Adamantium Brains

2010-06-24T09:12:00.002-04:00

Phew, I've been seriously neglecting this blog. I'll get back on track one of these days, I swear.

plastic bags

2010-03-25T14:09:00.002-04:00

Thanks to Jay

Happy St. Pats

2010-03-17T08:54:00.000-04:00

The Besnard Lakes are the Roaring Night

2010-03-13T13:12:00.001-05:00

The new Besnard Lakes album is the best thing I've heard in ages. So good, you guys.

Johnny Cash - American VI: Ain't No Grave

2010-02-25T14:53:00.001-05:00

Great cover - the album is way better than American V but not quite up to par with American IV.

Kraven

2010-02-16T14:46:00.001-05:00

2010-01-05T10:20:00.000-05:00

This is what I miss about Wilco. Regardless, I'm wicked excited they're finally coming to Hartford.

2009-12-08T16:08:00.002-05:00

Stan Lee's twitter is literally insane. He updates hundreds of times daily, and it's usually the very strange rantings of an old man:

Heading to lunch. Our eatery gives you 3 eggs in omlets. I only want 2. Afraid to order omlet. No way of knowing if they sneak in a 3rd egg

My home work room is jammed. No space for a TV. So I keep a small TV in my closet. Joanie tells callers, "He's watching TV in his closet"

Why do I still read it?

pickup farming

2009-10-15T23:16:00.002-04:00

I really love these guys. Such great ideas. Can't wait for their new movie...

Thursdays

2009-09-18T08:01:00.000-04:00

Thursday nights are why I watch television. Always Sunny in Philadelphia was pretty decent, and The Office was funny, but cringe-inducing; but the show I think I laughed the hardest at was Parks & Recreation. Last year that show was pretty terrible and not that funny, but the one on last night was hilarious for some reason.

This new show with Joel McHale "Community" is awful. Downright painful to watch. I can't believe Chevy Chase is in it.

On an unrelated note, I love Google Calendar. If you don't use it, you really should.

haha

2009-09-15T18:07:00.002-04:00

Disney/Marvel merger

2009-09-01T08:14:00.001-04:00

Disney bought Marvel. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? I haven't really decided yet how I feel about this. While Disney has promised to take a strictly hands-off approach, and allow Marvel to do their own thing, I'm not sure that I completely believe that. I'm watching Joe Quesada's twitter account, and he's ridiculously happy. Probably that big chunk of change they just slipped into his pocket. $4 Billion, damn! He does say "Everybody take a deep breath, all your favorite comics remain unchanged and Tom Brevoort remains grouchy." which is kind of a relief.

Warren Ellis: "so I got this phone call from Joe Quesada and it was just the sound of him rubbing himself with money and now I am confused"

Either way that Marvel cuts it, I've kind of been out of the Marvel loop anyway. I went into Sarge's the other day and there was really nothing sparking my interest. Marvel seriously has billions of titles on the shelf these days and the only ones that I even glanced at were Nova and Deadpool. It's a sad day when they can reboot Excalibur and I'm not smiling. Oh well. Maybe one day I'll come back to you Marvel, but for right now I'm just kind of jaded. At least they're making good movies.

Also, BEHOLD, M.O.D.U.C.K.!

A seriously Archie update

2009-08-20T15:30:00.005-04:00

Archie chooses Veronica??? What the hell, dude, it's all about Betty. I'm hearing the rattling of divorce papers once the list of demands start flying in the Andrews household.

I <3 Achewood

2009-08-06T10:01:00.001-04:00

Vermont Breweries

2009-08-05T09:39:00.000-04:00

Recently I visited a few Vermont Breweries. On the list were Magic Hat, Otter Creek and Long Trail.

We were on the road by 6AM and hit up Burlington by 10:30. On the way we stopped at one of the coolest rest stops I've ever laid eyes on. It was at the intersection of 91 and 89. It was absolutely beautiful, built into the side of a mountain. Inside, there was complementary coffee and tea, and the bathrooms were spotless. They used recycled wastewater for the bathrooms, and they had a greenhouse treatment system on the premises, which used plants and bacteria to clean the wastewater. It also had a very large Vietnam memorial attached. It was a really incredible rest area. You can read a little bit about the rest stop here.

Anyway, when we got to Magic Hat, it was already sweltering out, and even though they had only opened their doors a scant 30 minutes before we got there, there were already some die-hards drinking. The building itself is an old factory, which has been converted. We got in and started sampling their beers. I had already had most of them, but there was a pleasant few surprises in there. The Single Chair Ale was delicious, as was their Belgian Chocolate Stout. What surprised me was the fact that the majority of the people stopping in would fill up growlers of the Circus Boy, which is really nothing special. The tour was pretty lackluster, but they had a lot of really cool things for sale, and I did pick up a really cool water bottle. I also walked away with a growler of the Single Chair Ale, which I thought was the best beer they had on tap.

The next stop was Otter Creek, but before we got there we made a quick pit stop on the Lincoln Peak Vineyard, which had some really great wines. Vermont really is a small family owned business oriented state, and it's kind of refreshing to see. Unfortunately, they don't seem to sell their wines in CT, so if I ever want to try them again I've got to head back up to Middlebury.

So anyway, we made it to Otter Creek, which was a very drab looking building completely surrounded by humongous fermenting tanks. Inside, there's one sampling room, which is very clean and well lit, which was the exact opposite of Magic Hat, which was dark and full of stuff. The brewery itself was really easy to see from the sampling floor. We had a full sampling of their beers, including all of the Wolaver's organic line. Some pretty amazing beers here, all of them were absolutely fantastic. It was getting later in the day, so we didn't stick around for the tour, but I snagged a fresh mixed 6 pack.

We then made tracks down to Long Trail, which is really in the middle of nowhere. The brewery itself is humongous, and is set right on the banks of a small river. The place is very large and you can go on a tour yourself, where you get to walk high above the brewery and see where all of the brewing, bottling, and capping takes place. The brewpub is fantastic, and serves great food. We ate out on the porch, and had a few beers. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, and eating great food and drinking great beer on the river was the perfect end. We were going to stop at Harpoon on our trek back to CT, but it just wasn't feasible time-wise. Either way, it was fun, and I had a pretty great time.

Jack Rose

2009-08-04T09:01:00.000-04:00

I saw Jack Rose on Sunday. Read my review on CT Indie.

The Cleveland Show

2009-07-15T18:56:00.000-04:00

Haven't seen this yet but I love the theme song. It just seems like Seth McFarlane is cranking out the same show over and over again though...

2009-07-10T14:07:00.000-04:00

How does this qualify as news??

CVG

2009-07-04T12:03:00.002-04:00

Short Update

2009-04-24T08:29:00.004-04:00

Ok, so it's been a while since I've posted anything real on here. I just got back from vacation this week, and it's been pretty hectic ever since. Anyway, I went camping for a little while and I think I finally have all the gear I need and everything just the way I want it. I think I'll be going out this weekend to spend some time on the trail.

Either way, if you're free tonight and happen to be reading this, we're playing a show in Wallingford. Click here for details.

2009-03-31T15:32:00.002-04:00

Vacation!

See you in a while!

Tea

2009-03-19T21:28:00.000-04:00

Not too long ago, I switched from coffee to tea. It was a good decision. I feel a lot healthier since I made the switch, and I don't get any of the problems I usually associate with coffee - late afternoon headaches, lots of trips to the bathroom, feeling really thirsty all day, etc. Plus, I think I've lost some weight just by cutting coffee out of my diet. Don't get me wrong, coffee is delicious, and I actually miss the taste quite a bit, but I found that I really like tea. There's a ton of flavors and varieties out there, but green tea is my favorite. I know I'm boring, you don't need to tell me that.

