right on.: 2009

Monday, July 6, 2009

the pacific.

because band of brothers was ridiculously amazing...

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Thursday, May 14, 2009

so i accidentally happened to trip over this on the internet last night, and it's pretty amazing. since i haven't really watched any of the 'music' channels since the late 90's i never really know what's going on there. obviously, there's a nugget of gold that i've missed. this show is frakkin' hilarious.

it's about a radio station and an intern who's a little on the unintelligent side, and he gets promoted because the original shock jock gets a satellite show. they have all kinds of celebrity guests, and he usually has no idea who they are, or mistakes them for someone else. it's ad-lib, so craziness ensues.

god bless it.

the first episode is below, but if you'd like to check out the rest of the seasons, they're online as well.

free radio season 1

free radio season 2

Sunday, May 3, 2009

'x-men origins: wolverine' or how there should have been a movie called 'deadpool' instead.

is it sad when your favorite part of a movie is a character who's in it for a grand total of 8 minutes? i would say so.

ryan reynolds as wade wilson was by far the best part and he was grossly under used.

thanks again, hollywood.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

tom brevoort blogs about food network challenge.

so tom brevoort, the executive editor of marvel comics, was a judge at the extreme superhero cake challenge that aired a couple of weeks ago. he has a couple interesting insights on his own blog as well as a few pictures from the event. there happens to be one of heinous potamus and one of wondermonkey’s head. the link to his blog is below. check it out.

Everything You Wanted To Know About Cake by Tom Brevoort

Friday, April 24, 2009

cort rockin' the view.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

wondermonkey comic.

i'm starting work on a new comic online starring wondermonkey. this is my first colored promotional piece for the site. i like it. it makes me giggle. tee-hee. that was me giggling. if you want to check the site click the link below. if you have any questions, thoughts or feelings, please let me know.

groove.

wondermonkey comic - wondermonkeycomic.wordpress.com

Monday, April 13, 2009

films that look interesting to me for 2009.

i know it's april, and a lot of these have come out already, and i may have even seen some of them, but here's the list of movies coming out this year that look groovy to me. i'm not saying they all look good, but they may be fun. word up.

groove.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

how much do i love these guys?

too much.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

15 albums that melted my face off.

think of 15 albums that had such a profound effect on you.... they changed your life or the way you looked at it. they sucked you in and took you over for days, weeks, months, years. these are the albums that you can use to identify time, places, people, emotions. they might not be what you listen to now, but these are the albums that no matter what they were thought of musically shaped your world.

raiders of the lost ark

john williams

it's my favorite movie of all time, so i feel it stands to reason that it's one of the most influential music pieces of my life. i didn't know anything about film scores as a child, but i saw this film when i was 4 or 5 and when i went home i was rifling through my dad's records, and i saw this album. i instantly made him play it for me. i was so excited. i couldn't watch the film again, but i could live through the excitement and remember the awesome footage i saw by listening to this amazing masterpiece. good times that.

favorite tracks -
1. the raiders march
5. the basket game
6. the map room: dawn
9. desert chase
10. marion's theme
12. the warehouse
13. end credits

the white album

the beatles

growing up in my house there wasn't a lot of music. there was a great deal of classical, and i remember john denver and the carpenters. and the only radio stations we'd really ever listen to were oldies, which is cool. don't get me wrong. but the beatles i knew up to then was the i want to hold your hand, hello, goodbye, pop, which i do love. and then one day my dad bought this album, and a whole new world was opened. i remember having the tape and playing it so much that it wore out. that was a sad day. groove.

