Friday, February 15, 2008

Win

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This actually exists.

I can't even tell you how much this has improved my mood. I must have it.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Happy Valentine's, y'all

Where's an LL Cool J concert when you need one?

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Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Wrestlin', Broin', and Tom Pettyin' As Therapy

My class this morning was cancelled, but I didn't know that until I was already awake, showered, and ready to go, so I was left with this big, two-hour chunk of time that I hadn't planned on having. What did I do with it? Perhaps some writing? Read a book, maybe? Do a little homework, you'd venture? Fools! I watched wrestling. I've actually been watching a good deal of wrestling in the past day or so. I've found it to be soothing in a time of stress and consternation. Alcohol also works, but I've run out of alcohol and don't feel like walking in the crunchy snow to get more from the Wannabibs around the corner.

So I have my wrestling, and there's quite a lot to pick from. A sample of what I've watched so far:

D'Lo Brown and Bull Buchanan versus Naomichi Marufuji and Takashi Sugiura for the GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Titles. I decided during this match that Marufuji is the greatest wrestler going today. He was so awesome in this. Everyone looked good, but he was just so clearly on another level.

Kenta Kobashi versus Mitsuharu Misawa, from 1997. I watched this with Davekwon after Broin' Down 9 (more on that later), so I was in a pretty good mood at this point. It wasn't necessary. I could watch this match stone cold sober with a crippling case of SRIDS and I think I'd still be smiling all the way through. It was while watching this match that I determined that Kenta Kobashi is the greatest wrestler of all time, ever.

After Dave left, I watched what I had left over from the previous night's RAW. It was the main event, featuring Jeff Hardy versus Shawn Michaels. This was so awesome. After it was over, I had changed my mind, and decided that Shawn Michaels, was in fact, the greatest wrestler of all time. The next time I see a Kobashi match, I'll probably be back in his camp, so he shouldn't feel too bad.

I watched last night's ECW broadcast this morning, and it wasn't that good. Really, there were only two remarkable things about the entire program. One, The Miz was wearing a ridiculous scarf at ringside. I had fond memories of a high school acquaintance walking the halls of CAHS wrapped up tight in his little scarf to preserve his voice. Or so he said. Aynyway, the other remarkable thing was Joe Styles saying the following of Mark Henry: "He's got arms like legs, and legs like people." I had to rewind this three times. Not because I thought I'd misunderstood him, either. I just needed to hear this comparison a few more times, because I imagine Joey has been fired by now.

Long story short, I've been watching a lot of wrestling and will probably continue to do so for another day or two thanks to the wonder and majesty that is WWE 24/7.

In other news, we bro'ed down last night, for the ninth time, in fact. Adam picked myself and Davekwon up at about 6:55 to spare us the slushy trot down to Ruby Tuesday, and after one abortive attempt at reaching our destination, we arrived. The three of us chatted amongst ourselves for a little while, and the bar was quiet as a tomb. They've apparently done away with the Tuesday night Jeopardy challenge, which is unfortunate, as it gave things a lively atmosphere. Keith showed up shortly, and it was just the four of us for quite some time. The great Mikey McD made it a fivesome, and also caved to PEER PRESSURE and gave up his wussy "I'm not going to drink tonight" stance. That'll teach him to try to moderate. Andrew rounded out the crew shortly after Mike's arrival, and a good time was had by all. Uncle Adam even sprung for a possibly ill advised final pitcher to cap off the evening. The fallout from this pitcher was not too great, as aside from one poorly conceived drunk dial, no one was harmed.

