Keith would listen to rap music.

Kieth is one of my heroes. You see all these air brushes of Jimi Hendrix with his guitar or Bob Marley with some sort of herb, but what I want will top all those, I want a paint pen drawing of Keith Moon with a bottle of gin in one hand and his drumsticks in the other.

John Muir was a bad ass?

Did you know John Muir was a bad ass? You see, he came from a time when men were men. This guy had crazy California love. Nas went to war with FOX over some stupid girl fight with Bill Oriley but Mr. Muir went to war with the US Government over the Hetch Hetchy Valley. If you want to hear a very fiery speach (it's not in rhyme so it isn't all that good-RIP Mac Dre) then read his speech about the preservation of Hetch Hetchy. Anyways, a great book to read now that summer is here is The Yosemite by John Muirm. I don't think there is a person in this world who could go to Yosemite valley and not be in awe. You drive into this surreal valley with verticle granite walls rising thousands of feet from the floor with wierd allien monoliths hanging from them; it is almost difficult to believe what you are seeing as you gawk out the car window.



All this is fine and well for us normies, but not for John. You see, John is a man who appreciates the details. Read The Yosemite and see what I am talking about. You will know EVERYTHING about the Yosemite valley after you have read this book, and the thing is, the whole thing is actually interesting not to mention that it is broken up into a multitude of small very manageable chapters for what I call "bathroom reading", which is the ability to actually feel like you accomplished something during your ten to fifteen minutes of reading.



Back to the original subject-John is a bad ass. In the middle of a huge storm he clims to the top of this 100 foot pine tree just to see what it's like and the top of the tree is swaying like 20 feet as he gets up there-and keep in mind this is all sans rope. He also spent a night ona glacier in Alaska without a sleeping bag or any modern luxuries. To top it all off is the fact that he parties with Indians who have a drinking problem. Yep, brother gets down. Read all about his travels in his books; I suggest "The Yosemite" and "My Travels in Alaska" both books are plenty dope.

Senhor Jose

I had to go by the civic center in Santa Ana today and as I looked down on the piece of paper I had written my destination I couldn't help but think about this book I read a couple of months ago. Senhor Jose works at the Hall of Records and lives right next door to them. Today I was on a mission to head out to the Hall of Finance and Records. I kept thinking of poor old Jose as I had to walk up to the various clerks there, wondering what they would have done if they were confronted by the imposing Hall of Records that Jose had to deal with, with stacks of files a hundred feet tall and the the hall itself was o complicated that clerks needed an Arachne's thread to make sure that everyone found there way back--this was installed after a researcher was lost in the Hall for two weeks and survived off cardboard.



Look at "All the Names" at Amazon.com

The 10 Million Dollar Movie

I really dig this movie. I've probably seen it twenty times. It cost $10,000,000 to make it way back in 1962 and I think it is my favorite D-Day movie. It has all the black and white movie stars you could ever want: John Wayne, Henry Fonda, and Sean Connery. The movie is great, and all the characters speak their own languages with subtitle sin english. The biggest dissapointment is that Charlton Heston was considered for the role that John Wayne played and personally, I really think they blew it on that one.

Little bit of info from wikipedia: "During the filming of the landings at Omaha Beach, the American soldiers appearing as extras did not want to jump off the landing craft into the water because they thought it would be too cold. Robert Mitchum, who played General Norman Cota, became disgusted with their trepidation. He jumped in first, at which point the soldiers had no choice but to follow his example." -- Wikipedia

Crashers!!!!

I was happening to do a little blog related browsing and was looking at the list of AFI's top 100 movies of all time. I read all 100 of them in eager anticipation but in the end I was left so disappointed.

Where was The North Shore?

But please do not worry because we here at Growl-Matic feel strongly that it is your right and duty to get only the best surfing cinema that Hollywood has to offer. So please sit back and enjoy this sweet little clip from Big Wednesday --





*note that Matt Johnson was my idol all through high school, I mean, come on, the man had it all.

Why I love short stories.

You find a novel and you start reading it; and before you know it, you are married to it. It sinks it's claws into you and grabs you; and before you know it, you are committed to this 400 page book. Not with short stories. You can come home from a long day at school or work, open up your favorite book of short stories (or maybe even your copy of The Ratty Reader) sit down and read for fifteen minutes. You turn your mind on and get your imagination going and in just a short time everything melts away. My good friend Kurt put it best when he says that short stories are a form of "Buddhist catnaps". Just try to read a good short story by any of the great writers and see if you do not feel better afterwards.

This is my applause [applause] to the masters of the short story. Good for you Flannery! Yeah Kurt! Keep it up Mr. Twain!

Next time you head to the bookstore for some new reads, check out these titles:

The Complete Stories -- Flannery O'Connor
Welcome to the Monkey House -- Kurt Vonnegut
The Best Short Stories of Mark Twain

ALF!!!!!

I found this website called Hulu a couple months back and have really been digging it. It has some great things to watch on it, including random tv shows. I remember this show from when I was a little kid. Do you remember Alf? I'm just watching the first episode right now as I post this blog and all I can say is that this show is KAAAAA-----ORRRRRRRNY!!!

Loked Out Hood - Dj Quik

Dj Quik is one of the best rappers around. He came from nowhere at 18 years old in Compton and went on to sign the rap world's first six figure contract. He produced all his own beat early on and still does most of the beats for his songs that hes producing now. You gotta love this song all about living a day in Compton. You see, the main reason this song is so good is it has a story line. This song isn't just some black man in a recording booth making rhymes about why he is so much better then another man and throwing in a few racial slurs and cuss words here and there, but an actual story.

Enjoy!!!

Nas Goes to War With Fox

Nas is at war with FOX!!! Bill O'Riley's at odds with Nas yo.

Why Soylent Green just didn't do it for me.

Have you seen Soylent Green? I just have. Charlton Heston is possibly the greatest over over actor, in fact, it makes me wonder what it would be like to see him teach a Sunday school class; the man is intense. For those of you who haven't seen the movie you might as well stop reading here because the rest of this blog is an in depth analyses as to why Soylent Green didn't do it for me.

The movie is almost great in my opinion. Some may say that if you've seen one Charlton Heston movie then you have seen them all. I disagree. He really never ever reaches his full sneering and yelling potential in any one performance and to truly understand the world of CH you must see all of his movies-kind of like Paully Shore.

The allusions to Kurt Vonnegut stories are numerous and pretty obvious, and for a yuppy Vonnegut groupie like me, that is always a plus. Seriously, they should have had the old man dial 2br02b to just seal the deal. I wonder if Kurt had that idea originally or if he had borrowed the concept from somebody else?

Now to why Soylent Green just didn't do it for me. You begin to suspect what is going on as CH climbs into the garbage truck and heads past the security checkpoint. Spoiler alert: (as CH says) "SOYLENT GREEN IS MADE FROM PEOPLE!!!". So now CH goes back into the city to let this terrible secret out and is taken away, but, what happens next? I was left feeling so let down that the story ended right then and there.

I am announcing here on this blog my intentions to WRITE A SEQUEL TO SOYLENT GREEN!!!

Buy "Soylent Green" from Amazon.com

Player Piano -- Kurt Vonnegut

I think that it is only fitting that my very first post be a book review of my favorite book of all time.

Kurt Vonnegut's first novel was Player Piano. It is an awesome tale of what could easily have been after World War II. It describes a world in which people have essentially been replaced by machines and because of their inherent need to feel needed and useful have lost their identities as members of the American culture. The novel is a beautiful examples of Vonnegut's ability to portray what might possibly be and at the same time invite the reader in to examine the complexities of our lives as humans. In typical luddite fashion--Kurt has admitted that he suffers from this affliction, or blessing if you may--Vonnegut portrays the progress in technology made during World War II as running amok and essentially taking over the whole country. Through the satire and wit though there is a very important message in this cautionary tale. As his earliest novel the message is portrayed fairly bluntly; it is interesting to compare this first novel to some of his later works in which the irony and wit almost seem to cloud the subtle messages and intentions of the text almost completely.

Buy "Player Piano" from Amazon.com