. . .

I still can't think of anything substantive to write about, so what I'm going to do is write up two posts, one positive (and probably shorter), the other negative. I'm sure you'll get the idea.

• Holla! Bengals resign my favorite player, the awesomely stupid WR Chris Henry, and all the whitebread moralists predictably blow a fuse. The best headline was this: "Bengals take Henry back...all it cost was their souls". "Souls"...what a fucking joke. If they (or any American professional sports team) had a soul, they wouldn't have raped a dying city out of a $400 million stadium that's used 15 times a year and is a blight on the skyline.¹
  
• The McRib is back.
  
• Stephen and I had two man-dates, seeing The Dark Knight and Pineapple Express. Loved them both!
  
• I hate superheroes. Superman bores the shit out of me; rooting for him is like rooting for a hurricane. Spiderman is a complete douche. Iron Man is only good because Robert Downey, Jr. is so great. The X-Men are okay, because at least they have flaws. Batman, though...he just seems realer. Well, this version of Batman, anyway. The whole thing is just perfect, the right director, the right Batman, the right supporting cast.²
• Okay, it's probably not surprising that I loved Pineapple Express. The math is simple: The Judd Apatow crew + weed jokes + '80s action movies + David Gordon Green = TG likes the movie.
  
• You're probably not watching Generation Kill³, and if you aren't, don't wait for the DVDs to come out, get on BitTorrent and download it now. I'm serious about this. It's the best thing on TV this year. As opposed to every other bullshit Iraq movie⁴, it doesn't talk down to you and the only real stance it takes is anti-war and pro-troops (which is basically where I'm at). The guys who did The Wire⁵, David Simon and Ed Burns, are doing this, and it's just as good. Oh, go to your local library and get the book it was based on, too.
  
• Since my social life is virtually nil, I've been reading a lot. And since I'm a giant nerd, I keep track of what I read here.
  
• I've finally been beaten down by Ryan and Andy into watching How I Met Your Mother. It's a good show, and I'm glad I started watching it. Points:
• I am shocked -- repeat, shocked -- that Neil Patrick Harris is as funny as he is. Who would have ever thought (pre-Harold and Kumar, of course) that Doogie Howser, MD could be this awesome? He single-handedly carries this show.
  
• As always, I am impressed with attention to continuity.⁶ Second to NPH, this is the show's biggest positive.
• Robin's character is pretty great too. Besides being hot, she's also a clever gender-reversal, not giving a shit about relationships or getting married, but not turning into a slut caricature.
  
• That doesn't mean it's all good...⁷

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Footnotes

1. This one kind of turned into a negative, didn't it?
2. Speaking of Christian Bale, go rent Werner Herzog's Rescue Dawn. Oh, and the documentary it was based on, Little Dieter Needs to Fly.
3. Actually, you probably are, since the only person who reads this terrible blog is me, and I'm obviously watching.
4. Probably starring John Cusack. What a douche he turned into. Hey asshole, leave your irritating political viewpoints to yourself and make another funny movie. But what can we expect from a fucking Cubs fan?
5. Which, despite what Andy may believe, is the greatest show of all time.
   
6. Lack of attention to continuity is one of my biggest TV pet peeves. More on this in the negative post.
7. This is where you go to the negative post. I'm not done with it yet, and I'm not really done with this one yet. I may add to it, but I have to get ready for work now. (Quit complaining, this shit is free. Oh, and terrible.)
   

Labels: Bengals, movies, random, TV

I've seen this on a few blogs I read, and since I honestly can't come up with literally anything to write about lately, here are my favorite albums released in all the years I've been born...

1980 - Remain in Light / Talking Heads
1981 - Private Eyes / Daryl Hall & John Oates
1982 - Thriller / Michael Jackson
1983 - 1999 / Prince
1984 - Purple Rain / Prince and the Revolution
1985 - Tim / The Replacements
1986 - Guitar Town / Steve Earle
1987 - Appetite For Destruction / Guns N' Roses
1988 - Straight Outta Compton / N.W.A.
1989 - Disintegration / The Cure
1990 - No Depression / Uncle Tupelo
1991 - Nevermind / Nirvana
1992 - Slanted and Enchanted / Pavement
1993 - Anodyne / Uncle Tupelo
1994 - Unplugged in New York / Nirvana
1995 - Tomorrow the Green Grass / The Jayhawks
1996 - Being There / Wilco
1997 - OK Computer / Radiohead
1998 - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea / Neutral Milk Hotel
1999 - Things Fall Apart / The Roots
2000 - Stankonia / Outkast
2001 - Is This It? / The Strokes
2002 - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot / Wilco
2003 - Chutes Too Narrow / The Shins
2004 - Funeral / The Arcade Fire
2005 - Picaresque / The Decemberists
2006 - The Life Pursuit / Belle and Sebastian
2007 - Sound of Silver / LCD Soundsystem
2008 - Stay Positive / The Hold Steady

That was harder than it looked. There are some years (1980-1, 1990-1, 1997) where I was just lost looking for something I even liked. (Thus, Radiohead, who I normally can't stand.)

Labels: music