The Loehdown

If you’re looking to have your dog groomed at the Grooming Spa, you can save yourself the money and take him/her to a preschool class instead. Simply arm the kids with scissors, and let them have at it. Voila! The Grooming Spa experience for free.

I have a Scottish Terrier who is very friendly and outgoing. Most people know Scottish Terriers by their coats. Unfortunately, whoever groomed my dog must never have seen one before. When I picked up my dog (after paying, unfortunately, I’ll never make that mistake again) I was surprised by how sloppy he looked. There was no blending between the back of the coat and the skirt, just a very severe, very unstraight line made by the clippers. One ear had about an inch and a half tuft of fur left in front of it, and the other had none. It’s like someone did the other half and didn’t stop to check what the first half looked like. Nothing was done to the tail, it looks unkempt and unshaped.

The worst part of it is that now when I go to trim him with the scissors he cowers from me. He has never cowered (from me or anyone else) in the entire time I have owned him. I am completely beside myself to imagine what happened while I was gone that would make him act scared of me.

DO NOT BOTHER.

Have you ever had a waiter ruin your entire meal at a restaurant? It’s like a minor actor in a movie breaking script and trying to steal the show: obnoxious, intrusive, and repulsive. Such was the experience at Mexico, Cantina y Veracruz Cooking.

Upon being seated, we were given a 15 minute diatribe on the HUGE menu (it’s not), the excellent food (it’s not), and the amazing drinks (they’re okay). After taking our drink order, our waiter promptly disappeared for 20 minutes. When he finally returned with our drinks we were already on our second serving of chips and salsa. He then took our food order, along with the obligatory useless bullshitting. The wait for our food was so long he had to come back not once but twice to tell us “it’s on its way”. I have to mention that it was now 8pm and there may have been 4 other tables with people at them in the restaurant at this point.

The food, once it finally arrived, was less than appropriately portioned for the price, and definitely not as appetizing as the price , menu, or waiter would make you think. Bob’s taco barn that rolls up at lunch time makes better food. A lot better.

Our escapades with the waiter didn’t end there either. He left us a postcard to sign up for their email club (think spam newsletter). He left it on our table without a pen. Then twice tried to push it on us before we had to tell him flat out that we were not going to sign up. He looked like a kid who wasn’t getting a puppy for Christmas. We think at some point another waitress said something to him about how he kept bugging us because she came over to take our check, and then he came back to make sure she got it right. Just leave us alone, I don’t need an extra person at my dinner that I didn’t invite!

Service: Terrible
Food: Mediocre
Price: Overpriced

I was sort of apathetic going into The International. If Clive Owen hadn’t been starring in it, I doubt it would’ve been a movie I went to in theaters. While I thought it might end up surprising me, it really didn’t. Clive Owen struggled through a plot that was much too drawn out and purposely deceptive. Supporting him was Naomi Watts, who I felt nothing from. For someone that was supposed to be a Manhattan DA, Watts delivered a performance that felt a little too “princess in a tower” for me. The action scenes are worth seeing on the big screen but there’s a lot of mediocre plot to sit through that had me more interested in the theater we were seeing it in rather than the movie itself.

I can’t think of any time where I have wanted to see a movie more than once in a theater. After all, movie-going is about the newness of a film and the crowd experience. However, with I Love You, Man, starring Paul Rudd and Jason Segel, I can honestly say I would go back to the theater to watch it again.

In I Love You, Man, Paul Rudd has just gotten engaged and suddenly finds himself on a quest to find a best man and wedding party to match his fiancee’s six bridesmaids. Friendless, he is forced to attempt to meet men in the wild. Awkward and hilarious moments follow.

Paul Rudd does a perfect job as an awkward character, showing strongly why he has no friends and faces the situation he is in. Jason Segel also gives a great performance as Rudd’s possible new friend, an interesting character who you can’t quite trust, which leads to one of the big turns in the movie.

The jokes in the movie are nearly non-stop. There’s quite a few quotes from this movie that will become part of pop-culture, however they don’t feel forced or out of place.

