Ten best albums I heard this year.

So, I don't really dig on a lot of new music, as some of you may know. And not having a lot of money, I'm more of a downloader than a CD buyer. So these are the ten best albums I heard this year. A couple of them are 2003, but they're still good, and I heard them for the first time this year.

1. The Grey Album - DJ Dangermouse - What can be said about this album that hasn't been said already? Far and away the best thing I heard all year.

The rest in no particular order:
A Night At The Hip-Hopera - The Kleptones (Picking up where Dangermouse left off, this is a great Queen/hip-hop mashup CD.)

A DJ Green Lantern Beastie Boys Mix Tape that is mucho cool.

Has Been - William Shatner (highlighted by a Rollins/Shatner rant/duet.)

Cosmos - Zombi (Pittsburgh-area prog-rockers who've obviously been studying the work of Goblin. Highly recommended if you're into that sort of thing.)

The End Of Heartache - Killswitch Engage (Probably the best Hardcore/Metal band out there today(though Lamb Of God's a close second.)

American Idiot - Green Day (Bringing back the concept album, Green Day releases their best album since Dookie, and maybe their best one period.)

The Spine - They Might Be Giants (The Homestar videos were a particular highlight.)

Glory! - Gil Scott-Heron (This is a best of 2-disc, and it may not be 2004, but it's got some great tracks on it.)

Unearthed - Johnny Cash (4 discs of great unreleased music recorded for Rick Rubin and a Cash on American greatest hits CD. Something for everyone here.)

Our Endless Numbered Days - Iron And Wine (Heard one song on the local college station and fell in love with it. There's really not much to it, but it's great if you're into the Nick Drake vibe.)

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Honorable mention: U2 - How To Disarm An Atomic Bomb, Wilco - A Ghost Is Born, Eminem - Encore

Overall, not a bad year for music, even if the marginalization of the pop song in the chart named for it continues unabated.

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Happy New Year to you and yours, and see you in 2005~!

Awesome Beatles mashup~!

...is here. It's phenomenal. Get it before EMI catches up to it!

Randomness...

Okay, I got Madden 2005 for the PC for Christmas. Can someone explain to me why it is that EA can make a game that mimics almost perfectly the NFL experience, but they can't make a punter who can kick a ball more then 15 yards? I mean, really, I watch football all the time, and the short punt is more exception then rule. I find myself wondering if it isn't intentional to keep games close, because invariably, my punt returner fumbles the ball if the defender is too close. Not once in a while, mind you, but every freaking time.

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Downloaded a torrent of various coverages of the tsunamis. That was some serious shit right there, let me tell you. The worst part was watching the people filming who were close to it and wanting to yell "Get the hell away! Stop filming!"

Amazon's collecting money for the Red Cross(like it's going out of style, or so I've read), and you can also find other links to other donations at Boing Boing. Give til it hurts, people, and remember, next time it could be you.

Also, you can go here, which is BuzzMachine's latest post, with references to other blogs about the tsunamis, as well as links to torrents of the news footage and notes about donations.

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LokiTorrent, one of the larger BT trackers, is fighting back. Unlike the Pirate Bay, who are out of Sweden, this guy's in the US, and is looking for help from the Electronic Frontier Foundation to take on the MORONS at the MPAA. Go get 'em, man~!

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Almost done with The Battle Of Algiers. Really. I'm serious. I just have to watch the rest of disc 3 (about 3 hours or so) and then I'm done. Quick thoughts: I can see why they watched it at the Pentagon. It really is something like a microcosm of the problems that we're having over in Iraq. And it's a phenomenal piece of filmmaking, one you can't take your eyes away from.

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Tomorrow: 10 best albums I heard this year.

R.I.P. Jerry Orbach.

Rest in peace, Lennie.

Not that I don't like Dennis Farina, but there was something lost this year without Lennie on L&O. I wonder what they'll do with L&O: Trial By Jury now?

