You will probably not gain any insight, fulfillment, or sense of well being by reading this blog. I will try and keep this light with some occasional heartfelt sentiment. My spelling and grammar is poor, deal with it. Last but not least this blog will be a lot more enjoyable for everyone if you speak YOUR opinion on it.
When Katy Perry first made it big I didn't really see anything special in her. I thought she was average looking, her music made me sick, and I was hoping the fad would die. It has not, and I have to admit, she is growing on me. Her music still blows, but that doesnt mean I can exploit her pictures on my blog. Deal With It Katy!
Greatest use ever of that annoying technology known as Twitter. This 29 year-old guy lives with his 73 year-old father, and basically tweets all of the crazy shit the old bastard says. Gold, kids, gold!
A few choice selections:
"Sometimes life leaves a hundred dollar bill on your dresser, and you don't realize until later that it's because it fucked you."
"You don't know shit, and you're not shit. Don't take that the wrong way, that was meant to cheer you up."
(watching the Little League World Series) "These kids are all fat. I remember when you were in little league.... You were fat."
Look, I know the season was over, over a month ago. But what, are you my fucking mom. Geez get off my back. ANYWAY, Craig Cashon was on again this morning and will I will say my eyebrows were a raisin' in curiosity. Craig went on to say that basically Gamel doesnt do the extra work to get himself into the line up. Gamel has been asked repeadetley to work on his defense but he doesnt want to, so he doesnt play. Macha has had a serious problem with Gamel since he took the wheel. I dont know if that is just Macha treating rookies as rookies and giving the upper hand to vets, or if he really doesnt like the surf board toten, "Bro" sentence finishing, 3rd baseman. Gamel hasnt really been who we "thought he was" since his call-up last year. Gamel is good and has a lot of potential but he hasnt really grabbed the lime light and fucked it in the face. Cashon says, Gamel is messed up in the head and needs to figure it out before next season. Cashon says the Brewers want Gamel to play winter ball and Gamel is none to thrilled. He also goes on to say that Gamel isnt "un-touchable" anymore. That we should expect Gamel in a trade to acquire some front line pitching. Cashon thinks Doug didnt trade him this season because he knew there would be better pitcher deals in the off season and wanted to see how Gamel performed the rest of the way through. I have to think the reason Gamel isnt playing is because McGehee has earned to play the rest of the way through. McGehee has shot (long shot) at the rookie of the year and not playing because the brewers want to see Gamel, shouldnt be the reason he doesnt get it. I think Macha is showing McGehee some respect for all his efforts this year, I guess I am trying to say, McGehee mother fucking earned his playing time, Gamel on the other hand hasnt bro. I am not really sure how I feel about Gamel being traded. I guess he is a valuable option and if they can keep proven veteran players and still get some good pitching than it makes sense. I feel like Gamel isnt big time ready just yet and could use more time in the minors to get his shit together and make a real impact. I think he is close but he doesnt feel as ready as Escobar does.
So, I have this old friend from high school who is a huge music junkie, and he sends me so much new stuff that I can't even keep track of it, but he has introduced me to a lot of the music that I listen to. Back in the Summer of 2007, Jeff and I went to the Download Festival at the Pavilion at Northerly Island in Chicago. (If you haven't seen a show there, it's kind of cool. Medium-sized outdoor pavilion, right on Chicago's lakeshore at the museum campus, overlooking the marina.)
That day, we were able to see a number of bands, several of which I continue to follow. That lineup included The Shins, Band of Horses, Minus the Bear, Brand New, Wolf Parade, several other bands we had zero interest in, and then - of course - Snoop Dogg. (Snoop was the shit, but don't ask me why he was on that bill.) Drinking in the sun all day and having Snoop close it down after dark was reason enough to go. Jeff, as he always does a couple of weeks before dragging me to see bands I don't know, sent me a data CD containing MP3s of every song ever released by each of the bands - excluding Snoop. After sifting through some of that, I got interested in Wolf Parade. We tried to time it right to miss some of the bands we weren't as interested in, but we arrived mid-afternoon, smack-dab in the middle of Wolf Parade's set. Whammy! Anyway, I got to see enough to know that I dug it.
