Author: Jody Whitesides

I’ve sent off the mixes of Hate to Say Goodbye. I’m thinking I may post a two minute clip of the song in the Clubhouse in the next few days, so keep an eye out for that. I’m still cutting up the chunks of the Keyclub show. I will be posting a new song a week in the Clubhouse. Thus you’ll be able to catch most of the KeyClub show – price of admission: Free. Even cooler is I’m going to finally have my own custom picks with my signature on them. Yippee! Should have them in the next few weeks.

Movie Pick of the Week: First off, there are two here for me to comment on (my rating scale thing is new and is based on a ten point system)…
Alone in the Dark: I’m not sure who felt it would be a good idea to put money into this. My first reaction is that Christian Slater and Stephen Dorf must have turned to each other after the first day of shooting and asked each other “is this shit or what?!?”. Almost the worst story I’ve even been subjected too. Don’t get me started on the special effects, I could probably render better CGI on my home computer. it barely even got exciting, in fact most of it was worse than B movie action. The one liners and most of the retorts in this movie were overly predictable and often times ripped off from movies like Alien. Personally I like Christian and Stephen, but the quality of what they had to work with really killed their ability to even seem like they were acting. Tara, well – lets just say she should stick to things like Van Wilder and American Pie. The rest of the cast, ugh. As for the look of the film, It seems like they borrowed cameras and different lenses to shoot each angle of a scene. The film grain was inconsistent and the look was a mess. This movie was off on so many levels. Don’t waste your time, don’t even rent it.
Story Rating: 2.
Special Effects Rating: 2.
Action Rating: 3.
Dialogue Rating: 1.
Acting Rating: 2.
Production Rating: 3.
Overall Rating: 2.2.

In Good Company: First off, I went into this thinking it had potential. Though not as good as I had anticipated, it was ok. It had moments of splagh (cheese-factor). The concept was there, but it was overly obvious and took the characters a long time to reel it in. There wasn’t any real action other than Dennis throwing a punch. Some of the dialogue was trite, but there were some good lines here and there. I like Dennis Quaid. I like Topher – though his character in this movie was scattered. Scarlett was much better in this movie than in Lost In Tokyo (Translation, I know). The film was coherent in look and feel, but obviously there wasn’t an over-the-top look to this movie. While this film didn’t knock me off my feet and it had some character development flaws, it was bearable. I wouldn’t rush out to see this, but it would make a good rental or even a matinee.
Story Rating: 6.
Special Effects Rating: n/a.
Action Rating: n/a.
Dialogue Rating: 5.
Acting Rating: 6.
Production Rating: 5.
Overall Rating: 5.5.

So there it is.

Jody

It’s been a crazy ass week. I feel like I’ve worked what little ass I have off. Well it’s not entirely gone; I did check a mirror and twisted around to make sure it wasn’t gone, there’s still a little left. I finished a new song for a music library. That song is called “Hate to Say Goodbye”. It was a curious lesson in providing music for sound libraries – at least as far as the mixes and the different lengths they require. Sorta makes me want to pile more work upon myself to go back and create additional mixes for all my old catalog, so that if anyone else comes knocking I have it already done. Its one of those things that make me go HMMM…

Oh yeah, the band and I played the KeyClub in Hollywood last week. As I stated in the last post – we had a blast. It’s a damn good thing I video taped it. Over in the left hand menu you might notice a change to the Motion Pictures section. Why? Well, I thought those old videos had been around long enough. So I moved them all over to the Clubhouse and put up a single live 2 minute clip of “All The Things” from the upcoming “Practical Insanity”. I can’t wait until the album drops! You are free to watch this video clip over and over. It’s 2 minutes long and yes that’s what we sound like live without overdubs. (You might need to get Quicktime 6 to view it – but it’s free, follow the quicktime link if the video doesn’t play. It’s worth it).

Doh, I almost forgot… It’s NAMM week this past week. Chris and I spent all day Friday cruising around checking out the new gear and catching up with some friends we don’t see very often. Like Deirdre Weaver – the inventor of the Sumadek, or Rob Hill – the mix-master of Queen in Surround and Korn, Dave Smith & Phil Jackson of Apple, my friends at Dean Markley, Bela @ Native Instruments, Kellie @ Seymour Duncan, Bob Borbonus @ Taylor… Oh the fun never ends at NAMM, Dale Titus, Jimmy & Rick from Groove Tubes, K-Jo – Kristy from Sennheiser. Heck I even ran into my old roommate from MI, Andrew Cassidy who now owns a fantastic guitar store up in Canada – The Guitar Connection. I even met Mile Kennedy from Rockstar – the movie, he was a pretty cool dude. I’m excited to be heading back to NAMM on the final day of Sunday for a special invite presentation by Apple. I am an Ubërgeek and being the tech nut that I am, I’m honored that I’d get the chance to see this presentation.

Movie Pick of the Week: Blue Crush. I had never seen it, but I figured what the hell. Lots of skin, surfing and pretty people to look at. Actually the movie isn’t half bad. The surfing scenes actuallly feel quite realistic, but then I’ve never done more than body surf so what do I know. Kate Bosworth was fun to watch. The movie did drag in a few parts, but overall I enjoyed myself. It’s a good rental.

Jody

Hot damn! We had a great time the other night rockin’ out at the Key Club in Hollywood. I’m happy to say that the band was quite pleased with the performance. I shot video and so far it looks pretty darn good. Expect to see a 2 minute clip from a song or two in the very near future. I’ve already heard back from the KeyClub, everyone was happy with how everything turned out so we’ll be booking another show there soon. Maybe next time we’ll exchange the dancing bears for, uhmmm… opps I shouldn’t have let that cat out of the bag.

In the meantime, I’m continuing to perfect the Clubhouse section. Some of you will notice, some of you won’t. However I’ll feel better for it, which will lead me to sleep better at night, subsequently play better at shows and cause some crazy cycle to start where I’ll end up a huge star.

I’m currently whipping up a new song for a music licensing company, something along the lines of of my song “Never Say Goodbye”. Keep an ear out for it as it may show up in a TV show or a film later this year. I’ll certainly post some news when it gets placed. Heck I’ll probably also do a dance of joy just to scare all my friends.

Movie Pick of the Week: Million Dollar Baby. I know I’m a little late on this one. However I did just see it yesterday. First thing is, if this movie doesn’t win an award for something then me-thinks there’s a major problem in the kingdom. MDB (as I’ll call it from here on out), is a fully engrossing movie story-wise. After the first two mintues I completely forgot about Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, and Hillary Swank as actors and got lost in their characters. I must say this is the coolest boxing movie since say something like Rocky. Absolutely rivoting, with powerful moments that caused me to even shed a tear (does that make me less of a man?!?). I will say it’s got some very depressing moments, but they are heavily outweighed by the moments of elation. Do yourself a favor – SEE THIS MOVIE! Do not wait for rental.

More coming soon when my brain can handle it.

Jody