Let the top ten lists begin!

As many people are want to do at the close of a calander year I am going to reflect on the many things that have happened over the past year and offer up my opinion on them to the best of my ability. I thought I would start with the one that will probably be the easiest to write. My Top Ten Movies of 2008. Note:This is personal I am not a critic and I KNOW there are a lot of films I didnt see this year but debate all you want..It'll be fun.
10. Cloverfield: Now you probably wont see this on many other top ten lists. Admittedly this film has a lot of flaws, one of them that it made many moviegoers motion sick. The reason I liked this film however is because of the tension it did manage to create despite its flaws. Also, the short scene on the street that evoked images of the aftermath of 9/11 while undoubtedly exploitative still manage to strike an emotional chord with me.

9. In Bruges: A highly underrated film starring Colin Farrell but then again I have a thing for quirky hitman movies (see: The Matador)

8. Son of Rambow: I loved this little British comedy about a young boy making a film after being inspired by seeing Rambo. It's a terstament to how great kids can be if you give them the room to be creative.

7. Synedoche, NY What can I say yet ANOTHER amazing performance by Phillip Setymour Hoffman and yet ANOTHER beautifully written script by Charlie Kauffman.

6.Run,Fatboy,Run Simon Pegg, Dylan Moran... need I say more? Well, while this is a little bit of a departure for Simon from things like Spaced or Shaun of the Dead, he still does a top notch job, ogh and Dylan Moran is still his same self loathing pith self we all love from Black Books. So low on the list for Simon Pegg but still worth checking out. Also, can't wait to see Pegg in Star Trek!

5. Iron Man: Good popcorn fare, definitely helped wash the bad taste out of peoples mouths concerning most of the previous superhero movies of late. The chemistry between Paltrow and Downey was great (Paltrow was hott as Pepper Potts!) A nice appetizer before the sumptuous feast that was The Dark Knight.

4. Man on Wire I never thought a documentary would be able to create the same tension as a well written thriller. This film however manages to do that. The story of what Philippe Petit did to accomplish his dangerous (and not to mention illegal) stunt is amazing.

3. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls: I don't care what people say. I KNOW the film was a little shy of the quality on expects from the franchise. I KNOW the ending was weak cause it was sooo far out. But DAMN-IT-ALL I went and saw this movie at a midnight opening wearing my fedora and y'know what? It made me really feel like a KID again, and overall that's what I think a movie like this should do. NOT that it means I'm going to cut the newer Star Wars movies any slack...those just went TOO far. I'll leave it at that however b/c I could write pages on my reasoning for cutting one slack and not the other....I'll get back to you on that someday.

2. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
It looks really well done, I'm a big fan of F. Scott Fitzgerald, and frankly because I am disappointed yet again by the release of The Time Travelers Wife being pushed back, this is the closest I will be able to get this year to a romantic time traveling story.

1. The Dark Knight See my previous review to find out how much I LOVED this film.

Flight of the Cosmic Hippo (shuffle)

I. Put your iTunes/Ruckus/Napster/etc on shuffle.
II. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
III. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS!
IV. Tag 5 friends who might enjoy doing this. Whoever wants to can do it.

1. IF SOMEONE SAYS "IS THIS OKAY" YOU SAY?
Float-Flogging Molly (Drank the rest of today away...wonder what my liver would say)

2. WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
I'm Afraid of Americans-David Bowie (Noone needs anyone they dont even just pretend)

3. WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
Minnie the Moocher- Cab Calloway (She was a real hot hoochie coocher...)

4. HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
Give it Up-LCD Soundsystem (Money it'll make you feel real good....I'm always takin more than I should)

5. WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
Black and White- Bellevue (I come home every day after school and watch old RKO cartoons)

6. WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
I will Survive- Cake (As long as I know how to love I know I'll be alive)

7. WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
Shame of the Nation- New Order (I'm all alone behind a wall of stone)

8. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR PARENTS?
The Sunscreen Song- Baz Luhrmann (Get to know your parents...you never know when they'll be gone for good)

9. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
I Wonder-Kanye West (And I wonder if you know what it means...what it means to find your dreams)

10. WHAT IS 2+2?
Microphone Chakrastones- Pheonix Orion (Pause the Apocalypse and stop the Automated Armageddon)

11. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
The Village Green Preservation Society- The Kinks (We are the best prepared preservation society, God save strawberry jam in all it different varieties)

12. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Time after Time-Miles Davis (If your lost you can look and you will find me time after time, If you fall I will catch you..I will be waiting time after time)

13. WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
A Giant Alien Force More Violent and Sick than Anything You Can Imagine- Venetian Snares

14. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
The World's Most Amazing Father- Patton Oswalt (When I have kids the most recent album I'll own: Phil Collin-No Jacket Required..You like rocknroll? This is rockin good stuff!)

15. WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Lord Raise Me Up-Matisyahu (You make my heart want to serve you and I'm bound to erupt)

16. WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
Prince Paul's Bubble Party-The Wakikis, Prince Paul (How could you two posssibly make all this noise just BLOWING BUBBLES?!)

17. WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
Disarm-Smashing Pumpkins (My love send this smile over to you...)

18. WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
The South Side Irish- The Irish Choir (And when it comes to baseball we have to favorite clubs : the Go Go White Sox and whoever plays the Cubs!)

19. WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
Batman Theme- Neal Hefti (Nana nana nana Batman!)

20. WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
Fett's Vette- MC Chris (I bounty hunt for Jabba the Hutt to finance my Vette)

21. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
Caugh, Can I Get A Witness- Public Enemy (If ya'll really like to rock the funky beats someone in the house say Hell Yeah)

22. WHAT'S THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN?
Shootdown- The Prodigy (Your Time is Running...Your Time is Running Out)

23. HOW WILL YOU DIE?
Boxing Fats Domino- DJ BC

24. DOES ANYONE LIKE YOU?
Billie Jean, My Love- ComaR (People always told me be careful what you do, don't go around breakin girls hearts)

25. IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?
Jump- Kriss Kross (Inside out its wigggity wiggity WHACK!)

26. WHAT HURTS RIGHT NOW?
See Her Pee- NOFX(What I wouldn't give to see her pee between to parked cars on a well lit street...fifth and main)

27. WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?
Flight of the Cosmic Hippo- Bela Fleck and the Flecktones

The Season of the Empty Wallet

So earlier this month began the "Season of the Empty Wallet" for myself and my fellow video game enthusiasts. It all started with the release of Dead Space which is cool and scary and if not for being one of the best games EA has released in a while would be a somewhat un-noteworthy. The however came the real drainers. First was Little Big Planet (cutest game EVAR)

Then Fallout 3 and then Resistance 2 followed one after the other after that.
That's one new game for every Tuesday in Oct. Now with 60 bucks for a new game (80 for collectors editions of Fallout and Resistance) I am TAPPED OUT, and I still have a list that i would like to get.
On my list that comes out this holiday season that i have yet to purchase or has yet to be released:
PS3
Bioshock
Rock band 2
GH:World Tour (maybe)
Mirrors Edge (maybe)
Valkyria Chronicles
Rise of the Argonauts
Heist (maybe)
Wii
De Blob
Sam and Max Season One
Animal Crossing (maybe)
Mushroom Men
Dead Rising "Chop till you drop"


So, as you can see its an expensive time to be hardcore into games. I mean this doesn't even include downloadables and whatnot. I mean I know its the holiday season and all but I'm not made out of money! Give a guy a break and spread it out a little you'll still get my entertainment dollars... Don't get me even started on not having enough time to play everything!
Anything you out there are looking forward to as far as video game entertainment is concerned?

IMUR Submission

So I've been meaning to put this up for a while I wrote a piece for my friends 'zine IMUR it should be out in a month or so I believe anyway here's what I wrote:

Fear and Collapse
By: Michael Doherty

I’m scared. There I said it, I finally got it out, and I’m not ashamed to admit it, although I find it disheartening that it is there to be admitted at all.

Now, I’ve always been a little worried about the future and whatnot as many people are wont to do. It starts with where am I going to go to college, what am I going to do for a job after I get my degree, will I ever meet that special someone? All of these of course are valid questions and legitimate and somewhat adult things to be pondering over. Lately, however I have had many more questions creeping into my already anxious mind. Things that I had neglected to even consider before now.

Before I continue, I think a little back story is in order. On Oct. 5th at about 4 o’clock in the afternoon I was taking the red line el train home as I have done many a time before. This time however I struck up a bit of a conversation with some guys on the train. Now, having just participated in a fun group event out in Lincoln Park I was in a good happy and trusting mindset. These guys unfortunately were not, and as we got closer and closer to their el stop they began getting pushier about seeing my IPod and when I refused when so far as threatening me saying that they had a gun. All in all they got away with my debit card, my cell phone and my IPod. I at least thank God that I wasn’t harmed in any way. As a result, though, my worldview is spinning.

