I’m staying home this year unless tickets fall into my lap for cheaper than full price. If you’re thinking you want to brave the heat (and forecasts appear to indicate that we’re in for another blazing hot ACL with temperatures near or above 100), there are some one day passes still available for Friday and Sunday according to the latest ACL mailer.
The Wall Street Journal has an article out today about a new trend in wedding entertainment (here’s an accessible version). Couples are foregoing DJs and either buying or renting an iPod to use during the reception. I did this at our wedding in 2001. I bought a Nomad Jukebox, the hot mp3 player at the time (iPods didn’t exist yet), and loaded it up with songs for both the ceremony and the reception. We played it through the hotel’s sound system. I still have the Nomad, although I haven’t used it much in the last several years. It’s roughly the size of a portable CD player. I figured the cost of the mp3 player was less than the DJ, I could pick the songs and I’d still have the mp3 player once it was all over. If only the skimping on the photographer had worked as well.
[tags]mp3, dj, ipod, nomad, wedding, wsj, wallstreetjournal[/tags]
I checked out The Descent on Tuesday night with a few friends. I’d heard a lot of good stuff about it both from the media and people whose opinions I trust. I was a huge horror movie fan in the 80’s and saw most of what came out, both good and bad. Over the last 10 years, there have been two or three horror movies that have gotten as much good word of mouth. One was Blair Witch Project, which, when I ultimately saw it on video, was extremely disappointing. It was a classic example of expectations being pumped so high that there was no hope that I would ever like it. The second was High Tension, which is much more satisfying.
The Descent managed to mostly live up to its hype, but not without viewing the extra minute that was cut for the American theatrical release. Apparently, domestic test audiences reacted poorly to the original ending, so they cut it. Thanks, dumbasses. As others have pointed out, the loss of that minute guts one of the subplots and removes some of the depth of the movie. Maybe I’m getting old, but the fast cut style seen in many recent movies and used during some of the more intense sequences in this film really annoyed me.
I’m not sure what to make of the fact that the two better horror films of the last ten years were made in Europe (The Descent is British and High Tension is French).
[tags]thedescent, horror, hightension, hautetension, blairwitchproject, edited[/tags]
The Statesman is reporting that passengers on a JetBlue flight arriving from Boston were detained at ABIA for questioning today after flight personnel found a “suspicious note” in one of the bathrooms. They thought it might be a note written in Arabic. Turns out it was Cyrillic, as in Russian or Ukranian. I’m no expert, but the two look nothing like each other to me.
Hooray for mass hysteria! I have to fly later this week. I’m *really* looking forward to that ordeal. Check with DHS or TSA before you fly. Currently, no liquids are allowed in carry-ons with a few exceptions such as medicine and breast milk. Flights from Britain are banning laptops and other gadgets. As Cory points out, it won’t be long before they handcuff us nude to our seats and tranquilize us for each flight. Hey, sounds kinda fun!
Alice In Chains has announced a fall tour with replacement frontman William DuVall. They’ll make a stop in Austin at Stubb’s on October 3rd. No word on tickets yet.
On a post of mine back in May, there was talk that Scratch Acid might do a show at Emo’s in September as a warm up for the Touch N Go 25th Anniversary shows in Chicago. Turns out they’ll play the Emo’s 14th Anniversary Show on Saturday, September 2nd with Gorch Fock opening.
As if all of this weren’t enough, in the course of trying to find out when the Alice In Chains tickets would go on sale, I discovered that Mastodon will be playing Emo’s on October 4th. Even worse, that’s the night after Alice In Chains and those are both weeknights. What’s an aging hardcore/metal guy to do? Caffeine. Lots of caffeine.