Successlessness: July 2004

Kirk's Common People...What the fuck!?!?

William Shatner has teamed up with Joe Jackson to cover the best song of the 90s Pulp's "Common People". The result is mind bogglingly weird. I don't know if it is bad or good! You can listen to it in quicktime here.

Kerry-tastic!

I was really impressed by Kerry's speech tonight. He really delivered. It wasn't the best speech of the convention (Clinton, Obama, Edwards, and Sharpton were better), but it was the best speech I've seen Kerry give. He only went Franken-Kerry once or twice. And I was really surprised how effective stressing foreign policy was. I was hoping he wouldn't stand back on the terrisom issue but I didn't expect him to actually do it. Kerry gets it. Kerry really comes out looking like the candidate of optimism while Bush looks like a fear mongerer.

While he wasn't my first choice, Dean was my first pick and then Edwards won me over, I think he is proving to be the best choice to defeat the Arrogant Bastard and lead the country.

I Approve this Message, in Fact I Think it is Awesome

See brand new Will Ferrell as Bush here.

Sloth

Whoa! Sloth is a forthcoming graphic novel by Gilbert Hernandez and it sounds really strange:

The story features a teenager who wills himself into a coma, wakes up a year later, and is physically slower than everyone around him. Now he has to adapt to his world and relationships with the people around him.

That has to be one of the weirdest ideas for a work of fiction in any medium ever. Go Beto!

CD Revue: Lloyd Cole - Music in a Foreign Language

False advertising alert! All the songs are sung in English!

Anyway, you can always count of Lloyd to provide pretty mellow songs, but usually he provides a few up tempo rockier tunes as well. But this album is all lovelorn ballads. Is Lloyd too old to rock even in his shuffling Lloyd Cole way? Maybe. And if that’s the case kudos to him for sticking to what he’s capable of a excelling at and not embarrassing himself by trying to remake Rattlesnakes over and over again. There is only one bona fide classic on the album the sad sad “No More Love Songs”, which starts off with these devastating lines:

“Rather than you,” she said, “I prefer solitude.”
“Rather than company I prefer cigarettes”

That’s just brutal. The rest of the album is great but does quite reach those heights. “People Ain’t No Good” and “Late Night, Early Town” are personal favorites. Lloyd has been doing this for 20 years now and he’s still on the top of his sophisto-pop game.

Catalog O' Booze

I was discussing the strange British aperitif Pimms with FCW this morning and she wondered if it was available locally. Trying to answer this question I found this nifty tool on the Washington State Liquor Control Board site. It's sort of like a public library catalog except for booze. You can look up all the gins or vodkas or look for a specific brand. The best part is it shows what liquor stores have it which is great for more obscure brands and it also tells you how many bottle each store has on hand! Only thing missing the ability to place a hold on a bottle! I'm not so crazy about the state monopoly on liquor sales but this sit is one benefit. You couldn't get something like this with private liquor stores! Now if they hadn't closed the Ballard Liquor store I might be picking up some Volk Kvint Vodka from Moldova tonight!

CD Revue: Johnny Cash - My Mother's Hymn Book

For someone who is agnostic and at best vaguely believes in God, I really love old school gospel music. This album was originally part of last year’s Unearthed box set, but i was too cheeap to buy that. The whole album is just Johnny and his guitar singing songs his mother taught him as a child. As always Johnny sounds like a God himself and really fills the songs with heart.

Can you dig it?

Last night, I watched one of my favorite films Walter Hill's The Warriors. I don't know when the first time I saw it was 6 or 7, but back then the idea of costumed gangs threatening to take over New York City was mind blowing. After watching it again after all these years the costumed gangs are really silly but fun especially the Baseball Furies, who all wear full baseball uniforms and carry baseball bats. But underneath all the silliness are some cool action scenes and a great Odyssesy-like story of the Warriors journey from the Bronx back home to Coney Island. "Can you dig it?" Hell yeah, I can dig it!

I also watched Bus 174. What a harrowing and powerful film! If you liked City of God, I highly recommend this documentary. America has plenty of problems but at least we aren't Brazil, which is simultaneously a first and third world country all rolled into one.

Conventioneering

After watching the first night of the convention I really think Kerry can win. They are tacking to the center and stressing how Kerry will be tough on terrorism and his military experience and patriotism, all shown in relief of Bush. This is appealing to swing voters in the middle who think the Iraq was probable for the best but don't like how bush has handled it. Some of this may piss off the far left but catering to the far left won't help win this election. Plus the Anybody But Bush sentiment out there is so strong that most people on the far left wont care anyway.

