"You Can't Kill The Metal"

Digital Versatile Disc Essentials for 2/27/07:

1. Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny. Who cares if it made less than $9M at the box office? Who cares if it isn't nearly as good as the HBO series from the late 1990s? Who cares if the music isn't as catchy as the earlier stuff? This is still The D! In addition to the basic DVD, Best Buy is also offering an exclusive bonus disc containing over 80 minutes of home movies, deleted scenes and internet shorts. $16.99.

2. Tideland. Terry Gilliam's follow up to the troubled, and kind of worst, "The Brothers Grimm" from 2005. As far as I could tell, this never played in Metro-Detroit, so it will require a safety rental first. New Release rental cost = $3.99 - $4.99.

3. Alexander Revisited: The Final Cut. Oliver Stone delivers the 3rd and final cut of 2004's critically bashed Alexander. Like Tideland, I haven't seen this film either (not because it didn't come near Detroit, but more because when it was released in December 2004, I opted for "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" instead). This is a pickup for me only because of the recent Ultimate Oliver Stone box set score - might as well finish off his catalogue now. And if it is even half as good as Jason Mewes hypes it up to be on the "Clerks II" DVD commentary, it should be worth something. Plus, it comes with a $11.50 voucher to see "300" next month. $19.99.

Teenage angst has paid off well

I read that yesterday would have been Kurt Cobain's 40th birthday. Sit and drink Pennyroyal Tea.

Mickey and Malorie

Who knew? Last night at F.Y.E., home of the $18 CD and $24 DVD, The Ultimate Oliver Stone Collection was on sale for just $29! This box set, which came out in 2004, contains all 12 of Stone's films between 1986 and 1999. I've seen it at stores and online ranging in price between $80 - $120, so why F.Y.E. has it as such a markdown remains a mystery.

Salvador, Platoon, Wall Street, Talk Radio, Born on the Fourth of July, JFK (Director's Cut), The Doors, Heaven and Earth, Natural Born Killers, Nixon, U-Turn, Any Given Sunday (Director's Cut) - they're all here. Now I just need to troll the used DVD bins at Hollywood Video for $5 copies of Alexander and last year's World Trader Center.

Who knew one could obtain such a sizable a chunk of Stone's work for under $50? Update: As of Sunday 3/4/07, this set is back up to $80 at F.Y.E.

They call her "The Rider"

Ghost Rider opened to $44.5 million this past weekend. I've got to hand it to director Mark Steven Johnson. Both of his comic book movies (this and 2003's Daredevil) have gone on to be solid blockbusters in terms of ticket sales, but I've never known anyone who actually liked them.

And how did Sony Pictures get Britney Spears to do guerilla advertising on Saturday for the film?

West Como

No shortage of things to do tonight in Metro-Detroit.

First off, One Under at the Magic Stick. One Under is an Ohio based jam band that started when Ed McGee (guitar/vocals) and Johnny Polansky (percussion) left the more established ekoostik hookah. Rumors abound on why they parted with hookah, but my guess is they were sick of only playing weekend gigs with a band notorious for hardly getting together outside of shows which led many to question their overall future plans.

Tonight will be my fifth One Under show since first catching them in Toledo back in November of 2005. They recently released their first studio disc, and tickets for tonight (which includes two other bands) are a scant $8.

Another option is the return of Sugar Hiccup at 5th Avenue in Royal Oak with DJ Quig and Melissa Emily. The stakes are upped this time as the event is set to be simulcast live on the much hyped Second Life. Avatars beware. $5.00 cover charge.

Jackass of the Month

So this morning the clock radio comes on to reveal a live interview with According to Jim's Larry Joe Campbell. Campbell is a Michigan native and graduated from Central Michigan University in 1992. Someone brought up CMU during the interview and what does Campbell do? First off, he sums up the Broadcast & Cinematic Arts department as being full of "nerds". He then goes on to accuse CMU of stealing their maroon and gold colors from Florida State University. How's that for school spirit?

I had always figured the guy enjoyed his time at CMU. During the 2005 Homecoming weekend, we spotted him at The Bird spouting off about his experiences in CMU's theater program. Then again, around 3:00 AM, we saw him pretty sloshed up and limping towards some house party.

What an ass.

Wii would like to Play

Since the Nintendo Wii comes with just one controller out of the box, my only real complaint about the system has been the $40 price tag of additional Wii-motes. At $250, the Wii is easily the cheapest of the next gen consoles. And because it is so fun and easy to play, it also beats out the XBOX 360 and PS3 as the best party machine.

However, party games mean multiple players which in turn means multiple controllers. To take full advantage of 4 player games like Wii Sports, Wario Ware and the upcoming Mario Party 8, gamers must shell out an additional $120 bucks! That puts the Wii into XBOX 360's price range and only about $100 off from the PS3's 20GB model. I can just see Mario collecting those coins now.


