Suture up your future

Well here we have a little follow on the Queens of the Stone Age post I did a couple weeks back.

Their new album "Era Vulgaris" is pretty good stuff. At least the jewel case works well for doing lines off of. Inappropriate.

A few basic nuggets from the band via wikipedia:
Josh Homme describes the disc as "dark, hard, and electrical, sort of like a construction worker … it's like dirt, clearly seen." Era Vulgaris is latin for Common Era, but Homme says "it sounds like 'the Vulgar Era', which I like, because that sounds like something that I would like to be part of… I mean I think we're in it, and I'm stoked." A vulgar construction worker, got it. (I have no idea what that means)

The album is not as immediately accessible as Songs for the Deaf, but the riffs have a certain catchiness that become apparent through dedicated listening. Personally I enjoy the how the groovy feel of "Make it wit chu" segues into the Nirvana-like opening measures of "3's and 7's" via giant booming synthetic brass sounds.

I definitely agree with the Rolling Stone review, when it says in regards to a particular riff on the album -- "you realize it's here for one main reason, just like every other sonic flourish on Era Vulgaris: Josh Homme loves how it sounds."

Bottom line, after giving "Era Vulgaris" some heavy rotation, I gotta say the results are mixed. I don't think they are the same band without bassist Nick Olivieri. Not that that is a necessarily bad thing. On this album they brought in some heavy hitters, Trent Reznor, Julian Casablancas of the Strokes, some guy from ZZTop and former vocalist Mark Lanegan.

But on the album itself only Casablancas and Lanegan appear. After some internet detective work I have determined that Reznor was on the "title track" of the album, which was not included on the CD. Apparently it was leaked way back in April. I am so behind the times.

OK I just spent the past 45 minutes looking for that download and I finally got it. I guess I still have a few tricks up my sleeve. Here it is the easy way, someone put it on Youtube.

I gotta admit, as annoying as that was looking for the download, it's kind of badass to not put the title track on an album, and the song is so money it doesn't even know it. Oh Trent Reznor, you are so edgy.

Apparently Era Vulgaris (the track, not the album) was sent out to 50 people who entered a contest on the QOTSA fansite thefade.net. The package also included this note.

Hello friend -

Thank you for accepting this gift. Included you will find the will to dance & the song ERA VULGARIS. It was pulled from the new album (of the same name) so that it could be to you and become an example of how we think "from now on" should be. As in - We do for you, you do for us.

So to start this relationship off, we have done for you. Now we ask this in return. Share this with friends you think we (you & us) would enjoy. Upload it and spray it like time released graffitti on the websites of places it does not belong.

– 'Dr Insider & QOTSA'

Kind of a "fuck you" to their record label(Universal) when the band pulls the title track (under the influence of Mr NIN I'm sure) off their album and send it out to the most hardcore of fans. It's just unfortunate that the song isn't more widely available. I blame the RIAA.

And in answer to their request, you can download the Era Vulgaris single here.

Deathmatch Listoff: Favorite bands/musicians from my youth

Reading up on these bands and watching music videos on youtube has helped me to realize how hilarious the 80's were. Hair metal needs to make a comeback...actually, no, it should stay dead.

Alice in Chains
My favorite band of all time. They were so much more than the "grunge" label they were given. I still don't know what I like more; their earlier, darker material or their softer, acoustic side. They made music to suit any mood. I still remember my mom flipping out about the lyrics to the song "junkhead". What's my drug of choice/Well what have you got... R.I.P. Layne Staley.



Sepultura
I started listening around the time of Chaos A.D., which I consider one of the best metal albums of the 90's, but I also got into their older death metal stuff too. I lost interest when Max Cavalera left the band to form Soulfly. Just like Audioslave was nothing compared to Rage and Soundgarden, Soulfly and new Sepultura pale in comparison to old Sepultura.



Biohazard
I was quite impressed that their lead singer Evan Seinfeld is married to Tera Patrick. He played the character Jaz Hoyt in Oz and apparently had a nude scene that Tera saw...she didn't know who he was but found out and they started dating. Now he stars in "movies" with her. He goes by Spyder Jonez in these Oscar-worthy performances. Not really the type of girl to take home to mom, but I'm still jealous. What does this have to do with the band? Absolutely nothing.



Skid Row
Probably my favorite band for a few years in elementary school. Their first two albums were really good, I even remember calling a radio station to dedicate "I Remember You" to a girl in 3rd or 4th grade. I then had to call her to tell her to listen to the station. How romantic. Maybe I should try that now...dedicating songs to random girls seeing who goes for it; either that or getting a nude scene on tv so some pornstar decides she can't live without me and my hog (tera patrick style).



Pantera
I loved Pantera in junior high. Phil Anselmo's side project Down is currently a band I still enjoy a lot and I think they're coming out with a new album soon. Thope and I went to Ozzfest back in our undergraduate years when Down headlined the 2nd stage and I gotta say that Mr. Anselmo was all kinds of f'd up. In my opinion, Pantera truly emerged with the release of Cowboys From Hell and pretty much died after Far Beyond Driven. R.I.P Dimebag.



Honorable Mention: Gwar, Suicidal Tendencies, Aphex Twin, NWA, Faith No More, Nine Inch Nails, Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage Against the Machine, Tool

Who doesn't like a good graph or chart?

Sticking with the theme of gaming systems, here's a little viddy for a new Wii accessory. Looks, uhh, interesting. 
I'll stick with my crazy spin action on Wii Bowling. 



Speaking of bowling, this guy should be on the And-1 Bowling Edition.



To conclude with some complete randomness, for those who haven't seen Transformers, you're missing some sweet Osprey action. Although I have no idea why they were cruising in helicopter mode.

F'n football players

So I got NCAA Football 08 for my PS3 today. Somehow I was able to pull myself away from it to make a post. The best part so far? Starting my dynasty with the Minnesota Golden Gophers, in particular rapey mcrape. I was going to write a diatribe on college/professional athletes and their propensity to get their sexual assault on, but I figured that was too much.

I considered deleting the involved players from my team, but unfortunately my need to obtain a ridiculous recruiting class requires me to keep the players involved on my team (they are high ranking defenders, after all). I have returned a couple interceptions for touchdowns with "the ambassador" and my house has been echoing with cheers of "the rapist does it again". I think something is wrong with me. At least he'll be in jail soon and hopefully plenty of others will be returning the favor.



from that to this...

He blew his mind out in a car

In complete desperation of cleansing myself of the conversation I had with my roommate last night, we have this post. To sum up the situation, roomie is a hardcore christian conservative. He belongs to a country club. His younger brother works as an intern at the White House. Basically a good German and all around nice guy.

Last night he was regaling me with tales of Rush Limbaugh's hilarious mocking of those losers who believe in global warming. Sometime after that I found myself saying something like "Well you know, Al Gore is kind of out there, but that doesn't mean global warming doesn't exist." Jesus tap-dancing Christ thats lame. At least later I shocked him with the news that I would prefer Gore as president.

Anyway, I still feel like a complete shit for how I handled the whole situation -- why should I censor myself to spare his feelings? It's not helping anyone. So as some sort of godless communist recompense I'm running down a list of subversive bands that are popular despite their damning of the man.

The Offspring OK we're starting off kind of weak. I don't think Why don't you get a job is going to inspire anyone to revolution. But they enjoy a special place in my heart just because of their performance at Woodstock 99. They brought out effigies of the backstreet boys and beat the hell out of them. Later the crowd went complete apeshit and the sky was filled with plastic bottles. The Kids Aren't All Right was an amazing ... HOLY CRAP I CAN'T BELIEVE I WAS IN THAT CROWD


Marilyn Manson
"Capitalism has made it this way, Old-fashioned fascism will take it away"
-The Beautiful People
Thats more like it. There's not much more to say. I know he's not everyone's cup of tea. But you gotta respect a man who combined the names of the most famous sex object with the most famous murderer. I'm going to resist posting any images or videos, cause they are weally scawy. edit: Nevermind, here's Charlie

The Arcade Fire
"Ain't much chance for survival if the neon bible is right."
Gotta represent for the indies. One look at their song titles tells you all you need to know [Antichrist Television Blues] Not to mention that that song's first two verses are a allegory for 9/11 before going into how his little girl is getting warped by society. Neon Bible is the best album I've purchased in the past year and half. Although Cold War Kids are creeping up on the outside.

Here's a video of Arcade Fire playing the album's title track in an elevator. Note the use of ripping.


Tool
"Some say the end is near. Some say we'll see armageddon soon. I certainly hope we will. I sure could use a vacation from this bullshit three ring circus sideshow of freaks here in this hopeless fucking hole we call LA. The only way to fix it is to flush it all away. Any fucking time. Any fucking day. Learn to swim, I'll see you down in Arizona bay. Fret for your figure and Fret for your latte and Fret for your hairpiece and Fret for your lawsuit and Fret for your prozac and Fret for your pilot and Fret for your contract and Fret for your car." -Ænema
Well that's certainly uplifting. Here it is in video form. Nope, not weird at all. Maynard hates drugs.

Nine Inch Nails The most subversive of all. Government, god, societal mores, american culture, nothing escapes the ire of Trent Reznor. I particularly enjoy the most recent effort, Year Zero, which has been mentioned before in this space.

To recap: It's a concept album set in an fascist future. It's got everything covered, power-hungry godheads, helpless plebes, good soldiers, the whole sordid scene from start to finish. This is not to ignore his earlier work, which was plenty subversive in itself. NIN had a song called "Heresy" for christsake. But the maturity and focus of incendiary lyrics on Year Zero really is something to behold.

I think this video for the first single "Survivalism" gets my point across. I was hoping for a video for Capital G, but alas only fanvids are available.


Ahh I feel much better. Sorry I didn't mention rage.

Mature, intelligent political discourse

You may have heard about the so-called "Obama girl" whose video
I got a Crush ... On Obama skyrocketed to the top of the viral video heap, with more than two million views and counting. Be forewarned though, if you click that link you will lose braincells. Probably about a whippets' worth.

Anyway, she's back with a new video. This time Obama Girl faces off against Guiliani Girl, who says she wants Rudy to be "Guili-on-me" See for yourself.


Far be it from me to make sweeping generalizations about what the introduction of these videos could bring to American politics. uhhh ... Zeitgeist is fucked? What can I say, it's beyond me.

I mean, I like Obama and all -- I sure hope he beats out Hillary, but go ahead and call me a Paultard, cause I'm seriously considering changing my party affiliation from independent to republican just so I can vote for Ron Paul in the primary.

Ron Paul: Significantly less crazy than Mike Gravel.

Business in the front, party in the back

Well I'm not sure what's going on here, but count me out.

An epic achievement

No, not King James' performance of "My Lebrogative" on the ESPYs. But this:


Thats right. It's Von Hayes, who to better represent the Phillies 10,000th loss. Well known as part of the 5 for 1 541 deal in the '80s in which the Phils traded away such luminaries as Manny Trillo, George Vukovich, Jay Baller, Jerry Willard, and Julio Franco (still alive!).

That little factoid is one of many hilariously stupid chapters that make up the Philadelphia Phillies long and sordid history.

Here is one such story. It's no blowing a 6 game lead with 10 to play in 1964, or shitty owner William F. Baker building a giant fence over the right-field wall so hall-of-fame left-handed hitter Chuck Klein wouldn't challenge any of Babe Ruth's home run records, because then Klein would deserve more money that Baker didn't want to pay, or even some idiotic Ed Wade move (Pat Burrell).

No this is back in the halcyon days of 1993, when the Phillies rode steriod-fueled Lenny Dykstra, psychotic misogynist Darren Daulton, two-nutted John Kruk, "Wild Thing" Mitch Williams and a bunch of other yahoos to the brink of a World Series championship. There's no need to rehash what happened.


