Hot! Live! Music!

Should I have something more substantial than a Hot! Live! Music! post for my final post of the decade?

"Mark, you haven't been posting anything substantial all this time, so why start now?"

Good point!

Damon Albarn, "For Tomorrow"
What better title for a post on New Year's Eve, since tomorrow will include a severe hangover rehab day for half of society.  Damon Albarn is a good answer if you find yourself in any "name an underrated musician of the last 30 years" discussion.


Sophie Ellis-Bextor, "Do You Remember The First Time?"
Speaking of Britpop, here's a cover of....maybe the best Pulp song?  I've for years held Disco 2000 in that esteemed place, but DYRTFT is very very close.  I actually think this cover helped elevate its case.  Also, turns out Sophie Ellis-Bextor has been a big pop star in the UK for multiple decades,  who knew?


Robyn Adele Anderson, "Take Me Out"
Another New Year's Eve-appropriate song, as it's about someone totally striking out with the person they're trying to woo.  It's for the best, really, since who wants to start 2020 with an ill-advised hookup?


U2, "One Tree Hill"
My only comment here is why wasn't this in the movie?  Sure, it makes it a bit longer, but contrary to the belief of every film critic of 1988, there's nothing wrong with little more Rattle & Hum.  It is amusing how so many U2-haters lost their minds that U2 "dared" to "compare themselves with music legends" in the film, since a) that wasn't really what they were doing, and b) turns out U2 were legends themselves.


Future Islands, "Seasons"
The five stages of watching this video: "haha this is goofy" --- "how is this not a meme?" --- "seriously though, this guy is giving it 100 percent" --- "wait, is this actually awesome?" --- "this is awesome!"  Even Letterman seemed impressed, making it one of the seven or eight times he cared about something over the last decade of his show

Survivor Ratings: Tommy

Tommy Sheehan is one of the most interesting Survivor winners in ages, hamstrung by four factors that were largely out of his control.

1. He wasn’t presented as very charismatic, at least not in the way that easily translates to the TV viewer at home.  This is a bit of a problem given that his win was entirely based around “the social game” and the fact that his castmates found Tommy to be a great guy.

2.  While the show may not have figured out how to portray Tommy’s best traits, it did feature enough of him in every episode that he was widely pegged as the winner as soon as the premiere finished.  One simple trick for guessing a Survivor winner is to try and notice which player always seems to be getting some bit of facetime in almost every episode, even if they’re not really involved in that episode’s main storyline or voting scenario.  Another is to find the player who could be boiled down to a simple, easily-digestible tagline for their win — in Tommy’s case, it was the kindly grade-school teacher who had to learn how to be a Survivor-style "bad guy."

3. Between Tommy’s lack of overt personality and predictability of his win, it made for a fifth straight unmemorable male victor of Survivor.  That made it 11 male winners out of the last 14 seasons (!) and only increased the already-overt feeling that Survivor is slanting its game towards male players.

4. Nobody is going to remember Island Of The Idols for anything besides Survivor’s latest ugly controversy (summarized here).  The spectre of Dan Spilo loomed over this season even moreso than those giant wooden heads of Rob and Sandra.  The fact that producers were so absurdly and offensively unprepared for how to deal with this situation is yet another “why do I still watch this stupid show?” moment. 

So ultimately, the story of Tommy winning Survivor seems pretty insignificant in the larger story of Survivor not looking out for the safety of its contestants.  It’s pretty damn sad that the upcoming all-winners season only has to pass the “hey, there wasn’t any sexual harassment on this season, hooray for us!” bar for Jeff Probst and CBS to pat themselves on the back.

How He Won: In a unique bit of trivia, Tommy is the first player in 20 seasons (since Natalie in Samoa) to win without ever having individual immunity, finding a hidden idol or having any type of other hidden advantage.  It’s the kind of victory I didn’t think was possible in the age of Survivor being a glorified scavenger hunt, since it was a pure win for the social game.  Now, this isn’t to say that Tommy wasn’t helped by advantages, since he was so trusted by his fellow players that he often knew who had most of the idols and advantages, since they outright told him in order to include him in their plans.  Frankly, this seems way more impressive than actually finding an idol oneself.

Tommy was able to pull this off by, essentially, being in a final three alliance with everyone, or at least being so trusted by everyone that they felt good about him as at least a short-term ally.  And then when it came down to crunch time and Tommy might be on the radar to be eliminated, he had surrounded himself amidst other major social-game threats.  Why vote Tommy when you could vote for Elaine, or Janet, or Lauren, all of whom seemed more dangerous since (unlike Tommy) they’d all won challenges or found idols?

Skillset: Probably the single-best skill one can have in Survivor, which is the ability to be someone everyone would be okay losing to.  Don’t forget, this game is ultimately a popularity contest.  Tommy walked that fine line between being enough of a threat that everyone respected his play, yet not so obvious a threat that his name came up.  The only time Tommy got any votes was in the split-tribe double-vote episode (a twist Survivor should do more often, imo), and even then, his simple geniality saved him.  Elaine had been at odds with Tommy in previous votes but she still felt comfortable working with him, and Karishma still preferred working with Tommy (who she’d only just recently met had been against her in every prior vote) over the Missy/Elizabeth combination due to all of that past bad blood.

Could He Do It Again?: He’s not going to be in Winners At War so we might not get the chance to find out until, geez, season 50 or whatever, but it occurs to me that Tommy is the type of player who would always be something of a contender.  Again, he’s just under the radar enough that opponents might prefer to target more obvious challenge winners or something first…..and in the meantime, the opponents might want to include Tommy in their votes since he’s such a good guy to have on board.  If Survivor ever figures out how to portray “social game” winners without making their victories seem obvious, maybe winners like Tommy will eventually get more respect for their play.  It’d also help if Survivor would avoid having disgraceful sexual harassment scandals along the way, FYI.

Close Call

I was having a chat with some friends about the best movie endings of all time, and one came to mind as the closest-to-greatness good ending ever.

The Bourne Ultimatum.  Jason Bourne is shot off a rooftop, and he plunges down into the river.  We cut to Julia Stiles’ character watching a news broadcast about the events of the film, and the various officials involved in the illegal government program being taken into custody.  There’s mention of Bourne’s involvement, and how he was seemingly killed…except after three days of searching, his body hasn’t been found.  At hearing this, Stiles just grins to herself and we get the little violin cue at the start of Moby’s “Extreme Ways,” a.k.a. that song that plays at the end of all the Bourne movies. 

It’s almost entirely perfect.  BUT…then we get a brief shot of Bourne’s motionless body in the water suddenly stirring and swimming away.

Hopefully I don’t spend the rest of my life in movie arguments, since that seems like a fresh kind of hell.  But, I will argue to my dying days that they didn’t need the shot of Bourne actually coming to.  Just end the movie on Stiles smiling and then the Extreme Ways cue.  Her smile tells you everything you need to know; my theatre audience back in the day even laughed and semi-cheered out of amusement that Bourne had once again escaped danger.

I’d say this was the worst decision of the Jason Bourne series but, well, then the fourth movie happened.  And that weird spinoff with Jeremy Renner. 

Joker Addendum

A couple of add-ons to my review/semi-pan of the Joker movie...

* I always enjoy playing the game of "would this film have been more interesting if someone else in the cast had played the lead role?"  While I'm not sure if this game will ever produce a better result than my suggestion of a You've Got Mail remake helmed by Parker Posey and Dave Chappelle,  Joker had an interesting one with a guy who's in the movie for about 30 seconds.  If you wanted to give a different take on the Joker, why not move away from the over-the-top aspect whatsoever and cast Marc Maron?  A Joker whose nihilistic view of the world manifests itself with cynicism rather than manic glee makes it all the more terrifying if MaronJoker actually did burst out laughing.  I don't know why the idea of Marc Maron playing the Joker makes me think of Michael Douglas and "Falling Down," but there you have it.

* As timely as ever, the Epic Rap Battles Of History crew are here with Joker vs. Pennywise that might even more visually impressive than lyrically impressive, which is saying something.

Best Song Ever?

We all have our personal choices for greatest song of all time, with my personal bid going towards Stevie Wonder's "Superstition."  But objectively, the best song ever might just have to be "Memory," from the musical Cats.

Now, why Memory, of all the songs in recorded history?  Good tune, sure, but the GOAT?  I propose Memory as the #1 for one simple reason --- it isn't just a great song, it's so great that it has seemingly single-handedly carried one of the single worst musicals of all time to decades of different production runs and now a sure-to-be-terrible movie adaptation.  Quick, name anything from the Cats soundtrack apart from Memory....exactly my point.

With all due respect to Greta Thunberg, my person of the year might be the woman in my theatre audience who yelled "NOPE, HARD PASS" after the Cats trailer was shown, to wide applause and laughter from the rest of the crowd.  (If the heckler was, in fact, Greta Thunberg, then double the prize for her!)

