A life less interesting.

HEY WEINSTEINS! WHERE'S THIS FOR US, BITCHES?

2007-12-30T22:13:00.001-05:00

From Movies At Midnight:

- GRINDHOUSE gets a massive six-disc DVD release in Japan this March.
It looks like the first four discs will be ports of what we've already
seen in the two-disc releases of DEATH PROOF and PLANET TERROR. The
fifth disc will include the 191 minute presentation of the theatrical
version, and the sixth disc includes the following Japanese exclusive
features:

- Grindhouse - US Trailer
- 2006 San Diego Comicon
- Tarantino Interview
- Staff/Cast comments
- The Directors of the Fake Trailers
- Coments on past Grindhouse Films
- Making Of Planet Terror

Not that I really need the two disc edition of Death Proof, but still...

A brief thought on the Mitchell report and ESPN.

2007-12-18T20:27:00.000-05:00

Two days before the Mitchell report came out, ESPN patted itself on the back with a primetime special celebrating their "This Is Sportscenter" ad campaign. The sports celebrity who'd appeared in the most Sportscenter ads? The same person who was, until Friday last anyway, one of the central figures in ESPN's promos for their Disney weekend in March? That would be Roger Clemens, ESPN's number one target on the day of the Mitchell report release, as well as the man who was outed by them prior to the release of the report.

Bet that ESPN:The Weekend commercial disappears for good now. ESPN's almost as good as the WWE about revisionist history when it comes to their own stuff.

2007 in Music.

2007-12-18T19:37:00.000-05:00

Top ten list time again. 2007 was a year that I spent a lot of time on the road in the car. Of course, I spent most of that time listening to talk radio. But I did listen to some good music this year. A lot of what I got this year was bootlegs from other years, and such, and I didn't actually buy a single album for myself. The only CDs I bought this year were "High School Musical 2", Hannah Montana's second album, and The Jonas Brothers' CD (all for the 5-year old, though I can't say I don't enjoy some of her music.)

I've had a hard time trying to come up with ten albums that I liked this year, so instead, here's ten songs/albums I liked this year. (It's possible that not all of them came out this year, but most probably did.)

Magic - Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band - I really liked the whole thing, which is the first time I can say that about the Boss since "Born In The USA"

"1-2-3-4" - Feist - Inescapable, but probably the single thing I liked most in 2007, even when I started hearing it in Lowe's. (Over the years, I've found that no matter how "alternative" you are, if you make the Muzak, it's all over for you.)

"Munich" - The Editors - Another band that wants to be Joy Division, but I enjoyed this much more than anything that The Killers have done in their attempts.

Playing With Fire - Kevin Federline - What? It's funny shit. PANCAKES!

Neil Young and Crazy Horse Live At The Fillmore East - The first in the series of Neil's Archives, and a great show to boot.

Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer - Of Montreal - I went on a downloading kick with Of Montreal. This one's not quite as good as The Sunlandic Twins, but it's still way better than a lot of stuff out there.

Fear of A Blank Planet - Porcupine Tree - Yay prog metal!

Straight Outta Lynnwood - Weird Al Yankovic - Another high-quality album from Mr. Al.

"Give Thanks And Praises" - Bad Brains - The first song from their new album, which I still haven't gotten yet. Sounded good to me, a lot like the old stuff.

Dylan Hears A Who - Someone who sounds remarkably like Bob Dylan singing/reading Dr. Seuss to the tune of Dylan classics. Awesome.

And you can add me to the list of people who liked "Umbrella". It's a good song. Bite me.

What's scarier here...

2007-12-16T23:34:00.000-05:00

isn't the fact that "I Am Legend" did $76 million.

It's the fact that the fucking CGI Chipmunk abortion did $45 million, thereby guaranteeing that Jason Lee will further destroy what little respect I had left for him by doing a sequel.

People, there are better movies to go see out there. Please, don't encourage Hollywood. Please.

Pouring one out for the schmaltz...

2007-12-16T23:30:00.000-05:00

I always liked Leader of The Band.

And Same Old Lang Syne.

As a kid of the late 70's and early 80's, I was exposed to a great deal of top 40 before I discovered rock and roll, and Fogelberg is right up there with Barry Manilow and Abba on my "guilty pleasures" list.

Chalk up two movies in two months...

2007-12-14T17:25:00.000-05:00

that I was really hyped up to see until I found out they changed the endings.

SPOILERS AHEAD. GO SOMEWHERE ELSE NOW IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW THE ENDING OF "THE MIST" OR THE NON-ENDING OF "I AM LEGEND"!

So, as some of you know, I read, and I like the horror. So I was pretty jazzed up to hear that Frank Darabont was making a version of "The Mist". The trailers looked really good. Then I read an interview with Stephen King where he discussed the fact that Darabont changed the ending, and he really liked it.

Shit, I thought, this is the man who thought his junky miniseries version of "The Shining" was better than Stanley Kubrick's classic. This can't be good.

Now, mind you, I haven't seen the movie. But apparently, Darabont decided that the ambiguous, tenuously hopeful ending wasn't any good. So he decided to turn "The Mist" into a Twilight Zone episode instead. Basically, the novella ends with the protagonist, his son, and a few others driving south through the mist, trying to get to Hartford, or at least to get out of the mist.

The film ends with Thomas Jane and his survivors running out of gas, Jane shooting the others, including his 10-year old son, then going into the mist to get eaten, only to have the Army save him moments later in a fit of ironic pique. BULLSHIT, says I. As a result, a movie I really wanted to see, I might watch on DVD instead. Maybe.

As for I Am Legend, apparently they've chucked Richard Matheson's admittedly TZ-esque ending for some semi-biblical end of days nonsense. From the reviews I've read, it sounds like the movie's really great for the first 90 minutes and then sort of falls apart. Of course, this is the third(fourth if you count the Asylum Entertainment mockbuster "I Am Omega") version of I Am Legend, and they still haven't gotten it right, so there you go. I would have been interested to see how Will Smith played the vampire(er, zombie) bogeyman of Matheson's story.

Guess I'll go and see The Golden Compass after all. I know they've screwed that one up too, but it's not a book I hold in high esteem.

The people who are trying to protect you from piracy...

2007-12-13T15:08:00.000-05:00

think you're a pirate anyway.

Apparently, they don't care about fair use when it comes to mp3s. And they wonder why we're still working on alternate ways to pirate.

They took away Napster, we got AudioGalaxy. They took away AudioGalaxy, we got Soulseeek, BearShare, Limewire. Then we got BitTorrent. If they take that away, we'll find something else. Piracy will always happen when you try to control the way we want to have our music, and when you charge $20 for a CD and $12 bucks for us to go to a movie.

Arrrrr.

The Mitchell report.

2007-12-13T14:39:00.000-05:00

Isn't a particular surprise. The one name I have to say I didn't expect to hear of the names I've heard so far is Andy Pettite, who didn't strike me as a 'roid ranger.

I haven't had a chance to digest it yet, but it sounds like most of what he's saying is what us baseball fans have been saying all along, that the players used, the union and the owners knew, and they kept it quiet because of the McGwire-Sosa chase, Bonds and his chase, and the return of jaded fans post-1994.

Damn.

2007-12-09T00:31:00.001-05:00

I may hate him, but he's the best goddamned fighter on the planet right now, and he made Ricky look baaaad.

It's almost a shame that Floyd claims to be quitting the sport. And, yeah, it was worth the $27.50, as sloppy and grabby and dirty a fight as it was.

Mayweather-Hatton.

2007-12-08T20:38:00.001-05:00

If it goes to a decision, Mayweather will probably win.

Hopefully, Ricky knocks Mayweather's head off.

- It's 11:30 now. This show has been completely not worth the $27.50 so far. Mayweather-Hatton had better be good.

Somebody help me here.

2007-12-07T21:49:00.000-05:00

What is this supposed to be, exactly? Is it camp? Is it supposed to be relatively serious? Emile Hirsch seems to be in it for seriouses, but John Goodman as Pops Racer? Christina Ricci channeling the girl from Lazy Town as Trixie?

Maybe it will look better on the big screen, but it looks terrible on my computer. Offhand prediction right now: either the biggest hit of the summer, or a bomb for me to cherish right along with The Apple, Xanadu, Sgt. Pepper, and Battlefield Earth. There doesn't seem to be any room for middle ground here.

Not sure if it's a sign of my age...

2007-12-07T18:28:00.000-05:00

But this really jumped out at me. Particularly since I do this a bit myself.

There's probably more of a post in this, but right now I'm not in the mood for a big post. Food for thought, though.

Today's Netflix Lesson.

2007-12-06T18:59:00.000-05:00

Make sure you look carefully at the box art AND the user comments/reviews. I rented the 1967 Peter O'Toole movie Night Of The Generals from the 'Flix, but neglected to look at the cover art, assuming that Sony had finally gotten around to releasing it on DVD.

Wrong.

The DVD is from a grey market house called The Castaways, who've also released The African Queen onto DVD. It's, well, the best way to describe it would be out of focus. Not horribly, as I've got some other bootlegs that are far worse than it. But it's a bit strange that both Netflix and Amazon would be carrying something that's about half a step up from a bootleg, but then, who can tell these days. But I'd definitely say renter beware.

On being an ex-internet smarky smark smark.

2007-12-05T21:46:00.000-05:00

Once upon a time, back in the days of Hulkamania, I was a young wrestling fan. I used to watch the syndicated WWF shows and Georgia Championship wrestling on TBS back in the days before there was an internet. I always kind of knew it was fake back then, but it was still something fun to watch. In the early 90's, as I started to work a lot more, I sort of drifted away from it(and none too soon, as I missed a great deal of terrible wrestling in the post Hulkamania years), though I do have memories of watching at least one really impressive show with Jushin Thunder Liger, and also of the 1991 Royal Rumble, which I watched with Mat and Butch Bacon.

