Just ordered some graphical novellas

New Avengers Volume 1

Green Lantern: Sinestro War Volume 1

Leave it to Chance volume 2

Leave it to Chance volume 3

Conscience of a Conservative

Well, that last one is not a comic book.

Not remotely.

Not even slightly.

:B

[Links added]

Comics

Wednesday again!

Picked up a few things.

Action Comics #862
Angel: After The Fall #4
Batman #674
Blue Beetle #24
Cable/Deadpool #50
Countdown to Final Crisis 9
Justice Society of America #13
Thor #6
X-Men: Legacy #208

Countdown - Was alright.  Lotsa shit happening now, but it seems this issue was all setup that leads....into the next issue!  Gotta wait for it!  Goddammit, hurry up already!

X-Men: Legacy - Yes, another name change for Adjectiveless.  But this issue surprised the hell out of me.  I don't know why I've been reading Carey's run for so long when all I do is complain about it but this issue he finally brings it.  X-Men: Legacy is now about Professor X after he had his head blown off by Bishop at the end of Messiah Complex.  He was captured by Exodus and the Acolytes and spirited away to a secret location so Exodus could do...well, whatever it is he does.  The issue bounced back and forth between Exodus and his people (drawn by Scott Eaton) and Xavier remembering his past (drawn by John Romita, Jr.).  This was a well done issue and Carey finally impressed me.  I was wondering how interesting an Xavier solo series could possibly be and I was surprised to like it.  The events Xavier remembers are random(ish) while Exodus attempts to put his mind back together (even though he says Xavier's brain is mush thanks to Bishop's bullet).  I was also interested to learn that Xavier is a Korean war vet.  Gotta be a retcon, cause I didn't know this until now.  Lots of moments between Xavier and MacTaggert, Xavier and Cyclops and also the initial formation of the X-Men.  Exodus' role in the story is to serve as a bridge between these more or less disconnected moments.  I think I might have to pick up the next issue.

Captain America - Kind of a disappointment.  After the events of last issue I would think this would have picked up immediately as those SHIELD agents fired on the protesting crowd but instead it's like a day later.  Captain Bucky shows up to help out another rioting crowd being manipulated by spiked bottles of water distributed by the newly capitalist Red Skull.  And I mean he does help out the crowd.  The only folks Cap knocks around are the freakin riot police.  Uh...Cap?  Police not bad guys, okay?  Busting the wrong heads here.  Jesus, Brubaker, put your wannabe anarchism back in the bag!  I can see him writing this issue wearing a V For Vendetta mask, I really can.  Just like Brubaker, though.  Every other issue is good while the inbetween issues are just okay.

Blue Beetle - This series surprises me at times.  This issue was a knock out.  The last issue saw Jaime Reyes lose his scarab and now he's running around bare assed on a Reach starship until he gets a hold of a regulation uniform and a pair of goggles and, oh this was awesome, comes out looking EXACTLY like Ted Kord!  Oooohhhh, I love how this series doesn't ignore everything that came before it like every "updated" superhero title does.  I love these nods to the character's legacy while driving things forward story wise.  At times I think I should drop this title while at other times I wanna fucking frame it.  The storyline itself is on a much smaller scale then it should be (they connected it with Green Lantern for goodness' sakes) but all things considered I'm very pleased with the book.  I gotta re-read the past couple of issues to really remember what the hell is going on but right now I approve.  Next issue is the anniversary issue so I'm expecting lots of big action and...well, just lots!

Haven't read anything else.  Thor has proved an utter disappointment so far.  I'm gonna drop it.  Cable/Deadpool is over with #50.  Well, it's pretty stupid anyway.  JSA is taking its sweet friggin time doing anything.  Geoff Johns can craft fast paced stories and this one is foot tappingly slow in its pacing.  Not to mention it seems to come out on a less then monthly basis.  Angel is good, Action Comics, again by Geoff Johns, is kicking my ass hardcore with the current story.  Batman  is very good too, written by Grant Morrison.  Last issue...what happened last issue?  Think it was  a cliffhanger.  I remember it being excellent shit, but I gotta re-read it.

Between that and The Forgotten Man by Amity Shlaes I got my lots of reading to do.

