Dylan Week Day 7: This Post Will Not Be Televised

Before we get to the RIP of the day (they seem to be coming fast & think lately), we need to cap off Dylan's b-day week w/ a list. Rolling Stone compiled a top 70 songs list, but I have neither the time, nor the interest to do that. Instead, I'm gonna list my top 20 Dylan B-sides & album tracks (ie: songs that were not released as singles or at least songs I've never personally heard on the radio). This means that we aren't going to be mired in whether "Like a Rolling Stone" is better than "Mr. Tambourine Man." As Amiri Baraka said, "I don't want to go out on that kind of limb." So w/o further ado, we're off!

20) "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream" A really funny song about imperialism. Because there's nothing as funny as imperialism.
19) "Highlands" The longest song on the list & one I quoted a few months ago on Facebook. That quote got all sorts of people mad at me... as if I really believed it. Ridiculous.
18) "Romance in Durango" A cool murder ballad as only Dylan could write one.
17) "Thunder on the Mountain" The newest song on this list, it was released in the fall of 2006. It has some random references to Alicia Keyes. I don't know why.
16) "Percy's Song" I first heard this as a cover version on an Arlo Guthrie album. It's so pure & traditional sounding, it comes across as an old spiritual. It's really amazing.
15) "Chimes of Freedom" Awesome!
14) "With God on Our Side" Another of his great indictments of the military.
13) "From a Buick 6" I must have heard this for the first time when I first heard Highway 61 as a whole. It's loud & raucous & way out there.
12) "Isis" A cool adventure song about love & trust... & death & betrayal.
11) "Love Minus Zero/No Limit" Only Dylan could turn some Cubist math equation into a song title. It took me years to figure out how to say the title. I don't know what it means, but it's a great tune.
10) "Gates of Eden" Another one that I was first turned on to this by Arlo Guthrie's cover version. It's an amazing blend of darkness & light, of optimism & anger. It's cool.
9) "Idiot Wind" It's just fantastic. I remember when I first heard it. It just hit me. Who could write such an out-there song & keep it so focused at the same time? Dylan.
8) "When the Ship Comes In" I've never really gotten this song, but I really dig it. Supposedly, it's about a moment in a hotel, but there's other weird stuff happening too. It's dark... & strange.
7) "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" ripped from the headlines, we have a great look at the American system of privilege & aristocracy.
6) "Masters of War" A great tune that cuts to the heart of the military industrial complex. It never points fingers at soldiers or generals, but at the people who make money from them. He seemed to realize, in a way his contemporaries missed, that they were the ones in control.
5) "Buckets of Rain" It has such cool, simple images. It doesn't feel like a Dylan song which is why Neko Case's cover works so well, I think.
4) "Absolutely Sweet Marie" I'm sure I must have heard this one when I was in high school & checked a vinyl copy Blonde on Blonde out from the library when I was a Junior in high school. It was George Harrison's cover at the Dylan 30th Anniversary Concert that opened my eyes to it's awesomeness though.
3) "Blind Willie McTell" I first heard this when the Bootleg Series Volumes I-III came out, but it was later that I really got into it. A great song.
2) "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" A super-fun song w/ some weird-ass lyrics. I first heard it either when I got Highway 61 on CD or when Phil covered it w/ The GD... I don't know which version I heard first, but it's awesome.
1) "Visions of Johanna" I first heard this when I checked that vinyl copy of Blonde on Blonde out of the library too. It wasn't until the a few years later that I really got into it though. His use of time & the compression of the moment is really interesting & seems to foreshadow what he did w/ similar ideas on "Tangled Up in Blue."In other news, Gil Scott-Heron died yesterday. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention it here. Besides, it seems fitting since he has apparently been called "The Black Dylan." i don't see it, but I'll go w/ it for the sake of the post. Here's the NY Times article about him form this morning. I've taught "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" in African American Lit many times.

Along w/ influencing the development of Hip Hop, he also appeared w/ a slew of artists including Dylan & Kurtis Blow in Artists United Against Apartheid. With this in mind, I'll leave you w/ a sweet Kurtis Blow tune from his 1986 album, Kingdom Blow. What might this have to do w/ Dylan? Ahhhh... see, he raps on this song... check it out!

