Happy Thanksgiving!

Now everybody from the 313
Put your muthafuckin' hands up and follow me
Everybody from the 313
Put your muthafuckin' hands up
Look Look

Now while he tries to stand tough
Notice that this man did not have his hands up
This Free World's got you gassed up
Now who's afraid of the Big Bad Wolf
1, 2, 3 and to the 4
1 Pac, 2 Pac, 3 Pac, 4
4 Pac, 3 Pac, 2 Pac, 1
You're Pac, He's Pac, No Pac, None!
This guy ain't no muthafuckin' MC
I know everything he's got to say against me
I am white
I am a fuckin' bum
I do live in a trailer with my mom
My boy Future is an Uncle Tom
I do got a dumb friend named Cheddar Bob
Who shoots himself in the leg with his own gun
I did get jumped by all 6 of you chumps
And Wink did fuck my girl
I'm still standin' here screamin' fuck the free world!!
Don't ever try to judge me dude
You don't know what the fuck i've been through
But i know something about you
You went to Cranbrook that's a private school
What's the matter dawg? You embarrassed?
This guy's a gangsta, his real name's Clarence
And Clarence lives at home with both parents
And Clarence's parents have a real good marriage
This guy don't wanna battle he shook
Cuz there ain't no such thang as HALF WAY CROOKS!!
He's scared to death
He's scared to look in his fuckin' yearbook
Fuck Cranbrook

Fuck the beat I go acapella
Fuck a Papa Doc, fuck a clock, fuck a trailer, fuck everybody
Fuck y'all if you doubt me
I'm a piece of fucking white trash, I say it proudly
And fuck this battle
I don't wanna win
I'm outty
Here tell these people somethin' they don't know about me

Guess what I watched tonight.

Stallone was just as good of a writer as Woody Allen

The scene in "Rocky" with Adrian skating and Rocky jogging along side her on the ice is perfect. "Rocky" is close to perfect. It's sad and realistic and hopeful and quiet and a beautiful love story and gives hope to everybody that has ever felt like an underdog. I need to watch "Rocky" more.

"I gotta go too. I gotta go to the bathroom."

I bet Rocky and the Blues Brothers would have gotten along.

One of the best 08 films

99. "Be Kind Rewind"
I'm not sure why this movie was not a hit, or at least seen by more people. It's great. It's whimsical and child-like and hopeful and inventive. It's like Gondry's other film "Eternal Sunshine" but happy. What's wrong with happy?

Jack Black accidentally demagnetizes all the VHS tapes in Danny Glover's store. Mos Def, Danny Glover's employee and Black make their versions of the erased films. They become a hit. Chaos ensues. It's great.

The film doesn't have a happy ending. In fact, it doesn't really have an ending and it's a better film because of that. I don't want to give anything away, so see it and we'll talk about it.

If you don't like the following, you shouldn't see the film.

It was around

47. Al Franken "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right"
Yes, I knew exactly what this book would be about and nothing in it would change my outlook, but I figured that since the man is running for Senate I should read it. It was funny in parts, which is good, really, it is.

I liked "What's the Matter with Kansas" more, but whatever. Franken was writing in broad strokes.

I guess you should read it if you're in high school or something. I'm not sure who the target audience for this type of book. I guess whoever bought "Bush's Brain" or someone who lived in a cave since 1998.

Why would anyone want to make or see this movie?

98. "Entrapment"
It's the one where Catherine Zeta Jones slowly manuevers around the lazers in the museum. The one with the butt shot. It's not good. It's really predictable and a lot of Sean Connery's lines are laughable, like, "Time for another adventure."

I have to stop watching bad films before working at the Brain. Just because it's on and I'm eating dinner doesn't mean I should sit through it.

In a time before youtube

46. Billy Frolick "What I Really Want to Do Is Direct: Seven Film School Graduates Go to Hollywood"
My mother bought me this book while I was in junior high. She knew I wanted to direct films. I told her I only wanted to direct films that I wrote and the seven people in this book wanted to direct films written by them or anyone else and I didn't care to move to Hollywood. If Kevin Smith could make a film for under $30,000, why would I want to go to film school for $30,000 a year? I could make my own. I still kind of feel that way. Due to advances in cameras and editing technology, you can make a film for less than $30,000 and have it look good. Look at something like "Conversations with Other Women," a film shot in 12 days and edited on Final Cut Pro. I'd rather make a film like that than try to get into a studio system. I'm missing the point. The book isn't about that and doesn't say it is. It's about seven film school graduates from the early 1990s trying to break in in the mid 90s.

The seven graduates have different goals. One aspires to direct animated features. One does documentaries. One wants to focus on women's issues. One on gay issues. It seems that Frolick got one stereotypical film student from each different film school stereotype and tracked them for three years. It's difficult to care about any of them. All of them fail in one way or another. They all learn the lesson that Hollywood is a hard luck town and blah blah blah.

Yes we can

97. "Christmas on Mars"
I've been waiting to see this film since I heard about in 2003. Five years later, it has been released on DVD. I probably like it more that I had to wait.

The film is similar to the work of Ed Wood. It doesn't make much sense, the dialogue is extremely spares, most of the actors aren't professionals and it's obvious that we're in Oklahoma and not on Mars. So what? It's a film and supposed to be entertaining. It kind of is. It does drag. It's easy to lose track of what's going on. The black and white film doesn't help much either. So what? (As you can see, I really want to like this film) The cinematography is quite good and the B&W film makes 'space' seem colder. Like most B films, there is a lot of room for improvement.

The film was shot between 02 and 05. In that time period the lead actor, Lips multi-instrumentalist Steven Drozd was on and off heroin. It's clear that in some shots he's using. His weight easily fluctuates 20 pounds. Knowing this made the film easier to like. Coyne and Co. obviously had to work through this with their friend. They obviously made this as a labor of love. It's much easier to appreciate it when you know about the struggle.

The score can be deafening. It's wonderful, especially when it wanders into "Transmissions from the Satellite Heart" type stuff. The shots that use color have the same power as early Lips videos, which is a good thing.

If you are a casual B film or Sci-Fi fan, you won't dig this film. If you're a Flaming Lips devote that knows the story behind this, you will be glad you saw/bought this package. If you're in the mood to be inspired to make your own art, you can never go wrong with The Flaming Lips.

It's up

The podcast is now available for download on iTunes. Visit youmethemeverybody.com for a direct link to subscribe. If you don't want to do that, open iTunes and just search for, "you, me, them, everybody". The first five episodes are available for free download. Please do this. Please tell everyone you know. Please tell people that want to advertise in the wonderful world of podcasting.

Thanks to Kevin for the wonderful logo and site help. Thanks to Daniel for the wonderful songs.

Literal bulldog(s)

Purple Line Express

I ride the train for work. On Friday I spotted a bug. It reminded me of a Fetor demo. Here's the video.

I'd watch it again if they had a money ticker on the screen

96. "Armageddon"
Other: Brandon, haven't you seen this before?
Me: No. I avoided it when I came out in '98.
Other: So, why did you decide to watch it ten years later?
Me: I was bored at 1am.
Other: You stayed up til 1 to watch this flick?
Me: No, it started at 1. I stayed up til 4.
Other: 4am?
Me: Yea.
Other: Why?
Me: I wanted to look at money for three hours.
Other: What are you talking about?
Me: It's a Michael Bay movie. Every Bay movie looks like money.
Other: Do you know how much it cost?
Me: It cost $140 million to make and grossed over a half a billion dollars.
Other: Why do you know this?
Me: Because I know how to use a search engine.
Other: What did you think of the movie?
Me: I thought it was awful in every way.
Other: So why did you watch it?
Me: Because I couldn't stop thinking about the cast. Billy Bob Thorton got the part because of a small film he made called "Sling Blade". Ben Affleck got the part due to Kevin Smith flicks. Owen Wilson was cast because of "Bottle Rocket". It's like Michael Bay cherry picked every actor with a sliver of credibility and made them rich.
Other: But you could've came to that conclusion by looking up the cast list.
Me: You're right.
Other: Were you drinking?
Me: Not a drop of alcohol.
Other: Were you medicated?
Me: Not in any way.
Other: Suicidal?
Me: Nope.
Other: I'm confused.
Me: So am I.

Possible Bible

45. Nelson Algren "Nonconformity"
This essay is under one hundred pages. I bookmarked about half of it. Algren's writing about writing is, thus far, the best writing on writing I've ever read.

You can read this in about an hour. I took a little over two weeks. I re-read passages, recommended passages to friends and stretched out the first read as long as I possibly could.

Buy this book. It's under $3 on Amazon.

Dentistry? I can't even believe that's something that's real.

95. "The Foot Fist Way"
I think I saw my favorite comedy of 2008 (the film premiered in 2006 but was released in a few theaters by a major distributor in May of this year). Danny McBride stars as a Taekwondo instructor. He kicks ass. He swears at children. He drives a muscle car and has an awesome mustache.

It's funnier than "Napoleon Dynamite". Since it looks like said film and was also picked up by MTV Films, the comparison has been mentioned quite a bit. While "Napoleon" was a safe and awkward film, this one is raunchy and for a select audience. It reminds me of when Will Ferrell guests on Letterman and no one knows what's going on.

I love this film. I want every comedy to be like this film.

Disco Disco

94. "You Don't Mess with the Zohan"
I rented this movie because...
-I remember thinking it couldn't be as bad as it looked
-Judd Apatow co-wrote the script
-Mariah Carey shirts are funny
-It was a free rental
-I heard it dealt with the Israeli/Palestinian conflict in a funny way

It was disappointing. I knew it would be disappointing, but...There is no excuse for my behavior.

From the canon

44. F. Scott Fitzgerald "The Great Gatsby"
I haven't read this book for eleven years. I forgot most of what happened. I picked it up because a few newscasters said it was worth rereading due to the current financial crisis. I'm glad I reread this classic.

Since I first read the work I thought of Gatsby as Puffy. I no longer think so. Since reading more of Algren, I think of Gatsby/Fitzgerald in the same way I think of all great authors, someone that could never be satisfied, someone forced into writing, never able to escape it.

Reread this book. I'd like to have a friend I could talk to about books published in 1925.

Dos

93. "For a Few Dollars More"
The Man with No Name has a partner in the second installment of the trilogy. Eastwood plays more of a supporting role to the new man in black, an older gun for hire. Both characters lend to each other, making something already badass really badass.

The introduction isn't as neat as "A Fistful of Dollars" but the story is slightly more complex, there's more character development and the score by Morricone is just as good. Highly recommended.