Band Name

Adam and I came up with this one tonight: ClownHat

An all Clown Foghat cover band who all speak really seriously during their set, between songs.

Backflips are a state of mind.

Hey Kids,
The first thing you need to do is immediately go to Sound Verite and download Beach House's cover of Queen's "Play The Game." It was supposed to be on that Dark is the Night comp, and then it wasn't and now it is if you buy a physical copy and not a download (or some nonsense like that.)

If you know me or have just figured out my not-so-secret love for girl fronted indie-pop, you'll likely already know that I'm loving the new Camera Obscura album "My Maudlin Career." It is in no way shape or form a departure from the formula they've been using for the last three albums, but on the first listen I'm enjoying it more than 2006's "Let's Get Out of This Country." Radiobutt has it.

While you're already at Radiobutt you can download the totally awesome new "Veckatimest" from Grizzly Bear. If you liked the Fleet Foxes album from last year, try this on for size, I think it's way better.

If you feel like punishing yourself for being bad this week, I had a hell of a time sitting through the new Cursive album "Mama, I'm Swollen" which is as garbage as it's name. We Are The Brain Washers (which I swear is a dope blog) has it.

I'm currently tired as hell and in the mood to zone out a bit, so I'm going to be bumping the new Mono "Hymn to the Immortal Wind." Which you'll find over at Messiento.

To leave you on a high note, everything RZA touches is solid gold. He is the hip-hop King Midas. Afro-Samurai: Resurrection was a dope movie, and the (demo at least) for the game was dope, so here's the soundtrack to the game from our homies over at Onlyrealhiphop.

Pee Ess: Thanks everybody, now Watchmen is definitely waiting until it's DVD/dollar theater release before it rapes my eyes like the book's choppy writing raped my brain.

Not exactly a review but more of a thought on Watchmen.

So, it's been about 3 days for me since I have seen Watchmen and still I have yet to decide if I really liked it as much as I think I do. It's hard for me to decide beacuse I read all the reviews and suck in other's opinions like a sponge but still my head is spinning.

When I saw it I walked out of the theatre in a weird daze. I couldn't get the book out of my head which sucks because I didn't go and read a book, I went to watch a film. Yet still, all I could do was think about the book comparing to the film. I think this was a huge flaw with the movie itself. The first half of it was almost flawless with the actual graphic novel. Shot for shot, word for word and yes that little fanboy inside of me jumped for joy everytime Rorschach said something (which I totally agree, he was by far the best part of the film). Now the second half of it was what puzzled my tiny lil brain. It went off the pages so much that I got lost. Having been so faithful to the book for 90 minutes then just making up your own parts fucked with me terribly and I started to get confused. I am not sure if I was confused because of the movie itself or the book. I am actually going to be seeing it again to see if I can get a better grasp of it on my own and without the book inside of my head.

I will tell you though, I have really no problem with Zach Snyder. I thought his visuals were amazing. What he did with some of the panels in the book were just incredible and some scenes will really be with me forever. So I guess that sums it up. I didn't like the whole movie but I fuckin loved alot of the parts of the movie. Just exactly like the book. I never truly loved the book. I just really like parts of the book. So all in all I am happy.

Word to your mother,
Chad

Watchmen Review by Dave

if you haven't seen watchmen, don't read this - it's full of spoilers.

First off, I haven’t read the comic (and now do not intend to, especially after eyedialect pretty much told me what I suspected even before the movie came out – that it’s not that good) and if you believe that debunks my analysis of the film then I’m sorry you’re one of those blind fanboys I was making fun of in the theater last night. Let go a little and open your mind to some critical thinking. And being accused of being pretentious just tells me you simply aren’t capable of intellectually analyzing something beyond its veneer.

Let’s start with the cursory; the music was pretty bad. At best it felt forced, at worst it was forced, awkward and out of place. I’m still a bit perplexed by the 10 seconds of 99 Luftballoons for seemingly no reason. The showcase example, though, is that god awful cover of “Hallelujah” during the Owl-Ship fuck scene. The opening credits were pretty awesome though with Bob Dylan’s “the times they are a-changin”, probably the only example of good use of music.

Which segues nicely to my next issue: editing. I always prefer a movie be longer then shorter. Mostly because I feel like too many movies feel waaay too rushed, probably do to studios imposing restraints on the film crew, so it’s nice when a movie feels fleshed out. Watchmen, however, really should have been an hour shorter then it was. Whoever was in charge of editing did a bad job. Too often scenes would drag on and at the end of it you were left with no more then you had when you started. A totally awkward fuck scene could have been cut form 7 minutes to a few shots, that scene really could have been implied with the same effect. Way too often this movie is inconsiderate and self-indulgent, “I’m really really important, and you will sit through me” was kind of the over-bearing vibe. It’s ironic that Rorschach continually admonishes mankind for its hedonism and arrogance, when this film is exactly that.

I admire the attempt to lay the movie out very much like a comic. An idea which sounds good on paper, but doesn’t quite make the transition to the screen. There are flashbacks throughout which act as the opening narrative to a monthly issue of a comic which works great – in a comic. In the movie these flashbacks are tired, drawn out, and bring the movie and momentum to a grinding halt – and, again, afterwards, you’re left with no more then what you had to begin with.

