Friday night rolls around and The Bro, Don, and Jason all come over to watch the original "Night of the Living Dead" and the original "Dawn of the Dead" to prepare us for the next day.  Of course Jason was the last one getting there so we had to kill the time watching some show on NFL TV showing the auditions and tryouts for the Miami Dolphins cheerleaders.  Now what cracked me up about this was the cheerleader coaches, judges, whatever they are.  It's basically a couple of older women who used to be cheerleaders so I guess they're experts on it.  They kept coaching the girls on smiling and little things like that...like a guy cares, you know?  Yes, all the guys watching a football game are really analyzing the choreography of the dance routine.  Anyway Jason finally shows and we watch the movies.  Man they still rock...we analyzed zombie behavior, went into lengthy discussions about what we like about zombie movies, laughed at all the crappy zombie movies we've seen.  Yep, a good time, all in preparation for the next day...."Land of the Dead".  The funny thing is, Bro was telling me when he was at work that day he mentioned to some girl there that we were all getting together to watch these zombie movies and she says "and you guys wonder why you're single"....hahahaha.  Actually I don't wonder why I'm single at all...I'm so glad she attempted to enlighten all of us.  In fact, when I was at work Friday I was wearing my "House of 1,000 Corpses" shirt, and this girl in the kitchen sees me in there and reads it.  She's like "House of 1,000 Corpses?" so of course I had to educate...and I noticed as I started to describe it more and talk about "The Devil's Rejects" coming out I was in full-on horror geek mode.  I then had to explain what was happening the next day in going to see "Land of the Dead"...and she says "oh...well...I'll be excited for you".  In her head she's probably like "just say something nice so you can get the heck out of here!".

Friday night I actually didn't sleep well...which means I'm a complete dork.  I kept thinking I overslept and stuff, so I finally just said "screw it" and got out of bed.  Me and the crew were meeting about 12:30 to go see the movie.  Now when I got there, I thought fate was dealing me a good hand.  I get in line for a ticket behind a family of like 37.  Well, actually it was like 3 kids but it seemed like a ton.  I knew they would get up there and start "but Mommy I wanna see this" and the others "no mommy I wanna see that" and problems would start.  But guess what?  They actually said "you go on ahead" and let me go in front...unreal.  I figured that was a sign this movie was gonna rock!  Ok ok, I know you're DYING to know what I thought of it.  Remember when I closed last time with the following?

" Yeah, in a few days is "Land of the Dead", but I have this horrible fear that I'll be watching it thinking to myself "man...I should have gone to see 'Batman' again".  I hope not, but we'll see...."

Well...that's pretty much what happened.  I mean it didn't completely suck and there were some cool scenes of zombies eating people...but the story BLEW.  All the internet reviewers are just going on and on about the "social commentary" this movie had and everything....whatever.  Supposedly it's supposed to reflect the attitude in a post-9/11 world with Dennis Hopper's character being a George Bush-ish person.  Now all these dorks reviewing it are talking about how brilliant it all is..and I don't see it.  Ok, so Hopper says "we don't negotiate with terrorists" and that's supposed to be a big statement?  Oh, and NO movie has ever had rich, greedy people holding down the masses...yeah that's REAL original.  I wanted to like it so much...but the whole story was so lame.  It had parts that were cool, but the remake of "Dawn of the Dead" is still the last great zombie movie that has yet to be dethroned.  After it was over, the consensus was it was pretty weak...except Don...he thought it was cool because he is a stickler for zombies eating people and ripping them apart.  Granted there was a lot of that, and if the movie has that he's happy because it's actually pretty rare for zombie movies to show a good gut-eating scene.  Oh well..."The Devil's Rejects" is only a few weeks away...and I'm gonna see Batman on IMAX this weekend so that will completely rock as hard as Pantera.

