A few things about this Nickelodeon show from my youth stand out in my memories. Kids getting slimed for saying "I don't know", those great different colored lockers, that woman who could make the insanely high sounds with her voice, and later Alanis Morrisette.
Things I didn't remember/realize about this show. It was Canadian. There was a 20 minute reunion show filmed in 2004 with some of the original cast members called Project 131. Youtube link to the entire episode here.
Some of my favorite things about YCDTOTV were the opening sausage machine montage:
This is an easy one for me. This one is maybe too easy for me. I would feel bad about how easy this one was, except that I think more people in the world should know about it. I think George was made aware of my Dismemberment Plan obsession after I posted about Todd's Maritime pick (a band which includes members of D-Plan). It turns out we have both seen the band a bunch of times, and were probably at a number of the same shows, unaware that we would one day be co-managing a fantasy baseball team together. If you are unaware of who they are this wikipedia post sums it up pretty good, and dismembermentplan.com lets you know what they are all doing now.
I first saw The Dismemberment Plan when I was (a sophmore?) in high school at the Small Intestine in Baltimore. This pretty much changed my life. They blew up the tiny, Ben Valis-owned club on Bel Air road with one of the most energetic performances I have ever seen or heard anywhere ever. I was hooked. My brother bought their debut album "!" at this show and I have loved them ever since. Nick Prevas and I became obsessed further in our early college years, right around the time Emergency & I was released. We went to a bunch of shows together from 2000-2002 at the Black Cat and 9:30 Club (they were born and raised outside of DC). One of my favorite shows was the "Death and Dismemberment Tour" (with Death Cab For Cutie) stop at 9:30 Club. I am a fan of Death Cab, but man did Dismemberment Plan slay them at this show. Death Cab played a (good) set of angsty, emotional, softish, mellow music, and then D-Plan came on and blew the place up again. It was amazing. I remember their playing at that show not being great compared to their other shows, but they got the audience worked up like crazy. Nobody could make a crowd dance like them. Wikipedia claims that they were often referred to as dance-punk, which I don't remember but I find it appropriate.
All of their albums deserve a place in anyone's music collection, but Emergency & I is their for-sure masterpiece. It is one of the most underrated albums in all of indie music in my opinion, and George and I would both put it on a top-10 all-time desert island music list. I listened to it for months straight when it first came out, and still listen to it, though not as often, and I am listening to it now (Gyroscope!) and I never get tired of it. I will admit that I have recommened it to some friends (Huff) and expected them to love it as much as I do. They never love it as much as I do and I can't help but feel like there is probably a strong feeling of nostalgia tied in with this album for me. The Plan was really the first local band I ever got into and I have seen them live more than any other band, so it might be a little unfair of me to recommend it so strongly having these memories tied in with the music. So, a disclaimer. You might not love this album as much as I do, or as much as George does, or any of us who grew up listening to this band, but the music stands strong on its own. Really strong, and put all the live shows aside and this record still rules. It is solid from start to finish, but What Do You Want Me To Say, Spider In the Snow, You Are Invited, Gyroscope, The City, and Back and Forth are all standout. If you interested in checking out the band this is the album to get. If you like it you will probably like Change, and if you still need more then go back to "!" and take it from there.
The Dismemberment Plan broke up on January 19, 2003. It was a sad day indeed, but a sadder day was when they re-united in 2007 and I couldn't get tickets to either of the Black Cat shows that sold out within minutes of tickets going on sale. Anyway, here is the album cut of Spider In the Snow from Emergency. There are also a ton of great live clips of the band on youtube.
