(Friends only banner by ME! Fear my drawing skills!)

There's no reason why I've become sometimes friends only, but I figured I'd be cooler if I did. Plus, I really like friends only banners and it's not really right to have a friends only banner on a non-friends only journal (even if said banner is poorly drawn by me). Because then you might think I was crazy.

So comment and I'll add you. I'm not picky about adding people. You don't need to like anything I like or be super awesome or anything like that. It'd be nice if you were super awesome, but if you're not that's cool too.

That's it. I'm probably not interesting enough to be friends only, but I've accepted that and moved on. Possibly. I don't make icons (because I have no artistic skills. See above). I don't write fan fiction (because I'm lazy, have very little imagination, and probably wouldn't remember key details from anything I'd be writing about. No one wants a Remus/Sirius story where I talk about Remus turning into a giant Polar Bear every month). I'm not that involved in any fandoms (because I'm a pussy). But, um, my mom says I'm cool? I sometimes post mp3's to download, which is probably illegal and anything illegal is totally hot and you know you want to get in on that. And I always like new friends, because I'm ever so lonely.

IN SUMMATION: BE MY FRIEND ELSE I CRY!

I had a great Thanksgiving; I basically forced my parents to watch all of the fourth season of Doctor Who over the weekend, plus the specials from this year. That was fun.

Moving on, here's that meme where I update every day for a week.

day 01 | a song
day 02 | a picture
day 03 | a book
day 04 | a site
day 05 | a youtube clip
day 06 | a quote
day 07 | whatever tickles your fancy

Little Lion Man by Mumford & Sons. Their album Sigh No More is great.

The end.

Just kidding, I totally can't just upload one song. I've been to a bunch of concerts since I last updated for real, so here's a recap of concerts I've been to in the last four months or so accompanied by songs to download. I have videos from some of these concerts uploaded at my youtube page, if you're inclined to check that out. I've been trying to go to more concerts, because I live within walking distance of several good places to see bands and I've never really taken advantage of that before.

( Read more... )

Coming up, I'll probably see Phoenix, maybe Crystal Antlers, and if I'm crazy, which I totally am, I would kill to go to the South by Southwest music festival, so I don't know, I might have to do that next year.

This is my 500th post! What an exciting time. You could say that because I joined LiveJournal in 2004, that amounts to 100 posts a year, but you'd be wrong. I actually have posts here from as far back as 1999, because I'm a slightly neurotic completionist and I've imported entries from when I was using Diaryland and before that, actually writing in a diary with a pencil like a lowly commoner without the internet. So it's more like 50 entries a year. I need to step up my game. I mention the part about the entries from 1999 just as a public service announcement of sorts, since while you can read those entries, I'm not actually suggesting that anyone do so as they are quite old (I was fourteen in 1999) and they might shatter the illusion that I'm cool and you have better things to do than read really old diary entries. I'd hate to be fourteen now and have access to the internet and write embarrassing things about celebrities I like. So just imagine what I currently post about and then imagine things that were popular a decade ago and subtract what little I've learned about writing in the ensuing years and you have my journal from 1999.

So here's a 500th entry picspam of 20 people that I respect and admire. Which generally translates to dudes I think are hot. Currently, not like a retrospective of people I've liked over the years. That'd be work, yo. ( cut for rambling, pictures, and a youtube video )

P.S. Hi, I realize I haven't updated in like months and months. I've had this entry saved as a draft for months and months and I'd go to update and then fall asleep or something? Then it got awkward because it was such a long time and I totally relate to Nicole on America's Next Top Model with the being super awkward and eating lunch alone, so things. I'm awkward and feel weird about posting sometimes (I already feel awkward about posting after so long, I'm a huge weirdo!). Also, when Jay was being a jerk to Nicole about how she maybe comes across as a snob, I was like, is this my life? Are you reading my thoughts? I worry about sounding like a jerky jerk too! Please to be giving me the America's Next Top Model crown, Tyra Banks! (There's an America's Next Top Model crown, yes?). So I went to finish this today and was surprised I hadn't been around in much longer than I actually thought. My bad.

In the time it took me to write and post this entry, I have found new celebrities to obsess over. Like Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tim Roth, that guy who plays Ted on Better Off Ted, etc. So I am about to go out of town for a day or so, but after that I will update every day! For a week! Then you'll wish I would go back to my once every sixteen weeks posting.

I saw Star Trek and I really enjoyed it. Maybe a lot, I don't know. I might see it again tomorrow morning. Not going to lie, I've never seen a single Star Trek related movie or TV show before. I kind of decided to see it because of Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto's appearance on SNL last week (seriously):

Chris Pine is super hot. I'd watch a bunch of stuff that he's been in, but he's been in like The Princess Diaries 2: The Royal Engagement and I haven't seen the first one so I fear the second one might confuse me. Also, you know, it looks awful like most of the movies he's been in. Zachary Quinto doesn't do much for me ever, like maybe I'd still be watching Heroes if they had killed off Sylar while he was still sort of creepy, but I especially don't find Spock attractive. Weird bowl haircuts, overly-manicured eyebrows, and pointy ears aren't exactly what I'm looking for in dudes, you know? Simon Pegg was my favorite, because Simon Pegg is always my favorite. He was awesome.

The plot was pretty lame, but I loved the the cast a ton and that basically made up for the plot (as my feelings about Zachary Quinto's hotness, or lack thereof, have no bearing on anything, I feel I should mention that I thought he was fantastic in this). So aside from cast peoples that I liked (did I mention that Chris Pine is hot? Chris Pine is hot), there is only one thing I feel the need to mention because it made me laugh a ton. ( non-important plot point spoiler alert! )

I'd maybe watch the original series, but I'd maybe be disappointed about the lack of Chris Pine hotness.

Oh, American Idol, way to break my heart and kick off Allison Iraheta. She was super awesome and totally my favorite and really good-looking. For a girl. A 17-year old girl. My feelings about her are not weird at all.

But, man, this season is kind of so boring it hurts. Also, I love almost everyone. But so boring! Like even Allison was often boring. And the final two is going to be hilarious, because it's totally going to be between the religious dude with a dead wife and the dude who's super gay (and it should have been between Allison and someone else, maybe the gay guy, I wouldn't have cared). They've got like less than nothing in common. The dude with the dead wife is so awful, because every song he sings is either subliminally about his dead wife or like totally beating you over the head about how dead his wife is. We get it, dude, your wife is dead, stop making me feel like an asshole for disliking you so much. Also, LOL at the ladies in the audience who are like, "I wanna marry you, guy with a dead wife!" Are you not paying attention to the recently deceased wife bit of his whole sob story because while your relationship with him will never be anything but imaginary, it'd probably be a screwed-up imaginary relationship seeing as how he's SINGING SONGS TO HIS DEAD WIFE! I know when I want dates (I don't want dates), I totally hit up support groups for people with recently deceased spouses. Because that's normal. It's still my favorite season ever, sort of, and I think the guy with the dead wife is a great singer despite his awful personality and multitudes of stupid glasses (I could write a whole separate entry about his awful glasses). Like if you only pay attention to his singing - it's best not to actually look at him during his performances - then he's cool.

I don't know what else. I've had a super boring week and am working 40 hours next week (at the moment I will gladly trade having a life for making lots of monies), so I'm not doing anything interesting except working and going to classes (classes are boring too). To make up for this non-entry, here are some songs I'm loving at the moment:
Evangeline by Handsome Furs. I've had the album this is off of, Face Control, on repeat for weeks. It's fantastic.
Bitch, I Love You by Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears
Nikki Oh Nikki by John Vanderslice
Now We Can See by The Thermals
We Almost Had a Baby by Emmy the Great
Do the Strand by Scissor Sisters

I have seen concerts. I am not looking forward to my "vacation" ending sometime tomorrow morning. I have thoughts about music and concerts and life (no, probably not life). Here are some of those thoughts:

I am bound and determined - to an almost neurotic degree - to be everywhere like a million hours early (I had so much anxiety when I went on that cruise over getting to shows on time that it was ridiculous, like I somehow convinced my roommate who went to one of the Mountain Goats shows with me that we needed to be there about a half hour early which almost didn't feel early enough, but was way earlier than we got to some shows. Also by getting there early, we saw their sound check, so there are usually benefits to my craziness). So my mom and I drove up to Kenyon last Sunday for the John Darnielle/John Vanderslice concert and we got there several hours early and I spent most of my time walking from our hotel to the concert venue and back hoping that a line would form at some point for me to stand in. I finally got a spot in line and was able to stand right in front of the stage so it all worked out. I similarly showed up at the Newport on Monday about two hours early for the Gaslight Anthem/Heartless Bastards concert, though I at least had plans to eat before actually getting in line.

