Saturday, July 26, 2008

Merry Mayhem

I know I don’t seem like a “metal-head” and to be honest, I’m not. But coming from Mayhem fest made me think “No, I really don’t want to be a metal-head”. Let me explain, I came to this concert wanting to see two bands, Mastodon, who in my opinion, are the kings of thrash metal right now, and Slipknot. Well I got there just in time to see Mastodon play. They got a bad crowd and a bad time slot for a band that is better than everyone else on the lineup. They played for forty five minutes and played material from Blood Mountain and Leviathan, that’s all. The bass overrode all the other sounds, including vocals, but they rocked it, and everyone paying attention to them knew how good they were and why they were on the main stage. Afterwards, I high tailed it to the merchandise booth to buy a reasonably priced Mastodon shirt to add to my endless collection. Little did I know how bad the second stages were going to be.

I walked around for about an hour because I couldn’t find my uncle/buddy, so I got a chance to check out the other stages. Underoath was wrapping up their set which seemed lame. I caught the last three songs, but to be honest, I didn’t know where one ended and began, they all sounded the same and they sucked. After watching their sad set, Machine Head took a stage, I caught their first two songs, but that was enough for me. Nothing ground breaking, just hard rock for your typical metal chow crowd, mindless and boring. I couldn’t take it anymore, I was done.

I made my way back to the main stage where my uncle showed up and we waited and sat through the worse band of the night, Dragonforce. Dragonforce aren’t just bad, they’re something that’s way worse than bad, if that’s possible. Bad Maiden styled riffs and a bad lead singer, but that’s not the worst part, they have a keyboardist. Now, I like a little electro in my music, but this was sad. When the keyboardist wasn’t dancing around like an idiot, he was playing a keytar. No kidding, an actual keytar. I could not take them serious and I really hope this band just disappears or has trouble coming over the states again. They also referred to Beethoven’s Fifth as “gay”.

Disturbed was up next and I was already tired of them. I used to like this band, but they’re bland, blander than bland. Every song has the same formula and it just doesn’t work after three sub par albums. The lead singer came out in full Hannibal Lectar garb complete with mask, jumpsuit, straight jacket and stretcher. Yes it was that ridiculous. I’d seen this bad twice before when they toured for their last album and nothing’s changed. They say the same things they said last time and it was the same basic set list but with a couple of new songs thrown in. NEXT!

Slipknot came on last and killed it. Yes the masks and jumpsuits are goofy, and yes lyrically they’re not good, but heavy is heavy and Slipknot is heavy done right. They played some hits, and some rarities (Prosthetics ruled!) and they played their new song, Psychosocial, which is pretty decent. I loved every minute of their set, including Duality, Before I Forget, The Heretic Anthem, and People = S*it. They were full of energy and great to the crowd and didn’t let down. They were worth the price of admission alone.

Between the hot weather, the obnoxious, overweight, ugly woman right and back of me, and the horrible smell of pot, it was a good show. Definitely not my crowd, but I saw two bands I really enjoy and carry on the true spirit of rock. I wouldn’t recommend this show to everyone, but if you enjoy listening to a good number of the bands and have the money, go for it. Just be sure to check out Slipknot (obviously) and Mastodon who are the best thrash band this side of ‘80’s Metallica.

Friday, July 18, 2008

I know this review probably sucks but I want to talk about how great this movie is

When something lives up to the hype, it’s very special and you cannot stop talking about it. This is the case with The Dark Knight. So much hype, and so much payoff and then some. Whether it be the trailer, the death of Heath Ledger, the perfect casting, or the standard the Batman Begins left for all comic book adaptations, there was much hype. I am proud to say everything about this film is simply flawless.

A good script from Christopher and Jonathan Nolan is elevated to a great film with the performances of its cast. Heath Ledger is superb as The Joker as expected. Christian Bale reminds us that we’re a long way from the Clooney/Kilmer Batman’s that nearly killed the franchise, and turns in his best performance since American Psycho. But with those two performances that were greatly expected, in my eyes, the show was stolen by Gary Oldman, and Aaron Eckhart. Oldman portrays Lt. Gordon who is greatly involved with this film more than Batman Begins. Gary Oldman has been one of the most underrated actors of our time but in this role, you can’t help but feel sorry for him and root for him for being squeaky clean and uncorrupt. Eckhart on the other hand, is destined to become a star with this role. As District Attorney Harvey Dent, Eckhart plays the role perfectly, whether he’s trying to clean up the city, or use vigilante justice to get his way, Eckhart plays the role without flaw and leaves you wanting him back for more screen time.

The film features more gadgets and more special effects than its predecessor, but it’s not a bad thing. Usually, sequels are hurt because they use more effects and gadgets to heighten the weak plot, in this film; you hardly care because the writing and acting are so good and those scenes featuring gadgetry and CGI are hardly pivotal or are just as exciting and intense as those “regular” scenes. Christopher Nolan directs it so perfectly and makes it more realistic and believable than it should be. We know there aren’t any psychopathic guys wearing clown makeup as much as we know there isn’t a guy in a bat costume putting bad guys away. At the end of it all, you have to remind yourself it’s just a movie because everything is done perfectly.

Along with the welcomed additions of Eckhart and the late Heath Ledger, Maggie Gyllenhaal fits into the role of Rachel Dawes so good, you hardly even notice Katie Holmes is gone. It’s not like they even look like each other either. Gyllenhaal is the better actress and more believable as the love interest of Bruce Wayne and Harvey Dent. The love triangle is inevitable but it works and is one of the best love stories worked into a comic book adaptation, even better than the love triangle in the Spider Man series. The triangle never feels sappy or never feels like it takes away from the action, it simply works.

I could go on and on about how amazing this film was. I would go as far as to call it a masterpiece. Come awards season, expect a nomination for Ledger and a much deserved screenplay nomination for the Nolan brothers. They’ve created the best comic book film of all time and one of the best films of the year. They’ve resurrected a comic book franchise that was turning into a joke once Tim Burton left. In a summer where superhero films have dominated box office receipts, The Dark Knight stands alone. Not only is it a great super hero film, it’s a great thriller, it’s a great drama, and most of all, it’s a great reminder of why we love summer movies.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Josh in Germany

No this isn’t my first time blogging; it’s just my first time using this page. See, I used to bog on MySpace but I realized I’m not 16 anymore and if I’m going to try to go for that Journalism degree, I should probably use a better blogging network and most importantly, write about things that are worthwhile instead of posting random blurbs then having someone I really don’t want to talk to (like most people I went to high school with) to read then post some random, borderline idiotic comment. Anyways, welcome, hello, and I hope those of you who will actually read this, will enjoy.

With that out of the way, I just came back from Germany. Yes, the guy that never gets out, spent three weeks in a foreign country. The first week was full of fun, between taking off my shoes in the airport to get them checked and buying a magazine, there wasn’t much to remember before boarding the flight. We left around 1 P.M. CST on that day (I believe it was the 23rd of June) and ended up in Germany thirteen hours later. There’s not much to do on a huge flight like that, there were two in flight movies, one being The Other Boleyn Girl, which sucked, and the other being Dan in Real Life, which was halfway decent. The in flight stations were cool, they had a rock station which played mostly Alt-Rock but when you’re on a plane that long, you don’t care. At least they played some Nick Cave, Coldplay and Deep Purple. When we finally arrived in Germany, I felt dirty and sick. Not five minutes after we arrived in the Frankfurt Airport, I already threw up because of the mixture of traveling and bad airline food. After claiming our luggage, we drove an hour to our first destination, Kaiserslautern Germany and the Ramstein Air Force Base.

