Presenting The Six Degrees of the GMMP Mix!

Volume 12 of the Green Monkey Music Project is completed and available for download!

If the participants of this mix want to discuss their own selections, please feel free to do so! I’ll put a pointer on this post if you end up posting about it on your own blog (or you could always just add comments here, I suppose). Be sure and explain the links from one of your selected songs to the other!

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SIX DEGREES!
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Rules and Theme Details

The Participants Discuss Their Selections:
Beth!
Beckeye!
Dr MVM!
Glassmeow!
Barbara!
Allen L!
Splotchy!

The Songs:
All of Beth’s songs
All of Allen L’s songs
All of Barbara’s songs
All of Beckeye’s songs
All of Dr MVM’s songs
All of Glassmeow’s songs
All of KS’ songs
All of Splotchy’s songs

Track Listing
01 – Boom Boom- John Lee Hooker [beth]
02 – Gloria – Van Morrison feat John Lee Hooker [beth]
03 – Gloria: In Excelsis Deo Gloria – Patti Smith [beth]
04 – E-bow the Letter – R.E.M. feat. Patti Smith [beth]
05 – Wang Dang Doodle – Hindu Love Gods [beth]
06 – Boom Boom Mancini – Warren Zevon [beth]
07 – If William Shatner Can I Can Too – Jeff Daniels [allenl]
08 – Common People – William Shatner [allenl]
09 – Heroes – David Bowie [allenl]
10 – Vive Le Rock – Adam Ant [allenl]
11 – Hello, I Love You – The Doors [allenl]
12 – Poor Girl – X [allenl]
13 – Human Behaviour – Bjork [barbara]
14 – Human Behaviour – The Decemberists [barbara]
15 – National Hum – The Constantines [barbara]
16 – Chorus of Wolves – Woodpigeon [barbara]
17 – While You Wait for the Others – Grizzly Bear [barbara]
18 – Talk Show Host – Radiohead [barbara]
19 – Sandy – John Travolta [beckeye]
20 – Domino – Squeeze [beckeye]
21 – From a Whisper to a Scream – Elvis Costello [beckeye]
22 – The Comedians – Roy Orbison [beckeye]
23 – Thunder Road – Bruce Springsteen [beckeye]
24 – One Step Up – Eddie Vedder [beckeye]
25 – American Squirm – Nick Lowe [drmvm]
26 – What’s So Funny About Peace Love And Understanding – Elvis Costello [drmvm]
27 – I’m A Man You Don’t Meet Everyday – The Pogues [drmvm]
28 – Don’t Come All Cowboy With Me Sunny Jim – Kirsty MacColl [drmvm]
29 – Life During Wartime – Talking Heads [drmvm]
30 – Banana Chips – Shonen Knife [drmvm]
31 – Birds in Perspex – Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians [glassmeow]
32 – And Your Bird Can Sing – The Beatles [glassmeow]
33 – Pretty Persuasion – R.E.M. [glassmeow]
34 – Little Black Egg – Minus 5 [glassmeow]
35 – Working Class Hero – Tin Machine [glassmeow]
36 – The Authority Box – Robyn Hitchcock and The Venus 3 [glassmeow]
37 – Makes No Sense At All – Husker Du [ks]
38 – Rebel Rouser – Duane Eddy [ks]
39 – Check Your Bucket – Eddie Bo [ks]
40 – Long Way Down – Bowery Electric [ks]
41 – Boy Blue – Electric Light Orchestra [ks]
42 – Electricity – Orchestral Manueovres In The Dark [ks]
43 – Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G III – Wendy Carlos [splotchy]
44 – Walter Carlos – Momus [splotchy]
45 – Movies In My Head – The 6ths [splotchy]
46 – Stockholm Syndrome – Yo La Tengo [splotchy]
47 – No Train To Stockholm – Lee Hazlewood [splotchy]
48 – These Boots Are Made For Walkin’ – Nancy Sinatra [splotchy]

Congratulations to the following participants, who are now proud recipients of the Green Monkey Master badge!

Allen L (Allen, this might actually be your fourth go-around! Sorry for missing you previously)
Dr MVM

Wear your Green Monkey Master Badge with pride!

Thanks also to Volume 12’s guest host, Beth!

Things That Sound Not Quite So Bad When Uttered By Scooby Doo


01. Infanticide (“Inrantiride!”)
02. Polyps (“Roryps!”)
03. Incest (“Rinrest!”)
04. Death (“Reath!”)
05. Economic collapse (“Recoromic Rorapse!”)
06. Torture (“Rorure!”)
07. Cancer (“Ranrer!”)
08. Slavery (“Ravery!”)
09. Ethnic Cleansing (“Reric Renring!”)
10. Heart Attack (“Rar Arrack!”)
11. Pauly Shore (“Rorry Rore!”)
12. Rabies (“Raries!”)
13. Ennui (“Renri!”)
14. Nuclear Annihilation (“Rucrear Arrihiration!”)
15. Bubonic Plague (“Ruronic Rague!”)