Anyway, there's a brand of tea out there called Yogi Tea. If you sign up on their website, they'll send you free tea once in a while. So now I actually get some free sampler teas in the mail every month or so. It totally rules. All their teas are strong in flavor and real delicious. I know it sounds weird to be talking about brands of tea, but it's some damn good stuff.

The Amazing Screw-On Head

2009-03-18T15:42:00.001-04:00

The Amazing Screw-On Head is an animated television pilot. It's based on the short comic of the same name, written by Mike Mignola (Hellboy), with the animated version being written by Bryan Fuller and directed by Chris Prynoski. I have to say, I really enjoyed this short cartoon, it was pretty witty and hilarious. The voice acting was great and the animation and story was very close to the original comic. It's not a typical kids cartoon show - it's pretty dark and carries some definite adult themes. Clocking in at roughly 20 minutes, it's a wonderful distraction.

The story is really odd, but it's pretty good. Basically, Screw-On Head is a secret agent that fights for Abraham Lincoln, that's also a robot. It's kind of like a Civil War-era James Bond prototype. The catch is that he's nothing more than a head on a screw, and he bolts into a series of robotic suits. His sidekick, Mr. Groin, aids him as he tracks down his nemesis Emperor Zombie and Patience, a vampire. Emperor Zombie also used to be Screw-On Head's sidekick. Emperor Zombie smokes a famous translator in a hookah to absorb his knowledge, and then tries to let loose an evil that's trapped in a turnip-looking jewel. Like I said, it's a crazy storyline.

The voice actor list is humongous: Paul Giamatti plays Screw-On Head, David Hyde-Pierce as Emperor Zombie, Molly Shannon, Patton Oswalt; the list goes on. The voice acting is fantastic. Giamatti does a great job, even though it's just voiceover work. He sounds patriotic and completely into his character. Hyde-Pierce is wonderful too, he's quite the wise-ass and really pulls the part off well. The music and sound effects were also slick. At times the music sounded like old time radio background, complete with creepy theremin and sparse glockenspiel.

The script is top-notch, and there's some really great jokes here and there. Emperor Zombie gets some hilarious jokes throughout the show. The visuals are wonderful - it matches the really dark inking of Mignola's comic. There's some really good stuff here, and although the animation is a bit jerky here and there, but overall, it's quite well done. They didn't have to try very hard to turn the comic into an animation - Prynoski and Fuller basically took the existing work and made it move; but it looks fantastic.

Overall, it's totally worth a watch at least once, and it's a very cheap and easy to come by DVD. The story is definately weird, but it's pretty entertainining. If you like wacky, off-beat humor than this one's for you. It's a shame the show never took off, it might have been really fun television.

iPhone apps

2009-03-16T10:03:00.003-04:00

Anyone know any good apps for the iPhone?

So far, I've found quite a few great apps, there's some really fun free apps, but there's a ton of really useful and practical programs too. Stanza is great, I can get any book I want to read on there. Urbanspoon has been awesome so far for finding places to eat. My favorite app so far is AroundMe, which finds things near your GPS location.

I'm still getting used to the iPhone keypad, but so far, I really like it. It's kind of hard to enter in a lot of text, so I'm doing this from my computer, but I think that Twitter would be great on this thing. I still don't see the point in Twitter though - who cares what I'm up to?

As an aside; by far the most disappointing app I got was Pocket God. It's the number 1 app on the iPhone right now, and it's touted as being a great strategy game... Honestly, it's just a diversion. You launch the program and you've got these little islanders on an island, and you can interact with them. That's about the extent of the game, there really isn't much there. Apparently they update it a lot, so it might be worthwhile to check on it from time to time, but I did everything you can do in a matter of a minute or two, and was instantly bored. Is it so hard to make a good game for the iPhone? I would for them to make Lumines into an app.

iPhone post

2009-03-15T20:21:00.002-04:00

Got an iPhone this weekend. I am giving it a test run on blogger to see how it works. I don't know if I'll ever get used to
typing on this screen... It just took me so long to write this.

American Splendor

2009-03-13T14:04:00.001-04:00

I'm going to do something a little different today and talk about one of my favorite films, American Splendor. If you're looking for another review of a big budget superhero action movie, I hate to disappoint you. This film can't be any further from the norm. It's a serious movie, that gives you a glimpse into the life of Harvey Pekar, and his comic series American Splendor. The movie is totally innovative in that it has actor Paul Giamatti playing Pekar, but occasionally the real Harvey Pekar and his wife will interrupt the actors, do interviews, voiceovers, and interact with the film. There's also a lot of interesting things that happen with comics being inter-spliced within the world we're shown. This film is brilliant and completely captivating. It's down-to-earth and realistic, an extensive character-driven drama; a bio-pic, a comedy, a drama; but it's so much more. It's really a film that seems to defy definition, and emotionally, it will leave you completely enamored with the life of Harvey Pekar.

Right from the beginning of the movie, you can tell that something's just not right with Harvey Pekar. All the kids are trick-or-treating in his neighborhood and dressed up as superheroes, and he is dressed in normal clothes. This seems to speak volumes about Pekar as a character - he doesn't fit in, and he's just not in tune with the rest of the world. Flash forward to his life later, and Pekar is a chronically depressed nervous wreck of a man, prone to bouts of anger and shouting, to the point where he has laryngitis. He's melancholy and down in the dumps, and it seems like he really needs some sort of change in his life. The change comes when he meets Robert Crumb, and he realizes that comics can be a completely valid way of expressing yourself. He writes up a few that express his anger and normal outlook on life, and after reading them, Crumb agrees to draw for him. The comics offer such a new outlook and focus on normal people, and are completely groundbreaking. His comic becomes a success, and eventually he receives a call from Joyce Brabner; and after a very awkward meetup, the two decide to get married. A lot of focus in the movie is on Harvey and Joyce's interaction, and their marriage troubles. There is also a lot of his appearances on Letterman; both actual and fictional become intertwined. There's a huge shift in the movie and Harvey's personality when he is diagnosed with Cancer, and they concentrate on how he deals with it.

The actors in this film are wonderful. Paul Giamatti is brilliant as Pekar. He's an amazing actor, and plays this part superbly. Every nuance, movement, eyebrow raise - it all captures Pekar perfectly, and his character is so wonderfully acted it's spectacular to watch. He'll even occasionally mimic the comic versions of Pekar. And Hope Davis is absolutely fantastic. She plays Joyce, and when they show the real Joyce, she looks exactly the same. The glasses, the black hair, even the voice and personality are captured exactly. Even the minor actors were amazing. Judah Friedlander had a minor role as the social misfit Toby. Until you actually see the real Toby, you have no idea that the character he's playing is so accurate, because he's just such an odd person - but once they show you some footage of the real Toby, you can tell that Friedlander has done a spot-on rendition. James Urbaniak as Robert Crumb was phenomenal. He was creepy, nerdy and downright odd; but it totally fit.

The film draws upon many sources, the most important being Pekar's biography. It also draws heavily on the American Splendor comics. The comics were some of the first independent comics to feature realistic views on life and society, and offer a glimpse into the head of a normal guy. It's a slice of comics that isn't focused on, because most people associate comics with fiction. I think that the director really captured the essence of the comics, as well as the mindset that Pekar was going through while writing all this. The territory is a bit depressing, especially the last part of the movie, where they focus on his cancer. Between this, his marriage problems, and his mistreatment at the hands of David Letterman seem to depress you to no end, but it shows you that not everyone's life is perfect and you just to to make do with what you've got.

