Outtakes:
MOST VISITED WEBSITES?
Scott Samuels, vocals/guitar:
1. HuffingtonPost.com. “I developed this habit through a nail-biting obsession with Barack Obama’s Presidency.”
2. SubaruXT.com. “This forum is for people like my daughter who still own the little wedge shaped sports car that Subaru made in the mid-to-late ‘80s.”
Scott Southwood
1. ESPN.go.com. “I’m a sports junkie.”
2. MySpace.com. “For keeping tabs on the local music scene.”
Darko Petrovic
1. B92.net. “News and information from Serbia.”
2. YouTube.com. “Endless hours of mindless enjoyment.”
FAVORITE TWILIGHT ZONE?
Darko Petrovic
“The one that has the gremlin tearing up the airplane wing in flight [Nightmare at 20,000 Feet].”
Dave Gladish
“The story where the old people turn young again [Kick the Can].”
GUILTY PLEASURES?
Scott Samuels
“Haagen Dazs peanut butter and chocolate ice cream, Carl’s Jr. chocolate shakes with extra chocolate sauce, and – every time I drive past Irvine – Strickland’s frozen custard.”
Dave Gladish
“Rock of Love Bus, Mambo music, ‘70s Disco, KFC original recipe chicken, and driving fast.”
Coree Levy
“Country music, Desperate Housewives, and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.” — September 30, 2009 11:36 p.m.
None
Silly rabbit. Tricks are for magicians. And hookers. Frank the Rabbit jumps out of the frying hat and into the Darko world, where universes briefly collide just long enough to cause ripple effects that have the potential to destroy all reality. When our titular Donnie finds himself falling down the hallucinogenic rabbit hole of his own universe, it's up to Frank the Bunny, one of the “manipulated dead,” who are charged with the task of at least attempting to mend the damage, to save all of creation. Whether he wants to or not. Yeah, it's a weird-ass flick ---- it’s got all sorts of Serling/M Night/O Henry turnarounds of all you thought you knew. Starts out all Breakfast Club, and then takes a left turn into Liquid Sky and Repo Man. Well worth a looksee, as is the wonky (but still worthy) sequel S Darko, with Donnie's little sister Samantha seeing (and saving?) the world (well, one world anyway) from the Rabbit's feet ----— October 15, 2009 10:37 a.m.
None
The Hellboy movies and Blade II all carry the unmistakable Guillermo del Toro visual stamp, but Pan's Labyrinth seems to be the flick that most reflect his deep, dark soul. I've been obsessed with this movie since first viewing it on a battery operated DVD player in the midst of a power failure blackout, which turned out to be the perfect environs for this disturbing anti-fantasy classic. The DVD commentary clarifies a bit as to whether the little girl playing the lead is really piercing the fabric of myth, or if she's just living out an escapist fantasy to escape from her epically grim reality - but much is still left open to the viewer's interpretation. Despite the subtitles (rough on those of us with the attention span of a gnat on meth), this movie sucked me in like no other I can recall in recent memory. It's astounding and thought provoking - and, oh yeah, a couple of scenes are scary as all getout! That creepy critter that holds its eyeballs in its hands freaked me out so much, I shouted out loud the first time he went all del Toro!— October 9, 2009 6:24 p.m.
Keep Life Punk Rock
Outtakes: WHAT VIDEO GAME ARE YOU PLAYING? Lindstrom “The last video game I played was Excitebike, sometime in 1988.” Tamayo “World at War is amazing, and great fun when you’ve been drinking.” Scott “Brickbreaker for Blackberry Storm. Conveniently available.” MAGAZINE SUBSCRIPTION YOU ALWAYS RENEW? Lindstrom “National Geographic, but not for the nude aborigines. For the nude animals!” Tamayo “Spin. They cover everything that matters.” Famous “My mother always sends me Spin and Interview.” FIRST BOOK READ? Lindstrom “It was either A Light in the Attic or Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein. I was on a Silverstein kick around ages six through eight.” Tamayo “The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. Looking back, it was just a book about an old man and the sea.” Scott “Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss. I would eat them here and there. I would eat them anywhere.” Famous “A children’s book about sharks.”— October 7, 2009 10:41 p.m.
The Day of the Locust
Perhaps the most anti-Hollywood movie ever made by Hollywood! Scarcely seen since its 1975 release, and all-but-forgotten except among devout movie fans, it's worth seeing if only for the meticulous recreation of the period when Hollywood went from golden pond to golden shower. Most all the principals prove to be immoral and hideous, as foreshadowed by the apartment wall paintings of the lead, a movie art director who arrives in town full of hope and optimism, but soon ends up wallowing in the same gutter as the cockroach characters he once emulated and admired. The movie unfolds much like if one actually moved to Hollywood - lots of glitz and glam at first, until the seediness and evilness takes center stage. Donald Sutherland is particularly powerful, aas a somewhat dimwitted innocent whose turn for the worse at the end of the movie provides one of the most shocking and memorable climaxes in movie history. If you haven't seen or heard about it, I won't spoil it here - if you're lucky enough to come across Day of the Locust, DON'T read any of the IMDB or online reviews until AFTER viewing. I guarantee you'll be whacked over the head with some powerful surprises ---— October 5, 2009 9:20 p.m.
Dear Reader Website Powers That Be
#25: People who abuse host websites are ALSO the main reason behind html being enabled for blog posts, but NOT for comments. You wouldn't believe the malicious and destructive code attacks some people try launch anonymously with comments - the kind of stuff that can shut down a whole website, or divert the url to porn sites and such. Also meant to mention something about the claim that blog comments are frequently deleted by Reader webadmin. While this happens on occasion if a comment is slanderous,libelous, or a load of inciteful hooey, you should know that sometimes the bloggers themselves are deleting comment threads they don't like, for whatever reason. Say someone posts their new blog entry, and a couple of negative comments appear below it ---- the blogger can switch that blog post to "draft," and then launch it again with a new page, with a blank comment field. The original page (and its comments) will still exist, but only to someone who has the url to seek it. Only the second comment-free post will remain visible on the website table --- So it's possible that, if you see your comment to a blog suddenly vanish, the blogger did it, not website admin.— October 2, 2009 6:24 p.m.
Mark-Elliott Lugo says San Diego Transit worse every year
Most cities have nicknames for their bus lines, usually based on the operator's initials. The Metro Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority is called Marta. The Bay Area Rapid Transit is Bart.... Overheard in San Diego: "We have MTS. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm... Empty Ass." BTW, are you guys aware that Reader publisher Jim Holman has been taking the bus to the paper's office for over the last 20 years?— October 2, 2009 5:43 p.m.
Dear Reader Website Powers That Be
As far as I know, our staff blogs have the same built-in block against certain words - ARTICLES however do not have to go thru that software, so perhaps you're mistaking Barbarella's articles for "blogs". For the Rock Around the Town blog, I just insert a star in place of a vowel in a word the software doesn't want me uploading - works fine. For my Blurt and Musician Interview articles on the site, tho, no expletive block is in place - As I understand the policy RE removing posts, only posts that are potentially libelous, slanderous, or filled with "purposeful malfeasance" (ie a pack of lies) get pulled down. Don't quote me as claiming those are "the rules" - that's just been my understanding after two years of daily blog posts on the Reader site. If there really are racist blog posts or comments on the Reader site (and not just somebody's opinion about immigration or the like), please direct me to where they can be found --- The suggestion to separate new threads from updates seems solid - I'm sure we WANT the more popular blogs to have the most showtime on the homepage, but there also has to be a constant cycling of "top" posts, in order to give the widest variety of posts (and topics and POVS) the chance to catch fire from the mainpage. Look at the way Storyteller's blog posts went from very few views (and few comments) to most-read status for a couple of days, for her first two "Memories of Michael Jackson" posts.— October 1, 2009 7:22 p.m.
Glam Updated
Outtakes: MOST VISITED WEBSITES? Scott Samuels, vocals/guitar: 1. HuffingtonPost.com. “I developed this habit through a nail-biting obsession with Barack Obama’s Presidency.” 2. SubaruXT.com. “This forum is for people like my daughter who still own the little wedge shaped sports car that Subaru made in the mid-to-late ‘80s.” Scott Southwood 1. ESPN.go.com. “I’m a sports junkie.” 2. MySpace.com. “For keeping tabs on the local music scene.” Darko Petrovic 1. B92.net. “News and information from Serbia.” 2. YouTube.com. “Endless hours of mindless enjoyment.” FAVORITE TWILIGHT ZONE? Darko Petrovic “The one that has the gremlin tearing up the airplane wing in flight [Nightmare at 20,000 Feet].” Dave Gladish “The story where the old people turn young again [Kick the Can].” GUILTY PLEASURES? Scott Samuels “Haagen Dazs peanut butter and chocolate ice cream, Carl’s Jr. chocolate shakes with extra chocolate sauce, and – every time I drive past Irvine – Strickland’s frozen custard.” Dave Gladish “Rock of Love Bus, Mambo music, ‘70s Disco, KFC original recipe chicken, and driving fast.” Coree Levy “Country music, Desperate Housewives, and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.”— September 30, 2009 11:36 p.m.
Coraline
This stop-motion-style creepy crawly is based on a comic book by Sandman creators Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean, produced by many of the crew behind Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride. Even without frequent stop-motion collaborators Burton and Depp, it was a fine movie, and not at all bad in 3D. I didn't realize they'd refined 3D so much, and it was cool that I could take off the glasses and still watch a pretty regular looking movie, other than occasional short bits designed for stereoscopic (possibly quadroscopic?) separation.— September 30, 2009 5:07 a.m.
Watchmen
To accept Watchmen as alternate reality – something that could REALLY happen, in a real world - one must accept the premise that there HAS to be a Rorschach. As dark is to light, as night to day, yin to yang, frick to frack, Beavis to Butthead....you know what I mean. The Watchmen world needs Rorschach like it needs air, earth, and water --- if only to counterbalance the childlike, chimerical (and ultimately idiotic) optimism at the other end of the superhero spectrum, the shallow end of the pool, where costumed heroes pose for newspaper photos with their leather hip boots planted heavily atop the unconscious head of a fallen evil-doer. Where the good guys always win. When the stars always - eventually - align, for even the most starcrossed of lovers. Where – to paraphrase Ray Davies – heroes never feel any pain, and heroes never really die. Rorschach is the deep end of the pool. WAY deep. OFF the deep end, in fact, and falling fast toward bottomless ------— September 28, 2009 8:03 a.m.