Why? or Why Not?

U2 is one of the bands that everyone loves to hate. Most people do have a favorite album from this Irish mega-band (mine happens to be Zooropa), but most people do not like the new albums. I agree with that and that is why I am very conflicted about this news.

Danger Mouse is producing the new album which at first did not sound great. Although Danger Mouse has been involved with some great projects in the last few years, he does not seem to be a good fit with U2. DM is very beats-oriented and he could help return them to their Pop and Zooropa days. However, Mr. Mouse is very trendy right now and so are the guests on this album including Will.I.Am (did I just really type his name?).

I am pretty negative right now and it makes me think I should get the latest album from the Old 97's since it is inspired by the Clash. I like the Clash and the Old 97's.

Running

A friend of mine named Ryon Lane is running the New York City Marathon which is pretty cool. He is also looking for donations because he is running for a great cause. All of this sounds pretty normal, once you read his story, you will see that it is very unique. 

Ryon is a stand up guy and I hope that others will be able to see that spine injuries are not a sentence to a limited lifestyle. If you can, please help a guy out that should not be able to do what he is attempting.

Pull The Thread

I needed a new look, so you now get to see my dark and mysterious side. On to more important things.

Nintendo's most overlooked pink hero (sorry, not you Birdo) is back and it has gamers of all types drooling. People are excited about a Wii game and one of the big reasons is because of the groundbreaking graphics. Yes, the least powerful console on the market today is boasting one of the most uniquely designed games in the last few years.

Kirby's Epic Yarn is designed to look like it is made with bits of string, yarn, zippers and other similar design elements. This type of thinking is what set the Wii apart from the XBOX 360 and the PS3 when it first came out. Now that the Softy and Sony have their version of waggle and they are selling more consoles than the big N, this game comes along. So is Donkey Kong Country and a new and very pricey 3DS.

Todabor Day

In honor of Labor day, this will be short. Labor Day always makes me think of the start of fall and the autumns of yesteryear. Getting all of the new school gear and clothes and figuring out quickly that no matter how cool that backpack is, it will never turn into a jetpack and get you home under 2 minutes. Now my daughter is now stocking up for preschool and I am still looking for that elusive rocket powered pack-pack, (although it must have a Disney princess on it as well).

Also at this time of year, I start getting vivid dreams about being forced to go back to school. Also, many of those dreams include me being naked in the classroom. I never remember going to a porn school or being attacked by one of my a super hot high school teacher that is going to help me reach that "A" if I do "extra credit (thanks Naughty America for the best plots ever).

To all, enjoy the last few fleeting moments of summer. To help you do that, enjoy the best song of the summer.

Trailer Time

Game trailers are finally starting to get inventive. Yes, there have been some good ones in the past, but most are very straight forward and pretty dull. One of the best Batman properties is finally getting some VG love. The ad for Batman: The Brave and The Bold takes the best parts of the series and crams it into a few minutes of goodness.

Who woulda thunk that Oswald would have made a terrific Batman.

The Best Kissers Eva

I am diving back into some older stuff tonight and decided to throw in 10,000 HZ Legend by Air. The more I listen to these Frenchies, I get a bigger smile on my face. My favorite album of theirs is Talkie Walkie, but you cannot go wrong with anything that they do. C'mon, they are doing a song with Beck right now. You cannot go wrong with a French-Beck hook-up.

What are you listening to right now? Don't be shy.

The Sundance Era for Games

The video game industry is on the cusp of the most fruitful and creative period that it has ever experienced. It has been building for the last couple of years and it is about to explode because the perfect storm is on the horizon.

1. There is a lot of talent that has been laid off from the big studios, because these companies are trying to weather the economic downturn. Red Dead Redemption is one of the biggest hits (critically and commercially) this year and they laid off a big portion of the development team.

2. Game delivery systems are in place (XBox Live, iTunes) where companies do not need space on Game Stop and Best Buy shelves. I have downloaded more games this year than I have purchased at a big box store and I am not alone.

