Last post of 2009?

There goes 2009.
Break its spine!
Break its spine!

Here comes 2010.
Bring it in!
Bring it in!

The old year's almost done.
The new year's nearly begun.

Happy New Year to everyone!

For the Family Circus fan out there

Halloween Night

Goblins and ghosts
Halloween toasts
Children dressed up for scares

Spirits that float
No head over coat
Foolhardy boys taking dares

Tricks and/or treats
Dastardly feats
House to house with candy in tow

Don't stay out late
Don't try to tempt fate
Or the Gashlycrumb Tinies may show

Halloween night
If it's done right
Will come off without a care

Count the kids right
At the end of the night
To ensure that they are all there

If you come up short
Then make a report
For all the good it won't do

Call out the hounds
But they'll never be found
For the monsters all want treats, too

I've had enough!

The past tense of the verb "lead" is "led" not "lead".

Let's never speak of this again.

Band Names

The Ubiquitous Headband
Not a Jackleg To Stand On
Ben Gibbard's Holy War
The Flaming Elevators
Hotly Flying Ferns of Death

Feel free to use these, just thank me in the liner notes to your albums and at every show you play.

Picks

Movies:
The Orphanage
Wonder Boys

Books:
Neil Gaiman - Neverwhere

Quote:
"Lay on Macduff
and damned be him that first cries
Hold! Enough!"
- Willie S.

Picks

Books:
Ben Sisario - Doolittle (this was an interesting read, although lacking a KIm Deal interview, therefore incomplete)

Movies:
The Prestige

TV:
Defying Gravity
Vampire Diaries (so far it's good, would be better without the diary stuff)

Picks

Books:
Michael T. Fournier - Double Nickels On the Dime (I'm a big Minutemen fan and still learned some things by reading this book)
Charlaine Harris - Dead and Gone

Movies:
Rachel Getting Married
The Hangover
Wall-E (Rhino is fully awesome)
Sunshine Cleaning (while I thought it was a good movie, it was billed as a comedy which it was most definitely not)

On this day in history

1861 - Capture of Cape Hatteras

1913 - Robertson Davies is born.

1937 - Toyota Motors incorporates.

2009 - I had lunch.

Picks

Movies:
Bolt
Quantum of Solace
Memento
Mr. Brooks
Gigantic - This destroyed and restored my faith in humanity.

Books:
Marc Woolworth - Bee Thousand (33 1/3 series)

Re-reads:
Neil Gaiman & Andy Kubert - 1602


Quote:
"I had always thought of Del Shannon as being right down there with Pat Boone.

Why?

Because I didn't know what the fuck I was talking about."
- Joe Pernice

Picks

Movies:
I Love You, Man

Rereads:
Orson Scott Card - First Meetings
Arthur Conan Doyle - Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Saturday wisdom

Saturday's alright for fighting.

A roller skating jam called "Saturdays".

Saturday in the park.

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night!

A Devout Wish

I breathed in.
I couldn’t get enough air.
I coughed through the hitch in my throat.

I tried again,
A deep breath that didn’t satisfy.
I hacked in rhythm to a steel drum beat.

A third time still.
I, my lungs to bursting, filled.
It came rushing out in an ineffectual breeze.

The birthday candles stayed lit.


-A poem dedicated to all those of my friends and family who have a birthday in July.

Picks

Books:
Rick Riordan - Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief

Movies:
Let The Right One In

TV
Torchwood: Children of Earth (best Torchwood series ever)

Picks

Books:

Scarlett Thomas - The End of Mr. Y
Sherman Alexie - The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

TV:

True Blood season 2
Torchwood: Children of Earth (brilliant day one and two)

10 Best and 5 Worst comic book movies

Best:

1 - The Dark Knight
2 - A History of Violence
3 - Sin City
4 - X-Men 2
5 - 300
6 - Watchmen
7 - Batman Begins
8 - Superman II
9 - Spiderman 2
10 - Iron Man

Worst:

1 - League of Extraodinary Gentlemen
2 - Batman & Robin
3 - Elektra
4 - Fantastic Four: Rise of The Silver Surfer
5 - Superman III

Picks

Books:

Brian Wood & Ryan Kelly - Local
Gerard Way & Gabriel Ba - The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite
Hannah Berry - Britten And Brulightly
Steve Niles & Berni Wrightson - Dead, She Said
David & Dan Lapham - Young Liars: Daydream Believer

TV:

Caprica pilot
Warehouse 13
Eureka final half season

Quote:

"International she goes out
Fresh from the sweat factory
I’m in love tonight
Perhaps we’ll be best friends for the week"
-Robert Pollard (Tight Globes)

Picks

Music:
Dinosaur Jr. - Farm
Idlewild - Post Electric Blues
Polaris - The Adventures of Pete and Pete Soundtrack

Movies:
The Squid and The Whale
Burn After Reading

Quote:
"We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people."
Arthur Schopenhauer

Comic:
Cat and Girl that eerily reminds me too much of myself

Picks

Books:

Chuck Pahlaniuk - Pygmy
Brian Azzarello/Lee Bermejo - Joker

Lost Flashbacks/Flash Forwards Guide Season 5

For this season, I decided to link the flashback comments thematically, so they all are either song titles or lyrics:

-1 Six (We're not going back!)
-2 The Treacherous Three (Shot with his own gun!)
-3 Desmond (We're a happy family! Me, Mom and Daddy!)
-4 Six (I don't want to go back empty-handed.)
-5 Six (Baby, don't you want to go?)
-6 Six (I can't believe it!)
-7 Locke (Recruiting soldiers)
-8 Sawyer (New sheriff in town.)
-9 Everyone (One of us! We accept you! One of us!)
-10 Sayid (Why can't we be friends?)
-11 Kate (Girl power!)
-12 Ben (Mrs. Brown, you've got a lovely daughter.)
-13 Miles (Father of mine)
-14 Daniel (Cry-y-in' over you!)
-15 No one (Wayback Machine Brain Freeze)
-16 Jacob (Touching me, touching you)

The person to identify all the artists in the comments gets the most perfect little no-prize that you'll never see.

Links to the past seasons flashback guides:
Lost Flashbacks/Flash Forwards Guide Season 4
Lost Flashbacks Guide Seasons 1-3

Picks

Movies:

Zack and Miri Make a Porno
Overnight (This is really funny! Even though it's not a comedy.)

Books:

Steven T. Seagle/Teddy Kristiansen - It's a Bird
Neil Gaiman/John Romita Jr. - Eternals
Gail Simone - Welcome to Tranquility

TV:
nothing on TV now

Star Trek

The new Star Trek movie is so cool! The best one since Khan. If Shatner had been in it, it would have been the best ever!

Picks

Books:
Mark Millar & Peter Gross - American Jesus: The Chosen
Steve Niles & Ben Templesmith - 30 Days of Night: Dark Days

Music:
Ken Will Morton - King of Coming Around

Uncommon People

Jacques Cousteau and Shazam
Whipped out their guns. BLAMITY! BLAM!
I wonder if God's ever said GODDAMN!
I knew the Pharoahs but Sam was a sham.

last 5 books read

J. D. Salinger - Franny and Zooey
Garth Ennis & Darick Robertson - The Boys: Good For the Soul
Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard & Cliff Rathburn - The Walking Dead: Here We Remain
Robert Heinlein - Glory Road
Dash Shaw - Bottomless Belly Button

Last 5 decisions made

1. Blog this.
2. Sporcle or blog.
3. Log off facebook.
4. Stepped in office.
5. Turned right.

Picks

Music:
Score! 20 years of Merge: The Covers Album

Picks

Movies:
Role Models

Books:
Nick Bertozzi - The Salon

Music:
The Jam At The BBC

National Holiday

Happy April Fools Day! From one fool to all of you!

Lost Flashbacks/Flashforwards Guide Season 4

For Seasons 1-3 see here:
Lost Flashbacks Guide Part 1

- 1 Hurley (I ate the Oceanic Six!)
- 2 Nuggets (We already get back stories?)
- 3 Sayid (Meet the new boss.)
- 4 Kate (None that I know of.)
- 5 Desmond (Time, time, time. See what's become of me.)
- 6 Juliet (Bikini Girls With Machine Guns)
- 7 Sun/Jin (Hurley suited up! Panda Bear?)
- 8 Michael (The singer for AC/DC? No, that's Brian Johnson.)
- 9 Ben (Time/space travelling MOFO!)
- 10 Jack/Kate (Is that you?)
- 11 John (Reading is fundamental.)
- 12 & 13 The Six (It's a c-o-n-spiracy.)

Picks

Song I've been playing over and over the last two weeks:
Low "California"

Books:
Martin Millar - The Lonely Werewolf Girl
Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely - All Star Superman Vol. 1

Movies:
Watchmen
Coraline

TV:
Lost (the best season ever)
Heroes (not fully back to form but much better than the fall)
and of course
Battlestar Galactica

Garfield Minus Garfield

This makes me makes me feel better about my life and really creeps me out from time to time.

Garfield Minus Garfield

A really good example of one that does both:

Picks

Movies:
Slumdog Millionaire
Lars and The Real Girl

Music:
Alejandro Escovedo - Real Animal

Alejandro Escovedo at the Music Farm

What a great show!

Alejandro played mostly songs from his new album "Real Animal" including a song written for Iggy Pop. He also dedicated songs to Ron Asheton and Joe Strummer and their influence was definitely felt in the songs he played, especially "Chelsea Hotel '78".

His new album is a look back at his career with bands like the Nuns, True Believers and Rank And File.

The sound was great and all around me people were having a great time. If you get the chance to see him, do so.

Picks

Songs of the week:
Bon Iver - Skinny Love
Flight of the Conchords - Bowie "Bowie's in spaaaaccceee."

Books:
Marjane Satrapi - Persepolis
Anthony Burgess - A Clockwork Orange

Event of the Year(so far):
President Obama's inauguration