First of all, let me say that I think that the challenge of this meme is really hard. Unseen has done it, MCF has done it twice, and in all three instances I found myself thinking I could guess the answers, only to be wrong ... and then found myself shouting "DOH!" when I saw some of the correct answers and realized I should have gotten them all along. Especially Darren Aronofsky's Pi, a favorite film of mine which Unseen gave us a lot of hints for and which I still couldn't get.

I'm just not good with stuff like this. Give me even one keyword and my mind wanders all over the place.

Anyway, here's how it works: I go to IMDb and look up ten of my favorite films. I provide the IMDB's keywords for the movies, and you have to guess what the films are. And for those of you who, like me, find this frustratingly hard, I'm going for fairly obvious keywords. Leave your guesses in the comments. Ready? Go.

• #10: Mafia, Cocaine, Person in car trunk, Foot blown off, New York


• #09: Iraq, Satan, Child in peril, Fall down stairs, Dispair


• #08: Orphan, Farmer, Underdog, Friendship, Character name in title


• #07: Graphic violence, Omaha Beach, Loss of brother, War, English teacher


• #06: All male cast, Real estate agent, Vulgarity, Employee theft, Based on play


• #05: Black comedy, Political satire, US President, Pentagon, Soda machine


• #04: Alabama, Brother & sister relationship, Lawyer, Single father, First day of school


• #03: Cricket bat, Stonehenge, Military base, Graceland, Spontaneous Combustion


• #02: Fight the system, Defiance, Cigarettes, Nurse, Lobotomy


• #01: Widower, Revenge, Prostitute, One last job, See you in hell

I hope someone finds this as entertaining as I found it difficult. ;)

Labels: Blogs, Entertainment, Memes

Lorna, MCF, B13, Rey, now me ... it's becoming a regular meme.

And thanks to the Unseen Blogger, I found out that I suck:

Labels: Blogs, Memes, Personal

I saw this as a meme at a blog I was reading earlier. It's kinda cool. Go to You Tube and type the year you were born into the search bar, and then post a few of the videos at your blog.

I found some neat stuff from my birth year, 1969.

Here's a truly weird commercial for the truly sweet '68 Mustang:

You're not gonna find a bigger Johnny Cash fan than yours truly, here ... and I enjoyed the following clip from 1968 of Johnny performing Ring Of Fire on TV with the Tennessee Three and the Carters (I'm pretty sure) on background vocals. Nonetheless, Johnny was clearly hopped up on some kind of pills. Note the way his hand jump all over that guitar, doing everything except playing the darn thing:

How about the Red Soviet Army, showing off a bit in Moscow?

It's no secret that I'm not a John Lennon fan, and this '68 clip is as good a bit of evidence as any as to why I don't like the guy. These words, coming from Lennon, would probably be touted by most as brilliant ... but put Mike Myers in a shag wig and have him deliver these same words with the same accent and people would realize that it's pure comedy: "Don't write pop songs and do that and do that, everything you do is the same thing, so do it the same way."

Even 38 years ago, drugs were baaaad neeeews, man. About a minute in you'll see a woman holding a spray-paint can and a cigarette, dancing. She is easily the most wonderful human being I've ever seen.

Labels: Blogs, Johnny Cash, Links, Memes, You Tube

MCF posted this meme. As a pretty verbose guy, I considered it a challenge. The concept is simple ... presented with thirty-five questions, I have to answer them, limiting myself to one-word answers.

1. Where is your cell phone?
Coat.

2. Your girlfriend?
Wife.

3. Your hair?
Thinning.

4. Your mother?
Workaholic.

5. Your father?
Dead.

6. Your favorite thing?
Music.

7. Your dream last night?
Fear.

8. Your favorite drink?
Coffee.

9. What?
Huh?

10. The room you're in?
Family.

11. Your ex?
Buddy.

12. Your fears?
Unemployment.

13. What do you want to be in 10 years?
Better.

14. Who did you hang out with last night?
Family.

15. What you're not?
Elitist.

16. Muffins?
Sure.

17. One of your wish list items?
Truck.

18. Where you grew up?
Virginia.

19. The last thing you did?
Play.

20. What are you wearing?
Clothes.

21. Your TV?
On.

22. Your pet?
Dogs.

23. Your computer?
Aging.

24. Your life?
Aging.

25. Your mood?
Relaxed.

26. Missing?
Nah.

27. What are you thinking about right now?
Visit.

28.Your car?
Van.

