entertainment | mashby

September 2, 2003

I’m Now A True Believer

On Sunday we went to Church at BCC. The praise and worship music was great, as it always is, but there was a special surprise. Phil Keaggy was playing lead guitar (yes, we rock out in Church) that day and he played a special song entitled ‘True Believers.’ Phil is a legend in the Christian music industry, yet I had never heard any of his music. I was totally unprepared for what I heard.

The song featured Phil by himself with an acoustic guitar. It began simple enough with a him strumming and singing. Then he stopped and began playing percussion on the face of the guitar. He had an effect pedal that allowed him to sample and playback in a loop what he had just played, so after playing percussion for 4 bars, he started strumming the guitar again. The percussion part he had played just before looped behind him. He kept adding more and more parts to the point where he was a one man band. On top of all this was a great song!

August 30, 2003

Passing The Torch?

The Kiss Heard Around The World By now you’ve no doubt heard about the big kiss between Madonna, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera on the MTV Video Music Awards on Thursday of this week. In case you haven’t, here’s a quick run down.

For the first number of the evening, Britney and Christina began singing Like A Virgin dressed wedding dress-like attire. Clearly this was an homage to Madonna’s controversial 1985 performance. Part of the way through the song, Madonna comes out in grooms attire, singing her new song Hollywood. After writhing on both of them, she proceeded to give an open mouth kiss to Britney and then one to Christina. You can find stills here and the video here. It was all quite the shocking moment – a mainstay in Madonna’s career. 🙂

All scandalous behavior aside, I mean Madonna is old enough to be their mother, the overwhelming feeling I came away with was that Madonna was passing the skank torch. Madonna’s focus is now more on the spiritual life and on being a mother, not singing and writhing on stage. She’s done the sex thing and now she has matured, so it’s time for the new breed of shock vixens to take the stage. What better way to pass the skank torch than to give a lesbian kiss?

August 27, 2003

I’m Not Gay, But My TV Is

Gay TV My television viewing habits have changed a lot this past year. Used to be that I was totally hooked on the Law and Order franchise and a few other shows on the major networks. Now it’s a whole different story, most of my TV viewing is done on cable channels and not on the 3 major networks. The reason is simple – the shows on cable networks is getting better. What I’m finding a little surprising is how my tastes are changing along the way – they are getting a little sexually bipolar.

The first Cable hook to set was 24 on Fox. From the first episode, I knew that I was going to watch every episode and I have. Since then I’m now an avid viewer of The Shield and Nip/Tuck on FX, but more recently, the Discovery Channel has nailed me with a series of hyper-hetero shows, Monster Garage, American Chopper, and Monster House. If that’s not enough, there’s a new show starting on Sunday called American HotRod that could easily be added to my list of faves. So where is the bipolar part come in? I’m glad you asked. 😀

August 26, 2003

Stroopwafel

I stumbled upon the stroopwafel some 10 years ago back in Baton Rouge. Coffee shops where just beginning to blossom around the United States and people weren’t quite sure what to make of them. In fact, I remember the first time I walked into Perks Coffee and Tea Shop and was shocked that I couldn’t order bacon and eggs. :O Like I said, people (including myself) were just learning what a coffee shop was all about. The idea of going someplace just for coffee seemed a bit strange.

Needless to say, I quickly got the hang of it and began visiting Perks on a frequent basis. What I discovered is that there was food to eat, just not the kind that comes off the griddle. 🙂 Bagels, muffins and other pastries were quite plentiful and good and made for a nice start on the day. There was also something new that I had never tried before – the Stroopwafel.

August 20, 2003

BT – Emotional Technology

BT - Emotional Technology I’ve been a huge fan of Brian Transeau since his first album back in 1996. I don’t remember how, or where I heard it, but the first time I heard Blue Skies I was hooked. Since then, I’ve eagerly awaited each new release from BT.

It’s been over 3 years since BT released an original work (read all about it here), but it was definitely worth the wait. There isn’t a weak track to be found anywhere and in my book, this is his best work yet. From the first track to the last, BT takes you on a journey through an incredible landscape of sound. Along the way he drops some kickin’ hooks that you just can’t get out of your head.

