Four More Days...

...to my wedding. Silver Shamrock!

Yes. We have been busy as fuck, hence my lack of posting in general and moviewatching. In the last two weeks or so, I've seen two films. And some Doctor Who.

I never really liked the new Doctor Who. Christopher Eccleston didn't seem like the right choice, and his doctor was annoying, and arrogant. This completely put me off the show, although I caught an episode last week with the new doctor, David Tennant, and was hooked. Tennant is a lot more fun and whimsical than Eccleston, and seems less of an attempt to hip the doctor up, instead being what he should be - a science nerd who has amazing self-belief. It's just silly monster-of-the-week fun, and hey, who doesn't love the Daleks?

I also bought a few things. First of all - while we're on the subject of nerdy SF - this:

I love it to pieces, although the photos don't do it justice at all. To be critical, the head is slightly oversized and the jacket seems maybe too small, but it's a really nice figure. Not so great as something like the Sideshow Anakin, but close enough. It also helps that he's wearing my favourite Han outfit.

I also picked up Superman Returns for the 360. I know a lot of folks slated this game, and it's frustrating at times, but I don't ask much in a game, but one of the things I do ask is to be able to zoom through Metropolis using my heat vision. And this game allows me that small grace. My one big frustration is that it doesn't use any of John Williams' Superman theme, but that's easily remedied by turning the music volume right down in the game options and playing the film soundtrack from the HDD. Greatness.

What If...

...George Lucas had directed SPIDER-MAN?

It Goes To Eleven #1

Some of you might remember I had this as a separate blog, but due to the aforementioned streamlining, I'm going to do it over here, as it didn't feel necessary to have a whole blog for this, at least with one person doing it.

1. Guns N'Roses - "Ain't It Fun"

Okay. I don't really like GNR much, aside from a couple of songs, and haven't since I was thirteen. This track is a cover of a song I've never heard, but the song as performed by GNR really sucks. It's awful. I really should delete this.

2. Led Zeppelin - "Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You"

Pretty much one of the coolest songs around. Plant's vocals on the track are amazing, and the Southern-European feel adds a lot. Not much else to say, aside from I'm jealous of Jimmy Page's noodling ability.

3. Pink - "U & Ur Hand"

The girlfriend strikes. This is one of hers. Insidious little minx, isn't she? Seems like Pink should grow up a bit, but since I don't listen to her (honest) I'm not really that bothered one way or the other.

4. Tool - "Hush"

One of the best Tool songs. Maynard's vocals are still evolving here, but they sound great, and the driving riff is suitably raw but still manages to sound accomplished. It's weird how Tool's sound seems to totally change from each record. I wish they still put out stuff like this.

5. Ramones - "Carbona Not Glue"

I hate it when people call songs anthemic, but this does fit into that category. The great thing about the Ramones is that they always sounded like they actually did the things they sung about. Then again, when you imagine Dee Dee snorting cleaning liquid, it's not really a huge surprise he went out the way he did.

Archived For Your Pleasure

I've been doing a bit of streamlining (mostly because I decided having six blogs was a bit stupid) so I've melded Order Sixty-Six together with my old blog, Fifteen Years, so all the posts from 2005 onwards are now available for perusal.

Someday Lad, This Will All Be Yours...

Redesigning

I redesigned my Movie Journal, mostly because I want to make myself update it all the time, instead of doing it for a few days and then copping out.

I hope it works.

Pained But Excited

So, I had my stag weekend this past weekend. It was pretty fun, but probably not as wild as I thought it would be, and pretty much 100% free of embarrassment. We went paintballing in the afternoon (my first time) which was awesome, but has left me with a ton of aches and pains, not to mention muchos brusing.

Later on we went out on the town, which mainly resulted in me spending a lot of money on alcohol. Still, it was a fun time. But it just leaves me more excited for the main event. Only nineteen days to go. Nervous? Sure, but excited? Definitely.

It will be a day long remembered

Cover Songs

I have a request for whatever the regulatory body that deals with music is. Specifically, I want them to make it illegal for someone to release a cover song as their first single, mostly because I'm sick and tired of "artists" getting famous on the back of someone else's music. I realize this is slightly iffy, as there's the whole deal of people who write/people who perform, so maybe there has to be some kind of deal like stuff that's written by the person who didn't perform it is cool, but if it's written by the actual person who performed it, that's a no go. Or at least they should get strict permission from the writer/artist, instead of some A&E dude selling the rights.

What spurred me on is this. This is the Red Hot Chili Peppers' 'Under The Bridge' as covered by Brit girl "R&B" quartet All Saints. Now, as most people will know, 'Under The Bridge' was written by Anthony Keidis about his heroin addiction, specifically when he used to go to meet people under a bridge in LA to buy and take smack. It's an amazing song musically, but lyrically it's haunting. However, All Saints, in their infinite wisdom, took it upon themselves to turn it into a hip love song, and removed the crucial lyrics in the track, as follows:

Under the bridge downtown
Is where I drew some blood
Under the bridge downtown
I could not get enough
Under the bridge downtown
Forgot about my love
Under the bridge downtown
I gave my life away

When I first heard this, I found it pretty reprehensible, and still do. Thus begins my crusade against cover songs. Not to say all cover songs are bad, some amazing songs have been completely changed for the better. FYI, I don't include sampling, either. Anyway, here's some cover song rules:

1. No version of Cohen's 'Hallelujah' shall ever be recorded, cause let's face it, you're never going to beat Jeff Buckley.

2. No more ironic cover songs. I don't ever want to hear another fucking Richard Cheese song ever again.

3. Stairway To Heaven shall never be touched. Oh no (fuck you, Rolf Harris).

4. McFly should never be let near any musical instruments again, let alone any cover songs.

Some great covers:

- Rage Against The Machine, 'Beautiful World' (Devo)
- Radiohead, 'Nobody Does It Better' (Carly Simon)
- Slayer, 'In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida' (Iron Butterfly)
- Tool, 'No Quarter' (Led Zeppelin)
- Santa Esmerelda, 'Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood' (The Animals)
- Ramones, 'Baby I Love You' (Ronettes)
- William Shatner, 'Common People' (Pulp)

Some bad covers:

- Puff Daddy, 'Every Breath You Take' (The Police)
- Joe Cocker, 'Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood'
- Sugababes, 'Freak Like Me' (Adina Howard)
- The Beautiful South, 'Blitzkrieg Bop' (Ramones)
- Leonard Nimoy, 'Everybody's Talkin'' (Harry Nillsson)