1234 Seseme Street
This is a great rendition of a great song modified for Seseme Street just for me (and childrens everywhere).
top 10 favorite anti-heroes
In doing research on villains, i started thinking about another brand of character: the anti-hero. My list comes from literature, comics, and film.
10. Holden Caulfield - A very popular, angst-filled character from The Catcher in the Rye. I really enjoyed the book, even though it’s not my favorite writings by J.D. Salinger.
9. Beatrix Kiddo (the Bride) - Kill Bill - The sword fight from II alone is worth mentioning her.
8. Arthur Dent - Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - I liked the movie ok (i really should see it again), but it’s one of my favorite books. Arthur Dent is something else.
7. Jack Sparrow - obviously played brilliantly by Johnny Depp.
6. Wolverine - comic, film, or cartoon. Especially Huge Jackman’s performance. Maybe one of the best nailed performances of a superhero we have on film.
5. Magneto - both a villain and an anti-hero. He seems to flip flop, but he doesn’t falter in his quest for equality for mutants. Wow. I totally geeked out there.
4. Jules Winnfield - Pulp Fiction - he’s just bad ass.
3. Han Solo - Star Wars - A hired hand, a smuggler, shot first, but ends up being one of our favorites from the entire Star Wars saga.
2. Severus Snape - played amazingly by Alan Rickman. Rickman shaped how i saw Snape as i read. His performance actually made the books better. Snape is a very complex character, maybe the most complex of the entire Harry Potter series.
1. Tyler Durdan - Fight Club - This may be the only movie that i actually liked better than the book, although the book is very good. Brad Pitt’s performance of Durdan is probably my favorite role of Pitt’s movie career. It’s also my favorite performance by Edward Norton. Durdan’s desire to positively impact the world through community and pseudo-terrorism is fascinating. You can almost look into the mind of a terrorist and see why they do things. Obviously, the amount of bad that Durdan does, or tells others to do, far outweighs the good, but the fact that he is so bad, yet you want to, in a way, be him, is so good.
top 10 favorite villains
In honor of today and politicians in general, here is a list for you. This is a list of my favorite villains.
10. Syler (Heroes) - Creepy, unpredictable, and kind of cool. The whole part in season 2 where he didn’t have his powers i try to forget.
9. Lord Voldemort (book and movie) - ominous is the best word to describe ‘You-Know-Who’ or ‘He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named’.
8. Venom (Spiderman) - just a really cool villain. Gooey and strong and powerful and some of the powers of Spiderman. I can play him in one of the video games I own. VERY fun.
7. Emperor Palpatine - mainly for this speech: “Everything that has transpired has done so according to my design. Your friends, up there on the sanctuary moon, are walking into a trap, as is your Rebel fleet. It was *I* who allowed the Alliance to know the location of the shield generator! It is quite safe from your pitiful little band. An entire legion of my best troops awaits them! Oh, I’m afraid the deflector shield will be quite operational when your friends arrive.”
6. The Brain - Pinky and the Brain. No explanation needed.
5. Anton Chigurh - No Country for Old Men - Javier Bardem won Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role and made me uneasy in the process. Maybe one of my favorite performances in the past several years by a villain.
4. Agent Smith from the Matrix. Hugo Weaving nailed this role like he does most of his roles. Also, in my top 5 favorite movies of all time.
3. The Joker (Both Nicholson and Ledger) - hard to go wrong with demented homicidal maniacs as villains.
2. Magneto - I love the X-men movies, comics, cartoons, and video games. Magneto is a complex villain, one with a purpose that isn’t evil in the way that trying to take over the world is evil, but has more depth. His dry wit and calm power is truly impressive.
1. Darth Vader - Most evil bad-ass in any movie. You know he’s evil, yet, you want to be him for some reason. Or maybe you don’t. AND, he has a very cool name.
Honorable Mention - I like these guys too. In no particular order.
Boba Fett
Juggernaut (X-Men the cartoon and comics. not so much the film.)
Kaiser Soeze - The Usual Suspects
Hannibal Lector
Megatron (Transformers)
Cobra Commander/Storm Shadow/Destro
Bill from Kill Bill
Elijah Price - Unbreakable
Sheriff of Nottingham - Robin Hood Prince of Thieves
John Doe - Kevin Spacey - Se7en
Fun. Halloween. Music.