Dylan Week Day 5: From Woodstock to Woking

Along w/ Dylan's 70th this week, we also have Levon Helm's 71st today. Here's his band doing a nice job on "I Shall Be Released" w/ Larry Campbell, Teresa Williams, & Warren Haynes:

Yesterday, saw the 53rd b-day of Woking's own Paul Weller. Here's his fantastic cover of "All Along the Watchtower:"

In other Woking news... 2 Woking related points in 1 post? Maybe, but we might actually get 3. Hold on to your hat, we're getting crazy... I started reading War of the Worlds the other day. I think I'm gonna teach it in my super-sweet sci/fi class next winter. It's fun... & the Martians land in Woking. I've seen the 1950s film many times (it's shit) & I watched the Tom Cruise/Spielberg version a couple weeks ago (it's not shit, but it can see the litter box from where it is), & yesterday I learned there's a crummy, Ed Woodesque version that came out a few years ago which is actually set in the original time period. I suppose I'll have to see that too.

I know what you're thinking though. You're thinking, "Hey, Woking is just outside of London; shouldn't there be some sort of soccer related aspect to this post?" Yep, there should. And here it is, the 3rd Woking related point in this post. When I was a kid, maybe 11 years old or so, my dad's friend who lives in Sault St. Marie & is connected to the Canadian Soccer Association, hosted a tour of a school team from Woking. They played some games in Northern Ontario & then came down to Petoskey to play the teams my dad was coaching. I remember it was over Father's Day weekend, & I remember we took them to Sleeping Bear Dunes in the belief that "Hey they came all this way, we best show them some weird shit." I remember it was super hot, I got some weird cut on my tongue, & that night there was an awesome Northern Lights which we watched over Harbor Springs from our deck. Those kids from Woking ended up going on to do something in the Football League. I don't remember exactly what it was, but I think it had to do w/ a strong Woking FC run in the FA Cup. For more specifics, you'd probably need to speak to my dad, but I have a sneaking suspicion that this is already more specific than you'd like. So much so, that I bet no one reads this far down to learn that the comment password for today is Surrey. I'll check the comments section later to see if anyone puts it there for an extra 10 comment points.

Dylan Week: Day 3: The B-Day (w/ Arsenal Goals of the Year)

For the big 70th birthday, I was going link y'all to some footage from Renaldo & Clara, but the only footage I could find sucks... of course, some would say that I may have found the entire film. I was able to find the Dylan/Dead rehearsals I promised though, so be sure to listen to them all today...all 4 1/2 hours of them! I'm listening to them now for the first time in years. I wish they'd done "Absolutely Sweet Marie" though. That songs seems tailor made for a Dylan/Dead collaboration. All in all, the rehearsals are just as hit or miss as I remember, but you need to listen to them anyway.

Speaking of Dylan memories, I distinctly remember sitting in Mr. Bean's (the teacher @ my high school, not the British comic character) English class looking @ his copy of Rolling Stone which was announcing Dylan's 50th b-day. The article was about how rock music was getting old & stately & I was thinking about how old 50 seemed to be. Now here we are 20 years later & he's still rocking out all year every year & still writing great stuff. The problem w/ this little memory is that I can't find any proof of that RS issue anywhere. I looked for it last night for a 1/2 hour... no dice. Maybe it wasn't a Rolling Stone after all. It's funny how I spent the last 20 years so certain that I'd read about his 50th in a RS; now I think I've been wrong. I wonder what other memories I have that are just plain incorrect. I mean, of course they're all open to interpretation, but flat out remembering things that didn't happen @ all is scary. What if everything I remember is wrong.

