This weather shit is lame....

Bring on those debates! Remember, this Thursday at 9PM is the first of three debates! Kick his gramatically-challenged ass, Kerry! Like you did with Wald in 1996!



Enough with the fucking hurricanes, Mother Nature! Look, let's get on with autumn and put this crazy crap behind us! The first official day of autumn was this week! So let's stop it! I just hope this Tropical Storm Jeanne doesn't harm us in any way.

This isn't funny at all.

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/ftp/graphics/AT11/refresh/AL1104W5+GIF/260341W5.gif


I bought The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Presents America (The Book): A Democracy Guide To Inaction. It's very funny. Go seek it out. I also picked up a horror anthology paperback, From The Borderlands. It features a short story by Stephen King called Stationary Bike.



Green Day's new anthemic album, American Idiot, is epic, bold, and uncategorical in every way, shape, and form. From the brash sneer of "Jesus Of Suburbia" to the timely and politically charged "Holiday", it's smart, brilliantly conceived rock in its purest and best form. And it'll make for one hell of a movie, some day. It's a concept album, you see. When Billie Joe Armstrong says, "I beg to dream and differ/From the hollow lies/This is the dawning of the rest of our lives/On Holiday", you know you're dealing with loftier subjects than homeroom crushes and it makes those lesser-rans who followed in Green Day's path (blink-182, Good Charlotte) seem like the faux mouth imitators they are. American Idiot is a good job all around from the boys, excuse me, men from Berekeley.

I fucked up at work the other day while pricing some movies and got written up. My mistake pissed me off to no end, and it still does. I need to clear my head and pay closer attention to what I'm doing. Everytime I think I'm improving, I fuck up again. It's appalling and I know I can do better and I will. I must. I enjoy my job and I want to do my very best at all times and these incidents in the past have made me realize to focus on every endeavor I undertake.

Shhh...do you hear that? It's the Firefly DVD set begging me to finish it. I know I need to, but then I fear I'll get all sad after I've viewed the supplements and heard the commentaries. At least until the movie version, Serenity, hits theatres next April.

http://www.serenitymovie.com
http://www.fireflyfans.net

Also waiting for me on TiVo is the Smallville season premiere, the Veronica Mars series premiere, the Joan of Arcadia season premiere, and the first two episodes of Jack & Bobby. This adds to the long-in-need-of-viewing USA miniseries The 4400 and Traffic The Miniseries. I finally deleted Wonderfalls. CBS's Clubhouse debuts tonight and it looks to be just the thing for those of us who are saacharin-deprived.

For such a movie geek, my lame-ass spends far too much time on here and not enough watch the criminally insane amount of movies I've amassed. It's tre uncool. Silly Jason, go watch them sometime! That's what they're there for. I'm weird like that. Le sigh.

Remember, this October... http://www.horrorchannel.com

Also, for a creepy unofficial website for the upcoming horror movie Saw (it positions itself as the killer's website, with a message board frequented by The Jigsaw Killer of the movie, who posts in cryptic talk) - http://www.howfuckedup.net

So Nader the egocentric will be on Florida's ballot now that Jeb "Haven't Met An Election I Didn't Help Fix" Bush overstepped his boundaries. Our good old ally in the trenches, Daily Kos, has put this whole Nader thing into perspective at

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/9/24/15123/0947

I'm a little behind but the season finale of Entourage was well-written and hilarious. The Scarlett Johansson cameo at the end was priceless. I can't wait for this series to return and urge you to watch it if you haven't. Hopefully a DVD release isn't that far off.

http://www.hbo.com/entourage

I need to catch up with Dead Like Me on OnDemand and will shortly.

http://www.sho.com/deadlikeme

Air America will be landing in San Francisco this week, with new stations slated in the coming weeks.

http://www.airamericaradio.com

Well, after stunting with bizarre animal, human, and electronic noises, Cumulus's lame-duck Urban Adult Contemporary V103.9 - Savannah's Soul and Inspiration Station! flipped on Friday to Oldies as Cool 103.9 - Good Times & Great Oldies! Yawn. Triad's heritage Oldies station, Oldies 98.3, does gangbusters, so I don't see Cumulus's reasoning. However, their morning guy, Hoyle Dempsey, is apparently a radio legend. He worked at the legendary Top 40 WAPE in Jacksonville (The Big Ape) for over 30 years. So it'll be interesting to see how this plays out. No website for Cool 103.9 just yet.