WORDS!

The Oscars

Caught as much as I could.

Good to see No Country For Old Men take the major awards. I haven't seen it, and I hear-tell that the ending is infuriatingly bad, but I'm a fan of the Coen Brothers. Raising Arizona is one of my all time favorite movies. O Brother, Where Art Thou? is also a movie I can watch over and over again. I'm absolutely gonna make it a point to nab me a copy of No Country soon as I can. And cheers to Javier Bardem for winning Best Supporting Actor.

Did I also mention I'm super happy that There Will Be Blood lost? Cause Paul Thomas Anderson is an asshole. Boogie Nights and Punch Drunk Love are two of the worst movies I have ever seen. Granted, he can make actors act like you wouldn't fucking believe (Adam Sandler was in-fucking-credible in Punch Drunk Love) but the movies are so over the top pretentious that...well, when Mark Wahlberg takes out his prick at the end of Boogie Nights? See, that's really Anderson's prick. He's showing off his mighty artist penis. It's huge and yours isn't so nerrrrr! I got so fucking pissed off after seeing that movie. I mean, really, what felt like ten hours in the theater, needing to take a piss so massive only to see Wahlberg's/Anderson's fuck-stick at the end? Christ almighty but I hope there's a Hell just so Paul Thomas Anderson goes there and is raped by Satan for all eternity. Oh, and Punch Drunk Love was just fucking stupid.

Still, kudos to Daneil Day Lewis for winning Best Actor.

My happy moment was seeing Ratatouille win for Best Animated Feature. Best movie I saw last year and easily one of the best animated films of all time.

Was disappointed Enchanted didn't win for Best Song. Happy Working Song was fucking hysterical with the pigeons and rats and roaches and the pigeons eating the roaches and...man, just crazy funny stuff. Shocking Disney didn't take it. Disney always takes it. Disney practically owns that award. Guess cause they haven't done any animated musicals in so long that the Academy no longer feels obligated to award it to them.

And the French actress Marion Cotillard winning for the French movie.....ya know, it's not often a non-English speaker wins best actor/actress. In fact, I think, Roberto Benigni was the only one. You would think this would be more celebrated as Cotillard would be the first non-English speaking actress to win in that category. Instead, the audience was pretty fucking surprised that it was her and not the Julie Christie or Ellen Page. Hell, I had never heard of this movie, La Vie en Rose, until tonight. Guess neither did most of the Academy.

The Oscars was mostly the same old self-congratulatory industry back slapping as usual but with a lot more Oscar reverence. Cool seeing a complete list of Best Picture winners and all, but honestly no one reminsces about the Oscars that much. It's nice to watch if you're amovie fan, but we don't wanna stay up for over three hours for this shit. If I had my way the only detours around the awarding would be for the songs (which is part of the awarding process anyway), the tributes to dead actors and producers and the opening monologue (and the odd in-between so the host can introduce the presenters). Otherwise it would be a real meat and potatoes show. However, I was on the can for most of it, but near as I can tell I'm glad there was no interpretive dance. THANK GOD!

Oh, and one more thing. John Stewart? Sucked! Oh my God, that was awful! Was he playing fucking Wii Tennis? Is that his idea of fucking hosting? Jesus fucking Harold Christ, that was some of the unfunniest hosting I've ever seen out of an Oscars ever. Really, that was just awful. Really, if it wasn't just entirely unforgettable it was mind numbingly stupid. My God, it really makes Whoopi Goldberg's turns look good. Ugh, please, I never want to see John Stewart host another Oscars for as long as I live. I will say one good thing, was him letting the female half of the duo who won best song come out later and give an acceptance speech. Awkward, but I thought it was very nice of him. That and his comment about the only time you see a black or woman president in the movies is when an asteroid is about to hit the earth made me chuckle. Otherwise I didn't care for his performance at all.

Overall, I think I'm quite satisfied with the outcomes. Don't think I saw more then three nominess, Ratatouille, Pirates and Sweeney Todd. But judging from what I've read I think the right movies and actors won. Now I have no excuse for not seeing the winners. Thankfully, that's what DVD is for.

