Weekend in review…

Over the weekend I had a little upgrade done to the stereo in the Dodge in the form of a pair of 12” JL Audio W0’s and a PlanetAudio VX2002 400w amp. Ages ago when I first met THIS GUY the car stereo bug bit me hard. I never experienced bass in a car quite like that, and it pretty much stuck with me as my first and best experience in a car that didn’t involve removing any clothes or risking a traffic ticket. Normally I’ve put something together, ran the wiring myself, etc… This time I could have done the same, but I figured I would pay the premium and have it professionally installed. Now it wasn’t just the quality of the install or the time it took to do, but the service I received from Par Troy in Newton, NJ. The first box that was installed was a stock JL Audio box, it did the job but was 1” too tall for the rear deck in my trunk. I called and the guy bent over backwards to help me out, replacing the box for a shorter but deeper model that fit perfect in my trunk. I’m still in the process of tuning it, but the bass is unbelievable. The body and interior of the Intrepid are surprisingly rattle-free (with exception to the controls for my moonroof) so I haven’t had to make any adjustments thus far. The bass is unbelievable for rap, techno, and heavy metal. I threw in the new Atreyu album and every kick drum hit sent a blast of tight bass through the car. The bass line 50 Cent’s “Candy Shop” song could easily double for a back massage, and VNV Nation’s latest effort sealed the deal. Smooth bass, no clipping, and the ability to annoy people twice my age. What more could any human being ask for?

After getting the car squared away, I headed over to Wal-Mart in Newton, NJ for some allergy meds and while meandering checked out the video game section. I tell ya, there is no justifiable reason to sell a game as bad as Doom 3 for $60. Yea, I’ll admit, I paid for it when I bought it for my PC. But now that it has come out for Xbox I don’t see how the premium is justified short of trying to make up for lost sales with an increased price. I won’t go on about what I found to be wrong with Doom 3, that was covered in an earlier post, but lets just say ID better get its act together cos if they fuck up Quake 4, there will likely be riots.

Got home, met up with some friends for dinner at Harpoon Bay in Warwick, NY. I tell ya folks, that place is rapidly on its way to becoming my favorite restaurant. The prices are very reasonable, the quality of the food is outstanding, tack on great service and an ambiance that evokes memories of beach-front restaurants, it can’t be beat. I had red snapper (very tasty) with jerk sauce (wow, hard not to read into that) on linguine. I could eat there every night, it’s just THAT good.

Well any movie that gets two thumbs up from Ebert and Roeper must be good… Right? Hello? Right? To hell with that. Their credibility went out the window when Gene Siskel hit the coroner’s table. Dead movie pundits aside, Ocean’s Twelve would have been better presented as a straight to DVD title with a b-movie cast. I’m astonished how bad this movie was. They took the first film and completely defiled its memory in 1 hour and 59 minutes. Terry Benedict, the casino owner they ripped off for 160 million finds them one by one and gives them 2 weeks to pay him back. Folks, the movie should have rolled end credits right there as everything which comes after it could have been better directed and edited by a 13 year old using his one free hand to click through Google’s image finder for nude pictures of Julia Roberts. Ocean’s Twelve was easily 30-45 minutes longer than it should have been. Nearly every dialog was inane and dragged out to a fatally painful degree. Every tangent was explored, filmed, and carried over to the full motion picture. Guess it kinda fit, I saw IMHO the perfect film last week (Sahara) so I’ve seen the worst one in a long time this week. Trust me folks, save your rental or purchase fees, skip Ocean’s Twelve.

Last but not least, was making some Ellios pizza in the toaster oven tonight, and on the box was a big warning label “Warning: Product becomes hot when cooked.”

No shit!