Sugarland again

Hello,

First things first: The 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics starts today. Good luck to all countries, there have been some amazing human interest stories so far. I would like to wish good luck especially to Dana Torres. I'm pulling for her because she is 41 years old, just like me. It's not often you see people my age in the Olympics, especially in such a difficult sport. There will be more human interest stories emerge as the Olympics goes on. I lived in Salt Lake City in 2002 when the Winter Olympics was here. Those were two of the most fun weeks of my life. If you are in Beijing or anywhere near, take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime experience.

A couple of book notes: I just finished reading "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" by Ron Hansen. This was later made into the movie starring Brad Pitt. Anyway the book you can skip. Jesse James is killed on about page 200 and then the last about 100 pages is about Robert Ford, who is not half as interesting. One more thing I would encourage you to skip is the Arnold S. movie "End of Days". It is a very formulaic end of world movie. Kevin Pollack is in the movie and I wonderied the whole time why is he in it? He is terrible. (Thankfully this movie is not as bad as "Tomcats".)

After that disappointing book I was going to start reading "Eclipse" the third of the "Twilight" novels. However when I went into my local library I remembered this book I had heard good things about titled "Garden of Last Days" by Andre Dubus. I made the mistake of reading the first several pages of that and then could not put it down. It is amazing and very well written. It's a gritty and intense story like Dennis Lehane's "Mystic River". I highly reccomend both of those books.

Anyway now on to music. Again thanks to Rhapsody I am listening to the new Sugarland CD. I absolutely love Jennifer Nettles voice. Today I am listening to the extended version. This extended version includes a live performance of the 80's classic "Life In A Northern Town". Another highlight of this CD is the song called "Steve Earle", it is very funny. Also while I was surfing the 'net today, I read that the former third member of Sugarland is now suing her former band for 1.5 million dollars. She wasn't kicked out of band, she left because she got sick of the life. She wanted to focus on her song writing. Anyway I would highly reccomend "Love On the Outside" in either version.

Sugarland is going out on tour with two supporting artists. The first is "American Idol's own Kellie Pickler. She is one of the most successful "AI" alumni. The other supporting act is Ashton Shepherd. Shepherd has the great song, "Takin Off That Pain". Their tour starts September 13th in Asheville, North Carolina.

I have been promising this for awhile, but here is a more indepth survey of the great band Motion City Soundtrack. Motion City Soundtrack has released three CD's so far. They are "Commit This To Memory", "Even If It Kills Me" and "I Am The Movie". Based on the number of 5 star songs their best CD is "Commit This To Memory". However all three CDs have a great selection of songs. Here's a list of their 10 best songs 1) "Attractive Today" 2) "Everything Is Alright" 3) "Make Out Kids" 4) "Better Open The Door" 5) "Where I Belong" 6) "Point of Extinction" 7) "The Future Freaks Me Out" 8) "Perfect Teeth" 9) "Capital H" 10) "Fell In Love With You". That last song is probably my favorite song of theirs.

Also today is the day with 15 songs spotlighted by music site goombah.com. As usual there are some good songs and some not so good songs. The most interesting band I heard today is The Smittens. They have three songs available at goombah.com. They are "Gumdrops", a very quirky song that is my favorite of the bunch. The other two songs are "Something Sassy" and "The Interstate". Another two songs that are worthwhile checking out are by a band called Shaky Hands. Their two interesting songs are "We Are Young" and "A New Parade".

Unfortunately I am human and make mistakes, I incorrectly gave you the incorrect title of a movie. I said the movie was "The Third Man", actually the movie I saw was the horrible "The Third Wheel". Avoid it at all costs.

I am working later tonight and all day tomorrow, so my next blog won't come out until Sunday. I anticipate I will be giving a full review of "Garden Of Last Days" then. I am wondering if the ending will hold up with the rest of the book.

Have a great weekend, themusicaddict