Let's get this straight: I'm predicting the 4-day, not the 6-day. Over T-Giving, I attempted the 5-day and it got all complicated because my pool of sources were all 3-day-oriented and shit got whack. So here I am being clear: these predix are for Friday-Saturday-Sunday-Monday (X-Mas).

In the stead of a Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter sequel, prequel or, as named after the effect they induce in me, NyQuil... this year, we have a Ben Stiller "action/adventure/comedy" that would undoubtedly have the same effect, if I were to see it. It should have no trouble snatching the #1 slot, but will score way underneath the mammoth December franchise pictures we've become accustomed to.

In other news, Stallone is back. And unfortunately for all parties, he didn't subject his own body to the cryogenic freezing process featured in Demolition Man.

Predix:

1. Night at the Museum - $30M
2. Rocky Balboa - $20M
3. Pursuit of Happyness - $18M
4. Eragon - $11M
5. We Are Marshall - $9.4M
6. Charlotte's Web - $8.9M
7. Happy Feet - $8M
8. The Good Shepherd - $7.2.M
9. The Holiday - $6.5M

HAPPY NEW YEAR AND A MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Pretty tired right now and i'm done with all this work so i'm going to get right into it. Can't seem to figure out how to attach pictures to these things. But it looks fun. I had this picture of santa drunk and apparently about to do something terrible. It was fitting. Right...so i put to the table this list of songs plus last weeks selection up for consideration by us all for New Years. Some are jokes, some are good, some are you know neither of those. You decide...

Ballin' On X-Mas (Clean) - Jim Jones
Christmas Cheers! Dipsets here!

Wamp Wamp (Pistol Pete Remix) - Clipse
Listen i don't really rate Clipse but everyone keeps telling me that their new album is a classic. I just don't hear it. But i like this remix.

SexyBack (Clipse Remix) - Justin Timberlake
Yeah! Ok so i just said i don't like them. And yet here they are again. This was a last minute thing. I had a HotChip remix of Amy Winehouse (she was featured on the Ghostface album) it was an ok song. But this is probably better.

I Wear My Stunna Glasses At Nite (Dirty) - Federation
I think in someway i was always waiting for a song like this.

This weekend, it's the boys vs. the girls again. And again, my temptation is to align myself with the ladies because there simply haven't been that many movies for them. But the ladies keep failing me. They wanted to see a Mayan person's face ripped off by a Jaguar instead of Kate Winslet's face sucked off by a fat man! This weekend, I'm hedging my bets that Charlotte's Web, with its all-star cast, recognizable source material, and family-accessible genre, will be able to trump the nerdfest that must be Eragon.

Predix:

1. Charlotte's Web - $25M
2. Eragon - $19M
3. Pursuit of Happy - $16M
4. Apocalypto - $9M
5. Holiday - $8.5M
6. Happy Feet - $7.7M
7. Blood Diamond - $5.7M
8. Casino Royale - $5M
9. Nativity Story - $4M
10. Deja Vu - $3.5M

MOVIES TO MAYBE SEE THIS WEEKEND:
I dunno, the Soderbergh movie looks a bit like what I asked Hollywood for in my undergrad thesis, but somehow gone horribly wrong.

Actual Results:

1. Pursuit of Happyness - $27M
2. Eragon - $23.5M
3. Charlotte's Web - $12M
4. Happy Feet - $8.5M
5. The Holiday - $8.2M

For the past month or so, the marketplace has been dominated by shoot 'em ups and poop 'em ups - movies for men and movies for children, who, let's face it, are essentially the same demographic. This weekend, two movies will add to that list - The Antisemite's Apocalypto and the hack who made Glory's Blood Diamond.

One movie should rise above this orgy of violence and excrement. The Holiday, being the first movie for women over the age of 9 to come out in theaters since... since... The Break Up?, with four major movie stars who cator to various demos, should come out on top.

I personally will be seeing The Antisemite's film, though I won't be paying for it. (Take that, richie!)

Predix:

1. The Holiday - $18M
2. Apocalypto - $13M
3. Happy Feet - $11.5M
4. Blood Diamond - $11M
5. Casino Royale - $9M
6. Deja Vu - $6.5M
7. Unaccompanied Minors - $6.2M
8. Nativity Story - $4.5M
9. Deck the Halls - $3.7M
10. Santa Clause 3 - $3.3M

Movie to See Instead of All the Above:

INLAND EMPIRE

I have no idea if i am formatting this right. Or even if i have to format this...Jeff asked me if i knew HTML and due to my uncontrollable eagerness to please Jeff with positive answers, i replied in the affirmative. It was a lie.

We are about to open the new sandwich shop. The earl of sandwich and we will hurt you with how good we are. This is the music we are playing at the moment...it has no direction or motivation beyond a bizarre ability to sell food and make girls wiggle...sometimes. Othertimes it does neither of these things but instead gets us dirty looks from the fathers, mothers, and grandparents of the young. Sometimes it is hard to defend.

