It's a 12x24, 5 color (I can see, maybe, two of those colors) screen print done by Daniel Danger. I saw this guy posted at OMG Posters! the other day and just had to have it. So I hurried and ordered it through MondoTees, which turns out to have been a mistake since, even though they sold out rather quickly, Daniel will now be offering them up at his site. The one's he'll have will be signed and numbered. He's also gonna have a blue variant. So...ummm, boohair? Yes, boohair indeed.
Also, I've finally started the process of screen capping this movie, so be on the lookout for those, probably this week.
Over the years I've had a lot of people not really understand my name. This usually only happens when people encounter my name for the first time. Whether they hear me or someone else say it, or if they see it written down. I always, without fail find these moments hilarious. I think you all know about my favorite time this happened ("Two Hands, huh?"), but here are some more classic "Zuhair" eff-ups.
There was my the history professor at UCR, Elizabeth Vanderven, who for two whole quarters called me Zaire (Zah-year), like you know? The country in Africa (now called the somewhat less catchy Democratic Republic of Congo). I probably could have corrected her, but dang dude, she was cute and I figured that I'd let her call me whatever she wanted.
The ethnic studies professor, Ralph Crowder, who simply glossed over my name and opted to skip the first part altogether and just call me Abdulla. He's the only person that I've ever known to call me by only my last name, consistently. I ran into him about a year ago, having first had class with him in 2001 and found out that he still calls me, simply, Abdulla.
I'm not even going to talk about what happened when that stupid Don't Mess With the Zohan movie came out.
At the Toyota dealership a few weeks ago one of the dudes from maintenance came up to me and asked me if I owned a Prius. I said yes and he told me my car was done and ready to be paid for. Usually they just call your name on the loud speaker but I had my headphones in and couldn't hear. Anyhow. I went up to the counter to pay for whatever it was they were fixing when the lady behind the counter said, in a Mexican accent, "Oh! It's your car! I was calling Zwa-hurr for like 10 minutes! Just me saying 'Zwa-hurr, Zwa-hurr, your car is ready.'" I told her I was wearing headphones and couldn't hear, but didn't mention that even if I could hear, I still would have had no idea that my car was ready.
There's a guy who does handiwork at the house that I work at. I've seen him probably once a week or at least twice a month since I started working here in August of last year. We don't talk much but we always do a little stop and chat. His name is Justin and he's addressed me by name many times. I went on tour for about 5 weeks starting at the end of March. When I returned back to the office the week after tour ended I saw him and said hello. He responded with, "Oh hey Zuha (Zoo-ha, as in Zoo-ha got you all in check!), how's it going?" He also ended the conversation with, "Good seeing you again, Zuha!" I guess 6 weeks of not seeing me makes you forget the last two letters of my name.
I can't remember exactly where this happened but I was at a somewhat loud party when one of my friends decided to introduce me to the lady he brought. She was very, very, clearly not interested in meeting me and wasn't really paying attention at all. So when I said, "Hi, I'm Zuhair, nice to meet you," she very bitchily responded with "What's a Zuhair?"
When I was a child, a little baby Zuhair if you will, all the other children used to call me Poohair. I believe though, that that was somewhat intentional.
Saturday had me watching one of my favorite bands ever, Wilco. It was, hands down, the best show I've ever been to in my life. And I saw Weezer 3 times before they got all shitty! In fact, I'm just gonna go ahead and say it; It was the best anything ever. For Wilco fans out there, here's what they played:
1. Wilco (The Song) 2. I Am Trying To Break Your Heart 3. Bull Black Nova 4. You Are My Face 5. One Wing 6. A Shot In The Arm 7. Radio Cure 8. Impossible Germany 9. Deeper Down 10. Pick Up The Change 11. Can't Stand It 12. Jesus, Etc. 13. Hate It Here 14. You Never Know 15. Theologians 16. Walken 17. I'm The Man Who Loves You 18. Hummingbird // E1: 19. Passenger Side 20. California Stars 21. Misunderstood 22. Happy Birthday 23. Spiders (Kidsmoke) // E2: 24. Kingpin 25. Monday 26. Hoodoo Voodoo
Don't know if you noticed that there, but they did two encores!
