#edit: oh shit the actual song part. anyway this is James Taylor! makes me happy and helps me settle. good vibes songs | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

fizzingwizard · 4 years

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I finally saw the Cats movie the other day.

After the alarming trailers and the bad reviews after the premiere, I was pretty much desperate to like it. Just to like it, enough, as a Cats fan. I thought, “ok, if the normal people dislike it, that doesn’t mean there aren’t enough nuggets and even pearls to sustain us true fans.” Trust me, I am a fan of X-men comics, I am very very used to doing that. (It’s the entire reason I can stomach the Dark Phoenix movie at all.) So my bar was, I thought, appropriately low.

Oh how wrong I was.

iT’S THE WORST MOVIE I EVER SAW GUYS. And it gives me no small amount of pain to admit that. It marks the first time in my life I considered walking out of the theater, not out of outrage, just boredom. And Cats has never bored me before. So I must rant.

Before I start, though, I have to say I just can’t blame the cast for any of this. It’s the movie direction. As far as I can tell, the actors acted and danced their hearts out truly believing when it was finished this movie would be something resembling a movie. The resemblance is there, but... faint.

1) The CGI. A while back I suggested that once the CGI was finished and polished up, and moreover, when we could watch it continuously and not in stitched-together bits for a haphazard trailer, then the CGI cats wouldn’t look as jarring. For the most part, that was the case for me. But I’m certain it wasn’t the case for everyone. It was freakishly reminiscent of that live action Cat in the Hat movie (and that’s not exactly a compliment).

It didn’t bother me too much, because I thought from the beginning that costumes or CGI, it would be impossible to design human cats who don’t rub a lot of people the wrong way. It was a sacrifice I was okay making because I saw it as an inevitability. But the hairier cats like Old Deut and Gus (ie, the cats whose costumes were more reminiscent of the theater) definitely looked better, though. (Speaking of which, who on EARTH shaved poor Rum Tum Tugger!?)

But aside from the cats. Those rats FREAKED me out. If those had been in the trailer? My hopes would have been dashed much, much earlier. Eek. No. And... the rats came back a second time... and then a third!!! Meanwhile the beetles were just... people in beetle suits. Mr. Hooper, what are you smoking? I need some right now.

Also. Why, WHY don’t the cats have cat noses? That bothered me the whole time!!

2) The choreography. When I saw the cast, way back before even trailers were out, the first thing I thought was “um, do these people secretly have classical dance training and it just isn’t widely known?” Because Cats is basically a variety show. You can’t do Cats without amazing dancing in multiple styles, from ballet to tap to freaking gymnastics.

There were some dancers, including Victoria. I wish I could say more of them. It’s not that they aren’t talented. I’m sure they are. It’s just that, between the choreography being incredibly changed, and then on top of that edited with CGI to “improve” the feline poses and stunts, who knows where the actual dancing is. Not me. We don’t even get one fouette from Mistoffelees. I mean. Come on. Not even in CGI! Why would you do this to Cats. Why. Why.

It’d be one thing if the movie choreography clearly improved Cats the movie, which, after all, wasn’t going to be an exact replica of Cats the musical. Unfortunately, it, uh, doesn’t.

3) The music. I haven’t seen this touched on a lot, but did anyone else notice the music sounded like someone was just playing the soundtrack for the 90s film on a boombox somewhere in the background? It wasn’t crisp. It wasn’t even loud. The electric guitar that makes you shiver when you hear it live? Barely discernible. At the very least, I thought they’d do something interesting with the music, although I guess I should thank my lucky stars that they randomly decided to leave well enough alone in this instance... But it’s a MUSICAL. How do you half-ass the (amazing, by the way!) score in a MUSICAL?!

4) The singing. Yes, this needs its own separate section, because WHY COULDN’T ANYONE SING. Even people who can, in fact, sing!! Jennifer Hudson is GREAT singer. Her “Memory” isn’t terrible, but it is drastically overacted and far from joining my list of favorite “Memory” performances. Taylor Swift’s “Macavity” was fine, I guess. I’d probably be more positive about it if the rest of the movie didn’t suck. James Corden was fine too, “Bustopher Jones” is not exactly a challenging song, but Rebel Wilson’s “Old Gumbie Cat” was breathy, weirdly sexualized, and couldn’t end fast enough for me. I’m not too familiar with Jason Derulo but I am sure he doesn’t sing like an idiot all the time, and neither should Rum Tum Tugger. What was that about?

