Why I loved The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie...

I made it a point to enjoy the film for what it is and not to compare it to the book. This enabled me to really enjoy the film with a fresh mind, and just enjoy the ride that it is. I thought it was great, and will undoubtedly draw more people to read the books...hopefully I only have 3 or 4 things that I would have liked more of: More Marvin quotes, we got the point that he was depressed, but I would have liked to hear more of his classic lines. Zaphod was great, but it seemed sometimes perhaps Sam Rockwell was ad libbing a bit too much, making the dialogue kinda jerky Also, not enough of Slartibartfast, who is such a great character it's strange how they portrayed him. But I suppose we'll see more of him in the next film. The pacing of the film was so quick and wanting to rush us through the story that they didn't leave much space for explanation beyond what the Guide said. Had they just slowed bits of it down a little, it would have served so much to the story, especially with an unknowing audience. I loved the crowd that was there, Douglas Adams name got a huge applause, so did the TV Series Marvin and so did Simon Jones' cameo. It was great to be around so many Guide followers, sadly I didn't see any towels, but the fandom definitely was there. All around great film, and definitely deserving of a sequel Now on to the restaurant at the end of the universe! Some highlights in the film: Slartibartfast showing Arthur the planet construction factory, the world being destroyed, the design of "Deep Thought", The Guide animations and narration were excellent and not to mention the original banjo theme used in the radio program and mini-series was used as the guide was introduced into the story. I love it so much...GO SEE IT!

ahem...One more person DOES creep me out...

Erykah Badu was on the Late Late Show last night. Her hair was HUGE, it was half dredded and half curly and just totally funky lookin. And to top it all off, it looked like she'd had some botox done and her mouth seemed bigger than ever. If you've seen the extended cut of "Return of the King", she looks like the Mouth of Sauron, just utterly creepy

Blain...

It's official, David Blain is the only human being in the world who seems to have the power to creep me out...totally. Staying up past 2 am and watching him do his magic, illusionary, trickery or whatever gift or power he has is dangerous, I don't recommend it. I mean, seeing stuff like him putthing a newspaper up against a store window and simply putting his hand through the window as if there were a hole in it, or grabbing an open and empty Coke can, holding it from the bottom and shaking it when all of a sudden it's full again and closed, then seeing him open it back up and drink from it...HOLY CRAP! I wanna meet the guy just to find out what kind of deal he has with whatever divine or demonic entity he might believe in. Sure, a lot of it is talent, and his endurance trials are strange yet impressive. But man, I don't know if he realizes exactly how strange his behavior is.

With Teeth

All day today I've been listening to nothing but Nine Inch Nails. Although I've always been a fan, I've never actually devoted an entire day to listening to them. I'm curious as to how it'll effect me later. Will I be a bit more reflective upon myself, will I be angry, will I feel enlightened, will I be happier because I know I'm not in as much personal anguish as Trent is, will I feel inspired? I don't know, I guess I'll have to wait and see. But the new album "With Teeth" is awesome, it's a slightly different sound, mainly recognized by those of us who have grown up with the band. But it's not as "over-produced" as past NIN albums, Trent Reznor seems to have possibly gone through some voice training as his voice has more range than ever. It's not so much an album about the destruction of the human soul, but it's more about fighting against life's trials and coming up triumphant. Oh, and "The Hand That Feeds" rocks!

Nick Mason is AWESOME!

After roughly 13 years of being a Pink Floyd freak and having never seen not one of the members of the band in person, it was only obvious that I was going to be at Nick Mason's book signing and interview down in the Haight district. I left for it directly after work and arrived about an hour early so as to secure myself a good seat. Just left of the middle aisle, 5th row, with a clear view of Nick's seat. I was anxious, nervous and wondering what he looked like in person. I was probably shaking from my excitement but didn't realize it. Fans started coming in by the handful. It was a small venue, some little church on Waller St., so it wasn't going to fit many people. It was really an interesting group of people that arrived. Some old, some very young, some cool people and some who were obviously big dorks, with their Pink Floyd t-shirts tucked into their khaki pants and vinyl belts to hold them up. I began to flip through the book and caress the record I brought in for him to sign. "Meddle", an awesome album, and probably the best example of his drumming talent. I was hoping he'd sign the inner sleeve, right next to his picture. More on that later. A half hour passed, the room was moderately full by now of hippies, goth kids and normal folk. I could hear the "chaching" of the cash register they were using to sell copies of his book, people were randomly conversing over what they thought of the Floyd, what shows they'd been to and what other item they were going to have signed by him. I was jealous, having never seen them live. I wasn't a fan of theirs until 1995, after the Division Bell tour, and I was out of the country for Roger Waters tour a couple years ago. So I was in need of some physical manifestation of the band. And Nick, who has been the official spokesperson for the band for years now, was an excellent first. He walked in, non-chalant, as if he was just like everyone else. He was noticeably thinner, either from old age or from a diet, whatever it was he looked healthy and strong for his old age. The bookstore that was sponsoring the event immediately sat him down at a little table in the corner to sign a few dozen books for them to sell later on at the store. They then announced that he was going to sign a few books before the interview, I decided to wait until afterwards so I could have an unrushed slightly more personal encounter with the man. So I sat...and waited...patiently. The time for the interview had come, a rock n' roll columnist from the Chronicle was there to interview Nick, and did a descent job of asking him the normal questions that most interviewers do ask the members of the Floyd. What about Syd? What was it like (for this album)? How did Pink Floyd evolve? To which Nick gave most of his standard answers. It was interesting to hear him talk about Syd Barrett though, I've read his remarks about Syd's downfall, but hearing it from his mouth made it seem more sad. You could honestly hear a sense of guilt and/or remorse for what happened to Syd. But his therapy for the matter is that by deserting him they probably helped him out by just getting him out of the music business, which was the vehicle for his demise. They then turned to the audience for questions, no real interesting questions were asked. Mainly stuff that had been documented elsewhere, but the questioners hadn't read it obviously. I couldn't think of what to ask, having already known just about every detail about the band. So I just enjoyed being in his presence and voicing his answers. If you've seen "Live at Pompeii" and the interviews he does there he sounds exactly the same now, when he searches his mind for an answer to a question, he does a horse-gnaw motion with his mouth and an "ah" sound at the same time. It's comforting to know that somethings don't change. It was then time for the booksignings after the interview. A cool guy from Sonoma that I was sitting next too had the idea that we would take eachothers pictures with Nick when it came our turn. I handed my book and record to the bookstore worker who was the organizer of the signing, and he handed them to Nick. Stupid me, I forgot to hand the record to him opened to sign his picture, so he just signed the outside, which was fine, but I had a secret desire to have all Floyd at some point each sign next to their picture on the inside. Oh well! I hopped behind the table next to him, put my hand on his shoulder and said "Hey Nick, how's it going!" To which he replied "It's going pretty good, thanks!" We then both looked at the kid taking my picture and he took a couple snap shots. Sweeeeeeet. My first photo ever with a celebrity, this was the only occasion where I felt it was worth it. I then kindly thanked him and took the other guy's picture with him. My hand was shaking from the excitement, so I think it came out a little blurry, but he didn't care, he already had a couple pictures with him from other encounters. I walked away from the signing 1/4 fulfilled. There are still 3 other members of the band that I have to meet before I or they die. I hope I have that opportunity.

Eisley...

After seeing them almost everyday on the MySpace homepage, I decided to actually check out their profile and have a listen. You know, most the bands they have on there are pure hot and steamy crap. But I was quite intrigued by this groups sound, their history and, well, their beauty, lol. I'm hooked on their album now, I recommend to anybody who reads this to go out and get it. It's a great record to just chill to and there's some real creativity there that will only flourish in the coming years. that's all the end Jon

Famous People Everywhere...

Last night I went to see the play "Lennon", which is a title that's misleading when said outloud to somebody who doesn't know what it is. Everybody thinks it's about Vladimir Lenin, but in fact it's about John Lennon. Honestly, it was kinda lame. They had 6 or 7 different actors, male and female of almost every kind of race playing him at different times. It was like a bio-play, but with a bit too much of a circus element to do John Lennon's story any justice. Some of the unreleased songs were OK, but you can see why John never released them. But it was great to hear some Lennon tunes live. I hear the play "Imagine" is way better, if it comes here I may check it out. One cool thing is that Tracy Ullman was sitting 3 rows behind me in the Mezzanine. She and her man-friend were dancing and swingin' and really enjoying the show. I really love her as an actress and a comedian, but I'm not one to approach celebrities and bother them with my fanaticism. You gotta admit she's awesome, she's the reason why the Simpson's got its start on television, with the Tracy Ullman Show. Today I'm going to meet one of my idols, Nick Mason, the drummer for Pink Floyd. He's doing a book signing in the Haight, hopefully he'll sign my "Meddle" vinyl record sleeve as well :) I'll let you know how it goes

What the crap?

Did I just post an entire blog only talking about sports? I'm sorry if you didn't care for it, but a guy's gotta get his sports banter out of his system every now and then right? On a different note, I got Dresden Dolls tix for their show on the 26th! I guess since all the NIN shows that they're opening for are selling out, they decided to play smaller venues on off days. Which is very cool because I was pissed twice over when I couldn't get my NIN tix to see the two bands. Now I'm only pissed once over, lol. btw, if you have NIN tickets that you wanna gift me, I encourage you to do so.

LET'S GO A'S!!!

So I went to the Giants vs. A's game last night. It was a great game, plenty of excitement, the energy between ballclubs and their fans was intense but politely contained plus it was a close game the whole way through. The sucky part was that the Giants won in the bottom of the 10th inning with 2 outs and a man on. Some pinch hitter named Tucker stepped in and ripped on into right center to score the runner. Gotta hand it to'em, that's just clutch. But anyway, it's preseason and doesn't really matter except for bragging rights. I'm excited about this season, I plan on goin' to more games. I think I only went to 2 games last season. I've already gone to 2 preseason games this year, so I guess I'm off to a good start. I saw a training game while I was in AZ, and last night's. I just hope the entire A's team can stay healthy. The supporting cast of back up players isn't too strong. But hopefully they'll get some more quality players with the new owner. Some guy named Wolff, I guess he owns "The Gap", so maybe the A's will start wearing uniforms made by The Gap, that'd be funny, all cotton uniforms with V-neck sweaters.