Andy Gapin

While we were eating lunch outside today, a bee kept bothering us. I’m not very afraid of bees, but some of my co-workers freak out when they fly by and wanted me to kill it. He landed on my hand while I was holding a zip-lock bag and I was able to coax him into the bag. I closed it up with just enough of an opening for air to get in, but so that he couldn’t get out. At the end of lunch, I opened it up all the way and dropped it in a trash can so he could fly safely away. After about 30 seconds, he found his way out and took off.

He’s a cute little guy…

I finally got my hands on this Patterson Hood record! It’s been out for a little while, but I’ve been completely slacking on getting a copy of it. I’m liking it a lot so far, but it pretty much sounds just like what I would expect from the next Drive-By Truckers album. I guess it’s because his voice is responsible for half their sound. If you’re a fan of the Truckers and liked Brighter Than Creation’s Dark, you’ll like this one. Check it out!

But as far as last night’s show goes, it was a great one. Perfect mix of genres. Perfect flow from song to song. Good mic breaks. It had it all!

Source: 90.3 The Core

I made the mistake of seeing District 9 a couple days after seeing Inglourious Basterds. As good as District 9 was, all I could think about the whole time was how good Inglourious Basterds was. But anyway, Peter Jackson has yet to let me down, and his ability to be involved with movies that are a bit weird seems to always pay off for him.

This one takes a little while to get going, but once it does, it sucks you right in. While the story was inspired by the actual events of District 6 in Cape Town in South Africa, it’s kind of a mess. I mean, it gets you there and serves its purpose, but it’s full of holes and things that just don’t make sense. You won’t care though. Once the humans start getting exploded by the alien guns, you won’t care about anything else at all. However, even though the story is a bit of a mess, I think it gets across the point that it was going for and the intended message is definitely there.

The film is presented as a documentary type thing which is a little different from what you’d expect an alien movie like this to be, but it works out really well throughout everything except for the last third or so of the movie where it kind of forgets that it was supposed to be documentary like and goes straight action movie. I guess it worked out though because I didn’t even realize this until after I walked out of the theater.

Think Cloverfield meets Transformers if Transformers had aliens instead of robots and was better.

Rating: B

If you want to see a movie that mixes the exact right amounts of everything you want it to, do yourself a favor and go see Inglourious Basterds…now. At just over two and a half hours, it’s not a short movie, but it flies by. It only feels like an hour and a half and there are only a couple scenes that are a little slow moving, but these scenes have more than enough tension building to keep you engaged and not bored at all. At the end of the two and a half hours, I actually wanted more.

Despite all of the humor in this film, Inglourious Basterds is still very powerful and even difficult to watch at points. Starting right away in the opening scene, Tarantino sets the tone and makes you very uncomfortable as Col. Hans Landa visits a French family suspected of hiding Jews. I actually found this scene a little hard to watch. It was almost too much. Almost. After that, we get some pretty graphic violence that is more than enough, even for seasoned horror and action movie fans. From there, Tarantino very perfectly molds together two different stories that start off very unrelated, but come together quite well.

I won’t say much else because I want to leave the spoilers out of this one. I think much of what makes this film so great when you see it is not really knowing what’s going to happen next. Sometimes, you’re right and other times you’re not. And sometimes, what you want to happen, doesn’t.

Besides a couple of questions I have about some of the characters’ decisions toward the end of the movie (not actually gripes, but just a little interested in why), the only thing I’m torn about was the use of BJ Novak. Part of me thinks that his character may have been a little bit of a waste for him until the end, but part of me feels like it might have been a stretch to use him more. There was already a lot going on as it was and using him more probably would have felt a bit forced an overdone. So, I guess I’m happy with the way it was.

Rating: A+

PS: Eli Roth should stick to making movies like Cabin Fever and do less acting.

This first shirt, I got from RIPT Apparel. It’s the first I’ve ordered from them, but apparently, they work similarly to shirt.woot.com, doing the whole one shirt a day kind of thing.

This second shirt is one that I’ve wanted from Threadless for a really long time. I have no idea why I never bought it, probably because it was always like $18 or so. But my girlfriend was making a purchase from there and decided to throw it in as a surprise for me. I probably could have taken a better picture, but as per the norm, I’m lazy. If you can’t make it out, it’s called The Communist Party.

Last night’s show was definitely one of the most mellow ones I’ve ever done. It wasn’t really on purpose, it just kind of happened. Still a good one though.

The last month or two have been a little light on good new albums coming out. There have been a few that stood out, but mostly, it’s been a quiet summer. I think, at least. Maybe I’m wrong?

Here’s the playlist from last night…

Source: 90.3 The Core

Since I tend to go see the silliest musicals that exist, it should be of no surprise that I went to see the I Can Has Cheezburger MusicLOL. I don’t even know how to describe this. I really don’t. It was complete silliness. The story is the adventure of one lolcat in pursuit of a delicious cheezburg.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect of this. I thought maybe they were puppets, but nope, regular actors…with cat ears. No make up, just cat or mouse ears. Oh, and lolcat pictures projected on a screen behind them. This all sounds silly, I know. And it is silly, but it was a lot of fun actually! The songs have been stuck in my head since I saw the show and I was thoroughly entertained the entire time.

I’d say to go check it out, but I think all the rest of the shows are sold out. Sucker.

