March 22, 2007

MUSIC

Andrew Bird’s new album is out, and it’s wonderful. I could listen to “Fiery Crash” over and over and over. Oh wait I am listening to “Fiery Crash” over and over and over. Sorry, officemates!

The other song I can’t take off repeat is Regina Spektor’s “Fidelity”. Here, have a listen:

Lovely, isn’t it? It’s hard as hell to sing along to, though. It breaks my hear-ar-ar-ar-ar-ar-ar-ar-ar-ar-ar-arrrt . . . ow. I think I just pulled something.

WEB IRRITATIONS

1) I can’t properly express how grateful I am that the obnoxious Comcast ad—the one with the severed ear that scurried around enticing you to, in my case, drop Comcast immediately and sign up with Qwest—on the blogs partnered with Federated Media seems to have completed its run. No fault of the bloggers, but jesus I hated that animated ear. Did you notice how it chased your cursor, without even providing a weapon with which to stab it repeatedly? Gah. Congratulations, Comcast, on coming up with a web advertisement even more annoying than those blinking WINNER! banners from 2003.

2) People need to stop setting their links to open in new windows. SERIOUSLY. Yes, I can tell my browser to open them in tabs so it’s marginally less sucktacular, but for the love of god, knock it off.

3) While I’m being all curmudgeonly and nitpicky and like Andy Fucking Rooney over here, can someone explain the purpose of the “jump” in a blog post, where you must clickety the little “continue reading” link to get to the remainder of the post? Why must I make with the clickety? My mousing hand, it is tired.

BABY TALK

Lately Riley is obsessed with trying to jump. He gives it the old college try by heaving upward and flinging his hands in the air, but his feet don’t actually leave the ground. Then he comes over to one of us and holds up his hands in the classic Pick Me Up Now Goddammit position and makes little whiny “eh, eh, eh” noises until we grab his arms and help him pogo up and down. This is fun until we decide we’d like to do something else, at which time Riley has a giant flaming meltdown complete with choking sobs and dramatic wall-poundings.

This five-minute cycle of pure joy to abject misery is the perfect little microcosm of parenting. Everything is unbelievably wonderful! Everything is kind of boring. Everything sucks, sucks, sucks, all to hell! Repeat.

THE UNDEAD ARE EVERYWHERE

I’m sorry to be bringing up zombies yet again, but there is something weird going on. The other day I was talking about zombies with JB, then we started watching American Idol and the chubby guy was singing a song by . . . The Zombies. Then? Then? A Diet Coke commercial came on, and it featured, wait for it . . . zombies. And then I found out about this musical (thanks, Christine) and I stumbled onto this t-shirt and at lunch today I bit into a piece of deli roast beef and for just a moment it dangled from my mouth, all fleshy-like, and I don’t know, man, I think the universe is trying to tell me something.

AND NOW AN IMPORTANT QUESTION

Tomorrow is “Parent’s Night” at Riley’s daycare so JB and I are going to try and see a movie. Both 300 and Zodiac look good to me—can you weigh in on this? Whichever one we don’t see will have to wait until it comes out on DVD, so I feel we must choose wisely.

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Amy
Amy
17 years ago

I saw Zodiac last weekend. Things that are really great: Jake Gyllenhal, Robert Downey, Jr, Mark Ruffalo. Things that are okay: the fact that you know that the case is unsolved (since it’s based on a true story), so you leave feeling a little bit “meh”… Things that downright suck: that i fell asleep twice and missed some important plot points.

All in all a good movie (see: Jakey G…yummy) but it was a tad anti-climactic.

Haven’t seen 300. Am I the only one who didn’t know that it was filled with homo-eroticism? Not that that would change my enjoyment of the movie, but I’m glad I got the heads up on something like that before I saw it.

Mama Ritchie
17 years ago

I would see 300 just cuz it probably looks cool and shit on the big screen and even though I love my Jakey – I prefer him in the privacy of my own home, if you know what I mean, and I think you do. Wait – that’s dirty.

