It was only a matter of time before I wrote a blog about reggae.
I post a few times a week on facebook different reggae songs/albums I want people to listen to and I don't think anyone has ever done it.
So I'm going to blog about my favorite reggae songs and or albums.
First off I will start with I have claimed to be my favorite song of all time: "2am" by Slightly Stoopid.
I know it's huge to claim this as my favorite song of all time instead of just my favorite reggae song but, fuck dude, I seriously can not stop listening to this song ever since I first heard it around May of last year.
Alex had just introduced me to the Expendables and so when I was checking them out I saw Slightly Stoopid's name on the Expendables myspace or something and I can remember hearing them a while back but nothing of theirs really stood out to me but I decided to check out their page any way.
"2am" was the third song on their play list and I was seriously floored from the first 12 seconds right when the horns come in. They have a really repetitive melody but accompanied by some rocking ass drums and a chill ass bass line and a dope ass keyboard I seriously fell in love with the song.
Before even hearing the rest of it I went and checked iTunes to see if they had it. I downloaded the song before hearing the entire thing and have never regretted it.
It's perfect.
Well, maybe not perfect. I can do without the Jamaican accent the dude singing uses but it's nowhere near enough to put me off of the song.
The song is 5 minutes long and I've listened to it over 120 times on iTunes (my most played song) plus I would say a close 50 times my original 'Rock Steady' CD I made in the early summer, plus another 25 or so times on my new iPod that I got since Crewmas, so let's call it 175 plays.
That's 875 minutes or 14.5 hours of one song. And I don't plan on stopping there.
I've loved EVERY second of it.
Speaking of the Expendables, they are pretty cool too and I'm going to throw 2 of their songs on this list: "Sacrifice" and "Bowl for Two".
Alex introduced me to them when I visited her up in Chico last April. She was driving us to breakfast and asked me if I had heard of them before. I can remember her being a little shocked when I said that, with me being a huge fan of reggae and ska and punk rock (the three types of music fused into the Expendables).
The only song she played for was "Sacrifice" and I wasn't too sure of it at first. It kinda starts off with that little echoey guitar part and then once it finally gets into the verses it has the up-strokes and the signiture bass line of any reggae song and it didn't really take me as anything special.
Until the chorus came.
Even more chill then the verse and the background vocals just being so fucking soothing made me....feel happy?
I was blown away again. I don't know if it was because I had just an amazing night with Alex and she and I were driving to a gaurenteed tasty breakfast on a gorgeous warm morning, but the chorus made me feel amazing. That's the only way I can describe it. The song is super chill, except for the 75% into the song they have a crazy solo, but the chorus just makes you happy, at least for me.
But it wasn't just that time. Every time I listen to this song I think back to that amazing morning and it just does wonders dude.
The second song I found on my own when I downloaded their discography shortly after my trip to Chico.
It's off of the same CD, "Gettin Filthy" and it is actually the song right after "Sacrifice"; it's called "Bowl for Two".
I don't like it because I'm some major stoner who's only reason for listening to reggae music is an excuse to get high, but because it's super chill and keeps the happy mood flowing from the previous song.
The song is a reggae/stoner love song about how dude packed a bowl and wants to smoke it with this chick.
That's all.
But the music is the best part. The Expendables could release an instrumental version (kareoke version would suffice) and I would love the song that much more.
It's super chill and when I hear it I associate the color blue with it. Don't as me why, but when I hear it I just fucking see blue: A blue pipe, blue pot, a blue room, a blue fan spinning. Totally weird.
The best part of the song is the solo though. It doesn't care all crazy and intense and distorted like in "Sacrifice" but keeps the chillness of the song. And during the solo is this awesome mini scale the dude does that never fails to put a smile on my face when I hear it.
And the line "So please don't run away when my ganja's all gone" cracks me up every time.
This next song I tell everyone that they need to listen to it once in their life. At the very least. And you fucking need to.
It's called "Why, Why, Why?" by a little [sorta] local band known as the Steady-Ups from Sacramenty. They made one AMAZING album and then split it up. The only reason I heard about them was from my 'Specials' station on Pandora and this was the first song I heard. The second it was over I tried to find it on iTunes. Didn't have it. Looked for it on any torrents. Didn't have it. There wasn't even a makeshift music video on youtube for me to play just to listen to the song! So I checked Amazon.com to see if they had it and thank fucking gosh they did. I bought the entire CD with out even hearing another song on the album. Luckily the rest of the album owns, too, but "Why, Why,Why?", track number 12 rocks my world every time I listen to it.
Amazingly chill song with killer ass lyrics about racially equality and making the world "color blind" with love. Classic.
But there's this mesmerizing guitar part that comes in during the second verse that is perfect. That's the only way to describe it. And then during the dub-style breakdown it comes back.
Seriously, you NEED to listen to this song and you won't find it anywhere online to listen to it for free so hit me up. I 100% garuntee you will not bee dissapointed.
The next ones straight away from straight reggae and fall into dub.
Dub isn't really everyones favorite kind of reggae, it's more psychadelic and not all of it is good. Jon, for one, HATES when I play dub and makes fun of it all. But these are some worthy dub songs checking out by a group called Scientist:
"Fall in Love with Dub"
"Beggers Dub"
"Sunny Place Dub"
"Don't Rush the Dub"
"Reconnaissance"
"Forgive them Oh Jah!"
"Miss Know It All"
These songs are super legit. Scientist is like the Rolling Stones of dub; not all songs rock but, fuck, do they have a ton of albums.
I've got a ton of dub songs, let me know if you want any good ones.
Now I'm going to talk about what I've declared as my favorite album of all time.
It's "Signing Off" By UB40. It's their debut album released in 1980 and incorporates a ton of dub fused reggae. Each song on the album is killer and the entire album has the highest number of plays after "2am".