Six Degrees of the GMMP – Track Listing!

The newest edition of the Green Monkey Music Project, guest-hosted by Beth, is almost ready for publishing.

For those in the know who want to know, here’s the track listing.

01 – Boom Boom- John Lee Hooker [beth]
02 – Gloria – Van Morrison feat John Lee Hooker [beth]
03 – Gloria: In Excelsis Deo Gloria – Patti Smith [beth]
04 – E-bow the Letter – R.E.M. feat. Patti Smith [beth]
05 – Wang Dang Doodle – Hindu Love Gods [beth]
06 – Boom Boom Mancini – Warren Zevon [beth]
07 – If William Shatner Can I Can Too – Jeff Daniels [allenl]
08 – Common People – William Shatner [allenl]
09 – Heroes – David Bowie [allenl]
10 – Vive Le Rock – Adam Ant [allenl]
11 – Hello, I Love You – The Doors [allenl]
12 – Poor Girl – X [allenl]
13 – Human Behaviour – Bjork [barbara]
14 – Human Behaviour – The Decemberists [barbara]
15 – National Hum – The Constantines [barbara]
16 – Chorus of Wolves – Woodpigeon [barbara]
17 – While You Wait for the Others – Grizzly Bear [barbara]
18 – Talk Show Host – Radiohead [barbara]
19 – Sandy – John Travolta [beckeye]
20 – Domino – Squeeze [beckeye]
21 – From a Whisper to a Scream – Elvis Costello [beckeye]
22 – The Comedians – Roy Orbison [beckeye]
23 – Thunder Road – Bruce Springsteen [beckeye]
24 – One Step Up – Eddie Vedder [beckeye]
25 – American Squirm – Nick Lowe [drmvm]
26 – What’s So Funny About Peace Love And Understanding – Elvis Costello [drmvm]
27 – I’m A Man You Don’t Meet Everyday – The Pogues [drmvm]
28 – Don’t Come All Cowboy With Me Sunny Jim – Kirsty MacColl [drmvm]
29 – Life During Wartime – Talking Heads [drmvm]
30 – Banana Chips – Shonen Knife [drmvm]
31 – Birds in Perspex – Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians [glassmeow]
32 – And Your Bird Can Sing – The Beatles [glassmeow]
33 – Pretty Persuasion – R.E.M. [glassmeow]
34 – Little Black Egg – Minus 5 [glassmeow]
35 – Working Class Hero – Tin Machine [glassmeow]
36 – The Authority Box – Robyn Hitchcock and The Venus 3 [glassmeow]
37 – Makes No Sense At All – Husker Du [ks]
38 – Rebel Rouser – Duane Eddy [ks]
39 – Check Your Bucket – Eddie Bo [ks]
40 – Long Way Down – Bowery Electric [ks]
41 – Boy Blue – Electric Light Orchestra [ks]
42 – Electricity – Orchestral Manueovres In The Dark [ks]
43 – Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G III – Wendy Carlos [splotchy]
44 – Walter Carlos – Momus [splotchy]
45 – Movies In My Head – The 6ths [splotchy]
46 – Stockholm Syndrome – Yo La Tengo [splotchy]
47 – No Train To Stockholm – Lee Hazlewood [splotchy]
48 – These Boots Are Made For Walkin’ – Nancy Sinatra [splotchy]

Participants, if I have anything incorrect, please let me know and I will correct it. After I get my hands on one last little squirmy little bugger of a song, this mix will be published.

Excelsior!

Some Righteous Shit

It’s been over a month. Let’s go to the La Grange!

What were my choices?

Mamma Mia! – No, not for mia.

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 – I still haven’t seen Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 1.

Ghost Town – I saw this already.

Righteous Kill – Hell yeah!

Ah, the title of this movie. For some reason it brings to mind some made-up phrase a surfer or skateboarder would use in a retarded screenwriter’s mind. This would be the perfect title for a sequel to Gleaming The Cube. Actually, the perfect title for a sequel to Gleaming The Cube would be Christian Slater Sits On A Sharp Pole For 90 Minutes.

But I digress.

This isn’t a skateboarding movie, though a skateboarding pimp does make a brief appearance before he is shot to death. No, he does not have the time to say to his murderer, “Dude, that was so not a righteous kill!”

I’m going to give one or two spoilers in this review, so if you don’t like shitty movies spoiled, stop reading now (and I feel sorry for you).

