Mystery Team

For my final rental from Blockbuster, I'm enjoying Mystery Team, Derrick's Comedy's 2009 movie about 3 high school seniors who've never outgrown their childhood hobby of solving kiddie mysteries. In attempting to regain their lost favor, they take on a murder case. Hilarity, I assume, ensues. I'm about a quarter of the way through, but so far, so good.

In my opinion, Derrick Comedy is the new Lonely Island, Donald Glover is the new Andy Samberg, and Mystery Team is their Hot Rod.

Also, did you know there was a Betty-White-SNL-esque facebook (and other social network) campaign to get Donald Glover an audition to be the next Spider Man? Well, there is. And I approve. And so does Stan Lee.

Espionage

According to my iPod I have 8,345 songs available to me at any moment. So I consider it a severe improbability that the Shuffle function would ever play the 3 instrumental tracks out of a possible maybe 20 instrumental tracks I might have in a matter of twenty minutes. And yet it happened today. Okay, okay, I get it. Shuffle works in mysterious ways. But it just so happens all three would be perfect for urgent, aggressive, espionage scenes.

First up, Green Day's "Espionage," complete with surf guitar and just the right amount of horns. This was apparently recorded for one of the Austin Powers' movies, but you can also find it on the B-Side album Shenanigans.

	Green Day - Espionage
	Found at skreemr.org

Then there's MxPx, with "The Theme Fiasco," which I'm positive was written with spies in mind. Heavy on the bass.
(I could only find the live album version, but it's good)

And finally, Everclear's "El Distorto de Melodica," which, I'll admit, was probably not written with spy movies in mind. But, if you imagine Jason Bourne bum rushing a terrorist compound while listening to this track nothing will seem out of place.

RIP Blockbuster

The Wall Street Journal announced this week that Blockbuster Video is attempting to secure debtor-in-processing financing, which is the final step a company takes before filing for bankruptcy. For some this will come as a surprise, but not to those of us in Philadelphia's outer suburbs where Blockbuster locations have been disappearing seemingly overnight for a while, and especially not for me.

Here in Blockbuster's final days it would seem I represent the only demographic hanging on to hope that the company survives, and here's why: I am a member of Blockbuster Total Access and self-admitted gamer. The advantage BTA has had over Netflix is that it gives members the ability to exchange their mailed movies for in-store movies for free and without it counting as a rental. My particular plan has allowed me to rent and subsequently exchange 3 movies a month PLUS a free video game rental every month. In total, I was getting a game and six movies by only spending $10.59 a month for services that would otherwise have cost me around $35. My costs were covered even if I only watched one movie and rented one video game.

For a while at college it seemed a small price to pay to drive to the next town for my rentals after the local store closed up shop. Then I graduated and moved back home where I had my pick of Blockbuster stores to exchange in and rent games. The first real store closing that affected me at home came more than 2 years later when the Blockbuster near Ashley's house at the Berlin Circle in New Jersey closed. It was a common spot for us to rent movies while at her place. I thought nothing of it. Several months later they came for my local PA Blockbuster in Springfield, a sure sign that I'd soon be migrating to Netflix, but not quite yet. There was still the Blockbuster on Route 3 which was convenient to visit on my commutes to and from work. Until this week, that is. Now my closest option is in an out of the way neighborhood I'd rather not go to, but even that I'm sure is on its way out. So long, Blockbuster!

Is this the last we've seen of Blockbuster? I doubt it. Rumor is they'll be back with a kiosk style business plan similar to the Red Box, but by then Netflix will own the bulk of the market. It's a shame, too, Blockbuster's inability to stay afloat and dynamic in the technologically changing rental market, because regardless of their lack of leadership the name "Blockbuster" will always be seen as a pioneer.

Best Ramones Songs?

Paste attempts the impossible by listing the 10 Best Ramones Songs of All Time.

To me this is more a list of the most important songs to hear if you're new to the Ramones. Besides, without Dee Dee's "Warthog" it can't be a "Best Of" list. A nice attempt nonetheless.

Rambocky

Wawa Records and Filmed Entertainment presents Rambocky, starring Philly Boy Roy and Patton Oswalt.

See it HERE.

Rojo Johnson

Earlier in the week:

"The Round Rock Express have acquired Billy Ray "Rojo" Johnson... Johnson, who was born in East Texas but was raised in Venezuela, recently had his prison sentence commuted. He served time for running a smuggling ring that imported rare and illegal species of reptiles into the United States from South America during the mid-to-late 1990s."

Pitcher Rojo Johnson made his minor league debut for the Round Rock Express last night. Astonishingly, he threw only one pitch before being chased out of the ballpark. Just watch.

'Nem Tasers

On this week's Best Show on WFMU, "Philly Boy" Roy Ziegler had a chance to react publicly to the week's news about his son running around Citizens Bank Park and eventually being tasered into submission.

TO hear it, click HERE, and skip to 22:15.

WDW Lines

Another option for wait time application, assuming you think you need one (and I do), is WDW Lines by touringplans.com. This program is different than Ride Hopper because it accepts user-submitted wait times, but encourages people not to use them. Instead, their primary attraction wait time program was built using thousands of statistical data points and models, using over 10 years of park history. This program is specific to Disney World while Ride Hopper is not, and also includes suggestions for parks to avoid on any given day. I assume this will be the more accurate application.

Ride Hopper

Ride Hopper is an Android app I intend on trying out in Disney World next week. It's a multi-park tool that allows people touring those parks to submit wait times for rides. To prevent anyone from submitting false times from their couch at home, the program uses your phone's GPS to verify that you are in the same zip code as the park you're submitting a time for.

Seems useful, but I'm thinking that user-submitted data may be too small a cross section to really be accurate. We'll see.

Hard to Handle

I heard Otis Redding's original version of the song "Hard to Handle" on XPN a few days ago and ignorantly thought to myself, "this is such a great cover of the Black Crowes' song." It was an ignorant thing to think for several reasons, not the least of which is the fact that Redding has been dead since 1967. So to honor the man, let's all listen to the song that sparked this post and make a pact to be music snobs together and point out to anyone listening to the Black Crowes that arguably their biggest and only hit is the one they didn't write.