Punisher: War Zone (2008)

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It was spring break at school, so my brain (which already had one foot out the door anyway) had officially checked out. It was supposed to be my week to get caught up on work & readings that I hadn’t been able to get to during the last few weeks.

“supposed to be”

Instead, I’ve been playing a literal ton of Red Dead Redemption (if you were to apply a weight of ,say, 200 lbs. per hour that I played that game, it would add up to at least a full ton) and watching movies. Some movies have been great (Zizek!, The Three Colors Trilogy, The Music Room), some have been good (been re-watching the Alien movies in preparation for Prometheus), and some….well, …some have been Punisher: War Zone.

This is the way it was originally described to me that made me want to watch it: “You know that high point of every good action film, where the shit gets crazy, everything’s just crazy, the big build up and release at the end of the movie? Well, it starts there and just gets even crazier.”

Look closely. See that guy in the back? His head is gone.

That being said, I’m disappointed… Continue reading →

“All These Bands Suck”

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Working on an assignment for my archives class about the Minnesota Historical Society Archives, I spent a lot of time browsing at the library’s/archive’s website (http://sites.mnhs.org/library/). Looking at their digitized collections (including this fascinating collection of letters from the Christie Family during the Civil War), I was impressed to see they had a section of ephemera related to Minneapolis music. Hüsker Dü, The Replacements, Prince, Soul Asylum, and Babes In Toyland are all represented, even if it’s just a couple of photos. It’s the entry for The Time that I’m thrilled with, though.

See, I love The Time. Morris Day & The Time have always been the best/weirdest funky-ass, “in our own universe” band of all time. I mean, c’mon: “Jungle Love”, “The Bird“, “If the Kid Can’t Make You Come”….Ice Cream Castles is the second best pop album of 1984 (right behind some soundtrack by some other dude from Minneapolis).

So seeing that Karl Mueller (of Soul Asylum) donated a calendar/handbill from First Ave. for October 1983 to The Time collection (they played on the 4th.), and had (or someone had, at least) scribbled, in large letters:

“ALL THESE BANDS SUCK“

all across the front of the calendar..

well..

I el-oh-el’d.

PJ Harvey – Dress

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As much as I like PJ Harvey, nothing she does will be as good as this song. Maybe all of Rid of Me + “Ballad of the Soldier’s Wife” combined, but if so, it’s just barely.

Maybe it’s odd-timed-still-dancable drumming. Maybe it’s the way she hits that note at the beginning of the second verse (“Lonely all this lonelyeeeee”). Maybe it’s the total confidence that those early PJ Harvey songs had, where she’s got your number, called your bullshit, and she’ll have you on her terms. I’ll say it’s the drumming.

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Nada Surf – When I Was Young

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I really like the newest  Nada Surf album, which means that , somewhere in Los Angeles, my ex is silently smiling to herself, thinking “I told you so”, but has no idea why.

Ok, maybe not the whole album, but there are more good songs than bad, so it gets the thumbs up. The first few songs are good but nothing special. This track killed me, though. Just walked right up with a bag of maudlin and sacked me. Then it beat me with a bat. Which you wouldn’t expect from the band that did the song “Popular”, but that’s what  makes them so dangerous.