Movie a Day by the Bay

Classic Albums: Metallica – Metallica (Matthew Longfellow, 2001) -
[REWATCH]



I was obsessed with Metallica at one point, and that's when I first saw this. I've outgrown them, though I still think Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets are great albums. In fact... I was never a big fan of Metallica post-Burton. They just started to change musically, I feel, and lost their punch. Even though The Black Album was probably bigger for their career, I think Master of Puppets is their magnum opus, and which Classic Albums did their Metallica doc on that one. Still an interesting documentary. Cool seeing Hetfield in a Nosferatu shirt.

Whiplash (Damien Chazelle, 2014) - +
[REWATCH]



I feel like this is a good time to bring up something I have been thinking about lately. I hate seeing criticism towards musical expression. I'm not talking about about nice, constructive criticism - I'm talking about bashing someone who is expressing themselves musically. What the f*ck? I remember seeing a video of a girl covering a Blink 182 song on acoustic guitar on YouTube, and the comments were just filled with bashing. Good job guys, you potentially just rid the world of a musician. It doesn't matter if she was good or bad - musical expression is for everyone. It's a universal, human experience. You don't need to be Buddy Rich or Jimi Hendrix to make music. That girl has my eternal respect, too, for putting herself out there and posting that video. I have a really hard time sharing my music and playing instruments as I have terrible performance anxiety, so seeing someone able to show off what they do is very cool to me.

In other words, Fletcher is a f*cking prick.

Great movie though.

Pink Floyd: The Story of Wish You Were Here (John Edginton, 2012) -



Now this is more like it. An amazing, in-depth documentary on the making of a masterpiece. My favorite part was when they were talking about Syd Barret coming into the studio during the making of it, and how different he looked. Really moving stuff. Overall, a brilliant documentary.

Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii (Adrian Maben, 1972) -



I can't give a Pink Floyd performance anything less than a five. On top of that, this has behind the scene video of the making of The Dark Side of The Moon. When this was released, Dark Side had yet to come out. Imagine seeing Roger Waters f*cking around with that synth for the first time and not knowing what the hell he was doing. Amazing. Just beautiful seeing hints of the album coming into shape. And of course, we get pre-Dark Side Floyd doing what they do best at the Pompeii amphitheater. Too good.

Classic Albums: Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (Matthew Longfellow, 2001) -



Pretty good doc about a pretty good album. I'm not enamored with Elton John, though I have no problem with him and recognize him as talented for sure. There are some songs on this album I love, like "Funeral for a Friend" and "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road". But there are also some I don't care for. I reckon it is his best album, though. This was a decently informative look into the making of the album. If I had cared more about the album and the people involved, I'm sure I would have loved it.