Recent Obsessions

Yeah, it's been a minute again. Got caught up in a slight obsession, but we'll get to that in a minute. Getting ready to go back to work after 3 days off; before that I spent 125 hours at work over 10 straight days; figure they thought the hospital stay didn't kill me, so they'd finish the job?

In the meantime, thought I'd write again with Tropical Storm Fay hanging right overhead...



But yeah, haven't been on in a minute because I finally discovered the joy and rapture of the X-Box. Bought one while I was convalescing after the hospital stay. My wife has hated it ever since, because she's now, in her words, a "wrestling widow" and "computer widow" already, now she's a "X-Box widow" to boot. Ah, well. Still put aside time here and there to spend with her because I love her to death.

Back to the hardware. In buying the X-Box, I've managed to get myself hooked on a couple games. Most notably, the first two Halo games. So addictive to run around and blow shit up with no consequence! It's different with this as opposed to the Grand Theft Auto games (which I'm borrowing one of and played for a minute or two before going right back to Halo); doing it with aliens - nasty little things that are supposed to die anyway because they want our planet and we won't give it to them - is one matter. I have no qualms about detonating those little bastards.

People, however, are another matter. Just can't do it with as much abandon. Probably something in my makeup. Hell, in playing Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic (another game fast becoming an addiction), I can't even bring myself to be enough of an asshole to join the Dark Side - and I named my character after an Electric Kingdom villain specifically because I planned on him joining the Dark Side!

Getting off the self-analysis train, another perk of Halo is, whenever you die, you pick right up from the last checkpoint (a few feet back, relatively speaking) and keep right on going. No continue countdown timer. No re-loading. No setting yourself back at the beginning of the level. None of that annoying shit. Just pick up, dust yourself, and go blow up more stuff. Base and simple, just the way I like it.

Other highlights have been Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (nice to play with some faves like the Avengers and the new team of the Outsiders - Luke Cage, Elektra, Spider-Woman and Deadpool...although I rarely play with the Fantastic Four because they're not that great in this game), XIII (a similar story to the "Bourne" movies with comic visuals...neat stuff) , and Doom 3 (DUH!). More to come on that front as I pick up more games (looking forward to getting Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction for some REAL stress release). So yeah, there's been the latest obsession in a nutshell. Because Lord knows I need something else to keep me offline and away from updating this thing.

One last bitch before I go...

Saw SummerSlam this past Sunday. Decent show. A lot of people seem to think different, however - in so far as the last 2 matches weren't nearly as good as I've heard a LOT of people - trusted colleagues and trolls alike.

Batista And Cena worked pretty hard to put on a decent match, I'll grant them that. But as far as "they sold everything really well"...did I miss that while I was in the bathroom? Cena spent a hotel stay in the Figure-4 and Batista had his leg bent back in the STFU so bad and so long I thought he may pull a Sid Vicious...yet both of them got right back up and were pulling power moves out of their ass like nothing was wrong! How on earth is that selling again?

And the Hell In A Cell seemed to move in slow-motion. Setting up tables for spots 20 minutes early isn't quite "unpredictable". Again, some cool stuff - the spear through the cage door as well as on/through the announce table(s) were neat, but the rest was standard HIAC fare. And no one can say the outcome was in any doubt the entire time, with Undertaker hitting Edge with everything Edge did to him over several months all in a 30-second span just put the exclamation point on the fact that this was designed for Undertaker to get his win back and little else.

Geekery As Therapy, Episode 02

I stand corrected – it’s Aronofsky. So be it.

Time for a little more geeking out before I let a night like I had tonight get to me and I start thinking about creative ways to destroy things I really shouldn’t...

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Movies

If you’re the type that still likes to partake in eating ‘shrooms and dropping acid, then have I got a movie for YOU!

I got the chance to see Speed Racer a few days ago. Pretty decent flick, all-in-all. Once you get used to the visuals, anyway. Definitely a hallucinogenic paradise.

Other than that, it played pretty solid. Bonus points for Trixie; she reminded me a lot of my wife (a good thing) – smart, capable, tough, and stands behind her man. What more could you ask for. A few more points for keeping the “triple-swoosh” sound effect whenever the Mach-5 used the jump jacks. A small touch of nostalgia goes a long way.

Also finally got to see 16 Blocks recently. Bruce and Donner can still turn out a good flick when needed, and Mos Def has impressed me as an actor now. It’s not often I find myself actually on the edge of my seat rooting for the good guys (I’m a sucker for a good villain and a better tragedy), but I did here. Solid stuff.

Next up is probably Near Dark (Kathryn Bigelow’s first flick, I believe), as well as finally taking in Sweeney Todd. Further bulletins as events warrant.


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A Tale Of Two Matches

...involving the two same competitors.

Back in 1994, Mike Awesome (RIP) faced Kenta Kobashi under the All-Japan banner. Got to see that and their decade-later rematch in NOAH this evening and realized I may have had my eyes opened to the Japanese style a little more than I already did.

See, it’s not that I don’t like the puroresu style at all. I’m normally to absorbed by what the US has to offer (particularly the indie scene as of late) to watch a lot of the Japanese product. I may have to go back for the older stuff, though, after this.

Awesome and Kobashi circa ’94 was, to me, everything that Joe and Kobashi should have been in 2005. Granted, ’94 was Kobashi’s prime and all, but the match between he and Awesome back then was just that. 20 minutes of two powerhouses pounding on each other in a power match clinic. Kobashi took (almost) everything Awesome had and came back for seconds. Great stuff.

Fast forward 10 years to NOAH, where Kobashi defends the GHC Crown against the “Gladiator”. Clocking in at 10 minutes longer, it was very similar to their last match with a lot of the same spots. Differences here were that they played the epic feel with a slower (NOT “methodical”; that sort of thing is reserved for Mark Henry and Great Khali matches) pace top play off of each other more. Awesome hit the top-rope Awesome Bomb this time (~!), as well as another from the apron to the floor through a table. In the end, Kobashi still emerged victorious in a harder-hitting but still slower version of their match a decade earlier.

Just Because I Want To

If I can be not-so-serious for a minute...

Sorry – been hearing a lot about Lance Storm lately and his appearance at the Ring of Honor show this past weekend in Toronto; just glad to see ya back, Lance.

Anyway, all seriousness aside – wait, that’s the point. There’s been enough stress, apprehension, tribulations, insert-noun-of-choice-describing-tension-here that I just need to vent in a completely different manner. And that would be by geeking out for a minute.


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Movies

In particular and in release date order, three that I’m excited about now that I’ve seen The Dark Knight (five-star awesome job by ALL involved!):

The Spirit – Hurrm. Now, I’m no expert on Will Eisner’s “The Spirit” at all, so I can’t comment on all the characters and that; only what I see. What I see in this fuller trailer is...different. At some point, Samuel L’s Octopus looks pretty cool, but then, in other shots, I’m wondering how he got talked into something like this. Still, with the Sin-City-meets-Dick Tracy look of the whole thing (both of which I’m marks for, I ain’t gonna lie), it still looks like something I definitely want to check out.

Oh, and I do hope that someone has the bright idea to let Miller direct his own “Hard Boiled” adaptation. That would be off the page.


Watchmen – To use a Matt Groening line from waayy back...o mais, oui. I lost count of how many times I’ve read this, arguably the greatest graphic novel not starring one of DC’s core characters ever. And the thing that knocks me out is that Zach Snyder is apparently serious as a heart attack in his faithfulness; just about every single shot and scene showed in the trailer (which, for 2 minutes, is quite a bit~~) I can pinpoint directly from the story and when, how, and why it happens.

Ye General Populace may or may not get it when it hits. I could give less than a thimbleful of damn if they do; to see a book I’ve always loved faithfully recreated like this gives me the chills every time I watch that friggin’ trailer. See if I don’t ask for the night off from work just to go see it opening night.


TR2N – Yeah, hey, look, I know the trailer quality isn’t that great. What can I do? – no one’s released an “official” version yet (although Disney should get on the ball because this won’t go away now).

Outside of that...very nice. I’m probably in the target demo for this since I used to have the action figures, read-along books and play the arcade game every time I crossed its path when I was younger because I dug the hell out of this movie. And now it’s back, with Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn in tow. Yeah, sing me the hell up for a seat to this, too.


Sad thing is, though, I’m looking at a potential timeline of a year and a half-plus before all 3 of these are out...and these are the only three I’m that excited to see. Yeah, I know all about GI Joe and Transformers 2...as well as Darren Aranofsky (sp?) remaking RoboCop (no disrespect to Aranofsky (sp?) because I haven’t seen any of his movies, but...”Who booked this crap?”) and an “Escape From New York” remake in the works (GROAN), but those I can wait for DVD or some time when I have a spare moment*. The three above, I can’t.

* - If I find out, however, that the GI Joe movie is done in the vein of the recent ”America’s Elite” comic series, then I’ll get good and geared up for that one, too. Devil’s Due does with GI Joe and Cobra what should have been done years ago.


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Now then, on to tonight’s (07.28.08) “Raw”. Hey, if Jake “The Snake Roberts can talk about it online (in much cooler fashion than I ever could), then why can’t I?

Don’t worry – this won’t be a straight recap or review or any of that crap that several hundred people could probably better than myself, anyway. Just some thoughts that stand out is all.

Speaking of which, I just saw this:

- Believe it or not, WWE has hired actor Freddie Prinze, Jr. (Scooby-Doo, She's All That, I Know What You Did Last Summer) as a new member of the creative team. He was at the RAW/Saturday Night's Main Event taping last night and has attended several WWE events over the past few months including WrestleMania. He has been a big fan for awhile and has also been a "celebrity blogger" on the WWE Fan Nation site. Prinze is married to actress Sarah Michelle Gellar.

First of all, no, I don’t. But that’s just because I kinda don’t want to. Because, secondly, I’m almost afraid of the havoc Freddie Prinze Jr., of all people, could wreak on the booking committee.

On with the show.

Giving away Cena vs. Batista this soon isn’t necessarily a bad idea, but they’d have been better served putting it off until WM XXV. This is one of the few BIG-money matches WWE has left to build right now; they could make some serious bank by building for that long. Alas, someone felt the need to pull the trigger.

Main event was what I thought it may be, but I’d have made one stipulation: The winner of the fall meets CM Punk at SummerSlam for the World Title. AT least give them a reason not to trust each other aside from ye olde “they all want the same thing” party line.

I’ll be honest about it – when Michael Cole was announced as Lawler’s partner, I laughed. I needed the mirth, really. The desire to see him get worked comes not from an intense hatred of Cole or because I’m some JR-supporter that wants to see him back on “Raw”, but simply because, to me, that’s the kind of comedy they should book more often.

I was hoping against hope that they wouldn’t start a feud among commentators (they certainly hinted at it for a second), but in a way, I guess they did...

I know I don’t know much about discerning the difference between a “promo or a money promo” (heard that on one of Raven’s Shoot Interviews recently...decent stuff), Jericho’s Highlight Reel felt to me like a “money promo”. Raven has a point about people being able to talk people into the arenas to see the matches, and Jericho is great with that.

Mike Adamle as General Manager. Why? I can’t say that I hate or love the idea, and that’s the problem in and of itself. I couldn’t actually care any less that Adamle is the GM now. I was hoping for a little more exciting payoff, although I should know better by now. Judging by the live crowd reaction, I’m not alone in thinking that, which is why they have made a mistake here.

The Power Of Teh Intraweb?

(Click on the pic to enlarge and get a much better idea of what I'm talking about...)

Just thought I'd share this. Yeah, I drew in the circles and exclamation points myself (if you can't tell by their amateurish appearance) and did the text, but the picture was an honest-to-God screen capture.

I didn't think that many people even knew about torrent sites and software, let alone used them. I still don't actually - that number has to be a mistake.

