Satan's Luau

Last Stones show ever (riiiiggghhttt) ....

Goes to Vancouver, no show for us.

Too bad, trick or treat !!!

Posted by at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hard to top the VH/Roth rumors of last week.

But, speculation is high that the Stones show here will be cancelled, due to some alleged scheduling shenanigans leading up to the documentary shows in NYC last night and tomorrow -- oh yeah, and no big f-n surprise, because the show is selling poorly ... I guess people finally say, too much is too much when it comes to ticket prices.

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We saw AMERICANese last night at HIFF, and once again Eric Byler has put together another masterful film about relationships with much less than you would typically see in run of the mill Hollywood romance pix with their predictable structure and situations -- but with greater effect because this movie captures emotion, simple personal relationships, and humanity so well, and the focus should really be off the race of the people on the screen ... but instead on the universal nature of the themes and our common humanity

AMERICANese: A+

I went in thinking that this movie, because of the story that it is based on, might be a very political movie -- since it deals with relationships and race, a real tightrope because sometimes those things can be hard to capture without being overly expositive (too much talking) or preachy (too much saying these grand statements that normal people do not remotely talk like)

However, much like Charlotte Sometimes before, it is about the characters and the situations they are in. An old man who longs for his wife, and does not want to be alone. A middle aged man who has had a failed marriage, and now may have lost the one chance he had for real love because he could not accept her -- not learning the key relationship principle that sometimes it is better not to be right (learning also you can't shape another person into who you want them to be). The young hapa woman who needs to take control of her life, and is growing to realize things about her family and friends -- and her former middle aged lover. The middle aged woman with a past that haunts her, and makes her unable to connect in a relationship, though she desperately wants the future to be better.

The way I described it makes it sound really hard coded, as if the puppets go through all the motions in a predictable way. However, I noticed that this movie really captures those universal things that everyone, no matter the race, goes through -- and not with overwrought dialog or incredulous situations -- this movie is a very quiet movie, the words are not the only way in which the story is told.

The way the characters look at each other, the things they do, the things they are concerned with -- are everyday things, everyday situations, but we can connect with them, understand them, know things about them even without their words -- largely because at some point in our lives we have been there too or have helped someone when they were there.

This is not to say that watching this film drains you or gives you the feeling of watching paint dry -- the movie really immerses you into it much like a mystery or suspense film, where you think you may know what will happen next ... or you start to take sides with what the characters deserve or can hope for.

As I told SD, there was this one instance in the film where the politics came out full force in the dialogue, and at the time, it broke my immersion into the film -- like scratching the record to me because I was so into the movie, not even concerned about those things. I thought it may have been a misstep because it was going along so well, but later the jarring made sense -- it was comparatively about how deep a person's love for is another ... is it so deep that you can accept everything about the other person unconditionally? Or, will you be hung up on something the other person really cannot change -- or be unable to accept their rationalization of why they are the way they are

At the end of the day, it is a very human film -- and I find Eric Byler's movies to be very unique in capturing emotion and drama in realistic ways. It was interesting because during the Q&A after the film, he had made remarks that beyond the politics and having Asian Americans in the film, he made an art film about relationships. Maybe he meant that there is a great beauty in capturing the lives of his characters from a universal emotional perspective that everyone can appreciate.

It was extremely well acted -- I found it odd because one man in the audience during the Q&A asked Byler if it was hard finding Asian American actors of quality, as opposed to, I suppose, white actors of quality -- eye opening, isn't it? This racism thing ... hooboy

Also during the Q&A, Byler revealed that the film got distribution last week, so if you do not get to see it this coming Saturday -- it will likely be making a stop at your local indie film theater at some point in the spring.

Very highly recommended film -- Byler is definitely a rising star as a director, and his movies are really fantastic.

Posted by at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ah yes, it's that time of year again when AMC decides to run a marathon of classic horror movies ... going way way back and then hitting the classic 80s slasher shlumps

So actually being prepared this year, I thought that I would record some of the movies that I hadn't seen in a while ... and play them back at my leisure. Well, small problem, what the hark is the problem with transmission of AMC on OC, good jeebus!?!?

The quality of my recordings was the pits ... so I checked one of them while it was airing, holy crap, someone tune that channel in ... I am disappointed

Posted by at 8:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Watch here and sing along to celebrate Bush signing the Military Commissions Act, which essentially kills 200+ years of protection from habeas corpus dead. Thanks GW

Don't know what I'm talking about? Watch here and here

---

Here's to the judges of John Roberts,
Who wear the robe of honor in a phony legal form,
And justices are stranger when the partisans report,
When the court elected the president, it was the beginning of this war,
Here's to the land you've torn out the heart of,
John Roberts, find yourself another country to be part of

Here's to the government of Dick Cheney,
With criminals are posing as advisors to the crown,
And they hope that no one sees the sights or no one hears the sounds,
Because the speeches of the president are the ravings of a clown

Here's to the land you've torn out the heart of,
Dick Cheney, find yourself another country to be part of