But before I get into the songs I just want to say that the CD is also kinda sentimental to me. My mom got it from our good friend Andy Green back when I was a little dude and she said that she remembers dancing around their kitchen with me while it played. At this point the album had already been out 8 years but Andy being the bigger reggae nut then me blasted it non stop apparently.
And in turn so did my mom. She LOVES this album and I know my brother can remember all the times when she was cooking dinner and it would be on and she would be dancing around the kitchen, glass of wine in hand, raving about how much she loves it, especially the third track "12 Bar". Not only is the album fucking phenomenal but it takes me back to when I was a kid almost every single time I play it.
And I'm going to play it for the rest of my life, too. Dancing around my house with my little baby in my arms slowly introducing them to the wonderful world that is reggae.
Nostalgia aside, the album is genius. EXTREMELY political and the entire album is comprised of everything you'd expect from a reggae album.
[the only thing that's ever made me sad about this album was one night, right before Alexandra left for Italy, she and I were kicking it on my bed and I put it on and I asked her what she thought about it and she said, "Eh, it's not my favorite". Well Alexandra, that's not going to stop me from bumping it for years to come]
The first track "Tyler" is a true story about Gary Tyler who was accused of shooting a 13 year old white kid while on a school bus. Gary Tyler was sentenced to death at the age of 17 but they soon revoked that and gave him life. The worst part about it is that there is no hard evidence proving him guilty. All the facts show that he was in fact innocent but as the chorus says "Tyler is guilty, the white judges said so" just proves how fucked up the judicial system is to a black teen in Louisiana back in the 70's.
The next mentionable song is the second track, "King". It's an ode to Martin Luther King Jr. and the legacy dude left behind. But at the same time they are questioning the lost direction he left behind.
Their biggest hit off the album is "Food For Thought" is about the Ethiopian famine in Africa. The song came out loooooong before Live Aid so these cats get full credit for that movement. Kudo's UB40.
They also have a handful of phenomenal instrumental songs on the album; "25%", "Adella", the self titled track "Signing Off" and in my opinion UB40's greatest song "12 Bar"
Holy cow does this song rock. I might be a bit biased her when calling it their best song, it certainly not only my favorite of their songs by also my moms.
She always puts this song on blast. And rightfully so! This song is so damn infectious that you can't help but bob your head and dance a little wherever you are when it comes on.
Each song has over 60 plays on my iTunes.
the album is 66 minutes long.
that's over 72 hours on my iTunes alone plus all the times this CD has blasted throughout my house and will be blasted when I get my own place (sorry Alex).
Listen to the album.
Buy it.
If you don't wanna buy it I'll burn you a copy.
But trust me, if you like reggae in even the slightest you'll love this album.
So that's about it.
I know I'm leaving out a ton of other shit: Bob Marley, Prince Buster, all those old reggae pioneers and I'm not slagging any of them off, but these are the ones that when I heard them totally impacted me.
One Love,
Ras Pat
Monday, March 23, 2009
Monday, March 9, 2009
Season 5 so far
I can't decide if I really love season 5 of LOST like I say I am.
I mean, I'm enjoying it and Wednesday is still my favorite night of the week where my buds come over and we watch the episode while making our predictions, comments and theories about the future of the show.
And after each episode I parade around asking people if they've seen the latest episode and rave about how amazing it was. And then a few days later when I actually sit back and reflect upon it I always come to the realization that it might not have been amazing as I once thought.
So I'm just going to look back at each episode so far:
Episode 1 - "Because You Left"
Awesome fucking episode.
The whole intro with Pierre Chang starting to do the orientation film for the Arrow Station was cool enough to witness but when the whole production comes to a halt because some shit's gone down at the site of the soon-to-be Orchid Station we wonder why the fuck is going to happen.
Some worker got screwed by the time travel shit while trying to drill into the wall but as Pierre Chang is trying to leave he bumps into Faraday!
WHAT THE FUCK?! Awesome. That's whats the fuck.
but this episode did a cool job of setting up the whole time travel scenario with Faraday (when hanging with Sawyer and crew) by saying the island is like a record skipping. But they're skipping through time. Bummer.
And the whole shit with Locke flashing in and out of different times and encountering old things like Ethan and Yemmi's old plane that crashed on the island was cool.
But Locke's interactions with Richard is really seemed to catch my interest.
Richard gave Locke the compass that we saw last season when Richard stopped by and saw a baby Locke.
The worse part of the episode was dealing with the Oceanic Six. I really don't care about them. I know they are going to come back to the Island so I just want to skip to when they show up.
I give it a 8 out of 10
Episode 2 - "The Lie"
This episode was OK.
Compared to the first episode it wasn't that great and considering the fact that it aired right after "Because You Left" didn't help.
It really centered around Hurley and left us little time on the island. Dumb.
Essentially, Hurley is on the lamb because Sayid killed some cats and now he has to protect himself and Sayid.
They go to his house. Save Sayid turns himself into the cops.
Real time waster that shit was.
The awesome stuff was on the island, but we didn't get that much.
The episode ended with the ones on the island being attacked by some flaming arrows and a couple of people get iced.
The end.
lame.
6 out of 10
Episode 3 - "Jughead"
Finally! Not only does the episode give us more time traveling sequences on the island but the off island events are all about Desmond (who's the fucking man, by the way, in case you forgot).
Desmond is trying to find Faraday's mom so he checks it out, finds out that Faraday's ex girlfriend is totally fucked in the head by his shifty ass time traveling experiments. And the only reason she is alive is because of the funding by the curious Mr. Charles Widmore.
But on the island is where the good shit happens.
Turns out the island is in the 50's and they capture a young dude who ends up leading them back to his camp by accident.
This camp is run by Richard who still looks the same age.
Anywho, long story short; there is a nuclear bomb on the island and Faraday goes to check it out to find that it's cracked and tells them that they need to bury the thing with a lot of cement and lead.....
hmmmmm....where have we seen this before?
