Nostalgia Alert! Nostalgia Alert!
This Saturday from 2 pm - 2 am is the annual Houston Area Arcade Group Expo. This event will be held at Fitzgeralds. $10 cover, but all the games are set to free play.
Well now folks, division of opinion due to the war in Iraq has hit our fair metropolis. Tonight, and every Friday night until the conclusion of hostilities, there will be a candlelight vigil inside the loop (I neither support nor detract from such events, and will refrain from listing exact street names. If you are truly interested, you will find out for yourself). As the resident goof of GO.com, I choose not to engage in such activities. Nor will I engage in the pro-war protests that are likely to ensue this weekend. Instead, I will choose to keep my opinions to myself on this matter, and exercise my rights to vote either for or against the current leadership when the appropriate time comes.
But enough about me. Now for the entertainment part of this article. How cool would it be to hold an anti-protest protest? For those of you who have seen the (vastly underappreciated) movie P.C.U., you know the activity of which I speak. That's when you gather together hundreds of people with differing opinions and say, in a loud unified voice, "We're NOT gonna protest!" Picture the sign possibilities. And imagine the confusion of both the pro and anti war protesters who see a third group who are merely protesting the fact that people are protesting. It's a serious news face-time opportunity, and definately could be an experiment in social engineering to see what happens.
Can you tell jet lag has caught up with me?
Being a big old geek, I think shopping online is a good method to save money. At least, until it gets screwed up by having states try and apply a sales tax to online purchases. Anyway, today I thought I'd share with you a few of my favorite shopping sites:
Amazon.com's Friday Sale. Every Friday, for 24 hours, Amazon throws about 100 items on sale. Sometimes they're good values, sometimes they're not. But it definately makes the Friday at work go by a little faster by checking every week.
Ben's Bargains. A good site that scours for sale and rebate opportunities, it's updated several times a day and often carries short-term sales information and free magazine subscription information.
Slickdeals.net. Usually carries the same things as Ben's Bargains. However, they seem to be a little better at doing creative rebate and coupon math where they combine 2-4 seemingly random things from a single store with a coupon and two rebates, which makes the final overall price dirt cheap.
My advice about online shopping: If the site looks shady, odds are the store is shady as well. Don't buy from shady stores. Of course, some people who frequent this site will probably advise you to never shop online. Do what you feel like doing. Just know that neither I nor this site guarantee anything from any of these sites, and if you're willing to take the risk of online shopping, then it's your risk. Not mine, not Greg's. YOURS!
Happy shopping!
Since I'd rather not be upstaged by the crack-induced ramblings of Pete on what should be shown as a midnight movie at River Oaks, here's my suggestion list. I realize some of these prints might be impossible to find, but here's the Uber-recommended midnight movie viewing list:
Full Metal Jacket
Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie
Soylent Green
Star Trek II
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
Hedwig and the Angry Itch
Yellow Submarine
Highlander
Pink Floyd's The Wall
Brazil
Showgirls
Big Trouble in Little China
This list is entirely subjective, but feel free to argue. Just remember, arguing on the internet is like running in the Special Olympics: even if you win, you're still retarded.
Hollywood Actors Raise McCarthyism Specter on Iraq
This really ticks me off. First of all, these "famous" people have got the definition of McCarthyism all wrong. Sen. Joe McCarthy and his Communist witchhunt were surely a black mark on our nation's history in the last 100 years. However, people writing to their favorite actor/actress/whatever and to the employers of that person that they do not appreciate that person's personal views being broadcast is not McCarthyism. McCarthyism was driven from the government. If Joe Blow dislike's Martin Sheen's politics (not picking on him personally, but he is mentioned in the article), chooses to write NBC that he will no longer watch the West Wing and follows through on his vow, that is personal choice.
Anyone who is in the public eye and chooses to broadcast their beliefs via press conferences is subjecting themselves to criticism of their beliefs. After all, if they weren't famous, would they even be having a press conference to begin with? I have yet to have any of my press conferences attended by members of the media. So, my message to the Hollywood types: If you can't handle the public reaction, then resist the urge to call all your friends at the networks to cover your latest statement of your core beliefs (Mike Farrell, I'm looking your way).
I now open myself to criticism by broadcasting this via the internet.
