at least itunes approves of us

It took forever, but iTunes finally accepted the J.R. watches Star Trek for the first time podcast. If you enjoy hearing my and J.R.'s and J.R.'s kids' voices, you should really go ahead and hit up our page on iTunes. Also, future live broadcasts of the show will be handled over on the blog page.

For those of you that don't know, my friend J.R. has hated Star Trek for 30 years, but recently decided that he will watch it all. This podcast is simply me helping him cope as he goes through the whole thing. It's not too dead serious. We actually joke around through most of it. If you hate Star Trek you could still listen and have a pretty pleasant time. In fact, hating Star Trek may even help.

Anyway, it's a lot of fun. Everybody should do it. We've already got three episodes in the can in which we talk about the first season of the original series.

So, to sum up:

J.R. watches Star Trek for the first time at iTunes

J.R. watches Star Trek for the first time blog

j.r. watches star trek for the first time volume 3

Planning to do this at 5:00pm MST.

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b-day party pics '08!

Here's a pretty good shot of Maria and me last night at my big giant birthday party.


So the party went down at Skybox. They were extremely accommodating. They got us a big table in less than 15 minutes and everything.

Unfortunately, we had a drastic shortage of party guests.


The hostess and the servers were understandably rude to us because the two of us monopolized a 12-person table for our entire meal. The event was really depressing.

Actually after about five minutes 20 of my friends showed up and we had to get some extra tables too. Monica even brought me a gift: Hotrod on dvd. I think I rated it as my ninth most favorite movie from last year, but honestly I think it's more like the third. I got the halibut and chips. After that we played on the awesome big-person arcade games. I played the life-size basketball shoot three times in a row and got major back sweat from it. I also played the football throw game and beat Clint by three points. Maria beat me on the motorcycle game because I have cycle-turn-dyslexia. There's also the sweet racing game where four of us could race at once. Plus I got to the third screen in Donkey Kong. We had a wonderful time, but I forgot to take pictures of all that.

The hostess and servers weren't really rude. They were, in fact, quite nice.

birthday from youtube

Yesterday I took the day off from posting, since it was my birthday. Actually, that's not really the reason. It's not like I do this every day anymore anyway.

I did get a birthday present from YouTube watchers, though. I just checked, and apparently, the Wicked roller coaster video has just passed 10,000 watchers! How neato! here it is right here to celebrate:

j.r. watches star trek for the first time volume 2

EDIT: Okay, looks like it works after all. Congratulations to the none of you who were able to participate.

EDIT: Due to technical issues, J.R. is not going live with the recording. If you want to comment anyway, feel free.

Tune in at about 3pm MST if you want to take part.


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for those of you who don't know, i totally ROCKED my oscar picks

I missed the "makeup" category partially because my vote was almost a joke.

I also missed "film editing" and "sound mixing" because I didn't realize that these technical awards were the ones that Bourne Ultimatum would sweep. I did guess Bourne correctly for "sound editing," though.

I missed "costume design" by picking the unseen Sweeny Todd over the actual winner (and movie I actually did see) Elizabeth: The Golden Age. I mistakenly thought that Elizabeth's costumes were too "obvious."

Peter & the Wolf was the winner of "animated short film," but how was I supposed to know that? It's not like I had any possibility of actually viewing the film.

There Will Be Blood won for cinematography, and I should have voted for it, since I knew it would probably win more than just for best actor.

Taxi to the Dark Side won for documentary, which I don't think many people saw coming with No End in Sight and Sicko in that category.

One thing I failed to mention in my previous blog post is that while I wanted Persepolis to win the animation category, I actually thought that Ratatouille would actually win. Sorry about that. I marked it on my EW tear-away ballot and everything.

Here's what I did get right: "original song" (and that win from Once was the award-highlight), "original score," "sound editing" (already mentioned), "art direction," "live action short film" (yes, despite knowing nothing about any of the entries), "visual effects," "adapted screenplay," "original screenplay," "foreign language film," "animated feature" (if you believe me that I actually did think Ratatouille would take it -- and why wouldn't I?), "documentary short," "director," "supporting actor," "actress," "actor" and "best picture."

Also notice that another great thing happened when Tilda Swinton (my "should" pick) beat Cate Blanchett (my "will" pick). If we count my "should" pick I picked every one of the "big six" categories: picture, actor, actress, supporting actor, supporting actress and director.

So I guess officially I got 16 of the 24 correct with an emphasis on the biggies. Pretty Okay. This was the one year I wasn't part of any type of pool at all. Figures.

this year's oscar picks

Best Makeup:
I think Norbit will take it. What's better than hearing: "From the producers of the Oscar-winning Norbit"

Original Song:
Obviously I'm pulling for "Falling Slowly" from Once. If anybody in the academy saw this movie, then it's a shoe-in. Unfortunately, maybe they didn't watch the film since strangely this was all Once was nominated for. Of course all the votes for Enchanted may cancel each other out. What's up with having three nominees for the same movie anyway?

Original Score:
I didn't see it, but I heard that the score for Atonement is truly unique (hmm. so maybe that means it won't win).

Sound Editing:
I'll have to say The Bourne Ultimatum because I totally liked the movie despite the shaky visuals. It must have been the crazy sound that presented so much busy background noise of a half dozen cities, but was still crisp and straightforward.

Sound Mixing:
Perhaps this is the wrong category to say this, but I may as well. I love the voice work in Ratatouille because I couldn't tell which big-name actors were doing the voices. The characters were presented instead of the actors.

Film Editing:
No Country for Old Men. Such distinct moods were created perfectly through the elite timing of this movie.

Costume Design:
Sweeny Todd. Really just a guess. I never saw it.

Art Direction:
Sweeny Todd.

Live Action Short Film:
Le Mozart des Pickpockets. Cleverest title.

Animated Short Film:
Meme les Pigeons Vont au Paradis. Longest title

Visual Effects:
The Golden Compass. I didn't see it, but Pirates of the Caribbean and Transformers just weren't fun to look at.

Adapted Screenplay:
No Country for Old Men. I didn't read the original book, but I'm amazed to hear from people that some of the writing flourishes used by the Coens in this movie actually improved upon the book and not the other way around.

