Hump Day Funnies

EA Sports MMA Trailer

During the fights on Saturday night they debuted the trailer for the upcoming EA Sports MMA Game, which features Strikeforce as it's primary promotion. EA Sports MMA will be available in 2010 on the Xbox 360 and the PS3. In case you missed the trailer, or like some people I know might have been too tipsy to really appreciate it, here it is:

Obviously Fedor and Brett Rogers are on the game, and I've heard Gegard Mousasi, Benji Radach, "Babalu" Sobral, Frank Shamrock, Frank Trigg, Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal, Cung Le, Bas Rutten, Randy Couture, Tim Sylvia, Kevin Randleman, Jason "Mayhem" Miller and Jake Shields are all on there. Personally I'm hoping Gina Carano, Nick Diaz, Scott Smith and Bobby Lashley are all also on it too.

Ultra-Realistic Modern Warfare Game

Ultra-Realistic Modern Warfare Video Game Offers Engine Repair, Awaiting Orders

2 Day Work Week, 5 Day Weekend

Only 1 more day of work and it's vacation time for the old man. How I ended up with this many vacation days at the end of the year is beyond me as I usually use them in the warmer months, but I ain't complaining now. I'm off for Tunica for some gambling this afternoon followed by a couple of days in Nashville then Memphis. I'm hopefully going to the Jack Daniels Distillery, Graceland, Sun Studio and hitting some other fun places. Of course plenty of good beer and food will be had, and I've got tickets to see Queensryche with Lita Ford on Wednesday night in Nashville and Jack Ingram and Gary Allan at the legendary Ryman Auditorium on Thursday night. The CMA Awards are also in town so maybe I'll see some country music folks boot-scootin' around when I'm out at the honky-tonks, and trust me, I'll be out at the honky-tonks.

But anyway, here's some new stuff out today for your early Christmas shopping:

Bon Jovi ~ "The Circle" CD/DVD (the DVD features the documentary "When We Were Beautiful"... reviewed here)

Flyleaf ~ "Memento Mori" CD

Switchfoot ~ "Hello Hurricane" CD

Throwdown ~ "Deathless" CD

AC/DC ~ "Backtracks" (2 CDs, 1 DVD; rarities with "Family Jewels Disc 3" DVD)

Up DVD (animated Disney/Pixar flick)

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 VG (PS3, X360, PC)

Best Musical Movies

Notice the title isn't "best musicals", because these aren't all musicals, nor are they all documentaries or concert films. I think they're all movies driven by or about music though. American Graffiti for instance (which barely missed the cut) wasn't a musical for sure, but when I think of the movie or watch it many scenes are all about the music and that era of music.

So this was sort of hard to narrow to 30 actually, as I left off many cool movies like A Hard Day's Night, Sgt Pepper, Repo! The Genetic Opera, Hedwick and the Angry Inch, American Grafitti, The Big Chill, 8-Mile, Pump Up The Volume and Wayne's World to name but a few. I guess I could do 50, but I won't. So here are my....

Top 30 Favorite Music Movies Of All-Time

30. Heavy Metal (1981)
This is an animated film from the people who brought us Heavy Metal magazine. It's an anthology of sci-fi and fantasy stories, adults only, with a big rock soundtrack with artists like Cheap Trick, Sammy Hagar, Nazareth and Black Sabbath.
Best Song: Don Felder (Eagles) actually rocks on the track Take A Ride (Heavy Metal)

29. Pink Floyd: The Wall (1982)
Sure this is trippy and being stoned probably really adds to the enjoyment of this bizarre film based on Pink Floyd's album The Wall but I love the songs so much I can actually watch the marching hammers and such without being wasted and enjoy it.
Best Song: the Germans bomb the hell out of UK to Goodbye Blue Sky

28. Across The Universe (2007)
A very strange musical that some people really dislike, but I thought it was great. It interweaves stories of several characters whose lives cross paths and has a lot of Beatles music.
Best Song: Sadie and Jojo singing Don't Let Me Down

