blog.big-woop.com

I went to the Bob Dylan concert tonight. It was effing amazing. He dedicated The Times They Are A Changin' to "[his] man, who reached the end of the road too soon up there in Eveleth, Minnesota."

Apparently Jacob and I have so little to argue about, we've decided to have a video-off. His precious Big Time against my pillar of greatness that is Thriller. He'll win, but only because people are so much more inclined to like Jacob, and he can beat up the judges if they voted against him. I can't. He told me to bring two judges. I think I'll bring three, just to make sure that this argument ends forever. Not in a tie, thus prolonging this ridiculousness.

Honestly, what has he got? A bunch of claymation and a big head on a small body? And now he's taken to insulting the reasons. I was fine with the way things were going until he insulted the reasons, so now it's on.

Friday, 1 November
7:30 AM - Room 465

Normally I'd be sleeping in until third hour, but this is more important than sleep. We'll show Jacob and his artsy garbage right out the door in what promises to be a debate greater than all five of the supposed upcoming.

Peace.
-Todd

I have to agree with Jacob... Another video which I thought was quite superior was a song I've never heard of, by a band I've never heard of, on Cartoon Network, at midnight... It was a lot better than Thriller.

-Joe

Gah! Has the whole world gone mad!? These two, by which I mean Joseph and Jacob (not to mention Cherin), have obviously not read my five reasons. Had they done so, they would realize how wrong they are.

Fuck you, man, you're wrong. Sledgehammer was good, but even Digging in the Dirt was better. And Big Time will always come out on top. Case closed.

No no no. If we're going to argue Peter Gabriel videos here, we must all acknowledge how fucking awesome Sledgehammer is. By no means does Digging in the Dirt come anywhere near Big Time, which is still not as good as Sledgehammer, which, compared to Thriller, is only moderately good.

And, if we're going to talk about kickass music videos here, I'm going to have to nominate Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers' Don't Come Around Here No More, which is effing sweet. It may not be as good as the four listed above (except Digging in the Dirt. You suck Jacob.), but it's still excellent.

Everyone is stupid except me.

Peace.
-Todd

just as I expected, some whiny bastard--namely Jacob--came to me, declaring that Peter Gabriel's Big Time is superior to Thriller.

As if.

Peace.
-Todd

I am prepared to defend myself against anyone who tells me that Michael Jackson's Thriller is not the best music video ever. It is just this for several chief reasons:

a)	It's a freakin' movie. Not just a music video.
b)	It is a great parody of any number of classic horror movies.
c)	It is forewarded with a notice from Michael Jackson himself saying that the video "in no way endorses a belief in the occult."
d)	John Landis--of both Animal House and Blues Brothers fame--directed it.
e)	Vincent effin' Price.

So I don't want any whiny bastards coming to me saying that Coffee & TV was genius, because it was pure schlock. Anyone who thinks Virtual Insanity was the shit can bite me. And Californication? I'll see you in hell.

Peace.
-Todd

Senator Paul Wellstone died today in a plane crash near Eveleth, Minnesota.

I don't know what to think. I've felt pretty awful since I heard about it at around 12:30, but I honestly don't know how I feel. Bad, I guess, but now there are so many questions that I really don't enjoy trying to answer. I mean, here I am, after lunch, trying to find reasons not to go to class, just hanging out in the student council room, attempting, but failing to be quiet while Ben and Lily practice for the ACT in the other room. Miriam walks in and hands us the news.

I didn't say a whole lot. I just stared at nothing in particular and thought, for some reason, about the day's preceedings. How angry I was when Chad wouldn't stop bitching about the senior photo. How dejected I felt when Schluke handed over the editor position to Ben and Suny. How John and I were standing in the hallway weighing the option of staying in the building or ditching at the moment the plane went down. How I don't care about any of that anymore because now Paul Wellstone, the man whose career I followed as I've grown up, is dead. He was elected the year before I started elementary school, and would have still held office until at least my junior year of college. Instead, he won't.

Peace.
-Todd

In fact, I didn't have second hour. Instead, John and I went to his house and watched some of Harry Potter, which is a pretty cool movie. I don't have second hour tomorrow either, so I'm going to school at 9:30. Nice.

Peace.
-Todd

I don't have a first hour. I am at school. I am tired.

The bell just rang. I need to go to second hour, because I have one of those.

Peace.
-Todd

Before he had even laid foot back in the fair state of Minnesota, John recommended that, upon his return, we go to see The Ring. So we did. On the way to the theater, however, John explained to me that he had already seen the film, and was recommending it, I assumed, because it is either

a) really, really good
or
b) really, really scary

Let me tell you that it would have been the former, had it not been the latter.

This movie really, really scared me. Truly. Genuinely. It freaked me out. And I would have liked it a lot more if it had not done so.

And despite what I thought earlier, John did not bring me to this film simply because it would freak me out, even though he knew it would. Unfortunately, my describing why he recommended this film would ruin the ending to anyone who has yet to have seen it. Those who have know why.

So go see it. Like, within the next seven days. It's really, really scary, and pretty good, too, I guess.

Peace.
-Todd

I am now the proud owner of a PowerMac G4. Excellent.

