some cool articles on CNET the past day or so on the upcoming movie – release the dadburn thing already!!!!

candybowl

There were two concerts (among others I didn’t know about) in Seattle last night: ‘The Chameleons Vox’ (meaning the singer/songwriter Mark Burgess from the ’80s alternative group The Chameleons) and The Cult (likely no explanation required – they lasted beyond the 80s even though they also started back then). On the one hand, TCV was only $10 – The Cult was $30+ (which is more than ‘current’ bands like Ozomatli and others charge these days, making it a hard sell) – we opted for TCV – The Cult just seemed way overpriced for its potential rock value (and if that’s not a lame way to describe even lamer 40-something concert decisionmaking, I don’t know what is :)).

There were three opening bands, we missed the first and the other two were largely forgettable (sorry guys). I give Romance (last opener before TCV) an A for effort and they were definitely good musicians, but not super-distinctive otherwise.

Then, on to TCV. They started with the song ‘Swamp Thing’ – the band was playing several measures of the song intro before Mark Burgess (the main original member/singer) came onstage in a ‘grand entrance’ – Uh….yeah. They powered through several more songs – all played well – but the show got progressively weirder for me the longer it went on. We left before they were done, near the end of the set (I would presume they played a few more songs, maybe an encore, not sure). Some impressions:

1) When MB came out on the stage – the first thing I thought was ‘here’s young Ozzy’ (meaning Ozzy Osbourne). For some reason he just struck me as a younger version of Ozz – maybe the face? Not sure. When he talked a bit between songs, he SOUNDS like Ozzy’s normal speaking accent, although I’m not sure if they are from similar locations in England. He is also sporting a Moe Howard hairdo – not the most complimentary? Finally, I couldn’t help also thinking of many Mike Myers parody characters as he danced around during many of the songs – sorry Mark.

2) There was too much ‘unbalance’ for me between most of the band (20-somethings) and MB’s obvious age. It was like a father playing music with his kids or something? When we saw X, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Queensryche, Living Colour, Madness, etc. over the past several years – whether or not they reach the heights of their glory days (some do, some really do, some are slipping) they all look older – but they also all look ‘correct’, because the band are all the same age. This show just seemed weird to have an older guy playing with such a younger band. I wish he had been the bassist like before, that might have avoided it a bit, but oh well. The band was very good, as far as playing – definitely no issues there.

3) Could there be any MORE delay pedal/voice effects? On albums, fine – I listened again to a few Chameleons songs on the bus this am going to work and yes, delay effects are all over the place – but live, it just seemed to wash everything into mud – and it was distracting (at best, annoying at worst) as regards the voice? It really served to date the music quite a bit for me, unfortunately. Throwing in a few Beatles and Clash verses mid-song on at least a couple occasions didn’t help either – cheese!

4) A positive – Mark B’s voice sounds largely fine. He’s no Boy George, Rob Halford or Bono, but for his historical range he largely achieved it. He was a bit quieter on a couple songs he would have likely belted out years ago, but whatevs. And you don’t need the delay effect to sound good – just be yourself….

5) Another positive – MB was putting himself out there. He was definitely not phoning it in. That counts for a lot, especially when you consider The Cult playing across town in not much bigger a club at 3x the price, and the comparative obscurity of The Chameleons even back in the 80s(?) – MB’s not getting rich on this tour most obviously, but cared to put on a good show, and he seemed to be having a good time.

6) A weird thing – in one of the songs (can’t remember the name) there is a long guitar mellow ‘exit’ at the end – which this time around was modified by actual drums in it, unlike on the album – but MB took the opportunity to head offstage while the band played for several minutes without him. When he came back, it *seemed* (can’t say for sure) if he had taken an 80s ‘coke break’ in the back – he was sniffing it up a bit. Weird, and I could be imagining things, but my buddies noticed it too. There goes the profits on the tour if so….doh!

7) Finally, after the first several songs I just kept increasingly thinking – ‘you can never go back’. I hope the tour works out well for him and the band, and The Croc was pretty full, definitely as full as seeing Manooghi Hi there a month or two ago. But the songs really sounded dated and lacked oomph for me. It seemed like every time they were cranking it up to really ‘rock’ – the sound would kind of smooth out at the top end and they would proceed – kind of like a ’70s Caddy trying to punch it up a hill and then gliding along without incident once there.