3. The games that are coming out are fun and inexpensive. The companies can take chances on stories and characters and they do not have to spend millions on a license and pass it along to the customers. Angry Birds and Words With Friends are 99 cents and free respectively.

The games that are getting most of my play these days are downloadable titles that do not break the bank. I no longer have to choose Mario over Huggies. By the way, Mario won. 

The Blue Bomber

Mega Man is a franchise that has always meant a lot to me ever since my father gave me the first couple of games in the series as a Christmas gift. The folks at Iam8bit brought out all of my nostalgic feelings with this stunning trailer. I have had the chance to work with Jon over at Iam8bit and he puts his passion in everything he does and this is some of his best work. Even if you are not a huge video game fan, you will enjoy this.

Cheap Cheap

Another reason why it is getting harder to think about buying the Nintendo 3-DS, is Angry Birds. Most people have been talking about this game for awhile and it truly is fantastic. However, the most interesting thing about that game is the price and the fact that for the 99 cent charge they keep updating the game with more levels for no additional cost. How does Nintendo counter that? 3-D seems to be a passing fad as the in-your face movies have been making less and less money since the blue folks went to DVD. The big N is throwing everything at launch with some evergreen properties, but they better be worth the $39 up-charge.

If anything, the Nintendo folks really need to take a hard long look at casual games. Especially ones that allow you to hurl birds at pigs.

The Unloved Guys

The summer guilty pleasure has been The Good Guys, but apparantly, I am the only one hooked on it. This is a show that is a throwback to the old buddy cop shows. There are a lot of explosions, great music and Bradley Whitford is fantastic as a washed-up Super Cop. The main reason to watch it, the 'stache.

Toon Time

I was excited about seeing some of the E3 trailers from Xbox live, however the sound is not working. Are they trying to get me to buy a slim? Sorry Balmer, you guys just got me a new console because my old one went RROD. As a result I am going to talk about a Steve Jobs Company.

Pixar is about to launch their next movie this week and I believe that I am more excited about Toy Story 3 than my kids are (and they are very excited). Even though I am excited, I am worried about TS3. Pixar has a lot to battle with this movie.

This is the third movie in the series and you will have a hard time telling me that the number three of any movie franchise that is good let alone the best in the series (Ewoks, put down your hands. Empire was the best and you know it). Godfather 3, Superman 3, Rambo 3 are prime examples.

Eleven blockbusters in a row will be what Pixar is shooting for with Woody et Trois. Pixar is bound to finally trip up and put up a massive stinking bomb with the third in any series. I do not care if my girl is the voice of a dinosaur in this or that Batman is the voice of Ken.

Dreamworks is catching up to Pixar and not just with the volume of animated films. Dreamworks may have 4 toons that will be released in 2010, but their first one (How to Train Your Dragon) proved that they can hang with Lasseter and company.

With all of this, Toy Story 3 will not only be another hit for the Mouse House, it will also be the number one movie of the summer. I say this because the Box Office has already been down and the entire industry is looking for something to hang their hat on and TS3 is the chosen one.

The marketing for this film has been epic. My kids watched a Toy Story celebration that was done very well. Not only did it show the first two films, but it had so many add ons, it would make a car salesman blush. As stodgy as Disney can be, they are some of the best marketers on the planet.

The main reason Toy Story 3 will be the hit of the summer is because it was created by Pixar. Good God, they are amazing. If you were not bawling your eyes out toward the beginning of Up, you have no soul. Monsters Inc. was one of the most inventive films ever and The Incredibles did a better job of the Fantastic Four than Marvel ever has.

This is another slurping of Pixar, but they earned it.

The Travails of a Traveler

My new life started in late January, because I got a new job. Although my previous gig was a good one, the new job let me do many more things that I wanted to do, including the perk of staying home more often. Last year, I was living out of a suitcase and it did get a bit tough after a while. However there were some upsides to the traveling and one of those things was learning to work the system.

I had been a Starwood whore for the previous few years, but I really learned how to get more out of the system. Since Four Points and Aloft hotels were on the lower end, I would frequent those establishments but even if I was staying for a few days, I would check in and check out every day. With Starwood, you get bumps in status by meeting certain thresholds and they are one of the few companies that allows you to qualify by number of stays or nights. To reach the top level it is either 50 nights or 25 stays and because of that, I hit Platinum in April or May. Also, every time you check in , you get bonus points.

