Long Weekend's Over Blues..

Hope everybody had a great long weekend! I had a great one (despite the Pistons losing on Sunday). So much so that it was literally painful to come back to work this morning. But I’m here extra early so I thought that I’d throw a little something up for my faithful bloggers :)

-- I have a problem… I can’t stop buying DVDs. It’s not like I even want to watch most of the ones I buy… I just need to possess them. Is there any legitimate reason one must own “Summer School”??? How many times can one person watch “EuroTrip”? Now I don’t regret buying “Shaun of the Dead” this weekend as I’ve already watched it twice. The sad thing is, buying DVD’s is the only thing that keeps me going to the grocery store! I try and time my food shopping by when I know they have a new stock of $9.99 DVDs. Well at least it’s keeping me eating.

-- I have an even bigger problem… I don’t think Paris Hilton’s single sucks. You have no idea how distressing this is for me! It is a typical dance track, and I’m a sucker for that “Euro-homo” sound (as Mod would say). It’s not that she is a great singer either, they have put such a distortion on her voice that it could have been almost anybody. But without a doubt she go the best producer/DJ money could buy because it is really well done. I also find it perversely amusing that the title of the track is “screwed”… how poetic for Pairs :)

-- I think I’m still in denial that I’m an actually attorney now. I try and dress up a little for work, its business casual in the office so I only need a suit when I go to court. I usually wear a button down shirt and some kakis, but I can’t seem to give up my Vans. I figure they are black and comfortable so good enough right? After all, as Morgan Freedman said in Shawshank “How often to you really look at a man’s shoes?”

Quick Hits

--Saw Episode III on the weekend. Through all of its faults, I still loved it. I think it has something to do with the fact that it was the first SW prequel that I have walked out of feeling satisfied at the end. We saw Darth Vader, the Emperor, and the clone army finally started acting like Stormtroopers. Yes, there were some incredibly lame parts to it, but taken as a whole, I thoroughly enjoyed it. So take that all you fanboy haters!

-- Just picked up the new Gorillaz album. LOVE the single, Feel Good Inc., still torn about the rest of the album. It’s not nearly as accessible as their first album. Think it will take a few listening to before I really get what I want out of it.

-- Is it just me or does the new buff Trent Reznor look kinda like Tony Danza? I’m just sayin…

-- Loving the Scrubs Season One box set! This has to be the best show on TV, which means that it will probably be cancelled soon. And yes, I noticed that it is not on NBC’s fall lineup – but it’s just on hiatus so Zach Braff can shoot a movie.

-- I totally kicked ass in my first appearance in traffic court. The son of one of the secretaries here was caught going 78 in a 50. (for all of my Canadian friends, that’s like going 125 in an 80). So they sent me to his formal hearing just to see what I could do. It could not have gone better! I schmoosed with the cop and prosecutor before hand and ended up pleading it down to “Impeding Traffic”, $100 fine and no points. Not bad for going almost 30 over the limit.

-- Pistons are up 1-0 in the Eastern Conference finals… Without Shaq at full strength Miami has no chance at all. GO PISTONS!!!

-- Hope everybody up north had a great MAY 2-4 weekend!

-- Not sure what I’m doing for memorial day yet, I’m just praying I don’t have to come into the office… The real world sux yo.

Still Here, Just Not Here...

Never fear, I'm still alive and I haven't forgotten about you all. I just had two new clerks start this week and it's been hard keeping them out of my hair long enough for me to get much of anything done.
Hopefully I'll have some time this weekend to post something more.
If anything, I'll make sure to give a complete rundown of my "Adventures in Nerddome" when I see Star Wars this weekend.
Who am I kidding... I am one of those nerds :(

Latah!

London Calling...

G-day,
Spent quite a bit of time back in my old “hood” this weekend… the old stomping grounds of London, Ontario. OK so it isn’t really a hood, it’s about as hoody as Anaheim Hills, but I still would never get a “519” tattoo.

I already made fun of him before, but it warrants a second go round… I did see a guy last year at my gym with at “714” tat. I almost burst out laughing!! As if any area code in Orange County deserves to be “repped”!

But I digress…

It was actually quite shocking how much things have changed back in London town since I left. What shocked me the most was the fact that the night club I used to DJ at is now a parking lot! I had heard that they tore it down, but it really didn’t register until I saw it myself. Now this wasn’t a small little hole-in-the-wall pub either. It was a gigantic building. I think fire codes allowed us to have about 1,200 people in there, but we usually had closer to 1,500 on a Friday. But it’s gone now… just gone. Never really had much fun there when I wasn’t working… too much of a “meat market” atmosphere for my tastes, but they paid well and it was a hell of a lot better than having a real job when I was in College. Still would have liked to go there one last time before it was gone though.
Also went to my old favorite movie theater downtown… not much else to say about it other than it really doesn’t stack up to the new AMC google-plexes that are everywhere now. At least tickets are only $3.00, which is less than half of what they were the last time I was there back over 5 years ago.
I move around so much that it’s hard to have roots, and the one place where I used to really feel like “home” is so different now that even that doesn’t seem right. Downtown London has completely changed, my high school has been renovated (not that it didn’t need it), and even Westmont (where I used to live) has grown up so much that there is a Krispy Kream right down the street from my old house!!
The biggest change though is the fact that I only know two people in London anymore!
I guess it’s true… you can’t go home again…

A Sad Song Says So Much...

So I am sitting in my office listening to “Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want”, by The Smiths and it is just ripping my heart out.
I have this theory about the difference between the Smiths and the Cure. Most people think of the Cure as a gloomy depressing band, but in reality most of their songs are incredibly romantic and beautiful. Sit down and listen to the words to “Lovesong” sometime. “Whenever I’m alone/with you/you make me feel like I am home again/Whenever I’m alone/with you/you make me feel like I am whole again”. That has to be the most touching lyric in the history of lyrics.
The Smiths on the other hand, write on a more upbeat tempo but if you listen to what they are saying it’s terrible. “And the pain was enough to make a shy, bald, Buddhist reflect and plan a mass murder” (from “Stop Me If You Think That You’ve Heard This One Before”). That’s just terrible, but it’s so catchy and poppy that you don’t notice. The best example of this is “Panic”. Great beat, great hook but the lyrics and the story of the song are depressing as hell. Morrissey was listening to a news report about a riot/massacre or something (I can’t remember exactly and don’t have time to look it up) and right after the news report the DJ put on a Bee Gee’s song. (“Hang the blessed DJ/for the music that he constantly plays/says nothing to me about my life”).
Where things get really dark is when they mix the depressing lyrics and a down tempo. “Please, Please…” is the ultimate example of this. “The times that I’ve had/would make a good man turn bad”… “so please, please, please let me get what I want/this time”. Just the pain and ache in his voice kills me.
The Cure does the same things on songs like “Disintegration” (“I never said I would stay till the end/I knew I would leave you with babies and everything”) or “Want” (“However hard I want/I know deep down in side/I’ll never really get more hope/or any more time”)

Only great music can rip you apart like this...

Do You Believe In Life After HOVA

Well it’s finally over… Cher is retired… that is, until they add 90 more shows to her current farewell tour. I swear, this has to be the LONGEST retirement tour to have ever existed. My parents saw her over a year ago at the Hollywood Bowl in what was supposed to be her “farewell performance”. That was until they added another 4,000 dates to her already two year long tour. I can’t say that I will miss her, she’s never really been my bag (baby), but I do see a striking similarity between her “retirement” and Jay-Z. Yes, J-HOVA has become the Cher of hip-hop.
Since releasing his magnum opus “The Black Album” he has toured and has collaborated almost non stop for the past year, and I really see no end in sight. He's now an exec with Def Jam, he owns part of the New Jersey (Brooklyn) Nets and has countless other side projects.
Is it really a retirement if you never actually stop working?
Not that I’m complaining, I thoroughly enjoyed his collaboration with Linkin Park as well as the unlicensed “The Grey Album” but when you say that you “dropped the black album/and then you backed out/as the greatest rapper alive” and a year later you are still hanging around, ummm… how far do you have to back out?
I mean at least KISS had the decency to actually quit for a few months BEFORE they came back for another retirement concert.

Happy retirement Cher, see you next year…


Songs You Need On Your iPod NOW!
Helicopter – Bloc Party
Don’t Stop – Brazilian Girls
Feel Good Inc. – Gorillaz
The Hand That Feeds – Nine Inch Nails
Walking With The Ghost – Tegan and Sarah