01.31.07

The past two days have been really bad for anyone who's in love with Sienna Miller. First there are rumors about her with P Diddy and now this. One more reason to kill Hayden Christensen, if I actually needed one more. I fucking hate that guy.

*****

There's a charity organization called the Yellow Bird Project that sells some indie band shirts. The shirts are $25 and each band gets to chose their own charity to donate the profits to. I am particularly fond of the Wolfmother shirt, even though I'm also fond of my own money. We'll see which fondness wins out.

01.29.07

A review for Notes on a Scandal.

*****

Entourage Season 4 kicks off in April. Carla Gugino plays Vince's new agent and she's hot. Go figure.

01.25.07

For anyone who doesn't already know, the third season of IASIP starts this summer. Domino Biotch!

*****

Many thanks to Andy Guy for giving me Bloc Party's Silent Alarm Remix album. I know its been out for a while, but I never got around to it and hadn't even heard any of the tunes till now. Overall I like it quite a bit. A couple of the tracks are really disappointing (most notably Helicopter), but most are pretty good. These are the tracks I a particularly fond of; Phones Disco Edit - Banquet, Four Tet's - So Here We Are, DFA 1979's - Luno and Nick Zinner's - Compliments. Also, there is a hidden track remix version of Tulips that's pretty awesome. I don't know who's responsible for that one though. The version of Pioneers is pretty bad too. It feels like a crappy flashback scene at the end of a movie when someone figures all the twists and turns out where key lines of dialogue are repeated over melodramitic yet strangely intense music.

01.24.06

Apparently, Jerry Jones is attempting to hire Jason Garrett as the Cowboys offensive coordinator for next season. All of my bad memories of Jason Garrett aside, this seems to be a very confusing move to me since he DOESN"T even have a head coach yet! I can't recall a time when someone hired a coordinator before they hired a head coach. What person would want to come into a situation where their assistants are already chosen for them and they still have to deal with TO. Jerry Jones is an idiot.

01.23.07

I made my Top Ten movies for 2006

*****

I wrote a review for Letters from Iwo Jima.

*****

Oscar nominations were just released, and there weren't many surprises in the bunch. I was happy to see that a few of the movies I really liked got nominated for some stuff (Letters From Iwo Jima, Flags of Our Fathers, Little Miss Sunshine, The Prestige, Pan's Labyrinth). Its a little sad that The Prestige and Pan's Labyrinth have to go head to head for best cinematography. I would like to see them both win for that. I also really hope that Pan's wins for best score, because the music was one of the best parts of the movie.

One thing that does surprise me is the nominations for United 93 for Achievement in Directing and Film Editing. Personally, I liked this movie, but I thought I was one of the only people who thought it was any good. I did think it got a little long with the whole, "We don't know what's happening with the planes!" thing, however, I thought it did a great job of keeping an intense pace and holding suspense for a movie that everyone already knew the event and the ending. Because of this, I like these nominations. That said, I don't think it should win, but eventually I am going to have to decide who should win instead of just saying who shouldn't (already discussed in my reaction to the Emmy's).

I don't think this year should have too many huge surprises in the envelopes, aside from a few categories where it seems to be anybody's ball game (I really don't know much about the actress categories, aside from who's favored). One thing I hope is that Dreamgirls doesn't take all the sound, costume and art direction type categories just because its a Hollywood musical. I'm really sick of that crap. Chicago is one of the worst movies of the decade and didn't deserve any awards, but still managed to pull a bunch of them out of nowhere because "everyone" loves a musical.

One thing I find interesting is that this might finally be the year where something finally beats Disney/Pixar for the best animated film. Both of the other two had great animation also and were both considered really good movies. Plus, while I liked cars a lot, it wasn't as good as their last 3 movies, The Incredibles (still the best movie of 2004), Finding Nemo and Monsters Inc.

01.22.07

I wrote a review of Pan's Labyrinth.

*****

I just watched the trailers for Danny Boyle's new movie Sunshine. This is easily my most anticipated movie of 2007, along with Spider-man 3. There is no #3 after those two, although I do want to see how hilarious Pathfinder can be.

P.S. Congrats to the people who put together the Sunshine trailer for using the best trailer music ever. The music was featured in the movie Requiem for a Dream, but has been used in such awesome trailers as Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

01.19.07

I bought the new"ish" Silversun Pickups CD, Carnavas, the other day. I had only heard a couple of their songs, only one of which is actually on this album. Best Buy had it on sale for the week at 7 bucks, so I decided to pick it up and thus far I'm glad I did. The song on the album that I had already heard, "Well Thought out Twinkles" is probably in the top three on the CD, but overall the whole thing is pretty solid. I'm not sure yet how much replay value it will have, but for the amount of money I paid, its been well worth it.