Sidenote: My Joe Carter hate manifested itself while I was in college and said slugger became the terribly bad color man for the Cubs. I remember one particular instance, when they were playing the Phillies and Carter described a middling Phillies starter thusly:

"Robert Person is a man who loves life itself."

Anyway, this tale is from Game 4 of said Phillies-Blue Jays series. The Phillies had a 14-9 lead in the eighth inning of a rainy, ridiculous game.

Actually lets back up: I remember sitting the the 700 level of Veterans Stadium, putting on a poncho, when Dykstra hit his second home run of the night in the fifth inning. It was the moment that got me through the strike in 1994, besides maybe momma thope cheering the Phils to a World Series championship in 1980 with yours truly in utero.

Needless to say the Phillies lost game 4. By now most of the memories have faded into an idle distrust of Tony Fernandez, Todd Stottlemyre and Paul Molitor. But that moment, when the rain was coming down and the crowd was rising up ... well, it defies description.

So here's video of Veteran's stadium imploding.
It's about the same feeling.

Phriday Philler: Belated edition

Ahh well, its the end of the week, which means we gotta get some filler up here on the fainting goats. Here are some hastily written thought-nuggets, complete with linky goodness.

The old Nintendo8 got killed for some "administrative" reasons, whatever that means. Fortunately you can get all that NES 8-bit gaming you need at virtualnes. Personally I have been playing the original final fantasy, which due to a lack of a save function means my computer has been on for 8 days straight. Also, I'll probably update the links over there on the right someday. If I feel like it. While drunk.

Republicans racist? Nah ... I'm sure they all had the flu. When will these damn NAACP-types realize no one cares about black people, except for maybe Will Smith.

Hmmm, what else? Well this recently released trailer for Halo 3 gave me a chubby. Considering Halo is like my crack, I was pretty concerned after dr.gpiece said XBox 360s break a lot. Red ring of death you say? I'm pretty sure I'm still going to buy one and play it until it breaks, then send it back and start again. Thanks for the warranty extension Mr. Gates.

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't make some comment about the Transformers movie, or as it should be called: The greatest film in the history of celluloid. That is what I want in a summer blockbuster. I take back everything bad I ever said about you Michael Bay. I was impressed with how much it stayed faithful to the original while updating it for today. Starscream is such an ass. Always failing Megatron. ARE YOU EBAY USER LADIESMAN217!?!

And yes, the JJ Abrams godzilla-like movie looks amazing.
See for yourself.

You go to hell, Phil Collins

Did anyone watch Live Earth? I watched it for about five minutes, saw Davey Havok and AFI totally butcher Ziggy Stardust then turned it off. Don't get me wrong, I like AFI, "Sing the Sorrow" is a great solid album. But watching that freak in action, mutilating classic Bowie, really fucking sucked. While watching it I kept picturing Vito's son from the Sopranos, the one who took a shit in the shower at school and then stepped in it. Go home and cry kill yourself, emo-kid.


Simply put, I got a feeling of BS from Live Earth. Like the one thing that called it Private Jets for Global Warming. But this article crystallized it for me. Basically the authors point is that Live Earth was all about consumerism, corporate sponsors and what have you.

Sponsors for the event included Chevrolet, Philips, NBC (parent company General Electric) and Microsoft. If there is anything Live Earth does represent about our generation, it's the commercialized raping and pillaging of our youth we've endured since we were toddlers: being force-fed Pokémon, Barbie and Happy Meals our whole life, taught that we "gotta catch 'em all!"

Aside from a few blatantly obvious energy-saving tips, how did the organizers of Live Earth propose we combat climate change? Buying a fuel-efficient Chevy car, replacing our light bulbs with Philips' compact fluorescents and listening to music on a Microsoft Zune instead of energy-wasting speakers.

He goes on to point out that the way to save the planet is not to buy more shit, but to CONSERVE. Ride a fucking bike people!

Anyway, as someone who has attended a few concert events in my life, I do think the benefit concert is dead. I was at Live 8 last summer in Philly and just kept thinking to myself -- how exactly is a free concert helping starving kids in Africa? What does raising awareness actually do? Did the any of the money from the T-shirt my friend bought with an starving african child staring at the G-8 leaders eating cake on the front go to providing rice for Ethiopia? The answers were it's not, nothing and five cents.



So after Will Smith welcomed us to Miami in Philadelphia, I left the crowds on Ben Franklin Parkway and got drunk with my sister and friends up on Spring Garden street. Sorry, one less audience member for such epic acts as Maroon 5 and Linkin Park/Jay-Z (Mash-Up!).
I'm sure the Africans suffered.

My point is that the benefit concert is D-U-N. Our generation sees right through the bullshit. Unless they are collecting food and well-building supplies that are being loaded on planes direct to Africa, benefit concerts ain't gonna do shit. That's baby-boomer, me generation stuff. Ohhh look at us, we're rocking for skinnies! I care about the world! I am raising awareness! I cannot be troubled to carpool to work!

Fuck, now I'm all riled up. I might go start revolutionizing or some shit. Better cool down with a video.
Haha. Gay.

Because nothing is more deadly serious than video games

After the blatant attack on my video game systems of choice by the Sony fanboy below, I felt the need to offer a differing opinion.

I don't see this happening with a PS3 anytime soon.

Cue the "sandy vagina" flame from dr.gpeice in 3...2...1...

E3 on G4

ok, so i've been watching the live coverage of E3 on G4 b/c i have nothing better to do...literally. now being only mildly interested in video games (love buying games, but then 1-2 weeks later i'm bored), this isn't something that really causes me to blow my load (i actually heard some douchebag say that on live tv about some game...sigh). what i do have though is undying devotion to sony and all those playstations...we actually have 3 ps2's and 1 ps3 in my house. so i'm going to complain about some things i've seen, mainly xbox and nintendo related.

first of all, if you don't speak english don't get on stage and go on in japanese so we have to wait for the translator to repeat everthing in english. just find someone who can speak english to give your speech...you're not that engaging and you're probably reading your speech from a teleprompter anyway.

secondly, nintendo wii sucks. i'm sorry, but the novelty of the wireless stick thingies wore off a long time ago. and coming out with new controllers for different games doesn't interest me. if i wanted to play tennis, i'd go outside and play tennis. i wouldn't stand in front of the tv swinging some little stick around like a douche. this can go for pretty much all the nintendo sports titles. granted there are some fun games in the nintendo universe, namely mario cart, metroid, smash bros., zelda, and a few more i might have forgot (doubtful) but i refuse to go with a system that revolves around a gimmick.

metal gear solid 4 looks sweet.

i will admit that xbox is intriguing, but lets face facts; americans don't know vg's like the japanese. and microsoft is evil. when are they going to try to take over the world? bill gates is going to go crazy and hack into our national defense. he'll probably bomb japan trying to wipe all his competitors off the board for good. also, i'll never forgive xbox for making those god-awful ginormous controllers on xbox 1. and halo can lick my balls. sure it's a fun game, but it's not thaaaaat amazing. plus the 360 is a piece of crap...there was some poll taken saying that 50% of owners had to have their 360 repaired, some more than once. that's to be expected when a system first comes out...but this is over a year later.

g4 has some beautiful ladies talking about video games and that's totally hot. much better than listening to them go on about shoes, diamonds or yeast infections.

Not safe for children

There is some online program you can use to rate your blog, and apparently the fainting goats is rated NC-17 due to its mature content. Just so you know -- don't let small children or puppies see it, cause that would result ... OH GOD WHY RUSSELL MARTIN LOOKS NOTHING LIKE TURTLE FROM ENTOURAGE I WILL KILL YOU JOE BUCK ... then they would grow up cynical and enjoy mocking everything in the world, ever. Either that or become compulsive gamblers. Cause dogs like to play poker.

