Art Machine
Just another former infatuation junkie

I haven’t done the random 10 in a long, long time. So for those of you who don’t know how to play, here’s the deal. I set my mp3 player on shuffle. I post a line from the first ten songs to come up. If you know the artist and title, post them in the comments. First to successfully name the tune gets a link from this entry to their blog on that list item. Let’s play!

1. “Little Red Rider,” by Michael Nesmith – “Little Miss Red is little Miss Blue, and she looks a lot like you around the eyes.”


2. “Baby I’m a Star” by Prince – “Honey, I’m rich on personality.”


3. “Mr. Brownstone” by Guns n’ Roses – “Now I get up around whenever, I used to get up on time.”


4. “No Nose Job” by Digital Underground – “Ice Cube says you’re making more than Donald Trump.”


5. “It’s a Plain Shame” by Peter Frampton – “She wore a label, she wore it thigh-high.”


6. “I’m All Bloody Inside” by Liam Lynch – “I’m just a bag of guts and stuff.”


7. “Foundations” by Kate Nash – “Yeah, intelligent input, darlin’ – why don’t you just have another beer, then?”


8. “Fat Bottomed Girls” by Queen – “I knew love before I left my nursery.”


9. “Fire Leap” by Magnet [from the soundtrack of The Wicker Man] – “Fire seed and fire feed to make the baby king.”


10. “Bad Horse Chorus” from Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog (guessed by Fred – “He rides across the nation, the thoroughbred of sin!”

I have to hand it to the McCain campaign. Some people would have been satisfied with their thorough campaign of caging in purple states, sending out absentee ballot requests that are incorrectly filled out to keep people from getting their vote. But the Republicans have an even grander scheme. Now that they’ve taken people’s homes away, it’s time for them to make a return to old-fashioned American values. Specifically, the old-fashioned American values of only the landed gentry having a vote.

The chairman of the Republican Party in Macomb County Michigan, a key swing county in a key swing state, is planning to use a list of foreclosed homes to block people from voting in the upcoming election as part of the state GOP’s effort to challenge some voters on Election Day.

“We will have a list of foreclosed homes and will make sure people aren’t voting from those addresses,” party chairman James Carabelli told Michigan Messenger in a telephone interview earlier this week. He said the local party wanted to make sure that proper electoral procedures were followed.

State election rules allow parties to assign “election challengers” to polls to monitor the election. In addition to observing the poll workers, these volunteers can challenge the eligibility of any voter provided they “have a good reason to believe” that the person is not eligible to vote. One allowable reason is that the person is not a “true resident of the city or township.”

The Michigan Republicans’ planned use of foreclosure lists is apparently an attempt to challenge ineligible voters as not being “true residents.”

Fox Searchlight – one of those “independent” film slates that corrupts the term “independent film” – has a networking and promotion site for independent filmmakers (of the real variety) called Searchlab. I love it when major players put up public interaction sites. The resulting comments are always a hoot. The comments on their “Why you should be on this site” explanation are especially great, with people flogging their new short films, posting casting calls for a Notorious B.I.G. picture, and this guy.

Hey if anyone knows any directores,producers or anything like that from FOX SEARCHLIGHT i have an idea about Napoleon Dynamite and it is another Napoleon Dynamite MOVIE!! and I think it would be very funny its called

NAPOLEON DYNAMITE:GOES TO CAMP!!

“BRILLIANT! The title makes me wonder what could possibly happen in this movie!”

Fred over at Occasional Fish snagged this meme, and thinking it was a pretty interesting experiment I decided to run with it. Here are the rules.

Go here and see what was on the top of the charts on the day you were born and every birthday thereafter. Learn just how astrologically-musically lame your life has been. If you want, add in your own favorite Hot 100 hit single of that year, wishing that your birthday had been cool enough to have that song be #1.

All right. I’ll bite. Of course, a lot of my answers wound up being the same as Fred’s – which is how I learned Fred and I were born somewhere around the same date a few years apart. So – show me how astrologically-musically lame my life has been.

• 1980: “Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)” by Pink Floyd
  Favorite: “Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)” by Pink Floyd


• 1981: “Rapture” by Blondie
  Favorite: “Jessie’s Girl” by Rick Springfield


• 1982: “I Love Rock n’ Roll” by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
  Favorite: Um, “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor, I guess.


• 1983: “Billie Jean” by Michael Jackson
  Favorite: “Down Under” by Men At Work.


• 1984: “Jump” by Van Halen
  Favorite: Oh, Come on. “Ghostbusters” by Ray Parker Jr.


