ROCK IS BACK II: New G-N-R album

NEW YORK - Guns N' Roses fans went into frenzied overdrive when three studio-quality tracks from the mythical "Chinese Democracy" album were leaked onto the Internet.
The leaks came just weeks after frontman Axl Rose ended his hermit-like lifestyle by venturing out to a Korn tour launch party in Los Angeles and to trendy nightclubs for some post-birthday bashes (his 44th) in Manhattan.

Again, Rock is back! Long live Rock and Roll. Now if we can just get Izzy and Slash out of their Velvet Revolver contracts and get them back in a room with Axl.

ROCK IS BACK!

ENOUGH! I've seen enough rapper's with gold teeth, gold chains and a 3rd grade education singing about their Corvosier and Orange soda lives. I've had enough of Kanye West's faux political activism and federal-budget-sized ego. I've had enough of pre-pubescent boy bands singing songs manufactured in the basement of a record label and marketed to 12 year old girls. With Brittany stuck in Malibu with her money vacuum boyfriend and Christina and Whitney nowhere to be found, I turn my soul, at last, back to my first musical lover... Rock and Roll.

If you haven't already realized it, Rock is back... and thank Ozzy, we sure did miss her while she was gone. Greenday has multiple Grammy's for their Tour-de-force, anti-establishment "American Idiot", arguably the most political album of the last 20 years. With new acts like Shinedown and Franz Ferdinand and resurgent acts like Staind Rock and roll and the Rock Singer/Songwriter genre is seeing a resurgence in both sales and cultural influence.

Here in the bay area, an icon is seeing some new talent... Clearchannel is rubbing the dust off 98 Rock. They've updated the playlist and the morning spot previously held by Trailer Trash Bubba the Love Sponge has been vacated to The Cowhead Show. Cowhead is a great guy and a talented radio host. If you haven't listed in, give it a try.

Friends don't let friends use M$ Exchange Server

I've come to the recent conclusion that the greatest threat to a small business in America is the MCSA.

MCSA's recommend high-dollar solutions to easily solvable problems. They recommend Microsoft software to solve problems that freeware can just as easily be used. In short, the concoct solutions that create their own organizational interdependency. They are the crack dealers of the tech world. They promise complete satisfaction in exchange for their own . They create solutions that require their own presence to maintain.

And the Columbian Snow of these solutions is Microsoft Exchange Server.

I have yet to find any installation of exchange server that didn't require a staff member to maintain.

So the next time some M$ propeller-head @:-) with an MBA or MCSA or some other useless acronym behind their name recommends that you set up an exchange server to "increase efficiency" within your office... Let me recommend this program:

1. Breathe deeply into a paper bag.


2. Give the site licensing brochures to your sponsor and make sure he/she doesn't allow you to have them, no matter how much you beg.


3. Bring everyone into a circle and speak out loud "I can live without Microsoft. My server continues to function without Microsoft products and is better for it."


4. Hand out a cd with Ubuntu linux ( or your favorite distro, Fedora, Debian, whatever... )


5. Sometimes a stuffed penguin will bring comfort to those experiencing the worst pains of withdrawal.

Sometimes the detoxification process can be a painful one, but in the end, you're better without your crutches.

Handicapping Oscar Part I: Best Picture

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN: What Can I say about Brokeback that hasn?t already been said? I can say, the love story touched me... it did. I can say the fact that what can only be described as a ?gay film? to be nominated and to be a commercially viable film is historic... it is. I love this movie and I hope that it changes the world.

CAPOTE: As a literary figure, Trueman Capote stood head and shoulders above his peers. As a movie, Capote gets lost in the second act. Don't get me wrong, Phillip Seymore Hoffman is a FREEKIN CHAMELEON! He completely disappears into every role he's given. But the movie itself, while entertaining, suffers from the same aimlessness that causes men to become writers.

CRASH: You know the logline... an ensemble piece with practically every working actor in the metro Los Angeles area and some from New York, interwoven story lines, hot topics, blah, blah, blah... I liked this movie. I found it a little too preacy... Racism = BAD; yea we get it. There's a few really good scenes, including what has to be the best scene of Sandra Bullock's career early in the first act. The dialogue is poetic and very well-written, but I still found myself wanting more. It was an enjoyable experience, but best picture, it was not.

GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK: Great story. Not enough emotion or backstory. Kinda like this review.

MUNICH:It's my opinion that when Kirosawa died, Spielberg took the reigns as the worlds greatest living director. The man knows how to make a movie and it would be very easy to dismiss this as "another Spielberg movie"... but I found the politics and questions asked with this movie particularly intriguing. Avner, the movie's central character IS America... finding ourselves wronged and longing for revenge, and, after exacting it, examining at the cost and the repeating circle of violence. Spielberg, himself, called this film "a prayer for peace." I found it to be both cinematically and intellectually satisfying and for that, I think kushner will win best screenplay, but brokeback will win best picture.