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| | I ve been watching quite a bit of TV lately. This is pretty unusual for me but between football coverage and some restless nights away from my PC I ve taken in a bit of boob tubage. I felt the need to make some comments.
First, I ve been watching a lot of football coverage as my blessed Steelers make another playoff push. ESPN seems to have issued some sort of mandate to its sportscasters to do everything in their power to bastardize and eviscerate the english language. I remember when Sportcenter was a gleaming citadel of witty banter and florid repartee. All that has been eschewed for a ghetto tongue and ebonics. Stuart Scott is unable to use any adjective save 'phat' and if I hear Sean Salsbury (the flagship of the big goofy white guy QB archtype) say "takin it to da house" one more time I will personally hunt him down and surgically remove his tongue... staying him of any further humiliation and self degradation. The other day I heard Stuart Scott refer to John Madden as 'dawg.' Granted, I m not much of a Madden fan, but I d have to say he is the antithesis of 'dawg.' When is wrong with these retards? Do they think they sound hip and cool (and not moronic)? If so, they re horribly mistaken. We expect this kind of talk from Deoin Sanders (who inexplicably has maintained a broadcast job despite being repeatedly voted one of the most hated players of NFL history) but we expect higher of ESPN... oh how they ve fallen from the days of Oberman and Patrick. So until football season ends in the next month or so I m gonna continue my silent protest of ESPN and refuse to "give some love" to Stuart Scott or his "dawgs." Half-wits.
I did a bit of good ol fashioned channel surfing, noting the horrifically poor quality of the vast majority of todays programs. I even paused on MTV a couple of times... I figure I spew enough vitriol at them (as the most loathsome of pop icons) that I should at least reaffirm my opinions... they did not disappoint. I caught a bit of a top videos of 2002 show hosted by Justin Timberlake (I think) and a gaggle of pop cohorts... talk about the most vapid and imbecilic people on the planet! Future generations are so doomed. How can they stand these people let alone idolize them? Fucking sheep. Maybe I m just getting old, but this new generation of Marketing Machine produced media is really disheartening.
I m gonna switch subjects before my sadness turns to unadulterated rage.
To end things on a positive note, I cannot stress enough just how wonderful Adult Swim is. A breath of fresh air. A shimmering orb of goodness floating amidst a sea of chaff. Bless you Cartoon Network, bless you. The one two three punch of SeaLab 2021, Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Home Movies last night caused me to laugh out loud so boisterously and continuously that several times I really thought I was in danger of loosing consciousness from the lack of oxygen. Just utterly brilliant. The Alvis episode of SeaLab may have been one of the greatest achievements of western culture in the last two hundred years or so. No. I m serious.
I even got to see an awesome Mission Hill, which usually airs after I fall asleep. It was bliss. So, it is imperative that all of you watch Adult Swim every Sunday night. With Fox airing Simpsons, King of the Hill, Malcolm and Andy Richter beforehand Sunday night can reach brevity levels so high as to necesitate regulation by the FDA. The only blemish is the appallingly awful Ripping Friends... which hopefully will get yanked from the Adult Swim line-up before too much longer... it s bad... real bad.
Well, enough TV talk. Voice your opinions. Let s see the Comments section come alive again.
-bampf
| | | I hope everyone had a lovely white Christmas. I thought the snow was wonderful... my only regret being that I didn t have enough time to really roll around in it and make snowmen and such. Too busy engaged in yuletide merriment.
Got many wonderful presents. Kristyn and I got a Digital Camcorder... very cool. We ll be making innumerable home movies now. Already started accumulating pirated video editing software. The only problem is it uses a Firewire input, which my PC doesn t have... means I ll have to use Kristyn s damnable mac to download video and then transfer it to my PC from there. The alternative of trying to use the Mac to do any real work is completely unfathomable... I ve tried repeatedly and diligently to use the thing, but it smites me at every corner. In its ongoing pledge to User-Friendliness Mac has made doing anything beyond the most basic of operations completely impossible. As a PC power user I just can t handle it.
