Taking of Pelham 123

Last night, I continued the normal summer tradition of going and seeing a movie with friends.

Poster

The movie this time was “The Taking of Pelham 123”. Hadn’t really heard much about it besides the ad I saw before Star Trek (maybe, it was one of the movies I’ve seen before this summer). Turned out that it was pretty good, though. Had John Travolta and Denzel Washington. They’re pretty cool guys. One says motherfucker a lot and doesn’t afraid of anything.

Washington is Walter Garber, a bribe-taking, cool-headed motherfucker who ends up talking to Ryder (Travolta), a bad-ass stock trader who takes over a subway car to extort the City of New York.

Overall, it was pretty decent. I give it a B+.

Has There Been an Increase is Electromagnetism Lately?

Public service announcement: Manually putting in contacts into a new phone is not fun. Find a data transfer cable. That is all.

In a serious note, electronics fucking hate me this summer. First, my laptop battery dies. Then my Xbox RRoD’d. The latest in my string of unfortunate events is that my phone’s directional pad and volume control stopped working. Sure, I could have used it without those features, but it would have been a pain in the ass.

So I returned it to Best Buy, where I got a free exchange. I do feel sorry for the lady behind the counter. I bet she had to go through at least twenty screens just to exchange the phone. I was at the service desk for probably fifteen minutes. :-(

Pass That Water Around

Title (and pictures!) stolen from Erin. The title comes from something Adam Lazzara (of Taking Back Sunday) said last night.

The concert last night was fucking amazing. To say the least. In the words of a friend, “It was almost too much to handle.” The only bad thing about it was that it was hot as balls. Humid outside, combined with the lack of ventilation in the venue, combined with a packed house ensured that this was one fucking hot night.

To start things off was Envy on the Coast. I wasn’t expecting much, but they were surprisingly good. Definitely worth a check-out. The lead singer (pictured below) was really crazy. One guy commented that he must have had Tourette’s or something.

Next up was Anberlin. This is the second time I’ve seen them, and they certainly didn’t disappoint. I do wish they could have performed a little longer, but I understand that they weren’t the main attraction at this show. ;) Below is lead singer Stephen Christian belting out the tunes:

Then finally was Taking Back Sunday. I was afraid that I wasn’t going to like this show as much, because TBS just recently dropped a new album a week or two back, and I wasn’t the biggest fan of it. I much prefer the older stuff. Thus, since this is the “Release Tour”, I was afraid they were going to play a lot of the new stuff. I am glad to say that my fears were assuaged after a few songs. They did play a few new songs, but most of the content was built on their older stuff. Finally, we have a picture of Adam looking pensive-like:

I have to say, the crowd at this show was fucking insane. Probably one of the best crowds I’ve ever been in, it was so ridiculous.

Now, if you’ll excuse, I’m going to get some water to continue my recovery from dehydration.

Anberlin and Taking Back Sunday!

Going to see Anberlin and Taking Back Sunday tonight, and I’m super-excited. The last time I saw TBS (at Memphis in May, ’06), I claimed them to be “one of the best punk shows I’ve ever seen.” Last time I saw Anberlin, it was definitely the best concert I’ve ever been too.

So, I’m really excited about seeing them again. TBS did just drop a new album, though, so you know they’re going to be playing a lot of new stuff, and I’m not sure if I’ll enjoy it as much

Still, two of my favorite bands in one night? Awesome!

As a side note, I’m pretty sure I did piss off the spam people. Logged in today to find a boatload more spam! ;D

Red Ring of Sadness

Microsoft, you sly devil. Playing with my emotions. Your fine Xbox 360 provides me with joy, then suddenly, the blare of static emanating from my TV tells me the inevitable. My 360 has caught the (not-so-rare) “Red Ring of Death” virus.

This of course means that I’ll be without my entertainment device for at least three weeks while I send it off to Microsoft’s 360 burial grounds and have a new console returned to me. Quite sad. At least I still have my Playstation Two and Star Ocean to keep me company in these long, lonely nights.

As an aside, I think I pissed off the spambot people with this post. I logged in today, and found 42 (coincidence?!) new spam messages in the Akismet queue. I’m sorry spammers. :(

Looks like I’m on track for at least three days of my “one post a day” project. :D And I know I’ll have a post tomorrow (Anberlin / Taking Back Sunday concert), and possibly a follow-up on that Sunday. And just to clarify one “day” (thanks to my weird sleeping pattern) is roughly from 10AM to 3AM, right now. Which may account for some weirdness when considering “days”.

New Blog Project: One Post Per Day

Since I literally have nothing to do during the summer (since apparently, corporate America hates me, and Academia has conspired with them to ensure my demise), I’m going to try to start a new one-post-per day project.

Honestly, I don’t know who I’m trying to kid (certainly not myself!), saying that I’m going to make a new post every day, but here’s to delusion!

Also, eagle-eyed readers (read: no one) may have noticed that I have not yet fixed my blog after last night’s fiasco. And that’s not a Good Thing. Sure, it still runs and stuff, but it’s not how I want it to look. I did, however, realize that I’m really just missing the Meta Links (and honestly, I don’t need those anymore), and need to move the blagroll up to the top (and honestly, who looks at those?).

Edit: Stuff’s fixed!