Had I known on the cruise that the audience is supposed to scream along to No Children at Mountain Goats shows, well, I wouldn't actually have lead the audience in song or anything, but maybe I would have thought, "This is one of the best songs ever, you really should be screaming along." I took incredibly bad footage of No Children (see it here!), the poor quality being due 85% to my crappy camera, 10% to the super dark lighting conditions at the concert, and 5% to my anxiety over looking like that weirdo who tapes concerts on their shitty camera at super darkly lit concerts. I have a video of This Year that is mainly one long John Darnielle crotch shot, because I wanted to record that song, but I didn't want to be obvious about filming him. Anyway, John Darnielle? Is still way amazing and hilarious between songs etc. etc. This video of Woke Up New was taken right beside me and his introduction is so fucking amazing.

John Vanderslice was super cool too and even though I only knew one song he played, I enjoyed him a ton and I'd definitely see him again (Someone else's video of him playing Pale Horse). He was even helping sell merch after the show, so I got to buy a t-shirt from him. Also, he's kind of a good-looking dude:



I was second in line at the Gaslight Anthem concert and I almost made the mistake of getting a spot in the mosh pit area, which would have been a disaster as I don't do mosh pits because I don't like smelling of beer and getting bruised. The Gaslight Anthem were great though, I think there was maybe only one song off The '59 Sound that they didn't play (they played a ton of songs), so I was happy. I loved Heartless Bastards too, they were absolutely amazing.

So have some music by all these people. ( musics )

Thumbs up to both of those shows! Now I need to find some more things to do, maybe concerts, maybe not. But things would be good.

As of like an hour or so ago, I'm officially on vacation from work for a week and the first order of business is to go see the Mountain Goats (pictured above) and John Vanderslice (not pictured above) up at Kenyon College later today and rock out to some super depressing songs (the second order of business is to start classes on Tuesday as part of my seemingly neverending quest to actually finish college and get one of those things called a degree)! I had to stop looking at set lists for this tour on the Mountain Goats website forums or else I would have been super jealous of people who can afford to travel the country seeing his awesome shows. There was kind of no reason to take a vacation from work but it's John Darnielle motherfuckers! I clearly may need the time off to obsess over him. There was this New York magazine article about him and his weirdo fans that came out about a month ago and seriously, I kind of heart him (and his weirdo fans) a ton.

If things work out, on Monday night I'll be seeing Heartless Bastards and the Gaslight Anthem at the Newport, though that's a bit iffy at the moment and I may not go. Had I made a post about my favorite albums of last year at some point in time you would know that The '59 Sound by the Gaslight Anthem was so my favorite album of last year. It's sort of in that whole pop-punk vein, but it's amazing? Rolling Stone described it as Against Me! multiplied by Bruce Springsteen which is semi-apt. I love it. But I won't be heartbroken if I don't see them, like I would be if I missed this whole John Darnielle affair tonight.

Oh my god, I was totally planning on seeing Franz Ferdinand in May for my birthday, but it's sold out! I kind of wasn't sure why they were playing such a small venue - it's at the same place the Gaslight Anthem are playing - but I figured they just weren't as popular as I assumed they were. I was kind of ridiculously excited to see them too.

That's it on the concert front, which is probably the only front in my life that's interesting at the moment (I'm maybe seeing Kelly Clarkson at the Ohio State Fair this summer, because I kind of think she's awesome). If I'm not too paranoid about looking stupid, I might take some videos of John Darnielle or John Vanderslice tonight and be like, "Look at my cool videos!" And if I'm not too paranoid about spending all my money on concerts, I might buy a ridiculously expensive ebay ticket to the Franz Ferdinand show.

