Christmas Grievance: "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth"

I thought that since I have this forum to discuss pop culture and the entertainment industry, I might use the opportunity to bring up something that always bothers me around the holidays: bad Christmas standard covers.  Oftentimes a pop version of a classic will at best be unsatisfying and will at worst be non-sensical.  The one that I'm thinking of specifically, as the title suggests, is "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth". The original recording of the song, by Spike Jonze is here.

Now, don't get me wrong: this is an obnoxious song, so matter how you slice it.  However, nothing gets my goat more during the holidays than hearing George Straight's version, or one of the other numerous covers of this song, where they just sing it straight (pardon the pun).  What I mean is the whole point of the song is the longing of a little boy who has lost his two front teeth and just wants them back so that he can speak properly.  The entire joke of the song is that his missing maxillary central incisors cause a speech impediment.  If you don't sing the song with that impediment, there is no joke.  The song does not make sense without it.  There's even a line in the song, "it seems so long since I could say, "sister suzie sittin' on a thistle"  that should sound like this "it theems tho long thince I could thay, "thithter thuzie thittin' on a thithle" (I think I just caused my spellchecker to catch fire).

Anyway, just a pet peeve of mine.  Have a merry Christmas and a happy new year!  

Target Audience - Episode 12: Not a Dry Eye in Sight

First episode to feature multiple guests!  I had a lot of fun with this one, where we talk about the Top 5 Tearjerkers.  You can listen to the episode here.  The lists were as follows:

Luke:
1. The Films of Pixar
2. Life is Beautiful
3. Big Fish
4. Dumbo
5. Forrest Gump

Liz:
1. My Girl
2. Never Let Me Go
3. Finding Neverland
4. 50/50
5. Atonement

Kelly:
1. UP
2. Savannah Smiles

Some Like it Hot (I Prefer Classical): a Retro-Spective

I was watching bit of the 1959 black and white movie "Some Like it Hot" last weekend.  The movie, for those unfamiliar, stars Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon as two musicians who witnessed a mob massacre and are on the run.  To conceal their identities, the take up with an all female band dressed as women themselves.  It's there that they meet Marilyn Monroe (her character's name is Sugar Kane Kowalczyk) who plays ukulele and sings for the band.

Now, I love watching old movies (when I'm in the right mood) for several reasons, but two main ones: firstly, it's interesting to see the history of cinema, what they were able to accomplish and the technological restraints they had to work around and secondly, I enjoy laughing at what people used to look like and how they used to act.  Let's face it: the past is hilarious if you're looking at it through the right lens.

This movie is no exception in that regard, but it also holds up as a comedy.  It was hilarious when it came out and it's hilarious now for most of the same reasons (not even in an ironic hipster way).  That's rare for an old movie to hold up that well.  However, as great as everything in this movie is, the main thing I wanted to talk about was Monroe.

Every time I watch this movie (or parts of it, as it shows up on TV not infrequently), I am struck by how big Marilyn Monroe looks compared to modern leading ladies.  We've become so conditioned to see waif model actresses as normal, when it comes to watching them on-screen to the point that they even play action heroes, punching people to death with arms that couldn't open a pickle jar.  Seeing Monroe in this movie is jarring for that reason, but also for another: her character is dumber than a box of hair.

Now, it isn't as though we don't have dumb characters today, but usually, the movie goes out of it's way to make sure we know that we are supposed to see them as dumb.  In the case of Sugar Kane, . . . I don't know.  I stared at this for a long time before I wrote anything else down.  I'm not sure how to word the impression of her that comes across.  I guess she's not dumb in a funny over the top way, but more dumb in a tragic way.  Now, it's not as though things don't work out for her in the end, but I just felt more sorry for her than I think I should have had to, and not because of bad things that happened to her in the movie, but more the was you feel bad when a pet or a baby is sick: they don't know what's going on and are innocent for the most part (though some babies, I'm not so sure).  That's what it feels like with Sugar.  She doesn't seem to have a grasp of what's happening, which allows the plot to happen of course, but also leaves you (or at least me) feeling pretty bad for her, no matter the outcome.

Anyway, this is a classic.  Check it out if you haven't already.  If you have, watch it again!