Remember for all of the corrections to the conservative misinformation out there, head over to http://www.mediamatters.org

Bill O'Reilly will have the Liar on (Bush, I mean) this week. He'll probably be conducting the interview from his lap, with sweet nuzzling and cooing throughout.

And here's hoping Shaun Of The Dead opens here this weekend.

http://www.shaunofthedeadmovie.com

USA Network has their 21st-century retelling of Frankenstein coming up on October 10th. It was written by Dean Koontz and paints Frankenstein as the monster. I'll be watching because Parker Posey is the lead actress.

http://www.usanetwork.com/frankenstein

Meanwhile Hallmark Channel has their own Frankenstein set to debut October 5th. The wonderful Julie Delpy is in this one, albeit as Dr. Frankenstein's mother.

http://www.hallmarkchannel.com

I'm going to tout Matt Caracappa's site X-Entertainment again. I did it earlier on on this blog, but now it's all loaded with a seasonal Halloween layout. It's your one-stop shop for '80s kitsch, cheesy movie reviews, candy reviews, lame board games from 1983 reviews, and alot more. Right now he's doing his annual daily Halloween-themed food item/Halloween prop/Halloween-theme movie review. There may be a new article in there as well. All of this and more can be found (as well as hours upon hours spent) at http://www.x-entertainment.com

Well, I've got to go clean up the kitchen (maybe that was the dishwasher calling me after all). Hopefully our power will stay on throughout this whole Tropical Storm Jeanne ordeal and I'll blog later. I'll try not to wait a week again. Have a good one!

Jason

Fuck The Sopranos...

...and The West Wing and Frasier and Friends and Sex and the City and all of those other bullshit shows who don't deserve a goddamn thing and get nominated over and over and over and over again each FUCKING year at the Emmys. It's insipid banality! Give it to Amber Tamblyn for her terrific work in Joan of Arcadia, hell even Jennifer Garner for Alias. At least Arrested Development has won two Emmys ("Best Writing", "Best Directing"), the same for the excellent, dead-on comedic gold that *IS* The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. I hope Arrested Development wins Best Comedy Series, but lameness permeates the Emmys every year so they won't. But hopefully the vast critical acclaim and two Emmy wins tonight will give FOX pause and the show will be with us for many years to come. It is without a doubt the funniest series on television, bar none.

*YAWN* Oh sorry, Sarah Jessica Parker just won an Emmy. I was so enamored my jaw unhinged, I guess.

Anyway, let's see what's going on, shall we?

Macaulay Culkin Arrested

http://tinyurl.com/4ylpy


My mother and I went out to eat at the just-opened-in-Savannah Mall Texas Roadhouse last week; basically a cheaper version of Logan's Roadhouse. Pretty damn good food. And Target opens on October 5th! Yay! A few days later, we ate at go fish, a local semi-classy seafood restaurant. We both had the tilappia. It was encrusted with a breading that made it not taste like fish and it was topped with sliced strawberries, served on the side with a wonderful Frangelico sauce. Now we don't eat out alot so don't go thinking that we're nomadic restaurant-goers. But the food was enticing and terrific.

I saw Before Sunset Thursday and Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow tonight. Before Sunset was wonderful, a beautiful, lyrical poem that expands on the original film and yet manages to be its own entity. Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow was a total and utter blast. It makes you feel like you're ten years old again and fills you with an incredible sense of wonder. Halfway through you go, "Wait a minute! These sets are CGI!" At least if you're not a cynic you will. It was a breathtaking adventure and a truly original movie. If you have any imagination and love a good thrill-ride, then please go see this movie. Four stars all the way.

TV unveils its Fall 2004 season a bit more this week:

Monday

CBS premieres the Jason Alexander-starrer Listen Up

UPN premieres the sitcom Second Time Around

Tuesday

ABC premieres the sitcom Rodney

UPN premieres the dramedy Veronica Mars (which I'm looking forward to)

Wednesday

ABC premieres the J.J. Abrams (Alias) series Lost

The WB premieres The Mountain

My dilemma: Should I TiVo Smallville's season premiere or Lost? Decisions, decisions...

Thursday

Nothing

Friday

ABC premieres the Mel Gibson-produced sitcom Complete Savages

And Joan of Arcadia returns for its second season! I'm looking forward to seeing how Grace and Joan's brother are dealing with their new relationship.

