Slowly Learning...

So it has recently come to my attention that Tupac is one of the Top 10
richest dead celebrities. Now I have two problems with that. First
off, how can he still be making money? Shouldn't realize that all his
shit is just rehashings of his old stuff (I've been shown that some of
his "new" songs are just new beats with old lyrics in a different order
over them). But this isn't my biggest problem with him being a rich
dead dude. Cause I think he may actually be making music still. It all
goes back to a theory I heard back in high school from a friend of mine.
Tupac isn't dead, and neither is Biggie. In fact, the two of them are
off living together in Mexico (or some other central american location).
They both faked their deaths in order to live out their forbidden
romance. It was the old Romeo and Romeo relationship that society just
wouldn't allow. Not only did they have the two feuding families (East
Coast vs. West Coast) but they had the whole problem with society's
homophobia, especially in the rough and tumble hip-hop scene. So the
fates had conspired agains them and they were doomed to their
star-crossed relationship. However, the two of them being the well
versed english scholars that they were had read up on the whole
catastrophe at the end of Romeo and Juliet, so they got the whole story
and plan sorted out ahead of time so it could go off without a hitch.
Now Tupac was a little sloppier on his end (with still releasing albums
every couple weeks) so people still question his life/death situation.
He has basically become our generations Elvis. I think this is due to
his poor financial planning though. He hadn't quite stored away a big
enough nest egg for the two of them (Biggie does eat quite a bit after
all) so they need that little extra income. However, Biggie covered his
tracks really well, and no one suspects him, which helps to further
cover the two "dead" rappers love affair. But Saemina knew it, and I
know it too. Biggie and Tupac are still alive, well (thanks to Tupac's
extra income), and living on a secluded Mexican beach happily ever
after.

Posted by Thom at 3:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

The rock instrumental is a lost art. Once these songs would top the
billboard charts and now they are all but gone. It lives on with a few,
such as Joe Satriani, but as a whole it is a dying art form. Sure there
are plenty of instrumental songs still being produced in the "techno"
area of music, some of which are very good. But they just aren't the
same. It doesn't have the human touch to it. They're missing that
classic instrumentation that we're all familiar with from our experience
with rock. Anyone can carry a song using lyrics (just watch MTV's
countdown sometime), but it takes real talent to get people to listen to
what would just normally be "backing" music.

For those of you who are interested in some classic intrumental rock
tracks I would highly suggest that you run out and buy Rock Instrumental
Classics. It's a 5-disc set that contains classics from the 50's, 60's,
and 70's, as well as classic surf and soul tracks. It makes a great
soundtrack to have playing the background, or to even jsut listen to by
itself. These are the truly great instrumental songs from the past.
Who can resist such songs as Classical Gas, Walk Don't Run, A 5th of
Beethoven, or Popcorn? So I'm telling you all, go out and get it if you
can still find it anywhere.

P.S. - As a side note I have edited my Top 17 List to include this set.
I would also suggest that everyone look into the other CDs on my list
too. They are all fantastic listens.

Posted by Thom at 10:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So the buzz from my haircut seems to be fading off slowly and I need
something to re-energize my lively vest for the bazar. I thought that
this would be filled by the planned Iron Chef cook-off at our place, but
that seems to have faded into the background of improbability. Plus
that's been done before (I've have the video footage of us destroying my
mom's kitchen to prove it). I need something new and exciting! But,
alas, I've been unable to come up with anything worthy. I was thinking
of making a feature film, but the srcipt editing is still being worked
on, plus I don't really have the resouces available to do that right
now, so that one will have to wait. I am, however, fully determined to
make the movie once the prep work is all finished (casting will begin in
the Summer). But even with that still in the works I feel my life is
slowly becoming duller. I need something different to adrenalize it.
So if anyone out there has any ideas, or needs someone to help along
with their plans let me know. Until then I will probably have to tide
myself over with pushing to try to get the Iron Chef thing working (even
though I have very little to do with it). I'll let you all know how it
goes.

