No Swing Is a Real Miss

13 Jan

I’m really missing baseball these days. I miss coming home from work and knowing there’s a game on (especially with there being not much else good on TV anymore). I miss reading about the Sox in the Globe every day. I miss making fun of Dice-K. I miss Papi and Mike Lowell and all the boys, whether it’s news about them or just their smiling, happy faces in the newspaper every morning. I miss the whole thing. It’s not like there’s a void in the Boston sports world or anything, and football’s exciting, but those games only happen on Sundays (or Saturday nights), and basketball and hockey do nothing for me. Baseball’s something you can count on, for at least eight months of the year. From March to October there’s a baseball game on most every night of the week. This gap between the seasons is just too long, especially with there being no significant trade or contract talks going on lately (even a possible Santana deal isn’t all that buzzworthy right now). Jeez, pitchers and catchers report to Fort Myers in about a month, and I’m already antsy. Bring it on!

Trying Some New Places

13 Jan

I guess I’d like to make a belated New Year’s Resolution: to try new things. And specifically, new restaurants and new foods. Already this year I’ve been to two new restaurants. Well, not new, per se, but they’re new to me. Today I went with Sarah, Amy and Sherri to Victoria’s Diner. Way out of nowhere location aside, this was a real nice surprise of a brunch place. The interior is much nicer than the exterior would lead one to believe, and the food was real tasty. I had the Nutella Smothered French Toast. It’s not quite what the menu promises, but yummmmm. Three slices of french toast covered in Nutella, with strawberries (which I didn’t eat). I highly recommend it, and hope to go back and have this again soon.

Last week after the movie, Nina and I decided to have dinner at Stephanie’s on Newbury, a place that amazingly, I had never been to before. The Mac ‘n’ Cheese wasn’t as good as the stuff at, say, Silvertone, but it was good and worth going back for. And it’s nice to go somewhere nicer and know there’s something on the menu I can eat. I was also impressed with how big the place was. I mean, not that it looks small from the outside, but I didn’t realize it was so deep inside.

Alright, fine. I know what you’re saying: You went to two new places and you had food you knew you already liked. True. But it’s still good to broaden my horizons beyond the normal places I go. And I hope to do more of that as 2008 continues.

It’s Not a Cold

13 Jan

All week I’ve been trying to stave off a cold. Or at least what I thought was a cold. But it turns out I may just have winter allergies, which I’m learning are more common than I thought. After all, if the only symptoms are sneezing, runny nose, and occasional watery eyes, and I’m not feeling run down and I don’t have a sore throat, etc. then it has to be allergies, right? Especially with the way the temperatures here in Boston have been fluctuating, I’m sure there are all kinds of irritants in the air. And I mean, when you go to CVS and you look at all the cold remedies, the ones that treat my symptoms are all labeled “allergy” medication. And Claritin-D seems to be working so well today. And, this would partly explain why the Zicam didn’t do squat all week. So, I’m making a self-diagnosis. I don’t have a cold, I have allergies. Phew!

Bloody Great

5 Jan

Just like the way the oil flows from the oil wells in There Will Be Blood, so flows my enthusiasm for this movie.

Wow. It is so good.

This is why I should have waited to write my top 10 list.

The latest from P.T. Anderson (Magnolia, Boogie Nights) tells the epic story of Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis), a greedy sumbitch oil man at the turn of the century who will stop at nothing to lease land and drain it of all its oil.

Plainview and his son travel from town to town convincing the residents they live on valuable real estate and that they can all share in the wealth. (Ha!) It’s all pretty easy until he meets Eli Sunday (Paul Dano), whose evangelism and greed when it comes to his church rivals Plainview’s financial greed. Continue reading →

Last Day, First Night

31 Dec

Spent the last afternoon of 2007 wandering around downtown, checking out the pre-First Night activity. It was too warm and sunny out, so the ice sculptures weren’t all fully ready by 3pm. But I managed to get some photos of the ones that were on display. And with that, I close out this blog for 2007. To you and yours, I wish the happiest of Happy New Years. I’ll see you in ’08!




The Good, the Bad, and Superbad

31 Dec

You know it’s been a good year for the movies when you go through the list of films you’ve seen (in my case, 56) and when separating out those you remember fondly, the list is close to 20. So narrowing those down to only 10 is quite a challenge. And yet, I’ve done that — but with one caveat: I still have not seen There Will Be Blood (it’s a 2007 release but it doesn’t open in Boston until Friday), and I’m almost positive that it, too, would have earned a spot on this list. So, this may be a top 11 list come next weekend. [Update 1/5: I’ve now seen There Will Be Blood. The list has been amended accordingly.]

But anyway, so without further ado, here are the 10 [now 11] films I saw in 2007 that brought me the most pleasure:

11. SUPERBAD
I laughed harder and more frequently at this film than I did at anything else all year.

10. NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
Javier Bardem and Tommy Lee Jones give memorable, iconic performances, but the Coen brothers deserve plenty of credit too.

9. GONE BABY GONE
Ben Affleck’s directorial debut gets Boston right, and tells a compelling tale whose conclusion stays with you.

8. AMERICAN GANGSTER
A thunderous, exciting performance by Denzel Washington takes this one over the top.

7. 3:10 TO YUMA
A real man’s man’s movie, this one boasts some great action and acting (by Russell Crowe and Christian Bale).

6. REIGN OVER ME
One of the year’s most overlooked gems. It’s not perfect, but what’s good about this film (e.g. Don Cheadle’s performance) is so good. And Adam Sandler breaks your heart.

5. JUNO
Snark perfectly mixed with sweetness in a fantastic screenplay, plus a wonderful lead performance by Ellen Page.

4. LARS AND THE REAL GIRL
Sure, it’s a preposterous premise, but Ryan Gosling’s heartwarming performance helps turn this film into a really sweet tale of loneliness and love.

3. HAIRSPRAY
Maybe this isn’t the actual third-best movie of the year, but it’s certainly one of the most enjoyable times I’ve had at the movies all year. And it’s one of only two movies on this list that I saw in the theater twice.

2. THERE WILL BE BLOOD
An epic movie featuring one of Daniel Day-Lewis’ best performances ever, this film is just brilliant. It must be seen, and on a big screen.

1. ONCE
Can’t say enough about how much I love this movie. The music, the acting, the story, the writing … nearly everything about it is perfect. At just under 90 minutes, this is the rare movie you want to be longer. Once is an instant classic, a film of such magic that its effect stays with you for days, months, and (time will tell) years after you see it.


And what about the worst movies? Well, that list was a lot easier to compile. I’d like to think I stay away from the obvious stinkers, but every now and then I do get suckered or disappointed. So here are those films I wish I could say I didn’t see:

10. EVAN ALMIGHTY
9. SPIDER-MAN 3
8. FACTORY GIRL
7. SING NOW OR FOREVER HOLD YOUR PEACE
6. LIONS FOR LAMBS
5. ACROSS THE UNIVERSE
4. BECAUSE I SAID SO
3. FRED CLAUS
2. IN THE LAND OF WOMEN
1. RENDITION

This Isn’t Therapy. It’s Real Life.

28 Dec

In The Savages, John and Wendy Savage (Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney) have the unenviable task of putting their estranged father (Philip Bosco) in a nursing home. You might think that would make for a depressing movie, and make no mistake, The Savages is no Superbad or anything (despite what the trailer might imply), but writer/director Tamara Jenkins has found a way to turn this ordinary situation that so many must go through into one we can all sympathize with, wringing some genuine laughs from a painful situation. John and Wendy are themselves distant — one lives in New York City and the other up in Buffalo — but when they come together in Arizona to learn what’s become of their father (who was abusive earlier, thus one reason why they’re estranged from him), it’s clear they have a tight bond. These are not terribly happy characters, but they have each other and you get the sense that they are better people when they’re together.

In the lead roles, both Hoffman and Linney make very strong impressions. For Hoffman in particular, it’s his third great performance in one year (the others being Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead and Charlie Wilson’s War). The Savages doesn’t really have a plot other than the basic premise of John and Wendy dealing with their dad’s dementia, and after a while I got a little antsy waiting for the film to reach its natural conclusion, but it’s Hoffman and Linney who makes The Savages worth seeing. I’m giving this one a strong B.

Who Am I?

28 Dec

Maybe you heard about it: there was a recent study about people Googling themselves.

I’m one of the 47% who has done just that, and it’s usually pretty amusing what turns up.

But it’s the 53% who have looked up info about me (or rather, who say they have looked up info about someone else) that concerns me. Continue reading →

Another Great Clean-Up

27 Dec

One of the nice things about not going away during the week between Christmas and New Year’s is that it gives me a chance to tackle some projects I’ve been wanting to work on for a while.

Monday I went into the office to clean up my desk and get organized. And now I’ve begun tackling my closets here on the homefront.

You may recall that two years ago on New Year’s Day I began the Great Clean-Up of 2006. Things have not gotten to be as bad as they were then, but parts of my apartment surely needed a spruce-up and that included my bedroom closet.

So, after taking everything out — all my pants, shirts, sweaters, shoes, etc. — and going through it to see what was old (i.e.: anything with a Structure label) or dirty or what I had too much of (hello, blue shirts), I have plenty of “new” clothes I had forgotten about and a much cleaner, more organized closet.

Sure, I could have gotten rid of more clothes than I did, but I’m just too much of a packrat; that said, I expect I’ll continue to get rid of some shirts as I try them on and realize they don’t fit all that well anymore.

Next I’ll tackle the linen closet and my overflowing CD collection (I went to Target today and bought a container for under-the-bed storage).

And this is good news for other people, not just me. For example, the Big Brother Big Sister Foundation is going to get a large donation — five garbage bags full of shoes, sweaters, shirts and pants.

And the cleaners is going to get my business.

And if I ever do move (and hopefully I will sometime in 2008), the movers will have less to take over to the new place for me.

But of course, I’m the real winner here because I’m enjoying my week off from work and taking care of some good stuff that’s making me feel really productive.

I’m going to say it again: It’s so nice to spend a vacation at home, where I can do my own thing and relax and just catch up with life, and work on things like this that I never seem to get to during the rest of the year.

(That’s all. No great drama or discoveries to report on.)

Christmas Time for This Jew

24 Dec

Tonight’s Christmas Eve. Maybe you’ve heard me mention it once or twice. People always seem to wonder what I’ll be up to the next day and a half since, at least officially, I don’t celebrate the holiday. Well, there’s the traditional movie and Chinese food, of course. But for a more thorough answer, here’s the great song Darlene Love sang on Saturday Night Live two years ago. If you’re not Jewish and do celebrate Christmas, allow me to wish you and yours all the best. But for all my fellow members of the tribe, if you’ve never seen this video before, it’s really great. Enjoy!

http://www.hulu.com/embed/PGn5kYL4FWyX3NSHWa1VVw

And by the way, if you’re one of those who like “the classics,” here’s another …

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