Good Ole' Boys

The title of this here entry is twofold: Firstly, in refrence to the Dukes of Hazzard and Secondly in refrence to the town of Stirling ON where I will be participating in the debauchery and drunkenness of my best friend Bryan's Bachelor Party.

Firstly: Since the Dukes of Hazzard movie came out on Friday night, I have seen it twice, and were someone to ask me to see it again I would gladly do so. For those of you who know me, you will have no trouble recalling or imagining that I have a lot of 'good ole boy' in me, from my American relatives in the South (go Dixie) to my enjoyment of redneck culture. By redneck culture I mean, I like Lynyrd Skynyrd, I have a cowboy hat that I have worn in public, and if I could afford it, I would drive a truck. Well I think its partly this, and partly that I grew up from a wee lad watching the Dukes of Hazzard on TV. The original show ran from 1979-1985, and I was born in 1980, so you can see the overlap is nearly perfect.

My ties to this show are so deep that my very first conscious memory of my parents house (which I still inhabit some 21 yrs later) was the first night we took possession of it, and I was sat down in my bedroom (which is no longer my bedroom but is not all that different other than the colour of the walls.) with a box of Mister Donut donuts (where an Avis rent a car now stands) and a small 10" Black & White TV watching the Dukes of Hazzard contentedly whilst my parents unloaded boxes. Now find me anyone else who can tell you exactly what they were doing in that much detail 21 years ago!

Anyhow, I'd always watched the show on reruns, be it on CMT or TNN, or those godforsaken 'reunion' movies CBS unleashed on the world which only served to soil the legacy of them Duke boys and their clan. Anyhow, it was in the last 6-8 months I noticed that the Dukes of Hazzard had come to DVD !!! In the words of Bo Duke; YEEEEEHAW! I purchased it from my used CD/DVD/VHS store of choice, and rushed home literally to watch the first season...well I nearly cried when I got home to find the discs weren't even in the package (which before you scoff WAS still sealed). So I had to wait until the next day to return and get a refund and the girls who worked at said store (Chumleigh's for those of you with a Kingston Konnection) were just as flabberghasted as I. Not to worry friends, for not less than 5 days later I found same said DVD back at the same friendly neighbourhood store and this time, upon inspecting carefully for all 3 discs, did again purchase it, and watched the first 12 or so episodes of season 1 in less than 4 days.

Fast forward to my birthday this year, and I receieved the second and third seasons of this fine programme from my wonderful girlfriend Steph (although I kinda paid for one season so that she'd get the other). My birthday, falling at the end of July, very nearly coincided with the theatrical release of the Dukes of Hazzard movie, starring Johnny Knoxville, Stiffler William Scott, Jessica Simpson (ugh), Burt Reynolds, and a dang good ole' boy himself, Willie Nelson. Now for those of you who scoff at it, just imagine if it had been Paul Walker & Ashton Kutcher as the Duke Cousins....exactly. Could have been a disaster of epic purportions. Well I went to see the movie on its second day of release b/c I was working the friday night it came out...GRRR. Steph went too, and kudos to her b/c I know that were it not for me I highly doubt she would have gone to see it. Ironically I was to go see it again some 3 days later because my best friend Bryan's fiancee would not go see it, so I was lucky to see it twice :) Yes lucky, I can hear some of you shuddering at the thought, but if you know me then you know I was in my element!

As for the movie itself: its obviously been updated for a more realistic feel than the original show did, and this translates to a bit more cursing, a bit of a meandering away from the true plotline of the show, and a bit of character tweaking. So in some cases I can see where people would be pissed off at it for not being like the show, but I have to say I was only minutely dissapointed with some of the choices. Ben Jones, who played Cooter B. Davenport in the original show ranted about how the movie was a disgrace to the legacy of the show and how it had lost its good wholesome family values, which he felt wasn't a surprise since the makers of the movie didn't really want anything to do with the original cast.

Now that was one of my complaints. I had definitely held my breath for the course of the film in that I would see a cameo of John Schneider and Tom Wopat much in the same way we had seen cameos of David Soul and Paul Michael Glaser alongside Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller in Starsky and Hutch. Sadly that didn't materialise, but I did read in the paper that John Schneider (the original Bo Duke - to Stiffler's new one) went up to Knoxville and Scott at the premiere, gave both of them big hugs, and then said 'hey lets do a yeehaw...' which they did, prompting Johnny Knoxville to remark "see Shawn I think THAT's what they wanted us to sound like". For those of you who would like a cultural refrence, John Schneider also plays Johnathan Kent on Smallville, which interestingly enough Tom Wopat also had a guest appearance on one episode (Tom Wopat clearly being Luke to John's Bo).

The other few complaints about the movie are as follows: 1-The doors on the General Lee opened the first couple times, which was just a no no, although they did write in a fairly acceptable reason why they weren't to begin with, but I still think that for a race car, the doors would NEVER have opened. tsk tsk.
2 - I had no problems with Bo and Luke being a little more crass, but Uncle Jesse, well he would never have had to cuss. And you know I normally have no problems with linguistic freedom of expression.
3 - Rosco (NOT Roscoe!!!!) Coltrane was not a feared lawman, he was always a bumbling idiot, but I suppose they did that in accordance with being a little more believable.
4 - Jessica Simpson didn't dye her hair brown to play Daisy, which was pretty much my only complaint with her in the whole film. THankfully they didn't have her sing IN the movie, just over the crappy credits, not even the blooper reel credits (that went to Willie Nelson, singing the Theme Song, previously sung by his late good buddy Waylon Jennings - who also played the Baladeer (narrator for you city slickers) in the show.
5 - The fact that the guy from Super Troopers managed to put his characters from that movie into this one...dude its one thing that you got to direct it, be thankful, and glad u didn't fuck it up.

Those were my only real complaints about the film. Yes Bo was a little over the top, but he was a little wild in the show sometimes too.

High Points - 1- THE SOUNDTRACK!!!! I am going to purchase this immediately. Good slice of country rock, 70s rock and pure hard core driving fast with shades on music. ACDC, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Molly Hatchet, James Gang, Ram Jam, ZZ Top....Jessica Simp...aww fuck it can't be perfect can it?
2- Johnny Knoxville as Luke I'll say from the top I am a fan of his from Jackass so I was really counting on him, and he pulled it off well. Not to say Stiffler didn't, but he was only playing a hillbilly version of himself.
(or as the best line of the movie Knoxville has after being told to get out of the car 'hillbillies' he replies 'acutally we prefer Appalachian Americans'!!! Fuck thats too funny.
3 - General Lee after the initial problems, which I'll admit made sense in the story, the car kicked ass. I mean can u say HEMI?.
4 - The fact that the movie seemed like a long episode instead of a movie. This may seem odd, but I do believe that having it seem like a longer episode made it fare better and it had less background info to give. Also it leaves open the sequel road, but I don't know if thats best left untouched...probably.
5 - Feeling like I was 5 years old again, along with other people in the theater who I know also grew up on it.

OK I think i've probably blabbed enough without ruining the movie for any of y'all that haven't seen it .

Next topic was going to be the bachelor party in Stirling but I imagine that will take up a whole entry in itself, and the Dukes deserve their own entire entry :)

PS. Lets have some comments (thank you Paul and Bri, but I hope there are more coming)
I wonder if I only write this for my own mental exercise....

anyway....Y'all Come Back now Y'Hear?

TRC Pt. II

Ok I'm back at least for a little bit.

Its the next day since I wrote and now I'm again at work bored out of my tree typing this from the front cash - absolute no no...I'd be in trouble if there were anyone here to care about it lol.
so I might not write much on the chance I get busy like I just did with having to ring one person through the cash...Oddly enough we are short staffed today but we're not busy...ironic.

Anyhow work is boring and I don't want this entry to reflect the boredom that courses thru my veins right now. So back to TO and the Kings of Leon show....

Wow. Not in a long while have I been at a show where the crowd was totally into the band and singing along to all the tunes, and just rocking out. It definitely helped matters that the band (which consists of 3 brothers and one cousin) were totally in the groove and just rocking it.
They have a sorta Black Crowey/Lynryd Skynyrd/Southern Rock sound to them with the cok factor kicked up a notch. And rock they did. The first 2 acts had left Steve and I practically unconscious with sleepiness and no excitement...so it was a great salvation to the evening to get our socks rocked off.