Now it is time for my second post of epicness about the Barenaked Ladies cruise. The first part was here and again, here are my photos on flickr and my videos on YouTube. I'm currently a bit sad I missed seeing Christine Fellows, because I bought one of her albums (Nevertheless) and it's really great.

( MOUNTAIN GOATS! STEVEN PAGE! MOUNTAIN GOATS! STEVEN PAGE! )

In conclusion and in summary, here are some songs by the Mountain Goats:
From TG&Y (oh my god, are you trying to make sob John Darnielle?)
The Boys are Back in Town (I bought some of their albums when I got back and then I downloaded their entire discography - which always makes me feel like a huge asshole and like if I ever see any band I do that to, I should just give them $100 or something - and this was in there somewhere and it's a rather great/hilarious cover of the Thin Lizzy song)
Sept 15 1983
New Star Song
The Mess Inside
The Monkey Song

Because I am completely obsessed with the Mountain Goats (and maybe to a greater extent - though it's sort of same difference territory - John Darnielle) at the moment, I'm already planning a road trip to Kenyon College to see them at the end of next month. It's only like an hour and a half away! I almost applied there when I was applying for colleges (it's ridiculously expensive though)! Most importantly, it's a free concert! You can't bring booze or drugs to the venue, though, as I was informed by the nice lady I emailed several times about exactly how free it was and who could go. Darn! Also what!? I wonder if Kenyon actually has problems with kids getting drunk and high and then going to Mountain Goats concerts.

With that out of the way, it's time for my epic post of epicness about the Barenaked Ladies cruise I just got back from. If you want the short version, then here are my YouTube videos and here are my photos on flickr. Or you can read the rest of this entry and get the same videos and photos, but with lots of added exclamation points and such.

( highlights + photos + videos )

Wow, that went on way too long. If you got through that, I'll be amazed. I will maybe post about the last two days of the trip tomorrow or whenever and hopefully it won't be quite as tediously long.

The Barenaked Ladies cruise I went on was the greatest thing ever and I have super crappy videos that I've uploaded to YouTube to share (I sort of feel super weird uploading stuff to YouTube, like if I did it wrong please tell me how badly I fucked it up). The following video I have to share right this second because it occurred during the first Mountain Goats show and I promptly died of the awesomeness going on:

I THINK MY HEART GREW THREE SIZES DURING THAT PERFORMANCE!

I will totally update more about every single thing I did, but I'm really tired and I sort of still feel like I'm on a cruise ship, so not right now. I will really try not to let every post about this cruise basically just devolve into like, "MOUNTAIN GOATS! STEVEN PAGE! MOUNTAIN GOATS! STEVEN PAGE!" though that would maybe sum up my feelings quite succinctly. I am madly in love with the Mountain Goats (especially super hot bassist Peter Hughes, who was the only Goat I never was able to get an autograph from) and I saw them all three times they performed and if you can ever sit on the floor right in front of John Darnielle in a really tiny club, preferably whilst on the high seas, then I highly recommend doing that.

I saw Milk a couple days ago, which was incredibly amazing, but also super fucking depressing. Like if I were prone to being intelligent, I'd be like, god, why do some people suck so much? But, I'd say it in a much more intelligent way. I don't understand people who are opposed to gay rights. I highly, highly recommend seeing it. Sean Penn and James Franco and Josh Brolin and Emile Hirsch and everybody else were all fantastic.

I was a little miffed that during the 'what are the actual people doing now?' part of the end credits, they implied that Dan White's entire defense was that Twinkies made him do it. His lawyers really weren't just all, "LOL HE ATE TWINKIES! REDUCED SENTENCE PLEASE!" It sounds like a completely bogus trial and it's pretty shitty White didn't go to jail for life, but Twinkies = Acquittal isn't really what happened. Here's a really interesting article about his trial and defense.