Merry Christmas~!

Unless something dramatic happens tonight, I won't be posting tomorrow, so Merry Christmas to all. Hopefully, you get what you want~!

My ten favorite Christmas songs of all time. After number one, they're in no particular order, but number one is my favorite one ever.

1. Christmas Wrapping - The Waitresses - Until I hear this song, it isn't Christmas, and I didn't hear this one until late. Yeah, it's dated(and what oldie that they dust off for the holiday isn't?), but it's a great slice of new wave with a great chorus.

Harry Connick Jr. - It Must Have Been Ol' Santa Claus

Emerson, Lake and Palmer - I Believe In Father Christmas - There are a couple of versions of this out there. I like the one that ends quietly, without the bombastic choir.

Bob Rivers - I Am Santa Claus

Billy Squier - Christmas Is The Time To Say I Love You

Dave Matthews - Christmas Song

The Whirling Dervishes - You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch - For the longest time, I thought this was Oingo Boingo.

Vince Guaraldi - Oh Christmas Tree

The Kinks - Father Christmas

Keith Richards - Run Rudolph Run

I'll admit to being somewhat sentimental and that I enjoy the traditional stuff too, but these are the songs I want to hear most at this time of year. (Though I'm also a sucker for the Carpenters.)

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See you next week. Top Ten Albums of the year, and some real content, maybe.

Random stuff today...

Great mashup link here. The Beastles(figure it out.) Thanks to Nate for the heads up. If you're into mashups, by the way, following the link on the mashup site will lead you to a bunch of other DJ pages.

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Attention all you wacky people who are still hitting my blog searching for torrents. Give it up, the MPAA and the RIAA are after you. Seriously. There are no torrents here.

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Recent searches that got people here:

ECW Match Torrent
Rise And Fall Of ECW Torrent
Dave Chappelle's Wife (not sure what this relates to)
Salon Kitty nudity pictures (no nudes here either, sorry)
Mondo Cane Torrent
Leo Nolan (a boxer who I wrote about a while back)
Is Jim Holliday Dead?
Otis Griffin Next Great Champ (who did win that show, anyway?)
Brigitte Lahaie download
MST3K Season 0 Torrent

Apparently all the people who used to come here looking for Salo either found it or just gave up.

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Three days until Christmas, and I actually won't have to run around like crazy looking for last minute gift items. Thank Grodd for small miracles.

A link and a test image...

If, like me, you're a disgruntled NHL fan, then you should go and read this. I couldn't have said it any better. (Thanks to Gavrilo for the link, by the way.)

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Here's a test image to see if this works. Coincidentally, in the wake of the recent Bittorrent raids, it's also how I feel about all this business.



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More later, maybe.

Some random things...

Can't wait for Christmas to be over. I'm about out of cash and credit, and I think I'm finally finished with all of the nonsense. The only good thing is that because I managed to escape from Tommy K's, I won't have to work Christmas Day. I do have to work Christmas Eve at the new job, but that's okay, because I only have to work two hours, and it will allow me to miss out on the wife's relatives that I can't really tolerate.

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Oh, yeah, that's right. I got a new part time job. I've traded up video stores from independent to really cool arthouse independant. The new location is Best Video, a store that I've been renting from for a long time, and always wanted to work at. So now I'm working as their drop box driver, a job that allows me to work 2 hours a night for a decent paycheck, get free rentals, and still have time to be home with my daughter. Yay me~!

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DV has returned from the dead, sort of, and I rejoice. The big component's still offline, and will be for a while, but the forum's back, and that's enough for me. I'm happy to be able to hang out with that group of internet "friends" again.

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Currently downloading the Chyna/Sean Waltman video out of morbid curiousity(mostly because I don't want to waste the rental fee on it). I might review it if I can stomach it.

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Not sure I like the Randy Johnson trade. I realize that he's still Randy Johnson, but I feel like the Yanks gave up on Javier Vasquez too fast. We'll just have to see, I suppose. It's going to be a long two months between the end of football and the start of the baseball season without hockey. Thanks a lot, you bastard owners.