Something else I wanted to make sure I mentioned. I think I've talked to about ten different people about this individually, but it'll be nice to have it down in the blog for posterity. I recorded a Tom Petty documentary on Sundance a few days ago, and was very much looking forward to watching it. So I sat down on Monday afternoon, and called it up on my DVR. As I was about to begin, I noticed that the run time was listed as FOUR HOURS. "That's impossible", I thought. I concluded that the documentary must be followed by some kind of special features, such as the live concert bundled in with the DVD release of the movie. So I started it up and didn't think much about it. Let me note here that this is a teriffic documentary, absolutely amazing. I don't know if Peter Bogdanovich had ever directed one before, but he did a bang up job here. And I was completely immersed in this incredible tale of a small, college town band's rise to fame. And then... the screen went blank and after a few moments, these words appeared in big, white letters: "end part one" I paused the movie and checked the time remaining. It turned out that I was now two hours and ten minutes into the film. Not only that, the story, told chronologically, was only up to 1986. This movie, was in fact, four hours long. So while I loved it, and will probably end up buying it at some point, it's probably a bit too much of an investment if you don't love this man and his band. So, fair warning. Needless to say, this is a must for big Tom Petty fans.

All right, I think that's enough of me yappin' for one day. I'll see you all tomorrow with more complaining.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Tuesday Boozeday!

I had a dream last night that Bill Goldberg and I were waiting in the lobby of a hotel for Mauro Ranallo to show up. He never did, but every random Italian that walked through the door, Bill would bellow, "MAURO!", the guy would shake his head in the negative, and I would get more and more angry at Mr. Goldberg for his racial profiling.

In unrelated news, I need to get completely plastered tonight. Luckily for me, it's... wait for it... get ready...

BROIN DOWN 9: FeBROary: A BROmantic Comedy!

As always, the rules of broin' down are simple and few.

RULES OF BROIN'

Rule Number One: NO GURLZ ALLOWED. This is broin' down, not hoin' down. You can do that on your own time.

Rule Number Two: Speaking of GURLZ, they are either a ONE or a TWO. No exceptions.

Rule Number Three: Six bros are company, ten bros are a sausage fest.

Rule Number Four: Thou shalt not use any modifier in reference to any BROIN event other than BRO.

Shamrocks and shenanigans shall commence at 7 pm at Ruby Tuesday, as per usual.

Before I go, a hearty WELCOME BACK to Uncle Adam upon his return to the blogosphere. You'll find a fine link to his dealy bob up in the top left with other fine blogs of note.

Later on, sweethearts!

Monday, February 11, 2008

Happy Monday (Strike Is Over) + I Go Off The Rails For Some Reason

Top of the morning to all you blogamaniacs out there in the ether! I just couldn't stay away until Tuesday when there's [Daymon]GOOD NEWS![/Daymon] to share. Just in time for Valentine's Day, love is in the air between the Writer's Guild and those crazy kids in the AMPTP. The Guild leadership has declared an end to the strike, and it looks like they got most of what they wanted. AMPTP, I knew you were a big softy all along. Hey, get a room, you two!

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"Oh WGA, you can profit off web content any time."

The only potential hold up is that now the members of the Guild must vote on whether or not to A) end the strike and B) whether the terms of the new deal are acceptable or not. My guess is that this is pretty similar to the electoral college, and they'll rubber stamp the three year agreement with GUSTO. The strike voting begins today and will conclude tomorrow, so we should know for sure very soon. Showrunners are on their sets this morning, presumably trying to get things ready for cast and crew to return to work as early as Wednesday. As a person who loves television, this makes me very happy indeed. More specifically, Paul "Toby" Lieberstein stated that The Office could take two to three weeks to get back up and running. BAD NEWS, SON.

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In other awesomeness, The Ultimate Warrior wants to write an autobiography. Seriously. I can't decide if I actually want this to occur or not. On one hand, it could be completely awesome, chock full of made up words and angry diatribes about our Founding Fathers. On the other, it could seriously give Hogan's book a run for its money in the realm of rewriting history. Of course, that was half the fun of reading the Hogan book. My copy of that thing is covered from start to finish with little checks I wrote down every time I knew he was telling a lie. There's this whole chunk about how he had to SHOOT on a Japanese wrestler that I may as well have just drawn a big "X" over. Anyway, after thinking about it for a moment, I hope Warrior does write that book. It would be nice for the literary world to have a figure that makes Timothy Leary seem grounded.

