Archive | October, 2006

The Sox Won?!

13 Oct

This season of Lost is already off to a great start. The first five minutes of last week’s episode was mindblowing, and then the last five minutes of this week’s episode was equally great. And according to today’s Boston Globe, the show’s creators didn’t just pull the Red Sox reference out of their asses; they had a plan to use it all along. Then again, as Eric Wilbur writes: “You want to see someone go bezerk in a few weeks? Wait until Ben tells Jack the Sox didn’t re-sign Pedro or Lowe in lieu of Matt Clement and David Wells. That’s not going to go over well.” Anyway, Lost is back, and I don’t just mean from summer hiatus. I am totally intrigued by everything that’s happening with the Others, want to know more, love all the possibilities, and can’t believe it’s going off the air after six episodes (it’ll return 13 weeks later, in February). Click on the above image (or click here) to watch the Red Sox clip from Wednesday’s show, or go to ABC.com to watch the full episode.

And while I’m talking TV, maybe I’ll share some thoughts about the other shows I’ve been watching:
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip had a great pilot, a not-as-good second and third episode, and now with the fourth episode I’m a fan again. It’ll take a lot for me not to watch this show, even if I wasn’t enjoying it as much those two middle weeks.

The Office just hasn’t been nearly as good or as funny as last year was. They’ve gone and added the one thing the show lacked: a plot. And now it has prolonged scenes of seriousness (like in the awful premiere episode four weeks ago). Last night’s episode was the best one so far this season. But the show won’t be much good until Jim returns to Scranton. I don’t want to see a spinoff show where Jim moves to Stamford.

Grey’s Anatomy. So good. Sooooo good. One of the few shows I will watch ASAP if I’ve gotten home late. (And by the way, I love the season two soundtrack, especially the Gomez track “How We Operate” and Get Set Go’s “I Hate Everyone.” It’s worth buying.)

I didn’t love the pilot of Six Degrees so I stopped watching. But I had it on last night after Grey’s Anatomy and I have to say, I really enjoyed it. I think I’ll make an effort to keep up with this one.

I still love The Amazing Race. One of the best, most unpredictable shows on TV. (Though I’m still a week behind and need to catch up.)

Like Lost, Desperate Housewives has also been better this season than last. Though I’m not sure why everyone loves Marcia Cross. Eva Longoria is the funniest actress on that show. She’s so good you don’t even notice how good she is.

Otherwise, My Name Is Earl just doesn’t do it for me anymore so I don’t know how much longer I’ll be watching, 30 Rock I recorded on Wednesday and will watch this weekend, Saturday Night Live is a waste of time, I don’t think I’m going to bother with What About Brian, and after one episode I’ve given up on Heroes, Ugly Betty, Brothers & Sisters, and The Nine. With those last four, I figure if I’ve missed them and don’t make any great effort to catch up, then what’s the point of recording them in the first place? So I’m passing on them. I have enough to watch as it is.

This Is an Awful, Awful Movie … Not!

10 Oct

If Borat is so wrong, then why does it feel so right?

Alright, maybe that’s not exactly what I want to say about the movie (its actual name is Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, but damn, this is simultaneously one of the funniest and one of the most offensive movies I have ever seen.

If you don’t know, Borat is a character played by the British comic Sacha Baron Cohen who is supposed to be a television reporter from Kazakhstan.

Basically, the movie is a mockumentary of Borat’s exploits as he travels across the U.S., first in pursuit of knowledge about America and then in pursuit of Pamela Anderson (really).

And Borat is naive, totally clueless, and without social graces, so this makes for some great comedy. Continue reading →

Sale-ing with Christopher Columbus

9 Oct

Few people know that in addition to being a curious explorer, Christopher Columbus was also an avid bargain hunter. In fact, the word “sale” was coined as a tribute to him — the word was taken from “sail,” but it’s unknown why the spelling was changed. And to further prove the point, the ships Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria were not named for former girlfriends as is widely believed, but for Columbus’ three favorite vendors in the Spanish market (Pinta was a bookseller). And it’s for these reasons that there are so many great deals to be had on this day.

And it’s for that reason that I headed out to Wrentham today with my friend Dave to do a little shopping at the outlets. Of course, the sales were just one reason the place was packed. It was a bee-yoo-tiful day today (75 degrees or so), so who wouldn’t want to be outside in that? And I cashed in: three ties (3 for $69!) and three shirts at Brooks Brothers; a pair of sneakers from Nike; and a pair of shoes, a sweater vest, and rugby shirt from Bass. Low outlet prices, plus 40 percent off here, 20 percent off there, an additional 15 or 10 percent with a VIP coupon, this sale, that sale … Christopher Columbus would be so proud. All told, I spent about three hours at the Outlet Center (yes, I went into many more stores than those where I actually bought something), and despite some traffic getting out of there, I was back home in about 40-45 minutes. It was a very good afternoon.

(Alright, I made most of that up. As far as I know, there is no connection between Christopher Columbus and the sales held on Columbus Day, nor were his ships named for vendors in the, ahem, Spanish market — and shame on you if you believed any of that. Also, I didn’t go to Wrentham today solely for the sales. I actually went out that way to visit and have lunch with Karen, David, and Judah in their new house in Franklin, which is a town or two over from Wrentham if you didn’t know. On the other hand, I was truthful about what I bought at the outlets and about the masses who shopped with me and how long I was there, etc. And I did bring Dave with me — we’re catching up after some time apart, thanks to his new CD and my new favorite song, “The Idea of You.” So regardless of the overall veracity of this posting, it was a good, productive, and fun holiday day off from work.)

So Funny It’s Painful

8 Oct

Movies don’t get much funnier, grosser, painful, oh, and did I mention funnier than Jackass: Number Two. In fact, I think the only movie that may be funnier than this one may actually be the original Jackass movie.

There are skits here that had me tearing up I was laughing so hard, especially a pretty harmless one involving Chris Pontius dressed as the devil. Others I could barely watch they were so gross.

And another skit is so un-P.C. that the fact that one guy is wearing a beard made of, uh, hair from between the guys’ legs is the least offensive part.

Continue reading →

I Live for This!

7 Oct

All’s I can say tonight is … baseball just got interesting again. Woo hoo! Go Tigers!


(To my Yankee fan friends: Yes, I know the Sox didn’t even make the playoffs. Still, this has to hurt. Ha!)

The Arrived

7 Oct

Damn. The Departed is one very good movie.

Start to near-finish, I was on the edge of my seat watching one of the best ensemble acting jobs of the year spinning a story of cops and the mob, a story of conflicting loyalties, and a story of Boston’s underbelly.

I swear, with the exception of Mark Wahlberg, who is just a little too over the top, this is top-notch acting all around. Even DiCaprio, who I don’t generally like, is excellent. It’s like the guy grew up ten years between The Aviator and this movie, and his face shows it. (Leo actually looks like he could be the brother of Eric Dane, who plays “Dr. McSteamy” on Grey’s Anatomy.) Continue reading →

At Medium Volume

5 Oct

Three days after seeing High Fidelity and I’m still not sure what to make of the show.

My toes were tapping during many of the songs, and I had some good laughs, but overall, I just felt something was missing.

A spark.

A certain je ne sais quoi.

I don’t know exactly what.

Maybe it’s my chronic problem that I never seem to like seeing shows in Boston; they just don’t feel right if they’re not on Broadway. Or maybe I just had too high expectations.

Either way, High Fidelity felt like it was a bit lacking. Continue reading →

Watch the Oats

4 Oct

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the early front-runner for this year’s Best Picture: Employee of the Month. Alright, I’m obviously kidding, but believe me when I say that this movie is better and funnier than it has any right to be. And most of the credit for that goes to Dane Cook, whose cool charm carries this comedy from start to finish. Jessica Simpson again shows off her talents, but ahem, not as well as she did in Dukes of Hazzard. And that’s probably all you really want to know about this film, right? It gets a B from me, for better than expected.

Idiot Is Too Kind a Word

3 Oct

I went to see High Fidelity tonight with Liz, and at the Boylston T stop afterward, we bumped into Kristina, who was taking the B line home.

So Liz and I got on with Kristina, and I rode out to Babcock St. and walked home from there. When I got to my building, I got a bit of a scare: my car was not in the parking lot.

Holy shit.

Did someone tow it? Was it stolen? Had I parked it in the wrong place? Continue reading →

Grady’s Revenge

3 Oct

Is it so wrong for me to want the Yankees to make it to the World Series this year? I ask because I’m rooting for the Dodgers on the National League side, and wouldn’t it just be great if Grady Little got a second chance to beat the Yankees on the national stage? And wouldn’t it also be great if Nomar could earn his own World Series ring? I’d love to see Bill Mueller and Derek Lowe back in the Bronx, back in championship form like they were in 2004, and for Grady to do everything right — or at least right enough — so he can exorcise his own demons from the 2003 ALCS. And that’s on top of how cool it’d be from a historical standpoint for the Yankees to be playing the Dodgers (I’ll bet Fox Sports is already preparing the intros to hype that series). To clarify, I’m not rooting for the Yankees to win anything. I just think this matchup would make for a fun Series, and it’d be the closest thing we’d have this year to the Sox making it all the way … like they were supposed to have done. (Whoops. I forgot. I no longer hold a grudge against the 2006 team. Strike that last comment.)

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