That's Shaft I'm Talkin' 'Bout!

Plugs.
Just a new 8 1/2 by Eleven. Number 535. Not really Lucas's best work, but 'tis a set up piece I supposed.

Heroes.
So, Heroes is kind of like a Quentin Tarrantino movie. First they bring back George Takei in a kick ass role, and now, Richard Roundtree. He's a bad motherf- SHUT YOUR MOUTH!. So is Heroes. Nice season ender, with a interesting cliff hanger for Hiro.

Bud Dwyer.
OK, a few of you more morbid types, wanted to know a bit more about the video I posted in yesterday's blog. More specifically about some of the people in the later half of the video: the suicide, and the guy shot in the head while walking by phone booths. The video was a snippet of the Micheal Moore anti-firearms documentary Bowling for Columbine.

The guy blowing his brains out is Bud Dwyer. He was a PA politician, whom after a scandal, basically blew his brains out on live TV after calling a press confernce in 1987. The Filter song Hey Man Nice Shot is based on the incident. You can actually view the entire video at Live Leak (you need to register and present age verification).

The one of the other guy getting shot in front of the phone I remember seeing on TV when I was young. I could not find a ton of info on it and don't remember the names, but the shooter was a father shooting a man who allegedly abused his son.

The Mood of Red Sox Nation.
Well the pitching matchup wasn't good, and I figured this would be a loss. Only 8th inning down by four, we will see. Pitching matchup ain't too good for the tomorrow either.

So uh Clinton Portis . . .
Thinks it's no big deal if Micheal Vick is involved in dog fight, in fact, let's quote the fantasy bust of last year: "If that's what he wants to do, do it. I think people should mind their business." Well Clinton Portis, you see, dog fighting, and using your property for dog fighting is a felony in Virginia. Dumb ass. So with that logic, I should be able to oh, say, murder you?

YAY!
We set a new record today! What, it wasn't a good record, why doesn't anyone ever tell me this?

Your Heroin Addiction.
Is keeping the Taliban alive. That could be a good t-shirt.

Malach's Quote of the Day
One had been dismissed — and subsequently executed — for a foiled assassination attempt on a higher ranking student, a second had been killed in the practice arena, and the third died in his bunk of natural causes — for a dagger in the heart quite naturally ends one's life. - Drizzt Do'Urden

I am Malach and happiness in a warm bath

Takei as in Gay

No Plugs today.
But I am working on a ton of stuff for this week. Unless you consider this a plug.

Heroes.
Man, did they not find the perfect part for Georger Takei? And man, they even got him acting. Awesome show, you don't know what your are missing 24 idiots.

You are Listening too . . .
We begin our journey into the album simple entitled The Beatles (Aka The White Album). Now, before I give some background, this is Malach's favorite Beatles album and what I consider the best album of all time. Again that can be argued. What I like about this album is the influence it has had on modern music, and music of the 70's, 80's, and 90's. The Beatles, moved back toward guitar based rock, and this is perhaps there most experimental album. The Beatles heavily influence 70's rock from the Eagles, Led Zepplin, and the Sex Pistols; was a huge influence on the 80's new wave, Sonic Youth, U2, REM, and Fugazi; and influence on Guns and Roses, Public Enemy, Nirvana, Pearl Jam and most of the music of the late 80's early 90's. Even today, it has an influence on musicians as diverse as Beck, Jay-Z, The OutKast, Jimmy Eat World, and many other musicians. After the Beatles broke all the rules with previous albums, they kind of restructured them for everyone who came after to follow with The Beatles.

This is the best selling Beatles album of all time and the ninth best selling album overall in US history. This album took almost a year to make, and turned into a double album. It also marked abandoning of the Hippie psychedelic style, and a move toward the drug infused rock of the 70's. This Beatles also began to show the very diverse and almost divergent songwriting styles of the three main songwriting members. Lennon's hard edges lyrics, McCartney's piano based ballads, and Harrison's guitar driven ballads. In addition, while time passed for creation of this album, each member began writing solo stuff. Lennon's Jealous Guy, McCartney's Junk, and Harrison's Not Guilty were all written in this time period and later appeared on their solo albums.

Tension and factions began to grow within the group during this time (several things influenced this, I will expand on it more in tomorrow's blog): Epstein's death, their first real artistic and financial failure with the Magical Mystery Tour movie, and a disillusioned Lennon returning from their trip to India. Also, in fighting over who should be the group's new manager, new business ventures with Apple, and Yoko Ono become Lennon's girlfriend and artistic partner added to some of the tension. Ono was constantly with Lennon, and for the first time, girlfriends, wives, and significant others were allowed into the recording studio (many of the songs have backing vocals from Ono, Linda Eastman, Patty Harrison, and others). McCartney and Lennon would at times record in seperate studios, and George Martin's studio authority over the band waned. Additionally, Starr walked out on the band for a period of two weeks. The rest of the band pleaded with him to return, but still recorded Back In the USSR and Dear Prudence with McCartney on drums.

Many of the songs turned out to be very personal songs. Dear Prudence is one of them. The song is about Mia Farrow's sister, Prudence. Prudence was on the trip to India with The Beatles to visit Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Prudence spent the entire time in her room focusing on meditation. Lennon was worried she was depressed and wrote this song for her.

As stated, the song was recorded with McCartney on drums as Ringo had walked out. Lennon also stated this is probably his favorite Beatles song (it is also his son Julian's favorite). The song is very simply written and has a beautiful music behind it. It also shows how the Beatles were moving back to a standard guitar based music.