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Watched a really interesting documentary on the Sundance Channel recently. Dig! is the story of two musicians, Courtney Taylor of the Dandy Warhols, and Anton Newcombe of the wonderfully named Brian Jonestown Massacre. They were friends once, but the success of the Warhols(relatively speaking; they're big in Europe) and Newcombe's personal demons drove them apart. The film tracks nearly ten years in the two bands' relationships. We watch as Newcombe feuds with bandmates, audiences, and record company executives. The worst thing about watching Dig! is that Newcombe is clearly very talented, but very troubled. The music that you hear in the film played by the Massacre is really well written and performed, certainly better than the Warhols' stuff. Don't get me wrong; the Warhols are a great band, but there's just something really out there about Newcombe's songs. He's almost like John Lennon or Dylan in some ways. But as you watch the film, you begin to realize that each time it seems like the Massacre is going to break out, Newcombe does something to sour the deal. He also can't deal with the success of the Warhols, and he ends up alienating the friends who supported his band and tried their hardest to help him succeed. In the end, Newcombe is a tragic figure, struggling to get his message heard, but struggling as much against his own troublesome nature as against any external pressures.

Dig! apparently isn't on video yet, or at least if it is, Amazon's not selling it. If you have a chance to catch this film on Sundance, it's really well done and worth watching.

R.I.P Jim Holliday

CHATSWORTH, Calif. - Jim Holliday, AVN Award winning producer, historian, founding father of the X-Rated Critics Organization and author of such inside industry tomes as Only the Best and The Adult Movie Almanac, passed away due to complications brought on by Type II Diabetes.

His longtime friend and confidant Jack Gallagher expressed his thoughts of Holliday’s special place in the hearts and souls of the industry, saying, “ He put his whole life into the business and gave his whole life to the business and he loved the girls. He’s one of a kind, an enigma, an icon and can’t be replaced.”

His “cosmic soul brother,” William Margold, offered, in the forward of Only the Best, “[Holliday] ascended without a doubt, false step or close contender, to the top of the carnal cinema throne.”

Holliday wrote in the 1982 Top 100 X-Rated Films of All Times that, “from a purely cinematic standpoint, over 95% of adult films are predictable dreck.”

Holliday also wrote a classic bit of prose about our industry, stating, “Pornography is defined as written or pictorial matter intended to arouse sexual feelings. The word obscenity is not part of the definition, and the two words are linked only by those who seek to impose their narrow beliefs on the rest of society. The adult film industry has been referred to as the last bastion for free thinking entrepreneurs.”

Rest of the article is here.(Site's NSFW, just so you know.)

A true legend in the industry, and a hell of a writer, a guy "who forgot more about the industry than most people ever knew."(William Margold)

Smart, Oscar, very smart.

From Boxing Central.com:

Oscar De La Hoya has confirmed that he will not retire. He is in the midst of planning a return to the ring. He will not continue as a middleweight though. He will not even be a light middleweight. Instead, De La Hoya will drop 2 weight classes to fight again as a welterweight. He originally left the division after stopping Arturo Gatti in March of 2001.

Speaking to the Puerto Rican newspaper El Nuevo Dia, De La Hoya said, "From 147 to 150, that's my natural weight. It's almost impossible to do something in the 154 or 160 divisions. It's too heavy for me."

The Golden Boy has not performed well above 150 pounds. Since he left the welterweight division he has gone 4-2. On top of that, one of the wins was a disputed one against Felix Sturm and another was a brawl with Fernando Vargas where Oscar was badly hurt a number of times. Under 150 his record is 33-2. The two losses were a split decision with Shane Mosley and a robbery against Felix Trinidad.

This move by De La Hoya puts an end to a potential rematch with Trinidad who is campaigning at middleweight. He said, "If he wants to come down, the door is open. But it would not be very intelligent from my part to go up in weight."

