Han Solo: A Star Wars Story

I finally got around to seeing a new summer holiday movie. I saw the new Star Wars movie, Solo or more accurately titled Han Solo: A Star Wars Story. Here I'd like to tell you a bit about the film and what I thought of it. 

The story starts off introducing us to Young Han and his lover Qi'ra. It turns out that they're poor smucks (slaves) trapped in the shipbuilding world of Corellia, where children are taught to steal in order to survive. 

Han is in a lot of trouble. He owes people money and he doesn't have the credits. So he takes Qi'ra and they try to run off-world, away from their pursuers. Right at the last second the bad guys take Qi'ra and Han is shipped off world alone, presumably to become a pilot for the Empire. 

Han signs up for the Empire but ends up as foot soldier blindly following evil orders by the Empire. However, he meets some mercenaries and ends up joining their ranks, becoming a deserter. 

From there he goes on a heist to steal coaxiom, this explosive material that everybody wants because it makes things go boom! The leader of the mercs, Tobias Beckett owes the Crimson Dawn Syndicate, lead by Dryden Voss (who also played Vision in Avengers, arguably the most recognized actor in this movie) and he tells Han if he helps him get the coaxiom and pay off his debts, he will have enough cash for his own ship. 

They enlist Lando Calrissian (played by Childish Gambino, of "This is America" and Community fame) and use his ship, the prized Millennium Falcon in order to pull off the heist. 

In the end they get the coaxiom but a rebel group apprehends them. Han is perplexed but in the end decides to help them, give them the coaxiom and give Voss a fake replica of it. Voss gets upset when he finds out from Beckitt that he's been crossed, while at the same time Han is surprised that Beckitt crossed him as well. "Never trust anyone," Beckitt tells him for the second time in the film. 

Meanwhile Voss has his baddies apprehend Enfys, the rebels but it turns out what they had was nonexistent. Their bags were empty. Not only that but when they were unmasked they all turned out to be old women, victims of the Crimson Dawn syndicate, peoples whom had their tongues cut out. It turned out that Crimson Dawn was responsible for despicable acts throughout the Galaxy, a revelation to Han. It was symbolic that these women were disguised as the rebels. There was a heartfelt connection to the characters in that moment. This was my favorite part of the film. They did that part right.    

Enfys, the rebels who get ahold of the coaxiom, are planning to use it for revenge and a rebellion against the Empire. The rebel leader, a cute young girl with red hair asks if he wants in the rebellion but when Han says no she says,"You might change your mind later."

There's a showdown between Qi'ra, Han, and Voss. Qi'ra ends up killing Voss, and then lying to her boss (the true Overseer), saying he was killed by the rebels. It turns out the true Crime Boss here is Darth Maul, an old character from Star Wars the Phantom Menace, a film from 1999. In the Phantom Menace Darth Maul gets cut in half by a a jedi named Qui'gon Jin. Darth Maul sends a ship to kill Beckitt right as he's about to shoot Han and take the coaxiom, the real stuff. Han and Chewbacca give the stuff to Enfys. Darth Maul says to Qi'ra at the end of their conversation,"You and I will be working a lot closer from now on."  Qi'ra looks around uncomfortable after the conference call. My secret hope is that Qi'ra becomes a Sith, and learns how to wield a light saber. I can dream right? 

Ending the film, we see Han and Lando meet up again. Han challenges Lando to a gambling game again (how they first met) and Lando ends up betting the Millennium Falcon ship. He ends up losing because Han cheats. Han wins the ship and heads out for Tatooine with Chewbacca, where a gangster is putting together a team for a heist. 

The film didn't gross nearly as high as any of the other Star Wars films but that's okay. I thought the movie was fun. The movie goes very slow with its development but its not a bad movie by any means. The acting could have been better and more emotive, but then again I don't expect Shakespeare from a Star Wars film. 

I thought that they made Han a pretty boy that likes to tell jokes. Thats okay. Han doesn't have to be the cool tough guy he is when he's played by Harrison Ford. This is an all new take on Han Solo and it looks to keep people interested for the summer break. 

Open Mic Tracks from 5/16

Hello, here are my recordings from last week's open mic. We played Electric Funeral and Poachers as a guitar, drums duo with myself on vocals. 

I think we did an excellent job on the Sabbath tune considering we didn't have a bass player. It sounds pretty bad ass. Although its not perfect metric (timing)-wise I still think its pretty cool. I can do metal too, haha. Check out the tune here https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/electric-funeral-guitar-drum-duo

And the other tune is Poachers, a tune written by new music composer Frank Abbinanti. Here I play it with my friend Martin on drums. I was following the score and he improvised music based on what I was playing. Upon hearing it after I think we could use more practice with this one. However, Martin's drumming wasn't bad. He does pretty well when we improvise. I also like the yelling from the audience. Makes it feel like a rock concert! Check it out here https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/poachers-martin-on-drums

Lastly, I have something different, a jazz/blues in c featuring Jim Xaiver on drums, Mike Mitchell on distorted electric guitar, Ken on tambourine, Art on bass, and myself on clean guitar. Check that out here https://soundcloud.com/user-294063763/jazzblues-in-c
I like this one a lot because its jazz, which I love!  

Enjoy! 

Two Pop Songs

Greetings everyone! Here I'd like to share with you two pop tunes I worked on with this Irish producer from Poland, named Robbie. He found me on Craigslist and got me started on recording sometime in 2016. He's kind of the reason I bought an interface and started recording on my own. I owe a lot to him in a way although we've only talked through emails. I plan to continue recording with him.

The first tune is Teenage Tears, a tune I have a copy of from two years ago, but this one is a finished and modified version. My guitar part comes in at 4:04 on this one.

Listen to Teenage Tears here https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/teenage-tears-alternate-version

In addition, I also worked on this Reprise. Shorter tune. Guitar part comes in at 1:38. Listen to the tune here https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/reprise

Although my guitar parts here are kind of small these recordings are significant because they were the first studio recordings I worked on with a real producer. I worked on an album when I was nineteen in my metal band but that album ended up getting scrapped.

So here's to some studio recordings, cheers! 

Untitled Guitar Improvisation #1

Hey, whats up everybody? Me again, back with some more music. This time I have an improvised guitar solo I recorded at my friend Ash's studio. Its pretty basic, its just a solo guitar track (except for the drums in the beginning). There's a ton of reverb, chorus (mostly chorus), and delay on the guitar. I wanted to post this because I was going to start an improvisational set of music where I just improvise guitar solos and post them for fun. 

I'm looking for feedback from people but also just to listen back to myself and see what direction and sounds I was trying to achieve at the time. 

Here I was going for a few different kinds of things.  

For starters there's quite a few freak out free jazz moments. I'm trying to learn how to play a more free jazz style on guitar, like Derek Bailey or my modern free jazz guitar hero Mary Halvorson. I don't think I sound like them at all but it does sound different and interesting enough for me to keep exploring. 

Then there's the traditional post-bop licks (I reference Girl from Ipanema and Hendrix), shred licks, and there's that modern sense of harmony I've been working on. I notice the music sounds good when I blend the modern sense of harmony with the free jazz atonal sort of stuff. 

I think this is the direction I'm going to go in with my more improvisational music. 

However, I'm still a post-bop fan and player. Still exploring. 

Like I said I'm going to compile tons of solos and post them on Soundcloud for fun. 

Listen to the solo here  

https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/untitled-guitar-improvisation-1

Enjoy!

Poachers Live With Percussion

Hello everybody! Just wanted to share this new track from last week's open mic at Petie's Place. 

https://youtu.be/D-rHftwnEW8 

This is Poachers live, a piece written for me by new music composer Frank Abbinanti. It's quite avant-garde, it has its moments of melody and makes use of what I'd call "noise chords", real noisy chords. 

We played this piece last week and at the time it was quite nerve-wracking because I'd never played the piece live in front of anyone other than just by dad when I was practicing it. However, the nervousness comes out in a good way. I hit a few bum notes in the beginning but nothing that sets the piece off balance. 

Jim's drumming was quite remarkable. His fills, while keeping time in between is quite good. He played it like a real jazz drummer. My favorite band I've seen him perform with is a jazz-rock fusion guitar trio. He's the best musician I get to play with at these open mics, and its great making music with the guy. 

I do think the piece would've been cooler if that guy didn't yell "Yeah!" at the end but even some of the best classical performances are cluttered with coughing. 

Anyways, enjoy the tune!

Personel
Orlando Figueroa Guitar
Jim X Drums
Frank Abbinanti Composer

YouTube Videos

Hey, 

Wanted to share these two compositions I posted on YouTube. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FrOcqofpHc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xu76vom6Xb8

The first link is Poachers and the second is Mr. PC, a jazz standard by John Coltrane. Poachers is this avant-garde piece written for me by new music composer Frank Abbinanti. He's been teaching me a lot about music, writing compositions for me to play. You can check out his work on the video description. 

Subscribe to my YouTube channel! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIrIXpTdHVM0VLWMB7Y84Hw?view_as=subscriber

Thanks

Metal Band Recordings

Hello everybody, 

Thought I'd share the studio recordings I made with my short lived metal band, Wolves to the Slaughter. They're pretty much recorded live, I'm just glad that some recordings exist of the three tunes we played a lot. 

https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/heroine-vs-the-band-introduction 
https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/dethroned 
https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/serpent-king 

Personnel included 
Alex Martin Vocals, Songwriter
Dmitri Bass/Recording Engineer
Martin Ruffalo Drums
Orlando Figueroa Guitar/Arranger

Avengers Infinity War

Avengers Infinity War is a blast of a movie. Literally. Tons of repulsor blasts, magical projectiles, explosions, hand to hand combat, and more. Here I'd like to go over the good, the bad, and what I think could have been better. If you haven't seen the movie and care about spoilers then you should stop now.

First, the good. This movie has the Avengers, Black Panther, the Guardians of the Galaxy, and Thanos' crew of minions and they all get good spotlight. Iron man, Doctor Strange, Spiderman, and the Guardians (Quill, Mantis, Bautista's character) take the fight directly to Thanos on his home planet while the others are busy doing other things like protecting the infinity stone carried by the Vision, on Wakanda. 

Black Panther, Captain America, Bucky Barnes, Black Widow, Bruce Banner (not in Hulk form), and Scarlett Witch are all protecting Vision (and the stone) while simultaneously stopping a Thanos army invasion on Wakanada. 

"Evacuate the city. Engage all defenses. And bring this man a shield." -Black Panther

In addition, Thor gets a lot of good screen time. Fitting because after all, he is a god from Asgaard. Thor, Teenage Groot, and Rocket Racoon (or Rabbit as Thor calls him) all go to this planet to craft this legendary hammer from this Asgaardian dwarf, played by Peter Dinklage, called Stormbreaker. Once Thor gets the god-hammer he meets up on Earth in Wakanda to whoop ass. 

"Thank you sweet rabbit," Thor exclaimed happily. 

Everyone got good screen time although some of the minor characters just had short small moments. These characters include Black Widow, War Machine, Thano's minons, Captain America's robotic Hawk flying friend, and the Collector, who had one of the infinity stones. In terms of giving all the fan favorite characters good screen time the director did a fantastic job. I personally really enjoyed Doctor Strange as he is probably the mvp of the entire movie. 

In terms of pure action I loved the fight in the beginning between the wizards (Strange, Wong) with Iron Man against Thano's hulk monster and his skinny alien wizard. The magical projectiles flying around the screen (in Imax) looked particularly impressive. I always like to see more fantasy based magic projectiles as opposed to the standard hand to hand fighting combat or the typical projectile blasts. It looks sweet. 

