Why does the TV my wife watches suck so badly? She’s off at church at her lady’s thing, and she’s having me record JAG. Oh PLE-E-E-ASE! The dramas on CBS suck. They’re horrible. JAG is the biggest piece of crap of all of them. It’s trite, melodramatic and stupid. The characters are paper thin, and transparent. Ugh. Thankfully, I have the happy web to keep me occupied while the drivel spills to tape for my wife to peruse later.
Category: entertainment
Three Post Night
It was weekly, couple-with-a-toddler weekend movie night. We had one hit, one miss this time. We’ll start with the miss.
15 Minutes: Avoid this piece of crap like the plague. If you have to watch it, watch the first 45 minutes, stop the movie, and finish the movie in your head. It will be a million times better than the crap that follows in the second half of this lame movie. The concept of the movie is great and full of possibilities, but the director has no idea how to pull off the ending, so he goes back to his Die Hard: How to Make a Movie manual, written by Michael Bay and Jan de Bont. Aside from implausible, it was just stupid. Ok, enough, it’s almost Sunday and I don’t want to start swearing. Last word: a terrible waste of a good concept and a great cast.
And now the good…
The Gift: Sam Raimi strikes again. I loved A Simple Plan. This movie was great. Unlike the stinker, this movie has a great concept, cast and pulls it off in a way that stays true to the premise. This is an excellent supernatural thriller without relying on gore or crap sarcasm to pull it off. It’s serious psychological horror, and is just excellent. 4 stars, definitely.
Happy Happy Happy Part 2
Oh yeah… The Underpants Gnome episode of South Park is on Comedy Central RIGHT NOW! It was the first episode I ever watched all the way through. I still don’t watch it all the time, but Saturday night @ 10 is the perfect time to watch, and it’s the best episode ever! Remember: Step 1 – Steal Underpants. Step 3 – Profit!
Weekend Movie Reviews
This weekend, we saw American Pie (me for the second time, Jen for the first), State and Main, and I finally finished watching my new copy of Akira.
Before I get into the reviews: Yes, I know these movies were in theaters months ago. That’s what happens when you have a kid. You watch movies on video instead of going to the theater. So, shut up.
American Pie: This movie was really funny the first time I saw it. I’m not sure what happened with the second viewing. It just wasn’t that funny. Jen didn’t even laugh all that much. It still had its moments, like the scenes with Eugene Levy, the Pie and Finch’s toilet adventure… it just didn’t ring true like it did the first time.
State and Main: I love David Mamet. I adored The Spanish Prisoner and Vanya on 42nd Street. Now you know where I’m coming from here, and won’t be disappointed. I really liked this movie. It wasn’t terribly deep nor did it have an important message to share. It was funny. William H. Macy was great as the producer, coddling, tough and an ass when he needed to be. The whole cast was fantastic. But, my favorite part of the movie had to be the relationship between Rebecca Pidgeon and Philip Seymour Hoffman. It wasn’t overtly sexual, and just rang true for me. It was nice to see Mr. Hoffman in a non-gay role (hello, Talented Mr. Ripley, Fabulous… anyone else paying attention?), and he really pulled it off. Ms. Pidgeon played her attraction to him very understated, and I just loved it. If you’ve ever hit if off with someone, you’ll recognize the feelings there. It was great fun.
Akira: I saw this a long time ago on a bad VHS copy, and didn’t really like it, but remember the animation as something special. SO, I bought the DVD at Price Club for $14. This is a very Japanese movie. If you like Anime, you’ll love it. If you don’t, you’ll probably hate it. Could you sit through Princess Mononoke? Yes? Then get Akira. If you couldn’t, don’t bother.
Six Feet Under
So, it’s 9pm on Sunday night, and my favorite show of the summer is starting. I bought a 25 ft. phone cord last night so I can sit on the couch in the sunroom, watch TV and be signed on. Yeah, baby. This is my substitute or wireless networking, my friends. I would love to have DSL, a wireless gateway, wireless network cards and other cool tools, but hey, that costs money. The phone cord was $2.99. Here’s dreaming.
My computer downstairs isn’t even connected to a phone line. It’s three years old, starting to breakdown, and there’s no replacement on the horizon. Yeah, baby, this is the highlife.
Why do I bring this up? No idea… just rambling. I’m the only one I know of my friends at work with a wife, a kid and a mortgage, well, with a wife that stays home. (take your meds, Billy… sorry Six Feet Under moment). I love my life, but I sometimes watch my friends and wonder what it would be like to be able to go out on the weekend without worrying about Max and if he’s all right. To be able to go out and spend money without worrying about the mortgage. Yep, responsibility… it’s a bitch. But, I really (and I mean it this time) wouldn’t have it any other way. Max only gets more fun. He’s hilarious. He’s not saying words, but his babbling is becoming more intoned and animated. It’s too funny to listen to him babble away.