Also watching Bill Clinton speak at the convention last night makes very much hate the 22nd Amendment. Monicagate and all I think he would trounced Bush easily in 2000. And he would run way with it this time. I have really come to like Kerry but he's no Bill Clinton.

CD Revue: Camera Obscura - Underachievers...

I resisted this album at first. After all, who wants a Belle & Sebastian sound-a-like that are also from Glasgow when we already have the original? But the songwriting eventually won me over and the realization that they really aren’t aping B&S today so much as aping early B&S, since B&S has moved on to new sounds its nice to have the old sound back. “Teenager” and “Suspended from Class” are the immediate stand out tracks and “Books Written for Girls” is a great denunciation of sensitive hipster boys. Also, is Underachievers Please Try Harder not one of the best album titles ever? If this album keeps growing on me at the pace it has over the last few months, then it may end up at the top of my annual top ten!

Whither Madden?

While out with my folks and I this weekend, my brother found that was ESPN NFL 2K5had just been released with a regular price of $19.95, which is $30 cheaper than the forthcoming Madden NFL 2005, and apparently the entire 2K5 line will be similarly priced is which awesome considering how good their NBA and NHL games are. I immediately proposed splitting the cost with my brother so for $10 each we bought a copy. And the game is frankly awesome. I may not even pick up Madden this year because as cool as the gameplay stuff on Madden is, the bells and whistles on 2K5 are hard to beat, especially the halftime and post game and highlights hosted by Chris Berman. I should also add that in the games we played I defeated my brother by scores of 17-10 and 3-0. Take that baby bro!

Revenge of the Sith

The title of next summer's Star Wars Epidsode III has been revealed to be The Revenge of the Sith. Wow, after shitty title's like The Phantom Menace and The Attack of the Clones finally a truly neat title. Now if the movie can just manage not to suck!

Unhappy Mondays

I woke up this morning about an hour later than I should have. My first thought was thank god it's Sunday! Only to soon realize that it is Monday. Not fair! Once I got out the door things seemed better and thank god they don't car when I come into work. Monday you suck. As the man said, "Monday's still the weekend to me!"

Catching Up

Didn't blog over the weekend. Why? I have no idea. Anyway here are a few notes.

Saturday My dad and stepmother came to town. I was nice to see them as it had been a while. My dad was really enthused about politics and had many stories to tell about the state house campaign he is helping out with. My dad may even run for state senate in two years. Dad shared some really awful Republican jokes that were simulataneously stupid, offensive, and unfunny. My stepmother was in good spirits and had some funny stories to tell about her daughter's post high school plans. After efforting to get my dad to go out for Sushi my brother and I gave up proposed Red Mill and a compromise. Burgers were good. Then we went downtown and caught The Bourne Supremacy, which in spite of it's silly name is a excellent film. How did Matt Damon escape the crapulance that is Ben Affleck's career? Only afterwards did I realize that the director Paul Greengrass also did the awesome Bloody Sunday.

Sunday After a restless night, I went over to Headstart's place for some nerd games. My brother and his friend Cool Lee joined us for some Illuminati. We played two games but neither were totally satisfactory because the winner of both won because of negligence on the part of other players rather than through real skill. My own victory seemed especially hollow because I won through trickery which no one understood or saw coming. Following the gaming I was pretty tired and ready for a nap and tried to weasel out of my evening plans with Headstart. I ended up sticking it out for a while and we went to the College Inn and and Had grinders and played free pool. I really enjoyed playing pool which is something of a rarity for me. Usually I suck so bad its just not fun but this time I really tired hard. I played Best of seven against Headstart. She swept me in four, but in all but one game it was close and I really had a shot to win. I really want to play more pool! After that I went home and watched another great episode of Six Feet Under. That show is really hitting on all cylinders this season and is really surprising me.

Track of the Day

Fittingly enough, Successlessness by the Lucksmiths.

CD Revue: David Byrne - Grown Backwards

I have a long long history with David Byrne. Talking Heads’ album True Stories was the first album I bought with my own money that I’m not embarrassed to talk about. But his last album, Look into the Eyeball, was a bit of a let down; just more Talking Heads-ish rehash. It sounded like Byrne was on autopilot. I didn’t even know he had a new album out when I ran across this at Sonic Boom. It’s a strange album as all most all the songs feature an orchestra and Byrne even does two opera songs. But it really works as whole. It doesn’t sound like Talking Heads; it sounds like David Byrne. The best track is a cover of Lambchop’s “The Man Who Loved Beer”, which surpasses the original. Other stand outs are “Dialog Box” is the first song about the internet that doesn’t suck after three listenings and “Empire” is a great political song that is affecting with out be trite.

Lobster Murder?

Was Ducker the Lobster murdered? This isn't just any lobster death, Ducker was a half-albino hermaphrodite lobster!!

