Album Review: Passion Pit “Manners”

For fear of sounding like a pitchman from their label, I’m afraid I must flog you over the head once again with a band quickly becoming one of my all time favorite musical troups. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; This band is going to be huge. Bigger than huge. They have gone farther and grown faster than any group that I’ve ever kept tabs on and for good reason. Their songs are spectacular. They manage to combine a musical sensibility that is touching, sentimental, and downright fun.

Did I mention that they are fun? Cause I can’t emphasize this fact enough.

In the News: New GM Head Doesn’t Know Shit (About Cars)

Perusing the news today I came across this little gem:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/10/whitacre-new-gm-chairman-_n_213611.html

I suppose it speaks volumes about the current state of our economy, or specifically the state of the auto industry that the appointment of a man who knows nothing about cars to the position of CEO of one of our most important auto companies shocks just about nobody.

I don’t know much about the business world, despite the fact that I am as of right now very much a part of it. But the world of art has similar principles to the world of business. Namely, I would not cast someone with no theater experience to play the part of Hamlet. Just as I would not presume to land a lead role in a multi-million dollar film project without a few small roles in feature films prior.

Television Reviews: The Whitest Kids You Know

I have a love/hate relationship with comedy designed to shock and surprise its audience. “The Whitest Kids You Know” attempts with incredible diligence to provide its viewers with more than their fair share of shocking comedy. As it is broadcast on the Independent Film Channel, WKYK has the distinct privilege of a complete lack of censorship.

And I don’t use the term “complete” lightly. It is total lack of censhorship. I’ve watched this troup do things for television that I have never watched anyone do before. This includes a sketch laying out a deliberate request/plan to kill the president, a baby being shot in the head, and a duo of hunters deliberating about whether to kill another hunter whom they’ve accidentally shot.

Anything for a laugh right?

Film Review: The Hangover

Its frustrating to see a film which loses sight of its purpose.”The Hangover” has a nice cast, but it hovers in between being simply a buddy comedy and a film with something to say. It’s never quite clear about whether it is demonizing the behavior of its characters or exulting it.

A group of men decide to leave life behind for the weekend and travel to Vegas, presumably to let loose for an evening and ignore their responsibilities. Things (of course) go haywire and the group spends the majority of their time in Vegas searching for the groom and trying to remember what the hell happened to them.

During the more humorous moments, it seems pretty clear that the viewer should idolize debaucherous behavior. Its as though nothing that bad can really happen to these men, despite the fact that they’ve made all of the cliche mistakes of a typical Vegas tourist. Yet somehow, true disaster seems to avoid them every step of the way. Its as though they are untouchable. Supermen.

Show Review: TV On The Radio

Last night I had the pleasure of watching a band I’ve much anticipated seeing since the first time I heard their music.

A truly original group, TV On The Radio translate their unique sounds seemlessly into a stage performance. The song selection last night wasn’t all that I had hoped for. They went for a much more laid back experience rather than the raucus, barn burning dancefest I had been expecting.

It was a unique show for me in more than just the sounds of the music. This was a show about perspectives. For the first time, I had the priviliege of the “V.I.P.” experience thanks to my girl’s awesome friend from school. We got to experience the high-end club/restaurant that hovers above the stage and the newly opened House of Blues: Boston.

It was posh as hell and a whole lot of fun, but the view of the band was awful and the show experience suffered for lack of it. The company and the experience more than made up for it and I suppose that any experience that you enjoy is worth it for the sake of enjoyment.

I would absolutely see them again and I would absolutely hope the song choices would be a bit more upbeat and wild as the occasional times they touched on their wild side, it was spectacular. People were hungry for it and I’m a bit surprised there wasn’t more from their first two records.

But it was a great show and a great experience. Variety is the spice of life and perspective keeps you grounded.

Show Time: TV On The Radio

I’ve been on a roll these last few months, seeing band after band on my list of “Bands I Must See Live”. (A list that continues to grow rather than shrink.)

Tonight I will be treated to a viewing of the dynamic act; TV On The Radio.

These guys have been rocketing in popularity in recent years and have an especially solid sound. Word is that their live show rocks the hizzy.

Full review tomorrow!

In the meantime, a record that I’ve been spinning and enjoying for quite some time now is Camera Obscura’s “My Maudlin Career.”

This is a band that has always played a brand of music that I enjoy, however, this particular record really appeals to me. Lead singer, Tracyanne Campbell, has a sultry and haunting voice that contrasts with the band’s rock appeal. Big crunchy guitars and a swinging beat typically paint each production from this group.

Check em out!

Melancholy

I started a long post about power and money and the value of having to struggle for success…but I got bored and looked up some good fart jokes instead:

Work…or something like it.

I love how I followed my personal entreaty to begin blogging again by promptly not blogging for a week.

Old habits die hard.

My family came to the east coast last week and spent some time graduating our oldest girl sibling, Julie. It was a wonderful time and gave me a much needed break from my busy life. I followed that break with a  four day weekend from the company that I work for. I relaxed so much that I became bored! A welcome reprise from what has been a completely interesting and exhausting time for me.

My East Coast Life

I got to thinking the other day and I realized that I miss writing. I used to blog pretty consistently for about a year. I really enjoyed it and I liked the feeling I would get when a friend or family member discussed something I wrote with me. It felt like something connecting me to the people I love in a much more sincere way than a wall post or text message.

When I blog, I open up my thoughts (however private they may be) to any people that may want to read them. Maybe my thoughts and their thoughts on some particular issue may be the same. Or maybe my thoughts will spark new thoughts for them causing them to explore some new arena.

So then I got to thinking about what I want to tell my friends and family about the last year or so of my life that they may not already know. Seeing as no one knows much of anything about my life lately, I have a lot of material to work with!

My friend Arnie

So…my friend made this card of me on our group blog: blogsplog.wordpress.com

He asked me when he did it if I had seen it, and I said yes. I saw the card…what I didn’t see was the heartfelt, hysterical and lengthy reasoning that he wrote for making the card.

I read that for the first time today…and I just about laughed my way out of my chair. And then I felt like crying because I miss my roommate of two years so much. I miss California and all of my friends so much. You are all so wonderful and special and I will never in my life forget you or leave you behind. I’m just in a new direction right now, is all.

Arnie’s Post:

I’ve been painting a lot this weekend, and as a result I have had a lot of time to think about things in the process. One of those things was how coordinate some specific personality traits of more people who I know that read this blog into Magic cards. A momentary lapse of stupidity caused the breakthrough that allowed me to create Jeege’s card. The idea called for him to be a legend. Legends, for the Magic-impaired readers out there, are a kind of creature in the game where only one may be in your control at one time. power and toughness are represented by * because they are determined by certain parameters (power= how much damage a creature can do; toughness = how much damage a creature can take). now… on to our explanation!

The first ability Jeege is given is the ability of trample. I, for one, have always thought that this is one of the most kick ass abilities in the game and thus is an honor to hold (a reason I wanted The Jeege to have it). To understand trample one must understand attacking and blocking. Attacking is something any creature may do by tapping (if you don’t know what tapping is then you probably are not the type of person that finds this blog funny). When you attack, you always attack the person you are playing against. they have the option of blocking your attack with a creature of their own. If this occurs, your creature deals damage equal to its power (first number) to that creature’s toughness (second number). However, if a creature has the trample ability, and there is leftover damage to be done after the toughness, then it goes to the player! In other words, it clears out what lies in its path and continues on toward it’s target. This is significant to the area of Jeege’s personality that I want to emphasize… now!

The significance of the attributes:

The first attribute begins with the trample ability. However it is important to note that it is only in effect while The Jeege is attacking. This is because Jeege, as those who know him well can confirm, will spend most of his time in a very tame and secluded state. He does this, mostly, in his chair while watching his computer screen taking in whatever information, art, game, film, or music it may be displaying. The next detail is that Jeege is continually tapped while in play. This is also because of the lifestyle I just explained, but more so a nod toward Jeege’s continued absence. He is a man who’s responsibilities are spread out over a wide area and he is seldom seen at home as such. And, as explained earlier, he is not exactly the most outgoing type when he finally finds his rest at his desk. But during this time, this secluded respite, The Jeege is acquiring a plethora of information. So much so, that if one were to stop him at some point and ask him what was on his mind, a torrent of nuanced, passionate, and well informed opinions will stream forth as if you caused the last chink to an already bursting dam. This is represented in the gathering of rage tokens. Should The Jeege not be given the opportunity to express his rage, what would become of him? It is one of the fantastic mysteries of creation. However, one can suppose that he might die from the burden of his own passion. That is why The Jeege: Wielder of Rage cannot survive more than 5 turns without releasing his passion. Which brings us, finally, to the second ability.

At the cost of four mana (or courage to break the deafening silence) one can untap The Jeege: Wielder of Rage and thus enable him to attack. If he attacks, he releases all of his built up rage at the end of the turn, and begins his pursuit of more important matters than the last. This, I repeat, is coupled with the added trample ability, for no one within a 15 ft. radius can further go about their business without first acknowledging that The Jeege’s river of rage has been released.

Now, to clarify one last matter. Some may have noticed that I have interchanged the words rage and passion in this lengthly explanation. This is because The Jeege’s rage is not always hateful or anger. In fact, it is more commonly excitement and bursting happiness. This is because Jeege is simply a passionate man. So passionate that he even finds a blog like this, where its readers take no interest in stupid sports games, to write his football reviews for the Minnesota Vikings. So really, passionate is the better word to describe what I am getting at in this card. But I chose to call The Jeege the wielder of rager, rather than calling him the wielder of passion, because that just sounds gay and thus would not represent his character. Or wait… maybe it would?

asada – out