OK, I'll keep this short and sweet (for once), because it's late, I'm going on 3.5 hours of sleep, but I'm bound and determined to get three posts up this month.
Fall is possibly my favorite time of the year to get seasonal brews. I like my hoppy IPAs in the summer and my lighter beach beers, but fall is when the malty beers come out. Pumpkin ales are very hit or miss--I generally try one new pumpkin ale a year and 2/3 of the time I'm disappointed because it tastes more like pie than beer. The so-called "Oktoberfest" beers tend to be a bit sketchy, too. But there are still plenty of rich, flavorful beers to be found, such as Redhook's Late Harvest Ale.
This is a relatively new seasonal for Redhook, which helpfully has breweries on the west coast and the east (though the Late Harvest is apparently an east coast exclusive). Pouring a dark amber with little head, this tasty ale uses a number of specialty malts: Crystal, German Smoked Munich, Caramel, and Smoked. I'm not going to bore you with my usual stats (all of which you can find on the website), I'll just say this is a delicious beer that deserves a tasting. You definitely get a sense of the caramel and hints of coffee and chocolate. It's by no means a sweet beer, and the web site suggest pairings with grilled burgers and other tailgate cuisine. But I'm having mine for dessert, all by it's lonesome. Redhook's seasonals are often quite good--with the possible exception of the disappointing Copperhook--and the Late Harvest is a nice gateway beer into the always satisfying Winterhook.
Bill Willingham's Fables I'm saving one of my favorites for last in my little comics primer. Fables is a great comic for anyone who's just too lazy to become engaged in new characters. You know these characters already. Snow White, the Big Bad Wolf, King Cole, Prince Charming, Goldilocks...think of a character from a (public domain) fable, fairy tale, or nursery rhyme, and Willingham has probably incorporated that person or creature into his story.
OK, so the premise isn't exactly ground-breaking. Neil Gaiman used his fair share of mythological and literary figures in The Sandman series, but Fables takes things to a new level. As with most series of this length (the 11th TPB will be released later this fall), there is a long term story arc and lots of smaller story lines scattered about. The main arc focuses on the immortal--or nearly immortal-- Fables, who live in our world (the world of the Mundies) as refugees from the Homelands, which were usurped by the mysterious Adversary. The Fables who can pass as human live in a small neighborhood (Fabletown) in New York City; the not-so-human live on The Farm in upstate New York.
I'm a sucker for what-if scenarios like this. What if Rose Red got up to some zany antics with Jack from Jack and the Beanstock fame? What if Prince Charming had to constantly deal with bumping into his ex-wives, Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty? Willingham has fun with the premise, giving a lot of well-known characters surprising personalities and putting them in increasingly odd situations. And it's definitely an adult comic, with a fair share of sex and violence (though no where near as much as The Boys). I've stayed engaged throughout the long series, and the latest TPB, "The Good Prince," was one of the best yet. The art, which is primarily by Mark Buckingham, is consistently good. Nothing too ground-breaking, but detailed enough to make it interesting.
Like Hellboy, Fables also has it's own spin-off comic, Jack of Fables. Jack the Giant Killer eventually got his own series, which is written at least partly by Willingham and co-written and drawn by a variety of others. Unlike the Hellboy spin-off B.P.R.D., which can actually be a lot more serious than the parent comic, Jack of Fables is a lot more light-hearted and a really fun read. It's most recent TPB, "The Bad Prince," also introduces a whole new plot element to the Fables world that I couldn't possibly describe here. You'll just have to check it out.
So that pretty much wraps up my comics primer. I've described all the comics I've been reading over the years, though I'm sure new ones will pop up in the future. It's not a lot compared to some, but it's probably more than your every day joe walking down the street. I wouldn't have put this much time and effort into describing my favorite comics if I didn't sincerely believe that this was a valid artistic/literary medium. Some of the best stories I've ever read, and some of the best art I've seen has come from the world of comic books.
If I've convinced even one comic naysayer to rethink the medium, or even drop a few bucks on a comic book, I'll have considered this a success. If I've guided someone who wanted to delve into the comics world but didn't know where to start, that's good, too. If you're either type of person, please let me know what you've tried, what you've liked, and what you haven't liked. Maybe someone else out there has some good suggestions for me. Thanks for reading my thought bubbles.
Love Psychedelico is one of the odder bands I've come to enjoy this year. This duo from Japan has apparently been all the rage in their home country and southeast Asia for a few years now. That's right, I said Japan and southeast Asia. It's my understanding that this is pretty uncommon...in general, Japan is the pariah of the Eastern world. Culturally, the country keeps to itself, and the rest of Asia likes it that way. But these rockn'rollers are changing that, and with the recent release of This Is Love Psychedelico in the U.S., they're now moving their way west.
With the exception of the Yoshida Brothers, who use ancient Japanese instruments in a crazy mixture of traditional and contemporary styles (and are pretty awesome), I haven't delved into the Japanese music scene all that much. Unfortunately, when I think Japanese music, I often think of the generic pop that plays in the background of a lot of anime (though perhaps MWC could point me toward some anime with good music?). LP is definitely a bit more western-sounding, and they definitely have a way with the hooks. When it comes to good hooks, I'm a hungry, hungry fish.
The lyrics are really the polarizing factor in these songs. They're basically a lot of Japanese words meshed not-so-seamlessly with Engrish. This basically means you won't understand half the lyrcis--unless, of course, you happen to read Japanese--and the other half are borderline hilarious. For example, listen to the English lyrics in the video below for "Standing Bird," an incredibly catchy song:
Did you listen? One string of relatively meaningless English phrases ends with a prolonged, sincerely sung "Breaking wiiiiind." I'm pretty sure this song isn't about farting, so I can only assume that this is an unfortunate misappropriation of an English phrase. Very few of the English lyrics make sense on this album, though few lyrics are as amusingly awkward as "Standing Bird." This will probably annoy a lot of people, but there's a large chunk of albums in my collection that I listen to for the music, and the lyrics are basically not that important. If these Love Psychedelico songs were exclusively in Japanese, I'd still listen to them.
My only quibble with a lot of these songs is that they're 1-2 minutes longer than they should be. Maybe the stories they tell in the lyrics, if they are stories, require that kind of song length. For western listeners, this is not profound stuff. It's rock candy, and it doesn't need to sit in my mouth quite this long. That said, I still recommend people check out some of their other tunes on their website(link at the top of the post). It might not blow your mind, but it'll get your head bopping. I'll call Love Psychedelico one of my guilty pleasures of the summer, and they're creeping into fall now, too.
So I added the "Followers" gadget to the sidebar. You know, for all both of this blog's followers. Considering the dearth of posting this summer, I guess we're lucky to have two.
Anyone have a good name for RB's L-C followers? The only thing I could could come up with off the top of my head was "The Camel Toes". That hardly seems appropriate, and it definitely doesn't reflect well on the thoughts swimming around the top of my head. It would probably increase the number of hits on the site dramatically, however.
Gerard Way's The Umbrella Academy This entry into my primer is a bit of a departure for me in that I just finished reading the first and only TPB in this series yesterday (it just came out a few weeks ago). This first story arc in what appears to be a very promising series is called "Apocalypse Suite," and it was indeed pretty sweet.
For a Dark Horse comic, this series has received a fair amount of press, largely because Gerard Way is a member of a relatively famous band. I'm not going to mention the band because, from what I understand, it sucks, and it has no bearing on the quality of this comic whatsoever. This guy knows how to create characters and spin a good yarn, which is really all I care about. Here's the intro to the comic from the Dark Horse site, 'cuz I'm feeling a bit lazy: "In an inexplicable worldwide event, forty-seven extraordinary children were spontaneously born by women who'd previously shown no signs of pregnancy. Millionaire inventor Reginald Hargreeves adopted seven of the children; when asked why, his only explanation was, "To save the world."
These seven children form The Umbrella Academy, a dysfunctional family of superheroes with bizarre powers. Their first adventure at the age of ten pits them against an erratic and deadly Eiffel Tower, piloted by the fearsome zombie-robot Gustave Eiffel. Nearly a decade later, the team disbands, but when Hargreeves unexpectedly dies, these disgruntled siblings reunite just in time to save the world once again."
Sounds pretty cool, huh? It is. And one of my favorite aspects of this comic was that it plays out kind of like a season of "Lost" in that it creates as many questions as it does answers. There's basically a 20 year gap in the story, and for the most part we have no idea what happened in those 20 years. By the end of this first story arc, we don't even fully know what powers all the members of the academy have. There's plenty of room for speculation, and plenty of room to grow. There's also plenty of humor to balance out the action, and the writing reflects Hellboy a lot in that respect.
Which brings me to Gabriel Ba's art, which is pretty Mignola-esque. That's certainly not a bad thing. It's a bit more detailed than Mignola's work, but it's got the same gothic vibe that meshes well with the story. I mean, c'mon, tell me you're not dying to see what zombie-robot Gustav Eiffel looks like. And that's not even the weirdest surprise to pop up in this story.
For a first-timer, Way has done an amazing job, and I'm really looking forward to the next batch. The next series, "Dallas," doesn't start until November, however. Makes me wish the guy would quit his band and just work on his comic.
Joss Whedon's Fray I'll get to the point on this one quickly: if you like Joss Whedon's writing and/or if you like the Buffyverse, you really need to read this comic. It's about a slayer named Fray...in the future. So besides the usual vampire slaying and such, there's also flying cars and mutants.
