Anthony Cougar Miccio

It’s funny how it’s treated as a part of a trilogy of dense wails, but it also has a song about going clubbin’.

I bitch about auteurism a lot, and while it’s usually in regards to undiscerning gratitude that a competent filmmaker with gravitas exists, the flip side for me is sometimes resenting grandly competent filmmaking more than I should.

I love No Country and Big Lebowski more than ever today for what they nail, but in my 20s I guess I was just so sick of my peers acting like these films explained the world when I was like “guys they had goobers up against psychos in tight spaces when we watched transformers.”

Watching Bill Hader talk about No Country For Old Men & realizing how much I took for granted about the Coens when it came out. I *knew* they could do tight methodical filmmaking with simple, informative shots about sad sheriffs and psychos and shit, so I was BUMMED it merely reaffirmed their gifts.

Watching an episode of X-Men: TAS where everybody calls a sentient ship “Ship” and hearing old action cartoons yell “Ship!” over and over is giving me Transformers: The Movie flashbacks.

21st century boy No fall out boy - BAUHAUS, "INTERNATIONAL BULLET PROOF TALENT"

lol whut? From the ‘08 reunion album. Shots fired!

It was made by Lasse Hallstrom! still most of a decade before Life As A Dog, more than 20 years before chocolat. In a sense mamma Mia could be looked at as a fantasy of what the post-Miramax hallstrom would have done.

I haven’t seen this or a lot of ingmar Bergman but I WANT the zing “ABBA: The Movie, where they reminded us Swedish filmmaking is a far more rarified taste than Swedish pop” to be valid.

To be clear I’m not even saying that music or acts themselves are better or worse than before. I’m saying I avoid the music cuz the framing is so unappealing and I’m not getting paid to see if it’s good. with pop so not omnipresent in my world, I’d have to choose to weigh it as ear candy.

Part of why I can’t bring myself to listen to most hypothetical platinum is the assumption by writers that the artist is inherently fascinating by being hypothetically platinum. The cult of personality is so caked in. Arguing why we should click like and follow rather than just hear a song.

Are big acts ALLOWED to make new albums that would receive higher praise than “a fascinating look up their own asshole”? Where the musical appeal would be MORE striking than the meta?

I wish more than anything that earnest futurists would accept those two letters are forever tainted by billionaires, and find a new term for their interests that doesn’t let psychotic hucksters burn the earth promising Clippy can become C-3PO. But they’re like “no we had it first.”

What cracks me up is how the smartest defenders will see this & bring up its potential value at minor tasks or novelty as a creative tool. It’s like hearing a “at least the trains run on time” joke & earnestly arguing the value of being open minded about efficiency models in public transportation.

It’s a classic! And I give the album an 8 today, even after Win’s mid-life crisis.

Both that and the shinsblog also get at norm McDonald’s thing about the best joke being a set-up and punchline that are the same thing. Just quoting something with a deniable hint of ironic detachment. It’s a gift! Meaning I have never received money for it.

Oh wait I think I may have included your Arcade Fire post in there as a golden oldie? Definitely did a Simon Reynolds Husker du review Jess showed me that basically called for another disco sucks riot. No offense was meant, I was just on a nose-tweaking mission.

don’t know what is! Indierock4eva (a ref to the movie Fear some sleuth noticed I’d used elsewhere on ilx) was my only venture into anonymous stinkery, though my “ldr or rhcp” post reaffirms my belief the best snark is presenting something absurd in a context that requires no literal commentary.

Yeah in hindsight I should have made it private but not deleted, smut peddlers hijacked the address in days. But fun was had, and briefly, briefly, albums released on saddle creek were not described as soul-shattering missives from another reality.

My favorite thing was Dom p on ilx saying “I’m 99 percent sure it’s Ott” while slutsky was posting Jpegs of how RSS feeds work and saying “GUYS…GUYS”. It was right before google reader blew up so I had no idea my account name was visible

Maura J & Jess H (and my library supervisor at the time, who couldn’t believe when I was like “uhhh dude it’s in the New York Times”) are the confidants that can vouch I’m not stealing valor.

Yeah I genuinely saw a lean away from effusive rhapsodizing for a minute. One pfork review straight up said like “here’s where I’d say something crazy if I could” and was like “my work here is done!” But after 20 years wild hyperbole is definitely back in the mix.

I didn’t write the goop grinch tweet though, if that’s the confusion

Omg you didn’t know! Indeed. It was run by a guy working at a science library at Penn state who didn’t even have internet in his apartment. The best thing is I deleted it just as slutsky from ilx realized my NAME appeared on it if you used google reader.

I’ve just accepted mark gets really misty-eyed about David j

Ohhhh yeah as I said I know the joke I just wasn’t sure what it meant to HAVE grinch goop. But you can see why the guy who had the shins will change your life blog needed to understand.

I don’t speak jive…what does this mean? Urban dictionary is inconclusive and I just remember the joke about the imaginary song title.

Granted, Susan Collins is a disheartening counterpoint to “Maine can do better” and I get why people might want a pendulum swing towards Men Of Action. But the throughline of this guy’s life is “I didn’t realize how stupid I was, but don’t judge me.” Which is pretty Susan Collins.

The best case scenario is a guy who admits he enlisted to “play soldier” after protesting a war, thinks he should be senator cuz he’s a badass, also resents people assuming he’s anything other than reckless and naive because he got edgy ink. There’s no way Maine can’t do better than that.

I too had the naïveté & privilege to not realize a specific skull & crossbones meant a specific thing despite seeing it in media. However, I didn’t get it tattooed on me, engage in a glib denial/dismissal/deflection media campaign about it, and suggest nonetheless I’m so cool I should be a senator.