Pixar Episode Update

We will be recording the Pixar episode (which will be episode #16, I think) today.  Thanks to all of you who submitted you ranking.  You still have time, if you wanted to have your opinion heard!  The deadline is 11am PST.  Just email we your list at targetaudience@nfpodcasts.com  Should be a good one!

Not as Bad as I'd Heard They Would Be: Green Latern/Pirates of the Caribbean

So over the weekend, I finally decided to bite the bullet and watch a couple movies that I initially had high hopes for but that, upon theatrical release, received such poor reviews from critics and fans alike, that I signed off on them.  Even when they were released on DVD, I didn't bother picking them up right away.  Well, I finally did and honestly, they weren't that bad.  As the title suggests, the two movies are Ryan Reynolds as the Green Lantern and Johnny Depps 4th film of the franchise, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.  I'll address them separately and as always, minor spoiler warning is in effect:

Green Lantern:
Okay, so the movie is a little silly, I'll be honest.  The on screen manifestation of the lanterns' constructs can be a bit goofy, this being most evident to me the first time Hal Jordan reveals his powers in front of an audience to save a crashing helicopter by turning the chopper into a green hot rod and racing on a Hot Wheels track to (eventual) safety.  Ugh.  That was pretty lame.  Other complaints are the use of CGI to make his super suit when a real costume would have sufficed, the mask looking particularly awful.  Also, the movie spends to much time on earth, where things are boring.  Thor ran into this issue as well.  The juxtaposition of Oa and Asgard, respectively, to earth is jarring at best and makes you think you are watching two movies worst: one movie that is a top gun rip-off and a CGI alien movie.

All that being said, I didn't think Reynolds was as miscast as people said, there were some fun parts (like when his mask doesn't protect his identity "Did you think I wouldn't recognize you just because I couldn't see your cheekbones?!", and some of the action scenes were fun.  Also, Sinestro was a good character.  I dunno.  I guess I do hope they make a sequel and can iron out some of the more egregious problems.  There is potential.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides:
I went into this one with very mow expectations and ended up thinking it was pretty good.  I do like the returning characters, though critics are quite correct in saying that Barbosa was basically a different character.  The film was a bit disjointed and the pieces didn't fit together as well as they could have, but there was plenty of swashbuckling and treasure hunting to go around.  Some of the action scenes were a bit boring, but I had that problem with Pirates 2 & 3 as well, so that's not unique to #4.  All in all, I think it was successful.  I think Penelope Cruz was a good replacement for Kiera Knightley (who I do not like, as I have mentioned early and often) and it had a decent story, though the Spaniards were extremely under developed.  If they keep making the Pirates movies, I'll keep renting them when they come to DVD.


So there are my impressions of two movies who I think got more of a bum rap than they deserved.  They are not great movies, don't get me wrong, but they have enough good about them that they are still worth a rental.  I think the backlash against these was so severe because there was such high expectations.  People loved the Pirates movies and wanted the story to continue.  Green Lantern fans wanted the Green Lantern to get the Dark Knight treatment.  But really, if you go into these thinking they are going to suck and much as people have told you they do, you may be pleasantly surprised.

Target Audience - Episode 11: From Good to Bad in $12.50 Flat

In this episode, Brandon and I go through the opposite of our last list and give the top 5 movies that disappointed up.  You can listen to the episode here.  The lists are below:

Luke
1. March of the Penguins
2. Batman & Robin
3. TMNT 3
4. How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Jim Carrey version)
5. Virus

Brandon
1. Alexander
2. Steve Zissou and the Life Aquatic
3. Quantum of Solace
4. Crash
5. Eyes Wide Shut

Target Audience - Episode 10: Tune In

A summary of current shows that are worth your time, you can listen to the episode here.  The lists we came up with are as follows:

Luke
1. Wilfred
2. Modern Family
3. Top Shit
4. Terra Nova
5. American Pickers

Liz (in any order)
1. Archer
2. Game of Thrones
3. Cougar Town
4. Parks and Recreation
5. Community

Upcoming Pixar Episode

In an upcoming episode of Target Audience, we will be discussing all of the Pixar films and ranking them in order from worst to best.  If you would like to have your voice heard on this complex issue, just send me an email with the list of 12 Pixar films below (which are currently in chronological order) placed into the order you would rank them, #1 being your favorite, #12 your least favorite.  If there is one that you haven't seen, just leave it off the list and I will average your remaining points between the remaining films.  Also, if you have any other input about the movies (or anything else for that matter) feel free to email me.  The address is targetaudience@nfpodcasts.com   Most likely we will be recording this episode early in the week of Nov 21, so get your lists in!  Thanks!

