The Loehdown

When our company moved offices to Pioneer Square, we had to try all the nearby restaurants to find a new lunch spot. One of the closest, and first, we visited was Temple Billiards. It’s located at 126 S Jackson in Pioneer Square.

As the name implies, Temple is a pool hall, but if you’re not particularly into billiards, don’t feel like you’re out of luck. There’s a full-service bar and plenty of seating and televisions. I would, however, recommend the pool, as it is reasonably priced, a good escape from work for the lunch hour, and usually you can play for an hour for $3 at lunch if you purchase food, or for free on certain nights (Wednesday is ladies night).

Speaking of the food, Temple’s assortment may not be the widest, but it is all absolutely delicious and fairly-priced. Having been to Temple quite a few times now, I’d recommend the Thai Melt, which is simply amazing. The pizzas are also all excellent, as is the beer. They also have a four hour happy hour everyday from 4pm – 8pm.

As good as the food and pool are, the best part of Temple Billiards is the staff. The first time we came in they made an effort to get our names and remember us, which is really hard to find anywhere unless you visit twenty or thirty times. The staff really reflects the atmosphere: laid back and friendly.

If you’re in the Sodo or Pioneer Square area for lunch or drinks, check out Temple Billiards.

Poets of the Fall recently released a note on their facebook page about a band that they will be performing with called Phoenix Effect. Poets of the Fall also happen to be helping with the production and songwriting of Phoenix Effect’s first album, so I decided to give their first single, ‘Broken Promises,’ a listen. (You can listen yourself here or here).

The lead singer, Janne Kärkkäinen, is a former member of Sunrise Avenue, who has had recent success with their album On The Way to Wonderland in Europe. ‘Broken Promises’ is a little edgier than most of Sunrise Avenue’s work, but it’s also a whole lot better.

‘Broken Promises’ is full of strong guitar riffs, but it also has some excellent lyrics (Poets of the Fall’s Marko is participating in the songwriting, so who would expect anything less?) and “power” to it without being screamy or overdone. Hopefully Janne and Phoenix Effect can carry the effect on to the whole album while still keeping it fresh, because it is a sound that works. ‘Broken Promises’ instantly catches you and begs to be played over again and again.

Undoubtedly, ‘Broken Promises’ is a song about Kärkkäinen’s ousting from Sunrise Avenue, but it may just be the best thing that has happened to him. The album is set to be released sometime in early 2009. You can find more about Phoenix Effect at their webpage. ‘Broken Promises’ is available for $0.89 at Amazon as a DRM-Free MP3 download. Check it out!

Broken Promises Lyrics

You let me in so I could guide your hand,
A quest for gold that yielded lead,
So many things I still don’t understand,
Would rear their ugly heads instead

No instigation
just run away
With nothing to fall back on
no skin left to flay

(Chorus)
What you needed the most
were no more of these ghosts of my
broken promises
What you needed the most
never even came close to my
broken promises

Sedated sorrow palms a lazy coin,
You’ll find no vindication here,
Flashing a fast lane if you’ve come to join,
The ill fated fortune of the year

Castles we built now
crumble like smiles
Skeleton hope now
eaten by trials

(Chorus)

How you choose to wear your heart,
is how they’ll cast your part,
How you choose to wear your heart
You wear a world upon your sleeve,
The way you choose to wear your heart,
is how they will tear you apart,
Do you choose to save the world or to deceive

(Chorus)

W., directed by Oliver Stone and starring Josh Brolin, James Cromwell, and Richard Dreyfus, is a movie that will leave you dumbfounded. Not for the fact that we’ve elected the worst president ever to office not once, but twice, but because you’ll be left wondering why you ever went to see it in the first place.

First off, there isn’t much new material in the movie. We know about the DUI, the fact that there were never WMDs in Iraq and it was all a scheme, the fact that Bush redux was in a frat at Yale. We learn very little from the movie, even if you have no great knowledge of our president.

What confounds me even more is the fact that this movie was made before George W. Bush has even finished his second term, which makes it almost useless as a historical piece. There is absolutely no mention in the movie of the past 4 years of his presidency, of the presidential races with Kerry or Gore. Instead the movie cuts in and out of the pre-presidency and first-term presidency eras of George W. Bush’s life.

