Well it’s finally slowed down enough with the regular job to catch you up a bit on how the show was.  It was a ton of fun.  Some great moments and some not so great moments, but all in all fun was had.

My partner in metal for the day was L.C. from work, we showed up at the McElroy around 4:00 PM to check in, get our tickets and our photo pass to make sure we can shoot everything that was happening and not get in trouble with security.  The first of the days bands were already playing on the second stage so we missed out on them. 

I was surprised by how long the line was for will call that early.  We finally made our way up to the window to get the stuff we needed and of course, it wasn’t there.  No big deal, I had talked to Killswitch Engage’s tour manager earlier in the day and knew they knew we were coming.  So the lady behind the counter told us to wait until someone came and talked to us.  We waited and waited and waited, so I decided to call Chimaira’s tour manager who actually got us the tickets and photo pass to begin with.  We chatted and he said that it had been turned into Disturbed’s people but had not been approved yet, but to go ahead and shoot what ever we wanted and check back when the doors opened at six to get our tickets and passes.  So shoot is what we did.

Here are some of the vendors that were at the show.

After that we heard that Chimaira was signing at the Samsung & Sprint Text N Tunes booth so we headed over there to get some shots of the guys working the crowd and chatting with fans.

While shooting some video of the signing I of course called one of the guys by the wrong name and felt like a total dork, but hey you win some you lose some I guess.  After that we headed down to the stage to catch a bit of Born of Osiris set.  They seem to be a pretty young band, still working out the kinks in their live show.  I didn’t mind their stuff, but their vocals weren’t my cup of tea.  Here is a shot of them live.

After they finshed up L.C. and I decided to head back up to the van and get our stuff ready for the Killswitch Engage interview we had lined up for 6:30 PM and to go back inside McElroy to get some shots of the Tattoo artists doing their thing.  Unfortuntately the doors were locked up and the tattooing had stopped for awhile, and the line continued to get longer and longer, and we still didn’t have our tickets or photo pass yet.  I was getting nervous.

So as we waited Spineshank, a band I had liked in the past, took the second stage, but it was getting too close to the meeting time for Killswitch so I hopped up on top of the fan and shot some footage, here’s a couple of shots from that.

Not the best shot of them.  Finally I called Killswitch’s tour manager at 6:15 PM to confirm and find out where to meet him at.  He said meet out front in 10 minutes, so L.C. and I relaxed for a second chatted with some friends that stopped by when all of a sudden we got the call and the question “where are you?”.  I was a little confused but we slapped on our gear and headed for the front doors and met up with the tour manager and headed back to interview Joel from Killswitch Engage.  It’s been awhile since I had done this so I was rusty and very very nervous.  I mean, Killswitch is a Grammy nominated band and they just worked with Brendan O’Brienwho is one of the biggest producers in the world.  Not to mention that this kind of atmosphere is one of baited anticipation, every one is waiting for something.  The crowd is waiting to rock, the bands are waiting to play, the crew are waiting to tear down, the tour managers are waiting to relax.  It’s a lot of hard work and waiting, the tension was pretty thick.

Got back did the interview (I’ll have that up next week probably) and sent Joel on his way to rock the stage.  At this time I’m still a little confused and asked the tour manager if I had tickets and photo pass and was told no, that the request hadn’t been done in time.  Well shucks, that isn’t what I expected to hear.  So L.C. and I rushed out and went to get in line to check out and see if our tickets where there.  The line was ENORMOUS, so we decided to just wait it out.  Then like an eager toddler, I called and left a message with Chimaira’s tour manager about us not having our tickets and photo passes and whining.  I regret that now more than anything else about the day.  So we swallowed a little bit of pride and pushed through the crowd back to the van, I had resigned myself to the fact that I wasn’t going to get into the show tonight but to go chat with friends and hang out.

We hooked up with Brian Marshall from Rock 108 and chatted about the business and music.  Promotion and his Unsigned and Online thing that he is doing over there.  I haven’t had a chance to check it out yet, but I’m looking forward to seeing what our area has to offer!  So the line was finally down so we hopped in with Brian and the Rock 108 crew and headed in. Got to will call and of course our tickets and photo pass were there now, but unfortunately we missed Chimaira’s set completely and Lacuna Coil was on stage.

