The Darkest Knight

I'm excited, you're excited, he's excited, she's excited, and they're excited. It opens today and we all love those summer blockbusters. When it comes to a movie I really want to see no matter what, I tend to avoid reviews, previews and advertisements. It's so much more exciting that wayI like to go into these types of movies completely fresh and untainted by the over-indulgence and crushing weight of media marketing even though this movie would make 100 million with no advertising at all. They should save the money.
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I always identified with the Joker. Jack Nicholson did a fantastic one in the 1989 original Batman. He was always over the top and who doesn't like a super villian that attempts to amuse and repulse at the same time? I am sure Heath Ledger will play a good one and I like the much more realistic look of a man who was disfigured by acid while commiting a burglary. There is also something much more disturbing and calculated about meeting anger with a smile then with a scowl. I have always adopted that priniciple myself.
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Why is it that every town thinks that they are the ones with the craziest weather and that all their citizens are tough as nails for living there? I hate that tacky crap.
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"well you know what they say, if you don't like the weather, just wait 15 minutes"
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I have heard that phrase used in connection with every city in the United States. People need to get out more and realize how lame and unoriginal they are.

I've been lazy the past 5 months, I just didn't know it

I've heard of seasonal depression, but I never really believed in it. The low light of winter sapping the happiness out of people and the lack of the sunlight making them depressed. I'm not admitting depression, and nor should I have to, cause I wasn't. But I do think that the coldness and the earlier arrival of darkness and later arrival of light had something to do with my productivity over the winter. I wasn't sad, I just felt like not doing anything that I didn't have to. This lack of motivation probably does cause some depression in the more affluent and Type A personailties in this country. I am immune to such feelings because I never have a problem with being selfish and lazy. So, Ha Ha to you implied exestential stress. However, I think that trudging through the winter like a brave little Po-Vegas soldier has trained me in an un-intentional way to be more productive in the longer days of summer. The little things friends, the little things. That extra load of laundry, showering, throwing the garbage out when the bag is full, washing the car, an extra cardio session, that trip to the dry-cleaners or the mall, and cleaning that space on the floor between the stove and the counter. In the winter, they would have been put off til the weekend so I could get another much needed hour of sleep or to jam in a missed workout.

So today, I will write a blog post AND make a playlist with some relaxing outdoor summer songs (which will probably be listened to inside, 90% of the times it is played)

Unfourtunatly, with all this productivity, I am missing out on retaining information to blog about here. Too many thoughts, too much focus on singular tasks. With a larger readership then I anticipated, I have to be a little more guarded than I ever planned on being. I can't just flail away at whatever is on my mind when I sit down.

That would be easier, a better-written blog and probably more fun, but inherintly would include more problems. I wish I could be brave and shirk the expectations and the reputations I have worked very hard to fool everyone with. But I am lazy, and this blog is certainly not an eternal masterpeice with which I can show to my grandkids nor did I ever want it to be. It's my entertaining past-time to keep me awake so I don't take another nap or watch the same Family Guy episode for the 10,000th time. I can't be over-worked and lose sleep over my leisure time.

And that's the problem with undertaking any activity in this day and age. Every once and while you can feel pressured to make it perfect or that if you spent more time, it could be better. With so many things to take care of these days, its impossible to give everything the time it requires. But nothing outside your main focus in life has to be perfect. Nor do you have to strive to make something better than what it is. I find that sometimes its much better to let extra curricular activities be what they naturally are and leave it alone. There is a cliche phrase that I like to use which says "too many chefs spoil the soup" and another phrase which says "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". So when I feel the pressure coming down on me when I am supposed to be having fun, I have to step back and say "If it ain't broke, don't let 6 chefs come in and make you soup"..... or something like that.

Summertime also means lots of movies. I LOVE movies. But this summer is more than just the theatre and me scowling at people who show up 20 mins late and stand near me assesing the scene for the absolute best seat available for 5 minutes instead of sitting their tardy distracting unseated ass down pronto!(BASTARDS) Like it matters how much they visually enjoy the movie when they have no idea what is going on cause they missed 1/4 of it. That and restraining my temper at people who smack, chomp, and crackle the wrappers of their theatre food like they are at a raucus ball game instead of when a serial killer is stalking ever so quietly and terrorizingly down a dimly lit hallway towards his un-suspecting prey. Last week, I was ever so close to jumping out of my seat at that girl and giving her something to really be scared of.

Anywhosal, like I was saying, this is the summer of Netflix and me catching up on all those movies that I want to see, but miss out on the chance to. I have some serious movie watching to do now. I have already seen a lot of movies, but now I am going to be a regular ol' expert with this new and highly enjoyable service.

And with that, like whoever the celebrity is that is going to promote the will rogers institute this year in all the previews, "we'll see you....AT THE MOVIES"

SV-TV Programming Note: This is one of my new favorite bands, but being hopelessly indie, they have no money and can't afford any cool videos. As much as I hate making a joke of their musical style, the guys in this video make videos like I would make videos if I made videos. Extremely funny with a touch of homo-eroticism and slow motion running. Too funny not to post, hang in there, song is longggggg.

PoVegas in the Movies

There has been a lot of hub-bub about a new movie coming out soon based on a serial killer in the area that I reside over as mayor. I have had to field plenty of questions from non-locals as to the truthfulness of said movie, and I can officially say that the only similarity this movie has with Poughkeepsie is that we did have a serial killer in our midst. He did not tape his murders, he didn't torture his victims, it did not take place in 2001, and it did not take place on the corner of Dutchess Ave and North Water St. There appears to be some outside shots of his house, but thats about it.