Now that I am not traveling as much, I will lose my status and no more late nights staying up to watch Aqua Teen Hunger Force. However, staying at home is much better than Platinum except I don't get awesome shaving cream from Aloft anymore.

Truckin'

On a multi-day, multi-town business trip for the first time in a long while. I did the whole "wake-up-and-have-no-clue-where-I-am-panic" this morning. Always good to get the blood pumping. Another thing that gets the blood pumping are good workout tunes. Here are some of my favorites in no particular order:

Common People by Pulp


Bloodclot by Rancid


Don't Bring Me Down by E.L.O.


Timebomb by Beck


Anything by Troublemaker. His mixes were made for sweating your balls off.

Being 8 Again

Today, I got a familiar feeling that I haven't had in a while; bleary eyes. It was because I picked up Super Mario Galaxy 2 this afternoon. I have been playing Mario games for over 25 years now, however this is the first time that my son and daughter were sitting next to me and asking me where Yoshi was.

My biggest issue with big games like this, is the time factor. However, this game can be broken up in to bite size pieces and it may take me a while, but I will be able to finish most, if not all of it. #2 is very similar to the first Galaxy game and that is not a bad thing. The first one was fun, but c'mon you get to jump on your green buddy with the new version.

With this new game, maybe the boys in Redmond can help pay for their new digs.

The Adventures of Ryan and Alex

There were many games that sucked hours away from my life when I was a younger mammal. Several Zelda titles and the Diablo games were huge digital vampires, but one of the most overlooked titles of the 80's was River City Ransom. This was a brawler game with and RPG element and it also had great stylized graphics. I was all about getting Texas Boots and Dragon Feet and then I became pretty much unstoppable.

This is available as a download on the Wii now. If you missed it the first time, I suggest you bruise up your thumbs for a few hours. I know that my friend Mitch and I did and because of that we were single a lot longer in Jr. High.

Dan the Man

One of my favorite musicians for the last few years is actually a producer and no he does not have an auto-tuner app. Dan Nakamura or better known as Dan the Automator has been working on albums since the late 80's. He produced the original Gorillaz album (which, I still think is the best of the three) however there are a lot of other projects that he has had his hand in. Here are my two favorite Dan the Automator projects:

Deltron 3030 - This is a concept album about a post-apocalyptic future in which rappers do battle throughout the solar system. Yes, it is bat-shit insane but it is amazingly good. Del the Funky Homosapien (Teren Delvon Jones or the Cousin of Ice Cube) is Deltron and it alsways hits me as an animated movie waiting to be created every time I hear it. 

Lovage - The quest for the ultimate make out album is the tongue in (other people's) cheek concept for this record but they succeed. Mike Patton (from countless projects, but best known from Faith No More) and Jennifer Charles (of Elysian Fields) are amazingly funny and sexy at the same time. Next time you want to get freaky, put that on the old Hi-Fi stereo.

Update on Flowers

Here is the latest from FTD. They are great on marketing but not customer service. 

Send in the Clones

Every once in a while you will hear a song that sounds incredibly familiar, even if you have never heard that song before. Miss American Idol is running into that with her most recent tune.

Here are some of my favorite copy cats:

The Doves "Hit the Ground Running" is a dead ringer for Warren Zevon's "Werewolves of London".

Oasis' "Step Out" takes liberty with Stevie Wonders' "Uptight".

Of course there are people that sampled without giving credit, I am looking at you Vanilla Ice and The Verve.

Quick Rant

I try and stay positive and not get too down on this forum, but something really bugged me this weekend. As you all know, it is mother's day today and ordered flowers through FTD.com to be delivered on Saturday. At 6PM on Saturday, I was emailed by FTD and this is what they said.

Please accept our sincere apologies. Despite our best efforts, due to exceptionally high seasonal demand
we regret we were unable to fill your order as requested.  We have issued a full refund to your payment method.

We very much appreciate your business and would like to offer you $20 dollars off any of our beautiful florist delivered arrangements and plants, still available for delivery in time for Mothers Day.
Please visit our website to place your order and receive your $20 discount by visiting www.ftd.com/smithsonian1

We truly understand how important each order is to our customers, and sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Aimee Baldassaro
VP Customer Care

So, instead of delivering on Monday (which would have been bad, but it still would have been delivered) they canceled it the night it was supposed to be dropped off. I love that they are offering be 20 bucks off my next order that they do not deliver. So, if you do not want your flowers delivered go with FTD. Very disappointing.

On to our regularly scheduled rambling.

Distracted

It is very difficult to write anything when Flight of the Conchords is on. However I will try to soldier on. I was telling a coworker about Neutral Milk Hotel today and this savvy music lover had never heard of them. It also made me think of another looked-over band that is a favorite of mine, Possum Dixon.

I was in high school when I first heard them and they were incredibly different from anything I had heard at the time. The history of the band is very interesting and you can check it out here, but they only ended up coming out with three albums before they split up. The lead singer is now an accomplished magician, which is a very interesting twist.

Here are some of their best songs:

Emergency's About to End

Radio Comets

Not too many links out there, but if you stumble upon one of their albums you will enjoy.


By the way, the best line of the night is, "Are you anti-AIDS or pro-AIDS?"

The Rebirth of Video

Growing up, one of my favorite things was staying up late on Sundays to watch the only show worth watching on MTV. 120 Minutes not only did a novel thing and play videos, but they also showcased "alternative music" videos. In fact, that show introduced me to the Pixies.

As time moved on, MTV began replacing music videos with more scripted and unscripted shows. As a result, the music video universe started to go away. However that has been changing in the last few years (just like vinyl) and now we are in a mini-renaissance of music videos. In the last few weeks, there have been some amazing things hitting the web and it has been giving these artists more exposure than anything else in the music industry could at this point.

Here are some must see videos.

M.I.A.'s Born Free is violent and very engaging.

LCD Soundsystem's Drunk Girls is insane and funny.

Erykah Badu's Window Seat is just ballsy.

OKGO's This Too Shall Pass proves that this band is the new Peter Gabriel in terms of their impact to the world of videos.

The implosion of MTV and the rise of YouTube has allowed bands to come up with more creative and controversial videos. Expect more goodness to come to your local screen.

Cigarette Burn

My new favorite site is a guilty pleasure of sorts. It is about hollywood gossip, which I could care less about. I do like entertainment news, but this is about trashy stuff. The reason why this site rocks, is because the guy writing it is a total dick, but a very funny dick. Brendan Donnelly is Jack's angry uvula and he has written some of the funniest things I have read in a long time.

There is sex and there is a lot of profanity. Also, there is a lot of humor.

Summer of Reuniting

Summer is always the time for big summer concerts and a few of the big tours have been a little surprising because it is bringing groups back together.

Soundgarden - I never did see them during their first time together, but I did see Chris Cornell solo before he did awful stuff with Rage and James Bond soundtracks. This is not surprising, but I know it will be successful. I just don't think "Spoonman" will hold up as a classic.

Devo - Mark Mothersbaugh is not too busy with Yo Gabba Gabba to dust off the flower pot hats. They have a new album coming out and they apparently ran it by some focus groups to firm it up. I hope that was a joke.

Public Image Limited - Johnny Lydon's follow up to the Sex Pistols (in my mind, this was a better band) is getting together and doing small clubs as well as festival shows. I saw the reunited Sex Pistols 15 years ago and I thought Johnny was pushing it then. However, I would love to see them in a small venue.

The Specials - This might be the third or fourth reunion by now. We get it, your first album was great.

To wrap up, reunion concerts are fun, but they should be followed by about three concerts of young up and coming bands so you do not get stuck in the past.

More Tunes and Vids

Here are some things that are striking my fancy as of late.

