Edshugeo The GodMoor

Giant Robot Magazine

2010-02-08T13:29:00.001-05:00

Ain't It Cool News. Sometimes it ain't.

Creedence For Two Bucks - Today

2010-02-05T07:49:00.000-05:00

Only know a couple of songs off this one, but I snapped it up.

Johnny!

2010-01-30T12:26:00.001-05:00

How You Like Me Now? - The Heavy On Letterman

2010-01-25T22:38:00.000-05:00

The performance from last week including the full encore (without commercial break).

The album, The House That Dirt Built, is available on eMusic. 6 download credits for 11 tracks (as of this writing). Just got it now as I had to wait till my download allowance refreshed. I don't think this deal existed last week, so I dunno how long it'll last.

Muse For Three Bucks - Again - Today

2010-01-23T03:33:00.001-05:00

Last time it was Absolution, which I still haven't listened to, but I'll get this one too, as I still love Black Holes And Revelations.

Also;

As seen on Lightning Deals.

Prince's Fight Song

2010-01-23T02:41:00.001-05:00

Written for the Minnesota Vikings. Not really into football or sports for that matter, except maybe girls volleyball which I used to catch on cable. Also participated in Superbowl pools at work. I think I won like twenty bucks one year. Anyhoo, I dunno what a football fight song is supposed to sound like. Some people are saying that he got it right, except for the falsetto, while others disagree.

A poster on Prince.org, Comegetwild, had this great comment; "It sounds like the national anthem of a small baltic country..."
True, and probably why I like it.
The song itself.
The recording... not so much. Even though it's probably just a demo, the performance is just so devoid of life and imagination, and the keyboard sounds, so cheesy... One wonders, how a guy like Prince, who never leaves his residence without eyeliner, hair immaculately done, and pimped out clothes, isn't somewhat embarrassed by what is the sonic equivalent to seeing the man garbed like a cracked out homeless person.

I, on the other hand, am occasionally dressed like a cracked out homeless person, so it's okay that my demos sound like that.

But the song itself, I like. He should'a got the guys from Queen to back him up. That would'a been a fight song. Or at least a song on the next Highlander soundtrack.

I Have A Dream... Of Low Prices!

2010-01-18T16:45:00.000-05:00

I guess this has been happening for a while. If it's good enough for Washington, Lincoln and the Sun God (AKA Jesus), commercialization's good for Martin, too.

I did my laundry today. Had to segregate the the whites from the coloreds. Maybe one day I'll be able to drop them all in one big machine, but sadly, that day is not yet come. That day... is not yet come.

Funky Forest - The First Contact

2010-01-12T11:48:00.001-05:00

I haven't finished watching it, yet (Done with side A, started side B). Been watching its short segments individually, while occupied with trying to figure out why the computer is so slow, lately, and other stuff.

My favorite scene so far is titled Buck Naked and the Panda (or something like that) which ends with the Hot Springs Girls in a pillow fight. But I can't find that on Youtube.

Jonas Bro & The NPG? Holy Crap!

2010-01-08T00:45:00.001-05:00

Caught the end of Letterman (waiting for Craig Ferguson) and saw one of the Jonas Bros (forgot which one, Pete? - Nick) performing with one of Prince's old backup bands plus a bass player whom I didn't recognize. The song wasn't bad. The only Jonas song I knew was also from a previous Letterman performance; the nightmarishly bad "Freaking Out". But this one was alright. Good even. I likes.

January 15th - Now flavored with Youtube:

Movies, Movies, Movies

2010-01-05T11:35:00.000-05:00

Avatar - Thought it was okay. Probably, maybe would'a got more of a "Wow!" effect had I seen it in Imax 3D, instead of just 3D (maybe it was digital 3D, I dunno). At times I even found it difficult to stay awake. It's pretty much The Last Samurai, but with tall blue people. The effects were good, but they were so good, that I often took them for granted, which might be what a director would want if he had something else going on (District 9). The Navi could just have easily been people with make-up (and digital trickery ala Lord Of The Rings) rather than CGI constructs. Stephen Lang was pretty awesome, though. We don't get enough Stephen Lang in movies, or TV (or maybe I watch the wrong movies and TV). Thought I spotted John Amos for a second, too, but that couldn't have been him. I was probably half asleep. I didn't care much for the story or how it was presented. The cinematography was pretty weak, I thought. Especially as far as exploiting the the 3D. I had a similar problem with Monsters Vs. Aliens. In that film, the shots with the giant woman often just made everything around her seem small, rather than the small bits making her seem larger. I'm pretty sure that it's partially the View-Master effect of these 3D movies, and partially the director's and/or cinematographer's inability to compensate for it. Then again, I'm not a film-maker. Whadda I know? I don't recall this problem with Bolt, or Up.
My brother thought it was pretty good and it's raking in the bucks (one of the biggest moneymakers of all time), so I guess James Cameron is doing something right.

Let The Right One In - Vampire movie from Sweden. I kinda liked it and kinda didn't. A lot of it was just watching this kid take shit from other kids at school which got old kinda fast. The other stuff was interesting. I kept wondering why the vampire girl looked so... Semitic (everybody else was Nordic looking, it being Sweden and all that). What was the filmmaker getting at?

This blogger, Exoskeleton, gets at it; "For some reason I haven't heard that mentioned, but it's quite obvious. It's in the convention of the vampire movie (Dracula is of course an anti-semitic figure, Nosferatu emigrates etc). The first page of any monster text: it's about the foreign/other etc. And this movie makes it quite explicit. It's in the very title, it's in the choice of actors (Eli is played by a darkish actress and Oskar is played by a super-blond boy), and of course it's in the plot (a vampire and her strange dad shows up in the suburbs of Stockholm)."

Comes close to answering a question I had about ten years ago. I had been fascinated with the idea of a link between antisemitism and vampire legend after reading about the Blood Libel in an editorial about the Crown Heights situation that blew up a while back.

I had an idea once which would play with elements of antisemitic legends and mix them with vampire-esque concepts (and other stuff). Still might get around to it one day. But it was kinda funny seeing how uncomfortable I felt seeing it played out here.

I plan on reading the book it's based on, and maybe revisiting the movie as well. New pressings of the blu-ray has surfaced which contain the theatrical subtitles, which are preferred over the ones previously used on video. I saw the movie streamed via Netflix. I don't know which subs were used. I didn't have any issues with the dialog, but many thought that the subs were dumbed down, when released to home video.

Just found out an American remake is coming this year, called Let Me In.

Birth Of A Nation - Had this in my Netflix queue for a while. When I came down with a cold about three weeks ago, it was a perfect time for me to explore this noted classic. I see why the movie is highly regarded despite it's issues. It's quite engaging and some of the photography is downright brilliant. Towards the end even I'm on the edge of my seat hoping the Klan will get there in time to save the day. More than anything else, I'm bothered by the film's attempt to assert itself as a representation of history, rather than the historical fantasy it really is. However, this was a version of history and the Ku Klux Klan that some people held to, before this movie was made. I was also confused by the positive representation of Abraham Lincoln. I thought southerners didn't care for him. An uncle in Texas once noted there were no streets named after him.

District 9 - Awesome movie, but kinda tough (emotionally) to watch at the beginning. It's obviously a special effects movie with all those crawfish aliens walking around and whatnot, but the effects are (like Avatar) done so well, you don't think about how the creatures are created, about FX, just about what they are doing and what's being done to them. I can't accurately break down the suspension of disbelief while watching it, but for a little while I actually felt like I was watching a documentary.

Belly - This one's about a decade old. Somehow I managed to avoid it in all that time. Critics didn't like it and neither did friends. Knowing that it came from '90s music video director Hype Williams (Puff, Biggie, Busta), I couldn't help but wonder what a crime movie would be like shot entirely with fish-eye lens, with slow motion dollar bills "raining" in the clubs and views of light bulb arrays reflected off of the giant sunglasses of our protagonists. This curiosity was never strong enough to get me to rent or buy the movie, though. Finally I "found" a hi-def file online, downloaded, and still took several months before I could bring myself to watch it.