Original Screenplay:
I don't think I realized how much depth this story had until today when Maria and I had a 45-minute conversation about the emotion and motivation of the characters in Juno.

Cinematography:
No Country for Old Men. Bleak story but beautiful images.

Foreign Language Film:
The Counterfeiters. Sounds pretty cool.

Animated Feature:
I'll go ahead and say that I think Persepolis should win for keeping traditional two-dimensional animation in the game by having its own very unique original style.

Documentary Short:
Salim Baba. Could I even watch this movie if I wanted to?

Documentary Feature:
I liked Sicko, but I have a feeling the well-organized and thorough No End in Sight will take it.

Director:
Joel and Ethan will probably win, but the academy may not like making the award a shared one. Personally I like what Julian Schnabel did with The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. I really liked the juxtaposition of the protagonist's visual limitation with the broadness of his memories. Also, one thing we forget about directors is that they are directly in charge of actors' performances. The women in this movie did a wonderful job of evoking far more than sympathy.

Supporting Actress:
Cate Blanchett will probably win, but my vote goes to Tilda Swinton for her one of a kind portrayal of villain in the midst of a breakdown in Michael Clayton.

Supporting Actor:
Javier Bardem will win for bringing us the scariest villain since Darth Vader, but again I really liked a Michael Clayton performance. Tom Wilkinson played not only a guy who was off his meds, but a guy fully exposing his entire persona.

Actress:
Marion Cotillard. I heard she was pretty good.

Actor:
Daniel Day-Lewis will win, because the whole point of There Will Be Blood was to frame it around him and then turn him loose. The experiment was a success.

Picture:
No Country for Old Men. Mostly for editing. Mostly for the wonderful, evil villain. Mostly for taking something and improving on it. Mostly for every aspect of film coming together perfectly. I didn't really like the ending, though.

february stars

This is what I got for Valentine's Day. It's a headphone amplifier. It's pretty awesome. I have an awesome girlfriend because she doesn't give me chocolate. She gives me stuff like this. Ladies, if you want to impress your man, get him a headphone amp.

What this thing does is it enables four different headphones to receive from a single source. What that means is we hook it up to the tv, and when we play Rock Band, we can each have a set of headphones and we'll all hear the music instead of just the clacking of the plastic drums. So come over and play Rock Band. Halo is lots more fun too. We can also use it for our dvd commentaries. Now four different people can listen to the movie and comment with their own volume control. Neat, huh?

I also got The O.C. Mix 2 on cd. That show is so great. I'm still a fan. I put one of the songs over in "Song of the Moment" if you wanna listen.

Now may be a good time to mention that my birthday is later this month and I'm planning on having a party on the 29th. Right now the plan is Skybox. That way we can have a bite and also play in the adult fun area they have there. Don't tell me you're too busy. It's the 29th of February! It's a whole new extra day! It's like a free day crammed into our lives.

another teaser

can you digg it?

So really quickly, before another member of the Oceanic 6 is revealed, I joined Digg in the hopes of getting some exposure to the little Lost/X-men compilation I did a few entries ago. For those of you unfamiliar with Digg (I'm actually quite unfamiliar myself), here's how it works (maybe). People link interesting content to Digg where people have an opportunity to praise the work (or "digg" it). If content gets enough diggs, they move it to the front page where everybody in the world can see it.

Unfortunately I'm new at this whole thing and for some reason Digg isn't giving me a thumbnail (which always helps). Also, it's currently relegated to the "upcoming stories" section which means it's not in the Digg system yet and has only a certain amount of time to earn diggs before it's thrown out. Since I posted it at like one in the morning, I'm guessing it won't come across that many people who are just browsing the Digg upcoming stories (actually, maybe I'm wrong on that one).

Anyway, if you liked the entry I'm speaking of, I'd really appreciate it if you would digg it. You can do so by simply pushing this button here:



And, oh yeah, like everything else on the internet, you'll actually have to become a member to actually vote. Sorry. It's a slight pain I know. I wonder how many different things I've joined online. If you don't want to join I'll understand, but if you'd like it'd be great if you forwarded the URL of the comic to other people who MIGHT already be members of Digg (or maybe they're just Lost or X-men fans who don't mind all the geekery).

Here's the URL to forward:
http://jonmadsen.blogspot.com/2008/02/lost-series-finale-revealed.html

Don't say good bye. Say "good journey."

j.r. watches star trek for the first time volume 1

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the final friend tier

This may be surprising to hear, but I really enjoy Star Trek.

For the past 20 years my friend, J.R., has mocked me for my Trek beliefs. Only lately, however, has he decided to give it a go. Recently he's informed me that he just finished the first season of the original series.

Tomorrow night (Monday), if all goes according to plan, he and I will have our first Star Trek discussion ever. I'm hoping to record this conversation and broadcast it live if technology permits. If you'd like to participate in this historic occasion, please check the blog out tomorrow (or tonight if you're reading this on Monday) at maybe 10:00 pm or so. Hopefully I'll have a couple of Ustream windows up and a chat page.

happy valentimes!

lost series finale -- revealed!

So I know this guy in L.A. who works a lot with ABC executives.

Apparently, he got a hold of some storyboards that directly have to do with the series finale of Lost. Yeah, not the season finale, the series finale. The one that will air two entire years from now and answer everything!

Naturally my buddy would get fired if he shared these storyboards with the world. Do you think he'll still get fired if I show them to everybody? 'Cuz that's what's gonna happen!

It may be difficult to read the dialogue straight from the images as they appear here. You may have to click on a few of them to make large enough. Make sure you follow the story, though! Apparently they throw a buncha curve balls!






EDIT: Special thanks of course to "Giant Size X-men #1" (and to everybody who realized where it's from without me having to say so).

EDIT: How about a Digg?

jon's superbowl xlii super-intense recap

That was freaking awesome.

song of the moment archive

Hi! This is the song of the moment archive. Come back here if you want to listen to any awesome songs of the moment from days of yore. Check out Archive II.

