Hello, Goodbye, Hello

Hello everyone (all 8 of you). I've been my usual busy self for the last few months. Working 50 plus hour weeks, starting a pop punk band, working out (P90X does wonders, let me tell you), getting an amazing girlfriend (and living my fantasy of dating a super hot nurse) and then losing her to the wiles of Las Vegas and the general West, moving closer to downtown, attempting to sell most of my belongings in an attempt to streamline my life, and so on and so on and so on. I don't get much time anymore to do the things I truly love. I still read my comics and watch movies and play video games when I can (Lego Batman is the best time-waster ever, btw), but not to the extent I used to, which is what this blog was all about. I still enjoy writing, but I think I'm going to do it in another venue. One where Life is my subject matter as opposed to Pop Culture. There are already way too many blogs about that but none about me. So, I think I may abandon this blog to start anew. My life has been all about starting fresh lately and this is simply following suite. Or is it suit? Ah, whatever. When I decide on a clever name (maybe I'll call it "Shawn's Rad Blog"), I'll tell you where to go, if you're even interested. If I even do it.

In the meantime, look me up on Facebook. (I'm listed under "Shawn McNulty.") There are amazing pics and vids of me performing with my good friends Mumpsy at the Smashing Pumpkins tribute show that were just posted and another incredible video of me dressed as a drunk bee for an old Swirling Bees video. I get punched, drop kicked, and violated by a birthday cake. Oh yeah, and I puke. But not for real. Word.

In the meantime, please, please, please watch this movie when you get a chance. It comes out on DVD and Blu Ray this Tuesday and I think it's playing again at the Enzian at midnight this Friday and Saturday.

Well, I'll Be Damned

Look who's back. Actually it's more like look who's able to log onto his blog account at work again. I shouldn't even be doing this considering the fact I'm still swamped with massive amounts of work, but it's Friday, it's a quarter to 6, I'm supposed to be here for another hour, and the office is empty save for the custodial staff, none of whom can speak a lick of ingles. What the hell else am I going to do? Be productive?!? Eff that noise. I've been begging to get canned lately. I'm so utterly sick to death of this place, economy be damned.

Thanks to Boner Party, I just caught my first look at what Joanna Newsom looks like. I've never really been that into her. She just reminds me to much of Jodie Foster's Nell character when I hear her sing. I've always felt I'd like her more if I walked around in bare feet, wore flowers in my hair, fiddled with harmonicas, and had a vagina. But, Great Ceasar's Ghost, is she adorable! And surprisingly hot for a really skinny girl. Awesome hair, too. I have a thing for good hair. If I were her beau, I'd totally sit around and listen to her music. Of course, I'd have to tuck my Linus and Charlie Browns between my legs giving myself a mangina and smoke a lot of weed (perfectly explaining Andy Samberg). Sucks she lives in Wiiliamsburg (which, in my opinion, is something like the Jersey of Brooklyn).

Sometimes, when I have the ole Ipod on shuffle, something comes on that just makes me feel fucking awesome. Pearl Jam just popped on. Crazy Mary. It was about a minute into the song when I realized, "Holy shit. This is Pearl Jam. Man." Suddenly, I felt 10 different shades of rad, mildly missing 1993 and how cool I thought I was back then. I just sat here loving on some Vedder and getting all into drinking the bottle, drinking it down, and passing it around with Victoria Williams. Then some new Cave Singers came on for the PJ afterparty and totally chilled me the fuck out and brought me back to 2009. I used to have a Pearl Jam "Jeremy" shirt. Man, I fucking loved that shirt.

Go to the Enzian and watch "A Serious Man." It was amazing. Don't worry, Roger Deakins is back as the Coens' DP. And if you don't like this film, there is little hope for you.

Oh, and one more thing. Stephen King's Under the Dome = hooolyyyyyyyy shit! It is that good. It has some of the best character developement I've read in a long, long time. Of course, 1,074 pages and 30 years of development kind of allows you to expand and elaborate a bit.

