Nighthawk

I do.

In Elephant, they play a Gerry video game. Cute reference there.

Firth, Wynn and Myer.

Eh, we get an explanation sometimes. Like Return of the Living Dead. I'm unsure whether I consider that the funniest zombie movie ever, or Shaun of the Dead. It's pretty close. XXX, for the record, was never an actual rating.

Regarding a discussion on the first page of this thread, I had never heard "Lightning Crashes" before tonight. Bad recent album covers: Britney's new one has been revealed. It's boring and I don't like the background. That's her worst one! Fortunately, though, I've actually been noticing a lot of pretty cool covers in the past couple years. Were this thread's category reversed, I could easily think of many more responses.

Nah, I thought it was decent and I know others who liked it. Fun fact: there's a bus stop not too far from here which still has a "coming soon" poster for Deja Vu up to this day.

Nice. That's a good, solid arrest.

More oligarchical than fascist.

Man, I sure wish those puro geeks had been in the WTC on 9/11.

I didn't like it either, despite there being a lot of actors I like in it, so it must have been doing something wrong. Besides Denzel, there was John Goodman, Donald Sutherland, James Gandolfini, Elias Koteas, all of whom I generally like watching. You want a bad Denzel movie, though, look at The Bone Collector. That movie sucked. I'll give it credit for two things though: Michael Rooker was not the villain, and usually him just being in a movie means you assume he will be the villain (James Caan is the same way), and a character who was a gay white man in the book was played by Queen Latifah. I thought that was funny.

You know where else isn't that bad anymore? Compton. Compton actually had a pretty short run, beginning with the Watts riots when all the white people moved out, and peaking when crack first came out. Now it's mostly Mexican, but the elected officials are still primarily black. Compton was immortalized by NWA, but it was by that time really no worse than Watts or Long Beach, and now might even be the safest of the three. Pretty bad in the mid 80s, though. They were averaging 100 murders a year and the police force disbanded. Remember that Fresh Prince where Carlton was staying with Jazz, and they were trying to stop him from going to MacArthur park? I used to hang out in MacArthur park. It's not so bad. A lot of ghettos are somewhat overrated if you actually live in them. Just mind your own business, and people tend to do the same. Don't sell drugs or join a gang, people aren't so concerned with you. If you live there, it's less likely you'll get robbed cause you obviously don't have any money. Of course there's exceptions to all that, but getting shot for no reason just walking down the street isn't an everyday concern. Does happen, though.

Actually, my point was that Harlem isn't really bad anymore. That's why it seemed like an odd response. I know that ghettos still exist, I was talking about that particular one.

Black Bolt is a silent hero.

I would have just went ahead and said "dandy fop" instead of "foppish dandy".

The Cranberries? But the lead singer is quite often the focus of the band, male or female.

You know, I actually do quite like British television, but I've got to say the American version of The Office is better. That's about the only instance where it was improved.

I saw a bunch of that Frank Zappa beer in the store today. I didn't buy any, but I probably will. Like I said, there was a lot of it, so I'm free to take my time. Problem is, Lagunitas apparently already put one out commemorating Freak Out, so as a compulsive collector and pack rat, I'd have to track that down, and then bind myself into buying every Zappa bottle they release, as they'll probably put more out. Speaking of beer, I've been drinking more of it lately, due to my decision to quit drinking. That may seem like a contradiction, but it's more of a compromise, as beer will only make me pleasantly mellow, and not drunk. I still stick with my old standby of Coors, where I noticed that a 12 pack is about $12, and a 30 pack about $15. You'd be stupid not to buy that. 50 cents a can... that's damn cheap.

Autonervous That's just a band I've been listening to lately. San Franciscan/German female no wave vox/sax/electronic duo. Sounds like ambient Detroit Techno with jazz influences. Pretty good.

Well, for TV, I always liked the ending to the first episode of the Shield, but set to Kid Rock? That's stupid. It would be better set to... something by Motley Crue or Motorhead. Or "Welcome to the Jungle". That'd be appropriate. I think the part in Total Recall where their eyes burst out of their heads on the surface of Mars would be pretty funny set to "Rocket Man".

I never really understood how going to prison makes you prefer boys if you weren't gay before you went. I mean, I know it does genuinely happen, but I don't really understand why. Maybe the relationship of having someone be your bitch is appealing, but it's not always like that. A lot of guys treat their punks really well.

Speaking of stuff McDonalds doesn't serve all the time, I honestly don't think I've ever had a McRib. I likely never will, either, which is just as well. What if I really liked it? Then I'd just get pissed off when they took it away. Re: breakfast all day, I'm a little shocked it's not being done already. Jack in the Box did really well with it. Believe me, there's nothing like hash browns at three in the morning (many have 24 hour drive thrus as well). The other day I had an ice cream float with orange soda there. I'm really rather fond of the place. You know, I was thinking of getting a night job, both for supplemental income and because of my insomnia. I wonder if I could get on the overnight crew at Jack in the Box...

I considered being a cop once, but my record makes them automatically disqualify me. And I would have been a blatantly corrupt cop, so I suppose they're right to do so.

A waiver would never work. The program's workable, though. Just drag them past the real prison, not the bullshit volunteer stuff. The most (and I might say only) effective part of my own scared straight tour was the part where they showed us the hole. This was Florida in the middle of the summer, so it's unbearably hot anyway, and then they had us walk into a windowless steel room, and it was no joke, even with the door open. Now that's something you can relate to. Plus when you walk by the occupied solitary cells, guys are sticking their arms out through the food slot trying to grab you, and flashing their teeth and sticking out their tongues like Venom. That part was almost like a haunted house, but for real.

That's a good line, but it doesn't compare to "He touched my breast!"

I think I do remember that. I think they also had an update on the kids from the original, and most of them were fine, but one had went ahead and lived a life of crime anyway. Sad to say, there was a modicum of respect for his dedication. I've actually gone to one of those scared straight things in real life, and I can report that nobody takes it even slightly seriously anymore. There's flagrant laughter in the face of the cons now, because everyone pretty much knows that nothing is going to happen. Everyone has watched too many prison movies, so nobody is surprised by anything, and there's a general attitude of "Ok, I know you're trying to help me, and the prison would be absolutely retarded to let you anywhere near juveniles if they thought there was the slightest chance you would do anything, so fuck you." Particularly with me, cause I got singled out over and over again for various reasons, like once they locked me in the closet with these dudes, and they acted like they were going to rape me, but I basically just played chicken with them until they had to crack, and they let me out, by which point the rest of the group had moved on, and they tried to say "Ok, you're going to stay here and be these guys' bitch from now on. We'll call your mom and let her know what happened. This is your new home now." It's like "C'mon, guys. I'm 15, not 5. I may be a fuck up, but I'm not an idiot." The program's a total misfire. Show them the legitimate horrors of the prison system, that's scary enough... don't threaten them in the present tense. Nobody's going to fall for it. I blame the internet.