Wednesday, December 30, 2009

JSBX

A dear friend recommended that the Music Cricket tries listening to the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion (JSBX) with the warning, “Not for Purists” ...interesting... As that tends to go, that means I downloaded a whole slew of their albums and started at the beginning. I heard the name before, I think (although it sounds a bit like the Spencer Davis Group) ... but never checked them out... This is “Blues” in as much as it revives Iggy Pop & The Stooges, and toys with clichés of the genre. Other than that, their earliest output is a supercharged, hyperactive explosion of ironic post-modern, alternative punk rock. I guess they’ve influenced The White Stripes and The Von Buddies. Later they drift more toward less incoherent catchy tunes (adding more textures to their bass-less trio, such as strings, horns and organ), like the funky dance territory of Beck, which I find much less appealing, while sometimes shifting toward the Stereolab of Emperor Tomato Ketchup, which I can appreciate better. When I listen to Thrash Metal, I know instantly weather I like a song or not. With this stuff, I really have to make an effort ... and I doubt that repeated listening will pay off. Overall I guess this is not very much my cup o’ tea ... or my cup o’ soup ... but not awful either. If there were room left on my iPod I’d dump it in there, but my 60GBs are stuffed to the gill as it is...

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Dollhouse 2x07

Over the course of The Dollhouse series so far our main star Echo (Eliza Dushku) has gradually become more aware of her past, despite her blank-wiped mind after each mission she performed as an operative. Now she has escaped the clutches of the Rossum Corporation, without the GPS tracing device in her neck, utterly lost in her doll-state on the streets of D.C. or even beyond... Her handler Paul Ballard is still AWOL... and we’re left wondering what happened to that wickedly cute, evil doctor Bennet Halverson, or the moralizing white knight with a Rossum brain imprint, Senator Perrin... Echo has in fact made it all the way to Texas, without money or anything else except the clothes on her back.

Months have passed now... The L.A. Dollhouse is now run by Harding, someone above Adele DeWitt ... and Echo has somehow managed to get a job at a hospital... Like, what? If that’s not enough, she’s allowed to check on an imprisoned illegal immigrant, who she met in a supermarket before she got arrested... Wanna know how she’s pulling this off? Ballard has been training her to gain access to her former imprints! Too bad we get a lot of that sci-fi mumbo jumbo that’s supposed to enlighten us how we’re about to head towards a neurological Armageddon with Topher’s latest portable gadget that can wipe imprints remotely. Fortunately it is beautiful Sierra (Dichen Lachman) who does the mumbo jumbo, and I can watch her without sound! Meanwhile the L.A. Dollhouse has turned into a whorehouse for the filthy rich (providing Dolls on romantic engagements)... and Harding is proud like a boy to announce the grand opening of the Dubai Dollhouse... Yuck, I don’t want to even think about Sierra going there...

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Early 80's Thrash

I guess your Music Cricket has a deep emotional bond with Thrash Metal. I’ve already shared some of my thoughts on Slayer and Sepultura... But when you talk Thrash, you have to begin with Metallica and the other San Francisco Bay Thrashers. (BTW: have you heard the news that Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax are going to tour together next year for the first time since ever?) When I first heard Metallica (back in 1983) with my best buddies, Sander and Yuri, I was blown away. I loved the raw aggression which provided a terrific release for all my pent up stress and frustration. As I said, I thought that Slayer was a tad too extreme for me at the time. And I soon lost interest in Heavy Metal altogether. Only after I regained that interest did I pay any attention to the other bands in the genre.

You don’t have to be a Metalhead to know that Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine was once in Metallica, but got thrown out in favor of Kirk Hammett (ex-Exodus). Everyone who saw Some Kind of Monster remembers the teary-eyed reunion when Mustaine admits being jealous of Metallica’s fame. But all the Bay Thrashers have, at one point or another, borrowed members from each other. I won’t say I dislike Megadeth, but I’ve never gotten used to Mustaine’s voice ... and I find much of their output after the eighties overly mainstream.

