By the by, this moment is so great that I would cheat on that other moment with it, marry it, and raise a family of tiny little moments.

Greetings all. The Mustard returns once again to delight and inform you. Or at least help you waste a few extra minutes.

I was in Florida for the weekend. I miss Florida. Florida was warm. There was a beach there. I got sunburned while laying out, drinking a cold one and listening to a little Jack Johnson (excellent beach/laying out music). It is cold, overcast and rainy here. Damn.

So we’re down to the Final Four. Huzzah for Michigan St. I nailed that one. And I came so damn close with the W. Virginia game. How do you blow that lead? Though I give to Louisville, they’re a great team. Now I need them to not be great and lose to Illinois. The worst part is I have UNC in my other bracket. You know, the one that was blown as soon as Syracuse lost. So that helps me not at all. But if UNC loses this one, and Illinois wins, I’m in pretty good shape. How great was that Illinois game by the way?

Current albums getting playing time (classic edition):

Van Morrison – Moondance.

Van Morrison is one of the best lyricists ever and his Moondance album proves it. This is Van Morrison at his best (no, Brown Eyed Girl is NOT on this album. The man had more than one song, people.) The whole album is fantastic. And It Stoned Me might be his best song ever, followed up by Moondance which might be his second best and then with Crazy Love. Great album.

Grateful Dead – Working Man’s Dead

Not a jam session to be found on this album, just some good folk and blues inspired music book ended by Uncle John’s Band and Casey Jones which is one helluva sandwich. No drugs necessary to enjoy.

Random news and notes:

Lost is finally back from repeats this Wednesday as we have a Locke centered episode. Sweeeeet.

Bad news: Arrested Development doesn’t look like it’s gonna make it to Season 3 which is terrible news to anyone who enjoys well written TV. I do not understand this at all. Fox has so much crap on that doesn’t get good ratings or reviews, why not cut those out and try and boost some marketing towards the show that won you a best comedy emmy for only the 2^nd time ever and the first since 1999? Damn you Fox!

On the positive news end, Cartoon Network has green lighted a new season of the Venture Bros for its Adult Swim lineup next year. The show is weird as hell but absolutely hilarious.

Speaking of Cartoon Network, the entire season 3 of its Clone Wars mini-series is now up on the main site. With the new 12 minute format, it’s even better than the first batch and leads directly into the opening crawl of the new movie in May.

The spring movie season is starting up folks. Sin City opens this Friday and I can’t wait.

Episode IV of the strip will be going up next Monday. I do have the beginning written and was contemplating putting up a chapter tonight but it’s gonna involve a lot of new artwork that’s gonna take me some time to do. So rather than rush it out I’m gonna give it a week and I promise you’ll have a couple chapters up by next Monday. See? Isn’t this better than the month I took off after last time?

Crowley’s updated his blog again. Go Crowley!

Until next time peoples:

"There are some things I can just smell. It's like a sixth sense. "

"No, actually, that would be one of the five."

Space. It seems to go on and on forever. But then you get to the end and a gorilla starts throwing barrels at you.

Hellooooooooooooo Mustard.

Another rather quick update this week as March isn’t the most exciting month of the year. The movies suck. February sweeps are over so shows are just in repeats. The only real excitement comes from the NCAA basketball tournament which leads me to…

Ha! I’m just about the only man on the planet who picked the WV upset over Wake Forest. Why did I pick it? Cause Wake has let me down every year I root for them so this year I just said screw it, I’m giving them one win and they’re gonna blow it. And I was right. The other big upset I picked? Bucknell over Kansas. Come on, who da man? Actually I can’t say much cause I had Syracuse doing a whole helluva lot better not to mention UConn at least making the final four. I guess I shouldn’t have had that much faith in the Big East.

So current recommendations:

DVD:
The Incredibles – ok, so despite the ridicule I’ve taken over my previous long-winded review of the movie when it was in theaters, I stand by the fact that this movie ruled. But if you want another reason: this DVD rules. This has some fantastic extras. One, the deleted scenes (while in animated storyboards) are really interesting as they interview writer Brad Bird about them and unlike most DVD’s when the director is just like, yeah, we cut this scene cause it was totally pointless and it made the movie too long, these deleted scenes are actually major points to the story, most of which would’ve totally changed the way the movie went. So it’s interesting to hear what he has to say about cutting them. Two, the extra short Jack-Jack Attack isn’t just an extra short created for the DVD but actually fits perfectly in where it could’ve been a deleted scene. It chronicles the events that took place in the Parr household with the babysitter and Jack Jack while the family was away. It’s the Zeppo episode of the movie (to use a Buffy reference). And it’s hilarious to see the powers Jack Jack comes up with. Think just about every super power you can imagine. And finally there’s a short call Mr. Incredible and Pals, a spoof on the 1950s superhero cartoons back when the weird mouth thing they do on the Conan O’Brian show was what they actually did in kids cartoons. It’s a hilarious sendup of those serials including multiple references to the evils of Communism and a cute bunny sidekick named Mr. Skipperdoo. But what makes it better is that you can watch it with a commentary track done by Mr. Incredible and Frozone. And hearing Samual L. Jackson go off in a way I haven’t heard since Jules got pissed at Vincent in Pulp Fiction is friggin hilarious.

Notes:

Good news for Lost fans as ABC ordered an extended season which means the season finale will be a two parter with the second part actually being 2 episodes shown back to back with no commercials. So that means the finale will technically be 3 episodes shown in 2 nights.

For those of you excited about Star Wars Episode 3 in coming in May, Cartoon Network has started up another season of its fantastic clone wars series. The first season made up of 2 and 3 minute shorts might have actually been better than both episodes one and two. This season, the episodes are 15 mins long and based on the first one which aired tonight, it’s looking to be just as good and will lead directly to the opening scene of Revenge of the Sith. It airs a new episode every day this week or checkout the Cartoon Network website to see them online.

I’m currently busy writing the next episode of the strip so look for episode IV coming soon, perhaps as early as next Monday but definitely by the Monday after that.

Until next time:

“There's a man here who says he can help you.”
”Is it Batman?”
”He's a scientist.”
”Batman's a scientist.”
”It's not Batman!”

It's been St. Patrick's Day for hours and I'm still not drunk yet!

Dum ditty dum ditty dum the shiny Mustard!

Happy St. Patrick’s day to you all. A day when everyone is a little bit Irish except of course for the gays and the Italians (and no hate mail over the joke, it’s a Simpson’s quote. I have nothing against gays. Italians on the other hand…). I hope everyone is gearing up for a night of happy light social drinking. And for all you who are, get out! I got no room for cheapskates. Ok, I’ll stop with the Simpson’s quotes and just recommend you check out http://www.snpp.com/episodes/4F15. SNPP is a great site for everything Simpson’s related.

So I hope everyone got their NCAA brackets filled out and we can all get on with our lives while running ESPN’s scoreboard in a minimized browser on our computers and hitting ALT-TAB to check the score every 30 seconds. Unless you’re my boss, who was smart and just took today and tomorrow off so he can enjoy the games hassle free.

Just a quick update for today as there’s just not been a whole lot of note going on, yet I’ve found myself ridiculously busy lately. And if you want to know anything about Natural Family Planning, I’ve become an expert after my Pre-Cana last weekend.

Recent albums finding lots of playing time lately:

Bright Eyes – I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning - Since it seems all the rage lately, Bright Eyes put out this album simultaneously with another one: Digital Ash in a Digital Urn. While Digital Ash isn’t a bad album, its foray into electronica doesn’t blend as well as other attempts like the Postal Service’s Give Up. Wide Awake however is a very catchy indie folk rock album that has a couple songs that you find yourself humming later that day. Another Travelin’ Song and Land Locked Blues are strong lead-ins to Poison Oak which may be the best song on the album. Strangely the album ends with Road to Joy which is probably the album’s low point. The combination of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy with the screaming vocals taken right from Dashboard Confessional just seems an odd capper for an otherwise mellow album. But other than that the album flows really well complimented on some tracks by the vocal support of Emmylou Harris.

And appropriate enough for St. Patrick’s Day:

Carbon Leaf – Echo Echo and Indian Summer – Both these Irish folk rock albums are enjoyable and are reminiscent of the Paperboys or even a really mellow Black 47 (if Black 47 has ever been mellow). While Echo Echo is the better album, both are very catchy with the upbeat tempos and fun wordplay typically associated with Irish folk rock (as opposed to the harder Irish rock of the Thrills). Check out The Boxer and Mary Mac on Echo Echo and Life Less Ordinary and What About Everything on Indian Summer for some of the better tracks.

“K, you’re right. Not a book thing… It’s a phone thing!”
“Who ya gonna call? God that phrase isn't ever gonna be usable again, is it?”
“Doubt it.”

I have two words that are going to make all your troubles go away: "Miniature" "Golf".

Greetings all. Hope all is well. Had a lovely little weekend with some quality family time, some good meals and laughs and one malfunctioning toilet.

March Madness is in the air and isn’t it sweet? (*written 2 days ago*) If ND doesn’t blow it they should secure themselves a birth in the tournament this year. They won’t get too far but it’ll be a fun time while it lasts. (*written today*) Well, they blew it. Losing to Rutgers. Goodbye tourney hopes. ND sports blows it in crunch time again. But props to the women’s team for their 4 seed in their tournament. Ouch to Illinois for blowing their undefeated season the last game of the season. D’oh!