Oh man, speaking of music, I got an unbelievable CD in the mail this week.  The title is "Live From Iraq" done by 4th25.  This thing is just a masterpiece.  Go check them out at http://4th25.com/frameset.htm and buy a CD.  The story is, these guys who are/were stationed in Iraq recorded a rap CD while they were there.  All the songs are about their experiences.  It is honestly some of the most intense stuff I have ever heard in my life.  Now I'm not a huge rap fan, but I do love old Ice-T, LL Cool J, and The Beastie Boys...and even if this CD wasn't dealing with the topics it does, the music and everything on it is awesome.  I seriously urge everyone to go check out their website and order a CD.  Each song is literally like taking a journey.  You know I always hate when people refer to their music as "art" because it sounds so arrogant...but I will easily call these songs "art" because it is unbelievable what these guys created.  In fact, this CD is like a true piece of history and that is not overstating it at all.  It kicks off with a tune called "The Deployment" which goes through the emotions of having to leave your family wondering if you'll ever see them again and gets heavier from there.  My personal fave right now is "24 Hours" because the lyrics are just so friggin honest and brutal that me describing them could never do them justice.  Now let me warn you, this CD isn't "nice" at all...it's pretty hardcore....but I really think it's an extremely important CD to listen to.  To think these guys would be in a firefight and then come back to write and record a song about it is unreal....right in the middle of it all.  There's a lot of frustration and anger on it, which is completely understandable.  One thing I noticed on it is a certain theme that carries over through each song...our soldiers are not being allowed to get the job done and it pisses me off.

Can you believe we're still hearing crap about Guantanamo Bay???  I swear, it's no wonder our soldiers are so frustrated because there's too many jerks here in the safety of the U.S. who want to criticize every single thing being done all because they are in a different political party or have some stupid agenda.  Do these idiots not realize the harm they're doing?  Or is it they just don't care because they are too damn selfish...I can't decide.  I mean if you don't like George Bush then fine, but jeez man don't call stupid press conferences or whatever and openly criticize every single thing just to further a political career ESPECIALLY when U.S. soldiers morale and safety is at stake.  It's ridiculous.  Do these idiots in the press or Congress not understand that when they bitch and whine about this supposed "torture" at Guantanamo Bay that it gives the enemy a morale boost???  I swear, if this war is still going on when I get elected as Senator...and I truly do plan on getting elected...I will love nothing more then to get on the floor of the Senate and telling them to SHUT THE HELL UP!!!  Let our troops do their job and come home...then we can Monday morning quarterback it all we want.  Can we at least let them get the job done and come home first before people start bitching about them?  I swear, those idiots who spit all over the Vietnam vets are in action today with that some spoiled brat mentality.  When someone like Barbara Boxer, Kennedy, Hillary Clinton, or whoever comes out and criticizes all this stuff do they not realize the message being sent?  Well they probably do but their own personal agenda means more then anything else.  They are basically saying "our troops shouldn't be over there and they aren't doing the right thing and if they do anything we object to then we'll have special committees look into it".  Could you imagine being a soldier over there and hearing this crap?  I'm sure it would make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside and make you really care about what you're doing.  Thankfully people like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh are the top rated radio shows and they do everything they can to keep troops' moral up.  Man it just ticks me off.

Oh and the new thing for all these moron activists is the hubub about the bill to make flag burning illegal.  And the problem with that is...?  "It violates my First Amendment rights!!!"...and where in the First Amendment does it say ANYTHING about burning a U.S. Flag???  The U.S. Flag means freedom and liberty and for some gutless little maggot to burn it makes me want to punch them so many times in the face they'll cry like a 5 year old girl with a skinned knee.  Have you seen this?

Wherever the American Flag flies means that land has freedom.  Thousands have spilled their blood to see that flag fly, and when some piece of crap wants to burn it, he deserves a beating because he is spitting in the face and on the memory of every single person who has given up everything to fight to keep that flag flying.  Anyone who wants to burn the American flag should be locked up because they obviously have no concept of freedom and therefore deserve to lose theirs.  In fact, I want to close this week with a quote form the "Live From Iraq" CD.  This is from the song titled "Testament of a Soldier" -