When I first saw this short film, I fell in love with it. Never before has a short film taken something as simple as a chat room and make it subtly hilarious (and true). It was released in 2001 and still stands the test of time. The next film by the director, Geoffrey Haley, is a romantic comedy called The Last Word starring Winona Ryder.
With so many comedians out there, it’s sometimes hard to wade through all the Carrot Tops and Gallaghers in the world. Here are the top 6 comedians that will not only crack you up, but also leave you with something to think about.
6. Bill Hicks - The self professed “dark poet”, Hicks was a comedian unlike any other. His social commentary was not only revolutionary for it’s time, but most are still relevant fifteen years later. No subject was ever taboo to Hicks. From the evils of Republicans in the White House to the logistics of JFK’s assassination, Bill Hicks always had intelligent insights while making the audience laugh. It’s unfortunate that Hicks died of cancer at the age of 32 because the world could have definitely used more of his views on life.
Suggested viewing: Bill Hicks Live - Satirist, Social Critic, Stand-Up Comedian DVD
5. David Cross - While not as crass as Hicks, David Cross is definitely the closest modern equivalent to him. Cross has a knack for analyzing current events with an intelligent left wing slant. While he has been taking a break from stand up in favor of movies lately, hopefully he will get back on the road soon to share more of his comical insights with the world and release a follow up to It’s Not Funny.
Suggested viewing: David Cross- Let American Laugh DVD
4. Patton Oswalt - No other comedian can make fun of the dregs of humanity in a self deprecating way quite like he can. Why often sarcastic, Oswalt excels at making pointed comments about pop culture and current trends. While his albums are quite funny, seeing Patton perform his comedy is what really puts his work over the top.
Suggested viewing: Patton Oswalt - No Reason to Complain DVD
Check back tomorrow for the final three most intelligent comedians.
The self proclaimed “world’s first online punk comic”, Nothing Nice to Say, is the brainchild of Mitch Clem. While there are plenty of traditional comic artists who focus on punk (my personal favorite being Ben Snakepit), the only other punk oriented web comic I could find was Potato Gibberish (which doesn’t have the same wit as NN2S and hasn’t been updated since July 11th, 2008.)
The main reason I love Nothing Nice to Say is that he references a relatively small subculture, down to individual members of bands who you could have easily met while they played a basement near you. One of my favorite comics Mitch has ever done is the three part comic that involves a good friend of mine, Sheena from Lemuria.
Even in an age where everything is at our fingertips through the internet, it’s still exciting to see a web comic focusing solely on punk bands and labels. It’s really surprising that there aren’t more punk/hardcore/indie rock web comics. If I had the drawing skills, I would start one in a heartbeat.
Dark Horse recently published the first Nothing Nice to Say book which collects the last two years of the comic (2006+2007.) I haven’t had a chance to pick up a copy yet, but from the reviews i’ve read, and having been a fan of the comic for a few years now, I highly recommend picking this up, you won’t regret it.
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While sitting in a half filled theater waiting for a sneak preview of Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, I feverishly try to finish reading the book that the upcoming movie is based on. I had 5 pages left as the one and only trailer (Quantum of Solace) appeared on the screen. As I later found out, those last few pages wouldn’t appear in the movie anyways.
Casting: The casting of most characters was done well. Michael Cera translated perfectly as Nick, as did Kat Dennings (Norah), Rafi Gavron (Dev), Aaron Yoo (Thom), and Ari Graynor (Caroline). The only characters I had a problem with was Tris (played by Alexis Dziena) and Tal (Jay Baruchel).
Soundtrack: While I thought the music in the movie worked well in the movie in that it didn’t seem out of place, I was wishing for more bands that were mentioned in the book. I would have liked to have heard songs by The Smiths, Death Cab for Cutie, or The Magnetic Fields. Every time Nick’s phone rang, The Cure ringtone always made me smile. For a movie with a big focus on music, the soundtrack left a lot to be desired.
Plot: This is where I had the most problems. Having read the book (and loved it) before seeing the movie, I was really hoping the movie would follow the book pretty closely. Unfortunately, this was not the case. The book starts at a show, while the movie understandably starts earlier in the day to give some back story that is told throughout the first few chapters of the book. The circumstances in which Nick and Norah finally meet are quite different in the movie, and I felt in the book it made more sense and created a better dynamic between the two of them. I’m not even going to go into the whole skewed Where’s Fluffy plot-line.
My biggest complaint is regarding Nick’s interactions with Tris and Norah’s with Tal. In the book, they are both trying to avoid their respective ex’s at all costs. This was not the case in the movie. Norah calls Tal on several occasions, and Nick gives Tris a ride home.
