'Friday The 13th' movie review:

Not quite a methodical re-make and far from a sequel to the “Friday The 13th” series, the new “Friday The 13th” is a re-creation of the 1980 classic horror film for a 21st century audience. Like many prior attempts at re-making a classic, this one falls short of the original.
While it has some new and excited slasher moments, the new film had an all-too replicated feel, with an overabundance of drug and alcohol usage, nudity and predictable scenarios.
The 15-minute-long opening scene sets the beginning new story for the movie. A group of 20-something year olds are camping near the infamous abandoned “Camp Crystal Lake,” where the original story took place. Only now, the gang is there using GPS navigators to find marijuana plants growing in the woods, so they can make money. That night, a scary story about Camp Crystal Lake told around their campfire comes to life; and quickly ceases theirs. Much like the original, one woman survives, but this one is chained up and kept as Jason Voorhees's (played by Derek Mears) pet throughout the film.
The story takes off six weeks later when Clay (played by Jared Padalecki) embarks on a quest for his missing sister and Jason's new pet, Whitney (played by Amanda Righetti).
During his search, Clay crosses paths with an SUV full of 20-something year olds going to spend a weekend at the group's ringleader, Trent's (played by Travis Van Winkle) vacation home. Trent's girlfriend, Jenna (played by Danielle Panabaker) shows sympathy to Clay, welcomes him into her boyfriend's home and after a disagreement with Trent, helps Clay search for his missing sister. It's quickly nighttime, and Clay and Jenna find Jason carrying one of Jenna's dead friends into his underground lair.
Characters are killed throughout the movie not only with Jason's trademark machete, but with an ax, a screwdriver, an arrow and even deer antlers. The movie lags when awkward, cliché race jokes are used as comic relief and the overabundance of nudity gets out of hand and instead of serving a purpose, becomes a means of keeping audience attention up. In a scene where Jason shows up at the group's vacation home, he finds and kills one of the men in the group outside and in the next scene before he breaks in, he miraculously got his 200+ pound self onto the roof. The one time a character is prepared with a weapon is when Trent gets his dad's gun, but he quickly empties the rounds out of fear, shooting blankly into a closet. As the group quickly thins out, Clay and Jenna find themselves battling Jason alone. Jenna's killed and in the end, Clay and his rescued sister Whitney they think they killed Jason.
But when Clay and Whitney toss Jason's body into the lake, something they didn't expect happens. Unfortunately for the audience, it was the most expected scene in the movie.

Rating: 3/5 stars

The 4th Annual John Glick Memorial Show review: The Methadones, The Nervous Fingers, The Negligents and The Coronados

In 2005, John Glick was killed in an auto accident; only this accident was a little bit different than most. As a suicide attempt, Jeanette Sliwinski planned on crashing her Chevy Mustang. Instead, she rammed into a car with Chicago musicians Glick, from The Returnables, Douglas Meis of The Dials and Michael Dahlquist of Silkworm. Sliwinski survived.
This tragic, anger-inciting story will always live on. To commemorate those killed by Sliwinski that day, The Methadones, The Nervous Fingers, The Negligents and The Coronados made up the Fourth Annual John Glick Memorial show.
The Coronados were the first band to play. They were very energetic and lively. They sounded very retro punk, almost like a cross between old punk and glam-rock. The band members (especially the lead singer) all wore glam punk/rock attire and really were pretty good. Mostly entertaining though. At the end of their set, the lead singer jumped off the stage with a tambourine and walked around in front of the stage, playing it before he hopped back up there to say "Stick around." Which is kind of silly when you think about it. Aren't most people going to stick around after the first band plays at any show?

Anyway, The Negligents played next. I caught one or two songs in the beginning of their set before I went on a quest for pizza with my buddy, Jerry Cola. We went to Village Pizza on Chicago and Western and had some massive slices of sausage pizza. One massive slice and a small drink there was only $4, and it filled you up good. I missed the Nervous Fingers as well because of our pizza adventure.

When we got back to the Empty Bottle, The Methadones were getting ready to set up. They took the stage and Dan Schafer, with his brand new Les Paul started the set. The Methadones played "You Don't Know Me Anymore," "Mess We Made," "On the Clock," "Starting Line," "Easter Island," "Annie," "Getting Older/Losing Touch," "Street In My Hometown," "Falling Forward," "Poor Little Rich Girl," "Alcohol Makes the World Go Around," The Beat's "Walking Out On Love," Elvis Costello's "Welcome To the Working Week," and Cheap Trick's "He's a Whore." They did a two-song encore of The Riverdales' "Back To You" and finally finished withThe Misfits' "Hybrid Moments."
The band played great save for Schafer forgetting a few words here and there, stopping a song dead in the middle and Pete missing a piece on bass.
But that doesn't go against how great The Methadones are live. Usually when a band messes up a song or two on stage, the audience gets real turned off. This isn't the case with The Methadones because they don't kick themselves in the ass over it. They have fun on stage when they play, and most of the time, the audience has more fun than them. I guess it sounds weird, but to me, I've always found it funny when Dan forgets the words just because it's ironic that they're words he wrote. I find it funny when Pete looks at his bass with a confused look, stops playing, looks up at the rest of the band, smiles and picks right back up.
When it comes to pulling screwups off and finishing strong, The Methadones bring out the best, even if a lot of their best (in my opinion) are cover songs. They really breathe a new life into song like "He's a Whore" and "Hybrid Moments."

Overall, I'd have to say Village Pizza won the gold medal of the night, and I can't wait to see The Methadones play again in March.
Special thanks to Justin of Underground Communique Records for selling my Squid Pro Quo Valentine's Day cards and Mike Byrne for letting me put my zines and doodles of disoriented-looking animals on their packed merch table. Now I just can't wait for "Not Economically Viable" to come out on vinyl with a bonus track...

We Have Valentines!

I think the biggest reason why haters of Valentine's Day hate it so much is because of the pressure to buy expensive and meaningless shit. In an attempt to not do away with, but bridge that, I made up a Valentine's Day card. So hey, if you want to save money AND avoid the wrath of your significant other, I'm selling Squid Pro Quo valentines for $2 ppd. This is what it looks like, with room inside for personalization:






Ah hell, you can probably save the images and print them yourself, who am I kidding? If you want one, send $2 PayPal to jason.duarte@gmail.com or just go here to pick one up: www.myspace.com/squidproquo1