A Look Back at Season 5 of 'Game of Thrones' So Far [S1-5 SPOILERS]

This seems to be a lot of people's general

feeling about the season... I disagree.

Scattered. Slow. Silly. Those are a few of the words I've seen used to describe the fifth season of HBO's "Game of Thrones." 

I have my gripes. The Dorne storyline so far, which has amounted to some titties and a pimpish elbow to Bronn's jaw...  Littlefinger did a wee bit of scheming and then broke the fuck out... Sansa's second wedding night... SHIREEN... but with less than a week before the S5 finale, I want to take a look at this season thus far and take stock of what we've actually seen, which to me is a lot of growth on the part of plenty characters and groups.

In no particular order:

"For the night is dark, and full of terrors. Mostly me. I seem to be the one causing most of the terror around here." — Melisandre

Okay, so I added that last part, but tell me you wouldn't have loved to see Stannis strap that shadow-baby-making, penis-leech-applying pyromaniac cuckolder onto the pyre instead of HIS OWN EVERLOVIN' DAUGHTER. I was neutral on Stannis for a while, and even though Something Terrible has been telegraphed for Shireen since at least last season, I was really hoping for another patented GRRM Switch-Up, and Melisandre suggesting a little flame-broiled daughter would be the last straw for Stannis. A couple seasons back, her Red buddy Thoros of Myr seemed to regard Melisandre as an alright chick, but my personal theory is that she's some kind of succubus, twisting the Red God's ways to her own purpose.

• Stannis — Well, he's just kind of the latest Guy We All Want to See Die Horribly, right? I mean, surely no one wants him to sit on the Iron Throne anymore. In many ways, Stannis' hardass-decisive nature — at least according to what the show has presented — makes him exactly the wrong man to sit in that chair. 

Think of the "Great Kings of Westeros" this story has presented us with or told us about: Aerys the Igniter of Men, Women and Children, Robert the Drunken Absentee Ruler, Joffrey the Hateful Shit and Tommen the Puberty-Stricken Sulker. There isn't a true king among them, and I find that very interesting. Frequently we see that there's "power behind the throne," but in all cases here, the king himself does precious little in the way of truly taking the reins of the kingdom, and doesn't seem to have the wherewithal to do so if he wanted.

Stannis has grown into a true monstrosity in his lust to fulfill this perceived destiny of ruling. He went from shushing Melisandre to watching her fire up the Weber a little too quickly for my liking, but as I said, he's the wrong man for the throne, even if he's the rightful heir at this point. 

• Arya — Lots of complaints about her Braavosi internship this season in the comment sections. Some people think her entire arc this season will be pointless if she goes after Meryn "Too Old" Trant, but to me, this is just another step on her series-long quest for revenge. 

Imagine if this season's storyline continues to play out in Braavos: Arya becomes a Faceless Man assassin and just goes around Essos poisoning questionably-shady dock merchants? Nah. She's learned important lessons about becoming a killer every season so far: proper fighting technique for smaller swordsmen from Syrio... how da facking world really works from The Hound... how to become a master liar and anonymous assassin from the House of Black and White. I think she's ready to kill Meryn Fucking Trant.

• Ramsay Bolton — Ramsay might have a lock on Most Evil Bad Guy on the show. He probably had it by the time he cut Theon's weiner off, and obviously his wedding-night performance sealed the deal. But just when you think he's merely a horrible psychopath rapist woman-hunting murderer, he shows an aptitude for strategy. The Ramsay who delighted in torturing Theon wouldn't have thought to burn Stannis' weapon and food tents; he'd have probably tried to flay an officer and maybe gotten caught. Before Stannis put his family's future to the torch, Ramsay was the Guy We All Want to See Die Horribly, and he may yet, but it wouldn't surprise me if his cunning gets him out of S5 alive.

• Sansa — It's hard to really say how Sansa's character has grown this season until we see what she decides to do in the season finale. Aside from finding out that her brothers maybe possibly could perhaps be alive, she's spent the season, regrettably, as a beautiful red flower being ground into the dirt. I hope she gets some measure of happiness and/or justice next week.

• Tyrion — Here's another character whose growth is a little trickier to chart. Certainly he's back on the rise as Dany's advisor, but Peter Dinklage's beautifully-rendered look of awe, terror and slight misgiving as he watched his queen ride off on Drogon after roasting the Sons of Harpy alive — presumably the fate of quite a few Westerosi somewhere down the line — has me excited to see the future interaction between he and Dany.

• Jorah Mormont — I mean, as soon as they find out he has the greyscale, he's gonna get banished FOR THE THIRD TIME, amirite?

• Jaime Lannister — Watching two montages of Jaime and Bronn training was more exciting than the entire Dornish storyline. I got nothing. I hear some shit's about to go down with Cersei next week. Can't imagine the ol' Kingslayer will be happy about whatever it is.

• Jon Snow — Jon Snow has grown into a true leader of men this season. His own men (even though they hate him now), the Wildlings (even though he failed to convince the majority of them to come south)... actually, come to think of it, Jon Snow hasn't been much of an inspired leader this season, has he? In all seriousness, I think he's learning how difficult true leadership can be. A man taking The Black and defending the realm is supposed to be a simple, honest mission, but he has to deal with the same piles of shit as the politicians in King's Landing: some people hate you for no good reason, some people hate you for the hard decisions you make... and I'm sure it's going to happen in the finale, but it's tough to imagine Jon Snow coming back from the Hardhome Massacre and not being all, "Thanks for lettin' us in, guys. Hey, by the way: my office. Five minutes. We got some serious shiznit to talk about."

Is it a massacre if everyone who gets killed comes back from the dead? Speaking of which...

• The White Walkers — "Hardhome" cemented just what a serious threat the Walkers are. They aren't just out there. They're coming for the world of men, for whatever reason and to whatever end. They attacked Hardhome, a place from which Jon Snuh was able to sail (and hike) back to Castle Black in the span of time between episodes. The Walkers and wights presumably don't have to stop to eat or drop a deuce, so I'd say they're about two or three weeks from reaching The Wall.

What do they want—besides to kill everybody? Then again, if they wanted to kill everybody, why'd they let Jon Snuh and His Merry Band of Wildlings get away? The Walkers have shown how strong they are. Even if, for some stupid reason, they don't go into the water, the Night's King could've just grabbed a wight in each arm and heaved those bitches into Jon's canoe! Plot armor prevents that, but still... what do they want?

• Bran — Obviously, Bran is taking the season off, but I just wanna put it out there good and early (and I haven't read the books, so I'm not saying this with any knowledge)... Bran's gonna warg into one of the dragons. Fo' sho'.

Bring it on, "Mother's Mercy"!

'American Horror Story: Freak Show': S04E06: 'Bullseye' [SPOILERS]

I feel like this was basically the look on  Ryan Murphy's face
when he wrote both Ma-Petit-Gets-Killed-
OR-DOES-SHE-hehehe scenes...

I got news for you, Ryan Murphy: deliberately staging scenes where it appears that characters get killed and then revealing (over and over again) that HEY NOW LOOK WHAT I DID THERE, THEY'RE STILL ALIVE is not clever writing. If anything, it's the opposite. It's a lazy way of manufacturing drama where, currently, there is little to none.

The second Paul volunteered to be strapped into the Wheel of Death, anyone who didn't know exactly what was about to happen hasn't been watching the same show I've been watching. Although, if scheming-ass Elsa Mars DID gut him with the intention of making it seem accidental, I gotta say: hitting his torso, the one part of his body that's essentially spinning in place? Not a great plan if you fancy yourself an expert knife-tosser, who would never throw at that spot. It's a guaranteed hit.

I was really hoping Jimmy and Desiree would get together. It doesn't appear that's the case now. Jimmy's been set up as a fairly smart kid, it's hard to believe that he believes Esmeralda's sudden change of heart.

Common sentiment on the comment boards is that Stanley's as-yet-unseen-but-apparently-gigantic penis is what's ultimately going to end up in the American Morbidity Museum, and that's hard to argue against. What kind of con man's plan includes murder? At that point, it's not a confidence scam... it's murder for profit. The whole idea behind the concept is to get away with no one the wiser, not someone the deader. And forcibly enlisting someone in your bloody confidence scam... really? If Stan is any kind of con man, he should be able to make enough small-scheme money to at least get by. I need some sort of rationale for his urgency.

I'm doing a lot of complaining, especially for an episode that so many people have praised, but this one just didn't do it for me. Even Dandy, who has a world of murderous potential for character development, is getting a little old — although, "There's nothing left but the dust, and the scorpions inside me" is a great piece of dialogue. Props.

Lots of things have been set up that could pay off, though: Desiree's abandonment of Dell and his recruitment by Stanley... Jimmy and Esmeralda's attempt to run away from the circus, which would be a coy little trope reversal... Ethel maybe following through on her threat to kill Elsa... and whatever batshit insanity Elsa undertakes when she finds out there are no plans in the works for her namesake television show.

Once again, though, the loss of Twisty is very apparent. Dandy's descent into empty, raging homicidal insanity has some appeal and as I mentioned earlier, a lot of potential. But did we really need another scene of him getting all petulant and tantrum-y, this time when the Tattler twins wouldn't "play by the rules"? Not really. 

More to come...? Possibly. Re-watching it with the wife later tonight...

'American Horror Story: Freak Show': S04E02: 'Massacres & Matinees' [SPOILERS]

'Three titties... proper girl parts and a ding-a-ling... I'm a 

full-blown hermaphrodite. Put THAT on your banner...'