Decent show last night! Good song flow, decent enough banter. Not bad!

I grabbed a copy of the Jukebox The Ghost album, one of the openers at the Harvey Danger show, and I gotta say, it’s pretty awesome. It kind of sounds like Ben Folds (Five) meets Queen. Check it out!

Of the new stuff I played this week, I think Owl City and Christina Courtin stood out the most. Owl City sounds kind of like Death Cab For Cutie except not quite as boring. And Christina Courtin reminds me a lot of New Jersey’s Amanda Duncan. Once I get a chance to check these two out more, I’ll let you know if they hold up.

And here’s the rest of the playlist…

Source: 90.3 The Core

I’m not at all happy with how long it took for me to see this flick, but it was a weird release.  Though it opened in NYC about a month ago, I’ve been unable to make it in to see it. Since then, the general release has seemed to be a bit sporadic.

Based on the trailers, you’d expect this to be a cute, romantic comedy. It is not. I mean, it’s cute and there are some laughs, but it’s not really a comedy. It’s not really a drama either. It just kind of takes the best elements of indie film and uses them to make not-quite-what-you’d-expect love story. Doesn’t really matter what you call it, it’s a fun movie.

I had been told and read that the movie goes out of order and gives you a day at a time from their relationship. But really, it doesn’t feel like it’s presented non-chronologically so much as it feels like it’s actually telling two separate stories at the same time. One story is of Tom and Summer getting together and Tom falling in love with Summer. The other story is of them breaking up and Tom dealing with the breakup. However, the two stories are given to you in an alternating fashion. A day of one and then a day of the other. For the the most, each story is chronological within itself. For the most part. It’s a different way to present a story rather than how almost every single other movie is done, but it works. Well.

(500) Days Of Summer chooses not to give you the Hollywood style love story, but instead to focus on something more realistic, falling in love with someone and fooling yourself into thinking that they’re “the one.” It’s the kind of relationship where it starts out with a crush and you tell yourself that there is no one better out there for you, that this is the girl you’re meant to be with. Eventually, you get that girl and you think your life is perfect, your feet never touch the ground. The reality is, this relationship isn’t perfect. Even from the start it’s not, but you’re choosing only to see the good. You’re so blind to reality that you miss all the warning signs that the relationship is doomed and this girl doesn’t feel the same way. Then you’re shocked when it’s over and you try to justify all those problems as being normal and fixable instead of just accepting that it really wasn’t right and you were wrong. We’ve all been there. Girls, you too, but probably with a dude.

Choosing this over a true love story is what makes this film work and stand out rather than being just another romantic movie.

To top it off, add in a great soundtrack with songs by Regina Spektor, Fiest, The Smiths, and of course She & Him. I’d highly recommend this film. Even though you may be able to predict the last scene of the movie from the first couple of minutes, it’s pretty much perfect.

Rating: A

Last night, Harvey Danger played their last show ever in NYC at The Bell House in Brooklyn as part of their farewell tour. I’m really sad to see the band go, but at the same time, I’m not surprised either. The band had never really been profitable, nor do they really fit in anywhere.

I had never been to The Bell House before and no one I talked to about it had ever heard of it before. It turned out to be a really nice venue. There’s a swanky-ish bar when you first walk in that has a decent beer and wine selection for a venue. The room that the bands play in is big enough to hold maybe 400 people, but still maintains the ability to be relatively intimate at the same time. My only real gripe was that the sound was a little louder than it needed to be. Outside, there was a sweet stenciled sign that said “Beware of ‘dog.’”

I didn’t really watch the first opener much, but Jukebox The Ghost was pretty awesome. They’re from Philly, though I’d never heard of them before. They have a pretty sweet indie sound with a piano and make enough funny faces while playing that even if they had sucked, it would have been entertaining to watch.

Harvey Danger somehow–I’m really not sure of the back story for this one–got John Hodgeman to introduce them. It was hilarious, watch…

Once they came out on stage, they were incredible. They played for about 2 hours and 40 minutes, longer than I’ve ever seen any band play for before in my life. By the end, there wasn’t really too much left that they hadn’t played. It was really awesome and didn’t get boring at all…even if we were all insanely tired by almost 2AM when we finally walked out.

For the encore, they came out and did a lot of Q&A and took requests. A bunch of them.

They sounded really on all night too, even towards the end of the set, they were still playing well and having a great time on stage. Here’s a video of them playing Cream And Bastards Rise…

If you didn’t make this show, you messed up, big time. Below is the full set list so that you can kick yourself for missing the show…

Humility On Parade
Wine, Women & Song
Moral Centralia
Meetings With Remarkable Men (Show Me The Hero)
Cream & Bastards Rise
Problems & Bigger Ones
Sad Sweetheart Of The Rodeo
Little Round Mirrors
War Buddies
Jack The Lion
Defrocked
The Show Must Not Go On (new song)
Flagpole Sitta
The Ballad Of The Tragic Hero (Pity & Fear)
Authentic
(Theme From) Carjack Fever

Encore 1:
Pike Street/Park Slope
*Loyalty Bldg.
*Underground
*Happiness Writes White
*Sometimes You Have To Work On Christmas (Sometimes)
*Wrecking Ball
*Why I’m Lonely
*Private Helicopter
*Carlotta Valdez
*Terminal Annex
Radio Silence

Encore 2:
The Same As Being In Love