Of the Big Four Thrash Metal bands, Anthrax is the only one not from the SF Bay Area. I like most of their albums, certainly the earlier stuff with singer Joey Belladona. I respect their crossover attitude combining Hardcore Punk elements and even Hip-Hop Rap (even if that means we have Anthrax to blame for Nü Metal crap like KoЯn, Limp Bizkit, Soil, Staind, and whatnot). Trailing somewhat behind the Big Four, are fellow Bay Thrashers Exodus and Testament (both good straightforward Thrash in their early careers and honestly better now than any of the Big Four), as well as the skate-punk crossover Suicidal Tendencies. There was also a Canadian Metal Scene (believe it or not), including Anvil (remember when we saw that movie?), Exciter, Voivod, and Annihilator. Only recently did I finally listen to the classic Teutonic Thrash album Agent Orange by Sodom. Man, what a tremendous album! That’s enough thrash for now.

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Dollhouse 2x06

So, what happened to Echo and Senator Perrin, his wife Cindy, agent Ballard and the whole Dollhouse? Well, apparently Cindy has been Perrin’s handler. The Senator’s memory has been programmed to pass through legislation behind the façade of an ethical neuroscience subcommittee that will benefit the Rossum Corporation. Now Cindy has brought Echo and Perrin to her own Dollhouse in D.C., so that their memory can be reprogrammed by the wickedly charming Bennet Halverson (played by actress Summer Glau, who somehow reminds me of my ex-girlfriend – the forehead, the lips, and that she likes pigs, Bennet that is, not Summer – but I’m probably just seeing things...) It’s getting pretty exciting and I finally feel that much of the fast ‘n’ furious, but ultimately superficial sci-fi babble, is beginning to pay off – and I admit that all the attractive, scantily clad women are a guilty pleasure, too.

That lovely, sick, little evil doctor, slash brain programmer Bennet tortures Echo by showing how they’ve met before... We only get to see glimpses, but she’s imprinted her own memory onto Echo’s mind. Meanwhile Adele DeWitt (the head of the L.A. Dollhouse) and her programmer Topher flew into D.C. to retrieve Echo, which required some forceful convincing on Adele’s part, but then Senator Perrin runs away with Echo before Topher can get to her... Echo and Perrin cut out each other’s GPS retrieval chips in their neck (yeah, I know, more sci-fi babble). Now, to trace and disable the fugitive actives, Bennet suggest readjusting Topher’s gizmo from last week ... and this new device will lead us one step closer to the neurological Armageddon of remote brain wipes we witnessed in the glimpse into the future (the Epitaph episode appended to Season One). That sly witch doctor then uses the device to turn Perrin into an assassin, hoping to get rid of Echo. In the end he kills Cindy, chairs the subcommittee’s hearing and clears the Rossum Corporation of the accusations of unethical practices. Not exactly as intended ... or was it?

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Dollhouse 2x05

Have you been waiting impatiently for the Dollhouse to return? I know I have! Fast girls and furious action, flimsy plots and pretended female empowerment, sci-fi nerdery and purported ethical issues – what more can a modern guy ask for? Yay! Well, Senator Daniel Perrin is giving a press conference accusing the Rossum Corporation (that runs the various Dollhouses around the globe) of ethical maleficence, and is hoping to use Madeline (the former active called November) as a witness. She used to have a relationship with former FBI agent Paul Ballard (who is now Echo’s handler), when she herself was a sleeper operative spying on Ballard. The situation is putting pressure on Adele DeWitt, the head of the L.A. Dollhouse, as the Corporation is questioning her judgment when she released November two years before her five-year contract expired. It actually remains unclear why exactly Madeline suddenly turned against the Dollhouse.

