Yes Man

I just saw a commercial for Yes Man starring Jim Carrey. I don't know a whole lot about it but basically he's a man who is always telling people no and goes through some therapy/hypnosis to where he now can only say yes. Its hard for him at first but eventually changes his life and makes him a better man.

It sounds an awful lot like this other movie I saw. Its called Liar, Liar and it stars Jim Carrey. Basically he is a man who is always lying and goes through hypnosis to where he now can only tell the truth. Its hard for him at first but eventually changes his life and makes him a better man.

I didn't like Liar, Liar so I don't think I will see Liar, Liar 2.

The Voice

I meant to make this posting yesterday but ended up being pretty busy. Since today is completely the opposite, I had some time.

If you haven't heard, Don LaFontaine died on Monday. You don't think you know who that is? I guarantee you do. The saying goes "When you die, the voice you hear is not Don's its God trying to sound like Don."

He is the voice of an astounding 5,000 movie previews, 350,000 commercials, and over 750,000 TV promos. He is the voice.

Here's a short article about his death and a couple vids for you to enjoy.

In the Year 2000...

This has nothing to do with the year 2000, but as I noticed on my viewer counter that I am nearing that 2000 views mark, I was excited, yet disappointed. 2000 views and only one $5 donation towards my bobblehead. For shame!

Only one more week til the Office Season 4 comes out on DVD. I believe I will be purchasing it from Best Buy for the extras it includes. My favorite Office-related blog (unless you want to count mine) has a listing of where you can buy season 4 and what they have to offer. Check it! www.officetally.com

And just for kicks, In the Year 2000...

Summer Concert Series Wrap Up

I noticed about a month ago that I had yet to post any blogs focused on the concerts I've been doing all summer. By that point it was all too late anyway, but I decided since we wrapped up our Summer Concert Series yesterday that I would post a recap of all the concerts we did (actually I have to do one of the station site so I'm just personalizing it a little and copying it here).

First of all, wow! I can't believe I've been here for 3 months already. Its all been great though. So a little bit about these concerts. Typically they are new artists who maybe have one or two singles out and don't have a huge recognition. The concerts are free to the public, and the bands don't charge us anything, and are what is known as "brown bag concerts". We did all of these concerts at the Riverwalk Crossing which is an outdoor mall with an amphitheater venue.

The first concert was back in May and featured American Idol finalist, Chris Sligh. He was a little sick so it wasn't the best of shows I've seen, although the drunk gal getting up at the end while he was still singing on stage was a highlight.

Less than a week later we brought in a band by the name of Tenth Avenue North. This was by far my favorite show. I was familiar with the first 10 seconds and the last 10 seconds of their single Love is Here which is as far as I get when voice tracking my on-air shifts. First of all, the label rep came along with them and took me out to lunch. It was great to be able to sit down and talk with her and have her genuinely want to know my needs for the station. Quite the change from my days on Morningside College Radio where I had to fight tooth and nail to get any response from the labels. (This is ironic because Tooth & Nail Records was the only label I didn't have to struggle to get CDs from. Thanks Allison!). The show went great and the guys invited me out with them afterwards to see the "new" Indiana Jones. The only disappointment of the evening.

We took a short break while we geared up for a few other things we had going on with the station including a concert that saw over 30,000 people that showed up. Then in mid-July we kicked it back up with an acoustic show by Pillar. This is to date, the only strictly acoustic show Pillar has ever done. This is why I love this station. They did it as a favor to us and for the fun of it.

Pillar - Fireproof (live at Riverwalk)

Just two days later, we brought in an artist by the name of Meredith Andrews. She was a lot of fun and I especially enjoyed chatting with her and the label rep for a while after the show. Got some great photos too.

Finally, after a great season, with no complications, we wrapped up with a show with three artists on the ticket as opposed to our usual single artist shows. We were so close to having a perfect season. So, I started my day around 9:30 and began prepping for the show. Just before 10, I got a call from the first band to perform, Caleb Rowden Band. They had informed me that their bus broke down outside of St. Louis so they had to cancel. It really was disappointing, don't get me wrong, but given the rest of the circumstances of the day it actually helped us out a little. There had been thunderstorms threatening all day and Outdoor venue + Electrical sound equipment ≠ successful concert. Before they canceled we were going to have to make a decision by 2pm whether or not to move the concert to an indoor church about a mile from the initial venue. This causes problems only because 1, we have already been promoting the Riverwalk, and 2, the church doesn't have the capacity of the amphitheater. Having the band cancel helped us to delay our decision because the other 2 artists were alone. Just a guitar and a microphone. We changed the load in time from 2:30 to 4:00 and were going to make a decision by 5.

