How Hi The Fi?

Grand Plans: A Few New Lists In The Works

2009-04-29T07:14:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to give some notice... I am working on two new lists.

1. In honor of yesterday's release of his 33rd studio album, I will be ranking all 33 of Bob Dylan's masterworks. I have almost all of them on vinyl and CD already so this one should be do-able. Hopefully I don't abandon the project when I reach his mediocre 1980s period, hah.

2. I will be ranking every MAJOR animated Disney movie. This includes the Pixar joint efforts as well. I have no idea when the movie "Up" comes out but it's possible that it will time out nicely with Up's release as well. I am torn as to how to define which movies make the list. I was thinking I would go off of the movies Disney declares as "Platinum Editions" but this designation already rules out Dumbo, Sword In The Stone, The Aristocats and Alice In Wonderland which I think most would put as must-haves with this list. Plus, I think the movie "Bolt" should make the cut but I think none of the sequels to any of the movies except Toy Story should be on it. I'm not trying to discriminate, I just think there are movies we think of as integral parts of the Disney Canon that don't include the two sequels to The Little motherfucking Mermaid. Perhaps it will be strictly theatrical releases minus a few of the less important ones here and there.

So yeah, here's the list I have in mind (chronologically), let me know which films I am forgetting:
Snow White
Pinocchio
Fantasia
Dumbo
Bambi
Cinderella
Alice In Wonderland
Peter Pan
Lady And The Tramp
Sleeping Beauty
101 Dalmatians
The Sword In The Stone
The Jungle Book
The Aristocats
Robin Hood
The Fox And The Hound
The Little Mermaid
Beauty And The Beast
Aladdin
The Lion King
Pocahontas
Toy Story
A Bug's Life
Toy Story 2
Monsters, Inc
Finding Nemo
The Incredibles
Cars
Ratatouille
WALL-E
Up

I left out The Many Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh, all regular animation films released after the Pixar/Disney merge, all films that are half live action and a slew of ones I'm not familiar with including the ones with Spanish names (3 caballeros, saludos amigos, etc.) So, if you think one of the omitted films should make the list or that I have some films on the list that shouldn't be on there, let me know so I can make this thing make sense. Keep in mind we're already over 30 films. Maybe I could exclude the Pixar films for a later list?

Three quick album recommendations for 2009 which might be better than anything I heard in 2008:
Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion (indie rock, kinda trippy arrangements)
Bob Dylan - Together Through Life (look past the voice to find sense of humor, brilliance)
Manchester Orchestra - Everything To Nothing (alt rock, atlanta band i've been blabbing about for years now that is apparently getting national play and is somehow now huge - sophomore album - go buy it)

Lastly, just wanted to share more insignificant info on my Samuel Adams obsession. We are up to a ridiculous 39 beers. The latest being three from the 2008 LongShot Homebrew Contest. I wasn't as big of a fan of this year's homebrew winners as I was in recent years but I can see why they were chosen. The list:

Boston Lager
Sam Adams Light
180 (Boston Restaurant Exclusive)
1790 Root Beer Brew
Black Lager
Blackberry Witbier
Boston Ale
Brown Ale
Cherry Wheat
Chocolate Bock
Cranberry Lambic
Cream Stout
Double Bock
George Washington Porter
Hefeweizen
Holiday Porter
Honey Porter
Imperial Pilsner (Hallertau)
Imperial Series Double Bock
Imperial Series Porter
Imperial Series White
Irish Red
James Madison Dark Wheat Ale
Longshot Boysenberry Wheat
Longshot Cranberry Wit
Longshot Dortmunder Export
Longshot Double IPA
Longshot Grape Pale Ale
Longshot Old Ale
Longshot Traditional Bock
Longshot Weizenbock
Octoberfest
Old Fezziwig Ale
Pale Ale
Scotch Ale
Summer Ale
Traditional Ginger Honey Ale
White Ale
Winter Lager

Ranking Everything: The Films of Stanley Kubrick

2009-04-21T13:22:00.000-07:00

At long last I have finished the Kubrick project. I ran through ten of the eleven movies very quickly and then got caught up trying to get a hold of the eleventh and having enough time to watch it.
Again, this project was extremely rewarding. The films of Stanley Kubrick are, of course, excellent and revisiting them is always something I enjoy. I learned a lot from this round, including a sense of the growth Kubrick had throughout his career. Just a head's up, I used the 1956 film "The Killing" as the starter of the list as I did not have access to anything older. As far as I can tell this list is one film short of what is generally acknowledged as Kubrick's mainstream body of work. Anyways, here we go.

1. Dr. Strangelove
You know, this list was very, very hard to put together. I mean on the list of Kubrick films are 3-6 films that people consider their single favorite movie of all time. How do you pick a #1, let alone rank them? Well, let me tell you, it's difficult to rank them but picking a #1 was surprisingly easy. Dr. Strangelove is one of my favorite films of all time and the runaway choice for my favorite Stanley Kubrick film. It is not the funniest film of all time but it is, without a (personal) doubt, the BEST comedy ever made. Much has been written about the depth and creativity of this film and I am inclined to agree. I don't laugh my ass off watching it but afterwards I feel like I spent the past two hours laughing. It, along with Monty Python's Life Of Brian, has one of the two most rewarding "punchlines" in film history. For lack of a better explanation, I am trying to say that it does a beautiful job setting up a wonderful/hilarious ending and then hammers it home for one of the great scenes in film history. The performances are top notch and the fact that this came out when it did (very shortly after Bay of Pigs) adds to its legacy. My only complaint - and it is a minor one - is the oddly slow pace to this film. I can see some ways in which the pace builds the humor/suspense but at times it borders on challenging the attention span. An interesting choice by our director.

2. Lolita
Entering this project I predicted that this film would finish last on my list. Perhaps I was not cynical or perverted enough the first time I watched it to truly appreciate its power. This film, much like the source material, turns us all into perverts. Kubrick forces us to accept the lead actress as a sexual object as well as any director has ever turned any actress into such a thing. It is eerie how well this subject suits the director. I think if he had never made it and we were looking back historically at who would have been able to handle such subject matter the list would have two names: Hitchcock and Kubrick and only Kubrick would have pushed this many borders. I admittedly do not know much about the history of the making of this film but I imagine Kubrick's battles with the censors being frequent and loud. Then again, that is probably the case with all of these films. Anyways, like I said, this viewing changed my perspective on the film and, to some degree, how I view sex and my attitude about the male interest in younger women.

3. The Shining
I am not a horror movie buff. For all of the movies I have seen, my horror film resume is relatively small. It mostly consists of the early German horror essentials, the Universal Studios originals and the occassional Hitchcock horror flick. These people proved that you can scare your viewers and maintain your artistic integrity and very few others have followed in their footsteps. Kubrick, however, does follow in their footsteps in this way with this movie. He, at the same time, opens up the world to even more crappy horror flicks. Here we have Jack Nicholson in one of the 3-4 roles that define his apex and, although nothing about this movie actually SCARES me, it probably comes closer than any film that is not some uber-reality horror flick. What I love about this movie is also what I hate about it: the scenes of absolutely terrifying images that have nothing to do with the plot. I am in the camp that says a river of blood flowing down a hallway has absolutely nothing to do with the plot of the movie. It does, however, hammer home a MOOD that Kubrick has created. The same goes for spoiler alert?) discovering the word "redrum" is "murder" spelled backward and, ultimately, everything the twin girls do. This practice has been imitated to some degree by almost every horror director since and when the risky technique meets a film already lacking in the plot department it becomes chaos. This, then, evolved into the torture/squeamish films of today that make little effort to have a plot at all in favor of providing your horror fix in gut wrenching imagery. The Shining, for me, is the only film in which this tactic has ever actually worked and it works well.

4. Spartacus
This is probably not a popular choice to make Kubrick's top five. Truth be told, it is not really "Kubrick unleashed" but it has his name on it as much as the others and it is, in fact, my fifth favorite of those with said billing. The legend goes that Kirk Douglas was pissed that he did not get cast as Ben Hur and wanted to make his own Ben Hur-type epic. Thus he bankrolled this film and brought in the guy who directed his last war epic, Paths of Glory, to do it. The two supposedly fought over tons of decisions with this film as both had a lot riding on it and the end result is, in my opinion, significantly better than Ben Hur itself. It is sort of odd to see Kubrick's name attached to a traditional hollywood blockbuster and with each scene you can see daring directorial decisions with a tinge of censorship. Douglas gets his hokier moments in while Kubrick's stylistic decisions highlight what, I would imagine, was a very restrictive script. Probably the second most underrated Kubrick film.

5. 2001: A Space Odessey
The historical importance of a film is generally something that matters a lot to me but in this case I really do not care. Forget that it inspired, umm, everything. It is just a beautiful film. The imagery throughout is astounding. I cannot fathom something with this little plot being so interesting. This is the film equivalent to watching an amazing sunset. Although it still packs a big wallop today I dare say it is a little dated in that our understanding of outer space is so much greater that we forget Kubrick was guessing on a lot of things like "What would THIS look like in space?" and "what would happen if someone did THIS in space?" The film is beautiful from start to finish but, admittedly, there are some parts I just don't care about. The warp speed sequence is artistically interesting but after one viewing I no longer care beyond the "this was way ahead of its time" aspect.

6. Paths of Glory
It is rare that a film is both a war action movie and a courtroom-style drama but this early gem deserves placement in both categories. Although I do not consider myself strictly anti-war, I have a fond appreciation for this, perhaps the greatest anti-war film of all time. The first Kubrick/Douglas pairing is great. Oddly, it seems as though Kubrick had more freedom to push the envelope here than in their second pairing but it may actually be the script that truly pushes the envelope. It is simultaneously interesting and exciting as Kubrick shows a flair for suspense while providing us with a very un-hollywood ending. This is perhaps the first war movie to be inspired by film noir. Speaking of which...

7. The Killing
This film noir gem is easily Kubrick's #1 most underrated film. Were it not for the lack of star power and, perhaps, a few grating characters this would widely be known as one of the 10 seminal film noir movies of all time. Again we have a fascinating story throughout with a great film noir Chinatown-esque ending. The movie is not as logically sound as his later films (if you had that much money, why not just wait, sort it out and get a later flight?) but considering when he made it (this is the earliest of his films on this list - 1956) the achievement seems all the more impressive. Rarely does this movie remind you that you are watching the work of anything but a cinematic master.

8. Full Metal Jacket
Full Metal Jacket may well be the most popular of Kubrick's films among my friends. The absolutely iconic first third of this movie offers laughs, incredible characters and one memorable scene after another. Because the next two thirds are like a completely different movie - and being completely different from the first third cannot possibly be a good thing - many write it off. To me, the second section of this movie is amazing. Here we have Kubrick post-Clockwork Orange where he showed the depths of staying away from the mainstream. Now he embraces the Scorsesean idea of pop songs contributing to a movie and cleverly implements pop songs throughout. I could be wrong about this but I think the last two thirds of this movie are what Kubrick originally wanted to make while the first third was him catching lightning in a bottle with an absolutely incredible assortment of characters and lines. The popularity of the opening sequence leads me to think people would be content with watching the drill sergeant yell at his grunts for two hours. The reason this film does not rank higher in my eyes - the eyes of someone who loves both parts equally - is the fact that this so-called problem could easily have been fixed if the Private Joker character had a comparable amount of screen time to the Gomer Pyle character. I think it is such a fantastic Kubrick thing to do to cut your two main characters out of a film before it even gets rolling (thank you Hitchcock) but this one actually does suffer at the transition as Private Joker actually was portrayed as a very minor part of this film. A supporting actor, if you will.

9. A Clockwork Orange
I feel like I am entering dangerous territory here by putting this film as low as ninth on such a list. Any movie that thousands of people regard as their favorite of all time probably should not rank ninth on any one person's list of its director's works. Personally I think this speaks more to the quality of the Kubrick body of work than to any personal bias I might have toward this movie. I think there are three stages, maybe more, that people go through with this movie. The first stage is being horrified and turned off by its graphic content, revolutionary ideas and all-around upsettingness. The second is accepting these things as genius and worshipping the man behind them. The third is where I am at, which is a more existential approach in that I have been through the the first two and now consider this film strictly as "here is what Kubrick was trying to do with this." If you've been reading all along you know that is sort of how I approach all films and on this one, specifically, it hurts the ranking a bit. This film ultimately ends up feeling like Kubrick is putting himself on camera and saying "hey, look what I can get away with" and while the content still makes the film historic and fascinating I feel like it is cheapened on the whole by the context. I mean if I was a director and had earned the right to do whatever I wanted with my films I would probably do the same thing, but that does not save this one for me in that regard.

10. Eyes Wide Shut
Again, I feel like putting a movie as good as this one so low on the list is sort of criminal. This is the perfect example of "worse than the rest of Kubrick's but better than everyone else's." I know the past few years have caused many people to rethink the acting of Tom Cruise and I must confess that I might be a victim of this reimagining but he really takes away from this movie for me. Otherwise the problems I have with this movie are not the same that others have. I really LIKE the non-ending. I really LIKE the way this movie makes us feel. The subject matter is fascinating and I think movie embodies (if not defines) what suspense was in the 1990s. I really love the underlying theme which is: don't be naive to the effed up underbelly to our society. Even today there are swingers groups all over my city of Atlanta that we hear relatively little about. What a great title: you think your eyes are open but they are really closed. The execution of this film may not be great but the ideas behind it are incredibly powerful.

11. Barry Lyndon
Last but not least we have Barry freakin Lyndon. I think this film is last on most people's imaginary lists for Kubrick. With the exception of maybe 2001 it is probably the most technically sound film of his career but it just... it is not very interesting. I mean it's just a really well made version of a really, really normal movie. The pace is notoriously slow and the attention to detail is notoriously meticulous. All of these things are just well and fine but I can't see a reason to watch this one over and over. I know I have not watched it for the last time in my life but, unlike the others, I can't honestly say I look forward to the next opportunity to watch it (unless of course it is in an actual movie theatre - where I would like to rewatch all of his films).

So there we have it. Eleven Kubrick films ranked, yanked and spanked. Or something like that. This took me a really long time to put together so I would definitely appreciate some comments, feedback and whatnot. Thanks in advance for that.

Currently working on a few other lists but it will probably be at least another week before I can get a post up. Still taking suggestions for future lists.

36 Sam Adams Beers

2009-04-04T11:36:00.000-07:00

Alright, I'm changing things up around here even more. The personal stuff has been moved to rehmus.tumblr.com. This blog will strictly be rankings, many of which are in the works now and will be up soon. For an explanation of the photo to your left, check that link and be sure to "follow" me on there.

Since I've mentioned my Sam Adams obsession a lot here I have an update. I'm up to 36 freakin types of Sam. I don't know if I mentioned the Blackberry Witbier from a month or 2 ago but that one put me up to 33 Sam Adams types. As of last night, the number leaped to 36. I just got my hands on four packs for their new Imperial Series which included Imperial White, Imperial Stout and Double Bock (reformulated version of their older, crummy Double Bock). So yeah, 36 and still going strong. I love this company.

Ranking Everything: The Albums of Radiohead

2009-03-20T17:42:00.000-07:00

Wow. What an incredible experience this week has been for me. I have tackled the Radiohead catalogue - most of which was my first time through - and my life is significantly better for it. Because of OK Computer, which I had heard previously ad nauseum, Radiohead was already one of my favorite bands. Now, they probably make my all time top 10. This is without a doubt the biggest band in the world right now. No other band balances such popularity with such quality output. Much like most of the stuff I will be ranking on the site, you cannot consider yourself knowledgable about music without having gone through this body of work.

1.) OK Computer - Not only the band's best album, this is the runaway best album of the 1990s. Actually, this is one of the 20 best albums of all time. I'm not sure if it's perfect, but it's really, really close. This album works on every level. It works as a collection of individual songs, as a cohesive work of art, as a bold lyrical statement, a bold musical statement and as an all-around aesthetic masterpiece. This album is everything alternative rock can be and more.

2.) The Bends & Kid A (tie) - From what I can tell, there are two types of Radiohead fanatics. Some that love their alt/rock side more and some that like their electronic side more. Although OK Computer leans more to the alt/rock side, these two albums are your chief arguments for each side. The Bends came out right before OK Computer and is decidedly alt/rock. It has what may be the best Radiohead song of all on it in Fake Plastic Trees. Kid A, on the other hand, is your quintessential electronic Radiohead album. I wouldn't call this a full blown electronic album (keep reading for my thoughts on Amnesiac, which is one), but whatever it is, it's epic. It works better than The Bends as a cohesive unit of an album. It doesn't have the FPT-type song to carry it in that regard but it doesn't need it. At gunpoint, I prefer the alt/rock Radiohead but, quite frankly, if they wanted to try polka I'd be all over that album, too.

4.) In Rainbows - The band's latest is a bit of a throwback to the Kid A time period in my opinion. The most critically acclaimed album of 2007 does not have the high points of the three previous albums... or really the next two for that matter, but it works in a different way. I've read it labeled a trance album. I'm not sure of the parameters of the trance genre, but I can tell you this album sure has the capacity to put the listener in one. This is not to be confused with being bored by it, but rather it is paced in an interesting way. Around the 3/4 mark of the album it takes it up a notch to leave you with a nice taste in your mouth and a comfort in the knowledge that Radiohead is as good now as they were ten years ago.

