Perusing the site, I noticed that Justin is quite the fan of "The Shield," which is the best show on television in my not-so-humble opinion. When is the next season starting? What is going to happen to the mafia heist? How has Tony Scali gone bad?

Master And Commander
Viewed: 2003-11-23
Score: 2

Hmmm, when I saw the previews for this bloated whale of a movie, my first thought was to avoid this thing like the plague. But when the New York Times and a man named Chodorow said it was worth my matinee 6.75, I relented and went.

That's what I get for ignoring my instincts. This movie, loosely based on some 10 novels loosely based on the War of 1812 (but actually loosely based on the wars btw England and France) all seems not so loosely based on Moby Dick.

Now, I may never have actually read Moby Dick, but the fact that this piece of shit takes place at sea, against a giant ship that is too powerful to defeat (and too fast to see), with a captain who is crazed and will stop at nothing to defeat the ship...all of it seems a bit parallel. Except, of course, for the fact that Moby Dick is a literary classic and this movie is about as forgetable as your first drunken hookup.

The writing is dry. And not dry in a charming british humor kind of way. Just dry. When the crazy old guy with a coin in his head says: "she's a devil ship she be...She's gonna take us all," my yawn was all that broke the deafening silence.

Why has hollywood decided to have such shitty screenwriters? We see the same characters in every movie. If Matt Groening, 1 man, can keep coming up with stuff, how about the thousands and millions in LA??? Is it so hard to write a decent epic? Not since Braveheart have we had one. How about compelling characters who cannot be described in a single sentence? How about stories that actually move us?

And don't even talk about gladiator. "There was a dream that was rome?" Yeah, that dream was that it wasn't filled with mentally handicapped writers who spew forth such laughable crap that I want to papercut my eyes so badly I bleed to death.

In conclusion, if you want to see Master and commander, why not just kick yourself in the groin and light your 6.75 on fire. That, or just see Kill Bill for a 3rd or 4th time.

Punk music newsflash! The first three bands have signed on for the Warped Tour 2004 10th Anniversary Tour! Taking Back Sunday, Newfound Glory, and Coheed And Cambria will be gracing parking lots across the nation with their presence leading up to a tour ending Warped reunion featuring bands from the past 9 years playing an all-star show! More news will be posted as it becomes available.

As I watched the same commercials that air before AMC movies for the umpteenth time tonight before seeing Runaway Jury, I was subjected to yet another respectcopyright.org commercial. This one featured a stuntman bitching about how much work he puts into his job and how downloading movies is the equivalent of stealing. To this I say ... shut the fuck up. I would work for below minimum wage, I would work for free, just to be part of a making a Hollywood movie. Especially a job as cool as stuntman! Here I sit, paying ticket prices that go up a dollar a year, watching shitty commercials so movie theaters can "make ends meet", listening to some asshole that has one of the coolest jobs in the world tell me what's right and wrong. Is the movie business gonna be driven under by a handful of downloaders? Last weekend, the top 20 movies grossed $128 million combined and you know what came out? Jack shit. Downloading a movie isn't like downloading music ... watching a ripped off, over compressed screener of a movie doesn't hold a candle to seeing it on the big screen ... I never watch a movie on my computer instead of seeing in the theaters. The music industry is getting what they deserve, over the last 20 years they've taken the heart and soul of music and fuckin destroyed it, they pimped it out to squeeze every dime out of the consumer and guarantee that every major label release these days is USDA 100% grade F shit. The movie industry on the other hand, has been making leaps and bounds. I mean, there's going to be good and bad stories every year, but the rise of computer effects and digital sound have really made even the lamest action movies look a hell of a lot better and digital cameras have even let smaller, low budget movies get made that couldn't afford to be shot using costly film. So what are the suits in Hollywood so worried about? If they want to keep people from downloading movies, how bout they get the theaters to stop raping us on ticket prices? Look what happened to the music industry... sell us $18 CDs for years then look what happens when we can make our own CDs for pennies. Anybody would gladly pay $50 a month to download what they like instead of lining some fatcat's wallet. It's bad enough Hollywood tricks us into rebuying all the movies we have on tape on DVD. At least they learned to lower DVD prices. My final thinkpiece in this poorly thoughtout rant comes in a line quoted in defense of this antipiracy campaign:

"The Congress shall have power...To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries..." Article I, Section 8, The United States Constitution

I believe that says "useful arts" ... On that note I encourage you all to download a copy of Matrix Revolutions, since it is neither useful nor art. Ah the hell with it, you don't really want a copy of that.

I love movies. I wouldn't want to see the movie industry collapse. But guess what? You're not gonna stop people from downloading movies with this sappy ass shit. Also, IF I'M WATCHING THIS COMMERCIAL I ALREADY PAID TO SEE THE DAMN MOVIE! If you want to stop downloading, put on your boxing gloves and sue Kazaa. Don't waste my time.

