This list bothers me only because they’re all female and I’m not sure what that says about me:
What’s great is that Megnut and Caterina.net ARE two of my favorite blogs. I don’t know the other three, but hey, maybe thing this is right after all. Who’s your twin? (beware the popup ad).
Have I told you recently how great The Norm is? You should read it daily and then talk about it with your friends.
This Modern World is brilliant today. Bill Clinton was the source of a comedy boom. Bush is single-handedly killing satire, because he is one! The man scares the living crap out of me.
I feel I’m breaking some kind of rule here talking about football in a blog, since I started my blog-life reading erudite journals about the industry, photography and literature. And now, here I am writing about football. Well, that’s just who I am, baby. I dig the geeky, and the banal. I’m a conundrum wrapped in a perplexity wrapped in flaky pastry.
Sorry, had to do it. Now on to what I think about week 1 in the NFL (minus tonight’s game):
I think that’s it for this week. On a completely separate subject, we watched Band of Brothers last night, and I was slightly disappointed. Maybe it was all the hype, but I was expecting more. It seemed like Tom Hanks and Mr. Spielberg are trying to redo Private Ryan and fix the shortcomings of the movie. I’ll try it again next week, but it didn’t grab me like I expected it to. Something about it seems “off”, either something missing or too much of something else. I can’t put my finger on it.
Great Column in the Washington Post Magazine today. Football really is America’s game now. The only romance left for baseball is in the once-a-decade baseball movie that renews our faith in the history of the game that enthralled this country for the first half of the century.
I have a lot of stuff to talk about today, and I’m not sure where I want to start. Let’s start with the weekend movie reviews and see what I have energy for.
Enemy at the Gates: I think there should be more movies about the horrible time the Russians had during WW2. The US lost 500,000 soldiers in Europe and Pacific combined. The British, about the same (I could be wrong about that one). The Russians lost 20 million soldiers and civilians during the war, some killed by their own commanders. There are some amazing stories from the war, and in all the hoopla from the past couple years for WW2, it’s time to show stories that aren’t American. Enemy at the Gates is a great example of what I’d like to see more of. While showing the horror of the war for the Russian people, it’s really an intimate story of four people and how they cope with their situation. The suspense is great, the acting superb, and the duel between Jude Law and Ed Harris’ characters was superb. I enjoyed this movie, and I think anyone who liked Private Ryan, but thought it was missing something, this movie has what was missing, I think. Definitely a great rental.
Momento: Woo-hoo, we’re two for two this weekend! This was a fun mystery. It reminded me a lot of The Usual Suspects. It’s a well-made movie with a great gimmick executed perfectly. The first viewing is eye-opening, and a great ride, and it might hold up to a second viewing to try to catch all the clues. It’s not a movie I’ll watch again, but it’s one I’d definitely recommend if you like film noir or good mysteries. The performances were all solid, and the story was nicely paced and the payoff was perfect. I would have loved to have seen the story told in the chronological order and see if it affected the impact of the ending. I’m sure it would, but it would still be fun to see.
Now that I’m on a roll… Football!! Football, football, football!! It’s here, it’s started, the first quarter of the Colts-Jets game has ended, and I couldn’t be happier!! It’s time for popcorn and fantasy football and yeah yeah yeah. Can you tell I like football?
I couldn’t sleep last night so I went downstairs and started flipping through the channels. Cartoon Network had this four hour block of programming called Adult Swim. Curious, I watched, and holy cow! I saw the most stylish, campy, funny Anime I’ve ever seen! Cowboy Bebop is your salvation from Pokemon, Sailor Moon, Dragonball Z and all the other cartoon-lite shows out there. It’s cool. Mix acid jazz with killer design, bounty hunters, cool vehicles and weapons, and camp dialogue and you have one kickass show. Keep an eye out for it.
Lynda Barry’s Comic was just about the most heart-wrenching four panels I’ve ever seen.
If you haven’t read Lynda Barry’s work before, it’s amazing. I used to read it every week in the Tucson Weekly, and I’m now very happy that’s she’s featured in Salon.
Do you know how hard it is to pick a fantasy lineup in week 1? It’s tough! I’ve switched between starting quarterbacks at least three times, and defenses 4 or 5. I even dropped one of my D’s and picked up the Chargers! I’m going insane. Kurt Warner is the better QB, but he’s playing Philly and Elvis Grbac is playing against Chicago’s suspect D.
How have I resolved my dilemna? I decided to go with my gut. My gut says the Dolphins will have a great first game, and Warner is going to throw 6 touchdowns. If I’m wrong, there’s always next week, when picking will be much much easier.