Harry Potter and the Evil Carpetbagging Queen...

I know it's a quickie blog for today, but I couldn't really call this a Blog of Geekdom unless I mentioned the release of the latest Harry Potter novel. "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" floated onto the bookstore shelves at midnight last night, creating a frenzy of both children and adult readers. I know of one person who went down to the local library to get their reserve copy last night. Apparently, the library went all out for this event. They had people dressed as wizards, live owls on display, magicians. The works. This is an extremely exciting time to the hadcore Hogwarts-heads.

I've never really gotten into Harry Potter as much as many of my geek brethren have. I saw the first movie and thought it was cute and fun. Then a year later I read the first book and thought it was cute and fun. Saw the second and third movies and thought they were both cute and fun. That's about it. I feel that if I were a lot younger I'd be totally into them 100%. But, my childhood hero's were Scooby-Doo, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and the rock group KISS. That was quite a while back.

But, what I can relate to is a lot of the frustration Harry Potter fans are plagued with from the puritanical, religious zelots' attacks on the books. Even our new Gestapo pope has made the ridicules claim that the books pull kids away from Christian values. Does he mean like, homophobia, or bilking thousands of people out of hundreds of thousands of dollars with televangalists, or some poor alter boy having a private session with Father McBadtouch?

In other zelot's complaining news, the good "liberal" Democratic senator, Hillary Clinton is beotching and whimpering about the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Apparently there's a cheat code on there that allows you to download a scene in which the lead character, shall we say, "gets lucky ". Of course, leave it to the bastion of moral fiber, Hillary "I'm not at all from New York state, but I used my husband's power to get my fat behind a seat in the senate" Clinton to wax poetic on what is morally wrong with society and try and censor video games. If you want to really worry about the moral fiber of this country, look no further than watching these frellin' reality shows (that admittedly, I'm addicted to) where they glorify stabbing each other in the back, treating each other like dirt, walking all over others to achieve their own goals and that money and looks are all that matter. This country has made the likes of socialite-skeeze, Paris Hilton a huge celebrity, and Hillary "I could have helped the feminist movment move forward by leaving my cheating husband, but settled on using his power fuel my career into the senate instead" Clinton is worried about an ADULT video game getting into the hands of kids? It's an ADULT video game for ADULTS. The only reason kids play it is because parents aren't paying attention to what their kids are doing. This is usually when the government comes in and plays the role of fascists. Hillary Clinton is nothing more than a carpetbagger ( That's carpet-BAGGER, CARPETBAGGER! I'm being a good boy.)

Well, I gotta go walk a dog and feed some cats.
Zangz.

No Love from the Outhouse (Trainwrecks and being published...Pt. 2)

Ya know, there are some people out there that just strive to be downright elitist bastages. I don't know why certain people have a fondness for being nasty about things. Now, I know that not everybody is going to like whatever material you try to creatively put out there, but today the publisher of the free press paper I do a column for got a nasty call from a snotty, humorless, souless wench who is part of the management of a certain local, Riverwest health food store (We'll call it "The Outhouse" to protect no one) shreiking about the fact that the distribution company our paper uses plunked a bunch of our papers down in her store among all the other free press papers without her approval. Though he appologized profusley for the mix up, she continued to be a heartless shew about things.

She went on to babble about how she thought our humor was not of her liking (Hey, it's not of a lot of peoples' liking. So, she's not that special!) And to add insult to injury she tossed out about 1500 copies into the dumpster. Sure, it was her right to do so and our distribution people frelled up by not getting the dig-bat's approval. But does she hafta be such a hemroid of a human being about it. She could have simply called the distribution company and told them not to place it there anymore. But, instead she wrecked havoc on my poor editor, just to be a polyp in the anus of humanity.

I just don't get some people. There's a lot of media out there I'm not fond of. But I have yet to go out of my way to make their life a bit more miserable about it. I guess the moral to the story is, if you eat food from "The Outhouse" prepare to poop yourself silly.

In nicer news, I got my online ticket to see Bruce Campbell's Milwaukee screening of "The Man With Two Brains". He'll be there and there'll be a question and answer period and he'll be singing his book, "Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way". So it should be a night of geekiness add nauseum! I hope I don't poop myself silly.

