Roach dead, Afterworld and the new Kanye track

Max Roach the influential drummer and king of bebop is dead. Check out these two videos. And a retrospective NyTimes article about the man.


If you like Lost and Y: Last Man check out the new animated series Afterworld. Afterworld employs an interesting blend of 3D animation stills and voice over to createa sort of virtual comic. Definiteley worth checking out.

New Kanye track is on the web! Thanks to London for the hookup.

Ebert & Roper, The Lookout, and Weeds

Ebert and Roper is one of my all time favorite tv shows. I really enjoy how they discuss the merits of commercial movies in an intelligent way usually reserved for literature. Even with Siskle dead and Ebert on the way out the quality of the show has remained high with Roper running things. The show has a pretty incredible web site with many years worth of previous reviews.

Anyway, on a few recent episodes of the show Roper has been praising the movie The Lookout as one of the best movies of the year. I've just watched it and I agree that it is a very good movie - I highly recommend checking it out.

I've spent the past week catching up on the Showtime show Weeds and I cruised through the season 2 dvds. I've really enjoyed the first two seasons but the season 2 finale seems to be going in the wrong direction (the mexican stand off was like a bad scene from a mid-90s indie flick) and after watching a disappointing season 3 premiere I'm close to giving it the sad label of having "jumped the shark". I hope they fix things quick or else I'm not gonna stick around to watch the rest of season 3.

Speaking of Showtime I also caught the premiere of Californication and I can't tell if the show really has legs but I do applaud the gratuitous female nudity. The first episode didn't really have a discernible plot just lots of sex and sex related humor. Regardless I'll keep watching as long as they keep up the naked hot chick quota.

Reasons to buy the Xbox 360

This is no longer a question of "if" but rather a question of "when"... I'm trying to hold out till Halo 3 is released but its getting tempting to pull the trigger early.

There has been speculation of a price drop...and here

It would be nice to know that I'm gonna buy a $500 toy that won't break on me and take weeks to get repaired via snail mail....

I love Madden too

BioShock is aiming to be a big hit..Check out this beautiful art book

Always wanted to play this silly Japaneses game when it was released PS2 only....

Thanks to Dan and Joe for all the links!

New Music! Just Jack, Justice and (my favorite) Londres

I think I was watching a tivoed Connan or Leno episode and I saw the group Just Jack perform. I really dig the sound which is very similar to The Streets but more palatable in my opinion... maybe because the lead vocalist doesn't have the indecipherable cockney accent...Here's the video for the track I heard... The rest of the album is really good too....

Since we are on the topic of good music, check out this amazing video for the group Justice. If you like Daft Punk (who I love) then you'll really enjoy the Justice sound. Big things happening in the Paris dance scene and it seems that Ed Banger records is at the eye of the storm...

Speaking of the dance scene check out these uber-exclusive dance tracks from Boston's own Londres

Track 1

Track 2

Track 3

Track 4

Darwyn Cooke, Be Kind Rewind and Renissance

Joe just lent me a copy of DC: The New Frontier by Darwyn Cooke and it is really really good. Not only is the story well written but the art work is also exceptional. If you don't believe me check out the review....

Joe was mentioning that they are gonna make a straight to dvd animated film version too...Kinda crappy trailer for it on YouTube - I hope it doesn't suck...

You know New Frontiers is good cuz only the really good ones get the Absolute editions....I'm thinking of buying it.

Also, check out the review of Darwyn Cooke's new graphic novel Batman: Ego and Other Tails. I'm gonna have to pick this one up too....

Two more links via Pop Candy:

The trailer for the new Michel Gondry film Be Kind Rewind. I'm a fan of both Mos Def and Jack Black so I'm confident this will be a great film.

And the new anime film Renissance. I'd recommend it to any fan of sci-fi anime. Felt alot like an animated version of Blade Runner....

Comics: TechJacket, All-Star Superman and American Born Chinese

I'm a big fan of Kirkman's Invincible series and I recently re-read the first two hardcover volumes (1,2) in anticipation of the release of hardcover vol 3 (which I purchased of amazon two weeks ago and am still eagerly awaiting). I discovered that along with Brit the Invincible universe is shared by another Kirkman story called TechJacket. I purchased it off Amazon and much to my surprise its one of those little manga sized books that teenie-boppers collect (which made me instantly regret having purchased it from afar) but, now about half way through reading it, I've been won over by the story despite its packaging.

Also, I just purchased of Amazon the hardcover All-Star Superman (which has gotten great reviews) and American Born Chinese which won a 2007 Eisner for Best New Graphic Album.

I mentioned before that Criminal won an Eisner this year and I've gotten a chance to read it and I highly recommend it - a really great story.

Star Wars Kid, Scrubs and MineSweeper

I get the sense my friend James is working in some sort of corporate hell because he passes the time by surfing YouTube and sending me Star Wars Kid links...

Also, Check out this great Scrubs clip.

Here is a very funny take on the Windows game, MineSweeper: The Movie. Thanks to Dan for this link.

Lollapalooza, Rocket Science, and Donkey Kong

I wish I could go to Lollapalooza! I'd love to see Daft Punk live...

Wasting some time on the apple trailer site I found the movie Rocket Science - looks pretty good. Is it just me or after Rushmore there have been a bunch of indie movies regarding "suburban youth" (i.e. Thumbsucker, Garden State, Little Miss Sunshine) I dunno maybe I'm making this up...

Now here is a topic that isn't covered enough in Hollywood - video games! And I'm not talking about adapting video games into movies - I mean movies about people playing video games. Who didn't love Wizard or Tron!? This movie is more a documentary on the topic but still looks interesting.

Tun3r, 4 player co-op, and Criminal

I'm a big fan of web radio and recently I've been concerned about the pending regulations regarding royalty payments that might mean web radio will virtually disappear. Anyway, as much as I like web radio I find it tough to find exactly what I'm looking. Problem solved: check out tun3r.com for their really cool approach to indexing and searching the web radio universe.

Also, here's a great image for anyone doing the corporate grind. Thanks to London for that.

This might not seem like big news but it was just announced that Halo 3 will have four player co-op online! I'm gonna have to drop some $$$ for the 360 but its gonna be so worth it. super sweet. Can't wait to go Leeroy Jenkins on you guys! Thanks to Dan for the link.

The Eisner Award winners have been announced and the big winner this year is Criminal by Ed Brubaker.

Odd News, Mix Sets, and Nova

Yahoo! News has a section called "Odd News" that is updated regularly with some really bizarre stories.

If you're looking for some good tunes check out Beta Lounge. Tons of great mix sets in their archive going back over ten years! (Requires a login... I've created one you can use login: mikeworld pass: mikeworld)

The PBS show NOVA has an extensive archive of shows online. Check out the 12min show "Kryptos" - a brief summary of cryptography and examination of an un-cracked encrypted sculpture outside CIA headquarters..