Muthagoose's Pick O' The Week

[muthagoose]

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

The third installment in Nintendo’s popular Super Smash Bros. fighter franchise debuts on the Wii in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Loaded with all the characters and features players have loved from the two previous versions, plus much more, it is a worthy addition to the series and yet another must-have title for the Nintendo Wii.




Characters: More Than Just Mario and Friends
The lifeblood of the Super Smash Bros. series has always been the depth of the character lineup that each installment has been able to bring and Brawl not only keeps with tradition, but does it one better. Just as in Super Smash Bros. and Super Smash Bros Melee, players can expect to pit their favorite Nintendo characters against each other in head-to-head and multiplayer battles, but instead of insisting on characters exclusively from the Nintendo universe, Brawl adds variety in the form of superstars Sonic the Hedgehog and Solid Snake from Konami’s Metal Gear franchise. This is a first-time addition and one that will delight veteran players and newbies alike. But these two characters are only a sampling of the new additions to the game’s lineup. The other ten come from classic Nintendo titles and bring the complete lineup of playable characters to a whopping 25. See the full list on combatants below:

New Comers:
Pit from the Kid Icarus series, Wario, Zero Suit Samus, Ike from the Fire Emblem series, Meta Knight and King Dedede from the Kirby series, Pokémon Trainer, Diddy Kong, Lucas from the Earthbound/Mother series, Pikimin and Olimar from the Pikmin series and of course Sonic and Solid Snake.


Returning Veteran Fighters:
Mario, Link, Kirby, Pikachu, Fox McCloud, Samus, Zelda/Sheik, Bowser, Donkey Kong, Yoshi, Princess Peach and Ice Climbers from the NES title Ice Climber.


The Rules of the Brawl
As in previous releases in the series, Brawl places players within a different, but easy to use fighting system. Players choose a character, select one of the numerous stages--which are levels based in the game worlds represented in Super Smash Bros.-- and try to knock their opponents off the screen using a range of standard techniques and combos as well as a variety of special attacks and ‘Smash Moves’ specific to their chosen character. A Smash Move can only be performed after securing a ‘Smash Ball.’ These precious items, marked with the Smash Bros. logo, fall randomly and can be used by either player, but they must be cracked open before they can be used. To keep things interesting they can also can be stolen if not used right away, so when a player sees one it must be grabbed quickly and cracked to avoid an unfortunate turn of events.


Also, keeping with the game’s "E" rating and player’s affection for the characters, instead of displaying health bars the game uses a percent system to indicate character status and strength. The more damage done to a character, the higher the percentage and the farther back he/she is knocked back when struck by an opponent.


Many Ways to Play: Multiplayer and Single Player Options
Just as in previous installments of Super Smash Bros. there is fun to be had whether you choose to fight in multiplayer or single player mode, but Brawl again pushes the envelope even further by providing additional ways to play within these areas and the possibility of others added later. Here are just a few of the modes that you can expect to see:


Multiplayer
* Standard Multiplayer Brawl - A standard battle between 2-4 players.
* Special Brawl – Take down your friends in matches which you can customize with as many rules as you would like.
* Tourney – Choose the number of players and rules you want and have at it in a round-robin battle against many foes.
* Online Multiplayer - For the first time play against registered friends or randomly selected opponents from anyplace in the world via a Nintendo Wi-Fi connection.


Single Player
* Training – Start on the path to Brawling like a pro as you learn to string standard moves together into combos.
* Classic – Fight your way through semi-randomly generated battles where each match features an arena or opponent from a particular game series and may feature unique battle conditions.
* Stadium: Target Smash - Practice your aim as you break ten targets within a set time limit.
* "Subspace Emissary" - The world of Smash Bros. is invaded by an entity called the Ancient Minister and his army, called "The Primid. As this villain starts turning characters into trophies to harness their power, declare a peace with your quarrelsome companions and work together to defeat the invaders in an engrossing side-scrolling adventure.


Stay in Control
Because the Super Smash Bros. series has a huge following and an even larger list of characters from the Nintendo catalog, it only makes sense that players may have a preference for a particular Nintendo controller from the era of their favorite game. Because of this the game’s creators have incorporated all four of the major Nintendo controllers into the mix. Whether you prefer the Wii Remote, the Wii Remote with Nunchuck, the Wii Classic Controller or the GameCube Controller it makes no difference. All four are fully compatible with all the features of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, although the handling of each is a little different. Choose the one you are most comfortable with, or explore all your options. The choice is yours.