Since some of you might not follow that link in the previous post, here's the updated midnight movie schedule:
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory · Mar 7 & 8
The Tall Man Awaits You! Phantasm II · Mar 14 & 15
3% Body Fat, 1% Brain Activity: Zoolander · Mar 21 & 22
Val Kilmer is Jim Morrison in The Doors · Mar 28 & 29
Mel Brooks' Comedy Classic! Young Frankenstein · Apr 4 & 5
Japanese Animation! Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust · Apr 11 & 12
Kevin Smith's Debut Comedy! Clerks · Apr 18 & 19
The Rotten-to-the-Core 1980 Musical! The Apple · Apr 25 & 26
New 35mm Print! Bruce Campbell in Army of Darkness · May 2 & 3
From this list, I see me attending Willy Wonka, Young Frankenstein, Clerks and Army of Darkness. See you there!
Yes, here I go again maintaining my stance of fluff pieces during Greg's hiatus. I wish a good recharge to my bud, but until he returns, you're stuck with me! MUAHAHAHAHA. If you're looking for serious content, go to the right and click a link there. Any link will do, really. Anyway, today's soundtrack is Simon & Garfunkel. Here's hoping for a reunion tour this summer.
I think the Landmark River Oaks deserves another pat on the back. Not only does this theater provide a venue for Houstonians to go see some of the finer independent and foreign films released year-round, but during the summer they host the midnight movie series every weekend. This series has been host to everything from John Hughes sugary-sweet 80s teen films to Evil Dead to Xanadu. This year, Landmark decided to extend the midnight movie series throughout the winter in an effort to, well, be greedy. But it works for me!
This weekend's fare is that 1971 classic "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory". Based on the children's novel by Roald Dahl entitled "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", this is Dahl's very own interpretation of his story to the big screen. Why did he change the name of the story when writing the screenplay? How the heck should I know? I was negative six when the movie came out. However, my suspicions point to LSD Everlasting Gobstoppers.
This movie is perhaps Gene Wilder's defining role on the big screen (and that's saying a lot when you look at his complete body of work). As the title character, Wilder portrays the perfect mix of genius and madness for this role. I always held out hope for the sequel to be made (Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, in case you didn't know). However, that project has never been mentioned. There is talk of a remake of this film, though. Before they go ruining this film's reputation, I highly encourage you to come see the real deal. I'll be there on Friday, and I'm hoping for a good-sized audience. This film, unlike Tron, should not disappoint. It almost makes me want to buy a purple suit and box of wine for Ulysses just to see him do his Willy Wonka impression.
Today's entry being brought to you by A Cappology 101's debut CD "First Class". A Cappology 101 was a coed a cappela group from my alma mater. This CD holds a special place in my heart. Let's just say track 11 is very special...
Anyway, to the review. Have you ever looked back at something you have liked and asked yourself "What the heck was I thinking?" Well, one of those moments happened this weekend, as your host and I attended the River Oaks midnight movie presentation of Tron. For those of you unfamiliar with this film, it was a revolutionary film in it's time, being the first to utilize CGI extensively. Over 15 minutes of the film consists of moving images generated entirely by computer, and over 200 scenes utilize computer generated backgrounds. All of that was very impressive in 1982 when this movie first came out. However, for a movie to withstand the test of time, it typically takes more than eye candy. You typically need some character development, a coherent storyline and dialogue that isn't unintentionally funny. Unfortunately, all three of these elements were left on the cutting room floor when Disney spliced together the reels for Tron.
For the uninitiated, a brief summary: Guy gets sucked into computer world and has to play games in order to defeat a Hitler-like computer program called Master Control Program (MCP). Guy meets and gets help from "programs" in the system, graphics ensue, giving inspiration to two of the best arcade games of the 80s (Tron and Deadly Discs of Tron). Guy gets back to real world. Guy comes from space, invents cars, sings to Michelle Pfeiffer, has his carpet peed on and becomes president in subsequent movies...
Basically, my remaining appreciation for this movie can be summarized in one scene: the Light Cycles. Watching this scene still makes me happy, as it's one that I feel Hollywood has yet to touch in terms of energy and excitement. Yes, the graphics are very primitive compared to today's capabilities. However, watching the light cycle scene, especially the maze portion, gave a sense of speed, acceleration and danger that I haven't seen in a film since. However, an open-source game has come darn close to duplicating this effect. Armagetron is a game I can recommend, especially since it's free. Just make sure you also download the Movie pack and the Movie sounds from the Addons page, and you've got yourself a game that almost exactly matches the lightcycle experience. Couple this with the two arcade games I mentioned earlier, and you will get much more enjoyment from the name Tron than watching this dull movie will ever give you.
