VCU uPDaTe WeEk 13 – Games Ending December 1, 2008
ESPN TMQ.
We still think Andy is a bumbler. Greg Easterbrook, writing TMQ on espn.com,
thinks otherwise:
Motivation Watch: Andy Reid
presents a bumbling image, and when he pulled Donovan McNabb during the loss to
Baltimore, Reid was savaged by the sportstalk media. "He has no idea what
he's doing" was the gist. But the Eagles were playing listlessly, and had
played listlessly the week before in their soporific five-quarter tie against
Cincinnati. Yanking the team's leader sent this message to Philadelphia
players: "None of your jobs are safe either." Four days later,
Philadelphia pounded Arizona 48-20 as the Eagles played with great enthusiasm.
Did the sports radio world acknowledge that Reid's motivational ploy worked?
CULTURE CORNER.
Brian Wilson, erstwhile Beach Boy, lost
a decade or more to drugs and mental illness.
He’s been healthier the past ten years, but his musical output has been
unremarkable other than his 4-decades late completion of the legendary “SMiLE”
album. Until now. There are 87 bajillion MP3 tunes on my PC. I
listen to music a lot, and I lament that I cannot hear all of it often enough. Yet
for the past several weeks, I have been playing the same album over and over
and over again.
I was not a big Beach Boys fan (though I enjoy their early work) and I don't
get all wierd over Pet Sounds. So my expectations for a new release from
Brian Wilson were modest. However, with
the release of That Lucky Old Sun, Wilson has put together well-crafted
pop that blends modern sounds with wistful nostalgia like nothing I've heard. You
can't help feeling good when you listen.
Excerpts from one review:
Those
Lucky Old Fans
That Lucky Old Sun answers all doubters with a big ol’ burst of that
classic Beach Boys feel. The central theme of this album is looking back to
‘50s and ‘60s Los Angeles, so any concerns about aiming for modern production
sounds can be tossed out the window. Clearly laying out this retro thesis right
from the start, the album opens with its title track, a remake of a tune made
famous by Frank Sinatra in 1949. Despite songwriting billed to Gillespie/Smith,
there’s no doubt this is the beginning of a Brian Wilson record. Angelic, Beach
Boys-like harmonies introduce his truncated take on the old ditty, which then
segues into the first proper song, the Sunflower-like pop/rocker “Morning
Beat”.
This is the first of several Lucky Old Sun songs that Brian co-penned with
multi-instrumentalist Scott Bennett, who established himself as a member of
Wilson’s backing band on Smile. Leave it to a younger generation of Beach Boys
worshippers to understand the importance of that band’s classic vibe, perhaps
even more so than its originator. Wilson is a nostalgic guy, anyway, so it
probably wasn’t hard for Bennett to coax these ‘60s sounds out of the master
tunesmith. The resulting album is a love letter to a bygone Southern California
and, in no small way, Brian Wilson’s ode to those sounds of the era that he
created.
Thankfully, Wilson’s wide-eyed mind and purity of heart outshine any potential
for aural narcissism that might come from such an endeavor. As on his best
works, the music of That Lucky Old Sun pours warmly outward and feels like a
gift. “Forever She’ll Be My Surfer Girl” is the song most clearly indebted to
Brian’s own past and is also one of the album’s many highlights. Beginning with
a simple yet lovely piano progression, the track quickly blooms into full
chamber pop glory, with arrangements of backing vocals, rock group
instrumentation, strings, and horns. Rising above it all is Wilson’s falsetto
lead on the chorus.
Bennett isn’t Brian Wilson’s only collaborator here, however. Smile co-writer
Van Dyke Parks helped to pen parts of That Lucky Old Sun, too, including the
music behind a handful of short, linking narratives. While Parks’s backdrops
are nice on these spoken interludes, Brian is a mediocre poet and an awkward
reader. These tracks are slightly charming in their dorkiness, but will
generate a wince or two, as well. Be thankful for the brevity of these bits. The
Wilson/Parks team shine much brighter on “Live Let Live”, a buoyant and swaying
tribute to whales swimming in the ocean and a plea for humans to “get the hell
outta there”.
Mostly, though, this is Wilson and Bennett’s baby. Whether from actually creating
old Beach Boys albums or from listening to them studiously, the two perfectly
capture the feel of Brian’s old band without resorting to replication or
attempting to ape the sonic blueprint of the time (a lesson the Explorers Club
could stand to learn). “Midnight’s Another Day” is an aching ballad that echoes
“In My Room” and, though not as bleak, “‘Til I Die”. On the other end of the
spectrum, “Going Home” is a blues boogie rocker most reminiscent of the Beach
Boys in the years just after Brian’s late ‘60s breakdown. Happily, Wilson and
Bennett also reach beyond the shadow of the former’s past efforts. “Mexican
Girl” brings in some obvious yet suitable flourishes, such as castanets and
Spanish guitar, neither of which one tends to associate with the Beach Boys.
“California Role”, meanwhile, sounds much more like classic Randy Newman, until
the chorus kicks in with its undeniably Brian Wilson melody.
Smile remains the greatest record of Brian Wilson’s solo career, but the
handicap on that album is huge, considering the majority of its material had
been recorded before. It feels more like a timeless artifact than a bona fide
modern Brian Wilson solo album. That Lucky Old Sun, then, is easily Wilson’s
best collection of new material since, well, the original SMiLE sessions.
Collectively, the Beach Boys wrote and recorded a few worthwhile LPs after
1967, but with only occasional contributions from Brian. It is remarkable that,
40-plus years after his last great effort, Wilson has written an entire album
as melodically strong and sophisticated and flat-out enjoyable from start to
finish as That Lucky Old Sun. The truly lucky one here is you, the listener.
READ KEN FISHER. CLICK
THE LINK. http://www.forbes.com/fisher
Don’t be an investor without reading
Fisher!
GO PHILS! but…..THE STANDINGS