Rush: Beyond The Lighted Stage (2010)

Recently watched this very enjoyable documentary film based on the career of Canadian prog-rock power-trio Rush. I've only very recently discovered this band and become enchanted with their unique brand of virtuoso geek-rock (I highly recommend the album "Moving Pictures", and the song YYZ in particular, as a starting point for anyone interested in checking them out).

Here are some rock superstars that I can identify with: intricate musical arrangements and cerebral lyrics covering a range of sci-fi and philosophical themes. No drugs and groupies for these guys: as we see in the film, when they board their private jet they're much more at home whipping out a book and catching up on some reading.

Worth noting are the brief interviews/soundbites from the likes of Billy Corgan, Kirk Hammett, Les Claypool, Trent Reznor, Jack Black, as well as members of Dream Theater, Rage Against The Machine, Pantera, and Foo Fighters -- all of whom claim Rush as a major influence.

Billy Corgan's comment was quite interesting and resonated with how I have (or rather haven't, until recently) perceived the band:

I believe that when people step back and actually really look at who the great bands were, [Rush] are one of those bands. But somehow they were never popular enough that they get commonly name-checked as one of the great bands of all time. A lot of the other stuff has been over-explained: Zeppelin has been over-explained, the Beatles have been over-explained. It doesn't tell the whole story. You can say "why was this band marginalized -- what was it?". It doesn't matter: at some point, they're there -- and somebody has to explain why they're there.

Jack Black's praise is more light-hearted, but no less gushing:

Rush is just one of those bands that has a deep reservoir of rocket sauce. A lot of bands have only got so much in the bottle, they use it up sometimes in one song. These guys were the real deal: their bottle was so big, and so filled to the brim, they were shaking it literally for decades ... and still there was sauce coming out.

The Godfather, by Mario Puzo

The Godfather by Mario Puzo

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I read this book after picking it up on the cheap at a local second-hand book sale. Having seen the movie quite a while back I thought it might be worth checking out the book on which it --- and the whole Scorcesi/De Niro/Pacino/Pesci gangster genre that was eventually to follow --- was based. Full disclosure at the outset: I was never a huge fan of the film -- I found it long, slow, dated and just a bit all over the place. I'm very happy to say, however, that none of these criticisms apply to the book. It's long, sure, but it moves along a cracking pace with scarcely a dull moment. It manages that elusive combination of being both a compulsive page-turner and a richly crafted story.

Compared to the film, the book provides a lot more depth on the various characters and their motivations. Thus we get a much fuller and more satisfying description of the evolution of Don Vito from exiled orphan to all-powerful Godfather (including the flashback storyline that was presented the second movie, The Godfather II), while tangential characters such as Luca Brasi, Johnny Fontane, and Lucy Mancini are rendered as more than simple 2D cardboard cut-outs.

Bottom line: highly recommended for anyone with even a mild appreciation of gangster movies. It's the canonical masterpiece of the genre and (unlike the film) doesn't feel like it's aged a day.

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Drawing wood

A couple of photos of the spanking new recycled wooden floor that we recently got put in the living and dining rooms...

The floorboards are recycled West Australian Karri (sourced and shipped over by the Gekkos-in-law). The installation was carried out by a taciturn, but highly skilled, team of Japanese tradies, and took about 4 days.

The fun part was getting up- and downstairs on an extension ladder through a bedroom window during the 24 hour period while the gloss finish dried. The final result is worth the torn flyscreen...

Also notice Gekko's paintwork: the walls are "whisper white" and the skirting boards are "stowe white" (my business card is "bone" and even has a watermark. But that's another story --- one that I'll be happy to recount just as soon as I've returned some videotapes...).

It's a cliché, but I feel compelled to remark on how amazing is the transformation that can be effected by a simple lick o' paint and change of floor covering.

Meanwhile, outside...

1. All little bit of paving (mine is the cement-strewn bit at the end):

2. Vegetables growing rampant -- the Day of the Triffids is coming soon...

3. Some shelves I put up a while back to capture the sunlight. We're growing strawberries there for now...

"The Fall of Hyperion", by Dan Simmons

The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Abandoned at around the halfway mark...

I'm sorry, but i'm afraid it's just too darn long! 90% of the prose seems to trundle along wasting time on irrelevant, inane detail -- dispensing the interesting stuff in agonizingly sparse doses. I gave up when I realized I didn't care enough about the resolution of the increasingly convoluted plot to turn another page.

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