The Swan station?! Hey Oh!
the episode finally starts bringing in some interesting theories.
7 out of 10
Episode 4 -"The Little Prince"
Again, the off island shit sucks and this episode really focuses around the story of Aaron and who is trying to get custody of him.
It's Ben. Whatever.
The cool shit is on the island where Sawyer and the other guys have a couple of run-ins with their past selves. Not physically, but we see the light from when Locke was pounding on the hatch door right after Boone died and we see Aaron get brought into this world by Kate and Jin from a distance.
Luckily the present survivors didn't meet up with their past selves otherwise shit would have been catastrophic. They probably watched Back to the Future 2 and listened to Doc Brown's insight on that kind of stuff.
But the best part was when we saw Jin washed up in the water who then gets picked up by a young Danielle Rousseau and her team.
Sets up the next episode well.
7 out of 10
Episode - 5 "This Place Is Death"
We get to see some cool shit (briefly) with Rousseau and how her team gets killed (she ices them all). And then we Charlotte dies, finally. She wasn't well for quite some time.
But the coolest part was when Locke fell down the long ass well and snapped his fucking bone through his fucking leg.
The Papa Shephard shows up and tells Locke that he must turn the wheel and bring everyone back. And along the way die. "I guess that's why they call it a sacrifice"
but the worst part, again, was the Oceanic 6 shit off the island.
I just don't care about them.
7 out of 10
Episode 6 - "316"
There is NO time spent with our friends back on the island but instead we just cruise with Jack as he tries and gathers everyone to return to the island.
He just runs around hopelessly, always teary eyed for some reason, putting off reading the suicide note from Locke.
And somewhere along the way Kate shows up in his bed, all upset cuz she gave up Aaron or something, then bones Jack.
This was the lamest part of the episode and the least believable act Jack has ever done.
Jack probably has the biggest heart on the show, always putting himself in danger to save others, and he totally has feelings for Kate. I mean, he proposed to her for fuck's sake.
But when he returns home one night and Kate is there and all she says is "don't ask me where he is" or whatever and then they do it just pissed me off.
Not for one second would Jack choose poone over his nephew.
Dumb.
4 out of 10
Episode 7 "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham"
I had high hopes for this episode, I really did.
I think they could have done it a bit better and made it two episodes where Locke goes around trying to convince the O6 to come back but instead we only get less than 40 minutes of it.
And he only visits 5 of them.
And when he goes to kill himself Ben pops in to save him but then strangles him?!
Come on!
But what really gets my goat about this episode was the short screen time of Matthew Abaddon. He drives Locke all around and then finally Ben shoots him in cold blood.
I'm not too optimistic about seein him again which is a shame because I feel he could tell us a lot about Whidmore's real plans with the island and Locke.
5 out of 10
Episode 8 - "LaFleur"
Now we get back to the good shit; Sawyer and gang.
They meet back up with Faraday who decided to stay behind with Charlotte during her last few moments. And I have to admit, it's tough. Seeing Faraday totally distraught by this is heavy, but I'm assuming he gets over it.
But what I liked about this episode is how Sawyer got back into his element.
Pre-Island Sawyer was a con artist and this episode really showed that he is the fucking man (after Desmond, of course).
And I like how Juliette and Sawyer are together. I'm curious to see how the love situation is going to be with Kate now back in the mix. Should be interesting.
The only thing I'm curious about is where the fuck was Faraday when we were in 1977?
We saw Juliette, Sawyer, Jin and Miles all doing their new job with DHARMA but there was no word in Faraday and his whereabouts. Maybe he is doing work directly with Pierre Chang and the Orchid Station?
I don't know. But I'm curious to find out.
8 out of 10
So I guess my biggest problem with this season is when we are away from the island. I found the whole Oceanic 6 story arc a bit boring and I just didn't care for it, especially when something as bad ass as time travel was JUST introduced.
Yeah, OK, I know they had to show that story and I'm pretty sure there is still more info coming (why Ben was all bloody, how is Desmond coming back into the story, what really happened with Aaron) but for now I'm just happy everyone is back on the island so the main focus is on that shit.
I'm also curious to find a bit more about Caesar and Ilana.
I was a bit pissed they brought some new people into the equation, just like I was when they gave us Faraday and Miles and Charlotte and Frank, but now Faraday is not only one of my favorite characters but he seems to be a focal point of the show.
So I'll stay optimistic about them
I'm not saying I hate this season so far or even dislike it in any way, I just have some issues with it.
I'm still going to stay tuned and probably be just as obsessed with the show.
Just be glad the Oceanic 6 won't be taking up precious episodes.
I mean, I'm enjoying it and Wednesday is still my favorite night of the week where my buds come over and we watch the episode while making our predictions, comments and theories about the future of the show.
And after each episode I parade around asking people if they've seen the latest episode and rave about how amazing it was. And then a few days later when I actually sit back and reflect upon it I always come to the realization that it might not have been amazing as I once thought.
So I'm just going to look back at each episode so far:
Episode 1 - "Because You Left"
Awesome fucking episode.
The whole intro with Pierre Chang starting to do the orientation film for the Arrow Station was cool enough to witness but when the whole production comes to a halt because some shit's gone down at the site of the soon-to-be Orchid Station we wonder why the fuck is going to happen.
Some worker got screwed by the time travel shit while trying to drill into the wall but as Pierre Chang is trying to leave he bumps into Faraday!
WHAT THE FUCK?! Awesome. That's whats the fuck.
but this episode did a cool job of setting up the whole time travel scenario with Faraday (when hanging with Sawyer and crew) by saying the island is like a record skipping. But they're skipping through time. Bummer.
And the whole shit with Locke flashing in and out of different times and encountering old things like Ethan and Yemmi's old plane that crashed on the island was cool.
