Neverending White Lights

I think one of my favourite new artisits this year has been Daniel Victor and his band Neverending White Lights. He's a Canadian musican who writes the songs and performs all the instruments on the album while getting other artists from top bands to perform the leads. I wrote a blog on the band back in March. The video's for the singles were designed to be something of a mini movie with each new video moving along the story. The final video was just recently put out so here are all three videos that you can watch back to back.

The Grace ft Dallas Green
Angles & Saints ft Chris Gordon
Age of Consent ft Nick Hexum

Entertainment Associate 4life

Today I was offered continued employment at FS. They all love me their. They said I have a great work ethic and a great relationship with customers. Everyone told my boss she would be stupid if she didn't offer me continued employment. It’s great to be wanted, so I accepted. This is the start of it all. I think my future goal in life is to own my own record store.

Year's End

1. Did you do something this year you don't normally do?
I went to Europe for 6 weeks.

2. Did you keep any New Year's Resolutions?I don’t really make New Year’s Resolutions. It’s more like coming up with ideas for doing things I’ve never done before. This year’s idea was heading to Europe. Usually if I say I’m going to do something I follow through with it.

3. Did you or anyone close to you give birth?My good friend’s Jenn and Trevor gave birth to their daughter Maddison.

4. Did anyone close to you die?No. I have yet to experience anyone close to me die. It would be nice if I never did.

5. Did you go on any vacations?Well I guess you can call going to Europe a vacation, but to me a true vacation is one where you go to relax. There wasn’t much relaxing on my trip over there. I did go to Edmonton to visit my oldest brother and best friend for a week.

6. What would you like to have in 2007 that you lacked in 2006?
?

7. Will any date from 2006 stay etched in your memory forever?
My time in Europe.

8. What was your biggest achievement of 2006?
Knocked ‘going to Europe’ off my list of things to do in life.

9. What was your biggest failure?You can never fail if you never give up.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?Just the occasional cold.

11. What was the best thing you bought in '06?
My souvenirs from Europe.

12. Did your behaviour change over the year?After I came back from my trip I was a changed man. For good or bad I’m still not sure. I realized I didn’t need some high paying job for me to be happy in life. I also had more of an “I don’t care attitude”. I also was lacking in ambition.

13. Where did you spend most of your money?Europe, my last 8 car payments, and of course more DVD’s.

14. Are you happier now than at this same time last year?
I guess.

15. What song will remind you of 2006?
Dani California by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

16. What do you wish you had done more of?
Date…?

17. What do you wish you had done less of?
Work

18. What will you do for Christmas '06?
Well I slept…. got up…. opened presents…went back to bed…got up…ate dinner…went back to bed.

19. Did you fall in love in 2006?
That one blew up in my face.

20. Did you get your heart broken in 2006?
What heart?

21. Favourite TV program of '06?
Prison Break.

22. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
I don’t hate anyone.

23. What was the best book you read and/or movie you saw?
Didn’t read a lot this year. Some of the best movies I saw were The Departed, The Prestige, Beowulf and Grendal, and The Fountain.

24. What was your greatest discovery?
?

25. What did you do on your birthday and how old were you?
Went to work for a few hours. Then after that not a goddamn thing.

26. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
A g/f I guess

27. How would you describe your personal fashion concept of 2006?
t-shirt and jeans

FRIENDS
1. Who was the best new person you met?
Nicole, Jen, and Hella

2. Who did you wish you did not meet?
?

3. Who was your best friend?
Ryan and Colin.

4. Who was your enemy?
Don’t have any.

5. Who do you miss?
Friends from the past.

6. Who will you never forget?
The way my memory works I can never forget anyone.

7. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2006?
?

8. What will you always remember about 2006?
Hanging out with Ryan in Europe.

ASPIRATIONS FOR 2007
1. What do you want to do in '07 that you couldn't in '06?
Start a career

2. Any resolutions?
As I said I don’t make resolution, but I have plans to try skydiving, and visit some place tropical where I could swim with dolphins and go scuba diving.

3. Anything you want to change about yourself for 2007?
Maybe I’ll work on that whole g/f thing. I’ll probably also bring sexy back when I shave my head again.