Put that on your banner indeed.

Angela Bassett was underused last year in a potentially great role as voodoo queen Marie Laveaux (her namesake's shop is in New Orleans, I highly recommend it), but I don't think there will be any such issue this year.

Desiree Dupree the Triple-Titty Hermaphrodite and her main squeeze, Vic Mackey the Stupendous Strongman/Child Abuser/Murderer, are poised to take over the whole camp, or so it would appear. Ol' Dell Toledo was far too smart to let Jimmy set him up, and in turn, he set up the one member of the camp who couldn't say what he knew if he wanted to.

Meep's impending doom was the most frightening part of the show so far. I was looking forward to an interrogation scene with the cops, with him trying to convey his innocence in variations of meep. 

Gloriously Oblivious Gloria Mott would be a great source of humor if the whole situation weren't so tragic and pathetic — although big ups to the props department on the crystal cognac baby bottle. It says it all about young Dandy Mott without saying a word.

Though how young is he? In 1952, there's no real reason for him to need to be 21 to be a spoiled rich brat taking nipple-sips of VSOP. Let's say 18. And now, thanks to his ability to withstand juggling-pin jabs, he's under Twisty's tutelage.

I knew Twisty's backstory was going to be good. After "Massacres & Matinees," now I'm really interested. Not to mention my interest in how — and what — he eats.

Hey, there's Patti LaBelle! I have a bad feeling she's not long for the Mott home. It would be nice to see her do a duet with Elsa before she's inevitably, shall we say, Dandy-fied?

Speaking of song and dance, bonus big ups to Ryan Murphy and Sarah Paulson for reminding me not just how good a song "Criminal" was, but also how bangin' Fiona Apple was in that video.

I'm hoping there's an episode dedicated to the full sequence of acts in the freakshow — what the full nightly show is like, front-to-back. In real life, these shows had to be good, feature some showmanship and some real talents, and it would be good to see the full production. Or perhaps show one family's entire evening wandering the grounds, seeing the sights and taking in the show at some point. It could be used as an opportunity to have them interact with the main characters, whose reactions to the family's questions and to one another in the family's presence would throw some of the intra-camp tensions into subtle relief.

In the meantime, it looks like Strongman Mackey is gonna force the freaks to put on a Halloween show and summon the spirit of The Weird Kid From 'American Beauty' Who Just Wanted to Show Her Your Nazi Plate, Sir. AHS usually does their Halloween two-parters pretty well, so the next few weeks should be a good time.

'American Horror Story: Freak Show,' S04E01: 'Monsters Among Us' [SPOILERS]

Good gawddamn, Ryan Murphy...

[SPOILERS AHEAD]

First things first — Ryan Murphy oversold the scariness of Twisty the Clown in the pre-premiere promos for the new season of American Horror Story. Is he scary? Oh yeah. Super-scary and super-creepy. But Murphy said he was honestly worried that someone would have a heart attack when he was first introduced. 

Not so much.

I suppose if you have terminal coulrophobia, it could be bad. But Twisty the Clown is not the worst real-life monster to ever slash the screen. That said, I am a bit concerned about what's under those lovely chompers. And I'm sure his backstory will be just... special.

But other than the music mix being way too loud (I needed closed captions when we were in that '50s diner with rockabilly blaring on the jukebox) and the constant bugs-and-peepers soundtrack (I get it, it's South Florida, it's all crickets and frogs and shit, but c'mon, maybe a little silence once in a while?), I don't have too many complaints. 

Things are setting up nicely for a season in which I'm hopeful there will be no supernatural elements. There's the obvious 'us-versus-them' trope happening between the freaks and the town, and I wonder if the show will parallel that with the early seeds of the civil rights movement, since we're situated in the Deep South once again this year. Angela Bassett's introduction next week as the only black member of the troupe could be an inroad toward that end. 

And it goes without saying that I'm anxiously anticipating Strongman Vic Mackey forming his own Freak Show Strike Team, unless he's not down with Jimmy Darling's plan.... which is.... um.... killing anyone who won't let him live out his dream of shocking desperate housewives in the open? 

Jimmy was shaping up as a great character until THE BIG SPEECH at the end. Too much too soon, with clunky dialogue to boot. Hopefully they dial back Overarching Message Deliveryman Jimmy and focus on Specialty Gigolo Jimmy.

Kathy Bates and her beard and her Baltimore hick accent are all great. Those of you who think it's a Pittsburgh accent are on the right trail.... the Appalachian trail, to be specific. Having grown up here, the Yinzer dialect isn't quite as Ed-Sullivanish as Ethel Darling's talk of the Tattler sisters being given a new "haeoom" at the freak show.

I like the idea of the carnival simultaneously repulsing some Jupiter residents, like the farmer's wife and the police detective, while drawing in others like the candy-striper, who escapes her boring life and discovers the joys of opium and blowing people with hirsutism.

More to come....

'The Strain': Season 1 Review

 

'You wanted to find me, woodcarver..... here I am.......'

My feeling about the first full season of "The Strain" is, well… not to put too fine a point on it, but I felt strained myself most of the way. 

Let's hit some of the major problems: 

1) This is a vampire apocalypse show that never showed a vampire apocalypse. Our intrepid group of hunters went into the sewer and saw a room full of five-hundred to a thousand of them. Once the sun went down, wouldn't they all be roaming the streets? And then the next night, wouldn't there be at least TWICE that many? The show didn't show that. If it really is coming back for 2015, they need to bump the budget and show how New York City could really be overtaken by strigoi. I mean, once the first police officer survives an encounter with one, it's Army Ranger time in real life, right? 

2) There are things that work in a graphic novel, hardboiled dialogue in particular, that just don't work when you try to have real actors do it. But it's not restricted to dialogue. Certain devices that are acceptable in the comic and graphic novel worlds come off as lazy in real life. Setrakian's early-season entrance as a potential action-hero is a perfect example — what, was he just hiding in the basement, somehow unbeknownst to the little girl vampire, waiting for a chance to properly introduce himself to Eph and Nora?  

3) The Big Badass doesn't even scare my two-year-old son. Seriously. He sat there and watched The Master choke out Eph and barely batted an eye. That's not a good endorsement — of my parenting OR the special effects (in fairness, he wandered into the room unannounced). Here's hoping his suntan makes him good and burnt-up — and a little more fierce-looking — next season. 

4) Guillermo del Toro either wrote the World's Most Stereotypical Urban Latino Male, or he didn't challenge Chuck Hogan when Hogan wrote it. Either way, it's a bad look. I want to like Gus, but I find myself hating the things the script makes him say. I do like the path he's taking the show down, however. A little less conversation, a LOT more action. People decried his "I'm listening" response as more stereotypical gangsterism, but I'd argue it's true to his character: he was going to rob Creem for money and weapons, presumably to kill his way out of town. It's clear that Quinlan and the SWAT team aren't going to just let him go, so why not keep doing the killing he was already gonna be doing and get paid in the meantime? And anyway, as soon as the sun comes up, he can still skip town if he wants. 

5) FIND A 45-YEAR-OLD ARMENIAN TO PLAY MIDDLE-AGED SETRAKIAN. Enough with this community-theater old-man makeup bullshit. I imagine the flashbacks are mostly over, except for probably a few detailing the start of Eph's alcoholism. Boo. 

6) The entire first season turned out to be merely the setting of the table, all told. I'm familiar enough with the basic trilogy storyline to know they weren't going to get The Master, or stop the vampocalypse, but I'm struggling to think of one single storyline that's truly resolved, outside of the woeful tales of Jim the Coward and the Chain-Smoking Madre. 

7) Every character, at some point, makes a decision that is irredeemably dumb, with maybe the exception of Fet.  

8) Eph: "So, if sunlight doesn't kill him, then what does?" — well, you could have PUT A SILVER BULLET IN HIS HEAD AS SOON AS YOU SAW HIM. I'll grant you that breaking out the windows was a good idea, because [at least we thought at the time] there was no place for him to escape but [certain death] outside. Then again… 

9) The entire "big confrontation" choreography was horrible, and poorly plotted. For all of his hunting advice, Setrakian got in one good slice on the arm and then pretty much froze up. Lots of wide-eyed staring and not a lot of lifelong-grudge-indulging or wife-revenging (same with Eph: why, when their immortal enemy tumbled into the sunlight, did they not both rush up and hack him to pieces? At least cut his feet off, I mean damn!) 

10) The Worm Problem: Kelly ground a Cuisinart blade into her boyfriend's face and a worm squirted onto her eye… Fet blows up a sewer tunnel full of strigoi and then they walk right through a room where every surface should be covered by worms desperately seeking a new host… Dutch headshots a vampire two feet away from Eph and Zack and no one gets any worms on them… Eph does the same thing 30 seconds later, and then that vampire jerks her worm-juicing head wound forward within six inches of Zack… and no one gets infected. But that's not a scripting problem, that's just basic ignorance of physics. WIth all of the scientific gobbledygook the first half of the season threw at us, there was never any discussion of how long these worms can survive outside of a host. Eph had some in an blood-free glass cube and they looked to be surviving just fine. Setrakian kept a jar of them alive for more than half a century on, presumably, a couple drops of blood every once in a while. If being infected turns you into an immortal strigoi, it stands to reason that, absent death by UV exposure, these worms can survive indefinitely and crawl around looking for a new host. I would've loved to see a scene in the sewer-storming episode where a worm crawls out of a decapitated strigoi, up through a sewer grate and into someone's shoe. 

11) Too much is telegraphed. Did we really need a thirty-second "scene" of Eph handing the pawn-shop keys to Zack? OOOOH, I WONDER IF HE'S GOING TO LEAVE THE SHOP? The dialogue telegraphs a lot as well. These are all pretty good actors. They can convey the conflicts and emotions of their characters without speechifying all the time. Nora's scream when she had to chop her mother's head off was horrifying; Eph's whispered, teary-eyed "No," when Strigoi Kelly came to the back porch was heartbreaking. I didn't need all of their handwringing asides and private conversations to build up to those moments. 

12) The Wig. No need to beat a dead horse. Let's just pause to recognize that at times, it looked like Fizzgig from "The Dark Crystal," and it's a gots-to-go situation. And that Strigoi Fizzgig would be awesome. He's already got the full-tilt jaw! 

And yet despite all this, I'm still totally on board for season two. The enticing promise of a true fully-budgeted NYC vampocalypse, with Quinlan and Gus wreaking havoc, Fet blowing shit up and Nora taking over as the new Chain-Smoking Latina is too tempting. Now that the vast majority of main characters has been introduced, the new chapter should be able to delve right into the shiznit. I'm interested to see how Alonzo Creem fits into the story, because they didn't just cast Marlo Stanfield for a one-and-done season. If he joins up with Gus's daywalker Strike Team, that's great, but I also wouldn't say no to him firing a stinger out from between those chromed-out grills. Given that he still tried to shoot Gus even with a shipping crate full of strigoi coming at him, he seems the type, as Quinlan might say, to maybe want a little revenge.

Overall, I think this show would have benefited from more of the quiet moments that FX's "The Bridge" has worked into its run so far: showing rather than telling and building out the world of the show rather than having characters lay their motivations bare in boring ways. I both liked and disliked the "Kelly Transformation" episode. I liked its focus on Kelly's gradual, pretty frightening change without a lot of expository dialogue. What I really would have liked, though, was to see it happen in real time along with the show's other ongoing events, rather then a flashback. The show wanted to tease out the mystery of did-she-escape-or-is-she-turned, but we all knew she was gonna be turned. 

In the season-ending voiceover — boo — Setrakian revealed that the entire first season happened over the course of one week. Earlier in the season, he also revealed that once turned, strigoi would be "fully formed" in one month. That would be the perfect time to drop in for the start of the second season. Check in with everyone, show how they're handling the new-and-improved bloodsuckers... show me an extra-crispy Master that'll force me to stop the DVR the next time my son wanders downstairs... show me more Eichorst, who so far, BY far, is the best villain on this show... show me Corey Stoll's bald dome... for that matter, show me Zack's, too, let's get rid of that stupid 1979 haircut.

I just can't quit you, "The Strain." You have too much potential.

Dead Album Night with theCAUSE: 4/9/11, Moondog's, Blawnox, Pa.

"Lotta poor man got the Cumberland blues..."

Saturday was the first time I've been to Moondog's, in Blawnox. You can tell as soon as you walk in that it's one of those venues a ton of people have played before. It's got that well-worn blues-bar feel to it, great setting for live music, if not necessarily for a show that gets people moving like theCAUSE.

"Album night" was a blast, and not just because I predicted Workingman's Dead as the first album they'd play. It worked out on two fronts, actually, since not only is it my favorite Dead studio album, it's also the only one my father owns. He and my mother were in attendance, and I was concerned that he might lose interest if he didn't know any of the songs, but he recognized "Uncle John's Band" right off the bat, and I could tell he was into it. He's a huge fan of the guitar solo off of Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes song "Hearts of Stone" since, in his words, Dante Silvio — sorry, Little Steven Van Zandt — "just makes his guitar cry, and it fits so well with the song lyrics." Well, that description right there is the definition of Jerry Garcia guitar playing. Pappy Weingrad from theCAUSE has the unenviable task of trying to emulate Jerry AND Bob Weir simultaneously, but he does a fine job, and he's certainly nailed down the clear, cutting plaintive tone of Garcia's guitar.

The band was in a nice groove right from the funky opening jam that led into "Uncle John's Band." Parts of "New Speedway Boogie" were blasting off into the atmosphere... or at least I thought so, until Pappy and bass player Dave Tauberg took "Cumberland Blues" into hyperdrive, a jam I'm pretty sure single-handedly converted my mother into a Deadhead. She was stomping her foot so hard I thought she was going to aggravate her scoliosis.

We didn't stick around for the whole second set album — Skull & Roses, which is, I believe, culled from several 1972 shows — but a jam that led from "Playing in the Band" into "The Other One" had me flashing back to the Furthur concert a couple weeks ago.

Ultimately, "Album Night" is a little limiting, because it forces the band's hand in constructing a setlist that flows. If someone comes up with a great, spontaneous musical idea to transition into a song... it better be the next song on the album. That made for a couple of moderately awkward transitions, but it's still the best five bucks I spent all weekend.

Concert Review: Furthur, 3/30/11, Petersen Events Center, Pgh., Pa.

"A little bit further than you've gone before..."

Hell of a show, aside from a strange bit of business where, during the set break, some kid right outside our section apparently, according to news accounts:

1) Got into a three-point stance;

2) Yelled, "HIKE!";

3) Ran straight through an inch-thick double-pane glass window and fell about 30 feet down to the sidewalk

The Furthur shows I've been listening to at Archive.org and Livedownloads.com have been good, but now that this group has been together for a year or so, they're really starting to gel. My boy always asks me to guess the first song, and with this tour, I had no clue; the setlists have run through the whole Dead catalog, and branched out in all kinds of crazy cover directions.

Set I:

Feel Like a Stranger

'Til the Morning Comes

Loose Lucy

Pride of Cucamonga

Big River

Althea

Colors of the Rain >

Mason's Children

Set II:

Estimated Prophet >

Eyes of the World >

I Know You Rider

Golden Slumbers >

Carry That Weight >

The End (tease) >

The Wheel >

So Many Roads >

The Other One >

Caution (Do Not Stop on Tracks) >

Gimme Some Lovin'

E: Brokedown Palace

Earlier in the evening, I was talking about one of the NYC shows, where the band blasted through the entire B side of Abbey Road, so I was singing "Golden Slumbers" at the top of my lungs. The blues break in "Pride of Cucamonga" is also a personal favorite. One of the friends who came to the show said he thought Bobby Weir is definitely leading the band, and that might be true... John Kadlecik is filling the Jerry role admirably, but it wouldn't surprise me if he's still a little humbled at playing alongside the guys he's been playing tribute to in Dark Star Orchestra all these years. Anyway, back to Weir—he may be leading the band, but they've definitely taken some cues from Phil when it comes to the jams and transition between songs. The transitions aren't quite as nimble as Phil & Friends, but the band sounds more like the Grateful Dead than any other post-Garcia incarnation.

Thus the debate rages: Furthur or Phil & Friends? For my money, the main Phil & Friends lineup, from 2000-'03, is the greatest of the post-Garcia groups. They were so versatile, so nimble, and just so ass-kicking. They did the whole Dead catalog, they did southern rock thanks to Haynes and Herring, and then every once in a while, just for kicks, they'd break out into some Miles Davis...

[A quick side note, speaking of Miles... any possible way you get a hold of show recordings from the Allman Bros. March 2011 run at the Beacon Theatre... DO IT. They are EPIC. Derek Trucks is channeling Duane Allman almost as good as Duane Allman did. One of the shows I have opens with a jam that turns into "Spanish Key" off of 'Bitches Brew'...]

...then again, Furthur, as I mentioned, sounds the most like the original Dead. Even the backup singers fit in. When I saw The Dead at Bonnaroo in 2003, the music was good, but the band just didn't gel too well. Joan Osborne just sounded way out of place. But this band has found its stride.

A FEW 'FURTHUR' NOTES:

• The kid who jumped out the window died from his injuries. The tox report is pending — I'm hoping he was just really drunk. It would reflect poorly on responsible faced concertgoers everywhere if he was tripping too hard and freaked out.

• Saw the drummer for theCAUSE outside the main gate.

• A couple song notes: What I presume is a new original, "Colors of the Rain," was pretty great. The only song I liked better in the first set was a hazy, spacey "Althea."

• There are advantages and disadvantages to having only one drummer in a Grateful Dead band. In a group like Dark Star Orchestra or theCAUSE, a lot of the songs and jams take on a '72-'74 feel, when it was just Kreutzmann drumming (with DSO, of course, it depends what year they're playing)... Joe Russo went the opposite route, working overtime all night and pretty much doing the work of two drummers. The result was a heady cross between that early-'70s Dead sound and the harder-swinging rock of Phil & Friends.

• The guitar filter Bobby uses, that sounds kind of annoying on the Furthur recordings, doesn't come across that way all in concert. With that said...

• ...the Petersen looks great, but it doesn't sound all that great. We were on the first level off the floor, to the left of the stage, and there was a fair amount of echo off the back wall. You also can't escape the fact that, at the end of the day, the Pete is a gigantic gym, with metal-girder rafters that don't help the soundman at all. It's like a mini-Gund-Arena, the venue where I once spent two-and-a-half hours listening The Hazy Echo of The Dave Matthews Band. My buddy went onto the floor during the second set, and he said the sound was a little better down there.

• A tough time: The guy from the event staff whose official job was "Stand Outside the Police Tape and Keep 5,423 People From Taking Cell Phone Pictures." That guy was having a rough night:

GUY: "Hey man, can you delete that, please?"