Maybe, in 20 years, when I look back on the Arsenal 2010/2011 season & remember that they came close to winning everything, but in actuality won naught, I'll be able to take comfort in the fact that my memories could be incorrect. It was a frustrating seas, over all. They finished 4th again (3rd the last couple years, but 4th has become their spot lately). The made it to the League Cup finals, they beat Barcelona in the 1st leg of their Champion's League tie, but then they lost the cup, were eliminated from the FA Cup & the Champion's League in the same week, & took a nose dive in the league... just as I predicted. They did score some crackers though, & here's the official Goals of the Season highlight reel. Enjoy... I'm sure Dylan is enjoying this today as he kicks back, blows out his candles, & watches Arsenal highlights.

Dylan Week: Day 1 (w/ CWCON wrap-up)

As Bob Dylan will be turning 70 on Tuesday, I figured we should celebrate it properly... w/ a week of blog posts! Before we get there though, it also seems like a quick overview of this weekend's Computers & Writing Conference @ UofM. It was fantastic. The Sweetland Center for Writing knows how to host a conference! I went to a few of the sessions on Saturday plus the luncheon/Keynote address. They were all really interesting & will clearly influence my classroom stuff in the very near future.

* I think I may go back to using blogs in the class room again. It didn't go over too well the last time, but w/ a few new ideas, I think I've got a better handle on it.
* I also think I way go paperless this fall. I'm kind of afraid of this idea, but it sounds pretty fun. Maybe not in lit classes, but probably in comp classes.

To top it off, our panel was awesome. Steve had a timer w/ an elephant noise that went off @ 3 minutes. I was the only douche to go over the time. I knew it would happen, but I was able to cut back on a bit of what I posted in the previous post. Everyone was great, & while the size of the room seemed a bit much when I walked in, there was a great crowd & they all stayed passed the 9:45 cut off time. There was a great conversation & most were backchanneling which was then noticed by people in other sessions who started talking about what we were doing. We kind of hi-jacked their stuff, I suppose, but it was fun. Then, @ lunch, people were asking what I'd done, & when they heard which panel I was on, they were saying things like "Oh, I heard about that one... I wish I could have been there."

There's already been a lot of talk about expanding it for another time. it should be great. It'd been a while since my last conference; I so glad I went.

* Here's Steve's reaction
* Here's Bradley Dilger's reaction
* Here's Virginia Kuhn's reaction

And now... drum roll... Dylan's b-day post 1:
In celebration, I made a fancy Dylan Bio display @ Nicola's today. We'll see if anyone actually buys any of them. As a side note, he's the only person in the whole store w/ enough bios to fill an entire display by himself other than a few presidents (Washington, John Adams, Jefferson, Lincoln, Reagan, GWB, & Obama). There are a lot of books about Jesus, Muhammad, & Buddha, but I wouldn't call them bios, necessarily. We also listened to the 1st 5 discs of the Bob Dylan Bootleg Series (of course, there was nothing selfish about pushing that on everyone). The 1st three came out in 1991 & include out-takes & alternate versions of his songs spanning the entirety of his career until that point. The next 2 discs were released in 1998 & highlight his tour of England from 1965 (the 1st disc is solo & acoustic; the 2nd disc is electric w/ The Band). Stay tuned for reflections on the rest of this week's celebration which should include viewings of his 4 main films (Don't Look Back, Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, Renaldo & Clara, & Masked & Anonymous). I also plan to listen to more of his stuff, & I think I'll post a link to some of his rehearsals... namely the ones w/ The grateful Dead from 1987... be sure to check out their jumbled version of "Boy in the Bubble"... it's hilarious. I may also start up "Lookin' to Get Silly" again. I haven't posted there since February. I kind of got tired of making dick jokes, but some new ones have presented themselves today after listening to so much lately.

Is Blogging Dead? Yes, No, Other

I've been attending the Computers and Writing conference this weekend @ UofM. I showed up to the North Quad yesterday morning to check in, score my t-shirt, & grab a bagel. I hadn't been in that building yet... it's fantastic. It's really a beautiful building. After an afternoon @ Nicola's I headed back up there for the evening reception in the University of Michigan Museum of Art> The reception was also fantastic. We had a nice evening of chit-chat, mingling, & small talk (although we never discussed the distinction between chit-chat, mingling, & small talk).

