1. See above.

2. Also not deserving: Meryl Streep, “The Devil Wears Prada,”

3. Also not deserving: Eddie Murphy, “Dreamgirls.”

4. Actually, anything related to “Dreamgirls.”

5. “An Inconvenient Truth,” must win best documentary.

I watched Flags of Our Fathers today, and was left wanting a hell of a lot more. I got that “more” when I saw Letters from Iwo Jima later in the day, which I’ll discuss tomorrow.

So, Clint Eastwood’s Flags of Our Fathers, it’s the most palatable protest film the American public will recieve. The soldiers respect their fellow soldiers, and grieve with the widows of those lost in battle. The politicians are doing their best (albeit without any class) to raise money with war bonds to support the troops.

But the soldiers, especially Adam Beach’s Marine Private First Class Ira Hayes, have grave cases of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

The soldiers are angry that they’re being used as propaganda material for a war being lost.

The goverment characters in the film almost make a case for morale being worth lying for. They’re also racist bastards when it comes down to Native Americans. In a way it’s portrayed as the way things were, but those people are not the heroes of the film by a long shot.

They’re not the villains, either. The villain here, is war. I don’t think, especially for WWII films, corporately funded movies can ever portray any American in a negative light as any kind of a true villain.

All of the soldiers are good men, who never commit atrocities. Not the way it is right now, but what we all want to believe.

This is a palatable protest film. The only kind of protest art that an economically comfortable public will accept. God damn, I’m glad Clint Eastwood made it.

Will we ever get a portrayal of the evil that American troops do in a format that the public will watch? It goes without saying that many of our troops are doing amazing things, but it goes all too unsaid that they are doing horrendous things.

I doubt it, sadly. We get, what is almost as important, the vilification of the goverment, as in Gregory Itzin’s Nixon/Bush character President Charles Logan, who was the evil mastermind behind Day 5, and is now being reintroduced in Day 6.

The problem with only vilifying the government is that … well … Americans already distrust the goverment. It’s too easy. If, somehow, Jack Bauer’s lifetime of torture and Geneva Conventions ignoring behavior actually damaged the safety of the country, then, and only then, would 24 be the accurate portrayal of society that it’s real-time premise makes it out to be.

Americans need every reminder they can get that violence and war are horrible things. Supposedly troops out in the field are using gung-ho torture methods and styles that show influence of 24, a show that is itself still coming to grips with it’s own obsession with torture, and the physical and mental scars of torture. Don’t believe me? The scars on the hands off Jack Bauer, which he accrued from 2 years of torture from the hands of the Chinese goverment, are a sign of a changing time.

Much is made of the fact that Joel Surnow is a crazy dickbag who really dreams at night of a secret police to kill undesireables. It’s a big deal that he’s practically the only openly conservative fatcat in Hollywood. What’s more concerning to me is that he’s not only making the occasionally entertaining 24 now. He’s also a producer for FOX News’s horrible answer to The Daily Show, the ridiculous and unfunny, The 1/2 Hour News Hour. And yes, I don’t get that title either.

I trust Clint Eastwood a billion times more than I do Surnow, thankfully, it’s well known that 24 isn’t made and created soley from Surnow troubled head. Kiefer has publically stated that his views lean towards a socialist envrionment, he’s either lying about this, or he’s an amazing actor.

These are not my iPods. If I had this many iPods, and didn’t give each away to a friend I think that I’d get into hell on gluttony alone.

Ben Stroud asked about how many iPods I’ve owned in a comment to the first entry I posted in this iPod series. The fact alone that I didn’t know this off hand means I should be in some iPod Obsessives Anonymous program instead of posting these blog entries. But I don’t got the time for that now that I have a new working iPod.

It adds up, that’s all I’m going to say about the price of being addicted to the iPod.

I’ve never bought the same iPod twice, and just to clarify, I’ve spent more money on repairing the car I crashed in Winter 2003 than I’ve spent on iPods.

The first iPod I got was the 2nd Generation (touch wheel), which I got as a present for graduating high school. I paid for the 3rd generation (with 4 light up buttons) and the 4th generation (click wheel, black and white display) out of my own pocket with money earned from summer jobs. And as a birthday present, I split the cost of the 4th generation (color screen, photos) with my parents.

Why did I have to keep getting new iPods? I lost the 4th generation (click wheel, black and white) when I was moving my stuff during the summer before senior year. I sold my 3rd generation to get money, because I needed money. And I believe the first iPod, the 2nd generation iPod, it broke and somehow the break wasn’t under warranty.