CORRECTION: Strike that, I didn't realize Ratatouille was up for Best Original Screenplay which was won by Juno. Okay, fuck Juno. Everything I've heard about that movie is stupid. Feminist/hipster trash made up to look like a heartfelt comedy. Fuck Juno, Brad Bird was robbed.

Coraline

Wonderful book!

A very nice little scary tale about a girl who finds an alternate world with alternate parents who quite literally want to love her to death.

It's a children's book really, but it mostly seems to be written for adults who preferred the kiddy tales from when they were young as opposed to the crap released today.  Gaiman knows his shit.

I should give this or get a newer copy for my niece.  Not now, it might be a bit much for her, but eventually.

Again with the wine

I almost didn't go to the store this morning cause my idiot replacement didn't realize she was supposed to show up (or got drunk the night before, whatever).  Didn't get home until 8:30.

Wanting to stay home and let my throbbing foot rest, I changed my mind when I realized I wouldn't be able to grab any wine Sunday morning cause as I found out you can't buy alcohol on a Sunday before noon in the State of Texas.  News to me!  So off to the store.

So I ended up grabbing a merlot (Fetzer, again) and a sauvignon blanc (Kendall-Jackson, and hopefully not bum wine material).  I was thinking about getting a reisling, but it's supposed to be a lot like a Gewurz and I wanna try something a little different.  And merlot...well, I just said fuck it.

Got a lot of leftover ham.  Might crack one open with something else.

Did also get a giant bag of grapes which I really didn't need.  Yummy grapes.  Mmmmmmmmm................

Summer of 1787

Finished reading it this morning and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Not knowing much about the Convention, this was a real eye opener.  David O. Stewart has some biases, especially in regards to the Electoral College, and he seems to concentrate on the slavery issue almost to the detriment of everything else (though, hell, not like I've read anything else on the Convention) but overall this was a fantastic read.  It gets into enough detail that someone who needs a primer, like me, can walk away getting a great deal out of the book.  And I did!

Getting to know guys like Rutledge and Wilson and Mason and Randolph and Morris and Gerry and Brearly and...well, there was a lot of these guys.  And delving that far back into the history of the nation was absolutely worthwhile.  When they teach you this stuff in junior high they totally get it wrong.  Totally.  Oversimplified or what, but it was much more complex and involved then I imagined.  The way it was taught to me in school I was left with the impression that the process was deterministic.  Fact was they had no fucking clue what they were doing.  All they knew was that they needed a better governing document and that was it.  In school they basically told us, "well, these were the issues and this is how the were resolved, simple simple simple..."  Total bullshit.  Seems by by the end more then a few had bad blood between them.  Washington and Morris ended their lifelong friendship.  Hell, no one was happy with the final product!  With the government under the Articles of Confederation basically collapsing they left the Convention thinking it was this Constitution or nothing.  And honestly, and considering that few changes were ever really made, I think those guys would be surprised to find out that it has worked out for as long as it has.

And on and on.....so yes, highly recommended for anyone who needs a place to start learning about the Constitutional Convention.  Even includes a copy of the Constitution (sans amendments) in the back.

Next up...well, I think I'm gonna detour around Neil Gaiman's Coraline before I start reading The Forgotten Man by Amity Shlaes.

Annihilation

Finally read this series when I got the volume one softcover in.

BAD ASS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Loved it.  Just a great series.  Some of the miniseries were only so so, but overall the story kicked all amounts of ass.  Tons of epic action, and just enough character drama to keep it from getting dull.  There was this one moment between Nova and Peter Quill and Nova and Ronan the Accuser that was pretty cool shit.  Nova was always kind of dumbshit before, but now he's a serious bad ass.  He's finally leaning towards the A-list.  I'm pleased.

Peter Quill is a sarcastic prick.  Love 'em.

Gamorra is pretty nearly naked throughout the whole story.  But what's an epic space drama without naked chicks I ask?

Thanos finally stopped looking gay and then got killed.  Again.

Drax...now, here's my one major complaint.  Drax looks like a hip-hop gangsta in space now.  Mind you, the revisioning works well for him, but the costume sucks.  His miniseries, reprinted in volume one was...odd.  He was the interstellar gangsta surrounded by interstellar rednecks.  In Alaska.  The hell?  It was bizarre.  New Drax is pretty good, but that story was only barely passable.  And why were the Alaskan villagers written as Southerners?  Just...dumb.

