/trance type of music.I will give it a rating of 6.0 out of 10 with some songs that I like on it being Wreck Me, Alex Where Are You and All Talk, No Action.If you like techno/electronic music and/or a Butch Walker fanatic then it makes a nice addition to your music library, if not, then you may just want to sample the album before you make a decision on whether or not to purchase it.
Sycamore Meadows is his most recent release.It was released on Veteran's Day of 2008.It is easily his most personal album that he has written.He starts off with a fun song The Weight of Her that is a great Summer driving song.It is a very upbeat song, complete with some humor and a Bonnie and Clyde feel to it.The video even is similar to Bonnie and Clyde.The second song on the album is called Going Back/Coming Home and is autobiographical and you really get to understand everything that he was going through when the fire took everything from him in 2007.He talks about his childhood, his family, his start in music, his music experiences with tours, sex, and record label issues.Once again he goes where most artists won't go and talks about getting an std and even "raps" in the song.The next song, Here Comes The...is a duet with Pink in which he talks about the end of a relationship and all the things that accompany it.It is a really emotional song that many can relate to if you ever have a on again/off again relationship with all the feelings that are felt by the two.This album features some very emotional and personal stuff on it, like the aforementioned Here Comes The..., Going Back/Going Home, Atlanta, Ships in a Bottle and "Passed Your Place, Saw Your Car, Thought of You".That is not to say the album is all sad and lower tempo, because The Weight of Her, Ponce de Leon Ave, Summer Scarves, 3 Kids in Brooklyn, Closer to the Truth and Further From the Sky and A Song For the Metalheads are more upbeat and happy, with some humor mixed in.This is my favorite album by him and reccomend it to everybody with a perfect 10 out of 10.It is simply amazing.A definite must own.
I hope you all enjoy the monster blog, and hope everybody gives Butch a listen to.I think many people would really enjoy his music.I want to thank everybody who will actually read this blog and hopefully I can get him some more fans.I have gotten a few people into him already, so who knows, maybe more will take my advice.Thanks
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Angels & Demons by Dan Brown Review
Hello everyone,it is time once again for a review from Birdman/James.This review is on the highly acclaimed #1 Bestseller Angels & Demons by Dan Brown.He is also the author of The Da Vinci Code which was made into a movie a few years ago, and now the same is being done for the "prequel' to The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons.
I will start off by saying that I am not a really religious person.I have read many books on various belief systems and religions and learned to be more of a 'free-spirit'.Some people may view free-spirits as weirdos, tree-huggers and hippies.I am none of those, and view those terms as derogatory.I view "free-spirits" as people who are not tied down by society, by religion, by other people's opinions.I view myself as such.I view myself as a person who doesn't believe in Heaven or Hell, but believe those two metaphors are used to describe the good and bad in life.I believe in doing the right thing not for any religion or belief system, but for myself.I dubbed myself "My Own Personal Messiah" because the way I see things, I control my actions...not God, not Buddha, not my mom...I do.If I make a mistake, it is My fault.I believe in Myself and therefore live by my own code of morals and values.
I began with that little excert because this book is impacted greatly by religion, and many people did not enjoy it because it talks about corruption in the Catholic Church.That way, everybody will know my stance on the religious system.I am not knocking anybody(here anyway)or their personal beliefs, but I am trying to remain as objective as possible while describing a subject that makes people very defensive.
I first became interested in the book around 2005ish.A friend of mine had read, or was reading The Da Vinci Code and was telling me about it.She let my mom borrow the book Angels & Demons, and I was interested in it because it sounded intriguing.I never got around to reading it, but just bought a copy last week(along with about 4 or 5 other books)and after I finished my previous book Legends(an anthology of short stories by many of science-fiction and fantasies most popular authors and their famous series)I started reading it.I began my reading on Sunday April 26th and finished the 710 page behemoth last night April 29th.The book features many very short chapters throughout the book, but many of them are in the beginning which helps by not intimidating the reader and giving them breaks in between the longer chapters.That is especially good in the beginning of the book because it doesn't force you to read 20+ pages of something you may not fully understand.The book shifts from different characters for different chapters, which in my opinion is good because it makes you understand all the characters and not just what is observed.
The main character in this book, and Da Vinci Code is Harvard professor and symbologist Robert Langdon.He is just a regular Joe-Smo and he lives a quiet life as a professor and history buff.In his spare time, he spends time at Harvards swimming pool and of course studying about history and symbology.He gets a phone call very early in the morning from a complete stranger demanding he needs his help.At first Robert thinks it is a prank, and is skeptical how this person got all his personal information.He thinks it is from his website, but he remembers that he didn't put his home phone number on it.Then he recieves a fax with a picture of the ancient Illuminati symbol on it.Still unsure, he rotates the picture and realizes that this person is telling the truth and agrees to meet with him.
This is just the bare beginning as Robert meets Maximillion Kohler, the leader at a huge scientific research lab CERN and the mysterious caller.Vittoria Vette, a beautiful scientist whose adoptive father was just murdered and branded, and everybody at the Vatican in Rome.Vittoria and her father were working on a highly secretive project in their lab at CERN, with nobody allowed inside, or knowing about the research being done...until it is stolen, meaning somebody now has it and knew what it could do.The project also has a timer attached for 24 hours until the batteries wear out and could cause a monsterous explosion.
With all the tragic events and the time frame in which to recover the time-bomb before it explodes, this book is very fast paced.They(the Swiss Guard, Robert and Vittoria)now believe the Illuminati is back and planning on making a HUGE bang in their 400+ year old war against the Catholic Church.Robert and Vittoria are racing against time to find the ancient Illuminati lair that many of the world's greatest scientists couldn't find.It is a great book to read, it has many historical facts about the Catholic Church and the artists and scientists that we have all heard about such as Galileo(sp?)and the art/sculptures created.It reminded me of the tv show 24 in that everything happens in that time period, the movie series National Treasure with all the clues being hidden inside different historical documents and artifacts visible for most to see, but few ever know about the hidden secrets behind.The book may not attract the Catholics because of the story, but that is really too bad because it is a wonderful experience that opens up your mind and helps you wonder what is really happening in the world that we are not being told.I highly recommend it, but am warning everybody that is a religious fanatical that it may upset some of you who cannot seperate religion from life and entertainment.I will give it a 9.5 because of the complex nature of religion because not everybody will understand the signifigance of science vs religion and the beliefs of Catholics.That is the only thing that prevents it from being a perfect 10.I highly suggest reading the book, especially if you plan on seeing the movie in the future...which I think looks good,but you never know how it will turn out with Dan Brown's other masterpiece being considered a major let down.
I will start off by saying that I am not a really religious person.I have read many books on various belief systems and religions and learned to be more of a 'free-spirit'.Some people may view free-spirits as weirdos, tree-huggers and hippies.I am none of those, and view those terms as derogatory.I view "free-spirits" as people who are not tied down by society, by religion, by other people's opinions.I view myself as such.I view myself as a person who doesn't believe in Heaven or Hell, but believe those two metaphors are used to describe the good and bad in life.I believe in doing the right thing not for any religion or belief system, but for myself.I dubbed myself "My Own Personal Messiah" because the way I see things, I control my actions...not God, not Buddha, not my mom...I do.If I make a mistake, it is My fault.I believe in Myself and therefore live by my own code of morals and values.
I began with that little excert because this book is impacted greatly by religion, and many people did not enjoy it because it talks about corruption in the Catholic Church.That way, everybody will know my stance on the religious system.I am not knocking anybody(here anyway)or their personal beliefs, but I am trying to remain as objective as possible while describing a subject that makes people very defensive.
I first became interested in the book around 2005ish.A friend of mine had read, or was reading The Da Vinci Code and was telling me about it.She let my mom borrow the book Angels & Demons, and I was interested in it because it sounded intriguing.I never got around to reading it, but just bought a copy last week(along with about 4 or 5 other books)and after I finished my previous book Legends(an anthology of short stories by many of science-fiction and fantasies most popular authors and their famous series)I started reading it.I began my reading on Sunday April 26th and finished the 710 page behemoth last night April 29th.The book features many very short chapters throughout the book, but many of them are in the beginning which helps by not intimidating the reader and giving them breaks in between the longer chapters.That is especially good in the beginning of the book because it doesn't force you to read 20+ pages of something you may not fully understand.The book shifts from different characters for different chapters, which in my opinion is good because it makes you understand all the characters and not just what is observed.
The main character in this book, and Da Vinci Code is Harvard professor and symbologist Robert Langdon.He is just a regular Joe-Smo and he lives a quiet life as a professor and history buff.In his spare time, he spends time at Harvards swimming pool and of course studying about history and symbology.He gets a phone call very early in the morning from a complete stranger demanding he needs his help.At first Robert thinks it is a prank, and is skeptical how this person got all his personal information.He thinks it is from his website, but he remembers that he didn't put his home phone number on it.Then he recieves a fax with a picture of the ancient Illuminati symbol on it.Still unsure, he rotates the picture and realizes that this person is telling the truth and agrees to meet with him.