This public service announcement brought to you by a crazy Japanese commercial. I think it's either for poison or canned milk.

gwartastic

kind of a crappy homerun derby, especially considering the showing by both morneau and howard (i got a little love for philly)...but i'm happy with vlad taking the trophy. in honor of his triumphant (oh wait, rios hit 2 in the final round...never mind) victory, here is his theme song. at least it should be.



vlad the impaler, indeed.

giant robotic hard-on...

let's call transformers (the movie) what is really is. since i'm done with school for the summer, i figure i should start seeing some cheap matinee's. today was transformers...and i was pleasantly surprised. i had heard good things all around, but i never doubt michael bay's ability to put together total crapfests with big poop-splosions.

the very beginning had me worried when he sped through a little back story in blink and you missed it fashion followed by action sequence in the desert with, you guessed it, big explosions. it didn't help that pretty much the entire "special forces" squad couldn't act their way out of a paper bag...tyrese? negro please. and random white dude with cliche baby he's never seen at home...spare me...some of the one liners were so bad i already blocked them out of my memory, and i was sober! whatever happened to the good old days where arnold's one liners alone were worth the price of admission?

i must admit though...explosions are one thing. explosions brought upon by giant alien robots are something completely different. as long as they don't involve tom cruise in any way...or i suppose will smith either...speaking of will smith, apparently he is legend. and i'm not talking about the christian hardcore/rock/punk band, no i'm talking about i am legend, where mr. smith is apparently the last man on earth and he has to battle a bunch of vampires or something. now, i love vampire movies, and i always have. there was a period in my life where i seriously wanted to be one...i've even been to transylvania! but will smith battling vampires? come on. i'd rather see dj jazzy jeff in that role. cuba gooding jr. must have been busy making snow dogs 2 or something.

anyway...what did i like about transformers? let's list them out so i don't go on any more tangents...
1) Shia LeBeouf is hilarious...if he wasn't already a movie star, i'd say he should try to save SNL with andy samberg...oh but wait, they have goodburger dude...SNL is set for life. basically i have been holding out hope for this movie simply because shia was in it...and he didn't disappoint.
2) Megan Fox is hot.
3) Anthony Anderson is also hilarious. plus he was totally bad ass in the last few seasons of the shield.
4) John Turturro. Great actor. and he gets pissed on by an autobot (i forget which one...michael bay, i take back everything bad i've ever said about you...that my friend is comic [liquid] gold). i can't think of a movie where he didn't satisfy. although he has lost points for the bronx is burning on espn...i could care less about the f'n yankees. stupid espn, you suck big time...with the exception of baseball tonight.


so yeah, go see transformers. it's the type of movie you need to see on the big screen. typical michael bay, but with actors who can actually entertain (unlike the will smith and martin lawrence tag team).

previews (that i can remember)
1) Balls of Fury - ping pong, christopher walken, patton oswalt, some fat dude who's probably funny...need i say more?
2) rush hour 3 - thope said it best when talking about ice cube movies, specifically friday...chris tucker's schtick is very old. especially when paired with jackie chan. i'd rather just watch him get stoned and mess with big worm.
3) i am legend - i already gave this my two cents. will smith is weak sauce.
4) untitled j.j. abrams project - some sort of monster flick ala godzilla...but hopefully better. also see this and this. i have my fingers crossed for p.diddy covering led zeppelin again. movie has potential.

and this post wouldn't be complete without some random video...make sure you watch until the end.

More entertaining than the home run derby

Here you go, just watch this 40 times so you don't have to listen to Berman, Joe Morgan and Dusty Baker's suit. Although Kenny Mayne is in a kayak.
"Krunk juice walk it out."

Hip hop is dead.

More cinematic junk mail

This time it's from the streets.

I was going to do this whole elaborate post about whether rapper/actors are worthwhile, but that proved too difficult. Have you ever thought about how many hip-hop impresarios have moved in front of the camera? By my measure, it's a cubic fuck-ton.
One word -- Shaq.

On the other hand, doing my favorite Samuel L. Jackson flicks is too obvious. We all know Pulp Fiction is greatest cinematic achievement of the past 20 years; and I have already dedicated way too many posts (or not nearly enough?) to Snakes on a Plane and/or Deep Blue Sea.

So after perusing IMDB I am assured that this is real. That's right, its my favorite Ice Cube movies, with all apologies to I Got the Hook Up. I fear Cube may be typecast as some sort of angry black man.

XXX: State of the Union You were expecting Anaconda?
I already deconstructed this more than is necessary here. This fan vid would be better than the actual movie if that were humanly possible. Warning: Contains Breaking Benjamin.



Higher Learning This is the one where Cube actually doesn't play a gangster ... well he kind of does, but this time he is educated and militant. He knows how to keep you guessing. But really what kept my attention (besides the institutional racism) was the possibility of Jennifer Connelly and Kristy Swanson hooking up. Probably NSFW. There's sideboob.


Friday Yeeuh. I think my favorite part of this movie is when Cube has to put water on his cereal. But of course there is also Chris Tucker doing his schtick before it got old, Cube's dad, Deebo, Bernie Mac as the pastor neighbor and all the rest of the gang. A true cinematic masterpiece.


Three Kings He's kind of a background character to Marky Mark and George Clooney, plus Spike Jonze steals the show as the idiot redneck. But Cube provides some quality depth in one of the more intelligent looks at the the original War in Iraq. You know, the one where we won but didn't get rid of Saddam. Bush 1 bitches!
I love the United States of Freedom!


Boyz N the Hood I assume Cube basically plays himself in this, as its one of his first roles and he comes across so believable. And he's all like -- Bitch there ain't no god, then shoots people with his AK. But later he dies and I was sad. Why oh why couldn't it have been Cuba? Fucking Snow Dogs.

Keeping it real, one fainting goat at a time

Yay non sequiturs!

Phriday Philler

I don't have too much this week. Partying on the fourth of july took a lot out of me, plus I am going to a wedding this afternoon. So here are some quick hit links.

Here's an article about "deep-thinkers" struggles in the business world today. I hate networking.

Everybody needs some quality advice on what not to do during a zombie attack.

This is kind of a cool little map about who has conquered the middle east in the past 5000 years. And by cool I mean mildly informative.

You may remember the middle sister from Full House, Stephanie Tanner. Well she's recovered from her meth addiction and "upgraded" her assets.

And finally what would a post be if I didn't leave you with a video. Here we have David Bowie's epic performance on Extras. Probably the best moment on the show outside of when Harry Potter carried around a condom with no wrapper in his pocket and propositioned Gervais' friend.

Are you having a laugh?

Cinematic equivalent of junk mail

When I think of the United States and everything it stands for, I think of one person. No, not George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, FIGJAM, or Scooter Libby. I think of an Irish-Italian kid from Brooklyn who stole our hearts in countless classics and still had time to volunteer firefight. In celebration of the upcoming 4th of July holiday and to honor an actor comparable only to Brando, Bogart, and (Kirk) Douglas, I put together a list of my five favorite Steve Buscemi movies.

5. The Island - This is a pretty shitty movie and I hope Michael Bay doesn't rape Transformers like he did this gem. Regardless, Busc's part is the slimeball type he plays oh-so-well, and he gets killed which is standard issue. Extra bonus: Scarlett.



4. The Big Lebowski - No need for an introduction here. Enjoy the fucking short version.



3. Airheads - Mix the likes of Encino Man, Happy Gilmore, Kramer and Joey Zasa on the silver-screen with Mr. Buscemi about a band so hardcore they take over a radio station and you have an instant classic. Here's a clip from the end where Steve gets the hairy-eyeball from a couple of his prison mates.



2. Fargo - You don't say, eh? This had to make the list since old Carl Showalter went head-first through the ol' wood chipper. And he's not afraid to put hookers before pancakes.



1. Reservoir Dogs - Stuck in the middle with you. Typical fast-talking Buscemi as he plays Mr. Pink in the Tarantino classic. For a guy who usually gets knocked-off in his roles, Mr. Pink survived the closing triangular shoot-out and headed for the jewels. And the bastard doesn't tip. Kudos.



Honorable mention: Lonesome Dove. Sure, it's actually a made-for-TV mini-series, but it's a classic.