Monday, March 24, 2003

Oh, yeah, 'FNX posted their top 500 alternative songs of all time here with exactly one numetal song in the top 50, some crap from Linkin Park - as if I know the song. =) Teen Spirit was #1 - shock and surprise - followed by Closer and then Blister in the Sun, if you'll believe it. How Soon Is Now, which was ALWAYS #1 when they did this in the mid '90s, dropped to #6, and they put Should I Stay Or Should I Go at #7. Huh? THAT's the top Clash song of all time? Of course, I heard the DJ refer to Train in Vain as being off of Clash on Broadway...which it is, but it first appeared as a hidden track on London Calling, but well, they obviously need to listen to that album again anyway. And on a Salon blogs note - our friend filchyboy is up to his old tricks again. Look at safersex.org, where he's getting his 7000 hits a day recorded at...and then look at his blog. Not the same thing - he's cheating the counter again. Not that I really care that mcuh any more - oh no! He might dethrone the chick talking about porn! Oh no! I really need to get reinvolved in the community, don't I?

10:46:18 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Just watched Boondock Saints - a nearly-straight-to-video piece of Tarentino-esque action with a massive infusion of South Boston and, well, morals, if that's possible. Nice film - definitely deserved better attention than it got at release. It's getting it now - the DVD was the #2 selling DVD at Newbury Comics, where I bought it for $12 today...then again, any quality movie at $12 SHOULD sell like hot cakes - I also picked up Mars Attacks and Drop Dead Gorgeous for 8 bucks a piece. Good movie buying. Anyway - nice movie, actually makes Billy Connolly, crazed Scottish comedian, into a total badass, and has some quality Willem Dafoe in drag, which is something we ALL need more of. Watch it if you like Tarentino, Woo, Ritchie. I wasn't going to watch any action flicks right now - didn't think I could handle it, what with the war movie on my TV every day, but this didn't feel real, not like what's going on in reality. Of course, while I was watching this, a couple dozen more cruise missles and poorly-guided-bombs landed in Baghdad. If you get the Boston Globe, look at the picture on the top half of the front page of the "War on Iraq" section - it's a home, destroyed, with a kid holding some rabbits standing in front of it, staring at the camera. I almost started crying, just to look at it. Also, as a sign that the reporting in my local paper is a hell of a lot more honest than CNN and their ilk, here's the headlines for the three lead stories from the Globe today: "US units battle resistant Iraqis", "As war strategy unfolds, risks may grow", and "Combat erupts in a port city thought secure". All very objective headlines, just describing the facts that their stories recount. CNN's big headline currently? "ADVANCING ON BAGHDAD" with a subheadline of "Battle rages in Nasiriya". In other words, you can find the facts in their stories, but they're spinning the front news to look only at the supposed positives. It's all about the spin job, how the war is sold. We're winning this war, that's obvious. This phase of the war, the organized army v. organized army phase, we'll win it. But it's already proving bloodier than expected by most anyone - even me. I was hoping it wouldn't be nearly this bloody - I was praying that Hussein died in that first strike. Because, at last count, something like 30 Americans have died for this, another, what, 15 or 20 are prisoners. I don't have numbers on Iraqi dead, but they've got to dwarf the American casualties, which are already far, far too many. I know, now that we're in there, we have no choice. I understand that, and even reluctantly accept that. I hope it ends so quickly that no one else needs to die, though I know it won't happen. But that is not going to stop me from raging against this horrible mistake we're making. That is not going to stop me from calling for comprehensive and committed planning to building a truly democratic Iraq, even if the government it elects is not one friendly the US - see this article for why this is so, so important. That is not going to stop me from taking to the streets to make sure we don't do this again. We've already accidently hit Iran with errant Tomahawk missles, not to mention the busload of Syrian civilians we accidently slaughtered. The whole world will hate us if we don't do everything completely right from this point onward - and lord knows the Bushies are going to fuck up as much as humanly possible, maybe more than that. We need to scream to the world that Bush does not represent the American people, that we are his victims, too. And we need to stop him, through massive application of public pressure, from taking this further. Do your part. Stop the next war now.

10:37:55 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Holy damn! Polanski won the Directing Oscar for The Pianist! Damn! I still haven't seen it - too depressing subject matter for me lately - but I've heard it's supposed to be great. But it's amazing that the Academy actually did give an award to POLANSKI. I mean, this is a man who can't enter the country because he was arrested for having sex with a 14 year old girl. I heard that some people in Hollywood were trying to get him permission to come back to the States for the ceremony but were rejected...that's a shame. Oh, and good on you Michael Moore.

12:01:34 AM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []