This week saw the release of the latest Nine Inch Nails record, Year Zero. The dystopian concept album not only describes the rise of fascist right-wing Christians, but Trent Reznor’s return to form as he embraces the electronica and industrial that marked his earliest work. Year Zero harkens back to the days when Reznor was churning out industrial funk in the bowels of Cleveland. Each track is another exercise is NIN’s trademark self-flagellation, but it brings back the minimalist techno elements that made Pretty Hate Machine and The Downward Spiral morbidly danceable. Tracks like “Vessel” and “The Warning” pulse with synthesized beats and distorted hip-hop grooves, asserting Reznor’s self-proclaimed love of synthpop (T. Rex, Prince) and hip-hop (Public Enemy).

If you’re on the fence about Year Zero, make no mistake that this is a departure from the crumbling, down tempo tracks of The Fragile and With Teeth. The dance floor of Armageddon has never been hotter.

Ah… the days when promos were promos and you didn’t need a TV script for your 15 Minutes of Crap.

While I reflect on the “good old days”, here are some thoughts of mine from last week, including an interview with The Rock’s former sparring partner Kevin Kelly. The only thing that was ever funnier was Rock getting The Coach to dance.

WWE News and Notes Vol. 1 and Vol. 2

Kevin Kelly Interview Recap

Where Are They Now? Sgt. Craig “Pitbull” Pittman

Wrestlemania 23 Highlight Reel

WCW vs. GLOW

Former WCW Tag Teams to Reunite

Ex-Pro Wrestler Hurt in Fight

Steve Austin Interview (on The Condemned)

TNA Television News

Check back on Friday for my review of Mick Foley’s Hardcore Diaries and news on a special contest from WWE Books where you can get a phone call from Mick himself! I’ll also have my thoughts by then on the Disco Inferno poker bust and other odds and ends.

Oh my god! Look at the number of nits in my previous post!!!! 52!!!! It’s time for a Crisis, time for a Countdown, or time for whatever it’s time for… and we need a new flash… can we get this one?

[[WARNING! THIS COLUMN MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS!]]

Alright, so it took me three weeks instead of one to finish this column… but to my defense, there’s 52 nits in this column, about three times the amount I usually put in a post. You’ll find this column filled with Civil War fallout (and I do mean full); as well as some DC goodness, with Dynamite Entertainment mixed in to balance it out a little.

These are all the nits that I found in comics released in the month of March, although one or two might be from February, and probably one is from April… more April goodness in the next post (hopefully in less than a month). Also, coming very soon, 52 Special, after it ends.

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More astute watchers of THE SHIELD predicted that Ronnie Gardocki’s screen time would be bumped up to help fill the void left by Lem’s murder. This episode sure makes their predictions look dead on the money.
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I don’t know if anyone else has been following this…but there are proposals on the table to restrict the lower postal rates for publications to only the largest of publishers, which will have the effect of shutting down many smaller publications that can’t afford the huge increase in postage. Its another case of the rich getting (or staying) richer…

I urge anyone reading this to make your voice on this issue heard. Stop the big publishers from pushing the smaller competition out of business…

I was given the opportunity to review the book Women! Rebel! recently, and I accepted the offer for many reasons. The first is that as a writer, I enjoy reading other writers that are in the beginning stages of everything. The second is that I thought that even if I didn’t agree with the ideas behind the book, it sounded interesting.

The premise of the book is basically that women should not accept any crap from men. This is a valid premise, of course, and one I agree with. The author, Gabby Buzzman, was writing not only about others but also about her own experience after two divorces. It’s obvious from the title and the cover (three female fists in the air) that this was not going to be a happy-go-lucky book. But before I get into my feelings on the book, I must say that I understand why the author wrote it. It is a horrible thing to be treated like dirt, and no one deserves it. However, I did not deserve the suffering thrust upon me when I opened this book.

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Results courtesy of Gerweck.net.

