Limited Time Offal

In the new Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode, Three sirens move into the old ATHF house and Carl tries to make nice with the new neighbors.

...oh, and the sirens are Neko Case, Kelly Hogan, and John Kruk.
Awesome.

You can watch the whole episode HERE (in 2 parts).
This episode will be up until Friday or Saturday, and then the link will expire - So, Hurry.

Tivo Alert

For those of you fortunate enough to possess a DVR, listen up. Tomorrow during the day, TCM is gonna be a freaking jackpot of awesome. All day long they're gonna be playing a bunch of great old B-Horror films, including the superb lost classic, Spider Baby, featuring a teenage Sid Haig decked out in a Little Lord Fauntleroy outfit.

Here's the schedule:

6:45am - The Terror (1963)
A lost soldier discovers a mysterious beauty haunting a half-deserted castle.
Cast: Boris Karloff, Jack Nicholson, Sandra Knight. Dir: Roger Corman. C-79 mins

8:15am - Horror Castle (1963)
A Holocaust survivor tortures women in the dungeons of an ancient castle.
Cast: Rosanna Podesta, Georges Riviere, Christopher Lee. Dir: Antonio Margheriti. C-84 mins

9:45am - The Castle of the Living Dead (1964)
A traveling circus entertains a medieval count who uses them in his bizarre experiments.
Cast: Christopher Lee, Gaia Germani, Donald Sutherland. Dir: Luciano Rici, Lorenzo Sabatini. BW-90 mins

11:30am - The Haunting (1963)
A team of psychic investigators moves into a haunted house that destroys all who live there.
Cast: Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Russ Tamblyn. Dir: Robert Wise. BW-112 mins

1:30pm - Children Of The Damned (1964)
Space invaders impregnate six women with super-powered offspring.
Cast: Ian Hendry, Alan Badel, Barbara Ferris. Dir: Anton Leader. BW-90 mins

3:00pm - Spider Baby (1968)
Greedy relatives try to repossess the decaying mansion of an inbred Southern family.
Cast: Lon Chaney, Jr., Quinn K. Redeker, Sid Haig. Dir: Jack Hill. BW-84 mins

4:30pm - Die! Die! My Darling! (1965)
A religious fanatic imprisons her late son's sinful fiancee.
Cast: Tallulah Bankhead, Stefanie Powers, Donald Sutherland. Dir: Silvio Narizzano. C-96 mins,

6:15pm - Eye Of The Devil (1967)
A French nobleman deserts his wife because of an ancient family secret.
Cast: David Niven, Deborah Kerr, Donald Pleasence. Dir: J. Lee Thompson. BW-96 mins
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How friggin' awesome is that? For those of you not in the know; TCM is offered on most basic cable packages and shows uncut films without commercial breaks - It's probably my favorite basic-cable channel. You should totally check it out.

Fuck, if you don't have a DVR, just pop in a VHS tape and hit record on SLP as you're leaving for work. If you don't have basic cable, you're shit outta luck.

P.S. Tallulah Bankhead.

The Wrath of the Monarch Foundry

Today I found an abandoned foundry out by my parents' place and got some great industrial decay photos.
They're up on my Flickr page now if you want to check 'em out.

Smoking Update

It's been over two weeks since I started my smoking experiment; here's the breakdown:

I went a full week without smoking (as planned) and then decided that I didn't want to quit, but really wanted to cut down drastically on my smoking.
Before this, I'd smoke about 30 to 40 cigarettes every day. I decided that I'd like to get that down to 5 to 10 every day.
In the 9 days since I've started back up I've smoked two packs (40 cigarettes).
Within that time span, I've been out drinking 4 of those nights and attended the Chili Solstice (smokin' galore). I think that's pretty damned good.

I'll be happy if I can keep this up and keep the smoking trips outdoors to a minimum. Plus, It'll be nice if I don't feel compelled to cut out what I'm doing for a needed nicotine fix.
I think that this is the best of both the worlds.

Now I just have to find a connection for fine smokeables outside of Illinois that aren't those damned Safety Cigarettes.

Almost an Asian Arert

Lately, I've been all about the music of Shiina Ringo. Plus, she has some of the coolest fucking videos - hands down.

Check 'em out:










She totally gets an L&E Walrus of Approval:

inDCent Exposure

Hey DC Peoples,

If any of you are still checking out this blog, I'll be back in the District for the weekend of the 8th. I'm gonna stick around until Tuesday to vote in the Maryland primary, then I'm gonna drive my Jeep back to Illinois for the last time.

Make a note of it.

Consolidation Means Consumer Freedom

Um... Nope.

I'm freaking pissed. I just went to book a flight back to DC for the weekend, and I found out that the stage had been dramatically altered.
I used to fly ATA constantly. They had retarded-cheap rates running between Chicago Midway (MDW) and Washington National (DCA) . You could get one-way tickets for under $70 bucks with a few weeks notice - last-minute rates barely broke the $100 mark. I fucking loved it.
ATA just drastically cut its routes and sold off most of the company to Southwest. Effective November 1st they cut out of DCA entirely.
This freakin' blows - DCA is the only DC airport with subway service, now the flight from Chicago to DCA that used to cost me $68 now is gonna run me $187 (the chepest one-way non-stop rate I could find).
Whaaaa?!?!
I could take a flight with a 5 hour lay-over in Detroit (the non-stop runs about an hour and a half), or fly to Dulles (IAD) or Baltimore (BWI) for around a hundred bucks, but I don't wanna do that.
I guess that I'm gonna have to fly from fucking O'Hare into BWI or IAD and then drop $50 on a cab ride back to DC.

Suck it, free market.

Squared Off @ Otto's This Friday

Ms. Kathy T. Great (of ePissy fame) has a boyfriend.
His name is Ryan.
He's dreamy.
He has a band called Squared Off.
His band is totally playing Otto's in DeKalb this Friday.

Come out and show Ryan some love.

These guys have been around since the 7DA days, and put on one hell of a show. I'm definitely gonna be out for this one.
See you there.

Sicko-or-How I Accidentally Stopped Smoking

I've been dead-sick since Tuesday and have been absolutely fucking miserable.
Here's the funny thing: In my sickness I think that I accidentally stopped smoking. It's been 3 full days since I had a smoke and I'm not even vaguely interested in lighting one up.
That fucking sucks. I like smoking and had no inclination to quit.

This sort of thing has happened before. Back in college I used to quit smoking for weeks at a time just to annoy my roommate who was always trying to quit (unsuccessfully). It was just another test of will, and once I'd met my goal I'd always go right back to smoking, because it was something that I enjoyed.
Now I'm not so sure that it's worth it. I'm gonna give it one full week (1-16-08, 12PM) and then decide what I'm doing on the nicotine front.
Here's my pro/con list on whether it's worth it to quit:

Pro: By quitting smoking, I can personally deprive inner-city children of vitally needed provisions and services funded by state tobacco taxes, and everyone knows how much I detest underprivileged children.

Con: Non-smokers (for the most part) are smug, self-satisfied, holier-than-thou twats.
What made me special is that I was all of those things and smoked.

Pro: It's fucking cold outside.

Con: By quitting right after the IL smoking ban passes, I feel like I'm surrendering to the will of the nanny-state. Welcome to the "No Fun" future, kids.

Pro: With the $40 or so I'm saving each week on cigarettes, I can finally afford to take up shooting smack.

Con: As anyone who has watched me play a video game or prepare food knows, I have a very mild case of Tourette's - Smoking helps me keep it in check.
By ceasing to smoke, I run the risk of going from a mere "spazz-wad" to "king-uber-spazz".

Pro: Now I'll get my full sense of smell back just in time for my daily commute on Chicago public transit. Lucky me.

Con: Managing to stop smoking before I turn 35 greatly increases my life expectancy, thus leaving me vulnerable to unscrupulous individuals willing to exploit my nonagenarian dementia for their own greedy ends.

Flickrama

I just got around to posting up about 30 pics from Williamsburg (Virginia) and Prairie Du Chien (Wisconsin) up to my Flickr site.

Enjoy.

Because a Rooftop Snowdrift Took Out my Satelite Internet Connection Last Week