Night with the Rock-a-billy undead and the Great Craige Debacle....

Friday, high-day!

A nice weekend lays before me and I'm enjoying a few Berghoff Bock's on this fine Friday evening. I have a few stories to tell and things to say so let's start our weekend off on a good note and get right to it.....

First of all, last Saturday night I went to go see my friend, Mr. Salty's, band Psychomania at a local club near the south side. If you wanted to see what would happen if Alice Cooper raped the Stray Cats you have a small idea of what they're about. Let me set the scene for you all. The pulsating intro tape harbinged the coming of a few demonic fellows who lurked up to the stage and took their place at the standing bass and guitar respectively. They were followed by a man in a "Silence of the Lambs" type mask who led a straight jacketed, undead lead vocalist, Jimmy Nopain, up to the stage, where the Jimmy was binded by chains that hung from the ceiling. Seconds later, the masked executioner gutted and tore the heart from the lead vocalist and waved it in the air like some sort of macabre trophy. But, since the lead vocalist was already undead, he was unphased. Thus, Phychomania went into their hour and a half set of Physchobilly Rock'N'Roll that kept the audience of Punk fans, Goth chicks and dorks like myself happy as clams for a good portion of the evening. These guys don't play out that much, so if you're in the Milwaukee area and in the mode for some blood driven Rock-a-billy, keep your eyes and ears out for these guys. They're a hoot.

On to my next topic, the controversy with Daniel Craig being the next James Bond. Let me get something out in the open. As you may have read in this blog, I'm not at all happy about the firing of Pierce Brosnan from the role that he saved. I find Eon Productions reprehensible in the unceremonious 86-ing of the best Bond since Connery! But... I have no ill will toward Daniel Craig becoming the new James Bond. In fact, I'm quite interested in seeing what Craig can bring to the table as a young, newbie James Bond. I simply believe that producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson should have given Brosnan one last Bond movie to say goodbye to the fans and the role (something he was ready to do) and then proceed with re-imagining the character ala Batman Begins. Now, there seems to be a HUGE backlash against Daniel Craig becoming the new James Bond. I say, it's not his fault that Barbara and Michael are complete Dren-Heads. He's been put in a very precarious spot. Let's see what he can do with this before we pass judgment. Let's wait until the next holiday movie season before we start to make up pathetic web sites that already lambast the poor sod. Frechrist'sake, give the guy a chance. He's already lost a number of teeth due to the Broccoli/Wilson fiasco! Let's just wait and see. In fact, I'll go as far as to say that I think it is quite the ballsy move for Craig to make the attempt to fill the huge-as-hell shoes of the likes of Connery and Brosnan all the while finding himself smack-dab in the middle of this whole Wilson/broccoli fiasco. Quite the challenge, and it seems as though he's more than willing to take it on. Good for him and good frellin' luck. I want the Bond franchise to succeed, so I'm really pulling for him.

I'm gunna call it a week for now. I'm full of Berghoff and need some food in my tummy. So I bid you all adieu. Take care and "See ya!"

Zangz.

Cold times in Geekville...

It's another Friday night, and I'm sittin' here with a cold, dark lager to my side as my hands prance away at the keyboard, all the while trying to wind down after another work week.

Again, not a lot has really gone on in geekville. We did have that tall, dark bastage known as Death do his dirty work on a few genre actors during the week (or if you're a Gaiman fan: that short, cute goth chick known as Death). Good ol' Uncle Owen (actor Phil Brown) passed away peacefully in his sleep this past week, which is WAY better than being burned to death by Imperial Stormtroopers as his character was in SW: Ep. IV, ANH (Do I really have to spell that out for you.... Star Wars Episode IV, A New Hope. That was the first one released in '77... dumbasses!). Then we had actor Andreas Katsulas, who played Ambassador G'Kar (dude with big forehead that was spotted on Babylon 5), pass away due to lung cancer. He also played a Romulan on a few episodes of the Star Trek franchise and he was the "man with one arm" in the movie version of The Fugitive with Harrison Ford.