4. Do you want to make more friends in 2007?
I like just having a small group of friends but if I make more then so be it.

Night at the Museum

Sucked! Maybe I can give it 2 G's out of 5, but I'm being generous. It's probably just another example of one of those films that I'm too old to enjoy. From the trailer it looked like I was going to like it, but I was wrong. I'd add this to the shit of the year.

Real Genius.....2?

The rumour on the web yesterday is Val Kilmer may be back for a sequel to my second favourite movie of all time Real Genius. If you haven't seen it go out and rent it. It is a gem of a film from the 80's. Supposedly he wants to do more comedies. He's only been in 3 comedies in his career and two of those were his first two films and the third didn't happen until last year. As long as it was done right it could be moved up into my top films of all time. Check out the old trailer.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Merry Christmas to everyone in Blog land! I hope you all have great days.

Best of 2006

Here is a list of what I consider to be the Best and Worst films of 06. This has been a great year for really awesome films, but then there was also a lot of shit. Remember that this list is only for films that I have seen this year. I'm sure there have been some great ones I’ve missed and also a lot of crap I missed out on too. If it’s not on the list then it falls in between good and bad. To make this list I would have had to come out of the theatre with the initial thought of it being either amazing or wanting to kill myself for sitting through it. They are also in no particular order.

Worst
American Dreamz (Thought it was going to be wicked funny, but it wasn’t)
BeerFest (I think I need to be wasted to like this one. However I’ve noticed these guys’ films are better upon a second watch)
The Benchwarmers (Wasn’t this suppose to be funny. Oh wait…putting old SNL actors in a film doesn’t work anymore or did it ever really?)
The Covenant (Watch the trailer and enjoy b/c that’s the only good part.)
Little Man (Do I have to be black to enjoy new things from the Wayans Brothers?)
Nacho Libre (Jack, your far better at doing adult comedy)
The Protector (Cool fights, dumb story)
Pulse (The only thing that somewhat saved this was the apocalyptic ending)
Scary Movie 4 (Why do I even bother seeing this shit anymore)
The Sentinel (I liked this show better when it was called 24)
Silent Hill (Huh? What the hell happened in this film. Someone explain it to me…No not really I don’t care that much.)
Stranger Than Fiction (Looked liked it might have been good, but not)
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (I think I would say I hated this film the most this year. I will use the only funny line from the film and flip it about here. If you liked this film then FUCK YOU)
Ultraviolet (Can I be mad at Kurt for directing this? Supposedly the studio took the film away from him and reedited b/c the studio didn’t like the film. Maybe the way it was suppose to be would have been better.)



Best
Beowulf and Grendel (Freakin Awesome, a hidden gem of a film)
Click (Really goddamn funny I though. I perfect mix of his old comedies and new drama’s)
The Departed (By far my most favourite film of the year. This one better get some people Oscars)
The Fountain (Awesome in the way Donnie Darko was awesome)
Grandma's Boy (Amazingly funny, I was crying in the theatre from laughing so hard)
Hostel (Best Horror film in years)
Lady in the Water (I think I may have been the only one to really love this film.)
The Lake House (Really sweet endearing film)
London (A great dialogue film in the way Closer was)
Poseidon (Another film that I guess only I enjoyed.)
The Prestige (A very close second for best movie of the year.)
A Scanner Darkly (Brilliant and funny)
V for Vendetta (Remember, Remember the 5th of November)

05 Additions
Two films that came out in 05 but I didn’t get a chance to see until this year that deserver to be on this list are Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang (a film that was in the top ten of all cool people’s list of 05) and The Matador. Both very, very funny.

Honourable Mentions
Déjà Vu
Failure to Launch
Feast
Inside Man
Lucky Number Slevin
She's the Man
Stay Alive
Running Scarred.

Interesting Fact

Traces of cocaine can be found on 94 percent of banknotes in Spain, a country that has one of the world's highest rates of users. Now I wish I made it to Spain. Not b/c I do drugs but it would be funny to have kept a bank note from there knowing it had traces of Cocaine on it.

Rocky Balboa

Rocky Balboa4.5 G's out of 5. Yes, this was a really good Rocky film. When people heard they were making a new Rocky film they thought it was a joke. When I even saw the trailer with a crowd people laughed. That of course wasn't going to stop me from seeing it. Stallone is back to top form again with this one. It was a great capper to the franchise. What was great is his opponent wasn't a villain like in the last 3. He was more or less just another fighter. If you’re a fan of the franchise you love this one. Even if your not you should still enjoy yourself. I look forward to seeing the next Rambo film. Oh, and that not a joke either. He is currently in production on this one.

Even before they though about making a new Rocky film there was this funny and catchy video on the net...Die or Retire. One thing I love about the Rocky films is the music montage, so here they are.

Eye Of The Tiger- Survivor
No Easy Way Out- John Tepper
Hearts On Fire- John Cafferty
Living In America- James Brown

GrindHouse

Check out the new trailer.

New Trailers

Transformers
Ocean's 13

HOLY FUCK!!!!!

I can barely keep still with this news. They have turned Terry Prachett's novel Hogfather into a live action 2 part Christmas special. For those who don't know, Terry Prachett is a british fantasy writer. He has a series of books that takes place in a world he created called Discworld. You could describe it as Fantasy meets Monty Python. So far I think he has wrote 34 books that have taken place in this world. You can read more about it in a post I made in the beginning of the year. Discworld's equivalent of Santa Claus, is the Hogfather (who flies in a sleigh drawn by four gigantic pigs). In the novel he has been spirited away by a assassin on behalf of 'the Auditors' who rule the universe and who would prefer that it exhibited no life. Since faith is essential to life, destroying belief in the Hogfather would be a major blow to humanity. It is then up to Death and his granddaughter Susan to solve the mystery of the disappeared Hogfather, and meanwhile to fill in for him. It was one of my favorite book's of his. I'm in the process of downloading the first part. You can check out a 30 sec trailer for the show here. I can't wait to see it. I hope his work translates well. I imagine it would have been quite difficult to pull it off.

Alice In Chains

If you didn't already know AIC is my favourite band in the whole world. In 05 Cantrell, Inez, and Kinny reunited for the first time in years to perform a benefit concert in Seattle for the victims of the Tsunami disaster that struck South Asia. Taking over lead vocals for this show was former Damageplan lead singer Pat Lachman. Guest vocals included Wes Scantlin of Puddle of Mudd, Maynard James Keenan of Tool, and Ann Wilson of Heart. I then found out in the beginning of the year that the band was going to reunite and take their musical legacy on the road with vocalist and songwriter William Duvall of the band Comes with the Fall taking over for lead vocals. They were actually playing in Europe when I was over there this year. Unfortunately I was never in the right city at the right time. However I did come across a poster promoting one of their gigs in Budapest, so I got my friend to take a picture of me in front of it.

Even though Layne is no longer around I’d still love to see then live. Kinny said that if they do record new material that it won’t be under the name AIC. That is good news to hear and it’s the way it should be. I would love to hear these guys put a new album together. The main reason for this post is I have finally seen footage of the band playing together with Will on lead vocals that I wanted to share. He seems like he does a pretty good job to me. The video I’ve posted is from the official AIC website so the sound quality is good. I’ve found a few other videos through YouTube but the audio quality is shit. I also recently bought myself a AIC cap that can be seen in my profile picture. I’m always on the look out for AIC merchandise. In the last year it has become more readably available but yet it is still hard to find. I also have an AIC chain wallet. Just this week I found a shirt and patch in town, but decided to pick it up after Christmas just in case someone wanted to get them for me for.

What Do I Have To Do?

Here is a great song by Stabbing Westward that I want to share. I was first introduced to this song back in 1997 with the film Masterminds. Since then it has also turned up in the first season of Smallville. I used my staff perk at FS the other day to buy their greatest hits album for cheap.

