My Wish List[ "Of the Month" Archives List ]
Link of the Month:
My Wish List
In the giving spirit of the holidays, I present to you my Amazon.com wish list. Now you can feel good about yourself by GIVING ME something that's on this wish list. If you like me, you'll do it. And if you have one of these yourself, send me the link so that I can return the happiness. Happy Holidays!
Album of the Month:
A Charlie Brown Christmas
One of only two Christmas CDs that I own. If you don't know what the music is like on this CD, then you're a sad, sorry thing in the shape of a human being. The Vince Guraldi Trio pulls out all the stops for this wonderfully jazzy collection of Christmas riffs. How's that for a quote?
DVD of the Month:
It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie
Originally aired in the holiday season of 2002, this Muppet spectacular was very surprisingly funny. It seems as though at some point during the writing process of this special, everyone forgot that the Muppets are generally considered children's entertainment. The result is a very adult and sophisticated effort by the Henson team with many surprising laughs and well though-out jokes.
Link of the Month:
Magnatune
"We are not evil" Magnatune proudly states in their mission statement. Magnatune is a record label that splits all profits 50/50 with its artists no matter what—not after cost, not after anything. If you pay $10 for an album on Magnatune, the artist gets $5. Magnatune also has a novel approach: no CDs. All music is pay-for-download, and you get to decide how much you want to pay for it. In order to decide what you might like to buy, there are dozens and dozens of streaming radio and whatnot of various channels. You can listen to thier electronica channel, which shuffles all their electronica artists together. If you hear one particular artist standing out from the crowd you can switch over and just listen to the broadcast of their music alone. This is how I decided to buy an album from Magnatune. And I feel good knowing that half of what I spent went directly to the artist. This is the recording industry's model for the future. Buy some good music, and if you are an artist, submit your stuff. They love getting submissions.
Album of the Month:
The Wastelanders:
13 Tales of Guilt and Innocence
The Wastelanders have finally recorded an album, and it's quite a fun romp. There are 13 songs about murder, horrible breakups, and the unbearable need to keep on keepin' on. The songs are dirty and exuberant in their howling sadness. Watch for my full-lenght article on this album coming sometime this month.
DVD of the Month:
The Looney Tunes – Golden Collection
Sure, you can see most of these Looney Tunes cartoons just about any time you want by turning on any Kids' hour programming on any channel. But you can't see them like this: Fully restored from pristine prints and completely uncensored. But that's just the icing on the cake of extra features. Documentaries, commentaries, sketches, storyboards, etc. A cartoon historian's dream come true.
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Link of the Month:
Fangoria.com
What better way this month to keep abreast of all the Halloween-ish stuff going on in the entertainment industry than with the premiere horror magazine's online version? I can't think of one. SHUT UP! Tons of horror news and reviews and features, just as good as the print version.
Album of the Month:
Duplex Halloween Planet
Duplex Planet is a project wherein a group of people interview elderly folk and then re-create the dialogue themselves. Originally available only through the Hello Recording Club as their October '93 election, the nine pieces on this CD include Duplex Planet stories told by David Greenberger along with music by Phil Kaplan. Truly the perfect compliment to the holiday, along with Brookings song Halloween, available nowhere else.
DVDs of the Month:
The Films of Dario Argento
To commemorate the month that ends with Halloween, I'm recommending you watch any or all of the films by Dario Argento, the Italian master of the "giallo" horror/suspense film. Argento's films are full of masterfully filmed set pieces of artistic gore and shockingly beautiful violence. More about the flow of the visuals than a coherent story, Argento's dreamlike films pull no punches and never bat an eye, fully displaying intensely graphic depictions of murder and horror.
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Link of the Month:
Toddbot
Young cartoonist Todd Webb has found an interesting way to do a 'blog—with comics. (Almost) every day Todd puts up a brand new comic about his day. I just really love his style of cartooning, and it's fun to poke around his site and look at all the things he's done.
Album of the Month:
Tangent:
Cyclops' Lament
The 2nd album released by 66khz is the 1st from Tangent, purveyor of cool, quirky, interesting electronic music. Cyclops' Lament is full of some great tunes, may of which sound a lot like they could be video game music, but not like any that's out there—I'd really like to play a game that had this music in it.
DVD of the Month:
The Limey
A lot of you might have missed this film when it came out. Indeed, a lot of you might not have even heard of it, but it's a Steven Soderberg film that takes place in the same type of Elmore Leonard style universe as his previous film, Out of Sight. Like that previous film, The Limey is told in a non-linear fashion. But this film takes non-linear storytelling to whole other levels, fracturing and fragmenting scenes in fascinating and brilliant ways that are truly a wonder to behold. The Limey also sucessfully uses footage from another film starring Terrence Stamp that was filmed some 30 years prior.
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Link of the Month:
Blogger
This is just about the easiest tool I've ever seen for creating and updating a weblog. You don't gots to download a diddly darned thing, so you can update your 'blog from ANY computer with web access. I use it. So should you.