On Saturday morning, I'm participating in a panel discussion chaired by Steve about the future of blogging: "Is Blogging Dead: Yes, No, Other" in which I'll have 3 minutes to respond to that question in a clever/witty/scholarly way. The idea of responding to all 3 criteria has been baffling me this week, but I'll do my best. I was going to talk about the influx of capital into the blog-o-sphere & the rise of corporate blogs, but Steve asked me to focus more on this specific blog because I'm the only panelist who has a other than academic blog. Since I don't spend much time talking about work, but a lot of time talking about other stuff like soccer & music & books & movies & my kids, I've been trying to figure out what could be said about it that is actually worth hearing. Here it goes; I hope it's useful.

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Well, it may not be dead, but it's seemingly on the ropes. The response to blogs in comment boxes looks to have been steadily declining over the last few years. According to a Pew Research Center study, 28% of American between the ages of 12 & 29 blogged in 2006. Of course, this study doesn't touch on average numbers of posts or the number of readers, but 28% definitely supports all of our assumptions about the popularity of blogging five years ago. The survey also suggests that, at the same time, 7% of the population over the age of 30 was blogging. Since then, the number of teen bloggers has dropped to 14% while the young adult blogging numbers has dropped to 15%. Conversely, the bloggers over the age of 30 have actually increased to 11% of the population.

It seems like this could be attributed to the fact that some of those younger bloggers have since gotten older & still maintain their blogs so we have now have more older bloggers. This makes sense, but we need to look a little more closely at the survey of adults over 30. While the younger computer uses in the survey only consisted of a margin of eighteen years, we're lead to believe that the adult demographic included everyone over 30. Had they looked at 30 to 65 year olds, the percentage of bloggers would certainly have been higher. At least it would appear that way if we can assume that senior citizens are less likely to be blogging than 35 year olds. However, without the proper data, we can't be sure.

That might not matter though because many of the over thirty bloggers are actually blogging for corporations now anyway, which suggests that not only has blogging decreased, but it has decreased in tandem with the emergence of the "Blog as Corporate Media Tool." And yes, we'll use all the definitions of the word "tool" here. The rise of the corporate blog over the past five years is what's really spelling doom for the blog-o-sphere. As the idea of blogging has been co-opted by sites like The Huffington Post, The Fox News Blogs (even Fox Chief Meteorologist, Rick Reichmuth, supposedly maintains a blog, yet it's actually being updated by Fox News Channel Meteorologist, Janice Dean who on May 2nd posted the rather non-weather related message, "God Bless the Navy Seals that gave this country news we've all needed to hear for almost 10 years. Finally a little closure for those who lost loved ones September 11, 2001" [agreement issues aside, there can be no denying that she is a media tool]), & The Whole Story (the official blog of Whole Foods Market), it's no wonder that the individual has been somewhat stifled in the world of blogs.

So it's not blogging that might be dead, but the idea of blogging. There are plenty of blogs out there in cyber space. In 2007, Heather Green of Business Week reported that there were 15.5 millions blogs on the Internet. As of May 20, 2011, Blogpulse, a blog indexing site maintained by Neilsen Media Research, claimed there were over 162 million blogs, 76 thousand of which had been updated in the last 24 hours. If these numbers are correct, and they seem to be correct, we need to determine how the very title of this panel is even relevant. A total of 162 million blogs suggests that we should all be blogging. How could there even be an issue?

But it is an issue. Not only are the individual, personal bloggers being squeezed out, the the sheer number of blogs is just overwhelming. Blogging looks to be dead, or at least on the ropes as I suggested a couple minutes ago, because it's too hard for people to find them. In Dexter Palmer's recent debut novel, The Dream of Perpetual Motion, the young Harold Winslow says he wants to be a story teller when he grows up. In response, he is asked, "Have you thought of what will happen if you want to tell a tale and no one can hear you or has the time to listen? Have you thought about trying to tell a tale in a crowded room where everyone else is shouting to be heard? Storytelling - that's not a future. The future, I'm afraid, is flashes and impulses. It's made up of moments and fragments, and stories won't survive" (101).

