Stone Roses Reissue, hello!

The Stone Roses are resurrecting their 1989 self-titled debut album in a deluxe and hearty package.

The first CD is the original record, re-polished by Ian Brown and producer John Leckie. In addition, there's another CD with demos and full-length tracks. Along with this, there's a DVD of the 1989 Blackpool show. Yes, this would be dubbed "The Legacy Package."

There will be the "Collector's Edition," which includes 3 LPs: the original The Stone Roses and 13 other tracks that were not included in the album. Okay, there is also a photo book and band diary that catches behind-the-scenes moments and musings from the band and their friends, like Mark Ronson. John Squire's album art for their singles covers is also in the package, of course including the Pollock-inspired debut album cover which was named by Q magazine as one of "The 100 Best Covers of All Time." And finally, a 2 GB USB drive in the shape of a lemon (get it?) that has "all the audio, promo videos, ringtones, wallpapers, plus previously unseen John Leckie home video footage of the recording of 'Fool's Gold'," according to a press release.

They weren't messing around.

My Bottom is Sore

updated music for your listening pleasure

Tuned up the playlist in the left margin -- kept some of the favorites and added some groups I've been listening to more lately, like The Feelies, Adam and the Ants, The Gories, Titus Andronicus ... and so much more! (ugh.)

I'm too friendly for my own good...

"The Proposition": if you're in the mood for a violent western, this would be the one to see.

"The Proposition" -- directed by John Hillcoat, screenplay by Nick Cave (of The Bad Seeds and who wrote the goddamn thing in just 3 weeks), and starring Guy Pearce, Ray Winstone, Danny Huston, Emily Watson, and John Hurt. This is the second time Hillcoat and Cave have joined forces for a film, the first being 1988's "Ghosts ... of the Civil Dead." 2006's "Proposition" carries on the dynamo duo's disturbing and masterful storytelling.

Set in the arid Australian outback, "Proposition" has a picturesque and almost painful look. It's lip-cracking dry and swarming with flies. The cast is perfectly set. Pearce is calculated and deliberate. Winstone manages to keep himself hovering on the edge, always seeming like he's about to erupt and lose his mind. Huston is able to lend reason and intelligence to a brutal and maniacal character. Watson plays fragility and denial perfectly, never seeming to reconcile her fantasies with reality. And John Hurt is John Hurt. He's always good in whatever character he plays, as in this one where he is a fucking lunatic bounty hunter.

Cave's script is concise and clean. He doesn't let the characters become too sympathetic or cheddar, making each one super-flawed and beyond rescue. Not to say you can't connect with the story and specific people in the story; just the writing makes you realize this isn't a self-pitying sob-fest. It portrays what I think those times must have been like -- unyielding, tough, and perilous.

Things to Accomplish:

1) Ambidexterity, which is actually improving

2) Learn new language (thinking Polish or Croatian just for ancestry's sake, but am open to suggestions)

3) Score that bartending job I'm interviewing for tomorrow

4) Get my ESL certificate

5) Finish scarf started last X-mas

6) Replace reading glasses with less grandma-style specs that are also more durable since I'm a clumsy fucker

7) Find and obtain The Chills' "Kaleidoscope World" which seems like it's only available through Amazon

8) Pay off CC
9) Find a girl (not in a friend sense)

Katherine Stall's "Den of Thieves"

A contemporary look at the radical religious right and their violent attempt to brainwash a nation that by principle stands "under God." Why can't they leave well enough alone, eh?

More importantly, it is about those who oppose moral oppression in an entertaining cat-and-mouse scenario. And asks the question of whether a defeated action still bears effect.