Whenever they played Ice of Boston live (they always played it) fans would flock the stage and dance. George claims to have done this twice. I never did it. It is one of the major regrets of my life thus far. This clip is from the first day of the 2007 re-union, and is the biggest Ice of Boston gathering I have ever seen. It makes me happy and sad simultaneously:
Not sure where to start with this guy, but what a guy he is. For those who don't know him, I apologize. I met George at the beginning of this past summer as the new guy on the softball team (him, not me). And even though his summer stats show him logging 17 errors (slightly more than twice anyone on the team) it would be unimaginable to play on this team without him. Especially because he is the guy you can always talk into staying for one more beer at our weekly post-softball-game gatherings at Swallow at the Hollow. He later joined the famed Egg Babies Orchestra (the second of two unadvisable things for him to do) which turned out to be a great time as well. We'll just consider him my sangria partner before EBO sets from now on. Anyway, this list he came up with is good. Real good. Chris Myers might say that he is lobbing softballs all over the place at me, but the truth is that it's just packed with real good stuff. Enjoy:
Movies:
The Big Lebowski The Shawshank Redemption Good Will Hunting Boogie Nights Better Off Dead Animal House
Music:
Tom Waits The Dismemberment Plan (esp. Emergency & I) Animal Collective (esp Merriweather Post Pavilion) The Silver Jews Loretta Lynn The Velvet Underground
Books:
Kurt Vonnegut: Timequake, Slaughterhouse Five, Mother Night Ayn Rand: Atlas Shrugged (it was a phase but I did genuinely enjoy the book) Fyodor Dostoyevsky: Notes from Underground Jim Bouton - Ball Four George Orwell - 1984 Joseph Heller - Catch 22
TV:
The Wire Anything on the History Channel The Simpsons Three Sheets Aqua Teen Hunger Force (the movie kicks ass too) You Can't Do that on Television Since I'm generally illiterate when it comes to visual art, I will make my recommendations in the only medium I am familiar with. Comics:
Calvin and Hobbes 10th anniversary book The Prehistory of the Far Side
Memento is another movie that I hesitated to discuss here because I just assume everyone has seen it. I don't know why I feel that way, and it probably isn't true. My advice...if you haven't seen Memento you should see it. Very soon. I enjoyed it much more on second viewing because I spent most of the first viewing pretty confused. Everything makes much more sense the second time around, like Donny Darko.
The basic plot, and you can read more summaries at IMDB here, is of a man named Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce) who has no short term memory, and no ability to form new memories (he does recall long-term memories via flashback). Interesting, but not that interesting, right? But WAIT, this guy is trying to hunt down his wife's killer! Nut's...how does he do it? Basically, he forgets anything that happened 10 minutes after, but if he can write himself a note quick enough or take a polaroid he can create a false memory. The notes he feels are most important to his wife's murder he tattoos on his body, which startle him every time he wakes up because he doesn't remember a thing about them. The plot is strong, and the way Christopher Nolan lays out the story line you get a good impression of what Leonard Shelby is going through because you feel just as confused and clueless as he does. According to wikipedia, medical experts have cited Memento as one of the most realistic and accurate depictions of aterograde amnesia in any motion picture.
Perhaps the most interesting element of the movie is the sequence of events and how they are presented to the viewer. The film is split up into scenes in black-and-white and scenes in color. The scenes in black-and-white follow the normal chronological sequence, but the color scenes are in reverse chronological order right from the get go. This sounds like it might not work, but it's executed really well and the twist ending (which is technically the twist beginning because it is a color scene) ties the whole thing together. This one gets an A+ from me, and the users at IMDB agree by voting it to number 27 on the top 250 movies of all-time list. Here is the awesome opening sequence:
This is an oldy but a goody, from our very first post by Timothy J. Huff. I revisit this for two reasons. 1) I am tired, and it is going to be short, and this is an easy one to sum up without being wordy. 2) I still need to further investigate this Myers list. 3) I feel like a lot of people missed this one in the first list. When I mention it to anyone they don't remember it being here. It is funny. I don't know if it is supposed to be funny, but it is. WARNING, this might gross you out slightly. But trust me, it is funny:
In 1961, Italian artist Piero Manzoni collected his own feces in 90 numbered cans, which contain 30 grams of feces each. Each can is labeled with "100% pure artist's sh*t" in English, German or French. Originally they were sold for their weight in gold, but they are currently valued to be worth between $25,000-35,000. In May of 2007 one of the cans sold for 124,000 euros(!) at Sotheby's. At the time 124,000 euros was the equivalent of $167,400. Search for it if you don't believe me. Pictured above is the English version, and below are the French and German. Discuss, please.