5.) Pablo Honey & Hail To The Thief (tie) - I know, two ties in one small list, that's pretty lame. These albums don't have a whole lot in common (much like the previous tie) but it's hard for me to think of one being better than the other. Pablo Honey is the band's debut effort and it is, by a large margin, their least critically acclaimed. Hail To The Thief, meanwhile, is their second latest and is definitely on the electronic side of the band's catalogue. Despite the low ranking, I have to say I really, really like both of these albums. I feel Pablo Honey is unjustly regarded as their worst when it's just a different animal. It's a great debut album by any measure, it's just not some unified work of art. It is, for its time, quite regular. Post-grunge, pre-alt/rock, whatever. The fact is, it really has some great high points. Some of these songs hint to the brilliance the band would show on their next three albums and the others are hardly unpleasant. Hail To The Thief is actually similar in that regard. It has some really high high-points and the rest is pleasant. Its problem is that it meanders and is not really a cohesive unit like every other Radiohead album outside of, oddly, Pablo Honey.

7.) Amnesiac - Last but not least we have Amnesiac. This is an album that is about as electronic as they get. For many of the songs Thom's incredible voice is altered to create a different sound. It's not a BAD sound but I had a hard time getting into it. The long stretches of weird noise was less appealing to me as well. I really have no problem with Radiohead leaning electronic (I obviously think highly of Kid A) but this is too far in that direction for me. I can see what they're doing with it and I appreciate that but it's just not for me. I don't know any other way to explain it.

All in all, this ranking was beyond rewarding for me. I can honestly say albums 1-3 will make my all time favorites list with the next three not far behind. Please please please comment and share your thoughts on the list, the band or the project in general. Still chipping away at the Kubrick filmography as well as the Cormac McCarthy bibliography. Not sure which band/artist I'll tackle next. Still open to suggestions on all of this. Until then...

Mysterious Epic Video Tease

2009-03-15T19:40:00.000-07:00

This week I will begin working on an epic YouTube video. I only post this for the sake of being mysterious and so that you can look back on this fateful day when I am a YouTube celebrity. That and so that I don't get too lazy and give up on it. Mostly the latter.

Most importantly, my beloved Duke Blue Devils won the ACC today. I couldn't be happier. Outside of the Red Sox, Duke Basketball is my favorite sports program. UNC was supposed to be handed the ACC title and possibly have an undefeated season so it's so extra sweet that every fucking asshole UNC fan I've ever known gets to watch Duke's success. Plus, barring any unexpected draft departures Duke will be even better next year. Sweet.

Tomorrow I'm going to start listening to another musician's body of work as to speed up the blog process because the Kubrick thing is taking a bit longer than I anticipated. I'm interested to see if a list is any different if I've heard NONE of the band's albums previously... Which is why I am thinking Joy Division would be fun to tackle, especially considering I just bought Unknown Pleasures. Absolutely cannot wait to delve into it and others.

As for personal things, I had an epic weekend with friends. Oddi, Amee, Phillip, Trevor and all of the new people I met. Really feeling great about that. I covered probably 600 someodd miles in traveling Atlanta -> Gainesville -> Athens -> Augusta -> Rincon (Savannah) -> Augusta -> Athens -> Atlanta.

Recommended listening:
The Lonely Island - Incredibad
The Welcome Wagon - Welcome To The Welcome Wagon
Various Artists - Dark Was The Night
The Sonics - Here Are The Sonics!!!
Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
and... when it comes out...
Manchester Orchestra - Mean Everything To Nothing

Changing The Focus Of The Blog...

2009-03-10T21:00:00.000-07:00

Alright, the hiatus is over. After much deliberation over starting a new blog (a third?) I just decided I will change the focus of this one to a nifty new idea I've been toying with. So here you have it: How Hi The Fi is now the blog of rankings.

I obviously love lists and rankings. I think what makes this different is that I will strictly be doing full bodies of work. I would like to rank every film by a director or every album by a musician, etc.

What to like about this is that the blog will be more consistent. There will be at least a hint of incentive to come back every so often. It will still be my personal blog and updates on what's going on with me will still appear from time to time. I just feel like it would be pointless to continue the blog as it's been. Not every list I put up here will HAVE to fit this, but it will be clear when I post it that it's different. For instance, the 2008 movie list. By the way, there have been very few additions to that list.

Anyways, to start things off, here's every Beatles album ranked by me!

If you've been following my Twitter you know I've been listening to the 13 albums by The Beatles in chronological order. I'm not trying to make some great original Beatles statements beyond sharing my opinions. Feel free to comment to harass me about this.

1.) The White Album - Most of the songs on this album hold up as well as some of the better songs on Revolver. I think those who just absolutely love the Beatles tend to prefer this album. It's not that it, as a unit, is better than, say, the next three albums, but MORE Beatles is just undeniably a good thing. The only 2-disc release by The Beatles, The White Album is incredible in scope and there's just so much to like. The Beatles were at odds with one another during its making but in no way does it suffer from this. Instead it seems to me like they are trying to one-up one another. Genius + Competition = Wow. This album isn't perfect, but it is the best.

2.) Abbey Road - What a beautiful piece of work from start to finish. This, to me, is your prototypical album. Much like The White Album, this one has just about perfect track sequencing. I know I'm just repeating what everyone has said about this, but I just can't imagine a better note to go out on than this. The perfect end to any career, especially the so-called greatest band ever.

3.) Magical Mystery Tour - This isn't an official Beatles studio album in that some of the songs were not recorded with the purpose of ending up on it but it's better than some that are. It is, in fact, the better SOUNDING album of this mini-era (see: better than Sgt. Pepper). It maybe wasn't as culturally as important as Sgt. Pepper but it sounds like everything I want a 1967 album to sound like.

4.) Revolver/Rubber Soul (tie) - I can't decide which one of these two I like more. As an album, Rubber Soul is wildly better. But the sum of Revolver's parts is greater than those of Rubber Soul. Revolver has some absolutely astounding songs that still hold up today. In between these songs are punch bowl turds like McCartney's "Here There And Everywhere." This song wouldn't be so bad if it was on a different album, but man is it terrible on this. Plus I never really got in to Eleanor Rigby like others did. Rubber Soul meanwhile has a more cohesive, consistent sound with the epic song Norwegian Wood and some great songs that show the Beatles transitioning from poppish to original rock. It kind of reminds me of Dylan's Bringing It All Back Home as he was switching from Folk to Rock.

6.) Yellow Submarine - Just to clarify, this is the songtrack, not the soundtrack. The original soundtrack had about 6 songs from the movie and the rest was just exerpts of the score. This is kind of a stretch for this list, but the majority of these songs were clearly written with the purpose of being together (unlike, say, the Past Masters releases). Anyways, it's like a who's who of underrated Beatles songs on this one. It takes the better parts of Sgt. Pepper, throws in a few other hits and then it's just underrated great rockers with great sequencing. Not a real album, I admit, but worthy of being ranked here.

7.) Help! - Underrated much? Wow, what a fun album. Nevermind that it has "Yesterday" on it, there's so much Rubber Soul in this album it's unbelievable. Rubber Soul got the cooler cover and a more cohesive sound but the sense of humor and energy and just sound in general are very similar. Just as Rubber Soul is Dylan's "Bringing It..." this is Dylan's "Another Side."

8.) Let It Be - I think this album suffers from the same things that Revolver does. It's got some of the band's greatest songs ever but it's filled with ballad-y crap that doesn't work. I love the way Spector let the Beatles sense of humor seep through in this album. If the list was based strictly on "number of epic songs" then this would be in the top 5, but it just doesn't have an overall feel to put it higher than here.

9.) Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - Yeah, I know. It's not that I dislike this album, it's just... it doesn't keep my interest from "Lucy" until "Sgt. Pepper (Reprise)." Lovely Rita and Good Morning are decent songs, but really the rest just BORES me. I see what they're doing, I appreciate it, I love the cover art, love some of the songs, especially A Day In The Life, but man, ugh, so bland in the middle.

10.) Beatles For Sale - From start to The White Album, with the exception of Sgt. Pepper, it seems to me like every Beatles album was better than the one before it. Beatles For Sale maybe isn't regarded as one of the better albums or even necessarily as better than its three predecessors but it really is great. I guess as I have grown to love garage rock bands like "The Sonics" I have come to appreciate this era of The Beatles more and more. They were doing less of the sappy covers and more of the rockers and originals.

11.) A Hard Day's Night - The band takes a clear step-up from its first two albums with this, a release to promote the movie of the same name. The movie is the most joyous and wonderful music film ever made and the soundtrack gets bonus points for reminding one of the movie while including a lot of the same attitude the band took on Beatles For Sale.

12.) With The Beatles - The good songs on this album are just as good as the good songs on the one that came before it and after it. What makes it better than Please Please Me is that its sappy covers are better songs. What makes it worse than A Hard Day's Night is that it has these sappy covers to begin with.

13.) Please Please Me - Let me say that if this is your worst album, your band is pretty damned good. There are some absolutely epic songs on this thing it's just that there are a lot of sappy covers that do nothing for me... or anyone else for that matter.

So that about does it, be sure and sound off in the comments if you agree or disagree. Coming soon: Ranking the films of Stanley Kubrick (yes, I've seen them all and am rewatching them now), album rankings of Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones and anything else I can get my hands on. Feel free also to suggest lists for the future.

I'm on a boat and, it's going fast and, I got a nautical themed pashmina afghan...

2009-02-12T10:41:00.000-08:00

I have a new favorite YouTube/SNL video of all time. If you're my Facebook friend or Twitter follower you already know:
The Lonely Island - I'm On A Boat...

I love it with every ounce of my being. The entire range of my sense of humor is reached in some way throughout this video. It's obviously a little stupid but I love the cleverness, the parody, the semi-obscure references, the way it holds up to many popular rap songs, the movements, just about everything.

I have been quite busy. My other blog: scarcerecords.blogspot.com has been taking up a bit more of my time even though it has even fewer readers than this one and is pretty boring.

It's almost baseball season, thank God. A-Roid is guilty and I am very excited for 2009 baseball. College basketball has been a good holdover but Duke, in all of our amazing effort, simply doesn't have enough talent to be atop the NCAA, let alone the ACC. For shame, too, as we almost beat UNC last night.

Movie watching has slowed. I've seen The Uninvited, Last Chance Harvey, Waltz With Bashir, Zack & Miri, Notorious and maybe one other since my last post. Not sure where to rank them yet. Except for The Uninvited which is the 2nd worst movie of 2008 (or does it count as the worst of 2009?)

Record collecting has picked up. I have changed the focus of my collection and now I am looking strictly for high end stuff. It's been fun. I always love redoing my record collection. It is nice to get a new appreciation for something you already have and have spent such an outrageous amount of time and money on.

Been playing baseball a little bit. Thinking about joining a softball league. I figure a softball league will help me decide if I'm terrible at baseball and should thus not pursue a real league league. Plus it will likely be fun.

I have a new boss at work who is the exact opposite of the old boss, for better or worse. It's been very difficult to adjust but I'm getting there.

Was talking about this the other day, top 5 favorite and least favorite sports franchises, in order, just to go on the record. I think I already posted the favorites awhile back, I don't remember...

1. Boston Red Sox
2. Duke Blue Devils Basketball
3. Georgia Bulldogs Football
4. Jeff Gordon
5. Georgia Bulldogs Basketball

1. New York Yankees
2. University Of North Carolina Tar Heels
3. University of Florida Gators
4. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
5. Tennessee Volunteers

Just for shits and giggles, I think I'll also rank every sports team by league in the next week or 2. Here's the NBA:

1. Atlanta Hawks
2. Boston Celtics
3. Houston Rockets (only b/c they have Battier)
4. Detroit Pistons (only b/c they have Iverson)
5. Orlando Magic
6. New Orleans Hornets
7. Cleveland Cavaliers
8. Philadelphia 76ers
9. Portland Trail Blazers
10. Denver Nuggets
11. Oklahoma City Thunder
12. Chicago Bulls (current team, not Jordan team)
13. Los Angeles Clippers
14. Minnesota Timberwolves
15. Miami Heat
16. Golden State Warriors
17. Utah Jazz
18. Memphis Grizzlies
19. Phoenix Suns
20. San Antonio Spurs
21. New Jersey Nets
22. Toronto Raptors
23. Washington Wizards
24. Milwaukee Bucks
25. Sacramento Kings
26. Charlotte Bobcats
27. Dallas Mavericks
28. Indiana Pacers
29. New York Knicks
30. Los Angeles Lakers

That's all. Time to go do stuff. Hopefully youve found something in this post of personal interest. I'm on a boat!

Seventy Freakin Movies

2009-01-27T06:32:00.000-08:00

Seventy. That's a lot of movies. Plus we, at long last, have a brand new #1 movie of the year. Considering it's been the same #1 since I first posted the list, I'd say this is pretty sweet. I've seen a lot of the better 2008 movies since we last met, blog readers, so check out the top of the list and whatnot. Also, effing comment already.

Announcement: I have a 2nd blog that appeals to you all even less than this one: http://scarcerecords.blogspot.com/

I don't know why you'd want to read me rambling on about records (vinyl) but I do it anyway.

About a week ago I started working out of the "South Metro" office of Neighbor Newspapers. I now cover Fayette, Henry, Clayton and South Fulton counties. Alone. This amounts to me being very busy at work but it's not so bad.

I am addicted to Twitter. I am also quite fond of eBay. I've got to start using this blog to share shit I find online because I can't think of any good reason for you to be reading it.

Duke basketball is #1 in the country and I am firmly convinced they are the best team in the country at the moment. What they did to Maryland the other day was amazing. I can't wait to see what they do to Wake Forest tomorrow night and then the hurting they'll put on UNC in a few weeks. I love this team as much as any Duke team since 2002.

Soooooooo here's the 70 movies, surrounded by a few of my favorite GIF files. Enjoy.

70. Happening, The
69. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
68. Eye, The
67. Mamma Mia
66. Jumper
65. Promotion, The
64. Family That Preys, The
63. Charlie Bartlett
62. Zombie Strippers
61. Drillbit Taylor
60. Definitely, Maybe
59. Incredible Hulk, The
58. Journey To The Center Of The Earth
57. House Bunny, The
56. Baby Mama
55. Semi-Pro
54. Tale Of Despereaux, The
53. Hancock
52. Meet Dave
51. Hamlet 2
50. Hellboy 2
49. What Happens In Vegas
48. You Don't Mess With The Zohan
47. Step Brothers
46. Wanted
45. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
44. Yes Man
43. Marley & Me
42. Zack And Miri Make A Porno
41. Love Guru, The
40. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
39. Fools Gold
38. Pineapple Express
37. Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, The
36. Appaloosa
35. Choke
34. Valkyrie
33. In Bruges
32. Australia
31. Happy-Go-Lucky
30. Leatherheads
29. Felon
28. Kung Fu Panda
27. Horton Hears A Who
26. Tropic Thunder
25. Rocker, The
24. Boy A
23. Deception
22. Revolutionary Road
21. Vicky Cristina Barcelona
20. Vantage Point
19. Milk
18. Get Smart
17. Role Models
16. Wrestler, The
15. Bolt
14. Let The Right One In
13. Gran Torino
12. Doubt
11. Burn After Reading
10. Iron Man
9. Changeling
8. Seven Pounds
7. Frost/Nixon
6. Man On Wire
5. My Blueberry Nights
4. Dark Knight, The
3. Synecdoche New York
2. WALL-E
1. Slumdog Millionaire

My Oscar Predictions

2009-01-22T09:56:00.001-08:00

Here are my 2008 Oscar picks. The nominees just came out. I'm not overly thrilled with some of the choices but here are my predictions. I'll link you back to this post after all of my predictions come true. I copied and pasted from IMDB so if the text seems huge or links are involved then forgive me.

