NEIL PEART

I' ve been reading his new book " Ghost Rider" and I am totally inspired by his strength, courage, wisdom, and of course his incredible gift for writing.

I admire his ability to live life to its fullest and to cherish the everyday little things that some of us take for granted. (birds, trees, a good meal, friends and family)

For him to simply survive the tragedies he has endured over the past 5 years is a miracle in itself, but to be such a positive spirit at the end of it all is a true inspiration to me.

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JELLYFISH

I am in heaven with the new 4-disc Box Set " Fan Club" .

These guys were one of my favorite bands of the 90' s and one of my most missed as they broke-up so prematurely and to very little success or acclaim....

Well, at least I have this box set!
1 disc of Bellybutton demos, 1 disc from the Bellybutton tour, 1 disc of Spilt Milk demos and 1 disc from the Spilt Milk tour....an amazing collection and very well done box that is a must for any Jellyfish fans!

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MR. SHOW

I' ve been working my way through the brilliant DVD Box Set of the first 2 seasons of HBO' s Mr. Show with David Cross and Bob Odenkirk and it is HILARIOUS!

Really funny stream of consciousness sketch comedy with a really bizarre americanized Monty Python twist. (and it also was the origin of Tenacious D!)

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JUGHEAD

This CD is definitly one of my favorites of 2002....
(having absolutely nothing to do with fact that I am currently on tour with half of the band: Matt Bissonette and Ty Tabor)

Another great album to fullfill my love for good " power pop" in the vein of The Beatles, Foo Fighters, Weezer, Jellyfish, The Greys, etc.

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QUENTIN TARANTINO

It' s been a great couple of weeks to be a Tarantino fan!

Before I had PT Anderson in my life, it was all about QT...he was THE MAN as far as I was concerned...the best new filmmaker of the 90' s in my book.
(and I still feel that way, but he now shares that distinction along with PT as they each created my two Holy Trinity of films of the 90' s)

Well, Tarantino' s three films have all finally been given the 2-disc Special Edition treatment on DVD and I am slowly working my way through the 6 discs and enjoying every minute of them!

....and a 2-disc SE version of " True Romance" is also due this month...(one of his non-directed masterpieces along with " Natural Born Killers" )

Three cheers for Mr. Brown!

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HBO' S SEASON PREMIERE HAT TRICK

3 of my favorite shows on TV all made glorious returns to the tube tonight...(and the DT tour ended just in time for me to watch them from the comfort of my own couch!)

Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Mind of the Married Man and of course, the Godfather of all TV shows, The Sopranos!

Sunday nights are going to RULE for the next 13 weeks!

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24

I am about half way through the first season DVD box set and I am hooked!

I didn' t watch this as it aired last year as I only became aware of it half way though the season and I figured with such a high-concept story line as this, it was useless to come in half way through...so I was very happy to see the entire season released on DVD. (Just in time to catch season 2 as well!)

This show is a wonderdul cross between Traffic, Timecode and the X-Files.

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PETER GABRIEL

After a 10 year hiatus (that must be some sort of record!), I had forgotten how much I was looking foward to a new Peter Gabriel album....I am soooo loving this CD!

It' s as tight and polished as " Us" and " So" , but yet as dark and unnerving as any of his earlier solo CD' s...

The opening track " Darkness" has to be up there as one of the most intense pieces he has written in his whole career!

BTW - For any of you that are anticipating the O.S.I. album and are wondering what it sounds like stylistically, this album is kinda like an " adult contemporary" version of what I would compare O.S.I. to....

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APPLE

I am soooooo in love with my new 20G Windows iPod!

This is, hands down, the greatest audio invention since the CD player 20 years ago...

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PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON

There are several of my heroes that just seem to keep making my list over and over (and probably will continue to for many years...)

PTA has done it again!

Went into the city today to see my most anticipated release of the year " Punch-Drunk Love" and man, did I love it!
I must admit, I was real worried about PT making a 90 minute film starring Adam Sandler....[:' (]...but it really worked!