That description alone should be enough for some people, but for those that still need convincing, I'll elaborate a bit. This was a limited run comic of 8 issues (though it was left quite open-ended), all of which were collected in the TPB pictured here. Much as he did with Firefly, Whedon has created a rich new bastardization of the English language for all the future folks to speak. He's really good at that kind of thing. The characters, especially Fray herself, are just as rich and well-fleshed out as any of your favorites from the TV show. And importantly, if anyone out there is actually reading the Buffy Season 8 comics (which, again, I highly recommend), you have to read this TPB to understand the current story arc. Finally, Karl Moline's artwork is excellent and brings Whedon's writing to life handily. I don't think JW could or would work with a crappy artist.
The only downside here is that it came out 5 years ago and there were never any more of them. And as I mentioned, the ending left a lot of loose ends. I suspect those are going to be taken care of in the current season 8 arc, or maybe Fray will start back up again as its own series. Either way, I'll be glad to see more of it.
I have a weakness for impulse buying wacky candy variants, so when I was in my favorite candy shop in Harvard Square today, I couldn't resist picking up a package of Chocolate Mix Skittles. I don't actually eat much candy anymore, but I kind of like Skittles, and I definitely like chocolate, so I thought I'd give these a try. I am officially cured of my impulse buying of wacky candy variants.
The package claims there are five "flavors" here (S'mores, Vanilla, Chocolate Caramel, Chocolate Pudding, and Brownie Batter), but they all tasted exactly the same to me. And by that, I mean they all tasted horrible. Up until now, I thought the worst chocolate candy in existence was the Tootsie Roll. Well Tootsie Rolls taste like Godiva compared to this garbage. I would rather boil off a can of Yoohoo and lick whatever dried crud is left over on the bottom of the pot than eat one more of these things. I can't remember when (or even if) I disliked a candy so much that I threw it out after trying just a few, but that's what I did today.
Do not buy this candy. If someone offers you some to try, don't just refuse--take it out of the person's hand and throw it on the ground. Then step on it. And don't associate with the person who offered you a chocolate Skittle ever again. Please just trust me on this one.
A little over a month ago EJP put up his 10 favorite albums of 2008. Seeing how it has felt as if I've been on the planet Mars for the last two months, I have been catching up on all things Love-Camel as I prepare to relocate back to the Motherland.
EJP and I often differ in our musical tastes, but it must be said, I appreciate the disparity as it often widens my musical lexicon. I'd like to add that in some respects, 2008 has been a musical bust for me... bands that had releases I was eagerly awaiting, but that just didn't do it for me: My Morning Jacket: Evil Urges, Silver Jews: Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea, R.E.M.: Accelerate, The Black Keys: Attack & Release, andDeath Cab for Cutie: Narrow Stairs. Except for DCFC, which to be honest I'm not so much a fan of anymore (the last show of theirs that I went to was an absolute disaster...couldn't hear the band of over the shrill shrieks of 14 year-old girls), I am a huge fan of the other bands and it pains me for them to put out sub-par music. I blame Danger Mouse...you can love him...me, I think he over produces his music. Hence, both the Keys and MMJ sounds are off...hell, the Jacket comes off sounding like a 70s lounge club, church choir-boy act.
Righto, honorable mentions:
Vampire Weekend: Vampire Weekend.Initially, I would have thought this might be at the top of my list...I think this is a classic case of overexposure for me. Too much Vampire Weekend this and that. When making my lists, I tend to think about how often particular music makes it on my playlist. This album just didn't have staying power. I found the songs became stale after multiple listenings. Oh, I usually do this with my reviews, Pitchfork gave it 8.8.
Flight of the Conchords: Flight of the Conchords.This can't really count for 2008...but if it was new, it'd be in the top ten. Solid hits here. It's probably already been done, but I was thinking for Halloween this year I'd be Hiphopopotamus... just got to find out whose gonna be Rhymenoceros. Pitchfork gave it a 7.2.
Portishead: Third.Eleven years after their last release. That's some time to wait if you were a devout fan...fortunately for me, a friend turned me on to them more recently, so I didn't have to wait that long. It's good and it gets plus points for being released on vinyl with the digital download (why is everybody not doing this now?). Pitchfutch gave it 8.8. I know, you don't care.
#10: M83: Saturdays = Youth.In what might be a re-occurring theme for me this year, synths and beats are on. Must be the Chinese 'Year of Bass' (hehehe, I love my stupid puns. I blame Rick-dickulous). In places it gets a little to presumptuous... Frenchy, if you will. Pitchrock gave it 8.5.
#9: Thao & The Get Down, Stay Down: We Brave Bee Stings and All.Yes, this is good indie pop. I can see why EJP is in love (even Sir Widget loves it, he actually bought the CD). It's great in places...but I feel like they are just beginning to understand what their sound is...it could be even better in my opinion. I predict better things from Thao Nguyen and her band in the future. PF gave it 7.7.
#8: Sun Kil Moon: April.It is no Ghosts of the Great Highway, and for a while I thought it was going to be up there with the other disappointments, but after a while it just clicked. No Danger Mouse. I'm happy to say that I'll get to see Mark Kozelek at Cat's Cradle in November. He is a real treat to see, if you get the chance. PF gave it 8.3.