But Locke's interactions with Richard is really seemed to catch my interest.
Richard gave Locke the compass that we saw last season when Richard stopped by and saw a baby Locke.
The worse part of the episode was dealing with the Oceanic Six. I really don't care about them. I know they are going to come back to the Island so I just want to skip to when they show up.
I give it a 8 out of 10
Episode 2 - "The Lie"
This episode was OK.
Compared to the first episode it wasn't that great and considering the fact that it aired right after "Because You Left" didn't help.
It really centered around Hurley and left us little time on the island. Dumb.
Essentially, Hurley is on the lamb because Sayid killed some cats and now he has to protect himself and Sayid.
They go to his house. Save Sayid turns himself into the cops.
Real time waster that shit was.
The awesome stuff was on the island, but we didn't get that much.
The episode ended with the ones on the island being attacked by some flaming arrows and a couple of people get iced.
The end.
lame.
6 out of 10
Episode 3 - "Jughead"
Finally! Not only does the episode give us more time traveling sequences on the island but the off island events are all about Desmond (who's the fucking man, by the way, in case you forgot).
Desmond is trying to find Faraday's mom so he checks it out, finds out that Faraday's ex girlfriend is totally fucked in the head by his shifty ass time traveling experiments. And the only reason she is alive is because of the funding by the curious Mr. Charles Widmore.
But on the island is where the good shit happens.
Turns out the island is in the 50's and they capture a young dude who ends up leading them back to his camp by accident.
This camp is run by Richard who still looks the same age.
Anywho, long story short; there is a nuclear bomb on the island and Faraday goes to check it out to find that it's cracked and tells them that they need to bury the thing with a lot of cement and lead.....
hmmmmm....where have we seen this before?
The Swan station?! Hey Oh!
the episode finally starts bringing in some interesting theories.
7 out of 10
Episode 4 -"The Little Prince"
Again, the off island shit sucks and this episode really focuses around the story of Aaron and who is trying to get custody of him.
It's Ben. Whatever.
The cool shit is on the island where Sawyer and the other guys have a couple of run-ins with their past selves. Not physically, but we see the light from when Locke was pounding on the hatch door right after Boone died and we see Aaron get brought into this world by Kate and Jin from a distance.
Luckily the present survivors didn't meet up with their past selves otherwise shit would have been catastrophic. They probably watched Back to the Future 2 and listened to Doc Brown's insight on that kind of stuff.
But the best part was when we saw Jin washed up in the water who then gets picked up by a young Danielle Rousseau and her team.
Sets up the next episode well.
7 out of 10
Episode - 5 "This Place Is Death"
We get to see some cool shit (briefly) with Rousseau and how her team gets killed (she ices them all). And then we Charlotte dies, finally. She wasn't well for quite some time.
But the coolest part was when Locke fell down the long ass well and snapped his fucking bone through his fucking leg.
The Papa Shephard shows up and tells Locke that he must turn the wheel and bring everyone back. And along the way die. "I guess that's why they call it a sacrifice"
but the worst part, again, was the Oceanic 6 shit off the island.
I just don't care about them.
7 out of 10
Episode 6 - "316"
There is NO time spent with our friends back on the island but instead we just cruise with Jack as he tries and gathers everyone to return to the island.
He just runs around hopelessly, always teary eyed for some reason, putting off reading the suicide note from Locke.
And somewhere along the way Kate shows up in his bed, all upset cuz she gave up Aaron or something, then bones Jack.
This was the lamest part of the episode and the least believable act Jack has ever done.
Jack probably has the biggest heart on the show, always putting himself in danger to save others, and he totally has feelings for Kate. I mean, he proposed to her for fuck's sake.
But when he returns home one night and Kate is there and all she says is "don't ask me where he is" or whatever and then they do it just pissed me off.
Not for one second would Jack choose poone over his nephew.
Dumb.
4 out of 10
Episode 7 "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham"
I had high hopes for this episode, I really did.
I think they could have done it a bit better and made it two episodes where Locke goes around trying to convince the O6 to come back but instead we only get less than 40 minutes of it.
And he only visits 5 of them.
And when he goes to kill himself Ben pops in to save him but then strangles him?!
Come on!
But what really gets my goat about this episode was the short screen time of Matthew Abaddon. He drives Locke all around and then finally Ben shoots him in cold blood.
I'm not too optimistic about seein him again which is a shame because I feel he could tell us a lot about Whidmore's real plans with the island and Locke.
5 out of 10
Episode 8 - "LaFleur"
Now we get back to the good shit; Sawyer and gang.
They meet back up with Faraday who decided to stay behind with Charlotte during her last few moments. And I have to admit, it's tough. Seeing Faraday totally distraught by this is heavy, but I'm assuming he gets over it.
But what I liked about this episode is how Sawyer got back into his element.
Pre-Island Sawyer was a con artist and this episode really showed that he is the fucking man (after Desmond, of course).
And I like how Juliette and Sawyer are together. I'm curious to see how the love situation is going to be with Kate now back in the mix. Should be interesting.
The only thing I'm curious about is where the fuck was Faraday when we were in 1977?
We saw Juliette, Sawyer, Jin and Miles all doing their new job with DHARMA but there was no word in Faraday and his whereabouts. Maybe he is doing work directly with Pierre Chang and the Orchid Station?
I don't know. But I'm curious to find out.
8 out of 10
So I guess my biggest problem with this season is when we are away from the island. I found the whole Oceanic 6 story arc a bit boring and I just didn't care for it, especially when something as bad ass as time travel was JUST introduced.
Yeah, OK, I know they had to show that story and I'm pretty sure there is still more info coming (why Ben was all bloody, how is Desmond coming back into the story, what really happened with Aaron) but for now I'm just happy everyone is back on the island so the main focus is on that shit.
