Nirvana is one of my favorite bands of all time. They are #2 on my personal list right behind The Beatles. Despite my personal preference, objectively speaking, Nirvana is one of the greatest bands in the history of rock music. Rolling Stone Magazine listed Nirvana as the 30th greatest artist of all time. They also listed "Smells Like Teen Spirit" as the 9th greatest song of all time (while also adding 3 more Nirvana songs into their top 500) and "Nevermind" as the 19th greatest album of all time (Nirvana's "MTV Unplugged" came in at 313 and "In Utero" came in at 435).
Even though Nirvana only had 3 studio albums and 2 live albums during their official run, they became one of the most influential bands of the 1990's and for Generation X. While Nirvana didn't necessarily didn't do anything innovative (they would admit their style is just a rip off of bands like The Pixies), they became revolutionaries.
A few days ago, Nirvana was officially inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They were unequivocal first ballot Hall of Famers, and a band that changed the landscape of Rock and Roll. Even if you don't personally enjoy their music, you have to respect their accomplishments.
I would have loved to write a full and lengthy post about the greatness of Nirvana, but I don't have anything to say. Nirvana is just an amazing band that's near and dear to my heart. "Nevermind" changed my life. They're just great- and that's all you need to know about them. Nirvana's legacy will live on forever. So in honor of their recent Hall of Fame induction and of their legacy, here are Nirvana's 5 most memorable moments:
2014 happens to be a good year for movies. It is not because there have been a ton of quality flicks released so far, but because it's the 15 year anniversary for 1999 films and the 20 year anniversary for movies released in 1994. In my opinion, 1994 and 1999 are the two best years for film for those in Generation X. We're going to start this two part series looking back 15 years to 1999. I was only going to do 9 movies, but '99 was too good of a year to limit myself to that little of a number. So now, here are the 19 best films of 1999.
19) Toy Story 2 Directed By: John Lasseter, Ash Brannon, & Lee Unkrich Starring: Tim Allen & Tom Hanks STARS: 3 out of 4
Brief Description: Even the worst Toy Story is still pretty good.
18) The Talented Mr. Ripley Directed By: Anthony Minghella Starring: Matt Damon, Jude Law, & Gwyneth Paltrow STARS: 3 out of 4
Brief Description: After being sent to Italy to bring home Dickie Greenleaf (Law) to his father, Tom Ripley (Damon), a lying sociopath, forces his way into Greenleaf's inner circle. And get this, bad things erupt. Dum, dum, DUUUUUUMMM!
17) Mystery Men Directed By: Kinka Usher Starring: Ben Stiller, William H. Macy, & Hank Azaria STARS: 3 out of 4
Brief Description: Before The Dark Knight and Spider-Man creating superhero movies that took themselves too seriously, we had Mystery Men. After Captain Amazing (Greg Kinnear) rids the entire city of bad guys, he unwittingly lets Casanova Frankenstein (Geoffrey Rush) loose, forcing a pack of superheroes with no real powers to save the day.
16) Galaxy Quest Directed By: Dean Parisot Starring: Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, & Alan Rickman STARS: 3 out of 4
Brief Description: A surprisingly smart and funny satire about life for actors after starring in geek project like Star Wars or Star Trek. Don't let "starring Tim Allen" fool you, Galaxy Quest is full of fun and laughs. I promise.
15) Lock, Stock, & Two Smoking Barrels Directed By: Guy Ritchie Starring: Jason Flemyng, Dexter Fletcher, & Jason Statham STARS: 3 out of 4
Brief Description: I unfortunately saw Snatch before I saw Lock Stock; therefore, I think Snatch is far superior and Lock Stock is just alright. I know that's unfair to Guy Ritchie's debut, but that's the way the cookie crumbles. Still doesn't decrease the quality of Lock Stock as a whole, just in reference to ranking Guy Ritchie's films.
14) American Pie Directed By: Paul Herz Starring: Jason Biggs, Chris Klein, & Seann William Scott STARS: 3 out of 4
Brief Description: Amidst the sophomoric humor and a dude shtupping a pie is a modern high school movie that will forever be a part of our cultural zeitgeist.
