The Culture Dump

Vixen's Mixens: Hipster's Guide to Alternative Wedding Songs

2012-02-03T08:28:00.000-08:00

Picking the song to be your first dance as a married couple can be quite stressful, especially for Hipsters since Hipsters by nature want to be unique and super cool. My husband and I actually had an easy choice, because on one of our early dates we danced together in my living room to a super cool unique song, Carla Bruni's Quelqu'un m'a dit. Little did we know our wedding song would lose uniqueness points when it ended up on a Hipster soundtrack to a Hipster movie, "500 Days of Summer."

To help out those who are searching for their perfect wedding song, but want something different than your typical Michael Buble, Celine Dion treacly tune, I have created a Hipster's Guide to Alternative Wedding Songs playlist.

Here you will find a nice variety of "it" bands and singers. Some of the songs are nice and slow, such as Dirty Beaches True Blue, while others are fun and upbeat for the Hipster couple who like to boogie, such as Belle and Sebastian's Another Sunny Day. For the Hipster's that kick it old school I threw on some non-obvious Billie Holiday (Yours and Mine) and Betty Carter (It's a Big Wide Wonderful World). And for the Hipster who likes to cowboy up there is some sweet Willie Nelson (And So Will You My Love) and bad ass Lucinda Williams (Essence). For the Hipster with a sense of humor I end the playlist with the cheeky Mountain Goat's tune No Children.

I must give a shout out to Jonathan for being kind enough to let me put his ideal (future) wedding song on the playlist, the fabulous Hysteric by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. He also gave me some more great suggestions, such as Warpaint's Baby and Kyle Andrew's You Always Make Me Smile. Also thanks to Jen for introducing me to Gotye, who is so talented that his Save Me is the second track on the playlist. I also included the wedding song of an adorable couple who were kind enough to invite us to their wedding in Texas a couple years back. Julio and Lilia picked the super ballsy and beautiful Bjork song Unison which made such a powerful impact at their down home Texan celebration. That is the definition of a winning Hipster wedding song.

Even if you are not getting married, this is a nice set of love songs that are not in the least bit corn ball that you can enjoy for Valentines Day. Let me know if you have any Hipster Wedding favorites you would like to share! Until next time.

Vixen's Mixens: Wintry Mix

2012-01-21T08:47:00.000-08:00

Now that snow is falling outside, I finally feel that winter has come to New England. Although I am usually anti-snow, as it is a Saturday and I don't have any big plans I can sit back and just appreciate the beauty of it. Ask me again how I feel after I have to clear my car and shovel myself out and you may get a different answer. But for now I am in full Lorelei Gilmore snow love.

To honor this unusual change in my mood I decided to post my long-developing Wintry Mix. I started this playlist about two years ago on (eek) iTunes and have been tweeking it ever since. Transferring it to Spotify made me obsess even more since I could add a gajillion songs that were not in my local files.

The majority of the songs on the playlist directly reference the winter, being cold, snow and ice, such as the obvi Hipster winter anthem White Winter Hymnal by Fleet Foxes. Then there are some that just evoke the winter sensibility, such as Lykke Li's I Know Places and PJ Harvey's Beautiful Feeling. This mix is at times melancholy and lonely, but at other times warm and joyful, which is to be expected during the winter. I invite you to sip on some hot cocoa, stare out your window at the snowflakes falling and enjoy the tunes.

Vixen's Mixens: Fave 100 of 2011

2011-12-21T06:34:00.000-08:00

For my last playlist of the year I am going to jump on the year-end list bandwagon and give you guys my Fave 100 of 2011.

Overall I would say 2011 was pretty disappointing in terms of great albums. I would be hard pressed to name even 10 albums that I truly loved this year, start to finish. Ones I was really looking forward to ended up being pretty blah (I'm looking at you, Feist.) However, there were tons of great singles to be found amongst these otherwise underwhelming albums (even you, Feist.) I actually had to cut some tracks to keep it to a tidy 100 list (sorry Jonathan - Jlo's On the Floor was one of the casualties.)

The mix is definitely indie rock heavy (since that is my forte,) but pop, dance, country and hip-hop do make appearances throughout. I actually start the playlist with one of my top 5 tracks of the year, Childish Gambino's Heartbeat which is a kick ass hip-hop tune with a great pounding dance beat. His "Camp" album is one of the few standouts of the year, as is the sitcom he stars in, Community. Donald Glover (seen above) pretty much owned 2011 (at least from my point of view.)

If I had to pick a trend of 2011 I would have to say it is the year that indie acts went synth. There are so many cool lo-fi tunes with synthy danceable back beats on this playlist, including Is Tropical's South Pacific, Washed Out's Amor Fati, and (the Jonathan recommended) Crystal Castles' Baptism. There was also a lot of straight up awesome club tunes, most notable for me being David Guetta featuring (the amazeballs as always) Sia singing Titanium.

As stated earlier there were only about 10 albums I would say warranted repeat listens and mention on my year end list: (in no particular order) the aforementioned Childish Gambino's "Camp," the Kills' (pictured to the right) "Blood Pressures," the Head and the Heart's self-titled, My Morning Jacket's "Circuital," Decemberists' "The King Is Dead," Peter Bjorn & John's "Gimme Some," Lykke Li's "Wounded Rhymes," Raphael Saadiq's "Stone Rollin'," Foster the People's "Torches," and (just to throw you off) Oh Land's self titled.

I hope you enjoy this compilation. Although 2011 was a rough year for many people, myself included, the music was upbeat, fun and a great distraction. By the way, remember that my Hipster for the Holidays playlist is an excellent alternative group of tunes to listen to while celebrating the Christmas season. It is by far my most subscribed to playlist, with 142 and counting! Until next year!!!

Vixen's Mixens: Jonathan & Me

2011-12-14T16:51:00.000-08:00

I believe in soul mates. In fact I think the idea that you only get one soul mate in life is crap. Whoever came up with that concept was probably a lonely old codger. I personally feel that I have encountered no less than three soul mates in my life (not counting family.) These amazing people have entered my life and left an indelible impression on my being (not to sound too new agey.)

One in particular is Jonathan - who without a doubt is my pop culture soul mate. That is us to the left, on my wedding day - I'm doing my best Tyra Top Model look and he is laughing at my horrible attempt. Never could I have imagined (way back in late 2003) that the fellow employee I was chatting with on the phone over at my sister Gamekeeper store in Waterbury would be someone who has the same unflinching passion for music, TV and movies - both the good and the oh so bad. The instant Jonathan and I met we could not stop talking music, swapping mixes and marathoning Twin Peaks. It was an entertainment match made in heaven.

Here is the best thing ever: my best friend met the love of his life and is moving in with him! Here is the worst thing ever: my best friend met the love of his life and is moving in with him in Orlando! Of course that reaction is completely selfish - but I cannot help it. I am going to be so sad when he leaves. It will be like losing a limb (well, at least what I think losing a limb would feel like - which is awful and painful and weird and like I am going to have phantom pains thinking he is right down the street, but then when I realize he is gone it is going to hurt all over again.) But then I think about how happy he is with his boyfriend Miker and how ridiculously well Miker treats him (which is exactly how he deserves to be treated) and I cannot be anything but ::tears in my eyes:: super crazy out-of-control blissfully happy for him. This was meant to be. I have no doubt in my mind.

As I am writing this, I am listening to the massive

playlist (21 hours and counting) I have put together that is simply Jonathan & Me. kd lang's cover of The Valley is playing and I am totes crying. Of course only Jonathan understands why - kd lang is one of our strange loves. I had him listen to her "Live By Request" album shortly after we first met and thus started our obsession with all things kd (pua kd kd.) Not only do we collectively own every album she ever released, we also have her Live By Request DVD and have seen her twice in concert - once in the front row - where she gave us guitar picks - and we lost our shit. You will note in our playlist that she is largely featured.

She is definitely not our only obsession. Along the country lines we also have a passion for that crazy drunk Lucinda Williams ("Everything is wrong!" "I see your sweet side.") As for pop, much to the chagrin of my husband, we love all that is Ashlee Simpson - pre-nose job AND post ("ay yai yai yai yai you're talking way too much.") Not to mention Britney, Her Name is Nicole Scherzy Scherz, ButtaFace Fergie, She's just being Miley, Shaki, Rih Rih and No More Drama Mary J. We also adore music that hipsters would approve of, such as Jenny Lewis, Ra Ra Riot, Neko Case, Cat Power (despite the snooze factor), Arcade Fire and Broken Social Scene.

This mix also has songs from artists we have seen in concert together, which is a long list in its own right: Patti Smith, Justin Timberlake, Oh Land, Sia (2xs), Ximena Sarinana, Lady Lamb the Beekeeper, Juliana Hatfield, Kelly Clarkson, Ra Ra Riot, Death Cab For Cutie, Darryl Hall, Jefferson Starship (hellz yeah Hamden concert series!), Tori Amos (2xs), kd lang (2xs), Paramore (2xs), Lykke Li, Regina Spektor, Walkmen, Black Keys, Florence & the Machine, Pixies, St. Vincent, Tegan & Sara, Ray LaMontagne and Brandi Carlisle. I am sure there are more but I am getting old and can no longer remember everything. In the age of Skype, Facebook and Twitter I know we will stay close, however not being able to go to concerts together is going to be rough!

I could talk about why each song is on the list but then this would be a War and Peace sized novel, not a blog post. There is one song, however, that deserves mention. The playlist begins with The The's This Is the Day because on the very first day Jonathan moved to New Haven to begin a new installment of his life, he put that song on and we danced together in his new living room. It was a moment of pure joy and hope. When Jonathan arrives at his new home in Orlando on New Years Eve to begin the next chapter of his life, he will play the song again - this time with the love of his life to dance with. It is how it should be.

Vixen's Mixens: Hipster for the Holidays

2011-12-07T09:31:00.000-08:00

It is December, which means of course that the holiday season is upon us. Shopping, wrapping, baking, eating, drinking, giving, receiving - my brain already hurts. To tell you the truth, the Christmas spirit has not yet taken hold for me. I even made the crazy decision to NOT put up my tree! And believe me, I love my tree (and my sparkly IKEA snowflake ornaments.) I am hoping that listening to my new Hipster for the Holidays playlist will put me in more Christmasy minded spirits.

It is hard to deny the charm of the Decemberists singing Please Daddy Don't Get Drunk This Christmas or Cindy Lauper & the Hives having a Christmas Duel. Like any decent card carrying hipster would require, this playlist is infused with copious amounts of Sufjan Stevens and She & Him throughout. Most hipsters also like "some" country, typically only the classic variety, which is why I included Loretta Lynn's To Heck With Ole Santa Claus and Brenda Lee's Christmas Will Be Just Another Lonely Day.

For the ironic hipster (and Saving Silverman fans) I included some Neil Diamond from his Cherry Cherry Christmas album (ha!.) Just like with country music, true hipsters embrace certain levels of R&B (usually Motown and funk) which resulted in Jackson 5's Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, Marvin Gaye's I Want to Come Home for Christmas, Stevie Wonder rocking out on both What Christmas Means to Me and Ave Maria, and of course James Brown's Let's Make Christmas Mean Something This Year (Parts 1 & 2) making the list. For the hipsters with a sense of humor I included Adam Sandler's Chanukah Song (v. 1 & 2), Early 50s Recording of Cowboy Timmy singing the classic Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo, Cheech & Chong's Santa Claus and His Old Lady and Guster's Carol of the Meows.

I hope all of you hipsters and non-hipsters alike find this holiday mix enjoyable. If there are some tunes that you feel should be on this list, let me know! By the way, the handsome hipster in the photo is my husband in his winning Ugly Sweater. Hipsters just love their ugly sweater parties.

As for next week's playlist - one of the big reasons I am not yet in the mood for Christmas is because my best friend is moving away at the end of the month to another state to be with the love of his life. A total Happy/Sad occasion to say the least. In preparation for his move I have been working on a massive playlist that spans our friendship. I will post it next week for y'all:-)

Vixen's Mixens: From the Vault! 70s Brits

2011-12-02T11:23:00.000-08:00

As I noted in a prior post, before embarking on a fab trip to London a few years back I made playlists of Brits by decade, from the 60s to the present. My original 70s Brits mix was a spare 60 minutes long and did not cover much ground - but with the magic of Spotty I have a new and improved 70s Brits playlist for all of you to enjoy! In industry terms this would be considered the expanded deluxe reissue.

I tried my best to cover all types of genres in this mix, with help from this great Wikipedia article. On this playlist you will find blues rock, soft rock, glam rock, prog rock (the least annoying possible - a 1:40 Yes song is almost unheard of but I managed to find it and utilize it) and even pub rock. There is also punk, post-punk, new wave and a tiny bit of pop (Brits do not have the best pop taste, unfortunately.) Some of the songs are on the obvious side, such as Sex Positols Anarchy in the UK, but honestly that is their only good song - if you don't believe me I dare you to try to sit through that entire album. Others are nice hidden gems, including a couple girl-punk bands The Slits (with the super cool Newtown) and The Raincoats (with an ahead of its time No Side to Fall In.)

As for omissions, the Pink Floyd selection was dreadful and as I am not a big fan, I didn't bother putting a crappy live cut on the mix. Of course Led Zeppelin is not on Spotty as they are notoriously stingy with their digital content, like the Beatles! Other than that, the 70s Brits are very well represented on Spotify and I did not need to make too many alterations from my original 21 track set. As always, feel free to let me know if I left any favorites out.

Next week's playlist is a set of carols and such entitled, "Hipster for the Holidays." Although I am not yet in the holiday spirit I am hoping this mix will help bring me there. Until next time!

Vixen's Mixens: Thanksgiving Dinner!

2011-11-16T16:45:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays, mostly because the focus is on delicious home cooked comfort food. In honor of this wonderful time of year I have created a playlist filled with songs that reference not just Thanksgiving, but all of the foods that we eat on that special Thursday in November.

Thanksgiving Dinner includes songs about potatoes (both mashed and sweet,) turkey, cranberry sauce, wine and PIE! I must admit, as it is on Thanksgiving, the pie section is by far the best. I had a tough time locating songs about stuffing, so if you have any suggestions, send them my way.

BTW, if you are wondering who the dork is on the left, that is me wearing an autumnal themed shirt that I borrowed from my co-worker for an ugly sweater party a few years back. I am considering asking her to borrow it again to wear on Thanksgiving. If not I will probably rock my HIMYM Slap Bet Commissioner t-shirt for the second year in a row to celebrate Slapsgiving.

Enjoy the playlist and happy holidays!!!!! I am not going to promise another playlist for next week, since I will be busy cooking cranberry sauce, pumpkin gooey butter cake and sweet potato casserole:-) What recipes will you be cooking up this time next week?

Vixen's Mixens: Jealous Much?

2011-11-10T13:17:00.000-08:00

After reading this awesome post on Rookie, called Getting Over Girl Hate, I was inspired to make a Spotify playlist of songs about girls v. girls, called Jealous Much?. All of these songs center around rampant jealousy and a general, "stay away from my man" mentality. To tell the truth, as in life, most of the tunes are about a woman's fear of losing her man to another woman - and the girl on girl hatred that follows.

It must be noted that country and hip-hop artists cover this topic most often (and the best.) How can you top Loretta Lynn's You Ain't Woman Enough To Take My Man? Ummm well maybe if you are Khia, talkin' 'bout them Jealous Girls. I even included the hilarious Jealousy by THE Paris Hilton, cuz it is an amazing Nicole Richie smack down (love the House of Harlow jewelry line btw Nicole - nothin' but love for ya.)

Hopefully the amazing showing of girl power from this year's Emmy broadcast (in case you missed it - makes me cry every time) and the killer box office from Bridesmaids shows that we are moving in the right direction, ladies. No need to hate on one another. There is room for all of us to be awesome - and plenty of men to go around. Hopefully someday we will live in world without these types of songs. But until then, the dramatic cattiness is kind of fun;-)

This is a work in progress - I know there are more songs that fit into this category out there! Send me your suggestions please! As for next week's playlist theme: Thanksgiving Dinner. Songs about the food we love to eat on Thanksgiving Day. Until then!

Vixen's Mixens: Cover Me

2011-10-26T15:43:00.001-07:00

This week's playlist is a simple theme that is sure to be revisited again: Cover Me - aka cover songs. Almost every artist covers other musicians' works at some point or another, some more successfully than others.

This playlist embraces those who put their own stamp on someone else's music and lyrics, sometimes to the point where the cover surpasses the original (such as Al Green's take on the BeeGees How Can You Mend A Broken Heart) or is practically unrecognizable (such as Devo's version of the Rolling Stones' [I Can't Get No] Satisfaction).

To show just how differently two musician's can interpret one song, I put on two covers of Elton John's Your Song. One is a sweet and sparse version by Ellie Goulding and the other is a danceable R&B take by Billy Paul. I love both!

Anyhow, I truly hope you enjoy these covers. I will definitely do another covers playlist in the future, as there are just so many great ones to choose from. As for next week's playlist: Jealous Much? - songs about girl on girl hate.

Vixen's Mixens: From the Vault! 60s Brits

2011-10-19T15:22:00.000-07:00

Right before I took a trip to London a couple years back, I prepped a series of iTunes mixes of my fave songs by English artists (by decade) for my travel group to enjoy on the plane ride. Unfortunately most of them didn't have the chance to give them a listen after taking their Tylenol PMs with the booze of their choice.

To give these enjoyable mixes one more shot, I have converted them to Spotify and even added some bonus tracks, as Spotty's collection of Britpop definitely outnumbered my own. To begin I give you: 60s Brits, a fun collection filled with British Invasion artists. Fans of Quentin Tarantino may recognize the amazing ditty Hold Tight by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich, which was so beautifully used in Death Proof. There is also a couple choice tunes by the Troggs, inlcuding With a Girl Like You and the classic Love Is All Around, which never fails to make me think of Bill Nighy's ridiculous version of the song Christmas is All Around from Love Actually.

As usual, if you see any glaring omissions or errors please send me your comments and recommendations (they may make the playlist!) Reminder: no Beatles or Zeppelin on Spotty:-( Also this mix was only artists from England (no Scotts, Welsh or Irish.) So if you are yelling, "Where the F*** is Donovan?!!," there is your answer (he's Scottish.)

So in the future you will see other Brit decade playlists (70s, 80s, 90s and 00s), but as for next week the theme will be: Cover me! A playlist of only covers (I am sure it will be the first of many.)

Vixen's Flixens: The Trip

2011-10-17T14:14:00.000-07:00

If you enjoy meta movies where actors play fictionalized versions of themselves then this is the move for you. Michael Winterbottom's latest film, The Trip, was my favorite movie from this summer and is now available on Netflix Instant Viewing!

Steve Coogan (Mr. Alan Partridge) and Rob Brydon (Uncle Bryn from Gavin & Stacey) basically teach a masterclass in the art of comic timing, chemistry and impressions in this film, which was actually first a six episode BBC series in 2010 before being edited to a feature length film.

I seriously recommend this movie to anyone who likes to laugh, but specifically to fans of British comedy. One thing I can guarantee is that you will be working on your Michael Caine impression after seeing this.

Vixen's Mixens: Jeepers Creepers

2011-10-13T13:31:00.001-07:00

Just in time for Halloween comes this week's installment of Vixen's Mixens: Jeepers Creepers. There is not much to say about this crop of songs, other than they are filled with references to: blood, knives, ghosts, monsters and many more spooky subjects.

I would have to say the oddest tune amongst this bunch is Satan is Real by the Louvin Brothers. This song is a warning to those who may not realize that Satan, in fact, is very real. But according to the LBros, don't fear - God is real too. Mostly I love it because of the ridiculously amazing cover art, as seen to my left.

Anyhow - please enjoy! It was a fun one to make. Next week's playlist theme is the first in my Anglophile series, 60s Brits.

Vixen's Mixens: My Poppin' Hip Hoppin' 90s

2011-10-05T16:14:00.000-07:00

This weeks theme may be one of the funnest I have done: My Poppin' Hip Hoppin' 90s. Enough distance has passed where these mostly overplayed songs no longer annoy me and now have that excellent retro sheen.

Big thanks to my FB peeps for filling in the massive gaping holes my memory left behind, especially PM Dawn (Mary Beth's hubby Chris), Kriss Kross (my girl Poots), Right Said Fred (Sara L.), Salt-N-Pepa (My friend and neighbor Katie C.), and countless artists from my bro Dylan and my bestie Beana.

Seriously -put on your belly shirts and baggy jeans (with condoms pinned to them if your name is T-Boz) and party like its 1990-1999.

Next week's theme: Jeepers Creepers. A "killer" playlist for your Halloween parties.

Vixen's Mixens: I Love You In the Fall

2011-09-28T15:10:00.001-07:00

Although the temps today may be in the 70s, the weatherman promises as of tomorrow we will really begin experiencing the fall – which, being a New Englander, is my favorite time of year. Not just for the changing leaves, but more for the boots and sweaters (obvi.) Yup, just let me wear some boots and sweaters and I am a happy camper – throw in a scarf and blazer and I am over the moon!

Here is my lovely set of tunes to get you pumped for this new fall season of boots, booties, cardies and cowl necks: I Love You In the Fall. On this mix you will find all sorts of autumnally themed songs, such as Yo La Tengo’s Autumn Sweater, Miss Li’s Autumn Cold, and Neil Young’s Harvest. I also have a fun folky/country section which includes a great bluegrass tune by Bill Monroe and His Bluegrass Boys called When the Golden Leaves Begin to Fall as well as Do You Love An Apple by the Secret Sisters and a countrified cover of the White Stripes’ Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground by Chris Thile. And because I love cheese with my apple pie, I had to include Barry Manilow’s Weekend In New England.

Big thanks to my brother Dylan for recommending the Black Keys’ Remember When (side A and side B) after discovering that his first choice Autumn Almanac by the Kinks was not available on Spotty. As I explained, the Kinks selection on Spotty is unfortunately very limited. However his replacement tunes do the Kinks justice!

I hope you enjoy the playlist, as well as the boots and sweaters! Next week’s theme will be: My Poppin’ Hip Hoppin’ 90s, which is a follow up to a previous playlist, My Rockin’ 90s. Get ready for some fantabulous and craptastic 90s pop!

Vixen's Mixens: What's In a Name?

2011-09-21T16:59:00.000-07:00

What is one thing that everyone has? A name! You may like yours (I personally enjoy having the name of two awesome British queens - Victoria and Elizabeth) or hate it - but we all have to be identified by one (unless you are Prince and can be referred to by a symbol.) The theme for this week's playlist is quite simple: What's In a Name? - songs with names in the title.

When I undertook this theme I honestly underestimated the sheer amount of songs written with specific people in mind. Holy cow - just the songs with famous people's names alone was out of control. We have Houdini (Foster the People), Paul Simon (the Russian Futurists), Bonnie & Clyde (Jay-Z & Beyonce and Serge Gainsbourg & Brigitte Bardot - as well as Merle Haggard!), Bill Murray (Gorillaz) and Bill Gates (Lil Wayne).

Then of course there are names that became famous because of the songs they were featured in, such as Eleanor Rigby (Aretha Franklin version - sorry but still no Beatles on Spotty), Billie Jean (Michael Jackson), Roxanne (The Police) and Janie Jones (The Clash).

I also tried to find songs that featured my loved ones names - some successfully and others not so much (sorry Christina but the only song I could find with your name was by Anthony & the Johnsons and I REFUSE to put them on my playlist.)

As there were just so many Name songs I had to line them up in alphabetical order, just like in grade school. I hope you enjoy all 7 hours! If you have a great song that features your name that did not make my playlist, let me know and I'll be sure to add it!

Next week's theme will be: I Love You In the Fall. Songs for the new season!!!! Start thinking of recommendations now!

Vixen's Mixens: Just Drive!

2011-09-14T15:20:00.000-07:00

If you are wondering who this little guy to my left is, that is Pegasus - my little wiener Beanie Baby in Fruit of the Looms that has been my driving buddy since I got my first car!

Which leads me to my newest playlist: Just Drive! This week's theme is one we can all relate to, as we have either driven or been passengers for most of our lives. These songs are meant to be listened to on the open road, with the wind in your hair and the 5-0 on your heels. Seriously, most of these songs will get you speeding (see Lenny Kravitz's Where Are We Running which actually caused me to get pulled over).

Some of the highlights include thematically obvi choices, such as Johnny Cash's I've Been Everywhere and Willie Nelson's On the Road Again, and some new badass tunes, such as Mates of States Palomino and the Kooks' Junk of the Heart (Happy). I also have some great recommended tunes from my FB peeps, including Cake's Stickshifts and Safetybelts (from my old college buddy Marla), Steppenwolf's Magic Carpet Ride (from my former roommate and sista 4 life Kerry), Golden Earring's Radar Love (from my fab Brit cousin Sharon) and Gorrillaz' DARE (from my hubby Roger).

Of course I rounded it all off with THE driving song of all driving songs...Drive by the Cars. I hope you all enjoy the latest mix - if you have spotty premium and a stereo input in your car you will actually be able to put this playlist to the test! Let me know how it works out.

Btw, next week's theme: What's in a Name? A mix filled with songs with names in the title. Send my your suggestions and they may make the cut!!

Vixen's Mixens: From the Vault! Bitter Melodies/Birthday Mix

2011-09-08T15:28:00.000-07:00

Much like garbage pick-up, this week I am running a day behind due to the Labor Day holiday. First of all, let me say that I had an “epic” weekend filled with my Ponies, their respective Stallions and one fantabulous Wedding joining two fantabulous people! As you can imagine, I am still recovering from the overdose of fab. Therefore this week I am reaching into my Mixen’s vault and hitting you up with a combo playlist: Bitter Melodies/Birthday Mix.

The first half is a Bitter Melodies mix that I made for my good friend Chrissy years ago – guessing from the songs it seems to be circa 2002. Chrissy has always been one of my biggest fans (see pic) – she totally encouraged me to keep making mixes and to get over my shyness and sing in public. I’m so sad she lives in another state – however I am super happy that she just married her soul mate this summer! Chrissy is extremely down to earth, strong, and fun - but she is definitely super empathetic. This mix was totes hand crafted for her – part upbeat, part melancholy but all good! Since Spotty does not have EVERYTHING (but close to) I had to make a couple substitutions from my original. The opening song should be Pee Shy’s Mr. Whisper but alas I had to choose another girlie rock tune from the 90s – thus the Veruca Salt Volcano Girls. The other substitution is a rarity from Weezer called American Girls that is sorely missed. Instead I stuck in another similarly themed Weezer tune Keep Fishin’. The last song of this mix is New Radicals Mother We Just Can’t Get Enough. Still bummed that the band never did anything after that album.

The second mix picks up at the Chemical Brothers Piku – a song that was definitely on numerous mixes of mine from that time period (looks to be from 2000). This Birthday Mix was made for a boy! A real boy! The first mix I ever made for a boy! We met through a mutual friend in Massachusetts but it was long distance and never worked out (besides the fact that I am pretty sure he was gay.) One of our few meetings included a birthday party for him, so what else would any decent girl with a crush, no money and a cd burner do but make him a mix!? So since I did not know him super well, this mix is more about me trying to “impress” him with my diverse (see Elton John, Aterciopelados) super cool hipster (see Portishead, Groove Armada) music taste. Looking back it was probably a bit too butch for him (see Smashing Pumpkins, Toadies). There are two substitutions in this section – Spotty does not have my fave Catherine Wheel album, “Adam & Eve” which has one of their best tunes Delicious so I had to go with their other equally passionate song Heal 2. Eric Hutchinson, who went to college with me (although we were not friends or anything – I was just a quasi-stalky super fan) only has his newer material on Spotty so I could not include the amazing old school track Slow Me Down from his self produced “Songs For Nagoya”. Instead I put on Back To Where I Was, which is equally enjoyable. Just to warn you, Hutch will make an appearance on the majority of my mixes ‘cause he is my boy.

Anyhow I hope you enjoy this trip down memory lane. I will be returning to the vault again in the future but next week’s theme is “Just Drive” – great songs to listen to on the road. Send me your suggestions here or on twitter at @thomyorkesbadeye

Vixen's Mixens: Indian Summer

2011-08-31T11:19:00.000-07:00

Hurricane Irene has come and gone - leaving some of us without electricity and most of us with quite a bit of clean up to do. To all of my fellow East Coasters/New Englanders this week's playlist is dedicated to you! Now that the storm is gone I am hoping that we will have an Indian Summer - a little bit of extra warmth to ease us into the fall and winter.

This is a collection of songs that make me think of a warm sun, a cool breeze and young summer romance. Parts of the playlist just make me want to shake my booty like any good summer song should. Give it a listen this Labor Day weekend, while the beaches are still open and the badminton net is still up! BTW congrats to my "pony" Kate Kugler - who is getting married to an amazing man this weekend!

Shout outs to my FB peeps who recommended some fab tunes - such as Cape Dory by Tennis (thx Laia) and Baby by Devendra Banhart (thx @TrashoStereo)! Feel free to share your favorite songs of summer with me here - they may even make it onto the playlist:-)

Vixen's Mixens: Special Hurricane Edition!

2011-08-27T06:16:00.000-07:00

Although I usually only do one playlist a week, in honor of the impending East Coast Hurricane I felt it only right to provide people with a soundtrack to get you through the storm (if you have power, of course!) My Goodnight (Hurricane) Irene playlist is filled with stormy weater related tunes (including the Lena Horne rendition of Stormy Weather) as well as tunes in honor of various Irenes, such as a particularly fun throwback by British New Wave/Punk band the Photos called, you guessed it, Irene. I included some obvious guilty pleasures including Scorpion's Rock You Like a Hurricane and Christopher Cross' Ride Like the Wind. To please my bestie and #1 playlist fan Jonathan aka @TrashoStereo I also threw in Taylor Swift (Come In With the Rain) and Paramore (When It Rains.) To please my husband aka @Egocrata there is a Spinal Tap number entitled Break Like the Wind. As a special tribute to my favorite Irene I close out the playlist with one of the best movie soundtrack songs of all time....Flashdance...What a Feeling by Irene Cara. Feel free to give me feedback - glaring ommissions, etc. Enjoy and stay safe!

Vixen's Mixens: My Rockin' 90s

2011-08-23T15:51:00.000-07:00

My Rockin 90s: In honor of the ridiculously unusual East Coast earthquake we experienced today, I am offering you a Spotty playlist of songs that rocked my world in the 1990s (it's a stretch, I know.)

Back then I was a nerdy teenager super thirsty for the latest and greatest tunes. My fave magazine subscription was Rolling Stone, which I read religiously (nowadays it's Entertainment Weekly, lovingly referred to as "the bible" in our house.) When I went to the mall, I made a beeline for Sam Goody and longed for the day when I would have steady income so I could buy every album on my very long wish list. When I finally did get a job at my local movie theater, almost every dime went towards increasing my (IMO) amazing CD collection (little did I know that when I would be old enough to afford all the music I want it would be available so cheap through the interwebs.)

