Friday Five: 7/25

In which I blather about five songs randomly selected from my iPod playlist as I listen to them.

"Wrapped Around Your Finger" - The Police
"Mephistopheles is not your name/ I know what you're up to just the same." My favorite Police song. They did a really cool version of it when I saw them in concert. It is also the only pop song I know of that name-checks Scylla and Charybdis.

"Shoe Box" - Barenaked Ladies
Born on a Pirate Ship was a bit of a disappointment, lacking the manic energy of their first two albums while not yet attaining the more mature sound of their next two. I think this may have been the only song I ripped from this album.

"I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" - The Proclaimers
There's this bar I used to go to - The Dubliner - before it got too smokey and douchebaggy that had Irish music on the weekends. One night there was this guy, Barry something, and his guitar. By the end of the night, he was drunk, and we were drunk, and he had played this song at least three times, and it was awesome.

"King of Bedside Manor" - Barenaked Ladies
Speaking of manic energy, this is one of those songs you can just tell they had a blast recording. I'm still not sure if I understand the Styx call-out towards the end, though.

"Dear Prudence" - U2
Live version of the Beatles song bootlegged from an unknown concert. The sound quality is shaky and there is quite a bit of background noise. One of my favorite things about U2 in concert is how do material outside of their own catalog, either full cover songs or snippets worked into their songs.

Animated Discussion

I took the girls to see WALL-E a while ago. It was cute - definitely worth seeing - but I don't agree with the buzz I had been hearing that this is Pixar's best film yet. On a purely visual/technical level, I can see that. The animation truly was fantastic. The story, however, seemed to ramble aimlessly and seemed long even at just over 90 minutes.

So what do I consider to be Pixar's best? Let's take them in order:

1. The Incredibles: Granted, I'm a sucker for superheroes, but this one was pitch-perfect. Great story, great animation, great heart.
2. Toy Story 2: If Jessie's song doesn't break your heart, I'm not sure that I want to know you.
3. Finding Nemo: Funny without having to be zany; sentimental without having to be maudlin.
4. Toy Story: An amazing first effort. The animation may not be up to today's standards, but still a great story with great characters.
5. Ratatouille: Beautiful animation.
6. WALL-E: This one is pretty much a toss-up with Ratatouille, actually. I just happen to like cooking slightly more than robots. There is a small-ish gap between these two movies and the top four, and a large-ish gap between them and the bottom three.
7. A Bug's Life: Cute but ultimately forgettable.
8. Monsters, Inc: I don't know why, but this one never did it for me.
9. Cars: I've tried to watch this one exactly once, and I fell asleep halfway through out of self defense.

Watch List: 7/23

The Netflix queue has been at a virtual standstill as of late. We're down to the last three episodes of Soap, and it is obvious to see why there was no fifth season. We've received the first disk of The Muppet Show, season 3 but haven't had a chance to watch it yet.

The bigger news around our house is that season 5 of Project Runway has started. It's hard to form much of an impression after only one episode, but there entirely too many "I'm an edgy rocker" types floating around. My early favorite is Kenley, but only because she is adorable. One thing that is certain? The move to the earlier time slot sucks (seriously, Bravo!, Shear Genius is terrible, no matter how much you try to pimp it).

Friday Five: 7/18

In which I blather about five songs randomly selected from my iPod playlist as I listen to them.

"Everlasting Love" - U2
Tremendous re-make of the 1967 Robert Knight song that features some seriously kick-ass acoustic guitar from the Edge. The original is nice, but this version just blows it away.

"Baby Seat" - Barenaked Ladies
"Forty days at sea/ Then she turned and said to me/ If we make it back/ I'll renounce Jack Kerouac/ And all of that romantic crap/ Like I'm an artist don't look back" I may be alone in this, but I think Maroon is BNL's best album since their very first one. This is a mellow little track from deep on that album with a neat guitar hook.

"I Wanna Be a Cowboy" - Boys Don't Cry
I guess you could call this one a novelty song. It manages to be amusing without seeming gimmicky or kitschy.