They finally have fleshed out the cast of the next Bond film, Casino Royale. It appears as though Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen will play the lead villain, Le Chiffre. This guy has one of those '80's hairband, shock rock names. Kinda like Blackie Lawless. He's a spooky looking guy, who would be a virtual unknown had he not had a part in the Clive Owen opus, King Arthur. They also have a Vesper Lynd cast. The actress's name is Eva Green and she's French who is a virtual unknown. She was in a film called, The Dreamers as well as some other artsy-fartsy movies. What would you expect? She's French.

Since I got through this week of crappy weather and crappy Halmark holidays to make us single folks feel like freaks of nature, I'm going to treat myself to a fun filled weekend that will include a trip to the local Comedy Sportz (started ere, in Milwaukee) and going out to see a local band that the aforementioned, Mr. Salt, is in, Phsychomania. It's a shock-rockabilly band (psychobilly) that will have lots of creepy staging and undead fun. I'll let you know how that all goes.

Until next time, stay vertical.

Zangz.

Quickie.....

Ever notice that acrid order that fills the air on winter nights. It's a acidic, metallic smell that permeates the air when its' cold and dark. It's not a spicy, fall smell or a perfume, spring/summer smell. It's the smell of nothingness and loneliness and emptiness. God, I hate the deep winter. February has to be my least favorite month of the year. Even though it's the shortest, it's the most lonely. It's right in the very middle of the Wisconsin winter. Oh, yes. November is the start of our winter and April is the end. It's right at the point where we are ready for spring, but spring is still a few months away. God, I frellin' hate the dead of winter. I really believe that God created winter just to cheese us mortals off.

Ok, Enough beotching. Time for some geeking it up.

Actually, not a lot going on in the geek world. Both this past week's episodes of "Lost" and "24" were good, but transitional episodes that will lead up to more adventurous / plot twisting episodes. So not a lot going on there .

I did find a used copy of the Xbox's "Star Wars, Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords" for a song and a dance at a video game store. I really enjoyed the first one. So, I'm happy to pick up the second one and see where that goes.

Speaking of Xbox, I didn't get to finish the game I rented, "Far Cry". What I did play of it, I did end up enjoying. At first it seemed to be a bit repetitive with having to constantly infiltrate mercenary encampments, one after the other. But then it became a bit strange and odd. The repetitiveness stopped and I found myself battling different forms of mutants in an odd landscape that morphed from a tropical island to a molten-laden frell hole. I may have to re-rent in to finish it off.

I finally moved forward in the "Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay" game on the Xbox. Though, there is a bit too much of stealth gameplay for my liking, I did get far enough to enjoy the story line and want to finish off the game. I believe that I'm in the last levels of it now.

Oh, I finished off the pulpy book, "Indiana Jones and the philosopher's Stone" and am now re-reading the Raymond Benson, James Bond novel, "Zero Minus Ten". I loved it the first time and am enjoying it for a second round. The Indiana Jones novel I seem to remember enjoying quite a bit more the first time I read it. Not as much the second time, though. Though I read it nearly ten years ago, I found it a bit too over the top the second time. I'll let you know how I like "Zero Minus Ten" the second time around. So far, so good.

That's all for now. Sorry this paticular blog is so uneventful. But, not a lot of geeky stuff has occurred recently. So, I guess you're all shat out of luck.

Until next time, stay vertical!

Zangz.

Stole from Mr. Salty...

Well, I'm into my first week in a new job and I'm enjoying it so far. I don't like to blog about my job too much as I've heard horror stories about employees at certain companies blogging about the goings on at their workplace, only to have their manager come upon their blogs and next thing ya know they're looking for a new job. So I apologize about being quite a bit vague when it comes to my profession. I very much enjoy being employed over going back to settling into the fetal position and weeping in the corner of my cold dark closet while being unemployed again.