They didn't play a few jams that I really wanted to hear, but they had such a good set list it didn't really matter. Plus they played Misunderstood which is goddamned incredible. Here it is, the live version off of Kicking Television:
I couldn't find a really good live video of the whole song, there's one from Lollapalooza '08 that was pretty good but then I noticed it didn't have the lead guitar in the mix, what up with that sound guy? Anyhow, so instead I've just embedded this short clip from I am Trying to Break Your Heart of just the end bits.
Next Saturday I'm going to be seeing Wilco at The Fox Theater in Pomona. This'll be my second time seeing them and I'm pretty dang excited. Here are some videos of them that I like a lot:
My favorite:
And not only do I LOVE this next song, but I think the video is super funny. It looks like it's from one of those MTV Winter Break things they used to do in the 90s. This video is full of cheesy edits and for some reason, Tweedy is wearing snowboarding goggles:
I honestly haven't been excited about an Adam Sandler movie since Punch Drunk Love came out back in 2002. That movie came out and it really showed me how incredible of an actor this goofball can be. It kind of ruined the shtick he had going for so long with movies like Happy Gilmore, Billy Madison, and The Waterboy. So when he returned to making movies like that, I did not return to the theaters. Even his subsequent attempts at serious acting failed to grasp my attention (Spanglish, Reign on Me, I Now Pronounce you Chuck and Larry). Paul Thomas Anderson captured Adam Sandler at his absolute best. It kind of made me feel the way I did when I first saw Bill Murray in a similar type of situation, silly comedian turns comically serious. Not that Adam Sandler is anywhere near as talented and amazing as Mr. Murray, but for a moment there I did see a glimpse of hope.
Anyhow, now he's back with Judd Apatow's Funny People, which has an absurdly good cast including Seth Rogan, Jason Schwartzman, Jonah Hill, and Aziz Ansari. Needless to say, just thinking about this movie gives me a little bit of a boner.
Speaking of Aziz Ansari, has anyone seen Parks and Recreation yet? If so, is it any good? I want to love it, but haven't turned on my TV in a while... let me know what the deal is, yo.
So lately I've become kind of re-obsessed with Bob Odenkirk. He's always been one of my favorite comedians, but he's stuck to sketch comedy and directing for so long now that I often forget that he started out as a stand up. Over the past couple of years or so he's been getting back into it and I've been fortunate enough to see him many times. I went and saw him last week at Comedy Death Ray and as always, I found myself wanting to make man-love on him.
I was playing around on the you tube the other day and I actually found one of his sets that I saw early last year at the UCB Theatre in LA. This wasn't the first time I saw him, that was during the Comedians of Comedy tour in '07. Anyhow, it's cut in two parts:
Many of you may already know him from HBO's Mr. Show. Here's one of my favorite sketches starring Bob:
Alright. So here's a new movie starring Charlyne Yi and Michael Cera, called Paper Heart. I honestly can. not. wait. for this movie to come out. I can't believe how goddamned cute they are together! I had heard that they were dating, but I never realized how cute and awkward they are together. Even if this movie is a piece of turd, cut from a turd cake, I will always have this trailer to keep me warm. I wish it was longer...
There's a little bit of Metal in me. It's a bit strange to say, but yeah. I'm kind of a fan of Metal. It happened long ago, on a warm Southern California evening when my brother introduced me to two radio stations, Pirate Radio and KNAC, both of which no longer exist. Anyhow, from the ages of 6-10 or so, all I would listen to was metal, because that's what my brothers listened to. I had no choice but to succumb to metal's fierce will otherwise I was led to believe that Judas Priest would summon a Dragon to come and burn me to a crisp.
Speaking of Judas Priest:
Anyhow, my point here is that I don't actually like metal. I mean, I do, but I don't. At least not in the way your normal metal fan enjoys it. I just find a lot of it so incredibly hilarious that I can do nothing but offer it my love. I mean, seriously! Did you or did you not just watch Judas Priest rob a bank using nothing but their ability to rock the fuck out? And often times, it's not just the videos that are entertaining, but the music itself is actually quite impressive on some strange level. I'm not a fan of crazy-wacky guitar solos, unless they're in Metal songs.
I feel like if there's a place at all for crazy-wacky guitar solos, it's in Metal and Metal alone (I will, however, let Dinosaur Jr., Stephen Malkmus, and Wilco's Sky Blue Sky, slide though). Take for instance the dueling face-melters of Iron Maiden's "The Trooper":
Hi, my name is Zuhair. Sometimes when I say that, people think I'm saying Two Hands. I don't understand how that happens.
Also, that image is by Juan Molinet.
