Entertainment

Inoperable stub arms.

Entertainment, The Interweb

Words of the Day!

Found them in this description of an incident at Disney World:

In 1976, a woman filed a lawsuit claiming one of the Three Little Pigs ran up to her at the “it’s a small world” attraction, grabbed at and fondled her, while exclaiming “Mommy! Mommy!” She claimed to have gained 50 pounds as a result of the incident, and sued Disney for $150,000 in damages for assault and battery, false imprisonment, and humiliation. The plaintiff dropped charges after Disney’s lawyers presented her with a photo of the costume, which had only inoperable stub arms.

The Wikipedia page for “Incidents at Disney Parks” is quite a list of idiots and heart conditions

Later!

Mark want electric bike.

Entertainment, The Interweb

EVX7

I’ve read about electric motorcycles that are supposed to be coming out before. But usually I get all excited when I see that they have a top speed of 120mph… but a range of 50 miles. Or they can charge in 10 minutes… but top out at 30mph… or cost $10,000. I finally think there’s one that may be different, I just read about it on Treehugger.

I don’t want to get too excited because it’s a Japanese company and who knows when it’ll come out over here. But it has a top speed of 92mph, a range of 110 miles, and can be recharged in 6 hours. Perfect for commuting. As an added bonus it totally looks like the the motorcycles from Akira, I would totally buy one!

TreeHugger.com Article

Later!

Mark

Schu-Review : Across The Universe

Entertainment, Movies

Across The UniverseI went to see the film “Across The Universe” on Saturday. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s the new musical by Julie Taymor, famous for bringing “The Lion King” to Broadway. I am not a professional critic by any means, some people have said that I like everything. But I’d say that I can find something to enjoy in every movie. This movie is good, great actually. But it does have it’s flaws.

First, it’s a little disconnected, it’s like they listened to the catalog of The Beatles songs and found every one that had a name in it, or any ones that were about events of the time and tried to hear a story in them when they were in a certain order. Which isn’t that crazy of an idea, apparently. Also they seem to leave the details up to the songs to fill in, the places in between musical numbers are a little flat. They’re just killing time with exposition while they wait for the music to start up again. In that sense it seems less like a full film than a sequence of music videos.

Secondly, I wasn’t a huge Beatles fan going into it, but I have to say that I have a new found interest in the music. The film uses modernized covers of the songs that I really liked (I got the soundtrack). Everyone always tells me what revolutionary music the Beatles were, but when I hear it on the radio I just think it sounds like every other 1960’s song that I’ve heard. (could be a problem with radio, not the beatles) The versions featured here do I good job of spicing up some of the more traditional songs. I think tonight I’ll do a bit more listening to the original versions too.

Even though the songs are great I think that they’re missing something without the visuals in the film. Not that they don’t stand up on their own, it’s just that they’re tied in my head to the awesome images that the director used. One scene has army recruits in their military issue boxer shorts struggling to carry a 30 foot statue of liberty across a miniature Vietnam while gunfire and explosions happen all around (all while either ‘Helter Skelter’ or ‘Come Together’ is playing, I can’t remember?) I would love for them to adapt this into a live broadway show, I would be there opening night… well maybe not opening night, I’m not rich.

4/5 Schus

Musical Gauntlet 02

Entertainment, music

Songs that are awesome, part 2.

White Zombie – Thunderkiss ’65 – Laurel and I were just talking about this album the other day. Not so much about the songs but about the fact that it’s the only CD my parents ever made me throw away. To their credit it did have demons and 666 drawn all over the cover. (as I’ve grown up I realize that this is mostly for marketing purposes) Anyway this might be my favorite Hard rock song of the 90’s. It sort of has a 60’s vibe to it, can’t really say why, it might just be because they (ninteen- sixty – five – yeah) over and over. If a song can make you drive faster this is the one.

Mindless Self Indulgence – Bitches – This section of the list should be titled “Songs my mom would hate”. But it’s not, these songs are awesome. With a song like this it helps to get introduced to it with a well timed pokemon fan video. I’m not going to say that i’m a fan of all this bands lyrics/imagery, but this song is the sweetness. It contains the line “Bitches love me cause they know that I can rock”… it’s like my theme song.

Red Hot Chili Peppers – Under The Bridge – This song always makes me remember summer. The real summer when you didn’t have to go to school, not this bastardized summer where you get to wear short sleeved shirts to the office. The song is so simple that I could probably play it on the guitar, it’s all about delivery. It follows the trend of Hard rock bands showing their sensitive side in a ballad, but they’re singing about drug addiction… so suck my kiss.

Musical Gauntlet 01

Entertainment, music

So a while back Laurel asked my what my all time favorite band was, I didn’t have an answer. I still don’t really have an answer, but that’s probably because I’ve never really thought about it.

I was making a play-list for Dave to listen to while he was at ju jit su. I was searching my library for all the hard rock songs that I could find and I came across some good songs. I’ll classify these songs as “Songs that never get old” I would say that these are the cream of the crop in my musical stew.

They are not all hard rock songs… it’s hard to search the library and be exact with genres. They’re just songs that came up and I made a snap judgment that they were awesome. Since I’ve been reading “Fargo Rock City” I’ve been thinking like a amateur music critic. (which just means I know enough to argue) I decided to share some of my favorites and why. Judge not lest ye be judged.

Redman / Methodman – Da Rockwilder – seriously do I have to say why? This has got to be the best beat of the 1990’s. And unlike most hiphop songs, I actually know most of the lyrics. I’d have to say there is no better song to bump down the street in a hunter green chrystler minivan (with the infinity sound system).

Johnny Cash – Hurt – I know most people will say that Cash’s best songs are “Walk the line” and “Ring of Fire” etc. But to me this is the way I want to remember someone that I really don’t remember. I mean come, I was born in 1981, I think it would be pretentious of me to say that he hasn’t made any good music since the 60’s. I don’t judge the man, I give him credit for covering a song made famous by an industrial rock group in the 1990’s. Plus it kicks the originals ass.

Digital Underground – The Humpty Dance – Pronounced with an Umpty! Yo ladies oh how I like to funk thee… This Shakespearian lyrical masterpiece will get the asses on the dance floor like no other song in the history of the world. As we know from the lyrics, it’s your only chance to do the hump, and who in their right mind would pass up a chance like that? Seriously you can’t help but like this song. I like my beats funky and my oatmeal lumpy!

that’s a start. When I come across some more I’ll post it.