favorite tracks -
1. back in the u.s.s.r.
2. dear prudence
4. ob-la-di, ob-la-da
6. the conitnuing story of bungalow bill
7. while my guiatr gently weeps
8. happiness is a warm gun
10. i'm so tired
11. blackbird
14. don't pass me by
15. why don' we do it in the road
17. julia
18. birthday
23. helter skelter
25. revolution 1
26. honey pie
30. good night

crimson tide

hans zimmer

i watched this film. i liked this film. the music was good and haunting and choral and really grabbed you and held on. so i went to the mall and thought, 'man, i wonder if they still do those soundtrack thingies.' boy do they. i saw this and giggled. i may have jumped a little, too. i bought it and i remember listening to it for like three weeks straight. it was amazing. this is what introduced me to hans zimmer, and i know at this point in time everyone knows who he is, and i know all of his stuff sounds the same, but this score pretty much blew my face off.

favorite tracks -
1. mutiny
3. little ducks
5. roll tide

achtung baby

u2

johnny lloyd. i blame him. when i was 8 years old i remember seeing a commercial about kids receiving a free u2 song and i was thinking that they were such an evil secular group that anyone who listened to them would go to hell. well, here i am, 22 years later, and i guess with that thought in mind, i'm doomed. lloyd gave me a tape to listen to in my car the summer of '97 that had a great deal of songs from this album on it and i loved everyone on there. i think i wore that tape out too. when will they make a music listening device that won't get eaten by the stoopid tape deck? grr.

favorite tracks -
2. even better than the real thing
3. one
5. who's gonna ride your wild horses
6. so cruel
8. mysterious ways
9. tryin' to throw your arms around the world
10. ultraviolet (light my way)
11. acrobat

40 licks

rolling stones

so when i moved to georgia i really didn't know anything about music at all. at all. and i apologize to all of my friends and family that had to deal with me before that point. i'm sure i was embarrassing to be around. when i started rooming with scott tyson, he mentioned that he loved the rolling stones, to which i scoffed and said that they sucked and they didn't make any good music because they were old. then he played me a lot of their stuff, and i realized those were a lot of the songs i would hear on the aforementioned oldies stations. egg on my face. turns out, they're amazing and i love them. i know this is a best of album, but it's awesome. so there.

favorite tracks -
1. street fighting man
3. (i can't get no) satisfaction
5. jumpin' jack flash
6. you can't always get what you want
7. 19th nervous breakdown
8. under my thumb
11. sympathy for the devil
13. she's a rainbow
14. get off my cloud
15. wild horses
16. ruby tuesday
17. paint it black
18. honky tonk woman
20. let's spend the night together
21. start me up
25. don't stop
27. angie
28. you got me rocking
35. stealing my heart
40. losing my touch

doolittle

pixies

when i moved into the room with scott, his basic music taste was christian gospel sung by elvis, gospel choir music, and some band called pixies, that i'd never heard of. so he'd jam these tunes all the time in his car. i started to really like the pixies' album he played. oddly enough, at that point, there was a song 'hey' that he really liked the beginning to, but it was about prostitutes. he'd edit everything out after the opening line. hahahah. dork. this album totally reminds me of that first summer of cruising savannah.

favorite tracks -
1. debaser
3. wave of mutilation
4. i bleed
5. here comes your man
6. monkey gone to heaven
7. mr grieves
9. la la love you
12. hey
13. gouge away

come on die young

mogwai

still in savannah. jay and i would be chillin' out and he would pull this cd out and quickly, with the reflexes of a powerful mountain cat, put it on number 11 and turn the volume of his radio up to 'ear bleed'. this was the second summer i spent in savannah, and that was pretty much our theme song as we tore up the streets and bars and would roll into our house at 5.00 am. they're scottish, you know. they like rebel rousing, pints, and arriving home at indecent hours. in kilts. good times that.

favorite tracks -
2. cody
5. kappa
6. waltz for aidan
7. may nothing but happiness come through your front door
9. ex-cowboy
11. christmas steps

the boats

the boats

every song on this album is amazing. it makes it even better when i can say i know at least one person in this band. and one of the other people worked at my favorite pizza joint in savannah, so i can pretend i know him. jay played a couple of these songs in his ride often and we ended up being all sqooshy and singin' along and getting a little misty eyed. this was the perfect album for my first summer after college and getting dumped. driving in the caprice with the windows down whalin' to this noise was good for the soul.

