Music Review: Led Zeppelin Live at the Royal Albert Music Hall 1970

This concert is available on You Tube, and as I enjoy the song Stairway to Heaven I thought I would give it a listen.  However this was not in this set as not written until a year after this concert.  If you are into long guitar riffs and long drum solos then this is your style of music.  I think it got a bit long for me.  Jimmy Page is a master of the guitar, and there are few with his skill.  Vocals are provided by Robert Plant.  Plant appears to be a baritone, meaning he often sings lower than most singers.  However the vocals are not what carries this band.  Lyrics are often not very creative.  They also have John Bonham on drums and John Paul Jones on keyboard.

Music Review: Finians’s Rainbow The Original Broadway Cast Recording

Finians’s Rainbow The Original Broadway Cast Recording, music Burton Lane, lyrics E.Y. Harburg

I was a little disappointed with this music.  The original case played in 1947 and the show ran for 725 performance (Wikipedia)  This version is not near as fascinating as the movie with Petula Clark and Fred Astair my Dad took me to see as a youngster.  There was too much emphasis on the Irish accent that makes it hard to understand, and in the end it is just a jumble.  However, “Look to the Rainbow” is one of my favorite songs ever.  As for my other favorite song from the musical “How Are Things in Glocco Morra?”  I did not like the version in this original cast recording.  Ella Logan is the actress who sings these songs in this version.

Movie Review: ****^Big Hero 6

This movie comes to us from Disney and won the Oscar for best animated feature of 2014.  This Disney feature does not have singing, but has action.  A cast of misfits from what is affectionally known has nerd school end up as super heroes based on their using what ever technology they had been developing for superpowers.  They go up against an evil nemesis who has stolen the nano bots developed by Hiro.  The nano bots work together and are controlled by a central mask or control.
This movie has several plot shifts and unexpected surprises.  We watched it while we had family here this weekend, and even the little babies were fascinated with the Big white hero.  Oh, 5 people heroes and one big robot hero who turns out more human than us all, based on his programming to do everything in his power to help others heal.
This movie was a pleasant surprise for me, but it had already grossed $600 million before I watched it.

Movie Review: ***Turbo (2013)

This is an animated Dream Works film which has a snail as a fast race care; albeit still very small.  You can see where he is as he is so fast he leaves a track of light where he goes.  How he is allowed to race is beyond me, but a co race driver is determined to not lose to a snail, even if he has to squish the little thing.  I watched this with the two-year-old grandson.  Entertaining but still kid's stuff.

Movie Review: ****The Undefeated starring John Wayne (1969)

This is on of my favorite John Wayne movies, and one he shares center stage with Rock Hudson.  Wayne portrays a Federal Colonel Thomas, just after the war, while Hudson portrays a Confederate Colonel Langdon.  Thomas and his men resign, and head to Texas to round up wild horses to sell to the government.  Langdon and his men, and family are headed to Mexico to continue the war if they can.  When the government agents balk at giving a good price, Thomas and his men come to terms with representatives of the Mexican government and drive the horses to Mexico.  These two groups meet, not as enemies but as allies.  The Yankees help the Confederates hold of a bandelero group.  The Yankees come to camp for dinner and dance, and fight.  Wayne's adopted Indian son falls for the daughter of the Colonel Langdon, and stays close to protect her.  The Confederate group is lulled into a trap, and taken captive by a group of Mexican rebels, with the promise of execution if the Americans don't bring the horses in ransom.
This story features Merlin Olsen as Little George.  Maybe that is why I enjoy it.  My dad's favorite football player. 

Movie Review: ***^Seventh Son

This movie is based on the characters of the book "The Spook's Apprentice" by Joseph Delaney.  This is the only book in the series I have read, although there are many more, and much of the movie must have been from the sequel books, as it wasn't in the book I read.  Jeff Bridges portrays the Spook, Gregory.  Julianne Moore portrays the wicked witch, who once loved the Spook.  The Apprentice, Tom Ward is portrayed be Ben Barnes.  The niece of the evil witch, Alice,  is portrayed by Alicia Vikander.  The jest of the movie is the witch escapes years of captivity by the Spook because of the blood moon which has arrived, restoring her powers.  She kills the first apprentice, and creates a need for a new apprentice.  However, they have to hurry as in a week the witch will regain all her powers and be unstoppable.  Alice is caught between, spying for the witch, but also loving Tom.  She betrays them both, stealing a witch's amulet from Tom, which was given to him by his mother, a good witch, but then in the end, stealing it back from the wicked witch.
This is a classic good vs. evil, with witches that change into dragons or other evil creatures thrown in.  It makes for some good fun.

Book Review: Time Travelers: Book One of the Gideon Trilogy (2006)

Time Travelers by Linda Buckley-Archer:  Sometimes a book just doesn’t appeal to you, and this is one of those times.  I just couldn’t really get into this book.  A couple of friends who are thrown back in time, to late 1700s England.  Perhaps my problem was with the little digs such as, Charles Darwin discovered people come form apes.  That is what the book ays, but I thought this was his theory not a discovery.  Things like that, science vs God bugged me about this book I had a hard time reading it.  It is the first of three; but I don’t think I will seek out the other in the series.