Friday night Mike and I had the extreme pleasure of seeing two fine if very different emo/punk/alt/rock bands in Saves The Day and Taking Back Sunday. And openers Moneen.
Moneed tried very hard but made too much of an effort and not enough connection with the crowd, leaving them just standing around and staring for most of the set.
Then it was time. After missing them FOUR SEPERATE TIMES in a one year span it was time to see Taking Back Sunday. Now my wanting to see them so badly stemmed mostly from my obsession with seeing every concert possible more than for my actual like of the band (which don't get me wrong I did quite like them, they just weren't my absolute favorites or anything). The TBS debut album "Tell All Your Friends" grew on me after listening to it over the span of a few months, and yes it does rock...but I always felt there was something just missing from it...a tangible element that I just couldn't put my finger on.
As TBS took the stage last Friday night, I found that element. Taking Back Sunday is a live band. Listening to the CD is like listening to a barely contained hurricane that is unleashed during their live performances. TBS ripped right into their set sending the crowd into an absolute frenzy, opening with the CD opener "You Know How I Do." Now after a few songs the crowd was nuts enough, but then the opening riffs to the bands semi-biggest hit "Cute Without The E (Cut From The Team)" played and thats when they lost it. Now in about 30 concerts in the last two years I've seen some crazy crowds, but this had to be the most insane I've ever seen one with maybe one possible exception (NFG at Warped Tour '02). The crowd went BERSERK singing an entire chorus out and just jumping all over the place. All in all the band played 9 of the 10 songs off their album, 3 new ones, and a well-received cover of "Message In A Bottle". The real star of the show of course was screamo king of the moment, lead singer Adam Lazzara, who would whip his microphone around in circles and catch it, run around the stage, and just sing his ass off, even collapsing onto the ground at the conclusion of one tune and just laying there for a few seconds totally spent.
But it was the end of the show that will send this one down in history as the best performance of all 2003. During set closer "There's No I In Team" Lazzara climbed to the top of his speakers, then climbed up to the bar area where we were and proceeded to walk along the thin border behind the fencing that blocked people from falling out of the second floor bar and perched on top of a fan. Then right where we were standing, he climbed over the fence, locked his legs over it, then hung himself upsidedown over the audience with us and some other fans holding him in place to finish his song and the amazing energetic set.
Now how do you follow an act like that? Well Saves The Day tried, and they did do a kick ass set. But STD is a more mellow band, and the crowd was more subdued. That said, STD played an awesome set filled with 11 of the 12 songs of "Stay What You Are", including opening up right off with "At Your Funeral" their biggest hit from that album. They also threw in a nice mix of songs of "Through Being Cool" while they only hit up about 4 of the songs off their new album (this was a welcome surprise).
Highlights included a racous rendition of new hit "Anywhere With You", a newly long epic version of "Freakish" that found the whole crowd singing along, "My Sweet Fracture", and a kick ass "As Your Ghost Takes Flight". The best moment of the set though came with a KICK ASS version of "Firefly" to end the set. Awesome awesome stuff. Encore tunes included one new song, "Cars and Calories" (the only song I don't like on "Stay What You Are" and a cool mellow version of "All I'm Losing Is Me" to send the crowd home in an undewhelming encore. Disappointments of the night included not hearing "Shoulder To The Wheel", "Through Being Cool", or "Third Engine" (my three favorite songs off Through Being Cool) which I was sure they were saving up for the second show Saturday night. All my attempts to attain someone to accompany me to this show failed, and so I missed it, once again swimming in reverie. But friday nights show sure did kick ass.

Here's my review of a bunch of things that were on my plate the last 10 days:

Love Actually - Saw a sneak preview of this film on Saturday night. It was hilarious at times and amusing the rest of the time, all-around a good romantic comedy. The 9 separate plot lines made the movie feel like the Magnolia or Pulp Fiction of Romantic Comedies, which made it quite a bit more interesting than what Hollywood usually throws up at us. Also, Keira Knightley ... you are a delight!

Good Charlotte/Goldfinger/Mest @ Baltimore Arena - A great set by Goldfinger as expected, although it lacked Mabel. One highlight was the surreal rendition of My Girlfriend's Shower Sucks which got an enthusiastic crowd reaction. All their other best songs were hit up in their set, including 99 Red Balloons... what more could you ask for? Good Charlotte played a long set for their hometown show and sounded pretty good, playing every song off the new album and still a bunch off the first CD. Mest was ... well, they were Mest. The crowd I give an F+, if they were any younger, they'd be embryos.

Jersey Gardens Outlet Mall - It was like a two story Arundel Mills and shaped in some sort of crazy figure-8 which made it pretty convenient to walk through. It almost made me forget I was nearby the hellpit that is Newark.

Driving Home on Halloween Night - I recommend it, there were no other cars on the road. My regular trips up and back from home are far more horrific with the addition of normal traffic.