So, time for another rapid fire shot. I realize… twitter is basically this: a micro blog with a few thoughts here and there. However the twitterverse seems like this overcrowded dollar store. Even though I do use it @threeup I’m not much of a fan. And as you will soon find out, I am feeling verbose about these somewhat boring topics; well beyond 140 characters. (But twitter’s appeal is in brevity which is often best)

Ting Tings live
downloadin
Weather
More Korean TV
Itunes
(more…)

My favorites of 2000-2009 | Music:
Listen to my top list (_link_)
Listen to the almost-top list (_link_)

I tried to take one well known song and one slightly less known one. Some years didn’t work so well: 00, 02.

Best ( _listen_ )
00: So Fresh So Clean – Outkast | Lebanese Blonde – Thievery Corporation
01: Someday – The Strokes | New Slang – The Shins
02: The Scientist – Coldplay | Pts. Of. Athrty – Linkin Park
03: Toxic – Britney | Time is Running Out – Muse
04: Jesus Walks – Kanye West | Blood on Our Hands – Death From Above 1979
05: Feel Good Inc – Gorillaz | Comin Home – City and Colour
06: Hide and Seek – Imogen Heap | Daydreamin – Lupe Fiasco
07: Superwoman – AKeys | Genesis – Justice
08: Bleeding Love – Leona | White – Lights
09: Empire State of Mind – JayZ AKeys | Substitution – Silversun Pickups
(more…)

My favorites of 2000-2009 | Movies:

00: Crouching Tiger
01: Donnie Darko
02: Minority Report
03: Lost in Translation
04: Eternal Sunshine of Spotless Mind
05: Crash
06: Departed
07: King Kong
08: Dark Knight
09: Avatar
(more…)

I have actually read a lot more news than previous years. Downtime inbetween code compiles lets me browse reuters, google news, bbc, and a pile of financial and foreign sources. However, despite all this, I feel less informed to give an opinion than ever. I have learned how gray all of it is, and how much you need to be there. What can I say about Iran, who had a rebellion, almost a revolution, but now what? I read a teenager was jailed and tortured for wearing a green wristband. Also Ahmadinejad appointed some female ministers, and more people oppose him. I don’t really get what it all means other than I’m glad I don’t live there and I hope the youth growing up will not act like the current ruling class when they gain power.

Or what can I say about Obamacare? I know a ton of republicans are being straight up morons in their arguments against it. But beyond that, I don’t seem to have a strong opinion on it. This would be another “revolution” of sorts, although not as severe as Iran. Will change actually come from anything they decide? Is it unrealistic to expect a system to be flipped on its end overnight? There are massive groups of “conservatives” which by definition are resistant to change. So obviously, change isn’t going to happen very easily. And if they ever form the majority in usa again, who is to say they don’t just change it back? I really don’t know what’s going to happen, from the little I know, American medical system is messed up, but how should that be fixed? And at what cost? I think you have to… trust… the politicians who put together bills or proposals for medicare plans and then… trust… other politicans who endorse it. There is no way I’m going to read one of those plans, and there is no way I am going to understand the system and terms in the plan even if I read it.

Then there is the topic of stock market, economic stability, inflation deflation, housing crash, toxic loans. And the crazy part of all that, is while I can watch the present, and get general consensus about the past, people interpret all that to form different thoughts on the future. Also I really have a hard time believing consensus of all the factors that made it happen or how successful solutions have been. Does giving american auto industry insane amounts of money help or not? I don’t know. Were all the great years in the 90s and 00s just too good to be true ? Or did something go wrong somewhere. Is it just a normal a boom and bust cycle? Who is to blame, who is to praise? I do think it is clear that those bad credit companies giving AAA ratings to bad loans are obviously to blame. Housing markets were obviously way too greedy and profitable where they shouldn’t have been. People were buying outside of their means and that type of stuff is well known. However, once you go past that topic, what is the role of the Presidency or governments in the last 15 years? What made it better or worse? I don’t really know. Foreign markets are going berserk too, what is up with that? Does China’s corruption affect the whole world? Probably. But it is pretty hard to get the straight truth on something like that.

Anyway, to all the people who think they know what is what: Iran is fixed, or a lost cause, American economy is booming, or ruined, Obamacare is perfect, or evil communism, I really doubt you know what you’re talking about. Same goes for all these journalists and editorialists on television making wild claims, calling presidents racists… sigh. I know strong opinions are more interesting, but just have some humility in your lack of knowledge or insight.

My man John Mayer, who i follow on twitter, has the icon I put at the top regarding Iran and I think he has the right idea. Note that tons of famous people colored their photo green in support of the rebels over there. (although currently, almost all have switched to something else)

I’ve understood that many people foolishly put hopes, happiness in the hands of famous celebrities. Then they scream or cry or have all these crazy emotional reactions to someone they haven’t met. It’s a bit odd, but if there isn’t inspiration or connection in real life, I’m not surprised it happens. Attachments to Michael Jackson have waned, as most people are mere fans of the music due to his … less than inspirational state of the last decade or two. But others, would cause major trauma around the world. Can you imagine if, Groban, Celine Dion died? a Springsteen or Madonna? All sorts of will be deeply saddened and have all these stories of how these celebs gave them strength, or got them through tough times.

For myself, (more…)

This review is remorseful, mostly because the first two are awesome and should have had credit earlier.

Silversun Pickups – Swoon A-
Oh Silversun, people thought you were Smashing Pumpkins redux, and you still probably are. Such a big hit with ‘lazy eye’ last time around but this new cd is just solid, I’ve been playing it over and over and it has great tempo, good grooves, and I like the vocals. Big thumbs up.

Taken A–
with Liam Neeson, goons and girls.
Liam totally rocks. I love his attitude, I love all the oneliners, the plot works for me. Its just a solid surprise of an .. action/suspense? movie. Like a Bourne style, except older, and more parental urgency drama. Good stuff. I’ll probably watch it again, and I never watch movies twice.

Watchmen B++
with nobody famous, and a blue superguy
Quite a story packed into the screen. I appreciated a lot of it, while admittedly not knowing half of their names until near the end. The pacing was herky jerky which was part of the point of the movie. I liked the ending too, all in all, its a good experience, but really hard to categorize. More of a superhero drama than an action movie, although there is some good action stuff. Rorshach is easily one of the coolest characters ever, with the best voice to-boot.

Red Eye C+
with Rachel McAdams, Cillian
Oh Rachel of Canada, I’m glad you represent our country so well. Classy, pretty, and some strength too. This plot has no subplots really, or many major turning points. It could have been a tv episode of 24, so thumbs down on the writing. The rest was fine, forgettable. If it was starring a lightweight like Sarah Michelle Gellar or someone less respectable, it would have been a D easily.

American Gangster B
with Denzel, Crowe
Crowe likes the cop role, I sorta recently watched LA Confidential which is oddly similar, but much much older. American Gangster starts off slow, showing Denzel’s rise to the the top in an italian dominated world of organized crime, specifically drug dealing. He uses some unorthodox tactics, as well as some very solid principles he’s picked up from his mentor and dominates the game. Its kinda interesting to start, but I quit half way through and resumed the next day because it was getting long. The second half was a lot more exciting since you know the cops are going to catch up with him, you just have to find out how it goes down and what happens to this mess. I enjoyed the ending and it was paced much more like a drama than an action movie, which worked for me. Excellent character development, and plot. A really good movie for the patient.

Crank 2 D+
with Statham
I have never seen anything more explicit, I’m surprised they squeaked in with the 18A/R rating. The rest of the movie was entertainingly retarded and ludicrous electricity nonsense. Idk, a lot of stuff for the crowd that I’m not a part of, so I definitely don’t recommend it. I wasn’t bored though, so there’s that. The ’scene’ in Watchmen has got _NOTHING_ on crank. Wow. A bad wow.

Fast & Furious C+
with Diesel, Walker, testosterone
Exactly what I expected, it was the proper sequel to F&F with articles (the first one). Good racing, sorta interesting plot, lots of macho bravado. It accomplished its goal.

Seven Pounds C++
with Fresh Prince, Miss Rosario
The other measurement movie, 12 grams had a hugely different feel, but there’s something… I wont go into it too much, but I’m glad I’ve seen them both. I feel they are worth watching but because seven pounds is odd, some will hate it, some will love it. I really liked the humanity, morality and purity of good characters. Some will gag since its hard to believe people act like this since it is not as gray as almost all modern movie characters are. Except is it gray? Large questions to be asked, I liked it quite a bit. Even some heart string tugging. But I cant recommend it to everyone.

Barcelona’s 102.5 B+
Awesome radio station. “Alternative” with like 1/3 english, good stuff. Dance pop rock mostly. The only down side was that one “song” i “liked” turned out to be jonas brothers. I hang my head.

These albums came out around dec 07, but they deserve some mention even if they were too early for this year.

Lupe Fiasco – The Cool
Lupe is the only rapper other than JayZ to appreciate it as an art form, sure others are good, and they can make a catchy song, but Lupe makes it flow, and its not really that easy to explain. Go go go go go go gadget flow. In the words of lupe himself. (He’s not a loser I promise)

Alicia Keys – As I Am
As my money goes, she might be the “queen” of pop, or r&b, which is pop these days. Fantastic cd from start to finish, emotion, melodies, musical skill, she has everything. You are a super woman Alicia!
-

Foxboro Hot Tubs -
This is an LP so I’m cheating, but its great! Who knew Green Day could be a retro rockabilly band? I think its my second favorite CD of theirs after Warning. (Ya, I am not a true green day friend if i dont gush over dookie nimrod and american idiot, so sue me)

There are tons of these lists, but too many are snooty and focus on “raw” underproduced music. I guess for reviewers who hear heavily produced stuff constantly they get sick of it. However, there is something to be said for high music quality, no matter how famous or unfamous they are. So here’s my list of my fav of 2008

Justice – A Cross the Universe – this is a live cd, pretty much the same as last year’s Cross, but man it is epic. Maybe it doesn’t count, i dont think cds without new material should count… so here’s the other 10
-

(more…)

A lot of people have fond memories for a character they see two-three hours on a screen. Amazing hours with a full sensual experience, but mere hours nevertheless. What does that say about the movie genre that these filmmakers can connect so much with us in a short period of time? I wonder if games can ever make that connection.

Empire Online compiled a list of 100 great characters. I was so excited that #13 made this list, IMO this character should have won an Oscar. All in all I think this list is excellent. Although Luke Skywalker is lame, lame, lame. Leia too. #1 is definitely not my #1, and action movies are too high (diehard? cmon)

Empire’s 100 greatest movie characters/

This list is so good it has inspired me to go back and watch dozens of movies I’ve seen, and dozens more I haven’t.

I wonder if Napoleon Dynamite quotes will come back. Or if they were over used and died a short lived life.

How do I measure this? Perhaps I should use the 2% line and see if I get a date out of it.
Try to get a laugh from telling people about my nunchuk, bow hunting, computer hacking and skills. (I’ve gotten laughs before, but its worn out)
Or next time someone asks me what I do I can tell them not to be jealous, I’ve been chatting online with babes all day. (ooh, close to home)

Did Ferris Beuhler come back? I think it did. Breakfast Club? Fast Times at Ridgemont High I think definitely did. It must have been super racey at the time, but I guess somewhat accurate as to where culture was going?

Is there anything since Napoleon? Will people be quoting High School Music 3? Actually I’d go with Juno, as far as boyfriends go, Paulie Bleaker is totally boss. The scene about not trying at all, trying really hard is one of my favorites ever. I might have more success picking up a girl by piling her mailbox with tic-tacs. Or she might not get it and think I’m totally nutso.

quote whatever you wanna quote, gosh