Other series I'm looking forward to: FOX's House (about a doctor and his staff of dysfunctional aides), Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane's American Dad, NBC's thriller with Patricial Arquette, Medium. FOX's The Inside and Jonny Zero seem cool and there are a few others I've got my eye on.

*AWESOME* Emmy news!!! Arrested Development won "Outstanding Comedy Series"!!! Take that, overhyped lameness like Will & Grace and Sex and the City!!!!!

This week's DVD releases include Mean Girls starring the breathtaking Lindsay Lohan (which the brilliant Tina Fey of SNL fame wrote), Jim Jarmusch's indie film Coffee And Cigarettes (which I need to watch the screener DVD of soon), and the DVD premiere of the butchered Star Wars Trilogy. Thanks but no thanks, Bearded Flannel Man! I'll keep my 1995 THX-remastered VHS versions! Ass...

This weekend at the cinemas, Julianne Moore struggles to figure out why everyone around her says that she has no son and why soon after this startling revelation even her husband cannot remember her. The movie is The Forgotten and I hope it's a great start to the fall movie season. And then there's this little gem from the UK that I've been dying (no pun intended) to see...



I CANNOT WAIT for this movie! This will be the first release by Rogue Pictures, the new genre arm of Universal's indie arm Focus Features. (http://www.focusfeatures.com) Their second release will be another film I'm looking forward to, Seed Of Chucky. How can you not like these movies? And John Waters plays a sleazy paparazzi? C'mon, you know you're there!

Shaun Of The Dead - http://www.shaunofthedeadmovie.com

Seed Of Chucky - http://www.seedofchuckymovie.com

October 1st brings us David O. Russell (Three Kings)'s I Heart Huckabees. It stars Jude Law (who's in 75 movie this fall and winter), Mark Wahlberg, Jason Schwartzmann, Naomi Watts, Lily Tomlin, and Dustin Hoffman. It's a darkly comedic tale about existentialism and thus will only be enjoyed by seven people like myself. But I can't wait.

The date also sees the release of DreamWorks Animation's Shark Tale. It looks funny.

John Travolta and Joaquin Phoenix in Touchstone's Ladder 49 looks more like a rental for me.

October 8th

Taxi - a remake of a very popular comedic French action film. Luc Besson had his hand in the original and the only reason I'm interested is because Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant wrote it. If you've never seen MTV's late, lamented, hilarious sketch comedy show from '94,
The State, then by all means head over to http://www.statemedia.net and educate yo ass!

Stage Beauty stars Claire Danes and Billy Crudup. It only opens in New York but it looks interesting.

October 15th

Team America: World Police is more inspired lunacy from the creators of South Park. It's a political satire, an action movie satire, and it's all filmed with marionette puppets. I'm looking forward to it...wow! a liberal that can laugh at jokes aimed at his viewpoint! Amazing! (A mustard-stained Michael Moore puppet is but one of the celebs they poke fun at.)

The Final Cut stars Robin Williams. Set in a time when people can opt to receive an implant which will record their entire lives, Alan Hakman (Williams) is a "cutter" -- a video editor who compiles the memories of the deceased. On his latest assignment, he finds information about his own life that puts him in danger. Sounds interesting and I'm glad he's still in drama mode. The last thing we need is more comedies from him.

Eulogy (limited release) - Three generations of a wacky family come together for the funeral of their patriarch (Torn), whereupon a laundry list of secrets and lies comes to the surface.

Stephen King's Riding The Bullet (limited release) - October 31, 1969: College student Alan Parker (Jackson) looks to hitch a ride to go see his dying mother (Hershey) in the hospital. A '58 Plymouth Fury, driven by a stranger with a link to Parker's youth, stops to pick him up.

October 22nd

Surviving Christmas - Depressed record exec Drew Lathem (Affleck), recently dumped by his girl just before Christmas, returns to his family home and asks the family who now lives there to take him in for the holidays. Little does he know that the family's mental state is much more unstable than his ... Production problems aside, I hope this is a black comedy for the holidays. I fear that Christmas With The Kranks will be as lame and watered down as it seems from its inital trailer, but perfect for viewing on tbs.

