Inception

Gasp! I love this movie! I know. I know. Everyone loves this movie. But like c'mon. It was bad ass. Plus I'm a sucker for over the top movies. And Leo. (swoon) Plus this one was trippy and pretended to have some substance. It looked great on blu ray. My first blu ray purchase. I kinda felt like it was a big deal. I want to watch it with some surround sound though because this movie definitely gets better when its louder. I dunno. I don't think there is much to say about this movie. I think you have all seen it. I think you all know it's about dreams. I think half of you are probably confused by it. I think you don't know that I'm watching wrestling while I type this. Nuff said.

Kiss the Girls

Book 2 of the Alex Cross series! How utterly predictable. Lame. This one is a book turned movie so you may have heard of it. (Morgan Freeman plays Alex Cross) A mysterious man is kidnapping women at college campuses in the South. He takes only the most beautiful accomplished women. They are all extraordinary. He calls himself Casanova and he keeps the women in a harem. He does with them what he pleases, but he wants them to love them. He furnishes their room with objects they would like to win them over. Unfortunately Alex Cross's niece was one of the women kidnapped. This shit just got personal. So you know, he does normal cop / psychologist stuff to find her. He also falls in love with one of the victims that escaped along the way. Typical. I won't ruin the end for you because it's a movie on tv sometime, and I highly suggest you watch it! The book is even better. So read that too!

The Blind Side

For some reason I feel like I blogged this already. Apparently I didn't.

So, this is the story of Michael Oher. An illiterate large teenage with no family that has no idea how to play football. Sandra Bullock is pretty much a ball buster. She is a tough chick with a heart of gold. She takes Oher in and they become family. They tell him "Play football kid! You're big!" But Michael just doesn't get it. He doesn't want to hurt people because he's actually a big baby.

Sidebar: Have you seen Friday Night Lights? Have you seen when Riggins bangs an older woman with a son? Do you know the son? Yea, well he is essentially (and may actually be) Sandra Bullock's son. "Tim Riggins! Oh boy!"

Anyways, Michael Oher must defend his quarterback like hs is Tim Riggins' bud so he starts demolishing people in football. Then he goes to college. There is some drama, but ultimately all is resolved.

I liked this movie. Sandra Bullock is really good in it.

Guess who didn't like this movie?

Michael Oher. Apparently he could read. Apparently he could play football. Oops.

Along Came a Spider

So, I have to apologize. I've been a bad bad back blogged member. I have not posted since the beginning of January because I'm awful! I had a few things to post in January but I got so caught up with the big move, that I forgot. Then I just neglected it because, well, I'm awful!

Ok. James Patterson. Murder mystery writer. (Side note! He also writes Maximum Ride. Yea I'm talking to you Sweeney) He comes out with a book probably once or twice a year. Some of his best books are from his Alex Cross series. It's a bunch of different murder mysteries following this one DC cop, Alex Cross. He's a widower with two children who lives with his nana. He's a pretty likeable character. He also has this best friend Sampson who sounds like a ton of fun.

I have read various Alex Cross books and decided I wanted to read them all in order. This is the first Cross novel. It follows him as he searches for a killer who kidnapped two famous children. The killers name is Gary Soneji, one I recognized from many of his books. Soneji eludes Cross for the majority of the book but then is caught which is very out of character. He plays the psycho card and plays it well, but he eventually sentenced to jail time. To Cross' dismay, in the last chapter of the book, he finds out Soneji escapes from prison. Soneji makes a visit to Cross' house at night and almost kidnaps his children. Gasp! I feel like the relationship between these two will span multiple books!

Oh PS. I liked this book.

Super Mario Bros.

What is there to say about a game that is the icon of the whole culture? Only one thing. Unbeatable.

Oh I killed Bower. It took me three months and endless ridicule from people, but Bowers died in a fire pit of hell. I mean unbeatable in the fact that no game, in no genre, on no platform, has ever came close to me to the perfect video game like Super Mario Bros.

I did have a lot of trouble with this game. It could be contributed to a lot of facts: I like save points. I like turtles. And I fear falling to my death. But the real reason the game took longer than it should was confidence. Confidence in your jumps is the main thing that will help you conquer the game. From a single hop to conquering a Hammer Bros., you need to be 100% sure that you're going to make the right decision, because a moment's hesitation will throw you off the game's internal pattern (an invention of the creator and composer.)

All I can say is that Super Mario Bros. is the only game that gave me a full enjoyment no matter what happened to Mario or his brother. Live, die or win, Super Mario Bros. entertains with no fail.

An Object of Beauty

Books by the writer/singer/comedian Steve Martin are usually not what you expect, if you expect antics of The Jerk or SNL. His books are usually smartly written, with enjoyable characters and witty to a fault. AOoB, not so much.

Lacey Yeager is a head strong, beautiful young woman who bursts on the art scene of the early 90's. This is the protagonist. Unfortunate circumstances. This is the antagonist. Daniel Franks is an old friend and one time lover of Lacey. This is your narrator. The rest of the book can really only be deciphered if the reader has had at least one Art History class of the Great Masters. It is a simple and sometimes fun romp through the art world, especially critiques and personal opinions on art, the art scene and artists themselves. The story and protagonist reminding me of a dying sun. Bright and shining for the first two parts, but as we enter part three, it fades and leaves you with nothing but empty coldness.

The book cover is pretty amazing though.

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

I'm a big fan of the Tomb Raider series, and I'm also a big fan of developer Naughty Dog (they made the Crash Bandicoot series). So when Naughty Dog attempted a Tomb Raider-style game, I knew that when I got a PS3 that Uncharted would be one of the first games I'd pick up. Also, its sequel from 2009 basically won every game-of-the-year award there is, so obviously the first game has to be at least pretty fun. Unfortunately, having finished Uncharted, I can say that I'm not really that impressed. The platforming was at times decent, but mostly pretty bland. The puzzles were usually pretty simple and never had that grand sense of scale that I got from, say, Tomb Raider: Underworld. What sets Uncharted apart from that series is its heavier focus on shooting, which I just didn't enjoy at all. It was pretty difficult to aim, and moving around with a gun was slow and a pain in the ass. People criticize Tomb Raider for its gunplay, but I'll take the hands-off but much less frustrating shooting over what Uncharted had to offer any day. I know it seems like I'm ripping on Uncharted, but it was in fact a very good game- the problem here was just that I felt like recent Tomb Raider games were better in nearly every way. Oh well. I hear that basically everything's fixed in Uncharted 2, so of course I'll give that a play at some point, but probably not for a while.

Friday Night Lights: Season 4

Oh crap. I finished watching this at least a week ago, wasn't paying that much attention for a few episodes, and also saw 2 more seasons of Friday Night Lights earlier this month. All that adds up to the fact that I don't have much to post here. Which is a shame, because many parts of this season stood out as being really, really good. First off, there's a huge change of setting- instead of coaching the perennial state title contenders the Dillon Panthers, Coach Taylor is now in charge of the newly reformed East Dillon Lions. The team's much worse than before, and the goal is now to just become less of an embarrassment. With most of the original cast members off of the team, we get a few new characters playing the games, the most prominent being troubled QB Vince Howard and classic good-guy Luke Cafferty. They were good characters! Vince throughout the season is dealing with the fact that his friends want him to go back to a life of crime and quit football. Luke deals with the fact that his family has no interest in football and wants him to constantly work on their farm. And late in the season, he's part of a major plot point- he gets fellow newcomer Becky pregnant! The episode centered on Becky's decision over whether to keep the baby or not was definitely one of the high points for me- I found the scenes with she and Mrs. Taylor discussing what to do especially good. But the best part of the season is hands-down the Saracen-centered episode "The Son," focusing on his strained relationship with his father. Overall, I found the season just as good as all the others, probably second to only season 1. And soon enough I'll catch season 5- be it on DVD or airing on NBC. Will it get logged? Wait and find out!

Um Jammer Lammy

I played PaRappa the Rapper and PaRappa the Rapper 2 almost a decade ago and loved both of them a great deal. But somehow, I wasn't even aware of this spin-off in which you wield a guitar instead of a microphone until a couple of months ago when Sweeney brought it to my attention. Thanks, Sween! And when I went to Amazon.com just to see if I could even find a copy, I was delighted to find that new copies were selling for a buck-fifty. What an easy and obvious purchase, right? Unfortunately, for one reason or another, this game was an absolute pain in the ass to play and to beat, and simply wasn't very enjoyable whatsoever. Dammit, Sween! I popped it into my PS3 after getting home from work and immediately set it to "easy" mode. Hey, don't judge me - I wanted to enjoy the songs without running the risk of failing and having to restart any levels, which is something I wasn't intending on doing anyway. Boy, was I mistaken. I could not beat the first level. This is a rhythm-based game, much like Guitar Hero and DDR and the like, and everything hinges on pressing the right buttons at the right times. But even though I was pressing the right buttons at what looked to be the right times (based on an ineffective bar sprinkled with button icons), I wasn't actually hearing my notes being played at the right times. There was a very distinct delay between when I'd push the buttons and when I'd hear the notes being played. And I failed early and often. Frustrated, I went back to the options to seek out some kind of calibration setting or maybe find a tutorial. No such luck. But what I did find was the difficulty setting - not on "easy," but on "normal." What the hell? I changed it back to easy - again - and then went straight to a button that said "start game" instead of exiting the settings and starting the game from the main menu. Why that mattered, I'll never know, but apparently it did, because when I resumed play I was very clearly in "easy" mode. Now, I figured that the easier setting would keep the same fundamental gameplay while just being more forgiving on the timing aspect of the game. Again, how mistaken I was! Easy mode just straight up did away with the need to press the appropriate buttons, but still wanted me to press buttons with impeccable timing. So the game was barely any easier to play, and slightly less fun if anything. But I guess it was easier enough, because I flew through the entire game - six or seven levels, each only two or three minutes long - in under half an hour, failing only once or twice. But the experience amounted to me just wailing away on the X-button with a half-frustrated and half-apathetic candor. The songs weren't memorable, the characters weren't endearing, and the whole thing just felt lame in every area where PaRappa the Rapper felt cool and enjoyable. And have you ever tried to play a 32-bit video game on a 55-inch HD TV? Because let me tell you, it looks like shit. Actually, the TV itself may have been what was causing my timing mishaps, in hindsight. After all, modern rhythm games like Rock Band allow you to calibrate your game to your HD TV, and even though the difference is often no more than a few dozen milliseconds, it's substantial enough to make or break your gameplay. Since I was playing on an HD TV, there's no reason to assume it didn't have the same delay it would have had on a Rock Band game, but since Um Jammer came out way before HD TVs, there'd be no reason for the game to have a calibration setting, rendering me simply unable to play it with proper cadence and timing. Gyah! Oh well. I guess this is what happens when you try to play 12-year-old games with modern-day technology. Whatever. This game may have only taken me an hour or so to beat, but it was, as I'm sure you can tell, an hour riddled with frustration and disappointment. Now let's see if I can salvage this young Friday night.

The Sopranos: Season 1

I watched eight volumes of Seinfeld DVDs between last February and last June. And I'm about to follow the same pattern for another much-acclaimed classic TV show, The Sopranos. Going in, I worried that hype would do the same bad things for this show that it did for the first season of The Wire for me. But that just wasn't the case as I thoroughly enjoyed the first season of this iconic HBO series and found it extremely watchable. That doesn't say much about The Wire, but I've griped about that show before and probably will again. For now, let's focus on The Sopranos - but not too much, obviously, as I'll have another six future posts about the remaining seasons. Tony Soprano is a capo (middle management, if you will) in the Italian-American Mafia. But he's also a father, husband, and son. A big dynamic in this first season is the balance Tony must maintain between his home life and his working life. They often intersect, of course, as Tony's uncle is the mob boss and his children view Tony's associates as their own uncles. One thing I noticed as the season unfolded was that I began to like Tony more and more. At first, Tony was often a cruel and heartless mobster, as well as an unfaithful husband, and I had to ask, "why are we rooting for this guy again?" But as some story arcs took shape and Tony began to run into serious trouble, it was easy to do so. Perhaps he's just a charismatic guy in spite of his blatant immoral lifestyle. Regardless, Tony is certainly one of the most interesting characters I've seen on television, and if he continues to develop and grow throughout the next few seasons (which I fully expect him to do) then I'd absolutely put him up there with Don Draper and Walter White. And speaking of Don Draper, I think it's noteworthy that Mad Men show runner Matthew Weiner served as a writer and executive producer for The Sopranos, as did Boardwalk Empire creator Terence Winter; some of today's best TV has a shared lineage rooted in The Sopranos. It's kind of like the coaching tree spawned by Bill Belichick's early '00s Patriots dynasty except that the Browns, Broncos, pre-Ryan Jets, and Notre Dame Fighting Irish have all completely sucked. Anyway, I enjoyed this first season a lot and expect the rest of the series to be just as potable. I'll be watching them sporadically, I'm sure, but that rough February-June Seinfeld timeline seems like a good model for the way this series unfolds.

Serenity

And, as promised, here's the movie that serves as a conclusion to the Firefly series. It also serves, by the way, as a pretty decent stand-alone piece. In fact, if you're interested in the series at all, but unsure about whether or not it's for you, I'd even recommend that you start with this movie. It's tough to make a "sequel" that is equal parts newcomer-friendly and fanbase-loyal, but I think Serenity straddled the balance perfectly. There are moments where a newcomer may feel lost and there are moments where a hardcore fan may feel cheated or disserviced in some way, but this movie worked about as well as anyone should have expected it to. In fact, there were some great moments of clarity within the first ten or fifteen minutes of the movie that further explained a brief history of the Firefly universe. Earth got overcrowded, so people left for a nearby solar system, terraformed all the planets, and sooner or later broke out into civil war between the "core" planets and the outer, Old West frontier-like planets. There's also a very brief but effective introduction to the members of Serenity's crew and the longest-running B-story from the short-lived series: that of Simon and his psychic but deranged sister River. The movie was like what any series-capper should be; bigger, better, and with higher stakes than any previous episode. All things considered, I think it made for a very effective piece of closure for the series. And, again, also a decent movie for those who never saw the series as well.

Firefly: The Complete Series

I'd never seen a Joss Whedon show before (Buffy, Angel, Dollhouse), but this short-lived one seemed like it had both a cult following and critical acclaim, so I bought it a couple of months ago for a low price and figured, for better or worse, that I'd be done with it soon enough. The series lasted for fourteen episodes and even if I didn't like it, my logic was that it'd be "over" soon enough. The good news is that I did come to like the series. The bad news is that it took about half of the series for me to do so. Let's start with the premise. Firefly has often been described as a Western set in space. And I can attest to the accuracy of this genre-merging description. In a nutshell, it takes place in the very distant future where humanity has spread to a wide range of planets and star systems. But out on the "rim" or "fringe" of the civilized galaxy lies a frontier of sorts in which there just isn't enough official jurisdiction to prevent lawlessness. It's a frontier just like the Old West. To drive the point home, the writers even have many of the frontier planets' residents speaking in some hokey Southern backwoods accents and - for whatever reason - everyone's in 19th century regalia for the most part. The whole thing kind of works. It's science fiction, for sure, but there are no aliens or laser beams or anything; good old fashioned gunplay abounds and there's horseback riding aplenty. To call it steampunk wouldn't be fair, but also wouldn't be entirely unwarranted. Anyway, the premise of a Western in outer space intrigued me, but I probably should have known, going in, that fourteen forty-four-minute episodes is a very long series to enjoy based solely on a concept. I'd need to understand and appreciate the characters themselves, too, in order to enjoy the series. And as I already kind of said, it took me several episodes to get to do so. I'm not sure whether the blame for that rests with the show, with me, or with Fox itself for drastically fucking up the order and presentation of the episodes. See, the pilot episode of the series is two hours long. But my understanding is that, at the last minute, Fox said, "we don't want to kick off this series with a two-hour episode," and the Firefly folks were forced to overhaul the second episode into one that could serve as a worthy introduction. And then the third, fourth, and fifth episodes were each also affected, to varying extents, as content from the pilot also needed to be shown in each of those. So for those of us viewing the series on DVD, we get a two-hour pilot episode, and then we get another four straight episodes that each rehash a little bit of that pilot episode. So, yeah. Clunky-feeling, I guess. In spite of all the introduction and exposition, I still found myself confused about the relationships between various characters right up through those first five or six episodes - likely not because the show had failed to establish them, but because my own interest had waned beyond the point of caring to commit them to memory. Ultimately, the series and I did find our "groove," so to speak, but by then I was already halfway finished with it. It goes against the nature of backlog-clearing to revisit any movie or TV show that I've previously seen, but I'd definitely be interested in re-watching this series, especially those earlier episodes, if given any excuse to do so. (Maybe a friend or girlfriend would like to try it out? And wouldn't mind watching those first few episodes with me? Anyone?) Once I got over whatever hump there was, I enjoyed the character-driven stories that dominated the latter half of the series. The series finale - which was really just the last episode produced before cancellation was official and production shut down - was actually pretty fitting and, while it's always a shame when a series gets cancelled midseason, I think the "loose ends" here are fewer and farther between than with many other series that suffered the same short-lived fate. Also, there is of course still the motion picture Serenity which I'm hoping serves as an adequate epilogue to provide closure for the series and its characters. I'll probably get to that movie tonight or tomorrow. In the mean time, have a happy Presidents Day.

