Edshugeo The GodMoor

Major Lazer for Four Bucks

2009-07-09T07:46:00.000-04:00

First of all, this is just brilliant...

Secondly, his album, Guns Don't Kill Pepople...Lazers Do is on sale at Amazon (today) for $4 (also available at eMusic).

A Couple Of Bad Movies

2009-07-06T21:07:00.000-04:00

Push and Knowing hit video stores tomorrow. I recently got to watch both (not in one sitting).

Push is a superhero thriller much like Jumper (from last year or so), which I also didn't like too much. People with powers running away from government (or whoever) thugs, blah blah blah. Especially annoying was the young actress Dakota Fanning, who even though only ten or something, insists on acting like she's forty. Somehow, I can't help but suspect the screenwriter is not totally at fault here. I'm sure she'll be a fine actress when she grows up (assuming she's not burnt out at 15). That Amy Poehler skit from SNL was on the money.

Anyway, the movie just wasn't that interesting. The Hong Kong location had me hoping that things would go batshit crazy at some point but that never panned out. Funny then, to see Bosco Lam's name during the closing credits (2nd unit director or something) as he directed one of my all time favorite and batshit crazy movies, Chinese Torture Chamber Story. Ten years ago or so, a short clip, sometimes called Crouching Tiger Porn was kinda popular on the internets. Basically it was a Chinese couple fucking while flying through trees doing kung fu and stuff. That was from Chinese Torture Chamber Story. Lam was working for Wong Jing at the time who was probably responsible for making sure the movie was as batshit crazy as possible.

Another digression: Push was also the title of a novel written by Sapphire about an abused girl fighting illiteracy and caring for her baby who has "Dow Sinder". It was made into a movie recently and called Precious (didn't see it), probably because some douchebag had to make a (not that) crappy movie with her title. Then again, there are a bunch of other movies called Push, also.

Knowing is little more than an unacknowledged remake of Signs with traces of Dark City creepiness (it was directed by Alex Proyas). There are some awesome scenes of destruction; Planes crashing through traffic jams, trains plowing through crowds of people. But aside from disaster porn (a genre I'd like to see more of), the movie was just awful. I do have a new appreciation of M. Night Shyamalan's Signs, though. Not that I didn't like it before.

Bling Ballz

2009-07-05T09:05:00.002-04:00

2001 On Blu-Ray - Cheap

2009-07-02T09:25:00.003-04:00

There are a number of blu-ray discs in the sub twelve dollar range on Amazon these days. 2001 is a must own in my opinion. I bought it early last month for about eighteen bucks and don't regret the recent price drop. I first saw it in the 1970s when it returned to theatres for a while (wasn't unusual for movies to stick around for more than a year, and then return periodically back then). Marvel Comics also had put out a comicbook version by Jack Kirby. I recall there was a tabloid sized "treasury edition", which I'd never gotten. I did get the first issue of the regular series, which I think I brought with me when I saw the movie.

I was having a discussion with a friend at work about the role of aggression not only as an integral part of history but in nature itself. That nature does not exclude humanity seems obvious, but always requires mentioning for some reason. Anyway, that talk colored my perception of the film (I watched the disc the next day) and I feel that I understand HAL in a way I hadn't before.

Also, has special effects ever been better than this? I'm not sure that it has and that movie's forty years old.

Price subject to change without notice, of course.

2009-06-29T09:25:00.001-04:00

Two In One Day

2009-06-25T22:31:00.000-04:00

More relics of my childhood gone. Farrah Fawcett, ex-wife of the Six Million Dollar Man, Lee Majors and one third of the original Charlie's Angels. Though a seventies icon, I feel like her hair ruled the 1980s along with David Bowie's, whose hairstyle evolved into moderate (early Howard Jones) to ridiculous (later Howard Jones and Billy Ray Cyrus) mullets. Fawcett's hair found it's place primarily in the realm of metal bands and the women who populated their videos.

Her death, like Shek Kin's a little while back, will be overshadowed by a larger celebrity death (which could work to the favor of her family/loved ones - Less papparzi scum).

Michael Jackson's passing is gonna be felt around the world. Allah is smilling on the hardliners in Iran, cuz the news media is distracted big time. I consider myself a fan of his (and his brothers) work up to about 1980 (or whenever Off The Wall came out). Most of the world prefers the Michael Jackson of Thriller and Bad, obviously, and that's fine. Any other time, and I might have something to say about that.