Caught Be Cool over the weekend. Not as good as Get Shorty but pretty good and if nothing else, funny. The all-star cast of the original gets updated to today’s modern stars. Out are Gene Hackman, Rene Russo, Dennis Farina. In come Vince Vaughn, Uma Thurman, Harvey Keitel, Cedric the Entertainer, Andre 3000 and the Rock. Not a bad cast. Cedric gets a good Quentin Tarantino-esque monologue and Andre and the Rock are hilarious playing parodies of themselves. Vince Vaughn starts to grate on the nerves a little after a while but on the whole, the movie is a good time.

So seeing as how we’re fast approaching the new year’s movie season when studios start actually giving a rat’s ass about movies and not putting out schlock like The Pacifier (remember when Vin Diesel was working with Steven Spielberg in Saving Private Ryan?), I thought I’d whip out my list of :

Top 5 movies I’m Most Looking Forward To

(in order of release)

Sin City – April 1^st

I’ve never read the comics so I can’t speak for how good they may be, but there’s 3 reasons I’m psyched about this movie: 1) Robert Rodriguez – The man behind the El Mariachi trilogy has some serious style behind his films. Yeah, a lot of people didn’t like Once Upon a Time in Mexico. I’ll be honest, I didn’t buy Willem Defoe as a Mexican either no matter how much makeup he was wearing but still the movie worked great as a capper to the trilogy. 2) The Look – this could be the Sky Captain of 2005 with is fantastic noir black & white look. No matter how good the movie ends up being, it’s going to be some serious eye candy. 3) The Cast – Ok, let’s see here: Bruce Willis, Clive Owen, Mickey Rourke (the Harley Davidson guy?), Benecio Del Toro, Jessica Alba, Rosario Dawson, Elijah Wood, Nick Stahl, Brittany Murphy, Jamie King, Alexis Bledel, Josh Hartnett, Michael Madsen and Michael Duncan Clark…… ok then.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – May 6^th

If you’ve never read these books, stop reading, go out to your car, drive to Barnes and Noble, walk inside, find the books under author Douglas Adams, buy them, walk out, buy a Dr. Pepper, sit down and read them. These books are truly the most twisted, messed up, mind-boggling, warped, and without a doubt funniest books ever written. I mean how great is a book which involves the destruction of earth, political intrigue, torture by poetry, a clinically depressed robot, the creation of earth and gives you the answer to life, the universe and everything? This movie looks to keep that trend up perfectly. Fantastic casting, including Sam Rockwell as Zaphod Beeblebrox (if you saw him in Galaxy Quest or Confessions of a Dangerous Mind you know how fantastic an actor he is.) and Alan Rickman as the voice of Marvin the Paranoid Android. Hell yes.

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith – May 19^th

Ok, this is it. The last one. The Omega. The finale. Good bye Obi Wan. Is it going to kick ass? I think so. Why? One, because it’s going to take most of the political jargon and half-hearted love speak and throw it out the window in favor of lightsabers and space battles. Sweeeeeet. Lucas has gone on record as saying this will probably be the first Star Wars with a PG-13 rating. That’s fantastic because this is supposed to be a dark movie and I was scared to death that Lucas was gonna start chopping away at the good stuff to get it down to PG. But it looks like he’s sticking to his guns, making me actually happy with him for the first time since I saw Jar Jar Binks. Two, because finally Hayden Christenson will get what’s coming to him after the agonizingly stilted acting in Episode 2 when he gets the crap kicked out of him by Ewan McGregor in the ultimate duel which is what every Star Wars fan has been waiting for since the prequels began. Three, James Earl Jones is coming back as the voice of Darth Vader. Giggity giggity giggity.

Batman Begins – June 17^th

Ok, with the possible exception of the first Burton one, Batman has gotten kicked in the nuts repeatedly with these movies. Were those responsible punished? Were they ostracized from society, driven out to the middle of nowhere and left for dead? No. They were given a freaking academy award for writing Beautiful Mind! Damn you Akiva Goldsmith! So what does this one have that might make up for it? Joel Schumaker has been kicked out and told to go direct more Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals and they’re bringing on Christopher Nolan. If anyone can present a serious mood it’s the guy who did Memento and the American remake of Insomnia. Writer: David Goyer, writer of Dark City and Blade. Ok, so we’ve got the dark atmosphere in here. Casting: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Liam Neeson, Ken Watanabe (Last Samarai and the upcoming Memoirs of a Geisha), Katie Holmes, and Cilian Murphy (28 Days Later… this guy knows how to play unhinged) as the Scarecrow. Based at least partially on Frank Miller’s (see also Sin City) Batman: Year One. I think this could be, dare I say it, a great Batman movie.

