Kevin Michael Connolly first came to prominence as a result of winning a silver medal at the X Games, an impressive achievement in and of itself, but one which was deemed decidedly more media-worthy as a result of Connolly having been born without legs. Using his X Games winnings to fund a trip across 15 countries in 2007, Connolly took photos along the way, publishing the results on a website called The Rolling Exhibition, and he subsequently wrote a memoir entitled “Double Take,” which has been optioned for a possible film. Now, as if the writing-photography combo isn’t enough in and of itself to keep most people busy, the guy’s gonna be hosting his own series on Travel Channel called – wait for it – “Armed & Ready.” Somehow, Connolly found the time in his schedule to chat with Bullz-Eye about what viewers can expect from his show, also filling us in as best he could about the status of the movie adaptation of his book, the wealth of limb-related puns in his repertoire, and how the words “all over the map” in no way come close to clarifying the depth of his tastes in music.

Bullz-Eye: I feel like we’re practically best friends now that we’ve Tweeted back and forth.

Kevin Michael Connolly: I know! Exactly! It’s, like, one step away from exchanging bodily fluids! [Hesitates.] Okay, maybe not that close. But it’s in the ballpark. Six degrees from…

BE: Yeah, we can probably just agree that we’re very close.

KMC: Got it. [Laughs.]

BE: Thanks to the Travel Channel, I’ve been able to check out the advance screeners of the first two episodes of “Armed and Ready.”

KMC: Oh, cool!

BE: I would say the same. So you’re a guy who’s gone from winning a medal in the X Games to being recognized for your photography to writing a book to now hosting a show for Travel Channel. That’d be a pretty amazing road to travel for anybody, let alone somebody who’s had to tackle these things from, shall we say, a different vantage point.

KMC: And to do it all by the time I’m 27! [Laughs.] It’s pretty crazy, man.

Read the rest of this entry »

Click here to listen to Beck’s Guero on Spotify

Is it just us, or has the bloom fallen off the Beck rose in the last couple of years? This is not to say that he’s running out of gas, but rather that there has been a, um, sea change (see what we did there?) on the musical landscape, and Beck is no longer hanging with Jack Nicholson in the VIP area, though to be fair Jack’s VIP area only has room for one person, and that person is Jack Nicholson. Still, you get our point – modern rock is leaving the giants of the ’00s behind. It’s sad when it happens, but it always happens.

So let’s enjoy a little bit of aughts nostalgia with “E-Pro,” the slammin’ lead single from Beck’s great 2005 Guero album. Even better is the trippy video, which features Beck taking one wild animated trip, which is assembled to resemble the most terrifying tracking shot ever made.

So what, so what, so what’s the Beastie Boys connection here, you ask? Listen to that rhythm track in “E-Pro.” Does it sound familiar? If so, it’s because you know your Beastie Boys, as Beck used a sped-up sample of their 1992 song “So What’cha Want” as the basis for his song. We saw a couple of mash-ups of the two tracks on YouTube, but frankly they were not terribly good, so we’re going with the original here. It still hasn’t sunk in that MCA is dead. Sigh.

Happy Friday, everyone. Be quirky this weekend. Beck would approve.