Monkey Thoughts

I'm watching the special features of The Hitcher (2007), and there's one bit where they try to pull off this whole news report to chronicle the killings. An interesting idea, but the execution was piss-poor. I believe that if a film maker has decided to do such a piece, they should get people who've ACTUALLY written, filmed, and read the news. It really comes off as just utter baloney otherwise.

I absolutely suck at updating lately.
I have no excuse.
I've either been too busy or doing other shit and it slips my mind.
And I think a big part is this used to be a sort of way for me to vent a lot of my frustrations rather than exploding. Fortunately, I've become a little more mellow.
Except for today when I announced that I was gonna bitch slap someone.
But emotions were running high. Really high. Hehehehe.

Apparently, no one likes Oasis. I never really listened to them at all, and thought maybe I was missing something.

So while in Best Buy, I was attempting to decide on a purchase.
I sent the following text message: "Opinion. Goldeneye or oasis cd?"

I received these replies:

"You really need an answer to that? Goldeneye...Duh. Oasis never wins. Wonderwall, my ass."

"Depends on what the question is. If it's 'What is the greatest shit?' Goldeneye. If it's 'What should I use for target practice.' the Oasis cd."

And I believe another one along the lines of Oasis sucking something...

So there you have it. Goldeneye it was.

I enjoy driving at night. Well, I enjoy driving period, minus rush hour and main congested roads. I prefer long stretches of road. One of the biggest issues I have is find good music to drive to. After much thinking and tweaking, I've composed the following playlist for night driving. And I'll even explain my choices like I'm one of those celebrity folks and their bizarre playlists. (Okay, some aren't bad..but take a gander at Andrew Lloyd Webber's. Yeow.)

1. Dave Matthews Band- "Satellite"
One of my favorite DMB songs, and a nice mellow tune to start out with. There's so much going on with the tune here. But that is expected of DMB, with the whole 10 band members or whatever. (Yes, I exaggerate.)

2. Iron and Wine- "Such Great Heights"
A Postal Service cover that I prefer to the original. Soothing, almost lullaby-ish. And I think it put my kids to sleep the other night, so it's a miracle song!

3. Jem- "Flying High"
Jem is, in a word, awesome. It is one of those cd's that I can put in and not skip tracks. This one is melodic and gorgeous.

4. Oasis- "Wonderwall"
Ah, the notorious Oasis. Other people's opinions aside, I like the flow of this tune.

5. Pearl Jam- "Given to Fly"
How can you not listen to this one while driving? The melody just screams "put me on the open road, baby!" Or something like that...

6. The Postal Service- "The District Sleeps Alone Tonight"
Favorite Postal Service song, and what led me to buy the cd. I had the song stuck in my head. It reminds me of a simpler time, writing Java on Saturday mornings. Shit, that sucked.

7. R.E.M. - "Nightswimming"
Ah, the quintessential nighttime song. The piano on this is beautiful.

8. Seu Jorge- "Life on Mars"
From The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, this is a kick ass cover of a David Bowie diddy. Except it's in Portuguese.

9. Smashing Pumpkins- "1979"
I love the Pumpkins, thus they got on here twice. This one just kicks it. And it's the only song I have yet to hear that mentions my name. Ever. Biased? Perhaps...

10. Blink-182- "All of This"
Say what you will about Blink, this is one of the best songs they've put out. Perhaps it's cause Robert Smith does most of the singing. But what night playlist would be complete without some form of The Cure?

11. Telepopmusik- "Breathe"
A little techno, a lot of breathy vocals. Perfect for long stretches of driving.

12. U2- "City of Blinding Lights"
U2 is good with night-appropriate music. I chose this one cause it's a favorite for my husband and I.

13. Zero 7- "The Waiting Line"
Again, soft, breathy and just mellow. Off the Garden State soundtrack, which is just an incredibly good soundtrack. The movie...ok. But the soundtrack...hell yes.

14. The Beatles- "There Are Places We Remember"
I got into a big Beatles thing back in high school. It wouldn't seem right to not have them on here, especially since they have a lot of tunes that would fit this mood.

15. Smashing Pumpkins- "Tonight, Tonight"
Another incredible song from the Pumpkins. The intro alone is just perfect. And bonus points- the word "tonight" is in the title...hahahahahaha!

16. Chris Cornell- "Seasons"
Chris Cornell = one of the best musicians out there. This song is just great for the playlist..mellow, yet intricate.

17. Coldplay- "Yellow"
Coldplay is one of those bands that I'm never completely sold on. But when they're good, they are really good. And besides, Chris Martin's bit on Extras was freaking awesome.

18. Frou Frou- "Let Go"
This gives me a feeling of a sort of vast landscape. Corny, huh? I don't know, seemed like a perfect wrap up to the list.

Are You Being Served is one of my favorite shows on the PBS stations. It's an older British comedy that ran for quite a number of seasons. Funny shit. Really funny shit. But the cast changed a bit, so you have to catch the right ones (essentially, the early seasons).
My favorite character on the show was Mr. Humphries, played by John Inman, who just passed away this past March.

Here's one of my favorite episodes (in 3 parts)- "Dear Sexy Knickers"

To be completely, utterly, without a doubt, insane

Enjoy.

I used to laugh at folks that got all out of shape about spamming. "Oooh, deleting is SO hard" is what I would say in a mocking tone.
Then I started getting spam comments.
Dear god, they make me grouchy. Since all comments have to be approved anyway, at least I have some control over them. But for fuck's sake, I don't want cheap medications from Canada and I'm 88.9% sure I wasn't browsing at YOUR porn site. So stop trying to trick me!

GET OFF MY LAWN!

I could get the hang of that.

I loved Twin Peaks back in the day. But I just realized a few mins ago that it was only on for 2 seasons. How is it a show that seems to span a good deal of my adolescence only lasted 2 mere seasons?
One of the most notable things I remember about the show, other than the pie and how horrified my mom was that the marketed Laura Palmer diary was chock full of..ah...colorful language, was that my viewing privileges would be revoked if I was an ass that week. It maybe only happened 2 or 3 times, but not only would I be prohibited from watching but my mom would flat out refuse to record it. So basically, there are a few episodes I have never seen.

I mentioned this to my mom recently about how that punishment sucked and she acted surprised that she did that. At least she agreed that it was a shitty punishment.

Apparently, in some parts of the Midwest, the cicadas are going to swarm again. Now personally, I think the cicadas are kinda gross as far as bugs go. Not on the same level of cockroaches or hairy spiders, but nonetheless gross. So why is it every time these 17 year cicadas come out, there's inevitably an article or a blurb in an article about someone who wants to eat the damn things?
I have to say, that is no way on my list of "Things I must do before I die".

Marie Antoinette
I have no idea how historically accurate this was, nor do I care. It was fun, stylistic, and entertaining. Plus, it had the weirdest damn cast I have every seen assembled.

The Return
Just...crap...I have no idea what the hell was going on most of the time, but I'm pretty damn sure it had nothing to do with the synopsis.

Shutter
While Art of the Devil made me question the Thai branch of Asian horror, this movie vindicated it. Completely scared the shit out of me.

Pan's Labyrinth
The fantasy aspects mixed a very grim background made this a fascinating watch. The makeup/creature effects were amazing. Oh, and don't get tricked into thinking perhaps this is a kid's movie, else the scene of a man having his face crushed in by a bottle will shock the hell outta you.

Penny Dreadful
Um..a horror movie with an Emo Philips-esque badguy? No thanks.

Christmas Evil
Not even gonna bother...

L'Enfant (The Child)
Wow. Very...french... Moving though. Although, the ending could have been better.

Monster House
A fun, enjoyable flick. And Steve Buscemi is in it. What more could you ask?

So I'm half-ass watching the remake of The Omen. And by half-assed, I mean it's on in the background and I have no interest in taking Julia Stiles seriously as an actress so I'm trying to ignore it.
Anyway...the scene where the nanny takes a swan dive off the roof of the house is perplexing. The nanny jumps and hangs herself...pause...a woman screams at...the dead nanny? And panic ensues. Where the hell were the people running to screaming? Why were they screaming? They weren't being chased down by anything. No one was threatening them. The person was already dead. I thought perhaps they were concerned parents trying to shield their children's eyes after the fact, but that still doesn't explain why they needed to scream to do it.

Who the fuck put Julia Stiles in this movie? I'm half expecting her to break out into hip hop moves.

Stumbled upon this site (literally, but I'll explain that in another post)- FutureMe.org

You can type up an email to send to yourself at any date in the future. Maybe advice, or some inspirational prose, or a few jokes. Me? I sent myself a threatening email so I would take the message seriously. Hey, I know what works and what doesn't.

Stumble is perhaps one of my favorite Firefox add-ons ever. And I've only been using it for a few hours. It's a kick ass tool in which you fill out your interests and it finds websites that you may enjoy. I've been discovering all sorts of cool new things, which doesn't help my already hyper-active bookmarking habit. But my problem has always been that I get bored and distracted easily, so this helps me find new things to hold my attention for a bit.

Check out more here:
http://www.stumbleupon.com/

Pirate Master!

So it's obviously cashing in on the pirate popularity, but on the surface it doesn't sound half bad. But one of my many issues with reality shows is that they seem to get people who just look like real assholes to be on these shows. Can we possibly get non-asshole looking people with normal names? Is that at all possible?

Not that it matters really...chances are I'm still not going to watch.