Like most Canadians, I'm a huge CBC Radio fan. Unfortunately with the big lockout (or whatever they're calling it on the radio now), I'm not getting my regular dose of news and radio programming. Thankfully, CBC Radio's resident nerd, Tod Maffin has a solution for us, CBC Unplugged. It fills the hole left in my life from my lack of my morning programming with postcasts from CBC hosts, news from the lockout and witty piss taking. From their list of top ten reasons that you're obsessed with the lockout, smart commentary on morning programming: "You can't stop yourself from tuning in to hear the clever morning musings and unbelievable chemistry between Rob Renaud and Susan Marjetti." Hardy har har!
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
Launch Portal: something we need
Why hasn't someone made a website to centralize all your web ouput? Tribe.net is the only website that comes close to this, allowing you to post all your feeds, your website, your photos, del.icio.us links et cetra in one place, but I have yet to see anyone that's done that with tags. I'd kill for a plugin that tracks all my tags across the internet and puts it into a tagcloud like the one in my deli.icio.us.I'm guessing that the easiest way of doing something like that would be to tag everything with a constant username and track it through technorati. This, of course, would just give me links, and not tags. Is there a solution out there?
In dreams/what do you dream about...?
Okay, this was weird. I had a dream that out of the blue, Heather messaged me on MSN. She then proceeded to open her webcam, without me asking her, mind you, to show her a sex show from earlier that evening. It was of her with a woman who was overwhelming her, to say the least. Her boyfriend was there, but in the dream he was white. He wasn't partaking in the action, but rather, opting to lay out his back on the floor. He looked spent. I was sorta suprised that Heather let me see this. I'm not sure if this makes the dream Heather more generous or just more evil.
Monday, September 05, 2005
Frightening new nerd tech: Listal
In further efforts to centralize as many things I can to the internet, I've decided to sign up for Listal. Listal does everything that I wanted a catalogging system to do. It easily shows your collection of DVDS, music, books and games to the world. The site works great for someone like me who likes to catagorize and file stuff as it allows tagging and rating of your shit. If you guys want to check out my stuff, you can do it right here.
Friday, September 02, 2005
God, I'm so fucking hung over
Normally I don't get the hangovers after I drink, but Anson insisted
that I drink hard liquor mixed up with beer last night. I don't know
what it's called when you put a shot of vodka inside a glass of beer,
but that's what we were doing last night. My head, it pounds like a
fierce drum. My toxic brain: it feels sad.
The drive back to PG was uneventful and my new van ran as smooth as a
vulva. So the so called destroyed futon just turned out to be the
back simply pushed out of the socket. Easily fixable.
So our apartment wasn't destoyed. This is a Good Thing.
But there are Bad Things.
Anson and Eric haven't cleaned the place in months (they claim that
they did, but this is debatable). The kitchen is an utter mess.
There's tons of plates piled up and the walls are covered in the thick
grease that one gets when they live with asians and indians. Not
good. What is worse is that water has seeped into the counter and has
warped the linoleum hardcore. Where it should be flush and flat we
have more of a dali-esque look to it. My post beer senses tell me
that the manager will probably have to rip it out and get a new one.
Not good.
on the bright side, at least I can listen to the Pixies as loud as I want. Woo!
Thursday, September 01, 2005
t-minus 3 and a half hours to go to PG
If this works, this should post to both <a
href="http://machine_gun_elephant.blogspot.com/">RoBlog</a> and it's
evil twin on <a
href="http://spaces.msn.com/members/machinegunelephant/">MSN
Spaces</a>. Why the doubling up on blogs? It boils down to simple
integration with Messenger. Unlike Google Talk, Messenger is pinged
when it's updated, which is a faster way than RSS of showing updates.
We'll see how it turns out.
It's t minus three and a half hours before I depart for PG. Unlike
the last couple of times when I moved to a large city, I'm going it
alone this time. I plan on arming myself with Red Bull or the new
Mountain Dew Energy Drink to combat sleepiness. Last time I drove, I
had the good fortune of going with Miwako. I'm not sure if it's a
long trip thing or the women who I keep company with, but I've found
that if I'm stuck in a vehicle longer than three hours with a woman
that's not my mother, I invariably end up learning about their period.
I'm not sure if this is supposed to flatter or frighten me. I'm
going with the former. I chatted with Anson last night and he has Big
Plans for me. My Big Plans for PG includes picking up the first two
trades of Scott Pilgrim, the Walking Dead cleaning up the messy
apartment and organizing my new books and movies. Anson has
insinuated that I will end up with Team China at a pub a couple of
pubs away from the apartment drinking copious amounts of beer and
wings. Knowing Anson I shall be pressured to drink hard liquor, like
the vile, *vile* bottle of vodka that he saved in the fridge for me.
Horrah.
Other things that I look forward to in PG:
-the drive-in movie theater
-using the magical powers of broadband and downloading the fuck out of
my computer
-Scottt Pilgrim. Oh fucking yeah!
