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Random Thoughts

In EverQuest, when it was released, the highest level you could attain was 50. Later, with the Kunark expansion, that bar was raised to 60. With the Planes of Power, now that rung sits at 65.

I’ve never been at the top in EQ. When Kunark was released, I was level 29 or 30, I forget which. With Planes of Power, well, I could have been 60 before then, but I had 3 or 4 characters I was actively playing by then and I had let the levelling rush on my primary character lapse.

Its been a long time, but I finally managed to bring Ishiro to level 60. Its not the end of the road anymore, but still a good milestone I think.

Only 5 more levels and about 300+ Alternate Experience points to go…

… someday.

HULK SMASH!

Reviews

That’s right, I went this weekend and saw “Hulk” at the theater.

Oh my…

The level of detail on the CGI of the Hulk himself was astounding.  Given my recent dissapointment during the viewing of the Matrix Reloaded, and some of the unpolished shots of the Hulk trailers, I wasn’t quite prepared to see the green goliath of my youth brought to such vivid life.  He lived and breathed on the screen.  He smiled, frowned, furrowed his brow, and even sighed in relief.

I won’t ruin the movie for anyone, but let me just say this… If you want to go to Hulk looking for two hours of a green monster crushing things, you’ll be unhappy.  If you go instead looking to see a well blended mix of Dr. Jeckyl & Mr. Hyde and Frankenstein, I’d wager you’ll come out as happy as I am.

Classical Metal

Reviews

From the first time I heard them I was a Metallica fan.

When I heard Fade to Black, I found that music could have a message without being a folk song. Hard and heavy (with meaning), the song stirred me… and the world. Newspapers actually covered the song, and its effect on its listeners.

They continued to make music, and I continued to be a fan.

Then one day, I heard a song being played that had a familiar ring, but seemed odd… different… good.

I sought out this music and stumbled onto something I had once joked about ("Heavy Metal Elevator Music… the songs of Danzig… on pan flute!") but had never thought would be anything I would consider amazing.

Apocalyptica. Their first album was a collection of Metallica songs played on four cellos. Simply unbelievable.

Since they have done more covers, as well as some original music. All of it stunning for the simplicity and complexity of playing music with cellos while retaining depth.

If you haven’t, check them out. I highly recommend them.

The problem with my poetry…

Random Thoughts

… is that I write most of them as songs. Some of them seems silly on paper, but when I read them in my head the band plays with them.

Only, I’m not a song writer. The music doesn’t flow nearly as well as the words. Sure, it sounds great in my head, but I can’t put the notes on paper or play the instuments. I can’t even describe them enough for someone else to play it.

But such is life.

By the way… this means there is more poetry in the Poetry section.

Repeat.

Random Thoughts

Sometimes I think to myself, “Why is this happening again?”

The answer I usually come to is that I didn’t learn what I was supposed to learn the last time. But, if that be true, why do all my lessons always have to come with a kick in the teeth?

I wish I had more to say than that, but that’s about all I can feel at the moment. The same mistakes, the same problems, over and over, crushing me.

Make Love Not War

Reviews

I could talk about the Matrix: Reloaded, but there are approximately 4,783,548,451,963.33 websites already doing that. I’m sure you can find one, you just have to sift through all the porn…

Instead, let me tell you about another movie. Down With Love.

When I first saw the previews for this, I thought to myself, and told as many people and I thought cared to listen, that this movie was going to either be utterly fantastic or an utter pile of poop. I’m happy to say it is the former.

Down With Love is smart, witty, and has a fabulous sense of style. It takes the old 60’s romantic comedy, and honors it, and skewers it both at th same time. From the bright colors and clothes, to the painted city skyline backdrops, it fills a hole in the movie horizon that I didn’t know existed until they showed it to me.

Its about a woman who writes a book to empower women to be like men: all business, no love, and sex a la carte. Its also about a man, the ladies man, the man about town, the most eligible bachelor who is determined to remain one. She rebuffs his charms, and he becomes determined to show the world that she’s not really a “Down With Love” girl.

Beginning to end, literally from the first opening credits and music until the last of the credits rolled, I had a smile on my face. This is one movie that will definately find its way into my DVD collection someday.

3 Days in the City

Reviews

One of the few things I do like about living in Atlanta is Music Midtown. Its a 3 day music festival. This year it had 8 stages, plus the usual set of vendor booths and non-profit organizations.

Friday. We (Kevin, Jodi and I) headed down a little late, got there just in time to catch a song or two of American Hi-Fi on the 99x stage, and then wheeled over to 96rock to see Cheryl Crow with a plan to return for the big act (for us) of the night, Live. A few songs into her set, the winds picked up, and with the lights swinging over the stage they called for a break and slipped off. A few minutes after that, the sky opened up and dumped water on the city. We made a run for cover, and waited a bit. Before we could decide if we wanted to try to wait out the rain, the PA system crackled to life and announced that the show was being called and that everyone should head for cover. Seems there were “extreme weather” warnings out for our area. Despite the forecast for rain, we’d hoped it wouldn’t, and optimistically didn’t buy ponchos. So we walked about 6 or 7 blocks back to the car in the rain. In the parking garage we dried off a bit, then called it quits and went home. It rained. Alot. All the way home. Then it stopped. Live played at midnight. We missed it.

