Music N' More

Thursday, February 26, 2026

The Grinch (2000)

This was one of my all time favorite PlayStation games

Summary

-It's your job as The Grinch to undo all of the holiday cheer for the Whos of Whoville. With your sidekick Max, you'll steal presents and decorations. But, watch out for those Whos that are determined to stop you!

Levels

-Each area has a specific set of tasks that need to be accomplished. Once accomplished, you'll see "Mission Complete" scroll across the screen. There are blueprints to collect in each level, which will need to be assembled to gain new powerups. You'll also need to leave the areas and come back with the powerups to do later missions

-There will be blueprints you need to pick up and assemble to gain new gadgets

Rotten Egg Launcher. Your most effective gadget

Marine Mobile. Explore the underwater world

Slime Shooter. Slime anyone for a short time

Jet Spring. Reach new heights

Grinch Copter. Fly around

Octopus Climbing Device. Ascend / descend walls

Whoville

-The main city near The Grinch's home. Explore the city, learn your way around and look for items you'll need later on, such as mission-related items, blueprints for inventions, etc.

-Some of the missions here include: Shuffle the Mail. This involves going to the post office and sneaking past security. Use Max to go into the air shafts to unlock the doors to shuffle the mail in each room. By door 4, the security has been turned off. Modify the Statue involves going to City Hall and using a hammer and chisel to modify the statue of Mayor Whovier. Painting the Mayor's Posters involves using a paint bucket to vandalize the posters. Smashing the Snowmen involves butt dropping them to smash them. Egging the Houses involves using the Rotten Egg Launcher to shoot rotten eggs into all of the open windows. Advancing the Countdown Clock will require the Jetspring, to give you the power you need to reach the hatch to the upper levels. And then you'll need to solve a few puzzles to get to the top

Vandalize the Mayor's Posters

Watch out for kids and other Whos

Modify the Mayor's Statue

-The blue prints here should allow you to assemble your first powerup, the Rotten Egg Launcher and the Jetspring

Who Forest

-The mountainous ski resort outside of Whoville. Explore the city, learn your way around and look for items you'll need later on, such as mission-related items, blueprints for inventions, etc

These chimneys are where you put the beehives

Shoot the swirling target to activate the lift

Shoot the snow above the dog to trap it long enough to enter the area

-Some of the missions here include: Putting bees in cabins. Use the jet spring to take hives you have collected (you will be timed on this otherwise the bees will attack) and you will shake the hives and put them down the chimneys. For the cabin in the center of the resort, it is situated on a tall tree top. You will need to ascend the cliff across from it and use the Rotten Egg Launcher to activate the lift to reach it. From then on, you can reach this high house. Droop the Trees simply involves breathing on them. Replacing the Candles on the Cake with Fireworks involves picking up fireworks from the White Mountain Civic Center and replacing the candles on the massive cake with them

-Here you will collect blueprints for your next powerup, the Slime Shooter

The Dump

-The place where all Who trash goes to

-This is, by far, one of the trickier areas to navigate. Some of the missions here include: Collect Parts for Computer, Take Food from Birds, Conduct the Stinky Gas to Who Bris' Shack, Shave the Dump Guard, Infest the Mayor's House with Rats, Short Circuit the Power Plant. To do the Collect Parts for the Computer, shoot a red egg (easy to pick up) at robots and pick up the glowing parts left behind. To do the Take Food from Birds, shoot a rotten egg at the bird with the pizza in its mouth and it will drop. The collect it. There are pipes you need to shoot using the Rotten Egg Launcher because this is part of the Conduct Stinky Gas Into Who Bris' Shack mission. There will be pipes you need to enter to access new areas, but they are blocked with electricity. You'll need to use the Jetspring to enter small tunnels and hit buttons, which will show you which tunnel has been deactivated. Run through the tunnel before the timer runs out. Conduct the Stinky Gas into Who Bris' Shack involves shooting pipes in and around the dump to send the gas into the resident Who's shack, behind a wall of steam. There will be a chess area behind a fence. Look at the house to see the arrangement the chess pieces should be in. Once correctly assembled, the garage door will open to reveal sleigh parts

-Short Circuit the Power Plant involves entering the Power Plant and either getting rid of or eluding the pesky security guards. Once inside the plant, shoot buttons to deactivate power lines, which you can use to access new areas. Hit buttons to deactivate generators. Work your way to the top, solving puzzles until you turn off all of the electric to Whoville. Once done, all of the electricity will be out in the Dump

-Infest the Mayor's House with Rats involves using Max to lure rats into a tube that will send them into the Mayor's house. Shave the Dump Guard involves traversing a minefield. Use the Rotten Egg Launcher to shoot down hanging mattresses and use the Jetspring to hop from item to item. Use the Slime Shooter to slime the orbs and try to safely make it across the minefield to the guard's house. Enter the garage to find Scissors and tiptoe into the house and up to the guard. Once that mission is complete, you can just hit the minefield, which will send you back to the beginning

-Here you collect blueprints for the Octopus Gadget, which allows you to climb walls. You will need this to ascend the wall to enter the Power Plant

WhoLake

-A tranquil lake where all Whos go to relax

-This is, by far, the trickiest level in the game. There are many missions and items to collect here. Most of the blueprints you'll be picking up will be for your Marine Mobile, a submarine. Some of the missions here include Flatten Tents. Do the butt drop on the tents to flatten them. Shoot thistles into boy scout uniforms. There will be small brown porcupines running around. Shoot them using the Rotten Egg Launcher and pick up the thistles. Find clothes lines and shoot the thistles at the uniforms. There will be a hut on top of a massive tree, that can only be accessed by swinging your way from the bottom branch to the top. This is where you'll get your Scout Uniform to enter the North Shore. There will be a changing booth nearby that will allow you to change into the costume, to access the North Shore of the lake. Now, once in the North Shore, you will not be able to use any of your weapons, since you're in disguise.

Right outside the Mayor's Villa is a changing booth that will allow you to remove your costume. Inside the North Shore, one of your missions is to Drill Holes in the Boats. You will find a drill in a small cove near the entrance to the North Shore. One of the trickiest missions in this area is Hook the Mayor's Bed to the Motorboat. For this, you'll need a hook from a local pirate, who lives in a cave. He will give you his hook if you bring him five scout scarves. Sneak into the Mayor's Villa, avoiding the carpet and hit the action button when prompted to hook his bed to the motorboat

Tuesday, February 10, 2026

Sea of Love (1989)

This was the first movie Al Pacino made, after taking a four year break from film after 1985's Revolution. I thought it was very good. I will warn you, though. If you don't like nudity or foul language, this may not be the film for you

Summary

-A detective, who also happens to be an alcoholic, is investigating a series of murders tied to lonely hearts ads in a newspaper. And he falls for a woman who might be the prime suspect

Cast

-Al Pacino: Frank Keller

-John Goodman: Sherman Tuohy

-Ellen Barkin: Helen Cruger

-Michael Rooker: Terry

-William Hickey: Frank Keller Sr

-Richard Jenkins: Gruber

-Paul Calderon: Serafino

-John Spencer: Lieutenant

-Damien Leake: Ernest Guy

-Zachary Michael Simmons: Ernest's Son

-Patricia Barry: Older Woman

Did You Know?

-When Al Pacino's character Frank Keller is trying to court the character played by Ellen Barker, he is rudely bumped into by someone on 5th Avenue. Director Harold Becker stated that this was not in the script. It was completely authentic, caused by a real New York resident. Al Pacino includes this moment into the film and continues on without missing a beat

-The "Meet the Yankees" breakfast that the police use to apprehend criminals was based on a real event

-When this movie is shown on television, Lorraine Bracco was shown as Al Pacino's ex-wife. Her scenes were cut from the final product of the film

-At the time of this film, he was living with his good friend Diane Keaton, She had found the script for this film and convinced him to do it. He was still hurt from doing the 1985 film Revolution and was not sure he wanted to make a return to films. Keaton had informed him that he was not an A-list actor anymore, that offers were not coming in very often, but this was a film he was meant to do. Not only that, he was also going flat broke and going through tax problems stemming from financing a film called The Local Stigmatic with his own money and also not making films for four years. He finally agreed to do this film and it helped him immensely

-Richard Price, who wrote the novel this film is based on, wrote the screenplay with Dustin Hoffman in mind. With him wanting too many re-writes, Al Pacino took over the role instead

-This was Al Pacino's first film after a four year break. His last film before this was 1985's Revolution

-Michael Rooker was cast in this film after his role in the 1986 film Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer

-This movie is credited with being the film that pulled Al Pacino out of a bad string of movies he had made during the 1980s

-This film was the fourth out of five films Al Pacino had made with Martin Bregman. They are 1973's Serpico, 1975's Dog Day Afternoon, 1983's Scarface, 1989's Sea of Love, 1993's Carlito's Way

-During the undercover scene where Al Pacino and John Goodman's characters are working, that restaurant, O'Neal's, was a real New York City restaurant, owned by actor Patrick O'Neal. It was located near Lincoln Center and closed in 1993, just a year before Patrick O'Neal's death in 1994

-Both Al Pacino and Ellen Barkin attended the same high school, the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts. This high school was also featured in the TV show and film Fame