Well, since Greg's going to take a little hiatus, I'll try and fill this space with some of my rants and ramblings. Be warned, I don't do political rants and I generally have very little to say that will change your life. However, I'll do my best to do a little virtual dance for you and try to keep you entertained. If you don't like it, too bad. We'll start out this journey with a concert review from last week, and probably follow it up with a movie review from this past weekend. Oh, and since I always write to music, today's article is brought to you by tracks off the new Johnny Cash album "American IV: The Man Comes Around". This album will be released tomorrow, and is basically 15 covers of popular songs from the past few decades. I highly recommend you listen to the cover of NIN's "Hurt" and try not to feel sadness in your heart. Needless to say, I will be in line with a copy of this one tomorrow.
Monday, February 24th, Billy Joel and Elton John made the stop in Houston on their Face 2 Face tour. This tour has been going on and off for almost two years, heading overseas and up and down the US coasts. Just to tell you there's bias here, I'm a huge fan of both musicians, and had never seen either in concert before. Needless to say, the day tickets went on sale I was as giddy as a schoolgirl. Unfortunately, about 20,000 other people were giddy as well, since I wound up in the nosebleed section of the Compaq Center. No problem, at least I'm inside the walls. The stage setup is very simplistic, and doesn't have a thousand video screens or pyro sets. The half hour strikes, and the lights go down. The floor of the stage opens up, and two grand pianos rise from the floor. The two come out to simple spotlights, and start playing with no fanfare. They play three songs, during which Billy Joel gets more and more aggrivated at his stool and mic stand not cooperating with him. After the initial three songs, Billy leaves and his piano is shuttled away under the stage.
Elton John then goes on a tear, playing a decent hour and a half set, covering many of his old favorites as well as a couple tracks off his new album. While watching this aged popstar, I can definately see where people were saying that he puts more soul into his live performances than his studio tracks. He had a tendancy to throw some funky blues riffs into songs that I used to consider pretty sterile. He closes his set with a 10 minute version of "Rocket Man" which draws the crowd into it. The stage goes dark as they reconfigure, and out comes Billy for his set.
Now, I don't know how much you know about these two, but listening to their music from the 70s through the 90s, I used to think they were equal musicians. However, after going to this concert, I can definately tell you that Billy Joel is the better showman. Perhaps that's because Elton is off the coke, but Billy Joel just connected a little easier with the audience, did more flash-and-dash, and would go off into silly little interludes in the middle of his songs. He went into a rendition of "Deep in the Heart of Texas" in between songs, and even started in on "Yellow Rose of Texas" in the middle of his song "River of Dreams" He did some songs where he was up and away from the piano altogether, playing to the crowd with a wireless mic clamped firmly onto a stand. Billy's set was definately the more fun of the two. However, I will say this about Elton John: I now think he's the better pure musician. Perhaps it's because Billy Joel used to get his music from being young and angry. Now he's just old and bitter...
Well, after Billy Joel finished off his set, both pianos returned, and we went on a tear. The two started on another set of duets. They closed out the set with two songs that weren't written by either man: "Hard Day's Night" and "Great Balls Of Fire". I somewhat question bringing the Beatles into this concert, but think Great Balls of Fire was an excellent way to close out the concert. Following this rendition (which unfortunately did not lead to either piano being set ablaze), the lights went out. Of course they milked applause for a good 5 minutes before conceding to an encore. The encore on this night, as with all nights on this tour, was "Piano Man". I've said it before and I'll say it again: Houston crowds stink when it comes to audience participation songs. This was one which BEGGED the audience to sing the chorus, with all singing from the stage stopping several times. However, I looked around and saw many of my fellow Houstonians swaying with their mouthes closed. Did that stop yours truly? Of course not! I just filled up ye old lungs and went on like it was karaoke night. So, to my fellow Houstonians, I give you a hearty raspberry.
Do I recommend the concert? Of course. Was it the best concert I've ever been to? Not quite. I still say the McCartney concert from last year was better. Some of the duets just didn't work for me here. I'm not sure why, but there were some odd choices there. I really didn't care for "Hard Day's Night" here, and it seemed as if the audience for McCartney was just a little more energetic. Anyway, it's still worth the price, and I am glad to have gone.