It was a total cross between Woody Allen and David Lynch!

(My only complaint was no John C. Reilly, William H. Macy or Philip Baker Hall...)

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BECK

I' m loving his beautiful [:' (] new CD " Sea Change" ....
The track " Lonesome Tears" is totally brilliant...

Great to see him collaborating with such great musicians, Roger Manning and Jason Falkner (Jellyfish) and producer Nigel Godrich (Radiohead).

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CHRIS JERICHO

I spent the weekend with my man Y2J as he and I co-hosted Saturday Night Rocks with Eddie Trunk on WNEW this past Saturday night in NYC and we had a total blast!
We ended up staying on the air together for 4 hours and took over the airwaves with our mutual love and knowledge of classic Metal....
Spinning all of the old classics both he and I grew up with from Helloween to King Diamond to Raven to Iron Maiden to Stryper to UFO, etc, etc, etc.

He is one of the few people I' ve met that can match me in terms of knowledge and trivia of Rock and Metal and we probably could do one of these radio shows every week together!

Then on Sunday, Marlene and myself and Jose (my drum tech) and his girlfriend went to see Chris' big Pay Per View match at Madison Square Garden where we sat 2nd row ringside for a great evening of fun!!

What other modern day athlete could name Flotsam and Jetsam songs and the different line-ups of Loudness???

That' s why he' s my hero of the day and the KING OF THE WORLD!

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PAUL McCARTNEY

Watched his new DVD " Back in the U.S." tonight.
Unfortunately, I missed his tour this year (hey, I was away all year! - but I did see him in 1976 and 1990... ) and this DVD was a great way to finally catch the show...

The DVD is incredibly well done with behind the scenes footage, soundchecks, interviews, etc.
The song selection is non-stop classics and his band is great!

Actually, I think the audience shots throughout the concert say it all for Sir Paul' s influence: Jack Nicholson, Tom Cruise, John Cusack, Pamela Anderson, Harrison Ford, Michael Douglas and even Howard Stern!

But the most powerful moments of all to me was watching various grown men cry from hearing certain songs which obviously have permanent places in their hearts and lives....(and I am another of those grown men that he can actually bring to tears! )

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THE GREEN MILE

Re-watched this tonight for the first time since it' s release 3 years ago....

What a criminally underrated film.

This is the type of Hollywood film that should have had Oscar written all over it...but it somehow slipped through. [:' (]

Even at over 3 hours in length, the story and the great performances were totally gripping the whole time.

Oh yeah...and you can hear Victoria' s scream from SFAM at the 19:15 mark of the film!
(I guess we used the same sound effects libraries!)

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JON FAVREAU

While layed up in bed, I' ve had the chance to catch up on my tape of IFC' s wonderful show " Dinner For Five" hosted by Jon Favreau. This is a brilliant, candid look at the lives and stories of the stars behind the scenes in today' s film and TV industry.

Also had a chance to re-watch " Swingers" for the first time in years. (Jon wrote and stars in it...and also major props to Vince Vaughn as well) and thoroughly enjoyed it all over again.
I loved the remakes of the classic Scorsese and Tarantino shots....and the answering machine scene is an absolute CLASSIC!

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TIVO

The best present I got this Christmas!
I don' t know how I ever managed without this....
This was MADE for me!
I can now tape all my shows all season long, without ever setting the VCR timer again! (great....now that my year-long tour is over!)

Special thanks to my brother-in-law Pete for all his help!

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BACK TO THE FUTURE TRILOGY

Framing problems aside (I will replace my copies in February), this DVD box set is everything I hoped it would be!!

These 3 films are *all-time* favorites of mine
http://www.mikeportnoy.com/about/mike/films.asp?menu=about
and although I have them on laserdisc, I' ve been waiting patiently for years for their arrival on DVD....