By way of comparison, when we saw X at The Showbox last year – they really *rocked* and were one of the tightest bands in recent memory, despite their age. And the fact that all their songs (being a punk band) are only about 2.5 min. long, so they have to play a LOT of them to fill an average show-length set – no ‘coasting’ allowed there, to be sure.

Here is another review of the show, from Glen Boyd – he obviously saw a much different show than I did. I’m glad he enjoyed it – but I really don’t think TCV were ever in danger of tearing the roof off at any point. Now…..had the mighty Fishbone made a surprise appearance….hmm…. 🙂

If you were there, feel free to comment/agree/disagree/etc. I guess the show left me with mixed feelings, but I don’t regret going (despite being all but asleep in my cube today for lack of sleep).

candybowl

So amid other home projects yesterday, took a break to watch the 1956 movie ‘Earth vs. the Flying Saucers‘. For those of you who haven’t seen it (likely everyone at this point) but HAVE seen a old movie clip of a flying saucer hitting the Washington Monument used in various ways on TV/etc. (e.g. Toonces the driving cat is blamed for it at one point on SNL) – that clip is from this movie.

Basically the plot is simple – an american scientist encounters a UFO during his project to launch space rockets (that seem to be going missing – he’s on his eleventh one) – ‘Project Skyhook’. They find out the UFOs are responsible, and want to colonize earth. Some skirmishes ensue, and (in part due to a mistake on the part of the Americans) the aliens attack and completely obliterate Project Skyhook’s launch base and buildings.

Some further discussions happen between the leading researcher and the aliens, but ultimately we decide to try to fight them – through some ‘amazing insights’ apparently obtained on the spot – we come up with a ‘sonic weapon’ to disrupt the aliens’ ability to defy gravity and make their ships crash. The movie ends with a bunch of jeeps jetting around DC trying to zap the alien saucers – several govt. buildings and monuments die a fiery death as we force the alien ships to crash into them. The main two characters are seen relaxing on a beach afterward, staring into the sunset and thankful that we saved ‘our earth’.

So…..there are many plot holes in this movie. And by way of comparison to the great, earlier movies The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951), War of the Worlds (1953) and 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (1954) – this is seems a lot more low-budget and cheesy. The saucers were animated by Ray Harryhausen, and they aren’t bad – but their comparative size/scale seems to shift in every scene! Some shots where they are flying over major cities – they seem to all-but-equal the city in size (not unlike the huge ship in District 9 or even V) – and other times they aren’t any bigger than ET’s spaceship – e.g. when the aliens meet the scientists on the beach.

The aliens are pretty crappy tacticians – on their few manned attacks (where they come out of the ship) they show a forcefield below the ship that protects them (and in one case, they can fire out of it at the attacking jeeps, guns and army men) – but then they LEAVE its protection and promptly get shot up – WTF? And they walk like snails – which may be a product of lame rubber suits for the actors, not sure – easy pickin’s for the gunners (even a scientist picks one off).

Also, at one point they show a saucer battling a B-29 (propeller-powered) bomber – hello? Earlier and later in the movie jets are zipping around – why would a old B-29 be leading the charge (it gets zapped in fiery death – big surprise)?

Also, in the climactic battle – despite having shown repeated scenes (and discussing same between the aliens and scientists) that the saucers are hovering over the world’s major cities, awaiting the order to land and take control) – the battle only happens in DC(?) and with a bunch of lame jeeps tearing around town with big ‘sonic guns’ in them – half of which get zapped by the aliens anyway? What happened to all the other ships? At least in (the equally if not much MORE cheesy) Starship Invasions 20 years later (1977), they at least cover that one!

There were some interesting touches in this movie, however – I liked the stark interior of the spaceship, and the ‘talking rose flower’ they used as a translation device. I liked the weird alien voice distortion and psuedo-science babble they used throughout the film (although – no Theremins in the soundtrack? see The Day The Earth Stood Still for how it’s DONE) The saucers are decent – although many times they seem to fly as if the alien pilots are drunk.

So….. in summary, not a terrible movie, but there are far better from the era (see above, or also the great Forbidden Planet (1956) – which includes an extremely young Leslie Nielsen!) – as to me, the next cheesefest will be the slightly earlier This Island Earth (1955) which I have never actually seen – Scarecrow, here I come! 🙂

candybowl

Just got back late this afternoon from this year’s Bike MS event (WA ride – there are others nationwide at varying times throughout the year). This is the first ‘big’ bike ride we’ve done – I haven’t done STP (yet – it’s still in the cards someday though) nor RSVP (may get to this one first as we have friends who already do this ride) and the last couple walking events we did (Vancouver Sun Run, Seattle Half-Marathon) were also many years ago now. So it was interesting to be a part of a big event like this – they estimated about 3,000 bikers were going to take part overall, and I believe it.

