5,962 Forum Posts by "Dr-Worm"
Tinariwen - Islegh Taghram Tifhamam
The Beatles (sort of) - Sour Milk Sea
At 2/13/14 01:55 AM, Sekhem wrote: How was he a villain in Spring Breakers? Alien and co. were in his territory.
Big Arch treats objects like women, man.
I liked his villainous turn in Spring Breakers. I'm not really familiar with his music.
We already have that, it's January and March-December and also pretty much basically February too.
At 2/12/14 02:09 PM, SychoSloth wrote: Will you touch my left manboob?
Not today.
When you poop, how thoroughly do you wipe?
Yeah, all those "I was born in the wrong generation" YouTube commenter kids are either conveniently ignoring or blissfully unaware of the Breads and Jefferson Starships of the world, or the Donny and Maries, the Sonny and Chers, the Captain and Tennilles. The past was hardly without its fair share of bland Top 40 pop crap, not to mention its own torturous novelty earworms.
Obviously that shit's going to be forgotten while the good stuff stands the test of time. Overall I'd the say the ratio of good to bad is probably about the same as it ever was, if not actually better because independent artists' ability to record and distribute their music has expanded so much.
At 2/11/14 01:13 AM, Natick wrote: conan was alright but needs to calm down during interviews
He wrote "Marge vs. the Monorail," he can do whatever the fuck he wants.
At 2/10/14 11:41 PM, Enoll wrote: Craig Ferguson beats them all and has an awesome intro song.
Beat me to it. Assuming we're not counting Stewart and Colbert (and honestly these days maybe even if we're counting Stewart), Craig Ferguson is hands down the best late-night talk show host, but you'd never know it from how little attention or accolades he gets.
His show has this incredibly fun, loose, intimate D.I.Y. vibe that doesn't really exist anywhere else on television. Like, where other late night hosts have tightly structured monologues and elaborately conceived segments and stunts, Ferguson just dicks around with his sidekicks or gives snarky responses to e-mails and it's ten times as funny.
Plus the rapport between Ferguson and the guy who voices and controls Geoff (and increasingly whoever's in the Secretariat suit) is just outstanding, they can play off each other on the fly so well. And while he's not exactly the most polished interviewer, he's also totally unafraid to have the interview go off on wild tangents that would alienate a more mainstream audience, whether he's having a lengthy and surprisingly unvarnished and insightful conversation about religion with Stephen Fry or reminiscing with Peter Capaldi about dropping acid together back in Scotland.
I kinda miss the puppets, though.
At 2/11/14 12:35 AM, cacality wrote: No need to feel bad bro, he had a very bright career!
A career that he won through dirty underhanded manipulation on the business side and shameless pandering to the lowest common denominator on the creative side, but still!
At 2/10/14 08:29 AM, TheMaster wrote: The Stone Tape, a TV movie commissioned by the BBC in 1972. I was on the fence about picking something so televisual but I think the writing is so strong and everything else so perfect that it gets past its low budget and slightly dodgy sets.
Huh, really interesting pick. This is what MotW is all about, getting exposed to films we might never have come across otherwise.
Beck.
First new proper album in six years! And it comes out in just a couple of weeks!
At 2/10/14 08:38 PM, Jester wrote: Honorable mentions.
also Red, Yellow, & Blue by the Born Ruffians but the full album ain't on Youtube
This guy. This guy right here.
Red, Yellow & Blue is easily one of the best albums of the '00s, I can't understand why nobody ever talks about it.
At 2/10/14 05:43 PM, Sekhem wrote: I did one of those Top 50 Album Charts almost two years ago and I don't think my taste has changed too much in that time.
I did one of those about a year or so ago too (whenever the last time someone made a thread like this was I guess) but I can never stick to my answers when it comes to things like this so now I feel like I have to do it again. I'll hate my new list in five minutes but whatever:
The Great Randomizer has spoken, and it has selected @TheMaster to pick this week's film!
I think you know the drill by now: try to announce it tomorrow, conducive to discussion, most of us haven't seen it, branching out, different decade and genre and possibly country from last week, yada yada yada. Have fun!
