The Singles Bracket Declares a Winner

http://chicagomag.com/Radar/Coda/February-2008/The-Singles-Bracket-Declares-a-Winner/

(not a part of my best of's but has a lot of cool lists)

The small tops list of films I have seen:

Blade Runner

Boys Don't Cry

Donnie Darko

Wit

But I'm a Cheerleader

Lost in Translation

Lost and Delirious

La Femme Nikita (1990)  (shockingly violent)

My Summer of Love
The Dreamers
Paprika

Niagara, Niagara

The chronological tops list of fiction films I've seen includes:

Before High School:
Shawshank Redemption
The Godfather
The Godfather Part II
Leon the Professional

Goodfellas
The Game
Golden Child (fun action-comedy)

(I remember watching a lot of violent movies as a young boy; which I now think is sad)

High School: 
Contact
As Good as it Gets (Mental Health)
Girl Interrupted (Mental Health)
A Streetcar Named Desire
Trainspotting
Fight Club (thrilly-violent)
Go
Gross Point Blank
Gattaca
Enemy at the Gates
A Beautiful Mind                                                                  
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind                                                      
Chicago
Something the Lord Has Made
Iron Jawed Angels
Can't Hardly Wait
Memento
Angels in America

Undergrad:
Million Dollar Baby
Training Day
Taxi Driver (natural and violent all at once)
El Labirinto del Fauno
El Orfanato
L'enfant (slow, real, and moving)
Looking for Bobby Fisher

El Mar Adentro
Blue
Goodwill Hunting

You Kill Me
Unbearable Lightness Of Being
Closer
Science of Sleep
Starting Out in the Evening

Vera Drake

Layer Cake (a little on the violent side)
Walk the Line
Battle Royale
12 Angry MenLittle Miss Sunshine
Before the Devil Knows Your Dead (jarringly and domestically violent)

Post Undergrad:
Gandhi
Choke
8 1/2
Three Times
The World
Annie Hall
Mrs. Henderson Presents
All The Kings Men
Katyn
Say Anything
High Fidelity
Niagara, Niagara (Mental Health)
BRD-Trilogie: The Marriage of Maria Braun
Lola
Veronika Voss
Kanal
Thirteen Candles
Breakfast Club
Hugo
La Estrada
Nue propriété
Jack Goes Boating
Seven Samurai
Arigatô-san
Orpheus
A Dangerous Method (Mental Health)
Loves of a Blonde
Ugetsu
Drive (really pushing the realistic violence)
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Shame
Spirited Away
The Master

Weekend (LGBT)

Like Someone In Love
Bez Wstydu
Hemel
Fabro de Rato
Paperboy                            
Lincoln
Holy Motors
Dogville
El Premio
Soog
Bande à part
Metropolis
La Bohème
집으로 – Jibeuro
Princess Mononoke
Castle In the Sky
Beyond the Hills
Hikaru no GO (TV)
The Sapphires
Elles
Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood (TV)
Fruitvale Station
Tokyo Godfathers
Certified Copy

Pop Culture and Youtube

Things that get me down

It's hard to stay away from pop culture. Even more so now in this age than in the 90's, and 80's and so on. Although now, it seems like it might even be getting out of hand. I dislike commenting on popular culture, b/c it is so stupid. I just don't want to bother. Pop culture's very shallow. To be popular it seems you should be shallow, exclusive, egoistic, and concerned only with money. It seems that honesty, truth, dependability, real experience, and knowledge, are not valued in popular culture. Shallowness and the ease of participation are the appeal of this culture.

Things that get me up

Youtube. It was invented by two guys from U of I and I like it b/c it is so democratic.

It can help give a sense of pop culture. Knowing pop culture in general can help you have a better feel of the people you want to help. Better sense of the people you want to sell things to.

Also, popular culture includes everyone. In it's broader form, it's a general culture that includes everyone. It's a culture of the elderly in their various day to day lives, it's a culture of 1st and 2nd graders. It's nice to think your a part of it.

The Millennium development goals were mentioned during youtube live, briefly by

WillIAM. But more specifically, by when, what was supposed to happen?

More Humor

2 Britney jokes

All the new girly pop sensations are constantly hunted by the ghost of Britney future.

and

What sensible person would have said that Christina Aguilara would win the pop battle w/ Britney? Remember the hijinks's that Christina performed? But look who won.

For next Halloween:

I'm Bond, James Bond. and my date is either Pussy Galore or Dr. Goodhead.

or, I'll be an old person.

What in the hell is the deal with California and Schwarzaneggar? The Governator! The Gubernator! I used to have respect for California, the most powerful state in the country, but after the two fiascoes (the original recall and iron man's reelection), I don't want to even go there. Which is too bad, you know, Cali seemed quite cool. But shit, what the hell were they thinking? Did you see the video of him attacking a poor bear in central park? And all his other videos, All of them? His pumping iron videos, his groping women videos, his killing videos? I have an idea, why not elect a someone who in life chose to pursue public service? Someone who chose to know about politics and its intricacies?

Some observations:
Life's a bitch and then you die.
Those Capoeria people are so silly, lol.
I actually rather bowl than watch baseball. And that's saying a lot.
What i learned in college; you can make a drinking game out of anything.

All the Chii places I've eaten great pizza

Giordano's at Irving Park, numerous times
Giordano's at Oak Park,
Giordano's by Water Tower Place, once
Giordano's Logan Square, twice
Pizzeria Due , twice
Brics, once
Gino's East, once on Diversey and Lincoln
Lou Malnati's, once Park Ridge
Pequod's, once at Mortin Grove, once at Clyborne
Burt's Place, once
Art of Pizza, once
Spacca Napoli, once
Piece, once

Yaa boy.
I've eaten alone at all these very good places,
except for Giordano's at Irving Park and Lou Malnati's and Due. Really too bad. Anyway, I'm a fan of quality ingredients. This stands in contrast with places like Domino's, Pizza Hut, Papa John's; where the pizzas are very oily, and the overall pizza makes me a little sick. That's bad pizza to me.

The http://www.chicagopizzaclub.com/, is a blog that's pretty cool on the subject, up to now I lone rangered it all, but future company sounds good.

p.s.

Great places for wings I've been to:

Wing Stop, Great Seas, Buffalo Joes, Twisted Spoke, Crisp, Hooters, B Dubs.

At school I met Laura, she told me that she wanted to live in a different country and completely rely on herself.

When she said that, I thought and felt that I couldn't relate at all, but I couldn't put this into words back then. All my life I feel I have relied on myself. In the financial sense though, only recently I have supported myself a little on my own, otherwise I have depend financially on my Mom and Aunt. But the early self reliance I'm talking about is a sense of direction, behavior, etc. that I feel I decided on by myself. I'm just saying that the direction from my Mom was small. 

That night the way she spoke got to me. It seemed elegant and with just the right amount of trust and favor. That was the big thing that she wanted, this self reliance, she told me. 

I later made mistakes regarding her. I would enjoy talking to her again. 

Humor

You know it's come to an end when:
From inside of a Starbucks you can see another Starbucks out the window.
Same thing goes for McDonald's.


With humor don't be Pierrot.

On Belmont there is a big billboard that says, I got it at NLU, all I want to do is spray paint, what herpes?, right across the whole thing.

Better Dead Than Red. Which is not true by the way.

There's no need for me to play video games, I often drive the streets of Chicago.

"Push the floor until I get tired!" some of my army humor.

"OregAno, what the hell" The Marge Simpson quote I think of whenver I look at some spieces.

Music and Videos

I feel better when I don't watch videos or listen to music. I'm very far away from creating either and so taking in these things makes me feel and think kind of bad. It can be aggravating when you think "I can't even come close to creating a very small part of these movies and songs, these works of art, that I appreciate so very very much."

It can be hard to go through your day without being exposed to either.

I am going to learn how to play the piano next, even before any kind of trips. Before languages.
This is how much I value music. Specifically:
I love music and other things, media, that feels modern
I love it. Older stuff is good too, but it lacks modernity that I like so much.

Writing and Pictures

I actually was able to do produce these things in my life, unlike the other stuff.

My big idea for google

My big ideas for Google, their 10^100 $10 mil  contest.

1)The Painful Pointed Economic Inequality here in the US
Class revolution
I most want to focus on economic social stratification and on economics when I enter law school.
How about finding out how much money the rich donate to such causes, if at all, and then force them to? Shame the rich?

2) Starving People everywhere
go to Africa/World and help people
with your military background
Children Starving
Im mostly done thinking about the starving around the world, and me donating money.
But what about the starving in Africa, and the Middle East?


Notes---------------------------------
my ideas are exceedingly superficial for this project
do they have to be that severe?

publicity: just use this money to run TV/Internet/News Paper ads to get people to:
at least not vote Republican for anything, ever

An Electronic Love Letter

This I wrote a long time ago, during my first year of UofI, in an inspired fit in a six pack computer lab. In most ways it still holds true today:

I believe
First of all is trust
And before that is truth
So I will start at the beggining

I think I learned something form all the romantic movies I watched
There must have been hundreds
It’s worth it.
Even if we have to pick ourselves off the floor, its worth it

Romantic?
Now come on, romance is all around us
"Sunrise Sunset" or, maybe I just look for it

The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, “Your going to find things about me you Don’t like and I’ll get trapped and want out, that’s how I am”-Kate Winslet , “Ok” Jim Carrey
As Good as it Gets, perfect people, their just a fantasy
Something’s Got to Give, “he can be insightful when you least expect it”; u will get hurt,
But its worth it
With the only kind of movie Kirsten Dunst makes
Wimbledon, people can bring out the best in each other,
Meet Jack Black, you don’t have to be funny if you look like Brad Pitt
So a Rabby, a Priest, and a Muslim enter a bar and the bartender is like, is this a joke.
Casablanca, “Of all the countries, on all the continents, in all the cities, in all the bars, you had to walk in to mine”, will you?
What would you say that a Y Tu Mama Tambien thing could work?
I think it could. Talk about adventure, wow.
She’s All That, I liked that one
Just like in Dopamine, the chemistry can be there, and that’s all that matters,
its there

I want this thing to be passionate, I want us to be driven
I want us to be passionate, but without the pitfalls of passion
With eyes wide open, or shut if that is preferred.

As long as there's heat.

Will you save the last dance for me?
And I am up for dancing
I definitely will not step on your feet
Unless you’re wearing spikes, you can, even then
Might be something I might enjoy

I want us to be an adventure
That’s s what I’d try with all my all my bravado to create
Or I could be Jane.
How about this, we’ll hold on to the vine together.

Did you know that you can’ have a Broadway musical without a marriage, without romance, forget it

The Mustach is fake, I know how real it looks like!