MUSIC: The Harters

One of the newest country acts to hit the Nashville scene is the sibling band The Harters. Hailing from Arizona, and composed of brothers Michael and Scott, along with sister and lead vocalist, Leslie, the group and their air-tight harmonies are a throw-back to classic country ballads with a modern update. The trio recently released their debut EP, Family. Love. Harmony. on iTunes with a full-length album to follow later this year.

ZONINO! featured their single "Jenny" back in August and the other songs on the aforementioned EP are just as phenomenal. Check out the catchy and sliding "Gettin' Out of Dodge" or the call-and-response "Why I Cry" and be the first of your friends to say you new the band before they exploded out of our radios and are showered with Grammy's, CMA's, and ACM's.

Sergio del Limónar

MUSIC: "Don't Matter" cover

Massachusetts-based band, Phone Calls From Home, has a new album out, Connected, with a killer cover of Akon's hit, "Don't Matter". While its use of auto-tune (like the original) is disappointing, the more rocking interpretation is fitting of the song. I also love that the video is shot in some strange city where waitresses at "mom-and-pop" diners dress like they're going out to a night club and there is an exclusive park for punk/emo dudes to go for walks in.

Check out the single and album on iTunes!

Buzzy

MOVIE: The Road

Every once and a while a decent film slips through the cracks, going unknown to most of the movie-watching public. Earning positive reviews at several film festivals in 2008 and 2009, The Road, starring Viggo Mortensen as a father trying to survive with his son after something has turned Earth into a lifeless landscape, is worth checking out. Set in some near-future world filled with skeptical wanderers, scavengers, thieves, cannibals, and murderers, the father and son (we never know their names) traverse the cold dead and dying world looking for something, anything, to keep them alive.

Incredible computer graphic images of ruined cityscapes and roadways coupled with an almost constant sepia-toned coloration creates a feeling of unsettled fear and worry for the viewer. Appropriate, as the characters - good guys and bad - are constantly looking over their own shoulders, as no one can trust anyone. The film does a great job of contrasting the son's earnest innocence and unjaded kindness with the father's world-weary knowledge, protectiveness, and growing pessimism.

My favorite line happens when the traveling duo encounter an old man on the road to the coast. After much convincing from the son, the father offers him some of their food. While eating the old man confesses that when he saw the boy, he thought he had died and the boy was an angel. He then confides that, at times, he wondered if he was the last man on Earth. The father asks him how you would really know that. The old man responds, "I guess you wouldn't know it, you'd just be it."

Based on the 2006 novel, The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, the film is both beautifully told and thought-provokingly tragic. A study in human nature and dealing with consequences, this is definitely not a "feel-good" film, but is a good one.

Sergio del Limónar

MUSIC: "Nothing To Lose"

I'm a little confused and disgusted by the latest musical collaboration, which, incidentally, is what lead me to investigate it in the fist place. Off of ex-Poison front-man Bret Michael's next as-yet-untitled solo album comes the single, "Nothing To Lose" featuring...(wait for it)...Miley Cyrus.

I don't know if this is some last desperate attempt at getting Bret some new younger fans (younger than the girls that watched the VH1 celeb-reality sex romp "Rock of Love") or Miley using daddy's connections to access a more mature and possibly edgier audience. Either way, I really don't want to know. I feel I would be disappointed in someone and some point in this musical journey.

Regardless, its a pretty good song and I think it has potential to chart well. With a slightly rock, slightly country vibe, Michaels sings about asking a girl to fall for him after she's been burned too many times before.

"If been totaled and put down,
Wearing my heart on my sleeve,
Yeah, those scars that you wear,
Well, I've got them to can't you see?"

If you don't think about Micheals' sexual reputation and Cyrus' age, it's a sweet song.

Sergio del Limonar

BOOK: Awkward Family Photos

ZONINO! has done it again! Remember way back in May of 2009 when we made you want to revisit your parent's attic and burn and strange family moments captured on film?

Well, Mike Bender and Doug Chernack, the creators of the ZONINO!ed Awkward Family Photos website, have compiled many of their collection into a book! Order it now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, and other booksellers or click on this link.

Sergio del Limónar

YOUTUBE: Internet Bridge Troll

You know you've seen it before. You're on YouTube or watching a video on another site and you glance down to the comments section only to see bully-like comments made for no apparent reason. This is the work of the "troll." A newly coined name for the pessimist who makes comments either to simply start a fight from safety of their own bedroom or because they have nothing better to do than take out their misdirected anger on innocent videos. Either way, these "trolls" bait more people than they should. And that is the point of this video from College Humor entitled "Internet Bridge Troll". Always clever and topical, the creative team at CH have done it again with this clever video showing us that the "trolls" can be beat, you just have to know how.

Buzzy

RECIPE: PB Banana Tortilla Roll-up

This is a fantastic breakfast option or even just a snack. It is super easy to make so show your kids and then let them do it themselves!

Ingredients:

Peanut Butter

Tortilla (flour or wheat)

1 Banana

What To Do:

Sorry, you might be an idiot if you can't figure this one out, which is a shame since it is so delicious! Watch this video starting at about 1:43 and bon appetite!

Buzzy