But people in this area are scarier than your average psycho's, so back off or else some seriously bad stuff can happen to you. We don't carry sticks of re-bar in our car for decoration. However, it appears that this movie is more a mix of the tendencies of different real serial killers across the country and blended into one and uses Poughkeepsie as the title.

Newest Trailer:

I know that you know that I know that you wanted to know; what my favorite movies are.

I have been working on a little list for the past couple of days of my favorite movies. I figured that the constant readers are bursting at the seams for insights into my cineamatic pallate. I started with a goal for a top 20 and figured I would write down 30 or so movies and then subtract 10 movies so I would be less likely to forget a top 20 candidate. However, the favorite movies started flowing and before I knew it, I had 50. Then, 100, then finally exhausted myself at 150+. You don't have to say anything, I can tell by the look on your avatar that you are impressed.

I don't pretend to be a film buff, I go by what has entertained/inspired/intrigued me the most. I also don't pretend that I have seen tons of movies. There are a bunch of "classic films" that I have not seen and thus could not rate. This is an honest list though, and I know it probably won't match yours. Films like Citizen Kane and Gone with the Wind, even though universally accepted as top 10 films, are not listed there on my list. I will not succomb to acadmic pressure ever! You hear me AFI!? NOT EVER!!!!! I also have certain things that I can like in movies, but I certainly have things that I refuse to like. Fake high school emotion/attitudes/situations make me sick. Party/drug movies don't tickle me either.

After the top 50, I got somewhat lazy. What this means is that for films say, number 51-60, are somewhere in that range, but I would consider moving anywhere up and down in that range. So on and so forth.

You may notice films on this list that you have not seen. In that case, S.Vincents top 150+ comes highly recommended. There is no fluff on here, I have seen each of these movies at least twice for a reason, so if you enjoy a bunch of the movies on here, chances are you will enjoy all of the movies on here. So print it out and bring it to Blockbuster or put them on your Netflix list. It's going to be quite a large post, but who doesn't love large posts? Feel free to scream with outrage on the comments section about your opinions on my list and where certain films should be ranked and which films are not on the list that you think should. Without further ado, homies.......

1.Forrest Gump
2.Rocky
3.Dances with Wolves
4.Silence of the Lambs
5.Braveheart
6.Leon (The Professional)
7.The Last of the Mohicans
8.The Usual Suspects
9.The Shawshank Redemption
10.The Godfather
11.Vision Quest
12.Without Limits
13.The Shining
14.Cast Away
15.Willie Wonka & Choc. (1978)
16.Gattaca
17.Great Expectations
18.A Few Good Men
19.Road to Perdition
20.Star Wars
21.Mission:Impossible
22.The Departed
23.Boogie Nights
24.Se7en
25.Pumping Iron
26.The Royal Tenenbaums
27.Unforgiven
28.The Fifth Element
29.Hoosiers
30.Field of Dreams
31.Big
32.Citizen Kane
33.The Deer Hunter
34.Tombstone
35.Rudy
36.Risky Business
37.True Romance
38.A Clockwork Orange
39.Ferris Buellers Day Off
40.Regarding Henry
41.One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest
42.Psycho
43.Full Metal Jacket
44.When Harry Met Sally
45.High Fidelity
46.Die Hard
47.Back to the Future
48.Top Gun
49.Gone with the Wind
50.Clerks
51.The Godfather:Part2
52.Grosse Pointe Blank
53.Groundhog Day
54.Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
55.Rain Man
56.The Saint
57.Pan's Laberynth
58.Batman
59.Spiderman
60.Memphis Belle
61.Can't Hardly Wait
62.The Sandlot
63.Fargo
64.Garden State
65.Indiana Jones: Last Crusade
66.Blade Runner
67.The Blair Witch Project
68.The Omen (1971)
69.The Exorcist
70.Stand by Me
71.Lost in Translation
72.L.A. Confidential
73.2001: A Space Odyssey
74.Enter the Dragon
75.Reality Bites
76.Billy Madison
77.Jaws
78.Dirty Harry
79.The Sting
80.The Natural
81.Pee Wee's Big Adventure
82.That Thing You Do!
83.Fight Club
84.Patriot Games
85.Raiders of the Lost Arc
86.Edward Scissorhands
87.Predator
88.The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
89.Vertigo
90.V for Vendetta
91.Mission: Impossible 3
92.Robin Hood (1993)
93.Memento
94.The Boondock Saints
95.Pinnochio
96.Sliver
97.Rushmore
98.Open Range
99.Hackers
100.Primal Fear
101.Superman
102.Alien
103.Breaking Away
104.Invinceable
105.Murder in the First
106.The Terminator
107.Dumbo
108.Airborne
109.Lock, Stock, 2 Smoking Barrels
110.The Crow
111.Point Break
112.Road House
113.Wind
114.Event Horizon
115.The Cell
116.Gleaming the Cube
117.The Goonies
118.Toy Story
119.Anchorman
120.Mall Rats
121.Pump up the Volume
122.The Matrix
123.The Peanut Butter Solution
124.Snatch
125.The Punisher
126.Heathers
127.Presumed Innocent
128.First Blood
129.E.T.
130.Resevoir Dogs
131.Kill Bill
132.61*
133.12 Monkeys
134.Pulp Fiction
135.The Game
136.Single White Female
137.Fatal Attraction
138.Demolition Man
139.Red Dragon
140.A Christmas Story
141.North by Northwest
142.Taxi Driver
143.The Breakfast Club
144.Heat
145.Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
146.Casablanca
147.Romeo and Juliet (1999)
148.Dangerous Liasons
149.Zoolander
150.Let it Ride!
151.A Bronx Tale
152.Almost Famous
153.Desperado
154.Clear and Present Danger
155.Bourne Identity

This post written while listening to: Andrew Bird "Armchair Apocrypha"