I feel too oogie to think of a catchy title to this blog post....

Since it has been a stretch between my last two posts, I thought I'd double whammy you with two this week. In the last post I mentioned that I was sick on Valentines day but was cheered up the new Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (IJATKOTCS) teaser trailer that was posted on-line that dark, sad and lonely day.

Well, I'm still sick. I was able to drag my sorry ass into work on Friday. Towards the end of the day I actually felt a bit better. But, when I got home that night I started to feel all oogie again and ended up hitting the hay at 9:30 pm on a Friday night. Saturday I woke up with a huge sinus headache which lasted the entire day. I finally pushed myself off of the couch to attend my sister's birthday dinner. Unfortunately, my bro-in-law couldn't attend 'cause he was sick at home also. The dinner was phenomenal as lasagna and Cherry Berries on a Cloud were the order of the evening!

It's Sunday morning now and I'm still suffering from aches and sinus problems. So today's agenda will be to do wash, relax and catch up on my Kevin Smith book.


In more pleasant news, I've finally finished watching all of the episodes of Firefly and capped it off with the motion picture Serenity which ties up most of the story. It was a great, short lived TV series that could have rose to great critical acclaim, but FOX Network executive (read: d*****bags) pulled the plug on it way to quickly. The outer space western hardly lasted a full season.

What made this show so wonderful? For one thing the cast and characters all worked well together as an ansamble. Each had their own story lines, personality, quirks and attributes. You cared for all of them. Even salty Jayne Cobb brought some pretty funny moments to the show.

The show didn't try to be all dark and speak over the fans' heads like Galactica can do at times. There was a fun, pulpy feel to the series as well as a nice dose of drama they didn't try and cram down fans' throats.

Speaking of Galactica, Firefly preceded Galactica's off kilter, shaky camera special effect space battles. By making the CG space scenes look flawed, it also gave a sense of reality to them. Something that Galactica has aped from since.

If you're a fan of the Sci-Fi genre and missed out when this show originally aired back in 2002, go rent yourself, or pick up, this fantastic and fun series!

For more information on the series you can check out......

ZANGZ'S WEBSITE OF THE MOMENT

BrownCoats.com

I may have made this one of my websites of the moment a while back, but since we're on the subject, I think I'll refresh everybody's memory. This website is for both fans and the uninitiated of the Firefly series alike. It has an insane amount of information on the series, characters, stars and story lines all placed in a relatively comprehensive set up. Do take time to check it out.

That's going to have to be it for now. I haven't seen any movies worth posting about and I'm still knee deep into Bioshock and Mass Effect. So until next time, Stay Vertical!

Zangz.

"...and though I hate to see you go, Oh No, it must be so. It's another lonely Valentines day"

Now don't get all concerned with the title of this blog. I'm not gunna hang my single, sorry butt or anything. It's just a lyric from Type O Negative's song The Dream is Dead. It just sums up my dislike of this holiday.

Let me tell you how I spent my holiday. It started with me waking up with a horrible cough. I get up anyway and go to work. Once I get to work I start to feel worse and worse with a looming headache and other achy body parts (think clean, people!). I then burn a half a day of paid time off to go home early and try and rest. I attempted a nap, but the achy parts kept me in a state of "in and out" sleep. I get up and watch a little day time TV which makes me a bit nauseous. So, I turn off the tube and try some more shut eye, which I'm actually a bit successful with this time.

I wake up in a coughing jag and go get some water. I decide to check some email and maybe a little web surfing. That's when I remember that both Mr. Salty and Spanky have reminded me about a little piece of loveliness that was revealed today.

My Valentines Day is not a complete bust. So all you happy couples in relationships who make the rest of us feel like plague victims every time this holiday comes around, feast your pathetic, lovelorn eyes upon a true Valentines day treat (hopefully you have high speed or DSL 'cause it took my cruddy dial up modem and hour to get this thing operational)..............

Click Here!

Now, how friggin' cool was that, huh? I can't wait! Happy Valentines Day mutha truckas!!!!

I'm going to catch a little more shut eye before Lost comes on. See ya!

Zangz.

Rediscovering Serenity....

I know, the title sounds like some sort of lame-assed, new age, hippie post, but it's not. I assure you.