Album of the Month:
Veruca
Salt:
Eight Arms to Hold You
You have to really like girl power pop/rock to like this album. Thankfully I do, and I love this album. It has a more raucous sound than a lot of the fun-fun-silly-willy power pop out there, and singers Nina Gordon and Louise Post can really scream it out in songs like One Last Time and Earthcrosser. Who cares if it's six years old? It still rocks, and it's still a lot of fun.
Book of the Month:
Ring
by Koji Suzuki
This is the only book I've read in the last couple of months and you know what? It ain't half bad. More of a mystery/detective novel than a horror novel, this is the book that started the entire "Ring/Ringu/Spiral/Loop/Ring-Zero/etc." craze. It's a very quickly-paced, straight ahead story (not surprising considering the built-in time limit the characters face) that makes for a quick but engrossing read.
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Link of the Month:
Engrish
Do you know all those times when you see something translated into English from Japanese, and whoever did the translation just got it wrong? This site is a photographic catalog of such instances—and they're all real. Engrish.com takes mane measures to make sure that no fakes get on their website, and it makes it seem all the more funnier. This is the kind of website that I visit and just giggle and giggle and giggle.
Album of the Month:
Chubby
Mummy:
Jigfest: A Tale of Laughs Long Gone and Dead
Yes, that's right—the fantastic follow-up to their brilliant "Comin' At Ya!" album is finally here. And even more exciting, Chubby Mummy has been signed by none other than the fabulous sixty-six kilohertz records! I don't know if this album is actually available for purchase yet (by the time you're reading this), but 66khz has a handful of songs that you can download and listen to right now!
DVD of the Month:
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Collectors Edition)
It's about freakin' time. This DVD is pretty comprehensive, including such lovelies as all the Roger Rabbit shorts and some documentaries and behind the scenes stuff, and the famous "pig head" deleted scene—stuff that you'd expect from a collectors DVD. It's just really, really nice to be able finally to watch this film with letterboxing. It's just so darned pretty.
Link of the Month:
Cafepress
If I were to tell you that you could sell a T-shirt with (almost) anything on it, and all it would cost you was... um... nothing, then what would you tell me? That I've lost my gourd! Ha! Ha, I say! That is exactly what Cafepress does. It allows you to setup stores with gobs and gobs of merchandise and it cost you ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. It's also a really good site for if you draw something really cool and think, "I'd like that on a T-shirt or a mug." Well, just scan in and upload your drawing, stick it on a T-shirt, and you can buy one for yourself! I can't believe a site like this exists. It's a dream come true.
Album of the Month:
Erykah Badu:
Baduism
I know this album has been out for quite a long while, but it's still one of my favorites. Erykah Badu is one of those singers who doesn't so much sing. It's more like her voice is the lead instrument. This album is one of the most complete album experiences out there, with songs subtly referencing earlier songs in the album, either with subtle music cues or even repeated lyrics. The first song ("Rimshot") even just fades out, and then at the very end of the album it comes fading back in to finish the album the way it started. Listen to the whole album in order—no shuffle!
DVD of the Month:
The Avengers: Complete Emma Peel Mega Set
This is my new favorite show, which is kind of funny to say because it's about 40 years old. But I'm such a freakin' sucker for this genre: 60s spy comedies. I love The Avengers, Man from U.N.C.L.E., Our Man Flint, and all those. The Avengers is easily the best of them, what with its unbelievably dry, straight-faced british humor. It was also shockingly progressive, showing Mrs. Emma Peel as being the stronger of the duo (not to mention showing her in some very revealing outfits—especially for th 1960s). The Avengers presents the business of spying as a fun romp, and it just makes me giddy and happy to watch. If anybody wants to buy me this DVD set (it's only like $175) I would certainly not argue.
Link of the Month:
sixty-six kilohertz records
It's always exciting to get in the ground floor of a company when it is taking its first breaths in the world, and they don't come much fresher than this one. sixty-six kilohertz records only actually has one album for sale as I write this! But they have a good handful of artists signed up and recording, so you can be there right from the beginning and watch this record company grow. All of the artists it signs are ferociously original and entertaining and often rather humorous and intelligent. Support your fledgeling independent record labels!
Album of the Month:
Sh!t-Eating Pine Tree Heads:
Fisticuffs of Boot
The first album produced by sixty-six kilohertz records (see above), The Sh!t-Eating Pine Tree Heads are self-described as "soooo rad! they are way cool! they are so much cooler then your crappy emo-indie band, that you're prolly gonna freak out awesome style!!!" Fisticuffs of Boot is their debut EP, and is full of Trevor Peach's simple, smoove guitar work and drunk/sleepy vocals, as well as Vincent Fresco's infrequent work on the drums (I think he only appears on maybe two tracks), and some good use of speaker feedback as a primary instrument. It really is a hoot, and has to be heard to be believed. In a good way. Mostly.