A Barrel Full of Customization
Finally, created with an eye towards providing year’s worth of fun, Brawl comes with extensive built-in customization possibilities. Dive into the game’s seemingly endless list of game modes/mini-games, battle stages, in-game items and musical playback options to make the game your own and Brawl the way you want to.


Official Site:
www.smashbros.com

[muthagoose]

JUNO



Sixteen year-old Juno MacGuff is the type of girl that beats to her own drummer, and doesn't really care what others may think of her. She learns that she's pregnant from a one-time sexual encounter with her best friend, Paulie Bleeker. Juno and Paulie like each other, but don't consider themselves to be exclusive boyfriend/girlfriend let alone be ready to be a family complete with child. Although she would rather not be pregnant, Juno is fairly pragmatic about her situation. Although there, Paulie really leaves all the decisions about the baby to Juno. Initially she decides that she will have an abortion, but that's something that she ultimately cannot go through with. So she decides to have the baby and give it up for adoption. But first she has to tell her father, Mac, and stepmother, Bren, that she is pregnant. Although they would have preferred if Juno was on hard drugs or expelled from school, Mac and Bren too are pragmatic about Juno's situation. The next step is to find prospective parents for the yet unborn child. In the Pennysaver ad section, Juno finds Mark and Vanessa Loring, a yuppie couple living in the suburbs. Juno likes the Lorings, and in some respects has found who looks to be a kindred spirit in Mark, with whom she shares a love of grunge music and horror films. Vanessa is a little more uptight and is the one in the relationship seemingly most eager to have a baby. On her own choosing, Juno enters into a closed rather than open adoption contract with the Lorings - meaning she will have no contact with the baby after she gives it up. During the second and third trimesters of Juno's pregnancy which she treats with care but detachment, Juno's relationships with her family, with Paulie, and with the Lorings develop, the latter whose on the surface perfect life masks some hidden problems.

[muthagoose]

ALPHA DOG

With harrowing intensity, Alpha Dog dramatizes one of the most tragically notorious murders in recent history. Ripped from the headlines, writer-director Nick Cassavetes' flawed but riveting crime drama (a polar opposite to his previous film, the romantic hit The Notebook) is based on the real-life case of Jesse James Hollywood, a drug dealer in California's San Gabriel Valley who, in 2000, became one of the youngest men to appear on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list. Names and details have been changed, but the criminal circumstances remain the same: With family links to organized crime, Johnny Truelove (Emile Hirsch) is on the warpath against Jake Mazursky (Ben Foster), a sleazebag addict who owes him money. Fate intervenes when Johnny and his stoner pals including Frankie (Justin Timberlake) encounter Jake's 15-year-old half-brother Zack (Anton Yelchin) and hold him as collateral until Jake pays his debts. What begins as a casual, seemingly harmless situation escalates into a crisis of capital crime, as Alpha Dog employs split-screen, docudrama, and mock-documentary interviews to chronicle a tragic tailspin of reckless events and lawless behavior.

Cassavetes himself became part of the real-life drama when prosecutors (hoping to locate then-fugitive Jesse James Hollywood, who was captured in 2005) gave him legally controversial access to their case files. Alpha Dog clearly benefits from this inside information, and while the film's grueling depiction of underage squalor (including rampant drug and alcohol abuse) is inevitably off-putting and at least partially exploitative, there's no denying that Cassavetes has worked wonders with a well-chosen ensemble cast including Timberlake, who contrasts his music-industry stardom with a convincing performance as a likable, not-too-bright party animal who quickly gets in over his head. The film is ultimately compromised by Cassavetes' ambitious attempt to cover too much dramatic territory, but like his father John before him, he demonstrates a remarkable skill with actors (including Sharon Stone, Bruce Willis, and Harry Dean Stanton in supporting roles), and Alpha Dog is full of powerful, dangerous moments that aren't easily forgotten.



Muthagoose Says: I went into this totally expecting it to suck solely because it involved Justin Timberlake... it didn't. Definitely worth the rental!