All of the extras were well worth the wait as it is loaded with multiple commentary tracks, documentarys, deleted scenes and much, much more....

I' m a sucker for time travel stories (that' s why I love the Twilight Zone so much too) and these 3 films (especially the 2nd) are as good as it gets in nailing some very cool and fascinating time travel concepts...(in a very entertaining way as well...)

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Hiya Gang...time for my year end wrap-up!
In my opinion, it was an incredibly great year for music (there' s still another 10 CD' s I could' ve listed) and a real shitty year for film (my top 10 film list is still in progress as I' m catching up on the new releases that all came out at the end of the year)....

Best CD' s of 2002:
(in no particular order)

1. Spock' s Beard - Snow
2. Peter Gabriel - Up
3. Pain Of Salvation - Remedy Lane
4. Coldplay - A Rush Of Blood To The Head
5. Porcupine Tree - In Absentia
6. Opeth - Deliverance
7. Audioslave
8. Weezer - Maladroit
9. System Of A Down - Steal This Album
10. The Flower Kings - Unfold The Future

Very Honorable Mentions: Sigur Ros, Jughead, Beck, Meshuggah, Queens Of The Stone Age, Superjoint Ritual, Down and of course, Dream Theater - Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence (Can I do that?)


Best Films of 2002:
(in no particular order)

1. Minority Report
2. About Schmidt
3. Punch-Drunk Love
4. Far From Heaven
5. Road To Perdition
6. Red Dragon
7. Adaptation
8. Signs
9. The Hours
10.Femme Fatale


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JACK NICHOLSON

Saw " About Schmidt" tonight....
What a heartwarming yet still heartwrenching film.
Surely is one of my favorites of 2002...with an ending that' s as good as it gets in my book.

Jack Nicholson was in total top form in this one....an absolutely amazing (and very different) performance!
Possibly of the best of his career...(and that' s saying *alot* from the man who gave us One Flew Over The Cuckoo' s Nest, Carnal Knowledge, The Shining, Terms of Endearment, Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, etc, etc.)

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JOHN ARCH

Just returned from spending the last 2 days recording at the Carriage House in Stamford, CT for the " long-awaited triumphant return of original Fates Warning vocalist extraordinaire" John Arch!!! (how' s that for billing!!)

I must say that it is soooo great to hear one of my favorite vocalists of all time again!!! John sounds better than ever!

These songs are awesome and I was able to lay down some smoking drum tracks. John' s melodies and harmonies are so incredibly creative and original....he really is one of a kind and it' s so great to have him back in action. (and I' m honored to be along for the ride!)

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KING CRIMSON

After being a little disappointed by their last album, I wasn' t sure how interested I was in the new CD, The Power To Believe (will be released next month...)

I' ve always been a big Crim fan, but you never know which band is gonna show up when you pop in a new CD from the Fripp family...but boy was I shocked when I dug into this!

They are playing with a fresh new vibrancy and stylistically they sound very new and current....maybe playing those shows with Tool fired them up a bit!
I couldn' t even recognize Belew' s voice in some places.

The first great new release of 2003!

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KEVIN SMITH

I am thoroughly enjoying the " Evening With Kevin Smith" DVD set.
He is as engaging and entertaining with his stories and humour in these Q&A sessions as his dialogue is in all of his films....

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OPETH

After delivering (no pun intended!) one of my favorite Metal releases of 2002, I am already totally digging the new, upcoming release " Damnation" (coming in March)

It is unbelievable how diverse this band can be!!
With Deliverance sounding very Progressive/Gothic/Death Metal (Testament meets Cynic meets Sabbath), Damnation is a whole other side to the band...totally beautiful and melodic (Porcupine Tree meets the Moody Blues!)
And yet somehow, they manage to miraculously still sound like the same band between the two!! [:' (]

Not many bands would be able to pull a stunt like this off, but they' ve totally succeeded!