Back From the Void Part 2: The Explanation

Okay, I had this whole other thing written out about The Legends' new album "Over and Over" (hence the pic of the album) and how good it is, as well as mentions of the new ones from YACHT, The Dirty Projectors, God Help the Girl, and Fun, but stupid blogspot is only posting what I wrote on Outlook and not what I actually wrote on here. I have no idea how to fix it. When I edit it, what I wrote is still there, it's just not showing up in the final, published version. I call horseshit. You'll just have to guess what was written. Look at it this way, a little mystery will keep our relationship interesting and fresh.

Regardless, I hope everyone had as happy, as safe, and as fun of a 4th as I did!!

Back From the Void

Note: If this entry looks weird, it's because I began writing it at work on Outlook, emailed it to myself, and then copy and pasted the email to here in order to finish it up. Lord only knows how jacked it's going to appear.

Wow, have I been lazy about posting or what? It’s been 2 months and my last post was merely a heads up to everyone about a show. A ton has happened in the last few months: getting myself in shape, getting my heart broken for the umpteenth time (you damnable females), the Magic nearly going all the way, Liverpool coming #2 in the Premier, the US somehow beating Spain and going up against Brazil in our first ever shot at getting a FIFA cup (still trying to wrap my head around that one), my baby nephew not being in the best of health but still fighting the good fight (he is Irish and a McNulty, after all), trying to catch up with my comic books, getting sucked into Crackdown, Oblivion, and Ghostbusters on 360, Roommate and I up to scandalous deeds, getting ready to go to St Pete to do some recording, working 50-60 hour work weeks, drinking and partying way more than I should (going in to work still drunk is so not fun, yet that seems to be my regular thing now every Monday and Friday), etc, etc, etc. It’s been a friggin crazy time. So, yeah, I’ve been a little pre-occupied. Still, I've been reading about Octohawk's adventures in Colorado in her Pejorative Jinx blogand Pacing the Panic Room's blog about his adorable, increasing family and in comparison, my life seems pretty god damned dull and pointless, despite the insanity. BUT, that is another blog for another time.

Let’s talk music!

I love rediscovering music. I’ve been listening to a lot of the MC5 lately, whom I haven’t listened to in ages. Not since I went through my Wayne Kramer/listening-to-old-punk-rockers-somehow-gives-me-validity phase as a kid. God damn that was a good band. They really need to have a reunion. Are they all even still alive?

There has been some seriously good stuff that’s come out lately. First off, we’ve got Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimest. So far, I’m pretty certain this is my favorite album of the year. It’s absolutely stunning and you can definitely hear the band growing into themselves. They’ve always been pretty unique, so it’s kind of stupid to say they’re “finding their own sound,” but something is definitely going on there. I could make a metaphor about flowers blossoming, but that’s gay. I’ve heard people say this album is poppier. I don’t know if I’d use “poppy” to ever describe Grizzly Bear, but it definitely isn’t quite as gloomy as Yellow House or Horn of Plenty. If you haven’t had a chance yet, I implore you to watch Patrick Daughters’ video for “Two Weeks.” In fact, give it a couple of watches. I swear I spent an entire day watching this video over and over when it was first released. My life is sad and empty. Standout songs: Two Weeks, Ready, Able, About Face, While You Wait For the Others, and Foreground.

Next up we got Au Revoir Simone’s “Still Night, Still Light.” Man, I adore these girls. This album really isn’t much different from their last 2. Their music is still keyboard laden beauty fronted by gorgeous vocal harmonies, just a little more layered now. Basically, if you like their other stuff, you’ll friggin love this record. I regret having missed them at Anti-Pop. The weird thing is they actually play this CD at Barnes & Noble. Strange. Great for the band, but strange. Standout songs: Shadows, Knight of Wands, Only You Can Make You Happy, and Anywhere You Looked.

Speaking of shows, Black Moth Super Rainbow is coming to town at the end of the month. So, if you live in the Town of O, you should definitely check them out at Backbooth. You should also check out their new one, “Eating Us.” Like Au Revoir Simone, there’s not much different in this release from past albums. It’s just really, really good. I can’t say enough good things about this group. Standout Songs: pretty much all of them.