In the mid-90's, I took a job working on the midnight shift at an alarm company. Most of the guys working with me were a few years younger, and they turned me on to a lot of different things that I'd missed. One of those things was a tape of a wrestling match. I wasn't expecting much. My memories of wrestling were limited to the stuff I'd watched as a kid, and as a result, I wasn't quite prepared for Mick Foley, the Undertaker, and the glorious orgy of violence and destruction that was their Hell In A Cell match at King Of The Ring 1998. By the time I finished watching the tape, I was sucked right back in. Luckily, my co-workers had tapes to offer, and I was instantly a fan again. It was a good time to be a fan, too.

1998-2001 was the last really great period for the business, with three separate promotions still operating. WWE, WCW, and ECW combined to offer 10 hours of wrestling every week plus pay-per-views, and it was a time when Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Mick Foley, De-Generation X, the NWO, and Goldberg were all ruling the business. Unfortunately, this period also coincided with my finally getting onto the webbernet, and I became a huge internet smark. A smark, for those who don't know, is someone who watches the show as a fan(mark), but also scours the internet for all the news ahead of time for the shows so that he knows what's coming(smart). It's a combination of two wrestling terms; smart and mark. For quite a long time, I was a smark. While there were three companies, that was fine. But in 2001, Vince McMahon managed to drive WCW and ECW out of business, and we were left with one decent but horribly overexposed product.

From 2001 until late in 2005, I was at my highest period of smarkness. I watched every week, but with the jaundiced eye of someone who knew what was coming and who knew deep in his heart that he could book the shows better than the people getting fabulously overpaid to do it. In fact, if you go back through the archives, particularly in 2004 and 2005, you'll see a lot of bitching by me along just those exact lines.

However, at the end of 2005, personal matters interfered in my life, and I sort of drifted away from being a smark. I still used to read the news sometimes, but I'd sort of stopped watching the product for the most part, save for the monthly PPVs that had become about the only true social event in my life. Wrestling became more important to me as a chance to see some of my friends, hang out, sort of watch the show, and just have a good time. I never even really thought about the fact that I'd given up being a smart fan until three events in the past couple of weeks made me realize it.

The first two events were the return of Chris Jericho to WWE after a nearly two-year absence and the signing of Booker T by TNA. These were nice surprises to me, and had I been smarking it up, I would have been well aware in advance that these things were happening, rather than finding out about them just before they happened.

The third thing occurred this past Sunday night on the TNA Turning Point PPV. Just as the main event was about to begin, everything got a little strange. A bit of background; the main event was scheduled to be Kurt Angle, A.J. Styles, and Tomko against Samoa Joe and the newly reunited team of Kevin Nash and Scott Hall. Hall has a history of alcohol issues and no-showing shows, and on Sunday, he was a no-show also. While I was watching, I genuinely wondered if Hall was legitimately ill or if we were getting worked, as opposed to knowing it. Strangely, it made it better for me, particularly after Samoa Joe cut a nasty promo(ignore the british guy, enjoy the vitriol by Joe) on Hall and Nash, and by extension, the TNA management. And not being a smark anymore, I wasn't aware until I actually made an effort to look for news on it that Joe was actually shooting(not working scripted) on Nash and Hall. Joe's promo was the highlight of a pretty entertaining show.

After the show, I went and looked at some of the news sites that I used to go to and was amazed that I'm apparently stupid for enjoying the product as much as I have been lately. If the dirt sites are to be believed, both WWE and TNA are putting out terrible product right now. I admit, WWE hasn't been amazing lately, but I guess I must just be a dumb mark.

I'm enjoying the product a lot more than I have in years.

Back.

2007-12-05T21:08:00.001-05:00

So, after nine months of inactivity, I've decided to return to blogging over here. I will probably be doing a lot of media stuff and not much else. I've amassed a collection of close to a thousand DVDs over the last couple of years, so now I'm going to be the millionth person on the webbernet to become an amateur movie reviewer, but I think I'm also going to try to get back to just writing the way this blog used to be, about wrestling, boxing, and whatever other media strikes my fancy.

So, yeah. Hopefully you'll find something interesting over here again.

Winter?

2007-03-16T16:55:00.000-04:00

Oh, yeah, winter.

That's what that was today.

Maybe I'm just insensitive to other people's religion...

2007-03-10T23:19:00.000-05:00

But I saw these today in a party store up in the Westbrook Factory Outlet, and I thought that they were completely freakin' hilarious.

According to the website I liberated this picture from, they're a teaching tool for kids to learn about the ten plagues. To me, they're wildly amusing. What can you say?

R.I.P Andy Sidaris

2007-03-09T21:41:00.001-05:00

B-Movie King Andy Sidaris, who I wasn't aware was involved with anything other than movies featuring Julie Strain and Buff Bagwell, has passed on.

To me, this was Andy Sidaris, but apparently, he was an award-winning TV director before he decided to challenge for the market in Skinemax/USA Up All Night-level stuff. But he was also the guy who "pioneered what he called the "honey shot," close-ups of cheerleaders and pretty girls in the stands at sporting events.", which my generation thanks him for.

Oscar picks:

2007-02-25T09:45:00.000-05:00

Letters From Iwo Jima
Peter O'Toole (Though Forest Whitaker should win)
Helen Mirren
Eddie Murphy
Jennifer Hudson
Martin Scorsese(Finally)
Little Miss Sunshine for original screenplay
The Departed for adapted (Seriously, how can a mostly improvised movie get a Screenplay nomination?)

And how is it that 3 songs from Dreamgirls were nominated and Jack Johnson and Ben Folds both got ignored?

Please, Lennox, don't.

2007-02-24T16:18:00.001-05:00

Lennox Lewis is considering a comeback to fight the also returning Vlad Klitschko. Unfortunately.

Deadspin has the best take on this. Maybe he just doesn't want to do HBO Boxing After Dark with Max Kellerman anymore. I don't know.

(Edit - Lennox says it's not true, as pointed out by my commenter(Brendan?))

Another pro wrestler dies young...

2007-02-19T21:11:00.000-05:00

Kind of surprising, but as I recall, he was pretty much persona non grata after the ECW thing. I remember him as being someone who hurt people, but there's no mention of it in the wiki article, and I'd forgotten he was part of the Invasion angle(mostly because I've blocked out the Invasion angle). He did have some legendary matches with Masato Tanaka, but ultimately I'll always remember him as "That 70's Guy" and the "Mad Fat Chick Thriller." I also didn't realize he was related to Hulk Hogan.

Former ECW world champion Mike Awesome, 42, has passed away. His real name was Mike Alfonso.

According to reports, Awesome was found dead on Saturday morning in the Tampa Area. Friends were coming to his home in Tampa to pick him up and go out Saturday night at about 10:30 p.m. and he never answered the door and found him hanging in the home. It is believed the death was due to suicide pending results of the autopsy.

In addition to working in the U.S., he also worked for FMW in Japan. He will probably be most remembered as the ECW champion that signed with WCW when he still held the title.

Tazz was brought in by WWE to take the title from him, as he jumped to WCW. Awesome announced his retirement from wrestling in early 2006.

Article from here.

Cool movie link today.

2007-02-15T19:36:00.001-05:00

This is really neat. Ghanian movie posters, several giving movies a better promotion than they deserve.

Posted with my new Firefox toy:

Pretty much all I'll post about Anna Nicole...

2007-02-09T16:44:00.000-05:00

This is an interesting opinion piece in today's Washington Post suggesting that Anna Nicole was a courtesan of sorts. A good read.

Barbaro, the musical?

2007-02-07T19:12:00.000-05:00

The comments section in this link may be the most bizarre but entertaining one ever devoted to a dead horse.

The Morning News' piece is pretty funny, too.

MTV's got a wrestling show.

2007-01-31T21:44:00.000-05:00

And it kinda rocks, and kinda sucks. (Yes, I know MTV used to run Sunday Night Heat, but this is a show that they produce themselves.)

Wrestling Society X premiered this week. I have to say that I was both encouraged and discouraged all in the same half hour. The opening match was very acrobatic and impressive, even though I'd never heard of either participant(Matt Sydal and someone whose last name was Evans.) The Evans guy busted out a nasty 630 splash as a finisher, and other than some ridiculous overselling of non-injuries, it was a good match.

Unfortunately, I had heard of many of the participants in the other match. When you have to fill your roster with the guys WWE/TNA don't want/got rid of, it's pretty bad. Justin Credible, Vampiro, New Jack, Chris Hamrick, and 6-Pac (okay, can't you come up with anything better than that?) among others. Exploding fake-ass wired up steel cage boxes (or something). More garbage than a month's worth of old Thunder reruns. And the threat of 6-Pac or Vampiro as the WSX "champion".

Overall, I'll probably watch next week, but I'm not sure I'd watch beyond that. The camerawork was very annoying, and having Zack Wylde as guest commentator was more aggravating than anything else, plus the two morons that MTV hired to do commentary go Joey Styles way too much.

Bring on the baseball season.

2007-01-21T22:26:00.000-05:00

Is it unfair, nay, mean of me to suggest that I'd be happier if twin plane crashes claimed both winning teams in today's NFL Championship games?

I mean, who am I supposed to root for? Peyton "Marino" Manning? Rex "I just couldn't bring myself to care about a regular season game" Grossman? A wardrobe malfunction by Prince at halftime?

Forget this shit. Three weeks until pitchers and catchers report, and two weeks until the start of the 2007 Six Nations tournament.

Aaaaaand exhale...

2007-01-07T20:07:00.000-05:00

What a game. That was way closer than it should have been, especially with Manning facing that first and thirty.

Of course, we're not going to beat N'awlins, but at least we beat the Giants and hopefully flushed away the residue of that September comeback.

(No posts for a few days, as I'm going on the road for work.)

Okay, it's official...