Oscar's getting his ass handed to him at the higher weights. It will be interesting to see what he can do back at the lower weight class. I guess he'll be going after Cory Spinks, but it would be interesting to see him fight Kermit Cintron.

A quick shout out for help~!

Hey, if any of you guys who's reading this is a DV'er, drop me a line and let me know if you know what's going on. Is DV dead because of the raids or what?

Top Ten(ish) DVDs of The Year...

This was a great year for the film geeks out there. Blue Underground continued to crank out great special editions, the flood of Asian product continued(some great and some not so great), and even the major studios ran out some good vault material. Of course, the best part of the year for me was getting a DVD burner, but that's beside the point. So here we are, the Top Ten(or so) DVDs of the year. (Also in no particular order.)

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WWE's successful raiding of their vaults paid off threefold this year with Cheating Death, Stealing Life: The Eddie Guerrero Story, Hard Knocks - The Chris Benoit Story, and especially The Rise and Fall Of ECW. They've wisely chosen to highlight the people their smart fan base loves, and hopefully this trend will continue in '05 with the RVD DVD scheduled.

Zombie - There were two versions of this released this year, on the same day no less. I bought both. Blue Underground's disc has slightly better video, and the Media Blasters 2-disc is packed with special features, giving this hunk of Italian cheese more of a polish than this movie ever deserved.

Clerks X - Kevin Smith goes back to the well to remind us all why we liked him in the first place after the abject failure of Jersey Girl. Basically, this disc has everything you could possibly want to know about Clerks, and theoretically, there'll never be a need for another version.(We mean it, Kevin. Make better movies.)

Dawn of The Dead(1978)- Ultimate 4-Disc Edition - As with Clerks X, this should be the last edition of this movie we'll ever need to see. Featuring all three variant cuts of the movie, plus a packed disc of special features, three seperate commentaries, and even a cheesy commercial for the mall that they filmed in. If you love the movie, buy this and you'll never need another copy. Ever~!

Videodrome Criterion Collection Edition and Fast Company - One is David Cronenberg's wackiest flick as well as surprisingly prescient, and the other is his most obscure film, a straight B-actioner about drag racing. Criterion's DVD is loaded with features and has a great transfer and commentary tracks, and the Blue Underground DVD of Fast Company has a great commentary also along with a good documentary about Cronenberg's cinematographer, along with a bonus disc featuring Cronenberg's two student films, both of which show touches of things to come.

Kinji Fukasaku's The Yakuza Papers: Battles Without Honor & Humanity - Possibly the greatest Japanese mob movies ever made, collected in one awesome box. Fukasaku is arguably the spiritual forebear of Takashi Miike, and these films are probably his greatest achievement outside of Battle Royale. Home Vision has collected the five Battles films into one amazing box set. Fully restored and remastered, the box also has a bonus disc that's a great introduction to Fukasaku.

The Star Wars Trilogy - Duh. Like this wasn't going to be on the list.

The Final Countdown - Until this year, represented by a terrible public domain transfer, Blue Underground cleaned this up beautifully, and issued it in a nice 2-Disc edition. This 1980 sleeper was a staple of cable television in the 80's, and it's a great little sci-fi picture. The DVD has a great interview with Lloyd Kaufman of Troma Films, who was production manager on the film and even managed to get himself a cameo in the film.

Baby Snakes - Not too much Zappa exists on DVD, so it was nice to see this finally escape from the Barking Pumpkin vaults. Nice 5.1 mix, even though there aren't any real special features to speak of. But a must have for Zappa fans.

THX-1138: The Director's Cut - George Lucas' other big DVD release of the year. Another nice restore job here, not nearly as annoying or obvious as the Star Wars Special Editions. Some nice special features here, particularly the vintage footage of the actors getting their heads shaved for the movie.

