OK, so it's not the song that I wanted you to hear, but dig this awesome performance:

Incidentally, this is the theme-song for the forthcoming Connecticut Ramirez comic book by yours truly and a certain artist extraordinaire known only as Mean Mike.

As you know, nothing's worse than missing that McDonald's breakfast cut-off — except, of course, the feeling of digesting a McGriddles. Therefore, this news should be pretty well-recieved 'round here:

McDonald’s Corp. may soon offer its breakfast menu all day long as a new restaurant layout will make it easier to prepare a wide variety of foods at once, its chief executive said Wednesday.

Click here to read the full article.

Despite my initial disappointment with the forthcoming Evanescence album — and despite my esteemed friend Logan's hatred of Amy Lee's voice — I find myself falling back in love with this band, even if it's not the same band I fell in love with back in 2003.

Here's why:

Well looks like Wind-Up Records are real douchebags. How hard is it to understand that a freely-available video of a live performance on YouTube is promotion for the record? Just for that, I'm not buying the CD. I'll spend my cash on a T-shirt or poster or other such that goes straight to the band instead.

At work the next day, I had what I considered to be a brilliant idea: I'd buy Kicking and Screaming at a bookstore! After all, bookstores cater to pretentious arty types even more than Target. Certainly, they would carry my beloved film!

Armed with such a revelation, not even working late could dampen my mood. And so, when I finally left the office, it was with a smile on my face. That would prove to be my first mistake of the day.

A short drive later and I proudly strode to the DVD section at Borders... I hadn't been this confident entering this particular bookstore since May of 1999 when I came to buy black market Phantom Menace tickets. But, unlike that fateful day, I was not to leave feeling satistifed that I'd gotten the object that I so desired.

Instead there was only the crushing disappointment of walking from aisle to aisle looking for Kicking and Screaming but coming up empty-handed.

Well, if you consider an endcap full of the Will Ferrell soccer movie empty-handed. I certainly do.

Luckily, just down the road was a Barnes and Noble. Since B&N actually lists the correct version of K&S on their website, I knew my chances were good.

And for once I was right. Well, sort of. After making my way to the DVD section and wandering aimlessly for a few minutes, I unearthed a clue that said I was hot on the trail: an entire section devoted exclusively to Criterion collection films.

I quickly flipped through every film on the rack, but no luck. So I did it again. Still no luck. Victory had been nearly within my grasp, so seeing it slip away was, in a word, completely devastating. I hung my head in shame even more than I usually do and began the long walk out of the DVD section, through the store, and out the door.

But just as I passed a table stacked high with coffee table books devoted to U2 concert photos, I became inspired. Not just inspired, but courageous: I was going to ask for help.

Quickly, I honed in on the guy behind the counter in the DVD section. And, after fifteen minutes of nervous pacing, I finally approached him.

"Excuse me," I said timidly. "I'm trying to find a film. It's a small film, you probably don't even have it. But y'all are the only place in town that even carries Criterion Collection stuff -- I looked for it, but I don't see it on the shelf so I thought maybe it hasn't been stocked yet or something."

"What's it called?" he asked.

"Kicking and Screaming," I said. "Not the Will Ferrell one."

"Hmm... no one's asked for that yet," he said before he moving toward the Criterion Collection section, which I had already been through.

"Hmm... not here," he said, stating the obvious. He circled back behind the counter and punched it into his computer.

"Ah," he said. "They're shipping it late. If you want, I can take your phone number and give you a call as soon as we open the box that it's in."

I was crestfallen -- I wanted to have this thing now, not in a week.

"It could be as soon as tomorrow morning," he said.

"OK, sure," I replied halfheartedly before giving him my contact information slinking out into the empty night.

By this time it was 8:45, but I still had a chance: Just up the road was a Circuit City -- since they sell high-end TVs and DVD players, maybe they sold high-end DVDs as well? Ah, but they closed at 9:00, so I knew I had to act quickly.

By 8:49, I was parked and through the door. With a spring in my step I headed for the DVD section.

By 8:50, I was in Drama. No luck there.

By 8:51, I was in Comedy. Will Ferrell was there, but otherwise nothing.

Beads of sweat trickled down my face as I did a quick lap -- might they have a Criterion or Indie section? Again, no luck.

By 8:53, I was out the door and in my car.

I floored the accelerator. Best Buy, which also closed at 9:00, was less than a mile away.

Luckily, I'd recently logged many hours racing Japanese compacts on the streets of Tokyo in Forza Motorsports, so I was ready to burn some rubber.

At 8:57, I threw my car into park and sprinted toward the store, confirming that the 'Open' sign was still illuminated. As I rushed through the second set of sliding doors, I expected the security guy to say, "We're closed." Instead he just said, "Hello."

Frantically, I searched shelf after shelf of DVD movies as the clock ticked down. But as the loudspeaker told me to bring my final selections to the front, I realized I had again failed to find my prize.

I got back in my car and drove away. Slowly.

Where else could I go at that point? All my leads had turned up dead. Plus, every place that I could think of that might be a reasonable candidate was shuttered for the night. Then it hit me: the small Borders behind the mall was open until 10:00 and I didn't have anything to lose.

I pulled into the parking lot and walked inside. Almost immediately, I was accosted by an albino sales clerk.

"Looking for anything specific?" the albino asked.

"Actually," I began, "I'm looking for a copy of a movie you probably don't have in stock. It's called Kicking and Screaming and it's just been released by the Criterion Collection yesterday."

The albino dissappeared into the DVD section and emerged a moment later with a disc hand. "Is this it?" he asked.

"Yeah," I said. "That's it!"

"For a second there," the albino said, "I thought you were talking about that Will Ferrell movie."

I paid the $31.79 in cash and left a very happy man.

Epilogue:

A few days later, as I sat on the can during my lunch break, my cell phone rang.

"Hello," the voice on the other end said, "This is Terry from Barnes and Noble calling. You wanted us to let you know when Kicking and Screaming came in?"

"To tell you the truth," I said. "I couldn't wait, so I ended up getting it somewhere else."

I pressed 'End' and picked back up the Victoria's Secret catalogue. The woman in the satin bra on page 37 was striking and I was glad I'd gotten Terry's call.