favorite tracks -
1. looking to connect
2. i never
3. get you back
4. two great actors
5. let's take a walk
6. oh boy waltz
7. i was the sand
8. eyes ferocious
9. the outside in
10. bad mistake
11. utah
12. doin' it
13. you were right
14. all in vain
15. give ear
16. it looks like snow

16 biggest hits

johnny cash

after i done gradumatated from the higher learning edumacation i received from that that art school, i rocked an apartment with scott ragan, fletch griffin and ian reves. good ol' fletch. there's two things that kid learned me about and the first one was j.r. cash. turns out, he's probably my favoritest musician of all of the times. i loved his deep gravelly voice, his truism with love, death, remorse, drinking and god. i really enjoyed in his later years how he started covering songs with only a guitar and his deep rumble, and made them something they hadn't been before. god bless you johnny cash.

favorite tracks -
1. i walk the line
4. don't take your guns to town
6. ring of fire
7. understand your man
9. folsom prison blues
11. a boy named sue
14. man in black
16. (ghost) riders in the sky

ok computer

radiohead

this is the second thing fletch taught me about. this album kind of blew my mind all over the place. i remember hearing airbag on the radio a couple of times, but not a lot. and then i moved in with fletch. that kid lived and died by thom yorke and his homies. it's understandable. they're amazing. and they can make the music. then scott (tyson, not ragan) started wailing on this album on his guitar and it was even more amazing. not because scott is an amazing musician, which he may be, but because it was always fun to hear the music acoustically and sing along. man, those brits make fine music.

favorite tracks -
1. airbag
2. paranoid android
3. subterranean homesick alien
4. exit music (for a film)
6. karma police
10. no surprises
11. lucky
12. the tourist

yoshimi battles the pink robots

the flaming lips

a couple more roommates of mine in savannah were huge fans of the flaming lips so i slowly started getting into them. when i moved back to ann arbor in 2003, they came out with this album. it was wonderful. it was happy, sad, peaceful, exciting and a little crazy. and the title song was about a little girl kickin' the noise out of a pink robot. that pretty much sold me. if you've ever seen a little girl kick the noise out of a pink robot, and liked it, this is the album for you.

favorite tracks-
1. fight test
3. yoshimi battles the pink robots pt. 1
5. in the morning of the magicians
7. are you a hypnotist??
8. it's summertime
9. do you realize??

the earth is not a dead, cold place

explosions in the sky

now that i was back in the ace deuce, johnny lloyd figured he could start making more mixes for me, and one he made had a couple songs from these cats. i remember rollin' down one of the back roads and 'first breath after coma' came on, and i was in shock. i had to listen to it like five or six times i loved it so much. and then i called lloyd up and asked him who the band was that did that song and it's really hard to explain an instrumental rock song. there aren't a great deal of lyrics to pull from. oddly enough, he knew anyway. yeah. i like 'em.

favorite tracks -
1. first breath after coma
2. the only moment we were alone
3. six days at the bottom of the ocean

takk...

sigur røs

i'd heard these cats and not even known it. they had a jam on life aquatic with steve zissou and people mocked me for not knowing. which is cool. i've written their names down. i know where they are. anywho, once they relayed the name to me, i decided i would check out their music. amazing. i've never heard anything like it. ever. what they do with instruments shouldn't be legal. i've been to two of their shows, and both of them were just about the most spiritual thing i've ever experienced. i definitely think god can rock to music that isn't only classified as christian, and i know that if he does, it's with these guys.

favorite tracks -
2. gløsøli
3. hoppipolla
4. mea bløanasir
6. saegløpur
7. milanø
9. andvari
11. heysåtan

pretty in black

the raveonettes

i had this birthday one year, and at this birthday party i had for my birthday, my buddy jeff bryan gave me a sleek little round disc with some digital data compiled on it, when placed in a machine with a laser would read said data and then recreate melodious sounds via audio-listening devices. one track, 'red tan' by a danish group called the raveonettes, was definitely read a great deal. so much so, that i actually decided to get their three albums and any related singles or eps. it's like someone took a 60's surf band, crazy random static and bass and sqooshed them all together and threw them out the other side. in a good way. a very good way.

favorite tracks -
2. seductress of bums
4. sleepwalking
5. uncertain times
6. my boyfriend's back
8. red tan
9. twilight
12. ode to l.a.

neptune city

nicole atkins

after realizing how awesome the raveonettes were, james 'the naughty monkey' petix, sarah b. and i went and watched them rock the house. but their opening act was, to me at the time, an unknown jersey girl named nicole atkins. i'm pretty sure as soon as the monkey and i heard her voice, time stopped. like...it was unreal. i decided to rock her ep that she was selling at the show and she was standing at the table and signed it 'to eddie - word. heart, nicole.' that was the selling point. word indeed. as a side, i also think she needs to rock the opening credits to a james bond film. for reals.

favorite tracks -
1. maybe tonight
2. together we're booth alone
3. the way it is
4. cool enough
5. war torn
6. love surreal
7. neptune city
8. brooklyn's on fire!
9. kill the headlights
10. party's over
11. skywriters

Thursday, February 19, 2009

my evening with mr. folds - or - how i know i'm gettin' old.

yep.

amazing.

kristina, heidi and i decided to go watch ben folds rock the piano. and rock the piano he did. i'm not sure i've ever seen such a rocking of piano. i don't know how any single person can have that much energy night in and night out. the man was all over the piano and stage and made it look fun.

good showmanship, that.

so we roll in to the michigan theater a bit late and catch the tail end of the opening band, and the two songs we heard were actually pretty good. it's a rare thing for me to like opening bands, so kudos to them.

then we waited the appropriate half hour for the university of michigan acappella group. that was mad random at the time. of course, ben later mentioned that an album was coming out with a bunch of universities doing acappella versions of his songs. so that made a little more sense.

they were okay.

the first song, from an artist i don't know that wrote a song i don't know, seemed good, but the soloist wasn't all that strong. when she rocked the notes during the chorus she was awesome, but the verses were really quiet and i couldn't hear her. that's only an issue if you wanted to know what she was singing, i guess. the second song, which was a sarah bareilles song, was amazing. the ol' girl who did the solo kinda blew my mind. she knew her way around some vocals.

sadly, the third song, was a ben folds song. probably would not do that when ben folds was gonna come out right after that and make you look a little silly. nothing personal. it may have been awesome, if they had mic'd it correctly. they gave the main mic to one of the backup people and one of the backup mics to the soloist. again, i could barely hear the lyrics, but the 'bum-bum' of the background singer sounded great. yay.

then we waited the half hour for the moment we had waited for. which would be waiting for ben folds. which us old folk did pretty well. but those kids, and their dog...

grrr.

they started cheering for ben like 15 minutes before you knew he was even going to be on stage. so embarrassing. agk! and it wasn't a big cheer. half the place started the slow-to-fast clap like we were in the mighty ducks or some cheese. and then 10 people started chanting 'ben folds'. and then it would die out and be quiet. then it would start up again. seriously. i was shocked he came out.

and we sat behind four girls who must have been 16 because they were all playing with their new verizon phones and texting one another and talking and giggling really loudly. more sigh.

besides all of that, ben folds was awesome. that was one of the happiest shows i've ever been to, in regards to the talent. that man. his elbows playing the piano. his tambourine man with the dramatic tambourining. his male guitar player standing in for regina spektor on a duet. ridiculous. i laughed. i cried. happiness.

he made up a rap song about putting altoid tins on his piano keys as he was putting altoid tins on his piano keys.

he made up another song about the entire show and how he couldn't deviate from his playlist because 'the man' would be upset and he had to make him happy by playing the same songs everynight and droppin' the f-bomb here and there for good measure. he referred to himself as a wind up monkey. ben folds. monkey. bully!

