Chrome Children Volume Two...

...and it's FREE! go here and download it http://www.stonesthrow.com I'm feeling "Gitback" & "Reverse Part Two"...J-Rocc kills this LP with his signature butter cuts. Did I mention that all of this goodness is free? Peace-DAG!

Two For The Road

I caught two movies over the FEST this year…

Chapter 27 (2.5 out of 5)

When I walked into the theatre I knew next to nothing about the person who killed John Lennon was. After 90 minutes of watching “Chapter 27” I was still confused about Mark Chapman’s motivations and why he shot John Lennon to death. It has something to do with J.D. Salinger’s “The Catcher In The Rye” but any other specifics are lost beneath vapid conversation and pretense. Jared Leto put on the pounds to play Chapman and the random Lindsay Lohan character “Jude” pops up here and there to no discernable effort. Redundant schizophrenia or just a missed opportunity?

Rock The Bells (3.5 out of 5)

This is a documentary about a festival producer (Chang of Guerilla Union) and his attempt to re-unite the 10 members of the Wu-Tang Clan for a live performance. The filmmakers do a great job capturing not only the build-up to a major music festival but also the chaos that ensues from inadequate security, ignorance of logistics, and fans kept waiting for three hours and exhibiting less than dharma-like patience. The flick is intense at spots and humorous in others and gives the audience a real glimpse of what goes on behind closed doors. Real poetry in motion.

The Invincible Iron Man Review Haiku

Man Inside Armor
Modern Update Of Mythos
Fun And Engaging

DAGO's SCAN in Review

What does my scanner see? In 7 years everything will be recorded...

Music: The “Nfinity” mailers have been sent. Two phases and over 40 packages have been mailed. The only contact to respond back so far has been Tyler (the L.A. licensing guy). To our shock and awe, he did NOT like “Nfinity” but stated he would continue to work the other music we have provided him in the past. I’m thinking we need to remix some of the songs and send them back to him. Maybe strip down some of the tunes to a break beat, bass line and sprinkle some guitar licks over the top. A minimalist approach. A “beat box” melody? I don’t know. Either way we are going to ride this out til’ the wheels fall off. Again, I’ll keep you posted on the good, the bad and the other. Linus (who did the music for “TRU” on “Nfinity”) got me a beat CD and wants to do a NUMBS/LINUS EP. Some the tracks he had on CD-R are straight up sure shots. We have already thought of a name for the project as well but we are not telling (yet). Expect this 8 track OPUS by the end of Summer 07’. We have two shows in FEB so check the myspace.com/numbs for when, where and wild. We will be shooting a video for “Train Music” in the next couple of weeks. Also, NUMBS are up for the SLAMMY’S again…vote here (copy and paste if you must)…http://www.slweekly.com/ballots/index.cfm?ballot_id=154

9 to 5: Work hasn’t been breakin’ my balls for a bit now and I actually feel “comfortable”. I don’t want to be comfy at work. I will decide my own level of involvement.

Day to Day: The Film Fest is in full swing and I’m pretty sure we are going to posse up and check out “Rock The Bells” this Wednesday night in Park City. Check out rockthebellsmovie.com for more info. We have been in contact with the director(s) and they seem like good peeps. Oh yeah, the SL Weekly has “Happy Hour” going on that night at the Treasure Mountain Inn as well. Two birds, one rock. There are several good groups/artists playing up here BUT do to the whole “Private Party” tag these are difficult to get into. I’d like to see Nas live but I’m not going to re-create a scene from “ZOO” to get in. It’s a big who's who up there anyway with the ‘Paris Hilton” look-a-likes and those art fucks who sit around at coffee houses all day working on their screenplays. But hell…who I am to judge. If a guy can grow a penis on his arm (<http://www.mosnews.com/news/2005/03/22/miraclesurgery.shtml>) then anything can happen. Short sleeve shirts? He doesn’t own ANY.

