Next President of the United States

Old, bullheaded and potentially reckless John McCain is neck and neck with Obama.  I only watched a short bit of the debate on Friday before I felt offended that someone with his rude and short demeanor could even make it this far in the campaign.  I'm not even going to dignify his vice president's persona with my thoughts.  Of course Matt Damon said it best (thanks Marloes).  

Are there really enough people in this country scared of "the terrorists" to think we need to be in this war?  Are there really enough racists in the home of the free to block Barack? 

 

We've already had 8 years of douchebag.  I'm going to be really ashamed to be an American if McPain takes office. 

Also, look at your opponent in a debate, John.

Focus Group @ the Hole in the Wall 9/28/08

I didn't attend ACL this year. The only musical performance I witnessed this weekend was Focus Group, an  unknown band of 4 (formerly 5) recent students of St. Edward's. I discovered this small troupe through a friend I met at St. Ed’s who lived in my dorm freshman year. She dates a member of the band. Therein lies my bias but it's quite weak, I promise (also disregard the hour upon which I write this... I just got home).

Donald plays bass and guitar. 
Mike plays drums and bass.
Andrew plays button-machine-thing-2000 and drums. 
Seth plays trumpet and keyboard.
They used to have a permanent drummer but he moved and "got so good at drums he had to study piano, and is now so classical he's studying Mozart."

I've made it to 4.5 shows now (one got shut down by the cops - I'm just that hardcore) and they have been the undisputed highlight of every lineup. The thing that sets this act apart from other guitars, drums and keyboards is the thing-a-ma-jig that I don't know the name of (you'll find your head bobbing at high speeds). Andrew plays a small electronic... box on which he can remix sounds, produce different noises and loop all kinds of crazy beats etc. I don't know enough about music to explain all the stuff that has been explained to me but I want to be sure that I express how far this element distinguishes this Group's sound. It also helps to have a trombone player in your crew who knows what's up -- and Seth does. Each member's input politely accents each other's contribution.

It's pretty tough to explain what kind of music it is.  That's where you're in luck. Boom - listen for yourself.  I suggest "White Folk is Freaky" and "Very Truly Yours" to get you hooked.

The venue:

The Hole in the Wall is a delightful 'little' bar on Guadalupe at 24th.  Walking in, thats what it seems like but walking back, you realize how much space this establishment occupies - there are 2 indoor bars, each with its own performance stage and an outdoor bar with an entourage of many picnic tables that seem to welcome graffiti (as do the walls - but the professional kind).  The setup is very cool checkitout.

"..born under unusual circumstances"

You know those movie trailers that you rarely see? The ones where you have a chill run up your spine by the end? I saw one of those this weekend - "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button".  Excuse me if you've already seen it but this was such a beautiful trailer.  

With only a few short sentences at the beginning and 7 words at the end, this trailer seemed to communicate an awful lot about the movie.  It's obvious that "Button" is full of wonderful cinematography, boosted by an excellent use of color.  From what's heard in the trailer and from the few snippets I've read, the musical score is enchanting.  

I'm with other bloggers who sound worried that the trailers are giving away too much though.  The one I'm posting succeeds all too well at telling an entire story on its own.  Either way, I'm looking forward to seeing it -- watch and enjoy. (With all my talk of cinematography.. I suggest you just watch it in HD...)

My Fellow Bloggers

I made this blog for my Entertainment Journalism class at St. Edward's University.  If you enjoy it, perhaps my classmates have something to offer you as well.  Check out their blogs for a better smell of St. Ed's.

Danielle Bauman

Christian Cabazos

Claire Cella

Tommy Collins

Celeste Diaz

Victoria Estrada

Mackenzie Jenkins

Marloes Lemsom

Jennifer Obenhaus

Mandy Odgers

Caroline Wallace

Geoffrey West

Allison Willis

Free Burrito Day at Chipotle

If you're a St. Edward's student...

Thats right, today Chipotle is giving away free burritos to anyone who can produce a St. Edward's ID.  A free burrito and nothing else.  The guy asked me innocently if I would like a drink with that.  When I said sure, he looked pretty excited to be ringing something up for the first time in a while.  I changed my mind.

If you read this in time to go grab yourself a free burrito, you can be sure to see a lot of familiar faces.  I'd bet that business at the Stedwards cafeteria was hurtin today.

Radiohead: "Reckoner" Remix Contest

Last April, Radiohead invited fans to remix their song, "Nude" for a contest.  Contestants could buy different tracks of guitar, bass, vocals etc. from iTunes, plug them right into garage band and get to mixing.  It birthed some incredibly creative material including the video posted below, in which one contestant recreates the song entirely with sounds made by old electronics.  More on that here.

Tomorrow, Radiohead will release similar tracks for "Reckoner" another hit song from their recent album, In Rainbows.  Contestants are to submit their work to the same place as the last time, http://radioheadremix.com/

More on the contest here.

There should be some interesting things in the making as of tomorrow.

Nerdy Review: Mariokart Wii

I wrote about the Nintendo Wii when it first arrived in my living room.  Now I've had it for a while and I've played more than my fair share of mario kart.  If you have played any of the earlier versions of the game, (super nintendo/64) you'll probably enjoy this one. 

 

The fact that you have to actually turn the controller in a little wheel changes the dynamics pretty drastically.  It's not too difficult to get used to, as most people have been making these hand motions in the older versions anyway.  The game has a a lot more items, almost too many.  A player will be racing happily, minding their own business, and suddenly they are struck by lightning, spun out by an earthquake and hit by a shell all one after the other.  

That aside, mariokart is about as user friendly as games get.  A friend's girlfriend sat down the other day to play it for the first time and beat 3 of my friends (including her boyfriend who was oh so thrilled).  Then again, that is what the Wii is famous for.  It's user friendly controls along with plenty of flashy colors, fun sounds and numerous levels makes it a perfect game for anyone who is playing for the first time or the hundredth, and 4 of them can do it at once.  The other day, we discovered an online function.  You can log one or two players onto a free Wii-live kind of network and play in races with up to 12 players from all over the world.  Every time we've tried it, we have played with people from places like Haiti, Sweden, France, Costa Rica etc.  Its a whole new chapter in a game that is pretty tough to get tired of.

Review: UT Tailgate

I'm the youngest in a family full of longhorns.  My mother, father and both brothers went to UT.  This weekend my dad came in town for the UT vs Rice game so we went to a family friend's tailgate.  I have to admit, as much as I don't care about UT football, there is something quite special about that many people gathering around a single event like that.

The game not starting until 6:00, we approached the tailgating area at around 3:30. Exiting from I-35 on MLK, burnt orange already covered the sidewalks.  People even had miniature versions of tailgates behind their cars in parking lots half a mile from the stadium.  Closer to the stadium, any combination of beer, burgers, boots, jeans, horse shoes, washers, fake blonde hair, and beer could be seen in any direction.  At the family friend's particular tailgate, four massive collapsable tents covered a 20 foot smoker and grill, tables wrapped around a kitchen area, a dual tap kegerator/trailer invention, wide screen TV with satellite reception, an industrial sized misting fan all with space for plenty of seating or standing space to spare.

Like I said, I don't care whether the longhorns win or lose but I can see how fun it must be to go to a school that actually has something that big to care about.  When a great play was made, I couldn't help but holler with the rest of them.  Granted: the beer helped.  A friend of mine left St. Ed's last year.  He told me he needed a bigger pond to swim in and wanted it to be in a place where there was a big enough sports team that the whole town invested in it.  I get it, I guess.

I would happily attend another UT tailgate in my burnt orange disguise.  It's a great way to spend a beautiful almost-fall Saturday.  

Late Review: Radiohead - "In Rainbows"

Radiohead is one of those bands that never disappoints. I remember standing in line at midnight at that record store on 24th and Guadalupe when Radiohead's "Hail to the Theif" was released in 2003. When "In Rainbows" was released, I was waiting like thousands of other fans, in front of my computer for the green light to download the album.

Aside from the history making method of releasing "In Rainbows" to the public, the album is a refreshingly beautiful piece of Radiohead's progression. Earlier albums like "Kid A" and "OK Computer" exhibit Radiohead's experimental side with songs full of computer generated sounds and effects.  "Hail to the Thief" met a perfect balance between crazy sounds and the use of more traditional instruments like piano.

"In Rainbows" is a welcomed change of pace.  Softer, lighter, calmer, eyes-closed beautiful.  The first song, "15 Step" makes starting the CD an energizing few seconds with a choppy electric beat and Thom Yorke's quick vocals which then smoothes out into a soft, comfortably hummable tune.  Songs like "Bodysnatchers" and "Jigsaw Falling into Place," stand out with a faster pace at the beginning and end of the album.  The ones that really suck you in are the bass-heavy songs "Nude" and "All I Need."  These somber songs of love and god-knows-what remind listeners how intensely heartfelt Radiohead's material can feel (last 60 seconds of "All I Need").  "Reckoner" stands alone as the album's most beautiful sonnet.  Light instrumentals, a maraca and Yorke's sweet, smooth vocals form the cornerstone to this dazzling song that just might make you cry.  Almost every song on this album deserves your close attention.  Once started from the beginning, "In Rainbows" will keep you in a delightful trance until the very end.

Tina Fey does Sarah Palin

I appreciate a good impression and it's been a while since I've seen one as right on as that of Sarah Palin by Tina Fey. I am glad I tivo'd last weekend's SNL because when everyone in all my classes was talking about it, I checked it out and had myself quite the chuckle. I had to look at some videos of the real Palin to really appreciate the majesty of Fey's impression. If you haven't seen it, (and as it's Thursday, I'm probably too late) DO IT.

While the impression of Palin is what I was looking forward to, Amy Poehler's Clinton impression was the funniest part of the skit. I'm gonna have to see "Baby Mama" now because those two women together equals comedic genius.

Articulate Rap Battle

A couple weeks ago, I posted about Break.com. I want to further my claim that this site provides some of the funniest material on the web.  I'm sure if you're reading this, you have some level of appreciation for perfect using of english.  Writing more about it before you see it isn't going to make the video funnier.  Let me know what you think.

Rap Battle Gone Bad Translated - Watch more free videos

énglish is Ünderstood by Ãll

Best Burger in Austin: Burger House

I'm not a big burger guy, myself. When I go to a new restaurant, I usually try something other than the sure-thing American Burger. I grew up in Dallas and if you are from Dallas, you probably already know its name but if you're not from Dallas, I'm sorry that you've had to wait this long to hear about the promised land that is Burger House. A secret recipe concocts its magical "special seasoning" which you will find on almost anything you order. Every time I eat there, as I taste the special seasoning, all the good memories of my past and future are sparked as my mouth waters in sheer delight. I have never taken a single person there who didn't think it was down right delicious. As I type this, my stomach is filled with cheeseburger and fries topped with the special seasoning. Let me tell you, it's one of the world's best legal highs. The reason I post this is because I am feeling particularly compelled to spread the gospel. Burger House is going on its third year having a location in Austin. For South Austinites, it's a tad far, but I assure you, the burger mecca is worth the quest. Located on Spicewood Springs off of Mopac, Burger House is this critic's number one burger in Austin. Tucked away in a nice neighborhood, Burger House has a warm, cedar, outdoor patio surrounded by bamboo covered with soft lighting at night time. For me it's a taste of home. Take my advice and treat yourself to something truly special. I don't think I'm exaggerating much.

Click.

Piano Class

Props to musicians.

I'm taking piano 1 this semester and it's the first time I've been made to sit down and read music since I was about 8 or 9.  I have forgotten how hard it is.  I always looked at music and thought to myself, "I could do that if I practiced." Ok well I stand by that, but the amount of practice is a lot more than I ever wanted to put in.

Its one thing to understand what symbol stands for what note and to know how long to hold those notes but to go from one to the next smoothly without thinking about it is pretty impressive.  My room mate plays the piano.  He plays those really hard songs that you learn in piano class but he plays them perfectly.  Gotta give it up to people who have put in that amount of time for something like that, especially if they can make a career out of it.  I think I'll be a musician yet.

Marc Sherman's sorta tour of Austin Cuisine

I had some friends come in town this weekend to visit. My impression was that everytime they come into town, they sit around someone's apartment watching TV. As they insisted on doing this most of the time, I did what I could to take them out for some food you can only find in Austin.

The first place I took them to was Juan in a Million. East of 35 on Cesar Chavez, this place is a diamond in the rough. Someone from work told me about it. "..a mountain of eggs, potatoes, bacon and cheese for like $4, man!" Thats exactly what "The Don Juan" is and it's delicious.

The next day I made them come with me to Torchy's Tacos on First Street between Oltorf and 290. If you've never been to Torchy's and you don't hate tacos, I strongly encourage you to treat yourself to something truly scrumptious. Every time I'm there I hear a lot of people order the "Baja Shrimp" so those must be pretty popular and take my word for it, they're really good. I'd say the best value there is the "Trailer Park" taco: Fried Chicken with green chilis, lettuce and pico with pablano ranch. So sloppy but so delicious.

Football Season

It's football season again and that means I can say goodbye to productivity on Sundays for a while. Unfortunately a freak accident occurred and I didn't get to watch my team (Dallas Cowboys.) But in the time I've had to do so, I've heard they looked mean.

Sounds like Marion Barber has bruised ribs but he's a thug and I'm sure he'll be back next week. Tony Romo had the best game of any quarterback in the NFL, throwing for 320 yards. And T.O had the most yards of any wide receiver in the NFL. A good start for the boys. I'm looking forward to this season. Hopefully there will be no more heartbreak for them in this, their last season .

Movie Review: Death Sentence

Somehow, I found myself watching Death Sentence this weekend. I remembered seeing the preview for it a long time ago so when I saw it on TV, I figured I'd give it a view...

Don't watch that movie. The plot is basically, there is this happy, successful businessman with a wife and two sons. One of his sons is favored more than the other and he is about to go to college. Suddenly, this kid is murdered by a gang at a gas station for no apparent reason. Kevin Bacon snaps and kills the guy who killed his son. The gang retaliates and kills the rest of his family. Kevin Bacon retaliates back and kills the rest of the gang. Roll credits. I've just saved you an hour and a half of your life. I thought the plot was so boring that it doesn't even deserve a better description. It is 10 minutes of character development and 96 minutes of scrawny ole Kevin Bacon killing gang members in a not-so-believable shoot 'em up. I repeat: do not watch that movie.

VMAs

Didn't the VMAs used to be fun to watch? From what I saw, the MTV Video Music Awards was awful. I don't know who the host was but he made me uncomfortable as half of the time, I wasn't sure if he was being serious or making a joke. I don't even know who most of those MTV bands were that were being nominated for all the awards. Everytime I changed the channel back to the VMAs, there was some celebrity or band whom I'd never seen before and they always seemed to look more than a tad on the strange side. I saw Britney Spears for a minute but it wasn't the Britney I'm used to. I guess she quit taking crazy pills because she looked like the 2003 version of Britney Spears and even that was somehow uncomforting. With the acception of Kid Rock, in every performance I saw, the singer was lip sinking and not well. One last thought: Why was the crowd so small?

Austin City Limits Music Festival Dissapoints

The Austin City Limits Music Festival is goin down. When i was a sophomore in high school, 4 of my friends and I packed into my honda and drove from Dallas to Austin to stay with my brother for that year's ACL. I don't remember all of the bands that I saw but I do remember how much going and seeing the whole thing was for me at 16 years old. When I got to St. Ed's, the magic of the music festival experience was easy to remember. I remember feeling oh so happy at the Flaming lips and oh so wet at Tom Petty after waiting in the rain. The bands were all great and some of my expectations blown away (Wolf Parade).

ACL 2007 was a bit of a different story, when I first saw the lineup, I was really excited. So many bands that I wanted to see! The White Stripes, Wilco, Arcade Fire, Muse, My Morning Jacket, Arctic Monkeys, Spoon, LCD Soundsystem!! Then the schedule came out. All of those bands were playing at the same time as another one, cutting my options in half. Then the week before the festival, the White Stripes cancelled their appearance and after show at Stubbs apparently because Meg White was stressed. The half of the highlights I chose to attend were good, Arcade Fire didn't live up to what I had heard, and then to top it all off, Bob Dylan sucked. It was sad really, to see someone so great and iconic headlining a crowd when they have no business doing so. He's just so old, his voice is shot.

I'm not even going this year. The lineup isn't even worth me looking it up to reference. I think there were about 5 bands i really wanted to see and none of them are worth standing in the heat and smelling B.O. all day. I think the best act of the weekend is going to be Beck and I'm not gonna pay $80 for him. I'm no expert and I don't know what it is. Maybe ACL has sold out.. maybe it just cant compete with the flood of new music festivals across the country... maybe the fact that it's in the "music capital of the world" doesn't matter anymore. My point is it's goin down and I don't think it's worth getting exciting about.

Break

I'd like to take a moment to talk about one of my favorite websites.  Whenever I need something to do on the computer and options are limited, I click on my favorites bar where it says "Break."  It's one of those websites where they show funny/shocking/interesting videos sent in by viewers hoping to earn enough hits to get paid. 

In my opinion, its the best, but before you run off and type in break.com to your URL box, know that it's a bit on the inappropriate side.  The site is really entertaining and if they had an edited version, it would be just as good as the raw version but the fact of the matter is that Break.com has as many pictures and videos of hot girls and other not-safe-for-work material as it does G-rated content.  

If you're ok with that, (and I may, in your opinion exaggerate the vulgarity) check it out and enjoy.  They update it a lot so there's always new videos to watch and their picture galleries are awesome.

David Duchovny - Sex Addict

This weekend, I was thinking about how I couldn't think of anything to blog about. I guess a Shotime commercial came on and I saw a thing for the show, "Californication." The thought crossed my mind for a moment that I could write something about the tasteless joke I always find myself telling when someone says anything about Californication. The joke is that in every episode of that show, David Duchovny hooks up with a really hot woman. His character happens to be a writer. So I always say, thats why I'm a writing major. (Thats what my life is gonna be like when I grow up. ha-ha)

Anyway, I couldn't think of a way to stretch that out into an entire blog.. until this afternoon. I somehow stumbled upon this link that David Duchovny has checked himself into rehab for treatment of a sex addiction. Just thought that was kind of ironic.

Here's the link if you wanna read about it.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4676885a1860.html