Eurtrip: Berlin Day 1

The airplane ride was as boring and miserable as expected, and there was a wee delay on one of the flights that caused me to miss the next, which was crappiness and made me get here & meet Mika & Female a couple hours late, but all was well in the end. Berlin itself be alot grittier than I was expecting, in a good way... lots of old, dusty semi-bombed-out buildings, at least in the east side, which tis where we äre (silly germän keyböärdßs) staying. There's also lots, and I mean LOTS of grafitti, teehee, always a good thing. Now I must go, for me on a time limit, tootles. Will try to make mr. blogs longer in the future, gah must go buh bye!

Real Content

Well, it's just about zero hour now. I'd take a picture of my fully loaded super-hiking-backpack, but I lack a digital camera. How lacking of me. That said, a strange feeling is beginning to take hold... not excitement, more like that "your life's about to change!" schtick you're supposed to feel during HS graduation, but don't actually because ceremonies are sucky and boring, especially when wrapped in a stuffy, itchy faux-medieval silk gown thing. Turnips are purple and round and white, yum yum. Speaking of boring, I will be stuck in a cramped airplane seat all alone with no one to talk to for the next 17 hours (Mika & Female Mika are on a different flight.) Pray for the survival of my sanity, harumf. Mmm turnips.

ACK! I really gotta go now. First stop: Berlin, Germany... it's gonna be f%cking insane there with the World Cup! Excitement, excitement. See you on the other side! Char-Char out.

Charles's Star Trek Rankings

Two more days till the trip!!! (and till I'll have some real content to post here! hee) In the mean time, here's my Star Trek rankings:

TV:
Glorious:
1. Deep Space Nine (to quote mr. tv guide: "the best written, acted, and all together finest trek show")
2. The Original Series (simply classic, probably deserves to be #1, or at least tied there, I'm just more loyal to DS9 due to growing up w/it)
Nicely Nice:
3. The Next Generation (a tad bland, dated, and overrated, but well made all the same... and it has Picard)
Meh:
4. Enterprise (Voyager-style crap for its first two seasons, half blah/half lovely for its third, & the fourth was a triumphant return to TNG-caliber form, then it got cancelled, oh well)
Shit:
5. Voyager (pure, grade-A dork-poo across the board; everything bad about Trek dumped into one show)

Movies:
Glorious:
1. The Wrath of Khan (the movie that defined "glorious" for me, heehee, arguably one of the greatest scifi films of all time even)
Lovely:
None
Nicely Nice:
2. The Voyage Home (aka the funny one with the whales; very funny & clever, nothing more, nothing less, which is more than sufficient in this case; ingenius storyidea too)
3. The Search for Spock (again, nothing special, but gets the job done well; and the entire 40-or-so-minutes from Kirk hijacking the Enterprise to Mr. Evil Klingon's death is almost Khan quality. I think I'm the only one who likes it that much though.)
4. First Contact (thought it was one of the most kick-arse things I'd ever seen when it came out in '96; has lost its charm over the years, but is still one of the better Trek flicks)
5. The Undiscovered Country (it's *superb* for the first 20min and the last 10, but drags hard between the two; also everyone seems a bit too bitchy & out of character for me tastes)
Meh:
6. The Motion Picture (has my favorite musical score of all time, it's gorgeous to look at, and I appreciate the ridiculous effort that went in to its making, but when all is said and done tis really just less a Trek movie and more a boring, horribly acted knock-off of 2001: A Space Odyssey, sawwy. But as Num-Nums pointed out, it does have that lovely "out.. THATTAWAY!" line, heehee)
Bleh:
7. Generations (blah)
8. Insurrection (blah)
Shit, But I Love It Anyway:
9. The Final Frontier (Shatner's troubled directorial debut... has that amazing campfire scene ("row row row your boat!" bwahaha), and you get to see Kirk fight God... and win! What's not to love?)
ARG!
10. Nemesis (TNG deserved a better sendoff than whatever unpleasantness this was that I wiped from my memory. Just as moronic and bad as "Die Another Day" & for exactly the same reasons)

Charles's Favorite 007 Movies

I'm still in a Top 10ish mood, so here's my top 10's for everything Bond:

Best Bond:
1. Sean Connery (perfecto)
2. Pierce Brosnan (deserved better movies)
3. Timothy Dalton (points off for no-funniness,
otherwise glorious)
4. George Lazenby (best of them all at the physical
action stuff, kinda falls apart as soon as he opens his
mouth, but whatever)
5. Roger Moore (blah. nothing wrong w/him, just not
much gloriously right either)

Best Film:
Glorious:
1. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
2. From Russia w/Love
3. Goldfinger
Lovely:
5. You Only Live Twice
6. The Spy Who Loved Me
7. The Living Daylights
8. GoldenEye
Nicely Nice:
9. Thunderball
8. For Your Eyes Only
9. The Man w/the Golden Gun
Okeeday:
10. Dr No
11. License to Kill
Meh:
12. Live And Let Die
13. Octopussy
14. The World Is Not Enough
Bleh:
15. Tomorrow Never Dies
16. Diamonds Are Forever
Shit:
17. Moonraker
18. Die Another Day
19. A View To A Kill

