Micahpalooza '09: Ingloriously mundane

"I can't believe I'm going to work on my birthday! I can't believe I'm doing laundry on my birthday! I can't believe I’m paying for sex on my birthday!" - Jim Gaffigan

It was a pretty low-key weekend - really low-key, actually - and the high point was seeing Inglorious Basterds in a packed theater last night. Of course, that's faint praise when this weekend's other main activities were goofing off on Facebook, doing laundry, trimming my beard, and going grocery shopping. But still, it's a great movie.

Today is my actual birthday and I celebrated by fading into my cube at work*. The celebration continues as I join my team for pub trivia night at the Patrick Henry Pub. Maybe I'll indulge myself and have two (!) beers tonight. But then again, I have to keep my wits about me so I can drop science on everyone in the joint.

After that, it'll be around midnight by the time I get home so it's bedtime. Exciting, huh?


*I didn't at all mind not being recognized as I hate the spotlight and prefer to be the perimeter of attention.

Micahpalooza '09: Thwarted!

Today I figured that I'd go to a movie that I'd really been wanting to see for quite some time now - Funny People. Whoops! It's gone from the local multiplex already. Oh, well. I guess I'll catch that one on DVD. At two hours and twenty minutes long, the movie is way beyond the limit I set for the Byrd's extremely unforgiving seats.

So, instead I made some noodles and watched the third season of "The State".

Tonight it's just a boy and his (sister's) dog, some pistachio almond ice cream, a nice pipe, and Let the Right One In (my brother highly recommended it).

Micahpalooza '09: It came from outer space!

Unlike previous Micahpaloozas, where my friends and I took extravagant jaunts to Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Philadelphia, and other exotic locales, this year's Micahpalooza will be a little different. Due to the bad economy, childbirth, and the laughably small sum in my checking account, this year's event will be a staypalooza consisting of a series of smaller, less expensive trips around town.

For instance, tonight things are kicked off with a trip to the moviehouse for a live riffing of Plan 9 From Outer Space by Mystery Science Theater 3000 alums (and current Rifftrax overlords) Mike Nelson*, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett, beamed via satellite from Nashville. Oddly enough, this will be my first time watching Ed Wood's legendary so-bad-its-good classic.

At least it will be assuming that tickets are still available. I'm too cheap to shell out an extra $2 taking an ideologically-driven stand against online ticket sellers that charge exorbitant "convenience" fees, so I intend on just showing up and buying my ticket at the box office. If it turns out that I'm S.O.L., my back-up plan involves a bag of animal crackers, tonight's episode of "Royal Pains", and a good night's sleep.


*In the age-old nerdy Joel/Mike debate, I'm a proud member of Team Mike.

Quick movie reviews

District 9: The marketing folks have been pretty good about keeping the plot a secret and it's best if you go in fresh, so I'll just say that I really, really enjoyed this film. I knew going in that it was shot "documentary style" which are usually code words for "camera work by epileptics off their meds", but it really does largely follow a documentary conceit (though there is a bit of excessive shaking, it's not Bourne Ultimatum bad). Highly recommended.

Juno: In the words of Men on Film: hated it! Okay, that's a bit harsh to describe my feelings, since I thought the acting, direction, etc. was serviceable. It's the dialogue that I couldn't stand and that pretty much ruined the movie for me. Maybe if screenwriter Diablo Cody toned it down some so not every line out of Juno's mouth was a pop culture-referencing zinger slathered in a sauce made out of hipster irony, I could cut the film some slack. But she didn't and making Juno that annoying prevented me from feeling anything for her during the girl's Big Emotional Scenes. But I do agree that Sonic Youth is just noise and they suck.

Ghost World: Now this is female-centered hipster irony done right. Steve Buscemi was excellent playing the sad sack (that kind of role seems to be in his wheelhouse). I wish I didn't wait so long to finally catch this film.

I never thought that I'd see the day.

Richmond's victory will live forever on a Coke can. It's beautiful!

Song to close out the weekend: "Clint Eastwood" by Gorillaz

I remember when I first heard Gorillaz' "Clint Eastwood". It was March 2001 and I was with some friends in a bar in Scotland. This crazy animated video came on the TV set by our booth. Then I heard Del's rapping (I'd been a fan of his for years and even witnessed him do an unbelievable freestyle in the studio of my college radio station). Immediately I loved it. I had seen posters advertising the single lining the streets in the days prior to this night, but never got the chance to listen to it. Apparently, it was a hit. And that confirmed my feelings that what makes the pop charts in the UK is infinitely cooler than the typical songs on its American counterpart.

Well, this song (along with "Feel Good Inc." and "Re-Hash") is coming to Rock Band this week and it'll be an immediate purchase for me. My friends and family have long said the my MC skills were akin to a young Del tha Funkee Homosapien and now I'll have an excuse to bust out some rhymes in the comfort of my own home, while banging away on a fake plastic instrument.