I worry about the circus that's to come, though. A fight for custody of the kids? Creditors laying siege on his estate? The final fate of the Beatles publishing catalog, or is that already taken from him? I see myself not watching CNN for a while.

Persepolis

2009-06-22T00:01:00.000-04:00

Just watched this wonderful movie. I was, of course, inspired by recent events to check it out now, though it had been in my Netflix/Xbox queue for a little while.

My heart goes out to the Iranian people as they struggle for their freedom. As well as to other peoples around the world who may draw some strength in watching the bravery of these young people who make it clear that tyranny (and tyrants) must die.

99 Chants For 99 Cents

2009-06-20T09:54:00.003-04:00

Good for a day or so. I sampled a few tracks and there are some different types of music here from all over.

Also; a John Fogerty/Creedence compilation for three bucks - Today-ish.

I bought Willy And The Poor Boys in a previous deal. I'm a get this one too.

Shaft Soundtrack For Two Bucks - Today

2009-06-14T10:15:00.000-04:00

A li'l while back, Amazon had one of Ike's greatest hits collections on sale. I opted for a few of his full albums available on eMusic, as a hits collection couldn't do justice to the artist. I saved Shaft for later seeing that the album contained 15 tracks as opposed to the usual 4 or 5 (8-15 minute) tracks on his other works from this period. Except for Black Moses which has two discs of 7 tracks each. Good thing I hadn't dug into this month's allotment of eMusic tracks as I can take advantage of this better deal.

Craig Ferguson - Istanbul

2009-06-13T09:17:00.001-04:00

A classic by They Might Be Giants interpreted visually on the greatest show on television (at the moment).

Blu-Rays I Want Right Now, But Can't Have

2009-06-12T10:15:00.000-04:00

Last Year At Marienbad - This one I can have in a couple of weeks. After reading this glowing review of the disc's picture and audio quality, I went ahead and pre-ordered it. I'll be watching this one over and over. I'm glad that Criterion got to handle this. The region 1 DVD by Fox Lorber was horrendous. Somehow I was still able to get more than a hundred bucks for it on eBay (even mentioning how bad I thought it was).

Pootie Tang - Louis C.K.'s masterpiece starring Lance Crouther (strange, I thought it was Carruthers or something). Not many people appreciate the brilliance of this film, yet, but they will. Or maybe their kids will. Crouther used to be in a comedy troupe called Mary Wong. I remember a great kung fu movie skit they did back on Comedy Tonight, a late night show hosted by Bill Boggs back in the day. Always loved him for that. Oddly enough, I did not like the Pootie Tang skits on the Chris Rock Show.

Nowhere - This movie is currently nowhere to be found. Not on Netflix. Not on DVD in the U.S., which is why I had to get a French DVD off of eBay a few years ago. I had a couple of region free DVD players, but neither of them is hooked up anymore. I can rip the disc and stream it to my 360 or PS3 if I feel like it, though. Nowhere is sorta a gayish sci-fi film which stars the guy who wore the rabbit suit in Donnie Darko as a Keanu Reeves looking kid named Dark. One day I'll figure out what the intended connection between the two films is supposed to be. Someone I used to work with saw both films together (in a film class) and said Darko alludes to Nowhere, but I'm not sure I know what the fuck that means. I believe this movie was introduced to me by another co-worker on VHS years and years ago.

Daughters Of The Dust - So beautifully shot, it doesn't really matter what this movie is about. Something about a family reunion of Gullah people who are about to move from their island home (off the Carolinas, if I recall correctly) a hundred years ago. I've only seen it on PBS, I think. I had a tape but I don't recall if I copied a rental or taped it off TV. Gave it away in anticipation of getting the DVD, but now DVD won't be good enough. I dunno if anyone but Criterion can do the film justice on disc.

The Manchurian Candidate - Not the Denzel one. The Sinatra one.

The Yellow Submarine

Quilombo - Brazilian movie I used to watch on Bravo about a community in that country formed by escaped slaves who fend off the Portuguese, mostly through the efforts of their leader, who can channel the spirit of their god for protection. Only at this writing did it occur to me to look it up on Netflix. I can watch it on my 360 anytime I want. Woot!

Macross: Do You Remember Love? - retells the story of the Macross (Robotech in the U.S.) TV series, but cuts out all the bullshit and animates it better. You will believe that a pop song can save the universe.