I was a massive Brit pop junkie - falling hard for Radiohead, Oasis, Blur, Supergrass and Pulp as soon as they crossed our shore. But I also went through the grunge phase (I totes wore my dad's flannels around my waist EVERY day as if I was an extra in Singles) and got bit by the "Electronica" fad (never was a raver though - I was waaaay too nerdy for that.) All of that music is here - along with my fave indie-ish stuff (Pavement, Yo La Tengo and Built To Spill) and my girls (aka Bjork, Tori, Fiona and Polly Jean.) Just for fun I threw in some amazeball one hit wonders (remember "Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth With Money In My Hand" or "Brimful of Asha"?).

Anyhow, if you are anything like me, I think you will enjoy this trip down memory lane. I hope you have as much fun listening to it as I had making it! BTW - don't think that I forgot about hip-hop and pop - I am already working on "My Poppin' Hip-hoppin' 90s" playlist which I will post sometime in the near future. As for next week's playlist, I am hoping for an "Indian Summer." [above image from dismagazine.com]

Vixen's Flixens: Work It!

2011-08-20T06:19:00.000-07:00

During the slow days of summer, when network television is a desert in terms of quality programming, I turn to Netflix Instant Viewing for survival. For those of you who are in need of some genuinely funny and entertaining shows, here are a couple work place based sitcoms that I cannot say enough good things about. The fact that both of them feature Adam Scott is purely coincidental (not really - love him.) Best thing is that they are both available now on instant viewing so have fun!

Party Down: "Are we having fun yet?" This short lived Starz series follows a group of small time caterers in Los Angeles, with the majority of the employees treating the gig as their day job while they attempt to make it in show business. The cast is phenomenal - with a lot of cross overs from exec. producer/co-creator Rob Thomas' Veronica Mars, including Adam Scott, Jane Lynch, Ken Marino and Ryan Hansen, who all appeared on the CW series. Adam Scott's failed actor Henry is the sarcastic, depressive realist that anchors the show, that is otherwise filled with pipe-dreaming wacky losers who, for the most part, have no clue that they actually are losers. Henry is haunted throughout the series by one beer commercial he starred in that created a nationwide catchphrase, ala Whazzzzup?! The most original aspect of the show is that every episode takes place at a different party event, ranging from corporate retreats to a Porn awards after party. This creates a great opportunity for amazing guest appearances. Two episodes not to miss are "Taylor Stiltskin Sweet Sixteen," which features guest stars J.K. Simmons (at his foul-mouthed best), Breckin Meyer and Joey Lauren Adams, and "Steve Guttenbergs Birthday" which of course features Veronica Mars alum Steve Guttenberg in a hilarious turn playing himself. Seriously this show is amazing and not to be missed.

Parks and Recreation: What can I say - the parks department of Pawnee Indiana won me over. Led by Amy Poehler's eternal optimist Leslie Knope, the employees of this small town government office are all equal parts quirky and genuine, with a bit of crazy thrown in for good measure. According to my political science geek husband, the depiction of small town politics is surprisingly realistic. To me, though, the reason the show works is that it manages to be funny with a heart - without being overly sappy. And the depiction of the friendship between Leslie and Ann Perkins (played by the lovely Rashida Jones) is the most honest look at true female relationships I have ever seen on television (I'm talking to you, Sex & the City.) Two episodes not to be missed: "Greg Pikitis" wherein Leslie and her cop boyfriend, guest star Louis C.K. attempt to take down the titular teenager who defaces Pawnee property every Halloween, and "Telethon" which features Leslie on a crazy sugar high from eating Sweetums bars and the amazing crash that follows; BONUS - the episode was written by Amy Poehler. The first season starts off slow but season 2 and 3 are not to be missed. Unfortunately season 3 is not yet on instant, but once it is, it is totally worth marathoning!

Vixen's Mixens: I Was Running

2011-08-15T15:48:00.000-07:00

First of all, let me just say - thank goodness Spotify finally arrived in the States! I have been using the Spanish version for a couple years now under my husband's username but now I can finally have my very own. The social aspect of Spotify (aka Spotty) makes it the clear winner IMO for streaming music services - not to mention the killer library. Sharing your favorite new tunes on the social media service of your choice could not be easier, but even better is the sharing of playlists.

I was a kid who slaved over making mixtapes, ala Rob Fleming from High Fidelity. The opening and closing tracks were crucial, as well as the overall flow from song to song. You had to get the timing just right on each side of the cassette (yes I am old) to avoid - god forbid - cutting off the closing song. When .mp3s and burning cds became commonplace it was nothing short of revolutionary. Dragging and dropping was just too easy! Then when ipods and itunes playlists came into fashion it was even more mind blowing. You were no longer limited to 80 minutes worth of music! I have a party playlist on my ipod right now that has 643 songs and counting.

So Spotty is the next step in the evolution of making mixes. No need to press record, burn a disc or hook up your friend's ipod to your itunes. You only need to share your playlist with other Spotty members. Simple. Fun. Fantastic.

I will not let this technology go to waste! I will periodically (weekly, in theory) post playlists with different themes (my fave types of mixes). If I am in a sharing mood, I'll give you some insight as to why I chose what I chose and what not. Hope you enjoy.

This week's theme: I Was Running. I am by no means a fitness enthusiast, however if I do work out - upbeat tunes are a must. This is a 2 hour mix filled with pop, hipster shizz and even a Stereo MCs classic from the good 'ol 90s. Speaking of the 90s - that will be the theme of next weeks list;-) Have fun my peeps!

The XFactor in Operation Triumph

2009-09-21T14:07:00.000-07:00

I have to confess that when it comes to Operacion Triunfo (literally, “Operation Triumph”, the Spanish version of Star Academy), my musical taste goes gaga. So, please, tell me, isn’t she AWESOME?! Isn’t her performance (not only her voice) AWESOME?

One is left wondering her age, and lets face it, she can be anything from 20 – 45…but she is SIXTEEN! Yet she seems to have more balls in her voice than Bono, and more purr in her performance than Patti Smith! She was 7th among the finalists…poor girl, yet she is a winner in our books. As for the videos – straight to the Dept. of Awesome, right?!

The final curtain (singing her swan song after having been nominated to leave the academy)

Nav (to a lesser to extent) & Laiona (Nav is embarrassed)

CeDeLiGa Update: Noooooo!

2009-08-26T05:11:00.000-07:00

I am very sad to report that there is a three way tie in the CeDeLiGa race, with the death of Ted Kennedy. Roger astutely added the cancer patient to his list at the start of the year and it paid off. Although just last week Roger did say that he would rather lose this CeDeLiGa point than lose Kennedy's vote in the senate with the healthcare reform bill in the balance. Ever the political scientist.

I must say I shed some tears this morning for good 'ol Teddy. It is the end of an era.

Well, to the business at hand...the CeDeLiGa standings are as follows: Me - 1 point for Bea Arthur, Jster - 1 point for Ed McMahon and Roger - 1 point for Ted Kennedy. This is the closest race in CeDeLiGa history and with more cancer patients, overweight diabetics, drug addicts and octogenariens remaining on peoples lists it is only going to get more exciting! Stay tuned!

Total Eclipse of the Heart: the flowchart

2009-08-18T19:22:00.000-07:00

I can't add much to the sheer awesomeness of this flowchart. Behold:Now it is stuck in your head. And you fucking love it, because the song is that awesome. (Via Yglesias)

It is actually one of my favorite songs ever...

On tickets and scalpers

2009-08-16T19:43:00.000-07:00

Driving around today we listened to an old Fresh Air podcast (convicted NPR nerd. Sue me) that had an interview about the evils and frailties of concert tickets, scalping and the heinous duopoly Ticketmaster / Live Nation. Not much that I didn't know about, but the piece was really good, putting the bits and pieces together to show a compelling picture of general assholiness by evil corporations and devious scalpers.

We know how it goes. Hot act has a concert, and sets prices for a venue. Ticketmaster has the tickets, adds outrageous fees and you buy them. The fees are high because they are a de facto monopoly; no one else sells tickets for the new hot band, so you can bitch and moan all you want, they will crush you anyway with an iron fist. On top of that, you have the pack of scalpers getting in and reselling for outrageous prices, making a killing because the shitty Ticketmaster servers crashed on you.

I am not going to waste much time on Ticketmaster; it is pretty obvious by now that they are an evil, despicable corporation that is making a mockery of antitrust laws. If you give a shit about music, call your Senator and Congressman and ask them to go nuts on them as soon as they can. I bet Obama will love to crush that evil corp. I will focus more on the scalpers, and how they are not actually a bad thing - in fact, they are a sign that the artist is a moron.

The problem, however, is that we are not using the correct pricing model for concert tickets - the model is just broken. Bear with me, but it is all a matter of economics: a concert is an event that has a supply of tickets, and a certain level of demand. The supply is fixed (the size of the venue), the demand depends on the price. Each person is willing to spend a certain amount of money to go to a concert; I would go to see Daughtry for free, I would pay real money for first row tickets for Radiohead, and you would have to pay me a heft sum if you want me to go to a Nickelback concert.

When a band is popular, this means you have a good amount of people willing to pay for the seats; probably more that the amount available. If the price is low, pretty much every fan will accept it and try to get in - you will have unmet demand (people with no tickets) that will be willing to pay an extra to get in. Here is when you have scalpers: when the face value of the tickets is too low. The opposite can also happen, as the empty seats in Yankee Stadium this season show; no one wants to buy seats, so you can get to see the Yankees paying less than face value to some idiot that tried to make a killing in the secondary ("second hand") market.

If prices are too low, the artist is leaving money on the table, and some random dude is reselling tickets and making money on their backs. Not too fair. How we can make the ticket system better? One simple idea: auctions.

Let the fans bid for the tickets - simple as that. Have a three to five day window open where you can call your price in a bling auction; if the venue has 3,000 seats, the 3,000 top bids get tickets, paying whatever they called. Seats are assigned from top to bottom; those who paid the most get the best seats, and then we go down from there. Big artists would make a killing; smaller ones would be able to fill smaller venues with certain ease, as mildly interested people would be able to call a low price. If the venue needs a certain revenue, you can add reserve prices (minimum bids). And if you feel like a cool dude, you can always set aside a limited amount of tickets at a low price, to be assigned by lottery, and requiring to show ID to get in to avoid scalping.

This way the artists would get more money, venues will be easier to fill and scalpers would be deeply, deeply screwed, as people will be able to offer the outrageous prices themselves. If you want to further piss them off, have a last minute batch of tickets for auction right before the concert, to make sure that the artist can always get the money.

Would this leave the fans screaming that the artist sold out? Yes, no doubt. So what? Musicians need money. They deserve it. They don't see much from CD sales (yay for rampant piracy and evil labels), so they should milk their wealthy fans if they can. This model, in addition, will be great for cult bands with a rabid fanbase; the crazier your followers, the more they will pay for your tickets.

Still, to make this work, we first need to kill, maim and mutilate Ticketmaster and their iron grip on live music. Call your politicians and yell at them. It is higly satisfying.

So You Think You Can Win an Emmy?

2009-07-21T05:00:00.001-07:00

So I definitely was happy with some of the Emmy nominees this year, including How I Met Your Mother & Neil Patrick Harris, Jim Parsons of Big Bang Theory and the Flight of the Conchords. But of course there were many ommisions, including Pushing Daisies and for me the biggest: no So You Think You Can Dance in the Reality Competition category and no Cat Deely in the host category. WTF? SYTYCD is by far better than Dancing With the Stars! The dancers and choreographers are more talented, the format is funner and Cat Deely is cooler than Tom Bergeron.

Well at least SYTYCD dominated in the Best Choreography category, nabbing 4 out of 6 nominations. For those of you who are unfamilier with the show I have posted below the nominees. For those of you who are super fans of the show like me, enjoy once more. BTW, Bleeding Love with Chelsea (now on DWTS) and Mark is my fave because Mark was the love of my life last season. Although Mercy is AMaaaazing.

Tabitha & Napolean: Bleeding Love with Chelsea & Mark

Mia Micheals: Mercy with Katie & Twitch

Tyce Diorio: Adam & Eve with Jessica & Will

Dmitry Chaplin (former cast member): A Los Amigos with Chelsea & Joshua (the winner last season)

Best Potter Movie Yet?

2009-07-16T04:57:00.000-07:00

Yup, I am a dorky-ass Harry Potter Fanatic. Last night we went to see the Half Blood Prince and we arrived a half hour early thinking it was pretty early. Not so much. The line to get into the theater was out the door and beginning to round the block when we arrived. By the time we got in the best seats we could find were in the fourth row. But we did not care (hell it was like a bootleg IMAX). The whole audience was ravenous for some Potter!!!

The movie, in my opinion, is the best Potter movie yet. Adaptation-wise, there were definite ommisions (some good, some bad) and additions (most of which were good), but for three distinct reasons the movie worked:

CAST/ACTING: The three leads (Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson) have all grown leaps and bounds as actors. They are so much more natural and you can see their natural comraderie that only comes from working with one another for years. The supporting cast is amazing as always. The new addition of Jim Broadbent as Horace Slughorn was perfection.

HUMOR: This is by far the funniest of the Potter flicks. If I am not mistaken, some of the cheeky lines that got the biggest laughs were not even from the books. The screenwriters should be commended. Slughorn and Luna have some of the juciest comic bits, but teenagers in love/lust are funny enough on their own.

MATERIAL: After rereading the last couple books, although I have strong feelings for Goblet of Fire, Half Blood Prince is the best of the series. It strikes a wonderful balance of mystery, humor, dread, hormones and sadness.

If you aren't a dorky-ass Potter fan I really think you will still enjoy this movie. I think I will be giving it a repeat viewing in the theater myself. If anything, this movie has gotten me out of my Twilight stupor. Go Potter!!

An important movie: Food, Inc.

2009-07-14T20:22:00.000-07:00

To tell the truth, I am only a part-time pop culture junkie. An amateur of sorts. I enjoy my pop junk, don´t be mistaken, and I gobble copious amounts of random entertainment in all mediums and forms (videogames are important, darn it!), but my true addiction, the thing that keeps me awake at night and really makes me a nerd is policy and politics.

I am a political junkie. Guilty as charged. Better get out of the way if you don´t like it on social occasions, and avoid leaving any opening for me to start blabbering about legislation.

There is a way to mix and match those two strands of my brain, however: the documentaries. I love them. I don´t care about those about African monkeys, killer bugs and crap like that, but I adore those that involve policy or politics. I loved "The Fog of War" (and know that Robert McNamara is dead, it is worth revisiting), I adored "Boogie Man" (if you know who Lee Atwater is, you will understand why) and I was enthralled with "The Smartest Guys in the Room" (Enron, remember?). They are fun. I love them. They teach you cool stuff.

Sometimes, though, you see a documentary that it is not just fun. It is important. Al Gore made one not long ago; now in theaters there is another of its kind, and you must go see it right now: "Food Inc.". "Super Size Me" might have changed the way you looked at burgers, but this one is going to make you change how you think about food completely, and I mean it.

I don´t want to get too much into detail (this is not my policy blog, after all; go gorge yourself with my wonkery here), but the idea is that the food that we eat is bad. Not bad as we make bad choices and don´t eat veggies; it is more about eating meat that is basically produced in the worst possible farms you can imagine, vegetables that are controlled by giant corporations, and all subsidized by a farm policy that ends up being welfare for rich companies and help for the worst possible food.