Wolf Parade is another bunch of fuckin' Canadiens, like Arcade Fire from last week. In fact, these bands know one another pretty well from the Montreal music scene. Anyway, Wolf Parade is a band whose core was literally thrown together in a couple of weeks in 2003 to fill an available slot on a tour. After adding another member or two to get to their current lineup, we find that they have two "lead singers" (Dan Boeckner and Spencer Krug) with very different voices and styles, who also happen to be good songwriters with very different ideas. Their 2005 debut full-length album, Apologies to the Queen Mary, exhibited these two distinct "voices" - literally and figuratively - and it is an incredible debut album. I didn't get into their 2008 follow-up, At Mount Zoomer, quite as much, but I still may digest that one more in the future. They use guitars, drums, bass, keyboards and a good number of electronic noise-makers. Given the two song-writing influences and vocalists, I find that the songs bounce back and forth between the Krug songs sounding quite a bit like the dreamy, modern sound of Arcade Fire to the Boeckner songs sounding like a cross between the Clash and the Cars, meaning driving rock songs with keyboard accents and more direct vocals.
I've decided to include an example of each from Apologies. Deal with it. The first is a Krug song on the dreamy, modern side - a song called "I'll Believe in Anything." This was the song I really wanted to see performed live, and we walked in as it was starting. Mission accomplished. Again, one of those things where I was wondering how they would pull it off live. Well done.
Krug's lyrics are trippy and full of imagery:
Give me your eyes, I need sunshine Give me your eyes, I need sunshine Your blood, your bones, your voice And your ghost
Switching to the other singer and songwriter, Boeckner, for a totally different vocal and a totally different vibe, here is "Shine a Light." This is what I was getting at with melding the keyboard-driven synth-pop of the Cars with the driving rock vibe of the Clash. This constant variety makes for an interesting album, and a very entertaining live show.
Boeckner's lyrics are more practical and straightforward, but very effective:
I spend boring hours in the office tower In a bus, on a bus back home to you That's fine, I'm barely alive It's just a matter of time No one gets out alive I'm content, I'm content, I'm content to be quiet Some will sink, some will get called to the light
You know our hearts beat time out very slowly You know our hearts beat time, they're waiting for something that'll never arrive
I wanted to post this a last week, but I forgot, deal with it. I watched this video last week, and I couldnt help but think, wow this guy is full of himself. Maybe rightfully so, he is the best basketball player to walk the face of the Earth (though I think Kobe has more talent, and I will argue that with anyone) nobody can argue that Jordan had the best killer instinct in the world and his achievements are unmatched in the game of basketball. But take a second and watch this video and tell me that you like him a little less after watching this. I mean calling out all those who doubted you, ripping on Byron Russell, and the fact that he still thinks he could play at a Hall of Fame level, made this one of the worst induction speeches of all time. Ricky Henderson, one of the cockiest people in the history of sports, gave a more gratious induction speach. I am sure I am going to raise hell for this, but I wish Jordan would just go away because I am sick of hearing his name, seeing his face, and most of all I am sick of hearing him talk like this.
I listen to The Big 1070, Lucas & Lapay driving into work. Nice little progrum if you havent heard it before. Every friday they have Craig Cashon on talking brewer bits. This Friday he drops some real insider knowledge that had me a saying hummm. – The reason Yo-Go will be forfitting the rest of the season is because he has a "knee issue". *butt hole clentches up* – The reason Jodi Gerut sucked and never played up until a month ago is because he didnt want to come to Milwaukee and had a real attitude. As soon as he lost some of the attitude is when he started to see more playing time *extends middle finger, points it at Gayrrots!* – After Gerut hits a grand slam yesterday to take the split with the cubs, he calls Gerut a, and I quote "COLOSAL DISSAPOINTMENT!" A colosal dissapointment is pretty harsh, and never would of expected that from Uncle Craiggers. – He also went on to say that if the Brewers want to trade Fielder they have to think what would Pujols get if he was traded. I am not sure if Fielder is near Pujols but you have to ask yourself, "Could he be the next Pujols or close to it" Tough question but I think you have to make the case for it. Which I am sure Scott Boras already has that penciled into his things to do for 2010 list.