Moderndayhermit
Moderndayhermit
17 years ago

OMG, I thought of your post about Zombies yesterday morning when I saw a license plate that said…

ZOMBIE1

dun, dun, dun

Joanne
17 years ago

I guess 300 would be better on the bigscreen – that’s what I try and go by here lately when we see like one movie a year. But Zodiac has gotten great reviews.

isa
isa
17 years ago

My husband saw 300 last weekend. His brilliant conclusion? The descendants of the Spartans moved to Miami, and you can see them weekly (daily in reruns on cable) on CSI Miami. His reasoning? The women are backlit with an ethereal glow, and the men are (of course) smarter and handsomer than you. Can you tell we have an unhealthy obsession with “H” and the gang and their ultimate badness? The Sunglasses of Justice!

Also, my son thinks the lyrics to Fidelity are “it breaks my fa-a-a-a-a-art” and he finds it deliciously naughty. I just sing along till my lungs are sadly empty of air, and then wheeze that lovely smoker’s wheeze…

whoorl
17 years ago

I love every song on Regina Spektor’s new album (do we still say album?). She is super-talented…get it if you don’t already have it. You won’t be disappointed.

Kate
Kate
17 years ago

I haven’t seen Zodiac yet, although I’d like to, but we went and saw 300 last week and it was great! The violence is a tad superfluous at times, but over it is visually spectactular and deserves to be seen on a big screen!

Pete
Pete
17 years ago

I saw 300 last week and it’s a pretty good flick. Must be seen on the big screen. Lots-O-Beefcake for the women and Lots-O-Slashing for the guys. Just think of the Persians as Zombies. ;-) If you liked the film style of ‘Sin City’ you will like the style of 300. Zodiac is on my list to see but if I have to wait until it’s out on DVD that’s ok.

whoorl
17 years ago

p.s. – don’t read my last post or you will lose your shit over all of the new-window linkage.

Gaby
Gaby
17 years ago

Honestly, I just saw Zodiac and hated it. The acting is good, but the movie drags on for way too long. I was bored by about an hour into it. (I, too, fell asleep briefly. That can’t be a good sign.)

Totally agree about the “jump” issue on blogs. It’s annoying.

Amanda
17 years ago

The feedback for 300 seems to be that it has racist and homophobic overtones, as well as a lot of rewritten history. I’d say go for Zodiac.

AmyW
AmyW
17 years ago

I have watched 300.

It does have a lot of homo references. Homo references that I could have lived without, but the laughing, clapping and cheering of the other movie-goers made worse.

I was disappointed in the movie itself b/c it was not “non-stop action” as I was told. Some of the graphics were really bad. (I am complete nerd, the graphics bothered me–even my husband said something, but he did not think this took away from the movie.)

There were some cool scenes and decent dialog. Honestly, I’m still trying to decide if I liked it or not. I would not pay theater prices again to watch this movie. I feel like if I would have been told honestly about this movie to begin with, I would not have paid theater prices the first time around.

If I had it to do over, I would have went to see 23 or Reno 911! Good luck.

Keaton
Keaton
17 years ago

Might I point your attention to this shirt: http://www.zestuff.com/tshirts/8bit/118/

If you’re in the mood for a movie that’s designed to be pretty and violent without much substance, go for 300. I haven’t seen Zodiac, but I think it looks good, and it might change your focus on horror from zombies to serial killers, which would be oh so healthy.

Em
Em
17 years ago

I’ve heard zodiac is good, though I haven’t seen it. I have seen 300 though, and my opinion is that it’s only worth seeing on the big screen.

300 was very fun to watch, but ultimately cheesy and overdone (at one point, the 300 exceptionally cut Spartans are running into some battle, and the soundtrack breaks into some power metal-rock. It was brilliant and hilarious). In a nutshell: perfect for big screen cinema, lame for home viewership.

