A few days ago I bought a Sirius satellite radio. I have such a long commute it seemed like a more than justifiable expense. Part of my reasoning of course is that I’m an extremely crass individual and purchasing the radio allowed me to continue to listen to Howard Stern after a gap of several months. In fact, while I have roughly 200 stations and many of them look very interesting, I have yet to move the dial away from Howard. The show really is better than I remembered it being. Howard seems much more relaxed now that his battles with Infinity and the FCC are behind him. It is fun to hear Stern and his cronies swear indiscriminately, but, even without that, the show is generally funnier. The atmosphere is looser, and Howard seems to have found his rhythm again. It’s a great way to kill a drive.
Expect me to have more to say about Sirius once I begin checking out some of the other stations.
[Mini digression #1-- The one bad thing I would say about the service at this point is that, since the unit I have broadcasts to an open FM station, my reception can be spotty depending on where I am. I haven't quite worked out this kink yet.]
[Mini digression #2-- This post comes to you in part thanks to John over at Chippy and Loopus who tried to persuade me on more than one occasion to buy the service. Thanks, John!]
(Damn, that’s a handsome devil!)
I’ll say upfront that X-men: The Last Stand was better than I thought it was going to be. Given the switch in directors (and my generalized dislike of Brett Ratner), the movie could have been a lot worse. In fact, I’m willing to chalk the movie’s problems up to a less-than-solid screenplay. While “Last Stand” works as an action movie, it’s missing a lot of the sophistication and heart that Bryan Singer managed to inject into the first two installments. And, once you look underneath all the fights and chases, you start to notice that certain things just don’t make sense. Certain characters do little more than stand there for twenty minutes at a time and then suddenly spring into inexplicable action. Also, without giving away too much, the film’s resolution is very muddy when you start to break it down.
X-men: the Last Stand is supposedly the last installment in the series. I’d like to say we’re going out on a high note but at least it’s not the unmitigated disaster I was expecting.
X-men: the Last Stand
2006
Brett Ratner, director.
**1/2 (out of five)
The life of the Prince fan is a rough one. For the past 20 years, we’ve been hoping against hope that he’d pull it together and make one more truly great album and at least go out with a bang. There was hope in 2004. Anyone who saw the Musicology Tour can attest to how great it was. If nothing else, our boy was firmly in control of a stage again.
Then, last night, the unthinkable happened. In a move that smacked of nothing but desperation, Prince performed two songs on “American Idol”. For those of you who have been paying attention, you may remember there was talk of this potentially happening a couple of months ago. Prince reportedly said he hated the show and had no interest in coaching the contestants. Negotiations broke down and the fans breathed a sigh of relief.
Last night (out of the blue) my wife and I were flipping channels and there he was performing two songs from 3121 on the Idol. Anyone out there reading this who might have been waiting for some sort of Prince renaissance you can stop waiting. It’s over. The dream is dead.
(There is no joy in Funkville.)
I couldn’t resist embedding this short clip deleted from Star Wars. It’s something of a Holy Grail to the fan
[Well, as you can see the clip's no longer available. I guess George's lawyers got wind of it. Weasels. --p.]
[Try here instead.]
You know, when a band puts out a double album reviewers almost always say “Edit this baby down and you’ve got a really solid single disc”. I don’t think that’s the case with the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Stadium Arcadium. More like a disc and half really. Though I’ve only listened to the record a couple of times all the way through I must say I’m having a good time with it. There aren’t any bad songs at all really and most of it’s really fun. “Arcadium” is probably the group’s best disc since 1995’s One Hot Minute. I’ve always liked Anthony Kiedis’ lyrics. While he’s hardly a Rhodes Scholar, he is loopily articulate. Even when I’m not sure what he’s talking about I do think he’s painting with words in much the same way as the late, great John Lennon.
So, pick it up. You could do a lot worse.
Stadium Arcadium
Red Hot Chili Peppers
***1/2 (out of five)
My commute can be as long as 90 minutes one way so I’m very grateful to iTunes for their free podcasts. For those of you who don’t know, a podcast is the equivalent of a radio program you can download and listen to on your mp3 player. These shows run the gamut from the professionally-done to the embarrassingly amatuerish. A couple of times a week I log in and grab all the shows I can. I’ll give a short list of the things I’ve been listening to below, but I’m always trolling for new content. As you’ll see, my tastes tend toward the tech-y and the entertainment-based. There are podcasts on a wide range of topics though so, if you’ve got a long trip ahead of you, you should check them out.
Podcasts I Have Known:
Ebert & Roeper (the audio portion of their weekly TV show)
“The Treatment” with Elvis Mitchell (interviews with actors, writers and directors –recent shows have included David Mamet, Edward Norton, Robert Towne and Ron Howard)
“This Week in Tech” with Leo Laporte (the name says it all)
“Diggnation” (another tech show with Kevin Rose, another TechTV alumnus)
“The Instance” (a weekly show covering all things “World of Warcraft” –alright, I know this one’s geeky; leave me alone)
I read about this site in Wired magazine. It’s short how-to videos hosted by women dressed as French maids. I don’t understand the concept, but, you know what? That’s okay.
French Maid TV.
Where to start, where to start…
Well kids, I’ve been away for a while so, to the three or four of you who visit regularly, I extend my apologies. Now let’s cover a few things quickly…
#1 –The NEW JOB:
I started a new full-time gig about two and a half weeks ago and so far it’s gone swimmingly. I dig what I’m doing and I’ve fallen in with a good bunch of guys. I’m afraid I can’t say too much more than that since the project itself is still top secret (and probably will be for another year or so). The commute to the new office is a little hairy but the Mrs and I are already looking into some new digs between there and where we are now. More on this as it develops.
#2 –The ELECTRONIC ENTERTAINMENT EXPO:
Earlier this week I went to the 2006 E3 at the L.A. convention center. I wish I had a whole laundry list of goodies to disclose to all you video game fans out there but the day was just so-so for yours truly. I did get to see some Playstation 3 stuff running on the show floor (it looks nice), but I didn’t get anywhere near the Nintendo booth. Seeing the big N’s new console was probably my biggest priority, but, then again, it was everyone else’s too. The line to get in was 4 hours long. I just couldn’t subject myself to that –especially after the particularly gnarly convention center cheeseburger I ate.
#3 –’ROUND the OL’ HOMESTEAD:
Things are going pretty well in the personal arena right now. My wife seems to be doing just fine and the twins are developing as expected. We’re both a little freaked-out that the lil’ buggers could be here as early as next month. Hope they’re ready to have a big kid as a daddy ’cause that’s what they’re going to get!
#4 –The LACK of REVIEWS:
Yeah, I know I haven’t posted any reviews for movies, TV, music or videogames lately, but that’s only because I haven’t listened to, watched or played much of anything lately (see #1 above). I did pick up the new Red Hot Chili Peppers, but I’ve only gotten through it once all the way. I did dig what I heard though.
More later. (Hopefully not with such a huge gap in between.)
Recent Comments