Saturday, June 13, 2009

Leaving the festival. Surprisingly I only saw one sitar all day.
I think this is going to be my last band of the night. Susu is on. Not overly impressed but the drummer is actually really good
The lead singer is now throwing off a Conor Oberst vibe. They have a female singer which wins me over a little. They should use her more
I think I'm seeing The Boy Bathing at Bar Matchless. They're decent although the lead singer is giving off a hint of douchey-ness. It might just be his hair
Studio B is a sweet venue. A nerd rock band is coming on next I think. We're not sticking around. Going to check someplace else out
Boo to the Heineken open bar. Stopped giving free beer with 40 minutes left. It said 5-8pm. Apparantly they only had 150 beers to give away. I don't see how that's our problem.
Heineken Open Bar...my group makes up more than half the population
Just saw Anamanaguchi. I would classify them as video game rock. Checked to see if the baseball game was on...not surprisingly soccer was instead
At Spike Hill checking out 8 NYC bands You Need To Hear showcase. Brooklyn is a cool scene. I should have done more shit like this in my 20s.
Just got to Brooklyn. Got our badges and right away we were directed to free Heineken. This is promising.

Northside Festival

I'm headed to Brooklyn today for the Northside Festival. There is only a handful of bands that I've ever heard of but I'm using this as an opportunity to go check out some live music and also as an excuse to go check out the area. I've only been to McCarren Park pool over there so it gives me a chance to explore it.

Once again I'll give mobile blogging a shot.

Monday, June 1, 2009

Star Trek?

I never wanted to give Star Trek a chance. Growing up as a Star Wars guy I felt there was a stigma attached to being a Trekkie. I wanted to no part of it and in no way did I ever imagine myself sitting in a movie theater waiting for a Star Trek movie to begin.

Funny what a film maker I trust and a kick ass trailer will do. J.J. Abrams could remake the First Wives Club and I'd at least entertain the thought of seeing it.

Being that I don't have any Star Trek fans in my group of friends, the only Star Trek knowledge I had going in is what has seeped into popular culture. And honestly, I think that enhanced my enjoyment of the experience. I didn't have myself or anyone else saying how the originals were better or I wasn't looking for references to "old" Star Trek-isms. The only part it probably hurt was during a scene like where the Enterprise comes in to view for the first time. The reveal shot was amazing looking and everything but emotionally it didn't do anything for me since I've only been invested in the Enterprise for about ten minutes at that point.

The good:
-I'll go as far as to say that the cast was awesome. The only thing that I've ever seen Chris Pine in was some movie where he was unlucky and Lindsey Lohan was lucky and they kiss for some reason and wouldn't you know it...their luck changes. So kudos to him for being able to reverse my opinion on him. I can't give too much credit to anyone casting for casting Zachary Quinto as Spock. It had to be the most obvious casting choice in Hollywood history (maybe outside Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison). And all the others: Simon Pegg, John Cho, Zoe Saldana etc were all more than serviceable.

-For actually including Leonard Nimoy in the movie in a way that worked. It didn't come off as pandering to old school Trekkies. Forcing him in the movie for the sake of having him in the movie could have backfired massively

The bad:
-Not a great villain. Eric Bana was fine with what he had to do but as an overall villain, for a big movie, I would have liked something more.

Overall I really enjoyed it. It was a fun two hours and I'd definitely continue on with some sequels. Was it enough for me to go back and start watching Season 1 of Star Trek or the first Star Trek movie? Absolutely not, I'm happy starting from here.

Live long and-----

I'm not quite there...yet.