I'm also curious to find a bit more about Caesar and Ilana.
I was a bit pissed they brought some new people into the equation, just like I was when they gave us Faraday and Miles and Charlotte and Frank, but now Faraday is not only one of my favorite characters but he seems to be a focal point of the show.
So I'll stay optimistic about them
I'm not saying I hate this season so far or even dislike it in any way, I just have some issues with it.
I'm still going to stay tuned and probably be just as obsessed with the show.
Just be glad the Oceanic 6 won't be taking up precious episodes.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
6,5,3,7,4,1,2....
Fuck that book.
I was pretty disappointed with it, I'm not going to lie.
And I think my only reason for not liking it so much is because EVERYONE HYPED IT.
It's my brothers favorite in the series.
I think Dustin and Scotty and Matt Henson even said it was theirs too.
Danger Powers in my history class was hyping it up so much.
This is what I thought the book was going to be like before I started reading it:
Harry setting of by himself to find the Deathly Hallows. I thought the Deathly Hallows is going to be the final place where Harry and Voldermort duked it out. The word "hallow" isn't just an object that is considered holy, but it you can make a place hallow: "to hallow the battlefield" means to make it holy. I thought Big V was in some sacred place waiting to fuck harry up.
I was wrong.
I thought Ron and Hermione were going to go back to Hogwarts at Harry's request but that place was going to be an epic battle. I thought McGonagall was going to be made Headmistress and Hagrid was going to take over as the head of the Gryffindor house and Death Eaters were going around blasting their way through the school to find Harry and with one last shot at glory Ron threw himself in front of Hermione to save her but gets killed.
Wrong.
I thought a lot more people were going to be killed.
Lupin, Tonks, Mad-Eye, Dobby, Fred and Hagrid were the only main casualties. I though Hagrid and Ron and perhaps even Ginny would all meet their end in this book.
0 for 3
Then there is the whole bit with Snape at the end when he gets bitten by the snake and a shit ton of memories flow out of him that he wants Harry to see has me going back and forth on this.
I really liked Snape throughout the entire series, but when he killed Dumbledore in the last book I was furious. I felt betrayed by him!
So it was good to see that my gut feeling about him was right the whole time: Snape WAS on our side!
However, it just made Dumbledore look like an ass.
I thought Harry was going to die. I really thought that he would have to sacrifice himself in order to kill Voldermort the way Neo did in order to kill Agent Smith.
Sorta wrong. Harry was hit with the killing curse and sent to some sort of mental after life where he met up with Dumbledore and they sat on a bench and all Albus did was convince Harry to go back and kill Voldermort.
The final scene was kinda lame. Mrs. Weasley killed Bellatrix. Cool, but I would rather the spot light be on one of the kids. Maybe Ron since he is always longing to be the hero Harry is.
And then Harry kills Voldermort cuz Big V's killing curse is rebounded off of Harry's disarming curse?!?!
COME ON!
Bellatrix said if you want to kill someone you have to really want to. And a few chapters before Harry was able to perform the Cruciatus curse on a Death Eater to turn around and say "Wow, she was right! You do need to feel it".
I thougt that was a set up for Voldermort's death. I thought Harry would be so fucking pissed off after everything that's happened that he would be able to pull off the Killing Curse.
To make it more epic, pull it off non-verbally!
Nope.
and don't get me started on the fucking epilog.
I wanted to spuck.
Harry and Ginny ended up together = Cool
Ron and Hermione ending up together = Just fine
Harry and Ginny naming one of their sons Albus Severus Potter = Mega Lame
And Harry's whole little talk to baby Albus as he was about to aboard the Harry gave him a little speach about not hating whatever house he was going to be put in was not surprising.
But I want to know who's in charge of Hogwarts now!
They started talking about Neville so I was quick to assume that he was the headmaster until they said he was the professor of Herbology!
should have seen that one coming.
But my biggest problem was the final scene in the Room of Requirement.
Harry, Ron and Hermione get up there and make it transform itself into the place that everyone hides shit cuz Harry knows that the final Horcrux is in their.
But right before shit is resolved Malfoy and his two goons turn up.
But for some reason Crabbe goes fucking crazy and starts up this huge ass fire fight with random fire creatures and everyone needs to boogy.
Harry escapes on one broom and Ron and Hermione on the other.
Harry, being the nice dude that he is, decides that he wants to go back and save Malfoy and Goyle.
and they do.
WHAT THE FUCK?!?!
The five of them escape, leaving Crabbe to burn alive in the Room of Requirement.
I found this to be the biggest flaw in the whole book.
We've had 6 fucking years of Harry absolutely HATING Malfoy, always wanting to mess him up whenever he could, so why the change of heart now?
I thought this was dumb.
This book was not as great as I expected it to be.
It felt like JK Rowling was just unsure how to end the book. I think she wanted Harry to die, felt like he needed to die but at the last second decided against it and found a way to bring him back.
It felt like the whole middle of the book was just a way to to stall everyone until she figured out what really needed to be done, but was never celever enough to make it super interesting.
I'm sorry brother.
I'm sorry Dustin.
I'm sorry Matt Henson.
I'm sorry Scotty.
I'm sorry Danger Powers.
I'm sorry to everyone who thought this was the best book in the series.
It just wasn't mine.
I was pretty bummed with it.
The 6th book is my favorite, then the 5th, then 3, then 7, then 4, then 1, then 2.
will I still see the movie?
fuckin a I will
I was pretty disappointed with it, I'm not going to lie.
And I think my only reason for not liking it so much is because EVERYONE HYPED IT.
It's my brothers favorite in the series.
I think Dustin and Scotty and Matt Henson even said it was theirs too.
Danger Powers in my history class was hyping it up so much.
