Tuesday, November 30, 2004

#32 - incubus: megalomaniac

not many rock songs went as far as this one did to criticize dubya. incubus really changed their lyrical content with a crow left of a murder to become a much more politicized band than I think anyone really though possible.

you're no jesus, yeah, you're no fucking elvis.

posted by b, 11/30/2004 10:53:00 PM | link | |

Monday, November 29, 2004

#33 - the beastie boys: right right now now

well #33 comes from the boys that are beastie. yeah, ch-ch-check it out has more commericial airplay, but it's hard not to rock out a little harder in this ditty. the beats are eminem-esque, the lyrics are tight (and somewhat politically motivated). the video is superb.

altogether? very good stuff.

posted by b, 11/29/2004 11:24:00 PM | link | |

Sunday, November 28, 2004

#34 - dropkick murphys: tessie

"one, two, three, four..."

a song hasn't had such an emotional attachment as this one in a long time.

on july 24th, a rainy saturday, the boston red sox faced the new york yankees. the dropkick murphys, a boston-based irish punk rock group, played a song called "tessie" before the game. "tessie" was a song sang by the fenway faithful in the 1910s to annoy the other team. the murphys remade it.

that day, a brawl happened, a-rod was revealed to be an asshole, and the professional, billy mueller, hit a homer to win it in the bottom of the 9th. the red sox season was turned around after that game, there's no question about it. included that game and the playoffs, the sox were 57-25 the rest of the way, a truly blistering .695 clip, or what would have resulted in a 112 win season if they played like that for a full year.

i have a bit of a superstition that this song helped 'em out. therefore, i love it.

posted by b, 11/28/2004 11:23:00 PM | link | |

the best ad ever.

this is, bar none, the best ad ever.
you suckers in canada don't know what you're missing.

posted by b, 11/28/2004 01:39:00 AM | link | |

Saturday, November 27, 2004

#35 - girls aloud: here we go

nothing like power-girl-brit-pop.
fun as hell.
g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-good stuff. (listen, you'll get it.)

not a lot to say about this one. it's very good pop music, and just exciting.

posted by b, 11/27/2004 11:32:00 PM | link | |

Friday, November 26, 2004

#36 - annie: heartbeat

it's rare for me to find a song that has a true softness and kindness to it. this is one of those songs. set to a beat that kylie minogue would adore, she coos softly to her diary about a boy that she's in love with. she sings about dancing, love, and trust - she says "I won’t forget, greatest times ahead when I was dancing with you…” the song is worth every second of the way it builds. you won't regret a moment of it. it's a song that wraps its arms around you making sure that you're safe.

posted by b, 11/26/2004 11:50:00 PM | link | |

Thursday, November 25, 2004

#37 - n.e.r.d.: she wants to move

can any list of 2004's best songs be complete without some pharrell? while he was everywhere in 2003, he dropped off a bit in 2004, with only a few major hits (she wants to move, drop it like it's hot, milkshake). frankly, the best track on the 'fly or die' album is this one, the first single. the wicked beat, the tight production, and pharrell's falsetto crooning make for a great track. we've all heard it a million times, and pharrell still kills 'em.

posted by b, 11/25/2004 10:16:00 AM | link | |

Wednesday, November 24, 2004

#38 - jay-zeezer: bonnie, clyde, and el scorcho

how can this be? how can two songs from before this year be in the list? easy.

you take jay-z's strong rhymes, the emotional vocals of rivers, and the kickass music of weezer. what comes out is a masterpiece of a mashup, two great sounds together. "mike", the mashup maker, acknowledges his lack of understanding of hip hop on the jay-zeezer website. he knows this stuff isn't perfect, but whenthe track falls together really nicely, with very few key/timing conflicts, it altogether sounds a lot better than you'd think.

posted by b, 11/24/2004 10:09:00 PM | link | |

Tuesday, November 23, 2004

#39 - faithless: mass destruction

and here we are at #39.

faithless is a british group - they've got sort of an electronic jazz sound to them, with this amazing reggae-styled vocalist. mass destruction is a song that is what exactly it sounds like - weapons of mass destruction. but they're not calling bombs / nukes WMDs, but rather "a wicked mind", "fear", "racism", "inaction", "globalization", "greed" are the weapons that he sings about. its a protest song of the finest kind. it comes across with a message without being preachy, perhaps something that happens much too often in this kind of music. the entire album is fantastic, but this song particularly is really great.

(by the way, the song can be downloaded by right-clicking the song name at the top of this section).

posted by b, 11/23/2004 02:56:00 PM | link | |

Monday, November 22, 2004

#40 - avril lavigne: my happy ending

the list begins. the qualifications? just have come out AS A SINGLE in 2004. this means while 'roses' could be on the list, it's not (as it came out in 2003 on the album but on the singles chart in 2004).

#40.

"screwwww yeeeeeouuu!" - avril.

thats avril.

okay, so why does this travesty of a song make #40? i mean, there are at least five tracks on the franz ferdinand cd alone that are better than this one. so why does this make #40? because it's one of the very best pop tracks of the year, hands down. the track is so catchy. it builds so well. it's got more hooks than a bait and tackle shop. it's got great echo effects. the production on the song really is flawless.

avril has really abandoned everything that her so fun on the first album, and is no longer the so-called "anti-britney". in fact, between this track and the first single, "don't tell me", it's hard to even classify her as mallpunk anymore. she's now just another version of that stuff. all that aside - your #40 single of the year.

posted by b, 11/22/2004 01:34:00 PM | link | |

my car



go me. page 8 of the boston herald.

posted by b, 11/22/2004 01:19:00 PM | link | |

Sunday, November 21, 2004

rolling my car

So today I rolled my car upside down. Like, upside down. Car tips over.

These were my thoughts (in order) after I realized what happened:

1) Fuck!
2) Oh Fuck!
3) Oh Jesus, I'm going to be late for work.
4) Are the other people okay in the other car (they were fine).
5) Where's my iPod? (I actually grabbed it when I was upside down.)
6) I am so happy to be alive.
7) I am so happy to have seen the Red Sox win the World Series.

Then I got out of the car.

I walked away from what could have been a horrid, horrible day for my family. Maybe this is a "look at me, I'm an attention whore" thread, but I had to write about it.

By the way, I'm a Toyota customer for LIFE now. That car is fucking sturdy.

I guess I can provide details.

I was going to be late for work - so I was in a rush. I ran a red light accidently, and a car hit me on my passenger side. I overturned pretty quickly. It was my fault, no questions. I feel like an idiot, but it was a genuine accident. I wasn't on the phone, I wasn't screwing with the radio, I was just driving and concerned because if I was late, I'd get shit from my boss.

posted by b, 11/21/2004 03:49:00 PM | link | |

like wo.

okay so i just discovered the greatest invention in the history of mankind:

vitamin water.

i woke up today with a killer hangover. it was bad. so i decided to go to the 7-11 on the way to work. i bought a bottle of "revive" a vaguely fruit-punch tasting drink.

but i drank it down in about 5 minutes, and by the time i got to parking my car, my hangover was 80% gone. i bought another bottle of it at the 7-11 near work and holy shit fuck, i drank it down. in the span of an hour, i went from hungover as shit to GREAT. this stuff is a miracle. it's a miracle. it's got something like 6 vitamins in it that you lose when you drink a bunch, plus electrolytes.

it's not the best-tasting, but sweet tapdancing christ, it's good. it fixes you good.

get ready... the list is coming...


so i wanna thank anyone for saying how awesome the video is. i've had about 20 random emails, 80 comments at sosh, and another 50 ezinbox messages sent to me there. makes me happy to know that you're all happy.

posted by b, 11/21/2004 01:41:00 AM | link | |

Friday, November 19, 2004

a big deal !

starting monday, i'll be posting every day with a new song - specifically a song in an order. what order, you ask? why, the top 40 songs of 2004, silly!

i'll be starting at #40 on the 22nd of november, and finishing up with #1 on december 31st. for that day, i'll even have the song available for download (whoa!) this should be fun.

now, you might say "what are the criteria for your list? popularity? quality?" well, it's basically entirely my opinion. there will be some stuff on there (say, avril lavigne's "my happy ending") that really isn't a very good song altogether, but dammit, when it's on the radio, i listen to it. there's also going to be weird stuff (like lcd soundsystem's "yeah", which has nothing to do with usher), and then the indie stuff (like some arcade fire). the point is this - 40 days, 40 songs, all ending with the big number 1 on december 31st.

this is, of course, in addition to anything else i'll be posting.

posted by b, 11/19/2004 03:34:00 PM | link | |

Thursday, November 18, 2004

third update TODAY!

so i will be releasing my baby that i've been working on for two weeks on and off onto the internet tonight. i am hoping it spreads.

the original file size was 1.0 gigabytes in .avi form. this version is 12 megabytes in .wmv form, so you know... the quality isn't super, especially since i took all the footage off the mlb.com website's streaming clips.

apparently MLB doesn't like these sorts of things, even though no one is making any money, and people enjoy them.

i'll have a torrent soon enough.

posted by b, 11/18/2004 09:06:00 PM | link | |

two cool things.

FREE MUSIC!

that's right, FREE! COPYRIGHT FREE MUSIC!

http://creativecommons.org/wired/

AND THEY'RE GOOD BANDS, TOO!

also, there's a new "do they know it's christmas after all" song.... here's a blog of the making of the song.

any time you've got chris martin, bono, thom yorke, busted, keane, travis, ms dynamite, joss stone, bob geldof, the sugababes, damon albarn, rachel stevens of s club 7, the darkness, dizzee rascal, paul mccartney all working on the same song ... that's some good stuff there. worth a listen.

posted by b, 11/18/2004 11:51:00 AM | link | |

h.o.p.e. of the states

aaaahahahahhaa.

in light of the ashlee simpson singing debacle, h.o.p.e. has offered up that you trade your ashlee simpson cds in for real singers really singing. who knew they still do that. rhino records has even offered UP the cds as well.

if you or someone you care about is suffering from listening ashlee not sing, please, check out hopeinamerica.com.

quote from rolling stone (on the hope site):

"Further confirming that Ashlee Simpson is this generation's answer to the Yugo, a group in New York City has gone to great pains to determine her trade-in value, which is surprisingly generous, if you ask us. In the wake of her lip-sync debacle, a gaggle of concerned music lovers -- dubbing themselves Horrified Observers of Pedestrian Entertainment, or H.O.P.E., for short -- has arranged for the singer's fans to get something more than just a thank-you note from the trash man for copies of her Autobiography album. All folks have to do is swing by New York City's Knitting Factory club between the hours of 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. (or go to the hopeinamerica.com Web site) and they'll be able to trade the coaster for an album featuring real singing. We wouldn't mind seeing what we could get for our stash of tunes by Ashlee's big sis -- a couple bags of pork rinds seems fair to us . "

-- Rolling Stone -- Nov. 12, 2004

posted by b, 11/18/2004 11:19:00 AM | link | |

Wednesday, November 17, 2004

funny things to look at when you're bored.

I am GAY FOR YOU SPIDER-MAN!: Ahem. Just go through them. Stupid, funny, hah.

Diamond Dave Lee Roth trains to be a paramedic.

The brawl at the Vibe awards. Richard Simmons crying. So fucking bizarre.

The Gotti Boys get beat down. How goddamn awesome. (The story is gone, so here it is:

The 17-year-old brother of the aggrieved girl delivered a beat-down to the Gotti boys after they "pinched her butt and made disgusting comments" at the Roosevelt Field Mall on Saturday, says our source.

The enraged brother and two of his friends approached the Gottis and their 10-person crew after his sister complained about their boorish behavior.

"Next thing you know this kid was really beating the c- -p out of Carmine," a witness to the melee told PAGE SIX. "All the Gotti friends were taking cheap shots, punching and kicking the back of this kid's head, but he didn't care. He just continued to beat Carmine till he was bloody, and then he went after John and whupped him, too.

"He was in a zone, repeating, 'Not my sister. I don't care who you are.' And the Gottis' crew couldn't hold him back. The whole crowd of people was cheering, adults were coming up to the kid after the fight and congratulating him. He really showed those boys they aren't above the law."

The Gotti brothers have appeared on their A&E show, "Growing Up Gotti," picking up girls at the mall.
Mall security guards and police broke up the fracas, but no charges have been filed. Our source claimed that mall security had received "several complaints" about the Gottis' behavior prior to the fight from fed-up store owners and shoppers.

"One security guard said they got a complaint from the mother of a 12-year-old girl the Gottis and their friends had harassed," another witness said.

The youth who beat up the Gottis "was like 5-foot-10," not that big. Their grandfather [John Gotti] would be rolling over in his grave if he saw that. They not only fought like cowards, they're a bunch of wimps."

Victoria Gotti told PAGE SIX's Fernando Gil the attack on her sons was an unprovoked act caused by sheer jealousy: "Carmine dated a girl he liked. Jealousy makes people do crazy things. This boy was no exception to the rule. It's unfortunate that boys can't talk out their differences."

The father of the 17-year-old boy told us, "This is a private matter between our two families, and I hope that it gets resolved soon. It was an unfortunate incident."

posted by b, 11/17/2004 09:08:00 PM | link | |

Tuesday, November 16, 2004

a few links

linx!

boulevard of broken songs - a mashup of Green Day's "Boulevard of Broken Dreams", Oasis' "Wonderwall" and Eminem's "Sing for the Moment". it's brilliant! it actually compares to some of the originals. good stuff.

vince carter's iPod - vince has to turn off his iPod. i find this hilarious. he claims he "listens to the music in order to focus before a game." vince, if that was true, you be doing better than 14.3 ppg, 3.7 rpg and 4.0 rpg. c'mon. lol.

i got 7 of 14 - which isn't very good. apparently i shouldn't play with dogs or with your wife.

posted by b, 11/16/2004 01:33:00 PM | link | |

Monday, November 15, 2004

what a weekend

whoo, what a weekend. i had a great time.

the following things may or may not have happened this weekend:

- i made the trip from boston to kingston in just over 7 hours, my shortest trip yet.
- i made the trip from kingston to boston in just over 8 hours, a very short trip despite a 45 minute nap in the middle.
- at chris vdw's house we looked at pictures of tara reid's mangled breast implant job (not safe for work).
- there were police involved at 4 am on friday.
- chris lesauvage kissed his girlfriend's mother on the lips, although i did not see this happen.
- john hindess had a period of three nights where he drank more than he should have.
- at pita pit, when you ask for a tuna pita, they just take it out of the can. i was wrong about this. lesley, you were right.
- i have no idea what happened in queen's players.
- i didn't pay a cent for any drinks at clark. (thanks boys, the tops and bottoms of kegs are delicious.)
- apparently the best way to solve things when on mushrooms is to break them. over and over until the living room is destroyed.
- freon leaks are scary to adam perry.
- there is more snow in boston than in kingston.
- i had a cat sleep on me.
- the patriots won... again. (2 in a row!)
- i had an awesome weekend.

thanks everyone. this is two awesome trips in a row to the ol' stompin' grounds, and while i'm not coming up again for quite some time, you can be rest assured i won't forget these ones (of what i can remember, jesus i drank too much.)

posted by b, 11/15/2004 03:57:00 PM | link | |

Thursday, November 11, 2004

it's my way, or the highway.

so. the more i think about it, the more either
a) grad school appeals to me.
b) moving to los angeles (ugh) appeals to me. i would hate to leave the boston area, but i'm going into film, and, well, boston ain't LA, as much as i'd hope it was.

i spent the night with my buddy charles, who came to my high school starting in 11th grade. charles is a great guy and a good friend of mine. he's also 23 (24 next week), engaged, and working for an IT consulting firm in new york. meaning, he's done much, much more than i have. he's always been this way - he's probably the smartest person i've ever met at our age, a great athlete, and a demon in the sack (so i've heard.) he's the kind of person that if you told him he couldn't learn swahili in two months, he would do it just to prove to you he could.

he's having his wedding in september, and his bachelor party in vegas (which i will be attending, whooooo!) he also invited me to go with him and some friends to spend new years in vegas as well, but i... i don't have the money for this, unless i dip into my savings.

okay, so all that aside, it just made me think more about my future and what i'm going to do. i really feel that i should go to LA, because that's what everyone else is doing it seems. i can't reasonably go to toronto for work since it would take a friggin' miracle to get a job there in film (because of canadian entertainment/film law). what i can hope for is the chance to get some steady work here in boston for a while and then maybe go out to LA? i don't know. sometimes i feel rudderless, but i know that i can get on course, it's just a matter of time.

posted by b, 11/11/2004 04:08:00 AM | link | |

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

so i was digging around

so i was digging around my old computer from my first two years of university life. it's the one thats upstairs at my mom's house. i found all my old mp3s: anti-flag, billy idol, bloodhound gang, dead kennedys, fenix tx, gorillaz, jurassic 5, limp bizkit (ugh), midtown, papa roach, robbie williams (i had a robbie williams cover thing. i have covers of him doing 'should i stay or should i go', 'my name is...', 'wonderwall', and 'song 2'), the lillingtons, and every weezer song ever made to that point. i also found old 'books on mp3' of lord of the rings.

however, my biggest discovery was a movie script i started working on that i never got past page 5 with. and here's the thing: it's -really- good. like i couldn't believe that i wrote it. i have no idea what inspired me to write it, but it's about baseball and college and the cape league. i think it was pissed off at that cape league movie was being made and that i thought it sucked (summer catch). so i started up on it again, and it feels really good. the script is just full of really believable dialogue, which is what makes me pleased. i still can't believe i wrote it. i'm shocked. shocked. so i sent to my gmail account and and now going to work on it more. this excites me a lot.

posted by b, 11/10/2004 03:59:00 AM | link | |

Tuesday, November 09, 2004

decisions decisions

our lives are filled with decisions. moment to moment, day to day, we make them. every little thing we say, or don't say, affects how it all turns out. it boggles my mind to know that if i had got into a different dorm at U of T, i would have gone there and my life as i know it would be radically different. but that's a huge decision in my life. i almost didnt apply to dj at clark. if i didnt do that, i wouldnt have lived with the people i did with last year, and may not have even returned for a fifth year in the first place, and most likely, i wouldn't have ever done queen's players, among other things.

a small decision though, that had a huge effect? if i hadn't stopped to get ice cream one day, i wouldn't have had a car crash.

those things in our lives... its amazing, really.

jesus christ, i sound like a fucking loser. ahem.

i guess without the red sox, i sort of lose my compass of what to do with my nights. from march to late october, i pretty much had a plan for my night, ranging from 7 pm to 1 am (depends if the game is on the west coast or not). it was wonderful. now... there's no red sox, only pats and celts, which aren't the same thing. at all.

posted by b, 11/09/2004 10:43:00 PM | link | |

so i've actually made the steps

as a result of dealing w/ the new presidency of gwbush, i'm now looking more seriously again at graduate school in toronto. i'm applying to york and ryerson, and... well, we'll see when i do some more research. i've asked some old profs of mine (jean, clarke, and susan) for recommendations and clarke's given me the a-ok. susan and jean i'm sure will also be glad to help me out on this.

all this aside: i'm conceding some things in my life, i've decided. sorry to be cryptic, but i feel that it's time for me to move on from the ways i've lived the last two years. i think it's a fine decision, and it was spurred by a discussion i had today with someone close to me. it was sort of a slap in the face / reality check that happened, and i'm glad because of it. sorry if this sounds like i'm attention whore, but i'm honestly trying to figure things out for myself for once.

on another aside: grand theft auto: san andreas? really awesome. i mean... sweet goddamn. this game is ridiculous. gta:vice city was intense, and gta:iii was very good, but this one... this is like those two games put together, and then lets add another 50 things on top. gang wars, pimping, girlfriends, stealth modes, breaking and entering, all of this... the game is wow. i'll post some photos when i get back from cape cod.

finally, a chat with johnny damon resulted in this:

"Q: I want an herb garden. What do you suggest I start off planting?
Johnny Damon: Yeah, I can't answer that."

Beeeeeeautiful.

posted by b, 11/09/2004 01:47:00 AM | link | |

Thursday, November 04, 2004

hoohah

fever pitch's ending was reshot.

i was on the crew.

i got to be in the monster. operate the scoreboard for a shot (when a NY/TB game goes final, the inning sign changes from 9 to F. that's me.) i also got to be on the mound when the lights came on in the stadium. chills. goosebumps. etc.



me in the monster.



me with my number in the monster.



my signature... in the monster. (before you go nuts, there are thousands of signatures in it, players, fenway people, everyone. it's tradition.



me on the mound at fenway. how -very- cool.

posted by b, 11/04/2004 10:10:00 PM | link | |