#7: Cut Copy: In Ghost Colours. I have a penchant for electro-house music. This has been a favorite of mine this past summer...it has a very positive feel. Kind of my Sound of Silver for 2008. Not as good, but it's easy on the ears. Pitchfork feels the love. 8.8.
#6: The Walkmen: You & Me.This is a band that I have always been on the fence about...I've seen them live multiple times. I even have a great scatological story, but you have to buy me several beers before I talk. I digress. The Walkmen may have finally done it. This album has just come out, but I already think it is one of the best of the year. This one has the potential to move higher. PF gave it 8.5.
#5: Frightened Rabbit: Midnight Organ Fight. I was going to see a French Kicks show and saw that these guys were the opening act. Checked out their music and whammo!!! This album is well put together. A definite sing-a-long. The hits keep coming song after song. PF gave it 8.1.
#4: Girl Talk: Feed the Animals. I know there are so many issues surrounding this 'album'...the sampling, is he really a musician...blah, blah, blah. Things I know. I listen to this a fuck-ton. I can almost recite the album line for line. Going to a Gregg Gillis show is hella fun. No I'm not into hip-hop, but for some reason, this does it for me. Pitchfork gave Gillis an 8.0 for effort.
#3: Beck: Modern Guilt. This is the first album that I completely disagree with PF on. It is way better than the 7.0 they give it. Beck runs the full happy/sad spectrum here...the album is beat heavy. I'd say it's his best effort since Sea Change.
#2 and #1: Bon Iver: For Emma, Forever Ago & Fleet Foxes: Fleet Foxes. I cannot separate the two. I know BI technically came out in 2007, but realistically, no one (except for the cool kids) knew about it until it was re-released with a larger distribution. In fact, you couldn't find it. I wrote about this album earlier in March. This album will forever be etched in my memory. This year has been really trying and difficult...this album was its anthem. Pick it up.
Fleet Foxes... is, well, simply put just amazing. What the Jacket should have released. I'd highly recommend it as well. They sound amazing live from what I've heard. 8.1 and 9.0, respectively from PF.
So the other night, after a long and fairly stressful day, I decided I needed to watch something not-so-serious. I've had a copy of "Barbarella": Queen of the Galaxy sitting around for ages, and I knew it was time for a little Jane Fonda workout, if you know what I mean.
It had been years since I watched Barbarella, and it was every bit as awesome as I remembered. From the opening credits, played over Barbarella doing a strip tease out of her space suit at zero gravity, you know this film is going to be something special. That space suit? Clearly held together by Velcro (or something very much like it...did they have Velcro in 1968?). The entire inside of Barbarella's big pink spaceship? Orange shag carpet. The music? Never will you feel so compelled to run out and buy go-go boots.
Make no mistake, this movie is ridiculous from beginning to end. The plot, such as it is, involves Barbarella fulfilling her mission (as a what, you never really learn) to find Durand-Durand, the missing earth scientist who invented a positronic ray. But really, the movie is about Barbarella cavorting across a planet, conveniently ruining outfits and exploring her newly-discovered sexuality. Barbarella loses outfits the way people lose lives in some horror movies: very creatively. At one point she's attacked by razor-toothed baby dolls. Then there's the parakeet attack...and then of course her clothes are ripped off by the giant sex-torture piano. These are not really spoilers...these scenes really have to be seen to be believed.
Sometimes, the dialogue is clearly supposed to be funny, such as Barbarella's "What's that screaming? A good many dramatic situations begin with screaming..." Sometimes, I'm not so sure, such as when an enraged Durand-Durand yells, "I'll do things to you that are beyond all known philosophies!" But nearly all the dialogue is either hilarious or hilariously delivered. Every word Fonda utters, whether it's space jargon (much of which could rival anything on Star Trek) or sexual advances, is delivered in a dry, dead pan manner that has one marveling at her Oscar win just a few years after this film. The rest of the cast is just as awesomely bad, including John Phillip Law, who made a career out of movies like this (including at least two that became excellent MST3K episodes).
Watch it for the terrible special effects. Watch it for the awful dialogue and acting. Watch it for the crazy late-60s music and freak-out scenes. Watch it for the skin, 'cuz there's plenty of it. Just watch this movie at some point in your life. I've heard rumors of a possible remake of this movie for years now, but I don't think it can be done. Barbarella was paradoxically both ahead of its time and also purely a product of the 60s. I'm not sure exactly what I mean by this, but I think you'll understand if you watch. And remember, the password is "Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch"!
Lately there's been a lot of talk at my work about eating wacky foods. We're a small organization and we all eat lunch together, and there's often a lot of "You've never tried ____?! But it's so good." So far the wackiest taste test we had was mac&cheese with ketchup. That got a thumbs down from me.
