Top 100 of 2008

Fallen Angel

I'm taking over tonight.

10 albums totally cramped my style. Here are the Top 100 SONGS of 2008. For those of you with Facebook capabilities, to read a more complete version with comments (including my mother pwning The Hold Steady), plus a full 2008 in review post, go here.

And now hear this:

100. Unearth – Crow Killer

99. The Streets – Heaven for the Weather

98. Trivium – Of Prometheus and the Crucifix

97. Less Than Jake – This One’s Gonna Leave a Bruise

96. Testament – Henchmen Ride

95. Millencolin – Detox

94. Weezer – Pork and Beans

93. The Orphans – Crows

92. The Damned – Under the Wheels

91. Redska – Ora Dopo Ora

90. Dandy Warhols – Wasp in the Lotus

89. The Breeders – Walk It Off

88. Bury Your Dead – Fools Gold

87. Vivian Girls – Where Do You Run To

86. Eagles of Death Metal – Secret Plans

85. Everlast – Letters Home from the Garden of Stone

84. Kaiser Chiefs – Half the Truth

83. Pendulum – Propane Nightmares

82. Senses Fail – Wolves at the Door

81. Pennywise – Affliction

80. Mindless Self Indulgence – Lights Out

79. Cancer Bats – Bastard’s Waltz

78. Children of Bodom – Banned from Heaven

77. AC/DC – Rock ‘N’ Roll Train

76. Nine Inch Nails – Discipline

75. The Killers – This Is Your Life

74. The Donots – Break My Stride

73. Anti-Flag – Good and Ready

72. TV on the Radio – Halfway Home

71. Ill Nino – The Alibi of Tyrants

70. The Raveonettes – Blitzed

69. The Raconteurs – Salute Your Solution

68. Jem – I Want You To…

67. Apollo Sunshine – 666: The Coming of The New World Government

66. Slipknot – Vendetta

65. Phantom Planet – Do the Panic

64. Okkervil River – Singer Songwriter

63. She Wants Revenge – A Hundred Kisses

62. Flogging Molly – Requiem for a Dying Song

61. Walls of Jericho – The American Dream

60. Bullet for My Valentine – Waking the Demon

59. Filter – Soldiers of Misfortune

58. Rise Against – The Dirt Whispered

57. Sponge – Time Bomb USA

56. In Flames – Alias

55. The Gaslight Anthem – Great Expectations

54. The Offspring – Hammerhead

53. Cavalera Conspiracy – Inflikted

52. Finch – Chinese Organ Thieves

51. The Walkmen – In the New Year

50. Coldplay – Lost!

49. Stephen Marley and Damian Marley – The Mission

48. Secret Machines – Atomic Heels

47. The Chatlatans UK – Oh! Vanity

46. Supergrass – Rebel in You

45. Be Your Own Pet – The Kelly Affair

44. Teenage Bottlerocket – In the Basement

43. Korpiklanni – Metsämies

42. The Hold Steady – Sequestered in Memphis

41. Goldfinger – Handjobs for Jesus

40. N.E.R.D. – Spazz

39. Vampire Weekend – Oxford Comma

38. The Fratellis – My Friend John

37. Weezer – Troublemaker

36. The Stills – Being Here

35. Los Campesinos! – Death to Los Campesinos!

34. Innerpartysystem – Don’t Stop

33. Panic! At the Disco – Nine in the Afternoon

32. Gnarls Barkley – Run

31. The Ting Tings – Great DJ

30. Atmosphere – You

29. Hollywood Undead – Undead

28. Death Cab for Cutie – No Sunlight

27. Cold War Kids – Something Is Not Right with Me

26. DragonForce – The Warrior Inside

25. The Gaslight Anthem – The ’59 Sound

24. Noah and the Whale – 5 Years Time

23. Scars on Broadway – They Say

22. No Age – Eraser

21. The Matches – Wake the Sun

20. The Wombats – Let’s Dance to Joy Division

19. Black Kids – I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance with You

18. Ludo – Love Me Dead

17. Vampire Weekend – A-Punk

16. The Offspring – You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid

15. Anti-Flag – The Bright Lights of America

14. Hit the Lights – Stay Out

13. One Day As a Lion – Wild International

12. Flobots – Handlebars

11. Tickle Me Pink – Typical

10. MIA – Paper Planes

9. The Melvins – Nude with Boots

8. Immortal Technique – The 3^rd World

7. All That Remains – Two Weeks

6. Kate Nash – Foundations

5. Alkaline Trio – Help Me

4. The Airborne Toxic Event – Sometime Around Midnight

3. The Whigs – Right Hand on My Heart

2. MGMT – Time to Pretend

1. The Street Dogs –Two Angry Kids

New Year’s Filler: Donny the Dog Genius

Pax Arcana

I’m planning on posting some sort of 2008 retrospective one of these days — hopefully tomorrow — but in the meantime please enjoy the below video of a dog genius:

Thanks to Jaelynne for the tip.

Come se dice “Zombie Jesus Candle” en Espanol?

Perry Ellis

At roughly this time tomorrow, the Sambino, Mrs. Ellis and I will be landing in beautiful Puerto Rico for a week’s stay on the island paradise, where we will dine on mofongo, sip mojitos and nosh on other local delicacies beginning with “M” as we survey a scene that looks exactly like this:

I will also be carrying on the eternal struggle, battling legions of killer golf course zombie iguanas armed only with my wits and introducing young Samuel to the arcane ways of The Brotherhood of the Flying Shark Vikings. Soon he will be ready for the vision quest ceremony: Eating a full serving of lutefisk and keeping it down for five minutes. Skoal!

Zombie Jesus candle will set your heart afire

Pax Arcana

So your cat horked up eggnog in your stocking and your tree spontaneously combusted. Your gifts did not arrive on time and the ones that did were met with shrugs. And your favorite basketball team not only lost for the first time in 20 games, but then lost again the next time out.

It’s times like these that you can take comfort in the zombie Jesus candle, and the fact that you were not the recipient of this particular gift:

May the bony hands of our undead savior creep you out for all eternity.

Feliz Navidad from the Sambino

Perry Ellis

The Ellis clan would like to wish all three of our faithful readers (and my fellow Arcanasianites) a happy holiday season. We’ll be thinking of you as we bask in sunny Puerto Rico nest week. Adios, amigos!

Merry Christmas from Korean Boy

Pax Arcana

OK, here’s a bit of Christmas Eve filler if you really hate your families that much.

Courtesy of the unstoppable FAIL Blog.

Merry Christmas, bitches

Pax Arcana

The lithe and generous Mrs. Pax Arcana and I are heading down to the homeland tonight for the annual festival of pagan rituals disguised as religio-fascistic greed worship and debt mongering.

The bottom line is this — don’t expect any posting for the next few days. I will miss you all terribly. Shhhhh. Don’t speak. Your eyes say it all.

Um, what?

Pax Arcana

I’ve long admired ESPN’s Peter Gammons and Buster Olney. Both have a long track record of excellent reporting on baseball and a convivial, fan-friendly blah blah blah.

But this paragraph, from an article carrying both men’s bylines, requires a background in cryptography and four swigs from a bottle of Maker’s Mark to decipher:

The Boston Red Sox or the Washington Nationals continue to be the most likely destinations for Teixeira, executives involved in the process believe — the Red Sox, with an offer that might be in the range of $170 million, and the Nationals perhaps with a proposal greater than that of Boston.

My goodness, fellas. Remember the funnel!

Yankees lurking in Teixeira hunt [ESPN]

Tuesday Filler: Jeff Goldblum is watching you poop

Pax Arcana

Just a friendly reminder that you are never, ever alone.

Source: 15 Weirdest Jeff Goldblum Moments [Screen Junkies]

Our brains are cool

Pax Arcana

Like me, you’ve probably found yourself making love to five gorgeous supermodels at once, only to have their rock star boyfriends all  charge into the room at once and throw their tiny dogs at you, only to swat the canine projectiles away without really looking at them or stopping what you’re doing.

In such cases, the ability to deflect the pooch missiles is just one example of “blindsight,” a type of subconscious “seeing” that science is just beginning to comprehend. In one recent experiment, a man who was left blind by two strokes was able to navigate a hallway obstacle course despite the fact that he couldn’t actually see any of the obstacles.

Turns out, some of us can see even when we can’t see:

Scientists have long known that the brain digests what comes through the eyes using two sets of circuits. Cells in the retina project not only to the visual cortex — the destroyed regions in this man — but also to subcortical areas, which in T. N. were intact. These include the superior colliculus, which is crucial in eye movements and may have other sensory functions; and, probably, circuits running through the amygdala, which registers emotion.

Past experiments with patients similar to T.N. showed that they would cringe when shown pictures of scared people, even though they could not consciously see anything in front of them.

Blindsight is just one of the functions the brain performs throughout your day without your knowledge. It is what allows you to drive on a highway and avoid that car veering into your lane from the left despite the fact that you’re in the middle of a text message and reprogramming the radio presets simultaneously. In sports, blindsight is what allows baseball players to hit fastballs at 100 miles per hour — despite the fact that human reaction times are simply not capable of doing so.

I suspect blindsight has a social angle too, as it prevents some people from telling their co-workers that there are huge dollops of cream cheese hanging from their beards at the Tuesday morning staff meeting. Man, blindsight can be really hilarious.

Blind, Yet Seeing: The Brain’s Subconscious Visual Sense [NYT]