License To Light Up
Posted on | January 29, 2009 at 7:09 pm | 5 Comments
How to tell if your office building is old:
There are ashtrays next to the urinals.
Latre.
Posted from my iPhone.
The Antimatter Star Chamber
Posted on | January 22, 2009 at 7:27 pm | 8 Comments
Pet Peeve of the Day: Hollywood Elitism. First, because of last year’s nominations, I ended up watching Atonement. That’s two hours of my life I’ll never get back. And now this.
That’s it. I’ve had it. I give up. I’m not going to watch the Academy Awards this year. This is ridiculous.
Here’s my interpretation of what went on behind the scenes at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (I know this isn’t really how it works, but play along with me here):
—————————–
Academy Elitist 1: “Okay, for Best Picture, we’ve got Benjamin Button, Slumdog Millionaire, Frost/Nixon, and Milk. We need one more. Any suggestions?”
Academy Elitist 2: “What about The Dark Knight. It got great reviews, and really brought people into the multiplexes this summer, thereby reversing an alarming trend of dropping box office receipts and helping to revive our moribund, morally-bankrupt industry in these troubling economic times. Plus, it was a whopping good tale! Heck, it was the second highest grossing movie of all time! It showed that we can make a serious movie about superheroes that really has something to say and which everyone can enjoy.”
Academy Elitist 3: “The Batman movie?? Ha ha ha ha ha!”
Academy Elitists 1, 4-10: “Ha ha ha ha ha!”
Academy Elitist 1: “Didn’t we already throw a sop to the geek crowd with Return of the King?”
Academy Elitist 2: “Yeah, but that was five whole years ago. Memories are short!”
Academy Elitist 3: “Jackson accepted the Oscar in his bare feet, fer chrissakes. We don’t need a repeat of that shit. That King Of The World crap from Cameron was bad enough. See what happens when we award movies people like?”
Academy Elitist 2: “They actually tune into the Oscar telecast?”
Academy Elitist 1: “Who cares. Besides, we’re already throwing out the Supporting Actor to Ledger, who won’t even be there to accept it, so that should be enough for the plebes.”
Academy Elitist 4: “Isn’t there already enough comic book movies? If we nominate Dark Knight, then won’t there be even more of them? I want to act in some real films, not prance around on screen in a cape and tights!”
Academy Elitist 2: “Shut up, Clooney.”
Academy Elitist 3: “That settles it. It’s a new spirit of Elitism in Washington and Hollywood. Fifth spot’s still open. How about Doubt?”
Academy Elitist 1: “Not depressing enough. Plus, the critics generally liked it.”
Academy Elitists 4-10: “Down with the Critics!!”
Academy Elitist 4: “Iron Man? Ha ha, just kidding. Downey killed, though.”
Academy Elitist 5: “We’ll just give him a nod for Tropic Thunder instead then. So how about Gran Torino? Or The Changeling?”
Academy Elitist 3: “You’re still afraid that Eastwood’s going to kick your ass if he doesn’t get nominated, aren’t you? And the creator of Babylon 5 wrote The Changeling, so the geeks would like it to get nominated. Let’s shut it out of a screenplay award too.”
Academy Elitist 4: “Babylon 5? What’s that? Aren’t you embarrassed to know about that?”
Academy Elitist 1: “How about The Reader? It’s got everything: WWII, Nazis, a war crime trial, Kate Winslet having an affair with a kid. Plus, it got very mixed reviews by the critics: 60% on Rotten Tomatoes and 58% on Metacritic. And if we nominate it, we get the usual kickback from Harvey and Co.”
Academy Elitist 4: “Perfect! It’s just the kind of movie we want to put on display as the pinnacle of Hollywood achievement. We’ll show Middle America who’s in control!”
Academy Elitist 1: “Okay, now on to Best Director…”
—————————–
I admit I haven’t seen The Reader (or any of the nominated films) yet, but c’mon. Really, AMPAS? The Reader? Really? Do you always have to reserve that fifth spot for the Weinsteins? Didn’t you learn your lesson with Chocolat?
