Led Zeppelin tour in ‘08? It would be big. Potentially one of the biggest ever. I’m talking, of course, about the increased chatter regarding a Led Zeppelin reunion tour for 2008 featuring founding members Robert Plant on vocals, Jimmy Page on guitar and John Paul Jones on bass, with Jason Bonham, son of the late Zep drummer John Bonham, manning the skins.
Archive for July, 2007
The girl in the tunnel. Suzanne Brenchley was on Punt Road when she saw her past flash by.
Today marked the 7 month anniversary for Sam and I. Proof positive that we are not like other couples in love is the fact that on this special day - rather than spend it with wine & roses - we found ourselves trawling through underground stormwater drains.
After a couple of unsuccessful attempts at finding the whereabouts of the Hawthorn drains, I shot an email off to one of Melbourne’s premiere street-artists and he kindly gave us directions.
I loaded the directions onto our iPod and off we went in search of the elusive drains.
Last week, we struggled to find them but this week with directions in tow - we got to them easily enough.
Here we were, a couple of 30-somethings (ahem!) trawling through hidden holes in fences and climbing down precarious metal rungs to an underground drain network that seemed to run for quite a distance in both directions.
Gawd it was fun! We explored some of the art and graffiti on the walls and took photos of some of the better ones.
Highlight of the day would definitely have been when we climbed out of them onto a suburban quiet Hawthorn street. Sam squeezed through a hole in the fence, yours truly feeling less adventurous - climbed over the fence and barely missed a protruding rusty nailed which nearly impaled my ass!
We then trekked back to the car after walking into a local Milk Bar where I bought a lemonade and Sam some candy! That scene alone made me laugh out loud and I said to Sam "Look at us! We really should know better than this…"
I felt like a kid again. She has this effect on me time and time again.
Bottom line, we had a great time. And the past seven months have been nothing short of some of the best times of my life… here’s to you babe! Thanks for coming into my life!
p.s. cheers to Happy for the directions!
Sir Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, starring Harrison Ford, is one of the most important science-fiction movies of the 20th Century - the film with immeasurable influence on society for its futuristic depiction of a post-apocalyptic, dystopian world, a film perhaps more powerful and relevant today than when it was made. The film, in fact, has appeared on more ‘Top Five’ sci-fi lists than any other film.
In celebration of its 25th anniversary, director Ridley Scott has gone back into post production to create the long-awaited definitive new version, which Warner home video will unveil on DVD December 18th in the U.S. Blade Runner: The Final Cut, spectacularly restored and remastered from original elements and scanned at 4K resolution, will contain never-before-seen added/extended scenes, added lines, new and improved special effects, director and filmmaker commentary, an all-new 5.1 Dolby Digital audio track and more.
A showcase theatrical run is also being planned for New York and los Angeles October 5.
The Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche Online. God is dead!
What you are, what you want, what you love doesn’t matter. It’s all about how you sell it. From AMC and the Emmy® Award-winning executive producer and writer of “The Sopranos” Matthew Weiner, comes MAD MEN, a provocative new primetime drama about how to sell the truth. Set in 1960 New York, the daring new series is about the lives of the ruthlessly competitive men and women of Madison Avenue advertising, an ego-driven world where key players make an art of the sell while their private world gets sold. The 13-episode, one-hour original program produced by Lionsgate premieres Thursday, July 19 at 10 PM | 9C.
Created, executive produced and written by Weiner, the drama series stars Jon Hamm (We Were Soldiers), Elisabeth Moss (The West Wing), Vincent Kartheiser (Angel), January Jones (We Are Marshall) and Christina Hendricks (Kevin Hill), and guest stars John Slattery (Desperate Housewives), Rosemarie DeWitt (Standoff), Talia Balsam (All the Kings Men) and legendary stage and screen star Robert Morse (How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying). Michael Gladis (Third Watch), Aaron Staton (The Nanny Diaries), Rich Sommer (The Devil Wears Prada), Maggie Siff (Michael Clayton) and Bryan Batt (La Cage Aux Folles) round out the cast.
The Setting: In 1960, advertising agencies were an all-powerful influence on the masses. Personal and professional manipulation and sexual exploits defined the workplace and closed the deals. The high profile Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency created advertising campaigns – from cigarettes to political candidates — better than anyone. It was a time of great ferment. Women had barely begun to come into their own. Librium and birth control were on the move. Ethics in the workplace, smoke-free environments, sexual harassment and ethnic diversity were workshops of the future.
The Premise: The series depicts the sexual exploits and social mores of this most innovative yet ruthless profession, while taking an unflinching look at the ad-men who shaped the hopes and dreams of Americans on a daily basis.
