I’m On Strike
Posted on | January 16, 2008 at 6:01 am | 6 Comments
In the opening of The Daily Show last night, Jon Stewart basically used my joke from this blog entry from last March. I guess the whole gambling side effect thing is more well known now that the RLS drugs are actually on the market and are being peddled on TV. (Gambling addiction isn’t the only known side effect; there’s also sex addiction, according to the TV spots. Hmmmmm.) So, does this mean I’m now a writer for the Daily Show and I have to join the WGA? Do I have to go on strike? What a way to start a job…
Pray for me. I’m taking the bus today. I’ll let you know how it all works out.
Latre.
Who’s Da Bomb?
Posted on | January 15, 2008 at 7:16 pm | 1 Comment
Pet Peeve of the Day: They keep turning my cherished childhood memories into crappy modern entertainment. Word leaked out today via Variety and The Hollywood Reporter that Paramount has greenlit Stratego: The Movie, based on the classic boardgame. Tony Scott has been attached as director, and the only star mentioned so far is Robert De Niro. They hope to start filming before this summer’s impending actors’ strike.
(Image from Ed’s Stratego Site)
So I might as well play along and do what I can to help not make this the abomination it is sure to be. Here’s my choices for the enormous cast:
Marshal
Allied: Al Pacino
Enemy: Robert De Niro (confirmed)
General
Allied: George Clooney
Enemy: Ralph Fiennes
Colonels
Allied: Tom Cruise, John Travolta
Enemy: Nicolas Cage, Sylvester Stallone
Majors
Allied: Will Smith, Glenn Close, Matthew Modine
Enemy: Crispin Glover, Ron Perlman, Helio Castroneves
Captains
Allied: Delroy Lindo, Kevin Spacey, Christian Bale, Gerard Butler
Enemy: Clive Owen, Anthony Anderson, Eric Bana, Edward Norton
Lieutenants
Allied: Josh Hartnett, Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal, Heath Ledger
Enemy: Casey Affleck, Justin Kirk, Orlando Bloom, Giovanni Ribisi
Sergeants
Allied: Morgan Freeman, Bruce Willis, JK Simmons, Dennis Quaid
Enemy: Gérard Depardieu, Randy Quaid, Michael Chiklis, Jon Voight
Miners
Allied: Javier Bardem, Hugh Jackman, Ron Livingston, David Tennant, Guy Pearce
Enemy: Zachary Quinto, Eva Mendes, Viggo Mortensen, Ricky Gervais, Matthew McConaughey
Scouts
Allied: Ellen Page, Justin Long, Shia LaBeouf, Jason Biggs, Seth Rogen, Daniel Radcliffe, Jason Schwartzman, Hayden Christensen
Enemy: Garret Dillahunt, David Spade, Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Robin Williams, David Schwimmer, Taye Diggs, Rachel McAdams
Spy
Allied: Kiera Knightly
Enemy: DJ Qualls
Do you agree or disagree with my choices? Who would you cast in the major roles?
Next: Risk: The Movie
Jogged Today: Yes (@ °F)
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Jogging:
- “Intermission” (Big In Japan)
- “Caroline, Yes” (Kaiser Chiefs)
- “Space Age Love Song” (A Flock of Seagulls)
- “Mary Spins a Rainbow” (Material Issue)
- “Careless Hands” (The Coral)
- “Might As Well – Reprise” (Something For Rockets)
- “The Great Communicator” (Ted Leo)
Latre.
Bloggin’ It Old School
Posted on | January 14, 2008 at 8:38 pm | 8 Comments
This evening I dug out my old college journal, pretentiously titled The Journal of Gaudium Paine, which was supposed to mean The Journal of Joy and Pain. I had been wanting to uncover it for a long time, with the hopes of maybe occasionally publishing an entry or two from it on this blog when ideas ran dry. I started it on Oct 7, 1980 (when I was 20), and the last entry is from Jan 4th, 1983 (when I was 22). It’s 67 pages long, and I wrote in it pretty regularly for about the first year, then very sporadically afterwards.
Once I started perusing it, I determined it was way too embarrassing to publish on the web, even though in the first entry I declare that There are some things though, that will probably never appear in here. The kinds of things that I would not want other people to discover if they were to read this. Well, these days pretty much all of it falls in that category. It’s full of the immature ramblings of someone who wants to be a writer but doesn’t really know how to write (my oh my, not much changes). Predictably, a large portion of the later entries are fixated on the infatuation I had for a girl, a fellow CU student and sometimes co-worker, and my lazy attempts to woo her. This in spite of the fact that she was living with a guy at the time (her future husband, though I think she eventually divorced him). It’s clear from reading between the lines that I knew the whole thing was doomed, yet I still expended a lot of energy on that relationship for no real return. God, I hope I didn’t come off as a stalker at the time. Janene, if you ever stumble across this, I’m sorry. Sheesh, the things I would tell my younger self if I could just go back in time…
Once I realized things weren’t going to work out on that front, the entries degenerated into depression and weirdness. And lyrics of songs I was trying to write. Here’s a scan of one of the later entries, a stream of consciousness thing that was obviously written while sitting bored in a classroom. I think I was trying to come off as more depressed than I was.