Around 11am I got a call from Franny's label rep, Kellyn, saying their flight was delayed by an hour so instead of getting in at 3 and being at the station by 4, they wouldn't make it to the station by 5. With the schedule change from Caleb, this wasn't much of a problem, so no big deal. At 2pm it was a torrential downpour and had we needed to make a decision, it would have been indoors. So its now 3:30 and I get another txt from Kellyn saying they are still on the tarmac waiting to take off which is an hour after the hour delay. So now, they aren't going to land until 5. The day just keeps improving. She calls me shortly after 5 and says they finally landed and I told her to come straight to the venue, but that she could call the station and do a phone interview if she'd like. After another hour of them waiting for their bags, and the 20 minute drive over, they finally arrive at the Riverwalk at 6:30. Its an 8:00 show, so an hour and a half may sound like plenty of time, but believe me its not. Thankfully, it was a quick set-up, she got on the stage for a quick soundcheck and we still had plenty of time to do the pre-show stuff. It all worked out, but man what a ride getting there.

The next morning, I got the chance to take Josh to the airport. What else do you talk to an artists about on a 20 minute car ride than music? He made me fan of pandora.com and I haven't talked to him since he's had a chance to listen, but I'm relatively sure I made him a fan of the Spill Canvas.

Here's some pics from the shows. Just click to enlarge. There's more available on the station website at www.kxoj.com.

Prison Dance Rave

I realize I haven't been keeping up on my blogging duties as of late, and for that I am sorry. I don't have any excuses, I just really haven't had anything to write about, not that my content is usually all that riveting. But thank you to those who continue to come back. In the less than 3 months I've been posting (entries before May are posts from a previous blog I had) I'm well over 700 hits, which makes me happy. I wouldn't say I was stressing, but I was genuinely disappointed in myself for not being better at my blog as of late.

I hopped on youTube this morning to catch up on some videos andcame across a video of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC). Known as "the dancing inmates," you've probably seen them dance to Thriller by Michael Jackson, but I didn't know they have routines to several other songs including Low by FLO Rida, Soulja Boy, and Do the Hustle. Once a month, they have a public appearance, that, if you happen to be in the neighborhood of Cebu, Philippines, you can go to the prison and watch their performance.

I guess the point of this post is to more get your opinion of what they are doing rather than to showcase their amazing prison dance skills. Although its fun to watch, the CPDRC's recreation time is met with some opposition. A statement on the youTube page for Byron F. Garcia, a provincial security consultant with the Filipino prison system, and the uploader of all the CPDRC videos, says: "Some even suggest that these prisons don't deserve this humane method coz they feel there is too much recreation and inmates are to be treated severely. There are also sick people who think that dancing is a form of cruel punishment! Since when was dancing categorized as punishment? My fellow citizens of the world, CRUEL and VIOLENT forms of punishment are a thing of the past. If we make jails a living hell for the prisoners, then, we might just be sending out devils once they are released and re-integrated to society."

Let me now tell you of another e-mail I recently received about Sheriff Joe Arpaio (from my friend who is a prison guard by the way). Arpaio created what is known as 'tent city jail' to save Arizona from spending tens of millions of dollars on another expensive prison complex. He has jail meals down to 90 cents a day (the guard dogs consume about $1.10/day) and charges the inmates for them. He started chain gangs to do free work on county and city projects. He also banned smoking and pornographic magazines in the jails, and took away their weightlifting equipment and cut off all but 'G'movies. He says, "They're in jail to pay a debt to society not to build muscles so they can assault innocent people when they leave... Criminals should be punished for their crimes - not live in luxury until it's time for parole, only to go out and commit more crimes so they can come back in to live on taxpayers money and enjoy things many taxpayers can't afford to have for themselves."