Still, it's funny to imagine some old goober at the offices of the MPAA seeing that and shitting himself...

The Kind Of "Work" I Enjoy

As I write this, I'm actually taking a break from "work". No, not at Pizza Hut - there's a reason the word was in quotes. "Work" as in still doing for a hobby and enjoyment what I would liked to have done for a career - music journalism.

I'm watching videos of Lyrics Born on the making of his latest album, Everywhere At Once (which I'd heard a few times thanks to a PR preview site, but bought proper tonight at Target whilst out with my lovely wife while were spending a night out alone without the kids and Jesus have I gotten far enough off track yet?!). To drop a song title from said record about said record, "I Like It, I Love It".

Anyway, I can write all this off as research for an upcoming (?) interview. I have to insert the (?) because this has already been screwed up once; I'd intended to interview the big man before the album came out, but there was some slight miscommunication with the label and it simply didn't happen. Nature of the beast; it bees that way sometimes. In the ensuing confusion, however, I was given a contact number to call for the interview...

Having given the whole thing a couple weeks and debating whether or not to call the number, I acted on the inspiration of seeing the CD at Target and feeling good for the man to call the number I had. I was expecting the voice mail of a member of his management or a PR rep or some such to tell me they weren't available. No big deal; I was planning on leaving a message on who I was, what I wanted to do, a brief synopsis of how things got mixed up, and to leave my number in a last-ditch effort to get the interview, anyway.

So, I dialed. And got an answer. From a live human being. With a voice I'd recognized because I'd listened to it perform so many times now.

Apparently, the label had given me Lyrics Born's direct number, and I just called him out of the blue.

Oh, shit.

Desperately reaching for self-composure, I told him who I was, what I wanted to do, a brief synopsis of how things got mixed up. We talked for a minute (literally) and he suggested I go back through the label rep and try again. I wanted to tell him that, after the initial mix-up, I'd never heard back from her despite several attempts to contact her, but figured I'd done enough damage and cut my losses. I told him I'd get back to her, wished him a good night, and we disconnected.

He was cool about the whole thing, thank God (at least on the phone he was; I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if he was cussing my name up one side and down the other after we hung up). Seemed no harm, no foul. I've already e-mailed the proper contact (again) in hopes of getting the interview set up once and for all (again). We'll see what happens.

This is one I'd particularly like to do, but then, all my interviews are. I choose the ones I want to do instead of having some editor hand me an assignment I wouldn't want to touch with a 10' pole and a HAZMAT suit. One of the small the joys of being an independent contractor working for free simply because I love music and want to connect with the artists that make it. It's the reason I wanted to do this for a career, but it's also the reason that, since the whole "getting paid to do what I want" thing never happened with me (as it does with so many others), I do it for 411 Music for absolutely nothing simply because I can...

Well, I guess the term "absolutely nothing" is somewhat incorrect; I do it for no monetary gain, lemme put it that way. However, as big of a music fan as I am...as much as I love the different types of sounds people create to make us feel...it's worth it to piss off my wife and/or my actual job once in a while by taking a trip to Orlando or wrecking a predetermined appointment with any given doctor to be able to pursue this simply to meet the people that create what I love. The feeling of meeting them and getting the word out on their latest work or effort in the hopes of helping them achieve their goals is damn-near as good as any paycheck I could receive for doing the same thing.

Alas, it never quite worked out that way. I'll be back at Pizza Hut tomorrow night, doing the grind all over again. Ditto a day or 2 later when there's another doctor's appointment to rush to or some other piece of business that has to be attended to right now. But, for the moment, I can do a little more of the "work" I actually enjoy - and hopefully reap a reward in the form of talking to Lyrics Born himself - as I have with Burton C Bell and John Bechdel, Max Cavalera, and Michael 'Moose' Thomas so far this year.

Took Me Long Enough...

...to use this thing, I mean. Had it for a while, too; just signed on to have one and then let it collect dust. But I finally found the reason and inspiration to go ahead and put this thing to use.

