Paramore

The latest musical ensemble that has found its way to me is the band Paramore. I don't listen to the radio or watch MTV but apparently they are getting pretty big. That's a shame for me but awesome for them of course. I like having those bands no one has ever heard of like they're your own little pet, but oh well. Needless to say they have been playing non stop on a loop on my iPod for the past week. Catchy as all hell with a mix of tempos fronted by a singer with an amazing voice. They have 2 albums out, the latest with 3 singles already and a few music videos to boot. If you haven't listened to them check them out.

Review: Dan In Real Life

Last night I watched Dan In Real Life starring Steve Carell. It's about a widower (Steve/Dan) trying to find love all while trying to raise 3 girls. It also stars Dane Cook as Dan's brother Mitch. So Dan drives home to his parent's house for the annual family get together and we soon realize that his entire family gets on his case to move on and find a new woman in his life. Of course Dan is rather shy and wants to focus on raising his daughters who subsequently hate his guts at the moment. One morning Dan goes to the local bookshop to get a paper and meets Marie. They of course hit it off right away and spend the morning together talking, laughing, and at one point even cry together. But as fate would have it, Dan realizes Marie has a boyfriend and she must leave. Dan convinces her to give him his number and they part ways. Dan comes home and shares the news with his family and then down the stairs walks Marie and stands by Mitch's side. Cue the awkward silence.... No one knows that Marie is the woman Dan met that morning and so ensues a series of flirting, close calls, and sneaking around. In in the end Marie leaves Mitch, Mitch punches Dan and Dan and Marie get married. The end.

Most romantic comedies are good for a one time sit down (with many exceptions) and Dan In Real Life would fall in that category. The only thing that sold this movie was Steve Carell, the king of sympathy and hilarity. If anyone else starred in this movie, I would have never watched it. Dane Cook, while a hilarious comic, just ain't a leading actor.

Worth buying? No.
Worth downloading? Yes, if you love Steve Carell.

Laptop

Recently I treated myself to a new laptop. The ASUS G1S-B2. This thing is packing an Intel Core2Duo T7700 @ 2.4ghz with 3 gigs of ram and sporting an nVidia geforce 8600m GT video card for gaming. All that power is helping me type this post at the moment. I still use my custom built tower for newer games. It's a little weaker in the processing power but makes up for it with a monster video card - the 8800GTX. The 9800GTX just came out last week, but it's not above and beyond the 8800, so it's got a few years left in it I think. Crysis is the only game it can't max out, but then again no card can. I've been playing mostly Steam games such as Half Life 2 and Sin: Episodes since you don't need a disc to play. It runs off the hard drive. My second or maybe even 3rd run through of those games are just as fun as the first time. I'm starting to play through Episode 1 with developer commentary on and it's very interesting. Half Life is definitely one of my favorite game franchises. I would love to see a movie made but at the same time I don't think it would work. For one, Gordon Freeman never talks and with my luck some douche bag director like Uwe Boll would develop it.

Bad Religion

Saturday night I saw Bad Religion at the House of Blues. Such a good show. I've only seen them one time before and they were one of many bands on the bill that night and I was on the grass about 2 miles away with a bunch of pot smoking assholes. Saturday night I was about 50 feet away...with a bunch of pot smoking assholes. Despite that I had an awesome night. They played a mix of songs going all the way back to their album Suffer. My favorite song off their current album is The New Dark Ages tied with Dearly Beloved. Pick it up if you get a chance. Gregg Graffin has got to be one of my favorite lyricists. Either he walks around with a dictionary or he is just that smart.

Scoopy The Clown

So it was brought to my attention that the ice cream cone company that simultaneously made my childhood great and at the same time terrified me to my very core has come out with a limited edition Scoopy The Clown Doll. What the hell? Who would buy this thing? It's 12" tall and comes with coupons for 3 free sessions of therapy.