27. CB4 (1993)
Chris Rock is hilarious is this vulgar rap-version of Spinal Tap, pretty much a direct takeoff of gangster rappers ala N.W.A.... except instead of coming out of Compton they're coming Straight Outta Locash!
Best Song: Sweat From My Balls

26. Bon Jovi: When We Were Beautiful (2009)
An excellent and revealing documentary of Bon Jovi from their 2007 tour. It's got a lot of great backstage sort of stuff and interviews with a lot of good live performance footage.
Best Song: Livin' On a Prayer

25. The Song Remains The Same (1976)
Pretty much just a concert film from Led Zeppelin's '73 concert tour, but with a whole bunch of weird fantasy sequences and backstage stuff. Odd, but a classic.
Best Song: John Bonham's sequence with Moby Dick playing

24. Kiss Meets The Phantom of the Park (1978)
The tale of rock band/superheros KISS and their efforts to thwart a diabolical plan by mad scientist Abner Devereaux. It's bad. Really, really bad... and I love it. I remember somehow defending this at the school the week after it debuted on TV. Not sure what my arguments were for it actually being good, but I found for KISS. Rip and destroy!
Best Song: Rock N Roll All Nite

23. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)
Tim Burton's film version of Stephen Sondheim's award winning musical starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham as the meat pie makers. Weird, fun, violent and sort of catchy.
Best Song: Johnny and Helena's My Friends

22. Rock and Roll High School (1979)
A musical comedy starring the Ramones. It's directed by Joe Dante ("Gremlins" "Piranha") and produced by the great Roger Corman, this film defines what has always worried parents about rock and roll. The Ramones are able to conquer the fascists leaders of the local high school with some of their special brand of punk rock.
Best Song: no brainer... Rock N Roll High School

21. O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
A Coen Brother's film where 3 chain-gangers record a bluegrass song that becomes a hit of Depression-era Mississippi. Based on Homer’s The Odyssey, it's just a lot of fun... and I'm not even a fan of this type of music. George Clooney is great in it.
Best Song: Man of Constant Sorrow

20. American Pop (1981)
An animated story of a very talented and troubled family starting with 19th century Russia and moving through several generations of musicians. The film covers American music from the pre-jazz age through soul, '50s rock, drug-laden psychadelia, and punk, finally ending with the onset of new wave in the early 1980s.
Best Song: Tony wanders the streets to California Dreaming

19. Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny (2006)
JB and KG form the rock band Tenacious D and set out to steal a magical guitar pick housed in a rock-and-roll museum some 300 miles away. Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters) is Satan. Ronnie James Dio is... well, he's Dio. This movie only rocks if you worship Tenacious D. And I do. So there.
Best Song: Kickapoo

18. Footloose (1984)
Ultra cool new kid Ren, played by Kevin Bacon, blasts Quiet Riot, plays chicken with tractors and tries to score with the preacher’s daughter... in a town that doesn't allow dancing!! Noooo!
Best Song: Kenny Loggin's classic Footloose

17. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
Google "campy musical" and you should find this schlock-fest. Heck, look up "sweet transvestite from transsexual Transylvania" and you will also find it I'm guessing. Meatloaf plays a fat rocker, quite a stretch.
Best Song: The Time Warp

16. The Blues Brothers (1980)
Jake and Elwood Blues, played by Belushi and Ackroyd, crack wise in this hilarious R & B classic.
Best Song: Minnie The Moocher

15. Dazed and Confused (1993)
Basically, a 70's high school comedy about rockin' out and smoking pot. Matthew McConaughey’s stoner hero Wooderson is awesome.
Best Song: Foghat's Slowride

14. School of Rock (2003)
Jack Black plays a teacher who enters his class of 10-year-olds in a battle of the bands contest.
Best Song: Led Zeppelin’s The Immigrant Song

13. Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
A stop motion fantasy film with a whole lot of Danny Elfman songs and music, and that's always a good thing. It looks as great as it sounds.
Best Song: This Is Halloween

12. Gimme Shelter (1970)
A documentary about the Rolling Stones 1969 tour that becomes more about a murder that took place on camera at the disastrous Altamont Free Concert.
Best Song: Sympathy For The Devil

11. The Decline of Western Civilization, Part II: The Metal Years (1988)
A documentary look at the 80s Sunset Strip hairband scene. Shocking. Funny. Sad. Pathetic. Mullets. Metal. Just like me in the 80s.
Best Song: Faster Pussycat's Cathouse

10. Iron Maiden: Flight 666 (2009)
A documentary on the 2008 Iron Maiden tour, being the only one in history I'm guessing where the lead singer also flew the jet hauling them around.
Best Song: Two Minutes To Midnight

9. Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (2004)
This documentary on the making of the album St. Anger that captures the whole rehab-entering, group-therapy attending, modern-art-selling fiasco. A really good insight into a dysfunctional period of one of the greatest bands ever.
Best Song: Some Kind of Monster

8. Singles (1992)
Cameron Crowe’s relationship drama disguised as a love letter to Seattle grunge.
Best Song: Paul Westerberg's Dyslexic Heart

7. High Fidelity (2000)
John Cusack plays a music nut who has a better relationship with his music collection than his girlfriend. Fantastic record-store rants and mixtape love-letters combined with a hilarious supporting character played by Jack Black add up to an awesome movie.
Best Song: Baby I Love Your Way by Frampton

6. Saturday Night Fever (1977)
The movie that turned disco from an underground cult into a worldwide phenomenon... and Travolta into a mega-star.
Best Song: Stayin' Alive

5. Grease (1978)
It’s electrifyin’! Never has gang violence been so fun. Travolta is perfect and Oliva Newton John in leather pants made millions of young boys feel like they'd just climbed the rope in gym class for the first time.
Best musical moment: You’re the One That I Want

4. Purple Rain (1984)
Prince plays Prince. Prince lives with his parents. Prince is a weird space-age midget. Prince rocks.
Best Song: Let's Go Crazy

3. Almost Famous (2000)
Cameron Crowe's fictionalized coming-of-age story filled with rock n roll decadence.
Best Song: Elton John’s Tiny Dancer

2. Anvil! The Story of Anvil (2009)
A documentary of Canadian metal band Anvil that's equal parts rocking, sad and hilarious. Whether you like metal or not, you'll love this film.
Best Song: Metal on Metal

1. This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
A mockumentary on perhaps the greatest band in the history of the world, which never really existed. Comedic geniuses Christopher Guest (NigelTufnel), Micheal McKean (David St. Hubbins) and Harry Shearer (Derek Smalls) are rock gods Spinal Tap, and they're idiots that go to 11. It's like, how much more black could this be? And the answer is none. None more black. To quote the great David St. Hubbins "It's such a fine line between stupid, and clever." And, just to also quote the great Nigel Tufnel, "We've got Armadillos in our trousers. It's really quite frightening."
Best Song: Big Bottom

New Kris Allen Video

Conway Arkansas' own Kris Allen, who you may remember from a little show called American Idol, has his video out for the song "Live Like We're Dying" and here it is for ya. Pretty catchy song and I must say I do like the positive vibe. The video is... well, I'm not sure what's going on. It's windy. And there's a big digital clock counting down to something. And did I mention it's windy? Well it is. Windy.

From Russia With Love

In honor of Fedor's massive right hand that crumpled an extremely game and hard-hitting Brett Rogers to highlight my weekend, here's a cool video I found of some of Fedor's best moments.

Sunday Funnies

Chickenfoot on Kimmel

One of my favorite new bands of 2009, Chickenfoot, performed "Sexy Little Thing" on Jimmy Kimmel Live this week. Check it out.

Strikeforce Weigh-Ins

Here is some of the weigh-ins yesterday for Fedor Emelianenko, Brett "The Grim" Rogers, Jake Shields and Jason "Mayhem" Miller for tonight's huge Strikeforce: Fedor vs Rogers show on CBS. Jason Miller cracks me up every time. I love that guy. And here's a little rule of mine... never mess with a 260 lbs man with a mohawk and a tattoo of the grim reaper on his chest. Just a tip. Although I think Fedor can handle him.