Well, I gotta get sumthin' into my belly before I head back out to Bastille Days tonight. May have a beer or two. Perhaps a cigar again. I went last night to see my friend Ellen sing. She did a cover of a Ray Charles' tune and got a standing ovation. I tried to see if I could weasle out some of the phone numbers of the other Chick singers, apppearing there, out of her, but it was a no-go. Most of them already had boyfriends, fiances, husbands or restraining orders out on me.

Well, I'm gone. Take care.
Zangz

Viva la femmes!!!

Before I do anything else I gotta do a tad of gripping for a sec. What brainiac thought it would be a good idea to plunk a pro bicycle race in the middle of a main street here in town? I'm over at my mom's to feed her cats (Yep. Got hornswaggled into doing that again this weekend) and I find half the roads closed and about 5 to 6 different traffic jams on the small neighborhood streets due to this silly idea to clog up the entire neighborhood so a bunch of yuppie, Lance Armstrong wannabes can frell up the streets during rush hour. Grrrrr.....

"What is Zangz reading?", you may ask (ADD? Why do you ask?). I'm reading two books right now. I'm still getting through Neil Gaimen's, "American Gods" which is a fictional epic look at what happens to ancient gods from other lands when we reach modern times. A good read, but it'll take me most of the summer to complete. I'm over the halfway mark now. I'm also reading the newest James Bond novel, "Silverfin" by Brittish comeidic actor / writer Charlie Higgson. Since the whole James Bond dynasty is trying to be aimed more at the kiddies rather than us adults now, they decided to give a young James Bond the Harry Potter treatment and have dumbed him down considerably. Once I'm done with each of the books, I'll give my thoughts. Don't hold your breath. It'll take a bit.

On to something else now. Since I'm so obsessed over the crapfest reality show "Average Joe", I was thingking about bullies I've encountered in my early years, and came accross this website...

www.stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov

Keep in mind that I'm very glad that someone in our Government is finally doing something about these dren-heads, but after perusing the site I felt that it was (to quote Miss Benatar) "a little to little, a little to late". It reads like a kiddie book and is slightly unrealistic in it's beleifs. Having had many, many incedents with bullies in my lifetime (and I mean the kid who shoved my face into the blacktop to the jealous boyfriend who slammed my head into his car door to the drunken idoit who pushed me in the baroom) I know frellin' well that these bullies only understand one thing and that's a red hot screwdriver being driven into their cornia.

Ok, Maybe that was a bit psychotic. But, a lot of these bullies speak and understand one language... violence. Think about this for a second, the entire country didn't give two rips about the problem of bullies until the horrorific events unfolded at Columbine High School. Thousands of years of humans have come and gone and it took two nutters to be bullied enough to be driven to do something unspeakable before anyone said to themselves, "...well, after the fact that little Nathan keeps getting black eyes from Spike and his in-crowd buddies, pehaps we should do somehting." is kinda weak.

In the end, I think there should be more leagaly at risk for those doing the bullying than a vebal warning from some weak principal. Though, I appreciate that people are finally recognizing that there's a real problem, I'm wondering if it's enough.

In other news, tonight I'm going to Bastille Days to see my friend Ellen sing. She's singing at a stage that's sponsering an event called "Chick Singer Night". Since she's a local singer, she gets to sign along with other local female musicians in a showcase of female local talent. This is a very cool idea for the local femme music scene for spreading publicity!!! Bastille Days is basicly a French themed street festival held in the East Town district of the city. The fest is usually highlighted by great pastrie, a "storming of the bastille" run, a few stages of entertainment, a smaller replica of the Eiffle Tower, fireworks and people waving white flags like there was no tomorrow. Ok, that last bit was quite jingoistic and uncalled for. I'll openly appologize at the frog leg eating contest latter on.

I gotta eat. Later...
Zangz.

Death to Carson, Long Live Dante! God, I need a life.

Just sent off my most recent article for the fledgling free press rag I write for. I've been having trouble getting in touch with the editor latley. Hopefully he'll like it.

I had to take a second or two and soapbox about last night's episode of reality show crapfest, "Average Joe: Joe Strikes Back". Now, before you all roll your eyes and say to yourselves, "Jesus, this guy is unhealthily obsessed with this show!" I want to let you know that realize that I've rambled on about this show and it's negative mesage to the public about people who are not considered adequate human beings in the eyes of beautiful women one too many times. Well, I'm gunna ramble on some more....

