Who Are You? What Do You Want? Where Are You Going? Whom Do You Serve – And Whom Do You Trust?!
I don’t have a Tivo and haven’t pimped out the old PC yet, so we have to choose tonight.
We’ll go with American Idol. Lost…well, they lost me awhile ago. I have no idea where this is going and at some point, I stopped caring.
What are you watching? Why?
MusicThing UK is doing a series this week on Tiny Music Makers. From the Intel Inside Chimes to your Windows Startup sound (Brian Eno?) MusicThing runs you through the who and the how.
Via BoingBoing.
MSNBC at the Movies has devoted its whole show this weekend to (what else?) Star Wars ep. III, Revenge of the Sith. Except for the rather bad review by Rolling Stone’s Peter Travers, it has been something of a mindless gush thus far. To prove my point, they just did their “Top 10 Sci-Fi films of all time.” It was led by (what else?) Star Wars ep IV, A New Hope. Places 2,3 and 4 were occupied by Blade Runner, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Alien (little argument from me there). But, well, besides the fact that virtually everyone on Earth agrees The Empire Strikes Back was a far better film than the original (or any other in the series, for that matter), the mindlessness of this list is evident in their inclusion of The Matrix (at 6 or 7, as I recall), and the exclusion of Metropolis.
I also would have included Woody Allen’s Sleeper, and dropped The Terminator (which was #10). But that’s likely just me. 🙂
Just a couple of interesting places to visit on the web:
Despair, Inc. has lots of (de)-motivational items (mugs, posters, etc.). Very funny stuff.
And the fact that I know about this site makes me one of the “cool professors.” See especially Strong Bad’s emails. I even used his email on How to Write An English Paper in my senior seminar.
I’m just about 20 minuites in watching Flashdance. And, even after twenty-two years, the story line is still too sickening to endure.
“Alexandria: you are 18 years old. Either join the nunnery, or go fuck your boss”. Oh, barf
Oh, gawd – it’s the romance sequence. And Jennifer is prancing around the freight yards in 3″ heels.
Oh, gawd! “let’s establis that you are so much different from all the other bitiches I’ve fucked. So let’s fuck – bitch.”
Our tickets are for tomorrow at noon. But until then I have Darth Vader’s Blog to read. You should read this entry if nothing else.
I can’t tell you the name of every minor character in the SW universe. I’ve always been satisfied knowing the backstory of Biggs and Luke. But in case you missed it, I am a fan. There’s a love for the story that I can’t begin to rationally explain. Whoever’s doing the Darth Side understands that.
Just sayin’…the man can SING.
Say what you want about American Idol…they found a real deal.
I’ve never bought anything Idol. I’ll buy this guy’s album.
It’s like Christmas. You know it’s coming. Can you feel it? Just three more days. Three more days until the very last Star Wars movie ever. Yeah…whatever.
Everywhere you look there’s Star Wars. The front caps of aisles in Target, Walmart, you’re local grocery store is full of Star Wars tie ins. Pepsi, Pez, GIANT Pez, M&Ms. Chewie’s selling ringtones and Yoda’s drinkng Pepsi. If you have a nine year old you also know that the tie-ins have invaded Cartoon Network. A Star Wars themed Kids Next Door, Star Wars Clone Wars in heavy rotation, Star Wars Legos cartoons. Which brings me to the toys. My son now has two light sabers…his choice with his money…and he wants one more…he wants the one that changes color for when Anikin becomes Darth. His Dad’s avoiding that one for now. Of course if you have Star Wars Legos Cartoons…ya gotta have Star Wars Legos.
You’d think with all the tie-ins that it would be enough. Everyone and their freaking brother will be going to see this movie. It’s what they call a genuine media event. Next Monday everyone will be hanging out by the water cooler talking about the light saber battles and the transformations.
And you can’t argue with the man’s sense of timing, I mean my GOD it opens on the last day of school here.
Well…almost everybody. There are those who think it won’t be cool to see Star Wars. It’s not part of who they are. They get they’re kicks either bashing liberals or bashing Bush. Politics is their gig. It’s serious stuff. Not like Science Fiction.