After the attack there are so many more things that I am worried and anxious about now that I never even considered before. I used to think that the world was a heck of a lot safer than it actually is. I sort of had blinders on, and even when I saw bad stuff happen I never considered that it would happen to me or to people that I knew. That being said I’ve been through my fair share of hardship with family illnesses and other issues, but never anything so violent and immediate. Even the three block walk from my job to the Metra train is scary as hell now. I know a lot of people would agree that it is understandable that I would be worried about my personal safety after an attack like that but it feels like my fears and worries go much deeper than that.

Before the attack I was looking into getting a place of my own and I was just looking for someplace cheap and accessible. Concerns for safety have now made that process much more laborious and frankly have made the idea of living alone look quite terrifying. In addition to this I have started examining other areas of my life as a result. Everything from my health to my style to my ideals has come sharply into focus and is being questioned. Getting attacked by three thugs on the EL seems to have launched me into an existential crisis. I keep wondering what I am doing and what my purpose truly is in such a scary and terrible world. I also wonder if I am doing what I truly should be as an adult at this stage in my life or if my previous worldview has left me stunted in some way. Can I function on my own safely and wisely or am I fooling myself?

The real scary part though is that while this has happened to me the rest of the world seems to have fallen into the same type of downward spiral. I look around and I see crime on the rise because people are losing their jobs left and right. The stock market keeps plummeting because of greedy stupid bankers and stock traders, and the government as a whole is in a crisis economically. The part that scares me personally is that throughout all of this is that our government leaders have been blundering, useless, and backwards. At first I felt ok with them because they weren’t hurting me. I mean I have yet to put any money into the stock market at my young age and I see now that it would be somewhat foolish to do so any time soon. I also have yet to buy my first home, which others have told me will prove to be a good thing in the near future. This was until the problems began hitting home. Unfortunately, I’ve always had reason to have at least minor problems with our government ever since I bothered to get educated and involved in our country’s democracy. I mean let’s face it, back in 2000 when I was just turning 18 I watched our current “elected leader” cheat his way into office and steal the presidency from the man who actually won the popular vote. So, right of the bat wouldn’t that make you at least a little suspicious of the man? Fortunately, he was just another idiot and I figured by the time 2004 rolls around we’ll vote him out of office and we’ll just look back on him as a 4 year mistake and all will be right with the world. Then one Tuesday morning during my freshman year of college I was on my way to class when I was stopped in the hall by a group of people that were just staring in amazement and horror at the news reports on the television one of our professors had wheeled out into the hall from his office. It was Sept. 11th 2001 and the World Trade Center had just been attacked.
That was it; we were at war and by GOD were going to get those fuckers for trying to destroy our capitalistic freedoms! As a result Bush simply by showing his face, looking concerned and vowing to bomb the shit out of Osama Bin Laden and his cohorts had secured himself a full eight year double term as president. From then on everything you encountered was rife with scare tactics and you were “un-American” if you didn’t agree with the way the Bush administration was handling things. You didn’t want people to think you supported terrorism did you? I was conflicted by all of this and deeply saddened by the loss of lives but I wasn’t scared. I really believed that as a country (leadership aside) we were going to be able to pull ourselves out of this.

Eight years later…..

