What can I say I’m a sucker for apocalyptic/post apocalyptic blockbusters. My type is comparable to those who make up the traffic before the scene of a car crash, except with people flocking to theaters to see the earth implode/explode, and mankind perish ultimately. 2012 had that trailer that sucked me right in. The one with the airplane flying through crashing buildings. remember? So the story is pretty much the run of the mill, earth is going to end because the sun is acting up and earth’s core is getting too hot and the Mayans predicted all of this happens in the year 2012 blah blah blahhhh. But the Mayans are mentioned once MAYBE twice. Can this tired storyline get any less predictable? BUT it’s NOT the tectonic plates! fuck the tectonic plates man they should have just made it them in the first place because it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. However, they assure you it’s not them so don’t even think about blaming it on the plates. Who gives a fuck really?! Adrian Helmsley is a scientist who figures out from another scientist in India that the earth is going to end. As that story develops and unfolds, John Cusack who plays the main role as Jackson Curtis, a failed author and husband, stumbles across Woody Harrelson as Charlie Frost, a deranged radio host/conspiracy theorist who seems to know the earth is going to end. And then the buildings collapse and the ocean takes out the world as Cusack tries to save his family. 2012 took unrealistic to another level. Jam packed with amazing imagery of the Earth and it’s natural destruction, there is enough suspense to keep you on the edge of your seat and tide you over until the next one of these rolls around. Suspense and Imagery are the the ONLY two things that keep this movie going and maybe kept it going for an hour longer than it should have. They should’ve killed off an hour and a couple more characters. Maybe I should’ve waited in line for New Moon? 3/5
I figure it’s been a while since I actually wrote something discussing what I’ve been up to. Well I’ve been pretty wrapped up in trying to make life better so that I can make better music, if that makes any sense. There were some ultimate highs and lows since Scifentology II dropped and I’ve decided nearly two years later that it’s time to take a break from touring and playing shows for a little while (not too long) to try and finish up my Gas Galaxy EP, and another project that has been under wraps for quite sometime now, before I go back out. For those that have been following my twitter and who know me personally, you may know that for about the last 6 months I’ve been putting together a small but adequate studio set up at home and getting it up and running so I can be more productive musically and literally produce, explore, and learn the engineering/software aspect of it. It’s a challenge I’ve been pretty animate about and with the help of some of my tremendously talented friends, specifically one who is not with us anymore, it’s gotten very serious. I think what will come out of it, when it does, is going to showcase a new step in the way I approach my music and one that has already taught me much more than I knew prior to going in. Gas Galaxy is almost finished but I’ve decided I had to further perfect some things and add one more song, which I’m in the process of making right now. At this stage I’ve become a lot more nitpicky about songs although now the outcome will be exactly how I intended for them to be, where that wasn’t necessarily the case in the past. I believe as an artist, getting your art as close to what you think defines perfect, is something you never stop working towards. At least for me it is. If you came to the last couple of shows, you saw I played two new songs from the ep aside from Gas Galaxy to see how they would go over and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised at the response from songs that people never heard prior. I mean EXTREMELY amped. 2009 was a great year for working with new people and accomplishing things that I never have before. CCWM is as strong as ever and moving at a pace that would be hard for anyone to keep up with let alone those of us who are involved. Glad those of you, new fans and old, are around for the ride and in our company as we put out new music and play shows. We just make the music and hope you continue to move forward with us as we approach the last year of another decade, and beyond for that matter. I expect Gas Galaxy to come out early 2010 now and I think it’s appropriate to wait until this year is over anyway to put out my next release. Some people have been asking about what happened to the monthly blog I wrote on Definitivejux.net. Basically I took a break from that too in order to free up some more time to concentrate on new tunes and not have to worry about making another deadline, in life. I’m going to make an effort to write more here at yakballz.net, aside from the normal video/picture updates, movie reviews etc. Expect the unexpected. I wish you all well, a happy holidays, and a sincere THANK YOU for supporting what the fuck I do.
I went to Paranormal Activity expecting to see a horror movie in the same vein as The Blaire Witch Project as I heard all the comparisons and how this movie is on it’s way to being the most profitable in terms of profit margin compared to what it took to make it. Unfortunately this movie was not really scary to me. I wouldn’t compare it to Blaire Witch anyway except for the use of the handheld cam POV, which has since been done with much greater success in my opinion. I’ll put it this way, there are two scenes that were “scary” and I saw one of them in the trailer. Without completely ruining it for you, the premise goes like this. A young couple lives in a house in San Diego and the female happens to have been haunted by a demon for the majority of her life. The boyfriend decides to try to capture it on film and audio and is very successful at it. The characters were a little annoying and mildly entertaining at best. Every point of view you see is through the camera he/she is using throughout the film. It takes some time for things to get rolling, building suspense, but the pay off in certain scenes didn’t really pay at all. And waiting for something I was hoping for started to become more and more frustrating as it progressed. On the bright side, this movie was short (90+ minutes) and definitely kept my attention, even through the anticlimactic scenes. I feel like I would have liked it more if I watched it at home….and I’d also be a few dollars richer. As an indie flick, yeah I can dig it for what it is I guess, but major motion picture? not so sure about that. (2/5)