Best Morning Ever!

I love the world this morning. I had a full 8 hours of sleep last night, which is a real rarity for me. I had time for some cereal. It is just beautiful outside. All my busses were on time. I was able to deposit my paycheck at the bank. It was lovely outside. I got to hear Lonnie Smith talk about his early 80s cocaine addiction on the radio and then learned that Justin Leone talks like Rocky Balboa, a fact which amuses me to no end. I had a perfect of coffee. And now that I'm at work I get fairly fun stuff and then leave early at 3PM.

July 23rd 2004, will you marry me?

Netflix Is Trying To Break Your Heart

Last night, I had my third consecutive night with no plans so I just relaxed at home. After going for a nice walk and eating a chicken salad, I settled down to watch some Netflix.

I had to choices The Spy Who Came In From the Cold and The Warriors. I had been looking forward to seeing both for some time. I figured I could watch both in one evening no problem. I watched The Spy Who... first but it was a let down. It was not nearly as taut or exciting as most other John LeCarre stuff that I've seen or read. Next was The Warriors which has been a personal favorite ever since I as a kid. But when I slid the DVD out of its sleeve the dice was split in two. It sorta ruined my nice evening!

Damn you Netflix! The replacement copy you send me tomorrow better be mint! Or I'll... do nothing I guess...

CD Revue: Jon Brion - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Soundtrack

I’m usually not all that into film scores but this one is really great. Almost as great as the movie it springs from, Brion’s piano and orchestral stuff are moving and delightful, although not as strange and inventive as his score to Punch Drunk Love. All gets even better when you throw in the pop perfection of ELO’s “Mr. Blue Sky”, a weird Bollywood pop song, and Beck’s cover of Korgis’ “Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometimes”. (Who are Korgis? Hell if I know but this song has peaked my interest!) Additionally, there is a one Jon Brion song “Strings that Tie You” that nicely under scores the heart of film.

The Man Who Loved Beer

I have been really loving beer of late. Not just making beer my alcoholic drink of choice when going out for drinks, but really enjoying beer for beers sake. Drinking beer because beer is good not because beer gets you fucked up. Beer of all stripes too, from PBR to Heineken to New Castle Brown Ale to Guinness to yummy Chimay.

Mmmm beer. As Franken-Kerry likes to say, "Bring...It...On!"

CD Revue: The Beta Band - Heroes to Zeroes

More of the same from the Beta Band, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. They sound less like Radiohead than previously. The lyrics are interesting if you listen to them, but the songs to blend into one big long indistinct track. The song “Space Beatle” is pretty spiffy. Over all its good “work music”, music to listen to while concentrating on other things, but I have no inkling to see these guys live that might be a snoozer.

CD Revue: Belle & Sebastian - I'm a Cuckoo and Books EPs

Nominally singles from last year's classic Dear Catastrophe Waitress, these EPs deserve special mention for their b-sides. I'm a Cuckoo features a really exciting remix of the title track, "Stop, Look, and Listen" which sounds like a lost Monkees track, and "(I Believe In) Travellin' Light" a lovely little Stevie Jackson ballad. Books in features a double A-side of "Wrapped Up in Books" and the new "Your Cover's Blown", which is an ornate spy saga that sounds like a collaboration between Chic and Squeeze. The lone b-side on Books is a adorable tune called "Your Secrets" which contains what may be the best single line in B&S history, "I just had somebody tell me I was introspective to a fault".

CD Revue: Air - Talkie Walkie

More like Moon Safari than 10,000 Hz Legend and that's a good thing. Languid French electronica that's both sexy and sterile. Hooky but not overbearingly so. The instrumentals "Alpha Beta Gaga" and "Mike Mills" (what does this song have to do with R.E.M. anyways?) stand out more than the songs with vocals. "Surfing on a Rocket" is at the top of the list for silliest song title of the year.

CD Revue: Introduction

The year is more than half over so it's time to look back the 2004 albums that I have either bought or digitally pilfered. I was initially going to post this as one really long post but decided it would be better to post on each album individually.

Sweet Blindness

Through the miracle of technolgy you can now download this infamous song by clicking here. I'll leave the track up for the next week or so. Look for more music downloads in the future! Maybe even a song of the day feature.

Quote of the Week

"I'm like toilet paper, toothpaste and certain amenities -- I'm proven to be good." -Shaq, who is going to be on an angry revenge-filled rampage next year. Screw LeBron vs. Carmello, this Shaq vs. Kobe thing will be the best thing to hit the NBA since Bird vs. Magic.