These flashes and impulses are not unlike Facebook status updates or tweets. The very things on which the blogs are now so reliant. As people have lost the interest in reading the blogs, commenting on the blogs or even just acknowledging their existence, the rise of the networking sites has worked along with the corporate blogs and the simple overwhelming number of blogs to give the appearance of the death of blogging, but it's still there. It's still strong. Strong like the proverbial tree falling in the woods. In this case though, the tree isn't falling in a woods devoid of people, it's falling in a woods so crowded with people chopping down trees that they simply don't notice one more or less.

________________________________________________________________

So, this is the draft I've got done right now. I think I'll need to cut it back a little more and possible add something witty/hip about this very blog. We'll see. Of course, we'll also see if anyone actually reads this before tomorrow morning: not likely. If you do, be sure to leave the comments here rather than on Facebook because that way, they will stick w/ the post and won't get lost on the Facebook link.

Mulligans: In which Isaiah learns about James Joyce & makes an intertextual connection

Yesterday morning I was sitting on the couch eating breakfast & watching Back to the Future III w/ Isaiah. A few weeks ago he lost his mind for the Back to the Future trilogy. He loves to play that he is Marty & I am Biff & in some damsel in distress scenario he has to rescue Lorraine... he's also developed a hilarious crush on Lea Thompson. I can't imagine that he really understands the concept of time travel, but he can't get enough of these movies. Come to think of it, neither can I. As a side note, they were executively produced by Spielberg... yet more Spielbergers to delve deeply into the daddy issues: Marty & George in Parts I & II and Marty & Doc Brown in all 3 of them.

Anyway, as I'm sitting here, Isaiah grabbed the copy of Ulysses from the book shelf & demanded that I read it to him. Now, for those of you who haven't read it, you need to understand that it's not the easiest book to be reading out loud (or silently, or in rounds w/ friends on Bloomsday, or or through a megaphone from the top of a parking structure, or in any other way for that matter), I suggested that we do the 1st page & see how it's going from there. We got about 1/2 way down the rather long page before he seemed to lose interest (in his defense, that's about twice as far as many people get).

We got through the 1st sentence, "Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed." At that point, he stopped me. "Is Buck Mulligan a good guy or a bad guy?" What a fantastic question... & one I couldn't really answer. I explained that different characters view him differently, but that Stephen Dedalus's father doesn't really seem to dig him too much, yet Buck & Stephen are old friends & they live together in the Sandycove Mortello Tower. I haven't read Ulysses in years. I struggled through it in Grad School & then gave it another go in 2002ish. That time, I loved it. I suppose I should go again soon, but I need to get through a few other things first. Maybe next year i'll get back to it again.

Of course, after a few more sentences, the follow up question was "Is Simon Dedalus a good guy or a bad guy?" He then stopped & had a fantastic look on his face as he considered the possibility that Buck Mulligan might be related to Mike Mulligan. "Maybe Mike is his older brother." Awesome!

Summer of Cruise: The Reviews Part 1

Austin Powers in Goldmember: As I explained on the first Cruise post, I watched this last summer during the Spacey-a-thon. I'm counting that as a viewing... I can't subject myself to it again... it's shit! (Zero out of four volleyballs)

Mission: Impossible: I saw this when it was first released on video, but I liked it more this time. It's definitely got some problems, but over all it holds up pretty well. Mainly though, the reason we (Aiden & I... btw, it's Aiden's big 10th b-day today; be sure to give him a happy birthday shout out!) watched it was because we wanted to see the 3rd on which was directed by J. J. Abrams but figured we should watch the others first. (2 1/2 out of 4 volleyballs)

Mission: Impossible II: Not a whole lot different from the first one, it's fun but lacks something. It's been a month or so & I don't even remember what happened. (2 1/2 out of 4 volleyballs)