My favorite addition to the movie was the scene where after getting into a club without waiting in line, Nick asks Norah if she was on YouTube, which I hope was a subtle nod to Kat Dennings YouTube videos.
Overall: The book is easily one of the best young adult novels I have read since As Simple As Snow by Gregory Galloway. Unfortunately since I had just read the book, I spent most of the movie comparing the two. Hopefully I will be able to watch the movie without any mental interference when I see it again in a few days.
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As I’m watching The Score, a thought occurred to me. Why does the media favor blaming video games for making kids violent instead of blaming robbery movies for making people steal shit? I’ve played my fair share of violent video games over the years, and it has never made me want to hurt someone. In contrast, watching movies like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Matchstick Men, and the aforementioned The Score, has made me (and many others I’m sure) wanting to commit a heist. Obviously, I never and will never commit a robbery, but I’m just trying to prove a point: most people would be more likely to rob a store than murder someone, so why attack the medium that supposedly influences kids to do that latter?
Is it wrong to be motivated to write after reading about a recently deceased author? Earlier today, on my way to the book store, I had a mini-meltdown in regards to my motivation behind writing, which I scrawled inside of an old notebook. Here is an excerpt from the multiple page rant:
But after re-reading it, I saw that it’s the same bullshit a million other people have written about a million times before me. And they probably wrote it more intelligibly and eloquently. I have no original ideas to present to the world. Any “original” ideas I might have are just written badly so they might be confused for an original idea when they really aren’t. What’s the point of writing if you don’t like your own writing, no one else truly wants to read your writing, and you have no original ideas to write about?
One of the things I picked up was the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly (I normally don’t read the magazine outside of hospital waiting rooms, but I was in a weird mood) and was pleasantly surprised to find a two page article on the life and death of David Foster Wallace. Coincidentally, he was already on my mind as there was a large display of his books in the store. (I am still torn on my opinion of the display, whether it’s a nice celebration of his body of work, or a greedy attempt to profit off his untimely death.) I must admit that I have only read a few of his non-fiction essays thus far, but I have enjoyed them immensely. His sporadic side notes and footnotes click very well as it’s much like the way I think about and over analyze things.
While reading the well written article highlighting his short but successful life, I had a “if he can do it, I can do it” moment, which is a rare thing for me. I initially felt guilty (and terrified) to be inspired to write after reading about a tormented writer who ended his own life. But then I came to a quote from the commencement speech Mr. Wallace gave at Kenyon College in 2005 and immediately felt better:
“Learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience.”
Despite the title, the book Problogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income by Darren Rowse is not only for bloggers who are looking to make money. While it does have some good tips on ad placement and other ways to make money from blogging, the majority of the book focuses on building and maintaining a successful blog. I have been reading Darren’s blog Problogger that spawned this book for some time now. While some of the things talked about in the book have been mentioned on the website in the past, it has a lot more in depth information and tips. Anyone who is serious about blogging and would like to learn how to hone their skills a little should check this book out.
Today, Google launched it’s public beta to its new web browser, Chrome (Windows only so far, sorry mac users). I’ve only been using it for about 10 minutes and I’m already in love with it. It’s much lighter, sleeker, and faster than Firefox. The most enjoyable thing about Chrome is definitely the instructional comic drawn by Scott McCloud that explains how Chrome works in plain english. Once again, Google has created a killer product that is going to make everyone else run to try and catch up.
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Admittedly, I was not a huge fan of Fucked Up when I first heard them. I bought their 7″s as they came out, but they never got more than a couple spins on my record player. That all changed when they released their first full length album, Hidden World. Up until then, it had been a long time since a record blew me away. With Hidden World, I felt Fucked Up took hardcore to a whole new level. Maybe it was just because I was more into the band at this point, but I also felt their live show was brought up a notch as well.
Ever since Hidden World dropped, fans have been clamoring for the next full length. The wait is almost over because on October 7th, Matador Records will be releasing The Chemistry of Common Life on CD and double LP. Although the cover of “Chem Com” isn’t as majestic as Hidden World’s, i’m sure the vinyl packaging will once again be awesome.
The biggest concerns most fans have when a band releases a new album is will it be as good as the last album? Will they have a sophomore slump as many bands do? Luckily, Fucked Up has not let us down. I never thought it was possible, but The Chemistry of Common Life is better than Hidden World. This record is a lot more experimental than the last, but in a good way. It’s a really strange feeling listening to a brand new record for the first time and realizing that it is a modern classic. I’m counting the days until October 7th to get my hands on a copy of this record (on vinyl of course).
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