By the way, I saw The LEGO Movie today and it was great. Seriously, believe the hype, the film is an extremely pleasant surprise. What easily could have been a cheap cash-in is instead incredibly clever, heartfelt and lovingly crafted. Which isn't to say that the movie doesn't also achieve its primary reason for existing, as heading out of the theater I was all but ready to sprint to the nearest toy store and buy up every LEGO product they had.
At 2/8/14 02:20 PM, Slint wrote:
I feel like you would really like the Wings of Desire soundtrack; among other things the movie has two great concert scenes featuring Crime and the City Solution in one and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds in the other. It's a fantastic movie too so you should definitely check it out (it's on my shortlist of things to pick for MotW).
At 2/6/14 11:23 PM, Viper50 wrote: Diablo Swing Orchestra - Voodoo Mon Amour
Nice! What a weird mix of musical styles. 7/10
Super Fly
A Hard Day's Night
In the Mood for Love
Drive
Inside Llewyn Davis
This Is Spinal Tap
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Almost Famous
Repo Man
Wings of Desire
O Brother Where Art Thou?
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Pretty much any Wes Anderson or Quentin Tarantino film, really
Also, if we're including TV:
The Adventures of Pete & Pete
FLCL
Cowboy Bebop
Flight of the Conchords
The Wire
Freaks & Geeks
So I watched The Wall tonight, and I'm pretty on the fence about it so I'm curious to see what you guys thought (basically I thought the childhood stuff and the war/fascism stuff was great, but I'm more ambivalent about the drugged-out rock star stuff and the sexual hang-up stuff).
It kind of baffles me that this movie is so popular among stoners, even with the Pink Floyd association. I'm struggling to think of a movie that would be more unpleasant or disturbing to watch high.
At 2/3/14 04:20 PM, Oolaph wrote: Also, time to catch up on this whole MotW thing. I'll be having a triple feature of 400 Blows, Dark City, and The Wall tonight.
Awesome, definitely post your thoughts on the ones you missed at some point in between discussions if you want.
At 2/4/14 03:19 AM, Atlas wrote: I just finished Undercover Brother. It's an okay comedy. I would watch it again just for the soundtrack and one of the greatest death scenes I've seen in awhile.
I saw that movie in theaters when I was in elementary school and my friends and I were the only ones in the theater. Other than the soundtrack and Dave Chappelle that's pretty much all I remember. That soundtrack did introduce me to a bunch of great funk staples, though. I think I actually bought the CD, or downloaded it off Kazaa or whatever (this was 2002).
If you're looking for a far, far superior blaxploitation parody, check out Black Dynamite.
At 2/8/14 02:00 AM, Slint wrote: I follow whoever is leading me like a blind sheep so I believe in multiple opposite beliefs at the same time.
You say that jokingly but there's a pretty decently sized contingent of Republicans who consider themselves followers of both Jesus Christ and Ayn Rand.
At 2/7/14 08:49 AM, TheMaster wrote: I actually prefer Deadwood to The Wire. Just a shame it was cancelled and doesn't have an ending.
I'm definitely getting closer to leaning that way with every episode I watch. There's a sense of camaraderie and community among the characters that you don't really see on many of these dark prestige dramas but seems so much more realistic. After watching so much Breaking Bad and Boardwalk Empire, it's refreshing and kind of shocking that so many of the characters on Deadwood are, like, actual fundamentally good people who try to act outside their own self-interest sometimes. Even Al Swearengen contains multitudes and has his moments of compassion. Hell, at this point (please don't spoil anything) I'm practically rooting for him, and not even in the guilty-pleasure way people "root" for Walter White or Tony Soprano.
It does suck that the show got cancelled before it could have a proper ending, though. There were talks of HBO doing two TV movie specials to wrap up the series, but those plans are pretty much dead now unfortunately. Though we do have some rough idea of where the series might have gone: apparently Milch originally intended for the show to end with the camp burning to the ground (which is what happened to Deadwood in real life), and there are several moments foreshadowing that throughout the series.
At 2/7/14 06:15 AM, Sense-Offender wrote: Then there's gonna be more Orphan Black
Oh shit I can't wait, that show is so much fun. Though any time Tatiana Maslany isn't onscreen the quality takes a nosedive.
