Raising Sand

Last night I went to see the Raising Sand concert. I know a guy that saw it in Nashville and said it was the best show he has ever seen. Mind you, this guy sees a lot of concerts, so that recommendation from him was huge. So off I went.

The show was great, but what I really wanted to discuss was how freakin' cool Robert Plant is. The man has to be 65, and he was basically doing a glorified chicken dance on stage. But he was still the coolest guy in the world. He did the thing where the he kicks the bottom of the mic stand and holds it upside down and sings into the mic. When some young singer does that move in a club, he looks like a douche. When Robert Plant does it, it is the coolest move you have ever seen.

Seriously. Much like Brad Pitt eating a chili dog in Ocean's 11, Robert Plant does something and infuses it with a level of cool that we normal mortals will never match.

Fourth of July

The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays. I love getting together with friends and grilling out. I love the fireworks. This was a good 4th.

I had friends over, grilled Tuscan brick chicken, we played Rock Band, and then watched fireworks in the front yard.

Great day, great day.

AI Finale Part 3

...and yet David Cook wins it all comfortably. I know that makes the redhead happy. (Don't tell her, but I was pretty good with it too...)

Idol finale

David Archuleta kicked David Cook's ass. Plain and simple.

I'll still buy both of their albums though.

Indiana Jones

Point 1: Raiders of the Lost Ark is one of my favorite movies of all time.
Point 2: George Lucas likes to take a dump on my favorite childhood memories

I have amazingly low expectations of the new Indiana Jones movie. I fully expect it to suck. Like 'Speed Racer' suck.

But I am still going to see it Thursday night...I just can't help myself.

I think I need medication.

Idol finale

A brief history of me and American Idol: I didn't watch the first season, because the idea of a prime-time talent show held zero appeal for me. The second season, I watched because I got dragged into it. And ever since, I have been shamelessly addicted. Since that second season, I have accurately predicted the winner every season within the first week or so of the final group, sometimes as early as the initial auditions, except for last season (I never would have thought Jordin would have won).

This season, my early pick was David Archuleta, and sure enough, he is in the final two. I wavered back and forth about who I thought would be the other finalist though. I had a friend, the redhead, that I would discuss the show with, and about week two she said that I should really pay attention to David Cook, because he was growing on her. So I did. And ever since it has been the two Davids and everyone else. It never mattered who got voted off, because if your name wasn't 'David', you were going to go, it was just a matter of order.

Well, now the finals are next week. And it is my David against her David. I am pulling for my David, just on matter of principle, but if her David wins, I will be equally happy.

Now on to 'So you think you can dance'. (I think I have to turn in my 'guy card' after this post)

Iron Man

I saw Iron Man on Thursday night. My brother and I went to the 11PM showing, and I figured it would be packed. Now, anyone that knows me can attest to the fact that I like to have a good seat when I go to the movies. So I tend to get to the theater early. The more packed I expect the movie to be, the earlier I get there. In this case, I expected there to be legions of people out to see the movie, so I got to the theater about 9:30.

I was the only one there.

I was the only one there until about 10:40.

I guess Iron Man was either playing early at lots of places or not as many people cared about seeing it early as I expected. Either way, we got great seats.

The movie itself was good. Really good. It suffered some because of the expectations problem, i.e. I had really high ones, and it would be hard to live up to them. But, for the most part, it lived up to everything Ihad hoped for it. The action was great, the CGI was good enough that I didn't notice it, and the cast was spot on.

If you like action movies, especially if you like comic book movies, I highly recommend it.

American Idol notes

I have a good friend that I talk about American Idol with, and these are my thoughts on this week's performances:

Jason did 'Forever in Blue Jeans', which is my all-time favorite Neil Diamond song. He did a pretty good job, and it made me decide I need to put it back in rotation on my iPod. God, I love that song. David Cook did another great song, and did another great job with it. I really like him, and his voice a lot. I am sure he is your favorite at this point, and I am not far from agreeing with it. I think it is funny that Brooke chose to do a Monkee's song. I really didn't care for her performance. There was one shot of Simon looking bored out of his mind, and that kind of summed up how I felt about her performance. David A blew me away. I couldn't imagine anyone singing Sweet Caroline but Neil Diamond. Christ, his voice is like honey. I can't get over how rich the tone of his voice is. I didn't like Syesha's performance of Hello Again. It is a song rife with vulnerability, and I felt like she shouted it. And she was grinning the whole time. I think she missed the point of the song...

Paula is drunk. Oh god, so drunk. And it must be summer, because Simon is wearing his shirt open.

On the second go around, Jason butchered September Morn. David Cook was wise to choose lesser known songs. He was able to make both of them his own. He was awesome. Brooke did considerably better on the second song, but I still think she is going home this week. David A chose a song with big notes to show off the power in his voice. Finishing it out, well, Syesha might be going home instead. It will definitely be girl going home.

Enchanted by Enchanted

I watched the movie Enchanted tonight. I probably should be embarrassed to admit this, but I loved it. This is right up there with Moulin Rouge in the category of movies about love that just get to me.

This movie was absolute magic. If there is anything getting you down in life, trust me...watch this movie.

A long time

Well, it has been a long time since I posted anything. It might be time to start again.