Month: January 2008

So JJ Abrams (of Alias, Lost fame) has come up with another idea and it comes in the form of Cloverfield.  All we know about the film (opening Friday) is that there are people having a going away party for someone and then they see an explosion in the distance on Manhattan and everyone freaks because the city is on fire, there’s debris flying everywhere and then the ultimate showing of some great chaos – the head of the Statue of Liberty rolls into the street.

Awww yeah!  What a trailer!  I love watching that thing over and over again.

From reading interviews with JJ Abrams on the subject of his new film, he’s more interested in keeping a film secret in the connected world we live in nowadays.  Too often is every little detail of a film shared with the public, whether it is intentional or not.

In the end, is this film going to be revolutionary?  Probably not.  I think it will end up being a decent monster movie where a Godzilla type creature wreaks havoc on the city of New York.  You know what?  I’m alright with that!  Sometimes we need to just sit down and enjoy a decent monster flick.  Krista mentioned to me that someone on the radio said the movie was pretty bad.  That’s what I’m hoping for!  A return of the B-Movie!  We’ll have to see what it offers this coming Saturday.

I think knowledge from the educational institutions expands my mind and lets me capture thoughts into a coherent form.

I also think Socrates felt the same way with his philosophy in life…the way he thought that the ultimate pleasure one can have is to keep learning…to keep thinking…I’m enjoying this Great Philosophers course right now.

But that’s not the point of this entry…last night while driving home I was hit by inspiration again for a song…this happened before with The Stomper where the lyrics were scribbled out in a manner of minutes and didn’t change too much afterwards.

When I sit down and try and write lyrics to a song, I find it hard.  But when these moments happen, you have to run up to your room and jot down everything spilling out.  Pick up the guitar and find the tune you are humming in your head.  The voice recorder comes in handy in the car ride home in case you forget this special moment.

Everything came together in the manner of 45 minutes.  I still need to write a few more verses but the main structure is there.

I’m kind of excited about the song but I suppose everyone is excited about a new creation that comes from the ether and gets channeled through your own body.  I find that I can’t write lyrics that I want to write…I want to be mysterious, I want double-entendres, I want a lot from my songwriting but throughout the history of music, time and time again I am shown that it just takes time to develop your songwriting craft (as Troy has said to me many times).  However, instead of making the perfect song, I want to try and capture every moment as it passes me by onto tape.  Even if it’s crap, it’s still recorded and out of ten lame demos, maybe I can find a great song.  I guess that’s how a lot of artists work.

So who knows what this new song will become?  Feels like a rocker though…I’m channeling Sam Roberts and Matt Mays jam sessions into this song, although it exists only on my acoustic right now.  We’ll see if it’s better on the electric when I plug in.  The song is about my Dad and his life in Sudbury back in the 70s but it has a feel of living in Anytown, Northern Ontario.  We’ll see what happens with it.  I guess most of you hate me right now because all you can do is read about it and may never end up hearing about it.  Ah well, dems de breaks!

Well the grades for last semester are finally posted.  I got a B+ in Critical Thinking and a B in Sociology.  Sociology is a welcome surprised considering I got a D+ on the first assignment.  I recruited some smart people to help me with the follow-up report and managed to bring up my mark.  Thanks Krista, Trish and all the other people I can’t think of right now!

Turns out that in the end, I will always be a ‘B’ student, which is fine by me.  It takes a special kind of person to not strive to get that ‘A’ Grade.  Or, at the very least, realize that it’s impossible and you should focus half of your efforts on socializing in the school system.  Hello Frathouse!  Actually, I have yet to find a Frathouse while on campus.  Are they hidden away somewhere in Sandy Hill?  I definitely remember going to a few Frat parties back in the day with Danny.  This brings back a memory when I was waiting for the washroom and Danny comes out with a giant icicle in his hand.  What the heck?  He said someone passed it to him!

In preparation for Def Leppard coming to town (!!!), Vero and I had a good laugh last night watching some old music videos from the band. Considering we’ve never seen any of them (wait, that’s not true…I was introduced to Def Leppard when they released When Love and Hate Collide which spearheaded their greatest hits album back in ’95. What can I say? I wasn’t musically conscious during the 80s), we were anticipating some killer 80s videos.

Well…they were killer alright. Here is some recaps on the videos in question.

