Favorite Songs- March 2012

Here are the songs that I listened to in March that I liked the most. Yeah I realize it's almost May. Disclaimer: I listened to these songs in March, they may be older.

These are the four Songs I listened to more than anything in March. "Big Beast" and "The Full Retard" are both produced by El-P, and they are fuckin' banging. "Float" is an awesome posse cut, if a little more laid back than the other two. "Hey Ma, Wassup" has got so many of my favorite rappers on it, it hurts.



The Pitchfork Selector Mixtape has a lot of awesome tracks, this is one of my favorite.



Sleigh Bells 2nd album is not their 1st album, not by a long shot. They feel much more like a product than something to get excited about the second time around. But they do have some stand-out tracks. I really like "Comeback Kid".

Get More: Sleigh Bells, Comeback Kid, Music, More Music Videos

My boy Adam Warrock killed it in March with a bunch of standout tracks. My three favorite are below:

One S#!t


Wocka Flocka Swanson


W*zards in Paris



I caught up on my Hood Internet in March. Good things came from this:





Finally, for party people- Avicii Levels (Skrillex Remix)



My April music selection gets a little deeper, or whatever. Fuck off.

The Trapper Song

Finally watched Cannibal: The Musical the other day, one of Trey Parker and Matt Stone's first pieces of work. That movie is a delight. Here is one of my favorite songs from it.

Wye Oak - I Hope You Die

I got this song in a free Merge Records 2010 sampler off of Amazon and it's sat in my iTunes unclicked for over a year. Yesterday I found it and played it on a whim because Wye Oak topped the AV Club's list of best music of 2011. I have listened to it on repeat non-stop since. This is an incredibly beautiful song and I cannot wait to dive into their album Civilian.

5 Things about Young Adult

I'm stealing this format from Eugene Ahn (aka Adam Warrock, the #7 standout Nerd of 2011) because it frees me from feeling like I have to make the definitive statement about whatever movie I'm writing about. With that monkey off my back I should hopefully write more frequently. Also, there are minor spoilers ahead.

1. I liked this movie. I'm not sure how much yet though. It was very uneven and I felt like it dragged a little in the middle but by the end it totally won me over. I would definitely recommend it. Hell, I'd see it again just to try and parse out my feelings over it.

2. Though this was written by Diablo Cody, it is not Juno. It's much darker, less quirky and the protagonist is also the villain. Well... kind of. It's not that black and white, and that is one of the things I really loved about this movie. I know that by the end (spoiler alert) Mavis was able to shed the weight of her past and start on her way to allowing herself to be happy. But the way she did it heightened the "fuck these people I'm better than everyone" mentality that I thought was a pretty severe character flaw. But then again maybe that's what you have to do to move past caring about being judged and defining yourself by how others see you. Haven't totally figured that one out yet.

3. Patton Oswalt's performance as Matt, a nerdy guy who was crippled in high school when "The Jocks" beat him with a lead pipe because they thought he was gay, was excellent. He wasn't exactly out of his comfort zone playing a smartass nerd, but all the best scenes in the movie (with one notable exception) had him in it. He had the perfect balance of sarcasm, morality and fuck-it-all attitude and often served to call out just how crazy Charlize Theron's character was being. I am actually going to go watch "Big Fan" right now on the strength of his performance.

4. The last 20-30 minutes of Young Adult were near perfect. The movie had felt like it was meandering and I was not clear on where it was going. To that point my opinion of the movie was Patton Oswalt is excellent, but the rest was kind of "meh." I think this is largely because any story having to do with splitting up a relationship makes me irrationally uncomfortable. But from the points Mavis walks out the front door of Buddy's baby's naming ceremony onward, the movie is perfect. Mavis grows in a way that is positive, but not "uplifting" in a way that would betray the character. Her rant on the front lawn, her scene with Matt, her conversation with Matt's sister are all spot on, well written and terrifically acted. Things are resolved but not everything. Just like in real life.

5. There were moments of this movie that I genuinely connected with and not always in a pleasant way. A saw a lot of pieces of myself that I'm not particularly proud of reflected in Marvin's behavior when she was at her worst. The scene where she is totally losing it on the front lawn had some lines I could see myself saying and that's not a good thing. The hug between Marvin and Matt towards the end of the film captured how I felt when my high school girlfriend and I started dating- I was convinced I was hideous and had no earthly idea what she was doing with me. I was being unfair to myself at the time, but the contrast between Matt's broken short body and Marvin's model physique, and their emotional states at that moment, brought back that feeling so strongly. The themes in this movie are probably universal- the weight of nostalgia and history, dealing with personal tragedy, the incongruity between how someone sees themselves and how others view them- but there were moments in that film where I felt like Diablo Cody had plucked things directly out of my brain.