Ted Leo's latest video

M.I.A. gets heavy

It is not new, but this OK Go video is amazing

David Lee Roth - Business Genius

Diamond Dave was one of the greatest front men of a mega rock group. He looked damned good in spandex, rocked a black belt and was good with the ladies. One thing that he was known for was a crazy story that many people chalked up to being rock folklore. He was the man that demanded that all of the brown M&M's be taken out of the candy bowl in the Van Halen dressing room. DLR shocked folks when he owned up to this story and then he was labeled an egotistical jerk by many in the press. However, the candy was used strictly for business.

This story has become quite popular recently since it was featured in Fast Company and This American Life. They do a much better job of telling the story than I can (TAL is much more in depth), but it gave me a much better image of Mr. Roth. The quick version, is that he put that demand deep in the contract and if there were brown candies present, the venue did not thoroughly follow the rider and may have missed some very important safety details and Roth would have their manager double check everything.

For a guy that bright, why did he get picked up in central park trying to buy weed?

Really?

Here are some things that puzzle me.

Please Stop It

Why Do People Find Him Funny

This Makes Me Weep For the Future

This Is Just As Bad

Breastaurants

This post may get me a slap from my wife, but let us talk about theme restaurants with boobs as the focus. Hooters, Tilted Kilt and Twin Peaks all fall under the same category, but are these fads? Hooters has obviously been around the longest, but they are in some serious financial trouble. Tilted Kilt is the "Hooters Killer" because I think their theme and food is better, but I just got done with a great dinner in a place that replaced once a 1-year old Tilted Kilt.

The issue with these places is that you have one demographic, dudes. That may account for 50% of the population, but it cuts out dates and family dinners. What these places need to do, is some major marketing and that is what Twin Peaks does. 

Twin Peaks does Jeep Nights, Saturday Car Washes and all of the waitresses dress up for holidays. Is it crude? Of course it is, but they have some of the best marketing that I have seen in awhile. And no, marketing is not a euphemism for bazoonkas.

Heart Attack Website

To prove that I am one with the Midwest, I present to you Cheese and Burger. One of the best sites put together by a marketing group. The good folks up north came up with a way to pimp their cheese but they did it in the most unhealthy and delicious way ever.

I am a big fan of the burger, however I have become obsessed because they have Brock Sampson reading off some of the most insane sandwiches ever conceived. You may have to get a quadruple bypass after checking out the site, but you will love it.

Number 21 is my favorite, in case you wanted to know.

Oh, holy crap! They have one for Grilled Cheese as well. This time the most famous secretary to come out of Scranton, gives you a tour to Obese-ville.

WWF

The future of video gaming is a knock off of scrabble. The game Words With Friends is a free game that is only available on the iPhone platform (iPad and iPod as well), and yes it is a Scrabble knock off. However, the charm to this game is the connectivity. You play real folks but it is not real time. Once you make your move, it alerts the other person and they can play whenever they want.

This can be played on your own time and it is more social than most games out there. I currently am playing folks from grade school, high school, college and various workplaces. I am able to stay in touch with people while trying to beat them into submission (very rarely does that happen). If you have access to one of these devices, try it out. It don't cost nuthin.

Jack in the Crack

Living in the Midwest has made me used to shoveling a lot of snow, radio and TV stations starting with W and awesome accents. There are quite a few things I miss about living in the northwest, including watching sports at a respectable time, awesome pizza and of course the greatest radio station in the land. The one thing that I am surprised that I miss is Jack in the Box.

My love for Jack in the Box has nothing to do with the food. In fact, I really could care less about the greasy grub that it serves up. The commercials are the best thing going for it. Every once in awhile they will show one nationally, but Chicago does not have any stores around here so were on a Jack-Out as far as the ads go. From celebrating stoners, swingers and little people; these commercials are genuinely funny. If their food was half as good as the adverts, they would rule the school. 

I will just continue to eat at Qdoba to support Jack that way.

Casa

There is something to be said about whistling in songs. For some reason it just really anchors the tune in your head and it will not leave for days. The same can be said for hand claps for that matter. The latest song that falls into the great whistling songs category is Home by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.

This song has a heavy dose of X The Knitters and that is a very good thing. The whole hippie vibe was a bit of a surprise and it cements the road trip feel. Enjoy "Home" and may it be stuck in your head as much as this song will be.

Death Trap

Batman is a favorite of mine. To prove my geek cred, I named my daughter after one of the characters from the Caped Crusader's world. The reason I bring up the Dark Knight is because one of the best shows on television for kids and older kids like myself is Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Just because I am into the Great Detective, does not mean it is only for comic heads. In fact I would say that one episode in particular would win over anyone.


Mayhem of the Music Meister is a musical and it really works in the Batman world. The main villain (the Music Meister) is voiced by this guy and it is perfect. The secret weapon in this episode is Black Canary and she is voiced by Grey DeLisle who is a singer and voice actor. She also happens to be married to Murray Hammond from the Old 97's, a favorite band in this household. The episode pokes fun at Batman, however the songs are great and they will be stuck in your head for a few days.

Again, this is not just for comic geeks. Give it a few minutes and enjoy.

Cheeky Monkeys

Pants are pants are pants. Nothing too exciting about them, unless they get splashed when you are washing your hands and you have to explain to everyone that you did not just piss yourself. However, I have seen the light and I now know that pants can be the most amazing part of your day.

Full credit goes to my wife who found out about Bonobos. This is a small little company based out of New York and they have a very interesting back story that can be found here. Bonobos is a really great little company that takes the boring old pantaloons and turns them into a coveted item because of the quality of the garment, the amazing customer service, their humor and they play the scarcity card quite well.

Just so everyone knows, my ass looks great in them (just ask my wife). They fit very well and are the most comfortable pants I have ever owned. If the pants were great that would be one thing, but they combine that with an amazing group of people that trump Zappos in terms of customer service and humor (The customer service folks are labeled ninjas). They have a pair of pants called Redrums for God's sake. They have fun with their product and it shows.

The final card that they play is the evil and ingenious one, the styles do not live forever. The endangered section is a brilliant move on their part and tsome of their styles are very limited (Damn you, St. Paddy's Khakis!). Think of Tickle Me Elmo or Zhu Zhu Pets in their heyday, but Bonobos makes it happen at least once a month or so.

They also make all of their pants with a secret ingredient, crack cocaine. They may not be true, but sometimes it feels like that. I have 5 pair and I want more. God, they are good at what they do.

Naughty Bear

God War III, Just Cause 2 and COD: Modern Warfare 2 are some recent AAA games that have just come out and the one thing that they all have in common is that I have no desire or time.to play them. These are the games that cost tens of millions of dollars to make and 50+ hours to beat and they do nothing for me. I used to be their target audience, but it just got old. Basically these are like the big summer action movies that I have no desire to see as well. To be honest there have not been too many games that have made me excited to pick up the controller, except for Naughty Bear.

This game is so messed up. All you need to know is that this is a game that will give children therapy bills for decades. You play the title character Naughty Bear and you are taking out all of the other teddy bears in your world because you were not invited to a birthday party. Seriously, that is the plot. You use all sorts of weapons and the cute little teddy bears run screaming from you as you attack them with flame throwers and machetes. The clips are hilarious and awful, all at the same time. This is a game I will be downloading as soon as it is available.

Just the eerie Teddy Bear Picnic song on the site should give you an idea of how messed up fantastic this thing will be.

New Tunes

On my way back from a business trip, I was listening to some KEXP podcasts. I have not finished #190 yet, but there were some tasty morsels that I have heard so far. The first song that was fantastic was from the Deadstring Brothers and the it is called Sao Paolo.



This band has a gritty sound and I wish I had heard of them before, since they are right up my alley. Cheryl (the KEXP DJ that put this Podcast together) said their new album (also called Sao Paolo) has a real "Exile on Main Street" vibe and that is enough for me.

The second song was from the band The Tallest Man on Earth and it is called King of Spain.


This is an epic song that I could see on a soundtrack about some bumbling middle age guy finding himself abroad. Or, it is a really good song that totally stands on its own two feet.

To listen to the entire podcast, check out this page.