Narratively (not a word according to my spell check) speaking, it's every bit the turd everyone says it is. The saying goes that a polished turd is still just a turd, but I don't think that applies here. This movie manages to be an awesome viewing and listening experience despite the horrid writing. Was it even written? Maybe the whole thing was improvised, just made up on the spot as they moved from scene to scene and then put together in editing. Doesn't matter. I was enthralled. And no, I don't smoke weed nor anything else, but the experience itself was pretty psychedelic. I especially enjoyed the use of audio effects in the rear speakers. Sometimes the previous scene would continue to reverberate for minutes after it ended in the background of the current scene. The blu-ray is on my to buy list. I wonder if the Jamaican patois is subtitled? Not that I really need to understand what that guy was saying. Might be fun to read.

Dammit! Why hasn't Hype Williams made more movies?

The Hangover - I liked it, though not quite as funny as I expected.

Bells Of Death - I thought I rented on VHS back in the eighties, but this late sixties Shaw Bros. revenge epic seems completely new to me. Not a great movie, but good. Thought I recognized a young Wu Ma in one of the lesser roles (he goes to warn his "uncle" that he's being targeted). The VHS back in the day had a great print of the film compard to other, later kung fu movies on tape. As great as one could look on a 19" tube TV, but appeared to have all of the fight scenes edited out. At the time I wondered if they were filmed at all, not knowing anything about kung fu movies made before the 1970's. This copy was also a rental, one of the remastered Shaw DVDs that's been coming out fairly regularly for the last few years. My memory isn't good enough to know whether or not this was the same Bells Of Death I saw years ago.

Inglourious Basterds - I dug it, but don't have anything to say about it. I'm ma watch it again, though.

There Will Be Blood - I spent much of this movie asking why. Why are you (the director) showing me this? Like I was being escorted by one of Dickens's Ghosts of Christmas past. I kept waiting for the famed "I drink your milkshake" scene. Thought I was gonna get it when Mr. Plainview (Daniel Day Lewis) took his son to that restaurant, but it didn't happen there. Had to wait just about til the end of the movie for it, but it was kinda worth it. Overall, I didn't think that much of the movie.

Garoojigi - A Korean sex comedy that takes place... well, a long time ago. I don't know Korean history. Anyway, there's this guy who's the laughing stock of his village's female population cuz he has a tiny pecker. One day after doing a good deed, he's directed to a hidden potion that will solve his problem and told not to drink too much, which, of course, he does. Now he's the man and his penis becomes legendary. He's called upon to defend his country against the west in contest of cock strength against their champion, who of course, is a large Black man. There's a bit more to this movie than that, but not much. I think I recall some kung fu. If there was it wasn't a lot.

Gamer - Another fun movie from the guys who made the Crank flicks, though if you hated Crank 1 and 2, you'll hate this, too. I can see this not aging too well, though.

Well.... This Is Weird.

2010-01-04T09:36:00.000-05:00

Was looking for some I'd posted a while back, and found a page with a segment of my blog translated into Chinese.

From there I had Google translate the page back into English and found some fun bits (reminiscent of an old Saturday Night Live sketch, I barely remember) ;

Issue 6, October 20, 2007

“我现在要做的就是迪克两面” "I have to do now is dick both sides"

不多，但我一直在做了一段时间。 Not, but I have been doing for some time. 就像是我的主题曲。 Is like my theme song. 一个由火花来比较新的专辑，名为 hello 年轻的恋人，这是在波希米亚狂想曲符合肉饼，虽然不是真的有点儿方式badass。 By a spark to compare the new album, called hello young lovers, this is consistent with meatloaf Bohemian Rhapsody, though not really a little way badass. 认为那些家伙只是从20世纪80年代新波群，但目前的数量要远远超过他们。 That those guys only from the 20th century, 80 years a new wave group, but the number of far more than they. 依稀记得一个老周六夜现场的外观，在那里我认为我的键盘手，被命名因为对工具的突出标志罗兰。 Vaguely remember an old Saturday Night Live appearance, where I think my keyboard player, was named because the tool was marked by Roland. 还记得他们的电影权麦，女孩的心理，他们也gonna使它成为音乐剧导演徐克。 Still remember the movie rights to their wheat, girls, psychology, they are gonna make it a musical director, Tsui Hark. 个想法吓坏了，当时我，但现在我希望它得到的。 Is the idea terrified I was, but now I want it to get. 知道他们一意孤行，写的任何歌曲。 Know that they acted willfully, to write any songs.