The war on terrorism has quieted down a little. It’s still going on, and we are still throwing troops into Iraq and Afghanistan, but as far as television news is considered it takes a back seat to the hole we have now dug ourselves into all on our own. All we wanted was to live what people have come to consider as the “American Dream.” One of the biggest things that is part of this dream is the ownership of a home. The American dream has always involved the acquisition of land (see: Manifest Destiny.) As a result greedy bankers saw this as a way to grow their asset base and try to make some more money giving unrealistic loans to people who would be unable in TEN lifetimes to pay them back if and when they were called in. As such banks are collapsing and we are losing our jobs and homes as collateral damage to this. Our country is collapsing because of our greed, GREED, not because we have been attacked by terrorists again, or because the war has moved on to soil, but because some bankers and stock brokers wanted MORE MONEY. The government has tried to help bail the banks out of this predicament but it is hurting on all levels of government both federal and local. As a result, many people I know are afraid that they may lose their pensions or their healthcare or worse yet their jobs all together.
We’ve gone from heehaw “let’s put a boot in [the terrorists] ass!” to getting booted out of our jobs and homes. Heck, the dollar is worth less now than ever. In trying to put this in a personal perspective I’ve been trying to figure out where I fit in this whole snafu. As a librarian I see that I play a very important role because the library is where people in these tight times are turning to get their information that they need to move on from their place in the economic crisis. Unfortunately a lot of people are turning to people like Suzy Ormond and her contemporaries. They need to keep in mind that the way these people made their money wasn’t from following the tips in their books, but from selling those books to all of you saps. Am I unnecessarily cynical? Some might say so. Me? I just think that I am dealing with all of the crap in the way I can best and to some degree that is through helping other people and trying to be optimistic. This outlook has been seriously tested as of late. I try to give people the benefit of the doubt when I can but has really become a tooth and nail world because of the economy and the general incompetency of people (both in our government and in general.) I hope I can be one of the good guys and help us as a society, in my own small way, get us out of this slump. That is where, despite the scariness factor my eyes are now open to with my robbery causing this bad economy to hit me on a scary personal level, other people are hopefully trying to go too, so that we can save ourselves from complete implosion, especially in light of this new presidential election. While I am trying to keep positive I do see that regardless of who gets elected into office, we have a lot of scary things to deal with. We have to repair our economy, we have to get our troops out of the Middle East and we have to repair the general publics trust in the government so that we can go back to living in a true happy pre 9/11 war on terror mindset. As it is the world hates us and we hate our leaders, but a lot of people are hopeful. I’d like to be but now I feel tainted because I can’t look at other people without a certain degree suspicion. Everyday I am filled with fear and dread questioning my own position in the world and looking incredulously at everyone else’s. This leads me with one overbearing thought: While I’d like to be optimistic and think that after this years election we will be able to get on a road to recovery from the place we have put ourselves in now, or am I just counting on a pipe dream that will never come to fruition? I’m scared…and the potentially bleak look on the horizon really hurts.

Here’s hoping something comes along soon to change my mind and brighten my outlook on the future…


I hope you out there like it and I'd love to hear some feedback.

Halloween, Board Games and other ephemora

Wow, this is the closest together I've had two posts in a long time. I've been thinking about a lot of different things recently that seem to go together and have also at the same time been sending my brain off in like a million different directions. First of all I'm already getting into Halloween mode. I've been watching tons of horror movies through Netflix. Most recently I've watched Catacombs which is a little lame but has its moments the ending however is awful but in a weirdly awesome way, and up next I've got American Zombie which has lots of different conflicting reviews so I'm no sure what to expect. It's along the same lines as Diary of the Dead, but I suspect Diary will hold up to be the better film still (Hey when it comes to zombies you can't beat Romero!) I've got tons of other movies on the list including the infamous Italian cannibal movies (Cannibal Holocaust, Ferox, and Jungle Holocaust) which I am finally getting around to seeing.

All of this Halloween stuff of course, coupled with the fact that I have been invited to an actual Halloween party have also gotten me thinking about my costume quite a bit. Unfortunately right now I seem to be all over the place about it. I either think up something that would be too complicated as a costume or just wouldn't work cause I am balancing the fact that I have to take public transportation dressed like this most likely. One of my first thoughts was to go as Pogo the Clown:

but I thought that might look a little odd sitting on the Brown Line in that get up, plus it might be in bad taste to go as an actual serial killer.I've also toyed around with literature related characters the biggest one being Hunter S. Thompson:







and the other being one of the characters from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:







I've got a lot of other ideas clattering around in my head but those are the top ideas right now, so...if anyone has some good ideas (that they don't think they are going to use themselves) then by all means pass them my way!

Now, the title of this post mentions board games. Where does this work in you might ask, well let me explain thank you! First of all I started following Will Wheaton on twitter and as an extension of that I also subscribed to and have been reading his blog and on his blog Will mentioned a board game called the Last Night on Earth which looks really cool I mean a zombie apocalypse board game? Heck, yes! So, I went and took a look at this on Board Game Geek and then I was looking up other horror based board games. I really think I want to get this or possibly Arkham Horror or maybe even Mall of Horror. I think it would be totally awesome to have a big complicated horror based board game to play on Halloween! I already know I'm going to have a couple of video games to play what with the release of Dead Space and with Bioshock finally coming out on the PS3. A board game however gives a person a different kind of social experience that you can't have any other way, not even playing video games multi-player (not that it matter as most GOOD horror games are single player, with the exception maybe of the forthcoming zombie shooter Left 4 Dead but I won't be able to play that as plans for a PS3 version currently don't exist.) Hopefully I'll be able to pick one of these up for Halloween...

Another thing that has been on my mind with all of the Halloween stuff coming up is music. Last halloween io downloaded an awesome mashup album called The Bride of Monster Mashup and it looks like this year they've put together another album called The Son of Monster Mashup and some Nerdcore Halloween Albums overall a good selection to go with the old Halloween standbys. Speaking of which what do you guys listen to for halloween? The classics? Death Metal? Goth Music? or something else altogether?

