A List of Things I'm Not Blogging About Today . . .

1. Obama's (Salty Chocolate) Balls (Althouse)
2. LAT Hypocrisy (Ed Driscoll)
3. Miley Cyrus' (Prematurely and Unfortunately Leaked) Budding Sexuality (Defamer)
4. Near Death Experiences (all of mine have happened in the Mojave) (Samizdata.net)
5. Really Ugly Women in Tights (So Quoted)
6. What Jesse (Purportedly) Really Said (Undercover Black Man)
7. KTLA "Reporter" Getting P0WNed!!! By Sad and Sorry Apple Geeks (Boing Boing)
8. Dumb (and Soon Costly for the Cop) Arrests (Instapundit)


That's enough of what I'm not blogging about today, there's probably plenty of other subjects beyond these I could blog about today, but be assured that you will not see a post covering the above topics at this blog for the remaining 24 hours, that's my promise to you.

(and no jokers better point out the inconsistencies inherent in that statement given that this post amounts to 'blogging', so all the subjects I've promised to not blog about have obviously been blogged about)

Ranking Angels . . .

Perusing my song list, I just noticed I have ten different songs called "Angel" by ten different artists.

Here's how they rank.

1) Angel --- Aretha Franklin. 'Retha, 'nuff said (at her best).
2) Angel --- Gavin Friday. A sinuously (and sinfully) sexy song. Off of the great Shag Tobacco album.
3) Angel --- Eurythmics. The saddest Angel song, later Eurythmics, still powerful.
4) Angel --- Massive Attack. The creepiest Angel song. Pitch black (and pitch perfect) electronica.
5) Angel --- Happy Mondays. Ahhh, Pacifiers and Glow Sticks (and Eeeeeee) . . .
6) Angel --- Kirsty MacColl. No video, sorry, you'll have to make do with a live performance of Can't Stop Killing You on Conan from a million years ago. Great song, though (both Angel, and Can't Stop Killing You)
7) Angel --- Luscious Jackson. Another non-video, Naked Eye will have to do. They were a great band. Interesting mix of influences.
8) Angel --- Jimi Hendrix. Minor Hendrix song, a bit hippy-dippy, but enough blues to make it tolerable.
9) Angel --- Belly. I liked Belly. Recorded at the World Famous Santa Monica Pier (about a mile and half and 15 years from where I'm typing this from)
10) Angel --- Leona Lewis. Not sure why I haven't deleted this album yet, don't like it much.

Also, wouldn't "Ranking Angels" be a great name for a neo-Ska band? Someone needs to bring back two-tone, might as well be the "Ranking Angels".

I'm amazed 8 out of 10 were available on the Tubes. There's very little that's not on the internet.

Some Timely Rankings . . .

Charles Barkley caused a bit of a hoo-haa by flatly stating (then quickly back-pedalling when Chris Webber freaked out about it) that this current LA Lakers were the best team Kobe's played with. Webber probably still has nightmares about some of those playoff series against the Shaq-Kobe lead teams of 1999-2004, his Sacramento Kings might have made a final or two had the Lakers not been in the way.

But that reminds me how much fun it is to come up with ridiculously biased rankings of things you really shouldn't have an opinion about.

So here you go. 5 lists, at least three will probably make your blood boil.

Top Seven Spielberg Directed Films (that I've bothered seeing)

1) Jaws (still his best work)
2) Raiders of the Lost Ark (I refuse to put Indiana Jones in the title)
3) Schindler's List (by far his best 'serious' work)
4) Empire of the Sun (easily his second best 'serious' work)
5) Catch Me If You Can (Walken, DiCaprio, 60s Jet-Set, sign me up)
6) 1941 (hell yeah, it belongs on this list, that was a funny movie, dammit)
7) The first two-thirds of AI (If it weren't for the last 30 minutes or so, would have been a nearly perfect film)

Bottom Seven Spielberg Directed Films, From Absolute Worst, to Just Plain Bad (that I've bothered seeing)

7) The Terminal (Good lord, so many bad choices, so much schmaltz, such a waste of 2 hours)
6) The Color Purple (I haaaaaaaaate the source material, the film is better than the book, but not by much)
5) All but the first 20 minutes of Saving Private Ryan (Outside of the opening sequence, this is a horrible, predictable, and boring film)
4) Munich (boring, boring, boring, and disgustingly morally relativistic to boot)
3) The Lost World (While the first Jurassic Park wasn't great, it was a good popcorn film, the followup, was just like a big steaming mound of Tyrannosaurus dung)
2) Hook (Seeks to be magical, but mostly it's just a mess, Williams at his most loathesome, and Hoffman at his most actorly, not a good combination for a kiddie picture)
1) The Trial of the Chicago 7 (I'm cheating a bit to put this on the list, given he's just begun shooting, but come on, Borat as Abbie Hoffman?!? You know it's going to be a positive portrayal of those damn dirty yippies (even worse than hippies), so I'm going out on a limb and forming my opinion of this turd before it's even dropped in the pot)

