AUDIO: MUSIC: REVIEW: Alice In Chains: Facelift: SONG RANKINGS

I was so annoyed that this album became popular RIGHT after I started listening to it. I actually had a copy before they ever had a video on MTV. Then they became super-mainstream.

Still, this is my favorite Alice In Chains album – and frankly, the only one I think is truly worth owning and KNOWING.

Without further adieu, here is a listing of the songs in the Alice In Chains album “Facelift”, in order from best to worst. Yes… This probably took me 40 minutes to evaluate and verify! Sweet love my labor…

THE LIST:

01_We Die Young [JtC's #2]
04_Bleed The Freak
06_Love, Hate, Love
02_Man In The Box
07_It Ain’t Like That [JtC's #3]
03_Sea Of Sorrow [Parthena's favorite]
12_Real Thing [they should've fleshed out the structure more]
05_I Can’t Remember [possibly the best bridge on the album, though]
09_Put You Down
11_I Know Somethin’ (Bout You)
10_Confusion
08_Sunshine [JtC's #1]

I will accept other submissions of other peoples’ rankings, but you MUST *actually* evaluate all the songs. That means comparing one song to the song next to it, bumping it up one, and doing it again and and again until everything is sorted. This is very similar to a bubble sort.

Here is the full album on youtube:

 

VIDEO: MOVIES: REVIEW: The Avengers (2012)

VIDEO: MOVIE: REVIEW: The Avengers (2012)

5/5 stars from Clint & Carolyn
4/5 stars from Eli
3/5 stars from Parthena.

10/10 from Carolyn,
9.6/10 from Clint,
8/10 from Eli,
6/10 from Parthena.

IMDB overall rating is 8.6/10, making it the 65th highest-rated movie of all time. 42% of people rate it 10/10, and only 1/6th of people rate it less than 8+/10. The median rating is 9/10.

No real need to say much about this. Everyone saw it, and it was as awesome as it promised to be. The clashing of egos was hilarious, and it was great to see this epic heroes — built up over the last 5 Marvel movies or so — finally all together on screen at once.

And of course we’ve been watching the cartoon, Avengers:Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, so we’ve been pretty immersed in these characters on a very regular basis.

Eli: “As long as it stands on the other movies I think it was awesome. That being said I could have had a bit more about Hawk. But for pulling together so many heros’ backstories I thought it did a really good job. Plus it was really funny :)”

Carolyn: “I’m leaning towards 10/10, because it had funny banter and good battles. I can’t think of a reason not to give it a 10.”

LINK URL:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0848228/

 

VIDEO: MOVIES: REVIEW: Dark Mirror (2007)

[IMDB link] [Netflix link] [Official Site] Watched with Parthena, in our continuing quest to watch all mirror-related horror movies. (Completed: Prince Of Darkness, Mirrors … Still to go: Into The Mirror.)

PLOT SUMMARY: Mirrors… They’re still creepy. Cameras, too.

UNCOMFORTABLE PLOT SUMMARY (inspired by this): [highlight for spoilers]→ Bitchy mother becomes murderer.

PEOPLE: Starring TV actress Lisa Vidal, TV actor David Chisum (Penis Pal Glen in The Onion Movie, and a reporter in 1 episode of 24). And their son? He was Marwan’s son in an episode of 24. Weird. The “super hot” chick was played by Christine Lakin (Red in Super Capers, Step By Step, the Reefer Madness musical). Main characters mother was played by Lupe Ontiveros, who is in Todd Solondz’s Storytelling (which we are about to watch), as well as Cheech & Chong‘s Next Movie (1980). One of the creepy douchebags from the interview scene – John Newton – played Clark Kent in the 1980s Superboy series, and was in Melrose Place. The real estate agent, Jean Carol, is a random cougar in the movie Cougar Club, which we are about to watch, and is also in Guiding Light.

VISUALS: Not super visual, but there are moments of very insane visuals. They don’t really pan out into anything substantive, but they do help set the mood.

