Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Accuradio is Simply the Bomb

Rarely will I give my blog over to the total and complete promotion of another website, but I've been in love with www.accuradio.com for a few years now and it just keeps getting more awesome so I figured I'd try to a push a few more listeners their way.

Basically, it's a free streaming radio site with very few commercials. You can skip songs you're not into and you can try to deselect artists within a channel so that they no longer play at all (although I find that this feature doesn't work that well). They have a ton of channels, my favorite being Classic Soul 1973+, which (as advertised) rides the line between soul, funk and disco (as I'm writing this, I'm listening to Rick James' "Mary Jane"). Travis, the Women of Soul channel is for you...lots of Aretha. Bill & Pat - You may want to check out the Hiptronica and Check the Rhyme channels. Lee...for you, I suggest the Modern Rock Classics channel (lots of U2). Erin - A Flock of 80's. Enough said.

Anyway, take it as a tip from me: Accuradio is a great way to kill a work day.

Friday, November 10, 2006

Ghost Stories!

On Halloween, I posted my Grandmother's two known brushes with ghosts on Fark. Today, I got an email from a website asking if they could re-post my story. That website? http://www.yourghoststories.com/. I'm very excited for two reasons: A) someone actually read my post, and B) I have a fun new website on my radar. Who doesn't love a good ghost story?

Not only that, but I discovered the show "Ghost Hunters" this week. I watched two episodes, and out of the four stories profiled, only one was really freaky...but that one? Wow. Terrifying. Now I'm hooked. Anyway, feel free to post your own ghost stories in the comments section (and on the Ghost Stories website too).

Here is mine:

My Grandmother and Great-Aunt rented a house during WWII that they swore was haunted. My Great Uncle was a spy/interpreter so he had access to some things it was harder for the average GI to get...like silk stockings. Anyway, Alice & Grandma Helen noticed that things were missing (like the stockings and their grocery money) pretty often, so they locked them up..in a box only the two of them had keys to. No dice...they'd open the box and it would have been cleaned out. Then they started hearing heavy footsteps in the night going up and down the stairs and through the hallway, cold breezes where there was no explanation for them, etc. They did a bit of research and learned that there had been a murder/suicide in the house and promptly moved out. Suddenly they realized why the house had been such a good deal and why no one stayed there very long.

Grandma Helen passed away in January of this year at 101 yrs. old. My Mom went to visit her in the hospital when she was in her final days and happened to hit a time when she was very lucid (she lived by herself until 3 months before she died and she was never senile or otherwise batty except for the last week or so before she passed away in which she was in-and-out of it). Anyway, in a very lucid moment she told my Mom how the father of my cousin-by-marriage whom she'd only met once or twice had come to visit her and told her that it was ok to move on to the "other side." In Grandma Helen's trademark logical way she went on to say to my Mom, "Well, at first I couldn't figure out why the "Other Side" didn't send your father or even Bob (my Dad), but then I realized that I probably would have thought I hallucinated that. Uncle Jack though? I barely knew him. Random." It seemed to ease her mind though, which was nice.

I kinda like the idea of an emissary being sent to usher you off to your next plane of existence. I think Grandma Helen did too. She was pretty psyched to get the fark outta here by the end and see what was next anyhow.

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Good Bad Movies

I've written about the art of the good bad movie before but today in trolling Fark (one of my favorite websites) there was a link to Maxim's "definitive" list of good bad movies. I agree with some of it (namely the inclusion of Anaconda, The Beastmaster and Scarface), but I have already started a list of movies I think also should have made the list.

The Devil's Advocate
I am compelled by the forces of evil to watch this damn movie every time it's on TV. Damn you overacting Al Pacino....DAMN YOU! It's the glee with which he sticks his finger in the holy water just to watch it boil that gets me every time.

Point Break
I put this here for my friend Sally...a fellow Keanu enthusiast. Double points for starring Patrick Swayze as well.

Roadhouse
This was heavily discussed on Fark as a glaring ommission to the list. Sally (and Patrick Swayze) would agree.

Red Dawn
Seriously, how did this not make a Maxim list? Also, I'm starting to wonder if I have a Patrick Swayze problem...

Big Trouble in Little China
Jamie, I've got your back on this one.

The Cutting Edge
This is a girly choice, but I know many people that simply won't turn this off once they start watching it for the brazillionth time.

I am officially taking nominations...what is your favorite good bad movie?

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Borat

So I saw the movie Borat this weekend. It was OK. I really wanted to like it a lot more than I actually did. In my opinion, the strongest moments were the parts in which Borat's targets played along with his fish-out-of water schtick rather than the times he simply pissed people off a lot/made them uncomfortable. I guess I agree with the review of this film that I read on MSNBC...pushing buttons can be very very rich comedic material. Other times, it can feel like pushing buttons for the sake of pushing buttons. This movie, in my opinion, was an interesting mix of both of those circumstances. Thoughts?