Anyway, I gots lots of nice new clothes and DVDs and books and tools (I m turning all handy now remember) and other cool bric-a-brac. Kristyn was showered with her most favored of gifts... small appliances for the kitchen. So we made off with loads of loot. All in all a first rate Christmas despite my future mother-in-law breaking my nose.
Like I said, hope everyone had a good holiday and got many wonderful toys.
-bampf | | | Almost time to skee-daddle! Hope everyone has a great holiday!
We re supposed to get snow... go outside, make a snow angel, build a fort. It ll be the most cathartic thing you ve done in years! Trust me!
Merry Xmas!
-bampf | | | My Xmas celebrations officially began this past weekend, with the annual holiday party with my dad s side of the family. Good time to be had by all... with tons of tasty food. My little cousins are starting to show up with babies. Makes me feel old. These were my baby cousins at one time... now they re parents. Scary.
Kristyn and I get a lot of the baby pressure from relatives. It s a tough sell telling them that maybe we ll start thinking about kids in ten years. Hopefully my brother or sister will have one within the next five years or so... that would buy us some time with my family. Kristyn being an only child presents a different conundrum on her side.
Does it make us selfish that we want to have a long time with just the two of us? We want to be able to indulge in a lavish DINK lifestyle for a while... and that won t start until about 2010. By time we re done jetting around the globe and such I ll be old and gray (Kristyn won t be, but I will).
Besides, kids smell funny. Ew.
-bampf
| | | Well, I didn t get to see the movie as many times as I had hoped (a trip to Philly precluded that... more on said trip later) but I was still very impressed with the movie. Absolutely outstanding.
Talk about epic. Wow. I plan to see it at least 3 or 4 more times while its in the theatre.
Now, before I extol the movie any further, I must admit I did like Fellowship more. This may change upon further viewings, but a did have a couple of minor gripes:
The movie was too dependent on CGI. Granted, it didn t really turn into laughably silly CGI <cough>Lucas<cough> but the scenes with the Balrog and the Ents attacking Orthanc were kinda poor. I thought Gollum and Uruk-hai CGI was great and near seemless. Now the Balrog scene is forgivable, as that portion of the book never set right with me either and was near impossible to render effectively. The flooding of Isengard though was pretty weak. I think the mix of models and CGI sorta fell apart there. Oh well.
I also didn t care for how Edoras was handled. The shots outside looked too staged. The scene with Theoden being beaten around by Gandalf was poorly done too. I didn t really buy all the Roharrim standing around watching while Gandalf whacked the crap outta their king.
My other gripe was with some of the variances from the book. There were a lot. I thought some of the changes were for the better (mixing in scenes from RotK, the elves at Helms Deep etc). Others just seemed unnecessary or nonsensical. Aragorn being tossed off the cliff and left for dead... what was that about? It really didn t add anything to the film... maybe a few moments of suspense for those in the audience who didn t know the name of the third film! I also didn t like the portrayal of Faramir... dipole oposite of how he is in the book. Then he does a complete role reversal after the Nazgul attacked... did this make any sense to anyone else? It felt like Peter Jackson had to trim a bunch scenes in this section of the movie due to the long running time and what we saw was just a cut and paste patch-up. Maybe it ll make more sense in the extended DVD cut. Let s hope.
Now, let me qualify all this again by saying I still loved the film! The battles were fantastic. Helms Deep was incredible. Aragorn was great. Legolas was badass as always. Gimli provided just enough comic releif... teetering on that fine line of annoying <cough>Lucas<cough>C3P0<cough>. Despite all this, I thought the highlight of the film were the scenes with Frodo, Sam, and Gollum. Very nicely done.
Let me know what everyone else thought... the comment section has been bustling as of late. Let s keep it up!
-b | | 12/16/2002 10:52:47 AM Food, Freaks and Football | Comments (9) |
| Eventful weekend in Philly this week. Instead of cooking up a bunch of gourmet FoodTV inspired meals we went out a couple of times. Had a lovely Red Lobster experience on Friday courtesy of Kristyn s work (no she didn t embezzle the funds... it was given to her since she missed the company s holiday luncheon). A nice gesture from her boss.
