"The Wild One" would have been a very different movie if Marlon Brando had ridden into town on Jodi Johnson's customized 2004 Harley-Davidson motorcycle. It's hard to fear a biker sporting a ride with pink flames and 10,000 Swarovski crystals. It's just as hard to be brooding and moody when you're looking at one.
Johnson is the cover rider for the April issue of the Thunder Roads Michigan motorcycle magazine. "Every girl needs a little sparkle in her life," Johnson writes in the magazine. I can attest to the truth in that. Most gals don't take it as literally as hand-applying thousands of crystals to a machine that's more closely associated with leather and bar brawls than Beyonce's Swarovski-encrusted microphone.
Johnson describes her style as "J-Bling." She started with motorcycle helmets, but every hobbyist yearns for bigger and better things. She celebrated the recent achievement of earning her motorcycle license by going all Liberace on her ride.
As we know, it's hard to stop the spread of Swarovski crystals once it has started. Everything from the front windscreen down along the tail pipes to the license plate holder has been emblazoned with little gems of happiness. I can hear Jon Bon Jovi singing in my head, "I'm a cowboy. On a steel unicorn I ride. And I'm wanted... dead or alive."
Unlike actual unicorns, you can see Johnson's sparkly creation in person at the Giant Motorcycle Swap Meet in Michigan on April 17. In summary: wheels, a pink paint job, and crystals. I would do this to my Prius in a heartbeat, if I didn't think it would negatively affect my gas mileage.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20052118-1.html#ixzz1J3rQC8wq
R.E.M. Returns With Winner
Alternative rock kings R.E.M. have hopped back with a new, half-great album.
Some of the strengths of the Athens, Ga.-bred band shine brightly on "Collapse Into Now," R.E.M.'s 15th studio album. The semi-bragging nature of "Discoverer," the ghostly "Me, Marlon Brando, Marlon Brando and I" and the blazing, perfect concert-opener "All the Best" prove that lead singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and their backing/touring musicians are at their cobweb-free best.
"Oh My Heart," delicately placed inside a hangover-like waltz, presents Stipe in his often-retrospective self. The composition is strikingly beautiful in tone, with acoustic guitar, accordion and Stipe's octave-jumping voice softly melding into a disarming sound.
Listeners, however, will need a lot of luck - or a trusting friendship with the band - when trying to weed out the possible meanings in Stipe's trademark vague lyrical style throughout "Collapse Into Now." On "Oh My Heart," Stipe sings, "The storm didn't kill me, the government changed," which obviously is a type of political comment, yet when the vocalist adds, "It's sweet and it's sad and it's true, how it doesn't look bitter on you," there could be an urge to head scratch.
For "Uberlin," Stipe sings of riding a star straight into a meteor, promising to make it not only through the day, but to survive and enjoy the next two nights, as well. It's on this cut where Mills' crucial backing vocals prove to be a yin-and-yang match made in heaven for Stipe's occasionally wobbly, great voice.
Throughout the bulk of "Collapse Into Now," R.E.M. sounds confident, ready to overcome so-called impossible odds. Having ace players like R.E.M.'s touring musicians (guitarist Scott McCaughey, drummer Bill Rieflin and keyboardist/guitarist Jacknife Lee), as well as Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder ("It Happened Today"), on the disc helps tremendously.
But there are some weak moments on "Collapse Into Now." One of those misfires occurs when R.E.M. decide to shed their no guitar-solo policy on "Alligator Aviator Autopilot Antimatter," letting guest Lenny Kaye go commando on lead guitar. Kaye's appropriately brief solo sounds fresh and wonderfully unhinged, but things stall when Peaches' voice smothers Kaye's guitar part.
Sounding as if it was grafted onto the track at the 11th hour, the pointless placing of Peaches' voice on top of Kaye's work comes across as a puzzling, completely unnecessary apology from a shrugging R.E.M. Sure, we've known since the dawn of time that R.E.M. doesn't do prog-rock guitar solos, but really, for those 20 seconds in "Alligator," the boys could have taken a chance and let Kaye's fingers fly on the fret board like it's Friday night.
For the Record
R.E.M.
Title: "Collapse Into Now"
Format: CD
Label: Warner Bros. Records
Genre: Alternative rock/rock
Grade: B+
http://www.swtimes.com/features/article_4bc81612-611c-11e0-9b91-001cc4c03286.html
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