bschaller at ltoa dot com
Friday, December 19, 2003

Real quick quiz
I thought this was kinda funny. Since postmodern is my least favorite word, I think it makes absolutly no sense, I decided to take this quiz. Check it out:
theory slut
You are a Theory Slut. The true elite of the
postmodernists, you collect avant-garde
Indonesian hiphop compilations and eat journal
articles for breakfast. You positively live
for theory. It really doesn't matter what
kind, as long as the words are big and the
paragraph breaks few and far between.


What kind of postmodernist are you!?
brought to you by Quizilla

I'm not a player, I just blog a lot



I thought this title would be appropriate for my first full week of blog entries. Get excited, I know I am. So last night I was attempting to do all of my Christmas shopping in one evening and get it done. I almost succeeded but I still have one more store to visit. Although I did make it to my favorite store in the whole world, Borders. I have a real problem with Borders in that I can not enter the store with out buying something, usually many somethings. Yesterday I was fairly good, I only bought two things and I saw them both right as I entered the store. The first book I bought was A Right to be Hostile a compilation of Aaron McGruder's Boondocks comic strip. I think this is one of the funniest and most socially conscience strips around. You have great lines like Huey telling an elderly white woman who calls him "cute": "I am no one's Pet Negro!" I try to read the strip everyday on Okay Player. Y'all should totally give it a shot. The second thing I was forced to buy was the January issue of Maxim. It just happened to have Michelle Branche on the cover. Now while I can not stand her music, I am secretly in love with her. Along with some really great pictures there was also some equally interesting facts in the interview that will help me get Miss Branche. I found out that apparently she has a pirate fetish! Aside from saying "Yar!" all the time, I also has a pirate for Halloween so I already have the outfit. At long last the impossible may be possible... This may also explain why Brie has such a deep hatred for her. It's ok though I know she is secretly in love with Ben Gibbard and Issac Brock...
Thursday, December 18, 2003

The obligatory Return of the King review



Last night as planned Brie, Teddy, Jean and I went and saw Return of the King. I am sure that you all will be shocked to know that it rocked. At three and a half hours long epic is almost an understatement. If you have read the book there are no suprises here. Even if you have not it is pretty easy to guess what happens. Once again the special effects are amazing and completely seamless. Gollum is totally believable as a real character. Minas Tirith is also very impressive. Much like the Matrix trilogy you have a serious ramping up effect in the LOTR trilogy. In The Fellowship of the Ring you have one troll, now you have a whole bunch of trolls. The battle for Helmsdeep was impressive but it pales in comparison to the battle of Minas Tirith. Peter Jackson has really out done himself. I liked him back in day when he was making trashy horror flicks and interesting films like Heavenly Creatures and Meet the Feebles. He really has come along way. If you live under a rock and have not seen the trailer or just want to check it out again here is the link. Hope you all enjoy it. If you have seen it let me know what you think. B

Wednesday, December 17, 2003

It's like Christmas everyday!





The best part about having a large record collection is that every now and then you look through it and find something you totally forgot about. That happened to me a couple days ago when I was flipping my copious CD collection and came across Sunny Day Real Estate's Diary. I blew the dust off it, jumped into the way-back machine, and set the dial for 1994. I was blown away when "Seven", the first track on the album, start playing. "Damn", I said to myself, "this is fucking good!" It was like Christmas, except it was 10 days early and I already owned the gift. That is why I recommend to everyone to collect as many albums as you can just so you can forget about them. Rediscovery is the best part. You liked them at one time so chances are you will like them when you find them at the bottom of a box in 2 years. However there is that rare occasion when you bust out Milli Vanilli, and completely forget about the whole scandal and how fucking bad they are, in that case it is a least a lesson relearned. So keeping in the Christmas spirit all of you should dive into you old albums and come up with something you have not listened to in ages, pop it in and enjoy. Fell free to leave me a comment and let me know what nugget of joy you have stumbled upon. Also I have to give a shout out real quick to my awesome girlfriend Brie who scored some ROTK tickets online yesterday. Way to be net savvy! I will give you all the official low-down tomorrow (spoiler-free of course). If y'all are seeing it tonight, right on. If not, too bad for you (he he). Until tomorrow keep those records spinnin'. B

Tuesday, December 16, 2003

What's funnier than a Mormon?





The answer: a closeted gay Mormon republican lawyer. Otherwise known as John Pitt, one of the main characters in HBO's Angels in America. Being an avid watcher of Sunday night drama on HBO, I have been seeing ads for this movie for about 2 months now. All I knew was that it was starring Al Pacino and about hot angels. Being a big fan of Al Pacino and angelic/demonic lore and mythology I was in. On top of that Carnival had just ended and I needed something to fill Sunday night void left behind. What I got was not what I expected. But as I have come to learn that is not always a bad thing. As it turns out Pacino is playing real life Roy Cohn. For those of you don't know, Cohn was special prosecutor for the government during the McCarthy hearings. He was Joe's right hand man. On top of that he remained a powerful figure and all around asshole in the American Right until the mid 80's when he died from AIDS. Yep another gay republican. Pacino does an amazing job that he and few others are capable of. The rest of the story revolves around Pryor Walter another gay man with AIDS and Lewis, his Jewish lover who leaves him when he finds out about Pryor's cancer. Oh yeah, the twist is that Pryor is visited by angels and is a prophet. Tony Kushner who is the gay secular Jewish agnostic writer of the play turned movie has spun a very surreal journey. The movie is worth watching just for the new theology it creates, not to mention the great plot and superb acting. The end leaves a very interesting proposition that unlike Nietzsche, God is not dead, he has just left and abandoned everything. Pryor gives a great speech about how it he returns, the angels and man should sue him for stepping out like a dead-beat dad. HBO will probably be playing this for a while. I strongly recommend checking out. It just might surprise you. B

Monday, December 15, 2003

"Ladies and gentlemen, we got 'em"


Pretty much anyone who has a TV will recognize the title of this post as the announcement that Paul Bremmer made at a press conference to announce that the US Military had finally captured Saddam Hussein. For some odd reason these words really struck me as odd, almost anticlimactic. I mean after an 8 month man hunt for the guy demonized as the most evil man on the planet and all Paul can say is "We got 'em"? I'm not quite sure if I expected us never to find him, like the much loved OBL, but I know I expected more. I know that his capture is going to be much like the cry of WMDs in the way it is going to be more of a political flag to wave than doing any actual good. Thoughts of Bush and Co. Holding a pay-per-view event where W, Dickey, Rummy, and Condie each take turns beating the Unibomber-looking Hussein with sticks or maybe stoning him death come to mind. I mean isn't that what the American people want? Isn't that why we went to war? You can say all you want about liberation, democratization, or homeland security, but I know the truth. Americans want this guy's head on stick. Maybe we have watched Die Hard one to many times or maybe we just want our typical American scapegoat. We can't catch OBL so this guy will have to do. I think that is why we hate suicide bombers so much. We want the guy to live so we can kill him. If he kills himself in the process that's cheating. All of this really is just disturbing to me, but until someone proves me wrong I am sure that this is the case. Even after Saddam's capture we had 5 more troops die so far, more to come I'm sure. With the tribunal coming up I am sure there will be more news to follow. If there is a pay-per-view event plan on a viewing party at my house. Stonings are so much more dramatic on a big screen. B


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Bloggin with Words...

1.21 Gigawatts
Proximity
Pressure Drop
Pretty Girl in the Corner
BenWa's World
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Business Casual
Tequila Mockingbird
Being Homeless
Blog for America
Boing Boing
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Gawker
Gothamist
Indiana Blogs
Information Pollution
Instapundit
Oliver Willis
Rebecca Blood
Wil Wheaton
Little. Yellow. Different.


Bloggin with Pictures...

Photoblogs Dot Org
Human Clock
Chicago Uncommon
Gaping Void
Blue Jake
[daily dose of imagery]
Chromogenic Dot Net
A Visual Notebook


Congo National Gallery

Leroy Neiman
Ralph Steadman
Salvador Dali
Edward Hopper
Dale Chihuly


In Heavy Rotation

Pernice Brothers: Yours, Mine & Ours
Air: Talkie Walkie
The Bens
Johnny Cash: Cash Unearthed
Squarepusher: Big Loada
Gomez: In Our Gun


The Screening Room

Thirteen
Mystic River
Monster
Swimming Pool
The Cooler
Big Fish


Summer Reading List

Don DeLillo: White Noise
Tony Morrison: Beloved
Jack Kerouac: On The Road
Sarah Vowell: Partly Cloudy Patriot


Radio! Radio!

NPR (try it, it's good)
Pacifica (God Damn Hippies)
RadioIO
Fresh Air
This American Life
WOXY FM Cincinatti


Fun Places to Go

Google News
Senses of Cinema
Home Star Runner
Script-O-Rama
Film Threat
Okay Player
Group Hug
Exquisite Corpse
Poetry Slam Inc.
The Criterion Collection
The Digital Bits
DVD File
The Onion
80's Cartoons
Fifty Word Fiction
Pseudodictionary


The Way-back Machine
10/12/2003 - 10/19/2003 / 10/19/2003 - 10/26/2003 / 10/26/2003 - 11/02/2003 / 11/02/2003 - 11/09/2003 / 11/09/2003 - 11/16/2003 / 11/16/2003 - 11/23/2003 / 11/30/2003 - 12/07/2003 / 12/07/2003 - 12/14/2003 / 12/14/2003 - 12/21/2003 / 12/21/2003 - 12/28/2003 / 12/28/2003 - 01/04/2004 / 01/04/2004 - 01/11/2004 / 01/11/2004 - 01/18/2004 / 01/18/2004 - 01/25/2004 / 01/25/2004 - 02/01/2004 / 02/01/2004 - 02/08/2004 / 02/08/2004 - 02/15/2004 / 02/15/2004 - 02/22/2004 / 02/22/2004 - 02/29/2004 / 02/29/2004 - 03/07/2004 / 03/07/2004 - 03/14/2004 / 03/14/2004 - 03/21/2004 / 03/21/2004 - 03/28/2004 /


Staff Art Selection...

Edward Hopper: "Rooms By The Sea"


Things To Do...

Open a Record Store
Take up Digital Photography
Take up Kayaking
Buy a Sail Boat
Start a music site better than these guys
Start a Band again...
Start a Leroy Neiman collection
Take up Yoga


My Most Recent BlogCritics Posts

Thirteen: Teen Vice in Inde Film
The Bens: 4 Track EP
Johnny Cash: Cash Unearthed
Don DeLillo's White Noise
Mystic River: A Real Contender
On The Road With Dean and Sal
Learning Modern Classics from Penguins


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