A Delicious Harmony - Raving Playlist

If there's one thing we love almost as much as music - it's eating a lot. So we decided to put together a playlist to celebrate all those things that taste really good and make a tribute to food-related harmonies. Our high-carb, high-fat tastes will no likely do us in eventually but not before we have lot's more fun listening to our favorite tunes. As usual this list is available on Spotify as well.

It's U2 again - Album Art (Wild Honey)

A Delicious Harmony

U2 – Wild Honey
Jack Johnson – Cookie Jar
Neil Young – Cinnamon Girl
Lenny Kravitz – You're My Flavor
The Four Tops – I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)
The Guess Who – No Sugar Tonight
Stone Temple Pilots – Sex Type Thing
Jack Johnson – Banana Pancakes
Suzanne Vega – Tom's Diner
Steve Miller Band – Jungle Love
Bob Marley & The Wailers – Stir It Up - Original Album Version
John Mellencamp – Cherry Bomb
Nirvana – Big Cheese
Don Henley – Sunset Grill
Supertramp – Breakfast In America - Remastered Version/2010
UB40 – Red Red Wine - Edit
Gorillaz – Bañana Baby
Pink Martini – Hang on Little Tomato
Billy Joel – Scenes From An Italian Restaurant - Live At Shea, 2008
Deep Blue Something – Breakfast At Tiffany's
Cream – Strange Brew
Steve Miller Band – Wild Mountain Honey
Sean Kingston – Ice Cream Girl - (featuring Wyclef Jean) Album Version
Van Halen – Ice Cream Man
Destiny's Child – Apple Pie À La Mode
Creedence Clearwater Revival – I Heard It Through The Grapevine - Single Version
White Rabbits – Dinner Party
Mötley Crüe – Slice Of Your Pie
The Runaways – Cherry Bomb
Marcy Playground – Sex And Candy
Nina Simone – Forbidden Fruit
Black Lips – Raw Meat
Jimmy Buffett – Last Mango In Paris - Live 1990 Version
Tenacious D – Low Hangin' Fruit - Explicit Version
The Beach Boys – Vegetables - 2001 - Remaster
Tom Waits – Ice Cream Man
R.E.M. – Orange Crush
U2 – Lemon
Radiohead – Banana Co
Jack Johnson – Red Wine, Mistakes, Mythology
Jimmy Buffett – Margaritaville
The Cars – Candy-O
Dave Matthews Band – Recently / Water Into Wine - 06/07/08 Busch Stadium St. Louis
Eagles Of Death Metal – Cherry Cola
Nelo – Jumping Bean
UB40 – Rat In Mi Kitchen
The Magnetic Fields – A Chicken With Its Head Cut Off
Third Eye Blind – God Of Wine - 2006 Remastered LP Version
The Rolling Stones – Pass The Wine (Sophia Loren)
Nancy Sinatra – Summer Wine
Coldplay – Strawberry Swing
Harry McClintock – Big Rock Candy Mountain
Stone Temple Pilots – Cinnamon
Kings Of Leon – Milk
Prince & The Revolution – Raspberry Beret
Peter, Paul and Mary – Lemon Tree - Remastered LP Version
Don McLean – American Pie
Jeff Beck – Rice Pudding
Eric Clapton – Malted Milk
Bow Wow Wow – I Want Candy
Kiss – Lick It Up
Parliament – Chocolate City
Italian Restaurant Music of Italy – Italian Dinner Party
Sarah McLachlan – Ice Cream
Blind Melon – Mouthful Of Cavities
Tonic – Lemon Parade
Prince & The New Power Generation – Cream
The Ultimate Beatles Cover Band – Strawberry Fields Forever - Originally Performed By the Beatles
Snow Patrol – Chocolate
Bob Dylan – Country Pie
"Weird Al" Yankovic – Eat It
Neil Diamond – Cherry Cherry - 2011 Remastered Mono
Stevie Ray Vaughan And Double Trouble – Mary Had A Little Lamb
Dave Matthews Band – Alligator Pie
Ray Charles – Sweet Potato Pie
The Mamas & The Papas – No Dough
Primus – Pudding Time
Amy Winehouse – Cherry
The Smiths – Meat Is Murder - 2011 Remastered Version
The Archies – Sugar Sugar
Oasis – Digsy's Dinner
French Dinner Music Collective – Je t'aime - French Dinner Music
Fountains Of Wayne – Mexican Wine
Against Me! – Rice and Bread
Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong – You Say Tomato, I say Tomato
Carolina Chocolate Drops – Cornbread And Butterbeans
The Wonder Years – Melrose Diner
Train – Breakfast In Bed
Insane Clown Posse – Chicken Huntin' - Slaughter House Mix
Cracker – Sweet Potato
ZZ Top – Salt Lick
Count Basie – Orange Sherbert
Conor Oberst – Milk Thistle
Psychostick – Prozac Milkshake
Bruce Springsteen – Candy's Room - 2010 Remastered Version
Man Man – Steak Knives
Everclear – Strawberry
Steely Dan – FM
Chuck Ragan – California Burritos
Jimmy Buffett – Cheeseburger In Paradise
Miles Davis Sextet – Tasty Pudding
Winger – Feeding Frenzy
Spoon – Me And The Bean
Barenaked Ladies – Alcohol
Paul & Storm – Pillsbury Cookie Dough
Dave Matthews Band – Big Eyed Fish
Guided By Voices – Chocolate Boy
Wham! – Last Christmas - Pudding Mix
"Weird Al" Yankovic – Taco Grande
Screeching Weasel – Fortune Cookie
Dirty Honkers – Ginger Bread Man
The Long Winters – Cinnamon
Green Day – Brain Stew
Luce – Western Spaghetti
Pickin' On Jimmy Buffet – Boat Drinks
We Have Band – Buffet
Speedy West – Cracker Jack
Emery – Daddy's Little Peach
The Raveonettes – You Want The Candy

