The list is out.

I haven’t seen any of these films. Should I?

I was struck by a story in this weekend’s NY Times Magazine (registration required, yadda yadda) about a missionary family in Africa. It made me think that they were living the story from The Poisonwood Bible, and that it would be fascinating to revisit this family in ten years. Of all the books to re-enact, that’s one of the worst, IMHO (though I guess re-enacting The Stand would be bad as well).

You guys busy? maybe want to catch a movie?

Just call me the anti-Ayn Rand. As much as I hated group projects in high school and college, there are areas where collaborations are almost always superior to individual efforts. Blogging is one (I have no doubt whatsoever that my personal blog would be much more interesting if I added any four Kulturblog posters to the mix). Rock music is another. Sure, there are group blogs that are dull and pointless, and bands that are bland and mediocre. But a good band together rocks so much more than any individual breaking out from the good band will rock alone.

Case in point: Rhett Miller, longtime frontman for one of my favorite alt-country bands The Old 97s, has a new album out, The Believer. I won’t buy it.

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Okay, so the Who’s “Baba O’Riley” wasn’t the toughest choice. Teenage wasteland, indeed! 25 of 55 votes went to the Who, with Zep’s “Tangerine” in 2nd place with 16 votes.

Let’s try that again. (more…)

yesterday we “upgraded” to Wordpress 2.0. However, the upgrader was SLOPPY and CARELESS and so now nobody can leave comments. We’re working on it. Later today: new Thunderdome. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: we’re fixed, and the sysadmin has been sacked.

Wi nøt trei a høliday in Sweden this yer?

See the løveli lakes

The wonderful telephøne system...

And mani interesting furry animals

Take the “Kultur” quiz on Mozart at the BBC. Post your score. And in honour of Herr Mozart, watch the wonderful Amadeus.

Kanye West’s new Rolling Stone cover image is a bit controversial. I haven’t seen a Jesus exploitation this tacky since Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” video.

Is this art? Is it marketing? Any theories? I especially like the Jon Brion quote in the article: “Everyone in the country is in therapy and spending all their money on self-help books so their little internal voice will be able to say, ‘I am good and I am OK.’… If you’re going to believe all the stuff about positive thinking and self-actualization, that we affect our environment by the way we think about ourselves, do you want a better example than Kanye West? F*ck Tony Robbins. Kanye West should have infomercials.”

I remember the day I realized that Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Sylvester and Tweety were all voiced by the same person. Mel Blanc was a vocal genius beyond compare (except, perhaps, for his role as Twiki in Buck Rogers). But with the recognition of the singular actor, the illusion of the cartoon was gone. The struggles of the cat and bird meant nothing — they were all the same! (more…)

So, Elisabeth’s Moviedrome mention of Blade Runner got me thinking about Harrison Ford. Which led me to watch this trailer. Go ahead; watch it. (more…)

Some familiar names among the winners: Norton Juster (his first picture book!) and Chris Raschka (who won a Caldecott Honor a few years back) took the Caldecott medal, Cynthia Rylant won the Theodore Seuss Geisel award for beginning readers with another Henry and Mudge book, Julius Lester won the Coretta Scott King award, which he can add to his collection of book awards. And some not-so familiar names: Lynne Rae Perkins for her second novel, John Green for his first.

The complete list, including the Caldecott Honor books, is here.

The Seattle Seahawks are going to the Super Bowl!
The Seattle Seahawks are going to the Super Bowl!
The Seattle Seahawks are going to the Super Bowl!
The Seattle Seahawks are going to the Super Bowl! (more…)

Sheesh, y’all like your Chuck D.! 11 of 15 votes (pathetic) went to Public Enemy’s “Night of the Living Baseheads”. yeeeeeahhhh, boyyyyyyyy!

Anyhow, I’ve had enough of these easy T-domes. (more…)

I am a fairly young guy, so most of my favorite blues, R&B, and soul singers had already sung their last note by the time I got around to caring. So this is a little sad.

You know, if somebody were to ask me what I thought was the greatest song of the recording era, I’d feel really good about saying Mustang Sally.

We gotta give the man the props he deserves.

(Mustang Sally and In the Midnight Hour on radio.blog)

Wow. What good suggestions. They will be used, but the first one is all me. Two classics of Japanimation. Both quite different. Don’t worry, nothing cutey-pie Pokemonish.

Akira vs. Spirited Away (more…)

I’m going to post a few logos you’re all familiar with along side their redesign. Some have been recently redesigned (Kodak, Intel, AT&T, Sprint, etc.) and others are from a few years ago. I’m curious what everyone thinks of the new looks. Did you even notice? Are they better? Worse? Why?

I will weigh in later but I’d like to see what everyone else says first. (more…)

Doesn’t necessarily have to be recently released. What have you been listening to lately? Anything new?
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Next time you’re in Melbourne, go to the Australian Centre for the Moving Image and check out the authorized Stanley Kubrick exhibition. Or, you can go here and look at a very well designed website for a well-designed director.

Holy moley! Close race, Batman! Stevie Nicks’ “Edge of Seventeen” edged out Fiona Apple’s “Paper Bag” by a single vote, garnering 10 of 23 votes. Any hanging chads??

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Although I can think of other things a single guy should be doing on New Year’s Eve, I spent this past Dec. 31st playing Settlers of Catan with my brother and a few of his friends. I had never played it before, so it was new to me. I must say that it’s a great game and I will definitely look for more opprotunities to play. Here’s what I liked, or what I think I like since I haven’t played much:

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Hi, I’m Ronan and I’m British. Sorry about burning down the White House in 1812, but you’ve got to admit, you kind of deserved it. My fingerprints abound in the Mormon blogs, and I snark about expat life in Murdermore, Maryland at headlife. I think George Bush is poo.
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I was listening to the Violent Femmes on my way to work today and Blister in the Sun came on. From what I understand it was their most popular, well-known song. It’s a snappy, interesting song without profanities (surrounded by tracks which are either lewd or profane or both). I enjoy Blister in the Sun and don’t mind that they have many other less-than-kid-friendly tunes on the album… they are who they are.

But this made me think about bands who have given in to popular demand and changed who they are for money/fame. Not that Violent Femmes did this, it just made me think about those who did. And I remember a conversation I witnessed either in life or on tv or elsewhere about Green Day and how they sold-out their punk sensibilities for popularity, fame and fortune. Then there was commentary about their song “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” being the most punk thing they did because it was so unexpected and anti-punk. Whatever. I don’t know much about them nor do I care, but it has made me wonder what exactly is “selling out” and who has done it?

I knew it!!! When I finished reading James Frey’s book “A Million Little Pieces” a few days ago, I couldn’t shake the feeling that, somehow, it just didn’t add up. (more…)

Huzzah!

The Beatles’ “She’s Leaving Home” won handily last week, garnering 12 of 22 votes. Good job to those who identified the theme: relocation. (more…)