What's cool? - Page 2

Is that the guy fron 'Short Bus'?
Commie...

Kris Kristofferson. If you know why I don't need to explain it to you. If you don't know why there's no way I can.

And you're turning down Linda Blair?

However they looked, I put it down to the directors/DoPs on the movies. I still haven't seen 300, but Sin City was hurt by excessive devotion to the source material, imo.

Anyway, I submit the David Carradine. Between Kung Fu, Death Race 2000, and Kill Bill, he's portrayed some of the baddest, coolest motherfuckers you and I have ever seen. But the man can speak for himself.

"I'm the Man."

Michael Madsen. He's like John Wayne in the sense that he plays the exact same role in everyone film he's in and yet, since he's such a bad ass, you don't seem to mind.

If you despise us sinners so much , why the fuck are you still here?

I've spent 5 minutes staring at the screen trying to write a paragraph about Samuel L Jackson but words cant do the man justice.

Are you sure that's not Aretha Franklin?

Allow me to add John Frusciante to the list. The man, while still a teenager, finds himself in his favorite band, wigs out, quits, spends more than half a decade practically waiting to die, doesn't, figures "fuck it", cleans up, rejoins said band, and then precedes to carry the band (who, by all accounts, would have been a memory long ago if not for his reemergence) to places that ,musically, they have no right being in 20+ years into their existence.

Not to mention his solo output.

Last one I'll submit for the day; Takashi Kitano/Beat Takashi.





The man started out as one of Japan's favorite funnyman and ended up as one the baddest motherfuckers to hit the silver screen. Oh, and he's a brillant director to boot.

I'd like to submit Kraftwerk to this list - they were one of the earliest groups of musicians to lend credence to electronic music and move it out of pure experimentalism, creating what is not only the gold standard by which other electronic musicians have followed ever since but also heavily influencing modern hip-hop (Afrika Bambaata and his ground-breaking work would be nothing without them). And they're still touring and going strong. God bless those krauts.

The Bodum French Press:



The secret to a perfect cup of coffee.

they're cool...

Since Quarant and nobody else is going to nominate this guy, Stephen Colbert. How can you not like a guy who in two short years; dueled with the Decemberist guitarist, goaded a congressman to say he enjoys doing cocaine, has an ice cream named after him, got a town to name a holiday after him,and has made Bill O' Reilley his bitch? . Seriously he's the stuff of folk legend, right up there with the likes of Pecos Bill and Paul Bunyon(sic).

I don't see the controversy over Joel Schumacher's inclusion. Sure, he royally screwed up Batman and made Bad Company, but I think Phone Booth, The Client, The Lost Boys and above all Falling Down balance it out.

I'd like to nominate Doctor Who for this list. Still going strong after 43 years, despite so many obstacles and so many years off TV screens.

Phone Booth? Really?

I nominate Tadanobu Asano. Sort of a Japanese Johnny Depp, he effortlessly makes you believe whatever character he's playing, whether it's the masochistic Kakihara in Ichi The Killer, the guy who just can't get his wife to stay dead in Survive Style 5+, or the weird peeping tom who gets a lesson in peeping from a man in a superhero costume in Party 7. He is easily my favorite actor, and he has a kid named Smile.

I nominate William Shatner. After all these years he still demands people like him because he was Captain James T. Kirk.

If only Mark Hamill was so bold as to ride the Luke Skywalker wave.

Lawrence Block

For showing us how its done. For being a completely mesmerizing writer when just writing a conversation, sometimes daring to make one several chapters long. He's written several classics, but he's a GOD for 8 Million Ways to Die.

Lawrence Block, motherfuckers. He needs to be read.

If Colbert is on the list, so should Jon Stewart. For being the smartest man on television, for voicing his anger and disgust in a funny way. For showing what regular news does not.

And for THIS:

Iggy Pop. One of the greatest front men in rock and roll history, and Nona's dad on Pete & Pete.

...in ascending order of importance.

