Date: 2008-01-03 06:05 Subject: YOU'VE SEEN IT Security: Public

YOU CAN'T UNSEE IT

Date: 2007-12-09 14:52 Subject: It's been a LONG TIIIIIME, I think I should be GOOOOIIIIIIIIIING Security: Public

Just got back from Fontana.

Rock Band is a really fun videogame on its own. When you have friends, it's the best game ever made.

Date: 2007-12-06 06:11 Subject: iTunes mememememememe Security: Public

Total number of tracks: 5207
Total length of music: 13:21:00:23 (for some reason my iTunes refuses to use days)

Top 10 most played songs:
1. Rush - Tom Sawyer
2. Jefferson Airplane - Today
3. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Suck My Kiss
4. T. Rex - Mambo Sun
5. Hip Tanaka - Because I Love You
6. MF DOOM - "Untitled" (Meditation)
7. オモイデハオクセンマン - ゴム (Okkusenman)
8. Karl Krueger - 3 The Hard Way (Spiced With Sumac Berries)
9. Tom Waits - I Don't Wanna Grow Up
10. Love - Alone Again Or

Sort by song title:
- First song: KRS-One - "P" Is Still Free
- Last song: DJ Krush - 猛者 -Mosa- (Remix)

Sort by time:
- Shortest song: Sly & The Family Stone - There's A Riot Goin' On (0:04)
- Longest song: DJ Troubl - Quasimoto Meets Hisself (1:13:27)

Sort by artist:
- First song: 2Pac - Holler If Ya Hear Me
- Last song: ゴム - オモイデハオクセンマン (Okkusenman)

First five songs that come up on shuffle:
Mildred Bailey - I'd Love To Take Orders From You
Aesop Rock - The Yes And The Y'all
The Beach Boys - That's Not Me
Carl Stalling - Porky In Wackyland/Dough For The Do-Do
Mix Master Mike - Suprize Packidge

How many songs come up when you search for:
- "sex": 37
- "love": 160
- "you": 491
- "death": 12
- "hate": 3, all of which were actually "whatever"
- "wish": 3
- "monkey": 8

Date: 2007-11-30 06:20 Subject: That's not a bad price, either Security: Public

I love:
Rap
Graffiti
Punk Rock
Skateboarding
Street Vendors
Urban Decay
Outlaws, Biker Gangs, Street Gangs
Old Advertising Art

Imagine my astonishment when I discover all of it in a single hardcover slab of photographs. All lumped together under the title "Urban Culture". So, it all has a label now. Been around since the early 80's when New York's punks and new wavers got hip to the Zulu Nation. Probably been around before that.

Date: 2007-11-19 06:06 Subject: Why you keep tryin' to read that word? You a fag or sumthin'? Security: Public

Oh keep your shirt on, it's a quote from Idiocracy.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/19/national/main3520163.shtml

Fun statistics from this article:

Percentage of 9-year-old Americans that read "for fun": 54%
Percentage of American high school graduates deemed by employers as "deficient" in English writing: 72%
Average amount of time Americans age 15 to 24 spend every day reading books: 7 minutes
American 15-year-olds rank 15th on a list of average reading scores of 31 industralized nations.

I saw this story on CBS News Up To The Minute while (ironically enough) watching the TV on my break at work. Suddenly I felt a little guilty for buying my 11-year-old brother a PS2 with Naruto and Guitar Hero 3 for his birthday/Christmas. I think I will counter this by throwing a copy of Ender's Game in there, and I'm going to have to buy it soon so I can read it before I give it to him!

As much as I detest the shock tactics used by most news shows on TV, I can get behind a story that is trying to scare people into reading more books.

Date: 2007-11-18 12:16 Subject: Horror. Security: Public

I forgot to mention this in my Wages Of Fear review. This year was the first in ten that I did not watch Halloween on Halloween. Even though this was because I slept for 10 hours and then went to work, when I realized it I assumed horror movies were just something else I outgrew.

Well.

Onibaba is based on an old Buddhist folktale written to convince women to attend temple services more often. A farmer girl attends temple, and her mother-in-law puts on an Oni mask and tries to scare her into staying away from temple, but the girl simply says "I'm not afraid of you, demon" and continues on her walk. The mother-in-law, meanwhile, finds herself unable to pull the mask off and confronts her daughter-in-law when she returns with "it was me, it wasn't a demon, it was me". The daughter in law gives her a Buddhist prayer to recite and after a few repetitions of "namu amida butsu" the mask comes right off.

Kaneto Shindô took this story and eliminated everything about temple services. Now, the 2 women (still mother and daughter-in-law) are desperate farmers with dead crops who murder wayward samurai and steal their weapons & armor to trade for millet. When a neighbor returns from the war and informs them that the son (and husband) is dead, it starts to get even more Hellish.

This film was so eerie I could've sworn the black & white was blacker than every other movie I've seen. Lighting and color (or lack thereof) was used to great effect. Some of the images in this film will stick with me for quite a while, and so will the unnerving soundtrack of drums, groans and shrieking horns (which HAD to have inspired the soundtrack of AKIRA, consciously or otherwise).

This is what a horror film can truly be.

As for Halloween, I'm planning on the laserdisc.

Date: 2007-11-14 07:14 Subject: es pasión que atormenta mi corazón Security: Public

When I first dipped my toes into Music Obsession, my guidebook was a pile of useless words compiled by Dave Marsh entitled "The New Book Of Rock Lists". Dave Marsh is from the Rock Journalism School Of Nothing Is As Good As The 60's. Bashing everything related to Prog, everything with a fanbase with its own name (KISS Army, Deadheads) trying desperately to understand Rap, declaring Madonna the greatest artist of the 1980's, etc.

Over the years I had less and less use for the book as I found myself disagreeing with more and more of the man's opinions. I remember one complete 180 particularly well. It was part of a list of "Worst Grammy Awards Mistakes" or something like that. He was furious that the award for Record Of The Year 1965 went to "The Girl From Ipanema" when 1964 was the year the Beatles CHANGED THE UNIVERSE FOREVER ON THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW.

Actually, I can't shake the notion that the Beatles really only changed the universe of teenagers in the 60's, such as Dave Marsh. "The Girl From Ipanema", however, will outlast us all.

It's sort of an inspiring story. Astrud Gilberto never sang professionally, until her husband Joao talked her into singing 2 songs on his collaboration album with Stan Getz, the almighty Getz/Gilberto. "Girl From Ipanema" and "Corcovado" are my 2 favorite songs on that album (and as a result, 2 of my favorite songs) largely due to her magnetic voice.

No showing off, no melisma (think Whitney Houston's habit of running all over the scales while she holds notes, God I hate that) just some beautiful, understated singing. Instantly puts me in a calm state of mind. If I ever found a girl that sang like Astrud Gilberto I would immediately fall to one knee.*

*this also applies to girls who sing like Erykah Badu, Martina Topley-Bird, Siouxsie Sioux, Macy Gray, and on certain days June Carter.

Date: 2007-11-12 06:11 Subject: Le Salaire de la peur Security: Public

I think it's safe to say that I have returned to the world of film appreciation. The last 4 films I have watched were all in French with English subtitles, and all were black & white with the exception of La Planete Sauvage (Fantastic Planet).

First was Les Diaboliques (shortened to Diabolique for the U.S. release) which hooked me once again on the "Thriller/Suspense/Horror That Doesn't Suck" genre. Even though the ending was ruined for me by Bravo's "100 Scariest Movie Moments" countdown, it still scared the Hell out of me. I was glued to the screen with my fists clenched around the nearest available object like I was watching Detective Milton Arbogast slowly climb the stairs in the mansion behind the Bates Motel.

I, and many online reviewers, believed that suspense couldn't get better than Les Diaboliques. Then I bought Henri-Georges Clouzot's other classic, The Wages Of Fear (Le Salaire de la peur). I'm probably still riding the high from watching this masterpiece but I believe this is the greatest thriller I've ever seen.

It starts in a small South American town full of vagrants and wanderers that can't escape. An American oil company has employed many of the town's residents, and most of these employees have died due to lenient safety precautions. A huge oil fire is burning on the other side of the mountain, and they need nitroglycerin to put it out. But, they don't have the proper equipment to deliver it. So they hire 4 of the vagrants to drive trucks full of nitroglycerin 300 miles over bad roads and mountain terrain.

The trip begins an hour into the movie, and for the remaining 88 minutes I felt as though my heart was going to burst out of my chest. The essay in the booklet accompanying the Criterion DVD describes the film as a "seismic assault" and I can't think of a better description. Clouzot and Hitchcock, who are now equals in my mind, both realized the same thing: The best suspense comes from things that don't happen. You keep waiting and waiting for something horrible you just know will happen, but it doesn't, and the tension just gets thicker and thicker until you want to end the movie and get some fresh air but you CAN'T because YOU NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS

I'm hooked. So hooked in fact, that I want to seek out the American remakes even though I know I'll hate them. (Les Diaboliques was remade in '96 as Diabolique with Nicole Kidman, and Wages Of Fear was remade by William Friedkin in 1977 as Sorceror because William Friedkin is just damn weird.)

Next up on my viewing schedule, Kaneto Shindô's Onibaba. And then a trip to Borders for more Criterion. I think I'll work on Samurai films and Japanese horror next (Jigoku looks very interesting)