Archive for the 'Media' CategoryPage 3 of 35

A.G.G.R.O.

Published
by
Jake
6 months, 3 weeks ago
in Colorado Living and TuneStuff
. 0 Comments

The Aggrolites rocked it last night. I definitely recommend you catch them if they come to your neck of the woods. (Boston kids, that’s April 15 for you.)

The opening acts were The Haggardies, a local Goldfinger clone with songs about skateboarding and stuff (meh), and Synthetic Elements who are like a poor man’s Streetlight Manifesto and plenty of fun to watch on stage.

As is typical with these very small shows, the headliners were miles above the opening acts. The highlight was the encore, during which Jesse and the boys did a reggae / ska / two-tone / dancehall / soul medley that had us all singing along at the tops of our lungs.

Good times.

Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig

Published
by
Jake
6 months, 3 weeks ago
in Albainn Gu Brath, Colorado Living, Folx and TuneStuff
. 5 Comments

Supposedly, that’s Irish Gaelic (which I’m allowed to rock thanks to my 13th century Kilpatrick heritage, yo)…

So, yeah, it’s St. Patrick’s Day and it’s snowing like a bitch this morning. Luckily the roads stayed mostly clear, and we didn’t get anything near the high end of the 4-8 inch predictions.

Nevertheless, I am pleased that I was able to get my celebrating out of the way this past Saturday with Brozovich at the “Lazy J Ranch” of one John Croghan. John pulls together a nice little crowd of good people, so it was an excellent laid-back time. Plus he had a keg of Guinness. Hard to go wrong there. (Hell, I didn’t even bother to check if it was carbonated or nitrogenated. No need to be rude in the man’s house.)

By the way, John is doing his country crooning thing in Olde Town Arvada on April 4 at the 12 Volt Tavern. He’s guessing he’ll go on around 10pm or so. I’m definitely going to be there. If I’m lucky, John might even sing my request. ;)

In other music performance news, The Aggrolites are playing in Denver this Wednesday. I love those boys. We saw them open for Madness in Los Angeles a couple years ago and have since collected all of their stuff. Well worth the $13 ticket, I’m thinking. (Here are some YouTube samples for you. Oh, and The Wife’s favorite track.)

Oh, there’s also roller derby on April 5. The Wife was asking about derby last night, so we’ll probably try to hit that, I think. Derby’s always worth the $13 ticket.

That’s all I’ve got, but that’s way more than usual, so I’m fine with it.

3:10 to Robert Ford

Published
by
Jake
6 months, 4 weeks ago
in Cinerama
. 4 Comments

I hooked up a couple Westerns on the Amazon Unbox recently.

The first was The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Much like its title, the film is over-long, but it features some great cinematography and some mighty fine performances — especially from Casey Affleck and Sam Rockwell. I was amused at one point when the narration describing Jesse James mentioned that he had a condition that caused him to blink a lot… and there’s Brad Pitt, doing his standard scruffy-faced, wide-eye, unblinking crazy face…. Um, yeah… OK, Brad. That said, Pitt is generally good, too, but it’s a role that isn’t much of a stretch for him. Anyway, the movie itself is good enough that I would certainly recommend it “if that’s your sort of thing” — by which I guess I’d mean low-action, semi-cerebral period pieces with pretty pictures.

Then last night I watched 3:10 to Yuma. More action to this one — it’s what you’d call a straight up Western. Christian Bale and Russell Crowe are both quite good, and it was a treat to see that guy from Firefly again. Best of all was a scene-stealing Ben Foster as Charlie Prince — that character is a perfect Western villain. If you like people shooting at other people from horseback, this is your choice.

Unfortunately, I’m puzzled by the climax… (Spoilers ahoy!)
Continue reading ‘3:10 to Robert Ford’

Baby’s New Toy

Published
by
Jake
7 months, 1 week ago
in Bits & Blips, TuneStuff and Viva la Consumerista
. 2 Comments

This past weekend The Wife and I got ourselves an XBox 360.

I say that in terms of “us” and “we”, but really the purchase was precipitated by my girl’s strong desire to rock out with a little game called Karaoke Revolution. Make no mistake, she was a dancer for good reason, but the ability to actually sing really doesn’t help you much (if at all) in this game. We were first introduced to it at brother-in-law Chris’s house the last time we went to LA to see him and his SO, Kate. Me being me, I totally douched out and refused to play. (I don’t dance in public, either.) My not-so-secret plan was to get the game and practice by myself until I was comfortable enough to do it in front of other people. I was just going to get it for the Wii, but then it turns out the XBox and PS3 version have downloadable songs, which made it worth the wait in my mind.

I’m still finding my way with the game… (I can sing just well enough to really screw things up, it seems.) “Satisfaction” from the Rolling Stones is my rock solid joint at the moment. I’ve also done passable jobs at “In the Air Tonight”, “Come Sail Away With Me”, and Haddaway’s “What Is Love” (on which I actually did better the first time ever seeing the lyrics). Songs that frustrated me so far, but which think I can rock hard with a little work: “Tainted Love”, GnR’s version of “Knocking on Heaven’s Door”, and “(Hit Me) Baby One More Time”. The wife on the other hand is a machine, scoring perfect scores (we’re playing on “Easy”, of course) after perfect scores. Our duet goal is Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”, although “Midnight Train to Georgia” is a real ass kicker, too. It’s hard to be a Pip!

Yes, there is no shame in karaoke. Point of fact: I score better if I sing the “What Is Love” lyrics like “Whuddizluff? Doanherdmee. Doanherdmee…No more.” It’s very strange.
I also picked up .skate as my “boy game”, and it’s proving to be very cool, though rather difficult for a Tony Hawk Pro Skater veteran like myself.

The only other game I have on my short list right now is Beautiful Katamari, but I’m sure that will change over time.

Needless to say, the fun times never stop at the Sutton household.

Bullet the Blue Sky

Published
by
Jake
7 months, 2 weeks ago
in BiblioThingy, Curiosities, People Are Dumb, Televisio and World Gone Mad
. 0 Comments

Or… Y’know… A bulleted list of junk from the internets:

That is all.

Video Killed the Intarwebs

Published
by
Jake
7 months, 2 weeks ago
in The Intarweb and Tidbits
. 2 Comments

No, I don’t mean it.

I just wanted to link to a couple online videos that I find completely and inexplicably mesmerizing, so I threw a little pop reference in there for flavor. You know how I do.

Anyway, here you go: