Entourage Season 3 (Part 1) has Ended...

...and with that, so does Emmanuelle Chriqui's time on my blog. One last look before we trade her in for a newer model.

Also, I'm a little sad that the show ended on Sunday Night. It's such a fun show and the 30 minutes (yea, it's more like 22-25, even on HBO) goes by soo quickly, I'm always left yelling "Already!?!" when the credits roll. Sad to see Ari get fired, but I have a feeling that won't last. Oh, and I swear I'm going to punch the next person that says "This show sucks without Ari." He's not leaving the show people. I have no idea where that came from.

Also, there was definetly not enough Sloane this year. She was only in a few episodes around the middle of the season.

Here's to hoping the show makes it back before March, as it's scheduled to come back the same time as Sopranos.

The "Pinch Rolled Jean" Look May Be Coming Back

I saw it again this morning on the train to work. It was a young brotha with his jeans sagging and pinch rolled above his Fila hightops.

I wasn't fast enough to get my camera phone out and take a picture. I will try to be better prepared next time to bring you proof.

It seems that fashion flashback has advance up to the '80s. I'm not too sure that I'm excited about this.

UPDATE: 8.30.06; 7:25 AM (Isn't it cooler to put periods in the date instead of hyphens. I think it is.)
Saw him again today. Still had the pinch roll. I even took a picture, but you couldn't see the actual "pinch roll". The sagging jeans were covering it up, and he was already headed in the opposite direction before I can get another shot. I'll try again tomorrow.

UPDATE: 9.8.06; 2:21 PM
I have obtained pictures! Taken yesterday morning, I got a good shot of the offender's jeans while on the escalator.
Behold:

Now you can laugh with me.

1st Impressions: Outkast - Idlewood and DMX - AGAIN"

After 1 listen each yesterday, I'm liking both albums. DMX seems a little mellower than what he used to be, which is a shame, cause I like him when he's mad. Of course, he includes a prayer (which I always like) and a song which is like his conversation to (or sometimes with) God. To me, that's usually the highlight of the album. I had to laugh when somebody on the album broke out with the lyrics "Ma ma say, ma ma sa, ma ma ma coo sa".

Outkast's Idlewood, which doubles as a soundtrack to their movie of the same name is something different for them. I believe the movie is set in the Prohibition era, and the 20's-30's era music is exactly what you would think of having heard the cd. The duo always seems to reinvent themselves or try something new and different with each passing album, and this one's no different. I like this new sound. It's catchy as hell and I can see, with a few more listens, these songs would get stuck in my head. The song "Morris Brown" is the single out and it's pretty doing a pretty good job of getting stuck in my head.

I'll definetly give them a few more spins each and hopefully come up with a final review.

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF CASH MCMOGULSON

Have you guys heard the stories about Cash McMogulson? He's a Dallas deal-maker and overall awesome guy.

-THE LIFE AND TIMES OF CASH MCMOGULSON- A Dallas Deal-Maker and Overall Awesome Guy

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF CASH MCMOGULSON - Chapter 2 Cash Branches Out

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF CASH MCMOGULSON - Chapter 3

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF CASH MCMOGULSON - Chapter 4 Cash's Cougar Safari

Dallasites should get the joke right away. Everyone else, may need someone to explain it to them.

Credit has to go to the MySpace User Katherine. Apparently she's the original creater of Cash and there has been some imitations from other people. I'm just trying to give credit where credit is due. Hilarious work Katherine. Hilarious. I, and many people at Texags.com await your next installment.

Rhymefest - Blue Collar

I like it. I really did. It was something different. It kinda reminded me of Ol' Dirty Bastard, which is a good thing. ODB is even on one of the songs, singing the chorus to "Build Me Up Buttercup". I thought that was hilarious. If you were a fly on the wall, you could hear me singing it for the next few days.

I also enjoyed the song "Bullet" with Citizen Cope. "Tell a Story" was also another song that stood out to me. "Brand New" with Kanye will probably be, if it isn't already, the next single. Anything Kanye does right now seems to be hot. Right now, the single that has been released is "Dynamite", which is also pretty good. I believe iTunes gave it away for free as the single of the week. "All Girls Cheat" is a song you just have to listen to. Hilarious.
I'm definetly glad I took a chance on this cd, buying it while never having listened to it. Way to go Best Buy for pricing it soo cheap at $7.99 that I had felt comfortable taking a chance on it. See RIAA. Price the CDs cheaper and maybe people would buy them more.

