Andy Gapin

You know, I was planning on typing up a nice little recap of my Six Flags Great Adventure trip from this past weekend, but I decided that instead of going on and on about how much I love rides, I’m going to just say that Six Flags, to me at least, represents so much of what is wrong with this country.

Yeah, it’s pretty cliché to complain about the prices at an amusement park, so I’m going to leave most of that out, but what I am going to say is that it is absolutely ridiculous that if you bring a bag with you into the park, they no longer allow you to put it down next to the ride when you get on. Now, you are forced to pay a dollar to stick your bag in a locker. It wouldn’t be too much of a big deal except that there is a sign saying that after 120 minutes, your stuff may be removed. While this doesn’t mean that it’s actually going to happen, it’s insane that they would make you use a locker and then only guarantee your stuffs’ safety for two hours. On a busy day, it’s not unheard of to wait for over two hours for a ride (luckily, the waits this weekend were nothing like that).

What I’m sure happened is that someone got their stuff stolen and threatened to sue so the park decided to go with lockers and have a very strictly enforced policy that no one is allowed to go on a ride and leave their stuff near the exit anymore. This wouldn’t even really be that big of a deal if someone at the park entrance said something. It’s possible that there were some signs that we missed, but if they were there, they were small. Because this is a new rule and because all bags are searched upon entrance, what should have happened was that the security person doing the checking should have mentioned that there was a new rule and bags would have to be put in lockers. Doing so would allow the guest to go back to their car then rather than find out after waiting twenty minutes for a ride only to find out that they couldn’t get on if they didn’t put their bag in a locker and wait in line again.

It’s not even just about customer service, it’s about common courtesy and not trying to suck every last penny out of the consumer.

It’s not about paying the dollar, it’s about the inconvenience that you have lock your bag up at every ride or leave the park to go put it back in the car, which is often a half hour walk round trip.

Other than that, the day was a ton of fun and as usual, the rides were everything I could have hoped for. Especially, Kingda Ka and El Toro twice in a row without having to get off.

Here are a few boring pictures…

I was practically raised by James Bond movies when I was a kid. I used to watch them all the time, over and over again. One of my favorite things about them, besides the cheesy humor, was all of the gadgets that he had. Even when I was a kid I was as much of a geek for gadgets as I am now. With that out of the way, it should be no surprise that Iron Man kept me captivated for the entire two hours. There were insane gadgets galore and I wanted all of them. ALL OF THEM. From the insane computers and robots with serious artificial intelligence to the nearly indestructible Iron Man suit that could fly and mow down bad guys like there is now tomorrow, these gadgets kicked ass.

I’m not much of a comic book nerd, but from what I hear, the movie was right on with the comics which seems to rarely happen. And while I can’t really compare to the Tony Stark from the comics, I thought that Robert Downey Jr. killed it. He was absolutely great in the role.

The action was great too. I definitely sat there with my mouth dropped a few times with only the word “damn” coming to mind.

From beginning to end, this movie kicked ass. Gadgets, a couple hot babes, action, classic villainy, explosions. This movie had it all.

Grade: A

I’m not going to say that Awake was a terrible movie, but I definitely don’t think that I’d ever need to sit through it again. The premise of it is pretty neat, a guy is having a heart transplant surgery, but is still completely conscious, though paralyzed, the entire time. While he’s laying there on the table, he hears the doctors talking about how they are planning on killing him. There’s a whole plot to what’s going on and everything. But it just really doesn’t seem to go anywhere and it was completely predictable.

Jessica Alba’s hotness was really the only thing that saved this movie for me and even with that, I just was not that entertained.

Grade: C-

I’m actually kind of liking the Alkaline Trio song that I played last night quite a bit. I’d been pretty down on them since Crimson. I found Crimson to be a completely unlistenable record and it really made me feel like that band had already put out all that they had to offer. I was pretty sad about this too since Alkaline Trio had been one of my favorite bands for years and I love most of their other stuff. I’m still not expecting a whole lot from the new album, but I think it could be a small step back in the right direction.

I was a bit weirded out that they were on The Hills though. Of all the awful shows on TV, why The Hills? I had never actually seen the show before, but I had pretty good reason to just assume it was awful and feel comfortable with that. Here’s the clip.

Source: 90.3 The Core

I make it no secret that I find neither Carlos Mencia nor Dane Cook funny at all. In fact, I find them both so unfunny that it hurts to even try to comprehend how others find either of them funny.

But seeing this site made me appreciate Dane Cook so much more than I ever thought I could…though, it’s more so an appreciation of other people’s dislike of him than an appreciation of him since I still can’t stand him.

Dane Cook’s Disease

I’m not sure how this movie didn’t get an NC-17 rating, but somehow, it was just an R rating. Harold And Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay probably had more bottomless girls with full crotch shots than any non-porn movie that I’ve ever seen in my life. No complaints here, just can’t get over the rating.

I got some really good laughs from this movie. I didn’t think it was quite as good as the first one, but it was real close. They were able to keep the same vein as the first one which I think was helped by having the movie start right where the last when left off. This really helped to keep the momentum going even though it has been four years since the first was in theaters.

The jokes were pretty much in line with how I am around my friends so I felt right at home watching this. At some points, I even started to wonder if they just followed me around for a while and stole my own jokes. Though, I finally and sadly just came to the realization that the jokes I thought I made up weren’t really invented by me. Oh well.

I’m not going to get too into the whole movie and ruin anything, but the scene with president bush was great. It just reminded me of how much I’d love to chill at a bar with that dude. I mean come on, if bush wasn’t president and had absolutely no power over anyone, essentially just being an average dude, he’d be great! I’d love to go have a drink with him. He’d be like that dumbass friend that everyone has, but wouldn’t dare leave at home because you just know that he’s going to be the entertainment for the night.

Anyway, check this one out. Good stuff.

Rating: A

I saw The Hold Steady last night at Webster Hall in NYC. Great set. They played extremely well and played everything that I wanted to hear.

Here’re a few crappy (and mostly blurry) pics…

Here’s a shirt that I ordered from Woot last week. Just showed up a day ago.

Another mellow show this week, but still good…

Source: 90.3 The Core