2007-01-07T00:15:00.000-05:00

One hour into the new ESPN Friday Night Fights season, and Shannon Briggs comes up with what will probably be the quote of the year. While discussing the Peterson brothers, a pair of undefeated fighters who ESPN loves (not the least because of their extreme hard luck story(read down to the end of the profile)), Briggs tried to make a point about their records so far:

"It's like eating ice cream. When all you've been fed is Mr. Softee, you might have a hard time eating hard ice cream."

Laurene and I were just floored. It was HI-larious. Combined with the atrocious red shirt and peppermint-striped tie, Briggs definitely set the bar pretty high for the rest of the boxing community to top this year.

2006 post-mortem continued...

2007-01-04T16:16:00.000-05:00

I forgot about Criterion's Equinox DVD yesterday in my DVD's of the year. What a great title to get the Criterion treatment, especially given the involvement of Dennis Muren and the movie's influence on the Evil Dead films.

So, ported over from ITVR, my ten favorite albums of the year:

DJ BC - Wu Orleans (Great mashup album)

Dragonforce - Inhuman Rampage (Despite Thom's description of them as "saving the world one keyboard solo at a time", they were awesome at Ozzfest.)

Hatebreed - Supremacy (Also awesome at Ozzfest.)

Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere (Laura loves "Crazy" and the Femmes cover's awesome.)

Entropia - Funky Cops and Hard Boiled Girls (This was the bonus disc of the DVD of Stelvio Massi's The Last Round. It's a collection of 70's Italian action movie themes.)

Weird Al - Straight Outta Lynwood (Not as good as Poodle Hat, but not bad.)

Jack Johnson - Curious George OST (Cute movie, good album.)

Bob Dylan - Modern Times (Just plain great.)

Neil Young - Living With War (Recorded in two weeks, and Neil's probably at his angriest since Weld, and it's probably musically his hardest stuff since Mirrorball)

Morrissey - Ringleader of The Tormentors (Blind Guardian was originally here, but I think I liked the Morrissey album more. "You Have Killed Me", simply awesome.)

And the worst, but most guiltily entertaining album of the year? I am ashamed to admit that I actually downloaded the K-Fed album, though I did it on the strength of this BWE article, which made it a must to hear for me.

PANCAKES, PANCAKES!

So, I'm trying to be back.

2007-01-03T15:37:00.000-05:00

Don't expect too, too much, as I'm going to be on the road a lot, but I figure I ought to try and start writing some again. Today, a brief post-mortem on some of the things I liked in 2006.

My favorite movies of the year:

Cars
Pirates Of The Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest (can't wait for the third one)
Snakes On A Plane (come on, it's a movie called Snakes on A Plane. It's the greatest movie ever.)
Hostel
Over The Hedge
Jackass 2 (can you tell this list isn't especially highbrow?)
Wordplay
A Prairie Home Companion (RIP Robert Altman. A good movie to go out on...)
The Great Yokai War (I don't think this was released in '06, but I saw it in '06, so there...)
Thank You For Smoking

The worst movie I saw in '06, by far(and I actually wasted the 9 bucks to see it, more's the pity) was Ultraviolet. Even the director's cut DVD didn't help matters.

DVD highlights of the year for me:

The continuing amazing releases from WWE, particularly the History of The WWE Championship and Spectacular Legacy of the AWA DVDs. (Almost made up for the editing of certain segments of WM23 for the DVD.)

Special editions of Forbidden Planet and The Maltese Falcon, as well as George's grudging release of the original non-edited Trilogy on DVD, even if they weren't anamorphic.

The Adventures Of Brisco County on DVD. Bruce Campbell rules. 'Nuff said.

(More later. I gotta go pick up Laurene from work.)

Merry Early Christmas From Laura~!

2006-12-15T15:07:00.000-05:00

This is kind of weird.

2006-11-13T15:38:00.000-05:00

From The Wrestling Blog:

Also, has anyone been following the story about the TNA show getting cancelled in Connecticut? Its all over the net, but if you haven’t heard, long story short, TNA was scheduled to have a show in CT, which is where WWE headquarters is located, and a “mysterious phonecall” informed authorities that the TNA show would have to be cancelled due to problems with the building. Evidentally, TNA moved the show to another building, where the same thing happened again. TNA eventually gave up and just cancelled the show, and rumors have been flying that WWE were the ones who sabotaged the event. WWE denies any involvement, but TNA has went so far as to post a video of BG and Kip James standing in front of WWE headquarters calling out Vince in a roundabout way for being responsible for the show being cancelled.

Frankly, I find it hard to believe that Vince would give a damn that TNA was booking a show in the Connecticut Expo Center, which is about half a step above the K of C hall. And it's not like WCW never ran CT shows when they were in business. Weird.

And this is even better...

2006-11-06T09:28:00.000-05:00

TEH INTERNETS!

(Thanks to Waxy for the link.)

Damn near wet myself.

2006-11-06T09:22:00.000-05:00

Forget the album, look at the product tags. OMGWTFBBQ!

Everybody is a star.

2006-10-24T18:42:00.000-04:00

Youtube of the day...

2006-10-18T15:49:00.000-04:00

Via Wonkette:

Tony Blair rocking out.

And another one, though you have to watch through the first minute or so to get to it.

Okay, pardon my French, here,

2006-10-18T15:43:00.000-04:00

but this is Just. Completely. FUCKING. Stupid. Almost makes me hate being a parent because of all the other idiots who have kids out there.

A good article...

2006-10-17T18:57:00.000-04:00

on why the NHL probably should have just gone away after the last strike. Now, I like hockey, don't get me wrong, but I don't really care about it until February or March, and I root for an out of town team, so I don't get to see my team very often unless they're playing the locals.

Oh, and this is pretty funny also.

7 feet tall? Good for wrestling...

2006-10-15T22:48:00.000-04:00

...but not so good for boxing. Just got finished watching last Saturday's "championship" fight between 6'3" Monte Barrett and the 7-foot tall Russian boxer Nikolai Valuev. It was... well, it was something. Not quite a boxing match, not quite the massacre I expected either, though.

Barrett was clearly outmatched, but did his damnedest to try and chop the bigger man down. He escaped the first round after getting knocked down but not counted, as the ref did not see his gloves hit the canvas. Through the middle rounds, Barrett tried to alternately chop away at Valuev and then jump in and grab him to avoid the bigger man's clubbing blows. But as the fight wore on, Valuev just kept thudding away at Barrett. Barrett went down in the eighth, though it was almost more of a slip than a knockdown, but by the eleventh, Barrett was reeling. After three knockdowns in the round and Valuev's landing shots at will, Barrett's trainer jumped in and ended the match.

Unfortunately, Valuev seems like a very intelligent, sensitive guy, but he's probably never going to be anything more than a freak, especially since Don King has wormed his way into Valuev's management team. HBO showed some footage of Valuev in New York looking very uncomfortable doing PR with King, holding a mockup of the Empire State Building while King crowed about "my Russian Giant!". I can't imagine him going very far, but BoxRec has him ranked #2 in the world right now in the awful, awful heavyweight division behind fellow Russian Wladimir Klitschko. Maybe he'd be better off calling Vince McMahon.

R.I.P Gillo Pontecorvo

2006-10-13T20:47:00.000-04:00

Director of one of my favorite films of all time, The Battle Of Algiers.

Unclear on the concept.

2006-10-03T15:57:00.000-04:00

This dumbass wants Fahrenheit 451 banned. Because of the language in the book. (It's obvious he didn't read the book. Or that he knows what irony is.)

More later.

I love Youtube.

2006-09-29T23:56:00.000-04:00

This is what Youtube is all about. An early 80's clip of Mr. Rogers learning about video games. And listen closely to the voice of the guy who comes to take the coins out of the game slot.

(Link from Waxy.org)

Strange news.

2006-09-25T23:22:00.000-04:00

Kurt Angle signed a deal with TNA this week. He's apparently going to be joining the company just as they go into prime time on Spike(though they're still not live, and still on a different night then either of WWE's programs.)

Not sure how to see this. On the one hand, it's somewhat of a coup for TNA, as Angle does come with an impressive pedigree, and he might be able to draw in some casual fans who might not watch TNA otherwise. On the other hand, Angle is said to be pretty seriously messed up physically, and is probably one injury away from Bret Hart-land(or maybe Pillman/Spicoli/Eddie Guerrero-land). I probably will watch the first couple of appearances.

The one other thing that's good about this is that Jeff Jarrett can't bury Angle. There's no way that they can job him out to Jarrett, and the potential for him to have some good matches with Samoa Joe and A.J. Styles is there. But on the other hand, a lot of these guys aren't as accomplished as WWE guys, and the potential for Angle to get a career-ender is a lot higher.

I was also surprised to see Eric Bischoff back on Raw tonight, even though it was just to shill his new book. He claims to tell the truth in it, and it will be interesting to see if it's WWE revisionist history truth, or if it's like Foley and Flair's books.

A brief thought in passing...

2006-09-21T22:39:00.000-04:00

Does Tom Morello of Audioslave(formerly of Rage Against the Machine) actually know how to play a guitar solo without effects?

Seriously, I enjoy the first song on the new album that they're playing on the radio, "Original Fire", even though it sounds like Firebird. But then they get to the solo, and it's all that scratchy RATM waank-waank-waank stuff. Takes me right out of the song.

Oh, and the new Weird Al CD? Good, but not as good as the last album.

Hey, I'm back.

2006-09-18T16:27:00.000-04:00

All right. So I've missed a few months. Been busy not getting divorced and changing jobs. But that's for the LJ and not for here, so anyway, here's a few random things from the last few days.

- I watched about two-thirds of Hard Candy, which streets tomorrow. Lot of hype around it, but I really didn't find it all that spectacular. Instead, it struck me as being a watered down, Americanized version of Audition, but about pedophilia. Part of the problem I had with it, I think, is that neither lead character is particularly sympathetic, and for much of the movie, you're sympathizing with the possible pedophile, because the Ellen Page character is obviously short a few screws. Plus there are a few large plot holes, and the whole thing's a little too contrived for its own good.

- Too much new TV, not enough time to watch it all. I've got the first two episodes of House, the first three episodes of Bones, and tomorrow, I'll be picking up Standoff. Plus CSI starts this week, as does Law and Order. My DVR is going to be getting quite the workout, particularly since the baseball playoffs are almost here.

- Nothing will be said about the Eagles' complete collapse yesterday. It didn't happen.

- Watched PPV last night. It was solidly mediocre, leaning bad, particularly with the spectacle of The Big Show's giant white ass. But there were a few good things amidst the blown spots and unfortunate lack of title belt changes, such as the TLC match between John Cena and Edge, but what good can you say about a show where the women's match was the second best match of the night. (Though the sight of Lita back together with the Hardyz, even if it was to torment them, was something I didn't expect to see any time soon.)

- Disappointed to find that Fox Soccer Channel has apparently abandoned the AFL and rugby telecasts. Thankfully, there's Bit Torrent. But even so, it kinda sucks.

- Oh, and thanks, Dave and Legg.

I'll be trying to post on a more regular basis, though NaNo is coming, and with the change in my work, I might not be able to. We'll have to see.

Content coming this evening, but a quick random thought..

2006-09-07T09:17:00.000-04:00

I heard an ad on the radio yesterday for the latest "hey, give us more money for singing Satisfaction" Rolling Stones tour. They're coming to Foxboro sometime this month, I guess, but they're bringing Kanye West to open for them.

???

Now, I understand that the Stones like to have interesting openers, and they had Prince open shows for them back in '81, but Kanye? Seems a bit odd, like a "hey, people under 30, please come see us! Please?"

I can't imagine the average Stones fan even knowing who Kanye is, let alone wanting to hear him do his thing.

More later.

New stuff coming soon.

2006-08-17T22:41:00.000-04:00

(Paper sign(not a sticker, I don't think)
on the Best Video drop box outside the Yale Bookstore.)

Really. After September 1st. Not kidding.

Hey, look, I'm back.

2006-05-26T22:29:00.000-04:00

Hi.

Remember me? I used to blog?

Well, I've been going through a lot of strange personal stuff the last few weeks, so I haven't been posting much. Hopefully that will change. I do have one announcement to make, which is that I'd like you all to stop by the new forum I'm moderating for the video store I work for. It's here, and is movie-centric, for obvious reasons. It's still in the process of being created, so bear with it. Also, we've upgraded the Best Video site a lot recently, and are making a go of it, so please, if you want to buy a DVD, and don't mind paying an extra buck or two in order to support an independent retailer instead of the soulless corporations that sell on the intarweb, by all means, visit us here.

Thanks. Real content to come.

Happy Easter From Laura~!

2006-04-16T20:22:00.000-04:00

This is pretty cool.

2006-04-12T22:44:00.000-04:00

Two of my favorite albums are being added to to the Library Of Congress's National Recording Registry.

Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation, the album that dragged me kicking and screaming away from hair metal and top-40 music at the end of the 80's, and Zappa's We're Only In It For The Money, which, while not my favorite Zappa album, certainly is the most representative of what he was really about. (I could kvetch and say that they should have taken Freak Out instead, but Money really is the stronger album.)

*Edit* Subsequent research shows me that there are quite a few things going in this year that I liked, including Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers by the Firesign Theater, Switched-On Bach, by Wendy Carlos, and Gil Scott-Heron's "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised". A full list can be found here.

We should all just quit now.

2006-04-12T22:38:00.000-04:00

Blogging at it's essence.

(Link via Hit and Run.)

NSFW for sound, but funny.

2006-03-28T16:37:00.000-05:00

New Line rules. That is all.

It can't come out soon enough.

2006-03-23T15:05:00.000-05:00

MI:3? X-3? The new Potter?

Hell no.

It's already awesome.

Arrr.

2006-03-22T15:36:00.000-05:00

Fight the RIAA~!

Patti Santangelo is a mom with 5 kids being sued for downloading music because a friend of one of her kids loaded Kazaa onto her computer and was DL'ing stuff without anyone in the house knowing. She's completely computer illiterate, but she's not caving in to the Big Four, and now they're suing her for big bucks.

Click the link over there on the right to give to her defense fund.

New pictures.

2006-03-20T16:48:00.000-05:00

Maybe content soon. Who can tell these days?

She's such a little lady.

Milla, fire your agent. Seriously.

2006-03-13T00:32:00.000-05:00

So, Ultraviolet.

Oh, my God, what utter incomprehensible crap. Well-CGI'ed crap, but crap nonetheless. I could run down the plot, but I'd need to do a flowchart, and frankly, I don't have the space for that, so basically, it's like this. Milla's a vampire, but she's good. Cameron Bright is a creepy little kid(much like his character in Birth) who might have the key to wiping out the vampires in his blood. Or maybe it's the key to wiping out humanity. By the 45-minute mark, my brain had shut down and all I was doing was enjoying the ridiculous CGI fight and chase scenes and wondering if we were going to see Milla's breasts.(We did not.)

The only other recognizable face in the film is William Fichtner, who gets to play a nice character for once, so that was good. The action sequences are thrilling, but ultimately, as my boy SubFab said, it's more like cut scenes with no video game. According to the IMDb geeks, director Kurt Wimmer, who also inflicted the equally incomprehensible and CGI-heavy Equilibrium on us, had his final cut taken away and the film was stripped of half an hour. While I'm idly curious to know if it helps the movie make any more sense, I think the 88-odd minutes that the movie runs is more than enough. When the best part of a movie is the opening credit sequence, an entertaining collection of supposed Ultraviolet comic book covers, you have to wonder why they bothered.

I can only hope that V For Vendetta turns out better.

This is phenomenal.

2006-03-12T12:26:00.000-05:00

Photoshop what other movies would be like if created by the creators of "Snakes On A Plane".

I can't wait to see Snakes On A Plane. It's guaranteed to be already awesome.

R.I.P. Kirby Puckett.

2006-03-06T20:50:00.000-05:00

Dead from a stroke at 44. He was a damn good ballplayer, and he shouldn't have had to retire when he did.

MINNEAPOLIS -- Kirby Puckett died Monday, a day after the Hall of Fame outfielder had a stroke at his Arizona home, a hospital spokeswoman said. He was 44.

Puckett died at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, Kimberly Lodge said. He had been in intensive care since having surgery at another hospital following his stroke Sunday morning.

Puckett carried the Twins to World Series titles in 1987 and 1991 before his career was cut short by glaucoma. His family, friends and former teammates gathered at the hospital throughout Monday.

The hospital said Puckett was given last rites and died in the afternoon.

"On behalf of Major League Baseball, I am terribly saddened by the sudden passing of Kirby Puckett," baseball commissioner Bud Selig said. "He was a Hall of Famer in every sense of the term.

"He played his entire career with the Twins and was an icon in Minnesota. But he was revered throughout the country and will be remembered wherever the game is played. Kirby was taken from us much too soon -- and too quickly," he said.

The buoyant, barrel-shaped Puckett broke into the majors in 1984 and had a career batting average of .318. Glaucoma forced the six-time Gold Glove center fielder and 10-time All-Star to retire when he went blind in his right eye.

"This is a sad day for the Minnesota Twins, Major League Baseball and baseball fans everywhere," Twins owner Carl Pohlad said.

Well, I didn't expect that.

2006-03-05T23:47:00.000-05:00

I definitely didn't expect Crash to win Best Picture. I mean, it's a damn good movie, but it was the kind of year where you just expected the gay cowboys eating pudding to win the whole damn thing. Of course, I also didn't expect "It's Hard Out There For A Pimp" to win either, so there you go.

They should definitely have Jon Stewart back again next year, though. He was aces.

Quickie Oscar picks:

2006-03-05T19:59:00.000-05:00

Brokeback
Ang Lee
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Reese Witherspoon
Crash (orig screenplay)
Brokeback (adapted)
Wallace and Gromit (animated film)

And Jon Stewart will tell at least one joke to anger Bill O'Reilly.

Holy crap...

2006-03-04T23:11:00.000-05:00

...did Jeff Lacy get the crap beaten out of him tonight. Joe Calzaghe just absolutely destroyed him in a 12-round decision that was never even close to close. I assumed that Lacy would just beat Calzaghe's ass, but I didn't expect that Lacy would never even show up. The pre-fight commentary made a big deal out of the fact that they were fighting live at 2:30 A.M. local time in Manchester, and that Lacy was rested while Calzaghe was nervous. Could have fooled me, since Calzaghe pretty much dominated the fight from the opening bell. So much for Lacy going after Jermaine Taylor, though he may need to go down to 160 after that asswhooping.

Also saw the replay of Vargas-Mosley from last Saturday's HBO PPV. Pretty decent fight, though the finish wasn't much in doubt after about the second round or so, since Vargas's right eye pretty much swelled up like a balloon right after the first. Vargas did manage to get it going for a while, but the eye just kept swelling, and by the end of 8, it was all but closed. Vargas managed to soldier on into the tenth, but Joe Cortez saw enough and TKO'ed Vargas in the tenth. Decent fight overall, but Mosley looked a little rough, and Vargas probably would have scratched out a decision if it weren't for the eye.

Two weeks out is Hasim Rahman/James Toney, and that ought to be, ahem, "entertaining". But then in early April, we get Floyd Mayweather and Zab Judah, which might be interesting.

(I'm going to try and post more. Really.)

Hey, I found the update button...

2006-02-28T21:59:00.000-05:00

But this isn't really much of an update. I'm alive, moving forward, content will be coming soon. Really.

I'm not kidding.

All emo today...

2006-01-30T14:24:00.000-05:00

This was originally going to be an angry, drama-filled post. But sitting on a rock on the Tower trail at Sleeping Giant State Park listening to Miles Davis, I realized two things. First of all, angry drama serves no purpose. (I should know this, I've been friends with Thom for about 20 years.) Second of all, there's no reason for me to be all emo, since I should be looking at the good things that have come out of the last two months. So:

Carolyn: Thank you for giving me the courage and the excuse to finally take my life by the reins and stop living for everyone else. The month that we were together was wonderful, even if it ended the way it did. I'm sorry that I turned out to not be what you thought I should be, but that goes both ways. Hopefully, if nothing else, I can take some lessons from our relationship, and I certainly don't regret any of it in the slightest.

Jennifer: Thank you for continuing to be an amazing friend to have, even when I do stupid things to jeopardize our friendship. I am glad to know you, and glad that you are my friend, and thanks for all of the support that you've given me the last few weeks.

Erica: Thanks for putting me up, and putting up with me. I value your friendship because you're not afraid to tell me what I have to hear, even when I don't want to hear it, and because you're just a blast to be around, even when I'm stumbling around and falling over couches.

Thom: You're my boy. 'Nuff said.

Laurene: Even though you probably won't ever read this, it needs to be said. Thank you for 14 years. Even though we ended poorly, and even though I couldn't be what you wanted me to be, I still love you, and always will. Unfortunately, not the way you want to be loved, and not the way I want to love someone either, but nothing will change the time we had together. I can only hope that we can get to a level where we can communicate well so that Laura will be well taken care of.

Jill, Richard, Lara, Renard: Thanks for all of your advice, support, and putting up with my whiny emo self. You guys are awesome.

To anyone else reading this: If you know (or are) a 28-35 year old woman who doesn't mind geekyness and a guy with a kid, please, by all means, get in touch.

Hey, an update.

2006-01-29T12:47:00.000-05:00

Sunday morning at the video store and I don't feel like doing any work, so here's some randomness.

Belated birthday greetings to Jen Falasco, who I got good and drunk with last night at the Old Dublin in Wallyworld. A good time was had by all, and a more coherent reading of what happened last night may be found on Erica's journal. I do know that I drank 2 Guinnesses and 2 Captain and Cokes in about 45 minutes(and that the Cap and Cokes were mostly Captain) and followed that up with two, maybe three Newcastles before we finally left. I also apparently accused Thom of being shallow, which, frankly, I can't back up. (I also did something that could be construed as bad, but we won't talk about that.) On the way home, Erica bought me a Gatorade, and as of now, no hangover. So thanks, Erica. No more falling over couches for me today, anyway.

Attempted guilt from my soon-to-be-ex-wife last night as well. Yesterday was Laura's family birthday party, and I (obviously) was persona non grata. About 10 P.M., just as I was tucking into the second round of Guinness and rum and cokes, the cellphone rings, and she starts giving me shit about how everyone had a good time, and it's too bad you weren't there, and it's too bad you've abandoned your daughter. I did my best to be civil, though if she'd caught me after the second round of Guinness and Rum, probably would have been a different story. So two weeks of civility, probably out the window.

Just spent 25 minutes educating a customer in the joys of video piracy, so that he can copy porn.(Never mind that the Internet is for pr0n.)

Royal Rumble tonight - the boys are coming over to watch, and it should be at least somewhat entertaining. No comedy entrants to the Rumble that I know of, but we get the Boogeyman versus JBL, so that should provide some unintentional comedy.

It's been a strange week. Hopefully next week will be better.

So, an update.

2006-01-10T11:40:00.000-05:00

It's been a little over two weeks now since I left the house. Mainly I've been working and sleeping, what with being in the midst of inventory at Saks. (As opposed to my normal 6 AM to 3 PM schedule, it's all night work.)

Things are okay with Laurene, I guess, as much as they can be. Our conversations range from completely civil, as was the case last night, to "You ruined my life" guilt. (I understand that completely, so it's not as big a deal as it might be.) In a few minutes, I will get to see Laura for only the second time since I left. Hopefully that will go well. I've talked to her a few times on the phone, as much as you can talk to a three-year old, anyway. My one hope is that when she's older, she can understand why I did what I did, and will forgive me for it.

Things with Carolyn are going as well as they can, and I'm at peace with my situation, as fucked up as it is.

Once I get my wireless router up, I'll probably go back to updating more regularly. I have a review waiting on my home computer to go up(I'm posting at my parents' house) and there are other things to talk about(such as the transitional championship of Edge.)

So, yeah, uh, Happy New Year, and stuff...

2006-01-01T11:04:00.000-05:00

I am officially out of house. For the last couple of months(and probably realistically for longer than that), I've been quietly drifting away from Laurene(the reasons are mostly financial and intimacy-related), and I met someone else. For a while, it seemed like nothing was going to happen between me and Carolyn, but then it just became a freight train.

Big fight Monday night, which led to me being backed into a corner, which led to me telling them about Carolyn, which led to me being kicked out on my ass.

Everyone's mad at me, which, frankly, makes perfect sense, since I've made a horrific mess of things.

In time, everything will calm down, but right now, Thom and Erica, my friends who have both gone through this(and Carolyn, of course), are about the only people who're talking to me.

I've been called a bum, selfish, a bad person, and I'm willing to accept all of those things because everyone who's saying these things can't understand the situation that I'm in. Funny thing is, the people who've had divorce in their lives are the ones who understand where I'm at, and why I'm doing this, and are being rational about all of this.

Laurene has let me see Laura, which is very nice of her, things being what they are, but obviously, it's going to be tough.

In time, when emotion subsides a little, I think people will be better about this, but right now, it's a bit raw.

And a Merry Christmas from Laura~!

2005-12-25T08:59:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas~!

2005-12-25T00:50:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas to everyone out there, especially Laurene and Laura; Thom and Erica and the boys; Laurie and Diana; Lara and John; all the Muggleton and Shanahan family members out there; everybody at DV and ITVR; and especially to someone special who I'm missing pretty bad right about now.

"Bah, humbug!" No, that's too strong
'Cause it is my favorite holiday
But all this year's been a busy blur
Don't think I have the energy

To add to my already mad rush
Just 'cause it 'tis the season.
The perfect gift for me would be
Completions and connections left from

Last year, ski shop,
Encounter, most interesting.
Had his number but never the time
Most of '81 passed along those lines.

So deck those halls, trim those trees
Raise up cups of Christmas cheer,
I just need to catch my breath,
Christmas by myself this year.

Calendar picture, frozen landscape,
Chilled this room for twenty-four days,
Evergreens, sparkling snow
Get this winter over with!

Flashback to springtime, saw him again,
Would've been good to go for lunch,
Couldn't agree when we were both free,
We tried, we said we'd keep in touch.

Didn't, of course, 'til summertime,
Out to the beach to his boat could I join him?
No, this time it was me,
Sunburn in the third degree.

Now the calendar's just one page
And, of course, I am excited
Tonight's the night, I've set my mind
Not to do too much about it.

Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas!
But I think I'll miss this one this year.

[4x]

Party dashing through the snow
Of course I bundled up too tight
Last minute have-to-do's
A few cards a few calls
'Cause it's R-S-V-P
No thanks, no party lights
It's Christmas Eve, guttery laugh
Turned down all of my advice.

Last fall I had a night to myself,
Same guy called, halloween party,
Waited all night for him to show,
This time his car wouldn't go,

Forget it, it's cold, it's getting late,
Trudge on home to celebrate
In a quiet way, unwind
Doing Christmas right this time.

A&P has provided me
With the world's smallest turkey
Already in the oven, nice and hot
Oh damn! Guess what I forgot?

So on with the boots, back out in the snow
To the only all-night grocery,
When what to my wondering eyes should appear
In the line is that guy I've been chasing all year!

"I'm spending this one alone," he said.
"Need a break; this year's been crazy."
I said, "Me too, but why are you?
You mean you forgot cranberries too?"

Then suddenly we laughed and laughed
Caught on to what was happening
That Christmas magic's brought this tale
To a very happy ending! "

Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas!
Couldn't miss this one this year!
[4x]

Yeah, this isn't a surprise.

2005-12-19T23:18:00.000-05:00

The Pork Chop Express.

Which B-Movie Badass Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Toho goes out with a bang.

2005-12-17T23:15:00.000-05:00

So, Godzilla: Final Wars.

As I mentioned previously, Toho decided to send Godzilla off in a big way, and they brought in Ryuhei Kitamura, the director of the flashy action films Versus and Azumi to do so. Well, I just finished watching it, and well, flashy is certainly a word for G:FW.

The basic plot, such as it is, is that giant monsters start appearing all over the world and the Earth Defense Force is powerless to do anything about it until a UFO appears and captures all the monsters. The aliens claim to have come in peace(though anyone who's seen any of the alien-related G-movies knows better) and want to tell us that there's a comet on its way to hit us. Actually, they're space vampires of a sort, here to use us as cattle. Oh, and the EDF has a bunch of mutants who like to fight as part of their force. Turns out that the aliens control both the giant monsters AND the mutants, and wreak havoc on the world before the few remaining normal people get the brilliant idea to wake Godzilla to save us all. Much mayhem ensues.

This movie was completely and utterly fucking insane. It's also probably the best G-movie since Destroy All Monsters, and possibly even since the original no-Raymond-Burr 1954 Gojira. Kitamura serves up a entertaining stew made up of elements of Independance Day, The Matrix, Star Wars, and even his own hyperkinetic action films. The performances are pretty decent for a G-film, particularly Don Frye, a UFC fighter making his screen debut as the iron-jawed captain of the flying battleship that takes on the aliens, and Kazuki Kitamura, who absolutely destroys the scenery with his over the top alien commander. There's kung fu, wire fu, rubber monster fu, and some great and completely ridiculous action sequences. The big G gets to kick the crap out of GINO, an approximation of the aberration that was the American Godzilla. Most of all, there's a sense of fun that's been missing from the series of late, almost as if Kitamura knows he's making a cheesy kaiju film and is making the best of it. Keith Emerson contributes a thrilling, entertaining score, and the opening credit sequence is a spectacular two and a half minute history of kaiju films from 1954 to the present.

If you like the Big G, then you should definitely get this flick. If not, you should still check it out. Highest recommendation.

An interesting irony in the video store.

2005-12-16T20:27:00.000-05:00

Guy comes up tonight to rent two movies.

The first movie? The latest installment of that wonderful direct-to-video saga known as "Left Behind".

The second movie? An porn parody of the Sopranos, called The Sopornos, appropriately enough.

I love video retail.

I always say that I'm 34 going on 12, but apparently not...

2005-12-13T21:52:00.000-05:00

You Are 24 Years Old

Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe.

13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world.

20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences.

30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more!

40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

What Age Do You Act?

I don't think so, but okay...

2005-12-12T00:52:00.000-05:00

Your 2005 Song Is

Feel Good Inc by Gorillaz

"Love forever love is free.
Let's turn forever you and me."

In 2005, you were loving life and feeling no pain.

What Hit Song of 2005 Are You?

Another LJ meme swiped from Thom.

2005-12-10T15:49:00.000-05:00

1. What did you want to be when you grew up?

Roger Ebert. Seriously, I couldn't imagine a better job in the world than getting paid to watch movies.

2. Did you follow through? If not, what happened?

Crashed out of college, and I'm not that great a writer.

3. Is your life turning out the way you thought it would when you were a kid?If not, is it better or worse?

Definitely not, but things are always interesting.

4. Paradoxes aside, if you could time-travel back to when you were 10 years old, what would you tell your 10-year-old self?

Stop fucking watching cartoons and study. Also, don't start eating so goddamned much in two to three years. And don't borrow Joey Maynard's bicycle on Memorial Day 1986.

5. Do you think the child you were, would like the adult you've become?

Probably not, he'd think that I was a dull old bastard.

I'm gonna post.

2005-12-10T00:23:00.000-05:00

Really.

Just not tonight, at the end of a sixteen hour day.

2005 Survey, swiped from Thom's blog.

2005-12-05T21:26:00.000-05:00

1) Was 2005 a good year for you?
Some good, some bad. Things being what they are, it's been a year. That's for sure.

2) What was your favorite moment of the year?
The 10th Anniversary Hatebreed Show at Toad's, by far.

3) What was your least favorite moment of the year?
Getting laid off in May and not being able to get a gig all summer.

4) Where were you when 2005 began?
Home.

5) Who were you with?
No one. Laura and Laurene were asleep.

6) Where will you be when 2005 ends?
Just home from work.

7) Who will you be with when 2005 ends?
See above.

8) Did you keep your new years resolution of 2005?
Resolution? What's that?

9) Do you have a new years resolution for 2006?
Lose weight.

10) Did you fall in love in 2005?
Next question.

15) Did you breakup with anyone in 2005?
NEXT QUESTION, I said.

16) Did you make any new friends in 2005?
Yup.

17) Who are your favorite new friends?
Will and Carolyn.

18) What was your favorite month of 2005?
November.

19) Did you travel outside of the US in 2005?
No.

20) How many different countries did you travel to in 2005?
Just this one.

21) Did you lose anybody close to you in 2005?
Nope.

22) Did you miss anybody in the past year?
Not particularly.

23) What was your favorite movie that you saw in 2005?
The Beat That My Heart Skipped.

24) What was your favorite song from 2005?
Golddigger, Kanye West

25) What was your favorite record from 2005?
Morrissey, Live At Earl's Court

26) How many concerts did you see in 2005?
2.

27) Did you have a favorite concert in 2005?
Hatebreed

28) Did you drink a lot of alcohol in 2005?
Nope.

29) Did you do a lot of drugs in 2005?
Nothing you can't get in Walgreens or CVS.

30) Did you do anything you are ashamed of this year?
Yeah, like I'm gonna answer THAT one in a public post.

33) What was the worst lie someone told you in 2005?
Next Question.

34) Did you treat somebody badly in 2005?
One or two.

35) Did somebody treat you badly in 2005?
Only my ex-employers.

36) How much money did you spend in 2005?
How much did I earn?

37) What was your proudest moment of 2005?
Probably nothing that I can talk about here.

39) If you could go back in time to any moment of 2005 and change something, what would it be?
Not getting laid off would be a good start.

40) What are your plans for 2006?
Second verse, same as the first.

Well, I didn't make it.

2005-11-30T22:56:00.000-05:00

This was a tough damn month, and I only managed to get to a little on the north side of 32,000 words. I could say that it was because of work, what with the designer event and Black Friday, and I could blame it on Thanksgiving, and not feeling well in the middle of the month. Or I could blame it on all of the strange other events that I don't want to get into here.

But ultimately, the buck stops here. I didn't have it in me this year. Maybe next year.

Back to a more semi-normal posting schedule in a day or two, most likely, not that anyone's reading this.

strange days...

2005-11-28T21:06:00.000-05:00

somedays it's dark
somedays i work
i work alone
i walk alone

unknown
sweetness
bring me
laughter
or not

most days i work
most days it's dark
love me
or not

weird things are happening all around... details are unable to be posted here... just think and wonder...

What I have in my heart, I'll take to my grave...

2005-11-27T00:21:00.000-05:00

I got to witness the tenth anniversary Hatebreed concert last night at Toad's Place, and it was an amazing, spectacular experience. (Full disclosure: Jamey "Jasta" Shanahan, the lead shouter, who some would say IS Hatebreed, is my first cousin.) My partner in crime and I arrived early and went and had some fine pre-show dining at the Edumacated Burgher on Broadway. For some reason, I always seem to end up at the Burgher before Toads shows. Maybe it's the food, maybe it's the funky atmosphere(the Burgher is one of the last things left on Broadway unmolested by the evil corporate hands of Yale), but I just can't see going to Toads without the Burgher being involved somehow.

Anywho, we then repaired to the entrance of Toads, but on seeing bands still rolling equipment in despite it being nearly 9, we decided to go and sit in Koffee?, since it was about 20 degrees out. We sat and discussed the finer points of making films of comic books until they kicked us out, by which time it was almost showtime. We stood on the sidewalk in front of Toads a bit, taking amusement from the sight of some poor teenage girl coming out of the club with a rather large egg growing out of her forehead, the result of an apparent incident of some nature in the pit. She refused medical attention from the nice policeman standing outside, and instead got some ice and headed back inside, conceivably to get cracked again. When a flood of smokers came out at the end of 100 Demons' set, we headed inside, happy to be on the guest list(Thanks, Jamey and Uncle Jimmy~!)

Hatebreed hit the stage at about ten minutes to eleven, and immediately launched into "Empty Promises", the first song from their first full length(sort of, at 28 minutes) album, Satisfaction Is The Death Of Desire. They followed it by playing the album in its entirety, start to finish, for the first time in eight years. After that, they played the whole Under The Knife EP. By this time, the crowd was insane. Several people got bounced, (though not as many as the December 2003(?) Webster concert, in which Thom and I watched the bouncers have a pitched battle with concertgoers in the alley outside the venue) and for a time, it looked as though the flimsy barricades between all ages and the drinkers might go down. By the time Hatebreed kicked into "I Will Be Heard", their final song, I was completely wrung out, and it felt like we'd been in Toads forever, even though it had barely been 75 minutes. In the end, Thom and I both got to hear the songs we wanted to, it was a phenomenal show, and I got to see it for free.

This is my life, and it's ending one minute at a time...

2005-11-24T22:10:00.000-05:00

A terrible title for a post about what I'm thankful for, but the way things have been going, it's how I feel.(It's also what I say to anyone who expresses feelings of sympathy towards my situation.)

Anyway, these are the things I feel thankful for this year:

My loving wife and my wonderful daughter, who put up with way more than they should, and who don't get enough back in return. Thank you.

My family, who continue to support me even when I act like a shithead about money, or bump into someone while driving their car.

My friends, particularly the ones who continue to remain my friends even though I see them about as often as the Jets win.

My jobs, because it was a very loooong unemployed summer.

The internet, because I can bore people looking for links to t-----ts and such with this crap, and because I can get lots of free stuff that I shouldn't have.

My health, which continues to be pretty okay despite how terribly I treat myself.

So, here's to another year of happiness in abject misery.

ATTENTION PHIL MUSHNICK OF THE NEW YORK FASCIST RAG:

2005-11-20T13:52:00.000-05:00

Go Fuck Yourself. That is all.

It wouldn't be so fucking bad if you actually had a nice thing to say about Vince once in a while, but the fact that you have a hard-on for the destruction of the WWE and Vince clouds any kind of objectivity you might have. Apparently it's cynical to pay tribute to a guy who died because it only draws ratings. How about all the tributes to Reagan? How about the days of all-Pope-all-the-time TV?

MLB isn't the only sport that has steroid issues. What about the NFL? Lyle Alzado ring a bell?

Fucking Jackass.

I don't even know why I'm dignifying this by posting it, but:

WE'VE been writing it for more than 15 years, but we're going to try it one more time. And then we're going to try to do what the rest of the media does: we're going to ignore it.

After all, what's a dead pro wrestler, or two. Or 20. Or 80. They're only pro wrestlers; it's not as if they're real people.

While Bud Selig and Donald Fehr resisted Congress's efforts to expose and eliminate steroid use, they should be grateful that Congress, and, by extension America, gives a damn whether ballplayers live or die.

On the other hand, it's hard to keep a body count on pro wrestlers, under the age of 40, who have died sudden, steroid-aided deaths in the last 20-25 years.

Not a single active MLB player is known to have died a steroid-related death. But imagine if there had been one. Or two. Imagine if a massively muscled outfielder with the Tigers or Cubs was found dead in his hotel room today.

Last week, as MLB and the MLBPA finalized the Congressionally exacted steroid policy, Eddie Guerrero, one of McMahon's top WWE stars, was found dead in his hotel room in Minnesota.

Pro wrestlers are commonly found dead in their hotel rooms.

It works like this: The wrestlers know that their bosses want over-the-top muscle.

They know that there's an implied, industry-wide directive to be on or to get on the juice.