"Knowing Me, Knowing You" by ABBA


So Mamma Mia!, in a genius counter-programming move opened against The Dark Knight this past weekend. I'm probably one of very few individuals who wanted to see both movies. Mamma Mia! is actually pretty uncool as a story, but at least it has ABBA songs. Way back in '92 or around then, one of my favorite bands, Erasure, released an interesting EP called "Abba-Esque." The four songs were pretty good, I thought. Soon later I discovered that Erasure didn't write these songs and the originals were written by some band I never heard of called ABBA. After educating myself of Sweden's biggest export I put up my hands and blamed the world. I had been on the earth for like 15 years and NOBODY TOLD ME THAT ABBA EXISTED! It's always been something I've been sort of angry about. Anyway, this song was curiously missing from Mamma Mia! I would have put on here the creepy song "The Day Before You Came," but I couldn't find it anywhere.

"What's Your Name?" and "Surrender" by Depeche Mode




We did some DM last time, but gotta throw these on. Last week, my friend Scott embarrassed me by giving a shout-out to "What's Your Name?" which he said was the "gayest song ever." I didn't know what he was talking about since I was unfamiliar with the song. I was then called out as a fan. Since then, I've found my copy and become familiar with it. It is super-gay. I had my vengeance later in the week when I told Scott that "Surrender" has been in my head all month. He confessed he was unfamiliar with THAT song, which I consider to be extremely discoey for late 90s-era Mode. So everything works out. Scott and I, it turns out are both not the fans we thought we were.

"Everything Counts" by Depeche Mode


So it turns out that today (June 18th, 2008) is the 20th anniversary of the historic Depeche Mode "101" show at the Rose Bowl. That's not 20 years of Depeche Mode being together -- that's 20 years since their biggest concert. I feel terribly old today. This song is about capitalist greed. During the 101 movie, this song is intercut by the DM accountants counting all the money everyone made from the show.

"Texarkana" by R.E.M.


I just saw a recent MST3k called Boggy Creek II. It involves a pervy southern professor and some of his college pupils looking for a man-ape near Texarkana. I'm not kidding when I say that this song has better cinematography than that film.

"Push" by The Cure


"I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself" by The White Stripes


"Truth Doesn't Make a Noise" by The White Stripes


Everybody knows The White Stripes, but many aren't aware of their work before their third album. Here's a gem from their second album (possibly my favorite album). This song is great because it sounds like it's totally in a seedy saloon and some unwelcome guest just walked through the swinging doors. When the piano cue kicks in at about 1:28 I always get a smile on my face.

"Stinging Velvet" by Neko Case


I really hate country, but this alt-country chick is pretty cool. She's also in a pretty popular indie band. Maria loves her voice really hard. I think she sounds like a cowgirl in outer space and that's a good thing.

"Statues" by Foo Fighters


This is my favorite song from the new Foo Fighters album. It sounds like vintage Wings!


"Midnight" by Yaz


A year after forming Depeche Mode, Vince Clarke quit the band and put out a classified looking for a "bluesy singer." When Alison Moyet answered the ad, Yazoo was formed (Yaz in America). Here's one of those beautiful songs from the 80s that sometimes I think only I understand. A lot of synth haters feel that the music isn't organic enough -- that it just isn't natural and can't be appreciated with the same intensity as more guitar-driven music. Lots and lots of times that's true. Lots of times the music is cold, menacing and unnatural (which is why I like it usually). Not this track, though. Here's synth music with soul and power. Once you learn the words, sing along and don't be afraid to belt it out. It's quite therapeutic.

"Walnut Tree" by Keane


This guy's voice kinda bugs me, but I think the song is really cool. This is from the O.C. "Mix 2" cd, which I got for Valentine's Day.

"Identity Theft" by Nellie Mckay


She's my favorite songstress. Sort of a really really sarcastic Doris Day. She raps too sometimes (not often).

"Theme For Great Cities" by Simple Minds


This band did the theme song for The Breakfast Club. It's their claim to fame even though they didn't write that song and I think most of their other stuff is far superior. This particular instrumental song sounds way different than anything else I know by them.

"Adam In Chains" by Billy Idol


Since I've been so sick lately I've had a difficult time sleeping. This rare Billy Idol track actually contains a step by step process of hypnotizing! Kick back! Relax!

"Home" by Depeche Mode


I've been listening to this song a lot because I've been at home a lot. This was always a favorite of mine. It's not sung by Dave, the usual DM singer. This one is sung by Martin, the DM songwriter.

"Common People" by William Shatner


All bow to the glorious Shatner! Oh, how glorious!

lost ?s

Ok, so after a year of waiting it wasn't COMPLETELY satisfying, but it was plenty refreshing -- like a Crystal Lite after wandering through the desert. Sure freshly squozen lemonade would've been wicked harder, but we take what we can get.

Let's just get down to what we need to figure out. I simply have one question.

We know that Future Hurley agrees that getting off the island was a BAD idea. We know that Locke organized the people who wanted to defend themselves from the invaders that would potentially take them OFF the island. Why then, did Future Hurley say it was a mistake that he snubbed Jack (who wanted to leave) and instead followed Locke (who wanted to stay)?

This leaves three possibilities that I can think of (can you think of more?):

1) The Losties are dealing with a Kobayashi Maru in which there is no correct answer without re-writing the rules of the test.

2) The expected course of events will change in that it is actually Jack who would have prevented the evacuation of the island rather than Locke.

3) It's something besides not leaving the island that Future Hurley regrets his loyalties with Locke. Something obviously to be revealed soon (within the next three real-life years).

Mulling it over, I'll bet it's number 3, which actually may meld with number 1 a little. The episode easily sets up another "Look! Locke, the man of faith is right again! They should follow him!" scenario. One thing I think we really need to consider is the importance of Rose's opinion. I consider her an even better gauge of faith than Locke. She seems pretty adamant in her distrust of the guy, though.

Oh yeah, one more question. Is Locke still bleeding to death from a gunshot wound, or are the writers just throwin' that one out?

new blog feature!

Accute eyes may have noticed the new Quicktime play bar over on the right beneath that picture of me. I got the idea from Monica's blog. She does this awesome "song of the week" thing with a little mp3 player embedded right into her blog. I couldn't get the same player working so I had to mess around with, and make up some HTML to enable the same sort of listening experience here. Actually I didn't experiment with her player as much as I could have. I bet it would have worked if I uploaded the songs to the recommended third-party and if I gave them my blog password (which would have done all the work for me, but I was way nervous about doing something like that).

Ok, sorry too much talking. Hit play on the bar over there.