Fuckin' Canadians. Worse yet, French Canadians. In this case, though, let's give 'em a pass, eh? Arcade Fire is a band out of Montreal that really isn't like anybody else I had heard before. They are led by Win Butler on vocals and his wife on the keys and vocals. They play this soaring wall of sound, which includes at least 2 drummers, several guitars and, depending upon the track, you also hear accordion, violin, viola, double bass, cello, xylophone, harps, mandolins, horns and whatever else they feel like - not to mention as many as 7 or 8 voices joining soaring backing vocal parts. On many tracks, you'll hear two different keyboard parts with 3 guitar parts, 2 different guys banging on drums, somebody playing a violin and the whole bunch of them singing. I really enjoy the two albums they've put out, the indie award winning Funeral from 2004, which was declared album of the year by several indie publications, as well as 2007's follow up, Neon Bible. The sounds are so big, bold and numerous that I always wondered how those tracks could possibly be pulled off on the live stage. It turns out that they do it by putting 6, 8 or more people into the act. What a spectacle and what an entertaining live show.
More recently, their beautiful tune "Wake Up" is being featured prominently in the trailer for the upcoming Spike Jonze film adaptation of Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are. Rumor has it that the band took a short break and are now back at it, working on a new album. Point of fact: I will make a big effort to see these guys in person. I think a memorable experience is guaranteed.
I really think my favorite song of theirs is "Rebellion (Lies)," just a really cool sound and a really cool lyric about how one should never, ever go to sleep. You can check it out here if you're not familiar. Make sure to listen to the end.
However, for LMF, I really couldn't pass over the awesome performance of "Wake Up" below, where Arcade Fire is joined on stage by David Bowie. Just a special event to behold.
I am not sure why these are funny to me, but it probably has something to do with my fifth grade sense of humor. Anyways it is worth a watch, hat tip to C$$ for finding this.
It is so easy to not like Shaquille O'Neal he is a cocky superstar, who seemingly never shuts his mouth, his rapping and dancing antics are very stale, and his best on screen performance was as Neon Badeaux in Blue Chips. When i heard he was going to have a reality show, all I could think about was what a crock of shit, this is going to suck something fierce. However I did tune in and I was pleasantly suprised. Shaq proved much more likeable than the persona he displays on the basketball court, and he is one hell of an athlete. The premise of the show is Shaq challenges athletes in there sports that are usually handicapped in a way to give Shaq a fighting chance. Yes it is hokie, but seeing this 7' 325 lb freak of nature competing against some of the worlds best athletes is pretty entertaining. Last night he competed against the Baltimor Bullet Michael Phelps in the pool, and although he lost it was pretty entertaining. Below is a clip of him fighting Oscar Del Hoya our favorite cross dresser. It was so fun watching Oscar struggle to hit the monster, I thought Shaq one the fight with his stiff Jab and powerful right hand, Oscar was definately hurting more after the fight. Anyways I very rarely pimp anything on Network television but this is worth a watch.
Here is a trailer of the Pacific which is an HBO miniseries like Band of Brothers that follows a company fighting World War II. Just like Band of Brothers this is produced by Spielberg and Hanks. It is also the reason I will be getting HBO this winter.
Yeah, I'm mailing it in this week. Still, if you've spent any amount of time moving around in Madison over the past 20 years or so, you've seen Art Paul doing his thing. He recently got an off-the-cuff mention by Stephen Colbert on the Colbert Report, because one or two of the show's staff were UW dudes. Deal with it.
Funny AP story. About 15 years ago, I was in Mad-town listening to local radio and Art Paul was on a morning show doing a little interview and playing a couple of songs. He's always entertaining. Obviously, the guy is a little different upstairs, but he's certainly getting a lot done with what he's got. Anyway, they were taking calls from listeners, and one of the callers, who clearly sounded like a fairly elderly woman, calls and the following happened:
Caller: "Is this the Arthur Schlosser who was a little boy growing up on Dunning Street on the east side of Madison in the 1970s?"
Art Paul: "Uh. Yeah."
Caller: (talking away from the phone) "Oh my Lord, it is him!!" (Now, back into the phone)"This is so-and-so from across the street!"
Art Paul: "Oh. Hey."
Caller: "Well, Clyde and I are just so pleased to hear you on the radio and to find out that you actually made something of yourself! That's just wonderful!"
Art Paul: "Um, okay."
