Wow!  What a weekend THIS has been!

Friday night after work, Rebecca and I went to Hollywood 20 to catch the new horror/suspense/thriller The Strangers starring Liv Tyler.  The film was a wonderful exploration into old school psychological terror with the ’strangers’ playing some hardcore cat-and-mouse games with Liv Tyler’s character and her estranged lover.  And the games were just a precursor to the inevitably grim ending.  The film was effective enough to make me actually lock my bedroom door in my apartment and keep my Celtic war sword by my bedside as I turned in that night!

The Strangers  \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/

Before turning in, I tried to find out more about the films’ apparently falsified true events inspiration being I found nothing.  I did, however, discover that I had missed the release of one of my favorite band’s, KING’s X, new album which hit record stores back on May 20th.  Frustrated by my own negligence, I rushed to Best Buy first thing Saturday to purchase XV, their aptly-titled fifteenth album.  I have bought every record on its street date since the mid-90s!  The disc didn’t exactly floor me, but it IS KING’s X and is still better than a vast majority of modern music!

KING’s X  XV  \m/ \m/ \m/

From there, I headed towards Easley to hit 123 East Coast Ink to have Redneck do my long-awaited Darth Vader tattoo on my leg.  While en route, Becca called me to let me know she had found a Schecter Omen-4 left-handed bass on e-Bay for $350 with free shipping.  Having just received a nice paycheck the day before, I was left with a difficult yet obvious decision to go ahead and bite the bullet.  Hey, ramen noodles will do for a couple of weeks, right?!  So I gave her my card info so she could make the purchase only for the card to be declined.  For some reason, online purchases do NOT like my card!  So, she proceeded to make the purchase on her PayPal account and I agreed to reimburse her right after I got my new body art.

I got to 123 East Coast Ink and Redneck proceeded to turn my leg into a beautiful canvas any Star Wars geek would be immensely proud of!  Here’s the pic he took of it right after he finished:

You can also check it out and rate it on the Wall of Ink! 

On the way back to my neck of the woods, I stopped by an ATM to get Becca the cash I owed her for the bass only to find that it left me with much less in my account than I had accounted for.  As I gave her the cash, I informed her of the issue and she, in turn, checked out my online bank statement.  As it turned out, the declined card purchase posted - TWICE!!!  Considering I had just written a check for my rent that morning, I am in a considerable jam.  In all likelihood, the bank will drop the declined charges and all will be well and good, but, in the meantime, I am sweating the good possibility of a bounced check!

So, I headed home a bit concerned but ready to relax a bit nonetheless.  I threw on a load of laundry and rested until my musical comrade Mikey got off work and we headed out to The Real Gypsy to catch a former bandmate’s new band, THE DIRTY EIGHTIES.  Steve and Co. were joined by HEAD LANGUAGE and PREACHER’s GUN for a good live music outing followed by a tasty trip to the Huddle House!

Aside from having to work here and there, I had a mighty good Memorial Day Weekend.  Friday night Rebecca and I went over to Robbie and Vanessa’s place to play some Nintendo Gamecube.  On the way, I was desperately looking for a fourth controller so we could all simultaneously play Mario Kart and Mario Tennis.  I searched all over the place before finally realizing we were close to Darkside Games being in the Powdersville area.  We rode by only to find they had apparently just closed.

Not to be deterred, I rode back by first thing the next morning and, lo and behold, I nabbed a used controller for a mere 12 bucks!  So, after working my shift on Saturday, I rounded the gang up and had another Gamecube blowout at Ray and Erin’s!

Sunday I took it easy aside from getting some work done for the Planet’s premiere local rock show Upstate Unsigned so it was ready to overtake the Planet at 11!  Nice shameless plug, eh?

Monday morning Becca and I went and caught the new Narnia flick which was pretty good.  Granted it wasn’t as good as its predecessor, but a good sequel nonetheless.  I really can’t critique it much because it was simply what I expected: a continuation of the Narnia saga.

The Chronicles of Narnia:  Prince Caspian   \m/ \m/ \m/

Later that evening, I once again rounded up the gang for, you guessed it, ANOTHER Gamecube blowout!  Just between us, I am pretty burnt out on Mario Kart and will probably be so for a while!  Maybe now I can get everyone on board for some Mario Golf competition!

Man, I never thought a nostalgia and cheese sandwich could taste so good!  If you don’t know what I’m talking about, I’m referring to last night’s screening of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.  I know the film has already received numerous negative reviews and others at the screening were equally unimpressed.  I, on the other hand, didn’t go into the screening with high expectations so I got what I was looking for which was an expedition into an adventure franchise that hasn’t been visited in nearly 20 years.

I thoroughly enjoyed the film and will probably repurchase the entire series when this one hits DVD.  By no means was this one my favorite in the Indiana Jones Saga, which would be a close run between Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade, but certainly better than Temple of Doom!  If you’re an avid moviegoer like myself, certainly do not miss this one!  If you’re not and you’ll probably only see one movie this spring, GO SEE IRON MAN!!!  STAY THROUGH THE CREDITS!!!

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull  \m/ \m/ \m/ \n

Iron Man  \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/

That’s 3 1/2 rockers for Indy and 5 rockers for Iron Man!

Lemme know what your thoughts are: post a comment below!