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)

Ruh Roh

Has anyone heard any positive word of mouth regarding The Mysteries of Pittsburgh coming out of Sundance?

I haven't.

Get Along

Listen, I know (I know) that parents are insufferable about things like these, but I really love this poem my second-grader Ruby wrote. It's the sense of meter, I guess.


People Should Get Along

People should really get along.
No matter if your hair is long,
or if you wear glasses,
or go to English classes.
No matter if your breath smells bad,
or if you make your parents mad.
No matter if you are a hippie,
or if you can't spell Mississippi.
I really wish everyone would get along.

From Heaven Above to Earth I Come

Welcome to earth, Thou noble Guest,
Through whom the sinful world is blest!
Thou com'st to share my misery;
What thanks shall I return to thee?





(I had intended to post this verse on the appropriate day last week, but misplaced my bulletin from Christmas Eve services and only just found it.)

December, 2007 Film Viewings

12/3/07 The Wire 3.3
12/4/07 Die Hard 4: Live Free or Die Hard (Wiseman, 2007)
12/5/07 The Wire 3.4
12/6/07 The Wire 3.5
12/8/07 No Country For Old Men (Coen, 2007)
12/9/07 28 Weeks Later (Fresnadillo, 2007)
12/10/07 Children Who Labor (1912)
The Wire 3.6
12/11/07 The Wire 3.7
12/13/07 The Year of the Dog (White, 2006)
12/14/07 The Wire 3.8
12/15/07 The Wire 3.9, 3.10, 3.11
12/16/07 The Wire 3.12
12/18/07 The Simpsons Movie (Silverman, 2007)
12/25/07 The Wire 4.1
12/27/07 The Wire 4.2, 4.3
12/28/07 The Wire 4.4, 4.5
12/30/07 The Hoax (Hallstrom, 2007)

Josias Manzanillo

I knew that guy was juicing.

November, 2007 Film Viewings

11/1 The Wire 1.9
11/2 The Suburbanite (1904)
11/3 The Wire 1.10
Twilight Zone: The Movie (Landis, Miller, Spielberg and Dante, 1982)
11/4 The Wire 1.11
11/6 The Wire 1.12, 1.13
11/8 Beauty in Trouble (Hrebejk ,2006)
11/9 The Nines (August, 2007)
The Island (Lounguine, 2006)
11/10 The Wire 2.1, 2.2
Blood Car (Orr, 2007)
11/13 Times and Winds (Erdem, 2007)
11/14 The Wire 2.3
11/15 Fireworks (Anger, 1947)
Rabbit's Moon (Anger, 1950)
Scorpio Rising (Anger, 1963)
Kustom Kar Kommandos (Anger, 1965)
Mouse Heaven (Anger, 2004)
Elliott's Suicide (Anger, 2004)
My Surfing Lucifer (Anger, 2007)
11/16 The Return (Zvyagintsev, 2003)
11/17 Freaky Friday (Nelson, 1975)
11/18 The Wire 2.4
11/20 The Wire 2.5
11/21 Superman: The Movie (Donner, 1979)
11/22 The Wire 2.6, 2.7
11/23 The Wire 2.8, 2.9
11/24 1408
11/25 The Wire 2.10
11/26 The Wire 2.11
11/27 The Wire 2.12
11/28 The Wire 3.1
11/29 The Wire 3.2

#13

*

I've never read any of her books, so I've got no context apart from admiring the directness and obviousness of this statement from Jodi Picoult about her writing habits:

"I may write garbage, but you can always edit garbage. You can't edit a blank page."

Isn't it really that simple?

Kicks

[Screams]

October, 2007 Film Viewings

October One- The Wire 3.3
October Four- Pittsburgh (2006)
October Five- Shut Up and Sing
October Six- Cat People (Tourneur, 1942)
October Eight- The Black Dahlia (DePalma, 2005)
October Nine- Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (Story, 2007)
Prison Town, U.S.A. (POV)
No Angels in the Outfield (POV)
October Fourteen- Little Miss Sunshine
October Sixteen- For Your Consideration (Guest, 2006)
October Eighteen- Viridiana (Bunuel, 1961)
October Nineteen- Dough & Stuff (Puiu, 2001)
October Twenty- Eastern Promises (Cronenberg, 2007)
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Dominik, 2007)
October Twenty-One- The Devil Came on Horseback (Sundberg and Stern, 2007)
Several Vitaphone Shorts
The Wire 1.1
October Twenty-Two- Fast Food Nation (Linklater, 2006)
October Twenty-Four- The Wire 1.2
October Twenty-Five- The Wire 1.3
October Twenty-Six- The Pursuit of Happyness
October Twenty-Seven- R.L. Stine's The Haunting Hour: Don't Even Think About It
Into the Wild (Penn, 2007)
October Twenty-Eight- The Wire 1.4, 1.5
October Twenty-Nine- The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1910)
October Thirty- The Wire 1.6
October Thirty-One- The Wire 1.7, 1.8

Halloween Costumes 2007

We went all-superhero this year: Batgirl, Wonder Woman and Wolfpack from Weird War Tales.

He Is Always Watching Me

Best $14.99 I've ever spent. I hope response is strong enough that they make the nurse.

Week #7 NFL Picks

Wherein the slide continues...

NEW ORLEANS over Atlanta
BUFFALO over Baltimore (who hasn't beat a good team all year)
DETROIT over Tampa Bay
WASHINGTON over Arizona
HOUSTON over Tennessee
NY GIANTS over San Francisco
New England over MIAMI
OAKLAND over Kansas City
CINCINNATI over NY Jets
SEATTLE over St. Louis
DALLAS over Minnesota
PHILADELPHIA over Chicago
Pittsburgh over DENVER
JACKSONVILLE over Indianapolis

Last week: 6-7. Season: 55-34.

Three Rivers Film Festival 2007

The Three Rivers Film Festival website posted its list of films recently, and I'm a bit disappointed. I suppose I shouldn't be; I've seen the up-and-down crowds at the screenings I've attended over the past few years. But I remember how exciting it was to see Notre Musique in a packed theater on a Saturday afternoon. And three years ago Guy Maddin appeared at the festival's opening night with Cowards Bend the Knee, on the same night they screened Moolade. Don't get me wrong-- there are a few really great films in there. We'll get a baby sitter and see Persepolis, and I'm going to catch the Kenneth Anger program and the Burnett film and a couple of others look really good. I'm sure there are some great films in there that I just haven't found yet. I had just been hoping we'd get more of the Toronto films, like we have in years past. I'm not as surprised that 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days is absent, but from the nothing I know about festival programing it seems like Silent Light or The Banishment or The Man From London or Secret Sunshine or Useless would have been in the range.

As always, any recommendations would be warmly appreciated.

Week #6 NFL Picks

KANSAS CITY over Cincinnati
JACKSONVILLE over Houston
CLEVELAND over Miami
CHICAGO over Minnesota
N.Y. JETS over Philadelphia
BALTIMORE over St. Louis
Tennessee over TAMPA BAY
Washington over GREEN BAY
ARIZONA over Carolina
DALLAS over New England
SAN DIEGO over Oakland
SEATTLE over New Orleans
N.Y. Giants over ATLANTA

Last week: 8-6. Season: 49-27.

I am fading fast.

Week #5 NFL Picks

PITTSBURGH over Seattle (the bounce-back, Super Bowl XL was no fluke game)
NEW ORLEANS over Carolina (the season's not lost yet game)
KANSAS CITY over Jacksonville
Detroit over WASHINGTON
TENNESSEE over Atlanta
HOUSTON over Miami
NEW ENGLAND over Cleveland
Arizona over ST. LOUIS
N.Y. GIANTS over N.Y. Jets
INDIANAPOLIS over Tampa Bay
DENVER over San Diego (the Travis Henry swan song go-crazy game)
SAN FRANCISCO over Baltimore (the Trent Dilfer revenge game)
GREEN BAY over Chicago
Dallas over BUFFALO

Last week: 6-8. Season: 41-21.

It seems to me...

It seems to me that the pertinent question is not whether it was proper for the Mayor of the City of Pittsburgh to use a vehicle purchased by Homeland Security for personal engagements, but rather whether the City should want to have as its Mayor any individual who willingly spends his leisure time at a Toby Keith concert.

September, 2007 Film Viewings

9.1- Trust
9.2- Donkey Skin
9.3- Blades of Glory
9.4- Le Retour a la Raison
9.5- Rhythmus 21
9.6- Anemic Cinema
9.7- Ballet Mecanique
9.9- Baby Doll
9.10- Symphonie Diagonale
9.11- Le Vampire
9.12- The Hearts of Age
9.13- In the Company of Men
9.14- Blazing Saddles
9.18- Croupier
9.21- Marooned in Iraq
9.22- The Fountain
9.23- Death of a Cyclist
Day of Wrath
9.24- Hua Yang De Nian Hua
9.25- Stranger Than Fiction
9.26- Iraq, My Country
9.27- Hotel Chevalier
9.28- Knife in the Water
9.29- The 40 Year-Old Virgin
9.30- The Wire 3.1, 3.2

Irony Update

Just in case you didn't know, there is no longer any ironic value in the "You're the Best/ Around/ Nothin's Gonna Ever Keep You Down" song. The reason why this is the case, above and beyond any internet overuse, is because Adam Laroche is presently using the song for his at-bat music.

