In Which Your Author Patronizes The Arts

Published July 12th, 2008 in Social and Music. 0 Comments

Whew, I am all rocked out. Last night I wandered down to the Star Bar for the Van Heineken / Nine Inch Neils / LUST show after killin’ some time with REX MUNDI and the Wii for a while. Got there just in time to catch LUST’s first song.

Let me tell you, when there’s a hot dog on keytar, a bottle of mustard on the drums, and two girls who are dressed as Hot Dog On A Stick refugees, a band catches your attention. They are not the most proficient band in the universe, admittedly, but it was a fun set. I just did some investigating and found out that the cute guitarist is married to the drummer from MASTADON. Nice job, dude. Way to have a hot wife and be in Dave Grohl’s favorite band.

I’d seen Hot August Nights before, but they lost their lead singer to The Great Beyond a couple of years ago. With the addition of a new “Neil,” and a new drummer, they became NINE INCH NEILS, and it’s still a really great show. This guy’s hair is just unbeatable. Check it out:

Van Heineken closed out the night, and they gave us no quarter just because they were going on at one in the morning. Full-on DLR-era goodness for 1:20, and they never slowed down. If you enjoy Van Halen and you have a chance, you should realllly check these guys out. Spot-on Dave mannerisms, great guitar work, and DANCING GIRLS. They didn’t even have all those things when =VH= toured recently! I kid. But seriously, would it have killed them to have brought out some chicks for “Hot For Teacher”? Come on Dave… give us a break.

So, anyway, I’m tired. Who wants to go see Hellboy II?

NP :: The Exit - “The Sun Will Rise In Queens”

Boof

Published June 27th, 2008 in Movies. 1 Comment

“Well, that’s because his best movie ever was… Teen Werewolf. Especially the basketball scene. THAT was the greatest!”

-The Guy Who Sits Behind Me At Work, on the subject of Michael J. Fox

WhatThePedia?

Published June 26th, 2008 in Social and I Love The Internet. 0 Comments

A friend of mine from Jr. High has his own Wikipedia page!

Stewart Patridge, you sure did go on to play on an awesomely named string of football teams! They sound like names from Dodgeball– and that’s not a bad thing. Heh.

Say hey if you find your way here, Stewart. You were a nice guy.

Gamma Bomb

Published June 15th, 2008 in Movies. 1 Comment

Well, I saw The Incredible Hulk, and enjoyed it pretty well. It’s more fun than Lee’s Hulk. Some very good supporting characters this time around.

Hold up. I just want to interrupt this post to announce that there is an INCREDIBLE HULK / IRON MAN double feature available this week at the Starlight Drive-In here in Atlanta, GA. How awesome is that? It’s like something I would have dreamed up when I was ten. 2011’s gonna be even cooler– Captain America, and then The Avengers. Please let all this work out right and result in more cool movies!

NP :: Gang Starr - “Discipline”

The Adventures Of The Masked Bandit

Published May 28th, 2008 in Movies. 0 Comments

I took in The Fall tonight, thanks to a free pass from CHUD. Tarsem directed this thing. You may remember him from the six months or so in the ’90s where he was all over MTV because of the “Losing My Religion” video that he made. THEN, someone decided he should make a movie. Well, that didn’t turn out too well. Ebert loved it, though. Of course, it featured Jennifer Lopez’ hindquarters, so that was a given– the dude likes big butts, and he cannot lie. I saw The Cell with Mina in Houston back in 2000, and I don’t think I was too impressed by it. It was definitely a rich visual experience, but otherwise… eh. (I swear there was something he did back then that I REALLY liked, but I can’t place it right now– probably just a cool commercial, as he’s done a truckload of them)

The Fall, though! This is better! It’s worth your time and effort. Again, it’s a treat for the eyes. This time, though, it’s not so oppressive and somber and faux-religious. There’s warmth, and humor, and characters you are interested in. Amazing. Must be the fact that they involved the guy who wrote Freejack and Chasers. If he can coax believable dialogue out of Mick Jagger AND Erika Eleniak, truly, his pen is golden.

Speaking of golden, there’s a young girl as the main character in The Fall, and if you don’t think she’s great, you have a heart of stone. Way to go, little girl. You were endearing, and totally not annoying. May you live long and prosper. Lee Pace from “Pushing Daisies” is the other lead, and I thought he did a very nice job, as well.

It’s been kicking around festivals and such for two years now, but this one should finally hit US theaters soon. Check it out if you like pretty visuals, and a parallel narrative that is something like The Princess Bride, or Big Fish. Thumbs up from me.

Watch out with the title trending, though, Tarsem– if this keeps up, you’re almost mandated to follow this up with a film called The Hill.