29. Your personality?
Curmudgeon.

30. Your Summer?
Gardenless.

31. Your relationship status?
Wed.

32. Your favorite color?
Black.

33. When is the last time you laughed?
Moments.

34. Last time you cried?
Stress.

35. School?
Please.

Labels: Blogs, Memes, Personal

I had a lot going on last week and little time for blogging … but hopefully, there'll be more time this week.

Here are a few random things I've come across recently:

Granddaddy Long Legs posted this political inclination quiz. Where does it rank you? I'm a bit to the right of Bob Dole and just behind Dutch. I count that as a good place to be.

Speaking of politics, here's some homegrown advice for the Democratic party: When you lay down with the dogs, you get up with the fleas.

Oh, and what's the biggest threat to a super-multi-ethno-cultural government in America? Abortion. Just ask Nancy Pelosi:

“It took a long time to get a woman Speaker,” said Rep. Pelosi, “because we killed off 30-to-40 million potential Democrat voters in the last 35 years. Otherwise, by now we could have had a black lesbian Speaker, universal tax-funded healthcare, and a ban on ownership of guns, personal automobiles and private investment accounts.”

Then again, that's an item from Scrappleface, and probably too accurate to be true.

I found out from Stop The ACLU that the Heavy Metal band Stuck Mojo is under attack from those who support Islamofascist terrorists. I'm not a fan of the band's music, I find it repetitive and adolescent. Still, this video remix of their latest single held my attention, and as you might imagine, I am kinda sympathetic to their message:

Those Which Superhero Are You tests are usually pretty silly, and although I often take them, I rarely post the results. This one, however, mentioned by Spiritual Tramp, might be the best one I've seen … because it correctly identified me as the wall-crawler.

I can't possibly hat tip everyone who's posted this meme … it's everywhere. Now, it's at SouthCon, too:

[A is for age]: 38 years old.

[B is for beer of choice]: Bass Ale.

[C is for career]: As Otis would say, I'm a dumb laborer.

[D is for favorite Drink]: Non-alcoholic, I presume. Good, strong, black, hot coffee. Papua New Guinea is my favorite import.

[E is for Essential item you use everyday]: I can't believe how addicted I've become to my cell phone.

[F is for Favorite song at the moment]: All year I've played Tool's latest album, 10,000 Days, like crazy. I am currently in love with the title track.

[G is for favorite Game]: I'm a Splinter Cell junkie. No, I don't have the new one yet, can't justify the expense … but as soon as it's cheap and/or I can afford it, I can't wait to go double agent.

[H is for Home town]: No, H is for "Hey, I'm not totally comfortable disclosing that for some reason."

[I is for Instruments you play]: I can play the radio. Does that count?

[J is for favorite Juice]: Favorite juice? Come on … of all the words that start with the letter J, all you can come up with is favorite friggin' juice? How lame. I'm not even going to answer that. As far as I'm concerned, J is for favorite Joker action figure, and I'm going with the one to the right.

[K is for Kids]: Three. Last I checked.

[L is for last kiss]: Dear Lord, I hope not.

[M is for marriage]: Yes.

[N is for full Name]: Darrell. My last name is all over this blog, too. I don't know why I'm so reluctant to divulge stuff like that right now. Geez, this meme gets pretty personal, doesn't it? Now I know why Eddie Vedder treats reporters like something stuck to the bottom of his shoe.

[O is for Overnight hospital stays]: Oh, man, let's see: Bladder biopsy in '96. Another for a third degree burn in '04. Both of my back surgeries were out-patient. I think that's it.

[P is for phobias]: House centipedes. If I see one of these monsters I run screaming like an 8 year old girl. And so do you. Don't lie.

[Q is for quotes]: "There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, in the end, 'Thy will be done.'" - C.S. Lewis, in The Great Divorce

[R is for biggest Regret]: Oh, man. Do we have to go there? Geez, I thought blogging was supposed to be fun. I guess I'll say my biggest regret was that first cigarette, 24 or so years ago.

[S is for sports]: EA Sports. It's in the game.

[T is for Time you wake up]: I'm a shift worker. Is there a specific time when most people wake up?

[U is for color underwear]: Tighty and, yes, Whitey

[V is for Vegetable you love]: Tomatoes are technically a vine fruit, but fresh ones in the summer time are a slice of heaven. As far as green veggies, I guess I will pick fresh green beans.

[W is for Worst Habit]: Self-indulgences of all stripes.

[X is for X-rays you've had]: What? That's dumb. A bunch. Like most people.

[Y is for Yummy food you make]: I haven't in a while, but I can make a homemade chili that will make you want to sucker punch your mamma.

