A nod to Richard Pryor and then some.

First one has to pay homage to a great stand up comic. If you had not heard comedian Richard Pryor died at age 65 of an apparent heart attack this weekend. Do yourselves a favor and rent Live on the Sunset Strip. Some of it may seem dated but remember this was 1982 and this was very taboo. Interesting to note that many of his films now have a wait in Netflix.

I checked out Rock School this weekend. Its a documentary about Paul Greens School of Rock in Philly. I am really really not sure what to say about the film. Being a music fan I wanted to see how someone "carves" or "teaches" kids how to "rock". I'll admit that he has some very talented kids in his school (I'll get to that in a second). This guy Paul is a flat out dickhead. Plain and simple. He never made it as a professional musician from what I can tell but he is going to teach 9 to 17 year olds how to "rock". First, he yells, all the time. As he is yelling he drops more f'bombs than Pacino did in Scarface. I can't tell if the real little kids are around when he does most of this but man he is just unreal. I know that rock and roll is supposed to be dangerous but come on dude. One might say that he is driven. He pushes "tweens" to be good at something which is very commendable. I kept saying "man I want to be on your side for getting the best out of these kids but there has GOT to be a better way than screaming at them!"

He has 2 levels and the idea was to get the first group to do a Black Sabbath show. He had these 2 twin boys be "Ozzy" and the class at the end played through some classic tunes but sung by a nine year old..well you get the idea.

The "upper" level is showcased a a lot more as you'd expect. He has a 12 year old named "CJ" and he is really amazing. The film starts off with him playing Santanas intro to Black Magic Woman and through out you get to see a somewhat "normal" kid just express himself via the guitar. Green decides that the upper class is going to do a "Zappa" set. They get so good they go to Germany for a Zappa festival. I guess its super hard core fans that go to hear Zappa Band Members new projects as well as tribute bands from around the world. Even some members of Franks band sit in with these kids and they are stunned. That is the stuff I wanted to see more of. The kids were excited and just in their element. When Paul is on screen you just want to punch him..its that simple. I am hesitant to recommend it to anyone really for that simple reason of the instructor..but if you play an instrument you'd be impressed with what some of these kids can do.

I also finally got to Sin City
..more on that tomorrow as I need to get my head around that more.