I'm taking Fedor and Shields in these 2 fights.

There's a New Moon Rising

I've been playing the hell out of the new Wolfmother CD, Cosmic Egg, lately. I was worried when they had all the personnel changes that they wouldn't bring it like they did on their debut, but I'll be damned if I don't like this CD better even. It's got some huge hooks, heavy old school Black Sabbath-esque riffs and massive basslines all behind the unique wail of Andrew Stockdale. They have a very distinctive sound, and that's pretty rare any more. Well, they're pretty distinctive for today I guess... if they were around 35 years ago or so they might not be. And that's cool.

Crank up this video for the latest single New Moon Rising.

Follow This Yellow Brick Road?

I saw this new trailer for an indie horror thriller from Points North Films called YellowBrickRoad (note the spelling... no spaces, not "Yellow Brick Road") on a few sites and it looks pretty intriguing to me. You know how I love my little indie horror films! I've been looking for more info on this one. I did find the official site but it doesn't have much yet, just the trailer. I'll keep an eye on it. There's no release date that I've seen, or a distributor for that matter.

Here's the trailer:

I found this synopsis from the writers on it's IMDB page:

One Morning in New England, 1940, the entire population of Friar New Hampshire - 572 people - walked together up a winding mountain trail and into the wilderness. They left behind their clothes, their money, all of their essentials. Even their dogs were abandoned, tied to posts and left to starve. No One knows why. A search party dispatched by the U.S. Army eventually discovered the remains of nearly 300 of Friar's evacuees. Many had frozen to death. Others were cruelly and mysteriously slaughtered. The bodies of the remaining citizens are still unaccounted for. Over the years, a quiet cover-up operation managed to weave the story of Friar into the stuff of legends and backwoods fairy tales. The town has slowly repopulated, but the vast wilderness is mostly untracked, with the northern-most stretches off limits to local hunters and loggers. In 2008, the coordinates for the "YELLOWBRICKROAD" trail head were declassified. The first official expedition into a dark and twisted wilderness will attempt to solve the mystery of the lost citizens of Friar...and reach the end of the trail.

Ford Unveils New Car for 2010

Ford Unveils New Car For Cash-Strapped Buyers: The 1993 Taurus

Mastodon Roars on Late Night

No, 3 homeless guys didn't just climb onto the stage and start rocking, that's Atlanta's metal monsters Mastodon blasting the song "Divinations" from their latest release, Crack The Skye, on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon on October 29, 2009.

For more on Mastodon check out the killer site: hightowerandjones.blogspot.com

Mastodon has also written the score to "Jonah Hex", the comic-book Western/horror film starring Josh Brolin in the lead role. The movie is based on the DC comic series about a horribly scarred antihero who is "a rough-and-tumble gunslinger and part-time bounty hunter whose adventures always ended in blood." Guitarist/vocalist Brent Hinds makes a cameo appearance in the film, which is shooting for a June 18, 2010 release (my birthday!).

The New Stephen King Novel Is Out

Wow, have I been really slacking on my reading lately. I've been reading American Gods on and off for about 4 months. I've just been a little swamped lately and blah blah blah. In the Winter I usually pick the pace back up and I'm trying to get it going now. Not a moment too soon either as there are a lot of great looking books coming out right here before the holiday.

Below is the official book trailer for Stephen King's Under The Dome. What I've seen says that in the book a Maine town is subject to the imposition of an impenetrable dome that isolates its citizens from the world. Hold it, isn't that from The Simpsons Movie? Sounds very familiar. If the people of the town escape through a sandbox...

Anyway, here's this:

Here's the official synopsis too:

On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester's Mill, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener's hand is severed as ‘the dome' comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. Dale Barbara, Iraq vet, teams up with a few intrepid citizens against the town's corrupt politician. But time, under the dome, is running out....