1.       Toy Story  (1995)

2.       A Bug’s Life  (1998)

3.       Toy Story 2  (1999)

4.       Monster’s Inc.  (2001)

5.       Finding Nemo  (2003)

6.       The Incredibles  (2004)

7.       Cars   (2006)

8.       Ratatouille   (2007)

9.       Wall-E  (2008)

10.   Up   (2009)

11.   Toy Story 3  (2010)

12.   Cars 2  (2011)

Old Movies: Metropolis (1927)

I had never seen a silent movie.  Not a feature length one, anyway.  I don't know if it's actually possible to go through life watching TV and not even see one silent movie clip.  I must have seen a few dozen just from watching the Muppet Babies.  But, when it came to watching and entire feature length film with no talking whatsoever, I was concerned that it wouldn't be able to hold my interest.  A lot of my movie watching is done when I should be sleeping (but can't or won't for whatever reason), and therefore, it's usually dark and I'm usually tired anyway, so if I'm not watching something interesting, I start to doze off.  Walsh may not agree, but I had this problem during the pointless dream-within-a-dream sequences of the movie Sucker Punch.  Very difficult to stay awake when you don't care what happens.

All that being said, I decided to watch Metropolis for an upcoming episode of the show.  It always showed up on lists of great classic movies and I figured I should give it a shot.  The version I watched was the 2010 restoration.  The film had been cut significantly down after its initial release, but they found a copy in Argentina that had a great deal of the missing footage.  The movie clocks in at just over 2.5 hours, so I knew I was in for the long hall.  I watched it in two sittings, do to time restraints (I have to work sometime, right?) and I must say, I enjoyed the movie.

I liked the movie on two different levels:

1.  It's funny to laugh at weird stuff
One of the interesting things about watching old movies is that, even when they take place in the future (in this case, 2026.  We're almost there!), they give you an idea of what people were thinking about when the movie was made.  In this fashion, you can get a glimpse of a time that has disappeared forever . . . and laugh at it.  I don't mean that in a derisive way, necessarily, but it is funny to laugh at things that don't make sense any more.  Not to mention old-timey special effects (though, in this case, they managed some pretty impressive stuff, for the time) and what they though the future would be like (of course bi-planes will be flying around the mega buildings where we all live.  It's the future!).  Also, the acting is hilarious at times.  Super hammy, over the top, lots of chest clutching, wringing of hands and Home Alone-style hands on the face.

2. It's actually pretty good.
Sure the movie feels old.  It is old.  Almost 90 years old.  But that being the case, the story they tell is a universal one of love overcoming diversity.  Of greed, corruption, betrayal, outrage, redemption . . . this stuff can't get old, it's who we are.  In this sense, I enjoyed the story of the movie very much.  It did slow down in the middle a bit (when the two leads meet, I was a little bored) but for the most part, I was interested and, to be honest, I was expecting a bit of a darker ending, but was pleasantly surprised by what we got. 

So, all in all, I recommend watching Metropolis if you have any interest at all in movie history or unique experiences.  It's streaming on Netflix at time of writing, so very easy to come by if you subscribe to that service.  Watch it and enjoy because it's not like they're making any new silent movies, right?

Thoughts on Battle: Los Angeles, Skyline, Attack the Block

Since all of these movies have a similar plot (alien invasion) and I saw them within a week of each other, I would discuss them in the same post . . .and rank them against each other because, why not?  That's what I do!

1.  Attack the Block
An original take on a popular alien invasion formula where the aliens invade a UK ghetto and a gang of thugs have to fight them off.  I would call this a suspense-action-comedy, if pressed, as it seems to have all of these elements in equal parts.  It was fun listening to unfamiliar slang (I'm in the US) and the aliens, while not menacing at first, became more and more compelling as the movie went along.  I recommend this one.