Bringing on The Heartbreak – Alright, this video ain’t too shabby. Standard rock band music video fare with shots of them performing. This was actually the more decent of them.

Rock of Ages – “It’s Labyrinth!” proclaims Vero while watching the video for Rock of Ages. Yes indeed, it definitely had some Labyrinth details like an owl in the video as well as some mythical imagery. Let us not forget the knight who crushes a glass of wine only to see it reform in his hand minutes later in the video! Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find a screen shot from this legendary video. WAIT! Let us not forget when Joe Elliot grabs Excalibur and it transforms into a guitar. Sweetness. Let us also not forget the drummer appearing only in some Union Jack underwear.

Foolin’ – I remember us watching this one and can’t really remember what happened. I’m pretty sure the drummer appeared in his Union Jack underwear again. Was that his thing back in the day?

Pour Some Sugar on Me – This was definitely the cream of the crop. Everyone knows this song. So I expected an amazing video. What I received was Limburger cheese. The band appears playing in a house that is being demolished by women who are working in construction. They have sledgehammers with them, they have cranes, they have grubby old construction hats and boots, they are not a pretty sight. I guffawed at many a scene, especially when the building they were playing in was being destroyed and in one scene I’m pretty sure we saw a bag of flour fall from the ceiling (or was it sugar?) to emulate some dust. It fell into the category “It’s so bad, it’s good!” Highly recommended video to see your favourite Def Leppard in a new light.

Love Bites – Ah, this one we were excited for. With lyrics like “When you make love, do you look in the mirror?” we only assumed that there would be amazing imagery in this video. Not so much, but hey, it has classic 80s ballad video fare such as:

• singer singing into the microphone
• multiple angles of the singer morphing into one shot
• random women walking across the screen. The same shot used twice in many cases! Hey, was that Cindy Crawford walking by?
• classic full band shot once they hit the second verse. Stop hogging the screentime Joe!

We had to shut this one off as it was just getting worse and worse. You know, November Rain popped into my head right now and I love the stories that Guns N Roses told in their videos. Why can’t more videos be like that?

Anyhow, there’s my recap of some Def Leppard music videos from the classic 80s. Let us not forget the excellent outfits and hairstyles. OH! I almost forgot about Rocket. That was pretty good actually. Very forward thinking on that video…reminded me of the ZooTV tour by U2.

Later on, I’ll try and embed these videos into YouTube so you can see for yourself. Or do yourselves a favour…sit back with some popcorn, type in Def Leppard into YouTube and laugh at the grandness which was the Def Leppard phenomenon. I can’t wait to see them here in Ottawa on April 12.

You’re going to find this thought a little strange, but hey, it went through my head this morning.

So I get on the weight scale this morning and wasn’t too surprised that the usual weight had fluctuated by an increase of 4-5 pounds.  Not too worry…heck, we had Chinese food last night.  A LOT of it.

But then I was urinating and while standing there I was thinking of the weight of liquid and wondered if this would have much effect on the weight of my body.  Sure enough when I hopped back on the scale, there was a decrease of 4-5 pounds.

Granted, probably everyone reading this is saying “How could you not know that?” but I just wanted to share that with you.  I thought it was neat to have this revelation that my bladder can hold 4-5 pounds of liquid.

Definition: A silly or foolish person.

This morning I was reading Calvin and Hobbes during breakfast and laughed at the use of the word nincompoop and wondered what the actual definition was.

In a weird twist of fate, I was riding the bus this morning to work and I placed one of my gloves in my pocket and the other on my lap because my pocket gets really stuffed if both are in there. My thinking on this was “Well, I will use both gloves when I get off the bus anyhow.” Let me tell you that I have earned the title of nincompoop this morning as after 100 steps off the bus I realized that I had lost a glove. Clearly it was on my lap during the trip and clearly must have fallen off onto the floor when I stood up because in reality, after 30 minutes of reading some amazing literature on Star Wars and Saved by The Bell (from Chuck Klosterman’s collection of essays entitled Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs), your brain doesn’t say “Have you forgotten anything on the bus?”

Nincompoop indeed.

Can I also point out how joyful my mornings have become now that I read Calvin and Hobbes? I haven’t read them in years and it’s like I’ve had a friend return from a long time away and puts a smile on my face during my bowl of oatmeal. Whether it’s the two of them playing Calvinball, or Calvin’s bicycle attacking him, I can never get enough.