so I kept hearing about this japanese scifi move casshern for a while but never got around to seeing it until just the other day.

… and holy shit it’s ridiculous. if you’ve ever been into anime or scifi or dudes fighting robots then you need to peep the trailer (yeah it’s in japanese, deal with it). it’s shot beautifully and the special effects are crazy amazing. crazing.

so yeah. I borrowed it, watched it, and then went out and got it. it’s that easy, folks.

in other news, scary kids scaring kids are continuing to post songs from their what’s going to be one of the sweetest cd’s to come out this summer. the new one went up today and it’s good. I’m tired of talking about how good they are.

so yeah, episode 3. here’s how I experienced it.

at first I was all hyped up because, by watching this on the big screen, I am in some ways a part of history. after sitting through the 20 minutes of trailers that old familiar 20th century logo came on and off we went.

so the movie starts and I’m finding that for every conflict these dudes run into, they solve it by swinging their light saber around. it seriously did get unexciting after a while because all of the effects and fighting took the place of story telling. already I was starting to lose interest.

if lucas made episode 4 today you certainly won’t see obi-wan wave his hand in the face of a stormtrooper and say, “these aren’t the droids you’re looking for.” no, obi-wan would have whipped out a light saber and beheaded each and every one with a flourish. fuck-a-doodle-doo.

so at some point early on in the movie I started to notice holes in the plot. “how did whats-his-nuts end up there?” “why is that happening already?” — well as it turned out I had DOZED OFF in small spurts and DIDN’T EVEN KNOW.

I did get a second wind and managed to stay awake for the rest of the film, which was good because I paid $9.50 to see this (this was at the “cheap” theatre in manhattan).

okay so the last half hour or so was good. the very end of the obi-wan vs anakin showdown was good, the birth of luke and leia was unceremonious but okay (for someone who was allegedly carrying twins, natalie portman looked like she was barely 3-4 months pregnant with ONE child), and they paid homage (hmm, can you call it an homage if you’re paying tribute to something you made?) to episode 4 at the very very end with this one scene. you’ll see.

all in all it was just another hollywood movie: too much bells and whistles and not enough story telling.

in summation, I believe kumar (of harold and…) said it best: “just ’cause you’re hung like a moose doesn’t mean you have to do porn.” as in, just because you have all of ILM’s technologies and talent under your thumb doesn’t mean you have to throw it in our faces every opportunity you get.

if I see it again it’d be on dvd.

everyone is asking everyone that question and everyone knows which movie they’re talking about.

I haven’t seen it yet but we’re getting off early from work today so ming and I are gonna hit it up.

I’ll be sure to tell you how it ends. and you can count on me not putting up that stupid ***SPOILER*** nonsense.

sorry, but that’s just how I roll.

so my last three meals have surpassed my expectations and I felt the need to post.

1. dinner last night when I had a surprisingly good salad (of all fucking things, right). spinach salad with a whole lot of goodies like avocado and alfalfa sprouts and turkey and boiled egg and… I forget what else. the place kicked in a free thing of soup, which was tight.

2. breakfast this morning when my boss brought us all fresh bagels. holy shit I ate 4.

3. lunch today at this indian/pakistani place. chicken vindaloo with naan? oh fuck yes.

surely writing about those will jinx the streak and jeopardize the goodness that would be tonight’s dinner, but whatever.

so yeah, the kentucky shorts came in this morning so the Adventures In Online Package Tracking ended rather quickly. not that I’m complaining, I have a shiny new pair of blue basketball practice shorts. good times ahead.

so I still can’t get enough of the new funeral for a friend song. man, just hop over to their purevolume page and peep streetcar, won’t you? surely it’s all over the video channels and all but damn, if anything the guitarist showcases the SWEETEST finger-tapping skills this side of VITO BRATTA. I’m not kidding. I’ve never been this serious about anything in my life.

so I don’t particularly enjoy ordering online, what with all the waiting and everything, but if I must, I try to get it shipped either fedex or ups. why? because I get the biggest kick out of tracking them from their websites. old school lightrotation readers know what I’m talking about.

anyway I recently ordered a pair of basketball practice shorts from the uk bookstore (the bookstore at my alma mater, univ of kentucky) and I’m currently in the midst of tracking this bitch down. the package apparently left wednesday night.

click to see a screen capture of the UPS tracking page

it says it’s supposed to get here on monday so I won’t have much fun tracking it as I did that one time I sent a 14lb box of undisclosed contents to deez that one time.

so I kept forgetting to mention this but I recently found out that funeral for a friend got signed to atlantic. where the hell was I when this news broke?

man those majors are snatching up these bands left and right, aren’t they?

I wouldn’t go as far as proclaiming this trend as The New Grunge, as labels are doing research before signing acts this time around and all, but. damn. ferret is doing pretty well for themselves what with the recent major label signings of a static lullaby and FFAF. and that’s just the recent signings.

going back to FFAF, it’s easy to forget these guys are from the UK. I forget who it was (possibly robin williams?) who did some stand up routine about how some british singers lose their accents when they sing. their new “single” streetcar is up on their purevolume site and it’s got the ol’ calling-someone-up-and-recording-it segment and the accent almost always catches me off guard. the song itself is fairly bit polished but it’s still a keeper in my opinion.

so yeah, the new FFAF cd comes out june 14. two weeks after that it’s the scary kids’ new album. this is gonna be a busy summer. I’d love to see these guys play, but we’re entering the Warped Tour season — which means the bands I want to see are all going to be involved with that obnoxious hot-topic-on-poprocks circus and won’t come play regular venues until sometime in the fall at the earliest. if at all.

so yeah.

the scary kids brought it back up this week with their sixth weekly installment, my darkest hour. very catchy melody, simple lyrics, must be 16 or older to enter this pit kind of thing. you know what I’m talking about.

… yeah I’m talking to you, 5′ teen-age girl at a show weighing no more than 80lbs getting annoyed at the people thrashing about.

so last night I was stopped by a cabbie stranded on the side of the street with a flat. he’s all, “do you know how to change a flat tire?” and I’m thinking, how in the fuck did this guy get a job as a cabbie and not know how to change a flat?

he was trying to turn the jack with a tire iron. the problem with that? as tire irons are cross-shaped, you’re not going to get that sucker to turn to get the jack to … jack up.

so I pointed that out to him. he had this other hoo-ha that looked more like the correct instrument. it still wasn’t the perfect tool, but what can you do when you’re a cabbie stuck in chinatown with no knowledge of changing flats?

here, use this roasted duck hanging in the window to get this bitch up off the ground.

have you gotten one of those AIM messages recently? it’s what looks like a message from a friend, asking you to check out some link, but it’s clearly some sort of virus spread via AIM. I got a few of those today and ignored them, and so should you.

this has been a public service announcement.

you’re welcome.