In a nutshell, the show has one visually stunning woman choose from a group of "Average Joes" (aka: lovable, decent Geeks like me) and a group of manufactured, hunky pretty boys who all have the personalities of a sock. Most of the show has the hunks bullying the Joe's throughout the season trying to pull off this "Revenge of the Nerds" type of vibe. But instead of a happy ending, the last two seasons the "beauty" picked one of the mindless hunks over the respectable Average Joes.

Granted, the show is quas-scripted and a lot of things are probably staged. But last night's show got me a tad broiled up. When the "hunks" arrived at the mansion the Joe's are staying at, the "hunks" took over the rooms that the Joes had already occupied, they started to throw the Joes' belongings and luggage out the windows and doors. When the Joes arrived and confronted the hunks on the luggage incedent, the hunks started to bully them. But, one Joe, named Dante, pulled a good one on an especially retarded, cretinous hunk named Carson. Dante got up into Carson's face like he was going to start yelling. Then he planted a good smooch right on his mouth. The obviously homophobic, Carson completley freaked out! Instead of just laughing it off and walking away from the situation, Carson yelled and screamed and threw a tempertantrum while spewing out threats of physical violence against Dante. Frellin' brilliant reality TV! Watching the pretty boy weep because he had a fast one pulled on him on national TV was quite amusing. Unfortunatley, Dante was one of the guys tossed off the show by Anna, the beauty of the show. The sad thing about it all is the fact that Anna will probably pick that Carson d**scheb*g in the end. Happens every season. The shallow ends up with the shallow. That's the way life is.

But in other reality news, the Jedi rise to power once again, when the son of Darth Vader leads the Rebellion in the defeat of the Sith and helps Vader bring ballance to The Force.

(It is at this time when friends and family of Zangz are more than welcome to cry in one anothers arms in a scence of great dispair for him.)

Zangz

Smokin' the Big Stanks!

Drats. My vacation is over and I'm back to the grind (and not the good kind). One good thing is that I ended my vacation Sunday night with a great family cookout that included some good beers, a cigar or three and a real beautiful evening outside. It was the perfect capper to a real nice vacation.

Speaking of cigars, I just got on a mailing list for a catalog that has some real sweet deals. Hopefully they'll have me taken care of through the rest of the summer if I end up ordering from them. I'm also hoping that we'll have some nice weather on into October so that I may enjoy them well into the rest of the year. I used to have about three to five every summer. This year it became a habit of leisure and I'm well over the 20 stoggie mark. Hey, if some of my friends can smoke away on cancer sticks, let me have a good puff or seven on a nice, big, fat juicy stink log (the good kind!!!!!). They're good to celebrate with!

Speaking of celebrating, Zangz's Blog of Geekdom now has 4 constant readers! They are Carlo, Aaron, MaMa Schu, and Goof. So this site isn't being ignored by everybody on the planet, there are four people who seem to get a sadistic joy out of the mindless crap that I poop into the void that is the world wide web! So that's kinda cool!

Just bought the "Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl" on DVD and found that I enjoyed it even better than the time I saw it in the theater. Can't wait to get into all the extras on the thing. I'm especailly looking forward to what Johnny Depp has to say. That motha trucker can act his butt off! I remember not being able to stand him back when he was a teenage heart throb. He was everywhere in every newspaper and magazine. You couldn't escape him, all because he was good looking. Then came along the movie "Edward Scisorhands" and my perspective of him changed 180 degrees. Now I can't wait to see what he's going to pop up as on the silver screen next. And I really can't wait for the sequel, ".... Dead Man's Chest" with Bill Nighy as Davey Jones.

Been trying to puke out this article on some concerts at Summerfest for the free press paper I contribute to, but I keep getting distracted and wind up dorkin' around, like writing this blog. Looks like it'll have to be an all nighter tomorrow night.

Well, "Average Joe: The Joes Strike Back" is on and I gotta go and root for The Joe's to win over the metrosexual neanderthals. Talk to the four of you latter.

Zangz.

Gotta Love Dem Zombies....

