And it’s hard to hold a candle…

Some things about today:

-It rained for most of the day. When I left work for lunch, it wasn’t raining heavily, but it was one of those things I was thinking about- and as I stepped outside, for some reason, I had November Rain in my head. And I was just about to start singing it when I noticed there were people around. So I kept my mouth shut.

-Even more embarassing than what I almost did: Al Sharpton’s latest entry into the annals of Great American Discourse. If you’re too lazy to click, the challenger in the New York City mayoral race has unveiled his latest commercial: Al Sharpton dancing. Yup, that’s it.

I don’t know who to feel sorry for, Sharpton, the loser he’s attempting to campaign for, or New York television viewers who have to watch Sharpton shake it. At least the Reverend isn’t wearing one of those purple sweatsuits he used to wear.

-Picked up the Revenge of the Sith DVD today. Haven’t really watched much, but there is one good sign: No Ben Burtt on audio commentary. I’m sure Burtt’s a nice guy and he’s definitely great at what he does, but I’d rather listen to Jethro Tull than Burtt on an audio commentary. He just yammers on about how he came up with sounds while other people are trying to contribute to plot points. Did we really need to know that he got a sound from a three legged dog in April 1973 while George Lucas is trying to talk about Vader being Luke Skywalker’s father?

At least there’s no Burtt commentary to the Sharpton commercial, I guess.

King Tom

Best Album Ever…well, if it happened

From a Ben Folds interview in NME about Bill Shatner’s Has Been:

Q: Is it true you were close to working with Bill Clinton?

A: Oh yeah! Shatner called him on the phone and he called right back and then Shatner calls me and he said ‘Benny, I just talked to the president!’ He was so excited! Clinton said he was interested in doing it but said, ‘Just don’t make me sound like shit!’ But we took longer to get into production by about six months and then the election season was coming up, so we couldn’t make it happen. I wanted Weezer to come in and play the track and then I wanted Clinton in a booth with Shatner and have it go down all at once.

As it is, Has Been is a solid album that I can get behind. But if the Weez (not to mention the other guest mentioned) had been on board, well that would have just been super cres.

Also, I just finished an article (more like a rant, but oh well) for B. Vaughn’s the Morning Toast. Check it out here.

King Tom

Whoomp, There It Is

So I’m back from a trip out to NJ for the wedding of one of the Civee’s cousins. It was a nice trip, and as an added bonus, I got to see my father.

But while driving through Bedminster NJ, I came across a building with no identification other than this:

THE World Headquarters

Well, rest assured. It’s THE World Headquarters. And it’s in Bedminster New Jersey. I never would have guessed that. But now you know.

Other things:

-The worst thing about the drive to New Jersey/New York is Pennsylvania- five hours of mountains bereft of any civilization. If it were up to me, I’d take out Pennsylvania, put it somewhere on the West Coast as a runway of sorts to Hawaii and zip up the borders of Ohio and NJ.

-To all DJs out there: Know your audience. I swear this DJ actually said “We’re going to play two more Latin songs before some regular music.” Thing is, during these songs, there was no one on the floor. No one at this wedding was looking to do the salsa or merengue.

Mmmmmm…salasa meringue.

King Tom

24: The show that breeds weezer video guest stars

First Clöhe, now this:

(from mtv):

[about weezer’s upcoming video for Perfect Situation] according to Weezer’s label, Geffen Records, the role will be played by none other than “24” star Elisha Cuthbert, who might not have the musical chops for the role, but, well, is plenty hot.

Who’s next? George Mason as the backup voice in the This is Such a Pity video? Jack Bauer as the titular role in You’re My Best Friend? Dennis Hopper as the person who holds Rivers in Hold Me?

King Tom

Blank Slate

Haven’t been on here lately because of my computer. Had some kind of virus/system error and got a new hard drive. Took a while to reinstall Windows, but now I’m back up and running, which may or may not be a good thing.

Anyways, it looks like the U.S. Air Force is benefitting from some visitors from the 23rd century:

http://aimpoints.hq.af.mil/display.cfm?id=7223

Engineers here are testing a new kind of transparent armor — stronger and lighter than traditional materials — that could stop armor-piercing weapons from penetrating vehicle windows.
The Air Force Research Laboratory’s materials and manufacturing directorate is testing aluminum oxynitride — ALONtm …

Transparent aluminum? Isn’t that what Bones and Scotty gave to that engineer guy so they could bring the humpback whales back to the future?

We’re gonna have a time paradox on our hands here if someone’s not careful.

King Tom

The name is Bond. Jabroni Bond.

So Pierce is out.