The Grudge - An American nurse (Gellar) living and working in Tokyo is exposed to a mystery virus, one that locks a person in a powerful rage before claiming their life and spreading to another victim. This remake of the popular Japanese horror film Ju-On: The Grudge (complete with the same director) looks spooky enough and this will be Sarah Michelle Gellar's first lead film role. With Sam Raimi producing, I'm eager to see what's creeping about. However, I'd like to see the original first. Sorry, just a habit of mine.

Alfie - Jude Law takes on Michael Caine's iconic role as a ladies man. The dapper bachelor has the single women of New York all in a tither but his playboy days may be behind him when one of his many girlfriends winds up pregnant. Once again, I'd like to see the original. Charles Shyer makes his big-budget return to the cinemas and we'll see if he can surpass the haul his ex-wife (Nancy Meyers) got for What Women Want.

The Machinist - Head on over to http://www.themachinistmovie.com. Take a look at the trailer. Be amazed at Christian Bale's weight loss for this role. Prepare for a creepy night at the movies.

Undertow - If you're tired of lame movies about love and romance, then by all means check out David Gordon Green's All The Real Girls. It is a breathless, warm, cold, utterly aching film with amazing work by Zooey Deschanel. Green returns with this set-in-the-South tale (filmed right here in Savannah) about two brothers fleeing their crazy uncle. Plus Shiri Appleby!

October 29th

Saw - If you love horror movies, get your tickets promptly. Advance word is this is an utterly fucked-up movie: With a dead body laying between them, two men (Leigh Whannell and Cary Elwes) wake up in the secure lair of a serial killer who's been nicknamed "Jigsaw" by the police because of his unusual calling card. Danny Glover co-stars as a beleaguered detective. Check out the trailers at http://www.apple.com/trailers or visit the official website (I hate the official film websites that only consist of "click here for more Shockwave and Flash animation"; give me *some* substance! I got halfway through and couldn't advance any further! If anyone has any details, let me know!) at http://www.sawmovie.com

And remember, if you need any Firefly or Serenity goodness, then surf on over to http://www.serenitymovie.com or http://www.fireflyfans.net. You'll be glad you did.

Alright, time to hit the hay in a little bit. Nite all and hopefully work won't be too taxing in the A.M.....

Jason

The blameless vestal's lot...

I finally saw Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind today and am glad that Charlie Kaufman reworked the beginning and ending from what I'd read in an earlier script two years ago. It's an excellent movie and further amplified the fact that love is wonderful. Too bad that's not in the cards for me, but so it goes, I guess...

Head on over to www.themoviebox.net for a promo reel of the movie version of Frank Miller's graphic novel(s) Sin City. Holy shit, wake the kids! I've never read them but Robert Rodriguez and Frank himself directed (Tarantino did one segment for a dollar, by the way) and it looks great.

Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow opens Friday. I can't wait to see what first-time director Kerry Conran has developed, both technologically and artistically. The entire movie was shot on blue screens and was devised by him. It took him four years to develop the software. And he's only two years older than me! It looks like a blast and I'm excited. Sir Laurence Olivier's in it, for crying out loud!

Wimbledon looks charming. Not only does it have Kirsten Dunst in it, but those lovely UK chaps at Working Title are behind it (they gave us Love Actually and Bridget Jones's Diary) so I'm intrigued. Also, stop saying "chick flick". I'm a guy and I can see what I want. Don't presume just because of my gender I'll not like a film. That's just wrong-headed and off. I'm sorry if the lunkhead you're seeing or are married to will only rent shot-in-Bulgaria direct-to-video Steven Seagal flicks, but that's not me so don't equate me with Jarvis T. Chucklehead over there, okay? Thanks a million.

Tomorrow I cash my check and see Before Sunset, dammit! I'll post a review shortly thereafter.

On the DVD front, I'll most likely pick up The Punisher tomorrow.

I want to get the book Fall On Your Knees. Google it. Jewel Staite of Firefly and Serenity fame proclaimed it, "the best book *ever*! Think I'll give it a whirl. I also need to pick up A Very Long Engagement. It's about a girl delving into her lover's untimely death in WWII France and how she soon begins to believe he may not be dead after all. Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amelie) has directed the film version of this, starring Audrey Tautou from Amelie. It'll be released by Warner Independent Pictures this winter. http://wip.warnerbros.com I need to read more. Maybe that'll be my New Year's Resolution...hmmm...

