Bootsy Collins, funk's star attraction

There's an expectation or hope that comes along with talking to a character on the order of funk legend Bootsy Collins.

You hope that the man who between his time backing up both James Brown and George Clinton did as much as anybody to make the bass guitar a spotlight-level instrument will uncork a bit of verbal magic without delving into self-parody. That he'll drop a bon mot that suggests just how deeply the funk is ingrained in him as not just a form of artistic expression but also as a beacon for life and how to live it.

So William Earl "Bootsy" Collins comes on the phone, and good naturedly talks about the creative inspiration for his new album, "Tha Funk Capital of the World" and the accompanying tour that brings him to ACL Live on Sunday.

It's all pleasant, appropriately revealing and businesslike. Turns out the album featuring enough high-profile guest stars to fill out the roll call of next year's Source Awards (Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, Samuel L. Jackson and Bobby Womack are a few of the names) was made with the intention of bringing classic funk music to younger ears who are mostly used to overprocessed AutoTune-heavy production.

It's a record that's organic and alive at all points, where Collins' old cohorts like Catfish Collins and Womack make room for the more contemporary voices, and where a lightning-rod intellectual like Cornel West gets four minutes of musical backing to riff on the long-term cost of poorly made short-term decisions by today's youth and leaders.

Less focus on dollar bills, more on heart and soul, Collins explains, and it's hard to argue with that. While not exactly the Lord's work, taking as much T-Pain as possible off the culture's musical balance sheet has to be worth something in the grand scheme of things. And if Sly Stone is still mired in some sort of psychotic hell and Prince is OK with putting out middling albums for the rest of his days, then Collins is right there in the lineage of funk and R&B heroes who can take up that charge and have a puncher's chance of getting it done. Still, something's missing. It's obvious the funk still lives in him, that it drives him and he wants to share it with the world. But it's all sounding kind of serious and heavy, and 10 minutes into a 15-minute interview there hasn't been that moment that gets to how intensely joyous and effusive this music and the man making it can be.

Then talk turns to the tour, which at the time of the interview Collins and his band members were still rehearsing for. Collins gets to explaining that it's a feel-it-as-it-comes process, and the record's deep bench of guests — many of whom can drop in only for a show or two at a time, if at all — will make the tour a bit of a patchwork that will require them to improvise from night to night.

That's when it happens, when it becomes obvious why he rarely disappoints.

"The funk is not pre-planned, so we're gonna see what the funk happens."

Does anything more need to be said? Probably not, but here's the rest anyway.

"We'll get whoever we can and shake it up from gig to gig," Collins said. "We're just going to give the people great music. Things might change a little bit once you get out there and you feel what people are into... what they need more of or less of so you always have to change it up.

"We haven't toured like this since 1998 so it's like it's a whole new experience. Once you get over the hump it's just showtime and you just grind it out until everyone falls into a groove. But the people ... they will help us back into it."

A Review of Thor

After the hype surrounding Thor, I was expecting the film not to meet expectations. I was expecting a totally de-powered, diluted comic Rip-Off where original fans wouldn't recognise the story, the characters and that the newer fans who have just been introduced to the Marvel Universe wouldn't get it.

The film...confounded every fear I had. It was MARVEL-ous. Chris Hemsworth portrays Thor so perfectly it's astonishing. After his Star Trek exploits, I thought perhaps that it was a one off performance, to be able to make you feel so emotionally invested in a character who had little screen time seemed like lightning in a bottle. He couldn't make you feel for a character for over 2 hours right? WRONG.

He is perfect. His acting skills are immense. Such a range. Cocky, arrogant, vengeful, powerful, carefree, manly to boyish, vulnerable, loving and caring, protective and humble. in one film. Class.

Thor's scenes on earth again show a range of emotion. Either exceedingly funny while still being of a service to the film and not being a slight on the characters or comic. Something I myself was happy about. I truly believed they would make fun of the history of Thor and of the story. They didn't. It really was good fish out of water scenes.

From that comedy came really emtional scenes with Jane Foster, but not like gushy or over the top. Nicely done, touching moments. subtle. Eg. Jane looks at Thor when he's been gazing at her and he turns away sharply as if he wasn't looking. Sort of classroom love when you were at school, very real.

His "de-powered" fight scenes on the SHIELD built structure, while put down by many on this site, were great and extremely real. Raw I think describes it best. Hawkeye makes an extended cameo and already shows that Jeremy Renner is going to do the character a great service.

I have heard people complaining about the amount of time it takes Thor to learn to be a better person. It does not in anyway feel rushed. I can assure you. It is of course a 2hour movie but it really does feel like he has learned the lessons Odin demands he learn.

Tom Hiddleston embodies Loki respectively. You can almost see the machinations of evil, the whirring of his brain as he looks to what moves he will play 3 steps ahead of where he is at. Always planning schemeing and yet it's not obvious, he isn't running about with the big arrow pointing at him saying "bad guy". It is a really pure performance. One of the most accurate portrayals of a character ever seen on film.

Odin - Anthony Hopkins. Perfect. Nuff said.

Warriors 3 and Sif do not get alot of screen time so their respective personalities are not fleshed out. However, you do understand immediately that Thor loves and trusts them and that they love and trust Thor. They also look pretty much like their comic counterparts.

Natalie Portman - another class act. Her gradual enchantment with Thor is very believeable and true to her chracter. She portrays an Astro-physicist who doesn't get out much and her ex boyfriend Dr. Donald Blake seemed to have more interest in his patients than her. Yes the fans will get that reference to Dr Blake.

The score - Me, being not a pretentious person, cannot critique the score other than to say, it helped me feel the right emotions at the right time. Indeed at some parts of the script I could've cried. HOWEVER, being the manly man that I am I held back...also more accurately... so my girlfriend wouldn't think I was more of a girl than her. But yes, my emotions towards the situations and characters were definitely molded by the score. So a thumbs up on that front.

SHIELD is an unobtrusive plot device. Marvel has learnt the lessons and made sure that SHIELD is an agency with real menaing this time and not airy-fairy men in black.

Stan Lee's cameo is great, quite funny. Darcy - played by Kat Dennings is actually quite funny but not over-used and isn't annoying like I for one thought she would be. However she is literally comic relief.

I want to express again that the component pieces of the film - actors, direction, score, performances, make this a truly great film. There were alot of people at the showing I was at who had not liked sci-fi-esque movies before, or fanstasy but absolutely enjoyed the film and it's obvious why. I read the tag "Shakespeare in Space" was applied to this film and this should be enough to mark it as a true great anyway :)

In conclusion, I am struggling to find negatives about this film. In other reviews the fact that Thor has powers and magic etc seem to be the only negatives, but it's a comic book movie for godsake. It is meant to be a little bit of escape-ism, an adventure. Yes it is contained within a "real" world setting but how can you think a man in a metal suit (Ironman) can fall from orbital heights and not die but accept he doesnt yet find Thor as being somewhat too much??

No, this is a truly outstanding film. Ironman while a huge hit, doesn't have the depth of story and wealth of acting talent as this film.

The film in my opinion is a masterpiece in CBM terms. Definitely the best film Marvel has made. The Dark Knight being "probably" the pinncale of CBM achievement definitely has this film to contend with for the title of best CBM. "And that is a scientific fact :P "