The Apple - No special features, no big ad campaign, just the greatest terrible movie ever made, and a movie I'd always wanted on DVD. Thanks, MGM~!

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Obviously, the Return Of The King SE isn't on this list, because it only streeted yesterday, and I'm not getting it until Christmas, but I'm sure it'll be a top tenner.

Next list - Ten Best Albums I Heard This Year(not necessarily of 2004).

How do you write a top 10 list for a year in which you didn't actually see 10 movies made this year?

So, Top Ten Movies I Saw This Year. As the title of the post says, I don't think I even saw ten movies with a production date of 2004, so instead, we go with the best stuff I watched this year.

This list's not in numerical order, since I'm straining my brain even trying to remember what I watched this year.

Kill Bill Volume 2 - A satisfying conclusion to the saga, though I think it will be better when it can be seen as Tarantino intended it. Hopefully, the full-length version will pop up soon.

Shrek 2 - The rare sequel that might just be better than the first. Loved the wall-to-wall pop culture references and the goofy American Idol spoof on the DVD.

Return Of The King - I saw this in March, finally, and I thought it was just about perfect, geekboy arguments about Saruman notwithstanding. Can't wait to get my extended edition DVD for Christmas.

Vidocq - A strange French confection whipped up by Pitof, the director of the odious Catwoman film. It's a lot of style and not much substance, but you can't look away.

Gigantic - A Tale Of Two Johns - A great documentary about They Might Be Giants. Very entertaining, and lots of great music. The DVD's got a ton of great extras as well.

Dawn Of The Dead - I didn't expect to say this, because I wasn't expecting much, but this turned out to be a pretty damn good horror film, though very different from the original. And I still don't like running zombies.

The Godfathers Of Mondo - A great documentary about Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi, the italian filmmakers behind Mondo Cane and several other "Mondo" documentaries. A very candid look at the real and unreal events behind the original "Reality" movement.

Revenger's Tragedy - A very wild Alex Cox adaptation of a sixteenth century play, set in the near future, and starring Christopher Eccelston and Eddie Izzard. Highly entertaining, unusual, bloody, and great, great fun.

Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind - Weird, wild, and entertaining. Jim Carrey's best movie since The Truman Show and maybe the best performance of his career, plus a great ensemble cast and great visuals.

Casshern - Forget Sky Captain, this is some serious stuff. Produced almost entirely on bluescreens(the "Digital Backlot", they're calling it now), this Japanese film is some wacky sci-fi stuff, based on an early '70's anime. It cost $9 million and looks like $90 million. Dreamworks has the U.S. rights to it(I saw a R2 "import") and hopefully they'll give it the kind of release that Hero and House Of Flying Daggers got.

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As you'll notice, there aren't a lot of mainstream movies here; That's because I haven't watched a lot of the stuff I've ripped. I'm sure Spiderman 2 will go right to the head of this list once I've watched it, as would Shaun Of The Dead. But I don't get to see new stuff much, so maybe they'll be on next year's list.

Next list - The Ten Best DVDs Of The Year.

A couple of quick hit reviews...

If you like wrestling, particularly of the ECW variety, then you need to go out and get yourself a copy of the new Rise and Fall of ECW DVD from WWE Home Video. Unlike the revisionist history of The Monday Night War, this DVD is told from the perspective of the workers and Paul Heyman(though, truth be told, nobody in ECW that wasn't employed by WWE gets interviewed. But I digress.) and it is warts and all. We get the whole story, from the early days of Eastern Championship Wrestling, through Heyman's fights with WWE and WCW over talent, the battle to get ECW on Pay-Per-View, and the death struggle between Heyman and TNN over content and promotions. The best part of the show is all the great ECW footage, as well as 6 complete matches from the ECW days, though there could have been more matches, and maybe a slightly different selection. (I want WWE 24/7, by the way. Just thought I'd get that out there.)

Highly recommended, even without the voices of Raven and Sandman to contribute(though one wonders what Jim Fullington might even contribute, as his brain is surely addled from all the beer he drank and all the cans he crushed on his head as well.)

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Georges Bataille's Story Of The Eye(2004) is a very strange and very hardcore underground film based (extremely loosely, I'm informed) on a famous French book of the late 20's. Hell if I could tell you what this movie was about, aside from hardcore sex of all varieties(boy/boy, girl/girl, three-way). It also raised quite a stir at DV, as several of my compatriots were apparently expecting something altogether different from what it turned out to be. Andrew McElhenny's film is well shot and well put together, but ultimately, it's a lot of sound and hardcore fury signifying nothing.

Avoid unless you want to see weird, almost Cafe Flesh-like surrealistic hardcore without the money shots.

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Later today, if I get to it, Top 10 Movies I Saw This Year.

RIP - Larry Buchanan

From Fangoria:

December 10: RIP Larry Buchanan

The Hollywood Reporter broke the news about the death last Thursday, December 2 of B-movie director Larry Buchanan, who succumbed to complications from a collapsed lung at age 81. The Texas-born Buchanan, who chronicled his life and films in the 1996 McFarland book IT CAME FROM HUNGER: TALES OF A CINEMA SCHLOCKMEISTER, began his career as an actor and then made documentaries for evangelist Oral Roberts (!) before moving on to the low-budget sci-fi and horror movies that gave him a cult following, such as MARS NEEDS WOMEN, THE NAKED WITCH, IT’S ALIVE (no relation to the Larry Cohen pic), ZONTAR, THE THING FROM VENUS, THE EYE CREATURES, IN THE YEAR 2889 and CREATURE OF DESTRUCTION. His most recent film, which he completed just shortly before his death, is THE COPPER SCROLL OF MARY MAGDALENE, about the life of Jesus Christ. You can read more about that film and Buchanan here, and check out our own interview with the director in Fango #41. (Thanks to Jeff Buchanan) —Michael Gingold

Mars Needs Women was a favorite of mine as a kid, and Buchanan was a exploiteer of the highest order, right up there with H.G. Lewis and David Friedman. Not too many more of those kind of people around anymore, although you could almost say that Mark Burnett and Endemol are the bastard offspring of the roadshow exploiters. Rest in peace, Larry.

R.I.P. Dimebag Darrell

To borrow a question from my erstwhile associate, AirGuthrie, who would possibly want to shoot Dimebag? And I found myself glad that it wasn't my cousin's band on stage, just in case this was purely random.

GUNMAN LEAPS ON STAGE TO ATTACK U.S. METAL BAND - FIVE DIE
2004-12-09 08:16 (New York)


Columbus, Ohio (dpa) - Five people were killed and two injured in
the United States late Wednesday when a gunman leapt onstage and began
firing during a nightclub performance by a heavy metal band, reports
said Thursday,
The shooting, in the Alrosa Villa club in Columbus, Ohio, occurred
as the band Damageplan were playing. U.S. television network NBC
reported that shortly after the performance began, a member of the
audience stormed the stage, firing at least five shots at the group's
lead guitarist, Dimebag Darrell.
Darrell, a former member of prominent 1990s group Pantera, was
among those reportedly killed, along with another bandmate.
The unidentified gunman then reportedly turned his weapon on the
550-strong audience before being tackled by a member of the club's
security staff. He was then shot and killed by a police officer, news
network CNN reported.
Police have however not officially released the names of the dead
despite widespread reports that Darrell and another band member were
killed.
Witnesses told reporters that when the attack began, they had at
first thought it was part of the act.
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More later.

The Top Ten Things I Downloaded This Year.

This was the year of Bit Torrent for me. What a wonderful tool, so much easier then the Kazaas and the WinMXes and the Soulseeks of the world. With BT, if you want something and it's there, you get it without any great waiting around, hoping that one guy that's sharing the Ennio Morricone CD or the British TV episode will come back online. (Unless of course, you're trying to get something that's 12 GB long, then you wait.) And the best part of BT is the members-only forums I belong to, where almost all of this stuff came from. Ask nicely, and promise me you'll be a good sharer and not a scumbag leech, and maybe I'll tell you where I got this stuff.

