actually

that toyko police club cd should have made my favorite albums of 2006 list, probably at #6. still love citizens of tomorrow.

good qualities for winning

when i consider the co-op pirate game, and its book of tales, i consider the qualities a crew might have to succeed in a given challenge. these are basically the skills one should have to succeed in high adventure.

recent movies ive seen give hints.

fistful of dollars says you need:
weapon skills
cleverness (deception / manipulation)
toughness (bravery?)
stealth

seven samurai says you need:
strategy (deception)
bravery
unity

Both deal with tales of being outnumbered, whether 7 to 40, or 1 to 40. Your approach seems to boil down to:
-trick your opponent
-having tricked him, fight him well
-when the shit gets tough, don't break

But in fistful, being utterly unable to truly muster the ability to fight offyour opponents, you need to rely on:
1) turning enemies against eachother
2) being tough as hell when the chips are down
which is a strange combination of zen-like redirection of force, and pure american fuck-you overpower.

Also, both have weirdly similar fire scenes.

In Samurai, the group aspect is almost a liability. The protagonists' success depends on everyone working together perfectly.

Do you depend on your allies, or turn enemies into allies? At the end of the day, you need help, and utilizing this kind of strength requires cleverness. Neither is a story of raw power, but a matter of raw will. Both are a matter of harnessing power that you have availible. Both somewhat inspirational from a gamerly standpoint.

pats again

id love it if they crushed everyone. id love it like the everything. but at least they're finding a way to win. as jr seau said, they can be part of ever.

gift

i still cant believe the pats get to play the chargers instead of the colts. hope this gift isn't a trojan horse. if they lose, ill barf quarters.

speaking of the playoffs, am i the only one who thinks R. W. McQuarters sounds like an arcade? i picture a mayor mccheese type, with a quarter for a head, shreiking "hey kids! come to R W McQuarter's! where fun's only a quarter away!"

snattle

word on the street is there's snow in the attle. hope it keeps up till i get there.

as rafter says

its working.

30 rock

how are you so good? you're no venture brothers, but barring that. huh.

electric football

i saw this thing on espn, and apparently, there is a community of people who still play electric football. they meet at conventions, wear uniforms, paint figures, and have tournaments. they take it totally seriously, ask rules questions about what kinds of figures are allowed in what positions, and apparently apply a great deal of strategy somehow. this is GODDAMN AWESOME.

video games

boy, a lot of good video games came out this year. mario galaxy and bioshock were obvious choices - and were rad in completely different ways. rock band is probably a winner in some category, and the ds zelda game was awfully well designed. don't make me choose.

the consumerist

i really like the consumerist and sources of similar stories. i don't know why, its not the sense of social justice when a company gets exposed or something gets fixed, i just like hearing about the horrors in the first place. think i mostly like the sordidness of things companies try to get away with. i like the tragedy and the indignity. it might be related to my DEEP LOVE of tales of epic failure. ill get to that some day.

gulty pleasures

my taste in music is fucked right now. I keep coming back to this stuff that is simultaneously:
a) trashily indulgent, childish, sacharine, low
b) completely unlistenable
its awful music that I can't get enough of. I can't decide if I'm ashamed to like it, or hipster proud to like it becuase i can get over how horrible it seems. I might be more ashamed in the latter case. For reference, see:
- Girl Talk: Night Ripper
- Dan Deacon: Spiderman of the Rings
- Spank Rock: Yoyoyoyoyo
- Muscles: Guns Babes Lemonade
Actually, those album titles sum up my point better than anything else I could possibly say.

raging bull

I just watched this. my take is: a nice halfway point between the male weakness I loved in sideways and the male madness I liked in herzog stuff like fitzcarraldo and stroszek.

moby

hasn't done anything for me in years, and im not amped on the video, but i rather like this song. that is a rap cadence and a buzzy bass sound i can get behind.

tina fey

is my favorite woman in entertainment right now. she is intrinsically good at funny. when she polishes off jack's steak in 30 rock, season 2, ep 2, its pretty much the best thing ive seen all year.

top albums

This is the best post that will ever be on this blog. Behold! My top 10 favorite albums for 2007:

1. Dan Deacon: Spiderman of the Rings - Manic energy death squad
2. Radiohead: In Rainbows - The easy gorgeous choice of every few years
3. Blitzen Trapper: Wild Mountain Nation - Islands of Angular Thrash Phych Freakouts in an alt country sea
4. LCD Soundsystem: Sound of Silver - All My Friends, ftw
5. Ratatat: Remixes Volume 2 - Mostly on the strength of 3 amazing songs. Go to their myspace, its a free download.
6. Arctic Monkeys: Favorite Worst Nightmare - Remarkably solid album, good riffs to spare
7. A Place to Bury Strangers: A Place to Bury Strangers - Jagged, noise-slabs, not nice
8. Daft Punk: Alive - Like a best of mashup
9. Justice: Cross - DANCE
10. Je Suis France: Afrikan Majik - wtf

Favorite songs 2007:
1. LCD Soundsystem: All My Friends
2. Ratatat: Glock Nines
3. Tokyo Police Club: Citizens of Tomorrow
4. Dan Deacon: The Crystal Cat

Those top 4 rearrange themselves with the passing of the sun and moon. Number 5 would be Feist's 1, 2, 3, 4. Figure that out.

4 and 1 have defined my mindset many a day and night, respectively. 2 and 3, together, are everything I want to achieve in songs I write. 4 and 2 are the songs I put on when I get close to UCI in the morning, to get pumped the fuck up.

Listen to them 3, 2, 1, 4, 3 for the best summary of my year that 20 minutes can offer.

--------------

I never did a 2006 favorite albums list, somehow. Here is one I put together in retrospect.
1. Girl Talk - Night Ripper
2. Band of Horses - Everything all of the Time
3. VA - Tropicalia: A Brazillian Revolution in Sound
4. Spank Rock - YoYoYoYoYo
5. Islands - Return to the Sea
6. The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America
7. Tapes n' Tapes - The Loon
8. Art Brut - Bang Bang Rock and Roll
9. Hot Chip - The Warning
10. Boris - Pink

And my old list of 2005 albums I found, as revised in February 2006 or so:
1. danger doom - the mouse and the mask
2. the hold steady - seperation sunday
3. wolf parade - apologies to the queen mary
4. edan - beauty and the beat
5. broken social scene - broken social scene
6. sufjan stevens - illinois
7. jens lekman - you're so silent jens
8. bloc party - silent alarm
9. lcd soundsystem - lcd soundsystem
10. clap your hands say yeah - clap your hands say yeah

I can't seem to find the 2004 or 2003 lists right now, but I know the 2004 list went:
1. Frog Eyes - The Folded Palm
2. The Arcade Fire - Funeral
and a pretty big dropoff after that. Though in retrospect, The Go Team's Thunder Lightning Strike! would have taken #1 if I had discovered it when I made that list.

And I know that the 2003 list went:
1. Broken Social Scene - You Forgot it in People
2. The Unicorns - Who will Cut our Hair when We're Gone?

And that there was a very big dropoff after that. I'm still undecided about that order. They both deserve to be my favorite album of that year. I think BSS was my favorite of that year, even if the impact of The Unicorns is felt more strongly in retrospect.

wikipedia

triathlon -> biathlon-> chessboxing -> ninja checkmate -> wu-tang clan -> ghostface killa -> 5% nation