Post titles rule.

This post should be a lot like my real life: Disjointed, angry, and meaningless to those not directly involved.

On Friday, I saw A Walk to Remember. Readers will note that a few weeks back I espoused my love for Nicholas Spark's novel, upon which the film was based. The film featured Mandy Moore and Shane West, who I will not fault for their performances. Both were subtle and effective, doing exceptionally well with their roles. The movie was destroyed, however, by the director and screenwriter. The characterizations were faulty, the plot was mangled, all of the deeper meanings and truths of the novel were stripped away, and all of the best lines were taken with them. The protagonist was changed from a sensitive young man to a total fuckhead, and the struggles that changed him went from dynamic and believable to ridiculous and secondary. I urge everyone: You can pickup the paperback version of the book for less than a movie ticket... and you're certain to enjoy yourself more.


Monday night I went to The Whiskey for a Smash Mouth Concert. I would like to officially award the management of the club with the ianwallace.com Stupid God-damned Fucker Award. The tickets for the event announced that the doors would open at 7. So at 7, I presented myself at the club, and sat down to await the show. Well, await I did, then I waited some more. The show started at 10:30. 3 and a half hours later. 3. And. A. Half. Hours. Later. Nowhere, not on the tickets, not on the posters, not at ticketmaster.ca, was there any indication that there was any significant gap between opening and showtime. But of course there wasn't. If there had been that warning, they wouldn't have sold as many drinks. It wouldn't have been so bad waiting, but with The Whiskey being a night club, it's not an atmosphere conducive to conversation. I enjoy shouting at my friends and at waitresses in darkened, noisy rooms as much as the next guy, but as a hobby, it lacks staying power. I get bored of it after 2 hours, max. I get the impression I wasn't the only one dissatisfied with the event, too. Smash Mouth's lead singer spent the show yelling at techies and roadies between songs, and basically told the crowd that there were a bunch of issues with the equipment. I don't want to blame the Whiskey for that, but I really doubt it was the crew's fault. It's their job to set up the gear, and if they weren't any good at it, they'd have been fired a long time ago. It's hard not to assume that the venue goofed somehow. It was a good show, with the band playing all their big hits as well as a few new songs and a 13-minute long cover of Jump Around that featured a 5-minute drum solo of impressive energy. And I was in the company of the two loveliest ladies in the joint, so it was hard to stay very upset. But I don't think I'll be heading back to that club anytime soon.

On a happier note, I'm now using Blogger Pro to update this site, as well as Stocker Mentality. It's a pricey upgrade from the free service, but I'm hoping that the extra features will pay for themselves. I guess it's up to me: the more I update, the more worthwhile the expenditure will be.

Chris, over at Not My Desk, stole one of my jokes for his post yesterday, but I doubt it was intentional. It was funny anyway, so go check it out.