Afterlife

PROS

Paul Rudd and Carrie Coon are great!  I like Bokeem Woodbine and Tracy Letts!  I like Finn “The kid from Stranger Thi…hey what is this, my actual name is so incredible that I don’t need a nickname, you blaggard” Wolfhard!  Jason Reitman has made a couple of really good films, even if he’s on a enough of a cold streak to see why he broke down and stepped into the family business of Ghostbusters movies. 

And hey, at the end of the day, it’s a Ghostbusters movie.  As if I’m not going to see this on opening day.  The Ghostbusters are such an integral part of my childhood and overall pop culture upbringing that any movie might fall under the general “no such thing as bad pizza” corollary.

CONS

...it looks…kind of bad?  Or was I the only one who sort of cringed throughout the whole trailer?

Basically, it looks like Super 8.  Or, appropriately enough given Finn Wolfhard’s presence, Stranger Things.  (Or, Stranger Things’ spiritual predecessor IT, which weirdly also starred Wolfhard….this kid is already being typecast.)  What it doesn’t look like is Ghostbusters, and while it’s possible that “Afterlife” will represent a glorious broadening of the franchise once we see what Reitman has done over the course of two hours of screentime, it seems entirely tonally off in two-minute trailer form.  Like, not even one joke?  Aren’t these supposed to be comedies?

Like I said, I’m absolutely going to see this movie, so maybe my criticism is ultimately meaningless.  And it is only a trailer, so it’s too early to pass judgement.  But given how much hate the 2016 movie got for not being a “real” Ghostbusters movie from the sexist neckbeard crowd, maybe it’s a bigger issue if the 2020 movie misses the point entirely?

btw, I withdraw all criticism if it turns out Carrie and the kids are descendants not Peter, Ray, Egon, Winston, Dana, Janine, Louis, etc. but rather Larry Storch.

Merry Creepmas

Is there anything better to listen to while reading a "Love Actually is actually sketchy as hell" thinkpiece?

Hit Single History

With less than a month to go, the Best Twitter Thread Of 2019 crown is suddenly seized by a late challenger!  For those of you unclear how Twitter works, hit the "Dec. 5" link to access the entry thread, and then just keep scrolling downward. 

"Ten Feet High Club" is a legit banger.

I am a music historian, and with @AdrianRMG I have researched the best-selling single of every decade all the way back to 14,000BC. Here's a thread:

2010s - Ed Sheeran, The Shape of You pic.twitter.com/Y4rrOdSGY2

— 𝗔𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗲 𝗛𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻 (@jazzemu_) December 5, 2019

WHERE?!

I found myself in downtown Toronto today, and it struck me that if the city wanted to redirect some of its budget towards more useful things, they could save money by cutting back some of the unnecessary signage. 

For instance, in the tunnel leading from Union Station to the CN Tower/Rogers Centre area, there are multiple (multiple!) signs along the way that read "this way to the CN Tower."  And then there's a helpful arrow. 

Man, if you need a sign to help you find the CN Tower in downtown Toronto, you're just beyond hope.  This would be the tunnel, btw, that is mostly made of glass.  So one could look at a sign that directs you in the direction of the tower, or one could turn their eyes maybe two inches upwards and see....the tower itself.

M. Night Shyamalan himself couldn't have produced more pointless Signs.

That Thing You Do!

I was toying around with "best Tom Hanks movies" and "best movie songs" as potential topics for blog posts, and it occurred to me that the That Thing You Do track is the perfect bridge between the two.  In fact, all things considered, this might be the very best song in movie history.

Consider that the track had to be....

a) believable as a mid-60's, Beatles-esque pop hit
b) catchy enough to stand on its own as a song
c) catchy enough that the audience doesn't get sick of hearing it so often during the movie
d) ...yet not SO catchy that it doesn't sound so polished that these random guys couldn't have come up with it.  To paraphrase David Mitchell, it basically had to sound simple but not so simple as to call attention to its simplicity.  

TTYD was nominated for the Best Original Song Oscar in 1996, but lost to "You Must Love Me," from Evita.  That's one of the low-key worst results in the last 25 years of Academy history.  Put it this way....You Must Love Me wasn't even on my radar if I'd made that "best movie songs" post 200 entries long.

Detroit Football

Nothing says U.S. Thanksgiving like Detroit Lions football, so what better day than to write about my one and only live NFL game.

My dad took my brother and I to the old Pontiac Silverdome in December 1996 to watch my beloved Green Bay Packers lay a 31-3 beating on the hapless Lions, who had little going for them besides Barry Sanders in the latter days (as it turned out) of his NFL career.  On the plus side, I can say I saw Sanders play, and I saw my Packers in action during their Super Bowl-winning season.  Those were about the only highlights of an overall sketchy day.

We made the trip via a bus tour group, which made enough stops on the way from London to Pontiac that I was able to finish all of Michael Crichton's "Disclosure" during the trip.  I don't know why that title sticks in my memory so much, as I don't remember much about it (or the movie, which I've never seen) other than the fact that I vaguely enjoyed it?  It must've been an easy read, since even as a quick reader, plowing through a 400-page book in maybe 3.5 to four hours is pretty fast.  Almost as fast as it took the lead character's life to fall apart due to one ill-fated decision and subsequent frame-up!  (I don't remember the main character's name, so I'll just call him Michael Douglas.)

But yeah, book aside, we made it to the Silverdome and strolled inside, though the madness that is the NFL tailgate scene.  As you might expect in a season that saw the Lions stink and the Packers dominate, there was a heavy, heavy contingent of Green Bay supporters in attendance, a detail that will become important later.  The parking lot ratio was at least 2-to-1 in favour of Packers vehicles, with the bratwurst cooking on the BBQ at every single one.  It was an overall jovial atmosphere, and I remember receiving a few high-fives from fellow fans, as I was decked out in a Reggie White jersey.

As jovial as it was on the outside, inside the Dome was a different story.  For those of you who never had the pleasure of attending an event at the Silverdome, imagine pure concrete and.....that's it, just concrete.  No banners, no visible merchandise stands, only a handful of concession stands, and barely even any electric light within the enclosed ramps and stairwells.  To say it was a prison-like atmosphere wasn't exactly true since I didn't openly see any barbed wire, but still, I wouldn't have blinked an eye if the ushers had been wearing orange jumpsuits.

We get to our seats in the upper deck, and if the parking lot was two-thirds Packers fans, it was at least 75% among the people in attendance.  Every successful Green Bay play was met with wild cheers, while the Lions' few exploits were met with either boos (from Packer fans) or indifference (their own fans).  Our own section of the upper level was almost all Packers supporters, another detail that will become important later.....or, right now!

The three of us were seated in front of four guys that I can only describe as generic bros.  They were all wearing Cowboys jerseys, which I'd normally think was inexplicable were it not for their strict adherence to my low opinion of Cowboys fans.  These four clowns spent the entire first half, drinking, talking loudly about anything besides the game, and making general nuisances of themselves.

It was to annoy even my dad, one of the more laid-back people around.  The last straw came when these guys returned to their seats after their umpteenth beer run and spilled a drink on my brother.  My dad was probably as upset as I've seen him, while the Four Coarsemen were more upset about their lost beer. 

Just as things seemed to be getting particularly heated, however, the cavalry arrived.  Namely, the people in the row on other side of these four guys, as well as the people in the two rows behind them....all of whom were Packers fans.  Suffice it to say, these folks didn't think much of Dallas fans to begin with, and since the targets were the family of a kid in a Reggie White jersey, enough was enough.  The Green Bay legions "politely" informed the four guys that if they had a problem with us, they had a problem with the entire section, upon which the quartet took off, never to be seen again.

To say this was more exciting than anything that happened on the field that day wouldn't have been a stretch.

So that was my one and only real live NFL experience.  (I say "real" since I also attended a Packers/Bills preseason game in Toronto a few years' later, though the preseason doesn't really count.)  While I'd still like to attend a game at Lambeau Field at some point, it's not exactly at the top of my bucket list since....well, seeing the NFL live kind of stinks.  Our personal experience aside, the NFL's determination to make the most TV-friendly possible sport has somewhat ruined the actual sensation of being there in person.  If you're there, you have to put up with weather, long stoppages in play, drunken hooligans, etc.  If you're at home, you have the comfort of your couch, the ability to channel-surf over to other games, a bathroom that isn't a crime against nature, etc.

Having never been to Detroit's Ford Field, however, perhaps one day I'll again check out another Packers appearance.  Tell you what, the next time Green Bay and Detroit meet in a playoff game, count me in.

Me In 2009 vs. Me In 2019

Competitors: Me vs. me from exactly 10 years ago

Battleground: A hall of mirrors, just to make this as cliched as possible

Prep: Both of us are woken up from a sound sleep, told what's going on, re-explained what's going on after our initial response of "whuh?" and then given five minutes to use the bathroom and whatnot.  I don't think a third explanation would be necessary, since I'd like to think that, at all ages of my life, I've been open to the idea of very weird stuff happening.

Rules: General UFC rules, since I've always hated the idea of being poked in the eyes, hit in the groin, had small joints manipulated, etc.  One change is that both of us get to compete in socks and moccasins, since the idea of fighting in bare feet always seemed vaguely gross.