81st Annual Academy Awards^®

Best Motion Picture of the Year

Nominees:

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008): Ceán Chaffin, Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall

Frost/Nixon (2008): Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Eric Fellner

Milk (2008): Bruce Cohen, Dan Jinks

The Reader (2008): Nominees to be determined

Slumdog Millionaire (2008): Christian Colson

MY PICK: Slumdog Millionaire

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

Nominees:

Richard Jenkins for The Visitor (2007/I)

Frank Langella for Frost/Nixon (2008)

Sean Penn for Milk (2008)

Brad Pitt for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)

Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler (2008)

MY PICK: Frank Langella (But I'd wager on Penn)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

Nominees:

Anne Hathaway for Rachel Getting Married (2008)

Angelina Jolie for Changeling (2008)

Melissa Leo for Frozen River (2008)

Meryl Streep for Doubt (2008/I)

Kate Winslet for The Reader (2008)

MY PICK: Angelina Jolie (But I'd wager on Winslet)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

Nominees:

Josh Brolin for Milk (2008)

Robert Downey Jr. for Tropic Thunder (2008)

Philip Seymour Hoffman for Doubt (2008/I)

Heath Ledger for The Dark Knight (2008)

Michael Shannon for Revolutionary Road (2008)

MY PICK: Philip Seymour Hoffman

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

Nominees:

Amy Adams for Doubt (2008/I)

Penélope Cruz for Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)

Viola Davis for Doubt (2008/I)

Taraji P. Henson for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)

Marisa Tomei for The Wrestler (2008)

MY PICK: Taraji P. Henson (The ONLY Oscar this movie deserves)

Best Achievement in Directing

Nominees:

Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

Stephen Daldry for The Reader (2008)

David Fincher for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)

Ron Howard for Frost/Nixon (2008)

Gus Van Sant for Milk (2008)

MY PICK: Danny Boyle

Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen

Nominees:

Frozen River (2008): Courtney Hunt

Happy-Go-Lucky (2008): Mike Leigh

In Bruges (2008): Martin McDonagh

Milk (2008): Dustin Lance Black

WALL·E (2008): Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter, Jim Reardon

MY PICK: WALL-E

Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published

Nominees:

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008): Eric Roth, Robin Swicord

Doubt (2008/I): John Patrick Shanley

Frost/Nixon (2008): Peter Morgan

The Reader (2008): David Hare

Slumdog Millionaire (2008): Simon Beaufoy

MY PICK: Slumdog Millionaire

Best Achievement in Cinematography

Nominees:

Changeling (2008): Tom Stern

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008): Claudio Miranda

The Dark Knight (2008): Wally Pfister

The Reader (2008): Roger Deakins, Chris Menges

Slumdog Millionaire (2008): Anthony Dod Mantle

MY PICK: Slumdog Millionaire (but Changeling is equally deserving)

Best Achievement in Editing

Nominees:

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008): Angus Wall, Kirk Baxter

The Dark Knight (2008): Lee Smith

Frost/Nixon (2008): Daniel P. Hanley, Mike Hill

Milk (2008): Elliot Graham

Slumdog Millionaire (2008): Chris Dickens

MY PICK: Slumdog Millionaire

Best Achievement in Art Direction

Nominees:

Changeling (2008): James J. Murakami, Gary Fettis

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008): Donald Graham Burt, Victor J. Zolfo

The Dark Knight (2008): Nathan Crowley, Peter Lando

The Duchess (2008): Michael Carlin, Rebecca Alleway

Revolutionary Road (2008): Kristi Zea, Debra Schutt

MY PICK: Changeling (But I'd wager on Rev Road)

Best Achievement in Costume Design

Nominees:

Australia (2008): Catherine Martin

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008): Jacqueline West

The Duchess (2008): Michael O'Connor

Milk (2008): Danny Glicker

Revolutionary Road (2008): Albert Wolsky

MY PICK: The Duchess (But I'd wager on Ben Button)

Best Achievement in Makeup

Nominees:

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008): Greg Cannom

The Dark Knight (2008): John Caglione Jr., Conor O'Sullivan

Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008): Mike Elizalde, Thomas Floutz

MY PICK: Benjamin Button (reluctantly)

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score

Nominees:

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008): Alexandre Desplat

Defiance (2008): James Newton Howard

Milk (2008): Danny Elfman

Slumdog Millionaire (2008): A.R. Rahman

WALL·E (2008): Thomas Newman

MY PICK: Thomas Newman - WALL-E

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song

Nominees:

Slumdog Millionaire (2008): A.R. Rahman, Gulzar("Jai Ho")

Slumdog Millionaire (2008): A.R. Rahman, Maya Arulpragasam("O Saya")

WALL·E (2008): Peter Gabriel, Thomas Newman("Down to Earth")

MY PICK: Down To Earth (WALL-E)

Best Achievement in Sound

Nominees:

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008): David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce, Mark Weingarten

The Dark Knight (2008): Ed Novick, Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo

Slumdog Millionaire (2008): Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke, Resul Pookutty

WALL·E (2008): Tom Myers, Michael Semanick, Ben Burtt

Wanted (2008): Chris Jenkins, Frank A. Montaño, Petr Forejt

MY PICK: WALL-E (Wouldn't be surprised to see the Dark Knight take this one)

Best Achievement in Sound Editing

Nominees:

The Dark Knight (2008): Richard King

Iron Man (2008): Frank E. Eulner, Christopher Boyes

Slumdog Millionaire (2008): Tom Sayers

WALL·E (2008): Ben Burtt, Matthew Wood

Wanted (2008): Wylie Stateman

MY PICK: WALL-E (Same as above about TDK)

Best Achievement in Visual Effects

Nominees:

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008): Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton, Craig Barron

The Dark Knight (2008): Nick Davis, Chris Corbould, Timothy Webber, Paul J. Franklin

Iron Man (2008): John Nelson, Ben Snow, Daniel Sudick, Shane Mahan

MY PICK: Benjamin Button (unfortunately)

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year

Nominees:

Bolt (2008): Chris Williams, Byron Howard

Kung Fu Panda (2008): John Stevenson, Mark Osborne

WALL·E (2008): Andrew Stanton

MY PICK: WALL-E

Best Foreign Language Film of the Year

Nominees:

Der Baader Meinhof Komplex (2008)(Germany)

Entre les murs (2008)(France)

Revanche (2008)(Austria)

Okuribito (2008)(Japan)

Vals Im Bashir (2008)(Israel)

MY PICK: Vals Im Bashir (aka Waltz With Bashir)

Best Documentary, Features

Nominees:

The Betrayal - Nerakhoon (2008): Ellen Kuras, Thavisouk Phrasavath

Encounters at the End of the World (2007): Werner Herzog, Henry Kaiser

The Garden (2008/I): Scott Hamilton Kennedy

Man on Wire (2008): James Marsh, Simon Chinn

Trouble the Water (2008): Tia Lessin, Carl Deal

MY PICK: Man On Wire

Best Short Film, Animated

Nominees:

La Maison en Petits Cubes: Kunio Kato

Ubornaya istoriya - lyubovnaya istoriya (2007): Konstantin Bronzit

Oktapodi (2007): Emud Mokhberi, Thierry Marchand

Presto (2008): Doug Sweetland

This Way Up (2008): Alan Smith, Adam Foulkes

MY PICK: Presto

I Would Be Excited But...

2009-01-20T14:04:00.000-08:00

I would be excited today... inauguration day... but... I am a raging racist.

Not really.

More importantly, I now have Twitter. I have taken the plunge. I am not overly proud of it but if you have it, look me up. You can see some of my updates on the right. I added the Twitter widget for Blogger. I have also been adding a lot of links to the link section. The recommended spending section has especially seen a big overhaul.

I am going to be selling some records & dvds in the next week. I'll probably post them on here with prices (because I'll be posting them damn near everywhere) but if you're interested in trading with me, drop me a line.

I am up to 68 movies on the 2008 movie list. When I see two more I'll post the list again. We have a brand new #1 movie for 2008. That's right, something has taken over WALL-E.

Until then...

I Think I'm In Love

2009-01-15T17:29:00.001-08:00

So I just got my Samuel Adams Chocolate Bock bottle and $11+tax gets you two glasses. I have to say: it's totally worth it. I think I'm in love. With this beer.

This brings me up to 32 different types of Samuel Adams tried.

The list:

Types of Samuel Adams Tried

	Boston Lager
	Sam Adams Light
	180 (Boston Restaurant Exclusive)
	1790 Root Beer Brew
	Black Lager
	Boston Ale
	Brown Ale
	Cherry Wheat Chocolate Bock
	Cranberry Lambic
	Cream Stout
	Double Bock
	George Washington Porter
	Hefeweizen
	Holiday Porter
	Honey Porter
	Imperial Pilsner
	Irish Red
	James Madison Dark Wheat Ale
	Longshot Boysenberry Wheat
	Longshot Dortmunder Export
	Longshot Grape Pale Ale
	Longshot Old Ale
	Longshot Weizenbock
	Octoberfest
	Old Fezziwig Ale
	Pale Ale
	Scotch Ale
	Summer Ale
	Traditional Ginger Honey Ale
	White Ale
	Winter Lager

Make That Sixty

2009-01-13T17:13:00.000-08:00

All sorts of good stuff going on lately. I interviewed for a new, awesome job (more on that if the news is good). I have been watching a ton of great movies. My college basketball team is unexpectedly the best in the ACC and 2nd best in the country. Their rival is unexpectedly the worst in the ACC. My baseball team just signed an icon from the city I live in (quite possibly the greatest conversation piece ever). Even my personal life has taken an unexpectedly good turn.

It only took a few days but I've seen 10 more movies since the last post. We're up to 60 on the year and another 10 should be coming just as quick (I've had a surprising amount of free time and a lot of people who like doing this crap with me).

60. Happening, The
59. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
58. Eye, The
57. Mamma Mia
56. Jumper
55. Promotion, The
54. Charlie Bartlett
53. Zombie Strippers
52. Drillbit Taylor
51. Definitely, Maybe
50. Incredible Hulk, The
49. Journey To The Center Of The Earth
48. House Bunny, The
47. Baby Mama
46. Semi-Pro
45. The Tale Of Despereaux
44. Hancock
43. Meet Dave
42. Hamlet 2
41. Hellboy 2
40. What Happens In Vegas
39. You Don't Mess With The Zohan
38. Step Brothers
37. Wanted
36. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
35. Love Guru, The
34. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
33. Fools Gold
32. Pineapple Express
31. Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, The
30. Appaloosa
29. Valkyrie
28. In Bruges
27. Australia
26. Happy-Go-Lucky
25. Felon
24. Kung Fu Panda
23. Horton Hears A Who
22. Tropic Thunder
21. Boy A
20. Deception
19. Revolutionary Road
18. Vicky Cristina Barcelona
17. Vantage Point
16. Get Smart
15. Role Models
14. The Wrestler
13. Bolt
12. Let The Right One In
11. Gran Torino
10. Burn After Reading
9. Iron Man
8. Changeling
7. Seven Pounds
6. Frost/Nixon
5. Man On Wire
4. My Blueberry Nights
3. Dark Knight, The
2. Synecdoche New York
1. WALL-E

The 50 I've Seen So Far

2009-01-11T11:49:00.000-08:00

As promised, I won't post the damned movie list unless there are at least 5 or 10 new movies to add to it. Here we have 10 since the last update. As always, they are bolded. These 10 were among the best of the year as we get into Oscar season.

In fact, 5 of the 10 make the cutoff for must buy (the cutoff is between Get Smart and Vantage Point). Even the worst of the 10 (Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa) was a really good one.

I'll be seeing Choke, Valkyrie, Frost/Nixon, Seven Pounds, Milk, The Wrestler, Appaloosa, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, The Duchess, Revolutionary Road, The Tale Of Despereaux and a few others in the next week or two so the top of the list should change significantly if the reviews of these hold up. I have enjoyed the hell out of this project and hope to keep it going for at least 50 more.

50. Happening, The
49. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
48. Eye, The
47. Mamma Mia
46. Jumper
45. Promotion, The
44. Charlie Bartlett
43. Zombie Strippers
42. Drillbit Taylor
41. Definitely, Maybe
40. Incredible Hulk, The
39. Journey To The Center Of The Earth
38. House Bunny, The
37. Baby Mama
36. Semi-Pro
35. Hancock
34. Meet Dave
33. Hellboy 2
32. What Happens In Vegas
31. You Don't Mess With The Zohan
30. Step Brothers
29. Wanted
28. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
27. Love Guru, The
26. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
25. Fools Gold
24. Pineapple Express
23. Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, The
22. In Bruges
21. Australia
20. Happy-Go-Lucky
19. Felon
18. Kung Fu Panda
17. Horton Hears A Who
16. Tropic Thunder
15. Deception
14. Vantage Point
13. Get Smart
12. Role Models
11. Bolt
10. Let The Right One In
9. Gran Torino
8. Burn After Reading
7. Iron Man
6. Changeling
5. Man On Wire
4. My Blueberry Nights
3. Dark Knight, The
2. Synecdoche New York
1. WALL-E

Finally, The Best Of 2008

2009-01-05T18:46:00.000-08:00

That's right, it's the best of 2008. As the coolest person you all know, I feel as though my opinion should be valued more highly than others. And as such we have the best of 2008. These aren't actually opinions though, they are facts. Every statement in this post is as true as the statement "the Red Sox play in Boston" or "Georgia Tech over Georgia was a fluke."

Without further ado... (Some of the subject ideas were stolen from McCluca, so big ups)

Favorite Female Celebrity: Anne Hathaway
The reason Get Smart is in my 2008 top 10.

Favorite Male Celebrity: Clint Eastwood
Changeling? Gran Torino? Still bad ass? Yes.

Top News Moment: Sarah Palin and my subsequent boner.

Top Sports Moment: Game 5 of the ALCS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wAlL988Z_U&feature=related
Red Sox down by 7 runs in the seventh inning facing elimination win the game
2nd place: UGA Basketball wins SEC Championship in staggering fashion
3rd place: Kansas kicks the piss out of UNC in the Final Four (I will no doubt remember this long after I've forgotten every other sports moment of 2008)

Favorite Athlete: Jon Lester... what a year.
By sport: MLB (besides Lester): Jonathan Papelbon, NBA: Mario West, NFL: Adrian Peterson, NCAA FB: Knowshon Moreno, NCAA BB: Greg Paulus (but whatshisface from Kansas who had the monster game against UNC deserves love as does Sundiata Gaines), NHL: Ilya Kovalchuk, NCAA Baseball: Josh Fields & Dean Weaver...

Five Best Movies (So Far - I've seen 45 of them this year which is about 35 more than most of you, but intend to see 100 more):
1. WALL-E
2. Synecdoche, New York
3. The Dark Knight
4. My Blueberry Nights
5. Changeling

Three Worst Movies:
1. The Happening
2. Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull
3. The Eye

Best Blog:
"How Hi The Fi?" http://howhithefi.blogspot.com/

Five Best Albums (no order - this is also subject to mass overhaul)
Girl Talk - Feed The Animals
T.I. - Paper Trail
The Hold Steady - Stay Positive
TV On The Radio - Dear Science
Flight Of The Conchords - Flight Of The Conchords

Favorite Hip Hop Song:
T.I. (Feat Rihanna) - Live Your Life

Best Live Band I Saw This Year:
Of Montreal

Favorite 2008 Book Of The Very Few I've Read So Far:
John Hodgman - More Information Than You Require

Funniest Internet Video:
Andy Samberg & Co: Jizz In My Pants (SNL)
2nd Place: Bo Burnham - I'm Bo Yo

Favorite Things I Got Into In 2008 That Don't Necessarily Have Anything To Do With 2008:
Cormac McCarthy, The Office, Flight Of The Conchords, Book Collecting, The City Of Atlanta, Octane Coffee, The Hawks, The Falcons, The Thrashers, cigars etc, and, oh yeah, this blog.

Hopes For 2009: I hope the blog continues to grow and turns into something more interesting. I hope the Red Sox win the World Series, Duke wins the NCAA Championship, UGA wins the BCS, Jeff Gordon wins the Sprint Cup, Love, New Music from Bob Dylan, Sufjan Stevens, DMB... New book by Cormac McCarthy... The movie "The Road" is the best of the year, a high paying job, losing weight, staying healthy, strengthening friendships, seeing more independent films, broadening my horizons further, having time to read my books, making lots of money, figuring it all out and continuing my 24 1/2 year dominance of everything. Happy new year, bigness.

A Survey About 2008

2009-01-04T12:53:00.001-08:00

Looking back at 2008
Borrowed this from Phillip who borrowed it from Katy...

Where did you begin 2008?
Gainesville, Florida in a repulsive bar around very few people I still speak to.

What was your status by Valentine's Day?
See previous question

Were you in school (anytime this year)?
Nope

Did you have to go to the hospital?
Nope

Did you have any encounters with the police?
My all time greatest police encounter: I had the police called on me for going to get my stuff back from my ex before the police ultimately decided that I had every right to do what I did and she would've been breaking the law if she'd kept me from doing it. I am not very good at capturing the epicity of this in words.

Where did you go on vacation?
I can't remember any true vacations. Just lots of mini ones.

What did you purchase that was over $500?
Uhh... I can't remember

Did you know anybody who got married?
Didn't go to any weddings this year (except in the 1st week of Jan) but my friend Brendan got married the other day.

Did you know anybody who passed away?
Probably.

Did you move anywhere?
From Athens to Lithia Springs in January. From Lithia Springs to Buckhead in July. Hoping to be there for awhile.

What sporting events did you attend?
A ton. 2-3 Hawks games, at least 10 Braves games, 1 UGA football game, 1 Thrashers game, 2 NASCAR races, 11-12 high school football games, several other random high school games, and probably some I'm forgetting.

What concerts/shows did you go to?
Of Montreal in Athens recently. I'm sure I saw others but it wouldve been much earlier in the year.

Where do you live now?
Atlanta, GA

What's the one thing you thought you would never do but did in 2008?
Oooh... uhh... I'll go with "Enjoy a new Jason Mraz song"

What has/have been your favorite moment(s)?
Game 5 of the ALCS. There is no greater feeling.

