"Downfall"

Having just spent the last 2.5 hours of my life essentially immersed in the Nazi headquarters during the final days of WWII; witnessing aspects of human behavior (so powerfully displayed by Bruno Ganz's disturbingly virtuoso performance) and societal consequence that it makes it difficult for me to look at another human being without pure sadness permeating through my very core... all that I can really say, in my extremely drained emotional state, is this:

"WORST. WESTERN. EVER."

Effin RAGE

First of all: what's up with every post on here being from Jon? Just kidding.

Second of all: Holy Shit! I saw RAGE! For FREE! My buddy Kyle got me into the show because he was tabling (sitting at a table and handing out info) for the Coalition of Immokalee Workers an awesome group of agricultural workers in southern Florida that have been kicking fast food ass to see some improvement in their disgustingly underpaid jobs. Check it out for real.

The show was at Alpine Valley in East Troy, Wisconsin, unfortunately, so we had to drive up there and take some weird detour on a bunch of two lane roads (pretty much par for the course with that place) to get there at 3pm. Then we spent another two or three hours just sorta waiting around. We were set up in the big barn-like shelter where the Alpine Valley offices and snack/beer vendors are located, which is way on top of the hill that overlooks the stage itself (the whole thing is hilariously huge, in case you've never been there...) Finally we heard a mighty bassline ringing out in the middle of the Wisconsin countryside, and rushing out to the rail to get a look at the stage, we watched RAGE soundcheck.

In some ways this was probably the best part of the whole day. Even though they didn't play the (extensive, seemed to me) soundcheck with quite the same vigor that they put into the show (which was a lot of vigor) they still sounded amazing. Rage has never been a band that i've thought of as great songwriters... their songs are basically a groove, some awesome riffs, awesome lyrics, and some crazy-mazing guitar solos. Only a few of their songs are actually trying to fit into a standard sort of three minute pop framework, like Bulls on Parade which is admittedly great. What Rage does, in my opinion, is more like James Brown on his live albums (particularly Revolution of the Mind: Live at the Apollo Vol.3 people should really check that one out.) What makes those albums great is listening to a world class funk band rip it up with plenty of room to stretch out. It's really different from most of the music that's popular these days which is more focused on songwriting, whether it's pop hooks or detail oriented indie rock.

So that's why Rage is awesome, because you get to listen to four great musicians (and seeing them live really confirmed for me how good they are, particularly Tom Morello who does all that crazy shit live) playing together. And they really do sound like they're playing together, no one really tries to elbow their way to the front. I should also say that i think Rage has great lyrics as well, which are remarkably clear and meaningful compared to a lot of punk and even hip hop.

On the other hand, the part that wasn't so great was the crowd. I thought a Rage show might attract a slightly more progressive crowd, and i suppose it was more progressive than the crowd at, say, a Slayer show, but we talked to plenty of people whose number one concern was getting "illegal aliens" out of the country, and had someone magically turned off the volume at the show you might have mistaken it for some kind of white power rally, row after row of short haired angry white dudes shaking their fists in the air.

(I don't want to be unfair: i talked to a lot of really cool people while tabling, and there was definitely a sizable contingent of Latino fans at the show. I think the crowd might have been a little less overwhelming had the show been closer to a big city.)

Oh yeah, Tom Morello's mom (who is really old) introduced Rage as "the greatest fucking band in the universe." Sweet.

NY77: The Coolest Year in Hell (2007)

Part of VH1's Rock Docs series. Gives a really good picture of a specific place, time, and culture, outlining '77 in terms of punk, disco, and hip-hop and showing how they arose out of the general metropolitan decay and despair of New York City in the '70s. The doc suffers a bit from its focus by the end, as there's no real dramatic event to tie the whole thing together. It's like watching a fun sleazy yearbook.

Geraldo Rivera apparently did it a lot at Studio 54.

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)

Absolutely terrible. I might have laughed once. As bad as I thought the first hour was, it became significantly worse once (spoiler!) Andre Braugher got wasted.