10. A McDonalds Training Film, Circa 1972 or so. HI-larious. Basically, it's about being courteous when taking orders, and the two actors playing the McD's employees are just terrible. And the paper hats and uniforms. High quality camp.

9. Do Dialectics Break Bricks? - French politcal nonsense coming out of the mouths of kung fu film actors. Good stuff, even if the print's not great.

8. A brief clip of The Undertaker rehearsing the end of his Great American Bash match in which he "buried" Paul Bearer "alive" in cement. How this got out to the satellite is unclear, but it offers an amusing glimpse behind the scenes of a PPV.

7. The complete discography of They Might Be Giants, which includes an awesome live radio concert from this past summer.

6. A nice clean copy of the out-of-print Mystery Science Theater 3000 movie, which is now on a DVD in my collection. A big catch.

5. A lot of really amusing and goofy 70's pr0n, courtesy of Benitosan over at DV. We're talking Seka, John Holmes, Veronica Haven, the whole nine yards. Ron Jeremy when he was young and (relatively) thin. Sharon Mitchell when she was somewhat attractive, before the nose took over. Most is really high quality, which makes me happy.

4. The complete discographies of Goblin and Claudio Simonetti, as well as all of the available soundtracks to Lucio Fulci's movies. I love cheesy Italo-horror soundtracks, and this was like a direct shot of China White into my veins. Thanks to LeonX at DV for these.

3. MST3K Seasons 0(the KTMA season) and 1 Complete. Nice copies of both, particularly the KTMA ones, which are about the best quality I've seen anywhere around. (Bonus shoutout to the MST3K Digital Archive Project, which has been spiffing up episodes from every season and upping them.)

2. Culloden - A great TV film by Peter Watkins depicting the last battle ever fought on British soil in modern-news style fashion. Watkins was a filmmaker who made quasi-documentaries with nonprofessional actors, and I also acquired two of his other films. The War Game, which depicts the horrors of a nuclear war and was banned by the BBC, was released in theaters and went on to win Best Documentary at the 1966 Oscars. The Gladiators (The Peace Game) depicts a future where war has been abolished and countries instead play a variation of "Capture The Flag" to settle differences.

And the best thing I downloaded all year:

The Gray Album - D.J. Dangermouse - Yes, I know it led to a slew of imitators(Jay-Zeezer, anyone?), but it's audacious, amazing, and it just works. And the fact that EMI freaked out about it only made it more interesting to those of us who believe in artistic expression. Another mashup, almost as good, is The Kleptones' A Night At The Hip-Hopera, which melds Queen together with various rap artsts. I think it's been shut down also, but if you hunt around, as I did, you can find it out there.

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So that's the list. Honorable Mention goes to a flood of Brigitte Lahaie films recently released on DV and Empornium; a decent rip of the uncut version of The Burning; a nice file of all 8 Halloween film scores; and 42nd Street Forever, a great compilation of grindhouse trailers.

Next week: Top Ten Films I saw this year.

Placeholder post.

I had a whiny Livejournal-type post all set to go here, but then two things happened.

1. I thought better of it.
2. Blogger ate it.

So, it's for the best. Suffice it to say that the last couple of days have not been what I might have expected out of them. More than that would be whining, and I don't whine on my blog.

Finished Book 5 of The Dark Tower series last night, and now I have to wait until Christmas for Book 6, which sucks, because like Book 3, Book 5 ends with an cliffhanger, though the cliffhanger of Book 5 is decidedly more meta than the book 3 one. I liked Book 5 more than I thought I would, and certainly more than Book 4, which I thought was overlong and didn't really do anything for the plot.

More later, and tomorrow, Top 10 Things I Downloaded This Year.