The Google Zeitgeist for 2004. Who would have thought Britney Spears would still be so popular? I guess pulling stunts like getting married in Vegas this weekend will help keep you in the tabloid headlines… Links from Stereogum. Update: What’s that? You want to see the marraige certificate? For shame, surely you have better things to do? From Whatevs.org.

School Of Rock was the most inspiring music movie I’ve ever seen. Ok, not really, but it was still a whole lot of fun. No, it’s not original by any stretch, but it’s well done, Jack Black is a riot, you don’t want to throttle any of the kids and I’ll take one of these films over two-dozen Dead Poets Society rip-offs anyday.

I do not want to go back to work tomorrow.

np – The Decemberists / Castaways And Cutouts

Last night I watched Battle Royale, the infamous Japanese film about 42 grade 9 students being taken to a deserted island, assigned a variety of weapons and forced to hunt and kill each other until there’s only one left standing. Sound demented? I thought so too, but it wasn’t as much as I’d expected. I had expected something sort of campy or over the top, but it’s actually played fairly straight, which makes it that much more unsettling. Instead of crazy martial arts fight sequences between kids in school uniforms, you have terrified adolescents running for their lives and killing their friends in order to survive. Lord Of The Flies meets Predator with some Dawson’s Creek thrown in. There are a number of bits that you want to laugh out loud at, but you catch yourself because you’re not really sure if it’s meant to be funny. Part of me wishes Hollywood would remake this film if for no other reason than to see all the WB teeny-bopper tween stars hunt each other down. Just imagine – Hillary Duff gutting one of those dudes from The O.C before being gunned down by the Olsen Twins, who have a duel to the death at the very end of it all. Sounds like a winner to me. Sidenote: One of the girl students went on to play Go-Go Yubari in Kill Bill Vol 1 – hence the school uniform.

The Globe & Mail offers a surprisingly hip salute to the Canadian indie rock scene of 2003.

Ryan Adams leaves a rather, er, hostile message on Chicago Sun-Times music columnist Jim DeRogatis’ answering machine.

Toronto’s By Divine Right recently toured China. The Toronto Star reports on the surreal experience.

Tanya Donelly’s still-untitled new album is scheduled for an early Spring release.

The buzz seems to be that Joss Whedon (Buffy The Vampire Slayer) is taking over the scripting chores on New X-Men after Grant Morrison leaves in a few months. This could be good, as Whedon is a great writer, but awful, as Whedon is slower than molasses on a glacier. Worse, apparently, than Kevin Smith who managed to turn Daredevil from a monthly series into a maybe five-issues-a-year title if you’re lucky.

np – Tanya Donelly / Beautysleep

You know what’s going on today? Nothing. Got the day off, just lazing about. A little reading, a little video gaming. We seem to be having a warm snap right now, which I am going to go out and enjoy since according to the Weather Network, we’ll have highs of a balmy -12 Centigrade next Thursday.

Yes, we are talking about the weather. You know it was going to happen sooner or later.

np – Steve Earle / Jerusalem

“So this is the new year.

and I don’t feel any different.”

– Ben Gibbard, “The New Year”

It’d be kind of freaky if I woke up this morning and DID feel different. Like with superpowers or something. Hope everyone had a good New Year’s Eve.

Comic Book Resources has the following spy report from the world of Batman: Intimidation Game

“There’s two villains. There’s one love interest. There’s a young Commissioner Gordon. There’s a young Harvey Dent. The cast are Christian Bale [Batman], Michael Caine [Alfred], Judson Caspian [Viggo Mortensen], Cillian Murphy [Harvey Dent], Katie Holmes [Rachel Caspian], Chris Cooper [Gordon], Elle Fanning [Barbara], Noah Emmerich, as of 11/29/03.”

Judson Caspian was the foe from the classic Batman: Year Two storyline. Looks like Ra’s Al-Ghul is out, The Reaper is in?

Speaking of Viggo Mortensen, I finally saw Return Of The King last night, and yeah, good film. Exhausting film! As expected, this one deviated from the books the most, but I understand that was out of necessity. Still, I was a little disappointed in the epilogue – while wholly impractical, I would have liked to see some of the secondary characters’ stories, mainly Saruman, Eowyn and Faramir, given some proper closure. And now that all is said and done, I still believe the addition of Arwen to all proceedings was not only pointless, but awkward and the only running complaint I have about the series. Oh yeah, I’m also disappointed that it’s all over. But on the plus side, there’s still that 9-10 months anticipation for the extended DVD… because THAT is when I can finally see the whole series as it was meant to be.

Got my new ATI Radeon 9600 video card… all I can say is PHAT. And I never say ‘phat’. I have dusted off Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance and my first impression is that the controls SUCK. Damn these direct ports of console games. But anyway.

np – Centro-Matic / Love You Just The Same