Despot

I saw Despot perform live with Das Racist and he was fucking amazing. He's a short dude with red hair that kind of looks like Mitchell from Modern Family but when he starts rapping he OWNS the stage. He actually led the entire crowd in aerobics at one point, which was hilarious.

Here is some of his music I like:

Look Alive


Crap Artists


There are a lot of amazing tracks out there where he stands out as having the best performance. For example on "Power" off Das Racist's "Relax" he ends what might be the best song on the album with what might be the best verse on the album:



He's also got a great verse on one of the other best tracks of 2011- "The Last Huzzah (Remix)" by Mr. Muthafuckin eXquire Ft. Despot, Das Racist, Danny Brown and EL-P:



From seeing Despot perform live I can tell you he's got wit, charisma and more talent than most rappers out there. The one thing he doesn't have is an album, but that is apparently coming in 2012 with all the beats done by the band Ratatat. If this track is any indication, it is going to be fucking awesome:

Das Racist - Mixtapes

Das Racist is the most exciting thing in Hip-Hop right now. I like it so much, I literally cannot listen to other music. I'm addicted to them the way I imagine Alcoholics are addicted to booze. But there is no Das Racist Anonymous and I'm pretty sure there are no detrimental side effects, aside from freestyling in my car when I should be watching the road, so I'm going to share my favorite stuff with you.

I've only dug into the free mixtapes so far, "Shut Up, Dude" and "Sit Down, Man." They also have a for-profit album titled "Relax" but I want to stretch this "so-excited-I-can't-believe-how-good-what-I'm-listening-to-is" feeling out for as long as I can, so I'm putting off listening to it until the month of October. Last time I liked two albums this this much was last year with the one-two punch of "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" and "Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager." I'm not going to try to come up with a definitive statement about who they are or what they are trying to say that's not already in their name. But they are from Queens and met at Wesleyan, if you care about stuff like that.

They don't have any songs I would consider less than excellent (with the possible exception of the original mixes of "Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell" and "One Dollar Can" but those are joke songs). Their music is dance-able, insightful and hilarious all at the same time while having an abundance of those lines that make you go "Oh shit," stop the track and rewind 10 seconds. Every day I have a new favorite song, but these are the front-runners right now.

Shut Up, Dude

Who's That? Broooown!



Nutmeg


Shorty Said


Sit Down, Man

rapping 2 U

This is actually my favorite song, maybe ever. Since a first heard it, not a day has gone by where I've listened to it less than 6 times.


you can sell anything (prod by Diplo)

This has one of my favorite lines from anything ever:
"Label's like, 'Maybe we can cake off the weirdos'
Ok - plug your nose, here goes
Caveman porn star riding on a unicorn
Undercover cop, and I'm wearing a uniform
Plus I wrote all of my rhymes in cuneiform
Hella years ago, B.C., you better be informed"

rooftop


Mixtapes available for download here

Funkmaster Flex Really Likes "Otis"

Funkmaster Flex really likes the new Jay & 'Ye track Otis(sorry about the link, couldn't find an embeddable version). How much does he like it? He likes it so much that it takes him 19 minutes to premier a 3 1/2 minute song. He continually stops to drop bombs, rewinds to listen to the parts he likes("HAHA! He said he was gonna call the Paparazzi on HIMSELF!!") and talks shit- "If you new rappers go home and reasses your choices and your career! You rappers only breathe at certain times of the year, this is not one of them!"

 The choice quote is of course- "New York city you listen to me, if you're near a convenience store, any type of 24 hour store, go in the store right now in and put your hand in the cash register for no reason. That money is your money! As of right now!"

And you know what, it's completely awesome, both for it's ridculousness and because it is 100% sincere. This guy fucking loves this song And why wouldn't he? It's a hot track from two of the hottest rappers... ever. No hyperbole. The great thing is, he isn't pretending to be too cool to have a reaction, which I feel is rare. Funkmaster Flex is not only watching the throne, he is completely transfixed by it's shininess.

