In B Flat

This website is pretty incredible. I haven't played around with it too much, but there are 20 different clips all in the key of b flat so they can be played all at once or only a few, and the timing doesn't matter. It is an amazing feat of musical comradery.

Enjoy the link here, and feel free to play around with it.

In a related news, I saw the documentary It Might Get Loud last night. It is a documentary about the electric guitar and it follows arguably three of the best guitarists from three generations: Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White.

I loved this movie and each person's story with how they found the guitar and how they were attracted to it and their influences and songwriting process was great. I'm sure there are tons of footage that wound up on the cutting room floor and can't wait to see that on the DVD someday.

Cosmic

Something different for dortTASTIC, but still decidedly dorky. I found this picture and this information related to the picture while reading about the AFC on ESPN's Page 2.

This simply fascinates me on so many levels that I thought it should be included. Anyone that thinks we are alone in the universe has to be mistaken. The law of averages simply means there has to be life in a bunch of these places, I just hope I live long enough for some sort of contact.

Researchers led by Swinburne University of Technology, in Australia, released this map of the "nearby" cosmos. The map contains about 100,000 dots. The dots are not stars; each dot represents a galaxy, and galaxies are thought to average about 100 billion stars each. Thus the area depicted contains holds roughly 10 to the 15th power stars, a number far too huge to bother attempting to fathom. And the map merely shows galaxies nearby. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is at the center of the map. On the cosmic scale, a place with 100 billion stars is a dot.

Weird Images...

Every Friday on the Bendis Board someone posts "Weird Images" he came across while he was surfing the net this week. Today's aren't great, but these are always fun to read. One of them was great for numerous reasons though.

Enjoy the rest of the images by clicking on this link

The greatest thing ever??

Someone decided to compare and contrast characters from Lost with comic book superheroes. It's virtually perfect.

Go on. I dare you not to tell me that this is not the greatest thing ever. For me, this could possibly be the reason the internet was invented

ENJOY by clicking here.

Movies I've seen so far in 2009

The year is more than halfway over, and I was looking over the movies I've seen so far this year. If I had to rank them so far, they would look like this, without any spoilers:

Inglourious Basterds	A +
Up	A
Star Trek	A-
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince	A-
Watchmen	A-
Drag Me To Hell	B+
The Time Traveler’s Wife	B+
Coraline	B
I Love You Man	B
Knowing	B
Angels And Demons	B
Food, Inc.	B
Terminator Salvation	C
Wolverine	C-
Transformers: Rise of the Fallen	C-
He’s Just Not That Into You	D

Anyone out there see any movies that I should see? Let me know and I'll add them to my list.

Tarantino's favorite movies since 1992

Most people that know me and knew me in High School know I was a huge fan of Quentin Tarantino. My love for him has dwindled since he has not released that many films in his career, but he does have an interesting sense of what is a great movie and what is not. Although you may not agree with his taste, I like to see where he gets his inspiration from. With the movie Inglorious Basterds opening on Friday, this is a good time to figure out what he says.

Click here to be brought to the youtube clip featuring Tarantino's opinion.

For those (like me) that get antsy if a video is more than 20 seconds long, here is the movies that he thinks are the best since 1992: (My comments on his list are below in italics)

