A Latin Groove - Raving Playlist

White geeks from Ohio can have some ritmo tambien - you better believe it. To prove our point we're sharing our one and only (so far) Latin music playlist on Spotify. If you've never heard Mana, Carlos Vives or Juanes before you're in a for a treat. These guys rock and who cares if you can't understand the lyrics, it never stopped you before, right? There's other interesting Latin music mixed in for fun as well. Mi casa es su casa, disfruta...

Juanes is from Colombia and although we don't know what he's saying in Yerbatero - it sure sounds good

 

A Latin Groove:
Maná – No ha parado de llover - unplugged
Santana – Maria Maria - Radio Mix
Los Lonely Boys – Heaven
Maná – Perdido en un barco
Gloria Estefan – Mi Tierra
Juanes – Yerbatero
Los Lonely Boys – Dime Mi Amor
Ricky Martin – La Bomba - MTV Unplugged Version
Carlos Vives – La Piragua
Maná – Oye mi amor
Los Lobos – Volver, Volver
Tito Puente – Mambo Gozon
Gloria Estefan – Ayer
Paul Simon – Late In The Evening
Maná – Te solté la rienda
Santana – Jingo - Album Verision
Los Diablitos – LOS CAMINOS DE LA VIDA
Marc Anthony – I Need To Know
Los Warahuaco – Cumbia Solitaria
Los Lonely Boys – Señorita
Celia Cruz – Cao Cao Mani Picao
Lucho Bermudez Y Su Orquesta – Colombia, Tierra Querida
Santana – Smooth
Maná – Desapariciones
Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto – Fuego De Cumbia (Cumbia Fire)
Luis Ariel Rey – Carmentea
Santana – Africa Bamba
Thalia – Amor A La Mexicana (Original Version)
Ricky Martin – Livin' La Vida Loca
Gipsy Kings – Djobi Djoba
Abba – Fernando
Santana – Put Your Lights On
Shakira;Artista Invitado Alejandro Sanz – La Tortura
Maná – Rayando el sol
Los 8 De Colombia – El Sanjuanero
Marc Anthony – Este Loco Que Te Mira
Enrique Iglesias – Bailamos - Wild Wild West/Soundtrack Version
Ricky Martin – María
Roberto Torres – Caballo Viejo
Santana – Samba Pa' Ti
Harry Belafonte – Banana Boat Song
Jennifer Lopez duet with Chayanne – Dame (Touch Me) - Duet With Chayanne
Robert Rodriguez's CHINGON – Cielito Lindo
Celia Cruz – Guantanamera
Santana – Oye Como Va
Peter Gabriel – San Jacinto
Maná – En el muelle de San Blás
Los Warahuaco – El Pescador De Baru
Elefante – Sabor A Chocolate
Maná – Se me olvidó otra vez
Gipsy Kings – Volare
Julio Iglesias – La Carretera
Juanes – Es Por Tí
Robert Rodriguez's CHINGON – Malagueña Salerosa
Rodolfo y su Típica RA7 – La Colegiala
Abba – Chiquitita
Fruko Y Sus Tesos – Barranquillero Arrebatao
Maná – Ana
Paul Simon – Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard
Celia Cruz – La Negra Tiene Tumbao
The Champs – Tequila (Original)
Maná – Cachito - unplugged
Los Lobos – La Bamba
Santana – Corazon Espinado featuring Mana
Ricky Martin – La Copa De La Vida (La Cancion Oficial De La Copa Mundial, Francia '98) - Spanish
Gipsy Kings – Hotel California
Julio Iglesias – Agua Dulce, Agua Salá
Liberación – Corazón Prisionero - Dueto Con Cardenales De Nuevo León
Celia Cruz – Caramelos
Tito Puente – Oye Como Va (Bongo Edit)
Colombia Alegre Y Romantica – Brujeria
Juan Carlos Coronel – Patacón Pisa'o
Jennifer Lopez – Si Ya Se Acabo
Juanes – El Burrito De Belén
Maná – Vivir sin aire
Harry Belafonte – Coconut Woman
Juanes – La Camisa Negra
Relaxing Instrumental Jazz Ensemble – Besame Mucho (Tribute To Andrea Bocelli)
La Yanta – Papy No Me Dejes Sola
Jesse & Joy – Chocolate

Copyright 2012 - Raving Reviews - All Rights Reserved

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A Raving Pitch - Attack of the Right Brain

