I'm the F to the U, R, K the E, Y

It's that time of year again!

No, I'm not talking about the crap with the big fat man and the mistletoe, although it is obviously that time too. What I'm talking about is list time. This is when EVERYONE and their mother comes out with a list of "The Best __________ of 2006!" Comedy Central already had their Last Laugh, MTV's probably gearing up for their TRL special of "The Top 50 Videos of 2006 You Would Have Seen on MTV if We Ever Played Videos" and I'm sure E! will be having a craptacular blow-out of "The Top 100 List of List Shows We Filled Our Dead Air With in 2006 Because We Can't Create Any Quality Programming Other than The Soup!!!" (note the extra punctuation to show just how excited they are about their jobs).

Joking aside, we all know that I love lists. So, apart from having to bear the ones that make me want to stick sharp objects in my eye (thank you E!), I am a fan of this time of year in all its listy-ness.

Today's list is brought to us by Rolling Stone (they like lists too, but not as much as those people at Billboard). It is "The 100 Best Songs of 2006" list. And I am sad to say that I must have sucked at life when it came to finding good music this year, because I missed a lot of these. I guess its time to catch up!

I also don't buy some of these tracks as being the best the music world had to offer this year. You can read more of my opinions below about some of the selections, but I just have to say -


Some observations I have after perusing the list are:

1. Is "Ridin" really the #3 best song of the whole entire 365 days of 2006? It must have been a slow year in music.

2. The song that I claimed as mine earlier in the year, The Dixie Chicks' "The Long Way Around" is in the top 20 yall! Holla!
Oh, god. I did not just say holla. Kill me.

3. "When the Sun Goes Down" by The Arctic Monkeys was a killer song that I listened to a lot this year. Yay for Monkeys!

4. If there's no possible way to avoid it entirely, the only way I can handle listening to the song "Promiscuous" is to stick sharp objects in my ears and then just dance to the bassline. Definitely not in my top 100.

5. On snap! "London (Fucking) Bridge"!! Are you kidding me?!?!!! (extra punctuation to show how much that song should NOT be on this list). I could handle "Fergalicious", maybe. But probably only because its easy to make into Furkalicious and my friends like to sing it to me at the bar.

6. Anyone who likes pop-punk/emo music and hasn't heard the whole Panic! at the Disco album, go get it right now. It's like a storming infectious-beat soap opera from beginning to end. I'm happy to see my favorite track "The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide is Press Coverage" at #84.


Lastly, where is "Cable Car", "Crooked Teeth", "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree"? And what about stuff from Weezer? They were all over the radio this year.

Just my 2 cents.

I'm sure they missed some of your favorites too.

Big Ideas

If you're interested in marketing, viral messages, or just some random bits of information, then you should definitely check out this blog I found recently called Gaping Void. It's written by a guy named Hugh from the UK who does marketing for a South African Vineyard and also creates interesting drawings on the backs of business cards. Many have to do with working in the advertising/marketing/creative world, but there is something there for everyone. Check out his gallery.

I'm particularly fond of this new one:


Think I'll have it put on the back of my business cards.

I have also added the Gaping Void widget to my sidebar, so you can check out a bunch of them.

Which one would be yours?

the happiest town on earth?

tonight i was writing a take-home quiz for my contemporary mass media class, debunking an argument of the anti-FOX news documentary "outfoxed." to create my argument that the documentary never talked about the other big media companies and how they present news, i was looking up information about newscorp (the big parent company of FOX and about 100 other media outlets) and the rest of the "big five" (for those who aren't communication students, the "big five" are the five largest media companies in the world and basically own and control everything we watch, read, hear and see - aol/time warner, GE-nbc universal, viacom-MTV anyone?, newscorp - FOX, and everyone's favorite, disney).

so, i find this great site that outlines all the ownership of these companies (p.s. it is a little outdated - i.e. ge/nbc recently merged with universal). at the bottom of disney's entry it says "celebration, florida, a 4,900-acre town." i'm thinking, another resort area set up like a town or a place where disney world "cast members" live. but, of course i have to know for sure so, like everything else, i google it. what do i find? this.

it's a real town! but it's not like it's real. it's like stepford real. it's like pleasantville real. you can buy a house there or an aparment or a condo. it's all on the site. plus there's a hospital and public schools with subjects like horticulture and a community intranet that keeps you updated on town events. Oh, and my favorite part is in the town press release area - "snow returns to celebration". and just in case you can't link there for some reason i'll copy my favorite part right here:

"The day after Thanksgiving is known as one of the busiest shopping days of the year. But in Celebration, the day marks another tradition – the beginning of Celebration’s Nightly Snowfall down MARKET STREET. The snow begins Friday, November 28 at 6, 7, 8, and 9 p.m. for ten minutes and repeats every night until New Year’s Eve."

WHAT?!?! are you kidding me!? the town even has fake snow! i don't know whether to call the FBI to look into this place or start saving up for one of its $1,000,000 houses.

but really, i don't know about a major corporation owning my town. just think about that. think of your home town and now imagine mcdonalds owns it or warner brothers or, hey, disney. there has to be some sort of a catch. does the hamburglar show up for dinner unexpectedly? do they use your main street as a giant movie set whenever they feel like it? is your swimming pool not suitable for laps with all the rounded edges that make up the mouse ears?

maybe i'm just old fashioned, but i think i like my towns synergy/product integration/media congolmerate free, at least for the time-being.