Mission: Impossible III: It's certainly the best of the lot. Abrams's weirdness (though no time travel) comes through nicely... as do the references to old James Bond films... even the George Lazenby on, On Her Majesty's Secret Service gets a nod... but so few people have seen that one, it's kind of a funny movie to reference. And it's better than its reputation suggests; it's no Mission: Impossible III, but it's good. Speaking of James Bond, after a few drinks w/ a Nicola's co-worker the other night, we decided that a chronological Bond-a-thon might be in order for the summer too... I'll keep you posted. (3 1/2 out of 4 volleyballs)

Tropic Thunder: This was on TV a month or so ago. It's funny, but I don't know that it holds up as well as I expected. Cruise is good, but so much of the humor is based on shock value, but w/o the shock, it doesn't work as well. (2 1/2 out of 4 volleyballs)

Minority Report: I watched this one because, as you well know, I'm teaching a sci/fi class next year & so I've been trying to refamiliarize myself w/ some of the bigger sci/fi films of the last decade. It's good. I saw it when it first came out on dvd, but the disc skipped & I never saw the end. It's based on a short story by Philip K. Dick (which I'm sure you already knew), but I've never read anything by him. I suppose I'll have to remedy that soon. (3 1/2 out of 4 volleyballs)

War of the Worlds: This pretty much blows, but the effects are cool & it's a better film that the 1950s Red-Scare version... & it's yet another Spielberger to deal w/ daddy issues... I'd do the list of them, but that should be it's own post some time. (BTW, Minority Report has some weird daddy issues too.) (2 out of 4 volleyballs)

Top Gun: Awesome as you know. Yet, maybe it's only awesome because it's been awesome for so long. Aiden was bored out of his mind. I DVRed it last week, & the version I recorded was edited for time which meant the volleyball scene, the "Great Balls of Fire" scene & Maverick's conversation w/ Slider in which he says, "Slider, you stink" were edited out. Those are pretty iconic scenes; a strange decision, indeed. (This one is ripe w/ daddy issues, but it's not a Spielberger.) (3 1/2 out of 4 volleyballs)

Cocktail: Shit! I'd never seen it until last night. The only saving grave was that the disc was skipping so I got to skip ahead a little bit which saved me some time. I couldn't believe how little time was actually spent in Jamaica. That is the image I've always had of the film, but he's only there for about 15 minutes. There should also have been more cocktail making acrobatics. I think a remake could actually do this justice... more time in the Caribbean & more snazzy drink-mixing. And to think it was written by the guy who wrote the novel. There was a novel? WTF? Also, more nudity wouldn't have hurt the film either. (1 out of 4 volleyballs)

Deep Space Six on Kentucky Derby Day

After a pulled muscle kept me from playing anything resembling the beautiful game on Saturday afternoon, I watched Verlander's no-no & the Kentucky Derby w/ Aiden & my dad. I really don't have any feelings one way of the other in regards to horse-racing... other than the simple conviction that the horses are getting pushed harder than they should be & that it's kind of a silly sport. I do have a strong belief in the ridiculousness of the 2 hours of fluff pieces about the jockey's childhoods & so forth... not to mention stupid hats the women wear. Of course, I've been known to wear a stupid hat on occasion too & here's the album to prove it, so who am I to judge?

Afterwards, I went to see Deep Space @ The Crosstown Bar & Grill. I seem to have forgotten that I'm not 23 anymore, & drank the place dry. The Mexican Slayrides* were flowing... after a 25 oz Oberon, I had 3 Slayrides, a shot of Cuervo & PBR. For some reason about which I was too wasted to enquire, my bill only came to 16 bucks. In hind sight, I think I got a deal. Knowing full well that I had to work @ 8:30 on Sunday morning, I then saw fit to go to an after-party & drink more Oberon... (To quote my team-mate's father after he broke two cheek bones in two games in one week, "stupid is stupid & there's no pill for it.") Anyway, a good time was had by all... but like w/ my previous Deep Space post, I must admit that I can't remember the set-lists as well as I used to, so you'll have to forgive me when you realize that it's not ony incomplete but also not quite in the right order. I feel like the first set is pretty accurate, but the second set must be missing stuff.