Weeks ago, I decided that the first song definitely had to be "Common People" by His Majesty Bill Shatner. Somewhere along the way the line between laughable camp and straight-up total awsomeness has disintegrated. This song is just sweet. I don't care what you say. So listen to it at work, put your headphones on and crank it up!

I'll change the song every few days.

Here it is down here just in case you're reading an archive and it's now the distant future (what's it like? Do we have warp speed yet?).

me rockin' the shooting range

1910-2008

The wind suddenly picked up outside. It kind of reminds me of the time years and years ago when President Benson died and we had that sudden microburst that uprooted trees.

President Hinckley visited New Zealand when I was there in 1997. He actually opened the massive congregation up for random questions. One guy asked if anything miraculous, like the appearance of angels, took place during a specific revelation given to the church leadership in 1978. He pretty much said it was a strictly spiritual experience consisting of a good feeling. I'm not sure exactly how many miraculous divine things the guy has seen with his own eyes. It could have been quite a few. I'm guessing, however, that most of the time he saw and heard the exact same way we do. It was faith that drove him and it was in faith he succeeded. This certainly doesn't take away from the mantle of prophecy. It's really why his story is so miraculous. Men become great because they spend their lifetimes seeking God, not because God spends mens' lifetimes seeking men.

I don't know exactly what he saw here, but no doubt he's right at home now.

i just don't know what to do with myself

Maria and Rhett are both out of town. What should I do this week?

Btw, I gave Adam, the host of Filmspotting, a ride to the airport yesterday morning. I had a chance to tell him my idea for starting a business where I get everybody I know to give me 50 bucks a month and then they call me whenever they need an errand done during the day. He said it was a brilliant idea, so suck on that everyone who thought it was a dumb idea! Actually to be honest, he said it was a brilliant idea for a film.

You may not believe this, but here is Quentin Tarantino:


Here's a zoom-in. See the chin?


He was just wandering around Park City like a crazy man lookin' for something. I saw him twice. Maria can vouch for me the second time.

i'm hit!

Maria just tagged me.

Here are the instructions:

Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself.
Tag 7 random people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs.
Let each person know that they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. Senior year I asked the student body president to Homecoming dance using the same gigantic Hershey's kiss that a different girl used to answer me the previous year for Prom.

2. Before the internet and before owning The Complete Book of M*A*S*H, I used to write in what I called The M*A*S*H Log to determine what time of the year my favorite episodes would be on.

3. I was reading The Grapes of Wrath right up until I had to take the final in high school. I came really close to finishing. I seriously had only half a page left before the teacher made us put our books away for the test, so I didn't get to that one really creepy scene. You know the one!

4. I've thrown up in class on three separate occasions that I can remember. Once after coming in off the merry-go-round, once with the flu and once after an allergic reaction to the codeine prescribed to me for a broken arm.

5. I have journal entries of me wanting to be a ninja a good 12 or 13 years before ninjas became the bee's knees.

6. Back when my mother and I moved back into the family condo with my other two brothers, I moved into the large master bedroom with one of my brothers, my other brother took a normal bedroom and my mom took the other normal bedroom. When my other two brothers moved out I didn't graciously let my mom have the master bedroom, but actually annexed the other spare room while also staying in the master bedroom.

7. I am the seventh child in my family and was born in 1977 on the 27th of the month at 12:07 p.m. weighing seven pounds and seven ounces. Years later my 77th favorite movie would turn out to be Se7en.

I am tagging:

1. The Jon Madsen Movie Commentary Podcast
2. Blogging Forgotten Realms
3. A Game a Week
4. Locke vs. Demosthenes
5. Peter and Nichole
6. Brad and Chelsea
7. Gluten-Free Girl

So everybody do it, hard! Otherwise I'll plotz!

Also, apologies to Abel, because I still haven't gotten around to his tag and that was like a year ago. I didn't really know what this tagging thing was all about back then.

getting with the times.

My new year's resolution is to pronounce this year as "twenty-oh-eight" rather than "two-thousand-eight."

fff 9 and 10

Last week Maria's mom let me partake in a Christmas Olive Garden gift certificate extravaganza. Just a couple of hours ago Maria made me a yummy pizza bread thingie. I've had them before, but this one was the best.

welcome back everybody

I'm super glad you were able to find me again. In case you're wondering, I had to transfer all my rexbasior.com files from my old server to my new one. Presently I don't know where any of them are. I figured it would be a good time to finally switch over to a blogspot account. The real rough thing, though, is that all my pictures are gone. Even when I can find them on whatever server they're on, I'm pretty sure I'll still need to manually re-upload them to all my entries because the entries are already scripted for the wrong location. I just spent a good chunk of time doing just that for some of the recent stuff. I anticipate it will take a month or so to re-upload all the photos from this last year alone. Before that, I'm not even sure since the photos I used weren't from the computer I publish from right now.

Fortunately, the last couple of days have been semi-warm. It's been so cold lately. It's been too cold to go out. It's been too cold to dine. It's been too cold to think.

I don't shower much.

top 32 songs of 2007!

32. "Less Talk More Rokk" by Freezepop
I guess I can blame my nephews for unlocking this song on Guitar Hero II and then getting it stuck in my head over the summer.

31. "Tarantula" by Smashing Pumpkins
Ok, but without Iha and that other girl, aren't they just another version of ZWAN?

30. "thnks fr th mmrs" by Fallout Boy
Fine. Even though they seem like they represent everything that bugs me, I still tend to like most of their songs.

29. "Shadowplay" by The Killers
This is a Joy Division cover and I've been listening to a whole lotta Joy Division this year because of the big movie (see previous post).

28. "Men's Needs" by The Cribs
This has a pretty dancy indie beat. Plus, the singers switch on the chorus. Keeps us as listeners on our toes.

27. "Bodysnatchers" by Radiohead
I'll be honest. I don't actually remember how this one goes because I forgot to download it when the album was free. I gotta give props to my boys radiohead though.

26. "Big Girls Don't Cry" by Fergie
This wins the award for lamest AND most fun lyrics to sing. Everybody sing: "I'm gonna miss you like a child misses a blanket."

25. "1234" by Feist
The whispery then jubilant dynamic works. Also, Apple demanded that we all heard it a lot.

