Well, two of my favorite holidays are down and there’s one to go!  Thanksgiving was a wonderful day of eating, visiting family, eating, watching movies, eating, shopping and MORE EATING!!!  Rebecca got to join me and my family for Thanksgiving this year since her family was away at Fripp Island for the holiday and she was on call.  My Aunt Pat, unfortunately had to work at Hamrick’s all day so we brought her some Thanksgiving dinner and did a little shopping before going to see Becca’s family on her father’s side and then back to mine for another helping of wonderful food!

We then went to go see my best friend Kenny’s family since they are like a second family to me but Kenny was stuck working down in Atlanta.  After that we went home, put on our pajamas and went to……GAFFNEY!  Gotta love the midnight madness of Gaffney’s Tanger Outlet Malls for their Black Friday sales!  I took a large chunk out of my Christmas shopping list there (without trampling any poor retail employess to death!) and we then headed back to Greenville at 4 a.m. for some doorbusters but only made it to Kohl’s before throwing in the towel and hitting the sack.

Rebecca had a house to show at 2 p.m. in Inman so we did some shopping up in Spartanburg afterwards and then retired early as we had only had a handful of hours of sleep apiece.  Saturday I spent most of the day lounging at home while Rebecca had some more houses to show (she had a busy holiday weekend to say the least) and then we finally hit Best Buy, PetSmart and Yankee Candle (again) to pretty much finish up my Christmas shopping list then grabbed some dinner at Happy Pie - a great new pizza restaurant on Pelham Rd whose t-shirt I am currently sporting!

Sunday Becca and I went separate ways to spend time with our families since hers had just come in from Fripp Island the night before.  We spent most of the day visiting our families as mine watched Secondhand Lions on TBS then popped The Incredible Hulk and Jeff Dunham’s Christmas Special in the DVD player.  After that, Becca and I met back up at my apartment and watched Doomsday on DVD which I will review later!  I’ve got a show to run here!

Being Rebecca and I both get movies in the mail (she has Netflix and I have Blockbuster Total Access), we collectively watch a lot of movies.  This past weekend between going out to live shows, we saw a few fairly new DVDs.  First on our plate was Leatherheads, the film directed by and starring George Clooney which was filmed in various locations right here in the Carolinas including parts of downtown Greenville.  One of my college roommates, Lee (aka P1 BDL) whom I’ve known for over a decade was an extra in the film (he’s in the mining cart right next to a member of Clooney’s football team when he’s getting the team back together).  The film was a box office bomb, but it was actually a fairly decent movie.  Granted some of the slapstick parts fell pretty flat, but the overall story was worthwhile at least for a rental.

Leatherheads  \m/  \m/  \m/

After the TSO show and some Christmas shopping, we watched Jack Black and Mos Def in Be Kind Rewind.  I had heard the film was somewhat disappointing and I would have to agree because the trailer looked pretty good.  Some of the moviemaking scenes were just so unbelievably ridiculous my brain started to hurt from dying!  However, the film did progressively pick up with it’s somewhat heartwarming moments making the ridiculous moments forgivable and almost justifiable.

Be Kind Rewind  \m/  \m/  \n

And, finally, today I went home from the office early because our computers were down so I couldn’t get anything done.  I knew I was going to have to stay late regardless, so I went home for a while to have a little downtime before going on the air since I wasn’t going to get any afterwards!  I got in and popped WALL-E in my DVD player since I haven’t watched it since I got my copy last Monday the day before it came out!  And, yes, I watched WALL-E with my dog Molly!  It was every bit as enjoyable as it had been in the theater back in June with WALL-E and Eve on their mission to restore civilization.  WALL-E is, in my opinion, easily the most loveable character yet created by Disney’s Pixar Studios.

WALL-E  \m/  \m/  \m/  \m/

Well, that’s it until after Thanksgiving and Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year!  Have a GREAT one!