Heck I'm so into the Halloween spirit I'm even reading classic horror. I've started old by reading some H.P. Lovecraftand I'll work my way up to contemporary writers.

Well, thats everything I think that I wanted to cover for now... but now I have a question for any of you that might read this. I'd love to hear some of the things you are doing for or like about Halloween. I'd love for you to share stories about Halloween when you were a kid, favorite costumes and candy, any traditions that you have that are Halloween related that sort of thing. I'll be doing the same in more posts in the near future. I t would be very interesting to see what all of you readers have to say and frankly I think it would be fun to swap stories so get em goin and send them my way! That's all till next time fair readers....
Sayonara!

Musings

I've come to an overall conclusion when thinking about this blog the other day... Twitter, although I love it, has made me extremely lazy in my writing and has stifled me when i want to write something longer than 140 characters. This was mentioned on the wonderful podcast Net@Nite and as a consequence I don't feel so bad if twitter is doing the same thing to a person like Leo Laporte. It's not that there hasn't been things to talk about oh heavens no! So much gone on in the world and my life since I last wrote anything on here. First of all I finally met my friend from the interweb who had moved away to Wisconsin before we could ever hang out before, but now that she has moved back to Chicago we have hung out three times already! She is a lot of fun and I don't know if the situation is going to head anywhere at the moment, but as usual I am open and remaining hopeful, so far we have a kickin' friendship so things look good. (Although I'm not gonna push it cause that will just make things confusing and dumb.) In hanging out with her I had the opportunity to go to the Chicago Jazz Festival and see Ornette Coleman play, which I must say was amazing! The concert was great and I had an opportunity to be close with my new cute friend, what more could I ask for? :)
Our LNO this month was great. We went to Piece and had many beers and a pizza topped with mashed potatoes, bacon and jalapenos. Honestly it's a lot yummier than it may sound (although personally I think it sounds yummy!) and we had a lot of newcomers to the group who I hope all show up for Sept.!
I've been to a couple of Sox games since I last wrote in here and while I had fun but Tuesday nights game was depressing esp. since I pretty much witnessed our loss of Konerko for the rest of the season, but I wont go any further into that lest I get really mad.
Work has been good, well..it was annoying for a while because I had a broken keycard which was preventing me from being able to complete some of my many projects that I have been working on, but finally after a MONTH of not being able to get anything done I have a working keycard again! It's been good to catch up on the storage project I was working on even though the project itself kind of sucks cause it involves heavy lifting (I thought I was done with that now that I'm not a page...)
Nothing else terribly exciting has been going on, but I have reconfigured the way I use my computer at home. In an attempt to converge everything so that I am more streamlined I installed a new IM client that also checks facebook and my email! This new client is called Digsby and it it quite shiny and fancy looking. In conjunction with that I've been trying out google's new web browser Chrome. I must say... even though there are still some bugs and it doesn't have extensions yet, it IS a bit faster than Firefox, and like a hojillion times faster that IE so even though I don't have things like I.E. tab for watching netflix or my stumble button for when I am bored I still use Chrome as my main browser cause of both speed and the fact that it basically never crashes. I like it quite a bit, and in fact I'll go so far that between this and the other service I use I really am a google fanboy!
That's all that is going on in my world at the moment (Exciting! I know...) other than playing through some new games (It's gonna take me YEARS to finish Disgaea 3!) and saving up for the huge amounts I'll be spending on games next month.

Olympics

I don't have too much to say except that I wonder how many of us out there are seriously looking forward to the Olympics??? I mean seriously my favorite sports aren't even in the Olympics. What are they.. you ask? Well...
The first of course is Parkour... I mean seriously how bad ass would it be to see competitors leaping, sliding, bouncing, and tumbling through downtown Beijing or something to get a gold medal. It's nice that it's finding its way into movies and video games though:


The next sport I would want to see would be Competitive Eating: Now as many people know this sport is already international with athletes such as Kobiyashi, and how interesting would it be to vary the competition from Olympics to Olympics by basing the food around the country hosting the games? I know for one I would love to see a Dim Sum competition in Beijing.
The last sport I would really love to see in the Olympics would be Golf. Now I know that this is already possibly being considered for inclusion in the 2012 Olympics in England, and although I hate watching golf pretty much I've always had fun when I've gone out and played it.
I would also watch anything involving monkeys and pigs being athletic per the awesome animation made for BBC Sports from the geniuses behind the Gorillaz (click image for clip)

So that all being said... what sports would you want to see included in the Olympics???