Well I need to wrap this up. Good night all and I'll be back later with more thrilling minutae...

Jason

Movies, movies, movies!

Sorry for the in-between time. I just didn't feel like blogging. Not like there's a devoted fan base salivating for my next blog. I need to pick up The Punisher, Jersey Girl, and Clerks. X 10th Anniversary 3 Disc Special Edition sometime soon...perhaps this weekend. I watched Starsky and Hutch and Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning last night. Starsky had its moments. Ginger was pretty good, but not as good as its predecessor, Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed. Tonight I shall sup on Alex Proyas's quirky rock band comedy Garage Days. Anything from the man that directed The Crow, Dark City, and yes the I-enjoyed-it I, Robot is worth my attention. The official website is at http://www.foxsearchlight.com/garagedays



And in the "YES! YES! YES!" dept., Regal Entertainment Group's Savannah 10 will start showing the following movie this Friday!



Head on over to the official website at http://www.beforesunset.com for all your indie romance film needs.

And here in Savannah last week, two things in the radio world happened: Cumulus Broadcasting's lame-duck schizophrenic Hot Adult Contemporary WZAT-FM ("Z102 - Savannah's Best Variety") flipped back to the format it failed at in 2001, Top 40, as "Z102 - All The Hits!" And if you guessed it sounds stale and boring, you're right! Lame website ahead : http://www.wzat.com

Meanwhile Triad Broadcasting, known locally as Adventure Radio Group, flipped their low-rated '80s station WGZO-FM "Star 103.1 - The '80s Channel" to Classic Hits as "103.1 The Drive - The Music You Grew Up With" - http://www.1031thedrive.com This was done to garner listeners from Clear Channel's Soft Adult Contemporary WYKZ-FM ("98.7 The River") and Thoroughbred Broadcasting's Rock Adult Contemporary WRHQ-FM "Quality Rock Q105.3" as both stations share similar playlists, but aren't as focused on certain hits.

The Classic Hits format is basically The Beatles, ZZ Top, Genesis, Van Halen, Led Zeppelin, and alot of other rock-tinged songs of the era from the '60s, '70s, and '80s. It's not classic rock as it spins many slower songs also. This format doesn't appeal to me in the slightest, but I can see why they chose it, and applaud their wise decision. (It'll also hopefully peel some people away from Cumulus's godawful Classic Rock station I95 which is as deep fried as radio gets.) Now all we need is a decent alternative station and I'll be happy. But our also-owned-by-Triad Adult Album Alternative station, Modern Music - Wave 104.9, - http://www.wave1049.com is wonderful, so I'm content.

Alright enough of my blather about local stuff. Here we go...



Ms. Kelley will be on NBC's "Today" Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of next week. Her new book took five years to write and mentions, among other things, how "W" snorted coke at Camp David when his father was president. There are many other skeletons in the Bush family closet and Ms. Kelley allegedly lets them loose. She extensively interviewed wayward Bush brother Neil's ex-wife Sharon and the details are sure to be tawdry and excellent. I can't wait to pick this one up.

Bill Maher's on Conan tonight; hope his segment is good. Neve Campbell was on last night looking like a million bucks. Her new movie is James Toback's When Will I Be Loved? and it features her first explicit nude and sex scenes. The trailer's at http://www.apple.com/trailers

Work today was pretty decent. A girl came in wanting to exchange her copy of Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen. She had a receipt but the item was purchased at a Blockbuster in Alexandria, VA. Her brother had mailed it to her as a birthday present. We told her it's company policy not to exchange titles from other stores. Long story short, she had the manager of that video store call us. It was all resolved amicably, at least with the VA manager. We're not corporate and they are. She'll have to drive to either Jacksonville or Atlanta to make her DVD exchange.

I'm hoping that the rumored TiVo/Netflix partnership is true. Download my Netflix movies on my TiVo?! Hell yeah!

Oh, and the condensed version of Air America Radio's "The Al Franken Show" debuted last night at 11:30PM ET on sundance channel. We need to get it back as I'm anxious to see what the show sounds like on TV (get it? ah, forget it...). Check out http://www.sundancechannel.com for more info.

Alright, I'm off to wander aimlessly through the Internet and then maybe my TiVo. Afterwards perhaps I'll enjoy a nightcap of "Firefly". In any case, enjoy the night and I'll be back later...

Jason