Set I:
Feelin' Alright
Althea
Evangeline
Blow Away
Box of Rain
Speedway >
Truckin' >
Terrapin

Set II:
Bertha
Same Thing
Help >
Slipknot >
Cumberland Blues

Encore:
The Race is On >
Dead Flowers

* Put a shot of Captain Morgan's in a pint glass and then fill w/ one bottle of Negra Modelo... named after the pilot episode of The A-Team in the summer of 2007. It's a variant on the less-than-popular cocktail, the Boilermaker. Enjoy!

Summer Movie Spectacular: Tom Cruise

Kevin Spacey in 2010 & Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2009. You may recall that we never made it all the way through Spacey because as it turns out, they're all pretty much the same. We saw most though & all of the Schwarzeneggers the year before. Those links will take you to my reviews if you're interested. For this summer I've decided to go w/ Tom Cruise. Why? Because I wanted to see the J.J. Abrams Mission: Impossible film but felt I should see the other 2 first. I then decided I wanted to see War of the Worlds because I'm thinking about teaching the book next year & figured it'd be good to see it. I also happened to watch Minority Report the other day. I rented it when it first came out, but the disc skipped & I never got back to it afterwards. Last night, I realized I'd also seen Tropic Thunder recently so w/ 6 down already, it seems like a doable project. I think I will skip Austin Powers in Goldmember because I suffered through it last year w/ Kevin Spacey... I don't see the point of doing that again already. That means I've got 7 in the bag w/ 27 left. I imagine I'll watch Top Gun w/ Aiden & maybe The Outsiders w/ Solstice. There's a key under the filmography so you can check back here to keep track of how the Cruise-a-thon is going. I know a lot of you really hate this guy because of his religious weirdness, but I've never really had an opinion about that. I do have an opinion about his acting ability, but I'm going through w/ this stupidity none-the-less. I'll post reviews of the films I've seen recently periodically throughout the summer which means the first review poost should be coming soon. Stay Tuned!


Playin' w/ the boys!
The Fimography:
Knight & Day (2010)****
Tropic Thunder (2008)****
Valkyrie (2008)****
Lions for Lambs (2007)*
Mission: Impossible II (2006)****
War of the Worlds (2005)****
Collateral (2004)*
The Last Samurai (2003)*
Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002)****
Minority Report (2002)****
Space Station 3D (2002)*
Vanilla Sky (2001)****
Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures (2001)*
Mission: Impossible II (2000)****
Magnolia (1999)*
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)**
Jerry Maguire (1996)****
Mission: Impossible (1996)****
Interview w/ a Vampire (1994)**
The Firm (1993)*
A Few Good Men (1992)***
Far & Away (1992)****
Days of Thunder (1990)*
Born on the Fourth of July (1989)**
Rainman (1988)**
Cocktail (1988)****
The Color of Money (1986)****
Top Gun (1986)****
Legend (1985)**
Risky Business (1983)****
All the Right Moves (1983)**
Losin' It (1983)*
The Outsiders (1983)**
Taps (1981)**
Endless Love (1981)*

* Have never seen it
** Saw it a long time ago
*** Watching right now
**** Watched this summer.


Reminiscing about the days of old

The Death of 2 Arsenal Fans

Much has been made of bin Laden's death on Sunday night, & I promised yesterday that I'd bring y'all my thoughts, thoughts you've no doubt been anxiously awaiting. However, I also want to talk about the Arsenal season & summer transfer prospects. They fit nicely together because it's pretty clear that while he was living in London in the early 90's, he spent more than one Saturday afternoon on the Clock End of Highbury singing the songs & crushing the skulls of hapless Tottenham supporters. I tend to believe he probably spent more time in expensive boxed seats & less time street fighting. Although, between his time w/ the Mujahideen & Al Qaeda, I suppose he needed something on which to take out his tendencies towards violence. One would think that he would target the rich, West-End Chelsea fans more than the North London Spurs folks... or East-End West Ham dolts for that matter. It has even been suggested that he spent 6 of his years in hiding by hanging out in the Arsenal trophy cabinet since no one has looked in there since 2005.

