godthedog

one could say the same thing about kids who watch old warner brothers cartoons. a big part of the fun is that it's not real. for that matter, what's the attraction of rollercoasters? do people who like rollercoasters like getting that feeling in the pit of their stomach like they're about to die because they secretly have an urge to die? an awfully grim and antisocial method of entertainment. anyway: maybe it was because my expectations weren't too high, but i really enjoyed 'burn after reading'. definitely one of the coens' funnier movies, everybody in it is obviously having a lot of fun, and the humor is all based in the characters and layered ironies of the plot. it's exaggerated, but in an understated kind of way (like clooney's character's obsession with running, or how malkovich's character will never let go of the drink in his hand, even when there's an intruder in his house). maybe the funniest i've ever seen brad pitt, and that's saying a lot. my only problem with it was that it had a rushed "who gives a shit" ending that lacked a real denouement. i know that was intentional, but still...it's a weird sensation to have the dark comic intricacies start piling up and gaining momentum, and then just to stop everything abruptly.

funny enough, i would want to replace 'parklife' for 'different class' in byron's statement. i like what little of pulp i've heard (mostly 'different class' and 'this is hardcore', neither with much regularity), but jarvis's speak-singing is a little too theatrical for my tastes. blur were catchy as shit and had a great sense of humor. early oasis have little-by-little become sort of a guilty pleasure for me. i'm finally able to look past the obnoxiousness and noel's whiny voice to some of the catchiness, and i can sort of see why they were so popular for a time. i really like "cigarettes and alcohol."

depends on the kind of homeless person you get. new york also has a disproportionate amount of dangerously crazy homeless people who will yell at you for no reason.

'bizarre foods' would be a sort of interesting concept i think if zimmern wasn't so grating. for a food writer he has a pretty puny vocabulary, and his whole on-air personality is just weird tv-host mugging and trying to be funny. bourdain has spoiled me on travel shows. save for the american southwest, this past season especially of 'no reservations' has been great.

i'm actually surprised that welles went this early. i thought hitchcock would go first.

35 rounds? this is group masochism. you're all going to be fathers before this draft is over.

very smart pick by mccain. this is like the clarence thomas of VP nominees, just a dream freak-combination of conservatism and neglected demographic. it makes sense not just demographically, but she appears to be experienced and articulate about the republican position on natural resources--somebody who can retort to obama's energy position, "oh, you want to invest $150 billion in alternative energy that we can use in ten years, but give no relief in the meantime when we have the tools to do it?" and do it in a way that's first-person based and not general. offshore drilling will probably end up being one of the 2 or 3 big deciding factors. much may also be made of how obama effectively killed the temporary lift on the gas tax. she will also make biden look old and cranky in their debates. her youth and lack of experience will, of course, make it harder for them to stick to that particular talking point towards obama, but that may not end up mattering a whole lot.

we as americans are exceptional consumers. if something is cheap and marketed to us, we will consume the shit out of it. same reason we're so fucking fat, same reason we create most of the world's waste. i'm also not sure that we have a bigger problem with alcohol than other countries. narcotics and whatnot sure, but i don't know about alcohol.

it was a fine speech and all, but it seemed to exist in this other universe. i would've liked more specifics on obama himself and why he's the right guy for the job--she went a little bit in that direction for a while, but it was pretty quickly dropped. all the really rousing stuff tended to be "this is what i support, and this is why we need to elect barack obama," as if his name was an afterthought. she didn't even pretend to be talking to people who weren't her supporters ("when you voted for me...", etc.). she pushed women's rights into the ground, but not once did she mention anything about the first black nominee or first black president--if it weren't for the occasional cutaway to michelle, you'd never know any of the obamas were black. but on the whole it seemed to work, and the frequent cutaways to the audience members who were visibly touched by it helped lot. i enjoyed it while i was watching it and appreciated that it did everything it needed to, but afterwards i thought, "wait...what exactly was the focus of the celebration there?"

first day of classes wsa today, and all of campus was flooded with boobies pressing hard against their skimpy summer tops.

those nipples look awful.

i like biden and i like the idea of an obama-biden administration, but i don't think this really does anything to help him get elected. not like there was anybody before going, "biden, YEEEEEEEEEAH!!!" i think bill richardson would've been better, not least of which because it would be a riskier ticket. obama's gradual shifts in policy are making him look less and less like an agent of change/man of integrity, and that would've been a nice way to give the campaign some balls again.

beastie boys now: 1. paul's boutique 1a. shake your rump 1b. hey ladies 1c. the sounds of science 1d. car thief 1e. high plains drifter 2. check your head 2a. gratitude 2b. so what'cha want 2c. the maestro 2d. something's got to give 2e. jimmy james 3. licensed to ill 3a. brass monkey 3b. she's crafty 3c. the new style 3d. paul revere 3e. rhymin' and stealin' 4. ill communication 4a. sabotage 4b. sabrosa 4c. sure shot 4d. futterman's rule 4e. tough guy 5. hello nasty 5a. super disco breakin' 5b. intergalactic 5c. three MC's and one DJ 5d. the negotiation limerick file 5e. remote control nothing terribly interesting or surprising about that list. i'd really like to put 'ill communication' as high as 2, just because it's got my favorite unified sound & texture of all their albums (the instrumentals especially really shine), but the songs just aren't that great on the whole. 'hello nasty' is sort of useless, even at its best.

no love for "So like a pimp I'm pimpin', Got a bowl to eat shrimp in"? or "If I played guitar I'd be Jimmy Page, The girlies I like are underage"?

are we only talking old old beastie boys or all beastie boys? cause that's like rating 3 different bands. "no sleep till brooklyn" and "fight for your right to party" are easily the 2 worst songs on 'licensed to ill', but i get a big kick out of listening to that album every once in a while. they were way more clever than their singles let on.

i threw a spooge-filled condom at my friend once (it had been tied shut). sadly, i was not listening to sublime at the time.

some of the saget roast was really funny, some of it was not. i thought greg giraldo was the best by a pretty wide margin. norm was bizarrely funny (especially the wishing-well joke), gottfried was good. the rest i could take or leave in varying degrees.

i've never really been able to get into 'pinkerton'. first 2 tracks are nice, but after that it just gets repetitive. i've been telling myself for years to get the blue album, but i've just never gotten around to it. meanwhile, the ultra-underappreciated 'american thighs' continues to get better every time i listen to it. would that be considered power-pop? they're pretty bubble-gummy. would it be considered power-pop if louise post wore glasses?

weren't these originally made for polish television? seems like that would fall under "mini-series" more than movie. not that i really care about the technicalities. i came really close to picking 'when the levees broke' toward the end.

for the hell of it, my favorite lists: 1. chilly willy/byron - no contest, really. for 'pierrot le fou', 'la jetee', 'boogie nights', 'stranger than paradise', 'dr. strangelove', 'nashville'. 2. cm funk - for 'there will be blood', '2001', 'chinatown', and others. good stuff. 3. jingus - well-balanced list. for 'the incredibles', 'taxi driver', 'nosferatu', 'the descent'. honorable mention, hitman jebus - kind of a hit-or-miss list for me, but there's some solid and very watchable stuff. for 'pulp fiction', 'e.t.', and 'high fidelity'.

i went to a strip club in east st. louis a few years ago. shockingly high class and awesome.

that was directed towards byron, whose objection to milky was basically that art needs to be possible as a form of communication, with mutual understanding of intentions and whatnot, in order for it to actually be art. it's more or less the same point that wittgenstein says about language, i.e., that the concept of a "private language" doesn't make sense.

your mom's an art.

^OMG WITTGENSTEIN PRIVATE LANGUAGE ARGUMENT~! yeah, i don't think there's a single philosopher of aesthetics who would agree with the "no audience" statement. if art can be an entirely private experience, done only for its creator's benefit, then you could consider things like diary entries, taking drugs, and my cat cleaning itself as "arts."

dogs.