The Day of Black Sun 

03-10-2007, 7:03am (EST)

Cranberries on hiatus

I was told in response to my inquiring about the Cranberries' whereabouts that there were rumors of a Dolores solo album, and of course, it's usually not a good sign when the frontperson of a band splits off to do her/his own thing. Unfortunately, this time the rumors are true. Cranberries frontwoman Dolores O'Riordan is set to release a solo album in May, and apparently I missed some announcement in 2004 that the Cranberries were going "on indefinite hiatus."

03-04-2007, 6:48am (EST)

80's cartoons

Heh... there's a band named Mumm-Ra. I am a little disturbed that I recognize the reference. For those of you that don't, here's a hint: "Thunder. Thunder. Thunder! Thunder Cats, ho...!"

Not long ago, Sarah and I were checking out some YouTube videos where folks had stacked all the openings from some of the biggest cartoons of the 80's and the early 90's. Funny, nostalgic, and a bit little frightening. What really surprised me is how many of those cartoons had been remade in some form in the last few years. I guess people are just running out of ideas.

02-26-2007, 2:10pm (EST)

Alice in Chains, Smashing Pumpkins, Garbage, Dinosaur Jr, and now The Jesus & Mary Chain. (I've heard No Doubt rumors too.) Apparently it's a 90's reunion tour or something. Who will be next?

02-23-2007, 1:14pm (EST)

Pan's Labyrinth

This movie has to be one of the strangest genre-bending films of all time. The best way to describe it is a film that is half classic war movie (if it were set in fascist Spain and included a little more of today's graphic violence/gore factor), and half Grimm Fairy Tale--and voila! And yet, it somehow works, and it works really well. It is a dark and sad story, and it is subtitled. If these things haven't scared you off, then go check this one out. This is an excellent film.

02-18-2007, 12:01pm (EST)

"White & Nerdy"

Long overdue comments: Simply put, Weird Al is going to have trouble topping this one. If you haven't heard/seen this yet, go check it out on YouTube. The lyrics and video are hysterical.

02-15-2007, 7:36am (EST)

Tone deafness

Every year at work, my department has a lunch to celebrate Chinese New Year. One of my co-workers, who is originally from Taiwan, brings the food and leads conversation about the cultural aspects of Chinese New Year. This year, the conversation led to some inpromptu lessons about the Chinese spoken languages/dialects, specifically the importance of "tones." For example, the fact there could be two words that when romanized are spelled the exact same way, but have completed different meanings because of subtle tonal pronunciation differences--something that is hard for many Americans to grasp because English words do not use this construct.

In The States, we often use the term "tone deaf" colloquially to qualify a person as a horrible singer. However, the real meaning of the phrase comes from a rare but very real medical condition in which a person cannot properly distinguish between two different audio tones. So if a person is truly medically tone deaf, would that person be at a disadvantage in learning to speak a language where tones are important, such as a Chinese or Taiwanese dialect?

02-12-2007, 11:40am (EST)

Valentine's Day is overrated

Disclaimer: Before I speak about this somewhat incendiary topic, I want to state for the record that my rant is not directed toward relationships with extreme circumstances (such as a long distance relationship) and it does not apply to relationships evaluated over a short timespan (new relationships are different than long-lasting ones; priorities change all too often in the short run). This applies to "normal" long-term romantic relationships--a relationship between a man and woman, both healthy and living a short distance from one another or living together.

There is nothing wrong with celebrating Valentine's Day, it's just that there are too many men who can't seem to find time in their lives to make their significant others feel special unless the day is Valentine's Day or perhaps another of the "Big 4" (birthday, Valentine's Day, anniversary, and Christmas). Guys, if you need someone to designate a special day on the calendar for you to treat your woman right, then you're a loser. Perhaps I am overly idealistic, but I strongly believe that no man should ever need a special reason to make the lady in his life feel like a queen. I know that there are plenty of women out there who will retort, "But if women didn't put emphasis on Valentine's Day, then most guys wouldn't do anything!" Probably true, but is that true because most men inherently have something wrong with them, or is it because we live in a culture where men are trained to think like that? Maybe those guys would try harder if they weren't practically given a medal simply for "bothering" to make an extra effort once or twice a year. Ladies, I know that for some of you, once or twice a year is honestly enough, and that's cool. To the rest of you, I say that if you're pushing Hallmark Holidays on your man because you're settling for once or twice a year, then perhaps you need to re-evaluate your priorities. If the two saints that Valentine's Day is named after could see what has become of their day, they would be very sad.

02-07-2007, 10:08am (EST)

"Won't someone please think of the children?!"

Jarvis Cocker (formerly of Pulp) and Cerys Matthews (formerly of Catatonia) have agreed to participate on a compilation album of children's songs. I suppose TMBG can't have all the fun.

02-05-2007, 8:30am (EST)

I was wondering where they were...

Jimmy Eat World has a new album scheduled for release this summer. It will be the band's first new album since 2004. I am curious which direction the new album will take the band. While I really like the band's more emo-ish flavor on Bleed American, the lighter stuff of Futures and the Stay on My Side Tonight EP isn't half bad either. (Check out "Disintegration" on the EP--great song.)

Hey, speaking of bands that haven't released anything new in quite a while, what the heck are the Cranberries doing these days? They didn't disband while I wasn't looking, did they?

02-02-2007, 7:45am (EST)

Ground Hog Day

Happy Ground Hog Day!