24. "The Sweet Escape" by Gwen Stefani
Wasn't this from last year?

23. "Girlfriend" by Avril Lavigne
Now that she's finally old enough to be out of high school, it's refreshing to finally hear her sing the sort of song she should have sung in high school.

22. "Rehab" by Amy Winehouse
Not super great, but it's different enough to enjoy singing to.

21. "Heinrich Maneuver" by Interpol
Um, all their songs sound similar, but at least it's a sound i like.

20. "Business Time" by Flight of the Conchords
Great comedic songs aren't just funny, but also great and soulful even if they weren't funny.

19. "Brianstorm" by Arctic Monkeys
I bought their album when I couldn't find Arcade Fire. It was pretty much the next thing in the alphabet. Sweet album though.

18. "What Goes Around Comes Around" by Justin Timberlake
You probably liked it too. It's serious stuff.

17. "Gimme More" by Britney Spears
Less serious. She's a trainwreck, but c'mon. It's Britney, bitch.

16. "Iran So Far" by Andy Samberg and Adam Levine
Yeah, I think that Ahmadinejad looks like Jake Gyllenhall too! Funny. Funny. Funny. "I know there are no gays in Iran, but this is New York City, baby!"

15. "Grace Kelly" by Mika
This Queen homage is a pretty good one, but not quite awesome enough for me to go pick up this cd after winning it from the radio station.

14. "Myriad Harbour" by New Pornographers
Here's a real classy band. I'm serious; pay no attention to the title. Saw them live and they can really kick it out. They're like a Canadian supergroup.

13. "Young Folks" by Peter Bjorn and John
Most effective use of whistling since "Patience" by Guns 'n Roses.

12. "Stronger" by Kanye West
This was more of a direct lift from the source material than usual, but it's nice to hear the guy head more electronic. He does it well. It helps me consider crossing genres more.

11. "Intervention" by Arcade Fire
This song is pretty inspiring. It sort of makes me want to stop working in the field, put my plowshare down and just sing in protest.

10. "Statues" by Foo Fighters
Dave on piano? Weird. They're looking and sounding really 70s, which I think is pretty cool. This is a song Wings should have written.

9. "LDN" by Lily Allen
I'm not sure why Amy Winehouse is so much more popular than this bird. This song just brightens me up. It's like white chick reggae.

8. "The Bird and the Worm" by The Used
I really never liked anything by them after their first album until this throat bleeder came along.

7. "Dashboard" by Modest Mouse
They've recently hired Johnny Marr, the guitarist from the Smiths. How cool is that? Anway, this song is way more fun to growl along to than any other one of theirs I've heard in the past.

6. "Bleed It Out" by Linkin Park
Every few years a Linkin Park song comes out that I really like and I'm slightly ashamed. This one has a steady charging rhythm propelled by the continuous switching of rockin' and chant rappin.'

5. "Identity Theft" by Nellie Mckay
My main girl always has a spot on the top 32! She really got more lively on her cd this year, with an even more retro sound.

4. "Hang Me Up to Dry" by Cold War Kids
These cats have a pretty unique perspective on music-making. I may have listened to their cd more than any other this year.

3. "Supermassive Black Hole" by Muse
Muse is so freakin' hot right now. I love this one since it's a lot more groovy than rocky. Have you tried "Knights of Cydonia" on Guitar Hero yet? Sweeeeeet.

2. "When Your Mind's Made Up" by Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova
This was taken from the recording session scene in Once. When everything comes together, it's just one more of several musical highlights from the film. I really wish Control had a similar scene. It also helps that I find it the most beautiful song from the soundtrack.

1. "Rag and Bone" by The White Stripes
Jack and Meg loot an old southern estate, and it royally rocks. Just listen to it. The whole album is actually pretty good, maybe one of their best.

Anyway, that's it. It's never quite as detailed as the top movies. I probably forgot 32 or so songs as well. Lemme know what I missed.

top 32 movies of 2007!

Click on the image! You know you want to.

32. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
One of my pet peeves involving talking about movies is when people say, "It makes me so mad because that's two hours that I'll never get back!" You can say that about any movie, not just the ones you hate. In fact, you can say that about any activity. Maybe you look at your cel phone and then two hours later you check the time again. Do you actually say out loud, "I'll never get those two hours back!" Fact is, the clock is ticking, and we're gonna die of heart disease 50 years from now whether or not the two hours was spent in a good or bad movie. They're both wastes of time to a certain degree. Just because we sat through a bad movie doesn't mean we would've administered to the wounds of orphans had we not gone to the theater that day. The last two hours will always be two hours you don't get back. When I grade movies for my end year list I use a letter grade scale. Usually, every movie is passable in the sense that I didn't feel punished by watching it, so "D" tends to be my lowest grade. Anyway, I've never come closer to uttering the phrase that peeves me than while watching this movie. Pirates did not receive a D. Perhaps I was in a bad mood, because most of my friends weren't nearly as enraged as I was; but I was actually angry that I was in the theater during most of this boring series of moving images. I could leave it at that, but let me just ask quickly: what was the deal with that supposed "pump-up" speech delivered by Keira Knightly to the other pirates? They weren't even able to join the fight. Why was the speech delivered? Meh.

31. Transformers
I must be getting old because the worst movies on the list this year were two of the biggest blockbusters. I do remember enjoying this a lot when I saw it, but it bugged me and wore down on me more and more as I thought about it later. That last battle scene was pretty cool, I admit, but it did have some flaws. Probably the biggest reason I'm betraying the transforming robot concept that really was my life from 1984-1987 is because the robots themselves had no heart or personality. Did anyone come out of the theater and say, "Wow, which transformer was your favorite? Mine was totally Barricade!" Maybe people did, but I'd be surprised. They were really more like props than characters.

30. Smokin' Aces
Didn't this come out last year? It must've been the first movie I saw all year. I saw it with my pop culture team in California. We picked it because the other two guys had already seen Children of Men. I still haven't seen that one. Anyway, this shoot 'em up tries to follow a certain style that doesn't work and has too many characters with dead ends. Plus, sheesh, is Jeremy Piven the most annoying person ever or what?

29. The Dance
You probably don't know, but this was an LDS picture that came out early in the year. It's about three different couples of different age groups on the night of the "big dance." For being such a huge event, I was really amazed at how lame the event turned out to be. Maria had a good point in being annoyed at the unnatural line deliveries of the oldest couple.