13) Big Daddy Directed By: Dennis Dugan Starring: Adam Sandler, Joey Lauren Adams, & Cole and Dylan Sprouce STARS: 3 out of 4
Brief Description: Remember when Adam Sandler had the ability to not only make a film that made us laugh, but also managed to be sweet and endearing? Yeah, it's been awhile. One could even say it's been 15 years...
12) Eyes Wide Shut Directed By: Stanley Kubrick Starring: Tom Cruise & Nicole Kidman STARS: 3 out of 4
Brief Description: Stanley Kubrick set out to make the best film in every genre. The best horror movie (The Shining), best science fiction movie (2001: A Space Odyssey), the best war movie (Full Metal Jacket), etc, etc. Eyes Wide Shut is easily the most artfully done porno flick ever made. In all seriousness, it's a great sexual thriller that only a director as great as Stanley Kubrick can make.
11) The Boondock Saints Directed By: Troy Duffy Starring: Sean Patrick Flanery, Norman Reedus, & Willem Dafoe STARS: 3.5 out of 4
Brief Description: If there have ever been any imitators of Quentin Tarantino in the past 20 years, it's Troy Duffy. While he may be an obnoxious and insufferable asshole as seen in the documentary "Overnight", Troy Duffy is certainly an extremely talented director as seen by The Boondock Saints. It's just a shame his ego got in the way of making more movies.
10) American Beauty Directed By: Sam Mendes Starring: Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, & Thira Birch STARS: 3.5 out of 4
Brief Description: While it didn't deserve to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards in the midst of one of the deepest years in cinema of the past 50 years, it's still a great film about the Modern American society.
9) Magnolia
Directed By: Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring: Tom Cruise, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Julianne Moore, John C. Reilly, & Jason Robards
STARS: 3.5 out of 4
Brief Description: Very few directors are able to tell multiple stories with many more characters within a single film. But Paul Thomas Anderson is not like most directors. Even with a cast as huge as Magnolia, P.T. Anderson still manages to create wonderful three dimensional characters. He even managed to pull an Oscar nominated performance from Tom Cruise.
8) Being John Malkovich
Directed By: Spike Jonze
Starring: John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, & Catherine Keener
STARS: 3.5 out of 4
Brief Description: Only a film written by Charlie Kaufman and directed by Spike Jonze is allowed to be as messed up yet wonderful as Being John Malkovich is. Craig Schwartz (Cusack) finds a hidden portal that allows a person to spend 15 minutes inside the brain of character actor John Malkovich. Plus, it's great to see Diaz and Keener play against type and play roles clearly written for the other.
7) Fight Club
Directed By: David Fincher
Starring: Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, & Helena Bonham Carter
STARS: 3.5 out of 4
Brief Description: While I absolutely love David Fincher's movies, I think I might be the only person in Generation X to think Fight Club is pretty good, but not great. I actually think the twist at the end ruins the movie (don't believe me, check out this scene below and re-watch the entire movie like that), but I also refuse to discount how great the first 95% is as well.
6) Dogma
Directed By: Kevin Smith
Starring: Linda Fiorentino, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Jason Lee, Alan Rickman, Chris Rock, Jason Mewes, & Kevin Smith
STARS: 3.5 out of 4
Brief Description: Classic Jay and Silent Bob film but with philosophical debates about Jesus Christ and organized religion. Plus, it's great to see Matt Damon and Ben Affleck going on a murderous rampage before the Bourne flicks and Argo. "Was Wisconsin really that bad?" Yes. Yes it is.
5) Office Space
Directed By: Mike Judge
Starring: Ron Livingston, Jennifer Aniston, & Gary Cole
STARS: 3.5 out of 4
Brief Description: I don't care that Office Space plays on Comedy Central every other weekend. The multiple viewings doesn't diminish how amazing this comedy is. We've all been stuck in a dead end job and how inadequate we feel. Only the mind behind King of the Hill and Beavis and Butthead can make this mundane topic brilliant.
4) The Green Mile
Directed By: Frank Darabont
Starring: Tom Hanks, Michael Clarke Duncan, & Sam Rockwell STARS: 3.5 out of 4
Brief Description: After John Coffey (Duncan) is sentenced to death for alleging killing two little girls, prison guard Paul Edgecomb (Hanks) must do his best to free Coffey from prison. Frank Darabont just has a knack for not only releasing great films, but doing so amidst great years. First, The Shawshank Redemption in 1994, and The Green Mile in '99.
3) The Sixth Sense Directed By: M. Night Shyamalan Starring: Bruce Willis, Haley Joel Osment, & Toni Collette STARS: 4 out of 4
Brief Description: It's easy to dismiss the quality of The Sixth Sense 15 years later considering the horrible turn for the worst that M. Night Shyamalan's career has taken. However, this film is absolute brilliant. The use of red in every shot, the legitimate sense of suspense Shyamalan sets up, and the twist at the end actually makes the film better (unlike Fight Club and every other Shyamalan film).
2) South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut Directed By: Trey Parker Starring: Matt Stone, Trey Parker, & Isaac Hayes STARS: 4 out of 4
Brief Description: Not only is the South Park movie one of the greatest comedies of all time, it's one of the best animated films of all time, and, IMHO, the best musical of all time. Who knew all those pesky restraints like the F.C.C. and only having 6 days to create a product were holding Matt Stone and Trey Parker back.
1) The Matrix Directed By: Andy & Lana Wachowski Starring: Keanu Reeves, Lawrence Fishburne, & Carrie-Anne Moss STARS: 4 out of 4
Brief Description: On my old site, we did a list of the 25 Greatest Movies of the Past 25 years. The Matrix ended as #2 on the list. I wrote much more on this topic back then than I ever could fit in this little blurb. And probably much more eloquently as well. The Matrix is not only just a fun blockbuster popcorn flick, it's the greatest science fiction film ever made.
Refused to Consider
- Girl, Interrupted
- Star Wars, Episode I: The Phantom Menace
- The Virgin Suicides
Ones I Haven't Seen
- Election
- For The Love of the Game
- Iron Giant
- Run Lola Run
- Sweet and Lowdown
- The Blair Witch Project
- The Insider
- Three Kings
During Season 4 of the NBC sitcom "30 Rock", Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan) bought a gold chain with the words "EGOT". EGOT means "Emmy" "Grammy" "Oscar" and "Tony"- the four major awards a person can try to win in a lifetime. Tracy Jordan buys this gold chain and then tries to win all four awards. Lo and behold, about a year later in Season 5, Tracy Jordan EGOT's. The problem is, the show never explains how Tracy Jordan EGOT's. I asked Hitfix.com's TV critic, and the man who memorizes EVERYTHING TV, Alan Sepinwall how Tracy Jordan EGOT'd, and even he doesn't know. Just coincidentally I'm re-binge watching "30 Rock" and I still don't quite know. Here is the information I can gather:
EMMY'S WIN: Daytime Emmy or Special Guest Star
While Tracy Jordan does spend the entire run of "30 Rock" on a television program, I do find it dubious that he actually won for his work on "TGS with Tracy Jordan". While technically I think he would have been eligible for his work on a sketch comedy show for part of TGS' run (Amy Poehler received a nomination for her work on SNL in 2008 and for the longest time, sketch comedy shows like SNL and TGS weren't eligible for Primetime Emmys), "30 Rock" doesn't paint TGS out to be a good, quality show. Outside of Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) constantly criticizing it, most people not affiliated with the show make TGS out to be a joke.
However, there's a bunch of Emmys outside of the Primetime Emmys. Whoopi Goldberg and EGOT winner has a Daytime Emmy. Recent EGOT winner and songwriter Robert Lopez won his Emmy for his work on a children's show. Tracy Jordan has been working in television since he was a kid. It doesn't sound all that difficult to get at least a Daytime Emmy nomination when you work as long as Tracy Jordan has.
I think the other option is that Tracy won a random Emmy category like Outstanding Guest Actor in a TV Series. Three of Mel Brook's 4 Emmy wins are for guest starring on Mad About You. Tina Fey won a Emmy for her work as Sarah Palin on SNL. Betty White has an Emmy for hosting SNL. Frankly, if you hosted SNL or have guest starred on 30 Rock in the past 7 years, you received an Outstanding Guest Actor/Actress in a Comedy Series nomination. I find it hard to believe that a star as big as Tracy Jordan couldn't have done that.
Forest Whittaker Academy Awards: Best Actor win for "The Last King of Scotland"
Movies He Should Regret Doing: Lee Daniels' The Butler, The Last Stand, Vantage Point, Repo Men, Battlefield Earth, a bunch of movies I've never even heard of while scrolling his IMDB page
What's Up?: It's clear Whittaker can act. He's been doing it and working ever since 1982 and "Fast Times at Ridgemont High". You don't last this long in Hollywood (and doing it with a bum eye) without being a great actor. But as great of an actor as Whittaker is, he does not take the best roles.
