So I tried to upgrade to Movable Type 2.5 (from 2.1) and accidently hosed everything. Ahem. That was a mistake.

Of course, while I’m trying to get everything working, I get Fraction laughing at me and my broken blog.

Well… I fixed it, so up yours, Fraction.

Random Celeb Story from the rainy last Friday night:

Standing in the lobby of the movie theater, waiting for 8-Mile I see a guy with a leather jacket and a baseball cap with his kid, walking back and forth on his cel phone.

“Oh shit, I think that’s Dennis Quaid.”

“Where?”

I motion in his direction, and I see Dennis Quaid immediately step into a wet spot on the linoleum and fall flat on his face, while a lobby full of people all watch.

“Oh shit, I just saw Dennis Quaid bite it, hardcore.”

And then I just laughed and laughed. I guess I should’ve helped him up, but I thought Dragonheart was a real piece of crap.

Posted in Endless Whining No Comments »

8-Mile is a funny movie to judge, because it’s far better than most of its peers (Glitter, Crossroads, Cool As Ice). Against real fare, it doesn’t quite hold up. There’s good material here, but the story treads water for too long before getting to the main event, a freestyle battle where Eminem locks up against another crew, Rocky style.

It’s also kind of a shame that “Lose Yourself” isn’t actually performed in the movie. It’s probably a bit overexposed now, but it’s a legitimately great track. It’s a bummer that he (or his record company) spends so much time forwarding the SlimShady persona, dissing easy pop targets and being generically misanthropic when he’s got so much more rewarding material in the pipe.

Posted in Moving Pictures No Comments »

When Rage Against the Machine broke up, there was a lot of speculation about what was going to happen with the remains. Zach De La Rocha’s solo album has yet to come out, but the remaining members hooked up with Soundgarden vocalist Chris Cornell to form Audioslave, with an album debuting November 19th.

Unfortunately, this is one of those things that just looks a lot better on paper than reality. In the end, it sounds EXACTLY like Chris Cornell singing over Rage Against the Machine. As if some DJ were doing one of those nutty blends. I’m sure someone will like it, but it just seems like such a waste. Cornell doesn’t take to the funk well, and Morello seems to be cranking out the same old riffs. It’s a style mismatch reminiscent of Dave Navarro in the Chili Peppers.

Bleh. If they stay together they may eventually mesh, but it’s just not there right now.

Posted in From Blown Speakers 1 Comment »

So there’s this videogame on the Playstation2 called Rez, and it’s basically a shooter structured around Kandinsky’s theories on synaesthesia, the crossing of the senses. The idea behind the game is that every action you do (moving your character, firing at stuff) will have a visual AND aural representation… your movements will blend itself into the music and the wild color backgrounds.

I played the game once and honestly it kind of made me like I was living through the end of 2001, and I wasn’t too into it.

Anyway, in Japan, they sell this game with an extra attachment: The Trance Vibrator. Like the rumble packs, the attachment shakes and shimmies in accordance to your game actions.

Sounds dirty, right? I know what you’re thinking. I mean no one would really… you know, use this video game thing to do … you know. I mean, people would, but not with a video game… right?

WRONG. PEOPLE ARE HORNY, OF COURSE THEY WOULD.

[ Note: Link is not work safe, although if you're reading this at work, you're not exactly the model employee anyway, are you? ]

Posted in I Heart The Interweb No Comments »

Photographer Glen E. Friedman is running a gallery show at Sixspace this month in L.A. You might not recognize the name, but you’ve probably seen some of his photos. His photos give Dogtown and Z-Boys its nostalgic weight, and he’s also had some fairly recognizable work in the music field.

The current exhibition is dedicated to the late, great Jam Master Jay.

Posted in Eratta No Comments »

I was bumming around the Weezer website when I noticed they had this little piece about the apartment that the band used to live and rehearse in back in 1992-1994. It’s the garage pictured in the Blue album insert (above).

Anyway, it seems that the apartment is going to get remodeled by the landlord and so a little piece of Weezer history is going bye-bye. To celebrate, a house party was thrown and all these people showed up and there was a big bash and what not.

The weird thing? This house is about a mile from my apartment. The place is located on 2226 Amherst, just north of Olympic, if you really need to know. To the people that drove from stinkin’ Massachussetts to see this place: It’s just a garage, dude.

Other errata: Apparently Rivers Cuomo believes his guitars are like Honda Civics. The more stickers you slap on, the better it performs.

Posted in From Blown Speakers No Comments »