That moralizing hypocrite senator son of a gun pretends he’s his wife’s knight in shining white armor and she’s his damsel in distress, that they live the happy-ever-after fairy-tale life, “it’s like they made her just for me,” he says in an interview ... O!M!G! You know what? Gasp! Could it be his very own wife’s a Doll?! Wow, that would be so messed up! Is she a sleeper and if so, to what end? To assassinate Perrin himself or any witnesses he might bring forward, like Madeline? DeWitt sends Echo on a mission setting up the senator with a nice video ... you know, wink, wink, nudge, nudge ... in a hotel room and all that... Meanwhile Ballard is supposed to rescue Madeline and take out the senator’s sleeper doll before she gets activated. Yet when he turns on some sort of gizmo that is supposed to knock out Dolls (active, sleeper or former ones), November and Echo fall to the floor, but not the senator’s wife...! The real kicker is in fact that Perrin himself was affected by it! Hahahaha! Didn’t see that one coming! Echo runs away, taking Perrin with her, shouting, “I think my bad guys are better than your bad guys!” From there things take twists and turns that are so wicked and exciting, I will have to leave it till next week! Aw, poor you! Can you take it?

Gossip Girl 3x12

“They say there are no accidents. Sometimes reality comes crashing into us.” Or so Gossip Girl tells us when Trip smashes his Range Rover into the guardrail, while an agitated Serena is in his car. I can’t believe S is actually with that dude, he’s such a wuss. Plus he’s been completely lying to her, dealing with his wife behind Serena’s back to safeguard his political career... and the wife blackmails S with a letter from her long-lost father... Once S finds out the truth, she blows up and when that Trip douche comes back she demands he takes her home! That’s when he crashes his car into the railing and S.smashes her head against the windshield...!!! Luckily dapper Nate was just on his way to her and sees the accident ... ‘cause Trip has fled the scene! Suddenly everyone is coming to Nassau County to be with S in the hospital.

Meanwhile, it’s been a year since Chuck lost his father in a car accident and took over the family business. The ghost of his father is looming over this new deal Chuck’s trying to close. He’s wondering if he’s going soft, and if that’s because he’s with Blair... Serena’s car accident obviously takes Chuck right back to his father’s death, and after stuffing it away in the darkest recess of his mind, he is finally forced to go face to face with his loss. When visiting his father’s grave for the first time, there’s a crying woman there, who recognizes him, rushes away, and can be no other than the mother Chuck thought he had lost many years ago! O!M!G! Cliffhangers galore!

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Gossip Girl 3x11

Oh, sweet goodness, Gossip Girl is back! It’s Thanksgiving on the Upper East Side and Rufus wants to bring the Humphrey traditions to the Van der Woodsens... Jenny and Eric are up for it, but Lily immediately dismisses it, Serena has to work, and who knows where Dan is? Well, he is in fact still recovering from the aftershock of his threesome with Olivia and Vanessa. O broke up with him, so are we ever going to see her again? V had a fight with her mom so she’s crashing at his place... Then who is Dan going to invite for Thanksgiving? And will V make up with her mom? Blair is still at war with Serena, but can’t stand the thought of not celebrating Thanksgiving, so she pressures her mother to invite themselves over at the Van der Woodsens... (not that that makes sense, but, hey, this is Gossip Girl and this is the Upper East Side!)

Remember the masqueraded ball two years ago, when Nate was trying to tell Serena he was in love with her? Now that he revealed his feelings for her, is willy-nilly Serena going to fall all over him, even though she’s been sleeping around town? Plus, she’s supposedly in love with Congressman Tripp Vanderbilt, who’s recently filed for divorce. So, who is she going to celebrate Thanksgiving with? Later, Lily bumps into Tripp’s wife Maureen and asks her to come over for Thanksgiving. Just one of those things you do on the spur of the moment! Meanwhile Rufus accidentally asks Lily’s mother Cece to come, too, behind Lily’s back... You see where all this is heading to, right? I mean, a major catastrophe of dramatic, no, epic proportions! At least we can all be thankful god invented booze! (Or whoever invented it...)