Vanilla Sky and Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes) - Somehow, I feel my collection of Matrix films is incomplete without these two. Vanilla Sky is a U.S. remake of Abre Los Ojos, but both movies are wonderful, due in no small part to Penelope Cruz who plays the same part in both realities/movies. I also consider I, Robot, Dark City (both by the same director) and Groundhog Day to be Matrix movies as well, but these are all on Blu and of course I have them.

Bullet In The Head - John Woo's Vietnam epic about wannabe drug dealers. Preferably including both endings (via seamless branching).

The Adventures Of Letterman

2009-06-11T11:20:00.002-04:00

Letterman has already made some headway in the ratings against Conan O' Brien. I wonder what this latest fuss up by the Palins are going to do to yesterdays numbers? This minor controversy kinda points to a major problem with the Republican party and the way it tries to get it's messages across. The over use of hyperbole (I think that's what it's called). "Sotomeyer is a racist." Obama pals around with terrorists/ will destroy civilization, etc. Crazed outrage never really worked for the left when it was their primary weapon. I don't think it's working for the right. Maybe the next ~~Million Man March~~ Tea Party will prove me wrong.

Aside from the latest nonsense, my late night preferences leans towards Conan > Letterman, and then Craig Ferguson. I won't even glance at Jimmy Fallon's show. In the previous line-up it was Leno over Letterman and Ferguson over Conan. The Ferguson show makes it clear that someone at Worldwide Pants, if not Letterman himself, understands what made the old Late Night With David Letterman show fun(ny).

June 12th - The night (Wednesday)* those jokes about the Palins were being made, more people were watching Conan. Maybe it was Eddie Murphy? I didn't know he was still a draw for this kinda audience considering his recent movies, but it was a great interview where he acknowledged the influence of Franklin Ajaye (a great stand up) and the acting skills of Wesley Snipes.

The night after brought more eyes to Letteman's show, as expected:

"Ratings for David Letterman’s Thursday-night Late Show in which he discussed his previous-night’s jokes about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her daughter moved ahead of those for Conan O'Brien's, evening out the latest late-night ratings race for the week with two wins apiece. Letterman's skirmish with Palin clearly gave him an advantage as the two fought it out on the air and in the press, with supporters for each joining in the fracas, giving Letterman tons of free publicity."

A li'l bit more here

*or was it Monday night?

2009-06-07T20:00:00.000-04:00

My favorite part of this cover is Cyclops crouching in the background like, "Oh, shit! It's my ex!"
Newsarama has a few pages from X-Men #511. I don't recommend it. The pictures are pretty. Greg Land is much better than the commentators on the site give him credit for. I used to like Sojourn. The words? Not so much.

Five James Taylor Songs For A Dollar - Today

2009-06-06T10:36:00.000-04:00

Rhino Records has these collections of songs from various artists called Hi-Five. One artist. Five of their (best?) songs. Would'a been called an EP if it was on vinyl or Compact Disc, but with mp3s, a collection of songs can be a short or as long as whatever and then dropped into a playlist. Albums* still matter if you love an artist, but not so much if all you care about are a handful of their songs, which is where greatest hits collections or even better, something like this comes in handy.

Five great songs, no filler.

Fire And Rain
Sweet Baby James (don't know this one, actually)
Mexico
How Sweet It Is
You've Got A Friend

*Some people seem to think the album went out when CDs became the preferred term for five inch plastic discs and more-so now with downloads. Albums are just compilations, regardless of medium. Physical or sequences of ones and zeroes on a device. Music or photographs.
That much is obvious. The difference between an album and a playlist? Kinda grey, and may become greyer.

Wu-Xia Dramas On CrunchyRoll

2009-06-05T19:17:00.000-04:00

CrunchyRoll.com is an online video site kinda like Hulu, but older and geared towards Anime and other film and TV genres from Asia. They've recently put up some Chinese dramas in an agreement with Tai Seng;

Legend Of The Condor Heroes (1983 Hong Kong version) The site currently has 29 episodes, which is less than half of the series. I guess more are coming.

Return Of The Condor Heroes (2006 mainland version) mis-titled Legend Of... on the site, sold simply as Condor Hero on DVD in the U.S. According to the comments, the version on the site is dubbed in Cantonese (from it's original Mandarin).

The two above are among my favorite wu-xia series. I plan on getting and watching the 2008 version of Legend Of... and maybe following it with the 80s version of Return.

and

Duke Of Mount Deer (80s version) I've seen the 2000 version with Dicky Cheung, but not this one. It stars Tony Leung Chiu-Wai and Andy Lau when both were very young and is remembered fondly by fans. As of this writing there are 20 episodes, which must mean it's incomplete so far. Don't know how frequent the updates are.

There's more coming. As I wrote this two, more entries appeared on the Tai Seng page, The Academy, Twin Of Brothers and New Heaven Sword And Dragon Sabre. The videos are probably on the verge of being uploaded.

As seen on Ain't It Cool.

Holy Shit! Shek Kin Is Dead, Too!

2009-06-04T22:58:00.001-04:00

Kidney Failure at the age of 96.

Shek Kin is most known to westerners as the villian Mr. Han from Enter The Dragon. Older Chinese probably remember him as the antagonist (did he always play the same guy?) opposite Kwan Tak Hing in many Wong Fei Hong movies. I never saw any of those (from 1950s- early 70s). The Ain't It Cool article states that he appeared in later Wong Fei Hong movies like Drunken Master and Once Upon A Time In China. If so, I don't recall.

I used to think that Mr. Han was played by a white dude. He looked more like a made up (Dr. No) Chinese to me than actual Chinese. It was many years later when I found out who he was.
He was great in a couple of 80s TV dramas like Legend Of The Condor Heroes and Demi Gods And Semi Devils with Leung Kar Yan.

A Couple of demonstrations from 1984:

What... The... F.......?

2009-06-04T22:06:00.000-04:00

From Reuters

BANGKOK/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actor David Carradine, star of the 1970s U.S. television show "Kung Fu," was found naked and hanging dead from a rope in the closet of his luxury Bangkok hotel room Thursday, Thai police said.

No signs were found of other people in the room and the body of the 72-year-old actor was sent to a hospital for an autopsy, police said. Results are expected on Friday.

More here

Avoiding The Double Dip

2009-06-04T08:39:00.000-04:00

Watchmen's been announced for a July release on DVD and Blu-Ray. That edition will contain a "directors cut", but an extended "Ultimate" edition (including Black Freighter) is expected for the end of the year holidays. That means I'll be holding on to my cash for a li'l bit to see what surfaces. The theatrical cut will appear on DVD in the U.S. and on Blu-ray in the U.K. and probably the rest of Europe. It appears it's not to be included on the first U.S. Blu-Ray release.

Double and triple dipping is becoming pretty routine for movie studios. Can be annoying, but I can see some logic to it. Catalog titles can lose value over time, so repackaging a film with more footage and special features, often timed around the release of some other related film seems to make good business sense.

More often than not, it tends not to be an issue for me, but when a film I really like gets a half-assed treatment on DVD or Blu-Ray, I've had no problem waiting for a better edition to come along, even if it means I'll never purchase the film at all.

Some examples;

Speed Racer - Through a 3 disc set, it's pretty light on extras. The main disc is a BD-25 instead of a BD-50 (25Gb capacity instead of 50). It turns out that the picture quality is outstanding anyway, though the audio is not great. The other two discs contain a video game and a "digital (DRM) copy" of the movie playable on a PC. Priced at 10 bucks, I might get it, since I'm among a handful of folks who thinks the movie itself is great. Otherwise, we'll probably see a special ed once (if?) the Wachowski Brothers put out another hit.

The Star Trek Movies I-IV, and VI - There's some grumbling about picture quality on all but the second, The Wrath Of Khan. Supposedly, they'll look fine on Displays 50" and less (I'm at 37"), so the main issue is the lack of the extended versions of a couple of these. The newer effects on the first film's director's cut were rendered in 480p for DVD release and would apparently cost a bit to render for hi-def, so they only put out the theatrical cut in Blu. I don't think that there were major alterations to the other films, so I've come close to buying the trilogy pack of II-IV which are also theatrical versions. I think I can wait for those. No doubt, a sequel to JJ Abram's great relaunch of the series will be accompanied by special edition Blu-Rays. Those are gonna be the ones I want. It'll be a couple of years, sure, so I'll rent or download these in the meantime.

Reservoir Dogs - reviews say decent picture and sound, but the 15th anniversary Blu-Ray of this movie is missing many of the special features of the 10th anniversary DVD. The film's 20th anniversary will be in 2012, so naturally one can expect another issue. I was gonna wait, but I found the Blu at Walmart for ten bucks. I can rip the special bits from the DVD (they would likely remain in standard def if ported to the Blu-Ray, anyway) and burn them to disc. I won't have a need to buy a 20th anniversary edition unless it came with a hi-def copy of City On Fire.

