Adventures in Radioland

Week 3 of classes is in the hole, but more importantly week 3 of Music Salad Sandwich has blessed the airwaves. If you haven't heard Kevin and my latest adventure on the airwaves, I must say I think we're outdoing ourselves. Last year, our brutal taskmaster of a program director came to us mid-semester and basically told us, "Listen guys, I don't want you playing any music that has ever been played on any other station, and I don't want you talking more than three or four times an show." Fearing for our infant show's life we accepted these terms and conditions.

But now it's a new year, and a new show, with a new program director. We're making the rules this year. As well as having our intern Mariah on the phones Kevin and I really have a lot more of our creative juices flowing at midnight, instead of 2 AM.

Point in case, on our way to the Station last night, we drove by the Rotary by Totman that we see every day. This time I stop to ask Kevin what he thinks is going in the middle of it. Before we even park the car down the road, we've got it. UMass's greatest alumni, back to back buddy cop style. That's right, Bill Cosby and Dr. J. Can you imagine, driving down the longest street through campus, only to find the literal gold at the end of the rainbow? That's right, not only is it an amazing statue, it is also an amazing gold statue. It would make everyone on campus's day. Imagine the nice warm spring sun gleaming upon the golden statue as snow slowly seeps off, revealing the heroes of UMass under the tundra. There would be absolutely nothing better.

Now we know, this idea has not only made your day, but your lives. We get it. This is everyone's dream come true. We don't need a lot of recognition, names on a plaque perhaps. But what we do need, is everybody's signature. If you're interested in this beautiful, priceless statue adorning our unworthy campus, write on the Music Salad Sandwich wall, through either the link up there, the link at the bottom of the page, or http://www.facebook.com/pages/Music-Salad-Sandwich/141646119211523 for all of you who are reading through Facebook and let us know you're interested. Tell your friends, get them in on this. Who knows, maybe we can actually get this dream realized!

Jim's State of The Union

So tonight was the first real night in the apartment. Everyone's settled in. We all woke up and ran some errands. Hung around all day, grilled dogs and burgers while we played a little catch on the front lawn. Then to top it all off we rented Repo Men off OnDemand and had a little movie night. The guys all went to bed, but I'm a bit of a night owl so I'm up and watching the last half of Criminal Intent before SVU comes on in a few minutes.

Being here with the guys, hangin out, talking, broin' out (yes, separate from hangin' out) and even just sitting watching TV makes me realize that this; right here; this apartment, this year, this college, this life, that I am living, is the prime of my days. I arguably couldn't be happier with the situation. I mean, sure, there are things I want to change, like I'm sure I'll dislike a class or two, I'll wish I had a better situation with some girl, and I'll wish I had a bigger budget to buy more video games, but on the whole, I am very pleased with my situation in life as a whole. I mean as far as the good life is concerned, I'm livin' it.

I guess I'm going to keep this one short. But the brevity is not for lack of emphasis. Trust me, the emphasis is there, and there's a whole bunch of it. We're keeping this one short, due to the fact that I think you guys might get a little annoyed with me rubbing it in your faces that right now, my life is incredible.

Procrastinating!

So as I sit here, "packing" and "getting ready to go back to school tomorrow," I'm doing what I do best, procrastinating, and what I do moderately well, blogging (in my opinion.) I can't help but be nostalgic on this summer, which in my books will be known as the summer of SVU.

Sure, the beginning of the summer held trips to Los Angeles, Amherst, and the movies, as well as heart-breaking losses, cherished covers, and theories about Zombies, as well as books galore. I read about 8 or 9 books, plus about 9 or 10 graphic novels. And then, on June 3rd, I was bored, and found that 10 seasons of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit were on Netflix. OOOOHHHH BABY. It took me approximately 74 days, to finish SVU but man, was it worth it. I'd always liked the series, and watching all of the seasons really made me like it that much more. I got to see plot lines beginnings and ends, the characters grow and mature, and the series progress ten years over this summer which has been really cool. Now I miss it. But new episodes start up this fall! :D

I was able to watch this much TV in this much time because of my work schedule. Don't get me wrong, work was all well and good, but every Friday and Sunday for the last half of the summer, I had to get up and go to work, which was definitely a damper when Friday and Saturday nights were the only nights of the week when the guys could hangout. So when they were working Monday through Friday, and not wanting to hang out cause of their early mornings during the week, I had a bunch of time to sit around and hang out with my good friends Elliot, Olivia, John and Fin.

But that's not to say that I wasn't active. I went and gym'd it up for a majority of the summer. Monday through Thursday for reasons already explained. That was a good thing! Right? And work was fun from time to time. Two of my co-workers, Daria and Zack as well as myself decided to make Lacrosse Pennies for the Garden Center. The first ones we ordered were too big, and the second ones aren't done yet but no worries. Next summer.

Next summer will be bigger, badder, and a lot more fun. I'll be 21, friends will be off interning in various places I can visit, and they'll be 21 too! That's not to say I want school to fly by though. With a schedule first semester as sick as this, and roomates like Jake, Andy and my bro-host Kevin (Late Night Window returns Tuesday mornings at Midnight this fall!) this is going to be a fun year. SO PREPARE YOURSELF FOR MORE NERDVENTURES COMING YOUR WAY! UNTIL NEXT TIME!

VIVE LE TROIS DE FIN DE LA SEMAINE!

Review: Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

A while back, I saw the trailer for the movie, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. I thought, "Wow, that looks pretty cool." Then I stumbled upon the internet, where everyone was, how do you say, FLIPPING OUT. I hadn't been made aware of Scott Pilgrim's basis in the realm of comic books, which, needless to say, only made me like it more. It was drawn and written by Bryan Lee O'Malley, who though I hadn't heard of him, had a really cool style that appealed to my cartoon loving self. This happened to be all around my birthday, and with not much else on my birthday list, I decided to ask for the first 3 books. I was hooked. The protagonist, Scott Pilgrim, is a 20 something, with no job, a few friends, and is lost in life with the exception of his band. He's also comically slow witted. I took a liking to him immediately. I bought the next 2 books, and eagerly awaited the 6th and final book to come out last month.

With such a great love for the books, having now read and enjoyed them all tremendously, the trailers (one in particular) were increasingly amazing as scenes from the movie were almost panel for panel with the comic books. With such a faithful representation, and being directed by the awesome Edgar Wright, who some of you might remember from directing Shaun of the Dead, and Hot Fuzz, the entire nerd community, yours truly included, was throughly stoked.

After letting the movie marinate in my brain juices all weekend I have decided that they had every right to be. Due to time constraints, the story of the movie closely parallels the first three books, then takes its own course, but it remains very faithful regardless. The story is about the previously mentioned Scott, played by Michael Cera, who meets Ramona, and in order to date her has to defeat her Seven Evil Ex's. Video game and pop culture references commence.

The little nods and the amount of references was incredible and vast, from Zelda's Great Fairy Fountain to the Seinfeld scene switch music. The cinematography was also incredible, mimicking the stylized drawing of the books, but at the same time making it aesthetically pleasing and often times hilarious. The mash up of movie stereotypes and the line blurring of comedy, drama and action film with a handful of references interspersed was incredible.

The action scenes were equally as well done. The fighting was as good as I've seen in kung-fu movies nowadays, but was done over a layer of video game stylization, which was what really made me like it. I caught myself during a few of these action scenes thinking, "Wow. I love this movie." I mean, when you have Micheal Cera fighting a legion of bosses, while getting 64 hit combos and coins for defeating them, you know you've just made fanboys' days worldwide.

As I said earlier the subtle sound clues are really good, but at the same time, Scott's band, Sex Bob-Omb plays an integral part in the plot, so there's a lot of music played in the movie, almost all of it written and performed by Beck. I'm no Beck fan, but boy! I really dug the music in this movie. To the point where I am deeply considering downloading the OST off of iTunes. It's that good you audiophiles.

However there are a few detractors. I loved this movie, because I got all the jokes, the subtle little nods, and could kinda empathize with the characters' situation being a 20 year old myself. But if you haven't played a video game in your life, you'll be missing out on a lot of these jokes. The movie is still good on the surface, but it was the little things, and emphasis on detail that really made this movie, "An epic of epic epicness."

If you're in the teens, twenties, or thirties possibly, I'd say this film is right in your wheel house if you like romantic action comedies. Yes, that is the label I am giving this film. Actually, I'm going to call it a romantic nerd action comedy. I am also going to give this film a 9.5 out of 10. I could really watch this movie again. And again. And possibly again. But I might need to pee at some point. But then I'd definitely watch it again. Go see it.

GAME OVER

I Watched Way Too Much TV As A Kid

Or, How I spent my Saturdays for the Majority of my Life.

So I'm hanging out in Amherst, at our brand spankin' new apartment, fighting the router, and lounging around au naturel, when (via Digg.com) I stumbled upon this neat article, listing the 50 Greatest Saturday Morning Cartoons. So of course, I go into this experience knowing that chances are good that I've seen at least a few of these shows.

Turns out a few of these shows meant 36 out of the 50.

And those were just the ones I had seen a few episodes of. I hadn't heard of 5 of them. 45 outta 50 is an A- last time I checked. So naturally I got to thinking, "Wow, I can't imagine how many hours I put into these shows," which of course just got me trying to imagine how many hours I put into these shows. Television was a huge part of my childhood, and probably for a lot of people in their 20's and 30's, but it's weird to think that it wasn't always this way. Our parents somehow managed to go through school every day, walk through their front doors and not crash on the couch in front of the TV. I don't even know what they did when they woke up early on Saturdays.

My routine would be going to school, coming home, "doing homework," (let's be honest here, prime homework hours were before school started the next morning, and in class), and then Toonami would come on Cartoon Network, and I would tell my Mom I was done, even if I wasn't so I could catch my daily cartoon fix. I can remember more than one occasion where I woke up at 6, or 7 on Saturday morning, and sat 5 inches from the TV watching Steve Irwin or some other Australian animal guy talking about animals until the 'toons came on at 8, where I would then plan out my time between Cartoon Network, Fox and The WB. I also remember more than one occasion where my Dad came out to yell at me because the TV was too loud, even though I was sitting 5 inches away.

I've grown up, and I couldn't get up at 6 or 7 on a Saturday morning if I wanted to now, but all that time with these cartoons really did shape my childhood. Cartoons were what got my imagination going. Watching everything from Pokemon to Thundercats to Ninja Turtles, I was always thinking about "What if?" What if I was a ten year old, who left home, alone, to go travel the world, fighting little monsters against each other in an attempt to trap and fight every species? What if I was an anthromorphic lion, with an extendable sword, that got longer everytime I yelled out my team name, who was a king with a mummy for an arch-enemy? What if I was a normal baby turtle who got splashed with chemicals, so that I became human-esque and was taught by a ninja-master-turned-ambilatory-rodent to patrol the cruel streets of New York and protect the citizens from an evil ninja warlord?

The "What if?"'s really became a big part of my life, and while now I'm more into thinking what if this became a career, or I got a job doing that, in the end cartoons really opened the door into a world of unending possibilities that in generations past had only been opened for the fortunate few by books and then radio. I was watching Cartoons way before I got into video games and comic books. So even though a lot of the big hoopla is about getting kids out to play, and getting them off the couch, all I'm saying is I spent a lot of time heavily immersed between the intergalactic peril on TV and the middle cushions of my couch. Letting kids watch Cartoons is a good thing, in moderation. Don't underestimate the potential of letting your kid get lost in some show about a pretty boy, a rich girl, a nerd girl, a stoner and a dog, because when they eventually do get outside, their only going to want to stay there if they can pretend that they're not just in their own backyard, or at the playground, but on the surface of an alien planet, fighting bad guys for possession of 7 magical stones.

So next time you're trying to shuffle your kid out the door, tell them to think happy thoughts... about cartoons.

Review: Inception

Over the last few years, Leonardo DiCaprio has been slowly but surely climbing the rungs of my favorite actors. After earning my unrelenting disdain for his performance in Titanic, he's slowly been working his way back into my good graces with films like Catch Me If You Can, The Departed and more recently with Shutter Island. Inception is another film that elevates him on my list.

Inception is a thinker's film. (My favorite kind.) If you can wrap your head around the initial concepts going into the film, that being the plausibility of going into people's subconscious mind while they're sleeping, you're going to enjoy this film. There are Dreams, within Dreams, within Dreams, and with each increasing level of dreaming comes more action. You pretty much can't go wrong.

Christopher Nolan writes and directs a mean film as evidenced by Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, as well as The Prestige. This film created a world where there is a pandora's box of options. Dreams change person to person, night to night and in a world where people can share dreams it seems like there isn't anything that couldn't happen. But with so many options and variables, obviously there have to be rules. They like to tell you the rules, then proceed to bend them and break them, just because they can. Therein lies the big appeal of this movie. Nobody likes playing by the rules, and the outcome of skirting the rules set up is nothing short of fantastic.

The characters are smart, complex, and definitely likable. Though the film concentrates mostly on Leo's character of Cobb, there is definitely enough plot in there to fill the hundred and forty-eight minutes of screen time. The supporting cast is great, with names like Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page and another favorite actor of mine, Michael Caine.

From Cast to Characters to Story, this film can't go wrong. At the end of the film you're going to be sitting in your seat uttering various one word phrases multiple times, be it, "Wow," "Damn," or "What?" If you can handle the thinking part of the film, then you shouldn't be thinking about it any more. Go see this movie. I'm going to give this one a 9/10.

Helpful Hints Vol.1: How to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse

As everybody knows, or perhaps should know, when it comes to the Zombie Apocalypse it is not a matter of who, what, why, or any other interrogative question other than when?

Hint 1: Stay Calm. Panic will not lead to rational decisions.

