Monday, December 29, 2008

Still intrigued, still amazed...

Hey guys,

I can't get away from listening to/researching/watching/ blogging about Matthew Good...

I found this interview tonight on YouTube that I'd never seen before. I found it really informative and interesting. It tells of Matt's childhood, his getting into the music biz, he and his band opening for the Who, and some other things... Here it is...



Part 1





Part 2





Part 3





I really enjoyed that one and I really admire this guy for his music and what he's all about. There are a plethora of other videos on YouTube that feature interviews, music, rants and such from Mr. Good... You can check those out or go to www.matthewgood.org and read his daily blog entries which feature commetaries on world politics, human rights, his music and sometimes we're even treated to little bits of prose (which are genius) that Matt has written (Look for the ones that begin "Dear San Diego")...

I'll probably be writing more about Matthew Good in the near future... For now, I'm hooked...

Peace...

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Off to see the Wizard

Hey guys,

Still flipping through Wizard #207 Gold. The latest article I've read is about the 50 greatest comic movies of all time... I'm gonna go ahead and list those for you and maybe insert some opinions like I did in the last post...

AND HEY!!! Even if you're not into the whole comic book thing, you might wanna take a look through these if you like movies. I can't count how many times someone was talking about a movie and I said, "Yeah, the comic that that film was based on was excellent." And they'd say, "WHAT?! Really? I didn't know that came from a comic book!!!"

Anyway, you might be surprised about how many of today's movies DO come from the medium of comic books. Take a peek...

Here goes:

50. Constantine (2005) -Saw it in the theaters. It was okay...
49. Timecop (1994)
48. Fantastic Four (2005)
47. Swamp Thing (1982)
46. Shogun Assassin (1980)
45. Superman Returns (2006)
44. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)
43. Ghost in the Shell (1995) -I've got the DVD... It's so-so...
42. Spider-Man 3 (2007)
41. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993) -An animated feature...
40. Mystery Men (1999)
39. Danger: Diabolik (1968)
38. X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) -Some of the casting is great. The film's just okay for me...
37. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)
36. Batman Returns (1992)
35. TMNT (2007)
34. Riki-Oh: The Story of Riki (1991)
33. 30 Days of Night (2007) -This one's okay... It comes close to doing the comic justice...
32. The Mask (1994) -Jim Carrey's always great... Never read the comic...
31. Blade II (2002)
30. Death Note (2008) -Read some of the manga... Wasn't aware until now that there was a movie...
29. Heavy Metal (1981)
28. Oldboy (2003)
27. Akira (1988)
26. Men in Black (1997) -Okay, if you're in the mood for it, but kinda goofy...
25. V for Vendetta (2005) -A decent film... The comic's WAY better...
24. American Splendor (2003) -Comic movie or no, this one's great...
23. The Crow (1994) -A classic...
22. The Rocketeer (1991)
21. Blade (1998)
20. Road to Perdition (2002)
19. Wanted (2008) -Saw it in the theater and it's great, but the comic's WAY better again...
18. The Incredible Hulk (2008)
17. Hellboy (2004)
16. Superman: The Movie (1978)
15. Batman (1989)
14. X-Men (2000) -I waited 10 years for this when I saw it... Some good parts if you're in the mood for the mutants...
13. Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008)
12. A History of Violence (2005) -One of the worst movies I've ever seen...
11. Spider-Man (2002)
10. Persepolis (2007)
9. Superman II (1981)
8. Sin City (2005) -Now THIS is a film in a league of its own. Almost verbatim to the comic that spawned it...
7. Ghost World (2001)
6. 300 (2007) -Again, in a league all its own... If you haven't, see this.
5. Batman Begins (2005) -I didn't really care for this one...
4. Spider-Man 2 (2004)
3. X2: X-Men United (2003)
2. The Dark Knight (2008) -You know what I'm gonna say... Heath Ledger as the Joker is legendary... Go see this if you haven't...
1. Iron Man (2008) -I'm surprised that this beat out "The Dark Knight". Then again, I haven't seen it, so...



Well, gang, there they are...

I want to thank Wizard Magazine again and give them props for doing things like this... I really dig this type of thing.

If you want to comment on any of this or get my in-depth opinions, hit me with a comment.

Until next time, guys...

Peace...

The Best of the Best

Hey guys,

It's been a while since I've blogged about anything comic book related and while reading through Wizard #207 Gold, I noticed that they'd done a kind of year in review on all things comic books...

I'm gonna share what was in there and maybe insert some of my own opinions.

So here goes:

BEST BOOK
Action Comics
-I've read it for a while now. It IS good...

BEST EVENT
Secret Invasion
-I've not read it. I want to...

BEST SATIRE
Screamland

BEST WRITER 2008
Jason Aaron
-I've only read some Wolverine that he did and some Scalped... Enjoyable.

BEST SINGLE ISSUE
Y: The Last Man #60

BEST ARTIST
Leinil Yu

INDIE OF THE YEAR
Kramers Ergot 7

'08'S INDIE GREATS
Best Debut: Mesmo Delivery
Best Ongoing Series: RASL (I've not read this. I'd really like to...)
Best All-Ages Indie: Chiggers
Best Webcomic: BodyWorld
Best Self-Published: Pixu

BEST HERO
Captain America
-I'd really like to pick up some of the trades on this one, too...

GAME OF THE YEAR
Super Smash Bros. Brawl

BEST REVAMP
Incredible Herc

BEST ALL-AGES
Tiny Titans

BEST VILLAIN
Norman Osborn

BEST R-RATED BOOK
The Boys
-I recently just stopped reading this one... Some good stories, though...

BEST HORROR WRITER
Joe Hill

BEST COVER ARTIST
Marko Djurdevic

BEST NEW SERIES OF 2008
-Invincible Iron Man
-Stephen King's The Stand
-Secret Six
-X-Force
-Guardians of the Galaxy
-House of Mystery
-Captain Britain & MI 13
-Deadpool
-Young Liars
-Zorro
-Echo
-Conan the Cimmerian
(I've not read ANY of these, but I'd really like to try Young Liars...)

IN MEMORIAM...
-Steve Gerber
-Steve Whitaker
-Dave Stevens
-Jim Mooney
-Will Elder
-James Perham
-Creig Flessel
-Jack Kamen
-Carlos Meglia
-Michael Turner
(I'm not really familiar with anyone's work here except for Michael Turner... Rest In Peace, fellows... Truly sad losses all around, here...)



There were some other things in the article like Best Moments of 2008 and stuff but they'd require too much explanation... You can go to wizarduniverse.com to see some more on these, if you'd like...

Thanks to Wizard Magazine who published the article in reference and always keeps us in the know on all things comic book...

Until next time, guys...

Peace...

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Christmas Avalanche

Hey guys,

Having recently completed my Matthew Good collection (ahhh, Christmas money) and having not been able to stop listening to him, I thought I'd take this opportunity (now that all of my holiday hubbub has died down) to post about the first solo album by Matthew Good.

The album is called Avalanche and it is truly another great one by Matthew Good. As I've said, this is the first of his solo efforts, realeased in 2003. The album spawned three singles and two music videos, which I'll now post below. As always, the titles of the songs will be above the tunes.



Weapon





In a World Called Catastrophe





Well, there they are... I'm kind of fighting with myself on whether I should go as in depth on this one as I have the others. If any of you wanted to buy the album, I might spoil it by putting too much stuff up on here. Then again, I just wanna pay tribute to it by posting all I can...

I'll leave this one the way it is for now... There are tons of videos on YouTube of Matthew Good's stuff if you want to go looking. Hope you're enjoying this stuff as much as I am.

Give me a little while and I'll probably give you the scoop on his next album chronologically: White Light Rock & Roll Review... Hopefully these clips and the ones you'd find on YouTube or THE ALBUMS THAT YOU SHOULD GO AND BUY will tide you over until then...

Peace...

Sunday, December 21, 2008

A new look and more Lloyd-ism

Hey guys,

You've probably already noticed that The Llog looks a little different.

This is basically the white version (with black print) of the template that I had used before... I figured, you know, it'd be really cool if someone ever wanted to print up one of my entries from on here...

This template will make it easier if anyone ever wants to do that...

Also, I've been using some other sites recently... I've been trying to get to MySpace more. A lot of my dear friends and family are on there. So hopefully you guys will be seeing a little more of me there...

I've also been using Twitter a lot more (as you'll notice in my Twitter updates down the right side of the page) and I've been using a site called Delicious. I've got links to all of those posted on here (also on the right side of the page).