We spent most of Saturday on South Street, amongst the finest freaks Philly has to offer. Got most of our Xmas shopping done. There are some really fabulous stores down there... such cool stuff. We ended the excursion at a nice Thai place we discovered on our first trip to South Street last year.
Sunday was largely devoted to football (as every Sunday should be). Got up early and played flag football with the South Jersey crew. Lotsa fun in the mud. Sandlot football really is a wonderful thing. Afterward I walked away with two strained hamstrings, a bloodied lip, various cuts and bruises, and a thick outer crust of mud. And this was flag football. I must be getting soft in my old age. I need to get back out on the rugby pitch to get toughened up again.
We played for well over two hours... an unusually long and close game. Driving home I passed the Vet on 95 in time to see the Green and Silver masses filing into the stadium for the venerable venue s last regular season game. Pretty cool. After showering we set out to find the Steelers. The woeful televised football schedule in Philly has been really disheartening and I hadn t seen the Steelers play in about 5 weeks... probably my longest Steeler drought since I was in grade school. I was bound and determined to see the game this week. So Kristyn and I ventured to a local bar to see the game. Place was basically a dive. Just a small place tucked away in a residential area right along the shores of the Delaware River. It was packed with rabid, frothing-at-the-mouth, Eagles fans. Kristyn and I sat alone by the door huddled in front of the one screen out of about a dozen that wasn t showing the Eagles. The Eagles loyals didn t seem to even notice us as they screamed, chanted, and sang as their beloved team decimated arch-rival Washington. I too was ecstatic in my own little corner as the Steelers logged an impressive victory over Carolina. We re almost assured the AFC North title now and things are starting to peak for the playoff run... SWEET! God, I love football.
Well enough banter for now. I have to get back to giddily awaiting the first Two Towers showing... so sweet... only about 36 hours away!
-bampf | | | The media hype is really ramping up and I m getting giddy with excitement. The Two Towers is coming. Here s a nice snippit from a Film Threat review that really caught my attention.
Completely immersing as this film is, I still had a few reality check moments throughout the screening. One of these moments had me wonder if George Lucas is feeling like an asshole or not. He’s still making tons of cash off of his raping of “Star Wars,” so probably not. But if he truly gave a damn about filmmaking anymore, he’d just have to hang his head in shame when confronted with Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” films. Lucas must be wishing that his new “Star Wars” films had just a fraction of the movie magic Jackson and crew have poured into “Lord of the Rings.” Oh well, I think most of us have given up on Lucas anyways. It was just a thought.
Fucking-A right.
-b | | | My buddy, bangpitcher, took my movie listing idea and transformed it his favorite albums list. Not to be out done, I ll have to follow suit. May take me some time though... my musical tastes are disparate and sundry to say the least (as were the esteemed bp s).
In the mean time, I have my list of favorite directors (luckily we ve been having a ton of company meetings lately so I ve had ample time for list compilation). Again, I ll add some annotation for your reading pleasure:
1. Terry Gilliam Everything Terry does is pure genius. I m serious. From his early Python days to his most recent works he has been consistently amazing. An incredible visual sense, an ability to make the absurd feel commonplace, and a rapier wit and intellect... the ultimate director.
2. David Fincher I m willing to overlook that lamentable Aliens debacle in favor of his pure genius displayed in Fight Club and Se7en. I m really curious to see what he does with MI:3 after that last awful installment.
3. Coen Brothers For brilliant comedy these guys will always reign supreme. They ve proved there is a place for intelligent humour in the oft deplorable cinema mainstream. The amazing thing about them is the quality never flags...from Raising Arizona through Hudsucker to O Brother... every film is great. And we shall forever be in their debt for gracing us with the stylings of Walter, Donnie and The Dude.
4. Guy Ritchie Not only was Lock Stock and Snatch both amazing films but they ve ushered in a new era of stylistic cinematography. Quite a feat. Now let s just hope that Madonna doesn t destroy his entire career. Resist her, Guy, resist!
5. Quentin Tarantino Another guy who birthed an entire genre. Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs will remain eternal classics. After a 6 year writer/director absence, let s hope that Kill Bill will re-affirm our wonderment for Quentin.
