revisionist categorizing

I'm sick of how today's yout' has been relabeling our bands and musical movements.

We were not concerened with labels. If pressed by an outsider to categorize a band we would use "new music", "post punk" or "art rock" to describe them. We resisted answering the question, "what kind of musinc is this?"

I saw Fugazi listed as a "emo" band today and I wanted to puke. Also, The Cure is not a "goth" band. I dunno what a goth band is but I think Marilyn Manson might be one. And Green Day was not and never will be a punk band. Same goes for nofx.

You clueless pimple-faces can fuck off.

Elegy

Certainly not a great film but definitely a great cast and score. It was cool to see Dennis Hopper in a role where he wasn't playing a whacko. I think there ought to have been more electricity beteen Cruz and Kingsley. Both characters were a little too composed all the time. People in such relationships aren't quite so self possessed.

Some things were left unresolved, such as Kinglesy's relationship with his age-appropriate, log-term fucking girl.

Seven of ten stars.

Vera Drake

I read a raving review about this one years ago and never got to see it in a theatre. You need to see this film. Nuf said.

Harold and Kumar Escape Guantanamo

Completely awful compared to the (extremely funny) White Castle film. These guys need to stick to comedy and leave the soap box to Michael Moore. This was a big let-down for me. The only good scenes involve Neil Patrick Harris playing himself as a lunatic.

Poor Choice of Shirt

This poor fellow is going to end up in a "detention camp" for who knows how long. Hint to insurgents: don't wear shirts that proclaim your belligerent intent.

Fun with recruiters

Lately I have been allowing the recruiters a single chance to not screw up. It's the "one strike and you're out" rule. Usually they blow it by lying to me. Know how I can tell they're lying? Their lips move.

And I always assumed they send the same "job opportunity" email to 99 other addresses. Here is one example.

http://blog.reverberate.org/2008/07/17/416-random-people-with-ror-on-their-resume-reply-all-reverse-flash-mob/

An American Crime

I was not prepared for such a wrenching horror story. This film is vastly more disturbing than anything Clive Barker or the video game industry could dream up.

My HS social studies teacher told us the story of Kitty Genoves's murder in NYC. In the popular imagination Genoves' murder marked a (low) point in American history where one could argue that our American civic culture was dead. Or at least dead in Queens, New York. The story of her murder was grossly distorted by the press but it's also true nobody made sure the police came. None of the witnesses could have been sure what they saw but none of them bothered to investigate the situation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitty_Genovese

What happened under Gertude Baniszewski's roof goes way beyond the "bystander effect." Be advised this is a deeply disturbing film.