Tonight I went to go see the newest George Romero Zombie flick, "Land of the Dead". His fourth story in a series of zombie movies. Though I did like it, I felt it was missing something. I felt that "Shawn of the Dead" and the remakes of "Dawn of the Dead" and "Day of the Dead" were more entertaining living dead flicks. Not better, but more entertaining.

There was a lot of cool zombie imagery plopped into "Land..", but the story went a bit south when they tried to make you feel sympathetic to the zombies. In this one the zombies start to communicate with each other as well as teach themselves to use weapons in a post apocolyptic world were humans have gated themselves into the city. I won't give too much away, but I will tell you that it ends on a whimper rather than a scream. It was almost a bit too touchy feely for a zombie movie. Don't get me wrong. There's plenty of heads blown off, flesh being eaten and blood being splattered everywhere. But it ends with a, "Let's not resolve this to the bitter end, but let's just go off into the sunset.." Asia Artento was fun to watch, though. So were the scenes where the dead attack the rich yuppies. There were also cameos from the guy who starred in "Sean of the Dead" and famed monster makeup artist Tom Savini as zombies. So the film did have some good stuff in it. I'm also glad that zombie movies are starting to make a bit of a comeback within the last few years. Hopefully more will be made.

Speaking of horror movies, I'm looking forward to Rob Zombie's next chapter in his serial killing family series, "The Devil's Rejects". Yea, I know the last one, "House of 1000 Corpses", might be considered a bit of a rip off of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre". But, I like to think of it as his homage to the film. There's also going to be a remake of "The Fog", which is one of my favorite horror flicks that I hope to god they don't frell up. I think Hollywood is getting a little out of hand with all the remakes. Perhaps they really have run out of original ideas.

After we got out of the movie we went out to eat, then I headed home and went out to the back parking lot, where I have a decent view of the lake, and smoked a cigar and listened to the music coming from Summerfest. Beleive it or not, I could actually hear David Coverdale and Whitesnake from the Classic Rock stage and make out the songs! I guess the wind was aimed right in my direction. Then I went back inside and started playing "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" on the PS2. That game is soo frellin' addictive and immearsive that it is the reason that I'm typing this out a 1am in the morning.

In more good news, I finally found out how to get things rolling with the missing toolbar on my blog. It seems that I had more than a few pop-up blockers activated. So I deactivated a few and Wallah... there's the toolbar. Now I'll be able to link text (as above) and put nice pictures on here (as above). Thanks to Aaron for the suggestions.

I better stop now before I link the hell outta everything on this blog.
Zangz.

SKID ROW STILL FRIGGIN' ROCK!!!

Here's a quicky for you.

I just got back from Summerfest and got to see one of my old favorites Skid Row at the rock stage and I gotta tell you, these guys still have it! The whole show was loud, agressive and energetic. My ears are still ringing.

About a half hour before they hit the stage the rock stage area was realitivly empty. I was worried that people may have thought that the band were all washed up without original lead vocalist Sabastian Bach. But about 15 minutes before showtime, boatloads of people crammed the place and all were totally into the show. The new lead vocalist, Johnny... umm... something (don't know his last name) pretty much handled the Sabastian songs quite well and handled the lead vocalist duties with just as much energy as Bas ever did.

So don't write Rock 'N' Roll off just yet. There's still hope of wipping away the lame crud that the whole artsy fartsy grunge and alternative bands left on music.

In anycase, I'm working on getting that toolbar to work so I can do some decent things on my blog here. Got a guy working on it, so hopefully I can add pictures and links in my blogs in no time.

We are the youth gone deaf! \m/
Zangz.

And the Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth! Wishful thinking or prophacy?

Well, last night I rocked out to Styx at Summerfest. They still got it, even if there are only two original members. If I wanted to get real technical there's only one original member form its first inception. But they were still a good show and still retained the energy of when they were at the crest of their popularity back in their arena rock days. Tommy Shaw does not age! Who's blood does that little guy bathe in anyway?

So latley there's been murmers in the press that geek culture is at its peak and that we geeks are slowly becoming part of the norm, as viewed here in this Florida newspaper aticle... http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050705/LIFE/507050303/1005.(Sorry, but I'm working on my cruddy home computer, not one that doesn't seem to have the problems with certain webscripts. Otherwise I'd link it for you. Copy and paste it in your browser for now.)