August 18, 2003

The Perfect Cup

A couple of weeks ago I dropped my thermal carafe from my much beloved coffee maker. As a result, it began a small leak. Faced with having to buy a new carafe, or even I whole new coffee maker, I remembered that I was given a french press coffee makerm as a gift from my Mom.

June 23, 2003

Getting Pucked

After my late afternoon coffee siesta on Friday a few weeks back, Holly showed up to hook up for dinner. Originally we were thinking about going to a little Greek cafe that was nearby, but as we sat there in dimming sun, relaxed and content, we noticed that there was a new restaurant right across the way. It was a Wolfgang Puck Express.

I had eaten at one a month or so ago in the Chicago O’ Hare airport and found it to be quite good, so with that recommendation Holly and I decided to at least go look at the menu. A few glances at the menu and it was clear that we were going to eat dinner there. There were simply too many good dishes to pass up.

The part of town that Wolfgang Puck Express is located is fairly trendy and we expected the look and feel of the restaurant to be in that same vein. It was, but as soon as we stepped into the restaurant it was like stepping into a funky little wrinkle in time. I instantly felt off center and I couldn’t figure out why. It wasn’t until we were sitting down, waiting for our food, that I started to piece it together. Wolfgang Puck has combined a wide array of dining “experiences” into one experience and then cranked up the speed.

June 11, 2003

My God, It’s Full Of Stars

I was sitting in a cafe late this afternoon in between West End and Vanderbilt University called Bean Central. I was waiting for Holly to get off work and I was catching up on some work with my AlphaSmart Dana. I was sipping on a Bass pale ale looking out the window when I saw […]

June 9, 2003

Punk’d

The Matrix Reloaded - In IMAX Format The Matrix Reloaded was finally released in IMAX format, so yesterday after church, we headed over to Opry Mills to the Regal Cinema Opry Mills 20 IMAX theatre. It happened on a bit of a lark, I just happened to notice that there was a 2:15 showing while glancing at the Nashville Scene as I rode in the back seat of my Mother’s car. We got out of Church at 1:00pm, so it seemed like a perfect fit. Go to church and then go see the movie.

We arrived at Opry Mills at about 1:15pm, so we had about 30 minutes before they began seating. We took the opportunity to browse Barnes & Nobel. Going in I couldn’t think of anything that I wanted. I had purchased all my magazines for the month and I’m already reading 3 books, so I didn’t need another. That’s before I found out that they sold DVDs as well. :). I ended up purchasing the The Animatrix Boxed Set, which includes the Animatrix DVD and the Animatrix soundtrack. It was turning into a Matrix day.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen an IMAX movie. The last one I saw was “The Alamo” when Holly and I were celebrating our 2nd Anniversary in San Antonio. I’ve certainly never seen a feature film released in the format, so I was VERY excited and intrigued in what the differences would be between the 35mm experience and the IMAX Experience.

June 8, 2003

$@#*ing Commercials

Bachelor Chow - Now With Flavor! If there is one thing that has reared its ugly head in American cinema in the past year that just sticks in my craw are movie theatres showing commercials. Don’t get me wrong, I love commercials and dearly miss AdCritic and wish it would come back to its “Internet Bubble” heyday. But I don’t mind commercials on TV because they are subsidizing what I’m watching. I don’t pay for network TV so I understand the role that commercials play. However when I go to a movie and pay $8.50 a person the last thing that I expect to see is a freakin’ commercial. I paid a fee to watch commercials? I don’t think so. Yet with each movie that I go to see, more and more commercials are appearing prior to the previews. I saw the Italian Job today and was subjected to no less than 7 commercials.

Some people might argue that previews are really just commercials for movies. Well, that’s true, but its part of the movie experience, ads for Degree antiperspirant are not. Or you might argue that commercials are defraying the cost of movies. Bollocks. When was the last time you saw a movie theatre go out of business? Besides, movie attendance is higher than ever and when the Matrix Reloaded can pull in over 200 million in one weekend I don’t think theatres are hurting. Also, don’t forget that the gross movie sales do not include the cost of popcorn and other snacks. By my own rough estimation, I’d say that for every two tickets at $8.50 there’s at least $8.50 spent at the concession stand. So, when a movie pulls in $200 million, there’s roughly $100 million that goes straight to the movie theatre. That’s not counting the money made from the Coca-Cola ads, etc.

Category / entertainment