This is what I thought the book was going to be like before I started reading it:
Harry setting of by himself to find the Deathly Hallows. I thought the Deathly Hallows is going to be the final place where Harry and Voldermort duked it out. The word "hallow" isn't just an object that is considered holy, but it you can make a place hallow: "to hallow the battlefield" means to make it holy. I thought Big V was in some sacred place waiting to fuck harry up.
I was wrong.
I thought Ron and Hermione were going to go back to Hogwarts at Harry's request but that place was going to be an epic battle. I thought McGonagall was going to be made Headmistress and Hagrid was going to take over as the head of the Gryffindor house and Death Eaters were going around blasting their way through the school to find Harry and with one last shot at glory Ron threw himself in front of Hermione to save her but gets killed.
Wrong.
I thought a lot more people were going to be killed.
Lupin, Tonks, Mad-Eye, Dobby, Fred and Hagrid were the only main casualties. I though Hagrid and Ron and perhaps even Ginny would all meet their end in this book.
0 for 3
Then there is the whole bit with Snape at the end when he gets bitten by the snake and a shit ton of memories flow out of him that he wants Harry to see has me going back and forth on this.
I really liked Snape throughout the entire series, but when he killed Dumbledore in the last book I was furious. I felt betrayed by him!
So it was good to see that my gut feeling about him was right the whole time: Snape WAS on our side!
However, it just made Dumbledore look like an ass.
I thought Harry was going to die. I really thought that he would have to sacrifice himself in order to kill Voldermort the way Neo did in order to kill Agent Smith.
Sorta wrong. Harry was hit with the killing curse and sent to some sort of mental after life where he met up with Dumbledore and they sat on a bench and all Albus did was convince Harry to go back and kill Voldermort.
The final scene was kinda lame. Mrs. Weasley killed Bellatrix. Cool, but I would rather the spot light be on one of the kids. Maybe Ron since he is always longing to be the hero Harry is.
And then Harry kills Voldermort cuz Big V's killing curse is rebounded off of Harry's disarming curse?!?!
COME ON!
Bellatrix said if you want to kill someone you have to really want to. And a few chapters before Harry was able to perform the Cruciatus curse on a Death Eater to turn around and say "Wow, she was right! You do need to feel it".
I thougt that was a set up for Voldermort's death. I thought Harry would be so fucking pissed off after everything that's happened that he would be able to pull off the Killing Curse.
To make it more epic, pull it off non-verbally!
Nope.
and don't get me started on the fucking epilog.
I wanted to spuck.
Harry and Ginny ended up together = Cool
Ron and Hermione ending up together = Just fine
Harry and Ginny naming one of their sons Albus Severus Potter = Mega Lame
And Harry's whole little talk to baby Albus as he was about to aboard the Harry gave him a little speach about not hating whatever house he was going to be put in was not surprising.
But I want to know who's in charge of Hogwarts now!
They started talking about Neville so I was quick to assume that he was the headmaster until they said he was the professor of Herbology!
should have seen that one coming.
But my biggest problem was the final scene in the Room of Requirement.
Harry, Ron and Hermione get up there and make it transform itself into the place that everyone hides shit cuz Harry knows that the final Horcrux is in their.
But right before shit is resolved Malfoy and his two goons turn up.
But for some reason Crabbe goes fucking crazy and starts up this huge ass fire fight with random fire creatures and everyone needs to boogy.
Harry escapes on one broom and Ron and Hermione on the other.
Harry, being the nice dude that he is, decides that he wants to go back and save Malfoy and Goyle.
and they do.
WHAT THE FUCK?!?!
The five of them escape, leaving Crabbe to burn alive in the Room of Requirement.
I found this to be the biggest flaw in the whole book.
We've had 6 fucking years of Harry absolutely HATING Malfoy, always wanting to mess him up whenever he could, so why the change of heart now?
I thought this was dumb.
This book was not as great as I expected it to be.
It felt like JK Rowling was just unsure how to end the book. I think she wanted Harry to die, felt like he needed to die but at the last second decided against it and found a way to bring him back.
It felt like the whole middle of the book was just a way to to stall everyone until she figured out what really needed to be done, but was never celever enough to make it super interesting.
I'm sorry brother.
I'm sorry Dustin.
I'm sorry Matt Henson.
I'm sorry Scotty.
I'm sorry Danger Powers.
I'm sorry to everyone who thought this was the best book in the series.
It just wasn't mine.
I was pretty bummed with it.
The 6th book is my favorite, then the 5th, then 3, then 7, then 4, then 1, then 2.
will I still see the movie?
fuckin a I will
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Frustration from the 7th Book
The past week or so I have been laying in bed, anxiously, pondering over the last fucking Harry Potter book. Not because I hate it, but because every since the major death in the 6th book it's apparent that nobody is safe.
And in the beginning of this book two major characters get killed right off the bat.
But every since the action in that book has stopped I've felt like I've been in sort of a dry spell where it is purely story driven, which isn't a bad thing but I need some shit to get sorted out.
[If you haven't read these books then you probably won't know what the fuck I'm going off about or some stuff might get ruined for you]
First off, I'm past the half way point in the book and they have only just destroyed the third Horcrux (the first one is the diary in the second book, and Dumbeldore was destroyed the ring in the last book) leaving us with three more, one of those actually being Voldermort.
Now, this is all good, but I am over the half way point and they only just found out how to destroy it?! And there are three more?!!
Come on guys.
The other thing that really gets my goat about this book is the fucking five or six chapters of down time! They started off with hella action, took a three page break, more action, tiny break, more action, and now it's fucking Harry and Hermione chilling in a tent moving locations every few days or so. Ron packed up his shit and took off cuz he was frustrated witht he fact that Harry has no fucking plan. Well Ron, I'm about to follow your lead and just wait until the final movie comes out to see how this story ends.
Maybe not.
I know I should read it. My brother and Dustin and Scotty and Matt Henson all claim this book rules but so far I don't see why.
