Is this meta-blogging? Posting on my site about one company that I write for reporting on another company that I write for? Ah, post-modern internet freelancing . . .
Anyway, dig this: The first Fangoria Comics preview.
In part 1 of my 4 part Nerdcore series, I’m going to talk to you 
about the Nerdcore pioneer himself, MC Frontalot, as heard on Shots in the Dark.
Front has a new album out entitled Secrets From The Future, and he shows why he’s the leader of this revolution.
For the unitiated, Nerdcore is a new subgenre of hip-hop, aimed at bringing the story telling aspect back to rap, as well as bringing subjects like Star Wars, Comic books, and Video games into rap music.
MC Frontalot’s new album infuses funk, rock, and hard hip-hop beats with his super-articulated lyrics that range from poignant (Origin of Species) to simply goofy (Bizarro Genius Baby). The range of song topics is stretched much more on this sophomore album than his first, and shows how far reaching Nerdcore can be. Origin of Species is pretty much everything you could hope for from a Frontalot song, and the album’s momentum continues from that middle-of-the-disc track. There are really only one or two tracks that I feel I can ever skip when listening straight through, and even then it’s only occasionally. Optimus Rhyme fans need to check out track 11 for a new riff on a killer song from their latest disc (which I will be covering soon).
If you already like Frontalot, you simply need this album. If you’ve dabbled in some mc chris or MC Lars, expand your repitoire with this album. If you just miss story telling hip-hop and long for the days when rap could be about something besides guns and forties, this album is for you. All in all, a solid return effort, building off the fundamentals he established with his debut. So sit in the pew and listen to Reverend Frontalot preach- he’s leading a revolution.
I rounded up some news last week on my blog. Check it out here.
Results from Gerweck.net.
X-Division Champion Chris Sabin retained over Jay Lethal and Sonjay Dutt. I’m actually shocked that Jay Lethal did not get the win considering he was actually over with the crowd, but maybe TNA will give a feud between him and Sabin a chance to develop and be showcased. Then again, maybe Hell will have frozen over by that time too. This was your by-the-numbers 3-way dance: the challengers teamed up against the champ, turned on each other, then let the champ take over. Nice action, including a spot where Sabin tied both Lethal and Dutt into the tree of woe. Sabin won by shoving Sonjay into Lethal and rolling up Dutt for the win. This was a hot opener, and Sabin really does deserve a long run as champ to cement his place on the roster like AJ got. After the match, Lethal and Dutt fought each other, Kevin Nash tried to break it up, Dutt kicked Nash in the leg, and left. Am I the only one that thinks adding Kevin Nash to anything in TNA makes it worse? Apparently Nash will get Sonjay this Thursday on Impact.
So most of you probably don’t know that my fiance is currently a competitive fighter. It’s one of the main reasons that I’m the addict that I am, and I thought it might be interesting to share his inside view on the craziness that goes on before, during, and after a mixed martial arts fight. Sure, you could watch The Ultimate Fighter, but why stop there? So this is the first half of his fight diary.
I don’t know if this is any indication to how much interest TNA is generating with wrestling fans in general or if the card is just that weak, but our collective interest in this show on the Shotgun seems to be much lower than it was for Backlash last month. That leads into the opening question you’ll see below. Starring in this prognostication of sports entertainment are myself, Lyrical Lounge editor and lifelong Hulkamaniac Jonathan Birdsong, and reviewer and former booker for World 1 South AWA Steven Ekstrom.
The Russ: Here’s the opening question for this edition of the roundtable. Is TNA heading in the right direction to compete with WWE?
[[WARNING! THIS COLUMN MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS!]]
Well, here’s the end of 52 special; only a week later after 52 #52 came out. You’ll find nits that have already been featured in the column, back before it was in the form of this blog, but after a certain point, I decided to save all 52 nits for a special… this special! You can see how, up to week 34 (the first nits written up especially for this installment), I give less Bazzars than you’d expect me to… that only goes to show how I grow less and less intolerant month after month!
Enough chatter, on with the nits!
Before you mock me, yes, I know this was on Oprah’s Book Club list last month. Generally, I would ignore what her sheeple are reading, but when I read the description for this novel, they had me at “post-apocalyptic”. I wasn’t familiar with McCarthy or his work prior to reading this novel, nor did I know that this book won the Pulitzer Prize this year for fiction.
The Road isn’t an exceptionally exciting post-apocalyptic tale in the vein of such tales as The Road Warrior, The Day After, or even Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn, but McCarthy does make you think about what would happen to the survivors of a nuclear war and how desolate the world would be if 99% of the population of North America were wiped out.
Honestly, I can’t really tell you the plot, because I didn’t really get what was happening most of the time, and there really isn’t a lot going on besides the lead characters migrating and starving to death. The basic story is about a father and son who are the lone survivors of their family after what is assumed to be a nuclear war at least 10 years earlier. The man’s wife gave birth shortly after the war and later committed suicide because she had lost all hope for their meager existence. The man decides to head south so that they don’t have to go through another winter huddled up in their home with no heat. They pack up all their belongings into a shopping cart, hit the road, and head south.
Angelica LeMinh has bragging rights for life that the one and only Ursula Rucker called her phone, talked to her for two hours, and commended her on her stalking techniques (she likened it to “the perfect amount of persistence”). Philly’s most poetic Supasista waxes lyrical (for the lounge) about politics, street credibility, and raising her babies.
ALM: You just finished playing the Sistahood Celebration in my hometown with one of my best girls (Amalia Townsend www.myspace.com/sekoya). You’ve also been through Montreal a few times. Tell me about the crowds and the difference between playing Canada and the United States.
Ursula: Vancouver was great this last time, but I never have a bad show in Canada, I’ve also played Toronto. Like Europe, the audiences tend to be more open and progressive about what they know, and their awareness of culture and art is more acute. I haven’t performed extensively in the States, but I don’t think the current climate is too encouraging. I still don’t have a booking agent, and women doing poetry are always going to be beneath the radar. I was excited last summer to perform in Atlanta, a city renowned for being musically progressive, but the crowd was so unresponsive that I was almost bored. I’ve played in Ohio and Chicago, and it was like performing on a space ship.
ALM: Can you talk a little more about the current political climate and the war that hasn’t ended?
Ursula: Well, it’s no secret, and people would do better if they refused to accept trying to keep it secret. I remember I was in Vienna on tour for Supa Sista, and I already had a fear of flying, but this was just after 9/11 so it was exacerbated. I was pregnant with my third child, had left the other two at home and when I saw that night vision shot, I just started crying and wanted to come home. When people heard us speaking English and knew that we were American, the reactions of how they perceived us were completely different. Now, it’s only getting worse and worse for peace. I’m not a punk, but I’m for peace. I realize that as a super power, a First World country (if we’re going to rank), we can’t just sit back and do nothing in the face of such an attack, but what we’re doing right now is not protecting our country, we’re trying to oppress and control another one to fully participate in capitalism. But I appreciate the opportunity to travel and get the truth, because our media here is totally skewed. I think that people have lost that instinctual feeling to see something and react as aware folks and question further. I want to throw something everytime I see our president on the television. There is nothing elegant or eloquent about anything that ever comes out of his mouth, and I am ashamed.
ALM: Are you going to vote for Senator Obama?
Ursula: I don’t know who I’m going to vote for. You’re never actually voting for anyone, it’s just the lesser of evils. It’s like the police officers, you can’t be that good of a person if you are a cop. At least not in Philly, with the corruption that’s involved.
[[WARNING! THIS COLUMN MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS!]]
Hey everybody, welcome to another installment of The Nitpicker’s Blog! I have been stalling this column because I wanted it to have all the nits I found in the comics on my pull list for the month of April. However, some of my books for last week have not arrived yet (and some of them for March haven’t either), so I decided to just post the damn thing, and then, when I eventually get those books, add the nits to the May column, if I find any.
On another topic, one thing that’s not exactly a nit, but validates a nit from a previous column, is the fact that Patriot and Hawkeye, from the Young Avengers, are seen in the second issue of Fallen Son, as living with the New Avengers at Dr. Strange’s house, and going out on patrol. So at least those two, and most likely the rest of the team (except for that traitorous skank, Stature), are still anti-Registration. And not working for the US government, as Civil War: Battle Damage Report told us. Shape up Marvel!!!! In fact, I am going to send this as a question for Joe Q. at Newsarama.
You know…if it is possible to feel bad for a guy who killed one of his own friends, it happened here.
Finally! The Hulk has come back to this sorry mud ball of a planet that rejects him!
Hmm… and I think he’s pretty pissed–well, with a title like WORLD WAR HULK it leaves little room for speculation. Troy and I were fortunate enough to get our hands on advances of The Incredible Hulk #106 and the World War Hulk Prologue: World Breaker. Here’s a link to the Best Shots Extra over at Newsarama reviewing both of these books with Spoiler-Free prowess.
Keep your eyes peeled over at Newsarama later this week, for not one but TWO interviews: one with Greg Pak looking back at Planet Hulk, and one with Gary Frank talking about returning to the Hulk just in time to smash everything in sight!
Fasten your seat belts and get ready for tomorrow–Hulk’s coming home.
Results from gerweck.net.
Thanks to all who’ve dropped the feedback into our feedbag on last week’s Backlash rasslin’ roundtable. It ended up being a lot more fun to do than I thought it would be, and I thought it was a pretty entertaining read after looking at it again yesterday. I’m looking forward to the usual suspects meeting up for future confabs, if only for me to nag Birdsong about his place of employment and that damn computer that they sold me.
The results of the PPV notwithstanding, I loved how WWE snuck in the ads for Steve Austin’s movie “The Condemned” at every moment in order to boost that sagging $3.8 mil at the box office to bump it out of a ninth-place debut. That was some fabulous marketing genius, considering the fact that those that plunked down $35 to watch the PPV probably weren’t going to run out of the house at 9:10 PM EDT to run down to the multiplex and put even more money in Vince’s pocket for the night. I caught a snippet of a review Saturday on Ebert & Roeper, and they basically said it was more of an unintentional comedy than an action movie, and that WWE Films basically has produced a lot of crap so far.
Apparently most of those who watched the show were pleased with the entertainment value. On the other hand, I think those same people are appalled with what is going on in ECW right now, and that Vince uses some kind of ECW-brand toilet paper or something. But, I’m ahead of myself. Let’s run through the show…
