Sunday, August 10, 2008
Saturday, August 02, 2008
Monday, July 28, 2008
Things I Like This Summer # 2: Vin Scully
He is so full of wonderful tidbits; I'm always wondering where he gets them and how he compiles the things he does. Does he just have a giant binder that tells him where each player went to high school, how they batted last against this pitcher when the stars were last aligned just so, and what their favorite food is? I really think he does. And he knows when to be quiet, and he always give the score and the count.
He was even a tad harsh today with regards to Jeff Kent, I think it was, not being able to make the plays he used to be able to make (he mentioned it about 15 times in a batter) , but whimsical too. With regards to Giants' pitcher Brian Wilson's soul patch, while he threw three pitches in a row over 100 mph, Vin said something to the effect of : "throwing so fast he's gonna lose his soul patch. Shakespeare had a soul patch, yes he did, I've been told. Many jazz musicians too, very cool."
New Dodger 3rd Baseman Casey Blake got thrown out rather unfairly by Greg Gibson, 1st base ump, for saying, as Scully put it, "Fertilizer!" (you could see his lips form the word"bullshit!") when he was in the dugout after striking out, Vin kept on hammering about the "fertilizer." I think he was really amused. Joe Torre went out to argue against Blake being ejected, and Vin said "and now Torre is saying fertilizer." Then Torre got ejected, and he rarely does. Then Vin went on to say, if I heard even remotely correctly, "And Gibson, he specializes in making fertilizer."
Oh Vin Scully. :)
I adore my Dodgers and I adore my Angels (esp when they whup the Red Sox and Yankees), but I admit, when we aren't getting beat too bad to a bloody pulp by everyone else in the National League, I often prefer to watch the Dodgers, bc, I mean, they've got my darlin Vin Scully. Don't have to listen to Rex Hudler and Steve Physioc or whatever his name is not give you the score. What did they say today? It was something awful. Even if Garrett Anderson is GA and Troy Percival was Percy and Chone Figgins is Figgy.
And plus: there is always Russell Martin for the Dodgers. A few weeks back he pulled off his catcher's mask to get something and he had a little mohawk. But he still looks like a Teddy Bear. He's a darling. <3>
Saturday, July 26, 2008
remote blogging L A M F
I'm in Galway for one more day. I was here for a month, then was in Cong the last two days hiking and geeking out at the Quiet Man sights. Then back to Galway, today, where I pretty much killed time buying donuts at the farmer's market, walking up to the cemetery, then watching THE DARK KNIGHT OMF and Wall-E which conveniently started right after the Dark Knight ended. I might go see Wanted next. Because I have nothing to do for the next 5 hours, when the midnight bus for Dublin leaves, and it is raining.
Anyway, the Dark Knight was amazing, and since I hadn't been paying too much attention to actual movie news (ok, who thinks Christian Bale DIDN'T do it?) I didn't know where it was going, so everything was a nice surprise. Check it out if you haven't gotten a chance!
I should probably buy something so they'll let me stay, but I don't wanna leave my stuff alone. Traveling by oneself is hard. Especially if you are carrying around as much junk as I am. And mind you, my suitcase proper is in storage with the cab co. right now. I have 3 other bags.
WOMEN.
And now for your benefit: READ The Long Halloween if ya haven't and want more Harvey Dent goodness.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Things I Like This Summer #1
So... Things I Like This Summer:
#1. "Divorce Me C.O.D." by Merle Travis. here
I just really like it. On some compilation I have, mysteriously and vaguely called "Capitol Classics 1940's" with a bunch of other country/western, folky, cowboy swing type songs.
I've been pretty much only listening to that comp, Gene Autry, and the Riders in the Sky recently, so...... And watching a ton of John Ford. Been looking for some Sons of the Pioneers, hopefully with Ken Curtis doing lead vocals, but haven't been able to determine what would be a good buy, so haven't yet (Any suggestions?).... And listening to this lecture series on Rome and the Barbarians. Perhaps more on that later, as another thing I like this summer.
Friday, July 18, 2008
Roamin'
I can't get over this one. Check it out. The happiest Jamaican dude ever, the sourest Subcontinent (?) dude ever, and a creepy Teutonic biker. The world is such a happy place under Vodafone.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Knights of Cydonia vid
Somebody needs to get Matt Bellamy and the boys to score an epic movie or else they might explode. Muse makes great uber-dramatic stuff, and this vid fits that style perfectly. My only criticism is that they should have limited the band's appearance to the holos The cuts to their set breaks up the atmosphere, though on the other hand they could be considered the chorus.
Aand, 2 things.
1- Check out some sweet Joe & Shane photos from Rebel Rebelle.
2- Who wants to join me in a mission for the greater good: killing the Ting Tings?