28. Spiderman 3
Strangely, I've never been a very big fan of this franchise. I definitely prefer the old cartoon with Iceman and Firestar. Obviously this one was bloated with not enough room to really draw us into all the characters, which is sad because I've been looking forward to the Venom storyline. Fortunately that part was probably my favorite; not because of Venom, but because of Topher Grace. He's actually got some watchable charisma. Makes me wish he was originally Spiderman instead of Tobey. I never understood Tobey Mcguire's raves for his version of Spiderman.

27. Blades of Glory
Didn't hate it. It had one really funny part, but for the most part it was just a pretty good time I'll never get back.

26. In the Land of Women
I stayed for Adam Brody. I fled from Meg Ryan. Actually, I sort of involved myself in the watching of this, but looking back all I remember is some estrogenal confusion.

25. Ocean's 13
Everyone else on earth felt betrayed by Ocean's 12, but this was the one that offended me. In my mind, Soderbergh tried something new with 12, and then sold out with 13 by just making the masses happy by feeding them the same elements of the first movie. It wasn't really as original or cool as the first two. Canning Julia Roberts may have helped though.

24. Lars and the Real Girl
I sort of feel guilty for not liking this as much as most people I know who saw it. Obviously this movie spoke to a lot of people in a way that must have evaded me. There are two or three things that I really can't overcome. This was my first Ryan Gosling movie. Presently he's the critics' total darling snook-'ems. I have no doubt that his performance in Half Nelson was far more gripping than his performance here. He seemed to be channeling David Arquette. Also, the lack of perceivable human conflict made most of the action redundant. This guy with delusions brings his problem into a series of different town situations and the townspeople all act... exactly the same. It sure is inspiring that these people are so accepting, but the episodic nature doesn't do much to scroll forward the gears of the development. My biggest problem with the movie though is its use of humor. I personally feel that when the unusual delusion of Lars is introduced it's meant to be played for laughs. The filmmakers don't make an obvious mood change to designate when we're no longer supposed to find the delusion humorous and many people in our theater found themselves laughing when they were supposed to find the situation touching. Perhaps they had less "film intelligence" than many others we were watching it with, but I personally think that the filmmakers purposely wanted the humorous/touching line to be vague. As a result, audience members wind up with "hindsight guilt" for their initial impulses toward humor -- even though that's exactly how it was meant to be presented. Some filmgoers, no doubt, would say it's an effective storytelling tool. I sort of think it's deceptive and insulting. Actually, I'm sure most would probably say they noticed no such thing. I guess sometimes I'm known for noticing things that don't exist.

23. Sydney White
It seems like there was a pretty funny part in this. Can't remember. I tend to sort of like old stories that are vaguely re-told in present-day.

22. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
They proved a pretty good point by making the longest Harry Potter book into the shortest movie. Changing up the directors also really helps. It keeps the "V Rule" that says that the fifth of any movie series is the worst one (see Star Wars, Rocky, Friday the 13th) at bay. Of course my favorite part from the book (Snape's flashback of being tormented by Harry's dad) was handled in like 4 seconds here. Unfortunately, this was one of my least favorite Harry books, so how good could the movie have possibly been?

21. 300
I really don't a huge level of digital effects and I really think most moviegoers don't. Of course this movie does a good point in making something interesting out of making an entire movie using digital image processes rather than just the special effects.

20. Enchanted
I just remembered this one. I'll have to just stick it in here.

19. Crazy Love
I just saw this one last night. It's a documentary about a weird girl and a crazy guy and their treatment of each other over the course of four decades. I won't even say anything more than that because the actual story hinges on two or three AMAZING events that I already knew before I saw it. Fallout from these events is shown in the movie discussed on major television talk shows, which kind of makes me wonder what the need of making this movie was when the material has obviously been covered elsewhere. I'm sure, however, that if I didn't know what was coming, this relationship would have had me absorbed to no end.

18. Disturbia
This built a steady tension well. I really appreciate that enough restraint was used in the first half to enable that.

17. Live Free or Die Hard
I think the lack of a good villain didn't quite put this one in the same league as the other ones. Also, I wish they'd stick more to what's worked in the past. The vast expanse isn't nearly as thrilling as the patented Die Hard closed spaces.

16. The Bourne Ultimatum
This was pretty good as a thoughtful action movie, but I'm really surprised it's made so many critical top ten lists. I get sick of saying this, but even though the hand-held shaky-cam is a trademark of the series, leaving it out would have put it in my top ten. Kudos for actually managing a high-speed chase in Manhattan, though.

15. Breach
On the other hand, even more kudos to Breach for somehow managing to put excitement into a traffic jam rather than a high-speed chase. This was an excellent case study about the most notorious traitor spy in the history of the United States and the appeal of Catherine Zeta-Jones (who strangely doesn't appear in the film).

14. Ratatouille
Pixar served up par for them, which is merely near perfection. Maria and I laughed the hardest we laughed all year during the "Lifted" short that played at the front.

13. Sicko
Most people I know are Michael Moore haters and I know better than to simply believe all the facts presented, but at least they were presented in an entertaining way. He'd certainly be a lot more effective in getting his side across if he did a better job of telling the other side. If anything, the movie got me to think about healthcare. Maybe I'll come up with a better solution someday.

12/11. Grindhouse
Since Planet Terror and Death Proof were released separately on dvd, I'll go ahead and treat them like two different movies. Death Proof was very well made, and that end car sequence was pretty amazing, but it takes a really long time to get there (especially after watching another movie entirely before the droning exposition even begins). Most critics I read or listened to felt that the car-chase Death Proof was far superior to the zombie-infection Planet Terror. I relinquish all my critical cred by stating that I think Terror has the edge. It had a lot of funny and a lot fun on the way to the cheesy last shot showing the remnants of society as a post-apocolyptic desert caravan.

10. The Menagerie
Maybe this Star Trek episode isn't technically a movie, but this year was probably the first time it was shown in a movie theater. They really cleaned up the image and added some amazingly subtle effects that made this feel every bit as enticing as any film that came out this year. This particular episode is probably closer to an episode of The Twilight Zone than Star Trek and the word "cerebral" is often thrown around in describing it. Classy intellectualism aside, the real appeal is the high drama not only elicited by the great William Shatner, but also by the old Enterprise captain, Jeffrey Hunter. I think I talked about it more here.