NP :: Sigur Ros - “Hafssol” (live @ The Tabernacle, ‘03)

Nevada, 1957

Published May 23rd, 2008 in Movies. 4 Comments

I enjoyed Indiana Jones. I know a few of my friends have been much more critical of the film, but I had a good time, and no immediate major gripes.

Okay, maybe one gripe. Soundstages. Some large chunks of the film felt too… uh, soundstagey? It doesn’t necessarily make it less enjoyable, and heck, it might have even been Lucas’ inner nerd coming out in an effort to emulate the old serials that he won’t ever shut up about. Whatever the case, that did linger in my mind for about half the flick.

On the other hand– JANITOR!

Will I purchase it, to sit alongside my nifty brown boxed set of the previous Indy films? Well, talk to me when it hits the $10 mark.

Roll The Dice, Pay The Price

Published May 19th, 2008 in Movies, Games and Music. 0 Comments

It was a crime-filled weekend for me. Fortunately none of it was the kind that required a police report… I kept it on the page or on the screen.

After barely making it down to the Supersuckers in-store on time after work on Friday, I hobbled myself home, and surrendered to a viewing of my new RONIN DVD. It’s not exactly a fun movie, but there are still scenes that are just as bad.ass. as I remembered from that first viewing in College Station, TX, and I’m pleased with my $5 purchase. If I were ever to decide upon a second career as a gun for hire, I would watch this movie at least two more times, possibly even taking notes during the second viewing.

I started my Saturday with The Blues Brothers, because Joliet Jake and Elwood are always an inspiration for great things. There are a few extra bits worth seeing in the extended cut; I think the scene where Elwood quits his job at the spray paint (?) factory was my favorite. Did YOU know where he worked?

Before the day could get awesome, I took to the porch to blast through the first of five volumes of 100 Bullets that I’d finish over the weekend. I got about halfway through Strychnine Lives last night, trying to get myself to finally SLEEP, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Kurt came down from the hill country to meet me for the SoCo Music Thing down at Centennial. One quick Soulja Girl-free MARTA ride (with a pit-stop at the Flying Biscuit) later, we were there just in time for the Supersuckers to rock our socks. We stuck around to see how the Ghostland Observatory set went, and ended up enjoying the EFF out of it. Please see these gents if they roll through your town. Outdoors would be ideal. Dusk would be perfect.

Sunday meant relaxation, and The Transporter, and more Bullets, and finally cracking open NO MORE HEROES for the Wii. Hot damn, this game is insane. I kind of love it. Words can’t really do it justice, but we’ll go with “over the top”, and “gloriously violent” and “really, really Japanese.”

Noir Night ended with me finally watching that second version of Payback that they released last year. Definitely meaner and dirtier. Can’t say yet which one I prefer. Let me get back to you on that. What’s it to you, anyway?

NP :: Ghostland Observatory - “Sad, Sad City”

Zero Rock

Published May 15th, 2008 in Media. 0 Comments

My Intertron connection was down at the house last night. It’s doubly frustrating because the router works– my computer connects to it just fine– but there’s NO SWEET INTERNETS on the other end. So, the problem is with the modem, which resides in the apartment of Upstairs Chick #1. Grr.

All this means that I could not catch up on “The Office” and “30 Rock” like I had hoped to after I got home from seeing Vantage Point (which was about what you’d expect).

SO, I have to ignore the NBC finales tonight, and catch up on both of them later. Blurgh!

At least I’m ready, willing, and able for them to bring on the “LOST” tonight. YES.

Awesome, Awesome, SUCK, SUCK, SUCK!

Published May 12th, 2008 in Games and Music. 0 Comments

Browsing the video game news, I saw a bit of info on Guitar Hero IV. Looks like they’re definitely incorporating vocals and drums. Fine. There’s a create-a-song mode. Sure, whatever.

Then I got to the last two bullet points:

- All songs will be master tracks
- 4 band confirmed - Van Halen, The Eagles, Linkin Park and Sublime

Me: “Whoa, all master tracks! OF VAN HALEN SONGS FOR ME TO PLAY! YES! And… The Eagles… annnnd my two least favorite modern rock bands of ever. Great.”

Way to bring me down from a rokken buzz, Go Nintendo.

Where My Doo-Rag At?

Published May 11th, 2008 in video and I Love The Internet. 0 Comments

I know, this is practically OLD SNOOZE by now, but here’s the product of my Saturday morning:

And, if you haven’t seen the source video yet: Here You Go.

UPDATE: Arrested!

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The Grayscale?

This is a sporadic blog by Gray Whitten. Used to call it The Grayscale when it lived elsewhere, but now I'm going with the domain name and just saying YARG! (dot org). Feel free to sign up via RSS or LJ, or just, you know, visit on a regular basis. Thanks!

 

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