Referee: I was tempted to say either the me from 1999 or the me from 2029, but let's just go totally neutral and pick the Referee Mario from the old Punch-Out game.

Match analysis: Let's face it, we're not dealing with two elite athletes here.  It's going to be a battle of (limited) stamina and (I want to say limited if I'm being realistic, but I'm also pretty arrogant, so...) strategy before it'll come down to pure strength or speed.  Plus, both now and then, I'm not a terribly violent person, so if anything, I'll want to chat with my old/new self moreso than fight them.  So we'll take the fight just as an intellectual challenge, mostly, and give it a go for a while before one of us will likely throw in the towel out of either frustration or boredom.  The 2009 me has the physical edge by dint of being in slightly better shape, as back then I was only obese as opposed to morbidly obese!  Not sure of a mental edge, since I think both of us stopped intellectually growing around 2007, and my knowledge of fighting (and by which, trying to figure out submission moves from watching the UFC and/or pro wrestling) hasn't evolved much since then.  Frankly, there's a chance one of me would let the other me actually apply the hold just to see what it felt like, or to see if I could counter out of it.  So yeah, since "allow oneself to be in the hold" is in play here, we're not dealing with high-level fight IQ.

Final verdict: Me in 2009, second round, submission.  Current me just gets tired and taps out, then the two of us go grab a soda pop and catch up on life.  "So we never did join that gym, eh?"  "Sigh...."

And no, there will be no actual pictures of me in 2009 or in 2019 posted for comparison's sake.  I wouldn't want to do that to the internet.

Ahimsa

U2's first-ever concert in India is coming up in a couple of weeks, so the band is commemorating the occasion with "Ahimsa," a collaboration with A.R. Rahman.  I like it!  It delights me that U2 might get into the phase of just randomly releasing music whenever they feel like it, or that they'll start releasing location-specific tracks.  Which means that when they eventually play my hometown of London, Ontario, their song "Richmond Row" will be a banger!

Then again, if U2's career degenerates to a point that they ever play my London, I may be too depressed to attend.

Anyway, Ahimsa!

Why So Serious?

*spoilers ahead*

The concept of “Joker” is pretty straight-forward.  Todd Phillips wanted to show how evil is often shaped by a person’s circumstances.  Arthur Fleck is a child of abuse, grows up in a broken home with a delusional mother, suffers from delusions and a few other mental illnesses himself but can’t get them treated due to a lack of a civic support system for the mentally ill, and is doing all this while trying to get by in the notorious cesspool that is Gotham City.  Between being beaten up, losing his job, being confronted with an apparent lie about his parentage and then the actual truth about his parentage, lashing out with a vigilante attack, and then being mocked by a TV talk show host, Arthur finally snaps, and the Joker as we (sort of) know him is created.  If Arthur just snaps, he becomes one of, sadly, thousands of semi-anonymous people who commit awful deeds on a near-daily basis.  But because his path leads him to becoming the Joker, it underlines how everyday evils can give birth to a terrifying, world-threatening kind of evil.

It’s an interesting premise, and somewhat of a different one for a “comic book movie” (though Joker has none of the trappings associated with your normal Marvel or DC movie) beyond just the fact that a movie focused entirely around the villain is unusual enough.  So, the question is, why did I dislike this film?

In short, it’s a classic case of an interesting premise on paper not translating into a particularly interesting movie.  Joker is a tough watch — the one “comic book movie” trope it does adopt is carrying the “grim-dark” nature of a Zach Snyder DC movie to an extreme.  Obviously any film with such a heavy message is under no obligation to be light, and frankly, having many light moments or even dark comic moments would’ve been even more off-putting.  But the issue is, the movie’s tone and overall direction is so apparent even five minutes in that it left me just dreading a slog for the next two hours, and it was a slog I received.  If you’re wondering if there are at least a half-dozen music cues of songs about laughter or clowns scored to melancholy or violent moments, you are correct!

I don’t mind a tough watch if a film has something unique to say, but while that interesting premise I mentioned earlier is “somewhat different” for a full movie, it’s not exactly new to the world of comics in general.  Probably a good three-quarters of all comic villains already have an established tragic backstory — even among Batman villains alone, Mr. Freeze and Two-Face are on the Mount Rushmore of comic villain origin stories.  Ascribing such a background to the Joker seems almost unnecessary, since the Joker quite famously doesn’t have a set origin* and more or less seems like Phillips had Arthur become this specific villain because the Joker is the most famous one around.

* = of course, we already got a canon-busting Joker origin in the original Tim Burton Batman movie, and the comics have never really done anything to entirely bust up the old continuity of the Joker being a criminal known as the “Red Hood,” who has a header into a vat of acid during an encounter with Batman.  And, Phillips kind of hedges anyway about the “validity” of the entire movie by establishing that Arthur is delusional, so it’s possible the whole thing could basically just be the version that he sees in his head, or the one that that he’s telling to the Arkham psychiatrist at the end.

The other problem I had with the film is that in trying to humanize the Joker, I feel it goes too far in trying to sympathize or even excuse him.  To use the inevitable comparison to The Dark Knight, Heath Ledger’s Joker was an agent of pure chaos within what he felt was a chaotic system that deserved to be overthrown.  Yet that film, and Ledger’s performance, never let us forget that Joker was malevolent.  He’s fine with destroying everything and everyone for his own amusement, whereas in Arthur’s case, both his actions and the whole Joker movement for lack of a better term are presented as being borderline justifiable.  The Joker isn’t supposed to be a violent Robin Hood — while the Joker may be selective in his specific targets, his overall target is just “everyone.” 

Contrast this to Arthur, who only lashes out at those who have wronged him.  The goons on the subway, his co-worker, his mother, and Murray Franklin* all “have it coming” to some extent.  We aren’t shown what Arthur did to Zazie Beetz’s character and her kid, and leaving it ambiguous is a bit of a copout move on Phillips’ part since a definitive answer helps the narrative either way.  If Arthur leaves them unharmed, it shows he hasn’t entirely yet gone around the bend; if he does harm them, it shows he is ultimately evil, which better enforces the whole point of the movie. 

* = by the way, I shouldn’t say that this movie is entirely humourless, since the unintentional comedy of legendarily grumpy late-night talk show guest Robert De Niro playing a late night talk show host is off the charts.  Especially since his big comic catchphrase is, simply, “that’s life!”  Even Jay Leno would find this guy too much of a hack.  By the way, De Niro was cast as an homage to his role in ‘The King Of Comedy,’ but actually having De Niro there probably pushes the homage into straight ripoff territory.  The line between homage and ripoff, by the way, is called the De Palma Threshold.

Not giving us an answer either way strikes me less of Phillips wanting to create some mystery, and more not wanting to have the audience turn on Arthur — except, by this point we should be turning on Arthur because HE’S THE JOKER.  I mentioned earlier about how so many comic villains have tragic origins, and probably at least half of that number manifest that past into some type of a code of ethics.  Again, looking at Batman villains alone, Poison Ivy, Mr. Freeze, Harley Quinn, Catwoman wouldn’t have killed Zazie and her youngster; Riddler or Penguin probably not; hell, even Two-Face would spare them if his coin flipped the right way.  Adding the Joker to the list of “villains with ethics” is the only real breach of comics continuity that I have an issue with, since it goes against one of the fundamental aspects of what the Joker is all about.  To him, there’s no such thing as “they had it coming” since in his view, everyone is inherently corrupt and thus has it coming sooner or later.

My other hot take about the film is, and I have to be quiet if any angry Academy voters see this….

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┻┳| •.•) psst….
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┻┳| •.•) …this isn’t a very good Joaquin Phoenix performance.
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Phoenix, usually a reliably great actor, isn’t bringing anything new to the table in his portrayal of damaged Arthur Fleck, or even how he shifts into fully-formed Joker mode by the end of the film.  Arthur seems like a poor man’s version of Freddie Quell, a much better Phoenix character from “The Master.”  As for Jokerized Arthur, even accounting for the fact that he’s still in the embryonic stages of his criminal form, there isn’t the sense of controlled menace that should be surrounding the Joker at all times.  It doesn’t help Phoenix that Ledger’s performance is still so fresh in everyone’s mind, and I don’t at all think Phoenix deserves a Best Actor Oscar for this (though it would be classic Academy to award a seemingly overdue performer for a lesser role rather than one of their headline performances).

“Joker” is an interesting movie, hence all my words about it, but I hesitate to call it an actual good movie.  I don’t know if this specific kind of story needed to be told about this specific character, and even if so, I’m not sure Todd Phillips is the director to make it.  But hey, this movie is set to make over a billion dollars, so what do I know?  To quote legendary TV funnyman Murray Franklin, that’s life.

Bob Mortimer

I think my favourite part of Bob Mortimer's "Would I Lie To You?" appearances is that, of all the funny people and funny stories ever featured on the show, nobody makes the other comedians crack up as much as Bob Mortimer.  If Miles Jupp, who laughs at everything, was ever booked on the same episode as Bob, I think Jupp would literally die laughing.

