Wine

Drinking a bottle of Pinot Noir by yourself is ALWAYS a good idea. Now if only I had a guitar....

Xbox 360... we'll celebrate ANYTHING!

Last week Microsoft announced USB storage for the Xbox, mind you this was only 32Gb total, but USB storage nevertheless; the people rejoiced. But why? Since the release of Sony's PS3 (unless I am mistaken) they have supported FULL external USB HDDs connectivity to the system. When the two systems' storage capabilities are put head-to-head, the PS3 wins by a landslide. They offer comparably infinite storage expansion and for a MUCH cheaper price; Xbox STILL charges from $0.50 to $1.00 a Gigabyte for their proprietary system HDDs and max out at 250 Gb, whereas the PS3 allows you to use any 2.5 inch SATA HDD. With the release of the PS3 slim a few months back, Sony has been rapidly gaining speed on the market and if Microsoft intends on countering their competitor's gain, they need to make much bigger strides in their system's updates; they can't just throw their users a bone like this. As both an Xbox 360 and PS3 user, I find this update rather insulting actually. I know how the back end's of these platforms work; if you can make an update for SOME USB storage, you are more than fully capable to make it support ALL USB storage. With the seemingly endless content featured in the Xbox Live Marketplace, avid users are going to find themselves swapping out thumb drives and external HDDs like fuses in the Griswald family circuit breaker. All I'm trying to say here is that we should be happy that Microsoft is saving us SOME money in storage media, but we also shouldn't get too excited. This is a bittersweet instance where we should be a little upset too, considering what Microsoft could have just as easily offered out to its players.

Tron 2 "Event"

Well, Disney really screwed the pooch on this one; with an impressive Comic-Con spectacle and a a series of incredibly interesting viral marketing pieces behind their upcoming Tron sequel, they only managed to disappoint with today's Tron 2 event. After the commute over to the other side of the Hudson, I, and the rest of the audience members were greeted at the Lincoln Center AMC Imax with a "Flynn Lives" shirt and a pair 3D glasses. Shortly after being seated the theater darkened and the screen was filled with the familiar green hue of the pre-coming attraction banner. The "Tron 2" trailer was impressive and filled with some awe-inspiring images; it also revealed a little more of what we can expect from the story. Flynn's son is looking for his dad and ends up in the game after being transported there when exploring Fynn's old arcade. The trailer showed off some action, left a little suspense, and showcased some of the ambient score we can expect from Daft Punk. The Tron world looks phenominal and the trailer as a whole was a pleasant experience and left me wanting more; this movie certainly looks like it will be cool. That however is where the fun ended and the frustration began. After the 90 second trailer rolled the lights came on and we were kindly shown the exits. The audience was vocally displeased with auidible grievances such as, "that's it?" and "play it again!" Whereas "Avatar Day" gave the theater-goers something to write home about and furthered the ample amount of buzz surrounding the film, this will likely get chocked up to a poor example of marketing. A t-shirt and trailer (which will likely be attached to "Alice in Wonderland" next week mind you) proved to be no prize for attending the event. I mean, c'mon Disney! There had to be something else you could have thrown the people who turned out and obviously care about the film. I'm faily certain the film will be very good, but in an industry where good movies fail due to poor marketing decisions, this isn't the kind of ill-concieved mistake Disney should be making and frankly, I expect better from them.

"Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" Review

I was lucky enough to sit in on a screening of Edgar Wright's new comic adaptation flick "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" last night, and here are my thoughts...

Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) is 22 years old and he is about to go through some major turmoil. He is recovering from a tremendously awful break-up, has a band, a gay roommate, and two girlfriends; one is a 17 year old Asian schoolgirl named Knives (Ellen Wong) and the other is the hip, bad-girl named Ramona (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). She has 7 evil exes and if Scott wants be with her, he has to beat all of them, but here’s the catch; they all control the destiny of her love life and without overcoming all of them with his own bare hands, he can never be with her. In the ultimate underdog story, "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" is about how Scott learns, loves, and kicks some major ass to overcome a gauntlet of foes and his worst enemy within himself. Told in a unique blend of retro-video game and comic book styling, Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead) brings this epic graphic novel to the big screen, and damn does he do a bang-up job. His fast-paced editing and perspective are dead on and really make the action, narrative, and romanticism of the film cohesive. Having not read more than the first book in the series, I don't have much of a frame of reference but this thing was awesome. Each "Evil Ex" brought a new brand of special power the fight sequences, and seeing Scott battle them each in a unique "Boss Fight" style was entertaining and visually incredible (and that's without the finished special fx). It is literally the real life version of “Mega Man 2” at times (complete with health meters and power-ups), and it works astonishingly well. Whereas Scott seems to be the normal scrawny teenager on the surface, his advisories have overt superpowers; some can fly, shoot fireballs, and materialize dragons, but he is able to find their respective Achilles’ heels and overcome them all for the love of his Ramona. The film DEFINITELY has a target audience in (for the lack of a better word) nerds, and treats them well with a plethora of pop cultural and cult references along with a heavy dose of video game mechanics to manipulate the way the story pans out. The acting was incredible throughout the entire cast; Cera nailed it as Pilgrim by combining his awkward teenager know-how with a sort of cocky-confidence, making a character that falls outside of his usual typecast role. His roommate (Kieran Caulkin) is also incredible as a sort of gay older brother/fatherly role; he is there to tell Scott to fight, but only when he's not too busy seducing the men around him in the most overt and hysterical ways (in one scene he steals Scott’s sister’s boyfriend… that’s all I’m saying, and it is most excellent). I found that his character was the scene stealer as the movie progressed. The music is another HUGE part of the film, and it too is incredible. I'm not sure how much of it is finalized, but the performances are almost as important as the triumphant fight scenes. "The Sex Bob-Ombs" (that's Scott's band) provide the soundtrack for his life, and his vicious fights often occur during the band's scheduled shows, including a Battle of the Bands. Wright did a fantastic job of blurring the line between graphic novel and reality with “Scott Pilgrim” and in doing so created something really special and unique. His style and technique is impeccable, and his direction yields an incredibly entertaining film from start to finish. Definitely a must see when this hits theaters this summer.

I'm going to be in a drum magazine!

As a drummer I have managed to accomplish some pretty awesome goals in my (so far) very short career; I have played at Giants Stadium, was given an all access pass for the Bamboozle, played at the Stone Pony, got sponsored by a stick company, and now I'm about to achieve another. I am told that the below picture (taken by my very good friend Pete Manse) will be featured in Drumhead Magazine as part of my sponsor's AD layout. Reggie (who runs Bombard Drumstick Co.) was nice enough to sponsor me, but also put me as his "model." Thanks Reg.

I take nothing in this world for granted and can honestly say that everything is really great right now. I'm settling down and for once in my life getting some real work done. Enjoy the below picture!

A Review: "I Love You, Man"

Often enough I am bored with comedies... They are repetitive of their predecessors, far too over the top, or just entirely too long (Thank you "Stepbrothers"). Though it hasn't been a long time since a gust busting comedy has rolled through theaters, I was pleasantly surprised with how much I really enjoyed "I Love You, Man." Paul Rudd plays the best awkward spaz since Jason Biggs' portrayal of Jim in the first "American Pie" movie a decade ago. With the perfection of his awful impression ("Slap-a-da-bass") and his random nicknames provides a great juxtaposition to the cool, collected, or eccentric characters around him.

Jason Segal is on the other end of the spectrum; just as funny as his counter-part, he speaks before thinking, always has a scheme, and rubs off as the quintessential "cool guy" who really is a little "special" under it all. In what I think is the most uncomfortable (and by this I mean awesome...) scene in the film, Segal gives a little speech at Rudd's engagement party about "returning the favor." The theater was split between outrageous laughter and severe cringing and writhing in the seats. Its also very difficult to forget the Lou Ferrigno cameo where Segal keeps referring to him as "Hulk" until Ferrigno places him in a sleeper hold. Classic.

In a world where cinema is filled with watered down remakes of horror films, god-awful spoof films, mind numbing chick flicks, and repetitious brain melting comedies, "I Love You, Man" is genuinely funny; I use that word VERY lightly as hardly anything coming into theaters is genuine anymore. I mean, has anyone else actually watched the new "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" trailer? Can anyone figure out what is going on there and what an enormous piece of garbage that cash cow is going to be? Wasn't Liev Schreiber's portrait above Satan and Saddam's bed at one point?