Last week, I upped the ante a bit with a Vosges Mo's Bacon Bar that I purchased at Whole Foods for way too much money. As I wrote to my colleagues when I announced this taste test, "Bacon: good. Chocolate: good. How could this be bad?" I mean, just read what it said on the back of the package: "Breathe…engage your five senses, close your eyes and inhale deeply. Be in the present moment, notice the color of the chocolate, the glossy shine. Rub your thumb over the chocolate bar to release the aromas of smoked applewood bacon flirting with deep milk chocolate. Snap off just a tiny piece and place it in your mouth, let the lust of salt and sweet coat your tongue."
Well, we all did just that, and I have to say it went over surprisingly well. Here are a few comments I heard from my co-workers:
"It's not as bacony as I thought. It's more like chocolate with just a hint of bacon."
"It's not nearly as bad a I thought it would be."
"Dude, you're cool, because if I'd bought one of these, I'd keep it all to myself and not shared it with anybody."
"If this didn't cost $8, I'd actually consider getting one for myself."
For my own part, I thought the balance of bacon and chocolate was just about perfect. Like a chocolate-covered pretzel in terms of the salt/sweet ratio, with traces of delicious smokiness we associate with bacon. The chocolate was quite good, too. I actually can't imagine a whole bar by myself since it's very rich, so I'm glad I shared it. All in all, a step up from my personal lollipoptaste tests of yore.
Last fall, I wrote a post about The Believer, a magazine put out by McSweeney's that I enjoy thoroughly. I'm also a devoted fan to another McSweeney's product, Wolphin, which is essentially a quarterly DVD magazine. The good people at Wolphin poke around the world to compile short films that normally wouldn't see the light of day. "Short films" is a very generic term for what you actually see, however. These shorts consist of live action fictional pieces, short animated films (some of my personal favorites), short documentaries, and occasionally a bizarre foreign sitcom with subtitles written by American writers/comedians.
I really can't stress enough how cool these compilations are. I won't say every single item is cool, but...no, never mind. I think everything I've watched on the Wolphin DVDs has been cool. These shorts are often visually stunning, cleverly written, incredibly informative, or thoroughly thought-proving. Often they are all of these things at once.
I happen to be posting on this tonight because I watched a video in an entertaining Onion A.V. Club post (see video below) that I originally saw in the second issue of Wolphin. This Oscar-nominated animated short, called "More," is a fine example of what you'll find on these compilations. But really, there's something for everyone on these DVDs, particularly if you're a film buff.
I subscribe to the DVD, and I'm working on watching Issue #5 right now. Issue #6 was just delivered, so I've got some catching up to do. If you've never seen any of these, you've got even more catching up to do. The web site recently starting selling the issues individually, and you can get the first four issues as a pack at a heavily discounted price. I suggest checking them out.
I haven't been drinking a whole lot lately (still trying to work off a little Winterspeck), so now that I'm finally getting around to reviewing one of my summer beers, it's barely summer anymore. Seriously, look at your calendar. But I won't let that stop me from prattling on a bit about a tasty brew.
Geary's is probably best known for their pale ale, and a fine pale it is. I'm writing about their Summer Ale, however, which I hadn't tried previously. Summer ales are always a bit risky. A lot of brewers put out some weak-ass beer and call it their summer ale just because it's light in color or tastes slightly lemony. I hate to disparage Wachusett Brewing Company because a) it was started by some guys from my alma mater and b) many of their beers, especially their Nut Brown Ale, are really quite good. But their Summer Ale falls into the weak-ass, slightly lemony category and I can't endorse it. Lemon: summer ales as cloves: winter ales. At least I can tolerate the lemon...cloves in beer is just wrong.
But I digress. Here's the description of the Summer Ale off the Geary's site:
The style of our summer ale is traditionally European, similar to a German kolsch: full bodied with a spicy hop tang and a rich, crystal clear golden color. Alcohol content is approximately 6% by volume.
Availability: April - September
Original gravity: 1060
Alcohol by volume: 6%
Ingredients: Two row English malt (clarity, wheat and caramalt); Magnum, Tettnang and Saaz hops.
So there's the technical stuff, but how does it taste? The beer pours a nice, light amber with just a touch of lacy head. The smell has notes of citrus, but not overwhelmingly so. The first taste, if the beer is cold, will seem pretty mild at first, perhaps slightly nutty. Then the hops hit, and that was a surprise. There are probably a few breweries out there that would go so far as to call this a pale ale or IPA due to the hoppiness. I've been drinking enough extra-hoppy IPAs lately (like Magic Hat's Lucky Kat) that I know this doesn't come close to an IPA, but it is the hoppiest summer ale I've ever tried. I'm guessing upper 30s/lower 40s for the IBU. Unlike a lot of IPAs, I find that this beer only improves as it warms (I write, as I take another sip), which is a nice feature for a summer ale. I confess that you can taste a bit of citrus in the finish, but the hops balances it enough that it doesn't taste like somebody squeezed a drop of lemon juice into a Bud.
