You're off to a good start 2010...

"The 12 year break is over & school is back in session. Sign up now. Knights of the Soundtable ride again! www.soundgardenworld.com."

-Chris Cornell via his twitter.

Via mmajunkie and bloodyelbow:

Spike TV will premiere the "Best of Pride" series on Friday, January 15th, with new one-hour episodes every Friday.

UFC president Dana White explained the format of the program:
"It'll kind of be like 'UFC Unleashed,'" said White, referring to Spike TV's UFC-themed highlights show. "All the great PRIDE fights that happened with all the stars who are UFC guys now will be on it."

Both of these bits of news are awesome. Maybe this year won't suck after all...

Another Unnecessary Addition to my Internet Bookmarks

About 3 years ago, I started an account on DVD Aficionado, a site started to help people keep track of their movie purchases and more specifically, which version of the film one may have purchased (who knew there were so many damn versions of the Predator on DVD? Well, this guy, but it's beside the point :P).

Well, after finally organizing and alphabetizing our own collection, I stumbled back onto the site and updated it. If you feel like checking it out, here's the link.

http://woodshatter.dvdaf.com/

There's still a few more things to add on there (mainly anime I've had for ages but haven't watched since I graduated High School) but for now, there it is, in all it's geeky glory.

I'm almost convinced

That Hector Echavarria is destined to go down as one of the worst people in history involved with MMA. After suffering through "Death Warrior," I'm certain he is the devil. Or just a rich douchebag who paid a lot of big name fighters to be in his films so he can beat them in unconvincing manners while making Skinemax-style sex scenes with below average looking women on the side. Yeah, maybe just a talentless, old, worthless douchebag.

Fuck you Hector. And fuck you for trying to entice UFC/MMA fans with your pathetic attempt at a modern day version of "Bloodsport" or "Battle Royale."

You know there's something wrong when you end up saying "Wow I'm surprised Tapout of all companies endorsed this trainwreck." Yikes.

A Dead Format

Profile that is!

http://www.deadformat.net/tradelist/Woodshatter

So that basically means my blog for records is dead. Yeah. Not like anyone is gonna miss it.

No One Deserves to Be Here More Than Me

"Maybe they're hiring scarecrows, I can sit in a field in the sun, I don't need the training, I already repulse everyone."


I'm actually relieved the new LP is up for preorder. Band describes my misery better than I could myself.

You said it best Mr. Eaton

Sometimes the boys
That Should be your best friends
Become strangers with familiar faces...



Currents:

Music:
Kowloon Walled City-Gambling on the Richter Scale (pretty killer sludge/noise. FFO: Breather Resist, Torche, Unsane)
Katatonia-Night is the New Day (band needs no introduction. Good gloomy/dark metal with Jonas Renske sounding pretty bummed as usual.)
The Bronx-I (because it always rules no matter how many times I spin it.)
Converge-Axe to Fall (do I really need to explain how much this rules?)

Movies:
Se7en-For some reason, I had never seen this gem. Very disturbing at times, with a smart and well written script. Brad Pitt was good, but Kevin Spacey and Morgan Freeman easily stole the show here. I already knew the ending going in, but it still felt like a punch to the gut.
Trick 'r Treat-One of the best horror films of the year, and one of the better horror anthologies I've seen in quite some time. How the hell was this not released to theaters? Stupid Warner Bros.
Saw VI-I have a hit or miss relationship with this franchise. I'd rank them III>I>II>V>>>>IV. This is gonna be right behind #3 though. Hell, this one pretty much saved the franchise, though it wasn't without it's faults (poor acting being the primary complaint). This was pleasant surprise though. Good gore, pretty good script, NASTY couple of traps, and for once, a unanimously good reason to root for Jigsaw. Give this one a chance, especially if you gave up on this franchise.
The Thaw-One of the new "Ghost House" flicks put out by Sam Raimi's company. Too derivative of other better Scifi/Horror flicks like the Thing and Slither. At least it had Val Kilmer. Then again, he was barely in the film. Pass on this one unless you're a Ghost House completest.

Books:

Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling- Bret Hart's autobiography is a long one, but it's incredibly fascinating. He goes over nearly aspect of his life, especially his wrestling career. He was one of my favorites growing up, and still remains so, even after reading some pretty disheartening things he did (such as cheating on his then-wife numerous times and even taking steroids and coke a couple of times). This book will most likely reduce the amount of respect you had for Shawn Michaels.

I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell- I've had this book for a couple of years or so, but never got around to reading it. I regret waiting this long. Without a doubt, one of the lewdest, rudest, and just all around "assholish" books I've ever read. But good lord is it funny. There were times I was almost in tears with some of his stories he recanted. I can't understand why there are people out there who protest this guy. They're just stories, and more than anything, subliminal cautionary tales on how to not act.


That's it...again...

Ages

Since I last posted ANYTHING on here. Even the concert blog is kind of dead, even though I'm still attending more shows than I should considering I have no job. I was considering taking the easy way out and doing haiku reviews for each show, just to save me time.

End of the year is coming up. I first thought that this year's choice in music paled in comparison to last year's, and it sort of does. It still delivered quite a few gems though. Might be just as hard to narrow it down to a top 10-15.

For films, it's nowhere near as stacked as it was last year. Last year was the best year we've had for movies since at least 1999. This year, it's what you could call a "hangover" year (and no that's a pun on the film of the same name...I think): we had such a good time last year, that this year a terrible headache/collection of bullshit was ready for us after we awoke from our slumber.

Other random notes:

-My Halloween was awesome. Went as Hacksaw Jim Duggan, which scored me quite a lot of compliments. It seemed that every 10-15 seconds, someone on the streets of Wilmington would yell something. I also made out with a chick going as She-Hulk, at least that's what she claimed to be. Cool. I accomplished something most nerds on 4chan wish they could do.

-I'm sort of the singer for a local doom band called Beard of Antlers. It's my first time behind a mic, and it's pretty cool. I honestly wish they'd ask me to be the permanent singer, seeing as how I've wanted to do something music-wise for quite some time, and I honestly don't think their "monotone yelling" approach compliments the music very well. We've got a couple of shows coming up (11/14 at Reggie's 42nd Street Tavern and 12/04 at Lucky's Pub with the returning Predecessor). Should be fun.

-In what may shock a few of my friends, there's a strong possibility of me moving to Raleigh sometime in the near future. I've been doing a lot of...well, I hate to call it soul searching, but that's really what it is. Wilmington just hasn't been offering me a lot in the way of opportunity, and though Raleigh isn't without it's faults (WHY DOES EVERYTHING CLOSE SO GOD DAMN EARLY?!), it's a change of scenery and there's a better chance of finding a stable job with enough money to support myself. And who knows, if I can find something nice enough, I could try to get a transfer to another job back down in Wilmington just in case I miss this shithole.

-Tekken 6 is pretty okay so far, but I feel like it wasn't worth the price tag. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, however, is a friggin blast. A great tribute to games like Gauntlet and the like, except with most of your favorite Marvel characters thrown in. So far, UFC Undisputed 2009, Street Fighter IV and Batman: Arkham Asylum are my favorite games of the year though.


There will be more to come soon hopefully. What is "more" you ask? Hell if I know...