Seriously, go see this movie. It is not just fun or interesting. It will make you see things a complete different way by shedding light to a whole bunch of issues that you didn´t even know they existed. I mean it.

Screw MJ: Billy Mays is dead

2009-06-29T18:59:00.000-07:00

Billy Mays, king of the pitchmen, master of the spoken word, emperor of the holy TV turd, is dead. He is the one true celebrity big loss this weekend; a man on his prime leaves us, when he was doing his best work.

Billy Mays was awesome. He is the only human being that is allowed to speak in Caps Lock ALL THE TIME EVEN WHEN HE IS ORDERING FOOD AND/OR HAVING SEX WITH HIS WIFE:

Actually, the though of Billy Mays having sex with his wife while selling HIS BIG UNIQUE DICK AND WAIT THERE IS MORE in Billy-Mays-speak is highly disturbing, and I wish I hadn´t put it in your brain. Sorry.

I just did.

Jokes aside, Mays was actually a really impressive individual. He started pitching junk in Atlantic City, and impressed the owner of a little known cleaning product (OxiClean) enough that he decided to put him on TV. He made the brand, and it hasn´t been the only thing he build from the ground.

I really don´t know how he did it (I think his voice is hypnotic, in a bizarro, I am blasting you with the sonic equivalent of a ton of bricks kind of way), but he did sell his stuff. Death of salesman indeed.

The music game we are waiting for: Beatles - Rock Band

2009-06-26T05:45:00.000-07:00

The best music game of all time is, no questions asked, Rock Band 2. It is fun, it is challenging, it has the best tracklist ever and it has allowed me to sing Pixies songs in Madison Square Garden.

They have a ton of good songs in this game, but they are missing something. They are missing the holy grail of music games, the band to rule them all. No, it is not Led Zeppelin, you idiots. The Beatles: Rock Band is coming this fall.

As you see from the (excellent) trailer, the game is a trip down the band's career. It looks sweeeeeet. Just in case we were wondering if the guys at Harmonix were going to nail the art design completely, they released recently the opening animation of the thing. And boy, does it look pretty. Check it out.

CeDeLiGa Update: Dead Heat

2009-06-26T04:59:00.000-07:00

Well, well, well what an interesting week in Celebrity Deaths. Like they say - it comes in threes and this week was no exception. Ed McMahon, Farrah & Michael Jackson. I have to say I feel bad for Farrah. I mean obviously it sucks for her that she died, but Michael Jackson had to go steal her thunder.

Anyhow...the Celebrity Death List Game is now a dead heat (pun abso-freaking-lutely intended): I have one point for Bea Arthur and my friend Jster in Cali got one for Ed McMahon. The funny thing is that she only picked one and gosh darn it - it hit!! She better get to picking her final two because if Dick Clark goes next she'll be sorry!!

As for this whole Michael Jackson death - I really think it is such a big deal because he truly is the first major death of an idol of the tech generation. Twitter and Perez were crashing when the news broke. I don't think that there will be another freak out like this until Madonna or Oprah goes. I don't feel upset about his passing but if he had died in the early 90s, before his weird ways got out of control, I probably would be sobbing. Don't Stop til You Get Enough is in my top five songs of all time.

The best thing that has come out of MJ passing is this video. Anderson Cooper interviewed Sheryl Crow last night and played this clip. I do not think I have EVER seen bigger hair. Enjoy.

Wait, Wait ... Huh?

2009-06-24T04:56:00.000-07:00

If I have not previously mentioned it on the Dump, I am a massive This American Life fan. I know you all must be rolling your eyes, thinking what a tragic hipster. Blame my husband and brother for getting me into listening to public radio. But honestly the show is so frickin good and it makes me laugh and/or cry every week. I highly endorse downloading the podcast, if you do not already.

Anyhow - to the point - this past week's episode was about origin stories and there was one I just had to share. It turns out that Peter Sagal (amazingly funny host of another NPR show, Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me!) wrote the script that would later become....wait for it.....Dirty Dancing 2: Havana Nights.

Turns out Peter was commissioned by Lawrence Bender (producer of Pulp Fiction) to write a gritty script about politics in Cuba during the rise of Castro. Of course the wise powerful people in Hollywood asked him to tone it down and make it more like Dirty Dancing, which had just been a big hit at the time. He did his best but totally hated it and it ended up sitting on a shelf until the early 2000s when somebody decided to take it off the shelf, blow the thick layer of dust off of it and turn it into the gratuitous sequel of the best movie in the world.

I you have no clue who Peter Sagal is, I recommend listening to a few episodes of Wait Wait, then you will realize how absolutely amazing it is that he is responsible for that movie.

How Do I Love JT? Let Me Count the Ways...

2009-06-22T05:06:00.001-07:00

Oh Timber, Timber, Timberlake. I was not a fan of you during your NSYNC days but then you won me over with your solo debut. I plastered your pictures on my wall as if I was thirteen again. When you brought sexy back I had heart palpitations. My friends and I made homemade t-shirts to wear to your concert and carried glittered "I heart JT" foam board signs. Mind you I had just entered my mid-twenties that day.

Now the fucker has to go be funny as well...I hate talented people.

When Plasticville gets posted on Hulu I will let you know, cause that is my new favorite.

Nick & Norah generational cult movie

2009-06-09T18:25:00.000-07:00

Some movies are just sweet - and that´s it. You don´t need anything else; you just have to put two sweet, lonely people walking up and down a long New York City night and let them meet each other. Nick & Norak Infinite Playlist is one of those movies, and it is really a nice, sweet little gem.

We got it from Netflix about three months ago - one of these BluRays that get stuck in a shelf and never manages to make it to the PS3. It was one of those movies that we sorta wanted to watch when it came out, missed it, and got into it late; we didn´t remember that it really hadn´t reviewed all that well. You know what? The critics can suck it. Nick & Norah is a wonderful little movie; a cross between High Fidelity, Before Sunrise and Dazed and Confused for milenials.

Don´t be mistaken: it screams indie the way all corky indie comedies do. For some reason, it just fits the history perfectly; after all, it is about two teenagers born in the weird, odd world of the 2000 - a planet where we are all a bit lost in the shuffle, swamped by our little internet obsessions and infinite access to our little corner of choice in the pop culture universe. Pop culture references are a matter of identity, not random witty blurbs. Nick & Norah are just two lost, confused teenagers trying to find someone that has their slightly odd, warped, cute view of the world. It is the kind of movie that adores New York City, the place of a thousand of lost little cultures and magical touches.

I am not sure if is a movie for everyone. Maybe only geeks and ackward loners will see themselves in the movie. Still, I really, really, really loved it; it really feels like a small, bite sized chunk of how nerds would like to love at the turn of the century. A little marvel.

Why should I care?

2009-06-01T18:06:00.001-07:00

Why does anyone pays any attention to the MTV movie awards? Seriously, why? It is not that we have a lack of movie awards and random prizes out there. The world is full of places where celebrities can feel good about themselves - it is not that we really need another exercise of blatant show business masturbation.

Yesterday we got to know that Eminem is actually a fairly good sport (if the whole Bruno thing was actually staged) and that the cutting-edge trendsetters that watch MTV (fucking tweeners) love the trashtastic Twilight series. The fact that they gave acting awards to the not exactly Shakesperian High School Musical 3 is just cute, really. Not that Zachie can´t be funny (he was pretty decent in SNL) but seriously, that is really reaching for the bottom of the barrel. It is not even "so bad is good" - HSM is just Philcollinesque is its sheer lameness.

The proof is in the picture!

2009-06-01T05:30:00.000-07:00

I know you are all jealous out there. THE Taylor Hanson touched me. Not that I wanted to brag or anything....

Run! Pee! Now!!!!

2009-05-27T05:14:00.000-07:00

I heard a little interview on NPR yesterday that I just had to share. There is a website out there where people can post the best times during a movie to go take a pee break, called runpee.com. Brilliant!! I am pretty dang good at holding it, but my husband never fails to go the bathroom during a movie. This website was designed for him!

Say It Ain't So

2009-05-26T05:02:00.000-07:00

Just heard in the Twitterverse that Kuzui Entertainment, who retain the rights to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, are planning a "relaunch" movie. The Hollywood Reporter says that they do not want to use any of the beloved characters and have not yet even asked Joss Whedon if he would like to be involved at all.

I am sorry, but if there is no Whedon, there is no Buffy. Also, how do you make Buffy the Vampire Slayer without Buffy. Or Xander. Or Willow. This has disaster written all over it.

The invisible influence

2009-05-21T04:13:00.000-07:00

A few years ago, when I was young(er) and dumb(er), I remember asking my mother what was the big deal about the Beatles. They had a ton of famous songs, but they really did not sound all that much better than other bands. Catchy, yes, but nothing that no one else was doing. My poor mother might be not a pop culture junkie, but gave me the perfect answer: "you don´t know how dull music was before the Beatles came around".

The Beatles is only one example of band, movie, game or TV show that does not look all that impressive for the untrained eye, mainly because they have been so massively influential that they don´t look all that exceptional anymore.

For someone that did not had to slog across the dreadful movies of the eighties, "Pulp Fiction" is just another clever post modern artifact. Yeah, wicked script, clever writing, tons of witty quotes and cute time line gimmicks. As artifacts go, it is a very shinny one, but it is not that different. Of course, that misses the point that movies got a whole lot better after/because "Pulp Fiction", basically because they were shamelessly ripping it off. The movie was such a change of direction that it is easy to forget what it spawned.

We have this kind of movies across the decades, hidden in plain sight. "North by Northwest" is just another clever action thriller; of course, it just invented the whole idea. "Jaws" it is just another summer blockbuster - just the one that invented the concept. "Night of the Hunter" basically invented the psychokiller movie. Even "Citizen Kane" is only obviously great if you have watched some of the stilted wrecks that were typical of the era - movies that no one watches anymore.

The same goes for TV shows (and that´s why "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" is awesome, kids), videogames ("Ocarina of Time", "Half Life", or even "Super Mario Bros"), music (Joy Division, for instance), comics (Watchmen) or even novels (Don Quixote, if I have to be a snob). Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but sometimes it has the side effect that it makes your work invisible - what you added to the art gets such a widespread use that it is easy to forget that you are the one that brought it to life.

And yes, "Buffy" is that kind of show. One hour drama with long arch plots, character focused episodes (no, Lost did not come up with that), irony, pop culture references galore and smarty-pants self awareness looks common now, but it wasn´t used all that often a few years ago. But that´s a discussion for another post, where we workship the Whedon as he deserves.

ABC or Always Be Cancelling

2009-05-19T05:09:00.000-07:00

The TV industry is releasing their fall line ups, and you all know what that means...the AXE is out! Sometimes TV execs do the right thing and put struggling (aka horrible) shows out of their misery. For example Cupid is out (thank God) as well as Knight Rider (thank Kit). However there are always some shows that get the axe before their full potential is realized (or even after their full potential is realized ala Arrested Development). This year is no different.

Per usual ABC is one of the worst offenders. Officially canceled shows include Pushing Daisies (which we knew some time ago but it is still very very painful), Samantha Who?, Dirty Sexy Money and the very promising The Unusuals (poor Amber Tamblyn - she has been through this before with Joan of Arcadia). Although I did not care for it, Eli Stone also got chopped and that show has a weird, unexplainable cult following (I think Katie Holmes' guest spot cursed the show).

I have decided that once Lost is over I am going to take a break from ABC. The only new show they kept that I care anything about is Better Off Ted and that almost did not make it. However Wife Swap and the Bachelor were sure things. Sometimes I am sad to be an American.

I was actually shocked to hear that Fox was not the worst offender this year. They actually did Joss Whedon fans a solid by keeping Dollhouse for at least 13 more episodes and they held on to Fringe, which really blossomed by the end of the season. Maybe they are coming to their senses finally?

Tinted Windows Acoustic Performance

2009-05-15T05:18:00.000-07:00

I love radio contests. My friends always tell me that I am so lucky because I tend to win a good amount of radio contests, but I just tell them that it is just a matter of taking the time to enter everything. For example, last week I saw that kc101 was giving away chances to see Tinted Windows perform in the studio. I thought, "What the hell? I'll sign up for that" and guess what - I went to see them perform three acoustic songs on Wednesday. And it was awesome. You can't win if you don't play people.

By the way, in case you are wondering who Tinted Windows are: Singer - Taylor Hanson of Hanson, Guitarist - James Iha of Smashing Pumpkins, Bassist - Adam Schlessinger of Fountains of Wayne, Drummer - Bun E. Carlos of Cheap Trick.

The old charm of retro hardware

2009-05-12T20:03:00.000-07:00

Some people like to use old, inconvenient stuff from time to time. Chrysler buyers. People that send letters on the mail. People that enjoy having vinyl records.

Yeah, vinyl. You know, the big black music thinguies from years past; that old analog contraptions that tried to do carry music using a sadistic looking, needle totting machine to scratch the thing into submission.

Well, in another dark, geeky corner of pop culture, we can find some cultists also venerating old pieces of apparently useless tech. People that enjoy using outdated relics that offer sub-par performance, annoying noises and basic, barebones, simplistic experiences. People that love old, basic hardware. Old videogames. Retro gamers.

I became a member of the cult awhile ago, when I misteriously obtained (cough - cough) a Sega Dreamcast. After much scouring the internets for games and scoring some old classics from Ebay, I must say that the thing has gotten quite a bit of play.

The Dreamcast, however, is not really that old. It came out in 1999, after all; it is barely older than the Playstation 2. Nintendo, however, came to the rescue, with what is probably the most evil ploy to make people spend money ever: the Wii Virtual Console, aka how to make me spend money in 25 year old pieces of code that look like ass on a HDTV, but we love playing anyway. I have given money to Konami way too many times to play Gradius, and that sucker is still fun.

The crown jewel on old relics, however, is my favourite Christmas gift ever: The Nintendo 64 that my wife got me this year. It is a cranky piece of hardware, and some games refuse to work. I really haven´t played that much with it. But it looks so good, under the TV, a tribute to all things fun and Mario that I just adore the thing. Same with the Dreamcast, really; more than the games, it is about owning a little piece of pop culture history - a piece that happens to be fun.

No, I won´t get into the "games back then were better". They were not. The Legend of Zelda on the NES is still fun, but it is a bit like watching a Battleship Potemkin - to appreciate what you are doing, you need to understand at least a bit what the game meant (Zelda is the original sandbox game, by the way; no Zelda, no Grand Theft Auto IV). Most games in some of the "transitional" generations (specially the clunky early 3D, Playstation, Saturn, N64 era) are downright klunky, and don´t have much to enjoy. The few exceptions (like Mario 64) are fun, but downright ugly; early 3D lacking the ultraminimalist charm of pixel art. Nostalgia has a lot to do with it.

In any case, old stuff has its charm. I like old stuff, specially the beeping interactive kind. Next time you see an old, forgotten videogame, remember that it is a little piece of history. 100 years from now, Contra and Bionic Commando (NES versions) will be treasured as we know treasure Harold Lloyd movies.

Beware of Fake IMAX

2009-05-12T05:26:00.001-07:00

I was having my morning breakfast, watching GMA and reading my tweetdeck when I noticed that Aziz Ansari (star of Parks and Recreation) is starting a boycott of IMAX, Regal Cinemas (my movie viewing joint) and AMC Theaters. Turns out, Regal and AMC have been building slightly bigger than normal screens and IMAX has been allowing them to use their name and charge an extra $5.oo per ticket for the "IMAX" experience, despite the fact that it is no where near the size and sound of true IMAX. Even Ain't It Cool is getting in on the action.

