You can thank me for resolving the hi-def DVD format war

Our long national nightmare is over. I'm wondering, though: I just sent away for my free HD-DVDs four days ago. You still going to send those to me, Toshiba?

iPod Top 25 Most Played as of 2/03/08

By popular (read: one) demand:

1. Incredible Hulk cartoon theme (1966 version)
2. Dark Star / Beck
3. Chick Habit / April March
4. Star Witness / Neko Case
5. Hold Tight! / Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich
6. Heart of Glass / Blondie
7. Anonymous Collective / Stereolab
8. And It Rained All Night / Thom Yorke
9. Naughty Naughty / John Parr
10. Maps / Yeah Yeah Yeahs
11. No Cars Go / Arcade Fire (Neon Bible version)
12. Float On / Modest Mouse
13. All I Need / Radiohead
14. Brown Sugar / ZZ Top
15. Cool / Gwen Stefani
16. Digital / Joy Division
17. Pull Shapes / The Pipettes
18. Captain America cartoon theme (1966 version)
19. John Saw That Number / Neko Case
20. The National Anthem / Radiohead
21. Atmosphere / Joy Division
22. Airbag / Radiohead
23. Baby It's You / Smith
24. Black Mirror / Arcade Fire
25. Here Come Cowboys / The Psychedelic Furs

"No Cars Go" ended up as bumper music in the Super Bowl telecast tonight. I guess this means something. And with regard to #9, all I can say is that I found the song again recently and was transported back via a wave of unhealthy nostalgia to a misspent summer where my dad lived in a house in a remote woodsy locale and I wasted too many hours watching MuchMusic beamed down to a NASA-sized satellite dish. The video just can't be beaten:



So, as best I can figure it, after he gets slapped by Lisa Rinna for making unseemly advances, he gets a glimpse of what his life could really be like: driving around in the Rolls-Royce he was fixing and cavorting in a hotel room with a half-dozen girls wearing headbands. He test-drives that fantasy through the end of the combo guitar and keyboard solo, then realizes that true satisfaction lie with the girl who he has just allowed to get away. Thankfully, she is apparently quite patient and is still standing at the curb. Our hero's maturity is rewarded when his car turns into a spaceship.

local media

I don't think this became widely-circulated until last Wednesday or so, but I've heard that Jay Leno ran it on his show Friday, which means it's no longer fresh webjunk. Making fun of local TV commercials is far too easy and making fun of local TV commercials featuring athletes is easier yet, but this one still turns the hilarity up to eleven. The galling lack of media savvy on display here is part of what I really love about hockey players in particular and the NHL generally; athletes in sports that are plugged into the hype machine would have handlers, managers and drama coaches to ensure that a train wreck like this wouldn't happen.

Or maybe it isn't such a train wreck. I almost think Colby Armstrong (speaker #1, for the nonfan) is trying to see how purposefully bad he can say his line, figuring that he's still bound to come off better than Sergei Gonchar (speaker #3), whose line is still almost completely inscrutable to me, even after ten views of the commercial. Maxim Talbot (speaker #2) was having a lot of fun on the client's dime. I figure the admaker decided star power was preferable to a basic command of English when they decided to give Evgeni Malkin a cameo. The poor guy's uncomfortable speaking to the media other than through an interpreter, so he's left without anything to do but smile, remain mute and catch the keys.

January, 2008 Film Viewings

1.1 The Wire 4.6, 4.7
1.2 The Wire 4.8
1.4 Trading Places (Landis, 1984)
1.5 The Wire 4.9
1.6 Bug (Friedkin, 2007)
1.7 The Wire 4.10, 4.11, 4.12, 4.13
1.8 Ocean's Thirteen (Soderbergh, 2007)
1.19 The Wire 5.1, 5.2, 5.3
1.23 When It Rains (Burnett, 2000)
1.25 Waitress (Shelly, 2007)
1.26 Offside (Panahi, 2006)
1.27 Apocalypto (Gibson, 2006)
1.28 F for Fake (Welles, 1976)