Pickles & Dimes
17 years ago

The “jump” feature is a holdover from sites like LiveJournal, where people “friend” other bloggers. All the posts from those friended bloggers then end up on your Friends Page. As a courtesy, if you have an extremely long post, you put the bulk of the entry under a “jump” or “more” cut so your post doesn’t take up someone’s entire friends page.

I’m no longer on LiveJournal, but still find myself using the “more” feature out of habit.

Sadie
Sadie
17 years ago

My boyfriend dragged my reluctant ass to 300 last weekend and I agree that it’s certainly the type of cinematography to be seen on the big screen. It’s violent, but the action/effects are very stylized, like Sin City, so it’s not gross, ‘wince-and-turn-away’ violence like Gladiator or Braveheart (two other hand-to-hand battle movies I could think of that made me yelp and hide my face).
Re: homoeroticism and/or racism – if I was a Persian, yeah, I guess I’d think it was racist, since it’s pretty revisionist history, and Xerxes a big trannie styled directly after Dennis Rodman. Overall, a piece of fluff.

robin
robin
17 years ago

See, I’m not into all the zombie stuff but I have noticed since you’ve been talking about them, I seem to see them a lot lately too.

And yes, Regina Spektor is awesome…get the whole album, you won’t be disappointed.

Ashley
17 years ago

I know this isn’t listed as any of your choices, but is ‘The Host’ playing where you are going? http://www.hostmovie.com/
that is what I would see if I could.

I have heard the Zodiac is boring, and hadn’t even heard of 300 until this post. Yeesh, I must live in a cave.

Brooke
17 years ago

My best friend saw “300” three times the first two days it was out. She’s a serious movie buff and she loved it. We are contemplating seeing it next week.

Shu
Shu
17 years ago

We dubbed it “Slowdiac” after sitting through it for 2.5 hours and realizing that all the action happened in the first 30 minutes. Not a bad movie, but not great – and it could have definitely been condensed!

Emma
Emma
17 years ago

Got back from seeing 300 just now, weirdly. I’d highly recommend it – and as a contrast to other posters here, I only noticed one homoerotic moment (and I’m *always* finding moments like that in movies, I just seem to notice stuff like that!).

Either way, dude-loving or otherwise, I’d go see 300. Ripped men running around with spears and some really cool comic-book effects.

MelissaLBC
MelissaLBC
17 years ago

I loved Zodiac! But I grew up in Vallejo so that could be part of it. Its pretty cool to see your hometown in a movie! Its not a thriller or horror movie though – I guess I would describe it as more of a Law & Order type of script. So if you like that, I highly recommend it.

Bianca
17 years ago

I saw Zodiac yesterday and if no one has mentioned it, you need to know that the movie is about 3 hours long. It stays pretty true to the actual story and doesn’t get too Hollywoodized. Yes, that includes the notion that these are still unsolved crimes and there is really no resolution to the film.

Jake G. is of course so awesome to look at. However, he does make it kinda hard to pay attention because you totally start imagining those big gorgeous eyes of his looking at you earnestly and confessing his love when really he’s talking about handwriting samples and ambidexterity.

Robert Downey Jr. is just such a phenomenal actor. In the first few minutes of the movie he just blows you away and you wish all actors could be as talented as he is.

Even Mark Ruffalo has his charm…

I live in San Francisco and I’m obsessed with San Francisco history and lore so I loved it. If I lived in another city and weren’t crazy about this one, I would still like the movie but I think I would see 300 instead because that’s one that you really shouldn’t miss on the big screen.

jen
jen
17 years ago

Go see 300. Seriously.

Seriously.

You can thank me later.

breckgirl
breckgirl
17 years ago

I thought 300 was fabulous and I seriously had to ponder what was “homo” anything about it when I read the posts above. I didn’t see anything the least bit gay about the movie, if that is what all these references are about (or maybe I am just not deep enough to “get” it). Xerxes was not portrayed as gay, he was portrayed as an arrogant a-hole who thought he was a god and expected everyone else to think so, too. Although the movie involved a historical event, let’s also remember that the movie was based on a graphic novel, aka comic book, so yes, a number of liberties were taken with the story and it was very fantasy-esque. I expected to be dazzled by hot dudes in boots and capes and I was NOT disappointed. You go see 300 and tell me that the heavy metal music was out of place in that battle scene. To me, it was perfect!