There are quite a number of entries talking about music and my musical tastes, and other people’s musical tastes. Even back then, I felt like an outcast in that area, even though looking back on it now, my tastes were pretty mainstream. The entries stop right before I discovered “New Wave” (in fact, the last non-lyric entry talks about how I’ve suddenly discovered a whole new musical world, but doesn’t elaborate much). It might’ve been interesting to read more of my thoughts on discovering that new world, but alas there are none.
Aside to Greg Sawyer: For some reason, I apparently really didn’t like you much when we were living together in Boulder. There’s a lot of anti-Greg ranting. Sorry, bud. It was important to me then, but it seems pretty silly now.
I wonder who this journal was meant for? I wrote it as if I was writing to some non-me audience, though maybe I was writing to future-me. Did I know future-me would cringe so much? I guess at one point near the end I did let my friend Randy read everything that I had written up to that point, but it doesn’t really have any of his comments. He was probably bored out of his mind.
I will leave you with another quote from the first entry: I don’t know how much day-to-day chronicle junk will be in here – that can get kind of boring.
So, any of you out there got any real old journals/diaries from your youth that you’d like to share? Or are you too embarrassed to even read through them?
Latre.
Beware Of Falling Boulders
Posted on | January 13, 2008 at 12:55 pm | 5 Comments
Pet Peeve of the Day: When movies try to hit you over the head with their settings. Last night, the gf and I watched Catch and Release, a character-driven movie about a young woman played by Jennifer Garner whose fiancé dies in some un-detailed sporting accident before the movie even starts, and how she deals with it. She comes face to face with her fiancé’s heretofore hidden life, she mixes it up with his and her friends played oddly by Kevin Smith and Sam Jaeger (who of course has an unrequited crush on her), and she has a fling with her fiancé’s best friend, played by Deadwood’s Timothy Olyphant. And, oh yeah, there’s a bit of a clash with the almost-mother-in-law. And that’s about it. Two hours of people talking, with some occasional weeping, painting and throwing-of-fruit and empty wine bottles. Oh, and one sort-of suicide attempt that didn’t make much sense. We both found the movie pretty banal and gave it 2.5 stars out of 5.
But what irked me most about the movie was that it was set in Boulder Colorado, and went out of its way to prove it. I remember reading about how some of it was filmed in Colorado (including, obviously, Boulder) and that may have influenced our desire to see it. But since there was a lack of location shooting, they had to make up for it by constantly mentioning how it was taking place in Boulder. There were Bolder Boulder t-shirts and posters all around, as well as a Boulder High School t-shirt that was a very brief plot point. Kevin Smith’s character worked at Celestial Seasonings and was almost always wearing one of their t-shirts, as well as constantly quoting from tea boxes. There were a couple of location scenes shot on the Pearl Street Mall, and Timothy Olyphant’s character commented on how happy (read: hippy) everybody seemed there. And of course there was that old trope: every movie set in Colorado has to have a scene in a country western bar with country music blaring and drunk people in plaid wearing cowboy hats. I’m not even sure there is a country western bar in Boulder (I went to college there for three years in the 80s), but if there was, it probably wouldn’t look like the one in the movie. The scenes outdoors on the river (some of the characters are fisherman) didn’t really look like Colorado, and I suspect they were filmed in Canada. I could be wrong though.
Anyway, I applaud the fact that the entire movie was set in Colorado (except for a part at the end), but I wish the filmmakers could’ve been a bit more subtle about it instead of “see how idiosyncratic our setting is?”. Better luck next time.
Jogged Today: Yes (@ 28°F). Back to the full two mile route at last!
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Jogging:
- “Ein Symphonie Des Grauens (Lida Husik)” (The Monochrome Set)
- “Touch the Fire” (Icehouse)
- “Ninja Gaiden-Mine Shaft” (The Advantage)
- “[Untitled Track 13]” (Chris Mars)
- “So It Goes” (Gordon Gano w/Linda Perry)
- “Is This Love?” (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah)
- “Dysfunctional Friend” (Hypnolovewheel)
Latre.
What We Let Into Our Homes
Posted on | January 12, 2008 at 11:36 am | 3 Comments
Pet Peeve of the Day: Entertainment Weekly. I’m a subscriber, and when I got the latest issue in the mail yesterday, I couldn’t believe my eyes. There’s Kiera Knightly, her backside all exposed and covered with Oscar writings, and James McAvoy, canoodling in the rain, all sexy-like. Hey, EW, when did you enter the soft porn business?? I don’t need that kind of thing in my house. Heck, I keep my EWs in the bathroom for some light library readin’, if you know what I mean, and now for the next week I have to look at Kiera staring at me all come-hither like while I’m brushing my teeth? Who could put up with that? And McAvoy – what’s he lookin’ at? He ain’t lookin’ at her face, I tell ya that. He’s lookin’ down. Hey, McAvoy, there ain’t nothin’ to see down there! Really, there’s nothing to see down there. That’s Kiera Knightly.