I’ve never been a big fan of Lacuna Coil, I have reservations about the term Goth Metalthat they get branded with.  Apart from their visual image and perhaps lyrical content they are a stones throw away from goth or anything resembling it.  I guess Hot Topic Gothis more in line.  But I digress, what I did get out of their set was this, the woman they have singing for them has an amazing voice and unbelievable range and control.  With that I was really impressed.  The sound was muddy though, too much low end and the keyboards sounded good, but I couldn’t see a keyboard player anywhere on stage.  Boooo!  I say booooo!  If you’re going to use keyboards for atmosphere and melodies, then hire a guy/gal to play them for you on tour, OK, thanks.  I only caught about 2 1/2 song by Lacuna Coil, but I was impressed despite the lack of keyboard player.

Next up was Killswitch Engage.  The first thing I noticed was that the only thing in front of their backdrop was the drum kit and some mic stands.  No guitar rigs, no bass rigs nothing.  Just back drop and drum kit.  Then they came out and rocked the house and their back drop was a giant video display that was one of the most impressive things I’ve ever seen done by a live band.  Amazing use of the stage and the video.  KsE was on fire too.  They played a great set pulling songs from their last three albums including their cover of Dio’s “Holy Diver”.  The new stuff that they played really had my interest up as well.  I’m really looking forward to the new album and what a new producer can bring to their sound.  KsE was easily the best band of the night.  Great stage show and despite the fact that they too sounded muddy and the vocals not mixed right, they blew me away.

Last on the bill was Disturbed.  They sounded amazing, David Draiman’s vocals where clean, crisp and forefront in the mix.  The guitar sounded clean and separated and the bass punched through as well.  The drums also sounded killer as well as the backing tracks with the keyboards and loops.  It just goes to show you that the other bands could have sounded this good too.  Disturbed have always been a bit of a guilty pleasure for me.  I’ve enjoyed their singles for the most part but have never owned one of their records.  For me they’re the kind of band that I’ll listen to on the radio but wouldn’t put on my iPod.  I was really hoping that these guys would make me a fan of them, but they didn’t.  The show was probably amazing for a Disturbed fan (pun not intended) but for me a casual listener I was not blown away.  They lacked the energy and stage presence of KsE and honestly seemed far too rehearsed for my taste.  They didn’t seem hungry any more, merely just going through the motions.  I was also a bit thrown off by Draiman’s moments of declaration that Hard Rock and Heavy Metal should destroy all other genres of music.  Eh… I don’t agree with that at all, every genre has it’s merits and should be respected by all of us whether you’re into it or not.  I know that he’s a preacher preaching to his congregation, but dude music isn’t a competition, it’s to be loved and enjoyed by all.  I’ll step down off of my soap box now.  One of the coolest things I saw all night though happened during the Disturbed set.  They brought up what looked like to me fan club members and let them rock out on the elevated portion of the stage to the song “10,000 Fists”.  I bet it made those kids’ whole year to be up their rocking out and it showed on their faces.  Kudos to Disturbed for connecting to their audience like that.

After the song was done L.C. and I headed out the door and headed for home.  Fun was had.  We rocked out.  Good times.  Good times.  I’m hoping to have the Killswitch Engage interview up on Tuesday in video format for you to watch.

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March 24
- 2 Fast 2 Furious (2-Disc Limited Edition) (Action, Crime, Thriller)
- A Woman Called Golda (Drama, TV) 
- Andy Richter Controls the Universe: The Complete Series (Comedy, TV)
- Big Stan (Comedy)
- Bolt (Adventure, Animation, Comedy) I will be adding this to the queue at Neflix!
- Bolt (Deluxed DVD Edition/Digital Copy) (Adventure, Animation, Comedy)
- The Cake Eaters (Drama)
- Doctor Who: Mega Set – Volume 2 (Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi, TV)
- The Fast and the Furious (2-Disc Limited Edition) (Action, Crime, Thriller) I still can’t believe this franchise still has life in it.
- The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2-Disc Limited Edition) (Action, Crime, Thriller)
- Happily N’Ever After 2 (Animation)
- Lilo & Stitch (Big Wave Edition) (Animation, Family)
- Master of the Game (Drama, TV)
- Never Say Never Again (Collector’s Edition) (Action, Adventure, Drama, Thriller)
- Neverender (Music)
- New York City Serenade (Comedy, Drama)
- The Odd Couple (Paramount Centennial Collection) (Comedy, Drama)  A true classic!
- Passengers (Thriller)
- Quantum of Solace (Single-Disc) (Action, Adventure) I used to love James Bond movies as a kid, my dad had all the books and I tried reading a few of them, I still haven’t seen any of the new movies with Daniel Craig, I need to fix that.
- Quantum of Solace (Two-Disc Special Edition) (Action, Adventure)
- The Riches: Season 2 (Comedy, Drama, TV)
- Runaway: The Complete Series (Drama, TV) 
- Secrets of the Furious Five (Animation, Comedy)
- Side Effects (Comedy, Drama, Romance)
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars – A Galaxy Divided (Action, Adventure, Animation, Sci-Fi) I can not get into the Clone Wars cartoon, as much as I’ve tried I just have no interest at all.
- TCM Archives: Forbidden Hollywood Collection Volume Three: William Wellman at Warner Bros. (Various)
- To Catch a Thief (Paramount Centennial Collection) (Crime, Mystery, Romance, Thriller)
- The Venture Bros.: 3rd Season (Action, Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Sci-Fi, TV) Something I didn’t know until recently but one of my musical idols Jim Thirwell does the music for Venture Bros.
- Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter & Under the Hood (Animation)