Bonus Crush of the Week: Leslie Mann

This week's Bonus Crush is actress Leslie Mann, lately of Funny People (which I really want to see). She's been a favorite of mine ever since The Cable Guy.



Her delivery of the line "let's get some fuckin' French toast" never fails to crack me up.

Crush of the Week: Rachel Nichols

This week's Crush is actress Rachel Nichols, who plays Scarlett in this weekend's G.I. Joe movie.



She was also the green alien babe in Star Trek. Because of her two lauded performances, Rachel's pretty much the official Crush of the 2009 Summer Movie Season.

Requiem for the mayor of Shermer, IL

R.I.P. John Hughes, 1950-2009



His films were a HUGE part of my adolescence. Bummer.

Exhibit A in the case against rocking the vote

And to think that some people want to encourage a large young voter turnout.

My Summer Mix 2009

Another summer, another mix.

Not all of the songs on my CD are available to stream, unfortunately, so here are the missing songs (YouTube links where available):

Miniature Tigers - "Tell It To The Volcano"
The Vanity Project - "So. Cal."
A Camp - "My America"
Her Space Holiday - "The World Will Deem Us Dangerous"
Zee Avi - "Just You and Me"
Velocity Girl - "Crazy Town"
Poe - "I Cain't Say No"

You can catch my other seasonal mixes here, here, here, and here.

Is your mouth watering?

Real mature, Micah. But for $.89 at Kroger, it's a small price to pay for comedy.

Requiem for a television rebel

R.I.P. Les Lye, 1924-2009.



Despite what the censors dictated, he did do that on television.

Song to close out the weekend: "At Least I'm Not As Sad (As I Used To Be)" by fun.

And now a preview of my upcoming Summer Mix CD. This may be my favorite single of the summer of 2009. I love everything about it: the bombastic over the top Queen-esque theatrics, the male/female vocal interplay, the steel drums. Every song should have steel drums in it.

If all of fun.'s upcoming album is like this tune, it's sure to be a winner.

Crush of the Week: Laura from Big Brother 11

This week's Crush is bikini-filler Laura from Big Brother 11. I'm a reluctant BB viewer (damn you, spydrz!), but she caught my eye.



If she's eliminated this week, two of the biggest reasons for me to keep watching this show will be gone. And when Jordan leaves...forget about it.

I hate myself for knowing who these people are.

A round of links for my friends

• Honest to goodness dirty librarians! I knew my fetish wasn't just a myth.


• Slate had an interesting series of stories about movies last week.


• Ballhawkin' ain't easy.


• Good (if a bit fawning) piece about Palin's resignation. It's at least a nice counter to all the vitriol out there.


• John Stossel on healthcare. I'm glad he worked in a "Give me a break."


• Baconapalooza!


• Zooey Deschanel: manic pixie dream girl extraordinaire


• Happy 500th Birthday, John Calvin.


• An appreciation of Casey Kasem and "American Top 40"


• If we follow Japan's lead and keep our offices at 82 degrees to save energy, then I'm withdrawing from the workforce.


• Only 96 months until the Earth's beyond fixing. We had better return to poverty!

Photo credit: supremely awesome picture by Roadsidepictures on Flickr

Michael & Michael have a new show.

If "Michael and Michael Have Issues." is half as brilliant as "Stella" or "The State", I'll be a happy camper.

Sure, "According to Jim" gets a DVD release...

Today sees the release of the much-delayed DVD set for the 90s MTV sketch comedy show "The State" (my order's on the way from Amazon!). I absolutely loved this show when it first came out and really look forward to immersing myself in it again this weekend. Since The Now pretty much sucks, I like to take comfort in pop culture nostalgia (especially that of my high school and college years) and the wait for these DVDs has been nigh excruciating. Rejoice! For we all will finally be able to cheer on Bologna Feet, eat Grandma's potato chowder, and discover the proper way to wear pants.

The release of "The State" DVDs got me to thinking about what beloved video treasures of my past are not yet available in the format. Pretty much everything I want is out there now (or will be released shortly), but there are some glaring gaps in my collection:

EL PASO - MARTY ROBBINS STEVE MARTIN


Steve Martin: Comedy Is Not Pretty - When I think of my pop culture childhood, watching this NBC special comprised of comedy sketches is among my most cherished memories. Martin was at the height of his goofy stage (as opposed to his current unfunny kiddie movie phase). There were guest stars aplenty: Peter Graves! Regis Philbin! Paul Reubens! Joyce DeWitt! The highlight was probably when Martin acted out Marty Robbins' country & western chestnut "El Paso"…with chimps!



"Get a Life" - Ah, the Holy Grail of my DVD Wishlist. Comedy genius Chris Elliott plays a 30 year old paperboy. That's pretty much all you need to know about this series. Years ago Rhino put out a couple of DVDs with a handful of episodes on each them, but I want complete seasons, dammit! Elliott has said that years ago he recorded commentaries for the first season, so at one time the gears were in motion. I recently downloaded the full series on the down low, but it'd be nice to get this in a quality higher than the seemingly third generation VHS dub transfers that I have.



"Ed" - I'm an unabashed Tom Cavanagh fan. The guy's just so quirky and funny and this David Letterman-produced show (where he first caught my attention) was a perfect fit for his talents. How can anyone not fall for a show about a disgraced man moving back to his small Ohio hometown to run a law firm/bowling alley and woo his high school sweetheart? Sure, the show inevitably lost some steam in its last season when "will they or won't they?" turned into "they did," but it was still really enjoyable. As with its big screen romantic comedy counterparts, there were montages aplenty - usually at least one per episode - and word has it that music rights issues are keeping this from seeing the light of day.



"Love Monkey" - Another Tom Cavanagh show, only this one was about an indie rock A&R guy and his trials and tribulations with musicians, women, and his major label former employer. Yeah, it pretty much played to my music geekery and Cavanaugh fandom. Unfortunately, this series got canned after only a handful of episodes aired. Repeats have currently been popping up on the Universal HD channel. Could there be a Blu-Ray release in the future? Unlikely, but my fingers are crossed.



"The Knights of Prosperity" - This one season wonder centered around a bunch of oddballs who try to pull off the perfect crime: robbing Mick Jagger's apartment (I much prefer the show's working title: "Let's Rob Mick Jagger"). Like "Ed", this was produced by David Letterman and shared its offbeat sense of humor. But it died a premature death and I'd love to revisit it.



"Mystery Science Theater 3000" - Shout Factory! has recently taken over the distribution reigns from Rhino and so far they're doing a bang-up job. Some episodes of this show will never get a proper release, though, because the licenses of certain movies that Joel, Mike, and the bots riff on have lapsed. And there are also some rights holders who don't like the fact that their poorly-made films were the butt of so many endless jokes by the Best Brains crew. Luckily, the folks at the Digital Archive Project are "circulating the tapes."



"Beavis and Butthead" - Yes, there are "B&B" DVDs out there, but they don't include the best part of this show: the music videos. Come on, Enuff Z'nuff, Pantera, etc. Don't be buttmunches. Grant your permission to use the videos.



"Heat Vision and Jack" - Okay, considering that this is an unaired pilot for a series that was never picked up, I realize that the likelihood of it ever officially coming out is about zilch. But it's got a sizable cult following and how could it not? It's got all of the elements of classic: Ben Stiller's direction, Jack Black as an astronaut who becomes a genius every night at sundown, Owen Wilson as a talking motorcycle, and the late Ron Silver as an evil version of himself. Knowledge is power…for real! (Watch part one here and part two here.)



Ed's Next Move - This is the only film left that I want to come out on the format (well, this and a release of The Man With Two Brains in its proper aspect ratio). It first landed on my radar during my college radio days when I got a free copy of the excellent Ed's Redeeming Qualities-heavy soundtrack (the band plays a central onscreen role in the film). Since getting the soundtrack, I've only seen the movie once, but I remember finding it pretty charming.

I hold some hope that these will one day live again. After all, other shows and movies that I like a lot and thought were lost forever - "The Tick", "Kitchen Confidential", The Chocolate War - have gotten DVD releases.

So, what are you holding out for?

Since when do effete, Volvo-driving, latte-sipping NPR types shop at Dollar Tree?

As I was picking up some supplies at Dollar Tree this weekend - oh, those delicious and dirt cheap maple cookies! - I noticed, mingling on the shelf with various baseball books and Bibles, a tome that I never thought would be sold there in a million years: The Areas of My Expertise by John Hodgman (the "PC guy" from those kinda funny yet also annoying Mac ads). I'd been meaning to give it a read for years now, so of course the one buck price tag made it a no-brainer for me to snap it up. Just flipping through this faux almanac, I think I've found a new bathroom book to replace the recently-read Our Dumb World by the Onion.

I passed on the very current book about Nü Metal, though. Maybe I'll pick that up for a laugh on my next trip. Or not.

Also at the Dollar Tree were a couple of Barenaked Ladies CDs that I shelled out $15 and $20+ for on their respective release dates. If only I had chosen to delay my gratification for six years, I could've saved a ton.

Song to get you through the weekend: "Daylight" by Matt & Kim

I had already compiled my Summer Mix* when I had this infectious tune by Matt & Kim on last week's "Sound Opinions" podcast. Had I heard this earlier, I definitely would've made room for it on the CD.

You can download this single (and a couple of remixes) for free here.

*Well, I haven't actually burned the CDs yet, but I've printed up all of the covers and ink ain't cheap.