James Garner Garners Some Praise from Visions of Ypsi

The week after I got out of 5th grade, I was in a promotional video for GM that was filmed @ the State Park in Petoskey. (The following year, I was in a GM commercial that actually aired on TV & I have a cop of it waiting to be transferred from VHS to the computer as soon as I find someone w/ the technology to d0 that... so don't worry, it'll be on Youtube for your viewing pleasure soon enough.) I returned from filming to learn that while I was out, cable television had come to Parkview, our neighborhood just west of Petoskey. Of the 9 channels we got, 1 of them was WKBD-TV 50 from Detroit. ("What were the other 8 channels?" you ask... Disney, The Movie Channel, EPSN, CNN, The Nashville Network, USA, MTV, & TBS.) One night that summer, WKBD showed a movie that changed the course of my life (& the life of my siblings as well). My dad recorded that movie that night & we watched it as a family. I even remember the dessert I ate that night: vanilla ice-cream w/ crème de menthe. The movie we watched on that fateful night was Support Your Local Sheriff. By that point in my life, I'd already seen some Rockford Files episodes, so I knew who James Garner was, but after watching the film, I realized that he is pretty freaking awesome. If you don't believe me, watch him in The Great Escape. People always point to Steve McQueen as the star, but Garner steals the show.

You may recall that a couple years ago, I went on a Rockford run & watched it every nightly. Since then, Channel 38, WADL in Detroit is no longer showing it, but Encore Western has been showing Maverick which is just as awesome. If you haven't seen it, give it a go. It was on from 1957-1962 & is one of the strangest shows I've ever seen. It runs the gamut from straight ahead Western to everything else under the sun: hard-boiled mystery, drawing room comedy, adventure, romance, tongue-in-cheek con (even The Sting lifts a large part of its plot from a Maverick episode), Shakespearean tragedy, & satirical post-modern social commentary.

Along w/ the great writing & bizarre plots is the stellar cast. Not only do we get James Garner as Bret Maverick, but his brother Bart is played by Jack Kelly & we get guest appearances from Clint Eastwood, Buddy Epsen, & Adam fucking West! After James Garner left the show, he was replaced by Roger Moore who played Beau, their British cousin. This role lead directly to Moore's starring role in The Saint which in turn set him up to replace Sean Connery as Bond. I know I haven't been blogging as much lately, but w/ teaching, soccer, & the fact that readership is down, I haven't been ass motivated. However, the need to celebrate James Garner & Maverick couldn't be back-burnered any more. Besides, I actually got Aiden to watch an episode the other day... if only we'd have ice cream w/ crème de menthe.

Lost: The Final Episode

After my 2nd match this evening, I need to race home having imbibed very little beer in order to catch the recap before the last episode. I'm excited but also a bit saddened by the end of the show. This season hasn't been quite as good as seasons 4 & 5 which are clearly my favorites, but it's been fun. The answers to the questions have occasionally left me w/ more questions though... like when will the spin-off movie come out to answer yet more questions & what the fuck are they thinking w/ the lack of more pseudo-scientific explanations? There have been a lot of answers though so I looked back @ the list of question I posted a year ago & realized that only a few haven't been addressed. Walt, Libby, & Helen probably won't get covered tonight, but we might get some interesting info about Faraday. It probably won't be in regards to A2, but it should be good none-the-less.

Enjoy the series finale & check back here tomorrow for a more thorough wrap-up... adios & namaste.

The Obligatory Olympics Post

We attempted to watch the Olympics last night, but it didn't go over very well. I know everyone seems to have been struck w/ a nasty case of Olympics-fever, but I just don't get it. I like that the world can come together & celebrate this, I dig sports, I even dig some of the sports in the Olympics, but I just can't watch. For one, some many of the sports seem fake. Not fake like pro-wrestling, but not real sports. Bobsled, luge biathlon... who does this? They seem invented just for the Olympics. Why not include more sports in which real people actually participate like dog-sled or snowmobile racing. Stephanie was wondering how someone becomes an Olympic bobsledder... & we couldn't really figure it out. It must just be that mediocre athletes from other sports get recruited to be stars in a field that no one else ever considered. And then the luge people must just be frustrated bobsledders & the skeleton people must in turn be frustrated lugers.

Conversely, these are ironically the sports I prefer to watch. Of course, I like curling & the skiing events too, but that leads us to the 2nd problem. I hate the way it's covered on TV. We get 4 hour blocks of random shit w/ no clear knowledge of what will be on when. Which then means we have to sit through the random shit for hours before getting 20 minutes of curling or downhill skiing. Many of those hours seem dedicated to figure skating. I know that's what the audience wants (although I have no idea why) & I know that those kids have spent 8 of their 12 years on the planet training for this, but I just don't care. Clearly, it's not a made-up sport like skeleton, but it just doesn't do it for me. And neither does hockey which people often think is weird since I love soccer & hockey & soccer are so similar. I just don't enjoy it though.

My final issue concerns the fact that while I'm trying to watch curling or skiing, I have to suffer through those fluff pieces for 20 minutes. I don't care that Alberto Tomba's cat died when he was 12 or that Hans Brinker lost his inspirational grandfather who had bought him his silver skates. Just make w/ the fucking curling already! That said, you can order your replica Norweigan National Curling Pants here! Order placed baby!

If You're a Nerd Like I'm a Nerd...

Like many of you who know what's up, we rewatched the 1st 5 seasons of Lost over the last couple months in order to get ready for tomorrow's big Season 6 Premier. Along w/ the rewatch, you should check out some of the better parodies. I found a couple on Jorge Garcia's blog. The first one uses the Petula Clark song, "Downtown," in a fun way... & it's a fucking Petula Clark parody! And I was just thinking the other day that we don't get enough Petula Clark parodies... dreams do come true, my friends. The second one is an extended Italian family in Brooklyn (I don't know for sure that they're in Brooklyn; I'm going on stereotypes here... it could be Jersey or Philly too)reenacting the 1st 5 season in about 5 minutes... it's odd. After that, there's the Mad TV season 1 parody & then the coup de grace, the sweet, sweet, Star Trek parody: Star Trek: The Lost Generation. Oh, & here is Wendy's list of things we need to learn... it's not exhaustive, nor will we get everything, but it's a good list none-the-less. And why not read a list... Jacob made a few, Ben made a few, I imagine Richard has made more than his fair share of lists @ one time or another, Hurley made at least one... read Wendy's too.

On the down side, I have a bad feeling about Season 6. I don't think we're gonna get many of the explanations for which we've been so patiently waiting.It just doesn't seem like they'll have time to get to everything. I'm sure we'll get Adam & Eve, the Smoke Monster, & Richard, but Horace & Ann Arbor... I doubt it... we'll keep our fingers crossed though.

So now, do what Andre does: order up some Chinese food, get a 4-pack of imported stout, & prepare to be a little let down by the parodies.

Answers

Italian Family

Mad TV

Star trek

MLK @ EMU & Beyond

Here's a full schedule of the stuff to do on campus today: http://www.emich.edu/mlk/. I think I'll be heading to the "Stereotypes in Film" seminar, but I might hit the performance of "The Meeting" instead... a fictional account of a meeting between MLK & Malcolm X. There are 3 or 4 things I'm interested in all going on between 2:00 & 2:50, but none of the 3:00-3:50 stuff looks up my alley. Off campus there's obviously a lot going on too, but I was a bit surprised that the Ypsi libraries weren't doing more. An afternoon marathon of Selma, Lord, Selma @ the Michigan Ave branch is interesting, but it's a bit odd.

I went w/ Stephanie & the kids to the Whittaker Branch this morning for "Story Time" w/ Isaiah. They go every week, but I've always been busy. It was super fun to hang w/ him as he played along & listened to the stories. He was so excited from the moment we walked in there. He kept pulling my arm to get me to go to the proper room as I was attempting to look @ other stuff. He was so funny. I wish I had the opportunity to do that more often. Of course, while we went to "story Time," S & A hung out on the computers. Aiden's Lost addiction is pretty ridiculous. All he was doing was looking @ Lost flair on Facebook in an attempt to figure out what's coming next. (we're on Season 5 Episode 9: "Namaste." I'm sure he'll ensure we get through @ least 2 or 3 this evening. Comin' attcha!

Shatner & J.J. Abrams

Last night I stumbled upon the most ridiculous talk-show ever. Shatner's Raw Nerve makes The Pat Sajack Show seem like a good idea. It's a 1/2 hour show on the Bio channel which features Shatner interviewing another celeb for the entire program. The 2 of them sit facing one another in an S shaped kissing chair while Shatner pries into the tortured past of the guest. I saw 2 episodes last night & got to witness both Weird Al & Gene Simmons in tears. I've never said to myself, "Hey, I'd really like to watch The Demon weep." But it works. Against all my best judgement, I recommend this show... & I know I'll be watching it again.In other Shatner news, I watched Star Trek VI w/ Aiden last night. Over the summer, we started watching the films (skipping the 1st one), as a build up to the new movie. He has finally seen all of the original cast films so no we're ready. I saw VI in the theater w/ my cousin when it 2st came out, & I always liked it. It's definitely better than V, but last night's viewing made me think it may not be as good as I'd always thought. It's a bit low on action. They muddy up a pretty basic plot by spending way too much time explaining it. Also, the effects aren't what I remembered. The parallels w/ Tomorrow Never Dies are pretty interesting though. I've probably talked about this before, but they both feature a cloaked ship that can fire while cloaked, they both feature an enemy general named Chang, & they both revolve around a plot to use the cloaked ship to start a war between 2 groups that are uninvolved w/ the ship. (Admittedly, the 3rd point could be said of most Bond movies).While we're now ready to give the J.J. Abrams Star Trek movie a go this weekend, Stephanie & I have also been watching his new show, Fringe. It's no Lost, but it's pretty cool. I'm yet to decide if I love it or hate it. I feel like I might be on the verge of addicting myself to the next Zena: Warrior Princess. It revolves around an FBI agent, her boss (played by the dude who played Abaddon on Lost), a crazy old scientist who spent the last 17 years in a mental institution after doing weird experiments on humans, & his genius son (played by a dude from Dawson's Creek) who will obviously become a love interest for the FBI agent. Crazy events are happening (mainly in he Boston area), & they're all related to some pattern of scientific research that has been killing hundreds of people. I'm afraid I may be hooked.Not as hooked as Aiden has become on Abrams' other recent show. We've been rewatching Lost, this time w/ the kids, & they're loving it. We slowly got through season 1 last fall & then blew through seasons 2 & 3 over the holiday break. We started 4 last night in the hopes of getting through 5 before 6 starts on February 2. It's pretty awesome watching the kids pick up on the foreshadowing & little stuff in the background. I was afraid they wouldn't be able to follow it, but they're doing really well. I think we'll watch a couple more episodes tonight before The Office.

Jon Stewart IS Glenn Beck!

Here's a fun little clip from The Daily Show the other night... enjoy. Apparently Glenn Beck's medical problems are part of a much bigger conspiracy.

Stephen Colbert Calls it like it is!

The Word - Blackwashing

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
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Parkour

The quickest way to move from point A to point B as long as point B is the hospital.

Freeverse... not the poetry style (& the Player of the Day)

Before the kids got out of school, we decided to let the cable/internet lapse for a while in order to get them off the couch & either outside or reading... or in Solstice's case, reading outside under a tree like Polly-freaking-anna (it's pretty awesome). Well, I decided to get it turned back on this week, mainly because the "Ypsi Wireless" free wifi is a bit unreliable so I called to pay up & have it turned back on. it turns out that after a couple weeks, the boxes need to be reinstalled so the cable guy came out yesterday to do just that. The internet is working fine, as is the DVR box in the living room, but the bedroom box wouldn't recognize the signal, nor could I log into my account on-line so he said he had to come back this afternoon.

Upon his return, it turned out that they couldn't activate the account because I don't have a credit card (my bank card wasn't acceptable to them). He had me talk to someone who didn't seem able to solve the problem. I said, "But the internet & the other box are already working...." To which she responded, "Well, that must be a glitch in the system." I was starting to get pissed, but let it drop & said I'd call back tomorrow w/ a credit card #. After I hung up, the cable dude explained that since they weren't able to activate the account, I'd never actually get a bill if I just settle for the living room w/o the bedroom since as far as their system is concerned we don't technically have their service... SWEET. He then said that if it ends up getting turned off @ some point, I should just call him & after I get the credit card # he'll take care of it... DOUBLE SWEET. To sum up: free high-speed wifi, free cable, free DVR, free pay-per-view... FREEDOM!

As it stands, we no longer have Gol, Setanta, HBO or Skinamax, but that's a small price to pay for not having a price to pay. And just in time for the Confederations Cup, no less, which brings us to the player of the day.
For those of you unfamiliar w/ the tournament, here's a quick overview. It features 8 teams: the champions of each of the 6 Confederations (Europe: Spain, Africa: Egypt, Asia: Iraq, Oceania: New Zealand, N & C America: USA, S America: Brazil) plus the winner of the last World Cup (Italy) & the host nation which is also the host nation of the next World Cup (S. Africa). I wasn't able to watch any of the matches until today, but based on the reports, I'm not afraid to award Players of the Day awards retroactively.

14-6-09: Fernando Torres... a hat rick in the 1st 17 minutes against NZ is pretty sweet.
15-6-09: Mohamed Zidan: 2 goals for Egypt against Brazil in a tight 4-3 injury time loss ain't bad @ all.
17-6-09: Mohammed Kassid: He gave up a goal against Spain today, but made a shit-load of saves to keep the Iraqi hopes of a semi-final berth alive. Even though Spain will certainly go & Iraq was out of their element against the sweet sweet Spanish side, they looked pretty good. it's too bad they've already been eliminated from the 2010 World Cup because I wouldn't mind watching more of them. In the end, however, I'm sure the finals will be Spain v Brazil. That said, I was under impressed by David Villa... he squandered many a chance... like his name was Bendtner. Capdevilla, on the other hand, looked really strong on the left side. If Arsenal didn't already have Clichy & Gibbs, I'd be hollering for him to transfer to Arsenal.

Don't miss the USA v Brazil match tomorrow, & be sure to pay attention (as if you could miss them) to the ridiculous buzzing horns in the stands. They sound like a swarm of bees & I'm sure we'll be treated to them again next year during the World Cup.

A Librarying We Will Go

Until the Bookmobile broke down a couple weeks ago, we hadn't been to the library in ages. Having everything dropped off almost literally on our door-step was nice, but browsing again has been fun. W/ a million books sitting around the house that we have yet to read (I finished The Time Traveler's Wife & Three Bags Full since the last book post), Stephanie & I have mainly been getting CDs & DVDs.
CDs:
Bob Dylan: Together Through Life
It's rare that I get CDs the year they are released, but I'm always excited to hear about new Dylan discs. This 1 doesn't disappoint. It might not be as good as Modern Times (& certainly not as good as Time Out of Mind), but it's better than Modern Times. While his last couple albums have had a early rock n roll sound w/ nods to traditional blues & folk, this 1 is rooted in Tex-Mex & Texas Swing. Mike Campbell is on the guitar & David Hidalgo is on accordion which gives it the nice Texas flavor. It's like Bob Wills meets Waylon Jennings w/ Dylan's raspy drawl. To top it off, all but 1 song were co-written by Robert Hunter... Awesome! I read today that there's also a new NRPS CD coming out for which he wrote the lyrics.
here are a couple interesting reviews:
Rolling Stone
Telegraph

The Executioner's last Songs Vol I
I was lucky to stumble upon this thing. I hadn't heard of it, but it's sweet. It's an Alt Country collection of people like Neko Case & Steve Earl covering old murder ballads & prison songs to benefit the Illinois Death Penalty Moratorium Project. I know nothing about the project other than that it's fighting capital punishment, but the music is great.

Bill Cosby: Fat Albert
I hadn't heard this since I was a kid. It's still hilarious & the kids are lovin' it too.

Levon Helm: Dirt Farmer
I wanted to hear this when it 1st came out, but I'd forgotten about it. It's him, his daughter, Larry Campbell, & Theresa Williams. I imagine if the band were still around this is what they'd be doing. Great stuff. Great rootsy acoustic stuff.

DVDs:
The Flash
Aiden is watching this right now. The Flash is fighting some group of hippies who want to dose the city. There's another episode where Mark Hammill plays a bad guy named The Trickster. It's pretty fucked up. Kind of like Lois & Clark w/o star power.

6 Hammer Film Noir movies
I watched Bad Blonde last night while Isaiah would sleep @ 2:00am. It blows. Well, that might be a bit harsh... on people who actually suck cock for a living. I can't imagine they'd ever want to be associated w/ this filth.

The Office (British version)
Awesome!

Jason & the Argonauts
I don't know that I'd ever seen it all the way through before. Ray Harryhausen's effects are sweet & the plot holds together pretty well. Solstice was a bit bored, but Aiden grudgingly seemed to like it. It's maybe 1 of Harryhausen's best films.

The Office

Lost: Season 6

The biggest surprise I experienced last night while watching the Season 5 finale was that Season 6 will be the last. For some reason, I was under the impression that there were 2 more seasons. That said, Season 6 has a lot of 'splaining to do.
* What's Jacob's story?
* WTF is the smoke monster?
* How did Richard get there?
* How did the statue get destroyed?
* What's w/ the Shadow people?
* WTF John Locke II?
* What's Christian's Story?
* How did Helen die?
* Why was Libby in the hospital w/ Hurley?
* What's up w/ the Black Rock?
* Where is Claire?
* Will Kate be able to reunite Claire w/ Aaron?
* Who made the Temple?
* What's w/ the huge electro-magnetic energy pocket?
* What happened when Ben was taken to the Temple?
* Do Desmond & Penny return?
* What about Walt?
* What did Faraday do during those 3 years in A2?
** Will it be filmed in A2?
*** If so, how many of us get to be extras? I mean, I'd wear a Jump Suit & grow 70s hair for that.
*** If so, will the apartment building by the Maynard St. parking Garage really be used as the Dharma headquarters?
* Were Rose & Bernard the only survivors of the flaming arrows or are there other Red-Shirts around?
* Why did Bernard suddenly look more like Tim Conway than Sam Anderson?
* How many douchebags posting theories on Lostpedia will actually acknowledge that they're wrong about stuff?
* Will there ever be another TV show for me to obsess over like this one? I mean, come on, it took me 6 years to move on after Seinfeld went off the air. If that's any indication, I won't find another show until 2016. Sure, there are shows I like, The Office, My Name is Earl, How I Met Your Mother, & even The Unusuals is looking pretty cool, but not obsessive cool... not yet.

This list doesn't even begin to tackle any of the questions raised last night which will obviously have to be answered. It seems hard to believe they'll get all of this in in 16 episodes. Assuming 1/4 will be spent clearing up what happened last night, that leaves 12 episodes to deal w/ these issues. Of course, some can be dealt w/ @ the same time, while others might be answered while dealing w/ last night's questions, it still seems like they'll have to really cram stuff in since they can't just answer questions; they need to drive the plot by raising more concerns which will in turn need to be addressed. Dharma Headquarters in A2

New Words

You may recall my promise to bring new & improved words to the English language this year during the run-up to April 29, the day The Global Language Monitor claims English will see it's 1 millionth word. It's still unclear to me (mainly because I haven't really taken the time to read much about it) what their criteria are & whether they count words that are no longer in use, but in order to help them along... & be the first to post the 1 millionth word @ 12:01 AM GMT, we @ Visions of Ypsi are doing our best. In December, we came correct w/ "Chimilicious." It hasn't caught on quite as quickly as I'd hoped, but I still use it quite often, so only time will tell. In January, we saw the debut of the 2nd word, "Barack-a-lack-a-boom." This concept has recently fallen by the weigh-side as people are less & less enamoured w/ Obama, but I'm sure it's still useful... & will certainly become important as people look back @ his campaign & the beginning of his presidency.W/ this in mind, before we come to the final day of our exciting countdown, I've got 1 more word to bring you. It's not a neologism per se, but it's a new usage for an older verbal utterance: "The Wesley." Named after everyone's least favorite character on Star Trek TNG, this is the term for an episode of a television series w/ a focus on an annoying character. This phenomenon happens often on shows w/ ensemble casts like Lost or ER. Be sure to check back @ 12:01 AM on April 29th for the 1 millionth word in the English Language!!!