Focusing on such an influential and groundbreaking artist, American Splendor as a film that itself breaks new ground. It's a very amazing film that manages to be smart, funny, and touching at the same time. Harvey Pekar begins as a man that no one likes, and the more you watch him, the more you feel for him. The film offers an almost voyeuristic look into someone else's life, and it's so true and real that you can't look away. It's probably not for everyone, it's a very serious drama, and can be very emotionally heavy. Pekar is also not very likeable, he's very rough and he never holds anything back; everything that he has gone through you see here. The movie has a whole twist of melancholy and despair to it, but it still clings to hope. Even so, this is a very profound movie that speaks volumes about the human element, and I can't recommend this film enough.

Akon calls T-Pain

2009-03-13T13:21:00.000-04:00

I know this is old but it's absolutely hilarious. Watch it here.

Nil

2009-03-12T22:46:00.000-04:00

You should really read Nil: A Land Beyond Belief. It's one of those comics so great that you can't put it down. Crisp artwork, great story, and all around great piece of work. It mostly concentrates on death, and the expressed interest people have in it. The main character is Nul, who lives in Nil - a dystopian post-apocalyptic country inhabited completely by nihilists. To actually believe in anything other than nothing is against the law. As you can tell, it's pretty ironic and satirical right off the bat. Nil is at war with Optima, which is populated with, you guessed it, optimists. Many abstract concepts and literary devices are transformed into literal, tangible objects.

Much like the film Brazil, or a Jasper Fforde novel, Nil urges you not to take it seriously. However, lots of laughs and some pretty deep realizations later, and you begin to realize the book isn't just straightforward jokes about people's beliefs, but there's a lot of other things going on under the surface there. James Turner (the author) criticizes everything from religion to restaurants, grinning all the while. And if you can't laugh at yourself, you can't laugh at all - there's many jokes that point right back at his own story. Everything is over-satirized, over-exaggerated and absolutely over the top, and Turner knows it. I think that's one of the things that keeps this book funny.

It's also very hard to talk about this book without discussing the artwork - it's not normal. It's very stylized: black and white, 2-dimensional characters, and over-complex backgrounds with propaganda strewn everywhere complement the writing very much. At a glance, everything looks the same, but look closer - each character is very finely detailed and is vastly different than the next. Each building, every street lamp, the countryside - it's all drawn in painstaking detail, - and little things like lit bombs scattered around, people jumping out of windows, and old-timey flying machines in the distance all beg you to scour each page searching for something new and fun to see.

If you see it in your local bookstore/comic shop, I strongly recommend picking it up. Even if you don't normally read comic books (or "graphic novels" to you snobs out there), Nil is worth taking a look at. It's a hell of a read with a great story and some really interesting ideas. If you're really interested in this or some other awesome comics, head over to Turner's website.

Big Man Japan

2009-03-11T17:56:00.000-04:00

Big Man Japan looks like it combines Sumo wrestling and Godzilla in ways that my brain would never even imagine. I seriously have to find this and watch it ASAP.

Sleeve Face

2009-03-10T22:37:00.000-04:00

Sleeve Face has some great photos. Check it.

Pedalboard

2009-03-10T21:44:00.001-04:00

Here's my pedalboard currently. It's coming along, but I still need to work on a few things. Right now it's a tangled mess. I'm probably going to swap out one of the fuzzes for another delay, and get the tremelo hooked up. I don't really use the Shoegazer as much as I'd like, so I'll probably pop that off and switch it out with something else. Oh and that wah is a piece of crap and needs to be duct-taped down. It would also be nice to throw a tuner in there and a nice power supply - the One-Spot only goes so far. Eh, there's only so much room. I'd really like to have two boards though, one for fun and one for shows...

Hardware

2009-03-10T13:20:00.002-04:00

As a film, Hardware is a complete oddity; it starts off as a post-apocalyptic character-driven movie, and then turns into a complete low-budget horror film halfway through. It wasn't that great, and I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that it has almost no plot - and focuses in almost totally on suspense; but really the film fails to scare or be suspenseful at all. Anyway, a little bit of background on this movie: it's based on a short 7-page comic in 2000 A.D. (of Judge Dredd fame) called SHOK! Walter's Robo-Tale. (Read it free, right here!) Apparently the director Richard Stanley was sued over this fact, because he never gave the writers credit initially, and never made mention of the comic - even through they plagiarized the plot heavily.

Hardware starts out great, but takes a horrible nose-dive after about a quarter of the way through. It sets up the scene nicely, it takes place in a post-apocalyptic desert world, and our main character is a junk hunter. The opening of the movie is actually very well done, you see a scavenger sifting through a bunch of discarded parts in a war-torn desert. We then see a junk shop where this scavenger comes in and sells a robotic head to Moses Baxter (played by Dylan McDermott) who brings it to his girlfriend Jill, a sculptor. She welds the head onto her junk sculpture, and they later find out that it's still alive - and out to kill.

The robot head is part of a line of robots called MARK 13 that the government assembled to control the population, and it tries to kill everyone it comes into contact with. The plot gets really horrible at this point, and the rest of the movie is just a predictable gore-fest slasher flick. As it turns out, the robot wasn't designed to function in water, and when Jill is attacked in the shower, she turns on the water and it completely fries it's circuits.

Like I said, the setting is good in this movie; it's totally believable and really captures the spirit of a post-apocalyptic future just as well as any other movie of it's kind. The camera work is actually really good, and a lot of the visual effects are well done for a movie like this. Other than that, this film really doesn't have much going for it - the direction is horribly flawed, the acting is mediocre, the creature effects are shoddy and look cheap; and there are a lot of biblical themes and metaphors that are very heavy-handed.

The actors are pretty decent, but not exceptional. Stacey Travis plays Jill, and all she does through the movie is scream; so it's hard to get a read on how good an actress she is - although she's not very convincing as a frightened person. Dylan McDermott plays Moses Baxter, and he does a mediocre job, although after the first half of the movie he's barely in the film. I can't really say that any of the acting stood out, but there wasn't anyone doing a completely horrible job, either. There's also quite a few odd cameos here and there, with Iggy Pop doing the radio announcements as Angry Bob, Lemmy from Motorhead playing a taxi cab driver, and Carl McCoy from Fields of the Nephilim playing the drifter in the beginning of the movie.

The robot MARK 13 looks really fake and really low-budget; I realize that they didn't have much money, but if the monster looks that bad, you don't need to show it. I do have to give the director credit, they only showed glimpses of the monster until the very end, which kind of keeps you guessing what it looks like. Unfortunately, when they do show the monster, it just looked really stupid - it had two long syringes that came down from where it's mouth should be, so it looked like a robotic walrus with a really long neck.

The film is really lackluster, if the story was better and if it was trying to be less of a horror movie, I think it might have worked. As is, the film isn't scary at all, and it's not suspenseful, which is how a horror movie is actually supposed to be. This is a total slasher flick, and would rather show us a bunch of gore rather than try to scare the viewers. I don't recommend this movie, it's just another mindless b-movie horror film.

I am the night.

2009-03-09T22:21:00.001-04:00

Watchmen watched

2009-03-09T11:45:00.002-04:00

I saw Watchmen on Friday and I'm not ashamed to admit I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was intensely gripping, visually immaculate, and it was much, much better than I ever expected. Honestly, I was expecting to be let down, and I was pleasantly surprised. Zach Snyder didn't exactly have the best track record - 300 lacks any true substance, so I wasn't expecting anything good.

Please be aware there are some major spoilers in this review, so if you haven't read the book or seen the movie, you might not want to continue reading this. And if you haven't read the book yet, I don't know who the hell you think you are. Go out and buy it now, or just ask and you can borrow my copy. Anyway, onto the review.

It begins with an amazing title sequence, showing slightly moving still frames which are enough to sort of fill you in on the history that the story is wrapped up in. The golden age superheroes look fantastic, and it was a really beautiful scene. From there the movie thrusts you into the plot; and you're swept up into that dirty, gritty alternate 1985; a nightmare of Nixon and cold war. The beginning of the movie seems to play up the noir aspects of Rorschach's hunt for the mask-killer, something that continues over the Comedian's funeral. Somewhere along the lines the movie changes gears though, and we're left with a fast-paced action movie that's a little bit smarter than other movies in the genre. By the time the ending rolls around, you've amped up and ready for another fight scene.

There are some good points and some bad points to the movie. The best parts of the movie were definitely the look: everything looked fantastic visually, and it was a joy to see the panels from the book actually moving and breathing. The film didn't pull any punches with the story either, it remained true to form and it seemed to work really well. Jackie Earl Haley, the guy who played Rorschach, was fantastic, and the movie's strongest points are the scenes where he's in them. It was really uncompromising as well, it remained true to the story despite the opportunities to deviate and become a generic blockbuster action movie.

The acting is just ok, the beginning of the movie starts with some really bland acting, but by the end of the movie, it's not noticeable anymore. Malin Ackerman is absolutely atrocious as Silk Spectre, and Carla Gugino as her mother is equally as dreadful. Dr. Manhattan's voice is not nearly as booming as I pictured it, but after a while, I got used to it; it fit his mentally detached persona. One of the things that I really didn't like about it, the movie is super-violent and there are scenes of excessive and brutal murder. The book did have some equally violent images, but these take them to an extreme they never needed to go. I kind of figured that this would be the case going in, because Zach Snyder's other movies are all full of brutal killing as well. Still, it seemed out of place in certain situations, and at times it destroyed the feeling that these were just normal, vulnerable people wearing costumes. There was also the old trick of slowing down the camera during any fight scene. It was used way too much, and after the first couple of times it just got really boring.

On it's own, Watchmen is a very thoughtful film. I spent a lot of time discussing it with a few folks on Saturday who had never read the book, and it seemed to make sense to everyone. I was worried that things might have moved too fast or the dialog was too far removed from the norm for people to handle, but overall response was pretty good from them. They changed the ending to make it a less fantastical and to make the story fit into a film a bit better, but that didn't upset me at all. The ending worked and it worked well.

As the initial shock and beauty of the film begin to wear off, I'm finding myself liking it less and less the more I think about it. When comparing it to the graphic novel, it's begins to look less and less powerful. Sure, it's a seamless representation of Dave Gibbon's visuals from the book, but it just seems to fall down a bit on the details in the narrative. There were some things that I didn't like about the way the book was translated to film, and I've got to get them off my chest. The pacing is really off for this movie, it starts at a slow crawl and gradually picks up speed until things are moving so quickly there's no room for the details. One of the things I liked best about the book was the way it seemed to pause; to move slowly and give those elegant pregnant pauses whenever something poignant took place. Sadly, in the movie, the silence that adds so much beauty and elegance to the book is missing here. For instance, in the book, there is a scene where Dr. Manhattan is on Mars, and flashing back in his life. It's a very thoughtful, pensive scene where you witness what he sees, and what he is about to see. He is everywhere at once, and everything is happening to him concurrently; there is no way to flash back, because he's experiencing his entire life in that one instant. This is something that probably wouldn't translate well to film, but I thought at the very least the slow-falling picture would work. It didn't.

Alan Moore originally said: "It was designed to show off the things that comics could do that cinema and literature couldn't." And he's right. There's a lot of things that really just didn't come across correct in the movie, and there were many details left out. Moore's parallel storytelling is completely absent here, and all of the mystery seems to be gone. Also, there was way too much foreshadowing. In the comic, it comes as a huge shock to who Rorschach's secret identity is. In the film, it's much more noticeable, because the camera spends so long showing him. There's also the fact that Veidt's character is clearly evil from the beginning. In the book he really wasn't evil, and he gave off good vibes right up to the end. In the movie, he's portrayed as a really evil bastard, and there's no element of surprise at the end.

Some of the casting is good, but the actors playing Veidt, Dreiberg and Juspeczyk were all way too young for the roles. It's just a minor thing, but before I saw the film, I was obsessively checking for news updates and reading up on the hype. When the initial casting was named, I couldn't really agree with it. The actors all looked too young, and didn't really fit with what I thought they should look like. But still, they somehow managed to make it work. After the initial disgust wore off, I didn't really notice anymore. Rorschach was a great actor and fit the role perfectly, and so did the Comedian, so I guess it was a trade off. I also thought that Dr. Manhattan was played pretty well.

Ok, enough fanboy ranting. All in all, it was a decent movie; and there were a lot of things I really enjoyed about it. I'm going to see it again this week, maybe I'll feel a bit differently about it upon a second viewing - who knows...

Taco Town!

2009-03-08T11:01:00.000-04:00

Someone did the incredible and actually made the Taco Town taco. Holy crap.

Sand Mandala

2009-03-06T10:15:00.004-05:00

I went to the Uconn Health Center yesterday to see a sand mandala being created by some Tibetan monks. There's a full article about it on the UCHC website. Apparently they make the art for a few days, and then destroy it at the end. Today's the day that they're going to destroy the art, and hand out the sand as a heath charm. Hopefully I can make it over there before 5:00... The mandala is supposed to signify the Medicine Buddha, and be a blessing for health. When they complete the mandala, they then ceremoniously destroy it and place it in a river so that it disperses the sand.

Anyway, I couldn't stay long, but the artwork was amazing. I took some pictures and put them on my Picasa album. I'm kind of shocked at the detail they can get with sand. They were really precise with each grain, it was really interesting to watch.

Watchmen Premier

2009-03-05T12:43:00.002-05:00

The Watchmen movie premier is tonight. I might not get to the midnight showing, but I'm definitely going to see it this weekend. Call me what you want, but Watchmen is still my favorite comic book of all time, and the closer it gets till Friday the more excited I'm getting about this movie. I'm not sure if I should believe the hype, but even Roger Ebert gave it four stars in his review yesterday. I usually agree with what Ebert has to say, and he usually judges movies within their genre class, so he's rating it for what it is: a superhero movie. I'm sure I'll nitpick and bitch about little things here and there, like I usually do, but this time I'm really hoping for something great. Making a movie out of the Watchmen is a really tough task, and I'm not sure that the director Zach Snyder is up to it. It's the movie everyone's been waiting for since the 80s, so hopefully it will live up to over 20 years of anticipation from fans. Well, the proof is in the pudding as they say, and I'm going to reserve all judgments until I actually witness this spectacle.

On a side note, I just wanted to throw in some notes about the comic. I'm sure I'm probably the last person that needs to talk about Watchmen, because everyone under the sun has analyzed the crap out of this book, but here it is anyway. The first time I read it, I was absolutely blown away. It was amazing in every way, the story was genius and as far as comics go, this was it. The absolute pinnacle of comics, nothing gets better. I'm not even sure that it classifies as a comic anymore, it's just a brilliant piece of literature that belongs on the shelf with Dickens, Melville and all the other dusty old books. That feeling really didn't change at all the second time I read it, and it still hasn't subsided to this day. I've read a ton of Alan Moore; and Watchmen is head, shoulders, and blue fucking torso above all of the others. I've only read it twice, and there were tons of minor details I noticed on a second read. I think I'm ready to read it again, but it will have to wait until after the movie.

Also, this site has some cool comparisons.

Great Photoshops

2009-03-04T11:26:00.000-05:00

Not sure where they came from:

Dinosaur State Park

2009-03-01T22:05:00.002-05:00

On Saturday I went to Dinosaur State Park in Rocky Hill. When I was younger, I was crazy about dinosaurs. I knew everything about there was to know about them, and I'm sure I bugged my parents constantly about them. So anyway, at the park, there's a geodesic dome that houses one of the largest collections of dinosaur tracks in North America. Also inside the dome are some dioramas of dinosaurs, and I seem to remember them being cheap-looking even when I was a kid. Either way, I decided just to hike the trails instead of going inside the museum. Since I live so close, I can go visit whenever I feel like it, and I didn't really feel like paying the $10 entrance fee. Also, there were tons of little kids running around, and it seems like it would be kind of weird for a guy like me to be hanging out in a place like that.

Despite being a short set of trails, it was a pretty refreshing hike. The trails are really well-maintained; almost to the point of being too well kept. There is a really nice swamp the trails run through, and some very nice boardwalks that run throughout. The interesting thing is the trails loop around constantly and are very short, so you're always seeing the same things over again. When I was younger I know I thought it was awesome, and I remember going in the middle of summer so there was tons of vegetation, but going in mid-winter is depressing; you can see all the other trails as you walk. Another thing that I found odd was that there were benches everywhere - I guess people with kids get tired a lot and need places to sit.

I'd kind of like to go back, but there's tons of trails in Connecticut that I haven't seen, so I might as well go somewhere else next time. It was worth seeing, so I can compare and contrast to what I thought it was as a kid, but it's not really anyplace that I'd like to revisit anytime soon. Also, next time I'm going to check out the museum and see if the foam dinos are as lame is I remember. It would probably be worth revisiting in summer or early fall, when the trails are more grown... More pictures in my Picasa album.

Daniel Johnston & me

2009-03-01T07:09:00.000-05:00

I've always heard rumors about Daniel Johnston, and had some vague recollections of the name. I first really found out about Johnston and what he's all about thanks to the film The Devil and Daniel Johnston. The documentary focused on his life and music, and it was pretty damn interesting. It opened my eyes to a strange guy that writes some really interesting music. I know he was famous for a very small period of time, and got some small recognition thanks to Kurt Cobain wearing his "Jeremiah the Innocent" painting on a t-shirt. But honestly, I knew almost nothing about him before seeing the documentary. Since then, I've gotten a few of his albums on vinyl, and listening to them is a very interesting experience. Anyway, the reason I've been thinking about him a lot lately is because I saw this in downtown Austin when I went to visit, and just had to get my picture taken with it:

There was a period in his life when he was on MTV, and I find it really strange that he was actually so popular. Did people actually like the music, or were they just making fun of him? Similar to Toby Radloff's "genuine nerd" appearances on MTV, I'm not sure what to think about it. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy peering into the eyes of madness; and I love catching a glimpse at what Harry Smith calls "Old, Weird America." It's just that I find it strange that the whole counter-culture movement and the indie community is embracing it.

That being said, there's still a lot of buzz surrounding Johnston, but I'm really not sure how I feel about him. Is he really a genius? Or is it all myth? After listening to his music, it's very hard to tell. I think that one of the things that calls people to Johnston is the fact that lyrically, he's brilliant. His lyrics are very real and heart-felt, and there's something so raw and emotional about it that just speaks to you. On the other hand, it's really hard to get past the lack of any sort of structure or musical ability. When I listen to the songs, I'm kind of dumbstruck by the thin line that Johnston walks, and constantly crosses between genius and manic depressive. In a way, I think that's one of the things that draws me to him.

Plymptoons

2009-02-27T18:15:00.001-05:00

There's some really wild stuff over at Plymptoons' website. I saw one of this guy's shorts at Real Art Ways, and thought it was pretty funny, so I decided to check out some of his other work. There's some awesome and weird animations you can watch on the site, but they all seem to be small teasers. How have I never heard about this guy before? Also, why are his DVD sets so damn expensive...

Stand up

2009-02-26T08:20:00.000-05:00

So I went to a comedy club last night - Joker's Wild in New Haven. I went to see a guy I knew from high school, and he was damn funny. Since it was open mic night, most of the other comedians were awful. Why does every guy who does stand up think that dirty jokes are the funniest thing ever? Why did I have to hear some guy standing up there talking about how he loves getting his salad tossed? I've heard tons of dirty jokes before, and all of them were a hell of a lot better than what was done last night. It seems like everyone goes for the shock value, but it's just not shocking anymore. Anyway, after tons and tons of comedians (seriously there were probably 30 there) and only a few that stood out, I was really drained. Also, what's the deal with 2 drink minimums?

Moth

2009-02-24T19:55:00.000-05:00

What kind of moth is this? It's fantastic! I really like this picture. I didn't take it, I found it online somewhere, but it's great.

Smooth Music

2009-02-23T17:38:00.001-05:00

If you haven't seen Yacht Rock yet, then shame on you. It's gotta be one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time. It's long since canceled, but I still hold out hope that we'll hear more tales of smooth music. At least all 11 episodes are avaliable on Youtube. Or if you prefer, you can stream them all with Quicktime and even download them right on Channel 101's website. Channel 101 has some great programming, so you should definitely find you way there sometime soon.

New car!

2009-02-22T16:52:00.001-05:00

I bought a new car. I got the Mazda 3 - the deal was way too good to pass up! Also, I've been itching to get a new car for ages. I decided to get the Mazda 3 "Touring Edition," which is a step above the entry-level 3. The only big difference is the power windows and doors, fog lights, leather shifter and steering wheel, and 17-inch wheels. It handles really well, and I'm really happy with it!

When you motor away

2009-02-21T15:59:00.002-05:00

Guided By Voices - Motor Away

When you motor away beyond the once-red lips
When you free yourself from the chance of a lifetime
You can be anyone they told you to
You can belittle every little voice that told you so
And then the time will come when you add up the numbers
And then the time will come when you motor away
Oh, why dont you just drive away?

When you motor away down the icy streets
You cant lie to yourself that its the chance of a lifetime
You can be anyone they told you to
You can belittle every little voice that told you so
And the time will come when you add up the numbers
And then the time will come when you motor away
Oh, why dont you just drive away?

Surprise Show at The Elevens

2009-02-20T16:18:00.003-05:00

The Inclined Plane is playing a surprise show tomorrow at The Elevens. Come stop by and see us!

More deets available on Myspace.

Gay City State Park

2009-02-19T21:44:00.006-05:00

These were taken at Gay City State Park, in Hebron, CT. It's an interesting hike, there's a lot of abandoned foundations and ruins of an extinct milling town. It's very well maintained, and was a really great hike. It seems like the trails were well-travelled, because the trail was very icy. It was hard to walk on without slipping; I fell once and decided to avoid the trail.

I know you're thinking that it has a funny name, but there's actually a lot of history here. According to the CT DEP website:
Gay City was first settled in 1796 by a religious sect led by Elijah Andrus and later by Rev. Henry P. Sumner. The Gays soon comprised the majority of the 25 or more families who then lived in the community. The residents kept strictly to themselves, existing as distinctly separate from the neighboring communities. They built a sawmill along the Black Ledge River and erected homes from the lumber.

During the Civil War, the town basically fell apart, and after the mill burned down, it was abandoned. There's a few foundations in the woods, and a few gravestones when you first walk in. Other than a few stones, you would never know that the town ever existed. The woods have reclaimed everything...

Anyway, I've decided to use Google's Picasa instead of Flickr. I created a nice gallery on the fly. It's a little bit easier to use, and a little more convenient because I'm using Blogger. I've uploaded quite a few photos on there, so check it out when you get a chance. Lots of pics from this hike and a few other favorites. I'm getting all my pictures up and online slowly - I'm sill getting used to this blogging thing...

Picturess

2009-02-19T21:03:00.004-05:00

I thought this photo was pretty killer. This is me last time we were playing music.