9. The Simpsons
We just watched this in New York again. It would have been nice if they cut some of the dopey characters and instead focused on more of my favorites like Mr. Burns, Lenny & Carl, Gil, etc. It's still pretty stacked with laughs. I've never heard Peter Nash laugh so hard. My new favorite part is when Homer dumps the animal waste into the lake, sees what he's done and jumps into the back seat of the car, telling the pig to "Drive! Drive! Drive!" I wonder what my favorite part will be next time I see it.

8. I Am Legend
I'm a huge fan of Omega Man, so I was very surprised that I Am Legend was closer to it than it was to Transformers. The cgi on the "night seekers" was a mess, but the film was saved in a pretty good execution. I really liked how we're slowly given revelations about what had happened in the past, and although the figures of the enemies was a visual problem, the scene where Will Smith sneaks into their little hive is plenty scary.

7. Juno
As delightful as Juno was I was sorely let down because of the incredible critical and festival response. Perhaps I thought it would be more "life changing." No matter though. Plenty funny with awesome delivery. Trust me, I'll be using the term "food baby" several times in the next year.

6. Hot Rod
I'm not ashamed. I thought it was brilliant. Raising money to save a guy's life to punch him in the face? Brilliant. Homage to the warehouse scene in Footloose? Brilliant. Falling down a hill more than the obvious amount of times? Brilliant. Having the 80s band Asia do the soundtrack? Brilliant.

5. Control
I didn't have the best time watching this movie, but I can't deny its excellence. I thought I'd appreciate it because it dealt with a band I like and it was directed by my favorite music video director. Actually it was far far less than a music video than I would have thought. In fact there wasn't even that sequence where they lay down the tracks and everything comes together and we get to share in the musical experience (I really wish it did have that too). No, what I really remember is seeing Ian Curtis slip into a tortuous whirlpool of anxiety, insecurity and depression. The guy was no hero, but I sure felt rough for the guy and his wife. I wrote about it more here.

4. No Country For Old Men
I don't know, maybe I'm ranking it too well. Like Juno, I was sort of let down by all the critical acclaim I heard before seeing it. It was pretty effective though. Javier Bardem was really really scary. He had a really really scary haircut too. I'd probably feel more justified putting it in this really excellent position if I could just come to terms with the last third. Lots of people are complaining about the ending and I didn't have a problem so much with the very ending. I did, however, feel that the rug was pulled out from under us quite a bit too soon. The decline at the end was less fun when the tension still wasn't on the brink.

3. Waitress
Ugh. I've been typing for hours now and I could sure go for a pie. I never watched Felicity, but I just might because Keri Russel is wonderful in this. I have watched Firefly so Nathan Fillion is already like my favorite man. Even Andy Griffith reminds me of my stepdad. This movie is just sugary sweet -- like a good piece of pie -- and I don't even eat pie usually.

2. King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
I was really close to putting this in as number one. It's far more my kind of movie: a documentary about oldschool arcade game championships. If you don't know, the movie is about two very different men. Steve is a very nice, down-on-his luck novice gamer. Billy is the arrogant champion as aloof as Michael Scott and a haircut even more humorous than Javier Bardem's in No Country For Old Men. Billy should be named "villain of the year." When Maria and I went, I was sort of worried that the documentary would reveal the loserness of videogaming, but thankfully and gloriously the serious focus on the competion was played completely straight. Coming out of the theater all she could talk about was how much she hated Billy Mitchell. Despite not being a Christopher Guest-type mockumentary, the movie is packed to the brim with genuine and welcome humor. My only complaint is that the filmmakers could have let Billy's villainy stand on its own. They didn't need to paint him villainous as obvious as they did.

1. Once
Somehow, this year, the sensitive musician movie came out on top over the one about the video games. We just watched this one again and it's totally not perfect. At times it feels a little bit draggy, but it totally had some kind of magic that absolutely no other movie had this year. Watching it the second time, I noticed that I sort of liked it for one of the big reasons I disliked Lars and the Real Girl, which was a sort of lack of antagonists. Obviously, I might have some problems with my opinionating. On the other hand, it is a different story and worked in a different way. In this one, the power of this guy's music brings everyone together. Everything doesn't work out perfectly. There are conflicts to overcome, but by the end, all characters are more fulfilled by what the main characters have created together rather than what's been dealt with. Right now, I don't know very many people who have seen this, so I'd encourage you to see it and hate it if you can. It is very different. Different enough that I'm sure it doesn't fit everyone's taste, but definitely worth seeing.

Some movies I didn't get around to seeing that I'm surprised about were:

Zodiac, The Hoax, Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters, Hot Fuzz, 1408, Sunshine, Rescue Dawn, Into the Wild, Southland Tales...

Were any any good?

I wanna send out a special thank you to the Broadway and Regency theaters here in Salt Lake. This year I broke some records in the amount of independent films I saw.

fff 8: birthday

This past Friday was Laura's birthday party so her mom made some chicken and some dessert and jazzy stuff like that. I ate it. As a total bonus, later that night we went to Cafe Rio and I filled up my punch card, thus enabling a free meal on a later date. Ah, the grandeur of Free Food Friday! Not only do I get free food, but I get free food credit!

airing of grievances '07

Another Festivus is come and gone and now for the Airing of Grievances.

Ice: I can't believe I forgot you last year! I hate you and I hate everyone who gives me more ice than liquid in my drink. It's winter. I have no need for ice-cold anything. Plus, I can't deposit a gushing stream of liquid down my throat when my lips are forcibly clenched to prevent shards of ice from being swallowed whole. Ice from ice machines also smells funny. It does. Maybe this is why.

Airports: Get some more chairs! Also, because of security scares, I'm not allowed to leave my luggage. That means I have to take my luggage to the bathroom with me. There's no way in Hell I'm going to let my bags touch an airport bathroom floor. The result is a meticulous and painful balancing act that, I can only assume is extremely funny to witness, is still something I would love to not participate in again.

Cold (temperature): I hate you.