Moby-Dick

I've been reading this all time classic for a year and a half now. But while it took me from August '09 to February '11 to get through the first forty percent of the book, I've conquered the final sixty percent in the last week alone. And I have some very mixed feelings about the novel. I apologize in advance if this post becomes exceedingly lengthy or sloppy at times or too all-inclusive for its own good - although I can't think of a more suitable post for an exceedingly lengthy, sometimes sloppy, all-inclusive book like Moby-Dick. Let's start with the good. At its best, Moby-Dickreads like a beautiful poem or a pitch-perfect song. Adventure abounds. The narrator - we can call him Ishmael - offers absurdly deep philosophical reflection on a multitude of elements of the human experience. He spends whole chapters thinking and wondering about history, geography, social issues both in America and in the world at large, and the human experience in general. It's simply amazing that Melville was able to take something so simple - a long and arduous boat ride - and stretch it into 135 chapters that fire upon so many different subjects and topics. Ishmael will be laboring while tied at the waist to a fellow whaler for security, and it'll pique a lengthy discussion about holy matrimony and the ties that bind, for example. Symbolism abounds in places both obvious (Ahab's quest for revenge against the "white whale" has become a pop culture metaphor for obsession) and minute, such as the way the nationalities of the crew members allows their interactions to parallel many international discords past and present (present being 1850, of course). You get the sense while reading Moby-Dick that Melville has tried to embed a deeper meaning into nearly every event that occurs over the enormous span of 135 chapters. And that's commendable. It's obvious to me, having read the book now, why the novel is such an English teacher's wet dream. You can analyze sentence after sentence for thematic nuances or "big picture" worldly meaning and never run out of metaphors and new ways to interpret the text. It is, all things considered, one of the smartest and most carefully written books I have ever read. That said, let's turn to my biggest issue with the novel: it is not very well paced. I know this may seem like a self-contradicting statement, as I only just referred to Melville's writing as both "smart and careful" and "like a pitch-perfect song." But while it's true that individual chapters and scenes in Moby-Dick each work extremely well, the sum of the parts leaves a bit to be desired. Ishmael is sloppy, at times, in laying out his paragraphs and sentences. There are entire chapters that exist simply as an addendum to previous chapters. "I'd like to go back and expand upon the tools used for the oil-rendering process," Ishmael will say, a few chapters after the one about oil-rendering. Perhaps it's an artifact of the way novel writing worked in the 1850s, but why not just go back during the editing process and expand upon that chapter within the confines of, say, that chapter? Maybe Melville intentionally allowed Ishmael to backtrack and expand upon his earlier narrative. Maybe Melville felt that it added a more human or realistic tone to Ishmael's story. But first of all, I doubt that, and second of all, either way, it felt distracting and sloppy. It's one thing to tell a story out of order for effects like juxtaposition and flashbacks and parallels and two separate timelines having back-to-back climaxes within the narrative, but this wasn't a case of breaking chronological order for effect. It was only a case of "oh yeah, I forgot to mention something earlier." There was a unique narrative frame - or lack thereof - for Moby-Dick in which different chapters served very different purposes. Some advanced the story, some allowed Ishmael to wax philosophical about something or other, and some were very detailed lessons on the whaling industry and various components of the practice. There are four straight chapters, for example, in which Ishmael simply compares and contrasts sperm whales and right whales. Some chapters are even written with stage directions, which sort of disrupted the narrative flow for me; in a first-person narrative, why have occasional soliloquies and dialogues for which the narrator isn't present? One of the longest chapters in the book consists of Ishmael defending the whaling practice as a noble and timeless one. One of the shortest involves Ishmael eating breakfast. The way it's all put together gives you the sense that the novel is trying to be too many types of books all at once. Is it a reference book about whaling? Partially, yes, and it's clear that Melville has done exhaustive research on the practice. But is it not an epic adventure story? Well, yes - it's that too. And is it a stream-of-conscious rambling of sorts? Most definitely. And it succeeds at all the different things it tries to be. But as a whole, it feels identity-less, almost. I can't really put it any better than this negative review of Moby-Dick from 1851: "An ill-compounded mixture of romance and matter-of-fact. The idea of a connected and collected story has obviously visited and abandoned its writer again and again in the course of composition." Another small complaint I'll tack on is that Melville was extremely heavy-handed with the foreshadowing, going so far as to have a Far Eastern harpooner occasionally prophesy the impending doom of Ahab and his ship. Bad omens pop up every few chapters and toward the end of the book Melville is essentially screaming "they're all gonna die!" right in our faces. I know literary devices exist for a reason, but I preferred the obvious conclusion of the story to be hinted at, rather than outright forecasted at various points throughout the tale. Melville does a great job at slowly creating a foreboding sense of doom, but he ruins it, in my mind, by dwelling on it in the foreground rather than letting it build up menacingly in the background. All of that said, the book's conclusion was pretty enjoyable to read. Ahab descends ever more into madness and it's in these final chapters that the story feels purest from a narrative framework standpoint. With Ahab's fall imminent, Ishmael wastes no time describing the whaling industry anymore or pondering social norms and customs. Instead, it's nothing but mood-setting and plot development. The inevitable ending did feel a tad abrupt, and I can see why some readers might be upset that after hundreds of pages of build-up, the climax and falling action took all of a few pages to get through. Frankly, I was just glad the book was over. So yeah. Moby-Dick was beautiful and impressive, but not without some major and fundamental flaws - namely, that it tried to be too many different things all at once. I can't really say whether or not anyone else should bother reading it. Just be warned, should you choose to do so, what you're getting yourself into. But by the same token, get ready for one of the deepest and most interesting texts that the Western canon has to offer.

Swordfish

I'm ten years late to this party, but yeah, Halle Berry's boobs were in this movie. Also, it was about some hackers and terrorists. But those three aspects of the film - hackers, terrorists, and Berry's boobies - are the three things I knew the film would have going in. I have to admit, I was a little bit impressed by the minor twist ending. Not because it was unique or original in any way, but because John Travolta's character essentially told us all how the movie would end in the first scene. The acting here was pretty iffy, especially for a cast that featured Don Cheadle, Hugh Jackman, and Halle Berry. Travolta has put forth plenty of stinkers, but may have been the best actor of all the leads. Ultimately, this wasn't a great movie, or even a particularly good one. But it wasn't as bad as I worried it would be, either. Let's call it a C-plus and get on with our Sundays.

The I.T. Crowd: Seasons 1-4

It's odd that the discussion on The I.T. Crowd was rekindled today, as I watched a number of episodes throughout the series (what should I use instead of "series" for British shows?) today to have finally finished it all off. Not too hard, as I had seen 15 or so beforehand and the 4 seasons have resulted in a whopping 24 total episodes. Anyway, as with Trevor, I really can't tell what makes this show so addicting. It's basically a look at the lives of I.T. guys Roy, the slacker; Moss, the socially-challenged geek; and Jen, their computer-illiterate boss. A lot of the jokes come from the disconnect between tech-savvy people and everyone else, but that's hardly the basis of the show. The easy jobs they all have give them a lot of time to goof off and get into classic sitcom hijinks. I'd say it has as much to do with computers as Always Sunny does with bars- it's just a part of the setting really. I think the humor mostly derives from the over-acting. A few of the characters really ham it up and go overboard. I'll cite this scene, a favorite of mine- after the CEO of Reynholm Industries commits suicide (a great scene on its own), his long-lost son shows up at his funeral like this. Then that's quickly followed by this. It's a show that is continually focused on wackiness- every time you think the classic sappy-but-funny sitcom moment is about to happen, it doesn't. And as a final selling point, this is the easiest to understand British show I've ever seen. So yeah, this is good stuff, and I wish there were more than six episodes each season- I'll have to wait for series 5.

The Human Centipede

Is this the most disgusting movie I've ever seen? Yes, it is.

The Hurt Locker

So that was 2009's "Best Picture" winner. Alright. I can see the case. The Hurt Locker is a movie about a three-man bomb squad in Iraq. And the thing is, it's really only about those three men and the bombs they're disarming. There are very few supporting characters. There is very little narrative. We're not told much about any of the scenes we watch; typically, there's a bomb, and our boys must disarm it. They are often successful and sometimes less than successful. The whole thing just feels very realistic, and that allows the tension and suspense to maintain very consistently high levels. Off the top of my head, the only other Iraq War movie I can remember seeing is Jarhead, and that was a very different movie that took place 20 years ago during a very different war. Jarhead is about how boring and patience-testing modern war can be. The Hurt Locker focuses more on how exciting and dangerous modern war can be. Both are great films, and attempting to compare them is an apples and oranges type of exercise. I'm not sure if I loved the ending of The Hurt Locker from a movie narrative standpoint. However, I totally "get" the significance and meaning of it. I know that sounds vague, and if you haven't seen the movie yet, I'm sorry. (Also, see the movie.) Like the blurb on the DVD cover, I would say that this was a "near-perfect movie." So, you know, a nine on a scale of ten. I'm not sure if I think it was the best movie released in 2009. That said, it beats the shit out of Avatar.

The Kite Runner

I’m trying to blog tonight, but I’ve got to admit... I’m not much in the mood to write. More than that, I don’t really know what to say about this book either. Don’t get me wrong. The novel was good. Damn good. (I’m sure everyone already knew this, though; considering the book’s immense popularity, I’m probably the last person here to read it.) However, my brain’s feeling so blasé at the moment I can’t come up with any insightful response on this reading.

