Wake up, Puppet Boy!

Today I'm thankful for:

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 11:48:04 -0500

—This wonderful town in which I’ve spent two decades of my life.

—The smell of the huge turkey cooking in the kitchen.

—Santa Claus coming to town.

—Carly Simon, for giving me the best laugh I’ve had in a while.

—The Internet, as it provides way too much entertainment bang-for-my-buck.

—Video games that distract me from my work.

—The ability to live in a city I love, know the people I do, and create amazing things for a living.

And especially you. Tumblr is consistently fun and insightful, and I’m glad to be even a small part of the community.

(via threeframes) “That’s bullshit! I did not hit...

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 09:55:07 -0500

(via threeframes)

“That’s bullshit! I did not hit her! I did not! Oh, hi Mark.” Give thanks that you’re not Johnny, and that your best friend Mark is not sleeping with Lisa…who you did not hit.

On the subject of the last decade's albums...

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:26:26 -0500

Before I picked up that NME list, I challenged myself to write down my favorite twenty albums from the last ten years. Here’s what got to the paper, in no particular order:

Annie, Anniemal

New Pornographers, Twin Cinema

KT Tunstall, Drastic Fantastic

Sleater-Kinney, One Beat

John Legend, Get Lifted

Get Him Eat Him, Arms Down

Neko Case, Middle Cyclone

The Hold Steady, Stay Positive

The White Stripes, Elephant

Arcade Fire, Neon Bible

Los Abandoned, Mixtape

Avalanches, Since I Left You

Gorillaz, Demon Days

Super Furry Animals, Rings Around the World

Arctic Monkeys, Whatever I Say I Am…

The Shins, Chutes Too Narrow

Danger Mouse, The Grey Album

The Strokes, Is This It

Outkast, Stankonia

Radiohead, Kid A

And we can keep talking about Underdog Victorious or RIOT! or
Mass Romantic or The Mask and Mirror or Memory Almost Full or I Get Wet or Live with the Metropole Orkestra or Magic or Love and Distance (which might be the most underrated album of all time, The Helio Sequence should be GODS by now). For a decade which gets a lot of internal shit, the 200s have been a fertile and prolific area for excellent work.

THE TOP 100 GREATEST ALBUMS OF THE DECADE

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:15:29 -0500

THE TOP 100 GREATEST ALBUMS OF THE DECADE :

yourfavoriteredhead:

haleyleigh:

annahinks:

expecto-patronum:

wow 9/10 of my favorite bands made it to the top 10 (guess who’s got the top spot?)

so who’s got bad taste in music now

i don’t see any fueled by ramen band on the list

burn

NME knows what’s up.

I try to never read best-of lists because they’re like Fox News; after consuming, I’m just really, really pissed off. I read this one, and it’s atrocious. No more this year.

(FYI, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is far too low, The Libertines are far too high and Boxer is not there.)

yeah, i sort of agree, it’s a good list, but the order is wrong and The National’s Boxer isn’t on there, so it is invalid.

List voided for complete lack of New Pornographers, and too many artists repeated for albums that really, truly sucked. In Rainbows over Kid A? In what universe? And stop with all the Interpol love, seriously. I made braying horse noises and still got 100% in that song they have in Guitar Hero World Tour.

Kudos for throwing Original Pirate Material up that high, because that album is a stone-cold killer.

"There’s no such thing as an ironic beating."

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:29:45 -0500

“There’s no such thing as an ironic beating.”

- Sam bringing truth to the redhead-violence story.

And now, thanks to YourFavoriteRedhead...

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:10:03 -0500

(Well, tangentially at least), I’m sitting here with “Culloden’s Harvest” stuck in my head.

When the Scots comes out, it really comes out of me.

I cannot stop staring at this.

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 14:56:58 -0500

I cannot stop staring at this.:

I guarantee you won’t be able to either.

This year, I’m thankful that Audrey Hepburn ever existed.

More attacks on redheads reported at Calabasas school

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 14:43:48 -0500

More attacks on redheads reported at Calabasas school:

yourfavoriteredhead:

Three students reported being beaten up by about a dozen students at A.E. Wright Middle School. Authorities believe the attacks are linked to a Facebook group based on a 2005 episode of ‘South Park.’

Wow. This is terrible. Do people really take South Park that literally? They were joking, gingers do have souls, okay? And there is no such thing as Gingervitis. Ugh. This was a few miles from my house, no less. Um, I think I should stay inside this weekend.

Jesus. H. Balls.