And no one expected Judi Dench to sing but she sure tried. I admire her for it, but sorry, Mr. Hooper, I don’t agree that Old Deut can get away with a poetry reading version of “The Moments of Happiness.”

“Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer” was pretty good but difficult to understand because all the scene-changing made the lyrics hard to follow (and I know them by heart). “Skimbleshanks” more or less the same. I wouldn’t have complained about these if the movie had been a little better overall.

“Magical Mr. Mistoffelees” is more about the dancing than the singing, but it’s such a climactic number that the way it’s so slow and, er, anticlimactic in this movie is just a huge letdown.

5) The unending fat jokes. I know James Corden and Rebel Wilson are both perfectly comfortable with poking fun at themselves, and do it pretty much all the time. I also know they’re both okay being gross. I suppose people thought the two of them together would be movie magic. Instead, their powers combined to create The Ultimate Apocalyptic Unending Gross Fat People Joke Machine. Some of the jokes were a little funny. They got less funny the more they occurred. And just when you thought they would stop. THEY INCREASED. It’s like I was secretly in a Spongebob Squarepants movie where they obsessively make fun of fat people and their bodies while eating everything in sight. It had a mood of “fat people power!” but a stench of “we couldn’t think of any good jokes so we just did some gross shit!”

6) I hate Munkustrap! This one has no appearance of objectivity, I just can’t stand him. He looks weirder in the CGI than most of them (not his fault, but). I hated his singing voice. And he got to sing way too much for how enjoyable he was. He looked a little stoned, to be frank. Maybe that’s what they were going for. BTW, I absolutely adore Munkustrap in the show. I wasn’t exactly expecting Michael Gruber again, and yet, I sort of was.

7.) Victoria’s original song. Actually. Actually. I liked this song. It was a nice song! I enjoyed listening to it in the credits. (lol?) They clearly spent much more time making it sound nice than they did the actual Cats music. But why... why was there an original song... in a musical that already has more than enough songs? What did it add? I get that it was supposed to explain Victoria’s motivations and show her connection with Grizabella. I just don’t think it was necessary. Because. Because. There’s already an explanatory song in the musical! the little known number... “Memory!” And its variations. As a well as the not insignificant “Glamour Cat” song. Victoria doesn’t have a song. That’s true. Jemima/Sillabub does though. If you’re going you erase the juxtaposition of Jemima and Grizabella and force Victoria into a similar role, why couldn’t she have just sung “Moonlight”? IIRC she did in the end sing the interlude during “Memory” anyway. Then they forced more reprises of the original Victoria song on us, even made Judi Dench sing it. It’s a nice song. WHAT IS IT DOING HERE.

(More in another post because it is late and my complaints are many.)

#cats musical #cats movie

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doomedandstoned · 5 years

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The Day We Chatted It Up With Black Tusk

~By Shawn Gibson~

Photos by Sally Townsend

On this Flashback Friday, here's a previously unpublished interview Shawn did with Corey and Andrew of Black Tusk last year during one of the busiest years on record for Doomed & Stoned. While some of it is obviously dated, the conversation ventures into some interesting areas that touches upon topics as diverse as favorite hardcore band, the Savannah Scene, good reads, police corruption, and even raising toddlers (among others). I've also decided to preserve it verbatim, with little editing of the format, in order to preserve the conversational feel. Hope you enjoy the read and, as the band finds itself deep in the middle of a spring EuroTour, we hope you'll also get out and support the band's awesome live performances! (Billy)

Film by Frank Huang

Hello, Corey?!

Corey: Hey, how you doing? Andrew's with me also.

Andrew: Hey, what's up man?

What's up, Andrew?

Andrew: Not much. Just getting off work.

Time to kick back and relax.

Corey: We're going to try our best.

I want to thank both of you guys for your time.

Corey: Yeah, thanks for doing this.

I had an interview with Taylor from White Nails, probably two or three days ago.

Andrew: We actually haven't met those guys yet.

We're taking it back old school. We decided we're coming out swinging.

He sounds like a cool guy. You guys will be on tour with White Nails and Whores in a few days?