Total rip off. Shame on you IMAX.

The undying curse of talentless hacks

2009-05-07T18:15:00.000-07:00

Some people are nice. You see them on TV, they are cute, charming and talented, and you enjoy watching them. You buy their CDs, watch their movies, follow their careers. It is all nice and good fun.

Some people, however, are not talented. They are not fun. They are basically an annoyance, a waste of everybody's time, talentless hacks clinging to their 15 minutes with desperate energy and fearless abandon. They suddenly appear in the pop culture world, and they just stand there, hogging the limelight for a bit, until the public realize they suck and they get kicked out of the stage.

Talentless hacks usually try to develop elaborate mechanisms of survival. They like fame, so they try to stay famous, no matter what. The creativity of those antics varies wildly, going from the mildy amusing (getting into a reality show) to the pretty bold (celebrity sex tape) to the just plain disgusting (Screech sex tape). Some of the pathetic crappy losers even manage to become sorta acceptable if their desperate attempts reach the level of performance art - say celebrity meltdown or Joaquin Phoenix in Letterman.

Of all the tactics to stay in the spotlight, the most obnoxious of all is those pricks that go on and procreate. They get pregnant. The call their siblings. They multiply and populate the radio waves, filling hours of pop culture with repetitive inanity. They become, in other words, the fucking Osmonds, or even worse, a serial adopting agency & procreation factory nightmare named Angelina. They transform from being a single annoyance to a clan.

This is bad for two reasons. First, siblings tend to suck. If the first brother was no good, the siblings are not going to be better. If the mom or dad were talentless idiots, the descendants are only going to inflict more pain, to make us forget. Just look at the wise, wise, wise advice of Palin (mom) and the got-kid-preach-abstinance trainwreck that is her daughter. Second, babies are basically evil, and seriously, we don't care how yours looks like. He will grow up talentless. Get out of the way.

We need a filter. We need a way to wash bad celebrities out of the system, so they never come back. Who, on its right mind, allowed Sanjaya get into a reality TV show? Does America really need more Sanjaya? What have we done to deserve this? Save us. Please. Make it stop.

Please Shoot An Arrow Through 'Cupid's Heart

2009-05-06T05:07:00.000-07:00

I wanted to like the new Cupid. I was one of the very few who was in love (no pun intended) with the original series of the same name and concept starring Jeremy Piven back in the 90s. That show only lasted 15 episodes (one of which never aired.) Come to find out, the original Cupid was the first big job for writer, Rob Thomas (not the Matchbox20 douche), who is regarded very highly by yours truly because he created one of my all time favorite shows (albeit short-lived) Veronica Mars.

For some reason, over 10 years later, ABC decided to let Rob Thomas take another crack at Cupid. Just in case you don't know, the concept of the show is this: Seemingly normal guy claims to be cupid. He says that Zeues sent him to earth to punish him for arrogance and the only way he can back to deity status is by connecting 100 couples (true love only) without using any powers. Of course regular earthlings think he is crazy and he is assigned a shrink.

The premise is odd but it worked with Jeremy Piven. The biggest difference between these two shows is that Jeremy Piven actually had sexual chemistry with his shrink (played by Paula Marshall) and it drove the show. This remake stars Bobby Canavale as the title character and Sara Paulson as his skeptic shrink. Unfortunately Bobby plays the character kinda gay (actually he plays him realllly gay) so you don't feel any sexual chemistry between the two. I normally like Bobby Canavale (Station Agent baby) but he is horribly miscast. Sara Paulson has better chemistry with Matthew Perry (as we saw in Studio 60), who I think would have been a much better choice.

I wanted to like the new Cupid but if the guy playing Cupid is wrong - the whole thing stinks.

Fuck You, Fuck You Penguin

2009-05-05T16:56:00.000-07:00

Thank you Spence for introducing me the amazing blog "Fuck You, Penguin." I have been crying/laughing for about a half hour now and my stomach/face hurts. One of my fave posts is about peacocks and the post title is, "Keep It In Your Pants Buddy." I could not keep myself composed while reading the post titles out loud to my husband. He had to turn on CSpan to calm me down.

If you love animals (or hate them) this blog is for you.

MET Costume Instistute Gala

2009-05-05T05:25:00.000-07:00

Edgy - Good:

Edgy - Bad:

My New Obsession - Musically Speaking

2009-05-02T06:15:00.001-07:00

Why have I not heard of Florence & the Machines until now? Her voice is ridiculously amazing. This is a live video of Dog Days Are Over. Here is a link to the official (very creepy raggedy ann on crack) video. They do an awesome cover of the Cold War Kids' Hospital Beds. Check em out loves.

You're Gonna Love My Nuts

2009-04-29T14:57:00.001-07:00

Thanks to Halah for posting this on the FB. I am totally in love with this Dance Remix to the Slap Chop infomercial. Steve Porter, whoever you are, I Salute you.

Julia F***ing Roberts

2009-04-29T05:24:00.000-07:00

Enjoy this amazing tribute speech to Tom Hanks by Julia Roberts where she drops the F-bomb like crazy and references Rita Wilson's "tits." Class act!

"Open Heart" aka Balls on Top of Ass

2009-04-28T05:04:00.000-07:00

Is it just me or does Jane Seymour's "Open Heart" design look just like balls on top of ass? The middle pic looks like ass to ass balls on ass. Sorry, but I would slap my huband if he bought me a balls on ass necklace...or laugh in his face and ask about the return policy. Who knew Dr. Quinn was so dirty.

CeDeLiGa Update: GAME ON!

2009-04-27T05:07:00.000-07:00

The Celebrity Death List Game just got interesting! I was very sad to hear about the passing of the amazingly talented and funny Bea Arthur; however with her passing came the awarding of the first point of the year! And that point goes to me!!!! I had her on my list last year and I stuck with her and it paid off. Patience can work in the CeDeLiGa. There is only two Golden Girls left and one of them is on my remaining list (I'm looking at you Betty!) Roger was shocked that Bea beat Swayze and Ted Kennedy to the grave, but he will have to deal.

But seriously I am really sad that Bea Arthur is gone. I am a huge "Golden Girls" fan and Dorothy Zbornak was by far my favorite character. She was the original fierce ~ she was bold, intelligent and bitingly funny.

Norman Lear took a chance on Bea when she was in her 50s and straight out of the theater. He put her up against Archie Bunker in "All In the Family," as his super liberal cousin, who was able to finally give a voice to the opposition of Archie's staunch conservatism. He (Norman) and America loved her so much that she was given her own spin off sitcom, "Maude." "Maude" was an extremely groundbreaking and important show in TV history. Its uniquely ultra-liberal message, including a two-parter where Maude decides to have an abortion (which aired two months before Roe V. Wade decision), was shocking and surprising popular. The show was in the top ten for the majority of its run.

Dylan (the General) and I sang "Thank You For Being a Friend" when we heard of her passing on Saturday, as a tribute to the great lady. Bea Arthur was awesome. I will miss her. Score one for me:-(

Lost: the true hero

2009-04-15T20:26:00.000-07:00

Call me insane, but I have a theory about Lost. A true, real, solid theory. Each season, each episode makes me feel more confident on my theory, and I am not going to let it go. Sorry, guys, but I think we should rethink Lost from the beginning. The one, true hero of Lost, the man that is saving the world, one necessary homicide at a time, is...

Benjamin Linus.

Yes, it is true. Ben is the true hero in Lost. Smokey the monster says so. He is not the master manipulator; he is convincing. He is iluminating. He is working and making all work to save the Island and the world from the evil Charles Whitmore, that lazy psycho that is Jack Sheppard, and that whiny annoying fuckup that Kate has become.

Yeah, he murders. Whatever. Ben Linus is our man. He is our savior. Quoting the great Barney Stinson, he is like Hans Gruber: just missunderstood.

The other office sitcom: Better Off Ted

2009-04-15T20:02:00.000-07:00

"The Office" is a wonderful sitcom. It is loopy, nicely embarrassing, painfully insensitive and strangely poignant and grounded in real, slightly insane human beings. For all the insanity, however, it somewhat grounded in reality. The world needed more workplace comedy. More office insanity. This time, however, it could not be grounded by reality or common sense.

Enter "Better Off Ted", the delightfully berserk office nightmarish comedy of R+D doom. Think "30 Rock" meets "Office Space" meets "Wild Science", only with more cryogenic experiments on employees. The boss in Veridian Dynamics is not just an evil sociopath; she just believes in herself and modern capitalism a bit too much. Portia De Rossi is just awesome as a completely demented careerist that you can only admire: no one is that ruthless without being friggin' awesome.

The show is still young, mind you; it is not yet flawless. "The Big Bang Theory", "How I Met Your Mother" and "30 Rock" are still funnier. This is sitcom word, however; good comedies only start reaching full potential after 10-15 episodes, when the writers get a hang on what makes characters tick and what ideas can really drive the show. After all, BBT was not Sheldon-centric from the get go; it takes a bit to see what works.

"Ted", however, has a ton of things that are great, and getting better. Portia De Rossi is just perfect; the show can not have enough of her. Andrea Anders is funny, and can play insanity like the best. And any show that parodies the overleveraged finance industry, military procurement, happy pills and corporate discipline on drugs in a single episode is definetely going places.

Reasons to Watch BBC America

2009-04-12T19:08:00.000-07:00

Ashes to Ashes - The chemistry between Alex Drake and Gene Hunt is almost as amazing as the soundtrack to this trippy series where a police office shot in 2008 wakes up in 1981.

Mistresses - So many crazy, naughty and funny things happen in every episode! It is so addicting. And Domenic (the co-worker Siobhan started nailing when her perfect husband was too technical in the sack because they were trying to get preggers, who of course gets her pregnant instead of her sterile husband - this was in like 3 episodes) is waaaay hot.

Gavin & Stacey - By far the sweetest, funniest, crassest and adorable sitcom I have ever seen. I seriously adore this show - thankfully the shows creators Ruth Jones (Nessa) and James Cordon (Smithy) are working on series 3!! The Welsh accents of Nessa and Bryn kill me - Whats occurin? Thats crackin. Can't embed but check out the link.

BBC America lets me release me true anglophile self. I do believe that all of these shows will be available to purchase from the bbcamerica shopat some point. Please take a look if you can!

Dollhouse and Stockholm Syndrome

2009-04-12T08:26:00.000-07:00

Joss Whedon´s Dollhouse is a show that was just kinda good when it started, and it has been getting steadily better ever since. The last few episodes I have watched (my DVR has a few waiting to be enjoyed, so please, no spoilers) have been from very good to just plain awesome, and the mythology of the whole thing keeps getting deeper and deeper, and more and more engaging. It is a worthy successor to Buffy and Firefly, that´s for sure.

Of course, we all know how things went with Firefly, and that brings me to my point: why the hell Whedon went back to Fox for his new show? The network is notoriously fickle with their scheduling, and horribly prone to kill, maim and mutilate shows that do not open to good ratings. Dollhouse is on the Friday evening slot of doom that sent Firefly to the scrap heap, and it feels like Fox are starting to think along the same lines regarding the new show.

The whole thing is kinda ironic. Whedon writes a show about people with their minds erased kidnapped in a beatiful house. He proceeds to pitch it around, and ends up going to the place that had him locked in a crappy timeslot and did an horrible job selling and pushing his last show.

Oh well. I am just awesome picking shows to follow that get cancelled shortly afterwards. The problem is that if the show gets canned, it is in part Fox´s fault; they insisted on delaying mythology episodes to the end of the season, forcing a very contrived pilot that was plainly hard to follow, and generally making their usual horrible job selling the show. Worse still, Dollhouse is not an expensive franchise like Terminator is, so they are probably even more reluctant to give the show a shot. Just sad.

Let´s hope it survives; it is surely worth it.

Southland Proves Worthy of the ER Time Slot

2009-04-10T07:59:00.000-07:00

The premier of Southland aired last night during the 10pm (EST) Must See TV Thursday time slot that ER had held since 1994 (that makes me feel old.) I am happy to report that the show fills those shoes quite comfortably - especially since it has so many wonderful similarities. My chart below should help:

It is no surprise that the Producer of Southland, John Wells, also produced...wait for it...ER!! The pilot episodes of both series revolve around a rookie's first day. Officer Sherman shoots and kills a perp at the end of his first day and there is a nice shot of him staring over the body contemplating in shock what he has done. When his superior officer sees him like that he pulls him aside and give him a great speech, "[...]This is a front row seat to the greatest show on earth [...]. Yes sir, you can and you will, I guarantee it. Because it is relentless and it gets to you. And it seems like it changes nothing, but a day like today, with some interesting capers and a few good arrests...that's good. But every once in a while you get to take a bad guy off the streets for good and that my friend is God's work. Now you wanna be a pussy and quit, then you quit. You're a cop because you don't know how not to be one. Feel that way...you're a cop. If you don't...you're not. You decide."

On Dr. Carter's first day he sees a lot of crazy shit and ends up getting sick at the end of the day. He goes outside for air and is followed out by his superior, Dr. Greene, who gives him a great speech, "See there's two kinds of doctors. There's the kind that get rid of their feelings and the kind that keeps them. If you're gonna keep your feelings, you're gonna get sick from time to time."

You gotta love it when TV recycles!! How green(e) of them!

Christian Bale is Kermitt the Frog. Mind = Blown.

2009-03-16T10:54:00.000-07:00

You don't believe it? Check it out yourself.

Kermitt is so awesome he is actually fucking Batman. With a temper.

Frank Miller´s Charlie Brown

2009-03-12T04:47:00.000-07:00

Peanuts meets Sin City.

It is as awesome as it sounds. Check it out.

Watchmen: the review

2009-03-08T12:40:00.000-07:00

I am really reluctant to review Watchmen. For starters, I don't like the book; I worship it. It is one of my favorite novels of all time, which makes any adaptation struggle against a very, very high standard. The only movie that had to climb a mountain this big to convince me before was The Lord of The Rings, in fact; and as much as I appreciate Tolkien's work, I don't know if I have obsessed as much with the themes of his novel.

It is not that LOTR is a "shallow" novel, by any means (and any victim of catholic school will probably be able to point out how deeply religious and theological the book is), but Middle Earth was for a long time a place were I slayed Orcs and Trolls with my buddies on a RPG setting. Watchmen, I read it later, and I was already a uptight, snobbish intellectual when I got a hold of the book. My worship is equally strong, but it is far brainier. Not a good thing.

Anyway, back to the movie. The test for Watchmen was if it would get the same overwhelming feeling that I got in LOTR when I realized that Peter Jackson had been on my brain and made the movie I always have dreamt about. The Fellowship of the Ring was pitch-perfect in looks and tone; it was exactly what I had in mind when reading the book. It made the book hard to read after the fact, as the images are so fully realized on the screen. With Watchmen... not so much.

Before watching the movie I would have said that it was impossible to cram the comic into a 2h 40 min script; it just had too much detail. Visually, however, I believed that making a good movie was a given, as you had the mother of all storyboards as starting point, and a pretty clearly defined tone and grittiness in the plot and visuals. Something like Blade Runner-meets-Dick Tracy; a Fifth Element without flying cars and crazy camera movements.