Posted by Thom at 2:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So I think my haircut is messing with my head. Ever since I've gotten
the new cut I've been all weird, or at least weirder than normal. I've
been bouncing around, dancing around the kitchen (at least I think it
can be called dancing, I am a un-funky white boy after all), and I
actually wanted to go clothes shopping! I've just been an odd form of
giddy. I mean hell, I've been listening to Barenaked Ladies even!
Yeah, it's weird. I even started up a conversation with this cute girl
at work out of nowhere. Not a normal thing for me to do (I've never
really talked to her before), especially when it's someone who rarely
even looks at me. So I'm thinking the new haircut has done this to me.
In fact I have the solution to all of this. My old hair was weighing me
down. It was to the point that it was getting curly and unmanagable and
the side burns were like tickling my ears even, and my hat was snugly
tight around my head. But now, my hair is a hell of a lot shorter
(about an inch on top, shaved closer around the sides and back). So now
I'm free of the weighty hair and I've regained my magical zest for life
and being freaky. So let this be a lesson to all of you out there! If
you need a invigorating change to your life just cut your hair really
really short. Unless you're a girl, cause that just looks a little odd
with closely shaven heads. Although this would leave more women for
Dave. So maybe you should all do that. But in any case Close Cut =
Bazar Joyous Energy. Unless you're hair is already really close. In
that case you're just screwed. Sorry guys. I guess you'll just have to
grow out your hair so then you can cut it back to short. That should do
the trick. And I guess all you bald men out there are really out of
luck. Just rub your heads for luck, that'll fix it all.

Posted by Thom at 2:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So I've done a lot of thiniking lately. Some of this thinking has had
to do with bad movies and I've concluded that there are 4 levels of bad
movies.

LEVEL 1: SO BAD IT'S GOOD
These movies are so bad that they've gone full circle and are now good
again, or at least entertaining. A lot of cult classics fall into this
category. Since these movies are still entertaining they're the least
bad of teh bad movies.
Example -> Death Race 2000

LEVEL 2: SO BAD IT'S STILL BAD
These movies are so bad that they've come full circle to being good, but
then continued to circle till they got back to bad once again. These
are the types of movies that everyone knows to avoid at all costs,
appart from the completely uninformed few, or the die-hard LEVEL1 people
who are just hoping that the movie hasn't gone that extra mile to be
terrible.
Example -> Glitter

LEVEL 3: JUST PLAIN BAD
These movies haven't gotta to the level of badness to be good, they just
plain suck to start with. They have numourous flaws and stories that
are terriblly full of holes and problems. They also generally have bad
scripts/acting to go with the fundemental problems in the plot. These
movies tend to be big Hollywood blockbuster types. Because of this fact
many of these movies get decent reviews from at least a couple sources,
giving them the illusion of credibility. These movies end up a notch
below LEVEL2 movies because they pretend to be good and thus fool people
into seeing them, and wasting their time and money.
Example -> Minority Report

LEVEL 4: SO CLOSE, YET SO FAR
These movies are bad, but have such promise. They may have a flawed
story, flawed acting, flawed writing, flawed special effects, or a combo
of a few of these things. What makes these movies so terrible though is
that while you are watching them, and finding all these faults, the
movie still has something good there somewhere, it just got preverted
into shit. Why, you may ask, does this fall as the worst kind of bad
movie? Simple, you can't help be feel frustration at the fact that the
movie has such promise, but the people in charge just managed to fuck it
all up. LEVEL1 movies are entertaining, LEVEL2 movies we know to avoid,
and LEVEL3 movies have nothing redeeming about them. But, LEVEL4 movies
have something there that could be saved, or could have been made into
something so much greater. The fact that we can all see that there was
something good there before the higher-ups defaced it makes this type of
movie even worse.
Example -> Martix Reloaded, Star Wars Episode 1/2, Almost anything by
Steven Spielberg

Posted by Thom at 6:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

So I have just completed one of the hardest tasks in my life. I have
narrowed my CDs down to a Top 17 list. This may not seem like much, but
when you have around 700 CDs this takes some work. I went by a couple
of simple rules in creating the list too. 1: I must own a copy of the
CD (burnt or offical); 2: These would be the CDs I would keep if I were
forced into a life that allowed me only 17 different albums. With that
said and done I am proud to say that I have completed the list! Now it
took me way too long to narrow it down to 17 as it is, so I've decided
to just list them alphabetically and assume that they are all equally
good. The only exception to this is my all-time top CD which holds
tightly to its #1 ranking. Some of the close calls to the list
included:
Daft Punk - Discovery, DJ Qbert - Wave Twisters, DJ Shadow - The Private
Press, Eels - Daisies of the Galaxy, Fatboy Slim - You've Come a Long
Way Baby, Gorillaz - Gorillaz, Keoki - Disco Death Race 2000, Last of
the Mohicans - OST, Mocean Worker - Mixed Emotional Features, Nirvana -
Nevermind, Orbnital - Middle of Nowhere, Prodigy - Experience, Sasha -
AirDrawnDagger, They Might Be Giants - Then: The Earlier Years, and Tool
- Aenima.