BAD STUFF: Not generally well-received by most people, thus the low 5.3/10 IMDB rating. Bad acting in many parts. The main character is a bitch — such a bitch! And her husband? Kind of a moron. A lot of over-acting / bad-acting. The movie Mirrors was scarier, but this was definitely scarier than Prince Of Darkness.

CONCLUSION: The end of this movie was definitely better than the beginning. The beginning was mostly 2- and 3-star scenes, but by the end, we were given many 4-star scenes and 5-star moments. I will reluctantly give it 4 stars — but a low 4 stars. Only because the ending helped save it. It definitely had its suspenseful, creepy moments. In fact, most of the movie took place in the day, and was still creepy. It’s harder to pull off creepy during the day, than during the night, so they earned bonus points for that.

RATINGS:

While none of us could completely agree on how many stars to give it, we all felt it was an “IMDB 7/10″:

Clint: Netflix: 3.6/5 stars (a low 4-star movie). IMDB: 7/10.
Carolyn: Netflix: 3/5 stars. IMDB: 7/10.
Parthena: Netflix: 4/5 stars. IMDB: 7/10.

The native public rating for this movie is: IMDB: 5.3/10, Netflix: 2.7/5 stars (Netflix‘s predicted rating for us was 2.8/5 stars).

RECOMMENDATION/SIMILAR MOVIES: If you specifically like mirror horrors, see this for completionism’s sake. It’s comparable to The Broken; maybe a bit worse. It’s not as good as Mirrors. It’s better than Prince Of Darkness.

 

VIDEO: MOVIES: REVIEW: Mirrors 2 (2010)

[IMDB link] [Netflix link]

PEOPLE: Directed by Victor Garcia, a relative nobody. He did the 30 Days Of Night: Blood Trails mini-series, and is working on some new Hellraiser: Revelations straight-to-dvd movie. I guess this is a “sequel guy”.

Starring Nick Stahl (Ben Hawkins from Carnivale, John Conner from Terminator 3, Yellow Bastard from Sin City) as the “Kiefer for the sequel” nightwatchman. Great to actually recognize him for once. BEN HAWKINS!!!!

Co-starring Emmanuelle Vaugier (CSI:NY, Dr. Helen Bryce from 9 eps of Smallvile, Saw 2 & 4).

The saddest character — retarded AND stalked by by mirrors — is played by Evan Jones (Cheddar Bob from 8 Mile). Ms. Rufie (“Jenny McCarthy”) is played by Christy Carlson Romano, the voice of Kim Possible (WTF!).

Matheson is played by William Katt — that is, The Greatest American Hero!!!!!!!!!! I did not recognize his face, at all!! Even though I recognized the name in the opening credits… Nope. Totally didn’t recognize him!

Elenor Reigns (mirror demon) was played by Stephanie Honore, who was in The Final Destination 3-D. Not that she’s in any big roles at all, but I thought it was interesting that we’d at least seen her before.

And that black cop? Lance E. Nichols? He was Preacher from Benjamin Button.

PLOT SUMMARY: Mirrors are fucking evil. Get away from them.

UNCOMFORTABLE PLOT SUMMARY (inspired by this): [highlight for spoilers]→ Retard helps rapist; vigilantes kill him.

QUIRKS: A sequel to Mirrors 1, which was based on the Korean horror film Into The Mirror. And yet, Mirrors 2 actually borrowed MORE material from Into The Mirror than Mirrors 1 did! Is this a remake of Into The Mirror? Is it a sequel of a remake of Into The Mirror? Is it a 2nd remake of Into The Mirror? It’s kind of hard to say, but really, Into The Mirror was remade into both Mirrors 1 *AND* Mirrors 2. This one was actually MORE faithful to the original than Mirrors 1 was. It’s quite interesting to remake 1 movie as 2 movies, borrowing different parts from each one. I haven’t seen a remake quite handled like this.

By the way — if you read all the newspaper clippings during the opening credits, one announced that Ben Carson (Kiefer) [highlight for spoilers]→ died in the building collapse (of Mirrors 1).

VISUALS: The effects were certainly more high-budget and polished than the simple, restrained elegance used in Into The Mirror… But the mirrors weren’t quite as nerve-racking as they were in Mirrors 1. They did, however, have some pretty damn explicit gore. Still, though, I think the visuals were perhaps best in Mirrors 1.

MORALS: Don’t murder people, umm-kay. Murder is bad, umm-kay. If you murder people, mirrors will exact their revenge on you, umm-kay.

GOOD STUFF: That this is truer to the original Into The Mirror movie than Mirrors 1 was a boon to this movie. The exclusion of a goofy “demon on present earth Evil Dead-esque boss battle” was a boon as well.

BAD STUFF: Yet it still felt like it was sequel material. It still wasn’t as *scary* as Mirrors 1. And goddamn, the main character was NOT as likable as Keifer Sutherland. After the shit he pulled — the stupidest fucking wedding proposal in the history of all fiction — he pretty much deserved to die! What a douche.

CONCLUSION: Far truer to the original Korean Into The Mirror, this sequel was actually “less Hollywood” and “less cheesy” than Mirrors 1. It was, however, unfortunately not as scary as Mirrors 1. But it also had the grossest kill scenes (that’s good). It’s very strange that Into The Mirror was remade into both Mirrors 1 *AND* Mirrors 2. All three are great movies. All three are worth seeing. All three are directly related to the other two. Mirrors are creepy as hell. Mirrors make horror movies worth watching. I’d definitely recommend all 3 of these films.

RATINGS:

Clint: Netflix: 4/5 stars. IMDB: 8/10.

Carolyn: Netflix: 4/5 stars. IMDB: 7/10. “yeah, they didn’t pull any punches with the gruesomeness in Mirrors 2. from shower-head decapitations to eyeball stabbings to intestines slopping out of guts… yuck.. but it didn’t seem as … psychologically thrilling like the others… I think it was more similar to the Korean movie than Mirrors 1. I think overall, I still liked Mirrors 1 better.”

Parthena: Netflix: 3/5 stars. IMDB: 6/10. “I think there were some things they did really well (like integrating the girl into the plotline, like the Korean movie) but others I was so-so about. Also, I think Mirrors 2 was by far grosser than the Korean version. Mirrors 1 was more *horrific* (like when Kiefer’s sister got her jaw pulled off while she was taking a bath), which was kind of gross, but that scene last night with the guy’s intestines coming out of his gut was SO INSANELY GROSS.”

TwoBeans: “Slightly better than halfway bad.”

The native public rating for this movie is: IMDB: 4.7/10 (vs 6.1/10 for Mirrors 1), Netflix: 3.3/5 stars (vs 3.2/5 for Mirrors 2).

(Netflix‘s predicted rating for us was 3.0/5 stars. That’s weird. Why did you think we would like this less than average, Netflix? Haven’t you been watching us watch all these mirror movies lately?!).

I think we all agree with the basic assessment that: Mirrors 1 > Into The Mirror > Mirrors 2.

COMPARISON SCORES: Netflix: Clint/Carolyn/Parthena:
Mirrors 1: 5/5/5, Into The Mirror: 4.6/4/4, Mirrors 2: 4/4/3,

COMPARISON SCORES: IMDB: Clint/Carolyn/Parthena:
Mirrors 1: 8/8/8, Into The Mirror: 8/8/7.5, Mirrors 2: 8/7/6.

RECOMMENDATION: I’m thinking that perhaps the best order to watch these 3 movies might be: Into The Mirror, Mirrors 1, Mirrors 2. There’s just enough different in Mirrors 1 from Into The Mirror that you won’t quite expect what happens… And there’s just enough in Mirrors 2 directly lifted from Into The Mirror that you won’t be as disappointed as you normally would from a sequel. These are all 3 worth watching, as are the other great mirror horrors: The Broken and Dark Mirror. (We still haven’t watched Mirror Mirror 1 & 2, but may at a later date.)