This is just the bare beginning as Robert meets Maximillion Kohler, the leader at a huge scientific research lab CERN and the mysterious caller.Vittoria Vette, a beautiful scientist whose adoptive father was just murdered and branded, and everybody at the Vatican in Rome.Vittoria and her father were working on a highly secretive project in their lab at CERN, with nobody allowed inside, or knowing about the research being done...until it is stolen, meaning somebody now has it and knew what it could do.The project also has a timer attached for 24 hours until the batteries wear out and could cause a monsterous explosion.
With all the tragic events and the time frame in which to recover the time-bomb before it explodes, this book is very fast paced.They(the Swiss Guard, Robert and Vittoria)now believe the Illuminati is back and planning on making a HUGE bang in their 400+ year old war against the Catholic Church.Robert and Vittoria are racing against time to find the ancient Illuminati lair that many of the world's greatest scientists couldn't find.It is a great book to read, it has many historical facts about the Catholic Church and the artists and scientists that we have all heard about such as Galileo(sp?)and the art/sculptures created.It reminded me of the tv show 24 in that everything happens in that time period, the movie series National Treasure with all the clues being hidden inside different historical documents and artifacts visible for most to see, but few ever know about the hidden secrets behind.The book may not attract the Catholics because of the story, but that is really too bad because it is a wonderful experience that opens up your mind and helps you wonder what is really happening in the world that we are not being told.I highly recommend it, but am warning everybody that is a religious fanatical that it may upset some of you who cannot seperate religion from life and entertainment.I will give it a 9.5 because of the complex nature of religion because not everybody will understand the signifigance of science vs religion and the beliefs of Catholics.That is the only thing that prevents it from being a perfect 10.I highly suggest reading the book, especially if you plan on seeing the movie in the future...which I think looks good,but you never know how it will turn out with Dan Brown's other masterpiece being considered a major let down.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
Hello all bloggers and blogettes out there who may be reading this...my first official blog describing my thoughts on the entertainment world.I know I already wrote an introduction blog,but this will be what most of my future blogs will be about in the future.If you would like to read other blogs about random stuff I can get bored enough to write about...feel free to add me on myspace at myspace.com/jameserickson.That is all for my introduction,and now on to the the real thing.
The Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer is the current hot commodity among the book and movie world.I first heard about it when my local Barnes & Noble store put a big sign out front saying to preorder your copy of Breaking Dawn and that they were going to have a special opening at midnight for everybody who reserved their copy.I never heard of Twilight or Stephenie Meyer at the time,so I was a little surprised.I know they did that for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K.Rowlings,and maybe a few other books that I can't recall at the moment...but it took me by surprise.Shortly after that my girlfriend Sarah told me that her friend Jen has been reading the Twilight series and that she enjoyed it...and that she was a harsh critic of books too.That last part about her liking it AND being a harsh critic made me interested in reading it.I was told by Sarah that I may not like it because it is a teenage vampire love story...and I am not a romance fan...in books or movies.Nevertheless,around Christmastime last year,I bought it and a few other books and waited to read it...and waited...and waited.
I waited because I needed some motivation to read it,it didn't interest me and I was waiting for Sarah to start reading so I could compete with her to see who would finish first.Neither of us started it for quite awile,and I wanted to see the movie(I am a strong believer in reading the book first and then see the movie)so I suggested that we read it together when we hang out.We read the first chapter together,maybe more...but not much more,and just never read it together again.After a few weeks,I decided to go ahead and read it by myself.At first I didn't like it,and it just dragged on and on,making it hard to keep me interested enough to pick it up and read it.But I forced myself to,which is something I hate having to do.I think it makes for a less enjoyable experience with anything.
The first few chapters were the most difficult to read,as is the case with most things.However this book really sucked all excitement and desire to read out of me.I thought of stopping for awhile,but my mom and brother had seen the movie already and told me it was good,so I continued reading.The book did absolutely nothing for me...it was just like every other "new chick in town"high school book until chapter 8.I am not gonna be a spoiler for those who have not read the book/seen the movie,so I will try not to say too much other than that.From chapter 8-16,I loved it.It was exciting,funny,romantic,and the best part of it was that it was real to life.It didn't portray anything new for teens with their first love...but it differentiated with the vampire twist thrown in.It was not what I expected it to be.I thought it would be more of a typical high school crush...but Meyer did a nice job of making Edward hate his power/curse.Most would think he would enjoy it,or even make Edward be a split personality of a normal teenager...and then a blood-crazed vampire.Instead Meyer crafted Edward into a sort of anti-hero who everybody can sympathize with despite all the powers and things he can do.