Caller: "Okay, bye bye!"
Art Paul: "Uh. Bye."
Radio host: "Was that reallly somebody you knew growing up?"
Well it has been a long time since I have gone on a rant, but a recent email with a recent picture of one of the douchiest people in America has irked me something fierce. Not to mention living close to Madison and having the pleasure of running into hipsters at every freaking turn. Whether it is at the mall, movie theatre, bar, dentist, hell even the fucking badger game last weekend I saw plenty. I am off course talking about hipsters. You don't know who I am talking about? The guys and gals, that are forefront of cool. That dress in the finest fashion, the skinnier the jeans the better. They listen to the best music, to bad I don't know what that is because it is to underground. They watch the most artistic film, that no simple minded fool could possible understand. What is there take on politics? Well of course they are as liberal as it comes yet they believe that government has no right to control them. As much as they make it seem like they want to be different, they are scared as hell to actually be unique, and they tend to stick together (the one positive about Hipsters) though it can be a huge negative when the invade a city like Madison. These fucks tend to come from a privileged background, feel like they have the world all figured out, can be found at any coffee shop any day of the week. I don't go to Starbucks, but the fuckers can be seen just by driving around. What are they doing there with that Che Guevara book in there sitting on the table, with there iMacs open and the ear buds in. Are the writing about there interesting lives, all the hard ships they have had to endure?
I just don't understand the appeal to this lifestyle. What I really don't understand is the appeal that non hipster females have to these douche bags. I understand they are so much more sensitive to the needs of the fairer sex, but ladies do you really want to be walking around with Mr. fucking twilight on your arm? Is this the man you want raising your children? I guess I am a little old school on what a man should look like and behave. I will admit to liking underground music, and indie films, but not because it is the "in" thing to do, but because I enjoy it. Fuck I can even get over the way they dress, but I will never understand what makes it so fashionable. In all honesty I will never understand what makes a hipster tick. Maybe I am just not cool enough, but I think it is because I am not a GIGANTIC FUCKING DOUCHEBAG, THAT SUCKS COCK BY CHOICE...I am sorry if I offended anyone out there, I just needed to blow a little steam. If you agree with me, then by all means chime in. If you disagree with me, then by all means chime in, but I warn you in advance, I wont take it easy on hipster lovers that may read this post and again suck cock by choice.
Typically I like to post a girl that has some current social relavance, but all I could come up with this week was Tila Tequila, and I really cannot stand her, deal with it. So I was doing some poon searching and I stumbled across a list of pictures of former bond girls. So I thought I would post my favorite Bond girl, from the best Bond film, Goldeneye. Maybe it was the countless hours I played the Goldeneye video game on Nintendo 64 but it has everything a good Bond movie should have. Guns, Gadgets, and Girls. Enjoy Izabella Scorupco.
I was trying to find something to write about this morning, but I am not thinking straight after being off for the long weekend, first day of drinking in a month and I got pretty rocked.
Okay, look, I've never been a big BoDeans guy, but how long can a Waukesha guy go on babbling about live music without mentioning these sons of Waukesha who have been doing it for 25 years. BoDeans have been a very popular local act for many years. While they are basically a club act on the road, they can headline the Marcus at Summerfest.
Their impressive debut 1985 debut album, Love & Sex & Hope & Dreams made them a favorite on college radio, and a Rolling Stone reader poll declared them the best new band in America soon after. In about 1986 (7th grade), my older cousin Kurt got his first cd player and starting replacing his favorite record albums with cds. I was on the lucky end of that transaction, as he gave me about 40 records that nobody my age was really hearing - at least not in my little town. REM, The Clash, Violent Femmes, etc. It's hard to overstate how much that inherited collection influenced my love of music. That BoDeans record was among them. The rhythmic, plucky guitar and vocal harmonies of "Fadeaway" caught my attention right away. I still like that song.
Anyway, these guys went from obscure local act in the early '80s to semi-known college radio stars in the mid to late '80s, to a nationally known act in the '90s, probably best known nationally for the theme song ("Closer to Free") for the tv. drama, Party of Five, as well a song prominently featured on the soundtrack and in the college football drama, The Program.
Regardless of how much you do or do not enjoy their style of music, these guys can put on a live show. They can play, they can sing and their songs translate well on the live stage.