What's something you learned about yourself?
I learned a lot about love. Stuff like what really matters in a relationship...

Any new additions to your family?
I'm sure my brother has impregnated a few mexicans that we don't know about.

What was your best month?
June. But I can't say why or else I'll get sued.

What music will you remember 2008 by?
Hip-Hop in general. T.I., Lil Wayne, Chris Breezy... Living in Atlanta has really broadened my Hip Hoprizons. I expanded my Indie tastes too but to a much lesser degree. I'm sure there are some I'm forgetting.

Made new friends?
Actually I've made a ton of new friends. I still don't know how this happened. Most of the people linked to the right for fellow blogs were people I wasn't that close with this time last year. I'm pretty glad about that.

Favorite Night[s] out?
The Of Montreal concert... the night with Tyler and his work friends... and best of all, the night at the Venezias til 4am.

Any regrets?
Always.

What do you want to change in 2009?
I dunno, I did most of my changing in late 2008. I guess I'd like to lose weight and improve my faith but I've been working on those things for years now.

Overall, how would you rate this year?
Pretty crappy. No sports titles outside of the Georgia Basketball SEC championship... Spent a lot of time in relationships that are no longer going... Never overly thrilled with my work situation... I dunno. The year certainly had some high spots, too, but generally it won't be missed.

Other than home, where did you spend most of your time?
Friends houses, movie theatres, sporting events, work...

Change your hairstyle?
I keep it short now. That's probably not something I was doing this time last year.

Get a new job?
Yeah.

Do you have a New Year's resolution?
Sort of. Already mentioned it earlier.

Did anything embarrassing happen?
Hmm... probably... nothing comes to mind off hand.

Buy anything new from eBay?
Not as much as last year. Money hasn't been free flowing.

What was/were your favorite purchase[s]?
This laptop is certainly up there. My GPS, my crappy but excellent service phone, all of my books, DVDs and records, my DVD rack (i know, lame), the lunch boxes, everything pertaining to the Red Sox, work clothes, the Wii... I'm forgetting some.

Get married or divorced?
Haha!

Be honest - did you watch American Idol?
I hate everyone who watches this show including members of my family.

Did you get sick this year?
Of course. I'm still fighting off the damn cough from it, too. I'm on prescription meds though so it's almost over.

Start a new hobby?
Book reading/collecting! Also: lunch boxes (even though I only have 6), and then just expanding upon other hobbies... I also slowed/stopped some hobbies (I rarely buy new Red Sox hats)...

Are you happy to see 2008 go?
Absolutely. Anything I liked about 2008 could easily be repeated in 2009 whereas the crappy stuff is stuck in 08.

Drank Starbucks in 2008?
Yes. I love the Starbucks vibe: the music, the mugs, the people... but all of their beverages are awful. Which is why I am addicted to Octane which has all of the better parts of this minus commercialism.

What are you wishing for in 2009?
Red Sox World Series, Duke championship, UGA championship (2010?), love, money, health, the continuation of my favorite hobbies, a new job, Hanley Ramirez in a Red Sox jersey, Mark Teixeira's death... a fantasy football championship, the movie "The Road" to be brilliant, a new brilliant Sufjan Stevens album, Bob Dylan doesn't die... I don't die either.

I'll be back tomorrow with actual Best-Ofs for 2008.

What A Year For A New Year

2009-01-01T09:11:00.000-08:00

Happy 2009. I'll have my best of 2008 lists up later today or tomorrow. In the meantime it's lyrics to the song I'll be playing all day. Also coming later: Christmas, various life developments, various sports things...

Anyways, here's Dan Wilson - What A Year For A New Year:

What a year for a new year
We need it like we needed life I guess
Last one left us lying in a mess
What a year for a new year

What a night for a sunrise
And we thought the dark would never end
Reaching out to try to find a friend
What a night for a sunrise
Sunrise

What a day for new day
And our star shines like a miracle
And our world is almost beautiful again
What a day for a new day
New day

What a year for a new year

What a night for a sunrise
And we thought the dark would never end
Reaching out to try to find a friend
What a night for a sunrise
Sunrise

Soon we’ll be lying in our beds
And new dreams will fill our heads
And the old ones will be ended
Hope we’ll forget about this place
Let it go without a trace
Wipe the teardrops from our faces
Oh! What a year for a new year!

Favorite Office Monologue Ever

2008-12-12T20:44:00.001-08:00

"What is my perfect crime? I break into Tiffany’s at midnight. Do I go for the vault? No. I go for the chandelier; it’s priceless. As I’m taking it down, a woman catches me. She tells me to stop. It’s her father’s business. She’s Tiffany. I say no. We make love all night. In the morning the cops come and I escape in one of their uniforms. I tell her to meet me in Mexico but I go to Canada. I don’t trust her. Besides, I love the cold. Thirty years later I get a postcard. I have a son. And he’s the Chief of Police. This is where the story gets interesting: I tell Tiffany to meet me in Paris by the Trocadero. She’s been waiting for me all these years. She’s never taken another lover. I don’t care. I don’t show up. I go to Berlin. That’s where I stashed the chandelier."

Six More

2008-12-12T15:28:00.000-08:00

Sorry, nothing too exciting to mention. Just been helping my parents move and watching crappy movies. We're up to 40 now. I might update the list with every 5 or 10 I see as to keep this from getting too out of control.

40. Happening, The
39. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
38. Eye, The
37. Mamma Mia
36. Jumper
35. Promotion, The
34. Charlie Bartlett
33. Zombie Strippers
32. Drillbit Taylor
31. Definitely, Maybe
30. Incredible Hulk, The
29. Journey To The Center Of The Earth
28. House Bunny, The
27. Baby Mama
26. Semi-Pro
25. Hancock
24. Meet Dave
23. Hellboy 2
22. What Happens In Vegas
21. You Don't Mess With The Zohan
20. Step Brothers
19. Wanted
18. Love Guru, The
17. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
16. Fools Gold
15. Pineapple Express
14. Australia
13. Kung Fu Panda
12. Horton Hears A Who
11. Tropic Thunder
10. Deception
9. Vantage Point
8. Role Models
7. Get Smart
6. Burn After Reading
5. Iron Man
4. Changeling
3. My Blueberry Nights
2. Dark Knight, The
1. WALL-E

Finally, A Crappier Movie Than Indy Jones

2008-12-05T18:08:00.000-08:00

34. Happening, The
33. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
32. Mamma Mia
31. Charlie Bartlett
30. Drillbit Taylor
29. Definitely, Maybe
28. Incredible Hulk, The
27. Journey To The Center Of The Earth
26. Baby Mama
25. Semi-Pro
24. Hancock
23. Meet Dave
22. Hellboy 2
21. What Happens In Vegas
20. You Don't Mess With The Zohan
19. Step Brothers
18. Wanted
17. Love Guru, The
16. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
15. Fools Gold
14. Pineapple Express
13. Australia
12. Kung Fu Panda
11. Horton Hears A Who
10. Tropic Thunder
9. Vantage Point
8. Role Models
7. Get Smart
6. Burn After Reading
5. Iron Man
4. Changeling
3. My Blueberry Nights
2. Dark Knight, The
1. WALL-E

The Happening is astronomically bad. It's so bad you watch it to laugh at how bad it is. It is undoubtedly the basis for the Mark Wahlberg "Say hi to your mother for me" sketch on SNL. It's bad from the opening scene all the way through. I can't say it has NO redeeming qualities (it is definitely well shot and the budget clearly isn't small) but wow it's rough.

Some Funny Stuff

2008-12-02T08:08:00.001-08:00

Since I generally only post narcissistic (sp?) jibber jabber (and why not? I rule) I figured I should probably share some stuff you might theoretically enjoy:

YouTube goodness:
Mario Kart Love Song
Dark Knight PSA (stolen from Ryan)
Glorious Baby Shower
Numa Numa Returns "Live Your Life" To The Internet
Stavenhagen's Food Pawn Shop
Pepperbee's Satisfaction Guaranteed
Dark Knight Spoilers (some of these are old, granted)

Other goodness:
Most Baffling Book Titles
Chattanooga Prostitution Ring
225 Demotivational Posters

Last but not least,
Triumph The Insult Comic Dog never, ever disappoints me.

Four More...

2008-12-01T17:04:00.000-08:00

26. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
25. Charlie Bartlett
24. Drillbit Taylor
23. Definitely, Maybe
22. Incredible Hulk, The
21. Journey To The Center Of The Earth
20. Baby Mama
19. Semi-Pro
18. Hancock
17. Hellboy 2
16. You Don't Mess With The Zohan
15. Step Brothers
14. Love Guru, The
13. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
12. Pineapple Express
11. Kung Fu Panda
10. Horton Hears A Who
9. Tropic Thunder
8. Role Models
7. Get Smart
6. Burn After Reading
5. Iron Man
4. Changeling
3. My Blueberry Nights
2. Dark Knight, The
1. WALL-E

And Another Thing...

2008-11-28T10:02:00.001-08:00

I forgot to share this before. Click here. It is wonderful and I recommend you all read it. Don't close it once you find out the subject matter, READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE. Those of you who sympathize with this article like I do should save the link and share it with people as they harass you in the future. Every fan of this sport like myself knows how useful this can be.

Thanksgiving Day

2008-11-28T08:36:00.001-08:00

I knocked off 4 1/2 movies on Thanksgiving. My ever-depressing friend Oddi brought up a good point: Who the fuck cares about this list?
Answer: Me. So yet again I am posting it. Also, it is a moderately original way of discussing movies (that is, you don't see movie reviewers posting a continually updated list of movies they see over the course of a year).

Anyways, added 4 of the 4 1/2 to the list. Should see the 2nd half of The Love Guru and all of a few others (Wanted) later.

I am going to include one-sentence reviews on this list from now on...

New additions in bold:

22. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: Indy + ALIENS - Irony = Hilarious
21. Charlie Bartlett: No, seriously, Indiana Jones had ALIENS.
20. Definitely, Maybe: Indiana Jones definitely had ALIENS, someone thought "Maybe this is a good idea."
19. Incredible Hulk, The: A giant green monster walking around NYC is more believable than ALIENS in Indiana Jones.
18. Journey To The Center Of The Earth: Dinosaurs in the center of the earth but not ALIENS.
17. Semi-Pro: Will Farrell playing basketball... a lot more believable than ALIENS in Indy.
16. Hancock: Charlize Theron ruined this movie but not nearly as damaging as ALIENS.
15. You Don't Mess With The Zohan: Adam Sandler does Borat is a stupid idea, but less stupid than ALIENS.
14. Step Brothers: This movie was funny like ALIENS in Indy would've been if it was actually a joke.
13. Forgetting Sarah Marshall: Forgetting Indiana Jones will take a long, long time.
12. Pineapple Express: I forgot to mention that Indy survived a nuclear blast by hiding in an old refrigerator.
11. Kung Fu Panda: The base that held these nuclear weapons had two guards. Two.
10. Horton Hears A Who: How the Grinch stole Harrison Ford's dignity.
9. Tropic Thunder: I suspect Harrison Ford thought his role in Indiana Jones was sort of like Ben Stiller's in this movie.
8. Role Models: My role models are George Lucas and Steven Spielberg because they can rape Indiana Jones without any major consequences.
7. Get Smart: A great suggestion for George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.
6. Burn After Reading: Burn your Indy DVD after renting.
5. Iron Man: Irony man = Indiana Jones.
4. Changeling: This movie was the 2nd most depressing of the year. Can you guess the 1st?
3. My Blueberry Nights: What kind of kingdom is centered around a crystal skull?
2. Dark Knight, The: ALIENS killed Heath Ledger.
1. WALL-E: As good as Indiana Jones is bad.

Strange Encounters With Minor Celebrities

2008-11-22T15:54:00.000-08:00

It has been a strange week.
Obviously, I live and breathe the Boston Red Sox. I know more about the Red Sox than most people I know and I just about never leave home without a Red Sox hat on my head.
As I do this, I get a lot of attention from strangers who want to offer their two cents on the Red Sox. Generally, I am okay with this, but a lot of times it gets annoying because it usually goes the same direction every single time.
Today, I stopped in an antique store in a part of Atlanta that I almost never visit. The store itself I had never been to and had I had even the slightest better plan for something to do, I would not have stopped, I was just bored and I generally like looking at antique stores.
As I am sifting through books and records a tall African American man approaches me and begins to ask me questions about the Red Sox and my interest in them.
"You a Red Sox fan?"
"Ahh-yuh"
I was not enthused about this particular conversation and I made little eye contact.
"You know a lot about the Red Sox?"
"Yep..."
"Alright..." Here, begins to formulate a random trivia question about the Red Sox that I am already aware will determine how he views me and all white 24 year old men who wear Red Sox hats into random antique stores forever.
He begins... "Who was the hitting coach for the 2004 World Series Champion Red Sox team?"
Now, like I said, I am no bandwagoner. I have loved the Red Sox for a long time. I can tell you the THIRD BASE COACH from that team, the songs that played during the post-game celebration after game four of that team's championship and several other completely inconsequential facts about them. However, for some reason, I did not know who the hitting coach for the 2004 Red Sox was.
"Dave Magadan?" I say.
"Nope, he's the hitting coach now."
"Ah. Crap. I forget."
"I'll give you a hint. His nickname was Papa Jack."
"Uhhh... Still don't know. I'm drawing a blank."
"Ron Jackson."
"Ohh, yeah, sounds familiar." It did sound familiar.
"Alright, who played first base for that team?"
"Doug Mientkewicz and Kevin Millar."
"Second base."
"Pokey Reese and Mark Bellhorn."
"Shortstop."
"Orlando Cabrera"
"Third base."
"Ugh, Bill Muller."
"Alright, alright. Have you ever seen a 2004 World Series ring."
By this time I am pretty annoyed and, again, not paying him much eye contact. "I've seen pictures, of course. I've never seen one in person."
Around this time I turn over towards him. He is holding his hand out and reaching to it with his other hand to remove his ring, a 2004 World Series championship ring.
The ring itself is valued in jewels alone at well over $20,000. The historical significance of THIS Red Sox team and what it means to people like myself make it virtually priceless.
He hands it to me.
I read the name. Ron Jackson.

Just to recap: This man approached me to ask me questions about himself. In an antique store. In Decatur, Georgia. Wow.

I, of course, apologize profusely for not knowing him. Once I stopped being a douche and started taking a better look at him, he looked extremely familiar and if one had asked me what role Ron Jackson had on the 2004 Boston Red Sox, I would have surely answered "hitting coach." Unfortunately for me, that is not how the initial question was phrased.
Fortunately for me, Ron Jackson is an exceptionally nice man. He shook my hand and talked baseball with me for awhile. At one point I went off to the other side of the building to call my father who suggested I take a picture. My phone however is a piece of crap without a camera on it so I was seemingly S.O.L. Luckily, there was a Big Lots store in this bizarro shopping center so I was able to run over and grab a disposable camera for $3 and get back in time to catch Jackson before he left. He was more than willing to pose with me and he again handed me the ring so that I would get to hold it in the picture. Unfortunately I have to take 25 more pictures before I can get this developed and share it with you all, but I could not wait to tell the story.
Jackson went on to tell me a lot of funny anecdotes about the Sox. He works in the Astros organization but definitely knows his legacy was with that team. He talked about his friendship with David Ortiz and offered some very interesting insights to various Red Sox happenings. We talked for quite awhile. One especially interesting part was his story about Kevin Youkilis.
Youkilis is known for his incredible plate discipline but he was never known as a good hitter until he met Jackson. Jackson demonstrated how Youkilis USED to hold his bat and then how he holds his bat now and how it was based on his suggestion. Youkilis has one of the most unique and recognizable swings in baseball and is now a notorious power hitter and MVP candidate. At some point during this part of the conversation I literally looked around as though I was on candid camera. "Is this really happening?"

Looking back at this strange and awesome meeting, it seems even more bizarre. I mean it would be pretty unusual to run into a Braves player or manager or something in this city, let alone an integral part of one of the greatest Red Sox teams ever. He lives in Fayetteville now and was in the area visiting family. For what it's worth, he was very interested in my life and who I was and asked me almost as much as I asked him. Although it is a little unusual to solicit such attention, I cannot sing his praises enough.

If you've seen the title of this blog posting, you may have noticed that I said "celebrities" which is plural. Ron Jackson is not the only minor celebrity I have met this week. The other was a little bit more orchestrated.

John Hodgman had a book signing at my local Barnes and Noble store. You may know him as the PC in the Apple Mac vs. PC commercials. He is also frequently hilariously featured on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and has now written two great books. This book tour was to promote "More Information Than You Require," his latest book which came out in late October. I would have been perfectly content if he had just answered questions and then signed books but he actually spoke for 90 minutes and was utterly hilarious. He told of how he came to become a "famous minor television personality" and was very willing to make fun of any and all audience members. He is unbelievably clever and all in all it was a great pleasure to meet him.
He had made a cameo appearance on the first season of Flight Of The Conchords so I had him sign my Conchords DVD cover. He crossed off the word "Conchords" and wrote "Hodgman."
This followed in a pattern as he crossed off his name on the title page of the book and then signed it beneath. I am a big fan of this type of humor and now a big fan of Mr. Hodgman. Also, having now delved into his book, I have to say it is definitely worth a look-see.

Anyways, I'm gonna wrap this up finally. I saw Kung Fu Panda yesterday so I'm gonna put that in the list:
18. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
17. Charlie Bartlett
16. Definitely, Maybe
15. Incredible Hulk, The
14. Semi-Pro
13. You Don't Mess With The Zohan
12. Step Brothers
11. Horton Hears A Who
10. Pineapple Express
9. Kung Fu Panda
8. Role Models
7. Get Smart
6. Burn After Reading
5. Iron Man
4. Changeling
3. My Blueberry Nights
2. Dark Knight, The
1. WALL-E

Rethinking 2008 Movies

2008-11-19T22:23:00.000-08:00

I've been rethinking my 2008 movie ranking list. I think I should make it a point to see every legitimate movie of the year. And by year I mean in terms of the Academy Awards as technically There Will Be Blood would count as a 2008 movie. Thus, I think I am obligated to see all of the top 20+ grossing movies, even if Sex And The City or High School Musical III are among them.
Also, I think 2009 will be more along the lines of me blogging about each movie as I see them and then ranking them accordingly. Perhaps a different blog just for that. I have several blog ideas rolling lately and I am just ambitious enough to take them on.
Anyways, I saw another movie tonight and I have two more lined up for tomorrow if I am lucky so here you go:

17. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
16. Charlie Bartlett
15. Definitely, Maybe
14. Incredible Hulk, The
13. Semi-Pro
12. You Don't Mess With The Zohan
11. Step Brothers
10. Horton Hears A Who
9. Pineapple Express
8. Role Models
7. Get Smart
6. Burn After Reading
5. Iron Man
4. Changeling
3. My Blueberry Nights
2. Dark Knight, The
1. WALL-E

Impressive ranking for Changeling. I think it's a tough call to put it where I did. Movies 5 through 13 are all FUN movies and it's hard to say I would necessarily watch Changeling more times than Iron Man or Burn After Reading. I feel as though I have to keep Iron Man pretty high but Changeling is just too good. Angelina Jolie, who I generally don't care for, was just about perfect. The acting was amazing. The direction was imperfect but still good on Clint Eastwood's part. The story was of course excellent. All in all a great movie. Iron Man and Burn After Reading are no doubt among my favorites for the year so it's hard for me to put a movie like this that I maybe have less of an attachment to ahead of them, but for now that's where it is. I may make changes later on, something I have been discussing all along.

As of right now, the top eight movies on the list are buy-able and the rest is not. While this number may seem a bit high, I would argue that I have generally seen some of the more critically acclaimed or important movies of 2008 thus far, thereby increasing the likelihood of a movie being buy-able. When I start seeing the aforementioned S&TS or HSM3, I think it will change.

On tomorrow's slate: Zach & Miri Make A Porno & Quantum Of Solace.

Last but not least, I revamped the sidebar to your right. I renamed a lot of the sections and broke the link lists in to more organized sections. I am quite confident that this will serve me personally much better than it will serve anyone else as I have no clue what you could possibly want from my links.

Updating The List

2008-11-17T21:16:00.001-08:00

Working on starting a second blog. Details to come. In the meantime, here's the updated 2008 movie list. I am forgetting some for sure.

16. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
15. Charlie Bartlett
14. Definitely, Maybe
13. Incredible Hulk, The
12. Semi-Pro
11. You Don't Mess With The Zohan
10. Step Brothers
9. Horton Hears A Who
8. Pineapple Express
7. Role Models
6. Get Smart
5. Burn After Reading
4. Iron Man
3. My Blueberry Nights
2. Dark Knight, The
1. WALL-E

Looking forward to seeing: Kung Fu Panda, Changeling, Zach & Miri Make A Porno, Bolt, Sex Drive, Hellboy II, Tropic Thunder
Not liking what I hear about: Quantum of Solace
Most exciting movie release for me, possibly ever: The Road
Second most exciting in the (very) near future: Bolt
Probably wont get around to seeing: Sex & The City, Voyage To The Center Of The Earth, most chick flicks, most horror flicks, Yes Man, Hancock, Mamma Mia, The Mummy

Also, I still think oscar season will produce the best movie of the year, but I'm content with it being Wall-E which comes out on DVD today.

Guess Who's Back, Back Again, Shady's Back, Tell A Friend

2008-11-13T09:30:00.000-08:00

I have a new favorite song of all time.

T.I. & Rihanna - Live Your Life

Hip Hop + Numa Numa = Full integration between the races.

The lyrics, without further ado:

You're gonna be a shining star, in fancy clothes, and fancy car-ars.
And then you'll see, you're gonna go foward,
Cause everyone knows, just who you are-are.
So live your life, ay ay ay.
Your steady chasing that paper,
Just live your life (Oh!), ay ay ay.
You got no time for no hata's
Just live your life (Oh!), ay ay ay.
No telling where it'll take ya,
Just live your life (Oh!), ay ay ay.
Cause I'm a paper chaser,
Just living my life (Ay!), my life (Oh!), my life (Ay!), my life(Oh!),
just living my life (Ay!), my life (Oh!), my life (Ay!), my life(Oh!),
just living my life
Nevermind what haters say, ignore them 'til they fade away.
Amazing they ungreatful after all the game I gave away.
Safe to say I paved the way, for you cats to get paid today.
You still be wasting days away, now had I never saved the day.
Consider them my projay, how much I think they should pay.
Instead of being gracious, they violated and made you wait.
I never been a hater still I love them, in a crazy way.
Some say they so yay and know they couldn't even work on Labor day.
It aint that they black or white, their hands of area in shades of grey.
I'm West side anyway, even if I left the game and stayed away.
Some move away to make a way not move away cause they afraid.
I give back to the hood and all you ever did was take away.
I pray for patience but they make me want to melt they face away.
Like I once made them scream, now I could make them plead their case away.
Been thuggin' all my life, can't say I don't deserve to take a break.
You rather see me catch a case, and watch my future fade away.
(Rihanna):You're gonna be a shining star, in fancy clothes, and fancy car-ars.
And then you'll see, you're gonna go forward,
Cause everyone knows, just who you are-are.
So live your life, ay ay ay.
Your steady chasing that paper,
Just live your life (Oh!), ay ay ay.
You got no time for no hata's
Just live your life (Oh!), ay ay ay.
No telling where it'll take ya,
Just live your life (Oh!), ay ay ay.
Cause I'm a paper chaser,
Just living my life
(T.I.):I'm the opposite of moderate, immaculately polished
With the spirit of a hustler and the swagger of a college kid.
Allergic to the counterfeit, impartial to the politics.
Articulate but still would grab a nigga by the collar quick.
Whoever having problems wit, they record sales just holla Tip
If that don't work and all else fails, then turn around and follow Tip
I got love for the game but ay, I'm not in love with all of it.
I do without the fame and the rappers nowadays are comedy.
The hootin' and the hollerin', back and forth with the argueing.
Where you from, who you know, what you make and what kind of car you in.
Seems as though you lost sight of whats important with the positive.
And checks until your bank account, and you're about poverted.
Your values is a disarrayed, prioritized are horribly.
Unhappy with the riches cause you piss poor morraly.
Ignoring all prior advice and fore warning.
And we mighty full of ourselves all of a sudden, aren't we?
(Rihanna):You're gonna be a shining star, in fancy clothes, and fancy car-ars.
And then you'll see, you're gonna go far,
Cause everyone knows, just who you are-are.
So live your life, ay ay ay.
You steady chasing that paper,
Just live your life (Oh!), ay ay ay.
You got no time for no hata's
Just live your life (Oh!), ay ay ay.
No telling where it'll take ya,
Just live your life (Oh!), ay ay ay.
Cause I'm a paper chaser,
Just living my life (Ay!), my life (Oh!), my life (Ay!), my life(Oh!),
just living my life (Ay!), my life (Oh!), my life (Ay!), my life(Oh!),
So live your life
Got everbody watching what I docome walk in my shoes
and see the way Im livin if you really want to
got my mind on my moneyand Im not goin awaaay
So keep on getting ya paper and keep on climbing
looking in the mirror and keep on shining
till the game ends till the clock stop
we gonna post up on the top spot
living the life, the life
brand new city got my whole team with me
the life, my life
I do what I wanna do
Im living my life, my life
I will neva lose
Im living my life, my life
and Im not stopping

You're So Vain, I Bet You Think This Blog Is About You

2008-09-22T13:36:00.000-07:00

Forgot that I saw Step Brothers awhile back. Tyler got a job in a movie theatre. This should help me see more 2008 movies as they come out. I really need to find a dollar theatre or something. I was doing a good job for awhile keeping up with newer movies... now I'm just waiting on certain movies to come out.
All things considered, I have no excuse for missing Burn After Reading. Maybe I'll go this weekend with Patricia. Hmm...

13. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
12. Charlie Bartlett
11. Definitely, Maybe
10. Incredible Hulk, The
9. Semi-Pro
8. Step Brothers
7. Horton Hears A Who
6. Pineapple Express
5. Get Smart
4. Iron Man
3. My Blueberry Nights
2. Dark Knight, The
1. WALL-E

Crazy Month: Office, VPILF, Fantasy and, oh yeah, Love

2008-09-19T10:07:00.000-07:00

This has been a crazy month.
The gallon challenge video has been put on hold indefinitely but there will be photos posted here before too long.
Third, my fantasy football team (1-1) is terrible and I'm losing interest fast. Of course if I'm 5-2 through 7 weeks my tune will change. Oddly, I have arguably the best running back in the game and I'm still disappointed. Go figure.
I have decided to watch all of the Marx Brothers movies in chronological order (I own 12 of the 13) and this was a fantastic decision. As I shared a few posts back, the Marx Brothers, particularly Groucho, are unbelivably brilliant and hilarious.
The Red Sox are probably, knock on wood, going to the playoffs. We have a 6 1/2 game lead in the wild card and are only a 1 1/2 games out of the division lead. We were tied for the division lead the other day before losing twice. I really, really, really hope we win the division. In other news, the Yankees' elimination number is 3, meaning they're almost gone.
I just finished up my DVDs of The Office Season 4, which is wonderful, and the new season is less than a week away. I'll probably be blogging on that when it gets rolling. I bought a book called "The Office And Philosophy" by the people who do the "Pop Culture and Philosophy" series which I enjoy. It's basically a collection of philosophical essays with an Office touch. I'm dying to tear into it but I spend way too much time online working on mix CDs and talking to Patricia.
Sarah Palin: VPILF. It's nice to be able to vote with my junk. It was the only decision in life I wasn't already making with my junk.
So yeah, there will be a lot more to talk about now. I won't have such a hiatus again, I hope. Post some comments, fools, and feel free to ask questions or make suggestions for lists. I never get list suggestions. I'm thinking about posting mix CD tracklists. Hmm.

Bo Diddley, Bo Diddley, Have You Heard?

2008-08-28T10:54:00.000-07:00

So I've got a big recommendation for this Thursday afternoon. If you haven't already listened to it, that is. Check out "Girl Talk." Girl Talk is a guy who does remixes or mashups of popular songs, mostly hip-hop based, with "classic" hits. Classic is a word I use very loosely as some of the sample material is awful but he turns all of it into a wonderful album-long song that would fit in nicely at a club. Not a shitty club though. One of my favorite interchanges is the blend between Sinead O'Connor's "Nothing Compares 2 U" and T.I.'s "What You Know About That." It's hard to believe these things would mesh, but they do and it's awesome. Even more surprising is that Girl Talk isn't facing hundreds of lawsuits because he puts this stuff out on CDs available most places and has done so for years, clearly without the original artists' permission. My only guess is that because he uses relatively small snippets of the source material he escapes legal requirements. That or he pays a lot of money for the rights.

I guess this can serve as a Vinyl Find of the Week post, too. This week I'll go with Bo Diddley's debut self-titled album "Bo Diddley." This was found along with the Chuck Willis album from like 2-3 weeks ago in a Marietta antique store. It's worth $250 and unfortunately has its former owner's signature across the top. No matter, it's in great shape and is one of the great early rock & roll albums ever made. It also makes me laugh. The first (and biggest) single off of this album was a song called "Bo Diddley." So if you're keeping up, that means "Bo Diddley" by Bo Diddley was on Bo Diddley. That is, the song by the artist was on the album. I love it. This is one of three Bo Diddley albums I'll have on here eventually. His early stuff is pretty valuable and I've inexplicably turned up three different records in this category.

Hmm, what else is going on? I've been reading a Chuck Klosterman book lately for the first time. I'll probably write more about it when I've read enough to adequately comment. I'm excited because one of my favorite books "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy (2006 Pulitzer Prize winning book) will be in theatres by the end of the year, sure to make an Oscar run like its predecessor, No Country For Old Men. Viggo Mortenson plays the lead and photos have leaked online. Very, very exciting.

Work has been insane lately. I've added "photographer" to my resume as I've been taking pictures for the South Fulton paper I write for. More work without more pay is never welcomed, but I like having control over the pictures and I am surprisingly good with the camera. The Vince Dooley photo(s) from last week's paper were mine and from now on most of the South Fulton photos will be mine as well.

I've got to try and see some more 2008 movies to blog about. I've really enjoyed keeping a running list of the movies I've seen this year and ranking them but it's so wildly (and unnecessarily) incomplete that I feel bad. I think I'll be checking out Tropic Thunder and Mamma Mia some time in the near future. The concepts behind each movie seem terrible, especially the morally repulsive Mamma Mia, but I'll do my best to put my biases aside.

Anyways, that's all I've got today. I think I'll start sharing more links in the near future to spice things up around here. Use the comments things below, even if there's nothing to say. Later!

Vince Dooley's Tears Cure Cancer

2008-08-26T07:59:00.000-07:00

Another cool opportunity to hang out with a cool famous person at work. This time it's former UGA coach, college football hall of famer, national champion, Vince Dooley. Coach Dooley is the man. It wasn't the first time I'd met him, but it was the first time I had the chance to get a photo with him and actually have a sit down conversation with him. Tomorrow I'll post the link to the article. If you want to see the rest of the photos from the event, click on the "Picasa" link on the right and go to "Work Photos."
Coach Dooley was pretty cool to hang out with. A lot of my friends had had the pleasure of his company more than I had in college, but after I graduated I joined a Men's Bible Study church group thing of about 20 guys. One of them was Coach Dooley. Other "famous" people include Mark Richt's father and 2 of David Perno's brothers. This in addition to several affluent Athens businessmen. Moving to Atlanta killed my involvement, but still, it was awesome.
Should be a pretty fantastic sports week this week. College football starts, high school football starts (work, ugh), and most importantly: Red Sox vs Yankees, final series in Yankee Stadium. Big series for the Sox.
My friend Jarrod from Vidalia is in town this week which is nice. He's here for some sort of training thing. His company is much welcomed and he's considering moving up here apparently. God knows I need more friends in this city. We were hanging out at Octane last night, my favorite coffee place in Atlanta. It was a very good time.
Not much to talk about again today. I've been thinking about discussing my love life but I don't really want this blog to become that sort of sappy idiotic ramblings page. Any suggestions for a list of the week this week?

A Little Toothpaste On A Monday Afternoon

2008-08-25T10:40:00.000-07:00

Just a little ToothpasteForDinner to get the week rolling. Not a whole lot worth talking about. The Red Sox are surviving, Georgia football is set to start and we had our big fantasy draft. It went pretty well. With the 3rd overall pick I scored the 2nd best running back in the game as well as the best receiving corps in the league. Gotta be happy about that. My team looks something like this:

QB: Marc Bulger, David Garrard

RB: Adrian Peterson, Edgerrin James, Matt Forte, Rashard Mendenhall

WR: Braylon Edwards, Andre Johnson, Santonio Holmes, Bernard Berrian, Reggie Williams

TE: Todd Heap, Randy McMichael

K: Nick Folk

DEF: Seattle Seahawks, Philadelphia Eagles

That's all I got for now. Got 2 more drafts coming up as well as a possible second league of my own if I get enough interest.

Come On! Feel The Georgianoise!

2008-08-21T09:36:00.000-07:00

Some exciting news today. Through the Sufjan Stevens rumor mill we have come to the conclusion that his next "State" album will be about a state whose first letter would be enough to determine which state it is. Thus, we can conclude that the state's first letter is not shared with any other states which leaves eight possible states:

Delaware

Florida
Georgia (!!!!)
Hawaii
Louisiana
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
Utah

My money's on Pennsylvania or Utah with Rhode Island being a possibility just because the name is so easy to turn into an album title for him. For those unfamiliar, Sufjan Stevens is probably the best musician to come out in the past ten years and it's been at least 3 years since he's put out a completely new album (there have been Christmas and Outtakes releases since then, but not real albums). He has thusfar done "Come On Feel The Illinoise!" and a Michigan album.