So anyway... There it is, guys... A little news...

I wanna be trying to blog more (and write more, for that matter), so hopefully you Llog readers will hear more from me soon.

Peace.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Bush league...

Hey guys,

I was poking around the web this afternoon and saw an article on the man who has managed to be our president for the past few years...

President Bush is now (as he is about to leave office shortly) quoted as saying, "I didn't compromise my soul to be a popular guy."

Hmmm... Didn't compromise his soul, huh? Is that some last ditch effort to make us sympathatic? Is he trying to tout his integrity? That's what it comes off like to me...

Am I supposed to just sit back now and say, "Goddamn... You know... A lot of lives have been lost in Iraq, gas prices are just now starting to come down from ridiculously astronomical prices, and they tell us that the economy's a fucking mess, but you know what? Mr. Bush never compromised his soul... and that makes him a real neat-o guy with me..."

Yeah, don't look for that (at least from me) anytime soon...

Saturday, December 13, 2008

The Audio of Excellence

Hey guys,

What can I say?

I'm tired, I don't wanna go to sleep, I'm bored, I'm back on the blog, I feel like doing more and right now, I'm obsessed with listening to Matthew Good...

Here we go...

First, let me say that if you haven't read some of my prior posts on Matthew Good, you might do well to go back and read them... I've got interview footage, reviews of prior albums (chronologically), live stuff and all kinds of goodies... One thing I regret not doing is going really in-depth with the first couple of Matthew Good Band albums as I have with Beautiful Midnight in the prior two posts and as I'm about to do with the Audio of Being...

This album, as albums by my favorite artists tend to do (or not do) did not grab me right away... This was the final album from the Matthew Good Band and was said to be very stressful on all of them... Matt himself is said to have been ill through the recording of it and Dave Genn (one of the guitarists in the band) compared the making of the album to "taking a long, painful shit"...

Despite that, going back and listening to this one a few times, I've really grown to love it as with all the other Matthew Good stuff I've listened to...

The album only produced two music videos (for the songs "Carmelina" and "Anti-Pop") and I'm going to include those below... Those will be the only two "official" music videos from this bunch...

After doing all the work on posting about Beautiful Midnight, I decided to try and locate some YouTube clips for other songs on this disc, as well... I wanted to more represent the whole album to you readers of the Llog and highlight some of the songs that I actually like better than the ones which had music videos made for them...

So anyway, here they are... Titles of the songs are posted ABOVE the videos... (Are you frequent readers tired of hearing that yet? Ah well, I just wanna make sure you know the correct names of the damn songs... Live with it... Haha!)



Man of Action





Carmelina





Tripoli





Advertising on Police Cars





I, the Throw Away





The Fall of Man





Under the Influence





The Rat Who Would Be King





Anti-Pop





Sort of a Protest Song





Well, again... There they are... That's not every song on the album, but it's a pretty good taste (I'm only missing two tunes from the disc)...

I really love the videos that they've done for some of these tunes, from this and other albums... The video for "Anti-Pop" looks like a chaotic, juvenile romp of a Travelocity ad... Even if you're not digging all of this Matthew Good stuff, you should still be able to find that enjoyable... The same goes for the video for "The Future is X-Rated" from Beautiful Midnight. In that one, Matt's ranting on like Sally Struthers in a kind of spoof ad for helping vain people... Awesome...

And as far as liking the songs... Well, some of these tunes really speak to me... The clip of "Tripoli" ripped my heart out when I saw it. It's just a great, sad, brooding song... And the clip's so personal... Right up there with Matt as he pours out his soul in the song... Ah well, here's your cue to make fun of me...

Well, I think that's all the Matt Good stuff I'd like to rant on for now... I am listening to his first solo album right now, though, so I'll probably give you the lowdown on that one at some point...

As I said, too, I'm really regretting not going as in-depth with the first two albums... I'm thinking of putting posts up on those that are more like these recent ones with more songs and stuff... If you're digging the Matt Good stuff (or already do), that'll be a treat for you... If you're not, just wait a couple of weeks and I'll be obsessed with something else...

Peace...

Friday, December 12, 2008

Beautiful Midnight - The Second Chime

Hey guys,

FIRST OF ALL, IF YOU HAVEN'T READ MY LAST POST (My "Beautiful" Discovery), GO DO THAT NOW!!! I'll wait...

Ready?

OK...

I figured I'd get right back on the second post for the praise for the Matthew Good Band album Beautiful Midnight... I wanted to show you guys a little more of why it's one of my favorites...

Now the following YouTube clips are going to be "unofficial" videos for the other songs from the album... Again, I wanted you guys to get more of a feel for why I'm praising it so much... The clips may include TV footage that has nothing to do with the songs or Matthew Good, a still picture with a song played behind it or homemade videos, but some of them will be pretty cool acoustic or live (or both) renditions of the tunes... As I've said, some of the songs have music videos that are from the album Underdogs... If you're curious, go check out a prior post on the Llog entitled Rooting for the Underdogs...

If you're an OCD geek like me or you wanna put the time in and listen to the album in the order of the tracks on the CD, they go like this:

1. Giant
2. Hello Time Bomb
3. Strange Days
4. Deep 6ix
5. Load Me Up
6. Failing the Rorschach Test
7. Suburbia
8. Apparitions
9. Jenni's Song
10. A Boy and His Machine Gun
11. The Future is X-Rated
12. Everything is Automatic
13. Born to Kill
14. Running for Home



If you bounce back and forth through this post and all the ones I've mentioned above, (it is my hope that) you'll be able to hear a semblance of the album in its entirety...

Now then, the songs (with the titles of the songs posted ABOVE them, which is my usual format on here...)



Giant





Deep 6ix





Surburbia





Apparitions





Jenni's Song





A Boy and his Machine Gun





Born to Kill





Running for Home





And there they are...

Sorry guys, but I couldn't find anything for the song "Failng the Rorschach Test"... If you're interested, you can download this album (and a lot of Matthew Good's other stuff) from iTunes and hear that tune, as well... I definitely recommend it...

Well, there's the two-post, in-depth, Llog-ified look into the album
Beautiful Midnight by the Matthew Good Band... I'll be posting soon on the next (and final) Matthew Good Band album chronologically, entitled The Audio of Being... And then we'll start getting into his solo stuff, which includes another of my favorite albums of all time...

Hope I've given you guys enough to chew on for a while...

Until next time and as always...

Peace...

My "Beautiful" Discovery...

Hey guys,

Yeah, I'm still alive... I know it's been quite a while since I've posted...

I was thinking about the blog a little bit the other day... I was also thinking about Matthew Good, which is what I've been listening to lately (again)... I just always return to listening to good ol' Matt here and there... I guess he's become one of my favorites...

Anyway, I was think about the blog and wondering which Matthew Good (Band) album that it was that I last commented on... Well, it turns out that in accordance with the albums of his that I've now listened to in depth, I'm a little behind on posting about them... So... I may hit you with a couple of posts in a row about this magnificent musical genius I've grown to love...

Where I left off last time with Matt Good was posting about the Matthew Good Band album Underdogs. The next one in chronological order is the one that got me into him... I remember hearing a tune called "Hello Time Bomb" on the radio and going out and getting the CD Beautiful Midnight (which I'm about to comment on)... I didn't take the thing out of my CD case that I carried back then for about a year... It's that, um, good and that special to me... Probably one of my favorite albums of all-time... It's the body of work that got me hooked on Matthew Good and it'll always have a special place in my heart... I remember listening to it when I was sad (several times, some fairly recently), rocking out to it when I was happy, the nighttime drives that my brother and I used to crank it on, and just enjoying the hell out of the record in general...

Keeping with the traditions of the Llog, I'm now going to post all of the videos that this album spawned below with the titles of the songs ABOVE the videos... Please check them out...



Hello Time Bomb





Load Me Up





Strange Days





The Future is X-Rated





There we go... Those are the videos from Beautiful Midnight... If you're familiar with this album and only this one and you're wondering where the videos for songs like Everything is Automatic and Apparitions are, those songs were actually originally from the album Underdogs, which I've already done a post on... Go back in the Llog and you'll find the videos there...

Since I love this album so much, I may do a second post about it and try to find some acoustic or live versions of some other tunes from it here in the near future and post them in the second part for all guys...

LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK on this and all other things on the Llog or in the universe... Here's hoping I don't stay away as long between this post and the next one...

I hope you're all doing well...

Love and peace...