Perhaps as a response to this common complaint, Nintendo released Wii Play this past Monday. Wii Play is a companion piece to Wii's pack in game Wii Sports, and includes 9 more mini games designed to help users get acclimated with the new motion sensitive controller. Wii Play alone isn't worth its $49 price tag, but Nintendo has wisely bundled in a "free" controller into the box. In the long run, we're still probably getting ripped off, but at least the addictive nature of the new Pose Mii, Find Mii and Shooting mini-games take your mind off it for a few hours.

GameSpy's Wii Play review.

Sloths!

During a weekend I probably would have spent at home watching SciFi's premiere of "Pumpkinhead: Blood Feud", Jenn and I jetted out to NYC for what ended up being 72 hours of the most legendary weekends in the history of legendary weekends.

Highlights included:

-Catching the last day of Ryan McGinley's "Irregular Regulars" exhibit at Team Gallery. McGinley followed Morrissey around for the past two years chronicling not only the Moz, but also the atmosphere of the concerts themselves. I was a bit disspointed that the entire exhibit was only made up of about 25 photos, but for a $0 admission cost, it was worth it.

-Buying a $5.00 bootleg copy of "Children of Men" in Chinatown. Suprisingly, the quality is very good...if you can get past the Spanish subtitles that can't be turned off.

-Attended both the dress rehearsal and live taping of Saturday Night Live with host Forest Whitaker and musical guest Keith Urban. This little dream come true will be flushed out a bit more in a future SNL review.

-Saw David Lynch's "Inland Empire" at the IFC Theater. As if Inland Empire wasn't enough already, sitting a few rows in front of us was none other than John Waters. Man, that dude ate so much black licorice during the nearly three hour running time. So best. He was also nice enough to pose for a picture with me after the movie.

-Hit the 7:30 performance of ASSSSCAT 3000 at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater on Sunday night. ASSSSCAT is a weekly staple at UCB that feautres a rotating cast of improv all stars. Amoung others, our show was made up of Amy Poehler, Rob Riggle, Rachel Dratch and Jack McBrayer. All this for $8.

2/15/07 Update: John Waters releasing a CD full of love songs?

"24 Elsinore Beers"

When it comes to beer nights in my adopted hometown of Warren, Dragonmead is usually the no-brainer. They offer award winning microbrews, a bar that is smoke free (still a rariety in Michigan) and even an option to bring in your own food. However, last night I made my first visit to Kuhnhenn Brewery & Winery - another microbrewery which is actually a tick closer to my house. I now foresee my Dragonmead visits becoming much less frequent...

I had been driving by Kuhnhenn for years, but since it shares a building with some kind of German Auto Haus, I was always weary of stopping in. I guess I just kept picturing vats of motor oil in too close a proximity to the brewing equipment or something. Dropping this image from my head last night resulted in some of the best beer I've had in years. I tried three types: Penetration Porter, Loonie Kuhnie and the very manly sounding Mango Tango Panty Dropper. All three were excellent, Mango could easily pass for a new Faygo flavor, but Loonie Kuhnie was the clear winner. If you are ever in the Metro-Detroit area, this place is highly recommended. Did I mention they have all you can eat free popcorn? The dudes next to us covered theirs in hot sauce. Whoa.

"Go now, there are worlds other than these"

On Tuesday night/Wednesay morning at Midnight, comic book stores around the country had a midnight sale (the first ever for comics?) to launch Marvel's new seven book series, "The Dark Tower: Gunslinger Born".

The series is based on the seven Dark Tower novels Stephen King published between 1982 and 2004. Starting last Summer, I began reading said novels and I'm currently just past the half way point of Book #6 "Song of Susannah".

Since the novels are good and Marvel had been hyping the series as the second coming of X-Men, I decided to swing into the local comic shop yesterday for a pickup. As is typical with comics, the debut issue arrived with a standard cover, plus a few variant versions (two in this case). I was planning on picking up all three since you can usually score variant art early on for cover price or maybe just a $5-$10 increase. Variant art is also what tends to increase in value the most, so it can be highly sought after by collectors.

Then I got to the counter at the comic shop. Sure the standard cover was cover price, but the two variants ranged from $20-$75! Give me a break. I know there are a lot of people out there who hate the big comic shops like Marvel and DC, but since I only read a handful of books from each, I never really cared one way or the other. After this stunt, I'm about ready to join the anti-Marvel camp.

2/14/07 UPDATE: J.J. Abrams in talks to bring The Dark Tower novels to life?