I can’t believe EW is peddling this stuff, in a shameless attempt to sell more magazines. I don’t have kids in the house, but what if I did? I would have to explain how frolicking around half-naked in the rain leads to pregnancy and drugs and tattoos and motorcycles and brussels sprouts and all that, and no adult wants to give that speech and no kid wants to hear it. It’s just another nail in the coffin of polite society, thanks to Hollywood and those who report on it.
I have half a mind to write EW a letter. But first, I have to go… ummmm… put the magazine in the bathroom. Catch you tomorrow.
Latre.
The Best Albums of 2007
Posted on | January 11, 2008 at 11:18 pm | Comments Off
Here’s my year-end best of list as posted to LoudFans (or close to it, anyway; I’ve made a few changes). This is probably closer to arbitrary than any year-end list I’ve ever made. I’ve just got more music than I have time to comfortably listen to. Some of these that ended up on the final list I only listened to once or twice. And as usual there’s a whole lot of stuff I either own and haven’t listened to yet, or that I don’t own and need to hear. I’m sure there are a lot of albums that would’ve ended up on this list if I had listened to them more than once. But them’s the breaks.
1. Voxtrot: Voxtrot
2. Mitch Easter: Dynamico
3. New Pornographers: Challengers
4. Shalini: The Surface And The Shine
5. Maxïmo Park: Our Earthly Pleasures
6. Kaiser Chiefs: Yours Truly, The Angry Mob
7. Ted Leo/Pharmacists: Living With The Living
8. Immaculate Machine: Fables
9. Midlake: The Trials Of Van Occupanther
10. Shout Out Louds: Our Ill Will
Comments on the Top Ten:
I’m not sure what it is about the Voxtrot that’s got me all hot. I just really like the melodies, the singer’s voice, and the song arrangements. I admit that this full-length debut is not as good as their pre-album series of EPs (which are attaining classic status in my mind), but it’s still very, very good.
I waited a really long time for a Mitch Easter album, and when it finally got here, it was everything I’d hoped it would be. He certainly hasn’t lost his quirkily melodic way of putting a song together. A hook in every song!
Challengers did end up growing on me quite a bit, but I still think it’s the weakest over all NP album. The six-minute “Unguided” in the middle of the album really made it lose momentum, though I admit the song is much better live. The only concert I went to this year was an NP one.
It’s also been too long since there’s been a Shalini album, and the new one really satisfies. Surface follows in the rock vein of Metal Corner, but sounds more intricate, polished, and assured.
The Maxïmo Park and Kaiser Chief discs are the only two britpop discs on this list, and they both suffer from the sophomore slump. But both groups had such stunning debuts, it would be hard to do something as good, much less top them. These were both admirable tries.
The Ted Leo and Immaculate Machine albums were also not as good as their immediate predecessors, but still had a lot to recommend them.
Midlake was a cool new discovery for me. Van Occupanther sounds like a lost prog rock classic, even though it’s not that proggy. Reminds me of a cross between Camel and Radiohead.
The Shout Out Louds album is one sophomore disc that is actually better than the debut. You do have to get past the Cure-isms, but once you do, it’s pretty interesting stuff.
—————————
Bubbling under/honorable mentions (possibly in some kind of order):
Interpol: Our Love To Admire
Hot Hot Heat: Happiness LTD
They Might Be Giants: The Else
Hail Social: Modern Love And Death
Bloc Party: A Weekend In The City
Starflyer 59: My Island
The Long Blondes: Someone To Drive You Home
The Editors: An End Has A Start
Polyphonic Spree: The Fragile Army
Stars: In Our Bedroom After The War
Arcade Fire: Neon Bible
The National: Boxer
Get Him Eat Him: Arms Down
Rush: Snakes & Arrows
Black Francis: Bluefinger
Okkervil River: The Stage Names
Hallelujah The Hills: Collective Psychosis Begone
Broken West: I Can’t Go On I’ll Go On
Of Montreal: Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?
Shake Some Action!: Shake Some Action!
She Wants Revenge: This Is Forever
…and a million other things I’ve forgotten…
I really didn’t like The Shins’ Wincing The Night Away. For some reason, it actually made me mad. A big disappointment, though “Phantom Limb” and “Sleeping Lessons” are cool.
And though I do think that Radiohead’s In Rainbows is the best thing they’ve done in a while, it still hasn’t really grabbed me yet. Radiohead albums take a long time to sink in though, so maybe it will. And hey, I did pay for the download. I think it was around $4.
I wish I had time to list my favorite songs of the year, but that’s going to have to wait for another post.
Jogged Today: Yes (@ 36°F). Almost back up to the full route, but not quite.
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Jogging:
- “Haemoglobin” (Placebo)
- “Untitled Instrumental” (Television)
- “You’ve Got to Go” (The Church)
- “Telecommunication” (A Flock of Seagulls)
- “Mandelbrot Set” (Jonathan Coulton)
Latre.