Monday, July 07, 2008
Louis MacNeice's "Meeting Point"
I'm in Galway for a creative writing and Irish lit program, so I thought I'd share some of the stuff we're learning about, perhaps in an effort to assure you that I don't think the standout achievement of the Celtic Tiger is the St Bernard brand cookies. (Even though I'd say they're kinda a big deal.)As someone who barely reads poetry, who is in fact scared of it, I need people to take me by the hand and introduce me to this stuff, so I'm quite lucky to have found my way into a course that is exposing us to both literature and poetry.
"Glamorously unself-pitying melancholy"
You can learn more about Louis MacNeice here. Read more about MacNeice and the following poem at Reading for Life. For more poems and a brief article and bio of MacNeice, visit Will and Testament for an article written on last year's anniversary of MacNeice's passing.
Meeting Point by Louis MacNeice
Time was away and somewhere else,
There were two glasses and two chairs
And two people with the one pulse
(Somebody stopped the moving stairs)
Time was away and somewhere else.
And they were neither up nor down;
The stream's music did not stop
Flowing through heather, limpid brown,
Although they sat in a coffee shop
And they were neither up nor down.
The bell was silent in the air
Holding its inverted poise -
Between the clang and clang a flower,
A brazen calyx of no noise:
The bell was silent in the air.
The camels crossed the miles of sand
That stretched around the cups and plates;
The desert was their own, they planned
To portion out the stars and dates:
The camels crossed the miles of sand.
Time was away and somewhere else.
The waiter did not come, the clock
Forgot them and the radio waltz
Came out like water from a rock:
Time was away and somewhere else.
Her fingers flicked away the ash
That bloomed again in tropic trees:
Not caring if the markets crash
When they had forests such as these,
Her fingers flicked away the ash.
God or whatever means the Good
Be praised that time can stop like this,
That what the heart has understood
Can verify in the body's peace
God or whatever means the Good.
Time was away and she was here
And life no longer what it was,
The bell was silent in the air
And all the room one glow because
Time was away and she was here.
Sunday, July 06, 2008
Art Roundup!
Ken alerted me to Eric Tan's work, specifically his amazing posters for what is planned to be the three Indy movies. Eric Tan has also done work for the new film Wall-E, which was on display at last year's ComicCon.
These posters are available at the new Indiana Jones shop, where you can find a shitton of rocking original Indy fine art prints. Even if you're not looking to buy any, they offer watermark-free previews of the pieces.
Another artist featured there is Patrick Shoenmaker. whose work I've loved on theRaider.net and who also did stuff for the TOPPS card series. If you like Eric Tan's stuff you'll most probably like Shoenmaker's work, which uses the same illustrated, colorful style. He also has a cool sculpture of Hellboy with that dead Russian dude from the movie.
Also, check out a sweet Ben Templesmith piece via Filthy McNasty and hit up the Best of Wondermark, an online comic that marries 19th century pictures with naughty humor, for some laughs. My favorite is the first one. If you like Anomaly by Kennedy Rose you'll enjoy David Malki !'s work on Wondermark.
A few things
I had hoped I'd be able to do posts with limited file uploads- single tracks, etc- but the bad news is my internet connection here at student housing sucks so bad it can't load Youtube vids and tends to give out randomly. The closest thing short of heading out Californie-way to fixing it that I've figured is pulling the cable out and sticking it back in. (So I'm not actually sure if this will post.) So thanks to Caitlin for holding things down on the home front where the good internet and the external HD are, and stay tuned for more!Oh yeah, and people here are addicted to Big Brother UK. Coooookiees! (Yeah. . . we've started watching it to.)
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Howdy and a random Nick and Shane post
SO, I thought I'd start off posting a post I started back during the semester, never finished, and forgot what I was going to say about. (I can't even remember; all I've been listening to lately is the Riders In The Sky and Xavier Cugat so.... may a post about them coming up in the future, knowing me, not too soon a future. sorry for being a lazy bum. )
So ANYWAY, you can have the songs, and get to skip my chatter. Yay!
Here's some Nick and Shane, those two lovelies:
What A Wonderful World with Shane here
A Rainy Night In Soho here (just Nick) (WARNING: B and I agree that it is fairly awful, the only nick cave I don't like...)
Lucy (version 2) here
Friday, June 13, 2008
The Robert Downey Jr Post
Iron Man is officially the best Marvel hero movie that has been made, and yes, I am including Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD. Where the X-Men and Spider-man films never felt like they had very much meat and punch behind them, Iron Man has a great cast (Jeff Bridges, Terrence Howard, Shaun Toub, and Mrs Chris Martin, even though I've never been a fan), a relevant story line that has been suitably updated into our world (here, Los Angeles and in general, a post-911 world), and thrills and giggles. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it. I am not very familiar with the Iron Man of the comics, so I don't know how purists feel about the film, but on its own as a film- it's excellent. Definitely check it out, it's probably still in theaters.