Strange Strange Song

I found a bunch of Fifth Dimension mp3s on usenet a few months ago and just now got around to listening to them. This is some truly bizarre stuff! The weirdest for me is "Sweet Blindness" which all about getting so fucked up on moonshine you go blind. What the fuck? Anyway here are the lyrics. But it really should be heard to be believed. If you are interested in hearing it let me know and ill try to hook you up.

Sweet Blindness
(Music and lyrics by Laura Nyro)

Down by the grapevine
Drink my daddy's wine, get happy
Down by the grapevine
Drink my daddy's wine, get happy
Happy, oh sweet blindness, a little magic
A little kindness, oh sweet blindness
All over me, four leaves on a clover
I'm just a bit of a shade hungover
Come on baby do a slow float
You're a good lookin' riverboat
And ain't that sweet eyed blindness good to me

Down by the grapevine
Drink my daddy's wine, good mornin'
Down by the grapevine
Drink my daddy's wine, good mornin
Mornin', oh sweet blindness
A little magic, a little kindness
Oh sweet blindness all over me
Please don't tell my mother
I'm a saloon and a moonshine lover
Come on baby do a slow float
You're a good lookin' riverboat
And ain't that sweet eyed blindness good to me

(Don't ask me cause I)
Ain't gonna tell you what I've been drinkin'
Ain't gonna tell you what I've been drinkin'
Ain't gonna tell you what I've been drinkin'
Wine, of wonder, wonder (by the way)
Sweet blindness, a little magic
A little kindness oh sweet blindness all over m
Don't let daddy hear it
He don't believe in the gin mill spirit
Come on baby do a slow float
You're a good lookin' riverboat
And ain't that sweet eyed blindness good to me, good to me
And ain't that sweet eyed blindness good to me,

Never Pick Up Hitchhikers!!

Last night I watched the latest episode of Six Feet Under. After so ho-hum stuff about Nate's grief and Claire's art, the episode embark on David's odyssey following pitching up a hitchhiker. David ends up beaten, robbed, forced to smoke crack, and a myriad of other indignities. My mother was right! Never pick up hitchhikers, even ones that seem nice and appear to have just ran out of gas! The may force you smoke crack!

Dwarven Stones

Sometimes I feel like I am such a dork that I'll never be remotely cool. But sometimes I hear things that remind me that I'm really not that big of a geek at after all. For instance, my friend FCW is going to be maid-of-honor at a wedding this weekend and she just found out what the groom is giving to his groomsmen as thank you gifts; fancy sets of amethyst multi-sided dice. Oh wait, they are properly called "Dwarven Stones". Not surprisingly the groom is a dungeon master and he and his friends play all day every Saturday and the bachelor party consisted of a weekend of gaming.

I may be a big dork but I certainly won't giving gold-plated Illuminati cards or emerald-encrusted Green Lantern rings to the members of my wedding party!

Ken-mania

As a College Bowl veteran, I have watched with fascination the rise of Ken Jennings and his 30+ show winning streak on Jeopardy, especially since I found out Ken had been involved in NAQT. Now there is a Ken Jennings drinking game to make that half hour of Jeopardy even more fun. This is the best part of the game:

The banter between Alex and Ken becomes disturbingly intimate. A few nights ago, one of KenJen's victims mentioned in the chat segment that if he beat the champ that night, he planned to get a tattoo of Alex Trebek in celebration. This anecdote inspired an odd KenJen riff about having 30-odd tattoos of Alex all over his body, one for each night of his winning streak thus far. A mental image like that one is definitely an excuse for a drink.

I think Alex totally has a crush on Ken.

All Hail The Decemebrists!

Portland's best band ever has new single coming out in September with two new songs. Woo!

If you haven't caught on to these guys you should now! The music is a bit hard to describe; a bit baroque and a bit poppy. Probably the only rock ben ever than can aptly be called Dickesian. Their first album Castaways and Cut-outs is one of the best debute albums ever. And last year's Her Majesty, the Decemeberists is pretty cool too. Their song "Angel, Won't You Call Me?" is now one of my all-time favorites,

Colin Meloy is the new Andy Partridge.

The End of Putting Things Off

I feel like a complete idiot. My brother moved out in November and soon after his now empty room filled up with tons and tons of my crap: boxes of comics, books, and records as well as empty boxes and other stuff. After Christmas, I realized it had gotten out of hand and resolved to clean it up. But I never did and it just got messier and messier.

So now its the middle of July and after I mopped my floors tonight I figured why the hell not lets do it. And after all that procrastinating and pissing and moaning, how long did it take? An hour! One fucking hour! I now have nice clean storage room but I feel like an idiot because I could have had it 7 months ago!

This Day in Guided By Voices History

1994: GBV trounce the Beastie Boys in basketball backstage at Lollapalooza.

