Badass

Many thanks to another badass: Scott at Bill In Exile.

When Zombies Attack...

Apparently my Zombie post struck a chord out there because I just received an e-mail about another Zombie site -- Lost Zombies. I didn't realize that the Zombie community had such a strong internet presence.


Visit Lost Zombies

Nothing Important Happened Today

I ended up having a slight change in plans and ended up going to see X-Files: I Want to Believe with Alex. While I was never a hard core X-Files fan, I generally liked the series -- personally, I enjoy the premise of the true believer and the skeptic trying to uncover the unexplained. I liked the experience of challenging the types of things that we'd like to ignore or deny. It was entertaining to believe that there really was much more out there than we see in our day to day existence...

...and the sexual tension between Mulder and Scully was off the charts.

Flash forward to the present movie. The original series is best summed up with the iconic phrase, "The truth is out there." Sadly, the latest film is best described by one of the episode titles in season 9 (for the record, I looked it up) -- "Nothing important happened today." I won't go into the plot -- perhaps some of you might actually go see it... not that there's much to spoil.

I didn't have any expectations going into the film, so you'd think it I wouldn't be disappointed... but I was. Why? Because by the end of the film you realize, it was all hopeless. Mulder is still tortured that he hasn't found his sister, the abducted sister that even HE admits is dead. Scully is still tortured and raging against God. This time, there's no conspiracy, at least nothing out of the ordinary. Just tortured people chasing more tortured people... and that's the saddest part: the realization that there's nothing left of Mulder & Scully, only their withered shells that STILL. CAN'T. LET. GO. What's worse is hearing them go back and forth about how they just can't be together because neither of them can do much more than not let go. It was like the final episode of Seinfeld where the writers make it clear that at the end of things that everyone is exactly who they were when they started. It was all for nothing.

It's really surprising how many people I heard expressing their disappointment in things as the credits started. Why? Because by the end of the film the only thing that happened was that Mulder & Scully decide they'll go back to being miserable together. Great. Back to where you started. SO glad we went through that. Nothing important happened today.

Flesh Eating Nic Cage Needs Love Too!

Just a reminder that even flesh eating, rotten Zombies need love too. Now they can find it with ZombieHarmony!

Best. Title. Ever.

I was talking with Adam about going to see the new X-Files movie tonight. I was checking to make sure that it was out, popped over to a movie site only to discover the best movie title ever: The Midnight Meat Train. Ok, I know it's really another edition of "oh.my.god. we're.all.going.to.die." starring Tori Spelling and featuring a flesh eating Nicholas Cage, but this is the best title of a real thing that sounds like porn since Dexys Midnight Runner's, "Come On Eileen."

The Midnight Meat Train? OMFGBBQ, how many gay men haven't ridden that? Or wouldn't enjoy riding it? What makes the whole idea even more delicious is the caption on the film poster on the right: "The most terrifying ride you'll ever take." Yeah, that's what all straight guys say until they actually ride the midnight meat train... and then he tells you that he was sooooooo drunk and he's never done ANYTHING like that before, he swears and please don't tell anyone... and oh by the way, why don't you give him a call sometime so you can chill, watch SportsCenter, drink some beers and "hang out," ya know?

Heh, thinking of a straight guy calling the midnight meat train "the most terrifying ride you'll ever take" makes me think of a guy who's been featured on StraightHell.net. (Definitely NSFW!) Either that or he hasn't been able to admit to his friends that he's been featured on Sean Cody for the past 6 months.

In any event, I'll leave you with the above mentioned Dexys Midnight Runner for all you nostalgic types.

Marc's Bonus Midweek 'Pumped' Beef Haiku

With muscles gleaming,
"The glitter makes us look butch,"he kindly explained.

Marc's Midweek Return of Abercrombie Veal Haiku

"Let's take off our shirts!"
he said, after a few beers.
Straight guys are so gay.

Feeling Domestic

I'm housesitting for my aunt and uncle while they're away in New York. Aside from taking care of their cat, Eddie, I've mainly been feeling rather domestic. My aunt bought a fresh pineapple because I mentioned that I love pineapple. Generally, I stay away from buying whole pineapples because they're a bitch to cut. I know, it's much more expensive to buy the sliced pineapple at the grocery store, but I'm a sucker for easy.

Leave it up to my aunt, who's originally from Austria, to ride to the rescue. Europeans seem to have the coolest gadgets... well, almost as cool as the Japanese, but the Europeans are a close second. Anyway, she left me a pineapple slicer, that works kind of like a corkscrew. You slice the top off, corkscrew your way through the pineapple and pull out the fresh, tasty fruit. It's one of those things where it was so ridiculously easy that I almost looked around for the TV cameras. "Oh, Mr. Popeil, I simply MUST have one!" (For the record, the pineapple slicer isn't sold by RonCo. I have to say, I really do one a pineapple slicer of my own.

As someone who grew up in the television age, I know I can be pretty cynical when it comes to kitchen gadgetry. I know my parents had a Chop-o-matic (or something similar) at one point... and the thing worked but it ended up as yet another piece of junk I'm sure we either threw out or sold at a garage sale. (Can you believe they still sell the Chop-o-matic?) And don't even get me started on the George Foreman grill... or should I say, "Lean, Mean, Fat Grilling Machine?"

As cheezy as all of those kitchen gadgets can be, along with the infomercials they spawned, it really is kind of impressive to realize that how the infomercial revolutionized TV and sales. On one hand, you want to strangle the guy for breeding the whole "As Seen on TV" sales phenomenon, and by extension QVC and the like, but how often does one person really breed a whole industry?

Here's a little bit of TV nostalgia for you... and Ron Popeil was kinda hot back in the day.

MY PRECIOUS!

A fabulous new site from the creators of I Can Has Cheezeburger: Totally Looks Like.com

Oh. My. God. We're. All. Going. To. Die.

Last week, Adam and I went to go see Hellboy 2-it was opening day and we didn't get to the theater early, so there weren't any decent seats. We decided that rather than split up or trying to squeeze in between a group of very geeky breeders, we'd suck it up and just sit in the front row. We were immediately punished by the Universe, first by a wave of nausea from being so close to the screen and then by a preview of the new Nicholas Cage flick - Bankok Dangerous. I've said it before and I'll say it again -- Nicholas Cage is looking AWFUL. He looks even worse when you're RIGHT in front of the screen.

Right before the movie started, we had another treat -- a preview for the latest bad horror flick - Quarantine. Essentially, it's a bunch of people locked up in an apartment building who all die in some unspeakably gruesome manner, shot in the style of The Blair Witch Project. Oh boy.

Several months ago, while watching BSG at Alex's, there was a commercial for some horror flick I never bothered to watch: I think it was Cloverfield - another bad horror flick shot in The Blair Witch Project style. The hallmark of these films, in my opinion, is the idea that if the actors just scream a LITTLE LOUDER then the audience will know they're supposed to be scared. From that point on, any time I encounter a horror flick, I always blurt out in monotone: "oh. my. god. we're. all. going. to. die."

The Quarantine preview was no exception. Having just seen the preview of the new Nicholas Cage film, however, I was struck with brilliance -- if you took Quarantine and tweaked the plot to include Nicholas Cage as an lich who must eat the beating hearts of the protagonists in order to maintain the illusion of humanity and keep flesh over his skeletal frame, you'd have a pretty good film. I'd pay to see that.

At that point, I thought I had come up with the ultimate horror film. I was wrong.

Today, Alex pointed out yet another outlandish new horror film in the works: Cthulu. While the trailer I watched did not appear to include a creature with a squid for a head, it did have something even more brilliant for a horror film -- Tori Spelling.

Now before you get the idea that I'm comparing Tori Spelling with a mythical source of all evil, don't misunderstand me. I like Tori Spelling. Her performance in Trick forever changed the way I looked at her -- here's someone who can embrace her status as a B-movie actress and knows that her daddy paid good money for those breasts. She is the quintessential sort of actress for a horror flick.

So today I told Alex my new rule: All horror flicks star Tori Spelling and are titled, "oh. my. god. we're. all. going. to. die." Throw in a flesh-eating Nicholas Cage and now we really DO have the ultimate horror flick.

ED Got You Down?

Ok, I've really tried to step away from politics both on this blog and in life in general. That said, sometimes something comes up that is just too good to pass up.

Oooh, sharp as a tack, that wily Maverick of ours.
(Thanks, Towleroad!)

Marc's Midweek Hard Rock Veal Haiku

Watching you stroke it
and grip it's very thick shaft...
you know how to rock!

(Thanks to JohnnyLopera* for the pic)

Respect the Kat 2008

It took me a little while to get back into the groove for this one, but I'm glad I finally did. Check it out on my radio.blog and hopefully soon I will have the links to the tracks so you can buy them for yourself.

1. Stratus Energy (Special Disco Mix) - Faze Action
2. Something Come to Nothing (Solitaire Mix) - Dab Hands feat. Emma Lea
3. Dance (Fish and Chips Mix) - Chanel
4. When You Touch Me (2008 Club Mix) - Freemasons feat. Katherine Ellis
5. Mexico (Keep Movin' Keep Groovin') (Degg & Blakker Mix) - Nick Nite vs. Tex Mex
6. Kung Fu Me (Original Mix) - Twisted Dee
7. Waterfalls 2009 (Garotes Praia Extended 12") - Atlantic Ocean
8. Stamp Your Feet (Escape & Coluccio Mix) - Donna Summer
9. Just Wanna Dance (Original Mix) - Double Track feat. Jamie Lee Wilson
10. What A Wonderful World (Original Mix) - Axwell feat. Ron Carroll
11. Away (Fonzerelli Mix) - Lys & Hunted feat. Marijana

In Search Of...

One of the things I fell in love with about dance music was the variety of music out there that isn't being played in the mainstream. Even if it's a song that's part of the mainstream, I love that various remixers and DJs are able to take the song and make it their own.

Part of the fun for me was exploring the music out there and finding tracks so many different tracks that I had never heard. I suppose that's what led me to become a DJ -- being able to find things that I wasn't hearing anywhere and putting them all together into a unique expression of me.

In the years I've been a DJ, I've had many people ask me where I find my music and where they can find particular tracks. Unfortunately, most of the time I've had to tell people that there isn't any easy way to find the music that I've been playing. It's especially frustrating because there's so much music that I love that I'd love to share, even more than I could possibly play.

Some of that began to change with the coming of Beatport. Beatport was the first major online dance music retailer I encountered back in '04. Since that time, their collection has grown and they've become a major source for the music I buy -- my tastes tend to be much more underground, so I really enjoy being able to search through a large catalog to find tracks that I enjoy.

Since that time, there have been a bevy of new sources of online dance music sites -- I had actually considered compiling a guide to buying dance music online because there are so many. At the same time, I'm reminded of something important -- while I enjoy searching for dance music and digging through a lot of tracks that I don't care for to find a handful of tracks that I enjoy, there are many people out there who'd prefer to have someone show them what's really good and how they can buy it.

As I mentioned, my tastes tend to run more to underground tracks, but I've enjoyed more mainstream tracks as well. One of my big frustrations (that I'm sure I share with countless other DJs) is that remixes of more mainstream tracks are very difficult to get. The record labels in the US have never really embraced dance music and have been prone to release tracks only after people are tired of hearing them.

Fortunately, Masterbeat, which went from a label selling dance music CDs targeted at the gay community to online dance music, has been working to bring major labels into the 21st Century by beginning to offer their tracks online. This is a very good thing -- it's a more enjoyable experience when I can find mainstream music easily and also know that the artists who make it are being supported.

I know that RCA offers tracks on iTunes, but I've never really enjoyed trying to find dance music online with iTunes and I've been turned off by having to purchase dance tracks in AAC format, which aren't compatible with the software I use to mix CDs.

I've noticed that because I'm not playing anywhere currently that I haven't had quite the interest in keeping up with the music that's out there. I know that in many ways that's because I haven't really had the kind of outlet I need right now. With the rise of so much music being available online now, I've decided that I'm going to start writing more about the music that I find and making it easy for you guys to listen for yourself and buy the tracks you enjoy. So look for much more to come!

Marc's Midweek Horny Beef Haiku

No need for a mask
It's okay to admit that
beeves do get horny