Chuck Palahniuk - Invisible Monster

I finished this on the train to work this morning. Took me a little longer than the previous books because I took some days off and just stared out the window of the train or played my Nintendo DS. Sometimes, I caught a little nap. Anyway.

The last few chapters I read pretty quickly. That was some freakin revelation at the end, that Chuck seems to do rather easily. They "twist" hasn't gotten old for me and this is the 4th book of his I've read. I'm soo engrossed in the book by the time I'm getting near the end, that I'm not looking for a twist. There are people that go into M. Night Shamalan movies lookin for the twist, and I think that takes you out of the movie.

This book, more than any of his others that I've read jumps back and forth in time to tell the story. That in itself makes it a little hard to keep up. The author (or I guess the main charactor Shannon) would say "Jump back to the time I was..." in the middle of a chapter. It's a little hard to get used to, but afterward, you find out that the flashback is helping tell the present story and helping flesh out the main character.

So far I would rank my favorite CP's books as:
Fight Club - I love it. Saw the movie way before the book. The book made it better. Awesome.
Survivor - This definetly needs to be made into a movie next. Excellent book. Fincher, where are you?
Invisible Monster - I liked it alot. A little easier to understand the theme in this book than in Choke. The twist at the end was excellent. I could see this one as a movie, but it would need a great director to help flesh it out so it would work as a movie.
Choke - Not quite as good as the others, but that's mainly cause I didn't quite understand the theme of the book and what the author was trying to say. Some great "LOL" moments as well as some cringe worthy and shocking moments in this one as well. The twist (although this one should probably be called a reveal), wasn't as exciting as in the other books. Still, a good worthwhile read.

John Legend

Get Lifted was probably my favorite album from last year. Amazing cd, that I immediately fell in love with. John Legend quickly became a favorite of mine and Number 1 is the most played song on my iTunes. His Grammys were well deserved.

Well now he's got a new album coming out later this year, and a new single "Save Room" that is already out and already stuck in my head. I think it's fantastic. It's a little different from his 1st album, but I would expect that. I'm anxious for the new cd.

Check it out:

EDIT: Well apparently, Blogger doesn't let you link to Azureus. Guess you'll have to get it on your own. I definetly recommend it though.

Cats That Look Like Hitler

Cats That Look Like Hitler

Yes your little feline.

Yes, that Hitler.

I thought this shit was funny as all hell. I thought you might like it as well.

Another random website brought to you my yours truly, courtesy of TexAgs.

Edited to add other weird cat lover sites:

Stuff on My Cat

Not all the pictures on the site may be that weird, but Cat People in gereral are just weird.

Bonsai Kitten is another funny one, and I remember the hilarity when people thought it was real. Now I'm not sure the website is still there. It's been 5-6 years since I first saw it.

Friday Night Fights

1st fight went the distance...6 rounds. 1 guy looked like he was throwing and landing more. The opponent seemed to be throwing (and landing) with more power. He ended up winning by decision.

The next fight was over in 24 seconds. The opponent would not defend himself, and the ref called it. TKO. I litterally saw about 3-4 really good punches from the winner before it was called.

The next fight I missed completely. I went to the bathroom. Walked back in right to hear the bell go off. I learned later it was a TKO.

The main event. Holyfield vs. Jermey Bates.
Over in 2 rounds. TKO. The picture shows the best hit Bates landed at the beginning of the 2nd round. By the end of the same round, he was backed up against the ropes and Holyfield was "wailing" on him. I use that term loosely, cause while Holyfield threw like 20-25 punches, none of them were haymakers. The ref stepped in and called it.

We didn't even stay for the remaining fights. They pushed 2 fights back until after the main event. We stayed until the official decision, and for Evander to walk around the ring thanking people.

The night was started off at Al Biernat's for their "Restaurant Week" special. 6 of us, at 35 bucks a piece, 2 appetizers, 1 $60 bottle of wine (that was suppossed to be a $30 bottle) plus some cocktails, tip equals $400 bill. It was good, but my prime rib didn't last very long. :(

P.S. I know it's been a while since my last blog. It's not that I've forgotten to write, it's that I haven't had much time. Work's been real busy and so have I when I'm at home. Not much time to update, but I don't think you've missed anyting.