I’m not sure that’s a good move. And I’m not sure replacing him with some unknown serious actor is a good move, either.

The other two times they hired unknowns- Connery, Lazenby, it worked out well. Solid actors, for the most part- just too bad Lazenby got an ego trip and couldn’t stick around.

But the last time they hired a “serious actor,” Dalton’s two movies were train wrecks. They hired Brosnan, who helped resurrect the franchise and now they’re tossing him like a bag of moldy tangerines. It’s like the producers have the Lazenby syndrome.

I’m willing to be wrong, but they’re going to have to pull a rabbit out of Odd Job’s hat for this one to work.

And in his immortal words:

“aah-hah.”

King Tom5 Comments

I don’t think anyone does

So the other night, the Civee and I were at Damon’s, simultaneously watching the Yankees and Bengals games. Iron Mike was possibly going to join us, and even though there were a few hours until closing, and the place wasn’t all that full, I had a feeling the waitress wanted to be somewhere else:

Waitress: So your friend, is he still coming?
Me: That’s what he says.
Waitress: Is he going to eat with you guys?
Me: I’m not really sure.
Waitress: He sounds very mysterious.
Me: Well, he is. He lives out in the ether.
Waitress: I’m not from Columbus. I don’t know where that is.

King Tom

How many days till Spring Training?

I really thought until the final out of last night’s game that the Yankees had a chance. The one feeling spanning Game five, and the whole ALDS was frustration. It felt like all series, the Yankees couldn’t hit with runners on, and obviously, if you can’t do that, you’re not going to win ball games.

Still, for a large part of the season, the Yankees were the one team that weren’t supposed to make the post-season. The turnaround they made was great. They just couldn’t keep up the momentum.

Personally, I’d like to see Cashman, Matsui, Small and Chacon resigned, the bullpen strengthened and Womack gone. I’d bring back Bernie, but not as a starter. Thing is, nothing out there for Centerfield looks really good right now.

King Tom

Number Eight

Last night, my associate Gianluigi and I drove up to Cleveland to catch the Weezer-Foo Fighters show at Cleveland State University.

The Foo Fighters and openers Kaiser Chiefs rocked, but who am I kidding? I was only there to see one band, and the weez was worth it.

Last night was the eighth time (in five years) that I’ve seen Weezer live. I can honestly say (and GL concurred with me on this one) that last night, they were musically at their best. In a way, it was almost like seeing an entirely different band. They’ve always been musically tight, never playing too sloppy. Last night though, they were all that and more. They rocked and had fun doing so.

Lead singer/guitarist Rivers Cuomo was like a human dynamo. He was way more chatty than ever before, even taking a few minutes to talk about tour buses and drummer Pat Wilson’s sick baby. Rivers also didn’t mind letting others take the spotlight, letting every member of the band front at least one song. During El Scorcho, Rivers gave up lead guitar duties and actually walked/danced/staggered around the stage while singing. Like I said, totally different.

Don’t Let Go was different (in a good way), with a lot of synth added in the opening and solo. Sounded like a new song.

Last time I saw the band, I was disappointed they didn’t play This is Such a Pity, but they remedied that last night- and if I had to decide on one song, I’d say that was the song of the night.

Some other highlights:
-Brian sang lead on Why Bother, giving it a different feel- he also kicked some ass with the solo.
-Scott singing lead on Dope Nose. I didn’t see that one coming- and he did a great job.
-First cover of the night: Big Me
-Pat and Rivers switching drum and guitar duties for Photograph. After seeing Pat’s hideous pants (And non-matching shirt), I can see why he sits behind the drum kit the other 99% of the time. Although, that was forgivable as he looked like he was really having fun with Photograph. At the end of the song, the whole band just busted into Song 2, in another WTF moment. GL said they missed the first verse, but it was still rocking.

After a brief break, Rivers, from the back of the arena, played a solo acoustic version of Island in the Sun, then joined the band and a lucky fan onstage for Undone and Buddy Holly.

Like I said, the Kaiser Chiefs and Foo Fighters were great too, but this was definitely the best weezer has ever been musically. There weren’t any shenanigans like at the last weezer show (unless you count GL getting molested), but it was definitely a great time.

Let’s go Yankees!

Addendum:
-Kaiser Chiefs had a song where the lead singer banged away on a cowbell. I believe they stole this gimmick from TV’s Mike Raymond.

-On the drive there, didn’t listen to either the Foo or the Weez.

-I think it’s a rule at these things where if you’re older than 45 and have either a ponytail or facial hair, you HAVE to wear a leather jacket.

King Tom4 Comments