Annihilus was the baddest motherfucker in the universe thoughout this series.  Oh man, any third Annihilation series (and I know there will be one) needs a villain like that!  Supremely evil and Annihilus was finally on the level of someone not to fuck with.

Overall, I'd give the whole series four stars.

Gewurztraminer

Sweetest wine I've ever had.

I think I may be chilling more then I ought to.  I just stick it in the fridge and then pull it out as needed.  Should I let it warm up a little?  Or does it matter?

I need to look this up.  "Whatever your preference," my ass!  What I need is a frame of reference first so I can actually develop a preference. 

I'm having difficulty with whites.

I was thinking about trying a reisling next, but maybe a sauvignon blanc is in order.  It's supposed to be more on the dry side.

As for a red, maybe a merlot, maybe a syrah.....yet to really decide.  Probably merlot, but I might get a shiraz like what my brother-in-law gets.

After a couple of weeks of almost nothing but coffee and wine, Coke is having a hard time comparing.  Jesus, I'm not losing my taste for soda, am I?!?!?!?!  That'd be something.

Some comic reviews?

Pretty good week with the books.  New Countdown, new Hulk, New Herc, new Grendel and some others.

Hulk #2.  Sucked.  Badly.  Jeph Loeb is wrting.  Jeph Loeb seems to be slumming.  Goddamn, but this shit was just stupid.  I mean really, this makes the stuff he did for Awesome Entertainment read like fucking Gaiman.  Ugh.  Terrible.  Lousiest introduction to the new Red Hulk (which we never saw in issue #1, or at least not in red).  And what the fuck was he thinking with the Hindenburg reference?  DId Loeb honestly think that was funny?  Christ, that was painful.  Ed McGuiness does a good job with the art, but we don't need two fucking two page spreads.  That's just lazy.  However, I blame Loeb.  I expect a lot more reading involved when I'm paying three fucking dollars for this shit.

Death of the New Gods #6.  Awesome.  Tough shit for Orion, but a great way to go out, unlike Barda who went out like a bitch.

Grendel #4.  Fucking awesome.  Little slow paced, little downtime, sweet mystery ending though.

Incredible Hercules #114.  Bad ass.  The little coyote is too cute.  Fucking Black Widow!  Seriously, this title is excellent.  All these flashbacks to Herc's past are too cool.  Too bad this title won't get more then a year before it's canceled.

Countdown 10 is cool shit nowadays too.  Return of Mary Marvel!

Ultimates 3 #3.  Oh God!  Oh, fucking God!  Why, Loeb?  Why?  Hot artists won't make up for the shit you're peddling on us!  I knew this two issues ago, why am I still reading?  Garbage.

Warbound #3.  S'okay.  Kinda tedious.  Needs to wrap up.  Felt like filler.

Justice League of America #18.  Again, s'okay.  Ed Benes is a good artist.  The story is.....well, I haven't paid much attention.  Liked McDuffy's back-up story though.

The Flash #237.  Seriously, Mark Waid wasn't trying so much.  Guest writer I like.  This story was fun.  New writer next issue.  Please with the more running and kicking ass thnx.

Overall a sweet haul, but Loeb needs to retire.  He's just not trying.  He did the greatest Batman story in The Long Halloween, surely The Hulk and The Ultimates are no-brainers.  Sad, fucking sad.

Had a coffee drinkers moment today

Or, rather, what I would imagine one looks like after years of reading Fox Trot.

Got up, checked the mail, didn't get shit.  Went over, put on a pot of coffee and went down to watch TV for a few minutes.  Got back up, went over to the pot and the damn thing looked empty.  Thought maybe I didn't have the pot directly under the spiggot to allow it to pour into the pot (spring loaded auto stop dealiemawhatchie).  Jiggle it, thing was full of water.  What the hell?  Pop open the top and realized what was wrong.  Forgot to actually put coffee in the damn machine.  Put the goddamn filter in but forgot the actual coffee.

Empty out water.

Discard soaking wet filter.

