The Music is Dead

It's been a year since my last post, and a lot of things have happened. I've almost posted several times in the past year, but I didn't. I'm not sure why.

Here's what made me post.

Today my friend Stewart came over and we played some Time Splitters, and then decided to head over to the Curb Cafe on campus and meet up with another friend. When we got there the place was packed. I have never seen that many people there. They were there to see a show that was going on, but this was no normal show.

Lea Marie is apparently a student here at Belmont, and she writes pop music. This is normal, as this is Nashville after all, and you can expect people here to write pop music, or country, or some kind of music. But here's the kicker: she's awful.

She tried out for American Idol a while ago and she was one of the contestants that they made fun of during the try-outs.

That's how bad she is.

500+ people came out to see the show, just to make fun of her. She thinks people were there because they really like her, but that is not the case.

I have NEVER seen that many people at a show on campus. Actually, I've never seen that many people at a show where a local act is performing. There's something about this that physically sickens me. There are a LOT of talented artists out there that need attention, but instead they go to see some awful pop artist to make fun of her. What is wrong with the music business? What is wrong with people? I'm losing faith in music as an art form. It seems to be nothing more than a cesspool of money hungry corporate sleaze-bags and people who think they have real talent.

I'd rather see a band like Creed get publicity than some girl who thinks she can sing, lipsyncing and dancing in skimpy clothes in front of a bunch of college students who would rather watch someone make a fool of themselves instead of seeing a group with actual musical talent. I hate Creed, but they actually have SOME talent.

So, I'm frustrated. Can you tell?

Friday the 13th series Review/Overview

Ok, so this may be a little pretentious for my second blog post, but here goes.

I'm going to try to tackle the entire Friday the 13th series, as it is one of my personal favorite horror franchises. If you aren't familiar with the series, it is a series of slasher films revolving around a single antagonist: Jason Voorhees. Although Jason isn't in all of the movies, he is the center of the series. Just as a Batman comic wouldn't be complete without Batman, Jason basically is the series. He is a murderer, but most fans of the series view him as the protagonist, eagerly anticipating the next kill, and cheering him on. Whether he's the human Jason, a zombie, or half robot, Jason is the definition of badass.

Another great part of the series is the heroines. Most of the movies in the franchise have a heroine who (usually) lives to see the credits.

I'm going to go through each of the movies in order of the date they were released in order to avoid any confusion.

Also, there might be some spoilers here, so here's your warning.

Friday the 13th (1980)

The movie that started it all. Camp Crystal Lake (or as the locals call it: Camp Blood) is the setting for this groundbreaking start to the franchise. This is obviously the best place to start for people new to the series. I won't delve too deep into the plot to avoid potential spoilers, but the plot is very similar to most slasher films. Teenagers at a camp get killed off one by one by a mysterious killer who doesn't get revealed until the end, but if you've seen Scream, then you already know who the killer is. This adds so much more suspense, and raises the tension. The whole series is known for brutal death sequences, and creative kills. This movie is no exception. This is a must see for any fan of horror.

Friday the 13th: Part 2 (1981)

Just a year later, a sequel was released. Although it wasn't as good as the first, it still has a lot of memorable sequences, like when Jason slams his machete into the head of a kid in a wheelchair, who proceeds to roll down a large number of steps. Jason is without the classic hockey mask until the next movie, so in this one, he wears a burlap sack over his head. The heroine, Ginny, is also memorable, being that she is the first to realize Jason's strong connection to his mother. Another great thing about this movie is it is the only movie where Jason really seems human. He makes mistakes and seems like he could actually be beaten.

Friday the 13th: Part 3 (1982)

This movie was released in 3-D. I would've killed to see it on the big screen in 3-D. This was also the first to feature Jason with his classic look. He chills out in a barn, killing anyone who happens to come in, until he kills a kid with this mask. Dun-dun-dun: a legend is born. He then exits the barn and goes on one of his killing sprees. The hammock kill is one of my favorites. The heroine, Chris, is one of my favorites, being that she is very attractive, and isn't as annoying as some characters. She's one of the few characters that you don't want to die.

