Play things.

This was too good not to share. If you are like me and grew up playing all of the Mario games from the beginning, then you will hopefully find this Something Awful article written by Dennis Farrell as laugh-out-loud hilarious as I did.

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French music site La Blogothèque has several video series of intimate concerts with hot artists, and they got Vampire Weekend (fresh off huge opening sales for their latest album Contra) for “Soirée de Poche,” which looks like a series of live shows in a small cafe. They perform five or six songs from both Contra and their debut self-titled album. Looks like a good time was had by all! The original Blogothèque post is here, but it’s in French and I can’t read it. Good thing music is universal!

Director: Emmett Malloy
Producer: Mike Sarkissian
Starring: Jack White, Meg White
MPAA Rating: 14A
Running time: 93 min.

Since it’s about six months from the time I actually watched this move at the Toronto International Film Festival, it’s safe to say I’ve probably forgotten a lot of the details in the movie. But I do remember the overall impact the film had on me. With the release of the awesome looking special edition DVD set releasing next month (March 16th), I thought it prudent to jot down my thoughts on the film today.

As the lights came up after screening Under Great White Northern Lights, the director took to the stage to answer any questions the audience might have. One of the patrons loudly declared to us all that this was the best rock doc he’s seen in thirty years. While I think that statement is beyond bold (bordering on ridiculous), I can at least understand the sentiment. I recently declared Jack White the artist of the decade and those of us that are fans can understand why. Under Great White Northern Lights is just one more notch on the belt of The White Stripes’ legacy.

In the summer of 2007, The White Stripes started quite the non-traditional North American tour that covered, first and foremost, at least one city in every provincial territory in Canada. Some of these shows were sold out, 20,000 seat arenas and others were impromptu jams in a pool hall or a sing-a-long on an unsuspecting metro bus line. Film maker Emmett Malloy was there to capture it all. In fact, in one of the oddest displays of absurdity, pompousness and unconditional fan loyalty, the film opens with The White Stripes now infamous, one note show; in which the band plays literally only one note for a crowd of screaming fans who couldn’t be happier.

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Fans were gushing today over the news that former Guns n’ Roses bassist, Duff McKagan, would likely be filling the shoes of Eric Avery as the new bass player for @JanesAddiction. Founding member Avery left the band after a very brief reunion last summer.

It’s been all but confirmed by Perry Farrell who would only simply say that that the prospect of a new bassist is “very likely.” But it makes sense that McKagan would be the choice as he’s been close friends with the band since the late 80’s and has collaborated some with Jane’s guitarist, Dave Navarro, in the band Camp Freddy.

Despite no official confirmation, Farrell said on his site, Xiola.org, that the “mysterious” bassist is writing with the original trio and that songs for the first new album since 2003’s “Strays” are starting to come together. “We’ve got one great song so far called ‘Top Dog,’” he says.

Giggity-giggity!

Facebook.

Canadian super-group Broken Social Scene has been touring and working on solo projects for leads Brendan Canning and Kevin Drew for the five years since their previous release You Forgot It In People, but they’ve just released some details on their not-yet-titled upcoming album, releasing May 4, 2010. Given the ever-changing size and line-up of Broken Social Scene, as members come and go and work with other bands, it’s always a question who exactly will be featured on an album – this time they’ve managed to supplement their core six-person group (Canning, Drew, Justin Peroff, Charles Spearin, Andrew Whiteman, and Sam Goldberg) with guest appearances from friends and often collaborators Emily Haines and Jimmy Shaw (of Metric), Amy Millan and Evan Cranley (of Stars), and Leslie Fiest (of…Feist), among many others.

In an interview with Pitchfork, Kevin Drew cautions that most of these performers are less involved that in previous records, mostly coming in to lay vocals over already-written songs rather than collaborating from the beginning. That likely also means none of them will be involved in Broken Social Scene’s upcoming US tour. I would’ve loved to have the chance to see them all together, but Broken Social Scene is awesome enough on their own to be worthy of attention, celebrity guest performers or not.

Here’s a couple of older songs:

The sequel to the massively popular and beautifully designed Bioshock comes out next Tuesday, February 9th, and the hype is continuing to grow. Check out this detailed unboxing of the Bioshock 2 Special Edition – and keep watching for the unveiling of a very special surprise edition.

Coulrophobia.

Here’s something new I am going to try out. Every couple of months, I’ll give a brief update on what I’ve been reading – not everything, of course, but the books that I feel compelled to share. I’ll provide a brief synopsis along with a (mostly meaningless) star rating out of five. Most importantly, the comments section of this post can be used as a jumping point for discussion not only for the books that I have noted, but for what you have read lately as well. Feel free to leave your thoughts on these, your thoughts on anything that you have read lately, as well as any recommendations you might have for anyone. Hopefully we can get some discussion going. Cheers!

The Graveyard Book (2008)
Author: Neil Gaiman
Synopsis: “Somewhere in contemporary Britain, ‘the man Jack’ uses his razor-sharp knife to murder a family, but the youngest, a toddler, slips away. The boy ends up in a graveyard, where the ghostly inhabitants adopt him to keep him safe. Nobody Owens, so named because he ‘looks like nobody but himself,’ grows up among a multigenerational cast of characters from different historical periods … As he grows up, Bod has a series of adventures, both in and out of the graveyard, and the threat of the man Jack who continues to hunt for him is ever present.”
Star Rating: * * * * *

Down and Out in Paris and London (1933)
Author: George Orwell
Synopsis: “Orwell’s first published book, it contains essays in which actual events are recounted in a fictionalized form. The book recounts that to atone for the guilt he feels about the conditions under which the disenfranchised and downtrodden peoples of the world exist, Orwell decides to live and work as one of them. Dressed as a beggar, he takes whatever employment might be available to a poverty-stricken outcast of Europe. In Paris he lives in a slum and works as a dishwasher. … Dressed as a tramp, he travels throughout England with hoboes and migrant laborers.”
Star Rating: * * * *

Salt: A World History (2003)
Author: Mark Kurlansky
Synopsis: “Homer called salt a divine substance. Plato described it as especially dear to the gods. Today we take salt for granted, a common, inexpensive substance that seasons food or clears ice from roads, a word used casually in expressions (’salt of the earth,’ ‘take it with a grain of salt’) without appreciating their deeper meaning. However, as Mark Kurlansky so brilliantly relates in his world-encompassing new book, salt—the only rock we eat—has shaped civilization from the very beginning. Its story is a glittering, often surprising part of the history of mankind.”
Star Rating: * * * *

The Razor’s Edge (1944)
Author: W. Somerset Maugham
Synopsis: “The Razor’s Edge tells the story of an American, Larry Darrell, who, traumatized by his experiences as a fighter pilot in World War I, decides to search for some transcendent meaning in his life. … The story begins through the eyes of Larry’s friends and acquaintances as they witness his personality change after the War. His rejection of conventional life and search for meaningful experience allows him to thrive while the more materialistic characters suffer reversals of fortune.”
Star Rating: * * * * *

Factotum (1975)
Author: Charles Bukowski
Synopsis: “One of Charles Bukowski’s best, this beer-soaked, deliciously degenerate novel follows the wanderings of aspiring writer Henry Chinaski across World War II-era America. Deferred from military service, Chinaski travels from city to city, moving listlessly from one odd job to another, always needing money but never badly enough to keep a job. His day-to-day existence spirals into an endless litany of pathetic whores, sordid rooms, dreary embraces, and drunken brawls, as he makes his bitter, brilliant way from one drink to the next.”
Star Rating: * * * *

Rabbit Redux (1971)
Author: John Updike
Synopsis: “The assumptions and obsessions that control our daily lives are explored in tantalizing detail by master novelist John Updike in this wise, witty, and sexy story. Harry Angstrom – known to all as Rabbit, one of America’s most famous literary characters – finds his dreary life shattered by the infidelity of his wife, Janice. How he resolves or further complicates his problems makes for a novel of the first order.”
Star Rating: * * * *

American Rust (2009)
Author: Philipp Meyer
Synopsis: “Buell, Pennsylvania lies in ruins, a dying – if not already dead – steel town, where even the lush surrounding country seethes with concealed industrial toxins. When Isaac English and Billy Poe – a pair of high-school friends straight out of Steinbeck – embark on a starry-eyed cross-country escape to California, a violent encounter with a trio of transients leaves one dead, prying the lid off a rusted can of failed hope and small-town secrets. American Rust is Philipp Meyer’s first novel, and his taut, direct prose strikes the perfect tone for this kaleidoscope of fractured dreams, elevating a book that otherwise might be relentlessly dour to the level of honest and unflinching storytelling.”
Star Rating: * * * *

With new IMAX Camera capabilities, we’ll be able to look at and study the Sun like never before.

The Solar Dynamics Observatory is designed to help us understand the Sun’s influence on Earth and Near-Earth space by studying the solar atmosphere on small scales of space and time and in many wavelengths simultaneously. Dean Pesnell, the SDO Project Scientist, explains the science that will be done using NASA’s SDO spacecraft.

 

 
Woo-hoo! [via]

Cool.

We’re finally here. All of the questions will supposedly now be answered. Season 6, the final season in the LOST saga has begun and no where else better to talk about it than right here with the fans. You asked for it and you got it – the RowThree LOST discussion thread. See the rules below before entering the island.

There are a FEW RULES to this particular discussion though:
RULES: show

Once again, it is Monday.

“You are cynical.”

“Just middle-aged. Ideas used to grab me too. It’s not that you get better ideas, the old ones just get tired. After a while, you see that even dollars and cents are just an idea. Finally the only thing that matters is putting some turds in the toliet bowl once a day. They stay real, somehow. Somebody came up to me and said, ‘I’m God,’ I’d say, ‘Show me your badge.’”

-from Rabbit Redux by John Updike