2. Battle: Los Angeles
Maybe it was the fact that I just came off of watching the far inferior Skyline (more on that in a second), but I very much enjoyed this movie.  The aliens in this one didn't really have much to them, they were just kind of there as a vague threat, but I liked the characters, the plot was serviceable and I just overall enjoyed the movie.  It's not one that you'll remember well a few years from now, but it's not a waste of time either, unlike . . .

3. Skyline
Did not like it.  It's always a weird feeling when there is a bunch of action on screen and you just don't care (and feel kind of sleepy).  This movie feels like Cloverfield if Cloverfield sucked (I liked Cloverfield, by the way) in the way where you don't really get much of an explanation of what's going on outside what the core characters can see.  This worked for me in Cloverfield, but here, it's just annoying.  Skip this one.

TV Shows to Watch Update!

So, as the most recently posted episode mentions, I recommend watching Modern Family.  I also mentioned on the show that I had not caught up with all three existing seasons.  I figured that as I worked my way through it, which may take a while, I would occasionally give updates on that show and the others that I mentioned in the episode, as there have been a few more episodes of most since we recorded the podcast about them.

I have now finished season 1 of Modern Family and can say that I thoroughly enjoyed it, start to finish.  I look forward to watching the 2nd and 3rd seasons and will post here with my reactions to those.

Terra Nova has had a few more episodes since I recommended it.  This show is getting a lot of bad press and terrible reviews and, honestly, I don't know why.  The wife and I are still enjoying it.  If that changes, I'll be sure to let you know.

Lastly, Top Shot's current season is over and concluded in a satisfactory manor.  I was routing for the contestant who won (and won handily, I might add) and that always makes the experience that much sweeter.

Also, another show that is getting bad reviews that I have been watching and enjoying (so far) is Once Upon a Time.  Sure it's a little cheesy, but I guess it's my kind of cheese.  I'd recommend at least checking it out to see what you think.

That's all for now.  More updates as Terra Nova progresses and as I watch the remaining seasons of Modern Family.

Target Audience - Episode 9: A Force of Will

Here is the first episode we'd ever done that focused exclusively on one actor: Will Ferrell.  To be honest, this was Dave's idea, as he is passionate about these movies, and I think the episode turned out pretty well.  You can listen to it here and our lists were as follows:

Luke:
1. Stranger Than Fiction
2. Elf
3. Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back
4. The Producers
5. Old School

Dave:
1. Anchorman
2. Elf
3. Old School
4. Night at the Roxbury
5. Austin Powers Series

Sorry For the Delay

So there ended up being a bit of a gap between episodes 8 and 9, much longer than I'd intended.  Unfortunately, real life reared it's ugly head and our tech guy, Walshie, was super busy the last few weeks.  However, we're now back on track and should have another new episode up this Sunday, ready to ease your commute to the office, with a brand new guest.  Thanks for listening! 

Target Audience - Episode 8: Cinematic Surprises

In this episode we explore movies that exceeded our expectations.  You can listen to the episode here.  The list we came up with is below:

Luke:
1. Rob Roy
2. Enchanted
3. Percy Jackson and the Olympians: the Lightning Thief
4. Zoolander
5. The Proposal

Brandon:
1. Moulin Rouge
2. Dr. Strange Love or How I Leaned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
3. Atonement
4. Royal Tenenbaums
5. I Love You Man/Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Check back for episode 11 where we'll do the flip side: Top 5 Movies That Disappointed.

Thoughts on Captain America: the First Avenger

As I have mentioned on the show, I am quite cheap/poor, so I don't get to go to the theater very often.  However, I try and catch movies that look interesting when they come out on DVD.  Captain America just came out on the 25th and I was able to score a copy and watch it and I have to say that I was very impressed.  The following review will contain plot spoilers, much as my show does.  If you haven't seen the movie and care about it being spoiled, move on to the next post!

(SPOILER ALERT!!)

I am not a big comic book fan, but I do love comic book/super hero movies.  Sure, they can be silly and sometimes they are awful, but I'll usually go to see them.  This movie was neither silly nor awful.  I didn't know a lot about the Cap going into this movie, but I feel as though I should have been paying more attention and clamoring for this movie adaptation.  A few things I liked:

1. They payed homage to the costume from the comic and iconic comic imagery in a clever, but not derivative way.  Having the newly bulked up Steve Rogers going to USO shows and becoming a figurehead of the war effort before he had done all that many heroic things was a stroke of genius.  It showed where the (later toned down) version of the uniform came from, why he carried a shield in the first place (so he could read his lines from it) and, of course, him punching out Hitler.  Classic.  Also, the song was pretty funny.