Andrew: Yeah, it's about like twenty-one days, something like that.

At the end of this tour you will be in Asheville at the Heavy Mountain Festival right?

Corey: That's right.

Andrew: A friend of ours is booking that. I think it's the first year. Ray Worth, He's in that band Bask. Yeah we've done a tour with them.

Yep I've heard of em'. You guys have a new album coming out right? On Season of Mist?

Andrew: Yeah August 17th.

T.C.B.T?

Corey: That's right.

T.C.B.T. by Black Tusk

If you could, please explain T.C.B.T.

Andrew: What do you think it means?

Uh, I was wondering if it had anything to do with Jonathan. I've seen him with the logo.

Andrew: So the T.C.B.T thing is a thing that Athon and James came up with a while ago. It's part of our merch. It's our Black Tusk....

Corey: ...Motto.

Andrew: Kind of like a logo for the band. It means Taking Care of Black Tusk. We decided to name the record T.C.B.T because the band has been reconfigured in the last couple of years. This is the first record with Corey writing. It's still Black Tusk, but it's a new Black Tusk. We're taking it back old school. We decided we're coming out swinging and we're taking care of Black Tusk.

The artwork for the album looks like it was spray painted on some grip tape.

Corey: (laughs) Close enough! It is spray paint on one of our cases for our amplifiers.

Right on.

Corey: The idea behind the artwork was how Andrew was just explaining to you, about the actual meaning of the title and starting over where we wanted to get away with what the band has done in the past, in that sense. Musically, we did that. We were like, "Fuck it! Let's do it with the artwork, as well!" It's kind of like an homage to older, grittier album covers that we like. Also, it's one of our cases to prove we're road dogs. We're never giving up and we’re working hard, and always have been. This what we have to show for it, our busted-up wear on everything. We had Brian Mercer do the rest of the artwork and collaborate with our jangled mess of ideas.

What's that like being on Season of Mist?

Andrew: So far so good. This is our first record with them. We'll see how it plays out with the release and the touring. We're pretty happy. The guy who runs the North American wing of the label, Gordon Conrad, he was in charge of Relapse when we first signed to them all that time ago.

So does that make it a smoother transition?

Andrew: For sure.

Corey: Oh yeah.

Nice.

Andrew: Half-way through our career with Relapse, he pushed the Season of Mist. When our deal with Relapse was up and we decided to switch labels, he was there. He said, "Hey, you guys. Come do your new record with us." I thoroughly enjoyed working with him when he was at Relapse and it felt like a smart move to make. He's great, he takes care of bands. We're pretty happy.

Corey: Season has a great roster going on right now. It made good sense for us. Once the offer was there for us, it just made sense for us to move. Floor...

Andrew: ...Weedeater, Watain.

Corey: They don't have Watain anymore.

Andrew: They don't?

Corey: You know what I'm saying! Their roster is pretty impressive. The last record I was on with my older band, we were on Season. There was no complaints on my end.

Sweet.

Corey: It's been a good thing.

What are some Savannah bands you guys dig and or love to play with?

Andrew: Right now, one of the main bands in town doing something in our vein, our style, is called Lies In Stone. It's with members of Dammad and Dead Yet? It was Victoria's band, who recently passed. That's probably my favorite local band that's doing stuff.

Corey: The whole Savannah scene, years and years passed for our style of music, like a pretty heavy thing. It's kinda slowed down a bit. Definitely Lies In Stone is the band to look at. It's got Cooper, who played in classic crust metal bands like Anti-Schism and Initial State. He still plays and is amazing! (laughs)

What are some of Black Tusk's influences musically?

Corey: Oh man, each person in the band could give you like ten different bands. The generalized we all like punk stuff, you know. Not to sound cliché, but the classic punk shit. Anything from like Black Plague to like...

Andrew: ...there's no list of bands we're trying to emulate.

Of course.

Andrew: We all listen to an array of music that reflects stuff from classic rock to punk rock to speed metal to, you know, your stoner and sludge. That's all kind of stuff we listen to. It's kind of mushed together and with all three of us listening to different stuff, that's how it comes out when we're writing.

