My iTunes Shuffle Baker's Dozen 11-17-09

Because in these days of modern technology, what is life without the iTunes shuffle function?

Affair - Cherrelle
Solitary Man - Neil Diamond
Apu In "The Jolly Bengali" Theme - The Simpsons
Primitive - Roisin Murphy
Kid Fears - Indigo Girls
Bless The Beasts And Children - 4 Non Blondes
Take On Me - a-Ha
Would I Lie To You? (Live) - Eurythmics
Reach Your Peak - Sister Sledge
Black On Black II - Heart
Take It To Da House - Trick Daddy feat. The SNS Express
Alive - Dirty Vegas
Work It - Teena Marie

Cleanup Duty

I've been busy working the last few days to make my house reasonably presentable for anyone other than myself. I've got a friend who's going to be staying with me for a little while. If not for that, the dust would continue to pile up and all the things I've got strewn around would continue to sit. This is because when it comes to keeping up with housework and maintenance and such, I'm a tricky combination of lazy and useless. I could really use a maid. If you know any maids that work for free (because that's about all I can afford right now) please send them my way.

Meanwhile, I also have to adjust to having someone around the house. I've lived by myself for so long, I'm very set in my ways. At the same time, since I'm not working, I'm completely free to come and go as I please and do whatever I want when I'm at home. While my friend is staying with me, my normal routines will be changed. They can't help but change. Even though it's my house and that makes me pretty much in charge, I'm still going to try and be a good host. I'm not going to switch channels on the TV if he's watching something. If I'm watching a game I'm not going to mute the sound, put on the radio and listen to music instead of moronic announcers.

It's going to be weird. I hope it turns out to be a good weird.

A Book I'd Like Turned Into A Movie

Consider this a dual sales pitch. The immediate pitch is for "The Alphabetical List Of Would-Be Princes," the second book by Fredric Joss Shelley. (Disclaimer: Freddy and I are on the same softball team in the City of Brotherly Love Softball League, Mikey's Nighthawks, and this season he was not just Most Valuable Player on our team, but of the entire "D" Division. This is a man of many talents!)

This sweet, engaging novel tells the story of one man's path to finding true love with the man of his dreams. Jack Bradley's tale winds its way through the alphabet, in order. "A is for Aaron," "B is for Ben," etc. Not every chapter is about boyfriends, though. The list is actually a mixture of close friends, acquaintances, and a number of random encounters -- a supermarket checkout boy, a police officer -- and in ways both great and small, each person helps Jack along the way.

At the risk of sounding like one of those lame reviewers who come up with cheesy lines designed to be quoted on a DVD cover, as I read the book the first-person narrative reminded me at times of "Sex And The City." I can easily see this book adapted for the big screen. That's the second part of my sales pitch -- I want to see the movie version. I want the story of Jack Bradley to win America's hearts. (Okay, that really sounds like one of those cheesy lines.)

Going back to the first part of my sales pitch: you can order "The Alphabetical List Of Would-Be Princes" through Amazon, but a much more beneficial option is to buy it from Giovanni's Room, our local LGBT bookstore. It's now the oldest independent LGBT bookstore in the USA, and is undergoing a renovation to rebuild one of the store's walls, which became structurally unsound. The cost of this construction is about $50,000, and there are fundraising efforts ongoing to pay for it. From now until the end of 2009, all proceeds from the store's sales of Freddy's new book -- including publishing costs -- will be donated to the renovation fund. The store is also selling raffle tickets for a few more weeks and other events are occurring; check out the store's Facebook page for more info.

Now that I think of it, this is a multiple sales pitch! There's the book, my request that it be made into a movie, my desire that you buy it from Giovanni's Room, the store's raffle and other fundraisers, the link to our softball team's sponsor and the softball league...there's even a link to one of my earlier blog posts. OMG, I've become both a pimp and a whore. ;-)

My Week In Comics 11-11-09

Only one book for the second week in a row. The newest issue of "Red Robin" says something like "The Search Continues" on the cover -- presumably referring to the title character's search for Bruce Wayne -- but a quick glance at it indicated nothing like that was on the inside. I also passed on "Green Lantern Corps" and its Blackest Night tie-in, although there's a pretty big development at the end of it. Seemingly, at least. Thus, just one book:

Action Comics 883: Nightwing and Flamebird get back to their original mission: capturing General Zod's Kryptonian "sleeper agents" on Earth, and one of them ages. Rapidly. Meanwhile, someone finally is wondering whatever happened to poor Jimmy Olsen. And I've said this before, but the "second feature" starring Captain Atom really, truly, emphatically is tied into the rest of the events in the Superman books. I'd probably have enjoyed it more when it started if it were in its own book, instead of parceled out in 8-page bites.

Quick Review: The Men Who Stare At Goats

I'll make this review really quick: don't waste your time or money on this strange, confusing mess. Between the story in which Ewan McGregor's reporter character follows around George Clooney's "psychic spy" or whatever he was supposed to be, the two of them in, of all places, Iraq, and the flashbacks to a secret army unit training Clooney and other "psychic spies" in the 1980s, with narration by McGregor throughout -- even Clooney's flashbacks -- I hardly knew what was going on and lost interest rapidly. I'm not sure where the humor in this was supposed to come from, but it didn't come at all. Worst movie I've seen this year. My grade: D-minus.

Quick Review: Where The Wild Things Are

With the transit strike over, I was finally able to get out to see a movie again (without taking a long walk, which would have been good for my health but uncomfortable in poor weather and much too time-consuming). Although "Where The Wild Things Are" has been out for a while now, it ended up being my first post-strike movie. Why? The bus I was waiting for never arrived after 40 minutes of waiting, so I had to take a different route to the mall. (Why is our transit system called SEPTA? Because everyone gets where they're going, SEPTA you.) Thus, I missed out on my initial choice.

I wasn't overly keen on seeing "WTWTA" but it was more interesting than I expected. It's a bit revised and very much fleshed out from the book. Young Max acts out at home, runs away and (in his imagination) makes his way across the ocean to the land of the Wild Things. Upon meeting them, he becomes their king and declares a "wild rumpus." That's pretty much it for the book, but the movie goes beyond that. Each of the creatures has issues, corresponding to the issues Max is dealing with in his life (as seen at the beginning of the movie). So the movie becomes a little psychological study. I'm not sure kids could sit through it -- it's certainly not flashy and loud like so many animated films -- but it held a definite charm. My grade: B-plus.

Random Stuff About My iTunes Library

I stole this idea from my friend Walt, who stole it from someone else, who undoubtedly stole it from yet another someone else, and so on, and so on, and so on. So, here's what I've got in iTunes...

How many total songs?

9,352. They're not all songs. I have a few sound bites and bits of dialogue from cartoons and TV shows; some artists (I'm looking at you, Janet Jackson) like to put these spoken "interludes" between songs on an album; and I have a podcast or two. At any rate, the total is 9,352 tracks. That's a total of 27.7 days' listening, amounting to 37.09 GB. (Walt puts me to shame with his 57,043 items.)

Sort by song title – first and last…

"A.B.C." - The Jackson Five
"99.9 F°" - Suzanne Vega (all the numbered items follow items beginning with a Z)

Sort by time – shortest and longest…

0:03 - This Means War - Bugs Bunny (one of those cartoon bits)
1:11:50 - Christmas 2004 - Nice (another friend, Gregg, compiled "Naughty" and "Nice" mixes of holiday music in 2004 that are very creative)

Sort by Album – first and last…

Abraxas - Santana
99.9 F° - Suzanne Vega

(See above re: song titles; in addition, I should note that the track from "Abraxas" is the only song I have from that album. That's because I have many downloads of individual songs or, for CDs I own, I may have only copied certain songs into iTunes. Also, I have songs that don't have an album title in the notes -- these are strictly downloads, and I haven't bothered to update the info in the library. I was doing that for a while, and even copying the album cover, but I've gotten off track there and now I can't be bothered.)