For the Love of the Game

This was the baseball movie with Kevin Costner. Wait. Let me rephrase that. This was one of like 3 or 4 baseball movies Kevin Costner has done (I don't think he's done yet). A bit of a chick flick, but it has sports in it, so it's okay. Pretty similar to Jerry Maguire actually, which is another one of my favorites. It's before Tom Cruise turned into a giant douche, but I digress. Originally I saw this movie when it was released on DVD. I liked it, but didn't give it much thought. It was good, Kelly Preston is a total babe, and it had a feel good ending. Costner is a solid actor (at least in baseball movies). Since that first viewing, I've seen the end of the movie on multiple occasions on cable.

About a month ago, I was laying on the couch watching movies or dvds or something (vegging out - how the hell do you spell that anyway?), when I caught this movie right at the beginning on Encore. Now the kicker is, it was about 3am on a Saturday. No I didn't go out that night. I was just chilling at home doing my own thing. I'm not a loser, you're the loser....No you are! Back to the movie. I stayed up the rest of the night and watched it. It was damn near 5 AM and the horizon was starting to get lighter. This time, the movie stayed with me. I loved it. I really did. It took about 2 full viewings, but something clicked for me. Not quite sure what it was, but it really elevated this movie into a whole another category, a sentiment that was shared by my younger brother, even though I didn't think he had seen this movie. Now I'm thinking about picking up the movie on DVD, especially it being so cheap. That would pretty much guarantee that I would never watch it again.

Funny, how sometimes watching a movie once isn't enough. I can watch a good movie multiple times and get something new out of it every time. I'll catch a new line that I didn't hear the 1st time, or I'll find something funny, that I didn't think was funny years ago when I first saw it. Like, I didn't realize when Forrest Gump is in his underwear in Jenny's dorm room, his clothes being all wet from the rain, that Forrest "sneezes in his pants". Years after first seeing the movie, I'm laughing at something new (to me). In Karate Kid, Johnny's smoke weed in the boys bathroom during the Halloween dance. When I was a kid, I just thought is was a cigarette. Anyways, those are just two examples out of many more, but you get the point.

Sometimes, I don't really find anything new. Sometimes, it's just a damn good movie that I can't change the channel to no matter how many times I've seen it. Apollo 13, Shawshank Redemption, (hell, even Bring it On), which are movies that I don't own (well now I own Shawshank), always get watched when they are on tv. Something about them just sucks me in. I swear TBS played Apollo 13 every weekend one summer, and I watched it damn near every weekend. Sad thing is, I held my breath every time we were waiting for the chutes to deploy.

Pharrell - In My Mind

I dunno what to say about this. I'm actually a little disappointed in this effort. I've given it a 3-4 good listens and there really isn't a track that stands out in my mind. There's a nice verse by Jay-Z on Young Girl, and Nelly is on "Baby", another song that isn't too bad. The hit single right now with Gwen Stefani "Can I have it Like That" isn't anything special. I actually think she's wasted on that song. I can't really say I was impressed with Kanye's track, Number 1. I can't even remember what Snoop's song sounded like, and that's saying something as I'm a big fan of the S-N-double O-P.

I like the N.E.R.D. albums. I really like the Neptunes Presents...Clones album. I'm going to go ahead and say I'm dissapointed. I'll put this album away for a bit and then revisit it later. Maybe something will stick out by then.

Chuck Palahniuk's Choke

Yesterday on the train ride home, I finished Chuck Palahniuk's Choke and I must say I'm impressed. While I didn't quite like it as much as I liked Survivor, which I thought was amazing, I still had a great time reading it.
After reading Fight Club, then Survivor, I pretty much had Chuck's style down. Even so, I did not see the twist coming at the end. Great stuff.

Chuck's characters, especially the protagonist, always seem very likeable, even though they are pretty f'ed up and are what you would normally call "bad guys". You find yourself rooting for the bad guys. I love when a book or a movie can make me do that. That really fucks with my sense of right and wrong and makes me rethink my stance on things. Love it.

I also like the way Chuck has done his research extremely well because his books are always filled with random, but useful information. I'm curious to see if it's actually true, or something he made up. (I've heard it's true.) Denny's a dropout med school student with a sexual addiction. So in the book, you get to learn some medical terms and ailments as well as what goes on in rehab. In flashbacks, you see that Denny's mother teaches him things that you wouldn't learn in school, but are helpful to know in real life. For example, he learns about the "codes" given over a P.A. system in an airport, grocery store, department store. It's pretty interesting stuff.

My only complaint is I sometimes have a hard time figuring out what the hell is going on. That may be partly due to the writer's style, but I would probably peg most of the blame on my ADD.

I'm going to start Invisible Monster next. I expect it to be just as good as this one was.