If you think you don't know them, check out these links. You do know them.
Of course, since this is Live Music Friday, I'll leave you with a live performance of the Waukesha lads before the home crowd at Cutler Park in Waukesha for Harley's 105th anniversary celebration last summer. If you've watched The Program forty times like most guys my age, you'll recognize this track, Good Things.
Some of you may know this already, but I love food. Cooking and eating are two of my favorite things to do. Because of this I find myself always watching the food network. Typically it is a lot of dudes, like Gay Fierri and Bobby Flay. However you can also find these vixens (Giada, Cat, and Rachel Ray) cooking up some tasty treats. Enjoy!!!
I want to start of this review by saying I am a huge Quenten Tarantino fan, I have been following this release of this movie for about five years now, before either of the Kill Bill movies so needless to say I was pretty excited to finally get to see it.
Tarantino is known for a style that is all to his own, and this movie is no different. If you are looking for a movie heavy on character development and one that follows the rules of most Hollywood movies you will not like this movie. However if you are looking for a creative piece of art, that demonstrates a directors skill in the craft then I think you will love this movie.
IB takes place during world war II and most of the movie takes place in Nazi occupied France. Brad Pitt leads a crew of Jews (the Basterds) on a Nazi hunting mission to drive fear into the heart of the SS. There tactics are brutal to say the least. However I do not want to give the impression that this movie is strictly about Nazi hunting it because for the most part the Basterds are just a small part of the overall theme of this movie. In fact I left wanting to know more of each of the individuals that made up the Basterd. In particular Eli Roth's character (the Bear Jew) and Brad Pitt's character Aldo Raines. Tarantino often doesn't explain much background to the characters he writes so well. For instance in Pulp Fiction we new Vincent Vega (John Travolta) had been to Amsterdam, had been away for the states for a while, but we really did not know what made him so badass. Instead the audience is allowed to kind of make up there own history for the characters. I don't mind that style, however sometimes I think it really helps with developing characters when you give a little more background instead of letting the audience decide. With that being said I never really felt for any of the characters in this movie, not like I did in other Tarantino films. I rooted for them, because they were killing Nazi's but didn't really sympathize with why they were doing it, even if that reason is painfully obvious.
The character that stole the movie was the one of the years/decades best bad guys. Col Hans Landa played by Chris Waltz stole the show as the SS officer known as the Jew Hunter. In the opening scene we meet Landa on the French country side as he is interrogating a local family who he suspects may be harboring Jews. Landa is meticulous in his work, and you can tell he doesn't care about being a Nazi he just really enjoys his job, and he does it well. By the end of the movie he was by far my favorite character, and although you can never root for someone known as the Jew Hunter he was by far the most interesting character. I wouldn't be surprised if he was up for an academy award. He was that good.
I don't really want to give away much of the story or plot because I am sure most have not seen it, so I will just continue to comment on the style in which I really enjoyed. Besides the lack of character development, there was not much of the directing I did not like. Tarantino has a way of building tension through dialogue that few directors can do. A few scenes in particular, the opening scene and a scene in the basement of a bar, start out simple enough. Just regular people doing regular things, you know that it is going to lead to horrific violence (Tarantino movie) but you don't know how it is going to get there, and the dialogue just builds that suspense.
The movie is spoken in French, Italian, German, and English so there are subtitles, and I think there are scenes in which I have no idea why Tarantino left them in there because they do nothing to further the story or develop the characters. So this movie is long and at times has some pacing issues. If you want a non stop action movie this is not the movie for you. However if style and creativity is your type of movie, than I think you are really going to like this. Again, I wish we learned more about the Basterds as the title would state should be the focus of the movie, however there is enough substance for any movie lover to really enjoy. Tarentino has a pretentiousness that some how works, and he displays that very well with this movie that he himself called his masterpiece.
Getting geeked up for the first Badgers game this Saturday night. Give me a holla if you'll be partying / tailgating. You probably owe me a beer, anyway. Moffitt is a solid center for the Badgers who unfortunately is touch-and-go for the opener with an injured pectoral muscle, which he tore up in a weight workout. In addition to receiving some pre-season All Big Ten nods (Phil Steele's 2nd team), he seems like a pretty entertaining dude to hang out with.