Battle Royale- Fantastic future distopianJapanese movie. Anyone that has seen this agrees it is one of the best in recent memory.
Anything Else - I turned this off. I'm not a huge Woody Allen fan and this was not one of his best. Match Point on the other hand...
Audition - I have tried to watch this a few times, but it is quite brutal. I understand why Tarantino has this on his list. I do need to watch it myself. For those that don't know, it's a Japanese horror film of sorts.
Blade - This was the first movie based on a Marvel Comic and made possible all the other comic book movies that have come since. I agree with this for that reason, although it's not the best comic book movie.
Boogie Nights - I love this movie as well. The opening crane shot in the disco is fantastic, and any scene with Mark Wahlberg and John C. Reilly is priceless.
Dazed & Confused - One of the best. I agree wholeheartedly. My friend Craig used to throw a 70s themed Dazed and Confused party every year in honor of this film it is that good.
Dogville - I tried to watch this and failed. But I understand why Tarantino would like this.
Fight Club - Another one of my favorites as well. A revolutionary film and still Fincher's best in my eyes.
Friday - A fun comedy, but wouldn't be on my list
The Host - Great Korean horror film that I rented last year. A fun monster movie in the vein of Godzilla, but not as cheesy.
The Insider - I never saw this, but I know I should.
Joint Security Area - I never heard of this one.
Lost In Translation - I didn't love this movie. I still don't know what all the rage is for this movie. It's OK, but that's all for me (dawg)
The Matrix - Agreed. This changed the way action movies were done after 1999.
Memories of Murder - Never heard of this one either.
Police Story 3 - Or this.
Shaun of the Dead - I Agree with Tarantino. This is a fun, awesome movie.
Speed - This wouldn't be on my list, but I understand why he includes this. Like The Matrix, this was the blueprint for action movies for a few years after this came out.
Team America -I think South Park is better, but Team America is quite fun. Trey Parker is a modern genius in my eyes.
Unbreakable - Agreed again. This movie is so well done. The pacing, the story and direction are spot on.

icheckmovies.com

I have a new favorite website: www.icheckmovies.com.
It is quite simple: They take all sorts of lists like the imdb top 250 movies or Academy Award winning movies or the Empire 500 and you go through and check off what you have seen. Very simple, but it has made me watch movies that I normally wouldn't watch.
For example: On every list is Unforgiven. I had never seen this movie even though everyone I know says it is great and I believe them. Because of this list (and the fact that I netflixed Gran Torino and liked it) I decided to watch Unforgiven last night just so I could check it off my list and have better stats with myself.
This also made Aubrey watch 2001: A Space Oddessey for the first time in her life while home alone today. If you are like me and enjoy crossing off things off lists, and sometimes sit around wondering what movie you should watch, this site is for you.

More Off-Season Lost Stuff

Doc Jensen from Entertainment Weekly has once again posted his thoughts on Lost and the core themes and ideas throughout the different seasons.  This along with the questions most people want answered during the final season of Lost that begins far too long from now.  I really like Jensen's ability to tie a lot of things together from popculture and books and philosophers that I would never read or even if I did, I would never be able to piece together everything he does.  

Below are the different articles that he posted this summer and all have their merits.

Diary of a Superfan Part 1

Diary of a Superfan Part 2

The Cult of Cult TV Part 1

The Cult of Cult TV Part 2

Lost's Core Themes and Mysteries

Fifteen Must Answer Questions  - The setup of this is a little annoying since you have to scroll through each one to move on, but they are good question.

Enjoy, and do yourself a favor and read some of the things he makes reference to.  I have read Watchmen and Sandman many times, and enjoyed them.  I attempted to read the Third Policeman and had to put it down since I didn't understand it, but if you are looking for things to read and are a fan of Lost, most of these seem to be good options.

Also, for people that like Doc Jensen, you can read all his musings going back to season 1 at his section of the Entertainment Weekly Website called Totally Lost.  There is a ton of good stuff especially since his thoughts were always great, and you see how wrong he was at times and others how close he was in predicting what was going to happen.

Fun With YouTube

I have never been the type to play around on youtube all day and night, but sometimes there are some genuinely funny things on there.  Since my computer is still not working well, I have not been blogging, but this could be something to keep both of my loyal readers happy.

1)  The first is the "Hastily Made Cleveland Tourism Videos".  There are two of them, and they are very funny.   The only problem is the song is far too catchy that you will find yourself singing it for days.  It's still worth it, but don't say I didn't warn you.

First Video

Second Video

2) This video is different.  The first time you watch it, you will have absolutely no idea what is going on.  But if you watch it a second time you will probably die of laughter.  Apparently, the audio in this is from a guy trapped in a closet tripping on acid just talking to himself.  Then the video was added.  I've probably watched it about 10 times, and still have no idea what's going on, but I quote it often enough.  

Enjoy

There will be more going forward on this blog, but for now this should be enough to keep people occupied.