At 6% alcohol, this is too strong for a session beer, but maybe if you had a really looong session it could work. I see this matching just about anything grilled, but particularly strong tasting seafood might work best. Then again, I'm probably being influenced by the lobster on this year's label (the picture on this post is from last year). It's also a fine beer to have on its own, which is what I'm doing right now. Hey, it may only be Wednesday, but it's been a long week already and this beer tastes very good.
Grab this one while you still can, and if you can, since I don't know how far out of New England Geary's distributes. If you miss it, put it on your list for next summer.
So last night my sis and I went to show in downtown Boston. I hadn't been to a show since TMBG, so I was about do. I'd been wanting to see Tilly & The Wall for a while and they'd come through Boston several times, so I gave'em a shot.
Both my sister and I had early days today, and she had over an hour to get home that night, so it was a risky venture. But in the end, I think it was worth it.
We started at 9PM with Big Digits, a "band" I'd never heard of before. This opening, opening band will probably get the longest description because, quite frankly, it blew my mind. They started with one guy on the stage in front of his Macbook and a Wii remote in his hand. He had on a T-shirt proudly proclaiming "Whoomp! There it is!" and some sport shorts right out of the early 80s. As my sister said, this guy might have rolled out of his BU dorm room and straggled across the street to the Paradise. He proceeded to do his DJ thang, drinking beer with his right hand and changing samples and bass lines with the Wii remote in his left hand. DJ Mark E. Moon definitely subscribed to the "More Bass is Better" school of thought. We were up in the balcony, and when I commented to my sister that the bass was a little out of control, she said, "Yeah, it's making my boobs jiggle." "Mine, too", I said.
He never took his eyes off his screen, and sort of bopped up and down to the beat. It was one of the most awkward things I'd ever seen on stage. My ever-observant sis spotted another oddity. I dude with a ninja hood on over at the end of the stage was REALLY getting into it. Soon afterward, things got more awkward.
The ninja guy (sporting very tight, bleach white, denim cut-offs) jumped up on the stage with another dude. Then the rapping began. Big Digits hail form Cambridge, MA. They were very white, and they were there to rap and dance for us. For the next half hour, they busted every dance move from the last three decades or so. The Robot came out several times. There were definitely some New Kids on the Block moves. Some random flailing. They rapped about fashion, being progressive...you name it. Ninja guy's hood started falling down, revealing a handlebar mustache and some mutton chop side burns. At that point he looked kind of like he was wearing chain mail.
For a while, I just found the entire thing hilarious. The rapping, the dancing, the DJ still waving his Wii remote around...it was too much. Then I ran out of snarky comments and just sort of became hypnotized by the entire thing. By their last song, when the non-ninja guy whipped out a tambourine to accompany their rap, I kind of wanted to be friends with these guys. At one point, my sister said, "This is like something you'd see on YouTube." Funny she mentioned that, because here's just a tiny taste of what you all missed by not seeing Big Digits live:
The Ruby Suns were up next at 10 (whoa, it was getting late!), but they were a bit of a letdown. I like their most recent CD (see a brief review of Sea Lionshere), but I'm pretty sure there were about a dozen people playing the songs for that album. There were exactly two people up on that stage last night. I realize it's a long trip form New Zealand, but c'mon! Try as they might, the synthesizers and multiple instrument playing did not compensate for the loss of that many people. The music went from something kind of tribal and fun to something very, very 80s, and not the good 80s. And really, it was only 1.5 people up there, because I'm pretty sure the woman was on ludes. I can recommend the album, not so much the live show. I'm assuming these Kiwis are much better playing at home.
Finally, at 11PM, a good hour or so after I usually go to bed, Tilly & The Wall came on. Full disclosure: we did not stay for whole set. I have no idea how long they played. I just knew that we had to work in the morning and my sis had a long drive ahead of her. That said, what we saw rocked. Yes, their outfits were a tad pretentious. Yes, the tap-dancer-as-percussionist is a bit gimmicky. But they put on a true performance, and they sounded great. I was actually pretty mesmerized by Jamie, the tap dancer. She puts enough energy into her dancing than you can usually get out of an entire band. And the vocalists, Neely and Kianna actually sound much better live than they do on CD. The whole band sounded better live. I've liked T&tW since their first CD, and they definitely have a few great songs and several good songs. But live, I think all their songs sounded great. I highly recommend seeing them live if you can. The video below is for one of my favorite songs of their newest album. It doesn't really do the live show justice (and in a bit of a departure, it's actual drums), but it's still a fun song:
Alan Moore's Watchmen It's OK if you're not really into comics and never plan to be, but a good story is a good story, no matter what the format. Alan Moore is an incredible story teller, and he's either created or adapted some incredible characters over the past few decades (for some adapted characters, check out my League of Extraordinary Gentlemen post). Like Hellboy, Watchmen is about to become a little less obscure to the non-comic-reading populace thanks to the upcoming movie about which Clyde Squid just posted. But if you are a geek and/or consider yourself a well-read person, check out the comic first. You'll notice on the cover below that it's considered "One of Time Magazine's 100 best novels." That's not just graphic novels, that's all novels.In brief, the book is set in an America where "heroes" exist, but only one of them actually has super powers (the blue guy you see in the trailer). The rest of the heroes are vigilantes, who dress up and fight crime because they're crazy, rich and bored, crave the fame, or occasionally, are actually trying to mete out some justice. The comic's tagline, "Who watches the Watchmen?" really explains it all. Who places limits on these powerful people, or on the people who take power into their own hands in the name of justice? In the space of essentially 12 comic issues, Moore creates a complex world with its own history (and future). David Gibbons's art is also admirable, and I'll be interested to see how they carry it over into the film (which, supposedly, is sticking insanely close to the comic).
