Happy Holidays from the Coolest Kids in the loser corner of the room

[The Will Leitch Experience]

My prayers have been answered

Like myself, I know a lot of you guys are huge fans of Saved by the Bell. And if like me, you also loved California Dreams, then this is the announcement you've been waiting for. The show that featured everyone's favorite high school rock band comes to DVD officially on March 31.

I honestly had no hope that this show would ever come to home video. California Dreams has been out of syndication for possibly a decade now, but I still can vividly remember dozens of episodes.

A lot of the this show's storylines mirrored those of Saved by the Bell. Some of my favorite episodes were the one where Tiffany gets steroids from Sly (I loved that one of the main characters knew where to score drugs), the one where Jake has to quit smoking (if you read my Facebook note, all of you can stop leaving comments about that now), and the one where Tony dates a white girl whose parents can't stand the fact that he's black.

All in all, a true television classic on par with the gang from Bayside, just with a music element added. If you haven't seen it before, now's your chance. Here's hoping that enough people buy this that the later seasons get released (cause those are always better).

[ONTD] via
[TVShowOnDVD.com]

Still hoping for a Fresh Prince reunion episode...

I guess this brief photo op shared by Will, Ashley and Carlton will have to suffice. The photo was taken at the premiere of Will Smith's new movie Seven Pounds. The previews look okay, same director as The Pursuit of Happiness, and it seems to share the same spirit. If we could only get the whole gang to get back together in Bel-Air, I would eat my hat.

[ONTD]

EDIT: it's been brought to my attention that I spelled the movie's title incorrectly. I will fix this if I ever watch said movie and I deem that it is indeed worthy of a correction.

Spike 2008 Video Game Awards Results

Last night Spike TV aired their annual Video Game Awards show, an incredibly ridiculous show which featured tons of gorgeous women, a few bands, and a fat guy on a Segway. Doesn't sound too bad on paper, but if you watched the show you know what I'm talking about.

The game of the year went to Grand Theft Auto IV, while Studio of the Year went to Media Molecule, the force behind PS3 exclusive LittleBigPlanet. I generally agree with most of the winners, but I would have definitely put Brawl above Soul Calibur IV for best fighting game. Here's the full list of award winners.

GAME OF THE YEAR

Grand Theft Auto IV

CONSOLE WINNERS

Best Xbox 360 Game: Gears of War 2
Best PS3 Game: LittleBigPlanet
Best PC Game: Left 4 Dead
Best Wii Game: Boom Blox
Best Handheld Game: Professor Layton and the Curious Village

GENRE WINNERS

Best Individual Sports Game: Shaun White Snowboarding
Best Fighting Game: Soul Calibur IV
Best RPG: Fallout 3
Best Shooter: Gears of War 2
Best Team Sports Game: NHL 09
Best Action Adventure Game: Grand Theft Auto IV
Best Driving Game: Burnout Paradise
Best Music Game: Rock Band 2
Best Game Based on a Movie or TV Show: LEGO Indiana Jones

AND THE REST

Studio of the Year: Media Molecule
Best Multi-Player Game: Left 4 Dead
Best Independent Game: World of Goo
Big Name in the Game (Female): Jenny McCarthy
Big Name in the Game (Male): Kiefer Sutherland
Best Performance by a Human (Female): Debbie Mae West
Best Performance by a Human (Male): Michael Hollick
Best Original Score: Metal Gear Solid 4
Best Soundtrack: Rock Band 2
Best Graphics: Metal Gear Solid 4

[Source: Spike VGAs: Here Are Your Spike Video Game Awards Winners @ Kotaku]

LAFCA Votes WALL-E Best Picture of the Year

After listening to IGNs Digigods podcast, hosted by two critics, Wade Major and Mark Keizer, they announced that after a day of voting with the LA Film Critics Association that their choice of picture of the year went to none other then admired animated film WALL-E. This is incredibly notable because animated films usually don't take the Best Picture category. The Runner-Up was The Dark Knight, a super hero movie, which once again usually doesn't take acclaim over "standard" films.

This is a sign that the Oscar for best picture may be one of these two films, but we'll have to wait a bit to find out about all that, but yeah, congrats to WALL-E and The Dark Knight, certainly two of my favorite movies of the year.

Also significant is the Best Actor category which went to Sean Penn for "Milk," which I still haven't seen...

[Source: LAFCA Announces 2008 Award Winners]

Happy First Birthday Coolkids

Exactly one year ago, four men with a hunger for writing and wittiness banned together to give the internet a piece of their minds. ADONIS, Just Ray, Nazer, and CommanderCacho started the blog entitled, The Coolest Kids In The Room, a no standard, no guideline, no shit place to express opinions. We've dealt with everything from frozen food to politics, with each individual contributing their own special blend of herbs and spices. Readers everywhere have raved about the massive overflow of content on the blog each day, and we've received oodles and oodles of fan mail, something we're all extremely proud of. Lets take a look at some data.


As you can see from the line graph above, we started out incredibly strong, with nearly a post a day. In March we peaked with a record of 41 posts, a most impressive accomplishment for bloggers everywhere. In the later months we drop a bit, and in September we only had a total of 7 posts. But that's okay because...


Over the months our coolness has increased exponentially. In the form of Rock Band multipliers, we've reached a 2048x multiplier of coolness, which in my book is pretty incredible.

So over the course of a year we've totaled 246 posts, and we're still going strong crawling along. We've gone through a slew of cosmetic changes, and our layouts are only improving over time. So thanks for the year guys, lets keep it going. And now for a more traditional entry.

