Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour by Cirque du Soleil

After Michael Jackson passed away I was so touched by the number of people who told me that they thought of me when it happened.  Even people that I grew up with but had lost contact with over 20 years ago remembered how fanatical I was about Michael Jackson.  The truth is that I had forgotten how much I loved MJ.  It's sad. The music is so timeless that I see young children today who share in the same fervent love for his music as I did over 25 years ago.  

Tonight I attended the Cirque du Soleil show, "The Immortal".  I went in blind - I had no idea what to expect.  I've been disappointed by Cirque shows in the past, where I felt that they were too bourgeoisie for my taste.   More recently though, I saw the Cirque show “Believe” in Las Vegas which was thoroughly entertaining. 

The one thing that I did hear about this tribute to MJ prior to seeing the performance was a tweet stating that if you are in any way a fan of MJ, this show is a must-see.  I absolutely concur.

I was very touched by this show.  It went beyond being an absolute fitting tribute to the beauty of MJ’s soul.  I imagined that this would have been a show that MJ himself would have been happy to have been a part of.   I felt that wherever his spirit was that, he was seeing this show and he was proud of it.  They captured his very essence, his message and his music.  

Bridesmaids

After a summer of friends telling me how amazing it is, I finally saw Bridemaids.  Like most movies that have been hyped in that manner, I was sorely disappointed.  The storyline basically focused on a woman’s descent into a total meltdown.  It wasn’t funny at all and it was downright gross at some points, however about ¾ of the way it turned sweet and poignant.   


The highlight of the movie for me was that the actor that played the Illinois State Trooper was Chris Dowd, who also stars in the British sitcom, The IT Crowd, a big, big favourite of mine.

I'll never forget that day, but in the wee hours of this morning as I listened to a New York City Police scanner and heard, reports of shots fired here and there, I couldn't help but think that the Americans do such a great job of killing Americans, there really isn't a need for terrorists to do it.  


There's been a lot of talk of 9/11 unifying Americans, but people are universally violent.  Americans continue to kill Americans. Canadians continue to kill Canadians.  Middle Easters kill Middle Easters.  They say the world was forever changed, but has it changed in the right way?  The only change I see as a result of 9/11 is "justification" for more killing.


I miss those two buildings and every time I've see the New York skyline since then, my heart aches.  


For all our technological advances, man still no more than mere barbarians.  As far as relationships with each other, we our no more advanced then cavemen.  We continue to be Neanderthals.   


It's 2011 people, let's get beyond the savagery and learn to work to help each other and be good to one another.   

The Tourist

The Tourist is a movie that had been on my to-do list for awhile but after seeing many awful audience reviews of it, I’d kept it on the backburner for quite a while.  After seeing it, I thought maybe everyone else had been a tad too harsh.  It’s not as bad as the reviews would have you believe.  

Starring Angela Jolie, it reminded me of her previous outing, Salt, without the huge stunts and effects of that movie.  Johnny Depp is also a very watchable actor.  

One of my favourite things about this flick was the setting.  Most movies use Venice, Italy as a backdrop, but The Tourist gives a great view of this magnificent place.  The city is just gorgeous.  

All in all, I would not say that The Tourist is the total waste of time most of its reviewers declare it to be.

Green is the Colour of Will

I saw The Green Lantern back on its opening night on June 17th , 2011.  I usually don’t like to see movies as soon as they come out; I prefer to avoid crowded theatres, but the new Cineplex UltraAVX theatres with their reserved seating made it painless.  

I’ve been told that this is the summer of comic book movies.  A hardcore comic fan friend was interested to hear my take on Green Lantern.  He had attended the midnight screening as soon as it came out.  He wanted to know my thoughts, because as a non-comic book junkie I would not have any expectations.  

I like seeing movies when I don’t know what expect from them, it makes it hard to be disappointed.  I found The Green Lantern to be a fun roller-coaster ride of an adventure movie.  The best way I can describe it is that it’s Spiderman meets Top Gun meets Star Wars.  I have the feeling there would be a “meets Lord of the Rings” in there too, but I can’t in good faith say that, as I haven’t seen any of the LOtR movies. 

The only disappointment for me in this movie was the climatic battle, particularly the way it ended, it was pretty weak.  Also I thought the use of 3D in the film was well done, but for some reason 3D movies give me a headache and make my eyes hurt.

I had heard a lot about the principle actors in this movie, Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively, but have to admit that I had no idea who they were.  Reynolds reminds me a lot of a younger Ben Affleck and Blake Lively is an absolute stunner whose mere presence would make a movie worth watching. 

So if you like Spider Man or Top Gun or Star Wars, I’d say give this movie a shot, you’ll probably like it too.

RUSSELL PETERS - THE GREEN CARD TOUR on Vimeo

RUSSELL PETERS - THE GREEN CARD TOUR on Vimeo

Kid Rock Born Free Concert at the Air Canada Concert

Kid Rock’s Born Free Tour exploded into the Air Canada Centre on May 27th 2011. After a nice opening set by hometown based The Trews, the highlight of which was their poignant “Highway of Heroes”, Kid Rock and his Twisted Brown Trucker band unleashed a masterpiece of a show.


It opened with a video collage of photos and video footage from when he was young up to the present and then he made his entrance on the stage which looked like an old-time bar in someone’s basement, with wood paneling, and members of the band set up on the bar counter tops.
He walked through the saloon doors in the centre and just totally rocked out. I loved that songs from his lesser known most recent and most mellow album, Born Free, were sprinkled between the crowd rousers.

Midway through the show he talked about turning 40 earlier this year and a video played greetings from many celebrities, mainly talk show hosts sending him birthday wishes. He then informed the crowd that he intended to turn this whole tour into a yearlong 40th birthday party and launched into a hilarious song, “Fuckin’ 40”, which I could certainly relate to.

His greatest songs, “Cowboy” and “Bawidaba” were executed to perfection and I was happy that he played some other personal favourites, “Sugar” which for some reason he hadn’t played on his “Rock N’ Roll Jesus” tour, as well, he led us into the chant of his name from “3 Sheets to Wind” before taking to the DJ decks for a demonstration of incredible scratching, while pouring himself a shot of Jim Beam and then standing up on the bar top all the while continuing to scratch, he then played some lead guitar before taking over the drum kit.

At one point, five bar stools were set up in the middle of the stage as three guitarists, including Rock and the two backup singers sat down to play. Rock introduced the song by saying before he had hit the road an interviewer asked what could be expected from this tour, his response was “Strippers and stripping down”. By stripping down he was referring to the acoustic rendition of “Purple Sky” which followed. By the way the strippers were fantastic too.

Aside from excellent music and musicianship the there was a full-fledged visual assault of pyrotechnics, lasers, fireworks, video effects, to compliment the aforementioned strippers, all of which just totally worked and never seemed overdone, or detracted from the incredible music.

Kid Rock himself, in my opinion, best showman of this century, was so spirited, jumping around, dancing, high-fiving members of the audience, acknowledging signs and giving the audience his sincere gratitude for spending our hard earned money to come see him.

The encore consisted of a wonderful, funky stripped down version “All Summer Long” with Kid Rock dancing and playing maracas. He then sat down at the piano to play “Only God Knows Why”. The piano rose out of the stage revealing USA and Canada flags as it turned a 360 and then Kid Rock climbed up on top of the piano until it retracted back into the stage. He closed with the best song of the “Born Free” album, which is its title track.

I’ve been to many great concerts throughout the years, but this one concert, was the best I’ve ever witnessed.

10 *s