I do not articulate well on this subject in writing, but this is indicative of one of our last permitted racist viewpoints. “Ginger” comes from institutionalized stereotypes of the Celtic people (same with “Redneck,” which originally denoted only those of Scottish origin), and draws on a genocidal hatred born from the Anglo-Saxon Protestant tradition.

I’m proudly of Scotch heritage, and this sort of behavior makes my blood boil. I will defend until the end of the Earth any bonnie lass with fiery hair, or any upstanding lad with the same.

(And yes, I know that other cultures have red hair as well, but the Ginger epithet grew from a snotty entitled English point of view, so there’s that. I love the Brits, but oh my holy lord they’ve got some terrible racism in their past.)

"After my picture fades And darkness has turned to gray, Watching through windows, you’re..."

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:14:29 -0500

“After my picture fades
And darkness has turned to gray,
Watching through windows, you’re wondering if I’m OK.
Secrets stolen from deep inside
The drum beats out of time…”

- Lauper/Hyman, “Time After Time”

Which always reminds me of the bittersweet of high school, the times I actually felt accepted in those weird years. On the lead-up to Thanksgiving weekend, when everyone treks home to see family and friends, it felt appropriate.

How I can tell that I live in the future: I can watch Spock...

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:35:15 -0500

How I can tell that I live in the future: I can watch Spock whenever I want. On my phone. Sometimes I have to slow down and realize what kind of insane technology we’re taking for granted.

Note to younger self, circa November 1996: You think that the Nintendo 64 is incredible? Well, okay, it is. But imagine a game system way more powerful, touch sensitive, that also plays all your music and gives you radio from around the world and more video than you currently own in your VHS library and keeps you organized so you don’t lose the game of life and keeps you from getting lost in TriBeCa like you always do.

And it’s your frigging phone.

Then again, I probably shouldn’t send that message, because then 12-year-old me will start asking about his rocketpack and robot girlfriend and what his apartment of the future looks like, and I don’t want to impart any harsh truths along with knowledge of the iPhone.

juliasegal: Are movies as good as their posters? (via...

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:05:15 -0500

juliasegal:

Are movies as good as their posters? (via porco-voador)

THIS ONE IS. (Yes, guys, I know. It’s another Streets of Fire post.) Now here are five reasons to watch Streets of Fire over your Thanksgiving break:

1. Rick Moranis plays one of the bad guys. Yes. Rick Moranis from Ghostbusters.

2. Diane Lane in full-on hottie mode wearing possibly the coolest wardrobe of any movie made in 1984.

3. Willem Dafoe in vinyl overalls partaking in a sledgehammer fight with Eddie from Eddie & The Cruisers.

4. An enormously rad soundtrack. Did I mention that this is a musical? A sci-fi action movie musical set in an alternate 1950s? That’s why the soundtrack has music by Jim Steinman, The Blasters, Tom Petty, Stevie Nicks, et al. Because it was a gathering of awesome.

5. Despite failing miserably at the box office, Streets of Fire was incredibly influential. You can blame this one for any action movie of the last quarter-century, as well as pretty much all Anime.

Seriously, when you’re full of turkey on Thursday night, and football no longer interests you, watch this one. It’s on Netflix Instant, so there’s not even a reason to go outside and find it.

How to make an awful video game of Back to the Future: [Horrid...

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:57:17 -0500

How to make an awful video game of Back to the Future:

[Horrid joke about Michael J. Fox’s condition and how it would relate to gameplay deleted.]

Thanks, LJN’s Back to the Future! You’re not only one of the worst games ever made, but you also made me make a joke that hurt my soul. Now I’m going to give copiously to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research in order to atone.

allisonweiss: It’s Like an Early Allison Weiss-Centric...

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:15:28 -0500

allisonweiss:

It’s Like an Early Allison Weiss-Centric Christmas! on Vimeo

This is awesome! Thanks Michael!

(via Vimeo)

Sorry to put this on your dashboard twice, but I needed conclusive evidence! Allison Weiss reblogged my video geeking out over the whole package, and also used my real first name. Seriously, it’s only new clients and my grandmother who still do that, so it’s both odd and kind of enthralling.

Watching her Tumblr blow up with reports of her album this morning is an encouraging sight for a fellow music-industry lone wolf. I’m about to spend the rest of the morning coordinating with my iTunes guys, trying to get the album we’re releasing in January onto the system, and it’s less of a total pain knowing that it actually can be done. As Ms. Weiss points out, she’s doing this as just one person, recording and distributing all of this herself. All I’ve got to do is distribute, so after hearing her side it doesn’t seem like such heavy lifting.

How to screw up a licensed game based on a mildly-popular reboot...

