Yet another song I could’ve sworn I posted before. Like the post title states, this is obviously only a small part of the song. Nevertheless, I thought I posted this exact Mad Men opening right after it aired. This is what made me give The Decemberists a good listen. Now I will always associate this song with hot chicks getting dressed. Now you can too. Here’s the full song:
P.S. I will never stop saying how HBO fucked themselves by passing on Mad Men.
Because I don’t have anything profound to write, and because I’ve come across all these websites fairly recently, here’s a trio of links that should keep you occupied.
FlowingData is probably the least interesting to non-stat geeks. I haven’t even had the chance to browse through the majority of the website, but their Walmart map that shows the spread of that retail virus alone makes the site worth a look. There is a plethora of cool graphical visualizations, covering topics ranging from nation literacy rates to Twitter monitoring to box office receipts.
Scanwiches is probably a more appetizing (I’m sorry) website to most people. I don’t know how the hell one comes up with the idea to post scans of sandwiches from across NYC every day, but I would definitely thank them if I lived in the city.
Badpaintingsofbarackobama.com is just ridiculous. There really isn’t much to say. But after the jump, there is an incredibly mystifying piece not featured on the site. Just a warning, it features the unlikely duo of Mexican food and 9/11.
I’m going to be honest here, I had “Los Mets > U.S.A.” written as the title of this blog post in the 8th inning. Every fellow American reading this can thank me for jinxing Puerto Rico. No really, wasn’t that comeback fucking awesome? I thought there was no way I’d be this invested in the outcome of the World Baseball Classic, but when David Wright was up it was like I was watching a Mets game. Tightened stomach, tapping foot, typing between every pitch online. When his blooper dropped in, it felt like I was in the midst of the real baseball season. I just hope he can come through like that in the final week of the season this year.
As for Puerto Rico, watching the two Carloses — Delgado and Beltran — play well made me a bit torn (not to mention that I am half PR), and Beltran’s catch in particular made me sad, since I won’t be able to watch him do that at Citi Field due to the high outfield walls. It looked like their duo would be the biggest part of PR’s win until Wright finished the job steroid-abuser J.C. Romero started. Both of the pitchers PR went to in the 9th inning couldn’t find the strike zone, which is never good when you have a 2-run lead — one run of which was handed to PR when Derek Jeter displayed his totally eroded fielding ability. Putting him at shortstop while Jimmy Rollins was relegated to DH almost cost Team USA the game. Maybe they can learn from and build on this and actually make a run at winning the tourney. My money’s still on Japan, even if they are currently losing 3-0 to Korea. That country just cares way too much. If Korea wins, they’ll be forced to kill themselves.
I wish I listened to WFAN at work, just so I could listen to Mike Francesa flip a shit over every caller who wants to talk about this incredibly exciting game. And there will be a lot of them. Because New Yorkers only talk about college basketball because there’s usually nothing else to talk about.
First, there was Pepsi’s redesign, which included Mountain Dew being rebranded as MTN DEW. But that was a drink already known for being EXTREME.
Then, Gatorade decided to throw away decades of brand recognition by shortening its name to one letter and making some of the worst commercials I’ve ever seen.
Now, the Sci Fi Channel is changing its name to some retarded spawn from texting hell.
At least that’s what they say:
“The testing we’ve done has been incredibly positive,†Mr. Howe said of the Syfy name, reading what he described as a comment from one participant: “If I were texting, this is how I would spell it.â€
If I ever saw someone abbreviate science-fiction in that manner, I would’ve smashed them in the face with an X-Files complete box set. Of course, I never would’ve had the chance since NO ONE IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD HAS EVER TYPED IT THAT WAY (until now). I refuse to believe these people actually exist. These network execs are more full of shit than those of AIG. This is just their excuse to air whatever the fuck they want, which means the Sci Fi Channel is going to blend in with the rest of the indistinguishable cable channels — not that it hasn’t already started that move already, what with professional wrestling and Liar, Liar being part of the programming. And not that I actually care either, as the only show I watch on it is Battlestar Galactica, which has exactly one episode left.
