September Review: School of Rock (2003)

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Adam Pascal, andrew lloyd webber, band, classic comedy, Comedy, deep purple, film, film review, immigrant song, instruments, Jack Black, Joan Cusack, led zepplin, Mike White, miranda cosgrove, movie, movie review, music class, music teacher, musical, no vacancy, review, Richard Linklater, rock, rock and roll, rock band, rock music, sarah silverman, school band, school comedy, School of Rock, smoke on the water, substitute teacher, teacher, The School of Rock, wagner college

There are some beloved movies you watch and think “Why the hell did it take me this long to see this?” I can officially count School of Rock as one of them. I once caught some of it on tv during a babysitting gig that was more long ago than I care to remember, but this was my first time seeing it in full. Like Mean Girls, I’ve heard a lot of the lines before I got around to seeing the movie itself, so it’s interesting to see them in their original context. And of course, it stars Jack Black in the role that made him America’s sweetheart. So let’s get to it!

And no, I have not listened to or seen the musical version yet, so I apologize for not making a lot of comparisons throughout.

By The Cover: The Wizard of Oz

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80th anniversary, anniversary, Barbra Streisand, blogathon, boston pops orchestra, broadway, By The Cover, concert, cowardly lion, dainumo, ding dong the witch is dead, dorothy, E.Y. Harburg, eartha kitt, Ella Fitzgerald, eva cassidy, greta matassa, harold arlen, harry connick jr., harry nilsson, if i only had a brain, if i only had a heart, if i only had the nerve, if i were king of the forest, impelliterri, Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwoʻole, Israel Kamakawiwoʻole, Jackson Browne, jazz, jazz cover, jeff beck, john williams, joseph william morgan, josh groban, judy garland, kermit ruffins, king of the forest, madison square garden, mandy patinkin, merry old land of oz, michael crawford, music, musical, natalie cole, nathan lane, off to see the wizard, optimistic voices, over the rainbow, oz blogathon, pentatonix, peter macdonough, phil wilson, Pogo, rock, rock music, scarecrow, somewhere over the rainbow, song, song cover, song covers, straight outta oz, the fifth estate, the jitterbug, the wizard of ahhhs, the wizard of oz, tin man, todrick hall, tony bennett, Trio de Paz, what a wonderful world, wicked witch, wicked witch of the west, witch, witches, wizard of oz, wizard of oz blogathon

To read the first entry of the By The Cover series and see what this is all about, click HERE.

I’ve already discussed at length how much of an impact The Wizard of Oz has made upon the world. Well today I’m doing it again. This time I’m focusing on a big part of what made it such an iconic film – the music. Needless to say a movie that gave us such memorable tunes would ensure decades worth of covers by plenty of voices that are worth revisiting and rediscovering. So, for The Wizard of Oz’s 80th anniversary and as a part of Taking Up Room’s Wizard of Oz Blogathon, we’re taking an audio journey over the rainbow.

May Review: Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989)

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1980's, 80’s movie, Abraham Lincoln, alex winter, back to the future, be excellent to each other, Beethoven, big pig, bill and ted, bill and ted face the music, bill and ted third movie, bill and ted's excellent adventure, Bill S Preston Esquire, Billy the Kid, bogus journey, circle k, circle k convenience store, doctor who, excellent, excellent adventure, Freud, george carlin, ghendis khan, heavy metal, historical figures, historical in joke, history, history lesson, history report, i can't break away, in time, Joan of Arc, keanu reeves, Lincoln, Ludwig van Beethoven, mall, missy, Napoleon, Napoleon Bonaparte, old west, party on dudes, phone booth, princesses, robbi rob, rock, rock and roll, rock music, rock soundtrack, Rufus, san dimas, san dimas high school football rules, Sci-Fi, sci-fi parody, science fiction, shopping mall, Sigmund Freud, Socrates, Ted Theodore Logan, time travel, time travel movie, two heads are better than one, water park, waterloo, waterslide, wyld stallyns

“Bill…strange things are afoot at the Circle-K.”

Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure is an odd little movie when you think about it. Who’d have thought a story about two lazy teens who talk in surfer slang and take some of history’s most iconic figures on a joyride through time would reach cult status? It began as a comedy club act about two clueless adolescents summarizing current events they knew nothing about before evolving into a perennial flick for 80’s cinephiles. And, for better or worse, it’s the movie that kickstarted Keanu Reeves’ acting career. I wrote a small dissertation of its central theme around the time of its 30th anniversary earlier this year, but now I get to go into more detail and I can’t wait.

MovieBabble Link: Bill and Ted’s Excellent Inspirational Message

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1980's, alex winter, be excellent to each other, bill and ted, bill and ted's bogus journey, bill and ted's excellent adventure, george carlin, keanu reeves, movie review, moviebabble, rock music, time travel

Excellent! (insert air guitar riff here) Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure is turning 30 years old!

To celebrate, here’s a deeper look at the meaning of its most famous quote.