This is just beyond disgusting. I won’t be tuning into your self-congratulatory spectacle this year, Mr Academy. So take that!
And yes, I know DK probably would not win, but it should’ve at least been nominated.
Latre.
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Exercising Since Last Blog Update:
- “I Don’t Know What It Is” (Pete Shelley)
- “Demon’s Kiss” (Blue Öyster Cult)
- “Adventure Rocket Ship” (Robyn Hitchcock)
- “A Decade Under the Influence” (Taking Back Sunday)
- “What Goes On” (Midnight Oil)
- “Linus And Lucy” (Game Theory)
- “China Crisis” (Hefner)
- “My Alibi” (Lloyd Cole)
- “Wasteland” (Maxïmo Park)
- “Point of Exhaustion” (The Hyphens)
- “Marquette County, 1959″ (Great Lakes Myth Society)
- “Karaoke Plays” (Maxïmo Park)
- “Migrane” (The Coral)
- “She’s Not The Enemy” (Jason Falkner)
- “Never Sad Again” (Poole)
- “Rock and Roll Rhythm” (Fancey)
- “Time For Tea” (Madness)
Additional Pet Peeve of the Day: Hollywood’s recent fascination with the subject of my main phobia. I’ve already been told that I can’t go see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Now, it looks like I can’t go see the new Henry Selick/Neil Gaiman flick Coraline. It’s a shame, since Gaiman is one of my favorite authors. I quote from the description of the trailer in the above article: It will give you chills, and if you weren’t originally afraid of buttons, Gaiman will make you shiver every time you put on your winter coat. So even those without my phobia run the risk of developing it if they see this movie.
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “no pudding with my beef song”.
Videogame(s) Played Since Last Blog Update: Castlevania: Order Of Ecclesia (DS)
History Is Made
Posted on | January 20, 2009 at 7:27 pm | 3 Comments
As most of you know, this is a very momentous day in the history of this great country of ours. A milestone has been reached. It’s a milestone that many could not have seen coming this quickly.
Yes, this blog is five years old!
Hard to believe I’ve been doing this blog thing for five whole years now. I had no idea when I started it on January 20th 2004, that I’d still be going strong half a decade later. A lot has happened in that time, but I covered most of it in last year’s anniversary entry, so I won’t repeat it, dwell on it, or re-bore you with the history of this humble little weblog. Although it is time to reexamine the statistics. Last year at this time, I had written 600 posts, for an average of a post every 2.5 days. Now I am up to post 918, which ups my average to a post every other day. Of course, that’s mainly due to the fact that I had a year-long string of daily posts from 10/30/07 through 10/29/08. So, again, hooray for me! I’m the best.
And to have this happen on the same day as another American milestone is just icing on the anniversary cake. While drinking my celebratory champagne, I will also be toasting our new President, as well as the new spirit of hope/change/whatever in America. This is a turning point in many different ways, and I think I’m finally beginning to feel better about the future. Don’t let me down, Obama Administration! Fix everything! Hey, if a guy can land a plane in the Hudson River with no causalities, anything is possible.
(Note: I originally designed the graphic above with an American flag in the background to celebrate the day, but decided against that version when I noticed it looked like the flag was being burned. Something tells me that’s not in very good taste.)
Thanks for reading! Stay tuned! The best is… somewhere.
And let me leave you with this little conundrum:
Are we human? Or are we… dancer?
Latre.
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Exercising Since The Last Entry:
- “Synthesize” (Shalini)
- “Falling Flame” (Echobelly)
- “To Wild Homes” (The New Pornographers)
- “Slipping My Mind” (Michael Penn)
- “MTV Song” (Anton Barbeau)
- “Dancing Shoes” (Arctic Monkeys)
- “Tad Song” (Anton Barbeau)
- “Wondering” (Dirty Pretty Things)
- “Untouchable” (Paul Kelly)
- “Crypto-Sicko” (Loud Family)
- “Everything Must Go” (Manic Street Preachers)
- “Love Reality” (Reggie and the Full Effect)
- “Windmills in a world without wind” (Bill Nelson)
- “This Time” (Icehouse)
- “Where and Why” (Chris Mars)
- “First-Time Mother’s Joy (Flying)” (Mercury Rev)
- “Garden of Delight (Hereafter)” (Mission UK)
- “Supergirls” (The Capes)
- “Strawberryfire” (The Apples In Stereo)
- “Days Run Away” (House Of Love)
- “Chemicals” (Poster Children)
- “Wonder Guy” (Girls Say Yes)
- “Seattle” (Fastball)
- “Stupid Dream” (Porcupine Tree)
- “Carry My Picture” (The Connells)
I actually did 4 miles on the treadmill at the gym yesterday, which took me 45 minutes. And then I spent another 45 minutes or so doing weight training. Yeah, I’m buff. (Actually, I’m as squishy as always, but at least I’m sweating more.)
Pet Peeve of the Day: Why do nursing homes never have adequate visitor parking?
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “can’t sleep alarm clock too bright”.
Videogame(s) Played Since Last Blog Update: Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (DS)
But No Mention Of Lasagne
Posted on | January 18, 2009 at 2:14 pm | 4 Comments
Some more odds and ends…
I can’t believe it, but I actually laughed at a Garfield strip in the paper this morning:
This seems like a throwback to the original Garfield strips, which were actually, y’know, funny at times. Hard to believe, but true.
Or maybe my sense of humor is just getting… old. That must be it, since today’s Dennis The Menace also made me laugh. Or at least nod in agreement.
Speaking of getting old, Pioneer has announced it’s finally going to stop making LaserDisc players. What the…? Who knew they were still making them after the advent of DVD and then Blu-Ray? Maybe there’s a market for my old LD’s after all…
The mid-season premiere of Battlestar Galactica from last Friday night continues to haunt me. Wow. The Chicago Tribune’s Maureen Ryan has compiled a number of writer interviews and such about it in her column. (MAJOR SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE EPISODE! Even the URL was a spoiler, so I had to tinyurl it.) I spent a long time this morning reading through that, and it was very illuminating. I was a little disappointed with the first part of this season (from way back whenever it was on – last summer?), but it looks like they’re going to be making up for it heading into the final stretch here.
Speaking of Spoilers (and BSG), commenter yellojkt has an interesting discussion about that in his Foma* blog entry yesterday. Yellojkt also recently had a fascinating in-depth series on what he considers to be the four big failures of the Bush administration, which starts here. Well worth reading. Yello brings the whup-ass!
Latre.
Pet Peeve of the Day: Guess I have to use my $10 Circuit City gift card really quickly! Like this guy, I won’t miss the chain. I’ve had too many bad experiences in their stores. But I don’t like losing $10!
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “lardbutt oprah”.
Videogame(s) Played Since Last Blog Update: Still none! No time!
A Night of Vindaloo, Robots, and Monkeys
Posted on | January 17, 2009 at 5:04 pm | 3 Comments
Last night, Reign of Frogs bandmate Greg and I attended the first ever (and hopefully not the last) Denver concert appearance of Internet sensation Jonathan Coulton. (I first stared talking about this performer here.) It was at the Soiled Dove Underground, a venue that used to be downtown but moved to the Lowry area awhile ago. Great venue, with ample parking, good acoustics, and no bad seats, really. Although the tables/seats were pushed pretty close together. And since this was a sold-out show (some 300 people, I’m guessing), it got a little tight.
As for all of JoCo’s concerts, the opening act was musical-comedy (emphasis on the comedy) duo Paul & Storm, who easily won the Coulton crowd over with their antics. I can’t help thinking these guys would do good on the Renaissance Festival circuit, although it would have to be a festival that didn’t allow kids. They open with a song that must be called “Opening Act”, which accurately details the frustrations of being in that position. They do a lot of talking between songs, and even more in the middle of songs. So if you don’t like hearing songs broken up, they aren’t for you. But I enjoyed them a lot, as did Greg, and thought they were very funny. A good warm-up for the crowd. Unlike other opening acts, they played for well over an hour. JoCo joined them from one song.
And then, after a brief video advertising what appears to be a new sitcom starring Coulton and Paul & Storm, the man himself took the stage with acoustic guitar for a set that was both funny and touching, and always tuneful. As Greg commented, the man knows how to use the dynamics in his voice, which is a very big part of singing. He has a great command of the audience, and it felt like an intimate night with 300 strangers. Before the show, he took requests via Twitter, and so ended up playing some songs he wouldn’t normally play (and sometimes had trouble remembering). One such song was “Drinking With You”, which he introduced as “a song about an office crush”. When everyone cheered loudly, he remarked, “Sorry, you’re going to be disappointed. It’s not that office crush song.” And then later before he performed “Code Monkey”, he said again, “Here’s another song about an office crush”. He managed to hit most of the high points of his oeurve. The only big favorites of mine he didn’t play were “Chiron Beta Prime” (well, it is a Christmas song), “The Mandlebrot Set”, and “I Crush Everything”. Paul and Storm joined him on stage for much of the set, doing background vocals, percussion, bantering, and other things.
There was much talk of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (the Soiled Dove reminded them of the Satellite of Love) and other geek topics. However, I was disappointed that JoCo didn’t mention how each and every one of us sacrificed to be there last night during the final season premiere of Battlestar Galactica. Thank God for DVRs.
There was even some Rickrolling going on, which is so 2008, but was cute anyway. Coulton also talked about how stupid of a tradition encores are, and how transparent they are, which I thought was refreshing. But he did one anyway.
Surprisingly, Coulton was interviewed on one of our local news programs yesterday, but I unfortunately missed it (proof here). JoCo and his entourage are in San Francisco tonight and tomorrow night. I hope my Bay Area buddies can go see him. Although maybe I should’ve mentioned it sooner. And they’ll be in Seattle and Portland next week. Go see him! The audience was very balanced gender-wise, even though I expected lots more geek guys than girls. My girlfriend likes Coulton and would’ve attended the show if she didn’t have to work this morning. I think she would’ve enjoyed herself a lot. Even people who were not overly familiar with his music (like Greg) seemed to be having a good time.
Latre.
Pet Peeve of the Day: Acid Reflux. Before the show, I had dinner at an Indian restaurant with Greg and DJ Smallberries, for something of an RoF band reunion, but one that involved curry instead of music. Anyway, I had Chicken Vindaloo and a couple of tall bottles of Taj. Oh boy, I’m just not used to that these days. The Vindaloo was very spicy, as it should be, although not blistering hot. I ate the whole thing and spent the rest of the night in gastric distress. Because of that, I wasn’t able to fully enjoy myself at the show, and I hope I wasn’t making too much of a spectacle of myself. Note to self: You’re not as young as you used to be. You can’t eat and drink with abandon anymore.
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “hooked up one armed girl”.
Videogame(s) Played Since Last Blog Update: None!
My Meme Is Legion
Posted on | January 15, 2009 at 9:32 pm | 1 Comment
I haven’t posted in awhile. Too much time spent at the gym getting buff, I guess. But here’s a few odds and ends.
Firstly (via ADS), for every blog that posts the new Neko Case song, she’ll donate $5 to the Best Friends Animal Society. So, here’s my contribution. It helps that the song is really good. Even though I’m a big New Pornographers fan, I haven’t always been entirely keen on Neko’s solo output. But I’m not very much into country. I have to say I really like this one though. It’s uptempo, which always helps, and doesn’t sound all that country. So, here we go. Listen and enjoy.
Neko Case “People Got a Lotta Nerve” (Middle Cyclone, 2009)
Yummmm…. Neko.
Secondly, way back in this entry, I was complaining about how the synchronization of Microsoft Outlook to the iPhone Contacts was causing many people’s birthdays (including my own) to show up as one day off in the iPhone contact information (but curiously not in the iPhone birthday calendar events created from the contacts). Well, Apple is claiming it’s not their fault (see this Apple Discussion Board thread), but at least now they have a workaround. I tried this and it works. Whew! Now I no longer celebrate my birthday on the wrong day.
