Song of the Day: Thor--Lightning Strikes

I don't know whether this is so bad it's awesome or it's just funny as hell.



Oh what the hell--it's both!

Song of the Day: Rush--Paint It Black / The Spirit of Radio

The Canadian badasses at the Toronto Rocks benefit in 2003:



Look at the size of that audience! 450,000 to 500,000 people, Canada's largest ticketed outdoor event.

Lifeson tears up the solo.

Those are real clothes dryers behind Geddy; in the late '90s he stopped using amps onstage (running his bass directly to the soundboard). He needed something to fill in the space to balance out Lifeson's wall of amps.

In 1996, he had a fridge.

For the Vapor Trails tour (2003), there were three dryers loaded with special T-shirts ("I GOT THIS T-SHIRT FROM DRYER NUMBER 3"). The stage crew even added dummy mics for more humor.

On the R30 tour, he swapped one of them out and added a vending machine stocked with memorabilia (bobbleheads and such).

For Snakes and Arrows, Geddy put three working rotisserie ovens and an "attendant."

Most recently, on the Time Machine tour, there was a Steampunk time machine/sausage maker.

Name That Kook!

Over at the Kook blog, I'm starting a game--Name That Kook!

I don't have a set schedule for posting the answer, given the low traffic around here. Maybe this Wednesday?

Song of the Day: Rush to Limbaugh: Get off, eh?

I knew the Vulgar Pigboy was using my favorite band's music on his show.

Not anymore.

Bob Cesca broke the story: "The Spirit of Radio" was playing while Pigboy was demanding Sandra Fluke's sex tapes. Cesca contacted Anthem Entertainment and the band to ask about his use of their music. Their attorney sent out a cease and desist (full text posted on Cesca's blog).

In your face, Pigboy.

Here's a Rush song he should have used, since the lyrics are about him and his fellow travelers:



Good tags are for the band, bad ones for Pigboy.

RIP: Ralph McQuarrie

The man most responsible for the look and feel of the Star Wars universe has died. McQuarrie brought us X-Wings, cloud cars, Stormtroopers, Darth Vader, and the droids he was looking for.

Ain't It Cool News has a writeup with lots of conceptual art from McQuarrie's Star Wars, Empire, Jedi and Battlestar Galactica.

McQuarrie's own site features a gallery of his work with the American space program during the Apollo missions.

Pic of the Day: You're Fat.

Found this while digging around for some wise-ass ways of saying "fat."

The better ones were:
--Ground sloth.
--Porker.
--Swamp donkey.
--Aisle blocker.
--Blubbernaut.
--Chub scout.

"Ground Sloths" would be a great name for an all-fatty speed-metal band. Or "Fatallica."

Something just woke me up...

I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened.

Then I realized: It's just the second day of "Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace" showing in 3D.

Just one more dimension of suck! :)

"Parodies" tag is for what Luca$ has let "Star Wars" become. I've only seen this one all the way through twice--once in the theater, once a few years ago during a marathon of all six.

That first one was rough, man; I left the theater feeling numb, trying to convince myself that it hadn't been so bad, even with the fart jokes and horrible acting and the CGI idiot who will not be named. The visual effects were very pretty.

Then, the second time, I saw that I'd been right, and that this was just a steaming pile of utter crap. The fart jokes and horrible acting and that CGI asshole who won't be named pretty much killed it. The visual effects were still very pretty, but I remember a time when Luca$ (there really ought to be a cash register bell "ding" every time you see that)...when Luca$ (ding!) said that special effect should never, never, never ever get in the way of telling a story.

But then he started making lots of money and people stopped telling him "that's a stupid idea, Luca$ (ding!)." He started losing it about the time of "Return of the Jedi" and the third Indiana Jones; that's when the childish humor and slapstick started.

Right about here I'd have made a "Before the dark times...before Luca$ (ding!) lost his shit" sort of Star Wars reference. I don't do those very often anymore.

I saw all of the new movies in turn. They did get better, the way a rash gets better once you get away from the poison ivy and stop trying to swim in it. By Episode III, Luca$ (ding!) was playing it a little more serious and trying to hump the story around so that it might mate up to the originals. This was a far better movie than either of the other two, but I've still only seen it two or three times--"better" doesn't mean "good." Acting, dialogue and plot needed a competent hand, not Luca$ (ding!).

Then there's that fourth Indiana Jones flick, the one that managed to suck worse than Episode I. The convenient lead-lined flying fridge, the supposedly psychic Russian, the Tarzan yell...this one I've only seen once, and I mean it to be the last.

Since I left the theater that evening in 2008, angry in the wake of "Jones" instead of numb, I've avoided Star Wars and Jones movies. Nah, it's not because I was traumatized. I'm just done with Luca$ (ding!) and his horrible movie-making.