The Bass Geek

Is it bad that, during a recent viewing of George Romero’s “Diary of the Dead,” the plot point that most tested my suspension of disbelief was the fact that a MySpace page took 72,000 hits in 8 minutes without crashing?

The movie slapped the inevitable zombie apocalypse upon a treatise on social media and who controls the source and flow of information, so it was interesting from that standpoint.  Nothing new on the issue per se, but it was an interesting look at the role of user-driven media to bypass the possible pitfalls of mainstream sources (assuming, of course, that computer networks remain up and viable during said inevitable zombie apocalypse).  There was a little too much “How does it feel when the camera is on YOU!?” dialogue for me, as this concept has been addressed in countless other movies.  It’s probably better saved as for rental, but the sight of Samuel, the deaf Amish zombie killer with a chalkboard and a killer pick axe, is definitely worth the investment.

I’m still recovering from both the schadenfreude of watching the Patriots lose yesterday and the chili contest that accompanied said viewing - an excellent cap for the weekend. All is right with the football world (minus a Steelers Super Bowl win), and life can continue on a positive course. Since the Pro Bowl means nothing, that’ll be the end of football talk for a bit.

The new hard drive is in my system, and I’ve got both an OS X and a Vista partition running without incident. The only hassle so far has been reloading data (not major, as I could just copy data over from the old drive) and programs (slightly more, ’cause I have to hunt down old serial numbers from upgrades). The upshot of it is that I now have more space on the Mac side for music projects, and the Vista side is ready for work on my upcoming laptop book.

I saw the U2 3-D movie over the weekend, and it was an interesting experience. The music was overall decent to this casual listener (aside from a seemingly flat section in “Beautiful Day”), and there were no overwhelming “COMING RIGHT AT YOU!” moments (again, aside from an obligatory Bono reaching out towards the camera - what did you expect?). The drum set stood out particularly well, as did some of the crowd shots, and there were some drawn-in and composited special effects that were interesting as well. It did carry a “layered” look to it - the effects at times appeared on very flat panes that seemed stacked on each other. Still, a decent spectacle.

Sounds passable at least, and the price is hard to beat, at least for novelty’s sake.

I forgot to mention that we tried watching “Nightwatch” this weekend, and the power went out during the viewing. The movie hadn’t been making sense up to that point anyway, though, so we didn’t feel bad for the interruption.

If you’re otherwise disengaged and in Fountain Square this evening, there’s a free show from British singer/songwriter Newton Faulkner at Radio Radio. As it’s free and sponsored by a local radio station, I’d expect it to be packed soon, so arrive early if interested.

My wife brought home the movie “Once” this weekend for viewing, based on her listening to a copy of the film’s soundtrack. Great songs on that, so I wanted to like the movie.

And I did, until about halfway through the film. And that’s when my suspension of disbelief went right out the window. They want me to believe that a pair of musicians who’d only just met could recruit another three musicians they’d never worked with, pair up with an initially disinterested engineer and an expensive recording studio they’d never worked in before, and somehow manage to produce a bunch of great songs?

I should have probably just relaxed and enjoyed the show more (I did like the way they worked in the songs without it becoming overtly a “musical” in the traditional sense), but the tech geek in me just wouldn’t let it go. Feh.

I managed to catch a preview of “The Orphanage” last night - it was a beautiful mix of Brothers Grimm-style fairy tale and a parent’s worst nightmare. A couple of the plot points were telegraphed way in advance, and I thought Del Toro Juan Antonio Bayona strung along some of the suspense strictly for a “GOTCHA!” moment near the end, but it was otherwise magnificently filmed and rendered. Highly recommend.

That, of course, leaves the weekend free for music. And there’s quite a bit happening in Fountain Square, if I do toot my neighborhood’s horn a bit. Big Car Gallery hosts Lovely Houses, Brooks Ritter and Jascha for $5 from 7 to 9pm tonight (BRING THE KIDS!), and Sam’s Saloon has Will Stockwell and Deacon Sean and the Bar Brawlers. Tomorrow, Sam’s features Mike Milligan and Steam Shovel. Also, I believe tonight is Cognizant Coffee’s open mic night, but don’t blame me if you show up and they want you to put your darn-fool guitar away ’cause I got the date wrong. Enjoy!