-Mysterious Chinese Girl That Wants To Meet Me (assuming that Anson's
not pulling typical hyperbole bullshit with women)
-upgrading to Google Desktop 2 (I am a nerd)
-fucking around with Greasemonkey and other fine Firefox plugins (I am
a nerd part two)
Monday, August 22, 2005
Quick word on Sympathy for Lady Vengence From Kyoung
My friend from Korea, Kyoung finally managed to see the conclusion to Chan Wok Park's Vengeance trilogy. He didn't go into the plot specifics, but he did mention that the movie wasn't as good as Oldboy (but then again, what can be, right?), but cautioned that the movies couldn't easily be compared. Kyoung mentioned that the audience was polarized by the movie, either loving or hating the flick. Will this stop me from checking it out? Fuck no, man. Chan Wok Park is easily the world's most exciting director and he has yet to disapoint me with his movies.
Kyoung also saw Crying Fist which I also mentioned earlier as a movie that I wanted to see. He said that it was probably best boxing movie that he's ever seen, which is impressive considering his appetite for cinema.
Classified under:movies,Sympathy for Lady Vengeance
Kyoung also saw Crying Fist which I also mentioned earlier as a movie that I wanted to see. He said that it was probably best boxing movie that he's ever seen, which is impressive considering his appetite for cinema.
Classified under:movies,Sympathy for Lady Vengeance
Sunday, August 14, 2005
I am mildy drunk
But I'm not asshole or prick drunk; more like bullshitter drunk. Bullshitter drunk means that I'm affable and will hold my secrets, so don't try to pry them out of me, Stephen. Nope, it means that I'm in the mood for shitty fast food and Asian porn. horrah for Chinese tits! It also means that I won't be writing horribly embarassing emails to my ex girlfriends about how much they hate me. This is a good thing.
Categories: personal
Categories: personal
In the Realms of the Unreal
What about In the Realms of the Unreal, eh? I wrote about the movie a while back on my sister blog, Moon Karma Zero and finally watched it this evening. A quick primer for those who don't know aobut the movie: it's a doc about a reclusive Janitor called Henry Darger who spent his life toiling away painting and writing a 13 000 page epic about the Vivien girls. I've always been interested in found/outsider art, so the movie was a real treat for me. Having never seen Darger's art in person I was facinated by the level of detail that he put into his paintings and the content of the art. You don't see hermaphrodite girls getting mutilated because of their love of Christ every day, you know?
Categories: Henry_Darger, movies, In_the_Realms_of_the_Unreal
Categories: Henry_Darger, movies, In_the_Realms_of_the_Unreal
Friday, August 12, 2005
Thursday, August 11, 2005
Karaoka and aftermath
The plan last night was to go to Jackfish Dundees with my brother's girlfriend (for the summer, it must be emphasized) and the female population and engage in the ancient Japanese art of karaoke. That was the plan. I convinced Stephen to give me a ride to Jackfish's selling him on the idea of girls, drunken single girls, with shaved legs, the shaved part being important to my bush addled brain. I met up with Christopher's girlfriend (for the summer) Megan Brooks, the sister of Joe, a guy that I hung out in junior high, Andrew West and his sister, Nicole. Apperently, there was trivia of obscure, for me, at least, country music and late 70s musical anthems mixed with geographical trivia. I ordered myself a picture of beer knowing that my tree planting given abilities of holding my liquor would come in handy. And lo, I wasn't a belligerent drunk. *snark alert* This will come as a suprise to some. *snark alert off* With liquor oiling the wheels of conversation, we talked of many things: Victoria, Issaiah Bell, my brother Christopher, movies, Grand Theft Auto, a shitty new wave band that came to FSJ (whose name escapes me) et cetra. We also hatched a plan to get my brother drunk as no one has seen him under the influence. I've never seen Christopher drink a drip of alcohol in my life, mainly due to a weird quirk of his that says that he doesn't want anyone in the family to see him stumble and vomit. Or so he says. I think he can't hold his liquor. The evening ended with the girls singing a Dixie Chicks song and Stephen and I heading to McDo's to get my drunken hamburger fix. I found out this morning that Megan got kicked out of Loony Tunes. It was best described as a post emptive manuver as they should have done it on her birthday.
If it didn't rain this morning, I'd be out in the field today "working" instead of in the office, doing paper work. This is bad because I have a rare hangover. Why's the field better? I dig it because the work is mostly setup. Since we're pumping water, most of the work takes place in the first hour that we arrive at a site moving pumps. After that, you spend most of the day in the truck reading books, listening to CDs, eating snacks and bullshitting all while raking in tall dollars. Working in the office isn't hard physical work, but it's steady and you don't get breaks like you would in the field. Instead of spending 2-3 hours driving from our place and back in the John out to PJ or Mile, you gotta be ready to work in the basement at 7 onwards. Mornings, like this, where I got less than 5 hours of sleep, it's nice to work in the field since it allows the opportunities to sleep. No such luck in the office.
I've never been keen on the fact that my dad runs his business at home. Business bleeds into family affairs more than it should. It's not something that you can turn off when you leave the office, since the difference between the office and the house is a set of stairs. My dad's not the greatest communicator (like me!), so when he gets pissed off, or is having a shitty day, he'll take it out on everyone. It sucks, because you have no clue what'll set him off. Like today, out of the blue, my dad went "You know, I make mistakes too! Everyone is always on top of me", totally without warning. That said, he's a great boss and I like working for him.
Classified under:personal,
If it didn't rain this morning, I'd be out in the field today "working" instead of in the office, doing paper work. This is bad because I have a rare hangover. Why's the field better? I dig it because the work is mostly setup. Since we're pumping water, most of the work takes place in the first hour that we arrive at a site moving pumps. After that, you spend most of the day in the truck reading books, listening to CDs, eating snacks and bullshitting all while raking in tall dollars. Working in the office isn't hard physical work, but it's steady and you don't get breaks like you would in the field. Instead of spending 2-3 hours driving from our place and back in the John out to PJ or Mile, you gotta be ready to work in the basement at 7 onwards. Mornings, like this, where I got less than 5 hours of sleep, it's nice to work in the field since it allows the opportunities to sleep. No such luck in the office.
I've never been keen on the fact that my dad runs his business at home. Business bleeds into family affairs more than it should. It's not something that you can turn off when you leave the office, since the difference between the office and the house is a set of stairs. My dad's not the greatest communicator (like me!), so when he gets pissed off, or is having a shitty day, he'll take it out on everyone. It sucks, because you have no clue what'll set him off. Like today, out of the blue, my dad went "You know, I make mistakes too! Everyone is always on top of me", totally without warning. That said, he's a great boss and I like working for him.
Classified under:personal,
Kickass new Korean flicks
If you're into the international film scene, like myself, you probably know that Korea (and to a lesser degree, Japan) is producing some of the world's best cinema. From the stylized ultra violence of Chan Wok Park's Vengeance trilogy to Kim Ki Duk's more contemplative fare like 3-Iron, the Korean film scene is bringing out imagry and action that harkens back to the heyday of late 80s, early 90s Hong Kong cinema. Adi Tantimedh is a comic writer and critic overseas who is incredibly fond of the Asian film scene. I usually trust his judgement of what's shit and what' good. Recently he released his thoughts on three new Korean movies, all of which, I want to see badly now. He says:
Sounds like Korea is aping HK's strongest genres: the wire fu flick and the heroic blood shed gangster movie. Hopefully these movies (and Sympathy for Lady Vegeance) will be in Chinatown next time I visit Vancouver
Classified under:Korea,movies
im Ji-Won is probably one of the top five directors in Korea right now, with only four movies to his credit. He has never made the same type of film twice. His first, the deadpan black comedy THE QUIET FAMILY, has the dubious honour of being remade into a hysterical DIY musical by Takeshi Miike, THE HAPPINESS OF THE KATAKURIS.
His second, THE FOUL KING, was a comedy about an office worker who becomes a masked wrestler and loses himself in the fantasy life.
His short film HOME, in the pan-Asian horror anthology THREE, is a hallucinatory nightmare about limbo in a housing estate. That whetted his appetite for A TALE OF TWO SISTERS, a gothic ghost story that takes the key Korean folktale about the evil stepmother and the revenge of the dead girl she persecuted and reimagines it into a labyrinthine maze of psychological trauma, and is probably the most stylish ghost story in the current cycle of Asian horror films.
A BITTERSWEET LIFE is Kim's entry in the gangster genre. It has more in common with Cocteau, French existential movies and Michael Mann. The hero is a gangland enforcer who has never been in love, who doesn't have a life outside of his work. He's a coiled spring of precise, efficient violence and highly valued by his boss. He's given an assignement: to watch his boss' young mistress, and if she's unfaithful, to kill her.
He chooses not to kill her, and unleashes an avalanche of Hell and Retribution upon himself. But when a hard man's heart melts for the first time in his life, and he's made to pay for it, he's apt to return some Hell and Retribution of his own.
It's not the originality of the plot, but the oblique and unexpected approach Kim Ji-Won takes to tell his story here. He goes all out with the hyperreal, ultrastylish Cinemascope compositions of cool, sleek surfaces that mirror his hero's melting glacial exterior. The setpieces are amazing, but it's the moments of silence that punctuate them that make the movie surprisingly contemplative, the camera dwelling on the star's face, after the torture sequences, the fights, and the apocalyptic shoot-out. The film becomes increasingly off-beat as it goes along, my favourite moments being a bunch of bumbling Russian-Siberian arms dealers. And Kim withholds the emotional pay-off and the revelations for the final moments of the movie, making it a gangster movie that plays to the rhythm of a heart breaking in slow motion.
This is one of the of the best films of the year.
ARAHAN is the Korean martial arts-superhero comedy hit of 2004.
A nerdish traffic cop is accidentally zapped by a shopgirl with Chi powers when she was trying to stop a purse-snatcher. He discovers that her father and the friends who trained her are Secret Masters of martial arts who who has stayed hidden in ordinary life for decades, waiting for the right pupil to pass their teachings to. And they in turn discover that with his extraordinary Chi potential, that student is him. When an old enemy escapes from his prison, intent on taking over the world, they suddenly have a deadline to turn him into a Master to save the day.
Again, the premise isn't original, but it's the execution and incidental details that carry the show. The wittiest touch is the story's location of superpowered sages hiding among the bickering urban working class of modern-day Seoul, working as shopkeepers, labourers and small businessmen. The cute superpowered girl works as a convenience store who uses her breaks to run across rooftops and down the sides of buildings to fight crime. The supervillain is unleashed from a secret tomb by workmen drilling to extend some roadworks. The martial arts wire-fu is as slick and accomplished as anything from Hong Kong, but takes the movie one-ups CROUCHING TIGER by being totally irreverent and taking the piss at every opportunity. As a superhero movie, it shares a lot in common with Raimi's Spider-man films, but is a lot more exuberant and much funnier.
Director Ryu Seung-Wan is one of the other top five directors in Korea. He's got all the savvy and inventive wit of Sam Raimi, and casts his brother, the talented Ryu Seung-Bum as his lead.
CRYING FIST
So yes, Ryu Seung-Wan is practically the Korean Sam Raimi, and here he takes a completely different tack after ARAHAN.
The story is simple: an aging boxer and a juvenile delinquent separately use the sport to claw their way back to a life worth living, and eventually face each other in a lightweight championship bout where both has everything to lose and everything to gain.
Boxing movies are underdog redemption stories, not to mention weepies for men. Guys feel better about being emotional after having the snot pounded after them, because they feel less girly about it, and CRYING FIST lays it on in spades. It subverts the conventions by making both its main characters sympathetic underdogs fighting to regain their dignity.
Choi Min-Sik from OLD BOY is the older guy, a former Silver Medalist boxer whose life has gone to shit after years of bad investments and fair-weather friends who took his money and never came back. His wife has thrown him out and his son is embarrassed by him. He has brain damage from all those blows to the head and he makes money by offering himself as a punching bag to passers-by to take out their frustrations on.
Ryu Seung-Bum, the director's brother again, plays a completely different role from the well-meaning nerd in ARAHAN. Here he's a sullen tearaway with a mountain of pent-up rage and a way with his fists. He starts to find an outlet in the boxing program in jail, and after his father dies, feels the need to atone for the grief he caused his ailing grandmother.
By the time the two men meet in the ring at the film's climax, we're rooting for both of them and watching the tragedy of two men trying to find redemption by pummelling the shit out of each other.
Unlike the cartoon stylisation of ARAHAN, director Ryu goes for a sharp, high-contrast look and the use of long lenses to draw you into the characters' world. And unlike namby-pamby Hollywood fights, he shoots the fights in long uninterrupted mastershots without the use of stunt doubles. It's the dynamism of both style and story that reinvents the boxing movie.
Sounds like Korea is aping HK's strongest genres: the wire fu flick and the heroic blood shed gangster movie. Hopefully these movies (and Sympathy for Lady Vegeance) will be in Chinatown next time I visit Vancouver
Classified under:Korea,movies
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
Site overhaul almost finito
Well, it took me a good couple of hours, but the site redesign is almost finished. Thoughts, anyone?
Saturday, August 06, 2005
Deeds and memes.
Well, as of a couple of hours ago, I finished my good deeds for the week and phoned up Pearl. Today's her birthday, you see, and I give her my annual phone call today. I can honestly say that this year was better than my call last year since this time she was actually home and I didn't have to talk to her Englishly challenged mother. We didn't chat that much, since I had woke her up, something that tends to happen when I give my exes a ring (this also happened when I called up Miwako on her birthday, earlier this week). Since she was so sleepy, I told her that I'd phone her up in a couple of days, most likely later in the day so I could talk to her in a more concrete state.
Had she been awake, I doubt that we'd have that much to say. For the last week, we've been emailing each other quite a bit; an email per day. It's like the old days, brain picking with a dash of inuendo. It's good to know that she's still the same person, inspite of the fact that she's getting married.
Tangently, I've shamelessly stolen another meme from Heather. Shameless, I tell you!
1. Reply with your name and I'll respond with something random about you.
2. I'll tell you what song/movie reminds me of you.
3. I'll pick a flavor of jello to wrestle with you in.
4. I'll say something that only makes sense to you and me.
5. I'll tell you my first/clearest memory of you.
6. I'll tell you what animal you remind me of.
7. I'll ask you something that I've always wondered about you.
8. If I do this for you, you must post this on your journal. Unless I got it from your journal, or you've already posted it on your journal.
I usually don't do this, but I'm up for the interaction. Indulge me, once again. This, I command.
Classified under:personal,memes
Had she been awake, I doubt that we'd have that much to say. For the last week, we've been emailing each other quite a bit; an email per day. It's like the old days, brain picking with a dash of inuendo. It's good to know that she's still the same person, inspite of the fact that she's getting married.
Tangently, I've shamelessly stolen another meme from Heather. Shameless, I tell you!
1. Reply with your name and I'll respond with something random about you.
2. I'll tell you what song/movie reminds me of you.
3. I'll pick a flavor of jello to wrestle with you in.
4. I'll say something that only makes sense to you and me.
5. I'll tell you my first/clearest memory of you.
6. I'll tell you what animal you remind me of.
7. I'll ask you something that I've always wondered about you.
8. If I do this for you, you must post this on your journal. Unless I got it from your journal, or you've already posted it on your journal.
I usually don't do this, but I'm up for the interaction. Indulge me, once again. This, I command.
Classified under:personal,memes
Books that I want to read
Coming up later this year is a new comic by Vertigo comics called Testament. The premise is intriguing, as it's an alogorical comic about the Bible. Much like how cinema often reinterprets the Dracula myth for each generation, Testament reimagines the Old Testament in a world much like our own. Seeing as Vertigo usually trades their comics 6 months after the end of an arc, I'll be waiting until next October to pick the series up.
My buddy from tree planting recommended a book to me called the Dice Man. He assures me that it's one of the greatest novels that he's ever read. Considering how much reading material digested, I'll take his word for it. He tells me that it's a book about a psychologist that, in a fit of boredom, decides to make all his life choices based on a roll of the dice. Denis urged me to go into the book clean, knowing no more than that, so thats what I have planned.
The collected edition of Demo is coming out later this year, the critically acclaimed comic by Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan. Originally sold as "what if kids had powers in the real world", it looks to be much better than that.
Also published by AiT-Planet Lar, the guys that brought out Demo is Tales From Fish Camp. It involves tales of hard drinking and hard work, which sounds like tree planting.
The first two trades of Scott Pilgrim will be waiting for me in PG when I get back. I look forward to this more than anything else.
Classified under:books,comics
My buddy from tree planting recommended a book to me called the Dice Man. He assures me that it's one of the greatest novels that he's ever read. Considering how much reading material digested, I'll take his word for it. He tells me that it's a book about a psychologist that, in a fit of boredom, decides to make all his life choices based on a roll of the dice. Denis urged me to go into the book clean, knowing no more than that, so thats what I have planned.
The collected edition of Demo is coming out later this year, the critically acclaimed comic by Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan. Originally sold as "what if kids had powers in the real world", it looks to be much better than that.
Also published by AiT-Planet Lar, the guys that brought out Demo is Tales From Fish Camp. It involves tales of hard drinking and hard work, which sounds like tree planting.
The first two trades of Scott Pilgrim will be waiting for me in PG when I get back. I look forward to this more than anything else.
Classified under:books,comics
Wednesday, August 03, 2005
Why Rogers is pissing me off
A couple of days ago, I was pretty stoked to find out that I could send email to my Rogers cell account. Seeing as I'm now spending most of my day away from the computer *gasp*, I figured that getting my e-mail would make things easier. Since I have an utterly kickass gmail account, I knew that anything that came into my mail box would easily be forwarded to my cell, unlike my shitty hotmail one. I had all this cool shit planned out for my cell. I was going to use one of those RSS subscription services to send feeds to my e-mail account, allowing me to pretty much have all the web access that I'd need on my phone. Pretty cool, eh? Unfortunately for me, Rogers has this bullshit policy of billing me for emails received as text messages. To receive a message, I have to text Rogers to authorize it, a 15 cent fee each time. To make matters worse, there's a 160 character limit per message, which means that depending on the length of the message, you'll be shelling out more money. Pretty shitty. I heard that this policy is a relatively new, just added last month. , so I'm not the only one being burned. Hopefully Rogers realizes the error of their ways and reinstitues their old system, but seeing as they're a money hungry corporation, it's quite doubtful.
Le sigh!
Classified under:rogers,cell phones
Le sigh!
Classified under:rogers,cell phones
Rob needs help badly!
If someone could get all the tracks from the Go! Team's album, Thunder, Ligthening Strike and put them on the internet via You Send It, I would be *very* grateful.
Classified under:personal,the Go! Team
Classified under:personal,the Go! Team
Thursday, July 28, 2005
Memegasm!
If you're on Heather's friend list on her livejournal (and chance are, you're not, because you're not fucking cool), you might have noticed that she posted a meme. I'm not one to do memetic stuff, usually, but for my push for content, I'm taking the plunge. Prepare yourselves!
The meme goes as follows:
Ask me for my "Top 5" of pretty much anything & I will give you my list.
Then copy this in your journal and let everyone else ask you for lists
Pretty pushy, eh? I have followed her orders, as I am a weak willed man. Aras, she didn't answer my question. Unlike her, however, I WILL! Isn't the internet wild and utterly mad?
Classified under:memes,lists
The meme goes as follows:
Ask me for my "Top 5" of pretty much anything & I will give you my list.
Then copy this in your journal and let everyone else ask you for lists
Pretty pushy, eh? I have followed her orders, as I am a weak willed man. Aras, she didn't answer my question. Unlike her, however, I WILL! Isn't the internet wild and utterly mad?
Classified under:memes,lists
Tone Twilight Zone
One of my weirder experiences tree planting was one of the e-mails that I received when I got back. It was from my lady friend from Japan, Miwa. She had e-mailed and told me that I had phoned her while I was tree planting and wanted to thank me for the phone call. This is odd for a couple of reasons. First of all, I had no access to telephones while I was planting trees. This makes it pretty much impossible as it is to talk to her. Secondly, even if I did have telephone access, she never gave me her telephone number. Thirdly, assuming that I *did* call her, using my cell, there was no signal where I was, and, even if I did have signal, I have to contact Rogers before I makes calls overseas lest someone has stolen my cell. So yeah, it was pretty disconcerting. I'm almost of the opinion that there's a Rob from a parallel universe. It's *very* weird. That said, judging from her sheer joy in the e-mail, she was pleased as punch that I called. Today, Miwako returned the favour and called me this morning. It was great to hear her trademarke "Harro, Rob!" once again and catch up on each other's lives, despite me not having called her before. Her birthday is coming up soon, which means I'll have to give her a phone call. For real, this time
Classified under:weird,Miwako+Takabe
Classified under:weird,Miwako+Takabe
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
Spin's Greatest Albums of the Last 20 Years
Classified under:music,lists
Last month's issue featured a top 100 list of the greatest CDs of the last 20 years. I, being a list whore, had no choice but to pick it up. Since Spin
isn't on par with Blender or Rolling Stone, there's a lot of suspect choices on the list. That said, I figured that I'd save you all some money and give you
the top 20 albums of the last 20 years.
Note, the albums bolded are ones that I own, bootlegged or otherwise. Gasp in shock and horror as we see the horrible holes in my musical library. My commentary will be in brackets. Without further ado...
1)Radiohead-OK Computer
2)Public Enemy-It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
3)Nirvana-Nevermind
4)Pavement-Slanted and Enchanted
5)the Smiths-the Queen is Dead
6)Pixies-Surfer Rosa (I listened to this CD over and over again while I was planting at Blue River. It took a while to get into, but now I *really* love their sound. Frank Black's scratchy guitar bat screeches are phenomenal)
7)De La Soul-3 Fee High and Rising
8)Prince-Sign 'o' the Times
9)PJ Harvey-Rid of Me (Anyone ever listen to PJ Harvey? There was a lot of buzz on her new album but I've seemed to have completely missed out. Last summer, the CBC decried that Alanis Morriset had fucked her career over and had killed the riot grrl movement that she started. Note: this might be bull)
10)N.W.A.-Straight Outta Compton (I get merciless ribbing from Anson for liking this album)
11)U2-Achtung Baby
12)Beastie Boys-Paul's Boutique (This is the only Beastie Boys album that I own)
13)Husker Du-New Day Rising (Husker Du always sounded like a wannabe hippie icecream company)
14)Sonic Youth-Daydream Nation'
15)Liz Phair-Exile in Guyville
16)Beck-Odelay (Shame alert! I never heard this album until I started planting trees this summer. Very impressive. You could hear the Dust Brother's fingerprints all over it)
17)Nas-Illmatic
18)Guns 'N' Roses-Appetite for Destruction (I've been meaning to buy this for ages. Welcome to the Jungle and Sweet Child o' Mine are both very ace)
19)Hole-Live Through This (When my friend from Ireland, Denis, say this, he called the whole list a load of bollocks. He doesn't dig Hole)
20)Wu-tang Clan-Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
21)Public Enemy-Fear of a Black Planet
22)My Bloody Valentine-Loveless (The WEF used to rave about My Bloody Valentine. Am I missing out?)
23)Outkast-Skankonia (I should pick this one up to, as it has Ms Jackson and Gasoline Dreams. Great songs, those)
24)Sleater-Kinney-Dig Me Out ( I have it on good authority that Sleater Kinney is pretty good too)
25)Nine Inch Nails-The Downward Spiral
26)Bjork-Post (Bjork has a huge queer following. Why? This is something that I don't understand, as I am a straight man)
27)the Cure-The Head on the Door (I have a copy of the Cure's set from Coachella 2004 that I've probably listened to twice now. I wasn't that impressed.)
28)Oasis-Definatelu Maybe
29)Fugazi-13 Songs
30)the Notorious B.I.G.-Ready to Die (I had a chance to listen to this album this summer. Halfway through, I said "Fuck this", and switched to Dre 2001.)
31)Dinosaur Jr.-You're Living All Over Me
32)the Replacements-Tim (I bought this when I bought DJ Shadow's Pre-emptive strike for my love of Can't Hardly Wait and Alex Chilton, which aren't on this album. Since it's on the list, I guess it's time to re-examine.
33)Ice Cube-AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted (I still say that Ice Cube is our generation's Bill Cosby)
34)Elliot SMith-Either/Or
35)Dr. Dre-the Chronic (Thanks to San Andreas, I'd probably pick this up for Dre Day and Nothin' But a G Thang)
36)Pixies-Doolite
37)Guided By Voices-Bee Thousand
38)A Tribe Called Quest-The Low End Theory
39)Lucinda Williams-Lucinda Williams
40)Run-D.M.C.-Raising Hell
41)Smashing Pumpkins-Siamese Dreams
42)Jane's Addiction-Nothing's Shocking (And yes, I am aware that I'm missing out hardcore by not having picked up the Smashing Pumpkins and Jane's Addiction.
Truth be told, I didn't start picking up CD's until the late 90s. FACT!)
43)Boogie Down Productions-Criminal Minded
44)Green Day-Dookie
45)Kanye West-College Dropout (I probably wouldn't have picked this up if I didn't hear Lyndsey glorify Kanye almost every fucking day on the block. It's an excellent rap album that takes the piss out of most of the rap that you hear on the radio. Great lyrics and fantastic beats. I picked it up for 10 bucks at CD Plus. You can't go wrong with that.
46)The Fall-This Nation's Saving Grace
47)Eric B & Rakim-Paid in Full
48)Radiohead-Kid A (Has one of my favourite opening tracks of all time. I was so impressed with their sound on this, I picked up Hail to the Thief. I thought Kid A was better)
49)Lauryn Hill-The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
50)New Order-Low-Life
51)Nirvana-In Utero
52)Beastie Boys-Licensed to Ill
53)Rage Against the Machine-The Battle of Los Angeles (Both this and Licensed to Ill, my brother Simon owns and loves)
54)the Breeders-Last Splash
55)The Chemical Brothers-Dig Your Own Hole
56)PJ Harvey=To Bring You My Love
57)White Stripes-White Blood Cells (Yeah, I know, I should own this album. Blah, blah, blah)
58)Metalica-Master of Puppets
59)Modest Mouse-The Lonesome Crowded West
60)De La Soul-De La Soul Is Dead
61)Weezer-Pinkerton (I have a feeling that hard-core Weezer fans, Mike, I'm talking to you, will dispute this being on the list)
62)Missy Elliot-Supa Dupa Fly
63)Pavement-Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
64)Eminem-The Marshal Matthers LP
65)Basement Jaxx-Remedy
66)Outkast-Aquemini
67)Slayer-Reign in Blood
68)Tricky-Maxiquaye
69)DJ Shadow-Entroducing (Being a huge Shadow fan, I'm glad to see him on the list. Entroducing is an awesome album)
70)Jay-Z-the Blueprint
71)The Jesus and Mary Chain-Psychocandy
72)Raekwon-Onlu Built 4 Cuban Linx
73)Pulp-Different Class (The coolest girl that I worked with this summer, Angela, was a huge Pulp fan. She, Denis and I would spend our evenings in the truck listening to this CD belting out Common People almost every night. Besides staring at the ass of Candance, IMO, the cutest girl at camp, this was my favourite part of my downtime)
74)Portishead-Dummy
75)Le Tigre-Le Tigre
76)Belle and Sebastian-If You're Feeling Sinister
77)Wilco-Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (I have the feeling that Mike will sell me on this one)
78)the Stone Roses-the Stone Roses
79)Moby-Everything is Wrong
80)D'Angelo-Voodoo
81)Beck-Mellow Gold
82)Jeff Buckley-Grace
83)At the Drive-In-Relationship of Command
84)Soundgarden-Superunknown
85)R.E.M.-Automatic for the People
86)Meat Puppers-Up on the Sun
87)Blur Parklife
88)Stereolab-Emperor Tomato Ketchup (Didn't Stereolab do that infectious song for that Voltzwagon commercial?)
89)Yeah Yeah Yeahs-Fever to Tell
90)Sonic Youth-Sister
91)XTC-Skylarking
92)Big Black-Atomizer
93)Pearl Jam-Ten
94)Slint-Spiderland
95)Elastica-Elastica
96)the Pogues-Rum, Sodomy & the Lash
97)Neutral Milk Hotel-In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
98)Cornershop-When I was Born for the 7th Time
99)Afgan Wings-Gentlemen
100)the Strokes-Is This It (More like This is shit. After listening to this album treeplanting, for the love of me, I couldn't figure out what all the fuss
was about)
Last month's issue featured a top 100 list of the greatest CDs of the last 20 years. I, being a list whore, had no choice but to pick it up. Since Spin
isn't on par with Blender or Rolling Stone, there's a lot of suspect choices on the list. That said, I figured that I'd save you all some money and give you
the top 20 albums of the last 20 years.
Note, the albums bolded are ones that I own, bootlegged or otherwise. Gasp in shock and horror as we see the horrible holes in my musical library. My commentary will be in brackets. Without further ado...
1)Radiohead-OK Computer
2)Public Enemy-It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
3)Nirvana-Nevermind
4)Pavement-Slanted and Enchanted
5)the Smiths-the Queen is Dead
6)Pixies-Surfer Rosa (I listened to this CD over and over again while I was planting at Blue River. It took a while to get into, but now I *really* love their sound. Frank Black's scratchy guitar bat screeches are phenomenal)
7)De La Soul-3 Fee High and Rising
8)Prince-Sign 'o' the Times
9)PJ Harvey-Rid of Me (Anyone ever listen to PJ Harvey? There was a lot of buzz on her new album but I've seemed to have completely missed out. Last summer, the CBC decried that Alanis Morriset had fucked her career over and had killed the riot grrl movement that she started. Note: this might be bull)
10)N.W.A.-Straight Outta Compton (I get merciless ribbing from Anson for liking this album)
11)U2-Achtung Baby
12)Beastie Boys-Paul's Boutique (This is the only Beastie Boys album that I own)
13)Husker Du-New Day Rising (Husker Du always sounded like a wannabe hippie icecream company)
14)Sonic Youth-Daydream Nation'
15)Liz Phair-Exile in Guyville
16)Beck-Odelay (Shame alert! I never heard this album until I started planting trees this summer. Very impressive. You could hear the Dust Brother's fingerprints all over it)
17)Nas-Illmatic
18)Guns 'N' Roses-Appetite for Destruction (I've been meaning to buy this for ages. Welcome to the Jungle and Sweet Child o' Mine are both very ace)
19)Hole-Live Through This (When my friend from Ireland, Denis, say this, he called the whole list a load of bollocks. He doesn't dig Hole)
20)Wu-tang Clan-Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
21)Public Enemy-Fear of a Black Planet
22)My Bloody Valentine-Loveless (The WEF used to rave about My Bloody Valentine. Am I missing out?)
