I don't know how, but I've somehow amassed a dedicated legion of 400+ followers to my little ol' bloggy blog. I'm not kidding myself though...I know most (re:ALL) of those numbers are inflated. They represent ghosts of Blogger past, those who perished in the great BANHAMMER purges that occur every few months (R.I.P thenitefalls!).
Well, to those 20-30 of you who tolerate my random/lameness I say thanks. I know I've been neglecting my blogger duties a bit lately, but pesky life/reality bullshit has been getting the best of me. MOAR posts in the future though! Thanks again. Here's to the next 100+ suckers...er, followers I nab in this year!
So, New York passed the Marriage Equality Act last week making it legal for individuals of the same sex to marry one another. I don't really have a problem with gay marriage...it's just marriage in general I despise. If two guys (or gals) want to be miserable and legally bonded to another person forever, or until they divorce, that's fine with me. Of course not everyone is stoked about the idea of gay marriage becoming legitimized. The usual cadre of haters from the religious right and social conservatives are not amused.
It's funny that some of the biggest homophobes out there...end being closeted homosexuals themselves. Take Batman for example.
Did you guys play the little interactive game? haha. I love these Totally Sketch videos. No matter what answer you picked, who cares! Fornicate and/or marry who or whatever the hell you want. Always remember:
You know you're getting old when you nostalgia for crap you barely even liked (or flat out hated) before only because it reminds of the past. Ladies and Gents, respected bloggers and all you trolls out there, it's with great sorrow that I present this latest installment of Vile Nostalgia...
"So come and get it"
I never got into Limp Bizkit. I tried to though. I really did. I bought their debut album, 3 Dollar Bill Yall$ after being brainwashed by radio/MTV into liking their cover of George Michael's song "Faith." Once I actually listened to the album I realized that "Faith" was the best song on it (and it wasn't even theirs!) and felt totally ripped off. My brief stint on the Limp Bizkit bandwagon may not have lasted long, but Fred Durst and his merry men did just fine without me.
The band's fame exploded in the late 90's/early 00's. They rode the anti-boy band wave of Nu-Metal aggro rock to astonishing heights. Selling millions of albums, touring arenas, pushing insanely popular music videos all over the MTV. Luckily, the band's popularity dropped once Ozzfest brought the Hatebreed style mosh to rural America in the mid 2000's.
Well guess what? Now I'm old and sort of get a kick out of Limp Bizkit's song "Break Stuff." No, I lie. I totally love this song. I have this thing with a co-worker of mine where we play fill in the blanks with some of the song's lyrics.
Here's some examples:
Q: "I'm a like a chainsaw. Chainsaw. I'll___ ___ ___ raw."
A: "skin your ass"
Q: "And if my day keeps going this way I just might ____ _____ _____ _____ tonight."
A: "break your fucking face"
It's so awesome! Enjoy today's little slice of Vile Nostalgia. Brought to you by yet another shitty day of work.
Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Jonathan Davis (Korn) and Pauly Shore cameos? HAHA. Kudos to anyone who recognized Stryker from KROQ radio/Loveline fame as well. Part of me misses those baggy pants and frosted/bleached hair cuts of the early millennium. The pathetic side. Apparently Limp Bizkit has a new album out. They're like the crappy gift that keeps on giving....
Old news is still sad news. I'm sure most everyone knows that Ryan Dunn, star of the Jackass franchise and CKY films died last week in a terrible car crash. I always feared that one of these guys would get seriously injured or even killed performing the stunts on their shows but sadly, Dunn died not while filming some epic prank but while doing something just as reckless, drunk driving.
I went on a loooong rant about how special the original Jackass series was for me as a teenager in my (less than stellar) review of Jackass 3D. Ryan Dunn represented a part of my youth that literally went up in flames last week. Poor bastard. He and those glory days of fecal play and bone braking will be missed by this nostalgic blogger.
This video is literally the best scene from Jackass 3D...the ending tribute/montage sequence. It highlights old clips from the shows beginnings more than ten years ago and each cast member as child. Ryan Dunn's section begins at the 0:53 sec mark. R.I.P. sir.
*NOTE*
video can't be embedded right now =/
here's the link:
I cut a nice little chunk of my finger off at work last night. This band-aid is making it difficult to type, hence the short post.
Not only is Slayer's 1988 album South of Heaven, my to "drive around town with the windows down and stereo full blast album of summer, 2011" but this song is exactly how it felt when I sliced myself:
*BONUS CLIP*
Here's Dave Lombardo shredding "Ghost of War"
Bryan Singer returns to 20th Century Fox's X-Men franchise with X-Men: First Class and boy am I glad he did. Singer directed 2000's X-Men and it's amazing sequel, 2003's X2. I remember spending a lifetime trying to stream the trailer for X-Men on my AOL 56K connection. I remember shitting bricks when I saw how badass Nightcrawler was in X2. That was all thanks to Singer. Bryan Singer made the first two X-men films so awesome. Then he bailed on his hit franchise to helm the GOD AWFUL Superman Returns flick. Worst of all, he took James Mardsen/Cyclops with him! The X-Men saga crashed and burned after Singer's departure. X-Men: The Last Stand was a joke and that X-Men Origins: Wolverine is one of the worst on screen film abortions I've ever seen. Thankfully, Singer is back for this latest X-Men installment. Ok, so he's not directing, but Singer's role as producer still counts for something! You'll see...
I knew things were off to a good start when the opening scene of First Class, directed by Matthew Vaughn, was a shot for shot re-shoot of the opening from Bryan Singer's original X-Men. This all important scene was like a silent nod, reminding the loyal X-fans (geeks) that the good guys were back and that this new X-Men flick would wash away the sins of the last two shit-fests and erase them from our collective memory, Men In Black style.
New kids on the block
The plot isn't really the film's strong point so I'll just gloss over it briefly. The film takes places in the 1960's. Magneto and Professor X aren't enemies yet and actually work together to train a bunch of young mutants how to control their powers while also trying to stop Kevin Bacon from starting WWIII (yeah...what?).
Now that that's out of the way, let's get to the performances. First, Michael Fassbender's portrayal of Magneto is off the hook. This guy seriously steals the entire movie. He displays far more depth and emotion in his role than anyone else in any of the previous X-films. Also, the dude speaks four different languages in this movie (German, French, Spanish and English) and got me thinking I was watching Inglorious Basterds for a second. Then I realized that Fassbender WAS in Inglorious Basterds and started liking First Class even more because of it. Next, Kevin Bacon's spin on the Hellfire Club's Sebastian Shaw was pretty entertaining. It really just amounts to Kevin Bacon acting like a pimp on the big screen for a couple of hours, but damn he seems cool and he pulls off the multilingual thing pretty well too (German, Russian, English). I'm just glad he wasn't wearing Shaw's usual George Washington style get up I'm accustomed to.
Kevin Bacon FTW!
I only have two gripes with First Class. It sucks that so many good characters were wasted in those other horrible X-films (Juggernaut, Shadowcat/Kitty Pride, the original Angel, Blob, Deadpool) that First Class got stuck with some lame-o modern characters. Darwin and Lenny Kravitz' daughter (the new, weak sauce Angel) are just lame. I'm sorry, I know I stopped reading the comics before these characters were created but I really didn't give two shits about them or what their lame powers were. I'm not being a total hater on new characters though. Nightcrawler's dad Azazel was pretty rad in this movie and that was the first time I ever heard of him. My other major gripe with First Class was January Jones as The White Queen, Emma Frost. Holy feces this broad cannot act to save her life. Her performance was the most uninspired, wooden dribble I've seen in a while. I'm sure it helps that she was probably getting frisky with the director off screen, but really Vaughn, she almost killed the entire movie for me!
I prefer the animated one.
Other than that this was a pretty solid movie. Beast looked pretty rockin', Jennifer Lawrence still got nekkid as young Mystique, Banshee was cool as hell and we were treated to some grand action sequences along with, you know, character development and solid acting performances from most of the cast. Thank you Singer! We needed you.
I never thought I'd be writing about my experiences at a Rival Schools concert, let alone two of em'. This was not supposed to happen. The band released one awesome album, United By Fate in 2001. They started falling apart in 2002 and by the next year, Rival Schools was kaput.
I was a lowly teenager then, subsisting on a healthy diet of Slayer and Cannibal Corpse. I don't know why, but something about Rival School's "Used For Glue" video (R.I.P. MTVX) struck me. I would come back to United By Fate over and over again throughout the next few years. Songs like "Travel By Telephone," "Favorite Star," and "Undercovers On," were like my bible during this trying time in my life. It always bummed me out that I'd never get to see the band whose songs helped me deal with so much bullshit.
Flash forward to the present. I'm on youtube and come across live footage of Rival Schools from 2011. My jaw drops. The band was back from the dead! They were coming to SoCal the next week and even had A NEW ALBUM out. No way in hell I was missing these shows.
Their first show was Friday night at Chain Reaction in Anaheim. The turnout was ok. It wasn't packed but not dead/empty either. It's understandable though. Chain is an all ages venue and doesn't sell alcohol. I'm in my mid 20's (whoa, scary) and felt like the youngest dude in the crowd. I can't blame a bunch of older peeps for avoiding a drive out to Disneyland after a long day of work and not being able to get plastered. Saturday night's show at the Bootleg Theater in Echo Park was packed. Closer to the city + booze usually = larger crowds.
