He Directed A Nightmare on Elm Street 4, Too

I'm not going to break any new ground with this revelation, but here goes: your impression of a piece of music, film, or television show can change drastically based on the environment in which you watch it. It is with this in mind that I viewed the Renny Harlin (he of The Adventures of Ford Fairlane and Die Hard 2) opus Mindhunters for the second time.

This actually took place two weeks ago tonight, but I hadn't really given much thought to why I enjoyed it so much more the first time than the second. This is what I've determined, though.

1. I saw it in a theater the first time, with two very enthusiastic companions (Ashley and Davekwon).

2. I was aware that it was directed by Renny Harlin going in this time around. That's enough to diminish anyone's excitement.

3. I already knew that LL Cool J wasn't going to die (though, to be fair, I think he's only ever died in one movie, and there are at least three in which he appears to die only to make a miraculous recovery by the end. And come to think of it, the one movie he died in, the fantastic night vision shot Rollerball, his death is off-screen, so he may very well have survived that too. I think he's just invincible.).

4. Jason wasn't in the mood to give it a chance, and mine and Dave's enthusiasm was not infectious enough to stem his tide of negativity.

For these reasons and more, I have to officially un-recommend Mindhunters. Ashley has all of the wacky movie channels and has probably seen it upwards of twenty times by this point, so she's more than welcome to contest me on this. Perhaps there's some sort of breakthrough on the sixth viewing.

Some The Streets song just came on my iPod and I have no idea how this has occurred. Oh, I see. It's like when the Mystery Whites appear on court at the end of Ohio State basketball games when they're up by twenty. Where do they come from? Fuckin' The Streets. According to the mighty and venerable Wikipedia, this song, Don't Mug Yourself is from the 2002 album Original Pirate Material. This particular single charted #21 in the U.K.

Jesus Christ. Now something I don't even recognize is on. How is this happening? Do I have iPod gnomes loading shitty music onto my poor nano? Or did I just haphazardly upload a soundtrack? I think that both are equally likely, frankly.

Regardless, time to get this bullshit off of here. Outtie 5000.

State of the RAW and other stuff

I believe that terming week 2 of the RAWnaissance anything less than a smashing success would ring quite false! With a hearty attendance of five in total and Young Lee Masheter coming next week, happy days are here again indeed. Jokes were told, future plans were entered into PDAs, mental notes were taken. Cheers to Keith for character development. This week he added a black leather glove to his "Keith Jackson: Problem Drinker" persona. What does it mean? Is it a sign that he's siding with the Wolfpac? Tune into Nitro to find out. Also, there was wrestling.

For those that didn't make it down to The Rumba Cafe on Saturday, first of all, for shame. Secondly, it was a very good night of Funkdefy in a very different environment. I wouldn't want to pay five bucks for record spinning every week, but four times a year (which seems to be the timetable currently) should work out quite well. Lucas, Chops, and myself came out to lend our support and scrill to Andrew's endeavor and I would venture to say that we were not disappointed!

Bam Bam Bigelow died the other day, and that was disappointing. It occurred to me when I didn't immediately rush to memorialize him on the blog that I'm becoming numb to these wrestling deaths. They're so frequent now, and all from the same age group and era, that it's pointless to try and keep up with it. Suffice it to say that as a huge fan of fat boy wrestlers, I liked Bam Bam Bigelow a lot.

I'm skipping the State of the Union tonight, but be sure to catch all the fallout on MSNBC with Olbermann and Matthews. Their other joint shows have been really entertaining.

Keith Jackson: Problem Drinker

It is with a heavy heart that I report on the first night of the Monday Night RAWnaissance. Despite only one person making the effort to appear, it was still most newsworthy. Promptly at 9 pm, without his best gal on his arm (he says she was too tired, I say she was too ASHAMED of him), young John Keith Jackson appeared at my house, having transported a glass of scotch on the rocks with him. Oh yes. Covered with a sheet of plastic wrap no less.

RAW was pretty okay too, so hey, more people show up next week. We can have an intervention if need be.

~!

It has really swept our lives, this magical symbol of excitement. When you have a band named after you, you're doing something right. Well done, tilde bang. Well done, Mr. Bryan Alvarez. Well done, DOUG~!

