Well, it’s that time of the month again. I nearly forgot about writing this, even though I spent part of yesterday taking my delightful pictures. I actually enjoy the whole “taking pictures” part of these Loot Crate reviews a lot. I should take a photography class.
This month’s theme is “FUTURISTIC”! What does that mean? Star Trek! Rick & Morty! Futurama! Among others! ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
The Canadian crew behind a bunch of fan-favorite low-budget horror films came to have a drink with Walter and I and it was pretty damn fun. Unfortunately we had to play a game of “pass the mic” so apologies for some of the sound quality issues as each of the guys jump in. If you’re not familiar with Black Fawn Films you should check out their official website, they’re the crew behind Fantasia International Film Festival movies like Bite, The Drownsman and Antisocial and this year’s Bed of the Dead. Enjoy the show!
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As always, a big thank you to the providers of our theme song: Aural Turpitude!
Keith does all sorts of things here on 9to5.cc, he works with the other founders on 9to5 (illustrated), co-hosts our two podcasts: The 9to5 Entertainment System and Go Plug Yourself and blogs here as The Perspicacious Geek.
If ever there was a movie worthy of screening at midnight it would be a film about a murderous bed preying on the lives of the guilty crossed with a police procedural. Former Montrealer Jeff Maher brought his film “Bed of the Dead” to Fantasia this year and came on the show to talk about his film, which horror movies he loved growing up and how important a few drinks can be when it comes to dreaming up ideas for films. “Bed of the Dead” has another screening at this year’s Fantasia International Film Festival August 1st, tickets HERE.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
As always, a big thank you to the providers of our theme song: Aural Turpitude!
Keith does all sorts of things here on 9to5.cc, he works with the other founders on 9to5 (illustrated), co-hosts our two podcasts: The 9to5 Entertainment System and Go Plug Yourself and blogs here as The Perspicacious Geek.
So I just got back from a 3600 km road trip on Sunday, I had no idea what I was going to write about or when I was going to find the time to write it.
But lo! A Loot Crate awaited me upon my return!
June’s theme was DYSTOPIA. Which, I’m not ashamed to admit is probably one of my favorite genres. With RoboCop, The Matrix, Terminator, Fallout and Bioshock all on display in this Crate I’m a pretty happy camper. ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
These guys hate each other!
We all want to be successful in what we do.
Whether it’s in the workforce, or perhaps following our dreams of making a living doing something creative. Following your passion could lead to a succesful life of acting, making music or even painting.
I know that I want this website to be more successful than it is. It would be great if somehow it actually became my job.
Wouldn’t you love to be successful doing what you love?
Well, it turns out that a lot of successful people share the same traits. It may surprise you, but if you possess a few of these traits being successful in life may be just around the corner.
It’s not as hard as you might think, believe in yourself!
Is your father a movie producer? Maybe your uncle is a famous rapper? Maybe your best friend is a multi-platinum recording artist.
Well guess what?
They might be able to help you on the road to success! ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Here we are again, in the middle of a Tuesday and I’m to figure out exactly what to write.
It’s not even a question of not having a subject to write about, it’s really about not having enough to properly devote to said subjects. You may have noticed over on the Fringe page that I’m a little busy with podcasts and the like over there, so not a lot of blogging time left over in my day.
So, to prove to you that I am not just suffering blogger’s block, here are the ideas for articles that I have kicking around. This will serve as a preview for things to come in the next few months.
Top 5 Fake Songs from Fake Bands in TV ShowsI don’t even know if I’ll be able to get to 5, but I guess I should try.
The idea here is that a lot of times in a movie or a tv show, there will be a character who is a musician. Every now and then (though not as often as you might expect), the producers of the show actually see fit to have this fake musician actually play a song in the show.
It’s almost always terrible. Factor in the fact that most actors are not in fact, musicians and it can get even more comical as they pretend to play instruments and lip-sync to someone else singing.
In order to qualify for this list, the guideline that I set for myself was that the movie or tv show cannot expressly be about the band. So for instance, Josie and the Pussycats or that terrible Jem movie would not be applicable.
What would be applicable, and may or may not be on the last would be the song that Charlie’s band got famous for in LOST. “You All, Everybody”. By Drive Shaft.
Have you played Jaipur? It’s one of my favorite two player games. You would think that since it’s only a two player game I would have had the time to play it with Sarah and take some photos and write out a full article by now.
You would be wrong.
“Game Review Jaipur” has been sitting at the top of my little list of article ideas for a while, it seems like it will be such an easy one to phone in.
Basically, you play to rival merchants in the city of Jaipur trying to make lucrative trades and manipulate the local market to become the Royal Merchant for the Maharajah. It’s cool. One day I will tell you about in earnest. Not today. ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
That’s a question that people ask me all the time.
Just kidding, that’s a question I ask myself all the time because I know deep down that nobody reads or cares about the fact that I blog.
But somehow, here we are, in the 92nd consecutive week of the Perspicacious Geek and prior to that I went 28 conscecutive weeks writing WTF World back in 2011. I usually aim at around 1000 words per article, which means I’ve written 92,000 words. I’m just 7000 words short of The Hunger Games you guys, except I have made negative money paying for part of our web hosting fees instead of millions of dollars in book sales.
Is it because I have a ton a free time on my hands? Not at all. In fact, just about every single week I am scrambling to figure out what to write about in order to not a miss a Tuesday. I would say that most weeks feature a moment where I’m sitting on the toilet thinking “this will be the week that I miss a blog”. Then I say “no sir” and write one anyways.
Anyhow, if you want to do a thing, here’s my advice. I assume this applies to all kinds of arts, but I only know how to write so that’s how we’re framing this.
Tracking hits and stats for a website can be a dangerous game. Some of my stuff gets thousands of hits, others hundreds and others only dozens. The thousands of hits thing happens once in a blue moon, with the right combination of key words and social media traction. It feels great, but it’s not going to be the norm.
I have a theory that no matter what measure of success you’re having, you still want the next level. I remember once back in my blogspot days I had 1000 hits in a month on my blog page. I was absolutely elated. That number nowadays would depress me.
I tend to take a look at the overall health of the website less and less often now. Why? Because it doesn’t matter and whatever number we hit will become my new high point and anything lower will bum me out. If we pulled 100,000 hits a month, I’d want 200,000. That’s just how it goes. ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
This one is down to the wire y’all. I gotta admit that I’ve been getting my Loot Crates later and later lately, but this is cutting close. We’re May 31st and I got my May POWER Crate yesterday. But hey, it’s still May, it’s still Tuesday, and this blog needs blogging.
My general impressions of this month were pretty favorable, but by golly was this a geeky box. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, I’m geeky as hell. But if I questioning myself about exactly how nerdy getting a box of nerd stuff every month was, this would be a loud and clear “hella nerdy.”
Without further ado, let us take a looksie at what we have in the box! ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Maybe.
That was a short article, we’re done here.
Just kidding. Today we’re here to talk about the movie about Zac Effron, Bald Crazy Guy, Sort of Johnny Depp and Squirrel, four lifelong friends who grew up in the Valley and are no at various stages of ‘hustling’. Sort of Johnny Depp wants to be an actor, Bald Crazy Guy wants to be a promoter, Zac Effron is a DJ and Squirrel has a car. What happens next is basically the story of Zac Effron’s rise to becoming a somewhat notable DJ.
I remember when this movie came out I couldn’t help but pretty much laugh directly into my stupid TV’s face. The idea of basing a whole movie about the fictitious rise of a DJ seemed so ridiculous and somehow that it starred Zac Effron was an extra punchline.
I think we’re pretty safely in the area where we all know that “being a DJ” is basically a joke aspiration these days. I like to think we’re at the stage where we have identified that a DJ and an electronic music producer are not the same thing. This movie doesn’t really seem to care, and Zac Effron seems to at least make some of the music that he plays during the film. It’s all terrible though, the music is all terrible.
Except for the title track, which the movie totally blows its wad by playing in basically the first scene.
Let’s start off with my history with the song that gave this movie its title. “We Are Your Friends” is a remix by French electro duo Justice of a track that was originally called “Never Be Alone” by a British band called Simian. It came out in 2006. It is a great song. It has a great music video. If you were at all into the electro party scene of 2006 you are fully aware that this track would come up at just about every DJ night going at the time. For real, it has a great music video. ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
So, I’m writing this blog post from my honeymoon in Mexico. What does that mean? Two things. One, my wife is currently on the beach which is where I want to be and consequently two: this might be shorter than usual. Another, third consequence has just become apparent to me and that’s that the Spanish keyboard that I’m using is very unfamiliar.
Anyhow, this is just a bit of an expansion of a shower thought that I had a while ago about how we share our lives on the internet, and how we’re getting worse and worse at it.
I remember back in college, everyone I knew had a LiveJournal. Like, everyone. If you’re like 12 or something and don’t know what a LiveJournal (or ¨LG¨as the kids would say back then) was, it was basically just a simple blogging platform. You could customize the look and feel of your LJ, set moods, and write blogs. As with everything, there were a million LiveJournal Quizzes, with topical things like ¨which member of the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar are you?¨(that’s a Matrix reference if you’re wondering), memes like Peanut Butter Jelly Time, and most importantly, blog posts.
From my friends sharing their favorite movies (9to5’s own Scott kept his LJ going far longer than most, with his posts going all the way to 2008, check him out), to complaining about their day, to dropping massive social drama bombs, it quickly became the way to share you thoughts and feelings online. I remember how many conversations began with ¨did you read _____’s LJ post?¨. The thing that stuck out to me was how well thought out these posts were, sure they were jam packed with the sort of teenage drama you would expect from a group of teenagers given a space to vent freely and publicly about their perceived woes, but these posts were often paragraphs long. People put time and effort into what they were writing. ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
