Diablo III: The Return to Tristram

And so, yesterday, June 28, 2008, 8 years to the day since the release of Diablo II, Blizzard Entertainment officially announced the long-awaited Diablo III. I'm particularly overjoyed, because, as you will remember, not only am I a big Blizzard fan, but the Diablo series is one of my favorites. Diablo 2 was my PC game of choice from 2000 to 2004. Check out the official Diablo III site and be sure to download the 20-minute-long gameplay video. It's amazing. Blizzard revealed that Diablo III has actually been in development for four years and the game already looks incredibly polished and fun. It's nice to see that Blizzard is taking the same "don't mess with success" approach to Diablo III that they are taking to Starcraft 2. Prediction: Diablo III will be the game to tear me away from World of Warcraft, but it will be a number of years before that happens.

Exile in Guyville - 15th Anniversary

One of my favorite albums of all time is Exile in Guyville, made by one of my favorite musicians, Liz Phair. Almost to the day of release, Guyville is now 15 years old. Hard to believe. It's back in print as of today, in a new two-disc edition. The second disc is a DVD that includes an 80-minute long "Guyville Revisited" documentary with interviews with people involved in the making of the album and others giving their favorite memories of the album. Here's mine: December 1998. I was living in Clarion, Pa. and was halfway through studying for my MLS at Clarion University. Everyone had ditched the campus between semesters...except for me. I stuck it out by myself, weathered a particularly fierce western Pa. winter, shelved books in the university library for something to do and was just generally lonely. I listened to Liz's Exile in Guyville in its entirety just about every day during that month. I was miserable but her album made it somehow better. The picture at the left is from 2003 when I met Liz at an in-store at Vintage Vinyl here in New Jersey. Click on it for a closer look.

George Carlin R.I.P.

George Carlin is dead. Damn. This guy was my hero. He affected the way that I think about everyday stuff like voting and grammar. I'll never forget his voices. As a teenager in the 1970's, I would listen to his comedy albums like Class Clown endlessly. I had his routines memorized. Hal Sleet the Hippy-Dippy Weatherman. He's also responsible for one of my favorite quotes of all time: "Don't believe anything the Bush administration tells you. In fact, play it safe: don't believe anything anybody tells you." I'll miss George Carlin.

Pussycat WoW

"That fish vendor must be around here somewhere!"

(Photo Courtesy of Stacina's Creative Commons License)

The Digital Renaissance of The Three Stooges

I'm proud to say that I have been a fan of The Three Stooges for a long, long time. Whenever anyone criticizes the Stooges, I'm always the first to stand up and defend their status as one of the most successful and influential slapstick comedy teams in the history of film. DVD fans know that there are tons of Stooges DVD collections out there; some are legit, some are not. The good news is that the Stooges are currently receiving a well-deserved digital re-do by Sony. Two-DVD sets of Stooges shorts, presented in chronological order and completely remastered, are officially being presented by Sony and they are excellent. The second volume, representing the shorts that originally came out in 1937 to 1939. just came out on May 27th. This period is the one in which the Stooges were doing everything right and contains some of the best Curly shorts. These shorts are hilarious and this Stooges purist recommends both The Three Stooges Collection, Volume 1: 1934-1936 and The Three Stooges Collection, Volume 2: 1937-1939 highly.

The Holy Trinity of Rock

One click of the picture to the left will tell you the whole story. If you don't already know, the Holy Trinity of Rock (as officially anointed by Allmusic.com) consists of (in order of release) Black Sabbath Paranoid, Led Zeppelin 4 and Deep Purple Machine Head. Why are these three albums so important? Released over the course of approximately a year between 1971 and 1972, they formed the stylistic basis of most heavy metal music that was yet to come. They were all three different, but elements of all them were the seeds from which subsequent metal sprung. Props must immediately be given to Black Sabbath for changing their course slightly and creating the completely original Paranoid. Zep came next, forging new ground on 4 with songs like Black Dog and the unforgettable, all-purpose request Stairway to Heaven. Purple came last, creating what would be remembered as their best album, and my personal favorite, Machine Head. Can you ever get over the careening Highway Star, the never to be duplicated back beat of Maybe I'm a Leo and the Most Famous Guitar Riff In The History Of Rock on Smoke on the Water? These three albums, when heard some thirty something years later, still sound amazingly potent. I know that I would not be the same person I am today without the Holy Trinity of Rock. How about you?

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

For the first time in awhile, I saw a new blockbuster film on opening day. Not much of a crowd, just the usual suspects. Some of them were particularly rude, reminding me of why I avoid crowded movie theaters of late. The movie, however, was great! Harrison Ford, older by 19 years, cavorts around in the year of my birth, 1957. Atomic bombs go off, KGB agents are hunting down Indy and even Area 51 is opened up! Ford is still the same old Indiana Jones (which means he's great!) and there are plenty of references to stuff that you loved in the previous three films. IMHO, Raiders of the Lost Ark is still the best Indy film, but I enjoyed Kingdom of the Crystal Skull as much or more than I liked the second and third movies. An enjoyable movie going experience in a fun summer movie season so far.