The World In Picture Form

Well the weekend is over and it's back to our regularly scheduled life. Hope everybody had a good St. Patrick's Day. I was in heaven with my beer and my college basketball. Of course I spent the majority of my weekend at work.

So really between work, college basketball, and beer not much happened this weekend. I saw the newest episode of the Sopranos Sunday. What a very odd episode. Seeing Tony as anybody but the Tony Soprano mob boss was weird. Although the scene in which he was slapped by the monk killed me.

I really hope the coma doesn't last long, cuz the episode seemed disjointed. Whether that was the intent or not, it still doesn't work that well. I mean the episode was only like 45 minutes long, but watching it felt like 90 minutes. At least if the coma does last the show better move on to focusing on the power struggle that is no doubt about to ensue. That's where all the good stuff will be. I wonder if A.J. will really kill Junior. All I do know is that when he was talking to his dad in the hospital and said he would, I started to crack up. AJ thought he was Michael Corleone all of a sudden. Then 5 minutes later he's telling his mother he failed out of college. The kid gets practically no air time in the show, but whenever he does it's gold. For a few reasons really

1. Robert Iler is really just not a very good actor, which leads to the unintentional comedy moments.
2. His character is just a royal fuck up.

Imagine if AJ ran the family.

In other happenings I've seen quite a few movies over the last few weeks. Unfortunately I don't feel like rippin off paragraph upon paragraph of reviews. So what I'm going to do is just give quick little recaps of what I thought.

1. Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle- This was one of those movies that the second I saw a commercial for it I knew I had to see it. Well I finally did last week. In a word, fantastic. I loved the entire thing. Neil Patrick Harris' role playing himself was easily one of the funniest things I've ever seen in my life. How he didn't win an Oscar, or even get nominated for one is simple one of the greatest crimes in American history. Also it was really nice to see Asians in a movie(John Cho and Kal Penn) that were more like the Asians I know. They aren't all just math nerds and terrorists. They are degenerate, lazy potheads too. Just like their American counterparts. I don't want to expose anybody here on my blog, but I have friends who are exactly like those two. That and they still got A's in school all the time. God damn Asians. Apparently this is supposed to be the first of a trilogy, with the next stop being Amsterdam. That movie can't get here quick enough, even though I know that in some way it will only ruin the entire thing. I don't care though. GRADE=A+
2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind- This movie was a lot like Sunday's Sopranos. Disjointed. It wasn't a bad movie at all, and I kinda liked the premise. I also liked Kristen Dunst dancing around in a tank top and panties bouncing on a bed. The movie though was just too back and forth between present, and past for me to ever develop a "connection" to it. I may have to watch it again at some point, it might help. Pry not. GRADE=C+
3. Through the Fire-This was an ESPN documentary on current Portland Trailblazers point guard Sebastian Telfair. It followed him around during his senior year of high school in the project of Coney Island in New York. Telfair had long been a legend on the courts in Coney Island as he does have an amazing ability when it comes to basketball. The part of this documentary that stood out to me was how important basketball is to the African American culture, and in the community. It's really pretty simple. The philosophy is that being a good basketball player is the only way out. I mean it's not only his family that seems to depend on him. It's as if the entire community is counting on him. The scene in which he is drafted is particularly powerful. If anyone gets a chance to see this I recommend it to you. GRADE=B
4. The Village-I just saw this on cable the other night. I generally like M. Night Shyamalammadingdong's movies, but this one wasn't very good. Opie's daughter (Bryce Dallas Howard) is good in it, but the rest of it just doesn't work. I mean in movies like Signs and The Sixth Sense at least the plots made sense. They also scared you a little. In this movie the plot is stupid, and you're never once scared. If you haven't seen it, I'm about to ruin it for you. There's a village in the middle of the woods. It's the 1800's, and nobody in the village can leave cuz there are creatures in the surrounding woods that will kill them. There is also no red in the village as the color attracts the creatures. (Red plays a role in every Shyamalan, I think that's how it's spelled, film) Well we then find out that the creatures aren't real at all, but that the town's elders made them up. Why? Cuz the world outside those trees is dangerous. Why? Cuz outside that forest it's 2004. The elders of the village formed it to escape the evils of our modern world. Money, violence, crime. A little utopia in the woods. Well not so joyful when the monsters come. The movie was just dumb, and then the end was the worst part. Watch it if you're extremely bored one night, and there are no good infomercials on. GRADE=D-

I'm gonna finish this entry with some links to some stories that may be interesting to anybody reading this blog.

Keepin It Real Since 1980,

Tom

Links of Interest

• If you have a video iPod you may want to read this article. THIS is why I'm happy with my regular ass 20GB iPod that doesn't have video. Once these things get too advanced they kill themselves off slowly.
• If you're like me and you enjoy(ed) the show Arrested Development you may wanna read this.
• If you read this blog regularly you'll remember my rant on Isaac Hayes leaving South Park over religious reasons. It was due to an episode called Trapped in a Closet that made fun of Tom Cruise, John Travolta, R. Kelly, and the entire Church of Scientology. Well apparently Tom Cruise himself had the episode pulled last week when it was supposed to re-air. This led to South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker taking out an ad in Variety magazine which said, and I quote, "So, Scientology, you may have won THIS battle, but the million-year war for earth has just begun! Temporarily anozinizing our episode will NOT stop us from keeping Thetans forever trapped in your pitiful man-bodies. Curses and drat! You have obstructed us for now, but your feeble bid to save humanity will fail! Hail Xenu!!!- Trey Parker and Matt Stone, servants of the dark lord Xenu." That's just classic. Anyway, what I'm really interested in is how the show will handle the entire situation. Here's a hint.