Well, Watchmen does the hard part right, with an excellent, brooding, layered script with all the right cuts and changes, but totally, utterly, massively fucks up the easy side, with Zack Snyder fucking up the visual style something fierce. We got what could be described as Michael Bay-meets-Batman; a garish, overshot, wildly exaggerated style that overuses slow mo and the glossy, plastic-fab look of blatant CGI "upgrading" to highly distracting levels. To top things of, the movie has what is probably the worst sex scene seen in a Hollywood movie since Showgirls and the fierce swimming pool of hair splashing; a scene that has ruined one of the best songs ever for future generations.

We end up with a really odd movie. The themes are there. The script is wonderful, and noting the reactions of many critics that have read the book (Roger Ebert, giving it four stars), it really gets the point accross. In addition, you get the feeling that the extended edition of the movie will be even better, as some of the things cut out (Roscharch's backstory, for instance) would get back in. The overall "feel" of the movie, however, is completely off, in part of the annoying visual flourish, in part because it should not really be sold as an action movie at all. Watchmen, the book, essentially has only three very, very short "action" sequences.

In terms of nitpicking, there is plenty; most of it having to do with minor changes to characters that have some influence in how to interpret the themes of the movie and book. For instance, Rorschach is much more of a blatant fascist in the book than it is in the movie; he is not really a bad ass, but a maniac. Veidt is not such an asshole in the book, either; he is more suave and subtle. Sally / Silk Specter is much more of a mess in the book. Nite Owl, the Comedian and Manhattan, however, are all spot on.

To tell the truth, I could be riffing on the whole intellectual-philosophical thing behind the book and movie for hours, so I will spare you of that... for now. I do answer questions and requests. If someone is really masochistic, please go read my upcoming post in my other blog (in Spanish) for all the PolSci nerdiness.

Watchmen: Alan Moore speaks!

2009-03-05T16:36:00.000-08:00

Alan Moore is a legend. He is also reclusive, antisocial and batshit insane. So when he concedes a long, long interview to Wired, you all must read it, and worship the master.

This dude wrote V for Vendetta, Watchmen, the Swamp Thing, From Hell and a ton of cool stuff. He is not just a nerd-god, he is a hell of a writer. No one yet* has been able to translate his work into film well, so do yourself a favor and grab one of his books and enjoy it.

*No, I haven't seen Watchmen yet. Should I go to a midnight showing? Dilemma. In any case, I still believe it is an impossible film; the only way to do it justice (and I am not sure it would work either) would be a 12-episode, 12-hour miniseries.

"I am become death, the destroyer of shows"

2009-03-02T19:47:00.000-08:00

I am Shiva, destroyer of shows. I am become death. As soon as writing a post on the criminally underrated "Life on Mars" (US version) crossed my mind, ABC immediately nuked it. Obliterated it. Vaporized it. Eviscerated it. Crunched it. Blasted it to the proverbial smithereens. Canceled it for ever and ever.

A damn shame, I might add. "Life on Mars" was a very good show on the path of becoming truly excellent; a wonderful take on a -supposedly awesome; I haven't seen it- BBC series of the same name. The premise was really clever (a 2008 cop gets transported to the 1970s) and the show was using it well; it was funny, interesting and as the characters were allowed to develop, more and more revealing and layered.

I guess it was not doing well in the ratings. Actually, it was doing fairly well (not stellar, but decent) up to late November, when ABC put the show on hiatus and left it of the air for a cool two and a half months; then the ratings sucked. Playing it on Wednesdays at 10 pm was sorta dumb as well; "Lost" hasn't been the best lead in show for ABC (fans are too busy hitting the interwebs after an episode to pay attention). Of course, it was specially dumb to change the show's slot on the first place, but that's besides the point.

So ABC has a procedural with a clever twist, killer cast, amazing visuals, fun concept and good writing and -my guess- high budget, and they manage to kill it. Congratulations. That's the second show that I like that you guys fuck up before it goes anywhere; "Pushing Daisies" broke my heart. Don't expect me to trust you with another series for awhile.

I Liked it!

2009-03-01T19:47:00.001-08:00

But then, I am not a theater critic. I am a big nerd that hates a lot of stuff and demonizes those who deserve being demonized.

It turns out that the theater critic of the almighty NYT didn´t like the Broadway revival of Guys & Dolls, a play that we saw in previews and I greatly enjoyed. To tell the truth, I believe my problem is that I have the whole concept backwards; I always believed that G&D was a delightful, classic musical in the same sense that pre-Citizen Kane movies are delightful and classic. That is, it is a great piece, considering what was going on during the period.

The thing is, the original material is sorta flat. G&D has quite a few great songs, but the plot is just a couple steps up from a bland daytime sitcom; if it wasn´t for the music, no one would even remotely remember the play. That´s the whole point of some musicals, after all; you buy into the whole happy fiction and forgive that the whole thing is a bit of a contrived mess. Like opera, but sung by humans and without needing years of education and snobbery to get it.

So this G&D is slightly clunky and a bit flimsy. Well, the play sorta is. So what. The actors are engaging, the play flows really well, and everyone buy Craig Bierko (at least the day we saw it) can deliver a good tune. The critic bables about the lack of chemistry, but to tell the truth, I think it was there in plain sight. In G&D, there is not much depth into the whole character thing, so it is all about the actors making you have a good time, and I had it. It is not the best play of all time, but that´s what´s on the script.

If you want depth and all that, wait until Sondheim.

The Birth of the Bro-Mantic Comedy

2009-02-27T05:00:00.000-08:00

If you do not have plans for March 20th then I am telling you now to go to the movies and see I Love You Man. I was lucky enough to see a sneak preview (thanks to the General) last night and, I hate to gush but, god dammit I laughed my ass off.

The story is simple, Peter (played by the under appreciated for far too long Paul Rudd) just got engaged to the smokin' hot Rashida Jones. She discovers that he does not have any male friends and is slightly weirded out by it (she has a couple hilarious besties - one played by Jamie Pressly).

He decides to search for a male best friend. He goes on blind man-dates that go horribly wrong, until he randomly meets Sydney (played by Marshall himself - the phenomenal Jason Segel) at the open house for the Lou Ferrigno property (yup - the Incredible Hulk). Bro-mance sparks fly and the two soon become inseparable. Sydney helps Peter connect with his masculine side. According to my sources, Sydney's man-cave is like the mecca of all man-caves.

I Love You Man is one of the first movies I have seen that genuinely depicts the tight rope that is finding a hetero male bestie. It also is not afraid to show that friendships can definitely have parallels with relationships. There is the courtship, the honeymoon, the fall out and sometimes the break up.

Jason Segel and Paul Rudd completely sell this movie. They are funny, dumb, sweet, crazy and have an unhealthy appreciation of Rush. Please go see this flick - I swear you will be slappin' the air bass Leprechaun style as you leave the theater. By the way - the trailer does not do the movie justice. My cheeks hurt after watching the movie from laughing so much....seriously.

The B.O.N.O Syndrome

2009-02-25T19:42:00.000-08:00

Rock stars have big egos. They need to; the whole going out and yelling at a microphone in front of thousands of people requires a certain level of self esteem that I will never manage to muster. Not when wearing spandex, anyway.

The problem with Rock Gods (with capital letters) is that sometimes have egos that veer from the gigantic to the humongously megalomaniacal. They are not very happy to know themselves. They don´t just go around proclaiming how big their penis* is. That's not enough to satisfy them. They don't have enough with having mad monkey sex (TM) with thousands of adorating fans. That doesn't fill their ego. They just don't feel fullfilled by being reviled for perverting the morals of kids, destroying western civilization and just being plan fucking annoying.

No, that's not enough. Some Rock Gods feel like they are bigger than that. Some Rock Gods believe that they are powerful. They can move mountain. They can open the seas. They can change the world using the awesome power of Rock. They can muster their charisma, their awesome soundglasses, the deep, intense, cult-like adoration of the fans to change the course of human civilization as we know it.

There is one of these Rock Gods amongst us. He is so fucking awesome that he doesn't even has a name. His name is a latin word for some obscure legal shit or a virtue. He is so fucking amazing that he can make George W. Bush cry. He is fucking Bono, and he can cure cancer with his tears or by singing a little lulaby.

Bono is the best example of what we call Boneheaded Onanistic Narcicistic Oligophrenia Syndrome, or B.O.N.O. Syndrome for short. We find that in many musicians that believe, with all their hearts, that they fart rainbows and sweat expensive champagne and can solve any problem with a bit of music magic. There are many of them, prancing around happily, feeling that they are worth something.

Please, don't touch them. They are fragile. They are not aware that they are mortal. Trying to bring reality to them will probably confuse them, bring them to their knees and take them to the mountains of madness. They are precious, little snowflakes. Don't damage them.

*Side note: the history of Rock is the history of grown men and women discussing how big their penises are. True. All that grief in love songs is in fact disappointment for the lack of apreciation for their penises. True.

God loves Nick Fury

2009-02-25T19:36:00.000-08:00

For those that watch comic book movies with the right level of nerd adoration, the Samuel L. Jackson cameo in Ironman playing Nick Fury was like a gift from the gods of Valhalla. Marvel comics retconned and redraw Fury to look like Sam L. Jackson. For some reason, Samuel L. Jackson was chickening out on playing him on new movies, to the dismay of the fans.

Until now, that is. He is in. He is going to be Nick Fury. All is right in the world.

Bollywood bites Hollywood, Oscar edition

2009-02-22T21:00:00.001-08:00

1. The world needs more Bollywood musicals. I need more Bollywood musicals in my Netflix diet, for frack' sake. If someone even nerdier than me wants to suggest the Indian equivalent of "Singing in the Rain"?

2. Surprise foreign film winner! If a massive upset falls on a forest and no one has seen it, does anyone care? -I sorta do, for once, I wanted to see most of them-

3. I remember when I used to wake up at 2.30 am to watch the Oscars, back in Europe. The friends were good and it was fun, but I will rather see it on a more rational time.

4. It is me, or this year was terrible, deaths-wise. From Paul Newman to KHAAAAAN!, plus Ben Hur and many directors. Sad.

5. Reese Whiterspoon is talented, but I can't believe she has an Oscar. If you waste your talent only doing garbage cash-in, you don't deserve it. And yeah, I am not talking about the Slumdog death march. It is getting boring. Trainspotting director winning the Oscar, though, pretty crazy.

6. And I liked the movie! Less than "Milk" and "The Wrestler", though.

7. The ceremony so far pretty dammed good. It is actually stilish and fun.

8. Now, actress... About fucking time. Holocaust movies sell, people. Best thing of the speech was her dad's hat, the Peter Jackson shotout (Heavenly Creatures!) and the fact that she is almost as cute as Ann Hathaway.

9. Actor: I loved Sean Penn in "Milk". I really did. He is a sick actor. I really feel that Rourke was playing himself, but his performance has stayed with me so hard, so much, so deeply than I would have voted for him. Penn deserves the Oscar, but even him singled Rourke out in his speech.

10. Best picture: duh. It is a very good movie, but not that good. I admire it and see all the things it does well, but for some reason, it really doesn't click for me. I guess that I can't really get behind the destiny and salvation-by-lottery themes. It feels odd, out of context, like they needed to add fairy tale to madness.

That's all for me this evening,folks. Wrap up tomorrow.Hope you had fun!

Slumdog Takes it!

2009-02-22T20:53:00.000-08:00

No big surprise here as Slumdog Millionaire takes home the big mamma jamma. Jai Ho (or how I thought it was pronounced, Tally ho!)!!! Those little kids are having the best night of their life. It was such a good idea to bring them to the show.

To sum up the evening - my predictions were spot on!! Too bad I was not in any pools this year. I believe that my fashion predictions were also quite good - Anne Hathaway and Kate Winslet did not dissapoint. Hugh Jackman was great and will probably be asked back next year if they are smart. The only prediction I dont know about yet is the Aniston/Jolie catfight...we will have to wait until tomorrow.

Oscar Update 8

2009-02-22T20:19:00.000-08:00

Best Director is yet again no surprise. Slumdog wins again -Danny Boyle rocks my world so there is no complaining from me. This pretty much locks them for best picture, which was the prediction anyway.

Best Actress time, which means more ego-massaging for the nominees. Standing ovation for the past best actresses, including Sophia Loren and Shirley Maclaine. Kate Winslet finally broke her losing streak!!! Her speech was a big improvement from the Golden Globes, where she was practically hyperventilating.

Best Actor now. Maybe this whole thing with the former winners is to soften the blow for the losers. Robert DiNero's talk about Sean Penn was awesome. Great paparazzi reference. And Hells Yeah!!!!!!! Sean Penn takes it!!!!! He was amaaaaaazing in Milk. And he by far is giving the best speech.

Oscar Update 7

2009-02-22T19:42:00.000-08:00

Time for the honorary awards. First up is the humanitarian award for Jerry Lewis for doing those fabbo MDA telethons. I was expecting a more controversial speech from him after reading his interview in EW but not so much.

The music categories are up now. Best original Score for Slumdog is no surprise. The music rocks from that flick. The performances of the original songs were really good. I must admit I am very partial to John Legend (ummm he is hot and can sang). They melded the songs really well - it worked. Jai Ho took home the gold from Slumdog, again no surprise.

We are heading into the last leg - only a half hour to go (in theory). Foreign Language was a big surprise. I thought for sure it would be Waltz with Bashir or the Class but it went to Departures from Japan. Have to admit the Director's speech was the best of the night so far. Is it just me or have the speeches been totally lame up until now? Penelope Cruz's was ok, as well as the Milk writer but not so much for everyone else.

This year for the In Memorium they are having Queen Latifah sing a song over the video instead of having the awkward random applause that turns into a popularity contest. Good move. Accept the audience didn't get the memo and they are clapping for the big names anyway. It was a very rough year for celebrity deaths. Sadness.

Oh Oscar, don't cry

2009-02-22T19:38:00.001-08:00

1. Will Smith is making editing sound fun. I still can barely understand what is good, but according to the academy, it involves moving the camera a lot and having lots of cuts. Slumdog was like that, and I liked it.

2. Heidi Klum is everywhere.Yet another ad.

3. So far, the academy has a odd fixation on the Button borefest and on cheering the poor. Sign of the times, I guess.

4. Jerry Lewis is really funny. I am not French, and I love the movies. I am from close to the French border, so maybe I am tainted, but please go see the movies again.

5. WTF is on with Seymour Hoffman's head? I hope he has a good reason / horrible gangrene on his scalp to justify that hat.

More Oscar deliciousness

2009-02-22T19:30:00.000-08:00

1. Was that little Pineaple Express skit a cry for help? Franco and Rogen are very talented, but they won't get any recognition until they play crippled nazi homosexual hero in a holocaust drama or a slightly retarded dad (never go full tard). Downey in "Tropic Thunder" was an oddity, and it should happen more often.

2. Jackman was born in the wrong Hollywood decade. Give him a 50s musical, ASAP.Beyonce, not so much, as the 50s were not as nice with colored women, sadly. The medley is actually pretty awesome, very old Hollywood. Me likes.

3. Of course it was Bahz Lurman's. Moulin Rouge was robbed!

4. Glad to see Joel Grey. The five supporting actors are wonderful picks (Cuba excluded), although Arkin won it for the wrong movie. In terms of the winner, really, who else could win. Heath was just inhuman; the most terrifying anarchist ever seen on a screen. He carries what for me was (fuck Slumdog) the best movie of the year. Period.

5. For accepting Heath's Oscar, I would rather have seen Gary Oldman being humbled or Christian Bale freaking out at the guy that does the lighting.

