I am very excited being it is the first day of October, my favorite month of the year!  And it happens to come the day after a very eventful day being yesterday was both the day that Iron Man dropped on DVD and the day of Planet Birthday Bash XII!

I left my apartment yesterday morning and went straight to Best Buy to pick up a copy of their Iron Man Limited Edition DVD Gift Set which came with a collectible bust.  I then got to my office to open my new toy only to find that the bust was busted!  Iron Man lost his head!  Literally!  So I got back into my car, went and found some gas (which is a scarce commodity these days!) and went and exchanged my gift set.  I am proud to say Iron Man is now sitting on my desk with his head intact!

After work, Rebecca and I had to haul ass down to Clemson for our twelfth birthday bash with BUCKCHERRY, SHINEDOWN, SAVING ABEL and local favorites PARMALEE.  Unfortunately, I missed PARMALEE’s set but, thankfully, they are local and they frequent shows in town so I’ll have to make a rain check date!  I made it just in time to catch SAVING ABEL put on a great set followed by SHINEDOWN who has never disappointed me!

Turtle and I had the honor of going onstage to make the last announcements of the evening before BUCKCHERRY took the stage.  It was my first time seeing them so I guess you could say that BUCKCHERRY broke my cherry!  LOL!!!

We actually managed to make it home before midnight (well I did; Rebecca still had to pick up her car and head home from my apartment!) and I anxiously ran in to watch some special features (deleted/extended scenes mostly) on my Iron Man DVD and a few minutes of the movie before having to throw in the towel and hit the sack out of pure exhaustion!  Oh well, there’s still tonight!  It’s not like I haven’t seen the movie all the way through three times already!  Remember, I gave it a perfect score of five rockers!  In case you forgot, here it is again:

Iron Man  \m/  \m/  \m/  \m/  \m/

Labor Day weekend was just that: laborous!  So, when I wasn’t working, I was out trying to blow my paycheck!  Hey, what’s the point in working relelentlessly if I don’t take some time to go out and enjoy it?!  Friday I met up with Rebecca after work.  Yes, we are on speaking terms again and trying to somehow sort out our differences in some way whether it leads to us seeing each other again or not.  She brought me her latest dog rescuee being she is like the crazy cat lady only with a crapload of dogs instead of cats!  I think she knew I’d be interested in this one being the dog is a Boston terrier and border collie mix and I have always wanted a Boston terrier.  So she brought Molly (the name she gave her being she is fond of giving dogs people names - as for me, I still want a male Boston terrier and name him Vader!) to the apartment and we went to Target to pick up some stuff for the dog (leash, toys, bowls, etc.) and then went to Ruby Tuesday’s for dinner.

Saturday I did little more than do my on-air shift and the same could be said for most of Sunday.  My mom and Aunt Pat came over to see the new addition to the Twisted family and we walked her out to the small man-made lake out by my apartment complex.

Monday, when I wasn’t on the air (again!), Rebecca and I managed to take in a movie: the new comedy spoof Tropic Thunder starring Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey, Jr.  Of the three lead characters, Downey clearly made his mark portraying “the dude playing the dude disguised as another dude”.  I mean his character stayed in character until the end of the movie!  “I stay in character until I finish the DVD commentary!” I believe he said….and he wasn’t kidding!

And let’s not forget the A-list supporting cast of Nick Nolte, Matthew McConaughey and, oh yes, Tom “Damn, my ass is crazy!” Cruise!  I really enjoyed the film as it was a breath of fresh air from other crappy spoof movies such as the ridiculous Scary Movie saga that has bled over into the even more preposterous Epic Movie, Disaster Movie and all the other ”Fill in the Flippin’ Blank” movies!

And it really pisses me off that everyone is all up in arms about their references to mentally handicapped people as ‘retards’.  I admit it’s in rather poor taste, but isn’t comedy supposed to be unapologetically irreverent?  I mean I just watched the new Harold & Kumar flick on DVD and it’s remorselessly racist!  Being a Christian, I constantly see shows like South Park or especially Moral Orel that make a mockery of my beliefs.  Yes, it offends me, but I simply choose not to watch it if it gets too offensive which I did stop watching the latter of the two shows because it honestly made me feel like a heathen….or worse!  LOL!!!

