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So hear this please
And watch as your heart speeds up endlessly
And look for the stars as the sun goes down
Each breathe that you take has a thunderous sound
Everything, everything’s magic

Late Sunday night/early Monday morning we finally got back from the Shakopee, Minnesota Warped Tour show and I’m not sure it’s completely sunk in.

Warped is an amazing place not just because you have the oppertunity to see so many up and coming bands, as well as more mainstream bands, but because of the awesome people there. Whether it’s just the random people you see walking by in their strange attire or the people trying to get people interested in a cause. I don’t like pushy people, but they don’t come across as that and it’s always nice to see people movitated for something they believe in.

Oddly enough, the guys from Adventures of Brad and Jordan spotted me prior to the Anberlin set. It’s always nice to actually meet the people behind the writing you enjoy - if you’re reading this, sorry I disappeared. I had to get some air. Catch you at another show sometime maybe?

This year’s Minnesota date was somewhat different from the last time I went in that the sun was practically non-existent for the majority of the day. It wasn’t cold though and the breeze made everything just about perfect.

When we first got their we almost immediately headed towards the Van’s merchandise tent so one of us could get some actual shoes (flip flops are the worst thing you can wear to something like this) and while over there someone affiliated with Motion City Soundtrack asked me if we’d like to get some stuff signed. I think my response was pretty much “Uh yeah, are you kidding?”. I grabbed passes for the three of us so we could head back to the merch tent later for the signings. Three hundred total passes were handed out so I think we were pretty lucky.

At somepoint between waiting for bands we ended up walking by the ModLife bus when none other than Tom DeLonge walks out of it and starts hugging kids by the fence. Unfortunately we missed out on hugs/hand shakes as we were just a bit late but Tom was nice enough to give us some nice photo ops from the top of the bus and . . . well, we were just feet away from Tom DeLonge. What else can be said?

I wasn’t sure how Angels and Airwaves would be received at Warped. I guess these days that some of the bands at Warped are considerably softer than they would have been ten years ago, but AvA is in a whole new realm, vastly different from the likes of blink-182. Any hesitations I had about the energy of the crowd vanished as I saw the people filling in the area in front of both mainstages.

AvA put on an awesome thirty-minute set and the crowd was very, very into it. The atmosphere was amazing even without the lightshow from the last Angels concert I went to and the energy was intense.

And the last big set for me? Motion City Soundtrack in their home state. Things had drastically changed since 2005 when they played one of the smaller stages. Nope, that wasn’t happening this year. Mainstage Left in all it’s glory. Again, a ton of people swarmed in front of both stages to get as close as they could. MCS played a nice variety of stuff from all three of their full lengths and had people singing back the lyrics. It was an amazing show and I can’t wait to see them on one of their tours sometime.

Overall it was an excellent show this year and I’m looking forward to next year’s stop. Now I’ve gotta go finish catching up on sleep. G’night.

If I had made my previous block busters list according to what others thought I would have been way off, apparently. Iron Man raked in over a cool hundred million in it’s first week - the second highest first weekend debut of any non-sequel.

Alright friends, I suppose it’s time for a short break from Grand Theft Auto 4 and for me to hop into a new article for Postblink - although I am only 30%/45 missions in. Today I’m talking about summer block busters for the sunny days of 2008.  After watching an inspiring episode of The Totally Rad Show, I decided it’s time for my top 5 picks of summer. The following are my picks, let’s see yours in the comments. You can find all upcoming releases here.

First Pick - Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Directed by Steven Spielburg? Co-written by George Lucas? Are you kidding me? Forget that it’s another step in a legendary film series, the film creators and actors are enough to make this the biggest film of 2008. I’m more excited for this than I was any of the Starwars prequels. This film is my top pick because everyone is going to be seeing this movie, of all ages and demographics, and probably multiple times.

Second Pick - Dark Knight

I’m not a huge fan of Batman Begins, but I don’t think I’ll be able to say the same for Dark Knight. The late Heath Ledger is going to be a huge factor in how amazing this movie is, in my opinion, and I can’t wait for it. I’m expecting ten times the story and double the action of Batman Begins.

Third Pick - The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

I think this is going to beat out Iron Man, but I’m not sure by what measure. While I am looking forward to checking this out, it’s not one I’m going to be crushed if I don’t see. It’s my third pick, however, because I do believe many people are going to be rushing to see this. If I was going to base this completely on my personal tastes, WALL-E would take this spot - but I’m taking into consideration what I think the box office sales numbers will show.

Fourth Pick - WALL-E

The trailers have been fairly abstract as far as storyline for this movie, although I guess I haven’t watched one in a while. I think this Pixar film will be one of the better movies coming out this summer. I haven’t really ever been disappointed by Pixar and they seem to only get better after each previous film. WALL-E has some of the best new animation from a company that won awards for it’s animation in the mid-nineties.

Fifth Pick - Iron Man

There’s a lot of internet hype for Iron Man - but I guess that’s the base of the culture that are looking forward to seeing this live-action comic book inspired film. I’m not interested so much from that point of view as I am because Robert Downy Jr. is in it and ever since he stopped doing rails in bathrooms his acting has been amazing.

What almost made it? - Pineapple Express

Pineapple Express didn’t quite make it because I’m not sure how many people will be interested outside of the target audience. Will Seth Rogen add anything new to his slacker-comedy relief stoner role? Could he add any depth to a lead character who plays a stoner? I think I’m going to love this movie, but I don’t quite agree with all my friends who think it’s going to be the best action/comedy film of 2008. Despite what the trailers show, my stoner friends just aren’t that active.

What will never make it? - Speed Racer

I think this film will kill off the Wachowski brothers and be a massive let down. Maybe it’s the story that doesn’t interest me, maybe it’s the stupid mix of live action/over-artistic CGI for the race scenes we’ve seen in the advertisements - I don’t know. All I can say is I won’t be seeing this and I can’t think of any of my friends who are busting out to see it. Two words: “over” & “hyped”.

In conclusion? Sorry if this was hard to read. I’m going on very little sleep and I’m sure my reading comprehension skills are a little drained after having to decipher so many accents in GTA.