I love my GBV calendar! It's the bestest calendar ever.

1995 Redux

This weekend I watched the documentary Live Forever, which is about the Brit Pop explosion of the mid-1990s. It was a pretty solid film but there was one really interesting quote in the film from British critic Andy Savage to the effect that Oasis became more popular than Blur because they had more heart. My initial reaction was no way that dude is crazy but upon further reflection Savage may be right. Oasis's songs definitely have a hopeful you-and-me-against-the-world quality that Blur tends to lack. Blur's songs tend to be more analytical and reflective especially in their earlier work. Later Blur albums are considerably more emotional. Blur is still a better band in my book but Oasis is a more positive band.

The Death-Ray

Dan Clowes has topped himself once again. I didn't think he could top "Icicle Falls" from the last issue of Eightball, which was better than both Ghost World and David Boring, but his new story "The Death-Ray" is beyond praise. I can't find the words to describe how good it is. It's nominally a super-hero story about a boy named Andy and how he discovers his super-powers, but it is far more than that. It really is a character study but to say more would spoil the fun. And the art? It's puurrty!

No One Gets Left Behind

It is known far and wide that I blubber like a baby when ever I watch Lilo and Stitch. The theme of family sticking together really gets to me. And lately it has spilled over into other films with that theme. Tonight it was A Little Princess and The Barbarian Invasions.

Why does that theme get to me? Maybe its the ups and downs of my family life in the past? Maybe it was my family being there for my brother through a rough patch? I really can't say, but family really is a wonderful thing. But from here on out please don't quote that line from Lilo and Stitch or I'll tear up.

Hubris and Craftiness in Iowa

Quite possibly the best thing I have read in the last year was this fascinating article about how Kerry won Iowa and Dean lost it in last week's U.S. News & World Report. This article pretty much justifies my subscription and oddly eliminated my urge to subscribe to US Weekly. Warning the article is really long. It is over 40 pages in the print version of the magazine.

Your Head'll Collapse If There's Nothing In It

I just found the weirdest most mind blowing bunch of MP3s on a newsgroup. They were labeled as being part of "Frank Balck Album", yes Balck not Black, and all the track titles were Pixies songs. I figured what the hell and downloaded the lot of them. The tracks them selves are pretty impressive. They are experimental reworking of Pixies classics with new vocals from Frank. At first I thought they were from some strange internet mash-up type thing but it turns out they are from the forthcoming album Frank Black Francis, a collaboration between Frank and Two Pale Boys.

These tracks are really amazing. Holiday Song has a marching band arrangement, Monkey Gone to Heaven is a slinky almost bossanova tune, and Nimrod's Sonsounds like a deconstructed Residents song. Their are lots of Jazz type arrangements and other weird stuff. Frank's new vocals are awesome. I can't wait to pick this up when it comes out legitimately!

Spooky Robyn

Robyn Hitchcock likes his tea. Mmmm tea... He also has a new album out in October! Woo Hoo! It's called Spooked and it even has a manifesto.

Robyn will also be playing at Bumbershoot this year on Saturday! On Sunday, there is an alternative comics showcase with Harvey Pekar, Gilbert Hernandez, Jessica Abel and Peter Bagge. And on Monday there are two acts I thought I would never see in my life: Nick Lowe and the Pixies!!!! Jesus this should be cool! I haven't gone to three days of Bumbershoot in a long long time.

Warning Contains Potter Geekery

Of all the frighteningly geeky things that I have read on the net, this treatise on Harry and Hermione (sent to by Nono) has to be one of the most out there and unnecessary. This kind of well supported essay is about Harry's love life is disturbing in it's own right. But who in there right mind ever even considered that Harry and Hermione could be a couple? I mean Ron and Hermione is where its at! They are like the Han and Leia of the Potter books! And no I am not drunk! Ok I'll shut up now...

Undemocratic Smug Bastard

Jonathan Chait details how Bush and Cheney (A.K.A. Smug Bastard and Heatattack) are undermining democracy in America. Read the whole thing.

Brotherly Love

I sent my brother a link to this blog and his response "Hey, when did you get all creative and funny? I'll have check this out on a regular basis." Fuck you, bro, fuck you. :-) Glad to have you on board.

I'm Totally Gonna Get the Alec

Baldwinization Centers of America

Queue Me Up, Scotty!

Finally, there will be real Star Trek: The Original Series DVDs! No more of those two episodes on one disc for twenty dollars deals. Check out that nifty packaging! I know what I'm netflicking in September!

Librarian Biting Scandal!!

In this weeks I, Anonymous, scandal and innuendo at the UW Library School! Does anyone know more? Details please!