It’s funny. We make decisions with no real idea what the consequences will be. Thankfully, most of the time, things work out. We make it work. I’m glad that when I got married I knew what I was getting into. I knew what I wanted out my marriage, and I think we’re doing a pretty good job as a couple and as parents. So, that’s the state of the union. Now, back to the show… and Sweetie, I’m sorry. I hit the record button @ 9, but it didn’t start. I’ll fill you in when you get home.
Random Notes From the Underbelly
Just because I’m a glutton for punishment, I watched Six Feet Under again. Yes, the one that ruined me on Sunday. Why? Jen hadn’t seen it, and I talked it up so much, she had to. So, I sat there and steeled myself against what I knew was coming. I got a little choked up, but no actual tears this time. Yes!
You know what’s sad though? Jen didn’t cry at all, didn’t even snorffle once! I was amazed. Her explanation was that she had detached herself from it and it didn’t get to her. Yeah, well, it got to me, lady… it got me good.
I’m still basking in the glow of my genius from yesterday. So much so that I’m not even thinking about any rumored impending layoffs.
Max digs couscous!! I went a little nuts at the grocery store the other night and got couscous and hummus and other weirdities. The hummus was assy, but that couscous was yummy. Max used his little spoon on the little pasta and fed himself until we had to stop him. He’s a funny kid.
Ruined Six Feet Under ruined
Ruined Six Feet Under ruined me last night. In the first two minutes, I knew what was going to happen. I wanted to turn the TV off, run upstairs and check on Max, even though I know he’s almost two and that SIDS happens between birth and 18 months. The very thought that something like that could happen was enough. I cried.
Then, when Frederico had to embalm that three-week old baby and held his still little hand, I cried again. It was just so unfair that this young father (well, he’s the same age I am), who has one child and another imminent, had to deal with the idea of a dead child just stabbed me in the heart.
And the end of the show, when they had their own baby by c-section, JUST like we did, and the look on his face when he heard his new son cry for the first time – I lost it completely. I sat there alone in the dark with the credits rolling blubbering like a child.
I love that show. I love that it makes me feel. Most TV is absolute garbage. So much so that watching TV on Sunday (Sex and the City and Six Feet Under) makes the rest of the week painful. Jen mentioned that yesterday afternoon. She’s so smart.
Attack of the Clones???? Huh?
Attack of the Clones Huh? Ok, so, the name of Star Wars Episode 2 is going to be Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. It’s apparently about the Clone Wars mentioned way back in Star Wars (you know, the one that came out first). Why not just call it Star Wars: The Clone Wars? Other than repetetive, at least it doesn’t sound like a bad Ed Wood movie, starring Jesse Helms and Trent Lott as the intrepid CloneBusters. Lucas has gone soft in the head, I swear.
I can’t believe I never
I can’t believe I never told you about Henryk Gorecki. His Symphony Number 3 is devastatingly haunting and beautiful. Once you hear it, you’ll probably remember hearing it before. It’s one of those pieces of music they use in movies (like Fearless and Wit) in the epiphany scene, when it all becomes clear.
My friend Sean introduced me to it in High School, and now I listen to it when I need to mellow out, or am feeling like there’s nowhere else to turn. Dawn Upshaw’s pained soprano, the strings in the background – it just makes life worth living again. Go get the version with Dawn Upshaw as the soloist. There are others out there, but none of them match the beauty of that one.
I had the weirdest dream
I had the weirdest dream last night. It was a “this could have been your life” thing. What if I hadn’t been married when I moved to Virginia? What would things be like? It was odd, and in the end, I ended up married to Jen, and Max was there too, which is nice, but it was still very odd. I don’t normally have vivid and memorable dreams. I usually don’t remember them at all.
After yesterday’s geekFeat, I’m not up to really doing anything today. I’m just bored. I’m tired of “helping” people by answering questions all day about things they could have figured out on their own (man COMMAND – try it).
Hopefully it’s just because I’m tired. I stayed up last night to watch the new South Park, and then couldn’t go to bed with that image stuck in my head, so I stayed up to watch Jiminy Glick. It’s such an uneven show. The filler around the interviews sucks mightily. And, I’d have no desire to watch the show except for the interviews. They’re great. The Eugene Levy bit was very funny, especially when Dave Thomas came out as Bob Hope (does anyone else see an SNL/SCTV reunion theme here?). Hopefully, they’ll pull together the rest of the show… but I doubt it. It seems Martin Short’s career has been built on uneven stuff. He’s usually pretty funny, but he has his moments where things just don’t work.