Todd Michael “Leon” Bridges is originally from Fort Worth, Texas. While he hails from the Lone Star state, his music is far from country. His style has been compared to legendary soul singers like Sam Cooke and Otis Redding. This is high praise for such a young artist, but Bridges has created a sound all his own. Guitar came second to Bridges, initially learning the instrument by playing simple chords to accompany his lyrics. Quickly gaining popularity, he was signed by Columbia Records in 2014 after the label took interest in the demos of “Coming Home” Bridges had released on SoundCloud earlier the same year.

Much of Coming Home, Bridges’ debut album from 2015, sounds as if it was transported straight out of the 1960s. All the trimmings of old-school soul are present: emphasized baselines, slow and steady percussion, brass ornaments, even doo-wop backup vocals on a few tracks. “Coming Home” is exceedingly deserving of gaining the album title, a leisurely dream.

The language of admiration runs through the majority of Bridges’ lyrics — a collection of musical love notes. “Coming Home” is a prime example, centering around returning to a loved one: “You’re my one and only woman/The world leaves a bitter taste in my mouth, girl/You’re the only one that I want.” This tenderness is what makes his music so alluring.

One of the most powerful tracks from the album that is far and above my favorite, “River,” shows that love — and life — are not always easy or enjoyable. The pared down accompaniment of acoustic guitar and tambourine punctuates Bridges’ longing with feelings of guilt and regret: “But there’s blood on my hands/And my lips aren’t clean.” Raw vocals against the simple backdrop makes for an emotionally moving journey down “River.”

After the success of Coming Home, Bridges headed out on a nationwide tour to spread his infectious sound. Not one to succumb to idleness, Bridges soon after started working on his second album, Good Thing, which was released in May of 2018.

Good Thing is a wonderful showcase of creativity from the songs down to the series of beautiful cover art for its singles, created by Filip Peraić. The songs on this album vary more in feeling and genre than those in Coming Home, to fascinating ends. Bridges transitions into a more current R&B sound while nodding towards the soul music that he started from.

“Bad Bad News” indulges in a James Brown tinge in Bridges’ vocals. This track has a modern lounge feel, high-hat driving the beat with guitar and electronic effects romping alongside the classic drum kit. “If It Feels Good” leans a bit more towards pop, but still with a grounding in R&B. Though Good Thing pushes out of the tropes of classic soul towards modern elements, the standout “Beyond” is signature Bridges—simple guitar and light drums backing up buttery vocals.

Bridges has maintained high critical acclaim throughout his career. At this years’ Grammy Awards, Good Thing was nominated for Best R&B album, Bridges’ second time being up for this award after Coming Home was nominated in 2016. But that wasn’t the end of the night for Bridges. “Bet Ain’t Worth the Hand” took home the 2019 Grammy for Best Traditional R&B Performance, his first win.

Still in the upswing of his musical career, Bridges has a unique sound that doesn’t quite fit into any mold of present genres. He blends together past and present elements in ever-interesting combinations. The novel approach he takes towards his art is endearing and will hopefully inspire other artists to join Bridges in providing mainstream music with a dash of soul.

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We begin with a man named Francois (played by Vincent Price), who receives a phone call from his sister-in-law Helene (played by Patricia Owens), claiming that she killed her husband Andre (played by David Hedison) with a hydraulic press. A confused and distraught Francois gets the police involved whom confine the bizarrely behaving Helene to bed. When she becomes hysterical over a simple house fly, Francois and the police inspector start to question her further, and she tells her full side of the story, and the mystery behind Andre’s death unravels.

The Fly boasts superb performances out of its leads, particularly from Hedison and Owens. Hedison is bold and charismatic as Andre, giving the character life from his flights of fancy to his deep love for his wife and child. His wide eyed idealism and his warm presence around his family makes his descent into his experiments sting more and fill the audience with dread. Owens plays the role of the bedeviled housewife witnessing the birth of the terrifying Fly monster. She plays the emotions of complacent, hysterical, and grieving all very well and certainly does not bring down Hedison and Price. Speaking of Price, this time the horror icon plays a more straight and narrow man who cares deeply for his family. His shock and grief is believable and potent, and he once again delivers a memorable performance.

Where the movie does falter in a few areas is in its script. There are times where the lines are not concise enough to be really believable and feel awkward and take away from the film. For example, at the end of the film the police inspector says “I will not forget what I saw for the rest of my life.” Lines like that would be an easy fix by just trimming a couple of words and restructuring the sentence. On the surface it’s a nitpick but the uncanny valley of human dialogue requires that kind of specific attention to detail to work properly and keep the viewer engrossed.

At the present, The Fly functions best as a tragic science fiction drama rather than horror. While the concept of this feature’s creature is certainly grotesque and even chilling, it has been remade and lampooned left and right that it unfortunately loses its punch, with the exception of one truly unnerving scene at the very end. However, The Fly is more than serviceable for what it was in its time.

