NEW AND OLD

IT'S THE YEAR 20X DICKWEEDS, SO HOLD ON TIGHT OR YOU'LL GET THROWN INTO OBLIVION.

So here's some stuff that I'm experiencing in the new year:

The book Spirit and Flesh by Dr. James Ault. Ault is a sociology professor and documentary filmmaker, and this book is a companion piece to his movie Born Again. Both are about the time he spent in a fundamentalist baptist church, studying and learning about the people and practices within it. The perspective is as unbiased as he can be, since he's viewing the time in a sociological manner. It's a really neat book on a way of life that not a lot of people, myself included, know much about.

The 2010 demo by the hardcore band John Wilkes Youth:



I'm not well versed in the world of punk and hardcore, but I definitely like some of it. Black Flag, Bad Brains, Minor Threat, Paint it Black, Killing the Dream, Dead Kennedys, Misfits, Pulling Teeth, all great bands to me. So when I hear that two friends of mine are in a hardcore band, knowing full well that they are good at hardcore already, I am interested. The demo is fast, heavy, and aggressive, go download it! http://www.myspace.com/johnwilkesyouth

The television show Man V. Food:



Everybody should know I like food. With my love of blogs about it, morbid fascination with what people get for their last meal on death row, and interest in school lunches from around the world, I sure do like to talk about it too. Friend and former guest of the podcast, Mike "Awesome" showed me two episodes of this show and I was hooked. It has this dude Adam go around the nation and hit up the best "pig-out" spots. He eats a lot of unhealthy food and also takes on food challenges, like eating a 72oz steak in under an hour or eating six of the spiciest buffalo wings in the state without water. It's like binging vicariously!

And here's a list of the top 20 artists/acts that I listened to on my computer in 2009:

1 Neurosis - 409
2 Enslaved - 346
3 Queens of the Stone Age - 330
4 Coil - 305
5 Tomahawk - 278
6 Clint Mansell - 260
7 Andrew W.K. - 250
8 Ceremony - 243
9 Pendulum - 236
10 Rosetta - 231
11 Daft Punk - 228
12 Toroidh - 204
12 Nine Inch Nails - 204
14 Liars - 201
15 The Green Evening Requiem - 200
16 Arvo Pärt - 193
17 Gojira - 183
18 Jesu - 170
18 Converge - 170
20 The Beach Boys - 167

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Today is a day where families and friends get together and share their gratitude for what they have. I'm definitely grateful for my family and friends and also the internet! With the internet, I can share all sorts of stuff with folks like you, like THINGS I'M THANKFUL FOR! See, it all ties together.

First, cats: A website called Average Cats created a site that parodies the very famous site I Can has Cheezburger and is created by the folks behind My Life is Average. Essentially it's a factual cat image macro site. Pictures of cats with captions on them detailing truth.




Second, books: Apathy and Other Small Victories was recommended to me by friend and former guest Robbie. It's one of the funniest books I've ever read, right up there with Hitchhiker's and Scott Pilgrim. About a dude who wants to care about nothing and hijinks. Please read it.


Third, being alive: Rom Houben was in a car crash and presumed to be in a vegetative state after the fact. 23 years later, they find that he was not, but had "locked-in syndrome" where the patient is "unable to speak or move but can think and reason". For 23 years he was alive, awake and aware, with no way of telling anyone. At least the character in "Johnny Got his Gun" had morse code! Let's all be thankful for being alive and actually living.



-James

Now playing: Faith No More - Zombie Eaters

Awful Library Books.

I used to hang out in libraries a lot as lad.  Taking horrible romance novels into the Sci-Fi section and reading some elaborate, ludicrous erotica.  I also enjoyed going through science sections and finding really weird titles.  Recently stumbled upon a site that was made for me.  CHECK IT OUT.

-Dash

Dune

Now I don't know if you're me, but if you are me, this would have been pretty great if it actually happened. This is a picture of a sand-worm, inspired by the book Dune by Frank Herbert. It was created by H.R. Giger (one of my favorite artists) for Alejandro Jodorowsky (weirdo/surrealist director of the Holy Mountain and other films) because he was going to direct an adaptation of the book.

Jodorowsky began working in 1975 on an adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune. The project was intended to involve his son Brontis Jodorowsky as Paul, Orson Welles as the Baron, Salvador Dalí as the Emperor, Mick Jagger as Feyd Rautha, Alain Delon as Duncan Idaho, Geraldine Chaplin as Lady Jessica, David Carradine as Duke Leto and Gloria Swanson as The Benne Geserit Reverend Mother. Dan O'Bannon for the script, Chris Foss, Pink Floyd, H. R. Giger and Jean Giraud (Mœbius). Ultimately, its funding evaporated, but Jodorowsky claimed it was sabotaged by the major studios in Hollywood because it was too French, a strange claim considering that Jodorowsky, while a naturalized citizen of France, has never identified with any particular country or culture (although the funding and his producer, Jerome Seydoux, were French).

Do you see those names?! It would've ruled! Or at least made my brain melt.

Like Dune? Hate Giger? Think I'm gorgeous? Email us with your thoughts, opinions, sage advice, silliness and anything else you want to say at wearefriendpodcast@gmail.com

-James

Now playing: The Green Evening Requiem - Expiration