My ear's are bleeding...

So we all made it through another New Year. I guess that Y2K thing was just a scare, but what am I going to do with all these canned goods and a generator? OOh well

Here is my list of the best music of 2008. They are not ranked, just good music that came out this year: (I hate describing music, because everyone hears them differently, so I have thinks to their videos)

• Hold Steady- Stay Positive
• TV on the Radio- Dear, Science
• Bon Iva- For Emma, Forever Ago
  
• Vampire Weekend- Vampire Weekend
• Okkervil River- The Stand Ins
• Kanye West- 808's and Heartbreak
• Q-Tip- Renaissance
• Lil Wayne- Tha Carter III
• Silver Jews- Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea
  
• Airborne Toxic Event- Airborne Toxic Event
  
• Ryan Adams & The Cardinals- Cardinology
• N.E.R.D.- Seeing Sounds
• Kings of Leon- Only By the Night

That's it. I'm sure I left some out, but screw it, it early and it's a New Year. 09!


I watched this last night, and they went to Dick Clark a couple of times. Man, is that guy in bad health. I know he had a stroke a year or two ago, but many he can barely move his mouth or talk. All that plastic surgery has caught up to him. It's too bad, he is a legend.

Best of..........(volume 1)

Happy New Year's Loyal Readers-

I went to a store to pick up some beer and a women was loudly on the phone and I overheard her saying. "yeah, I got everything, just need to get some ice, but I am not sure how I will keep it cold." WTF? It's 6 degrees outside woman.

With the end of the year hours away, here are a few of my Best of Lists:

Best Movies of the Year

1. Batman: Dark Knight- just a cool, fun movie that you can watch over and over again. All the characters are perfectly cast with the actors. Heath Ledger is great, but the rest of the cast is just as good.
2. Curious Case of Benjamin Button: In my opinion the best movie of the year. It probably won't win any awards with all the artsy-fartsy and foreign films that are "live-changing" that will get nominated. The movie is in the same feign as Forrest Gump, but in my opinion is better. David Fincher does a great job of directing, and somehow gets Brad Pitt to look 90 all the way down to about 18. It's a cool story, well acted, interesting plot twists, and great character development. Brad Pitt does a great job of being in every scene, but he will probably not get nominated. See this movie.
3. Tropic Thunder- the funniest movie since SuperBad. The pull no punches making fun of all people, even themselves. There is something to be said about still making potty humor jokes when you are almost 40. Robert Downey Jr. is great as well.
4. Iron Man- another great movie to just watch. It's not going to change your life, but it is entertaining. The plot is a little goofy at times, but who cares. Very fun. Again, Robert Downey jr. is great.
5. Wall-E: I know this is a kid's movie, but you really have to appreciate and respect what they did hear. It is a movie about a lonely, dark future in which a robot goes against everything it is programmed to do, and saves Earth. Somehow they pull it off with very, very little talking. I think I read somewhere that there is less than 7 minutes of talking. Very well done.
6. Hancock- I know some people didn't like this movie because it wasn't what they thought it was going to be. The only thing I would say against it is that it does try to be two different movies, pushed into 1 95 minute movie. It might have been better to be 2 90 minute movies. It is an interesting story about the origin of superheroes (actually gods on earth that we call superheroes) and what if they didn't want to be who they are. How far could they be pushed down (drinking and drugs) before they snapped?
7. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist- Not as good as Juno, but is enjoyable. A nice little story about 2 emo kids who meet and have given up on love, but use music to connect and have a fun-filled night in New York. Not going to change you world, but is entertaining.
8. 7 Pounds- Not nearly as bad as the critics and reviews say it is. Many people say they didn't like it because they "figured it out" in the first 30 minutes. Truth is that this is not a mystery movie, so it doesn't matter if you figure it out. In fact the first scene in the movie is also the last. The only against is, is that the last 20 minutes are kind of stupid how it ends. Well acted by Will Smith who is in every shot of the movie.
9. Doubt- Good and disturbing. Very well acted by Merryl Streep and Phillip Seymour Hoffman.
10. Cloverfield- I know some people didn't like it because it wasn't a true monster movie. Exactly, it's not a monster movie. It's a movie about two people who are in love and should be together but are too afraid to do anything about it, and there just happens to be a monster attacking the city.

Movies I haven't seen which are probably good:
Forgetting Sarah marshall, Gran Torino, Man on Wire, Revolutionary Road, and Slumdog Millionaire

Tomorrow: Music

Can't we all just get along?

It's been a while since someone new has joined my dead to me list...... but, congratulations are in order to 20th Century Fox. (Summer Road Construction lucked out because it is winter, and are now off the list) They are fighting against the release of the movie Watchmen. Now this movie is the only real thing I have left to live for. The trailer is below and it looks sweet. About 2 months ago I taught myself how to read and went out and read the graphic novel, and that was sweet as well. If the movie doesn't totally drop the ball, I think it was be as cool, or cooler than Sin City or 300, both created in the same feign.

The reason that Fox is suing Warner Brothers is stupid. Fox bought the rights to the movie in 1980, and sat on it for over 25 years. Even while Warner Brothers was making the movie, they said nothing about it. Now that it is done and it looks crazy good, they are saying that they still have the only rights to the movie and Warner Brothers has no right to release it. I know I am not "lawyer-smart" but this seems ridiculous. That's like seeing a girl in junior high but never asking her out and then 20 years later she gets married so you go to her new family and take her away from her husband and kids in the middle of the night because you "saw her first."

It seems like the movie will probably still come out, but it may be delayed beyond the original March date, and it may end up costing Warner Brothers millions of dollars. It seems asine that Fox will get a percentage of the movie profits becuase they bought the rights to a story 28 years ago but never did anything with it. Now that someone else did all the work, they want to get all the rewards. That's like a dead-beat-dad knocking up some chick who raises the kid who becomes a star athlete, and then the dad comes back and wants to reunite with the kid and get money from him.

Draft Time

Now that fantasy football is over (I won the superbowl) I am going to start various mock fantasy boards. The great thing about a fantasy draft is that you can have a draft over anything that people argue about the order of. You can also adjust your draft order based on what other people would draft. If you have a sleeper pick, you can gamble and put it lower on your list assuming no one else would draft it.

Today's fantasy draft: Hot Actresses, they must be actresses not models or just random hot chicks. Here's my top 15 draft picks

1. Scarlet Johanson - hot and willing to do it, enough said
2. Jessica Alba- still crazy hot after popping out a child, could kick my ass too, which is hot
3. Natalie Portman- hot, smart, and a nerd who stars in good movies and was in Star Wars. Enough said. Only downside is she usually dates the most emo-ass guys you can imagine.
4. Rosario Dawson- she may be a sleeper pick because not many might think of her, but she is hot and has a weird vibe about her, which increases her value.
5. Keira Knightley- She is hot, maybe too skinny, and she does all those artsy "time-piece" movies.
6. Jessica Biel- she is hot and a great pick, but I lowered her on my list because I think all people will rank her too high and draft her too early, so I will let her go.
7. Mandy Moore- my first true sleeper pick. You might think I am nuts, but she really is hot in those pictures, if she is not hot in real life. Plus she digs emo guys, not crazy emo guys like Natalie Portman, just everyday type emo guys.
8. Rachel McAdams- She is hot, never shows too much in movies to keep you guessing. Plus she is going out/married to my man-crush Ryan Gosling.
9. Kate Beckinsale- is hot, has a cool British accent, and could also probably kick my ass.
10. Olivia Wilde- if you don't like this pick, screw you. She is hot and plays a bi-sexual on House.
The rest of late round picks and waiver-wire pick-ups (in no particular order)

• Megan Fox- is crazy hot, but is also crazy so I dropped her a bit. She has all kinds of bizarre tatoos in weird places and goes out with Brian Austin Green from 90210.
• Mila Kunis- was always kind of hot on that 70s Show, but became really hot recently, but is dating Macaully Culkin.
  
• Eliza Dushku- a total sleeper pick and a waiver wire pickup, she is attractive but makes total s**t movies.
  