RANDOM HIPPIE #1: "Uh... okay..."

GUY: [Walks over] "Can I maybe watch you delete it?" [walks briskly to Random Hippie #2 and th same conversation ensues... this goes on for about 25 straight minutes until the second set gets going]

128 Oz. of Haterade: 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,' by Kanye West

Apparently, 'Ye is too much super-rapper-producer for just one cover.

Since releasing the spare, overprocessed robotics of 2008's 808s & Heartbreak, Kanye West has done his best to singlehandedly wreck his own career, swiping the mic from Taylor Swift and ranting like Doc Brown in "Back to the Future" via his Twitter page.

And while Marvin Gaye would probably turn over in his grave if he heard Kanye crooning "Mercy, mercy me, that Murcielago," it's still refreshing to hear the much-more-organic sounds that pop up throughout My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy... the female chorus that backs the first single, "Power"... the strings and distorted cry on "So Appalled"... the simple, sinister piano plucks on "Runaway."

There are plenty of modern production mechanics at work, make no mistake. But two years ago, a track like "Runaway" would have done away with its driving beat and be Auto-Tuned to death. Instead, Kanye flexes a tenor voice that sounds just fine, with a guest verse from Clipse MC Pusha T.

Then again, he just can't help himself.

"Runaway" is pretty much over by the 5:30 mark, but then the strings kick back in, and an Auto-Tuned Kanye distorts his own humming for about three minutes. Which is not to say it's bad. Quite the opposite.

"Lost in the World" recaptures the hop-hop-mega-pop vibe of tracks like "Stronger" and "Champion"; "Monster" finds the Chicago native swapping verses with Jay-Z and Rick Ross, who make two appearances each; and John Legend joins in for a relationship gone awry in "Blame Game," which finds Kanye rapping alongside two chopped-and-screwed clones, before Chris Rock drops by in a hilarious, profane coda.

Kanye made a surprise visit to Rolling Stone magazine recently, and was captured on video embarking on an epic soliloquy about his own, well... "epicness" (did he compare himself to Raphael? Ohh, yes)... and Rolling Stone gave the album five stars, calling it Kanye's best yet. I wouldn't go quite that far.

Mostly, it's just really nice to hear Kanye West doing a little more rapping. Sure, he might say self-indulgent things like "if I ever wasn't the greatest/I must have missed it" and he might make videos where he's the Greek god in the center of a classical painting... but he is a nimble, clever rapper, and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is a very nice blend of who Kanye was and who he is, in both sound and substance.

128 Oz. of Haterade: Rundown, Vol. 2

Well... I know this blog has a little bit of readership in the Philly area, and I don't want to alienate any readers, so I won't go off on a tangent about Scott Hartnell and his fake-ass-drip-drip jheri curl, and really the entire Flyers squad, ruining my trip to the Penguins' home opener last night. Just want to drop a few quick reviews on some local Pittsburgh hip-hop talent, along with other records that are making their way through the current rotation:

• Vinny Radio, The Foundation/Slim Stario, A Star is Born - I highly recommend checking out both of these free mixtapes by Pittsburgh MCs. Vinny Radio rocks more uptempo, bouncy tracks, mainly supplied by producer P. Fish, to pair with his baritone flow, while Slim Stario slows things down with a heavier, grittier feel. Click on the links above to download both free albums.

• Dave Holland Octet, Pathways - You can't argue with a bass player who's gigged with Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock, just to name two. England son Dave Holland has put in more than four decades of work, and it shows in the shifty tempos of his compositions, whether they're by way of his quartets, quintets, or big-band arrangements. His latest octet record, Pathways, continues that tradition of excellence in a live setting, whether it's the burbling, chunky bass-walk that begins "How's Never?" or the lilting swing that rides through "Sea of Marmara." For me, what makes Holland's band so appealing is the inclusion of vibraphonist/marimbist (is that last one a word? Not sure) Steve Nelson, whose limber lines snake through the melody in all the best ways.

• Soulive, Rubber Soulive - Soulive has yet to release an album that I don't like. If there was going to be one, I was initially concerned that a record of Beatles covers might be it. It's not. You never heard "Revolution" be as funky as this. The audio clarity is a little muddy at times, but it's a solid set of Fab Four covers that James Brown would be proud of.

• Boog Brown & Apollo Brown, Brown Study - Apollo Brown already impressed me with The Reset. This set of tunes with female MC Boog Brown is just as good. Unfortunately, it's all too rare to find a high-quality female MC, but Boog definitely fits the bill.

