Now I’m not calling Americana a children’s album – it’s far too rockin’ for that – but the album is a collection of nine classic American folk songs that wouldn’t be out of place around a campfire or in the aforementioned children’s’ music class. It’s as though Crazy Horse took a gig only to realize they were playing to a room of preschoolers and rather than pack it in, they rocked the house the only way they know how. And while it’s great to hear Crazy Horse roar again on songs like “Oh Susannah”, “Clementine” and “This Land Is Your Land” you would hope there might be some new original material for Neil to unleash. This almost feels like a quickie jam session turned stopgap release, but I have to figure Neil doesn’t have any reason to push out product so this project kind of baffles me. I’m not sure what theme or message Neil and the Horse are trying to convey with this album, but he’s clearly celebrating the greatness of the old folk tradition of passing along songs from one generation to the other.

One thing is for certain, there’s no denying the power of Crazy Horse and Neil’s feedback/overdrive, single-note guitar solos. While the material may not be optimal for fans craving new material, it’s great to hear Neil’s guitar and voice together again with original members Billy Talbot (bass), Ralph Molina (drums) and Frank “Poncho” Sampedro (guitar). The quartet bounce their way through the material with standout performances of “Gallows Pole” and a barn-burning rendition of “God Save The Queen”.

If you’re not already a fan, this album isn’t likely to turn you on to Neil Young and Crazy Horse. But it you are a long-time die-hard, then this might be the one to share with the next generation of music fans growing up around you.

That’s how The Aggression Scale kicks off. And for the next 84 minutes it doesn’t let up. It’s a fly under the radar flick that action fans definitely shouldn’t miss out on. And if you grew up loving Twin Peaks, you definitely have to watch this one.

Mr Bellavance is played by Ray Wise, who TP fans know as Leland Palmer, while his main hitman, Lloyd, is portrayed by Dana Ashbrook, aka Bobby Briggs. In the acting world, Wise is a given talent, a character actor who has turned in countless memorable performances throughout his storied career. Ashbrook is no doubt best known for his time on time on Twin Peaks, but he’s really a standout in The Aggression Scale. He’s aged very well and comes across as the badass his character requires.

Back to the story. Bellavance’s hitmen (among them Ashbrook and Derek Mears from the recent Friday The 13th reboot) track down a the Rutledge family, one that includes the emotionally disturbed Owen (Ryan Hartwig), who sets about protecting himself and his new sister when things turn very bad for the family.

Under the direction of Steven C. Miller, The Aggression Scale is a kickass thriller that will hopefully find an audience after it got strong notices at the 2012 SXSW Film Festival. With all sorts of crap that makes it to movie theatres, it’s too bad that the film didn’t score a wider release. It’s quick and clever and has some great action scenes. The performances are all strong, with the standouts coming from Ashbrook and Mears, who act and react exactly how you think hitmen in their situation would. That’s one of the strongest aspect of The Aggression Scale – the characters feel real.

A refreshing take on home invasion films, The Aggression Scale is well worth tracking down. It’s out today on Blu-ray and DVD and can be ordered here.

What will you be watching?

Monday May 28th

Hatfields & McCoys (9pm): Kevin Costner and Bill Paxton (Big Love) front this three-night miniseries on the History Channel about the legendary family feud that spanned decades and nearly launched a war between Kentucky and West Virginia.


Hemingway & Gellhorn (9pm): This HBO TV-movie depicts the love affair between literary master Ernest Hemingway (played by Clive Owen) and World War II correspondent Martha Gellhorn (Nicole Kidman) aka his inspiration for For Whom the Bell Tolls.


WWE Raw (9pm): WWE Monday Night Raw returns live from New Orleans, Louisiana, and features all the fallout from Big Show knocking out John Cena.

Tuesday, May 29th

Cougar Town (8pm): SEASON FINALE! When Grayson complains that he’s living the movie Groundhog Day because the gang shows up at the same time every day at Jules’s house, Jules asks for a Groundhog Day-themed bachelorette party so that Ellie and Laurie can explain the movie to her. Fed up with the lack of privacy, Grayson convinces Jules to elope to Napa — but the cul de sac crew happily tags along in the Season 3 finale, “My Life/Your World.” Courteney’s ex, David Arquette, guest stars as a hotel concierge who goes to great lengths to help the wedding go off without a hitch.

20/20 Special Edition (9pm): The Jubilee Queen with Katie Couric airs a profile of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth, who marks her 60th year on the throne June 2-5, 2012, in Diamond Jubilee celebrations. Princes’ Andrew, Harry and William, and princesses Beatrice and Eugenie are interviewed. Also: a tour of Buckingham Palace.