Don’t forget… the gimmick for the entire show is the SIX SIDES OF STEEL. It’s not overkill or anything.

The pre-show match had the Voodoo Kin Mafia over Serotonin, who acted as Christy Hemme’s mystery team. For one thing, it was stupid to promote this match for the main show when they didn’t have a team to put in there in the first place. It made TNA look like a bush league indy promotion that they promoted an empty spot in the card that they had to fill at the last minute with their own guys. To top it all off, then they had Hemme go out with Raven’s group. At what point did they align? This was just bad storytelling all around. Later on, Raven went to cane everybody, but Hemme ran off and Kazarian is the one who got caned after arguing with Raven. I care about none of this.

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I watched Ms. Ifill on MEET THE PRESS (re-air on MSNBC) and heard her mention the responses she’s gotten via e-mail. Being unable to track down a direct e-mail or contact form for her, other than the viewer question form for Washington Week, I decided I’d share it as an open letter here.
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Here you are lads and lasses, our second podcast!

This time around, Shots in the Dark does some geek news talk in another round of the Gatling Geek, talk Star Wars books with JB, listen to some killer tunes by rising stars Treaty of Paris, and of course chat with the amazing, the talented, JEPH LOEB! So whether you just need to catch up on what’s happening in the worlds of gaming, comics, and tech, or you want to hear some nuggets of truth, wisdom, and comedy from the Co-Executive Producer of Heroes and one of today’s PREMIER comic writers, click the link and download this episode now!

Shots in the Dark featuring JEPH LOEB!

A moment of silence, please…

 Kurt Vonegut, Jr.

November 11, 1922 - April 11, 2007

 ” ‘A was a man, take him for all in all:

I shall not look upon his like again.”

So you want answers, huh?

Spoilers On!

After this absolutely amazing episode, I’d say that the writing staff is all but smacking the audience right in the face with all the answers that they can handle. Honestly, there hasn’t been this huge of a download of information in one episode since the original viewing of the Dharma film. And tonight’s events were much more effective, as they played out against high drama, extreme tension, and some remarkable acting.

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From AintItCoolNews.com and Blog@Newsarama . . .

Yeah, I’m into this.

(In the spirit of the Shotgun relaunch, and while I’m busy with movie polls and such, I’ve decided to recycle some of my earliest home video reviews into the new format. Since most of what I was reviewing back then were classic or nearly classic films anyway, I thought they deserved a new airing.

This first recycled offering was originally posted in August of 2001. I’ve updated some of the information and added, uhm, one or two notes, as is my wont.)

The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

1 hr., 58 m. / original studio: Orion Pictures / rated R

directed by Jonathan Demme; screenplay by Ted Tally, from novel by Thomas Harris; director of photography, Tak Fujimoto; edited by Craig McKay; music by Howard Shore

with: Jodie Foster (Clarice Starling), Anthony Hopkins (Hannibal Lecter), Scott Glenn (Jack Crawford), Ted Levine (Buffalo Bill)

As part of the FBI’s attempt to profile a serial killer who skins his victims, a female trainee is assigned to gain the trust of a psychotic genius being held in ultra-maximum security.

A riveting thriller-cum-horror tale, The Silence of the Lambs is one of the all-time great box-office sleepers, rivaling Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) as a media phenomenon in its initial release and establishing the character of Dr. Hannibal Lecter as a contemporary icon of dread to rank with the likes of Dracula. Sixteen years later The Silence of the Lambs has lost none of its power as one of the most disturbing movies ever made, a superior, modern gothic entertainment which gazes fearlessly into the darkest labyrinth of human psychosis and leaves us deeply unsettled, but safe, when it ends. At least, safe for the moment. (more…)

Tuesdays are shaping up to be the best night of the week, as long as THE SHIELD is on.

Well…maybe it was shaping up to be that way…but tonight’s episode has confused the hell out of me, as far as what I’m to expect.

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