Found another new band I like! Rainbow!

I know it's not a big deal to everyone when discovering new music, but to me discovering new music is amazing! You find all this music you would normally have never even known about if it had not been for books or even suggestions on the internet or word of mouth by coworkers. This new music ends up being incredibly exciting- you get happy and eager about the prospect of learning more about what this musician or band has to offer in terms of music.

This new band I discovered is called Rainbow. Everyone, I'm sure, is familiar with the name. It's the product of The Man in Black himself, Ritchie Blackmore. He created the band to diffuse the frustration he felt at being in Deep Purple and hearing music that did not appeal to him. He wanted to start a band he could, more or less, control the direction of. I learned about this band after reading Black Knight: Ritchie Blackmore by Jerry Bloom. Reading about the Rainbow eras got me curious about their music and well, now, I'm a fan. I just need to get their other albums. I have their Difficult to Cure, Bent Out of Shape and Straight Between the Eyes albums.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)

WARNING: THIS MOVIE IS NOT FOR KIDS! IT'S VERY BLOODY! IT'S VERY GORY AND VIOLENT!!!

Summary
-Benjamin Barker is a Victorian England barber with a beautiful wife named Lucy and a daughter named Johanna. Lucy's beauty attracts the lusty Judge Turpin, who falsely accuses Barker of a crime he didn't commit. While Barker is away, Turpin throws a party and invites Lucy. There, everyone gang rapes Lucy, forcing her to go insane while Judge Turpin steals Johanna to raise as his own. When Sweeney Todd returns from his exile, he wants to seek revenge

Cast
-Johnny Depp: Sweeney Todd
-Helena Bonham-Carter: Mrs. Lovett
-Alan  Rickman: Judge Turpin
-Timothy Spall: Beadle
-Sacha Baron Cohen: Adolfo Pirelli
-Jamie Campbell Bower: Anthony
-Laura Michelle Kelly: Lucy / Beggar Woman
-Jayne Wisener: Johnanna
-Ed Sanders: Toby

Did You Know?

-When Sacha Baron Cohen auditioned for the movie, he sang the entire score of the 1971 film Fiddler on the Roof for director Tim Burton

-During filming, Helena Bonham-Carter was pregnant with her and Tim Burton's second child. She insists that during the film, her bust size grows very noticeably.

-Sacha Baron Cohen, who played Adolfo Pirelli, had worked with his own personal barber to learn the techniques of shaving and he took up to sixteen hours to learn how to handle a straight razor

-Director Tim Burton insisted that the movie be as bloody as possible. The original London play had cut down on the bloodshed, which Burton says "robbed it of its power". He mentions that "Everything is so internal with Sweeney, that the blood is like his emotional release. It's more about catharsis than it is a literal thing".
-While filming Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End in 2007, Johnny Depp was practicing singing the music from the movie as well as working with music producer Bruce Witkin so he would not need a vocal coach.
-Number 186, the address for Mrs. Lovett's Meat Pie shop, refers to the actual legend of Sweeney Todd, who was said to have had his barber shop at that address in London

-Tim Burton wanted a completely unknown actress to play Johanna. Originally it was supposed to be Anne Hathaway, but instead the role went to Jayne Wisener

-There are five Harry Potter actors who appear in this film: Helena Bonham-Carter (Mrs. Lovett here and Bellatrix Lestrange), Alan Rickman (Judge Turpin here and Severus Snape), Timothy Spall (Beadle here and Peter Pettigrew), Jamie Campbell Bower (Anthony Hope here and Gellert Grindelwald) and Johnny Depp (Sweeney Todd here and Gellert Grindelwald)


Helena Bonham-Carter as Bellatrix Lestrange



As Mrs. Lovett

Alan Rickman as Judge Turpin

As Professor Severus Snape

Timothy Spall as Peter Pettigrew



As Beadle Bamford

Jamie Campbell-Bower as Anthony

As Gellert Grindelwald

Johnny Depp as Gellert Grindelwald

As Sweeney Todd

-When production first started in London, it was halted for 10 days because Johnny Depp had to rush his daughter Lily Rose to the hospital for an undisclosed illness. During that time, Tim Burton filmed scenes that did not have Johnny Depp in them