Sort by Artist – first and last…

a-Ha
95 North

Top five played songs

"When Love Takes Over" - David Guetta feat. Kelly Rowland - 222 plays
"Let It Rock" - Kevin Rudolf feat. Lil' Wayne - 176 plays
"Poker Face" - Lady Gaga - 144 plays
"Shining Light" - Annie Lennox - 133 plays
"If I Never See Your Face Again (Paul Oakenfold Remix)" - Maroon 5 feat. Rihanna - 126 plays

I reset the total at the beginning of every year, so this is only 2009's most played.

Find the following words. How many songs show up?

Sex: 38 (the search function in iTunes, however, brought up every variation on the word, including titles like "Sexual Healing"
Death: 5
Love: 829 (again, variations, including "lover" and "lovely"
You: 1170
Home: 57
Boy: 79
Girl: 124

First five songs that come up on Party Shuffle...

I don't seem to have "Party Shuffle" any more, not that I ever used it. I just used the regular shuffle mode. Anyhoo, it seems to be called "iTunes DJ" now. And because I hit a button by mistake, I refreshed the list it brought up. So this isn't exactly the first five, but let's pretend:

"Cemeteries Of London" - Coldplay
"Orange Crush" - R.E.M.
"River Deep, Mountain High (Live Unplugged)" - Annie Lennox
"Believe Somebody" (mashup) - Madonna/Cher/Whitney Houston
"If I Could Only Win Your Love" - Emmylou Harris

Jon And Shane Plus...?

As if the mohawk wasn't bad enough, Phillies outfielder Shane Victorino is now showing questionable taste in celebrity friends. TMZ.com reports that bad dad Jon Gosselin has flown to Hawaii to attend Victorino's wedding this weekend. Why, Shane, Why? Aren't there any MMA fighters you could invite instead? Hell, even if you invited A-Rod and his latest skank Kate Hudson it would be almost understandable...

My Weeks In Comics 10-28-09, 11-04-09

I'm combining two weeks' worth of books into one post. That's a total of 8 books, but 7 were from last week. I nearly skipped this week due to the transit strike, but I made my way into town on the Regional Rail, which is still running. All for one book. Soooooooooo...

Blackest Night 4 (of 8): By the end of this issue, the power level of the black rings reaches 100 percent, a character named Nekron rises and about 7 million dead people, killed in Coast City, are about to. Yet I still really want to know why Black Hand carries Bruce Wayne's skull around. There'd better be a good answer to that by the end of this.

Green Lantern 47: Meanwhile, I keep buying this book because of the "Blackest Night" story, yet it just doesn't interest me here, bouncing around as they are to different planets and following the Black Lanterns' attacks on the Red Lanterns, the Orange Lanterns, etc.

Detective Comics 858: The origin of Batwoman, beginning with events from the childhood of Kate Kane and her twin sister Beth. Unless there's a surprise twist, we probably know what eventually happened to Beth, based on the close of issue 857.

Gotham City Sirens 5: The Joker wants to kill Harley Quinn (and if Catwoman and Poison Ivy die as well, so be it). Or does he? It's loopy, flighty Harley who figures out the truth first.

Superman 693: With the various storylines involving New Krypton slowly coalescing, this book finally returns to its focus on Mon-El, believed dead but in reality captured by General Lane. Lane wants Mon-El to join his anti-Kryptonian fight...or else.

Superman: Secret Origin 2 (of 6): Young Clark Kent begins his career as Superboy (in secret) and has his first encounter with the Legion of Super-Heroes. And young Lex Luthor gets bad news, and then good news.

