Cover Me: Just Like Heaven

19 05 2014 No Comments

The musicians who make the best covers pay homage to the original whilst making them their own.

Best cover of “Just Like Heaven”: The Watson Twins

This is how you cover The Cure’ s “Just Like Heaven,” one of the most perfect songs ever crafted—slow, dreamy, and with a female singer.

 

Honourable mention: Goh Nakamura
Mellow acoustic guitar cover with a nice, head nodding groove.

 

Honourable mention: Katie Melua
Katie’s singing is lovely but for me the star of this breezy cover is the nylon string guitar, which gives a softer sound (and of all the covers here the guitar interpretation is the most creative.)

 

Honourable mention: grantweep
As far as I know this chap is an amateur musician but he’s superb. His piano rendition is at times rousing, at times restrained, and completely virtuoso. Bravo!

 

Honourable mention: Joy Zipper
You’ve probably noticed a pattern, that my favourite covers are all slow (otherwise just listen to the original.) This one’s an exception, though. This is good if you’re in the mood for something very fast.

 

And here’s the original.

I’m a Wizard, Not a Muggle!

11 05 2014 No Comments

Coffee and Harry Potter

I woke up surprisingly lucid this morning to a sun-filled bedroom at 7 a.m. (not a morning person, mind you) so I got up and brewed some coffee (with milk and a bit of vanilla ice cream for froth, a weekend treat) and resumed reading Harry Potter, the best thing I’ve read since Game of Thrones.

I’m surprised that I’ve taken such a liking to the book. Sure, I’ve always liked stories of fantasy and magic and wizardry but I never thought of Harry Potter enough to consume any of its media. Try not to laugh but the way I got into Harry Potter was because some time ago I developed a fascination with Emma Watson, the lovely actress who plays Hermione Granger in the films. (She was eleven when the first film came out but is now 24, thank you.)

I also remembered that Amazon had included the series as part of its Kindle lending library, and as I prepared to go on a trip to North Carolina recently, I sought something fun to read and settled upon the first book, Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone. I liked it immediately; the book began with strange goings-on in a town, with a peculiar cat outside reading a map, owls flying everywhere, and a baby, with a scar on his forehead the shape of a lightning bolt, left in a basket with a letter at the doorstep of a family that didn’t want him. The baby’s name was Harry Potter.

With a mix of engaging story and unforgettable characters, witty writing, and imagination in the establishment of a new mythology (and a creative reboot of an old one), this series has been a joy to read so far. I’m halfway through the second book and already sad that I only have five and a half left to go.

“It’s him…It’s Jack Bauer.”

10 05 2014 No Comments

24

An older, scarred, tattooed Jack is indeed back, as is a goth Chloe, with black eyeliner and fingerless gloves, dour and competent as ever, now working for an underground hackers group. And 24, after a 4 year hiatus, is back, with the same ineffective, bumbling bureaucrats; a lone smart, maverick counter-terrorism agent who goes after Jack thinking he’s a bad guy; a United States President and his lieutenant who follows orders but has his own agenda; a shadowy villain, identity unknown, who sits behind a big desk; a foreign country that gets pissed off at the U.S. because of a fatal misunderstanding; flash drives with encrypted code and dangerous objects in steel briefcases; maddening bureaucracy that makes you want to throw something at the TV; and an unspeakable potential catastrophe with global implications that only one man is perceptive, selfless, and crazy enough to stop: Jack Bauer (with help from Chloe.) And that’s just the first two episodes.

So far the new 24 is formulaic and predictably unpredictable. If you want something more creatively risky, go watch HBO or AMC. But if you want an hour a week of the same, fast-paced, edge-of-your-seats jaw-dropping sequence after jaw-dropping sequence with the most competent professional in fiction, 24 is that same comfort food you’ve known and enjoyed since 2001. 24 is not Game of Thrones; it’s not The Walking Dead. At the end of the second episode, when Jack utters, “Damn it, Chloe,” I grinned. Welcome back.

Photo: Jack has them right where he wants them. (FOX)

Welcome!

02 05 2014 1 Comment

Hello and thank you for visiting The Pure Fury! This is the culture blog of Clement Wu. How do you do.