Hopscotch

Hopscotch is, at once, both a moderately-entertaining Walter Matthau vehicle and the easiest game ever played.  I can't truly attest to the former, since I sort of half-watched it on TV years ago and don't really remember anything besides Matthau's genial charm, and can definitely attest to the latter, since I may have been the Pele of hopscotch.

A brief rundown of the rules, since it's possible most people don't actually know the rules of hopscotch, even though their childhood playground or schoolyard almost surely had multiple courts stenciled onto the pavement.  Most "games" consisted of kids just skipping through the numbers like they'd vaguely seen on TV, without the key aspect of picking up the stone.  It would be a little like practicing putting on a green without any holes.

Once you add the stone, however.....to quote Carl Weathers, baby, you've got a stew going!  To say it added excitement would be an understatement, and yet here I go, understating the whole thing since for an extreme talent like myself, the game was simply too easy to catch my interest.

Picture it: a young Mark is in third grade, and randomly strolling around his schoolyard during recess looking for something to do.  It was a rare day when Mark didn't go off by himself and make-believe he was a Ghostbuster, as Mark decided to be social for a change.  He stumbles upon some classmates playing hopscotch and, after a brief recitation of the rules, he decides to join in.

The stone is tossed onto the court, and the game is afoot.  And the foot is the game, in many cases, as Mark easily jumps through every square with room to spare between his feet and the lines, while then easily bending over to snatch the stone in one fell swoop and returning to the end.  Task complete.

It was so easy that honestly, I thought I'd gotten something wrong.  Maybe a rule wasn't explained properly, or I was supposed to yell HOPSCOTCH in a goofy voice while grabbing the stone or something of that ilk.  Could a game possibly be this simple?  Maybe so, since my classmates reacted like I'd just a four-minute mile.  "Oh wow, have you played before?"  Nope.  Beginner's luck....or the birth of a natural.  I sailed through that course as easily as Walter Matthau delivered a wry one-liner.

Now, just to add a dash of humility, I should note that the court was gigantic.  The squares had to have been at least 40cm x 40 cm, so it really was no problem for the foot of an eight-year-old.  And yet, my classmates apparently had the balance of a drunken Stephen Leacock character and somehow couldn't navigate this seemingly simple course.  I guess I was a bit tall for my age, and perhaps had a bit of extra leverage?  It's at this point where I bemoan the fact that I was already 5'10" by the time I was 12 or 13, and then just stopped growing forever, dashing my early hopes of being an NBA player. 

Whatever the reasoning, I was somehow a hopscotch master and everyone else struggled.  Since there was no challenge, I didn't seek out many more opponents, and I think my interest in the game began and ended that same afternoon.  Maybe if there was a professional hopscotch league on TV, I could've had more of an interest, in an attempt to emulate heroes like hopscotch legends Angus "The Hopped-Up Scottish Man" McFayden, or Sammy "Stone-Grabber" Williams.  Without the incentive of a lucrative professional career, however, it was back to busting ghosts for me.

For years afterward, every time I saw a hopscotch court, I began to sing Madonna's "This Used To Be My Playground."  Oh, what might have been.  What might have been. 

I would try scotchin' it up again one of these days, but my god, just imagine the inevitable hamstring tear.

Cities/Big Business/I Zimbra

"Stop Making Sense" is the best concert film of all time, and in my opinion, one of the actual greatest films of all time.  Yet while I've spent years and years adoring this film and the soundtrack album, it somehow never occurred to me that there was extra footage.

Turns out, during a random read of Stop Making Sense's Wikipedia page, two songs were actually left out of the theatrical release (but included on the VHS release and as DVD extras).  Needless to say, both performances are incredible, and again, HOW did it take me until 2019 to see these?  How did I get here?  This is not my beautiful house!

The 3D

3D = Double Dipsy Doodle, in this case

I wrote that whole post the other day without actually explaining why "the ol' Dipsy Doodle" had come to mind (not that my nonsensical ramblings usually require inspiration).  It's because after years of never hearing that phrase ever mentioned by anyone other than my grandfather, I inexplicably heard it twice in a two-day span.

1. my car was being serviced at Canadian Tire, and they were wheeling it out of the garage.  I could look into the garage and see my car moving, only to be confused when it was being driven towards the back of the facility rather than out the actual front door.  The guy at the desk explained that there was some kind of machinery taking up the entire central area of the garage, so the mechanic in my car would have to do "the ol' dipsy doodle" around the thing in order to leave.

The clerk was in his early 50's, which still makes him ostensibly too young to know that reference, but I was tickled nonetheless.  Maybe he heard it from his grandfather too, or maybe a parent, or maybe it just fits in with Canadian Tire's vague old-timey vibe that eighty-year-old slang can still be heard on the reg.  Just imagine, you could go into a Canadian Tire in 2099 and some clerk will use the old-timey phrase "on the reg."

2. while listening to the Maple Leafs on the radio, Joe Bowen mentioned that a player did "the ol' dipsy doodle" while making a clever move with the puck.  This mention was less surprising, since Joe Bowen is 68 years old and is as old-school as it gets.  The man may talk exclusively in old-timey references, and/or references to anyone who has ever played for the Maple Leafs since World War II.

Do I currently have a fantasy hockey team that I have just renamed "the ol' Dipsy Doodles"?  You are 100 percent correct.

Name Game

Longtime readers may remember my list of baby names, or the 42 names I had in mind if I ever had a child.  I should note, that post was written over eight years ago and I'm still childless today, so yeah, the dating life is going great. 

BUT, since I knew that this was inevitable, or that I'd have slightly fewer than 42 children if I ever did become a father since it's not like I'm Robert Baratheon or something, I've had my list of names on offer for years.  It's become a running joke that, whenever a friend is expecting, I'll forward them that list as a suggestion.  I say "running joke" since it's technically tongue-in-cheek, but let's be real, I want this to happen.  Imagine the follow-up blog post it would inspire!

This you're reading that very follow-up post now, then....well, you're underwhelmed after all the build-up, but the bigger story is that it's happened!  Two friends recently welcomed a little girl into the world, and named her Lily, thus firmly and delightfully removing one of the names off my list for good. 

Now, technically, Lily may have been a family name on both of their sides, so I don't want to claim that my list was the sole inspiration.  Tied for first, sure, but not the SOLE inspiration.  Still, I'll claim it, after all this time.  This was an exhausting as actually being a parent, in many ways.

One down, 41 to go. 

Waits So Serious?

Move over Joaquin Phoenix.  And, I guess, move over Heath Ledger, as even though he was literally born the same year as this interview, surely he must've seen it at some point while growing up in Australia.

I guess this video has been floating around the web for some time now but I'm only seeing it (and being floored by it) now.  Fast-forward to 1:44 when Tom Waits sits down.  I always felt that watching Curb Your Enthusiasm and seeing Larry David in full bloom somewhat detracted from Jason Alexander's legendary George Costanza performance since it became clear that Alexander was to some extent just impersonating David, and I can't help but similarly feel that this Waits interview takes just a bit of the steam out of Ledger's take on the Joker.  Then again, I guess at most Ledger lifted the voice.....I somewhat doubt that in part two of the interview, Waits offers to show the host a pencil trick.

The Ol' Dipsy Doodle

Every grandparent uses old-timey expressions, and everyone who spends time with their grandparents inevitably picks up some of those expressions and carries them forward through the ages as sort of a rhetorical time capsule.  One of my grandpa's favourite turns of phrase was "the ol' dipsy doodle," which was basically his go-to term for any kind of tricky reversal. 

If, for instance, someone made a big comeback in a family game of rummoli, they didn't just turn the tables on the opponents --- they pulled the ol' dipsy-doodle on them!  And then a fistfight usually broke out, since my family took games night pretty serious.  My grandma throws a mean right hook.

Perhaps with my brain was jarred from my grandma's punch, but for some reason, it took me until 2019 to actually look up "dipsy doodle" and, lo and behold, it was a hit song from the 40's?!



Tommy Dorsey was the first to perform it, and it was a hit for both the Andrews Sisters and Ella Fitzgerald within the next few years.  So the next time you complain about too many covers or too much sampling in today's pop music, don't forget that back in that day, it wasn't uncommon for the exact same song (maybe with a different arrangement) to be re-released several times within a few years' time.

If I had to guess where my grandpa really adopted the term, it was probably from an old Andy Griffith Show episode, as Otis the town drunk apparently used to sing it over and over.  So this must be where I inherited my habit of having 50% of everything I say come from TV and movie dialogue.

Lookwell

Back in 1990, Conan O'Brien and Robert Smigel co-created a TV series called "Lookwell," starring Adam West as a washed-up actor who takes his old role as a TV detective too seriously and begins to investigate (a.k.a. meddle in) actual crimes.

Now, if I told you this exact same premise was being used by a new show coming on the air today, you'd clearly watch, right?  This is the kind of thing that would be a Comedy Central staple for five seasons minimum, or easily be picked up by Netflix/Amazon/Hulu/insert your favourite streaming service here.  Unfortunately, "Lookwell" was too ahead of its time for the early 90's and the series wasn't picked up, but the original pilot did indeed come to light so we can enjoy at least one episode of this could've-been-classic series.
 
One wonders what would've happened if "Lookwell" had actually been picked up and run for even a season or two.  Perhaps Conan would've focused on this show and not continued to write for SNL, or never written for the Simpsons, or never become the host of Late Night.  Comedy history would've been irrevocably changed had perhaps just one more network executive been on board with watching Adam West wear the hell out of those mock turtlenecks.

Departure Suite

It's technically Thanksgiving and all, but October 14 is also the day of the Sudden Departure, so....bit of a downer.

btw, most beautiful musical score in TV history?  It's got my vote.

NBA Predictions

Hey, the Raptors are the reigning NBA champions!  Isn't it wild that that actually happened?  Turns out that the Raptors' win didn't cause the universe to collapse into itself, so they're going to go ahead and have another NBA season this year, and thus I have to make a new set of picks.

*obligatory "the conferences are absurdly lopsided, the West is ten times better than the East" comment*

I will say, this is the first time in ages (ever?) when I've actually had to put some thought into NBA predictions.  The league is so often ruled by a superteam that it's been very easy to just phone in a provisional pick of the Warriors, Spurs, Heat, or Lakers for the better part of the last two decades.  This season?  At least a half-dozen teams look like potential title contenders.  So into this brave new world, I'll go out on a limb and choose....the team who had the best record last season.

(stars indicate wild card teams)

Pacific: Clippers, Warriors*, Lakers*, Kings, Suns
Northwest: Nuggets, Trail Blazers*, Jazz*, Thunder, Timberwolves
Southwest: Rockets, Spurs*, Pelicans, Mavericks, Grizzlies

Central: Bucks, Pacers*, Pistons, Bulls, Cavaliers
Atlantic: 76ers, Celtics*, Raptors*, Nets*, Knicks 
Southeast: Heat, Hawks*, Magic, Wizards, Hornets

West finals: Trail Blazers over Clippers
East finals: Bucks over 76ers

NBA finals: Bucks over Trail Blazers in six games

I Know What I'm Doing

Folks, I'm sure you read this blog week after week and think to yourself, "wow, Mark is just the coolest, most with-it guys there is."  And while you're correct, even a perfectly wound clock is wrong twice a day....wait, that's not how that goes....ok, maybe I'm wrong three times a day.

The first two errors, a.k.a. examples of the ongoing cloud of stupidity that hangs over my head at all times, took place last week.  I was making dinner one night and cooked up some rice using my legendary recipe.  First, I pour a cup into a bowl.  Then, I pour a cup of water into the bowl.  Then, I put the covered bowl into the microwave for five minutes to cook, and then leave it in there for five minutes longer to let the water entirely soak in.  (Why the good people at Michelin haven't seen fit to award me at least one star is anyone's guess.)  So for this latest meal, I prepared my usual routine, and after ten minutes I headed downstairs to the kitchen....only to discover that I had forgotten the water.  So it was just a bowl of very hot, uncooked rice on my hands.

No matter, this was just ten wasted minutes of my life.  The second error was a bit more bothersome.

It involved doing the laundry, and as per routine, I simply dumped my clothes into the washer and headed upstairs to wait out the wash cycle.  (There isn't a Michelin Guide for laundering clothes, as far as I know, though I will modestly admit that my technique isn't anything special.)  After an hour, I went downstairs to move my clothes into the dryer.....only to realize that my clothes were *already* in the dryer.  Yes, that's right.  I'd dumped a load of dirty clothes into the dryer, tossed in a batch of Tide powder, and then walked away like a dope.

On the bright side, at least it wasn't liquid detergent.  That would've caused a much bigger problem than my actual, still-annoying problem, of having powder all over the place.  Well, it was nothing a quick once-over with the vacuum cleaner couldn't fix, and the only lasting damage was to my pride.

And now you know the truth, folks.  Your humble narrator isn't perfect.  It must be a hard thing to realize after all these many years, but look on the bright side.  At least you didn't spend ten minutes of your life vacuuming out a laundry dryer.

Diner Lobster

SNL just made a new batch of their old sketches (well, "old" as in a couple of years old) on YouTube available to international viewers, and the list of material includes....DINER LOBSTER.  One of the true laugh-out-loud, instant classic, "what the hell is going on?" sketches of in recent SNL history.

NHL Predictions

Hark!  A new hockey season is upon us!  Now that the Blues and Capitals have each ended their long Stanley Cup droughts, could another team be next?  Say, a team from Toronto? 

"Oh, did the Marlies get promoted to the NHL?"

Quiet, you.

CENTRAL DIVISION: Avalanche, Predators, Jets, Blues*, Stars*, Wild, Blackhawks

PACIFIC DIVISION: Golden Knights, Flames, Sharks, Coyotes, Oilers, Kings, Ducks, Canucks

ATLANTIC DIVISION: Maple Leafs, Lightning, Bruins, Panthers*, Canadiens, Sabres, Red Wings, Senators

METROPOLITAN DIVISION: Capitals, Hurricanes, Devils, Penguins*, Islanders, Flyers, Blue Jackets, Rangers

(the stars indicate the wild card teams)

Western Conference finals: Golden Knights over Jets
Eastern Conference finals: Capitals over Bruins (I'm sorry, I just can't pick the Leafs until it actually happens)

Stanley Cup finals: Golden Knights over Capitals

See, just like I said, another long-suffering franchise will finally get its first Stanley Cup.  Enjoy the title after three long years of waiting, Vegas fans!

Good Neighbor's "Toast"

The Kyle Mooney and Beck Bennett Era on SNL has been pretty entertaining, and a lot of their video material has been close to the tone of their older work as members of the "Good Neighbor" comedy troupe.  That said, none of their SNL stuff has come close to this epic, which is about three sketch ideas in one and gets increasingly mind-blowing as it goes on.  It's possible they could re-use this for the show some day but a) this is already legendary enough in its current form and b) they'd just have to shoot another video since this would be a beast (not The Beast) to shoot live.

Without A Clue

Clue makes no sense.  Most board games don't have narratives --- you're just trying to drop checkers in a row like in Connect Four, or going on a quest for self-actualization by stealing the identity of another in Guess Who, or whatever the hell Sorry was about.  Clue, however, takes things to a higher level by actually building a story around its premise and while some might admire their fortitude in board game innovation, I'm just going to write a snarky blog post about it since I'm a Guy On The Internet.

If you're going to build a narrative it should be a logical one, and here's where Clue falters.  Put yourself within the game's world: pretend you're Madam Peacock, a posh upper-class woman staying at a country manor. Suppose that your host, Mr. Boddy, ends up dead. If we go by the old-time mystery novel trope of the manor somehow being inaccessible to and from the outside world and the guests have to solve the crime themselves, then that accounts for the need to identify Boddy's killer. Obviously, if some maniac is killing people within the mansion you're all stuck within, you need to find that murderer post-haste, but other aspects of the game get a bit sticky.

For one, needing to discover the location of the murder. Now, this does make some sense within the context of the suspect search, since if Boddy was killed in the hall and someone saw Professor Plum skulking around the hall earlier, that would be an important piece of information. But though there's a storyline reason for KNOWING which room Boddy was killed in, there's less of a reason for the characters to SEARCH for this information in the first place. Again, put yourself in the position of an actual guest in this mansion who's found Boddy dead. Where did you find him? Was it in a specific room? Was he found on the stairs, a.k.a. the middle of the board? Unless there's a clear reason to guess otherwise (like, 10 trails of blood leading from the body to every room), you'd just presume that Boddy was killed whenever he was found. To think otherwise is to presume that an old lady like Madam Peacock or a svelte bombshell like Miss Scarlet was lugging a corpse around a mansion in the dead of night.

Now, the weapon. Put yourself back to the moment of discovering Boddy's, er, body. If the guests are able to discern that he's been murdered, then there should be a clear indication of that fact on his person --- after all, if Boddy was just found dead without a mark on him, the natural guess would be that he'd suffered a stroke or heart attack or something. Murder most foul wouldn't be the first conclusion. If you're able to identify that Boddy has been killed, then the weapon itself should be guessed at fairly easily. Like I said, poison isn't an option so we don't need too complex here. No ligature marks on his neck? Couldn't have been the rope. No gunshot wound? Couldn't have been the revolver. No stab wound? Couldn't have been the knife. No big ol' bump on the head? Couldn't have been the wrench, lead pipe or candlestick. This seems to be a bit of a plot hole....unless Boddy was found with ALL of these marks on him. Like, he was found hanging from a noose with a stab wound, a bullet hole and three separate gaping dints in his head. This would explain the question over how he died, though one might also assume that the actual method of murder wouldn't be weighing so heavily on the minds of the guests. If this poor Boddy was found butchered like Rasputin or Vigo the Carpathian, then it doesn't really matter WHAT method killed him, just that he's dead at all. If he was found shot, then one could think, "Hmm, Colonel Mustard is an expert marksman, he is the natural suspect" but if Boddy has all of these wounds on him and you don't have a CSI kit handy to determine the cause of death, then it's kind of a moot point.