Remembering Lincoln

Lincoln, my mother's 15-year-old black lab, was put down yesterday morning. While it was clearly his time (he was having regular diabetic seizures), he will definitely be missed. I'll miss his grumpy face always looking for pets, I'll miss his boundless energy and love for playing fetch, and I'll miss laughing at him hump his brother Harley in head; Lincoln was always evidence that homosexuality is genetic. I'm really glad I got see him one last time on Saturday and I'm glad he is no longer suffering.

I didn't expect this to upset me as much as it had been a long time coming (15 is ancient for a big dog), I had never lived with Lincoln like my brother, step dad, or mom and the death of his brother a few years ago didn't effect me deeply. But last night, after talking to my mom about Lincoln's last hours I turned on the television only to see an adorable black lab named Little Morgan on the Great Outdoor Games jumping off a dock doing what Lincoln loved best playing fetch and was overwhelmed with grief and tears.

Booyakasha, Harvard!

Ali G's Harvard Commencement Speech. Bigupyaself and keep it real.

Gridiron Glory

I can now say that I have been party to the greatest video football game of all time.

For those you not in the know, NCAA Football 2005 has a Mascot Game option in which all players are replaced by the bulky team mascots. I played as the University of Florida mascot Albert the Gator and my brother chose Oklahoma State's Pistol Pete.

Team Pete jumped out to an early lead but Team Albert used its superior passing game to take a 23-22 lead at half time. With 2 minutes left in the game Team Albert had a an impressive 39-22 lead. But Team Pete overcame the odds and scored two touch downs and a two point conversion in the next minute. Trailing by two with 30 seconds to Team Pete proceeded to march down the field and nail a game winning 37 yard field goal as time expired. A mass of Pistol Petes rushed the field while and the Alberts shook their heads in despair.

On Demand? It's a niiiice!! High Five!!

Last Night, I installed new cable boxes and in addition to the benefits of slim size (they now can fit on the shelf under my TV rather than on top of my stereo) and groovy new remotes, I now have the On Demand service. When I first heard about this I thought it was just a glorified pay-per-view but it turns out to be much more.

Its not just movies. There are TV shows as well and most of the TV shows are free! And since I get HBO I have free access to all the HBO On Demand offerings. Last night, Headstart and I watched two episodes of Da Ali G Show and the best part was being able to pause the show in the middle to take a second to converse.

Its not as cool as TiVo but its still pretty nifty.

More Netflixmania

I found another Netflix blog even better than the first one. Hacking Netflix is an essential aid to Netflix users. The best feature is a weekly list of new releases on Netflix with links to the Netflix pages. For instance out today are:

Slasher, a documentary about a liquidation car salesmen.
Poker For Dummies, something i desperately need to rent!
The Dreamers, Bertulucci art porn.
Sherlock Holmes: Dressed to Kill, which while im sure is fine film has a really funny title.

Work Songs

I am planning on making a CD of songs about work specifically office work, no songs about digging holes or the like. I worked on this in the past with my friend Headstart but the final result was less than satisfactory.

Current list of candidate songs:
A New Career in a New Town - David Bowie
A Snow Ball In Hell -They Might Be Giants
Bang on the Drum! – Todd Rundgren
Birght Future in Sales – Fountains of Wayne
Career Opportunities – The Clash
Day in Day Out – XTC
Daysleeper – R.E.M.
Daytime Nightime Sufferring - Wings
Dear Employer (the Reason I Quit) – Minus 5
Don’t Bring Your Work To Bed – The Lucksmiths
Earn Enough For Us – XTC
Five O’Clock World – The Vogues
Found A Job – Talking Heads
Frankly Mr. Shankley – The Smiths
Friday on My Mind – The Easybeats
Get Back Into Line - Kinks
Hey Julie – Fountains of Wayne
Home counties boy - Martin Newell
Memo To Human Resources – They Might Be Giants
Minimum Wage – They might Be Giants
Model Worker – Magazine
Monkey Suit – Pernice Brothers
Nine to Five – Dolly Parton
Sick Day - Fountains of Wayne
Smithers Jones – The Jam
St. Monday – Billy Bragg
Step Into My Office, Baby – Belle and Sebastian
Temporary Secretary - Paul McCartney
The Day Before you came – Frida
The Group Who Couldn’t Say – Grandaddy
The Job that Ate my Brain- The Ramones
Welcome to the Working Week – EC
Work – Andy Partridge
Work – Lou Reed and John Cale
Work is a Four Letter Word – The Smiths
Working For the Clampdown – The Clash
Working for the Weekend – Loverboy
Working Girls – Pernice Brothers

Any other sugestions? Please leave a comment!