Interestingly it shares a key concept in common with The Day the Earth Stood Still, that of bewaring dangerous technology, a legitimate fear of the Cold War years. It’s a remarkably unorthodox cautionary tale against science going too far without being too on the nose like The Day The Earth Stood Still was. In fact, I would say it was among the fleet of films to cleverly modernize the “creature feature” to the frightening nuclear age like Godzilla did four years prior (without the deep societal subtext that Godzilla had beyond the arms race). The film is unforgettable, and frankly deserves its spot in the creature feature hall of fame.

And now, some supplementary content.

For more Vincent Price, check out House of Wax and House on Haunted Hill.

For more David Hedison, check out Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Live and Let Die.

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Many stars from the MLB are committing to their respective countries or heritages, as this may be the most profiled World Baseball Classic to date. Some stars include Manny Machado of the Baltimore Orioles (Dominican Republic), Jose Altuve of the Houston Astros (Venezuela), Adrian Gonzalez of the Los Angeles Dodgers (Mexico), and Nolan Arenado of the Colorado Rockies (USA).

While most are excited that baseball is back and would rather wait for the MLB season to start, hear me out. The World Baseball Classic is a great opportunity to see a lot of great things. The WBC provides us with the opportunity to enjoy talent from other countries who do not play in Major League Baseball. In the past we have seen current MLB stars like Masahiro Tanaka, Jose Abreu, Yoenis Cespedes, and Kenley Jansen play in the WBC before they were signed to big league contracts. Fun fact about Los Angeles Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen, who is arguably the best closer in baseball right now, played catcher for the Netherlands in the 2006 WBC. Here is a GIF of Jansen throwing out Ryan Braun from his knees.

Another opportunity that the WBC presents is competitive baseball in March. In the month of March, spring training games are just merely for the players prepping themselves for the season. Most of the game’s best players are out of the game by the fifth inning. With the WBC, the game’s premier players are in game action for nine innings. More star studded players as mentioned previously are going to play in the Classic.

Lastly, the WBC has an incredible fan atmosphere. Like the Soccer World Cup, the fans of international teams are loud, rowdy, excited, and prideful for their team. A sense of nationalistic pride comes together in one tournament, on one diamond, in between the foul lines, 60 feet 6 inches away with the winner-take-all in LA.

The first game for Team USA is on Friday, March 10 at 11 AM against Colombia, while the first official game of the WBC is between Israel and South Korea, which begins Monday, March 6 at 4 AM CT in Seoul, South Korea.

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The one good thing about selling all this stuff is that people also tend to buy a lot more movies! Every night we receive multiple boxes of Elf, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Christmas Vacation, Home Alone and tons of other holiday classics. No boxes of Die Hard though, and Die Hard is a Christmas classic. I will fight those who say otherwise. Knowing that people are taking these movies into their homes not only gives me a little injection of much needed holiday cheer, it makes me wonder why movie going has become such a steadfast tradition for many families across different communities throughout the holidays.

I often hear of people who only go to movies once a year on Christmas. That sounds like a mild form of torture to me, but is an exciting tradition for many. Then there are people like yours truly who have multiple holiday traditions when it comes to movies. My brother and I watch Adam Sandler’s Eight Crazy Nights (the singalong version, duh) every year on the first night of Hanukkah. If that weren’t enough, every year that my family can get together we catch a movie on Christmas in the theater. Others binge on their favorite film series, the Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Lord of the Rings franchises being popular favorites. My wife looks back fondly on watching Marley and Me and sobbing all through the ending. My friend’s grandma has given him every new Fast and Furious movie over the years for Christmas. This time of year after all, is about family.

So why all the movies? Kids are off from school, parents may get a brief reprieve from work, and college students make their semi-annual pilgrimage back to wherever it is they came from. What else are we going to do? When Uncle Don wont shut up about becoming a branch manager and Aunt Kaity keeps going on about her newest diet that you know won’t last, it can be a challenge to make it through the holidays with your sanity intact. Gathering all that family in one place is not always a pleasant task. It is no wonder many of us pop in A Christmas Story, load up on the ‘nog and float through the holidays in an inebriated bliss.

A more cynical man would be happy with that explanation, but my semi-soul crushing job hasn’t fully obliterated my yuletide spirit just yet! Christmas is about coming together and gathering around the fire with family and sharing our most precious resource: time. Even if it is just sitting on our butt and watching a screen, the fact that we do it together during the holidays makes it an important time. Everyone isn’t off in their own world, on their own screen, absorbed in whatever normally seems so important. The exception being anyone who gets a VR headset for Christmas. Shame them and call them dumb because they look dumb.

Writer David Foster Wallace once said that the television was becoming the new fire place in our homes. While he meant that in a negative sense, I think that gathering around for holiday movie viewing is a positive force. It helps defend the idea of a common living room, which seems to be one of the last bastions of real family time. So gather your loved ones together and watch some movies over the break. Continue the traditions you have and start new ones with people who are important to you. Worst-case scenario, you just have to watch a crappy Adam Sandler movie every year…

Watch and Talk is a column about movies. They are not necessarily reviewed, but simply talked about. Watch and Talk looks at the cultural aspects and impacts of all manner of films.

