jb's recap...BEST. WEEK. EVER.-style.

Currently reading: Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ (Paperback)by Daniel Goleman

Currently (Re)Watching: Battlestar Galactica: Season 1 ---- BEST. SHOW. EVER....A sci-fi allegory of the war on terror? sign me up :) (I don't think Dustin is ever going to relinquish my DVD set either.....:( )

% of taxes Done: I have relied on Future-JB to do my taxes (Present-JB got wasted this wknd) and either Future-JB did it right, ooooorrr Present-JB is going to jail.

Current Pet Peeve: Why the frak won't www.penny-arcade.com open at all?

April Fool's Jokes planned: 2; they don't know what hit them ;)

# of times JB deserves to be slapped: Yeah I'm thinking 2.

What DIDN'T JB eat this week: healthy food.

Life Lesson learned: My XBOX 360 is many things, but a love doctor it is not, alas.

Biggest Poker Accomplishment: Accepting a nice contribution to the "JB-needs-money-for gambling" charity fund, courtesy of www.zoji.com

Influences: I'm under one right now ;)

Most contested word on Scrabble: smad.

On a scale of 1 to landfill, our condo is a: landfill.

Current conspiracy theory: Don Nguyen is, in fact, the 12th and final Cylon model.

Finish this sentence: This Thursday, I'm going to (EXPERIENCE MUSIC PROJECT for Free admission Thursdays)

Quote of the week: You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes...you might find....you get what you need. ---- The Rolling Stones

222-666-3-33

444333

999666888

44288833

3332226663333

8444447777,

8444447777

6332667777

999666888

833998

929999

8666666

68822244 :-P

Its a party in my mind, but no one accepts the evite...

To anyone that yearns for the days of yore when friends & acquaintances were available at a moment's whim to hang out.....To anyone mortified by the notion of scheduling get-togethers, shindigs, hootnannys with the same cold efficiency commonly reserved for, say, updating your Microsoft Outlook acct. at work....To everyone compelled, deep down inside, to ascend the clocktower, screaming "Where's the time gone?".....

I give you....monday's edition of Penny Arcade (btw, Penny Arcade is a popular webcomic; think The Daily Show, but w/ videogames instead of News)

click here for a bigger version.

...The Greatest Hits

JB: "you know what the best album of ALL TIME is, in fact?"

Dustin: "...what?"

JB: "...my hard drive."

I feel like the time is right (actually, its just a slow Friday at work...hee hee...) to compile my top 10 list of favorite albums ever...but first...a little perspective.

Not alot of ppl notice this right away (being the self-proclaimed music connieseur I make myself out to be), but I got into music relatively late (at 17-18 years old, in fact. I know...pretty n00b). However, between Napster (ok ok, Nirvana, check. Weezer, check. Smashing Pumpkins, check. No Doubt, check. Green Day, check.) and my too-hip-to-be-square parents (mom was a dj in college...true story. And my dad wore his hair down to his moneymaker, so you KNOW he had to listen to some tunes) I was scooping up entire discographies like gold dubloons from the Marianas trench (hmm...i see now why its called 'pirating.')

Back to the subject at hand....Top 10 list of favorite albums. Now, this isn't a list of the "BEST albums ever" cuz those are pretentious at best (btw, mine isn't ;) ). One of the allures of music is that its a strictly subjective experience; certain sounds are going to resonate more with certain ppl, I say.

Rather, the following 10 albums help to forge my musical spectrum; I acknowledge that there are greater ones....but hey....why don't you blog about it if you disagree!

10. Ray of Light, Madonna --- Electronic music with a heart. Madonna's most inspired album to date.

09. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah --- Frank Black's + Sonic Youth's power chord opuses = my #9 pick.

08. Silent Alarm, Bloc Party --- You could listen to Joy Division, Gang of Four, New Order, and all other artists of that ire....or you could listen to Bloc Party and hear the sound of 20 years of rock & new wave funneled through the band's capable & rock n rollin' hands.

07. Doolittle, the Pixies --- There'd be no "alternative music" without them, imho.

06. Play, Moby --- Moby's Play is more than an album, its a spiritual epiphany that coalesced into an album.

05. Absolution, Muse --- You won't find a sound that superbly combines Opera, Queen, Radiohead, or Metallica so deftly.

04. Dude Ranch, Blink 182 --- Everybody should know the words to at least ONE Blink 182 song. They're like the KISS of my generation.

03. Achtung Baby, U2 --- In Bono's own words, "Achtung Baby is the sound of U2 chopping down the Joshua Tree."

02. Joshua Tree, U2 --- No religious experience has yet to match the euphoria that I get from listening to this album, start to finish.