Start again.

Now, back to wine

So tonight I went and got a new bookshelf.  It doesn't match the other one in the living rooms.  Screw it, esthetics isn't my specialty.  But I needed a new bookshelf cause my DVD collection is taking up most of the room on the old one.

Right, so picked up two more bottles of wine.

One, a pinot noir from some company called Red Bicyclette.  The other, a gewurztraminer (a German white wine) from Fetzer.

Red Bicyclette...makes me think it's a French bumwine.  But I wanted to try some pinot, it was $8 bucks and Target has a very limited selection.

Once I got home I got impatient and cracked it open.  Not bad.  Not bad.  Need to try it a little more.  Try it with a proper meal suitable for a pinot (though it does seem to be a very versatile wine judging by what I'm reading).

I can say that I think I liked the cabernet better.  The chardonnay was pretty good, but I'm kinda coming to the conclusion I'm a red wine kinda guy.  That or Fetzer makes lousy white wines.  Course I could be drinking lousy wine regardless, how am I to know?

Anyway, I'm really liking this experiment.  Couple of glasses of wine gets a guy really relaxed.  A hot woman could really take advantage of me if she wanted to (note to hot women, take advantage of me).  I've never been a drinker at all but this suits me very much I think.  I still wanna try a real French wine but research should come first I think.  The French, from what I've read, seem to experiment a lot more whereas everything here is pretty straight forward.

Actually, I did want to get a sauvignon blanc but all they had was a single $20 dollar bottle and I was already spending a little too much.  HEB has a bigger selection.  Really should drop by Feldman's when I get a chance, cause they sell real wine.

If I can have a bit of a Macross moment...

PRAISE CULTURE!

Goddammit!

I hate my job.

Dealing with people is fucking killing me.  Dealing with sleazy assholes that think they can hold your ass to some kinda moral fire is impossible.

Case in point.  Dude comes in, totally sloshed.  Okay, first look tells me this guy is gonna be more trouble than he's worth, he's drunk as hell and smells like an ashtray, so I try to walk him.  I say we got nothin but suites (nonsmoking), rate's $119.00 plus tax (actually $109.00, there's high and then there's you're full of shit high).  He's incredulous at this, says the parking lot is empty (we are 3/4s full in fact, parking lot be damned).  I say sorry man, but that's all we got.  He asks for a military discount (he's Army) so I drop it to $105.00.  Well, guess I lost my opportunity to walk him, but at our capacity (and because of the unseen date in the car...always is) $105.00 is a fantastic rate.  Hell, only five bucks more then he woulda paid for a standard size room ($99.00).  Then the guy starts giving me his line, "okay, man, whatever, I'll take it...*hands over card*...did two years in Iraq for you, but you wanna play this game..." etc etc etc.  Man, I was fucking floored.  Granted he was in the Army, but I sincerely doubt that dude even knows where Iraq is on a map.  It was fucking disgusting.  I dropped his card back on the counter, told him my brother-in-law had actually been to Iraq twice and I was not gonna play his little game and then walked away.  Christ, I was just sickened.  Then he ranted a  little, claimed to know the mayor and said I was fired and then left.

Just...stupid.  My brother-in-law is a vet.  I've dealt with a lot of veterans from Iraq.  I do what I can for these guys.  While they always like to let you know ("yeah, man, looking for a room, cause I just got back from Balad...") it's cool.  They throw it out there, but they don't expect anything out of it.  I'll get 'em the best rates I can get 'em, no problem, least I can do.  Come in like an asshole, don't expect to get nothin.  Dude I've never met tries to give me some shit about bleeding for me personally (what are you, Christ?) and I'll tell you what that is some fucking disgusting shit right there.  Especially from someone who's never been (really, you can tell the difference between Army guys who have been and who haven't or are waiting to go).  I would think it dishonors the guys who have been.  Just not cool.

Is it ironic that before that I ordered a Captain America collection?

Summer of 1787

Yeah, I'm enjoying this book very much now.  It starts a little slow but picks up greatly with the convention.  Considering the most I had ever read about it was in friggin junior high I didn't know jack shit.  This is very enlightening.  In hindsight it might seem all very simple, like if they were only trying to grasp for the right solutions.  Typical politicians, they were all grasping for the most power.  Sure, now it's all nicely balanced, but back then they were vicious.  And that was just at the convention!