And, finally, while it's an inevitable problem of the character process, it's always struck me as odd that one player can identify themselves as the murderer. Like, the person playing Ms. White is free to accuse Ms. White in the library with the rope or whatnot.  Within the game story, are we to assume that Ms. White's guilty conscience overcame her and she just interrupted the entire investigation to admit her crime? Maybe it was meant as a lesson for the kids who might play the game --- sometimes it's best to just come out and admit it when you've done wrong, children. No matter whether it's taking the last cookie from the kitchen jar or savagely murdering a millionaire in his country manor, it's best to just admit guilt and take your punishment. Clearly, Clue has no respect for the criminal defense system.

Most useless game pieces ever, by the way, were the actual murder weapon game pieces in Clue.  You know, when you accused someone in one of the rooms, you also had the cute little metal candlestick there, just to really bring the scene to life.  (Some poor sweatshop worker has been cranking out little metal revolvers for years, which is bound to create some psychological issues.)  There's another narrative gimmick that made no sense; why do you need the weapon present to accuse someone?  "You stabbed Mr. Boddy with THIS knife, Mr. Green!"  Why are you moving the evidence around?  Don't you know not to touch anything before the police arrive?  Mr. Green just got off on murder charges since the evidence was tampered with, you idiot.

Wedding Etiquette

For years now, one of my go-to Facebook moves has been to post the "Somebody's Getting Married" number from The Muppets Take Manhattan on the walls of soon-to-be-wed friends on their wedding day.  It seemed like a fun and fitting thing to do, plus anything that helps people remember the vastly-underrated TMTM* just seems proper.

* = I watched this movie at least 100 times as a kid, to the point that it probably influenced everything I know about New York City and/or staging plays.  Also, my cousin and her husband bear a strong resemblance to the young couple that fall in love in this movie, so maybe it influenced them as well.

Anyway, it has been mentioned to me that posting this video is a mistake, as it implies a connection between the bride-to-be and Miss Piggy.  I should note that this criticism came from a third party -- the video has never been welcomed with anything but 'likes' by the actual couples themselves, as far as I know.  Frankly, I think the criticism isn't warranted.  Firstly, my sheer laziness in posting the same video for EVERY couple should be evidence enough that I'm not making some snide sub-tweet comparison of one particular bride and some vain swine.  Secondly, I can deal out sarcastic jabs with the best of them, but I'm not the kind of monster that would bust out, "hey, you're basically a pig or a neurotic frog!" on one's wedding day.  Thirdly, who's to say that being compared to Miss Piggy is even an insult?  Pop culture icon!

I feel I'm totally in the right here. 

Poor Ross

UPDATE: There are apparently easter eggs in place for every Friends character, not just Ross.  Search at your own amusement!

Our overlords good friends at Google have come up with another clever searchable easter egg.  Google "Ross Friends" or "Ross Geller" and click the couch icon at the right side of the screen.  You can do it a few times for added mirth.

Ol' Ross has taken a beating in modern times for being....well, kind of a creepy weirdo in hindsight.  Or, a very creepy weirdo.  But, it's a testament to David Schwimmer's acting ability that it took 15-25 years for everyone to really realize that Ross was a creepy weirdo!  And, his legacy is secure, as I'm sure every person who has tried to move furniture upstairs in the last two decades has made a "PI-VOT!" joke at some point.

Top five Ross moments!

5. Fake crying, followed by "FINE BY ME!"
4. "It tastes like feet."  (The italics to signify the wonderful voice he uses)
3. Joey and Ross have great naps together
2. "PI-VOT!"
1. "Poor Ross," which isn't actually from the show, but from the blooper reels.  It's just such a perfect summation of resignation that it made me laugh like Lisa Kudrow when I first saw it.  (Also, Lisa Kudrow has maybe the best laugh ever.)

Anyway, that sums up this completely out-of-nowhere recollection of a long-ago sitcom character.  It isn't at all based on the fact that I recently completed in a Friends pub trivia night, wherein my team finished a cool 19th out of 25 teams.

One Rudd, Two Ferns

Have I already watched the Between Two Ferns movie? Yes. Did I start watching, like, ten minutes after it was uploaded to Netflix? Yup. Would I have started it even earlier, except I had to use the washroom? Absolutely.

Blinded By The Light

I mean, was there any doubt I’d go see Blinded By The Light?  Would any true Bruce Springsteen fan possibly skip this movie?  Some observations…

* first things first, the title is very helpful in establishing to people that “Blinded By The Light” is actually a Bruce song, not a Manfred Mann song.  I guess I can understand the confusion, though the fact that Springsteen is a bigger star than Manfred Mann by multiples of 1000, you’d think it would be a more widely-known fact.

* Javed’s new-wavey friend Matt?  Played by none other than King Tommen Baratheon himself!  He survived that fall off the balcony just in time for the fall of late-80’s synth pop.  It’s probably for the best that we never actually got any scenes of Matt’s band in action, since that would’ve tipped the scales into outright comedy.

* okay, so my main source of confusion with the film, and perhaps those more well-versed in British music culture can let me know about this.  Javed’s Springsteen fandom is seen by many as something of an anachronism, with the Boss representing “old” or outdated music that only someone like Matt’s manchild father (oh man did I laugh when I realized it was Rob Brydon) would still be into.  But…..the movie is set in 1987.  “Born In The USA” had been released just three years earlier, to monster worldwide acclaim.  Even the Born in the USA tour ended not even two years prior to when the film is set, a tour that included no less than six big shows in the U.K. itself.  And “Tunnel Of Love” was released in 1987 itself.  Hell, that album even had a bunch of synths, Matt would’ve been enthralled!

I guess my point is that it seems odd that Javed and Roops are seemingly the only two young Springsteen fans at their school, nay, in the whole movie.  It’s even played for laughs that Javed rushes to the HMV to get concert tickets***, only to learn that he’s the first one to even ask.  Wasn’t Springsteen still a big deal in the U.K. in 1987?  I’m not even sure what the modern equivalent would be, given today’s fractured musical climate, but in terms of a huge-selling modern act who is perceived as appealing more to older audiences….maybe Adele?  But if you made a movie set in 2019 about a teen who finds inspiration in Adele’s music, would their classmates be all “Adele?  Who?”  or “Adele?  She’s nobody!”

*** = man, did this ever bring back some memories.  “Standing in line at a record store the day tour tickets go on sale” is one of those definite generation gap moments that young people today simply have no concept about.

* anyway, quibble with the premise aside, I guess it did relate to the general idea of how music can make you feel like a band is singing to you, and you alone.  The film is entertaining and a good watch, if a tad cheesy and predictable in spots.  Probably could’ve done without the goofiness of Javed actually dressing himself up like Springsteen, as if a teenager would ever do something absurd like dressing as one of their pop idols in real life!  On a totally unrelated note, we just recently passed the 20-year anniversary of my wearing large fly sunglasses throughout much of the 12th grade in order to emulate Bono.

* needless to say, this movie is full of great music.  Acoustic “Promised Land”?  Hell yes.

Delusional Merch

Standing in line at the grocery store today, I noticed the guy in front of me wearing a commemorative t-shirt about the Minnesota Timberwolves' 2017 NBA championship.

Wait, what?  The Warriors won the title in 2017.  The T-Wolves went, as records indicate, 31-51 and missed the playoffs entirely.

I took a closer look just to make sure I wasn't reading things incorrectly, and as one tends to notice when someone is staring at you, he caught my glance and chuckled.

"Cool shirt, huh?"
"I'll say.  I must've missed that NBA Finals."
"I'm a T-Wolves fan.  I figured since they'll never win, hey, might as well get a shirt!"

As a fan of truth, logic, and universal order, his attitude is shocking.  But as a fan of random nonsense....it's kind of amazing.  He gets to walk around proudly repping his team as if they were the ones who, say, drafted Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, or Draymond Green*, and then ridden that core into becoming a modern sports dynasty.  The majority of people will just walk by and not take a second glance at his t-shirt, yet those that do will laugh at the absurdity.  It's the perfect conversation-starter of a garment.

* = fun fact!  The T-Wolves had both the fifth and sixth overall picks in the 2009 NBA Draft, and addressed their dire need for a point guard by doubling up at the position, taking Ricky Rubio and Jonny Flynn.  The Warriors, picking seventh, took Curry.  Oof.  Minnesota had the #2 pick in 2011, Thompson's draft year, but took Derrick Williams, long before Klay came off the board with the 11th pick.  Double oof.  It looks like the Timberwolves dealt their pick in the 2012 draft so they couldn't even get any chance of Green before he went in Golden State in the second round.  Oof x3

This takes the old idea of a crossover sports jersey (i.e. a Tom Brady Red Sox jersey, or a Sidney Crosby Steelers jersey) to the nth degree.  This is creating a complete alternate reality of events.  It's so crazy it just might work.

