As you may already know, "the cold winds are rising" - much like my expectations when it comes to the adaptation of George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire epic fantasy series from sequential novels to the HBO-helmed Game of Thrones teleplay. Within a few months I find myself irrevocably hooked on the books, having thus far ruined every plot twist and intriguing turn through the season three finale (A Storm of Swords might just be the very best book in the series) and after having recently seen the first episode of season one, I have to admit that I'm beginning to feel a kinship with those people out there in the great wide nerdiverse that identify as gamers, though the alignment of said familiarity be chaotic neutral at best.

That said, I cannot waaaiiit for the proper DVD release of Game of Thrones season one; I just wanna hold it. That first episode was such satisfying viewing, even given my foreknowledge of what's to come, that I'm saving all my geeky esteem for the March 6 release date so I can dig leisurely into said boxed set, desperately laden with extra features and all. And if details like the three horn blasts that punctuate the season two teaser below don't make everyone of your hairs stand on end, shivering with dreadfully sweet anticipation, then consider your craven gamer ass on notice!

I wasn't going to see Priest until I read Noah Berlatsky's critique. I could tell from the trailer that it wasn't offering anything new, nor was it going to even try. Indeed, it is cobbled together from clichés, tropes and designs borrowed from other films -- many of which would best be forgotten, as well. There's not one, but two "I won't let you / don't you let go" scenes as someone is dangling from the hero's hand. The villain conducts while his minions play a catastrophe on a town, just so you know how evil he is. Black Hat, the villain, is a former member of the superpowered priesthood, now corrupted by vampire blood, making him more powerful than both the pureblood vamps and the priests. The vampires are based on the same boring, wormlike design that was used in I Am Legend -- preferred, I guess, because it's generic and doesn't require eyes. Black Hat's main plan is get his old friend, Priest, to join him as a halfbreed and take over the world for the vampire queen. The worst offense is that the action is yet another uninspired appropriation of The Matrix's bullettime. Why, then, did I see it? Because Berlatsky argues that the film is virulently racist, and I can't stay away from films that unintentionally go horribly ideologically wrong. He had my hopes up for another 300 or the aforementioned I Am Legend, but is it a "racist piece of shit," or just shit?

The film's one innovation -- if you can call it that -- is borrowing the basic plot from The Searchers. In John Ford's classic, the Comanche kidnap Ethan Edwards' (John Wayne) niece, torch his brother's homestead and kill most of the family. The vampires do the same to Priest's (Paul Bettany) family, bringing him out of forced retirement to find his "niece" (actually, his biological daughter), and, thus, against the direct commands of the church state that he serves. The heroes are accompanied by the nieces' suitors, both of whom intend to keep the girls alive against the uncles' vows to kill their nieces if they show signs of infection -- cultural in the case of the Indians and genetic in the case of the vampires (or, I guess you might say, genetic mutation determines an ideologico-moral shift in the latter). It's the substitution of vampires for Indians in the plot that is central to Berlatsky's condemnation:

When there's something strange in the imperial court, who you gonna call? During Japan's Heian period, an era of classical Japanese history spanning from 784 to 1185, most folks relied on powerful ghostbusters called onmyoji, wizard-like masters of yin and yang, to ease the energies of vengeful spirits (most famously that of Prince Sawara) who'd stir up all kinds of trouble from plagues and famine to earthquakes and typhoons and other natural disasters mistaken as superstitious punishment. As we have witnessed in recent weeks, perceiving catastrophe as divine comeuppance has changed little over the centuries thanks to Shintaro Ishihara and Glenn Beck, among others, for their knuckleheaded remarks --- no "that was then, this is now" about it. But this is not about jabbing trashy speculation at fresh wounds, this is about a cheesy, historic fantasy movie that I recently caught in my Heian Culture class called Onmyoji (2001, Yojiro Takita) starring Mansai Nomura as Abe no Seimei, a person of historic origin, legendary in Japanese folklore, who was in fact the Merlin of his time and place. Being one of those so-called "super seniors," it's a small miracle I didn't skip said scheduled movie day, I might add.

As evident from the video excerpts above & below from their 2008 Amoeba Berkeley instore concert, Dengue Fever are always a really great band to catch playing live. But their two just announced April Bay Area and LA shows promise to be even more exciting since, as on the LA based psychedelic rock meets Cambodian pop sextet's forthcoming album, Cannibal Courtship, they will officially be introducing the band's very own musical instrument invention, the Mastadong. Shown on the anticipated new album's cover art, alongside lead singer Chhom Nimol, the unique Mastadong is one half Fender Jazzmaster guitar and one half Cambodian Chapei Dong Veng (traditional Cambodian two-stringed guitar). Created exclusively for Dengue Fever guitarist Zac Holtzman, the Mastadong was first unveiled last month at the NAMM 2011 Show in the Anaheim Convention Center.

Ever popular with Amoeba customers & staffers, Dengue Fever, who played the Hollywood Amoeba six years ago, was formed ten years ago by brothers Zac and Ethan Holtzman after Ethan was inspired by the music he witnessed firsthand on a trip to Cambodia. Soon after, they discovered their phenomenal lead singer, recent immigrant Chhom Nimol, who sings in Khmer, in a nightclub in the Little Phnom Penh area of Long Beach. Dengue Fever have released six albums over the years including their eponymous 2003 debut and their last album, 2009's Sleepwalking Through The Mekong (M80) but the eleven track Cannibal Courtship will be their debut for Fantasy Records/Concord Music Group and it looks likely to be the group's most well and widely received work to date. As well as the band's trademark psych meets Cambodian hybrid they also nicely meld in various other sounds such as Afrobeat and a heavy dose of fuzz guitar.