Well, I have to hand it to The Christopher Myers for this one. Following his theme of "Things I Was Determined To Hate" I walked into watching the first episode of Friday Night Lights (for free, on hulu.com) determined to never watch another episode. I mean, come on, I hate football. But a weak little man inside of me loves epic sports scenarios, be it on a softball field in Druid Hill Park, or unfortunately be it on a made-up football field in Odenton, TX.
I never saw the movie Friday Night Lights, but I am imagining it follows the same theme. Top-rated football team, in football town Texas, and all the things that happen in football town. Really though, the show had me at hello. It was a cheap shot, but after the credits rolled the first song playing on the jukebox in football town diner was Debra by Beck off of my all-time favorite party album Midnight Vultures. That was a low blow, Friday Night Lights. The direction of the first episode is a little bit obvious from the onslaught, following backup quarterback and his grandma, and his non-football playing (for shame!) friend. And in the next scene following the top-ranked quarterback in the nation and his top-ranked girlfriend. I think what happens in the first game is made pretty obvious, but it makes for real good television. So, we'll see where it takes us.
It is 12:41am currently, and I have to be up much earlier than normal to mix the Quartet Offensive record. But I am hooked enough to watch just one more episode before bed. Damn you The Christopher Myers for this one. I never asked to like this show.
P.S. you might remember from a previous post the mention of Cory recommends band Explosions In the Sky writing the soundtrack to the movie version of Friday Night Lights. Don't be deceived, the theme music is not them. It is a television composer (not a chump...he did score the Wonder Years, The West Wing, My So Called Life, and Felicity (!!!)) but he is still not Explosions In the Sky (it is however, a terrible rip-off). They are used for some music throughout the show though, so not all is lost. I don't know. Maybe you should check this out? Especially football fans? One this is for sure...Texas is a weird, strange football loving, praying in the middle of football games, kind of place.
Please, don't consider this a snub of The Christopher Myers' list. He will get his due, I promise. It does however require a little more research than some of the others, and I need to get my notes together before I dive in. I'm going to watch some TV shows, that's for sure.
But for today I will state that Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler is the best movie I have seen in a long time. I know it is hyped, and a couple days ago I posted John Waters' top movies of 2008 and the Wrestler sat at a strong number 7. For me all the hype is warranted, and true, and this movie is amazing. There have been a slew of (supposedly) great movies released in the past month, including the highly acclaimed Slumdog Millionaire. Both were good, but The Wrestler was great, great. They are both sitting very very high on the IMDB top 250 (Slumdog at 34, Wrestler at 47) but in time they will come down a little from that.
The Wrestler follows the story of Randy "The Ram" Robinson (Mickey Rourke) in the years of his wrestling career well after his prime. Rourke and Marisa Tomei are both great in the movie, but Rourke especially stands out. The Ram, a world-famous wrestler in the 80's, is now living paycheck to paycheck wrestling on weekends and working behind a deli counter during the week just to pay the rent on the trailor he lives in. I was never a wrestling fan growing up so I was very surprised by how much I liked this movie. It is pretty heartbreaking to follow the dark and lonely life of a guy who was once worshipped as a wrestling king, and see him now barely living off the fame. And on top of that his daughter, the only family he has sort of hates his guts.
The movie depressed me a little, partially because it was sad, and partially maybe because HSV and I went to the movie right after a visit to my (now tied for first with The Windup Space) favorite Baltimore bar, Birds of a Feather. Maybe good scotch makes me overly emotional? Regardless, The Wrestler is a movie not to be missed, wrestling fan or not. Also, I was sure that the song in this trailer was Tom Waits, but alas it is Bruce Springsteen giving us his best Tom Waits impression. Enjoy, and go see this movie:
