Just a Little Heads Up

Since nearly everyone who reads this blog sees organized sports as an example of the hell this world is going to, I'd thought I should make you aware of what will be happening the next month and hopefully the month after that, and if really really lucky a couple weeks into November. You see, with a month left in the regular season, the Cubs are currently 2 ahead in their division. That means I will most likely be slightly agitated and tightly wound till the season is over or it's clear that the Cubs have no chance of winning. So what should you as caring friends and family members do? Don't ever ask or talk about the Cubs unless I happen to bring them up in conversation. Now you could probably get away with saying "Nice win today!" if you perhaps saw the Cubs did in fact win that day, but that's about it. Do not do what my co-worker Dom did today in asking why the Cubs are falling apart. Then go into a rant on how the billy goat curse is coming back. I was almost arrested for attempted murder with an HP deskjet. Mind you this is the same guy who made a joke about the Cubs blowing it during Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS. I still hold it against him. I also suggest checking to see if a Cubs game is on before you call, or decide to simply drop by if you live in town. It could save you some time. Bob gets a clearance on this because being a baseball fan he understands. He fully comprehends what and what not to say. As stated this will last till the end of the season, Sept. 30th. Now if they make it to the playoffs clearly this will last till they are eliminated. I apologize for the inconvenience. If you want someone to blame you can blame Dad, aka Ike, aka Mr. Iten, aka Hey, you. Thank you for your time.

I Beg of You!

It's not often I ask something of you few readers who are still around. This time I'm going to. On Tuesday, the first season of the best shows on television was released: "Friday Night Lights" I know I raved about the show in previous posts, but it clearly didn't make much of an impact. I know the idea of watching a show about high school football in Texas doesn't sound appealing. Trust me it's more than that. I'm not asking you to buy the box set or anything, just please Netflix it. Give it five episodes, and I'm certain you will be hooked. Once hooked you have till early October, when the second season begins, to catch up on all the episodes. Then you will tell your friends about this great show they've been missing out on. Then it grows from there, and maybe we can keep this show on a couple more season. Just try it, for me, please? Even bobby was intrigued with what he saw of the show. Bill Simmons on ESPN.com calls it "the greatest sports show since The White Shadow."

ROCK!

So Saturday I went and hung with Anne Marie, because I can easily do that now. We can now hang out any time we want. Any time! We went and had lunch. We saw Stardust, which was...um...cute. This really is only slightly related to the topic of this post. I state this for other family members who are looking to further their education as an example of some of the fun that could be had if you went to one of the universities in the LA area *cough Mandy cough* . Or even for those looking to enroll to a University only about six hours away *cough Ben I. cough* it would be great to have you on the same coast and available for a nice long weekend visit. I'm just saying.

Back to topic. I've been in ROCK mood the last few weeks, and I blame this on Guitar Hero. This has lead to making room on my Nano for more AC/DC, Stones, Priest, Motorhead, etc. I've also been looking for more obscure "classic rock" bands. Much like when I stumbled across the band UFO awhile back. This leads up to this weekend when Anne and I went to Amoeba. After much searching after mind blanking on their name, I picked up a Hellacopters album "Grande Rock. They aren't really that obscure, but the other album I picked up is. The group is called Starz. Yes, that is a "Z" at the end. Anyway, I picked up their anthology as a sampler. Man it feeds that classic rock need I currently have. With such songs as "Cherry Baby," "Boys in Action," "Rock Six Times," and "Detroit Girls" it's amazing that their only semi-hit was Cherry Baby. I would also like to point out that they deserve a little credit for praising Detroit Girls as the greatest girls in the world, because I would've never placed the greatest girls as living in Detroit. California girls? That's not surprising. Southern Girls? That's easy. Detroit? Who knew? Thanks you Starz.



I'm also including Hellacopters "The Devil Stole the Beat from the Lord" because it's a great title and a great song.



One more thing, why don't the Guitar Hero games include more obscure classic rock bands like Starz, and UFO? I appreciate that they give a bunch of current unknown bands a shot in the unlockables. But, why not throw in a few of these older groups so they can be rediscovered?

Hey, sprechen ze talk?

Last night, HBO was showing Die Hard in glorious HD. It took a lot of will power not to watch the whole thing. Many people have gone on and on about the greatness that is Die Hard. From Bruce Willis to Alan Rickman's Hans Gruber to how the movie began a new genre in the action thriller movie, it's all been said.

I watched a couple scenes last night. The first scene was when McClane first sees his wife. The slimy co-worker Harry Ellis then makes a big deal about Holly showing the Rolex the company gave her as "A little token of our appreciation for all her work."

After that scene I thought the Harry Ellis character never gets enough credit in Die Hard. Isn't he the perfect caricature of the 80's corporate yuppie. "Hey babe, I negotiate million dollar deals for breakfast. I think I can handle this Eurotrash." He puts American Psycho's Patrick Bateman character to shame. Also, he's the perfect "victim" that's so slimy the audience cheers when the villain kills him? Sure he's only in the movie for all of four scenes, but Die Hard wouldn't be Die Hard with out you. Here's to you Harry Ellis."Hans? What am I a method actor? Put away the gun this is radio not television."

"Hans, bubby, I'm your white knight!"

Happy Birthday Jaime!

Why Must the Gaming Gods Torment Me?

I post about all the games I'm looking forward to. I'm four days away from Bioshock coming out. I come home. Red Ring of Death! That's right I have my second occurrence of the Red Ring of Death in less than a year. Thank you Xbox!

Oh Glorious Pixels!

Much like sports, there is a video game off-season which occurs during late spring and summer. I guess it makes it sense with the kids having school off. There are also conventions like E3 which is like the owners meetings for sports leagues. It is basically a very sparse time for new games. There might be one or two that come out that might be worth picking up (i.e. Overlord) but usually it's where bad games are dumped in the hopes that the desperate gamers will pick it up simply to play something new. Wise gamers though know not to fall for that. They know that during the off season is when you put aside your budgeted video game funds in preparation for the video game season. Around mid-August the video game season picks up again. It usually always begins with the new Madden game followed by a slew of games for the Holiday season, and then a few more during those cold winter months of the new year.

This season is actually looking to be one of the bigger seasons. I've got my list to thirteen games that will be released between now and Christmas that I'm either instantly going to purchase, or have a strong interest in. Warning: Some of the videos have some strong violence. Stranglehold being the worst of the lot.

The List:

Is probably my most anticipated title of the year. Any game that claims Atlas Shrugged as a major influence is clearly not your average first person shooter. This game has me expecting a game of the year spot at my end of the season list.




Apparently a lot of people have played the first two games. Should be worth checking out.










A video game sequel to the John Woo movie Hardboiled? I've played the demo about five times. Is it revolutionary? No. But there is something about sliding down a banister in slow mo and taking out bad guy by shooting signs and air conditioners to collapse on them, and then when you reach the end of the banister you can then jump on a cart and slide along and take out more bad guys. Then tack on a multiplayer where you can do this all against your friends. I'm in. Just a warning Sam. There are in fact headshots in this game.



This game and Bioshock are neck and neck in my most anticipated games this year. Because Bioshock comes out next week, it gets the win. Mass Effect is by the same guys that did Knights of the Old Republic and Jade Empire. I really don't need to say any more.





Yes, in the span of one month two games full guitar rock goodness will be released. That's over 140 songs for me to "pretend rock" to. That doesn't even include the albums that Rock Band will allow you to download. And a wireless guitar! Good grief I'm giddy.



Here's the rest of the bunch I'm looking forward to:

Mercenaries 2: I'm looking forward to being able to demolish everything and I mean everything.

