"Wake Up" -John Legend and The Roots

I have to admit, my knowledge of old soul and R&B music is lacking, however, it is growing. So its hard for me to really compare this music to the original songs, but I can say this, John Legend and The Roots have put together a collection of updated R&B/Soul songs that is just amazing. The two entities alone are extremely talented in their own right. The Roots has got to be one of the best funk/hip hop bands on the planet... or just one of the best bands there is period regardless of genre. John Legend on the other hand, is one of the smoothest voiced R&B singers of the past decade or more. You'd be hard pressed to find a better singer these days. So what happens when they come together to jam out some old standards? Pure and simple greatness. Being of the generation I am from and not knowing the original songs, Its hard for me to imagine hearing them and feeling the same kind of excitement I experience when I hear these versions of the songs. "I can't write left handed" is probably the best example of all of these talents fusing together and, lets be honest, showing off a bit as well. But who cares?! The result is just mind blowing. On the other side of things, aside from the musicianship, is the lyrics of these songs, most of which are protest songs of some sort, that ring just as true today as they did in the '60's or '70's. Its music to make you think, but also something you could groove and dance to as well. ITs the best of both worlds really. So do yourself a favor and buy this album.

Devil

M. Night Shyamalan has gotten a somewhat bad reputation as of late. At least with moviegoers I've spoken to, and from viewers comments on sites like www.metacritic.com and so forth. I suppose these thoughts by the fans may have gotten to him, so he decided to give one of his stories to another director and see how they could do with it. Devil is a story about 5 people who get stuck in an elevator after a suicide, which has nothing to do with the people, it just allows the devil to enter this world. He punishes them for things they've done in their lives and tortures them, kills them, and then takes their soul to hell. At least this is the tale that is told at the beginning of the film, setting up what will happen later on. The movie is pretty solid as far as these types of movies go. There is never really a blatant "tell" if you will from any of the characters giving away any evil that may be lurking inside of them. The film makers did make a small mistake in giving away who may be the one torturing all these people, but it was very small and the person who saw it with me didn't notice it at all. I will say this though, they did keep me guessing up until the end when my suspicion was confirmed. All in all Devil is a pretty intriguing movie with a good bit of suspense. No real scares in the movie, a few jump out of your seat moments, but not much more. Its more a story of redemption and faith than it is about the devil just having his way with people on earth. ITs a fun movie, and it kept me quite interested. I'd recommend this to anyone looking for a way to kick off the halloween season. Its got a great creepy feel to it, ominous and dark throughout. Go check it out if you've got a spare dime.

Southern Star Buried Hatchet Stout

Southern Star is not a brewery I'm very familiar with. However, this beer suggestion by my local beer guru will change that. Southern Star is a brewery that is based in Conroe, TX, which is about a half hour north of Houston for those who don't know. The Buried Hatchet Stout is the first beer I've had the pleasure of trying from this tiny brewery in south Texas. (They're still so small they don't have their own delivery trucks, they deliver in a rented Ryder truck) So getting to the beer; Stout is a very dark, usually very heavy and somewhat syrupy beer. The hops and malt are roasted, which gives it its dark color and roasted coffee and molasses flavors. This particular beer is a bit heavier on the carbonation that say a Guinness or Old Rasputin. I'm not sure whether this is natural or if its been added artificially. The flavor is still definitely there, coffee, molasses, toffee, and some other earthy flavors that some might find a bit off putting, but they aren't so strong that its undrinkable. This is a great beginners stout in my opinion. The excess carbonation dulls the flavor just a bit, but isn't overpowering. This brewery packages their beers in 4 packs of cans. At about $10 per 4 pack, its a bit pricey, but its worth a try if you're into good beer and supporting local businesses.

Resident Evil: Afterlife 3D/Imax 3D

For those who don't know already, the Resident Evil movies are based off of the capcom video game saga. Having not played any of the games all the way through, I can't comment on the films continuity with the games. Having said that, the stories in the films flow nicely into each other. This addition to the saga picks up just about where the third movie, Extinction left off. The story starts off quite slow, and is pretty much just shots of Alice, Milla Jovovich's character, walking slowly through abandoned landscapes and narrating with very poorly written dialogue. Luckily the movie picks up about halfway through, and ends with tons of mindless action and slow motion scenes shot specifically for the 3D cameras that were used to film it. There is very little story here, and the action seems to have very little to do with what the original story was. The villain in this movie is only present for about 5 total minutes of screen time. ON the positive side, the film looks amazing. The 3D is wonderful. It was actually shot specifically to be in 3D, unlike so many movies lately that have been shot, and then turned into a 3D film just to cash in on the 3D craze. On the whole, this movie is really just aimed at fans of the franchise. It definitely won't win over any new fans, but people who enjoyed the first three should be sufficiently entertained.