Monthly Archives: March 2006
Playlist Thunderdome, Week 43
It does, indeed, take two to make a thing go right. Rob Base & DJ EZ-E’s classic “It Takes Two” DEMOLISHED the competitors.
This week: because I couldn’t stand not having Radiohead on the playlist. Read the rest of this entry
Review: Slither
“Meat! Meat!”
Oh my. Prepare yourself, folks! The real future of horror movies isn’t DOOM or Uwe Boll movies or even SAW. No, it’s the big-budget B-movie, blending camp and shock into an unwieldy, enjoyable mess. 
SLITHER is the newest offering from James Gunn, who brought us the tepid 2004 DAWN OF THE DEAD remake and the (hopefully) forgettable SCOOBY-DOO movie. Fanboys and girls, take heart: at its core, SLITHER is a redneck, fun, campy, gross, witty, deadpan horror movie, the likes of which I haven’t seen since TREMORS. Read the rest of this entry
Review: Inside Man
Inside Man represents a welcome return to form for Spike Lee after recent drek like She Hate Me. 
Any movie whose soundtrack begins with a rousing Bollywood filmi number (without dancers, alas) is going to win friends, even if there is nothing even vaguely Indian about the film. OK, there’s a Sikh in it who is mistaken for an Arab. Such openings may smack of Spike Lee in full gratuitous mode, but Inside Man brings style and substance into near harmony.
Clive Owen plays the cerebral bank robber with a plan to execute the perfect heist. Denzel Washington is the world-wise cop (complete with trademark Denzel grin and verbal suavité) whose job it is to make sure Owen doesn’t walk out of the bank’s front door a free man (as Owen has promised to do). Christopher Plummer is the billionaire bank owner with a dirty secret in the vault, a secret that the film sensibly reveals early on. Inside Man is not about the secret, it’s about the heist that the secret makes possible. Hint: if Christopher Plummer had a dirty secret, what do you think it would be? Think elderly Swiss bankers. (Oh, Christopher, why the hell didn’t you burn the bloody thing?)
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Show Review: The Hellacopters/Nebula 3-25-06 Los Angeles, CA
The Hellacopters are a straight-up fun rock band. They’re usually labelled garage rock and compared to the MC5 and the Stooges. Their latest album, Rock’n'Roll is Dead, simply proves that it isn’t.
I feel completely lame that I only discovered them a couple years ago (they’ve been around a long time) and had never seen them live before last weekend. I knew they’d be great. And they were.
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The Most Brilliant Podcast
If you haven’t yet listened to Ricky Gervais’ podcast, run to you local iTunes Music Store and get it. And it’s not what’s being said that’s so freaking funny, it’s all about how they say it. The reactions to Karl are golden.
Pure brilliance.
Review: Ice Age: The Meltdown
I imagine that there are two types of reviews to make of a sequel. The first type takes the film on its own merits, disregarding the initial film and examining the plot, characters and filmmaking as a whole. The second type of review analyzes the film in the continuity of the series, holding it up against the standard set by the first film and examining character development, consistency and overall tenor and quality.
Neither of these methods will work for ICE AGE: THE MELTDOWN. All you really want to know is, how are the scenes with the Scrat? Read the rest of this entry
Playlist Thunderdome, Week 42
The controversial “Hippie” songs battle is over. By a single vote, Simon & Garfunkel – 59th Street Bridge Song beat out the Woodstock version of “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes”. Don’t ever say your vote doesn’t matter!!
This week: your three favorite songs. Read the rest of this entry
I’m Suddenly, Completely Uninterested In March Madness
Winning the whole game. Up by 17 at one point. All they had to do was make one more shot in the final three minutes… or hold onto the ball at the end… or ANY OTHER ACTION EXCEPT WHAT HAPPENED! This was one of those moments (remember the Super Bowl) that every single thing that could have gone wrong, did. Like the forces of unfairness were rising up against my team.
It now officially sucks to be a Seahawks AND Gonzaga fan.
I effing hate sports.
The most brilliant band recording music today is a death metal band.
What do you think of when you hear the phrase “death metal?” Skinny kids in Sweden wearing corpse paint? Sorry, that’s black metal. Do you think of brutal, heavy, crushing music with abrasive, growled vocals? Or beautiful, melodic, compelling music with soft vocals? Fans of Opeth will know, death metal is both. But then, Opeth fans would’ve known who I was referring to by the title alone.
Review: Destroyer, Destroyer's Rubies
Dylanesque. Troubadour. Rambling. Storytelling. Adjectives like these sum up the overall style of Destroyer, Vancouverite Dan Bejar’s band, but they don’t really do a good job of conveying what Destroyer’s all about with the new album, “Destroyer’s Rubies.”
Yelpy. Self-referential. Musically basic, but lyrically superlative. That’s more like it. Read the rest of this entry
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