Pop Culture

I thought you may find this interesting and less depressing than talk of what South Dakota should be cutting to get spending under control. In a Chinese Central Television story about China’s air force they used footage that was supposedly of a live fire exercise in which all targets were destroyed. Upon closer examination it was found that the footage looked a great deal like a final scene from the American classic Top Gun. Judge for yourself:

This seems to be a case of some lazy reporting, but it is pretty funny.

Enjoy the footage from a news CCTV story featuring China’s best beach volleyball team. I actually have an advanced copy:

Adam Feser

I love lists, and I especially love year-end music lists. It’s a chance to see if people agree with your favorites, and it’s also a time to see what music you missed that you’ll love. I like doing it on the blog because I get to throw up songs so you can sample for yourself and see what you see. I’m sure I’ll miss some awesome music (even from my own library) and throw some up you’ll hate, but that’s the fun. I also know there are a lot of albums I probably need to give a better chance (Walkmen and The National), but there is only so much time in the year. This list will be my favorite albums followed by some songs I loved. It was going to be ten albums, but I had too many I wanted. And I realized last year I did fifteen. So enjoy fifteen and some honorable mentions.

Top 15 Albums of 2010:

1. Titus Andronicus – The Monitor

I could tell this one would be near the top of my list when I first listened to it this spring (weeks after Venhuizen wanted me to). There’s a Civil War concept that runs through much of the album that relates to things like a desire to leave your hometown and relationships, and while it’s cool, it’s unnecessary. The lyrics and energy of the album are enough on their own to make it rock.

2. The Tallest Man on Earth – The Wild Hunt

Kristian Matsson is the Tallest Man on Earth, and he is something special. His voice is raw, but it can also be pretty. The songs are just so well put together. I can’t imagine any of them being better than they are. (His EP is also stellar.)

3. Vampire Weekend – Contra

If you are one of those people (more…)

Go Huskers!

Enjoy the beatdown.

Adam FEser

I’m writing this as a plea for those of you who haven’t watched it to get to it, so I won’t be including any spoilers.  I’ll discuss the show in general.

The Walking Dead premiered on AMC on Sunday.  It is based on a comic series of the same title, though they have made it clear that they will not follow the comic exactly.  I had been looking forward to the series since I learned it was in development.  I just watched it tonight.  I loved it.

There, now that we have the background out of the way we can get talk a little about the actual show.  Frank Darabont, director films like The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, developed the show for television, is the showrunner, and directed the pilot.  He obviously knows what he is doing, and it shows in the pilot.

As I mentioned earlier, I won’t be discussing details, but I will say that the opening scene will tell you exactly what type of series this is hoping to be.  It’s a (more…)

The Baseball Project is a side project with Steve Wynn of Dream Syndicate, Peter Buck and Scott McCaughey of R.E.M., and Linda Pitmon who once drummed for Zuzu’s Petals. I’m not familiar with all their work, but they contacted Craig Finn, of The Hold Steady (best bar band in America) to write and sing a song about his favorite and hometown team, the Minnesota Twins. The result is “Don’t Call Them Twinkies.” Since the Sox are done for this year, I’ll be a Twins guy until they’re done. So please don’t call them twinkies.

Enjoy Finn killing it for the Twins.

Adam Feser

Sorry I haven’t posted in a bit. I had a busy weekend and am still basking in the glow of a Husker domination. There is definitely one important thing that happened last Thursday (while I was at a Titus Andronicus/Free Energy concert) that needs posting.

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert had been going back an forth since Glenn Beck’s rally about how they each were going to make a huge announcement. Last Thursday they finally made good on their boasts and each announced a rally to take place at the National Mall in D.C. on 10/30/10. Jon’s is to restore sanity to our country and Stephen’s (always the satirist) is to “keep the fear alive.”

Jon’s clip is amazing. I especially like the signs. “I disagree with you, but I’m pretty sure you’re not Hitler.” That’s a sentiment I wish I heard more of in American politics. “I’m not afraid of Muslims/ Tea Partiers/ Socialists/ Immigrants/ Gun Owners/ Gays, but I am scared of spiders.” That’s another little doozy.

“Take it down a notch for America.” How great is that?

Stephen’s character, of course, cannot abide by the return of reason to the process. (After all, reason is just one letter away from treason.) What will happen to the people employed in the panic-inducing market? What would there be for talking heads to do if they weren’t trying to convince you a community center is actually a terrorist training ground?

Hurry up an book your hotels, because if you don’t, your kids will be gay.

Enjoy restoring sanity.

Adam Feser

It’s been awhile since we’ve had a song of the day. Skye brought up the late, great Senator Paul Wellstone in the comments section and it made me crave a particular song. This track is “Ballad of Paul and Sheila” by Mason Jennings, who is a Minnesotan. The song is a tribute to Paul and Sheila Wellstone and a call for not letting their lifes’ work die. It’s beautiful, sad, yet motivational.

Enjoy knowing a close friend of Paul’s has his seat.

Adam Feser

Glenn Beck hates the World Cup a lot, likely because the rest of the world hates it. Beck also draws some giant analogy with almost no thought put into it about how the World Cup represents Barack Obama’s policies. (If he means Barack Obama’s policies unite the world, I guess he sees that as a bad thing?) Beck also thinks America will reject the World Cup no matter how much it is forced down our throats. This facts, once again, have no impact on Beck’s ravings. World Cup coverage is breaking records with numbers of viewers. He also must really hate Rupert Murdoch for shoving soccer down our throats, what with Fox Soccer Channel and all. And those damned corporations advertising soccer apparently have been socialists all along.

Dan Gainor believes it must be a socialist plot because soccer is for the poor. He also claims our sporting events don’t devolve into riots. (Hmm, within the last week L.A. rioters burned a cab, Artest and team fighting the crowd, Michigan St. riots, the ten here, and on and on. Is he kidding?) He also claims soccer is being sold in America due to the “browning” of America. Seriously.

Some say soccer is being promoted by the left because they are uncomfortable with American exceptionalism (or something?). Gary Schmitt says soccer must be unAmerican because of some drivel about excellence prevailing in American sports and not in soccer (which is absolute garbage).

Others wonder why it’s being forced on us when we aren’t getting any better, though we’ve clearly improved a great deal and continue to do so. Look at the amount of youths that play soccer. It is growing.

I’m not the biggest soccer fan in the world, and for a good deal of time I would always say I hated soccer. Weird, right, since I’m a left-wing nutjob. But I hated it because I thought it was boring, not because of some strange conspiracy, or because it was scary and different. I’m really giving watching it a shot and I find that even the games not involving America are interesting. The score might be 1-0 but there are no shortage of near goals, great shots, great saves, or great crosses. And I realize it was hypocritical of me because I love a 1-0 baseball game and a 3-0 football game for many of the same reasons. The more America learns about the game the more it can appreciate and enjoy it, which is what is happening.

But back to the left-wing conspiracy garbage. These people are simply afraid of what is different. If something they don’t understand comes along, it must be dangerous. If the rest of the world (including allies and enemies) loves it, it must be horrible. Poor countries play it, it must be for poor people. Brown countries play it, it must be for brown people. The crap spewing from these peoples’ mouths is truly insane, and it makes me even happier to be enjoying the World Cup. I hope it’s a huge success and soccer continues to grow, just to make these crotchety old dudes uncomfortable. I can just picture the, “I hate change!” and “New things scare me!” cries emanating from various conservative news sources.

Enjoy the World Cup.

Adam Feser

I hate soccer so anytime someone uses Lego’s to make fun of it, I have to show the world

The Ohio version that is…