Film Review: Peacock

I should have known when a film goes striaght to DVD there is a damn good reason. Peacock's subject matter and cast intrigued me a great deal which is why I felt it worth seeing (namely Ellen Page and Susan Saradon), but it was boring to a fault and a really fine performence by the lead actor is wasted on a nonsensical script, overbearing soundtrack and general blaise. This film would have been murdered in the American box office and snubbed by the international crowd. One good performence by the lead cannot overcome this films immense shortcoming. Stay away. 2 out of 10
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1188113/

Best of Phish 2009: Part One

This was not a list I undertook lightly. I tried whenever possible to listen to every version performed during the year and make a choice based on my opinion. Those of you who don’t know me will just have to trust that I know what I’m talking about. My musical resume is a long one >160 Grateful Dead shows, about 20 Phish shows starting in 1991 about 30 DMB shows and a couple hundred various others…blah blah blah..I’m not trying to brag, but I’m not some 20 something veteran of 12 phish shows and 3 “Dead” shows. I am a jam band freak

OK….I am cheating with this list a little bit as I don’t intend to choose the best versions of every song, just my favorite songs and I only plan on doing about 20-24 (average amount of songs at a phish show) So this would be like my fantasy Phish set from 2009. So if I left out a song, don’t get pissed it just didn’t make my top twenty.

One thing I think became clear is that Phish had a great year and they just seemed to keep getting better as the year progressed. The fall tour and shows during the latter half of the year were a bit better than the earlier shows and November was a monster

Mike’s Song (6-2-2009 Jones Beach)—Easily the best version of the year. The rips Trey unleashes in the beginning portion of the song are really what separated this version as well as the thundering baseline throughout and flawless execution.

Backwards Down the Number Line (8-16-2009 SPAC Saratoga)—Debuted this year. This song rocks hard and most versions generally ran between 7-9 minutes however this beast ran a whopping 20:40. In this case, Size matters and this version noodles in directions none of the other do. However, I know some fans have reduced attention spans and get bored during this noodling, if that’s you, check out the version from 6-9-2009 Asheville NC..tight and mean

Colonel Forbin's Ascent>Fly Famous Mockingbird (8-14-2009 Comcast Center Hartford CT.) Well this one was easy since they only performed this combo once this year. The Forbin’s>Mockingbird suite remains my favorite part of gamehendge and this version is simply performed without a single mistake and completely kicks ass—well worth the price of admission.

Split Open and Melt (11-21-2009 US Bank Arena Cincinnati, Oh.)—The jam that emerges at around the 12:00 minute mark is simply the stuff of legend. The previous two versions of this song were Red Rocks 7-31-2009 and Indio Ca. 11-1-2009 and it was extraordinarily interesting to listen to these in order. You can hear the Jam that occurs in Cincy being born in these two versions and finally on 11-21-2009 it all came together in this one glorious moment. This 13 minute song might have been the single best moment for Phish in 2009…Legendary

The Divided Sky (11-20-2009 US Bank Arena Cincinnati Oh.)—My favorite instrumental by Phish is polished and glorious beyond belief and just another in the long line of great songs from the gamehendge suite. Individual versions of this song were very hard to discern from one another as the songs structure doesn’t seem to allow much room for interpretation, however if I had to pick one version this version was as amazing as any and clocked in I believe, as the longest version of the year at 16:38 (but not by much) all the versions seem to run between 14:30-16:30 and most were performed exquisitely

Time Turns Elastic (5-31-2009 Fenway Park, Boston, Ma)—Judging by most fans boards and sites people seem to not like this song and judging by the half ADD retards running around at Phish shows that doesn’t surprise me one bit..Pay no attention.. In my opinion, this is the most ambitious piece Trey has composed in quite some time an intermingling of about 9 different mini-songs is an incredible piece of music very Zappaesque and the final part entitled “Carousel” is a jubilant ending and this version in Boston is the best of the 12 versions performed that year with 11.20.2009 a close second.

The Moma Dance (11-29-2009 Cumberland County Civic Center Portland Me.)—My favorite 70’s pimp jam. Again, this was a difficult call. Just too many good versions to choose from. I choose this nugget not the longest version but it had a little something extra that separated it from its competitors. It didn’t hurt this that it happened so late in the year. The month of November for this Phish was the strongest of the year.

Maze (11-22-2009 War Memorial Syracuse, Ny.)---Hahaha…. yeah just listen….. This is tight and jammed out to the fullest. I thought this was an easy one and that this version clearly topped the others.

My Friend, My Friend (8-13-2009 Darrien Lake)—another one that was almost like cheating. The band only did four versions of this one. I love this song and didn’t hear the one at Albany, so I have to go with this version

Weekapaugh Groove (6-10-2009 Thompson Boling Arena Knoxville, Tn) Almost every version of this song ran around 7 minutes with the one at Jones Beach 6-2-2009 being the low end at just past 6:00 minutes and then there is this version that runs around 8:51 seconds almost two mintues longer then the rest and it sizzles……

What am I reading now?

This is the place where you can find what I am currently reading. What i have recently read and in some cases what I will be reading in the near future and my quick-rating on a scale of 1 to 10. If I have reviewed it for SFSite. I will provide a link.

The Dragonbone Chair-Tad Williams (9.7) http://www.sfsite.com/05a/me319.htm
The Stone of Farewell " "
To Green Angel Tower" "
Tome of the Undergates-Samy Sykes (6.1) http://www.sfsite.com/04b/tu318.htm
Blood of Ambose-James Enge (8.2)
Pandora's Star by Peter Hamilton (9.4)

Currently Reading: Judas Unchained--Peter Hamilton

Welcome to SOPTRP

To all my future readers,
SOPTRP will be a refuge for yours truly to vent about the many different things I have opinions and insights on as well as a place for my friends to get in touch with me.