I really need to read more about this era, cause I know far far FAR less then I thought I knew.

Jericho

Good shit, even if I can't remember a thing that happened last season.

So there's two governments, one west of the Mississippi in Cheyenne and one east in Ohio.  Texas is the major power broker between the two. 

I saw the Texas thing a mile away.  Seriously, if you're a left-wing Hollywood type, and you imagined the country dissolving, which State would you choose to be the slimiest and most opportunistic out of the bunch and be the metaphor for everything you hate about President Bush?  BINGO!

Overall, I thought it was a strong opener.  Only half paid attention last season, watching it while I ironed, but it did pick up greatly towards the end when they revealed more of the story and they managed to pick up successfully where they left off (if with a smaller budget).  They introduced one bad ass character, a military governor with the Cheyenne government.  They shed a great deal of light on where the story stands insofar as the main story goes.  Very cool shit.  The massive amounts of compression they're having to do (toss off which countries got blamed and their fates in short order, the character bit with the farmer and the IRS agent) haven't hurt it so far.  Hell, considering how little happened last year this might help things get on track.  Hopefully these next six episodes will prove enough to justify a full 22 episode season next fall.

Wine thoughts

Need to try French stuff.

Need to find reasonably priced French stuff.

Need to buy reasonably priced French stuff.

Need to consume reasonably priced French stuff.

Yum.

Experimenting with wine

Went to Target today to get a couple of things and figured, while I was there, to get a couple of bottles of wine.  I was gonna last week at HEB but it was on a Sunday before noon.  Sunday.  Before noon.  This is news to me.  FUCKING BLUE LAWS!  And ya know what?  I know I sold booze prior to noon on a couple of occasions working at Circle K.  No one ever said nothin, I swear!

Right, so picked up a couple of bottles of wine.

Two bottles of Fetzer, one a red (cabernet sauvignon) and one a white (chardonnay).  Nothing expensive, they were like $7 bucks a pop, but I hear Fetzer is a pretty good place to start.

I've always been confused about the rules of drinking wine.  Chilled or room temperature, what goes good with what kinda dish, and on and on.  I invariably get something wrong, screw it up and leave myself grimacing with every swallow (I have little taste for alcohol to begin with and that doesn't help).

But I think I did something right.

Okay, so tonight I cracked open the cabernet.  Red is for room temperature!  I am learning!

Had it with a steak and baked potato (mmmm, fancy!).

I liked it!  I know I've had cabernet before but I think I always made the mistake of chilling it.  It was a lot better this time around.  Having an ill defined vocabulary when it comes to wine I can't really describe it but I was pleased.  I also discovered that breathing is very important.  Drinking anything always involves clinching the back of your nasal passage closed (CHUG!) and knocking it back.  Apparently all that smelling and swirling and the like isn't just a bunch of pretentious bullshit.  It really is like half the point!  Breathe the wine in, slowly...I know I've heard that advice before but I guess I just ignored it.

Goddamn but I am in desperate need of some culturing.

I'm gonna have to buy a copy of Sideways now, I just know it.

Experimenting is gonna be interesting.  I lack refinement and have a lot to learn about wine, but I am learning to appreciate it.

Been meaning to post this

2007 year ender!

Engine
Engine - Superholic
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
Corrosion of Conformity - Blind
NoMeansNo - All Roads Lead to Ausfahrt
Zoe Keating - One Cello x 16: Natoma
Shadows Fall - The Art of Balance
Shadows Fall - The War Within
Shadows Fall - Fallout From The War
Shadows Fall - Threads of Life (2007)
HellYeah (2007)
Type O Negative - Dead Again (2007)
Megadeth - United Abominations (2007)
Porcupine Tree - Fear of a Blank Planet (2007)
Pat Metheny Group - The Way Up
Dream Theater - Sytematic Chaos (special edition) (2007)
Bubblemath - Such Fine Particles In The Universe
Sentenced - Greatest Kills
Magnum - Road to Paradise: Anthology 1978 - 1983
Slave to the Power - Iron Maiden Tribute
Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
Mastodon - Leviathan
Mozart - Requiem
Machine Head - The Blackening (2007)
Mnemic - Passenger (2007)
Paradigm Blue - LiquidEyes
Nile - Ithyphallic (2007)
Behemoth - The Apostacy (2007)
The Black Dahlia Murder - Nocturnal (2007)
Job For A Cowboy - Genesis (2007)
Psyopus - Our Puzzling Encounters Considered (2007)
Dimmu Borgir - In Sorte Diaboli (special edition) (2007)
Mike Keneally - Boil That Dust Speck (remaster) (2007)
Mike Keneally - Hat (remaster) (2007)
Van Halen - Diver Down
Rush - Power Windows
Avenged Sevenfold (special edition) (2007)
Coheed & Cambria - No World For Tomorrow (special edition) (2007)
Scorpions - Humanity Hour 1 (2007)
Rush - Snakes & Arrows (2007)

I'm kinda loathe to rate these albums cause the dinky little CD player is...well...dinky.  And sucks.  And barely plays anything anymore.  So a lot of these albums were hardly listened to simply cause the damn thing skips constantly, if it picks the damn albums up at all, making it impossible to listen to them.  It's fucking horrible!  I'm gonna end up going to Walmart to buy a cheap $30 Durabrand piece of shit just to have something to listen to music on.  Surely it'll work better then what I have! (I do have a smaller, also dinky, clock radio piece of shit that plays well but sounds horrible without headphones, and honestly, except albums like Keating and Metheny, I can't just lie/sit there while listening.)

So instead of rating I'll just make a few comments.

Megadeth was excellent, but it's the cast off stuff from The System Has Failed and to me, it shows a little.  Great new band backing Mustaine, but there's...something...missing.  Still a fucking great album.  Rush?  Power Windows...I didn't expect that.  Very 80s new wave but I don't hate it.  It's very interesting.  Snakes and Arrows has its highs and lows, but it's a solid release.  Loving Van Halen's Diver Down.  Didn't realize it was a covers album though.  Was kinda disappointed in the new Nile.  The production stinks.  Also, I got it with Behemoth and Psyopus.  Those are hard to put down.  Psyopus was a fucking mind bender.  Behemoth made a watershed death metal album.  Classic.  New Coheed is pretty good too (Mr. Henry would love it).  Avenged Sevenfold made probably the most fun rock/metal album all year.  Man, I was unsure about this album but, hey, I got it for Christmas.  Dream Theater was a let down.  Again.  They haven't done anything to knock me on my ass since Six Degrees honestly.   The new one has its moments, but honestly it feels...stupid.  The lyrics...what the hell?  Jesus, did Roadrunner make them sign a contract stating they needed to make lyrics for 12 year olds?  Just...no.  Mnemic is like Meshuggah but with melody.  Not bad.  Machine Head are still a bunch of sell outs, except now they sold out to fans of European melodic death metal.  Don't get me wrong, the album is pretty good, but I'm not fooled at all by it.  Shadows Fall are another disappointment.  Art of Balance was pretty good in that it seems to just visit all their old 80s thrash influences.  A couple of songs sound like Kill 'Em All era Metallica.  Fallout From The War, which was an excuse to get out of contract with their label, features leftovers and rarities.  Again, pretty good.  The War Within is forgettable and Threads sucked.  HellYeah was a definite vanity project with a couple of really good singles.  The best stuff that I got in 2007 was Zoe Keating, NoMeansNo, Paradigm Blue, Porcupine Tree, Behemoth, Psyopus and Keneally.

So overall an okay year cursed by my crappy CD player.

Science!

Almost forgot to mention

Heard GNR's Chinese Democracy on the radio the other day.

Totally forgettable.



Strike that, it's horrible.

Axl Rose is a fucking joke.

Don't get me wrong, he's been one for years now but I mean now he is the fucking definition of the word.

Nearly got killed tonight

What in the fuck is wrong with people?!?