You know what, I’ll forego any plot explanation - like I said before, I’m sure you’ve all read it (and if you haven’t, what are you waiting for?) - and just delve into whatever gut feelings I’ve got; considering my brain’s on holiday. Aside from the strong story structure or its powerful, moving characters, I’ve got to say that this at least opened my eyes - if even only a little bit - to life in the Middle East. The book was release in 2003, so I think I’m trying to look at the material back when America was starting to turn bigoted against all Middle Easterners. Then this story comes along and, while fiction, reminds us how people are people and you can’t just lump an entire race in with one evil group - in this case, the Taliban. At it’s core, the book is about family and the ability to find redemption and forgiveness within one’s soul for sins that haunt our past. These are message that - on some level - most everyone can relate to. Using these themes as a vessel, author Khaled Hosseini draws upon sympathy and compassion from his readers as they look upon the Afghanis in a kinder, more understanding light.

Or maybe I’m completely wrong with this. I don’t know. But for one who’s only understanding of the Middle East comes from movies and news reports that depict nothing but rumble amidst a desert wasteland, clouded in violence and bloodshed; I gained a sad realization of what it would be like to be chase from your home at the brink of war only to return decades later unable to walk down the same streets you carelessly played on as a child in fear of being gunned down. Seeing strangers taking hold in a dilapidated refuge that used to be your warm house. Losing your innocent paradise you once knew as home.

I wonder when Hosseini first started writing this? Looking him up on Wiki, he began his career as a doctor here in SoCal and then just randomly switched jobs and popped this baby out two years after 9/11. If this was some sort of master plan in an attempt to shine a tolerant/understanding light on Americans as they began to look upon all Middle Easterners as their enemies, then I’m impressed. But if this was just story because it’s a story, then I’m also impressed.

It’s a good book. Go and read it. Oh, wait. I bet you already have.

Maus II

Well, shit sure did hit the fan in Maus II as the focus shifted from evading the Nazis to being a prisoner in Auschwitz. In my last post, I made a remark about the folly of trying to judge a complete work based solely on its first half. And I stand by that remark; not only did I enjoy Maus II and get a lot out of it, but I also appreciate Maus I all the more in hindsight. I think I began to understand more fully the story Art Spiegelman was trying to convey. It isn't just one about how his father survived the Holocaust; it's just as much a story about how Art himself has dealt with being the son of such a troubled man. There's a lot more introspection and the fourth wall all but vanishes at some points. An early scene shows Art talking to his wife about the book he's writing. "What kind of animal will I be in your book?" asks his wife, albeit being a mouse within the context of the scene. Since she is French, Art's wife could be depicted as a frog. But since she converted to Judaism, she could also be a mouse. This paradox really helps drive home a message I think I missed in Maus I: that it is foolish to try to divide racial and ethnic groups into animals. This becomes a recurring theme of sorts, as there is a German Jew in Auschwitz who the Jews see as a cat but who the Nazis see as a mouse. I think when all is said and done, I still got more out of Persepolis than I did from Maus, but that's probably because I've seen or heard or watched half a dozen stories about the horrors of the Holocaust whereas Persepolis took me to a place I'd never seen before - namely, Iran during the Islamic Revolution and the Iran-Iraq War. I give both bio-graphic novels (see what I did there?) two thumbs up, and you should venture forth and read either series with confidence. I mean, if you trust me, and all.

Friday Night Lights: Season 3

A testament to the addictive properties of Friday Night Lights: not 24 hours after I finished season 2, season 3 has been completed. Though slightly shorter, season 3 was at least a full season of television with a true finale and everything, which is good- I like some closure after all that drama! Season 3 is when some main characters start departing. First off, Santiago, who I liked in season 2, is never mentioned at all. Just seems kinda sloppy that they don't even reference his character, but whatever. Two other characters over the course of the season are appropriately written off the show, and I really liked how it was done- both of their departures truly felt like the culmination of their character arcs, plus it's hard to keep characters on a show about high school when they graduated the year before. In addition, most of the main cast is dealing with the pressures of senior year and getting into college while simultaneously focusing on a potential second state title, all while dealing with the classic relationship drama we've come to know and love in Dillon Texas. Although I liked the running theme in the season that everyone's time together was soon coming to an end, the show is about a football season, which ended in December as far as I can tell. Where's the closure when they've still got a few more months together? Well, I'll tell you where. After the last football game is played, the season finale takes place five months later and provides a nice look at the last days of senior year. While some characters will be sticking around, I'm not really sure exactly who will be gone forever, and a huge last-minute plot twist means there's plenty of possibilities for where to go next in season 4. I'll be taking a break from the series for a little bit while I do some business travel, but I'm sure when I'm back Gallagan's going to insist that we start watching again, so I'd expect season 4 to be posted later in the month.

Clerks the Animated Series Season 1

This series was amazing. I originally purchased the show on VHS so I have no problem posting it having rewatched it online. It's been a long time since I have seen all these episodes and I realized that the jokes get better the older you are (I being only 13 when I first saw it a lot of jokes just went over my head). The show features the good old cast from the movie Jay and Silent Bob as the two lowlifes who hang out selling various contraband outside the store, Randall and Dante as the clerks who run the video store and quick stop respectively, and it also features some excellent guest voice actors including Brian Pohsen, Alec Baldwin, Charles Barkley, and others.

This series pulled a lot of crazy stunts and it's no surprise that it only lasted two episodes on ABC before it was cut. If this show were on adult swim or some network like that it may have survived to at the bare minimum see all 6 original episodes aired. Since the season is so short I can probably mention all the episodes. The warning before the first episode is typical of adult rated cartoons and warns that all celebrity impersonations are accidental except where noted in the credits but it also goes on to say that the pilot episode was lost and unfortunately found so now the viewer is forced to watch it. They redeem themselves by informing the viewer that they can stay tuned for a better episode the next week.

The second episode starts with a clip show of past episodes (all just clips from episode one). The cast find themselves locked in a cold freezer thinking back on their lives. The also "jump the shark" in this episode when they remember old Happy Days episodes for a good portion of the twenty odd minute episode.

The third episode starts with the main characters reading fan mail only to find that the fans want to know where all the women and black people are. Therefore they introduce a new character named Lando who is black and full of wisdom that they refuse to heed.

The fourth episode follows the trite plot line that all shows have some sort of legal battle. In this case Jay slips on some spilled soda and Randall stupidly trying to prove a point goads a "high powered Lawyer" into take on his case to sue the quick stop. The jury ends up being the NBA all star team and the judge is Judge Reinhold who keeps day dreaming of another adventure with Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy from Beverley Hills cop).

Episode five is simply just a whole mess of movie parodies including but not limited to Indiana Jones and the temple of doom.

The final episode Dante and Randall don't leave the convenience store and discuss the stupidity of pop culture while absolute chaos unfolds just outside their doors. Jay and Silent Bob continually pop in to inform them of such things as a carnival, the death of the president by trampling from an ape, the presidents head being transplanted onto the ape, and the continual cheating of Dante's somewhat girlfriend.

All in all this single series of the animated show Clerks is worth watching. Had it been picked up by a less family friendly network than ABC I am sure that it would have survived a little longer. The dvd commentary mentions ideas for future episodes that include J and Silent Bob purchasing KITT from Nightrider, Jay becoming a boy band star and Silent Bob being hired at the Quick Stop and turning it into a successful business.

Reservation Road

Now here's a pretty plain movie. I bought and watched it with no expectations at all, but nothing about it surprised me, either pleasantly or otherwise. The gist is simple and even a bit boring. Mark Ruffalo kills Joaquin Phoenix's son in an accidental hit-and-run. Phoenix's wife Jennifer Connelly is saddened, but Phoenix is more enraged. He vows to find his son's killer and hold him accountable. Phoenix even hires a lawyer who turns out to be - surprise! - Ruffalo himself. Their lives become more and more intertwined and by the end of the second act, wouldn't you know it, Phoenix has put together all the clues and come to the realization that Ruffalo himself is the guilty party. I won't "spoil" the ending, but I will lament that there's just about zero payoff and no ironic or dramatic shift in the tension whatsoever. All things considered, there was just too much about this movie that felt a little off. It felt like a Coen Brothers flick without the wit and dark humor of the Coen Brothers. It felt like a perfect Sean Penn movie without the talents of Sean Penn. Everything from the screenplay to the performances to the production value just seemed a little too amateurish for me to consider this a decent movie. I'll call it a 5 and move on with my life and my backlog.

Friday Night Lights: Season 2

In Season 2, the show Friday Night Lights finds itself in an interesting situation: How do you top the previous season? I mean, FNL has been plagued by rumors of cancellation for its entire five-year run, as far as I can tell, which led to the writers pulling out all the stops in the first season and culminating in the ultimate goal, the Dillon Panthers winning the state championship, right off the bat. So what to do in season 2? None of the main characters have left yet, so it's hard to make a "we lost a great player so nobody believes in us this year" type of storyline. What would make an interesting ultimate fate for the Dillon Panthers' 2007 season? Unfortunately, the viewer doesn't get to find out until season 3, as this season got cut short by the writer's strike. That fucking writer's strike. Anyway, the thing to focus on here is the story arcs- how well did they work? The first thing I need to get out of the way is the murder plot. Mild-mannered Landry kills a guy. This is the biggest criticism of the show, and perhaps the lowest point of all five seasons. I mean, the show works so great because the problems all feel like real problems people actually face in a small town- the anti-O.C. in a way. But murder? It really didn't mesh well with the rest of the plot. As the story goes on and Landry drags more people into it, my eyes were a-rolling, but thankfully the resolution works in more than a "thank God that's over" sense- the final scenes about it were handled very well in my opinion and really showed off Jesse Plemons' acting chops. It also gets him together with Tyra, and those two are so adorable that I'm okay with the whole thing now. Last year's main character Matt Saracen just kind of floated along for the most part this season- he's the undisputed QB1, so no issues for him on the field really. He deals with some interesting relationships off the field that all end horribly, resulting in his best moment of the season getting shitfaced with bad-boy Tim Riggins. Oh, boy. Riggins had himself a season. Faking his religion, a trek down to Mexico, moving in with nearly everybody in town, and the line of the season talking to a potential Julie-rapist- "I will end you" just beating "It's Wendesday, I always take Wednesdays off." Awesome. Smash provides some interesting insight on how a poor but gifted star athlete approaches going to college, but it's the short storyline late in the season where he deals with a racist where he really shines. I'm still impressed with the show's remaining focus on Jason Street, the former star quarterback who became a paraplegic in the series premier. It would have been easy to just move on to all the other characters and not deal with the at-times depressing storyline, but Scott Porter plays the character very well and I was continually impressed by his storylines. Lyla Garrity kinda becomes a flatter character this season, inexplicably becoming a hardcore Christian, but later in the season when you find out why she did this in the first place she at least shows some range. Her father, Buddy, had a redemption season and actually becomes a guy you root for- unthinkable in season 1. He sorta adopts a troubled youth for the sake of the football team, but despite his motivations I really liked the dynamic between the two. Unfortunately in season 3 this troubled youth simply disappears and is never spoken of again. All of this, and I haven't even mentioned the glue of the whole series, Coach and his family. Coach Taylor starts off the season with his new college job at TMU, but obviously he's gotta come back- what kind of show would it be without him? Another running theme throughout the season is the new baby Gracie, and how it strains the relationship between Julie and her mother. Gallagan kept telling me what a bitch Julie was this season, but doesn't that make sense for the story? I mean, she's a teenager who suddenly feels like her parents are paying no attention to her, that's just what's going to happen. Anyway, I'm sure most of you stopped paying attention a while ago because you have no idea who these characters are or why you should care, so I'll leave you with this. Friday Night Lights is a drama that works on its realistic depictions of life in a small town where high school football is king. The acting, writing, and especially the music are all top-notch and make this a great show that I'd recommend even to people who don't care for television dramas. I should note that this praise is coming from what's considered the show's weakest season, so it's only going to get better from here.

Harms Way

The good news is that this game was free and only took twenty minutes to "beat." The bad news is most other things about it. The premise here is actually kind of cool. Four cars race around a track and the first to complete three laps wins. Meanwhile, human-operated turrets skirt the perimeter of the map, shooting at the vehicles to impede them. The idea is that every vehicle has a gunner teammate and together their goal is for the vehicle to win the race. An interesting twist on a tried and true genre, I supposed. But the racing aspect was executed in such a piss-poor manner that it nearly ruined the game for me; only when I played the role of the shooter did I have any fun at all. Whenever I had to drive around, I was frustrated by a number of things: poor handling, an innate inability to avoid or evade or defend against turret fire, and a horribly ineffective overhead map display. The game isn't necessarily flawed or broken, but at least if it had been I would have been able to laugh at it. Instead, fifteen minutes of racing felt like an hour's worth of wasted time. But playing as the turret was pretty fun. When I finally got the opportunity to do so, I actually smiled for the first time since booting up the game. There's just a small but undeniable sense of satisfaction derived from sniping a car from across the level through the windshield (an instant kill) or blowing out a car's tires (for a substantial handicap). It was as the shooter, too, when I really began to rack up achievements. Now, there is a co-op mode in which the driver can pick up upgrades for the turret man. I haven't played this yet (and may never do so) but it does sound like what could easily be the game's best feature. If anyone else out there has any interest at all (remember, this game is free and takes fifteen minutes to "beat") then by all means let me know you want to tag team it up. Otherwise, I doubt I'll ever touch this free download again.

Maus I

It seems kind of silly to blog about my reaction to what is only the first half of Art Spiegelman's Maus, but I'm a pretty "by the book" type of guy when it comes to my backlog, and although I happen to own both halves of Maus, I also happen to own them in the form of two physically separate books. In case you hadn't heard, Maus is a highly acclaimed graphic novel about the Holocaust. When Sweeney posted about Persepolis the other week, it reminded me that I've always been meaning to get around to reading Maus. This first part takes us from the rise of the Nazi party in Germany up through the beginning of Hitler's Final Solution. At the risk of sounding disrespectful, I'll say that I wasn't quite as blown away as I expected and hoped to be. There were a few gut-punching scenes and drawings, to be sure, but ultimately I didn't feel the same level of woe and sorrow that I experienced while, say, watching Schindler's List. And I'm only talking about the early parts of Schindler's List that parallel the first half of Maus. Both stories showed me the graphic brutality and relentless disregard for human life associated with the liquidation of the ghettos in Poland. Both tales showed me grieving parents and children, husbands and wives, being torn out of each other's arms knowing they'd never meet again. But it just didn't feel nearly as raw and harrowing in Maus I as it did in Schindler's List. My theory for this is that Maus, as you probably know, uses a unique gimmick in which all Jews are anthropomorphized mice and all Germans are anthropomorphized cats. And it just felt a lot less sadistic and more natural, to me, for cats to be killing mice. I know the cats-and-mice theme was chosen for such a reason, but I'm not sure if it's having the desired effect on me, at least so far. Granted, everything I've read so far has only been a warm-up for Maus II: Shit Hits the Fan, which I expect to be very little aside from cruel and merciless slaughter from cover to cover. For that reason, I can't say that Maus I disappointed me yet. But I can say that I'm hoping for a lot more despair in Maus II. (Man, that sentence sounded awful, like I'm into historical fiction torture porn or something. Sorry, everyone. But you know what I mean.)

(500) Days of Summer

This movie had a fair share of buzz surrounding it for much of 2009, and although I'm a year or so late to the party, I'm glad I finally chose to attend. I like unique and interesting movies. There's nothing wrong with a formulaic and generic film when it's well made (see Taken), but when a movie does something unique or interesting, it is a movie you will probably remember more than many others. And for this reason, I enjoyed and will always remember (500) Days of Summer. To start with, you can't even really describe it using genres and phrases. It's got romance in it, and is funny, but is by no means a romantic comedy. It's sort of a coming-of-age tale. It's inspirational, in a way, but for the most part not "feel-good." It felt very realistic. And yet it also felt pretty artsy at times. Director Marc Webb has even tried to refer to it as "a pop song in movie form," hence the parenthesis in the title. It's smart but doesn't seem smugly aware of how smart it is. It's not cynical even though it almost feels like it should be. In a nutshell, the movie is about a boy who falls for a girl and their ensuing (500-day) relationship. We're treated to various snippets from the relationship presented in a nonlinear (but mostly chronological) fashion, allowing us to see more and more pieces of the big picture as the movie goes along. But it's never a puzzle, and it's never presented as one. The relationship, in fact, seems just as standard and mundane as any year-long failed relationship in which one party is pushing the other toward a deeper relationship and the other wants to keep things slow and casual. Again, the whole thing just felt very real and honest. I found it very easy to relate to one character, and I'm sure most people who have ever been "heartbroken" related just as easily. But never once did I feel sorrow or pity for the character in the wake of the break-up, because I knew (and the film more or less expected me to know) that things would turn out just fine after a little bit of time and self-reflection. I dug the whole thing. I think there's something for everyone in (500) Days of Summer, and when I say that I don't mean that it will appeal to various niches for various reasons; I mean that the same main theme of the movie should really resonate pretty well with most people. I don't usually rate movies, but I'd easily give (500) Days of Summer an eight or a nine - pretty sound and flawless in succeeding at what it has set out to do, but still just a tier below "all time amazing movie" status. For a true ten (in my opinion, of course) in a thematically similar vein, please check out Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Now that's an interesting, unique, and beautiful movie.

Juliet, Naked

This past fall, Ben Folds release a new album entitled Lonely Avenue. Not to delve too much into it, but the album sucked. Well, the music sucked. The lyrics, however, were... interesting. And why was this? Well, Mr. Folds tried out a little experiment on his newest album where he collaborated with a writer to construct the lyrics while he designed the music. The writer? Nick Hornby. Celebrated author with several of his novels already adapted to the big screen (High Fidelity, About a Boy) and an Academy Award nomination for his screenplay An Education. Anyways, despite Folds’ terrible album - seriously man, lay off the damn synthesizers - I was inspired to check out some of his writing after being delighted by his whimsical words. So what better place to start when exploring a new author then begin reading their newest work.

After finishing this novel, all I have to say is that I hope his earlier work can stand up a little better. Let me start by breaking down the premise. The story unfolds in two directions. On one hand we have this pathetic, unmarried British couple who have been together for 15 years pretty much because it was the path of least resistance for the both of them. The man, Duncan, is a community college professor who teaches some bullshit television studies class while pursuing his obsession over this washed-up, retired 80’s American rocker by writing countless blogs about him on his website. The woman, Annie, is a clerk at the local museum that sounds smaller and less impressive than even Westford’s. (Oh you haven’t been? Trust me, you’re not missing much.) So there’s their story, then there is the one about the washed-up American rocker - Tucker Crowe. Twenty years passed without a single song written, a handful of failed marriages, and a trove of forgotten kids, Crowe silently lives out his depressing life letting fans like Duncan spins tales and myths about his past, present, and future that are all more impressive than the truth of his life. Anyways, the story develops when Duncan gets his hands on an acoustic version of Crowe’s most acclaimed album, Juliet, appropriately titled - ah, you guessed it - Juliet, Naked. He thinks it’s the greatest thing ever. Annie disagrees and post on his website for the first time ever stating her opinion. Crowe, seemingly with nothing better to do, reads Annie’s post that this album is a piece of shit and decides to come out of seclusion and e-mails her. I don’t want to waste too much more time discussing this, but I’m sure you already see what’s coming. Duncan cheats on Annie with a fellow teacher. They break-up. Annie invites Tucker out to the good old UK where they finally meet and...

