Andy Gapin

Archive for April, 2010

The Playlist 4/7

April 8, 2010 - 8:26 am

Last night’s show wasn’t too shabby, I kicked it off with a Gorillaz track again for something like the third week in a row, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.

I’ve been listening a lot to the new albums from She & Him, Against Me!, and Ted Leo recently. I’m still totally in love with She & Him’s Volume Two, but Against Me’s White Crosses has only slightly grown on me. As much as I try to love it, I only feel lukewarm about it. There are songs I like a bit, but overall, it feels like the kind of album that I would be more positive about if it was from a different band. The Ted Leo record is kind of the opposite though, I think I’d like it less if it were from any other band. It’s a bit too polished, but for some reason, I’m not that bothered by it.

I finally got my hands on the new Murder By Death and Drive-By Truckers records as well. I’m about three songs into Drive-By Truckers as I type this. Not bad so far. Murder By Death’s Good Morning, Magpie feels like a solid record from the few times I’ve listened to it already. Not as good as Red Of Tooth And Claw, but still a nice offering.

Alright, back to last night’s show. It was the first show in a while where I didn’t get a listener request. I was almost disappointed by it, but overall, I was pretty happy with the show. I know the Weakerthans song I went with from the new (and probably unnecessary) live album was kind of the obvious choice, but it’s a great song either way.

  • Gorillaz – Glitter Freeze – Plastic Beach
  • MGMT – Flash Delirium – Flash Delirium [Single]
  • Go Find, The – Running Mates – Everybody Knows It’s Gonna Happen
  • One For The Team – Every Little Thing – Ghosts
  • Postelles, The – White Night – White Night [EP]
  • Weakerthans, The – Plea From A Cat Named Virtute – Live At The Burton Cummings Theatre
  • Family Of The Year – Stupidland – Songbook
  • Archie Bronson Outfit – Chunk – Coconut
  • Whigs, The – Automatic – In The Dark
  • She & Him – Over It Over Again – Volume Two
  • Frightened Rabbit – Nothing Like You – The Winter Of Mixed Drinks
  • Drink Up Buttercup – Gods And Gentlemen – Born And Thrown On A Hook
  • Rocky Votolato – Red River – True Devotion
  • Ted Leo And The Pharmacists – The Mighty Sparrow – The Brutalist Bricks
  • Liars – Scissor – Sisterworld

Source: 90.3 The Core


I can’t believe I watched this

April 7, 2010 - 8:48 am

Sometimes, I wonder why I even want to check out some movies in the first place. Gay Bed And Breakfast Of Terror is one of those movies. Why would I think this would be a good idea? I hated Rocky Horror (I know, unpopular opinion, blah blah blah) and being a straight man, having “gay” in the title doesn’t make it any more or less appealing. But I added it to my Netflix queue anyway.

This was pretty bad. The first almost half of the movie was spent introducing too many characters that pretty much all hate each other for no reason whatsoever. Like really, they all just show up at this bed and breakfast after arguing in the car with their respective significant others and immediately start hating on each other. With the exception of one of the lesbian couples, these are some seriously miserable couples, but then a few minutes later, half of them are cheating on their partners with each other. From here, things get dangerously close to simply being a gay porn. Though nothing more than a pair of boobs is shown, which is odd because there were no lesbian sex scenes, only a couple of scenes with dudes getting it on with each other.

The story is a complete mess. The owner of the bed and breakfast is a crazy religious woman who hates gays and is trying to do the lord’s work by killing lesbians and trying to turn a gay man straight to marry her incredibly weirdo daughter who is much more interested in “pretty girls.” However, the character is a bit all over the place and doesn’t stay entirely consistent with herself. That’s the one plot. The second involves an oddly deformed boy-monster named Manfred…who seems to have his legs wrapped in a trash bag from what I could tell. Manfred is the bastard child of the crazy religious woman and 100 republican men. Oh, and he likes to kill people, so he does a bit of that.

So here we are with two different story arcs and two killers taking out these gay couples left and right. It really doesn’t make sense why there are both of these arcs. It seems as though there were two separate ideas and no one could decide on which one to go with, so they chose both. It was weird, but then things start to make even less sense with the turn that everything takes at the end.

Yeah, this was pretty horrible, but it was oddly entertaining. It’s not so bad it’s good, it’s so bad it’s entertaining. Somehow, it stays watchable and continues to get more and more bizarre as it goes on. It doesn’t take very long before you know there’s no way you could ever walk away from it.

Quality rating: D-
Entertainment rating: B+


I can't believe I watched this

- 8:48 am

Sometimes, I wonder why I even want to check out some movies in the first place. Gay Bed And Breakfast Of Terror is one of those movies. Why would I think this would be a good idea? I hated Rocky Horror (I know, unpopular opinion, blah blah blah) and being a straight man, having “gay” in the title doesn’t make it any more or less appealing. But I added it to my Netflix queue anyway.

This was pretty bad. The first almost half of the movie was spent introducing too many characters that pretty much all hate each other for no reason whatsoever. Like really, they all just show up at this bed and breakfast after arguing in the car with their respective significant others and immediately start hating on each other. With the exception of one of the lesbian couples, these are some seriously miserable couples, but then a few minutes later, half of them are cheating on their partners with each other. From here, things get dangerously close to simply being a gay porn. Though nothing more than a pair of boobs is shown, which is odd because there were no lesbian sex scenes, only a couple of scenes with dudes getting it on with each other.

The story is a complete mess. The owner of the bed and breakfast is a crazy religious woman who hates gays and is trying to do the lord’s work by killing lesbians and trying to turn a gay man straight to marry her incredibly weirdo daughter who is much more interested in “pretty girls.” However, the character is a bit all over the place and doesn’t stay entirely consistent with herself. That’s the one plot. The second involves an oddly deformed boy-monster named Manfred…who seems to have his legs wrapped in a trash bag from what I could tell. Manfred is the bastard child of the crazy religious woman and 100 republican men. Oh, and he likes to kill people, so he does a bit of that.

So here we are with two different story arcs and two killers taking out these gay couples left and right. It really doesn’t make sense why there are both of these arcs. It seems as though there were two separate ideas and no one could decide on which one to go with, so they chose both. It was weird, but then things start to make even less sense with the turn that everything takes at the end.

Yeah, this was pretty horrible, but it was oddly entertaining. It’s not so bad it’s good, it’s so bad it’s entertaining. Somehow, it stays watchable and continues to get more and more bizarre as it goes on. It doesn’t take very long before you know there’s no way you could ever walk away from it.

Quality rating: D-
Entertainment rating: B+


How To Train Your Dragon

April 5, 2010 - 6:12 pm

Dragons and Vikings. Seems like a good idea for a CGI movie, right? Well, it is. How To Train Your Dragon rules. While it’s definitely more on the kiddie side of things, choosing to go lighter on the adult humor that often makes it into CGI movies, there’s something for everyone here. Somehow DreamWorks was able to make an incredibly cute movie that still wins on the Vikings front. It’s kind of impressive how both are pulled off together.

The film is pretty energetic and keeps things moving along, sometimes at the expense of extra character development, but it’s a kids movie, how much character development do you really need? Watching How To Train Your Dragon made me feel like a kid again. I was a little in awe and all kinds of smiley throughout the whole thing. And I like that.

I chose not to see this one in 3D. Honestly, I feel like 3D is generally pretty gimmicky and rarely actually adds anything to the movie experience. While there are definitely films which benefit from the 3D treatment, I’m starting to grow wary of plunking down the extra $4-6. I think Alice In Wonderland is really what ruined it for me. But from what I’ve heard from some people and read in other reviews online, I messed up. So, don’t make the same mistake I made.

Rating: A+


Easter weekend photography

April 4, 2010 - 10:26 pm

I took a ton of pictures this weekend. I took advantage of all the nice weather and went for a little photo walk yesterday around my town and then took plenty of pictures of both my family and my fiancée’s family while we visited each of them. I’m not really that into flowers (or Easter actually, but that’s not important), but during my walk yesterday, that seemed to be the majority of what I took photos of. After that, I took a lot of shots of our families’ dogs, none of my cat though, I promise.


The Playlist 3/31

April 1, 2010 - 9:42 am

Last night’s edition of the The Playlist was a bit mediocre. I started off great, but felt like I started losing steam quickly. Overall, the show was a little more artsy/experimental than normal. Not much, but a little.

I ended up playing a double dose of the Gorillaz. “Rhinestone Eyes” was a great intro for the show, but a listener IMed in a request for “Feel Good Inc.” and I didn’t want to rob him of that. Oddly though, that album somehow hasn’t been ripped into either of our computer based audio systems so I had to go dig out the CD from the library. It was kind of a pain, but completely worth it.

  • Gorillaz – Rhinestone Eyes – Plastic Beach
  • Dum Dum Girls – Lines Her Eyes – I Will Be
  • Frightened Rabbit – Nothing Like You – The Winter Of Mixed Drinks
  • Archie Bronson Outfit – Hoola – Coconut
  • Bird And The Bee, The – Private Eyes – Guiltless Pleasures Volume 1: A Tribute To Daryl Hall And John Oates
  • She And Him – I’m Gonna Make It Better – Volume Two
  • Broken Bells – Vaporize – Broken Bells
  • Postelles, The – Looking Glass – White Night [EP]
  • Donora – I Think I Like You – Donora
  • Gorillaz – Feel Good Inc – Demon Days
  • White Hinterland – Begin Again – Kairos
  • Joanna Newsom – Jackrabbits – Have One On Me
  • Liars – Scarecrows On A Killer Slant – Sisterworld
  • Bundles, The – Metal Mouth – The Bundles
  • Aloha – Cold Storage – Home Acres

Source: 90.3 The Core