I'll add Nellie McKay. I had heard of the name, and its critical darling status, for a while before actually listening to her music. When I did, I learned the truth: that she really is that good, but in a completely different way than you'd expect, and she exudes an attitude and quirk that can't be described fully with any other word than 'cool.'

The Venture Brothers. No elaboration needed.

Al Swearington (Ian McShane) in Deadwood, no explanation needed.

I second the motion simply for his starring role in Electric Dragon 80000v.

I nominate musashi miyamoto, the greatest samurai who ever lived. He was undefeated in his day, using only swords he himself fashioned out of wood. His writings, now known as the "book of five rings" offer some of the greatest insight into the warriors mind.

The Electric Guitar




Other than beer, nothing else in history has made it possible for skinny white guys with marginal talent to get their hands on major babes the way the electric guitar has. It's jumpstarted our sense of rebellion, political activism, and our ass on the dance floor.




Doesn't matter who's wearing it. The guitar is so cool it just doesn't give a damn. Stick a cigarette in the headstock, crank the amp up and hit an open "E" power chord and you're cooler than any other asshole in the room.



Keyboards are fancier. Basses are ballsier. Drums are thumpier. But the guitar is like a cat: IT owns YOU.

Cooler than the other side of the pillow, I say.

Divine ; force of nature, John Water's muse , and the coolest transvestite outside Eddie Izzard.

Might as well add John Waters himself to the list, if for no other reason than his brilliant autobiography "Bad Taste". Love or hate his films, you just can't find fault with a guy who genuinely sees pure ugliness as pure beauty. And loves violence. And is pen pals with Charles "Tex" Watson. And has nothing but love for Baltimore, a city I've heard nothing but bad things about (my wife lived there for a time, and said it was pretty awful). What a guy.

81 posts in, and no James Ellroy? That must be remedied.

James Ellroy.

Also, since Bill Hicks was allowed I'll make a few posthumous additions:

Sam Peckinpah - So cool he's been dead for 22 years and he could still kick all our asses.

John Frankenheimer

Charles Bukowski - Whenever I see some willowy wisp of humanity tucked away in a corner at Starbucks, furiously typing in a journal on an iBook while sipping a frappucino, I think of Bukowski and laugh. The Dirty Old Man, making love to a barstool and an empty glass, banging away at a typewriter in a half-lit room where the stains came before the mattress. She's writing down to life, careful with grammar and punctuation. He's brushing off earthworms and taking long drags. Fuck the periods.

That's cool.

Ellroy is definitely cool when he wants to be. When he's not, though, his writing is downright painful. But everything up through "American Tabloid" is pretty fucking cool.

Also, since a) the person who nominated them is gone and can no longer complain and b) despite the controversial nature of some of these picks, she's definitely the least cool person on this list, I'm removing Linda Blair. If this is an issue, feel free to add her back on.

Paul Verhoeven
John Krasinski
Quentin Tarantino
Robert Rodriguez
Steven Van Zandt (was it Little Steven that was nominated or Silvio Dante, btw?)
Catherine Keener
Jeffrey Dean Morgan
Michael Mann
Banksy
Sealand
Ryan Reynolds
Diva
Cormac McCarthy
Norah Jones
Falafel
Jerry Bruckheimer
Peter Weir
Michael Chabon
Joe R. Lansdale
'Everything in its Right Place' by Radiohead
Alec Baldwin
Hellboy
Shepard Fairey
Bruce Campbell
Edgar Wright
Brian K. Vaughan
Kathryn Bigelow
Supernatural
Lost
Joe Casey
Bill Hicks
Henry Rollins
George Carlin
"My Brain is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes To Bitburg)" by The Ramones
Tom Waits
Asian Cinema
Frank Miller
Guillermo del Toro
Johnny Cash
Leonard Cohen
Fucking an attractive person
Ron Perlman
Shane Black
Takashi Miike
Woody Allen
The Rock
Aaron Eckhart
Tom Waits
Robert Downey Jr.
Gore Verbinski
Werner Herzog
Judd Apatow
Joel you gotta be fucking kidding me Schumacher
Anna Faris
Charlie Murphy
Darren Aronofsky
Alfonso Cuaron
Gael Garcia Bernal
Christina Ricci
Kris Kristofferson
David Carradine
Michael Madsen
Samuel L. Jackson
John Frusciante
Beat Takeshi
Kraftwerk
The Bodum French Press
Christopher Walken
Stephen Colbert
Tadanobu Asano
William Shatner
Lawrence Block
Jon Stewart
Iggy Pop
Nellie McKay
The Venture Bros.
Al Swearengen
musashi miyamoto
The Electric Guitar
Divine
John Waters
James Ellroy
Sam Peckinpah
John Frankenheimer
Charles Bukowski

