Monthly Archives: December 2006
"The Magic Music Makes Your Morning Mood"
Sometimes the iPod gets it right. This morning I put in my earbuds, pressed “shuffle songs,” and held my breath — then Band of Horses’ “Funeral” came on, and I knew it was going to be a great day. Read the rest of this entry
Silversun Pickups – Carnavas, and 80′s revival bands
Silversun Pickups is a band out of Silverlake, a young/hip neighborhood of Los Angeles. They’ve gotten a lot of positive attention for their album, Carnavas, and a lot of comparisons to Sonic Youth and Smashing Pumpkins. The comparisons are deserved. They’re one of those indie bands that wear their influences on their sleeve. It bugs me to no end.
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Cinemasochist Review: Santa With Muscles
It might be a slight exaggeration to say that Hulk Hogan should be executed for war crimes. After all, he’s never actually been in a war. But Santa With Muscles remains an unspeakable crime against all that we hold dear. Read the rest of this entry
Movie Review: Night at the Museum
The Premise: At night, after the museum of natural history closes, the exhibits come to life, causing trouble for the night watchman. Mayhem ensues.
The Pitch: It’s like Jumanji crossed by Home Alone—but in a museum!
The Plot: Well, to tell you the truth, it’s pretty inconsequential and really wasn’t worth the time the movie spent setting it up. (And what plot does exist is pretty clichéd: A father must rise to the occasion to prove to his son that he’s worthwhile, while learning something about the virtue of perseverance. Or something. Frankly, the movie could have left the main character’s personal life on the cutting room floor and the movie wouldn’t have suffered.
The Point: A largely mindless, but fairly entertaining Holiday special effects extravaganza best enjoyed in the company of young children.
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Is the best film of 2006 here? Top 5 Christmas Songs
1) O Holy Night
2) Jingle Bells
3) White Christmas
4) Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer
5) Little Drummer Boy
NOTE: While I understand a few of these songs are inexorably linked to the artist who sings them I’m trying to keep this list to the song itself.
Name These Smoochey Songs
I’ve spliced together clips of songs to see how many you can all identify. This week’s clips all feature the word “kiss” in them. What can I say, I guess the mistletoe inspired me.
I’ll give you a day or two to make your guesses, then I’ll post the answers. There are clips from 18 songs this time.
Song clips are in the radio.blog: “Name These Smoochey Songs”
NOTE: You might want to listen and make your guesses before reading the comments, or other people’s guesses might spoil your fun.
UPDATE: I’ll paste the answers in down below. If you haven’t had a chance to make your guesses, don’t click on the “more” link until you have!
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Best TV Shows of 2006
The first half of the new TV season is pretty much over at this stage. So one is really able to gauge how TV is doing. I think that the last six years or so has seen a renaissance in television. It started with alternative networks like HBO or Showtime making really compelling movies. Then they started with alternative shows, usually with 8 – 10 episodes a season. Then that spread to basic cable and finally to the networks themselves. Whereas once I’d have ridiculed TV now I can honestly say that there is more good stuff on than I can watch. So here are my choices for new shows and then overall shows.
Best shows of 2006: year-end concert recap
I went through my list of shows I saw this year, and it seems like I didn’t make it to that many, but I actually caught about 23. And the ones I saw were all excellent.
Some of my favorite shows I wasn’t able to take my camera to, though—including Mastodon w/Converge, Damien Rice w/the Swell Season, Bob Mould, and Iron Maiden w/Three Inches of Blood. Other big highlights this year for me were Opeth, the Hellacopters, and Calexico.
So here’s the year in shows… Read the rest of this entry
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