Corey: To elaborate on that even more, I could easily say I think when we were writing most of this I was actually listening to more yacht rock stuff. We don't sound anything like that. You can't be like metal, metal, metal, punk, punk, punk all the time. When we went through actually writing on these songs, we didn't sit down and write a song like blah, blah, blah or whatever. It was more like what naturally came. We figured we can write metal stuff, but there's people who can write better. The people that can write it better don't play stuff we want to hear anyway. We're punk dudes and that's what came out.

Do you guys like Dayglo Abortions?

Andrew: Yeah, I had that tape as a teenager in high school, man.

I had that shit in high school on a tape that was dubbed, then I went out and got the original, 'Feed Us A Fetus.'

Andrew: Yeah, I had that one. The one with Ronald Reagan on the cover.

Yep that's it!

What's a damn good book you guys have read?

Corey: A book? What's that? (laughs)

Andrew: The last book I read was kinda interesting. I read The Power Of The Dog. It's kind of like historical fiction about the drug wars on the borders. It's pretty interesting.

Corey: Unfortunately with Andrew and myself, we both have toddlers...

Andrew: ...We have no time to read!

I have two sons. I understand.

Corey: The last time I think I read a book was the last time we did a larger tour. I think the book was about this guy’s Vietnam experience, To Live and Die in a Combat Zone. I think most of us, if we read, it's something with more of a historical account.

Andrew: That's where I'm at.

Yes. I love non-fiction. Getting nerdy, I love reference books!

Corey: Other than reading books, because it's easier with all the streaming services, more like watching documentaries. Whenever we have down time at practice, we're not talking about which books to read, which maybe we'd be better people if we did that.(laughs) It's more like, "You should check out this documentary," and someone will chime in with something else.

What is something that makes you guys laugh uncontrollably?

Andrew: Shit my kid does, probably!

Corey: Probably what most people don't want to read: the kid aspect with the two of us is like whatever weird shit the kids are doing. It's hard to answer that kind of question. There's lots of stuff that'll make you laugh.

Andrew: The stuff James does at practice. James is full of funny stuff.

Corey: James, out of everybody in the band, he is the complete opposite of us. He ain't got no kids, doesn't have a wife. He has, well not a bachelor life, but not far from it. We don't have that.

For everybody else in the continental United States, could you guys describe St. Patty's Day in Savannah?

Andrew: Not really, 'cause we're usually in tour.

Corey: Or if we are not on tour, we are not anywhere around that shit.

Fuck downtown!

Andrew: We were here last year and we took our kids downtown for the parade.

The parade and then you get the hell out of there and go home!

Corey: There's all that stuff that happens downtown and that area. The last couple of years, I've been in town for that stuff. It's such a fucking hassle to even deal with that stuff. We'll go and watch the parade with the kids and somebody will have like a barbeque that's not downtown where you can go and hangout. Unfortunately, James isn't here. He would be the one to ask -- he's a bartender.

Where's he bartend?

Corey: At the Jinx.

No shit? Nice!

Corey: I'm sure his thing would be like a week of no sleep. I think those dudes sleep at the bar. Don't they?

Pretty close to it.

Andrew: They open at 10am and stay open 'till 3am.

I used to live in Savannah and worked the door at Savannah Smiles.

Corey: Okay.

I worked St. Patty’s Day and that was the case. I went to the parade had a pint or two of Guinness, then went to work at noon and got off at 4am. The thousands of people in Savannah and in that bar was insane!

Corey: It's one of those things where if I want to go out and get drunk, I can do that anytime I want. I don't need a weekend to do it. I see more of an inconvenience, the different people that come down to here to take part in that stuff. A good friend of mine years and years ago told me about St. Patrick's Day. He's like, “There’s two kinds of people: those who spend money and those who make money, and you don't want to be the one who spends money." So that's how I take it and avoid downtown.

What do you guys think it will take to curb some of the violence in Savannah? There's a shooting or more every night.

Andrew: What I think they should do is: a lot of local politicians they run on this platform as anti-crime and they want to hire more police -- I don't think that's the answer. I think there's a huge income divide in Savannah.

Big time.

Andrew: There's a lot of poverty here that isn't addressed. They should put more money in the school systems, put more money in leisure services and parks, have things for kids to do to get off the streets. There needs to be after-school programs. They need to focus on that stuff. Make our schools better, so you catch the kids early, before they turn to crime and street stuff. Have stuff in place to get them while they are young. Show them that there's better ways to do things. That's how you fix a crime problem in a town, not with more police -- that just makes the problem worse.

