Taking Back Sunday on Elliot in the Morning – Stink into Me

Yesterday, I heard Taking Back Sunday interviewed and attempt to sing on DC 101’s Elliot in the Morning. After listening to them I can only give this advice to a fan – if you have the opportunity to see them live… DON’T! I heard them on EITM and they were wretched! THe lead singer has absolutley NO VOICE.

It went kind of like this — scratch scratch voice crack mumble mumble voice crack scratch — I really needed to clear my throat listening them attempt to sing — and it ended with click – change the channel.

Advice for the producer – never let them sing without audio enhancement. If they go on to SNL – LIP SING!

Taking Back Sunday in desperate need of Audio Enhancement - You know they know look at the front man's face

Transformers 2 is NOT AWESOME!

Remember that commercial with Michael Bay after the success of Transformers? I don’t remember what the commercial was for, but it had Michael Bay saying, “it has to be AWESOME!” over and over again. We won’t have to worry about that happening again because Transformers 2 is anything but.

It is long, boring, and disconnected. The movie tries to have a lot of comic relief during monotonous fight scenes in between long stints of poor character development. 

I believe Michael Bay took lessons for George Lucas for this film. The movie has two extraordinarily annoying Autobots that fill the role of Jar Jar Binks from Star Wars Episode I. That’s right, Jar Jar Binks times 2!! How lucky are we? Then Megatron (the main bad guy – Decepticon) is resurrected and flies back into space to report to “The Fallen” much like the Emperor/Darth Vader relationship of the good Star Wars movies (4, 5, & 6 = the original 3). 

 

Darth Vader and the Emperor or is this the Transformers movie?

 

 

 

 

Not only does he steal from the Star Wars movies, but also from the Terminator with a Decepticon posing as a college coed that wants to shag Shia LaBeouf’s character Sam. He didn’t even steal from a good Terminator movie – he stole from Terminator 3. Was this a test to see if you take all the bad Sci-Fi movies roll them into one and put your name on it  people will like it? Well…..the answer is ….a resounding  - NO!

This is unfortunate because I really liked the first Transformers. Unfortunately, we received the third movie (the crap movie) as the second one here. Michael Bay is trying too hard to turn this into an epic film series and just painfully annoyed us instead.

Recommendation – stay away. Save this film for when it comes on to HBO or one of the movie channels and play it when you are cleaning the house. But oh yeah, keep your kids away because the always virtuous Autobots spend half the film spitting out an explicative for the entertainment of the mentally underprivileged.

Results Gym Pleather Product/Leather Price

A CLUB STATED TO BE TOP QUALITY AND CHARGING $87 TO $107 A MONTH….REALLY? FOR THIS CLUB? 

* Pleather wrapped MicroFiber blue benches

* Lockers WAY too small 

* Dated looking group fitness classes on demand (kind-of)

* Equipment same as anywhere else

O.K. – IT MAKES SENSE TO SPEND $100 A MONTH, IF THE CLUB HAS SPECIAL LUXURIES AND AMENITIES THAT YOU WON’T FIND ANYWHERE OR THE SERVICE IS TOP NOTCH, BUT THIS ONE DOES NOT OFFER ANYTHING LIKE THAT.

Club tries to be High Grade but equals Low Grade

There was a claim made near the opening of their club, that this club would provide group fitness classes on demand. Great idea, right? Well, it hasn’t happened and after thinking about it, and looking at where they offer these classes – who wants to be in a confined space with a leg press machine, next to the free-weight section, doing downward facing dog following a T.V. Great visual:) If you want to do this with out having your butt sticking out towards the free-weight section or up the stairwell, buy a dvd from Best Buy and do it at home.

There a 3 mirrors that turn into TVs on the bottom floor, next to a leg press and a pull up bar. These mirrors are suppose to have a digital library of classes to pick from. However, you currently experience a loop of a soundless dated looking class. So beware, sounds good, but it is a gimmick that you will not use!

The equipment is in good shape, all brand new, but there is nothing special there that you cannot find at a more reasonably priced club. The 2 Xspresso bikes the club offers (and promotes) are available in greater quantity at the Fitness First down the street. 

