Monthly Archives: March 2008

[  Mood: Amused ]
[  Currently: Listening to REAL heavy metal ]
Links are SFW. Well, except the South Park ones.

After watching this South Park episode, I think I can say it’s among my favorites. There are many better, more funny episodes, but none which combine three I love to such great effect.

"Major Boobage" contains cats. I love cats. Used to be a dog person, but then responsibility took flight from me (or vice versa) for a number of years, as did living in my own home, so as an apartment dweller I had few pet choices I liked. Snakes were out. Ditto arachnids of any flavor. I don’t do well with fish (though I’ll now eat salmon in addition to the tuna I usually fix when my wife isn’t home to cook). So cats became IT, petwise. I’m not sorry, either. Except when I’m cleaning the litter box. Or listening to the 6am yowls about feeding time. Or hearing the water bowl knocked over for the third time this morning.
Really, I do love my cats.

"Major Boobage" also contains–betcha can’t guess–boobs. If you’ve seen my take on the 1983 classic fantasy "The Sword and the Sorceror," you know how I feel about this topic.

Last, the episode contains several references to the movie "Heavy Metal." I’ve not spoken well of the movie in the forums here because I didn’t enjoy it as a movie when I first saw it. I’m reasonably certain I wouldn’t enjoy as a movie it if I watched it today.

There are a couple reasons for my dislike of the film.
1.: It’s "plot" is strung together worse than an average porn film. The vignettes are so loosely tied together they may as well be separated by neon title cards.
2.: The music sucks. The misconception I had in seeing this film (on video, several years after its theater run had come and gone) was that I might hear some heavy metal to go along with the (anticipated) cool sci-fi visuals (and promised boobage). Maybe some Def Leppard. Or RATT. Or Dokken. Or Motley Crue.

What I was met with was Sammy Hagar at his glaringly mediocre "best." Journey doing "Open Arms." Stevie Nicks and Donald Fagen!?! Is that what Canadians think of when they read Heavy Metal magazine?
Where’s the #%@* was the METALLICA? The QUEENSRYCHE? The mighty IRON MAIDEN? These are shining examples of heavy metal (as I still enjoy it today)!
Those bands were available back then, their albums providing exactly the kind of music that would have complemented a sci-fi/fantasy spectacle.

As a delivery device for good music, "Heavy Metal" doesn’t pass muster. Most folks were probably too busy watching Taarna to be bothered by the music, but to me, there wasn’t enough Taarna in the movie to ignore the bad parts (of the music and the movie) completely. As a delivery device for some animated softcore (perhaps the first I was exposed to in my pubescent years), the movie definitely stands the test of time.

A quick aside to the creators: When does the Druuna (find your own links) movie come out, yo? I’m not bothering with "Heavy Metal: Whatever the hell the abbreviation stands for 2000," even if Julie Strain may be animated nude in it.
The irony may be that I’d like it, seeing how it apparently has more metal than the first movie did, and a starring role by none other than the peroxide god (dancing with) himself, Billy Idol!

Really, though, I think I’d rather listen to my new Iron Maiden albums.

But (SPOILERS!) Stan’s dad Randy has the best line in the episode…

"You never really get to see her totally naked boobs anyway."

[  Mood: Distorted ]
[  Currently: Listening to In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, by Neutral Milk Hotel ]
Just using the title "Sister Christian" put that classic Night Ranger gem into your heads, didn’t it?

If you aren’t familiar with the tune, I suggest finding a copy of Midnight Madness, bust out some light beer (your choice) and the barbecue, and have a time warp in your backyard this summer. Crank it loud enough and some neighbors might stop by to join you and share stories from 1983.

If you’re feeling lazy and introverted, rent Boogie Nights and enjoy one of Alfred Molina’s finest performances. Hell, the whole movie’s great IMO, but the climactic scene comes together with the aid of that great ’80s power ballad.

Why am I stuck on the song? What makes it so damned catchy? What put it in my head, anyway? These are questions that, in a roundabout way, lead me to another question: Why is the album I’m listening to now (another relic from a different bygone decade–the ’90s this time) just as ingrained in my synapses as that hit from Blades, Keagy, et al?

Stylistically they couldn’t be farther apart. One, a straightforward pop/rock amalgam that can still be heard on finer "classic rock" stations nationwide. The other you’ll be lucky to hear a snippet from on the most diverse college radio station in the most liberal town.

Musically, they have nothing discernible in common. "Sister Christian" is a simple song clocking in at five minutes, two seconds, with a bizarre chorus line that no one I’ve known (save Wikipedia, apparently) could decipher the real meaning of (and not for lack of trying, usually while drunk).

"In The Aeroplane Over The Sea," is close to 40 minutes of at times perfectly odd pop, other times almost jarring musical cacophony that, taken as a whole album experience (indeed, the songs run one into the next a la Pink Floyd’s "Dark Side of the Moon"–and the similarities end there), is sonically blissful and filled with emotion in raw form.

Both are what I think my friend Tracey would call essentially good pop. They both have hooks your brain will imbibe and resuscitate when you least expect it. Tey get into your head and become either a cloying annoyance or joyous fun when they arrive.

You’ve probably heard the former, so go out and sample the latter. Share your opinions here.

Next time, I’ll stray closer to the SF in my entry. Maybe CJ7 will be out by then…