It is the last day (okay evening, I got off to a late start) of 2004, and we all know what that means - the studios are pushing our their last attempts at Oscar nominations. Movies with good buzz, but executives were unsure if it was Oscar worthy buzz.
So now you can push these out in hopes of generating some late breaking Oscar quality talk, without looking like a schmuck if it doesn't work out and you get completely ignored in the nomination process.
In my eyes, you'll still look like a schmuck.

1) In Good Company
2) The Merchant of Venice
3) A Love Song for Bobby Long

Just when you thought it was safe to sexually harass people in the workplace, executives can now buy desktop guillotines, hypnodisks, and siege engines!

Apparently they all work dangerously well, but I would much rather keep them as a source of implied power through intimidation rather than actual use, or out of just plain morbidity. Well, maybe I would use the guillotine to cut grapes and carrots into more manageable pieces (possibly in front of an incompetent subordinate). I could also play with the ballista nervously during an annual review while popping uppers faster than a second grader going through ritalin withdrawal.

I wish I could collect them all like free prizes in Happy Meals. Only in my perfect world (sigh).

I don't often invite my dad to punk shows, but I did tonight. He called it, "A music for hamsters on speed."

There you go. He also said of one of the bands, "This is a band that just completed their 4th music lesson ever today." Even so, he, master hamster, ended up bopping along...

This Hanukkah weekend we have been gifted with two movies. Two. I may be a little rusty on my Judaism here, but I'm pretty sure we're entitled to EIGHT days of presents. Two is for the goyem. Eight is whole reason Hanukkah kicks Santa's ass. Don't cheapen it.
And they say Jews run Hollywood.

1) Ocean's 12
2) Blade Trinity
3) Closer (released last week, but I'm trying to catch up)

The New York Dolls, sans Johnny Thunders, have reformed briefly this year for the Meltdown Festival last summer and a few shows here and there this fall.

David Johansen speaks about the reunion, the good "bad" old days, and other funny bits today on Fresh Air.

The longer I live, the more stunned I am at the juvenile petty behavior that occasionally pops up in various folks who are old enough to hopefully know better.

The area of life that I see frequently petty, juvenile behavior that surprises me is the ultra insular psychobilly scene. Psychobilly is fun. It is good music. I like psychobilly. But as someone who would like to book the bands at a venue or write about them or .... I have come up against more silliness than any other underground scene. Odd, but true.

Today was a prime examble of the 3 P's - Petty Political Psychobillies. Yep, an international band that we booked at Alex's cancelled late this afternoon for very spurious reasons. As the day unfolded I spent much time on the phone trying to decipher what was up, at the end of the day I knew three things:

1) The Rezurex rock. Daniel and co. are men of their word and honor. Need way say more? Oh, yeah, they are hot and make good music, too. ;oD
2) Certain European bands would rather shoot themselves in the foot over some bizarre point of misguided honor against the promoter from the night before, who was not us, than just play music they love and make their long suffering fans happy. Odd but true.
3) When bands cancel for byzantine reasons late the day of the show, fans from the Moreno Valley and South Orange County who drive to Alex's are very unhappy. If you play music for a living, don't you live to make your fans happpy so that they can worship your little self some more????

Did I say that The Rezurex are lovely men who saved the evening?

Hey Tim, Sign the Rezurex. They rock and are men of their word.