6. Seeing Bill Malher (who is awesome) cracking jokes and talking about highbrow documentaries is just odd.

7. Less tributes to action and comedies and more true recognition. LOTR aside, nerds have been left in the dust in these shows. Christ, a lot of good action this year; "Iron Man" alone was a riot worth four Benjamin Butons. Using The Hives, in any case, screams awesome.

8. FX for fucking Button. Really. Really. Have they seen it? While awake?

9. Less moron presenters, more Tina Fey. Please.

Oscar Update 6

2009-02-22T19:25:00.000-08:00

Here come the post production awards!!! My geeky film friends (and myself) love these awards, because honestly if any of us ever wins an Oscar it will be for one of these suckers. Benjamin Button won for special effects, which is what I hear all the movie is good for. Dark Knight barely used CGI so I am not horribly upset it lost.

Finally Dark Knight wins a non-Heath Ledger award for sound editing! Well deserved! Slumdog has taken home sound mixing which is also deserved. They must have had to deal with so much ambient noise filming in such a densely populated area. As for editing (my fave category) we have Slumdog taking home the golden statue. The editing is great for this flick but personally I would have given it to Milk.

Oscar Update 5

2009-02-22T18:46:00.000-08:00

The Pineapple Express comedy short was excellent. Comparing The Love Guru with Slumdog Millionaire was inspired.

We are getting into the heavy commercial section of the evening. Less show more breaks. Uggh.

Musical number!! Here comes Beyonce in a slinky red number. Hugh Jackman is both affable and charming as I predicted. I think Beyonce is lip sinking. WTF? Ok -random cameos by the high school musical douches. As well as Amanda Seyfried and the hottie boy from Mamma Mia. Not sure why they needed the marching band, but I'll just go with it since Baz choregraphed that little number.

The Best supporting actor award is going the same way as the actress - old winners coming out to talk about how wonderful the nominees are, blah blah blah. Not a big fan of this set up. Cuba Gooding Jr.'s bit about RDJ was pretty good though. Not surprisingly Heath Ledger wins. So so so sad that he is not here. Question of the day posed by fellow blogger from WTF - Would he have won - or even been nominated - if he had not died? I am a strong believer that he would have - especially since he didn't win for Brokeback. The Academy has a way of paying you back for past performances, aka Renee Zellwegger for Cold Mountain (payback for Chicago) and Nicole Kidman for the Hours (payback for Moulin Rogue). She is skeptical because comic book flicks tend to be ignored. Discuss.

More random Oscar fartage

2009-02-22T18:36:00.001-08:00

1. Benjamin Button has a better art direction than Dark Knight? Really? Really?

2. Happy that Penelope won. The movie was woefuly underrated, I must say. The academy only remembers Woody when he is quoting Bergman. Yeah, "Annie Hall" won, but in the 70s they were on drugs.

3. Talking about nobodies, the creep from Twilight is up there pretending the movie was any good. And introducing a pointless montage on love or something.

4. The more I see the gorgeous clips from WALL-E, the more I believe it deserved better than best animation. The second half of the movie is not as brilliant as the perfect first 45 min, but is a masterpiece anyway.

5. Hugh Jackman is awesome, but Ms. Hathaway... Marry me!

6. Ben Stiller as the Joaquin-on-drugs. Fucking awesome.

7. On a sidenote, did you know that "Gran Torino" has made more than $120 million? And my wife doesn't want to go see it!

Oscar Update 4

2009-02-22T18:26:00.000-08:00

The art direction/makeup categories have been given out to Benjamin Button and Duchess. All I can say is that Sarah Jessica Parker is going to knock herself out with those puppies!! Poor Daniel Craig - I barely looked at him because all I could see were those things poppin out like 3d!

Ben Stiller doing Joaquin is amaaaazing. One of the funniest moments of the evening by far. Slumdog take home another award - Best Cinematography. I was a bit disappointed because it is one of the few categories Dark Knight was nominated for, but alas no love.

Of course they have the obligatory hot actress hosting the tech awards blurb. This year Jessica Biel. They always do the joke about how it is the real happening party. Whatever.

Random Oscars Musings

2009-02-22T18:16:00.001-08:00

Roger here, taking Oscars notes for the Dump in my bright and shinny THC Touch Windows Mobile smart phone. Hey, we got them for just $20, so I will be bragging early, bragging often on this baby.

So what we have seen so far:

1.The spawn of Phil Collins in the form of Disney channel tweener fodder is everywhere. Damm you ABC. And sorry, Cyrus is too young to be seen as hot and not feel bad about it.

Oscar Update 3

2009-02-22T17:53:00.000-08:00

Tina Fey looks awesome. Nice little writing bit between her and Steve Martin ("Don't fall in love with me"). First win of the night for Milk for Best original screenplay which is so very deserved. So far so good Academy... Loved the speech - Equal Rights Now!!!! Slumdog Millionaire is already on its way to winning a crap ton of awards with the Best Adapted screenplay win.

Jennifer Aniston looks hot - take that Angelina Slutlie!! It must be weird having Brad and Angie in the front row staring at you. Big Shock - Wall-E wins best animated feature!!!

Oscar Update 2

2009-02-22T17:43:00.000-08:00

Hugh Jackman is doing an bang up job so far. That was one of the best opening numbers I have ever seen in my years watching the show. The best part was Anne Hathaway's Nixon and Hugh singing that he is Wolverine at the very end of the song. Also loved the shout out to Dark Knight.

Not sure I like how they are presenting the acting awards. The way they are having five previous winners fawn over the nominees is a bit weird and boring. The show is going to take forever at this rate. However....Penelope wins!!!!!!! Go Mosquito, Go!!! Because You are Worth It!! Score one for me! Finally Vicky Christina Barcelona is getting some recognition. Should have been nominated for best picture in my opinion.

Oscar Update 1

2009-02-22T17:02:00.001-08:00

Red Carpet Time!!! First of all - Lisa Rinna on the TV Guide network looks crazy scary! Her big injected lips are pale so she looks a special brand of cracked out. Not to mention her and Joey Fatone have zero personality interviewing the celebs. The questions have been mind numbingly pathetic - even for the dumbed down LA crowd.

CNN's red carpet coverage is not much better. They have all of the action shown in two small boxes on the screen so you have to squint to see the starletts on the carpet. And they never tell you who you are looking at, which makes deciphering who the hell's back you are looking at impossible.

Unfortunately E! comes in like crap on our tv (thanks comcast!) so I have no critiques for their pre-show. Although Julianna DiPandi-Rancic annoys the hell out of me so no loss really.

Biggest red carpet pre-show pet peeve...when Angelina and Brad show up the cameras never leave their sight. Sorry, her dress and make up are boring. I would rather see what Taraji Henson is wearing.

Now the Official pre-show is on with Robin Roberts and Tim Gunn - a definite improvement. And Robin Roberts went with the coral JCrew dress which makes me happy. BTDubs - best dressed man so far is Robert Downey Jr. by far.

As for the ladies - my predictions are quite good - Anne Hathaway looks phenomenal, as does Kate Winslet. I stand by me. Although big ups to Diane Lane, Penelope Cruz and Evan Rachel Wood (more for the hair and makeup than the dress). I am torn about Marissa Tomei's dress. The color does not translate on screen but the cut is very glamorous. I forgot to mention that Natalie portman looked fab - the color is probably the boldest of the evening (other than Alicia Keys - but I was not a fan of her look.) Beyonce I am also a bit torn about. It is very va-va-voom but the print is kinda like an egyptian bedroom duvet cover. Amy Adams dress is very pretty but I think the "necklace" (more like bib) is a bit tooooo much. Especially since the detailing on the dress stands alone. Anyhow - the show is about to begin!!

Oscar Predictions

2009-02-22T14:29:00.001-08:00

Before the big show begins I wanted to make some mind blowing predictions. First - best dressed will be Anne Hathaway, with Kate Winslet a close second. I think Hugh Jackman will be a charming and affable host. There won't be any shockers, although I think Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie will have an epic cat fight at the Governor's ball.

The official picks:

Best picture - Slumdog Millionaire
Best Actress - Kate Winslet (because she followed her own advice from extras and did a holocaust movie)
Best Actor - Sean Penn (although Mickey Rourke could also easily take it)
Best Supporting Actress - Penelope Cruz (normally I think she is too mosquito-like to enjoy her performances but she is hilarious in Vicky Christina Barcelona)
Best Supporting Actor - Heath Ledger...duh
Best Director - Danny Boyle (because he didn't win for trainspotting and everyone seems to love Slumdog)

Well that is it. We will have to wait and see if I come close. The only real lock is the catfight, really.

Workship primer: Watchmen

2009-02-21T18:37:00.000-08:00

Just a quick note: get ready for some messy drooling coming this way in the upcoming weeks. Watchmen, the Hamlet, Citizen Kane and Don Quixote of comic books all rolled into one, is finally getting its movie adaptation, and I can´t fucking wait to watch it.

Not that I expect it to be a great film, mind you. Even with a running time of 2h 40 minutes, Watchmen is dense the same way a season of Lost is dense; it has a ton of background, flashbacks, details and minimalistic clues in every page. After all, Lost owes its structure to Watchmen a great deal. To make things worse, the dialogue is much more elaborate and literary than any TV show out there, so I don´t really know how they will get the whole thing to squeeze in a single movie.

I will write more on Watchmen in the coming weeks; it is, after all, one of my favorite books of all time. It is not just a graphic novel, that´s for sure; its influence goes well beyond the geek ghetto of comics. One could write books just about Rorschach, after all. More soon.

That was not funny

2009-02-19T19:59:00.001-08:00

That was not a funny movie at all, really. The tittle is really misleading. "Funny Games", though, the Michael Haneke remake of the really disturbing Michael Haneke movie of the same name (yup, odd) is one of the most disturbing, wacked out, crazy, opressive scary slasher movies I´ve seen in ages.

Many ridiculously awesome thinks going on in this movie. First, despite being an oppressive psychological slasher, it is really not too violent -or at least, does not display any of the violence on camera. That old adage that it is most disturbing to force the viewer to imagine what is going on instead of showing the blood and guts is completely true here.

Second, Michael Pitt. The highest level of praise for this guy; it made me think that if some hopeless individual is to play the Joker after Heath Ledger, he is probably one of the very actors that could pull of that level of creepy in a convincing fashion. He is smooth, polite, uppity and just terrifying.

Third, something that is a bit odd, but I think it works well. The movie (Pitt´s character, actually) breaks the fourth wall a few times during the movie, looking to the camera and making snarky coments to you, the viewer. The breaks are always very short, but masterfuly placed; they basically get inserted in really tense, really dramatic, really uncorfortable moments, and -for me at least- they only make the scene even more painful.

Is it better than the original? To tell the truth, I don´t know. I haven´t seen it. I have seen many Haneke movies (a director that has a penchant for inflicting painful amounts of suffering and distress to characters and spectators alike), but I missed Funny Games. For what I´ve read, the remake is pretty damn close to the original, and after all the "fun" I had watching this one (tremors, uncontrolable shaking, crazy panic attacks) I will pass. At least for awhile.

Master Nerd tackles the Oscars

2009-02-17T19:33:00.001-08:00

Probably most of you don´t know the guy in this picture. Congratulations; you are not a political science nerd, a baseball geek or you don´t live with one.

He is Nate Silver, the mastermind behind one of the best political blogs you can find, Five Thirty Eight. His claim to fame is being good with numbers. Really, really good. So good, in fact, that his site was an oracle that completely nailed the election results both in the primaries and the general election. Before delving into statistical modeling of elections and politics, Silver was famous for being one of the best baseballs annalists out there, also using a very empirical, numbers heavy approach.

What is Silver doing here, in the Culture Dump? Well, the guy is a firm believer on the power of numbers to predict stuff. Today, we have his Oscar prediction.

"He is one lab accident away from becoming a supervillain"

2009-02-17T04:29:00.000-08:00

The above quote comes to one of the most tragically underrated sitcoms in TV, the nerdtastic (and really, really, really, really funny) Big Bang Theory. The set up is quite conventional, with four hopeless nerds playing the crazy role with a slightly dumb blonde as straight woman, but the execution is pretty much flawless.

For starters, the nerds are strangely realistic. Although they are a hard-science, physics and stuff brand of nerds and thus come from a different origin than a social science, statistics and game theory nerd like myself, they definetely speak the language of geekdom fluently. The writers are definetely members of the tribe that understand that playing Rock Band is simply awesome, speaking Klingon is fun (although in my nerd-clan we only had two Sindarin speakers -yup, LOTR elvish) and robots -speacially killer robots- are just cool.

What really makes the show, however, is Sheldon. Sheldon is the father of all nerds; the one nerd to rule them all. Socially akward, incredibly intelligent, ridicolously petty and able to break down in tears at the sight of the napkin of Leonard Nimoy, Jim Parsons makes his character one of my most beloved TV heroes; the nerd that I always aspired to be but never had the balls (or the insanity) to become.

To top that, so far the creators have been really good at keeping history archs tight (they avoided turning the show to one of those endless on and off romances) and they have kept the screen time for each character well balanced, without anyone really hogging the spotlight too much.

This is coming from someone that really though that multiple camera sitcoms were dead to me, by the way. Big Bang Theory and the (even better) How I Met Your Mother proved me wrong.

Heroes update

2009-02-17T04:20:00.000-08:00

Yesterday´s episode confirms that the Cheerleader is definetely the most pointless character in television. Not only is Hayden Panetiere an awful actress, but the writers have been playing the same history arch over and over again with her. The Noah-does-bad-stuff-to-protect-her, she-rebels, argument and redemption crap is identical every single season. It was awesome in the first season (mainly because we didn´t know who HRG was) and it was focused the right way (the rare episode about a single character, "Company Man") but by now it is beyond stale.

Next week´s teaser looked good (Noah is a great character when that stupid moron of a daughter he has is not around), but I am putting the show officially on notice. They either stop being lame, or I am dropping it from my carefully planned schedule.

Department of not-really-being-there

2009-02-12T19:23:00.001-08:00

Joaquin Phoenix deepens and reinforces his awesome slide into the confusing genius of Kauffman / Rourke and provides the masses with one of the most awesomely surreal interviews ever. Dave Letterman, far from being confused, enjoys the absurdity like a champ.

Just plain magnificent. Long life Joaquin, our absent overlord.

The Other Woman

2009-02-12T04:54:00.000-08:00

As we have all been hearing on the news, Chris Brown allegedly (ummm definitely) hit his girlfriend while having an argument. This would be horrible news by itself, but the fact that his girlfriend is the well loved Rihanna makes this story the stuff of Ike Turner legends.

From what the gossip rags have been saying, the two went to the Clive Davis preGrammy party, wherein Rihanna became jealous of the attention Chris was paying to another hot female celeb. Supposedly Rihanna saw Chris with his hand on the small of this other woman's back. How stupid can CB be??? You are supposed to only hit on women when your girlfriend is off touring!!!

Soooooo.....Rihanna is already mega-jeal but then they drive home and CB gets a call on his cell. Wouldn't you know it is the mystery "other" woman!!!!! This is when the big fight started. They got out of the car. They screamed. He hit. She called the PoPo. There has been a lot of speculation as to who this woman might be. My sources tell me that she is none other than the hottie from across the pond...Leona Lewis. Rihanna is the one who is literally Bleeding Love now. Thanks Leona.

