mjm wired :: Music

U2 3D Rocked!

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 18:42:17 -0400

I finally got around to seeing the U2 3D and did it ever rock! It was released to IMAX theatres in February but I've been so busy to see it. Luckily I did before it stops playing at the end of this month. I know this old news to people who've seen it, but I really enjoyed it. I would even go so far to say that with some minor tweaking, I might prefer to see concerts like this, instead of waiting and standing for hours like I did for Vertigo in 2005. The last time I saw an IMAX show I was in Chicago and it was something about the Gulf War in 1993.

The "3-D" is really what makes it worthwhile. This was my first 3-D movie. At first it felt weird but you soon get used to it and some close up shots of Bono made it feel like you physically there. It was interesting how they made some parts stick out. Some scenes had fans jumping up out of the audience and instinctively I wanted to tell them to "sit back down" - almost as if someone was standing in the theater in front of me. Some shots of the sea of fans really were amazing. Other than that there were only a few times they pushed the limits of the 3-D effect. Once when Bono was drawing pictures in the air, they showed up for us. And once during the usual U2-is-gonna-save-the-world appeal there were words flying into the audience. Overall great for a first time, but really they could have done sooo much more!

The annoying part of the 3-D was the glasses were so bulky and uncomfortable for people who wear eye glasses like myself. The only other annoyance I had was that for some scenes my eyes would go "out of sync" and I could start to lose the 3-D effect and see the 2 composite images on the screen. Luckily it only happened at the end. I wonder if it was just me?

In any event it seems like IMAX theatres are popping up all over the place and I'm looking forward to more shows like that (non-nature based, like 99% of the normal 3-D material). I think some screens may be playing U2 for maybe another week if you haven't already seen it. For $12 definitely worth the price compared to normal theaters!

American Idol: Season 6

Thu, 15 Feb 2007 12:28:08 -0500

I can't beleive I'm confessing on my blog that I am actually watching America Idol for the first time in my life and I actually enjoying it. Past few weeks were pretty entertaining with all the humiliation and belittling (sad fact of our human nature). But anyways, I've never watched the show before . I saw 15 minutes of Fantasia performing when I was in India in 2004 and otherwise I really have not found many "Idol's" very impressive. So last night the final 24 (12 girls and 12 boys) were selected. And the picks made for some possible interesting television.

During the auditions Indian siblings, Shaymali and Sanjaya Malakar both made it. And even though both thought the older sister (Shaymali) was the better singer, her brother proved to be the shining talent when she was cut. However sadly for this desi, this is American idol and as much as I think he's a good singer, I doubt he'll make it. After all america wants people like Katharine McPhee who sit very suggestively on the cover of their debut CD's.

Otherwise outside the obvious indian talent, I'm rather impressed by Chris Sligh - the christian wanna-be rocker who's got a killer sense of humor. Sadly he reminds me of Jack Osbourne and I think he'll struggle in the sex-appeal department as well. And even though I doubt I'd ever buy her music, I was very much impressed with the vocal ability of Melinda Doolittle. An honorable mention to Sundance Head, who had an awesome audition but really went south during the infamous "Hollywood Week".

Oh well, there are some obvious one's who won't get very far including bare-foot boy and the young Antonella. But I'm sure there will probably be some fun with the i-can't-beleive-i'm-not-beat-boxing Blake Lewis. And I feel sorry for the kid who apparently his mother didn't love him until he auditioned for American Idol, too bad he got cut.

I can't believe I've been sucked into this gimmick. What have I become?

Mauriat is Dead

Thu, 09 Nov 2006 07:53:20 -0500

Mr. Mauriat has just died - Mr. Paul Mauriat that is.

Paul Mauriat, a French conductor whose arrangement of "Love is Blue" topped U.S. charts in the 1960s and who garnered a large following in Japan, has died. He was 81.

I never downloaded the "Love is Blue" MP3. Coincidentally a fan of Mauriat (not me) happened to email me the file, just because he liked it so much, he thought I would like it also.

The sentiment was nice, and so was the music.

Vertigo Tour 2005: Detroit, Michigan

Wed, 26 Oct 2005 21:43:54 -0400

I had a blast at the U2 concert. Granted I was totally exhausted, but in retrospect I really don't regret much.

Back in January I was a little disappointed they picked a monday, but I decided that I would make accommodations regardless of work or other committments. So I took some time off, went home, got ready and left for the Palace with my brother, by about 4. Sadly most of southeastern Michigan is under assault by construction and we arrived there by about 5:30. The west entrance was the only entrance for GA (general admission) floor tickets. So we waited in the shorter of the 2 lines formed there. At 6 we filled in, only to find we were accidentally in the u2.com fan club line. A little smooth sailing and we hopped into the right line (selfishly cutting in front of a few hundred) oh well. We got our floor wristbands and went out the to the floor.

The floor was set up with a big ellipse with one end at the stage and the other holding back the GA floor. If your ticket scanned some code, you got to take 1 person into the ellipse with you. No luck here. So since it's GA and first come first "stand", we just stood clumped up to the outer edge of the ellipse for about 1 hour till 7:30 when the cover band started. The seats weren't even 1/3 filled yet.

The coverband "Institute" really sucked. Made up of ex-Bush singer Gavin Rossdale (aka. Mister Gwen Stefani), they really didn't connect much with the crowd. They were a little harsh and the only time the crowd seemed happy was when they sang some Bush songs, which I never liked in the first place. That's when I realized how truly loud the floor was. Credit to my younger brother for suggesting ear plugs. So even though it didn't drown out the boring music, it helped. They wrapped up by about 8:25 or so and the stage was set up for the main act. Keep in mind now that we've been standing for almost 3 hours.

The band finally surfaced at 9 and it was packed to the limit. I finally saw Bono appear out of nowhere on the ellipse platform. They opened to an incredibly lively "City of Blinding Lights" from their latest album ("How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" - long, I know). There was an amazing back drop of stringed lights that ran multiple images across them which made me feel like I was in the video for that song. After hopping through "Vertigo" they introduced themselves and started rolling with their act.

Let me say Bono and the boys are rock solid entertainers. They don't just sing they really put on a show. The music was rocking perfect, but the presence is what truly made the difference. Let me be the first to say that their latest album was nothing compared to 2000's "All That You Can't Leave Behind" or "Achtung Baby" or "The Joshua Tree". But they mixed a lot of new songs into the act and went through a good number of old songs including "Pride" and "Sunday Bloody Sunday". It was great just singing along (almost screaming) and not really caring. But the most energizing parts were when they played their late 80's and 90's music. Definite crowd pleasers.

And what would a U2 concert be without Bono's plea for support for debt relief and aide to 3rd world countries and the common brotherhood of man? He pulled out a bandanna with coexist - a phrase with symbolism to Islam, Judaism and Christianity. Very smooth how it all came to gether. So succintly he merged it with the ONE campaign. Asking people to pull out their cell phones in the darkness and make for a dazzling light display. And to end the show they played "One" (quite possibly the best U2 song ever). And I was ready to go home. It was 10:30 and my body was drained, but no the lights would not come on.

They came back up for an encore with "Walk On" dedicated to Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest in Burma. And with it (on screen) she read off a Universal Declaration of Human Rights - very apolitical and moving. And with that I thought it was over. Then they came up for some more "Joshua Tree" music which somehow reanimated me into jumping and singing again. And after Bono picked some girl out of the crowd (about 10 feet away) and sang "With or Without You" to her, I thought it was over. But those cursed lights never came back on. Then, for one final encore (or maybe I missed one in between), they ended with "Psalm 40". And the people sang into the darkness.

Walking on out of the arena was terrible. My shoes were sticky with spilled beer and those steps were like climbing the highest mountains. After buying our ONE campaign wristbands and being upset that t-shirts were $35 a peice, we finally sat down in the car at 11:30. After about 6 straight hours on our feet, driving home was tough, but we pulled in at about 1am and slept by 2. Wish I took tuesday off instead of just the morning. Oh well.

Looking back, maybe I'll get seats next time. But I guess I wouldn't trade monday night for the world. It was great. It was moving and the experience was exactly what I couldn't live without. Been waiting for over 10 years, and for the guy with the poster: "I've waited 20 years for this day" -- yeah, I know what that felt like. It was a beautiful day.

U2 Anticipation

Sun, 23 Oct 2005 21:40:17 -0400

Feeling good about tomorrow.