Though, of course, if you want the height of rap ridiculousness in 2011 look no further than this:

Random Good Music- 12/5/2010

Music, it's pretty great, right? The only thing is, there's so much of it out there that's great! How can you sift through it all? I haven't found a good way yet.

But my point is I found some pretty great tracks that I thought y'all might like.

1. Did you know that Vampire Weekend's Contra had an iTunes only Bonus Track? I sure didn't. And it's some bullshit, because I totally would have bought it. Oh well, I may be the last one to the party on this but in case I'm not, here it is. Pretty good, right?

2. Robyn is pretty amazing. Have I listened to "Stars 4-Ever" 40+ times in the last 2-3 days? Sorry, that shit is classified. Wikileaks says yes though. The point being, you probably already have that track. BUT do you have the A-Trak remix of Indestructible? Man, I bet you do not! Suck all the joy you can out of this track, because life can be pretty tough sometimes.

3. As some of you might be aware, I like mashups quite a lot. My favorite ones are from The Hood Internet. Yup, better than Girl Talk- I said it! They just dropped a Metric mixtape and while all the tracks are dope as fuck- #5 has been on repeat all damn day. I hope you like it: http://www.thehoodinternet.com/2010/11/hood-vs-metric.html

The Hood Internet x Metric by hoodinternet

4. Deerhunter! That's a band people talk about quite a bit. Until recently, I was not one of those people. Then I heard this remix- now I am! Wow, this sure is good. One of those great tracks where you can dance to it, work to it, exercise to it, or listen to the lyrics and get kind of depressio. All pretty great qualities!

Deerhunter - Helicopter (Diplo & Lunice mix) by maddecent

5. Depressed Buttons- Mixmeat Mixtape. I knew nothing nothing about this group before @hoodinternet recommended their mixtape on the twitters. Now I know nothing about them except that I will be purchasing their EP on Dec. 14th. Damn good.

Depressed Buttons-Mixmeat Mixtape by maddecent

6. Adam Warrock is a rapper I've been talking up to pretty much anyone who will tolerate it. In addition to his excellent full-length album and remix album, he also does a free track-log "sketchbook" where he posts non-album songs in order to keep his creative juices flowing. His new one, "Best Friends (Nedroid)" has been on loop since it came out. It's based on the comic Nedroid(and if you aren't reading this, what is your problem?) and is about the main characters, Reginald and Beartato, having a rap battle about who is a better friend. It manages to be both hilarious and dope at the same. You can listen/download it for free here.

7. Drake- his flow sucks and he's not very good at math (√69=8.306623863 or, I guess, ate something). Sure he's kind of clever, but you know who is more clever? Almost every other rapper I listen to. But, there are DJs who can take these raw components and make something great out of it. In this case by cutting Drake out of the track almost entirely. It's good!

8. Mashups! We covered this already. But check this out- New Kanye vs. Neutral Milk Hotel. Does it work? Would it be on my blog if it didn't? (No, it wouldn't)

In My Beautiful Dark Aeroplane Over The Fantasea by MysteryStain

9. The entire new Kanye album on repeat all day, every day, holy shit it's so good. I'm pretty sure Kanye took lots of sounds he knew I'd like, put them together just for me, and then decided he might as well make millions in the process. Hearing this album is like going back in time to when I was a baby and laughing for the first time. Or conversely, it's like realizing that this is one of the few albums I'm willing to pay the full 15.99 for, even though I'm paying a premium for one itunes exclusive bonus track. Shit, I'd pay double- Kanye deserves it. Have I been effusive enough? Buy this GD album.

Random Good Music- 10/18/2010

Here's are the tracks on repeat on my iPod right now that I could find on YouTube, and some I couldn't.

Robyn-Indestructible

I discovered this song Saturday night and, in the two days since, have listened to it 25+ times. "I'm gonna love you like I've never been hurt before" is my current favorite lyric. I am 100% ready to jump on the Robyn bandwagon.

Eyedea- Radio Appearance Freestyle

The rapper Eyedea passed away yesterday at the age of 28 due to a heart attack. I was not familiar with his work, but lots of people I follow on twitter were big fans. I'm having trouble getting into alot of his stuff that I've heard. Lyrically he's amazing but he really loves sampling electric guitar and that just doesn't work in most rap songs unless you are an incredible producer (example: JAY-Z's D.O.A. produced by No ID). This freestyle however, is fucking amazing. Seriously one of the best things I've ever seen. Slug from Atmosphere is good, but Eyedea blows him away.