Any further explanation wouldn't do it credit. This one's really not to be missed. Garth Ennis's The Boys The Boys is essentially a Troma movie in comic book form. If you have no idea what a Troma movie is...you can probably stop reading this post now. I'm not being a snob--I'm trying to protect you. These comics, like most Troma movies, are packed with gratuitous sex, violence (oh the violence!), and some the foulest language I have ever seen in print. On the spectrum of high brow to low brow, with Watchmen being high brow, The Boys pretty much falls off the other end.
Good thing I can appreciate low brow stuff, too. The Boys is the answer to Moore's question, "Who watches the watchmen?" How to put this...Many years ago, when the first Spiderman movie came out, Jon Stewart gave this synopsis of the character on The Daily Show "Spiderman is the story of weakling who gains super powers, then uses them for good...for free." In that one statement, Stewart exposes the weak underbelly of nearly all superhero comics. Not to diminish Stan Lee's legacy, but everyone praises him for creating such human super heroes, but how human are they really? Sure, with great power lies great responsibility, but doesn't it seem unlikely that so many people with powers actually choose to accept that responsibility?
That's the problem in the world depicted in The Boys: the supes fight crime, but they don't want to live in a crappy apartment to do it. They're going to kill the bad guys, but they don't want to take responsibility for any collateral damage. And a lot of the supes, though nice on the outside, are rotten to the core on the inside. That's where The Boys come in. A group of five who for various reasons (many not divulged yet--this is a relatively new comic) hold grudges against the supes. They'll use blackmail, violence, and some more violence to make sure the super "heroes" are kept in check.
There are a lot of reasons not to read this comic. If you're thin-skinned or otherwise easily offended, don't even open the first page of the first TPB, "The Name of the Game". But here are the reasons to read it: it's laugh-out-loud funny, one of the characters is modeled after Simon Pegg (geek alert!), the writing by Garth Ennis is creative and entertaining, and the art by Darick Robertson is beautifully detailed down to the squishiest eyeball. Pick up the first TPB in your comic shop and glance through the first 10 pages. In those first 10 pages, you'll get a very good idea of whether you'll love it or hate it. So I won't wholeheartedly say "Check it out!", but I know at least some of you should give it a shot, you dirty #@%$ers.
The radio station that the technicians I supervise listen to every day could be worse. It's not top 40, or sports radio. It actually plays some good songs, many of which I haven't heard in ages. Yet there are three songs that the station plays EVERY day, at least once a day, if not more. These are songs that I used to kind of like, or at least tolerate. But now, whenever one of these songs comes on, my ears start to bleed and my mind shuts down. These are the songs:
"Bittersweet Symphony" by The Verve (which lasts for freaking ever) "Wonderwall" by Oasis "Undone (The Sweater Song)" by Weezer
If you are my friend, please don't play these songs in my presence ever again. If you are one of my co-workers who happens to know about this blog, please don't advertise this post, and if you walk into my office to find me banging my head on the keyboard, now you know why.
After the first Futurama movie proved pretty disappointing, I wasn't getting my hopes up for the second in the series of four, The Beast with a Billion Backs. So I don't know if it's just because I had lower expectations, or if it's because it really was the better "movie", but I enjoyed this one quite a bit.
The plot revolves around the age old story: rift opens in our dimension, giant monster falls in love with and tries to mate with our entire universe, they break up but decide to continue dating...you get the picture. The first movie mucked about in time, whereas this movie mucks about in space. There is at least a bit more of a plot to this one, which was encouraging.
Each character gets about the same amount of face-time, too, which I enjoyed. Like the first movie, there are a lot of references to the TV show, but they weren't quite as distracting this time around. All in all, I found myself laughing and enjoying TBWABB a lot more. But full disclosure: Meine Frau hated it. I doubt I'll be able to get her to watch any of the other movies, and she loved the TV show.
Special features on the DVD are OK. There's a "lost adventure" cobbled together from a defunct video game, a brief featurette with the oft-amusing David Cross (who voices the titular Beast), and a little video of a few of the voice actors. Speaking of which, Billy West, who does most of the voices on Futurama, is quite a character. The Onion A.V. Club interviewed him recently and it's an entertaining look at a very underrated talent.
