A happy Star Wars Day to one and all. May the 4th be with you.
Tag / Star Wars
iTunes Top 200 Artists: #61-70
3 years ago, we first counted down the then Top 100 artists in my iTunes library. Since that time, I’ve successfully managed to migrate my music collection to a new PC with the stats intact. So, I figured it was time to take another look, expanding out the field to the top 200 artists, based on number of plays from late 2007 through January 1, 2017.
We continue the long slog towards the top with today’s entry, which includes:
#70: The Muffs
iTunes stats: 62 plays
Previous ranking: #67
A slight 3 spot drop for the band most well known for a Fruitopia commercial back in the day.
#69: Bush
iTunes stats: 63 plays
Previous ranking: #68
The British band rode the alternative wave of the early to mid 90s to have 6 songs make up their total, with 28 additional listens in the past 3 years.
#68: DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince
iTunes stats: 64 plays
Previous ranking: #80
An impressive 12 spot jump for the rap duo, who added 1 new track and 34 new listens over the past 3 years.
#66: Mazzy Star
iTunes stats: 65 plays
Previous ranking: #59
Only 25 new listens contributed to the 7 spot drop for the tippy band.
#66: John Williams
iTunes stats: 65 plays
Previous ranking: #98
The composer of some of the most popular and recognizable film scores in cinematic history, including the Star Wars and Superman series, has a nice 32 spot jump thanks to 42 new listens over the last 3 years.
#65: Warrant
iTunes stats: 66 plays
Previous ranking: #74
The favorite of strip clubs everywhere, and the Adam Carolla Show, added 34 new listens, good enough for a 9 spot jump.
#64: TLC
Continue reading →
2017 Games Of Interest
Fireworks Night
May 13 (Hawk Harrelson Alarm Clock)
August 26 (Star Wars Night)
Family Day
April 9
April 23
May 14
May 28
June 25 (Southpaw birthday bobblehead)
July 2
July 16
July 30
August 13
August 27
September 3
September 10
September 24
Other Fun Stuff
April 8 – White Sox Winter Hat
April 10 – Championship Banner Raising/Home Opener
April 12 – Ring Ceremony/Replica Championship Banner
April 15 – Replica World Series Trophy
April 22 – White Sox Hooded Sweatshirt
May 20 – Final Out Bobblehead
May 27 – White Sox Photo Book
June 8 – World Series MVP Bobblehead
June 24 – Mark Buehrle Day
July 1 – White Sox Hawaiian Shirt
July 15 – White Sox Cap
July 29 – 1917 Jersey
September 23 – Soccer Style Jersey
iTunes Top 200 Artists: #167-179
3 years ago, we first counted down the then Top 100 artists in my iTunes library. Since that time, I’ve successfully managed to migrate my music collection to a new PC with the stats intact. So, I figured it was time to take another look, expanding out the field to the top 200 artists, based on number of plays from late 2007 through January 1, 2017.
After a brief hiatus, we pick up this week with the final 2 bands/performers tied for 179th place and the first 8 tied for 167th, including a few radio personalities.
#167: Fall Out Boy
iTunes stats: 27 plays
Previous ranking: N/A
1 song from Fall Out Boy, used as the intro music for the White Sox in 2015, drives their inclusion on this list.
#167: Gnarls Barkley
iTunes stats: 27 plays
Previous ranking: N/A
The collaboration between CeeLo Green and DJ Danger Mouse has 2 songs to make up their total.
#167: Live
iTunes stats: 27 plays
Previous ranking: N/A
The Pennsylvania band used a pretty even split amongst 3 different tunes to mark their spot on the chart.
#167: Mott The Hoople
iTunes stats: 27 plays
Previous ranking: N/A
One track, featured on the Juno soundtrack and written by David Bowie, makes up the total for English rock band.
#167: Naughty By Nature
iTunes stats: 27 plays
Previous ranking: N/A
2 mega-hits from the hip hop trio make up their total.
#167: Nerf Herder
iTunes stats: 27 plays
Previous ranking: N/A
The band, who got their name from a Princess Leia quote in Star Wars, contributed the theme song to Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
#167: OutKast
Continue reading →
2016: The Year In Movies Part 2
142 different people starred in the movies I saw last year (starring in being the first two named stars, a tradition dating back to the old Chicago Tribune TV guide which populated the early days of my database), and a whopping 18 of them were in more than 1 film. Those 18 thespians are:
| Name | Films |
|---|---|
| Rupert Grint | 7 |
| Daniel Radcliffe | 7 |
| Anna Kendrick | 4 |
| Jason Bateman | 2 |
| Sandra Bullock | 2 |
| Brooke Butler | 2 |
| Benedict Cumberbatch | 2 |
| Robert DeNiro | 2 |
| Carla Gugino | 2 |
| Tom Hanks | 2 |
| Tom Hardy | 2 |
| Michael B. Jordan | 2 |
| Melissa McCarthy | 2 |
| Chloë Grace Moretz | 2 |
| Sam Rockwell | 2 |
| Miles Teller | 2 |
| Christoph Waltz | 2 |
| Olivia Wilde | 2 |
Now let’s take a look at the remaining movies that I saw in 2016, following up on Tuesday’s post.
The Sand (2015)
Things go awry at a beach when the sand starts eating people.
Creed (2015)
The Rocky series returns with the focus now on the illegitimate son of Apollo Creed.
The Boy (2016)
A young woman is hired to watch over a doll, but all is not as it seems.
London Has Fallen (2016)
A terrorist attack at a state funeral in London leaves one Secret Service agent to protect the president on the run.
Cas & Dylan (2013)
A dying doctor takes a new acquaintance on a cross country road trip.
Spy (2015)
Melissa McCarthy goes in to the field as a CIA agent to avenge the death of her crush.
Joy (2015)
A woman invents a new mop and bets on herself to beat the longest of odds.
The Intern (2015)
Continue reading →
Merry Christmas You Have
With yet another Star Wars film in theaters for the holidays, what better way to wish everyone a Merry Christmas than with this lovely parody. Enjoy!
Most Watched Actors – The Early 1980s
Many years ago, using the weekly TV guide that came with the Sunday Chicago Tribune, I started keeping track of all of the movies I had seen over the course of my lifetime. The guide would list the two main stars for each movie, and that is a tradition that I’ve carried on in my database ever since. So, given those guidelines, it is time to look at the most prolific actors that have starred in the movies that I have seen in the first half of the decade of the 1980s. Given I was born late in 1974, this should be a short-ish list.
1981
| Name | Films |
|---|---|
| Charles Grodin | 1 |
| William Katt | 1 |
| Robert Kulp | 1 |
We kick things off with the stars of the 2 movies that I know that I saw in 1981, the pilot to The Greatest American Hero and the second feature film starring the Muppets.
1982
| Name | Films |
|---|---|
| Albert Finney | 1 |
| Dustin Hoffman | 1 |
| Jessica Lange | 1 |
| Aileen Quinn | 1 |
| Henry Thomas | 1 |
| Dee Wallace Stone | 1 |
We are up to 3 movies for 1982, but still no repeat actors from E.T., Tootise, and Annie.
1983
| Name | Films |
|---|---|
| Peter Billingsley | 1 |
| Harrison Ford | 1 |
| Mark Hamill | 1 |
| Darren McGavin | 1 |
We fall back down to 2 films in 1983, with the last film of the original Star Wars trilogy and a soon-to-be Christmas classic.
1984
| Name | Films |
|---|---|
| Dan Aykroyd | 1 |
| George Burns | 1 |
| Kate Capshaw | 1 |
| Phoebe Cates | 1 |
| Robert Duvall | 1 |
| Harrison Ford | 1 |
| Continue reading → |
2016 Games Of Interest
Fireworks Night
Aug 27 (Southpaw Star Wars Bobblehead)
Family Day
Apr 10
Apr 24
May 8
May 22
Jun 12 (Southpaw’s Birthday)
Jun 26
Jul 10
Jul 24
Aug 7
Aug 21
Aug 28
Sep 11
Oct 2
Other Fun Stuff
Apr 9 – White Sox Winter Hat
Apr 23 – Abreu Plush Bleacher Creature
May 7 – Chris Sale K-Counter Bobblehead
May 21 – Homecoming Weekend
Jun 11 – White Sox Hawaiian Shirt
Jul 9 – White Sox Cap
Jul 23 – 1976 Throwback Jersey
Predicting The Non-Acting Oscars
The 88th Academy Awards are scheduled for Sunday night, so here’s my uneducated predictions for the non-acting awards. I likely have seen very few of these movies, so I will mostly be going on gut feel and word of mouth.
Best Original Screenplay
Matt Chapman, Ethan Coen, and Joel Coen, Bridge Of Spies
Alex Garland, Ex Machina
Peter Docter, Meg LeFauve, Josh Cooley, and Ronnie del Carmen, Inside Out
Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer, Spotlight
Jonathan Herman, Andrea Berloff, S. Leigh Savidge, and Alan Wenkus, Straight Outta Compton
I haven’t seen any of these films yet, but if I had to guess, which I guess I do, I’m going to say that, partially thanks to the outrage over the relative whiteness of the acting nominees, Straight Outta Compton will take home the prize.
Best Adapted Screenplay
Adam McKay and Charles Randolph, The Big Short
Nick Hornby, Brooklyn
Phyllis Nagy, Carol
Drew Goddard, The Martian
Emma Donoghue, Room
Another category where I have not seen any of the nominated work. I’m guessing, based on very little, that The Big Short will win this one.
Best Animated Feature
Anomalisa
Boy & The World
Inside Out
Shaun The Sheep Movie
When Marnie Was There
No clue here either, but Inside Out was the only one I had heard of.
Best Cinematography
Ed Lachman, Carol
Robert Richardson, The Hateful Eight
John Seale, Mad Max: Fury Road
Emmanuel Lubezki, The Revenant
Roger A. Deakins, Sicario
Well, I’ve almost seen one of these, since I have Mad Max home from Netflix. My guess is that Emmanuel Lubezki takes home the Oscar for capturing the rape of Leonardo DiCaprio by a bear.
Best Costume Design
Sandy Powell, Carol
Sandy Powell, Cinderella
Paco Delgado, The Danish Girl
Jenny Beavan, Mad Max: Fury Road
Jacqueline West, The Revenant
The odds do seem to be in Sandy Powell’s favor, but I’m guessing Paco Delgado brings home the prize for The Danish Girl.
Continue reading →
2015: The Year In Movies
2015 was a bit of a letdown after last year’s improvement in movie watching for me, with the vacation over the past 3 weeks of December helping to greatly boost my total. I managed to watch 69 movies last year, 9 less than last year and my fourth consecutive year under 100. Again, many things contributed to this, chiefly the insane amount of TV I’ve been watching, the greater effort made towards going out for walks, and the awful amount of time I spend either at work or getting to and from work.
Here’s a look back at the first 50 movies I did manage to watch last year and what recollection, if any, I have of them. The films are listed in the order I saw them.
Labor Day (2014)
A bit of a dud of a film and a poor way to start the year.
Bachelorette (2012)
This received nowhere near as much publicity as the similar themed Bridesmaids, but I enjoyed it much more.
The Last Exorcism Part II (2013)
Turns out I never saw the first one, which could explain why this made little sense to me.
The Factory (2012)
John Cusack and Jennifer Carpenter team up to do cop stuff.
Godzilla (2014)
A much better remake attempt than the Matthew Broderick endeavor in 1998.
Drinking Buddies (2013)
An interesting indie film about a Chicago brewery and the people that work there.
Life After Beth (2014)
The latest zombie rom-com.
Butter (2011)
Who knew butter carving could be so entertaining?
Devil’s Due (2014)
A newlywed becomes impregnated with a hellspawn.
Tusk (2014)
Kevin Smith’s latest makes me think it may be time for me to stop watching Kevin Smith films. Continue reading →