[Z is for zodiac sign]: I really don't know or care. Can't Z be for something cool? How about Z is for zoo animals that scare you. I'll take a stand on this and say that ostriches are godawful things. They're awful, their evil, and they should be destroyed for the good of humanity. I mean, just look at them. Just look at the one in the picture to the left. It clearly hates us all, right? It hates us all, and given the chance, it would kill each of us and everyone we love. And burn our damned houses down. Trust me on this. Ostriches are the spawn of some great, angry, odd-looking demon of hell. If you've never been chased through a zoo by an escaped ostrich, you might not agree ... but I have been, and that's a story for another day.

Labels: Blogs, Memes, Personal, You Tube

Oh, yeah… a week ago, the Unseen Blogger tagged me with a book meme, and I committed to completing it.

Along the way I noticed that MCF had done the meme, but he'd changed it to an 80's animation theme instead of books since he vaguely remembered having done the book variation in the past. Then Otis got in on the action, doing the cartoon version as well.

Then I remembered that MCF definitely had done a version of this meme before, and that he'd tagged me with it, too. So, since I'd already done this kind of thing once before, I decided to change it up myself. Instead of books and instead of cartoons, my version is about albums:

1. One book album that changed your life:

I'm going with Tony Rice's amazing Cold on the Shoulder. Before I heard this album, I was just like every other uppity dipstick when it came to bluegrass music. I thought I knew what it was all about, I thought it was all about these kinds of people, and I looked down my nose at bluegrass in general. Then I heard Rice. There was no getting around the fact that the guy was a remarkable musician. I don't think I appreciated his absolute mastery of song, though, until I heard Cold on the Shoulder. There were moments (the best example is the track "Wayfaring Stranger") when I sat in wide-eyed disbelief at the inexpressible beauty of what I was hearing. I've been an unabashed and enthusiastic bluegrass fan ever since. And, here's the thing about bluegrass fans: Often when two of us are together and hear someone else mocking bluegrass, you might notice a sly exchange of glances. It's an exchange that says "Remember when we were ignorant a-holes, too?"

2. One book album that you have read more than once listened to a zillion times:

My favorite album, Pearl Jam's Ten. I absolutely love this album. I can't be objective about it. It's just my album. It was the perfect album, released at the perfect time, with each perfect song written and recorded perfectly. I have so many associations and memories with this album. I can remember specific times in my life when it was the background music… specific instances when one song or another from this album was on the radio. I can play each solo on the album in perfect, synchronous air-guitar. I know and can sing along with each of Vedder's grunts, moans and fricatives. And this is an album, not a collection of songs. In case you had any doubt, the band opened and closed it with a brief instrumental bookend piece. It is meant to be heard as a whole, and I hear it as a whole quite frequently, even all these years later. Oh, if only Pearl Jam had ever done even one other album that was half this good. If only they'd concentrated on the music and less on the politically ostentatious posturing. If only, if only….

3. One book album you'd want on a desert island:

Yes, Ten is my favorite album… by my favorite band is and will likely always be Metallica. Yes, I'm aware that Metallica sold out, Metallica sucks, Metallica are a bunch of irrelevant old men, Metallica are yadda, yadda, yadda. Just shut your yappin' pie hole, OK? I don't want to hear it and I don't care. Metallica is my favorite band. The thing is, It's like I'm Metallica's battered wife. I keep taking them back because they used to be so good to me. They still love me… I just know they do, and they'll show it again one day! So in spite of pointless sets of cover songs and blatant instances of hubris and otherwise wonderfully written and played albums that were ruined by an incompetent producers, I keep going back. If I had to pick a single Metallica album to take on a desert island… a place where time stands still, where no one leaves and no one will…it would have to be Master of Puppets. I'll just never get tired of it. It's their high-water mark, they're standard by which I judge every subsequent effort, and an album I could listen to any day of the week. The band created that album by following their instincts, not a trend… and it will go against the grain until the end.

And if you can name the two songs from the album that I quoted in that paragraph (WITHOUT Googling the lyrics), you get ten bonus SouthCon points.

4. One book album that made you laugh:

When The Darkness released their album Failure To Launch, I got what they were doing. I didn't enjoy it, but I got it. They were trying to be heavy and be funny at the same time. Some music critics thought it was impossible and that the band could only be seen as a joke, but I knew better. I knew better because of SOD's outstanding, hilarious Speak English Or Die. This 30 minute blast of thrash metal from 1985 was simultaneously heavy-as-anything and also extremely funny. Even in 1985, SOD recognized the political correcting of rock and roll that was taking place (Rock Against Drugs, anyone?) and they were having no part of it. Speak English Or Die is a thrash metal classic with enough riffs and monster leads to satisfy any metal fan… but with lyrics that literally caused my buddy John and I to have to pull over to the side of the road the first time we listened to the album because we were laughing so hard. Songs like The Ballad Of Jimi Hendrix and Chromatic Death and the blistering title track were so much fun. In much the same way as This Is Spinal Tap from the year before, Speak English Or Die both mocked and celebrated everything that is big and dumb and loud and stupid and wonderful about heavy metal. It remains a cherished favorite of mine to this day.

5. One book album that made you cry:

When Layne Staley of Alice In Chains died, my immediate reaction was cynical disgust. I'd been a fan of the band for years, but I'd also heard all the stories about Layne's frequent overdoses and rehab stints. I wasn't surprised to hear that he'd finally OD's and died. "Stupid junkie," I thought. "If he couldn’t clean up and quit taking the drug that he knew was killing him, why should I give a damn? Just one more dead junkie, right? If somebody is bound and determined to kill themselves with drugs or drink or alcohol, then so be it. Screw 'em. Let 'em die."

A year or so after Layne died, I happened to be listening to an old favorite of mine, the Alice In Chains EP Jar Of Flies. It may be that for the first time I actually paid attention to the lyrics on that particular day… or it may just be that I was just a little more sensitive and a little less cynical than usual for some reason. Anyway, the hopelessness and utter sadness of the lyrics hit me for the first time. Songs I'd always liked, such as Don't Follow and I Stay Away… and, most especially, No Excuses… hit me like a ton of bricks. The honesty, the desperation and the pitiable pleas in those songs overcame me. I found myself actually choked up and wiping away a few tears for Layne and for everyone who was ever swallowed whole by an addiction. There but for the grace of God go I.

6. One book album you wish would have been written recorded:

A live album by The Sleestacks would have been awesome.

7. One book album you wish had never been written recorded:

There is one artist… one and only one, about whom I can say the following: I absolutely can not stand a single song she's ever recorded. I hate, loathe, and despise every one of her songs… at least every one of her songs that I've heard. I make a great effort to hear as few of her songs as possible. And so I can say, for certain and without qualification, that I wish every single album and/or song ever recorded by Shania Twain had never been recorded.


8. One book album you are currently reading rediscovering:

I don't suppose I'll ever get tired of Johnny Cash at San Quentin, maybe my favorite live album of all time. Everyone knows and refers to the Folsom album.. and, granted, Folsom really is a masterpiece… but I can't help but prefer San Quentin. This is one album that has so many layers and so much rich texture that I don't think I'll ever hear all of it, appreciate it entirely, or really fully get it's significance. The music itself, of course, is outstanding. Everyone knows A Boy Named Sue, of course… and, yes, it is indicative of the rest of the album. However, it's only a scratch of the surface. There is so much on the San Quentin album. There's an energy… an urgency… about this recording. It might come from the prison crowd, obviously thrilled about the rare occasion of a night designed to entertain them. It might come from Cash himself, only a year or two into his own sobriety and his marriage to the great love of his life, June Carter. It's probably a combination of the two. Songs like "I Don't Know Where I'm Bound" and "Starkville City Jail" make the rapport between Johnny and his audience palpable. The centerpiece of the show, two back to back performances of the protest song San Quentin, literally make my spine tingle… and the closing gospel set of songs wraps it up with an honestly hopeful finale. God bless the record execs at Sony who decided to finally make the entire recording available in 2000. This is a once-in-a-lifetime set, and I get something more out of it each time I hear it.

9. One book album you have been meaning to read listen to:

At Christmas in 2003 I gave Wendy Brand New's album Deja Entendu, and, shockingly, we both enjoyed it very much. It's rare that we both enjoy an album. I can only think of five or six examples. Anyway, both of us liked Deja Entendu and, somewhere along the line, one or the other of us acquired Brand New's previous album Your Favorite Weapon. I remember listening to it once or twice and thinking that it was really good, really solid, and that I'd probably end up enjoying it quite a bit if I'd just keep listening to it. You know how it goes, though. Sometimes an album just falls through the cracks. Now and then I remember that Your Favorite Weapon is among our music collection and I'll feel guilty about not listening to it more than I have. I'm sure that I'll really enjoy that darn CD… if I only give it the chance to win me over!

10. Tag some others:

My usual standby: If you read this and you're inspired to write something similar, consider yourself tagged.

Labels: Blogs, Johnny Cash, Memes, Metallica, Music