Kill Bill - I passed on both the DVD and Blu versions of this and won't get it until The Whole Bloody Affair is put together and released.

Purple Rain - I bought this on DVD in 2004, after refusing for years to buy the crappy previously released disc. Reviews say the picture quality on the Blu-Ray isn't what it could be. It's been argued that it's a 20 year old low budget indie film and won't look any better. I'm willing to wait and see. The dvd will serve me fine till then or until the current one is priced at ten bucks (it was recently about 13 bucks on Amazon). One day I'll have to address the need to own movies I don't even watch that much. How many times have I seen Purple Rain (all the way through) since I got it nearly five years ago? Once or twice.

House Of Flying Daggers - the picture quality on the current blu-ray is reportedly awful and deserving of a recall. It's expected that the same transfer will be used when this movie is packaged with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and some other film. Gonna have to pass. I love this movie, though.

Lord Of The Rings - The theatrical versions are coming this year to Blu and the extended versions will probably pop up around the time that the two Hobbit films come out. Tell you the truth, the theatrical versions are not easy for me to watch in single sittings. They're good, but not good enough to forget that they're long as hell. I haven't made up my mind on these. In fact, what I'm gonna do, probably, is rent the extended DVDs, convert them to PSP MP4s and watch those in half hour segments on the portable. I have a thing that I don't watch full-on theatrical releases on my PSP, but this is more like a mini-series than a trio of movies. On the other hand, Lord Of The Rings will look much better in Blu-ray than it will as a compressed mp4s.

300 - Doesn't really belong on this list. It is being re-released on Blu-Ray as a "Complete Experience" with the nice "digi-book" packaging seen on recent releases like Amadeus and One Flew Over The Cukoo's Nest. From what I read, the previous issue of the film was fine, and if I'd gotten it on Blu before this new one was announced, I probably would'a been satisfied. The only reason I hadn't was that 300 was among the last bunch of DVDs I bought before getting the PS3, so there was no rush to get the movie again. Of course, the "Complete Experience" comes out the same day as Zack Snyder's other epic, Watchmen.

Sony Coming To eMusic - Yay! Higher Prices - Hmm...

2009-06-03T23:15:00.000-04:00

I'm kinda exited that albums and tracks from Sony's back catalog will soon be available on eMusic. The news that a price hike was accompanying the new partnership was not so great, but I'm not as incensed as I was when I first read it, as the music will still be significantly cheaper coming from eMusic than from iTunes or Amazon (except for many of Amazon's daily mp3 deals).

Obama Manga!

2009-05-30T13:33:00.002-04:00

Sure, I think all these Obama comics are getting out of hand. But then, what's more fun than watching (some) people who are normally down for letting the free market do it's thing bitch and moan when the market isn't doing their thing?

Image above swiped from PressingDigressions.com
Newsarama story and comments.

The anime? I dunno what this is about, but it looks fun.

Aging Celebrities Are Freaking Me The Fuck Out

2009-05-29T23:09:00.001-04:00

Why is Billy Crystal turning into Jackie Mason? It felt weird enough seeing Tom Hanks on Letterman last week. It almost feels like a whole world that I know is dying before my eyes. Of course, part of it is that I haven't seen Crystal in anything since... I don't know, Saturday Night Live? And Hanks in ~~Saving Private Ryan~~ Charlie Wilson's War, which wasn't too long ago, though I still can't help but think of him as the guy from Bachelor Party, or Splash. Letterman has done a crap load of aging, but since he's been on nearly every night since the eighties, it's a gradual change that occurs like that of some one you've known and grown up with. Not the type of thing that puts you face to face with your own mortality. Then again, contrasted with Leno, he really has gotten really fucking old. He had some heart problems a while back that may've been a contributing factor.

Couldn't find the clip of Billy Crystal playing Prince on SNL singing "I Am Also The World", so the above will have to do.

And then there's Prince from the same tonight show appearance as Crystal. He's not aging the way anyone would expect. "He's had work done" doesn't cut it, either. We've seen muthafukkas who've had work done and that is not a "work done" look. Prince is fifty, which is only about six years older than I am. He'll probably outlast me, and I can live with that.