At 2/6/14 04:06 PM, TecNoir wrote: [_] Gifted and Talented
Like other people have said, "Gifted and Talented" is the name of an actual program some schools have, not a general judgment about you.
That's a fucking stupid name for it though. "Gifted" implies that academic skills are somehow inherent, giving kids inside the program a false sense of entitlement and discouraging kids outside the program from trying harder.
"Advanced" or "honors" or whatever are better, they suggest that placement in the program is something to be earned.
At 2/4/14 06:08 AM, supergandhi64 wrote: Playing Too Many Games Have Made You Unable To Separate Fiction From Truth . . . Undeniable Proof That Video Games Are Corrupting Our Youth
Your rhymes are pretty solid but your meter needs some work... I'm saying this to help you, I don't mean to be a jerk.
-superdrworm64
At 2/7/14 02:01 AM, Natick wrote: well as depressing as that reality is, i can't forget how much my respect for daniels shot right through the roof when he refused to juke the stats even for an election season and resigned to become a lawyer. one of the most ethical acts i've ever seen in a television series or film.
Oh indeed. That's one of the most (few?) truly satisfying moments in the series, especially coming from Daniels, who had been falling up the chain of command throughout the series and easily could have coasted if he wanted to.
Though to be fair he's probably making a lot more money as a lawyer...
he shot omar, let him rot >:(
But he's a product of his environment!
i've seen clips of deadwood and it looks intriguing even for such a short-lived series. coloful use of language, if i say so myself.
The speech patterns take some serious getting used to, but once you can stop worrying about getting the gist of what people are saying for the sake of keeping up with the plot it becomes apparent how gorgeous the dialogue is. It's poetic in a way that I've never really seen attempted on TV before. Like ridiculously profane poetry (one of the main characters tends to have all his most emotionally stirring monologues while getting blown by hookers).
another hbo series i'm on the fence about is boardwalk empire which at least as michael k. williams and steve buscemi (finally in a leading role) but i've had a few important moments spoiled for me by a few friends over the past few months.
I've been watching Boardwalk Empire week to week since it started. Personally I feel like it certainly has its moments, and it's wonderfully acted and shot, but it's mostly a warmed-over take on a genre that's pretty much run its course for now (the "gritty male antihero" show, popularized by The Sopranos and hitting its logical conclusion with Breaking Bad). At this point I have some trouble distinguishing a lot of the characters from each other or knowing/caring about what's going on with them, and honestly the most consistently compelling aspect of the show is the interior decorating.
It's a good show but hardly a great one. Compared to something with the depth and clear purpose of The Wire or Deadwood or The Sopranos or Mad Men it's kind of pulpy and a little thin. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but still. Next season is apparently going to be its last so I'll probably stick it out through the end, but really only because I've invested this much time already.
Have you been watching True Detective? Now that one's pretty mind-blowing.
Um, sorry if this is coming too late but DON'T READ THE TWO POSTS ABOVE IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED THE WIRE YET.
At 2/7/14 12:09 AM, Natick wrote: i was confused about marlo's final scene with those two hoppers but recently read to equally valid interpretations. some people say the fact that the hoppers don't know who he is and nearly kill him proves that marlo lost the game as his name will never live on while omar will remain a legend of the baltimore streets while others have said that the fact hat he survives goes to show that he still has the mind-set of a hardened street-urchin rather than the next stringer bell.
Well it's both isn't it? And that's why that ending is so great; for Marlo "my name is my name" Stanfield, this is a punishment way worse than going to prison, where he'd still be right in his comfort zone and where he'd still control his little fiefdom from the inside the way Avon Barksdale does. Instead, the only world he's ever known and cared about and defined himself by has been ripped out from under him.
He lost the game and he still has the street mentality, so no matter how successful he ends up being in the Stringer role he's still going to be totally miserable for the rest of his life, just like he deserves.
astonishing that mcnulty and lester were only shitcanned and not thrown in prison. i was scared midway through the season that their fraudulent case with the homeless serial killer would lead them to a real one but a copycat's just as bad.