23)Outkast-Skankonia (I should pick this one up to, as it has Ms Jackson and Gasoline Dreams. Great songs, those)
24)Sleater-Kinney-Dig Me Out ( I have it on good authority that Sleater Kinney is pretty good too)
25)Nine Inch Nails-The Downward Spiral
26)Bjork-Post (Bjork has a huge queer following. Why? This is something that I don't understand, as I am a straight man)
27)the Cure-The Head on the Door (I have a copy of the Cure's set from Coachella 2004 that I've probably listened to twice now. I wasn't that impressed.)
28)Oasis-Definatelu Maybe
29)Fugazi-13 Songs
30)the Notorious B.I.G.-Ready to Die (I had a chance to listen to this album this summer. Halfway through, I said "Fuck this", and switched to Dre 2001.)
31)Dinosaur Jr.-You're Living All Over Me
32)the Replacements-Tim (I bought this when I bought DJ Shadow's Pre-emptive strike for my love of Can't Hardly Wait and Alex Chilton, which aren't on this album. Since it's on the list, I guess it's time to re-examine.
33)Ice Cube-AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted (I still say that Ice Cube is our generation's Bill Cosby)
34)Elliot SMith-Either/Or
35)Dr. Dre-the Chronic (Thanks to San Andreas, I'd probably pick this up for Dre Day and Nothin' But a G Thang)
36)Pixies-Doolite
37)Guided By Voices-Bee Thousand
38)A Tribe Called Quest-The Low End Theory
39)Lucinda Williams-Lucinda Williams
40)Run-D.M.C.-Raising Hell
41)Smashing Pumpkins-Siamese Dreams
42)Jane's Addiction-Nothing's Shocking (And yes, I am aware that I'm missing out hardcore by not having picked up the Smashing Pumpkins and Jane's Addiction.
Truth be told, I didn't start picking up CD's until the late 90s. FACT!)
43)Boogie Down Productions-Criminal Minded
44)Green Day-Dookie
45)Kanye West-College Dropout (I probably wouldn't have picked this up if I didn't hear Lyndsey glorify Kanye almost every fucking day on the block. It's an excellent rap album that takes the piss out of most of the rap that you hear on the radio. Great lyrics and fantastic beats. I picked it up for 10 bucks at CD Plus. You can't go wrong with that.
46)The Fall-This Nation's Saving Grace
47)Eric B & Rakim-Paid in Full
48)Radiohead-Kid A (Has one of my favourite opening tracks of all time. I was so impressed with their sound on this, I picked up Hail to the Thief. I thought Kid A was better)
49)Lauryn Hill-The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
50)New Order-Low-Life
51)Nirvana-In Utero
52)Beastie Boys-Licensed to Ill
53)Rage Against the Machine-The Battle of Los Angeles (Both this and Licensed to Ill, my brother Simon owns and loves)
54)the Breeders-Last Splash
55)The Chemical Brothers-Dig Your Own Hole
56)PJ Harvey=To Bring You My Love
57)White Stripes-White Blood Cells (Yeah, I know, I should own this album. Blah, blah, blah)
58)Metalica-Master of Puppets
59)Modest Mouse-The Lonesome Crowded West
60)De La Soul-De La Soul Is Dead
61)Weezer-Pinkerton (I have a feeling that hard-core Weezer fans, Mike, I'm talking to you, will dispute this being on the list)
62)Missy Elliot-Supa Dupa Fly
63)Pavement-Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
64)Eminem-The Marshal Matthers LP
65)Basement Jaxx-Remedy
66)Outkast-Aquemini
67)Slayer-Reign in Blood
68)Tricky-Maxiquaye
69)DJ Shadow-Entroducing (Being a huge Shadow fan, I'm glad to see him on the list. Entroducing is an awesome album)
70)Jay-Z-the Blueprint
71)The Jesus and Mary Chain-Psychocandy
72)Raekwon-Onlu Built 4 Cuban Linx
73)Pulp-Different Class (The coolest girl that I worked with this summer, Angela, was a huge Pulp fan. She, Denis and I would spend our evenings in the truck listening to this CD belting out Common People almost every night. Besides staring at the ass of Candance, IMO, the cutest girl at camp, this was my favourite part of my downtime)
74)Portishead-Dummy
75)Le Tigre-Le Tigre
76)Belle and Sebastian-If You're Feeling Sinister
77)Wilco-Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (I have the feeling that Mike will sell me on this one)
78)the Stone Roses-the Stone Roses
79)Moby-Everything is Wrong
80)D'Angelo-Voodoo
81)Beck-Mellow Gold
82)Jeff Buckley-Grace
83)At the Drive-In-Relationship of Command
84)Soundgarden-Superunknown
85)R.E.M.-Automatic for the People
86)Meat Puppers-Up on the Sun
87)Blur Parklife
88)Stereolab-Emperor Tomato Ketchup (Didn't Stereolab do that infectious song for that Voltzwagon commercial?)
89)Yeah Yeah Yeahs-Fever to Tell
90)Sonic Youth-Sister
91)XTC-Skylarking
92)Big Black-Atomizer
93)Pearl Jam-Ten
94)Slint-Spiderland
95)Elastica-Elastica
96)the Pogues-Rum, Sodomy & the Lash
97)Neutral Milk Hotel-In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
98)Cornershop-When I was Born for the 7th Time
99)Afgan Wings-Gentlemen
100)the Strokes-Is This It (More like This is shit. After listening to this album treeplanting, for the love of me, I couldn't figure out what all the fuss
was about)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