For such a convoluted plot, the foci of which is the destruction of the human race, it wasn’t very humane. It was emotionally unapproachable; it was difficult to be invested in any of the characters. I think this was in part because of cardboard performances on some parts – like, for instance, Silk Spectre’s Martian plea to Dr Manhattan to save the human race; she might as well have been asking him to return some clothes after a break up. I didn’t care about any of them and, by extension, didn’t care about the fate of humanity – and, in this post 9/11 world you have to try hard NOT to evoke some feeling when it comes to a terrorist attack on NYC, it’s a gimmie, how did Zac Snyder botch that?

The only exception here was Rorschach who’s only real avenue of connectability was “hell yeah, kill bad guys”. At first I didn’t like Rorschach’s way over-the-top 1920’s gumshoe noir detective film spin, and was even more put off by his forced gravel voice – but my reservations were quickly waylaid and Rorschach grew to be the only thing about the movie I truly loved. Jackie Earle Haley’s performance was fantastic.

There were a few things that stuck out like sore thumbs. The first being Nixon’s make up. Are you fucking kidding me? How did something that awful slip in a movie which otherwise looks fantastic (if, maybe, a little overly CG). It was pretty hard to focus on any of the scenes involving Nixon.

Next, the blue horned tiger at the end. What the fuck? As I said, I’ve never read the comic, if that was in the comic then cool – but it was so out of left field in the movie, it was a detractor for an important scene. When I first saw it I at least thought it would be involved in the climactic end fight, that would have at least justified it a little – but nope, here’s a blue horned tiger and two minutes later, it’s blown up…..what?

And lastly, Dr. Manhattan’s crystal-constructed clockwork conveyance (there’s some alliteration for your ass), again if that was in the comic (which I’m sure it was) did it get any explanation? Being faithful to source material is great and trust me I go nuts when directors fuck it up (I wanted to kill someone after I Am Legend) but faithful directors must also understand that when it comes to film, there will be a lot of people who haven’t consumed the source material, it’s the nature of the art. As a director you have to pay attention to what those who are raging fans of the source won’t think twice about and what will boggle those who aren’t. Like sudden blue horned tigers.

The entire thing felt like it was just trying too hard to force-feed huge ideas. There was too much focus on big without the groundwork, which ultimately left it feeling scattered. It was; open with spy thriller James Bond action scene and slo-mo body thrown through pane glass – now it’s Rorschach’s noir detective film - now it’s campy lover’s tiff on mars – now it’s Arctic neo-Nazi Egyptian pharaoh with the keys to doomsday – and then – and then. The movie was like a beautiful building, a genius example of architectural mastery – sitting on a flawed amateur’s foundation.

So was it bad? No. Was it good. No. It was okay at best.

It’s a good example of a victim of its own hype. I really wanted to come out of the theater and stand corrected, and be able to admit that everyone was right and the it was all it was hyped to be, but that wasn’t the case.

At least there was a sweet new Terminator trailer before Watchmen

Diablo Cody's ugly troll ass belongs under a bridge asking people three riddles

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Don’t get me wrong, I understand that in certain mediums of entertainment it’s understandable and enhancing to have a stage name of sorts. Now, how valid, understandable, applicable or annoying the stage name may be is as variable as the persons using them. No big surprise, however, that most monikers are just fucking obnoxious. Need a good example? How about Bono. Oh, and speaking of U2 – their guitarist goes by “The Edge”….no, really.

But, that’s music. How about pro wrestlers? No one uses their real name. Even film stars often change up their names. But that’s movies.

So what about literature? Well, I get that sometimes perhaps the author’s subject is something dangerous, or for whatever ever reason, they may need to keep their identity secret. Or perhaps there are several authors who chose to write united under a single name. Or maybe the author is writing something outside of their norm and need to be taken seriously and out of context of what they normally write, so they use a pen name.

Really what I’m getting at here is I fucking hate Diablo Cody. Because that’s a stupid goddam name, and everyone regards her like she’s super cool underground female Chuck Palahniuk (who is also retardedly overrated), pop culture messiah who’s every keystroke produces work of staggering genius and boundless wit that must taste like the sweetest ambrosia to any film/television exec because they all seem to eat it up. Writers don’t need rock star aliases, and those who have one are just as fucking stupid as the people who read their bullshit. Don’t even get me started on Poppy Z Brite. If you’re a writer then the work you produce is your name, if you want glitz and glamour you’re in the wrong field.

Any fuckfaced faggot can record some bullshit, upload it to myspace and land a record deal. To be a fucking actor all you have to do is be good looking, and often not even that – my point is you don’t need a honed and refined skillset for those things. Yes, a lot of musicians and actors are truly gifted at what they do – but a lot truly aren’t. So what right? Well the point is here that real talent when it comes to being successful at writing, it takes a fuck of a lot more then music or acting – and when some asshole does make it with a stupid moniker it cheapens the art that is writing. And it makes the rest of us look bad.

Diablo Cody isn’t a writer. She’s an ugly ex- stripper who had a blog, a blog some fucker thought was witty and helped her get a book deal. Oh and a stupid name. Apparently the rest of us real writers are going about this all wrong.

And by the way, for all you dumb fuckers that actually though Juno was a good movie, don’t be too stoked on her “writing” it – do a little research – she was a writing consultant.

Fuckers.

Baby Peach Is A Cunt

Binocular Soccer = Amazing.

Binocular Soccer is a pretty good idea, but I think Binocular Dodge-Ball would be waaaay better.



annnnnd....this kid.