But wait! What’s this? George Lucas has put some topical political dialouge into the movie and he’s been talking about it at Cannes? From the right the cries of, Liberal Bastard! From the left a hearty, Right On! Oh you know when the political farts are let loose the theater will go crazy. And so…the politicos who were too serious to see the movie are now planning on going…maybe the second week…avoid all the scifi geeks. But now they’re going.
Mr Lucas…I salute you sir. Just a few more lines of dialouge and you’ve added what? A few hundred thousand? A million or two more bodies in the seats.
Political M&Ms…wow…that’s just good…or pure evil…hard to say…seems to be a grey area there doesn’t it?
I was shocked to see Robert Plant & The Strange Sensation have a new album out this week. Since I haven’t completely blown my music budget for the month I had to see where he was at.
Another Tribe: Nice drum attack at the beginning. Kasmir 2005? …Plant’s not letting loose here…softly phrasing…lilting…those Moroccon drums from Kasmir and the curtains of strings flowing over you. Very nice. An anti-war theme here.
Shine it All Around: Nicely layered vocals here. Kind of a Ragdoll beat happenin’. Again with the MidEastern curtains of strings…BIG hard drums in the back of this once, crunching and cracking like Bonham. Bassline struts through this one too…you can imagine Plant shaking his ass up to the audience here.
Freedom Fries: Yeah…it’s a shot at us…but it’s a nod at our music too, this is pure American Rock. Rockabilly, some more crunch here. The drums are synchopating some kind of weird off-beat here. Building to harder rock…Black Doggish.
Tin Pan Alley: Synth? Whoa…trippy. Kinda talky…trippy…not trip hop but…something building here…Plant’s doing that moan thing that only he can get away with and keep a straight face. WHAM! Audio Orgasm! Way to mix it up.
All the King’s Horses: English Pastoral Country…think Over the Hills and Far Away…but I’m liking this much more than I ever liked the Zepplin acoustic. The words are easy to listen to. Guitars are simple but BIG here, not overpowering Plant…supporting and even lifting his vocals.
The Enchanter: John Lee Hooker? meets…Peter Gabriel…meets The Honeydrippers…meets The Doors…and this is working for me. The end is pure…Zep…sorry…When the Levee Breaks? Is that the riff there? Woops not the end, more synth…where’s that going? A heartbeat? Whoa again…the last minute is some stuff the house mixers are going to have a freaking field day with.
Takamba: African rythms and strings into Zep crunch and grunge. Plant’s vocals just damn fine here.
Dancing in Heavan: Layered vocals and acoustic rythm guitar again going into trippy moaning, another layer of vocals in second verse…sweet electric lead guitar on the break there…there’s still a Morrocan thing happening here.
Somebody Knocking: African again but a different flavor..less curry. More grits…bluesy…funky acoustic lead riffing there…under that weird sitar thing…no, not the sitar…that weird instrument where it makes noise depending on how you mess with the field around it…can’t remember the name of it.
Let the Four Winds Blow: What should rockin’ blues sound like in 2005? Here ya go. Let’s take a walk…
Mighty Rearranger: Last song was a lead into this one…they really shouldn’t be played on their own. For those of you non Zep fans, this is one of Plant’s nicknames. And he’s wearing it proudly on this one. Jethro Tull meets Paul Butterfield meets ZZ Top? That was FINE.
Brother Ray: Barrelhouse blues, a short sweet nod to Ray Charles…well done.
Shine it all Around (The Girls Mix) (iTunes only? don’t see it listed on the playlist for the disk): House mix of the above and the producer’s spent too many nights in raves…and I mean that in the best possible way. I wanted to start trancing out and I haven’t been on a rave floor in 20+ years. (For you youngsters and anyone else who has a problem with that last sentence, rave and house music started in Chicago in the early 80s, I was there. There’s nothing to argue about. Let it go.)
The question is do you like Robert Plant when he’s not worried about being Robert Plant? Because this is Robert Plant. It’s big, it’s ballsy, it struts, it moans, it crawls, it growls and it soars. From what I can see this is his second endeavor with The Strange Sensation and good on him for adding them to the credits. They simply freaking rawk.
