One Friday A Month Is List Day

Apparently I only ever really find time to do a Friday is List Day post once a month. In any case, here you go:

Random Ten:

  • Guster – “One Man Wrecking Machine”
  • Pink Floyd – “Fearless”
  • KMFDM – “Brute”
  • Beastie Boys – “Song for the Man”
  • The Chemical Brothers – “Let Forever Be”
  • Handsome Boy Modeling School (DJ Quest/DJ Shadow) – “Holy Calamity (Bear Witness II)”
  • Mike Oldfield – “Ommadawn On Horseback”
  • Eels – “Somebody Loves You”
  • UNKLE – “The Knock (Drums Of Death Part 2)”
  • Isaac Hayes – “Run Fay Run”

5 Unread Books I Own

  • The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon: Just purchased this and want to read it based mostly on the awesome title. I like Chabon too. And the book is getting good reviews.
  • Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell: This has been out for a while, so I’m behind the trend, but I just picked it up recently. I like Gladwell a lot. Even if I don’t agree with something, he’s usually pretty interesting and thought provoking.
  • Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War by Robert Coram: Based on what I’ve read of OODA loops, I decided to check out this biography. Boyd seems to have lead an interesting life, not to mention that his ideas appear to be playing a major role in current world conflicts.
  • Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace: This one takes the award for longest on shelf without being read. I’ve had this book for at least 5 years, but can’t bring myself to open it up. Firstly, it’s around 1,000 pages, and from what I’ve heard, it’s one of those Pynchon-like post-modern footnotes-within-footnotes type of book. After finishing Gravity’s Rainbow, my interest in such works has waned considerably.
  • The Marble Mask by Archer Mayor: My uncle gave me several of Mayor’s detective/mystery books for Christmas last year. I’ve read a couple of them and while I haven’t read much in the genre, he seems to be pretty decent (if not especially brilliant). I think this would have made good airplane reading, if I hadn’t been engrossed by Neal Stephenson’s Interface.

5 Upcoming Movies I Want To See Even Though I Know They’ll Suck

  • Hitman (October 2007): After some initial distaste, I’ve grown to love the video game and even considered just writing a script myself based on the concepts (just for fun). Movies based on video games don’t exactly have a good track record though, and I can’t say that the no-name makers of this film inspire confidence. Also, there’s this quote from IMDB: “he’s being groomed as the … I don’t know … the next Paul Walker?” Still, the trailer is pretty decent and they’ve retained one of my favorite parts of the game: the Ave Maria.
  • Transformers: God help me.
  • The Simpsons Movie: I stopped watching the show a while ago, as I found myself watching an entire episode without laughing even once. Maybe they’ll reignite for the movie, but it will probably suck.
  • I Am Legend: I loved the book (well, the book is a bit of a downer, but it was good), but I’m not too confident that we’ll see a good translation here. The book’s study of isolation and grim irony doesn’t appear to have made it to the screen. I guess there’s hope, but previous attempts to bring it to the screen have meddled with the story significantly (infamously and inexplicably, a recent script made no references to Vampires, instead using the term Hemocytes. At least the upcoming release avoided that trap…)
  • The Bourne Ultimatum: This one’s cheating, I guess, as I think Greengrass is awesome and I’m pretty sure it won’t suck. But the #3 movie in a series is a tough one, as evidenced by other summer sequels, and I’m pretty sure this will disappoint.

3 thoughts on “One Friday A Month Is List Day”

  1. Hitman? Oh god… I might see it too, I guess, if I hear something good about it… which I won’t. Man…

    I will totally see Transformers. Michael Bay has this interesting talent to make something fun to see once and then never again. The things he has done that I’ve liked I haven’t been able to re-watch in their entirety.

    I Am Legend looked like it could be good… or it could be I Robot (the movie version… which is to say, crap). I find Will Smith kinda hard to take seriously because no matter who he’s playing, he’s always Will Smith.

    I will also totally see the Bourne Ultimatum. The Bourne movies have been surprisingly good action movies in a time where action movies tend to be really bad (I guess that’s not unusual but it seems like there used to be more good ones mixed with the lot of bad ones. By the way, I caught the end of Lone Wolf McQuade today. Some very nice roundhouse kicking there.)

  2. I’m seeing Transformers too. I have to see at least one movie with my dad this summer and Transformers fits the bill as a compromise.

  3. Hitman is going to be soooooo bad, but I’m going to be there opening night, I think. The preview don’t look that bad, at least.

    Heh, that’s a great way to describe Michael Bay movies, I think.

    I am Legend is going to suck. Borne is probably going to be good, but I have high expectations, so I’m betting it will dissapoint me. Or something.

    Oh well, as long as my expectations are low, I should have an ok time.

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