Today we're going to introduce the Raving Pitch. What is a Raving Pitch you ask; it is our attempt to sell a really great film or television idea to Hollywood, Bollywood or Vancouver (we're not picky). Every Raving Pitch consists of the following elements:

• A catchy movie title
• Dramatic synopsis
• Genre designation/s
• Recommended cast
• A catchy slogan or line that can be used on the poster art
• One liners for the script
• A mash-up description (e.g. how the idea relates to other better known ideas that someone did approve and produce).  
• 5 really good reasons why someone has to make this movie
• Completely unrelated thoughts that demonstrate our creative volatility and hipness

Today's Raving Pitch is "Attack of the Right Brain."

Genre - Horror/ Sci-Fi

"I'm totally in touch with my feelings"

Dramatic Synopsis - Dr. Roger Bork was just an ordinary guy working in a college bio-weapons lab when he met Lola, the yoga instructor at the local YMCA. Their fiery passion was threatened though by the tension between her Right Brained alternative lifestyle and his Left Brained logic. Fearing he might lose her forever, Roger tracks down Timothy Leary's little known research on how to be hip without really trying and uses his weapons lab to create a super-Right brain. But it all goes horribly wrong as his transcendental harmonic convergence goes on a killing rampage at the campus.

The Peter Lorre of our Generation

Possible Theme Song - "Brains"

Cast - Steve Buscemi as Dr. Bork; J-Lo as Lola; John Goodman as General Drones

Slogan  - "Two Hearts living in one mind, gone mad"

One Liners - "Meditate on this!" , "Take two hundred aspirin and never call me again..."

Mash-Up Description:  It's like "Prometheus" meets "The Women" or "Mac versus PC"

Reasons why the movie should be made:

1. Everyone has brains and most people have both Left and Right brains.
2. Steve Buscemi is an irresistible box office draw and this movie was made for him.
3. Brains are icky, scary and make excellent monsters.
4. Kids love thinking with and about their brains - so it will appeal to the youth market.
5. Our Right brain says we should trust our instincts and share our love with the whole world and our Left Brain has lots of good ideas for product placement.
   

Completely random thought - check this out - it will blow your mind, which part we can't say though.

Hold me closer tiny dancer, and stop switching directions I'm getting really confused !

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Wildfire - A Raving Playlist

We got the inspiration for this playlist several years ago when we were out in Arizona and there was not one but multiple wildfires in the mountains surrounding us. As we watched the helicopters dropping water and fire retardant on the flames we began building our playlist on Napster. Napster has since come and gone and we have updated the list several times to include drought-related themes (from last Summer) and now the list is on Spotify here.

Arizona is on fire a lot, but we still like it

 

Wildfire Playlist:

Kings Of Leon – Sex On Fire
Talking Heads – Burning Down The House
Sting – Be Still My Beating Heart
3 Doors Down – Going Down In Flames
Soundgarden – Black Hole Sun
Elvis Presley – Burning Love
The Trammps – Disco Inferno (single)
Midnight Oil – Beds Are Burning
Billy Joel – We Didn't Start The Fire
Social Distortion – Ring Of Fire
The Black Keys – Just a Little Heat
The Marshall Tucker Band – Fire On The Mountain
Candlebox – Cover Me
Elton John – Candle In The Wind
Sting – Desert Rose
Rick James – Fire And Desire
Candlebox – Sweet Summertime
Kiss – Heaven's On Fire
10,000 Maniacs – A Campfire Song
Sting – Fields Of Gold
Ohio Players – Fire
Madonna – Burning Up
Nirvana – Lake Of Fire
The Gap Band – Burn Rubber On Me (Why You Wanna Hurt Me)
Disturbed – Inside The Fire
The Wailers – Burnin' And Lootin'
Savage Garden – Crash And Burn
10,000 Maniacs – Dust Bowl
Bad Company – Burning Sky
The Police – Invisible Sun - 2003 Stereo Remastered Version
Patti LaBelle – Burnin' (The Fire Is Still) Burnin' For You
Third Eye Blind – Burning Man
Wilson Pickett – In The Midnight Hour
Blue Oyster Cult – Burnin' For You
Linda Ronstadt – Heat Wave
The Allman Brothers Band – The Heat Is On
Bangles – Eternal Flame
Nickelback – Burn It To The Ground
Kings Of Leon – Pyro
The Killers – Mr. Brightside
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Blood Sugar Sex Magik
Van Halen – Hot For Teacher
Deep Purple – Smoke On The Water
Bruce Springsteen – Dry Lightning
Radiohead – Paranoid Android
Foo Fighters – Bridge Burning
Otis Redding – The Match Game
John Mellencamp – Paper In Fire
Linkin Park – Burning In The Skies
Buckcherry – Lit Up
Candlebox – Far Behind
10,000 Maniacs – The Painted Desert
Kings Of Leon – Arizona
Jessie James – Burnin' Bridges
Dido – Burnin Love
Shinedown – Burning Bright
R.E.M. – Shiny Happy People
Franz Ferdinand – This Fire
The Black Keys – Strange Desire
Kings Of Leon – Radioactive
PORNO FOR PYROS – Pets
Sleeping With Sirens – Fire
Santana – Smooth
Billy Idol – Hot In The City - 2001 Digital Remaster
White Zombie – Thunder Kiss '65
David Bowie – Cat People [Putting Out The Fire]
The B-52's – Bushfire
The Cars – Tonight She Comes
The Hollies – Long Cool Woman (In A Black Dress)
Maná – Rayando el Sol [En vivo]
John Mellencamp – Cherry Bomb
Smash Mouth – Walkin' On The Sun
Enya – Storms In Africa - Remastered 2009
U2 – The Unforgettable Fire
Kansas – Fight Fire With Fire
The Doors – Light My Fire
The Bangles – Eternal Flame
Blind Melon – No Rain
The Black Crowes – Twice As Hard
The Cult – Fire Woman