Shannon
17 years ago

I feel the opposite of you, Linda, with the links set to open in new windows. I create my links to open in new windows on my blog on purpose. I hate having the link open in the same browser because if it’s interesting and I want to read it later or read more of that site, I have to hit “return” to the original page, then open the link up in a new browser anyway! Might as well have it open to a new browser from the get-go, is my thought process.

As for the “jump,” the commentor above me is right, when you have a really long post, it’s better to have the jump, so you can put more content (or what seems like more content) on the front page of the site. Also too, making the reader “jump” to a new page for the rest of the story is just another chance to try and get them to see advertising! Cynical but true.

Leah
17 years ago

1. I set my links to open in new tabs because it’s what I prefer when I’m reading. It allows me to open multiple linkage windows and read them after I’m through with the original entry or, if I read the new window’s content and that gets me off on some crazy clicking extravaganza, I still have the original window open to go back to. You and me, we just have different approaches to lazy.

2. I sometimes put gobs of photos after the jump because it allows my home page to load faster. Since I leave multiple entries up at a time, I don’t want it to take forever to load the one little photo accompanying the top entry because the server is trying to process all the photos from the entry posted three days ago farther down the page. ALSO (I clearly think about this stuff way too much), say I post X entry at 1 p.m. and then I post another, longer entry, Y, at 2 p.m. on the same day. Since I’m typically a daily poster, I’m worried that people will miss the first entry if I don’t make sure it’s visible “above the fold,” i.e., on what shows without scrolling. I obviously think too much and too highly about myself, but whatever.

3. Our last geocache outing was in a crazy abandoned zombie town. We only saw two people in about three hours, and one of them was literally staggering down the middle of the road. Everything else there was cats. Cats and tumbleweeds made of hairnets. I’ll explain later.

Josh
17 years ago

My personal latest web hate factor: I’ve got a myspace page I use to contact some of my friends who are impossible to reach without actually showing up at their house and punching through the front door to knock on their wall. For some reason I’ve been flooded with fake hottie accounts trying to get me to be their friend and then linking me to some retarded match.com rip off. I don’t even like using that stupid ass site just because of it’s already annoying nature, but this makes it unbearable. I want to accost that Tom fucker and make him fix it.

Swistle
17 years ago

I’ve heard better things about 300 than about Zodiac. Also, it seems like 300 would be better on the big screen, while Zodiac would be fine on a TV screen.

I am panicking a little that maybe my links are set to open new windows. I don’t know! I don’t know if they are! Must! Panic!

Stephanie
Stephanie
17 years ago

Zodiac was three fricktastic hours long. If you have a strong bladder, I would definitely recommend. I myself had to leave the theater twice to pee. If I had known it was that long I would have waited for on demand.

Mary
Mary
17 years ago

Well, I absolutely love when links open in new windows. I love new windows. And HATE tabs. I wish everything opened in a new window.
I don’t much care for horror movies or bowling, so I wouldn’t go see Zodiac or 300, but I could not recommend Reno 911!: Miami more. Best movie of the year, for sure.

yams
yams
17 years ago

I’d suggest going for a good Indian meal – have some paneer tikka masala – way way better than tofu trust me. Then go see “Namesake”. Not sure if you’ve read Jumpa Lahri or seen any Mira Nair flick – I like them both so to see their combined work will be fantastic. Plus you’ll have a cultural experience too!

Shana
Shana
17 years ago

I cloth diaper my baby.

When I watched 300, I kept seeing these big, beautiful, beefy men in cloth diapers. I’m sorry, that’s what it looked like to me. It was hack and slash, but the men ARE pretty to watch. And you can tell JB he’ll get to see teenage nipple.