*****

Is it just me or does Greg Oden look like an old Bill Russell?



Old Bill



Bill's new look (on the right)

I'm pretty sure he just dyed his hair and decided to play college ball again. Maybe he needs more money and thought this was his best way to get back into the NBA.

01.18.07

Apparently Courtney Love has hand picked Ewan McGregor to play her late husband, Kurt Cobain, in a movie about his life. I wonder if they'll show her holding the gun to his head at the end of the movie?

*****

Someone needs to kill Tom Selleck and his Moustache before they see this!

01.17.07

I watched the second episode of the new FX show Dirt last night after seeing the last half of the premiere episode last week. If you haven’t started watching the show yet, you don’t need to feel too rushed. It isn’t a very good show. Its far from being the worst show on TV, but its just got nothing special to offer. I am willing to give it a couple more episode, just because I still have a bit of a crush on Courtney Cox, and its got some other pretty hot ladies in it. One funny thing to watch for though is Rick Fox, former LA Laker and former Mr. Vanessa L. Williams. A number of years ago he made the switch from the Boston Celtics to the LA Lakers because he wanted to start his acting career. Now, about 10 years later he’s getting his shot and putting up an air ball. He is pretty hilarious to watch though because he isn’t able to keep his eyes on their mark when he’s shooting a scene. He keeps looking around like he’s just waiting for Ving Rhames to come get medieval on his ass. I think the biggest problem with the show is that its too extreme. In the first episode, a movie star pregnancy was leaked, so she overdosed and the guy who leaked the info about her pregnancy went crazy, crashed his car and nearly killed his girlfriend, who's a major TV star. In the second episode, the TV star is recovering from her injuries, gets hooked on painkillers and other drugs, her boyfriend who leaks info to Courtney Cox, starts getting large movie roles, while a teen queen burned herself freebasing and a Basketball star (Rick Fox) has to leak info about how a major rapper was killed by his manager so that gay photos of him won't make it into the magazine. Sounds like a lot, it is. Its too much. This seems to be happening a lot with shows recently, even some of my favorites.

01.16.07

I wrote a review for Children of Men on Jae Phlec's site.

*****

Here are a few of my thoughts regarding last night's Emmy Awards (I love how I threw that out there like you've been waiting for it or, "Now I'm writing this, so you just have to sit back and take it Clockwork Orange style"). Anyway, I can't believe that Martin Scorsese won for The Departed and now he's considered the frontrunner for the Oscar. Anyone who's reading this probably knows how I feel about the movie and I'm not saying he did a bad job and he's obviously a great director, but come on. For him to win and Oscar or an Emmy for this movie seems like a shame to me, just like when everyone on E! was trying to get him the Oscar for Gangs. Departed is no where close to his best movie, in fact it isn't even in his top 5 probably(in no particular order, Goodfellas, Taxi Driver, Casino, Raging Bull, Aviator, Color of Money, King of Comedy, Michael Jackson's "Bad" video) Personally I think all of those were better than The Departed. I know what he's done in the past shouldn't matter towards how they vote and maybe this is just a sign of how bad movies were this year, but it just seems like everyone is just so ready to give him an Oscar that they don't care about what movie its for. Its a good movie, but that's it. Good movies don't win awards. I say, just wait a couple of years and give him two lifetime achievement awards. He deserves those, but not one this year.

I usually don't look at many of the red carpet pictures, but I did this time and its official, Kate Winslet, Sienna Miller and Evangeline Lilly are hot. Maggie Gyllenhaal is still a dog though. I would rather do her brother, at least I know he's the catcher.

01.15.07

Nine Inch Nails are releasing a new album in April. I don't know what else to say, except I liked their last album, With Teeth, a lot and I am looking forward to this one.

*****

Also in music news, Bloc Party is going to be in Chicago on March 23. I am probably going to want to go, so contact me if you want to come along.

Crest Whitestrips

I just got done using crest white strips today and they weren't as much of a pain the the ass as I thought they would be. They are a little difficult at times, but overall they are pretty easy to use. The big downside is that my teeth have been sore the whole week. According to a couple of people I talked to, this is completely normal because of the amount of peroxide they're using. I was told all I would have to do is get those dentist fluoride things with the mouthpieces and the pain would go away, but I'm too lazy for that and it isn't really pain as much as just a little bit of discomfort. All in all they worked out, no as well as I'd hoped, but I probably shouldn't have expected to come out looking like Deion Sanders when the week was done.


"Neon" Deion "Whitest Teeth" Sanders

Tony Homo

I bogarted this link from Frank because I think its hilarious. Someone made Drew Bledsoe's blog for the sole purpose of bashing Tony Romo. I think everyone should read his live blog of the Seattle playoff game. If it really is Drew Bledsoe, he officially passes Paul Shirley for funniest guy in sports, that is IF Paul Shirley is still technically "in sports".

24

The new season of 24 starts on sunday night and I am almost completely jacked. My only problem is that all the ads for the new season are supposed to be setting up the fact that Jack Bauer will supposedly give up his life for the US. Now, while I don't really think they are going to kill JB in the first four hours of this season, thanks to fox being run by idiots, I know he isn't going to die for quite some time. Since they released the fact that Kiefer Sutherland signed a three year deal last April with fox to stay Jack Bauer for the next three years, it kind of kills the suspense. I have been waiting for the day (dreading is more accurate) when my hero would die saving all of humanity from some bomb/gas/sea serpent since about the middle of season 3. Now I know he will play a major role in at least the next two and a half seasons. Watch, now that I've said this, a giant cyclops will kill Jack and then reign his terror down on the earth by the end of monday's premier and fox will release the following statement, "We only renewed Mr. Sutherland's contract to remain an executive producer on the show 24, not for him to remain in the role of Jack Bauer. Haha fooled you."

Here's a good article about some of the production things for the show. Don't be afraid, it doesn't have any spoilers in it.

New Brewers Voice

The Milwaukee Brewers introduced Brian Anderson as their new television play by play announcer today. He is taking the place of the recently departed Daron Sutton and will team up with color man Bill Schroeder. I have to admit, my first thought was, "What's the former pitcher for the Indians/Diamondbacks doing calling Brewers games now?" Personally I know almost nothing about him besides what's in this article, so hopefully it works out and I don't hate him, like about 90% of the other television announcers.

Spitting Feathers

I recently bought Thom Yorke's new release Spitting Feathers. The CD contains the B-sides from his summer CD The Eraser, along with the video and extended mix of Harrowdown Hill. The songs are really good, including the extended mix of Harrowdown Hill actually being pretty different from the original (I got the extended version of Life in a Glass House a while back and that only had a 15 second horn intro added to it. Disappointing). I would suggest this CD to anyone who liked The Eraser, which should be all of you.

Bend it Like Posh Spice's Baby Daddy

I don't even like soccer, much less respect it as a sport, but I do like Posh Spice's work and realize that David Beckham signing a deal to play with MLS' LA Galaxy is a pretty big deal (not just because he will be making 250 million for 5 years). If people start to show up at the games and Beckham continues to put butts in the seats, this will almost certainly lead to other European stars signing reasonably large contracts to finish their careers across the pond. I fear that even more people in the US will care too much about a bad sport now.

However, I am looking forward to the complete over exposure/idolatry of the Beckham family on all Mtv and VH1 shows. I hope VH1 makes a statue of Beckham's Golden Calf out of the melted down gold from Flava Flav's grills.

* I would like to add that his deal is apparently 5 years for $250,000,000 (salary + endorsements). Now, I don't know how they are factoring endorsements into his contract in this case, but that much money for a player of his status isn't all that egregious. Tiger Woods makes way more than 50 million per year after endorsements and Michael Jordan is still probably higher than that amount and he's only got endorsements now. I guess what I'm saying is don't read too much into this $50 mil per year just yet. If it turns out that the team is paying all of that money, then you can shit your pants. I know I will.

Bloc Party

They changed the release of the new CD from January to Feb. 6, with the special edition only releasing in the UK. I heard the first single off the album, The Prayer, and it sounded pretty cool. It sounds a little like the stuff from the first CD, but its also a little more edgy/poppy. If you're on Myspace, you can check it out on their page (at least you could a few weeks ago when I went there).

Extras 2

I already saw the season 2 premiere episode of Extras that is supposed to air for the first time this Sunday, Jan 14th (for whatever reason HBO On Demand already made it available). It was great. Orlando Bloom is the narcissitic guest star and Andy has to learn to deal with his dream sitcom being prodded and picked apart by everyone and their mother over at the BBC. Plus, there are lots of scenes with the Andy's agent and his favorite client, Barry from East Enders. If you have HBO On Demand I suggest you access it soon, and if not, definitely set your dvr or tune in on sunday night after the new Rome.

