got a good idea of what will be all over the news tomorrow

im pretty sure itll be news of a video of heath ledger scoring coke at a party.  

i linked a news segment featuring the video but changed my mind on the matter.  personally, i enjoy drugs and am not appalled/astonished/shocked/whatever that ledger was a user.  it doesnt bother me and definitely does not make me think any less of him as an actor.  but obviously a lot of people have moral objections to it and find it distasteful/unfortunate that he used and that his use may have contributed to his death.  its a tricky subject, but then, i use drugs myself, so perhaps my opinion is skewed.  

so i was kind of arrested the other night

one movie cliche ive found to be true is that the cops really do slap the cuffs on you as tightly as possible.  that shit is uncomfortable-- especially for two-plus hours.  

dicks.

heath ledger

wow.

what the fuck. this is fucking bullshit.

i never write about celebrities b/c i dont give a fuck, but i actually really dug heath ledger. he just seemed like a really cool, genuine guy who cared about the craft and art of his work-- not so much about being famous. i was stoked out of my mind about him playing the joker. i was convinced he would wipe the fucking floor w/ nicholsons performance. ask anyone who knows me and theyll tell you how unabashedly geeky i am over the dark knight, particularly over ledger as the joker. in an age of celeb-fatigue, ledger was one of the few i wouldve considered approaching and giving props to if i ever saw him on the street.

theres more to say, and im really quite surprised b/c ive written quite a bit about this, but it isnt the time yet. this is still breaking and theres still far too much speculation going on, so out of respect for him, and his friends and family, im just going to hold off for now.

ugh. this is fucked. you will be missed, absolutely.

drink it up

saw cloverfield and there will be blood (for the second time) yesterday.  my brother and i caught the former at a 12:45 pm showing and even then it was crowded (w/ mostly brosephs). the relentless hype had a negative effect on me and i was basically sick of the movie weeks ago, but once it started i got into it and thought, well, okay, yeah, this might actually kick some ass.  

until, that is, the fucking thing showed up.  jesus christ, the monster is whack.  ive never been so thoroughly not scared by a mankind-crushing creature in a movie before.  the completely abrupt transition from twentysomething melodrama ("i wuv my best friend but i cant tell her, man, im going to japan anyway, so whats the point, man?") to rampaging chaos was brilliant, but once footage of the monster was shown they done lost me. and it sucks b/c the possibilities were fucking endless!  and they had to go and throw a sea creature at us?  meh.  

what really cheeses me about the movie was that, a few years ago during a tumultuous break up, i had a very similar dream-- it even took place in upstate new york.  in the dream my then-soon-to-be-ex-girlfriend and i were in albany, where shes from, and im basically moving my shit out of her place one night when suddenly a really intense aurora starts filtering across the sky, casting everything in these intense blues, greens, and purples.  then these lights, which look like comets, start streaking across the sky and crash on the horizon, detonating on impact. my ex and i, and everyone on the block, are dazzled but quickly it turns to dread and panic when we realize "something really terrible" had just invaded.  insert long, dramatic run-for-your-life sequence which ends in me getting killed trying to fight off some nutjob who, during the course of all this chaos, attempts to rape my ex (i guess my subconscious thought looting was too cliche?).  then i woke up.  it was a pretty amazing dream/nightmare and i really wanted to turn it into a movie some day, but cloverfield totally fucking ruined it.  and the fucking creature sucks.  the aliens in my dream were unprecedented-- ive never seen this sort of thing in a movie or read about it in a sci/fi book before.  im not going to say what they were b/c i still want to run w/ this idea.  i believe in it so strongly that, ultimately, i wont let cloverfield ruin it for me and im convinced i could hustle a studio into bankrolling it.  

on the other hand, there will be blood is inexplicably rad.  i wont wax blog about it, since tons of others already have, but i will say that daniel day-lewis absolutely tears it up and his performance marks you.  paul dano does an admirable job of countering him.  intense shit.  i was never a paul thomas anderson fan before, but hes won me over w/ this.  

what the motherfuck, STEVE?

so the apple keynote address was today, where an anorexic notebook was introduced, itunes movie rentals was introduced, and an upgrade for the iphone was introduced.  oh, yeah, an upgrade for the touch was unveiled, too-- for $20.  

are you out of your fucking mind, jobs?  it isnt enough that i paid $430 for the touch, now i have to pony up $20 for shit that shouldve been on there to begin w/ (mail, stocks, weather, blah blah blah)?  why is it that w/ iphone early adopters you gave them $100 "store credit," but w/ the touch early adopters you just insist we bend over and toss the lube out the window?  is there something else bundled in this upgrade?  is the $20 to keep safari from crashing?  is it to keep the player from crashing while using safari?  is it going to magickally install two more gigs?  no?  then WTF STEVE?  

3 things more annoying than ron paul supporters

3. jock itch

2. 

1. 

um.  hmm.  this was a bit harder than previously considered.  will get back to you.  

(oh shit, my computers getting hacked.)  

stop it

how many people do you know drink beer?  unless youre straightedge or a recovering alkie, id say about 9 out of 10 people you know, right?  so why is that when talking about politicians or celebrities or whatever, some of us use beer-drinking as a gauge of an approachable/likable character?  "so-and-so may be a a bit of a douchebag, but he seems like the kinda guy you can have a beer w/, so hes okay in my book!"  listen, please stop.  this is like saying kim jong ill is cool b/c he likes pr0n and pop culture (okay, so maybe that makes him a little cool, but still).  i know its important for idols to be "down to earth," but goddamn it, have some standards.  dont get me wrong, i like beer (even though i prefer the hard stuff mahself), but everyone drinks beer. everyone.  retarded 12-year-olds drink beer; whats the big fucking deal?  putting all your faith in someone b/c they seem (SEEM!) like you could "have a beer widim" is like falling in love w/ someone b/c you can chat w/ them in aim.  its just tacky.  

2007 in music

what better way to bring in the new year than to laboriously go over the merits of last years aural contributions?  so here are my picks for the 16 best recordings of 2007.  (why not 16?  its a round number; also, i forgot one and had to insert it.)  last year was a pretty fucking amazing one for music, but you know what that means: this year is gonna blow.  i delayed writing this post, mostly out of sheer laziness, but also b/c there were several albums released last year that i have yet to hear (ghostface and wu-tang spring to mind) and i hesitate to set anything in stone, as it were.  

16. blonde redhead, 23
video: title track



15. mayhem, ordo ad chao
video: audio-only of "illuminate to eliminate"  



14. tegan and sara, the con
video: title track



13. justice, cross
video: "d.a.n.c.e." 



12. radiohead, in rainbows
video: "reckoner"


11. kanye, graduation
video: audio-only of "drunk n hot girls"  

10. andrew bird, armchair apocrypha 

video: "yawny at the apocalypse"

 

9. cinematic orchestra, ma fluer

video: performance of "to build a home" featuring patrick watson.  

8. between the buried and me, colors

video: studio footage of the band recording the album.  w/ the constant click of the metronome and kurt fucking russell featured prominently, how can you go wrong?  

7. jesu, conqueror

video: performance of "old year"

6. burial, untrue

video: "ghost hardware"

5. pelican, city of echoes

video: fan-made photo slideshow featuring "a delicate sense of balance" (best song on the album, btw).  

4. battles, mirrored

video: "tonto"

3. the field, from here we go sublime

video: "over the ice"

2. mia, kala

video: "paper planes"; as if i couldnt love her any more, she had to go and rep metallicas ride the lightning in this vid.  plz plz plz marry me.  

1. dillinger escape plan, ire works

video: "party smasher"