Owner: Sunrise on the Sufferbus URL:sufferbus.blogspot.com Join Date: Sat, 27 Oct 2007 23:54:26 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Sunrise on the Sufferbus is a blog of the personal musings and thoughts of one Brian James on the world surrounding him Site statistics:Click here
The Mars Volta creates annoying puzzle that took me 20 minutes to solve 2007-12-02 19:00:00 The Mars Volta, everyone's favorite alternative progressive neo-prog rock post-hardcore Latin jazz fusion metal band, are continuing the trend of big bands doing weird advertising type stuff online after Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails. While not quite up to the level of Radiohead's internet ways, TMV have offered up a puzzle to fans to try and figure out what the album art looks like for The Bedlam in Goliath, which is in stores January 29th.The puzzle is one of those bitch ass puzzles in a box where you can only move one piece at a time. Thankfully, there's no limit on the number of moves you can make to solve it. It took me a pathetic 344 moves to put the picture together properly. Give it a go and you're treated to a free mp3, which isn't a new Volta song. Instead it's a cover of an old Circle Jerks song "Back Up Against the Wall". Can you say shortest Mars Volta song ever?Give it a go here Read more:minutes
Cowboys and Indians 2007-12-02 17:21:00 Threadless reprinted one of my all-time favorite shirts ever a few weeks ago. The shirt I speak of is none other than Cowboys
and Indians
. This shirt is a classic example of everything that makes Threadless great. Good drawing based on a great pun pulled off perfectly.I ordered the shirt almost as soon as they went on sale, and sorry for everyone else in the world, they are sold out.I wore it for the first time today and it fit great, and felt even better knowing it was a reprint I've been wanting for two or so years almost.
A small fantasy football update 2007-12-02 01:03:00 In my main fantasy
league I am currently the sixth highest ranked team out of the twelve participants in the league. Four teams have a better record than me and one person with the same record as me beat me, making him rank ahead of me as well. Six teams make the playoffs so if the season were over I would have gotten in. I win this week and I have a good chance of moving up in the rankings. I'm really pumped for the games tomorrow because fantasy is almost over so I have to cherish every second. Once the fantasy season is over, there's going to be about 3 extra hours of incredible boredom in my life everyday.
Research papers are lame 2007-12-02 00:44:00 I don't really mind writing an essay or two every now and then. Sit down for about a half-hour and crank out two or so pages of random bullshit to satisfy whatever requirements need to be satisfied and that's that. Researchpapers
are a whole nother bitch though, and what a bitch they are. If done properly, a good research paper takes hours of preparation and includes a detailed research process, documenting everything along the way, making sure to maintain proper MLA formatting. All of this does not really gel with my thought processes or how I get my work done.My topic was the history of the graphic novel, which is basically just the history of comics with a cooler name. Anyways, this is a topic that, while I'm not an expert on, I have a decent understanding of. This made it relatively easy to write once I actually got down to writing it. The problem is, writing something you know doesn't exactly qualify as a research paper because you didn't do any research. And here I
Still at it 2007-12-01 01:24:00 It's been two months since I first made a post about how I was going to reorganize my entire collection. Well, I'm still at it. I have recently stumbled upon a program called Mp3tag that makes tagging mp3s much, much easier. Mp3tag lets you renamed the actual files, look up information on several different databases for missing tags, download album art, and numerous other neat little features that beat the hell out of tagging the files in Winamp, WMP, iTunes, or Explorer. I might finish by 2009 thanks to this program.Mp3tag can be found here.
Led Zeppelin to tour? 2007-11-28 16:53:00 The rumor mill is spinning like crazy with a rumor as big as any in recent memory. Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, and John Paul Jones are reuniting with Jason Bonham, son of Led Zeppelin
drummer John "Bonzo" Bonham, as part of a tribute show for the late Ahmet Eregun, founder of Atlantic Records, Led Zeppelin
's label, and chairman of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.In the past, the surviving members of Zep have gotten together a few times for similar benefits and tributes, but something seems different this time. Billboard.com reported that Zep was likely preparing for a tour. Also, the lead singer of the Cult recently mentioned that they would be opening for Zeppelin in 2008 on Zep's tour. Rumors are circulating about a possible appearance at the Bonnaroo music festival in Tennessee.Jimmy Page said something to the effect that it would be an injustice to the millions of Led Zeppelin fans to only perform this one show. That statement certainly lends itself to the theory that Zep wil
A little something 2007-12-06 16:48:00 You know that feeling you get when you’re driving home from a long and tiring day? It’s about 3 o’clock and you’ve been awake since last night. The road starts to blend together into one long, vertical black hole. Your eyelids are more difficult to lift with each blink. You are awakened by the sun setting over the horizon, creating a bright plumage over the hilltops that would make a peacock blush. You quickly right your vehicle on the road, aligning your tires with spaces void of snow. It is at this point you notice something
following your car. Within minutes it has caught up to you. You are now racing head to head against your own shadow and no matter how fast you drive you are unable to escape it. You realize that all you have been doing for the entire ride, for months, for years, for your entire life, is escape the shadow your mind has cast over your life. Every choice you’ve made up to this point was in a vain attempt to overcome self imposed limitations on w Read more:little
, little something
Do or Die 2007-12-06 12:21:00 This is it. My fantasy season comes down to one week and one game. If I win, I'm in the playoffs. If I lose, I get to spend the next 9 months wondering where I went wrong, what I can do better next year, and generally being depressed over my failure to dominate my fantasy league like I did last year. I am playing the team with the best record in the league that already has a bye in the playoffs and really has no need to win at all. He also has both LT and TO on his roster. I need this win in the worst way. I am stressing soo badly right now over whether to start Joseph Addai or Marion Barber III. Usually I would side with Addai, but he is playing against a tough Baltimore Ravens defense, while Marion the Barbarian gets the pushover Lions. Even though that problem is dominating my mind, I am still aware that I have to wait until Monday night to know for sure if I've made the playoffs or not, as my quarterback Drew Brees doesn't play until Monday night. I think there's a .0
My Last.fm Wave graph 2007-12-03 18:27:00 I recently downloaded a neat little program that hooked up to my Last.fm account and made a sweet looking graph of everything I've listened to for the past couple months. It sure is colorful and it's a much more interesting way of looking at my listening habits than plain text. If anyone uses Last.fm and is interested in making a wave graph, here is the link to do so.You can use it to make lots of other neat charts and graphs but the wave graph is probably the coolest looking one.
Fire Bryant Gumbel 2007-12-15 21:33:00 For the love of God, please, please, please, please, NFL Network, fire Bryant
Gumbel yesterday. Already a noticeably annoying schmuck, Bryant Gumbel is the most incompetent sports announcer I have ever heard. Bryant has routinely gotten his facts wrong and has troubling remembering statistics and even which teams are playing in the game he is being paid to commentate on. Despite being paired with Marshall Faulk and Deion Sanders, Gumbel still maintains an heir of self-imagined superiority. Gumbel's incompetence was never more apparent than in tonight's contest between the 49ers and the Bengals. The 49ers most important and well known player is running back Frank Gore. I know his name, Marshall Faulk and Deion Sanders know his name, every fan in attendance and everyone watching the game on television know his name. In fact, the one person alive who didn't seem to know Frank Gore's name was Mr. Gumbel. Not only did he not know his name, he seemed to mistake him for everyone's
Futurama: Bender's Big Score 2007-12-13 11:01:00 One of the saddest events in recent television was the untimely cancellation of one of my favorite shows by the idiots at Fox, Futurama
. A few years go by, and I hear Fox is bringing back an animated show canceled way before it's time. Imagine how excited I was, only to find out it was just Family Guy. Well, a few more years have gone by and Fox still hasn't come to their senses, and now they likely will never get the chance even if they wanted to bring the show back.Futurama is back and in a big way. The first of four feature length direct to DVD movies has arrived. Bender's Big Score