Don't know if I completley buy this concept yet. It's mentioned in the article on how there are a couple reality shows with geeks being hooked up with beautiful women (as I've pointed out on earlier blogs). The day I see visually stuning women picking geeks over yuppies and jocks, I may belive it. But, right now I feel it's more of a trend than anything else. You see a populace of the counter culture trying to buy into the geek vibe alla bands Weezer and American Hi Fi. Yet, I don't feel any more accepted by society than I did when I was getting the crap pounded out of me in grade school for being more into what type of droid C3-PO was ( he's a protocal droid) than memorizing the starting line up to the '78 Pittsburg Pirates. We'll see where all of this leads.

I also just learned that Ep.III will be out in the stores on DVD NOVEMBER 8TH!!!! Just in time for Xmas. So make sure you all mark your calendars for that day and pick up a copy. Now to find out when "Batman: Begins" and "Sin City" come out. Then my years DVD purchases will be complete!

Mom's back from Greece and I'm completely finished animal sitting now. I hope she brought back something good for me since I was the one who did most of the caring while my sister visited them once!

Well, I'm still on vacation, so it's off for some lunch and then an afternoon of video gaming. Talks to ya later!

Zangz.

Happy 4th!!!

Well, it's been an interesting vacation so far. I got to see Daimond David Lee Roth at Summerfest and he put on a fun little set. Ever the showman, he was all smiles and schtick as he and his 4 peioce backup band played though mostly classic Van Halen tunes.

Went out for a cookout last night and saw a whole bunch of fireworks being shot off by area locals. However, one group set their tree on fire, which of course led to a visit by the local fire marshal which put the ol' keebosh on thier fireworks show. But a few others raged on. Very cool!

Had a few bumps on this vacation so far. I wasn't feeling to well on Saturday and ended up sleeping through my scheduled hair appointment. Then this morning my sister went to the emrgency room with a pain on her leg. Turned out to be a insuficient clotting of the vein. She's ok, she just needs to take some meds and put a hot pack on it. Whew.

Then on top of all of that, as I'm checking in on my mom's cats as she's in Greece, one of them decides that it is vomit time and has left me with a few messes to clean up one or tow days this past week.

Well, I'mm off to a 4th of july party with my sister's in-laws. So I'll talk to you soon and let you know how Styx was. I'm seeing them tomorrow night.

Zangz.

Starting my vacation with red hot death!

Met with my editor friend last night in the back of a quiant little Irish Pub not far from my apartment. They have a nice beer garden in the back and we utilized it to the fullest with a couple of Guiness' and some stoggies. We talked about some ideas for upcoming articles in the free press paper he's put together. There were some good ideas, but I'm still a tad worried that the paper is going into a very similar direction that The Onion already has. I keep stressing that we can be funny in our own way with real stories that have a funny spin on them rather than farce articles. But, he's flippin the bills and this is his dream, so into the abyss we go again.

After he feigned not feeling well so he could leave early without me calling him a wouse, I took my stoggie back to my appartment, grabbged a beer, went out to the back parking lot that has a realitivley decent view of the lakefront, pulled out my folding chair out of my trunk and sat and enjoyed the Summerfest's Big Bang fireworks show. It was a beautiful evening with a couple beers, a couple stoggies and some fireworks. Great night.

Starting today I'm on vacation through the 11th of July and I'll be taking a few trips to Summerfest which is a hop, skip, jump and drunken tumble from my apartment. There are four acts I want to see that I think I've mentioned before. David Lee Roth, Styx, Skid Row and Beatallica. Call me an old timer, but I liked Rock'N'Roll when it actually rocked and there weren't 50 crappy bands that were competing to be the next Nirvana, Pearl Jam or Green Day. While I'm there I'll hopefully meet up with an old tech school buddy of mine who we used to call, Iran. It'll be good to see him as he's always got a good laugh and sense of humor about things.

I'll also be partaking in a 3rd of July cookout where hopefully the laughter will flow as freely as the beer while many airborne projectiles, both flamitory and alternativly powered, will fill the skies like red hot death. Speaking of beer and red hot death, I thik I'm gunna log off of here and start my vacation properly and grab a frosty one or two and then light myself on fire.

Take care,
Zangz.