• Summer Glau- the chick from that Terminator tv show. I don't know anything about her, and have never seen the show, but in the previews she looks hot, and looks like she could kick my ass.
• Sarah Chalke- another sleeper pick most people would not think of, but she has been on Scrubs for 8 years now and has had various looks and started off kind of hot, but has matured into a hot chick. I have the feeling she is nuts in real life though.
• Rachel Bilson- I am not sure what she is originally famous for, I think she was on the O.C., but she has been in a few movies since and is hot, and looks like she is 16.
• Kristen Bell- another hot chick but dates that douche bag Dax Shephard from the "show" Punked.

I know there are many that I left off the list, some on purpose and some on accident. I think my above team would be a solid squad. Just for sport, here is Maxim's list of top 100 females. Note that Maxim is written by and for idiots, and they include any female, not just actresses.

Anger lowering.........

So what's the deal with Mother Nature now? It gave us a free day, weather-wise, on Christmas day. Actually, that day it didn't matter what the weather is, most people stay in their homes all with their "loved ones."

Now today it's 40 degrees, and we might get rain. This sounds great except, now that puts us in a flash flood warning. Super. With the water falling from the sky and the 13 inches of snow on the ground we could have flooding in houses and in the streets. Just when we think it couldn't get worse. I am actually glad it is warming up and the snow is melting, there is just no where to put it anymore, and you can't see anything when driving, and there is no where to park when you go somewhere.

I actually check the weather forecast and the next 7 days don't look "too bad." In the 20s, no snow (so far),with maybe a little snow next weekend. Let's hope that Mother Nature got all of her wrath out in December (which was the 2nd snowiest December ever in Wisconsin), and gives us a "break" in January.

Also, if I see one more sign making a pun out of winter or snow, I am going to snap. I just drove past a library (obviously didn't go in) and the sign said "Snow Better Time to Read." Oh, I get it, that's hilarious. There is so much snow outside, and in fact some people have died because of it, that you might as well stay inside and read. Hilarious..............Not.

Busy Days

So CHopper here has had an interesting few days.

• Friday night, went to wedding to once again see that love is not real. We got 11 inches of snow that day and I couldn't even drive on my street. I had to park at a hotel that I wasn't staying at and get a cab home at night, and then a cab to my car in the morning.
• On Saturday night I decided to stay out of town at my parents because they have a garage and my street was still s**t.
• Come Sunday Morning the windchill was minus 25 degrees! My car wouldn't start. We tried everything. We jumped it, tried cranking the engine, tried warming it up with space heaters. NOthing would work. I decided to wait til Tuesday when it was suppossed to warm up to a balmy 24 degrees.
• On SUnday night I officially won my Fantasy Football league somehow by 6 points. I'm waiting for the comissioner to put in his codes so he wins............
• I spent the day Sunday and Monday at my parents because my car wouldn't start. Oh-well. On Monday me and my dad were sitting around and the house began to get smoky. There was an electrical fire in the crawl space above the ceiling in his front office. The fire department came, no flame, but they had to rip a hole in the ceiling of the office. THe whole ceiling came down. Some stuff (computer, desk) will have to be replace, while some made it through (bookcase, chair). ALl in all it could have been worse. Someone is coming in on Monday to put the ceiling back together and what not, until then the room is condemned. (Literally the housing authoirty came and closed off the room). The funniest thing is that 2 local news came becuase the fire department came out and they must listen to the airwaves. They asked my dad for a statement, but he said it wasn't a story and it was ridiculous that they were covering this when there were major accidents and murders happening in Milwaukee.
• Today (Tuesday) I went to start my car when it was "warmer" and it still wouldn't start, so I took it in. (I have free towing with my cell phone). Yada yada yada, it has something to do with coordided spark plugs and stuff. $500 later it should be fixed in about 3 hours. (I'm at the dealership now).
• So I am going to be off the airwaves until Friday, I will have no access to the Internets over the holidays do to the computer room being "condemned." (I'll make up with it over the next week.)
• Happy Festivus.

What to do.................

Just wanted all my loyal readers to know that I am on Winter Vacation until January 5th! Suck it b**ches!. There will be plenty of things to rant about on here, stay tuned.