It's just that I got some gift cards for my birthday a few weeks back and finally decided to cash them in. I decided to pick up the box set of the TV series Firefly, a brilliant sci-fi action show that was on FOX and lasted only one season (due to the pure stupidity of the number crunchers at the network). That one season is now a box set of DVD's that I'm slowly, but surely, going through. It's a very good time to do so with the writers strike and all.

It still blows my mind how Joss Wheden created such a wonderful show that was not given its fair due. It follows a rag-tag crew of smugglers who pick up odd jobs here an there throughout the galaxy several hundred years from now. They're housed in the space ship, Serenity which takes them from planet to planet in a galaxy that has a wild west feel to it rather than a more fantastical or futuristic driven motif. Joss created characters that you really care about (especially Inara... ehem, ehem). If you're ever looking for something that is completely different from all the other sci-fi shows on TV, pick up or rent the series Firefly. You will not be disappointed!!!


Since we're on the subject of genre television, I must also mention that I'm going through the second season of HBO's equally defunct, odd as frack TV series Carnivale. The show follows the exploits of an old 1930's midway carnival across the dustbin of America. Of course there are bizarre, creepy, paranormal things going on around the freak show folk. It's another series the was yanked before its time by network number crunching numb-nuts. Another series you all need to check out. Especially when the girls dance "the Hooch"!


Still on the topic of genre television, the phenomenal TV series LOST launched its latest season last night. And, as usual we get a few answers and far more questions. But, I still love this show! I hope the writers' strike commences before the eight episodes they've been able to shoot are done!


Hey, believe it or not, I actually won a game of Munchkin, much to the surprise of the rest of the players. I never frellin' win...ever! But, somehow my brilliance finally paid off. actually it was because a few of the players were shat-faced on red wine and I slipped right by them. Bahahahahaaha. Eat it, kids!


I think I'll be calling it a night here as I need to go fantasize about Inara from Firefly.

See you all later.

Zangz.

The Quantum of Solace of Turning 40!

Hello Mr. and Mrs. America and all the ships at sea!

Welcome to another blog that is butt-loaded with completely useless, geek filled, Sci-Fi lovin', Fantasy driven, information. We get to start off this blog with how I celebrated my 40th birthday recently. And, NO, it did not involve me, by myself, at this computer, on-line porn, weeping, having a tea party with action figures, blow up dolls I've named Christina or any lotions of any sort.

In my last blog I mentioned how friends and family were treating me to a high end steak dinner at a well established steak eatery. Dinning with me was my sister (Dizzy Lizzie), my brother-in-law, my mom, my friends Iris Von Beaverhousen and Roberto DelAmorte. And I have to tell you, after a couple of Bloody Mary's and a few Heineken's, I had the best medium rare Fillet Minionge (I don't know how to spell this thing. And spell check is being to stupid to figure it out for me) that I have ever consumed in my entire lifetime! It was a very nice, relaxing, formal dinner in a very classy, tasteful and relaxing atmosphere.

However, that wasn't the end of the evening by any means. As they were paying the bill, the waitress came up to me and placed a secret agent dossier in front of me and said "I'm supposed to give this to you".

I knew immediately that something was afoot, as my Mom, sister and Iris made a B-Line out of the restaurant, and I was left with the dossier, my bro-in-law and Roberto. I opened the dossier and there were instructions for me to go with the two agents (Roberto and my Bro-in-law). But first I had to solve a puzzle they had for me. It was explained in the dossier that neither Roberto or my Bro-in-law (who shall be hence forth called B.I.L.) would be able to communicate since they were "silent agents who didn't speak English", thus couldn't give me clues to the puzzle. The three of us went to the SUV and whilst in the back seat I went over the puzzle as well as a box of clues and instruments that were provided for me by "M" to find out where I needed to go.

After stumbling around in the back seat of the car to figure out the address to have Roberto and B.I.L. take me (remember, I had 2 Bloody Mary's and a couple of Heineken's in me), I barely figured out the address and gave it to Roberto, my chauffeur, and we sped through downtown Milwaukee to a bridal suite of a high class club. Once there, I found the suite we needed to be at, knocked on the door and was greeted by the unmistakable voice of my friend, Spanky, asking me for "the password".

Evidently, Spanky was going off script, 'cause there was never any password given to me (his improvisational skills suck ass, but he means well), I just spoke out the first thing to come to mind ("I'm looking for a safe house"), at which time he opened the door and I was lead into the suite with Spanky holding a toy gun on me.

