Something's Going On

A poor quality recording of a rehearsal at the Showbox in Seattle last week; new Pearl Jam!

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Be sure to tune in to “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien” Monday night at 11:35pm to hear the band play a couple songs. Rumor has it the new album will be out in early Fall.

Here’s some more stuff off their 2008 X-mas Single as well:

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2/365

The backyard of my youth in East Aurora, NY. I have memories of hours upon hours of lawn-mowing, bonfires, the old clubhouse (since taken down), and climbing that apple tree on the left. There’s a creek at the bottom of a ravine beyond the far treeline that has entombs many G.I. Joe’s, walkie talkies and toy cars from over the years.

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2 of 365

1/365

I’ve seen a few other Internetz blogs do this and, as it’s probably a bit more interesting than a never-ending succession of rambling movie reviews, I shall now join the bandwagon. The deal: take one picture per day for one year. I’ll try to post them daily, but you may have to wait. Regardless, I vow to take one picture for this thing each and every day until May 30th, 2010. Enjoy.

It’s always enjoyable to wake up the morning after a drunken bender and discover the various states of disarray your belongings are in. One such example:

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Terminator Salvation | C+

director: McG
starring: Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, Bryce Dallas Howard, Anton Yelchin, Moon Bloodgood, Common, Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Ironside

T4Let’s start with a quote from Terminator Salvation director “McG.” (Dare I devote a paragraph to the kind of douchenozzle that would use such a name in a professional capacity? Nah, too easy. I think you can all just assume his douche-like nature based on that nom de plume.):

McG (born Joseph McGinty Nichol, though known by his nickname since childhood) said if he was going to take on another sequel in the internationally successful “Terminator” franchise, then he had better have a good reason to do it.

“Action for action’s sake just becomes noisy. You’ve got to have great characters. You’ve got to have a great story,” he said. “We wanted it to be very compelling and we did it in a way that is great.” [CNN]

What a load of crap.

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It Only Ends Once

9:28pm – After a season filled with all manner of time-bending, paradoxical hijinx and hilarity, I’m sure many are asking the question, “is this show ever going to make sense again?” One would hope the finale of Lost’s penultimate season will set things on a clear, straight path to mental salvation that will help us keep our sanity until 2010.

So, did the finale do just that? I dunno, it’s 9:30pm and I haven’t fired up the DVR yet. So, please, sit tight for a moment.

7 pages of furiously-scribbled notes and 90 minutes later…

11:05pm – ads;lkjasdgp;iupa8suf;galisgja; reitvaweei8uqpvw3oijs;lasijv;asdfkja asd;klja;sdlkujqa4w;5 paw43iuae;liajsd aes;alw34ik5234;8p845aw;lkaj baw basea; aslkijas;ditjasd;dlkjas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I need the break from writing these recaps each week, but hot damn! Is it 2010 yet?

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Star Trek | A-

director: J.J. Abrams
starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, Bruce Greenwood, Leonard Nimoy, Zoe Saldana, Anton Yelchin, John Cho

star trekThis is not your father’s Star Trek. Then again, it kind of is. Director-producer J.J. Abrams’ “reboot” of the venerable sci-fi franchise succeeds on many levels while managing to engage the hip, young audience of today’s 20-somethings while keeping those that’ve grown up with the franchise more than happy. The “reboot” term might be something of a misnomer, but that requires I delve into the plot a bit, which would be bad form in the introductory paragraph of a review you shouldn’t continue reading until you see the flick. Go check it out; I’ll wait. See you back here later. (And see it in IMAX while you can – it’s only on the really big screen for the next two weeks.) Suffice it to say the flick works, and as so few films can claim these days, it’s worth your 14 bucks.

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Purpose & Destiny

a.k.a. “Shooting Kids & Blowing Up Hydrogen Bombs”

Now that season 5 is almost in the books, it’s about time to shift our attentions to the ultimate end game of the series, and how these last couple of episodes will set the table for the story the writers want to tell next year. Finding one’s purpose and fulfilling a destiny have been thematic elements throughout the series, and have certainly been front and center this year, nicely juxtaposed with the more scientific elements of time travel.

hurley binoculars
Hurley searches in vain for his destiny: a giant crate of Ho-Ho’s.

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X-Men Origins: Wolverine | B-

director: Gavin Hood
starring: Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Danny Huston, Will I. Am, Lynn Collins, Taylor Kitsch, Ryan Reynolds

wolverineWell, it’s not as bad as I was expecting. Since Bryan Singer left the franchise after X-Men 2, and certain cocaine addict and partyboy Brett Ratner took over, I haven’t had a lot of faith in future films, quality-wise. X-Men 3 was a spectacular, big budget turd with a few enjoyable scenes here and there, a far cry from the more “thoughtful” X1 and X2 (yeah, I know they’re comic book movies, so “thoughtfulness” must be calculated in an entirely different context than, say, Schindler’s List or Citizen Kane). So my hopes for the eventual, “perfect” X-Men movie were dashed by 20th Century Fox and it’s money-first mentality, and the director best-known for the eighteen Rush Hour movies. The success of the more serious approach to the Batman franchise was apparently lost on them.

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