In other news, the fantasy football season is upon us which for me is significantly more interesting than the actual NFL season and even the average college football season. Technically this college football season is more interesting than the average one because of UGA's projected success but fantasy football is one of the most wonderful things in the world. People will be coming to my apartment Saturday evening for our draft. Nearly all of my closest friends are involved in my primary league this year which is really fun for me. It dawned on me recently that a lot of the people in the league don't know each other but everyone knows at least 2 other people so it should work. Two years ago I won the league and last year I came in third so it's been a good run thusfar for me in this game. The baseball league I'm in with Rob & B.J. is going especially well. I am in 2nd place with the playoffs right around the corner and I am playing the first place team and kicking his ass so far. A win could put me in first which I could possibly hold on to going into the playoffs. Not bad considering I was in 4th less than a month ago. I have an unhealthy interest in fantasy sports. Meanwhile, Rob is saying this fantasy football season will be his final due to waning interest. I cannot even fathom this. I can understand people not being into it to begin with, but I can't see someone being completely into it and then dropping it. Oh well. He'll be back.

Now for everyone's least favorite weekly blog feature: vinyl find of the week! This week is Gene Chandler - The Duke Of Earl. This is easily one of my five greatest record finds ever. I paid $3 for it, thinking it was perhaps a Duke Ellington record or just something random that might be interesting to check out. When I got home with my record finds that day, I began to look them all up. I was very disappointed that I had spent way more than I should've and came home with only 1-2 decent records. I couldn't find the record in question in the price guide thingy because it didn't have an artist's name listed in any of the common areas. A few weeks later I looked again. In the blurb of text on the back it had mentioned something about Gene Chandler. I knew Gene Chandler had written the original Duke Of Earl song but I had thought this record was someone else singing that song or something like that. I was wrong. Turns out this is the original Gene Chandler record. Then it got better. The standard issue of the Gene Chandler record was worth about $200, which is the value they generally give for older records featuring black artists and extremely popular songs from the time period. For instance, most of Chuck Berry's original records are worth $200. But this one had something a little different. The word "Stereophonic" is on the top of the cover. This meant that the record is "stereo" as opposed to "mono." This is significant in that it was released in 1961 but in 1961 there were very few stereo record players. Not until the Beatles came along were people like "holy crap I must listen to this in two speakers!" So basically, with no one having stereo record players, no one was yet buying stereo records. Especially stereo records of black artists. This turns a $200 record into an $800 record. That's right, book value $800. But it gets even better. Unlike all of the other high end records I own, this effing record is SEALED. Sealed records carry a value higher than anything else. This one has stayed sealed for 47 years. I could likely sell this one for it's book value or more if I found the right buyer. Wow. Not bad for $3.

Just to put this in perspective, I only own 5 records worth more than this and one worth the same. Of those 6, only one is not a Beatles record. None of the others are sealed. Woot.

R.I.P. Leroi Moore

2008-08-19T20:42:00.000-07:00

This saddens me to no end.

I'll Make Up A New God And Have A Funky Tea Party Of My Own

2008-08-19T10:53:00.000-07:00

Just a few cool things to share today...
Three new cool gizmos for the blog's sidebar which will serve as the lists of the week...

Photos of the 20 or so drawings of jazz musicians I've done:

Photos of the posters or DVD covers from the top 25 greatest movie list from 2 weeks ago:

photos of the 20 albums everyone must own in order to be taken seriously when discussing music with me (aka my 20 greatest album list)

Hopefully tomorrow or the next day I will have photos from the awesome day at work I had today. I got to re-meet someone famous! Woo! With pictures! Wowza! Anyways, that's all I've got. I'm not particularly inspired lately when it comes to the blog.

It's Great To Be A Georgia Bulldog

2008-08-14T12:37:00.000-07:00

It is great to be a Georgia Bulldog in August of 2008. Only a few weeks 'til kickoff and we are the best team in the country. An undefeated makes us one of the greatest college football teams of all time. We have the best running back in the country and one of the better quarterbacks. I can't freaking wait. With this in mind we have the list of the week... My 13 favorite pro or college sports franchises - ranked.
1. Boston Red Sox
2. Duke Blue Devils Basketball
3. University Of Georgia Football
4. University Of Georgia Basketball
5. Jeff Gordon (Hendrick Motorsports)
6. Boston Celtics
7. Denver Nuggets
8. Houston Rockets
9. Atlanta Hawks
10. Atlanta Thrashers
11. Atlanta Braves
12. Kansas Jayhawks Basketball
13. Tiger Woods

Eventually I think I might make a list where I ranke how I feel about every team in a sport or league from top to bottom. It's good for the sake of reminding me I hate a team when I subconsciously join their bandwagon.
Also, Kansas basketball is only on the list because of their Final Four victory over UNC, one of the best moments of my year so far.

I Could Dance With You Until The Cows Come Home. On Second Thought, I'd Rather Dance With The Cows Till You Come Home

2008-08-12T07:10:00.000-07:00

It's Vinyl Find Of The Week day. At left we have Chuck Willis - The King Of The Stroll. This record is worth about $300 and is in excellent shape. Willis died pretty young so we aren't overly familiar with his work but apparently he was very popular as an early rock/R&B musician. The photo doesn't do it justice but it's a really good looking album, as most Atlantic releases from that time were. I believe I paid something like $5 to $8 for this, so it was a steal at a Marietta Square antique store that normally overcharges for everything they have. Generally speaking I don't pay more than $3 apiece for records unless it's something special and this clearly is something special, especially considering the condition it was/is in. I will probably put this one up on my wall when I finally get to working on my room in that way. I don't have a whole lot else to talk about today so here's a bunch of quotes from the movie "Duck Soup" by the Marx Brothers. As you will see, it is one of the funniest movies ever made and you don't have to watch the movies to appreciate the quotes. A lot of my blog entry titles are some of Groucho's incredible witticisms.

Rufus T. Firefly: I'll see you at the opera tonight. I'll hold your seat till you get there. After you get there you're on your own.
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Rufus T. Firefly: Awfully decent of you to drop in today. Do you realize our army is facing disastrous defeat? What do you intend to do about it? Chicolini: I've done it already. Rufus T. Firefly: You've done what? Chicolini: I've changed to the other side. Rufus T. Firefly: So you're on the other side, eh? Well, what are you doing over here? Chicolini: Well, the food is better over here.
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Rufus T. Firefly: Lieutenant, why weren't the original indictment papers placed in my portfolio? Bob Roland: Why, uh, I didn't think those papers were important at this time, your excellency. Rufus T. Firefly: You didn't think they were important? Do you realize I had my dessert wrapped in those papers?
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Bob Roland: Ambassador Trentino is a very sensitive man. Perhaps if you insult him. He's very easy to insult. Why, I said something to Vera Marcal in his presence once, and he slapped my face. Rufus T. Firefly: Why didn't Vera slap your face? Bob Roland: She did. Rufus T. Firefly: What'd you say to her? [Roland whispers it in his ear. Firefly slaps his face] Rufus T. Firefly: You ought to be ashamed of yourself. Where'd you hear that story? Bob Roland: Why, you told it to me. Rufus T. Firefly: Oh yes, I remember. I should have slapped Mrs. Teasdale's face when she told it to me.
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Rufus T. Firefly: Now, what is it that has four pairs of pants, lives in Philadelphia, and it never rains but it pours? Chicolini: Atsa good one. I give you three guesses. Rufus T. Firefly: Now let me see. Has four pair of pants, lives in Philadelphia... Is it male or female? Chicolini: No, I no think so. Rufus T. Firefly: Is he dead? Chicolini: Who? Rufus T. Firefly: I don't know. I give up. Chicolini: I give up, too.
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Rufus T. Firefly: How would you like a job in the mint? Chicolini: Mint? No, no, I no like a mint. Uh - what other flavor you got?
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Rufus T. Firefly: You're a brave man. Go and break through the lines. And remember, while you're out there risking your life and limb through shot and shell, we'll be in be in here thinking what a sucker you are.
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Rufus T. Firefly: Dig trenches, with our men being killed off like flies? There isn't time to dig trenches. We'll have to buy them ready made. Here, run out and get some trenches. Wait a minute, get them this high [gestures to his chin] Rufus T. Firefly: and our soldiers won't need any pants. Wait a minute, get them this high [gestures over his head] Rufus T. Firefly: and we won't need any soldiers.
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Rufus T. Firefly: Gentlemen, Chicolini here may talk like an idiot, and look like an idiot, but don't let that fool you: he really is an idiot. I implore you, send him back to his father and brothers, who are waiting for him with open arms in the penitentiary. I suggest that we give him ten years in Leavenworth, or eleven years in Twelveworth. Chicolini: I'll tell you what I'll do: I'll take five and ten in Woolworth.
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Rufus T. Firefly: Married. I can see you right now in the kitchen, bending over a hot stove. But I can't see the stove.
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Rufus T. Firefly: Not that I care, but where is your husband? Mrs. Teasdale: Why, he's dead. Rufus T. Firefly: I bet he's just using that as an excuse. Mrs. Teasdale: I was with him to the very end. Rufus T. Firefly: No wonder he passed away. Mrs. Teasdale: I held him in my arms and kissed him. Rufus T. Firefly: Oh, I see, then it was murder. Will you marry me? Did he leave you any money? Answer the second question first.
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Rufus T. Firefly: Remember, you're fighting for this woman's honour, which is probably more than she ever did.
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Rufus T. Firefly: Maybe you can suggest something. As a matter of fact, you do suggest something. To me you suggest a baboon. Ambassador Trentino: What? Rufus T. Firefly: I, uh, I'm sorry I said that; it isn't fair to the rest of the baboons.
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Chicolini: Now I aska you one. What has a trunk, but no key, weighs 2,000 pounds and lives in a circus? Prosecutor: That's irrelevant. Chicolini: Irrelephant? Hey, that'sa the answer. There's a whole lot of irrelephants in the circus.
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Rufus T. Firefly: Oh, I'm sick of messages from the front. Don't we ever get a message from the side? - What is it? Bob Roland: General Smith reports a gas attack. He wants to know what to do. Rufus T. Firefly: Tell him to take a teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda and a half a glass of water.
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Rufus T. Firefly: Well, that covers a lot of ground. Say, you cover a lot of ground yourself. You better beat it - I hear they're going to tear you down and put up an office building where you're standing. You can leave in a taxi. If you can't get a taxi, you can leave in a huff. If that's too soon, you can leave in a minute and a huff. You know, you haven't stopped talking since I came here? You must have been vaccinated with a phonograph needle.
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Minister of Finance: Here is the Treasury Department's report, sir. I hope you'll find it clear. Rufus T. Firefly: Clear? Huh. Why a four-year-old child could understand this report. [to Bob Roland] Rufus T. Firefly: Run out and find me a four-year-old child, I can't make head or tail of it.
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Rufus T. Firefly: [to Chicolini] I wanted to get a writ of habeas corpus, but I should have gotten a-rid of you instead.
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Prosecutor: Chicolini, you are charged with high treason, and if found guilty, you will be shot. Chicolini: I object. Prosecutor: You object? On what grounds? Chicolini: I couldn't think of anything else to say. Rufus T. Firefly: Objection sustained. Prosecutor: Your majesty, you sustain the objection? Rufus T. Firefly: Sure, I couldn't think of anything else to say either. Why don't you object?
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Rufus T. Firefly: I'll see my lawyer about this as soon as he graduates from law school.
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Rufus T. Firefly: And now, members of the cabinet... Rufus T. Firefly: we'll take up old business. Cabinet Member: I wish to discuss the tariff. Rufus T. Firefly: Sit down, that's new business. No old business? Very well... [pounds gavel] Rufus T. Firefly: we'll take up new business. Cabinet Member: Now, about that tariff... Rufus T. Firefly: Too late, that's old business already. Sit down.
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Cabinet Member: The Department of Labor wishes to note that the workers of Freedonia are demanding shorter hours. Rufus T. Firefly: Very well, we'll give them shorter hours. We'll start by cutting their lunch hour to 20 minutes.
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Mrs. Teasdale: Notables from every country are gathered here in your honor. This is a gala day for you. Rufus T. Firefly: Well, a gal a day is enough for me. I don't think I could handle any more.
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Mrs. Teasdale: As chairman of the reception committee, I welcome you with open arms. Rufus T. Firefly: Is that so? How late do you stay open?
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Rufus T. Firefly: Just for that, you don't get the job I was going to give you. Chicolini: What job? Rufus T. Firefly: Secretary of War. Chicolini: All right, I take it. Rufus T. Firefly: Sold.
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Mrs. Teasdale: Your excellency, the ambassador's here on a friendly visit. He's had a change of heart. Rufus T. Firefly: A lot of good that'll do him: he's still got the same face. Ambassador Trentino: I'm sorry we lost our tempers; I'm willing to forgot if you are. Rufus T. Firefly: Forget? You ask me to forget? A Firefly never forgets. Why, my ancestors would rise from their graves, and I'd only have to bury them again.
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Prosecutor: Something must be done! War would mean a prohibitive increase in our taxes. Chicolini: Hey, I got an uncle lives in Taxes. Prosecutor: No, I'm talking about taxes - money, dollars! Chicolini: Dollars! There's-a where my uncle lives! Dollars, Taxes!
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Rufus T. Firefly: [into radio] This is Rufus T. Firefly coming to you through the courtesy of the enemy. We're in a mess folks, we're in a mess. Rush to Freedonia! Three men and one woman are trapped in a building! Send help at once! If you can't send help, send two more women! [Pinky enters and raises three fingers] Rufus T. Firefly: Make that three more women!
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[reporting on shadowing Firefly] Chicolini: Monday we watch-a Firefly's house, but he no come he wasn't home. Tuesday we go to the ball game, but he fool us: he no show up. Wednesday HE go to the ball game, but we fool HIM, WE no show up. Thursday it was a double-header nobody show up. Friday it rained all day, there was no ball game, so we stayed home, we listen to it over the radio.
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Rufus T. Firefly: I'm in a hurry! To the House of Representatives! Ride like fury! If you run out of gas, get ethyl. If Ethel runs out, get Mabel! Now step on it!
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Ambassador Trentino: Have you been trailing Firefly? Chicolini: Have we been trailing Firefly? Why, my partner, he's got a nose just like a bloodhound. Ambassador Trentino: Oh really? Chicolini: Yeah, and the rest of his face don't look so good either.
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Rufus T. Firefly: Go, and never darken my towels again!
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Rufus T. Firefly: Here are the plans of war. They're as valuable as your life. And that's putting them pretty cheap. Watch them like a cat watched her kittens. Have you ever had kittens? No, of course not, you're too busy running around playing bridge. Can't you see what I'm trying to tell you, I love you.
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Rufus T. Firefly: Take a letter. Bob Roland: Who to? Rufus T. Firefly: To my dentist. [Roland writes out the following] Rufus T. Firefly: Uh... Dear dentist, enclosed find check for $500, yours very truly. Send that off immediately. Bob Roland: I'll, um, I'll have to enclose a check first. Rufus T. Firefly: You do and I'll fire you.
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Mrs. Teasdale: Oh, your Excellency! Rufus T. Firefly: You're not so bad yourself.

A Child Of Five Would Understand This. Someone Fetch A Child Of Five.

2008-08-10T12:47:00.000-07:00

Well, I did it. I attempted the Gallon Challenge. It was an interesting experience. Of course I did not succeed in the typical sense. I did exceed some expectations. I took down a ton of milk. I didn't instantly throw up (I had to force myself to throw up). Theres are a lot of glorious details to come when we finish editing the video. Right near the end I was disappointed in my performance then I took down a huge glass of milk and it didn't make vomit (as time expired). I couldve handled a little more before my body started its evacuation plan. A few things to whet your appetite: the video won't be too gross (we didn't record most of the grosser parts, but believe me you'll get the idea), the video will be pretty funny, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and could possibly be talked into trying it again. Get excited. No, I don't currently know exactly when it'll be posted.
In other news, after attempting the gallon challenge, we went to see Pineapple Express. This movie was very, very interesting. While walking out of the theater I called it "the best bad movie I've ever seen" and I stand by this statement. It was completely and utterly hilarious. The script was fantastic and there weren't any gaping plot holes. The direction and/or editing were beyond bad, though. I feel like the movie was supposed to exist in a different world than it did. The director went through great lengths to show the world in which these events took place was our own and then constantly had things happen that defied logic. If we're playing by the rules of our world, you can't have events that would make a normal person scratch their head in disbelief passed along as no big deal. This happened the entire movie, whether it was Seth Rogan's relationship with the high school chick, the high school chick's parents' weird attitudes about everything that happens, or everyone in the entire movie never questioning the legality of having weed (including the non-corrupt cops), crazy things happen throughout the entire movie and not too many people acknowledge these things are crazy. Also, the casting director clearly had a better sense of humor than the director. Rosie Perez? Seriously? It would be funny to put Rosie Perez in a movie like this if they wanted to make it funny, but they just had her playing it straight and it took away from things for me. She was awful, as was just about everyone except the two stars. So, in lieu of a solid movie, we have the jokes. The jokes do not disappoint. They pour them on at a great pace that doesn't really let up no matter what bizarre event is going on. This is why everyone and their mother will tell you to go see this movie. It's completely hilarious and most of the jokes are original. Maybe the audience enjoyed the stupid action/falls humor more than the clever humor, but the movie didn't lack in the clever department. All in all, I wasn't disappointed I went to see it. I didn't leave the theater all moist like my friends did, but I'd still recommend it.
It will probably end up being the best movie on the year I wouldn't buy. But who knows, maybe I'll be talked into it. It's certainly a good conversation-piece movie. Oh, and if you like Simon Pegg movies, I recommend this one for you especially.
Updated list of 2008 movies:

12. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
11. Charlie Bartlett
10. Definitely, Maybe
9. Incredible Hulk, The
8. Semi-Pro
7. Horton Hears A Who
6. Pineapple Express
5. Get Smart
4. Iron Man
3. My Blueberry Nights
2. Dark Knight, The
1. WALL-E

I Have A Mind To Join A Club And Beat You Over The Head With It

2008-08-08T06:24:00.000-07:00

It should be a crazy busy day today. At work alone I have the following things to do:

At least one interview for the Fulton paper
Transcribe quotes for the Douglas and Fulton papers
Call all four coaches in Douglas to finish up my football preview stories
Transcribe the quotes from these conversations
Write the football preview stories (4)
Write features on one player from each team per aforementioned transcribed quotes (4)
Write a blog entry for our new website
Possibly write stories for Fulton
Collapse

Tonight should be fun. It could be GALLON CHALLENGE day. It hasn't officially been decided that it's today, but personally I don't care anymore, haha, I'm not even going to prepare myself all that much except I'll probably avoid eating foods that will be grosser coming up than going down.