Time Shift

Army of Two

Assassin's Creed

Kane & Lynch

Beautiful Katamari

Half-Life 2 Orange Box

Life Lesson #419

Never have your teeth cleaned by woman going through a bitter divorce.

Is it Time to Pack it in When Sesame Street Parodies You?

Rock N Roll Questionnaire or (Fun with Album Covers!)

See if you can follow along kids with this experiment. Please leave your answers in the comments. If you have another answer, please feel free to include those.

So you are going to take an trip to another planet.
1. What is your spaceship of choice?

A. Boston's guitar spaceship that apparently has the power to fire a blue blaze of rock?









B. Electric Light Orchestra's Simon spaceship from Out of the Blue.









C. ZZ Top's part classic Chevy part Space shuttle from Afterburner.









D. Parliament's mothership from the Mothership Connection. Durability might be an issue.









Now that you have your spaceship you need a someone to fly the darn thing.

2. Who is your pilot?

A. Marc Bolan from T. Rex's The Slider.








B. David Bowie from his Aladdin Sane album. Previous space missions could be a red flag.









C. Elton John's Captain Fantastic.









D. Steve Miller's the Joker.









3. Who is your crew?

A. The group of misfits from The Doors' Strange Days album.









B. The Bee Gees from their Children of the World album.









C. Manowar.









D. Barry and Glodean










Space travel isn't the safest so you are also going to need weapons.
4. What is your killing device?

A. Foo Fighter's retro laser gun.










B. Molly's Hatchet









C. GZA's aka The Genius' Liquid Swords.









D. The big ass gun from RZA's Bobby Digital in Stereo album.










Having a pet could also help ease the pains of space travel.
5. What will you bring along as a pet?

A. The three legged dog from Alice in Chains self-titled album.










B. The metal falcon? from Judas Priest's Screaming For Vengeance album.










C. The goats from Pet Sounds.










D. This ape thing from Fleetwood Mac's Mystery to Me album.










6. What planet are you going to?

A. The land on the album cover of Yes' Relayer.










B. Asia's Alpha album cover.










C. Styx' Land of Illusion










D. Public Enemy's Black Planet.










You have reached the end of this questionnaire. Please put down your pencils and close the book.

Ramblings (Partial Days of the Week Edition)

Sunday Robert and I played a little Guitar Hero. After playing the rhythm guitar part of Free Bird on the hard difficulty session I wonder if I'm strengthening my wrists and fingers or am I destroying them. In five years am I going to have to replace my hands with prosthetics?

Saturday I went to see Anne's new place in Silverlake. It's a great little place. It also was so nice driving only a half hour to see my sister.

Also, while eating at Mallie's (?) with Anne and Ben we saw Bret McKenzie of Flight of the Conchords fame. Unfortunately, Ben and Anne have not had the pleasure of seeing the show. Luckily, the lady sitting next to us had, and was extremely enthusiastic about seeing him. So it seems the ladies love Bret, and the guys like Jermaine.



Thursday was my last physical therapy session. Sigh. I've been trying to work a monthly massage now into my budget. But I still don't think it'd be the same without the therapist. Apparently, if I hurt something else I can go back. Hmm.

Monday some coworkers and I went to go see the Simpson's movie after work. Rather than give some long review about the movie, let me talk about something else: the overlaugher. Sitting right behind me was the overlaugher. I despise the overlaugher. In fact the overlaugher is in the upper echelon of people I despise. Are they scared to appear as if they don't get every joke? Do they want to make sure that everyone knows what the funny parts are? Why do they have to be the loudest person in the theater? I will hate a movie just out of spite because of the overlaugher. I hate you overlaugher. I hate you.

This Saturday marks the beginning of my second season as a Tottenham Hotspur supporter. I actually think Spurs have a chance to break into the top four this season. High hopes.

I wish I was as creative in real as I am in my dreams. Also, is everyone's dreams as excellently edited and have as great frame composition as mine? Technically, my dreams are top notch.