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Tuesday, March 30, 2010
FOR A FREE BOOK OF MORMON...
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Monday, March 29, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
DELICIOUS
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WEDNESDAY - 4:47 AM - SALT LAKE CITY
And this is what I'm watching. And I laugh every single time. Terrible person? I don't think so. Just a guy that likes hilarious things.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
I LOVE THE 90s
Yesterday, I posted a video of Seaweed's "Start With."
It got me thinking about how awesome a lot of those type of bands from the 90s were. So much so, that I set out to make an epic playlist on my iPod. Problem is, that I'm having a hard time remembering a lot of great stuff.
I have a lot already, but I know there's some out there that I'm missing. This is where I need help. Suggestions of great, 90s alternative, grunge, etc. tracks that should be on this playlist.
The list so far:
Handsome - Left of Heaven
Handsome - Ride Down
Seaweed - Start With
The Toadies - Possum Kingdom
Jets To Brazil - You're The One I Want
Jets To Brazil - Sea Anemone
Meat Puppets - Backwater
Soundgarden - Slaves and Bulldozers
Stone Roses - She's My Sister
Lumberjack - Sunburn
Lumberjack - Secure Sometime
Failure - Bernie
Helmet - In The Meantime
Helmet - Exactly What You Wanted
Hum - Stars
Into Another - As It Were
Into Another - T.A.I.L.
Matthew Sweet - Girlfriend
Have at it...
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
GOOD WORK, SONY!
Michael Jackson died nine months ago. Earlier this week, Sony gave the Jackson estate a new record contract for unreleased material and licensing that ranks among the biggest deals ever signed. Keep in mind that Jackson has been dead for almost a year.
According to the New York Times Media Decoder blog, "the deal, for about 10 recordings through 2017, will guarantee the Jackson estate up to $250 million in advances and other payments and offer an especially high royalty rate for sales both inside and outside the United States."
I'm curious about this because, as I recall, Michael Jackson hasn't released an album since 2001 (Invincible which I had to look up) and before that, he hadn't released an album since Dangerous in 1991.
That's two albums in 20 years. Neither of which were good. Dangerous had a couple hits, but after that it was a whole bunch of songs that were mediocre at best. Even by shitty 90s radio standards.
Now they're telling me that there's 10(!) albums worth of unreleased Michael Jackson material lying around somewhere? Thriller and Bad were great records, even I'll admit that, but if there was anything that might rival even one song on those albums, we would have heard it by now. Guaranteed.
Record companies release posthumous albums all the time—usually rap albums with way too many boring guest spots—but they're never good. And the reason they're never very good is because they're leftovers. They're songs that were half-assed and just not up to par. Tracks that never made it to an album are the same as the deleted scenes in movies: people get all excited for them but when they're over, you can't help but think "there's a really good reason that wasn't included with the finished product."
Of course, people will buy whatever it is Sony decides to release because once Jackson died everyone seemed to forget that he was a creepy pervert with a penchant for little kids. Now everyone loves him again.But next time someone tries to tell you that record companies are suffering because you downloaded an album from the Internet, ask them why those same record companies are giving 250 million dollars to a dead guy for a throwaway track he recorded while high on painkillers 15 years ago.
BACK TO THE TOP
Remember when HBO was the reigning king of scripted television shows? They had The Wire, The Sopranos, Six Feet Under and Deadwood. All of those were top notch, spectacular shows.
As someone that loves really good television, it was shocking to me that all four of those ended at more or less the same time but HBO had nothing to take their place. Big Love was just getting started (and I don't think it has achieved—nor will it—the greatness of any of them), John From Cincinnati (which I bought for $8 at Circuit City and still haven't had the desire to watch) was one and done, Entourage (which gets worse every single season) was flailing and True Blood (which is about Vampires, so already I have no interest) had yet to even start.
In that time, Showtime has thrown out Dexter, Californication and United States of Tara, AMC gave us Breaking Bad and Mad Men, and even FX joined in with Sons of Anarchy, Justified (which could go either way) and probably (hopefully soon) Powers. I guess you can count Nip/Tuck too, but I gave up on that after two seasons.
HBO just got left in the dust.
Until now.
This year they have 4 new shows and two great looking mini-series coming up. And I'm pretty excited for all of them. Except one that got off to a slow start already.
The Pacific - Never saw Band of Brothers, but I love WWII stories and Tom Hanks. Spielberg is decent, but he hits the same notes in every movie he makes and I've lost interest lately. The first episode premiered the other night and about 45 minutes into it, I got bored and switched to watching the Jazz/Wizards blowout, which was only slightly less boring. Nine episodes left, but I'm only giving it one more chance.
Treme - The creators of The Wire—which was the greatest TV show ever—and John Goodman. You might need more, but I don't. Sign me up.
Boardwalk Empire - Again, I really don't need more than the talent involved: Terrence Winter (producer/writer for The Sopranos) Martin Scorsese and Steve Buscemi. Factor in that it's a prohibition era story and I will be there for every episode.
Luck - David Milch (Deadwood) and Michael Mann (Heat) delve into the world of horse racing and probably a whole bunch of other stuff. Dustin Hoffman as an ex-con with a gambling problem will be better than anything he's done in the past decade. Horse racing has always kind of fascinated me, so I can only imagine what kind of things Milch and Mann have planned with that as a backdrop.
Game of Thrones - Don't care much for fantasy, but this shot from the pilot looks awesome. Sign me up.
As someone that loves really good television, it was shocking to me that all four of those ended at more or less the same time but HBO had nothing to take their place. Big Love was just getting started (and I don't think it has achieved—nor will it—the greatness of any of them), John From Cincinnati (which I bought for $8 at Circuit City and still haven't had the desire to watch) was one and done, Entourage (which gets worse every single season) was flailing and True Blood (which is about Vampires, so already I have no interest) had yet to even start.
In that time, Showtime has thrown out Dexter, Californication and United States of Tara, AMC gave us Breaking Bad and Mad Men, and even FX joined in with Sons of Anarchy, Justified (which could go either way) and probably (hopefully soon) Powers. I guess you can count Nip/Tuck too, but I gave up on that after two seasons.
HBO just got left in the dust.
Until now.
This year they have 4 new shows and two great looking mini-series coming up. And I'm pretty excited for all of them. Except one that got off to a slow start already.
The Pacific - Never saw Band of Brothers, but I love WWII stories and Tom Hanks. Spielberg is decent, but he hits the same notes in every movie he makes and I've lost interest lately. The first episode premiered the other night and about 45 minutes into it, I got bored and switched to watching the Jazz/Wizards blowout, which was only slightly less boring. Nine episodes left, but I'm only giving it one more chance.
Treme - The creators of The Wire—which was the greatest TV show ever—and John Goodman. You might need more, but I don't. Sign me up.
Boardwalk Empire - Again, I really don't need more than the talent involved: Terrence Winter (producer/writer for The Sopranos) Martin Scorsese and Steve Buscemi. Factor in that it's a prohibition era story and I will be there for every episode.
Luck - David Milch (Deadwood) and Michael Mann (Heat) delve into the world of horse racing and probably a whole bunch of other stuff. Dustin Hoffman as an ex-con with a gambling problem will be better than anything he's done in the past decade. Horse racing has always kind of fascinated me, so I can only imagine what kind of things Milch and Mann have planned with that as a backdrop.
Game of Thrones - Don't care much for fantasy, but this shot from the pilot looks awesome. Sign me up.
Mildred Pierce - A mini-series based on a James M. Cain novel starring Kate Winslet. Cain wrote some great, great crime/noir novels back in the 30s and 40s. Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice are two of my favorites, so this can't come soon enough.
And if you managed to get through this entire post, I applaud you. Probably wasn't very interesting unless you're a fan of awesome stuff.
Now I'm done.
MY DIY GUIDE
I wrote this a couple of weeks back for my other blog (www.GrudgeCityActivities.com) to hopefully help the next generation of kids get rolling. I don't have the time (or desire, really) to book shows anymore but still love going to them. Unfortunately, there hasn't really been anyone willing to step up and run with it in the past couple of years and the number of shows I actually want to see has gone down drastically.
One of the guys that reads the GCA, Derek, a.k.a. JesusPresley, has created an amazing .pdf version of our DIY GUIDE: Booking Shows 101. Check it out below and/or download, here.
It's awesome and I'm really stoked he took the time to do it. Check it out if you're interested.
GCA's DIY GUIDE: Booking Shows 101
One of the guys that reads the GCA, Derek, a.k.a. JesusPresley, has created an amazing .pdf version of our DIY GUIDE: Booking Shows 101. Check it out below and/or download, here.
It's awesome and I'm really stoked he took the time to do it. Check it out if you're interested.
GCA's DIY GUIDE: Booking Shows 101
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Thursday, March 4, 2010
SUPER MAN
It's stuff like this that make me wish I had any artistic talent. I would play around with things like this all the time.
Warren Ellis has a message board called Whitechapel and each week he hosts a thread called Remake/Redesign. This week the criteria for the thread was this:
"You are an artist/designer. You have to put together the cover for a comic called SUPERMAN. It is issue 1 of this book.
You have been told that Superman is a man who dresses predominantly in a shade of blue, and wears a red S symbol. You know nothing else about the character.
The cover must include a logo and the text THE COMPLETE STORY OF THE DARING EXPLOITS OF THE ONE AND ONLY SUPERMAN.
And that’s it.
It’s up to you what kind of company you’re at. What kind of comics you make. How you translate that description of Superman. What era you’re in. Who you are, even. Go nuts with it.
You have one week. Go."
Some of the work that people have come up with is downright brilliant. Check the thread for all the rest of the greatness.
Warren Ellis has a message board called Whitechapel and each week he hosts a thread called Remake/Redesign. This week the criteria for the thread was this:
"You are an artist/designer. You have to put together the cover for a comic called SUPERMAN. It is issue 1 of this book.
You have been told that Superman is a man who dresses predominantly in a shade of blue, and wears a red S symbol. You know nothing else about the character.
The cover must include a logo and the text THE COMPLETE STORY OF THE DARING EXPLOITS OF THE ONE AND ONLY SUPERMAN.
And that’s it.
It’s up to you what kind of company you’re at. What kind of comics you make. How you translate that description of Superman. What era you’re in. Who you are, even. Go nuts with it.
You have one week. Go."
Some of the work that people have come up with is downright brilliant. Check the thread for all the rest of the greatness.
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