Ahoy maids and mateys! I'm getting tired of apologizing for being so damn sporadic with my blog posts, so instead of being sporadic with my blog posts, I'll just stop apologizing for it. Seems much easier than actually being a responsible blogger (if such a thing dares to exist). So what's been rambling through my brain these last few months? I'd wager if you read on, you'll find out!
—Let's kick this off with some good old-fashioned polka! But Joey, you say, I don't care about polka! Well you should, at least for the next 3-4 minutes while you watch this hilariously well-done music video by the Chardon Polka Band, featuring my very good friend Jake. The dude's a creative mastermind and I wish I could channel a quarter of his creativity and energy. And tell me his drummer doesn't look like Ian McKellen/Magneto.
—Are you reading the Song of Ice and Fire series? You should be. Well, if you like fantasy. And war, and sorta/kinda history. I've been plowing through these 800+ page books like they were Goosebumps. George R. R. Martin has backstory and history for this series that rivals Tolkien's own. I've finished A Feast For Crows and I'm getting a kick out of seeing how different characters and their stories intertwine. Book five is on its way. What strikes me most is the "realistic" approach Martin takes towards characters and their demises. This isn't a Hollywood epic, where the good guys pull it out because they're the good guys. Sometimes shitty people win, and sometimes they don't get their just desserts. Should you ever read the series, be prepared to pick your jaw off the floor by the time you get to A Storm of Swords. To be spoiler free, I'll tell you what I've been telling my girlfriend, who's on A Game of Thrones: No one is safe. No one.
—I made the mistake of going to see The Hunger Games on opening weekend. It was Sunday evening, so I figured we'd have a quieter showing. Wrong. Wrongwrongwrongwrongwrong. Turns out, the cinema experience blows. And if the internet is any rightful source, and not just a bunch of people complaining, it appears this is a phenomena around the country. We had the stereotypical texters, we had the person who refused to turn off their phone, and of course, right behind us, we had three 20-somethings with their flatulence and running commentary. Seriously. Let that sink in. You're paying good money to sit in a theater and watch the movie, and this is what you get? What happened to theater etiquette? Are the days where people STFU when the lights dimmed gone? Are you really so important that you can't have your phone on vibrate? Is that game of Draw Something really that pressing? Go the fuck home if you're going to be treating the cinema like you're living room. Save your money and spare me your shitty existence. Please.
—Going off that, I wasn't wholly impressed by The Hunger Games. The movie was two and a half hours long, but it still felt rushed. I know there's a lot to cover, but I feel like the relationship development was all cut short. I can't say that objectively, however, since I read the book first. I'd love to hear what someone who has only seen the movie thought of Kat's relationships with Gale, Peeta, Haymitch, and Rue. What I missed sorely was the back and forth between Kat and Haymitch. I also missed an effects budget, but it seems the movie did, too. The presentation of the Tributes did not look pretty, so I understand their rushing through it. And did you catch the age-old corner-cutting they used with the muttations/wolf-things? They made it dark out. You can hide flaws in CGI better in darkness.
—Have you been watching Community, like I've been asking on here and on facebook? I sure as shit hope so. That is the best comedy on TV. Why? Because the characters are excellent, that's why. Britta Perry, Troy Barnes, Abed Nadir, Annie Edison, Jeff Winger, Shirley Bennett, Pierce Hawthorne, these folks have become good friends over the last two and a half years. I like seeing what they're doing, self-destructive or self-constructive (is that a word?). I like that despite over-the-top concepts, there's (usually) a real story about the characters underneath. That's not easy to get right, but Community has been nailing that since season one's Modern Warfare, all the way through season three's Pillows and Blankets. So please, watch it. Support it. Tell friends to get behind it. Maybe even form a...community.
—My buddy Matt sent me a horrible, terrible thing the other day. I'll link to it, but refuse to post the video on here. Watch at your discretion. I'll be waiting down below.
Done? That's what Star Wars is now. I just...I'm tired of it. I'm tired of complaining about it. I bet you're tired of reading about it, too, since it shows up at least once a blog. Well, friends, I'm done. I'm done bitching about the whoring out of Star Wars by the powers-that-be. I'm finished complaining about the money-grubbing tendencies of George Lucas at the sacrifice of story and character and relationships and everything else that goes into making a tale work. As my friend Hugh put it, or rather, as his brother put it, "Our current relationship with Star Wars and George Lucas is like going to the funeral of someone who used to be a good friend but for the last 20 years has been a total dick. You ended the relationship long ago, and now you're going to the funeral out of respect for what the man used to be." I'll enjoy the Original Trilogy, dislike the majority of the prequels, and live and let live. But I'm through writing about it.
—In case you didn't know, we currently live in an age where our phone and internet service providers have no qualms about giving (not even selling!) our information to the government. Who we talk to, who we call, what we text, what sites we visit, etc. All of that is fair game for the government. What sucks, of course, is that with the big companies being complacent about it, there's little you or I can do about privacy. Truth be told, most small cell phone carriers and internet providers just can't compete. That's where Nicholas Merrill comes in. He's working to create an ISP that protects all of your information. Go click on his name and read the article. It's a good, quickish read, and incredibly informative. I'm still waiting for all the opponents of big government and big brother to come out against this sort of intrusive work by our "leaders," but the majority of them are too busy continually passing the Patriot Act to have time to actually think and openly discuss just what that act allows.
—At last, we've come to the end. We'll leave things on an aburd note, courtesy of the Macho Man Randy Savage:
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