Well, if you’re really interested in finding out all the events that unfold in the ending you can pick up the book yourself. But to make things simple, none of the characters really change. Let me just break it down with some quick SPOILERS! It’s depressing really. Tucker has the chance to reunite and heal the relationships he has with all of his estranged children, but decides that boat has already sailed and gives up. Duncan and Annie never get back together, but Annie does manage to sleep with Tucker for one night where she pretends to use protection in the attempt to actually get knocked up. Does she? I don’t know, nothings really said on the matter. By the end though she comes to the conclusion that she’s going to move to the US - possibly. (On a side note: Like that would be a fucking good idea on her part. Is she going to show up on his doorstep and surprise him with another horrid child for him to ignore? That would set his depression so far over the edge I’m sure he would run to the nearest gun shop and blow his brains out.) I suppose the saddest part about the ending is the fact that Crowe never gets back to writing music. It’s only thing I wanted to happen. What a let down.

You know, when I think it over it wasn’t necessarily the ending that I found so unsatisfying. It was the fact that Hornby seemed to have crammed it all in within the last 50 pages or so. You have this long, extensive build-up, then BOOM! It’s over. Like trying to finish that term paper with only a few more minutes left before class, it’s rushed and fails to appease my hunger for a proper ending.

But, hey, you can judge it for yourself if you’re ever curious enough to read it.

I will say this though. This was my first stab at reading more “romantic” literature and - at times - it wasn’t all that bad. Somewhat introspective even, despite the bleak review. I think I’ll give Hornby one more go to see if he’s more successful in his earlier work.

Doritos Crash Course

When my girlfriend and I decided to move in together, we agreed that we should take her Xbox 360 (120 GB) instead of mine (12 GB). Because Xbox allows you to re-download previously purchased games and content, we knew it'd be easy enough for me to recover all of my old Xbox Live Arcade games and DLC. And it has been, so far, except for one small issue. Dash of Destruction, an XBLA game I downloaded for free and beat at least two years ago, has been taken down from the Xbox Live marketplace. In other words, is is essentially and totally irrecoverable. The same is true for the two or three WiiWare games I've previously downloaded since we're also using my girlfriend's Wii. (Mine belongs to my sisters in addition to myself, and although they never really play it, it's been easy enough to just take Marissa's.) Anyway, since these digitally downloaded games are no longer actually in my possession, I once again worry about the natural discrepancy that will arise in the near future between the concept of "ownership" and the next big format change for movies, books, and games alike (which are all clearly heading in a digital direction). Perhaps my affection (some would call it an obsession) for "owning" a collection of books, movies, and games - rather than renting or borrowing - will be forced into oblivion by changing times. So it goes. But then, by truly mastering my backlog and experiencing everything that these games, movies, and books have to offer, I'm only enhancing my own "mental" collection, so to speak; digitally downloaded or not, the content in the items in my backlog is what I'm striving to absorb. Anyway, I'm certainly rambling and lamenting now, and I'll get on to my point. The silver lining of my search for Dash of Destruction is that I found another free game courtesy of Doritos in Doritos Crash Course. (Actually, I found and downloaded yet another free Doritos game, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.) Crash Course is basically just Wipeout (or MXC) turned into a video game. It's a time trial based platformer that could theoretically be completed in half an hour but took me more like ninety minutes. Easy, clean, and simple. I recommend it to anyone with an Xbox, mostly because it's free but also because, frankly, it's pretty enjoyably absurd.

The I.T. Crowd: Series 4

I’m going to try and do this month right. There’s a lot of material that I’ve finished - or am near finishing - but have yet to post. It’s time to get off my ass, only to get back on it again, and do some blogging. Let the it be known that I will make the shortest month of the year the most productive.

Ah, British humor. You truly are hit-or-miss. And if you all have paid attention to my previous post about this delightful little romp you would have already known that this is an absolute hit! The humor builds throughout the seasons (ugh... sorry, series) crescendoing into an ultimate riot by the end of this volume. I could spend a great deal of time flushing out the characters and the sticky dilemmas they all get themselves in, but why bother. Even though I recommend this show in my last post about it, I highly doubt any of you have checked it out.

Have you? I didn’t think so.

So I’ll leave all the interesting little tit-bits of entertainment for you guys to discover for your own. Note: I’m not saying that this guy beats “Arrested Development” or, say, “Seinfeld” - those are absolute sit-com classics. Can’t be touched. But if you find yourself stuck at home in another snowstorm with nothing else to do, then why not pop it on. It’s on Netflix mother-fucker!

As for me. I’m going to bundle up my sandals and swim trunks in preparation for that arduous journey to the beach in this brutal 70 degree, sunny weather.

Taken

First of all, I want to thank Keith for giving me his duplicate copy of this movie a month ago for basically no reason. So kind and generous of you, Keith! Second of all, wow. This was a fucking awesome movie. Liam Neeson's character more or less matched Denzel Washington's from Man On Fire when it came to being a retired professional badass in search of a kidnapped young girl. But unlike Man On Fire, Taken doesn't take an hour to get the ball rolling. It just sets up the barebones backstory and within like ten minutes becomes nothing but action. I can't say that Taken was one of the greatest movies I've ever seen, because it's "only" a straightforward action flick. However, it manages to do what it sets out to do, which is nothing more than entertain you for a solid ninety minutes. I totally recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good thrill.

January 2011 Recap

So that was a pretty productive month for Back-Blogged. We logged 41 items collectively, tying us for third-best month ever with August '09 behind April '10 (50) and January '10 (48). It was the first time we've exceeded 30 posts since August '10. It was the first month in which each member made multiple posts since there were only four members of the blog. And we did all of this despite having some extremely busy months. Marissa and I found, furnished, and moved into a new apartment. Sweeney began a new job and had plenty of traveling and paperwork to do. Keith's job had him entering "busy" season, and even in non-busy season Keith was working like fifty or sixty hours a week. And I'm sure Webber, Brian, and Trevor had stuff going on too.

For my own part, I read two books, watched four seasons of television, saw thirteen movies, and beat a pair of video games. I still had several acquisitions, however, reducing my overall progress to ten on the month. I'm sure that will change going forward, though; in my new place, I can't even find space for the contents of my backlog. When it comes to specific goals, I went three for four, failing to beat (or even touch) Ico. Damn. Last month I said my 2011 goal was to halve my backlog totals, an effort that would require me to achieve a net progress of eighty-five between 12/31/10 and 12/31/11. That's seven per month. So I am indeed on pace to halve my backlog totals by 2012, not taking into consideration the varied lengths of different projects, of course.

February is a short month and so I will try to keep my specific goals light:

• The Boondocks: Season 3
• Firefly
• Maus I
• Maus II
• UmJammer Lammy
• Ico

That's two TV seasons, two graphic novels (or at least two separate parts of the same graphic novel which I'll be treating as two separate items), and two video games. Look, if I can't beat Ico this month, it probably means I should just post a gray-scale image of its cover with a big old "Failed" stamp across the cover art. Except that I would never do that. Ahem. Anyway, what are everyone else's goals for Black History Month?