This movie has everything. DeNiro! Pacino! Gugino!

Gugino? Yes, this movie has Carla Gugino. If you’ll allow me to briefly objectify women, she is one of two women on my “list”. In other words, hubba hubba to the nth degree. This movie may have resulted in her being taken off the list.

Let me explain. We are introduced to her character as she comes home at night. As she is taking off her coat, etc., a hand reaches around her mouth and grabs her. Later we learn, oh, that was just her boyfriend, Social Security recipient Robert DeNiro. Oh, and it turns out she likes getting grabbed in her apartment.

And she likes being treated roughly during sex. And she gets turned on when DeNiro beats up people. She essentially functions as an object of hostile male sexual aggression throughout the movie. And she is screwing an old guy. Ewwwwww. So, my objectification of Ms. Gugino has been ruined by this stupid movie. And her role actually gets even worse (see below).

Regarding DeNiro and Pacino, holy crap did I not give a shit that these two “legends” shared screen time in this movie. I remember when people oohed and aahed at the restaurant scene between them in Michael Mann’s Heat. I thought, “Who gives a shit?”

Well, this movie was an hour and a half of “who gives a shit”. DeNiro was puffy, and Pacino was decrepit. Absolutely decrepit. These guys are supposedly seasoned detectives of the NYPD. The seasonings have not done a good job of masking their putrefaction. They are old. The film opens with a montage of them at the shooting range, gleefully destroying targets, interspersed with scenes with DeNiro coaching girls’ baseball and Pacino playing chess. Who gives a shit?

The source of the supposed drama of this turkey is that you are given the impression that DeNiro has been killing criminals extrajudicially for a period of time, when the stupid good-for-nothing ineffectual justice system does not do its job of properly convicting them. We see criminal after criminal implausibly killed by an unseen unassailant. Each victim is left with a small handwritten poem.

As the movie progressed, it got so boring that I thought to myself, “Well, they probably are going to reveal that it’s not DeNiro doing the killings, because this movie is so fucking boring.” Sure enough, it’s not DeNiro. Is it Gugino? No, it’s not Gugino. Is it Pacino? Yes, it is Pacino.

Eventually somebody gets the crazy idea that it might be a cop doing the killings. Do they look at handwriting samples of the various police officers, to search for a match with the handwritten notes? No, why would they do that?

So, Pacino is like an avenging angel or some such shit, killing the bad people. As we near the end of the movie, the filmmakers apparently felt the need to up the “suspense” and “drama”. For no discernible reason, Pacino visits Gugino and beats up and (I think) rapes her. He rapes her? Why the hell would he do that? Maybe they should have called this movie Righteous Kill and Inexplicable Rape. That sounds like a superhero team or something.

How does Pacino’s action remotely line up with his motive for killing criminals? It makes no sense. And it only further emphasizes the state of Ms. Gugino as the (beat up and raped, even!) objectification of a non-human woman. Terrible.

Oh, speaking of objectification of women, Pam Grier is the other one on my list.

Coffy is the color of her skin!
Coffy is the world she lives in!

UPDATE:

Holy crap, I just realized this movie was directed by Jon Avnet, who also directed the equally awful Al Pacino vehicle 88 Minutes! Awesome (in a bad way)!

Freaky Frights And The Pumpkin Patch

As noted previously, the gore lovefest that is Freaky Frights is ceasing to be.

It was unclear to me from their website whether where they going to have a display this year at all.

So, I took my chances and headed over on Friday, October 24th. It was on!

It wasn’t as extravagant or large as in previous years. Unlike last year, which covered two blocks, this year covered only one.

I saw displays that I remembered from last year, but also noticed a few scenes missing (the bathroom set from the first Saw film, for example).

However, Freaky Frights was definitely not going to go out with a whimper. Here is but a horrible taste of the carnage. Please note that you can still see all the blood and gore yourself on Halloween — after October 31st, Freaky Frights as the world knows it will go poof.

A cheerful welcome

My favorite display

The popular Jack White vomiting blood display

I don’t recall what this chef is cooking, but it is presumably not vegan.

It might be difficult to see, but this smiling head is spewing blood out of several improvised orifices.

A Robert Urich bangeroo type headache

Photo is a little too dark, but it looked nice in person

Hey! A scary clown pic for Bubs!

Various houses had aesthetically-pleasing lit-up warning signs over their front doors

On Saturday, we headed to a pumpkin patch a few miles from our house. It was as nice and pleasant as Freaky Frights was terrifying and horrific.

We took a hayride with the kids to get to our pumpkin.

Splotchy carries the 2008 family pumpkin, accompanied by the youngest Splotchling.

jung vf fcybgpul?