My desk is covered in Star Wars toys right now, which prompted a short discussion between the Crook and I in regards to the Imperial rankings of Darth Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin. This is how we keep ourselves entertained when we’re not busy creating “dat crack.” Thank you Wikipedia for clearing up any misconceptions.

Organization of power

Emperor Palpatine rules the Empire with absolute power, with third-in-command Sate Pestage as Grand Vizier to run the Empire day to day. Vader is the Emperor’s second-in-command as well as the Military Executor and Supreme Commander of the Imperial Forces.

Palpatine dissolves the Senate in A New Hope because the Empire discovers several seats in the Senate are actually taken by members of the Rebellion. Officially, the Imperial Senate is “suspended for the duration of the Galactic emergency”. Below the Emperor, real power is in the hands of sector governors (“moffs“) such as Grand Moff Tarkin. Eventually, the regional governors are granted direct control over their territories after Palpatine disbands the Imperial Senate.

In A New Hope, Tarkin explains the Empire’s philosophy as “rule through fear of force rather than force itself”. The instrument of this power is the military, which includes the Imperial Stormtroopers, Scout Troopers, Sandtroopers, SCUBA Troopers, Snowtroopers, and a large fleet of intimidating war vehicles such as the Imperial Navy’s Star Destroyers and the Imperial Army’s All Terrain Armoured Transports (AT-ATs or imperial walkers) which are intended in part to spread fear as well as destroy the enemy. This policy reaches its zenith with the construction of the Death Star.

Finally! Seems like New Zealand will stop living in fairyland and come back to reality with a quality feature film proud to follow in the footsteps of a young Peter Jackson! I cannot wait!

The Cramps – Garbage Man

Murder City Devils – 18 Wheels (Live)

The Make-Up – I Am Pentagon (Live)

Royal Trux – Ray-O-Vac (Live)

Cibo Matto – Know Your Chicken

Green Jello – Three Little Pigs

Ministry – Thieves

Math Head & The Captain are in Trouble & Bass. Math Head & The Captain are BFF… Bass Friends Forever. We at Mishka like to think of all of T&B as our Bass Friends Forever and so we got down on this  mix! It’s like a T&B party captured on CD or in this case on our Doombox! Listening to it at work may cause uncontrolable dancing, so listen at your own risk!

The Captain – BFF Pt. 1

Math Head – BFF Pt. 2

Trouble & Bass are also getting down for their monthly party at Love tomorrow night, Feb 29th with special guest Tayo straight from London. Listen to the mix and head over to Love tomorrow night. You won’t be sorry!

Love
179 Macdougal St.
New York, NY
$10 before 10am, 21 to enter

Continuing my series of albums so awful that they’re awesome I bring you the third in the series. Live’s Throwing Copper. Unlike STP & Bush who earned honers as the #1 and 2 in my series, Live never drew my ire or elicited any sort of violent reaction from me in the 90s. They kind just “were” and my attention always passed over their existence whenever their songs were played. In actually sitting down and really listening to throwing copper I was actually kinda shocked that there were 5 fucking bona fide hit singles on this one album (I’m noticing that’s a trend on this list)! I always thought most of these songs were scattered across various other albums Live may have put out and I ignored.

So what makes this album so awfully awesome? Well Live seems to have this magical way of writing lyrics that are so beyond cheesy they’re actually heartfelt. Like Freshman Seminar poetry you want to laugh at but don’t because the kid writing/reading it is a really nice guy. Dude managed to find away to slip placenta into song lyrics! PLACENTA! It’s like that movie that goes so out of it’s way to play on your heartstrings and make you cry, and you know it, find it silly, cheesy, but you cry anyway!*

Secondly, Live sound like that AWESOME (read sarcasm… well only partially so) band from your High School**. I’d like to imagine that had their been a Degrassi on during the 90s the band that would have formed in that show would have sounded just like Live. Like they would have gotten together after school to jam out on their fave R.E.M. tracks and just riff it from there. They probably would have had the editor of the school newspaper as the frontman, that jock type dude who wasn’t a total douche on bass, etc, etc. I don’t know about you, but that sounds pretty fucking killer to me brah!

Thirdly Ed Ed Kowalczyk badass rat tail braid!!!! KILLER!

And finally What the fuck was up with the video for I Alone!?? Where the fuck were the drums that day!? Why is he just swaying along behind Ed Kowalczyk? It’s fucking creepy!!! Wait… did VH1′s Pop-Up Videos cover this already?

*Don’t cry you pussies!
**Live actually WERE that band from High School, no joke!

From Patrick Bateman, to Bruce Wayne and now mankind’s only hope… John Conner. John Conner is quickly becoming a Sci Fi James Bond as Christian Bale becomes the 4th actor (I guess actually 5th or 6th if you count quick flash forwards in the 1st two movies) to tackle the role in a newly announced Terminator Trilogy.

Variety Magazine reports:
Warner Bros. will premiere the McG-directed Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins on May 22, 2009, the start of Memorial Day weekend. The movie, which stars Christian Bale (Sam Worthington is also in talks to star), will go up against Twentieth Century Fox’s Night at the Museum II: Escape From the Smithsonian, which also opens that weekend. The project is the first in a planned trilogy that begins after Skynet destroyed much of the human race in a nuclear holocaust. John Connor (Bale) must lead a group of people to try and stop the machines. The last Terminator movie, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, opened in 2003 and grossed $150.4 million domestically. Shooting on the new movie is scheduled to begin May 5 of this year.

While this won’t have Schwarzenegger reprising his role as everyone’s favorite killing machine, it’s clear that with the success of the Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles TV show that the franchise does not need Arnold to be great.

I’m pretty excited because Terminator is probably my favorite Sci Fi franchise of all time! And if you haven’t seen the TV show you should because it’s a very close third to the new Battlestar Galactica & Lost as one of the best Sci Fi shows in recent memory. You know I’ll have my Terminate Da Game hoodie on and fully zipped at the premiere!

We invites you to take a mind-bending journey into the past, present and future life of acclaimed artist, Joseph Ari Aloi. Known around the world as JK5, Joseph is a jack-of-all-trades possessing a healthy arsenal of creative weaponry that has allowed him to excel in virtually every medium he touches. JK5 is the definition of originality, which is why we are so humbled to have collaborated with him on this special project.

The JK5 capsule collection represents a true collaboration. For several days, we worked with JK5 to deconstruct his 432 paged book Subconsciothesaurusnex. We then meticulously re-assembled the pieces thereby creating two giant collages. The result: a mind-blowing print whirlwind of color,intricate drawings and strange cultural references authentic to both JK5 and Mishka that formed the jumping off point for the collection.

The JK5 capsule collection will be available at the Mishka Pop-Up Shop located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and other select stockists at the end of February.

Gargamel with some of thier new micromen! Oh, and look, the Keep Watch Varsity well represented! What’s up Yutaka!?