"Where's the Phone?!"

In 2001, former members of The State, Michael Showalter and David Wain released a gem of a comedy in a way only their brilliant minds are capable of delivering. Directed by Wain and starred by many well-known actors, Wet Hot American Summer is an excruciatingly funny film worth a little of your time.

The best way to describe the movie is simply, 'silly'. This has to be one of the silliest movies with a plot (sort of) that you will ever see.

Some of the actors in the flick fit right into the mood of their characters; the former members of The State are natural fits for the pretentious and cynical people Showalter and Wain created. However, it's actors like Janeane Garofalo, David Hyde Pierce, and Christopher Meloni that deliver unexpectedly bizarre comedy.

Here are a couple of standout scenes from this constantly funny film.








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(Re)-Introducing Chester...

Since we're on the kick of reinstitutionalizing shows on MTV that were actually of worth, here is the next stroll down memory lane.

The Show was called Sifl and Olly, and just like The State, it was ahead of its time. Perhaps most people didn't get the humor in this show either, but that's just the way things go sometimes.

For this first installment, it's time to get acquainted with Chester... a loveable little guy with a wonderfully vague sense of reality.









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Just a few more weeks until the release of The State on DVD.

The State - MTV Shows

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Cotopaxi Video

Here is the first video for the upcoming LP by the Mars Volta. The song is Cotopaxi, one of eight new tracks off of Octahedron.

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Stanley Cup Champions

Congratulations are in order for the Pittsburgh Penguins, winning their third Stanley Cup in team history. It was a dramatic Game 7 victory for the young Penguins, holding off the defending champion Red Wings in Detroit by a 2-1 final score in the rematch of last year's final.

Sidney Crosby became the youngest captain to ever hoist and carry Lord Stanley's trophy at the age of 21 years . "The Next One" has begun to write his own history and follow in the path carved out by the greatest player of them all, Wayne Gretzky. Crosby had a tremendous playoff run throughout the playoffs and managed to stay in the final game despite suffering an injury sometime early in the contest. He only managed to play one shift in the third period, but you would have to break the player's legs in order to be taken out of a game 7 in the Stanley Cup Finals.

Despite the great show of leadership and skill throughout, it wasn't Sid The Kid that earned the coveted Conn Smythe award for most valuable player in the playoffs. That accolade would go to fellow first-round draft choice Evgeni Malkin who equalled Crosby in performance and helped carry the team through the grueling final match. Malkin finished with 14 goals and 22 assists to lead the playoffs and was as dominant with the puck as ever.

The Penguins had figured to be building a young, strong and talented team that would compete for championships for years to come. However, most probably never imagined this young team to achieve the main goal of winning a Cup so soon in their development. The team has now been to the last two Stanley Cup Finals, and in winning one of them with their four best players being no older than 24 years old, the rest of the National Hockey League has plenty to worry about for the next several years to come.

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The Father/Son Race

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Meet Jackson

Jackson, 8-1/2 years old

Turkish Van

6lbs

About 10" tall

Jackson is from Cortland NY, found huddled up at a store front door on Main St., and looking extremely frightened. I was on my way to a bar just a few doors down and heard her little cries. She was so dirty and roughed up that I thought she was a gray cat and not prevailing white. When I bent down to see her she came right to me and curled up underneath my body as I crouched down to pet her. At this point I already started feeling that I couldn't let this poor little cat go on without some help. She was dirty, had bugs crawling in her fur, sported several cuts on her head and mouth and was obviously malnurished because I could see just about every bone in her body.

The next thing to happen is what sealed her fate and would make her part of my life from that day forward. A drunk (possibly homeless) man came up to me as I was kneeling on the ground with the cat and was surprisingly interested in what was going on. The man appeared to be in about as good of shape as Jackson was at the time, minus the visible cuts, but also with missing teeth. He attempted to bend down himself and pet the cat as I was doing, only Jackson didn't react to this man with the same pathetic desperation as she had for me only minutes prior. The second his hand was about to touch her, she took one look at the opening of my left leg of the baggy shorts that I was wearing and proceeded to climb up as high as she could to get away from him. Without saying another word, the man just stood up and continued on his way down the street.

Jackson was now lodged up in my shorts so I couldn't even stand up yet. Once I coerced her to come back out, I scooped her up in my arm and held her up high on my chest. Looked her straight in the eye and decided right then and there that I would take her back to my apartment and take care of her.

Eight years later, Jackson has proven to be a wonderful cat and shows all of the love and affection you could possibly get from one animal, just some of the many positive traits she has shown.

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'The State' Complete Series DVD

Somebody finally got it right! On Tuesday, July 14th, the full series of the highly underappreciated sketch comedy show The State will be released on DVD.

It was a long time coming, but with the success of the Comedy Central hit show Reno 911 and movies like Wet Hot American Summer, Balls of Fury, and Role Models, the laughable geniuses from the early 1990's MTV hit will be back on screens in living rooms across the globe.

Going to high school in the early 90's was definitely one of the better times in my life. Enjoying the New York Rangers first Stanley Cup victory in half a century back in 1994 was certainly a high point in this very exciting time. But saturating my memory banks for that early part of the decade were all of the good times I had with friends who I grew up... sharing laughs, playing sports, sharing lots of laughs, finding trouble without ever getting caught, and oh yeah... more laughs.