Erica
Erica
17 years ago

Ooohh, that Regina Spektor is amazing isn’t it! I got the CD last week just based on that one song – and the whole thing is great!

jonniker
17 years ago

I HAAATE the new window/tab, too. Hate. I agree. And while we’re at it (am I allowed to do this, even though I already did it?), the trend to direct me to someone’s Google Reader feed? Kind of makes me want to stab them in the face. I HATE the Google Reader, and while I use it myself, I don’t want to have to sift through miles and miles of someone else’s posts when really, I just want to browse a blogroll.

I love blogrolls. Love. How else are we to find new readers?

kara marie
17 years ago

Well, I heard 300 was horrible, horrible, horrible. Unless you just want to see strangely oiled actors acting poorly. That’s what I heard.

cynthea
cynthea
17 years ago

Holy shit, you must see 300.

I’ve seen both, like the one, love the other, whatever, (GUESS!!), but you MUST see 300 on the Big Screen.

Really.

Thanksforlistening, AND I’mreallyserious…

Andrea
17 years ago

I am enjoying really enjoying Regina Spektor these days. There are a few songs I am still learning to appreciate, but overall it is a great album.
On the other hand I absolutely love Andrew Bird, I think I had his last album going in my car for two months straight. I get to go see him in May and can’t wait!

Ashley
17 years ago

I just watched the trailer for 300, so it’s just me that thinks it looks completely cheesy with a side of high budget porn? hm…

Leah
17 years ago

For months all I’ve heard is “blah blah Regina Spektor blah.” Now that I’ve actually listened to something, though, all I can say is I’ve been missing out. Wow.

Erin
17 years ago

Clearly you need to see THIS shirt, which is an actual shirt sold on an actual non-ironic Christian t-shirt seller’s website.

http://www.solidlightco.com/PhotoGallery.asp?ProductCode=JCA6809

Joanie
Joanie
17 years ago

This also is not on your list, but this movie is freaking brilliant…

The Lives of Others (playing at the Harvard Exit)

Schnozz
17 years ago

See, you can’t win with the “new window” thing. All the older people reading my blog hate that they lose their place in my long-ass posts, but have no idea how to use any browser other than IE, much less set TAB preferences. All the younger people know how to set their own prefs and bitch about the new window. You can’t win!

Lesley
Lesley
17 years ago

Is Fido (a Zombie comedy) available in the US yet? It’s Canadian so I’m not sure.

Getting rave reviews.

Timmy Robinson’s best friend in the whole wide world is a six-foot tall rotting zombie named Fido. But when FIDO eats the next-door neighbor, Mom and Dad hit the roof.

Jem
Jem
17 years ago

Oops, I didn’t know opening in a new window was bad. Sorry.

Also, I HATE the jump thing…especially on LiveJournal where I write all the shitty things I can’t be bothered writing up properly for my website…but I used to have people INSIST I do it so that if they didn’t want to read my hugely wrong post they could skip it easier in their friends list. I hate them for that.

Bindie
17 years ago

I use Firefox, the best imho, and I LOVELOVELOVE the tab business. Not so fond of opening another window, but even worse? THE FORWARD AND BACKWARD SHIT. If I can’t tab the link, I don’t even bother to click.

I am ambilivent about the jump thing.

tracey
tracey
17 years ago

I’ve seen both movies and Zodiac is a better movie. But I would see 300 on the big screen. Graphically it’s like nothing like I’ve ever seen. Pretty even, even with the blood. Warning it’s a bit dumb, but on the plus side, no thinking required. And hot men bodies.

Zodiac is good for DVD because there is about an hour too much movie there and you can do your own FF editing. Unfortunately my favourite movie crush, Mark Ruffalo, is not at all hot in this movie. Not sure why, maybe the slightly whiny accent or schulby-ness.

Bethiclaus
17 years ago

My husband would very much appreciate it if I would quit pretending to be Regina Spektor in the shower every morning.

Hmm…I’d see Zodiac, I think.