Nonmobilitilessness

I now have a cell phone. My mother just about died when she heard that. No the end of the world is not nigh. I just figured it was time to join the 21st century.

Geeky or Not?

My big plans tomorrow consist of going to Best Buy with my brother to buy NCAA College Football 2005 and then heading back to my place to play it. I can't decide if this is horribly nerdy or just a regular guy type of thing? If it was a Star Wars game or a Zelda game that would clearly be geeky but the college football thing makes it more of a guy thing. Thoughts?

EMF vs. Jesus Jones vs. MC Hammer vs. Color Me Bad

I have new way to waste weekends. I Love the 90s is here. The first two episodes were great! Although I am somewhat wary of the later episodes seeming too fresh. But since I graduated from college (class of '99!) 5 years ago and my 10 year high school reunion is next summer maybe it the 90s really were a long long time ago!

By the way Jaleel White looks old!!!

I Love Lamp

Anchorman was all I had hoped it would be. Will Ferrell is the funniest man since Bill Murray. The movie didn't totally work plot wise, but it was ridiculously funny. And The Daily Show's Steve Carrell almost stole the whole movie from Ferrell.

Raymond Shaw is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life.

Jonathan Demme's remake of the 1962 classic The Manchrian Candidate opens in three weeks on July 30th. One of my favorite critics, Jeffery Wells says that in a way it may be better than the orignal!

The Diary of Anime Frank

If you've longed to have your favorite historical figures life stories retold in the Japanese Manga/Anime style, then EduManga is the thing for you! The idea of Anne Frank's life story narrated by Astroboy blows my mind.

Johnny Chan, I am not

Some of my friends and I have gotten caught up in the whole poker craze sweeping the nation. After watching some World Series of Poker and Celebrity Poker over the weekend, we gathered last night to out our skills and I learned that I completely suck. I am definitely not an undiscovered Johnny Chan or something. I bet aggressively on shitty cards and quickly busted out. I have had success in the past betting on horses and college football but I clearly folded in the heat of the moment. Still I really had fun and I'm looking forward to playing again next month. Maybe with time I won't suck and just be handing my money away to others.

Hmm but maybe instead of following the tenets of Kenny Rogers The Gambler I should use The Clash's The Card Cheat as my guide. Actually, on second thought after reviewing the lyrics that is really not such a good idea. "The gambler is seized and forced to his knees and shot dead." Nope I don't want that in my future! :-)

My 15 Minutes

I made this week's edition of David Schmader's Last Days column in The Stranger! Only 27 and I have peaked. All down hill from here on out.

Worse Than Weird Al Fans

Warning clicking on this link could cause permanent mental scaring. Behold the Boardgame Players Association Board of Directors. The group picture is bad enough but the individual pictures and bios below are the real horrors.

I had long thought that role players were worse than boardgamers but maybe that is not the case, at least at the extremes. But don't worry if the name Steve Jackson makes you think of this or this rather than this you are likely safe from this fate. I, on the other hand, should be very wary.

There's Nothing Left Over

I've been really down on my former hero Elvis Costello for the past few years. His last few albums have really left me cold, but lately I've been listening to his albums and I don't think anyone's catalog can compare to Elvis's output from 1977 to 1986. After that none of his albums are truly great. There are some good songs here and there and some pretty solid albums but nothing on par with the golden years.

There is one exception; 1998's classic collaboration with Burt Bacharach Painted From Memory. Twelve perfect songs that are not like anything Burt or Elvis had done before. Even songs that initially didn't grab me now are now classics. Take for example the song The Long Division. I love the semi-cheesy yet slinky Steely Dan vibe of the music. And when you combine that with the near perfect lyrics you have one of the best songs about infidelity ever. I mean my god! I think I have listened to that song 20 times already today!

Listening to this album makes me glad Elvis is still around and maybe a return to greatness is just around the corner and not just more mistakes like North and inherently bad ideas like Il Sogno.

Red Envelope Madness

NetlfixFan, a blog dedicated to glory that is Netflix.

Two Johns

Yay! Kerry picked my man Edwards to be his running mate. This makes me really happy. Edwards is an optimistic, smart guy, and one hell of a speaker. Kerry could not have chosen better.

Jihadis, Cymeks, and Zensunnis

I finished reading Dune: The Machine Crusade. Like all of the Brian Herbert/Kevin J. Anderson prequels, it is not up to the quality of the original Frank Herbert novels but it was still good fun. Some of the threads are finally coming together and the Cymek and Zensunni story lines are no longer total bores. The twists this book took at the end were really surprising and I'm definitely looking forward to Dune: The Battle of Corrin , the final book in The Legends of Dune trilogy, which comes out next month.