128 Oz. of Haterade: The Rundown

• Das Racist, Sit Down Man - "Das Racist, the number-one slept-on/You can't see us like quarks and leptons." That quick little line right there is very emblematic of the fine line straddled by Brooklyn-based Das Racist. Combining danceable beats with subject matter that seems to be about everything and nothing at the same time, the combo of Himansu Suri and Victor Vazquez have created one of the catchiest mixtapes I've listened to in quite a while. Blending hardcore hip-hop sounds with nerd-rap references, Latino music samples ("Julia"), distorted pounding beats ("A Roc Marciano Joint") and even getting a guest verse from the out-there-extraordinaire El-P (the title track), Sit Down Man is a great antidote for the current, stagnant pop-rap scene.

• Lil' Wayne, I Am Not a Human Being - Maybe I'm just missing something about Weezy F. Baby. Probably not, though. Mostly, I'm just not impressed. Okay, you made like a million songs. That's great. But unlike Das Racist, who display a wide palette of sonic dexterity, there's hardly any variation throughout the entire course of Human Being, and there isn't much clever about lines like "You n****s is squares like a motherf*ckin' grid." Slow, plodding beats and cornball attempts at being some kind of southern-bounce R. Kelly characterize the majority of the album.

• Buju Banton, Before the Dawn - The latest news about Buju Banton isn't his latest disc... it's his trial on drug-trafficking charges. Apparently a Florida-area police informer has recordings of the reggae/dancehall star participating in a scheme to smuggle coke. Having come a long way from his "Boom Bye Bye" days, however, Buju's more-recent work has had a much more spiritual bent to it, and Before the Dawn is no exception. Tracks like "In the Air," "Do Good" and "Battered & Bruised" are positive anthems of struggle and upliftment. There are a few questionable detours, most notably into early-'90s-rock territory with "No Smoking At All." All in all, I don't know if it's what the press release refers to as "the prophetic new album," but it's definitely got its moments.

A few other quick-hits:

• Big Remo & 9th Wonder, Entrapment - Big Remo holds it down, but the most notable thing about this LP is that 9th Wonder occasionally wanders out of the sped-up-soul-sample box he's been trapped in for seemingly ever.

• Brian Wilson, Reimagines George Gershwin - The legendarily quirky Beach Boy doesn't so much reimagine Gershwin, as replace classical instruments with pop ones. There are a few interesting numbers, particularly "Summertime" and a Pet Sounds recasting of "I Got Rhythm" as a beach anthem, but overall, it's just alright.

• Mavis Staples, You Are Not Alone - Now this one is the real deal. Staples got together with (of all people) fellow Chi-town native Jeff Tweedy, from Wilco, who wrote a few songs and helped Mavis put together a slammin' old-school R&B record. This set would fit right in with the rest of the Staples' discography, and probably sounds even better live.

• Zac Brown Band, You Get What You Give - This album is a lot more country than I was led to believe the Zac Brown Band sounded. That said, the most shocking part is probably the fact that the song featuring Jimmy Buffett doesn't completely and absolutely suck. Well, that and "Whiskey's Gone," where Brown tells a bartender to "lick his sack." Not a joke.

128 Oz. of Haterade: 'Meta-Historical,' by KRS-One & True Master

"I'll splatter my data on rappers that don't matter..."

KRS-One can divide hip-hop fans. Some view him as a righteous teacher-MC who has been broadcasting truth from New York City streets for more than two decades. Some view him as an overly preachy defender of a brand of hip-hop whose time may have passed.

A song titled "Gimme the '90s" isn't going to help dispel those who subscribe to the latter group. Seven skits with the Blastmaster holding court, on everything from true hip-hop to the N-word to white fear of the black man, isn't going to help, either.

But pairing up with Wu-disciple True Master for a collab album definitely helps. Once only counted among the sonic architects of the disastrous sophomore Gravediggaz record, "The Pick, the Sickle and the Shovel," True Master eventually came into his own as a credible producer, and his simple, effective loops match well with KRS's flow.

Is it kind of annoying as he philosophizes on "Palm & Fist" about metaphysical reality? Kind of. Then again, listening to some excellently casual boasting on "One of Them Days" had me bobbing my head like the first time I heard "Rappaz R.N. Dainja."

KRS's overarching philosophy is on diplay in "Old School Hip Hop": "Back in the days we threw it like this on 'em/Beats and rhymes you didn't have to wish for 'em/Beats and rhymes today you gotta fish for 'em/'Cause most rappers traded ass and tits for 'em." Now that right there is some truth, and while Kris can sometimes get a little too professor-ish, it's nuggets of greatness like those few lines that keep him near the top of any great-MCs list.

Meta-Historical coalesces best in the form of "1-2, Here's What We Gonna Do," as RZA drops by for one of his best verses in years and True Master loops a forlorn guitar; it also shines on the title track, where KRS explores history in all its forms and importance.

Is it a perfect record? No. It limps out with a couple of clunkers ("Street Rhymer," "He's Us"), but along the way, it's a good reminder of why hip-hoppers still love KRS-One.

• Listen to samples from Meta-Historical on Amazon