Gaki no Tsukai!!!!

Apparently, this is a Japanese game show called Gaki no Tsukai or タイトルコール噛んだらダメよ　ガキの使い for short.
I have no idea what they're saying, although I wish I did. Even so, I would sit and watch this all day. What is it about shots to the nuts that I find so funny?

After a little research, it turns out that they have to say tongue twisters correctly, or they get it in the neither region.

Genius idea if I do say so myself.

GTA: Saint's Row

I played the demo last night, downloading it off of Marketplace. It was a fun time, but I think my title describes this game perfectly. That's what they should of called this game. It's pretty much a rip off of GTA. Even most of the controls are the same. The shooting mechanic is done a little bit better than the GTA series does it. The driving is much improved, as it seems they've installed what would be called a navagation system on the map, showing you where turn on the map and everything. The difference in handling and sound of each car is minimal, but that may be contributed to the demo. We'll see how the final game comes out. There are not helicopters or motorcycles in the game though, so that's a bummer. The health system is a little different, as in I found it much harder to die than GTA. The language and humor is very similar to what you heard and saw in San Andreas (Freckle Bitch being what they called "Wendy's".
I will probably end up picking up this game, baring any reviews completely blasting this game, as I liked what I played and I like the type of game this is. It should hold me over until Oct. 2007 when GTA IV comes out.

New Music in the iPod

I think I've exhuasted The Raconteurs and Arctic Monkeys. Both albums I liked greatly.
Very easy to listen to all the way through.

The Arctic Monkeys I liked, but then again, I've liked the whole Brit Pop scene(wave/explosion/resurgence?) lately. Very catchy, very fast paced. There were specifically 3-4 songs (including the current single "Look good on the dance floor") that I really found catchy on here, although I caught myself listening to the entire album multiple times. I even caught my self saying "all you people are vampires" a number of times. Great Stuff and will definetly be adding it to the rotation.

The Raconteurs I also liked quite a lot, although I'm not sure how to describe their sound. It's like slow rock/blues music. They remind me of a band that you would book at a high school dance. I may have seen them in a John Hughes movie somewhere. Jack White, from the White Stripes is in the band, sans Meg. It's an interesting sound the band has and it's very easy to listen to. I liked it, and I would recommend it.

Anyway, it's time to load up some new stuff.

I've been listening to 2 new CDs lately. Rhymefest's Blue Collar and Pharrell's In My Mind.
I'm liking Rhymefest's album. Very creative. He's getting alot of love from the reviewers. The Build Me Up Buttercup cover with O.D.B. is great.

I'm a little dissapointed in Skateboard P's album. (God, after 2 spins, it was already getting on my nerves). I expected more outta Pharrell on this. His production seems 2nd rate.
I'll have more on both of these albums in a week or so when I get a few more listens in.

Also, I'm lookin to pick up the new DMX album this week. Early reviews have been pretty favorable. X just got outta jail again for something, so hopefully he's a little pissed off. Makes for a better album.

That, mixed in with a few different podcasts (Ricky Gervais, LCVG, Major Nelson) pretty much sums up my music listening. I've been trying to stay away from my "Most Often Played" playlist, and for the most part, I have.

Bob Log III

Bob Log III is a God.Damn.Genius. (Sorry Lord, but that's how the quote goes) He just made the most outstanding song I've ever heard. He must have an I.Q. of 160. Bob Log III, you are goddamn gifted.

Nobody knows who Bob Log III is. Nobody knows how old he is. People are not quite sure what he looks like. He's been rumored to be anybody from Tom Waits to somebody from the Strokes.

From wikipedia:
Bob Log III is a lo-fi blues one-man band based in Tucson, Arizona. He is well known for performing in a flight helmet and singing through a telephone headset attached to the helmet. He plays slide guitar and a bass drum at the same time as well as using a drum machine and various effects.
When Bob Log III was a child, he lost his left hand in a boating accident. It was soon replaced with a monkey paw, and a new guitar style was born.

Now, on to the GREATEST SONG EVER WRITTEN which happens to combine 2 of my loves in life. This must of been what Tenacious D wrote their tribute song. It's called Boob Scotch. Yeah, that's right. Boob, as in mammary gland + scotch, as in single malt, whiskey aged 12,18 or 21 years. It's the genius that he combines them both. The video is on his website and probably on google videos or youtube.

I've found my new anthem. It's my theme song. The intro to my sitcom. The song to play over the closing credits of my movie. Boob Scotch. Genius.