This is a documentary that I really want to see. It was shown at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and is scheduled for release in August.
It’s already available to save on NetFlix.

From the film’s press kit is this brief synopsis:
Rarely can a film penetrate the glamorous surface of rock legends. It Might Get Loud tells the personal stories, in their own words, of three generations of electric guitar virtuosos – The Edge (U2), Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), and Jack White (The White Stripes). It reveals how each developed his unique sound and style of playing favorite instruments, guitars both found and invented. Concentrating on the artist’s musical rebellion, traveling with him to influential locations, provoking rare discussion as to how and why he writes and plays, this film lets you witness intimate moments and hear new music from each artist. The movie revolves around a day when Jimmy Page, Jack White, and The Edge first met and sat down together to share their stories, teach and play.

And here’s a review on IMDB:
An incredible doc featuring The Edge, Jimmy Page, and Jack White. The film is very, very well done. The opening credits are pretty cool. The thing is, at many times this film seems to work best for Edge and Page. It really is amazing to watch Edge go over the technicalities involved in creating his trademark style. Page is incredible; it’s especially funny in one scene, where the other two are singing, and he flatly declares, “I can’t sing!” - hilarious. Jack White seems to be a little out of his element here. He’s the young gun of course, and over time perhaps he’ll be thought of in a similar light to his legendary predecessors. But really, there is nothing to complain about. There is some classic footage of U2 (dressed in new wave clothes??) that may leave you laughing! The vintage reels of Page and U2 still give me the chills. Guggenheim has done a fantastic job. I look forward to seeing it again.

I was really excited to get this DVD set for Father’s Day. I have been trying to find a DVD copy of Woodstock for several years. When I saw the 40th anniversary collector’s edition I had to order it. When it arrived I didn’t open it so I had no idea what the set contained. Inside was all this stuff:

Here’s a short video on Amazon.com about the contents of the package - Woodstock Package

The round emblem on the outside of the package is actually an iron-on patch and that material on the box is really suede leather with fringe.

I remember very clearly going to see the Woodstock movie in 1970 at the local drive-in theater. We were blown away by it. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever figure back then that I could actually own a copy of the movie (or any movie for that matter).

I am looking forward to watching this with the sound system.

”The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.” — Cicero, 55 BC

These people sitting on the sidewalk should be ashamed! ‘Nuff said.

I had this idea to post entries about dreams I have. But I wonder how exciting a dream is since we sleep through them!
Anyway the other night I dreamed my wife and I were driving somewhere when we had some kind of wheel problem with the car. And, of course we’re in the middle of nowhere. So, I call for a tow truck. I told my wife I had $300 on me so we should be okay.
Well, the wrecker picks us and takes us to a garage. Then he says it will be $1200! I open my checkbook adn see that I have a balance of only $56! But the woman at the garage said she could take some money off the bill if we would give her and her dog a ride to the next town to see the vet.
Then I woke up.
And now I’m afraid to drive out of town.

Took in a movie over the weekend - no, not Star Trek. I’m going to wait a bit on this one. I didn’t want to contribute to the opening weekend box office numbers and I really don’t like crowded movies.

I went to see X-Men Origins: Wolverine

3 word review - I liked it.
It starts out (as does the excellent Wolverine Origins comics) in the mid-1800’s and proceeds from there.
If you’re a fan of the Wolverine character I would recommend it. I rather imagine I will obtain a copy when it comes out.
Wolverine at Wikipedia
As for Star Trek - it will be here a while so I will probably wait a week or so.

No, I’m not going to get political. But with all the GM/FORD/DODGE issues in the news it makes me wonder what I would do if I ever bought a new car (which is highly unlikely). With recent events it does make me think twice about spending several thousand dollars on a Detroit product instead of a foreign vehicle.
But for me there is another consideration. We live 175 miles from a city that has a foreign car dealer.
Recently a friend of mine bought a new Subaru. The other day he said he was driving it to The City for some service work. I immediately started wondering how he would get his car to an authorized dealer for repair if one day it just stopped running.
There are a couple of mechanics here, but they are not authorized for all foreign vehicle service.
So, it seems that the best choice is something built by one of the Big Three even if they’re having difficulties right now. Either that or hope nothing serious happens to your foreign car until the warranty has expired. Then develop a good relationship with a local mechanic.