• 1985: “One More Night” by Phil Collins
  Favorite: “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” by Tears For Fears


• 1986: “Rock Me Amadeus” by Falco
  Favorite: “Sledgehammer” by Peter Gabriel


• 1987: “Lean on Me” by Club Nouveau
  Favorite: “With Or Without You” by U2 (which has the same chord structure as “Numb” off of Zooropa. I always wanted to mash those two up)


• 1988: “Man in the Mirror” by Michael Jackson
  Favorite: “Sweet Child O’ Mine” by Guns n’ Roses


• 1989: “The Living Years” by Mike + The Mechanics
  Favorite: “We Didn’t Start the Fire” by Bill Joel


• 1990: “Black Velvet” by Alannah Myles
  Favorite: “Black Cat” by Janet Jackson


• 1991: “Coming Out of the Dark” by Gloria Estefan
  Favorite: “Set Adrift on Memory Bliss” by PM Dawn


• 1992: “Save the Best for Last” by Vanessa Williams
  Favorite: I don’t think I can possibly answer anything but “Baby Got Back” by Sir Mix-a-Lot


• 1993: “Informer” by Snow
  Favorite: “Can’t Help Falling in Love” by UB40


• 1994: “The Sign” by Ace of Base
  Favorite: “Stay (I Missed You)” by Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories


• 1995: “Take A Bow” by Madonna
  Favorite: “Kiss From a Rose” by Seal


• 1996: “Because You Loved Me” by Celine Dion (yeek!)
  Favorite: “How Do U Want It/California Love” by 2Pac and a whole buncha other folks


• 1997: “Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down” by Puff Daddy feat. Mase
  Favorite: Oy. Slim pickings that year. Ummm… I have to say… “Mmmbop” by Hanson.


• 1998: “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit’ It” by Will Smith
  Favorite: “One Week” by Barenaked Ladies


• 1999: “Believe” by Cher
  Favorite: “Smooth” by Santana feat. Rob Thomas


• 2000: “Say My Name” by Destiny’s Child
  Favorite: “Maria Maria” by Santana feat. The Product G&B


• 2001: “Butterfly” by Crazy Town
  Favorite: “Ms. Jackson” by Outkast (“Forevah. Forevah-evah? Forevah-evah.”)


• 2002: “Ain’t It Funny” by Jennifer Lopez feat. Ja Rule
  Favorite: “Lose Yourself” by Eminem


• 2003: “In Da Club” by 50 Cent
  Favorite: “Hey Ya!” by Outkast (horrible Grammy night performance notwithstanding)


• 2004: “Yeah!” by Usher feat. Lil John and Ludacris
  Favorite: Geez. Talk about slim years. So it’s “Hey Ya!” for a second year in a row.


• 2005: “Candy Shop” by 50 Cent feat. Olivia
  Favorite: “Hollaback Girl” by Gwen Stefani


• 2006: “So Sick” by Ne-Yo
  Favorite: Ehhh… “Hips Don’t Lie” by Shakira


• 2007: “Glamorous” by Fergie feat. Ludacris
  Favorite: No. I categorically refuse to pick one from this year. None of these songs are worth the headache.


• 2008: “Love in This Club” by Usher feat. Young Jeezy
  Favorite: “I Kissed a Girl” by Katy Perry – and even then, I’m disappointed that it’s not Jill Sobule’s song.

Here’s what I notice. The pickings get slimmer and slimmer as time goes on, and I honestly don’t think it has anything to do with my taste – but rather with the fact that it was unusual in the 80’s for a song to last more than 2-3 weeks at the top of the charts, while by the late 90’s you’re having whole years with practically 4 songs each on the charts. Hey, radio – variety is the spice o’ life, donchaknow?

I find that more and more, when I discuss the McCain/Palin ticket, I’m using the phrase “I don’t know what’s worse,” followed typically by the form, ”[situation a] or [situation b].”

For instance: I don’t know what’s worse, the idea that McCain may have only used a Google search to vet Palin or the idea that the staffer who told this to the LA Times might have been bragging about it to dispel the talk that John McCain doesn’t know technology.

One Republican strategist with close ties to the campaign described the candidate’s closest supporters as “keeping their fingers crossed” in hopes that additional information does not force McCain to revisit the decision. According to this Republican, who would discuss internal campaign strategizing only on condition of anonymity, the McCain team used little more than a Google Internet search as part of a rushed effort to review Palin’s potential pitfalls. Just over a week ago, Palin was not on McCain’s short list of potential running mates, the Republican said.

Example Two: I don’t know what’s worse, the fact that Sarah Palin tried to use political muscle to get books banned from public libraries or the fact that she was so clueless as to the politics behind such a move that she actually asked a librarian how to do it. (link via librarian.net) Apparently, she’s missed the fact that National Banned Book Week is sponsored by the American Library Association, and that librarians tend to be the most fervent supporters of the First Amendment in the entire country.

Stein says that as mayor, Palin continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at times. “She asked the library how she could go about banning books,” he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. “The librarian was aghast.” The librarian, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn’t be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire her for not giving “full support” to the mayor.