Looks like “Shine it All Around” is the first single and it’s already up to 23 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock List. I may have led with the title track but if that, Freedom Fries, Tin Pan Alley or The Enchanter is the followup with one of the others closing out the summer then I think rock radio is in for a wake up call.
One of the masters is back and he’s throwin’ down, daring, no…pleading for anyone to match him.
By the way…if you HATE Zepplin or Robert Plant and want to spew…don’t do it here…I’ll delete you…you’ve been warned.
UPDATE 050517: iTunes has added six live tracks under their “Sessions” header. Black Dog, Mighty Rearranger, Shine it all Around, The Enchanter, Tin Pan Valley, and When the Levee Breaks. Suwheeeeeet. I am SO dead if Beautiful Wife ever sees our iTunes bill for the past couple months.
says Darth Vader in “Revenge of the Sith.”
Obi Wan replies, “Only a Sith deals in absolutes,”
…sigh…am I supposed to hate this movie or just enjoy the fun and sneer at Lucas’s spiral into relativity?
smiling…I love it when the question answers itself.
….and very, very warped. This for Timmer and all you other Star Wars Fans. Don’t have your mouth full, when you click on the link.
It’s true, simply everyone who is anyone has a blog, these days.
(Courtesy of Rantburg and Vodkapundit)
My ennui concerning the recent suffle at CNBC couldn’t be greater, save for the loss of Dennis Miller. This from Mickey Kaus:
Evan Smith on Dennis Miller: “He could have been Bill Maher ….” Now that’s a low blow. I thought these days Bill Maher was the one kicking himself thinking he could have been Bill Maher. … P.S.: I was on the Miller’s guest panelĂ‚Â a half dozen times, which may or may not help explain its ratings. The show had a couple of distinct virtues, from my perspective. 1) He’d staffed the place with genuinely nice and non-sleazy people–at least everyone I had contact with. (Producers: Hire them immediately!) 2) Miller himself was friendly and didn’t pretend to know everything, which may be why he was unconvincing as an O’Reilly figure. Plus–and I think this is rare for comedians, or at least comedians mentioned in this paragraph–he wanted other people on the show to be funny. Nothing seemed to make him happier than someone else getting off a good line. … 12:27 P.M.
I’ve always found Miller to be quite Carsonian, both in his stand-up style – where he was second only to Johnny himself in saving a bad joke, and his interviewing – where he gives his guests a chance to shine. This is in contrast to Maher, who simply seems to need his guests to affirm his fleeting greatness.
Fun to play once I get it to work. It doesn’t want to run with Disk 1 like the instructions say so you have to start with Disk 2 and then switch to Disk 1 when it stalls and asks for Disk 1.
It also rewrites my keyboard map, turning the right half of my letter keys into a virtual number pad but not turning it back when the game is over. May not be able to play it well on my laptop.
Otherwise, ’tis the Pirates of old with better graphics and some interesting additions…like dancing with the Governor’s daughter.
Buggy for my laptop, I’ll let you know when I can get on our regular PC how it runs there.
UPDATE: After playing for about an hour works without a hiccup on the PC. If you spent way too many hours playing this easy to learn, hard to master classic, you’ll be spending some late nights in the future with it’s grandson…well, at least I will. Arrrrrrr…
FURTHER UPDATE: After 3 solid hours on the PC, played just like I remember the classic version only much more entertaining…it translates well…with the possible exception of the “Dancing with the Governor’s Daughter” part of the game. That’s just kind of weird…but dance with all of them, them’s that you don’t want to marry, give you valuable information anyway.
I am not at all sure I will go the new Star Wars movie; I gave a miss to the last one with no particular regret, since the one before that was such a drear, mechanical and glum experience, bloated with set-piece special effects, and only one remotely amusing moment. (When stranded on wherever it was with all the sand, one of the Jedi made a reference to the Queens’ terribly ornate and extensive wardrobe. Swear to god, people, that was the only time I came close to cracking a smile.) The build-up to it was so terrific, it seemed like every magazine except for a handful of foreign affairs, or animal husbandry publications were pounding away relentlessly with triple sledgehammers: “It’s Star Wars – The Beginning!” (Blam!) “See the beginning of the Empire!” (BLAM!) “Light-sabers! Jedi Knights! Special Effects Up The Whazoo!” (KAH-BLAMMO!!!) I was tired of it, even before seeing the picture – which I did eventually, after willfully and maliciously holding out for about three weekends. I stumbled away from the multiplex with a headache, and a numb behind, although it may have been the other way around. How very far George Lucas had come, how very different that move-going experience was from the very first Star Wars – as if it had really been a long time ago, and in another galaxy.
