I scored these two funny ladies Star Wars action figures and so they decided to make a movie imitating Sussie from The Amazing World of Gumball to express their appreciation.
To celebrate this year, we’re keeping it low key due to it being a “school day/night.” We both have to go to work and then we’ll be heading downtown to attend the Labyrinth Quote-Along at Alamo Ritz. Somara is a huge fan of the Muppets. We’ll probably have a special meal during my birthday which is this weekend.
Adding this to my Running Badges’ page, you can see the link above along with all the other achievements.
Next destination, Toad River which is in British Columbia.
One of my favorite live-music venues must change its name because a greedy food company thinks people are confused between a sauce and a restaurant. So Stubb’s BBQ is thinking about taking/recycling Liberty Lunch. The original closed in 1999 for a greedy corporation that did nothing other than create jobs for more assholes to move here; they barely did anything for those already present.
KUT has a primer about the whole thing here.
Personally, I don’t care what the new name is. I’m not overly nostalgic like some whining hippies. As long as Austin has a nice, reasonably-priced, mid-sized venue to see great shows, I’m fine. I do miss the original for I have fantastic memories from 1994 through 1999 yet I had to move on. We’ve also lost La Zona Rosa, Austin Music Hall, the first Emo’s and Antone’s has had to shuffle around. Closing Stubb’s would be a painful blow to Austin’s hollowing reputation as the Live Music Capital of the World as we transform into Dallas II or North San Antonio. If taking on a used name is the price to save Stubb’s, then let’s do it.
Thus concludes the new take on how The Planet of the Apes came to be since the current team wraps it up with War. As charming as Escape, Conquest and Battle were, Rise, Dawn and War have been more satisfying along with being more likely explanations for the world turned upside down when Taylor returns.
War picks up five years after Dawn. The human survivors who were initially attacked by Koba’s followers fled and made contact with what’s left of the US Army. So the Army has been trying to hunt down and kill Caesar, figuring the apes will be neutralized. Meanwhile, Caesar and his advisors are looking for a new place to live because they know the humans will never stop until one side is eradicated. When Caesar’s trusted scout Rocket returns from his expedition, the apes have a plan to escape across the desert.
Before the exodus begins, the humans conduct a commando raid and succeed in killing Caesar’s wife and elder son. Obsessed with revenge, Caesar has the ape tribe sent off to their new home under an interim leader as he plans to attack the kill the humans responsible in their base. Longtime friends Maurice, Rocket and Luca accompany him on their journey north. Along the way they rescue a mute, human girl and a zoo chimp named Bad Ape. Then they find several mortally wounded soldiers also incapable of speaking. Based upon their injuries, it appears they were shot by their own men.
What the apes find at the base turns out to be much worse. Firstly, this unit has mutinied against the Army and is under the sway of fanatical, semi-messianic leader called The Colonel. Calling themselves Alpha Omega, they’re dedicated to human dominance. They even have enslaved apes amongst them. Secondly, somehow Caesar’s people were captured and are now being put to work building a wall to protect the base from a pending attack by the Army.
From here you have to see the movie. Find out the mystery behind the mute humans and how the legend of Caesar, aka the Lawgiver, comes to fruition as the foundation of Ape Civilization.
The actors doing the motion capture are awesome including newcomer Steve Zahn as the Bad Ape. The special effects did a great job incorporate his eyes into the character. Andy Serkis continues to be the Laurence Olivier of this genre. Woody Harrelson delivers the right amount of insanity and menace as The Colonel. What I liked best was the resolution between the main protagonists, again you need to see this to find out.
If this is the final “reboot,” I’m satisfied. Fox has finally atoned for the horrendous Tim Burton remake. Should they keep going, I hope they find a way to bring in the mutants from Beneath without it sucking.
Alamo Extras: People wearing apes masks dancing around circa the early Seventies; a newsreel showing chimps “enjoying” tea and snacks at an English resort; trailers for The Gorilla Gag, Escape and Beneath; the Simpson’s musical gag Stop the Planet of the Apes, I Want To Get Off!; the opening from the short-lived cartoon Return; Tim Heidecker trying to interview someone about Dawn; the remaining stuff was recycled from when we saw Kong: Skull Island.
I’m getting ready to attend a Fragile Rock show next month and since I got confirmation that puppets are welcome, I modified my old Whatnot into someone I think would attend…if he were a puppet.
Special thanks to my friend Helen for the name and Kathy, my fellow puppet attendee, on adding the pins. The Joy Division onesie was found at Waterloo Records.
Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith doing their thing.
Last week I finally saw the band behind my favorite records of 1985 and 1993. Currently they’re touring with Hall & Oates but as Roland said, every now and then, they get let out to play a headlining show in a proper venue (yeah, I hate stadium shows).
It was a good mix of their work from five of their six albums yet they only did “Break It Down Again” from Elemental. There were several songs from the reunification album Everybody Loves a Happy Ending from 2004. I do hope they have new stuff on the horizon. Curt is a better bass player than I expected too. In videos you usually saw him just singing.
Roland jamming. We were really close, like third-fourth row on the floor in a general admission setting.
My only immediate complaint was them opening with Lorde’s horrendous cover of “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” from The Hunger Games. I’m sure they were thrilled, thanks to the ASCAP money and it probably led to a rediscovery of their work. Along with the mopey take on “Mad World” for a video game commercial, Tears For Fears are one of the few bands whose work is best left to them, not others, for now.
Opening for them was their back-up singer, a lady named Carina Round who I’m hunting down at Waterloo. She’s a solo performer and a member of Puscifer and the Early Winters.