slow motion

and Baraka from Mortal Kombat 2. With the blades in his arms.

The theremin.

Ok. I nominate the Nike SB Dunk. Tongues out, laces in, and a shitload of rad colours - they're even available in tweed. They're perfect for skateboarding, and a hell of a lot cheaper than other cool shoes on the market. I already own 6 pairs and if you'd told me 3 years ago that I'd be a shoe guy, I would've knocked you one in the mouth.

In three years you'll be a fannypack guy.

Toshiro Mifune is ultra-cool.

Frusciante is a great choice.

I would pick Monica Bellucci for her effortlees beauty.
The White stripes, one of the few bands carrying some blood (and a hot drummer too).
Martin Amis & Hunter Thompson, two folks that took writing to a whole different level.

Fuck yes on Hunter Thompson. The man embraced the American spirit like no one else, with all the insanity and brilliance and messiness it entailed. Plus he had his remains shot out of a cannon. Talk about class.

Richard Pryor- I'm not going to spend a lot of time explaining this one 'cause what can you say about the man that hasn't already been said(greatest stand-up of all time, comedic pioneer etc.. ) I will say this though; the man joked about the time he set himself on fire in a drug induced stupor.

Steampunk -- Sure, your cyberpunk is great with your data nodes and your cybernetics, but there's something indesribeably cool about zeppelins and gyro-copters and steam-powered wrough-iron robots and the whole idea of rethinking old technology to be used in new ways. A friend of mine and I collaborated on a steampunk RPG scenario recently, and the premise just had our imaginations firing on all cylinders. It's the only cool part of the Wild Wild West movie, it's origins stretch back to Verne and Wells, and it's helped give us everything from Steamboy to The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

Double post.

Having sex in the back of your first car. One of life's simple pleasures.

Edit: Also in honor of Patrick, losing your virginity.

I'd nominate Ron Moore for actually making the Battlestar Galactica remake something which a) Utterly transcends the source material b) creates a science fiction show which isn't embarassing to admit to liking.

Also if I could Takashi Miike for managing to make a series of films which are from wildly different genres (gangster films, musicals, kids action epics, Lynchian psycho dramas, Detective Stories, Superhero films, balls to the wall action, and introspective arthouse fair) which all his unmistakable style and stamp. I swear to god if you watch even 5 minutes of a Miike movie, you know it's made by him.

How can you have a "Cool" list without the coolest man to ever live....























I'm just kidding. The real king of cool...

Berkley Breathed. Need a reason? Read Bloom County.

The Loch Ness Monster. How do you get much cooler than an improbable creature that doesn't exist, but has been photographed, videotaped, and seen as many times as most celebrities...?

You like me! You really, really like me!

I nominate Prince. Purple Rain, the movie and the album, still rock my world and as the Super Bowl performance and the Grammy win for his Happy Feet song I'd say the Purple one has regained some of his "It" status by the public at large.

1. Peter O Toole. A screen legend and an all around charming fella. I also would like to add him to the list for starring in two of my favorite movies Lawrence of Arabia and...
2.The Stunt Man One of the most underrated yet influential films of the eighties. Dark, funny, subversive, and so damn quotable it aint even funny. For the love of Christ, tell me I'm not the only guy here who loves this flick.