Blinkerton tour in the works?

By Jeff

Weezer fans are a unique bunch. They are similar to Pittsburgh sports fans in that they love the band, but are always tearing them down.

In Weezer's case, fans constantly harp on the fact they have not replicated the greatness on their first two albums; the self-titled debut album commonly known as "The Blue Album" and Pinkerton, respectively. It's true that their other five albums are not on the same level as the first two, but it's unfair for people to think they will ever be able to capture the same sounds and feel of that album.

They're grown men who are happily married and have kids. They aren't going to be writing songs about how they are struggling with their personal lives. That would be more of a lie and sell out their their most recent recordings.

With all that being said, MTV is reporting that the band is contemplating a Blinkerton tour. Weezer would play two nights in each city, one show they would play the entire "The Blue Album" and the next night they would play all of Pinkerton.

No matter how you feel about Weezer today, this would a most excellent set of shows that I would not want to miss.

Weezer - El Scorcho

Brody shines in greatest movie of all time

By Jeff

Are you having trouble recognizing this stud of a man? It's the same man who won the Best Actor Oscar for "The Pianist" and he is out with another worthy performance in "Predators".

OK, maybe he and the movie won't win an Oscars, but the movie is friggin awesome. Adrian Brody plays a mercenary who drops just about every action film one-liner ever written into a two-hour film. And he delivers each one perfectly.

The plot to the movie itself is simple. A bunch of killers from all walks of life (Brody, a sniper, a Yakuza, etc.) find themselves dropped in via parachute onto a gaming preserve planet where they are the prey. The hunters are three Predators, an alien race that lives to kill for sport. Besides learning some of the characters names (Pretty sure there are about five remain nameless) and the organization they kill for, there is no back story. I think it was a brilliant move by the writers. Why get emotionally attached to a bunch of characters who will shortly meet their demise?

Laurence Fishburne does a great job in a supporting role. My friends and I were just waiting for him to make his appearance and he did not disappoint. He plays a man who has been on the planet for a while and has an invisible friend. Yes, it's as hilarious and awesome as it sounds.

As incredible as Fishburne and Brody were, the Yakuza dude stole the show. He only had one speaking part in the whole movie and for some reason wanted to walk around the alien planet in bare feet, but no one will ever forget his character. With two Predators chasing down the survivors, the Yakuza stopped, ripped off his shirt and armed with a samurai sword he challenged a Predator to a duel. I won't spoil the way the duel ends, but it puts the Anakian-Obi-Wan sword fight from "Revenge of the Sith" to shame. And it didn't take three hours.

Do yourselves a favor and see this movie, and start counting down the days until the sequel. I have no doubt you won't be disappointed.

The Talking Heads - Psycho Killer

Super Bowl Halftime Show

I might be in the minority (especially with some/all of the writers of this blog), but I hate the Superbowl half time show. It is absolutely the worst part of the 4 hour spectacle that is the broadcast of the Super Bowl.

Pre-game? It sucks - but I'm still anticipating the game and mostly just using details (that Chris Berman is able to fumble out of his mouth) to make smart bets (because I believe I could gamble for a living). What's that you say Marques Colston has a sore hamstring? Take the under on number of first half catches!!!

The Game? Always somewhat exciting.

The Commercials? These have also declined in recent years, but this is the first time you'll get to see commercials that you will fast forward through for the next 6 months! (Bud Light Beer House I'm looking at you.)

Post Game? Always an emotional moment. On screen, Drew Brees is sobbing tears of happiness. While off screen I'm sobbing tears of fear (not to be confused with tears FOR fears), because I actually love all of my limbs equally, and I do not want them to be broken because I may or may not owe my bookie thousands of dollars.

So that leaves the halftime show as the worst moment of the night. In recent years the NFL has developed some sort of life rejuvenation system to pump blood through the veins of Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney and members of the Who (that last one is still up in the air, pretty sure they just stood their as someone played an mp3 of their songs on a Zune.) As you may be able to tell from the last line of all of our posts, most writers on this blog listen to classic rock like it's still even remotely relevant.

It is not. I'm not saying the music is bad (if you like to prove how big your ...ahem...is) or that I hate it (I'd rather wash my eyes with lemon juice than listening to Mick Jagger croon about how many ladies he's banged), but let's put on a show that people are interested in. I think even some of my fellow bloggers will admit that the shows are very lackluster. Hell, two years ago Springsteen had to use teleprompters to remember some of his words! That's just what I want to see... an old washed up celebrity reading during my halftime show (if I wanted to see this I'd turn on Reading Rainbow).

The point is this - I vividly remember the half time show when Nelly, Britney Spears, N Sync and Aerosmith all did a song together (mostly because of Britney's outfit - who knew football jerseys could be so sexy on half naked ladies). THAT was exciting, I remember this from 10 years ago - back when Springsteen was only 65!

So here is the solution: Justin Bieber. This is perfect scenario for the NFL. The Super Bowl is already the most watched show every single year, but who are the only people not watching? 14 year old girls. EVERYONE ELSE WATCHES. Justin Bieber will help bring this television viewing country together (even though he's Canadian) through his shockingly agile dance moves, a voice that's in the middle of puberty (like you wouldn't watch just to see if it cracks on national TV) and the anticipation of him possibly dying on live TV when a throng of girls rushes the stage to hug him. Now THAT is a Super Bowl halftime show.

So, I'm not quite sure how to say this, but who wants to get the "BieberBowl" Petition started?

Bond could have good bad guys again

Who said the Cold War ended 20 years ago? According to this New York Times story, there have been at least 10 Russian spies living amongst us Americans in the past decade. They had secret identities, made secret drops and used invisible ink. How sweet is that?

OK, so maybe it's not that sweet as they may have been selling nuclear secrets to our enemies. But this opens up the possibility of James Bond having legitimate bad guys to vanquish, something that has been lacking since the Cold War. By the way, SNL predicted this problem through a Wayne's World sketch back in the early 90s. I can't find it on YouTube, but trust me.

Just look at all the bad guys from the "Goldeneye" to "Quantum of Solace". Goldeneye had a good bad guy because Trevelyan had ties to Soviet Russia. After that they were all crap. From a guy with a bullet in his brain who doesn't feel pain (except when Bond kicked him in the groin on the sub) to a man with a menstruating eye, they all suck! New Bond Daniel Craig needs someone whose ass is worth kicking.

One of the main points people loved about "Casino Royale" was that it was more realistic. I point to the 3-hour poker scene and the final hand as an argument against that statement, but compared to previous Bond movies it did have a more real feel to it. Bond didn't have any crazy gadgets like laser pens or shoe phones like he did in the previous films. Well now there is a real story of Russian spies that can be used as source material.

Maybe it's all a big misunderstanding and the FBI wasted the past five years chasing ghosts, but I sure hope not. Russian spies running around trying to create mischief can help writers piece together at least three Bond movies.

For those of you who think the recent ones are great and don't need Soviet spy bad guys, go watch the poker scene from "Casino Royale" and try telling me they weren't desperate to fill time.

Asia - Heat of the Moment