6. Peter Jackson Obviously the of Lord of Rings is the main reason he has garnered this spot. The project was such an amazingly huge undertaking and he has handled it so incredibly well... wow. The first installment was amazing and the early reviews posit Two Towers to be even better. I can t wait. If you haven t seen any of his earlier work, rent Dead Alive... the flashes of brilliance are there amongst the cubic tons of gore and zombie guts!
7. Sam Raimi He would be a serious contender for this list even without Spiderman to his credit. The Evil Dead series is just so damn good. Plus without Sam there would be no Bruce Campbell... and a world without the chin is a world I d rather not live in!
8. Darren Aronofsky This guy has amazed me so with just two films... I am extremely excited to see his portfolio grow. He has such an incredible sense of style and flow.
9. Christopher Nolan Another young new director with amazing promise. With just a couple films to his credit he s really shown endless potential. Pulling off Memento was an amazing accomplishment. Can t wait for more.
10. Baz Luhrmann Another master of visual style. Bold new approaches to filmmaking is what really grabs my attention (as this list clearly attests) so he had to be included. He s in pre-production of an Alexander the Great movie... now that could be amazing!
A couple of honorable mentions...
Paul Verhoeven, John Milius, John Woo, Akira Kirusawa, Tony Scott, M. Night Shyamalan, Troy Duffy (there s a Boondock sequel in the making, let s hope it doesn t suck), and I m sure I ll think of some others later.
Well there you go. This may be my last movie list for a while. I considered a favorite actors list but with so much overlap with the roles list it seemed pointless.
-b
| | | If I could be king of one thing...
I would want to be King of the Sea Monkeys.
Just like Banjo.
-b
ps. Glad its Friday. Delirium is setting in. | | | All right, I don t like putting links in these entries as the last thing I want is for my blog to become littered with dead links but this one is important:
Jim Carrey Saves Jennifer Anniston s Life
OK... so... my just about least favorite person in the world saves the life of Mrs. Brad Pitt? I HATE YOU, JIM CARREY!! Brad coulda been single and on the market again! I coulda had a chance at winning Brad s affection... but no... Mr. No-Talent-Look-At-My-Ass-Talk-And-Same-Three-Stupid-Facial-Expresions-I-Use-In-Every-Movie saves her!
Truly he has become the bane of my existance.
Woe is me.
-b | | | WooHoo! Look at it coming down! I love snow! Sucks that I m at work, especially when Kristyn got the day off. But, hey... it s still snow. Sweet.
-b | | | While I m in a blogging mood figured I ll unveil another movie list. For those who missed my Top 30 Movies of all time I encourage you to go back to November s entries and check it out. For today s list I want to do top roles. And I m not talking about Oscar nomination emotive tear jerking roles... screw that. I m talking about bad ass roles that really enthrall or stand out. Roles that can make a bad movie bearable or make a good movie great... or roles that provide so much quote fodder that the character becomes almost deified with coolness. Here s my list roughly in descending order with some annotation this time:
Jeffrey Goines, Brad Pitt - 12 Monkeys
Hands down the greatest single screen performance ever. Seriously. Jeffrey s rants were genius. Pure genius. You really need to watch this film several times to catch all of Brad s brilliance in this one as he throws bons mots out at you at a machine gun pace... each one dancing upon that fine line between utter lunacy and profound insight.
Tyler Durden, Brad Pitt - Fight Club
Another incredible performance and character. Jeffrey Goines + a social angst + nihilism = Tyler Durden. Wow. "How can you know anything about yourself if you've never been in a fight?"
Agent Paul Smecker, Willem Dafoe - Boondock Saints
Another brilliantly written character so over the top you can t help but love him. Willem is a fantastic actor but he really out did himself on this one.
Gunnery Sgt Hartman, Lee Ermy - Full Metal Jacket
The undisputed Heavyweight champion of quotable roles. I mean the guy made the movie.
Jules Winnfield, Samuel L. Jackson - Pulp Fiction
Another wonderful quotable role. The dialogs with Jules and Vincent were just pure genius. The consumate bad-ass (or should I say Badass Motherfucker) turned messianic figure? It doesn t get any better than that.