Although Arsenal haven't won anything since that 2005 FA Cup, one might have though the US military was having a similar drought in its search for bin Laden until late Sunday evening when the news came over the wire that they'd recovered his body. I was sitting on the left end of the bar @ Sidetrack when the story broke, which means, I didn't really have a good view of the sub-titles so I was a tad confused @ first. My initial understanding was that his body had been found. Then it seemed like he was assassinated. However, as Obama finally gave his speech, the military intel got its story straight & they said he was shot in a fire-fight... a firefight in which no American forces were wounded. Whatever the truth really is, the fact is that he's dead & people around the country went bat-shit crazy celebrating. Of course, he'd been wanted for years, & the search was long & difficult, but the joy people felt just made me uncomfortable. I wish it'd been possible to arrest him instead. Obama kept talking about justice being done, but justice is only done in a court of law... not by covert ops agents. Others have suggested that a trial would have been too expensive, but considering the money we've already spent on this, it'd have been a drop in the bucket. Still others were afraid that a trial would have given him access to the media or worse still the possibility of acquittal. To that, one only has to realize he had access to the media for the last 10 years & rarely used it, & if we have so little faith in the legal process, what the hell are we fighting for? We might as well get rid of it & just bring back lynchings if we're only willing to press charges against those we know we can convict. not that conviction would have been tough. Hussein was convicted & Milosevic & McVey.

While the cheering seems to have been in bad taste, the whole thing smacks of political posturing. Bush found Hussein just in time to secure his re-election, & now Obama gets bin Laden the week after he released his long form birth certificate. of course, had bush gotten him 4 years ago, the same people who were celebrating would have been complaining about the political timing leading up to the last election. (Just as those who would have loved it then are now looking to conspiracy theories to discredit Obama's involvement. Regardless of the timing, banging pots & pans & lighting off fire-works to celebrate a death is something w/ which we here @ Drifting into Deep Water can not accept.

The other thing we cannot accept is a summer w/o some proper signings @ Arsenal. They came close this year, but after losing the League Cup Final & then getting eliminated from the FA Cup & The Champions League in the same week, things fell apart. Fabregas has run his course, & his surprise injury this week seems to signal his departure from the club. He should have been allowed to leave last year since they won't get as much money this time as they would have & his heart was clearly not into this year. Eboue, Diaby, Arshavin, Almunia, & Squillaci also need to be shown the door (& Bendtner, but I've said that every year since 2007).

This means, a center back in order, a back up goalie, a right back & some sort of goal scorer.
Center back options: Gary Cahill from Bolton, Mamadou Sakho from PSG, Phil Jagielka from Everton would be nice. I read today that an offer for Sakho has already been made... we'll see.
Goalie: I've seen rumors that Bufon might come in, but I would prefer Neuer from Schalke or Stekelenburg from Ajax. However, they might hurt the development of Szczęsny who has come along nicely this year.
Right Back: van der Wiel from Ajax would be a nice improvement on Eboue, but then so would Danny Devito or John Goodman or Zombie bin Laden.
Attacking options: At the moment, the rumors seem to be pointing to Eden Hazard from Lille or Benzema from Real Madrid.
There's also a rumor circulating that Barcelona will ship cash plus Macherano for Fabregas. That's not a bad deal, & it'd be a huge upgrade from Diaby.

As far as the captaincy goes, as Fabregas leaves, it'll probably go to van Persie, but I wonder if Vermaelen or Song would be better. I like the captain to be towards the back so as to have a good view of the squad. Henry was captain during his last 2 years @ Arsenal, but it didn't work well.

Oh, & the 2nd Arsenal fan to die this week? We lost a chicken. I went outside to feed them this morning and one was dead. It's so sad. I'm sure they supported Arsenal because they're pretty dumb but faithful. And they're pretty. They may not win, but they lose beautifully... just like Arsenal.

Arsenal v ManUre Highlights

I know something else happened yesterday, but until I get that post written, feel free to enjoy the highlights from Arsenal's sweet, sweet victory which really ends up helping Chelsea more than Arsenal, but if Chelsea beats Man U next week, Arsenal will only be 3 points back. At least it's been a tight season.