Aaltra

A foreign film, done by two French comedians in English subtitles.
Two men are neighbor farmers, and they hate each other.
After a fight that leaves them paralyzed by a piece of farm equipment, the two take a roadtrip to Finland in order to sue the tractor manufacture.
Theres plenty of motocross action, and it is well worth your time in laughs.

Everything Starts Where it Ends

Lovedrug- Everything Starts Where It Ends
Album Review by Mark Wampler 598 Words

Lovedrug fans have learned a lesson or two in patience waiting for their beloved Ohio based band to release a follow up to 2004’s Pretend You’re Alive. After becoming the fastest selling act ever with their Sony affiliated label The Milita Group, the band was signed to Columbia records and had high hopes to release their latest effort, Everything Start’s Where It Ends with them. Columbia found themselves forced to make serious cutbacks, putting Lovedrug back into the ranks of Militia Group. This setback has not stopped them from putting out a good, solid record.

In an interview with AbsolutePunk the bands front man, Michael Shepard said, “I think almost all of the songs on Everything Starts Where it Ends could be a short film or something. The stories are so specific and situational and that makes them so picturesque. I like that about them.” With lyrics like “you are sugar sweet / so fine I’d like to eat” and “your apples poison seed / will be the end of me” coming at you in Happy Apple Poison, the albums opening track, it is clear why Shepard would feel this way. The song opens with characteristic Lovedrug, haunting guitar followed by Shepard’s secretive and seductive vocals. What comes next will catch you off guard. The chorus throws you into unfamiliar territory, shadowing that this record will be even more of an emotional journey than the last. Shepard finally, just comes out and says it on the track Thieving. “Would you believe me if I told you / that I'm surfacing for just one thieving moment / to steal your heart?” While this album is dark and moody, songs like Castling, Doomsday and the Echo and, the apt titled Dancing, bring life and motion to your heart and your feet. The tighter, more layered, sound can be attributed to the bands change in songwriting approach. “The writing process was just way different this time around,” Shepard explains in an interview. “There was less of the spontaneity that took place on Pretend, where I’d tend to just sit at the piano and write. On this record everything’s more methodical.” This is evident in the sometimes, verse-chorus-break format, the biggest flaw with the album. The repetitive format will at times, make you feel like you are running through mud, not getting anywhere with your investment of emotion. But the end of the record more than pays up for it.
Hands down, the best songwriting of the new album is the track Salt of the Earth where Shepard declares, “all is lost if heaven fails us.” The song begins with an angry, marching piano part that culminates in the break of the song, which finally gives your emotions rest. It achieves the powerful effect of reflection, making that idea of heaven sink linger and sink into your being.
The album title is also the title of the last song on the record. Everything Starts Where It Ends is a reference to the idea that it all comes back to love. It is the only thing that is able to satisfy our hungry and searching hearts.
The album closes with the words

“Here we are again love
Here we go again
By your side I can't pretend anymore.
Now everything starts where it ends.”

Love is indeed, where it starts, and where it ends and when you’re done listening, you will want to go back and make sure that you heard it right, and then discover it all again.

Booty and Cultural Relations

In response to the amazing weather that us Kansans have been seeing, Barret and I went to a common area in the middle of the K-State campus. I love watching people, and winter does not allow for too much of this as I do not go to many popular social gatherings. Today I could not help but notice that many of the cars driving by were protruding very loud bumps and grinds. The fascinating thing was that all of the kids in these cars were white, and most of the cars were very nice. So I posed a question to Barret: When is the last time that you saw a black person driving around with the windows rolled down listening to say Green Day, Mozart, or the Shins? I honestly cannot remember a time. Now i know that there are those people out there, but it is obviously not the norm. How then do suburban white kids relate to music that is so obviously fake and distant from theirs? (or at least used to be I guess actually that it is probably not so far away from how many of these kids live) I was checking the news on MSN and ran across a very sad and telling title of a rap song called "smack that" by Akon. Here is the chorus:

I feel you creepin', I can see you from my shadow.
Wanna jump up in my Lamborghini Gallardo.
Maybe go to my place and just kick it, like Taebo.
And possibly bend you over.
Look back and watch me
smack that, all on the floor,
smack that, give me some more,
smack that, 'till you get sore
smack that, oooh.
smack that, all on the floor,
smack that, give me some more,
smack that, 'till you get sore,
smack that, oooh 

Aside from just bad poetry, these lyrics are just absurd! Kick it like Taebo? Are you kidding? How can anyone take themselves seriously who listen and write this kind of stuff? As my friend Brian pointed out, it isn't the people that are making this stuff that should surprise us, it's that they are finding such a ready audience. Where have all of our brains gone?

HALLELUJAH!

Jeff Tweedy has confirmed that the new album from Wilco, Blue Sky Blue, will hit stores on May 15. The follow-up to 2004's successful A Ghost Is Born will most likely be supported by a sizable tour, so stay tuned for any updates .

There is a God

please listen to this band

www.myspace.com/annuals

Think

I just saw the movie children of men, arguably the most intense film that I have ever seen in my life. It had what I considered to be some pretty innovative cinematography, causing the viewer to literally feel that he or she was admist the screams and the blood of war. While the violence didn’t necessarily take me by surprise, the reaction of the audience certainly did. During the height of the climax (the climax of the climax) I looked around to see how people were taking all of this in. Most people had looks of shock and unbelief on their face which if you see the movie you will not doubt. However, I expected this. Let me tell you what I did not expect.

It seems that people generally realize when something that they are watching is disturbing or shocking, as was evidenced by the people sitting around me. The thing that took me by complete surprise was the reaction once the movie ended; the people in unison got up and walked out immediately after the ending scene. I figured that the movie was so intense it would cause people to sit in their chairs for at least a minute after the film had ended, to make sure that they processed what they had just seen. However, there was no such time given to such disturbing images. It was as if this was nothing new and life goes on as it has before we stepped into the theater. I really found it hard to believe that no one would feel it necessary to try and make sense out of what they had just seen. There was absolutely no reflection time to be found after the movie. I am bothered by this. Are we not effected by anything anymore?!?! What can possibly make us slow down?!?! I am baffled, and also saddened. This small event was such an eye opener for me at the state of many hearts and minds. We are so numb. We just need more and more and more stimulation, and nothing that we get causes us to stop even for a second to think.

Body Piercing Saved My Life

I just finished up reading a book about "the phenomenon" of Christian rock. In the appendix, the author (who is agnostic) shares some of his final thoughts. They struck me as very powerful, I think mainly in part because of my upbringing. Let me explain.

I dont care who you are, anyone who has grown up in a traditional/Christian household has to sooner or later ask themselves what they grew up with was all about. We ask about our faith. is it true? Is it ignorant and naive? Is it the beautiful? Reasonable? Is it oppressive and bigoted? It is something that anyone raised like myself, (most likely if you’re reading this you are in the same boat) has got to ask themselves in order to make sense of who they are and where they have come from. Now let me quote the author of this book to see if it starts making sense. When I read it I sighed and wondered if maybe I wasn’t as crazy as sometimes I think.

"I have become a fan, not just of the music, but of Christians, and of Jesus himself. To me, the message of the gospel is to love one another, look out for the less fortunate, and try to walk gently on the earth. And I love that. I think evangelical Christians tie themselves in ontological knots trying to make the whole Bible jibe, which is simply impossible with a collection of historical texts written over more than a thousand years. To anyone struggling with Christianity, my advice (and I realize how little this is worth coming from someone who doesn’t believe in God) is to try and keep your eye on the big picture, not a verse here and there. Love God, if you’re so inclined, and one another. Sort out the rest using those principles as a lens.”