01. Blood on the Tracks, Bob Dylan --- The fact that ppl continue to emulate him to this day is testament to his legacy as a musican, a poet, an engima, and according to 2007's I'm Not There, a black kid from Tennessee, an androgynous woman, an retiring Billy the Kid-esque deity, a movie star, and apparently, a communist to boot.

Is that a rutabega in your pants?

March 14th, 11:00 AM. Gmail.com..........My friend from Vegas, Sarah S., drops with a tidbit of news...


Sarah: oh yeah. well...my sister's taking a part time job at this place: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/02/vegan-strip-club.php

11:02 AM me: as?

Sarah: a stripper

11:03 AM me: a carnivorous stripper?

Sarah: a VEGAN stripper

me: sarah, can i blog about this? lol

Sarah: sure. enjoy

me: i'll leave last names out

Sarah: np

me: no no i'll put in fictional
ones

11:04 AM me: like sarah skywalker.

Sarah: hey. i'd do it if it were in vegas. but that kinda thing only works in a city like portland.

me: you mean eugene, oregon right? Vegan strip clubs scream "Eugene."

Sarah: no, i mean portland.

Vegan strip-club, eh? Kinda reminds me of how the braintrust behind 2004's "Reign of Fire" must have felt when greenlighting that piece of sh---er, "creative synergy."

I can see it now.....

Person A: Hey i have an idea for a movie.....

Person B: I'm listening.

Person A: Its a science fiction post-apocalyptic movie....

Person B: zzzz zzzz zzz.....

Person A: .......WITH DRAGONS!

Person A: Sold! It'll be just like your future investment into vegan strip clubs. Synergastic!

Red Vs. Green

Show of hands....anybody know what's wrong with this picture?....anybody?

What you just saw is referred to as a "red band" trailer. Traditionally, the previews that appear before every cinematic feature look like this:

As your psychic prowess (coupled with your ability to read) have no doubt surmised, the "green band" trailers are more...family friendly (I abhor this concept as of late, since my 12 year old cousins have proved to be equally, if not more so, densensitized/hip than my relatively square ass). In other words, the content has been MPAA'ed by the MPAA (sorry kiddies, no graphic violence, sexual content, or objectionable imagery for ya).

Understand this first....I LOVE TRAILERS. They were half...no....2/3rds the fun of going to the movies....to catch what was on the horizon. Yes, we can all remember being burned by that "one movie with the awesome trailer" *cough* Episode I *cough* *cough* Hitman *end cough*. However, at their best, trailers...for a lack of a better word...."swede" their own movie, leaving in its wake, an unabashful sense of anticipation and enthusiasm for said movie.

So it comes with grrrreat pleasure to announce that Regal Cinemas has just announced that starting this year, they'll run the aforementioned "red band trailers" in theatres nationwide (hey come back kiddies, j/k. We'll put in the graphic violence, sexual content, and copious amounts of objectionable imagery).

Want proof that "red band trailers" work?

Watch the regular trailer for Forgetting Sarah Marshall....then the Red Band version of Forgetting Sarah Marshall and ask yourself....which movie do you want to see more?

And 2009's Best Actor Oscar goes to....

Any emotionally and morally stable man can become insane after having "one really bad day." -- The Joker, The Killing Joke, 1988.

Already, there is considerable internet buzz surrounding recently deceased Heath Ledger's final complete role as...drumroll please...The Joker. So much buzz in fact, that everyone, from film critics to established comic geeks everywhere praised Mr. Ledger's brief appearance in the latest trailer release, citing a possible post-humous Oscar recognition for his work in the sequel, in spite of the fact that the much anticipated sequel to 2005's "Batman Begins" has still another several months before its July 18, 2008 release.

For going on about a year now, myself and the rest of the internet forums were abuzz whether up and coming actor Heath Ledger had the panache' to contemporize and portray the Clown Prince of Crime in a manner that was more in tone with the "grounded" and "real-world" feel first established in "Batman Begins" (read: not chessy).

Well....I'm here to sell to you the prospect that here is a role that I'm convinced would do for Heath what the role of Capt. Jack Sparrow did for Johnny Depp (for the record, Depp DID get nominated for Best Actor for his role in Pirates). Trust me when I say this ladies and gentlemen: This IS the performance to watch this year.

And in true High Fidelity fashion, I have a short list on why:

1) Ledger's take on The Joker: "a psychopathic, mass murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy." --- Ok, forget what you've seen in the past. Caesar Romero as the Joker in '66? campy? yes. But that was the '60s. Campy to a fault? absolutely. Jack Nicholson as the Joker in '89? A tad overrated in my opinion. Now, I love Jack's work to death, but his portrayal was less menacing sociopathic and more...old perverted uncle Cletus, if you know what i mean......On the other hand, Mr. Ledger has done his homework, citing inspiration from definitive Batman titles such as The Killing Joke, as well as cues from the Sex Pistol's anarchistic frontman, Sid Vicious, and Malcolm McDowell's Alex in A Clockwork Orange (and for the uninformed....think Tyler Durden in Fight Club when you think A Clockwork Orange).