also, he was really good about playing to the audience and getting our participation in parts of songs that one would think an audience would participate, such as clapping and choruses. sadly, in this respect as well, he did a solo piece of 'fred jones' with his piano that was beautiful, that the whole audience thought, 'hey, i know this song. i sing it in my car. i would do a really good job of singing it here as well. and i know ben wants me to sing along with him. he basically came to perform for us to perform with him, right?' thanks, everybody. you really added a lot of depth to the song by proving you knew it. what? sarcasm? me? never.

all in all, a good show, an embarrassing audience.

i'll watch that cat anywhere. and i'll sit in a starbucks with him. i would.

groove.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

rain. clouds. 54 degrees.

best day ever.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

plug o' the week - february 2-6, 2009.

happy new year and month. i've been lusy. or bazy. busy lazy? lazy busy? i don't even know. but it's been a long while since i've plugged an noise. so now noise will be plugged.

look at it. with it's noisy plugging.

mad pluggsin.

word.

film plug o' the week -

slumdog millionaire.
blown. away. that's all i can say about this film. man. i know it sucks to get on any pop culture train, and if everyone likes it, i shouldn't, but, dang, yo. this is the feel good movie of the year. this film has the happy, the sad, the love, the drama, and the beautiful cinematography. what a well filmed piece. i really liked the characters and the idea of how the gameshow is the catalyst for the main character to tell his life story. stay for the end. the credits are spectacular.

music plug o' the week -

neptune city - nicole atkins & the sea.
so this dame has just about the most amazing singing voice i've ever accidentally heard. the naughty monkey, his lady friend and i went to see the raveonettes (which were also amazing) and nicole opened for them. monkey and i stood there in a trance the entire time. it was incredible. i've never heard anyone sing like that live. i've seen her a couple times now and cannot get over the music or the voice. wonderful album. enjoy.

television plug o' the week -

battlestar galactica.
by far the best show on television, if not the best show i've ever seen. obviously these are opinions, but i've never seen a more amazing character study, political drama or soap opera wrapped into one program. and then, to top it all off, it's in frakkin' space! mmmm. space dog fights. genius. i feel like the writing is top notch and the characters, while not always the happiest, are pretty real, and true to their spirit throughout. the score by bear mccreary is one of the best for any television series. i like how that is seemingly so much more important these days. it's on par with any film. i'm sad that there's only a hand full of episodes left, but i think it makes it more intense and poignant.

so those are the first plugs for 2009. sorry it took me over a month to do new ones. my guess is, you still got all your sleep.

groove.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

does anyone out there still care?

i haven't written in my blog in forever. but, i'm gonna try to step that noise up. my guess is no one cares though, since no one has said peep about it. does anyone out there still care?

also, snow is evil. fruits of the devil, and all that.

25 favoritest songs of ever.

rules are as follows -

your fave jams. 25 of them. no particular order. one from each artist. i know that i could probably pick 6 of my faves from one artist or another, but this is all about broad strokes. we want to know more than how many amazing songs britney spears has made. rock.

all you need is love - the beatles
monkey gone to heaven (bbc recordings) - pixies
folsom prison blues - johnny cash
i still haven't found what i'm looking for - u2
she's like a rainbow - the rolling stones
hallucinations - the raveonettes
hoppipolla - sigur ros
luckiest - ben folds
karma police - radiohead
neptune city - nicole atkins
sloop john b - the beach boys
kashmir - led zeppelin
baba o'reilly - the who
american girl - tom petty
blitzkreig bop - the ramones
yoshimi battles the pink robots pt. 1 - the flaming lips
starman - david bowie
state trooper - bruce springsteen
stephanie says - the velvet underground
the funeral - band of horses
tiny dancer - elton john
here comes my baby - cat stevens
sherlock holmes - the dirt bombs
mr. blue sky - electric light orchestra
strange bird - the boats

Friday, January 23, 2009

birthday business.

richard dean anderson and mariska hargity both have their birthdays today. who knew?

right on.