My Red Sox are close to getting Brian Giles for injury insurance. It's nice. It's also nice to see Jason Bay doing well while Manny could face a lifetime ban from baseball if they find out he mailed it in (see: collusion). Jason Bay getting love from his teammates makes me very, very happy.
I'm still unpacking at the new apartment. It's been extremely time consuming and tedious. Everything got jumbled by being in 2 different places and putting it all back together in nice new order is exhausting. I've been sorting through records, DVDs, books, magazines, newspapers and tons of random trinket-y things I've amassed over the years. The living room (home of the records, DVDs and lots of cool posters) looks great now. It took a long time but it finally came together. Now I'm working on my room. I have tons of shelf space which is something I've wanted for awhile. I think it's going to look chaotic, even when it's finished, but at this point the volume of crap I have makes it impossible for me to have a simple, sleek looking room.

Since the week's almost over and I haven't done one yet, here's the list of the week. This week it's "best looking female celebrities." They are in alphabetical order. I love them all (especially when no one's around).

Ingrid Bergman
Kate Bosworth
Tina Fey
Anne Hathaway
Audrey Hepburn
Norah Jones
Grace Kelly
Keira Knightley
Rachel McAdams
Dagmar Midcap
Joanna Newsom
Natalie Portman

Vinyl Find Of The Week, Etc.

2008-08-05T11:26:00.000-07:00

Finally able to start my "Vinyl Find of the Week" gimmick. I have no idea why this would appeal to those of you who read me regularly, but this is the crap I care about and some of it is pretty interesting. To kick it off, I went with the record that is the blog's namesake: Buck Clayton - How Hi The Fi. I love the album, obviously. It's only worth $50 which is far less than most of the records that will be on here, but I think my price guide undervalues it. I saw one for sale at Wuxtry Records in Athens, GA for $40 which means it's price guide value should be quite a bit higher. Buck Clayton isn't the most famous jazz musician and I wouldn't call him prolific, but this one is about perfect if you like upbeat jazz. Since moving to Buckhead, I've had a much greater appreciation for my record collection than I've had in a long, long time. It is wonderfully on display in my new living room and there's something majestic about it the way we have it arranged. As I mentioned, a lot of the junkier records are getting sold off so that helps things as well. It's nice to have moments where you appreciate what you have more than what you want. I have these same moments with a lot of my various junk. My roommates agreed that they had never seen a guy with as much "stuff" as me. I can see this making sense, but I'm curious as to what it says about me. Most people seem to think it's a good thing, so I guess I shouldn't worry about it.
Ever since I posted the link to my blog on Facebook, I've been getting quite a few hits. Miraculously I didn't get any comments on my list of 25 favorite movies. I thought that one would garner some sort of discussion. A year or two ago I posted my favorite movies by decade on Facebook and got tons of comments. Oh well.
Work has been stressful lately. I've been doing all of my regular work on time but I've been struggling to get photos that accompany the stories I write that take place outside of Douglas County. I rely on the interviewed subjects to submit photos and they forget or whatever and I'll get phone calls from the powers that be wondering what happened. It makes me look bad and, lately, feel bad. The higher-ups scheduled a meeting at the same time of what might be my biggest local assignment ever (that is, I've recruited several people to show up somewhere to do something for a story and now I won't be there to ask them questions). It's technically not a HUGE problem, but didn't help anything. I've taken on a lot of extra work outside of my coverage area without asking any questions and all of the problems regarding it are probably making me look bad to the higher-ups rather than making me look good for doing thankless work without ever really being asked to do diddley. Oh well again.
On a lighter note, I'm still loving the Jason Bay/Manny Ramirez swap. We lost our first game since getting Bay last night but he still has a hit in every game he's been with us. Meanwhile the Yankees' big trade deadline pitching acquisition gave up a walk-off grand slam yesterday. Gotta love that. I haven't been worried about the Yankees all year, then, right after the All Star break they started catching up, then they almost swept us, then they were right on our heels, then they picked up lots of good players at the deadline, but suddenly I'm back to being comfortable with them. Their pickups weren't very good afterall, their pitching staff is falling apart like crazy, the guys who were having insane months are coming back to earth and they seem extremely beatable. Meanwhile, the Jason Bay Red Sox seem relaxed and relieved to be rid of Manny. I'll take it.

Jason Bay Is My Homeboy

2008-08-01T06:09:00.000-07:00

Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

25 Favorite (Critically Acclaimed) Movies Of All Time

2008-07-31T13:04:00.000-07:00

It's list of the week time, and here we have my 25 favorite movies of all time. I made this list as the Paul version of a film critic's list. In reality The Sandlot and Undercover Brother make my list, but this list is a little more official. There are definitely movies on this list that wouldn't be on others' lists, but they all have a certain degree of social significance greater than a baseball movie about a pwning some kids all summer over an autographed baseball, etc. Anyways, the order is alphabetical and this list took a very, very long time to compile. Thoughts and comments welcomed. Feel free to bitch about movies being left out, etc.

Adventures Of Robin Hood, The
American Beauty
Brazil
Breathless
Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari, The
Casablanca
Charade
Citizen Kane
Double Indemnity
Duck Soup
For A Few Dollars More
Godfather, The (and The Godfather II)
Kind Hearts And Coronets
M
Metropolis
Modern Times
Monty Python's Life Of Brian
Night Of The Hunter
Nights Of Cabiria
Notorious
Raging Bull
Third Man, The
Two-Lane Blacktop
Virgin Spring, The
Yellow Submarine

In other news, the Gallon Challenge has been pushed back one week due to poor attendance and difficulty of finding a venue to do it. It turns out you can't have someone vomitting all over your living room. Who knew? The good news is we are having an open invitation to anyone who wants to come and because of the change we might get a few more people than we would've gotten tomorrow. Oddly enough, I was the only one pushing for it to be this Friday. Everyone else voted for it to be pushed back. Oh, well.

Last but not least, check out this hilarious site one of my coworkers sent me. Its authentic look makes it even better.

You get NOTHING! You lose! Good day sir!

2008-07-29T12:23:00.000-07:00

Be sure and read the previous post, it's far more interesting than this one, I just thought of a few more things I wanted on the blog today that I forgot to bother with earlier.

1. I finally finished my list project. See the four links in the sidebar titled "what i have, what i want, etc." They took me forever and they are every list that will show up in the "List Of The Week" feature I've been doing.

2. I realized I've tried 31 Samuel Adams, not 30. I forgot Imperial Pilsner. It's pretty much pointless but for the sake of being comprehensive I mention it.

3. This is completely hilarious and true, courtesy of Pearls Before Swine:

Valdosta, Georgia: What A Joke

2008-07-29T07:14:00.000-07:00

Last night, the goons at ESPN named Valdosta, GA as "TitleTown USA" based on a website poll in which Valdosta supposedly bested 19 other finalists with 30% of the vote. Just to give you an idea, that's more than New York, NY and Boston, MA got combined.

I write about sports for a living in an area where sports is not THAT big of a deal and you couldn't pay me enough to go to Valdosta to write about that crap. Their sole claim to fame is their arguably unparalleled success in high school football. I think we all have an attachment to high school football, but you mean to tell me THIRTY PERCENT of voters thought Valdosta's high school football accomplishments were better than that of the Yankees (26 World Series titles), Giants (defending champs) and Knicks? They thought Valdosta's high school accomplishments were better than the Red Sox (7 World Series titles, defending champs, currently most popular team in baseball), Celtics (17 NBA titles, defending champs), and Patriots (you know their resume)?!?! Bullshit. There is a zero percent chance this voting was done fairly. Zero. Not only should Valdosta not have won this thing, they shouldn't have come in the top 15 out of 20. It's preposterous. Let's just say the entire state of Georgia was voting for them (which is preposterous as well when you consider the entire state doesn't even agree to root for ANY of its pro sports teams), and let's say Valdosta pulled a lot of votes from Florida because it's on the border. Let's also assume they jacked some votes from people who found the special ESPN did on them particularly heartwarming. EVEN THEN they shouldn't have gone over 6% (which is what Boston got and MORE than what New York got).
Famous professional athletes to come out of Valdosta: J.D. Drew, Jesse Tuggle, and, uhh... Buck Belue? Huh?
I don't know why I let these things anger me. What could be less significant than this poll? I think it's got more to do with the fact that the city of Valdosta will probably take this as the compliment to end all compliments than the actual fact that they won. This designation would be forgotten at about 15 of the 20 finalist cities.

Okay, deep breath, and we're back.

I am officially an Atlantan now. That is, I live inside 285 which is the real Atlanta. My address now ends in "Atlanta, GA" and whatever my zip code is. I am excited. Besides the ridiculous cost of gas for me to drive to work each day, there is no major drawback. I am in the social center of the southern world and I couldn't be happier. Within a few miles of me is my favorite coffee shop, one of my favorite record stores, my favorite Church, some of my best friends, some excellent restaurants (I've already had Fellini's Pizza TWICE since moving 3 days ago) and just about anything one could think of needing. The only thing it's lacking is a killer video store. The only decent one is in the Highlands which, if I'm not mistaken, is far.

I am now reasonably close to the Venezias, Tyler, Kelly, BJ, Stephen and of course my roommates who have taken surprisingly well to boxes being in the common area and some of my space consuming stuff being in the living room. We all live in a Yellow Submarine. It should be a decent living situation as all 3 of us are laid back, we have enough common interests that would make us friends if we weren't living together and we all, apparently, like the Beatles. We've already developed a playful college football disagreement that should make for a very fun season. I feel like I have been unpacking non-stop for a few days and still have so much left to do it's scary. As for transitions to an apartment, this one has been very reasonable. We haven't had to deal with utilities, bugs or too many malfunctions. Some of the neighbors are scary but I suspect they just look that way. It's pretty unlikely that there would be genuinely threatening people living in this place.
I'm still trying to decide what I want this blog to be. I'm beginning to think it would be good to go back to writing the sort of tongue-in-cheek op/ed stuff I wrote in college but I'm also enjoying writing about the day-to-day crap. Plus I haven't figured out how my "____ of the week" gimmicks would fit in. Suggestions welcomed as are comments. I'm looking forward to "unveiling" my list website project if I can ever get it together. Unveiling in quotation marks due to it being a wayyy too important designation for this. Still, I've been looking for a site that will allow me to simply share a few different link rolls without getting too complicated. Del.icio.us should do it but they overcomplicate things. I'm seriously considering just using a stupid Geocities page, haha. At least I know what to expect from them.

I Was So Much Older Then, I'm Younger Than That Now

2008-07-25T10:51:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow I move to Buckhead (click to enlarge the photo). The irony of someone such as myself moving to the yuppie capital of the (southern) world is prevalent. Still, I'm excited. I'll finally be "in the city" and I'll be near some of my favorite places and favorite people. Which is a pretty big upgrade over being near none of my favorite places and none of my favorite people, hah. Other positives include: getting a majority of my stuff out of storage, not being in Lithia Springs, cheaper rent (negated by more gas used, at least at first), far more interesting social life, far more interesting roommates (for better or worse), ease of tricking myself into believing it's okay for me to live a lifestyle very similar to that of a college student and there will probably be some financial gain to having my shit together as I intend to hijack my dad's eBay account in order to sell off a lot of stuff I no longer need. It's going to be extremely difficult to part with some stuff (and I may be skittish) but I really love going through old stuff and any money I make will go right back into my ridiculous hobbies.

Speaking of making money on my ridiculous hobbies, I went to my first ever record show last week and it occurred to me that I'm plenty qualified (and willing) to set up a booth at the next one they have which will be late September. I might be dillusional but I think I could make a lot of money en route to thinning my collection out (something I've been planning on doing for a long time).

I find myself listening to Rilo Kiley (left) a lot lately. It's sort of funny considering I'm a guy and this is empowering crap for women to listen to, probably especially lesbians, but there are some really good lyrics, some of which fit me pretty well right now. I think it's pretty ridiculous to say lyrics fit one's life, but I do it anyway. Someday I may walk the walk.

Does anyone have a digital camera they're interested in selling? I really need a cheap digital camera for the aforementioned projects and to make this blog better. It occurs to me I won't be able to afford a Best Buy one for another 3 weeks which sucks. Let me know.

T-minus one week to the GALLON CHALLENGE. I'd tell you to get excited but I know you already are. I'm trying to think of the best way to practice for this. I've been drinking a little milk here and there but I don't think anything short of a trial run will help anything. Suggestions welcome.

Have a good weekend if I don't write sooner.

I Intend To Live Forever. So Far So Good.

2008-07-23T11:16:00.000-07:00

In this, the latest segment of "my job is better than yours" we see some photos from work from a few weeks ago. The full gallery is available in my "Picasa" link in the "STALK ME" section of the side bar. Check out the side bar if you've got a chance because I've literally spent hours on it in the past week to make it more interesting and full. I've been meaning to post these pictures somewhere for a few weeks now and I figured it would make an interesting blog post. The guy and his friend built this car themselves and he races it around the country. Turns out he's from Douglasville, which is where I work and it also turns out that it's street legal which is cool. So he offered to take me around in it. He got it up to about 125mph at one point which was fun for me because I was easily the tallest person to ever ride in it and I had no helmet, seatbelt, glasses or anything to protect me from being impaled by a pebble or something. Suffice it to say it was awesome. Clicking on the photos should make them larger as blogspot apparently doesn't like photos to be very big on the entries themselves. All in all I've done some very cool things at my job. Most of you know about the thing with the Braves (see the aforementioned Picasa gallery for photos from that), I've also had the chance to meet a few NBA players, the best high school basketball player in the country Derrick Favors, Georgia State football head coach Bill Curry (see: former Ga Tech & Bama coach) and a bunch of WNBA folks. There were also several others I am probably forgetting in addition to the sorts of things depicted in these photos. Believe it or not, I'm not really bragging. Work is usually more of a pain in the ass than fun, but it's nice to spotlight the better things to remind myself they exist.

Since this post is pretty boring, I figured I could share something more interesting. A few weeks ago (aka "the olden-days") my friend Kelly and I devoted hours of our precious, precious lives to establishing a perfect Mixtape/CD of indie rock for popular consumption. That is, this mixtape may not be our 17 favorite indie songs of all time, but it's the exact sort of CD one should listen to should they want to try and get into indie rock. I should probably mention that some of the music on here (see: Bob Dylan), isn't really indie music but just seemed to fit the tone of the CD rather well. We're currently working on perfecting an alternative rock CD that I'll eventually share here as well. Anyways, this CD has a good number of songs you may have heard in the past, which was part of the point. It's just an introduction to indie, not necessarily representative of the genre as a whole. And just to clarify, I mean indie strictly in the genre sense, not the literal sense of "independent music" which is often quite different. Admittedly, some of these bands suck (see: The Postal Service), but the songs fit the feel so we're rolling with it.