We're basically looking at two opposite ends of the spectrum here as far as complaints go, in the former people think they are too nice allowing them to dance and receive mild fame with their public exposure. The latter is met with opposition that what they are doing is inhumane.

I'm kinda torn with where I fall on this issue. I like some of the ideas of 'tent city' but overall I think it goes a little too far. I agree with the removal of any and all "luxury items" such as cable, weights, porn, and TV, but not necessarily with denying them basic needs such as food and shelter. I pulled up another article about tent city that talked about these prisoners being denied medical attention at times and guard brutality. As for the statement that if we make jails a living hell, we'll be sending out devils, I don't fully agree. When I did something wrong as a kid my parents spanked me. It didn't make me angry and go out to do it again, it made me second guess myself the next time I thought about doing it. "Is watching TV instead of cleaning my room really worth a red bottom?"

I don't think having recreational time is all bad though. I have no clue if this is the purpose of the dance program or not, but to have something like that, that all the inmates want to be a part of and having a strict behavioral incentive behind it could be great. I recently helped out at a kids camp and we had one boy in particular who was an "attention getter." One night, he started pretending to mumble and talk in his sleep. He was bunked a few beds down and was right next to one of the junior councilors who tried silencing him. He assumed the boy was genuinely talking in his sleep so after a few tries to silence him he gave up. After a few more minutes of the kid's increasingly louder mumbling, I walked over and whispered "I know you're awake and if you continue to make these noises I'll start taking away activity time." I never heard another peep.

Well, I certainly made up for not blogging in a while, but let me know your thoughts. Are the prison systems too soft? How tough is too tough?

Here's the original Thriller video if you haven't seen it.

Batman vs the Dark Knight

Its been a while since I've done a comparison blog and also a while since I've seen the original Batman, so I decided that since I just saw Dark Knight again for the second time, it'd be a good time to do both.

The Dark Knight vs. Batman

Gotham City: This point has to go to the '89 Batman. Anton Furst did the production design for the first Batman film which was directed by Tim Burton (whom I absolutely love). Furst's set designs for the Batman movie were a take on New York City had there been no planning and had it been run by pure extortion and crime. Hence, there were no height restrictions, the skyscrapers hung over the streets, and there were lots of bridges over streets. This creates an extremely dark and claustrophobic look to the city. Burton is quoted as saying his take on Gotham is "as if Hell came sprouting out of the concrete and kept right on growing."

The Dark Knight Gotham is more modern and based mostly on the city of Chicago, which is where much of the movie was shot (you can even catch shots of the Sears tower in Batman Begins). The Gotham of Dark Knight may look more realisitic, but the reason I like the original creation better is because of its the symbolic portrayal of Gotham as a dark and foreboding metropolis rife with crime, grime, and corruption. The way nature intended.

Batmobile:
The '89 Batmobile is simply iconic to me and truer to the orginial comic. I'm not quite old enough to picture the '60s Adam West-mobile so when you say "Batmobile" this is and always will be the one that comes to mind. That being said, the Tumbler from the Dark Knight is simply this: badass. Its basically a tank on speed. It absorbs bazooka fire, overturns dump trucks and has two modes; loiter and intimidate. And if you do manage to incapacitate it, it splits off the Batpod which is like a hybrid between a motorcycle and a waverunner.
So points for this round have to go to the Dark Knight.

Joker: No contest. Heath Ledger gave the greatest performance of his life. Jack Nicholson was great as the Joker. Heath Ledger was legen... wait for it ...dary. Jack played the Joker as a mastermind villian while Ledger played him to the full psychopath that he was intended to be. I've even already heard about Oscar consideration. I-I... I don't even know what else to say about it. It was unforgettable. One point the Dark Knight.

The Batman: Christian Bale is a more believable Bruce Wayne. He kinda embodies the playboy, billionaire, adventure-seeking type. I liked him in Batman Begins which is more of the story of Bruce Wayne becoming the Batman. As Batman, however, I'm going to go with Michael Keaton. I'm sure I'll get some disagreements, but I'm sticking to my guns. I think they tried to make too much of a superhero out of Bale's Batman, but Batman is, in fact, not a superhero. He's just a hero. Sure, Bale has the better suit, but to me, Keaton is that Hero.

