I'd Guess They Would Say We Could Set This World Ablaze

If you don't already have a copy of Crack the Skye, Mastodon's latest album, you probably should go get one. Unless you have no ears or terrible taste in music, that is.

It's a new career high with this album. Until I heard this, may favorite of their work was Leviathan. Now that is my number two. Crack the Skye is absolutely mind-blowing. Period.

I have had the album for close to a month now. I heard the entire thing, excluding the last track because it didn't leak. I loved it straight from the first listen. At first, I really liked it, but Leviathan was still better. But the more and more I listen, the more I love it. It now trumps Leviathan.

The track listing is as follows:

1. Oblivion
2. Divinations
3. Quinessence
4. The Czar  (I. Usurper / II. Escape / III. Martyr / IV. Spiral)
5.  Ghost of Karelia
6. The Last Baron

Start to finish, the album is fifty minutes. Fifty Minutes of godliness.

"I see your face in constellations"

Ludwig Van

The first twenty minutes really set the tone for Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange. The movie is violent and explicit, but I liked it.

I have always been a sucker for tragedy films. I love them. I love it when the story needs to end in a way that isn't what you would want. There is something more real, no matter the story, when the bad wins or the hero dies.

I watched the movie, but as I watched it, I tried to keep a very analytical point of view. What I gathered is that there are some people who are just bad. There are people who have no good in them and are just vicious all the way to the core. Alex is one the characters.

The movie was a real horror show.

I need to get ahold of the book. Kubrick left out the last chapter of the book on purpose. He can make good movies, but that was a dumb move.

I also finished the book I was reading, Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk. It was great. It's the fourth book of his that I have read. I think I might take a break from his books for a while just because I want to read something different. I love his style, I love the way he tells a story and the stories themselves are insane. I just need to read something else for a while.

"Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction..."

Why Is There Hamburger Helper in this Milk?

For the longest time, I have been wanting to watch the movie Milk. My roommate and I rented that and Saw V last night. The initial plan was some gore and then Milk. It didn't quite go as we had planned.

We walked to Family Video and grabbed Saw V and Milk and then took them to the counter. The girl at the counter told us that we could grab two one-dollar movies for free. For whatever reason A Clockwork Orange was in the favorites section so we grabbed that and Walk Hard. We have yet to watch either of those titles. 

We put in Saw V first. Like I said earlier, the plan was gore and then Milk. We got through the trailers, which seemed old. Too old. The menu came up and my roommate clicked "play." We were then greeted with Saw IV on the screen.

At first we weren't sure. We were confused and kind of pissed off. We rewound it and checked again. And to our surprise, it was Saw IV. Awesome. We immediately agreed to take the movie out and watch Milk.

At first I was skeptical about Milk. I had this preconditioned thought that it was going to be awesome. When the story was introduced differently that I thought it would, I was a bit weary.

There were more homosexual depictions than I thought that there would be, as well. I knew that there would be some, but there were more. The scene with the naked silhouette wrestling was gayer than the entire movie of Brokeback Mountain.

The movie was amazing nonetheless. I should have done some research about that actual man, but there are some things in the movie that could have easily been guessed without ruining anything. The way the story was told was very interesting to me. I like the whole "tell the story of his past in an 'in-case-of-death' recording even though we already knows he is assassinated" idea. I would recommend this movie unless you are a homophobe. 

"Every man needs a muse and mine could be the bottle."

Fine Like This

I saw Watchmen five times over my spring break. While everyone else was relaxing on beaches and partying, I was watching Watchmen and playing video games. You know what? I don't regret it at all.

I know it's late, but Watchmen is great. I watched it plenty of times to do some good analysis and it portrays the book very well. There were some things that were different or omitted, but I am okay with those changes.

The characters were well done. They were well-rounded and distinct. The story was done well, maybe that was because I read the book. The movie covered all of the major events, but left out small ones that bridge information and add some backstory.

The ending was completely different. I loved it.

Over the break, I finished F.E.A.R. 2 which was too awesome for words. I love the series, even thought I didn't play the expansions. The second was even better than the first. The AI just seems to impress me every single time I boot the game up.

Alma is nuts.

The story is so captivating. I find myself playing video games sporadically. I will get into a story and love it and for some reason or another, not finish the game. This was so untrue for F.E.A.R. 2. I started it one weekend when I was home and the next weekend when break started, I finished it the first night back. Altogether it took me about ten hours. For me, it was a good long play, but I play games slowly.

If you like to play first-person shooters, play this one. I guarantee you will enjoy it. If you don't enjoy it, you're stupid and shouldn't be allowed to play video games.

Class starts again in the afternoon. I am not ready.

"People searching for a better way to live their lives..."

So I Stabbed Her in the Face

It seems like a good comedy is hard to come by if it isn't made by Judd Apatow and his gang. Movies like Sex Drive, Fired Up, and Miss March all fall under the same category: generic.

Miss March wasn't a bad movie by any means. There were some very good laughs, but not as many as there should have been.

There really isn't a whole lot to be said about this movie. If you are a fan of The Whitest Kids U' Know, then will not have a problem with this. Trevor Moore and Zach Cregger both do a great job of acting just like they do in the show.

I give it two out of five stars. It wasn't bad, but there should have been more laughs.

"Feel my fist on your face..."

Make Them Suffer

"It's the last house on the left," says the father in a tired whisper.

The Last House on the Left, directed by Dennis Iliadis, was nuts. I liked it, I'll be honest, but it was crazy. Rated "R" for "sadistic brutal violence, including rape, nudity, language and some drug use," it packs a punch all across the board. Wes Craven has really outdone himself with his violent vision of reality.

Overall, the movie was well done. The only real complaint I have is the rape scene. A Clockwork Orange doesn't have anything on this. It was graphic and realistic and it was a little too long. In fact, it was entirely too long. I was uncomfortable through that scene; I guess I don't know of anyone who wouldn't be.

If you enjoy movies like Saw and Hostel, then this shouldn't be too bad for you. Like I said, the one scene is terribly uncomfortable, but the rest is brutal and filled with "holy shit" moments.

The trailer really does the movie justice. When you see the trailer for this movie and you think that it's going to be brutal and disgusting, you're right.

It's like a moving death metal song.

I would give the movie three and a half out of five stars. It wasn't bad, but there are just some things I don't want to see.

"Extreme pain is what they need to feel for the rest of their lives..."

Initially Hesitant

I have, for some odd reason, wanted to stay away from these things. I thought that they were useless pieces of wasteful garbage on the internet that no one cared about.

This is the first time I have ever done something like this.

I am not going to theme this blog. I am going to post things that I think are worth people knowing. I will do movie reviews, album reviews, I'll talk about video games, I may even rant a little.

It's 3:13 in the morning and I have a test at 11:00. It's for History. I may or may not do well. I know the material pretty well, but I didn't read as much of the book as I should have. I am not going back to review one hundred pages now.

"When I grow up, I want to be one of the harvesters of the sea..."