So I'd certainly recommend this movie for any Futurama fans, but I'd also suggest skipping the first movie and going straight to this one if that's still an option. Or, you could just kiss my shiny metal ass.
Unbelievably, we're already halfway through 2008. I've been in a bit of a music buying/listening slump the last few months, mostly because my new job does not really lend itself to listening to music at work all that much. Also, April and May were kind of dry spells as far as new releases went, at least as far as I was concerned. But I still have a top 10 list and some honorable mentions, many of which I've already written about here (just links to the previous blog posts for those). These are kind of in a rough order of sorts:
10) Try Me Bicycle: Voicings A very mellow album. Nice instrumentation...a little piano here, a little violin there, some classical guitar picking, all with just a hint of a catchy hook on a lot of songs. This is a relatively new one for me, but it's growing on me quickly. Give "Two Stern Feet" or "Big Small" a listen from the web site for a taste.
6) The Kills: Midnight Boom Several posts. Lookhere, here, andhere.
5) Dodos: Visiter Also several posts on this blog--see here, here, andhere. Please note that as much as I like this album, I still liked their first album more. Get that one first.
4) The Black Keys: Attack & Release There are enough drum/guitar duos out there now (see Dodos) that they could practically be their own genre at this point. ButThe Black Keysare really in a class of their own. Really, no white boys should be able to create and perform this type of bluesy rock fusion music so well. Attack & Release, which was produced by Danger Mouse, is a bit of a departure for the BKs, but not only did I tolerate it, I enjoyed it immensely. There are a few more instruments thrown in; it's a bit more rock-oriented. I definitely like it better than their last release, Magic Potion, and I think it's a close second behind Rubber Factory. I already know Evelyn Is Not Real is going to disagree with me on BK faves, but whatever.
1-tie) Thao and the Get Down Stay Down: We Brave Bee Stings and All I posted about this album hereback in April, and it's continued to grow on me ever since that first listen. It's rare that I get songs stuck in my head months after getting an album, but these songs are that catchy.
1-tie) Jim White: Transnormal Skiperoo Discussedhereandhere. Still the most cathartic album I've heard in ages.
Honorable Mentions: The Ditty Bops: Summer Rains Headlights: Some Racing, Some Stopping (check out the video for their great song "Cherry Tulips" at the bottom of the post!) Tilly and the Wall: o Eef Barzelay: Lose Big The Magnetic Fields: Distortion Pepe Ginsberg: Red
Mike Judge, the man who brought us Beavis & Butthead, King of the Hill, and Office Space, dropped the cult-classic-to-be Idiocracy about two years ago. Don't remember it being in the theaters? That's because I think the the movie was released in Omaha and Boise for about a week. This movie actually made some minor headlines in pop culture circles because it was probably one of the most poorly distributed films by a relatively well-known (and well-liked) writer/director in recent history.
Which is too bad, because more people should see this movie. I hesitate to call it a "film" because it's not that good. But it was highly entertaining. I laughed out loud several times, and even managed to pour water all over my crotch at one point from laughing...which is kind of ironic considering what I was watching. The story here is pretty simple. Luke Wilson plays Average Joe Army Man who's placed in suspended animation (along with a hooker, for some reason), and pretty much forgotten about for 500 years. When he finally wakes up, the human race has grown so incredibly stupid that they can barely speak in complete sentences and the Oscar winner for best picture of the year is a 90 minute video of someone's ass. Joe has become the smartest man in the world.
Yes, the movie is high concept and low brow, but it's pulled off with aplomb. If there's anything Luke Wilson is good at, it's playing an Every Man. If there's one thing Mike Judge knows how to write, it's stupidity. The people in this future are really, really, really dumb. If I had better taste, I might write this movie off as a very long skit of people doing stupid things, which may get tiring for a lot of people. But I also choose to see it as a biting social satire. I challenge anyone to see this movie and not worry just a tiny bit about how accurate it's portrayal of the future might be.
Below you'll see the clip that introduces the movie (lotsa NSFW language). This was the part of Idiocracy I'd actually seen before. You'll laugh, but you'll also feel a little sick, because you'll know, deep in your heart, that this is really what's happening in the world right now. Smart people: get screwin'.
I seem to be having tremendous difficulty with my lifestyle. --Arthur Dent
First time at R.B.'s L-C?
First, you should probably know that this blog has nothing to do with Ray Bradbury. Sorry if that's what led you here. Also, there's not all that much about camels. Actually, you're far more likely to someday find something on here about Ray Bradbury than camels, but I digress. For an indirect explanation of our name and a mission statement (of sorts), please check out our first post.
beers come out. Pumpkin ales are very hit or miss--I generally try one new pumpkin ale a year and 2/3 of the time I'm disappointed because it tastes more like pie than beer. The so-called "Oktoberfest" beers tend to be a bit sketchy, too. But there are still plenty of rich, flavorful beers to be found, such as Redhook's Late Harvest Ale.
