Darth JayDer Comics

Is was a very long weekend.  And unfortunately, I was lazy as shit.  But I did ponder on the needed recommends, so here goes.

MOVIE: BOMB THE SYSTEM
The reason I first picked this movie up was that the editor was Jay Rabinowitz, editor of “Requiem for a Dream”, “Pi” and a few other films that I simply loved.  Suffice to say, I fell in love with this one.  This title is currently on my top 5 list of all time favorite films.  It follows a duo of tag artists trying to make themselves bigger and better than the normal grafitti riff-raff.  Shot expertly and cut together magically, this film will blow you the fuck away and not look back for help.

MUSIC: PRIMUS
The kings of the bass lines, Primus has roc ked for years.  While most people will probably remember the song “Wynonna’s Big Brown Beaver” I would like to recommend a previous album, “Pork Soda.”  While I think “Sailing the Seas of Cheese” is brilliant, it was “Pork” that first made me love Primus.  Kinky bass licks and provacotive chords make this album one of my all time favorites.  Specially since a couple songs are done on an Electric Bass, the stand up kind, and Les Claypool banging it out.  Fucking tear-jerking.

TV SHOW: SPACED
If you are unfamiliar with quite possibly one of the smartest, funniest tv shows in history, this is a real fact I just made up, then be enraptured that it is FINALLY coming to America on DVD.  Ever heard of Shaun of the Dead?  You loved it, right?  We all did.  This was the TV show that the actors and director made before Shaun.  And if you want to get technical, “Shaun of the Dead” acts like a sequel to the TV show because they bring back key characters and more through out the movie that only if you had watched the show you would catch.  Funny as hell and worth the money to pick up.

VIDEO GAME: CHRONO TRIGGER
Without hesitation, I will call this my 2nd all time favorite RPG, surpassed only by Final Fantasy III.  With character design done by Akira Toriyama, this game was brought to my attention very rapidly when it was first released.  I remember days going by obsorbed in this game that I wouldn’t trade back for anything.  Interesting characters, memorable story lines and guess what?  You don’t have to buy a SNES to play it.  It’s coming out for the American DS this fall, hopefully.  Grab it,  Love it,  Thank me later.

COMIC BOOK: LOST AT SEA by BRYAN LEE O’MALLEY
“Lost at Sea” is one of those stories you want to reread from page 1 as soon as you finish the final page.  It’s a soft story about realizing who you are and how you fit into the world that lies before you.  The beautifully thick pen strokes only add to the desolate and epic scope of the truth that is our lives.  On a road trip home from school our heroine has to come with terms of her existence.  Every page is a joy and I highly recommend this to anyone who has ever had a heart, given it away and lost it.

MOVIE: MST3K
While this can be classified as a catch-all topic, you don’t necessarily have to watch them all, sometimes just one in a while is really good.  For those unfamiliar with the acronym, MST3K (or Misty) stands for Mystery Science Theater 3000.  This is the show where the main guy, shot into outer space, and his two robot cohorts sat in front of the movie screen, via a silhouette, and made fun of old cheesy movies.  While some are definitely better than others, it’s always a joy to have people rip on the movies you probably would never have watched to begin with.  As an added bonus, MST3K the movie has just been rereleased to DVD and available through Netflix (since this is where I got my copy).  And…if you find yourself  saying, “But Jaysin, I’ve already seen all the MST3K episodes.”  Fear not.  You can download the Riff Trax from their webpage and sinc them up to newer, and sometimes more deserving of criticism movies…cough cough.;..Top Gun…cough.  And of course there’s always The Film Crew who have been releasing movies in the same way.  Ironically, these are all the same writers, so it’s the same humor as MST3K.  Enjoy!!!

COMIC: STRAY BULLETS
A classic piece of art here, folks.  For those of you who have had the pleasure to read these you already know this fact.  Stray Bullets was an underground comic from David Laphem back in the 80s that reads like the best movie you’ll ever see on paper.  While reading the first couple issues it may seem disjointed and unrelated because it is.  The first few books have very little to do with each other, but just like Tarantino or Guy Richie’s craft of film making, Lapham ties all the stories together masterfully.  What drives this story?  Character and the development or destruction they go through.  Worth every cent to pick up the trades

TV SHOW: DEATH NOTE
As much as I would love to recommend the English version of this because it’s easily available on Cartoon Network, I have not seen the dub version so I will not prop it nor disrespect it.  I know many anime series that are nothing like they used to be when they come to English dubbing.  They are actually getting voice actors now.  But I digress.  To sum up Death Note, it’s a cat and mouse game. A very smart teenage boy in Tokyo finds a black note book which he learns can control the mortal fate of anyone he writes the name of in the book.When the world’s top detective starts to track him down the story becomes a perfect examination of character building exploits that drive the plot through out.  You’ll find yourself cheering on Light, the intelligent teen who deems himself the world’s new god.

VIDEO GAME: CASTLEVANIA: SYMPHONY OF THE NIGHT
There is a plethora of Castlevania titles, most, imo, are worth leaving on the shelf and wondering about.  However, this side scroller is possibly the best side scroller ever because many issues: the RPG aspects that make you grow in level through out the game, the character and story that bleeds slowly through out game play, the constant traveling back and forth from point A to point G to point X to point A, but it never gets boring, and of course the wicked new spells, familiars and as soon as you think you’ve beat the game, the castle turns upside down and you have to do it mall over again, in reverse…Wow.  This PlayStation 1 title is wicked worth the money.  I heard you can pick it up on XBOX live for the 360.  Shell out the $5 or buy the PSP title Rondo of Blood and beat level 4 or 5 in a certain way and play it on your PSP.

MUSIC: FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS
Ok, ok.  This is a 2-for.  I was just introduced to this HBO show and I love it.  It’s hilarious and very well designed, but it’s music, even though really really funny, is just plain good.  It’s pure indy cred-style music, the kind you can expect to check out at a coffee house or street corner but it’s awesome how diverse they are in their own style.  Very worth checking out.,

Hello again everybody. Just wanted to shout out and point out some of the new changes that have taken place here at DarthJayDer.com.

1. We have a logo! That means things to have that logo plastered on coming soon.
2. All issues of Lost are now available for online purchase. Hit the “Buy Our Books” link on the right or go directly to the Lost page and follow the links there
3. Every post now has a “Share This” option at the bottom of it. You can link it directly to your myspace, facebook, digg, whatever… so share the wealth… the wealth of being cool.
4. We have a new forum that while it is slim pickings for stuff to read right now, will one day be the greatest forum in the world… or at least this site.
5. Two big new book announcements coming very soon. If you hadn’t noticed there are forum categories for the books and a page for something called “Nexus” is up already. Get ready and have a change of underwear handy cuz you’re gonna have stuff coming out of every hole when the new stuff comes.
6. Jaysin’s Weekly Recommendations will be hitting the site here as well as the Lost myspace page. Read what Jaysin thinks will make you a bit closer to being awesome like him.

Welp that’s it for now, so make sure to check back like every 30 seconds to see if something new gets posted. That would make me happy.

Because Lost #2 is now available for online purchase! Just hit the “Buy Our Books” link on the right or the link off of the Lost page.

So for those that have lost count, all 3 books are now available for purchase.

God, somedays, like today, I wish I had a light saber.  And not the kind that can literally cut through steel, because we all know how many legalities and court appearances George Lucas would have to make.  I want one of those that just slide out of the handle and you can buy at Toys R Us.  I think I want it bec because it’s this generation’s version of the wiffle ball bat.  And how many times would you like a wiffle ball bat on you so you can justifiably, and non-emergency room-visitingly, whack that fuck outta someone?   Quite a few by my log I keep in my truck when driving in heavy traffic.

But none of this anger, on to what I think you should be wasting your time with!!!

MOVIE:  FUNNY GAMES
Now, I have yet to see the original 1997 German version, but it is on my Netflix queue.  I am discussing the American remake.  I fucking hate remakes, save a select few (All Quiet on the Western Front, Dawn of the Dead, and …. The Departed to a lesser degree), but this movie, blew it up!!  It was wickedly well acted, perfectly cut and technically spot on with direction and lighting.  I was telling my friend who recommended this to me, I have seen a lot, and let me stress A LOT of gory, a lot of sadistic, and a lot of truly fucked up torture films in my history as a film nerd.  But this is without a doubt the FIRST time I have ever sided with the characters being tortured.  I actually found myself wanting them to live.  If you’re not a fan or gory movies, no fear.  They NEVER, save one time,  show violence.  They never show the beating of the family or anything like it.  The only time there is violence on screen, you will jump and cheer, trust me.  Definitely one for the art crowd or anyone who can truly enjoy good film.

COMIC BOOK: THE BOYS
I have been picking up a lot of books recently, most offer the same face as the World of Warcraft comics, BLAH.  I had forgotten all about The Boys.  I walked into my comic shop and saw issue  21 and my jaw dropped.  The last issue I had read was 9, so I quickly bought the rest of the series and had a ball reading up on the stories I had loved.  The story is an easy one to follow with a Mark MIllar-esque feeling to it.  It’s written by the same guy who did Preacher and drawn by the guy who did Transmetropolitan.  How can you go wrong?  Worth picking up, every cent of the book.

