Thursday, June 30, 2005

War of the Basements

Unless you've been living in a cave somewhere in West Bumblefuck, PA, you are probably aware of the fact that Spielberg's remake of "War of the Worlds" is in theaters and stars a very crazy, very scientologific, Tom Cruise. Given the recent slew of embarassing (to say the least) attempts at showing his face in public in order to promote this flick-- I mean the BET Awards, come on now-- I exercised a great deal of mental caution in approaching the movie theater in Burbank last night.

After 2 hours of Cruise, Fanning, an exhausting number of basement settings and armies of gigantic alien tripod robots, I can safely say that I genuinely liked the movie for reasons beyond the Cruise. I absolutely love watching actors struggle with inferior but intelligent species from distant galaxies whether it be in a cheeseball MST3K movie or Ripley duking it out with the queen in Aliens. "War of the Words" certainly has this plus A LOT of pointless extras getting vaporized on hillsides by the alien machines that are equipped with insanely acute human searching mechanisms (and could probably find Bin Laden for us if Spielberg would just release the technology- but I digress. Back to the part I like about aliens killing people). In addition to the vaporizing, they also liked to suck the blood out of people and spray it over the rolling hills of the eastern seaboard which probably made for the most visually stunning CG shots in the movie.

As for Cruise and Fanning, I liked know that there was a great possibility that they could be torn apart in a bloodbath at any second due to the invincible power wielded by the invaders. The tension is so great at some points that there really seems like there's nothing left for them to do but DIE! Yay! Wouldn't that have been the ultimate cinematic payoff? I'd be a volunteer spokesperson for this movie if that were the case! Unfortunately, Spielberg doesn't share my hatred of these 2 actors (their characters weren't too likable either). But cheers to the aliens!


I couldn't find any good alien shots from the new movie but found this rad old Orson Welles photo. Can you say, Jack Black?

Wednesday, June 29, 2005

Last Night At The M Bar...

Comedy Death Ray had their last Tuesday evening tonight at the M Bar in Hollywood before they take over the old Tamarind space on Franklin (a few blocks away). Saw many a famous comedy face this evening and was privledged to have Paul F. Tonpkins introduce himself to me after the show let out. What a damn cool guy, that Paul. He's from Philly too- maybe that has something to do with it. I can't think of a better reason to get drunk on a weeknight...

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

18 more days...

...until Comic Con! Check out the official site here. Check your winter jackets for any bonus cash 'cause this trip to the San Diego Convention Center is sure to break the bank. We're actually going for 3 days this year because Carlos (the rockstar that he is) has some "X's" promotional business to attend to. Here's a few photos from last year...








The long awaited King Kong Trailer looks pretty damn good. You have to go to the Volkswagen International webpage to see it though (unless you TiVo'd it last night). Jack Black acting serious is kinda weird but he'll pull it off.

Thursday, June 23, 2005

BMW Builds Tank, Protests Fuel Saving Hybrids



Wow, would ya look at this? Someone's been heavily influenced by VW's "Thing". I'd say this is more of a middle finger statement than a protest. Read the article to find out more about this, um, vehicle. Now here's a good car for Lindsey Lohan to defend herself from the stalkerazzi killers!

All joking aside, I'm not sure if this spy photo depicts the actual body of the car or if it's an ellaborate disguise. They also plan to make a version of this model, aka the RFK, with a low emission hydrogen cell engine.

America Rules!

...If you're an IDIOT. Check this new ruling out. I'm no bleeding heart liberal but I know when shit's majorly F 'd in the A.

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

New Comic

Please check out the Weekly section for a new comic called, "Fade Away".

Monday, June 20, 2005

Flickr

The photo/ file hosting service that I use for most all of the photos you see on this blog and more importantly, for my weekly comics, will be changing servers over the next couple of weeks. I'm not too sure if this means there's going to be any downtime for these images but we'll see. So please bear with me if you notice something's not loading.

Stinkfest!

My dog, Oslo got sprayed by a skunk yesterday evening. Right before I realized this, he came bounding towards me and jumped up landing his smelly paws on my stomach. After a second of swirling panic, I realized that Carlos actually had some skunk odor remover on hand just in case his dog provoked one of those devils. The stuff actually worked pretty well. I must say though, the age old "remedy" for a skunkin' crossed my mind at first. Jeeze, I don't know what's worse- the smell of tomato juice or the excrement of a frightened skunk. Thank jeebus science has superceeded that old home remedy.

Saturday, June 18, 2005

It Begins Today

This morning, I drove to the Westwood area of LA to get the first of probably 6 sessions of laser tattoo removal. I'm all bandaged up for the next 24 hours so and I feel like someone gave me a really bad indian burn on both of my upper arms. The whole laser process wasn't as bad as I anticipated-- though I have to deal with another monthly payment to lower the new level of debt this has sunk me to. Whatever. It's what I wanted and have been wanting for quite some time.