Serenity – September 30^th

Ok, you’ve read my raves of Firefly, well this is something that any Joss Whedon fan has been waiting for, a full out big budget Whedon film. He’s never directed any of his own movies before so this’ll be great as he has full control. Based on everything I’ve read this is gonna have the same wit, adventure, charm and out and out hilarity as the show itself but without the one hour long time limit of TV. The cancellation of the show left a million questions unanswered which Whedon will be looking to remedy and at the same time I guarantee it’ll work for anyone who hasn’t seen the show. This could turn out to be the best space adventure flick of the year (and looking at my list that’s some pretty stiff competition). Personally, I can’t wait.

There are a few other films that I am looking forward to quite a bit: Peter Jackson's King Kong and the next Harry Potter movie, but as they won't be out til the end of the year, I can't get that excited about them yet.

Shameless plugs:

My own Episode III: DONE!!! Now comes the obligatory down time but I promise it won’t be as long as the last one I took.

Booter updated his blog!

Until next time:

"Save me Shiva."
"Why don't you just call out for Hawkman?"
"Why don't you shut up?"

Awesome Awesome Fancy Danish

Another week, another Mustard post.

No real big surprises at the Oscars this year. I enjoyed Chris Rock as host although with the exception of the opening monologue he didn’t really do anything. Though I did think it a breathe of fresh air that he didn’t sit there and kiss everyone’s ass in the place. Yeah, some of the jokes may have come off mean, but I mean, come on, it’s freakin’ Chris Rock. That was tame compared to his usual stuff. The part where he interviewed people at the theater was great especially when Albert Brooks (Simpson’s fans know him as Hank Scorpio among other guest roles) suddenly showed up.

As a note: I did catch the Aviator before the show and I pretty much stick with my choices with the lone exception of giving Cate Blanchett the Supporting Actress statue for her excellent portrayal of Katherine Hepburn.

A couple quick album reviews for you as I haven’t really done much in that department in a while. Looking back, Garden State pretty much altered my entire musical taste as since that album I’ve turned almost completely to indie artists. What can I say, Hoobastank, Kelly Clarkson and Gwen Stefani (she’s ripping off Fiddler on the Roof? what the hell?) just don’t do it for me.

So currently playing on repeat:

Jack Johnson – In Between Dreams: The man does the best laid back, just sitting around, drinking a cold one, chilling out and relaxing music around and his new album is no different. A little more upbeat than past albums overall, listening to this just makes me look forward to hanging around the pool this summer. Highly recommended.

Jason Mraz – Waiting for my Rocket to Come: This album is a couple years old but it’s new to me, so there. This is a great driving CD. Upbeat, sometimes goofy, fun lyrics, it’s just the kind of music you need to keep you awake on those long car rides.

Fountain of Wayne – Welcome Interstate Managers: Yes, you all know the single Stacy’s Mom. What may surprise you is how eclectic this album is. It’s not all the goofy pop rock. You go from Stacy’s Mom to an Old 97’s type country-influenced alt rock on Valley Winter Song then jump to the slower, rock ballad-esque All Kinds of Time, and then you suddenly jump again to the Grateful Dead-like Hey Julie and swing around to the pure country western twang of Hung up on You and along the way throwing in traces of just about every other style imaginable. It’s not all perfect but it is a lot of fun.

Flaming Lips – Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots: Ok, Brock tried to get me hooked on this back in senior year at Notre Dame but back then I wasn’t listening to indie and the title was just too strange for me. So a few years later and I took a chance. It’s a weird but also excellent album. To explain the sound think Radiohead crossed with Pink Floyd with plenty of synth and maybe you’ll get something close. In other words, you pretty much just have to go on faith and give it a try. But it the more I listen to it, the more addicting it is.

Movie notes:

Aviator: Good movie, waaaaay to long. Cut out about 45 mins and you’ve got the best picture winner. You got greedy Marty.

Constantine: Disappointing. Not good sci-fi ala Buffy and not So-God-Awful-Its-Funny ala Van Helsing. Just kinda, ok. Keanu, you’re talking too much, you know what happens when you do that. Who’s up for a Bill & Ted 3? I’m sure they guy who played Bill would be up for it as he doesn’t currently have a career.

TV notes:

Lost continuing to be excellent but come on, let’s have a little more overall story arc development. They currently have about one major thing happen per 3 episodes.

I’ve completely forsaken Joey in favor of the O.C. I know, I’m a total loser, but damnit, the show is hilarious… unlike Joey.

Scrubs still the funniest show on TV but what’s been up with all the depressing endings lately? The last 3 or 4 shows have ended on a total bummer note.

Strip: back up and chugging along. Erin, Booter, update those blogs. Crowley nice work with the art class section.

Until next time:

“I totally get it. Older ladies know how to work it!”

“Okay, see, now you're in a bit of a pickle because the older lady you're talking about better not be me, and it sure as hell better not be somebody else. So whatta you have to say?”

“Your favorite jeans are too tight and they look ridiculous!”

“What!?”

“Well, I'm in trouble anyway and it needed to be said!”