Tshirts Are Here!

Thanks to the good folks at Zazzle, Tapping The Ether now has it's first official Tshirt.

There's a doohickey that allows you to purchase it from this blog, but I can't get it to work at the moment, so for now, you can check them out here. Keep an eye out for more designs and possibly a coffee mug...

Meanwhile, you can see the design above.

Keith Olbermann

I don't tend to do politics on my blog, but Keith Olbermann's comment on the Dr. Tiller assassination and Pampers O'Reilly complicity struck a nerve and I thought I'd share it

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Iron Maiden - Flight 666

I love you, Man!

Okay, so I went to the drive-in tonight to see "Star Trek" and the second feature was "I Love You Man", which due to an impending thunderstorm we didn't stick around to see. There was on reason and one reason only I wanted to see this movie--Rush appears in one scene, performing "Limelight". Thankfully I didn't miss that scene becuase my lovely wife tracked down an online version of it, which I'm now sharing with you:

Rush i love you man
by kev5655

Rush On Don Kirshner's Rock Concert

Rush on Don Kirshner - MyVideo

From Oct. 9, 1974

HIstory Of Rush.

A short documentary on the history of Rush. Not particular good (for one thing it makes the bizarre claim that the members of Rush have all gone solo), but it does feature some nice live footage and some soundbites from Geddy and Alex.

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"Lords Of Chaos" movie announced/

ZU33 Pictures is filming a movie based on the book "Lords Of Chaos".

For those of you unaware, the book details the birth and rise of the Black Metal scene in Norway, with particular emphasis on the church burnings and murders committed by the so-called "Inner Circle".

Here's what the film company says about the movie:

Set inside the notorious Norwegian Black Metal music scene of the early 1990s (and based on true events) this narrative feature follows a group of dedicated musicians and their charismatic figureheads - Count Grishnackh and Euronymous - as art transforms into brutal violence in the streets of Northern Europe.

Sion Sono (Suicide Club) is directing and the film is slated for a 2010 release.

Sirenia: My Mind's Eye

Music Video Code by Metal Video

The Libertine

The Libertine stars Johnny Depp as 17th poet, playwright and all-round reprobate John Wilmot, better known as the Earl of Rochester. Played with a wonderful combination of exuberance and despair by Johnny Depp, Wilmot opens the film with a prologue during which he declares "You will not like me". And he's right.

John Wilmot is portrayed as the 17th Century version of a self-absorbed rock star. Self-indulgent, self-absorbed, self-loathing, with emphasis on the "self". Talented but lazy, intelligent but crude, lionized yet isolated, Depp portrays the dissipated Wilmot like a spoiled rock star in the mold of Axl Rose or Nikki Sixx--an out of control Bad Boy whom no one has told to grow up. As Wilmot's looks and health succumb to the ravages of syphilis, he increasingly resembles Freddy Mercury in his final days.

The movie is not perfect, by any means. It suffers from a certain air of "staginess" and the script occasionally loses focus, resulting in periods that are bordering on tedious. Less emphasis on Wilmot's relationship with actress Elizabeth Barrie and more on that with King Charles II (wonderfully played by John Malkovich) would have improve the plot considerably. Many of the supporting characters are flat and lifeless, and there is no real antagonist to the story.

Reactions to the movie show that there is no middle ground. You will love it, or you will loathe it. Of the negative reviews I've read on Amazon, about 70% seem to be from women who picked up the movie solely because Johnny Depp was in it, and were disappointed to find such a dark and depressing story. Another 20% were from people who objected to the vulgarity of the movie (making me wonder what the hell they were expecting of a movie called "The Libertine"), with the remaining 10% of viewers who knew what they were getting into, and sincerely gave the movie a chance.

Perhaps it's best to think of The Libertine as a very, very dark counterpoint to Shakespeare in Love, a movie that it very much resembles in many ways. Don't let that mislead you into thinking that this is a feel-good movie, however, because that is one thing that it most definitely is not.

The Weekend.

It was a busy weekend, but pleasantly so.

Sunday was my wife's birthday, so we skipped out of town on Saturday afternoon for a family getogether with cake and ice cream. Then it was back to town in time for the show. As part of her present, my wife programmed the entire show, and she did a fantastic job! Saturday we watched "Yankee Doodle Dandy" together (a gift from my parents) before going out to dinner with friends. For anyone who hasn't seen it, I heartily recommend it. One of Cagney's finest moments (and I've been a fan of Cagney's gangster movies since I was young lad). All in all it was a great weekend, marred only when my wife had a nasty fall on some ice in our parking lot.

On a slightly sadder note, I found out this weekend that Bill Landis, co-editor of Sleazoid Express magazine, died not too long ago. Although I've never read the magazine, I have a copy of his excellent book of the same name that gives a history of grindhouse films and the theatres that played them. A vital resource for anyone interesting in exploitation, cult and bizarre movies from the 60's, 70's and 80's. Ironically just a couple of days before reading the news my friend Eddie and I were talking about the infamous "Ilsa" movies and he was asking me about tracking some similar fare, and I immediately recommended he read Sleazoid Express (the book) for suggestions. It's a small world indeed. Bill Landis, R.I.P.