Papa Roach - I Almost Told You That I Loved You
Papa Roach first got my attention with their song Last Resort and officially hooked me with Between Angels and Insects. Despite the stupid band name and the lead singer who couldn't sing, I still found myself enjoying the catchy guitar work and meaningful lyrics. After some early success, they couldn't have followed the path of so many other young bands and partied until they had spent all of their money and wound up in rehab, then putting out a mediocre album or two to try to capitalize on their previous success. Instead, fast forward 9 years and they have worked hard to refine their craft. Jacoby Shaddix has even learned to carry a tune and does an admirable job on many of the songs.
Long story short, Metamorphosis has 3 good songs - Hollywood Whore, I Almost Told You That I Loved You, and Lifeline - along with a handful of ok songs. Not a memorable album, but they are showing progress as musicians, and it was worth the $8.99 to download the whole thing from Amazon.
Upon hearing news that Miss Georgia 2009 - Kristina Higgins relinquished her title a day after winning after learning that her duties would interfere with her job as a middle school teacher, all I could think is why in the world didn't I have any teachers that looked even remotely like this when I was a student. Perhaps I would have enjoyed school had there been teachers of this caliber. I will even go so far as to say that this started a chain reaction of hating school which culminated in my dropping out of college and ultimately led to me being an underpaid, unappreciated peon at a lowly job. Had I been inspired by such a dedicated teacher, I most likely would have my PHD by now and would have either cured cancer or invented a can that keeps beverages cold longer or something. One thing is certain and that is that I would undoubtedly be more pretentious and unbearable than I already am. And now the world must suffer for the failure of the educational system to stimulate my, um, intellect. I weep for the future of America as a result.
For those of you who have been waiting over a decade for Spinal Tap to break their silence and release a new album, wait no longer. The album Back From The Dead doesn't really feature any new songs but instead contains 'reimagined' versions of their songs. But wait, there's more! For an investment of a mere $11 (from Amazon) you also get a DVD with over an hour of side splittingly funny (or so they claim) video content. It's a value you can't pass up.
Going back to back on the movie reviews, I had high hopes for Henry Poole Is Here. I'm a fan of Luke Wilson and had this pegged as a heartwarming movie about hope. Instead I found a slow moving, highly predictable movie which left me feeling more bitter than hopeful.
I don't know if you'd call it a request, a challenge, or even a dare. What I do know is that recently the Chuckman informed me that he'd seen a preview for a movie titled Black Sheep (not the one starring Chris Farley) and that he couldn't tell if it was so bad that it's good or so bad that it's just bad. The mighty reviewing skills of Craw Fu were called upon to make a judgment for the good of all. My initial reaction after seen the cover art was that the Chuckman was no friend of mine by making such a request. But since it scored a respectable 71% on Rotten Tomatoes, I thought I might as well give it a shot.Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
In a rare, 2 brilliant idea day, I've just decided that as soon as I learn the Klingon word for pimp, I will make a fortune by supervising a stable of Star Trek costumed call girls. After seeing this slide show, I realized that there are a whole multitude of dateless computer programmers with plenty of disposable income who are dying for the opportunity to live out their Captain Kirk fantasy of scoring with a green alien chick. Without this service, most of these poor men will never know the touch of a woman. Most will never even know what a woman's voice sounds like when she's not disgusted. A few discrete, well placed signs at each Star Trek convention is all it will take.
I walked into the office kitchen this morning and was absolutely dumbfounded by what I saw. I looked at it from several different angles trying to uncover what mysteries it held, yet for some reason feared to touch it. Perhaps picking it up would have given me a better understanding but I'll never know. I just stared in awe, wondering if this was some kind of liquefied crayon drink, or merely a crayon flavored concoction. I wondered if perhaps Crayola has a similar drink. I've heard of other liquefied products like liquid nails, but I certainly would never consume them.I had planned on writing a brilliant, well thought out piece on Shakespeare here, but after spending an hour writing what turned out to be a pretty awful movie review, I've decided that my brain isn't capable of the rational thought required for such a thing at the moment so that will have to wait for another day. Instead I will share some poorly conceived nonsense. I really don't speak any Spanish, other than learning some rather useless things like food names and phrases like please remain seated. Thank you Disneyland for repeating that over and over in both English and Spanish in the interminably long Matterhorn line. Sadly I have no idea how to spell it. Anyway, after seeing the above clip my new favorite saying is, "usted baila como un hombre que vive como mujer."
And just to add a little more interest, today's useless trivia revolves around the etymology of the word trivia itself. It is derived from the Latin for three roads. Had I known this earlier, I think I may have called my blog The Three Ways instead. The more I think about it, the more appropriate this name seems since, according to Wikipedia, the place where three roads meet (an intersection or street corner) suggests that which is commonplace and vulgar - two of my defining characteristics. The true gem gleaned from Wiki though is the quote from two Columbia University students who popularized the current usage of the word and criticized practitioners who were "indiscriminate enough to confuse the flower of Trivia with the weed of minutiae." How profound.
The etymology of the word trivia seems to start with Latin tri- = "three", and via = "way", "road", thus trivium, which has been treated in three ways:
Where three roads meet, especially as a place of public resort. The Latin adjective triviālis, derived from trivium, thus meant "appropriate to the street corner, commonplace, vulgar." The first known usage of the word "trivial" in Modern English is from 1589; it was used with a sense identical to that of triviālis. Shortly after that trivial is recorded in the sense most familiar to us: "of little importance or significance." Gradually, the word trivia came to be used in English for what in Latin would have called "triviālia", for anything information or concern which is treated as everyday and unimportant.
The Three Ways (first known used in English in a work from 1432–1450). This work mentions the "arte trivialle", referring to the trivium, which was the three Artes Liberales (Liberal Arts) that were taught first in medieval universities, namely grammar, rhetoric, and logic. (The other four Liberal Arts were the quadrivium, namely arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy, which were more challenging.) Hence, trivial in this sense would have meant "of interest only to an undergraduate".
The Roman courier network Cursus publicus which was set up by Emperor Augustus. Messengers traveled the Roman Empire taking messengers from one province to the next. At crossroads notice boards would display gossip or news from Rome....hence 'trivia'. This is where the term trivia comes from 'tri' 'via' means 'three roads'.
The word trivia was popularized in its current meaning in the 1960s by Columbia University students Ed Goodgold and Dan Carlinsky, who created the earliest inter-collegiate quiz bowls that tested culturally significant yet ultimately unimportant facts, which they dubbed "trivia contests". The first book treating trivia of this universal sort was Trivia (Dell, 1966) by Goodgold and Carlinsky, which achieved a ranking on the New York Times best seller list; the book was an extension of the pair's Columbia contests and was followed by other Goodgold and Carlinsky trivia titles. In their second book, More Trivial Trivia, the authors criticized practitioners who were "indiscriminate enough to confuse the flower of Trivia with the weed of minutiae"; Trivia, they wrote, "is concerned with tugging at heartstrings," while minutiae deals with such unevocative questions as "Which state is the largest consumer of Jell-O?" But over the years the word has come to refer to obscure and arcane bits of dry knowledge as well as nostalgic remembrances of pop culture.
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Happy National Donut Day one and all! Since I found out about this momentous occasion, I have been able to think about little else. My sources tell me that if you are in the general proximity of a Dunkin Donuts or a Krispy Kreme, you can score a free sugary treat, but unfortunately neither are conveniently located. I'm not sure there is still a Dunkin in the state. Anyway, as I ponder my alternatives, please at least enjoy a donut on my behalf. I'm trying to decide whether to make the trip up to Top Pot, or just stop in a Starbucks and grab something. Why are there not more donut shops downtown?