Tropic Thunder   \m/  \m/  \m/  \n

And here’s a few of the DVDs I’ve watched recently now that I have a steady supply of rentals with Blockbuster Total Access:

I just mentioned how racist Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay was, but don’t get me wrong, it was a riot!  If you liked their first adventure getting to White Castle, you’ll caertainly enjoy this!

Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay   \m/  \m/  \m/  \

I pretty much got what I expected out of Prom Night and maybe a little more since it was more bloody and violent than what I would expect from a PG-13 rated slasher flick.  Granted it is painfully obvious that it is not a remake of the Jamie Lee Curtis horror film of the same name.  The character names are different as well as the overall plot of the movie save for the fact that both films occur on (big surprise here!) high school prom nights.

Prom Night  \m/  \m/  \

When Grandma’s Boy first came out, I thought it would be a big piece of crap trying to capitalize on Adam Sandler’s success by throwing a comedy together using a cast full of his supporting cast regulars - but no Sandler.  It turned out being one of my favorite comedies in recent years so I had high hopes for Happy Madison’s latest DVD release Strange Wilderness.  I have to say I was somewhat disappointed.  Don’t get me wrong, it had some rather hilarious moments, but just didn’t deliver a comedy I’d really want to watch again.

Strange Wilderness   \m/  \m/  \n

That’s it!  I’m done and heading home to take care of Molly!

And, no, this is NOT about my trip to the dentist Tuesday! 

I recently signed up for Blockbuster Total Access which is basically the Blockbuster version of Netflix only, with their version, you can trade out DVDs with local Blockbuster stores which is totally sweet!  I got my first three DVDs this week and went back and watched Batman Begins for the first time since I saw it in the theater.  I wasn’t a big fan of the grittier, more realistic feel to the new Batman franchise (I believe I mentioned that in my review of The Dark Knight), but since seeing the new film, I wanted to give the first another shot and I am glad I did!

I also got the new horror flick Teeth which I watched last night.  As if I needed another reason to swear women off, I had to sit and watch a film about an extremely chaste teenage girl dealing with her budding sexuality - and the mythical phenomenon known as vagina dentata meaning she has razor-sharp teeth embedded in her womanhood!  Jess Weixler did a great job portraying the homely yet oddly attractive lead character Dawn who is very innocent yet curious about her newfound sexual urges.  She discovers her malicious deformity when she is assaulted sexually by her love interest Tobey.

She then makes the next obvious move and goes to see a gynecologist with more tragic results.  She then seeks solace in the arms of another male admirer only to be taken advantage of by him which, of course, turns out to be a bad move on his ‘part’ (pardon the pun)!  After all this, and a devastating family tragedy, she ‘evolves’ from a sweet, innocent symbol of purity to a vengeful vixen complete with fangs in her nether regions!  I think I’m gonna abstain myself until they invent chain mail condoms!  LOL!!!

Teeth  \m/  \m/  \m/  \m/

Well, let’s see, what’s new?  Friday was a full day which started in my hometown of Simpsonville as I was at Wal-Mart for our annual Rock ‘N’ Roll Up Your Sleeve blood drive.  My dear Aunt Pat was there to see her beloved nephew and to keep me in line as she likes to do to me on the air!  Greg and I were fighting with the Planet ape’s big ass as the concrete buckets kept falling over and my aunt had the genius idea of tying the ape to a couple of sign posts which already grounded in the asphalt.  Way to go, Aunt Pat!

The drive was a HUGE success as, not only was I busy for the two hours I was out at the Simpsonville Wal-Mart (which faces my alma mater Hillcrest High School on the other side of I-385), but apparently all our donor locations were as well as we brought in 575 units of blood compared to 560 last year.  And, for those wondering, we should be drawing for the DROWNING POOL autographed guitar and the PROJECT REVOLUTION tickets over the course of the day as well as picking our photographer for the show.

Friday night, Rebecca and I went out to pay tribute to Uncle Jim at the Jim Minchow Memorial Concert at Ground Zero.  We enjoyed sets from WHISKEY MOUNTAIN MACHINE, BOOLOW and got to see GHOST IN THE MACHINE for the first time as a five-piece since the addition of a second guitarist.  They ended their set with “Down for the Last Time” with guest backing vocals from Jay and J-Bird formerly of EVERY MANS ENEMY.  Afterwards, Jay confirmed the strong possibility of an EME reunion!  At that point, Becca and I were both beat and had to leave and miss HEADSNAP’s set being she had to work in the morning.

