If not, you missed out on some very fine performances.

Also, the added entertainment of walking in the opposite direction of the Keith Urban / Taylor Swift fans before and after the show. Denim skirts for days!

UP is, I think, Pixar’s second most emotionally touching film, with Toy Story 2 standing strong as the winner in that category. In fact, I think I’m going to go watch Toy Story 2 right now, and leave you with the thoughts of the child behind us in the theater day as the credits for UP began to roll:

That was a really good movie! Can I have one more Skittle?

Check it out in 3D if you get the chance. It’s a very nice looking movie.

NP :: Ghostland Observatory - “Club Soda”

The part of The Temptations’ “Papa Was A Rolling Stone” just before he starts singing “It was the third of September…”

Awesome. It’s just as cool as the theme to Shaft, but way less played-out (no disrespect to Sir Isaac).

I’ll get back to posting here someday, I promise.

The fact that it started with CRANK 2: HIGH VOLTAGE at midnight (and 2 free passes!)
The beautiful weather
The Carolina Chocolate Drops’ kickass set at Criminal (banjo!)
I was NOT destroyed by the collision by the Star Bar ATM, but this was a close one
The free Record Store Day cake at Criminal
I finally beat the Level 15 Vs. Battle on Tetris Party
I snagged the next-to-last copy of the exclusive Waits 7″ on behalf of a friend
Free Vortex gift certificate for taking a ride around the parking lot in a Scion!
Free TV On The Radio tickets! (!!! Thanks, Criminal !!!)
$1 each for a 16 Horsepower DVD, the fancy 2disc version of Walk The Line, and a 3-pack of blaxploitation films of questionable quality
The also-very-good Manchester Orchestra and Judi Chicago in-store performances, which made for a great, sweaty finale for Record Store Day ‘09

So, yeah, a good one all around. Let’s keep this up, Weekends.

I thought I should call it out, since I caught the movie on Monday, and it definitely threw me a couple of curves. Please don’t go into this expecting 40-YEAR-OLD MALL COP or KNOCKED UP AT THE MALL or something. Especially not SETH ROGART: MALL COP.

Not a happy film. It is a funny one, though. If you have a tolerance for violence and general f’d-up-edness, I say check it out. There are far worse ways to spend your money.

I laughed a lot, and cringed about three times. Let me know what YOU think.

Oh, adding to the experience of having just seen a flick about the unbalanced side of retail security, it gave me GREAT confidence to hear the Target employee in front of me on the escalator after the show telling a friend she was “glad [the other person] was there,” because she “would have cut her up!”

Awesome. Sleep tight, America.

NP :: Explosions In The Sky - “The Only Moment We Were Alone”

Steven pointed this out to me this afternoon, and I thought it deserved the minor visibility a post here would provide. No real news flash, but the gist of it is this: Georgia Republicans don’t give a rat’s ass about public transit, and will use it as a bargaining chip to get their way.

On Wednesday, April 1st, two days before the end of the General Assembly’s 2009 session, the Fulton and DeKalb County delegations called a special meeting for the sole purpose of discussing MARTA. At that meeting, the Republican leadership approached the two counties with what they said was a deal. According to the Republican leader, they needed 20 votes to pass S.R. 1, an unpopular bill related to property valuation freezes.

We were told that we must support S.R. 1 in order to give the Republicans the votes they needed. In return, the MARTA bill would pass. If S.R 1 did not pass, we were told that the MARTA bill would die in committee and not be brought up for consideration before the end of sine die. The Republican leader said that he lives closer to Disney World than any MARTA train station, and that he only occasionally rides MARTA to ball games.

Nice going, jerky. No, we don’t all live near a MARTA station. No, we don’t all use it every day. If you don’t see the point of having such a system at all, though, you don’t deserve to sit in a position of power.

Here’s the full story at the Loaf.

Jerks.

Booker T. Jones (he of Booker T. & The MGs), aka one of the best organists in the world, aka a big part of hundreds of hit records that came out of Memphis in the ’60s and ’70s, aka the man who brought us “Green Onions,” performed tonight with The Drive-By Truckers as his backing band. That’s the configuration on his forthcoming album, you see, and this was the first night of the tour.

If you have any interest in rock and/or roll, Internet, and this tour comes near where you sleep at night, I suggest you buy a ticket NOW.

We got about an hour and fifteen of Booker T. as the bandleader. They played some of his old favorites, some stuff from his new album, one Truckers song (”Space City”), and “Hey Ya!” The tone of these seven musicians together was so, so good. I’ll be picking up the album, and hoping to find a recording of the show somewhere along the way.

After a break, the Truckers came out and gave us at least an hour and a half of rocking, Mussel Shoals style. For the grand finale, Booker returned for a few more Truckers songs + him on organ. There was also a wee, mysterious guest vocalista on “Angels & Fuselage” that Will thinks was Kelly Hogan. She fled the stage before the song was even over, and never got introduced, so I’ll go with that theory.

So, yeah, I’m glad I went.

Tomorrow night: ADVENTURELAND!