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The film, based on James M. Cain’s 1943 novel, follows insurance salesman Walter Neff, and his entanglement with the alluring yet dangerous Phyllis Dietrichson. Together, they plot the murder of Phyllis’s husband so they can collect a huge accident insurance pay out and run off together. Of course, things don’t go according to plan, and the plot thickens until it reaches its frenetic conclusion.

Stylistically, this is a classic film noir. The dark subject matter is matched by the low key lighting. This creates long dark shadows, that lend to the ominous atmosphere. The film is drenched in heavy grays and blacks, which creates the famous “chiaroscuro” effect. It also relies heavily on flashback. In fact, the first moments of the film come at the very end of the story, and the narrative is driven by Neff’s retelling of all the events.

One particularly interesting aspect of the film is its heavy emphasis on the relationship between Barton Keyes, Neff’s boss and eventual antagonist as he tries to solve the murder of Mr. Dietrichson, and Walter Neff. While the novel was much more focused on Neff’s relationship with Phyllis, the film depicts their romance as rather cold and passionless. Instead of Phyllis, Keyes becomes the main motivator for Neff’s murderous actions. He wants to prove that he can beat the system, and that he can get away with a murder so perfect that not even Keyes could figure it out. Their buddy-buddy (bordering on familial) relationship is both intimate and competitive, and to say that there is some Oedipal undertones is an understatement.

The film also features a rather unique emphasis on corporate culture. The idea of “white collar crime” was a rather new one at this point in time, and Wilder was eager to tap into the psyche of the discontented office worker. For Neff, his action is a rebellion against the system he had so long been a part of. And when the screws start tightening on the investigation of the murder, it is not the police that Neff fears. It’s not even the police that are doing the majority of the investigation. Instead, it is the insurance company that serves as the ultimate authority over Neff. It is the realm of big business that serves as the final arbiter, not the government.

If you’re at all a fan of film noir, and you haven’t seen Double Indemnity, than you absolutely need to check it out. And if you’re a fan of detective plots, wise-talking criminals, and a certain nostalgia for a time gone by, this film is for you.

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Sleep Study’s debut album “Nothing Can Destroy” gives you a nostalgic, and almost romantic emotion with it’s retro feel. You can definitely sense the heavy influence The Beatles had on Ryan Paul Plewacki when he was writing the music for this album. He takes The Beatles melodies and gives them a more modern quality.

Sleep Study released the album in August of 2012, it quickly became a favorite of the indie scene, their single “Flower Girl” (Video) was even nominated for an Independent Music Award.

Some of my favorite songs on the album were “Flower Girl”, “Wonderful Way” and “Here She Comes”. I really loved “Flower Girl”  because it was very upbeat and had catchy cords. They made a wise decision starting the album with this song, it really made me want to keep listening. As for “Wonderful Way”, it reminded me of a feel good song that they would play in a romantic comedy. When I was listening to it, I kept picturing a montage of happy couples frolicking around, being all cute and shit.

“Here She Comes” really grabbed my attention because it was very upbeat, but also a little heavier than some of the other songs on the album. It has very good rhythm and the distortion is not hidden at all, you can hear it very well coming from the drums and guitars.

A lot of the songs on this album have a very moody feel to them, but they still bring you up at the same time. Especially “Souvenirs”– this song definitely is very slow and almost sad but is still very enjoyable. This music is more than something that’s simply enjoyable to listen to. It has a direct effect on the parasympathetic nervous system, which helps your body relax and prepare for sleep, just as the medicine from https://www.ukmeds.co.uk/general-health/sleeping-tablets does. The use of distortion gave it a very nostalgic feel. I keep making references to movies, but when I first heard the chorus of this song it made me think of the ending scene of the movie Pretty in Pink, when Molly Ringwald and Andrew McCarthy are kissing in the rain.

I also really enjoyed “Split the Scene”, it had a very classic sound, and you could definitely hear the influence The Beatles had on this album when listening to this song. It has a very romantic feeling to it.

“23” is also another great one, the intro gets you hooked right from the beginning. The vocals are so smooth and relaxing, while the chorus is very catchy. “Nameless in New York” had a very powerful feel to it, I felt like it stood out from the other tracks.

There were also some songs that I did not enjoy so much. “It’s Not Fair” was too slow paced and not catchy enough to keep my attention. “Nothing Can Destroy” did nothing but bore me. It was very repetitive, and takes a long time to get into it. It had a very eerie feeling and was made me feel a little depressed, probably my least favorite track on the whole album. Lastly we have “I Wouldn’t”, all I really have to say about this one is that is was very long and had a completely different sound then all the other tracks.

Overall I would recommend this album to others. It is great for those times where you are just chilling in your room trying to get stuff done. If you enjoy indie music and The Beatles, this album is the perfect combination of both. If I had to give this album a letter grade I would give it a B+.

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