So I pull out of the drive way, leaving for work, and some asshat comes zipping between me and my driveway.  Now, my truck is long, so when I pull out I don't exactly leave a lot of space to drive through on the road.  This asshat was going about 45.  The killer thing?  I saw the asshat.  He was down a ways.  A ways away.  Now a guy driving at a reasonable speed at that distance would leave me more then enough time to pull out, stop, shift into drive and start along without the guy in the street having to slow down much, if at all.  There is also a dip in the road before that point to force (reasonable) drivers to drive slow.  This fuckhead was speeding up.

Christ, I don't know if the guy was drunk or stupid.  All I know is if I hadn't hit the brake when I did dude would be going in anything but a straight line.  Hell, if I started forward just a second sooner I would never have seen the guy to begin with and he'd have plowed right into me.  Woulda totaled my truck.  Woulda killed him.

Had the shakes all night.  I've only ever been in once accident at a low speed (my truck was fine though the other guy's little Ranger was pretty fucked) in the parking lot at the movies.  This would have been devastating if it happened.

So I was shaken for a few hours.

Not until I wandered over and read this post at Vodkapundit.  It wasn't the post, but that picture of McCain fucking kills me.  I spent ten minutes laughing myself stupid at that thing, seeing him with a pipe, a sailor hat and a can of spinach cackling like Popeye with the music playing behind him.  That relaxed me.

So thank you, Stephen Green and John McCain!

Scalp is cold

Bald again.

Awesome.

I like having hair.  When it goes mullety then something has to give.

Work

Sucks.

My replacement didn't show up this morning.  Didn't call, didn't hear a peep from her.  Didn't get out until 9 o'clock.  Burned my hand on hot coffee when some jackoff started the machine right after a fresh pot was already made.  Then they made fun of me.  Then I was bitched out by some French Canadian woman, in front of everyone, cause she had to wait while I made more fresh coffee.  Bitched me out twice in fact.  Saying that this shit would get me fired in the north east.  Cause apparantly coffee fills itself in the northeast.  Magically.  Never once being touched by human hands.

The owner, Ron, took over for me while he waited for the new guy to come in.

Nice guy.

I'm cursing Anel's name right now.

I need to find a job where I work with grown ups and not stupid children.  This is killing me.

Soon.  SOON!  The magic words will be said.  Magic words of great magical magical-ness.

Good reading

Here

Giants Won

I missed like 90% of the game, but being the contrarian asshole that I am, I was rooting for the Giants.  Not that I actually watch Football, but this makes me happy.  Rudy may have failed me, but the Giants certainly didn't.

Ate myself sick

Took Mom out to Olive Garden for her birthday.

Goddamn, I ate myself sick.

Bruscetta, pasta vigiolli, chicken parmiagana and a tira misu.  And bread.  Lots and lots of bread.

Oh, how I want to curl up and nap, really I do.  Alas, the whole thing took forever.  Everyone had a birthday tonight.  Took 50 minutes just to get seated.  Should have gone to Waldenbooks since the mall is right there.  Ah well, another time.  Overall, it was nice.  Really looking over the wine list I realized it was all teh same shit I could find at HEB for about half the price.  Saw them selling a bottle of Yellow Tail for $20 bucks, some odd.  Jesus!  I can buy a bottle at HEB for $6!  Who're they fucking kidding?  Coke, please!

Actually, it got me thinking about maybe experimenting with wines on occasion.  Yes?  No?  Maybe?  Ah, shit, not much to really get excited over down here.  Maybe in the morning I'll pick up a cheap bottle of that Australian shiraz my brother-in-law likes.  Red wine is supposed to be good for you.

Speaking of which, maybe my grocery bill will be dead cheap.  I have no intention of eating much Sunday night.  I'm probably gonna still be too miserable from overeating.  Pick up some household stuff, a few bits and bobs, a box of All Bran and some soda?  Sounds about right.

Lost season four

Pretty good, pretty good.  Some interesting stuff happens.  The flash forward dropped a giant question for viewers to ponder.

I can't remember if this episode was filmed before or after the writer's strike began.  I think it was before.  I think some were filmed after.  That might affect the quality if they couldn't get rewrites on set.

Goddamn, you think ABC or whoever produces this show would strike a seperate deal to get a full season out of this show!

--
I revealed the Red debt bomb set to explode in your bank account.