仍然挖坏脑'建设一个国家。 Still digging the bad brain 'the building of a nation. 比较喜欢的坏脑的想法比我更多的记录。 More like a bad idea of the brain more than my record. 在他们已经有了一个专辑的朋克值得/雷鬼乐队，尽管现在它更重摇滚，朋克相比，在我看来。 They already have an album worthy of punk / reggae band, though now it is more heavy rock, punk compared to, in my opinion.

Based on this post:

Saturday, October 20, 2007

"All I Do Now Is Dick Around"

Pretty much what I've been doing for a while. This is like my theme song. Comes from a relatively recent album by Sparks, called Hello Young Lovers, which is badass in a Bohemian Rhapsody meets Meatloaf, though not really kinda way. I thought those guys were just a new wave group from the eighties, but there's way more to them than that. I vaguely recall an old Saturday Night Live appearance, where I thought the keyboardist was named Roland because of the prominent logo on the instrument. I also recall they had the movie rights to Mai, The Psychic Girl, and they were gonna make it a musical directed by Tsui Hark. The idea frightened me at the time, but now I wish it got made. Wonder if they went ahead and wrote any songs for it.

I'm still digging Bad Brains' Build A Nation. I used to like the idea of Bad Brains more than I did their records. Now they've made a album worthy of a Punk/Reggae band, though now it's more heavy rock, than punk, in my opinion.

Louis Cha For A Thousand Bucks!

2010-01-03T21:03:00.000-05:00

You gots to be fucking kidding me. As of this writing the second volume is $150. The first is more reasonable at twenty four and change to thirty six bucks.

These three volumes (about 1500 pages, total) translates Louis Cha's (AKA Jin Yong) final novel (completed in the very early 1970's into English. There are a number of TV productions (often titled Duke Of Mount Deer) as well as Stephen Chow's 2 Royal Tramp movies.

Too bad they're not available as eBooks. If sales are the main issue keeping them out of print, eBooks could rectify that while keeping the few of us into this sort of thing satisfied.

Save Pedro!

2009-12-31T09:51:00.000-05:00

Classic Funkadelic cover artist Pedro Bell is in ailing physical and financial health. We can help.

From the Undercover Black Man;

Album-cover artist Pedro Bell, the prophetic penman of P-Funk liner notes, satirical satyr of South Side Chicago, and one of my personal heroes, has been enduring health and money problems for years. We need to show him some love.

The Black Rock Coalition is sponsoring a benefit show for Pedro Bell this Saturday night (January 2) at Santos Party House in downtown Manhattan. Doors open at 7 p.m. The price is $15.

Pedro’s friends and fans were stirred to action by a November article in the Chicago Sun-Times.

If you can’t attend the fundraiser but would like to help Pedro in his time of need, follow this link to PayPal and donate to the Pedro Bell Benefit Fund.

Mamoru Oshii To Direct Tetsujin 28go (Gigantor)

2009-12-29T23:28:00.000-05:00

So says Anime News Network;

Acclaimed director Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell, The Sky Crawlers, Patlabor) revealed in Tokyo on Friday that his new work will be a film adaptation of Mitsuteru Yokoyama's Tetsujin 28-gō giant robot manga. The pioneering 1956-1966 manga is best known in English for inspring a 1963-1966 anime that was adapted as Gigantor. Oshii made his announcement during a live discussion to mark the opening of his latest film, the live-action Assault Girls project.

Earlier this year, Oshii had already directed a stage play version of Tetsujin 28-gō, which featured a 500-kilogram (1,100-pound), six-meter-tall (20-feet-tall) replica of the title robot. A "life-size," 18-meter-tall (59-feet-tall) statue of Tetsujin 28-gō was unveiled in Yokoyama's hometown of Kobe in October, and new NTT Docomo commercials featuring the robot began airing that same month.

Not a huge fan of Oshii. I remember liking Angel's Egg, Darossu (Moon Station Dallos - didn't know that was his til I checked IMDB, just now) and Ghost In The Shell 2, and maybe thought one or two of the Patlabor movies were okay. The other stuff of his I've seen? Ghost In The Shell (the comicbook it's based on is great as is the TV series Oshii may have produced), Sky Crawlers, and the live action film Avalon? Crap, except for Ghost In The Shell, which was merely sleepy.

