I'm tired & irritable & don't want to play anymore. 6 days ago
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“I haven't got the slightest idea how to change people, but still I keep a long list of prospective candidates just in case I should ever figure it out.” - David Sedaris
When I sold a single baseball card a few weeks ago for upwards of $400, one of the first things I bought myself was a new iPod. My wife immediately requested the old one of course, and I obliged; she bought it for me after all. One of the few things I will concede that Apple has done right is iPod/iTunes. With the possible exception of how proprietary everything they release is. That being said, my last few days have been spent fighting fires and malicious attacks on our servers so blog posts have been short & sweet. I expect the rest of the week to be more of the same unfortunately. So in the meantime, here’s a quick random iPod shuffle from the new gadget in my life:
Untitled Instrumental – Buddy Guy
Sleeping in the Flowers – TMBG
Blessed – Robert Randolph & the Family Band
Sun Comes Up, it’s Tuesday Morning – Cowboy Junkies
Land of 1000 Dances – Wilson Pickett
When the War Came – The Decemberists
Come on Feel the Illinois, Part 1: The World’s Columbian Exposition – Sufjan Stevens
Living Well Is the Best Revenge – R.E.M.
Revolution – the Derek Trucks Band
High Fidelity – Elvis Costello & the Attractions
Fashion Victim – Green Day
Mountain Time – Joe Bonamassa
Love That Man – Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys
Dirt Road Eulogy – Mat D.
Moon River – Los Straightjackets
Always slightly disappointing if not downright disturbing, isn’t it?
Memorial Day, observed on the last Monday in May, was originally intended to commemorate the U.S. men and women who died in military service to their country; although it has evolved into more of a remembrance for anyone who has passed away, not just servicemen. So in honor of this Memorial Day weekend, I have chosen five songs written to memorialize their fellow musicians.
As we walked out of the theater and across the road to the parking lot I asked my lovely wife the obligatory post-movie question, “So what did you think?” Her response was near perfect, “I liked it, but it was just too… real.”
Snow Angels, David Gordon Green’s latest film based on the novel by Stewart O’Nan, is a dark, realistic, almost painful look into the lives of the residents of a small town and how their relationships intersect to create a tragic tapestry. And I can’t recommend it enough. It opens with the high school marching band practicing a terrible version of Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer, and the words that set the tone for the rest of the film; “We’re all part of the formation — every person matters.” The band director’s words are cut short though by the sound of not-too-distant gun shots. That’s when we rewind a few weeks to see the events that led up to this moment.
Don’t expect to be uplifted or encouraged. Expect instead to feel like a fly on the wall spying in on these very real people. Expect to sympathize with and possibly even dislike each and every character at one point or another. There is no clear-cut hero or villain. It’s a slice of life – a big, sloppy, bitter slice that you can’t help but be drawn in to.
The acting is very good. Kate Beckinsale & Michael Angarano both turn in excellent performances. Even Amy Sedaris, who I love dearly but isn’t what you would call a “good actress”, does a great job. The standout though, as he usually is in whatever he decides to do, is Sam Rockwell. Rockwell nails his portrayal of probably the most tragic and flawed character in the movie; which is saying a lot.
The only thing about the movie that we found distracting, besides the old guy behind us trimming his fingernails, was that it was impossible to figure out the time period. Much of the set was filled with very retro, dated objects, but with an occasional modern convenience thrown in; like a flat-screen TV and ear-bud headphones. The novel was actually set in 1974, but supposedly the movie was set in present day. Like I said, it was a bit distracting, but only because we let it be.
Over all, Snow Angels was an excellent movie – but not necessarily one I want to watch over and over.
Okay, so I’m a day late. Yesterday was Bloggers Unite for Human Rights Day. But even though I missed it by a day, I figured I could at least post something – even if it’s just a silly Friday Five;
I wish I had something else to write. Something more profound or meaningful about human rights. But alas, I had to get up at 4:30am this morning to do some server work early that, unfortunately, didn’t work. So my brain is pretty well fried today…
Oh well.
Know Your Rights – the Clash, No guesswork or hidden meanings here – read the lyrics. They’re pretty powerful!
Get Up, Stand Up – Bob Marley, Reggae royalty with a classic. Stand up for your rights people!
Give Peace a Chance – John Lennon, couldn’t even think about this list without including Lennon.
I’m bored, so I’ve been watching old Exit 57 skits on YouTube. (God bless the YouTube, am I right?)
Stephen Colbert, Amy Sedaris, Paul Dinello, and the rest of the cast never cease to make me laugh for some reason… maybe because they’re freakin’ funny!
Okay, so the story goes like this; this dude drinks nearly a whole box of wine, dresses up like Darth Vader, then attacks the leader of a Jedi Church with a metal crutch. But the Jedi dudes just happened to catch the whole thing on the running video camera that they had set up to film themselves fighting with fake lightsabers. Then the judge found Vader guilty, but evidently not too guilty, and gave him a suspended sentence… Did I mention that it’s a true story?
There are just too many things to say… So much that I’m just speechless!
This isn’t the first time the Jedi Church has made it into the news though.
Nope; Here are a few more links so that you can read up on these… enthusiasts!
I have fielded many questions about the vinyl decal on the back of my truck that reads, “HAN SHOT FIRST”. Like many of the items I put on my truck, in my cubicle or most anything else I own, it mostly just announces to the world my own inherent geekiness.
It refers to a scene in Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope that was altered by George Lucas in the 1997 Special Edition release in which Han Solo and first-time bounty hunter Greedo engage in a confrontation in the Mos Eisley cantina on Tatooine. There is a bounty on Han’s head because he owes Jabba the Hutt a large sum of money due to a smuggling job gone wrong. And the reptilian humanoid has him dead-to-rights. In the original version Solo decides to escape his inevitable capture by firing a single shot under the table and killing the poor green guy. Greedo never even gets to fire his blaster before falling forward lifelessly to the table.
However, in the Special Edition, Greedo shoots first, at point-blank range, and inexplicably misses. Thereby making Solo’s shot look more like self-defense, as if he had no other choice but retaliation in order to escape. Lucas did this very much on purpose in order to minimize the senseless violence for the kiddies. But the fan-boys like me didn’t buy it. It felt wrong, looked fake, and made Solo’s character more vanilla and less of the scoundrel he was supposed to be in the beginning; which totally threw off his character development from anti-hero to hero. Geeks around the world demanded a retraction!
Finally, in 2006 a third release of the DVD was announced which included two versions of the movie; the newly re-mastered special edition, and a second disk featuring the unaltered, untouched original theatrical release! He didn’t change it back, but at least we were able to purchase the movie the way we remembered it on DVD for the very first time! It made many of us as happy as the heroes when R2 shut the compactor down! (FYI: they were really happy!)
Street Fight
