Marvel Cinematic Universe Rankings

With 14 films already in the bag and another eight in development, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is ripe for the ranking.  I recently made it to a new theater that opened near my house to view Marvel's latest installment, Doctor Strange.  As you will be able to tell from my list below, it was a very good entry in the series and opens the door to allow Marvel access to a lot of mystical elements of the comics that previously had only been dabbled with in the sci-fi films of Thor and the Guardians of the Galaxy.  Alternate realities and astral planes hadn't been something the people of Earth were aware existed.

Other than a strong antagonist, which is a constant complaint with Marvel's movies but Mads Mikkelsen does a better job than most of his fellow Marvel villains at presenting a little more meat to the role of Kaecilius, my only real beef with the movie was Rachel McAdams.  I feel she is highly overrated as an actress and could easily be replaced by someone with actual talent.

Here is my list of Marvel's cinematic universe movies from worst to best.

14. Iron Man 2

13. Thor: The Dark World

12. Captain America: The First Avenger

11. The Avengers

10. The Incredible Hulk

9. Iron Man 3

8. Avengers: Age of Ultron

7. Ant-man

6. Thor

5. Doctor Strange

4. Captain America: Civil War

3. Iron Man

2. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

1. Guardians of the Galaxy

A Trip Down The Rabbit Hole Of My Mind

Another title for this post could have been, "How Christopher Nolan/Hans Zimmer Incepted Bond's Music In Our Earholes."

Stick with me for a minute because this is going to get a little convoluted.  So I recently went to see the latest Marvel movie, Doctor Strange, and the visual effects got me wanting to watch Inception again.  Although I cannot watch movies at work I do listen to music on YouTube a lot.  Instead of watching Inception I decided to listen to the soundtrack.  That led to hearing music similar to a previous James Bond movie.  Now, it is well documented that the music during the climactic snow scenes in Inception was inspired by the soundtrack of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, a Bond movie from 1969, and Christopher Nolan is a big fan of the 007 film series.  But what I didn't realize is Nolan's 2010 movie also borrowed from the David Arnold-scored Bond entry, Quantum of Solace.

To recap, Doctor Strange visual effects led to Inception visual effects, which led to Inception soundtrack, which led to Quantum of Solace soundtrack.  Doctor Strange.  Inception.  Quantum of Solace.  Bears.  Beets.  Battlestar Galactica.

There is a fine line between homage and outright theft.  It probably depends on your overall liking of the person attempting to honor the source material that determines whether you consider it a tribute or a blatant copy.  Since I respect Zimmer's musical style and Nolan's directorial craft, I give them a pass.

If you've never noticed the similarities between the Bond soundtracks and the Inception score, check out the final battle on Piz Gloria in On Her Majesty's Secret Service compared to the snow sequence from Inception, as well as the opera sequence from Quantum of Solace alongside "Old Souls" and "Waiting for a Train" from Inception.

Closing Time For 102.1 The Edge

It was announced yesterday that Dallas/Fort Worth's alternative rock station KDGE 102.1 The Edge would be ceasing operations and moving to 97.1 The Eagle.  During the FM station's transition, Semisonic's 1998 hit "Closing Time" has been put on a continuous loop with a brief message from Radio Voiceover Guy explaining the move.  The choice in music, which is a little too on the nose in my opinion, got my friends and I wondering about the royalties for the song being played so much.

I put in the minimal work effort to find out how much an artist gets paid for their song being played on the radio, and it turns out that it isn't that much.  Keep in mind that I have no idea how accurate the following calculations will be because I don't really care enough to put forth the effort to research the true amount a person gets from having their song played on the radio.  With that caveat, let's proceed.

Apparently when a song is played on the radio, and I'm not counting Pandora or other streaming services as being in that group, the writer of the song and the publisher receive approximately 12 cents from a major market station, which KDGE would fall under.  College stations get away with only paying half that amount.  So of that 12 cents, the writer and publisher have to split it.

