Wizard People, Dear Reader

Hello, friends. You may remember me from such softball fiascos as "Running Facefirst Into Eric Hopkins," or "Right Field Massacre '08." Or for those of you lucky enough to not be on our softball team last year, I had a list up a few months ago. I woke up this morning and checked ye olde Friends Recommend, and after seeing Jessica's very well-written tome on Rachel Getting Married, I thought maybe I should just leave well enough alone this week. I also considered anti-recommending mine and Adam's entire fantasy baseball team, but I figured that he could handle that on his own. So what the hell do I talk about now? Well, you're in luck today folks.

I heard about this "movie" from Chris Laun when we were both living together in the cesspool that we affectionately referred to as the "Pirate Ship." Does everyone remember watching the Wizard of Oz whilst listening to Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon? This is kind of like that, only better. This is the OK Computer to WoO/DSotM's Palbo Honey (like that Radiohead reference everyone?). So what are we talking about here?

This is Harry Potter for anyone who wants Harry Potter to be the funniest movie you've ever seen. Some dude decided to do a narration of the whole movie (i.e. a book on tape) that syncs up with the movie as its running. The general storyline is pretty similar to the original, but the narrator gives everything a comical twist. I'm not really sure how to explain it. Harry is often prone to fits of rage. I've seen the movie this way at least ten times, and I would consider it one of the top 5 funniest movies that I have ever seen.

I'm not nearly as eloquent as Mike Ward writing about peanut butter, so luckily I found a few of my favorite clips on youtube:







If you are looking to give this a try, you can download the audio tracks here: You'll need 2 cd's, and when you start the movie start the cd player immediately.

Enjoy!

Day Off

Friends Recommend took the day off today. I am sorry about this, but I put in for it two weeks ago. We'll resume tomorrow with a brand new Chris Laun list which should be really nice. If you are free there is some great music at the Windup Space tonight at 9:00pm. I don't usually use this blog as an advertisement for shows, but I just did. It won't happen again.

Just so you don't feel 100% ripped off here is a scene from the Big Lebowski. It is great in the unedited movie when the Dude and Walter are trying to intimidate little Larry into telling them where the money is. The famous line is "See what happens Larry? See what happens when you F*** a stranger in the a**?" This is the edited for TV version, and in many ways I think it is even better. Also, you can just barely see at the end that after all of that, they still went to the In N' Out Burger. Enjoy:

The Wire

OK, I know I am going to catch crap from my Baltimore fans for this, but I feel for my out of town friends I need to at least mention The Wire. It is difficult to go out in public in Baltimore, mention The Wire, and not have a total stranger offer their perspective, or tell you that they just started Season Three, and isn't Stringer Bell just a real jerk? Maybe you can go out in public, talk about The Wire, and not hear this stuff. But I know that brother Eric and I discussed it at an Agora function and made a friend because of it. I don't remember this friends' name, or anything about her for that matter.

The Wire is an HBO original series based in my beloved hometown of Baltimore, Maryland. It shows a side of Baltimore that I am admittedly not too familiar with, but I do believe it exists. Believing is enough...I don't have to see it. Anyway, this incredible HBO series aired for five seasons from 2002-2006. I just finished Season Five last week, and this show approaches but does not break into my top 5 favorite TV shows. It comes close though. Sidenote, as I conclude finally watching Arrested Development Season One in order, it comes dangerously close to breaking into my top five favorite TV shows.

One central element of the show is the Baltimore City Police Department, which plays a key role in all five seasons of the show. The shows title comes from a wire tap that a special department of the BCPD uses to build evidence against a major drug (the most major? majorest?) circle in the city. I don't even want to get into character names here, because it would take up more than one post. The seasons are brilliantly self-contained. Major characters are continual from season-to-season, and plot lines even vaguely continue, but each season has it's own theme or Baltimore problem that it addresses and occasionally wraps up in the end. Like I said, all seasons are heavily focused on the BCPD, but Season One examines a drug empire run by Avon Barksdale, Season Two the Baltimore docks and you guessed it, drugs. Season Three returns focus to the Barksdale family but introduces some new drug players and begins to examine the cities politics with the intro of unloveable Tommy Carcetti. Season Four covers the Baltimore City schools and may be the most disturbing and saddening of all five seasons. And Season Five focuses on new drug kingpin, Marlo Stanfield. This can't even begin to explain all of the well excecuted side plots, story lines, major character development, and emotional content that The Wire contains.

If you are in any way faint-of-heart, or easily disturbed The Wire is not your show. It can be pretty graphic and violent at times, but it is just so good. I highly, highly recommend it to anyone who can stomach it. I am thrilled that ganster-robinhood Omar Little has his own wikipedia entry here. Like everyone who has seen the show, Omar is easily my favorite character and I would definitely wear this shirt, pink or not. After just completing the fifth season I am ready to watch the whole thing again. My current order of the seasons, favorite to least favorite (bear in mind that they are all good, just some are better than others):

1) Season Three--I was overjoyed by the return of the Barksdale crew, especially following my least favorite season at the docks.

2) Season One--I think I loved it so much because it was new. I'm curious to see how this would stand on second viewing of the series.

3) Season Four--This would be higher if it didn't upset me so much.

4) Season Five--This would be better if McNulty wasn't such an idiot and that stupid serial killer plot just hadn't happened.

5) Season Two--The docks didn't do it for me. Ziggy's duck was good, but you know a season isn't great when a duck with jewlery is the best part of it.

I can't possibly pick a scene, or even three to sum up this series. All I can say is borrow Season One from a friend, or Netflix it. If you don't need to see more after it is over then it might not be your thing.

You Can't Do That On Television

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:



and maybe most of all, Barth:

The Dismemberment Plan--Emergency & I

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:

George French

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