TV SHOW: PINK 5
While it’s not technically a TV show, I want to recommend this over any of the other dreck I’ve been spoon fed lately.  It’s a series of fan films based in the Star Wars universe and they are done expertly with the perfect touch of valley girl-isms.  A delight to watch over and over again.  It also doesn’t hurt that the production value is HUGE!  It really looks like she is in Jabba’s palace.  It’s fucking great.

BOOK: RULES FOR RADICALS by SAUL ALINKSY
This book is the only other reason aside my father why I hate and mistrust the government that leads us.  It is a how-to manual for making your voice heard and truly winning over the minds of the masses.  It’s how to disassociate yourself from the core and be unique and against the system.  It’s a tough book to get through but all the better once you do.

VIDEO GAME: FINAL FANTASY III (Japanese VI)
I would have liked to have recommended Okami again, since it was just a fuckingly amazing game in every aspect and Capcom needs it to sell well in order to make more games from Clover Studios, but I think I should at least offer something new each week instead of reminding you what I have already quoted.  The American FFIII was fantastic.  My buddy John and I went nuts over this game for months.  We would trade the game back and forth to level up our characters, him doing more of the work than I; I was much more into the story.  The story was the poop on  so many levels, and one of the only video games EVER to make me cry.  The ghost train and the opera house, all i have to say.  If you can find this gem on SNES, download from Wii, or even on a rom, do yourself the favor, take off a few days from work, grab some Dr Peppers and Cheetos and enjoy one of the most stellar RPGs ever made.

MUSIC:  ?????
Music is always a touchey thing to recommend, you make one false move and you might lose that indy cred you’ve built up, or if you go too far out there, you keep your cred but lose any chance of people actually trying something new or even fucking finding it.  If you think you’re local CD store can get any CD, think again, music sold in stores is only, I would harbor the guess at something near 8-10% of what is actually out there, and wouldn’t you know it…some of that shit you can’t find in the stores is soooooo damn good.  So, without further ado, I offer this week’s music selection:
Find something you’ve never heard of and try it!
You heard me.  I know it sounds abserd, but sometimes the best finds are the ones you find yourself.  Troll a forum about music, pick a band you have never heard of and is not touring with a band you have heard of, and check out their music.  Better yet, and here is the gutsy but WAY better way to find unheard music….go to a local venue and see some locals bands.  Don’t go the Metro, even though I love it, go out to a bar, an open mic night….hear stuff you’ll never hear again and revel in it.  That is my command, go now monkeys of the night and feast your ears on tunes of glorious harmonies.

This weekend I was laid up on my couch due to an old back injury so I took a little time to think through what I would recommend to someone.

Movie: CASHBACK
Among the total tripe you can find at your local video store, you can stumble across some amazing gems.  I was lucky enough to see the original short film this movie was based on a few years ago and when the full length film was released I was over joyed to pick it up release day.  The story revolves around an art student who is dumped by his girlfriend and finds himself not sleeping.  HE now needs something to do with his time so he gets a job at a local grocery store.  The symbology in this piece is epic and I think it’s found it’s way into my top 25 list.

Comic Book: SCOTT PILGRIM
As much as I would love to lump sum all of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s pieces into one recommendment, Scott Pilgrim is an excellent read, and of course this allows me to recommend the other books later.  Pilgrim is for anyone who likes music, video games and even a little pop culture references thrown in from time to time…oh yeah, and romance.  The key driving plot device is a love story.  And it’s told magnificantly.  As I have said for years, guys love romantic stories.  We long for them.  But, we just can’t handle them being told as strictly a love story.  This is why Smallville and Heroes and Lost (shifty eyes looking around the room) works so damn well.  We need danger, fighting, ninjas, video game references and more.  Scott delivers on all these.

Book: STAR WARS: TALES FROM JABBA’S PALACE
As I am a self defined Star Wars fanatic, I love all thigns Star Wars.  I espeically love the darker side of the galaxy, the Imperials, the gang lords, the bounty hunters.  This collection of short stories expertly defines the going-ons of the motely crew deep with in the palace of Jabba the Hutt.  Some of the faces you will recognize from the films, some you will not.  All in all, a fun read for those of us too interested in the world that three movies hinted at.

Music: AESOP ROCK
This is kind of a gimme, I’m just hoping someone hasn’t heard of him.  His lyrics, beats and all around artistic creations make normal hiphop look like rudimentary trash.  I haven’t heard an album of his I don’t like yet, however LABOR DAYS, FAST CARS DANGER FIRE AND KNIVES and his newest release, NONE SHALL PASS are my favorite.  The rhetoric and pure genius his lyrics portray is stunning to any level of MC or rap fan.  His voice is cool, calm and as smooth as silk.  If you have yet to bles your ears with his songs, do so now.

Video Game: OKAMI
Oh come on.  You play the reincarnation of a wold god.  Paint brushes are your weapons.  How can you not love this?