-Sweeney's overall appearance bears an eerie resemblance to Dave Vanian, vocalist for gothic rock band The Damned. Vanian was known to have a similar hairstyle and preference for that type of clothing in the 1980s and 1990s

-Kate Winslet was one of the rumored actresses considered for the role of Mrs. Lovett
-Johnny Depp and Jamie Campbell Bower both play the character Gellert Grindelwald. Johnny plays this character in Fantastic Beasts and Jamie plays this character in the Harry Potter series

Sleepy Hollow (1999)

This is my all time favorite scary movie. My sister likes it for this reason and the fact that Johnny Depp is in it, lol

Summary
-A skeptical Colonial-era inspector, who relies on science and fact, is dispatched to a sleepy, mainly Dutch farming hamlet in the Hudson Islands called Sleepy Hollow that have been seeing a series of mysterious beheadings.

Cast
-Johnny Depp: Ichabod Crane
-Christina Ricci: Katrina Van Tassel
-Miranda Richardson: Lady Van Tassel
-Michael Gambon: Baltus Van Tassel
-Casper Van Dien: Brom Van Brunt
-Jeffrey Jones: Reverend Steenwyck
-Richard Griffiths: Magistrate Phillipse
-Ian McDiarmid: Doctor Lancaster
-Michael Gough: Notary Hardenbrook
-Christopher Walken: Headless Horseman
-Marc Pickering: Young Masbath
-Lisa Marie: Lady Crane
-Steve Waddington: Killian
-Claire Skinner: Beth Killian
-Mark Spalding: Jonathan Masbath
-Jessica Oyelowo: Sarah
-Alun Armstrong: High Constable
-Sir Christopher Lee: Burgomaster
-Peter Guinness: Lord Crane
-Sean Stephens: Thomas Killian

Did You Know?
-When Johnny Depp heard that Goldeneye, the horse who played his horse Gunpowder, was going to be put down, probably due to age, he adopted the horse to save its life
-Christopher Walken, who played the Headless Horseman, admitted to Tim Burton after being cast as this role, that he didn't know how to ride a horse

 

 

 

-Johnny Depp found the idea of Christina Ricci being his love interest odd because he's known her since she was nine years old

-The character Ichabod Crane was a rather unattractive man, with eccentricities and a probably geeky personality. Johnny wanted to add prosthetics to make him unattractive but Tim Burton wanted this character to be based more on Crane's personality traits, like his eccentricities and squeamishness
-Johnny Depp did all of his own stunt work. The only stunt work he didn't do was the final scene where he was being dragged by the horse. He wore bulletproof clothing underneath his clothes
-The story mentions that the Headless Horseman was a Hessian who had lost his head from a cannon blast during one of many battles of the American Revolution
-To give the movie its spooky grayish tint, the cameras all had a blue filter on it. To make the blood appear bright red, the liquid used had to be bright orange
-The town of Sleepy Hollow was completely built from scratch for filming and dismantled when filming was done

-Casper Van Dien, who plays Brom Bones, has actual family members named Van Tassel, which is the name of a prominent family in Sleepy Hollow

-The concept of the Headless Horseman dates back to Celtic and German folklore. Despite the fact that Washington Irving, who wrote the story originally and is best known for the Headless Horseman, most areas of the US claim to have their own headless horseman running around. Irving's story is said to be based on the headless body of a Hessian Jager (German sharpshooters and horsemen). These Hessians were found in Sleepy Hollow, most notably a headless Hessian Jager found in Sleepy Hollow. The real Van Tassels buried this figure in the Old Dutch Burying Ground in an unmarked grave

-Michael Gough, who had retired from acting, had come out of retirement to play Notary Hardenbrook

-Tim Burton was a fan of the Hammer horror films and the films of Mario Bava. He brought Michael Gough, a Hammer movie veteran and Sir Christopher Lee, of both Hammer and Bava fame, in for cameos
-The haunted Western Wood was completely built on a soundstage so everything, such as lighting, weather, could be controlled

-This is only the second movie that Tim Burton has directed that has received an R-rating for the blood and gore and the occasional sex scene
-The windmill, which figures into the movie largely, had to be constructed on a soundstage as it was over five stories high and the sails were over two tons
-Despite the fact that Casper Van Dien's character is nicknamed "Brom Bones", his character's full name is Abraham Van Brunt
-This was the last live-action film of Michael Gough before he passed away
-In the story, Ichabod Crane is a schoolteacher, not a police officer
-Michael Gambon has a sense of humor as he wanted to keep his severed head and send it to interviews and dinner parties as a joke

This amazes me to no end!!

This literally does amaze me to no end. Watch any movie where an English actor or actress is required to speak with an American accent or other accent. For example: Gary Oldman in The Professional, Alan Rickman in Die Hard, Michael Caine in Secondhand Lions and you'll know what I mean.

 

And it seems only very few American or foreign actors and actresses can successfully pull off an authentic English accent. Johnny Depp is one. For his role in Sweeney Todd, his English accent was so authentic you would have thought he was from England. Well, it certainly is in his favor he's friends with people like Keith Richards, who he can learn how to speak from. That's certainly who he modelled his character Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of the Caribbean series.

March Birthdays

Since it's March, time to say Happy Birthday!!

Elizabeth Jagger

-Birth name: Elizabeth Scarlet Jagger

-DOB: 3/2/1984

-Where: New York City, New York

-Her siblings include James Jagger, Georgia Jagger and Gabriel Jagger. Jade and Karis Jagger are her half-sisters while her half-brother is Lucas Jagger

Daniel Craig

-Birth name: Daniel Wroughton Craig

-DOB: 3/2/1968

-Where: Cheshire, England

-He was the first blonde actor to play James Bond

Carrie Underwood

-Birth name: Carrie Marie Underwood

-DOB: 3/10/1983

-Where: Checotah, Oklahoma

-She's a huge fan of horror movies

Michael Caine

-Birth name: Maurice Joseph Micklewhite

-DOB: 3/14/1933

-Where: Rotherhithe, London, England

-Mike Myers said that he based his character of Austin Powers on Michael Caine's character in the 1966 film Alfie

Elton John

-Birth name: Reginald Kenneth Dwight

-DOB: 3/25/1947

-Where: Harrow, Middlesex, England

-Was knighted in 1998 for his services to AIDS research

Dee Snider

-Birth name: Daniel Dee Snider

-DOB: 3/15/1955

-Where: Massapequa, Long Island, New York

-Has been married to his longtime wife Suzette since October 1981

Eric Idle

-DOB: 3/29/1943

-Where: South Shields, Tyne and Wear, England

-Most of the characters he played in the Monty Python series were happy go lucky, mischievous and often irritatingly positive

"Bring out your dead! Bring out your dead!"

Freema Agyeman

-DOB: 3/20/1979

-Where: London, England

-Her mother, Azar, is Iranian and her father, Osei, is Ghanian

Gary Oldman

-Birth name: Gary Leonard Oldman

-DOB: 3/21/1958

-Where: London, England

-He is best known for playing characters who are borderline psychopaths

Steve Harris

-Birth name: Stephen Percy Harris

-DOB: 3/12/1956

-Where: Leytonstone, England

-Wrote the song "Blood Brothers" from Iron Maiden's Brave New World album about losing his father to cancer while on tour

Angus Young

-Birth name: Angus McKinnon Young

-DOB: 3/31/1955

-Where: Glasgow, Scotland

-His schoolboy outfit caught on when he came to audition for the band still in his school uniform