Sunday Matinee - Hoodwinked

Sunday afternoon matinee at the Wayne Manor Cinema has become a new tradition and as such, this is the first of what will be a weekly review. This Sunday's presentation was Hoodwinked, a twist on the classic tale of Little Red Riding Hood.

All the usual suspects are there, Red, Granny, the Wolf, with a couple of surprise characters altering the storyline of the old fairy tale. There are always three sides to any story...in this case, at least that many. The film analyzes what really happened out there on the way to Grandmother's house. It's not what we were led to believe as naive kids.

Character voices are expertly casted with Anne Hathaway in the role of Red, Patrick Warburton (best known as Seinfeld's "Puddy"....yeah, that's right) as the Wolf, and Glenn Close as the more-hip-than-you know Granny.

Appearances are very decieving as the Wolf turns out to be an undercover news journalist and Granny is actually an extreme-sports enthusiast going by the moniker of Triple G. She even sports a GGG tat on the back of her neck. I won't divulge who the real villian turns out to be. It's a shocker.

While the animation is not on par with Pixar's efforts or Dreamwork's animation techniques, the movie's animation style is still fun to watch with its almost video game like appearance. The Dolby 5.1 soundtrack works well, highlighted by various booming explosions that occur in key scenes. Catchy songs highlight the storytelling with a couple, notably the old goat's "Be Prepared" which nearly caused my wife to pee herself.

The true test of these reviews will be our two-year old's reaction. While fidgety throughout, he seemed to appreciate the Strassberg Method character development and the complexity of the principal role scoring. Alright, so he liked the pretty colors and the squirrel.

All in all, a fun time for kids and adults alike. The action, songs and colorful characters are more than enough to hold a two-year old's interest and there are enough innuendos and side jokes to keep a grownup's attention. Those who love the movie Fletch will crack-up at the Wolf's spot-on take on the classic Chevy Chase character.

Highly recommended.

Pete Yorn Concert

Friday night, one of my wife and my favorite singer/songwriters, Pete Yorn, made his long-awaited return to Houston. Some couples have "their song"...we have "our singer"...and he is Pete. Neither one of us had seen him perform before so we were excited when we saw he was stopping in Houston on his Nightcrawler tour.

So us old-timers got all dolled up on Friday night and headed out for a way-past-our-bedtime night of fun. He was playing at a club called Meridian in midtown. Neither of us had been to this club before so we weren't sure what to expect in terms of crowd size. When we arrived, we were pleasantly surprised to find the place holds a max of about 1,000 or so tops. The stage was in close proximity to both sides of the bar and the overall size of the place meant you really couldn't be in a bad location, view-wise. Me and the missus clinked plastic cups and downed a Jager shot in honor of our night out as real life grownups.

Mini-Bar from the UK opened the show with decent enough pop-rock to get the crowd lubed up. Nothing really memorable about their set, but nothing offensive either.

A little after ten, Pete hit the stage. He played a good mix from his three albums and added a spectacular cover of The Smiths There Is A Light That Never Goes Out. Everything was great. The place was nice enough, the crowd perfect-sized...hell, we even found barstools to plop our thirty-something asses on. Fine, so mine is forty-something.

We had a blast. We sang along, laughed, bought concert T's...we even made a late-night Mickey D's driveby on the way home. For a night, we were dating again. And a chance to rediscover the girl that you really enjoyed being with...before marriage and parenthood and all that other overly complicated stuff. Thanks Pete...if you're reading this, stop by next time for a burrito!

Proof Women Have the Power

Easy to Remember Terror Alerts

I never trusted that Elmo.

Telemarketer Nightmare

This is the way to handle those oh so annoying telemarketers.

Click to Listen

CD Review: The Hold Steady Boys and Girls in America

With the release of their third album (fuck it, I'm still calling them albums) in three years, most are still not familiar with The Hold Steady. That is indeed a shame. Those that are familiar with them are polarized into those that think they are abysmal and those that think they are the best kept secret in indie music.

Following 2005's mind-blowing Separation Sunday, it was hard to fathom that Craig Finn and his band could top what many considered the best album of last year. In my opinion, Boys and Girls in America succeeds, and should be ranked amongst the best releases of 2006 at year-end.

Finn's talk-sing delivery leans a bit more to the singing side this time around but not to the detriment of his amzing storytelling. Another reviewer remarked that "this is Born to Run 30 years later," and that compliment is not overstated. There are most definitely comparisons to be made to Springsteen's no-hold barred storytelling. Finn's stories just tend to have a few seedier characters in them.

The disc opens with one of the many standout tracks "Stuck Between Stations" with direct references to Kerouac's Sal Paradise from his novel "On The Road." Kerouac's ode to the road seems to weave throughout Boys and Girls with the recurring theme that "boys and girls in America...they have such a sad time together."

"Chips Ahoy!" continues the magic with a tale about a female junkie with a penchant for picking horses. This ain't your daddy's music.

Additional standouts include "Massive Night", "Southtown Girls" and "Chill Out Tent" with the dueling male/female lovestruck in a drugged haze story of two people finding temporary love, where else, but in the chill out tent at a show.

Bottom line, this is not for everyone, but anyone who likes captivating storytelling delivered in a wildly original style needs to give this band a listen. This is the stuff that gives me hope for the future of music. Yup...it's really that good.

Google Buys YouTube...and Everyone Has an Opinion

When Album Covers Attack

This is just too darn cool...

Wait'll Next Year

And so it goes. It's not easy being a Padres fan. Every spring starts with such wide-eyed promise, like the kid on Christmas morning expecting this to be the year he gets the pony. Well, 2006 was not to be the Year of the Pony for Padres fans.

You know what? I thought they had a shot this year. Maybe not to win it all, but maybe, just maybe, to get to the big dance and show a little something. '84 and '98 were not pretty. It's not enough to just "be there" when you look like the Toledo Mudhens doing it.

We've suffered through thirty-eight seasons. OK, so I'm sure there are a few Cubs fans out there telling me to 'shut the fuck up' but it doesn't make it any easier to know that there is another team out there that sucks worse than us. And the Cubs never had uniforms that made them look like a taco.

So we look forward to March, when hope springs eternal once again. And I'll be there. Along with the other dedicated Friars fans that continue to hold out hope that "this will be the year."

Please Kevin Towers...take a look at Albert Pujols and get us one of those. I don't know about you, but I want that fuckin' pony.

Lactose Intolerance

OK, I'll warn ya ahead of time...this is not for the faint of stomach. Funny stuff though. From the first season of Jackass, the episodes that MTV only showed one time and then pulled them. You'll never look at milk the same again. Bottoms up!

It's the End, The End of the Century...

Legendary punk venue CBGBs will close its doors in NY's Bowery district on October 15th. After 33 years showcasing the newest and now uber-legendary punk acts, this famed launching pad for bands like The Ramones, Blondie, Talking Heads, Patti Smith Group and so many more, says goodnight.

The full name is CBGB & OMFUG which stands for "Country Bluegrass Blues and Other Music For Uplifting Gormandizers". Gormandizer usually means a ravenous eater of food, but according to CBGB founder Hilly Kristal here it means "a voracious eater of ... music" according to the official CBGB website. Country, Bluegrass, & Blues...not the place you would expect to be considered the birthplace of punk. But indeed it was. The band Television was the first of the punk acts to play there. Sometimes to a deafening crowd of 10 or so. In August of 1974, a sloppy four-piece band argued their way through an amateurish 25-minute set. The band was The Ramones. The music world would never be the same again.

Check out this blistering 1977 Ramones performance at CBGBs.


The final show will include a performance from the godmother of punk Patti Smith and an acoustic set from Debbie Harry & Chris Stein of Blondie. A fitting way to close the book on the greatest punk stage ever presented.

The club is closing thanks to skyrocketing rent costs. In another incarnation, CBGBs will relocate to Las Vegas, and expected to open in 2008.

According to founder Hilly Kristal: "I am taking the bars with me, I am taking the stage—I'm taking the urinal that Joey (Ramone) pissed in with me. I'm going to take a lot of things—anything that makes this place CBGBs."

Sad to say, I never made it to CBGBs. I bet it would have really been something to remember. It is anyway.

"CBGB is a toilet. An impossibly scuzzy little club buried somewhere in the section of the village the cab-drivers don't like to drive through. It looks as if the proprietors kick holes in the walls and piss in the corners before they let the customers in: fo' the atmosphere, you dig."
- Charles Shaar Murray, NME magazine, June 1975