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"Fear my astral goggles, earth people!"

I was listening to ALmatic last night, and as much as I love the concept of mashing up Al Green and Nas, the execution is greatly marred by the self-importance of the producer. Every single track is interrupted at some point by the same declaration of his own name. "This is another DJ Swindle production!" Yeah dude, we get it. If I give you money, can you give me a de-chotchinated version? Because seriously, it's holding the album back from true greatness, and that's a shame.

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I may have posted this cover before, but I don't care. It's FANTASTIC.

Lent is going pretty well, despite Meryl's best efforts to derail me. Last night, she first offered me a slice of pecan pie (presumably to kill me), and then a slice of cheesecake. I'm onto you, woman. As far as the cursing goes, it's not been full-stop, but I've certainly decreased the overall volume (in more ways than one) of my filthy utterances.

Davekwon needs to update his blog. Fern's doing all right lately, though I should probably give him a link up at the top left with the other cool kids. Andrew's blog is a mystery. It's like it's too academic for people to muck up with comments or something. ANDREW PATTON IS A REGULAR JOE, PEOPLE. His blog feels real desolation and cries real tears as a result. And no, they are not the easy tears of love, but the fiery, bitter tears of neglect! We live in a country where Matthew McConaughey can star in one hit movie after another despite never displaying any kind of competence at his craft. A country where Chyna is still on television on a weekly basis. A country where Kanye West is winning Grammys and not Ghostface. So does it shock me that this same country would heap comments on less deserving blogs? No. But it does sadden me. Andrew Patton has something to say about music, and the way he appreciates it. In fact, for those who know him well, I'd be positively gobsmacked if one of you could say that he hasn't affected your appreciation of music in some way. I owe much to this man, including thirty-three dollars, but most of all, my ever-expanding understanding of, and love for, music.

Until tomorrow,
Champagne for my real friends and real pain for my sham friends!

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Sunday, February 10, 2008

George Romero Knows From Zombies

But possibly not much else. Finally saw Bruiser last night. What's that you say? You don't know what Bruiser is? Well, you're in for a treat! Bruiser just so happens to be a straight to DVD film written and directed by the great George A. Romero. Not only that, it was direct to DVD in the year 2000! Romero was a pioneer in the direct to DVD market. Y'all musta forgot! I've now seen three non-zombie Romero films, and his batting average is getting dangerously low in this area. Maybe it's just anything non-supernatural that is poison for him, as Martin, an ambiguous vampire movie, was awesome. Bruiser, however, along with Knightriders, just makes me sad.

Also on the docket was Zardoz. The dude who directed Deliverance made this thing, and he really went hog wild. There are some fairly impressive set pieces throughout, as well as some nice boobs. Oh, and did I mention that SEAN CONNERY is the star? And not only that, he's wearing THIS.

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The horrors.

I also saw three more episodes of the fake horror anthology, Garth Marenghi's Darkplace. I was pretty much right about it last time, in that I knew it would start seriously grating on me with any additional viewing. I imagine I'll wind up finishing it off, as there are just two episodes left. Still, the laughs are few and far between for me and I'm left wondering what all the guffawing from my companions is about.

That's all from Columbus. TTFN. See you Tuesday, pre Broin' Down 9.

Friday, February 08, 2008

I've Been Denied Zombies

Chops found out there was a blog. Batten down the hatches.

Campus Partners and the Drexel Theaters Group have parted ways. The upshot? The Drexel Gateway will become merely The Gateway very soon. What this means for my beloved sci-fi marathon in April, only time will tell.

More bad news, this time on the Diary of the Dead front. It's not scheduled to open in Columbus. At all. Or anywhere else in Ohio from what I can tell. So basically, if it bombs like Land of the Dead did, we may not see it until it hits DVD. Were the constraints of Lent not holding me back, this blog entry would be very R-rated right about now. Funk soul brotha.

Michael Eisner said that the strike was over, and people all got really excited. Come on now, folks. How long has it been since Michael Eisner was relevant? (The strike is, as of this writing, not over, by the way.)

This every other day pace is pretty "deec", so I think I'll be keeping it up. Not a whole going on today, so I'll talk at y'all again on Sunday. Word to the third and stuff.

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

A Laconic Lenten Letter

I've given up swearing for Lent. Starting at midnight this morning I have caught myself breaking this agreement between myself and the Lord of Hosts a scant three times. Twice between 12:18am and 1:51am during a telephone call, and once just a few moments ago upon stubbing my toe. To be fair, the toe stubbing incident featured a string of no less than six obscenities, but as they were all variations on the same word, I'm only counting them as one. Anyhow, I'm not particularly religious, but I like to give up something for Lent each year because I am a believer in self-improvement. It has been suggested to me that perhaps my embargo on curse words is insufficient and a mockery of the entire concept (in friendlier terms). Thus, I have also decided to completely give up junk food over this period of time. So far, so good. The foul temptress (tempter?) that is Habib's will be a wily adversary over these forty days and forty nights, of this I am sure. My final indulgence, you ask? Two delicious Laffy Taffys, one grape and one cherry. Delectable. Can they hold me over until Easter? TIME WILL TELL.

Monday, February 04, 2008

The February 4th blog

I've been listening to some stuff from My December over the past couple of days, and I think I may have given this album the brush off too quickly. While it's no Breakaway, and there's certainly no standout single like Since U Been Gone, it's a pretty darn good pop album. Maybe I was expecting too much the first time I heard it. Anyway, good job, Kelly.

Meryl's cat is apparently going to kick Jonathan's ass. Jonathan is so scared, I'm sure. Pssh. Listen, Meryl. Just because your cat can't put down the Twinkies doesn't make him a bad ass. One look at the lithe, gray form of President Jonathan Meowington and your "Beamer" will be SHOOK. There, Andrew. Happy?

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LOLcat indeed. Beamer's scared to death, scared to look. So scared he largely turned white in fact.

Where's Dave to be indignant about this whole thing?

Jason is on YouTube. I don't think he'll mind if I post the link. He seemed pretty excited about it, and he uploaded the video himself.

How to Feed a Drunk

My boy's a superstar on the Internets.

Oh yeah, the strike looks to be on its last legs. Yay that. I'd be willing to take ANY new episodes of The Office at this point. Lost too. Though I think however many they got in the can is what it's going to end up being. That show didn't take long to suck me in.

Anyhow, I hope you're all doing well so far in this long February, and I'll see you all soon.

Saturday, February 02, 2008

PICKS! AND PIX!

Just to have them on record...

Brock Lesnar over Frank Mir by three-round decision.

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Brock's got this shit.

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira over Tim Sylvia by third round submission.

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Similarly, Big Nog's got this shit.

Other than that, DON'T CARE.

I took a nap today and now I have bed head. I always forget that even with short hair, bed head can bring you low. What is the point of short hair then, eh?

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Oh, right. Because my hair looks like this otherwise.

I watched Land of the Dead on Thursday night, and I have to say, the ending of that movie now actively annoys me. I tried to kind of ignore the stupidity of it for the past two and a half years out of blatant fanboyism, but geez, what a cliff this thing falls off in the last ninety seconds. Once you're stretching your revolutionary metaphor to simply allow zombies to exist because "they're just looking for a place to go", your metaphor is DEAD. Sorry, George. These are not people. They EAT people. Drove me fucking insane.

That said, I have supreme confidence that Diary of the Dead will be most triumphant.

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February 15th: Don't be square

Seriously, this is something that must be done opening day. I'm not going to be the last kid on my block to peep this, and if you're any kind of true motherfucking friends, you won't be either. You know Jenna's not going to wait long to scope it out.

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Not gratuitous! She loves zombie movies!

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THE PROOF. LAND OF THE DEAD AN' SHIT!

She probably hates the ending too.