1. Chain Hang Low(Remix ft. Yung Joc, Lil'Wayne & Lil'Mont) - Jibbs
2. Got It - Leonard De Leonard (there should be little accent marks over those e's right)
3. Shoulder Lean (Curtis Vodka Remix) - Young Dro
4. Mature Macho Machine Feat. Ears, Skepta, Tinchy Strider, TTC, Produced by Radioclit - Cuizinier
5. LDN (South Rakkas Crack Whore Riddim) - Lily Allen
6. Unemployed Black Astronaut - Busdriver
7. Tell Me Why Has Our Love Turned Cold - Willie Hutch
8. Mullokian - Found
9. Right Place Wrong Time - Dr. John

As we did last year, and in a celebration of Cosmodrome's second year of operation*, we bring you the Second Annual Cosmodrome Mixtape Parade. (*Cosmodrome is citing the United States' best (only?) non-religious, non-nationalistic, days-off-work-for-all holiday as its New Year.)

On Thanksgiving at the Cosmodrome, people of all kinds come together. Dead or alive, genius or stupid, everyone's involved. Be they Soviet mass murderers/premiers, proclaimed Jesuses of American politics, beautiful Ukranian revolutionaries, Ohioan US Congressman, or kissing rappers, they're all invited.

Really though, what else are you going to do this weekend? Some of you may venture to faraway places, others may do nothing, still others may travel and do nothing - but all of us will need some tunes to help pass the time between Wednesday and Monday. Don't deny it. Even if you plan to spend the whole weekend watching television, saving up fat for winter, fucking, finding an acceptable drunken/drugged stupor, or celebrating the Cosmodrome year passed, these electronic music files will enhance your weekend. Thank us.

Without further ado, the staff of Cosmodrome present you the 2006 Cosmodrome Mixtape Parade.

Dan: Gorgeous Gorging Vol. 2: Soul Food Edition

Jeff: Janet Jackson & Friends

Mwang: Thanksgiving Mixtapes, Year II: gnawed commodities (turkey?)

Booyahbaisse: Reggaetronics, or Sometimes it's Necessary to Listen to the Great Black Men

Mahoney: Takeover: Q4 '06

Trina: Tsarina Hustlina: Queen uh duh Hustlaz

Up until yesterday, I'm pretty sure that Robert Altman was the most important living American film director.

If you go over to Europe, it gets cloudy, what with all of those obscenely old, partially to wholly blind auteurs who are somehow still making movies (Antonioni, Godard, Bergman, Resnais).

But here in the States, we breed our own form of filmmaker with his/her own form of contributions. Altman was that rare distinctly American filmmaker who introduced a style. Sure, he learned the rules of the game from The Rules of the Game, but there were very few other films (from Renoir or otherwise) that preceded Altman's virtuosic use of ensemble. And though it can be said that His Girl Friday or this or that Welles film feature actors talking over one another, it was not until Altman that sound was so meaningfully manipulated. Now, not only did actors talk over one another, but conversations would flow into and out of each other on the soundtrack, usually very slowly and subtly, from the foreground and background of the image, creating the aural equivalent of what Bazin had discussed with relation to deep focus photography. Altman became the preeminent Aural Bazinian Realist.

I just got finished watching the spectacularly less-than-awesome Iron Chef battle between Rachel Ray and Giada de Laurentiis.

It's been fairly dormant around here. I'm going to blame it on us being on "patrol".
But here's a mix to get you through.
(I've also re-upped my last mix for those that missed on last go-'round)

Let's get this done:
Download

1. Amerie - "Take Control"
This makes me all woozy.

2. Cosmodrome -"Music Smells Butter With You"-(Gooom Tracks Vol. 1)
They deserve a slot on here with a name like that

3. The Replacements - "Bastards of Young" - (Tim)

4. Asie Payton - "Asie's Story" - (Just Do Me Right)

5. Raekwon - "Legal Coke"

6. MIA - "XR 2 Turbo"

7. Johnny Davis and the Arrows - "Boogedy Boogedy" - (Eccentric Soul: The Bandit Label)

8. Teddybears Sthlm - "Cobrastyle" - (Fresh!)
Lit the dance floor with blue fire during our last party.

Full Tracklist

About six years ago I started the Indie Rock Suckfest, a small and scrappy but apocalyptically powerful radio show, that was originally sandwiched between the Classic Country and Gospel shows on Sunday mornings from 6-8 am. Needless to say, no one listened when it began. Over the years the line-up swelled (including several on the Cosmodrome staff), the hours got better, listenership increased, and its place in history was cemented. After stepping down the reigns were left in the rockingly capable and never culpable hands of several, including Zeke Sulkes and Josherman. Finally, the Suckfest has proven itself well worthy of a documentary. And I have to say: it's about damn time.
Suckfest 4 Lyfe !!!!:

The Indie Rock Suckfest incinerates your eardrums Monday night/Tuesday mornings 2:00-3:30 AM central.
89.3 FM Evanston - Chicago
www.wnur.org