Music CD : LCD Soundsystem - Self Titled

Finally! A dance-punk (disco-punk?) CD that I get into. This CD has everything. Dope-ass beats and weirdo noises, rocking tracks, funky cuts that veer off into strange ambient forays, and a cowbell break in the first song! You get thrown for a loop with every new track. And it comes with a bonus disc of all previous LCD Soundsystem singles. Ch-check it out.

Recommend? Only if you like way cool music can I recommend this. Otherwise, avoid it like the plague: you'll hate it.

Anime : Cowboy Bebop

Cowboy Bebop is a series of 26 half-hour episodes plus one movie. I've been slowly watching them over the past two months, and I just finished the final episode tonight.

WHHHHY?!?

The basics of the show: take a gangly group of down-on-their-luck bounty hunters, and see if they can ever get enough money to buy food. Add excellent music, great action, characters that grab your guts and squeeze them, and "bang."

See you, Space Cowboy....

Recommend? If you can only pick one anime to ever watch in your lifetime, you better make it this one. It's the grits, baby.

Movie : Ring 2

First of all, I'd like to welcome our newest member to this illustrious forum. I'm sure she will add wit, wisdom, and worth (not to mention alliteration) to the group. Now, niceties over...

I remember watching The Ring One in a crowded theatre with two of my best girlfriends. We sat gingerly in our seats, not really knowing what to expect. Ten minutes into the film, when the camera suddenly cuts to the shot of the teenager in the closet with her mouth hanging open, I knew this was not your normal horror flick. When the movie was over and I pried my frozen body out of the theatre seat, I drove home alone and lay in my empty apartment, imagining dripping hair and gray skin.

Fast forward.

I was cajoled, enticed, threatened, and otherwise demanded to see the Ring Two. I knew what was in store, and I made a few, not too unreasonable, requests. Such demands being met, I found myself with no other choice but to sit down, dig in, and weather the storm.

What ended up happening was that I watched 95% of the movie through my hands. I saw shoulders, cracked doors, some water, and every now and then I would forget to put my hands up and a creaking cracking crawling girl would enter my frame. After the movie was done, and I was sufficiently convinced that the Ring Girl would never leave her well again, I drove home, turned on the Sound of Music, read a SciFi novel, and fell asleep peacefully.

All that to say, Ring One was insanely scary and gave me insomnia for a month.

Ring Two? cake.

Movie : Bride and Prejudice

This is a Bollywood (Indian) reworking of "Pride and Prejudice" featuring singing, dancing, and a former Ms. World as a main actress. This movie would make a fantastic drinking game! Anytime you feel like stopping the movie (or leaving the theater) take a drink. Within ten minutes you will be passing out, vomiting, etc, and everything will be okay. Shhh, shhh, it's gonna be all right, they'll stop singing and poorly acting, shhh...

Recommend? Yes! Definitely! Pay to see this or buy the DVD right now! You'll laugh a whole lot! Watch it with everyone you know! Quick!

Movie : The Ring Two

Eh, I didn't find this movie scary. It started out kind of slow, with a big, gruesome death. And then there were some special effects that probably cost a few bucks (a few bucks...get it!? Bucks! Deer me I'm funny...get it!? Deer! Ah-hahaha!). And the story line kind of didn't collaborate with the story line from the first movie. Actually, except for the first five minutes, and the main characters, this didn't feel in any way linked to the first movie. Hmm.

But, I will say this: the long drive home after the movie was really freaky!

Recommend? If you are the type of person who covers your eyes during scary movies, then you may like this movie! But, if you are the type of person who watches movies all the way through, then you may want to wait for it on DVD.

Movie : M

German movie from 1931. Peter Lorre, a creepy little chubby guy, is a serial child murderer, and a whole town goes crazy trying to capture him. Lots of yelling, and speechifying, and wailing, all in German. There were subtitles, though. That way, we could understand what they were all saying. The police get all military about things, impose curfews etc., and the underworld gets irritated and decides to track him down themselves. This was the director-guy's first movie with sound.

Recommend: There's no music during the non-German-speaking parts, which makes it all even creepier.

Movie : The Incredibles

Wow! The Incredibles is the best Pixar movie to date!

Wait, wait... get this: the movie was... are you ready.... Incredible!

MWAHAHAHA!!! Oh man, that was AWESOME!

Recommend? YES, very much so. Whew....

Movie : Robots

Metallic, clanky, screwy, springy, bouncy, oily, rusty, bangy.

Recommend? Yes. It made me laugh, and it had some cleverness to it.

Cover Song : Motley Crue - Helter Skelter

On a Whim I listened to this song. I thought, "this should be fun, a hair metal band covering a Beatles song." A few questions linger as the song ends.

Did you listen to this song before you recorded it? Because you got the lyrics in the second line wrong. Know how I know? I have the CD. It has a book in it with the words to all of the songs, and I looked at them. Plus, Paul McCartney isn't that hard to understand.

Do you think of yourself as a hard rock or metal band? Cause if you guys are hard rock, then the Beatles were Scandinavian Death Speed Metal. McCartney screams more and harder, and Lennon shouts at the end of the track that he has blisters on his fingers. What happened at the end of the Crue recording session for this song? Did you gently apply baby powder to each other's bottoms? If this is the devil's music, hell is full of little old ladies who are asleep and you pansies.

Recommend? Yes! Oh man do I ever. Download it illegally right now and slam your long curly hair into the pile of poop I left on your floor. Go suck on a fish.

Movie : Flight of the Phoenix

Dennis Quaid put it best in this movie: "We're not garbage, we're people." Flight of the Phoenix was like the movie Armageddon, except that nobody went into outer space, and Armageddon was a whole hell of a lot more believable. I really, really wanted to like this movie, but there were too many parts that made me smile and shake my head, and not in good ways.

Recommend? Jeez, folks, this is tough one. This isn't a horrible movie, but I would have trouble sleeping at night if I told you to go rent it. Just flip a coin, and don't blame me.

Movie : The Crime of Padre Amaro

This movie was OK, I suppose. I mean, I finished it.

This movie should be renamed "Padre Amaro: Worst Priest Ever, Along with his Boss, The Other Worst Priest." This movie is about a young idealistic priest in Mexico who comes to a new diocese which is corrupt. He uncovers corruption, and then gets a girl who looks to be about 15 pregnant. Then he coerces her into getting an abortion, and she bleeds to death in his truck. Then he blames it all on her ex-boyfriend. While watching the movie, I thought it was pretty lame, but now that I've summarized it, I realize it was badass. The new title should be "Padre Amaro: One Badass Priest Who's Stepping Out on the Hos."

Reccomend? Well maybe so! But then again, maybe not.

Movie : Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Okay. I thought this movie was going to be artsy, or indy, for the sake of being indy. And I knew it would probably be kinda 'tsal right, but I was very wrong. It was completely 'tsal right. At the very beginning, I wondered where it was going, but it went there, and it went there hard.

Ten thumbs up. This movie may be the best impulse movie buy of my career. Three cheers for reminding me of what living alone feels like!

Recommend? YES. Plain and simple. This is a great movie, through and through.