Wednesday May 30th

So You Think You Can Dance (8pm): The Season 9 auditions head to Los Angeles.

Thursday May 31st

Duets (8pm): Kelly Clarkson, John Legend, Jennifer Nettles, and Robin Thicke perform classic duets with their amateur partners.

Touch (8pm): SEASON FINALE! In the Season 1 finale, “Gyre,” Aster Corporation’s interest in Jake increases as Martin and Abigail seek common ground in the custody battle for his son. Meanwhile, Martin searches for a connection between Jake and a missing girl who shares his gift for numbers.

Sunday June 3rd

Secret Millionaire (8pm): PREMIERE! In the Season 3 premiere, millionaire and world-renowned artist Scott Jacobs and his 18-year-old daughter, Alexa, leave behind their lavish lifestyle in San Diego to spend six days in Newark, New Jersey, to search for those most in need of financial help. While there, father and daughter attempt to survive on less than $75 during their week-long visit, while volunteering their time to worthy charitable organizations. They ultimately gift some of their fortune to the community heroes they meet.

2012 MTV Movie Awards (9pm): Russell Brand hosts the 21st annual MTV Movie Awards. The Hunger Games and Bridesmaids lead the nominees with eight nods each.

Game Of Thrones (9pm): SEASON FINALE! In the Season 2 finale, “Valar Morghulis,” Theon calls his men to action; Jon proves his worth to Qhorin; Daenerys finds herself in an unfamiliar place; and Brienne silences Jaime.

Mad Men (10pm): Don receives an intriguing lead and follows up on it.

Veep (10pm): In “Full Disclosure,” Selina establishes some new ground rules about internal correspondence after the vice president’s office takes some heat over a pregnancy rumor and the firing of a Secret Service agent.

Teen Wolf (11pm): SEASON 2 PREMIERE! Special time airing right after the MTV Movie Awards. Lydia goes missing from the hospital and both werewolves and hunters try to find her in the Season 2 opener. Watch the first 10 minutes!

What is the Eurovision Song Contest?

Held once a year, in the nation of the previous year’s winner, this is a music and entertainment phenomenon. Between forty and fifty nations, mostly in Europe, some from Western Asia and a few from the Middle East, enter an original song performed by an artist or group representing that nation. They are each given three minutes, with a maximum of six performers to do the song during a continent-wide live broadcast.

At the end of the performances, all of the citizens of the nations involved call a special phone number to vote for the song they liked the most. The catch is you can not vote for your own nation’s entry. This last rule makes it a bit tricky, and a little bit more fair. The winner earns bragging rights for their nation as well as the honor of hosting the event the next year. That last part brings millions to the country helping the economy and building their tourism budget.

Currently it is the most watched program in Europe, this year pulling in over half a billion viewers, and who knows how many more worldwide through streaming live on the internet. Now it’s broken down to three broadcasts, over the course of one week, two semi-finals and a grand final with twenty-six participants. Eurovision is big. But big is what Eurovision is about, big, crazy, and loud.

History

This entertainment extravaganza has been happening since 1956, started by the then-fledgling European Broadcasting Union. An international song contest broadcast live throughout all of Europe was considered the perfect concept for the network, and has gone on from there. The ambitious project is now celebrating its fifty-seventh year and has become a tradition.

While almost unknown (except to the cool people) in the United States, some of the winners and participants over the years may be familiar. They include ABBA, Julio Iglesias, Celine Dion, Cliff Richard, Katrina and the Waves, Lordi, Johnny Logan, Brotherhood of Man, Jedward, and believe it or not, this year, Engelbert Humperdinck, at the ripe old age of 76.

The Semi-Finals 2012

This year’s Eurovision Song Contest took place in Baku, Azerbaijan just days ago. Azerbaijan won last year with their entry “Running Scared” in Dusseldorf, Germany, thus winning the right to host this year. Most of Europe has been on hand via television this past week for the Semi-Finals on Tuesday and Thursday leading up to the Grand Final Saturday.

The two Semi-Finals serve to whittle the forty-two competitors down to twenty-six for the Grand Final. This year, a year where most of the really good songs and acts got through to the Final, is marked by those who actually didn’t. Those include the token rocker this year from Slovakia, as well as cheesy sweet ‘beautiful song‘ from Latvia, and “The Social Network Song,” formerly “The Facebook Song,” from San Marino, which notably had to be altered as no advertising is allowed in the competition.

Politics and Economics Get in the Way

The world being what it is, and nations having their own laws and policies different from their neighbors, sometimes politics gets involved. There have been years when nations didn’t compete because Israel was involved, or when Jordan blacked out Israel’s entry on the broadcast. It gets very nasty some years when nations are at war with each other. Let’s just say the break up of the Soviet Union made for some interesting years.

This year, the First Semi-Final was marred by protests within the hosting country itself, Azerbaijan. You can read about that here. Although it’s frowned upon, and Eurovision wants to be a symbol of European unity, it is frequently used as a platform for various movements.

Another frequent worry is money. Greece is effectively bankrupt. Can they afford to win? Spain is also having similar problems, yet this year both nations participated while others dropped out. It is a major consideration. If one can’t afford to build a stadium and house and entertain several million people, one should avoid winning Eurovision.

The Grand Final 2012

What you have to understand about Eurovision is that it’s crazy, full on insane. I compared it earlier to “American Idol,” well, it is like “AI,” just “American Idol” on acid. Crazy costumes, bizarre dancing, a touch of each nation’s own ethnic flavor, all mixed up with crazed dance and pop music – that’s what Eurovision is. I have heard it described sometimes as a drag show from hell. What’s funny, and scary, is that sometimes it is exactly that – a drag show from hell. And it’s damned entertaining.

This year’s Final started with the UK’s offering. Despite all the hubbub about his age, and his career being long over, Engelbert Humperdinck impressed us all with a wonderful performance. Of course the sad part is so many of the other acts were much better.

There were many impressive performances in this year’s Final including dance tunes from France, Greece, Turkey and Ukraine. There was also much support for the fondly nicknamed Russian Grannies from Russia and second time competitors Jedward from Ireland. All of the performances can be seen at the Eurovison website if you care to explore the wild world of the ESC.

The Voting

Once the performances end, the voting begins. As I said, it’s done by phone, or text, and there’s also a jury that votes beforehand, but the show, the last half-hour or so of the show is taken up by each nation’s host or representative giving the stats of how their nation voted. Sometimes their mangling of the English language is hilarious, sometimes not.

In recent years the real hilarity has come from BBC host Graham Norton who has been almost demonic in his commentary. He’s funny most times, but when he gets mad and bitter as he did this year when UK came in second to last place, a petty twelve points compared to the winner’s 372 points. Yeah, Norton was in prime form this year.

The winner this year was Sweden’s entry, “Euphoria” by Loreen. Much like one of my favorites, Germany, this performance was all about presentation. The song, reminiscent of Madonna’s “Ray of Light,” was accentuated by excellent choreography and direction. To look good is to be good. Unlike many years, I was pretty happy with this year’s winner. Here’s to the next ESC in Stockholm.

It’s Memorial Day long weekend in the U.S., which means the box office pundits are tracking both three and four day totals. In the case of Men In Black 3, Will Smith’s first big screen offering in four years and the franchise’s first entry in ten, it’s three day total is currently at $55 million, with estimates bringing it to roughly $70 million by Monday’s end. While the at home numbers are satisfactory, the film’s worldwide total is looking to be $200 million by Monday as well, which is nothing to sneeze at. Reviews have been decent for MIB3, as is word of mouth, so the film could have decent legs over the next few weeks. However, it will have to content with Snow White and the Huntsman next weekend, and Prometheus the following, so it’s not going to have it easy.

The other new release of the weekend, the horror flick Chernobyl Diaries, debut with an anemic $8 million for fifth place. Oren Peli’s name couldn’t sell the picture, and bad reviews from critics and theatre goers sealed the deal.

As for the rest of the top five, Marvel’s The Avengers became the fourth film in North America box office history to earn more than $500 million, and it did so in a record 23 days. The film brought in $37 million over the weekend to raise it’s total to a stellar $513 million. It looks to add another $10 million more by the end of Monday. Meanwhile, Battleship grossed $10.7 million to land in third place while The Dictator wound up in forth place with $9.6 million.

So, to recap, here were our 3-day predicti0ns:

1) Men In Black 3 – $75 million
2) Marvel’s The Avengers – $39 million
3) Battleship – $16 million
4) The Dictator – $13 million
5) Chernobyl Diaries – $10 million

And here’s how the weekend turned out:

1) Men In Black 3 – $55 million
2) Marvel’s The Avengers – $37 million
3) Battleship – $10.7 million
4) The Dictator – $9.6 million
5) Chernobyl Diaries – $8 million

Next week, Snow White and the Huntsman and Piranha 3DD try to take the number one spot from Men In Black 3. Check back on Friday to see our predictions!