Thirdly, tonight’s episode of Smallville featured the first (live action*) appearance of DC Comics staples The Legion of Super-Heroes (referred to only as “The Legion”), those super-powered teens from the 31st century. I have to say that even though the usual TV-liberties were taken, it was incredibly faithful to the comics. (Or at least as faithful as anything in the weirdo Smallville universe can be.) This is not surprising, since the episode was written by DC Comics writer Geoff Johns. It was odd to see founding Legion members Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy, and Lightning Lad in the “flesh” for the first time:
The actors did a pretty good job, although the Lightning Lad character was a bit too “gee whiz” youngish. It included a lot of bits of Legion lore to make us fanboys swoon, such as the Legion Flight Rings, the real names of the heroes (though only Lightning Lad was referred to by codename), costumes that at least call to mind costumes from the comics (which were always changing anyway), references to other planets, an actual Legion enemy (Persuader with his Atomic Axe, although they didn’t mention he was a member of the Fatal Five), mentions of other Legion members (including Brainiac 5, which tied into the main plot of the episode), lots of talk about the future destinies of the Smallville-ites, and even a quick reference to the Legion of Substitute Heroes, which only the really geeky among us would get. Mix it all in with Superman enemies Brainiac (including the first use of the three-circle Brainiac insignia from the comics and Superman animated series) and Doomsday, and you’ve got pretty much the most superheroic, comic-centric episode ever of the show. It even beat out the proto-Justice League episode from a few seasons ago. Kudos.
* – The Legion has previously appeared in animation, including it’s own two-season Saturday morning series a few years ago. I believe they also appeared in an episode of the Justice League Unlimited animated series and the old Superman animated series as well.
Latre.
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Exercising:
- “The Snake” (Frank Black)
- “Colleen” (Ted Leo)
- “The Fundamental Blues” (Bill Nelson)
- “Henry” (Bif Naked)
- “Downed” (Fig Dish)
- “Down by the River” (China Drum)
- “Modern Woman” (Dogs Die in Hot Cars)
- “Nevermind” (Ecotour)
- “High Time” (Icicle Works)
- “Blatant Dis” (Poster Children)
- “1234″ (Helicopter Helicopter)
- “Fool for the Taking” (Gin Blossoms)
- “Look Like Shit” (Lauren Hoffman)
- “Imbusteros” (Calla)
- “The Same Mistakes” (The Records)
- “Twlight” (Elliott Smith)
- “From A Voice Plantation” (Guided By Voices)
- “The Hardest Thing” (Poi Dog Pondering)
- “Knight Rider” (Of Montreal)
- “Crash Into June” (Game Theory)
- “Woman With Reason” (Steve Kilbey)
- “Sing About Me” (Papas Fritas)
- “Mark of Excellence” (Mind Reels)
- “Listen” (The Wondermints)
- “Some Way Some How” (The Features)
- “Suburban Homeboy” (Sparks)
- “In The Wilderness” (Mercury Rev)
- “Crash Into June” (Game Theory)
- “Atlantic” (Keane)
- “ABC” (The Pipettes)
- “Petrol” (Ash)
- “American Music” (Violent Femmes)
- “Nose Over Tail” (Alkaline Trio)
- “The Heat In The Room” (Bill Nelson)
- “That Must Be The Way” (Uncle Green)
- “Anybody’s War” (Icehouse)
- “Chips Ahoy!” (The Hold Steady)
- “So It Goes” (Broken West)
- “Sob Story” (The Bolshoi)
- “Blue Flowers” (Pleasure Thieves)
- “Death or Glory” (The Clash)
- “Tony The Beat” (The Sounds)
- “Nowhere Now” (Econoline Crush)
- “I Want None Of This” (Radiohead)
- “Bust” (The Connells)
- “Sleepwalk” (Ultravox)
- “Alright” (Blake Babies)
- “Sleeping Through Heaven” (Game Theory)
Pet Peeve of the Day: Canker sores.
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: prius locked out engine running”.
Videogame(s) Played Since Last Blog Update: None!
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