Music...

I have gone a bit music crazy the last week or so. The Virgin Megastore is having a sale with "hundreds of CDs and DVDs all for only $10," and, surprisingly, the selection has been really good, not just the junk they are trying to get rid of. I picked up a couple of Radiohead albums I didn't have yet, a Coldplay CD, and even Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. I really want to try that Wizard of Oz thing! And hey, for $10, why not?

Hmm. I also just realized that all of those artists are from the UK. Interesting.

Anyway, I also bought a CD (from an American band!) this morning: The Goo Goo Dolls new album, Let Love In, which was just released today.

I have been a Goo Goo Dolls fan for a long time. Unfortunately, I wasn't a fan of their last album, Gutterflower. But they have already released two videos off of this new album, and I liked both (well, the songs at least). The first came out a few months back and was originally featured on a holiday compilation album. It was called "Better Days."

The second one was just released recently to promote the release of their own album. It's called "Stay With You."

Their last album only had one or two good songs, and even the good ones were mediocre re-treads of some of their previous material. It seemed like the Goo Good Dolls had, indeed seen better days (pun intended). So I was glad when I heard that Glen Ballard would be producing this new album. Ballard also produced Alanis Morissette's album Jagged Little Pill, which is one of my favorite albums ever.

I'm already on my second listen through of Let Love In, and I am really liking it. I'm not sure they will ever be able to top their earlier work on albums like A Boy Named Goo or Dizzy Up the Girl, but, unlike Gutterflower, I think this album will be able to stand on its own as a really great work. It definitely has the Goo Goo Dolls sound, but with a fresh direction that their last studio effort lacked. I think they nailed it this time!

Good News & 24...

I got some good news today: my western civ. class is cancelled all next week! The nicEST part of this is that it happens to be my first class of the day...at8:30 AM. Whoo-hoo!

And regarding 24: how good was tonight's episode? Wow! Wowee wow wow!! Wowee wowee wowee!!! I'm really loving this season!

Star Trek 11...

At one point in my life I was a HUGE Star Trek fan. Then my love for it started to fade, especially with the last TV show, Enterprise, not being very good (in my opinion, of course!). I still like the mythology of it, and there a number of the movies that I still think are awesome flicks (parts 2,4,7,8 particularly). But Enterprise and the most recent film, Nemesis, didn't do much for me. It seemed that the Star Trek franchise might have finally dried up. Of course they were always talking about reviving it in some form, but nothing had been announced. Until today. And the news they announced today makes me quite happy. The 11th Star Trek film will be directed by Alias/Lost creator J.J. Abrams. (I think I may have I mentioned before that I think he is a genius?) Fresh off his duties on MI:III, Abrams will team with his Lost producing partners Damon Lindelof and Bryan Burke, and will be written by Abrams, Alex Kurtzman, and Roberto Orci, the latter two having worked on both Alias and MI:III. If anybody could get me excited to see another Star Trek feature, Abrams is the guy. Not to say that this project won't be a challenge: much like the failed Enterprise, it will be a prequel to the original Star Trek series, dealing with Spock and Kirk's early days at Starfleet Academy. In spite of the failure of Enterprise, they are going ahead with another prequel? Paramount Studios must be feeling brave; or REALLY liked what Abrams did with MI:III. Whatever the outcome, I will be there opening day...sometime in 2008!

Funny Video...

I'd say that's a pretty good summary, no?

Riddle...

A man and his young son were apprehended in a robbery. The father was shot during the struggle and the son, in handcuffs, was rushed to the police sation. As the police pulled the struggling boy into the station, the mayor, who had been called to the scene, looked up and said "Oh no, it's my son!" What relation was the boy to the mayor?

Answer in the comments section.

The Fountain...

Still no release date for Aronofsky's next film (though word on the street is it will be sometime in October, while making its debut at the Cannes film festival. How much is a plane ticket to France?), there has been an update to the (sort of) official website. This is the official website that is linked to on IMDb. This is a site I found on this blog. While they look the same at first, if you click the little arrow at the bottom of the second one, you can access a NEW trippy screen saver. There are also options for two other (presumably) psychedelic screensavers that are not yet active. Any news is good news when it comes to this long delayed flick...

MTV's The Real World...

For its 18th season, the grand-daddy of all reality TV shows is coming to my home town of Denver! Not sure if this is a good or bad thing...

I used to watch the show pretty religiously, but the show has shifted its emphasis in recent seasons and I have lost interest. Whereas the show used to focus on how a diverse group of people would interact and deal with difficult issues such as race and sexuality, the show's focus of late is simply to follow a bunch of dim-wits from club to club, drinking, brawling, and sobering up to do it all again.

I always thought that Denver would be a great place to film the show, but recently the show has done nothing but bring grief to the host city, and the filming of a show like this can quickly take its toll. When the show was shot in the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia, the cast members often had things thrown at them when they were filming on the street. Not very loving if you ask me. Hopefully Denver will be more hospitable.

All that said, I will probably at least watch a bit of the Denver season, just to see the familiar locals on the small screen.

24 Spoilers...

Only click here if you want to know what the future holds on 24. And don't say I didn't warn you!!

It's Over!

RTD is back to work!

Apple vs. Windows...

This isn't really new to the blogosphere, but I thought I would throw in my two cents. After the internet challenge to get Windows XP (hack) installed on a Mac sparked so much buzz, Apple has responded by releasing Boot Camp. Now you can ran Windows natively on a Mac.

(Personally, I think this cartoon best sums up my opinion of Windows on a Mac. But I digress. I am sure this will be useful in the business sector, just not for me.)

It's amazing how many people say they would dual boot their computers (click for poll). If you are wondering, I fit in the bottom 13%. If you feel the same you can even take the "No Windows Booting Pledge."

Yet, in spite of all this Windows hoopla, it is an antiquated version of OS that gets a web simulation. Definitely worth checking out, especially if you were an Apple person pre-OSX, which I was not.

Thanks to TUAW.com for the entirety of the content of this post in one way shape of form.

RTD Strike...

It's official...RTD employees are on strike. Does this mean that there will be no bus service? NO! (Which is really of good for those of us who don't own cars...like me!) RTD contracts almost half of its service to outside agencies. Unfortunately, things like the 16th Street Mall shuttle and light rail are not in operation, because these services are operated directly by RTD. The light rail, in particular, is a major loss. It services my school campus, and I know people who rely on it to get to school and work. I, however, am lucky. I have always transferred from a bus that runs by my house to the light rail in order to get to school and work. Now I have switched out the light rail for a different bus that intersects with my first bus. All in all, I really haven't been affected by this strike. Unlike other parts of Denver. I know someone who does not own a car, and as far away as they live, they HAVE to take the light rail to school. Needless to say, I did not see them in class yesterday. This morning, WB2 news reported that South High School's attendance percentage yesterday went from an average of 85% of enrollment to 52% for the day. Obviously not everyone is as lucky as I am. (That, or they all took advantage of the strike and played hookie.)

Darren Aronofsky News...

I had previously reported that Darren Aronofsky would be directing an episode of Lost this season. IMDb even listed him as director for episode 16, "The Whole Truth." But it was not to be. Comingsoon.net reports that he had to drop out because his fiance (recent Oscar winner and Fountain co-star Rachel Weisz) is expecting their child, and the scheduling just didn't work. As much as I love both Lost and Aronofsky's work, I am, in a way, relieved but this. I never thought the two were a good match. Yeah, I wanted to see something new from Aronofsky, but I can wait until The Fountain is released (When, Warner Brothers??? WHEN??????) to get my fix. Comingsoon.net also reports that Aronofsky is prepping a movie adaptation of Theodore Roszak's novel Flicker. It was previously believed that his next project would be to turn the massive Japanese comic Lone Wold and Cub into a film. But considering it's been 6 years since his last film, Requiem for a Dream, I doubt that, either way, we will find out any time soon.

In the meantime...there are reports (click here and here) that the first advance screening of The Fountain has happened! Not that that means much of anything. I still think it will be late this year before it comes out, to give it the best chance at Oscar. But there a few lucky people who have gotten to see a version of it (it's unknown if it was the final cut, but it sounded like it was close). Why don't they do these things where I live? Have I not hyped it up enough on my blog?? What does a guy have to do?