So there you go, the DVD releases for this week.  Going to be a busy week on the ole blog this week.  I’d like to get a review up for Role Models, Let the Right One In and a review of the Music as a Weapon 4 tour, plus an interview with Joel from Killswitch Engage and I would like to continue with my Albums I Can’t Live Without series as well.  We’ll see how much I can get done!

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Movies:

March 20
- Duplicity - Yay Julia Roberts, I hope my sarcasm isn’t too extreme.  The rest of the cast looks pretty good, but man Julia Roberts, no way, I like her brother much better in Best of the Best. 
- I Love You, Man – I watched two movies with Paul Rudd last weekend and am suffering from a little burn out on the guy, but I will probably rent this.  It looks funny.
- Knowing - It must be my weekend for actors I don’t care much for.  Nicolas Cage in a film directed by Alex Proyas.  I love pretty much everything that Alex has done, but Cage will keep me on the sidelines until it hits DVD on this one.
 

Music:

Spicoli’s Grill and The Reverb Rock Garden:

Thursday: Karaoke by Ultimate Entertainment

Friday: Anchondo with Falcon Arrow

Saturday: The Teddy Boys with Samuel Locke Ward and Give Away the Plot

The Hub:

Thursday: Bruce Day & Mike Staebell

Friday: Early show with Fatcat Late show with Urban Legend

Saturday: Lotus

Sunday: Burn Sand Burn

Screaming Eagle American Bar and Grill

Friday: Never the Less

Saturday: Checker and the Bluetones who happen to be the only band in the world that do a cover of Jellyfish.

The Picador:

Friday: Spanish Harlem with Dredge, Upon the Death Horse and Molly Ringwald

Saturday: Early Show: Bleeding Through with The Acacia Strain, As Blood Runs Black and Impending Doom

                Late Show: Churchburner with 5th Dawn and Dylan Shiv & The Shanks

1^st Avenue Live!:

Friday: Violent Intent with Reckless Disregard and Cur

Saturday: McPhisto

 Fanataics Sports Bar & Grille

Saturday: Crackin Wise

 Voodoo Lounge:

Friday: Checker and the Bluetones

Saturday: Soul Fusion

McElroy Auditorium

Saturday: Music as a Weapon 4 with Disturbed, Killswitch Engage, Lacuna Coil and Chimaira

Tuesday: Black Label Society (I bet my buddy Tom is happier than a pig in slop!) with Sevendust, Dope and Infinite Staircase

Comedy:

Jokers:

Friday & Saturday: Jay Wendell Walker

Art and Exhibits:

UNI Museum:

February 16^th - May 16th:  Death Perception: The Science of Forensic Anthropology

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From playing with Metallica to touring with Danzig and Slayer, Chimaira have been surviving and thriving in the music scene for over ten years now.  Last Saturday I had the opportunity to have a conversation with Chimaira guitarist Matt DeVries about the up coming Music as a Weapon show at McElroy Auditorium this Saturday and to also chat about their new record.

Gabe: Tell me about Chimaira?

Matt DeVries: The band started in 1998, we had a couple of different members, myself I joined in 2001 and we’ve pretty much kept the same lineup with the exception of our drummer leaving and then coming back.  We’re just a metal band from Cleveland.  We’re just about to do this tour, we’ve been stoked about that, we’ve been working on the new record so we’ve been home for a while.  This will be our fifth studio record.  We’re excited to just get back out there.

Gabe: How are you feeling about the new record?

Matt: Without sounding too cliche, we’re very proud of this one.  We think honestly, especially the last couple of records that we’ve done, we’re finally are at a place where we’re not worrying about impressing a label or doing what someone else says.  So this is a brutally honest Chimaira record, that I think is the best sonically and the song writing is our best.  I think our musicianship has gone up and we’re real proud of it like I said.  I even prefer this over the last record, and the last record I loved.  Hopefully you try and do better every record, and that’s what we think we accomplished on this one.

Gabe: Who did the production on the new record?

Matt: Our producer was Ben Schigel who we recorded the Impossibility of Reason and the self titled album with.  We think he definitely did an amazing job on this record.  We wanted to go back to him just because, I think it was initially Mark’s idea, he was watching our old DVD, and it brought back memories of recording with him and how comfortable it is and how it’s just nice to be home and drive to the studio and actually spend as much time possible on focusing on the record instead of having a time limit with another producer or flying somewhere else.  We think he really captures our live sound.  I think with every record he’s gotten better and knows us inside and out, it’s just real comfortable to work with him.

So then for mixing we sent it to Zeuss for the first time.  We’ve been a friend of his for a while, and been a fan of his work for a long time, and honestly I think the combination of Ben and Zeuss, it’s definitely our best.  It’s nice because it’s a great production, not over produced, so it still sounds live.  We strive for that, I think our first record was a little over produced, we didn’t know what we were doing, and then through out the years we realized that we got to try and capture that live sound.  I think Ben did it.

Gabe: How do you guys write your music?

Matt: It varies from record to record, but I think this record is very similar to the last one where as Rob, or Mark or myself will write or work on our own with our little Pro Tools on our laptops.  We usually come home from a tour cycle, take a month off, do stuff on our own, and then go to the rehearsal space and get together with three of us, four of us or all six of us and then everyone kind of adds their two cents so we kind of build off the skeletons of songs.  But with this record for the first time Rob and Mark wrote on our last tour cycle, myself I think there are too many distractions so I really can’t focus on writing so I didn’t.  But they wrote a good amount of songs, got a good jump start to writing the record.  We’ve slowly but surely got it down to a science.  It is hard with six cooks in the kitchen you know?

Gabe: What kind of stuff inspires you guys?

Matt: For me honestly musically, I know for Mark, I know just life in general inspires him and a lot of, just his past life and movies also inspire him.  But for me personally it’s like, it’s hard to say cause music is like my outlet.  So it can be anger or happiness.  I think we’re at a point in the band where we’re kind of, just happy and content, you know nothings ever perfect with anyone, but you know, it’s funny to have such a dark angry record when we’re actually happy with what we’re doing and content in life.  At least for now.  It’s hard to describe what kind of an outlet, it’s nothing visual for me, it’s just kind of what flows out.  It’s really hard to describe.

Gabe: How do you write a heavy record when you’re content and happy?

Matt: I think a lot of people loose focus, where as we’re hungrier then ever you know and we know that we have to fight, especially being a metal band to keep putting out what we love in order to keep doing if for a living or just in general.

Gabe: Are you looking to be as big as Metallica?

Matt: Not necessarily, obviously that would be nice, but to me that’s why I love heavy metal because it is honest and true.  You’re not really trying to sell out or write a big radio hit and make millions, my goals in life were always just to tour Europe, tour with Slayer and you know make a living off of it so the fact that I’ve got those accomplished is just a real big feat in itself for me personally.  So the only goals I set for myself now are just tyring to play as many places in the world in front of as many people as possible.  If we got to Metallica status, which I think would be impossible (laughs), bit if it happened I’d certainly be happy about it, but that’s not what I’m striving for.

Gabe: How are Ferret Records treating you guys?

Matt: Oh yeah happier than ever, I mean Roadrunner got us to where we are but Ferret is just one of those labels that is just so honest with us and really loves and appreciates our music and our band.  And if we ask for something, they’ll either do it or tell us no, where most labels would tell us “oh, OK, we’ll work on that” or “maybe”, I mean they’re just honest about everything, and everything that they’ve put on paper or told us has happened.

Gabe: You guys have toured with Killswitch Engage and Lacuna Coil before, is this going to be a reunion with old friends on this tour?

Matt: Oh for sure, and we’re actually stoked that Disturbed is having us on this tour as well cause, we’ve done Ozzfest with them and they were one of the only bands that was playing the mainstage that would actually give a s**t and come over to the second stage and see us and hang out and stuff like that.  So all in all it’s just going to be cool to hang out, every one’s cool from every band so I think that makes this tour even more fun!

