What a wonderful world

So, I actually had a few days off of work and with Kelly and the boys (and girl) off in N.C., I had to come up with a way to amuse myself.

No problem.

First off, I listened to quite a bit of Sirius radio and I gotta say it exceeds my expectations. The metal channel is good and there are three or four solid rock stations and an oldies channel I dig.

The traffic and weather channel for major metro areas is awesome and will come in very useful. Instead of trying to tune into KYW 1060 for a brief snippet of traffic news, Sirius' coverage is much more comprehensive and is updated every five minutes.

Then I watched a whole bunch of movies.

"Saw" was surprisingly decent. It kind of reminded me of "Seven" in that the killer sets up a series of scenarios as enjoys watching them unfold as detectives (and victims) try to outwit the bad guy.

"The Manchurian Candidate" remake was kind of over-the-top for my tastes. I really liked the original, which seemed eerily realistic. The new version seemed implausible at best, and while it didn't suck out loud, it came close on an occasion or two.

HBO's original film, "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers" seemed right up my alley and indeed it's quite awesome. While it doesn't match any of Sellers' proper films ("The Party" is my favorite), actor Geoffery Rush does an unimaginably good job at recreating the comedic actor.

As with a lot of films about great actors, musicians, thinkers, etc., some of the stuff you learn about the subject makes you dislike them somewhat.

I tracked down some MP3s of The Kids' first two albums. Hadn't really known much of anything about this Belgium punk band until Terre T hepped me to them on the Cherry Blossom Clinic.

Why these records are out of print is beyond me. The music is prime late '70s punk with a Ramones-ish feel and delivered with some primal fury and angst.

You can find the band's song, "This is Rock and Roll" from their first album, on the Killed By Death #5 compilation.