I just wonder when this trend towards moronic, internet generation-fueled logos and names will end. What’s next? The Weather Channel becomes Wchan? The Dow Jones becomes the DoJoz? I eagerly await the remake of The Third Man titled T3M.
Before I start, yes I have read the graphic novel of Watchmen, and yes I plan to talk about it at length within this post. I’m fully aware of my incapability to write a review for the average unacquainted moviegoer. Each frame of the almost-three-hour film was involuntarily compared to the panels of a graphic novel which provided a comprehensive visual outline.
That being said, I will give Zack Snyder one thing — the man knows how to create a visually spectacular movie. He’s still not a “visionary director,” but he’s definitely not a hack either. For the most part, he truly manages to recreate the Watchmen universe on-screen. He just happens to lack any sense of subtlety. Over-the-top, slow-motion fight scenes when the original comic barely showed any action at all? Check. Ozymandias’s character blatantly foreshadowing the ending? Check. Not that I was at all surprised by the former, and going in I knew the latter was ruined by the casting of a pencil-necked effeminate actor.
According to Wikipedia, even the actor had doubts:
“I was very worried about my casting,” Goode says, believing that he was “not the physical type for [Ozymandias].
Snyder should have taken heed. Ozymandias is supposed to be a wise, middle-aged, perfect physical specimen of a man — not a young, thin guy with a vaguely homosexual German accent. Oh, and the music choices were embarrassing. That would be part of the lack of subtlety.
Getting those critiques out of the way, I had way too much fun seeing the comic on the big screen. Dr. Manhattan’s origin story was handled brilliantly, Rorschach kicked an amazing amount of ass, and the Comedian was just as hilariously fucked up as he is in the graphic novel. Nite Owl and Silk Specter were the least interesting in the original comic, and that doesn’t change in the movie. I didn’t find Silk Specter’s acting as offensive as some critics seemed to, but that’s probably because I never cared about the character in either the book or the movie. So with Snyder managing to totally nail three out of the six main characters, and Nite Owl not being half-bad either, that brings the character batting average to .667. Respectable.
I wanted to make the beginning of this post the section for anyone who hasn’t read the graphic novel (most people), but I seem to be already comparing the movie to the book in every aspect. I do think the movie works on a basic superhero movie level, and I recommend a watch if you can stomach excessive, stylized violence and one truly terrible love scene, but it’s no substitute for the graphic novel. It’s a shame that Snyder had to try to fit so much into less than three hours of film, but I think he created as faithful an adaptation as we were ever going to get. It’s also unfortunate that such an adaptation only serves to solidify the argument that the comic would’ve worked better as an HBO mini-series, but I’m not complaining about what we got. The movie at least managed to delve far enough into the characterization of Rorschach, Dr. Manhattan, and the Comedian, even if the plot is condensed and compromised. I only wish more people read the book beforehand.
Only continue if you wish to read spoiler-filled rambling about both the movie and the book.
I really have nothing to add here. I’m sure big indie rock fans would be able to poetically describe how great Deerhunter is. I just like the song.
Eye on Springfield — as it proclaims — is a retrospective of Simpsons hilarity spanning from seasons 1 to 9, when it was still funny. You won’t be able to stop browsing through it until you’ve reached the end. It makes you want to bust out your DVD sets. It makes you wish you were 10 years old again. It makes you realize The Simpsons really used to be THAT GOOD. It’s amazing to think that it’s been a decade since I watched the show with any sort of regularity, and almost as long since I’ve watched a new episode, period. (In case you’re wondering, I haven’t seen the movie, either.)
Now, I’m not going to bother making this into a long rant about how the show of my childhood has become the television equivalent of that Rolling Stones’ performance during the Super Bowl a few years back; there are plenty of people that have done it better. It’s just that looking through the entire site/blog/tumblr has conjured up this familiar feeling of resent. Although, I am also amazed at all the references I most definitely did not get as a kid. The first glimpse I had of that was when I was working through my DVD sets and Lisa showed off a copy of Less Than Zero. That better show up on the site eventually, I better finish getting through my DVD sets sometime, and you better subscribe to this site.
