Yesterday, as I drove to work, the bane of my existence decided to show his evil face again. Yes, that’s right. CougarZN was back.
He taunted me as I drove, mocking me incessantly with that stupid little vanity tag, acting like he didn’t have a care in the world. I was content to let him go about his business, but as soon as I started speeding past him, spinning blades of death shot out of his wheels and began to edge toward my tires, a la the chariot race scene in Ben-Hur. Panicking, I started evasive maneuvers by flipping on the anti-grav lifters under the AwesomeBot’s (that would be my car) chassis.
Undaunted, CougarZN locked on with his tractor beam and dragged me across four lanes of traffic, taking out a dump truck, a station wagon, and a painting van with a tenth of Colombia’s population inside. After making international reparations, I moved to the offensive, prepping the rocket launchers and firing 14 missiles at the dastardly yellow car. He somehow managed to dodge all but one. Sadly the one hit simply took out his front and back windows, whilst also blowing out the side windows.
At this point, we had reached a split in the highway. He was right on my tail, anticipating my every move. With all my heavy munitions gone, I knew I had to pull a move that screamed desperation. But it also screamed kickass if I could survive to talk about it. I switched back to tire-bound travel, threw the car into neutral, jerked the emergency brake and yanked the steering wheel hard to the left. It was a patented Double-Helix Cobra Venom Strike move and CougarZN was left speeding down the highway in the opposite direction, shocked as I launched AwesomeBot into the path of oncoming traffic. It was a suicide decision, the move of a man who knows not the length of his life. And I lived to drive another day.
I love Jeremy Enigk. From Sunny Day Real Estate to The Fire Theft, his work on the United States of Leland to his two solo albums, I absolutely love everything that he has done. His music, his voice…his art speaks to me in a way that few other artists do. April and I had the privilege of seeing him perform solo last year at Tremont and it was incredible. With only a guitar or a piano, he managed to exude more passion and fire than I’ve seen in bands of four or five members.
So why all the Enigk-fanboying today? Well, I just found out that he’s releasing another solo album in just over a month…the cover of which you see above. Now this is cause for celebration for many reasons. First off, news of new Enigk music is always a good time for the happy happy joy joy dance. But even more significantly, the gap between his first solo album and the second (released last year) was 10 stinkin’ years. And now we get a new one a mere year later? Fantastic. Given the title and the similarity in style of this artwork with that of “World Waits,” I’d be willing to bet that this might be a collection of b-sides and other odds and sods. But I don’t care one way or another. It’s new Jeremy Enigk. It makes me happy.
Why the hell does Kentucky Fried Chicken use “Sweet Home Alabama” as its theme song in commercials?
By the way, last week was the House of Hunt’s first birthday. Yippee-ki-yay and such. Here’s to another year of random thought, useless ponderings, and unwanted opinions. And I’m just talking about the comments from all of you guys.
ZING!!
The intrepid crew of our community group (minus a few folks…we missed you!) went to see Transformers last night at an advance screening. Holy crap. It. was. AWESOME.
I went in with fairly low expectations, so that might have helped. I grew up with Transformers (and Go-bots, M.A.S.K., G.I. Joe, Star Wars, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles…basically all of the sweet toys of the 80’s), but I haven’t been following this film with a ton of fervor or viewing it as the Holy Grail movie of the summer (that’ll be next year’s The Dark Knight). And honestly, with Michael Bay at the helm, I knew what to expect, at least to a certain extent: loud, boisterious, over-the-top movie-going.
And that’s exactly what we got. This is like Independence Day, hopped up on Jolt, Red Bull, Sour Patch Kids, Cadbury Creme Eggs, and Reese’s Peanut Butter Puffs cereal. The special effects were absolutely gorgeous. ILM has once again shown the industry what it is capable of doing. The cast was solid enough. I’m excited to see how Shia LaBeouf does in the new Indiana Jones movie. He was very funny and believable in this as an everyman sort of teenager. Of course, the stars of the show were the robots and they were phenomenal. Again, ILM’s work on making them move and live and breathe was fantastic.
So yes. Go see Transformers. Go see it with the right expectations and enjoy the ride. It’s a fun one, that doesn’t take itself too seriously. You’ll have a blast.
.jpg)