During badminton on Monday night, Dustin told me I was right on the brink of this book becoming my favorite....
I have read a good chunk since then and the only exciting thing is Ron has returned and they destroyed the Horcrux they had.
Dumb.
The next chapter is named after Mr. Lovegood, who we're made to believe is bad?
I don't know dude.
All I want is for Harry to fuck the shit out of Ginny and marry her, Ron and Hermione to FINALLY stop being little bitches and hook up, and for Snape and Malfoy to get what's coming to them.
And as for the prophecy, "one can't live while the other one survives' or whatever, I think it would be more epic for Harry to die trying to kill You-Know-Who.
at least it would make these boring chapters more enjoyable...
I'll read on and update you.
-A few hours and a couple chapters later-
What the fuck?!
I finished 4 chapters and the biggest thing that happened was Dobby getting iced by Bellatrix. (more on that later)
The first new chapter was called "Xenophilius Lovegood". It was about Luna's father.
Turns out dude got his daughter taken by the Ministry/Death Eaters. And he thinks if he turns Harry in he'll get her back.
wrong! they escape (surprise!)
The next two chapters are about the title of the book; the Deathly Hallows. Turns out that Harry might not have to destroy all of the Horcrux's after all! As long has he posses the Deathly Hallows;
Invisibility Cloak, check.
The Resurrection Stone, check (I think).
And finally, the Elder Wand. This is the only one Harry is without but he just ended up with Mr. Ollivander the wand maker.....convenient. So I'm sure Ollivander either has it at the ready for our hero, or can tell Harry where to go.
And then there was the brisk "fight" scene at the Malfoy Manner. When I read the title of this chapter I got super stoked.
'Finally!', I thought. 'Finally someone significant is gonna get fucking killed! Malfoy and Lucious maybe?! Could Harry really pull off a two-fer?!'
Apparently not. They all escaped (surprise, again) and on their way out Dobby gets hit with a knife.
Too be honest, the house elves pissed me off; I always found their whining too much to handle. I always wanted to punch Dobby whenever he was present "Yes, Mr. Harry Potter", "You must not hurt Harry Potter", "Please, sir. Let dobby blow you...". Enough dude.
And the fucking house elf from the 4th book, whatever the fuck her name was, made me skip through pages at a time until she had finally gone back to the kitchen where she belonged (I'm not being sexist, it's just where the house elves worked at Hogwarts.
She was Barty Crouch's old elf and NEVER stopped crying in Goblet of Fire.
And Hermione wanting to start S.P.E.W. makes me want to...well...spew.
House elves are obnoxious and I honestly wish they were not a part of the Harry Potter universe.
Now, Dobby's last act of heroism was pretty awesome and brave, don't get me wrong, I'm just not mourning this death like I was about Hedwig's.
I'm not gonna lie, this book has really frustrated me and I was super stoked to read it.
Now if Danger Powers (this dude in my history class) and Dustin are right, then I should be right on the cusp of this book becoming my favorite.
It's been 10 chapters sicne Dustin said I was on the cusp, and so far those chapters have only pissed me off more.
This books ending better be worth it.
Alright, I'm going to continue reading and work on my next blog which will be about the shit that is frustrating me about LOST.
be good. one love. and RIP Dobby.
And in the beginning of this book two major characters get killed right off the bat.
But every since the action in that book has stopped I've felt like I've been in sort of a dry spell where it is purely story driven, which isn't a bad thing but I need some shit to get sorted out.
[If you haven't read these books then you probably won't know what the fuck I'm going off about or some stuff might get ruined for you]
First off, I'm past the half way point in the book and they have only just destroyed the third Horcrux (the first one is the diary in the second book, and Dumbeldore was destroyed the ring in the last book) leaving us with three more, one of those actually being Voldermort.
Now, this is all good, but I am over the half way point and they only just found out how to destroy it?! And there are three more?!!
Come on guys.
The other thing that really gets my goat about this book is the fucking five or six chapters of down time! They started off with hella action, took a three page break, more action, tiny break, more action, and now it's fucking Harry and Hermione chilling in a tent moving locations every few days or so. Ron packed up his shit and took off cuz he was frustrated witht he fact that Harry has no fucking plan. Well Ron, I'm about to follow your lead and just wait until the final movie comes out to see how this story ends.
Maybe not.
I know I should read it. My brother and Dustin and Scotty and Matt Henson all claim this book rules but so far I don't see why.
During badminton on Monday night, Dustin told me I was right on the brink of this book becoming my favorite....
I have read a good chunk since then and the only exciting thing is Ron has returned and they destroyed the Horcrux they had.
Dumb.
The next chapter is named after Mr. Lovegood, who we're made to believe is bad?
I don't know dude.
All I want is for Harry to fuck the shit out of Ginny and marry her, Ron and Hermione to FINALLY stop being little bitches and hook up, and for Snape and Malfoy to get what's coming to them.
And as for the prophecy, "one can't live while the other one survives' or whatever, I think it would be more epic for Harry to die trying to kill You-Know-Who.
at least it would make these boring chapters more enjoyable...
I'll read on and update you.
-A few hours and a couple chapters later-
What the fuck?!
I finished 4 chapters and the biggest thing that happened was Dobby getting iced by Bellatrix. (more on that later)
The first new chapter was called "Xenophilius Lovegood". It was about Luna's father.
Turns out dude got his daughter taken by the Ministry/Death Eaters. And he thinks if he turns Harry in he'll get her back.
wrong! they escape (surprise!)
The next two chapters are about the title of the book; the Deathly Hallows. Turns out that Harry might not have to destroy all of the Horcrux's after all! As long has he posses the Deathly Hallows;
Invisibility Cloak, check.
The Resurrection Stone, check (I think).
And finally, the Elder Wand. This is the only one Harry is without but he just ended up with Mr. Ollivander the wand maker.....convenient. So I'm sure Ollivander either has it at the ready for our hero, or can tell Harry where to go.
And then there was the brisk "fight" scene at the Malfoy Manner. When I read the title of this chapter I got super stoked.
'Finally!', I thought. 'Finally someone significant is gonna get fucking killed! Malfoy and Lucious maybe?! Could Harry really pull off a two-fer?!'
Apparently not. They all escaped (surprise, again) and on their way out Dobby gets hit with a knife.
Too be honest, the house elves pissed me off; I always found their whining too much to handle. I always wanted to punch Dobby whenever he was present "Yes, Mr. Harry Potter", "You must not hurt Harry Potter", "Please, sir. Let dobby blow you...". Enough dude.
And the fucking house elf from the 4th book, whatever the fuck her name was, made me skip through pages at a time until she had finally gone back to the kitchen where she belonged (I'm not being sexist, it's just where the house elves worked at Hogwarts.
She was Barty Crouch's old elf and NEVER stopped crying in Goblet of Fire.
And Hermione wanting to start S.P.E.W. makes me want to...well...spew.
House elves are obnoxious and I honestly wish they were not a part of the Harry Potter universe.
Now, Dobby's last act of heroism was pretty awesome and brave, don't get me wrong, I'm just not mourning this death like I was about Hedwig's.
I'm not gonna lie, this book has really frustrated me and I was super stoked to read it.
Now if Danger Powers (this dude in my history class) and Dustin are right, then I should be right on the cusp of this book becoming my favorite.
It's been 10 chapters sicne Dustin said I was on the cusp, and so far those chapters have only pissed me off more.
This books ending better be worth it.
Alright, I'm going to continue reading and work on my next blog which will be about the shit that is frustrating me about LOST.
be good. one love. and RIP Dobby.
Monday, February 23, 2009
My First Time...
It wasn't my total idea to start a blog. It was actually Robert, this dude I work with (he's kinda my boss). When I went into work yesterday I was discussing LOST with Meredith and Robert was eavesdropping and suggested I start a blog about LOST.
That was a cool idea except that I don't think I'm nowhere smart enough to have a legit blog about that fucking show. Especially if I have to compete with Doc Jensen's article he publishes every week. Dude's a genius.
So I'm gonna use the blog to just write about random events that happen to me. I don't expect a lot of people to read this, but I figured I'd just start one where I can write about pretty much whatever I want and people can choose to read it if they want.
I was thinking for my first blog I'd just give a little info about myself:
-My name is Patrick William Dear 2.5
I consider myself to be the second-and-a-half because my grandfather and father are both called William Randolph Dear. When my brother was born they wanted him to inherit the name and be the third but he dodged that bullet and is Matthew Alan. Then I came along and my grandfather and dad wanted me to adopt the name, again my mom didn't want it happen so I was named Patrick after her grandfather but took William as my middle name as a compromise thus giving me 2/3rds of their name. Hence Patrick William Dear 2.5
-I'll be 21 in May. I'm pretty stoked.
-I have an unhealthy addiction to LOST. In fact, I'm sure that at least once a week I will dedicate part of a blog to my theories, the theories of my friends and that of Doc Jensen's.
-I'm dating the coolest fucking girl on the planet. Her name is Alexandra Thrapp. I've known her since the second half of high school and the I love the story of how we got together (if you want to know it, let me know and I'll tell you). She is studying in Italy right now and I miss her more than words can describe. She is also the person who suggested the title of my blog.
-I'm Welsh and damn proud of it.
-The title of my blog is a reference to Arrested Development.
-My blog url is a reference to LOST
-I'm pretty open about a lot of stuff. Give me a few drinks and I can guarantee that you'll know more about me then you wanted to.
That'll do for now. I'm sure my next one will be Thursday or Friday after I digest LOST and gather a ton of different theories.
But right now Scotty is sitting next to me playing Wii Sports while we are listening Streetlight Manifesto waiting for taco night to kick off.
Later.
That was a cool idea except that I don't think I'm nowhere smart enough to have a legit blog about that fucking show. Especially if I have to compete with Doc Jensen's article he publishes every week. Dude's a genius.
So I'm gonna use the blog to just write about random events that happen to me. I don't expect a lot of people to read this, but I figured I'd just start one where I can write about pretty much whatever I want and people can choose to read it if they want.
I was thinking for my first blog I'd just give a little info about myself:
-My name is Patrick William Dear 2.5
I consider myself to be the second-and-a-half because my grandfather and father are both called William Randolph Dear. When my brother was born they wanted him to inherit the name and be the third but he dodged that bullet and is Matthew Alan. Then I came along and my grandfather and dad wanted me to adopt the name, again my mom didn't want it happen so I was named Patrick after her grandfather but took William as my middle name as a compromise thus giving me 2/3rds of their name. Hence Patrick William Dear 2.5
-I'll be 21 in May. I'm pretty stoked.
-I have an unhealthy addiction to LOST. In fact, I'm sure that at least once a week I will dedicate part of a blog to my theories, the theories of my friends and that of Doc Jensen's.
-I'm dating the coolest fucking girl on the planet. Her name is Alexandra Thrapp. I've known her since the second half of high school and the I love the story of how we got together (if you want to know it, let me know and I'll tell you). She is studying in Italy right now and I miss her more than words can describe. She is also the person who suggested the title of my blog.
-I'm Welsh and damn proud of it.
-The title of my blog is a reference to Arrested Development.
-My blog url is a reference to LOST
-I'm pretty open about a lot of stuff. Give me a few drinks and I can guarantee that you'll know more about me then you wanted to.
That'll do for now. I'm sure my next one will be Thursday or Friday after I digest LOST and gather a ton of different theories.
But right now Scotty is sitting next to me playing Wii Sports while we are listening Streetlight Manifesto waiting for taco night to kick off.
Later.
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