He went through this shtick that I was supposed to get on this metal table (there was none) with a laser pointing at me (there was none) and recite a famous James Bond line of, "So Goldfinger, do you expect me to talk?" at which point he replied, "No Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!"(his improvisational skills suck ass, but he means well). After this point my family and more of my friends walked out of the bedroom of the suite and yelled "Surprise!!!"

I honestly was quite flabbergasted! I had all different groups of friendships represented there. It was cool to see worlds collide!!! There was even a private stock of beer for me to consume throughout the evening. I did my share of imbibing.

I got surprise calls from other friends of mine in the hotel room throughout the night, as well as more puzzles for me to solve. Since I was feeling no pain at this point, I couldn't solve a puzzle in Highlights magazine at this point. So "M" (Iris) was lenient on me. I still got my prizes/presents.

Also featured that evening was a huge cake that had scenes from various Bond movies decorated on it (special thanks to Spanky). Also, there were various James Bond posters about the suite that had my face superimposed on the Bond images. There was also a huge banner with my festering face on it hanging over the room's TV.

Mad Mario and his lovely wife, Hope even showed up as well as a few other special guests. The whole evening was something incredibly special and just darn spectacular! At the end of the evening, Roberto, Iris, Mad Mario and Hope were the last to close down the suite @ 2:30am.

Apparently, Iris Von Beaverhousen, was the main conspirator with Roberto and Spanky and Dizzy Lizzie in the frey of it all!

It was a incredible evening that I won't soon forget! A major shout out has to go to Iris and her planning and plotting with many different people to get this thing off the ground.

The fact that people actually put this much time into planning, financing and executing this whole shinding for me, really blows my mind!!!!!!

Thanks to all who attended and took part!!! I am forever grateful!!


So, they officially announced the name of the next James Bond opus, "Quantum of Solace" (read announcement here). It doesn't have quite the same ring to it as past Bond movies, but it is the name of a Ian Flemming short story, so I guess it has a bit of flair to it. Supposedly it is to take place, literary one hour after the end of Casino Royale. It will also have lots more action that Casino did with more answers to who this secret organization is that Bond is after. I can't wait until November '08!!!!

I'm getting going now as I have to shuffle my ass into work tomorrow (Saturday) to get a special project out tomorrow.

Until the next exciting installment, Happy Birthday to Me!!

Zangz.

P.S. Rest in peace, Heath Ledger, star of TV series, Roar... which everyone has forgotten, but should not.

Birthday of the Living Dead....

Here we are at the start of another weekend. A well deserved reprieve from the stress of the weekday grind. There are a couple of things that make this weekend stand out a bit.

First and foremost, I'm turning the big 4-0. Not exactly a shinning moment in most peoples' lives. But, for some odd reason it doesn't bother me quite as much as I thought it would. Sure, I realize that's it's all down hill from here on in. But, I have good family and friends. I'm working. I also have butt loads of video games. So I guess I'm all set for now.

Zangz's 40th anniversary plans include a trip to a very nice, high class steak house, a visit to a museum display that features the dead, Body Worlds. This display was also featured in the James Bond movie, Casino Royale. Though, when I mention that fact to people, they don't seem to remember that scene. It's where Bond leaves that insanely beautiful Latino woman at the villa, just before things would have gotten all hot and bothered, so he can follow her corrupt boyfriend. He ends up tailing this guy to a museum where he finds that said sleazeball is meeting a terrorist who will blow up a Virgin Airlines flight at a Miami airport. Bond comes face to face with the sleazeball boyfriend and ends up sticking a knife in his gut, right in the middle of Body Worlds. Pretty cool.

Then of course there's the big game. Packers vs. the Giants for the division title. I'm hoping to god that the Packers don't fall behind early on in the game and then let that freak them out and then lose. They've done that before and I think that that's the only way they could really blow this game.


In my last blog I forgot to review a video game I rented a while back, The Darkness. In the end I found it good, but not something I would pick up. It was fine as a rental, but even though there's a ton of stuff to do and unlock, it didn't keep my interest. I found that there's was a lot of back and forth, tons of load times, and a lot of the same settings. There was also some pretty cool ideas that were input into the game. There is a cool feature where your character was able to use a remote "appendage" to swing around corners and travel ahead of the rest of your body to do away with unsuspecting opposition. I took out an entire army of crooked S.W.A.T. members when I was cornered in building in one portion of the game. Pretty cool. If it just wasn't so frickin' repetitive with so many load times and more settings to investigate, I might have really liked this game.


