I guess it could be worse. But still, whether you're working or not, it's no fun being sick on a Saturday. It does mean that I get to watch the Giants play game #5 of the season and I also watched an amazing third round of the Master's (golf).
I know, I know, golf? Amazing? Rarely do those two words end up in the same sentence. I don't watch too much golf on TV, but as someone who plays golf (poorly) and as a Tiger Woods fan, I can definitely appreciate golf on TV. And today was pretty exciting. In a 30-minute stretch, Phil Mickelson went from being 7 under par to 12 under. He went eagle-eagle-birdie. Meanwhile, a bunch of other golfers were getting hot, too. It actually made the last few holes of coverage anti-climactic. For those of you who don't follow golf, that sort of run is rare. It would be like a baseball team scoring 8 runs in an inning.
Anyway, the golf coverage did give me this commercial for the Bernard Harris Summer Science Program. The program itself seems really well-intentioned and hopefully it is successful. I just think that the writers of the ad should have been more careful in their word choice. About 7 seconds in, the sentence is, "Fortunately, we already have lots of bright, curious kids right here." Now on paper, it reads pretty straight-forward. On the ad, it sounds like the narrator is saying, "Fortunately, we already have lots of bi-curious kids right here." Sure, it might just be me and my dirty mind, but it was enough for me to look up when the ad was on, thinking, "did I just hear that right?"
Turns out I didn't.
Oh well, back to the baseball game. Giants and Braves tied: 1-1.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Movie Review - Green Zone
As you read below, Green Zone was the first of two movies that I watched last Tuesday afternoon while we theatre-hopped.
Green Zone is yet another movie about the United States continuing conflict in the Middle East and is specifically about the search for Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq. It is a pretty intense look at the interaction between the military and the Iraqi people and between the different branches of government/military.
This is a difficult movie to review for a couple reasons. First, I just saw The Hurt Locker a few weeks ago and it was amazingly realistic... that is, not that I've been to Iraq/Afghanistan, but it didn't have any of the over-the-top Hollywood vehicles that plague so many movies. The Hurt Locker just felt clean to me.
Green Zone had a bunch of that going at the start, but then toward the end it became a caricature of itself toward the end. It's like some film producer said, we have to make this MORE dramatic and MORE extraordinary and in doing so, made the movie much weaker than it could have been.
The other reason why this is a difficult movie for me to review is due to my politics and all the stuff I have read about the War in Iraq. I cannot objectively tell if this movie was liberal, right on, or what. What I do know is that most of what was shown in the movie follows from what I read in two books, "Iraq Confidential" by Scott Ritter and "Chain of Command" by Seymour Hersh. Scott Ritter is an ex-Marine who headed up the UN Inspection Teams in Iraq in the search for WMDs. All the evidence that he provided to Clinton and Bush pointed to the fact that no WMDs existed and that the intelligence saying that they did was incorrect. Both Ritter and Hersh explored the relationship between the White House and the CIA, specifically that Bush insisted on looking at the raw intelligence data without allowing for the CIA to utilize experts to analyze the intelligence reports. Many of the Bush policies were based on inaccurate intelligence because of the lack of analysis.
As I re-consider the movie, I don't like that the end of the movie and its over-dramatization took away from the accurate information it was showing earlier in the film. All in all, I thought that the movie was done well. I really liked Matt Damon and the role he played. It just didn't need to be so over-wrought.
Green Zone is yet another movie about the United States continuing conflict in the Middle East and is specifically about the search for Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq. It is a pretty intense look at the interaction between the military and the Iraqi people and between the different branches of government/military.
This is a difficult movie to review for a couple reasons. First, I just saw The Hurt Locker a few weeks ago and it was amazingly realistic... that is, not that I've been to Iraq/Afghanistan, but it didn't have any of the over-the-top Hollywood vehicles that plague so many movies. The Hurt Locker just felt clean to me.
Green Zone had a bunch of that going at the start, but then toward the end it became a caricature of itself toward the end. It's like some film producer said, we have to make this MORE dramatic and MORE extraordinary and in doing so, made the movie much weaker than it could have been.
The other reason why this is a difficult movie for me to review is due to my politics and all the stuff I have read about the War in Iraq. I cannot objectively tell if this movie was liberal, right on, or what. What I do know is that most of what was shown in the movie follows from what I read in two books, "Iraq Confidential" by Scott Ritter and "Chain of Command" by Seymour Hersh. Scott Ritter is an ex-Marine who headed up the UN Inspection Teams in Iraq in the search for WMDs. All the evidence that he provided to Clinton and Bush pointed to the fact that no WMDs existed and that the intelligence saying that they did was incorrect. Both Ritter and Hersh explored the relationship between the White House and the CIA, specifically that Bush insisted on looking at the raw intelligence data without allowing for the CIA to utilize experts to analyze the intelligence reports. Many of the Bush policies were based on inaccurate intelligence because of the lack of analysis.
As I re-consider the movie, I don't like that the end of the movie and its over-dramatization took away from the accurate information it was showing earlier in the film. All in all, I thought that the movie was done well. I really liked Matt Damon and the role he played. It just didn't need to be so over-wrought.
Links - And a New Trick!
I am going to try a new trick today on the blog. I don't like that all my links navigate you away from the blog. You shouldn't have to go back and forth like that. I think I've found some HTML code that will help. I think I have it opening a new tab, but it's an improvement, right? If you have any suggestions, please let me know!
There have been some absolutely fanfuckingtastic things on the internet the last couple of weeks and I would be remiss if I didn't make them available to all of you!
You know that Taylor Swift song, "You Belong To Me?" (which isn't to be mistaken for Pat Benatar's "We Belong"). Well, what if Taylor Swift were the front woman for a heavy metal band? In my opinion, it makes the song better. MUCH better.