Well the whole point of not arresting them is to cover up the fraudulent case, right? Though in Lester's case unless I'm remembering it wrong he's not even fired right? Just kinda forced into retirement, with full benefits and everything. He pretty much gets away scot-free. And really McNulty is probably better off not being a cop, no matter how good he may be at it, and now he has a chance to actually have a real life with Beadie.
i was extremely frustrated that clay davis and maurice levy walked away scot-free. several months of seeing those guys being completely untouchable was enough to give me dreams about fantasizing their prison lives.
Yup, but that's realistic isn't it. They're the ones who wield the power in the legitimate upper class sphere, so they're the ones who get away with everything. But at least Levy gets the tables turned on him for once, plus Rhonda's still got that shit on him so who knows if he'll really be able to just carry on like before.
i also started cheering like a sports fan during that final shot of kenard being escorted in handcuffs.
But he's just a little kid!
i've heard great things about deadwood but am going onto six feet under next for something a little more light
You realize it's a show about a funeral home right...
Though it can get very dark Deadwood actually has a lot of moments of levity. It's certainly lighter than The Wire, but then again pretty much everything is.
You might be thinking of that Johnny Depp movie where he plays a makeup-wearing eccentric with a weird hat.
Or the one where Sean Bean's character dies.
I recently watched Paul Thomas Anderson's Punch-Drunk Love and Yasujiro Ozu's I Was Born, But.... Both were great, though the latter in particular has quickly become one of my all-time favorite films.
With Punch-Drunk Love Anderson does the seemingly impossible and gets a great performance out of Adam Sandler, with the film's glaring light and color, loud, percussive soundtrack, and constant sudden movements and crashes working to reflect and enhance his character's extreme social anxiety and frustration. Also, like most of P.T. Anderson's films, and the reason why I decided to watch this a couple days ago in the first place, the movie contains a fantastic, memorable performance from Philip Seymour Hoffman, creating an indelible and hilarious sleazeball of a character in only a couple brief scenes.
I Was Born, But... is an early silent film from Ozu (Tokyo Story, Late Spring) that out of nowhere absolutely floored me. For most of its running time the film is innocuous enough (the opening intertitle reads "A Picture Book for Grown-Ups") and content to chug along as an incredibly charming, well-observed and surprisingly universal slice-of-life comedy about childhood in the suburbs, telling the story of two elementary school-aged brothers moving to a new neighborhood and dealing with bullies (not to mention doing a little bullying themselves) while their dad tries to suck up to his boss at work. There's also some light social satire, dealing as many Ozu films do with the parallels and conflicts between the social values and rituals of the old and the young (see: the matching tracking shots depicting bored students in class and yawning businessmen at work).
Then later on in the film, within a single shot, the movie turns on a dime and leaps to another level entirely, as the boys are bluntly made aware of social class distinctions and their family's non-ideal place within them. The film transforms into a story about children becoming aware of the unfairness of the world and realizing that their parents are human beings and not superheroes, and about parents struggling to teach their children hard truths without crushing their spirits. And then the movie ends on a note of both weary resignation for the present and sweet, cautious optimism for the future. Like I said, floored.
If nothing else, I Was Born, But... is far and away the most low-key, naturalistic silent film I've ever seen (I didn't even know films of this genre existed in the silent era, let alone that one could be done so well). Other than the obvious occasional intrusion of intertitles (which are impressively few and far between), the movie pretty much just plays out with the rhythms of real life. I was kind of blown away by it.
At 2/6/14 09:24 AM, Natick wrote: just finished the wire season 5 finale
The fifth season has its problems, but sheeeeeeeiiit, does that finale deliver. What an amazing ending to an amazing show.
I'm just about done with the second (and second-to-last) season of Deadwood now. It's actually nearly as good, though very different obviously.
At 2/6/14 10:48 PM, Darthdenim wrote: Didn't expect that. I'm curious now.
Yeah I actually really want to see that now. It's got a stacked voice cast and I've always loved Legos so even if the critics are being overly generous (since it's February, when the theaters are mostly a dumping ground for the studios' various embarrassments and failures) how bad could it be.
