Films of the 2000s

This is really well done. Not much to say other than that.

Films of the 2000s:

Peter Gabriel - Scratch My Back

I've lost track of Peter Gabriel in the period since John Cusack held a boombox aloft in "Say Anything" but he's come up with an interesting concept.

With his new album, entitled "Scratch My Back" Gabriel covers 12 songs by 12 different artists. Then, later, another album will be released of those 12 artists covering Peter Gabriel songs, entitled "I'll Scratch Yours". The main point of interest is the artists involved. Other than Peter Gabriel, you have names like David Bowie, Paul Simon, Talking Heads, Lou Reed, Arcade Fire, Radiohead and Neil Young.

Check out an exclusive preview of the first album here.

I'm a fairly big fan of some of his work with Genesis and his solo album "So" is a masterpiece in my opinion. However, I haven't heard much of his material since then and this is his first release in 8 years so I didn't quite know what to expect. My initial impression is that the style of the moment for him seems to be slow, dire, stark and dour. If you're looking for dark and atmospheric music this is probably the album for you. If you're not, it's not. From what I've heard so far, I'm not sure but I'm liking it. I wouldn't say any one songs stands out at this point but that's to be expected - it's the kind of thing that sneaks up on you slowly. I'll keep listening and see what I find. Anyways, I'm more looking forward to the second album - with all those artists it's bound to be an interesting treasure trove of interesting covers.

The rumormill is abuzz with what song each artist will cover. I've heard that Bowie isn't involved and it actually be Brian Eno who will do the response song (lame). The biggest mystery is exactly how the Talking Heads are involved as they have said things in the past that indicate that they'll never reunite.

Snowmageddon

The other day on the weather they displayed a graphic that read, "Thundersnow". Aside from thinking, "that's a great band name", I was puzzled. Never heard the phrase before in my life. Even stranger was that (assuming it means the same thing as "Thunderstorm" but with the snow) I realized that I don't think I've ever seen that happen in my life and I had never thought about it.

According to wikipedia, thundersnow "is a rare thunderstorm with snow falling as the primary precipitation instead of rain. It commonly falls in regions of strong upward motion within the cold sector of extratropical cyclones between autumn and spring when surface temperatures are most likely to be near or below freezing. Variations exist, such as thundersleet, where the precipitation consists of ice pellets rather than snow." So it is what it sounds like.

Hopefully I get to see it. The best would be if it happened at night. I just picture a dark sky, lit up by lightning and the lightning lighting up all the snow around it. It must look amazing.

Here's the forecast for the Baltimore area. I have to say it sounds much better for that area than it does for here. Or worse. I don't know.

Oh, those Russians.

The Worst Video Game Ever?

Trying to pin down a "Worst Video Game Ever" would be a tough task. There are a number of factors (graphics, sound, playability, challenge, fun, control) to try to judge. And even if you could judge them, how could you weigh them? Would it be worse to have an Atari "giant block" mess with no soundtrack or a 64-bit game that's monotonous and boring. Would it be worse to have an 8-bit Nintendo game with a first level that can't be beaten or would it be worse to play a state-of-the-art computer game with a bug that causes your computer to crash? Is it worse to have a game consisting of a single boring level or would it be worse to have 8 boring levels?

And on top of the fact that it's a very tough, very subjective decision that depends on many disparate factors, it's also a decision that I would have no authority to speak about. I played as much as the next guy in the past but that would be about 1/10000 of 1% of all the games out there and my current average is 0 games per day.

Nevertheless, as hard as the decision is and as ill-informed as I am, I CAN say that if a contest for "Worst Video Game Ever Made" were to take place, the game "Plumbers Don't Wear Ties" should DEFINITELY be a finalist. It's just so clear that it's that bad. I'll allow the Angry Video Game Nerd to make the case in his review. A word of caution: this isn't safe for work.

Not the funniest review by any means but the badness of the "game" is at a level that has to be seen to be believed.

The Worst Impression In the World Or: Why Is Ashton Kutcher Famous?

Want to see the worst impression ever done on national television? Sure, we all do. It happened during a "The View" sketch in this week's SNL. Ashton Kutcher comes on as Mel Gibson...

And so here it is... Ashton Kutcher's "Mel Gibson impression" (if you feel the need to get right to it, skip to 3:40): [Embedding disabled so click here.]

.....

There it is. The worst impression by anyone ever.

But why is Ashton Kutcher hosting Saturday Night Live to begin with? If you feel you can justifiably answer that question, I invite you to watch the rest of the show and prove yourself to be 100% wrong in every way. He can't act. He's not funny. He can't deliver a joke. He can't dance, he can't sing, he exhibits no special talents of any kind whatsoever. I would question whether he can even read except that's the only way I can explain what he was doing in the sketches - staring at a cue card and reading the words he sees as he sees them. So there's no possible reason for him to be on SNL, but much more importantly there's no reason he should be famous at all. If my uncle had been the host of SNL this week, he'd of done a horrible job but it would still have made more sense than Ashton Kutcher.

The most annoying answer to the question, "How is Ashton Kutcher famous?" is that it's because he's married to Demi Moore. Is that really how it works though? If you marry someone famous you get to be in commercials, in movies, on tv or hosting SNL? Steven Spielberg's really famous, would it be a good idea for her to host SNL? I can do even better... Jamie Kennedy had a short-lived hidden camera show and is dating Jennifer Love Hewitt; Jamie Kennedy would make a great SNL host. How 'bout it?!

Super Bowl of Love II

As plugged in to popular culture as I tend to be, the Super Bowl is a giant disconnect. If someone asks me, "Did you see that one play where that one thing happened?" the answer is automatically, "No."

"Did you see that singer do that thing during the halftime show?"

"Nope."

"Did you see X, Y and Z commercials? I liked Y best." "Don't know what you're talking about. Didn't see any of them. I can't decide if small talk about commercials is even more inane, tedious and annoying to me than small talk about the weather. Uh oh, did I just say that out loud?"

That's because I've imposed a strict ban* on the Super Bowl for probably about a decade. One year me and a friend, in lieu of watching the Super Bowl, watched "Muppet Treasure Island". Another year me and another friend, in lieu of watching the Super Bowl that year, watched "Puppy Bowl I" on Animal Planet (narrated by the great Harry Kalas). Two of my favorite Super Bowl (or non-Super Bowl memories) of all-time. Later, there was a plan to watch "Follow that Bird" on Super Bowl night but I can't remember if we actually did that.

Having said that, did you see the one ad that aired during the Super Bowl???? In case you're like me, here it is:

* The exact ban is: I don't care about the Super Bowl if my team isn't in it. If my team was in the Super Bowl, I would not only watch, but agree that it would be the biggest sporting event of the year. Without my favorite team to root for, the whole thing is an over-hyped mass-produced, dumbed down, overblown corporate crapfest in my opinion where the game of football comes secondary to everything else.

Edit: The title is "Super Bowl of Love II" because the first one aired last year and can be seen here. The title is not just derived from the fact that it airs during the Super Bowl. I mean, that's obviously part of it, but it comes from a long running gag on the Late Show which would take too long to explain here.