Ruckus Roboticus- Chicks

I recently bought Adam Warrock's fucking incredible album (more coming on that in a future post) produced by Ruckus Roboticus. Included on it as bonus material was the single off of Ruckus's solo EP- "The Chicks EP." Chicks is an awesome song and I will definitely be picking up the EP.

Well, the digital version of picking it up. Probably Amazon. Bandcamp if it's there. Bandcamp takes the smallest cut, Amazon and iTunes take 30%. If you are buying independent music, try to buy it off that site for the artist's benefit. (end PSA)

Kanye West- Christian Dior Denim Flow

I've been loving Kanye's G.O.O.D. Friday output but, like Monster, I can't stop listening to this track. I am so excited for this album. I love Kanye and I don't even care that he's a total diva. #ITSAPROCESS

This is my favorite track off of Crystal Castles (II). I legitimately cannot get into the rest of the album, even though I like it a lot, because I just keep putting this song on repeat and listening to it instead of anything else.

Dirty Projectors- No Intention

Despite this track being mellow as hell, I sing along to this in my car with the same fervor as I would Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" or any other anthem. This song is a treat. A goddamn treat. I want to take this song out to dinner pay for it.

My Gold Mask- I Don't Need The Reason

I couldn't find this one on YouTube but you can download it here, completely legitimately, for free. This song makes me rock out and smile at subject matter that makes me pretty sad. Maybe that's a crude way to put it, but I think it's pretty high praise.

Other tracks I'm hung up on but couldn't find:

Four Tet- Sing

Adam Warrock's fucking incredible album "The War for Infinity"

That hip-hop album I'm going to write one day

Das Racist- Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell (Wallpaper Remix)

MACHETE!

The first thing you should know about Machete is that it is awesome. This movie knows exactly what it is, which is hilariously over the top and incredibly violent. Robert Rodriguez continues to excel in the genre of slickly made pastiches of trashy genres (Planet Terror, From Dusk Til Dawn).

For example at one point Machete(played by Danny Trejo "The Hardest Working Mexican in Hollywood") stabs a guy in the neck with a turkey thermometer. After the house he's in blows up, the thermometer boils over and shoots blood out the top. Sounds disgusting, but in context it is hilarious.

Lindsay Lohan's character is the embodiment of the this ridiculousness. She plays a parody of herself- the villain's daughter who is obsessed with doing whatever self-destructive stunts it takes to drive page views on her website. Despite her privileged life, she sneaks off every weekend to have drug-fueled sex romps in crack-houses (which her father ends by shooting everyone and reminding her that if she needs any drugs, all she needs to do is ask). After shooting illicit video for her website ("It's what my viewers want!") she is kidnapped and held in a church. She wakes up to see televisions stacked in the shape of a cross. This is a religious experience for Lohan, which in this movie means she dresses up like a nun and shoots a lot of anti-immigrant militia members with a .44 Magnum. Symbolism!!

The second, and more important thing, that you should know is that this is a movie that wears its politics on its sleeve. It's bloody, bloody sleeve. There are stand-ins for "America's Sheriff" Joe Arpaio, every race-baiting politician in America (Robert DeNiro, having a great time), and corporate interests who exploit illegal labor privately while publicly decrying it. These three characters like to go out in the Arizona desert and shoot immigrants and their families for sport. They take special joy in shooting the pregnant ones, because if their kids are born here they "get the same rights as us real Americans." Kind of scary how prescient this movie is, considering that it was in the can before Senators were publicly debating repealing the 14th amendment.

The evil Senator's plan is to frame Machete for an assassination attempt and then ride the wave of anti-immigrant hysteria into office. His campaign ads are essentially grindhouse movie trailers featuring over-the-top disturbing renditions of immigrants and labeling them parasites(flash to a shot of writhing maggots), and terrorists (flash to a shot of a terrorist attack), etc. They have that great deep, gravelly narration that every great grindhouse trailer has.

Ultimately DeNiro is shown to be just an opportunist. When circumstances change he is happy to throw on dayworker clothes, faded jeans and an oversized flannel shirt and fight alongside the illegals. The message is clear: fear-mongering politicians are not acting out of any conviction, just their own desire for power.

Other highly political events:

-Cheech Marin plays Machete's brother, a priest. There is a scene where he is literally crucified by the head of the corrupt Politician's PR team.