(This video is better quality than the one I took at Chain. My video can be see HERE)
So THE BAND. Yeah, Rival Schools back from the dead. Holy shit. I can't really describe how awesome they were. And no, this wasn't just a sick nostalgia trip either. I downloaded their newest album, Pedals, in preparation for this show and man, these new songs are amazing as well. Like candidates for favorite record of 2011 good. They opened both nights with their new single "Wring It Out" and it was on from there. Walter Schreifels' voice was as awesomely raspy as on their albums. Aside from his distinctive vocals, dude's an entertaining front man as well. He was hopping all over the stage and adding some funny banter in between songs. Their drummer Sam Siegler was pretty amazing too. He was like a hunchbacked octopus, playing on borrowed drums(from the opening band) and straight ripped that kit to shreds. The band had a few audio/technical problems during the beginning of their set at Chain, but they were pretty flawless at the Bootleg. They played with older material, adding touches of reggae and funk, to make them sound fresh and spankin' new while new songs like "Eyes Wide Open," and "Shot After Shot," show they still know how to bring the rawk. Overall, I'd say the 2nd show was the better of the two. They had a slightly better setlist (played "Favorite Star") and just seemed to gel together more.
(Same deal as before. My video from Chain is HERE)
As stoked as I am about Rival Schools' new material, all the old songs they played from United By Fate got the best reactions. It was quite surreal during "Undercovers On" at the Bootleg. Standing close near the stage, watching this band I never thought I'd see, singing along, word for word with total strangers to a song that, from the looks on our faces had a significant meaning for all of us, it was intense. United by fate indeed. The band could have went onstage and read the phone book and I still would have bought my ticket as a thank you for those 10 years of awesomeness they provided me and my discman/iPod. Luckily, they came out and rocked our faces off.
*Note*
I made it a point not to mention the long list of bands associated with Rival Schools or Walter's mind boggling resume. Saving that for another post perhaps.
Breaking News! Head over to Zombies Everywhere (your one stop destination for all things zombies) and check out that blog's brand new interview segment with YOURS TRULY =p
This is a pretty ingenious idea if you ask me. A great way to promote/spread the blogger love and get a peek behind our respective computer screens for a change. I'm still stoked to be to the first candidate for this new segment over at Zombies Everywhere. Thanks man!
Tomorrow night I'm off to see The Dillinger Escape Plan opening for Deftones. Deftones put out one of my favorite albums from last year, and Dillinger is my favorite band, period.
This will be my 10th time seeing Dillinger in concert. There's really nothing quite like it. My first Dillinger show was back in 2004. It was a life changing experience to say the least. There's dozens of insane videos from Dillinger concerts on Youtube. This video I'm sharing today is a recent one, and shows why the current lineup just might be the best incarnation of Dillinger yet. I don't think their set tomorrow night, playing in front of a large crowd of "normal" folks, will be as wild, but watching this video gets me foaming at the mouth and filled with anticipation for their next headlining gig.
Enjoy.
*Note*
Oh yeah, forgot to mention this here blog is named after Dillinger Escape Plan's song, "Jim Fear." I kind of hinted toward this in my very first post but of course, nobody was around to read it back then.
She's cute and clever. Will the novelty of this song evaporate over time? Maybe. Am I going to watch this video again after I finish typing this post? You know it.
Hey bloggers. As some of you might remember, I was contemplating the merits of film school. I took a screen writing course as an elective before I finished my undergrad and loved it. My professor liked my short film script and encouraged me to try my hand at crafting a legit screenplay. One of the rules in class was to show, not tell about our characters exploits. Meaning not to rely on phone conversations or other technological interventions that ruin the pacing and overall plot of a film. So I've been sitting around, coming up with ideas for potential scripts and am faced with a one reoccurring problem: technology may make our modern lives more convenient...but it royally fucks with the dramatic tension needed in my storyline!
Imagine working an exhausting graveyard shift. You've barely slept two hours when you're suddenly awakened by the cries of your panicked wife. She's screaming something about men with guns breaking into the house as she clutches your infant son in her arms. You instruct your family to hide as you reach for your rifle, similar to the one that got you through two tours in Iraq during your time in the Marines. You take a defensive position in the hallway as your front door is smashed in by a heavily armed force clad with shields and body armor. Almost immediately, they fire 70+ rounds in your direction in less than 7 seconds. You're left to die, alone, bleeding to death on the floor of your own home.
This is what happened to Jose Guerena on May 5, 2011.
In Prima County, Arizona, the sheriff's SWAT Team burst into Guerena's home serving a narcotics warrant. This was part of a larger, coordinated raid on numerous other homes throughout the county on the same morning, all of which were allegedly involved in some grand narcotics ring/conspiracy.
Here's what happened:
A few key points:
-Nothing was found at Guerena's house.
-Guerena never removed the safety from his rifle and thus, never fired a shot at the police.
-The SWAT Team fired over 70 bullets and hit Jose only 20 times. That's dangerously inaccurate for a team of highly trained "professionals."
-After they entered the house, the police denied Jose any medical treatment for over an hour, effectively letting him die in his own home.
You could argue cops are justified when it comes to shooting individuals who point guns at them, but this whole situation just reeks of something else. The police have tried to smear Guerena after this incident and tie him to some "para-military drug gang" although he was honorably discharged from the Marines and has no criminal record. This was either was either a botched police raid due to gross negligence on the SWAT Teams' part or a sanctioned murder by the Sheriff's department.
Here is the helmet cam footage from a member of the SWAT Team. You be the judge:
