One of my favorite pop-culture things to read are smarmy reviews of media (movies, music, etc.). In reading something this am, i came across Nic Cage’s latest attempt to pay his taxes and rise above the <50% success rate he's had the past several years as to movies. About the only one I can think of that was any good (or interested me at ALL) was Kick-Ass. Everything else looked really stupid, uninteresting or got really bad reviews. His last good movies before that were almost 7 years earlier with Matchstick Men and Adaptation, although Ghost Rider was a guilty pleasure. 🙂

Which brings us to the latest, Left Behind. It was bad enough they did a Kirk Cameron version of this in the first place, but Nic – what were you thinking? I’m pretty sure the only thing worth reading here are the reviews – this is the downside of being Roger Ebert – watching a lot of bad movies.

Read several of the snipes yourself here – too funny. One only wishes that Damien came back to whack Nic upside the head for good, but he’s had his own movie challenges along the way….

I’ll leave you with one of the classics of smarmy reviews – the ‘discussion’ from Spinal Tap about their records (video quality not optimal but it’s the audio that matters anyway)…

candybowl

So some of my zany friends from college days pinged me last night around 930pm on their way to a Mike Watt (originally of Minutemen and fIREHOSE fame) show at The Tractor with tickets – I was lucky enough to be able to go – very cool!

He’s touring with a pair of Italian guys in a band called il sogno del marinaio (it was part of this 2014 tour). The opener was a Japanese band called Lite who were also very good.

The show was interesting – The Tractor of course is such a great venue, being small and not overwhelming with NOISE like some can be (e.g. The Showbox when it’s cranked up a wee bit too loud). While Lite was fairly straight-ahead ‘math rock’ (not sure what that means) the il sogno del marinaio set was much more experimental. Then they all joined on stage at the end for an extended jam, which was pretty cool, if a bit crowded up there.

We then slid down the street to The People’s Pub for a couple more beers before running out of steam around 1250am – man, we are getting old.

candybowl

Diatribes, that is 🙂 Of course this movie is full of them……

candybowl

12 Days of Simpsons, Day 6: Mr. Burns’ guide to business

gotta love that quote:

“I’ll keep it short and sweet. Family. Religion. Friendship.
These are the three demons you must slay if you wish to succeed in business.”

candybowl

great article. Although truth be told, I haven’t ever seen much of this show. But I should…..! And a possible reboot?

Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Definitive Oral History of a TV Masterpiece

Joel Hodgson Wants To Resurrect Mystery Science Theater 3000 In 2014

candybowl

Scarecrow Video raising $100K on Kickstarter to preserve world’s largest archive of movies

for those of you who don’t know who/what Scarecrow Video is, you need to get INFORMED. 🙂

candybowl

Actor Robin Williams dies at 63

Many YouTube clips here – definitely one of a kind….

candybowl

A friend’s comment regarding HR Giger (see previous post) made me remember good ol’ Brother Theodore from Letterman back in the 80’s (and his brief appearance in The ‘Burbs). As I tend to gravitate towards the weirder, increasingly sociopathic comedians (Emo Phillips and Norm McDonald being among the better known, but I miss Sam Kinison) I miss the true psychos (or at least the expert fake psychos) like BT, who could turn it on and off like a faucet when they wanted too, and if you hadn’t seen them before, you were convinced they were about to kill the interviewer. In revisiting his story in wikipedia, I had no idea he was a longtime entertainer well before the Letterman stuff and had even known Einstein – wild.

This video has terrible video quality but several very funny bits, including Letterman sassing him back in at least 3 places – classic stuff! Both Conan and Letterman were funniest on Late Night, no question about it. There are several more on YT too.

Rant on, Brother!

candybowl

HR Giger has passed away as of this past May, just found out about it tonight.

‘Alien’ artist H.R. Giger dead at 74

Love him or hate him, he was certainly one-of-a-kind and one wonders where the ‘goth industry’ would have been without him – much of its art can certainly be considered a Giger ripoff at some point or another.

Definitely not art for the timid or faint of heart, most well known for the xenomorph alien, movie artwork and set design in Alien (reused in the sequels), the ELP and Debbie Harry album covers, and a bit more obscure, one of the original attempts to make a movie out of Dune. I actually have copies of both Dark Seed videogames on my shelf, need to break those out sometime…..

In whatever eerie, disturbing bio-mechanoid resting place you now inhabit, rest in peace, Herr Giger.

candybowl

Love it!

candybowl