What book am I reading right now? Well, amongst the other three I've been trudging through for the last year and a half, I picked up "My Boring-Ass Life: The Uncomfortably Candid Diary of Kevin Smith" Fans of the director will get a huge kick out of this book as it chronicles the highs and lows of the time period during the production of Clerks II. If you're not a fan of Kevin Smith's movies then I would say to you... A) you were born without any soul and B) you'll probably be bored with it. Since I'm a fan, I'm eating the dren up! A good and fun read... since I have a soul.

You know, I'm getting out of here and having a good, cold birthday brewski to hail in the weekend. So go Pack!

Zangz.

Welcome to 2008... suckas!

Here we are on our way into 2008. Let's hope these shatstorms of awful weather and bad flu bugs don't plague us into the new year.

I had a great time bringing in '08 on New Years Eve. Went out for a nice steak with good friends, then went to see Walk Hard: the Dewey Cox Story (very funny!!!!) with same good friends, and then spent the entire rest of the evening trying to play Rock Band with the same group of friends. I did pretty good as lead singer, was marginally well on drums and blew big time on guitar. But a great time was had and before we even knew it, it was 2 am in the morning!

Sadly, the next day I got hit with a bad flu bug. I still made it out to go see National Treasure: Book of Secrets (If you liked the first, you'll like the second!). After the movie I went home and passed out on the couch for the next 6 hours coughing non-stop with a huge-assed headache. I still went into work the next day. Happy New Year, Zangz, ya big sucker!


In other news, I've delved into he world of Mass Effect and have found it quite engrossing. This RPG has so many sub missions and a great story line that I think I'll be sticking with it for a while. I'm also entrenched in BioShock, another addictive game.


Speaking of addictive, have you taken a gander at Celebrity Rehab on VH1. Holy Crap! This is the greatest train wreck of a reality show I've ever seen. Now, I'm not usually the sort of guy who finds people with real problems a form of entertainment. But, don't tell me that your jaw doesn't drop a little as you see Kinickie quasi-passed out in a wheelchair mumbling and crying about how he's hallucinating about drugs chasing him. I might be here, by myself, on my Friday night, drinking beer, pants down around my legs and blogging about video games, but I'm not floundering around in a wheel chair imagining that a giant pile of cocaine is chasing me around my apartment. Staci Flood chasing me around my apartment is whole other ball of wax, altogether.


The winter months usually mark family birthdays. Today is my mom's. Mid February is my sister's and next weekend is my big one. The one where it all goes straight down hill afterward. I won't let out the actual number, but there might be a"0" and a "4" in it somewhere. I'm being taken out to dinner with family and friends in tow, to a really nice steak joint. So that's something to look forward to.


What am I jamming to as I type this out? Why, a band called King's X. They were bigger during the late 80's and early 90's, but their music still stands the test of time. If you like prog rock with a bit of a soulful crunch, be sure to check them out!


Until next time, go Packers! Don't choke!

Zangz.

Santa Rocked my World Again!

I'm going to plop in here quickly tonight as I have a boat load of geeky activities planned for my New Years weekend. I've rented a couple of movies as well as The Darkness for the Xbox 360.

Speaking of games for the Xbox 360, some very good friends got me Bio-Shock and I'm already into the thick of it. I have to tell you that it certainly is a wet dream (pun intended) for those that have a love of both FPS games as well as survival horror games since it merges the two. The decrepit undersea city of Rapture is not only beautiful, but also a wonderfully creepy seascape to traverse through! Especially since it's ridden with lots of crazed zombiefied nut jobs that need to be extinguished. Then with some Santa money I was given I went out a got myself Mass Effect as well as the 4 disc director's cut of Blade Runner, something I've been wishing they'd come out with since I bought the lame ass director's cut that came out years ago. The one that was just a transfer of the wide screen film version with little to no extras.

So Santa was good to me once again! That fat bastage will have a hard time toping the last two Xmas' next year! He better start planning a head of time!

I told this would be a quick plop!

Zangz.

'Twas Zangz's Blog Before Xmas.....

.......And all through his room, he sat at his computer nursing a head cold of doom. With few presents wrapped and little holiday cheer, the one thing he could count on later was a nice cold Holiday Spice Beer.

Blah blah blah, yadda yadda yadda and whatever-the-hell else-you-want-to-put-in-there.

