Yes, I know. It’s Monday morning and it hurts. But fear notÁ¢€”the Monday Morning mp3 Megabonanza is here to soothe your aching soul!

More on that later. How was everybody’s weekend? We went and saw this:

It’s wonderful. I never really dug Trainspotting, but I had to admit that as a director, Danny Boyle has a really unique flair. Aside from Millions being a great movie on its own, I thought it was interesting to see elements of Boyle’s style pop up in what’s basically a family film. He obviously enjoys blurring the lines between reality and fantasy; it’s a predilection that, in the wrong hands, can be irritating beyond belief. Boyle knows what he’s doing. Go see it.

We saw it with my family, together in celebration of my brother’s 23rd birthday. It was our standard deal: Laughs, a meal, a movie, and the forced exchange of some unwanted piece of garbage that two of us (in this case, me and the birthday boy) have been trying to get rid of for months (in this case, a stupid-looking paperback called Patient, Heal Thyself). I mailed said book to said brother some months ago, in an official-looking package. Now I have it again. I need to think of a good way of tricking him into taking it again. Maybe I’ll bake it inside a cake.

One of the gifts I got my brother was tickets to see The Dan Band. If you’ve seen Old School, you probably remember the wedding band that did the foulmouthed version of “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” If you’ve never seen the movie, you aren’t missing much, but if you’ve never heard The Dan Band, then get a load of this:

The Dan Band – Shoop/Whatta Man/Never Gonna Get It

The joke is essentially the aural equivalent of a bunch of frat guys (who can actually play and sing pretty well) covering Top 40 songs, all of them originally performed by women, and occasionally throwing in an F-bomb here and there. Like most musical gags, it does wear thin after awhile, but unlike most musical gags, it’s pretty funny. The above track is from their just-released full-length debut, The Dan Band Live.

We also paid a visit to Morgan Territory this weekend. It’s a big unincorporated area north of Livermore that includes an incredible open space preserve. Neither of us had ever been, so we planned a day trip and went exploring. Pictures are here if you want to see them.

Livermore’s funnyÁ¢€”to get to Morgan Territory, you take N. Livermore Ave. north of 580, and it’s a little disorienting. South of the freeway, it’s all shopping centers; once you cross over, it’s like you’re in another planet. It’s great. If those buttholes at Pardee Homes have their way, this neat little facet of life in Livermore will go the way of the dodo. Some of you may remember me writing about Pardee’s Livermore Trails project, their oily attempt to get around the town’s voter-approved growth boundary. They’ve de-emphasized the housing aspect of this housing development, illegally hired out-of-town signature gatherers, and papered the area with glossy propaganda. After getting enough signatures to put their initiative on the ballot, they tried to force a special election in April. When that failed, they hired professional canvassers to go door-to-door and plead Pardee’s case. One of them was here last week. He wasn’t as obviously greasy as the signature gatherers, but I chalk that up to Pardee being pissed off about the PR mess they wound up with after breaking the law. He had his list of talking points, all of them worthless, and an annoying tendency to talk over you if you disagreed with him. I appreciated his tenacity, and the difficulty of his job, but I still wanted to punch him. It’d be nice if the voters in this town sent the initiative down in November, but I’m not sure how likely that is.

As much as I complain about this town, it isn’t a bad place to live. I plan on doing more things here (and writing about those things) in the future.

So, as promised, here’s a Monday Morning mp3 Megabonanza for you to enjoy. Over a week before its official release, it’s the latest from Ben Folds! Including the exclusive-to-folks-who-have-preordered “strings” version of “Landed”!

Here’s your link. Login jefitopal; password meshuggah. Enjoy!

About the Author

Jeff Giles

Jeff Giles is the founder and editor-in-chief of Popdose and Dadnabbit, as well as an entertainment writer whose work can be seen at Rotten Tomatoes and a number of other sites. Hey, why not follow him at Twitter while you're at it?

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