Archive | November, 2006

All Dried Up

15 Nov

Folks, I’ve got nothing. Seriously. It’s not like the last time I said that. This time I am without a topic. The well is dry. I don’t want to bore you with a rant about the class of 7 or 8-year-olds who were riding the T with me this morning and were screaming and generally driving me crazy on my commute into work, or the mismatched couple who were standing right in front of me making out for most of the trip. And I don’t want to tell you how much I love the TV show Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip because I don’t think you want to read another review or posting about my TV watching habits. And I was pretty sure you’d have little sympathy that my day off from work on Monday was all washed out by the rain — or that People passed me over again for the title of Sexiest Man Alive.

So you tell me: What would you like me to write about? Give me a good topic, and I’ll reward you with a good posting. Deal? The comments field is open. No password necessary. (Tho I ask that if you write a comment you give me your name. Thanks.)

Not a Comedy. Not Quite a Tragedy

12 Nov

Stranger than Fiction is a fine, pleasant movie.

I wasn’t blown away, but I wasn’t bored either.

It’s good, but I would see other current releases first.

I’m giving it a B (for very brief review).

Mostly Magical

11 Nov

The Prestige is one of those movies with a hyped-up ending that doesn’t live up to the hype.

And that, I suppose, is “the prestige” of this review.

Otherwise, as far as the movie itself is concerned, “the pledge” and “the turn” are quite good (and overall, it’s much more enjoyable than that other magic movie, The Illusionist).

Director Christopher Nolan (who wrote the screenplay with his brother, Jonathan — just like they did for Memento) keeps the story moving, with some decent twists and turns, and building to what should be an exciting climax.

Both Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale, as rival magicians, are good, as are Michael Caine and Scarlett Johansson. (And of course, Bale, Caine, and Nolan all worked together on Batman Begins, while Jackman and Johansson were both in Scoop.)

I suppose what ultimately kills The Prestige is the fact that it’s a movie about figuring out the “magic” behind the tricks. And when the secret is either predictable or not terribly interesting — or both — then you wish the illusionist had just stuck to the trick and not shown the reveal.

I’m giving this movie a B+ for “the pledge” and “the turn,” but a B- for “the prestige” — an average grade of a B.

Origami and Other Amusements

10 Nov

Some fun video for your weekend, care of The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson:

Words for Wednesday

8 Nov

Some quick thoughts for today …

A Good Day to Be a Democrat

I find it a fun coincidence that right as the Democrats were washing the Republicans out of power, Mother Nature decided to sprinkle some rain and wash away the whole thing. It’s metaphorical, in a really obvious way. Personally, y’all know how I feel about being woken up early, and if George Bush was really gracious in defeat, he wouldn’t have been calling people to tell them as much at 7:15 a.m. this morning.

Vicious Circle

Many nights, as I’m walking home from work around 8 p.m., I ponder the eternal question: Am I working late because I have nothing to do, or do I have nothing to do because I am working late? And then, last night, I found more fuel for my fire. I left work around 6:15 to go vote, and when I got home, I had nothing to do but watch the returns come in on MSNBC. I tried to watch some of the shows I’ve recorded in the past week, but to be honest, week-old What About Brian? or Six Degrees, or even the Chevy Chase episode of Law & Order, just had no appeal. I guess the whole thing only served to remind me that I need a new hobby or two.

Losing Lost

Tonight is the last episode — new or otherwise — of Lost until February. Which means that IsLostARepeat.com will be stuck on “Yes” for a while, I’m guessing. Either way, just when it was getting good, now it’s being taken away. That sucks.

Still There for Me

Check out what I just found, still on the web from September 2003.

What a Surprise?

7 Nov

Here’s the thing I don’t get about engaged couples: When you give them a gift and they say, “Oh, you shouldn’t have!”

Let’s be honest about this.

Aside from love and commitment and all that crap, getting engaged is an excuse to get gifts.

You know they’re coming. Hell, that’s why you register, isn’t it?