Despite another huge head cold and the immense crevasse that my credit card bill did to my bank account this month, surprisingly I'm actually in slightly more festive mood than I was last year. I'm not sure why. Christmas is designed for three different types of people, 1) People with big families, 2) People who are quite religious and 3) The Rich and Wealthy. I fit into none of them. But, still I'm not quite in the holiday funk I was last year. Actually, I think it was the Xbox 360 that my family put in for me last year that tore me from the funk.

Ah, yes. It's always good to know that material things can always bring me closer to the joy of Xmas.

There are a few Xmas parties that I am looking forward to. Good food, good friends and a good cold lager. Isn't that what Xmas is all about? Oh yes, there's always that kid in swaddling clothes story that's bandied about. (I'm going to hell.)


Anyway, I've been a little behind on reviewing some of the movies I've been renting lately. So here are a few.....

Spider-Man 3 - A lot of my friends saw this before I did and were quite disappointed. Personally I found it enjoyable, but not quite reaching the same level of the previous two. Perhaps it was the fact that there were too many characters and plots going on at the same time. Or maybe it was the out of place and just plain goofy dance and musical number right in the middle of the story. One more than welcome component was the always fun Bruce Campbell cameo. His French restaurant host was pure genius. It's a fun ride, but not quite up to par as the last ones.

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer - This other Marvel comic book based movie had a bit of the opposite effect on me. Where I found the first FF film just "ok", Silver Surfer was quite a bit better, both in action and story. Still, not something I'd go out and buy or rent again, but a fun romp, none the less.

BloodRayne and BloodRayne II: Deliverance - These movies were based on the character from the semi-popular video games that came out quite a few years ago. They featured a striking female Dhampire ( half human, half vampire) who would battle against Nazis. There are no Nazis in either movies though. The first movie takes place during the Renaissance of Western Europe and the second movie follows our heroine to the wild west of America. Both these movie were directed by notoriously slammed director Uwe Boll. He's not well regarded by the fanboy community when it comes to his films. Mostly becuase he directs straight to video movies based on video games. Most of them are darn near unwatchable. I do feel that the BloodRayne movies are a little more tolerable than some of his other endeavorers (ever see House of the Dead 2?). Unless you're the ultimate BloodRayne fan, you may want to steer clear. By the way, does anyone know how they actually got Ben Kinglsey to be in the first movie? Oscar winner, Sir Ben Kingsly?

Wing Commander - This movie is based on the popular computer games of the '90's. It's basically your "military in space" type movie. It's also a complete waste of time. Nothing happens in this movie. Nothing. We've seen this all before in other military movies. The movie doesn't even acknowledge the bad guys until the very end of the film. WTF? Not worth it. Go watch Battlestar Galactica instead!

Six String Samurai - I've been itching to see this film since the website Ain't-It-Cool-News was touting how incredibly wonderful this post apocalyptic, 1950's inspired, Kung-Fu-esque flick was. Well, after several years of searching for it, I found it through my on-line rental club. After viewing it for the first time, I have to say that I have mixed feelings about it. Perhaps my expectations were a bit on the heavy side. This is probably the cheapest movie I've ever seen. Shoestring budget is an understatement. The sets, effects and wardrobe were slapped together pretty quickly. Now, there are some upside qualities to this movie. Some of the dialog is pure fun! There are some really good lines here! Some of the fight scenes are decent, yet not shot well. The main character, a Buddy Holly wannabe, armed with both a guitar and samurai sword, traversing the post apocalyptic desert to reach Las Vegas grew on me. However, his annoying little brat of a sidekick who did nothing but shout and moan throughout the whole flick, DID NOT. If you're into quirky independent cult films, then this little diddy is probably more your speed.

The Time Machine - Now this one I enjoyed. It wasn't in the theaters too long and if memory serves it was due to the movie being released at the same time a few other blockbusters were. So, sadly, it kind of fell to the wayside. But, it certainly was a decent effort to bring H.G. Wells' Victorian time travel tale back to the big screen. Though, not as epic as it could have been, it was still and enjoyable escape from reality. And there's nothin' wrong with watching Samantha Mumba run around in a loincloth.

Pathfinder - Here' one I really enjoyed! A young Viking boy is brought up in ancient North America by an Indian tribe. As he grows to into manhood, both his Indian and Viking skills are put to the test when the returning Viking invaders destroy his village and hunt him down. It's First Blood meets Braveheart meets Dances with Wolves. I really got into this one and my pick it up for my own collection. A good manly geek movie! Long live Vinland!

Apocolypto - This movie had a very parallel plot to Pathfinder. But, instead of it revolving around Vikings and Indians, it features the story of an ancient South American tribe's village being invaded by the aggressive Aztec Empire. Of course, there is one young tribesman who escapes his captives and unleashes some serious pain on them. I know a lot of Mel Gibson haters will want me to trash the film, but I really enjoyed this one also, even though Mel pulls no punches when it comes to violence in this film. It's pretty darn bloody. The weapons of that period were rudimentary and brutal. The wounds and scars certainly reflect that. The cinematography was incredible and the wardrobe and settings were quite the sites also. Especially when they get to the Aztec city. I may pick this one up also.


That's it for films for now. Now on to another geek media love of mine.... Video Games!

I'm currently playing through he single player portion of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Where the first three COD games take place during WWII, this storyline is brought up to today's military times. You find yourself in places like the war torn middle east, war torn Russia and other war torn places around the globe. Pretty much everyplace you visit is war torn. The game play is pretty good, but it can be confusing at times as to what you're supposed to do in an immediate and stressfully situation. You don't get many hit points either. Two or three shots from the opposition and you're toast. So cover is incredibly important here! The graphics are the best I've seen to date on a next gen counsel! It is THE MOST photo realistic graphics I've experienced yet. It boggles the mind of what graphics will be like within the next 10 years. I don't know if it's a game I would by (like Mass Effect or Bio-Shock... for those of you who still haven't gotten me a Xmas present), but so far, I'm pretty impressed.

And speaking of Mass Effect, I did have a chance to play through some of it over at Roberto DelAmorte's place. This is one epic action role playing game! It plays great and looks awesome, but drags a little with all of the dialog you have to sift through to get to the meat and bones of the story. But, still, it's one I'd like to have in my own personal collection (hint.. hint... Santa).

Since I have a few days off this weekend, I'm getting reacquainted with Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy. I haven't watched them in a couple of years and remember how they were released right around Xmas. So for me they're a big part of my Xmas celebration.

HEY! That reminds me of some really great news I heard recently! The boneheads at New Line Cinema have finally come to their senses and have worked out some legal wrinkles between Jackson and themselves that had banned Jackson's involvement in the Hobbit movies. Though he won't be directing them, he will be producing them.

So I'm off to finish The Two Towers right now. Then it's off to Mom's to help decorate her place. Then it's off to Roberto and Iris' place for a small casual Xmas get together.

So, a very merry Zangzmas to all and to all, a good night!

Zangz.

An Ozztastick Zombiefest!!!!

The weather around here has been the poops. Lots of cold and snow followed by both cold and snow with more snow and cold that will most certainly follow. If one day isn't snow filled, it's sure to be deathly cold. Old man winter is getting quite abrasive early in the season.

Then there's the fact that I just got home from Xmas shopping. Figuring what to get who and wondering if they have it already really blows!

But, despite Mother Nature's hatred toward mankind and the huge Xmas dent in my wallet there was one wonderful moment this week.

Thursday afternoon I'm checking my phone messages on my lunch break and there's one from my podcasting buddy, Double A Man. He tells me he has a couple of free tickets to go see Rob Zombie and Ozzy Osborne in concert. Now who am I to look a gift horse in the mouth. It had been about 10 years since I saw Ozzy last (on his first farewell tour) and I've never seen Rob Zombie in concert before and have always heard it's quite the spectacle!

I have to say the show was awesome!!! We got there just a Zombie was about to take the stage. Once we got seated the lights went down and 6 or so video screens started playing the faux movie preview that Rob Zombie produced for the two Grindhouse movies. Then the giant devil's head that was at the center of the stage and doubles as the drum platform opened up and Rob Zombie walked out from it as the band drove into the Zombie tune "American Witch". the show featured a lot of fun schlocky, horror induced multimedia as well as lots of fireball pyro effects, dancing girls and Mr. Zombie strutting and hopping around the stage. The only disappointment was the fact that his set list was exactly the same as his new live album's. So if you have the album, you know exactly what he's going to play and in what order. You'd think he'd surprise us and change it up a bit. In any case it's great to see that showmanship and imagination haven't been totally killed off by the god awful grunge music scene of the 90's.