2. Steve Rogers is a very likable character.  It's not often that you can root for the little guy and the hero and have them be the same person.  While he doesn't have much of a character arc, he doesn't really need one.  He represents, not just the best of America, but the best of humanity: a humble, self-sacrificing person who puts the greater good above all else and refuses to back down no matter what.  He was a hero before he had super powers, not because of them.  That's rare in modern emo-heroes.

3. Least obnoxious gear-up scene I can recall.  In a lot of comic/sci-fi/fantasy movies, there will inevitably be a bond-esque gearing up scene where the hero (and audience) are introduced to the hi-tech gadgets they will use to defeat the enemy.  I usually dread these scenes because, for me, they tend to highlight the most ridiculous aspects of the source material and bring them front and center.  Examples of bad ones can be found in the Blade movies, Van Helsing, XXX and the Hellboy films.  Decent examples would be Batman Begins/Dark Knight where everything is a little bit more realistic and the first Matrix movie where they downloaded all the weapons they were going to use.  In Captain America, the scene was short, featured an interesting tech guy in the elder Stark (Iron man's dad, for anyone who doesn't know) and seemed realistic.  I helped that Cap basically just uses shield and not many other gadgets.

4. He was more of a good leader than a lone wolf, like many super heroes.  His physical abilities, while impressive, serve as only tools to inspire those that follow him.  The movie shows an awesome montage of the Captain working closely with the men in his unit to bring down the bad guys.  After seeing so many solo heroes, this was a nice change of pace.

And here are a few things I didn't like:

1. Vibranium.  The substance that his shield is made of.  This may be from the comic, but is a super lame name almost up there with Avatar's unobtainium, and it bumped me out of the movie for a few minutes while I though of how dumb that was.  If it is from the comics, they almost have to include it, but some things "sound" better on paper than they do when spoken aloud.

2. The death of Bucky seemed sudden and didn't carry as much weight as I felt it should.  Not much more to say about it.  I can't really explain why I felt this way and I can't think of any way they should have done it differently, but there it is.

So that's my opinion of the new Captain America movie.  In short, I am looking forward to the Avengers movie.  They seem to be giving these characters (Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and, to a lesser extent the Hulk) just the right amount of reality and fantasy.  Also, I would like this experiment that Marvel is conducting (inter-movie continuity) to work so that other studios will be able to go the same way.  Consider me tentatively sold!

No Love for the Silver Chair?

I was looking up the Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader on wikipedia this morning because I was curious if it had done well at the box office (I haven't seen it yet, though I saw the other two and will be seeing VotDT soon) and to find out if they planned on finishing out the 7 book movie conversion they had originally planned.  I enjoyed the first film, was a little underwhelmed by the second (though, that is my least favorite of the books as well) and am obviously withholding judgement on the third film until I actually see it, so I wanted to know what was going to happen next.  As it turns out, the next movie to be made with be the Magician's Nephew, the sixth book and a prequel to the events of the rest of the series.

When they first announced they were going to do all seven books as films, I wondered how they would handle the two chronologically out-of-order books in the series (book 5 takes place during the final chapters of book 1, book 6 takes place 40ish years before book 1).  I thought they might start jumping around after the VotDT but I have to say that I'm a little disappointed they are skipping over book 4, The Silver Chair.  It's a good book in it's own right, the actors will be the correct age for it . . . it just doesn't make sense to skip it now.  Oh well.  I look forward to catching up in the series, which, at the very least, has done a good job transferring the images from the books onto the big screen and I am interested to see how they approach the Magicians Nephew.  The book features the mother of the Ice Queen and the owner of the Wardrobe from the first movie as a young boy as well as the creation of Narnia, so there will be plenty to see.  Here's hoping it's good!

Up to date!