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:08:43 -0500

How to screw up a licensed game based on a mildly-popular reboot of a Warner Brothers character (in three steps or fewer):

1. Make sure that the control scheme changes all the time. Level to level, section to section, hell, even in the middle of a leap! These are all perfect times for the 1 Button to go from “jump” to “die instantly.”

2. Make sure you understand why children like this particular cartoon character. Remember: the kids love it when the Tasmanian Devil remains sedentary. All that spinning, moving like a whirling dervish, spitting and acting crazy confuses them! Leave all that out of the game; they’ll enjoy it much more if he walks everywhere at a leisurely pace.

3. Are you programming this game for the Game Gear? Fantastic! The battery life of that system is almost exactly two hours. Make sure your game takes two hours and one minute to complete. Kids hate endings, as they get depressed when they see them.

Follow all these steps, and before you know it you’ll have created Taz-Mania. Congratulations! You’ve not only ruined Christmas 1992, but you’ve made it impossible for young Rabbitte to watch weekday-afternoon cartoons without wincing.

Another fantastic video from the undisputed king of (plastic)...

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:54:37 -0500

Another fantastic video from the undisputed king of (plastic) guitar rock, Mr. Freddie Wong.

If we ever need to beat the Commies again, I think we know who to call.

Question from an unshaven Rabbitte: What video games are you...

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:41:23 -0500

Question from an unshaven Rabbitte:

What video games are you jamming on right now?

REBLOG IF

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:00:59 -0500

raptoravatar:

lylynn:

jeffchord:

you never watched Pete & Pete as a kid.

Straight up. My best friend was into this, but I never even heard of it.

Easily one of my favorite shows ever made. Keep in mind, this is pre-quirk; yet homeboys are taking a KIDS’ SHOW and injecting it with levels of heart and surrealism that everyone else is still struggling to catch up to with bigger names and way more development muscle behind them.

The one about Little Pete starting his own band remains the most affecting, beautiful encapsulation of the punk/indie experience that I’ve ever seen. If you show it to someone and they don’t immediately understand that raging kernel that forces a person to find themselves by making their own noise, I have serious doubts as to whether or not they were even meant to understand that kernel in the first place.

It was the most freeing experience of my college life when I finally tracked down Polaris’ recordings for this show. That CD never left my car, joining London Calling and Chutes Too Narrow and The Mask and the Mirror as my constant companions. Tearing out of South Central in my Honda, a silver job I’d nicknamed “Airwolf” to heighten the sense of adventure and danger, I’d fly through Los Angeles looking for nothing in particular. I’d often end up in Culver City, because it was simple to find, open enough to pass for a “real city,” and not a particularly demanding location. The destination did not matter. Like Little Pete, I had found that making my own experiences, and trying to recreate the ones which seemed like inspired brilliance, was a goal in and of itself.

Every day was another chance to enact the Great American Road Trip. I did not change time zones, there was no license plate that said “KING O FROD,” no Ellen Hickle came to my side during these adventures, but damnit, everything made sense through that lens. That music, that car, that stretch of road was, at the time, the entire reason for being.

So reblog if you haven’t seen Pete & Pete…and then fix that.

And the CD is flipping sweet. I’m going to sit here with...

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:48:51 -0500

And the CD is flipping sweet. I’m going to sit here with Allison Weiss Was Right All Along on repeat, trying to get all the nuances down.

(Oh, and I totally forgot about the “Fingers Crossed” bracelet I was wearing that also came with the whole package! Seriously, this is the best artist package I’ve received since I bought Finally Woken off of Jem Griffiths herself. Allison Weiss: You Get It!)

Three easy steps to disappoint any seven-year-old with your...

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:17:56 -0500

Three easy steps to disappoint any seven-year-old with your Giant Robot game:

1. Make sure it’s one player only. Any kid playing this game certainly wouldn’t want a social experience, especially one as cathartic as wailing on his older brother in a Robot Vs. Alien fight.

2. Make gratuitous use of the new system’s controller layout. Is this kid just getting used to using a six-button configuration? Then your game should involve lots of wailing on these new extra buttons. Give those tiny hands a workout!

3. The main character should only have one sound effect. And possibly three frames of animation. And should die if he’s touched by anything, such as an enemy or a building or air.

Have you completed these steps? Well done! You’re Ultraman: Towards the Future, and you’ve just ruined Christmas 1991.

New idea! Getting the video camera out, asking a different...

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:34:50 -0500

New idea! Getting the video camera out, asking a different question of the Tumblr Peoples every day. Today’s question:

Which video game did you play the heck out of growing up?