I am, of course, a fan of Gigantor, so I need to see how this turns out.

Here's one of the commercials mentioned above...

As seen on Ain't It Cool News.

Van Halen For Three Bucks, Today

2009-12-27T09:02:00.000-05:00

Oddly enough, I have no Van Halen (maybe a song or two in my asst. folder?) in my MP3 collection, which means I probably don't have any of their CDs since I've long converted all my discs to MP3s and some to that iTunes format (I'm gonna have to redo those).

That means I haven't listened to a (whole) Van Halen album since the early nineties. About the last time I had a turntable. By then Sammy Hagar had been their lead singer for a while, and I was repulsed by him ever since "I Can't Drive 55". He did manage one or two decent singles with the band (can't think of which ones right now - Oh! Right Now was one, the other was kinda country sounding), but on the whole I hated post 1984 Van Halen.

1984 had been my favorite album of theirs, out of that, Diver Down and Women And Children First (my least favorite of the three). Didn't have the others.

How was I able to live without songs like Panama, I'll Wait, Hot For Teacher, Top Jimmy and Jump for about a decade anna half? Okay, I heard a few of those on the radio, Muzak and TV occasionally, but still...

Why Do You Hate Christmas, Mr. President?

2009-12-24T16:00:00.000-05:00

My latest Christmas card. Had some printing issues last year, so I don't even do "cards" as in paper, really. Just the DVDs and YouTube links. This one done in Moviestorm, which I'd like to talk about in future.

Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays

Why Motion Comics Aren't Comics

2009-12-13T22:28:00.000-05:00

Here, followed by comments that illustrate why it doesn't matter what they are called. Still, was fun to consider for a li'l bit.

Makes Me Laugh

2009-12-02T09:09:00.000-05:00

Soul Train Awards Beats Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.

The Tiger Woods Saga.

I Probably Would've Left The Theatre In Tears...

2009-11-23T20:07:00.000-05:00

had they shot and included this scene in Star Trek (2009).

I can be a little sensitive sometimes.

As per Ain't It Cool News.

500 Albums, Five Bucks Each

2009-11-23T09:37:00.000-05:00

Amazon's Black Friday MP3 deals.

Haven't had a chance to go through all of these, but Soul by Seal is a definite buy for me.

Also, get three bucks worth of mp3s for free. expires November 30th, 2009.

The Copyright Timebomb

2009-11-21T14:07:00.000-05:00

From Wired:

At a time when record labels and, to a lesser extent, music publishers, find themselves in the midst of an unprecedented contraction, the last thing they need is to start losing valuable copyrights to ’50s, ’60s, ’70s and ’80s music, much of which still sells as well or better than more recently released fare. Nonetheless, the wheels are already in motion.

“The termination that’s going to be coming up is going to be a big problem for the record companies and publishers,” said attorney Greg Eveline of Eveline Davis & Phillips Entertainment Law.

“It’s written into the statute,” said entertainment lawyer Robert Bernstein. “It’s just a matter of time.”

The Copyright Act includes two sets of rules for how this works. If an artist or author sold a copyright before 1978 (Section 304), they or their heirs can take it back 56 years later. If the artist or author sold the copyright during or after 1978 (Section 203), they can terminate that grant after 35 years. Assuming all the proper paperwork gets done in time, record labels could lose sound recording copyrights they bought in 1978 starting in 2013, 1979 in 2014, and so on. For 1953-and-earlier music, grants can already be terminated.

The Eagles plan to file grant termination notices by the end of the year, according to Law.com. “It’s going to happen,” said Eveline. “Just think of what the Eagles are doing when they get back their whole catalog. They don’t need a record company now…. You’ll be able to go to Eaglesband.com (updated) and get all their songs. They’re going to do it; it’s coming up.”

So, I take it Prince is just playing a waiting game in regards to his long standing quest to regain the rights to his master recordings. It's just a matter of time, and whether or not the RIAA can sneak in a law that defuses this "timebomb" as they tried back during the Clinton administration.

