As requested, Top 5 Tom Waits film performances (admittedly, I haven't seen them all)
5. Rumble Fish "The older you get you say, "Jesus, how much I got? I got thirty-five summers left." Think about it. Thirty-five summers. "
4. Dracula (but only for a deleted scene of him in an insane asylum)
3. Mystery Men
2. The Book of Eli
1. Down by Law
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Top 5: Gravel of the Top 5
I'm making this post in lieu of stupid whiny self-pitying emo bullshit
Top 5 Tom Waits songs
5. "Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis" - Blue Valentine
4. "Clap Hands" - Rain Dogs
3. "Jitterbug Boy" - Small Change
2. "Please Call Me Baby" - Heart of Saturday Night
1. "Eggs and Sausage" - Nighthawks at the Diner
Honorable mentions: Blue Valentine, Little Trip to Heaven, Eyeball Kid, Mr. Siegal, Tango Till They're Sore, Gun Street Girl, Heartattack and Vine
Top 5 Tom Waits songs
5. "Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis" - Blue Valentine
4. "Clap Hands" - Rain Dogs
3. "Jitterbug Boy" - Small Change
2. "Please Call Me Baby" - Heart of Saturday Night
1. "Eggs and Sausage" - Nighthawks at the Diner
Honorable mentions: Blue Valentine, Little Trip to Heaven, Eyeball Kid, Mr. Siegal, Tango Till They're Sore, Gun Street Girl, Heartattack and Vine
Friday, February 4, 2011
Blasphemy
I'm just talking about blas-phe-my! Blas-phe-you!
- Eddie Izzard
My favorite musician is Chris Smither. It used to be Paul Simon, but I'm pretty certain it's changed. Not only is he one of the most amazing guitarists I've ever heard, he's an insanely ingenious lyricist. A highlight was getting to shake his hand when I went to see him live.
Chris is a folk and blues musician, really straddling the in-between places. Both genres tend to be very religious. It's one of the reasons I like blues, really, as the practitioners are religious, but sin anyways. Makes them human. But that's besides the point. Point is, religiousness. Except Chris. Somehow he manages to be relatively successful while making bunches of songs that express his religious doubts. Sometimes funny, sometimes thought-provoking, sometimes downright blasphemous. For example, see below, his song Origin of Species
Why do I bring this up? I have no idea really. I was just listening to one of his songs, and I started really paying attention to the lyrics, and I suddenly realized what he was talking about. The man is brilliant. The song is Call Yourself from his latest album, Time Stands Still, which everyone should own because I say so. I'm posting the lyrics below.
I got a suspicion
That the world is on a mission
To show me just how little I can do
Good times go by fast
All the bad ones seem to last
So much longer than I'd ever want them to
The way we deal with troubles
Reveals how much we know
They often make us stronger
But they lay us pretty low
Before they do
Some say they don't worry
Help is coming in a hurry
Celestial silence sounding so divine
Coming down so holy
Trailing clouds of glory
Bands of angels hustling up behind
Santa Claus is coming
The Easter Bunny too
Tinkerbell's been running late
But that ain't nothing new
She takes her time
There's just superheroes in all sizes
Coming like the sea that rises
In a tide to wash away our tears
They never show up till we need them
Not before we're bruised and bleeding
The nick-of-time is music to their ears
Dressed in ties and tails
A sight for jaded eyes
The whiteness of the suits
Sets of the blackness of the lies
We never hear
If you give them all your money
They'll say "thanks" and call you honey
Tell you silver is the way to save your soul
If you're empty deep inside
They'll take you for a ride
And charge you double just for pointing out the holes
Slick as Simple Simon
In a coat of shiny mail
An attitude of innocence
That never ever fails
To leave you cold
Oh the next time you're in trouble
When life's feeling like a bubble
Getting bigger while your mind is getting small
Skip the flash and thunder
Dial up your own number
See if you can answer your own call
Oh the conversation's brutal
It's often pretty clear
It's brief and to the point
And if you stick it in your ear
You'll hear it all
You'll hear it all
- Eddie Izzard
My favorite musician is Chris Smither. It used to be Paul Simon, but I'm pretty certain it's changed. Not only is he one of the most amazing guitarists I've ever heard, he's an insanely ingenious lyricist. A highlight was getting to shake his hand when I went to see him live.
Chris is a folk and blues musician, really straddling the in-between places. Both genres tend to be very religious. It's one of the reasons I like blues, really, as the practitioners are religious, but sin anyways. Makes them human. But that's besides the point. Point is, religiousness. Except Chris. Somehow he manages to be relatively successful while making bunches of songs that express his religious doubts. Sometimes funny, sometimes thought-provoking, sometimes downright blasphemous. For example, see below, his song Origin of Species
Why do I bring this up? I have no idea really. I was just listening to one of his songs, and I started really paying attention to the lyrics, and I suddenly realized what he was talking about. The man is brilliant. The song is Call Yourself from his latest album, Time Stands Still, which everyone should own because I say so. I'm posting the lyrics below.
I got a suspicion
That the world is on a mission
To show me just how little I can do
Good times go by fast
All the bad ones seem to last
So much longer than I'd ever want them to
The way we deal with troubles
Reveals how much we know
They often make us stronger
But they lay us pretty low
Before they do
Some say they don't worry
Help is coming in a hurry
Celestial silence sounding so divine
Coming down so holy
Trailing clouds of glory
Bands of angels hustling up behind
Santa Claus is coming
The Easter Bunny too
Tinkerbell's been running late
But that ain't nothing new
She takes her time
There's just superheroes in all sizes
Coming like the sea that rises
In a tide to wash away our tears
They never show up till we need them
Not before we're bruised and bleeding
The nick-of-time is music to their ears
Dressed in ties and tails
A sight for jaded eyes
The whiteness of the suits
Sets of the blackness of the lies
We never hear
If you give them all your money
They'll say "thanks" and call you honey
Tell you silver is the way to save your soul
If you're empty deep inside
They'll take you for a ride
And charge you double just for pointing out the holes
Slick as Simple Simon
In a coat of shiny mail
An attitude of innocence
That never ever fails
To leave you cold
Oh the next time you're in trouble
When life's feeling like a bubble
Getting bigger while your mind is getting small
Skip the flash and thunder
Dial up your own number
See if you can answer your own call
Oh the conversation's brutal
It's often pretty clear
It's brief and to the point
And if you stick it in your ear
You'll hear it all
You'll hear it all
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
You can never go too far
You can never go too far
- Ferris Bueller's Day Off
The local strip club in town is a place called Night Moves. I like to drive by it because they have a road sign that has often humorous and risque quips on it, as you would expect for a strip club road sign. Well, their current one is pushing it. And by pushing it, I mean awesome.
"One dollar nose warmers inside"
Seeing it was the type of moment you wish you had been drinking so you could do a spit-take. Well done fellas. I think you set sexual equality back a few years, but it was totally worth it.
- Ferris Bueller's Day Off
The local strip club in town is a place called Night Moves. I like to drive by it because they have a road sign that has often humorous and risque quips on it, as you would expect for a strip club road sign. Well, their current one is pushing it. And by pushing it, I mean awesome.
"One dollar nose warmers inside"
Seeing it was the type of moment you wish you had been drinking so you could do a spit-take. Well done fellas. I think you set sexual equality back a few years, but it was totally worth it.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Already?
A new year. Where the fuck did the old one go? I wasn't done with it yet. I had barely even started. I was supposed to be so much farther along in my career than this. The next 8 months are so are going to be crucial for my career. If I don't succeed...I don't know what will happen. Failure and depression, probably.