Need I say more?

I Think I Found my MP3 Player

Tue, 21 Jun 2005 17:10:00 -0400

I've been holding out on an MP3 player for over a year now. My biggest frustration with things like the iPod is that they have bad battery life and support few sound formats, and their compatibility is mediocre. ... So if I were to list my requirements they would be:

* Play MP3, WMA, Ogg - (I ripped most of my CD's to Ogg format)
* 10-15 hour battery life - (iPod does 6?)
* Can act as a removable USB2 hard drive in all OS's (really windows and linux)
* FM Radio receiver - (I don't understand why this is not more common?)
* Voice recorder - (VERY nice, but not required)

So I could barely beleive it, when someone showed me the iAudio X5. It has all that AND more. So now I just have to do my research and get it. The (nearly) impossible has happened, I think I found my MP3 player!

U2 Vertigo 2005 Tickets Selling Like Hotcakes

Sat, 12 Mar 2005 11:17:49 -0500

So this morning I woke up a bit early and got ready at 9:50am, loaded up time.gov and watched the time click till 10:00:00am and clicked on the Palace of Auburn Hills website. Logged in and purchased my U2 tickets and landed 2 floor spots. It took about 3 minutes. I was a bit hesitant about being on the floor, but I've heard great things about the experience. So I went for round 2 and tried to purchase 2 more in the club section. Maybe I could sell them or have 2 more people. I think it was about 10:07am and all I could find was behind the stage. Tried again and by about 10:11am I couldn't find anything nice for a pair of seats. I'm shocked U2 tickets sold so fast. Oh well, I got my place. That's all that matters.

You can look on my brother's blog for our seat locations. As lame as I may sound, I've been looking forward to the chance since about 1993.

Been Waiting a Long Time...

Wed, 09 Mar 2005 09:57:24 -0500

Everytime U2 has toured in the past I wasn't able to go. I remember on the day of the Pop Mart tour in October 1997 one of my friends asked me if I could pony up the cash to join him - but I was flat broke. And the Elevation tour came and went in 2001, missed that too.

Just now I read the announced U2 concert date is October 24 and show time is at 7:30pm. Why a monday? I don't know, but I don't care.

Same Old Whining from Eminem

Fri, 10 Dec 2004 18:41:58 -0500

At the end of the day a Palestinian, Gujurati, Russian and I were talking about how stupid and often talentless rap is. And then Eminem came up, and there was a split reaction in regards to his lyrics. I guess we all ageed that his constant rehashing of his "tough childhood" and "hard life" has become so old - boring really. We get it already. But then someone mentioned that in his Mockinbird lyrics off of his latest album mentions they saved a jar which "almost had a thousand dollars". My Gujarati coworker says, "Man, 1000 dollars? I'd be rich back in India". We laughed, then we thought about it. He complains about his problems, but at the same time (1) he had place to live, (2) could put food on the table, and (3) actually saved money. And then we went off on that. My Russian coworker talked about life in Russia and how his parents survived war conflicts. And I mentioned that driving at night in Bombay I could see hundreds of people sleeping on the concrete, and families housed in makeshift scrap metal and covers. And finally my Palestinian coworker says, "I lived an okay life in the West Bank, but now I think about it, this Eminem, his complaints seem so small".

Everything is relative, I know. But to me, all these "hardcore" rappers who become tough over years growing up "on the streets" - I doubt they could last a day somewhere else, where it truly is "hard".

Band Aid 20

Sat, 20 Nov 2004 11:19:14 -0500

I just watched the video for Band-Aid 20, which was the 20 yr anniversary of the original Band-Aid done for hunger relief in Africa in 1984. And I must say, not as good as the original. More modern and has some younger faces, but I doubt as successful as the first one.

The little rap segment in their seems very much out of place and the singing styles don't fit too well. And the Bono lyric, that we was so insistent about, isn't anything spectacular. But I tell you what's killer, there's a segment where the performers are all watching starving children in Africa on a big screen. And all I can think is: "Are they intentionally trying to torture themselves?". Very odd, but moving (read depressing) at the same time.

Well, anyways, I hope it does raise money for the poor children in Africa. Even the worst off people in this country can find help, but those people there, well I can't imagine. (I hope you music pirates feel guilty for downloading that song!).