Step away from that song and nobody gets hurt.

Top Five on Friday @ The Music Memoirs

Top 5 songs that should never be covered again!


1. Dock of the Bay (originally by Otis Redding) - I know Otis just has to be weeping in heaven when he hears Michael Bolton's cringe inducing cover.

2. Big Yellow Taxi (originally by Joni Mitchell) - I want to hit something quite hard when I hear the Counting Crows version. And they even got Vanessa Carlton in on the masscre chiming in with a bop bop bop or two here and there. I can't decide though if this reaction is due to the fact that this comes on at work at least three times during every shift I work or not.

3. Behind Blue Eyes (originally by The Who) - Fred Durst needs to be drawn and quartered for even going there.

4. Anything Jessica Simpson covers (well, even SINGS, period) will work well here. I point out her version of Berlin's "Take My Breath Away" to start. And then there's Nancy Sinatra's classic "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'"... Step down, Jes, step down.

5. It's My Life (originally by Talk Talk) - I love No Doubt, but they butchered this song.


Here's The list over at The AV Club, which this week's Top Five was inspired by.

I may have something more to add about the AV Club's list later, as I was thinking about a post on this very list anyway. I have to digest it all and think about it. Plus I need to get to work until about 6:30. Watch this space.

A Scanner Darkly (2006) - Review

A couple of nights ago on cable, I finally got to see "A Scanner Darkly".

It was trippy, to be sure. Not your typical Hollywood fare and a film you will either think is cool as hell or hate to death. I knew I was in for quite a trip when I watched the first bug infested scene.

I have never read the book so I had no idea what it was all about going in. I mean, I had a brief description of the plot but not much more to go on. A dystopian future where the war on drugs is lost, as a dangerously addictive and brain damaging "Substance D" runs rampant. An undercover narcotics agent becomes immersed in the culture, starts using and dealing, and becomes a victim of the drug. As he's forced to spy and report on those whom he is closest to, and the more he becomes addicted, it becomes too great for his sanity to bear, and he falls deeper into paranoia and psychosis. By the way the scramble suits freaked me out. Just strange, undulating and morphing all the time.

I loved the whole interpolated rotoscoping achieved "animated" feel of it all. Lent itself perfectly to what I was seeing... made you feel after a bit as if you were indeed in a state of "lucid dreaming". And I loved some of the funny stoned conversations and debates Arctor (Keanu Reeves) would have with his room mates.

I thought Keanu was good here. I've heard a lot of bad and good about his acting abilities in his films, but I still like him, and he picks his projects well.

And Robert Downey, Jr. is amazing thank you very much. I ♥ him. Woody Harrelson and Winona Ryder do great here too, this was a well cast movie.

I want to sit down with this film again, because I know I didn't catch everything. I also want to read the book now.