My point: Ledger was dead set on re-interpretating the Joker as it should be portrayed: as an entity, believing only in unbridled anarchy.....which leads into my 2).

2) The Oscar academy rewards actors who play characters that are, ahem, morally bankrupt. --- In recent years, the Academy (and i think the public as a whole) has since equally embraced both the role of the antagonist as well as that of the protagonist....

To put it another way, "villains drive the plot. Besides, who do you think causes all those explosions?" lol (thanks to The Venture Bros for this quote). Need more convincing? ....ok, courtesy of Wikipedia:

• 2007 Daniel Day-Lewis - There Will Be Blood as "Daniel Plainview"
• 2006 Forest Whitaker - The Last King of Scotland as Idi Amin
• 2001 Denzel Washington - Training Day as "Alonzo Harris"
• 1997 Jack Nicholson - As Good as It Gets as "Melvin Udall"
• 1991 Anthony Hopkins - The Silence of the Lambs as "Dr. Hannibal Lecter"
• 2007 Javier Bardem - No Country for Old Men as Anton Chigurh
• 2000 Benicio del Toro - Traffic as Javier Rodriguez
• 1995 Kevin Spacey - The Usual Suspects as Roger 'Verbal' Kint
  

3) Well....He also died recently. --- Now, I don't mean he deserves a pity award for dying and all. What I precisely mean by that is that it'll be nigh impossible to draw parallels between his anarchic performance in the Dark Knight and that of his own inner turmoil during his final months. In other words, whether this is simply art imitating life, a eerie portent of his evidentual downward spiral, or simply the public's fascination with conspiracy theories, it is intriguing to ponder nonetheless.

4) Mr. Ledger's future in acting had legs. Like a catapillar has legs. Well, at least the female percentage of his viewing audience thought so. But I'm comfortable enough in my manhood to acknowledge that the man had acting chops. If you've seen him in 2007's I'm Not There, then you know he has the chops to pull this off, with panache' no less.

And 5) come on, this poster is...morbidly cool....lol.

Tuesday Geek Test

JB (using hands to recite): "Oh god, lemme think....'frak,' 'Joss Whedon,' 'Penny Arcade,' 'Kitty Pryde,' '12-sided dice,' 'Death Cab,' 'Master Chief,' 'Picard > Kirk,' '4-8-15-16-23-42,' and 'Kirsten Bell is hot...' OH GOD, i'm a huge nerd!"

I can't quite articulate how this geek test works, but heres my two cents:

If the following picture doesn't....um....mind-orgasm you two ways from tuesday, then unfortunately (fortunately?) for you, you are not, i repeat, NOT a geek.

Happy Hour...needs...YOU!

My engineering mentor from Parsons Transportation Group recently left his job for a position in Middle Earth itself, New Zealand. I'm actually quite saddened...well, as far as one man can lament over another man's absence.

However, he has left in my possession something which I have now come to affectionately refer to as "the chick-tionary." And by "chick," I mean "an Excel spreadsheet containing a VERY comprehensive list of Happy Hour places in Seattle." (original credit goes out to Karen Rogers for first establishing said spreadsheet)

It truly is a powerful tool in that it breaks down the 150+ different restaurants by region, foods, prices, times, location, phone #, and most importantly, rating.

And that is where y'all come in.

As you read this, I'm sending the "the latest and greatest" copy of said Happy Hour Guide to every frakkin gmail /hotmail / .edu address; I'm taking it on faith that if enough ppl provide their own input on said spreadsheet (updates, add'tl locations, etc.), together we can distribute a fairly definitive list amongst our fellow peers ....

OR you can pawn it off as your OWN work and take ALL the credit (lol, I was totally going to do that, but Lan convinced me otherwise....curses...).

Besides, I am but one man, and the Seattle Happy Hour scene is NOT but JUST 150+ restaurants, total. If left to its own devices, the guide will surely atrophy and dissolve into irrelevance (if it hasn't already...lol).

If you are reading this directly off my blog & you don't have my email, contact me at bonifaj@gmail.com & I'll send u a copy.

Reason & Accountability

Ladies & Gentlemen....Happy iPod Day (honestly, March 7 2008 marks the two year anniversary of the day when Apple officially patented the iPod) !!!!

Ashamedly so, I've been complacent in my blogging; I'm sitting on an ever-increasing queue of blog topics. And with each day, they become ever-increasingly irrelevant. Que sera sera...

......SO WHY STOP THERE?!!!

We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to bring u....Cultural Invisbility: Sex and the City edition.