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)

My personal favorite of the series. It has kind of a semi-heroine named Trish. Trish and her brother Tommy (who is played by non other than Corey Feldman) manage to dodge Jason throughout the movie. It feels a tad cheesy, and it is, but it's awesome. Tommy uses masks and his wits to help his sister, and to ultimately, kill Jason. That's right, Corey Feldman kills Jason Voorhees. This is the last movie in the series right?

Wrong.

Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985)

After the huge success of the fourth film, Paramount decided to resurrect the series for another sequel. This one revolves around Tommy Jarvis, who is now grown up, and sadly, not Corey Feldman. Tommy has struggled with nightmares and visions of Jason ever since that night where he drove Jason's own machete into our killer's head. He is forever cursed with the memory of Jason. He's sent to a halfway house, with other psychos. Guess what happens next? Jason returns. Well, kinda. The "Jason" in this one is a copycat killer who uses the persona of Jason to kill the psychos. Probably the best part in this movie is Reggie, a little black boy who is the best character in the whole movie. Plus, I really just want his outfit.

Friday the 13th Part 6: Jason Lives (1986)

Tommy is once again the main character in this film. It starts with Tommy and a friend going into a graveyard and digging up Jason's body. Tommy seems to believe that burning the body will take care of his nightmares. When he sees the rotting corpse, he drives a metal stake of some sort into the body out of frustration. Lighting strikes the stake and Jason is resurrected. From this point forward, Jason is a zombie, except he's smart and doesn't eat people. He's basically impervious to any attacks. Tommy freaks the crap out and spends the rest of the movie trying to get rid of Jason. Jason is eventually chained to a boulder and thrown in Crystal Lake. How fitting. It's better than Part 2 and Part 5 combined, but nowhere near the greatness of the first or fourth. Plus, it's got an original song by Alice Cooper in it. That has to count for something.

Friday the 13th Part 7: The New Blood (1988)

Here's where the series starts to progressively get worse. The heroine is a whiny turd named Tina. Somehow she has telekinetic powers and attempts to bring her dad back to life by focussing her psychic energy on Crystal Lake. All this does is break the chain restraining Jason, and it's the same crap from there. It is interesting to see Jason fight someone who possible has a chance against him, but overall, it's pretty bad. Still better than Part 5 though. Jason once again gets sent to the bottom of Crystal Lake. This movie is memorable because it marks the appearance of Kane Hodder, who has played Jason more than anybody. Too bad most of the movies he's in suck.

Friday the 13th Part 8: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)

This movie sounds ridiculous. It's even worse than that. It's basically a steaming pile of suck. Jason somehow is freed from his watery grave to terrorize a group of high school seniors on their boat trip to New York. So I guess Crystal Lake connects to New York somehow. Jason gets onboard their ship, kills a bunch of kids, and when they finally get to New York, he goes for no one else but the heroine and her would-be boyfriend. Their chase leads them to a sewer where Jason gets soaked in toxic waste and turned into a child. What the crap? Jason, our killer, is turned into a child by toxic waste. What a rip off. This movie makes me think of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles more than Friday the 13th. I mean, the heroine kinda looks like April from the first TMNT movie, it's in New York, and there's sewers and toxic waste. The best part of the movie is when Jason punches a character's head clean off. Skip this one kids, it's not worth your time. I'd rather watch Part 5 twice than watch this one again.

Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993)

The movie begins with Jason being blown up. Yep, you heard that right. Jason is somehow turned back into an adult, and also back at Camp Crystal Lake. The FBI tracks him down, and blows him to bits. This is one of the few times you actually see Jason in this movie. The plot follows Steven Freeman, as he tries to win back his divorced wife Jessica (who's mother Diana, by an extreme coincidence, is Jason's half-sister) and his daughter Stephanie. Jason's...um...pieces become a snake-like thing that possesses the bodies of living people and puts them under his control. So other people are killing for Jason. At the end of the film, Jason is reborn somehow and then dragged to Hell by hands that come out of the ground. His mask is left on the ground, where Freddy Krueger's hand comes out of the ground and grabs the mask, pulling it into the ground. This movie isn't a good horror film, but it is an awesome horror comedy. It has two Evil Dead references, featuring both the Necronomicon (the Book of the Dead) and the bone knife from the first Evil Dead. These allusions alone make the movie worth seeing. Plus, it's hilarious. The concept alone is laughable, and the acting is just as funny. This movie is for the "so-bad-it's-good" category, although I wouldn't consider it to be a good Friday the 13th film.

