Blog Upkeep

Who would have known how much work it is to keep a blog going? It’s like when you start a script, but you keep putting it off, first by days, then weeks, and you just feel guilty the whole time. I think the Spammers now officially visit my blog more often than I do, lucky for me the Spam filter is my trusty bodyguard.

Twitter really does seem like the new ‘it’ thing. Before it was building your own web page, then blogs, and now Twitter. Unfortunately Twitter still has a ways to go with dealing with the growing pains that other similar services have fought, that is, poor content and spammers. But the people who stick it out and continue to be active will make visiting the site worthwhile.

Later this month I’ll be traveling to LA for some sight seeing as well as begin to figure out my plans for moving, but in the mean time I’ll see about putting up some more content on this site.

Adventureland: The Review

I’ll say this right up front: Miramax had no freaking clue how to market this film. While it’s from Greg Mottola, director of Superbad, it doesn’t have the vulgar insults and laughs that film had. It’s instead a more sincere coming of age story, but what you’ll think watching the trailer — especially the Redband one — is that its just like his former movie, and there lies the disappointment.

Another minor complaint I had was with the lead actor, Jesse Eisenberg. It felt like he was trying to perform in a role that Michael Cera practically invented — and had the charisma of a wet mop for the first half of the film. He let people kick him in the balls, no retaliation, and seemed like he was on prozac the whole time… just floating along.

That’s with the entire film does — just floats along. It’s not a bad film and I don’t regret watching it, but there are no big twists and it sticks pretty close to the predictable formula. When you see the ads on TV for this ‘comedy’, just remember, they’re using the Greek definition: a story with a happy or cheerful ending.

Twitter: The New Blog

I’ve been trying to figure out what the draw is to people using Twitter. I like to think of it as a blog for the “txt mssge” generation. The people who typically operate blogs (like myself), and people who are big into text messaging (the tweens), are not that far off in age, but Twitter provides another venue for people to share their views without having to write several paragraphs. After all, people are reading far less these days, and short and lean is always favored over long winded (Sorry Faulkner). Throughout the day I’ve got funny ideas or things happen to me that aren’t very blog worthy, but it’ll make the cut for twitter!

Of course there’s a downside to twitter. I do not care what you had for any meals, if you are going #1 or #2, or anything extremely trivial. Anything that every person on earth does every day is not news worthy.

It’ll be interesting to see if the site becomes stronger or if it becomes a fad/novelty of the 2000’s.

Trailers

I was on YouTube today and came across a 2 min trailer for Role Models where I realized it had a scene that wasn’t in the entire movie, and I thought, why don’t more films do this? Deliberately write 1 or 2 scenes that have just one great joke but really have no place to put in the film, but use it for the trailer. Most movies have deleted scenes that were cut anyways, so include some of these.

Since seeing the I Love You, Man trailer in December I prolly re-watched it a dozen times anticipating the film’s release. I finally saw a screening in late Feb. and when I saw the scenes from the trailer in the film, I couldn’t laugh because I’d already seen it. This ruins all the surprise. But what if the scenes never show up? You’ll almost be anticipating the scenes in the trailer. Food for thought.

P.S. I Love You, Man opens this Friday, March 20th. If you’re looking for a comedy this weekend, check it out.

The Office

For laugh out loud funny, I can’t recommend The Office enough. This last episode made knock knock jokes funny again. I know, seems like impossible right?

Then be sure to watch this closing part:

Yes!

Tonight I caught a $1.50 theater showing of Jim Carrey’s Yes, Man. Never mind the fact that it comes out on DVD in about a month, there’s still something unique about seeing it in a theater.

The beginning of the movie starts with just a black screen while “Seperate Ways” by Journey starts pumping through the speakers. It’s quite a unique experience being in a room full of a bunch of strangers watching a story unfold on a large screen. As much as I love my own home theater setup, it would be sad if theaters became a thing of the past. And the movie? Not bad. Zooey Deschanel is quite the actress, she’d probably already be a household name if her name wasn’t so difficult to pronounce!

Cookies

It was brought to my attention that it’s been awhile since I’ve made a post on here, something I’ve realized but decided to see how long I could procrastinate. I don’t have anything in particular I’d like to cover, so I’ll be talking about — cookies. Delicious, warm, cookies. These aren’t your ordinary grandmothers cookies, no sir, these are straight from the freezer, pop them on a cookie sheet and throw them in the oven. Which made me think about all the modern conveniences we have. People complain about not having enough time, but when you think about all the technology we have, you start to realize we have nothing to complain about. Laundry? If you have a unit in your home, 10 minutes to sort/throw in a load. 10 minute to fold/hang. Dishes? Probably about the same amount to load then unload. Staying in touch with people is easier now too. Hardly anybody writes letters, and if they do, its an email which can be typed much faster than written.

Where am I going with all this? Nowhere, back to the cookies.

It's That Time of Year…

…to celebrate another awesome commercial holiday! Hooraw, who’s with me? Lets storm the Hallmark stores in full force! We’ll turn this economy around by buying up all the roses and chocolates.

Driving home tonight, I started to think about how many similarities there are between Valentines Day and Christmas. On V-Day, you try to buy a bunch of worthless crap to demonstrate your love, making up for the fact that you don’t do anything else the rest of the year to demonstrate this. On Christmas, once again, worthless crap, but in addition you also go to church and cram in as many Amen’s as it’ll take to get you through the next year. I think the truth of the matter is as soon as a holiday becomes officially recognized by the federal government, it becomes a washed down, commercial excuse for spending and taking the day off to do who knows what.

In defiance of the holiday, don’t do the cliche, commercial thing. Instead join other couples on a night out. You won’t get in trouble for doing nothing and you’ll be able to have fun with friends. Which I think is the best way to celebrate most holidays.

Tivo-itis

For lack of a better word, Tivo-itis I’m calling is when you’ve got so much recorded on your DVR that you feel like theres so much to watch you don’t even bother. I’ve actually heard of this phenomenon happening to other people, and now I too have got it. Entourage, How I Met Your Mother, 24, The Office… it’s all on there… filling up my hard drive.

Bands… Going, Going, Gone

I often get sick of the pop crap on the radio. What is considered a song by today’s standards is like calling ‘Disaster Movie’ a film. I like to go on the iTunes store to see what else is out there, as well as check up on when bands are coming up with a new album. There was two bands I was introduced to while in college that I had grown to liking because of their unique sound and intriguing lyrics. I’m talking about The Format and Something Corporate. So tonight I go onto wikipedia (my source for just about everything), to discover that both bands have decided to go on an indefinite hiatus. What?? I don’t understand what these guys are trying to accomplish. As soon as they begin to build up a fan base and get their name out there, they pull the plug. Now I understand when a group like the ‘Stones decide to take a break. Those dudes have been at it for over 40 years. These guys have hardly been at it for 4 years. What a disappointment…