EVAN IS THE VIRGIN BOXING CHAMP (and other weekend stories)

Friday night was boys night. Irene was off at the Guggenheim and I knew if the guys and I didn't see MISSION IMPOSSIBLE on that very night, there was a chance we would never see it at all. I know that sounds wack, and I know what I am about to say sounds weird, but sometimes, in my non musical line of work, there are just movies I have to see in order to remain up to date. Big franchise movies happen to be what I am associated with, so obviously, seeing the first big movie of the Summer was important. For the record, I like Tom Cruise. I don't hate him and I really don't give a shit about his personal crap and the Scientology and all that, but I think he gets a bum rap because he really is the biggest fucking movie star on the planet. No actor opens movies worldwide like he does. Also for the record, I HATE the first two M.I. movies. They suck. Hard. With this franchise, Cruise seems to rape good directors. I don't know why, probably too hands on, so I went into this movie with very little enthusiasm. I was actually more excited to see the SUPERMAN trailer on the big screen and guess, what, screwed! They didn't play it, but we got the new Pirates trailer (INCREDIBLE) and the brand new Nacho Libre trailer which shows this movie could be a winner (the last trailer didn't do it for me). Also we got the 007 trailer, which I am cautiously excited about.

Anyhow, MI3 turns things around and doesn't suck. It was a nice surprise. Is it great? Not by any means, but J.J. Abrams brings a nice kinetic feel to the franchise and keeps it sharp, fresh and delivers on the action. Cruise is Cruise and thats all you need here. Of course, the genius of Phillip Hoffman is off the charts and he seemingly improvises his entire role to great effect. Its the first good bad guy of the franchise. He steals it, of course, and has fun doing son. He's never over the top campy, he keeps it right and plays nicely off the Cruise. It's basically a rehash of the first movie's plot, but done right. Summer is off to a good start.

We then hopped over to Osteria Al Doge on 44th street for a nice manly eye-talian dinner. It was laid back and tasty. After, we took a stroll to the midtown Virgin to check out some CD's and then proceeded to rock out on the instore Xbox 360 Boxing game, in which Evan (who has an unfair advantage) took on all challengers and won (that includes us AND strangers who wanted to challenge him). Evan also wore camo shorts I might add. Let's leave it at that. Also speaking of leaving it at that, you will note below that I actually went out in public not only with a man in camo shorts who has no leg hair, but also with a man wearing a Martha Wainright Tshirt.

It's not so much him wearing it than it is him having bought it. Who the fuck is like "OH MY GOD I NEED A MARTHA WAINRIGHT TSHIRT"? Well, the answer is Lurch, who I strangely respect for doing so. I miss the old days when it was just Danny wearing white jeans, but that was Earth 1 Danny, who I don't miss and was kind of a dick (that's all for another day). Evan, having a migraine (possibly caused by the lack of masculine pants), headed home, so Danny, Lurch and I proceeded to go to our fave midtown west side dive, The Bellvue...

Except, it was fucking GONE. GONE. Closed. All signs of this dive erased forever. We were not pleased. At all. We then took refuge at some place called Holland and G and Lurch began asking questions about the disappearance of Bellvue. They uncovered some stories, but basically it was absorbed into another bar, Siberia, around the corner (which we almost went to before Holland, but one of them thought it was gay night, as if that was a bad thing), after it was learned some "bad things" were done to the bar. I have no fucking clue what that means, but quicker than you can say "stick it", we were at Siberia which is much larger than Bellvue, has live music downstairs, but keeps the dive vibe alive, including the way too loud jukebox that contains Ministry's Greatest Fits. All we want are couches and we got that, so we were happy. We need to break this place in a bit, I think, but Rest In Peace Bellvue, you were loved.

I kept my drinking limited as it was a go-time the next day at the studio, where Charles and Ash made their triumphant return to the HF camp. The purpose: to get Charles' low end goodness on a few songs.

To say it was a productive day woud be an understatement. I anticipated getting Charles on two songs, but we got lucky and go thim on three: OUR FAITH, EXIST, and CLEAN UP, all of which now sound beyond fierce and beyond anything I could imagine. But despite that, it was great having people around. B and I have been too deep into the trenches as of late, so having some fresh bodies to play with was exciting. We clowned around, we taked shop, had some Thai (food), and drank fresh brewed caffiene awesomeness (Observe young Brandt here, displaying his teabagging skills).



We laughed, we laughed harder, we busted each others chops and in the end, got the job done. the bonus was the four of jamming on a track we started ages (years) ago, and coming up with ideas for what will be the post-E.S. HF project. Right now, this song is called P.L.O (Thanks, Damon), but will eventually change. It was a great day for band morale and for the music, which is going to knock you on your ass. I promise.

And tomorrow, for the first time in 6 plus months, I am off to Los Angeles, California for a few jam packed days. This is the longest I have ever been from the west Coast in this century. While I am no fan of the city, I am a fan of several who live there and hope to see a few of them. Even the co-creator of KRUGER BABY AWESOMENESS will be joing me for an early breakfast. Speaking of which, this is one awesome Kruger:



Today was a light day. While Lurch was fucking me and G over by going to brunch without us, I spent some time with Peter Saintface, who is always a welcome presence. After getting the Saintface update, B and I took a stroll to Rebel Rebel to buy our weekly music quota (yes we still buy CD's you filesharing anus). Today I got some stuff for Irene and got myself the Dirty Pretty Things album and a new 80's dance compilation put together by two fifths of the Durans. Good for the plane ride tomorrow. As I type we are about to watch the sequel to the Russian vampire movie Night Watch (I believe reviewed here on the blog somewhere), which is called Day Watch. Irene scored a copy, so we're gonna check it out. Hopefully it will be Russian good.

Anyhow, Good times ahead. Oh, also, I know there are a lot of internet rumours that RAW is broadcasting from Anaheim tomorrow night and I just "happen" to be in Los Angeles on the same day. Let me put it to rest that I will not be appearing tomorrow night, despite what many appear to be saying. Plus, The Backyard Icon will still be in NY and do you think I would appear without him? Please, bitch.