Jason X (2002)

I have no clue where they got the idea for this one. In the future, Jason's cryogenically frozen body is found by a research team from space. Of course, they take the body and thaw it, and Jason does what he knows best: kills everyone he sees. The acting is awful, the dialogue is awful, every thing that could be awful is. It's even less enjoyable than a Sci-Fi channel original. At least those are funny. Somewhere in the film Jason fuses with nanobots of some sort and becomes even more invincible. The most memorable part of this movie was the credits, because I was looking forward to them the whole time.

Freddy vs. Jason (2003)

This picks up where Jason Goes to Hell left off. Freddy has no more power over the kids of Elm Street because kids don't fear him. If they don't fear him, he's not a part of their dreams, and since he kills kids in their dreams, he's powerless. He resurrects Jason to put fear back into the kids. After a while Jason breaks from Freddy's control, and they fight at the end. I can respect this movie because it made me realize how big of a Jason fan I am. I've been rooting for him the entire series. I couldn't wait to see how he dispatched another group of people. Although it's pretty cool to see, I would skip it unless you're a die hard Jason fan.

Friday the 13th (2009)

I hate Michael Bay. I really do. Lately he's been responsible for an ever increasing number of horror movie remakes. He's the one responsible for the abomination that is the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake and prequel. The original one was great! Leave it alone! But, I digress. This movie is neither a remake or a sequel. It's technically a reboot of the franchise. It brings the setting back to Crystal Lake, and it makes Jason human again. Here's the basic plot: Kids go to a cabin on Crystal Lake where they get drunk, stoned, and have sex. Jason then kills them. Although it's been done a thousand times, it's nice to see a Friday the 13th movie go back to its roots. The actors, on the other hand, are pretty bad. The dialogue is awful too. During one of the sex scenes, the guy says stuff like: "Your tits are stupendous" and "You have perfect nipple placement, babe." I think that's word for word. There's also an exponentially larger amount of boobs in the movie. Almost every female actress shows their stuff. In the rest of the movies, there's at least one pair of breasts shown on screen. That's all fine and dandy, but we really don't need excessive amounts of bewbage on the screen. It's a horror flick, not a porno.
One great thing about the movie was that Jason was scary again. The actor that played Jason was incredible. Although the kills weren't anything spectacular, the actor himself was pretty scary. This movie honestly isn't a bad addition to the Friday the 13th canon, though there are better Friday the 13th movies out there.

That's all of the Friday the 13th movies released thus far. I honestly wouldn't recommend seeing all of the movies unless you really want to. Here's my order of the movies, best to crap:

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (Part 4)
Friday the 13th (1980)
Friday the 13th: Part 3
Friday the 13th: Part 2
Friday the 13th Part 6: Jason Lives
Friday the 13th (2009)
Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (Part 9)
Freddy vs. Jason
Friday the 13th Part 7: The New Blood
Friday the 13th Part 5: A New Beginning
Friday the 13th Part 8: Jason Takes Manhattan
Jason X

I highly recommend watching at least the first four, and Part 6. Unless you really want to watch them, avoid parts 5, 8, and Jason X.

Welcome to my brain

I've never really liked blogging, but I decided to man up and get one. My reasoning is mostly out of boredom, but hey, there's nothing wrong with that.

I'm mostly going to use this to share my opinions on everything. Music, movies, books, and other stuff to check out. Occasionally, I'll bring up the whole politics thing, but I'll mostly try to stay away from that, as I just tend to piss people off whenever I talk about politics.

Thanks for reading, and have a great couple more hours until tomorrow.