*I added a little more to a review that I wrote for Jae Phlec's site. 01.12.07

Patrick Hruby, a writer for ESPN's Page 2 who I've virtually ignored my whole life, put together the ignominious effort awards for 2006. Its a lot lik one big list that The Onin might do. He's got some really good lines in it and some of the shit is just really funny by itself. Here's a link to part 1. I plan to read more of his stuff in the future.



* part 2

Music Updates

I got some news (some of it not so recent) that I'm really exited about.

1. Interpol is actually working on a new album and updating there website a little. It is still pretty far off apparently, but still good news.

2. Bloc Party's new album is not far off. Its set to hit shelves in January. Very good news.




















3. Thom Yorke recently appeared on Nigel Godrich's new show From the Basement. He played a couple of songs on the piano from Radiohead's upcoming album. They cost 2 bucks a piece, but they're pretty awesome.

The Prestige

Here's a link to what I thought about the Prestige. Hint, I liked it.

http://vidfad.com/the-prestige-review.htm

Bill Simmons has a pretty great article about Milwaukee and then going to Lambeau Field up on his page. Unfortunately he gets Tony Canedeo's number wrong (its 3, not 5)

Warning: its a really long article, so if you're going to read it, go to the bathroom now.

Germany/Austria pictures

I will post more later. Click on any of the images to super size.


Neuschwanstein Castle in the Bavarian Alps


Dan, Andy and I swimming in Swan Lake near Neuschwanstein Castle.


Here I come Dan.


Heidelberg from Schloss Heidelberg


All of us at the Stiegl Brewery


Dan and a canon


The Augustiner Beer Garden (its still way bigger than this picture looks)


Old town Salzburg and Hohen Salzburg up on the hill


The Shoenbrun Palace and some of Vienna


The inside of the Hofbrau Haus


Kitzke just wanted a good place to sleep for a while. This wasn't a good place.

The Eraser

I got Thom Yorke's new CD, The Eraser, and I love it. I've heard it being called Kid B, and I think that's a decent way of describing it. For anyone who's heard of it, this CD sounds a good amount like the Com Lag EP that was released after Hail to the Thief.

Salzburg

I am in Salzburg right now and its really cool. Its kind of nestled in the outskirts of the Alps, so there are a bunch of little mountains around the city. There is a giant fortress on top of one of these mountains that looms directly over the city. We went up to it yesterday and I got a ton of good pictures of the city. Salzburg also has the best beer garden I've been to yet, the Augustiner Bier Stübe. Its really big and awesome. They give you a liter ceramic mug and then fill your beer out of a giant wooden barrel. Then you get to go out and sit under the trees in the giant garden part. I also visited the Stiegl brewery today, cause since we've gotten to Austria we've been going to town on their beer. The brewery was cool, but the tour itself wasn't all that spectacular. I did find out that they make pony kegs, so I need to find one to get my hands on in the US.

Leaving Vienna

I'm leaving for Salzburg today, and I just wanted to say that I still don't like soccer. I've seen all four games that have occurred since I 've been here and I fell asleep for a bit during all of them. Boring stuff. Vienna is a cool city, even though the area around the Danube was a complete dissapointment. We've pretty much just been hanging out, walking around and checking different stuff and places out.

Vienna

Sorry, but this was the first internet I could get to since Ive been here. Im in Vienna now and I was in Munich for three days, which basically means Ive nbeen drinking for the last three days. Hofbrau Haus is awesome! I have great pictures of Kitzke face down in a cobblestone street. Actually its only one picture, but its just as awesome as you can imagine. But, I still dont like soccer and Ive had a blast telling eveyone I meet. I am heading to the Danube tomorrow and maybe Bratislava, just for the shit of it, and then Im off for Salzburg. I will try to keep posting.

Who else wants a moustache ride?

I went to the Eagles of Death Metal show last night and it was pretty much the best time I've had at a show maybe ever. Jesse "Boots Electric" Hughes puts on an awesome rock show. We were jumping and yelling the whole time. Anytime we got the chance, Two Scoops and I were yelling for moustache rides. The highlight of the evening was when we lifted Lauren up and Boots threw her his incredibly drenched Atomic Records shirt. Fucking great time!



Jessie "Boots Electric" (sorry, I have no pictures to use from the show, but I do have an awesome shot of Lauren and Boots together on my phone)

And here it is 01.11.07

News Everyone

Just so everybody knows, Radiohead is going to be in Chicago on June 19-20 and Bloc Party is going to be at the Intonation Festival in Chicago on June 25. As of right now I am planning on two trips to Chicago in less than a week. People need to contact me soon so I know who's in.