Beware of Death!

Bonnaroo Music Festival took place over this last weekend, marking yet another kick-ass music festival I didn’t get to go to. The lineup featured bigshots like Eminem, The Arcade Fire, Lil Wayne, and Widespread Panic, along with some big names from the indie/alternative scene including The Black Keys, Mumford & Sons, The Strokes, Iron & Wine, and Portland’s The Decemberists. The complete lineup can certainly go toe-to-toe with last Spring’s outstanding Coachella lineup, and was probably better overall than the Sasquatch 2011’s musical offerings, but of course that is subjective as beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The one thing Bonnaroo has unquestionably and completely dominated the Summer festivals in, however, is…wait for it…DEATH.

That’s right, the Tennessee festival is pwning the competition in that category, as they usually do. Two people died at this year’s festival, both ostensibly from heat-related illness, although toxicology and autopsy reports haven’t been released yet (not to imply that drugs or alcohol could have had ANY part in this mess whatsoever…). That brings the Bonnaroo body count up to 10 since the festival began in 2002, and seems to indicate that perhaps…I dunno, maybe it’s time to make some changes? Listen, I trumpet for personal responsibility as much as anyone, and have limited sympathy for idiots. And spending all day in the heat and humidity of the festival, pounding copious amounts of booze (excellent for hydration!) and/or drugs, is kinda idiotic. But this is coming from a guy who, every year, stands in 90 degree temperatures at the Oregon Brewer’s Festival, consuming copious amounts of booze. Sooooo….it’s gonna happen. Thus, sad though it may be, the burden is on the festival organizers to find an answer. Maybe just “more” is the answer: More of the air-conditioned tents, more misters, more free water wells, and probably more medical personnel on-hand, particularly since the venue is approximately an hour away from the nearest medical facility.

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On another music festival topic, the lineup for Portland’s Music Fest Northwest was announced last week. The festival takes place from September 7 – 11 at venues throughout the metro area, and this year features headlining turns by Band of Horses, Iron & Wine, and Explosions In The Sky. Yes, just call this “MELLOW Fest Northwest”, as all three headliners are not exactly known for rocking the house. The Kills kick the festival off on Wednesday the 7^th with a headlining show at the Crystal Ballroom, giving us one headlining act that can bring some punk-rock energy to the table. Other acts of note include Butthole Surfers, Archers of Loaf, The Joy Formidable, Ted Leo, Viva Voce, Blitzen Trapper, and the Thermals, though again, depending on personal tastes any of the over 90 bands signed to perform could be considered “notable”.

I personally have my sights set on the September 11 show featuring Band of Horses and Morning Teleportation. As previously noted, BoH can trend a bit mellow, but I love the idea of hearing them outdoors on a warm summer evening in the middle of the city. They are fresh off a tour opening for Pearl Jam and an appearance at the Sasquatch Music Festival (a death-free event in 2011), so they should be in good form and put on a great show. Check ‘em out below:

I am certainly contemplating checking out the Iron & Wine show on Friday, September 9, as I keep missing them when they come to town. Which is often, by the way. In fact, I really hope that lead singer Zach Galifianakis…er, I mean Samuel Beam (I mean come on, they ARE the same person...judge for yourself below)…owns some property SOMEWHERE in the Pacific Northwest, because he’s around here an awful lot.

Not that I’m complaining; Iron & Wine is a true go-to artist when I am feeling contemplative, want to paint an emotional work of art, or put wistful thought to paper. Cuz I do all three of those things, A LOT. No but seriously, these guys make some beautiful music, and again, the thought of their folk-ish, mostly acoustic sound wafting over the streets of downtown Portland is a pretty appealing one. As some of you know, New Order is my favorite band, so when sharing some Iron & Wine with you, I just couldn’t resist making it a New Order cover. I leave you with this, take care until next time!

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes! Oh, and some zombies, too.

There are a number of working parts that make the Antisocial Network happen. There are the grunt workers who toil daily to bring coffee, liquor, food, drugs, escorts, etc. to the writer, there are the “behind the scenes” people (the ones who spread the word) who are truly the wind beneath my wings, and then there are “the suits”, the executives that rule from on high. These Vulcan-esque illuminati provide the financial fuel that helps offset the staggering costs of blog production, but the “trade off” is that they get to meddle with the product. Sometimes this perspective is helpful; sometimes it produces decisions more disastrous than Paul Allen firing Kevin Pritchard. Today, I received a raven and it bore the news that this blog would be undergoing massive, sweeping changes, just a week into its life. So, okay, getting quasi-serious now, I just felt like movies/music/TV & pop culture, etc. fit one category, but shoe-horning sports in there with it didn’t seem like a natural fit. And feedback I received seemed to indicate that some people tuned out for the sports blog, so, I am splitting them into two separate blogs. This blog will run Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and cover the “entertainment” side. Then, if you are so inclined, jump over on Tuesday and Thursday to my new blog, Sport Werks (sportswerks.blogspot.com) and look for new content there on those days. Sorry if this caused any confusion, but it seems to make more sense, not to mention having two blogs rather than one can be fiscally beneficial as well.  Now, let’s get something at least semi-interesting done today, shall we?

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I want to talk about a topic very near and dear to my heart…zombies.  Always a horror movie fan, I was pretty middle-of-the-road about the undead as movie subject matter early on. Give me a good monster or alien any day over the traditional vampire/werewolf/slasher/zombie fare. Films like A Nightmare On Elm Street, The Thing, The Fly, and the first two Aliens flicks were the kind of stuff that scared the bejesus out of me when I was younger, and I loved it. The 90’s and early 00’s had some great horror films, regardless of the genre. Y’know, stuff like Scream, The Silence of the Lambs, The Blair Witch Project, Jeepers Creepers, and The Ring (save your crap about your Ringus and Ju-Ons please, I know, I know), but it wasn’t until 2002 when my horror movie life was forever changed. That’s when Danny Boyle dropped 28 Days Later out of nowhere, and my mind was officially blown.  Resident Evil followed shortly thereafter, and even though it had some issues, I was already zombie crazed enough that I loved it. Then came 2004, and Shaun of the Dead and the Dawn of the Dead remake cemented the genre as not only my favorite type of horror movie, but probably my favorite genre overall. Things have quieted down quite a bit since then, although 28 Weeks Later (2007) and Zombieland (2009) were great, great additions the zombie movie family from the past few years.

 Today we have, other than Netflix-fare zombie movies of varying quality, only AMC’s television series The Walking Dead to satisfy our zombie cravings (and even that’s between seasons!). However, that is about to change. World War Z, a 2006 novel by Max Brooks, is expected to begin filming sometime this year, four years after Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment acquired the rights.

 Pitt will star in the film, giving the zombie genre its first A-Lister (sorry Woody), but the more important thing here is the story the film will have to pull from. And WWZ is a truly badass one, if a little bit atypical. It’s told from the perspective of several survivors of a recent decade-long zombie “war”, in short interview-style stories. While it will require a bit of a deft hand to cobble these disparate pieces into a coherent movie, there are a few key sections of the book (the U.S. military confronting the zombies in Yonkers, New York comes to mind) that could make for amazing set pieces leading to an amazing moviegoing experience. It will be directed by Marc Forster, the director of Monster’s Ball, Finding Neverland, Stranger Than Fiction, and Quantum of Solace. Having seen only Monster’s Ball and Quantum of Solace I am probably not the leading authority on the man’s directorial skills, but I know that I enjoyed both those films and that both were well made. And I’ve read that the screenplay follows a sort of Children of Men-style tone, which seems about perfect for the subject matter. I am really looking forward to this one, and I will pray every night to the Baby Jesus that Forster, Pitt, and co. can pull this off.

 Thanks for coming by, as always. Make sure to check out Sport Werks for some(hopefully) fun sports talk, and be back here on Wednesday, as we get on the new schedule and probably talk music and whatever else comes to mind. Be good!