Love, peace & happiness

Counting the days to Austin City Limits for one reason: Stevie Wonder is thesunshine of my life

I have my ticket to see just one show at Austin City Limits.

Stevie Wonder.

I’ll definitely take in the acts for the day, checking out the music new to me. My college-age sons share with me their favorite bands, so I try to stay “hip.” And I truly enjoy exploring all genres of music, from classical to experimental to the most radical out there. I’ve been through hard rock, death rock, punk, funk, blues, disco, R&B, country, jazz, rap, alternative and dubstep. What ever is next, bring it on!

Hippie me
The boys don’t know, though, how “hip” their mom really is. When I was their age, the Kerrville Folk Festival was a regular rendezvous on my calendar, complete with a permanent list on the inside of my car trunk hood of what to bring. I’d mastered it to perfection.

The boys don’t know, though, how “hip” their mom really is. When I was their age, the Kerrville Folk Festival was a regular rendezvous on my calendar, complete with a permanent list on the inside of my car truck hood of what to bring. I’d mastered it to perfection.

A dozen or so of us would pitch tents, wander like kites around the gorgeous Hill Country grounds of Quiet Valley Ranch and listen to musicians from The Singing Tree, where wannabes debuted to an encouraging (and forgiving) crowd, to the main stage to celebrate performances of top artists of the era. We’d shower in roofless communal bathrooms and soak in the peace and free love.

Munchies meant popcorn made by my hippy-dippy, chilled out-and-way-cool aunt. Secret ingredients: Bragg’s amino acid and brewer’s yeast. The best. And I still make it at home. Whole Foods has everything you need to make it yourself.

I may take individually packed brown bags of my homemade popcorn to ACL to hand out to the younger generation, that’s about it. No packing. But for sure, I’m taking my excitement to see Stevie.

Get to know Stevie

The Talking Book album about blew me away when I first listened to it in junior high, spinning on the turntable in my parent’s living room, playing both sides over and over again, completely amazed by Stevie Wonder's vocal range and keyboard skills. And contagious passion. I love every song on that album still today.

Introduce yourself to or get reacquainted with Talking Book before the concert or with a CD for the road trip to Austin. Must-have playlists include: “You are the Sunshine of My Life” (thank you, Stevie, for this beautiful song); “Maybe Your Baby,” when Stevie introduced his incredible ability on a Moog synthesizer; “You and I,” I Believe” and “Blame it on the Sun,” all love songs; “Superstition” (need I say more); and “Tuesday Heartbreak.”

Oh, hell. Just download the entire album. It’s Classic Stevie, pure genius, with more to come.

Family Music Tree
In that same living room, with the doors closed from mom and dad’s view, my older brothers played their favorite LPs to pass on music history to my sister and me. Sal and I know every word to almost every Beatles song, played air guitar to The Stones and The Who (to the delight of the guys), floated around the room to The Doors, tried to imitate Dylan’s voice and jumped from couch to chair to couch to the tunes of ZZ Top. And then there was blues legend Robert Johnson, who we just listened to on another turntable spinning 78s, from my oldest brother’s extensive blues collection, one of the largest in the state of Texas.

My first important contribution to the family music tree was Stevie Wonder (followed by Stevie Nicks…O-M-G diva, and another Stevie, Stevie Ray Vaughan, RIP). Stevie W. has cut more than 20 albums. Talking Book was released in 1972, and I didn’t realize he had had about nine albums before that, starting with The 12-Year Old Genius in 1963 with a young Marvin Gaye on drums.

More Playlists
Must-haves from Innervisions: “Living for the City” (kicks ass while addressing social injustice); funkadelic “Higher Ground” (empowering); and two love songs, “All in Love is Fair” and “Golden Lady.”

Must-haves from “Songs in the Key of Life”: “I Wish”; “Isn’t She Lovely?”; “Another Star,” with Bobbi Humphrey on flute and George Benson on guitar and as background vocals; and “Ngiculela - Es Una Historia - I Am Singing.”

Be sure to include sexy “Boogie on Reggae Woman” from Fulfillingness’ First Finale; and “Part-time Lover” and “Overjoyed” from In Square Circle, just to name a few more from a 50-year-plus career.

Stevie collaborated with other artists on numerous songs, including Elton John, Gladys Knight and Dionne Warwick on “That’s What Friend are For,” and was a major player in the original “We Are the World.” He and Ray Charles did a gig together, too. “Ebony and Ivory”? Stevie and Paul McCartney.

Counting the days to ACL
Stevie’s all about love, peace and happiness, just like my experiences at Kerrville Folklife Festival. Sit back, let him sing and you’ll walk away with every song in your heart.

Stevie sings "You are the Sunshine of My Life":

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Movie Review

Onslaught's brutal mix of horror, action, comedy can't find its footing

Photo courtesy of A24

Adria Arjona in Onslaught.

The most important thing for any movie to establish early on is its tone. No matter the genre, a film needs to make its audience understand how they should feel as the story unfolds so that they’re willing to go along with whatever transpires on screen. A film that doesn't do that, such as the new Onslaught, runs the risk of failing to connect with viewers even if it has some interesting or fun elements to offer.

One of the biggest issues for the movie is that it fails to fully invest in its main character, Celeste (Adriana Arjona). She’s a military veteran who now lives in and manages a desert trailer park, which is filled with a motley crew of offbeat people. She also has a contentious relationship with her ex, who unexpectedly drops off their daughter, Daisy (Blake Kennedy), soon after the film begins.

Celeste has a stash of high-powered weapons, showing she hasn’t left her former career fully behind. Her expertise comes in handy when something goes wrong at a nearby military contractor facility run by Hans Kemmler (Dan Stevens), and a trio of super soldiers escapes into the wild. Trained to kill everyone in their path, it’s not long before they set their glowing eyes on the trailer park.

Directed by Adam Wingard and written by Simon Barrett, the film has elements of horror, action, and comedy, but the filmmakers struggle in finding the right combination of the three. Wingard and Barrett divide the film’s focus between the trailer park and the military facility for a long time at the beginning of the film, and the quirkiness of people at the former mixed with the bold weirdness of the people at the latter keep viewers off balance in a bad way.

Once they finally settle into the main part of the story where the super soldiers go on a rampage, the filmmakers overpromise and underdeliver. The showdown between a seemingly unstoppable group and an angry woman and her band of misfits seems destined to be highly entertaining, but comes off as underwhelming. The sequence is filled with brutality with no meaning and heroics that feel more accidental than purposeful.

The ham-fisted way in which the story plays out is disappointing since the film has a bunch of characters who could have been great if used properly. The trauma of Celeste’s military career and personal life are hinted at, but don’t come into play as much as expected. Hans and his wife Hanna (Rebecca Hall) are completely off-the-wall, but their eccentricities seem to be apropos of nothing. The super soldiers are initially intimidating, but the climactic sequence undercuts them significantly.

Arjona has yet to fully break out despite some good roles in Hit Man and the Disney+ show Andor. She makes for a good lead here, embodying the toughness of a military veteran while still being relatable. Stevens and Hall go all in with their bonkers characters, but the story doesn’t serve them well. Comic relief comes in the form of Reginald VelJohnson and Eric Wareheim, and they do a great job in smaller roles.

A movie like Onslaught is typically one where the audience just turns off their brains and enjoys the carnage. But Wingard and Barrett try a little too hard by throwing in oddball characters that don’t add much to the story, forgetting to pay enough attention to the mechanics of the plot in the process.

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Onslaught opens in theaters on September 4.

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