I recently took in the movie “A Scanner Darkly” and I should have actually seen this before my “Best of 2006”. It would be in my top five from last year. The movie was based on a novel (same name) written in 1977 by Phillip K Dick. Some of the major themes in the movie focus on police/government surveillance, blurred lines between “cop and criminal’, drug use and the cynical destruction of another human being to achieve a greater good. The cast works well within the framework of the film and it’s ideas (especially Robert Downey, Jr.) and the “Rotoscope” animation is groundbreaking. This is a MUST see.

The Jazz still lead the Northwest Division in the NBA (27-14) and are riding a three game winning streak. The Dolphins hired Cam Cameron as their 7th head coach in their history of Dolphindom. Hilary Clinton is “In To Win” and Obama is hinting towards running. Obama/Gore? Obama/Biden? Clap louder administration, Tinkerbell is dying.

Peace- DAG!

Current Likes: The “Steve Irwin” action figure (evil stingray sold separately), “Super Size Me” (I was late on this one), The names “Terry Wrist” and “Al Kyder” & the Rubiks Cube.

Current Dislikes: All Your Base Are Belong To Us, Athletes and their super sneaky water bottles, The cost of the Iraq War hitting $1.2 trillion (good thing we got Social Security & the Health Care system fixed) & not “feeling” it.

A world of symbols

The only frontier left is the world of intangibles. By intangibles I mean the internet, movies, music, stories, art, rumors, anything that isn’t real. Virtual realities. Make believe stuff. The culture. The unreal is more powerful than the real. We are living in a world of symbols, not the real world.

Film Fest 2007 Preview

Sundance 2007

Chasing Ghosts: A documentary about the 1982 Video Game World Championship and the kid on record to get a perfect score on “Pac Man”. 80’s nostalgia is RAD!

Bugmaster: Katsuhiro Otomo, most known for his animation work like with “Akira” and “Steamboy”, directs this live action Japanese manga adaptation about a traveling mystical doctor who cures the Ill effects of supernatural creatures. Live action and some “AKIRA” like CG…yes, this will RULE!

Chapter 27: A film about Mark David Chapman in the days leading up to the infamous murder of Beatle, John Lennon. Insanity and The Catcher In The Rye both captured on celluloid. Extra trivia…did you know there are only 26 chapters in “Catcher” hence the name of this movie.

Chicago 10: Archival footage, animation, and music are used to look back at the eight anti-war protesters who were put on trial following the 1968 Democratic National Convention. The animation is in the vain of “A Scanner Darkly” and the cast is FRESH.

The Ten: Ten stories, each inspired by one of the Ten Commandments. Pretty simple premise but I’m sure it will be a COMPLEX endeavor. The cast for this is all over the place…VERY NICE.

Interview: Billed as a passionate verbal duel between two fundamentally opposed characters. Buscemi is a great actor and director…sounds like a MIND EFF.

Fido: A movie about a kid and a pet zombie named Fido. But when Fido eats the next-door neighbor, Mom and Dad tell the kid Fido has to go. The makings of a GREAT black comedy.

Crossing The Line: A British documentary about US Army defector James Dresnok currently living in North Korea after having defected during the 60s. The twist is…this person was used in propaganda films against the USA and as the years went by he became a psuedo celebrity over there.

Delirious: An offbeat drama focused on a homeless youth, a pop music siren and a member of the paparazzi. Good cast and Buscemi is DOPE!

And…

Teeth: A horror movie about a girl with teeth in her vagina that eats men’s penises. Troma has NOTHING to do with this either.

GANOOSH

You can do this with your mind. The flood of you, with your bottomless hunger of noisy demands. You’re blood is gold. You’re a plague, trailing your failures and garbage. What they don’t teach you in school is never, ever tell people you wanted to be a musician. For the rest of your life, people will torture you by saying how you used to love to play when you were young. Liberation is the way…

I NEED one...

I do, oh yes I DO! $599 for the 8 gig in June 07'...I need to start saving my pennies right now. I have been wanting to drop the Cricket service/phone that I have had for a bit now...this would be the reason to do it. Google the specs...Ridiculous. I'm not even a MAC guy. I could rule the universe with this (that's not my hand in the photo).

DAGO's Week In Review

If you are taking thoughts then mine are FREE NINETY NINE...

Music: The first review for “Nfinity” is in. SL City Weekly is describing it as “a new classic”. At this point we might as well put Bill Frost on the payroll. He always says the nicest things. The mass mailing of packages to the industry types begins on January 8th. We are probably going to be sending out about FITTY (slang for 50) mailers out to labels, agents, distributors, rags, etc. I’ll post any feedback I get from these peeps on here so you can see what goes on in this business of music.

Rotten Musicians have a gig on January 20th in Bountiful. Yes…we will rock Bountiful. I think Fisch is getting antsy to start up on some new ROTTEN music. I’ve started outlining my EP as well. The BUZZword of 2007 is “WRITE”.

To sum up The New Years Eve Capo party in two words I would use…”Missed Opportunity”. It’s never good when the sound guy says “Three Mics? That’s all? How hard can this be to set up?”. Yeah, you guessed it…the sound was AWFUL! The “rap band” always gets screwed when it comes to sound checks at these things. The Capo dudes are nice guys but in the future we HAVE to make sure the spot is legit or we can’t do it like this anymore.

9 to 5: IPOD Mondays are now IPIZZLE Thursdays. As much as I am still not a morning person (Don’t think I will ever be) Thursdays at work are very soothing. I basically hook up my IPOD, zone out and data enter. I usually listen to “The Lost Podcast With Jay and Jack”, “Real Time With Bill Mahr”, “Comic News Insider” and weekly updates by US Senator Barack Obama. Oh yeah, I got music on it as well. The two best things I have purchased in the last five years…my PSP and my IPOD. Sometimes this AWESOME day spills over into Friday as well. It feels like I only work two and a half days a week…I’m digging it.

Day to Day: Those two holidays have come and gone. Elektra loved her gifts from the Santa. Bow Down, Bow Down before the power of Santa. Her quote about my presents was…“the not cool gifts”. I did redeem myself ala the Red Rider BB Gun with Tekno the pink robotic puppy. It helped put the clothes, socks and gloves out of sight and out of mind. I got INTENSELY sick on Xmas. I think it was the whipped cream from the pumpkin pie or the morning mimosa. Not sure which? I yakked all day long and watched “Bad Santa” and “Venture Brothers” while I was drifting in and out of conscience. K-Dawg gave me my peace on earth. I appreciate her so much; she is so special to me. Big MUAH to her. She does a lot for me.

I went snowboarding for the first time ever on January 1st. K-Dawg was nice enough to get me my gear and tickets for my first excursion to Brighton resort. It was a magnificent day…Bright blue skies, sunny and moderately warm. In the Salt Lake valley that day it was gray and “overcast”. The thing is…the “overcast” in the valley is pollution (aka "inversion”) and not weather. I don’t need a scientist or a politician telling me about “Global Warming”…common sense has already confirmed that one for me. EVERY year it’s getting worse on the Wasatch Front with this layer of filth in the air. It was a NICE getaway and K was so patient with me as I picked myself up off of the ground at least FITTY (see above for the definition) times. I will MOS DEF do this again but first I must heal. I used muscles that I didn’t even know I had…ouch.

Do not fear going forward slowly; fear only to stand still,

Peace-DAG!

Current Likes: Growth, 1st Wave on Sirius Radio (getting my 80’s on YALL), The Utah Jazz and their 24-10 record, Ratchet And Clank “Size Matters” and LOST are both about a month away and Ego Tripping.

Current Dislikes: Nick Saban, Downtown Salt Lake Post Office (Worse then Trenton, NJ and that is saying ALOT), The term “Press Junket” and my Fred Flintstone stubble.

Ghost Ridin' The Board

The Year In Review 2006

BEST OF...2006!

*Movies*
The Prestige: Christopher Nolan is slowly becoming my favorite director. This movie has layers to it and it’s very intelligent. Smart and classy…the “reveal” was quite a surprise to me. Cinematic magic.

V For Vendetta: What a manifesto…It works beautifully. Enjoyable, smartly designed and superbly acted thriller that actually gives you something to think about. Certain people didn’t like a “terrorist” as a main character. I guess that all depends on your perspective. I have watched this movie once a month on DVD since it was available.

The Departed: Nothing short of brilliant…complicated, ambiguous and ambitious. The master of gangland crime dramas returns at the top of his game. Easily the best Scorsese picture since “Goodfellas”. Matt Damon is growing on me, as an actor so is DiCaprio. Tight flick.

Honorable Mentions: Apocalypto, Lady In The Water, Inside Man, Lucky Number Slevin, Superman Returns, United 93, Nacho Libre, Casino Royale, An Inconvenient Truth, Borat.

Looking forward to… 300, Zodiac, Grindhouse, Simpsons Movie, The Bourne Ultimatum, Transformers, Spiderman 3, & Harry Potter 4.

*Music*
Lupe Fiasco “Food And Liquor”: Every year (or couple of years) along comes an artist that just does it right. Lupe creates music that is revolutionary and sets no boundaries. The LP has a very positive vibe and he makes his own identity throughout the record. A refreshing, enlightening listen. I’m looking forward to his next project.

Gnarls Barkley “St. Elsewhere”: Along comes the Mouse and the Cee-Lo. This is a great example of “Feng Shui” between two individuals and the way they push musical boundaries. The ultimate audio soundscape. A must own for anyone and I really mean that. “St Elsewhere” is a great place for music to be.

The Roots “Game Theory”: Jay-Z is really rebuilding DEF JAM even though he dropped the ball on promoting this LP. With that being said, there really isn’t a “radio single” on it. The sound of “Game Theory” is fresh and engaging, new and innovative but darker then earlier efforts. There is a myriad of information going on in here and it is pure ear candy. Masters at the top of their game.

Honorable Mentions: Jay- Z “Kingdom Come”, Dilated Peoples “20/20”, Rhymefest “Blue Collar”, J-Dilla “Donuts”, Nas “Hip Hop Is Dead”.

Looking forward to… Madlib & MF Doom “Madvillian Two”, Ghost Face & MF Doom “Swift And Changeable”, Dangerdoom “Two”, Common “Finding Forever”, Talib Kweli “Ear Drum”, Mos Def “Tru Magic”.

*Single Of The Year*
Gnarls Barkley “Crazy” : Like it could be any other song? You heard it, Members of your family sang it or hummed along with it. Basically, It was EVERYWHERE! If you need more proof on the damage this musical composition did click on the following…
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_%28Gnarls_Barkley_song%29>
The video was dope as well.

*The Group/Artist that should just go away*
Any artist that fails to separate him or herself from everything else on the shelf.

*Best TOON*
Fosters Home For Imaginary Friends: The EMMY award-winning cartoon is consistently entertaining. If you can You Tube “The Big Cheese” do it…one of the best episodes YET!

Honorable Mentions: A.T.H.F., Squirrel Boy, Spongebob Squarepants, Camp Lazlo, Venture Brothers, A.T.H.F.

Creepy show bonus…Mr Meaty, just not right.

*TV Show*
LOST: Some people are tied to certain roles through their careers…Paul Reubens, Mark Hamill, Etc. Matt Fox will forever be linked to “Doctor Jack”. He keeps getting better and better in the role he was made to play. He absolutely stole the show during the first part of season three. I cannot wait for LOST to start up again in February of 2007. There are still a TON of loose ends they need to tie up and back into the show (The Numbers, The Monster, The DHARMA initiative, etc). I plan on doing a FULL recap in January…stay tuned!

Honorable Mentions: Dexter (I have never seen this show but Facts loves it), The Office (Shanty loves it), The Wire (I hear good things), Heroes (Seems like a 'powers" rip off to me).

*Best Video Game*
The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion: The Elder Scrolls (Xbox 360): The best single-player role-playing experience to come along in YEARS! Very compelling and engrossing and will eat up whatever spare time that you have in your life. Worth the price of admission…staggeringly deep game play, lush graphics, superb voice acting and a solid story. This is what gaming is all about.

Honorable Mentions: Daxter (PSP), Splinter Cell: Double Agent (Xbox 360), Lego Star Wars: The Original Trilogy (Xbox 360).