Bob Dylan - I Shall Be Free No. 10

"Now, I'm liberal, but to a degree
I want ev'rybody to be free
But if you think that I'll let Barry Goldwater
Move in next door and marry my daughter
You must think I'm crazy!"

Anybody know where this is from?

“Friends…it's 777-7000. And there’s love here. Love and friends in the form of 24 operators that need to know your Bank of America number. Doesn’t the Lord deserve what you have? Yes, He does. C’mon I need to hear ya! Doesn’t the Lord deserve what you have? Yes He does. Doesn’t the Lord deserve a circular driveway? Yes He does. And, doesn’t the Lord deserve a Porsche? Yes He does, and he’s asked me to drive it for him.”

Non-Sandwiches & Sandwich cookies

For dinner, I'm having a sandwich but instead of making it I'm eating all the components of said sandwich individually. Also, why would anyone buy single stuf Oreos? Why do they even make them anymore? Wasn't the invention of Double Stuf pretty much a Revolution in Cookie Affairs? And I've just been surprised to learn that Oreos are manufactured in Richmond. I'd like to tour that factory.

I'm trapped in a glass case of emotion

Overall, so far has been a productive 24 hour period. Watched Ghandi. That is such a good movie, it's definitely Richard Attenborough's best. I like him as a director, but he just doesn't get Americans. A Bridge Too Far is my example. I think I've written about this before, but he just manages to turn every American character into the most grating cliché. I think it's funny that in the UK David is as/possibly more famous than Richard. Nobody in the US knows who David is. Anyways, back to my sense of accomplishment... Extensively edited my sister's final big English paper of her high school career. I always like editing more than writing, although often I end up giving people back obnoxiously red pages and so I'm always trying to hold myself back from making too many notes. Sis however doesn't get that courtesy, the page ran red with ink. Vacuumed my room as it was badly in need of it. Cleaned out a bunch of papers and junk from my desk. It feels so good to throw stuff away and have all your papers that should be shredded, shredded. More irrational fears created by the constant barrage of pseudo-journalistic news magazine hype-making. Identity Theft, why YOU should worry. Please, I've got enough to fucking think about, I don't need to be made to feel that by throwing away an unshredded credit card statement I might as well be walking naked with my life savings in a plastic grocery bag through the worst part of town screaming, "RAPE ME ROB ME." Made blueberry muffins. Got a few time consuming, unpleasant chores done which I've been putting off for awhile done. When I started this blog I was wild with that giddy early planning stage excitement at the possibilities, combined with nervousness and anxiety that made me short of breath. Writing this has actually helped me calm down a bit, which is good. I've had all day a desire for Macbeth, so I think I'll be watching that later this afternoon once I've finished everything else I need to do. Ian McKellen and Judi Dench from 1979. I've never seen it before, so I'm excited.

I'm so over Death Cab for Cutie. I Will Possess Your Heart... seriously, who the fuck do you think you are? Ben Gibbard is an ass.

Hard to Explain

So I know this is like 6 years old, but at the risk of sounding totally out of date The Strokes Hard to Explain music video is incredibly cool. I saw it today on MTVu for what I think was the first time. MTVu is basically what we get as a replacement for IMF. I used to watch MTVu back when it was College Television Network on the campus cable system at South Carolina. MTVu is good, IMF was one of my favorite channels. Revolutionary for a "music channel", they played music videos. There were no commercials. They played bands from all over the world. There were quirky little travel segments and band interviews with artists discussing weird stuff like the food they ate on tour
(almost barfing from too many rice krispies squares, pigs feet) and anecdotes about the making of their videos. IMF was bought by Ovation TV just so they could get IMF's channel space on various networks. Ovation is occasionally mildly entertaining, but in this day and age is that any reason to take a TV channel off a cable network? Because there's not enough space. I don't think I'll ever get over the loss of ITV. Anyways, here's the video.

And here's a link to a slightly higher quality version that I can't embed.

I'm Not There.

I just finished watching this movie. It's really different. Stylistically it was a bit like an Oliver Stone movie, with different story lines in black & white, color, and that Kodachrome look of a 60's 8mm. The script was sparse in a way I love, almost as if it were a play. Some many of the lines were in just one shot so incisive and painfully, brilliantly sad. I think Cate Blanchett had some of the best. In one scene she's heckling a crucifix in front of a church with David Cross (who is playing Allen Ginsburg) and she says, "Do your early stuff!" She is really phenomenal. Heath Ledger also is great, and so much of his role is non-verbal. He's so good it's sad. Sad because he's gone. Sad because it seems so much of what he's doing shows the really dark place he must have been in. There are two scenes where he angrily swats at press photographers and it just reminded me of the pitiful and tragic drama that played out outside of his apartment building. The world Richard Gere occupies during the film is great for it's use of that whole P@TD!/"steampunk" whimsy. The film takes Dylan's music out of it's original context, in some places using cover versions, and puts it in a new context where it seems to fit exactly as if it were written for them. It is really amazing. The cinematography reminds me of a Goodfellas, because every shot is just so beautifully composed. At times it's almost like watching a moving album cover. Having five actors and an actress all play (versions of) the same man in what is essentially six different movies could have ended up making a cutesy "aren't I so clever" picture, but it really really works. This is probably because none of the "dylans" are forced or over the top impressions of the man. Each of the six managed to adopt different recognizable characteristics from Dylan, allowing them all to remain recognizable individual pieces, and because none of them clung too tightly to the raspy, iconic, instantly recognizable voice. I hope I like Shine a Light this much.

