(Working On A Title) Wednesday -The Interview, Ryan Bingham, Marilyn Manson, The Phablet
The Interview (Take two)
So promptly upon its initial release to all VOD outlets I checked out The Interview. I did find myself a little bored and even dozed a bit here and there, coming away not impressed. After finally being able to catch up on the adventures of our drunken cohorts via the BingCast, and also hearing from others say that they enjoyed it, I decided to give it a second (and mostly sober) go. This time I not only wasn’t impressed I was angry. There are two good movies here and unfortunately they couldn’t decide which they wanted to make. On one hand there is the ludicrous over the top dick and fart joke comedy and on the other a bit more serious buddy action adventure. Had they decided to go more in either direction with this film I think they would have knocked it out of the park and I’d be looking for something else to write about this week. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case and instead we got a 110 min movie which yielded the quotable lines of Honey-Dick, Honey-Pot, and They Hate Us ‘Cause They Ain’t Us. While I am still bothered by the fact that it was pulled from theaters I am so glad I didn’t pay to see this. 5/10
Ryan Bingham/Marilyn Manson
After a slow end to what I felt was a lackluster year in music in 2014. 2015 has already brought two very solid albums in Ryan Bingham’s Fear and Saturday Night, and Marilyn Mason’s The Pale Emperor. Fear and Saturday night is what fans have come to expect from Bingham and that’s a good thing. I’d really love to be able to tell you more about it like favorite tracks and the such (Top Shelf Drug is pretty rocking) but unforutnately for Ryan, Mr. Marilyn Manson released a new album the same time. And it’s REALLY good. After more than 20 years I believe they have made an album the is as good as, if not better than, Portrait of An American Family. From the opening track Killing Strangers to Warship My Wreck to closer Odds of Even each track flows right into the next forming one of the most cohesive albums I’ve heard in a long time. You can hear the influence of so many artists (Bowie, Sabbath, Type O, etc…) on this album as well with a few tracks having psychedelic guitar solos that had me forgetting who I was listening to. I recommend checking both of them out as soon as possible.
The Phablet
So last week I decided to utilize my cell phone upgrade and jump into the wonderful world of the Phablet. For those of you just crawling out from under a rock this would be the term used for a cell phone that is closer in size to a tablet but still a phone. Since I wanted to make sure I made a significant enough jump in technology I went with the Galaxy Note Edge. It might be the best decision I’ve made all year. This thing is rigoddamndiculous. Yes it has a giant display (5.6″) that can be used for a dual screen view just like the Note 4, but it also has a very sweet “edge” screen that you can use for favorite apps or other widget style “panels”. Right now there are only a handful of panels such as Favorites, Twitter Feed, Yahoo Tickers and even a few games but I see this new technology catching on and that developers will create one if it makes sense. I also really enjoy having the option to use the included stylus when I feel like writing. After a week of use I can say that the battery is also amazeballs. I’ve been putting it on the (included) charger about 11pm at night when it is usually at 30-35% and take it off the charger sometime around midnight and it has a full charge. I’ve never had a device charge as quickly as this does nor have I had the battery life like I do with this. Tack on the removable battery and ability to add a 128GB MicroSD card (bye bye iPod) it’s far and away the best mobile device I’ve used (and have seen) to date. I’ve watched the battle between LG and Samsung (Motorola has been lacking) and I think this one is a big win for Samsung, it was between this and the G3 and I have absolutely no regrets. If you’re in the market for a new device and you want to take that big leap you really can’t go wrong with The Note Edge.
That’ll do it for this week. Don’t forget to leave any comments below and follow me on Twitter @jekupka. Until next time, I leave you with this…