Week #4 NFL Picks

Pittsburgh over ARIZONA
MIAMI over Oakland
Houston over ATLANTA
Baltimore over CLEVELAND
DETROIT over Chicago
Green Bay over MINNESOTA
DALLAS over St. Louis
BUFFALO over N.Y. Jets
CAROLINA over Tampa Bay
Seattle over SAN FRANCISCO
SAN DIEGO over Kansas City
INDIANAPOLIS over Denver
Philadelphia over N.Y. GIANTS
New England over CINCINNATI

Last week: 10-6. Season: 35-13.

Week #3 NFL Picks

PITTSBURGH over San Francisco
BALTIMORE over Arizona
NEW YORK JETS over Miami
TAMPA BAY over St. Louis
PHILADELPHIA over Detroit
KANSAS CITY over Minnesota
San Diego over GREEN BAY
NEW ENGLAND over Buffalo
Indianapolis over HOUSTON
DENVER over Jacksonville
CHICAGO over Dallas
OAKLAND over Cleveland
SEATTLE over Cincinnati
ATLANTA over Carolina
WASHINGTON over New York Giants
NEW ORLEANS over Tennessee

Last week: 12-4. Season: 25-7.

funny/not funny

funny: the combination of the words "man" and "sandal" to form the hybrid word "mandal", meaning a derisive term directed toward men's sandals.

why it's funny: because in the combining of the two words, the essential phonetic identity of each word is preserved.

not funny: the combination of the words "man" and "nurse" or "man" and "purse" to form the hybrid word "murse", meaning either a derisive term directed toward male nurses or men's handbags.

why it's not funny: the phonetic structure of the word "man" is abandoned, and isn't adequately conveyed by simply replacing the first letter of any noun with "m." It's lame.

Week #2 NFL Picks

Cincinnati over CLEVELAND
Indianapolis over TENNESSEE
San Francisco over ST. LOUIS
New Orleans over TAMPA BAY
Green Bay over N.Y. GIANTS (taking too many road teams here)
PITTSBURGH over Buffalo
CAROLINA over Houston
JACKSONVILLE over Atlanta
DETROIT over Minnesota
Dallas over MIAMI
ARIZONA over Seattle
CHICAGO over Kansas City
DENVER over Oakland
BALTIMORE over N.Y. Jets
NEW ENGLAND over San Diego
PHILADELPHIA over Washington

Last week: 13-3. Season: 13-3.

Week #1 NFL Picks

Just straight winners-- no point spreads, as I'm not interested in gambling for serious money.

INDIANAPOLIS over New Orleans
HOUSTON over Kansas City
BUFFALO over Denver
WASHINGTON over Miami
GREEN BAY over Philadelphia
Pittsburgh over CLEVELAND
New England over NEW YORK JETS
MINNESOTA over Atlanta
JACKSONVILLE over Tennessee
Carolina over ST. LOUIS
SAN DIEGO over Chicago
SEATTLE over Tampa Bay
OAKLAND over Detroit
DALLAS over New York Giants
CINCINNATI over Baltimore
SAN FRANCISCO over Arizona

Yeah, I generally went home teams, and at this point I'd trust the Football Outsiders guys if they predicted the sun would start revolving around the earth, so I'm going stronger on the Panthers and Packers than I would otherwise.

four years old

The Contents of Our DVR (9/02/07)

Frenzy
Cujo
High School Musical 2 (yeah, this one's not mine)
Gosford Park
Juliet of the Spirits (HD)
The Illusionist (for Ali's Edward Norton hangup)
The Young Girls of Rochefort (HD)
2 Episodes of P.O.V.
Au Revoir, Les Enfants
High Plains Drifter
Mr. Death
Trust
The Best of Youth
Cruel Story of Youth
Tsotsi
Greed
Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!
All About My Mother
Croupier
Vampyr
The Honeymoon Killers
The Devil and Daniel Johnston
Cache
The Battle of Algiers
The Conversation
Viridiana
F for Fake
The Immortal Story
Mr. Arkadin
Spirit of the Beehive
The Magnificent Ambersons
The Dreamers
Germania Anno Zero
12 episodes of Justice League
10 episodes of Superfriends
Black Narcissus
The Return (HD)
The Testament of Dr. Mabuse
Broken Blossoms
The Funeral
Hannah and Her Sisters
2046
I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang
The Lady From Shanghai
The Sweet Hereafter
Ararat
The Wages of Fear (HD)
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
The Trial
Throne of Blood
Sisters
Written on the Wind
The Killing
Proces de Jeanne d'Arc
Dodes Ka-Den
The Best Years of Our Lives

You wouldn't think that filling two hundred hours would be so easy.

August, 2007 Film Viewings

August 5: Spanking the Monkey
August 6: Dead Man
August 7: Fixed Bayonets
August 8: The Prestige
August 16: Smiles of a Summer Night
August 17: High School Musical 2
August 18: The Painted Veil (2006)
August 19: Superbad
August 20: SUV Taggers
August 21: The Young Girls of Rochefort
August 25: Art School Confidential
August 26: Three Colors: White
August 27: Three Colors: Red