Japanese Spiderman Episode 6

2009-05-26T10:34:00.001-04:00

"Shuddering Laboratory! Devilish Professor Monster" PARENTAL ADVISORY The Iron Cross Army sets its sights on scientifically changing humans into super soldiers. One of their targets turns out to be Yosuke Matsuki, Tayuka's (Spiderman's) close friend. Can Spiderman stop the Iron Cross Army and protec

Easy Stars Lonely Hearts Dub Band - 3 Bucks - Today

2009-05-23T12:16:00.004-04:00

Yeah. It's a gimmick, but I can't resist. Dub Side Of The Moon was pretty awesome, while RadioDread didn't get more than a listen or two. I think in part because, despite having five Radiohead albums, I don't really know their songs (except for Creep and I don't remember that being on there), but I do know what some of them sound like.

I'd like to see the Easy Stars take on Prince, preferably with Parade or Sign O' The Times, though I wouldn't mind hearing Purple Rain all dubbed out.

The next logical choice would probably be Elvis Presley. That too, would be rockin'.

Rod Stewart For Four Bucks - Today

2009-05-22T09:05:00.000-04:00

This one has most of my favorite Rod Stewart songs and a few not so favorites.
Missing is the cover of Curtis Mayfield's People Get Ready that he did for a Jeff Beck album back in the eighties. Was the first time I heard that song, and it remains my favorite version.

People Get Ready Jeff Beck Rod Stewart
Uploaded by avajra -

Not on this album

Death Of The UMD? I Hope So! PSP Stuff.

2009-05-20T20:30:00.000-04:00

I've had a PSP since about the end of 2005. The multimedia device has been an indispensable companion on my lunch breaks, long walks, commutes, and various situations involving waiting. Music, Wu-xia TV episodes, eBooks, Youtube videos (to show to unconnected friends/associates), music-making, and of course games. Some of these activities required hacking the thing. Other than that, I've had not too much to complain about.
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I was never a huge fan of the UMD format. Back when even 1 GB memory sticks were expensive, the disc format made some sense as there were games that came close to or exceeded the 1 GB mark. Dual layer discs could hold 1.8 GBs. So, it was fine for a while, for games. I never bought movies in the format. As I've stated a number of times, watching a feature film on a handheld just isn't my preference for a variety of reasons. UMD movies were never gonna happen for me. That they started out priced like DVDs ensured they never happened for a lot of people.

There were some rumours that Sony is about ready to unveil the PSP 2. Perhaps, the PSP Go! Aside from the slim models that followed the original and were only slight modifications, this one may offer a reason to upgrade. That it may ditch the UMD drive completely, is something that excites me as well as the notion that the media for it will be completely downloadable, and that it'll have a bit more internal memory (8-16 GB flash). The PSP-1000 (phat) constantly ran out of memory when web browsing.

Game downloads could cut down on piracy as I think (and I could be wrong) that downloadable games from the Playstation Store are more secure than UMD versions. For example, when I saw copies of Echochrome online (a while back), they were all European versions which I think were released on UMD instead of the PSN download that got released in the U.S.
Though not opposed to piracy, entirely, I bought the game, having enjoyed the demo immensely. Also, the ten dollar price was just right.

Playing games on the memory stick saves some battery life as well as physical space. Multiple games can be stored on the card rather than having to carry multiple discs. I mostly use an 8 GB.

The long desired 2nd analog stick will not be part of the upgrade. Too bad.

Some are worried about the lack of backwards compatibility that'll come with a UMD-less PSP. I'm not sure I care that much.

If a new PSP is to debut this year, then it'll probably be announced at next month's gaming event, E3. Looking forward to what other features may be included, and what will eventually be left to hackers and such. Also, whether or not Microsoft announces their entry into the gaming/multimedia portable market.* More competition is good.
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Or maybe I should just get this.

Nah.
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I came close to replacing my PSP at the end of last year, when the audio output jack got all statiky and eventually failed altogether. I opted to get it fixed at TechRestore instead of getting a new one. It cost about 70 or 80 bucks, but they did a great job and sent it back pretty quickly.
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Like many, I had some trouble playing games purchased through the Playstation store/network, which was related to the custom firmware I'm using (5.00 M33-6, currently). Though it took me a while to get around to it, a fix was found easily enough;

"You have to disable the GAME plugins In the recovery menu go to Advanced - Advanced configuration, and Game plugins and disable it. Simple" - oxxMUDxxo

That done, I was able to get the Echochrome expansion and Everyday Shooter, which I play way more of on my PSP than on the PS3 (hardly ever). I have Everyday shooter on both.
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* The Zune-X? I doubt it, but we'll see.