-Michelle Rodriguez is Shè(pretty clever), the leader of "The Network" which provides basic human services and support that are denied to illegal immigrants in America. She also organizes the immigrants in their tricked out low-riders (they shoot missiles and the hydraulics allow them to crush anti-immigrant militants- see it's functional, not stupid) when the inevitable conflict comes. This is, I'm sure, an exaggerated version of support networks that actually do exist, but it also strikes me as the right-wing nightmare. In a lot of racist's minds I'm sure it makes perfect sense that if illegal immigrants can provide each other basic support off the grid, they probably also have caches of weapons stored, ready for violence just in case.

-Deniro, dressed as a day laborer, ultimately killed by the anti-immigrant sentiment he created.

-Jessica Alba, the former immigrant turned Border Patrol agent, standing on the hood of her car rallying the day laborers gathered around the taco truck.

-"We didn't cross the border, the border crossed us"

-Machete ultimately rejecting the citizenship of a country that has mistreated him and others like him.

-American militants filming and broadcasting executions exactly the way Al-Qaeda has.

Other awesome things about this movie:

-During ultraviolent scenes the film will turn grainy and yellow, with cigarette burns, like it's an actual aged grindhouse reel. It's something that gives the film a level of detachment from the heightened reality while giving a nod to it's roots. When the bad guys commit ultra-violence, it is shown through a computer screen that goes digitally grainy.

-Machete rarely speaks and when he does, it is only in one-liners. "Machete don't text."

-"I just received a text." "What does it say?" "You just fucked with the wrong Mexican"

-There is a scene where Machete is locked in the backseat of a car by people pretending to be cops. He stabs the driver through the back of his seat with a Machete (go figure), and steers the car from the backseat by twisting the blade in his guts.

-Steven Segal commits Seppuku with a machete.

-Machete kills racist security gaurds with pruning shears and a weed-wacker that has knives instead of plastic wire.

-This movie has a Luchadore assassin, a Dog The Bounty Hunter character (played by "Sex Machine" from "From Dusk 'Til Dawn"), and Sopranos security guards

-Motorcycle with a minigun strapped to the front.

-Get Ready for the sequels: "Machete Kills" and "Machete Kills Again"

As for how I feel about this issue, I think Stephen Colbert put it best (out of character):

Birthday Present Ideas: vol. 1

Eventually it is going to be my birthday. At that time all of you, my devoted readers (ALL of you), will be faced with a quandary. "Wow," you will think to yourselves, "I have hundreds, maybe thousands, of extra dollars lying around and I cannot decide the optimal way to spend them on my good friend Christopher."

Well, worry no more. This is the first in a series of helpful guides to things that you can buy for me. You are incredibly welcome for this important public service.

Look! Original Minimalist art featuring Galactus, the World Eater. Sure would look great on my wall next to Superman, the Mets and that fight between the Whale, Squid and T-Rex.

Via Comics Alliance.

More Galactus? Yes but in an entirely different medium. Not only is it the coolest looking thing I've ever seen, it's like 3 feet tall! Have I mentioned I have a mantle now?

Available at Sideshow Collectibles.

Escapist culture is great, but what about being entertained while learning important lessons about the depressing way the world is these days? The Wire: Complete Series DVD Boxed Set is both engaging and socially enriching! They're even teaching it at Harvard! What a great potential gift.

Via Amazon.

One day I'm going to have a trophy room to fill with treasures from my conquests of faraway lands, Dragon's gold, and statues made by the finest craftsmen. I will also put my sweetest Lego creations on rotating dais lit from below. And then I will get a plaque saying that I am the finest crafstman! And if anyone tries to take anything, there's going to be an Indiana Jones rolling boulder, booby-trapped arrow situation. Anyway, if any of you get super-rich and decide to be very generous come December- this child-sized Millenium Falcon is Bitchin' as all get-out.

Via Amazon.

I know you are all excited, my birthday is mere months away! But, and here is the real tragedy, you are likely squabbling amongst yourselves. "These things are so cool!" you are saying to yourselves and each other. "Reasonably priced for our budgets as well. But, who gets to purchase these things for him! THERE'S JUST NOT ENOUGH TO GO AROUND!!"

I'm here to tell you, it's going to be alright. This is only volume one! Now I'm no Kanye but I have plenty of ridiculously extravagant desires well outside my price range. Sure they are plenty nerdy, and you may not have an intuitive grasp of my tastes in that area, but that's ok! That is the entire point of this ongoing series. So get ready, there's more coming and I'm more than willing to bow to the will of my audience by presenting more things you may be interested in purchasing me.

The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.

"The Adventures of Brisco County Jr." is a 1993 Western Sci-Fi Comedy featuring Bruce Campbell with a Looney Tunes sensibility and a great deal of punnery. It has dialogue that can be painful, situations that can feel incredibly forced, and a ton of really stupid gimmicks. In other words, this show is my 13 year old self's favorite thing in the entire world. I love it now!

Bruce Campbell plays Brisco County Jr. a Harvard educated lawyer/cowboy whose father, Brisco County, was killed by the notorious outlaw John Bly in search of a mysterious Orb that has some sort of supernatural power. His best friend is Lord Bowler, a habitually angry bounty hunter who is the best tracker in the west. His girlfriend, Dixie (she whistles a lot), is a showgirl. He also has a talking horse named Comet that only Brisco can communicate with. They both work for a society of Robber Barons who give them tasks that supply the show with problem of the episode when the overall plot isn't being addressed.

(The McGuffin.. I mean Orb)

What is this show about? It's about 44 minutes per episode; har, har har. Seriously though, it's about the importance of progress, living up to your father's legacy, time travel, faith, and whatever lesson is being imparted that week. It's also about 26 episodes total. The lessons are dealt with in a very neat & tidy, after school special manner; but that fits the tone. They aren't trying to speak to the human condition on any deep level. They are trying to entertain you; 44 minutes at a time. And any time Bruce Campbell is on screen is time that I will be entertained.

This show is incredibly PG. I'd say it is PG as fuck. People forget to fire their guns constantly and I don't think anyone is ever actually shot, just shot at. If anyone is incapacitated it is usually in a non-lethal often comical manner (that sign for the Hard Knocks saloon fell down and hit that guy. Visual pun!). Additionally while there are plenty of African-American characters, there are no racial politics. Lord Bowler is black and this is never mentioned, not even in the ham-handed way that the show deals with other issues. The civil war is over, right! It's not a knock on the show- I don't think it would fit, but there is a missed opportunity for an after school special.

This show is obsessed with word play. It often feels like entire episodes are just elaborate set-ups for lame puns. Which is exactly how I would write a TV show. There's an episode where he goes back home and meets up with his high school sweetheart named Annie. When things inevitably go south with a bunch of outlaws, she asks him, "What should I do?"

His response, "Annie, get your gun."

(This guy is Elvis)

In another episode Brisco and Bowler go to a town where the sheriff is a ridiculously bad Elvis impersonator. In the course of the episode he invents sunglasses(aviators, of course) and, in a nod to Elvis's later years, he eats outlandish amounts of food. At the end of the episode it's revealed Brisco was staying in "The Heartbreak Hotel" the entire time! HILARIOUS!! In that same episode a bull is chased into a china shop. Actually, all sarcasm aside, my 8-13 year old self would be repeating the episode synopsis to all his friends at school. That is if my 8-13 year old self actually had any friends... sad face :(

Additionally, Brisco County is obsessed with "the coming thing" which leads to a lot of obviously telegraphed gags like when they invent the drive through, the hamburger, the shower, the motorcycle, etc.

One of my favorite things about this show is the really stupid word play. Sometimes a conversation will start to rhyme for no reason, other times things turn unnecessarily alliterative. In one episode they have to track down outlaws named Bill, Will, Phil and Gil Swill. Is this clever? I don't know. But it is something I do in casual conversation with other adults outside the context of an all ages TV show. Wait, is this something I could get paid, rather than humiliated, for? four? fore? 4?

(A Snidely Whiplash Moment)

I mentioned earlier that the shows has a Looney Tunes sensibility. It is incredibly silly. The way the outlaws hijack trains is by placing a giant boulder in the tracks and then painting a photo-realistic landscape of what is directly behind it so that the train will crash into it. Vintage Bugs Bunny. There is an episode where a band of outlaws are all displaced pirates with costumes that are hybrids of Treasure Island and Bonanza. They have cannons on their stage-coach, make people walk the plank and are generally as over the top as Dustin Hoffman in Hook. Yup, this show was made for the me of 10 years ago.

To draw a parallell to another high point in Bruce Campbell's career, this show has sensibilities similar to Army of Darkness or Evil Dead, without the blood, nudity, swearing or horror. Which is to say it's a sanitized version of the silly parts (aka, the best parts). Unlike those movies, this show is 100% free of tree-rape. But both are campy as hell.