The Hype Begins And Ends Here

There. You now officially want to see 28 Weeks Later. Don't deny it. And as noted in the entry title, I'm done hyping. I don't really see what I could possibly say to entice you more than that picture. It's out in May. We'll posse up.

It's Like He Did it For Us

Good news for Triple H haters and potential RAW viewers for the upcoming NEW Monday Night era (beginning January 15th!), but bad news for those of us with SOULS, as Hunter looks to have torn his quad again. He gave Randy Orton a spinebuster, and his leg just gave out. The last time he suffered this injury, he was out for eight months, came back way too soon and never really got back to one hundred percent. Maybe being a dad will mellow him out or something, but the weirdest thing is that last night (January 7th) was the fifth anniversary of the night he returned from the first injury. SPOOKY. Anyway, here's Hunter getting felt up by Shawn while in intense pain or something.


"No, no. It's just the laying on of hands, Hunter. Chill out. I'm cool."

So anyway, could be interesting times ahead, depending on how long the big guy's on the sidelines for.

Free cinematic treats, anyone?

Studio 35

A Christmas Story
Dec. 22 & 23 Movie Starts at 4:00 & 6:45
Dec. 25 through 28 Movie Starts at 6:00

Bad Santa
Dec. 22 & 23 Movie Starts at 11:30
Dec. 25 through 28 Movie Starts at 10:45

Anyone interested? I could do it more or less any night with some advance planning.

Please, please, don't everybody comment at once

This blog is on its last legs.

So is my holiday movie marathon. Seems like there's no interest in it, and Dave has to work, so I don't even have a place to host it now. BAD WEEK.


That's me. A sad puppy.

360 degrees... or posts

I'm in beautiful, crisp Charleston, West Virginia this weekend, visiting family friends and my old pal Ben's wife Amy as she throws a housewarming bash for her new crib. There is a palpable positivity in the air coming off Rich Rodriguez's decision to stay put as head football coach of WVU, and after losing to SOUTH FLORIDA, that's exactly what the program needs.

Speaking of football programs, tune into ESPN tonight to see THE Ohio State University's own Troy Smith crowned the winner of this year's Heisman Trophy. And also to see the dejected look on that traitor Brady Quinn's mug. Fuckin' Dublin.

So, it looks like Monday Night RAW is the winner of the New Wrestling Night Sweepstakes, clocking an impressive THREE VOTES OUT OF THREE. Oh yes. It was one Hell of a battle. January 8th, it all begins again. It's too bad January 1st is... you know, a holiday and stuff, because that night, John Cena is fighting... KEVIN FEDERLINE. Yeah. That Kevin Federline. Anyway, even though we're officially starting on the 8th, I'll definitely be watching that episode as it occurs, so feel free.

Dave and I are co-hosting a wacky Christmas themed movie marathon next Saturday, the 16th. It's pretty low key. Just six films, three horror, three otherwise. Contact me for details if you're interested.

I'll be back in Columbus on Sunday, so get a grip on yourselves until then.

Wrestling Night

You know what I miss? Watching RAW with everybody every Monday night. That was a fun era, stretching from late 1997 pretty much into mid-2003, and I've been thinking lately that I'd like to resuscitate it for 2007 if there's any interest in such a thing.

There are four primetime wrestling shows on TV nowadays. If you have any desire to join me on a wrestling night renaissance, leave a comment about your preference. I'll run them down quickly.

WWE Monday Night RAW (Mondays, 9:00 pm-11:05 pm) - The venerable warhorse, the standard bearer. Featured stars include John Cena, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Edge, and Randy Orton.

ECW (Tuesdays, 10:00 pm - 11:00 pm) - Take everything you remember about ECW and throw it out the window, though it's actually a pretty well booked show, going at a logical, methodical pace. Top stars include Rob Van Dam, Sabu, The Big Show, CM Punk, and Bobby Lashley.

TNA Impact (Thursdays, 9:00 pm - 10:00 pm) - TNA's finally got primetime, and it's sort of a mess of a show at the moment, but hopefully it'll settle down. Main stars include Kurt Angle, Christian, Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, and Christopher Daniels.

WWE Friday Night Smackdown! (Fridays, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm) - The best wrestling in WWE tends to end up on this show, mainly based on Vince McMahon not paying much attention to it. Top stars include Batista, King Booker, Finlay, The Undertaker, and Kane.

So, if you want to restore the sense of community~!, cast your vote!