If you're all over the place for more Robert Downey Jr, I'd like to recommended Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, starring the man himself in addition to Val Kilmer and Michelle Monaghan. I meant to see it when it came out, but a Blockbuster monthly pass plus this newfound RDJ obsession made sure I gave it another go, and it's well worth the- whatever it is that you do to get your movies.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is an updated noir-comic film, with "chapter titles" that just so happen to be the names of Raymond Chandler novels. And as you know, Raymond Chandler just so happens to be God. The film follows Harry (Downey Jr), who stumbles into a film audition after a botched toy store robbery and so impresses the audition people that he is brought to Hollywood. He is assigned to accompany Val Kilmer's gay detective character on the job so as to do research for his upcoming role, and as you can except, gets into all sorts of trouble. Michelle Monaghan plays a girl from his past. You get the idea. Dark alleys, corruption in the seat of authority, perversion, strange situations, ladies. The movie takes appropriate genre elements and uses them to its advantage.
Downey is ideal as the ironic antihero, interrupting his own narration when he remembers things he has forgotten to tell us. He's in over his head, and Downey plays Harry to perfection. It's especially fun to watch Downey and Kilmer square off, with Kilmer's character making it clear that he has little use for movie detectives in general or Downey in particular.The movie is a lot of fun, the characters interesting, dialogue sharp, good pacing.
Although there are many laughs, this is a violent film, as Black honors the genre while he plays with it. This is not a "Scary Movie" style spoof where we don't have to take anything seriously. People get hurt and some die in the course of the movie, and sometimes it does hurt. That's part of the reason these films continue to resonate. It's not merely about solving the mystery. There are some real human emotions at stake. [Daniel M Kimmel]
Aand, if you're not gonna go see the Hulk this weekend, here's the TV spot with Tony Stark. Yippee.
Monday, June 02, 2008
The Indy 4 Post
But let's get this out of the way.
Why the Aliens Didn't Suck:
1. It is in the mythology/history of the skull. This I learned from an uber-dramatic SciFi special and a not-quite-as-dramatic-but-hey-it's-still-the History Channel special.
2. More importantly, it fits in the 1950s Atomic theme. Which we get hit over the head with in what I thought was a great opening first act, mushroom cloud and all.
Why the Aliens Totally Did Suck:
1. Did you look at them?!
2. Steven Spielberg made this movie already, right?
3. Did you look at them?!
4. This was a big step away from the artifacts aspect of the first three Indy movies. The Sankara Stones, the Ark, and the Grail are all specifically man made objects, and the supernatural element is channeled through these very much earthly objects. This time, it was an alien skull, not an object "made or shaped by human craft." I don't know why this is such a sticking point for me. But it is. And in the end, I'll admit, I'm not a big fan of aliens.
What Worked:
1. The opening credits: Established time and place and was beautifully shot.
2. The Marion-Indy banter: Because thank god the screenwriter didn't learn from the Attack of the Clones School of Romantic Leads Dialogue. Likewise, the general Harrison-Shia-Karen dialogue sparkled.
3. Indy Being Old. It was a treat to see him as the professor, though beyond the dry sand moment they didn't take advantage of it throughout. I didn't have any doubts that Harrison Ford would be able to pull it off, but I wasn't sure if the screenplay would spend the whole time in a confusion of contradictory geezer jokes and crazy action moves. Thankfully, they've allowed Indy to mature rather than just age.
4. Okay, let's admit it. Even though all the self-referential things were about as subtle as that giant hammer, you enjoyed them.
5. Shia LaBeouf's character, Mutt, was genuinely charming and well-acted. I had concerns, but I think in the end. . .
6. The "passing of the hat/whip" was classy AND badass as fuck.
7. John Williams' reworking the theme for the end credits! A little treat at the end.
8. The format. While I feel that the end suffered, the general idea of a big baddie after a source of ultimate power, the big minion dude, the sidekick.
9. Marion! Severely underused and -appreciated Karen Allen was lovely, and the writing kept Marion in character.
10. The Cast. No false notes or weak points.
What Didn't Work:
1. The Quest part. Three waterfalls and the-skull-as-key later, there was little satisfaction in the payoff. Even if it was a big fucking room full of big fucking priceless artifacts.
2. Oh god. The Aliens and their Saran-wrap skulls and their spaceship.
What the Fuck:
1. The destruction of the valley. I ALREADY SAW THAT MOVIE. (A billion times.)
2. They wasted the always great Ray Winstone in a dull, uncreative role. His sole motivating force was greed, and, sure-- you can do things with that. They didn't. They tried to throw in a little something in the end with the wink, but by then, it was too late.
3. Sallah?
4. Denholm Elliot's statue's head being knocked off is so not funny.
5. John Hurt apparently didn't need any costume/makeup change between this and The Proposition set.
6. Wait a minnit, here it comes. . . What the FUCK was up with those fucking prairie dogs (?) and the fucking monkeys? Huh?
Sunday, June 01, 2008
We're Back
1. The ever-gracious Ken provided an alternative link to the Jam Rarities album that was giving everyone problems. If (or even if you don't) grab it, MAKE SURE you head on over to Ken's blog, check his stuff out, and thank him. It was exceedingly generous of him to share the link, and you should visit his place for extraordinary, high-quality posts on music, books, movies, and anything and everything. Please make sure you do this. I'm gonna sound like someone's grandmother, but I was slightly appalled at the lack of propriety that I had been fortunate enough to have avoided upto a point. If you got pissed at me for fucking up the link, fine. But make sure you go say thank you to Ken.
- The Jam, Extras: A Collection of Rarities, with many thanks to Ken.
2. Jim's back! He's closing down the old shop and starting a new and totally awesome project, Aye Tunes. I've updated the link but I'll leave the link to Geez Back Ma Heid! for a little while. If you haven't been there before, stop by- Jim is a fantastic dude both in person and on the page who has great taste in music and always puts together awesome posts, and I'm really excited that he's back!
3. A few changes will be coming through. I hope to widen the content in general, and this will include a shift to fewer full albums and more single tracks. This is in part because I will be out of the country and HD-less for a good part of the summer, but also because I think it will facilitate a greater amount of new and different music for readers to discover. Requests are still open, though, so feel free to drop a comment. I've added a new feature that lets me know the most recent comments, so hopefully response time will be cut in half, but go ahead and leave requests on the most recent posts anyway. And as always, let us know what you think, what you like, what you'd like to see.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Indiana Jones M & Ms
Now I know a few of you out there are as excited as I am about a little movie coming out tonight/tomorrow. So maybe when you saw the Indiana Jones M&Ms at the grocery store, instead of saying, "My god! Will this end!" you said, "Good lord, I must buy them!"
So if you did, and you're stuck with bags of peanut M&Ms with skulls, fedoras, and Mayan temples printed on them, you could do as we did and bake up some peanut M&M cookie bars, now officially Indiana Jones M&M cookie bars, AKA the cookie bars that B ate all of yesterday before the damn movie even came out. They're a little on the sweet side, though that's mostly from the candy goodness of the M&Ms. I don't know how they'd work with the other Indy tie-in M&Ms, which are mint. I'm a huge mint-chocolate fan and had actually looked for those because I wanted to use them in straight up brownies, but couldn't find 'em.
Peanut M&M Cookie Bars
from Genesis of a Cook and Fresh from the Oven.
2 3/4 cups flour
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2/3 cup butter, melted
2 1/4 cup brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups Peanut M&M's
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt.
3. In another bowl, combine the melted butter and brown sugar together, stirring until evenly distributed. Allow to cool slightly. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well each egg. Mix in vanilla. Stir in flour mixture. Once combined, add Peanut M&M's. Spread into a 13" x 9" baking pan or 10" x 15" jelly roll pan.
4. Bake for 24-27 minutes. Try not to oven bake or they will be dry. Once done, remove from oven and allow to cool completely before cutting.
I took them out at 24 minutes because I like my desserts gooey and undercooked, and at the 24 minute mark in my oven, they definitely were.
Woo-hoo! Food porn!
As regards the Jam album problem-- the link still isn't working and my HD still hasn't been unpacked (nor has anything else, ack!), so I will try to get it up as well as resume normal posting by the end of this weekend. Thanks again for your patience.
And have fun at the movies!
Thursday, May 15, 2008
oh snap.
Dear The Jam,
I love you.
Dear Paul Weller's Current Haircut,
I will destroy you.
xoxo
b
- The Jam ~ Extras: A Collection of Rarities [.rar]
- Buy Extras: A Collection of Rarities
- Sample track "And Your Bird Can Sing":
Also grab a live show from Giant Robots!
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Monday, May 12, 2008
Blow in the Wind
We here at sayNA are huge fans of punkrock supergroup cover band Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, and if you're not, then you're probably a Communiss.
Since it's the week of finals for quite a few students (last night we had the, to put it douche-ly, NPR-profiled Primal Scream, where everyone either goes outside or sticks their head out the window and screams, so that it sounds like the zombies have finally come, and pisses a lot of people off) or it just might be the start of a generally shitty week for anyone, I thought I'd post something that young and old alike can have some fun with.
A tribute mostly to the poppier, more bubblegum side of the '60s, Me First & the Gimme Gimmes' Blow in the Wind is a karaoke masterpiece, surprisingly the finest and punkest record they've released [allmusic].Good luck with the upcoming week, no matter what you're doing, and enjoy! As usual, keep your ear open for the intros to the songs.
- Blow in the Wind
- Buy! from Fat Wreck
