Hey, Everyone.

Sorry for not checking in more. It has been a little hard. I wrote 4 posts from London and tried to email them to the blog, but it didn't work. This comes from the fact that keyboards are different in other places. You have to hit a completely different key to get the @ sign
Now we are in France, where qwerty is spelled azerty, and it's even tougher.

I wanted to have new ACs for you, but if you didn't catch Crazy Frog the week it was popular, it's already over. And in France, they listen to Whitesnake...

So, thanks for checking in... More soon...

I hate to pretend like I am the one that can most righteously comment on the career of the nine inch nails. Mainly, because I've never cared for them, that much. I was around when "Head Like A Hole" made some waves with my alternative-lovin' friends. But then (as I believe is true for most of the successes of Trent Reznor), I think that the only reason people embraced NIN was because they slathered angst on their sleeves, and a certain part of the population will always be there to lick that stuff up.

Me, I usually like happy stuff. Nirvana doled out enough angst for me, but it was always balanced with enough nonsense and earnestness to not bring me down. Same with my appreciation for pre-Up R.E.M. Downers need to be balanced with Uppers - por moi, anyways.

So when I heard the nails were gonna make a dent in the recording world again this year, I expected more of the same. Something to hook the teens ("Did he just say 'F--- you like an ANIMAL??), and a lot of brooding over bleeps and blips.

So color me goth-lite when I heard the single "Hand that Feeds" and this week's AC1. Nah, it's not peppy, but it's introspective, very earnest, provocative in a thoughtful way, and above all...good.

This track builds on a piano with quite-clever lyrics (good questioning reality ponderances). It just drags you along, pulls you in. And, my favorite part: a cheering audience in the middle of the song. It fades in, it fades out. It means nothing that I can tell, but it works so, so well.

In other NIN notes, there is a line of industrial room heaters made by a company called Reznor. Every time I see one of these, I start humming "Head like a Hole," and it makes me think of a young stringy-haired Trent working for the family business. Maybe it was a summer job in the factory that made him think techno. Thumping on aluminum, scraping & grinding...sounds like the makings of a pop star to me!!!

Okay, I'm done now.

Here's an odd one, but it's totally for rizzle: Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy's "Television is the Drug of the Nation." Their magnum opus is over a decade old, but it has barely lost an ounce of relevance. It would have played perfectly over the 2004 "elections" as well as it did over the 1992 elections. Well done DHH! Now if only your well-thought-out words were enough to make us act! Imagine!

Songs:
Laura Cantrell: "Poor Side of Town"
Regina Spektor: "Us"
Gorillaz: "Feel Good, Inc."
As Heard on Radio Soulwax, Pt. 2

Reads:
Tons of tourbooks for Europe.
StillTale of Two Cities

Flix:
Did I mention Star Wars, Episode III, yet?

Web:
Rock And Roll Report - A good indie industry read
Speak Danish! It even has Flash voice links so you can hear people talking a cool language that appears to be making fun of the way we use consonants! Hmmmm....

So let's get the obvious out of the way, first:

You loved the movie, but you still left feeling like something was missing. Something besides the underrepresentation of the Wookies... This one didn't have ET, either. But, overall, you felt like the flick redeemed Lucas and the recent additions to his epic. So I'm kind of torn. I have a lot of reservations about the movie, but I had a great cinematic experience while watching it. So I'll just write down my thoughts, and leave lots of room for assailing!

Thoughs from ACoolKid.

1) Yay! This time, the actors got to act! Natalie Portman, Hayden Christiansen, Samuel Jackson, and Ian McGregor all got to break the 40's-bijou style mold and do something with the script. The script still wasn't perfect, but if it had gone from Ep. II to Ep. III and the speaking parts were suddenly engaging and great, it would have lost consistency anyway. But all of the actors added insane levels of depth. It actually made sense how crazy Palpatine was, how power-hungry he was and how it let him lead his double life so effortlessly. Amidala was able to show herself as insecure and unbalanced (not uncommon feelings for former state-heads, I imagine) and unsure of how to go forward in a new life. And Mr. Christiansen did a fabulous job of reminding us of the dorky, cocky little kid, the goofy, horny teen, and the battle-weary Jedi that he represents in these movies. By the time he's struggling with revealing the Sith Lord or seizing power for himself, I actually believed he might act that way! All the earlier crap started to make sense! And Mace Windu suddenly looked passionate! He got out of his council can, and did righteous deeds.

2) I had no trouble believing that there was something epic going on. I was astounded at the amount of THINGS happening onscreen at all time. Very impressive. But man, wasn't it a little confusing trying to keep "sides" straight? Yes, I hated Viceroy Gunray as much as the next anti-stereotype guy, but was he looking out for his own interests the whole time? Why form the Trade Federation if the Separatists were just going to form under Dookoo? Weren't they both being led around by the nose by the once-and-future emperor? Seems like a lot of scrap metal to throw away fighting against each other.

3) I still need some help, here, though. How does a super-technologically advanced, cloning society suddenly turn into the grey PVC world of Episode IV-VI? Bravo to the clones for following orders, and bravo for this movie in scruffing them up and making us think "Stormtroopers" more than ever (except for the Kashyyyk clones, who looked like Master Chief from Halo...), but why would you scrap the Roger-Roger droids and the Linebacker Droids, and the insanely brutal Destroyer Droids... for Stormtroopers. And even though I still have a special place in my heart for AT-AT Walkers and Snowspeeders, how could anyone, 20 years after the defeat of General Grevious, be impressed with such a primitive junkheap. I mean, imagine Old Ben Kanobi saying to Luke "Back when I was young, I fought whole armies of robots! I think you can handle a sloppy Hutt! I also was able to fly across galaxies in a ship half the size of a Bantha. That millennium Falcon is just junky overkill!" And after seeing Corsucant and Naboo's capital, how would anyone be impressed with frickin' Cloud City (besides the obvious Colt 45 enhanced parties)? All I'm sayin' is: there's a little bit of a disconnect there...

3) The prophecy? So, does Anakin bring balance to the Force? Does he just wait until he kills the emperor to do so? Or does crybaby Luke get to be the one that fulfills the prophecy? Or is credit due to the Ewoks?

4) I think it's a lot of fun to think of Jimmy Smits raising Princess Lea.

5) How is it that midichlorian counts don't drop when you're 33% cyborg?

6) Mee-sa canabeleeba tha Jar-Jar eesa importan inna da senat. Doesn't he ever do the Boss Nass head shake/spit everywhere crap? I would guess that would be grounds for dismissal.

7) I heard rumors that Gen. Grevious summoned the life force to conceieve Anakin in Shmi. Anyone out there got any more background? If I was thinner (A LOT THINNER!) I'd want to be Grevious for Halloween. :-)

8) I know there's more, but I want to go to bed. Let's talk about this, all right? Anyone that's seen the movie, please post.