The Eye Of the Tiger

I spent a good portion of the 4th watching Rocky movies on AMC. What the hell happened to AMC they used to show old classics but now it seems like all they show are cheese movies from the 80s. I even caught Star Trek IV there the other day and I saw a promo for Porky's!

The original Rocky was great as ever. It is a truly great film deserving of the Best Picture Oscar. Rocky II is pretty sucky at least until the end when Rocky goes back in the ring. Rocky's powder blue leisure suit was pretty cool though.

Rocky III is awesome its got The Eye of the Tiger, Mister T as Clubber Lang, more Apollo, Mick's death, and the most home-erotic hug between to heterosexual men in cinema history. You can see a small picture of the infamous hug here.

Rocky IV is jingoist crap but its brilliant jingoist crap! Its got the Cold War, Ivan Drago, Apollo's death, James Brown, and a crowd of Commie Russians cheering for Rocky. Its almost as good as Top Gun.

Rocky V was not as awful as I had remembered it but it wasn't that good either.

Das Kapital

I have my first ebay auction ever! Click here and buy!

Puke and Cry

When did it become Okay to show people vomiting on television? I'm not as sensitive to pukey matters as some people I know but this is a trend that needs to be stopped. I fell asleep this afternoon watching MTV and was rudely awakened buy people vomiting on Road Rules. Fuck that shit!

At least it's not D & D!

Played History of the World today with the usual crew. I dominated most of the game, but a certain Canadian used the Germans to snatch victory from me! Bastard!

Peter Porker, The Spectacular Spider-Ham

This brings back memories of going to Big K grocery with my mom and begging her to buy me one.

I saw Spider-Man 2 last night. It kicked ass and was a vast improvement on the first one. I don't think it is the greatest super hero movie of all time, that honor goes to Unbreakable or Superman II. Toby's Peter Parker was a bit more of a gloomy gus than he ever was in the comics. Kirsten Dunst looked either horrid or beautiful depending on the scene. Albert Molina ruled as Doctor Octopus and lots of cool stuff was set up for the next film with Harry Osborn and Dr. Curt Connors.

Enjoy the Orange Wedges, Marlon

Marlon Brando is dead. Do you think he'll be burried wearing pants?

It's a Crime

Overheard at work today: "I don't know how to break into the house because I'm not a thief! I don't want to be a thief."

Older Than You've Ever Been

Yesterday I listened to Blur's Parklife and Pulp's Different Class and I realized that those albums are 10 and 9 years old respectively. Christ, thats weird.

New GBV

The final Guided By Voices album will be released next month. Do yourself a favor and download the song Everybody Thinks I'm A Raincloud (When I'm Not Looking) from gbv.com and Gonna Never Have To Die from the Matador site. Also check out those shiny A.C. Newman tracks while your there.

Eeeeeeww!!!

On Wednesday morning, I witnessed a hideous orgy of public grooming. I was sitting near the front of the bus and noticed an overweight 50ish man standing next to the driver. He was wearing helmet and ill fitting bicycle shorts. I was marveling at the seriously icky crotch sweat stains on his shorts, when I realized he was flossing. After flossing he threw the floss on the bus floor and then reached into his fanny pack and produced nail clippers and proceeded to clips is yellowing s nails that from the sound they produced must have been very thick. If that wasn't enough he then produced a little baggy of q-tips! He prepped them by rolling the tips in his fingers to make the cotton all fluffy. When he took them out of his ears, I could clearly see that the tips were now a dark yellow hue.

I am now scarred for life.

Quote of the Week

"Don't call me an alcoholic when I'm drunk, because I will cry and then you'll feel like an asshole!" - Randy, Real World San Diego

Be True To Your Corporation, Motherfucker

Last night I saw The Corporation. It a pretty impressive film. The organizing principle of the film, "If corporations are legal persons then what sort of people are they?", was kind of silly but the detail on how corporations work was fascinating stuff. And even though the film takes a far left anti-capitalist stance it least gives the other side a chance to say their peace. You have to respect a film that features both Noam Chomsky and Milton Friedman.

I Don't Wanna Die In An Air Disaster

Who the hell would write a song with that title? Albert Hammond that's who. Hammond is more famous for the song It Never Rains in Southern California and being daddy to one of the Strokes.

I found this song along with other weird stuff on a newsgroup. It was with the rest of the 1974 and 1976 Dutch Top 40. The Dutch liked some weird stuff. The less said about the Al Martino's disco version of Volare the better.

I'm also now the owner of some George Baker Selection tracks other than Little Green Bag all of which suck. How could a song called (Fly Away) Little Paraquayo not suck?

The sole gem of the bunch is The Walker Brothers No Regrets. That song is just amazing. sigh...