Sampletastic: America & Janet Jackson

I was sitting in McDonald's smashing an M&M McFlurry when this song came on:

America - Ventura Highway.mp3

Which can be very clearly heard in the song "Someone To Call My Lover" by Janet Jackson:

Janet Jackson - Someone To Call My Lover.mp3

As far as Janet Jackson goes, "All For You" was the beginning of the end for me. I can't listen to anything by her after this album, it just sounds like she's trying waaaaaaay too hard. But this album was decent and "Someone To Call My Lover" was one of my favorite songs. I really like the original too - it makes me want to ride in the back of a pickup on a desolate road and watch the landscape crawl by. Or something like that. I like how they took such a mellow sounding guitar and blended it with with an uptempo beat. Good shit.

Picture of the Week: ESPY-onage Mission?

Justin Timberlake, host of last night's 2008 ESPY Awards, demonstrates why Jessica Simpson and Tony Romo should never, ever mate...by impersonating her? *blink*

Mamma Mia Batman!

I have a feeling that today's movie openings will cause some tensions with couples as they make plans to embark on a Friday night movie excursion. I already know there will be fights over whether to see Dark Knight or Mama Mia tonight - someone will have to concede to the other person's whim and they will not be happy about it. It's pretty funny to think about some dude slumped down in his seat while he watches Mama Mia with looking mad as FUCK because you know he's thinking "I SHOULD be watching Batman and Joker battle to the death right now. This is some bullshit!" Conversely, I can imagine some girl sitting in Dark Knight pouting, being all huffy and the guy is completely oblivious because he's all into the movie.

While I'm not in a relationship and I don't have to worry about having to sit through a movie I'm not interested in...if I WAS going out on a date to the movies tonight, I'd totally go see Dark Knight. I'm going to see it this afternoon after I get off work (I clock out @ 3 PM on Fridays - HOLLER!), but you get my point. This is the first Batman movie I've had any real genuine interest in since well, the original - and that was way before Heath Ledger died. They filmed a LOT of it here last spring and summer, and I want to see how it got incorporated into the film. They had to disguise most of it because it is representative of a fictitious place. Still, for all intents and purposes, Chicago IS Gotham - that's pretty badass! Check out the RedEye photo gallery of the locations around the city where Dark Knight, Wanted and other upcoming movies were shot.

Additionally, I really love how they FINALLY made The Joker look crazy as shit. While Jack Nicholson's portrayal in the first movie was classic and he was perfect for the role, he still looked like a clown so he wasn't really that scary (unless you have a phobia against clowns) and you didn't get a sense for how truly demented the character was. Heath Ledger looks like a complete psycho with his hair all scraggly and fading green like he dyed it using Kool Aid and the paint smeared on his face like he applied it with paralyzed hand. They did a great job with that - when I watched the trailer for it last winter, that's what got my attention and really made me take an interest in the film - in addition to the overall appearance of badassness. Not to mention that I'm certain that this movie will only reinforce my desire to mate with Christian Bale. I've loved him since I first saw him in Newsies back in like 1992:

He's an underrated actor, but I think all of that is about to change with the release of Dark Knight and Public Enemies.