One Year

Today is my one-year anniversary in the blogging world. It doesn't even seem like it has been that long. Thank you all who have visited my blog over the last year. In that time I've made 515 posts, had 4513 visitors (a good portion being myself), had 411 people view my profile and have met three great people...Jen, Nicole, and Hella. If it weren't for you three I may not have kept up with it for so long...so thank you. Funny enough, all the people I've met through the blogging world have been women...Giggitty… Hehe :) Stay tuned for another year of useless crap I have to say. I don't think I will ever run out of shit to say. I will sign this post out with a quote from Jen “Bloggitty Bloggitty Blog!”

Emerson Hart

For any fellow 'Tonic' fans out there I can finally report some exciting news. Lead singer Emerson Hart will be releasing his new solo album, "Cigarettes and Gasoline", on May 22, 2007 and the first single, "If You're Gonna Leave" will begin getting airplay on radio at the end of March. I can't wait.

Here are some Tonic video's to check out.
You Wanted More.
If You Could Only See
Mean to Me
Open Up Your Eyes
Soldiers Daughter

Live Free Or...

Die Hard. Go check out the teaser for the next John McClane film.

Oh, come on!

Will you damn religious groups get a life. Guess what's pissing them off this week? The remake of the film Black Christmas, which is about a group of female students being terrorized by a killer during Christmas. The film's release is Christmas Day. They have condemned the timing of the release of the R rated slasher film as tasteless and offensive. Mathew Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, an organization dedicated to upholding religious freedom and traditional family values say’s “To have a movie that emphasizes murder and mayhem at Christmas, a time of celebration and joy around the world seems to be ill founded” Another person after viewing the trailer said “The use of religious music—‘Silent Night’ and the nativity set on the front porch in one of the scenes is insensitive to Christians”. In honour of this person’s opinion come check out the film’s trailer. Thankfully we have people at Dimension films who don’t give a fuck about what they have to say and still plan to release the film Christmas day. There statement is “There is a long tradition of releasing horror movies during the holiday season as counter programming to the more regular yuletide fare”. I have a simple solution for the folks who are pissed off. Ignore it and don’t go. It’s really that simple. Instead go and rent Silent Night Deadly Night about an axe murdering Santa Clause. Season’s Greeting’s :)

Quote

"When life gives you lemons, squeeze them into people's eyes "

Heaven and Hell

The other day I finally got around to watching Julian Po from start to finish. It's a film staring Christian Slater and Robin Tunney. It's about Slater's character who comes to a small town and the locals think he's up to no good. After bothering him they find out he is there to kill himself. It's been playing on Encore Avenue for the month of December. Every time it was on I'd only catch about 20 minutes in different spots. It seemed like a really great show, so I'd wanted to watch it from start to finish. It was quite different and I really enjoyed it. It's one I need to add to my collection. Po had a really great view on heaven and hell that I thought I'd share. He said that God has a lot of things to be sorry for, so he makes up for it in heaven. However if God doesn't feel like apologizing then you go to hell. I thought that was a pretty cool way to think about that.

Jason Lee

After seeing him in Mallrats and Chasing Amy I became a big fan of his work. However I still haven't watched an episode of My Name is Earl, so I guess I'm not the biggest fan. Did you know that he used to be a Professional Skateboarder? I've know that for quite some time, but I've always wanted to see some old footage of him boarding back in the day. It just recently dawned on me to check YouTube for some video and after a quick search I found what I was looking for. If you were also one of the curious few go check it out. I remember specifically wanting to see the film Munford just b/c it is the first and only time he has skateboarded in one of his films.

Other JL Skateboarding Trivia
-Dropped out of high school to be a pro skate boarder
-Retired from skateboarding in 1996 after being pro for 7 years.
-Owner of Stereo manufacturing Corp. (Skateboard company)
-Given a shoe deal from Airwalk during his skateboarding days
-Is credited with inventing the 360 kickflip.

Cookie Dough Candy Bars

I have a brilliant idea… Cookie Dough Candy Bars. I don’t think anybody has a product like this on the market. I thought of this a couple days ago. Some times at Christmas I like to bake cookies. Then I got to thinking. When my mom baked chocolate chip cookies the best part was the dough. We would steal most of the dough before she could even bake them. My favourite ice cream is even cookie dough. I’ve also seen people buy Pillsbury cookie dough and just eat it without cooking. So why not make the dough, then cover chunks of dough with melted chocolate. Sounds like a pretty sweet idea to me. The only problem is the dough would have raw egg in it, so it would probably spoil easily. I would therefore have to keep what I make frozen. Hmmmm. Stay tuned for further develops on what I plan to do.

