SameOldSchmidt

Tina and Genny are in Illinois for a few day to visit Tina’s sister, so I’ve been left to my own devices over the weekend. I’ve gone to Knickerbockers two days in a row to see The Favors; I think that technically qualifies me as a groupie. The fellas are going to the Zoo Bar for a 40/20 show tonight but I pussied out because I’m supposed to record an episode of Dead Politics with Mat & Deejay later tonight. Maybe I’ll swing in there if I’m done with the podcast early enough.

I’ve just started playing Professor Layton and the Curious Village on my DS. It’s a really cool game, a perfect fit for the system. I love the comic Penny Arcade did on Layton. Play the game for a few minutes, you’ll get it.

I went to The Ross yesterday to see The Orphanage with some pals. It was a good time, I hadn’t been to that theater for several years. I think the last time was back in ‘99 or 2000 to see Princess Mononoke. Reactions to The Orphanage varied across our group, but I think most of us thought it was pretty decent. You can hear our thoughts in Splattercast #66.

Before The Orphanage, we saw a trailer for Persepolis. It’s an animated movie based on a well-liked graphic novel. I don’t know if I’ll make time to see Persepolis at the theater, but this trailer was very cool. It had a garagey cover of Eye of the Tiger playing and it was just really rockin’.

And lastly, I read about this music/radio site called Pandora over on The Stygian Hollows. I’m having a lot of fun with Pandora, it’s great because I like hearing new (new to me, at least) music but I don’t have the gumption or inclination to learn about music on my own. Pandora takes a single recommendation from you, a single band or song that you like, and produces a string of music that it thinks you will like based on that one piece of information.

Shout-outs to Phat over on the SCS board for sharing this link. I’m not a huge hip-hop guy (although I do like it just fine) but this interview is interesting to me for whatever reason. When they get into the context of what is modern hip-hop, that’s almost a parallel to other debates I’ve had, like what is or isn’t a classic horror movie, etc.

Caution: dirty words, NSFW.

Went to see this “nerdcore” rapper MC Frontalot tonight. It was a good time, I was really impressed that he had a live band and not just a DJ.

The openers were fun, too. Some local guys called The Awkwards and some dude named Schaefer the Dark Lord, whose mother apparently tours with him - which was a little weird. I wouldn’t want my mom there when I did a song comprised almost entirely of F-bombs.

I picked up the new Dethklok album last night, from the awesome Adult Swim TV show Metalocalypse. It’s absurd and jokey, like the show, but there’s also some pretty rockin’ heavy metal music behind it all. Some of the song titles: Bloodtrocuted, Briefcase Full of Guts and Hatredcopter.

It’s nowhere near something like DragonForce for total cheesemetal bliss, but it’s still great fun. Thumbs up from me.

I’m not the world’s biggest NIN fan; just never really got into ‘em. I do appreciate the sentiment Trent Reznor expresses in this clip, though. Basically, he says that labels have made his music too expensive to buy, so just go ahead and gank it. Certainly, he must only be speaking for NIN’s stuff; he’s not saying go download other bands’ music, or a copy of Photoshop or whatever and I don’t take it that way.

Nate and I went to check out the Corrupt Officials and Awesome Dirtbike at Knickerbockers last night.  It was a pretty good time.  I had never seen Awesome Dirtbike play before, even though I’m pals with those guys.  I guess they usually have a live puppet show, which I’m sure is… interesting, but their puppeteer wasn’t available.

The Corrupt Officials are a blast.  They’ve got this rap song about the Cornhuskers that should seriously replace the lame prog-rock tunnel walk theme the Huskers currently use.