The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit

Most longtime Iron Maiden fans would agree that 1988’s Seventh Son of a Seventh Son marked the end of the band’s golden era.  They’ve certainly had worthy releases since then, but this album capped off a nearly decade-long as one of the preeminent metal bands on the planet.  My favorite cut from Seventh Son is one that was not released as a single, which is a shame.  It’s “The Prophecy”, and it stands in stark contrast to most of the band’s material to date.  My favorite part is the acoustic guitar outro, something Maiden had never done before.  It’s something they would do well to try more often.

Spotted this in the H&B aisle at the local ShopRite.  You’d think that getting the name right would be easy, what with all the packages of Gillette Fusion razors right there in the clear tub, but then you’d be wrong.

It’s a momentous day here at GFS HQ – for today this site welcomed it’s 100,000th visitor.  Seems this site is picking up a little bit of steam, since it took two years to reach the 50,000 mark, and in the 14 months since then I’ve doubled that.  But a picture tells a thousand words, so let me show you just how-far reaching this site is by using a graph from Alexa:

OK, maybe it doesn’t look impressive at first glance but consider this – right now my worldwide site ranking (based on a 3-month rolling average) is 1,578,651, which means I’m just 1,478,651 spots away from showing up on that graph.  Boo-yah!

Now I just need Alycia Lane to do something wacky.

(OK, so this is weird.  I had this post in the can, waiting until #100,000 before publishing.  Sure enough, #100K was looking for Alycia Lane pictures.  Sigh.)

This popped up on a last.fm mix the other day, and I stopped what I was doing and proceeded to dance around the room like a mental patient.  I figure this little blues boogie is as good a way as any to kick off the week, now that spring is at the doorstep and the last vestiges of snow are melting away.

It’s Tab Benoit with “So High”, off of his 1992 debut album Nice & Warm.  This is recommended for fans of Stevie Ray Vaughan, although this has more of a New Orleans flavor than a Texas one.

A new Devo album?  Yeah, sign me up for that.  The as-of-yet-untitled album is now due in May.  Here’s one of the songs, “Fresh”.

That works for me.  Sounds like they’ve done a nice job retaining their trademark sound but bringing it into the modern era.  This could be a contender for album of the year.  Fresh, indeed.

The word ’sequel’ comes to us from the Latin word ’sequi’, which translates as ‘follow’.  It’s also closely related to the Latin word ’sequela’, meaning ‘a disease or condition which is caused by an earlier disease or problem’.  Given the glut of needless and tiresome sequels produced by Hollywood throughout the years, I think the second translation is the more relevant one.

The list of high-profile cinematic sequels that can’t hold the jock strap of the beloved originals is fairly long indeed (Godfather III, any of the last three Star Wars entries, The Next Karate Kid, Batman & Robin, and Caddyshack II come to mind immediately), but what about the ones that passed virtually unnoticed like so many silent farts?  Do they not stink just as badly?  Why yes, yes they do.   Hold your nose and check out this sampling.

Road House 2: Last Call (2006)

Pain don’t hurt, but watching this piece of crap sure do.  Like most direct-to-landfill cash grabs, Last Call is related to its predecessor in name only.  The lead character, a DEA agent named Shane Tanner, is supposedly the son of Dalton – the immortal cooler portrayed by the late Patrick Swayze in the 1989 original.  Tanner ends up in Louisiana to avenge someone or other, and ends up taking over a seedy bar called the Black Pelican.  There’s drug running, natch, and Tanner butts heads with Black Pelican cooler Bill “Wild Bill” Decarie.  In a brilliant bit of casting, Decarie is played by none other than the immortal Jake Busey, who proves he’s no Ben Gazzara.  Sh-boom!

Ace Ventura Jr.: Pet Detective (2009)

What Kidz Bop is to music, this movie is to, well, Ace Ventura movies.   Apparently all it takes to establish oneself as the chubby progeny of the Jim Carrey character is the ability to utter his trademark “Allllrighty then!” catchphrase in a manner that’s kind of vaguely reminiscent of the original.  And hey, did you know there’s another Cusack sibling?  I didn’t either, but her name is Ann.

Read on Daddy-O…

I wasn’t too thrilled when they announced they were “re-imagining” the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, and the spots I had seen so far hadn’t done much to change my mind.  But I’ll admit it, this latest trailer is pretty damn cool.

I’m a little miffed that they’re aping some of the scenes from the original movie (the claw in the bathtub among them), but that’s not a huge deal.  If Michael Bay and director Samuel Bayer actually go for a straight horror movie rather than a campy remake, this could be good.  I’ll even give Jackie Earle Haley a chance as Freddy Krueger, although Robert Englund pretty much owns the character.