picks up like the show was never gone to begin with. Anyone who has ever had a mild interest in Futurama before will enjoy the film. And for those of us who are huge nerdy fans, Bender's Big Score is a gift straight from the Hanukkah Zombie. The film is packed full of references to past episodes and features cameos from scores of less frequent or important characters, from the Emperor of the
Assassin's Creed 2007-12-10 23:10:00 A few weeks ago, my copy of Madden 08 for 360 decided to crap out totally and stop working and just freeze my console whenever I tried to sim computer games. This left me with nothing to play, so I went to GameSpot to see what the best Xbox game was that I didn't have, and it was Assassin
's Creed
..at least according to GameSpot.The game started off promisingly enough and I believed GameSpot was right in giving it a 9.0 rating. The graphics were beautiful, some of the brightest and most detailed I've yet to see on the 360. Game play was quite interesting, a combination of stealth assassination and button mashing melee combat. Perhaps the funnest part of the game is jumping and swinging about on rooftops. It's quite easy to run seamlessly along rooftops and quite fun as well. You go about performing certain tasks to get your missions to assassinate various slavers and merchant kings corrupting cities while the kings were away fighting the Third Crusade.The problem with Assassin
It's over :-( 2007-12-10 22:56:00 Well, it turns out that my fantasy league this year isn't like the one I was in last year, and only the top four teams enter the playoffs. I ended up being the fifth ranked team with an outside chance at moving up to fourth as late as the last five minutes of the Saints-Falcons game Monday night.I ended up beating my opponent by 22 points. The team I beat is the number one ranked team and in all likelihood will end up winning the championship. It didn't matter that Drew Brees had a fantastic game, even without Reggie Bush. It doesn't matter that I made the right choice choosing Marion Barber instead of Joseph Addai. None of this matters in the end. I've been on such a tear, it's just not fair that it's over. I now have an extra two hours of free time every day to be filled with nothing. I'll be back next year, with vengeance.
Polar bears and penguins do not share habitats 2007-12-23 15:52:00 The idea that polar bears and penguins populate the same geographical region is a common misconception that plagues far too many individual's minds. Sure, it might seem like a nice thing to believe - polar bears roaring ferociously, chasing poor, defenseless penguins around over snow and ice, and devouring them whole. This, however, is pure hogwash. Polar
bears are entirely native to the northern hemisphere, on the complete opposite end of the Earth from where penguins make their homes. Perhaps the worst offender in spreading penguin-polar bear interaction lies is the Coca Cola company. Polar bears and penguins are frequently and unrealistically seen frolicking together and enjoying a refreshing bottle of Coke. It is high time Coke ended these commercials. I recently purchased a package of gift labels, only to find that much to my dismay a number of the labels featured penguins and polar bears jovially interacting. Such a sight would surely make any intelligent individual reb
Bamboozle 2007-12-22 19:24:00 Well it's that time of year again, when the famous Bamboozle music festival begins to announce bands and sell increasingly higher priced tickets. The lineup looks awful as of now but it's still almost six months until the show.The past two years I have made the trek to East Rutherford, New Jersey for the annual Bamboozle festival. Now, right off the bat, the festival has the worst name and is in the worst state it could possibly be in. The first year I went to Bamboozle, I didn't decide to go until a month before the show. The reason behind this was that it was in NJ so it took a really good band to get me there, and AFI was announced quite late. Well, by then tickets were sold out and it cost me $130 plus food, gas, and lodging. I got to see AFI, Thursday, missed Circa Survive so I could be front row for AFI and saw HIM who sucked vinegary Sasquatch nuts, Chiodos, Fluff My Boner (who turned out to be Chiodos which was really cruel of them), Taking Back Sunday who were adequat
Daily Show and Colbert Report return!!! 2007-12-22 12:02:00 I was with the WGA on this strike, that is until NBC ran out of episodes of The Office and I realized how empty my 11 P.M. to 12 A.M.'s truly are without Jon and Stephen presenting the news to me. I understand what the WGA is going for but enough is enough, non-violent protest can only accomplish so much before more ex...just kidding.Both shows will be returning without their writing staff so the question of quality has to be raised. However, Stewart and Colbert
already served as writers on their respective shows and new shows that are just ok will be better than no new shows at all. Also, the return of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, both WGA members themselves, may motivate the WGA to end this strike sooner rather than later. When asked if they would have preferred to come back on the air with their writing staff on board Stewart and Colbert responded "If we cannot, we would like to express our ambivalence, but without our writers we are unable to express something as nuanced Read more:Daily
, Daily Show
Fleet Foxes 2008-03-06 04:58:00 I recently and thankfully stumbled upon a wonderful new band, Washington's Fleet
Foxes. Their EP, Sun Giant, was chosen by Pitchfork as some of the best new music, and I couldn't agree more so. Their untitled debut full length is due out June 3rd and has been called Ragged Wood around the blogosphere but according to a post on the band's MySpace, it's still untitled. Although the album's release is still three months away, an enterprising user of the internet can manage to find it, and your ears will thank you if you do. Fleet Foxes show a style that is both familiar and unique on both EP and LP, both startling and embracing in its smooth brilliance. They bring a splendid mix of folk, gospel type harmonizing, and rollicking indie alternative sounds to their sonic table. Both the EP a
Brett Favre 2008-03-06 04:31:00 A legend has left us, and the world of football will never be the same. BrettFavre
's career and his legacy have been discussed in depth so much everywhere by now, I won't go into great detail. Favre leaves the NFL holding virtually every major statistical mark a quarterback can achieve in all-time career categories, including wins, touchdown passes, and passing yards. While it is possible his numbers will one day be bested, we will not likely see that day come any season soon.Favre was a player like no other and I always hoped that the television scheduling gods would look upon me and grace me with a Packers game. Favre will be sorely missed by the entire state of Wisconsin and his fans the world over, myself included. However, from Favre's position, this was likely going to be his b
Yeah, this is how bored I am 2008-02-25 20:22:00 Tonight I found myself so bored and so without anything to do that I took to making pyramidal structures out of Reese's miniatures. This took about 10 minutes of my life up. I'm not sure if I really could have done anything more worthwhile with my time, maybe study for accounting...
Bamboozle 2008 2008-02-25 14:57:00 March is almost upon us as I write this and that means that the lineup for Bamboozle is being finalized. It appears the headliners have been announced and as usual I'm not all that excited by them. Jimmy Eat World (they're ok) will be headlining Saturday and Panic at the Disco :( will be headlining Sunday. There is however, a silver lining on that piece of shit headliner, as it will allow me to leave early Sunday night, which is great because I have a final Monday morning.Also recently announced were one of my favorites, Dear and the Headlights and their Equal Vision Record label mates, The Fall of Troy. Previously announced were Chiodos and Circa Survive (featuring the sexy Anthony Green pictured to the right). Maybe I have an EVR bias, so what. The band I'm most stoked to see m
Cinematic Sunrise 2008-02-19 17:50:00 Next to Death Cab's Narrow Stairs, the forthcoming debut EP by CinematicSunrise
is my most anticipated release of 2008. For those unaware, Cinematic Sunrise is the side project of Craig Owens and Brad Bell from Chiodos that has been in the works for a few years now.Taking a softer approach than Chiodos brand of hardcore and thankfully missing the Cookie Monster vocals of Jesse Korman of The Number 12 Looks Like You, Cinematic Sunrise first crossed my path on the Equal Vision Records (best label ever) summer sampler CD last May. Their song "The Wordless" was the last track listed on the CD, and featured a new Chiodos song, "Teeth the Size of Piano Keys" in anticipation of their at the time forthcoming album Bone Palace Ballet.As far as I know of, five songs have been released online so f
Persepolis 2008-02-17 15:05:00 Last Friday I had the pleasure of taking in Persepolis. I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered that Regals was showing this film because before that revelation it was my understanding there was nothing seeing this week and I would spend the night home bored.Persepolis is an adaptation of the French graphic novel series of the same name by Marjane Satrapi. The four books in the series tell Marjane's story of growing up in a turbulent Iran undergoing a series of violent revolutions, her time abroad in Vienna during the Iran-Iraq War, and her return home to an even more repressive country than she had left.The film, like the graphic novels, is rendered using simple and stark black and white. The style and animation is quite aesthetically pleasing however.Persepolis grants the viewer
Aqua Teen Hunger Force Volume 5 2008-02-14 16:14:00 A little while back the 5th Volume
of Aqua TeenHungerForce
was released, collecting 14 episodes from the fourth season. Also included is a real ginchy music video, shown below.I urge everyone who enjoys ATHF or just any Bart Oates fan (and I know there are literally trillions of them) to go out and purchase the DVD.
Writer's Strike Officially Over 2008-02-13 13:17:00 Today marks the first day of a post 2007-2008 Writer
's Guild of America strike entertainment world. The strike, which began November 5th last year, cost the entertainment industry somewhere in the area of a billion dollars. This cost me three of my favorite shows, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and The Office. The Daily Show and The Colbert Report returned at the beginning of the year, but The Office remained out of production for the entirety of the strike. Hopefully, now that the strike is over I will finally get to see that dinner party Michael and Jan are supposed to throw in the next episode. Also, hopefully no more American Gladiators.
There Will Be Blood 2008-02-13 00:48:00 Last Saturday I had the great fortune to be able to finally see There Will Be Blood
. Blood is based on the Upton Sinclair (The Jungle) novel Oil! and was masterfully adapted, written, produced, and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights, Punch-Drunk Love).The protagonist of the the film is Daniel Plainview, played in a Golden Globe and likely Oscar winning performance by Daniel Day-Lewis (The Last of the Mohicans, Gangs of New York). Daniel is as he will tell you, an oil man, and just like it does today, oil meant one thing a hundred years ago - money.Plainview's single goal in life is to become successful in the oil business, and he puts everything aside to do so, including family, love, and morals. This comes to a head in one of my favorite scenes ever in all of cinema, when
Ed Wood 2008-02-05 19:03:00 I recently rewatched one of my favorite Tim Burton-Johnny Depp collaborations, Ed Wood. Ed Wood tells the story of the man widely recognized as the worst director in the history of film. Edward D. Wood Jr.Wood is famous for such films as Glen or Glenda and Plan 9 From Outer Space. These films are considered classics today due to their incredibly awful production values, poor writing, terrible acting, and overall crappiness. Basically, they are so bad that they're good.Burton's film stars Johnny Depp as the titular character. Ed Wood is a peculiar fellow who has a fetish for angora and enjoys dressing up in women's clothing. He also happens to be a film maker who fashions himself to be in the vein of one of cinema's greatest directors, writers, and actors, Orson Welles. The only diff
Local man caught after daring burgelry 2008-02-04 17:06:00 The infamous Dave Jackson was apprehended late last night after spending the last several months on the lamb, terrorizing local school children and elderly Polish women.The 6'9" Jackson, age 34, first walked on the wrong side of the road in early November. The scene was the a local bowling alley. Jackson had just finished bowling a 299 game and was seen emotionally distraught after narrowly missing the final pin, costing him a perfect game. Dave decided to exact revenge upon the bowling alley in the only way his sick criminal mind could come up with. He decided to rob the alley's crane machine. Jackson made off with a gunnysack's full of stuffed animals. Security camera footage shows Jackson reaching into the machine and pulling out nearly every last adorable critter.Fortunately, no Read more:Local
Arrested Development movie on the way! 2008-02-04 16:10:00 E! Online is reporting that Jason Bateman and Jeffrey Tambor are both on board and optimistic about a feature film based on the amazing television program Arrested Development
. If the movie
is anything like the show, it will be the best movie ever and no one will go see it.E! Online article
House of Leaves 2008-02-03 13:28:00 I recently finished a novel unlike any other book I have ever read. House
of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski is the kind of novel that will keep you up late at night. I've struggled for days over what to say about House of Leaves, not being sure what to say but knowing I have to say something and I have somethings to say. There is so much to be said about House of Leaves it is difficult to decide where to begin.I guess I'll start by saying that I don't believe anyone, and I know not me, can give another person a good understanding of just what reading House of Leaves is like. The only way to really understand this book is to pick it up and read it for yourself.That being said, I will now touch upon a few topics. The most obvious things a reader will first notice about House of Leaves is
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