Saturday, I stepped out to feed and run a few errands, but, outside of that, I stayed in and vegged on the couch and did pretty much the same on Sunday.  Becca did come over so we could watch Dan in Real Life with Steve Carell.  The movie was actually pretty entertaining considering I am not big on indy comedies.  However, Steve Carell can pull them off as he did with Little Miss Sunshine.  Bill Murray, on the other hand, does not as I did not care for Rushmore nor Lost in Translation.

Dan in Real Life  \m/ \m/ \m/ \n

Yesterday, Paige and Nine made the HUGE announcement of the line-up for BIRTHDAY BASH XII!  Granted, they had to do it since Skip and Matt were both (and still are) sick with vacation coming for them next week (I will say no more).  So, the ticket blitz IS ON!!!  Listen all week as we will giving away tickets to see AVENGED SEVENFOLD, BUCKCHERRY, SHINEDOWN and SAVING ABEL at Clemson’s Littlejohn Coliseum on September 30th before you can buy them on Friday (P1s, you can buy yours on Thursday)!

While on the air yesterday, I checked out Best Buy’s website to see if there was anything worth picking up on DVD since all the decent movies have been confined to theaters this summer.  Being tight in the wallet, I really couldn’t have done much spending, but Best Buy happens to be running a killer sale of $5 DVDs!  I zipped over there immediately after getting off the air and picked up Clerks II, Grandma’s Boy and Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle all for five bucks a pop!  Needless to say, I spent last night laughing my ass off watching the movies in their respective order as I have listed them but only making it halfway through the second one before calling it a night.  I did, at least, make it through Grandma making tea out of Alex’s pot and the huge party that stems from the ‘herbal’ tea!  “My grandma drank all my pot!”  Classic!

So, go pick up some killer cheap DVDs and tell them Twisted Todd sent ya since I used to work there!  Who says you can’t buy happiness?!

You know, I’m really not sure what happened to my weekend!  All I know is that I kept going all weekend yet I have nothing much to speak of except for yesterday.

Friday I had my best friend Kenny, who was in town from Atlanta for a couple of days, take me to pick up my car from Big O Dodge after getting the front windshield molding reset.  We hung out for a few as he was heading out to meet more friends at Gottrocks and I was heading over to Mikey’s new apartment where he was having a birthday party for his new lady friend, Kelly.  After only two hours or so, the cops came out because of noise complaints so the party disbursed with some going out to another party while Mikey, Kelly and others headed to Gottrocks.  I would have loved to have gone and hung out with Kenny some more since I rarely get to see him, but I was beat so I went home and passed out shortly after midnight.

I didn’t see the light of day until damn near noon Saturday!  I then came to the station to work on the local show while I was on the air.  Afterwards, I went to Beacon Ridge, the apartment complex Rebecca works at to do a little swimming with her co-workers and scarf down some grilled hot dogs!  We parted ways to change into dry clothes and then Becca came over to my apartment and we watched We Own the Night with Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg.  As I expected, it was a great movie with a lot of tense moments and some partial nudity from the lovely Eva Mendes!

We Own the Night  \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/

Yesterday, my cousin Ray and his wife Erin had a baby shower for their soon-to-be firstborn son.  Family and friends were out in droves!  I hung out and had some finger sandwiches, fruit, cake and punch - the only justifiable parts for a guy like me to show up to such events!  I then had to take off and head to Spindale, NC and host Sunday Night Live at the Foundation Performing Arts Center with Christian rockers DISCIPLE.  Before introducing the band, I sat in the back of the auditorium watching skits and commercial parodies while waiting to go backstage.  When intermission came, I got a call from Kris, one of the singers from my old band DEAD AT DAWN.  I answered and he asked where I was so I told him I was at the DISCIPLE show in NC to which he replied, “I know, but where are you?”.  At this point it dawned on me that he was there so we played Where’s Waldo for a few minutes until we found each other.  Shannon, the drummer from DEAD AT DAWN was with him as well being the two work together at Coca-Cola so we caught up for a few minutes before I had to go backstage and introduce the band.

