movies, movies, movies and procrastination

So I’ll start with my poll from last week. Surely our readers are having a go at me. Journey to the Center of the Earth cannot be the favorite movie of summer 2008. Seriously. Someone explain to me why I should see it.



Speaking of movies, I heard of a movie called Hamlet 2. My first thought was a National Lampoon movie or one of the worst ideas ever. Then I saw a preview and I’m at least a little interested. Hopefully it’s not like the Shitty Beatles of Wayne’s World fame.

Tiny: Wayne. How you doin'?

Wayne Campbell: Hey, Tiny, who's playing today?

Tiny: Jolly Green Giants and the Shitty Beetles.

Wayne Campbell: Shitty Beetles? Are they any good?

Tiny: They suck.

Wayne Campbell: Then it's not just a clever name.

Watch the preview and judge for yourself.

I finished Rome, Season 1. It did have some highlights but I guess I was expecting more. The actor playing Caesar was quite good. He had this quiet control, while oozing arrogance. The Vorenius and Pullo characters got too much play. I would have rather focused on the major players in the events of that era, but what are you going to do. The one character that really bothered me was Brutus. Stop crying you pansy. Every scene was him fighting back tears. And he’s going to bring down the Republic? Maybe not. Caesar’s assassination was a punch in the mouth even though you knew it was coming. All in all, OK but I would have rather seen something more historically accurate. Oh one more thing, I loved the actor playing Marc Antony. Talk about a backstabbing, power hungry, a-hole. Spot on.


Finally, I found this chart through on a digg.com article. My work day summarized in a handy dandy chart. Go to link so that you can enlarge the pic.

http://www.projectsidewalk.com/images/flowchart2.jpg

a trip in the way back machine

This weekend was a trip down memory lane on a couple levels. We were sitting around stuffing envelopes for Tom’s candidate while listening to the Ghostbusters 2 soundtrack, on vinyl. I didn’t even realize that there was a soundtrack, but be that as it may, the conversation turned to our time in high school. Like Tom taping his own top 40 show a la Kasey Kasem. Or playing Bible Bowl when the team was just Tom and me. Or remembering times based on the music: Michael Jackson’s Dangerous, Metallica’s self titled album and Nirvana’s Nevermind. Good times filled with Risk, Rampage and basketball.

The following morning we attended a local traditional church service. Not my cup of tea, but I endured it. Tom and I passed notes back and forth, falling back into a natural habit as if it were yesterday. The only difference was that we weren’t actually sitting in the back row.

I met with Ryan Apple to discuss the poetry written during my artistic phase, and in explaining the poems I had to explore the context in which they were written, taking me down a path of high school love/rejection, existentialist angst, spiritual desolation, and my relationship with Erin. It had been a long time since I had really read the lines and it did two things:
---Took me back to a specific moment in my life.
---Made me wonder if I could ever write like that again.

Finally I reconnected with a friend from high school via that most 2008 of experiences: Facebook. Since I added my high school to my facebook account, I’ve had half of dozen friend requests, which I have ignored but one. I’m not going to just reconnect with just anyone. I didn’t really know you in high school, why would I talk to you now?

Moving on to soccer, I watched Arsenal thrash Newcastle. It ended 3-0 and could have been much worse. Newcastle could have made it a game in the second half, but once Owen hit the crossbar instead of finishing, Arsenal just took charge again.

Juventus gave up a late goal and drew 1-1. This is the season they truly return to European football and I’m not sure that they have the horses to fight on all fronts. It would be nice if they finished in the top 3 again and make the last 16 of the Champions League. Not sure that they can really expect to win either competition.

That’s it. By next week I should be done with first season of Rome, and hope to have some thoughts about it. Here’s one: IT’S NOT HISTORICALLY ACCURATE!!!

music items, Paris Hilton, Rome and the Olympics

I’ll start off with a couple of music notes:


If you've never heard of the band SLOAN, here's the NPR review of their latest album:


http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93063594


Give them a listen and you won’t be disappointed.

slooooaan!!slooooaan!!slooooaan!!



Oasis, another favorite band of mine, has a new album coming out, but I’m wondering, is that a good thing? I love Oasis, don't get me wrong, but I don't want them to be my generation's rolling stones, putting out album after album, occasionally producing a song that's worth anything, slowly growing old and irrelevant. I think they should just fade into the background, and then in like 10 years, be used as reference point for the second British invasion. Let’s be fair, they had their time, and it was glorious, and now it’s over. Time to move on.



In case you didn’t hear Paris Hilton got a sex change. Trust me, I visit enough sites and receive enough information throughout the day to know whether that happened or not. So I don’t need an update in my junk mail folder from Mohammad Berry [enehpsog@31e.com]. Thanks, but no thanks.



I have the first season of Rome on hold of the library. I don’t much about the show (time period, actors, etc.), but I’ve heard that this is a pretty amazing show and I am interested to see how it is. So if there are any Rome fans out there, let me know what to expect.


Other than that, I will leave you with this gem from the Onion News Network in honor of the Olympics: