Matthew Sweet, or How Wikipedia Ruins Everything

My Professor introduced me to Matthew Sweet when he put "Winonia" on the first mix he made me.  He said it reminded him of being alone in grad school, a note on pink paper that seemed so gut-wrenchingly poignant at a time when I too felt so fucking alone. (Also, how the fuck was I supposed to interpret that as anything but a call to be his Manic Pixie Dream Girl, a task I spent two frustratingly fruitless year attempting)

I bought Girlfriend as a way of trying to connect, and it was pretty good, but not so awesome that I had to listen to it over and over (except for that one song).  It hung around in a box for awhile until I began attempting my great CD purge, and I thought "Hey, I should look Matthew Sweet up on Wikipedia and learn a little more about him."

I discovered that he had a tattoo of this character:

Seriously? Matthew Sweet represented the time when I was most cool. I was one of the Original Binghamton Hipsters. I wore clunky shoes and knee-high socks. I hung out in dive bars and collected records and watched movies on VHS. And the soundtrack to all of that had a Lum Invader tattoo?!?

I guess I should expect that from a guy who wrote a love song about a comic book character

Ian and I saw Prometheus tonight, which was pretty rad.  But you probably already knew that, so I'm going to use this platform as an opportunity to warn you about a far deadlier menace.

That's My Son.

I've sat through several Saw trailers.  I made it through 28 Weeks Later while eating Red Vines.  Hell, I watched my sweet Walton Goggins get his spine ripped out in Predators.  But I actually thought I was going to be physically sick during the trailer for this God-forsaken abomination.  My gag reflex actually spasmed when Adam Sandler said "WAAZUP?!?"  It was just so horrible and grating and annoying that it was more than my strong constitution could handle

Look, I like a good Adam Sandler flick as much as the next moron.  The Wedding Singer is great, and Billy Madison made me laugh.  But now, seeing the phrase "Happy Madison" makes me feel the exact same way I feel seeing the confederate flags, a swastika or one of those "terrorists hunting permits" on the back of some redneck's Toyota--angry, nauseated and ready to just start kicking and screaming obscenities and throwing punches until I either hit someone or get hauled out by security.

(Eeon has seen me do this to frat guys and knows the kind of berserker madness I'm capable of.  It's how we ended up seeing AvP at the dollar theatre.  He knew if he didn't take me out, I was going to beat the skanks in the corner triple to death with a tire iron borrowed from the trunk of his Alero)

I could rant about the failed state of comedy or the idiot stoned asswad teenagers who talked and kicked my seat during the entire two hours of the movie, but instead of anger, I offer you a cure.  If any of you have been infected by this movie trailer, I URGE you to watch this video of Maru playing on the sofa.

I am not a huge fan of animation.  I like it in theory, I like classic animators like Tex Avery (as well as homages like Ralph Bakshi's Cool World and Who Framed Roger Rabbit) and I thought Cowboy Bebop was super awesome back in the day, but for the most part, modern animation makes me angry.  Partially because I feel that computer animation is too rounded and flawless to have any real "life" to it, and partially because so much of it is not used to tell a meaningful story, but rather, to sell toys.

But these two animated trailers made my day: