Music Video of the Week- Weezer

The band, Weezer, knows how to make music fun. I think the perfect example of that is a song from The Blue Album called Buddy Holly. This catchy and rhythmic song is a rip on the lead singer’s very similar appearance to the late musician, Buddy Holly. The lyrical content shows that they can make a joke and take a joke.

What’s your favorite Weezer album or song?

However, even though the song is awesome enough on it’s on, Weezer released a music video that is arguably one of the best from the 90s and possibly of all time. In the video, the band performs in an episode of the popular television show, Happy Days. All of the characters such as Richie Cunningham and The Fonz are hanging out and enjoying the show.

Check it out for yourself.

Some other great tunes to check from Weezer include, Undone- The Sweater Song, Say It Ain’t So, El Scorcho, and Hash Pipe. Also, if you ever get a chance to see these guys live, you won’t be disappointed. They definitely know how to entertain a crowd.

3 Complaints About the Amazing Spider-Man Movie

I know what you’re thinking. The new Spider-Man hasn’t even come out yet and I’m already bitching and moaning about it. I’m aware that I haven’t seen the movie and no reviews have come out yet, so it’s not fair of me to judge a book by its cover. However, before you judge this post, you hypocrites, maybe you should realize that I’m not judging the movie. I’m just voicing a few complaints that I have with it. However, I will be approaching this reboot with an open mind and high hopes of success. I think all Spider-Man fans are, especially after that monstrosity that was Spider-Man 3.

Hang your head in shame, Spider-Man. That’s not rain, those are the tears of your fans.

So here are my 3 biggest complaints so far from watching the trailers and reading about the film:

3. Emma Stone isn’t playing Mary Jane- I understand that Spider-Man 1-3 kept building on the relationship of Peter and Mary Jane and that the reboot wants to focus on a different story. However, when you cast someone who could play and looks like Mary Jane and then give her a different role, I get pretty upset.

Personally, I really enjoy Emma Stone’s work. From Easy A to Zombieland, the actress has a lot of talent that I admire and that you really don’t see that often anymore.

She would have been perfect for the role of Mary Jane and instead…they make her Gwen Stacy? The big problem I have with this decision is that Gwen Stacy dies in the comics. So are they planning to kill off and replace Emma Stone in the sequels? And if they do that, who will they get to play Mary Jane?

Oh…this is Jenna Stone. Emma’s twin. She’ll be perfect for the role of Mary Jane.

What I’m saying is that Emma would have made the perfect Mary Jane unlike that poor excuse, Kirsten Dunst. She’s talented, beautiful and didn’t star in some stupid movies about cheerleaders bringing it on, which is a term I still don’t understand. So unless the writers are planning on keeping Gwen Stacy around, they are going to have a tough job finding someone better than Emma Stone.

2. The Lizard is CGI- I absolutely hate when movies make characters using CGI. It may just be me, but when the CGI characters interact with humans and real objects, it just looks completely fake and stupid. Am I the only person who wants to see puppetry come back into the movie business? Probably.

The people making The Amazing Spider-Man should have looked into the past where another green, Marvel, CGI monster failed to meet my expectations. Because I’m confident my opinion matters to them…

You’ve had 3 chances, Hulk.

I just don’t get it. Why in the world would you make the bad guy using CGI? That’s like casting someone like Topher Grace to play a huge and important role like Venom in a Spider-Man movie…oh wait…that happened…and still haunts my dreams.

1. It opens on a Tuesday- Why is it opening on a Tuesday? I’ll have to wait an entire day to go see it. I can’t go to the midnight showing and you should know this, Hollywood.  Yeah, I could man up and go see it, but I probably won’t. The last time I went and saw a Spider-Man movie at midnight, the only part I enjoyed was listening to the very vocal man next to me pointing and laughing at how horrible it was.

At one point, I thought I dosed off and dreamed that Spider-Man turned into an emo douche and starting dancing around. After I saw the film 4 more times, I realized it wasn’t a dream and that it actually was going on. Yeah, it took 4 times for my brain to fully comprehend the horrific scenes that were taking place.

So basically what I’m saying is don’t break my heart this time, Spider-Man. I don’t think I can handle it again.

But if it sucks, I shall dry my tears on the cape of The Dark Knight when it out performs you at the box office. Enjoy your two weeks of being number one.

What are your thoughts about the new Spider-Man movie?

Music Video of the Week- My Chemical Romance

This week, I was transferring all of my music over to a new laptop and I stumbled across some old stuff that I had long forgotten about. One of the songs I came across was by a band called, My Chemical Romance.

When I heard the song, The Ghost of You, I automatically recalled the amazing music video they had made. It tells a pretty cool story within 3 minutes which isn’t always easy to do.

It’s about the band members being in the army during WWII. At the beginning, they are at a dance playing their music, drinking and having a good time. However, as the video progresses, you see them climbing the beaches of Normandy and taking fire, just like in the movie, Saving Private Ryan.

My favorite scene from the video is when the camera gives an aerial view and shows the dance floor. All of a sudden, the dance floor is taken over by a wave from the ocean and it changes into the scene where the soldiers are on the beach. It’s a really powerful shot and a pretty nifty editing trick.

Anyways, it’s a really good video and I hope you like it. Here’s the song, The Ghost of You, off the album Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge.

New Invention Allows People to Climb Walls Like Spider-Man

If you’ve never daydreamed about being Spider-Man, then you should probably get yourself checked out because there is something wrong with you. Almost everyone loves the famous wall-crawler and wishes they could have his superpowers for just one day. Well, now we are one step closer.

A group of engineering students from Utah State University invented a Personal Vacuum Assisted Climber or PVAC for short.

The only downside is that you’ll look more like Dr. Octopus than Spider-Man.

Since I know very little about engineering, I’ll share a quote with you from the Huffington Post, so you can better understand how this thing works.

The device is basically a vacuum motor that powers two suction paddles, and sticks onto any building surface, be it glass, stucco, or brick, and is powerful enough to support up to 700 pounds, depending on the altitude.

This is every nerd’s dream come true!

After I read more about it, the story reflects more of an Iron Man movie. The team made this crafty invention for a competition sponsored by the Air Force. The Air Force was so blown away that they decided to invest $100,000 into developing the PVAC even further. Could we be looking at a new military weapon?

There are still some things that need to be worked out like the weight and the fact that it’s pretty loud. However, I think this is an amazing invention that has great potential and power. “And with great power comes great responsibility,” said Uncle Ben for the seventy-fifth time.

Now we just need someone to invent the web shooters.

Do you know of any other cool superhero-like inventions? If so, tell me about them in the comments section or on the Facebook page.

Check out the article to find out more about this cool story.

Music Video of the Week- Switchfoot

I’m not sure why, but I’ve been listening to a ton of Switchfoot lately. Maybe it’s the laid back tunes or the uniqueness of Jon Foreman’s voice? Either way, I’ve really been into their music lately.

Switchfoot started their musical journey back in 1996. However, it wasn’t until around 2003 that these guys started getting the recognition that they deserved. They released their album entitled, The Beautiful Letdown, which featured some of their biggest hits like Dare You to Move  and Meant to Live. The album went double platinum.

Afterwards, the band released more great albums like Nothing is Sound, Oh! Gravity, and Hello Hurricane. The band also recorded a song for the movie, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian called, This is Home, which helped them grow even more popular.

Last September, they released their newest album called, Vice Verses which is the album this week’s music video comes from. The song is called Restless and is a really mellow and relaxing jam. Hope you like it.

3 More Human Interactions that Always Seem Awkward

In a previous blog post, I talked about awkward human interactions that we all have. After venturing out into the world a little more and dealing with more people, I have discovered even more awkward interactions.