The book becomes even better nearing the end beginning at chapter 17.It was so good,that I did not want to put it down.I was thoroughly engrossed in it.The book continues that same momentum,that drive all the way until it's thrilling conclusion.The ending did surprise me,but now it leaves me wondering what the next book will be about,what will happen,that sorta thing...which is what all good story-tellers do,make you want to hear more and more.
My final word on the book is it is a very good read.The target audience is centered around teenage girls(in my opinion)but has something for everyone and is definately worth your time to read.I am not usually high up on reading romance or teen novels,but this book surely delivered for me.I will be giving a rating out of 0-10 for everything I review.0 being the lowest,meaning if it comes within a 5 foot range of you,you need to walk away slowly and make sure not to let it get too close,and 10 which means it is something that you should go out of your way to find/get...even if it means yours kids starve.I would rate Twilight the book at 7.5.
Twilight the movie is part 2 of my review.I finished the book last week and got Sarah to start reading it so we could watch the movie together.If she didn't finish the book soon I was going to watch it without her.The book got me so hyped up,it pained me to wait as long as I did to finally watch it.I wanted to see the movie in the first place as that was a motivating factor in me forcing myself to read it.I must of lit a fire in her to finally finish the book because she picked it up and finished it last week while at my house.I asked her to bring the movie over with her this past Saturday so we could watch it.We were both pretty anxious to see it considering how we both really enjoyed the ending of the book.Unfortunately I felt the movie did the book and Meyer an injustice.
With all the hype and hoopla the movie made at theaters and with how good the book was,I had high expectations.It was like the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings with all the media exposure(well maybe not Harry Potter)and merchandise created around it.On the cover of magazines you hear about arguing and romances being had while filming.It is like a media frenzy with the series...but with one exception.Where the Harry Potter franchise and the Lord of the Rings movies lived up to the hype,Twilight didn't.It is near impossible to when the bar has been set so high,but this movie didn't even come close for me.Bella did not look how I expected,neither did her father,or some of her friends.That is something that should of been an easy thing to remedy...but it wasn't.I am not saying the actors and actresses hired didn't do a good job,considering everything I thought they did well,but at least have Bella look like the Bella we read about.I am sure with the amont of money she was paid,she could of dyed her hair for the movies.The hair is what really irritated me the most.I invisioned,and thought a light brown/blondish Bella with the dark-haired Edward would of really made for a good dynamic.The fair skinned,light haired Bella with the pale skinned,dark haired vampire Edward would of shown the opposite nature they share together.Haven't they heard "opposites attract"?Moving on,the movie does some minor geographical changes in moving Bella's mom from Phoenix to Tampa.Maybe her mom moved there in the movie to be with Bella's step-father,but I don't think they mentioned that she was living there in the book.I know movies and books differentiate,but it really annoys me.I also kinda wanted to see more of Dr.Cullen and his backstory in the movie,they told a little about it,but I was hoping for a black and white flashback kind of thing.One positive thing the movie does is it shows other people being hunted by the group of vampires well before they are even mentioned in the book.I like how they built them up,instead of the Cullens just getting word of it and then them popping up.They gave you a preview into what to expect from the ending.
Overall the movie was not utterly horrible,but when comparing the book to the movie,the movie pales in comparison which is usually the case.One thing I would like to comment on is the special effects. For a movie of this budget I thought it could have been so much more realistic and well-done. For instance, with Edward's running; it just looked so Sci-Fi Channel-ish. That is all for now. I would recommend seeing the movie only if you have read the book and want to see it in live action. The movie as a whole was not great but not bad. I would rate it a 7.5-8 on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the best. But when compared to the book, I would rate it 5.5-6.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Welcome To My Blog
Hello all readers,my name is James. In my future blogs I will be discussing my personal opinions on new cds, bands, games, movies, books and that sorta thing. I think you should all know a little about my likes and dislikes so you can all get an idea into what stuff I prefer in the entertainment genre.
Music-I am a music fanatic. I will not say I "listen to everything"because that is too cliche and not true for many people who say they do. Instead I will name some categories of music and then some names that I especially enjoy:
Classical: Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin.
Country: Garth Brooks, Keith Urban, Rascal Flatts, Lonestar, Tim Mcgraw, Kenny Chesney.
Blues: B.B.King, Kenny Wayne Sheppard, John Lee Hooker(my guitar teacher taught me a bunch of his music).
Rap: Not much here Eminem, Ludicris, 50Cent.
Rock/Alternative: Metallica, Ra, Strata, Sick Puppies, Godsmack, Submersed, Dream Theater,Dropping Daylight,Breaking Benjamin, Exies, Trapt, Mudvayne, Cold, Submersed, Drowning Pool, Soil, Linkin Park, Powerman 5000, Alter Bridge, Good Charloette, Amity Lane/Trust Co, Ozzy, Evansblue, Evanescence, Flyleaf, Angels And Airwaves, Hurt, Theory of a Deadman, Stonesour, 30 Seconds To Mars, Rookie of the Year, Armor For Sleep, Seether, Shinedown, Crossfade, Adema, Green Day, Saliva, The Ataris, Unwritten Law, 3 Days Grace, Smile Empty Soul, Papa Roach, Stroke 9, Bayside, Skillet, Firescape, Something Corporate, Fallout Boy, Halifax, Sum 41, Blink 182, Disturbed, Yellowcard, Amber Pacific, Korn, 1969, Van Halen, New Found Glory, Flaw, and of course Butch Walker.
Movies- I worked as a video department manager at a local FYE, so I know a lot about them. Here it is broken down into categories:
Action:Braveheart, Pirates of the Caribbean, Dragon Heart
Comedy:Wedding Crashers, 40 Year Old Virgin, any and all Jim Carrey and/or Adam Sandler films.
Horror:Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake, the Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street and Halloween series, House of 1000 Corpses, Devils Rejects.
Sci-Fi:LotR Trilogy, Star Wars Trilogy
Family Films:Disney Pixar films like Incredibles, Shark Tale, Toy Story, Finding Nemo
Books - I love to read about different cultures, religions and places. It broadens your horizons. I love Stephen King books. Have read all the LotR books before they came out in theaters, Harry Potter, and more to be discussed later.
Video Games - I own a PS2, PS3, Xbox 360 and many others in the past. I like many different genres which will be discussed at a later date.
Music-I am a music fanatic. I will not say I "listen to everything"because that is too cliche and not true for many people who say they do. Instead I will name some categories of music and then some names that I especially enjoy:
Classical: Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin.
Country: Garth Brooks, Keith Urban, Rascal Flatts, Lonestar, Tim Mcgraw, Kenny Chesney.
Blues: B.B.King, Kenny Wayne Sheppard, John Lee Hooker(my guitar teacher taught me a bunch of his music).
Rap: Not much here Eminem, Ludicris, 50Cent.
Rock/Alternative: Metallica, Ra, Strata, Sick Puppies, Godsmack, Submersed, Dream Theater,Dropping Daylight,Breaking Benjamin, Exies, Trapt, Mudvayne, Cold, Submersed, Drowning Pool, Soil, Linkin Park, Powerman 5000, Alter Bridge, Good Charloette, Amity Lane/Trust Co, Ozzy, Evansblue, Evanescence, Flyleaf, Angels And Airwaves, Hurt, Theory of a Deadman, Stonesour, 30 Seconds To Mars, Rookie of the Year, Armor For Sleep, Seether, Shinedown, Crossfade, Adema, Green Day, Saliva, The Ataris, Unwritten Law, 3 Days Grace, Smile Empty Soul, Papa Roach, Stroke 9, Bayside, Skillet, Firescape, Something Corporate, Fallout Boy, Halifax, Sum 41, Blink 182, Disturbed, Yellowcard, Amber Pacific, Korn, 1969, Van Halen, New Found Glory, Flaw, and of course Butch Walker.
Movies- I worked as a video department manager at a local FYE, so I know a lot about them. Here it is broken down into categories:
Action:Braveheart, Pirates of the Caribbean, Dragon Heart
Comedy:Wedding Crashers, 40 Year Old Virgin, any and all Jim Carrey and/or Adam Sandler films.
Horror:Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake, the Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street and Halloween series, House of 1000 Corpses, Devils Rejects.
Sci-Fi:LotR Trilogy, Star Wars Trilogy
Family Films:Disney Pixar films like Incredibles, Shark Tale, Toy Story, Finding Nemo
Books - I love to read about different cultures, religions and places. It broadens your horizons. I love Stephen King books. Have read all the LotR books before they came out in theaters, Harry Potter, and more to be discussed later.
Video Games - I own a PS2, PS3, Xbox 360 and many others in the past. I like many different genres which will be discussed at a later date.
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