Registering after getting engaged is nothing more than a public request for people to buy you stuff. You make a list of all the things you want — dishes, bedding, appliances, silver, etc. — and then all your friends and family have to do is go to the specific stores, print out your list, and buy you something off that list. There’s not a whole lot of thought involved on the part of the gift-giver because the couple has basically spelled it all out for you, with the implication that God forbid you get them anything not on the registry.

The whole thing is a formality of the engagement process/celebration. And I know many engaged couples check their registries all the time just to see which items have been purchased. Continue reading →

Getting the Call

6 Nov

My mind’s all made up about who I’m voting for tomorrow, but let me just say that the only thing that may make me change my mind is if the supporters of a certain Democratic gubernatorial candidate keep calling me before 9am.

Thursday, when I was on a day off from work, I was awakened at 8:30 with a reminder to vote.

I got another one when I was away over the weekend (thank you, caller ID), and this morning, in the worst offense yet, I got a recorded message from Chobee Hoy herself that shut off after 10 seconds and never finished. I can only assume that she was also calling to remind me to get out and vote.

It’s bad enough that I’m getting these calls so early — and I get it that they want to reach people before they leave for work — but getting a bulk, impersonal, recorded campaign phone call before 9am is just not cool.

A Town That Won’t Let You Down

6 Nov

Alright, I didn’t just put my blog on hiatus these past few days, I put myself on hiatus and headed out to visit my friend Andrew in Chicago. Suffice it to say, a good time was had by all.

It’s been two years since I was last in Chicago, and in that time much has changed. For example, whereas two years ago Andrew didn’t know much about the city, now he still doesn’t know much about Chicago — but he could fake it convincingly by giving me a whole dissertation about the grid system and how easy it is to navigate around. (ha ha) But more importantly, Andrew’s engaged, so one of the biggest reasons I went out there was to meet his fiancee, Rachel.

It was a packed weekend: I got in Thursday night and we went to dinner at Shine Morida; Friday I was on my own and walked all the way down Clark to Michigan Ave., where I went to the Hancock Observatory, did some shopping, and visited Millenium Park; at night we brought in dinner from Bacino’s and saw a show at Second City; Saturday, Andrew and I had brunch at Stella’s, then went to the Field Museum; at night we met up with some of Rachel and Andrew’s friends and had dinner at Las Tablas, then Andrew and I went to Rosa’s Lounge, a great blues club where Jimmy Johnson was performing; Sunday, we had brunch at Panes, and then I headed home.

That’s not really all we did, but something tells me you would be less than impressed if I told you we also watched five — yes, five — episodes of Grey’s Anatomy now that Andrew and Rachel are hooked on the show and are catching up with the season two DVD set. And you probably would have little sympathy for me if I told you I did a lot of walking around in the cold (40 degrees or so) since it was apparently just as cold back in Boston. And it’s a funny story, but the fact that we tried but could not get into Buddy Guy’s Legends doesn’t add much to the overall recap. I also figure you don’t care that Chicago’s WLIT was already playing Christmas music 24/7 and that it made me smile.

But all told, it was a great weekend. It was nice to see different parts of the city than those I saw last time, and it was nice to see that Andrew’s found himself a great fiancee. And of course, I took a lot more pictures than the ones you see here; if you want to see the rest, just follow this link.

Ah, Chicago. It’s my kind of town.

I’ve Got Nothing

2 Nov

I was going to write something about how Quizno’s sandwiches just aren’t as good as they used to be, and then I was going to lament how the fluctuations of the weather may be making me sick, and then I was going to celebrate how the end of Halloween marked the beginning of the Christmas season … but then I realized all these things were sorta lame.

As it turns out, I don’t have anything all that interesting to write about right now, and rather than continue with these short celeb-related items, I’m just going to go on a brief hiatus until Monday. Come back then, when I should have something really fun and worthwhile to say.

In the meantime, go see Borat.

Have a great weekend!

People … People Who Throw Sodas

1 Nov

Is there anything funnier than seeing someone throw a beverage at Barbra Streisand?

Perhaps the only thing would be seeing this person hit her with the soda.

Ha!

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