Top 4: Random Thoughts

I haven't written anything in a while, largely out of laziness. So here's the disorganized Top 4 things on my mind right now, with some rare music content.

#4. Teri Garr was totally hot in Young Frankenstein. Always lovely, and a genuinely funny actress (a rare combination), but I never think of her as actually sexy in any other role. Why this one, I'm not sure, but it's probably one of these things: she wears a lot of low cut tops, she's a lab assistant which plays right into my nerdy-hot tastes, or that German accent. But whatever it is, it's a wonderful thing. And Young Frankenstein's one of the funniest movies ever made, so it's lovely icing on a hilarious cake. Sadly, it's being turned into a Broadway musical, which kinda feels like Michael Jordan coming out of retirement to play for the Wizards.


#3. John from Cincinnati has the best theme music on TV.



The show itself is kind of a mess. Flashes of brilliance, but whiny characters and a general sense of "what the hell is the point of all this?" are dragging everything down. But "Johnny Appleseed" by Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros is a great song and a good fit for the series.

#2. The Avett Brothers rock.



Except they're not playing rock at all. My musical tastes are pretty broad, but I still never would've thought I'd be recommending a band that bears any resemblance to bluegrass, yet here I am. It's just three guys, a bass, a guitar, and a banjo, but their sound can be plenty powerful.

#1. All the best summer movies came out in a row. I haven't seen every major release or everything, but I've seen a bunch, and it had been a fairly disappointing summer for me. Then over the past two weeks, this summer redeemed itself. Live Free or Die Hard was a pleasant surprise. It was better than the second one, funny, exciting, and ridiculously over the top without being silly. Transformers wasn't perfect, but with Michael Bay at the helm I was afraid of Pearl Harbor or The Island. Instead, we didn't have an entirely bad plot to fill in the gaps between scenes of hot robot-on-robot action. And then Ratatouille really blew me away. It will probably end up being the best movie of the summer.


Brad Bird had previously written and directed Iron Giant and The Incredibles, two movies that appealed directly to my geeky nature with big robots and superheroes, but this time he went for rats and cooking, which is a harder sell. It's not a movie that's easily described, but it works on every level. The kids in the theatre seemed enthralled (except for two little brats who were screaming and kicking seats while their parents seemed to think it was no big deal), the adults had plenty of laughs and a nice story, and the animation, as always, was beautiful. After a pretty disappointing effort in Cars, Pixar is back on track.

Honorable Mention: Era Vulgaris, the new Queens of the Stone Age album, made a poor first impression on me at first, but it's growing on me in a big way. Flight of the Conchords is considerably funnier than Entourage these days (though last night's Entourage wasn't bad).