A few things:
10 Very Good Reasons Why You Should Grow a Giant Beard. (via Paul.)
Went to a great show the other night. Junior Revolution, Heypenny, and Autovaughn. Junior Revolution had cool designs on their merch, so i hoped they wouldn’t suck, and they didn’t. I ended up getting a t-shirt and a couple of cds. Pretty good stuff. Heypenny is probably my favorite Nashville band right now. I love every song, they have fun, and they’re good guys. Go to their myspace and listen to Cop Car and watch their new video for Parade. Do it. Apparently Autovaughn is in Europe for the next 5 weeks. They’re good too.
1000 Awesome Somethings. (once again, via Paul.) Be sure to check some of the links on the side of this one. Great stuff. Especially Stuff White People Like.
Tomorrow is Halloween. Everyone be safe. Be scary. BE fun. Be something other than yourself. Unless you’re scary or fun.
Here’s a scary photo for you to ponder over this eventful weekend:
ZombIEss!!!11!
Stuff, sometimes things.
Do you ever just feel incredibly busy but aren’t quite sure what it is that makes you so busy? i don’t read any blogs (for the most part) anymore. Unless someone says “hey, i just posted.” Obviously i don’t blog much anymore.
a. Watching Heroes and Fringe. Both are ok. The question is: are they worth 2 evenings of my time, or could i be doing something better with that time?
b. Going to see The Sword and Clutch tonight with Scott. I’ll have my chainsaw covered with fire ready.
c. Burn After Reading was meh. i think it’s probably worth seeing, but i wouldn’t see it in the theaters.
d. I’m close to bein all Mac now. Having some issues with the admin on the new computer (iMac), which is sad, but i’m sure i’ll push through it.
e. I’ve been with my current place of employment for 9 years now.
f. Leslie swept me away to Knoxville to have dinner with friends and then onto Asheville, NC this past weekend for my birthday. Asheville is a great city. The downtown is filled with great locally owned shops and restaurants and is striving to do everything in a Green way. Many organic clothing/linen/household items stores there. The food was amazing. Probably ate the best Indian food i’ve ever had there. Mela. I really liked Asheville.
g. Facebook is 1000 times better than MySpace (unless you’re a band). Of course, i’m not telling you anything you don’t know already.
h. i now ride a bike on occasion. i rode a bike to the mall last week to see a movie in the movie theater. It’s kind of fun.
i. like to ski.
j. i’m thinking about doing some top 10 lists again sometime. We’ll see. i’m open to suggestions if anyone has any.
Ah, Saturday morning. And Politics.
i’m eating a toasted almond coconut scone from the locally owned bakery, Sweet 16th (ironically located on 16th St.), which is also a block or so from my house. i love being able to walk to locally owned places in my neighborhood.
As many of you know, politically, i’m an Independant. But i’ve finally decided to have a 
taste of the Obama KoolAid, listening to a speech Barack Obama made yesterday coupled with a Q&A session with the audience, and i liked it. i KNOW he’s a politician, and i really can’t stand politicians in general, but of everything i’ve heard to date by any presidential candidate since i’ve been able to vote, i really liked what he said. Will he be able to take action on all of the things he said he would? Probably not. But at least he’s moving in a direction that i think is worthy of my support. AND, purely from a graphic design standpoint, Obama’s campaign kicks ass. Look at that logo.
A poster by Scott Hansen (who does amazing art work, btw):
i work in the Internet industry (graphic/web designer) (no, i won’t make a free site for you), and McCain’s stance on Net Neutrality basically tells me that he wants me to lose my job. That may be drastic, but that’s how i feel. i could go on and on about Net Neturality, but you’ll have to have a look for yourself if you’re interested. For the record, McCain is not only against Net Neutrality, he’s very vocally against it. AND there were rumors a while ago that he had an affair with a Comcast lobbiest. Not that those rumors are true, but it makes you wonder, huh?
Arrested Development is/was an amazing show. i’m halfway through season 2 at the moment.
Sarah Palin looks like Tina Fey, and i REALLY hope that SNL gets Fey to play Palin every week.
You can’t always believe everything that you hear/read/see, especially on the internet, but sometimes you can believe some stuff. Hmm. All politicians have skeletons, i guess. Even if some of this stuff isn’t true, what if some of it is? I’m not saying i believe any of it, but there it is for you to decide. (it’s about Sarah Palin, btw.)
As an independant, i really want people to just vote for who represents you. We all vote based on what’s going on in our lives or what we think is best for the country. i WILL say this: i do like both candidates and their running mates better than i liked either candidate/rm from 2004. Of course, i voted independant that year.
Wow. This has turned into a political post.