You'd think that it would take a while for the roadies to change the set up for Ozzy after Zombie. It literally was like 15 minutes, the quickest change over I've ever witnessed in all of my 20 plus years of concert going.

The lights went out once again as a vignette of pop-culture spoofs with Ozzy edited into them played on the giant curtain and two side video screens. Some of the little skits featured were from Pirates of the Caribbean (Ozzy is Capt. jack and bites the head off of a parrot), The Office (Ozzy relieves himself in ????? office) and The Queen (Ozzy.... Ozzy... well, Ozzy has intimate relations with the queen of England). This led to the infamous Ozzy intro music of ???????? Then the Zack Wilde's guitar starts ripping through the speakers and next thing you know the curtain drops and Ozzy and the boys are pluggin' away at his latest single, "Never going to Stop" Ozzy was in fine spirits and many times during the show he sprayed foam out of a fire hose into the first few rows. Of course the giant monitors up and around the stage caught all of the foam covered goofs banging their heads with nary care in the world.

Ozzy stuck to much of his solo repertoire while ending the final song of the last encore with Sabbath's "Paranoid". During the final bow, a plethora of fireworks blew up over the heads of the band as they did a mock fall to the floor schtick. It was the type of big huge rock show that I hadn't seen in a long long time. I enjoyed it throughly!


I've also been doing a lot of video gaming as of late. I recently blew through Medal of Honor: Airborne. This was a fine addition to the line of MOH WWII FPS games! It took me about 9 hours total to get through and much of it was pretty challenging. It could have been slightly longer, but still a good game.

Another one I rented a bit back was TimeShift. This puppy looked darn good and was real challenging! At times it was darn right frustrating. The look took from a sort of not too distant future meshed with a bit of steam punk in an alternate history. A lot of the plot we've seen before (was very reminiscent of Half-Life 2). One of the main features touted for this game was the fact that you can manipulate time by slowing it, traveling back in it and speeding it up. This sounds like it would be awesome, but it kind of falls short as you're only given a few seconds ot time travel capabilities each time you use it. This leads to some frustrating deaths as you'll need to master the time travel techniques to get through many traps and puzzles.

I've also been playing the Shivering Isles add on to Oblivion. It's great to be able to travel in a whole new realm of the massive RPG. There's some pretty creepy and odd quests, areas, creatures and NPC's to deal with. So far it's very cool!


I know what most of you are asking yourselves, "What the frack should I get Zangz this Xmas?" Well, here are a couple of ideas.

- Money towards my new computer.
- Bioshock for the Xbox 360
- Mass Effect for the Xbox 360.

Well, I have a busy week ahead of me (so if I don't get in here before the holidays, here's wishing you and yours a very geeked out Holiday Festivus!

Until next time, Stay Vertical!

Zangz.

I Smite Thee, o' Blue Screen of Depair!

There's a nasty snow/sleet/wind storm outside right now... Evil Kneivil died yesterday... and Kevin Dubrow of Quiet Riot passed away earlier this week. So what's there to celebrate, you may ask?

Well, it's taken a little bit of time and a good chunk of change, but my new "Command Center of Geekosity" (aka: new computer) is up and running. It took most of the day to pull out the old one, set up the new one and load as much as I could onto this little beauty. It's so nice to be able to run more than 3 applications without the computer freezing up!!!

There were a few programs that wouldn't load and a few things I couldn't import. I'm no computer geek, sadly. So I had to take up much of my time re-entering my entire address book for the email system. My photo manipulation program wouldn't load off of its disk, so I may have to invest in a new one. As I type this out I'm reloading as many of my CD's as I can before I pass out from hunger. It's called multitasking, folks. Look into it. I also have to find all of my old favorite websites since the list I saved to the flash drive refused to have itself recognized by my new computer. I've visited and saved as many as I could so far. I can still open them from the file, though. Perhaps tomorrow I'll get up early (bahahaah) and start saving some more.


In other goofy news. Remember a month ago I went to go see Type O Negative at a local music club. The venue posted photos of the show that can be viewed HERE. You can witness the debauchery for yourselves. Here's a fun little game you can play. Take a closer look at this picture HERE. I'm actually visible somewhere in that picture. Good luck finding me. It's kinda like a pathetic version of "Where's Waldo?", except it's Where's Zangz?


Ok, I'm getting something to eat before I hit the hay. I promise that I'll write a few better blogs in the weeks to come, once I've settled things out with the new system. Until then, Stay verticle!

Zangz.