World's Finest 1 (of 4): Back in the day the "World's Finest" title was a long-running book featuring Superman and Batman teaming up for adventures. That series eventually ended but the title's been used a few other times in miniseries and one-shot stories. Since their new series together was simply named "Superman/Batman," it's available for this new four-parter, which will feature various Superman characters and Batman characters meeting for the first time. First up: Red Robin and the new Nightwing.

And finally, this week's entry...

Superman: World of New Krypton 9 (of 12): The cliffhanger from the last issue gets resolved, there's some internal political infighting and a chat between General El and General Zod, and then another arrival, and another cliffhanger. Can we skip ahead to the Earth/New Krypton war already?

Phillies Post-mortem

If you're wondering how I'm feeling in the wake of the Phillies' World Series loss at the hands of the Evil Empire, to be honest the cold I'm currently battling feels worse -- and it isn't that severe a cold.

The 2009 Phillies were a team whose bullpen was beset by injuries and inconsistency; whose young pitching ace apparently spent the offseason making stupid commercials for Comcast instead of working out; whose other starting pitchers at the beginning of the season were serving up runs at a ridiculous pace; whose leadoff hitter -- the so-called catalyst -- spent three months in a hitting "slump" (a week or two is a slump; half a season is a disaster); whose pinch-hitters were feeble pretty much all year; whose high-priced new outfielder got hurt and essentially stopped producing on offense after the All-Star break.

A team with such problems has no business contending, let alone winning the NL East for the third consecutive season and appearing in the World Series in back-to-back years for the first time in franchise history, with one championship to boot. So who can feel that bad that they lost the World Series to a team that isn't capable of winning without spending hundreds of millions of dollars to buy up every possible player on the market?

So here's to the 2009 Phillies. It was quite a ride. Actually, the last three years combined have been quite a ride -- no Phillies team has ever accomplished this much over a three-year period -- and this particular one doesn't have to end just yet. With so many key players locked into contracts for at least the next year or two, if the Phils make the proper moves to shore up some weaknesses there's no reason they won't be back in the World Series again in 2010. The deal to get Cliff Lee prior to the trade deadline, without giving up their most promising minor league talent, indicates that such retooling is in capable hands. What needs to be done? Glad you asked...

The bullpen: The struggles of Brad Lidge, whether due to knee problems or not, and the multiple absences of J.C. Romero (suspension and injury) had a domino effect on the rest of the relief corps. They need Romero for the full season as the lefthanded set-up option, especially if fellow lefty Scott Eyre retires. More importantly, they need Lidge to return to something close to 2008 form -- or they need Ryan Madson to step up and become consistent enough to take Lidge's place.

The starters: Not much change here. Cliff Lee stabilized the rotation. J.A. Happ may end up as NL Rookie of the Year. Despite his 2009 problems, Cole Hamels isn't going anywhere. I think Joe Blanton is good enough for one of the remaining two spots; for a while he was the only decent starter. The Phils will have to decide on the final spot. Do they bring back Pedro Martinez for another year? See if Jamie Moyer can bounce back from his demotion and season-ending injury? Or will highly touted minor leaguer Kyle Drabek make the leap to the parent club, either at the start of the year or later on in the season?

The bench: Another year of Matt Stairs probably wouldn't hurt, as a lefthanded bat to provide the occasional home run, but if there's a better option -- someone who can also hit for average as well as having some power -- the Phils should explore it. For righthanded hitting, though, they absolutely need better options than Miguel Cairo and Eric Bruntlett. Sure, he scored the winning run in the 2008 Series and turned an unassisted triple play to end a game this year, but Bruntlett's got to go.

The lineup: The only possible change is at third base. Pedro Feliz is an excellent fielder but his hitting leaves much to be desired. The Phils have a 2010 option to keep him at $5.5 million, and it's not out of the question that they could decide against picking up that option. A better bat can be found in free agency, but it would have to be someone who has decent fielding skills as well. And he'll have to be a righthanded hitter, because there are enough (too many?) lefthanded bats already.