Cold (illness): I hate you. I had like four colds in the past couple of months. Obviously you stupid colds haven't heard of physical or diplomatic immunity.

Writer's Strike: I feel for the plight of you writers, but I am still grieved.

Waiters in New York: You provide the same service as in Utah, but you servers wait for us to ask you to bring the check. Don't you want to usher us out? There are people waiting! Sure, you're probably being nice by providing some post-meal personal time for us, but that's not what I was raised with, so you're wrong! It's very disappointing.

Anxiety: You caused my favorite living band to not come to Utah, thus dashing the most anticipated live event of the year! You also paralyze me in encounters with new people and prevent me from putting people I know on this very list!

Diagonals: Utah streets are very well organized. So what's up with American Fork being all diagonally and shiz? And how about Fort Union and Union Boulevard not just being all diagonal when they're not supposed to be, but actually having the same name? Don't even get me started on you two!

The west side: All you sprawl from Jordan Landing (stop being so similar in name to Jordon Commons) up to the airport with your perfectly-lined up streets, I'm talkin' to you. You're boring.

Coupons: Stop expiring! Especially the big ones that I had to purchase big things to get (I'm looking at you 25% off at R.E.I. with a complimentary lift pass to The Canyons that expired a month ago).

Thief who stole my car stereo: Get a job hippie!

Transformers: How horribly grieving it is that the movie I looked forward to for 20 years has, the more I think about it, become the biggest movie disappoinment I've seen this year.

fff 7 - business expense.

This past Friday I tagged along on Maria's business trip. We ate at this place called VYNL, which was really really good. The menus were old LP covers. Solid. She got reimbersed by her company (as well as all our meals on Saturday and Sunday).

nyc christmas video!

Merry Christmas.

take!

Christmas can be hard when you get to a point where you debit more than you come away with.

Anyway, I'm doing something a little bit different for gift giving this year. I'm getting something for my girlfriend, my parents, my girlfriend's parents, the two guys I live with and maybe everyone who gives me a gift and THAT'S IT -- officially.

I did, however, buy a bunch of gifts for ANYONE ELSE who wants them. So if you're reading right now, come over to my house and pick up a gift. Tell my friends about it (maybe not necessarily your friends -- it'd be nice if everyone who picks up a gift is actually someone I'm acquainted with). You won't know what you'll be getting, since the presents are wrapped. They vary from sort of good to nearly awesome, so try to choose wisely. This is an experimental year. I think it'll work. I still have some presents I purchased last year that never got into the right hands. I'll be out of town from Thursday to Sunday, so maybe try to pick them up before then.

fff 6: double my pleasure!

This week I got a double bill of Free Food Friday. First, work gave out croissant sandwiches with chips. I think they were for clients or something. I was wearing headphones at the time I grabbed one, so that probably helped my looking the part of ignorance on the matter. Later in the evening was Maria's work party. Creamy chicken, roast beef, mashed potatoes, cheesy potatoes, rice pilaf, broccoli -- nummy! There was also free OJ at the bar. Oh, and also there was a brittle magician and some Rockband harmony. It was so freakin' adequate.

Btw, relating to the last post, I also want instructional books for Christmas. Perhaps computer programming for stuff I have no knowledge of, like SQL.

give!

It's time to throw in some ideas of what I want for Christmas. I'm happy to report that I got three out of the seven things I asked for last year (even if I did buy them myself). The following have convenient Amazon.com links, so don't be afraid to go all webby!

1. Behringer Miniamp AMP800 Ultra-Compact 4-Channel Stereo Headphone Amplifier
Since we got Rockband in our house we have the problem of not being able to hear the music over the tapping of the real-world drum pads (and most likely whatever other ruckus is going on in the house). With this miniamp, we could plug four sets of headphones into it, blast ourselves silly with music and still leave the rest of the house relatively quiet.
2. 40 Years of the X-Men
This is a dvd of pretty much every X-Men comic ever. You need to get it for Mac. Actually I'm pretty sure it's Mac and PC compatible.
3. Super Mario Galaxy
I've heard that this is like the best Wii game out right now. I've heard Super Mario Party 8 is a blast too.
4. Bioshock
I downloaded the demo of this and it's amazing. Imagine if you will that an Ayn Rand type figure built an underwater utopia in the depths of the ocean. Now imagine that the society failed and is now over-run with mutants for some reason. Now imagine crashing there and enjoying all the objectivism art decor while mutants try to kill you. Yeah, it's pretty sweet. Get the Xbox 360 version.

5. The Complete Peanuts 1967-1968
Of course I would love getting any of The Complete Peanuts series. I like this one because Violet, my favorite Peanuts character ever, is on the cover. There's also a new Charles Schultz biography I'd love to read.6. Star Trek The Original Series - The Complete First Season (Combo HD DVD and Standard DVD) [HD DVD] (1966)
This one is tricky. Star Trek has already been released on standard dvd. Don't get that version. It has to be the dual version of HD on one side of the discs and SD on the other. It's the only version with the updated effects that they've started to ratchet into the old show in the past couple of years. I think it works great -- much much better that the updated effects Lucas did for the old Star Wars movies. They're way subtler. So don't bother getting me the original standard dvds. The link should point you right to them. Here's a little hint: the version I want is way way more expensive than the other one.
And once again, if you don't like anything on the list, check out last year's or feel free to get me something on my Christmas wishlist from 2004 or last year (with the exceptions of Home Movies Seasons 1-4, M*A*S*H Season 4, Music from the O.C. Mix #2 on cd, Interpol: Antics on cd, Dance Dance Revolution for the PS2, Karaoke Revolution for the PS2, snowboard boots, basketball shoes, New Order: A Collection on dvd, bathrobe, customized Converse shoes, Star Wars Battlefront II for PS2, PS2 controller, The Klingon Dictionary, Auto Repair for Dummies and Fargo Rock City)

Consider yourselves lucky. There's so much stuff I want. I walked into Barnes and Noble the other day and seriously wanted like ten items on the table of items designed to catch customers' eyes. Sometimes I wish I were you.

free food friday 5!

Butter mashed potatoes, beef stew, lettuce salad, homeless shelter turkey, stuffing and mixed veggies.

Some caterers were at work during lunch. I don't know who the meal was for or why, but I partook.

Several hours later, I realized the majesty and magic of the day.