E-MU 1212M

if you're wondering wtf this is, check this out. basically it has super high quality digital-analog audio converters at a super low price.

i LURVE it. now i can add a robot effect to everything i listen to.

my foofbag: the review (2007)

it's great. super fuzzy on both the exterior and interior.

may not be ideal for protectioning (i probably should've gotten the crumpler bag instead for that), but i can fit a lot more in my backpack, plus the foofy softness makes for a badass laptop rest on tabletops. i no longer feel like i'm typing on a concrete wall.

Talladega Nights (2006)

What amused me most was the scenes that were stretched waaaayy past the breaking point, like the dinner scene near the beginning that ran like ten minutes when a less daring movie would have done maybe two.

What amused me least was the last hour. I guess I just really abhor NASCAR.

Sunshine (2007)

Underworld ends this one hilariously off-key. Though I'm sure that's Danny Boyle's doing. Lo, how far he has fallen from the heights of Trainspotting.

BOOMCHICKABOOMCHICKAohhhthesun'ssooobiiigBOOMCHICKABOOMCHICKA

American Graffiti (1973)

It's quite weird watching a movie that relies so heavily on nostalgia for a time period one never lived through. I can't wait until they start making movies about our teenagerdom, and '90s best-of compilations rule the charts.

Gin Blossoms 4 Lif

Superbad (2007)

Just call me McLovin. That's my birthday on Fogel's fake!

my foofbag (2007)

I just bought a MacBook case from foofbag.com. It's been (hand)made and is on its way to me now from Down Under. I'll update this when I get it and let you know if I like their stuffs.

EDIT: Also, note that this page is now redesigned for maximum buddy-age.

Daft Punk @ Lollapalooza (2007)

Many of you who read this are probably familiar with how sploogey I was over DP's Coachella 2006 set. Well, I paid 80 bucks to watch them do it again. Two things about this though:

1) Minor tweaks were made (different stuttering, addition of "Burnin'" in between "Around the World / Harder Better" and "Too Long (Reprise)"
2) They did an encore I didn't know about, including interpolating the "One More Time" vocal over Stardust's "Music Sounds Better With You" (which Bangalter co-wrote)
3) It was TOTALLY WORTH IT and I screamed myself hoarse, which bodes real well for this show I have to play tonight.

Damn, even knowing the laser show was coming, it was still totally amazing. I'm not too surprised very little changed between May of last year and now, because the light show was so intricate that it was probably all that they've been doing since Discovery, except for the couple of weeks it took them to excrete Human After All.

The lowlights included some punk kids who decided to start a mosh pit next to us during "Da Funk," and this other weird kid who went alone but joined in with the other kids and just HAD to do his terrible version of the Robot. I would have either a) joined in or b) gave them a good scolding, but the main instigator was a couple girls, and really, shoving and scolding a girl was not in my game plan for the night.

The other thing that sucked was LCD Soundsystem playing across the field from DP right before them, meaning we had to leave LCD halfway through to secure a reasonable spot to watch DP from. I hadn't been expecting too much from LCD but they were really good. The contrast between James Murphy the nervous blabbering guy in pajamas and James Murphy the screaming incantatory shaman was highly amusing. Anyone who was there know what the mic was that he was using? It sort of looked like one of those mics that Mussolini would issue proclamations from on his balcony in Italy in the '30s. And that drummer was totally speed-Krautrocking it up, he was a machine.

Also saw M.I.A., but she had a sore throat and did half-hearted at best renditions of stuff. She cut "Pull Up the People" just as it was starting and began wishing aloud that her set was over about halfway through. Bit of a bummer. They never managed to pick up steam because there was a 30-second gap between every song while they conversed about what songs she would be able to pull off with her bad throat. She still gave the booty gyrations the old college try though, so points for that.

I wish I could go to shows and not have to bear with listening to the conversations around me. I always feel like I'm surrounded by idiots. (Aside from my friends.)

Hairspray (2007)

Hairspray has some good comedy, a lot actually, and plenty of singing and dancing. Travolta is great and so is Christopher Walken, finally in a light-hearted role. The focus on race for the main storyline was unexpected. Going into the movie, I dreaded seeing a story about fat kids fitting in, but looking back, all the best humor related to eating and being big. The race thing did not need to take center stage. This film is worth seeing, if only for John Waters' cameo as a (spoiler alert) flasher.