And the Official List:

1: Ani Difranco - "Little Plastic Castle"
&
2-17:
Air - Moon Safari
Ben Folds Five - The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner
Blur - 13
Cibo Matto - Stereo Type A
Guster - Lost and Gone Forever
Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs
Messiah - Messiah
William Orbit - Pieces in Modern Style
Radiohead - OK Computer
REM - New Adventures in Hi-Fi
Rock Instrumental Classics - Vol. 1-5
Serial Experiment Lain - OST
Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
U2 - Pop
Weezer - Pinkerton

I know there will be many of you out there who will scoff at my list,
but I stand by it. These are the 17 CDs (or sets of CDs) that I would
choose if I were forced to massively cut down my collection. Or
including the ones that almost made it I guess it could be considered my
top 34 List. Either way I am relatively satisfied with what I've come
up with, and am willing to strongly defend it. If, however, you wish to
debate this with me I'm more than open to that. And who knows, maybe
you'll be able to change my mind and get me to change the list (though I
highly doubt this, you're more than welcome to try).

Coming soon...My Top 13 DVDs

Posted by Thom at 1:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So I gave it two viewings and I think I have a pretty good hold on it.
A basic sum up of the movie is that it's an action movie done by Quentin
Tarantino. So in rating everything you gotta take that into mind.

I'm gonna keep this short and sweet. The entire movie is done with a
very Tarantino retro style to it. It has a very TV series feel to it,
which works well with the splitting of the movie into two volumes and
having multiple chapters within those volumes. The action in the movie
is graphic but cartoonish in style at the same time. Blood spurts out
of hacked off limbs asa if it were sprayed out of a hose. But all of
this worked very well. It goes with the flow of things.

A couple of things I had problems I had originally were with the black
and white scene and the non-linear aspect of the scenes. Both were
justified with the second viewing. The b/w scene was put in there in
order to keep an R-rating insted of an NC-17 one. And it also worked to
some extent. The non-linear thing did work fully though. I originally
thought it was just there to play off his earlier sucess in Pulp
Fiction. But it worked better to introduce the characters and story in
this fashion, while also giving the nice effect of seeing the Pussy
Wagon in its full glory. It also went along with Hanzo's speech at the
end about revenge not being a straight line.

One complaint I've heard is that he sold out some with using a long
animated sequence insted of actually shooting that scene, but no, it was
perfect. How better to do a back story of your half Japanese villianese
that rises to power in the Yakuza than with a nice anime?

I must also say, one of the greatest parts of the movie was Chiaki
Kuriyama as Go Go Yubari. I have never seen a young girl that looked
more evil than she does. The nose combined with her evil eyes makes you
tremble just looking at her. Her weapon of choice (the mace) is great
as well. Her role in Battle Royale (which everyone should see at least
once if they have the chance) adds to her mystique.

All in all it was a very well done movie that leaves me wanting the new
movie to come as soon as possible (unlike something such as the Matrix
Reloaded, which makes me wish they hadn't even made that one, let alone
another). So i urge all of you to go out and see this film. But I have
been informed, if you ever travel to Japan don't expect everyone to be
carrying around a sword or riding on the plane with one. I guess it
just doesn't work like that over there.

Final Verdict: Worth a Full Price Ticket, Buy it on DVD.

Posted by Thom at 1:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So I tried people, I really tried. I watched a good deal of baseball,
but I still came to the conclusion that it's just boring. At least I
can look forward to the fact that the World Series will be starting
soon, so at most there are only 8 more games of baseball to be played.
Then we can all focus in on Football and Hockey.

