MoAM? Lives!

And their new album DEFCON 5...4...3...2...1 is pretty damn good.  The sound is there, most of the sci-fi sound clips have been omitted, and some vocals are even present.  It's kind of serious that way.  It's a good CD to drop in before switching on the soldering iron.

Even though they're taking their music more seriously on this new album, it's good to see that they're still having fun at the shows. (music starts 8 minutes in, it's just a bunch of crowd woo-woos until then)

It's mid-winter, the year's over, and it's gray outside. Here, have some depressing stuff.

The Last AM [Radio] Station
How will it end?  Here's a near-future quasi-scifi guess.  Amusing story, but I really don't think it'll work out this way.

The 38 Most Haunting Abandoned Places on Earth
Especially haunting since I used to take the kids to one of them.

Man, I need more coffee and a bike ride.  Lung crud is lifting however, thing are looking up for the new year.

Relevance Evident, Legacy Assured

On the BBC's World News front page today, not only was the death of Mikhail Kalashnikov noted, in another lead story's picture we see his namesake in use:

Whatever you may think of the man and his inventions, he did leave his mark on history.

Movie Review: The Hobbit, the Desolation of Smaug

Short and sweet review: this movie wasn't that great.  While the overall plot line stuck to Tolkien's story, mostly, there were large and largely needless re-writes that sucked the charm and wit right out of Jackson's movie.  Furthermore, the occasional insertions of bits of the back-story were alright, but after a while they began to overshadow the main plot.  As its own story The Hobbit – at least Tolkien's version – stands on its own.  There was no need to shape it into a Lord of the Rings prequel for this movie version.

Apart from these re-write problems, the acting was very good, the set design was perfect, and the special effects were top-knotch.  They manage to drag it up to 2.5 stars out of 4.  It was enjoyable to watch, but it could have been so much more.

More on Movies: Upstream Color Redux

As seen over at Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal.  Hey, it's Saturday morning, right?

Been Busy. Here, have an amusing youtube segment.

Dueling Theremins performing Principles Unknown, from Man or Astro-Man? and special guest.  There are flames toward the end, be ready for it.  Enjoy!

New Year's resolution: more practice time on my theremin.

Movie Review: Upstream Color, the Thinking Person's Zombie Flick

I don't know what to say about this one.  Upstream Color, from the guy who brought us Primer, is  engrossing, in a put-the-pieces-back-together way, kind of an unfun version of The Hangover.  But it's much, much worse.  It's not a lost night of wild fun, it's a grand tour from the inside of the life cycle of a mind controlling parasite, focusing on the relationship of two of its hosts and their stories, and the criminals who use the parasite – or does the parasite use the criminals?

Here, watch the trailer.

Bottom line: 3.5 stars out of 4.  I won't drag on this review any longer when this reviewer says everything else that I'd say.

Added thrills: While this movie is fictional (I hope), it just sticks together a bunch of horrifying real-world things, like scopolamine and the criminals who dose people with it, mind-controlling parasitic fungi, and the whole Haitian zombie thing.  Want to have fun dabbling in this on yourself without all the chemicals?  Here you go!  It's been said before regarding modern physics, but it's worth repeating in the current context: not only is the real world stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.