Friday, June 17, 2005

Batman

Here's the second movie this summer that totally exceeded my expectations. I highly reccommend this "prequel". Beware though- Katie Holmes is a bit awkward at first. Thank jeebus Christian Bale picks up the slack and makes up for it ten-fold. I also love the new, tougher Batmobile as well as not seeing a clear shot of Batman in costume. That's probably why the other movies were gay. Too much tights and nipples bearing through chest plates.

I felt my very first earthquake yesterday when I was in my office at work. At first it felt like a morbidly obese person was jogging down the hall then it escalated to an all out shaking of the walls for about 15 seconds. Rad!

Wednesday, June 15, 2005

Pink Is The New Blog

Okay people. I have to come clean here. I've been frequenting a number of tabloid-blogs lately and have developed a strange love of "stalker-azzi photography". I don't know if it's because I truly enjoy viewing the day-to-day photo journal about the coke-induced transformation and impending demise of Lindsey Lohan or what but this shit's addictive!! No irony, I'm serious as babies with aids.

Here's a few of the trashy sites I speak so highly of:

Pink Is The New Blog
Egotastic
The Superficial
Gawker
Defamer

On another more musical note, anyone heard any of the tracks off upcoming Sufjan Stevens record yet?? Sweet hell on wheels is it gonna be good!

Best T-Shirt Ever

Sleeping in...

...is reserved for weekends for a reason. After returning home last night, I played recording engineer at my mini ProTools rig as Carlos tried with all his might to yodel for a musical moment on his show. I wasn't up too late but I suppose recording yodeing triggers the "must sleep through alarm clock" mode in my brain. Pretty awesome way to start the day.

Monday, June 13, 2005

Comedy Death-Ray

Tomorrow night at M Bar in Hollywood, the famed "Dragon Boy Suede" will be doing his stand-up/ fake rapper performance thing again along with a slew of other notable comics. (Yes, I said slew) We're so there.

I wish I was able to go to these Tuesday night comedy performances more often. Carlos and I were frequenting that place more last year when we lived over in Hollywood and things at work were less crazy. I was looking at the list of past shows for 2004/2005 and saw names like Patton Oswalt and David Cross several times. Here's the site of the guys who run that thang.

We saw "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" on Friday and were plesantly suprised. I expected nothing from that hype-laden debacle and got some decent entertainment in return. Thanks Hollywood!

Episode III -- All Summed Up

Someone actually took the time to do this... Though I prefer the Lego Star Wars game version of Ep. III as it tells the story without words and with cute as hell lego men versions of the characters.

New Comic

Hey y'all, please check out the Weekly section of the site for a new comic called "Forget Me Not". Yo, respek!

Thursday, June 09, 2005

Any news is good news...

I'm gonna follow this mofo like E! does the Jackson trial- Dave Chappelle is back in the states and has met with Comedy Central execs today in LA! This comes after we caught word of Chappelle doing 2 surprise stand-up appearances last week at LA's Comedy Store and the the Improv.

Wednesday, June 08, 2005

What in the name of, um...

Skim over this page and then look at the nearest calendar and tell me what year it is. These people are going to be such fine, upstanding US citizens when they graduate. Me so proud. They can look forward to 3.5 kids, an American made mini-van and a hefty helping of staunch conservative friends! Go get 'em tiger-- if you don't decide to put a bullet in yer brain first!

The New Christmas

Oh, sweet sweet Comic Con! The days are nearing us again. It's like the feeling you used to get before Christmas as a kid--when Santa was real. I thought that feeling was but a fond memory but now it's back. Thank jeebus there's a substitute for us so-called grown ups. And this lasts for more than a measly day too. Take that Christmas! My robot collection can't wait to have some new friends...



In addition to Carlos' Nickeodeon panel discussion about his show, my friend Jeffrey Brown from Chicago will be in attendance again. If you're not familiar with his work, please visit The Holy Consumption.

Tuesday, June 07, 2005

New Comic

Please visit the Weekly section of the site for a new Kusai & Ben comic called, "Observation". Click here, buddy. For real? For reals.

Monday, June 06, 2005

Laughs galore

We went to see Crash over the weekend and were (surprisingly) thoroughly entertained- though not in the way the movie intended, I'm sure. It was one racist comment after another and hot damn was it funny. Not one ethnic group was safe from the hacking which made it all the better. Tony Danza and Ludacris had me rolling. Carlos said something to the effect that it was like Magnolia with South Park jokes. Way to go Million Dollar Baby writer!!


Cailtin escaped the desert heat of Tempe to the desert cool of LA for the weekend again. We had a great time and spent a bunch of cash on girlie things. She especially enjoyed the super fruity, super strong drinks of the Tiki-Ti in Silverlake, as did I.

Comic Con's coming up again soon!! Gotta start saving up if I want to walk away with nerd-like glee. Carlos is hosting a Nickelodeon panel there for his new show, The X's which premieres on Thanksgiving. Stay classy, San Diego.


Again, I find myself in the position of not having much good new music to listen to. Any suggestions before I delve back into late 90's post-rock schlock?

Thursday, June 02, 2005

Here's me last night...

Well, not really me. This is Jamie Hewlett's Noodle from the Gorillaz.
I've been non-stop on the handheld game platforms though-- switching between the Gameboy and PSP. Shit's addictive.