What better way to start your workday than seeing the following image:
One loss to the Netherlands in the World Baseball Classic is understandable — it is baseball, after all — but two? I’m too lazy to find the exact numbers now, but I have a decent memory, so let’s go with $82 million versus $800k. A powerhouse of Major League players versus a bunch of career minor leaguers and kids right out of high school. And the Major Leaguers managed 3 runs in 20 innings. Pitiful. But maybe I shouldn’t be focused on how the DR choked, but on how great the Netherlands has been. They almost beat another stacked Caribbean team (Puerto Rico) just yesterday.
While watching the past few days, I naturally wondered why there were so many dark-skinned players on the Netherlands team, so I jumped up on Wikipedia to figure out how in God’s name Randall Simon was playing for them, and ended up learning that Curacao is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The more you know. Who the hell has ever bothered to learn which countries all those insignificant Caribbean islands belong to, anyway? The team should really be referred to as the Kingdom of the Netherlands, though. This setup is like Puerto Ricans playing for the United States.
So all this makes me wonder how much people in the EUROPEAN country of the Netherlands care about this massive upset. My dad just informed me that a Dutchman has been in his office for a little while, and the guy doesn’t know the slightest bit about baseball. I can’t help imagining that extends to much of the country. Nonetheless, I’m sure they will be proud in dismantling such a baseball giant. Meanwhile, I’m sure the entire country of the Dominican Republic is taking this to heart. What else do they have? Maybe next time they should make sure their players are practicing over the winter. I guess I should laugh now, since I’m half Puerto Rican. Pretty sure I’m supposed to hate them. Bahaha, Dominicans! Especially the Cubs reliever (Carlos Marmol) who choked even though he wasn’t in his Cubs uniform!
I like how this is nowhere to be found on ESPN’s webpage. Do they hate the MLB network that much?
Edit: Nevermind, it’s up now.
Courtesy of Warming Glow:
I made a post about this upcoming mini-series a long time ago, but now there is finally a (terrible quality) trailer for it. I think it’s pretty obvious that it’s ripped from Australian television. Sure, the footage isn’t much, and is basically a variation of the beginning of Saving Private Ryan, but I guess that shit went down over in the Pacific theater as well — every single time they had to take an island. And there are a lot of islands over there.
There is no reason not to start getting excited about this. It should air within the next 12 months, it’s by the same guys that made Band of Brothers, and apparently the soldiers it centers around were total badasses. HBO won’t allow this to be anything less than phenomenal.
In the very first episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Dennis says, “I hate listening to people’s dreams. It is like flipping through a stack of photographs. If I’m not in any of them and nobody is having sex, I just don’t care.” If you agree with this assessment, I suggest you stop reading now.
I’m not truly sure why I’m bothering to post about this on here, other than the fact that it might shed some light on just how necessary this blog is to my sanity. A night after writing my long Conan O’Brien post, I had a dream that centered around his first time hosting The Tonight Show. I had a front row seat, with the front row being right on top of the stage. Close enough that during his first bit, I was able to directly talk to the tall leprechaun. The audience didn’t seem to enjoy the bit too much, but I told Conan I enjoyed it. He replied with an invitation to come out with him and his friends after the show. Beer and poker was mentioned.
The next thing I remember was being in his surprisingly modest apartment ANALYZING his show. I was giving Conan advice as to how to run his show. There was no partying, no Conan being hilarious, only me fucking talking about how I felt his interaction with the audience and guests were what made his Late Night show especially awesome. I bet this is probably what I would do in real-life if I was friends with Conan, and that’s what makes it so sad. This is why I need to get as much critical analysis out of my system on here as possible.
My other pathetic dream involved me being able to take BP at Citi Field during the Mets’ first practice there. Now, that dream within itself sounds pretty cool, right? Taking the batting practice and realistically sucking is not cool. I haven’t swung a bat in a year, so there’s no doubt I would suck if the opportunity actually arose, but this was a goddamn dream! Why cant I drop bombs like Delgado in my dream? Why can’t my subconscious let me have some semblance of fun? I want to have one of those lucid dreams everyone talks about. Instead, I manage to take fairly awesome premises and turn them into totally boring and pedestrian dreams. Fuck you, brain.
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