Copyright 2012 - Raving Reviews - All Rights Reserved

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Flight Crash Lands

We went out to the movies last night and witnessed a horrific disaster - there was an uncontrollable dive - then it burst into flames and crashed into the ground. Actually, we're not talking about the plane crash scene - we're talking about the whole movie. "Flight" has to be one of the worst films this season. This is the worst work Robert Zemeckis has done since "Who Framed Roger Rabbit."

Roger Rabbit probably did a better job than Denzel in Flight

 Ground control to Denzel, here's why we are panning this flick:

1. Because the crash should have occurred at the end instead of the beginning; it was fairly anti-climatic the way it worked out.
2. Because having a crotch-close up in the first shot of the movie doesn't lend a lot of credibility to it.
3. Because no human being could drink as much as Denzel's character and live.
4. Because Denzel makes a truly awful and unconvincing drunk. 
5. Because a British actress playing a Southern crack-ho doesn't come off as very convincing.
6. Because movies ought to a have a plot.
7. Because the movie can't decide whether it wants to be Cheech & Chong or Days of Wine and Roses. Talk about sending mixed messages - it's wrong to drink but it's ok to be a super-cool coke head?
8. Because they wasted a lot of talent. Denzel, John Goodman and Don Cheadle (who looked as though he wished he was anywhere else but in this movie).
9. Because it was predictable - we knew exactly what Denzel would do for most of the movie including the big "surprise" confession during the hearing. Know why, because the movie was one giant cliche. 
10. Because an inside look into the porn industry is just one of several bizarre and meaningless redirects tossed into a movie that seems as though it was made up as they went along.
11. Because only playing 3 to 5 seconds of really cool popular songs is annoying and none of that coolness rubs off onto the movie.
12. Because making fun of people on chemo isn't cool.

1,296 bottles of beer on my wall...

We're thinking of suing the airline over our lost $31 dollars. This was a movie that was supposed to be about a heroic pilot but turned out to be about a silly alcoholic. At the very least, Denzel and Bruce Greenwood got a chance to catch up as this might have been their first project together since St. Elsewhere (a real show). Although Bruce and Denzel share 20 minutes on screen and seem to have the rapport of two strangers sitting in a waiting room, so who knows. And what was with the crazy religious co-pilot and his wife shouting praise Jesus - another wacky misdirection which led nowhere. Do yourselves a favor and don't book passage on Flight. Heck even the name of the movie seems to forewarn us that the makers of this dud wouldn't know originality if it fell out of the sky and crashed on top of them.   

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10 Reasons JJ Abrams Should never direct a Star Wars Movie

There are rumors flying about Hollywood this week that Lost creator, JJ Abrams may be hired to direct one or more of the new Star Wars episodes under Disney supervision. We're very concerned about this; in fact we're a bit horrified.