However, I can tell you this... I've ended up working for a company that has a lot of people that I've worked with before. One such person we shall refer to, here in the Blog of Geekdom, as Mr. Salty. I met up with Mr. Salty in the break room today and he came out of the closet to me as one of the very few people who actually read this blog. He told me that if he had a blog he would write one about how Hollywood keeps attempting to remake classic horror films and how lame they end up being. Since Mr. Salty doesn't have his own blog, I'll swipe his idea and remark on this phenomenon myself.

Here's the situation... To make a lot of these really lame-assed movies about geo-political statements and gay cowboys (not that there's anything wrong with that), Hollywood has to make a profit making movies that they believe will appeal to the mass public. Since Hollywood is corporatized, no matter how left wing it tries to pretend to be, it still makes silly decisions in what films to give the green light. It appears much of its belief system revolves around the theory that films that have had previous success and a current cult following will do excellent business as a remake / reimagineering.

Now let's look at a prime example... The Fog. The original movie was simplistically shot, yet became a grand classic of the horror genre for just that reason. There was no CGI or other over the top effects. The film relied on pure fear and creepiness. There was no massive gore. Everything "gross" was done with sound effects. Everything scary was done in shadow and not CGI. To see those undead shapes of leaper pirates within the fog was sure to creep viewers out for years to come. The fog itself was manipulated with fog machines and fans. Not ILM type computer graphics. And what version is the most popular with fans? The original, John Carpenter directed version. Which one is less than a year old and has already been forgotten? The piece of dren remake.

So, I'd like to see more original ideas coming out of Hollywood when it comes to the genres of Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror. If they can come up with gay cowboys, they can come up with something from the netherworld to rock our worlds!

In other stuff...

I came close to finishing Half Life 2 on the Xbox, but it was due back at the rental place. The last part of the game dealt with jumping around at a very great height. I hate that. So I wasn't exactly upset that I didn't get to finish the game. But I will tell you that I enjoyed most of what I played. It was very atmospheric and some of the weaponry was pretty cool. Imagine being able to grab hold of bad guys and throwing them down reactor shafts, ala Emperor Palpatine in "Return of the Jedi". Very cool, indeed.

Right now I'm renting "Far Cry", another first person shooter which revolves around a guy who gets "shipwrecked" on a tropical island and finds himself the target of many mecenaries while also being a guinea pig for some bimolecular tests. I haven't got that far in the game, but though it's addictive, so far there is a lot of repetitiveness to it. I'll let you know how it goes. I've gotten completely stuck on Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. It was lots of fun at first, but then got tedious when you get to a point where you have no weapons and find yourself running around in circles trying to avoid guards and robots who constantly hit you with unstoppable force. Where's the fun in that. I swear, some of these game programmers seem to have an ego trip and want the player to fail so they can feel far superior to the gamers. Must be a virility hang up or something.

It seems as though the producers at Eon productions are starting to shoot the next Bond flick, Casino Royale. It is questionable if the entire cast has been settled on yet. Now some reports are saying that actress, Rose Byrne, has not been cast as Vesper Lynd. Nor has a major villain (Le Chiffre) been cast yet. Ya know, the unceremonious firing of Peirce Brosnan has seemed to put a curse on this film. Let's hope that have a quality piece of material to deliver come next Xmas, or there will be some very disappointed Bond fans!!!

I almost forgot to mention that they have revived the BBC Sci-Fi TV show Dr. Who a year or so back and they're bringing it to the Sci-Fi Channel next month. Very cool. I remember wasting many of my Sunday afternoons while in Tech school watching Dr. Who marathons. It would start at noon and last until about 5pm. I never got fanaticle about it. In fact, a lot of it made no sense whatsoever. But it had cheesy effects, lots of eccentric characters and cuties helping the Doctor. It also has a huge geek following, which in my opinioon, is a very good thing.

Ya know, I'm going to settle back and enjoy a few Sammy A's this Friday evening. So I'm going to blow all of you and Mr. Salty off for now.

We'll talk soon. Stay tuned.

Zangz.