Saw this plate today

Where I live is not where you live...

"Something my granddad used to tell us..."

iGoogle is my homepage and in addition to tabs with my gmail, my google reader subscriptions, the local weather, movie times, and a world clock there is a tab with wikiquote's daily quote. And here is today's: "When there is no more room in Hell, the dead will walk the Earth. ~Dawn of the Dead (by George Romero)." Since it's my homepage, every time today that I've opened my browser or started a new tab I've been faced with that... fact? It's caused me to have a great deal more idle thoughts about zombies than I would average on a normal day. And while a zombie invasion is generally not a comforting thought, for some reason I do find the possibility of it to be comforting on every day that it does not occur. If things seem bad, at least you can think to yourself, "Well at least a ravenous crowd of the undead isn't terrorizing my neighborhood in search of brains." And if you haven't accomplished the things you wanted to for a day, at least you've passed one more day in a peaceful non-zombie world.

"Now that's an exit."

So I just finished rewatching both series of Rome. I forgot how great that show was. My favorite line from the last episode was from Atia:
"I know who you are. I see you. You are swearing now that some day you will destroy me. Remember, far better women than you have sworn to do the same. Go and look for them now."
She was so great. Probably the best female TV villain ever.

Album drops 18 January

Saw this on DisneyKid1's blog and I thought it was cool so I gave it a try.
My band's name: Valentin Rose
Album title: "You forgive and forget"
Cover art:

Notes:
The rules:
1. The first article title on this page is your band's name.
("Valentin Rose (October 30, 1762 - August 9, 1807) was a German pharmacologist. He found the inuline and sodium carbonate. And he invented a way to detect arsenic.")
2. The last four words of the very last quote on this page is your album's title.
("One thing you will probably remember well is any time you forgive and forget." -Franklin P. Jones)
3. The third picture on this page is your album's cover.

Jason & the Argot-nauts

British slang phrases I love and would like to adopt:

argy-bargy
bender
builder
bullocks
chav
fit
gear
gobshite
innit
lad
nick
pissed
poofter
ponce
posh
pull
rubbish
knackered
nob
sod
slag
slapper
snog
skint
taking the piss
toff
tosser
trainers
twat
wanker
yob

Basically all my knowledge of Brit talk comes from Shameless & Skins. I think if I actually moved to England I'd be terribly disappointed if everyone didn't talk like they were some trashy Manchesterer (ite?)... but there's no need to worry because that's how everyone over there talks, right?

From The Caddy Shack I Summon Thee

"Chevy Chase is dead. A group of grim necrowarriors need to bring him back to life, but the only way to do this is by resurrecting him in the blood of 1000 virgins. After reviving his corpse, they realise that he is a murderous zombie, and so set out to kill him again."



Unfortunately the video isn't as hilarious as the description, but the fat goth kid is funny. Also, necrowarriors is now my word of the day... and if you're going to have necrowarriors, they've just got to be grim.

I said thank you Lord for thinking about me, I'm alive and doing fine

Everybody wants attention.

Oh baby it's rainin', rainin'

I had a dream I was driving to JFK airport in a taxicab, giving (accurate) directions to the driver who was listening to Rush Limbaugh on the radio. The driver kept apologizing because Rush was attacking me personally, but he didn't change the station. In the airport there were lots of tolls we had to pay to get to our terminal, but they only accepted francs.

The big ant ate the little dead ant and was eatten by the bigger spider

He's been to three schools in as many years, his favorite color is green, but he doesn't always remember how to spell it. He's Hollywood's newest bad boy child star and he's gay. Tonight on 60 Minutes, Diane Sawyer's interview with ____ _____, his mother, and his assertion that when he recently told the press he was gay he meant happy and they just misunderstood.

Alliterative living

I'm going to buy a dictionary and highlight all the words I like, then I'm going to start over.

A story is a journey, a journey is a story.

prec·i·pice
Pronunciation: 'pre-s(&-)p&s
Function: noun
Etymology: French, from Middle French, from Latin praecipitium, from praecipit-, praeceps headlong, from prae- + caput head
1 : a very steep or overhanging place
2 : a hazardous situation; broadly

The name, Chekhov's gun, comes from Anton Chekhov himself, who stated that any object introduced in a story must be used later on, else it ought not to feature in the first place:

• "One must not put a loaded rifle on the stage if no one is thinking of firing it." Anton Chekhov, letter to Aleksandr Semenovich Lazarev (pseudonym of A. S. Gruzinsky), 1 November 1889.
• "If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise don't put it there." From Gurlyand's Reminiscences of A. P. Chekhov, in Teatr i iskusstvo 1904, No 28, 11 July, p. 521.’
• "If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be hanging there." From S. Shchukin, Memoirs (1911)

Run Around

I've never seen anyone play air harmonica.

I never want to grow up

"Peak earning years" is a nasty phrase.

9 months since my last post, more than 2 years since I created this blog, paper writing procrastination=time for a post.