They know that they have to be on the road many weeks at a time, without any medical coverage or sick days.

Miss a show due to illness or injury and you miss a payday. Often, one or two misses and you're fired.

So the cycle begins. Steroids to get and keep the job, barbiturates to kill the pain and get some sleep, stimulants to get through the next gig.

That's why pro wrestlers are found dead in their hotel rooms.

Guerrero was only 5-8, but with muscles that pushed the limits of natural physiology. And he was a pro drug abuser every bit as much as he was a pro wrestler - the two, in the Vince McMahon Era, rarely stand alone.

McMahon, the king of pro wrestling - himself once massed on steroids - skips through the cemetery. He surely must think it wonderful that so few people care, that the media view his business only as a trendsetter for lowbrow pop culture.

Last week McMahon exploited Guerrero's death to make ratings hay with his NBC-TV partners, first on McMahon's hideously desensitizing USA Network show (USA is now owned by NBC) and then through a speak-no-evil memorial on MSNBC. And let's not forget McMahon's long friendship and partnerships with NBC Sports boss Dick Ebersol, who convinced NBC to turn Saturday nights over to McMahon's XFL.

Lowell Weicker, from McMahon's home state of Connecticut, is a former governor and senator ... [who has] long served as a member of the WWE's Board of Directors. We don't know what Weicker is paid for his presence, but given that he has to look past the perversity of McMahon's TV product and that he has to look around the scores of dead young men produced by the industry, he works cheap.

Anyway, under threat of Congress, MLB last week introduced a stronger drug policy. That made big news - while another pro wrestler dropped dead. And they continue to drop dead, ever so softly, so as to scarcely make a sound.

Just the way McMahon likes it.

(From today's NY Fascist Right Wing Tabloid Rag)

R.I.P. Eddie Guerrero

2005-11-13T13:10:00.000-05:00

Eddie Guerrero passes away
Nov. 13, 2005

WWE is deeply saddened by the news that Eddie Guerrero has passed away. He was found dead this morning in his hotel room in Minneapolis.

That's from WWE.com, so it must be legit. Holy crap. Unfortunately, the first thing I thought of was that he died of an overdose, but we'll have to see.

Another wrestler dies young. Too bad.

So this is more than a little surprising...

2005-11-09T21:05:00.000-05:00

Vitaly calls it a career.

He certainly wasn't the Klitschko I expected to see retire. But hey, I guess he's been having a lot of trouble getting it together, and I assume he probably didn't want to get stripped of the belt, particularly after the WBC said he had to fight in 60 days or else.

So your heavyweight champions are: Hasim Rahman (WBC), Chris Byrd (IBF), John Ruiz (WBA), and Lamon Brewster (WBO). How freakin' depressing is that?

Blogging from work...

2005-11-05T22:37:00.000-05:00

Blocked on the NaNo story.
Working too much...
Brain melting...

New blog~!

2005-11-03T15:53:00.000-05:00

Freak of the Week used to be a mailing list for me and a few of my associates. Now it's a blog, a clearinghouse for goofy stories and stuff that makes us laugh. Come and visit us.

Happy Halloween, everybody~!

2005-10-31T19:49:00.000-05:00

Borrowed from the GuthrieLJ...

2005-10-30T21:14:00.000-05:00

5 songs rocking my world at the moment:

Morrissey - There Is A Light That Never Goes Out (Live)
System Of A Down - BYOB
Steve Burns - Mighty Little Man
Iron Maiden - Aces High
Oingo Boingo - Flesh and Blood

Nano starts in a little over 24 hours. I don't know where I'm going with it yet, but I'll know sometime on Tuesday, hopefully.

Does this thing still work?

2005-10-28T20:37:00.000-04:00

Just kidding.

Busy, busy, busy with work. Got promoted at the new job already, and have been buried in work since. Plus I took some more hours at the video store, so I'm not doing much but working and sleeping.

Nano starts Tuesday, and I'm not sure how I'm gonna get it all in, but I'm gonna try.

Substance may come sooner or later, but November will probably be just as fallow post-wise as October's been.

R.I.P. Charles Rocket

2005-10-17T21:07:00.000-04:00

A suicide, oddly enough, though with strange circumstances. I always enjoyed his appearances as David Addison's ne'er-do-well brother, and he was also legendary for dropping an F-bomb during the first "lost season" of Saturday Night Live(the '80-'81 season).

Weird.

2005-10-12T21:51:00.000-04:00

Flipping channels, landed on NESN(the Red Sox network), and saw a guy that I used to play softball with when I worked at Wiggin and Dana acting in a Red Sox docudrama. The movie was called "Wait Till This Year", and Ges Selmont, the guy that I played ball with, was playing the husband of a husband/wife team making a year-in-the-life movie about being a Sox fan.

Unfortunately, I missed most of the movie, and my digital box is acting up, so I don't know if the movie's going to be on again. Hopefully it will be, because I'd like to see the whole thing.

Small world.

I haven't forgotten(a post of randomness)

2005-10-09T21:32:00.000-04:00

I've just been busy the last few days.

- November is coming quickly, and if you look down the page to the right, you'll see that I'm participating in National Novel Writing Month again this year. If you think you've got a novel in you, and you're willing to try to yank it out in 30 days, then go to the site and check it out.

- Pictures from the wedding are still forthcoming, as I haven't had an opportunity to get the throwaway over to the Mart of Wal to get them processed.

- Too bad Jose Luis Castillo couldn't make weight, but he apparently gave Diego Corrales a sound thrashing last night. Hopefully he'll make weight for the rubber match, so that it will actually mean something instead of just being a glorified exhibition. (Glad I didn't pay $35 for the PPV, but it'll be on Saturday night at 9 on Showtime, so I can at least actually see it.)

- I'm having a really good fantasy football year, which is making up for the Jekyll and Hyde performance of my actual teams (Pats and Eagles, if you're wondering.)

- Hockey's back, which is nice, though their national TV deal is with the freakin' Outdoor Life Network, and OLN's graphics and studio set leave a little something to be desired. Go Flyers~!

- Well, at least the Braves and the Rot Sox aren't going to the World Series either. (It's 2-0 Angels in the bottom of 6, and I'm a pessimist.)

- WWE stepped on their collective johnsons this week. After having a spectacular return to USA Monday night(complete with mid-4 ratings), they were all set to have Jim Ross get canned tommorow night in favor of some guy from UFC, but he got cold feet and is staying in UFC, so JR's staying on Raw for the time being. Whoops.

- Raw was a mostly good show Monday night, with only two really big missteps. To borrow a page from my boy Swift:
The Good: Angle and Shawn had a good 30-minute Iron Man match, very thrilling; Edge and Matt Hardy had a great ladder match as well, and Matt should show up on SD~! shortly; HHH returns and heels out on Flair in spectacular fashion; A great old-time everyone out of the back brawl to end the show and potentially set up something interesting for Survivor Series.
The Bad: They open the show with Foley and Piper in a segment that has almost nothing to do with Raw; Austin stuns the entire McMahon family in a entirely overlong sequence that squanders the appearance of the only McMahon I actually wanted to see on Raw(Shane-O-Mac, who ate a stunner in 20 seconds.); Hulk Hogan attempting to get a feud going with Austin, who isn't interested from all accounts.
The Ugly: The fact that the lame Austin segment ran so long that they had to cut down the rest of the show to keep things on time; Mae Young running around in her bra.

It was entertaining to see the old guys, including the only surviving Von Erich(Kevin, who looked very out of sorts with the rest of the superstars), but unfortunately, they got somewhat short shrift as opposed to McMahonamania.

- Joe just brought in Al Leiter in a 2-1 game, and I'm at peace with our fate.

- My boy Air Guthrie has reactivated his Blogger blog. Go read him. He talks real good.

Well, the wedding was very nice.

2005-10-03T16:41:00.000-04:00

But the pre-game fender-bender was not. Just a minor accident at the 287/87 merge. After an hour of waiting for the police to show because the guy I bumped refused to call it insurance and go, we managed to make the wedding with 20 minutes to spare.

Lara looked lovely, John looked handsome, and everybody at Table 7 had a heck of a time, especially my daughter, who spent every spare moment dancing.

Pictures to come later in the week, since the digital ran out of batteries, and so did the gift shop of the Hyatt. So we had to go the old-school tossaway camera route to get the job done.

Maybe a post later, after the Raw return to USA, otherwise something of substance tomorrow.

One last bit of nostalgia...

2005-10-01T22:42:00.000-04:00

and then it's back to boxing reviews and the latest memes.

Poughkeepsie, Spring 1990. We stood outside Leo Hall on a gorgeous spring day, figuring this was going to be one of the last days we'd all be together during freshman year. By this point, I probably knew I wasn't going to be back in September, and Peter probably knew he wasn't either, but we were still enjoying the time we had together. By this point, Lara had started to slide out of the group a little bit, because she was still concerned with actually studying, rather then participating in the full-time RPG that Peter and Lee had created out of their own heads. But we were still the Kool-Aid Club, regardless of what happened with grades.

If I remember correctly, it started with Lara and I hanging out in the lounge at Leo, watching NextGen and SNL and not going out drinking. Eventually, it expanded to the five of us. We acquired the name thanks to a regular cab driver who used to drive us to the movie theater at the Poughkeepsie Galleria. He observed that we were the only ones he wasn't taking to off-campus parties, and coined the name, which stuck.

For 6 months, we all spent as much time together as we could when we weren't in class. We took the train to New York a few times, spent nights hanging out down by the Hudson, running around the lumberyard next to the school's crew dock, and generally avoiding educational pursuits as much as humanly possible. We played an amalgam of Robotech, Cyberpunk, Aliens, and whatever else popped into Peter's head as he wove the thread of a seemingly endless RPG that more or less filled all of our off-hours. But mostly, we just spent a lot of time together, being good kids who didn't get drunk and stumble back to the dorms to try to con our way past Marc, the badass security guard who worked the front desk of Leo Hall.