Also, I'll have to say that when Thor arrived in Wakanda with the god-hammer Stormbreaker, ("That's a bit much," Rocket said) he drew lightning from it across the entire war landscape and decimated Thano's creature army to pieces. Pretty cool, it reminded me of the latest Thor movie where he murdered his sister when she broke out of hell. Good times.

Before we move on from all the great stuff about the film I must mention that although this is a dark villain movie the jokes were quality. From talking about ice cream, to "stop massaging the god man's muscles", to "have you seen that old movie aliens", and lastly "how long have you been there?" "An hour". The flow of the film would have been too ghastly if it were not for all of these quirky jokes from the cast of heroes. Its a nice, little touch. 

There are also emotional connections between the characters in this movie. More so than in the other Avengers films. When Thanos kills Gamora in order to retrieve the soul stone (Red Skull guides them to it, says they need a soul for a soul) that was a particularly sad moment. Also when Teenage Groot is about to die we've been told by directors that he saying "Dad" to Rocket Raccoon. The ending in general was quite catastrophic for the characters as well as the viewers. Its the end of the Universe man! 

Now for the bad. This movie only exudes one bad quality trait to me. The fact that the movie flows in a clunky way. The way everything moves around all the time as Thanos tries to retrieve all the infinity stones, its sort of all over the place. However, I don't think they could've done a better job because the point of this story is that everything is happening all over the place. They could've cut down on some of the fight scenes to make more meaningful dialogue and made the film shorter. If the film was shorter it wouldn't feel as clunky. 

Lastly, I must say that the movie is mostly good although I will debate any Marvel fan and say that its still super clunky and doesn't flow well. The first time you see it you will miss certain things not because you're not paying attention but because it doesn't flow well and your thoughts and eyes are focused on other parts. The seconding viewing I saw it, it was still clunky and didn't flow well. However, I still enjoyed it. Maybe even more the second time around (in Imax!). 

The thing is with these films is that yeah its cool they're going to destroy the Universe. That's exciting to all the fans and viewers. However, once you realize that it doesn't matter and that all of this crap is going to get relaunched eventually anyways, that's when the dream dies and you realize its just a movie for kids. 

However, its fun to be a kid sometimes and that's where Infinity War shines. Have fun with this film! 

Kid Gamora: Did you do it?
Thanos: Yes.
Kid Gamora: What did it cost?
Thanos: Everything. 

Open Jam Tunes

Hey, what's going on everybody? Here are two tunes from last week's open jam. First we have Hey Joe, a Hendrix cover.

https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/hey-joe 

I did my best to cover the vocals, I'm still working a lot on my singing. When it comes to the solo I do my best Hendrix-esque guitar licks. I think I do a pretty job of keeping it in that 60s rock guitar vein. 

Surprisingly the solid state Line 6 amp used for the jams sounded pretty great here. I really like this drummer on this one. He's a guy that comes occasionally to the jams. Its funny, he wanted to do Manic Depression but when I could barely play the riff (I forgot it) we had to stop and play Sunshine of Your Love instead (laughs). 

However, I did learn Manic Depression and I'll be ready to play it the next time he's there. 

Anyways, I think that this is my best cover of Hey Joe I've ever done live, so there's that. 

And then for the next tune we have Sunshine of Your Love by the Cream, a song I've been playing at the jam for a while now. 

https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/sunshine-of-your-love-most-recent-version

Hearing this back now I think I've done a lot better with my vocals. Still needs work (better tone) if I want to be more professional but its not bad as of right now, at least to my ears. The Hendrixian guitar licks are plentiful and are sounding good as usual. One thing I need to work on is singing louder and with more oomph, ya know. Add some more power and energy into it. 

With this solo here I think it sounded pretty good. Not too much wankery (shredding a la guitar pyrotechnics from the 80s), focusing on hitting the good sounding notes, bending the strings, beginning, middle, end, and then back to the vocals. I like it. 

Enjoy the music!