ArkhamGlobe

So apparently I've gone from a Sagittarius to an Ophiuchus. I had no idea that sign even existed.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold Thundarr the Barbarian Ulysses 31

Just ordered these: Miles Davis - A Tribute to Jack Johnson Tom Waits - The Heart of Saturday Night Wire - Pink Flag

I can't do the magic eye thing, so level 3 is the furthest I got.

*hi-fives Jingus* I like Crash too! Anyway, Spider is probably my favourite among his films, along with Videodrome and Dead Ringers (one of the few films to truly creep me out). Shivers is pretty good too.

For a pretty obvious example of the opposite, look at the 5-hour tv-version of Best Intentions. Having read Bergman's script for that one, I can testify that he goes into absolutely insane, anal rentitive detail about the scenes, he's essentially trying to direct the entire film from behind his typewriter. Now granted, a director with a spine and a voice of their own would just cut through all this extraenous detail and find the bare meat of the scene and build on that, but not Bille August! Looking at the film it seems that he's doing his best to, as stated in the quoted piece, transcribe the text of the screenplay to the screen and it just completely sucks the life out of virtually every scene in the film that isn't basically solely focused on just the actors. I think that entire film serves as a textbook example that good material (in this case good material in dire need of some editing) does not by any means guarantee a good film, and especially not if the director is a clueless fucking putz who can't bring his eyes far enough out from the script to form an independent thought.

Today I picked up The Addiction on VHS. I also just ordered the following on DVD: Tartuffe Only Angels Have Wings

Brian Eno - St. Elmo's Fire

I have loads of questionable stuff in my collection that I've bought for whatever reason (probably on vinyl, because it had something on it I liked and was dirt cheap). As for yesterday purchases, I found the following used on vinyl: Ravel - Le Bolero Dvorak - Symphony from the New World Bruckner - Symphony no. 9 Stravinsky - Orpheus Leonard Cohen - Songs of Leonard Cohen What did all this go for? 25 swedish crowns, roughly $3.5. I think I made a nice find.

John Coltrane - A Love Supreme

Can - Monster Movie

Tom Waits - Closing Time Tom Waits - Nighthawks at the Diner Kraftwerk - The Man-Machine

John Cale & Brian Eno - Spinning Away

European countries, Expert Geographer: 98%, 194 seconds. I put Monaco wrong. Had I gotten below 90% here I should have been ashamed of myself. South and Central American countries, Expert Geographer: 83%, 186 seconds. I got Guatemala, El Salvador, Guyana and French Guiana wrong. Both tests can be found here.

On the advanced place the state game I got 62%, 224 seconds, avg error 85 miles. I also tried my hand at http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/African_Geography.htm]African countries://http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/Afr...rican countries://http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/Afr...rican countries on Expert Geographer level, which has even harder than the Asian version. I scored 55% on that one.

If you really feel up for a challenge, try this one out: Asian geography, on Expert Geographer level. That motherfucker is HARD. I got 66%, 423 seconds, 417 points. Goddamn former Soviet republics...

On the US quiz I got 82%, 63 miles, 226 seconds, which I think is pretty good, given that I'm not american. On the Europe quiz I got 95%, 133 seconds. I missed Liechtenstein and I got the capitals of Ukraine and Belarus mixed up. I really lucked out on the balkans however.

Faust - Faust IV I love this album. Brooding percussive rhythms and droning interspersed with more quiet passages and even an extremely bizarre piece of reggae. I need more Faust in my collection. Tangerine Dream - Exit While I could without parts of it (the vocals and lyrics on the Kiew Mission doesn't do anything for me), I still like this album a lot, the title track in particular. Most of the album wouldn't have seemed out of place in Blade Runner. Tom Waits - Franks Wild Years My first Waits album, and I'm still very fond of it.

There's a new sensation/a fabulous creation/a danceable solution/to teenage revolution -Roxy Music - "Do the Strand"; For Your Pleasure

Faust - It's a Rainy Day, Sunshine Girl I think this song is starting to put me in a trance. I love it.

Okay, just watched the sequence from when Henry starts seeing the helicopter until the cops show up (which is what I was referencing). While I didn't like it quite as much as I remembered, I've always kind of liked how Scorsese keeps switching back and forth between different tracks as I always thought it neatly mirrored Henry's state of mind at the time. I probably appreciated it more for how the music flows with the editing and camera work, as I it really gives the sequence a great energy and gives a sense that the whole thing's about to derail at any moment.

Hmm. It's been a while since I've seen it. Perhaps I need to rewatch it.

I'd personally say Scarface is pretty good in it's own overblown, excessive way.

The coke-fuelled part of GoodFellas is awesome, I love the use of music in it.