Crunch!

This is what I feel like today...

It Finally Felt Like Winter

Yesterday evening the temperature here in Minnesota dipped down below the zero degree marker for the first time in what seems like, well, about a year's time. Up until mid-January this winter has been one of the most mild that I have ever experienced, which most people in the area are extremely happy about. I can't blame them really. Cold weather sucks.

But the cold also reminds us that we're in Minnesota and not some middle Midwestern state like Missouri or Iowa or Nebraska. We're Minnesotan, dammit! And we like our cold! And I'm one of the people that actually enjoys the cold weather, not so much for being out in it but for the excuse it gives me to spend countless hours of my free time snuggled up in blankets on the couch watching movies or playing Xbox. Or I can curl up in a pair of flannel pants, a hoodie, and some slippers in my favorite chair reading for hours. And the best part is, since it's so nipple hardeningly cold outside, I don't feel guilty for sitting inside just sitting around.

In the summer I find myself overcome with a sense of guilt at wasting away perfectly wonderful evenings if I sit indoors watching TV or reading, but in the winter, who the hell wants to be getting frostbit by spending more than the absolute minimum amount of time possible in the outdoor wasteland of snow and face-numbing wind chills? Not this guy. Sure, I'll go outside and play a game or two of broomball a week in the junk shrinking cool, but you won't find me just casually hanging out in the wide open cold.

So instead of complaining that the highs are only barely breaking into the low teens, I'm thankful it is. I need my couple of winter months of quasi-hibernation to catch up on all of the time wasting, lazy stuff that I like to do. And I like to catch up on those things guilt free. So be thankful for the cold and go watch that movie you've had sitting on your shelf for way too long or crack open a good book that someone recommended and indulge your lazy self. It's good for relaxing your chilly soul.

Lucky Number, Eh?

I watched another movie. It was ok. It's now a part of the movie thread.

Lucky Number Slevin (7/10): It's very apt that the premise of this movie is one of mistaken identity as that is what happened when I saw this film. I expected it to be a high velocity action flick, but instead it was more of a methodical, noir caper flick. The action comes in spurts. The dark comedy even more so. The performances from all involved (Bruce Willis, Josh Hartnett, Lucy Lui, Ben Kingsley, and Morgan Freeman) were great and heavily noir inspired. The plot will keep you guessing... that is, until you guess what the general idea of what the ending will be by the second act. Hartnett's character gives it away by the manner in which he takes his case of mistaken identity. Still, it's a good movie and one of the few that I can stand seeing Lucy Lui in. If you want a solid mix between Layer Cake and a condensed version of Ocean's Eleven, this is probably the perfect movie for you.

My Jamaica Pictures!

I've finally got around to getting all of my Jamaica pictures up onto flickr. There's a solid 45 there that I thought were worth posting. You can view them in a slideshow by clicking this link. It was a beautiful and fun trip, which I hope the pictures make apparent.

I'd give you a rundown of the trip, but really you should just go experience it for yourself. We stayed at Sandals in Ocho Rios. It was an all expenses paid resort. We ate ourselves retarded. I put on, literally, 10 pounds while I was down there. I guess that's what you get when you eat like 5 meals a day and don't work out that much. Regardless, it was amazing.

Boobs + Coffee = Heaven

Cowgirls Espresso, taking a cue from Hooters, is a chain of coffee shops in Washington that has baristas serving you with a minimal amount of clothing on. Right now I occasionally visit Caribou on my way to work for a mocha or coffee, but most of the time I suffer through the day on the nasty office coffee. If there were a Cowgirls Espresso here in Minneapolis, however, I'd go out of my way to pay my coffee tax every morning. There sure isn't anything like some scantily clad women brewing up some coffee for you to get the morning started off right!

A Little Behind

Since I'm running a little behind on getting my pictures from Jamaica up, check out the pictures that Jared has put up on his Flickr account here.

Surprisingly Solid

Lately whenever anyone says the name "Sony", what comes to mind is a troubled company that has completely dropped the ball on one of their latest big name products (the Playstation 3), had millions of batteries recalled, and has been in a continual slide down in quality from the lofty perch they used to occupy. With all of that in mind, and with a pretty heavily embedded hate for anything Sony, I found myself buying the pair of headphones pictured on the left.

Being the forgetful person I am, I left my headphones at home when I left for Chicago this week. What this meant is that I had an extremely boring flight where I was *gasp* forced to read the entire way, as well as have some boring transport time since I couldn't listen to my MP3 player. I also had an entire morning of work that consisted of me working in silence, which just drives me batty.

Needing to fulfill my silence killing, I took an early lunch to visit Radio Shack, of all places, to pick up some headphones. Now I've never used noise canceling headphones before so I thought I'd indulge and get myself a pair. As I listened to the various sets that were available (and in my price range of under $50), I found that the Sony pair sounded the best with the noise canceling turned off, which was what I was most concerned with as the noise canceling will only be used when I'm in the car or plane, which shouldn't be too often.

Anyone else have any good or bad experiences with noise canceling headphones? I'm curious to see how well they perform on the plane ride home and if they're actually worth the $40 I spent on them.

Red Orchestra Radio - The Electric Sleep CD Review

The disbanding of Codeseven, which took place last year, was a disheartening event for many people, especially since it came on the heels of the band creating their most cohesive and mature album to date in Dancing Echoes / Dead Sounds. With fervent interest, fans of the band saw James Tuttle join the then recently formed Red Orchestra Radio. Expectation ran high, but were then subsequently somewhat dashed when the band started touring with oft maligned acts, such as Atreyu and Hawthorne Heights. Certainly teaming up with bands of that pedigree didn’t bode well for the direction of the band. Now, with The Electric Sleep, fans can listen for themselves to see exactly what direction the band decided to travel down.

The album starts off sounding very similar to the critically acclaimed Circa Survive, most notably in the realm of the musical arrangements. The cascading guitars, complete with perfectly placed crescendos and movements that flow quite naturally, keep the opening brisk, yet enlightening. Unlike Anthony Green’s vocal approach, however, Chris Chafin possesses a middle tenor range that, at times, feels more at home against the backdrop of Red Orchestra Radio’s space rock tinged post-hardcore musical landscapes than would a high pitched falsetto approach. His screams feel a little forced, however, but thankfully they are few and far between, and when they do appear they feel appropriate instead of coming across as out of place or forced.

There may only be five tracks on this EP, but those five tracks encompass over half an hour of music, which obviously means that the songs can strain to the breaking point when their individual run times are examined. The post-hardcore and space rock genres naturally lend themselves to longer length songs, but only if properly crafted. It is this aspect in which The Electric Sheep stumbles. Four out of five times the band hits home runs in regards to pacing, but the final track on this CD, “Thrasher 419”, pushes the boundaries at over 13 minutes in length. At points throughout this song the musical interplay feels pretentious and off putting, which will leave listeners ignoring the track in lieu of repeat plays of the first four.

Barring the final track and its self indulgent nature, this EP is actually a very strong offering and shows a great deal of promise. Given a little more focus and maturity, this band is bound to start being mentioned in the same category as critical favorites Cave In or Kaddisfly. As it stands, however, this is still a very solid offering that should not be let slip through the cracks.

Some Movies (Before I Forget)

Here's a few movies I've watched to add on to the review thread.

Thank You for Smoking (7.5/10) : Going into this movie I didn't know if I should have expected a dark comedy, a dramatic comedy, a drama with some comedic elements, or a pretentious indie flick. After seeing it, I feel that it was really not as easily classified into one of those genres as I'd thought. There is a hefty dose of pointed comedy, but there's also a few "life lessons" moments, albeit not as heavily handed as they could have been, and some interesting drama. It straddles drama, comedy, and after school special quite well and one of the main reasons it can is the performance of Aaron Eckhart. His over the top, likeable, bad guy keeps the movie flowing at a crisp, humorous pace.

The Descent (8/10): Usually I go to horror movies for the cheese factor and to see how many cliches I can pick out before the movie is over. Rarely is a horror movie actually good. The Descent is one of those few. The reason that it was good is that before it dives headfirst into the monster fighting and chase scenes, there is a good amount of character building, even though it is somewhat a standard build-up, as well as the simple psychological horror of being in a tightly confined cave. The first half of the movie is dedicated to pulling the viewer into the tight confines of the cave and conveying the sense of urgency when they realize they need to get out. Then once you add the monsters and the bloody twists of the second half of the movie you have one hell of an interesting and gripping horror movie.

Best in Show (9/10): Who would have imagined that a mockumentary about a dog show, of all things, could be so laugh out loud funny? I didn't. Christopher Guest knew it could work, though, and along with Eugene Levy he wrote and directed one of the funniest movies that I've seen in the last couple of years. The comedy comes directly from the subtle over the top parodying of the dog show personas. The biggest laughs come when a scene you know is parody feel like they're the real thing. You know there are people out there just like the slack jawed yokel with the blood hound who dabels in ventriloquism or the flamboyantly gay man who revels in his homosexuality or the midwestern small town couple who live for the dog show. It's surreal and utterly real at the same time. And that's funny as hell if you ask me.

I've Returned!

Man, did it ever feel great to have a nice, long, warm, beautiful vacation! It's been the first extended vacation that I've actually had in nearly 3 years and boy was I overdue for it. Although I'm now totally swamped at work, having a hard time realizing that I have to dive back into the real world grind, and preparing for a business trip to Chicago that I fly out for tomorrow. Let the post vacation depression set in...

Hopefully some pictures and more posts to come soon!