Peace.
-Todd

I have been looking forward to this weekend for so long... and the fact that today was awful made the knowledge of its end all the more sweet.

I had to turn in three papers, all of which I finished around 24 hours ago, because I'm an idiot. Two of these papers were for my art class. At the same time, in the same class, I had to print three more photographs for my project on people and friends. They all sucked, except for one of them, sort of.

I've recently realized that, despite whatever I have thought in the past, I am not as bright as most of the people I know. Coming to this unfortunate conclusion was not all that difficult, because I believe I still have something going for me.

I possess a certain quality that allows me to exude the appearance of being intelligent. While I think that good spelling and vocabulary play a lot into this, I would have to say that that quality is rhetoric. I may well be the best bullshitter I know. For example, anyone who dared read my Theory of Knowledge paper (that is, Ben [p.s. Happy Birthday]) would, at first glance, be quite impressed. However, if I were to sum up my knowledge on the topic (Sources of knowledge), it would appear something like this:

Todd sits, at first motionless, in an anonymous chair. He lifts his palms, faces them skyward, and pushes his shoulders in an upward motion, shrugging.

I don't know a goddamned thing about sources of knowledge! I just wanted to write my 1200 words (most of them long ones that I don't even have a full grasp on) and get the fuck to bed (By the way, I took an absolutely awesome nap today, lasting from around 5:00 'til 9:00... more on that later). I'm sure the people who read these papers will see straight through me, but the truth is, I don't care. My paper kicks ass, and that's the bottom effing line.

<QUOTE>

Many use weblogs as their own personal repository of rants and opinions. Here, more than anywhere else, is knowledge in its rawest form. Regular people, by which I mean those not classified as “authorities” share their thoughts and values in their own plain language exactly how they feel. Often, thoughts are not put together and are found still in their cognitive stage, the writer waiting until later to justify or extend their ideas. Here, what you see is what you get.

</QUOTE>

And my nap was fucking great.

Peace.
-Todd

Night Falls When Water Rises

Jacob's awesome.

Aww, Eff this. I'm going to bed.

Peace.
-Todd

Tonight I watched a documentary entitled Down on Skid Row, which focused entirely on the neighborhood pictured in the background image of this site: The Gateway District of Minneapolis. Now nothing like it once was, Nicollet Avenue was once home to the skiddiest of skid rows. The film covered mostly the era after the photographs taken by Lee, Vachon and Stryker, but is just as indicative of the lives people once lead there. It was very interesting and I really wish I hadn't missed the first twenty minutes.

I pick Anaheim over San Francisco in five games.

Peace.
-Todd

The Twins lost to that joke of a team in Anaheim. What can I say? We just sucked. Well, now I have to go get a haircut... and some goddamned SLEEP! Jeezus.

Peace.
-Todd

The Twins blew it. Damn.

Peace.
-Todd

Today was fun. I didn't go to school until 9:30, which means I only had four classes and two of them don't require that I do more than sit there and read, so the school day itself was awesome. For rehearsal today we had an authentic Jewish Rabbi (as opposed to some other kind?) come in and talk to us for about an hour and he was awesome. After that I went and played basball for a couple hours, watched it for a couple hours and came home, and I don't have any homework. Sweet.

Peace.
-Todd

I can't sleep. I really ought to invest in some sleeping pills.

Peace.
-Todd

"Surly only looks out for one guy: Surly."
"Sorry, Surly."
"Shut up."

Twins 2, Angels 1. Big win. Huge.

Three new releases I want:
Power in Numbers Jurassic 5
The Last DJ Tom Petty
Ben Folds Live Ben Folds

Peace.
-Todd

YES!
Twins 5, Athletics 4

Peace.
-Todd

I love baseball. Today the Twins clobbered (that would be the official verb) the A's 11-2. I was there. It was sweet. Tomorrow we play another game, in Oakland, which sucks. We'll still win, though, and the Twins will be in the ALCS. And the Yankees won't! Ha!

I'm sure no one cares and what kind of a nerd am I? Here I am talking about and taking part in sports. Today I played baseball with John, Ben and Joe. It was a lot of fun. We played until it got too dark to see, then kept playing, but then we decided it'd be best to quit while everyone still had both eyeballs.

Oh, and Joe did some new material for FÜKAROO, all of which are pretty damned funny.

Go Twins!
-Todd

So we split the first two games. The A's should pretty much crap their pants when they come here to a full house of screaming fans in the loudest stadium in sports, which must mean it's the loudest stadium ever, because I can't think of any other task performed in a stadium, especially not one that would issue a dB level louder than a jet engine. Honestly, I won't be able to hear much after Friday and Saturday's games, but hopefully my hearing will return for the LCS, so I can hear the Twins beat New York or Anaheim. Until then, keep waving that hanky!

Uh oh. My site's too pretentious. ~Better change it.~ Apparently Chad, being the connoisseur of design (and cheese, too) that he is, is up to his old tricks. He told me to chew the swiss.

Peace.
-Todd

Christ, I'm excited for this shit. The Twins will be playing in the post-season for the first time in eleven years today at 3:08pm. I'm mad antsy.

Peace.
-Todd