3. Holding doors open- Holding a door open for someone is seen as an act of generosity. If you open a door for a lady you are seen as a gentlemen. And as we all know, women love gentlemen…

Usually I can hold a door open for someone and it’s not awkward, but every now and then I’m presented with a different scenario that catches me off guard. For instance, it feels a little weird to hold open the door for someone who is over 30 feet away and you end up holding the door forever. I made this mistake once, because I could have sworn the person was right behind me. To my surprise, she was a very slow walker.

Correction: She was slow because she was using a walker.

Once you’re committed to holding a door open, you can’t go back on it because then you just look like an impatient jerk. So of course, being the gentlemen I am, I held the door open for 5 minutes until she finally made it. And then to add insult to injury, she didn’t even say thank you. She just looked at me like I was an idiot for standing there so long. And sadly, I knew she was right.

So now before I hold open the door for anyone, I look back and make sure they are at the right distance. That way I don’t look like a creeper standing and waiting for 10 minutes.

It’s also really weird for me when people abuse my generosity. I’ll hold the door for a nice, elderly woman and 20 more people come out of nowhere and will walk in right behind her. Now I’m stuck at the back of a line all because of my kindness. Curse this heart of gold!

2. Shaking hands- Having a good handshake is a great way to make a good first impression. However, the opposite is also true. There’s a certain way to shake someone’s hand without making them feel uncomfortable. Unfortunately, it’s a rarity for me to meet people who do it correctly.

A lot of men like to give a nice firm handshake, which is expected. Other men want to show their dominance by putting your hand in some sort of death clamp and their goal is to break a few phalanges. Here’s a good way to know you’re doing it wrong. If the person you shook hands with has a bone poking out of the skin, chances are your grip was too tight.

This guy really loves to shake hands.

The other type of handshake that makes me feel awkward is the limp wrist and the person makes you shake their fingers. It’s common among women, but what’s even worse is when a guy does it. I’m not sure how to react when it happens.

This is what I’m talking about in case you were wondering.

When someone makes me shake their fingers, I almost expect them to curtsey, kiss a ring on my finger or ask me to slow dance. Why not? It’s not like it would make me more uncomfortable.

Whenever someone shakes my hand like this, I’m never sure what to do. I’m afraid if I squeeze I’ll hurt their hand. So what do I do? I shake their dead fish of a hand and apply no pressure whatsoever and try to forget that the encounter ever happened.

1. Elevator rides- Elevator are like boxes of awkward tension. You’re traveling in a little, quiet room with complete strangers. But what’s even worse is when you are in that elevator with just one other person and you’re traveling up multiple floors.

Do you try and make conversation? Do you just stand there quietly and hope you don’t make eye contact? I don’t know! That’s why I’m asking.

Here is another bad situation that has happened to me twice in one week. A co-worker with their hands full, gets to the doors of the elevator I’m in right before they close. It’s in that moment where you feel completely helpless. You let that person down, and you can never take it back. Sometimes you just can’t act fast enough. All you can do is say “sorry” and hope they can hear you.

Now you just have to pray that they didn’t see your face and that they won’t recognize you later in the day. Or maybe, they did recognize you, ran up the flight of stairs and are waiting for you when the doors open on your floor.

Steve, the intern, is so fast.

Can you think of any other awkward human interactions? If so, share them with me in the comments section.

Music Video of the Week- Ed Sheeran

Ed Sheeran is an English singer/songwriter who’s talent has recently come to light. In June 2011, he released a song called, A-Team that debuted at number 3 on the UK charts.

Ed Sheeran.

Before 2011, he played a massive amount of gigs in order to get his work and name out there. After some success, he bought a ticket to Los Angeles to keep pursuing his dream. He played at open mic nights all over the city until Jamie Foxx took an interest in his work. In fact, Foxx was so impressed, he let Ed use his recording studio and stay in his home.

Sheeran then released some more EPs and eventually signed with Asylum/Atlantic records.

His more recent album “+” was released last September and received favorable reviews. If you dig acoustic music then I think you’ll like it.

Here is his song, Small Bump. It’s by far my favorite song from him.

Some other tracks to check out from Ed Sheeran include, Lego House, Drunk, and A-Team.