Saturday. We managed to get downtown a little earlier this time, around 2:30. Armed with ponchos this time, we stood in the rain and heard the last few songs of Die Trying on the 99x stage. Jodi and I headed off to check out the vendors who were weathering the weather, but returned shortly (not much to see). The rain stopped. The clouds began to part, and the blue sky beneath became revealed. Evanescence took to the stage. Poetry. They played their album, which of course, as often is the case, would have been better had the guy working the soundboard not decided that EVERYTHING had to be set at eleven. During their set, the crowd around the stage increased ten fold as people came crawling out into the sunlight. After Evanescence, we slid back to the food court near 99x’s stage and found something to eat. As we sat consuming our far too expensive food, Angie Aparo went on and played well. A good performance. After that we wandered around a bit, mostly checking out the location of some of the other stages and passing through the non-profit zone. Then returned to the 99x stage to catch Cowboy Mouth and a few drinks. At 8:30 we had to make a dash for the other end of the park, to the V-103 stage, to see the greatest band ever… Morris Day & The Time! (oh-ee-oh-ee-ohh!) After 20 years you expect a band to be tight and have a polished act, and they do. Song to song, Morris and the Time play and perform almost perfection. It was like opening a door and looking into the 1980’s. Pure bliss. Once we’d finished absorbing the funk, we split up and Kevin headed off to see Godsmack, while Jodi and I took a mellow turn and visited the stage of Tony Bennett. All these years, and Tony still knows how to croon.

Sunday. Down for the last day, we went late. We slid past the 99x stage as Jack Johnson played and headed to where I would plant my feet for the remainded of the day, 96rock. drivin n cryin were up first (not Kevin Kinney solo, but dnc a.k.a. the good stuff) and they put on a decent show, swinging through all the expected hits with a few other tunes for flavor. We stayed there through Everclear. While I respect any band that puts themselves out there, and Art is a pretty decent guy, Everclear really needs to expand their sound. I enjoy them. They have a bunch of good songs. But boy do alot of them sound alike. Still worth listening too though. Kevin took off again at this point to go see Zwan, while Jodi and I remained to experience Def Leppard. They opened with Side 1 of High and Dry. Not many bands have the balls to do something like that. Then they began to slither down through their hits (avoiding notable love balads like “Love Bites”, but hitting all the others that got them banned from Dial-MTV in the 80’s like “Animal” and “Pour Some Sugar On Me”) and slipping in a new song now and again from their new album “X”. Just like Morris Day & The Time, after 23 years (Def Leppard first came to Atlanta in 1980) you expect to see a good show, and they delivered. Joe still has a pretty good voice, Vivian and Phil are good guitarists, Rick Savage thumbs a mean bass, and Rick Allen, the one armed drummer, still bangs a wicked set of bongos. I missed them in tour for Hysteria (my parents wouldn’t let me go, my brother did, I have a t-shirt), while this doesn’t make up for it, it helps.

3 Days, 2 legendary bands, a few other good ones, rain, feet aches, expensive food, more expensive drinks, and a couple of souvenir t-shirts. All in all, a good way to spend a weekend.

Money

Random Thoughts

As they say (or sing in this case), Money don’t get everything, that’s true, but what it don’t get I can’t use.

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a fireman. If there was a ladder set up, I ran up it. I would pick things up and run up it. I would run up them, get stuff from whatever was at the top and bring it down. I used to volunteer to water the lawn because.. it was on fire, and I had to put it out! My imagination was and is quite vivid…

Of course, I also wanted to be an astronaut. And a policeman. And a racecar driver. A doctor. A computer hacker. A superhero. Etc, etc, etc…

See the one thing missing up there? Not once while I was growing up did I actually think to myself, “When I grow up, I want to make money!”

I have to admit, I’m pretty well off in some respects. My family is fairly normal. No divorce or discord. I drive a car that I always wanted. A Jeep Cherokee, 1998, before they started making them all rounded and bubble-like. I have a woman that I love.

I still, however, also have many problems. The issue I have with my problems is that they can all be solved with one thing.

Money.

I don’t have any esoteric, emotional, philosophical, mental, relationship problems. I only have bill paying problems.

That being the case, when people tell me, “Money isn’t everything.” or “Money isn’t the most important thing.” I get a bit upset, because, well, to me, money is the only thing that can solve the problems I have. And of course, people only say those things when they mean “I’m not going to give you any (more) money.”

Oh well… this is my random thought… back to humming “Gimme some money” by Spinal Tap.

Bulletproof Monk

Reviews

Catches bullets? with his teeth? Nigga please!

Okay, so that line is actually from Barry Gordy’s The Last Dragon, but I just couldn’t resist.

Want to see explosions? guns? unrealistic martial arts fight scenes? If you said yes, this movie is for you.

I loved it! (It was much better than Cats.) Chow Yun Fat played his usual self, only slightly less serious. Seann William Scott played his usual self, only slightly more serious. And Boy Wonder Studios (owned and operated by Burt Ward, Robin from the old Batman TV show) did a fine job on the special effects.

I liken this to a kung-fu movie in the old style, like the ones that used to air as “Kung Fu Theater” on Saturday afternoons. Guys show up, fight, move on. Chases. A little story about a prophesy. And saving the world.

Definately worth my $6.