How about my personal life? Well, it's actually been pretty decent. My girlfriend and I are stable. While we've had our rough times, particularly toward the beginning of the year, we've...well...I don't want to say we've ironed those out, or fixed them. But we've recognized them and are working on them and we are being very patient with each other. It's a good relationship. We are solid. We've never had an argument. We've disagreed, sure, but we've never actually argued. Will we? I think it's mathematically impossible to be with someone for an extended period of time without arguing, but at this point we realize we love each other very much, so nothing is really worth getting that upset over, and we can work things out.
Anyways, that's enough of that. I must get on with my New Year's tradition: looking over last years New Year's post. And making fun of myself.
And now this years:
How about my personal life? Well, it's actually been pretty decent. My girlfriend and I are stable. While we've had our rough times, particularly toward the beginning of the year, we've...well...I don't want to say we've ironed those out, or fixed them. But we've recognized them and are working on them and we are being very patient with each other. It's a good relationship. We are solid. We've never had an argument. We've disagreed, sure, but we've never actually argued. Will we? I think it's mathematically impossible to be with someone for an extended period of time without arguing, but at this point we realize we love each other very much, so nothing is really worth getting that upset over, and we can work things out.
Anyways, that's enough of that. I must get on with my New Year's tradition: looking over last years New Year's post. And making fun of myself.
- Begin working out again
- Go to the doctor and get myself back on medication
- Write SOMETHING damnit
- Try to publish a work of fiction
- Visit my friends in North Carolina
- Try to see Coyote sometime
- Try to see Noq sometime
- Finish one standalone computer game
- Complete my masterwork vision in Dwarf Fortress
- Try to keep my girlfriend despite my emotional closed-offness
- Get drunk
- Get funky
- Get off
- Sleep 8 hours uninterrupted
- Clean my apartment once a month
- Go on a double date with my friend Pam and her husband
- Sample a new scotch
- Hold myself to my New Years resolutions only so much as I want, and not feel guilty if I fail
And now this years:
- Propose to my girl in a personal and creative fashion
- Make more blog posts that start with movie quotes
- Play the new version of Dwarf Fortress
- Get my guitar out once a month
- REALLY start to work on losing weight, to perhaps look good in a tux
- Finish the origami page-a-day calender from last year
- Succeed in doing some good science
- REALLY submit a story for publication (am I repeating myself here?)
- Finish the stack of books next to my bed
- Take a trip with my girl
- Take a chill pill
- Take a number
- Take a vacation before December
- Take a moment
- Work 8 hours without turning on my computer
- Eat a balanced breakfast
- Balance the books
- Book a flight
- Try to be happy
- Hold myself to my New Years resolutions only so much as I want, and not feel guilty if I fail
Monday, December 6, 2010
A post wherein I prove Coyote wrong
I finished reading the book of Lovecraft stories...and I liked it. I didn't love it, but I liked it. Even at this age, it still was pretty inventive. The storytelling was good, though the stories get to be formulaic. Take one academic type person, have them discover hints at an ancient horror, have them slowly pick up a trail of clues until they finally learn the horrible truth, then have them narrowly escape and question the point of sanity in such a universe. It's a testament to Lovecraft that he was able to make this formula work well over and over. The different styles of horror were well-conceived. A demon here, a bloody religious sect here, a dark history to a bloodline there.
The forward I read made a big deal of Lovecraft's racism. Yeah it was there, but I didn't find it as overt as the forward led me to believe.
I liked the Call of Cthulhu, The Shadow over Innsmouth (I dug the twist of the ending), Nyarlathotep and The Terrible Old Man.
Anyways, you owe me two and a half minutes of exultation of my person.
The forward I read made a big deal of Lovecraft's racism. Yeah it was there, but I didn't find it as overt as the forward led me to believe.
I liked the Call of Cthulhu, The Shadow over Innsmouth (I dug the twist of the ending), Nyarlathotep and The Terrible Old Man.
Anyways, you owe me two and a half minutes of exultation of my person.
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