The Hounds of War on Independence Day.

Happy 4th of July to you all!

So far my holiday weekend has been quite wonderful. Yesterday I took a half day and started the weekend off early. Since we have a huge 3rd of July fireworks display that I can view from my parking lot, I took a folding chair, some beer, cigars and a good book and hunkered down for the afternoon/evening. Quite the spectacle. The fireworks lasted about 50 minutes and were being shot off of a barge down in the harbor as well as a tall downtown building. The cigars and beer were pretty decent also.

Today's fun involves helping my mom walk a dog that she's sitting for then hitting the food store for provisions I'll need later today. 'Cause once again Iris and Roberto have graciously offered to hold the annual, impromptu 4th of July Hullabaloo. Last year's quickly became The Great 'Squito Siege of 2007! I'm bringing two cans of OFF to do battle with the little sh*tz this year. HAVE AT ME BASTAGES!!! THEN GET READY FOR THE HOUNDS OF WAR!!


Last weekend I went to our local huge music festival, Summerfest and checked out a showcase of female, solo, local musicians called Chick Singer Night. Then I went into "dirty old man" mode and stuck around for country artist Miranda Lambert who actually stayed away from the usual pluck, pluck "my dog died and lover left me" crap that plagues country music and she stuck with a lot of good old rock 'n' roll tunes (Did an awesome cover of Zep's "Rock 'N' Roll). Then after a few cigars and beers I waddled over to another stage were I saw the closing number of a Rock chorus/alternative/happy-feel-good group called Polyphonic Spree who were a lot of fun to hear. At the end of their show they even came out and danced around in the audience. Now that's audience interaction!!!! Look into it Miranda!


So I've put aside GTA4 for just a smidgen of time to pick up on Quake 4. So far the game is quite challenging and looks great. I also still have to finish Mass Effect as well as Oblivion: Shimmering Isles. I'll get there, I'll get there.


Well, here's something I haven't done for a spell. Here are a couple of movie reviews of Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Horror and Pulp movies I've rented lately........

Cloverfield - Put together a dash of King Kong and a splash of Blair Witch and you have a small inkling of what Cloverfield is like. At first I was a little annoyed at the cast of characters that were being introduced in the beginning party scenes of the flick. They were all of the typical, young, beautiful yuppie people that quickly got on my nerves, save for one goofy cameraman character. But, once the shat hits the fan and the Big Nasty is released, it becomes a no-holds-barred, heart pounder of a movie. Definitely worth the rental, if not for purchase!

The Covenant - Remember how cool the movie The Craft was about young witches learning to deal with their powers? Well this similarly themed movie about young Warlocks learning to deal with their powers. There's also a bigger cheese factor to the story in this one as it's more action orientated than The Craft. I tended to enjoy the Craft far more than The Covenant since I enjoy watching cute Goth chicks far more than a bunch of teen magazine looking pretty boys use magic to thwart evil. Good for a few chuckles as a rental.

Rise: Blood Hunter - Lucy Liu stars as a journalist who finds herself transformed into vampire and hunts down those responsible. Not the most original theme or vampire story out there and not as well executed as the Blade movies, but still watchable, especially if your a big Lucy Liu fan.

Skinwalkers - Yet another modern/action tail of broods of Werewolves doing battle with each other. Far from being at all original, it was still a fun filled cheese fest to watch. Rent it.

Undead or Alive: A Zombedy - I'm still on the fence on this one. This mixed the genres of Western, Comedy and Horror all together. It stars Chris Kattan and James Denton as two cowboys who find themselves in a town that becomes Zombie central. Sadly the two main actors have about as much chemistry as two bricks. Sure, there were a couple of scenes where I chuckled a bit. Plus, I'm always a sucker for anything involving zombies. Then there was the striking female lead as well. But there were also a few things that bugged me. It was a no budget production that kind of came off as just that. Especially the "score" which was made up of just one song played over and over and over and over and over again. By the end of the film the lyrics were scorched into my brian, "Undead or Alive, Undead or Alive, Undead or Alive, Undead or Alive, Undead or Alive, Undead or Alive, Undead or Alive, Undead or Alive, Undead or Alive" over and over and over again. That was the whole score. And it's not even a really good song to begin with. For that reason alone this film went down several notches in my own opinion of the film. Rent it if you like zombies.... I guess.

The Simpson's Movie - I'm probably the only geek on the face of the earth who doesn't wet dream about the Simpsons' when he goes to bed on Sunday night. Sure, I like them just fine. I think their longevity has a lot to do with the comedic relevance of their association and understanding of both pop and geek culture. But, at times, I get a little sick of the Simpsons (WHAT!?!?! THAT'S IT, ZANGZ! TURN IN YOUR GEEK MEMBERSHIP CARD!!!! PRONTO!!!) Seriously, I have to take a break from the Simpsons every now and then. So when I heard that they were going to be going to the big screen I was hoping for something far more funny than what we all get to watch on TV every Sunday night. Well, that wasn't the case. The movie was no funnier than one of their TV episodes. Sure, there were a few chuckles (Spider - Pig), but I feel that if you're going to put the Simpsons on the big assed screen, it better be an out of the park hit rather than the same old same old. Good for rental for die hard Simpsons' fans.

Nightwatch - This Russian made Matrix meets Highlander freak fest is wonderfully crazy as hell. A lot of fun filled action sequences riddle this film and make it visually fun on the peepers! Though the movie can be quite a bit hard to follow at times and does have some dragging moments, it's definitely worth checking out!

I have a few more that I have to get to and will do so once time lends itself. But for now, I have to get ready for the day's festivities. So until next time, as a wise sage once told me, Stay Vertical!

Zangz.