Colin Farrell Good Roles: Seven Psychopaths, In Bruges
Movies He Should Regret Doing: Total Recall, Alexander, S.W.A.T., Daredevil
What's Up?: "Look at Colin Farrell, he hasn't made a good movie ever, but he has the perception of being a movie star!" -Ari Gold, Entourage- I do think there's something to making Colin Farrell good, and mainly he should just work with director Martin McDonagh for every project a la DeNiro and Scorsese. There is a certain talent and a certain je ne sais quoi from Farrell that only certain directors can get from him, but when those directors DO get that thing from him, it's pretty darn impressive.
The Who "Baba O'Riley" What You Think The Song Is Called: Teenage Wasteland
I don't blame anyone from incorrectly calling this song "Teenage Wasteland" It should be called "Teenage Wasteland" The Who in their prime was always a band by the youth for the youth. Most great music is created through youth rebellion, and "Baba O'Riley" is the perfect example of that. Plus, you could be given a million guesses after hearing this song, and there is no way in hell you would have guessed it was these two random words.
The song title comes from a combination of Meher Baba and Terry Riley- two philosophical and musical influences of The Who. Of course! Meher Baba was an Indian spiritual leader that guitarist Pete Townshend was a fan of and Terry Riley was a music producer Townshend respected.
Now that you know the song's correct title, you won't get fooled again! OK, I'll move on now.
Green Day "Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)"
What You Think The Song Is Called: Time Of Your Life
"Look, 'Time Of Your Life' is right there in the title! You're an idiot." While I may be an idiot, the fact that the real title is called "Good Riddance" actually makes a huge difference.
Obviously Green Day isn't hiding the fact that when you listen to this song you are going to think it's called "Time Of Your Life". That's why they put it in parenthesis. The song sounds so sweet and it's the perfect song to play at every single graduation party for the rest of time. The problem is that song is a break up and it's completely sarcastic.
The title "Good Riddance" completely changes the meaning of this song. It goes from a sweet song to a bittersweet song and telling an ex to Eff Off. But the only reason you know that it's a Eff You song is solely because of the title. Telling someone "Good Riddance" doesn't make sense from just a first listening of it, but it does make sense if you're actually writing a break up song that's meant for mainstream radio play Think about that the time you're forced to go to your niece's elementary school graduation party.
Tonight was the series finale to one of my favorite sitcoms: How I Met Your Mother. While I personally strongly disliked it, many people on Twitter seem to be defending it. Or yelling at people for hating it. Or upset the Pineapple Incident wasn't explained. To my surprise, there was not a lot of hate over the finale on Twitter. There were WAY more people yelling at those who hated the finale rather than outrage for the finale itself. But since I didn't like it, and just saying you liked it isn't very interesting, here are the top 10 best reactions on Twitter to the How I Met Your Mother finale:
10. Only one explanation: the finale was written after 2 AM. Nothing good happens after 2 AM
-@emsamblador-
9. Ted met his wife romantically and I'm gonna meet mine on Tinder #yolo -@rizstain-
8. Thankfully I will have something uplifting in #GameOfThrones premiere next week after #HIMYMFinale -@theladyrohn-
7. After the #HIMYMFinale, Michael Vick is now the FOURTH most hated thing in America -@dgbottom-
6. Turns out the final slap was the writer's slapping the viewers in the face -@Munkie91087-
5. THIS IS ALL PATRICE'S FAULT! -@JJBirdd-
4. You would think the How I Met Your Mother finale would show Ted Mosby's wife licking wedding invitations or something? -@PatrickNotaro-
3. Haaaaave you met Ted? Yes but now I wish I hadn't -@TeamHellions-
2. Pretty much what the show should have been called: How I Met Your Mother Still Want To Bone Your Aunt Robin -@ilipen-
1. The #HIMYMFinale was Legen... wait for it... awful -@calonzoAZ-
BONUS FROM FACEBOOK (Rebecca Rosen): The finale was a major disappointment. Major Disappointment! *salute*
What did you think of the How I Met Your Mother series finale?