....Guten Tach, her true believers! My name is Jan-Nil A. Bonifacio....I go by alot of names though....JB. BJ. JD. PJ. People call me alot of names (a couple even to my face...lol). But today...you can call me Carrie----er, no, Carl Bradshaw ;) .

Everything that I know about women can be summed up from a scene off of one of my favorite movies of all time, the sociolinguistical masterpiece....

White Men Can't Jump.

...In this exchange of dialogue, Gloria Clemente (Rosie Perez) explains to Billy Hoyle (Woody Harrelson) about (one aspect of) the difference between rapport talk and report talk:

Gloria: Honey? My mouth is dry. Honey. I'm thirsty.

Billy: Umm... [ Water Runs ] There you go. honey.

Gloria: When I said I was thirsty, it doesn't mean I want a glass of water.

Billy: It doesn't?

Gloria: You're missing the whole point of me saying I'm thirsty. If I have a problem, you're not supposed to solve it. Men always make the mistake of thinking they can solve a woman's problem. It makes them feel omnipotent.

Billy: Omnipotent? Did you have a bad dream?

Gloria: It's a way of controlling a woman.

Billy: Bringing them a glass of water?

Gloria: Yes. I read it in a magazine. See... if I'm thirsty.....I don't want a glass of water. I want you to sympathize. I want you to say. ''Gloria. I. TOO. Know what it feels like to be thirsty. I. TOO. Have had a dry mouth.'' I want you to connect with me through the sharing and understanding the concept...of dry mouthedness.

Billy:....This is all in the same magazine?

Pirates of the Caribbean

"Not all treasure in the world is silver and gold, mate." --- Capt. Jack Sparrow, The Pirates of the Caribbean
















Every so often Dustin (Parsons Brinckerhoff) and I (Parsons Transportation Group....we're not related) have lunch at Zum-Dum (the actual spelling eludes me...my bad) Indian Cuisine on 3rd and Spring. Between our Obama / McCain free-for-alls, we take notice of the TV monitor playing Indian music videos.

Yes, the women depicted are disgustingly attractive. Yes, the strong sexual content is strong, indeed. And yes, Bollywood...imho, hinges on abstract craziness to get by.

However, what intrigues both of us most is that many Hindu lunar new years ago, "artistic expressions" of this nature were taboo, to say the least. Since then, India has gradually opened up its markets through economic reforms and reduced government controls on foreign trade and investment.

Suffice to say, we love their hot music vide----er, "cultural exports." On some levels (now humor me for a spell), the actors/actresses depicted are cultural freedom fighters, rebels against a chaste society, etc. etc., fighting against cultural invisibility.

Now, to my point.....in this article in the New York times , young men and women sustain a vast underground black market of information (everything from the newest episode of LOST to say, video feeds depicting Cuban govt. draconian-ism) amidst a overbearing communist climate, all in the name of cultural visibility (I rather not paraphrase more of the article, it really is a good read ;) )

At the risk of over-romanticizing, I think thats pretty effin' cool. Keyboard cowboys, armed with only stolen passwords and an eager memory stick, whose only crime is curiosity. I mean, I love the Internet; its like an umblical cord I dare not cut. But I wouldn't say, risk gov't persecution to prove my devotion. Not like these ppl do. Like the aforementioned "cultural freedom fighters" of India, these young, incendiary men and women are themselves, cultural freedom fighters, the "real" pirates of the Caribbean.

Now...where are those Cuban music videos, again?....haha j/k ;)

Exaggeration Theatre, revisited.....

Monday, 3.3.2008 2300 hrs....5 min. into the "season finale" (I use that term loosely since its more likely its the last episode before 'the strike') of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles...

JB: "This is a surreal world we live in...a world where Brian Austin Green (of 90210 fame) can actually impress me with his portrayal of (spoiler alert) John Connor's uncle & Kyle Reese's bro,
Derek."

Denis: "Yeah....i concur. Anyways, shouldn't that chair collapse when that Terminator sits on it? The thing must weigh 1300-1500 lbs."

JB: "Au contraire', mon frere."

JB (putting his BS cap on): "Cybernetic physiology is alot more sustaining than say, our physiology."

JB (cranking up his BS to 11): "The servo-motors that outfit its limbs and its chassis probably could assume the sitting position and hold said position, with or without a chair."

Denis: "So the sure-fire way....the only way to determine if one is a terminator, by your logic, is to pull out a person's chair (laughs)."

JB: "Totally. Its our equivalent of the 'Salem Witch Trial' test."

Tom (looks at JB): "Don't you dare...."

Denis: "If it falls, set him tall. If it stays, run and pray."

JB (paying more attention to the HDTV): "Oh snaps....that Red Shirt is having sex with said Terminator!"

Tom: "You'd think she'd know the difference."

Denis: "I don't think she cares. Look at that robot go!"

JB: "touche'."