Get out your make-up–KISS is coming
The last time KISS played Vancouver, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss were still members of the band.
It’s been nearly a decade since KISS’s millennium show at BC Place on New Years Eve 1999.
But starting next month, KISS will be touring Canada and the United States for the remainder of 2009. The North American leg of the KISS Alive 35 tour kicks off with two shows in Detroit (Rock City) on September 25 and 26.
On November 14, half of the original KISS returns to BC. The other half just plays and gets paid.
Founding members Paul Stanley (rhythm guitar, lead vocals) and Gene Simmons (bass, backing vocals) are still selling out the KISS brand while Criss and Frehley’s replacements–Tommy Thayer (lead guitar) and Eric Singer (drums)–are along for the ride.
Dates:
Sept. 25 – Detroit, MI – Cobo Arena
Sept. 26 – Detroit, MI – Cobo Arena
Sept. 28 – Cleveland, OH – Quicken Loans Arena
Sept. 29 – London, ON – John Labatt Centre
Oct. 1 – Montreal, QC – Bell Centre
Oct. 2 – Toronto, ON – Air Canada Centre
Oct. 3 – Uncasville, CT – Mohegan Sun Arena
Oct. 5 – Boston, MA – TD Arena
Oct. 7 – Oshawa, ON – GM Centre
Oct. 9 – Uniondale, NY – Nassau Coliseum
Oct. 10 – New York, NY – Madison Square Garden
Oct. 12 – Philadelphia, PA – Wachovia Center
Oct. 13 – Washington, DC – Verizon Center
Oct. 16 – Hampton, VA – Hampton Coliseum
Oct. 17 – Greenville, SC – Bi-Lo Center
Oct. 19 – Pensacola, FL – Civic Center
Oct. 21 – Tampa, FL – St. Pete Times Forum
Oct. 22 – Sunrise, FL – Bankatlantic Center
Oct. 24 – Birmingham, AL – BJCC
Oct. 26 – Atlanta, GA – Phillips Arena
Oct. 28 – Nashville, TN – Sommet Center
Oct. 29 – Little Rock, AR – Verizon Arena
Oct. 31 – New Orleans, LA – New Orleans City Park
Nov. 6 – Chicago, IL – United Center
Nov. 7 – Minneapolis, MN – Target Center
Nov. 9 – Winnipeg, MB – MTS Center
Nov. 10 – Saskatoon, SK – Credit Union Centre
Nov. 12 – Calgary, AB – Pengrowth Saddledome
Nov. 14 – Vancouver, BC – GM Place
Nov. 15 – Seattle, WA – Key Arena
Nov. 17 – Portland, OR – Rose Garden
Nov. 19 – Sacramento, CA – Arco Arena
Nov. 21 – Oakland, CA – Oakland Arena
Nov. 24 – Anaheim, CA – Honda Center
Nov. 25 – Los Angeles, CA – Staples Center
Nov. 27 – San Diego, CA – Sports Arena
Nov. 28 – Las Vegas, NV – (Venue TBD)
Dec. 1 – Glendale, AZ – Jobing.com Arena
Dec. 2 – El Paso, TX – UTEP
Dec. 4 – Austin, TX – Frank Erwin Center
Dec. 5 – Houston, TX – Toyota Center
Dec. 6 – Dallas, TX – American Airlines Center
The tour is partially in support of the bands upcoming 23rd studio album Sonic Boom, out Oct. 6. But with the name “KISS Alive” attached to the tour, the band is sure to play a lot of their biggest hits, looking back 35 years to the KISS Alive! live album.
Fans should expect songs such as “Love Gun,” “Lick It Up,” “God of Thunder” and perhaps a few gems like “Strutter” and “Firehouse.”
On an unrelated note, stocks went up for facepaint manufacturers…
Comedians want four more years in the Frat Pack
This weekend, I watched Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy for the first time in a while. Until now, I hadn’t realized how many Frat Pack comedians were members of the Channel 4 news room.
Comedians such as Will Ferrell, Ben Stiller and Jack Black have always been Frat Pack members, but some supporting actors in Anchorman five years ago are now topping the box office. Paul Rudd’s bromance films with Jason Siegel are popular, David Koechner has had several roles alongside Ferrell and Seth Rogen is arguably the biggest draw with films including Superbad and Knocked Up tied to his name.
Here’s a run-down of the comedians who made fictional ’70s news hilarious.
Channel 4 News
Will Ferrell as Ron Bugundy – anchorman
Christina Applegate (not considered a Frat Pack member) as Veronica Corningstone – co-anchor
David Koechner as Champ Kind – sportscaster
Steve Carell as Brick Tamland – weatherman
Paul Rudd as Brian Fantana – field reporter
Fred Willard as Ed Harken – news director
Seth Rogen as Scotty – cameraman
Cameos
Vince Vaughn as Wes Mantooth – lead anchor (Channel 9 Evening News)
Luke Wilson as Frank Vitchard – lead anchor (Channel 2 News)
Ben Stiller as Arturo Mendes – lead anchor (Spanish Language News)
Jack Black as Motorcyclist
PlayStation 3 versus PS3 Slim
Like Sony had done in the past for the PlayStation 2, the entertainment franchise unveiled the slim version of the PlayStation 3 on Tuesday at Games Con with a release date of September 1.
It’s smaller, lighter and uses less power than its predecessor, but Sony entertainment boss Kaz Hirai addressed economic concerns for those with less disposable income.
“The most important figures are two, nine and nine,” said Hirai, “and in case you haven’t figured out what that number means, it’s the price.”
At $299, the PS3 Slim is cheaper than the current PlayStation 3’s on the market–at least, for today. Tomorrow, every PlayStation 3 gets a price drop of $100. The 80GB model will match the PS3 Slims price and the 160GB model will sit at $399.
Still holding out on buying a PS3? It doesn’t get much better than the Slim–unless you want to mess around with the PS3’s interface. The PS3 Slim will not run other operating systems such as Linux, whereas the current PS3s do.
If this is your dilemma, you’d better decide soon. Sony plans to phase out old models of the PS3, leaving the Slim as the only option on the market.
That’s bad news for anyone who wants to go back in their video game collection and play some PS One and PS2 gems. The PS3 Slim doesn’t offer backwards compatability, so hold onto the previous generation consoles.
(I bought my 80GB PS3 in December for $399 with a $150 hard drive upgrade to 250GB from Geek Squad and a 3-year $90 performance plan. I’m covered.)
Here are the specs:
|
PlayStation 3 |
PS3 Slim |
They’re not all that different from each other. They both have upgradeable hard drives, they both play Blu-Ray movies and they’re both the same price. The only question left is to Linux or not to Linux.
Don’t get swindled by the Kindle
The Amazon Kindle sucks.
It’s ugly, it’s bland and it fits in your pocket about as well as a portable record player.
But Amazon must have thought there was a nerdy market for this because the first Kindle sold out within five and a half hours of its release.
Before Kindle, ebooks never caught on, but after 21 months on the market, the Kindle has. Kinda.
Obviously, it comes with features that you can’t get with books. It has a web browser, reads .PDFs, and for a price, you can group your book collection with your daily newspaper.
You can adjust text size, but you can’t change the typefaces and its monochrome display can only make reading tedious.
Not to mention the iPhone–on top of all its other features–has a free ebook reader. There’s an app for that.
But the obsession to have everything we read on a screen is absurd. If I have to plug in and charge an electronic device to read something better suited to paperback, there must be something wrong with me.
There’s no sentimental value on digital books. When you have a hard cover copy of a book, you can feel the material, the texture of the pages. If you meet the author, they can sign it. You can lend it, sell it, donate it and it can be reused over and over again.
Oh yeah, and with the recent withdrawl of George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm from the Kindle library, you can bet other content restrictions will be put in place. (Believe it or not, Mein Kampf is available on the Kindle.)
Amazon’s Kindle hasn’t changed how we read the way Apple’s iPod has changed how we listen to music. Digital music works; digital reading doesn’t.
At least, not on that poorly-contrasted screen…
Extra Reading Material: this webcomic by Penny Arcade. Not compatible with the Kindle.
Play with me… over there
The next time you and your friends want to play video games together, you might all have to stay home.
It’s hard to find new games that allow you to play with your friends on the same console. Most only offer playing against them online.
What happened to local multiplayer?
Two-player games used to use the split-screen, dividing the display in half so that two could play at once.
Now, the number of new multiplayer games has decreased, with Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo taking after PC gamers, opting for online multiplayer.
MMORPG’s (mass multiplayer online roleplaying games) such as World of Warcraft (PC) are dedicated solely to online multiplayer, but console games are following in step.
Nintendo is the least of the offenders as the Wii was designed for head-to-head gameplay with friends, but the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 are taking full advantage of their online capabilities.
While first-person shooters like Call of Duty 4 and Halo offer local multiplayer, they are critically acclaimed for their online sessions with millions of users worldwide.
Even racing games like Pure only allow multiplayer over the internet. The Need for Speed series has always provided local multiplayer, which is to be expected of racing games–I want to race my friend sitting next to me on the couch and build up the feeling of competition in the room.
Back when the PlayStation 2 was the dominant console, local multiplayer was all you had. The PS2 was only beginning to break into online play, but almost every game that was multiplayer was local multiplayer.
Currently, if you want to play some games against your neighbour, you’re both required to buy a console and connect it online. This is getting ridiculous.
There are still a few franchises out there which rely on local multiplayer for sales. Rock Band and Guitar Hero offer up to four players at once with their instrument peripherals.
That’s not to say all online play is bad–though the console-related ones are an obvious money grab, using Wi-Fi for the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP have made portable gaming much easier.
It wasn’t long ago that, to race Mario Kart Super Circuit or trade Pokémon, you had to connect your GameBoys with a link cable.
But for console gamers, things might only get worse. The portable gaming market seems to be the only winner in this game.
Florida: there’s something in the water…
There must be something in the water (besides gators) that is making Floridians so remarkably stupid.
Every few months, a news story emerges about some dimwit from the Sunshine State. There are stupid people in every U.S. state, but people from Florida seem… stupider.
Don’t believe me? Here are a few notable stories.
JACKSONVILLE – Jacksonville police say Reginald Peterson needs to learn that 911 is not the appropriate place to complain that Subway left the sauce off a spicy Italian sandwich.
Police said the 42-year-old man dialed 911 twice last week so he could have his sub made correctly. The second call was to complain that officers weren’t arriving fast enough.
Subway workers told police Peterson became belligerent and yelled when they were fixing his order. They locked him out of the store after he left to call police.
When officers arrived, they tried to calm Peterson and explain the proper use of 911. Those efforts failed, and he was arrested on a charge of making false 911 calls.
Peterson did not have a listed phone number.
Guess what? Peterson wasn’t the only person in Florida who didn’t know that 911 is for. Two days later…
TAMPA – A second Hillsborough County man has been arrested on charges of making false 911 calls in as many days.
An arrest report says 47-year-old Carlos Gutierrez was at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino early Monday and called 911 to say the slot machine stole his money. The report says Gutierrez left the casino to place a second 911 call to say the same thing.
He was arrested and charged with making a false 911 call. He’s being held with no bail set.
On Sunday another man was arrested after calling 911 five times during an argument with his brother. He demanded that dispatchers send deputies to help sort things out.
See also:
• Man calls 911 when Florida Burger King runs out of lemonade
• Stoned Florida man calls 911 for helicopter escort to Lil Wayne concert
• Man arrested for 190th time in Florida
A few months after those calls, someone had to call 911 for a legitimate reason.
Authorities say a Fort Myers man shot himself in the arm after his girlfriend refused to have sex with him. The Lee County Sheriff’s Office reported that a 29-year-old man and his girlfriend returned home from a bar early Wednesday morning.
The girlfriend told deputies that her boyfriend wanted to get intimate, but she just wanted to go to sleep. When she refused, he became irate.