On the Road Again

2009-02-17T18:30:00.001-05:00

I'm currently in Massachusetts this week, so updates might be few and far between, it depends on my mood. I'm getting trained in SQL - fun!

Academia

2009-02-15T13:50:00.000-05:00

Batman Censored

2009-02-13T18:08:00.001-05:00

Abe Lincoln's Birthday

2009-02-12T23:07:00.000-05:00

Today is the 200th anniversary of Lincoln's birthday. What a great president. Reading over the Gettysburg Address, it's just as powerful now as it was then. Still incredibly relevant:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

81st Oscar Nominated Short Films (Animated)

2009-02-12T17:55:00.000-05:00

Real Art Ways was screening the Oscar-nominated animated short films last night, in addition to some other "commended" short films. They were all really great, here's the list of Oscar nominees:

Lavatory/Love Story - Russia, dir. Konstantin Bronzit
Oktapodi - France, dir. Julien Bocabeille
Le Maison en Petits Cubes - Japan, dir. Kunio Kato
This Way Up - UK, dirs. Adam Foulkes and Alan Smith
Presto - USA, dir. Doug Sweetland

The first film was Lavatory/Love Story - a Russian minimalistic animation about a woman that works as a cleaner in a men's bathroom. She receives flowers from a secret admirer, and tries to figure out who he is. The movie is sweet and humorous, and has some really nice moments. The animation is also very well done. However, I don't think there was quite enough substance there, and it was kind of predictable.

The second short was Oktapodi, which was a short comedy with octopi running around in the streets of a city. It was funny, and the CGI was well done. It was a wild chase through the streets, really just fast-paced fun.

Le Maison en Petits Cubes was the strongest entry here. While the other animated shorts were all comedies, this took a much more serious approach. The animation was beautiful, hand drawn and just a little grainy. The narrative was really well done: it takes place in a world where the water levels are rising, and an old man realizes that his house has flooded and he needs to build a layer up, brick by painstaking brick. You see houses everywhere, sprawling, stacked buildings of cube ontop of cube. After losing his pipe, he sets out on a journey to recover it, and awakens old memories the deeper into the abyss he goes. You should seek out this film, it's really amazing. It's a wonderful little film on life, aging, and to a lesser extent, the ever-changing climate. This will no doubt win the Oscar, and rightly so.

This Way Up was a hilarious comedy about two undertakers trying to get a coffin to it's destination on time. It was the funniest of the shorts. There's a scene where they're in Hell that's absolutely great. It was a bit on the dark side, and it might not be good to take the kids to, but it was really funny.

The last of the nominated shorts was Presto - a Pixar short which debuted before Wall-E. It was really inspired by the old Looney Tunes cartoons, substance and music-wise. Really funny with a pretty zany sense of humor - this one's got a lot of great physical comedy. I thought it was well done.

In addition to the Oscar-nominated shorts, they also screened a bunch of shorts that came out this year. Some were good, some weren't so good, I'll talk about them when I get some time.

81st Oscar Nominated Short Films (Live Action)

2009-02-11T18:15:00.000-05:00

Last night I made the trek to Real Art Ways to see the Academy Award nominated live action short films. Tonight the animated ones are playing at 7PM. I just thought I'd share a little bit about each film and what I thought.

The live action short films nominated are:
Auf Der Strecke (On the Line) - Switzerland, dir. Reto Caffi
New Boy - Ireland, dir. Steph Green
Spielzeugland (Toyland) - Germany, dir. Jochen Freydank
Grisen (The Pig) - Denmark, dirs. Tivi Magnusson and Dorte Høgh
Manon sur le Bitume (Manon on the Asphalt) - France, dirs. Elizabeth Marre and Olivier Pont

The first film shown was On the Line. It was an interesting story about a man who watches the mall security cameras for shoplifters. He's secretly in love with a girl that works at a bookstore in the mall. On the way home one night he's witness to a terrible accident, and has trouble telling what he saw. It's interesting and intelligent, and is a nice meditation on violence, guilt, and social interaction. It was well done, and from what I've read it's a student film - it really doesn't feel like a typical student film, in fact, it feels like it's actually got a budget and really capable screenwriters. As good as it was, it didn't have the charm that the other movies exhibit. It's definitely worth checking out, though.

New Boy was a lot more lighthearted - but still retains a really strong message about human values and growing up. It's got some great laughs and it's the shortest of the 5. I was left wanting more - but as it stands, it was my second favorite of the shorts that aired. It's about a new kid in an Irish school, and there are a lot of flashbacks to the boy's life in an African school in his father's classroom. While the flashback scenes are very touching, the real substance comes from the interaction of this new boy with his classmates - it's all really well done.

The true Oscar-bait movie here was Toyland. It's set in 1942 about a child who thinks that his Jewish friend is going off to a place called Toyland - and tries to follow him there. It was very touching, and the last shot is really moving, but I couldn't shake the feeling that it was trying too hard to win the award.

The Pig was fantastic, and by far my favorite entry. It's about a man who is admitted to a hospital and his only consolation is a painting of a pig on the wall. I was shocked to see Henning Moritzen playing a comedic role, because I only really know him from The Celebration. And what a role it was, a grumpy old man who gets really upset about his little pig disappearing. What ensues it a very interesting commentary on free speech versus political correctness. This is a great little film that not only made me smile, but still left me feeling that I just witnessed something poignant.

The last film of the night was Manon on the Asphalt. It was about a girl that gets hit by a car, and all of the things that flash through her head right after. It's kind of a gentle piece about love and all the little things you take for granted in every day life. I thought it was interesting, but it failed to move me in any real way. Visually, it was probably the strongest out of all of the movie and the cinematography was beautiful; but it still lacked in substance when it came to the plot. This was by far the least interesting of all of the shorts.

My pick for the Oscar is The Pig. It's amazingly simple, but says a lot about society without losing a sense of humor or becoming too preachy. However, I don't think it's going to win, just because Toyland seems to tug just hard enough on the heartstrings for the Academy to be in love with it.

Tomorrow: short animated films!

Big Bear - Doin Thangs

2009-02-10T20:32:00.002-05:00

I really didn't expect this album to be good, I just heard it because the cover is so ridiculous. Honestly, it's fucking great. Big Bear's real smooth and has some great flow. I really expected it to have a song where some guy's shouting about DOIN THANGS over and over but since it came out in 98 I don't think that kind of shit was popular yet. It's a little long, but not long enough to be boring. Either way, it's worth checking out.

PortableApps

2009-02-09T10:32:00.007-05:00

Thanks to a co-worker, I've discovered PortableApps. It basically means I can set up a USB key with all my information on it, and run all my programs from that key. This is a great thing if I'm ever stuck somewhere without my computer, or remotely. Plus, it's able to load all my favorite open source programs! I highly recommend trying it out - I'm pretty happy with it so far.

The nice thing about this is because of where I work, I am constantly going onsite and trying to repair people's computers, and I usually want some quick tools and apps for troubleshooting. This has a small virus scanner, zip/rar program, and it's own firefox and thunderbird, so I don't need to leave any traces that I was even on a customer's computer anymore. I'll be testing it out, so I'll keep you up to date on how it works.

Bacon Explosion

2009-02-09T08:53:00.001-05:00

I'd really love to make the Bacon Explosion, but I doubt I'd live through eating the whole thing. Seriously, though, it looks delicious. Maybe I'll try cooking it this weekend.

Butler Field

2009-02-08T18:16:00.004-05:00

I went for a hike today at Butler Field, which is a little sports field and park near my house. I took some photos around the area. It's a really nice walk to take to kill a few minutes, and there's some really nice scenery around. There's two baseball fields right as you come in.

There's also a bunch of pines around the field that you can walk through, lots of really nice trails here and there. Unfortunately, the trails aren't very long, and appear to be pretty well known - they were pretty beat down, even with the snow and ice.