Happy Birthday To Me

Today is my birthday and you know what…I don’t really care. Some people say that and they don’t really mean it. I on the other hand really don’t care. At least I haven’t pulled a Shakespeare. I’m very cynical about my birthday this year. For me it just like any other day. I’ve hit all the important years and now I just don’t care how old I am.

I used to love birthdays. Back in the day the only thing I hated was the fact my birthday was during the winter. In my mind there was nothing really fun to do except go to for dinner and a movie. That’s how the tradition of going out for dinner and a movie on my birthday came about. The other somewhat crappy part is that I would usually have to be at school on my birthday.

The great thing about a birthday in December was I could ask for tons of presents and if my parents say my list was too big I would tell them to divide it up. Give me some on my birthday and give me some for Christmas. In my eyes I couldn’t lose. That was also back in the day when I had no income. Now that I have a steady flow of money if I want something I go out and buy it.

Birthdays from the time I turned 17, up until last year were awesome. Even though I could buy stuff for myself birthdays were still fun b/c I had some really great friends to celebrate with. Also by this time I was in college and classes ended in the last week of November, which meant finally having no school on my birthday. One thing I lucked out on was never having a final exam on my birthday or the day after. Adding fun to these years were being able to drive, see restricted films, gamble, drink, having a g/f and having the money do whatever I wanted. It was also more of a carefree time.

Last year I sort of felt the same way I do this year but I still wanted to go out and celebrate. This year I don’t even want to do that. I don’t want people making a big fuss over the fact that it’s my birthday. I just want to be left alone. Maybe it’s b/c my birthday falls on a Sunday or that I had to work today. Possibly it’s b/c I’m now 24 and still have no idea what the hell I’m suppose to do with the rest of my life.

I did however have a good birthday. The great thing that can always save a birthday are the unexpected surprises. I got an unexpected one of a kind b-day card from a friend that lives out of town, my older brother and his fiancée bought me a ‘Clerks’ t-shirt, my youngest brother got me a ‘Dawn of The Dead’ calendar and my parents got me a gaming chair. I just wish it was one of the chairs that came with a subwoofer and speakers built in, but it was still pretty neat.

I started this post with a real cynical down and out look on things. The best part about sitting here and writing this post is I have warmed up to actually wanting to celebrate my b-day. So for next weekend I’m going to call up the friends, go out for dinner, and see my tradition birthday film. Hopefully I don’t end up pulling a James Dean within the next year. That would suck.

Blood Diamond

3.5 G’s out of 5. I’ll never be able to look at a diamond the same way again. Sometimes when describing a movie I will say it is entertaining, or exciting. Another ‘E’ word that I like to use on films is ‘educational’. The film sheds light on the shocking atrocities that are going on in Africa. It has moments that reminded me of the Rwandan genocide depicted in Hotel Rwanda. The scenes depicting the brainwashing of children by the African militias to kill were masterfully done. My jaw literally dropped. It is quite disheartening that these innocent children are trained to be so ruthless.

Djimon Hounsou did a fantastic job. I hope he gets an academy award nomination. Leo also did a great job. His South African accent was pulled off quite well. I imagine that it would have been quite difficult to pull off. Connelly is a super hottie in this film. The film captured this great natural beauty that she has. While watching her up on the screen I realized that one of my friends resembles her. That is one of my many talents…I can usually pick out a celebrity that resembles people I know. Sometimes I can do it right away and other times it may take a hell of a lot longer. The one thing that could have made the film better in my eyes would have been to avoid the long pauses between the action. Other than that it was a fairly decent film.

10 Things I Hate About Commandments

This is a really funny and well done trailer mash up.

300

Check out the new bitchin' trailer for 300

Blood and Chocolate

Coming out January 26th is the film based on Annette Curtis Klause’s young adult novel of the same name. It’s about a teenage werewolf who has spent her life trying to hide the fact that she is part wolf. She risks the survival of herself and her pack when she falls in love with a human man who is visiting from America. She must then choose between her love for a human and her family after her relationship with the visiting American threatens to expose her secret.