I had always heard that DISCIPLE puts on an amazing and energetic show and they, by no means, disappointed me.  After the show, I joined Shannon, Kris and others for a little late dinner at the nearest McDonald’s and then headed home.  Rebecca called me while at the show and wanted me to stop by being she missed the baby shower due to some allergic reaction she had earlier that day and had passed out from the Benadryl she took.  I agreed, but only if I could challenge her to another round of Battleship since she had beat me the night before.  Lo and behold, she kicked my ass again!  I have never understood this, because my ex-girlfriend Sara used to beat me at the game all the time!  What gives?  I guess women are just naturally gifted at blowing things out of the water!  LOL!!!

Oh no, it’s Monday!  4th of July weekend is over!  Oh well, time to saddle up!  At least I have a few things to talk about - and yes, that includes movie reviews!  First up, I went to go see the new Angelina Jolie flick Wanted which was amazing even though I’m normally not into assassin movies.  From start to finish the film was damn near flawless with a great storyline with some clever twists and phenomenal special effects.  I had heard great things about the movie but wasn’t expecting to have that much delivered.  I’ve actually been debating over whether to give the film four and a half or five rockers.  So I compromised and gave it four and three-quarters.

Wanted  \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/ \m

Friday, the 4th, when I wasn’t on the air, I was in my uncle’s pool and eating hot dogs off the grill!  That night I went out to Ground Zero to see KITTIE, DOPE and some great local bands throw down on Independence Day!  Screw fireworks!  I got there as A VACANT SOUL was on the stage and, I gotta say, those guys keep getting better every time I see them!  Can’t wait to see them open for SHINEDOWN tonight!  Expect another blog tomorrow!

After AVS, DEAD 7 hit the downstairs stage for which I was up front virtually the whole time considering they hit their first notes as I was walking out of the john!  They put on a helluva great set throwing in Johnny Cash’s classic “Folsom Prison Blues” as well as some new material.  Back upstairs A NEW REVOLUTION hit the stage.  I wasn’t too familiar with them but they put on a good set.  BOOLOW hit the downstairs stage next and they have really stepped up their game which is really a feat considering bassist/vocalist Jason Scoggins was running the upstairs bar the whole night when he wasn’t onstage!  Hats off to ya, bro!

DOPE was next upstairs followed by HEADSNAP downstairs.  Our Spartanburg boys never disappoint when they take the stage!  And, of course, KITTIE wrapped up the night on the main stage and I was pooped by the time they finished!  Yeah, I know I’m a pansy!

I went straight home, took a harlot’s shower and went to bed.  A couple of hours later I woke up starving so I went to Waffle House at about five in the morning.  Chopped steak, scrambled eggs, hashbrowns and toast never tasted so good!  I sat up for a while to let my late night feeding frenzy digest and then passed back out after seeing the sun come up and slept until time to go back on the air.  And that, ladies and gentlemen, was my Saturday.

Sunday (yesterday) I met my family at Golden Corral to have an early birthday dinner for my brother Anthony.  We then went to Hollywood 20 to catch the new Will Smith flick Hancock.  I really enjoyed the movie until the main character’s background was revealed and I was rather disappointed.  It wasn’t bad, but I thought they could have done better.  Nevertheless, the film was quite entertaining overall and definitely worth checking out on the big screen.

Hancock  \m/ \m/ \m/ \n

Last week I got a copy of the new horror DVD The Ruins which hits stores tomorrow (I love my job!) and I will be giving away copies of it all week long only on my show being I am the resident horror movie nut.  I finally got around to watching the film last night and got what I expected which wasn’t much.  I was surprised to see Shawn “Iceman” Ashmore from the X-Men films sporting the bearded nappy-headed look.  As a matter of fact I wasn’t sure it was him until the credits rolled.

Anyways, the movie had the whole Cabin Fever vibe to it where something organic yet sinister ‘eats’ its way through its victims and there is virtually no hope for its college-aged characters.  It was very predictable in places but had its redeeming moments of gore to appease horror fans’ bloodlust.  Not a must-have or even a must-see, but if you manage to win a copy off of me this week, it’s a fun run for a ‘got nothing better to do’ movie night.

The Ruins  \m/ \m/ \n