Hot! Live! Music!

Postmodern Jukebox w/Rogelio Douglas Jr., "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"

Man, it took PMJ long enough to finally get around to a U2 song.  You know, after years of including Postmodern Jukebox videos in Hot! Live! Music! posts,  it occurs to me that they aren't exactly live -- I mean, they're all taking place in a studio.  Have I been undermining my own post gimmick without knowing it?  Looks like I still haven't found the post gimmick I'm looking for.

Bruce Springsteen, "Ramrod"

Aha, now here's a live song.  It's at a concert, there are people there, it says "live" right there in the YouTube video title.  Also, if "Hot Live Music" had a dictionary entry, I'm pretty sure there would just a picture of the Boss.

David Byrne and St. Vincent, "Road To Nowhere"

I might need to see some DNA evidence before I believe that St. Vincent isn't actually Byrne's daughter.  Though it's actually cooler in real life that they were both like, "hey, we're so clearly cut from the same weird musical cloth, we should tour and make albums together."  It is a drastic oversight that I don't have their album.

The Killers, "When You Were Young"

I'm probably a little late to the party on this considering the building is almost 150 years old, but man, the Royal Albert Hall seems like a great venue.

NFL Predictions

Well why not, let’s double down on this nonsense.

NFC East: Dallas, Philadelphia, Washington, New York
NFC West: Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco, Arizona
NFC North: Green Bay, Chicago, Minnesota, Detroit
NFC South: Atlanta, New Orleans, Carolina, Tampa Bay
NFC wild cards: Seahawks, Saints

I’m only very hesitantly omitting Carolina because if Cam Newton’s shoulders are ok, I think they’ll win the division.  There’s just too much injury uncertainty for me to make that prediction, however, and we all know that my picks are always based on airtight factual analysis.  For instance, I’m picking against teams like the Rams, Bears, Saints, and Eagles for the not-at-all-nebulous reasoning of “it just seems like they missed their chance.”  L.A. and the Saints still make the playoffs on pure talent alone, but I don’t think either have what it takes to get over the hump.  Minnesota will never win as long as Cousins is their QB, and the Cowboys can win their sorry division but can’t go further as long as their coaching staff is such a trainwreck.  Which opens the door for the Packers!

AFC East: New England, New York, Buffalo, Miami
AFC West: Kansas City, Los Angeles, Denver, Oakland
AFC North: Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cincinnati
AFC South: Houston, Jacksonville, Indianapolis, Tennessee
AFC wild cards: Steelers, Browns

Part of me feels the Browns are absolutely this year’s overhyped preseason favourite who lays an egg, except since I already have punditry darlings like the Eagles, Chargers, Bears, Vikings, and Panthers missing out, Cleveland might as well get in.  Besides, the Browns were my dad’s favourite team growing up, and since his old football jersey number was 54 and this year will mark Super Bowl 54….I’m not saying there’s karma, but there’s karma.  Anyway, the AFC is even trickier to figure than the NFC, since I could certainly see a case for almost any of these teams (minus the Dolphins, Raiders, and probably Bengals) to make the postseason.  But amidst this uncertainty, the boring old Patriots will win again.

NFC championship game: Packers over Rams
AFC championship game: Patriots over Chiefs

Super Bowl 54: Packers over Patriots

Yeah, why not.  The Aaron Rodgers roaring rampage of spite takes everyone by storm, as the Packers actually resemble a team with a playbook from this decade.  It ends with Rodgers hoisting a Super Bowl trophy while Mike McCarthy watches from the breakroom of the gas station he is now managing. 

Are The Packers Going To Win The Super Bowl?

Just throwing it out there.

As you know, I’m not one to make bold pronouncements about my favourite NFL team.  If anything, I’ve tended to be a little pessimistic about the Packers’ chances since they have long had to weigh the genius of Aaron Rodgers against the mediocrity of Mike McCarthy.  It was an eternal Spy vs. Spy that, aside from the glorious Super Bowl 45, saw the evil side win out far too often.

But my optimism about this year’s Packers team stems from the simple fact that now, Rodgers is finally free.  Here’s the thing about Matt LaFleur — he doesn’t need to be a great head coach.  He might not even need to be a good head coach.  Just average would represent such a seismic jump over the McCarthy years that it might be enough to get the Packers not just into the playoffs, but possibly even into title contention once again.

It seems like much of the national media is still overlooking just how bad McCarthy was, in favour of taking potshots at Rodgers for being “difficult” (i.e. an NFL player with an actual personality, and who doesn’t have much time for the media) or a “coach-killer” (McCarthy was there for 13 years, oh yeah, it was a real revolving door).  Naturally, there will be some adjustment time as Rodgers and LaFleur get used to each other, as you’d expect for any player with his first new coach in 13 seasons.  The “disputes” that come up between them thus far have, in my mind, been wholly overblown.

As always, if Aaron Rodgers is healthy, the sky is the limit for the Packers.  Staying healthy is no small feat for a 35-year-old QB with a significant injury history, yet I think everyone is underestimating just how much Rodgers will go into this season running on pure spite.  You don’t think he eagerly wants to have a huge year and make it clear that McCarthy was the problem?  You don’t think Rodgers will be fired up by not running a 2009 offense anymore? 

There are a lot of good teams in the NFC, so a trip to the Super Bowl won’t be easy.  But be warned — you know how every NFL season features at least one team who comes out of nowhere to be a major contender?  Look no further than Green Bay.

Survivor vs. The Office

As both a Survivor fan and an Office fan, this couldn't be any more up my alley.

Brad Vs. Leo, Redux

After my recent post comparing the careers of Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio, the subject of "who's actually the better actor?" got me thinking more.  Here's my list of the best 12 performances from each man, and note that I'm only focusing on their specific performance, not how good or bad the movie was as a whole.

PITT'S TWELVE
12. Fight Club
11. Babel
10. Inglourious Basterds
9. The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford
8. Seven
7. The Tree Of Life
6. True Romance
5. Ocean’s 11 (and somewhat by extension, Ocean’s 12 and Ocean’s 13)
4. Snatch
3. Moneyball
2. Once Upon A Time In Hollywood
1. Burn After Reading

DICAPRIO'S DOZEN
12. Romeo + Juliet
11. The Revenant
10. The Great Gatsby
9. Inception
8. What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?
7. The Departed
6. The Aviator
5. Once Upon A Time In Hollywood
4. J. Edgar
3. Titanic
2. Catch Me If You Can
1. The Wolf Of Wall Street 

It's an interesting list for both guys, one that might make you think twice a bit about the general feeling that DiCaprio is a better actor.  I think part of that feeling is due to the fact that Leo simply makes fewer movies, so whenever he appears in a film, it feels like more of an event.  Pitt is more apt to sign on for a pure box office hit like World War Z, Troy, Mr. And Mrs. Smith, etc., and those types of films drag down his overall batting average.

The flip side of that, as I alluded to in my last post, is that DiCaprio's interest in taking challenging acting roles every time out also leads to some misses from a pure miscasting standpoint.  I don't think he was really a fit for Gangs Of New York, Blood Diamond, or (this is kind of a hot take) Django Unchained, to name a few.  Pitt has more than few roles where he's sort of just "there" as opposed to being a real key factor in a movie being better, but I also can't think of any instance off the top of my head where I left a theatre thinking "wow, they really should've cast someone besides Brad Pitt."

So when it comes to acting range, Pitt usually stays in "variations on the same laconic persona," as I wrote last time.  But does he have less range than DiCaprio?  It's hard to say.  Maybe it's just because he still has something of a baby face, but I still have issues buying DiCaprio in any type of real
"grownup" parts, even though he's now 44 years old.  It probably isn't accidental that most of his best work is when he's playing a young guy, or at least an adult in something of a state of arrested development.  Even though he has played older versions of J. Edgar Hoover and Howard Hughes, OUATIH's Rick Dalton might be the first DiCaprio character to really deal with the idea of middle age, or moving from a prime into older age, even though Rick Dalton is very much still a man-child.

Pitt has the advantage of being 11 years older than DiCaprio (side note: can you believe Brad Pitt is 55 years old?  Where does the time go), though the age gap notwithstanding, it's always been easier to buy Pitt in more adult parts, like when he's playing a dad, or an authority figure.  Cliff Booth in OUATIH is also a man-child in many ways, but there's more of an accent on the "man," whereas Rick Dalton leads more towards "child."   In that same vein, Pitt is much more easily able to play a believably tough guy (if not necessarily a "can go toe-to-toe with Bruce Lee" tough guy), whereas DiCaprio is not.

Here's an interesting experiment --- how many of those 12 Pitt roles could Leo have played, and how many of those 12 Brad roles could Leo have played?  We're accounting for age here, so magically pretend you could send 31-year-old DiCaprio back in time to be in Seven, rather than have have the 20-year-old DiCaprio of 1995 as Morgan Freeman's partner.

Leo As Brad
* Hard no: Tree Of Life, Snatch, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood
* Wouldn't have seemed quite right: Moneyball, Inglourious Basterds, Babel, Ocean's 11, The Assassination Of...
* Maybe?: Burn After Reading, True Romance (These are two wild cards since we've seen so little of DiCaprio in flat-out comedic roles.  It would be really interesting to see DiCaprio throw everyone a total curveball and just decide to be a dopey bro in a film.)
* Would've worked: Seven, Fight Club

Brad As Leo
* Hard no: Romeo + Juliet
* Wouldn't have seemed quite right: Titanic, Aviator, J. Edgar
* Maybe?: What's Eating Gilbert Grape, The Departed, Catch Me If You Can, Wolf Of Wall Street
* Would've worked: Inception, Great Gatsby, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood
* Would've been better: Revenant

The age gap is also a factor here, given that Brad Pitt didn't start to really become a star until he was 30, so we have no real conception about what a teenage Brad Pitt was like as an actor, let alone if he could've handled a difficult role as DiCaprio did in WEGG.  We even have to stretch to imagine a 23-year-old Pitt as Jack Dawson, wooing Rose on the deck of the Titanic.  On paper, however, I can see Pitt in DiCaprio's filmography much more cleanly than I see Leo in Brad's roles, since I think DiCaprio would've only really excelled in the "young Pitt" era of Seven and Fight Club.

It's also interesting to think about them in the direct contrast of their Once Upon A Time In Hollywood roles.  There's no way DiCaprio could've been Cliff Booth, but I can very easily see Pitt as Rick Dalton.

Oh No

So I had an idea for a post about a list of songs that aren't really "songs" in the way we think of them, as they've been so co-opted for use in various shows, movies, commercials, etc. that they've become a jokey reference point.  For instance, every time I hear "Bad To The Bone," I don't think of anyone who's actually bad to the bone --- it's just grandmothers in leather jackets, or a baby in sunglasses or something.

One of the songs under consideration for the list was "Day Day Bow" "Oh Yeah" by Yello.  I'm sure almost everyone alive has heard this song, either from Ferris Bueller, or any other scene involving something being considered cool but in an ironic uncool way.  And it occurred to me, I didn't actually know the song's title, the band's name, and I hadn't even ever actually listened to the entire song start to finish.  So I surfed onto YouTube, looked up the original music video, and...

....dear god



Was I prepared for a video ostensibly about sun and moon worship starring, by all appearances, golf star Miguel Angel Jimenez, some guy who's a combination of four notable comedians*, and (*Stefon voice*) A CHILD?  No.  No, I was not.

* = depending on the angle, this guy looked like some mixture of Rob Delaney, John Mulaney, Paul F. Tompkins, and Jay Johnstone.

Is it amazing that this song (which has been used a thousand times over as an ironic musical shorthand for excess) has an official video that was apparently made on a budget of about $30 bucks?  Absolutely.  Is it amazing that these two weirdos made an intentionally goofy song, then an intentionally goofy video, and yet have made an unreal amount of money from this track over the years?  Positively.  Is it amazing that this video may have spawned everything in the history of Adult Swim?  Surely.

Two questions.  Is the sun, in fact, more beautiful than the moon?  And where is Duffman in all of this?

Leo Vs. Brad

After watching "Once Upon A Time In Hollywood," I got the idea of pitting (no pun intended) DiCaprio's 10 best movies against Pitt's 10 best movies to see whose best work stacks up better.  The results....were unexpected.

LEO’S TEN
10. The Revenant
9. The Aviator
8. What’s Eating Gilbert Grape
7. Django Unchained
6. The Wolf Of Wall Street (this gets my vote as his best performance)
5. Titanic
4. Once Upon A Time In Hollywood
3. The Departed
2. Catch Me If You Can
1. Inception

BRAD’S TEN (I didn’t include Being John Malkovich since he only had a cameo)
10. True Romance
9. Seven
8. The Big Short
7. Moneyball
6. Burn After Reading (this is Pitt’s best performance, and if wasn’t for Dark Knight also being released in 2008, I’d say Pitt was robbed of a supporting actor Oscar)
5. Snatch
4. 12 Years A Slave
3. Once Upon A Time In Hollywood
2. Ocean’s 11
1. Inglourious Basterds

So right off the bat, I found myself reaching to fill out a list for DiCaprio, since Aviator and Revenant have both not aged particularly well for me.  Now, I haven’t seen a few of the quintessential early Leo works (Basketball Diaries, This Boy’s Life, even Marvin’s Room) but a lot of his later work is pretty dodgy.  Revolutionary Road, Shutter Island, Great Gatsby, Gangs Of New York….all varying degrees of messes.  I’ll throw in a mention of J. Edgar as well, since while that movie was also nothing special, it’s actually one of DiCaprio’s most underrated performances.  Hell, it even won him a Markademy Award back in 2011!

In Pitt’s case, I had a few honourable mentions at least (Megamind, Fury, even Ocean’s 13) and Thelma & Louise is the most notable of my “never seen it” Pitt movies.  But you’ll also notice a lot of Brad’s most notable films aren’t here, since I’m in the camp that thinks stuff like Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford, Fight Club, Benjamin Button, Babel, and Tree Of Life all fall into that range of dull to pretentious garbage.  Unfortunately for Pitt, I can’t count his producer-only credits, since his list perks up considerably if Moonlight and The Departed join the fray.

It creates for an interesting parallel between the two guys, who both have a reputation of generally striking to more prestige-type stuff, though Pitt works a lot more and is more open to commercial stuff.  DiCaprio also has the reputation as the better actor, but….hmm, let’s think about it?  I think he has more range than Pitt, but I can also off the top of my head think of several roles that DiCaprio simply kind of whiffed on.  The buzz on Django for months was that DiCaprio was going to knock it out of the park and win a supporting actor Oscar, but then his cartoonishly evil racist was more or less blown away by Samuel L. Jackson’s much more fascinating role and performance (now there was a case of someone being robbed of an Oscar).  Likewise, in Gangs Of New York, I realize that acting against Day-Lewis is a tall order, but DiCaprio just looks out of his league.

Pitt is more content to stay in his lane when it comes to acting, mostly sticking to variations on the same laconic persona.  One big point that Pitt has over DiCaprio, however, is that Pitt is an underrated comic actor.  DiCaprio doesn’t do comedy in general, give or take that incredible quaaludes scene in WoWS and some sections of Once Upon A Time…, whereas I think being funny is Pitt’s best strength.

Anyway, stay tuned for when I watch Murder Mystery, for the comparisons of Jennifer Aniston’s movie career against Adam Sandler’s movie career.  The results will shock and amaze you!

Great Caesar's Ghost

If you're Julius Caesar, which would you prefer to be named after you --- a caesar salad, a caesar cocktail or a caesarean section?

I'd guess it's probably the salad. A Caesar cocktail is perhaps better known as a 'bloody Caesar,' which would no doubt bring back unpleasant memories for the ol' Roman dictator. And surely there's blood involved in a C-section....or wait, maybe there's not, if the doctor is doing it right. I really have no idea. I spent most of grade school health class passed out.

Now, fun fact, the caesar salad isn't actually named after Julius Caesar. It was allegedly invented by a San Diego restauranteur named Caesar Cardini, so I guess you could argue that it isn't a tribute to old orange Julius himself. Oh schisse, wait, is Orange Julius named after Julius Caesar?!?! Nope, never mind. All things being equal, he'd probably appreciate Shakespeare's play as the biggest existing tribute, once it was explained to him who Shakespeare was, and once Caesar got over his snobby "well, Terence was better" attitude.

Given the twin legacies of Caesar Cardini and Julius Freed, someone really needs to create an orange-heavy salad called the Cardini Freed.

Brushes With Greatness?

I'm standing in line at a pizza place the other day, and I'm behind a guy who I thought was one of the guys from Sloan. It might not have been him, though, since he didn't react at all when I started humming 'Money City Maniacs' (minus the opening siren part, of course -- that would've been just weird to hear some dude start making a siren noise out of nowhere when all you want is a delicious slice of pizza pie). 

While in line at that same pizza place, I was also behind a guy who was continually flipping a coin.  I only saw him from the side, so it's quite possible he was indeed Two-Face.  Then again, Two-Face is a fictional character, so I have my doubts.

Sentience

My parents recently bought a new fridge, one that (unbeknownest to me) beeps when the door is left open for too long. 

Tonight, I was getting some milk and putting a new bag into the plastic container,  only to have this easy task extended by the fact that the kitchen scissors --- for the cutting the bag open, you see --- weren't in the proper drawer.  So while I was looking for the scissors, the door was left ajar just a bit too long, and suddenly I heard a beep.

My response?  "FRIDGE, YOU CAN TALK!"

Anyway, we're starting a podcast.

Spidey Day

Why did nobody tell me that yesterday was National Spider-Man Day?  I blame you for this!  "No, you're to blame!"

Anyway, happy....uh, day to my childhood comics hero!  And maybe still kind of my hero?  Far From Home was a terrific movie.