Have you ever played a game called Robot Unicorn Attack? If you're a fan of Erasure, you should play with the sound as high as it can go. (It's an easy game to play and you don't have to download anything to your computer.)
I've been kind of on a Mitch Hedberg kick recently.
And then one of Shing's friends from high school introduced us to Mike Birbiglia.
Actually, now that I take a step back, I've been on a pretty big stand up comedian kick recently. Here is the Death Star Canteen sketch by Eddie Izzard.
And finally, for the most disturbing thing out there right now, what would you say if I told you that there was a junior high school that performed Scarface for their school play? Wait, you don't believe me? Well say hello to my little friend!
UPDATE: Oh no! I totally bought it! Here's more info on the Scarface School Play: LA Times Article.
There have been some absolutely fanfuckingtastic things on the internet the last couple of weeks and I would be remiss if I didn't make them available to all of you!
You know that Taylor Swift song, "You Belong To Me?" (which isn't to be mistaken for Pat Benatar's "We Belong"). Well, what if Taylor Swift were the front woman for a heavy metal band? In my opinion, it makes the song better. MUCH better.
Have you ever played a game called Robot Unicorn Attack? If you're a fan of Erasure, you should play with the sound as high as it can go. (It's an easy game to play and you don't have to download anything to your computer.)
I've been kind of on a Mitch Hedberg kick recently.
And then one of Shing's friends from high school introduced us to Mike Birbiglia.
Actually, now that I take a step back, I've been on a pretty big stand up comedian kick recently. Here is the Death Star Canteen sketch by Eddie Izzard.
And finally, for the most disturbing thing out there right now, what would you say if I told you that there was a junior high school that performed Scarface for their school play? Wait, you don't believe me? Well say hello to my little friend!
UPDATE: Oh no! I totally bought it! Here's more info on the Scarface School Play: LA Times Article.
Movie Review - Hot Tub Time Machine
Yeah yeah yeah - I know. (mumble...somesortofapologyfornotpostingmorefrequently...mumble)
Last week, Jerrica and I decided to go catch two movies on a Tuesday afternoon in Emeryville. Not that it was illegal, but maybe we paid to go see Green Zone and then after Green Zone went to see this fantastic movie called Hot Tub Time Machine. Interesting note, the theater was not posting the titles of the movies playing in each individual theatre - I had to be resourceful to figure out where HTTM was playing. Luckily the kiosks where you could buy tickets without going to the ticket window list the theatre number before you have to purchase the ticket.
Anyway...
I'll say more about Green Zone later. It was a decent movie, but intense. What we really needed after it was a light, mindless, and funny film. And Hot Tub Time Machine was PERFECT!!
Loosely, the story revolves around three friends who have fallen out of touch (John Cusack, Rob Corddry, and Craig Robinson) and John Cusack's nephew. They get together to re-live old times in a small ski town only to find themselves sucked into 1986 via a hot tub time machine. Then they have to figure out how to get back without changing the future... too much.
If you think you've seen a movie like this before, you probably have. One of the main differences, though, is that this movie is so tongue-in-cheek and self-aware, that it's hard not to be thoroughly entertained by it. The best example of all the liberties they take with logic and physics was one point where something ridiculous is proposed and the response is "oh... that makes sense" as if to justify what the writer's wrote.
When you go see this (skipping this movie is not an option), keep an eye out for the homage to Back to the Future. Crispin Glover (George McFly in BTTF) has a decently sized role in the movie as well. Too bad they couldn't get Huey Lewis and The News to do a song for them. The music and all the 80s references, though, are SPECTACULAR and remind us how bad of a decade it actually was, but in an endearing way.
My recommendation, go see this movie after you've had a long day and just want to blow off some steam and laugh for 90 minutes. Hell, bring some beer with you into the theatre, too.
Last week, Jerrica and I decided to go catch two movies on a Tuesday afternoon in Emeryville. Not that it was illegal, but maybe we paid to go see Green Zone and then after Green Zone went to see this fantastic movie called Hot Tub Time Machine. Interesting note, the theater was not posting the titles of the movies playing in each individual theatre - I had to be resourceful to figure out where HTTM was playing. Luckily the kiosks where you could buy tickets without going to the ticket window list the theatre number before you have to purchase the ticket.
Anyway...
I'll say more about Green Zone later. It was a decent movie, but intense. What we really needed after it was a light, mindless, and funny film. And Hot Tub Time Machine was PERFECT!!
Loosely, the story revolves around three friends who have fallen out of touch (John Cusack, Rob Corddry, and Craig Robinson) and John Cusack's nephew. They get together to re-live old times in a small ski town only to find themselves sucked into 1986 via a hot tub time machine. Then they have to figure out how to get back without changing the future... too much.
If you think you've seen a movie like this before, you probably have. One of the main differences, though, is that this movie is so tongue-in-cheek and self-aware, that it's hard not to be thoroughly entertained by it. The best example of all the liberties they take with logic and physics was one point where something ridiculous is proposed and the response is "oh... that makes sense" as if to justify what the writer's wrote.
When you go see this (skipping this movie is not an option), keep an eye out for the homage to Back to the Future. Crispin Glover (George McFly in BTTF) has a decently sized role in the movie as well. Too bad they couldn't get Huey Lewis and The News to do a song for them. The music and all the 80s references, though, are SPECTACULAR and remind us how bad of a decade it actually was, but in an endearing way.
My recommendation, go see this movie after you've had a long day and just want to blow off some steam and laugh for 90 minutes. Hell, bring some beer with you into the theatre, too.
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