Sunday, October 29, 2006

tidings

My weekend in a few thousand words.
Number 1:

Number 2:

Number 3:

Friday, October 27, 2006

countdown to 30: last thirty...

music purchases.
  1. Mew "And the Glass Handed Kites"
  2. Joshua Radin "We Were Here"
  3. Junior Boys "So This is Goodbye"
  4. Sufjan Stevens "Avalanche"
  5. Beirut "Gulag Orkestar"
  6. Yeah Yeah Yeahs "Fever to Tell"
  7. Sleater-Kinney "The Woods"
  8. Wolf Parade "Apologies to the Queen Mary"
  9. The Walkmen "Bows + Arrows"
  10. Lupe Fiasco "Food and Liquor"
  11. Kanye West "Late Registration"
  12. Common "Be"
  13. Gnarls Barkley "St. Elsewhere"
  14. I'm From Barcelona "Let Me Introduce My Friends"
  15. Rhymefest "Blue Collar"
  16. The Hold Steady "Boys and Girls in America"
  17. Beach House (self-titled)
  18. Film School (self-titled)
  19. Dirty Pretty Things "Waterloo to Anywhere"
  20. Broken Social Scene (self-titled)
  21. Jens Lekman "Oh You're So Silent Jens"
  22. Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan "Ballad of the Broken Seas"
  23. The New Pornographers "Twin Cinema"
  24. LCD Soundsystem (self-titled)
  25. Camera Obscura "Let's Get Out of This Country"
  26. Band of Horses "Everything All the Time"
  27. Tapes 'n Tapes "The Loon"
  28. Regina Spektor "Begin to Hope"
  29. Pinback "Summer in Abaddon"
  30. Yo La Tengo "I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass"

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

countdown to 30: movies that I'll yell at you for if you haven't seen them

But first, time-wasting movie-guessing games.
Viking's Stationery Movies (out of 20)
M&Ms "Dark" Movies (out of 50)
  1. Charade - I already yelled at a coworker who teaches a cinema class about this. What is wrong with me.
  2. Fight Club
  3. Memento
  4. The Matrix - they should have just stopped after this one.
  5. Raiders of the Lost Ark
  6. Star Wars
  7. The Empire Strikes Back
  8. North by Northwest
  9. Rear Window
  10. Seven Samurai - or watch the bastardized Magnificent Seven
  11. Fellowship of the Ring - I didn't like the other ones nearly as much.
  12. The Usual Suspects - it's questionable whether the plotline is feasible. Who cares?
  13. Braveheart
  14. The Godfather
  15. The Godfather Part II
  16. Aliens
  17. The Sting
  18. Hero
  19. Fist of Legend
  20. The Shawshank Redemption
  21. Saving Private Ryan
  22. The Pianist
  23. From Russia with Love
  24. Goldfinger
  25. Roman Holiday
  26. The Princess Bride
  27. Bull Durham
  28. Cool Hand Luke
  29. Silence of the Lambs
  30. Brazil

Sunday, October 22, 2006

countdown to 30: favorite athletes

in biographical order:

  1. Walter Payton, RB, Chi - Even though I could barely speak English, I knew who Sweetness was.
  2. Don Mattingly, 1b, NYY - Yes, a Yankee, back when we lived in New Jersey for a few years. Even though the Mets won the Series in 86, I still liked the much less successful Yankees. Loved the 'stache and the huge RBI numbers, even though he never won anything.
  3. Dave Winfield, OF, NYY - Unlike Darryl Strawberry, wasn't a cokehead. As far as we know.
  4. Magic Johnson, PG, LAL - Showtime's ringleader, and the reason why every kid my age that played basketball learned to dribble behind the back and give no-look passes. I also never grasped the double entendre of his name until much, much later. I cried when the AIDS annoucement came out.
  5. James Worthy, SF, LAL - Big Game James made wearing goggles cool, way cooler than Kareem ever did. Underestimated, I think. Living in LA during the late 80s was great.
  6. Wayne Gretzky, C, LAK - So great was the Great One that kids on California hardtops traded in skateboards for hockey sticks. At least we did.
  7. The 1984/1988 US Men's Olympic Volleyball Team - Who were the guys with the funny names? Kiraly? Ctvrtlik? The 88 Olympics were under close scrutiny in my household, since it was being hosted by the mother country, which gave me the chance to watch volleyball's version of the 85 Bears roll up on those heartless, Communist jerks, exactly like an 80s action movie.
  8. Mark Price, PG, Cle - When you're out in the backyard or in the park playing ball with your friends, it's nice to have a good player who has the same first name as you. My buddy was Ronny was Ron Harper, so it worked.
  9. Kevin Johnson, PG, Phx - Lightning quick point guard that got to the basket without any crossover moves, just blinding speed. Killed the Lakers all the time, and kinda looked like one of those Aliens from the movie, even more than Sam Cassell.
  10. Will Clark, 1b, SFG - A continuation of the Don Mattingly mancrush. Also singlehandedly wrecked the Cubs in 89, so that's always fun.
  11. Michael Cooper, SG-SF, LAL - A fan favorite for his ridiculous skinny legs, tall socks, and superhuman hops. Unfortunately, most famous for getting dunked on by Dr. J in the 83 Finals.
  12. Wally Joyner, 1b, CA - The only California Angel that didn't suck when I lived out there. I'm serious about not noticing the first baseman trend until now. I related to him because he looked like he was 12 years old, like me. Screw the Dodgers. The Dodgers are the West Coast version of the Cubs, without so much of the losing, but with the same old people moxie (all Tommy Lasorda's fault).
  13. Frank Thomas, 1b, CWS - A really tall, skinny rookie who hit monstrous opposite field home runs. It's cool to be at the beginning of a Hall of Famer's career.
  14. Robin Ventura, 3b, CWS - Always looked calm and cool, like playing baseball didn't take any effort. Won a permanent place in my heart when he took several dozen noogies to the head from a Hall of Famer that can throw a hundred miles per hour.
  15. Black Jesus, SG, Chi - It took some time to come around to like him, because he defeated Magic and Worthy in the 91 Finals, right when I moved from LA to Chi. It was a nice way to transition from one basketball dynasty to the next, but I was hating it a lot at the time. The only athlete that I am completely sure would die to win.
  16. George Bell, LF, ChiC - Yes, a Cub. But he has two great things going for him: 1) being the greatest player in RBI Baseball for the NES (equivalent to Bo Jackson in TECMO Bowl), and 2) there being a 50/50 chance Harry Caray would screw up his name on the air. "In left field, George... Bush." "Now hitting, Greg Bell." I watched Cubs games cuz we didn't have cable and I was starving to watch any kind of baseball.
  17. Jon Kruk, 1b, CWS - People forget he played about 12 games for the Sox. Thus began the genesis of the All-Fat team.
  18. Darnell Autry, RB, Northwestern - The engine behind the most unlikely football story of all time. Northwestern on the cover of Sports Illustrated? Yah, it actually happened. And we beat Notre Dame, Michigan, and Penn St. that year, too.
  19. Zak Kustok, QB, Northwestern - The 95 Rose Bowl team that had Autry, Fitzgerald, and Schnur were almost clinical in how they dismantled opponents, but the Kustok-Anderson teams were high-wire acts that scored a lot of points and gave up a lot of points. Youtube has got some great ones. All hail the Zak Attack.
  20. Tim Raines, LF, CWS - Played with intelligence, style, and class.
  21. Magglio Ordonez, RF, CWS - Best Sox OF of "my" era. Probably the best one in the last 20 years. And it was cool that he kinda looked Asian.
  22. Mike Brown, SS, Bears - Gets as many season ending injuries as defensive touchdowns.
  23. The Rock, WWF wrestling - The electrifying People's Champion brought the noise and intensity to fake sports like no other.
  24. Marshall Faulk, RB, StL - For winning me my only office fantasy football championship.
  25. Albert Pujols, 1b, StL - Hands down, Frank Thomas had the best start to a career I'd ever witnessed, until this guy came along. It also took me forever to understand how grossly funny his last name is. He, Bonds, and Big Papi are the only guys I stop channel surfing to watch their at bats.
  26. Lance Berkman, 1b-RF, Hou - One of my favorite all-Big Boned Team members. When chunky guys do well, it makes you think, yes, YOU TOO can be a professional athlete. But, probably not.
  27. Roy Oswalt, SP, Hou and
  28. Brian Roberts, 2b, Bal - Guys I always target for fantasy baseball because I know exactly what I'll get for them, and they're not "hype" guys that everyone is jumping all over.
  29. Steve Nash, PG, Phx - He plays the way Magic used to play. Everyone else in the NBA is boring, except for maybe D. Wade. Yes, Lebron is boring (too physically dominant, like Shaq was). Nash, Tim Duncan, Jason Kidd, and Paul Pierce are the small handlful of NBAers with any kind of cunning deceit to their game, who can win without being 100%. Too bad Kobe and McGrady will never learn this. Kobe's cunning is what gets championships (Shaq) traded to another team, while McGrady's means he shoots 20 more times in the 4th quarter.
  30. Joe Crede, 3b, Sox - The next Sox folk hero in the making.