But I’ve owned more than 4 specific iPods, because whenever I’ve had a problem with one, when it was covered under warranty, which I believe has happened at least 6 or 7 times, Apple’s sent me, or handed me, a brand new replacement.

So Ben, to answer your question, I’ve owned about a dozen iPods, and paid for 4.

*and then, inevitably, a New iPod.

I’m watching tonight’s Heroes off of the DVR box, so I’ve decided to christen the new iPod in the name of Masi Oka’s character Hiro.

And tonight, for the next few hours, Hiro’s going to be loading my tunes up. I did the math, and at about 2000 songs every 40 minutes, it should take a little under 4 hours to load my music library onto my iPod, and hopefully, I’ll be asleep by then.

This isn’t the way I’d prefer it to be done, and I thought it wouldn’t take so long, but you work with what you get. Since I’ll be asleep by the time it’s done loading (around 4 am), that means for at least three to four hours, the iPod will still be on, active, working. The damn thing won’t auto-eject once it’s done loading up.

This leads me to the next, and possibly obvious, point: I have too much music. That 11411 up there isn’t just a palindrome, it’s the number of songs that will be transferred to my iPod. I think before I get my next computer I need to sit down with iTunes and go over what I really need. I know the point of having a 60GB iPod is to have a crapload of music on it, but there should be more free space on the thing so it’s longevity will increase. Most hard drives are supposed to have at least 10% of free space in order to function to the best of their abilities.

Tomorrow, I plan on not over exerting Hiro: an album on the way to work, an album on the way home from work, and not much else. Don’t want to put too much early wear on it after dragging 50 some odd gb’s of music onto it.

Here’s the first photo of Hiro now that he has a name:

So I got there, and even after making my reservation, I had to wait an additional half hour.

But once my name was called, and after I wrote my name, email, and phone # down, I was given a new iPod to replace the now dead McNulty.

Why did I have to write my info down, I wonder. I didn’t dare ask my genius, Gerald, because he seemed to be a little grumpy – going against exactly what my last post in this series had said – but that might have had more to do with the fact that it was 6pm, and everybody’s grumpy at 6pm. But back to the question, as to why I was grumpy.

As it says above on my reciept, this was a Repeat Repair. Which means, probably, that Apple Inc. is suspicious as hell of me. Am I just some dude who doesn’t take care for his iPod and expects these free replacements? Maybe. This has inspired me to keep track of all, if any, mistakes I make in the taking care of it, to see if it’s me or is it Apple that’s at fault.

And here’s a photo of the new one, looks just like the old one, and has yet to be named or filled with music, as I’m currently charging it up.

So I’m at the Apple Store in SoHo, and since I got here a little early, I’ve been able to use their wireless to find out about Chrome Children 2 (no Electric Boogaloo). Track Listing after the jump. I was going to have a photo of the huge lines for the Genius Bar, but my the photo hasn’t gotten from my cell phone to my iPod yet.

And no, the answer is not trying to fight the iPod’s depressed state by buying it new cases at the Apple store. That’s just unhealthy behavior that will make the iPod’s happiness dependant on you spoiling it.

The story is the same. I’m using my iPod. I’m happy with my iPod. But then, every so often, when I try and do a simple task, it bites me in the ass. 99% of the time, when I choose to change what album or song I’m listening to, nothing bad happens. But, for the last week or so, that simple task of changing what song I’m listening to has been freezing my iPod. So I’ve been going through the following steps each time this has happened, only to, each time, have the iPod fix itself before my Apple Store appointment.

For your own benefit, here are my simple instructions on how to schedule a repair with the Apple Store. Nowadays, scheduling a repair is often a must, because sometimes there are so many people at the Genius Bar, tat if you just go there after work without a reservation, you’re probably going to be told that the genius bar is full of appointments for the day, and to go home, make a reservation tomorrow (you can only make a reservation on the day of the appointment) and come back.

1. Make sure that your iPod still has it’s Apple Care warranty. If you’re living on the edge, without a warranty, and the complimentary 90 day warranty period has passed, then prepare for Apple charging you an arm and a leg for your repair. I had a small debate with Michael about buying warranties last night, and we ultimately decided that if you think you need a warranty, because you have frequent bad luck with technology, you should get the warranty. And when it comes to iPods, I have shitty luck. Does that mean I’m going to switch and get a Zune? Not likely. It means that I’m always going to pay for AppleCare for my iPod.

2. Go to http://www.apple.com/retail/ and find your nearest Apple Store. If there is no nearby Apple Store, then head on over to http://www.apple.com/support/ to file for a repair with them. I choose to try my luck with the Apple retail stores because it’s more pleasant to talk about technology with someone face to face, rather than filling out a form on-line or trying to find the tech support phone number.

3. After going to your local Apple Store’s specific page, click on “Make a reservation.”

From there on in, it’s pretty self explanatory. But something to note is that when you choose your appointment time, pick one slot later than when you expect to get to the store, for you will be told to arrive 5 minutes before your appointment begins

4. Breathe, and relax. It’s going to be all good. The geniuses are good, nice people and they’ll take care of you and your iPod. I’ve heard they get a lot of crap, though, so be nice!

Wish me luck today, I’ve got a 5:45 appointment for the same problem as usual.

It’s been about a month since James Brown passed, and I’m surprised that I havn’t come across more mix tapes or best-ofs on the net. There are only two of note to my knowledge:

- The first being the one I’ve thought was the best so far, from Diplo’s Mad Decent Radio podcast, “#12 – the land of milk and honey with james brown” . And as is to be expected from Mr. Diplotocus, it’s good. The mix itself, according to the notes attached to the podcast (Will basic black text become the new liner notes?) was done by Cosmo Baker, and his website is here.

- The Stones Throw Podcast Tribute is also worth a listen by your ears, and it’s linked here.

That’s all for now,

Henry

I’d been working for weeks trying to lose this cold that’s been trailing me. 2 weeks ago, it took on flu/virus like symptoms. Now those symptoms are back again. Which probably means I’ll be staying home from work tomorrow. I don’t have much energy, but I gotta give back to you for reading this, so here are some interesting things I’ve found online recently. Something about how I expect to get healthy at the end of this. But first, the blips:

1. Apple seems to be poised to introduce new LED screens to it’s Macbook line, starting with the 15″ Macbook Pro. This is a welcome bit of rumor mill gossip for me, as I’m saving my dollars up for this summer, when I plan to purchase a Macbook Pro. If I can get a great product after a big form factor move, I’ll be happy. (Source: AppleInsider)

2. Coachella is going to be amazing this year. RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE are reuniting, The JESUS AND MARY CHAIN are playing the festival, GHOSTFACE KILLAH’S is gonna WRECK THE HELL OUT OF FESTIVAL!, GIRL TALK IS PLAYING THE FESTIVAL!, PHARAOE FUCKING MONCH is gonna be there, The Smashing Pumpkins are rumored to be playing there too. Also attending: The Good The Bad And The Queen (more on them later), Hot Chip, El-P, Lupe Fiasco, The Arcade Fire, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, AND THIS MIGHT NOT EVEN BE THE FESTIVAL I GO TO BECAUSE …. (Source: PitchforkMedia)

3. Bob Dylan is playing Bonnaroo. This is a good sign for what’s to come regarding The ‘Roo. Also good signs, the following artists/bands are also rumored to play: Tom Waits, Willie Nelson, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Arcade Fire, Hot Chip, America, TV on the Radio, The Roots, The Decemberists, Ozomatli, Keiren Hedben (Four Tet) & Steve Reid, The Hold Steady, M. Ward, and Girl Talk. Superfly Productions plans to officially announce the lineup on January 31st. (Source: Stereogum)

4. Kanye West’s taking a page out of the Kingdom Come rulebook, and he’s going to work with Chris Martin for a track on the forthcoming Graduation. (Source: Pitchfork, again)

5. 24’s gonna do the whole 2-hours-in-one-night thing AGAIN, this time in February. Set your DVR’s and brains for the 12th. And can someone comment to talk about tonight’s shocking return of one of season 5’s big bads? (Source: TV Squad)

So what do I expect will save me from the dead beyond I find myself in? The Good, The Bad, and The Queen release their self titled album tomorrow. Who the hell are they? Damon Albarn is The King of All Side Projects, what with Blur, Gorillaz, his own album Mali Music, and now this group, which feature the following people:

- Paul Simonon, the freaking bass guitarist from The Clash.

- Tony Allen, drummer for Fela Kuti’s band, of whom Fela stated, “without Tony Allen, there would be no Afrobeat”. (Source: Wikipedia)

- And Simon Tong, guitarist/keyboardist for The Verve.

A recording brought from all of them, produced by Brian “Danger Mouse” Burton, will be on shelves tomorrow. This is how the British do SuperGroup, and I’m starting to think it’s a hell of a lot better than we Americans do it.