5 sites

MARVEL COMICS

There isn't much to say here about this site -- you either know Marvel Comics, or you don't. Especially so, now that the Hollywood movie market is rather saturated with Marvel characters and properties -- Spider-Man, Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, the Avengers, etc. And now, Marvel has entered the digital domain in full force, offering "unlimited" digital comics on your computer or mobile device with a monthly subscription service. Hopefully, this will be some wind in the sails of an industry that's been in hard times for some years now.

STUMPTOWN COMICS FEST

POWELL'S BOOKS

HULU

PHOTOJOJO

5 sites

Fun with Vinyl


Recently, I've fallen madly in love with Prince's music, in all its variations -- stuff he put out himself, or with The Time, or with Vanity 6, or with Apollonia 6, etc. And various places around the internet have helped me fill in a lot of the cracks. This website is one such place -- cataloging a number of singles and promos that are no longer available for commercial consumption, if they were ever released to begin with. Who knows if this material will ever officially see release again, but until that is a reality and not a possibility, I'm happy enough to scour the edges of the net looking for what I can find.






There Are No Kings






The Unheard Music






Hellbent for Pleather






Taco Bell

5 sites

Reddit


I have no words for this site. It's such an incredibly large, incredibly vast, incredibly broad site -- whatever you're hoping to find here, you will find. It takes some time to navigate and to figure out of the lay-out, but after that it's easy to waste an entire day lost down a thread.



Polyvinyl Records



Three Word Phrase



Butch Walker



Xiu Xiu

5 sites, week 4

LOGO TV: RuPAUL'S DRAG RACE

Since I don't have cable, watching television shows online is something I do quite a lot of; well, not a lot, since I don't follow too many shows. But RuPaul's Drag Race has been a show I've been with since the beginning, and it's a show I eagerly anticipate from week to week when it's airing. Monday nights/Tuesday mornings will find me on the Logo website at midnight, continuously hitting "refresh" until the latest episode appears. Any other television show I'm interested in, I can wait a day or two to catch up on. But not this one.

GROOVESHARK

PANDORA

HOLGA INSPIRE

BUTTERSAFE

5 sites, Week 2/3

Spectrum Culture
A pop-culture-centric site, with a pretty heavy Portland presence, Spectrum Culture is a daily visit for me. Not only does the site feature reviews on current albums, bands, movies, books, etc. -- they also have a number of articles/series that focus on certain points in pop culture's past that may need revisiting, as well as articles that follow one certain filmmaker through his or her entire career, beginning to end (or most recent offering, if still alive). It's a website that takes its content seriously, but that's about all.





RedBubble





Flickr





Newspace Center for Photography





MyPCC

Week 1 Response

What do you see as your weakness behind being creative and what do you think you will need to do to break away from it?


Right now, my biggest weakness when it comes to being creative is never having the time or resources to follow through with an idea. Occasionally, I'll have an idea for a photo project or some sort of art project, but between work and classes, I'm usually too tired to get started with it. Or, it's something that requires more money or other resources than I currently have available to me. Even if I write them down for future reference, when go back over them weeks or months later I've often lost the drive or desire that was there.

To be able to break away from this, I don't know what I'll need. I can't pull time or resources out of thin air, and those are two things I feel are holding me back. However, I do feel that have class assignments or projects handed to me at work helps this somewhat, since it forces me to see something through to completion with minimal time and resources at my disposal. But since that same sense of urgency doesn't drive when I'm outside of school or work, I don't push myself like would in the aforementioned situations.

I don't know what else to write here, since I usually follow the guidelines mentioned in the reading -- I approach things differently, I'm open to new ideas, I try to go outside the rules (or simply bend them, depending), etc. For me, it just comes down to not having enough time or available resources to see my projects through.

5 logos

Captain America As long as I've been a fan of comic books, I've been a fan of Captain America, so this logo is one that really stands out to me. Design-wise, it's incredibly simple, flat, and minimalist. But it carries nearly 70 years of comic book history with it, which also gives it some depth and meaning.


Booster Gold


The Avengers


Apple Computers


XBOX 360

5 sites, week 1

A.V. Club
The A.V. Club -- an offshoot of the Onion empire -- is a site made up pop culture news and reviews. It's a site I check multiple times daily, and the site I usually start my day with. It's smart, it's a bit snarky, it's informative; plus, you can often find the writers skimming the outskirts of good taste (and bad taste, for that matter) and pointing out gems that have otherwise gone ignored.



Slate


Imgur


Blogtown PDX


Nedroid

Bringing it back, of a sort

It's been a while since I've been here. Feel odd. But, I'm currently in a class that is requiring a keep a blog for various assignments throughout the coming weeks. Instead of starting a new one somewhere, I figured I'd just revive this one for a while and put it to use. I warn you, if you're looking for something interesting to read, you'll probably want to turn away for the coming weeks. Otherwise, here we go...

JFC

JFC, originally uploaded by G C Lee.

Reggie needs a new grill

Fundraising Ideas

When I adopted Reginald from the Oregon Humane Society back in January, I was told that he had a couple of broken teeth that, while not immediate, would need to be fixed at some point. However, the price quoted by the vet's office was a bit out of my budget; so, I thought I'd throw it out to the internet and see what happens. Please click on the link above if you can spare anything; and feel free to pass the link around to anyone you feel might be interested in helping the cause. Thank you.

Reggie Variations

Reggie Variations, originally uploaded by G C Lee.

The Reggie Variations: Sandwich

Reggie Variations

Reggie Variations, originally uploaded by G C Lee.