Here's to the churches of Jerry Falwell,
The cross once made of silver now has turned to rust,
And the Sunday morning services preach in fear of men in love,
And Heaven only knows in which God they must trust

Here's to the land you've torn out the heart of,
Jerry Falwell, find yourself another country to be part of

Here's to the laws of Alberto Gonzalez,
Congress will pass an act in the panic of the day,
And the Constitution's drowning in an ocean of decay,
And freedom of speech is dangerous I've even heard them say,

Here's to the land you've torn out the heart of,
Gonzalez, find yourself another country to be part of

Here's to the businessmen of George W.,
Who want to change the focus from Halliburton and Enron
And their profits like blood money spilled out on the White House lawn,
To keep their hold on power they'll use terror as a con,
While the bombs they fall on children dont know which side...don't care which side that they're on

Here's to the land you've torn out the heart of,
George W., find yourself another country to be part of

Here's to the land you've torn out the heart of,
George W., find yourself another country to be part of

Posted by at 8:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

And by this, I mean this is turning out to be a ridiculously good year for big act/live music here on the quakeable shakeable. Just saw the announcement that PJ will be playing its own solo show (last for its current tour in support of its latest) in addition to its open-the-show for U2, one week before (12/2). Opening for PJ will be one of SL's favorite under the radar bands, Kings of Leon.

For those keeping score, the big show dance card looks like this:
Stones with Thorogood & the Destroyers --- 11/22
PJ with KOL --- 12/2
U2 with PJ and R&tDs --- 12/9
Ze Piano Man -- 12/16

Not mentioned are the little shows here and there with up and coming bands, like Blue October on WED at the Hale Koa, and the eight days later, the brilliant metal of KSE at Pipe ... not going to either, but I've been impressed with the amount of shows this year both large and small (yes, the Pipeline boycott continues)

You know, the only problem is cash flow ... these shows are all pretty pricey, and at the end of the day, it will be pick and choose, not go to them all ... ehhh, those high ticket prices.

Posted by at 5:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SD and I went to see Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo with the symphony tonight. Excellent, excellent show.

Pat's voice and presence, even after so many years, is just so awesome, hard to believe that she is 53 ... and we were close enough to see all her facial expressions as she delivered each song with a ton of vocal power, grace, and emotion. I didn't remember it too much from the past, but man, Neil can really lay down some riffs and solos.

Why have a symphony show when the symphony totally drowned out in the mix? I don't think there's a really good answer for this. The show was very good despite this obvious flaw.

Pat remarked that this was the most well behaved crowd they ever performed for. There were only a handful of people treating it like a rock concert and getting up and yelling and shouting ... one was SD LOL. The ushers and peer pressure were keeping butts in the seats, and that was unfortunate because this was one heck of an energetic show ... too bad more people weren't into it

I felt really bad for some of the old timer symphony types, they were really in for a very big surprise, a very loud mostly hard rocking show -- the lady next to me had her fingers in her ears for half the show. I looked around during the show, and saw a ton of discomfort among the older members of the audience

Symphony opened with songs from movies and TV:
- Superman (suite of music from 1978 movie, incl. main theme and love theme)
- Music from Looney Tunes and Bugs Bunny and Friends (very fun)
- Songs from Nat King Cole
- Themes from late 60s-early 70s TV shows and cartoons ... Hawaii 5-0 really stole the show, but the passages from Star Trek and I Dream of Jeannie both sounded great

Setlist
All Fired Up
Wide Awake In Dreamland
Invincible
We Live for Love (acoustic)
True Love
We Belong
Hell is for Children
Heartbreaker
Promises in the Dark
Love is a Battlefield

note: At the end of 'Promises', Neil went over to confer with Matt C. the conductor, came back and said they planned too many songs. Pat said that that they may have to play all night. So they cut a song or two, in all probability. Guesses are it was Hit Me With Your Best Shot or possibly Shadows of the Night, maybe both.

Posted by at 1:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On a side note, before I begin, did you know that Dr. Pepper concentrate is prepared kosher? Found that out today, interesting tidbit, no?

Anyways, within is a summary of consumer products that I have tried recently, and my impressions of them ...

Soft drinks
Diet Dr. Pepper Berries and Cream
I have previously found that Diet DRP is one of the few diet drinks that truly tastes reasonably close to its sugary counterpart ... How they manage to do it? Don't know ... extra sweetner, superior engineering, satan inc.??? Your guess is as good as mine, but I'm not complaining. As part of their new line of fountain classic sodas, they have brought out a Berries and Cream version. It's good, but very sweet tasting -- an interesting combination of flavors, like cream savers and DRP. I may just go back to drinking regular Diet DRP, but this version is definitely worth a try for those who like cherry or berry flavor added to their sodas

Food cannot possibly go faster
On a side note, it has really been a bad month of dietary choices on my part, so here are my impressions of some of the newer offerings at your local fast, fat-n-greasy