Those in my age bracket might recall that this song was a huge hit for Siouxsie & the Banshees in the early 80's.

The Mood of Red Sox Nation.
Dice K, complete game win vs. the second best team in the AL, the Tigers. 8.5 up on the Yanks, who are in second. If they win 3 of 4, this could get isane around here. Mood: Unbelieving.

Ahh Eric Rudolph.
I am sure Jesus is proud of you.

The Kinder and Gentler Dubya.
Uh, I guess he back, but what's the catch? I think he has been chumming with Al Gore.

So Chrysler has been sold.
Interestingly to a company that has no experience in automotive. So what's the death pool odds on this one?

Malach's Quote/Video of the Day

I am Malach and yeah Goldie's pretty hot.

Yellow matter custard, dripping from a dead dog's eye

No Plugs today.
You will get some tomorrow though!

Heroes.
Why anyone in the world would continue watching that crappy show 24, and not watch Heroes is beyond me. Idiots, watch it. And Sylar is one of my new favorite villians.

The Murk and Malach Show
Murk apologizes, he has gotten really busy this past month and not been able to update our podcast. Especially since our archive of past podcast in going crazy right now with people listening to it, our feed also has close to 80 subscribers. He is going to try to finish it up this week.

Another reason not to live in Kansas.
Tornados. Seriously, have you seen pictures or video of this destruction? It is absolutely amazing only 10 people were killed.

Now imagine.
You are the marketing department for a new energy drink, and you need to come up with a name. So the brain trust decides "Cocaine" would be a great name . . .

King Herod.
Perhaps the most famous person in the New Testament beyond Christ, St. Peter, Judas, and Mary. After all these years, they find his burial tomb. It will be very interesting to see what they pull out of it.

So you got this earache.
And you head to the Doctor's only to find 2 spiders, the size of pencil erasers in you ear. I got to give the kid credit he is taking it well. Although he did state he was kind of dissapointed the spiders did not turn him into Spiderman, cause if they did, he could make fortune.

Americans Love the Queen.
Epecially those of use like Malach who wonder how long she's got left to live, I really want to see Prince Charles as King. GOD SAVE THE QUEEN!

Bye Bye Photobucket.
What's next for MySpace?

Phil Spector.
Demonic? NO WAY!

Malach's Quote/Video of the Day
What I'm saying is, if God wanted to send us a message, and ancient writings were the only way he could think of doing it, he could have done a better job. - Carl Sagan.

I am Malach and I let my knickers down

"Manny Just Being Manny"

First the plugs.

Only one, Sunshine number 32 is up, and I must say, Kingy Mingy is my new hero. Also my finger is feeling much better and I should be able to start up finishing off the next Wraith comic. Some people were worried about the finger.

You Are Listening Too . .

Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!, of The Beatles magnum opus, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The song is a Lennon/McCartney collaboration, with more of Lennon than McCartney. The entire song is based upon a promotional poster for a circus Lennon purchased at an Antiques shop (Poster is at left). It is perhaps, beyond a Day in the Life, the most musically complex song on the album. In Lennon attempt for the song to have a surreal carnival atmosphere, multiple recording sessions featuring organ noise, harmonica, and overdubbed guitar were used. Lennon told George Martin, he wanted "to smell the sawdust on the floor" in the middle eight bars of the song. In an attempt to do that Martin and sound engineer Geoff Emerick spliced in calliope and circus music, Lennon was not happy. In a sort of frustrated inspiration, Martin and Emerick chopped up the slice into random pieces with scissors, and re-assembled it at random. Lennon was fairly critical of the song, but in 1980 did state the song was "pure, like a painting". This song was one of three songs banned from the BBC for it supposed drug references. "Henry the Horse" at the time was known slang for heroin, but Lennon always denied this.

Musically, there is a ton of mixing, a excellent drum session from Ringo. Some very trippy organ arrangments and mixes . . . cool stuff.

The Mood of Red Sox Nation.

Lost yesterday, and getting destroyed by the Blue Jays right now . . mood, bring back the Yankees.

In a related story. Malach talks a bit about Manny Ramirez. Manny is a bit of a flake, quite an enigma, and perhaps and idiot savant. Manny rarely talks to the Boston media, which pisses them off to no end. Of course they all love Bill Bellichick, but he can talk for 2 hours and give you less that what Manny does by not talking, but that is another blog.

Well, Ben McGrath of The New Yorker magazine has a 7 page article in this month's issues called Waiting for Manny. A MUST READ for any Red Sox fan, or any sports fan. You can read it's entirety here. Now you will have some idea when I write it's "Just Manny Being Manny".

We missed this yesterday . .

But that walking bottle of vodka Boris Yeltsin died.

The Russia-Alaska Tunnel.

This could make world travel very interesting. Could be quite a train tour built up from something like this.

Fat Bug would enjoy this.

You see Virginia, there is Kryptonite.

MMMMMM

Elusive two-horned Borneo rhino.

Did you miss?

Heroes last night? Shame on you if you did. Jack Bauer sucks.

So let me get this straight.

If you wanted to get an abortion, and lived in Mexico, you would have to come to the US to do it? That seems a bit backward to me, no? Now that Miss Alanis Morrisette is IRONIC!

Ohh Willie.

I tell my clients this all the time, if you want to smoke pot, do it at home.

Malach's Quote/Video of the Day

I am Malach and when I'm called off, I got a sawed off, squeeze the trigger, and bodies are hauled off.