#90. Wendi Deckermiller. She was my friend at Troy State back in the day, and she's my friend now. She frequently comments on the blog, and has taken some great photographs as part of her hobby. Bottom line is, she's just cool. Hence, the 90th coolest of 2007.
#89. "Barack the Magic Negro". Before I'm branded as the biggest racist you know, let's get one thing clear... it was David Ehrenstein, a columnist for the LA Times, who called Barack Obama "The Magic Negro". Then, its was Sen. Joe Biden (D-MD) who said Obama was "...the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy...". So what did my boy Rush Limbaugh do? He called up comedian Paul Shanklin, who, impersonating Reverend Al Sharpton, sang a little ditty called "Barack the Magic Negro", to the tune of "Puff the Magic Dragon".
And its one of the funniest things I've ever heard... of course, what's even funnier is that the media, and especially "unbiased" sites like The Daily Kos and Media Matters went nuts, calling Rush every racist name in the book, but never mentioning Ehrenstein (the source) or even Biden (who's comments I would have been totally offended at).
If you know anything about Al Sharpton, the fact that its Al Sharpton singing, plus the fact he's using a bullhorn is absolutely hysterical. Here's a video from You Tube which is equally as funny.
And for all you Democrats who think this is racist, then tell you what... you back off Condi Rice, especially with those "brown sugar" cartoons, (ladies & gentlemen, your tolerant, compassionate, fighting for equality and the poor Democrats in action!) and I won't laugh at Barack the Magic Negro.
#88. "What If?" by Robert Cowley. So what would have happened if Hitler refrained from attacking Russia, saving his army and instead took the Middle East and captured the oil? What would have happened if D-Day had failed? What would have happened in the Civil War if the plans that Robert E. Lee lost, plans that were found by the Union and used to decimate the Confederacy, weren't lost? These and several other questions are asked in this book, and to answer them, historians such as Stephen Ambrose and David McCollough use speculation to give you a present now that could be, resulting from a past that could have gone differently. I personally love to play the "what if?" game, and this book was absolutely fascinating.
My favorite of the bunch is "Unlikely Victory: 13 Ways the Americans Could Have Lost the Revolution", which really paints a picture that truly the Americans didn't win the war, so much as the English bungled it up from the start, and one of more than a dozen things could have gone differently and we might all be speaking the Queen's English, driving on the other side of the road and July 4th wouldn't be as busy at Disney World. Good stuff.
#87. Solitairy. Its a stupid show on Fox Reality, a channel I don't even get amongst the 200 that I do. I only know about it from the free episode that got me hooked... nine contestants are each placed in a solitairy room, and throughout a series of obstacles, challenges, lack of sleep, lack of any good food, and so on, they begin to drop out one by one. The narrator is a chick named Val, who sounds just feminine enough to be a woman, yet still sounds like a robot. She talks to the contestants, pits them against each other and really tortures them--well, by the Democrats version of torture. I'm sure all 9 could be put in Club Gitmo, with their 3 or 4 square meals per day, work out rooms, religious freedoms and supplies and... oh, here I go again.
Anyway, the hilarious part is the winner gets... $50,000. Not a million, like Survivor. Not up to a million like Deal or No Deal. Not $500K or so, like Amazing Race. No, 50K. All this for fifty thousand, of which after taxes, you'll be looking at about $27,000, which is still a lot of money, but not really. The show is funny, and I enjoyed it. Looking forward to season three.
#86. Classic videos on iTunes. So, I'm flipping though the iTunes video section one day, and was startled... I found Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby", AND Wilson Phillips' "Hold On" on the same day, and all this was even after I had downloaded "Hazard" by Richard Marx (the sheriff did it! the sheriff killed Mary, I'm certain!!). All the links, by the way, are to the You Tube videos, which I highly recommend.
However, the coup de gras has to be "Don't Make Me Wait for Love", by Kenny G, from the album Duotones. Just the fact it starts out with a big fro'd Kenny getting out bed, shirtless, in long pajama pants to walk out on the beach porch at sunrise, then to see his silhouette with a saxophone.... high, high, high comedy. What's worse is that this is a rare Kenny G tune where there is a vocalist (Lenny Williams) and you NEVER see him in the video. This might be the best purchase under $4 I've ever made... well, except when I bought Smooth Love Jams of the 90s for $3.99 used. (and I know none of you think I'm kidding... and you'd be right)
And while we're at it, heck, here's a link to my favorite video of ever all time.... my favorite for so many reasons, not the least of which includes Keanu answering "Have you ever been in love?" with "If I was, I didn't know it..." (if this ever makes it on iTunes, I'd be hard pressed not to put it in the Top 10 Coolest of that Year)
#85. Drive. So, I see ads for this show all during January and February. Something about a man who's family is kidnapped, and the only way to get them back is to win this cross country race. But lo and behold, each and every participant has their own story, and each are forced to win the race to win back what they lost. Its gripping, its exciting, its interesting and... Fox canceled it after only a few episodes. Of course. This show had the potential to be a Top 50 Coolest... but I never got to see what happened. Because they never finished the story. Because either Fox wants "Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?" to succeed, America wants to watch such shows instead of great programming like "Drive", or both. Sigh.
#84. "The Reminder" by Feist. Yes, yes, she's the chick who sings "1-2-3-4, tell me that you love me more" from the Apple Nano commercials, which gives you a clip of the superb video. It was shot all in one take, if you can believe that. Anyway, Leslie Feist is a Canadian singer who's third album, "The Reminder" has been boosted by that very commercial. But beyond "1-2-3-4", the whole album is a gem, and truly is what I was hoping KT Tunstall's album, "Eye to the Telescope" would have been last year. Favorite track? "Brandy Alexander", right now... its fun, its classy, its talented. You can get this cd at Best Buy for like, ten bucks. Go for it.
#83. Manda Laughlin. One of my kids from WalkAbout, back in the day, who's grown up to be this beautiful young lady, graduating and heading off to college, and ya know, I think we might just be friends beyond "you used to be my student". Do you know Amanda? You're better for it.
Ya know, it was hard finding a picture of Amanda by herself... I had to flip through her Facebook photos--and yes, I realize that might be a little creepy. Anyway, I thought this was a good shot, though I didn't take it... had I've taken it, it wouldn't have been as light as it is, cause I have the cool camera and all and... wait... where was I?.
#82. Boise State over Oklahoma. In possibly one of the best games I've ever seen, and I only say the second half, little Boise State from the WAC Conference took on big bad Oklahoma, from the Big XII, and was, like, a 422 point underdog. And one game, an overtime and a play called "Statue of Liberty", and the Broncos come out 43-42 winners (plus one of the main guys--something Johnson--proposed to the freakin' head cheerleader after the game). This is why I love college football.
#81. Todd on Survivor. Let's face it... the Survivor in the spring of 2007 was really boring. Really boring. I keep watching though, knowing that the time for Survivor is limited, perhaps one or two more seasons left... but this past season, Survivor China, was fantastic. And mostly, it falls on the shoulders of a little gay Mormon named Todd Herzog. He'd been watching Survivor since he was 14, and at the Reunion Show, he laid out for the world everything--he had a game plan, he knew who to bring in, who to betray, who to align himself with, who to get voted off, who to get to vote off who he was getting voted off, who to shift blame to, who to lie to, and it was hilarious. This kid had it down to a tee. And he's a million dollars richer.
Coming up: The stink called The Golden Compass, a movie so bad its Superbad and... Kdub
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