Note that Into The Mirror *comes* with Mirrors 2 if you buy it. That’s quite awesome.

COINCIDENCES: Man, during the final cop interrogation, 2Beans joked, “I’ve never seen Good Cop-Good Cop before. It’s usually Good Cop-Bad Cop.” Something to that effect. Then, right after he said it, the scene ended, and the cops said, “That was the easiest interrogation ever! We’ve never tried good cop-good cop before!” Suffice to say, 2Beans received applause from all, and several, “Well done!”s in exchange for predicting it so well!

Also, this movie specifically had scenes that took place during the same day, month, and year that we were watching it on! HOW’D THEY KNOW!?!?! WHAT DOES IT MEAN?!?!

OTHER REVIEWS: Here’s a scathing 1/5 review.

 

VIDEO: List of movies watched in 2010 — SUB POST — for horror movies only

Out of the 176 movies we watched in 2010, 29 (14%) could be classified as horrors.
(NOTE:I count thrillers and mysteries as being their own category separate from horrors.)

This list actually contains some of my favorite movies of the 176 I watched in 2010 (especially Deadgirl), as well as my 4th least favorite movie of the 176 watched in 2010 – Zombie Strippers.

Read past the jump for the lists of individual movies, separated by rating.

 

PERSONAL: JOURNAL: Great weekend, had people over, went camping

Friday We had at least 10 people over here, and it was some chaotic fun for many hours….

Saturday We had 8 people camping, IT WAS NOT COLD, I only wore 3 layers, half of what I wore during my July camping.

Some camping stuff I remember:

* full moon, but later cloud cover made the light very diffuse – could walk around without a flashlight

* first time we ever saw a vehicle past the 2nd gate – an ambulance skulked around for hours, occasionally siren’ing or making 10-point U-turns – someone had been rescued

* Gary/TwoBean’s first time there

* the 2nd gate was completely open! Never seen that, ever.

* ran late, making Evan the first person there. He couldn’t find the site without people already in it, and ended up walking around for miles over an hour.

* ate late at sheets, making Clint too full to really eat anything significant until the next day

* Evan brought no stuff because he thought he’d go back to the cabin, but other people had enough stuff to cover him when he realized that wasn’t happening

* paranoia: Evan mistakes the moon as a spotlight

* NOT cold – only wore 3 layers at night, didn’t even zip up my sleeping bag completely

* vertical log to make the fire go out = neat

* creek not running

* only saw one set of people riding horses

* 5 out of 8 of us went on a night walk down to Evan‘s car

Kick-ass weekend overall.

 

JOURNAL: THE YEAR IN PICTURES – ~5 pictures from each month of 2009

I saw someone else post a month-by-month list of their favorite pictures from the year. What a good idea! I shall jump on that bandwagon, too. So here are some of my favorite pictures of 2009, month by month, all from my flickr (but NOT all taken by me).

I’ll try to keep it to 2-5 pictures a month.

I also will be including New Year’s Eve (2008->2009 transition) as it’s own month, since I usually don’t get my pictures up in a timely fashion.

Click any picture to follow through to my flickr, where it will be explained in much more detail. Or hover over the picture for a [very] brief summary.

 

VIDEO: MOVIES: REVIEW: Twilight (2008)

Merry Christmas!

[IMDB link] [Netflix link] All this talk. I guess I should see it. I do like vampire movies, after all. Carolyn & I watched this with Parthena and John The Canadien.

LIMERICK REVIEW: There once was a movie called Twilight.
About vampires who don’t just go out at night.
Written by a Mormon?!?
I didn’t know they had fun?!?
I also didn’t know vampires could be morally right.