The Format - I'm Actual
Ben Kweller - Sha Sha (How It Should Be)
Belle & Sebastian - The Boy With The Arab Strap
Of Montreal - Wraith Pinned To The Mist...
The Shins - Young Pilgrim
The Postal Service - Such Great Heights
Peter, Bjorn & John - Young Folks
Sufjan Stevens - Decatur
The Format - Dog Problems
Of Montreal - Disconnect The Dots
Joanna Newsom - Inflammatory Writ
Anathallo - Hanasakajijii (A Great Wind, More Ash)
Melanie - Brand New Key
Sufjan Stevens - Chicago
The Velvet Underground - Sweet Jane
Bob Dylan - Lonesome Day Blues
David Bowie - Queen Bitch

Also, if you want to make it a playlist (which can hold more music than a standard CD) I'd throw the following songs in there:

Mika - Lollipop
Mika - Love Today
The Cat Empire - Sly
The Flaming Lips - Yeah Yeah Yeah
Belle & Sebastian - Stars Of Track & Field
Peter Sarstedt - Where Do You Go To My Lovely (which, pending Kelly's approval, will be put in between tracks 7 and 8 on the above mix officially)

Actually, I could name dozens of songs you could throw into a playlist of this sort. If you decide to put this CD together, let me know what you think. My ego is my second favorite thing to have stroked. That is, behind my hair. Right.

Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely. It Rocks Absolutely, Too.

2008-07-22T11:28:00.000-07:00

LIST OF THE WEEK

I'll probably end up doing two different weekly gimmicks here. First is this one, the list of the week. The other is record find of the week, which sounds lame to probably everyone reading this right now, but it's a part of the reason I started this thing and part of the reason it's named what it is so suck a fat one.

Anyways, here's this week's list. Pretty soon all of my lists will be available via a sidebar link. I've been typing up my Moleskines (which has taken and will continue to take a ton of time) and I've been loading lists on to some list site for mass consumption. I should probably offer a disclaimer that I'm not arrogant enough to believe you will do anything with these lists. A lot of times they are about me (my favorites, things I own, things I want, etc) but sometimes they'll have info between the lines that might make you think "Paul likes these directors? Maybe I could check out a few of them" or something like that. That's up to you. I'm just going to post them. Feel free to offer feedback on the lists as I do this. Also, definitely feel free to request a list be done on something. I'm not going to be making a list of my favorite actors of Spanish descent but if you come up with something like that you'd find interesting, I'd be happy to make those sorts of wackier lists.

This week's list: Types of Samuel Adams I have tried (30!)
The order is alphabetical after the first two which are the common Sam Adams beers.

Boston Lager
Sam Adams Light
180 (Boston Restaurant Exclusive)
1790 Root Beer Brew
Black Lager
Boston Ale
Brown Ale
Cherry Wheat
Cranberry Lambic
Cream Stout
Double Bock
George Washington Porter
Hefeweizen
Holiday Porter
Honey Porter
Irish Red
James Madison Dark Wheat Ale
Longshot Boysenberry Wheat
Longshot Dortmunder Export
Longshot Grape Pale Ale
Longshot Old Ale
Longshot Weizenbock
Octoberfest
Old Fezziwig Ale
Pale Ale
Scotch Ale
Summer Ale
Traditional Ginger Honey Ale
White Ale
Winter Lager

The Worst Review of The Dark Knight You'll See

2008-07-19T08:34:00.000-07:00

Wait, someone can't actually write a negative review of this movie, right?
Some quotes from friends about the flick:
"Believe the hype. Dark Knight is as good as advertised." - Rob
"I would have the joker's sick, twisted, demented little babies." - David, err, Private Pierce
"I just had a two-hour orgasm." - Kyle
"I can honestly say right now that it's in my top 10 favorite movies of all-time, and that's saying something." - Kisubika
"I quit my job and dropped out of school so I could devote the rest of my life to masturbating to this movie." - Ryan Simmons

Okay, that last one was made up, but you get the idea. Some people really, really like this movie.

Here's the thing. I liked it, too. There's a lot to like. It's creative to the point that you know it wasn't written exclusively by the comic book people, it's hilarious (the Ledger hospital scene still makes me smile), stylistically it's close to perfection (this and this alone is why most people get so moist over it), it doesn't insult your intelligence, it doesn't parody itself, it's better than Iron Man which everyone loved, and, yeah, Ledger does a damn good job.

But there's a lot to hate, too. I liked the movie more than I didn't, but I feel obliged to bring people back to earth.

First, if Heath Ledger wins an Oscar for adopting a funny accent and licking his lips, the Oscars are dead to me. I'm sure people have won for less, but come on. He was absolutely great, the tics were great, but we're talking about the best supporting actor in the world for one year. Did you see No County For Old Men last year? Javier Bardem won best supporting actor for his Anton Chigurh character that was essentially a lunatic eerily similar to the joker sans make-up, scar and accent. If you take those three things away from Ledger, you don't get Bardem. It's not even close. Ledger gave the performance of his life, he was creative, believable, outside of his regular persona, interesting and just damn good, but he's no Bardem. Unless it's a very weak year for Oscar-type movies this year (and it might be), it can't go to Ledger. Don't forget that most of what we like about this character was scripted. Ledger didn't come up with the absolutely brilliant philosophy behind why the Joker does what he does. He just acted it. We'll talk more about this next January when your loins have stopped tingling.

Second, I don't like Katie Holmes, but why replace her with Maggie Gyllenhaal (sp?) if she improves the character in no way? It was a distraction. Katie Holmes was awful in Batman Begins and Maggie was awful in The Dark Knight. What makes it even more frustrating is that they are both beautiful women in real life who are uglied-up in these movies and then constantly shoved in our faces in a "look how hot she is!" manner.

Third, semi-spoiler alert. Skip to the next one if you haven't seen the movie. Anyways, did the male character that died at the end of the movie really need to die? Obviously he did for this plot line, but they were brewing such a great character for the next sequel! Argh!

Fourth, so let me get this straight... Batman, who clearly has superhuman instincts, has come up with an invention with the help of his Wayne Enterprises people that does submarine sonar anywhere at any time. WHY? He's Batman! He doesn't need an invention that technology tells us cannot exist! It's not like the Bat-suit where we know we'll get to that sort of protective body armor some day or the Batmobile which could probably be built today, it's a technology we have not developed and probably won't any time soon, given to a character, perhaps the only character, that doesn't need it. He uses it for effect one time (to see the people a floor above him). Every other time he didn't really need it.

Fifth, one of my favorite things about this movie is also one of my least favorite things. It's going to be difficult to talk about it without ruining the movie, but I really liked how they didn't force anything to happen in the plot just because Ledger died. I, however, didn't like the way they left that plot line hanging. A little too vague, but I prefer a little too vague to some lame ending done just because Ledger's not going to be able to film a sequel.

Sixth, big spoiler alert here, too. You can't show us a character dying at the hands of the villain and then bring them back to life a few scenes later without a full, detailed explanation. I don't mind movies having fake deaths, it's fine. It's just that we saw the Joker shoot him. Did he just pretend to be dead instead of wounded? That's the explanation? And since we're on spoiler alerts, I guess we can go ahead and assume that the two main characters that stayed dead in this movie will be back for round three. I'm sure we'll find out falls and burns aren't fatal in Gotham. In fact, this problem is the most glaring instance of my least favorite recurring issue: there were a lot of things in this movie that could've benefited by a longer explanation. I don't need to have every single thing spelled out for me, but why are we supposed to be okay with never knowing who Gordon's mole was? They semi-reveal it and then excuse that person? What? Rachel cheats on both guys and this is okay? Huh? Ballet dancers (who in real life are skinny and not top heavy) are the best Bruce Wayne can get? Really?

To conclude I say again: I loved the movie, I just want everyone to keep it in perspective. It's not the greatest thing to ever happen. It's not the best movie of the year (I have it at 2nd, scroll down to see my list from last week and mentally insert it there).

Rest In Peace, Heath. I underestimated you.

Announcing: The Gallon Challenge

2008-07-17T19:36:00.000-07:00

Finally, a post worth a damn.

On Friday, August 1st, 2008 after years, yes YEARS of speculation and broken promises, I, Paul Rehm, will be attemting the gallon challenge. I have chosen Tyler Stinson as the event's administrator and commissioner. He will also be video taping it for your pleasure and the results will be posted here and here alone.

If you're not familiar, the gallon challenge is where one idiot takes a gallon of milk and consumes it in whole in one hour's time. After the final sip, the person has to last one extra hour without vomiting. If they vomit at any point, they fail. When I don't vomit, I will succeed and eternal glory will be thrust upon me. Supposedly it's almost impossible to do. I couldn't care less.

As for my particular endeavor, I will drink 1% milk. I will also have NesQuik powders around should I feel the need to mix it up a bit. On a sidenote, I have already chosen the song that will play in the background of the video. Don't judge me.

If you would like to attend this event in person, let me know and I'll see what I can do. It will be held somewhere in Atlanta on the aforementioned date and it will be spectacular. Eternal glory thrust away.

2008 So Far

2008-07-17T17:29:00.000-07:00

I've seen more movies than you. I've listened to more music than you. It actually is true. It's not necessarily a good thing, but it actually is true. Surprisingly, I never watch things as they come out. I see relatively few movies in theatres and I generally wait for the musical year to end to read lists of what's better and what's best. It's something of a pretentious process, but it is what it is. This disclaimer is designed to point out how unusual it is for me to be ranking things that came out that year in July of that year. Here we are, halfway through July and I have the best of what I've seen and heard. I am 100% positive these things will change and I could end up hating all of them by the time it's all said and done, who knows? Technically There Will Be Blood was a 2008 movie, but it counts for 2007 because it won Oscars last year.

The 2008 movies I've seen, ranked in order of preference (with parenthetical commentary):

8. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Aliens. I'm not spoiling the movie for you, aliens are involved. Aliens. Aliens from outer space.)
7. Definitely, Maybe (My mother was in charge of renting movies on the 4th of July.)
6. The Incredible Hulk (If both Hulks can take any amount of punching without impact, why do they continually punch one another?)
5. Semi-Pro (This ranking proves how awful the previous three were.)
4. Get Smart (Pleasant surprise. Miss Hathaway should be Mrs. Rehm before long.)
3. Iron Man (I dare not rank thee any lower lest I upset thine fanboys.)
2. My Blueberry Nights (Incomparably beautiful. Will probably change it to #1 by the end of the year.)
1. WALL-E (Emotional attachments to metal boxes don't come easy. The first third of this movie is perfection. The pre-spaceship third is absolutely without flaw.)

For music I had to go ahead and nix the terrible stuff. I don't listen to shitty albums over and over so it's hard to accurately rank them. I've narrowed it down to 5 so far.

The Top 5 2008 albums I've listened to, ranked in order of preference (with more parenthetical commentary):

5. The Tallest Man On Earth - Shallow Grave (Beautiful, clever, whatever)
4. R.E.M. - Accelerate (Love the band, hated the last album, welcome back boys)
3. Coldplay - Viva La Vida (Hate the band, couldn't be more surprised, gets better each time)
2. The Hold Steady - Stay Positive (Love them, love this, right album at the right time)
1. Flight Of The Conchords - Flight Of The Conchords (Perfect comedy and damn good music)

That's it so far. What you could possibly do with this information is beyond me, but enjoy and feel free to comment on it. I could use some commentary. Couldn't we all?

It's Not Arrogance When It's True

2008-07-17T12:27:00.000-07:00

My deep, perhaps irrational love for toothpastefordinner will probably come up from time to time. Here's a decent one from June.

Got bored today, posted a bunch of my favorite lyrics on Facebook because I often find it easier to let other people (the musicians) do my philosophizing for me. And because I am one of those people who believes good song selections = good person. There is something inherently ridiculous about this belief, but I haven't been able to articulate it yet so I'm going to pretend it's not true for the time being. Here's what I chose. In retrospect, they're not as good out of the context of the songs themselves. Oh well. Enjoy?

"and as for my inflammatory writ, well i wrote it when i was not inflamed one bit." - joanna newsom, "inflammatory writ"
"there was that night where we thought john berryman could fly, but he didn't so he died. she said 'you're pretty good with words but words won't save your life' and they didn't so he died." - the hold steady, "stuck between stations"
"and your mom would stick a fork right into daddy's shoulder, and dad would throw the garbage all across the floor, as we would lay and learn what each other's bodies were for." - neutral milk hotel, "king of carrot flowers"
"can you hear me? will you listen? don't come near me, don't go missing. and in the lissome light of evening, help me, Cosmia, i'm grieving." - joanna newsom, "cosmia"
"i've got to make my bed if i am gonna lay with you; cause a disaster's a disaster no matter what Christian language you drag it through." - manchester orchestra, "wolves at night"
"but i learned fast how to keep my head up 'cause i know there is this side of me that wants to grab the yoke from the pilot and just fly the whole mess into the sea." - the shins, "young pilgrims"
"isis, oh isis, you're a mystical child. what drives me to you is what drives me insane. i still can remember the way that you smiled on the fifth day of may in the drizzling rain." - bob dylan, "isis"
"the trees are rumbling in the woods, the leaves are falling off of the shelf. you're gonna need my help, sweetheart, you can't make love all by yourself." - bob dylan, "lonesome day blues"
"what the water wants is hurricanes and sailboats to ride on its back. what the water wants is sun kiss and land to run into and back." - sufjan stevens, "sister"
"big heads and soft bodies make for lousy lovers." - the hold steady, "stuck between stations"
"oh great intentions, covenant with the imitation. have you no conscience? i think about it now." - sufjan stevens, "come on! feel the illinoise!"
"i can't explain the state that i'm in, the state of my heart, he was my best friend. into the car, from the back seat, oh admiration in falling asleep!" - sufjan stevens, "predatory wasp"
"confessingly, this is the first time i've loved you, and God i mean it, God i mean it, i hope that i mean it. 'cause like dying young, idols got the best of me. well don't stop calling, you're the reason i love losing sleep." - manchester orchestra, "colly strings"
"well i promise this time really, yeah, i'm cleaning up sincerely, yeah, and i'll make sure that the devil never bothers you again." - manchester orchestra, "golden ticket"
"every time he touches you his hair stands up on end, his legs begin to quiver and his mind begins to bend. oh baby, you're such a tasty treat, but I'm under doctor's orders, i'm afraid to overeat." - traveling wilburys, "dirty world"
"the poor cook he caught the fits and threw away all my grits and then he took and he ate up all of my corn. let me go home, why dont they let me go home? this is the worst trip i've ever been on." - the beach boys, "sloop john b"
"rest in my arms, sleep in my bed, there's a design to what i did and said." - sufjan stevens
"so look into my face marie-claire, and remember just who you are. then go and forget me forever, 'cause i know you still bear the scar, deep inside, yes you do. i know where you go to my lovely, when you're alone in your bed? i know the thoughts that surround you 'cause i can look inside your head." - peter sarstedt, "where do you go to my lovely"
"this summer, grant us all the power to drink on top of water towers, with love, and trust, and shows, all summer (get hammered!). let this be my annual reminder that we can all be something bigger." - the hold steady, "constructive summer"

Destroyah

2008-07-16T13:39:00.000-07:00

Had to give this whole thing a trial run. Some real posts coming soon, I hope.

How Hi The Fi?

Grand Plans: A Few New Lists In The Works

Ranking Everything: The Films of Stanley Kubrick

36 Sam Adams Beers

Ranking Everything: The Albums of Radiohead

Mysterious Epic Video Tease

Changing The Focus Of The Blog...

I'm on a boat and, it's going fast and, I got a nautical themed pashmina afghan...

Seventy Freakin Movies

My Oscar Predictions

81st Annual Academy Awards®

Best Motion Picture of the Year

Nominees:

MY PICK: Slumdog Millionaire

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

Nominees:

MY PICK: Frank Langella (But I'd wager on Penn)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

Nominees:

MY PICK: Angelina Jolie (But I'd wager on Winslet)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

Nominees:

MY PICK: Philip Seymour Hoffman

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

Nominees:

MY PICK: Taraji P. Henson (The ONLY Oscar this movie deserves)

Best Achievement in Directing

Nominees:

MY PICK: Danny Boyle

Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen

Nominees:

MY PICK: WALL-E

Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published

Nominees:

MY PICK: Slumdog Millionaire

Best Achievement in Cinematography

Nominees:

MY PICK: Slumdog Millionaire (but Changeling is equally deserving)

Best Achievement in Editing

Nominees:

MY PICK: Slumdog Millionaire

Best Achievement in Art Direction

Nominees:

MY PICK: Changeling (But I'd wager on Rev Road)

Best Achievement in Costume Design

Nominees:

MY PICK: The Duchess (But I'd wager on Ben Button)

Best Achievement in Makeup

Nominees:

MY PICK: Benjamin Button (reluctantly)

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score

Nominees:

MY PICK: Thomas Newman - WALL-E

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song

Nominees:

MY PICK: Down To Earth (WALL-E)

Best Achievement in Sound

Nominees:

MY PICK: WALL-E (Wouldn't be surprised to see the Dark Knight take this one)

Best Achievement in Sound Editing

Nominees:

MY PICK: WALL-E (Same as above about TDK)

Best Achievement in Visual Effects

Nominees:

MY PICK: Benjamin Button (unfortunately)

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year

Nominees:

MY PICK: WALL-E

Best Foreign Language Film of the Year

Nominees:

MY PICK: Vals Im Bashir (aka Waltz With Bashir)

Best Documentary, Features

Nominees:

MY PICK: Man On Wire

Best Short Film, Animated

Nominees:

MY PICK: Presto

I Would Be Excited But...

I Think I'm In Love

Types of Samuel Adams Tried

81st Annual Academy Awards^®