Too many movies ... along with needing to check out the aforementioned hooligan pic Green Street Hooligans, i'm also interested in the new David Cronenberg thriller A History of Violence with Viggo Mortensen as a small town family man hiding a dark past (something about those former Fellowship of the Ring folks ... although Cameron Crowe's Elizabethtown featuring Legolas/Orlando Bloom looks pretty awful). Annnnnnd, i'd like to check out Philip Seymour Hoffman as Capote, also featuring the wonderful Catherine Keener. Guy Ritchie has another gangster flick coming out soon, Revolver, although reviews of it at the Toronto Film Festival give the ominous warning "After Revolver, Swept Away now looks like Citizen Kane". Ouch. An even better zinger: "'There's only one way to get smarter at chess,' says everybody, 'and that's to play a smarter opponent.' Who the heck has Guy Ritchie been playing chess with? The Gumby character in Monty Python?".

Too many games ... i'm splitting my time on the PSP between Death Jr. and Burnout Legends. The former is an amusing third person shooter featuring a prepubescent grim reaper, his motley crew of friends, and hamster bombs. The latter is another brilliant entry in the Burnout series, excellently adapted to the small screen. Takedowns are a bit easier than in the last installment, but the assorted new modes (especially Pursuit) make up for the tweaks in gameplay. Then i have to check out the latest Burnout incarnation on the Xbox, Revenge. I've also been playing through a few seasons of Winning Eleven 8. That game definitely captures the soccer experience, both the thrill of ending a slick move with a goal, and the frustration of missing chances and having an off day. Entry 9 in the series is out in early 2006 for PS2, Xbox, and PSP, and will include online play. Eek. FIFA 2006 will also be out shortly, although other than the licenses the EA series can't really stand up to the Konami one. Every year they try to revamp their control system, and every year they come no closer to simulating realistic footie. The PSP installment of Grand Theft Auto, entitled Liberty City Stories will be out in a few weeks, taking the story back in time to the setting of GTA3. Meanwhile, the release of the Xbox 360 looms on the horizon. I'm curious how it will affect the release schedule for the original Xbox. The PS1 hung around for quite awhile after the PS2's arrival, but we'll see if Microsoft adopts the same strategy.

Too many records ... although my "listen to one album at a time instead of endless songs at random" approach is paying dividends, there's still a lot in my iTunes that i need to familiarize myself with. I found myself checking out the Soft Set (who are fantastic) because of a reference to Josef K, a group i picked up a while back. However, i have no idea what Josef K sound like. I've got a lot of late 70's/early 80's post-punk that needs listening ... the Sounds, Magazine, Felt, etc etc. Also a bunch of indie pop/folk type outfits ... Smog, Silver Jews, Wilco, Sufjan Stevens, and on and on. Not to mention trying to keep up with the recent releases (in a vain attempt to convince Jenz that i'm not past it). The new self-titled Broken Social Scene record is not as accessible as You Forgot It In People, but is revealing itself more to me with each listen. And the errant bands i can't remember why i decided to check out ... i'm playing the Young Tradition at the moment, who fall squarely in that category (although this first song "Gone are the Days" has a wonderful Pale Fountains thing going on). Also lost in the mists of my mind are Settlefish and Pale Sundays. Do not go gentle into that good night, Ted.