Honorable mention: Kirk Hinrich, PG, Bulls. Mark Buehrle, SP, Sox. Jalen Rose, PG, U.Mich., Ross Gload, 1b-OF, Sox.

Thursday, October 19, 2006

This is JEOPARDY!

Found out that a friend/former coworker was on JEOPARDY! today (She's Elesha from Durham). Didn't get to watch all of it, but saw she was in second place going into Final Jeopardy within striking distance of the defending champ. And it unfolded like so:

Trebek: "The answer: He was a spy and invented the mug shot used in the Wild West (my paraphrase)."

E: (snickers) "Who is Polaroid?"

The correct response: Who is Allan Pinkerton.

That pressure was sure getting to her.

Sunday, October 15, 2006

life and times of my brain

"The flesh is indeed no more than a bruise / on the spirit." -- Paul Muldoon, from The End of Poetry

"Good. Then we'll have our battle in the shade." -- Dienekes, a Spartan, when told that the arrows of the Persian Army would block out the sun at the battle of Thermopylae. From Herodotus' Histories.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

idling by

Trying to get my mind off of rather heavy things; thank goodness for research paper units and the internet!

I didn't know Stephen Colbert was Catholic. He's also awesome enough to demand a 7 page web article from New York Magazine. Get the extra big coffee before settling into this one. And have some for me, because a friend convinced me over the weekend to cut out caffeine and sugar (which I will *mostly* keep to). "It's good for your joints" says she, while lifting weights. In my living room. Just don't hit me with the free weights.

NYC's mayor's office has an interactive map of all the movies and TV shows that have been filmed there (mostly Manhattan), in celebration of 40 years of Film in NYC. So you can virtually hop over from where Audrey Hepburn walked for Breakfast at Tiffany's to where Bruce Willis and Samuel L. tore up Central Park in Die Hard with a Vengeance.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

requiescat in pace


Matt Covey, 1982 - 2006

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

Sunday, October 01, 2006

Pirates and Knights and nights oh my

It's been a strange week of retro themes. Went on Friday to check out the Variety Show at my school (I notice that I'm slowly relying on my work for all of my friends, off-time entertainment, etc. This freaks me out a lot, but more on that in some other post), which had a pirate theme to it. What did I happen to be re-watching this past week? Pirates of the Caribbean. Yarr.

Woke up in time on Saturday to catch Jordan's birthday at infamous suburban kitschfest Medieval Times. What was I watching the week past? First Knight. Oh yeah. And we got yelled at by the Harry Potter-lookalike security manager who thought our party was getting a little too rowdy, although our Green Knight hero thought we were "awesome. I even told the security guys to leave you all alone."

It was way too much fun, and now I'm itching to get every good knights-in-armor movie, although, really, there aren't too many great ones. Braveheart is the best of that breed, in terms of combining an interesting story with medieval battle action and with elements of knighthood. The old school Arthurian movies don't really hold up in terms of the action (Knights of the Round Table) while the newer ones are lush to look at, but empty of story (Kingdom of Heaven, King Arthur) and some are just a little different (The Princess Bride). Probably the best recent knight/medieval movies are the LOTR trilogy, and the knighthood stuff was overshadowed by the elves and the hobbits and such.