I was home from technical school at Ft. Benjamin Harrison, when the first Star Wars movie opened in the Los Angeles area. I was fresh from a week with the boyfriend whom I adored, with orders for my first duty station in hand. Japan! What adventure awaited! (Of course, the week with Ted had been pretty adventurous as well.) I had been in the Air Force for six months, and would be away for at least a year, maybe more. My absence had not been long enough for the family to close up ranks and fill in the space where I had been – it was pretty much like it was when I came back from a summer away, and one afternoon JP suggested that we go and see that cool new space movie. There had been a huge, quarter-page ad in the movie section of the LA Times, and an indulgently rapturous review.
“It sounds pretty cool,” said JP, “And different, anyway.”
The only theater it was showing it locally was the Cinerama Dome, down on Sunset Boulevard, which we thought was pretty cool. It had only been a few years since Mom had given up driving over to West Hollywood to the church we had attended for years, below Sunset on Doheny. We knew the way— down into the Valley, over the hills and along Laurel Canyon to Sunset Boulevard, where the Garden of Alla had been, and the Wisky-a-Go-Go and the revolving Myra Breckenridge figure, and the Chateau Marmont— so driving over that well-known route was pretty much a snap. We figured that we would catch an early evening show, and be home a little after midnight, a plan that pretty much dissolved when we actually got there, and discovered that the first evening show was sold out. And so was the mid-evening show – and the line at the box office was for tickets to the late evening show, an excited and enthusiastic crowd, mostly of people our age.
“It’s my only chance to see this,” I said, “Let’s find a phone, and let Mom and Dad know.”
The line for tickets went down Sunset Boulevard to the corner, around the corner, and up to the next corner, eventually meeting up with the line to get into the theater, which started at the door, went down Sunset in the opposite direction, to that corner, etc cetera. After consulting with a couple of mad Star Trek fans in line with us, JP and I made the rational decision that I should stay in line for tickets, and he would go wait in the line to get in. The Star Trek fans made a similar decision. Our lines crawled in opposite directions, all that evening. Did we eat dinner? I don’t think so, we were too excited to be hungry. Triumphantly, the ticket line advanced, around the corner, up to the box office; with a pair of tickets for the last showing of the night in hand, I set off down the sidewalk to where JP waited, still half a block from the door. By the time we get into the theater, we were as excited as we used to be, going to one of the grand old Art Deco picture palaces in Pasadena with Granny Jessie.
Inside the very modern Cinerama Dome, the atmosphere was electric with excitement and anticipation. The lights went dim, and the music came up, and the great letters of the opening titles swam through dark space. We were sucked in, from the very first opening scene, with the fleeing transport shooting back at the Imperial battle cruiser, which grew bigger, bigger, unimaginably huge, the sound of it rattling your heart in your chest. Ahh, that was an exhilarating, dazzling roller-coaster ride of a movie, with all the classical elements, dashes of wit and adventure, of battered technology and strange creatures, bursting with visual creativity, Robin Hood and Buck Rogers and all. JP and I stumbled out of the theater two hours later, feeling like it had only been twenty minutes or so.
“Wow. Just wow.” JP said earnestly. Just wow, indeed. I was off to Japan, in a week or so… where everyone wondered what it was all about, until the movie showed up on the AAFES circuit, six months later. I saw the second part, on a bootleg Beta tape at my daughters’ baby-sitters’ house in mid 1980, and the third part at the AAFES theater at Hellenikon AFB in 1984. It was terrific, each of those times… but nothing ever quite equaled that first time. Don’t tell me why, I already know.
