I don't understand the things you say

[vovat]

You know what bugs me, as far as journal-writing goes? Intentionally vague entries. I don't mean the occasional inside joke, but rather public posts written so that only certain people will get what they're about. If you only want certain people to know things, why not just set your entries so that only those people can READ them? And if that isn't possible, what about (and I realize I'm probably showing my age here) e-mail? I'm not referring to anyone or anything specific here. It's just a trend that kind of bothers me. I'm all about the clarity, personally. That doesn't mean I expect everyone to know what I'm talking about when I yak about apocryphal Oz books or the video game I'm currently playing, but they should at least know generally what I'm talking about.

Anyway, I got this movie thing from revme:

 

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IMDB's Top 100 Best Movies of All Time generate this HTML for your own page at ObeytheFist.com
Rank Movie Didn't See It/ Started It/ Finished It/ Hated It! 1 Godfather, The (1972) Started It 2 Shawshank Redemption, The (1994) 3 Godfather: Part II, The (1974) Started It 4 Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The (2003) Finished It 5 Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The (2002) Finished It 6 Casablanca (1942) Finished It 7 Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The (2001) Finished It 8 Schindler's List (1993) 9 Shichinin No Samurai [Seven Samurai] (1954) 10 Star Wars (1977) Finished It 11 Citizen Kane (1941) Finished It 12 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) Finished It 13 Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) Finished It 14 Rear Window (1954) 15 Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) Finished It 16 Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) Finished It 17 Memento (2000) 18 Usual Suspects, The (1995) 19 Pulp Fiction (1994) Finished It 20 North by Northwest (1959) 21 12 Angry Men (1957) 22 Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, Le [Amelie] (2001) 23 Psycho (1960) Finished It 24 Lawrence of Arabia (1962) 25 Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il [The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly] (1966) 26 Silence of the Lambs, The (1991) Finished It 27 It's a Wonderful Life (1946) Finished It 28 Goodfellas (1990) Finished It 29 American Beauty (1999) Finished It 30 Vertigo (1958) 31 Sunset Blvd. (1950) 32 Matrix, The (1999) Finished It 33 Apocalypse Now (1979) Hated It! 34 Pianist, The (2002) 35 To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) 36 C'era una volta il West [Once Upon a Time in the West] (1968) 37 Some Like It Hot (1959) Finished It 38 Third Man, The (1949) 39 Taxi Driver (1976) 40 Paths of Glory (1957) 41 Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi [Spirited Away] (2001) 42 Fight Club (1999) Finished It 43 Boot, Das (1981) 44 Double Indemnity (1944) 45 L.A. Confidential (1997) 46 Chinatown (1974) 47 Singin' in the Rain (1952) Finished It 48 Maltese Falcon, The (1941) 49 M (1931) 50 Requiem for a Dream (2000) 51 Bridge on the River Kwai, The (1957) 52 All About Eve (1950) 53 Se7en (1995) 54 Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) Finished It 55 Saving Private Ryan (1998) 56 Cidade de Deus [City of God] (2002) 57 Raging Bull (1980) 58 Rashômon (1950) 59 Wizard of Oz, The (1939) Finished It 60 Sting, The (1973) 61 Alien (1979) 62 American History X (1998) 63 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) 64 Léon (1994) 65 Vita è bella, La [Life is Beautiful] (1997) 66 Touch of Evil (1958) 67 Manchurian Candidate, The (1962) Finished It 68 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) 69 Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The (1948) 70 Great Escape, The (1963) 71 Wo hu cang long [Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon] (2000) 72 Reservoir Dogs (1992) 73 Clockwork Orange, A (1971) Finished It 74 Amadeus (1984) 75 Modern Times (1936) 76 Ran (1985) 77 Annie Hall (1977) 78 Jaws (1975) 79 On the Waterfront (1954) 80 Braveheart (1995) Started It 81 High Noon (1952) 82 Apartment, The (1960) 83 Fargo (1996) Finished It 84 Sixth Sense, The (1999) 85 Aliens (1986) 86 Shining, The (1980) 87 Strangers on a Train (1951) 88 Blade Runner (1982) 89 Metropolis (1927) 90 Duck Soup (1933) 91 Finding Nemo (2003) Finished It 92 Donnie Darko (2001) 93 General, The (1927) 94 City Lights (1931) 95 Princess Bride, The (1987) Finished It 96 Toy Story 2 (1999) Started It 97 Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) 98 Great Dictator, The (1940) 99 Sjunde inseglet, Det [The Seventh Seal] (1957) 100 Lola rennt [Run Lola Run] (1998)
Which movies have you seen?

I really haven't seen that many movies, I suppose. Most of the ones for which I marked "Started It" were ones I saw parts of on a bus or at the toy store. I decided I should mark at least one movie "Hated It," and, since Apocalypse Now bored me, I decided that would be the one. There are others that I might have found overrated, but that doesn't mean I HATED them.

On a completely different note, I now have some more pictures of myself up. See the links at the bottom of this page. I think it was about time to upload some new pictures, since most of the old ones were from back when I had long hair and/or a beard. (What WAS I thinking back then? {g}) Actually, I should probably get another haircut this weekend.

By the way, the new They Might Be Giants venue song collection is awesome. If you liked their Battle of the Bands project, you'll love this. I'll have some more specific comments on it in the near future. If you're interested, you can download it here. The download costs money, but I'd say it's worth it.

Okay, I'm off to bed.

Comments

[slfcllednowhere.livejournal.com]

The ones in the suit are swanky. Re: the long hair and beard period--I remember that the one of you with the cat was on that "bios of people from the newsgroup" page and Chris and I had a little conversation about it, "Hmm I'm not sure what I expected Nathan to look like but it wasn't that." Not to say it was bad or anything, just. . .a little suprising, heh.

And yeh I know I've been somewhat guilty of that being vague thing lately, I'm sorry. It's mostly just because this whole mess has been upsetting me so much that I don't feel like fully explaining it all.

[bethje.livejournal.com]

Re: the long hair and beard period--I remember that the one of you with the cat was on that "bios of people from the newsgroup" page and Chris and I had a little conversation about it, "Hmm I'm not sure what I expected Nathan to look like but it wasn't that." Not to say it was bad or anything, just. . .a little suprising, heh.


You ain't the only one who was surprised he had a beard. {g}

Some people on the TMBG Offtopic list thought he looked like Jesus.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

But MR. JESUS IS VERY FAR AWAY!!!!!111

Seriously, I never really got the Jesus thing. Not that there's anything wrong with looking like Jesus (or the popular conception of Jesus, anyway). I just don't think I really did.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

The ones in the suit are swanky.

Thanks.

I remember that the one of you with the cat was on that "bios of people from the newsgroup" page and Chris and I had a little conversation about it, "Hmm I'm not sure what I expected Nathan to look like but it wasn't that."

Actually, I'm pretty sure I DIDN'T look like that at that point, but I didn't have any more recent pictures online. I don't have my own scanner, so I really don't get pictures uploaded that often.

[revme.livejournal.com]

I dunno; vague entries don't typically bother me too much; I think it depends on the type of blog, though. There are some that are more diary-type things where they're less public for the intent of people reading them, and more of just because they don't really care. (Some of my entries are like that; i.e. my friends-listed one of various ideas that I might work on at some point. I didn't post that for anyone but myself, but if anyone actually cares enough to read it (considering that they'd have to go to my journal proper rather than the friends list to do so), more power to 'em. With me, I know a lot of mine are probably pretty boring (although, lately, I've been trying to get back to what I intended when I started the LJ -- less stuff about my life, more stuff that's reviews and link dumps and whatnot), and I'm not sure whether or not I provide all of the backstory required (though, I'm always open to people asking, but I think on most of that stuff, the only people who'd remotely care would already know, but hey...).

...though, of course, with, say, todcra, if I don't write it clearly enough so that you don't have any proper backstory, I've failed.

Also -- I was sort of annoyed that Almanac/Venue Songs seems to be mp3 only. I read that they were planning to release (at least venue songs?) on a Real Life CD, and I was hoping that's what that was going to be, when I got the email and got all excited. But oh well. I just like CDs. That's all.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I dunno; vague entries don't typically bother me too much; I think it depends on the type of blog, though.

Yeah, I guess I can see that. I guess I'm thinking more of people who DO write with an audience in mind, and then alienate part of that audience by writing entries that most of them won't understand.

And yeah, I'd also prefer the Venue Songs to be on an actual CD. If they release one, I might go ahead and buy it anyway, even though I've already paid for the MP3s. (What I'd REALLY like is a Working Undercover for the Man-style deal, but I don't foresee that happening.)

[revme.livejournal.com]

Yeah -- it's one of the things that's sort of driving me nuts with TMBG -- granted, it's not like they're abandoning CD all together, but, you know, what's the harm in doing limited run type stuff, or just doing small runs that aren't ltd. ed., just let them go Out Of Stock until they have enough orders or whatever. I think it's cool that they are embracing mp3 and all, but I wish I could sit down with John and John and let them know that while there's people who dig the mp3 scene, there's a lot of us who actually like the Old Way Of Doing Things Too. And that, you know, we'd be happy with something like:

9.95 (Or whatever it is now?) - Just mp3s.
16 bucks: Mp3s + CD.

I mean, I would totally do that. And I rarely pay 16 bucks for _any_ CD. So, you know... yeah. Note To J&J: Gouging Opportunities Ahoy![1]

[1] I am pretty much kidding on calling this gouging, since, well, you're not only getting the CD, but you're also getting the music Now and saving yourself the time from ripping/making sure ID3 tags are right/etc.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

The weird thing about that is that I'm pretty sure both Johns have stated that they prefer old-fashioned CDs to downloadable albums. I can see why they would have embraced the MP3 thing, since it's cheaper than putting out CDs, and a lot of their fans are computer nerds anyway. But I sometimes think they neglect those fans who don't have computer, or who do but still prefer CDs.

I do have to wonder why they don't put out more stuff through the Info Club/Idlewild. I mean, they did that with They Got Lost, and I would imagine that the Venue Songs would have about as much of a market as that did. Maybe the sales of TGL were disappointing, though.

[revme.livejournal.com]

I dunno, though, since with They Got Lost, it's actually coming out for real in February, so...

[vovat.livejournal.com]

You mean, like, a CD you can actually buy in stores?

According to someone on the newsgroup who's talked to Operator Dot about the subject, the Venue Songs might be coming out on CD later on (in spring at the earliest), but I don't know for sure that this will come to pass.

[revme.livejournal.com]

Yeah -- I _think_ it's Rounder what's putting it out. I don't know whether or not it'll be any different than the concert version (I hope not, I don't want to have to buy it again, heh..), but yeah.

I'd heard that too -- I think a Future CD Issue is listed in the Discography, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything -- John Relph's really good about being On The Ball, but it doesn't necessarily mean that label stuff won't change or they'll change their mind or something. So, yeah.