Here are some various recommendations I have for the
masses, along with a few of the curious thoughts that
have been running through my head recently. I
cannot promise that any of them will be interesting.
Before
I start, I would like to recognize the dangers of recommending
things to people before having the opportunity to fully
investigate them (the things, not the people).
Specifically, I would like to apologize to anyone that
watched Aqua Teen Hunger Force last night at
my behest. Last night's episode was not only disgusting,
but it was so random that it made The Brak Show
look like Three's Company by comparison.
Again, I apologize, and I hope I have learned my lesson.
And now, on to the recommendations!
American
Idiot, the new album from Green Day, is better
than I expected it to be. Perhaps because I hadn't
heard anything new from them in seven years, I didn't
know what to expect. (I completely ignored their
2000 release Warning, and I don't really have
a reason why. Maybe it was good.) I frequently
hear it being referred to as a "rock opera,"
which I guess fits; many of the songs blend together,
making the album much more than simply a collection
of songs. But I haven't found that much of a narrative
yet, at least not like you find in Tommy or
The Wall. Perhaps after a few more listens...
Something
else that is better than I expected is the show Desperate
Housewives. It's like a combination of Sex
and the City (it's no accident that it airs Sundays
at 9pm) and Twin Peaks, which I know is hard
to imagine. Amazingly, though, they pull it off.
There are no superstars on the show, but all of the
acting so far has been superb, and the writing is funny
without sounding like a sitcom. I would highly
recommend making time for this show. Anyone who
wants the first four episodes sent to them on DVD so
they can catch up, e-mail me. I'll try and get
them out to you before next Sunday.
The
latest football season fad over the past few years has
been the Death Pool. Basically, everyone puts
in some money and picks one winner each week.
As long as your team wins that week, you move on, but
once you pick a team, you cannot pick them again.
Miss a game and you're out. It sounds simple enough,
but I've done about eight of these pools over the past
few years and have yet to make it past Week 6.
Should you decide to do one of these pools next year,
here are a couple of bits of advice:
1)
Don't plan ahead. That is the classic trap.
This year, I made it to Week 6 having not used Philadelphia
or the New York Jets (who were both undefeated).
Looking ahead at the schedule, I decided I wanted
to use Philly in Week 7 vs. Cleveland and the Jets
in Week 8 vs. Buffalo. So in Week 6, I picked
Tennessee, who was favored by 6 over Houston and had
just trounced Green Bay the previous Monday night.
Of course, Tennessee lost. Which leads me to...
2) Don't pick a game that involves Houston.
Don't pick them and don't pick against them.
Just steer clear of those games. They have knocked
more people out of the pools I've been involved in
than any other team. I think since they're a
new team, the public perception is that they're still
really bad, so Las Vegas jacks up the line to try
and balance their betting action. Then, people
like me end up thinking, "Tennessee is favored
by 6? Then they definitely should at least win
the game!" Trust me, just stay away from
Houston.
If
you have a couple of hours or so and like playing video
games, visit The
Kingdom of Loathing. Technically, it's a role-playing
game, but it's really just incredible. Once you
visit, many of you will have the same question, so I'll
answer it now: No, this site wasn't created by
Jeff Lewis, as far as I know. All I can say is
that it's really, really great and (for now) it's free.
Click the link above, save it to your favorites and
then come back to the article. Then, tonight or
a month from now, you'll see that link and you'll check
it out. And then you'll laugh your ass off.
Here's
are some interesting things I learned in my Marketing
class regarding Botox: 1) It is the most deadly
toxin known to man, 2) while it is marketed as "relaxing"
your frown lines, what it is actually doing is paralyzing
those muscles for up to six months, 3) it is technically
only FDA approved for the area above the bridge of the
nose and between the eyebrows, and 4) a unit of Botox
is, by definition, the amount necessary to kill a mouse.
Another
recent album I like is Pressure Chief by Cake.
It doesn't have those two or three super-catchy songs
that the typical Cake album has, but overall it's a
solid production. It's the kind of album that
you start listening to, and the next thing you know,
it's over. Nothing really jumps out at you as
being amazing, but nothing about it makes you want to
turn it off either. Hopefully that makes sense
to somebody.
Finally,
I'm kind of afraid that my article on the Curse may
have put a curse on curses, and I'm not quite sure how
to reconcile that.
Martell
can be reached at martell@babblog.com. |