At 2/6/14 02:46 AM, Memorize wrote: I like how the one thing you don't mention is culture's push to drive people to have sex before reaching the age of 16 or else you're a "loser."
Sure, that kind of attitude absolutely contributes to teen pregnancies/abortions in its own way, but it doesn't effect access to birth control, which is what we were talking about here. That's why I didn't mention it, not because I don't think it's a problem in its own right.
At 2/5/14 03:16 PM, Sense-Offender wrote: I like pineapple soda, but it's one of my least favorites that Jarritos or Goya make. My favorites are tamarind, guarana and sangria flavor. Coconut is close for me. I just don't like the mandarin orange one that Goya makes.
Yeah the tamarind Jarritos is pretty great too. I don't think I've ever had Goya but if they have a coconut flavor I've got to try it, that sounds fucking amazing.
I've never had that. It's mineral water, right?
Seltzer. I pretty much live on their "Citron Lemon Lime."
At 2/5/14 05:39 AM, Sekhem wrote: However, most things taught in middle school are hardly canonical works and no one in this thread even mentioned eliminating so-called "serious literature"/"high culture" (both incredibly loaded terms used to enforce a cultural hegemony) from the curriculum.
Like I said, I'm not talking about "high/low" distinctions and I agree that they're mostly bullshit. When I said "actual literature" I didn't mean it as a judgment of worth, I just meant actual books as opposed to song lyrics.
And I realize that you aren't talking about eliminating those works from the curriculum, but that is the impression I got from Earfetish's post I was responding to. If that's wrong then my bad.
Why? What's the point of this kind of literature as history nonsense?
Huh? My point is that literature isn't history. Older works can be just as alive and relevant as newer ones, but there can be certain barriers to entry (different stylistic conventions, historical contexts, social attitudes, etc.) that need to be navigated before a reader can recognize that. Most kids aren't able or willing to do that on their own, but a good English class provides them with the tools and (hopefully) the enthusiasm to do so. That's all I'm saying.
Students in the U.S. don't read Eastern classics (not even translations) unless it's in summary or some kind of abbreviated nonsense in a footnote somewhere.
I don't recall anything in my last post saying this wasn't true or wasn't a problem. Just because I prefer Shakespeare to Lil' Wayne doesn't mean I'm slavishly devoted to a traditional Western canon.
Instead, most teachers in the U.S. school system will toss in a few sanitized multicultural works by, quite frankly, mediocre writers every once in a while to "appease" the coloreds.
You keep calling things "sanitized" but I don't know what you mean by that. Are you saying that censored versions of works are being taught, or that teachers are deliberately choosing works that tend to have less explicit content to begin with? Because I agree that the former is wrong, but I don't think the latter is necessarily unreasonable for a middle school classroom.
Bonus points if they're the products of racism, drug use, or poverty and heavy on regionalism and dialect
All these descriptors apply to Lil' Wayne's work too...
Surely this Lil Wayne track is miles beyond that piece of Zionist not-even-passable-for-propaganda trash.
Just out of curiosity are there any works about Jewish suffering in the Holocaust that aren't "Zionist propaganda" in your eyes? Because as I've mentioned before your film site's reviews don't inspire much confidence.
I mean don't get me wrong, from what I remember that book is manipulative and didactic and pretty much generally shitty, but that doesn't make it propaganda.
At 1/31/14 08:23 PM, Ron-Geno wrote: 25% "don't want people to know I had sex or got pregnant"
- Prevention: Plan better. What, does pregnancy just "happen"? Did you cough and suddenly you're pregnant?
This is exactly what Camarohusky was talking about, though. In a lot of communities young people don't have the adequate resources or knowledge to "plan better" because of all the stigma attached to sex. How are they supposed to know about proper birth control when their school's sex-ed program is strictly abstinence-only and their parents refuse to talk to them honestly about sex? Even if they do know, how are they supposed to access that birth control when nobody is willing to sell or provide it to them? Even if they do potentially have access, how are they supposed to actually go out and get it when they're terrified of the consequences of their parents or other authority figures finding out?
I think you're vastly underestimating the effects these kinds of social pressures can have on people's behavior.