-During the scene where Frank Keller is trying to convince his lieutenant to let him do the sting operation without a wire, he says "What is she gonna do, confess? Shoot me? We're in a restaurant!" Ironically, Al Pacino, who played Michael Corleone in The Godfather trilogy, appeared in a scene in the first film, where he shoots a cop in a restaurant, which was also said to be impossible

-In a 2007 interview, Ellen Barkin revealed an unknown secret about her love scenes with Al Pacino in the film. She stated that while he is normally a cocky, outgoing actor, when the cameras started rolling, he became shy and bashful. "We never talk about that scene. Al was very shy. I don't think he's comfortable with those kind of scenes. I am. At the time I was anyway. Now I wouldn't be, but I thought it was a good icebreaker in those days."

-Al Pacino and Ellen Barkin starred in another movie together. Ocean's 13, where he plays Willy Bank and Ellen plays his right-hand woman

-Any interior shots were filmed in Toronto while exterior shots were filmed in New York City, most of them being filmed in the Upper East Side

-It was not a mistake that Frank used an incorrect last name in his newspaper personal ad. A police officer undercover would never use their real last name

-In the fancy restaurant scene, the strolling violinist is playing "Strangers in the Night". This song was also featured in the 1983 film Scarface, during the scene showing the shootout

-This is one of four films written by Richard Price, but starring Samuel L. Jackson. They are 1995's Kiss of Death, 2000's Shaft and 2006's Freedomland

-John Spencer played another police lieutenant in the 1989 film Black Rain

February Birthdays

It's February! Time to say Happy Birthday!

Rod Smallwood

-Birth Name: Roderick Charles Smallwood

-DOB: 2/17/1950

-Where: Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England

-He initially didn't want to manage Iron Maiden, because of a bad previous experience managing a musician. After hearing their music, he changed his mind and offered his services as management

George Russell

-Birth Name: George William Russell

-DOB: 2/15/1998

-Where: King's Lynn, United Kingdom

-He started in competitive go kart racing at age 7

Shakira

-Birth Name: Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoli

-DOB: 2/2/1977

-Where: Barranquilla, Colombia

-She learned how to perform Lebanese-style belly dancing from her grandmother

Tom Wilkinson

-Birth Name: Geoffrey Thomas Wilkinson

-DOB: 2/5/1948

-Where: Leeds, West Yorkshire, England

-DOD: 12/30/2023

-Where: Muswell Hill, London, England

-He was offered a role in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but didn't like the idea of being away from his family for a year

Pierre Gasly

-Birth Name: Pierre Jean-Jacques Gasly

-DOB: 2/7/1996

-Where: Rouen, France

-He started in competitive go kart racing at age 10

Kelly Rowland

-Birth Name: Kelendria Trene Rowland

-DOB: 2/11/1981

-Where: Atlanta, Georgia

-She started out in the late 1990s, early 2000s as a member of the all girl group Destiny's Child

Tony Iommi

-Birth Name: Anthony Frank Iommi

-DOB: 2/19/1948

-Where: Aston, Birmingham, England

-He and future Black Sabbath vocalist Ozzy Osbourne attended the same school. Tony was one year ahead of Ozzy

Christina Ricci

-DOB: 2/12/1980

-Where: Santa Monica, California

-She is good friends with Johnny Depp, with whom she starred in the film Sleepy Hollow

Thomas Jane

-Birth Name: Thomas Elliott

-DOB: 2/22/1969

-Where: Baltimore, Maryland

-He claimed in a 2005 interview that The Punisher was both the most and the most exhausting movie he has ever acted in

Paul Wight

-Birth Name: Paul Donald Wight II

-DOB: 2/8/1972

-Where: Aiken, South Carolina

-He got his nickname "The Giant" from his 7' height

Adrian Smith

-Birth Name: Adrian Frederick Smith

-DOB: 2/27/1957

-Where: Hackney, London, England

-He is good friends with current Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen

Matt Groening

-Birth Name: Matthew Abram Groening

-DOB: 2/15/1954

-Where: Portland, Oregon

-Matt Groening created the character Comic Book Guy as a sort of version of himself

Alice Cooper

-Birth Name: Vincent Damon Furnier

-DOB: 2/4/1948

-Where: Detroit, Michigan

-He's known as the King of Shock Rock because of the many macabre items he has on stage

Alan Rickman

-Birth Name: Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman

-DOB: 2/21/1946

-Where: Hammersmith, London, England

-DOD: 1/14/2016

-Where: London, England

-While filming the scene where his character Hans Gruber falls from the Nakatomi Building in Die Hard, a stuntman dropped him from a 20 foot high model on the count of two instead of three, resulting in the surprised look on his face