"Let me see if I can get an advance on my inheritance"

Last night I watched François Truffaut's "The 400 Blows". I hadn't seen it before, and there are certainly tons of essays and reviews on the film available online already, but there was one thing I thought of right away: Since the film was released in 1959, and the plot revolves around a 12-year-old boy who steals, lies, drinks and smokes, I thought about how adolescence was being portrayed in film and television here in the US at the time. The first thing to pop in my head was Leave it to Beaver, which was in its second season that year. What a world of difference. And Truffaut was only 27 when the film debuted. Best.

Jimmy Stewart

As an Umphrey's McGee fan, I'm still digesting last year's "Safety in Numbers" when I think about their studio albums. While SIN does have some good moments (namely Believe The Lie, Nemo and Women, Wine & Song), it fails to surpass their 2004 landmark "Anchor Drops". That said, I was surprised to find out today that Umph is already preparing to release a double album entitled "The Bottom Half". Some say its your basic odds and ends project, I say they just needed a way to pay for their fancy new light show. Whatever the reason, it hits stores on 4/3/07.

Bottom will feature one disc of tracks originally recorded during the SIN Sessions, with the second disc offering "outtakes, alternative versions of songs, a cappella recordings, and other bits from the band’s 2005 studio sessions".

Similar to SIN, the artwork comes courtesy of the legendary Storm Thorgerson. Not bad. UM makes a return to the Metro-Detroit area on 3/16/07 when the hit Clutch Cargo.

30 Rock & Studio 60: Frozen Out

Looks like the weather isn't the only thing freezing these days. I came home yesterday to find out both 30 Rock (hot off Alec Baldwin winning a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild award) and Studio 60 have been given the cold shoulder.

Both shows will be removed from NBC's schedule starting in March and at this time, only 30 Rock has a return date listed (April 19th). Studio 60 doesn't surprise me. The last two episodes have been pretty bad, but Tina Fey's 30 Rock is really picking up steam. The move is being done to make room for two NBC mid season replacement shows, one of which stars Andy Richter. Now I'm all for seeing more Richter in prime time (I loved 2002's Andy Richter Controls the Universe), but there had to be other options when it came to deciding what shows to boot off.

Worst.

2/14/07 Update: The weather is still crazed and Tina Fey mocks Studio 60.

Where are my chili boots?

Super Bowl Weekend, smuper bowl weekend.

Tonight we're off to East Tawas to spend the next few days in snowy, 0 degree weather. East Tawas is a small town (2,951 people according to the 2000 census) about 3 hours North of Detroit. The town is notable for being in Coca-Cola's test marketing area (read their stores get awesome test flavors the world may never see) and their two-screen movie theater that shows first run movies for about $2 a ticket. Totally best. My family also owns a cottage on the lake there.

Last year, we discovered the town's annual Perchville Weekend. The normally somber town dumps a ton of its annual revenue into this three day event (2007 will be the 57th annual) that includes a polar bear swim, demolition derby on the Lake Huron (ice permitting), poker tournaments, fishing contests, parades, teen dances, "Old Tyme Movees", kites dropping candy and toys from the sky, a hospitality tent for "adult style fun", softball, IWPA dogpulls and horse-drawn carriage rides. I don't know how much tourism and outside money Perchville draws, but for a town who's average household income is about $40k, I'm sure it helps out.

I know polar bear swims, kites dropping candy and a demolition derby sounds promising, but the event to be seen at is none other than the town's Chili cookoff. For $6, you can go from store to store on Main Street (about 25 total businesses) for all you can eat chili. Those interested get an official Perchville chili mug and a ballot to keep track of the best tasting batch. I have no idea what the store with the most votes receives, but I'm hoping it is some kind of chili plaque or an apron that says "Town's Best Chili Starts Here".

Perchville Weekend. So much better than Super Bowl weekend.

Love Gun

A few nights ago, my fiancé got me the KISSology Volume One: 1974–1977 DVD set as part of my birthday present. Now I've always known KISS fans are taken advantage of nearly as much as Star Wars followers, comic collectors or Kevin Smith devotees, but KISSology is really something else. The discs themselves are really well put together, but get this: The contents vary depending on the retailer!

Wikipedia reveals the Wal-Mart release contains a 1977 performance in Largo, Maryland. The Best Buy release contains a 1976 performance at Cobo Arena and the third bonus disc (all other retailers) contains excerpts from a 1977 concert at Madison Square Garden.

Obviously the version to have is Best Buy's Cobo release, but tell me that doesn't put the completist KISS fan in a bind. I mean, these dudes are already saving up for the $50 comic books KISS recently announced for later this year and now they have to shell out $25 at potentially three shops to get all versions. To make matters crazier, this is just Volume 1 of a potentially 10 volume set!

KISS. Marketing geniuses or marketing bastards?