This weekend was a great weekend for some live music on rather opposite ends of the spectrum.  Friday night, Rebecca and I grabbed some dinner and headed to Ground Zero to catch the CD release party for LECHEROUS NOCTURNE’s The Age of Miracles Has Passed.  There were some great openers including both death and black metal bands but everyone gave proper homage to the metal gods when they took the stage at the end of the night.  Even if death metal isn’t your thing, you can’t deny the musicianship of the band as their guitarists’ fingers move faster than my eyes!  A truly intense live show!  Check out their video for “Just War Theory”:

Saturday I did a bunch of nothing except play Nintendo and watch movies including one of the worst films I have ever seen and possibly ever made called A Night to Dismember.  Considering it’s 25 years old but looks over 40, I’m not going to bother reviewing it but I will have some DVD reviews to compile in the next couple of days.

Sunday was this year’s visit from the TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA which is quite possibly one of the best live shows you’ll ever see and you can see it every year around Christmas.  TSO is a perfect marriage of rock and symphony catered for the holidays complete with pyrotechnics, laser lights and stage robotics.  It’s a show for all ages, all generations and many different musical tastes.  If you did not make it out this year, make plans to go next year and mark your calendar once they set the date!

Tuesday, we had HOLLYWOOD UNDEAD swing by the Planet studio to do an interview and video with Dex before their show that night at the Handlebar.  I stepped in to introduce myself and meet with the controversial rap rockers and even had a chance to strike a pose with a few of the guys.  That night Rebecca and I went out to see them along with a couple of local bands A VACANT SOUL and SHALLOW PALACE.  HOLLYWOOD UNDEAD stormed the stage with their masks on and jammed out their breakthrough hit single “Undead” and a few other songs before retiring the masks.  They were incredibly tight with their heavy blend of alternative rock and hip hop.  They really astonished me at how good they were with their performance and stage presence.  I believe these guys have the potential of taking their act to a much larger scale and becoming this generation’s BEASTIE BOYS!

Being I got in late Tuesday night, had to take a while to wind down after the show AND had to get up early  (well, early for me anyways) Wednesday morning, I ended up passing out on my couch early Wednesday night.  I woke up around 1:30 and took my dog Molly out before going to bed.  While she was doing her canine functions, I saw a couple of dark figures cutting through the bushes heading into the neighboring apartment complex.  Needless to say, this was very suspicious so I made a note to report it to the front office first thing in the morning.  When I got up Thursday morning and took Molly out, the cops were in front of the apartment building next to mine getting a report from one of my neighbors who’d had her car broken into and her boyfriend’s had been STOLEN!  So I strolled over to the police officer and reported what I had seen the night before and he informed me that the perpetrators had broken into several cars throughout my complex and  one or more of the neighboring areas.  I wish now I had called the authorities immediately!

After a strange start to the day, I headed to work and got ready to lend a hand in taking Toys For Tots donations during my air shift since The Rise Guys had me covered in the studio during their 28-hour broadcast.  Thankfully it was warmer than the previous year, or the previous two days for that matter!  There was food galore and Rebecca and I donated a couple of toys which I had purchased the night before at Wal-Mart.  I got a hand-held Guitar Hero game on her behalf and picked up a plug n’ play game with Battleship, Mouse Trap and Simon on it from me.  She came by and had lunch with me and we dropped off our donations.

It was a great feeling to contribute and it made for a much better way to end my day as opposed to how it began!

This weekend, when we weren’t working, Rebecca and I took in a couple of movies at home and took a quick sightseeing trip to Caesar’s Head.  Friday night we watched P2, an interesting thriller that runs with the realistic and often used fear of being attacked in a dark and empty parking garage.  It stars Wes Bentley (the eccentric camera toting boyfriend in American Beauty) as the obsessive and delusional security guard who stalks a woman who works in the building as she is leaving late on Christmas Eve.  Nothing special about the film, but an entertaining thriller nonetheless.

P2  \m/  \m/  \m/

Saturday after we both finished working away most of our day, we watched Get Smart as the DVD had just arrived in my mailbox.  I had seen it in the theater, but Rebecca had not so she got to enjoy the film for the first time as I got to watch it again knowing how it turns out and paid close attention to the foreshadowing.  Steve Carell brings his comedic persona we know and love from films such as The 40-Year-Old Virgin into the character of Maxwell Smart, a clumsy but loveable secret agency analyst turned agent once portrayed by Don Adams in the ’60s TV show of the same name.

Get Smart  \m/  \m/  \m/  \n

Sunday, Rebecca and I went to have lunch with my mom, Aunt Pat, Uncle James Ray and brother Anthony and then took an impromptu trip up to Caesar’s Head to do some last minute sightseeing before all the colored leaves fall off giving way to the naked look of winter.  We took my dog Molly to visit the family then ran to her house to grab one of her dogs, her dachshund Chloe so she could get some much needed exercise with us up in the foothills.  We dropped by the visitors’ center after seeing the sights to check out a few souvenirs.  I picked up a copy of a book on snakes of the Southeast and Becca got her some pressed flower stickers and earrings.

Now it’s back to work again, but at least we got a chance to go do something!

This week, Rebecca and I got to take in a couple of really good animated features.  Wednesday night she came over with a copy of Kung Fu Panda which her brother had just rented.  The animation and story were great topped off with the great cast of voices including Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Seth Rogen and Jackie Chan.  Great for the kids and adults who’ll never grow up - like ME!

Kung Fu Panda  \m/  \m/  \m/  \m/

Thursday night, two of our sister stations held a sneak preview for the new Disney animated feature Bolt.  Being I love animated films to begin with, I had to go especially since an old college friend of mine, Chris Doehling actually worked on the film.  Again, great animation, story and cast of voices including John Travolta and Malcolm McDowell.  Get the kids, drug ‘em up and drag ‘em out and enjoy when it hits theaters this Friday!

Bolt  \m/  \m/  \m/  \m/

Last week we gave away copies of Return to Sleepaway Camp, the sequel to the horror cult classic Sleepaway Camp which was released 25 years ago.  As a morbid adolescent, I spent hours on end watching great slasher films from the 80s and I remember Sleepaway Camp being a pretty good representation of its genre although it has been a while.  I also watched the first sequel but it was so bad I didn’t even bother with the third installment.  So I grabbed a copy with high hopes.

This film apparently attempts to be a true sequel just as Halloween H20 was to the first two Halloween films which both occurred on the same fateful Halloween night and disregards the other pathetic sequels.  Unfortunately, Return to Sleepaway Camp falls extremely short!  Despite having the same director as the original as well as returning key members of the original cast and even a couple of fairly recognizable new faces in the film (I mean Isaac Hayes plays ‘The Chef’ which I thought was a brilliant nod to South Park), the script was atrocious and the acting was even worse.  Don’t even get me started on the ’special’ effects!  And the sad part was that, when I watched the actor interviews on the disc, they were actually hoping the film would have the same success as the original.  Did they watch the movie?  Did they read their own script?  I could at least forgive them if they meant for the film to be a ‘campy’ sequel - yeah, that was a bad joke!

Return to Sleepaway Camp  \m/

I would have given the movie another rocker had there had at least been some boobies considering there were some rather blessed actresses (and I don’t mean with acting skills) in the film!  Ok, maybe just half a rocker!

After getting off the air Friday, Rebecca and I headed down to Columbia to celebrate her best friend Suzanne’s 26th birthday.  We stopped at a seafood joint in Clinton which was probably a bad idea for reasons I will leave to your imagination!  We got to Suzanne and her husband Jay’s apartment somewhere between 9:30 and 10 (we had to pack a little before leaving) and we went to a place called the Martini Bar which, as it sounds, is not my kind of place, but I met some interesting people and enjoyed watching the girls get plastered.

We got home late and had to get up a bit early but Becca and I managed to squeeze in about five hours of sleep and got up and got ready to go to the Carolina/Arkansas game at Williams-Bryce Stadium (and, yes, I washed the straightener out of my hair!).  Our seats were great as was the game as the Cocks defeated the Hogs 34-21!

As we were leaving the game, I called my old friend and former bandmate Moon and met him and his girlfriend Renee at the Columbiana Mall for a few minutes.  It was great to see him again except for the fact that he was looking as slim and fit as he was when I met him 10 years ago and I was looking all pudgy and soggy in the middle!  Damn I need to get my chunky butt in the gym!

Rebecca and I then went out to dinner with Suzanne and Jay and a bunch of their friends and coworkers at a nice Japanese restaurant to have a group celebration for Suzanne’s birthday.  Afterwards, Becca and I headed home as we both had things to do on Sunday.

Earlier in the week, Rebecca had bought me a nice new queen-sized mattress and box springs to replace my worn-out full-sized mattress and box springs since she stays at my apartment most weekends although I’m still reimbursing her for at least half of it.  She was also donating me her old bed frame to replace my older, rickety and squeaky ass bed frame.  As we left Columbia, we stopped by Wal-Mart and picked up a new ‘bed-in-a-bag’ so we wouldn’t have to stop by her house in the middle of the night to get both the bed frame and her old sheets.  We got to my apartment and dismantled my old bed and just threw down the mattress and box springs, quickly dressed the mattress and crashed.

We slept in, grabbed some lunch at Monterrey’s and went our separate ways to take care of what we needed to.  I met her at her house later that evening, loaded the bed frame in my car and took it back to my apartment.  She brought my dog Molly back with her as we had left her at her house with her brother and their six dogs.  After putting the bed together, I had to give Molly a bath since Rebecca’s dogs love to dig up her yard and Molly was a mudball of fine South Carolina red clay!  And flea-ridden to boot!

We then chilled on the couch as I made us my specialty of fried egg sandwiches and baked us some cookies using the triple chocolate cookie dough I bought off our webmistress Tracy.  Becca passed out rather early on and I had to wake her around midnight and made sure she was conscious enough to drive home and not fall asleep at the wheel!  I went to bed and enjoyed hogging my huge new bed!

One of our part-time jocks from one of our sister stations, Samantha came in the studio today with a professional hair straightener to straighten my significantly curly hair.  Why?  For the hell of it of course!

BEFORE

AFTER

Tuesday morning I woke up early (well, 8:30 which is early for me!) and went and did my civic duty by voting.  My polling location was located in a subdivision less than a quarter mile from my apartment complex so I didn’t have far to go and the line wasn’t too bad since I believe less than 2000 voters were registered for that location.  I guess overall it took about half an hour and included a little trouble I had being I had just changed my address on my voter registration a week prior and their voter registration list was two weeks old! 

I went to my booth and made good on my claims of voting for Ralph Nader even though I knew he didn’t stand a chance which is really sad.  He’s a really smart man and I actually think he’d do this country some good.  Not that I think Barack Obama won’t since he would have been my choice over John McCain.  However, there are so many people around here that are freaking out now since Obama won whether it be the race issue or, the bigger issue, his moral and religious stance as he comes from a Muslim background.  I mean I really think some people around here believe he’s a terrorist who’s gonna infiltrate the White House!  And others actually believe he’s the Antichrist!  I think that’s giving the man too much credit!  I mean he’s not that sly to pull the wool over the sheep’s eyes as the Antichrist is supposed to be when he rises to power.

Anyways…..so Rebecca and I went to the movies last night to finally catch Quarantine. 

WARNING:  If you have not seen this film and wish to do so, scroll down to my rating of the film because the following review contains spoilers!

The movie is another first person camera shot film as is The Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield and the latest George A. Romero zombie flick Diary of the Dead and, like the other films mentioned, no one gets out alive.  It starts out with a late night television reporter and her cameraman shadowing a couple of Los Angeles firefighters who get called out to a creepy old apartment building where a disturbance involving a screaming old woman has been called in.  Of course the old woman looks like some sort of demented zombie and attacks one of the police officers who was already on the scene when the firefighters arrive.  When the other officer and one of the firefighters try to get the wounded officer out of the building in order to seek medical attention, they find that they have been contained by special forces and chaos ensues.

During the course of the film, a resident veterinarian who’s helping the wounded notices the symptoms are similar to that of rabies - only infinitely faster.  Before the end of the movie, our main characters seek shelter in one of the top floor apartments apparently owned by some mad scientist type filled with empty animal cages and newspaper articles of a stolen ‘armageddon virus’ from some medical lab.  So at least the audience gets some kind of explanation which is usually lacking in first person films and it wasn’t another zombie flick.  Rapid rabies…..gotta say that’s different and original!  And the first person camera angles in the creepy old apartment building was really effective and scary!  I regret it took me so long to finally go see it!

Quarantine  \m/  \m/  \m/  \m/  \n