By the way - these stitches in my back ITCH!!!

Over the past few weeks I have been experiencing some soreness on the outside of my left ear making it uncomfortable to sleep on that side. I finally decided to have a dermatologist take a look at it. When I went to see him it was the first time he had seen me as a patient so he gave me the once over.
In regard to the ear he said it was a case of Chondrodermatitis Nodularis Helicis. He said the solution was to take pressure off the ear at night using a special pillow.
Good news - I found a place online that sells the pillows.
Bad news - $60 each!
Then the doctor said he doesn’t like the looks of a mole on my back. So out come the syringes, scalpels and scissors. Jab, jab, snip, cut and then stitch me up.

Don’t you just hate it when old guys start going on and on about their ailments?
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Now a fun project that my oldest son and I tackled this afternoon. For my birthday the kids chipped in and bought me a new car stereo and a car accessory pack for my Zune. The pack included wiring to connect to the car’s power to automatically charge the Zune while plugged in along with a single connecting cable to feed the audio into the stereo.

First we had to pull the factory stereo:

While we were hooking up all the wiring we hardwired the Zune accessories to the power and ran all the connecting cables behind the console for a cleaner installation leaving only the end of one cable exposed to hook up the Zune.
Then we slipped the new stereo in and replaced the console. It’s a JVC KD R-200:

Overall I am really pleased with the result. And the stereo sounds good. I especially like the way the Zune plays through it. Previously I had been using a cassette adapter and a patch cord, but the direct cable connection gives a much cleaner sound since it bypasses the Zune’s volume control; it’s a direct line out. And when I shut off the car, the Zune automatically pauses its playback.

Talk about timing. After posting that question about no one seeing UFO’s anymore I came across this YouTube video of NASA footage -

I heard a good thought the other day, but I don’t remember where.
How come we don’t hear about UFO sightings these days? With everyone and their dog packing cellphones that have cameras why is no one getting any pictures of flying saucers anymore?

I did not realize that when I upgraded to the current version of WordPress that my word verify for comments was not functioning. I have now removed the need to type “johnstuff” when entering a comment.
Maybe that’s why no one ever left any.

As soon as I can I am going to drop this site. The web hosting is coming up for renewal and I do not plan to renew it. I can save myself about $60 a year by dropping the host and the domain.
If I have anything significant to say I will do it in Batwing’s Beat podcast.
If I ever bring JohnStuff back in some form or other I will find a free hosting service like Blogger or Wordpress.

I picked up the 2 disc special edition of DC’s latest animated feature the other day - Wonder Woman. Today I finally took the time to watch the main movie. I really liked it. Then I checked out the bonus feature - First Look: Green Lantern. The GL movie looks to be good. It is coming out this summer.
Back to Wonder Woman….it has a PG-13 rating for good reason. It’s fairly violent with lots of sword fights resulting in several skewerings and a couple of decapitations. The story was pretty good (Wonder Woman vs. Ares, the God of War) and there was just the right element of humor.
Along with this 2 disc edition comes a digital copy. I actually have that on at least 3 of the dvd’s I own, but have never tried it. I am thinking of trying it with Wonder Woman. I could then easily export it to my Zune player. I might do it just to see how the whole digital copy thing works.
If you enjoy the DC brand of hero then I can recommend Wonder Woman. I also liked the other DC animated movies - Justice League New Frontier, Superman: Doomsday, Batman: Gotham Knight. Although, I was a little disappointed with Gotham Knight.
One incarnation of an animated Batman I enjoyed was the recent 5 seasons of The Batman. Batman Beyond was pretty good, too, and I think those dvd’s are available at my library. I’m going to checking those out along with the old Jonny Quest series.
Yep, I like cartoons.

I’m just trying to keep a more up to date blog. It’s finally March and we’re entering that season of the year known as “MUD”. Snow begins to melt and the world turns gooey brown.
I haven’t had a chance to watch anymore of the Fireball XL5 shows but intend to do so shortly.
I am a bit bummed out about the cancellation of ABC’s Life on Mars. I was really enjoying this show. But there is a silver lining in the fact that they will bring the story to a conclusion in the remaining 5 episodes.
It makes me think of how broken the tv rating system is. The bottom line is that there are so many more programs available to the viewing public than there were back when the rating system was created. And now we have Tivo’s and DVR’s. I know that most of my tv viewing is time-shifted; I rarely watch the shows I like when they air. And those numbers are not being accurately accounted for. Plus, there are only so many viewers to watch all these programs. You have to record some for later viewing.
But it seems like the tv executives want every show to be American Idol or Lost or some other mega-hit. Why can’t they and the advertisers be happy with good programs that have a loyal following; shows that are no doubt paying for themselves? Obviously, it’s greed. If these programs don’t make megabucks then they are seen as failures.
Short list from the top of my head -
Firefly
Jericho
Journeyman
Eli Stone
and now Life on Mars

Makes you want to take up reading again, huh?

I received the first Fireball XL5 disc from NetFlix on Saturday. I finally got around to watching the first episode today. It was pretty good. I enjoyed the story and am impressed with the marionettes. They did a lot to make them seem more “real”. Things like blinking their eyes and mimicking the normal, unconscious motions we all do.
I am really tempted to do a series of podcasts on the show. It would be a recap of each episode with audio clips and some commentary plus any interesting facts about the program. I will have to produce a podcast and see how it all comes together and sounds before I decided to actually produce a series.
I have put the rest of the Fireball XL5 discs in my NetFlix queue.

Down to just two more graveyard shifts - this Thursday and Friday. After that it’s a late evening shift - 6 PM to 2 AM. Even though that’s a late time to get home, I still find it a lot easier to work than working all night.

I haven’t seen any movies lately. My NetFlix account is not getting used enough. But when I was working all night I did watch a few movies via the NetFlix streaming option. On my Episode 20 podcast I talked about a neat website that works with NetFlix - Instant Watcher. It has a lot more search options and movie information. You do have to be logged in to your NetFlix account to fully utilize it.

I am excited about the next item in my NetFlix queue -

Fireball XL5. It’s a show I used to watch as a kid with marionettes. I’m not sure how it holds up, but I’m anxious to see it again.

I am also spending a bit of time trying to get caught up on my podcast listening. At last check I subscribe to 50 different podcasts.

If I’m to be considered a patriotic American I’m going to have to do something this weekend - I will have to buy a new mattress and then a new truck to haul it home.
Abe and George would be proud.

I am considering making a change of direction with this blog. I have been thinking of trying to make it more of a “dear diary” type with short, inane entries as opposed to the occasional, deeply analytical posting (LOL).
I am finding that a lot of the things I come across that interest me end up as items in my podcast - Batwing’s Beat.

As for right now. I’m working the graveyard shift so life is mainly just work and sleep with a few hours of grogginess in between. So, when my mind is back to something approaching coherence I will be back.

A few days ago I happened to go to Blockbuster looking for a particular movie (which they did not have) when I spotted this one on the shelf. I didn’t pick it up, but noted the title and put it in my Netflix queue.
It arrived the other day and I popped it into the DVD player. Off and on over the course of the morning I watched it. I’ve spent some time thinking about it and I’m still now sure what to say.
I loved it….and I only liked it.

Okay. The movies is set in the late 1960’s and tells the story of a poor young man who travels from Liverpool, England, to New York to find his biological father. Once here he falls in love with a rich girl who gets involved with the anti-war movement. On that “love story” level it’s fairly predictable:
1. meet and fall in love
2. have a falling out
3. end the movie with a lover’s reunion
Again, the film is set in the era of the Vietnam war protests. Having lived through that time I’m still not sure how I feel about it all. I’m not going to make any political commentary here, but the movie does make the kids seem like a bunch of overly idealistic college kids. Then the movie goes off into a psychedelic segment. Here’s where we find Bono as Dr. Robert:

It’s here that the movies features a lot of CGI and psychedelic imagery:

For the Benefit of Mr Kite

Henry the Horse

Where the movie really shines is the music. Yep, it’s a musical. It’s all Beatles music.
In the 2 hour 11 minute movie there is only about 30 minutes of spoken dialog. The rest is the actors singing Beatles songs. The song lyrics are the rest of the dialog which works extremely well. I would suggest that if you’re not familiar with Beatles songs - turn on the subtitles. On this level I found it to be an amazing experience.

One last note - the characters in the movie are named for the names of people in Beatles songs; i.e., Jude (Hey Jude), Lucy (Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds), Max (Maxwell’s Silver Hammer), Prudence (Dear Prudence), Sadie (Sexy Sadie).