It almost seems like certain areas are trying to push out certain people.

A few years back there, Savannah had a lot of corruption with the cops.

Andrew: Yeah!

Probably still is.

Andrew: Willie Lovett is what you’re referring to, I think. The ex-police chief.

Yeah, yeah.

Corey: It's not just the police, it's the local government. They seem more eager to please the larger things in town -- obviously, the college that's here.

SCAD

Andrew: The historic district.

Corey: Or the builders who want to build, they also want to please them. It almost seems like certain areas are trying to push out certain people. Trying to raise the value of places. It's definitely on our minds, since we have families here, but it’s not what drives a lot of bands' thinking. At the same time, it does reflect what we write in songs and in a sense, because we do live in a shitty area. So that's always on our mind. You'll hear stories of friends or friends of friends, it's always going to be on your mind.

I'm sure you're familiar with J. H. Statts.

Corey: Oh yeah.

With what happened to him, he's an amazing guy. He was a victim of circumstance. Statts Fest is coming up in September. This will be a ten year anniversary for Statts Fest. It is terrible what happened to him and hearing about shootings in daylight at City Market is insane!

Andrew: It still happens. It seems like the last few months you don't hear about it too much, but it definitely happens. I'm not saying it's getting any better, you know. It's one of those things. If you live in this town, you know you lived here, you might relate. We've lived here longer. You get to a point where you stop thinking about it. When you hear the stories that come out, it's not a shock. It’s not like we're sitting here helpless and hiding. Everyone just kinda goes on. When shit happens it’s like, "Oh, that happened." You can't prevent it, if that makes any sense. You just don't think about it.

Well, on a lighter note, besides The Jinx and the Wormhole what are some Savannah venues you guys like to play?

Andrew: We've never played the Wormhole. There is an art gallery space where we're friends of: Sulphur Studios. We do shows there that are all ages.

Nice.

You've got to go out and support your community if it's ever going to continue.

Corey: When we play shows in town. We can't play houses. If we did, that would be the last time they did a house show! (laughs)

Andrew: We'll do a house show! The last time we did a house show it was insane. That was probably five years ago.

Corey: The legit venues in town in Savannah is a small big city. You have the Jinx, you have the Wormhole, which those are your good medium size venues. There's not too many other places to play at the moment. There are some people building, some larger stuff.

Andrew Jinx and Wormhole is it, unless it's an all-ages show at Sulphur Studios.

I was proud to catch Kylesa at the Wormhole. I've heard of a few house shows, but didn't go.

Corey: This city's got house shows, but the places that have been doing them haven't been directed towards heavier stuff. It was more indie stuff, maybe punk. With Savannah, we try not play a lot in Savannah so we don't get played out, you know? We go out and support some of those shows. You've got to go out and support your community, if it's ever going to continue. Even with the house shows, it seems it's died down a bit in the last couple months. I can't speak for everyone in the band, but I can speak for myself: the whole point of wanting to be a touring musician was to get out of Savannah and see other shit.

Besides this tour, what's in the future for Black Tusk?

Andrew: We've got this tour coming up, basically U.S. touring until the end of the year. There's some European stuff in the works. We'll see what's after that!

You have the new album, 'T.C.B.T' coming out on Season Of Mist. I'm going to try to catch you guys on the road!

Andrew: We have a Charlotte show and a fest in Pittsburgh in October.

Corey: Late October. There's a Wilmington date, as well. Asheville show. You should go to the Asheville show!

Yeah, I should go to that one, because I used to live there and have a lot of friends there. The day that you guys are playing with High On Fire and Obituary and Inter Arma, come on dude that's a fuckin' sick ass lineup!

Andrew: It's pretty tight!

Corey: You should go to that one, just 'cause.

Andrew: It's going to be a show for the books man!

Corey: High On Fire, Obituary, and White Nails are playing that show, too.

I didn't see them on the bill.

Corey: I might be wrong about that. They might not be playing. But still, the lineup is pretty sick!

Corey and Andrew, thank you very much, I appreciate your time!

Corey: Yeah, thank you.

Andrew: T.C.B.T August 17th, pick it up!

Corey: Alright. We’ll talk to you later, bye now.

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