I also decided to open a Flickr gallery which will host my photography. I put a lot of my favorites on there, but there seems to be an upload limit per month... Anyone want to buy me a subscription to Flickr Pro?

Breakfast Tacos

2009-02-08T14:02:00.003-05:00

I made breakfast tacos. I had never actually eaten a breakfast taco before my last trip to Austin. They're delicious. I made mine with bacon, potatoes, eggs, onions, cheese, cilantro and salsa. First I made the mashed potatoes, and then fried some bacon. Then, I cooked up the onions in the bacon grease, and then cooked up the scrambled eggs. Finally, I threw some of the potatoes into the frying pan, and my tacos were ready to assemble. By the way, that salsa is from Tears of Joy hot sauce shop in Ausin, TX. While I was there I got a bunch of things they make in house, and that's a really awesome salsa. What a great breakfast! I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Ben X

2009-02-07T21:53:00.002-05:00

Last night, I attended the MCC International Film Series' screening of the Belgian movie Ben X, directed by Nic Balthazar. It was a really interesting film about a high school student with Asperger Syndrome, a mild form of autism. The title character Ben has a lot of trouble interacting socially due to his disorder, but is able to truly feel natural in a video game. The story is interesting, and you really begin to feel for this guy, trapped from the rest of the world by his disorder, and unable to cope with it. Ben is bullied and beaten up by the kids at school, and his only real escape is playing the game with a girl named Scarlite.

It was a good movie in general, and there were a lot of things that I liked - the camerawork and the lighting were all very well done. The movie was edited with cuts of the game and real life, and it actually worked pretty well; I've seen a lot of movies try to pull this off and fail miserably. The story was interesting and the actors were really captivating, especially Greg Timmermans as Ben. I just felt that the third and final movement of this film is a bit lacking. The director gets a little heavy-handed and spells out a lot of things that didn't need to be brought to attention. It's almost as if he felt that people wouldn't understand the story if things weren't explained by the characters. I think that it cheapened the movie, and is kind of insulting as a viewer. There is also a happy ending that seems really forced, that I really don't think was appropriate, it didn't really jive with the tone of the rest of the movie.

Sometimes you can tell when someone's grasping for something, and they just can't reach. This movie seems to pass just beyond the tips of Balthazar's fingers. It's so close to being a powerful, uplifting film, but at the last second it slips just out of reach. What we're left with as viewers is the forced happy ending. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed the movie, and there were a lot of things that really worked well, I just think that the film could have had a much more powerful message than it ultimately achieved, had the ending been changed slightly. I was left a bit disappointed by the end, it was like shoving a square peg into a round hole. However, up until the ending, it was captivating and interesting.

Reno Balloon Race

2009-02-06T10:57:00.000-05:00

I really like time lapse photography, and this is a bizarre, cool subject. The way the balloons float and twist amazes me.

Horatio Lee Jenkins - Drunker Than Satan

2009-02-05T21:06:00.000-05:00

What's better than a country song about a duel with the devil? A drinking song about a drinking contest with the devil.

Check it out here.

It definitely helps if you're drunk by the time the chorus rolls around.

King Corn

2009-02-04T11:21:00.003-05:00

Watching King Corn has scared me a little bit. I love documentaries, and this one was pretty well done; but what they show is unsettling. The documentary itself gives us a clear view into how corn and corn-based sweetener is created in America. It begins with two normal guys getting a hair test done, and find that the majority of their nutritional intake is corn. Eager to find out why that is, they decided to track corn from the time it's grown to the time it's ingested. And the results are kind of disturbing.

The documentary makers Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis show everything as is, there's really no slanted filming here - everything is straightforward and honest facts. The guys go to Iowa and plant an acre of corn, farm it, and calculate where it goes from there. It's a completely undramatized display of the corn industry. There's no one-sided interviews and everyone they show and talk to is completely honest and open. They don't try to make people out to be idiots or evil like some documentaries; they just turn on the camera and let it roll. They aren't preaching about the evils of the corn industry, they let you take away from it what you want to. There are definitely some beautiful shots of the Iowa cornfields and some great time-lapse camerawork of the corn growing. A lot of it seemed really well done for two guys operating on a no-budget film.

It seems that corn rules everything in this country. Corn sweeteners like high fructose corn syrup, corn oil, and corn-based malodextrin is in almost every product you buy off the shelf. And, the majority of corn grown in Iowa and the rest of the Midwest is produced for corn syrup. The kicker is that corn syrup is an awful product that is giving everyone diabetes - it's full of empty calories and sugars. It's in snack food, sodas, and even normal staple foods like breads. The corn that's not used for corn syrup is then used for animal feed. They focused a little bit on the feed farms as well - beef farms that forcefeed cattle corn, which turns out will actually kill the cows after a certain amount of time; and slaughter them as soon as they start to bulk up. This didn't really bother me much until they talked about the hard facts: feeding a cow like this changes the fat content of the beef, and adds 8 times the fat content to the meat.

Another thing that's discussed a lot is government farming subsidies, and how the farmers themselves make no money off the actual corn, but off the government. It seems like there's a lot more emphasis on the food being cheap, and a lot less on it being good for us. It's also sad to see a 7th generation Iowa farmer selling the farm to the giant corn conglomerate - something that's happening with a lot more frequency these days.

I really had no idea how the corn industry worked before, now I'm actually kind of interested in where my food actually comes from. It made me think more about my intake, and watch out for excess corn syrup (it really is in everything.) And I'm not really a beef eater anyway, I would much rather eat chicken or fish, but this just solidified that in my mind. I'm sure it won't change my behavior 100% but it's definitely got me thinking about it. Anyway, it's a really good documentary, it's totally worth your time.

"I Am Pants" preview

2009-02-03T19:18:00.001-05:00

For those of you who don't know, I play in a band called The Inclined Plane. We're based out of Hartford. Check us out sometime.

I just want to let you know you can listen to and download some samples from our new full length album called "I am Pants" here. You can also download all of our EPs for free on last.fm just by going to the albums page.

The image here is drawn by the wonderfully talented John N. Tieman. He's done three covers for us in the past.

The album should be out in April, with lots of shows coming up to celibate so hold onto ya butts! As soon as the snow thaws we'll be having a CD release party...

Rock Baseball Cards

2009-02-03T11:41:00.005-05:00

Glyph Jockey put together a bunch of old-timey baseball cards with rock stars on them. Check it here.

This one is my favorite:

Steelers Win

2009-02-02T21:12:00.007-05:00

So the Steelers won, and it was by such a small margin. 27 - 23. The 100 yard interception was amazing, and the last catch by the Steelers was great. I can't believe there was a safety, though. Ben Roethlisberger was incredible, the man is unsackable. It came down to the wire, and I was pretty worried about The Cardinals having a lead for most of the 4th quarter, but in the end Pittsburgh pulled it off. Santonio Holmes got MVP; and he really deserved it. He had a great catch, and it won the game for them.

The halftime show was ok, Springsteen played Tenth Avenue Freeze Out, Born to Run, Workin on a Dream, and Glory Days. He slid into the camera at one point and wailed his junk on the lens. The first three songs were decent, but the end of Glory Days was awful. He had this thing where he was shouting about it being "Boss time" with Steve Van Zandt. Also, Clarence Clemons was wearing some ridiculous getup. Max Weinberg and the Max Weinberg 7 were there, and Paul Schaffer played keys. Not his best performance, but then again when is the music guest ever good at the Super Bowl?