In other news I am trying to come up with a list of my top 17 CDs and my
top 13 DVDs. Once I finally get through narrowing the lists down I'll
let you all know what I've come up with. I also haven't forgotten about
my bashing of Minority Report (well actually I did forget about it, but
now I have remembered and will get back to it). Plus I have seen some
decent films as of late (Kill Bill, Lost in Translation) that I need to
post about. Hopefully I'll get the motivation to do all this on my next
day off (Friday). If I don't then hopefully I'll have it done early
next week (say like Tuesday, after Gilmore).

As a final note I do encourage all of you to tune in next Tues night at
8 pm for another new episode of Gilmore Girls (the greatest show on TV).
This season has been a great one so far in my opinion with crazy ass
roommates and a new hair style for Rory. Those things teamed up with
the fantastic writing and dialgoue make for a fantastic evening of TV.

Posted by Thom at 12:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've spent some time in my life debating whether I'm a pessimist or an
optimist, only to realize that I'm neither. I'm too scientific in a
way. To me I can't say whether the glass is half empty or half full
until I know more about the glass. If someone just drank out of the
glass, it's half empty. If someone just poured liquid into the glass,
it's half full. But show me just the glass without any other
information and I'm stumped. And why does the glass being half empty
have to be a pessimistic view point? Maybe the drink is really shitty
and the person is looking forward to finishing it off. In that case I'd
think they'd be happy that they were half done (glass half empty) while
they'd be upset that they still had another half to go (glass half
full). So what this all means is that I completly over analyze the
glass analogy to the point that it no longer works as an indicator for
me. But that still leaves me with no hint as to which way I lean. I do
look on the bright side and realize that things always tend to work out
in the end, so you shouldn't worry too much cause it'll be good after
all is said and done, so in that respect I'm positive. But does that
make me an optimist? At the same time I'm always there to point out the
implausibilities of schemes and plans, so I'm negative. But I see that
as being grounded and a realist, not necessarily a pessimist. So I'm
thinking that I'm either a pessimistic optimist or an optimistic
pessimist, but I'm not sure which. And yes, there is a difference in
the two. A pessimistic optimist is an optimist with pessimistic
tendencies, while an optimistic pessimist is a pessimist at heart, but
has optimistic tendencies as well.

Of course I can never really see the true me. Hell when I was younger
I'd sometimes draw myself with blonde hair (I don't think I was ever
blonde in my life) just cause I thought, "maybe I do have blonde hair."
I guess that also shows how little I looked in the mirror (or how little
I paid attention to details) or how little I cared about my appearance
(which many of you can attest to by my choice of Goodwill Fashions
clothing). So this leaves me with but one option on solving this
pessimist/optimist question: a general survey of readers. So I'm
asking anyone who does actually read this (for some odd reason) to let
me know (by comment) whether you think I'm an optimistic pessimist or a
pessimistic optimist (you can also vote for pure optimist or pessimist
if you feel that better fits, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't). So I
await you're responses so I can finally realize who I truly am.

Posted by Thom at 4:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I know I am in the vast minority on this issue, but every year I look
forward to fall and the approach of winter. I love going outside on a
brisk afternoon or evening and just feeling the breeze on my face and
smelling that chill in the air as I watch my breath float away.

Spring is that time when it's just getting nice out once again and
everyone is happy to see the sun once again. And of course the obvious
advantage to this is that women once again shed all the heavy winter
layers in favor of tank tops and short shorts (and yes ladies, the men
do shed their layers too so you can ogle them as well). The drawbacks
of Spring though are that if you're in some place like Ithaca (like me)
then Spring is when all the snow is melting. Now snow melting is
generally a good thing after a long winter, but it also means mud.
Lots and lots of mud. And for someone who generally doesn't follow the
sidewalks, I'm not a fan of muddy areas.

Summer is when the weather really warms up (a little too much for me at
times though). And of course this means one thing, bikinis and even
smaller outfits. Summer is also when we're all free to enjoy time off
from schooling. Of course this free time of summer tends to disappear
once you hit highschool or so and are forced to begin the wonder that is
summer employment. Ture this leads to cash that you can spend having a
good time, but it also limits the amount of good times. And then once
you graduate, as most of my friends have (and I promise you all,
eventually I will too!) then you lose the summer altogether as you work
year round. So summer ends up just teasing you. It's nice outside, but
you can't go play and enjoy it. Plus there's also that drawback of
skimpy clothes and suits on not so skimpy people (a bathing suit weight
limit needs to be enforced since common sense doesn't always seem to
prevail).

Winter, the wonderous snowy time of year. What does this mean for us
Ithacans? It means terrible driving conditions on the slushy/icy/all
around shitty roads. And a shitty road gets multiplied by 10 when it's
on a 60 degree incline, like most roadways in Ithaca. But the winter
does lend itself to some pretty scenes of nice snowy landscapes. And
who doesn't love to play in the snow? And there's always that
possiblity of a snow day (if you manage to get 3 feet of snow 3 hours
before the school day begins and/or the wind chill is -50).

That brings us to the wonders of Fall. Fall is that time when the
weather is just starting to change. It gets cooler out and you can
start to see your breath, but you can still wear shorts from time to
time (or if you're me you wear them straight through into January).
Fall also leads to cuddling up with a loved one in a cozy blanket,
sipping hot coco, sitting by a fire, and doing other things to keep warm
(use you're imaginations). And for someone like me, who has his
internal temperature scale off-set by about 15 degrees, the cool weather
is a welcome change. True Fall does mean school is back in session
again, but by the Fall most people are ready for the change, at least I
usually am. And I guess there are also the changing leaves if you're
into that (pretty for a couple days, then just annoying to have dead
leaves everywhere). Fall also marks the first snowfall of the season,
which is always a bit magical in a way. But the most important thing
about fall? Sports! Fall marks the beginning of Football (yay!), the
approach of Hockey (yay), and the end of Baseball (FINALLY!). Fall and
Winter are deffinatly the best two seasons for professional sports. And
what better way to celebrate the end of baseball and the beginning of
good sports than to stuff yourself and watch football all day
(Thanksgiving, another great part of the fall). True golf is pretty
much finished till well into Spring, but that's a small price to pay to
no longer have to deal with boring ass baseball. But my complaint about
the dullness that is baseball is for another time.

All in all, how can you not love the beauty that is Fall. It is the
best time of the year. And now that Fall is upon us I can once again
take advantage of my full wardrobe (it's never too cold for shorts!) and
put off my laundry for even longer! So go enjoy yourselves and this
beautiful fall weather, it only comes once a year.

Posted by Thom at 3:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

So I read a very well written article in Sports Illustrated a little
while ago. It was a piece about mental illness and sports which helped
to expose people to how there are people in sports, as well as everyday
life, that struggle with various illnesses. The article talked of how
various problems such as depression, bi-polar disorder, and social
anxiety disorder can have an impact of the life and performance of
athletes. The piece also mentioned how some of the athletes have
benefitted from various medications. All in all it was a fantastic
article that helped show people that these illnesses exist in all areas
of life and are a serious issue.

Then I was reading the letters that people had written in a couple weeks
later. What do I see? Of course, someone has to complain about the
article! No way!! They claimed that the article was terrible because
it didnt mention that these medications have side-effects and do not
always work for everyone. Now I could understand this, IF the article
was an ad for these drugs. But it wasn't, it was far from that. There
was only a mention of the advances that medication has made in helping
people with mental illnesses. And for the most part these medications
are great and have helped a lot of people live more normal, stable
lives. And true, these drugs can also have some major side-effects, but
the pros of the drugs greatly out weigh the cons.

I'm sick and tired of people having to find something to complain about
in any good thing. Yes, yes, I know this is a contradiction of sorts,
but hey, stick with me here. If there is a glaring problem(s) with
something (i.e. Minority Report) then go ahead and pick it apart. But
let good things be. The writer was in no way trying to support
medication as a cure-all for these problems (in fact there is even
discussion of Ricky Williams attending therapy, wanna complain about
that too?) but rather mentions the use of drugs as an option.

Maybe the person who wrote the letter had a bad experience with
side-effects, or maybe someone they know and love did, btu that doesn't
mean that medication is evil and needs to be exposed for plague it is on
our society. Hell, I know about these things. I've had my own terrible
experience bouncing from one mediaction to another in an attempt to find
something that worked with no success, but I still know that it is a
viable option for other people.

So where does this leave us? It leaves us with the conclusion that some
people are not happy to leave well enough alone. So don't be an idiot,
or I'll have to bitch you out online as well. I don't want to do it,
but I will, for your own good.

Posted by Thom at 1:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)