I basically live my life with the notion that you can't really get through each day being serious the majority of the time; you need to laugh. Nothing made my friends and I fall to the floor in near paralized laughter like the State. The show may have been ahead of it's time with it's brand of humor and style of delivery. Although, most of the people who I ask about it (and know it) say they liked it as well.

The show involved eleven very talented young comics, most of which could all write and act, resulting in a fantastic range of comedy that never seemed to disappoint in the laugh department.

The troupe of comics were brought together on the campus of NYU with the idea to bring their own individual thoughts and ideas together as a group to maximize their audiences reaction. With the TV show on MTV some years later, the group would in their own way take the torch similarly carried by the Canadien super troupe The Kids in the Hall; bringing their theatrical sketch comedy to television and getting the same laughs from it.

Though only three seasons, The State was a sure success in the fact that it spawned many talented actors and writers that would go on to do a lot of well-known movies and television shows you see today. A DVD release at last maybe means a new crop of fans emerges to the scene, and hopefully the long overdue respect this show finally deserves.

Here is a classic sketch, a spoof on the closing credits of the 80's cult flick, "The Cannonball Run"... enjoy:

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Article from Kerrang Magazine: Octahedron

Thanks to cm1682 from the band's official fan forum the commatorium, we get a little bit of insight from Omar Rodriquez Lopez about the new album 'Octahedron'.

In the passage the band leader describes the album as being about disappearances and possible kidnappings of two friends when they were young kids. So there does seem to be a theme for the newest LP as the previouse releases have done in the past. The article reads as follows:

The Mars Volta guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez has told Kerrang! that their forthcoming album, Octahedron, is based on sudden disappearances and kidnapping."When we were kids, we had these friends called Patrick and Tarzan - yes, his real name - in El Paso.

There is a place called Elephant Butte, where all the high school students go to party. They disappeared one weekend and their story became legend among our group of friends.The concept about still not knowing what happened and the possibility of running into them one day was something very interesting to us. People are able to ponder endlessly about their whereabouts and there's never closure.

"The album was recorded in Omar's home studio in Naucalpan, Mexico. The guitarist reveals that after the "darkness, aggression and pure energy" of the band's previous album, 2007's TBiG, he wanted to take the band's prog rock in a more mellow direction.

"Bedlam was such a dark claustrophobic record. Everything comes in waves and the fact I'd just made my most aggressive record, the stars aligned and it felt natural to make a record like Octahedron. It was the only place left to go.

After every record, the only fear I have is if I'll repeat myself in the future. If I record anything that sounds like the previous release, I'll throw it away."

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The Mars Volta are back in three weeks to come grab you by the synapses with their release of their fifth studio album entitled "Octahedron".

The new album is already heavily saturated in fans pouring attention; as cheers and criticism fill the music forums even with the official/unofficial releasing of only half of the album thusfar. The band's following is as popular as ever and this very subject is as hotly debated amongst the brethren as the evolution of the band over five LP's. The early returns have been divided even with most fans enjoying what they've tasted so far, despite certain expectations they may have had.

The few official album reviews that have been posted have come with somewhat mixed results also, some suggesting that Volta brainchild Omar Rodriquez Lopez has stripped down musically and gone away from the bands original firepower to entrigue listeners of a different elk. Mikael Wood of Spin writes that Omar Rodriguez Lopez has, "diluted the potency of the band's brand" (http://www.spin.com/reviews/mars-volta-octahedron-warner-bros) but still gives an overall positive review.

Clashmusic.com writes, "Unfortunately things don't really hold at this high point, and while ‘Octahedron’ as a whole is passably interesting, it just doesn't reach a level of experimentation that we've come to expect from the band. It's certainly admirable to take things in a different, musically ‘mellower’ direction, but The Mars Volta simply haven't dragged themselves far enough down their chosen path." (http://www.clashmusic.com/reviews/the-mars-volta-octahedron).

Whether the reviews are official or preliminary fan fodder, the majority of the gripe surrounding this album seemingly has to do with the different mentality and vibe of the new music. It's either too slow or as some have put it, 'not enough effort put into it'... a 'lazy album from Omar'. These comments are based on the listeners' maxed threshold for the Volta's musical endeavors. Of course, it's not up to the musician to please every listener or supporter of their craft. Everyone has the right to like or dislike whatever they wish, but some fanatics are acting as if they've been betrayed or let down and that's too bad.

So far this album has sucked me in, funneling everything I love about this band into a newer and different direction. Instead of being thrust into a perch of sound and sudden-paced energy, I have found myself carried along with each track by it's haunting waves of lyrical and musical storytelling. Like light beams piercing through a heavy fog, Cedric Bixler Zavala's vocals navigate through more melodic arraingements than a typical Mars Volta album but it still has the power in the presentation and end result. Chilling and dramatic in nature.

The four tracks to date are spectacular additions to the library and anticapation of the June 23rd release date for the full LP is at the highest level. I'm already passing this album at 50%!

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Here is one of the band's promotional websites for Octahedron: http://www.intotheoctahedron.com/

embedded you will find the singles of "Since We've Been Wrong" and "Cotopaxi"... enjoy!