Coopernundrums

   I watch a lot of late night TV and being the busy guy that I am, I usually pick up on new music from these shows.  I hear a great song and then go investigate the band and viola I find music I like.  Lately I have noticed what I perceive as a really sweet trend.  I am a child of the eighties.  That  high alto singing coupled with the electronic sound of what was then new sythesizers and sometimes a smattering of drums and heavy guitar riffs pepperd in makes my day.  Seems like many of the new bands are dressing and making music that seems to sound a lot like the old eighties music we remember and love.  Here are 5 examples I painstakingly tracked down for your listening pleasure.  Have a listen and tell me what you think…

pheonix

yea yea yeas

Vampire Weekend

3OH!3

Muse

This actually came from one of my favorite tech blog sites called Gizmodo.  I loved it ad it fit my beliefs and habits about the subject so here it is again in all its ubiquitous glory.

In the 17th century, when groups of men plundered the seas in ships filled with rats and scurvy, they agreed on a code to keep themselves civilly uncivil. I propose the same for BitTorrent.My code isn’t necessarily the code for everyone. But it is the code for my ship, my computer, my lightning fast cable connection. Here is the code that I live by.
Article One
Every man shall upload half of what he downloads, with the saints filling in the rest. It’s like tossing back a tiny fish so that it may grow into a great whale…only so we can hunt said whale and feast on its blubber during a later voyage.

Article Two
TV is to be downloaded, movies are to be attended when a man returns to shore. If ye aren’t a Neilsen family, what you watch doesn’t matter for ratings anyway. Since advertisers pay by rating, it’s a theft-less crime. Movies, on the other hand, do see profits of gold and jewels. So support independent/foreign film in the theaters, and save the action flicks with high production values and many beautiful explosions for the big screen, too. Hollywood romantic comedies? They are for plundering (in secret).

Article Three
A man shall steal as much music as he needs to quench his thirst, assuming that he supports the band by attending concerts and buying t-shirts. One should always buy the work of an indie label, however, if the music is deemed pleasant after the new moon, it’s time for purchasing.

Article Four
Ye wouldn’t be a pirate if ye didn’t download Photoshop. But for the office, such manners are frowned upon. Make your employer pay so that others may play. And if a man spends his life building a $10 app, that man has earned his $10. Toss him a coin should you requisition his services.

Article Five
Pornography can keep a man company at sea, but always avoid that dealing with husbandry. Girlfriend sharing is OK, assuming the missus knows she’s on the Bay. (We’re pirates, not douchebags.)

Article Six
JK Rowling’s booty is apt for plundering, but her’s is a rare case indeed. If a book be in the library and tis in stock, one could make an argument to download for free. But our conscience dictates that we buy some books to keep good writers in print.

Article Seven
If at any time a man should download a virus, that man must notify the message board immediately. If at any time a man should actively upload a virus, no retributive measure shall be deemed too brutal. An arse becomes fair game for a hook.

Article Eight
After you try it, if you really like it and can afford to do so, buy it.

As I said, these are the pirating rules that I live by. They might not be right for every sea, but they’ve served me just fine for many a year. What be your pirate code?

Let me set the stage for you.  It’s Friday night at around 8:50PM I am sitting at one of my favorite eateries, WoW (world of wings) in the providence shopping center with my buddies Jim and Mike.  I am having a beer as we eat hot wings hanging out waiting to hit the theatre to see the Watchmen movie at 10.  Having read the graphic novel, and knowing neither Mike nor Jim either one had read the comics I am ultra excited to see their reactions to many of the things I know will be in the movie.

I put this movie up there alongside the Dark Knight in terms of its accomplishments.  What I mean by this is, if you are looking for a story that shows the raw human condition, a story where there are NO heroes and in the end NO one wins this is the story for you.

Visually I have rarely seen such attention to detail.  The movie was visually stunning.  Although quite a bit of it was CGI it wasn’t noticeable.  The camera work was top notch.  I was engrossed in the story from the first moment.  The atmosphere set in the late 70’s early 80’s was dead on both visually and musically.  I found myself looking over at Mike and Jim both smiling at the nuances of 80’s commercials running on TVs or a song in the soundtrack that made us remember our high school years.

Zack Snyder did a fantastic job being both fathful to the original story and also artistically brilliant when it came to bringing to life each frame of the comic. 

Although it was a long movie, I didn’t mind it.  As far as lengthy films go I found myself so riveted that I didn’t even notice.  The story is altered only slightly from the book in that the ending has changed only slightly.  Knowing the original story I found the change worked well and did not detract from the story at all. 

This movie I put alongside just a few other films that have evoked an actual emotional response from me.  I found my range of emotions moving from anger, to a true feeling of helplessness, to complete sadness.  This all stemmed from the truths revealed that people are really petty and cruel.  No matter which character you find yourself identifying with at the time they always show you a hard side that makes you cringe.  People that are supposed to be “heroes” are really just people like you and I.  Not one is perfect and that I think is what we are meant to come away realizing.

..I was thoroughly impressed and I hope to see the picture again.  I give it 4.5 stars out of 5 and further using a scale that my friends and I developed at work where films fall into three basic categories of watch it once, watch it twice or watch a film again and again, this one is definitely a watch again and again movie!