Here’s an album that changes things up: Phoenix’s “Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix.” Seriously, that’s one of the worst names for a record ever. Thank Baby Jesus the album isn’t nearly as bad as it’s title. The airwaves have been thick with their single “1901.” I don’t really mind this since it’s a great song and damn near impossible to not dance to. Phoenix has always been good about that. It’s funny I had to be coaxed into listening to this release. I saw them perform “1901” live on some late night show and thought it was fucking awful. Let me just say it translates much better on CD. One of the things I like about Phoenix is the fact that this album sounds very different from the first. The style of their music and the vocals have changed quite a bit and they seem to try to keep that going from record to record. I like bands who aren’t afraid to try different things and keep their sound fresh.Standout songs: Lisztomania, 1901, Fences, and Armistice.

One more album I'd like to mention is the new one from The Legends, "Over and Over." Sweden's big indie label, "Labrador Records, has put out a lot of good ones lately from Suburban Kids With Biblical Names, The Mary Onettes, and The Radio Dept (FINALLY), but the problem there is that they are all sigles and EP's, never reaching past the 4-song mark. "Thankfully, "Over and Over" is a full 12 songs. To make matters even better, Johan has left the keyboard-laden pop behind of the last couple of albums (which I actually do like a lot) and has returned to the fuzzy shoegaze-ish twee foud on the first record, "Up Against The Legends." Standout songs: Monday to Saturday, Dancefloor, Something Strange Will Happen, and Touch.

There have been some other good things that have been released recently from the likes of Yacht, The Dirty Projectors, the new Belle & Sebastian side project God Help the Girl, and one of the guy's from The Format's new band, Fun. However, I have already written enough and I am ready to do other life-fulfilling things. I ust have to figure out what they are.

Hear Ye, Hear Ye

If you live in Orlando, then you should make it a point to go to Will's Pub on Saturday night. My old band, Watch Me Disappear, is playing (sans me, obviously), some band named Kahn or something, and the reunion of what I still think is the greatest band that this town has ever had and probably will ever have, The Punching Contest. I'm pretty sure the show is a mere old skool $5. Trust me, this is something you do not want to miss. I'm sure the boys will be in rare form.

All Caught Up

So, since my computer had contracted some kind of deadly disease, disallowing me from accessing the internet much less anything else, before my roommate was actually able to let my computer travel back in time to a point where it was much happier and disease free (I'd be so lucky), I have fallen far, far behind on my regular geeky activities. I have actually been forced to go out, be social, go to the beach, meet with friends for dinner, and other various activities I've been denied because of my computer's inability to serve my regular daily needs of comic books, movies, ordering pizza and chicken wings online, and sitting in dark rooms with the blinds closed. Alas, the comp is more or less fixed, sort of, and I just finished catching up with a month and a half's worth of comics and I've downloaded a bunch of new albums and movies (Shhhhhh!!! You heard what happened to the Piratebay guys, right?). Don't worry. No Wolverine for me. I'd rather see it in the theaters without the reality of suspension wires. So having said that, I've decided not to write about any of it. Not that I don't think any of what I experienced in my catchign up was good. It's just too much!!! I am planning on going to FX this weekend (Leonard Nimoy, Spike, and Drucilla!!!!!) and I'll try to get my regular posts going now that I'm current on everything. Man, what a pain in the ass. Plus, that whole "No more blogspot at work" thing is a real Debbie Downer.

Meh. C'est la vie.


This came up when I Google imaged "C'est la vie." I love it.

Oh, and did anyone else know that The Mighty Boosh was on Adult Swim? I sure as hell didn't, so you can imagine my surprise when I caught an episode of it at a friend's house. Not only that, but Gary Newman was on!!!! Holy crap!!!!!!!!!!


Too fucking awesome.

New Liverpool Away Kits

They made the decision on the new kits in January, but I'm just seeing them now since I gave up on International Football for a month or 2 because the January drama got to be too much for me (and believe me, God has been punishing me for it). So, I present to you the 2009-2010 Liverpool away kits.


Boner.




I hate to admit this, but it reminds me of the black Spider-Man costume/Venom symbiote. I love it.