It was a book that I wanted to read when I first heard they were making the movie, but I never had the opportunity. I really wish I read faster, there are just so many books that I want to get through. The film roughly follows the novel except it takes place in Europe instead of America and the character’s are in there 20’s instead of teens. I also heard the book has a cool shocking ending or something and it sounds like the ending for the film has been changed to get more positive reviews. They released a trailer for it last week through MTV.com but b/c I wasn’t in the States I was unable to view it, which I think was fucking stupid. I finally came across a trailer that I was able to view today. Click here to check it out for yourself. It looks like I will either love it or hate it. Just as long as they don’t pull a Covenant I’ll be happy. I have only one real complaint. The characters are supposed to be werewolves. To me a werewolf is on two legs, not on all fours and the trailer clearly shows that they are the werewolves on all fours. To me they are just dogs, not werewolves. Just in case your curious, the song playing in the trailer is called Stand my Ground by Within Temptation. At first it sounded a little bit like Evanescence. I’ll cross my fingers and hope I can add it to my list of awesome werewolf films.

Lithium

I feel like I've been sadly neglecting my blog for the last week or so. I've just been working so much that I haven't had the time or energy. However I've had a bunch of ideas for things that I want to write about so hopefully I get around to some of them tomorrow (which is technically today).

In the mean time... You can check out Evanescence's new video for Lithium. I've said it before and I'll say it again...Damn, Any Lee is hot!

Posters

These teaser posters for I Am Legend were posted online last week. Some claim they are fake, but I have found no official word to claim otherwise. The one on the right looks fake, but the one on the left looks pretty good. This is my number one film I want to see next year. It about Smith's character as the last man on earth and everyone else has turned into vampires. During the night he barricades himself in his vampire proof mansion and during the day hunts then down. I can't wait!

Scary Mary

Mary Poppins trailer recut into a horror film.

The Fountain

I saw this a few days ago and all I can say is WOW! This film was amazing. I was really hoping I would adore this film and I did. Before seeing it, the buzz suggested I would really love it or hate it. I guess the haters just didn't get it. I don't see how you couldn't, or at least interpret it into something that made sense in your imagination. 5 G's out 5. It’s a think piece; one you can have long conversations over how you individually saw the finished product. I'm absolutely loving this year in films. I can't wait to compile my favourite films of the year.

G-Mix

Here is what's on my latest compilation CD.

1. NIN-Just Like You Imagined (Used in the 300 trailer)
2. Chris Cornell- You Know My Name (Casino Royale Soundtrack)
3. Dropkick Murphys- I'm Shipping Up to Boston (The Departed Soudtrack)
4. Three Days Grace - On My Own (This is the song I heard during the concert for the first time and loved)
5. Army of Anyone- Goodbye
6.Alexisonfire- No Transitory
7.Mobile- Out of My Head
8. Alexisonfire- This Could be Anywhere in the World.
9.Three Days Grace- Pain
10. Cobra Starship- Snakes on a Plane (Bring it) (Pretty obvious what film it's from)
11.Mobile- Montreal Calling
12. Mobile- See Right Through Me
13. City and Colour - Comin' Home
14. Huey Lewis and Gwyneth Paltrow- Crusin' (Duets Soundtrack)
15. City and Colour- Save Your Scissors
16. City and Colour- Where no one knows
17. Time Runs Wild - Danny Wilde (Dream a Little Dream Soundtrack)
18. Fiona Apple - Criminal
19. Roger Waters, Van Morrison, The Band - Comfortably Numb (The Departed Soundtrack)

Hot Fuzz

As much as I love working these night shifts they really kill my days. I get home just after 6 in the morning and sleep till about 4 or 5. Then by the time I get up I have four or five hours to chill before I have to go back to work. It usually doesn't leave me much time to do anything for myself, but then again not like I have an exciting life. At least I'm on day shifts for the next couple of days. Okay enough of my bitchin.

Watch the new Hot Fuzz trailer here.