Posts from March 2010

Yesterday something very exciting happened. Kay Hanley released a 5-song EP from her new music project, Palmdale. It’s called “Get Wasted” and, like most of Kay Hanley’s other music, it is terribly catchy.

Who is Kay Hanley, you ask? You may know her as the leader of Letters to Cleo, or perhaps the singing voice of Josie in the Josie & the Pussycats movie (she also helped write the soundtrack album). She is one of my favorite all-time songwriters. She tends towards bubblegum power-pop-rock, and her songs are frighteningly, unbelievably catchy. Hooks, hooks, hooks! Riffs, riffs, riffs! They strike a certain part of my brain that instantly switches on and says, “Yes! THIS is how power-pop-rock should sound!”

So I recommend you all go over to Amazon and download the MP3s of “Get Wasted” now. It’s less than $5.00 for the full 5-song EP, so wha’d’ya got ta lose?

I see you, baby, shakin’ that thang

Avatar is a beautiful, stunning film. It is an engrossing epic, a virtuoso action flick, a technical marvel. It is full of wonder and thrills and heartaches and triumphs. It is an incredible movie. If only someone other than James Cameron had written the dialogue. [Read my full review]

The game’s afoot.

All too often Sherlock Holmes is portrayed as a stuffy, tweedy, dry intellectual, full of calm and cool reason, using only the power of his brain to solve dastardly crimes. But that portrayal has always seemed, well, boring to me. There is nothing boring about Robert Downey Jr. and Guy Ritchie’s vision of the famous detective. This brave new Sherlock Holmes is quite a departure from previous film versions of the character, and at the same time extremely reverent to the original stories. And above all else, this one is FUN. [Read my full review]

Once again I did not see very many of the nominated films: Avatar, Up, Inglourious Basterds, Star Trek, Coraline, and, um… oh, right! Sherlock Holmes (nominated for Best Score and Art Direction). Oh, and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (nominated for Sound Mixing), but we can just forget about that, eh? [Read the Full Article]

A couple made this Mario furniture for their apartment (she’s a mechanical engineer, which probably helped). Look at the Warp Pipe end table, too!

Via neatorama

Last Friday (back when it was still February) evening I went to a concert with @jayseman, @gendlec, and my brother. We went and saw Jonathan Coulton at the Moore Theater in Seattle, with special guests Paul and Storm and Molly Lewis (aka sweetafton23).

It was a good show. And now, thanks to the magic of YouTube, you can watch (almost) the entire thing here. Not all of Paul & Storm’s act was put online, so I had to take some of their songs from the Portland show they did around the same time. But they did the same stuff, so IT’S OKAY.

Anyhoo, here is good musics for you to enjoy. A playlist with a whopping 30 videos in it:

A funny side note: @gendlec didn’t know that Molly was going to be in the show, and she’s a huge fan of Molly. So when Molly came out on stage @gendlec went NUTZ with excitement.

Link of the Month:
Uvumi
A welcome haven for those artists and listeners who were forced to abandon that other music listening site that shall not be named here. This site is a wonderful way to discover indie music of many genres. Poke around and listen. Make friends and become a fan. Listen to some good music.

Album of the Month:
Polka Glocks: Hand Held Accordion Blasters
Polka Glocks is a fun hip-hop collective lead by “Davy Hamburgers,” who provides most of the easy-flow vocals. This album is at times groovy, at times funny, and always interesting. Plus my pal Three Ninjas contributes to a couple of songs (and was made an official, full-fledged member of the group after this album was produced). Take a listen and you’ll see what I mean:

Game of the Month:
Cestos
So, imagine you’re playing billiards against another person. Now imagine that each of you own only two balls each. Then, imagine that the goal of the game is to use your balls to knock your opponent’s balls into the pockets. Imagine also that whenever you strike a ball with your stick, the ball drops a tiny little explosive device that explodes whenever any ball rolls into it and makes that ball careen off in a different direction. And finally imagine that you and your opponent strike your balls at exactly the same time. That’s the gist of Cestos, and immensely fun game that is played 100% against randomly-selected LIVE opponents (you must have a wifi connection to play it). There are several different tables with different hole setups and rules (my favorite is “speedball” with only corner pockets). It is only available on Android phones!