Gabe: Do you guys still get out and check out local bands?

Matt: I do for sure, there’s a local club in Cleveland that I go to where I see, usually, like tonight I’m going to see the Carcass reunion show, and then the side stage always has local bands.  They always have another stage and stuff like that, so I just check them out.  It’s cool that they do that, cause back when we had bands they didn’t really, we’d have to rent out an F.O.E. hall or pray to God that we could submit to open up for a huge band but now it’s always happening in Cleveland which is a great thing.  So I definitely check them out.  There’s a band Forever in Terror, they might have changed their name, they’re a younger band that got signed to Metal Blade, and it’s good to see that there are opportunities.

So if you would like to see these guys in action check them out this Saturday as part of the Music as a Weapon 4 Tour.  Also their new record Infection drops in stores on April 21st.

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March 17
- A Pup Named Scooby-Doo: Complete 2nd, 3rd & 4th Seasons (Animation, Family, TV)
- Angel Wars: The Messengers (Action, Adventure, Animation)
- Barbie Presents Thumbelina (Animation, Family)
- Bunnytown: Hello Bunnies! (Family)
- Degrassi: The Next Generation – Season 7 (Drama, TV)
- Elegy (Drama)
- JAG (Judge Advocate General): The Eighth Season (Action, Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller, TV)
- Punisher: War Zone (2-Disc Special Edition) (Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller) 
- Punisher: War Zone (Widescreen & Full Screen Edition) (Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller) I can honestly say that I can not wait to see this.  I was a big fan of the Thomas Jane version that was out a few years ago with John Travolta as the antagonist against Jane’s Frank Castle, while I had problems with them moving from New York City to Miami the film was ultra violent and did a great job of capturing the feel of the comic book.
- Van Wilder: Freshman Year (Comedy)
- The Zeta Project: The Complete First Season (Action, Animation, Sci-Fi, TV)

March 21
- Twilight (Two-Disc Special Edition) (Romance, Thriller)  Honestly folks, I have no idea what the hub bub is all about this Twilight funky mojo.  I’ve never read the books, I’m not a teenage girl, and I only buy my records and comic book T-Shirts at Hot Topic… Oh well, I’ll probably watch it one of these days.

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First off I wanted to let every one know about the Balding for Kids Cancer Benefit this Saturday at Fanatics Sports Bar and Grille in Waterloo.

Movies:

March 13
- The Last House on the Left – Ah well I see the remake of Wes Craven’s most violent film is finally hitting the theatres.  Honestly folks, I have no idea why they remade this at all.  The original is very powerful and still turns my stomach to this day.  I’m sure this will do well the marketing has been great on it, but I’m very very leary of this one.
- Miss March
- Race to Witch Mountain - And I’ve been blogging about this one for awhile, not sure if I’ll see it this weekend but maybe.
 

Music:

Spicoli’s Grill and The Reverb Rock Garden:

Thursday: Karaoke by Ultimate Entertainment

Friday: Dropping Daylight

Saturday: Dakota

The Hub:

Thursday: Rock for a Cure with Pork Tornadoes & Mighty Short Bus

Friday: The Blue Island Tribe with Beaker Brothers

Saturday: A Tribute to Johnny Cash with Boston Grant and the Johnny Cash Revue

Screaming Eagle American Bar and Grill

Friday: DeJa Vu

Saturday: Matt Wood and the Thunderbolts

The Picador:

Friday: The Broken West with Blind Pilot and Oui Bandits

Saturday: Valient Thorr with Goes Cube, Burnout (I like these guys) and Grism

Sunday: Dredg with Pelican (another band I really like) and Tombs

1^st Avenue Live!:

Friday: VitalLight with Waterstreet

Saturday: Black the Sun

Fanataics Sports Bar & Grille

Friday: Ramblers

Saturday: Balding for Kids Cancer Benefit with CB & Company and Lotus

Voodoo Lounge:

Saturday: Atomic Hoss

Comedy:

Jokers:

Friday & Saturday: Elliot Threatt

Art and Exhibits:

UNI Museum:

February 16^th - May 16th:  Death Perception: The Science of Forensic Anthropology

Some things to keep in mind also for next week.  I’ll have an interview up here with Matt DeVries of Chimaira who are on the mainstage for the Music As A Weapon tour coming through McElroy Auditorium on March 21st.

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So I’m going to pick up where I left off with last week at E on the albums that I can’t live with out series.  But I have to go back to D for a minute first so that’s where I’ll start.

The Doobie Brothers

            Best of the Doobies – I remember being a little tyke hanging out with my parents when this would be playing on the record player.  While I don’t want to openly admit that Michael McDonald’s voice kicks some serious tail, it does.  Does anyone else trip down nostalgia lane every time that Diamond Joe Casino spot comes on with “Black Water” as it’s theme music?

Carol King

            Tapestry – I must of have listened to this album a million times with my mom as a kid.  I know the whole album by heart and still enjoy listening to it today.  King’s voice still calms me and makes me feel like I’m home.

Front Line Assembly

            Millennium – As many people who know me know, I’m a huge fan of industrial music and Front Line Assembly was the second Vancouver band I got into after Skinny Puppy.  Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber create these amazing textures and soundscapes that just blow your mind.  This album also added Rhys’ love of heavy metal guitars.  It was a perfect album for a perfect time and I still enjoy listening to this album today.

God Lives Underwater

            Empty – What can I say about his record.  It hit me square in the eyes the first time I heard it.  Industrial music with a pop sensibility, it had catchy choruses and interesting brooding lyrics.  Some may consider them Nine Inch Nails light, but I was in love with their sound from the first time I heard “All Wrong”.

            Life in the So Called Space Age – GLU’s second album was light years ahead of Empty.  It was far more mature, and the music sounded more melancholy than their first record.  The track “Happy?” on this album could actually be my most favorite song of all time.  They released a third album a few years ago that was actually recorded quickly after Life but never saw the light of day do to GLU’s label folding.  It finally was released a few years ago and while it had some stand out tracks it was nothing like Empty or Life in it’s power and majesty.  Sadly the singer (David Reilly) of GLU passed away at about the same time as the third album was released.  It broke my heart.

Godflesh

            Selfless – In my quest to keep things accessible by many people, but maybe shed some light on stuff that fell through the cracks I was a bit skeptical about adding this album to the list.  It’s relentlessly heavy, very dark and very aggressive, but it moved me when I first heard it.  I had been a fan of Justin Broadrick for awhile, but this album really made it all happen for me.  Huge beats, grinding repetitive guitars, guttural vocals and tons of synths and programming.  This album still is just as powerful as the first day I heard it.

Guns n’ Roses

            Appetite for Destruction – This would be the first album I ever got my hands on that I had to listen to when my parents weren’t around or with headphones on under my covers late at night so my mom couldn’t hear it.  To this day this album still sounds as fresh and relevant as it did in 1988 to a teenage boy discovering rebellion from his parent’s hippy music.  In my opinion after G’N’R Lies the rest was down hill for these guys and let’s not even talk about Chinese Democracy OK?

Hate Dept.

            Omnipresent – Again another album on the list that I was a little reluctant to add considering the bands name has little global appeal, but I really need to talk about this record.  I bought this album on a whim when I worked at a record store in Mason City Iowa.  I had heard of Steven Seibold and his band Hate Dept. but I had never actually heard a full album by him so I took a chance.  Upon first listen I was incredibly disappointed with the record, but I listened to it some more.  At the time I had a great sound system in my car and the more I listened to the record the more I understood this record.  It’s now a classic for me and one that I revisit often.  I had the opportunity to play some shows with Steven and Hate Dept. back in the day and I was surprised and impressed by them live as well.  I will always be a fan of these guys and have fond memories of hanging out with Squigg and Steven.

John Lee Hooker

            The Healer – While John has had countless hits and countless great albums, this album is my all time favorite.  With guest like Carlos Santana, Bonnie Raitt, Robert Cray and others this record is a mood piece.  I even have it on limited edition gold plated CD (they say it sounds better than standard CD but I have no idea really).  I can put this record on and just be completely chilled out.

Ice Cube

            The Predator – You probably won’t see a whole lot of rap on my list, not because I don’t like it, but most of it hit me at the wrong time or the album would have a few good songs and the rest was filler.  This was the first rap record I ever bought that I loved from beginning to end, a lot of that might have to do with the fact that I saw Ice Cube do it live on Lollapalooza 92 and a lot of it has to do with reminding me of having fun with my younger brother who was a huge Cube fan back in the day.  Any way you look at it I love this record and it features the actual big crossover hit for Cube “It was a Good Day”.

Billy Idol

            Vital Idol – I’ve chosen his greatest hits record here, mainly because all of his songs on his first few albums where hits.  My next door neighbor at the time was in high school and ultimately the coolest dude in the world.  He loved Billy Idol.  I was in junior high at the time and I watched all the girls swoon for Robert; I wanted to be cool like him.  So he let me hang out with him a couple of times and turned me onto Billy Idol.  Robert was, and is, probably to this day infinitely cooler than I will ever be (I hope he still has his red leather jacket) but he turned me onto my first punk rocker and that started the ball rolling.  Vital Idol has all the tracks you know and love and is a must for any fan of his.

INXS

            Kick – I remember seeing the videos for “Devil Inside” and “Need You Tonight” on MTV and I was hooked.  I bought this record shortly after that and fell in love with INXS.  Another album I tried to hide from my parents since they had one cuss word in it and I didn’t want them to hear it and get me in trouble, but it only had one cuss word on the whole album, not anything like G’N’R.  I still love listening to this record today and often think what would have happened to INXS had Michael Hutchence not passed away.

So I will leave you with I and pick up with this next week.  Hopefully you’re getting a kick out of this and hopefully you will leave me some comments about your albums you can’t live with out too!

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So for Valentine’s Day my wife and I decided to take in the new remake of Friday the 13^th and hopefully get a good scare.  While we were sitting in the seats we were reminded that the last time we saw a movie together she was quite pregnant and the movie was Children of Men, which is one of the best movies released this decade, so you can figure out how long it’s been since we sat in the theatre seats together.

As we sat there waiting for the show to start members from the Heart of Darkness haunted attraction where there to ask trivia questions and give away some cool prizes.  My wife kept encouraging me to speak up, but unfortunately I didn’t really know the answers to their questions.  I was never a big fan of the Friday the 13^th franchise from the 80’s.  Honestly I was never a big fan of any of the 80’s franchises (A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, Child’s Play), the slasher genre has just never hit home for me.  I’m much more of zombie fan and I think that Clive Barker’s Hellraiser was the pinnacle of scary movie making in the 80’s.  So I went into this remake without my heart on my sleeve and honestly with very low expectations, despite there being no reason to have said low expectations.  This film was produced by Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes who are also responsible for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake that was better than I expected it to be, far better especially when you consider I hold a special place in my heart for the original Tobe Hooper directed film.  So, other than the name Michael Bay I shouldn’t have had these low expectations but…  the director of this remake was the same director of the remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Marcus Nispel.  He did a great job with that as I said before so why not expect the same from him on this one?  Well did anyone else see his original film Pathfinder?  It was visually interesting but a weak movie as a whole.  Ok, so he’s fifty fifty right?  Well he delivered on this remake too.  So now he’s two out of three and as Meatloaf once said “two out of three ain’t bad.”

What makes this film good is that it doesn’t try to be anything other than what it is, one hour and forty minutes of mindless good fun and a rustic throw back to the good ole 80’s slasher movies.  While the movie is set in our present day with cell phones and iPods not a lot has changed since the 80’s with our young protagonist’s modus operandi, they still want their sex, drugs and rock and roll.  It was fun to see this with a lively Friday night audience as well.  After the first couple hook up you can hear the audience quietly murmuring to each other “they’re gonna get it!” in fact my wife leaned over and whispered in my ear “first”, with her knowing grin.  The audience and my wife were not disappointed with what happened next.  After about the first half hour a plot twist happens that I can not mention but believe me when I tell you, you’ve never seen anything like it and it was pretty amazing.  The only other director I’ve seen work with this same plot device with the same intended reaction is Quentin Tarantino, it was actually quite brilliant.

As far as upping the ante on gore and scares, well both of those are much higher here than in the original movie.  The gore is much more believable which requires me to swallow an immense amount of pride since the one and only Tom Savini worked on the original Friday the 13^th’s FX crew, but things have changed a lot since Savini’s hey day and the grue just looked better this time around.  The scares were a little more intense too, I don’t know if people have gotten better with their sound cues and stingers or if seeing this with a rather jumpy audience helped me out a bit, but I jumped several times and really let myself suspend my disbelief.  That may be the key to this movie too, suspension of disbelief.  That’s something we all have to do to an extent when watching any kind of entertainment, we allow ourselves to be swept up into the world of the characters.  Some people can do it better than others, I for one can do it very easily too, it allows me to enjoy some of the worst cinema out there.  Believe me when I say you need to suspend your disbelief on this one too. There are some huge plot holes and several times I rolled my eyes at the stupidity of our protagonists, but I could let those things slip to the side and just enjoy the movie.