Dan Wilson, lead singer for Semisonic, composed "Closing Time," therefore he would be eligible for the six cents per play that The Edge is shilling for its transition.  I'm not entirely sure when the station decided to put "Closing Time" on a loop, but it will end today at 5:30 p.m.  Assuming it started at 5:30 p.m. yesterday, that is a full 24 hours of "Closing Time."

The album version, which is the rendition being heard today, lasts 4:33.  Including the quick explanation that The Edge is moving to The Eagle, the entire time it takes for "Closing Time" to play and the next rendition of "Closing Time" to begin is approximately five minutes flat.  If you multiply that out by 24 hours you get 480 times of hearing "Closing Time," which in my estimation is more than enough for one lifetime.

Having to play "Closing Time" 480 times at 12 cents a pop would cost the station $57.60.  Half of that goes to Semisonic for writing the song.  So either Dan Wilson gets $28.80 alone for writing the song or the three band members each get $9.60, depending on the agreement the band had when it came to song writing.

I guess if you are a "glass is half empty" kind of person you would say, "Wow, only 30 bucks for an entire day's worth of song playing.  Really?"  But if you are a "glass half full" person, then it would be, "That's $30 I didn't have before and I didn't do anything at this moment to earn it."  Sure, they took the time in 1998 to write out the song and polish it up for radio play, but nearly 20 years later you aren't doing anything at all to earn that money.

On a side note, did anyone know that the lead singer of Semisonic was the Grammy-award winning guy behind Adele's 21?  I certainly didn't.

25 Favorite U2 Songs

Since meeting my friend James in the Stephen F. Austin State University dorms, my naïve musical sensibilities were enhanced with the introduction of the glorious Irish band U2.  Like so many other dummies going about their normal lives, I had heard plenty of U2 songs and enjoyed most of them, but it didn't dawn on me that so many of these songs I had been tapping my toe along with and belting out choruses, sometimes substituting the wrong words like we do with many tunes we aren't quite familiar enough with (yeah, I'm looking at you Joanna and your Twenty One Pilots "Stressed Out" remix), were all from the same group.

After nearly two decades of buying up their CDs, chasing after them on world tours (going to Canada to see a show counts as world travel in my eyes), shaking hands with The Edge outside Reunion Arena, and even holding the lyrics (along with about six other super-fans) for Bono one evening due to having not rehearsed the old song enough to re-memorize the lines, I figured it was time to try and narrow down what my favorite songs actually were for my favorite band.  Normally I would have made a top 10 list, as that is what I love to do.  However, with 13 studio albums, five compilation albums, one live album, and approximately 60 singles from said records, trying to narrow it down to only 10 songs wasn't fair to one of the greatest rock and roll groups of all time.

Therefore, below are my top 25 songs from U2's collection of music.  The top four are probably in line with most people's favorites, probably mixed around a bit though, but after that it gets a little more personalized.  Take for instance number 14 (spoiler alert, it is "When Love Comes to Town").  Prior to my trip to Vancouver for the opening of the Innocence + Experience Tour last year, that song might have only been in the bottom 25 of this list.  However, after the passing of B.B. King, coincidentally, on the night of the opening show, the following day the group added the song to their set and fans (with James and me among them) were treated to a live version of the song, which was the first time that had happened in 23 years.  That personal experience has elevated the song a lot and now, instead of just hearing a blues collaboration between U2 and B.B. King, it has become a cerebral memorial of the trip in general.

So without further ado, here are my personal favorite 25 U2 songs:

1. "With or Without You"

2. "One"

3. "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"

4. "Where the Streets Have No Name"

5. "Love is Blindness"

6. "All I Want is You"

7. "City of Blinding Lights"

8. "Beautiful Day"

9. "Mysterious Ways"

10. "Numb"

11. "Walk On"

12. "Sunday Bloody Sunday"

13. "Pride (In the Name of Love)"

14. "When Love Comes to Town"

15. "Please"

16. "Every Breaking Wave"

17. "The Wanderer"

18. "Hawkmoon 269"

19. "The Troubles"

20. "Window in the Skies"

21. "God Part II"

22. "The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)"

23. "No Line on the Horizon"

24. "Elevation"

25. "Magnificent"