Best Title Song:
Glorious:
1. Live And Let Die (Paul McCartney)
2. Nobody Does It Better (Carly Simon) (The Spy Who Loved Me)
3. Goldfingaaaaaah (Shirley Bassey)
4. We Have All Dah Time Een Dee Wuhld (Louis Armstrong) (OHMSS)
Lovely:
5. Diamonds Are Forever (Shirley Bassey)
6. The World Is Not Enough (Garbage)
7. The Living Daylights (a-Ha)
Nicely Nice:
8. A View To A Kill (Duran Duran)
9. You Only Live Twice (Nancy Sinatra)
10. Tomorrow Never Dies (Sheryl Crow)
Meh:
11. GoldenEye (Tina Turner)
12. Moonraker (Shirley Bassey)
13. Thunderball (Forgot Who)
14. The Man w/the Golden Gun (Forgot Who)
Bleh:
15. License to Kill (Forgot Who)
16. From Russia With Love (Random Frank Sinatra Sound-Alike)
17. All Time High (No One Important) (Octopussy)
ARG!
18. Die Another Day (F%$@ing MADONNA ARG)
Shit, But I Love It Anyway:
(Unrankable) For Your Eyes Only (Random 80's Pop Singer)

Top 5 Musical Scores:
1. OHMSS
2. Goldfinger
3. From Russia w/Love
4. The Living Daylights
5. You Only Live Twice
(all of them by John Barry)

Top 10 Villains:
0. Blofeld's White Cat
1. Donald Pleasance Blofeld (You Only Live Twice)
2. Goldfinger
3. Dr. No
4. Telly Savalas Blofeld (OHMSS)
5. Christopher Lee (The Man w/GoldGun)
6. Old Russian Bitch (From Russia w/Love)
7. Sean Bean (GoldenEye)
8. Christopher Walken (A View to a Kill)
9. Freaky Cuban Drug Dealer (License to Kill)
10. Funny French Guy (Octopussy)

Top 10 Henchman:
1. Jaws
2. Oddjob
3. Red Grant (blond guy from FRWL)
4. Freaky German Bitch (OHMSS)
5. Famke Janssen (GoldenEye)
6. Nick-Nack (funny French midget) (the man w/golden
gun)
7. Slick-haired guy with the cool song and killer milk
bottles (The Living Daylights)
8. Guy With Freaky Bwahahaha Laugh (Live And Let Die)
9. Creepy Guy With Big Glasses (For Your Eyes Only)
10. Benicio Del Toro (License to Kill)

Charles's Favorite Music

Me blurb down there about drinking songs gave me the urg to post my top 10 favorite music tuff, so here it is:

Favorite Singers/Bands/Whatever:
1. The Beatles (naturally)
2. Aretha Franklin
3. Creadance Clearwater Revival
4. Simon & Garfunkel
5. Otis Redding
6. The Guess Who
7. Ravi Shankar
8. Jefferson Airplane
9. Philip Glass
10. Earth Wind & Fire

Favorite Songs:
1. "The Sound of Silence" (Simon & Garfunkel)
2. "Sittin on the Dock of the Bay" (Otis Redding)
3. "Glass Onion" (The Beatles)
4. "Chain of Fools" (Aretha Franklin)
5. "Hard Day's Night" (The Beatles)
6. "Rainbow Connection" (Kermit the Frog)
7. "Whatever" (Oasis)
8. "Whiskey in the Jar" (lovely Irish peeps)
9. "Shining Star" (EW&F)
10. "Try a Little Tenderness" (Otis Redding) & "I'll Be There" (The Four Tops)

Nibble nibble.

The Coming Storm

Miss Megan asked what happens on the 20th. In answering of said query, here be me schedule for the rest of the summer from June 20th onward, mwuaha:

June 20: Depart San Diego for Berlin
June 21: Berlin, Germany
June 22: Berlin, Germany
June 23: Berlin, Germany
June 24: Berlin, Germany
June 25: Fussen, Germany (Neuschwanstein Castle)
June 26: The Austrian Alps
June 27: Salzburg, Austria
June 28: Salzburg, Austria
June 29: Hallstatt, Austria
June 30: Melk, Austria
July 01: Vienna, Austria
July 02: Vienna, Austria
July 03: Vienna, Austria
July 04: Vienna, Austria
July 05: Venice, Italy
July 06: Venice, Italy
July 07: Pisa & Rome, Italy
July 08: Rome, Italy
July 09: Rome, Italy
July 10: Rome, Italy
July 11: Rome, Italy
July 12: Pompeii & Amalfi, Italy
July 13: Portofino & Cinque Terre, Italy
July 14: Florence, Italy
July 15: Florence, Italy
July 16: Florence, Italy
July 17: Lucerne, Switzerland
July 18: Gimmelwald, Switzerland
July 19: Gimmelwald, Switzerland
July 20: Gimmelwald, Switzerland
July 21: Bern, Switzerland
July 22: Brugge, Belgium
July 23: Brugge & Brussels, Belgium
July 24: Brussels, Belgium
July 25: Brussels & Antwerp, Belgium
July 26: Versailles & Paris, France
July 27: Paris, France
July 28: Paris, France
July 29: The Luberon, France
July 30: Paris, France
July 31: Budapest, Hungary
Aug 01: Budapest, Hungary
Aug 02: Budapest, Hungary
Aug 03: Budapest, Hungary
Aug 04: Munich & Dachau (concentration camp), Germany
Aug 05: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Aug 06: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Aug 07: Dutch Countryside
Aug 08: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Aug 09: Return Flight to San Diego
Aug 10-15: Sleep
Aug 16: USC!

Yesh, backpacking through Europe I go, w/Mika & Female Mika. A huge hit my wallet will take, but it t'will be surely worth it. I shall use this bloggy as a travel-journal thingy, so keep checking back for Europeness news, whee!