The New "Bob Marley: One Love" Movie Is Jamming While Bringing Back Good Memories For His Fans

 Nowadays there's so much to watch on TV. Actually, there's really too much to watch in my opinion. 

We got internet streaming flat

screen TV's with built in apps that have taken the thunder out of me watching my large collection of DVD movies that I have been collecting these last several years.  We have Dish Satellite TV also.  And I am really scratching the surface on that too.  Half of the buttons on the remote, I don't even know how to operate. Lol. To be honest, I think I have gotten too lazy to get up put the DVD's in the machine lately.  It's just much easier to flip on the TV and start pushing buttons on the remote and began chipping away at the tip of the iceberg on the tons and tons shows, documentaries and movies available to watch on the internet streaming TV apps and Dish Satellite TV. 

But every now and then a new movie comes along that is being shown at our local theatre.  And usually if it's a rock music biopic, I am very interested in going to see it.  In this case with this latest biopic, it's a movie about reggae music legend "Bob Marley" which is currently being shown here in Bowling Green. The movie is called, "Bob Marley: One Love." My wife (Patty) and I went to see it last Monday and I thought it was a great movie and really enjoyed it.  And course, I always have to sit on the outside seat in in the theatre just in case I have get up to use the restroom. And we always purchase a large popcorn with butter and a large Pepsi at the concessions stand beforehand that we share together to enjoy our movie with.

I won't spoil the details of movie by talking about what happens or how the movie is portrayed.  However, the movie brought a lot of good memories back to me while watching it. It reminded me when I was in college at Ole Miss in Oxford, Miss., in the early 80's and I was in the Sigma Pi Fraternity.  We played a lot of Bob Marley back in those days at the frat house especially during parties.  Also, Patty and I owned a Bob Marley greatest hits CD and we wore it out playing it over and over in the car in the 90's and 2000's. Especially when we would drive down to Pensacola Beach at the Gulf of Mexico where we go on vacation for several days at the beach.  I thought the movie was well done and I loved the music.  Patty and I have started getting back into Marley's music here at the house on the Amazon Prime Music app on my Android phone with the JBL bluetooth speaker lately I have noticed. 

One major thing about the movie I will say, Bob Marley and his band members definitely loved their "Ganja" (marijuana) down there in Jamaica. I supposed that was to be expected. He and his family and some of his bandmates were members of the Rastafari religion. The smoking of "cannabis" is part of their religious ceremonies. It is legal for their religion in Jamaica to smoke it but illegal for others on the island. If someone is caught with a small amount of marijuana is not a criminal offense but they do have to pay a fine. And if it's over a certain amount, it is considered a criminal offence. In just about every scene of the movie, Marley and his bandmates had several joints of Ganja lit up and passing it around.  The only thing that I didn't like about the movie, is that I had to go use the restroom and unfortunately I missed the scene where the Rolling Stones met Bob Marley backstage.  Just my luck, right? Lol.  Oh well, I am sure I will catch the movie again next time on a streaming internet channel app or Dish Satellite TV very soon. No doubt.

Rush: Keeping It In The Family By Tony Smith, Formerly of The Indie Rock Band, "Sleeper Agent," From Bowling Green, Ky.

My son, Tony Smith, posted this (see below) on his Facebook timeline about Rush and our relationship with each other regarding the band. I thought it was a fine tribute to the late Neil Peart also.

“My dad wrote a blog about Neil Peart that I’d like to share and it got me thinking about our relationship and our relationship with Rush. 

———this’ll probably be a TL;DR———-

So, Rush has been the go-to “dad rock” band for as long as I can remember. Often they’ve been the go-to joke for overzealous rockists and squares alike. But, honestly Rush was always my “dad rock” band because it’s the first thing I can remember sharing with my dad as “ours”. I used to sneak into his office when he was at work and marvel over the artwork on his LPs and cassettes. Rush always had the best covers and eventually he played me the music behind the images. It was complicated but catchy; for every 3 minute pop-gem there was a ridiculously indulgent 10-minute-plus heady jam. Over the years, it’s something we’ve shared together exclusively. Every time a modern Rush album or live DVD came out, I’d buy my dad the discs and we’d enjoy them cranked to 11. During the Vapor Trails era we grieved for Neil Peart and the trauma that he went through with losing his family. We went to the Belcourt in 2010 and watched the Rush doc: Beyond the Lighted Stage and it was strange but also fitting to see a bunch of Dads and sons waiting in line, haha. Even a little funnier watching a bunch of grown-men (aka, 70s stoners, now family-men) cry during the sad bits about Peart. When Sleeper Agent got their first “big check” (it wasn’t that big, folks) after signing our record deal, I got my dad 2 tix so see Rush at Bridgestone for Xmas. ANYWAY, Peart was the heart and soul of Rush. He wrote the lyrics and drove the songs. The lyrics were often hammy in a New Age kinda way and his solos and drum kit were absolutely ridiculous... but damn, having Peart, Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson in this world made it fun to be a square, a rockist, a dweeb, snob, stoner etc... 😂. We lost a good one far too soon. 

PS: Rush is clearly for everybody. I bet there are Moms and sons, moms and daughters and dads and daughters who had the same experience... I’m just sharing mine. 😘”

"Compliance," Is An Intriguing Movie

The Sundance Film Festival 2012 movie, "Compliance"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDat96UyT5A which is now out on DVD is based on a true story. It's hard to believe that something like this could actually happen. But it did. And this movie will make a believer out of you.-Galen A. Smith Sr., Blogger, "A Critic From The South" Amazon.com review. 

My Favorite Scene From The Movie, "A Christmas Story"

Since Christmas is here again, I thought that I would like to write about my favorite all-time Christmas movie scene. If you have been a reader of my blogs very long, you might have guessed it already. It's the "Chinese Restaurant" scene in the movie, "A Christmas Story."http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Story
It's the story of a little boy named "Ralphie" who lives with his family in middle America back in the 1940's and all he wants for Christmas is a "Red Ryder BB gun." The whole movie revolves around this theme. The movie was made in 1983 and it's definitely become a family favorite and a classic Christmas movie this time of year. I can't tell you how many times through the years that I have watched this movie. My wife, son and I have always made it a tradition in our family to watch this movie together during this time of the year especially when our son was younger. Now that he is older and his interest are much different, it's kind of hard to get him to sit down and watch this kind of movie with his ole mom and dad.
Anyway, most importantly, as families do together at Christmas, they sit down at the table and have a Christmas dinner. This is what Ralphie and his family were getting ready to do in the movie. But while Ralphie's mother is preparing the Christmas meal and turkey, the neighbor's dogs somehow get in the house and eat their special holiday bird. So, Ralphie and his family end up going to eat at a Chinese Restaurant on Christmas day because everything else in town is probably closed. And what happens to make this particular scene of the movie really funny and endearing, is when the Chinese servers along with their boss gather their table and try to sing a certain Christmas carol to their American family customers. Instead of singing, "Deck the halls," in the correct way they sing it in their Chinese accents, "Deck tha halls with bows of faree, fa ra ra a ra a ra ra." And then they bring out a Chinese cooked Christmas duck to the table and chop its head off right off the neck, right in front of Ralphie and his family. It's a hilarious scene and probably very true at the same time. I can visualize that happening in real life at one time or another.
Believe it or not, my family and I have eaten Chinese food on Christmas day on several occasions. Usually, it was Christmas day night after all the Christmas ham and turkey has been eaten or we had grown tired of holiday food. So if your dog ever eats your Christmas turkey or ham on Christmas day, try a Chinese restaurant or Chinese take-out. However, just watch out for that Chinese Christmas turkey!