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SECRET CHIEFS 3

I have been listening to the " Book M" CD pretty religiously for the past week or so....

For those of you unaware, SC3 is one of Trey Spruance' s (Mr. Bungle) side-projects. In fact, SC3 is pretty much all of the Bungle gang except for Mike Patton.

This is the coolest, most progressive take on ethnic, world music that I' ve ever heard....but like Mr. Bungle themselves and all of their spin-offs, it' s not for everybody' s taste.... [:' (]

(but definitely is mine!)

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DEREK SHERINIAN

He may be the Liberace / Gene Simmons of Prog Rock,
but I must give credit where credit is due...

Ever since he' s been out of DT, he has made all the right moves....
always keeping busy, constantly making quality non-compromising music, and surrounding himself with the best musicians in the business.
(and stopped working with Magna Carta!)

His upcoming solo CD " Black Utopia" is his best yet!
Leaning very much in the " Balls & Chunk" direction, with some seriously cool riffs and an all-star lineup of players: (Yngwie Malmsteen, Zakk Wylde, Steve Lukather and Al DiMeola on guitar, Billy Sheehan and Tony Franklin on bass, Jerry Goodman on violin and Simon Phillips on drums)

I like this CD so much, I won' t even get mad that he stole my " Nightmare Cinema" name!!!

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THE SHIELD

Well, looks like I have another favorite show....
My brother turned me onto this show and now I am hooked!

I am working my way through the first season on DVD and am looking foward to catching up with this season' s new shows.

This has it all...great writing, great acting, great direction, sex, drugs, violence....all the stuff that makes up a great TV crime drama!

It seems that the quality of alot of TV programs lately (The Shield, 24, The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, etc.) is as good, if not ever better than the majority of films in theaters these days!

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MIKE " DR. METAL" GONSALVES

Myself and the rest of DT are truly saddened to hear that Mike was one of the people tragically killed at the Great White show last week.

Dr. Metal was a DJ for WHJY in Rhode Island and was one of DT' s very first supporters in the music industry as he was immediately a fan dating all the way back to the WDADU days back in the late 80' s...

He was responsible for bringing us to Providence to play in ' 89 for one of our very first shows outside of the NY area and had become a friend to us and always remained a fan ever since.
Even his biography at www.whjy.com shows his love and support for DT.

What a truly sad tragedy for his friends and family as well as all the others that were killed in that nightmare.

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SIX FEET UNDER

Tonight was the season premiere of Season #3 of one of my very favorite shows....

It was awesome!
The first 15 minutes was some of the most dreamy, surreal and intense TV I' ve seen since the Twin Peaks finale!
With some extremely deep thoughts about fate, destiny and making choices in this life.

And the usage of Coldplay (who I LOVE) was great!

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CHRISTOPHER GUEST (and cast)

Re-watched " Best In Show" tonight to get psyched for next month' s " A Mighty Wind" (I can' t wait!)

Guest, and the entire cast of this film (as well as Waiting For Guffman and of course, This is Spinal Tap) are just totally hilarious. There are so many classic scenes and characters I could watch these films a million times!

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THE WHO

Last year they got a Hero mention for the 2-CD re-release of the greatest live album of all time (" Live at Leeds" )....and now they' ve done it again, this time with the 2-CD re-release of the all time classic " Who' s Next" .

Not only does it have the original, abandoned New York City Record Plant recordings, but the entire 2nd disc is a recording from one of their " Young Vic" live shows before the Who' s Next recording sessions.

If you play the live CD loud enough, between Keith' s manic drumming, John' s absolutely incredible lead bass playing and Pete' s power chords, you will realize that for moments here and there, they may possibly have been the greatest Rock band of all time!

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IRREVERSIBLE

I recommend this French film with a very strong CAUTION for the faint-hearted, as it is one of the most disturbing (and at times almost unwatchable) films I have ever seen in my life.
Yet, it was still totally fascinating....

Gasper Noe has created a film comprised of a dozen or so long, 10 minutes takes and is presented in reverse chronology ala Memento.
(I am a sucker for experimental films like these!)

If you can get past 2 of the most graphic scenes of rape and violence ever put into a film (easily beating A Clockwork Orange and Man Bites Dog), you' ll find dialogue and performances that are actually funny and sweet and some very original filmmaking!

Definitely not for the squeemish....

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THE BEATLES

My almighty Gods are back again!
Just picked up the newly released Anthology on DVD and I cannot wait to dive in!

The timing couldn' t be any better to prepare me (and lots of others) for the Yellow Matter Custard shows next month..
(You do have your tickets don' t you????)

http://www.bbkingblues.com/schedule/moreinfo.cgi?id=958

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Gosh...haven' t had many " heros" lately...
I guess I' m too kooked up in the studio working on the new DT lately and that' s keeping me very focused and very little time for anything else (except for a MAJOR Beatles kick which is getting me ready for the Yellow Matter Custard shows this weekend...)

But I have been giving alot of spins to the new:

TOMAHAWK

Their new (2nd) CD is awesome!
Light years better than the first in my opinion, and probably the best thing Mike Patton has done since Mr. Bungle' s California several years ago.

These guys are a nice blend of Bungle' s eclectic styles, but with more song oriented material like Faith No More.

I also got a hit of Patton tonight who appeared on the soundtrack with John Zorn in a WILD and totally disturbing German film I watched tonight called " Funny Games" .

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LED ZEPPELIN

Today was the day that us Zep fans have been waiting a long time for....

I' ve been drooling for these new DVD' s and CD' s ever since Kevin Shirley has been telling me all about working on them for over the past year or so.

Further proof (as if I needed any) why these guys are one of my top 3 bands of all time, the first (and possibly greatest) jam band, and why Bonzo is still one of my greatest drum heroes.

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JERRY SEINFELD

Watched the newly-released DVD " Comedian" last night.
What a fascinating look into the world of stand-up comedy.

Really shows a very interesting look at the fear and anxieties of one of the world' s most famous comedians coming to grips of starting over and fine tuning his craft from scratch.

And on the flipside, a really revealing look at the world of a new up and comer dealing with all of the struggles on his way to the top.

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SIX FEET UNDER

Just finished watching the season finale and I am as blown away as I was by any episode this season...

This is such a brilliant show and I thought this was its best season ever.

I am going to miss this show now waiting for another season...

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OUT OF ORDER

Just as Six Feet Under comes to a close, a new show to fill its void has begun.

The Series premiere of this new Showtime show was excellent and looks to be very promising...a great cast (Eric Stolz, William H. Macy), some seriously good writing (Woody Allen, PT Anderson-esque) and plenty of surreal moment in the Six Feet Under/ Twin Peaks style.

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METALLICA
QUEENSRYCHE
SPOCK' S BEARD
RADIOHEAD

My ears are working overtime these days with these new/upcoming releases...
(and 90% of my concentration is really on the new DT album)

All 4 of these new/upcoming albums surely have their merits, however I must say I do have some reservations with all 4 of them as well...

So let' s call this more of a " Now Playing" post rather than an official " Hero" entry!

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OZ

It' s been a while since I' ve posted....sorry, I' ve been consumed in the new DT CD and now recently the summer tour with Queensryche and Fates Warning...

On the tour, I bought and watched the first 2 seasons of OZ on DVD and thoroughly enjoyed them.

Because I am such a big fan of almost everything HBO has done with their original shows, I figured I' d pick up the OZ DVD' s and dig into them because I missed the boat when the show was on the air....and I ended up really getting into it!

I am soooo bummed now though, because seasons 3-6 aren' t available yet on DVD....

Anybody want to help me out with them on DVD, VCD or VHS?
If you can help out, drop an email to MaBrown and he can get them to me....
(I could probably arrange a goodie or two in return!)

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