Well, they had the next-to-last “Everybody Loves Raymond” episode tonight, and if this was any hint of next week’s 90-minute nuthouse, I’d better bandage my ribs ahead of time! Anyone who loves family comedy will mourn with me when Ray Romano kills my favorite rib-buster next week. Oh, he won’t kill anyone, they will just pack up the insane asylum and move to the Jersey Shore…..
Not that there’s anything wrong with the Jersey Shore, but have you been there? What with all the oil refineries and waste dumps….Oh, right, that’s north Jersey. Ah, well, guess I just like Lon-gisland, nothing personal.
But I’m gonna miss the whole bunch of nuts!
I’ve served drinks to at least three of the people on Arianna Huffington’s new webpage, and been completely *-faced with another.
Hey! She didn’t blogroll us!
Doesn’t she know who we are?
She does?
That’s the problem?
Oh…carry on…
So far we’ve watched the pilot and the Train Robbery.
All I can say is, Wow! I wasn’t much of a Buffy or Angel fan, what I watched I enjoyed but I never went out of my way to watch them, but this is just plain good stuff. None of the SciFi is new or ground breaking. I thought the wild west thing would bother me more, but it fits.
The characters are larger than life. They’re heroic. Practically Randian in some ways…Faustian in others. I’m interested in all of them.
Other random things I’ve noted/learned so far:
I’m afraid if I watch too much of this at once I might start calling cool or bitchin’ things “shiny.”
Government stooges threatening disturbed teenage girls should be shot and dumped out the back as soon as they become annoying enough.
Shiny is a way cooler word than cool or bitchin’ especially when uttered by Jewel Staite playing Kaylee Frye.
Morena Baccarin who plays Irana the professional companion (working girl with a LOT of class) is a beautiful woman.
Hitting someone with a closed fist can hurt, but it is, on occasion, hilarious.
A man learns all the details of a situation… Well, then he has a choice.
You can live on prepackaged food indefinitely with a sufficient supply of dried rosemary. (Anyone who’s lived on MREs can attest to this one or any of it’s variations.)
I expected trains would have changed more in 500 years, but when you think about it…besides the tracks and propulsion, what’s to improve?
When a doctor tells you you’d better sit down after giving you anything…probably a good idea to listen…unles you LIKE falling on your face well then…carry on.
Seriously evil bad guys still seem creepier with an Eastern European accent. Does that make me an ol’ fart cold warrior?
My heroes are still cowboys…I don’t know why…don’t much care.
I much prefer Mal Reynolds’, “Do it my way or I will kill you.” to Jean Luc Picard’s sitting around a table asking for “Suggestions?” When the shite has hit the fan, someone’s got to lead. Asking for suggestions isn’t leading, it’s whimping out on your responsibility.
Always have a plan B for when plan A goes bad.
Threatening the man who’s beat you senseless, tied your hands behind your back and has positioned you near a sub-light-speed turbine engine intake is a very-very bad choice…I don’t care how creepy your accent is.
Girls who know how to use tools and/or guns are sexy as hell. Can’t explain that one either.
but I’m actually starting to look forward to Star Wars Episode III, Revenge of the Sith. The trailers have had something to do with it…what’s being shown looks quite good.
Of course…it could just mean that all the hype has done what it’s supposed to do and I’m just as large a media whore as I fear I am.
I wonder which light saber battle will be better, Anikin and Obi Wan’s or Yoda vs the Pope…errrr…The Emporer?
Stolen from the queen of irrelevant media memes that somehow fascinate me. What were you listening to the year you graduated high school and (because I need to be a bit different) do you still listen to them?
1979 (*Still Listen)
The Clash *
The Cars *
The Tubes
The Ramones *
An EP of some synth band going by OMD that we saw at The Park West.
Blondie *
Eric Clapton *
Bruce Springsteen *
Roxy Music
The Kinks *
Patti Smith Group * (Her version of “Rock and Roll Star” still gives me chills and I grin when I hear “Frederick” because of a girl who used to sing in my ear, Tim-o-thy…long story…you’ll never hear it.)
The Who *
Meatloaf *
Joe Jackson *
Nick Lowe *
Dave Edmunds *
Rockpile
Elvis Costello *
Graham Parker
U.K. Squeeze * (Mostly for the guitar attack at the beginning of “Annie Get Your Gun”)
Warren Zevon *
Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers *
Utopia * (Just downloaded a bootleg live concert off iTunes from 1979…Rundgren kills me…always has.)
Bob Marley *
The Police *
The Band (Soundtrack to The Last Waltz) *
Okay…okay…Soundtrack to The Rocky Horror Show (Original London Cast…I know that doesn’t make it better.)
Here’s a Handy Little Reference Guide to Music. And I can’t believe how much time I’ve spent on this post…
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Mostly harmless. Highly improbable. Giggled my ass off.
Well, I think at least, here:
AARRRGGHH!! Somebody help! Mom, I followed your instructions, and have done all kinds of machinations fiddling with it, and here’s what I get! What, for Pete’s sake, am I doing wrong?
(Can’t tell… upload it again, and e-mail me exactly what it gives you for a code once it is successfully uploaded, and I’ll try editing it in—-
Sgt. Mom)
OK, I did get a few of them uploaded here so you can go look at them there, for now. And there’s a joke involved, if you can stand it!
Joe
…is just one of the taglines that will be ripped from Serenity. For all I know it could be from the TV Show. For the first time in at least a week or so, I bought something completely on impulse. I purchased the 4-Disk DVD set of Firefly off Amazon yesterday based almost solely on the Serenity Trailer and the ravings of several bloggers who are becoming increasingly more excited about the release of an apparent full out Western set in outer space.
At first I was a bit miffed at our own group here. How could you all not even mention this? Then I realized that Firefly was only on during the 2002 television season and for most of 2002 I was working 12-18 hour days and 6 day weeks. I was in survival mode. Eat, work, sleep, repeat. I don’t think I watched a whole lot of anything that year or the first part of 2003 and if I did, I probably wouldn’t have remembered it. And lets be honest here, most days I’m so self-absorbed I’m lucky to realize anyone else is on the planet.
Go watch the trailer, don’t have anything in your mouth. It’s action packed AND funny in the way that this crowd can fully appreciate:
“This is going to get pretty interesting.”
“Define interesting.”
“Oh God, oh God, we’re all going to die?”
This is happening. Word over at Idol Tounges is that there are Vote For The Worst (VFTW) parties on college campuses. Lots of partying college kids with speed dialers dedicated to scewing the results.
Yes fans, the democrats couldn’t get students organized behind their candidate, but students can apparently organize on a national basis to keep who they consider the worst singer on American Idol.
In some ways, I’m very optimistic about the future of this country…I can’t explain it…I just am.
That’s just funny…it’s wrong…but it’s funny.
Well, it is. I got so sunburned last Sunday – so did Nurse Jenny. Never thought about sunburn, it was so freezing cold. The temp was about 40, with a stiff wind and a wind chill of about 27, but the sun was really bright. We didn’t mind because we were watching the Navy’s terrific BLUE ANGELS! Last weekend was the annual Vidalia Onion Festival – we grow the best sweet onions in the world here – you can eat one raw without tears, they’re really good – and every year we have this festival with air shows on Saturday and Sunday.
The Blue Angels have been here several times, and they put on the greatest show! Go Navy!
But I’d like to see the Thunderbirds put on a show here, they have red, white, and blue smoke whereas the Blue Angels only use white. Of course, being an Air Force retiree, I have this loyalty to the Thunderbirds, I’ve seen their shows, and they used to park their birds on our ramp at PAFB when they came to Colorado Springs. They really put on a great show, but any air shows have to wait until my neck gets over the strain of watching the Angels last weekend! I was videotaping the show, and keeping up with the airplanes kept me moving! But we got some really great video, and Jen was taking stills, so I’ll post one or two of those when I get the film developed.
I just wish I could get over this awful sunburn!
Emily’s engaging in Last Waltz porn over on her site.
In case you don’t know…The Last Waltz is simply the best concert movie of all time…bar none…no…I don’t want to talk about it…if you believe differently, you’re just wrong.
Update: Emily asked if she could post my comment about a memory of a Rick Danko concert I attended in my youth on her main page. Hey, who am I to turn down a fellow Last Waltz fan?
What musician or group do you really like that you think goes completely against your character?
Mine? Pink.