As soon as we checked into our room, I slept for basically eight hours and messed up my sleep pattern for a whole week. The first place we dined at was none other than a Chili’s on the base. Yeah we’re in Germany, but with that much jet lag, you’ll go to the closest place there and well, Chili’s was in walking distance. For those first couple of days, we saw some castles in that area and walked around downtown K-town. Our first big venture didn’t come till about a week later when we went to Paris which my two cousins didn’t enjoy at all despite how beautiful and historic that city is. The best thing on that trip however, wasn’t going to Notre Dame, or looking at all the other landmarks, it was my cousin Jason nearly getting hustled by some weirdo standing outside of one of the many cathedrals. Other than Paris, there wasn’t much of anywhere we went to in that first week. We were in Germany just in time for the Euro Cup final in which Germany was set to play Spain. It prompted me to purchase a German soccer jersey and root for some guy named Michael Ballack who apparently is the Dan Marino of soccer because he’s yet to win when it counts. Watching the Euro final and seeing Germany lose was reminiscent of watching a Cowboys or Spurs game with my family, but instead of rooting for a city, these guys are rooting for national pride.

Our second week is kind of a blur, but like the first week, we looked around some of the different landmarks around Germany. Luxembourg was my favorite, seeing General Patton’s grave site gave me shivers and seeing all the guys from World War II was truly moving. In that same week, we spent the 4th of July in Amsterdam. We had a choice of seeing either Gary Sinise and the Lt. Dan Band or going to Amsterdam, and I must say, we made the better choice. After an endless car ride to Holland, we finally made it to Amsterdam. Like most tourists, we walked downtown and yes, we ended up accidentally going through the Red Light District. Aside from all the sex shops and hash bars, the other shops are nice and the people there were as friendly as can be. We spent the night there and left the next afternoon, thus ending our second week there.

We spent our third and final week in the Bavarian part of Germany. My uncle had set it up to stay the week at his friend’s mom’s house. His friend, Glen, had his family there so it was two families sharing a four storied house. Their eldest son got along perfectly with my cousin Jeremy while Jason quickly made friends with the others. The wonders of gangster rap helped bridge a gap between two people on two different countries. We spent most of the time at the house but we did take day trips to Munich and to a nearby site which was formerly Dachau Concentration Camp during World War II. Dachau was depressing but very moving and interesting to see, especially for anybody interested in learning about the Nazi regime during World War II. Munich was fun though, we saw yet another castle, and walked around the downtown area. The funny part of that trip was despite being in the heart of Germany, there were hardly any Germans and we were surrounded by nobody but tourists from what it seemed like every other part of the world. We ended the trip back at Ramstein again waiting for our plane back to the states.

The day of our departure was one bad thing after another. We checked in to Frankfurt around 10 A.M. and it was the start of a long wait. We had to check my backpack with wine, into luggage instead of carry one which was a bad sign. We then had to re check into the gate before actually taking off. Our plane took off at 1 P.M. and lasted for eight hours. On the flight back, we got to sit through the cinematic crapterpiece which was Fool’s Gold and on the Airline radio I enjoyed Iggy Pop, more Nick Cave and some Rolling Stones which made the trip a little better. Our second in flight movie was Definitely, Maybe which to an extent, I enjoyed. The flight was less than the one we took going to Frankfurt, but it felt a hell of a lot longer than it actually was. We then arrived in Philadelphia where it was the worst three hours of my life. We waited an hour for our luggage to actually get in before finding the wine that I brought home to my parents, was busted, leaving me with a smelly backpack and feelings of depression for my belongings. The workers at the airport sucked too. None of them were nice, none of them were helpful, and none of them seemed smarter than a middle school pre teen. By that time, I was tired, nauseated and eager to get home. We went to our gate before being told angrily that our gate had changed. We boarded our flight around 7 P.M. and never had I felt so sick and so tired, I just wanted to get back home. I spent most of the flight sleeping because if I stayed awake, I probably would not have been able to keep whatever food I had in my stomach, down. After another long three hours, we were in Houston, home sweet home…well, for the most part.

I hardly ever get out, but this was the chance of a lifetime, and I’m so happy I went. Never in all my years, did I think that I was going to be able to go to Europe. It was a really great experience and something I’ll never forget. If you ever get a chance to go, I strongly urge you to take that chance it make it there, you will fall in love with all it has to offer and will be moved by so many of the sights.