The locker rooms sport blue microfiber benches wrapped in terribly ugly black pleather. The lockers are too small to hold anything, so don’t bring anything more than your clothes. In fact, there is a clothing rack (like from Bed, Bath, and Beyond) in the middle of the locker room for you to hang your extra clothes on. I’m feeling safe:) The lockers are easily broken into and the club has already experienced this. Now, I’m feeling even safer

WITHIN A 3 BLOCK RADIUS, YOU HAVE 8 OTHER CLUBS TO CHOSE FROM: FITNESS FIRST, GOLD’S GYM, BALLY TOTAL FITNESS, THE YMCA, 2 WASHINGTON SPORTS CLUBS, CAPITOL CITY FITNESS, AND A ONE – TO -ONE. NOT TO MENTION – THE IN HOUSE CORPORATE FACILITIES.

If you stretch a little bit further you will find a club that is worth the money, and it is more expensive, but well worth it – THE SPORTS CLUB/LA. The cost for this club is about $150 a month, but if you were willing to spend ~$100 a month for a mediocre, pretending to be high-class club, then this is worth the extra $50.

It is clear that this club is a wanna-be Sports Club/LA or Equinox, but does not have the financial power or taste do so. 

My recommendation: Spend your money elsewhere. If you want high-end – go High-end and spend the $150 a month for The Sports Club/LA or Equinox. If you walk through Results Gym and like what you see, go look at at any of the competitors in the area and join at one of those. You will receive the same quality, service, and product for half the price!

Ben Affleck Article in Esqueer!

You can’t be serious! I thought Esquire Magazine was suppose to be a MAN’s Magazine. Apparently I was wrong. I just received the latest and greatest email newsletter by the magazine. I, of course, opened it to see who this month’s Women We Love(’s) woman was (Eva Mendes — Good Choice!)  and there was an article about Ben Affleck in a neighboring column.

 

Eva Mendes, this month's Woman We Want in Esquire

 

 

Out of morbid curiosity, I decided to read the article. Or at least I decided to TRY and read the article. I am not an Affleck fan, but he seemed to have fallen off the radar over the past few years and I was curious if he was trying to make a come-back. So I hit the link and began to read the article by Tom Chiarella.

Or was it an article about Tom Chiarella with comments about Tom Chiarella by Ben Affleck. OR – was it a love letter to Ben Affleck from Tom Chiarella with some reflections about their GLORIOUS DAY TOGETHER IN NEW YORK CITY. 

 

I expected to see a picture of Tom and Ben in an embrace, after reading this article.

 

 

Here is a portion of the second paragraph of the article by Tom Chiarella:

“We’re just off the apron, on the street, thirty yards from the valet Affleck has studiously avoided. He’s both jumpy and liquid in his movement. He carries himself as if held together with kite string, which means he looks at once crinkly and cool. Jeans, no belt, plain-Jane sneakers, a black long-sleeved T-shirt. And he looks a little more fragile than you’d expect, like a guy thinking about his persistent back pain. The effect: He walks light on the depthless veneer of the world, here on this lambent late afternoon at the joining edge of Beverly Hills and Culver City, where and when the house shadows always insinuate a little doom to me.”

Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh………Poor Ben.

Looks like Tom was a castaway from the LifeTime Channel and a writer for Queer Eye.

Tom starts the article summarizing that Ben Affleck picked him up in a rental car because “for some reason” he didn’t want him to see his car. I will bet it is because he didn’t want you to stalk him and leave love notes on his windshield. 

Here’s the Wikipedia entry on Tom Chiarella:

Tom Chiarella is Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at DePauw University and writer-at-large and fiction editor of Esquire Magazine. Chiarella spends his free time editing Wikipedia with falsities, and creating hypothetical regions with his creative writing classes. 

I have an idea….stick writing fiction and leave the interviewing in Men’s Magazines to the Men!

Music’s Lost Decade

So I was driving around and flipping through the channels on the radio. I stayed on the most current and popular ones. Check out the line up… White Zombie - More Human than Human, Smashing Pumpkins – 1979, Offspring – Come Out and Play, Red Hot Chili Peppers – Under the Bridge.

 

White Zombie

 

 

 

All these songs are from when I was in Junior High and High School. Don’t get me wrong. I think they are great!! But what happened to the music industry? Did they just give up? There hasn’t been a worthwhile song over the past 15 years. The major artists released over the past decade have been manufactured from the record labels. Manufactured meaning – NO TALENT! They have the look to sell. Some may have the voices… a lot of them do NOT have the voices. They just sing songs written by someone else in a song factory with the goal of being mass produced.

 

 

Red Hot Chili Peppers

 

 

So what it comes down to is a digitally enhanced no talent, singing songs with no emotional ties to them, flash-in-the-pan songs that never intend on lasting longer than the 3 minutes they are on the radio just to make a quick buck. Doesn’t anyone know that the way to real wealth is a recurring revenue stream. Music that people want to hear regularly over and over. Apparently this ended with the artists of the early 90s.

AARP = American Association of “WHAT” Persons

This is Great!! Check this out… the AARP has “suspended” its 401(K) match. The sole purpose of this association is to aid people in their retirement, planning for retirement…etc. And they have decided to suspend 401(K) contributions for their employees.

Nothing says work for us, and we’ll take care of you like a RETIREMENT ASSOCIATION NOT HELPING ITS EMPLOYEES WITH THEIR RETIREMENT.

I know everyone is looking to cut costs and minimize expenses wherever they can, but is taking away a person’s cash security the right way to do it. I’m sure you could have cut or postponed some marketing/media or figured out another way to advertise.

I mean what are you going to advertise now – YOU CAN’T EVEN TAKE CARE OF YOUR OWN EMPLOYEES!

Should AARP rethink their decision?

Robin Williams — Keep us laughing!

Robin Williams is to go under the knife. That’s right, it is time to clean out all those valves and replace some with an aortic valve replacement.

 

Robin Williams in Richmond

The funny man that has kept us laughing for so long has postponed his one-man show “Weapons of Self-Destruction” to clean up his heart. This guy is one of the greatest comedians of all time and has some great performances. I saw him at the Kennedy Center during the presentation of the Mark Twain Award to his friend and another great comedian Billy Crystal. 

 

I respect all the work he has done for the public and the disenfranchised with the Comic Relief Program. He has really brought awareness, aid, and laughter to the homeless. A group so often overlooked.

Get Well Robin! You make the world a fun place to be!

 

What is with the taxes?

Why does it seem that everyone nominated for cabinet positions cannot pay their taxes?

The humorous thing is that they are all democrats. The party notorious for raising taxes! Maybe if they paid their taxes everyone else wouldn’t have to feel the pain.

Burris – Are you serious?!

Does anyone really believe that Senator Roland Burris is innocent? He bought his seat from the former governor Blag-lie-o-bitch. There is no doubt. Unfortunately, e was just a little better at hiding it from everyone else. The public was making quite an uproar to move on. They were tired of hearing about corrupt politicians. 

 

Really? We Really Let Burris Take Office?

 

 

The most interesting thing – was the commotion created recently by the Chicago based evangelical community asking everyone to move on, stop focusing on Burris’ corruption, and focus on the economy! The man clearly lied about his involvement with the pathetic excuse for a governor and now he is in office. If he had just committed murder, held up a bank, or any other crime would the people be saying the same thing. “Stop focusing on his inability to tell the truth, and start focusing on the economy.” 

The last thing we need is to allow someone we know lied his way into office to stay in office. Even his own spokesperson has left his team! He has been in office for what? Two months and his staff is already bailing on him! OUTSTANDING!! 

Great quote found on CNN.com – ”Everyday there are more and more revelations about contacts with Blagojevich advisers, efforts at fundraising and omissions from his list of lobbying clients,” Durbin later said in a written release. “This was not the full disclosure under oath that we asked for.

“These news reports and the public statements by Roland Burris himself are troubling and raise serious questions which need to be looked at very carefully.”

Does anyone think he should stay in office??