BK Stacker
Not that you should really need it to be BIGGER, but it is not as big as you see in the commercials ... yet it is priced as if it were a bigger burger. Essentially it's a two, three or four patty cheeseburger with cheese and unique tasting special sauce ... with lotsa bacon. Best description of the sauce is like those bbq remoullade type sauces. Overall, tasty yet expensive -- I can see people eating it as a weekend hangover remedy -- definitely not something you should routinely eat, but to me, this tastes better than the UC at JITB

Outlaw Burger
Curse you, Carl's Jr. for brainwashing me into liking cheeseburgers with BBQ sauce and onion rings!! Before there was a CJ franchise here, when JITB would do their western style cb's, it was like the best sub for a CJ western bacon. Well, JITB was back with this for a limited time, and it is what it is ... still not really that great of a western cb. Recommend CJ's version, much much better -- that is, if you like this sort of thing

Spicy Chicken Crunchwrap Supreme
Okay, I am a big fan of the cheap and delicious spicy chicken burrito and taco at TB. From those annoying G2G commercials, I tried the plain crunchwrap supreme. It could not have been any more tasteless and odd ... and I was not really into doing the take it apart and see the gross underbelly thing to sauce it up. However, I gave it another chance in the spicy chicken version .... and you know what, not bad, kind of like a chicken taco salad in a wrap, still crunchy, with flavored nacho style cheese goo. Again, I'm not sure I would eat it again -- thinking that I will probably simplify and go with just the spicy chicken value items

Misc.

Star Wars Original Trilogy on DVD
It's not a good purchase value, because if you are like me, you have versions in all kinds of formats -- more like a rent, if curious. The lowdown is that it is finally the original cuts on DVD, it is in letterbox and Dolby 2.0 -- so it's like having an old laserdisc version or something. It was cool to watch for nostalgia ... the more I watch SW stuff in recent years, it becomes more evident that I am really close to being over the whole thing. May have to boycott for a few years to just let it rest

iTunes version Seven
Let me count the ways in which I think the new version of iTs sucks ... or let's not. Just not happy with everything from way too many tabs interface, org of the libraries, slow as sh, etc.

Heroes on NBC
I had heard a ton of good buzz about this show in the run-up leading to its premiere. And, after two eps, I think that me and SD will be regularly watching this one. If you don't know, the basic premise is that people from all over the world start discovering latent superpowers; a mystique about the powers that is xmenish, in other words, common elements to why the powers arise; a helping of bizarre circumstances ala X-files; and mostly likeable characters

I have two gripes so far ... one is the crash TV approach of the show to show several storylines at once, trading off, but never dedicating enough time to the individual arcs. The other gripe is typical of any show of this type, too much explanatory dialog, not enough just damn show me. A pic is worth a 1000 words, this is something lost sometimes on the creators of SF/fantasy/superhero shows

Posted by at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A special comment from Keith Olbermann on the "truthiness" of El Busho

Here

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I tried to think of where we went wrong in our selection of DVDs to rent during our last trip to the local blue and yellow. I recall that we had boiled it down to a handful of selections, and somehow we ended up with this one. I say somehow because it seems like we were destined to watch it, as if lured to it or tractor-beamed in ... the movie was Syriana

After watching it, I felt that there just had to be a better way to convey the point of the movie. As it stands the movie is a series of unfortunate events and sequences, which as a viewer if you weren't in on "it", the joke, the point, etc., it would just all be lost on you -- and from watching the special features, the makers want this movie to change people's minds and affect their thinking on its issues related to American dependence on foreign oil.

In case one of my readers wants to watch it, here's the point: the US is super dependent on foreign oil, oil just happens to be mostly under the Middle East, the oil business is well, oily, and the shady dealings that ultimately get the oil from here to there has very immediate and dangerous consequences ... including everyone's favorite, terrorism

I did not get that from the movie, and SD could make neither head or tails of it. Actually we watched it over the course of two nights because we fell asleep the first night watching it. At the end of the day, I should not have to provide a 30 minute pointy headed lecture about the concepts of the movie to help my gf enjoy it. I'm sure if I wasn't a economics/politics wonk, this would be lost on me as well. Should you need to keep up on progressive websites, academic journals, etc. to gain enjoyment from a movie ... I should really hope not.

The movie is too complicated, too advanced for most people to make the leaps necessary so that they can be affected by anything besides boredom or confusion from this movie. In other words, all that self-congratulatory crap in the special features that this movie is so bold and important means as much to others ... as like when one meets up with their buddies, and an outsider just has to deal with the fact that "they had to be there" to appreciate it. This movie felt like that as well.

There is not enough explanation or context given. What good is a person who has expert knowledge, or at least deep passion, about a topic, if they cannot communicate it to anyone. The movie is constructed like Traffic, with several storylines, several perspectives. Beyond its failure to communicate well, another aspect of the disconnect is that the common citizen like you or I abstracts their experience with the oil industry as high prices or one of total convenience/go to the pump when I need it. I am assuming the average viewer of this film just simply does not have the depth of understanding or knowledge about the international oil business to draw links and inferences between the arcs in the storyline to be politically moved by the movie

Too bad, they could have really made a difference here

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