Sick song from back in the old school Adult Swim days. The video isn’t why I put this here. It’s all about the song. So check ch-check ch-check ch-check it out!

So I read Watchmen, and by Jesus was it amazing. What can I write that hasn’t already been written about this graphic novel? It is writer Alan Moore’s most critically acclaimed piece, and this is from a man who made V for Vendetta, From Hell, and other such amazing works. 

I really can’t write a review of this book, so I’ll just put some of my favorite quotes and few images to hopefully tantalize you, dear reader, into picking it up.

"... Waiting for a flash of enlightenment in all this blood and thunder."

"They spoke of a heaven , where once we all lived and died, sentenced for our sins to this pandemonium we call the world."

"Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

"Come... Dry your eyes, for you are life, rarer than a quark and unpredictable beyond the dreams of Heisenberg; the clay in which the forces that shape all things leave their fingerprints most clearly."

My favorite character is Rorschach, but I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone, so I’ll just put a quote from him that sums up his character really well: “Looked at sky through smoke heavy with human fat and God was not there. The cold, suffocating dark goes on forever and we are alone. Live our lives, lacking anything better to do. Devise reason later. Born from oblivion; bear children, hell-bound as ourselves, go into oblivion. There is nothing else.”

Go forth and read!

So I watched Steven Spielberg’s “AI” last night, and I have to say, my expectations were high. Keep in mind, I’m about 6 years and a thousand-and-a-half reviews late seeing and writing about this movie. I mostly wanted to see it because the name Stanley Kubrick is attached, and I don’t quite remember how (or why).

So the first act was, although really awkward, quite passable. Haley Joel Osment is a creepy loving robot who wants to be a real boy. Simple. There’s a story for us. Let’s go with that. Maybe we can add a little more action and tone down the Spielberg-glowy-light effect a little bit, too. No? Fine. So these parents adopt this mecha (short for mechanical, versus orga, short for organic, get it?), but then their real son comes back. Who are they to love? They want to love both, of course, but the real kid is kind of a dick to HJO, so they get rid of the robo-boy. 

Damn, this is turning into summary, not review. I’m going to just cut myself short here and sum it all up: Act 1: passable. Act 2: goes a little too Mad Max for me, I could have done without it. Act 3: LOOOOOONG. It goes way farther than any self-respecting movie ever should. Hell, even Stanley Kubrick himself would have admitted the all-too-longness of this third act, and he’s freakin’ Stanley Kubrick. Everyone remembers the third act of 2001, yeah? It was long (but palatable, unlike….).

So there you have it. The movie starts off a little wobbly but promising, then continues to flush itself deeper into the sewage system, from future-chic toilet (act II), to “I’m going to kill myself if I see another *spoiler* incredibly thin alien” septic tank (act III). The whole movie, to me, was a squandered opportunity to make a somewhat likable film. Oh well. I’m not too worried about it.

Well, I just came here to say that I wish I lived in Minneapolis, because there are some great shows coming through there this fall.

Of Montreal

Sigur Ros

Deerhoof

Cold War Kids

the list goes on. I know there are more, but I can’t remember at the moment and I’m too lazy to look them up.

Isaac, you better go to EVERY SINGLE SHOW POSSIBLE when you’re living there. Who needs school, anyway, amirite?

Sooo I started listening to Tom Waits because he’s all I ever hear about for some reason these days. The only album I could get my hands on was the music he created for Alice, a musical based on Alice in Wonderland. It’s pretty wild stuff. From what I understand, he has many good albums, so if anyone here is a Waits fan, lemme know what you think I should try out.

Bonus: I love the guys ultra-gruff voice, but about 1 minute of it was all Isaac’s sister could take. I don’t know, I guess that’s kinda funny.

Bruce Springsteen – Nebraska

Weird, I realize. Amazing and lonely.
Autechre – Tri Repetae

Pretty straight electronica, groovy.
John Fahey – Death Chants, Breakdowns, And Military Marches

Cosmic and folky and weird.
Beck – Modern Guilt

Yeah, it’s pretty good, I guess.

-joeleiss.

by: Isaac

Here is some more music that is good. They/he is known as Hospital Ships. Stereogum’s got a good article on them/him. Otherwise, you can check out their MySpace.

Listen: Hospital Ships – “I Want It To Get Out”

The Flash of Lightning From Behind the Mountain – Charles Bukowski

Feel good about life? Not anymore.
Read this to get over it
Rules For Radicals – Saul Alinsky

This book helped renew my faith in activism. What a genius.
V. – Thomas Pynchon

I haven’t finished it yet, but I already know it’s one of the best novels I’ve ever read.

Ok, later.
-joeleiss

by: Isaac

I found a new band that is cool: Wildbirds & Peacedrums

And another: Does It Offend You, Yeah?

I truly hate that I have to link to MySpace for these.

by: Isaac

Pixar hits a home run yet again with their latest movie, Wall·E. It’s amazing to see how well they can develop characters, especially seeing as how Wall·E is a robot, not even a living thing (I suppose Woody and Buzz were as well, but at least they were close representations of realistic people). I felt strong emotion for Wall·E during his adventures, I laughed at his clumsiness, I empathized with his loneliness, I cried during his struggles, and smiled at his triumphs.

Wall·E is also the first movie I’ve seen to make an environmental statement without being cliche/annoying while doing it (Happy Feet, I’m looking at you). Showing a messy, grungy earth in the future is always more effective than saying, “Humans are killing the earth, change your ways or be doomed.”

Wall·E is funny, clever, cute, sad, exciting, well written, and well animated. Plus, it makes several allusions to 2001: A Space Odyssey. You can’t go wrong! I highly recommend it to everyone.