Overall: The only thing I think I missed that the 1989 Batman beats out the Dark Knight in is this: Lando Calrisian. Yes, Aaron Eckart did amazing as Harvey Dent/Two Face. I got really into that part of the story line and liked their spin on the "Harvey Dent/Two Face creation story, but it all boils down to this. Billy Dee Williams could beat Aaron Eckart in a light sabre fight any day. However, the action, story line, toys, explosions, *cough*Maggie Gyllenhaal*cough*, from Dark Knight are all superb. One point. And one more bonus point for Maggie Gyllenhaal.

Final Score: The Dark Knight-4, Batman-2

The Dark Knight Review

This week has been very busy and there is much to blog about, but honestly, you probably don't care much about my time helping out at a kids camp, or my weekend setting up craigslist appointments. You probably don't care as much about the amazing Pillar show I saw tonight that they did acoustic (the band's first acoustic show ever) as you do about the highlight of my week:

The Dark Knight

I was offered a pre-screening by a local theater, along with several other media people. And since today was a concert day and I was able to go in late, I decided to take advantage of it. I would have loved to have captured some snapshots or vid clips for you but this 80 year old security guard was on me like white on Jamie Kennedy before I could even finish reading a text message I originally pulled my phone out for. I told him I had to have it on for my job for the e-mails and they could check it before I left if they wanted to make sure I didn't record anything, but he still insisted I turn off my cell phone. (I had 24 new txt, emails, and VMs when I turned it on at the end of the movie by the way.)

So, seeing the previews has made me really excited for the release of this film, but I will admit I was a little nervous it wouldn't live up to expectations. First, let me start out by saying I saw it in an IMAX theater, which if you get the opportunity, its worth it. The movie was 2 1/2 hours and I wasn't bored for a second. The amazing performance Heath Ledger put on has not been overly built up either. He was simply outstanding. I was, however, a little less of a fan of Christian Bale in his second appearance as "the Bat". I think it was his voice while he portrayed the Batman. But this is my only negative comment.

Another surprise was by the villians in this movie. I don't feel the need to really place a spoiler alert here, however, if you really don't want to know anything about the movie, don't read on. In the previews, I saw the character of Harvey Dent, played byAaron Eckart, with the divided face. They don't actually show the other side, but you can see he has become his alter ego, Two-Face. And if you're a fan of Batman, which I was to the degree that I watched the cartoon when I was a kid (and as recently as last week) you know that former District Attourney, Harvey Dent, is burned in an accident and left complete scarred on one side of his face. My thought was they would develop the story line up to the point of the accident and allow him to be the featured villian in the next installment. He was more of a secondary villian though, and had his own story line, which climaxed to him fully embracing his villainous half.

I still haven't decided if I liked it better than Iron Man. There are pros and cons for both to me. It was nice having the fresh character of Tony Stark portrayed. Batman has been done. Again and again. And that turned out so well, they did it again and again and again. Don't get me wrong, Batman Begins was a great revival of the character, and saved the series, but we must not forget its predecessors and what happens when money takes over the love of the character (case in point, Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr. Freeze). Iron Man also set up the future Avengers movie that Marvel has made very apparent is coming, so I think my enjoyment of Iron Man may have been greater, but The Dark Knight was the better movie.

This movie get the DavidWage stamp of approval.

Well, if I continue to talk about the movie, I'm bound to start giving stuff away, so for the sake of not having to type "Spoiler Alert", I'll end my blog here.

Conquering my fear

I have a little confession to make. I've had a fear of Blockbuster for quite some time and I finally tackled my fears and signed up for a membership thanks to a "movie date" I had. It all came down to what I wanted more I guess.

It all started about 4 or 5 years ago when I had a movie weekend with a girl I was dating at the time. We rented about 5 movies and settled in for the weekend. I gave them to said girl to take back to Blockbuster which was of course, before their "No Late Fees". About 6 months later I got an angry phone call that I owed them 5 movies and like $100 in late fees. What the heck!?! I didn't even know what movies I had rented by this point! People mock the "no late fees" campaign because they still charge you, they just change the name to "restocking fee" or just sell you the movie. If you're like 2 days late or a week late, yeah, its kinda bogus but for guys like me whose girlfriends say they will take 5 movies back and then don't, you begin to understand the concept a little better. So, I approached said ex-girlfriend and, oh, guess what! They were STILL in the back of her car. I took them back in and explained it hoping I could reach a settlement, looking for the cashier most likely to understand the girlfriend card. He basically told me to pay up or he'd call the police. I knew he couldn't really do that so I just left and haven't walked back in to a blockbuster since.