I found said inspiration from, of all places, Chris Hyatte. (You see, some people laugh, some people need an explanation...) He's a onetime wrestling writer who was funny as hell and got a lot of heat - and attention in those circles - for a lot of shit he did and said. Then the glory days died out (no pun intended) and he got sick of it all, choosing to retreat to his own blog. Went and read the thing last night. For a while. Really entertaining.

Of course, I don't know if I'd tell him that. You see, I have a pet peeve with people who think they're a lot more important than they actually think they are. Once Hyatee left 411 (where I still do stuff on occasion) for Inside Pulse...then left Inside Pulse for Declaration Of Independents...in my eyes, it became sad to see someone brag about how he was still the Center Of The Universe when his exposure was rapidly dwindling. Unbeknown to me at the time, this was part of his persona (or so it seems to me, anwyay; I can't quite tell. He doesn't seem to take himself nearly as seriously as many others do, though - that much I've fathomed.)

So, one day, a thread pops up in the 411 Forums about Hyatte and people start weighing in with their opinions. And I take the opportunity to do something I rarely, if ever, do - open fire. On someone I never even met. And I was pretty bad, too.

I will say, though, personal shots (that I maybe shouldn't have taken...and that I'd contact him about and apologize and try to bury the hatchet over if I thought he gave a shit) aside, the main point of my post was to challenge Hyatte--no, dumbass, not to a write-off, or a duel at 20 paces or none of that shit. The challenge was to look at his work and accomplishments compared to mine.

His answer? Uhh-huhuhuh...his wife's fat and ugly.

My thoughts were, "Game over. I win." If someone can't even answer the points I present and has to resort to something like that instead of standing up for his contributions, then there's no need to bother continuing the argument.

But now that I re-read these things, I'm asking myself, "But, wait - isn't that exactly what I did? Didn't I take personal liberties with someone I didn't know and insult his life as well without knowing all of the facts?"

On top of that, as far as accomplishments go...his involved growing the wrestling community online to new heights via outrageousness and becoming something of a star. Mine involved rebuilding a section of a hugely popular website by doing stuff no one else did and, while having my name out there somewhat, largely remaining in the background.

It may not sound like it by that comparison, but the two are apples and oranges. He seemed to like the attention he got from his name and his writing. I always just simply enjoyed doing it and meeting the people that I interviewed more than I cared about any celebrity. Always been that way. It's why I'd rather write about music than make it myself, or write and sell a screenplay rather than make the movie. You get the idea.

Back to the story at hand...yeah, I always kinda did reading Hyatte's stuff (although, of all the "old guard" of guys like him, Eric S, Grut, Keith, et al...my favorite was - and still is - Flea.)

So, I come across his Blog and, in a nutshell, realize how stupid I was and that whole thing was and read his Blog a while and stay engaged and think, "Wait...I can do this, too. Why not?"

But, I had to have a reason. That was simple - the reason would coincide with the rules of this piece: next to none. THIS is where I come to "get away from it all", so to speak, and write about whatever the hell I want. In whatever style and format I want. Whenever I want. However I want. You get the idea.

Whether it was for 411...for the Wrestling Fan...for BackStage Pass...hell, even on my MySpace page...I'm horrible at sticking to a style (persona?) and never wavering from it for that particular site (sometimes, even just a single article). Drives me batshit. That's the reason I stopped regular contributions for 411; I got burned out on having to stick to one style. Sad thing is, it was my own fault; no one told me I had to write like that. I just went with what I knew and never bothered breaking out of that.

I just hope I don't treat this thing like other projects I did just to do, such as the Podcast or the Autobiomentary. I'm bad at getting excited about something (usually involving new technology) and banging out a few, then losing the reason (motivation?) to continue.

I hope I don't do that with this Blog, although I don't think I have to worry about that with this. I like the idea of having my own unadvertised, may-as-well-be-private (since it's not gonna get a lot of play even if I did advertise it) space just to rant, vent, write, stay in practice...whatever.