Bojobeetmonbaba
For years I’ve had difficulty with getting consistent exercise. I don’t have a gym membership, I don’t care for running, and taking a brisk walk doesn’t always get my heart rate up. One night, after dancing with some friends, I thought “wow, this is great exercise.”
Several weeks ago I started an experiment that i called Bojobeetmonbaba.
Bojobeetmonbaba is an exercise that involves free form dancing, push ups, sit ups, light weight lifting, and running in place. You can add whatever activities you want to it, but the basic idea is that you’re frantically moving for 30-45 minutes. Or an hour. However long you want. While you do it, you can work on toning whatever body part you want by focusing on that part. But mostly, it’s just dancing to your favorite music and getting your heart rate up.
The beauty of Bojobeetmonbaba is that it’s fun to say and fun to do. You can do Bojobeetmonbaba with your significant other or even your kids. One warning, though, you may look completely ridiculous doing it. It’s very silly.
In part of my workout, i like to hold two 5lb weights as i Bojobeetmonbaba. The extra weight makes you work a little harder, plus you can tone your arms as you do it. I also do crunches and push ups. You can throw some kick boxing in there if you like. It’s completely customizable. AND, you can do it in the comfort of your own home without having a gym membership.
Part of the fun of Bojobeetmonbaba is creating music lists. Here are some songs i’m currently using:
Put Your Hands Up - Apes and Androids
Hey Ya! - Andre 3000
Never There - Cake
I Feel For You - Chaka Khan
Mushaboom (Postal Service Remix) - Feist
Canned Heat - Jamiroquai
SexyBack - JT
Touch the Sky - Kanye West
The Prayer - Bloc Party
Without Me - Eminem
Then I like to do a little cool down time/stretching with some Sigur Ros or Mogwai.
Sunshine vs. Smart People
I’ve recently watched 2 films worth noting for different reasons. It’s pure coincidence that they both start with S. And that my name starts with S.
I had heard some good things about this one, but something about the concept didn’t immediately grab me, so it’s taken me a while to watch it. It’s directed by the same guy who did 28 Days Later, and stars Cillian Murphy, who was the main actor in 28 Days Later AND Dr. Jonathan Crane (Scarecrow) in the 2 new Batman films. Another actor from a superhero film, Chris Evans, of Fantastic Four fame (his character was one of the only good performances of FF), also stared in Sunshine.
Basic premise: a group of astronauts pilot a mega bomb into the sun to try to help jumpstart the dying star. If they fail, the earth will die.
For those non-SciFi fans out there, this may seem sleepy or overdone, but they found a way to overcome that with good writing, good acting, nice cinamatography, and great special effects. It was more of a human drama rather than an over-the-top SciFi film. About half way through i was saying to myself “Wow, i really like this. I hope they don’t screw it up.” They didn’t. This, like most movies, had a few elements that i didn’t care for, but overall, it was a strong movie, and one that i recommend.
8.5 out of 10.
Meh. Meh.
I’m a fan of Ellen Page. Juno and Hard Candy are two of my favorite films of all time, and her performance of Kitty Pride in X-Men The Last Stand was very good. This movie does not even shake a stick at those films or those performances.
I wish i could tell you what it was about, but really, it wasn’t about much. Another “indie” film about a disfunctional family. I wish they’d keep making these. Wait. No i don’t. In theory, these types of films, at least in my mind, should be gold. But somehow people keep screwing them up. It tries to be quirky and original. FAIL. It tries to be smart. FAIL. I even had low expectations for the film.
The characters weren’t that believable, even though some of them had some interesting quirks. The acting wasn’t horrible, just wasn’t great. I pretty much blame the director, cinematographer, and producers.
I told Mark that i enjoyed the first 7 shots of the trailer for Blindness (which looks pretty great, btw) than i did the entire movie of Smart People. Oh well. To be fair, it’s a good trailer, which doesn’t always make for a good film.
Smart People did have a few descent moments, but overall, not worth seeing imho.
4 out of 10.
blah blah
I don’t have much to say today.
Apes and Androids - Blood Moon. This is the album that i listen to a lot these days. Free songs here.
Batman: The Dark Knight - YES PLEASE. There’s nothing that hasn’t been said that i can say any better than anyone else.
Olympics are fun. I’m against China’s human rights policies and all that, but the games themselves, along with the opening ceremonies, are amazing this year. I guess when you can oppress your people, you can make them do whatever you want…but i digress.
I’ve recently started a new workout regiment that i call BoJobeatMonbaBa. That’s right.
I want a scooter.
I still design websites and play fantasy football.
Wow. This post sucks.