Jason is far more physical in this one, and while most of us that have seen the original know the story of Jason, his origin is barely skimmed over in the beginning.  This movie is really more of another installment in the franchise than a remake.  I think they chose to do that, instead of calling it Friday the 13^th Part 135, they just started over.  And since this movie ruled the box office we are bound to see more sequels, and I say bring em on.  If they are going to be this much fun then I welcome the new Friday the 13^th to the Cineplex’s!

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March 10 
- Battle in Seattle (Action, Drama)

- The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (Drama)

- Cadillac Records (Drama)

- Escape to Witch Mountain (Special Edition) (Adventure, Family, Fantasy, Sci-Fi) The one good thing about all these remakes and or re-imagining of older movies is that the originals get fancy new DVD editions.  So here’s one for ya folks to trip down memory lane.

- Get Smart: Season Two (Comedy, TV)

- The Girls Next Door: Season Four (Reality TV)

- Happy-Go-Lucky (Comedy, Drama)

- Howard the Duck (Special Edition) (Action, Adventure, Comedy, Romance, Sci-Fi) To say I’m not pumped about this release would actually make me a liar.  I loved the movie when I was a kid despite the fact that it’s considered one of the worst movies ever.  I’ll watch it again.

- Let the Right One In (Drama, Horror, Romance) And this is the crown jewel for me this week.  I have read review after review about this movie and everyone has given it a high marks.  I look foward to popping this in the DVD player this week and will review it too.

- Marie and Bruce (Comedy, Drama)

- Milk (Drama) I also look forward to seeing this one in the near future, but unfortunately right now I’m not in the mood for something this heavy so it will be a couple of weeks.

- Pinocchio: 70th Anniversary Platinum Edition (Animation, Family, Fantasy, Musical) I’m not quite sure why Disney is always putting these out and then putting them back in the vault?  But I suppose every time a new edition comes out they sell like wildfire.

- Rachel Getting Married (Drama, Romance)

- Return From Witch Mountain (Special Edition) (Adventure, Family, Fantasy, Sci-Fi) Again with the release of a classic to fall in love with all over again.

- Role Models (Unrated) (Comedy) This is acutally sitting in the number two position in my Netflix queue right now.  This looks so funny!

- South Park: The Complete Twelfth Season (Animation, Comedy, TV)

- The Starter Wife: Season 1 (Comedy, Drama, Romance, TV)

- Synecdoche, New York (Drama)

- Transporter 3 (2-Disc Fully Loaded Edition) (Action)

- Transporter 3 (Full Screen & Widescreen Edition) (Action)

- Woody Woodpecker Favorites (Animation, Family)

Source: Coming Soon

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So last night the family had the opportunity to take in the 2nd Annual Culture Fest at the Waterloo Center for the Arts and my oh my what a wonderful time to be had.

I actually didn’t really know anything about it but my wife got the low down on it from a mom at Indoor Park at the Cedar Falls rec center last week.  So we all headed over to see my son’s friend dance and take in the event.  I didn’t know what to expect walking in the door, but I quickly caught on!  FOOD!  DANCING!  MUSIC!  It was a celebration of the great amount of diversity that Waterloo and the Cedar Valley have to share.  It was an incredible turn out as well.

Two thoughts came to mind and really stuck with my last night.  First, I didn’t realize we had so many different cultures here in the Cedar Valley.  I don’t consider myself a naive person, but I guess you don’t walk up and ask every body where they’re from when you meet them on the street.  Honestly there were people there from all over the world sharing their culture and foods with us.  I was simply amazed and actually really proud to be part of a community that celebrates such diversity, it truly is a melting pot here in our little neck of the woods.

The second thought that came to mind is how excited I am for my son to be able to experience stuff like this.  Growing up in a small town in central Iowa, you don’t get exposed to stuff like this.  Luckily I was a bit of a traveler and explorer in college and spent a lot of time in bigger cities so I’ve had my eyes opened to different cultures through the years, plus studying art and art history in college you learn a lot about the world.  But my son will have the opportunity to actually see these cultures first hand, to get to know the people and even get to go to school with these children.  The idea of my son learning from these other people that are willing to share their culture and experiences with him warms my heart and makes me proud of the world we live in today.

And not to get all peace, love and unity on you all, but for a moment yes.  What I experienced last night made me long for a world where we can all come together and celebrate our diversity and individuality but also be kind human beings to each other and learn from each other.

Congratulations Waterloo Center for the Arts, it was a great time and a very memorable experience.

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