Bike MS is a bit different than STP or RSVP – it’s not competitive, nor timed (unless you handle that) it’s to raise money to cure the disease Multiple Sclerosis. Teams of varying size – and corporate sponsorship in many cases – raise as much money as they can prior to and during the ride, all counting towards an overall goal (apparently this years’ is $1.6M, of which they had raised about $1.12M as of last night’s announcement while we were there).

We took the day off work Friday and got there around 11 am and as there was almost no one there (participant-wise) yet, we parked the van in our camping spot and helped some of the volunteer staff – I worked in the ‘bike corral’ helping store people’s very expensive bikes – kerewin helped at the registration desk. Our team started showing up mid-to-late afternoon, some not until that night due to getting off work – apparently the traffic from Seattle was its usual jam-up funfest.

The first riding day, Saturday, we did the 59-mile route – there are longer and shorter but we felt that was the best one for our ability. Saturday started out with a minor threat of rain but went from overcast early on to sunny by late am – ended up with a few minor sunburns but nothing major. Great conditions for a ride, good mix of hills although the course is mostly pretty flat.

The second day (today) we did the 50-mile route, which is even more flat – but, it rained about 2/3 of the ride today. And was pretty breezy/windy the whole time (especially at the end). Today’s route was a bit tougher mentally, even though otherwise a faster ride – plus, we were still a bit tired from the previous day. Got home around 4pm, no traffic coming back – always a nice experience around here. 🙂

To sum up, a great event, great teammates (for some of whom this was their first ride too) and a good time had by all – no injuries, only one notable malfunction (someone today had flats at two different times, and a crank that persisted in coming loose multiple times, so he had to bail on the ride about halfway to avoid something bad happening).

Thanks to everyone who sponsored us, and for hopefully defeating this disease!

candybowl

Just finished re-reading the last two books in The Clone Republic series – The Clone Elite and The Clone Betrayal. As noted before (see previous post re The Inheritance Trilogy) I think these books are well-written, effective pacing and a good mix of action/character development. I have enjoyed the entire series so far and have read all the books twice now, pretty sure.

Although some major characters’ motivations remain opaque in some situations (Ray Freeman most notably) the series does a good job of drawing you into Wayson Harris’ world (and how it progressively alienates and isolates him into taking the law into his own hands by the time of the events depicted in The Clone Betrayal). I will leave it to the reader to spoil the series’ plot (so far) for themselves by reading the Amazon page 🙂

This series is primarily military sci-fi first and foremost, and explores far more of the action/warfare side of things than anything else. On the human side of things, I’m not completely sure if centering nearly everything on Wayson Harris’ point of view is meant to make a bigger societal commentary or not, however – given he is a clone (and the last of his kind – a Liberator) there are plenty of underlying themes possible here:

a) a clone race created to serve man smacks heavily of slavery and ‘disposable people’;

b) the initial conquest of the galaxy followed by a revolt/religious war, followed by a war with aliens could be seen in many contexts given current world events, etc.);

c) the continual rivalry between the clones and humanity – on the part of the humans – pretty much solid prejudice despite what clones do for them and instead of them – on the part of the clones – given their mental programming to believe they are in fact human – disbelief when proved otherwise (or a building hatred of and frustration with humanity for those clones like Harris who figure it out and survive).

The author doesn’t seem to use the ‘symbolism so thick you can cut it with a knife’ approach of say, many Spike Lee movies to make allegories or imply a different meaning, either. I guess it’s up to the reader to decide.

But Wayson, despite his regular penchant for violence and increasing alienation by the end of this book, is in many ways a product of his environment and increasingly sympathetic (to me?). Kent definitely explores Harris’ awakening humanity and emotions despite the bad side arising at the same time (his vendetta against Earth and the Unified Authority, started in The Clone Betrayal but likely continuing in at least the next book or two).

I am definitely looking forward to the next book expected out later this fall, hoping it won’t disappoint – there are several loose ends still out there I’d like to see tied up (but I won’t spoil anything for you).