Sunday, September 17, 2006

Rock Star: 0-2


So there he is. Two years in a row now Rock Star has chosen one of the LAST people I would've wanted to win. At least last year my major complaint with JD Fortune was that he was just a major asshole... in this case, I dislike (and in some cases loathe) pretty much everything about Lukas Rossi -- or, as Rick at OnlineOnslaught called him, Lord Revlon Q. Faggenstein.

See, I think the LAST thing the music scene needs at this point is another gothed-up, whiny-voiced emoboy... BUT... I think they telegraphed the pick pretty early in this case. There was the Hollywood Gossip Blog that said Lukas had already been picked as the winner at least a month ago... there was his endless praise from Tommy Lee & the boys... and in the finale it couldn't have been clearer -- the other three remaining folks got pretty soundly panned by the band (and Tommy Lee especially)... well, until AFTER they'd been eliminated, then at that point it seems like every one of the eliminated folks is going to have Dave Navarro and the entire band-formerly-known-as-Supernova backing them. So did they really lose? Is it better to be fronting a band with pretty much no solid future?

So, anyway... I don't anticipate them gettting any of my business. But if you care, here's an interview with Rossi after the win, and they've got two songs up on their MySpace page.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Supernova Goes POP


Who's that you ask? Why, that would be the band Supernova. No, no not THAT Supernova - the original one, a pop-punk band originally from the 80s. Apparently these guys weren't too happy about their name being co-opted by Tommy Lee's projet du jour, and applied a little of the 'ol lawsuitification a couple months back. Well the (current) verdict is in, and for now, a judge says ixnay on the upernova-Say for Mssrs Lee, Clarke and Newstead.

I stress current in the verdict, as it's entirely possible something will still shake-out here to change the result -- either an appeal and overturned ruling, or some kind of buy-out or heavy licensing fees. Given the high profile of the show, and insta-money to be made or lost on the deal, I wouldn't be surprised at all to see the name remain unchanged.

Nevertheless, this only further adds to my opinion on the flash-in-the-pan side proect / shaky future of the band. There are still some performers left on the show that I'm really interested in -- Toby and Magni primarily. If Lukas wins, my interest in Supernova drops to about negative 4.3 trillion.

Of course, if the rumor mill is correct, I'm SOL. But that's just a rumor. We'll know the REAL outcome tomorrow night! Oh, t3h DRAMA~!!

Go Print Me Some Dinner!

Yes, print! So there's this restaurant in Chicago called Moto (Hello Moto), and the chef there has a specially modified inkjet printer which uses food-based "inks" (carrot juice, purple potatoes, tomato juice) to print images onto sheets of soybean & potato starch to make printed edible food! And... wait for it... he calls it a FOOD REPLICATOR!

And Star Trek geeks everywhere were rejoicing.

Seriously though, this sounds freaking awesome. You know I love to try new and different restaurants, and this is just crazy. I'm sure the place is insanely expensive with a year-long waiting list, but I'll at least have to look in to eating there next time I'm in Chitown.

Printed sushi (pictured) -- even the MENU is edible. But the printed food isn't the only cool thing about Moto. The chef (Homaro Cantu) has all kinds of CRAZY stuff going on there. Fish baking in a crazy little box right at your table, cheese literature which tells its own history, flavored packing materials... plus lots of very tasty looking and very snazzily presented other options. Check out this photo essay of a multiple course meal at Moto (about 3 posts in).

I'm so there.

Read More:
-Story at First Science
-Story at New York Times

Thursday, September 07, 2006

Fall TV Comin' Atcha

So the season premiere of House was this week. It was most excellent. I'm a little torn on the ending, but it was a great episode and the series has definitely picked up right where it dropped off. Still in my top 5 shows.

Other than House and the almighty football, not much else has started back up yet, but here's a rundown on what I'm waiting on, including the announced/projected premiere dates:
  • 24 (FOX): 2-hour 6th season premiere (projected) 1/14/2007 8pm
  • Big Love (HBO): 2nd season premiere (projected) 6/3/2007 9pm
  • C.S.I. (CBS): 7th season premiere 9/21/2006 9pm
  • Cold Case (CBS): 4th season premiere 9/24/2006 9pm
  • Doctor Who (SciFi): 150-minute 2nd season premiere 9/29/2006 8pm
  • Everybody Hates Chris (CW): 2nd season premiere 10/1/2006 7pm
  • The Ghost Whisperer (CBS): 2nd season premiere 9/22/2006 8pm
  • LOST (ABC): "special presentation" (recap show?) 9/27/2006 9pm
  • My Name Is Earl (NBC): 2nd season premiere 9/21/2006 8pm
  • N.C.I.S. (CBS): 4th season premiere 9/19/2006 8pm
  • Numb3rs (CBS): 3rd season premiere 9/22/2006 10pm
  • Rome (HBO): 2nd season premiere 1/7/2007 9pm
  • The Sopranos (HBO): 6th season "winter" premiere (projected) 3/11/2007 9pm
  • South Park (Comedy Central): 10th season "fall" premiere 10/4/2006 10pm
  • Top Chef (Bravo): 2nd season premiere 10/18/2006 11pm
  • Veronica Mars (CW): 3rd season premiere 10/3/2006 9pm
Ok, so looking at that list -- Holy hell that's a lot of TV. Admittedly some of them don't start until 2007, so the specific runs will overlap a LITTLE less... but still. Clearly something's gotta give, as I don't forsee having that much free time. To make matters worse, there are quite a few NEW shows debuting this fall that I'd LIKE to check out:
  • Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip (NBC): series premiere 9/18/2006 10pm
  • Jericho (CBS): series premiere 9/20/2006 8pm
  • Six Degrees (ABC): series premiere 9/21/2006 10:01pm
  • Heroes (NBC): series premiere 9/25/2006 9pm
  • The Nine (ABC): series premiere 10/4/2006 10pm
  • Daybreak (ABC): series premiere 11/15/2006 9pm
Yeah... so as you can see, who knows what will make the cut and what will get dropped for sheer sanity/braincell-preservation. Inevitably at least one, likely several of the new shows will tank, so that will help... we'll see how things go.

Friday, September 01, 2006

The Big 3-0



So yeah, today's my b-day. I decided to have a fireworks show to celebrate. Well, that or re-use one of my 4th of July pics instead of trying to find something more appropriate. One of the two.

It must be said loudly and in clear print that I HAVE THE BEST WIFE EVER. PERIOD. Seriously, Amy has outdone herself this year - I haven't even been awake three hours yet and I think this is likely to be my best birthday ever - she's been giving me the royal treatment all morning. On top of that, she really outdid herself with her gift - she's been conspiring over the past month and, knowing my obsession better than anyone else, got me 30 CDs! She's crazy! How did I manage to be so lucky as to get a wife this awesome?

Still not sure what all we're going to do today - we both have the day off work, so it's great just to hang with Evie (and the pups), but I'm sure we'll get out at some point. At the very least we'll be out for dinner at Mortons.

In non-birthday news, we had our Fantasy Football draft (with the OIT-related gang) @ BW3 last night, & it was awesome. Even feeding 9 hungry guys, $100 of food goes a LONG way (it was part of the fantasy football package Hutch set up through Sportsline). Had an awesome time with the gang last night, hanging out, joking, eating, drafting. It's going to be a fun league - much thanks to Hutch for setting it all up.

Ok, so one last piece of b-day news: It's also Laurie's 30th b-day today. From her post, it looks like she's got an awesome day lined up ahead of her as well. Make sure to stop by and wish her a good one!