The record labels tried to defuse this bomb in 1999 by sneaking an amendment to the Copyright Act through the House of Representatives that would add sound recordings to the Act’s list of copyrights that were considered “works for hire,” which would make them exceptions to the grant termination clause. According to one source close to the situation, the labels told Congress that the Copyright Act already covered sound recordings as exceptions because albums of music are “compilations” — but that “just to be absolutely clear, [the labels] wanted to put it in so nobody can debate it.”

After musicians, including Carly Simon, reacted negatively, the amendment was withdrawn amid public outcry... (also from Wired)

Carly Simon is not to be underestimated as evidenced from this story from just about a year ago.

Kinda Like Some ILL Fukadelic Shit, Right Here

2009-11-19T10:32:00.004-05:00

This is the same (well, in name more that personnel, I guess) Geinoh Yamashirogumi that created the soundtrack to Akira which is among my favorite albums of all time (the movie and comics are also among my favorites). I recently managed to find a some of their non-Akira recordings online. While I haven't given much of it a thorough listen just yet, this (partial) track from their first album (from 1976) is a bit of a revelation for me.
It evokes past, present and (their) future by conjuring the spirits of Hazel era Funkadelic (Maggot Brain) as well as the relatively recent Godspeed! You Black Emperor (though I've tended to think of Godspeed! as not too early Pink Floyd minus a some funk). There's very little there that suggests what the group itself would become, but it's brilliant nonetheless and almost makes me wish I smoked "trees" or ate funny mushrooms.

Warner's DVD2Blu Upgrade Program

2009-11-18T09:17:00.001-05:00

From Blu-Ray.com:

"Warner Home Video has announced that they have launched a new program which allows owners trade in their Warner DVD titles for Blu-ray upgrades for as little as $7.95. To take advantage of the program, owners will be required to identify which titles they want to upgrade through the DVD2Blu site, and then mail-in their DVD discs to show proof of ownership. In 4-5 weeks they will receive Blu-ray copies of those same titles."

More details here and at DVD2Blu.com itself.

Only 55 title are represented currently, of which I have four. Blazing Saddles, Rio Bravo, Superman II: The Donner Cut, and Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle. Of those, only Blazing Saddles would've been upgraded eventually. The rest were fine as they were as far as I'm concerned. Not every movie absolutely needs to be in hi-def.

Wow! Hootie???? Good For You, Dude!

2009-11-11T21:39:00.000-05:00

Just walked in a little while ago, turned on the TeeVee, flipped through a couple of channels and was staring at the Michael Jackson looking lady next to Wynonna (sp?) Judd. Country Music Awards. Kept staring. Is that Wynonna's mom? They read off some names. Darius Rucker! Hootie? Oh, yeah. He tried R&B for a bit and now he's a Country guy. And when they read his name people were more excited than for the previous two, maybe not more than the fourth. He wins! Yay, Hootie! For best new artist. What? Hmm. I'm not really a country fan, so whatever, I guess. It was cool, though. I don't think he really got the respect he deserved as a rock singer.

Jesus! Why Even Bother???

2009-11-10T11:28:00.000-05:00

Hollywood is considering (once again) a movie based on Sgt. Rock, a DC comics hero who fights during World War II. Only this time, they want to set it the future. Great!

I was more of a Sgt. Fury guy (via back issues and reprints), but there's a bigger issue than just fucking with an icon.

Until now, “Rock” has retained its World War II setting, with Silver and the studio trying to make a big-budget action adventure movie that was a throwback to flicks like “The Dirty Dozen,” which feature acts of American derring-do.

But a big budget always was an obstacle and, “Inglourious Basterds” notwithstanding, period war movies have not been in vogue in Hollywood for years, unless it was a more serious contemplation of the subject like “Saving Private Ryan.” Also, American jingoism went out of style after 9/11; even this summer’s G.I. Joe movie dropped the toy’s “A Real American Hero” tagline and made the action team internationally focused.

The studio hopes moving the time period to the future solves the dilemma.

Really, why not just make your probably crappy sci-fi film anyway and call it something else? And if you must have a Rock in it, you can cast THE Rock. And then wait for some Europeans to make the the type of movies Americans want to see, like this one.