This Month At Dontmindme.com — January 2003

Song of the Month: "Don't You Want Me" by the Human League. It's vintage 80s cheese, but it's good vintage 80s cheese, so that's what counts. This song is so catchy that when I hear it I can't help bobbing my head in time with the music.

Album of the Month: I don't buy as many albums as I used to. Part of this is undoubtedly due to the rise of online music sharing, but a big part of it is also due to the dearth of really good albums recently. I don't want to buy an album for one hit single. The big record companies are making lots of money but they are complaining that it isn't enough, so when I discovered that I could buy an indie album right from the artist's own web site for a mere $9.99, and autographed to boot, I jumped at the chance. The artist is Bif Naked and the album is Purge, and it came in the mail today, and it's a rather good album. The songs "Tango Shoes" and the anthem "I Love Myself Today" are the two strongest songs on the album, and those alone make it a worthwhile buy.

Urban Legend of the Month: A three year old on a cruise ship with parents jumps into the ocean because he wants to go visit SpongeBob SquarePants. This one has apparently been circulating in a few different forms for a little while now, the cruise ship variant being the latest. Is there any truth to this? Of course not. It belongs in the same category as the urban legend from some years about about kids who went into the sewers looking for the Ninja Turtles.

Lame Colour of the Month: Taupe. Apparently this is a brownish gray. So it's somewhat like gray and somewhat like brown but not exactly like either. I don't know exactly what it looks like. Why we have colours that aren't a bit more tightly defined is beyond me, but then, I'm a guy and I'm not into interior designing.

TV Show of the Month: In case the Urban Legend didn't give it away, the show this month is SpongeBob SquarePants. And that's not just because I got a SpongeBob poster for Christmas. It's because this show is really, really silly and funny. For the uninitiated, SpongeBob is a sponge who lives in a pineapple under the sea and it just gets more surreal from there. It's apparently the single most popular show with the under 12 crowd, and there is a large adult demographic watching the show as well, something in the vicinity of 20 percent of the show's total viewers. Not bad for a cartoon about a sponge.

Rerun of the Month: This one is from not even a year ago, but people don't seem to remember it very well, or even at all, so it makes sense to rerun Milk Expiry Dates at this time. Enjoy.

Bizarre News of the Month: English soccer fans have a reputation for being belligerent and problematic, but apparently they have nothing on the Romanians. Or at least not the fans of one fourth division team, who have apparently stormed the pitch so many times that the team is planning to build a moat. And what's a moat without crocodiles? That's right, crocodiles. You think I'm making this up? Well, I'm not, here's a link to the story. Beside, if anyone was going to make this up, you'd think they go with a locale somewhat a bit more croc-friendly than Romania.

Word of the Month: Bevy. This word can be used to mean any group of things, most commonly but not necessarily living things. It is used in particular with birds, especially quails or larks. Now, I don't know how often anyone is going to be dealing with a group of quails, and if so, why the word "flock" wouldn't suffice, but now you have another word choice.

Game of the Month: Mr. Green in the Billiard Room with the Candlestick? Yes, the game of the month is Clue. Okay, so that's a wild departure from the last game, which was Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, but if this site is anything it's diverse. Actually, come to think of it, the two games have more in common than you might think. One features a mishmash of colourful characters and unconventional weaponry and there's always at least one dead body, and in the other one you play a hired killer. And they're both fun.

DVD of the Month: This isn't a single DVD, and I didn't buy it, but I recently had the opportunity to watch the recently released Back to the Future trilogy on DVD for the first time, and I heartily recommend it. These movies have aged better than most comedies from the 1980s, although the third one does falter somewhat. Being available on DVD should introduce these movies to a whole new generation. For those who are quite familiar with the Back to the Future series, this is still a recommended buy, as there are deleted scenes for each movie, as well as outtakes, commentaries, and a bevy of other special features.