That's Raveonettes, not Raisinets

Copyright 2012 - Raving Reviews - All Rights Reserved

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Pilot Interruptus - Battlestar Galactica Blood & Chrome

So who was the fraking genius who came up with the idea of separating the Battlestar Galactica Blood & Chrome pilot into 10-12 minutes segments? Must have been some type of artificial intelligence - anyway - the verdict is in. The show seems like its coming together well but it's driving us crazy only being able to see 10 minutes at time. It turns just about every potential scene transition or ad slot into a fraking cliff hanger. Our nerves may not be able to take much more of this. Here's a fracking suggestion - try doing 30 minute segments so we can actually have some sort of fulfilling viewing experience why don't you? You can stream 30 minute segments right?

They've got way more ships on Blood & Chrome which means more ships to blow up - yippee!

So here's the fraking promo trailer and we apologize for using the word frak or trying to say other bad words (starting with S or B) under our breath so we won't get censored.

Since we can't watch the whole show yet, here's a music video / song that expresses our sentiments about having to watch Blood & Chrome 10 minutes at a time...

Me and my Cylon...

Copyright 2012 - Raving Reviews - All Rights Reserved

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The Untouchables - A Raving Classic

We told you several weeks ago that a classic movie is one that you can watch again and again without ever getting bored or having to look at your watch (something that we ended up doing several times during the premier of Skyfall this week - what a shame). Today we're going to review a Raving Classic that never gets old - The Untouchables. This movie had a lot going for it and still does including:

• Kevin Costner before he got soggy from Waterworld
• One of Robert De Niro's best performances ever
• One of Sean Connery's best performances ever (we were wishing they'd bring him back to the Bond franchise as well - perhaps as Q?)
• One of the best musical scores in a film ever from Ennio Morricone (we've included clips) - and yes, this was the same guy who did the theme for the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
• A very realistic look ad feel that takes us back to prohibition times in ole Chi-town
• A ton of vintage cars - we liked that - we were wondering if that many vintage cars from the Depression era even exist anymore - although we're sure some FX wizard could render them now if needbe.

Welcome to the War on Booze !

The 1987 film starts strong with an awesome combo of credits and score that are absolutely timeless. This film perhaps even more than Field of Dreams is what made Costner the superstar he was - he was then able to go on and make Robin Hood, Dances with Wolves and JFK in rapid succession. It's cool to watch him in these early films before he went the through trauma of films like the Postman and all of the money that lost for him. The entire cast does a great job as well, with Andy Garcia making his blockbuster debut as the young Italian cop who wants to shed the gangster image and goes toe to toe with Connery's wise old beat cop persona, Jimmy Malone.

The story of the Untouchables was perhaps more familiar in 1987 to America than it is now given that the Untouchables was also a TV series in the late 1950's starring Robert Stack as Eliot Ness. And before that of course, keep in mind that this was based on a true story - this is more or less how the Feds actually caught Al Capone. Al was without a doubt, the biggest, most infamous mobster in US history. Capone was the archetype for the drug-lords of today and he ruled what would now be a multi-billion dollar crime syndicate that more or less ran Chicago for a number of years.  We may never know how many men he had killed during his reign but it is likely that he was responsible for the grisly Valentine's Day Massacre in 1929. Robert De Niro's portrayal of Capone is simply a joy to watch and will stand as one of the great movie villain roles of all time.

The real Al Capone, before he got caught - he died in prison

There are at least two of Cinema's all time best scenes ever in The Untouchables. Can you guess what they are? Here's a hint, one has to do with Baseball and the other involves a train station:

1. De Niro's speech to his capos (lieutenants) about his hobbies - or "enthusiams" focuses on how baseball is a team sport. There is something about how the good-natured sports speech turning brutal that chills you to the bone. We hope we never have a coach like Al.
2. The train-station shoot-out. This was a very ambitious scene and explores every angle of a crazy situation in painstaking detail as we move with the action in slow motion. It doesn't seem as though something like this would work - but it does. The clip below is a parody of that scene from the "Naked Gun" series.

A masterful parody and a glimpse of OJ before he became a real-life Bad guy

The Untouchables is an often corny, sometimes quite violent, usually suspenseful and overall pretty darn fun movie to watch. Don't expect a deep, realistic character study of Eliot Ness and Capone - this is a morality play, an old-time Western that just happens to be located in Chicago. The moral of this story? Crime doesn't pay even when it may not really be a crime (e.g. Prohibition). Ness and Capone both realize that its not the liquor that's the issue - it's the criminal atmosphere that is created in response to the demand for that prohibited product that creates both the opportunity and the problem. If Ness (who said he'd get a drink after hearing Prohibition was ended) was around nowadays would he care to smoke a joint in the states that just legalized pot? Interesting question.

 Our next Raving Classic - 1986's Predator

Copyright 2012 - Raving Reviews - All Rights Reserved

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