And the backdrop...a huge mural of a very stereotypical Native American with feathers in his hair and a tomahawk and Steve and I definitely thought that very few bands could pull that off without seeming racist or in bad taste. But they rocked, with Caleb Followil, lead singer and rhythm guitarist singing nonstop going all over the place with his vocal abilities and just getting the full power and emotion out of each song. His Brothers Jared on Bass and Nathan on Drums (unfortunatly now missing his fucking sweet ass beard) and cousin Matthew on Lead Guitar definitely grew up playing together and it shows live.

I have to say I was definitely looking forward to this but also a bit hesitant in case they were all hype, which has definitely happened before with bands that get touted as being some kick ass shit end up being just plain shit. Not so with these lads. The show was loose but tight, like a runaway freight train who's conductor - Caleb, knew just how fast to drive without de-railing. This is pure 70s country southern stoner rock tweaked for the 21st century and it kicks ass.

Funnily enough Lynyrd Skynyrd's Saturday Night Special just came on K-Rock as I was writing this which seems appropriate. On a sidenote that song is perfectly used in the movie The Longest Yard, the Burt Reynolds one, but I also must give props to the new Adam Sandler movie for also using the same song in the same scene at least for a bit.

anyhow my boss called and is coming in to pickup a canoe so I'll check u cats later with my review of the new Dukes of Hazzard movie which I saw last night...

10-4 Good Buddy.

Toronto Rock City

I just realized I haven't written for a while, and so I should put in at least some form of update for the 2 people I know who know this exists (Steve & Bri). As well as for those who randomly come across it. I read somewhere, BBC I think, that a new blog is created every SECOND! That's insane and it makes me question the need for my musings on nothing in particular, but Steve has reassured me its a pursuit worth keeping up with.

So here's the update: I spent Wednesday and Thursday in Dalton's Inferno - aka. Toronto,(That was clever I just came up with that) where the average temperature for the approximately 24 hr period I was there, must have been 45 Degrees. And thats not factoring in the pavement and ashphalt baking and adding heat, nor the fact that I must have walked about 60 blocks downtown doing various bits of shopping and just exploring. I decided my transit knowledge was good enough to make me a master of the subway but no way was I trying to experiment with Streetcars and Buses...hence the walking: well that and the fact that I thought Queen Subway station would put one on Queen. Well it did but apparently Queen St West is REALLY west...hence the large amounts of walking. Luckily the effort was appreciated by the person whom I was shopping for ;). So I think I lost about 5 lbs. to sweat, dehydration and just not eating a ton.

Well boring enough but the initial reason to go to TO was not for shopping, but rather for a good old time rock and roll that Bob Seger would probably have approved of. I had tickets for the Kings of Leon show @ Kool Haus, and for those of you who don't know the band, please please PLEASE, check them out. www.kingsofleon.com I was familiar with them mostly from reading of them in various music mags, and I did own their 2 CDs, the first I was more familiar with, and the second I only listened to for the first time the night before the concert. (yes I realise this is silly, especially for those who know how large my CD collection is) Well I knew I liked them and I knew that they had a very good chance of sounding even better in the flesh, so I bought them once I had secured the committment of Steve to play innkeeper and accomplice. The other band that was supposed to open were The Secret Machines, who I also own the debut and only album of, another highly touted band that sounds somewhat like a "Bombastic, Epic Pink Floyd but with louder volume". Unfortunately due to what we later found out was a death in their family (2 of the 3 members are brothers) they cancelled so we had 2 not very good fill-ins, the Helio Sequence who informed us this was their first night on tour, and if Steve and I had anything to say about it, also their last. The next band, from Sweden, the Shout out Louds, who definitely tried hard, but did not succeed. 2 of 3 bands down and we were sorely dissapointed...

However the next 1-1 1/2 hrs salvaged the night, and also made a fan out of Steve, who to his credit, pretty much attended this show on my reccomendation alone with a little bit of background reading on the band and the one song I had managed to play for him: Holy Roller Novocaine, which is the closing song on the first album, Youth and Young Manhood. which is also a pretty cool album name. This song is also probably my favourite new song of the moment.

Anyhow, I'm at work in good ole' K-town and its now time to go back to work from my lunch break so more will follow.

Word to your moms.