Sunday, May 4th, 2003
Uhh… okay. Totally busy weekend. Summary forthcoming in point form.
1) Saw X2 last night. Overall impression, good stuff. Felt much quicker than it’s 2-1/4 hour running length, mostly cause it’s one long action sequence. They weren’t kidding about ratcheting up Halle Berry and Famke Janssen’s parts. And Cyclops got to be utterly useless. Xavier too, for the most part. Some nice Easter eggs for the long-time X-geeks, though, and while the plot thread seemed a little tacked on, they’ve set up X-Men 3 quite handily.
2) Free Comic Day – Picked up a big stack of stuff I’ve never read or even heard of. The Slave Labor special edition is really good. I haven’t gotten through much of the other stuff yet.
3) Picked up the DVD of High Fidelity for a measly $12. I’m not usually one for buying movies, but at that price you can’t go wrong.
4) Found Gemma Hayes’ Night On My Side. This made me very happy.
5) Got my Wilco ticket because, after I refund the Bright Eyes tickets, my big pile o’ tix would have been empty, and that simply won’t do.
6) There will be a tribute album to Hedwig & The Angry Inch coming out on Off Records in October. Some of the acts appearing on Wig in a Box: Songs From “Hedwig and the Angry Inch”? Yoko Ono fronting Yo La Tengo. Fred Schneider with Sleater-Kinney. The Breeders. Cyndi Lauper. I am actually looking forward to this. I thought some of the songs in Hedwig were top-notch. Read about it here.
7) And oh yeah, the guy in the pic up top. He’s a one-man band from Boston whose name I’ve forgotten. Bloody impressive set-up, though. The man had a banjo, lap-steel, kick-drum pedal (thumping on something for the beat), and acoustic bass and acoustic guitar being played by foot levers which raised and lowered capos to change pitch. It looked totally nutty, but sounded absolutely right – if you closed your eyes, you would have thought there was a proper band in front of you. Wacky.
np – Gemma Hayes / Night On My Side
Saturday, May 3rd, 2003
Caught night three of the Over The Top Fest last night, with Vancouver-ites The Baron Samedi ESQ (517 says they sound like early A Certain Ratio. I was in no position to debate), local twee-popsters The Bicycles (Apparemtly you can never have too many tambourines going at one time), Chicago fuzz-rock outfit The Reputation (very tight, polished rock – the guitarists amp probably cost more than all the Bicycles’ gear combined!) and back for their third show in six months, NYC’s +/- (who still rocked hard, though not quite as hard as the last show at Wavelength). 517 got the contact info for the show’s promoter, I think we’d fit right in with the stuff he’s booking around town. Maybe he can get us some decent shows.
B-movie king Roger Corman talks about his attempts at low-budget comic book films here. I am curious to see his Fantastic Four movie from about a decade ago – it seems too awful to truly exist.
Going to be a busy day – Val is in town visitng just in time for Free Comic Day and a 25% off all books sale at Chapters. Because I didn’t have a big enough backlog of stuff I need to read, I will be adding more and more to the pile. And of course, X2 tonight. I may have to trade in my geek credentials for missing opening night, but c’est la vie. On a related note, Bryan Singer says he may not direct X-Men 3. Disappointing, but hopefully there won’t be the dead man’s drop in quality as there was in the Batman franchise when Tim Burton stepped aside for Joel ‘King Of Schlock’ Schumacher.
np – The Clean / Anthology
Friday, May 2nd, 2003
About a year ago, I noticed my left wrist was developing an allergic reaction to my watchband. I started wearing my watch on my right wrist, and the rash went away. Yesterday I decided to see if maybe the allergy had gone away, and put the watch back on the left. Nope. A lovely band of red encircles most of my left wrist now. Charming.
Hmm… does Ryan Adams have an alibi? Bryan Adams shot at in London.
X2 is doing pretty damned well at Rotten Tomatos. An encouraging sign, though I’ve had full confidence in the kick-assitude of the film since the first one.
np – Death Cab For Cutie / Something About Airplanes
Thursday, May 1st, 2003
Nerve talks to Ben Gibbard of Death Cab and The Postal Service about, well, sex. What else does Nerve ever talk about?
I’m interested in going to see the Fruit Bats on the 15th at the B-Side. Tagged a psychedelic folk-pop band, the reviews are very positive and it won’t be an expensive show. They are from Chicago and their new record Mouthfuls is out on SubPop. Endorsements or condemnations of the band are welcome.
I have to go return the copy of Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind I got from the library three weeks ago. I got a grand total of 20 pages into the thing. It was good – don’t get me wrong – but I just didn’t have the time to read. I should place another hold on it immediately and by the time I get it again in a year, maybe my reading schedule will have opened up a bit.
Truly a stinky rehearsal tonight. Literally stinky – that room was not a pleasant olfactory experience when we were done… I can’t wait till the summer really hits and we’re even sweatier. But it was a productive rehearsal – which is good since we won’t all be around for at least the next two weeks. Vacations, dontcha know (well, not me. Everyone else.) And we’ve selected a new cover. It’s a total blast.
np – Dinosaur Jr / Bug
Thursday, May 1st, 2003
The Pernice Brothers website has been given an overhaul to celebrate the impending release of Yours, Mine & Ours on the 20th. There are a few songs available to preview, though the combination of no-workie Flash and barely-workie sound card on my machine here at work means I can’t give it a listen till tonight. I am hearing that it is a no-strings, more-guitars album than The World Won’t End – more ‘up’ overall, though that’s a very relative term in the world of Joe Pernice. Either way, I am trembling with anticipation for this release. Figuratively speaking, of course.
Here’s a pic of Thomas Jane in costume for the new Punisher flick. Gotta say, he looks a damn sight better than Dolph Lundgren did in the awful awful attempt at a Punisher film over a decade ago. At least they’ve kept the skull. You can find a full-size version here.
Janeane Garofalo on speaking out against the war. Link from Largehearted Boy.
It is already May. I turn 28 in 10 days. When exactly did this all happen?
np – The Shins / Oh, Inverted World
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