JJ Abrams, the force is not with you

We don't think JJ Abrams should ever direct a Star Wars film and here's why:

# 1 Reason Why JJ Abrams should never direct a Star Wars movie: Because he created and directed Lost, and we'll never forgive him for the several hours we Lost trying to figure it out. And what was with that Smoke Monster anyway?

Historians, scholars and psychologists have all determined that Lost was really stupid

# 2 Reason Why JJ Abrams should never direct a Star Wars movie: Because he's named JJ; this is simply not diginified enough to qualify.

The smoke monster, you'll never look at your fireplace the same way again

# 3 Reason Why JJ Abrams should never direct a Star Wars movie: Because he directed the new Star Trek remake (2010) and filmed most of it in a a beer factory. Warp engines shouldn't look microbrewery vats.

Free samples after every shot, the cast loves beer!

# 4 Reason Why JJ Abrams should never direct a Star Wars movie: It is illegal, immoral and unethical to mix the Star Wars and Star Trek franchises.

This could result in a holy war

# 5 Reason Why JJ Abrams should never direct a Star Wars movie: Because JJ is addicted to lens flaring to avoid creating actual scenes.

Maybe if we can't see the picture we won't figure out it sucks?

# 6 Reason Why JJ Abrams should never direct a Star Wars movie: Because he is not George Lucas. enough said.

# 7 Reason Why JJ Abrams should never direct a Star Wars movie: Because he owns too much Disney stock and there will likely be a conflict of interest with him succumbing to pressure to include Disney characters into the episodes.

Merchandising gone wild

# 8 Reason Why JJ Abrams should never direct a Star Wars movie: He's just too damn busy. We need someone with a bit more time on their hands - this shouldn't be rushed.

# 9 Reason Why JJ Abrams should never direct a Star Wars movie:  Because Cloverfield was almost as stupid as Lost. It seems as it was the smoke monster doing a cameo.

Cloverfield could never compete with the Frankenstorm

# 10 Reason Why JJ Abrams should never direct a Star Wars movie:  Because we're interviewing for the job, put in a good word for us.

 Copyright 2012 - Raving Reviews - All Rights Reserved

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Top 10 Ways to get the Plague - The Tudors

In the Showtime series, The Tudors, one of the things we learn early on is that the plague is an ever present part of Medieval Life. In fact King Henry VIII's son and a close friend both die from what is known as the Sweating Sickness (see the picture below).

A victim in the advance stages of sweating sickness

While doing diligent research on The Tudors for our reviews we came across some little known but potentially valuable medical advice from the mid-1500's that was no doubt employed to keep the plague at bay. This find consists of two top 10 lists; one to avoid the plague in the first place and the second concerns itself with how to cure yourself of plague.

Diagnosing Plague involved rigorous scientific discipline

Top 10 Ways to Avoid the Plague:

1. Never French-kiss a witch (you can try the floating in the bathtub test to determine if she is a witch).
2. Never get too familiar with your familiars - if you have black cats or other demons in familiar form around the house, don't let them in your bed. 
3. Never start, buy or otherwise own a Flea Circus. 
4. Don't listen to Ben when he asks you to let all of his buddies move in with you.
5. Don't lick reptiles even if they taste really, really good.
6. Don't listen to heresy like the Earth is Round - it'll only lead to trouble.
7. Don't eat cooked bacon - it's much better raw.
8. Bleed yourself regularly and for God's sake don't wash the knife. 
9. Bathing, except for witches, is generally frowned upon.
10. Don't have picnics next to mass burial sites.

Contrary to popular belief - Plague was well understood in Medieval Times (not the restaurant show attraction - but the time period)

If those tips didn't prevent the onset of Plague or Sweating Sickness, there was still hope. Here are the Top 10 Medieval Cures for Plague:

1. Burn a witch for good luck.
2. Burn a neighbor good luck (you must accuse them of heresy first).
3. Cover yourself in a poultice of warm cow dung and dance in a circle for 3 hours.
4. If you must take a bath (due to high fever let's say), fill the water with fresh cow urine and dung.
5. Never ever pop the plague postules - let them get as big as possible.
6. Bleed yourself, a lot.
7. Hide under a table or bed - eventually the plague will become confused and leave.
8. Remove your eyes, that way you can't see the plague anymore and it won't be able to see you either.
9. Flog yourself and others nearby.
10. Drink massive amounts of ale and grog if available, and let your milk ferment before drinking.

We love the BBC - and Horrible Histories

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