But all good things must come to an end, as they say, and shortly after that picture was taken, reality set in. Peter and I both completely washed out of school, and Lee left Marist also. Lara and Kathy stayed, and both graduated. After a summer reunion at Lara's house minus Peter, who was locked down at home, the Kool-Aid Club dissolved.

Peter more or less vanished off the face of the Earth. He had problems with his parents over washing out of Marist(to the point of running away from home that summer), and last I'd heard, was attending Duchess Community College under the thumb of his father. Kathy and I mailed each other on and off for a while, but that just sort of petered out(so to speak) before too long. Lee and I stayed in contact for quite a while. I visited her in New York City a number of times over 4 or 5 years, but then we lost contact also. Last I heard, she was in the Air Force, married with a kid.

Lara and I, though, have remained friends for over 15 years now. She is my best female friend in the entire world, and she's also my harshest critic and editrix(sorry, Thom.) We've gotten drunk together, we've watched some really terrible movies together, we've even been in a car accident together. Tomorrow morning, I will wake up, get the girls up, and we'll drive to Princeton to watch Lara walk down the aisle and get married to one hell of a nice guy. This post is dedicated to you, Lara. Mazel Tov~!

Being that no one gives a rat's ass about my personal issues,

2005-09-30T22:30:00.000-04:00

and that's NO ONE, not even people who I would have thought cared, here's a meme for you as new content, liberated from my boy Air Guthrie. No more nostalgia, I think.

1. Of all the bands/artists in your cd/record collection, which one do you own the most albums by? - Zappa, far and away, followed by Miles Davis.

2. What was the last song you listened to? - Wig In A Box - The Polyphonic Spree(from the Hedwig And The Angry Inch benefit tribute album)

3. What's in your record player right now? - Dust. My po-bucker IPod has a mp3 CD with a dozen different tribute albums on it in the car.

4. What song would you say sums you up? - Feel Like A Number - Bob Seger

5. What's your favorite local band? - Uh, I don't really have one, I guess. Miracle Legion? The Reilly Clan? The Gravel Pit? The Housebreakers? The Mercuries? White Collar Crime? All defunct.

6. What was the last show you attended? - Ozzfest 2005, and we left before Ozzy.

7. What was the greatest show(s) you've ever been to? Oh, god. Uh, let's see. Opeth at the Worcester Palladium. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Springheeled Jack at Toads. Warren Zevon solo acoustic at Toads. Tool at the Civic Center (possibly the most hallucinogenic night I've ever had, and I wasn't on anything). Neil Young and Crazy Horse at the Civic Center on the Ragged Glory Tour. Steve Burns(yes, the Blues Clues guy) at the Iron Horse. Weird Al at the Oakdale (shut up). Daemonia playing for 200 rabid horror fans at the Tarrytown Hilton. Black 47 and The Reillys at Toads a few times.

8. What band do you love musically but hate the members of? Oasis. I love Definitely Maybe, but someone seriously needs to put a couple of bullets in the Gallagher brothers.

9. What is the most musically involved you have ever been? 3 years spent as soundguy, roadie, and chief target of Brian Reilly's abuse with the Reilly Clan. I did get to sing on stage at Toads, so it was worth it.

10. What show are you looking forward to? Opeth at the end of October (if I get to go), and the possible Blind Guardian tour next year.

11. What is your favorite band shirt? I wore my Steve Miller Band shirts forever, but they don't make tour shirts like they used to.

12. What musician would you like to hang out with for a day? Lemmy, Mikael Akerfelt from Opeth, Stephen Trask, Morrissey, Neil Young, Henry Rollins, They Might Be Giants.

13. What musician would you like to be in love with for a day? Meg White. I don't know why, I just find her incredibly attractive. Failing that, Liz Phair.

14. Metal question-Jeans and Leather vs. Cracker Jack clothes? Jeans and leather, I guess, since I have no clue what cracker jack clothes are.

15. Sabbath or solo Ozzy? Definitely Sabbath, but original pre-Ozzy leaving Sabbath.

16. Commodores or solo Lionel Ritchie? Oh, like that's a hard choice. Hmm. Brick House, or Dancing On The Ceiling. Which would you choose?

17. Punk rock, hip hop or heavy metal? The fields are too broad here. I'd say all of the above.

18. Doesn't Primus suck? Of course. That's why they rule.

19. Name 5 flawless albums:
Apostrophe - Frank Zappa
A Tribute To Jack Johnson - Miles Davis
Satisfaction Is The Death Of Desire - Hatebreed
Everyone Knows This Is Nowhere - Neil Young And Crazy Horse
Damnation - Opeth

20. Did you know that filling out this survey makes you a music geek? Just the fact that I'm blogging it makes me a geek. What's your point?

21. What was the greatest decade for music? Ouch. Uh. I'd have to say the 70's, because even though there was disco, there was also punk, the beginnings of hip hop, prog, fusion, and all the best Zappa albums run from 1969-1975, so there you go.

22. How many music-related videos/dvds do you own? Probably 50 or more, between the bootlegs and the legit stuff.

23. Do you like Journey? Up to a point. My tolerance for Journey probably starts with "Lights" and ends with "Seperate Ways".

24. Don't try to pretend you don't! I grew up in the 80's. They were hard to avoid. Kind of like Michael Jackson or Bon Jovi.

25. What is your favorite movie soundtrack? Instrumental: Koyannisqatsi - Phillip Glass; From and Inspired By: Repo Man; Musical Movie: South Park - Bigger, Longer, and Uncut.

26. What was your last musical "phase" before you wised up? Well, I dove into jam band music a bit heavier then I probably should have. Currently, it's EuroMetal.

27. What's the crappiest CD/record/etc. you've ever bought? Probably Arc, 40 minutes of Neil Young feedback. Right up there with Metal Machine Music on the impossible to listen to scale.

28. Do you prefer vinyl or CDs? CD is fine, I don't have the fine tuned vinyl ear.

29. All totaled, how much do you spend on music a month? Who spends money on CD's? If I buy five CDs a year for myself, not as gifts, that's a lot.

Blocked and in a funk...

2005-09-19T22:23:00.000-04:00

Every day I get up in the morning and go to work
And do my job-whatever
I need some
Sentimental Hygiene
Everybody's at war these days
Let's have a mini-surrender
I need some Sentimental hygiene

Everybody's had to hurt about it
No one wants to live without it
It's so hard to find it
Sentimental hygiene

Every night I come home exhausted
From trying to get along
I need some
Sentimental hygiene

Some nights I drive my car
Up and down the boulevard
It's so hard to find it
Sentimental hygiene

Everybody's had to hurt about it
No one wants to live without it
It's so hard to find it
Sentimental hygiene

Some nights I drive my car
Up and down the boulevard
It's so hard to find it
Sentimental hygiene
Sentimental hygiene
I need some Sentimental hygiene

The depresso-funk continues, abetted by the 5 a.m. wakeup call. For the three people who actually read this, something hopefully tomorrow or Wednesday, if I'm feeling less blocked or depressed.

Yet another odd visit on the traffic report.

2005-09-16T23:19:00.000-04:00

I had a visit from someone from the domain Senate.gov and an IP listed as belonging to the Senate Sargeant at Arms. Three guesses what he was looking for.

No, not "Salo Torrent", though that would be the logical guess. Not "Salon Kitty Torrent" either. No, they were looking for "Dave Chappelle's wife pics". (Last time I checked, I've never actually posted any pics of Dave's wife, and hadn't even realized he was married.)

So, welcome anyway, whoever you were. (Real post later.)

Now back to our orginially scheduled programming.

2005-09-11T00:33:00.000-04:00

Man, I'm beat. I spent my first week at the new job, and man, I don't know how I'm gonna keep going forward. (Without Dooceing myself, suffice it to say that it's not the greatest job in history.)

My recent wave of nostalgia posting seems to have shaken something central loose in the recesses of my tiny little brain, because I've slipped into a bit of a funk the last week. While the new job probably has a bit to do with it, I've been more pre-occupied with shit that happened fifteen years ago, and frankly, it's bothering me a bit. I realized after I finished and posted the last big post that I passed over the central question of the equation.

Did I love D.J.?

Well, in a naive eighteen-year-old kid who didn't know shit about shit way, I guess I did. In a way, I suppose I'm still hung up on her. After all, every piece of fiction that I've attempted to write has, in some way or other, either been about her or been influenced by our relationship. I was trying to come up with a new idea for NaNoWriMo(less then two months away now), and one of the ones I thought about was reviving a particularly lousy one that I started writing back in early '90, when I was in the big funk that cost me my education. So chalk one up for naive lovesickness.

I think I'm gonna skip the drunken debauch story, since it only serves to make me look foolish, and I'm also going to pass on telling my other attempted relationship story from Marist, because it REALLY makes me look foolish, as LDub would attest to, I'm sure. So, next, see what happens when I meet a wacky artist chick thanks to my association with Doom.

Oh, and Erik Morales who should have stayed at 130 and not tried to come up to 135.

Too tired to blog...

2005-09-07T22:31:00.000-04:00

Something of substance tomorrow or Friday...

Freakin' 5 am wakeup call...

Give.

2005-09-02T20:02:00.000-04:00

Seriously. I'm not kidding. Nostalgia and geekery is all fine and good, but come on. GIVE. Please. It doesn't take a lot, and we can bitch all we want out of the range about $3.00 gas and what the president is saying about all this and whether or not the AP is racist for id'ing black people as "looters", but in the end, one thing matters more.

Give. I'm supporting the Red Cross, but if you don't want to give to them, go to either or the links I've highlighted, and there's a metric f-load of other charities you can give your time and money to.

Please give. There are people who need your money more than you do.

No jokes today.

2005-09-01T22:37:00.000-04:00

Just give what you can, when you can. They need all the help they can get. Go here for a large list of other charities you could support if you don't want to give to the Red Cross.