This Month At Dontmindme.com — February 2003

Song of the Month: Sometimes a song perfectly expresses exactly what you're feeling. Right now that song is "Overboard" by the Rosenbergs. I heard the song when it was played at the close of the final episode of the first season of Undergrads, and it fit the episode perfectly. So what it "Overboard" you ask? It's a seven minute long atmospheric and definitely post-Pink Floyd melancholic tune that caught my ear when I heard it on Undergrads, and every time I hear it it now I become more firmly convinced that it was written specifically for me.

Album of the Month: A lot of music is designed to work with certain emotions. That doesn't mean you shouldn't listen to certain music if you aren't experiencing the correct emotion, but it does mean that if you are in the right emotional place it will probably have a much greater impact. Such I found yesterday with Phil Collins Hits. I wouldn't normally feature a greatest hits collection as album of the month, but it seems somehow very suitable right now, and if you like Phil Collins at all, but don't own any of his albums, this is a must have disc.

Urban Legend of the Month: Never call a number in the 809 area code, it could cost you thousands of dollars. Guess what, this one is actually somewhat true. The 809 area code is the Dominican Republic, which does not have strict regulations about toll billing, and apparently con artists have tricked people into calling 809 numbers and kept them on the line while the charges piled up. But it's not just the 809 area code that this is possible for this to happen, it could be a number of different area codes outside the US and Canada, and it's not likely to be more than 50 dollars, and certainly not thousands. So be careful calling numbers when you don't know where you're calling, which is good advice anyway.

Web Comic of the Month: I read a variety of webcomics, and I have featured several here in the past, enough to just go ahead and have a Web Comic of the Month. This month it's Wigu. What on earth is Wigu, you ask? Wigu is a comic about a boy named Wigu Tinkle. He's highly imaginative and into cartoons and video games, primarily the Pokemonesque Magical Adventures in Space. Topato Potato is the main character of Magical Adventures in Space. He may or may not really exist. Oh, and he's made of poison. I suspect he does exist, as he once beat up Quincy Tinkle, Wigu's dad, who is perpetually shirtless and composes music for soundtracks in his basement, somewhat to the chagrin of Romy Tinkle, Wigu's mom, who is a shallow and materialistic stock broker (as opposed to all those idealistic people on wall street, I suppose) who is afraid she is a terrible mother. Much of this fear is due to Paisely, Wigu's goth older sister, who has written a play about cockfighting. All that said, the comic is much easier to get into than my description would have you believe. It's also frequently hilarious. One joke in particular from last March had me laughing for days.

TV Show of the Month: Remember back in 2001 when I did my first rating of new Fall TV shows? The last show of that first bunch that I rated was Alias, and I gave it a bad rating. I should point out that the other two shows of that bunch that to which I gave unfavourable ratings (Bob Patterson and Thieves) quickly tanked, but the two I rated Good (Scrubs and Enterprise) are doing well. Well, apparently I should have given Alias a good rating, because I kept watching it, and it's getting better all the time. If you like over the topic action drama you'll probably love Alias.

Rerun of the Month: I still get a kick out of this one, but I do have a little disappointment with it. Not with the article itself, but with the fact that I use the term "terminatoresque" in it, and that word comes up 42 times on Google, and I'm all the way down at result 14. That's on the second page! I'm insulted. I'm also a bit surprised that there were 41 other results for terminatoresque. Oh, if you want to know what was so terminatoresque, check out An Early Gift Idea.

Bizarre Website of the Month: Are you into Bonsai trees? How about car crashes? No? Well, on the off chance you are into both, check out CrashBonsai. I really can't explain it all that much without giving it all away, but a visit to the site is worthwhile if only to check out the graphic on the index page.

Word of the Month: While I'm tempted to go with terminatoresque, that's not a real word, at least not yet. You know what? I'm going to go with it anyway. Deal with it. I guess I have to define it now. It means similar to a killer robot from the future, preferable a badly mangled one and/or reminiscent of the Terminator movies. For a good example of something terminatoresque, check out the Rerun of the Month.

Game of the Month: I just got a Playstation 2. While I am tempted to run an item called Game Console of the Month, let's face it, there are only so many currently on the market, and I don't see the point in rating old consoles. Who really cares about Colecovision or the Neo-Geo any more? But back to my PS2. It came with ATV Offroad Fury, a game I wasn't terribly excited about, but hey, it came with the console. So I popped it in, and it is a blast. For a game that I had no expectations for it's a lot of fun. Highly recommended.

DVD of the Month: Wes Anderson is not a typical director. Most successful directors do an indie movie or two and parlay that into a more mainstream commercial filmmaking career. When they do this, their movies inevitably become more, well, mainstream. Not Wes Anderson. Granted, his movies have not been blockbusters, but he does have a definite following. This brings us to Rushmore, the movie that put Anderson on the map. It's an odd little movie that you will either really enjoy or thoroughly dislike. I found it very funny without being entirely sure why I was finding it funny. Describing it will give too much away, but if you don't mind being uncomfortably amused, check it out.