7 Best LA Lakers teams since Magic was a Rookie from 7th to 1st (to build suspense)

7) 2007-08 LA Lakers*** (conditionally, based on the assumption that they will win the championship this year, otherwise insert your favorite Showtime Era team that hasn't made the list in this spot)
6) 1979-80 LA Lakers (Magic's first year, not alot on this team other than Magic and Kareem, but that was enough)
5) 1984-85 LA Lakers (The first LA Lakers team to breakthrough and beat the Celtics, wouldn't be the last though, the rivalry that defined the 80s in the NBA)
4) 1988-89 LA Lakers (Wait, they didn't win the championship, they were even swept in the Finals by Detroit. But there were extenuating circumstances, injuries to Magic and Byron Scott ended what was an impressive undefeated streak in the playoffs, might have had a perfect record in the playoffs that year, but for those injuries, absurd stat from Basketball Reference, EVERY player on this team averaged over ten points per 36 minutes played, that's pretty remarkable)
3) 1999-2000 LA Lakers (The first title season for the Shaq-Kobe teams, not quite playing their best as a team, yet, even though they did compile a 67-15 regular season record, needed a miracle 4th quarter in Portland to make it to the finals)
2) 2000-01 LA Lakers (They were one insanely great performance by Allen Iverson away from having a perfect post season. Had some struggles in the regular season (injuries to Shaq and Kobe), but rolled through the playoffs. Still, you got to love a team that loses only one game in 4 post season series)
1) 1987-88 LA Lakers (A very special team, the last Showtime team to win a championship. Did not dominate in the playoffs, but ironically that's what makes them great. Taken to 7 games by the upstart Jazz (back when Stockton and Malone were young guns) in the 2nd round, again a game seven at home against an excellent Dallas team, and finally, battled a great Detroit Pistons squad in an epic Finals series that should be played on a loop over at ESPN Classics)

Top 5 Reasons to have an HDTV

5) Lost in HD
4) Summer Olympics in HD (mmmmm, Women's Beach Volleyball . . . .)
3) Torchwood in HD
2) NBA in HD
1) NFL in HD

Top 3 Reasons NOT to have an HDTV

3) Simon Cowelll's Erect Nipples in HD (in SD you can't tell his headlights are on through those sweaters, but in HD, it's obvious)
2) All those Damn CSI Shows in HD (seriously, all the pretty montages, are just wankery to make it all look 'cinematic' but it's just boring crap, and it's still boring in high-def)
1) The View in HD ( . . . shudder . . ., seriously at least 60 Minutes has had the sense to not make the switch yet)

Seven Ordered Lists (Ironically, These Lists are Provided in No Particular Order)

Today seems like a good day for ordered lists of my personal preferences.

First one, Sci-Fi/Fantasy authors (primarily active in the 80s, 90s, and 00s, and yes, my tastes skew British):

1)Neal Stephenson
2)Douglas Adams
3)Neil Gaiman
4)William Gibson
5)Peter Hamilton
6)Richard Morgan
7)John Scalzi
8)Chris Moriarty

Second one, days of the week:

1)Saturday
2)Sunday
3)Friday
4)Wednesday
5)Thursday
6)Monday (Ha! fooled ya)
7)Tuesday (I guess if I start a band I'll do a song, "I Don't Like Tuesdays")

Third one, performances in films released in 2007 I've seen:

1)Ellen Page in Juno
2)Cate Blanchett in I'm Not There
3)Russell Crowe in 3:10 to Yuma
4)Peter O'Toole in Ratatouille (vocal performances count, dammit)
5)Johnny Depp in PotC 3 (not a great film, but a crazy performance)
6)Sigourney Weaver in TV Set
7)Kurt Russell in Grindhouse (Deathproof section)
8)Zoe Bell in Grindhouse (Deathproof section)
9)Charles Fleischer in Zodiac (didn't like the film, but loved his performance)

Fourth one, albums I've listened to and were released in the USA this year:

1)Lily Allen, Alright Still (buy this album already)
2)Mark Ronson, Version (he's the top producer at the moment)
3)Prince, Planet Earth (Prince only comes in third this year, D'oh!)
4)Rilo Kiley, Under the Blacklight (Tasty album, screw the 'cooler than thou' who will claim they've gone too commercial)
5)White Stripes, Icky Thump (not their best, but still solid)
6) Screw it, that's about it, I've been listening to 'catalog' stuff more and more lately, I've liked other stuff (Feist, The Feeling, Gwen Stefani, Bjork), but not enough to keep on my hard drive or MP3 player.

Fifth one, pro sports franchises to root for:

1)LA Lakers
2)San Diego Chargers
3)LA Clippers
4)New Orleans Saints
5)Orlando Magic (I love me some Dwight Howard)
6)There's no sixth choice or beyond, don't care about baseball, hockey or soccer, so no rooting interest in those sports, and in football and basketball, can't spread myself too thin.

Sixth one, pro sports franchises to root against:

1)Phoenix Suns
2)San Antonio Spurs
3)New England Patriots
4)Dallas Cowboys
5)Boston Celtics (now that they're good again)
6)NY Yankees (I don't care about baseball, but I still like watching the Yankees fail)

Seventh, and final one, of the eight (5 GOP, 3 Dems) candidates with a real chance of becoming president, my personal preference as to which should hold the office:

1)Fred Thompson
2)Rudy Giuliani
3)Mitt Romney
4)Hillary Clinton
5)John McCain
6)Barack Obama
7)John Edwards
8)Mike Huckabee (yes, he's that contemptible)