I’m so stoked I checked another band I loved off my list. Listening to them live brought me back to 1985, sitting around my room (actually the whole basement then), plodding through my senior year of high school. Their stuff wasn’t necessarily happy music but it catered to the teen angst I felt.
Special thanks to my friend Ayako for providing the good photos. I was just too into the music to bother.
Had to go by yesterday to buy some cat litter, noticed there were no cats in the adoption center too. The checkout lady said they’re often gone in a week. It’s nice to know given poor Miguel’s situation along with the other numerous animals I see wandering around the street over.
I want to add that our fat cat Kuroneko is one of those 3692 adoptions. If you recall the movie from 2008, Kuro started out rather small and fit.
Kuroneko lying down where Somara normally lies down. Mentally, I believe this cat is thinking, “Mine!”
The initial app is free on iOS but I spent the five bucks to ditch the ads. It’s pretty similar to the Photofunia site. I finally found a combination that didn’t “wash out” the main subject of the picture. This cute cat at our Las Vegas timeshare.
Fox finally did a 180 and gave into us completists! Plus I’m not getting cable just for FX/FXX or their inevitable all Simpsons channel they’re planning (there’s over 600 episodes). Now if I could only get our PS3/PS4 to show DVDs on the new TV, I think I might start over with a long-term marathon…after I ever finish my project of watching all of Star Trek in chronological order, I’m finally at the fifth season of ST:NG.
Glad to see Fat Tony being the next cover’s character. Springfield’s most well-known “legitimate” businessman.
It’s actually been back since the end of April but I have gotten through the first dozen episodes and it’s like they never left. Dan Telfer is the DM now with Ken Daly, Blaine Capatch and Brian as the players. They’ve started a new campaign too using the the Fifth Edition rules. The biggest change is they’re playing at Brian’s house so his family drops by, namely the dogs.
I think they had a break from Earwolf which is why they went the Patreon route. I am gladly chipping in five bucks a month to help. In exchange I have access to the bonus adventures they have with old favorites. Once I’m caught up on the core heroes, I will be poking through the “danger room” sessions.
Still highly recommend this to all DMs. Dan and Blaine’s improvisational skills were an inspiration for me to keep on trying new things to move my Pathfinder campaign forward.
Edgar Wright churns out a masterpiece in the Car Heist subgenre of car-chase movies. Baby is more than just a technical marvel, which Wright excels at, he did a better job on making likable characters and plot (I just don’t like Scott Pilgrim). When the hero is driving, the vehicular ballet on display would make Hal Needham jealous.
The plot is straightforward via the trailers. Baby is the wheelman for numerous bank heists around Atlanta, coordinated by the ever great Kevin Spacey. What makes him unusual is how “tuned out” he is, compared to the other thugs (Jon Hamm, Jon Bernthal, Jamie Foxx and Eiza Gonzalez); due to a childhood accident, he has permanent tinnitus, so he’s constantly drowning out the ringing with tunes from “old” iPods. The various songs are also used for timing the robbery schedules.
Anyway, Baby gradually learns that one can’t walk away from a life of crime even when you’re just the getaway driver and your financial obligations are cleared (Layer Cake reference in my opinion). Meeting his dream girl adds complications to his escape plan along with protecting his guardian.
I can’t recommend Baby Driver enough. It lived up to all the hype when Alamo was plugging it before numerous action/drama movies we took in this Summer. Is Baby my favorite for the Summer of 2017? Well, the season isn’t necessarily over but I would say it is in the top three.
Alamo Extras: Some music videos, namely the one Wright directed for band I didn’t recognize; the rest was Q&A with Edgar Wright
Martin gets a nod in the annals of Science Fiction primarily for Space: 1999 a show which could use a reboot/remake since it does have an interesting premise. Maybe he did it after seeing the popularity Leonard Nimoy got for Spock, a role he was allegedly offered first. He also played a key US general in Meteor, appeared in episodes of The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits. He will forever be remembered at Bela Lugosi in Ed Wood though. For me, I often remember him as a key member of the original Mission Impossible team.
Farewell Martin, thanks for all the TV and movies you chipped in on.
The man who gave us the modern zombie apocalypse genre passed away. Thankfully not the horrible means his numerous characters succumbed to!
I’ve never finished his first film, Night of the Living Dead, it was actually too slow and dull for my tastes. Besides, I grew up in awe of his 1978 sequel Dawn of the Dead. Back then, it was an X-rated movie so it had this odd mystique. I finally saw Dawn as an adult and laughed at the MPAA giving it such a rating. I guess cannibalism was a criteria. I have never seen his other zombie flicks. I did enjoy Creepshow.
Beyond the raw horror and grossness to his movies, there was an allegorical message. If I remember, Night is about racism even though a black guy in the lead was just coincidence and Dawn, I think, is mocking consumerism. No clue on the rest.
Although Romero’s movies are not exactly top notch, he pioneered all the much better stuff that came along: Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland and (usually) The Walking Dead. I’ll give a nod to 28 Days Later even though the victims are technically not dead.
Thanks George for finding a way to make the shambling, easy-to-defeat automatons of D&D into something to worry about.
I think I saw their album at Waterloo Records but thanks to NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert, I am totally sold because they’re too funny. Sure you can’t “see” the puppets doing their thing on the record/CD yet who cares! The same goes for one of my favorite Muppet songs.
Anyway, I was just laughing at this. If you wait long enough, you’ll see one of the puppets crowd surf.
If these guys come to Austin, I am so going to see them.
Whoa! They are coming! August 20 and the venue, you can bring your puppet too!
