Yo dawg, I heard you like pictures...

So I started using my Flickr account.

A Wikipedia Search on Muhammad Ali Lead Me Here...

The Great Muta versus Jushin Thunder Lager at a New Japan Pro Wrestling event in the 90's. Note the enthusiastic response throughout the match by the typically reserved Japanese audience.

A Funny Thing Happened While At Gamestop...

So I went to the Gamestop located inside in the Irvine Spectrum mall to pickup Dark Souls this past Friday night. A red-haired, bearded-bespectacled gentleman, whom I've seen at this location before (possibly the manager), rang me up.

I asked if it was possible for me to cancel my Modern Warfare 3 pre-order. He told me I'd have to do so at the Gamestop location which I pre-ordered the game from. Fair enough. But when he asked me why I decided to cancel my pre-order, things got a little fishy.

I told him that I had decided to get the game from Amazon because at the time they still had copies of the Hardened Edition left for pre-order and I have a Prime account, thus I'd get the game in my chubby little hands on release day. He then told me I should be careful about buying from Amazon because he had heard they were pulling the "limited edition" codes from copies of Battlefield 3. He didn't give a reason why they might be doing this nor did I press for one.

I got my game and left the store however, on the way out I got to thinking: wasn't Gamestop responsible for doing the EXACT same thing with new copies of Deus Ex that he was now claiming Amazon was doing to its customers?! The fucking balls on this guy.

A quick Google search for the phrase "Amazon removing Battlefield 3 limited edition code" turned up absolutely nothing on the first two pages (read: the pages with the most relevant links) and I haven't heard anything regarding Amazon removing codes from copies of Battlefield 3 on any of the major news sites all week.

I know business is business and he probably just wants to retain every customer he can for his particular location and corporate brand (everybody needs a job and I'm sure he enjoys his). But having to resort to baseless smear tactics in the face of a guy who spends most of his day on the internet (and looks it)? Lame.

And while we're on the subject

Anyone else out there think PJ Harvey cribbed the calvary call bugle horn part on "The Glorious Land" from Wesley Willis? Listen for yourself:

(listen to the whole song but the relevant part drops at 1:49)

I'm wasting my money, you're wasting your time (Re:this site)

That said: I heartily recommend "Drive."

The Top Ten Films of the Year...

...will not be compiled by me this year. Instead here are the three best films I saw in 2010. This list is not comprehensive but it is definitive.

1. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World



2. Inception



3. Exit Through the Gift Shop

A Legendary Meeting (My "Mick and Keith")

Dude, he shook my hand. Chris Frantz, drummer of Talking Heads and Tom Tom Club fame, shook my motherfucking hand. If you had told me earlier in the day as I did my laundry that later on that very evening I would be face to face with one half the membership of one of the most important bands-nay things, to have ever impacted my life, I wouldn't have believed it. But there I was, a mere hour ago from the time I'm writing this, at LA's Echoplex standing feet away from the single most badass of all female rock bassists, (and let me tell you, that's quite a lineage) Tina Weymouth and her equally amazing partner in crime, the aforementioned Mr. Frantz. And I couldn't have been a bigger nerd when my moment came. But you know what? I wouldn't have had it any other way.

Anyone who knows me well enough knows just how much Talking Heads meant, and continue to mean, to me. Growing up geek, the music of Byrne, Harrison, Frantz and Weymouth proved to me that you could be nerdy and cool; hip in fact. Their music gave me a cocksure swagger the most punishing punk, the most brutal metal could never achieve. This was music that made me feel proud to be on the on the outs, never quite in step with what's going on, what's happening (even if, for a brief moment in the 1980's, Talking Heads was in fact what was happening). It's for this that this little band from New York forever has my gratitude and admiration. I know some people would kill to meet Paul McCartney or Eric Clapton but as far as I'm concerned, on the night of October 10th, 2010, I just met my Mick and Keith.

As the group in front of me wrapped up its conversation with Weymouth and Frantz and I slid into place, I locked eyes with the demure Tina... and almost immediately began to fumble over my words.

"I can't tell you how big of an influence you've had on me over the years."

"Oh, are you a musician?"

"No, no, (not a very good one anyway). It was just an honor to see you perform."

"Who should I make it out to?"

"Uh... oh.. just Joe. Just Joe's fine. Please come back again soon!"

"We will!"

And like that, it was over.

As I drove back home, I put on "Naked," perhaps my least favorite Talking Heads album but one that I began to appreciate ever more so the closer I got to my apartment. I've always felt it was the band's most self conscious work and there was something about it that prevented me from embracing it the same way I embraced "Fear of Music" or "True Stories" on first listen. However, for some reason, none of that mattered anymore. Maybe it's because I just met two of the people who helped commit this music to disc but one thing's for sure: I'll never be able to listen to this album the same way again.

So here's to you Mr. and Mrs. Frantz, where ever you are, for showing a nervous kid from Orange County a certain modicum of kindness as he met two of his heroes and allowing him the chance to be all nerdy and stuff.