Book of the Month:
Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
By Haruki Murakami
This is the most recent book I've read, a very nice blending of hard-boiled detective stories, conceptual mathematics, Japanese mythology, and straight-ahead fantasy. In other words, a great Murakami book. This book is actually two completely different books sandwitched together in alternating chapters (Hard Boiled Wonderland and The End of the World), with some subtle and surprising links between the two that become stronger as both books progress. It doesn't have the strongest of endings, perhaps (it kind of peters out and is almost certainly not what I wanted to have happen), but it is quite a ride until then.
Link of the Month:
NewsAndEntertainment.com
This site is a pretty good place to go and watch them public domain type flash movies that people have made. There's easy links to the infamous "Star Wars Gangsta Rap." There are also flash games, regular movie and video game reviews, and stuff like that. Be sure to check out flash movie "Irrational Exuberance." My personal favorite.
Game of the Month:
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
ONCE AGAIN Shigeru Miyamoto has produced a game that will no doubt with Best Game of the Year in innumerous polls. How many does that make? Oh, well, they're all deserving, and this one especially so. It feels like a Zelda game while at the same time being completely different from all the others that came before it. A work of genius.
Book of the Month:
If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of A B-Movie Actor
by Bruce Campbell
If you know who Bruce Campbell is, then you're a fan and have probably already read this. If you don't recognize the name, then you should read this anyway. It gives an insight into the world of filmmaking that you don't hear very often; from the ground floor. Campbell is the consummate Hollywood grunt, who gets small parts in big films and big parts in small films. The book is most entertaining when dealing with his childhood/adolescence, and how he and Sam Raimi (yes, the directior of Spider-Man, in which Campbell plays the announcer at the wrestling match who first says the name "Spider-Man") made their first films together.
Link of the Month:
Wrestlecrap
This site is dedicated to the dumbest, most embarrasing, and otherwise crappiest moments from the long, splendid history of professional wrestling. Many of the weekly entries will make your jaw drop as you exclaim, "somebody actually did that!?" Wrestlecrap is created by "Real Deal" Reynolds, an actual industry insider (he was chokeslammed by The Big Show once) who knows his wrestlecrap!
DVD of the Month:
Big Trouble in Little China
(Special Edition)
I can't think of a better way to spend Valentine's day than with Jack Burton, David Lo Pan, and Egg Shen. All right, maybe with the woman I love, but this film is a close second! It is, quite possibly, the greatest movie ever made, and the extras (mostly extended scenes) are very funny!
Book of the Month:
Musashi
by Eiji Yoshikawa
Called the "Gone With the Wind of Japan," this book is a sprawling, romaticized epic about an actual historical figure who was undefeat in sword duels. It sprawls about a decade of the beginning of the Tokugawa period of Japan (from 1600 on). In fact, it opens at the end of the battle that the infamous novel Shogun ends with! It gives wonderful insight into a fascinating period of Japanese history, as well as its people and philosophies. Plus, it's like watching a kick-ass samurai chop-fest movie in book form!
Link of the Month:
ANGRY BEEF
In this site you can track the sightings of everyone's favorite piece of pissed-off meat, ANGRY BEEF! Don't know who ANGRY BEEF is? What's wrong with you!? Go to this site and behold the splendor.
Song of the Month:
The Crazy Boy Floyds:
Flock and Swarm
This is actually my favorite song that The Crazy Boy Floyds have recorded so far. It's just so darned pretty. It's very short (less than two minutes) so there's no excuse not to download it and take a good listen.
Game of the Month:
Metroid Prime
You'd think that taking a classic side-scroller like Metroid and turning into a 1st Person Shooter would make it feel like a completely different game (does Mario Sunshine really feel at ALL like Super Mario Bros?), but you'd be completely wrong. Somehow this 3D game manages to feel EXACTLY like the other Metroid games, especially Super Metroid. That is an amazing feat, my friends.
Link of the Month:
Fools Play Island
Okay, so this one is a little cheating seeing as how I designed Fools Play Island, but you should really check it out. It's more of a game than a website, plus it has a ton of games for you to play. Not to toot my own horn too much, but I wish all websites could be this original and ingenious.
Album of the Month:
Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
Once More With Feeling
At one point, Joss Whedon (creator of Buffy) was working on that crappy disney Atlantis movie because he had always wanted to write a musical. Well, Disney decided not to make Atlantis a musical, so Joss dropped out and wrote a musical of his own. It's a shame Atlantis wasn't a musical becuase Joss is one of the best songwiters of all time. The songs are honest, funny, sad, and always extraordinarily lyrically clever without the aggravating pretensiousness of Rent or any Disney musical since Pocahontas. It helps if you've watched a lot of Buffy before you listen to this (especially the 6th season).
Game of the Month:
Animal Crossing
Best... Game... Ever! This game has no specific goal, no way to die, nothing that needs to be accomplished, and yet you can sit down and play it for hours. That is such a phenominal feat. But you won't understand until you play it yourself. It just can't be explained. I dunno. Just play it. A lot. Then let me come to your town and steal your fruit.