"Radio Free Europe" - R.E.M.
The original version released by Hib-Tone, and included with Eponymous. R.E.M. is one of my exceptions to my rule of liking a band for their lyrics, for obvious reasons.

"Seconds" - U2
Imminent atomic destruction never sounded so cool. The 'airborne ranger' clip in the middle always makes me think of this as a companion song to R.E.M.'s "Orange Crush." Actually, put it together with Nena and you've got the start of a very '80s soundtrack to some Twilight: 2000 game out there.

Going Nowhere Faster

Google Reader is a pretty amazing tool. I'm wasting time like 200% more efficiently now.

Journey to Meh Landing

I had the opportunity to run the quick-start of the new A Song of Ice and Fire game this weekend. We started off by testing out the combat system, which we found to be functional, if not overly exciting (more details on that test here).

After that, we played through the sample adventure "Journey to King's Landing." Which was... lackluster. Maybe it was the lateness of the hour, or maybe I just didn't feel confident enough with the rules to expand or alter the encounters that much. The plot, such as is was, was incredibly simple and the antagonists were completely outmatched. The instances where the PCs engaged each other (a weapons practice session in the inn yard and the uncle/knight attempting to woo the NPC septa) were more demonstrative of how the rules might function than the quick dispatching of a handful of bandits.

Still, though, I'm cautiously looking forward to the release of the full rules. There seems to be a seed of a good system there, something very different from the kick-in-doors style of adventuring. I just hope the full rules will enhance that, rather than weigh it down.

Friday Five: 7/11

In which I blather about five songs randomly selected from my iPod playlist as I listen to them.

"Girl Trouble" - Violent Femmes
"Have mercy on me/ I've got girl trouble/ Up the ass." Gordon Gano's warbling vocals backed by a surprisingly upbeat song of dateless loneliness. Or, as it was otherwise known, my freshman year of college.

"Naked Eye" - Luscious Jackson
I've never been sure if this song is talking about metaphorical or literal nudity. Maybe both. I love the groove, though.

"Wild, Wild West" - The Escape Club
Super-extended version from an '80s compilation album. Which actually works against it, because about 4 minutes in, you remember why you kind of got sick of this song 20 years ago. According to Wikipedia, the group is from England (which blew my mind a little bit).

''99 Luftballons" - Nena
For some reason, I have the German version instead of the English one. Except for the phrase 'Captain Kirk,' which is apparently universal.

"Crash Into Me" - Dave Matthews Band
I love how this seems like a sweet, romantic little song. And then you get to the part with "Hike up your skirt a little more/ And show your world to me" and you realize the song is about something else entirely.

I Guess We Can

I am a Democrat. Have been since the moment I could register to vote. And since that moment, it has been one long battle of idealism versus pragmatism. If you've ever told yourself "Kerry is a flawed candidate, but we can't afford another four years of Bush," you know what I'm talking about.

Some days, it isn't easy to be a Democrat. Take yesterday, for instance. The Senate, for some reason, decided to capitulate to the White House once again and offer immunity to the telecom companies that decided warrants were passe. It's entirely possible Bush would have pardoned anyone and everyone involved anyhow, but it's still the principal of the matter.

Now, the worst part of this whole deal is that Obama voted for cloture (thus preventing a filibuster) and voted for the passage of the final bill, despite previously indicating he would do neither of these things. I don't know that the final result would have changed if he had voted the other way, but again, that's not really the point. Idealism just took another body blow.

I will still vote for Obama in November. There's really no question about that, considering who he is running against. I'm not going to be as excited about it as I was a couple of months ago, though. That may not sound like a big deal, but if enough people feel that same creeping sense of pessimism, it might make it harder for some of those downticket races that are counting on big coat-tails. Ironically, winning enough of those races would probably mean the Democrats would have solid enough margins that they probably wouldn't feel like they have to capitulate all the time. Screw you, irony.

In the meantime, pragmatism continues to pummel idealism. And I'll just go back to daydreaming about the day I can actually eat that cake I have.