The movie’s weak point is probably its story, but if you’re in the theater for the story then you are there for the wrong reason. I Love You, Man delivers a lot of laughs and even has a touching but hilarious ending. If you’re headed to the theaters then I Love You, Man should be at the top of your list.

Sadly I can usually predict the plot elements of most movies; something I like to think of as a skill, and my friends think of as an annoyance. Thus Duplicity deserves a recommendation from me as I was totally off base, not something that has happened in a while.

Granted it’s not the most original plot in the world, but it is well done and Clive Owen as usual delivers an excellent performance. I’m not the hugest Julia Roberts fan but she is non-annoying in this role if a bit stiff (her Erin Brockoviching it out all over aside). This makes a great date movie as it’s an interesting story that is well paced and twisted; however you may want to make it a rental.

In late 2008 I wrote a preview for the single Broken Promises by the newly-created band Phoenix Effect, which has strong ties to one of my favorite bands, Poets of the Fall. The single proved a strong starting point for the band, and the first album has been eagerly awaited. Now we’re able to bring you a review of the full album, Cyanide Skies, which has finally been released.

As a single, Broken Promises gave Cyanide Skies a lot to live up to. At first I didn’t feel as though the album really carried out the full potential of Phoenix Effect, as most of the tracks are a marked departure from the gritty, hard-rock style of Broken Promises. However, I allowed myself a couple more listen-throughs of the album and I am glad I did as with each new listen I uncovered an aspect of the album or tracks I had missed the first time.

The standout songs on the album for me are King See No Evil, which is probably the hardest song on the album beside Broken Promises, A Perfectly Good Day, a track that has a strong progression that draws you into the album, and Carry Me, which brings out the emotion in Janne’s vocals. Magic is an interesting track as I haven’t really decided how I feel about it after listening to it dozens of times, and it is definitely the slowest track on the album. Several members of Poets of the Fall make cameos on the album, in vocals, instruments and lyrics. This gives the whole album a lot of variation while still keeping the sound cohesive enough to make it Phoenix Effect’s own.

If there is a downside to the album it is that at first some of the tracks are hard to distinguish from one another, even though they do not sound remarkably similar. This may be due to a lack of familiarity with the music or Phoenix Effect building their own identity and it happens to bleed through each song. However this is a very minor issue, as all the tracks on the album are strong in lyrics, composition, and execution. The strongest part of the album is the fact that each song has a very distinct story where it sounds different in the beginning, middle, and end, and isn’t a simple repeat of the same chord(s) throughout.

If you’re into Poets of the Fall or had a chance to check out Broken Promises and enjoyed it the you should already own Cyanide Skies by now. If not, the Cyanide Skies CD is available through Phoenix Effect’s webshop for shipping most anywhere in the world. If you just want the digital tracks, they are available in iTunes, with the whole Cyanide Skies album only costing US$8, well worth the price.

If you like zombies, shooters, multiplayer games, or gaming in general, Valve’s latest release, Left 4 Dead is definitely worth picking up (especially if you can get it on sale, as it recently was for $25).

Available on PC and XBox (although I have a personal preference to PC), Left 4 Dead is a game that focuses on having fun in a multiplayer environment. There is a single player element, but I’ve never played it and I don’t know anyone who has, because that’s not what this game is about. It’s all about getting together with 4 friends (real or virtual) and surviving the zombie apocalypse.

The premise behind the game is simple: most of the country (world?) has turned into zombies, and you are one of the very few humans left untouched. You and three other humans make your way through 5 chapters of a campaign (there are currently 4 campaigns filled with regular and special zombies (or infected, as they are called in the game). If all 4 of you make it, you move on to the next chapter with a large score, if none of you make it expect a piddly score, and if only a couple of you make it, expect a moderate score and some angry teammates. But that’s why they call it Left 4 Dead.

L4D brings a couple unique gameplay elements that help it stand out. The knockdown mechanic, which doesn’t simply kill you upon losing all your life, forces your teammates to decide whether to leave you or try to get you back up to heal. Another addition is the special infected, sort of like zombies on steriods, including hunters that can jump great distances and smokers which can snare you with their tongues. The limited arsenal is varied and useful, each item having its own advantages and disadvantages, such as the molotov, which is great for regular zombies, but special infected on fire do much more damage.

For all the fun that is to be had, L4D suffers some drawbacks. Playing online with other people you don’t know is hit or miss, as many of the public players seem to lack an understanding of teamwork. Also, the lobby and server system can be glitchy (at least, on the PC), with games sometimes never adding new players or being unable to find a server to play on. Hopefully these issues will be fixed in the new patch.

Despite its issues, L4D is definitely worth the money. A free expansion is planned for the Spring, including a new gamepley type and more maps available, as well as an SDK which promises to allow players to make and host their own custom maps. All of these definitely increase the replayability and show how committed Valve is to its games. Give this one a try, you can find it on Steam and you can find me at Steam Community.

520vs90 is a little Twitter app I wrote based on a concept by Margaret. The premise behind it is to get the travel times across Lake Washington via either SR-520 or I-90. Obviously, this is useful to a very small subset of people, but I have expanded it to cover most of the Puget Sound region

To use 520vs90:
1. Have a twitter account.
2. Send an @reply to @520vs90.
3. Include the first letter/letters of the cities you would like as listed in the following. Currently it supports the following city combinations:
atrn = Auburn to Renton
btbo = Bellevue to Bothell
bte = Bellevue to Everett
btf = Bellevue to Federal Way
bti = Bellevue to Issaquah
btl = Bellevue to Lynnwood
btr = Bellevue to Redmond
btrn = Bellevue to Renton
bts = Bellevue to Seattle (Both Bridges)
btt = Bellevue to Tukwila
botb = Bothell to Bellevue
etb = Everett to Bellevue
ets = Everett to Seattle
ftb = Federal Way to Bellevue
ftst = Federal Way to SeaTac
fts = Federal Way to Seattle
itb = Issaquah to Bellevue
its = Issaquah to Seattle
ltb = Lynnwood to Bellevue
lts = Lynnwood to Seattle
rtb = Redmond to Bellevue
rts = Redmond to Seattle
rta = Renton to Auburn
rntb = Renton to Bellevue
rnts = Renton to Seattle
sttf = SeaTac to Federal Way
stts = SeaTac to Seattle
stb = Seattle to Bellevue (Both Bridges)
ste = Seattle to Everett
stf = Seattle to Federal Way
sti = Seattle to Issaquah
stl = Seattle to Lynnwood
str = Seattle to Redmond
strn = Seattle to Renton
stst = Seattle to SeaTac
ttb = Tukwila to Bellevue
4. Example: @520vs90 stb
5. Within a minute you will receive the travel time to your destination. In the instance of a Seattle to Bellevue or Bellevue to Seattle combination, times will soon be across both bridges in the direction you chose.

Notes:
If the travel times are unavailable, you may get some weird messages. Need to implement an “error” message in the next release.

If you have your cellphone linked to your twitter, send a text message to 40404 with the same message (@520vs90 stb) to get the times on your cellphone.

Running off the head of steam collected by the single Gives You Hell, The All-American Rejects (AAR) are back with their third studio album, When the World Comes Down.

The All-American Rejects past singles, Move Along, Dirty Little Secret and Swing, Swing showed they have the ability to write catchy pop/rock tunes, and Gives You Hell is no departure from that formula. The album doesn’t stray too far away, either. There are a few notable differences, including Real World, which is a little grittier than the other tracks, and Another Heart Calls, a duet that shows a softer, more emotional side of the usual upbeat AAR. These tracks are gems among this musically-solid album.

The tracks among When the World Comes are all varied enough to keep from running together, yet the album holds together well. No track feels out of place, and more than the fair share of them are catchy tunes that will likely be in your head the rest of the day. It’s hard to find a fault with this album, if you’re a fan of their previous material. If not, you might be surprised, but it’s not a drastic change.