So, I have finally gotten up to date with the already released episodes as far as posting the top 5's.  There is one more episode on iTunes and the website, but I think I'll do this where I wait on the blog post until the episode is not new.  The show is heavy on spoilers, but I don't want to spoil the show itself by giving away the rankings before anyone has a chance to listen!

Stay tuned, I should be putting up some other posts on pop culture as I see fit now that I have the episode archives caught up.  Thanks for reading and listening respectively!

If all goes according to plan (which it rarely does) I should have three brand new episodes recorded by the end of the weekend that will get posted whenever Walsh gets a chance.  I'm trying to get 2 out a week, but everyone's busy, so we'll see how it goes.

Episode 7: Be Our Guest

This week, we had both a brand new guest, Kelly, as well as a new method of recording and a slightly different format.  We ranked the films of Christopher Guest and came up with the list below.  You can listen to the episode here.

Christopher Guest Movies, Best to Not as Good as the Best
1. A Mighty Wind (2003)
2. Waiting for Guffman (1996)
3. Best in Show (2000)
4. For Your Consideration (2006)
5. This is Spinal Tap (1984)

Episode 6: You Found Me Beautiful Once

In this episode, Shaun returns once again to show the other end of the spectrum with Top 5 Shows That Should Have Been Cancelled (Sooner).  You can listen to the episode here.  Our lists are as follows:

Luke
1. The Simpsons
2. Heroes
3. Roseanne
4. That 70's Show
5. House

Shaun
1. Happy Days
2. LOST
3. MASH
4. Scrubs
5. ER

This was also the episode that contains my much maligned comments on California's Gold.  Here is a link to what I was talking about:  Huell Howser visits the Baghdad Cafe

Episode 5: Gone Too Soon

Shaun returns in this episode to discuss the Top 5 Television Shows that should not have been cancelled.  You can listen to the episode here.  Our lists were as follows:

Luke
1. Flight of the Conchords
2. Better Off Ted
3. Andy Richter Controls the Universe
4. Firefly
5. Moonlight

Shaun
1. Arrested Development
2. Southland
3. Dollhouse
4. Jerico
5. Northern Exposure

Episode 4: You're Out

In this episode, Shaun's first as a recurring guest (which can be found here), we talk about the Worst 5 Sports Movies.  Watch these at your own risk!  Also, we dare you to disagree.  Here they are:

Luke:
1. Angels in the Outfield
2. Vision Quest
3. Ladybugs
4. Rookie of the Year
5. Blue Crush

Shaun
1. Rudy
2. Fever Pitch
3. The Replacements
4. The Fan
5. Over the Top

Don't think we nailed it?  Too bad there's a comment section where you can let us know . . . too bad for us, I mean.

Episode 3: Play Ball!

In this, Shaun's first episode as a guest (which you can watch here), we discuss the Top 5 Sports Movies which were as follows:


Luke:
1. The Hammer
2. Field of Dreams
3. The Waterboy
4. Remember the Titans
5. Cool Runnings

Shaun:
1. Space Jam ( ! )
2. Rocky
3. Field of Dreams
4. King Pin
5. Endless Summer

Episode 2: Bats on the Brain

For Episode 2, which can be found here, Kevin and I are back.  This time we discuss Batman Forever.  No top 5 list for this week.

While I had fun recording this episode, the list format seems to work a little better.  Still, I think this turned out alright.

Episode 1: Upping the Ante

You can listen to Episode 1 here.  In this episode, Kevin (of POW WoW and Nerdfire Podcast) and I discuss the Top 5 Movie Sequels That Were Better Than the Original.  Our lists were as follows:

Luke:
1. Rescuers Down Under
2. Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan
3. Toy Story 2
4. Aliens
5. Spider-Man 2

Kevin:
1. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
2. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Secret of the Ooze
3. Addams Family Values
4. Gremlins 2: the New Batch
5. Star Trek: First Contact

Left out for being parts of trilogies: Terminator 2, Star Wars V: the Empire Strikes Back, Dark Knight

Welcome to the Target Audience Pod Blog!

Hello there!  Thanks for visiting the Target Audience's blog.  I thought this would be a good spot to put all the top five lists for reference if anyone wanted to come back and look through the archives and find out where we ranked whatever without having to search through the entire episode.  If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them here.  Anything that isn't too naughty or spammy is welcome.

See you around!