[muthagoose]

Mario Kart Wii with Wii Wheel

Official Site:
www.mariokart.com

Game Features:

* The Wii Wheel transforms the Wii Remote™ controller into a steering wheel that feels natural in anyone's hands, while the Wii Remote and Nunchuk™ controller offer a classic control style for the Mario Kart veteran. In either configuration, players can perform speed-boosting tricks with a shake of the Wii Remote.

* Players can race as their favorite Nintendo character, or even as themselves! Mario Kart Wii lets players race with their personalized Mii™ characters. And racers will see other Mii characters they have created cheering from the sidelines on some race courses.

* Players can compete with up to three friends in their living room. Or challenge up to 11 opponents via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection in the biggest Mario Kart race yet. All tracks and modes of play are available via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, and players can visit the Mario Kart Channel to compete in tournaments, check rankings, see when their friends are playing and download ghost data.

* Cruise new tracks and arenas or tour classic courses from Super Mario Kart™, Mario Kart® 64, Mario Kart®: Super Circuit™, Mario Kart®: Double Dash!!™ and Mario Kart® DS. Tired of riding on four wheels? Bust out one of the new motorbikes for special tricks and techniques.



Characters
Nintendo favorites Mario™, Luigi™, Peach™, Yoshi®, Donkey Kong®, Wario™, Bowser™ and Toad™, plus a host of new faces-including your own! Get into the game and put your Mii™ character behind the wheel.

Special Powers/Weapons/Moves/Features
Whether racing around an obstacle-filled track or battling in an arena, drifting and tossing items are the keys to Mario Kart success. Players can shake the Wii Remote while launching off a ramp to pull off a trick that will temporarily boost their speed. When riding a bike, players can gain additional speed by flicking the Wii Remote up and popping a wheelie

Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection:
Keeping in the tradition of Mario Kart, Nintendo has pushed multiplayer racingeven further utilizing the Wii's built in Wi-Fi Connection. There are two options for races and battles over Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection: up to 12 people via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection or up to 10 people via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection with two people playing locally.

[Stomper]

Anyone with a Wii needs to run out and pick this up. Probably the most fun I have had playing a game in years.

[The Duke]

I gotta get a Wii!!!

[muthagoose]

It's been awhile but I am gonna try and revive my Pick O' The Week... here we go.

The Very Best of Billy Idol: Idolize Yourself



This is a great CD/DVD Deluxe Edition. Well worth adding to your collection. It features all the hits, a dvd with all the great videos and packaging by Shepard Fairey.

I recently reviewed it, so check that out as well!

READ THE REVIEW:
www.live-metal.net/cdreviews_idolizeyourself.html

[muthagoose]

The Decline of Western Civilization Part II - The Metal Years


The summer tour season has kicked off and I have a lot on my plate interview-wise, which is exciting. In the process of doing research, I came across a web-gem. It's definitely worth a look if you are a fan of the genre."The Decline of Western Civilization Part II-The Metal Years," which is currently out of print, has made it's way in bootleg form to the world wide web.

This flick interviews up and coming glam bands who made their home in the L.A. scene. he movie's range of topics include groupies, alcoholism, drugs, the glam image and why it attracted so many people from many walks of life.

The documentary follows the heavy metal scene in Los Angeles, with particular emphasis on the glam metal sub-genre. Documentarian Penelope Spheeris explores the more famous musicians, including Alice Cooper, Aerosmith, Ozzy Osbourne, Dave Mustaine and Paul Stanley. She then explores unknown bands, such as London, Odin and Seduce.

The film also features interviews with members of Poison, Tuff, Vixen, Faster Pussycat, W.A.S.P., and more. Serious issues such as drug usage, alcohol abuse, and censorship are tackled, as well as vanity issues like celebrity and sales.

It has been claimed in recent years, most notably in the VH1 documentary series Heavy: The Story of Metal that this film was partially responsible for the death of glam metal and the subsequent rise of Grunge.

The film is well-known for its many scenes featuring rock star excess. The scenes include:

Chris Holmes of W.A.S.P. is interviewed in a swimming pool beside his mother while extremely intoxicated. He stumbles through the interview, and pours a bottle of vodka both in his mouth and on his head.

The unsigned band Odin talks about being more famous than The Doors and expects to become millionaires (It should be noted that Odin's guitarist, Jeff Duncan, while not topping the Doors' popularity and arguably not becoming a millionaire, managed later to secure a guitar slot in the more well-known band Armored Saint).

An interview with club owner Bill Gazzarri (deceased) who used to organise a 'sexy rock and roll' dance contest, which was presented as being sleazy and sexist.

Discussions with various musicians about the bad way women in general, and groupies in particular, are treated in the metal scene.

Riki Rachtman and Taime Downe, then owners of the Cathouse club in L.A., discuss how girls get entry to the club faster if they dress 'sleazy'

Paul Stanley of Kiss is interviewed in a bed while surrounded from head to toe with girls.

Steven Tyler of Aerosmith talks about spending millions of dollars on drugs.

As Ozzy Osbourne cooks eggs in a kitchen he spills orange juice all over the table, apparently due to uncontrollable shakes. However, in a 1999 interview for 'A.V.Club', Spheeris admitted that the orange juice spill was faked and the kitchen was not that of Ozzy Osbourne. Spheeris also interviews him about sobriety, to which Ozzy replies, "It fucking sucks."

In interview with Lemmy from Motorhead. In his autobiography, he claims that Spheeris interviewed him from a distance, possibly in an attempt to make him look stupid..{Page 210}

Lastly, Spheeris takes her cameras to Sunset Strip to film the nightlife in 1980s Los Angeles.


Musical Performances:


Lizzy Borden – "Born to be Wild"


Faster Pussycat – "Bathroom Wall", "Cathouse"


Seduce – "Crash Landing", "Colleen"


London – "Breakout", "Russian Winter"


Odin – "Little Gypsy", "12 O'Clock High"


Megadeth – "In My Darkest Hour"

View The Entire Film Online For Free at This Location:

video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4689920637100527225&q=the+decline+of+western+civilization+the+metal+years&ei=tr1sSNHHN5CKrwKH1aCKDw

[Stomper]

I haven't gotten around to watching this yet, but I will soon. From what I have seen of it, this is something you can't miss.

[muthagoose]

It is totally worth your time.

CHECK IT OUT ALREADY!

[muthagoose]

The Future Is Unwritten

Julien Temple, one of the early documentarians of the London punk scene and director of the 2000 Sex Pistols film The Filth and the Fury, turns his attention now to that other seminal British band: The Clash--or more accurately, to the band's co-founder, lyricist, rhythm guitarist and lead singer, Joe Strummer. The Future is Unwritten is more than just a biography of Strummer; it is a tribute and exploration of a musician, artist and devoted humanist. Though Temple respects and admires Strummer (his influence is exalted by close friends, peers and fans like Bono and John Cusack), he doesn't romanticize this larger-than-life personality and presents Strummer honestly and not always in flattering light, though the director's fondness for his subject is constant. Most movingly, Strummer himself provides the narration via reassembled excerpts from a variety of interviews and the BBC radio show he hosted during the nineties. In the wrong hands, this could be contrived, but in this masterful documentary it serves as a testament to not just Joe Strummer the myth, but Joe Strummer the man, telling us his story in vivid detail. The Future is Unwritten is a moving and personal portrait of a musician who helped shaped not just punk, but modern music as a whole.

[muthagoose]

Some fan mail I received last week inspired this week's Pick O' The Week. It has been ages since I have seen it but there is little doubt that it kicks major ass. This is one of those titles that always stood out to me on the walls of Movieland 3... my local video rental store. It is one of those films that had a certain mystique, ambience and forbidden quality that one certain flicks at the local Mom and Pop Video store had. Other titles with intriguing box art that spring to mind were Halloween, Relentless, Deathwish, Sleepaway Camp, Prom Night, Faces of Death and of course, Coach Johnson's favorite, the Women in Cages series. These are the videos that shaped my misspent youth.

MG

- -

Heavy Metal:
The Collector's Edition

Some critics and film historians have labeled 1981's HEAVY METAL as the last film to genuinely reflect the mishmash sensibilities of the post-hippy 1970s counter-culture, and stylistically and thematically this appears to be true. Based on the adult counter-culture cult comic of the same name, HEAVY METAL definitely is a sort of spacey concatenation of disparate visual aesthetics and heterogeneous science-fiction/fantasy narratives. But despite being a hodgepodge as a whole, the film still manages to offer a very entertaining way to kill 90 minutes.

As with the magazine, the film is basically aimed at horny male adolescents, offering plenty of nude, amply bosomed women running around in the midst of stylized violence and gore; lots of rock music (though these ditties from popular metal bands of the late '70s may not appeal to the current generation of horny male adolescents); and references to the drug-oriented sub-culture (definitely not a cartoon for the pre-teen crowd). Each individual segment of HEAVY METAL was scripted and directed independently of the others, which likely accounts for the varying aesthetic and narrative styles. But many of these contributors were (and are now) some of the most talented people in the film industry, including writers Dan O'Bannon, Len Blum, and Daniel Goldberg, and directors John Bruno, John Halas, and Jimmy T. Murikami. (Gerald Potterton, listed in the credits as the film's director, was in reality the overseer for the project as a whole.)

Because the film does not contain a single cohesive plotline, it is best to evaluate each animated segment in its own right. Some of those individual stories are quite thought-provoking or humorous--or both--and even some of the more mediocre segments still offer some fantastic visuals. One of the most intellectually interesting is a story called DEN, in which a young bespectacled geek is transported into a parallel universe and transformed into a handsome, muscled barbarian hero. After falling in love with a curvaceous maiden, he helps her save her people from their draconian Caligula-like dictator. B-17 is probably the most earnest segment, though there seems to be no intrinsic logic to the sparse narrative. In it, the dead crewmembers of a WWII bomber plane are inexplicably resurrected as flesh-eating zombies, subsequently seeking to make a meal of the plane's still-living pilot. Visually, however, this segment is quite stunning, evoking the deliciously gruesome artistic style of the old E.C. comics of the '50s and early '60s. And in the funniest segment--entitled SO BEAUTIFUL, SO DANGEROUS--a gorgeous Pentagon secretary is inadvertently sucked into an alien spaceship that resembles a huge smiley face. After confronting the spaced-out druggie crewmembers, she ultimately becomes the lover of the ship's robot and decides to remain aboard.

After its initial release, HEAVY METAL attained a cult following of sorts and became a favorite of the midnight-movie crowd. Unfortunately, its release to the home-video market was delayed for years due to disputes over copyrights for some of the rock songs used in the soundtrack. Because of this, poorly produced bootlegged copies of the flick were illegally sold (usually at Sci-fi cons) and swapped among fans, and the inferior video quality contributed to the film's unfair reputation for being a mediocre film. But the music disputes were eventually resolved somehow, and the film became commercially available to the home market in the mid 1990s and regained its popularity as a cool cartoon. (Some statistics indicate that it is the most popular film in the Columbia/Tristar home-video catalog.)

Columbia/Tristar's Special-Edition DVD of HEAVY METAL offers a beautiful digital transfer of the film and soundtrack, along with some really cool bounus material. For animation fans, one of the best of the bonus features is a fascinating feature-length pencil-test version of the film (with optional commentary). Columbia/Tristar also offers a version of the HEAVY METAL in their SuperBit collection, but as with their other SuperBit films, the disc space required for the higher bit rate precludes the inclusion of any bonus material. Unless the buyer has a high-definition TV and can appreciate the increased picture quality of the SuperBit disc, the Special-Edition version is the way to go. Either way, HEAVY METAL offers enough entertainment value to make it a worthy addition to the DVD collection of any SF or animation fan.

[muthagoose]

I got a lot of great books for my birthday recently and I will be reporting on the others soon but this one is definitely a must for the Guns N' Roses fans out there.

Reckless Road:
Guns N' Roses and the Making of
Appetite for Destruction

The Synopsis:
When teenager and amateur photographer Marc Canter set out to document his best friend Saul Hudson's rise as a rock guitarist in 1982, he never imagined he was documenting the genesis of of the next great rock 'n' roll band. His friend became the legendary guitarist Slash, and Canter found himself witnessing the creation of Guns N' Roses front and center. The candid shots contained in Reckless Road, taken as the band toured in 1985-1987 and made the legendary album Appetite for Destruction, capture their raw, blood-sweat-and-tears performances as well as their intimate moments. Containing original gig memorabilia including show flyers, ticket stubs, set lists, press clippings, and handwritten lyrics as well as in-depth interviews with band members and the people closest to them, Reckless Road offers an explicit, first-person perspective readers won't find anywhere else.

Why Read This Book?
The book is 348 pages long, excellent quality and every page has something of interest to GNR fans, either pictures or stories about the bands formation, or both. Much of it you will not find anywhere else, either online, on TV or in other books (in some cases including Slash's autobiography). Like most GNR books it claims to have stories and interview sections with friends of the band, but unlike most GNR books the people interviewed here really did know the band, and in many cases still do. Many of them played with one or more band members as they were starting out, others were friends throughout the bands formative years. There are none of the typical dodgy interviews with someone who lived down the street from Axl for a month, or went to Slash's high school just 1 year after he left, it's all the real deal.

It also includes a lot of information from the band members themselves, some of it contributed specially for the book.

And the pictures are all up to the same high standard as the text. No fuzzy re-prints of magazine shots, nothing stolen from websites or videos, it's all excellent quality and predominantly from the personal collections of the same friends and band mates who contributed the text.

The Book's Official Website:
www.recklessroad.com

[muthagoose]

Hitman:
My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling

Hart's account of his professional wrestling career is almost literally blow-by-blow, with detailed descriptions of the choreography of many of his most prominent matches in the former World Wrestling Foundation and the now-defunct World Championship Wrestling. (And, yes, he freely admits that the outcomes are determined in advance, while the wrestlers work out the actual moves for themselves.) To hear him tell it, everybody hailed him as the best damn worker in the business, a storyteller with the comparative artistry of a De Niro. But the manipulative schemes of WWF head Vince McMahon (and several of his colleagues) kept Hart from reaching his full potential as a champion until injuries sidelined him for good. The memoir goes deep into Hart's family history—his father was one of the pioneers of the Canadian pro wrestling circuit, and his brothers and brothers-in-law followed him into the business. Wrestling fans will eat up all the backstage drama, but even those who don't care for the shows should be impressed by Hart's meticulous eye for telling detail—the bittersweet story that results is simultaneously a celebration and an exposé.

Visit the Official Bret Hart Site:
www.brethart.com

[muthagoose]

Time to breathe some life back into this place....

Zombie Strippers (Unrated Special Edition)

The world's most famous adult film star, Jenna Jameson stars in this thrilling zombie adventure. In the not too distant future a secret government re-animation chemo-virus gets released into conservative Sartre, Nebraska and lands in an underground strip club. As the virus begins to spread, turning the strippers into "Super Zombie Strippers" the girls struggle with whether or not to conform to the new "fad" even if it means there's no turning back. They're not just strippers...They're Zombie Strippers!!

[muthagoose]

Too Fat to Fish
By Artie Lange

Outrageous, raw, and painfully funny true stories straight from the life of the actor, comedian, and much-loved cast member of The Howard Stern Show—with a foreword by Howard Stern.

When Artie Lange joined the permanent cast of The Howard Stern Show in 2001, it was possibly the greatest thing ever to happen in the Stern universe, second only to the show’s move to the wild, uncensored frontier of satellite radio. Lange provided what Stern had yet to find all in the same place: a wit quick enough to keep pace with his own, a pathetic self-image to dwarf his own, a personal history both heartbreaking and hilarious, and an ingrained sense of self-sabotage that continually keeps things interesting.

A natural storyteller with a bottomless pit of material, Lange grew up in a close-knit, working-class Italian family in Union, New Jersey, a maniacal Yankees fan who pursued the two things his father said he was cut out for—sports and comedy. Tragically, Artie Lange Sr. never saw the truth in that prediction: He became a quadriplegic in an accident when Artie was eighteen and died soon after. But as with every trial in his life, from his drug addiction to his obesity to his fights with his mother, Artie mines the humor, pathos, and humanity in these events and turns them into comedy classics.

True fans of the Stern Show will find Artie gold in these pages: hilarious tales that couldn’t have happened to anyone else. There are stories from his days driving a Jersey cab, working as a longshoreman in Port Newark, and navigating the dark circuit of stand-up comedy. There are outrageous episodes from the frenzied heights of his coked-up days at MADtv, surprisingly moving stories from his childhood, and an account of his recent U.S.O. tour that is equally stirring and irreverent. But also in this volume are stories Artie’s never told before, including some that he deemed too revealing for radio.

Wild, shocking, and drop-dead hilarious, TOO FAT TO FISH is Artie Lange giving everything he’s got to give. And like a true pro, the man never disappoints.