Rosencrantz and Guildnestern, Gary Oldman and Tim Roth - Rosencrantz and Guildnestern are Dead
Talk about a dynamic duo. The interplay of these two characters is amazing. I ve seen stage performances of the play, but nothing will ever compare to the amazing job these two did.
Thulsa Doom, James Earl Jones - Conan the Barbarian
"They shall all drown in lakes of blood." Yeah. Damn right. Talk about the ultimate bad guy. Doesn t get any more evil yet mesmerizing than Thulsa Doom.
Hunter S. Thompson/Raoul Duke, Johnny Depp - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Johnny Depp did an amazing job in a difficult role. He delivered the most absurd of dialog with impeccable skill. Lots of great lines in this one too... "We can't stop here. This is bat country." Makes me laugh just typing it.
The Player, Richard Dreyfus - Rosencrantz and Guildnestern are Dead
Another sublime performance in a difficult role. Did I mention this is an awesome movie?
Doc Holiday, Val Kilmner - Tombstone
Say what you will about Val but he really shined in this one. He steals every scene he s in. Brilliant.
Mickey O'Neal, Brad Pitt - Snatch
Pikey speak. That s all I gotta say. Pikey speak.
Leonard Shelby, Guy Pearce - Memento
Talk about an insane role to have to tackle... and Guy pulled it off without a glitch... now that is impressive.
Gen. John Buford, Sam Elliot - Gettysburg
OK, to be honest this really could be any role Sam Elliot has ever played. The man could play Liberace and make him bad ass! Hell- he was kick ass in Roadhouse... a Patrick Swayze film... Patrick Swayze! This role just stands out in my mind as the archetypical Sam Elliot role... "This is good ground!"
Mr. Pink, Steve Buscemi - Reservoir Dogs
Ok, we all love Steve Buscemi. How can you not? He gets the best roles and cameos and always stands out. This is the role that started it all... the tipping rant? Beautiful.
Walter Sobchak, John Goodman - The Big Lebowski
Speaking of Steve Buscemi the interaction between Donnie and Walter... priceless. "Donnie, you're like a child who wonders into the middle of a movie."
Sidney Mussburger, Paul Newman - The Hudsucker Proxy
The perfect embodiment of the machiavellian business tycoon. Played flawlessly.
Stephen, David O'Hara - Braveheart
I ll never understand why this guy wasn t propelled into stardom following the success of Braveheart... another character that really stole every scene he was in... outshining Mel Gibson for God s sake! "The Almighty tells me he can get me out of this mess, but he's pretty sure you're fucked."
Well, that s it. Again, I m sure I m missing some good ones but that s what I came up with. Obviously there s a lot of cross over with my Top 30 films list. Can you recognize my Brad Pitt fixation? Yeah. Brad.
-b | | |
Well, I have successfully returned to civilization after my sojourn into the mountains. I m none the worse for the wear excepting a slight sniffle brought on by the prolonged exposure to the bitter cold. All in all I had a good time.
For those not sure what the hell I m talking about, I made my triumphant return to the world of hunting this past weekend... spending a couple days at hunting camp with Kristyn s family. I had not hunted since 1995, when my grandfather fell ill, precluding our annual outings. I didn t really miss it or anything... I think my main impetus for hunting had always been to fulfill my father and grandfather s expectations. Once they were both gone I really lost any reason or desire to continue the practice. I still loved guns (and shooting guns), but I was not at all compelled to buy another hunting license and viewed it as sort of a parting with my redneck roots... a rite of passage into an era of enlightened intellectualism...
Heh. The truth of the matter is I m still a redneck at heart. I really enjoyed myself. Getting out there and experiencing nature is really a soul nourishing act. It was a good opportunity to bond with Kristyn s dad as well as her uncles, cousins, and other assorted family members and acquaintances.
I didn t kill anything (only saw a few doe) and spent most of the time trying to maintain feeling in my extremities but it was invigorating none the less. I m looking forward to doing it again next year.
-bampf |
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