Space Pirates Ltd.

I’m not going to lie: I hate ska. I swear, every song sounds the same. Three chords! Upbeat! Hep hep hep! As soon as I hear that twangy guitar and high-tuned snare drum start to crack, I either turn off the radio or grab the closest heavy, blunt object and proceed to bash my head.

Anyways, despite my distaste for the genre as a whole, I came across a rather catchy ska song a few years ago. The band is Fishbone and the song is “Party at Ground Zero.” This song, to quote Marvin Berry from Back to the Future, “really cooks.” It kicks off with double-time shuffle ska groove. The musicianship of the band members really shows, as the trumpet player and guitarist play some ripping solos. Vocally, the song is powerful, as the is a commentary on the Cold War.

The video is worth checking out for the band’s costumes/face paint alone. It also makes an interesting use of newspaper headlines and pictures of political leaders, making them do goofy things reminiscent of Mony Python animation.

Fishbone – Party at Ground Zero

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I’ve spent a lot of my life in about three cities. Philly, my hometown, was my first eighteen years. Since then, I have spent several semesters of school at the illustrious University of Pittsburgh. The aggregate time adds up to something close to two years. Other than that, the major metropolis that has enjoyed my company the most would have to be New York.

And to be honest, New York is the worst of the lot.
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If you ask someone if they’ve ever heard of Thin Lizzy, chances are they’ll respond with something along the lines of “that’s the band that did ‘The Boys Are Back in Town,’ right?” Yes, that’s their biggest radio hit. But most people don’t know that Thin Lizzy has an extensive discography and a musical career which spans about 30 years. (more…)

Recently, the mayor of California and famous action hero, Arnold Schwarzenegger, spoke at a conference addressing the climate, and how to make it hip.

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You know a comic is good when you see a stream of Lemmings careening down a crowded street caught up in the paranoia and defeatism of Nuclear hysteria.

Blacksad is what would result if Looney Toons and Phillip Marlowe had a baby. The gritty world of a private detective populated by anthropomorphized animals. Blacksad himself is a black cat with a white muzzle. This seems to be the perfect species for him, the avatar of a noire private eye’s complicated code of honor. The choice for the protagonist to be a cat, an animal known for its own warped ethics and policies, makes Blacksad the consummate gumshoe. He is strong, conflicted and constantly at odds with society over his own personal brand of light-handed justice.
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Crystal King - Daitokai

+= This song.

Imagine you are at a relative’s house for a winter holiday. Imagine everyone has to get one other member of the extended family one present. Imagine that you drew names out of a worn Phillies cap (it might be old in Age, but it is young in Love ). Imagine that you pick out the name of your cousin Norman, who is ten years old. Imagine that your cousin Norman loves comic books. Imagine that you recently received forty dollars for giving that old man at McDonald’s a hand job in the bathroom. What do you buy your cousin Norman?

Answer: the recently released collection of the entire series of Bone written by Jeff Smith, priced conservatively at $40.00. He will fucking love it. (more…)

Every week I attend a class, and in this class we sometimes watch porn. Now, before you go jumping off your warm squishy bee-hinds in excitement you should probably understand something. This class is called Transgressive Cinema, which means in a nutshell “Movies that have freaked out and continue to freak out the squares.” While you may or may not consider yourself a square, or failing that a quadrilateral of any kind, you should consider exactly what that means. We have watched close to thirty-nine jillion films thus far in this class, and nearly all of them have had a ratio of ten diarrhea bombardments per every one boob. If you’re like me and haven’t taken math since you were four, basically what that means is that if you like porn, which considering you’re on the internet I can only assume you passionately do, you still may be unlikely to enjoy Transgressive porn. (more…)

This is an ode to my new apartment.

I am no poet, else this would be a poem. It is not a soliloquy . It is certainly not a sonnet. Tragically, I could not even produce a ribald limerick. And I know everybody loves a good limerick. So, sadly, please settle for this small ode, composed mostly of prose.

My apartment and I have flirted for a short while. We’ve met twice, under certain auspices so as not to appear too interested. We would probably be together soon, but I must return to the coast for the summer. Most likely, my apartment and I will pick things up again in August when I return to Pittsburgh.
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lets help him improve it

www.nickmongo.com

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Marvel loves the X-Men in the same way that a father loves a son who will eventually be a high-paid professional athlete. Everybody loves Marvel Comics’ favored son and as a result, Marvel pimps that son out like my uncle, Slick Willy Rickards, pimps out his hoes back on 10th and South in Philly. Walking into a comic book store I often feel like the United States gradually losing the war on drugs. I see dozens of X-branded titles written by people who have no business writing the complex characters X-men’s mutant heroes have become. Somewhere in Colombia, the secret king of Marvel Comics sits back in a shadowy chair and quietly chuckles, puffing his giant cigar and signing off on several new mutant-driven series: Unbelievable X-Men, X-traordinary X-Men, X-ceptional X-Men, InX-plicable X-men and (most critically acclaimed of the lot) Adjective X-Men.
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I like films that make you think just as much as the next guy, but there is something refreshing about leaving the theater saying “the coolest part was when the guy’s head fell off.” 300 won’t win any awards for character development or plot nuances, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a fun flick to see with your buddies.
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That which is different tends to interest me. This beer, Rochefort Trappistes 8 is a beer brewed by monks in an abbey in Belgium. Only six or so of these abbeys have the right to apply the term “trappistes” to their beers, so this is some pretty esoteric stuff.

Maybe it’s just because I’m not a beer snob, but I didn’t find this beer particularly enjoyable. This is disappointing, not only because it received such rave reviews on ratebeer.com, but also because of the bottle’s price tag (elaborated below). (more…)