I honestly was a little nervous going in there because the first time I signed up for a Blockbuster Membership it was like applying for a car loan. They took my soc number, DL#, and all kinds of other stuff. I thought they'd run my soc# and tell me I owed them like $800 or something. It was pretty painless and now I'm a card carrying member of Blockbuster Video. (except they don't give you cards anymore)

Videos From My Vault

I was cruising around on my myspace and kinda forgot about these. The first is from high school and an annual variety show we did. It started out intending to be a complete spoof and intentionally ridiculous but ended up just being a lip sync and dance. We called ourselves the Back*Sync Boys. The second video is a college video project I did with my bud Nicholas Petersen and a band he had at the time called Stereophone. I love the idea of the video, I just look back and wish I had done a better job shooting it. Oh well. Still fun. The third video is also a college project I did in the style of the old-time melodramas.

Happy Independence Day!

So I've got the day off and my sister is out of town, so until tonight, I'll probably spend a majority of the day hanging out at the house. Those who know me know how much I love movies, so I thought I would share my love with you and give you a list of movies to watch to get you in to the spirit of Independence. I'm not much into film noir so some of the older movies that probably should be on this list (Yankee Doodle Dandy[1942], or Stars and Stripes Forever[1952]) won't be. If you have your favorite Independence Day movie, leave it in a comment!


The Sandlot[1993]

New to the neighborhood, Scotty Smalls seeks the friendship of a team of outcasts who meet at the local sandlot to play baseball every day. The team star, Benny Rodriguez teaches him how to play and Smalls becomes an integral part of the team, as well as part of this group of friends.

To me, this is one of those great American movies that everyone should see. I've come to love baseball over the last couple of years and the themes of the game, comradery, and responsibility make this a great movie. The standout scene for me, and the reason its on my 4th of July pick list, is the one that takes place on Independence Day. You hear a Ray Charles rendition of America the Beautiful playing over scenes of a neighborhood celebration and the kids playing baseball. The fireworks start and all the kids just forget all about the game and just stare up wide-eyed and mystified at the fireworks.


Rocky[1975]

Rocky Balboa, a second-rate boxer, is offered the opportunity to fight the world heavyweight champion, Apollo Creed, for a shot at the title.

Why is this a Fourth of July pick? Well, the title-fight takes place in Philidelphia on the 4th. That and Apollo Creed's Uncle Sam outfit and American flag shorts. Rocky is a great underdog story that you also get to see two guys beat the crap out of each other.


National Treasure[2004]

Ben Gates has spent his whole life searching for a treasure that has been passed down through the centuries and hidden by our fore-fathers over 200 years ago. After also becoming a fugitive from the FBI, he puts his whole career and life on the line to find the treasure.

This movie makes a great pick because of the historical figures and locations about our nations history that are weaved in to the plot line. As a friend of mine said after living in DC for a few months, "I felt like I was living the National Treasure movie."


Independence Day[1996]

When aliens invade and are intent on destruction and domination, Captain Steven Hiller and scientist, David Levinson may be the only hope. After Hiller is able to bring one of the alien crafts down and Levinson is able to crack the alien countdown their knowledge may save the world and make the 4th of July and Independence Day for the world to share.

The title alone should make this movie holiday worthy. The countdown to the end of the world ends on July 4th so when they save the day and destroy the aliens (sorry if i spoiled it because I'm sure you didn't see that coming) Independence Day takes on a new meaning, and not just for the US, but for the whole world.


Thats all for my movie picks. Here's something to end this blog of freedom on. Thanks to joMAMA for pointing me in the direction of this video. God bless America.

Requiem For A Day Off

I'm sure this has been around for a while but I just came across it thanks to GirlRobot. Who knew John Hughes had a dark side?

O.A.R. - This Town

This was shown at one of the CWS games. See, everyone loves Omaha!