Authorities said the girlfriend went to a spare bedroom, and several minutes later she heard two gunshots. She told deputies her boyfriend came into her room and threatened her. He then stumbled into the kitchen before falling into the oven, knocking himself unconscious.
The man was treated for two gunshot wounds to the arm and was taken to jail.
The man was charged with threatening violence and firing a weapon in an occupied dwelling. He was being held on $100,000 bail.
More recently:
Dogs have been blamed for eating homework – now a Florida man says his cat downloaded child pornography.
Police are charging Keith Griffin of Jensen Beach, Florida with 10 counts of possession of child pornography after finding more than 1,000 images on his personal computer.
Griffin told police he had been downloading music, and that his cat jumped on the keyboard when he left the room. He said “strange things” appeared on the computer when he returned.
He is being held in Martin county jail on $250,000 bond. No word on any charges against the cat.
There’s even a website about stupid things in Florida called Floridiots, though it assures, “We’re not all this stupid.”
I dare you to find as many stories about stupid people in any of the other 49 States. You’ll find a few, but they won’t compare to Florida. Not even close.
Top 5 Songs about Ramblin’
Looking back at music from the late ’60s and early ’70s, there were a number of rock acts from back then who wrote songs about rambling. Though Urban Dictionary has a definition for rambling, it’s mostly about driving and rocking. A lot of bands did it. Here are the ones that did it best.
Top 5 Songs about Ramblin’
5. “Rambler, Gambler” by Bob Dylan (1960)
Taken off of the soundtrack to Martin Scorsese’s Bob Dylan documentary, No Direction Home, Dylan sings about being a rambler and a gambler. After that, he just rambles. This is one of the earliest-known songs about rambling, so rambling hadn’t yet caught on (heck if I know).
“I’m a rambler, I’m a gambler
I’m a long way from home
and if you don’t like me,
you can leave me alone”
4. “Ramble Tamble” by Creedence Clearwater Revival (1970)
The opener to Cosmo’s Factory, “Ramble Tamble” clocks in with over seven minutes of rambling. Though tensions between bassist Stu Cook, drummer Doug Clifford and the Fogerty brothers grew during the recording of the album, they still wrote a great record with a great track about rambling.
“Theres mud in the water,
Roach in the cellar,
Bugs in the sugar,
Mortgage on the home,
Mortgage on the home”
3. “Ramble On” by Led Zeppelin (1969)
With a lot of references to Lord of the Rings, “Ramble On” isn’t about dirty women or riding on the highway. Rather, it’s about exploring majestic forests and meeting a beauty–and then rambling. Jimmy Page riffs, Jon Bonham slams on the drums and John Paul Jones lends a distinct bassline so that Robert Plant can ramble.
“Ramble on,
and now’s the time, the time is now
to sing my song.
I’m goin round the world, I got to find my girl
On my way,
I’ve been this way ten years to the day,
Ramble on”
2. “Ramblin’ Man” by The Allman Brothers Band (1973)
Wouldn’t you know it, the Allman Brothers Band’s biggest hit was about rambling. Simply put, “Ramblin’ Man” is a southern rock song about being a rambling man–one that brought on generations of rambling men! Okay, maybe not that last part, but still.
“Lord, I was born a ramblin’ man,
Tryin’ to make a livin’ and doin’ the best I can,
and when it’s time for leavin, I hope you’ll understand
that I was born a ramblin’ man”
1. “Midnight Rambler” by The Rolling Stones (1969)
Side two of Let It Bleed starts with this Keith Richards’ bluesy guitar and Mick Jagger’s harmonica, building up into a catchy but dark track about rambling. It’s not the midday rambler. It’s not the midafternoon rambler. It’s the midnight rambler.
“So if you ever meet the midnight rambler
coming down your marble hall
Well he’s pouncing like proud Black Panther
Well, you can say I, I told you so
Well, don’t you listen for the midnight rambler
Play it easy as you go
I’m gonna smash down all your plate glass windows
Put a fist, put a fist through your steel-plated door”
Jacob Zinn :: journalist + photographer 
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