Sure, when you hear the news that somewhere in the world humans have indeed risen from the dead and are now stalking the earth in an attempt to feed their hunger for human flesh, you might get a little panicked. Understandable. But after your moment of terror, you should realize that this is the day you've been waiting for.

Hint 2: Practice makes Perfect.

Any responsible human has been training for Z-Day for years. Through video games, movies, and even published survival guides, the future leaders of mankind's survivors have honed their senses and strategies to the point where when this goes down, they'll grab their gear, and hit the road even before the rioters and looters hit the streets. These stoic champions go unnoticed now, but when the time comes, look around for your closest nerd, for he or she has the skill-set to save your sorry butt.

Hint 3: Find the Nerd.

Much like there is an urgent call over the loudspeaker when someone becomes ill on a plane for the Doctor, when you hear that Zombies have arisen, unless you yourself are a nerd, look around you, call out, and run to them for aid. A good nerd will know what to bring, as well as where to go.

Hint 4: Pack light, but for the long haul.

Packing a ton of clothes, smart on some levels, not on others. You don't want to be burdened by excess as when your life is in danger from the un-dead, fashion will not be your priority. Though one's first thought might be to abandon all luxuries and focus purely on weaponry and resources, at the same time, should this be the last time you're in your homestead, take something that will get you through the long nights when the Zombies are at the gates. This includes iPods, paperback books, cell phones, and other portable electronics, as well as their respective chargers. We'll have no idea until Z-Day on whether power will go out, cell service will go down, or blood will rain from the sky, but as electricity and water hopefully won't go right away, packing a few small items with such great value will surely be of use. Flashlights and Radios are a must!

Hint 5: Know where you're going, and get there ASAP.

Now if you're relying on your resident nerd to have this planned out, you're probably going to just have to follow orders in this part, but then it is up to the nerd to have this planned out. Key properties of a good safe haven include:

• Food or some other form of sustenance
• Fences
• A look out, or watch tower
• Tools, or other weapons
• Sturdy
• Scentless, or Scent covering

For example; the Marblehead Garden Center is an ideal place to get through the Zombie Apocalypse. It has fences on all sides, lots of concrete blocks (perfect for building or re-enforcing walls), a basement for storage, a second floor which can see the entirety of the property, plenty of shovels, spades, pick axes, a lot of hoses, direct access to the sewer system, pallets filled with stone for defense, fertilizer for explosives, and foul smelling manure to cover the scent of our human flesh. It also has a huge tractor and a truck which could be used to plow a hole through the horde, and whisk survivors to safety respectively. With a little heads up, and a team of strong men I am positive that I could have that place Zombie proof within 24 hours of the outbreak. And with plenty of dirt, as well as fruit, herbs and vegetables, the Garden Center is a veritable gold mine of survival. It falls to the nerd to have assessed their town and other surrounding areas for this ideal safe haven. Perhaps it is a high school, an abandoned factory or some other location with some of these qualities.

Hint 6: Rely on each other.

I'm not saying let every yahoo into your haven, who happens to walk by. It's the Apocalypse for crying out loud! But if you go to someplace where you trust people, and they trust people, and nobody is leaving any time soon, cooperation is going to be key for your survival.

Hint 7: Get ready for a long one.

Elect a leader, or perhaps leaders if democracy is your thing, hunker in, and start building some shelter, because who knows how long this Apocalypse is gonna take. The Government is going to do everything they can and all that, but who knows how long it's going to take for you and your fellow survivors to be rescued. Defense is the name of the game. I don't care if you hunker down in a gun store, only attack Zombies when absolutely necessary. Zombies will react to noise, as well as movement, and blowing a hole through one Zombie isn't going to make any difference in the whole of it.

Hint 8: Don't get bitten.

Duh. Bitten, scratched, slobbered on; No one knows how this zombie-ness will infect normal humans, and we can only hope it's not airborne. But basically, unless you want to spend the remainder of your days haunting your former compatriots, do yourself and your friends a favor, and leave camp while you still have the ability to make your own decisions.

Hint 9: Look for weaknesses.

Sure, Zombies have traditionally one weakness, this being loss of their central nervous system, or BOOM HEADSHOT. But hey, who knows, if you see that they keep rapidly decaying over time, or have an aversion to water, use it to your advantage! If they have a weakness besides brain loss this Apocalypse could be over sooner than we think!

Hint 10: Stay connected.

Hopefully everything doesn't go to hell in a handbasket and phones and internet stay up. Bar that keep your radio tuned in. I'm sure somebody will broadcast something letting people know what is up. Maybe even if you find the weakness you can save some lives!

Well, that's all for my Helpful Hints, so be sure to be prepared! If nothing else remember: It's not if but when, and don't you dare go to the Garden Center.