The Gray man reads likes a 1960s Jack Higgins book. The idea behind the book is brutally simple but is executed very well. The gray man, Gentry, is not like a movie action character with witty comments and dashing good looks. Rather he does what he has to do, tries to do the right thing and otherwise blends into the background and becomes un-noticeable.

While most of the characters in the book tend to be killed, a few do stand out enough to be remembered but not enough to distract from the main theme of the book. The unstoppable, resourcefulness of Gentry as he cross countries and avoids ambushes to get to his destination.

A good book, in someways reminiscent of a good Colin Forbes book, but modern and believable!

Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Eric Roberts, Randy Couture, Steve Austin, Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Danny Trejo in one movie?? The word is AWESOME!

The first part of the song has the couple describing sitting the in car and the feelings that were happening. It also contains one of the best lines in rock, “Cause we were barely seventeen, And we were barely dressed”. No matter your opinions on Mr Meat, that is one hell of a good lyric!

The second part begins just as the couple begin to get heated. A radio broadcast of a baseball game is heard. In a move that I would find it hard to believe could be done today, the baseball announcer really was a baseball announcer, Phil Rizzuto, who called games for the New York Yankees. Using the baseball metaphor for the progress of the boy, the player on the radio is about to steal home when……

Part three. The girl sings “Stop right there”, making the boy beg, plead and finally breaking down and professing his undying love for her before they can consummate their rendezvous. It is the classic power move from the girl who waits until the boy is in a powerless state and the girl holds all the cards. Most boys have experienced some sort of variance of this move! After trying his hardest to convince his date, he realizes that he might never get this chance again and caves, giving the girl what she wants before he gives the girl what he wants.

Part four consists of the boy regretting his decision years ago as it is revealed that despite his unhappiness, the boy will not break his promise and has stayed with the girl who he now cannot stand.

The pace of the song changes with each part and even the style is inconsistent but like other songs that change halfway through, (Band On The Run by Wings for example), it keeps the song listening experience fresh as every couple of minutes it changes. At 8:28 long, Paradise is a very long song but to fit 4 parts, it would have to be.

Paradise By The Dashboard Light is a perfect driving song. You feel the passion of the first part, making you think of your own parked car experiences. The second part builds the excitement of the first time. The third makes you realize how evil, unkind and manipulative women can be, if you have had any bad experiences, otherwise you just smile and think, yep, that’s about par for the course. The fourth and final part shows that not only is he regretting his choice, he is still a good person for keeping his promise, no matter how painful his situation is now.

Loading image

Click anywhere to cancel

Check out his website, this guy is very very talented and pretty funny!

Loading image

Click anywhere to cancel

Loading image

Click anywhere to cancel

In the 1950′s, 60′s and 70′s movie always seemed to have a recognizable theme. Just in the genre of wartime movies, you have memorable themes for Where Eagles Dare, The Great Escape, Bridge Over the River Kwai, Battle Of Britain, 633 Squadron, Lawrence of Arabia, and perhaps the most famous of them all, The Dambusters.

Westerns were even more recognizable, The Good The Bad and The Ugly, Magnificent Seven, the list goes on. Movies were marketed using the theme as a selling point. You could buy albums of movie themes, I had, or rather my father had one of wartime movies, and another of science fiction movies, I knew the themes better than I knew some of the movies.

Today, it is hard to name many movies that have a instantly recognizable theme, at least one that uses original music rather than a popular song. Is the theme from Avatar that memorable? What about Hurt Locker? Everyone knows the theme to Star Wars though! Perhaps part of the reason why movie soundtracks have changed is that today, if the movie is not set in space (unless its BSG) or something similarly other worldly, chances are that songs are being used rather than an orchestral soundtrack.

A good example of this is The Face ‘Stay With Me’ which seemed to be in every movie I watched a few years ago. Sahara, check, Wedding Crashers, check. When its used sparingly and with good taste, a song can become part of the movie forever. While not too many people remember or love Risky Business, Bob Segar‘s ‘Old Time Rock And Roll‘ is forever associated with that movie. Likewise anyone who enjoyed the original Police Academy will associate The Shirelles singing ‘Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow’ with the Blue Oyster Club.

Television used to have the music that would be played during every episode at usually the point in each period. Today, totally different, Jimi Hendrix singing ‘All Along The Watchtower’ has me thinking of Cylons. ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’ by the stones and ‘Baba O’Riley‘ by the Who both make me smiling as I remember the episodes of House they featured in. It appears to have become part of the formula for a lot of television series that in the last five minutes a song is played that is to convey the emotion of the scene. Its something that used to be done by music alone but it is now a song with lyrics as well just to make sure that the viewer understands that the lead character is sad or happy.