Perhaps a better title for the movie would have been “Bush,” since there seems to be more time devoted to Bush senior’s political life than junior’s. While I understand the need to lay the foundation for the rest of his life, the movie seems to revolve around the distant past, and does so by jumping back and forth through time, sometimes giving you cues into what year you’ve leapt, and sometimes leaving it up to you to figure out for yourself.

The comedy in the film falls flat right out of the gate. The jokes are poorly-timed, in such convoluted humor, or just plain bad. The only highlight from the movie may be the possible history lesson and the instilling of the fact that we made the wrong decision, but who needs to waste $10 and two and a half hours to learn that?

Max Payne: The Movie is not Max Payne: The Video Game: The Movie. If you are looking for a two hour recap of the video game, which was released in 2001, then your best bet is to use the ticket money for the movie to go grab a copy and play it again.

For those unfamiliar with the series, this may be a better movie for you than those who loved the game. Max Payne is a NYPD detective whose family is brutally murdered in his home (don’t worry, I’m not going to give away any spoilers here). The unsolved case leads to his thirst for vengeance and a whole lot of shooting, dreary weather, and dark New York streets.

What the Max Payne movie does well is the effects. Although some denounce the Valkyries used in the movies because they didn’t even exist in the game, their ability to show the effects of the drug in the game. The shots in the game look amazing, both during the Valkyrie scenes and the shooting scenes. The gunfighting, no matter how brief, is also well done and is one part of the movie that pays homage to the game. Also, the acting in the film are well done, and the cast includes an interesting mix, from Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis to Nelly Furtado, from Ludacris to Chris O’Donnell, all who play their parts well. Yes, I said Ludacris can act.

Unfortunately, what the movie doesn’t get right is a long list of important characteristics. Max Payne is a game about shooting, yet there is almost none until after an hour into the movie. You’re basically stuck hearing a differentiated version of the original Max Payne: The Video Game storyline for the first hour or so of the movie. While the adaptation of the storyline from video game to big screen is an okay attempt, it adds in too many side tracks which never even existed and fails to really boil down the plot from the Max Payne video game into a cohesive movie. While some of the story getting lost in translation is understandable, the differences here are far too great to be forgiven.

Bullet time, one of the stand-out features of the Max Payne series, makes a small appearance here, which is in good taste since any grand amount of it would make the movie look like an attempt to redo the Matrix. Also, fans of the video game will be happy to know that many of the locales have been transported from video game to Max Payne: The Movie (Ragnarok, anyone?). However, there are some notable omissions in the character category, including many of the main characters, which is probably due to the shift in storylines.

The Max Payne movie is an average mix of story and bullets for most viewers. However, if you come from the video game then the balance is likely to throw you, as is the adaptation. Unfortunately, the movie feels more like an attempt to make money than it is an attempt to please fans of the series. An average film, but nothing too spectacular, save a few of the shooting scenes.

(P.S. For those of you who do go to see the movie, you may have heard about an extra scene after the credits. In my opinion, don’t bother, the credits themselves are more worth watching than the scene.)

Death Race, starring Jason Statham, Joan Allen, and Tyrese, is a “remake” of the film Death Race 2000 (1975). However, the 2008 version takes place on a prison island, pitting prisoners against each other in machine-gun equipped sports cars and pickup trucks in an attempt to earn ratings for the corporation (headed by Allen’s character, Hennessey).

Death Race is an action film, which means it places a lot of the key features of story-telling to the side, including realism, continuity, story development, and just about anything that isn’t explosions or car chases. It is not the next Oscar winner for best film, but it is an enjoyable experience if you know what you are getting into.

Where Death Race excels is in the explosions and crazy stunts performed by the drivers, each looking to kill each other and gain position in the hopes of winning their freedom. The plot twists are to be expected, including Stratham being framed for his wife’s murder and then mysteriously being chosen to become the next death race driver, only to find out he was a former racing champion. The action sequences make up for the lack of intellectual points in the movie. The races are interesting and the explosions, crashes, and deaths are all unique, and a few even made me cringe. There is just enough of a break between the races to make you want more.

Death Race is enjoyable for what it is, no matter its flaws. If you like speed, explosions, guns, a few girls, and lots of gore, then Death Race is for you.