The Reggie Variations: Naruto

Seeing Colors

Recently, I noticed that I own a substantial amount of colored vinyl records -- most of them 45s/singles/"seven inches" -- so I thought it would be neat to snap a photo of each one and have a visual record of them all. Today, I finished up with all the 7" records I currently own (with the odd 12" thrown in for variety), and hope to start on the larger platters some time soon.

Stay classy Portland

Stay classy Portland, originally uploaded by G C Lee.

Drinking With Strangers: addendum

Butch Walker -- "Cigarette Lighter Love Song"


When I try to explain exactly what this man's music means to me, I just want to show people this clip. This is from a show in 2003 at Atlanta's Variety Playhouse, between Walker's first and second albums. The place was packed with fans, and I was one of them. I will never forget this night as long as I live.
The energy is the place was amazing; and every time I listen to this version of the song (in addition to the DVD of the show, he released some of the audio from the show on a live compilation some years back) I get goosebumps whenever the audience swoops in and takes over the chorus that first time through.

Drinking With Strangers

"If you've listened to FM radio any time in the last 15 years, you've probably heard a Butch Walker song -- though you probably didn't know it at the time. In 'Drinking With Strangers,' Walker recounts his days of being a Hair Metal nobody who became a Rock Star nobody who became a songwriter and producer working with Pink, Katy Perry, Tommy Lee, and some band named Weezer. Told with all of the candor, wit, and humor one would expect from one of the Greatest American Musicians No One Has Heard Of -- this memoir is the story of playing by your own rules and winning."

This was the brief little review I wrote to help sell some copies of this book at the book store where I work. And it's about as unbiased and un-hyperbolic I can get when talking about Butch Walker -- the dude's music has meant more to me over the years than I could ever attempt to describe. I discovered the Marvelous 3's breakthrough, Hey! Album, at a time when nearly every song was like a page out of my own life; and if one of the songs didn't speak to me at the time, it soon would. From then, I've followed his career pretty closely, and the man has yet to disappoint.
And it was much the same with this book. Though a lot of the Marvelous 3 and post-M3 stuff I knew about, it was nice to get to fill in all of the details. And it was nice to read about Walker's early days in hair metal band Southgang, as well as his transitional group Floyd's Funk Revival/the Floyds. (There isn't much out there from either of these bands other than some highly-marked-up shit on Ebay.)

I don't read much non-fiction -- and I especially don't read memoirs -- so I can't judge this book on the merits of such. But I can say, if you're a fan of the guy's music, you'll dig this book. If you don't know anything of Butch Walker, I'd still say give this one a shot. If nothing else, it will be a charming bedside read.


THINGS I LEARNED WHILE READING DRINKING WITH STRANGERS

~~ Butch is cousins with the former vocalist of Savatage/Trans Siberian Orchestra

~~ Rivers Cuomo was once in a hair metal band named Zoom, whose gimmick was wearing nothing but bath towels and roller skates

~~ Walker's hair metal band Southgang was one of two bands originally signed to an upstart Charisma Records. The other was a band named Jellyfish

~~ During his early days of becoming an in-demand record producer, Butch passed on the opportunity to produce the debut of an up-and-coming band named Creed



~~ Drinking with Strangers -- Butch Walker
~~ It's So Easy, and Other Lies -- Duff McKagen
~~ Things the Grandchildren Should Know -- Mark Oliver Everett
~~ Goodnight Jim Bob -- Jim Bob
~~ See a Little Light -- Bob Mould

Summer of 89, Winter of Rock Bio

Just a few days ago, Butch Walker's book/"memoir" Drinking with Strangers hit the shelves. Being a huge fan of all things Walker puts his name on, I shouldn't have to say that I'm pretty excited about this. I'm a few pages into it right now, and it's everything I expected it to be. And that's such a good thing.


But one thing struck me while starting this book -- I have a number of "rock bio" type books (auto-bios, actually) on my shelves that I've yet to read (including the promo copy of Duff McKagan's story, which should make a nice counterpoint here); so, I'm making it a point to spend most of these coming winter months making my way through these books and hopefully writing about them here. But that last part remains to be seen.

My list, so far:

~~ Drinking with Strangers -- Butch Walker
~~ It's So Easy, and Other Lies -- Duff McKagen
~~ Things the Grandchildren Should Know -- Mark Oliver Everett
~~ Goodnight Jim Bob -- Jim Bob

Voodoo Zombie Blaxploitation

Last night, the people (or person) behind the Grindhouse Film Festival series screened the relatively unknown blaxploitation-horror gem, Sugar Hill. Not being too well-versed in blaxploitation (just like most of Portland, it would seem, given how surprised Halstead was at the crowd that showed up), this movie was unknown to me. I'm aware of some of the other entries in the hybrid genre -- Blacula, Scream Blacula Scream, Dr Black and Mr Hyde -- but again, I've never seen any of them. But much like the kung-fu films I spent years blissfully ignoring during my years of near-constant VHS scouring, opting instead to make my way through the horror section of all the video rental stores in my area -- the Grindhouse series has been slowly exposing me to some great blaxploitation films; Sugar Hill being no exception.

Like so many films of that era, and especially those that fall under the "grindhouse" banner, Sugar Hill is not without its flaws -- in acting, in the plot, in its own logic; but also like so many of those grindhouse films, that's where a lot of the film's charm comes from. It's schlocky, it's silly, it's pandering, it's kinda stupid, but it's also entertaining and fun.

If you're a fan of some of the other genres that fall under the collective grindhouse umbrella, then I do recommend this one to you. Yes -- it falls short in some areas, but the voodoo approach to the (stale, even then) zombie movie is a nice change of pace.
If you're not a fan, you can probably skip this one. Overall, it's pretty basic fare.

DSC_5633

DSC_5633, originally uploaded by G C Lee.