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I have five words for you (brace your salivary glands)...wasabi-blue cheese crab rangoons. Yessir. This delicious concoction was had this weekend at Asian Spice in downtown DC. And it left me with two questions...why hasn't this combination come to my attention previously? And when can I get more? Seriously, yum.

And now I'm hungry.

Alan Alda Makes Acid

There's a movie I discovered recently, and I'm sure a good deal of people have seen it, but since most of the people I know haven't heard of it, it's a good bet that there are a lot of people who are in the same boat. And, believe me, if you like ridiculous comedies, you'll enjoy this movie. It's called Flirting with Disaster and it stars Ben Stiller, Patricia Arquette, and Tea Leoni. The film revolves around Stiller's character's search for his birth parents. Now, in general, I'm not a huge Ben Stiller fan. My favorite thing he's done is probably his cameo in Anchorman. But this movie just goes above and beyond, mostly because of the supporting cast which includes Alan Alda, Josh Brolin, and Richard Jenkins (the boss at Hard Bodies in Burn After Reading and the "father" in Let the Right One In) as some absurd and awesome characters.

Alan Alda, and his wife, played by Lily Tomlin, are crazy hippies who live in the middle of the desert and make acid. They are Ben Stiller's character's birth parents and you can imagine the insanity that ensues when Stiller, his wife (Arquette), his case worker (Leoni), and the random gay couple of Brolin and Jenkins. Yes, Josh Brolin and Richard Jenkins are a couple. It's pretty awesome. And Brolin's performance throughout the film is just fantastic. I don't want to give too much away, but if you need a single reason to watch this movie, do it for the pleasure of seeing Richard Jenkins on an acid trip.

Movies that will be The Shit

Right now I can barely contain my excitement about two movies that are coming out in the next year. Any respectable movie buff (who is into awesome-ness) will have already heard of these films, but I need to express how much I cannot wait to see them.

One. True Grit. Directed by the Coen Brothers. Matt Damon. Jeff Bridges. Josh Brolin. Bad-assery at its finest. I'm sure it will be a heart-warming film to see on Christmas this year.

Two. Cowboys and Aliens. Directed by Jon Favreau. Daniel Craig. Harrison Ford. Sam Rockwell. Harrison Ford!!! And there are cowboys...and aliens. It's as if someone said, "Hey, what do guys like? Sci fi and westerns? Ok let's do that." Having to wait until July for this one might kill me.

That's all. Just an update for those of you who were unaware of the mind-fuckingly awesome movies that will be out soon.

If this makes me a hipster, I don't care

It's rare that I pay for music anymore...I mean let's be honest, it's just too easy not to and too expensive when you listen to as much music as I do. So when I actually do take out my debit card, you know the shit is good. And that's the case with Arcade Fire's The Suburbs and Kings of Leon's Come Around Sundown.

Basically you can just never go wrong with Arcade Fire--Funeral is ah-mazing and this new album is pretty awesome too. I'm partial to "Ready to Start" and "Rococo" (also one of my favorite words in the English language). Also, "Empty Room" is reminiscent of the sound of Funeral complete with fast-paced, frantic instrumentals laced with ethereal vocals. If you like Arcade Fire, buy the album. And if you haven't gotten into them, it's time to start.

Everyone's got something to say about Kings of Leon (they're sell-outs; they're full of themselves; Caleb Followill's voice sucks--all of which I can refute, but I won't bother because if people are going to hate them, that's up to them), so I won't bother trying to convert anyone, but let me just say that I liked them years ago and I love them now. Their first two albums are grungy and dirty...how I like my rock. And yeah their style has changed a bit but their new album is still a solid piece of work. A little more Southern and polished than their old stuff, but still a good trip.

To Solidify My Nerdiness

So if you haven't guessed already from my previous posts (I write like there's actually someone out there reading this, but who knows) I am pretty much a huge nerd. For this reason, I feel the need to let whoever might read this know about an awesome website where all of your nerd needs can be met. It is www.io9.com and it is legit. Too legit to quit. If you have any interest in anything nerdy (sci fi shows/movies/books; scientific discoveries; cool video clips; etc.) I highly suggest checking out io9.

My main avenues of enjoyment on this site are anything related to Firefly, Supernatural, new sci fi books/movies/shows coming out, and the always entertaining random bits of trivia. They have a lot to offer if you are, like me, a big nerd.

(WARNING: This site is known to promote serious procrastination and increases the likelihood that you will put off sleep for another hour or three because they have too many great posts.)

Before They Killed Zombies and Stopped Crazy Middle-Aged Cultists

I don't know how many of you out there are on the same page here, but I love British comedy. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost rock my world. And for those of you who enjoy Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz as much as me, you should definitely take a look at an earlier project of Pegg's, a British tv show called Spaced. Frost, of course, is on it playing a military enthusiast who isn't actually in the military, and the rest of the cast is equally hilarious. The show revolves around Pegg's character, Tim, and his friend Daisy who live together. Frost plays (no surprise here) Pegg's best friend. You'll also recognize the guy who played Pete in Shaun of the Dead, Peter Serafinowicz, (again playing a dick) and Daisy is played by Jessica Hynes who was Shaun's female counterpart in the film.

The show is hilarious and the best part is you can watch the whole series (only 2 seasons unfortunately) on Hulu (www.hulu.com/spaced). If you don't want to commit to the whole show (but really, it's only 14 half-hour episodes), I would recommend episodes 4 and 5 of the first season and episode 3 of the second season. The first and last of these are excellent because they involve Frost and Pegg in ridiculous situations (namely playing paintball against Serafinowicz, Tim's arch-enemy, and entering a "robot wars" competition). Episode 5 of season 1 is great if you enjoy Star Wars references as much as I do.

Basically if you're looking for a comedy with ridiculous and awesome characters and a good helping of British humor, check out Spaced. It's worth it just for Frost and his tendency to bring handguns to housewarming parties for "security."

No Guts, No Glory

In honor of Halloween, my first post is about a movie that not well-known, but is definitely worth a viewing and a book that kind of came out of nowhere, both of which are in the horror/thriller genre.

I can take no credit whatsoever for coming across this movie...I found it at www.filmschoolrejects.com, which is a fantastic site for learning about movies that went under the radar or for reminding you about that great film that you've been meaning to see. Anyway, the movie is Ravenous, starring Guy Pearce and Robert Carlyle (who always seems to play a crazy motherf*er and does it well--i.e.: Trainspotting, 28 Weeks Later). It looks at that most romantic of topics, cannibalism. It takes place in the mid-1800s in what was still the mostly untamed West of the US. Pearce is an Army captain stationed at a fort in the middle of nowhere during winter. The creep factor of this film is a 10 and it definitely provides some gruesome stuff. But it also has a good dose of black humor and that's how I like it. I won't give away too much but it's pretty awesome and Robert Carlyle's performance alone makes it worth it (plus it has Neal McDonough as a gung-ho soldier, David Arquette as his goofy, campy self, and Lost's Daniel Faraday). So grab some red meat and enjoy.

If you're looking for a more intellectual pastime this Halloween, try an amazing book by British author David Moody. Moody initially self-published the book online and it wasn't until later that it was released by a publisher. It's called Hater and it will screw with your head. The best way I can describe it is as a mix between The Happening (if it were actually good) and a typical zombie story. Without saying too much, the storyline revolves around a British family living through some kind of massive societal disaster where, one by one, people turn on those closest to them and brutally kill them. So, yeah, it's pretty violent. It's also one of the more psychological pieces in the "zombie" genre I've seen or read and it raises some pretty interesting questions. Moody has also recently come out with a sequel called Dog Blood which is also good, but doesn't have as much of the shock factor. And last I heard, Guillermo del Toro bought the rights to make Hater into a film, but we'll see when that happens.

Anyway, I hope this gets you in the Halloween spirit. And as a final nod to Robert Carlyle, here's a link to his awesome Johnnie Walker ad. Enjoy.