Northcoast

Nolan: My friend Hans, who thinks (thinks) he's a political insider, has often said to me "you know, Norm Coleman had an affair ..." He also said the affair caused Norm's divorce, a divorce that I understand to be a secret one. I can only assume that is what Keillor is speaking of. [Of course, at this point that's probably fifth hand information that's gone through Democratic channels, so take it with a grain of salt.]

Announcements:
1. School sucks.
2. If Warren Sapp isn't the most annoying human on the planet, he's surely the dumbest.
3. The Andy Richter show is back on the air starting next Sunday. We can only hope that putting him on after Football will increase his ratings.
4. Ohio State will play for the national championship on January 3 in Tempe, Arizona.
5. School sucks.
6. English Muffins rock.

Peace.

I had to laugh when I read that Republicans are upset with Keillor's remarks. Putting the issues aside (which is what most people did apparently anyways), a shallow and simplistic version of the campaign came down to a supposed lesser than two evils situation. Paul breaking his promise to run for only two terms, or Norm's switcheroo from one party to another (among many other switcheroos he pulled every day during the campaign). The problem is, even this most simplistic version wasn't common knowledge among many voters. People sure as hell knew that Wellstone broke his promise. Norm and his Republican ads made sure the voters were aware of that. But most people I talked to (at least our age) didn't even know that Norm had once been a Democrat (or a long-haired hippie as Keillor points out). I have to applaud Keillor, and I hope that the next six years are full of people questioning why in the hell we elected Norm Coleman. By the way, I must plead ignorance on one point Keillor makes in his essay. What are the family issues he is speaking of? I know his wife looks like a fake (just like Norm himself), but is that the problem? Or is there something else I don't know about Norm? That wouldn't be a surprise.

Republicans are up in arms about Garrison Keillor's attacks on Norm Coleman. I was unable to find these editorials until I spotted them on Salon.com. If you would like to read them, here they are:

The Original Editorial

Keillor Responds to his Critics

Also, I would like to get moving on these lists, so I'll be posting my top 5 lyricists in the next few days. After we're done with that, I propose the webist list, and then the 2002 albums list, and then the guilty pleasures list. Later.

Guy From The Strokes Accused Of Trying To Look Like Guy From The Strokes


© Copyright 2002, Onion, Inc.

Nice picture of Jay-Z. Hey Joel, I guess I figured out how to post a picture. Read this from Blogger's Help section.

Question
How do I post pictures?
Answer
The free version of Blogger (and our Blog*Spot blog hosting service) does not provide free storage space for pictures or other graphic files which you may wish to have in your blog. You must use another hosting service for this purpose and many free or low-cost services are available but Blogger does not endorse or recommend specific companies for this purpose.

BloggerPro does have, as part of the authoring functionality, the ability to transfer graphic files from your computer to a separate hosting service/web site.

So, if you have access to some space on the Web, store your picture there (mine is on my earthlink site) and use html to put it in the blog. Click on edit on the post with the picture to see the html I used.

Let's see if I can post a picture.

What list are we going to be doing next? I would do either of the 3 mentioned at one time or another. Guilty pleasures, Best Albums of 2002, or even top 5 or 10 lyricists. Or we could wait until everyone has posted their film list. Also, check out The Dismemberment Plan's website. "The Ten Greatest Songs of All Time (Right Now)" is kind of funny.

I do indeed have such a "machine." I recently purchased it on Ebay for a small sum of $10.

I'm not convinced you have such a machine.

I've got a remark to make about the recently posted comment by Joel Howe concerning the remarks I made just prior to his remark. I was very interested to read about this "MQI." Did you know about another metric that has been devised to objectively measure sarcasm? It's called the Sarcasm Quality Index (SQI). I put your last post through the machine made to measure the SQI, and I am sorry to say that your score was abysmal at best.

I've got a few remarks concerning the recently posted comments by Nolan Cook. One, why wasn't Being There on your list? Two, you're right to note that art is typically subjective in nature, but that's not the case with Eyes Wide Shut. The Movie Quality Index (the MQI, a metric devised to objectively determine if a movie is "good") for Eyes Wide Shut is 4.18, a full 2.4 points above the next highest movie (Roadhouse). So in this case you're wrong. Eyes Wide Shut should have been on everyone's list. It's not a matter of preference, it's a matter of fact.

I've got a few remarks concerning the recently posted film lists. One, I have to agree with Adam that Peter Sellers is funny as hell. However, I still must admit that I don't comprehend/understand the love affair you have with The Magic Christian. On the other hand, many of his other movies are awesome. No one on this board mentioned Being There, but I would almost list that as one of my favorite movies of all time. And two, I don't know how I really feel about Eyes Wide Shut. I've watched it numerous times since I first saw it in the theater, and I still don't think I would put it on an all time favorites list. Just as with music or any other "art," however, it is so subjective in nature. Maybe it's the pace of the movie or the annoying piano as background music attempting to be scary that makes me not love the film. I dunno, just a few thoughts off the top of my head.

70s movies are the best.

To be sure, Chinatown is a great movie. I saw it at a time when I was totally pissed off about pre-1965 movies--I hated them. [Still do.] And Chinatown, while made during the 70s, was set in the stupid 30s (in California, no less), and for some reason I couldn't get over that. Silly, huh? [Setting is BIG deal to me.]

That said, of all the movies on my list, I had the most reservations about Klute. I'm guessing that most critics and movie-goers look at Klute as a nice little movie, but nothing spectacular. And I guess I can't argue with them. But to me, there is just something insanely cool about the plot (missing business man, go find him on the company dollar), Jane Fonda's voice on the tape recorder (nnnyaah!), the setting (dark ass city), and Donald Sutherland. It struck me just right. Although like I said, I'm not going to the mat for it. Incidentally, did you know that Klute is part of a trilogy? The next two are ... uh ... god, I can't remember the name ... All the President's Men and the Parallax View. Supposedly, it's a thematic trilogy, the theme being paranoia--it's called the "Paranoia Trilogy." That may be common knowledge, but I just learned that last year courtesy AMC. Kind of cool if you ask me. [I thought about putting All the President's Men on the list, by the way.]

You're a Chinatown man, I take it? [It's weird, Adam and I just talked about Chinatown for some reason.]

1. Five Easy Pieces. BEST. MOVIE. EVER. The story is simple but completely engaging: Jack Nicholson is a musical genuis who has chosen a life of drifting instead of composition. He works the oil fields in Texas and is dating a ditsy aspiring country music singer when his sister (also an accomplished musician) informs him that their domineering father is on his deathbed. Jack returns home to see his father, and a whole bunch of shit happens. It's impossible to explain why this movie is so great, so I won't try. [Contains two of the best scenes in the history of movies: (1) Jack and friends in the roadside diner, and (2) the closing scene. See the movie and you'll know what I'm talking about.]

2. The Deer Hunter. The best Vietnam movie I've seen. A surprisingly riveting script, the movie keeps you on the edge of your seat. But it's not the guns or the bombs or the explosions (there are no explosions), it's the dialogue and the interpersonal relationships, and that's just how it should be.

3. Real Life. BEST. COMEDY. EVER. Albert Brooks is my hero. This movie is about reality TV before it existed, and when you know that, Real Life's prescience is simply unbelievable ... not to mention hilarious. If you're a fan of neurotic jewish comedy, you can do no better (that's right, Woody, you can't top this one). This is the only movie I own, and that says a lot.

4. Raging Bull.

Jake LaMotta: Did you suck Joey's dick?
Vicki LaMotta: No, I didn't suck Joey's dick!
Jake LaMotta: Did you suck Joey's dick?
Vicki LaMotta: No, I didn't suck joey's dick!
Jake LaMotta: Did you suck Joey's dick?
Vicki LaMotta: Yeah I sucked it! I sucked his dick! And you know what? His cock is bigger than yours!

5. Dr. Strangelove.

6. The Usual Suspects. An original (as if I know). One of the very few movies I saw twice because I wanted to.

7. Klute. Cool idea for a story. Cool setting. Mystery. Donald Sutherland. Jane Fonda.

8. Midnight Cowboy. Does anyone else think Jon Voigt is really, really cool?

9. The Last Detail. Hilarious. Real. (It's real, man.)

10. Eyes Wide Shut. Panned, yet not one critic was arrested. That's criminal!

Joel,
I tried to figure out why the posts aren't showing up on the web page, but it still doesn't work (even after I did what I thought would fix it). You should be able to click on "Settings" and then change the "Show" format box to what you want it to show. You originally had it set for 45 days' posts, but I changed it to last 15 posts. It still doesn't work. For some reason can you only alter the settings because you created the blog? Anyways, that's the only thing I can think of that might be preventing the web page from posting new messages.

Thank god! My top 10 movie list is done! Woohooo! Thanks a ton, Matt. That's a huge weight off my shoulders. It's like someone doing a term paper for you.

In addition to Top 10 2002 albums (a list I will have no problem with, by the way) and top 5 lyricists, I would love to do top 10 (or 5) guilty pleasures, be they songs, artists, books, TV shows, etc. That would be cool.

PS: Anyone know why these posts aren't showing up on the actual Northcoast URL? What do I need to do to fix this?

Wow. Some new posts on the blog. Holy shit. A couple things I'm gonna say. One, I am really personally saddened with the results of the election in Minnesota and across the nation yesterday. However, I am goddamn happy that Jesse is finally getting the hell out of public office. On the lists front, I think I would have a problem with top 2002 releases as well. In fact, I know this is pretty pathetic, but off the top of my head I can only think of about 7 or 8 cds I've purchased this year.