School has been keeping me pretty busy. I'm finally diving deeper into the Film Scoring major, and that includes a LOT of writing (music) as well as learning applications on the computer. I'm surrounded by peers who love film and film music, and I have to say that I've heard some of the greatest music I've ever heard in my life this semester, not only from my peers but even from doing more in-depth research on some of my favorite scores. Projects range from scoring short scenes and doing analysis papers to sitting at a desk and just spilling whatever it is inside of our brains onto paper and hoping brilliant music comes out. It's incredibly difficult and daunting, but its seriously so much fun. For one of my classes, we have to make a mock up (a digital representation) of a minute or so of E.T. Digitally punching in notes for woodwinds, strings, brass, percussion, and so on. It's all really cool, and I'm definitely looking forward to my future semesters to just get more information and to get more work done.

I've also been one of the people at Berklee increasing awareness of Video Game music as a valid genre. The themes of video game music stick in peoples brains forever, and like film, it's an incredibly important component. A guest speaker came, and he stated that some people play WoW for nearly 30 hours a week. As they're playing they listen to music and sound effects in the game for 30 hours. Even for a favorite record, you probably don't listen to that for 30 hours a week, so that's all pretty interesting. I've been working with a few people on audio integration in games, and some of us have been talking to professionals about the importance of music, as well as technical aspects of it all. It's all pretty nerdy shit, but I'm pretty optimistic that by the time I graduate I'll have a good idea on music production in games.

I'm also part of Berklee's video game club band. It's a group of 7 of us, and we make all of our own arrangements. In March we're going to SF to play at the Game Developers Conference, so hopefully there we can get ourselves out there as composers, and meet a bunch of bigger names.

I've been following TV as usual. Pushing Daisies canceled, My Own Worst Enemy canceled, Dirty Sexy Money canceled, all unfortunate events. Heroes is trash, and if you disagree we can argue about it, but I continue to watch because I want it to get better. Bryan Fuller, who worked on Daisies, was a former writer on Heroes, so he's coming back there to help the show out, so hopefully it gets better in Volume 4. This weeks 30 Rock was probably one of the funniest episodes I have ever seen. Some of the shows that have been consistently awesome are Dexter and Chuck, I look forward to them every week.

So I'll be home Friday the 19th at like 9:30PM. Can't wait to see everyone again, get some mexican food, and just chill out. I could probably go on forever, but this seems like a good place to stop. Time to make some food, PEACE

Fight Night: The Dream Match to Save Boxing, Pacquiao vs. De La Hoya

The Thrilla from Manila, Manny Pacquiao, is set to take on boxing legend Oscar De La Hoya this evening in the highly anticipated “Dream Match” that will save boxing, pitting Pacman, the world’s best pound-for-pound fighter, against “The Golden Boy” De La Hoya, who has had his fair share of accomplishments during a long, venerated career in the ring.

Even with the support of an entire nation behind him, the Philippines favorite son faces a daunting task – bulk up to a weight class far past his natural weight, and defeat a much taller, bigger, and experienced opponent in De La Hoya; a fighter who didn’t earn the distinction of being boxing’s Golden Boy overnight. De La Hoya enters the ring tonight as the clear-cut favorite in the matchup, with his larger frame giving him an obvious size and reach advantage over the much smaller Pacquiao.



Despite playing the underdog role, Pacman has been hard at work, training in the mountains, killing grizzly bears and chopping down trees a la Rocky IV style. Meanwhile, De La Hoya has been training hard as well, albeit through a much different approach...

MILK Movie Review and "We pick and choose"

Milk directed by Gus Van Sant
starring Sean Penn




Sean penn plays Harvey Milk the first openly gay elected to public office in California to the board of supervisors for the city of San Francisco. Milk was a leader of the gay political movement and was elected city supervisor in 1977. He alongside mayor George Mascone were assasinated after only serving eleven months at his position in 1978.

The acting in Milk is on point all around and Sean Penn doesn't dissapoint, but when does he ever dissapoint. Not to mention a cast filled with dope actors like James Franco(Pinneapple Express), Emile Hirsch(Into the Wild) and Josh Brolin(No Country For Old Men). Gus Van Sant does an amazing job in directing this film, the subtle as well as the not so subtle moments keep you on the edge of your seat. Being that this is based on a true story, you know from the start Milk will be assasinated at some point in the film. If your like me who didn't know much about Milk prior to watching this film I must say i came out with a better experience.

Coming from an organizers point of view this movie is inspiring in a multitude of ways. Forget that it is about gay rights for a second. If you replace the obvious gay issues that are evident throughout this film with issues pertaining to any oppressed people it would still make you feel the same way. Angry. Anxious. Disheartened. Inspired. Sad. Proud. Motivated. All these feelings bundled into one amazing movie. Of course you could call me biased since i do consider myself an ally to the Gay community, but i truly believe that regardless of your stance on gay rights you would enjoy this film. Hopefully even be inspired to start questioning your previous notions about homosexuality. I hate to be the "debbie downer" of the cool kids, but the relevance of this issue is evident when considering issues pertaining to gay marriage.

If you want to catch this film and you are in the San Diego Area it will be showing at the...
Landmark Hillcrest
3965 Fifth Avenue
San Diego, CA 92103
(619) 819-0236
...or follow this link to check show times

After all is said and done i give this film 3 FISTS held high.



To end on a lighter note check this video the Prop 8 Musical courtesy of trish via myspace bulletin.

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

Peace Love and Progressive Mobbin
Just Ray