(Right actor, wrong century)

So, is the show actually any good? Well, I like it a lot. Objectively speaking, it's no Mad Men, but I think most people would think it's good to MST3K with a 6 pack and a bunch of friends on a Friday night. Or, if you are a Bruce Campbell enthusiast like me, it's pretty good for watching straight through and pretending you're a kid again.

Series Finale Update: Terry Bradshow is in the series finale and it is awesome. He plays a US army general who treats missions likefootball plays and gives his men orders that sound like half-time locker room speeches. Also there are a series of contrived plot devices that create football like scenarios, such as wagon wheels covering a street, leading to everyone having to do high-knees.

(He likes puns as much as me)

There's also a great gag where one of the soldiers was raised in Italy. All his dialogue is heavily accented English but is subtitled as if it is a foreign language with things that are often completely different. This entire episode gets really silly: a capella dueling banjos, a zeppelin filled with helium so everyone speaks funny, architecture jokes. Also a great pun where a convicted criminal gets in a debate about the design of the jail and says "I am an expert in penal housing." Everyone looks at him and goes, "I'm not into that." Great moment. Also, Led Zeppelin puns!

This show really ended on a high note. Tons of meta- references, which I love. It was clear there was uncertainty over whether or not they were cancelled. It ended with a new status quo, which could have been the ending or opened the door for another season. The Last episode might have been the best, it's too bad there weren't more.

More Reasons I Love Comics

Rambo 3.5 by Jim Rugg

The untold chapter where George W. Bush and Rambo team up for MAXIMUM PATRIOTISM!!

Secret Six #25

If you don't understand why this is amazing, I may have to question your character. via Awesomed by Comics

Captain Cold by Doug Hills- My new desktop background.

More of his work here.

Chuck Pahlaniuk's New Book: Tell-All

I read Chuck' Pahlaniuk's new book Tell-All a couple weeks ago while I was traveling. Like most of his books published in the last couple years, I read the entire thing in a couple hours. That's not to say that his recent books are bad, but they aren't 'Fight Club' or 'Invisible Monsters' where passages would hit me like a ton of bricks and demand that I re-read them 3 or 4 times before I could move on. I couldn't say if it's his writing or me that has changed.

Anyway, Long story short: I liked it. It was very entertaining and much better than his last book, 'Pygmy', which I think had no redeeming qualities. His pattern over the last 5 or 6 years has been to publish books I love and ones that disappoint me in roughly equal measure. He's built up enough goodwill with me over the years, however, that his work is pretty much buy on sight.

The book follows Katherine Kenton, a film-star in the twilight of her career, who just met the man who is likely to be next on her long list of husbands, Webster Carlton Westward III. It is narrated by her aide/confidant/career consultant Mazie Coogan who is none too happy with this development.

The first half dragged a little bit, especially since I don't know much about '50s hollywood celebrity culture. In the second half Mazie discovers the tell-all memoir Webster is writing about Katherine, that includes details of her yet-to-occur death. This is where the book delves into darkly absurd humor and really starts to work. Each thwarted assassination attempt leads to a ridiculous revision of the manuscript that keeps building to more and more cartoonish situations. Once the book found its rhythm, I was actually laughing out loud on the plane and drawing attention from the other passengers.

The book has some insight into how people on the edge, or those closest to death live life more fully than when they are simply stagnant; about how vanity and insecurity can define a person; and how the image that someone projects can be more important to someone than who they actually are. Maybe it's just me, but these insights didn't seem particularly novel or revelatory the way that those in 'Haunted' or Invisible Monsters did. However, because of the brevity of the book the sheer entertainment value leads me to recommend this.


In the front of the book there was a list of all of Chuck's published work. I was, of course, immediately compelled to rearrange the list in order from most to least favorite. This list is by no means based on any sort of objective literary merit. It is simply the books that hit me the hardest emotionally when I read them and the ones that have stuck with me the longest. Enjoy!

1. Invisible Monsters
2. Fight Club
3. Haunted
4. Choke
5. Rant
6. Stranger Than Fiction: True Stories
7. Survivor
8. Fugitives and Refugees: A Walk in Portland, Oregon
9. Tell-All
10. Diary
11. Snuff
12. Lullaby
13. Pygmy

Of all the books on this list the only ones I legitimately don't like are the last two, and I would classify the first 8 as 'Highly Recommended.'