The Players: The series revolves around the conflicted world of Don Draper (Hamm), the biggest ad man (and ladies man) in the business, and his colleagues at the Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency. As Don makes the plays in the boardroom and the bedroom, he struggles to stay a step ahead of the rapidly changing times and the young executives nipping at his heels. The series also depicts authentically the roles of men and women in this era while exploring the true human nature beneath the guise of 1960 traditional family values.
A sneak peek is available after the jump and if you are so inclined, here’s a link to the Torrent file.
Ministry’s Al Jourgensen with Fear Factory’s Burton C. Bell who guests on the album
What do Ministry’s Al Jourgensen and President George W. Bush have in common? Besides not a whole heck of a lot, both will soon be moving on from their current gigs. Yes, the last-ever Ministry studio album, ‘The Last Sucker’, will be released on September 18 (13th Planet/Megaforce) followed by a world tour in 2008, and then, after 11 studio albums and 27 years, including four Grammy nominations (’N.W.O.’ in 1993, ‘Bad Blood’ in 2000, ‘The Great Satan’ in 2005, and the ‘Rio Grande Blood’ track ‘LiesLiesLies’ in 2006), Jourgensen will lay Ministry to rest and focus on expanding his borderland compound, 13th Planet Records.
“I’ve got a lot of side-projects and new projects I want to focus on,” explained Jourgensen. “We have our our own label, 13th Planet Records, we’re building, and I want to sign, produce and collaborate with other artists. Being in the studio writing, recording and collaborating is my favorite part of this snake-oil industry. I’d rather be behind the console than behind the mic. Plus, I kinda like the synchronicity of Dubya and Ministry riding off into the sunset hand in hand.”
In addition to being Ministry’s final studio album, the 11-track ‘The Last Sucker’ is the third in an unrelenting and uber-critical CD trilogy aimed at exposing the plethora of foils, failures and fabrications perpetrated by the George W. Bush administration. ‘The Last Sucker’, which follows ‘Houses of the Mole’ (2004) and ‘Rio Grande Blood’ (2006), is the final nail in the Dubya coffin. To represent the Prez accurately, Jourgensen interspersed snippets of Dubya sound bites and samples throughout ‘The Last Sucker’. “My engineer and I were hunched over a computer for nights on end listening to this fucking idiot until our minds were numb,” he said. “I mean, I’m absolutely stupider for listening to his drivel for such concentrated periods of time, but I viewed including these sound bites as a necessary evil.”
Another prime target in the Bush administration who takes it on the chin from Jourgensen’s finger-pointing on ‘The Last Sucker’ is our beloved Veep. The track ‘The Dick Song’ pretty much sums up Jourgensen’s sentiment: “I’ve got a person that scares me to death…First name is Dick and you all know the rest… Dick Cheney Son of Satan…He is the Chosen One.” The new album also features a propane-powered cover of The Door’s’ ‘Roadhouse Blues’, and the album’s dual closers, ‘The End of Days’ (Parts One and Two) captures every single element of Ministry’s pioneering uniqueness in the world of industrial music.
‘The Last Sucker’ was produced and recorded this past spring by Jourgensen at his 13th Planet compound just outside of El Paso, TX, and sees the return of ‘Rio Grande Blood’ musicians Thomas Victor (Prong) on guitars, Paul Raven (Killing Joke, Prong) on bass, with newcomer guitarist Sin Quirin from The Revolting Cocks 2006 touring line-up. Jourgensen and his engineer John “Bixby” Bilberry handled all the drum programming. In addition, Burton C. Bell from Fear Factory makes a vocal appearance on ‘Die In A Crash’, as well as the album’s final two songs, ‘End of Days’ parts One and Two.
Jourgensen, whom the Chicago Sun-Times’ music critic Jim DeRogatis called “smart, outrageous [and] bitingly funny,” remembered, “I lived through Watergate. I was twelve years old and already briefed and reading the [Watergate] papers, so I was very cognizant at an early age of the corruption that can exist in the U.S. government. So I don’t grab my heart and have a heart attack over the ’shock’ of how corrupt things are today.”
“The Last Sucker” track listing:
01. Let’s Go
02. Watch Yourself
03. Life Is Good
04. The Dick Song
05. The Last Sucker
06. No Glory
07. Death and Destruction
08. Roadhouse Blues
09. Die In A Crash
10. End of Days Part One
11. End of Days Part Two
(via Blabbermouth)
Look for a full Dogmatic review in the next few days! (Killer album folks! Killer!)
New X-Files movie ‘coming soon’. A new film reviving the cult 1990s TV series The X-Files is moving closer to being made, according to reports.