For this trend in television, I am glad to say that I blame Friends. How many episodes had a song playing as two or more of the Friends went through problems? Hell, the only moment from Friends I remember (not that I watched it that much) other than the infamous COMMANDO moment, was when Joey and Chandler were living in separate apartments (maybe they weren’t gay?) and U2′s ‘With Or Without You’ plays as they both sit in the window looking out into the rain, missing each other.

There are times when a movie or song makes you like or love a song that before you didn’t or perhaps you hadn’t even heard before. A great example of that is ‘Keep Me In Your Heart’ by Warren Zevon which was featured in Funny People. While I don’t mind soundtracks that only feature songs, Sahara has a great soundtrack of tracks by artists such as Canned Heat and Dr John, it would be nice for once in a while to have a movie soundtrack that is memorable and not taken from a hit album by someone or other!

For instance, I didn’t realise that Detective Trudy Joplin had a sign on her desk that read Trudy “Big Booty” Joplin! I had also forgotten about Izzy. Izzy or to give him his proper name, Isidore Moreno was a small time crook and big time informant for the cops which he would give in his broken English, using incorrect analogies and mixed up phrases and words. He was pretty much comic relief while furthering the plot by giving information to Crockett and Tubbs.

When watching five series of anything, you will notice where certain locations or set reappear, like the one location which was either an island paradise, a fishing town where drug dealers ruled, or where
military kidnappers held someone.  You also started seeing the same clips of downtown Miami, where hookers and pimps hung out, made more noticeable when it appears the film was taken in New York in the early seventies!

Edward James Olmos was brought in mid way through series one as Lieutenant Martin Castillo, and for the next four and a half series, I believe he smiles twice. He is way more Gaff from Blade Runner than Adama from BSG. He is moody, secretive, thoughtful, unless the episode calls for martial arts and violence where he suddenly becomes this wild man.

Because Miami Vice became the hip place to be seen, there were multiple up and coming stars as well as established stars who appeared in episodes. Willie Nelson as an ex- Texas Ranger, Liam Neeson as an Irish terrorist, Ian McShane as a Columbian drug lord and also a South American corrupt general…. Ian McShane? Lovejoy?? WTF? Several artists appeared twice as different characters such as Stanley Tucci. Possibly the best guest appearances was by Denis Farina as Albert Lombard, who becomes more than likable with his few appearances starting in the first series and finishing in the last. He really does grow into this enjoyable character, and if he had been given the opportunity to be in every episode probably would have become simliar to G’Kar from Babylon 5 in growing from a bit part into one of the most likeable and strongest character on the screen.

For every good appearance there were not so good ones, Miles Davis as a pimp who half the time doesn’t seem to know what he is pimping, Julia Roberts as a paper thin character who gets to sleep with Sonny, Little Richard who is on screen for moments only. Possibly the most bizarre is James Brown who believes in little green men.

On a side note, if you combine about ten episodes from Miami Vice the series, you can create the script for Miami Vice the movie which Michael Mann also made.

Plots started strong at the beginning of the series but by series five were scraped from the bottom of the proverbial barrel. One episode towards the end introduced a young cop who pretty much was the star of the episode. Crocket and Tubbs appear briefly but other than that it was more 21 Jump Street than Miami Vice.

While Jan Hammer gets credit and deservedly so, for creating the soundscapes for the series, in series five he was replaced by Tim Truman. I didn’t remember this and to be fair, I should have. Gone are the thick layers of synths, to be replaced by big drums, and rock guitar. Suddenly I am realising that I subconsciously remember this music as it guided me into listening to various guitar albums such as Guitar Speak, and discs from Steve Vai, and compilations from Guitar World etc.. Whereas Jan Hammer
used his Keytar to add heavy chugging riffs or soaring solo lines, now a real guitar was doing the work and doing the work well. At times it does sound more like aural masturbation than constructed music but it does work.

As I watched episode after episode, I started wondering how big is the criminal underworld in Miami, because I would have expected that word would have gotten out pretty quickly about two vice cops driving around in a white Ferrari busting drug dealers.

After five series, the show ended with the main characters quitting the force, taking the Ferrari with them. I felt burnt out as multiple episodes merged into one big montage of action. Miami Vice was a good show for the time it was made, if you pick out the good bits, ignore the bad bits and understand that it was never going to be as good as a Hill Street Blues. It was a pop culture show for the pop culture audience and after watching it all, my eyes have gone pop.

Boy have I grown up. I was looking at some baby pictures of myself to see if my kids look like me, and well, sometimes they do and sometimes their dad looks like a freak! This is what happens when you are young and your mother cuts your hair. You would have thought that the bowl was on my head straight but perhaps I have a strange shaped head? I find it interesting to see how my face changed as I grew up, and now I know why I try to avoid having my picture taken!