Sham-WTF?

There aren't enough Sham-Wows in the world to clean up this mess. Vince Shlomi, your Sham-Wow specialist, was arrested recently for beating up a hooker. Apparently, she bit his tongue and wouldn't let go so he punched her in the face. The problem w/ the tactic seem 2-fold though. 1st, when punching someone in the face while one's tongue is still in said person's mouth seems dangerous... like an uppercut could slice the tip of the puncher's tongue clear off. 2nd, it's always been my belief that prostitutes didn't kiss... why was his tongue in her mouth to begin w/? Admittedly, I have no experience w/ them, but in Action Jackson, there's an elderly gentleman who refuses to kiss a woman due to his false teeth; however, she assumes it's because he thinks she's a whore and would therefore not kiss him back. Of course, once this is worked out, they fall in love & live as happily ever after as any secondary character in Action Jackson could. Maybe the Sham-Wow dude never saw Action Jackson; had he sen it, he may not have gotten into this odd little predicament. Of course, this means that I've seen Action Jackson enough times to be able to reference it on my blog. The 2nd time was only because it was on after The Death of the Incredible Hulk... or possibly The Trial of the Incredible Hulk. I know I saw them both, but 20 years later, I must apologize for my inability to tell them apart. A better man would know the difference. I bet Vince Shlomi knows the difference.

Old People

Old people music
We were listening to "Cryptical"> "Other One" from The Fillmore east 2-11-69 this morning as I was taking the kids to school. I was informed that The Grateful Dead are sooo 20th Century! I reminded them about the great time the had when we saw the Dead a few years ago & Aiden reminded me he fell asleep out of boredom... Solstice claims to have pretended to like. She was (so she says) bored out of her mind. They wondered why I am so unwilling to listen to cool music that is popular which made me realize that the last time I heard "The Other One" on the radio was never & maybe they're right. I hadn't listened to the GD in quite a while, in fact I've been listening to less & less music in general. I remember my parents preferring to listen to the news in the car & it drove me nuts. I just wanted to hear Thriller again. Maybe I'm becoming my parents as I deprive my kids of mediocre pop-crap.
Old People Houses
In Berkshire, south east England, an 18 year old kid was tired of his parents' old million pound estate. Apparently it was too boring & common for him. He did what any genius in his position would do... he painted a huge cock on the roof so he could see it on Google Earth. It's a strange looking cock though... like it had a Prince Albert ripped out of the tip by an angry whore.
Old people television
In other Gwateful Dead news, Bobby, Phil & Wawwen will be on The View Monday along w/ Bill O'Weilly. I highly doubt they'll be allowed to confront Bill O, & I would pwefer Bill Kreutzman to Bill O'Weilly, but eitha way it's pwetty funny. Supposedly, they get a music segment where they'll play an acoustic song & then they'll get an interview segment. Whoopi must be over the moon, but Baba Wawwa will have to say "Jerry Garcia" which, I imagine, she's been pwacticing all week.
I made a bracket of 64 GD tunes in an attempt to figure out what they'll play. In the end, it seems the final 4 are "Touch of Grey" (in honor of all the grey haired women who watch the show), "Cassidy" (in an attempt to get Hasslebeck to name her baby after a Dead song... & half the dogs in any GD Parking Lot), "Liberty" (w/ Bill O' on cowbell... that would be something!), & "Friend of the Devil" (in honor of Hasslebeck's & O'Reilly's friendship w/ GWB). I'm still pulling for an underdog though; a half hour "Dark Star" would be fantastic.

Solstice

We're sitting in the living room and Spongebob is about to start. I go to change the channel and Aiden freaks out.
Aiden: "I'm sick. I get to watch what I want!"
Me: "Since when?"
Aiden: :I'll go to bed right after it."
Solstice: "I'M NOT GOING TO WATCH THAT CURSIVE SHOW!"
Me: "Cursive? Do you mean curséd?"
Solstice: "Yeah! That's the word! curséd!"

Post Good Things & Good Things Get Posted

I was looking for info about the new season of Lost when I found this totally unrelated clip. Maybe there's a relation in that along w/ Lost, My Name is Earl is 1 of my favorite shows. As we have 2 episodes DVRed for tonight, a good way to get into the My name is spirit would be to watch this sometimes funny, sometimes not so funny gag/outtakes reel from season 2. It's generally funnier than it is unfunny & I'm a sucker for outtakes & gag reels... & clip shows which feature these types of things. Enjoy, & then enjoy a little of Jason Lee skateboarding from his previous career. The 1st song in this clip is called "The Knife Song," but I can't find much more info than that (other than the possibility that the lead singer of the band may be Jeff Tremaine of Big Brother Magazine fame & the creator of Jackass. The band is apparently called Milk). It kind of sounds like a mix of early '90s LA pop-punk & Ecoustic Hookah... I dig it.The othe rpoint of interest in this video is that young Jason Lee looks much more like the kid who plays Young Earl Hickey than I would have expected.

Top 100 Hip Hop Songs: Better Late than Never

I don't know how we missed this the 1st time around, but apparently back in September VH1 constructed a list of the Top 100 Hip Hop Songs of all time. Even though we missed it the 1st time around, I suppose it could still use a few comments here. In general, I understand the problems w/ picking 100 songs & the problematic nature of then prioritizing them from 100-1, so I will leave the majority of the picks alone. For instance, I was never a fan of "Baby Got Back," but I suppose it has its historical significance, besides, neither the beans nor the rice miss me very often either. That said, here are my observations:
* Some of the picks seem to be there as a way for VH1 to plug their other shows. The fact that Warren G & Yo Yo feature on the VH1 shows doesn't necessarily mean their songs deserve a spot in the top 100... "Regulate" is pretty cool, but in the Top 100? I don't think so.
* I was surprised by the number of newer songs w/ which I was familiar. I assumed I knew nothing about rap post-The Chronic, but as it turns out, I recognized a few of them. Albeit, my familiarity w/ "Ridin" by Chamillionaire ft. Krayzie Bone is based on my familiarity w/ Weird Al's parody "White & Nerdy."
* If I were to make a similar list, I imagine it would be more 1988-1992centeric so I guess I'm a bit biased against the newer stuff, & even though Biggie was almost 15 years ago now (& hence not really "newer), I never understood his mass-appeal.
* I like 71-70, "Freaks Come Out at Night" > "Pop Goes the Weasel." Whodini always cracked me up... what was w/ that one dude's hat? And then, I always get excited when people give 3rd Bass the props they deserve.
* Big Punisher ft. Joe @ #76? Who the hell are they & how can a rapper be called Joe? He needs a better name like Lil Joe or Mixmaster Joe or even just LL Cool Joe.
* Lil' Kim ft. Lil' Cease @ 75... I don't know the song (or who this Lil Cease person is), but Lil Kim should be higher on the list based solely on her tits... as shown here w/ Diana Ross.
* Jungle Brothers, Nas & De La Soul should be higher on the list... especially since Puff Daddy, Roxanne Shante & Tone Loc are higher than them.
* As far as the Top 10 goes, I don't have many problems other than these:
** LL Cool J should be in the Top 10 rather than Biggie.
** "Rapper's Delight," while historically important, isn't really that great of a song... I can understand its place in the Top 10, but #2 is pushing it.
** Public Enemy @ #1 is obvious, but their blatant absence from the rest of the list is strange. Their best is the greatest Hip Hop song ever, but their 2nd best isn't even in the Top 100? I don't but it. "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos," "Bring the Noise," "Welcome to the Terrordome," "Leave this off Your Fucking Charts," "Terminator X to the Edge of Panic," "Prophets of Rage," & "Rebel w/o a Pause" could all easily make that list.Overall, it was fun to watch it last night while flipping back & forth w/ Jedi. What we saw of Jedi brought about a few new issues I never thought about before too, but I may save them for a different post. Here's a hint though... CGI Ewoks & some logic in the floor plan of Palpatine's Thrown Room might help the film. And speaking of the Thrown Room scene, I just found this fun little overview of the extent of Vader's injuries as explained by some random fan-boy.

Holiday Post #8: I got a lot of problems with you people!

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