The saddest bit of this story is that Chris Brown is someone who witnessed abuse first hand. His mother used to get beat by his stepdad. In an interview with MTV Chris once said, "I used to always feel the hate for anybody that disrespected a lady. Or called a lady the B-word ... or just disrespected her." He said that witnessing his mother's abuse was, "an influence in me about how to treat a woman." I guess like stepfather like son.

Heroes: a Zellweger infestation

2009-02-11T19:23:00.000-08:00

Watching the formerly awesome show named Heroes on Monday, I noticed several things.

First, in comparison to the bad second season and dreadful fall 2008 chapter, I was in fact slightly amused, even enjoying myself at times. Considering how the show started (with a ridiculously great first 18 episodes and a pretty good season one finale) and how far it fell, actually having a bit of fun is a welcome addition. Yes, they are still relying in the same old plot points and tricks (how many times can Noah change sides? Why is Peter Petrelli so fucking stupid?), but at least there is some decent pacing there, and the characters are not spread out in eleven different retarded plot lines at once.

Despite that, however, the show still has something... off. Something is not really working. Which brings me to the second point: the show has been infested by the spawn of Zellweger.

Let me explain myself. In Heroes there are three terrible, terrible, terrible characters: the fucking cheerleader, the moronic Mohinder, and whoever Ali Later is supposed to be this season. All three of them are played by really bad actors (and Hayden Panettiere is probably the worst of them) that are dealt with boring characters that are flat, stupid, completely superflous and basically irrelevant.

The cheerleader is inmortal in a completely moronic way. She is useless unless you are using her as a human shield or to make Noah field bad (and seriously, why does he worry? It is not that they can kill your daughter), and always end up being some sort of bizarre holy grail / living target. Mohinder is a weak willed, constantly flabergasted, persistently confused, easily manipulable wimp with an annoying voice. And Ali Later is basically an awful actress, so no matter what charecter she has she will make a moron out of it.

These three characters drain the life of any scene they are in. The turn plotlines into turds. They basically derrail the show everytime the walk past the cammera. And on top of that, they just won't die, no matter how often they get shot, impaled, mutated, poisoned, blown up or tortured, why a whole legion of vastly more interesting characters kick the bucket left and right without ever getting fully developed. The speedster, google girl, invisible guy, Veronica Mars, all vastly more interesting and all six feet under, while this trio of losers keep ruining my show.

Please, make it stop. Take the Zellweger away. Please.

The Hot Jams

2009-02-09T19:34:00.000-08:00

i'm a music whore. i just need to get that out. indie, pop, rap, r & b, bluegrass, jam, techno. you name it, i love it. and respect if for what its worth (for instance, we would never compare britney spears to tori amos, who does that???)

yet i generally change what i'm listening to every few weeks. i find something i like, then i play the shit out of it for a few weeks before i move onto something else. this has been going on since i was about 14.

well, here i am to tell you about the current shit (aka hot jams) that i am listening to in hopes that you will also fall in love with them.

ra ra riot

p.s. i love you

they totally played at the siren music festival on coney island last summer and i went and didnt see their show. here it is the frigid month of february, and HOT DAMN do i regret missing that.

the leader singer is possibly the coolest guy that i havent met. and the band in general looks like a bunch of indie rock college kids (umm they play cello's and violins) totally having an indie rock dance party extravaganza. this is the kind of music that you try to listen to while doing dishes and end up having a dance party in your kitchen. so right now my fav tracks are "can you tell", "run my mouth" and "too too too fast".

and now, for your viewing pleasure, the dish doing dance song of the week......."too too too fast"

if this video didnt convince you then i dont know what will. this song is from their first and only full length album "the rhumb line" and its super amazing.

so get in the damn kitchen and dance.

Ultimate selling out

2009-02-08T18:11:00.000-08:00

"Rob, top five musical crimes perpetuated by Stevie Wonder in the '80s and '90s. Go. Sub-question: is it in fact unfair to criticize a formerly great artist for his latter day sins, is it better to burn out or fade away?" Barry, in High Fidelity, 2000

February 8th, 2009: Stevie Wonder performs life in the Grammy Awards show with the motherfucking Jonas Brothers.

Some place in the universe, the music Gods just killed a kitten.

In Defense of: Pauly Shore

2009-02-08T08:45:00.000-08:00

"Hey buddy," I know I may get some flack for this but I love Pauly Shore. I love his "Weasel" stoner character, the way he pauses between syllables and his horrifying fashion sense. I loved Totally Pauly on MTV (and he was by far the best Spring Break host they ever had.) But what I love most of all is his movies. Yes, the movies that most film critics still use as the base line for determining how crappy other films are.

The list of his films is not long but gosh darnitt if they all aren't excellent! His first foray into a somewhat starring role was Encino Man, which launched the career of Brendan Fraser. Pauly's character "Stoney" was basically him doing his "Weasel" MTV persona, so I loved it. He added the suffix "age" to almost everything he said, i.e. Grind-age, Link-age, etc. with the signature syllabic pause thrown in. Genius. By far the most quotable line from the movie was his "Weazing the juice." He won the Razzie for worst actor for his performance which is total bull. The movie would have been an utter bore without him. He got the last laugh when the flick made over $40mill. domestically.

After Encino Man he went on to do Son In Law, wherein he played "Crawl" who is a bad influence on a cute farm girl at college in SoCal. She ends up turning into a liberal and she brings him home to meet the folks on the farm and culture-shock high jinks ensue. Again, he basically plays his MTV persona but the Weasel on the farm is hilarious!!! The scene where he tries to do farm work - classic. And when he gives the mom a crazy makeover for the square dance - brilliant!!!! Again - panned by critics but it grossed just slightly under $40mill. domestically.

The next film up Pauly's sleeve is a personal fave of mine, In the Army Now. In this movie Pauly plays "Bones" and for the first time he isn't just doing his Weasel character. The cast was actually really good - it has Lori Petty, David Alan Grier and Andy Dick (before the fallout.) Pauly and Andy Dick play best friends who join the National Guard to make some extra cash. They pick what they think is the easiest job - aka Water Purification - and then get sent to Chad because they need water boys in the desert. Of course - military themed high jinks ensue. Pauly took this gig seriously - he actually did the training that water specialists do to better understand the process. He was starting to go method and it really showed in his performance. This film grossed just under $30mill. domestically.

Then there was Jury Duty. It is probably my least favorite Pauly movie, but it still made me laugh. In this flick he plays "Tommy Collins" who is a stripper who gets kicked out of his parent's mobile home. He and his chihuahua need a place to stay so he manages to land on jury duty for a high profile case and gets the jury sequestered. Of course legal themed high jinks ensue! It is probably one of the few movies he starred in that had Oscar and/or Golden Globe winners in it - aka Shelley Winters and Stanley Tucci. It did not do so hot in the box office (I guess I was one of the few who saw it in the theater) as it only grossed about $17mill.

Mr. Shore bounced back in a major way with the creme de la creme of his film library: Bio-Dome. In this movie Pauly is paired with the equally amazing and totally under appreciated Stephen Baldwin. This is the best onscreen duo since Bogie and Bacall people! The two play losers who somehow end up being stuck in a bio-dome for a whole year. Environmentally themed high jinks ensue! Of course they are obnoxious and piss off the scientists in the dome until they finally wear them down and become likable in the end. The best scene by far is when the two find Nitrous Oxide and have a good 'ol time ("Hey look - I'm a duck billed platypus!"). It ended up grossing about $26mill. which ain't too shabby.

Pauly did another couple of movies after Bio-Dome that went straight to video. His career pretty much tanked once the 90s were over.

Roger Ebert once said of Pauly that he was the "cinematic equivalent of long fingernails, drawn very slowly and quite loudly over a gigantic blackboard." It always bothered me that Pauly became synonymous with bad acting and lameness, because I honestly always enjoyed his flicks. The biggest bullshit was when he was given a golden Razzie for "Worst New Actor of the Decade" in 2000 (he lost "Worst actor of the century to Sly Stallone.) Do these people watch the same movies I watch???!!!! Pauly is comedy gold!

I bet he is revered in other countries (you know, the whole Jerry Lewis French thing.) If he isn't then he should be. Maybe I will mail some of his DVDs to Finland to get the ball rolling.

U2, that sham

2009-02-07T20:42:00.000-08:00

In one of our frequent and deep, reasoned, magnificent conversations on all things cultural here at the Dump World HQ (aka the dumpster) we just reached this conclusion: U2 are a sham.

Case in point: what album is usually considered to be U2 seminal, classic, ultra-awesome album? Legends say that Joshua Tree is the holy grail of all things Bono; their creative peak. Well, let me offer a track list, and please, be sincere: how many songs do you remember?

1. "Where the Streets Have No Name"
2. "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"
3. "With or Without You"
4. "Bullet the Blue Sky"
5. "Running to Stand Still"
6. "Red Hill Mining Town"
7. "In God's Country"
8. "Trip Through Your Wires"
9. "One Tree Hill"
10. "Exit"
11. "Mothers of the Disappeared"

Here is the cruel truth: there are only three good songs. Four, if you catched "Bullet the Blue Sky" on the B-side on the greatest hits or something. The famed Joshua Tree is actually three (amazing, mind blowing, absolutely classic) singles and a whole ton of filer.

Do you thing Joshua Tree is the only one? Check the track list of pretty much any album from them. Bono manages to squeeze two or three stunning songs on each CD, and the just vomits his way until the end of the album. This is a band that has writen songs called "Elvis Presley and America", for fuck's sake. With the possible exception of All That You Can't Leave Behind (and even there you find some amazing turds, like the inane and self important "When I Look at the World") every single album is either half finished or gets clobbered on the way to release by Bono's gigantic ego.

I would get into the dangers are perils of Bono Syndrome and other types of music megalomania in another post, but you know, "Miss Sarajevo" and all that.

In any case, U2 are an awesome band... an awesome greatest hits band. If you are a bit patient, you will be more than well served by sitting out their albums and waiting until the end of the decade, when they release a compilation. Bono will still make sure that there are at least a couple of turdtastic songs on the CD (hello, "When Love Comes to Town") and an irrelevant B-sides companion (so you know, don't but the deluxe edition), but you will get a great seat of absolutely magnificent songs.

They should release them on Rock Band. The bastards.

Snuggie Backlash!

2009-02-06T04:33:00.000-08:00

Well not everyone thinks the Slanket is the best thing since sliced individually wrapped processed Kraft Singles.

However - remember he is making fun of the Snuggie, not the Slanket. The Slanket is better. Much much better.

Thanks to Jenny for sending this to me.

SPOILER ALERT!! LOST STYLE

2009-02-05T05:04:00.000-08:00

He's aliiiivvvvvvvvvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!! I must say I squealed like a little girl when they did the big reveal at the end of the episode. Happy about it? Think its lame? Discuss.

Random caffeine-fueled mussings

2009-02-05T04:36:00.000-08:00

Dear EW:we are finally caught up with Battlestar Galactica. The last two episodes were much less exciting (albeit still totally awesome) thanks to your wonderful spoilers, thank you very much.

Why Orlando Bloom still has a career? He is a talent of Zellwegerian proportions. And no, being in the LOTR movies doesn´t give you a pass. Even playing an inmortal elf not prone to sentimentality, he was still terrible in many scenes there.

Keeping with EW, their videogame reviews are pretty terrible. You are not supposed to review gaming using movie-based criteria; it is a completely different medium. I won´t claim that videogame reviews are a settled matter (gaming sites use a wildly inconsistent set of criteria) but the focus should be in mechanics and player interaction with the medium, not on how-movie-like the game is. Prince of Persia is not a bad game, but its main innovation / drawback (depends on who you ask) is that it takes a lot of control away from the player. You must mention that in a review.

Oh, and it´s me, or Lost has been pretty lame so far this season. For some reason it is not really getting me the same way. Of course, the season finale last year was stellar, having a killer build up and all, so it could be a matter of expectations. The thing is, there are so many things in the process of being answered right now that I am deadly afraid that some of them will lead to disappointing anwers. I have faith in you, Lost, but I am scared. Please, don´t disappoint.

Let me Clear My Throat

2009-02-05T04:35:00.000-08:00

Ok, I know I'm a few days late on this one, but I really needed to voice my opinion. First of all, let me preface by saying that Micheal Phelps's achievments during the 2008 Summer Olympics transcended sport into something that can not be explained. I was one of those people yelling at the television cheering for the "Aquaman" as he swam towards history. My buddy Jim Kel even started the coveted USA! USA! chant in the living room after Mr. Swimmy broke the record. Ok now lets hop in the time machine so we can flash forward to 2009.

Zip Bang Bong!!!

On February 1, 2009 Michael Phelps admitted that a photo published in a British tabloid showing him smoke a marijuana pipe or "bong" was indeed him. Apparently, he had been at a party in South Carolina having fun and forgot that he is a mega star with million dollar endorsments. I have a couple issues with Mikey. First of all, "YOU FUCKING MORON!". You are at a college party ripping bongs and EVERBODY has a cell phone with a camera! Seriously. I'm not one of those anti drug guys, in fact, I do condone smoking weed. Fuck it, I think alcohol is much more dangerous to society. The point is marijuana is illegal and when one is in the media spotlight, one should be a little more careful about taking part in illegal activities.

No to the real reason for this post. When the story first broke a number of thoughts were running through my mind. Initially I was happy to see that this God of an Olympic icon was indeed human. And honestly, I can't think of anything more American than ripping a Bong in South Carolina. Sounds like good times. My mind wandered further and I realized, "Fuck Michael Phelps!" Ripping bongs is my territory baby, and if a superstar athlete thinks he can just step in take all the fame for smokin bongs than he is gravely mistaken. I been smokin bongs since Michael Phelps was doin the backstroke in his daddy's nutsack. All MY hardwork and training has all amounted to nil, nathan, squat. This "Aquaman" (the most pussy of all comic heros) just decides to step in and start smokin pot and now he gets all the credit. Man, I can not explain just how this vexes me. It takes years and years of sweat and smoke to get to my level of bong prowess, and I will not stand for an amateur stealing my shine.

So Mikey P, if you're out their cabron I'm callin you out. Me and you, and a pile of dank green shit. I'll even let you pick the pipe. Olympic gold can't save you now, so start training.

Fuck Michael Phelps

Going Postal, Bale Style

2009-02-03T14:40:00.000-08:00

Yup, Christian Bale goes ballistic and sorta yells to the director of cinematography on the set of Terminator Salvation for about... three minutes, non-stop. Call it the O'Reilly/We'll-do-it-live school of method acting.

When Batman / Patrick Bateman flips out, he flips out for real.

Of course the internets are not standing still. We already have the techno remix of the whole piece. Fuck yeah.

I Just Read it For the Articles...

2009-02-03T04:57:00.000-08:00

As almost all Americans know, Super Bowl was this past Sunday. Of course I made a sickening amount of appetizers and settled in to watch the game with my husband. Well actually I read a book (Julie & Julia - which I loved btdubs) and only looked up when Roger yelled "Commercials!" Because seriously, does anyone realllllly want to watch the game.

First things first - Budweiser sucked the big one this year. Maybe I am just cynical but I thought the Clydesdale commercials were lame/pathetic/pandering pieces of clydesdale-sized turd. The Bud light commercials were sliiiiightly better - but they honestly need to fire their ad peeps. Their humor is so 5 years ago and, similar to Mike Myers, we just don't find you funny anymore.

For me the highlights were the Career Builder ad where the koala bear wearing glasses gets punched in the face, the Doritos ad (which was submitted by regular peeps) where the guy throws the snowglobe into the vending machine, and the Hulu.com ad where we learn the truth about Alec Baldwin...he is an alien.