So, instead of more lectures about the law (FEAR MY LECTURES ABOUT THE LAW!), lets objectify Richard Armitage in the form of a picspam, okay? Sounds like a plan! God, he's hot. I wish he was in more than, like, the nothing he's been in (uh, I recommend watching North & South? I want to love it, because he wears big top hats and is quite scowly and that's all super hot. I'll just have to watch it over and over till I do love it), because I can't keep staying up all night re-watching Spooks.

( Onwards! )

It took me ages tonight to unearth my car from all the snow and ice we got today. So in addition to seeing a bunch of bands I adore, I'm super pumped that it will be hot on my upcoming cruise.

I started and finished the BBC series Robin Hood in about 4 days, because I was kind of a lying liar when I said I had no interest in it. And I stayed up really late last night and skipped watching the Golden Globes and 24 to listen to the cast commentaries on the second season. I DON'T EVEN REALLY LIKE IT! I just suddenly find Richard Armitage to be massively hot and I was getting all flaily just listening to his commentary (cast commentaries are my favorite DVD extras in the world and these were incredibly hilarious because I think everybody who works on the show knows it's lame). I don't know if I have an actual opinion on whether the show is good or not, like is it cheesy but awesome or hilarious but incredibly bad? Maybe it's actually awful, but Richard Armitage is so hot and amazing that he's clouding my ability to form judgments. It's the best show I've ever watched for entirely superficial reasons, which is hardly a compliment, but still!

All these things are true facts: Robin is a bit of a massively pompous jerkface. He's all, "Blah blah blah, poor peasants, blah blah blah, taxes, blah." I love Richard Armitage's manly scowl and mullet and pointy nose and pointy ears. His character just wants to awkwardly woo and obsess over Marian and maybe stab some non-tax paying peasants, is that so evil? I laugh a ton whenever Robin and Guy fight, because Richard Armitage is like 10 feet taller and 300 pounds heavier than Jonas Armstrong and Robin really shouldn't be able to beat Guy up that badly in hand-to-hand combat. The bad guys are kind of funnier and more awesome than Robin, which I find problematic. I found this awesome promo picture for the upcoming third season:

LOL WHAT?! WHY ARE YOU ON THIS STUPID SHOW RICHARD ARMITAGE? IS THAT COSTUME AN ACCURATE REPRESENTATION OF THE TIME PERIOD? I know he's supposed to be evil, but that look can't be good for anybody.

I think he should be in more things, like movies and everything ever, and not cheesy shows like Robin Hood. I mainly hope he stays on Spooks because there was lots of speaking in foreign languages and tattoos and really nice-looking hair on that show. He could have been the new Doctor on Doctor Who! Though maybe there is some sort of law against being super hot on too many BBC shows at once. I even started re-watching North & South, even though I didn't find him particularly super hot when I watched it originally. I mainly just like that his character is maybe the angriest romantic hero of all time. I still love the bit where he beats up a factory worker and his love interest is all, "This goes against my beliefs in beating up factory workers, but you're super manly and I secretly thought that was totally hot!" I think I like North & South a lot since overall it's really well done, but some of it is totally hilarious and clearly that's not what it was going for. Yay for having no real opinions!

(I may not have watched the Golden Globes yet, but I'm kind of upset that Vicky Cristina Barcelona won best comedy/musical. Yes, I irrationally dislike that movie. It wasn't even funny!)

I'm hopelessly behind at making posts about 2008. So kind of belatedly, here is a list of all the movies I saw last year that I had never seen before. I saw 75 which was up from 2007 when I think I saw something like 50. If I kept track of the movies I re-watched there would have been a lot more, though it's highly probable that list would include about 500 re-watches of Casino Royale. Did you know it's on Showtime like all day long? I CAN'T STOP WATCHING IT!

Movies in bold I saw in the theater; movies in italics are ones that I really, really loved. I don't have any special formatting for movies I didn't like, because I didn't hate any movies with a passion or anything like that. But my least favorite movie I saw in the theaters was Vicky Cristina Barcelona which I feel either totally went over my head or actually was that pointless and boring (I really didn't like Expelled, but I wasn't expecting to, so I sort of consider Vicky Cristina Barcelona worse).

( movies! )

My 5 favorite movies that came out in 2008:
1. The Dark Knight
2. Iron Man
3. Frost/Nixon
4. Slumdog Millionaire
5. Burn After Reading

My 5 favorite movies that didn't come out in 2008:
1. Zodiac
2. Stardust
3. Boogie Nights
4. Conversations With Other Women
5. Pride and Prejudice

Next year I'll take a crack at actually rating them with stars or letters or something.

As some sort of side note, it may interest you to know that I saw more movies last year with Aaron Eckhart than any other actor. I saw 11 movies he was in. I'm not including in that 11 his super tiny cameo in The Wicker Man which was kind of the reason I got that movie (also kind of the reason was this Best Scenes from Wicker Man video which I've watched a million times thanks to handlet). If you like bad movies that are hilarious, then I recommend it. I seriously loved Nicolas Cage and his strange acting choices. Like his character never seemed all that horrified that he had possibly stumbled upon a cult of insane women bent on performing ritual human sacrifice. I also feel like Neil LaBute called Aaron Eckhart up and was like, "Aaron, do you want to be in another one of my crazy movies?" and Aaron was all, "No, not really," and Neil was like, "But in this one you get to dress up like a bear and punch women in the face! That's totally a metaphor for society! A BEAR SUIT AARON!" and Aaron was like, "Um, no thanks!" But he showed up at the set anyway, so they filmed him drinking coffee for like 2 seconds and then he and Neil were like MORMON HIGH-FIVE!

Oh, hello! I'm currently enjoying my week off from work. I have used my free time to do absolutely nothing. It's been super fun so far! (Holy shit, how is it Thursday already? I don't want to go back to work!). Here's some sort of photo meme:

01. Answer each of the questions below the cut using the Flickr search engine.
02. Choose a photo from the first three pages.
03. Copy the URL of your favorite photos here.
04. Then share with the world.

( I'm a cut tag! )

So I lied. I haven't been doing absolutely nothing; I've spent a considerable amount of time watching Spooks. OH MY GOD I LOVE IT SO HARD! Like it's all so very obvious that they're going to solve practically every case they investigate, because they tend to investigate things like, terrorists assassinating the Prime Minister or nuking all of Ireland and they could never get away with actually having that stuff happen, but it's still insanely tense and crazy. And they often say things like, "THIS COULD BRING DOWN THE GOVERNMENT!!!!" and it's like, are you totally sure about that? But it's so fantastic and all very 24-esque, except no one is quite as torture-happy as Jack Bauer. They're all too British to shoot people in the legs to get confessions.

And it had Matthew Macfadyen for awhile who is super hot. I was incredibly sad that he left to do whatever, like Pride & Prejudice or something (to which I say bah! He totally looks better in bullet-proof vests than top hats! Except I'm totally in love with him in Pride & Prejudice too), because he's awesome and I loved his character a lot. But then the guy that took over for him beat up some people semi-shirtless and I stopped being sad he left. I'm currently almost done with series 4 and I'm trying kind of vainly not to find out how any of the current characters leave the show, because the cast turn-over on this show is nuts and I assume most of them will leave, but I don't want to know if they die or what. SO SUPER FANTASTIC!

I started watching that BBC drama North & South with my parents and it's both very good and kind of hilarious. Like every scene goes as follows:

Lady from the South: I'm not used to your Northern ways, in the South we frolic in meadows and try not to think about how poor our servants probably are.
Man from the North: Fuck you! I beat up my factory workers because I'm from the goddamn North, you stupid Southern lady!

Then they pretend to make-out and stuff. I don't remember their names. There's lots of intense, angry glaring on the part of the man and the woman is sort of, "I'm kind of boring!" and it's kind of Pride & Prejudicey. I like it a ton. And it's British, so yay! I was thinking of how they could Americanize it, like maybe Hamptons & Harlem or some such, but then I was like, they totally already Americanized this and it was called The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Without all the possible sexiness and beating up of factory workers, they are basically about the same thing.

I actually bought Pride & Prejudice several weeks ago during a buy 4 DVD's, get money off on gas promotion at Giant Eagle (if you give me any kind of incentive, I'll totally buy 4 DVD's without any hesitation) and I had never seen it before and I really quite liked it. Enough so that I just finished watching it for the second time. I've never read the book or seen the Colin Firth mini-series (I actually bought that for fairly cheap at Half-Price Books as a Christmas present for my mom, before finding out that she hasn't actually seen the whole thing either. I was kind of under the impression she was in love with it or something). I was fairly surprised to learn that Keira Knightley was nominated for an Oscar for her role in it, not so much because I thought her performance was bad or anything, but really? It kind of seems like an odd choice. I enjoyed Matthew Macfadyen muchly and I did enjoy that Mr. Darcy's method of seduction was to kind of stare crazily at Elizabeth all the time and then be all, "I hope you enjoyed my crazy staring! UH, MARRY ME?"

I have a week off from work coming up and I plan to spend most of that time watching more British TV shows, because I've been on a bit of a TV downloading spree lately. Like I've got all 7 seasons of Spooks downloaded, which may or may not be available to rent at my local library, but I like illegally downloading things. I'm such a criminal! Also, I can't be bothered to return things on time to the library and I rack up tons of late fees that I don't like paying.

My thoughts on Quantum of Solace: OH JAMES BOND, LETS GET MARRIED!

I really liked it. I didn't think it was as bad as I had heard. It had some funny lines and while I didn't understand the plot in the slightest, I thought it had some kick-ass scenes. I have low expectations for Bond movies I guess, as I was surprised by how much I liked Casino Royale. I haven't seen very many of them and at least it wasn't ridiculous like Die Another Die was ridiculous. I kind of don't mind a lack of whatever it is that is supposedly missing from these new movies. Also, Daniel Craig is lovely. And looks good in everything, holy fuck. He's especially hot when he's all beaten-up and bloody. I can't be disappointed from a purely shallow level and that's like half the Bond appeal, so who cares if the plot is shit? I just really, really enjoy Daniel Craig. I watched his straight-to-DVD movie Flashbacks of a Fool and I liked him in that too, though the movie in general was a bit slight and I didn't really get it (maybe I just don't get small British movies, like that and The History Boys. What was the point of that movie? It was really well done, but was it about how all-boys schools in England are kind of super gay?).

I also really liked the Jack White/Alicia Keys song a lot.

I'm going to see it like a million more times so that it can do better than Twilight next weekend. Have I mentioned I have no interest in those books? I can't bring myself to read them, because I can barely bring myself to read books in general and I don't want to be reading books I have no interest in, when I could conceivably be reading a book I do want to read. I can watch movies because they're stupid and I want to laugh at them, but I completely do not understand that concept when it comes to books.

I love the preview for that Clive Owen movie, The International, because in the current economic climate a movie about an all-powerful bank trying to kill people and such just seems kind of hilarious. I don't know when it would have seemed plausible, but with banks failing all over the place, it seems particularly ridiculous now ("OH NO! Why didn't we put as much thought into our mortgage practices as we did with all the killing and blackmailing? BAILOUT MONEY PLEASE!").

Anyway, because I am predictable: ( Look! Some Quantum of Solace promotional photos! )

I think that at some point during the presidential election process, the candidates should have to re-enact Air Force One and if they can't throw some crazy Russian-type terrorist off of a fake Air Force One then you should really question whether or not they're fit to lead. What if that scenario happens for real?! IT COULD! I don't know, Barack Obama might be too elite to know how to engage in hand-to-hand combat with terrorists.

You could really get quite drunk watching Air Force One if you drank every time Gary Oldman yells anything. I adore Gary Oldman in this movie, he's so awesome and crazy. Actually, it's totally one of my favorite movies ever just in general. It makes for very good election day viewing. Once I finish watching it, I plan to start drinking and watching CNN for like the entire night.

I voted several weeks ago, so I didn't get to wait in a really long line today, even though I'm sure it would have been entertaining. I saw lots of people with Obama buttons at work this morning, but I don't know if that indicates much. I even saw some really old people with Obama buttons which was kind of cute. Then some other lady was like, "They're going to give my money to the poor!" and I assumed by 'they' she meant Obama, because she seemed like a deluded old bat. Then she kind of looked over at me, and I was sort of, "Uh, yeah, totally!" because, you know, the customer is always right, even if they are stupid old ladies who probably don't have nearly enough money for Obama to want to give it all to the poor. He's also not just going to knock on your door all, "MONEY PLEASE!"