HAIKU REVIEW: Teenagers in love.
Vampirism complicates
all situations.

PEOPLE: Directed by Catherine Hardwicke, who helped out with SubUrbia and Tapeheads. Starring Kristen Stewart (Panic Room), Robert Pattinson (from 2 Harry Potter movies).

QUIRKS: Vampirism! Duh! And extreme teenage sexual tension. Vampires make emos look like cheerleaders.

Top movie debut ($70.6M debut gross) for any film directed by one woman.

VISUALS: The movie was more about sexual tension and relationships than visuals. If you want a vampire movie with visuals, watch Blade or Van Hellsing instead.

MORALS: A vampire that eats animals instead of humans is like a human that eats vegetables and no meat.

BAD STUFF: People expecting a traditional vampire movie might be disappointed. This is more of a teen romance that happens to have a vampire in it. Fortunately, I knew this going in, so it didn’t bother me.

In fact, this movie has garnered more hate than any movie I’ve watched in a long time. And a lot of people who hate and criticize it haven’t seen it! I am reminded of the Senator who talked about how damaging Beavis & Butt-head was to society without having actually seen it. I never saw Titanic or Independence Day because I thought they looked awful, and was annoyed by the hype — but I’m not going to sit there and say it’s conclusively a bad movie based on other people’s opinions, or that I will “never” see them. Maybe one day I’ll get bored and want to know what the fuss is about.

The main complaints against the movie seem to fall into 2 categories:

1) Vampire movies should all be the same. How dare they have a vampire movie that isn’t like standard vampire movies? How dare they? They’ve tainted the sanctity of cinema!

I find it close-minded that “any movie containing X must be like Y”. All vampire movies have to be horror slashfests?? Isn’t that a bit tiring? Did the super-fast running zombies capable of love in I Am Legend taint the zombie genre? Did people go ape-shit when Shaun Of The Dead dared to make zombie-horror into a comedy?

I guess it’s okay to turn horror movies into comedies, but not romances?

Sure, romance is one of the least interesting genres for fiction, but it’s a valid genre nonetheless, and can be interesting. Especially with some fantasy thrown in it. The fantasy made this a tolerable romance. Take away vampirism, and it’s a movie I’d never watch.

Life is about experiencing different things, not the same thing over and over. People need to get out of their comfort zones more often.

2) Relationship movies should all be the same. How dare they have a relationship that isn’t like the standard relationship? They’ve tainted the sanctity of feminism by her behavior! This also includes the “Mormon conspiracy to make subservient women” angle of criticism.

And it seems that in a lot of movies — except for Splendor — anyone who has a non-traditional relationship must meet an unfavorable fate. And it’s usually either a moral judgment about them having a “non-normal” relationship (in a threesome? They’ll both leave you!), or a judgment about a close-minded society (if you’re gay, you will be hoisted on the petard of society’s close-mindedness instead of your own moral compass). Is this to placate the public, who hates any relationship depicted in a way unfavorable to their subjective tastes?

Yes, the relationship in this movie is definitely non-traditional. Girls don’t usually get with guys who can’t stop thinking about how good it would be to consume their blood. Thus it’s considered anti-feminist (how dare a woman make choices that all other women don’t approve of!), even masochistic (BDSM — even if it’s just emotional — is wrong! Protect the gays, but your relationship style is a choice, and Fuck your choice if I don’t approve of it!).

Hmmm… I wonder what these people thought of Black Snake Moan.

CONCLUSION: We all enjoyed this! While not exactly a huge excite-fest, this definitely had the feel of the first movie in a franchise. Characters were established, plots were advanced, but the viewer gets the definite feel that there’s much more to the story. More that is yet to be told. The sexual tension was insane.

I gave this a 7/10 on IMDB and 3/5 stars on Netflix. I actually may end up liking the upcoming sequels better, since I viewed this more as a movie to establish things. I think the rest of our crowd pretty much felt the same about it.