All in all, it was a pretty decent game - but I think the real winner here was the hilarious Doritoes commercial. There were some other really great commercials, but this one takes the cake:

Elvis Costello Jazzmaster

2009-02-02T13:56:00.009-05:00

Ladies and gentlemen, the Elvis Costello Jazzmaster. A true work of beauty. Thanks Fender, for making me want to plunk down a ton of loot on this. $1,600 is a lot to pay for a guitar. It's beautiful, but it's really not that different than the regular Classic Player Jazzmaster you can get for half the price. If only they offered more colors on their standard Jazzmasters, I'd pick one up - but I don't think I'll be getting one anytime soon. The Jazzmaster is totally amazing. I'd love to get one in shell pink, but this walnut color is much more attractive. Maybe I'll just settle for a sunburst? Again, I realize I have a crippling guitar addiction, and it's probably not a good idea to be drooling over these...

Either way, I really love the dark wood grain here, and I think more guitars should come in a nice wood grain.

WhirlyBall

2009-02-01T14:50:00.005-05:00

I played WhirlyBall on Friday night. It's probably the coolest game that a cool dude can play. Take basketball and lacrosse, and mix them together. Then add bumper-cars. Yeah, so awesome. It looks something like this:

And apparently Les Savy Fav is into Whirlyball too.

Super Bowl Sunday

2009-01-31T15:03:00.013-05:00

Tomorrow is the Super Bowl, and this year, Bruce Springsteen is playing the halftime show. He just came out with a new album Working on a Dream that I've heard a few tracks from, it's pretty damn good. Anyway, according to the NFL's website, Springsteen has released a set of sample playlists that he might play during the show. I bet he'll just play whatever the hell he want's to, and not stick with any of these playlists, because he's The Boss and he can do whatever he wants. But, even so, I would love to hear him play Rosalita and Born to Run. I just really hope he doesn't play Glory Days but I'm almost positive it'll happen, because it's about sports. I'm just pissed that Jungleland didn't make it to any of these lists. Now that would be a killer halftime show.

Either way, I'm going to stuff my face and watch the game, it should be great. The Steelers are gonna destroy the Cardinals. I'm gonna stuff my face full of all kinds of chips, dips, pizza and beer - because really, that's what the Super Bowl is all about. It's not who wins or loses, but who can eat the most unhealthy food. Ok, so it might actually be about The Steelers winning.

Lankhmar

2009-01-30T18:44:00.004-05:00

The Lankhmar books are absolutely fantastic. They were written in a 50 year span starting in 1939, by Hugo award winner Fritz Leiber. If you've never heard of the series, it's an ongoing saga about two characters called Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser. Dark Horse just started re-releasing them, and while they were once rare and out of print, they're really easy and cheap to get right now.

Anyway, the main characters are the real focus of the series - two incongruous individuals that become friends very quickly. The story takes place in the world of Newhon, and a city called Lankhmar. The city itself actually plays a huge part in the stories, and is essentially as much of a main character as Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser. Fafhrd is a huge barbarian, a red-haired northerner from the cold wastes in the north. He relies on brawn to get the job done. The Mouser is a small man from unknown descent that prefers cunning and speed.

The writing tends to lean on the humorous side, but more often it's dark humor and subtle humor that takes some time to get. There's also a lot of symbolism and allegory written into the stories, which is really interesting. The stories are sometimes stereotypical, involving heroes and quests and the slaying of evil, but the characters are not typical fantasy heroes, they tend to blur the lines of good or evil, and don't really have the morals or motivation as the generic hero. They're more apt to steal from someone in need before every giving them help.

I'm about halfway through the series, and so far it's been absolutely great. If you're looking for something good to read that's really entertaining but still manages to keep a sense of humor about itself, this is it. Sure it's fantasy, and there's swords and sorcerers and all the typical stereoptypes that come with that kind of writing, but this isn't your average fantasy novel.

There's also been a couple of comic book version of the stories over the years - I think the Chaykin and Mignola version is the best. For those of you whore aren't into comics, Howard Chaykin's been writing amazing stuff since the 70s, and Mike Mignola's the guy behind Hellboy.

Mycodiesel

2009-01-30T09:23:00.001-05:00

According to Treehugger, there's a newly-discovered fungus that naturally produces a substance very very close to diesel. This means that a completely sustainable bio-fuel might not be as far off as we thought originally. Pretty big news! Does this mean that they'll be a lot more diesel cars on the road in the future? Not sure, but I've been seeing BMW advertising diesel a lot more on television...

Danelectro '67 Reissue

2009-01-29T14:44:00.006-05:00

Danelectro has just released some new guitars for 2009. I'm really excited about these, they look badass. A little like a Fender Jag, but there's some Airline there too. I mean, just look at that retro pickguard.

I've got a Dano Pro already, and it plays great, and looks retro and slick - Dano really did a great job with the reissue, so these will probably sound amazing as well. There's something about that single lipstick pickup that just sounds so nice. At $399 the price isn't TOO terrible, but it's way more than I paid for the Dano Pro. They also reissued the Longhorn, which is ugly as hell, but I guess some bassist would be into it somewhere.

If I do end up getting this baby, I'll probably end up getting the baritone. My friend has one, and it sounds really cool, but I've never spent much time playing one. They've got a lot of range, and it would probably sound really great on my Peavy Delta Blues amp, since it can kick a lot more bass notes with the 15" speaker...

Either way, we'll see what my budget looks like in a month or two when this is actually released, but I'm really thinking I'm gonna pick it up. But who knows, I probably already have one too many guitars.

My Guitars

2009-01-28T11:32:00.008-05:00

Here are some pictures of my guitars. Click them for larger pictures.

From right to left, it starts with a Gibson Les Paul Jr. Nashville Deluxe doublecut. This was a rare custom jobbie; they only made a limited run of 400. One P90 pickup, this thing screams. Next up, the Hamer Flametop. This was my first guitar, I bought it used. The thing sustains for days and it sounds beautiful. I never get to play her as much as I'd like, as my other guitars sound a little nicer. The last is my newest guitar, a Fender Telecaster with a B-Bender installed. I bought it used and it's beat to shit; It's an early 90s Fender. It sounds amazing - the neck pickup is so clean and country sounding, it's wonderful.

Here's the acoustics... They're all Alvarez, and it's a 12-string, an acoustic-electric bass, and a regular old AD-60S six string. They're all fantastic. If I'm just sitting around, I'm almost always fiddling with these. What can I say, I've got a problem sitting still. I haven't used the acoustic bass in a while though, I should probably break that out sometimes soon.

Finally, the weird. The Danelectro is a reissue of the Dano Pro. It sounds great when you're fingerpicking. The pickups really capture everything nicely... but there's a slight ground problem. It seems to buzz all the time, so I've been trying to fix the problem. The banjo is my roomate's - I don't think I need to talk much more about that. It's not the nicest banjo but it gets the job done. Although, every time I pick up a Goodtime banjo I really really think about buying it. Anyway, the last guitar is the DiPinto Galaxie 4. This is a true thing of beauty. It's the nicest guitar I've ever played, and it does everything well. I almost always play this guitar at shows, and I can't think of any guitar that sounds nicer, or is capable of more tone than this creamdream.

Not pictured - Squire '51 Telecaster. The Squier, well that's sort of a science project - I'm thinking about swapping pickups and it's now got a Tiesco neck on it and that seemed to give it a lot more jangly quality - it's at a friend's now though so I haven't played on it in a while.

On Blogging

2009-01-26T13:16:00.006-05:00

So I've tried to blog before, and it didn't really work out like I had hoped - I never got the chance to post as frequently as I wanted, and could never think of a subject to write about. This time I think things will be different, but I'm not really sure why I have that feeling. Perhaps it's just optimism rearing it's ugly head. I'm not sure what spurned this decision, but I just have an undeniable urge to write things and polish my writing skills. This time I'll just be a little less worried about posting.