In conclusion: Yay democratic process! Yay crazy Gary Oldman!

Oh hey, guess what I'm mildly enjoying? The US version of Life on Mars, that's what. I know! I watched the original US pilot over the summer before they fired all the actors and re-located to New York and I thought it was horrible, but I just finished watching the second new episode and I don't know, I think it's great. I think the changes they've made from the British version are good and if they can come up with an interesting plot not borrowed from the original version then I may continue to watch it (and obviously they'd have to if this show runs longer than 16 episodes). And Jason O'Mara is kind of charming and funny. Like I didn't like him in the original pilot at all, but either it's the new, better actors or he took acting lessons (or totally grew out his hair and got like a thousand percent hotter), but he's quite good and does the whole, "And now Sam cries!" part of the show well. I'm hoping that original pilot was something of a hoax, like it was so bad that anyone who watched both it and the new version would be like, "Holy crap, I can't believe how much better this is!" Harvey Keitel looks kind of awful and unfit and I couldn't really imagine him having a kicky spin-off where he flirts with a hot woman, like if ABC really wanted to re-make Ashes to Ashes too, so he's clearly no Philip Glenister, but he's okay.

I also adore that in addition to possibly being mad, in a coma, or back in time, this new version has added drug trip as a possible reason for Sam being in 1973. Like, yes! I totally want drug trip to be the actual reason for Sam believing he's back in time. In the last episode he could wake up in a meth lab and be like, "I knew it was all those drugs I was doing!"

They've used really good music so far too and I always appreciate the use of good music on TV (and my dad's biggest concern with the remake was basically whether or not the use of music would be as well-done as it was in the original. I say possibly yes).


There that's better. See, I haven't abandoned the original version! Oh, John Simm, you're still fantastic! I have the day off from work, so I'm possibly going to spend the rest of my day watching the British version. I haven't seen it in forever actually.

I can't sleep, even though I worked all last night and I have to go to work kind of early tomorrow morning. So I've spent some considerable time trying to find photos of celebrities skateboarding, because skateboarding is kind of hot. I didn't have much luck in this regard. Maybe Tyra will do some skateboarding photoshoot on Top Model and I'll die of happiness. Tyra could relate some anecdote about how she went skateboarding in L.A. and some famous fashion person was like, "Tyra, you're the most special person in the world because you can skateboard!" and then they made her skateboard down the runway and she worked it, because she's Tyra Banks and she can do anything.

So what I've got is less of a general skateboarding picspam and more of a Simon Baker skateboarding picspam. I watched The Mentalist whenever it was on and I kind of loved it a lot (it's clearly just Psych with more dramatics, but whatever). It was a bit funny, but it was also really fucked-up in an interesting way. I'd probably watch Simon Baker in anything, though, because he's extremely attractive and I'm extremely shallow. I semi-watched The Guardian just because he was in it and as I recall, that was kind of a dumb show. And as soon as I post this, my plan is to either fall asleep or fast-forward through The Devil Wears Prada to see the parts he was in.

( Skateboarding rocks! )

Then Paul Newman died and I thought maybe he had skateboarded at some point in his life, but I couldn't find any pictures proving that theory. So to honor him, I did a horrible job doctoring a picture I found so that his passing could fit in with the theme of this post.

RIP, Paul Newman, you possible skateboarder!

Aaron Eckhart was on The Daily Show last night and, much like the last time he was on, it was fantastic.

God, he's so good-looking I want to punch him in the face or convert to Mormonism and marry him. Something along those lines. And I could totally watch Aaron Eckhart and Jon Stewart banter awkwardly every single night. They need to take their show on the road. I love the dynamic in both interviews where Aaron is kind of a dick and Jon seems to find him endlessly amusing. Towelhead still looks really bad, though. I'll probably see it anyway. I'm sure he will make a really good-looking pedophile.