RECOMMENDATION: If you really like the concept of vampires, you should watch this. Besides, there’s going to be sequels, so the story will probably get more exciting.

SIMILAR MOVIES^H^H^H^H^H^HSHOWS: Spoofed in “South Park: The Ungroundable (S12E14) (2008)” – the whole episode is making fun of Twilight.

MOVIE QUOTE: Edward Cullen: “My family, were different from others of our kind we only drink animal blood, but it you, your scent its like a drug to me you, its like you’re my own personal brand of heroin.”

I likened the whole movie to “What if I fell in love with a taco?” I would be tempted to eat the taco, as it’s my favorite food. But if I loved the taco, I would have to try not to eat the taco. This makes me think of the “taco-flavored kisses” episode of South Park. In fact, watching Twilight made me say “taco-flavored kisses” about 100 times over the next few months after watching it.

FRIENDS’ RATINGS: Parthena and John The Canadien liked it.

 

COMEDY: funny videos… most of which we watched last night

clumsy best man ruins the wedding:

Jon Lajoie: 2 Girls 1 Cup Song … Amazing:

Jon Lajoie: High As Fuck … it gets better toward the end. Better as in WTF INSANE!:

But my favorite was probably the Slap Chop rap… We have one of these, actually, from Pampered Chef. They’re good products. But remixing an infomercial into a “rap” music video? Pretty damn funny!!:

Show Me Your Gentiles was pretty funny:

…and it reminded me of another classic — I Just Want Bang Bang Bang:

Parthena likes Jesus videos?
1) Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter:

2) Jesus 2000:

Ass-licking Smurfs video — I’d seen this before:

Kermit The Frog covers Hurt by Nine Inch Nails (a classic):

And while on the subject of classics, neither Parthena nor Erin had seen Chocolate Rain!!!

I mean.. there was a whole South Park about this guy! :)


The South Park episode is called Canada On Strike [wiki link].

While I’m here, here’s Obama promising something that never happened… Ran into this on Facebook while posting these other videos:

When Bush sent us to war using false assumptions (chemical weapons, 911 connection), everyone whined that “Bush Lied, People Died”. But Obama promised to send the troops home and didn’t too… So “Obama Lied, People Died” too. Both parties cause innocent people AND American soldiers to be killed.

 

COMEDY: Star Trek Vs. Nine Inch Nails Vs. Sexual Tension

 

SURVEY: Enneagram Personality Type (9 types)

Take the test. My results below. 9 types listed here. Thanks, Parthena.

 

JOURNAL: Birthday, Rio Grande restaurant, Boredom, Blah.

So, Saturday night at midnight I began my birthday celebrations. I’m 34 now.

 

JOURNAL: Happy New Year’s! / Thanks for coming out / post-parties report

I’ve wanted to blog about a lot of crap, but I always have crap to do. Even with no job. So anyway, this is my new year’s catchup post. LOTS OF PARTY PICTURES INCLUDED!

Thanks to everyone who came out: AE, Ben, Bunnelanie & her horny-for-Mark sister, Carrie & husband, Chris Y, Christian & Shannon, Dan & Erin, Darren & Debbie, Eli, Evan, Gene & Heather, Greg & Nicole, Jason, Jason & Anna, Jay, Jeremy, Joe, John The Canadien, Jon B, Justin, Mandy M, Mark, Melanie S and her couple-friend, Parthena & Peter, Sammy, and Tabbitha, and a couple random people who’s names I don’t remember (that’s about 41 people, counting Carolyn & I).

 

SURVEYS: CareerCruising.com

Rules:
1. Go to
http://www.careercruising.com/default.asp

2. Put in Username: nycareers Password: landmark
3. Take their “Career Matchmaker” questions.
4. Post the top twenty results [or more if you want].
5. Bold the jobs you’d genuinely be interested in.

My results to below:

 

SURVEY: Which extremity of the world are you?