Syriana( 2005, Stephan Gaghan)

Usually, when my GF and I are watching a movie together, she will tend to ask a couple questions regarding the plot and what's going on. I'm usually like, just watch the movie and your questions should be answered. Well with the politically charged movie Syriana, which was written and directed by Stephen Gaghan(who wrote the great screenplay for Traffic, 200) that wasn't the case. This movie should of came with an outline or maybe some cliff notes, to read before you actually sat down to watch the movie. Yeah, I got the basic idea of what the movie was about, but I hate to say that the intertwining plots of all the characters, just left me plain confused at times. I was just glad that there wasn't a quiz at the end of the movie, because I would of failed it horribly. I do have to give credit to the outstanding oscar worthy acting of the entire cast which featured: George Clooney, Jeffrey Wright, Chris Cooper, Matt Damon, Amanda Peet, Chris Cooper and Alexander Siddig. If it wasn't for the captivating performances of each and every actor I really don't think the complicated story line would of kept me interested for long. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a good intelligent movie that makes a person think, but this movie was just too overly complicated at times for me to really just sit back and enjoy.

If your in the mood for a movie, where you don't have to think to much or pay to close of attention to what's going on than this isn't the movie for you. If you are however in the mood for a suspenseful politically charged movie and you've recently taken some Ginkgo biloba than this is the movie for you.

The New World( 2005, Terrence Malick)

The New World is the most recent film by the very unprolific yet extremely talented director Terrence Malick, who directed such films as The Thin Red Line, Badlands and Days of Heaven. The film is an epic love story set amid the European colonial Jamestown settlement of 1607 and the conflicts with the Native Americans. Colin Farrell plays Captain John Smith, Christian Bale plays John Rolfe and the standout star of the movie is Q'Orianka Kilcher who plays Pocahontas. The movie revolves around Pocahontas and her love for two men, Captain John Smith and John Rolfe. This is the type of film where you don't need any dialogue to know what is going on. The poetic imagery and the musical score are enough to get the whole story across, with out even hearing on of the actors speak a single word. The real stars in this movie are not Farrell or Bale but the wonderfully beautiful actress Kilcher and the direction of Terrence Malick and his lush imagery.

If your looking for a visual feast for your eyes and a classic story of adventure and romance than go rent The New World. A word of warning, the movie is very long and at times slow in its progession and might not be to everyones liking.

The New World Trailer

Peaches: Impeach My Bush (2006)

So, Peaches the reigning queen of punk electrotrash music* is back, with a new album titled Impeach My Bush From the title of the album one would assume that this record would be filled with politically charged anti-Bush songs, well one would be wrong if they thought that. Besides the first track, which only clocks in at 49 seconds, titled F*ck or Kill in which Peaches sings "I'd rather f*ck who I want than kill who I'm told to" over and over there are no other overtly political references on the rest of the album. So, it just makes me think that Peaches just wanted to show us how clever she is with words and how they can have a double meaning or maybe no meaning at all.

With that said Peaches, on this album doesn't break any new musical ground, its basically more of the same as her last 2 records 2003's Fatherf*cker and 2000's Teaches of Peaches. Now, I don't mean to dissuade you from getting it, because if your a fan of Peaches you won't be disappointed. Some of the stand out tracks on the album are Tent In Your Pants, which features the standout lyrics, "It hurts so good I got a soregasm" it really doesn't get any better than that. The other tracks that stick in my head are Boys Wanna Be Her(which features once again an awesome collaboration with Joan Jett!), Two Guys(For Every Girl) and Do Ya(which can be heard on the new Gap commercial).

I'm not sure if Peaches is mellowing as she gets older or if I'm just becoming desensitized to vulgarities as I get older but, I didn't find this album as explicit and raw as her previous one's. Don't let that fool you though, Peaches is far from breaking into the mainstream and becoming a household name. You won't hear her music on the radio nor see her videos on MTV(does MTV even play videos anymore?) but with Gap(one of the most mainstream commercial retailers in the world) using one of her songs as a soundtrack for their new commercial, just maybe just maybe she might get her pinky toe into the mainstream consciousness. With that said, and if you've made it through this horribly written review, if you've never heard of Peaches before or if your a long time fan I would recommend getting her new album, Impeach My Bush.

Peaches is currently on tour with the Eagles of Death Metal and I will be seeing them on Saturday 22nd at Irving Plaza, Hopefully I'll have the time to write a review of the show, but if she's as good as the other time I saw her I can only bet that its going to be good.


Peaches wikipedia article: here


*If there is a reigning queen of punk electrotrash music than Peaches would be it.

Summer time in the City

So as I said yesterday, I would come back and revisit my idea of what I like and dislike about summertime in the city. So here it goes.

Likes

Girls wear less clothing: short shorts, short skirts, low cut tops and flowing summer dresses.

ice cream(well I actually like ice cream during winter too so I guess that doesn't count)

A Corona and a lime

Barbeques (supplied by Johnny Strike)

Sitting on the front porch(submitted by hoosiergirl5)

Going to the pool with the kids(also submitted by hoosiergirl5)

Dislikes

The summer stench of hot garbage

waiting on hot subway platforms

The smell of urine filled subway walkways.(well I hate this one year round but trust me the smell is worse during the summer)

UK-specific, the completely inadequate (and in many buildings non-existent) air-con we have in this country!(also supplied by Johnny Strike)

Being sweaty and sticky(hoosiergirl5)

Bees(hoosiergirl5)

As I also wanted to hear from my readers on their likes and dislikes. Here is what one of my loyal readers had to say(well probably my only reader).

Johnny Strike said...
One summer in every four I dislike the World Cup.

I have to admit I'm a little confused with what he had to say. I'm not sure if he meant that he hates the summer when the World Cup is held or that he hates the fact that the World Cup is held only once every four summers?

Johnny Strike has contacted me and cleared up his above statement, here is his explanation:

I meant that I dislike the World Cup. It transforms football from something that can easily be ignored (for those, like me, who'd prefer to ignore it) into something overblown, in-your-face, and unavoidable. Everywhere you look, everything is football-themed. Every product you buy has football on it. Everything on TV is about football. Every conversation you hear is football-related. So for that reason, from my perspective, it puts a damper on 1 summer in every 4.

Once again I liked to thank Johnny Strike for his contributions.

If you'd also like to add your dislikes and likes about summer feel free to send me your thoughts on it.

If this blog wasn't riveting enough for you than go on over to Dresskevin.com. This guy actually lets you pick out what he will wear for the day. Now if that's not crazy I don't know what is.

Kevin Smith is one funny guy

So here I was thinking of what I was going to post on this blog of mine today.
My choices were as follows:

1. Summer in the City, and what I don't like or dislike. (I would like to hear from you about your dislikes and likes about summer and maybe I'll include your suggestions when I revisit this one, maybe tomorrow.)
2. Give you a link to some guy who lets you chose what he is going to wear for the day. Yes I'm serious about this one.
3. Review the new Peaches album, Impeach My Bush.

But that all changed and those ideas went on the back burner as soon as I saw this video of a Q & A session with Kevin Smith, the director of such cult classics as Clerks, Mallrats and Jay & Silent Bob Strikes back. The Q & A session had to do with his involvement, almost 10 yrs ago of writing a new Superman script that would be directed by Tim Burton and starring Nic Cage. Well of course that movie was never made and a different one was made, but here's his first hand account of how he got a chance to write the script and why it was never made. Kevin Smith is hilarious in this interview, he should have his own TV show or make a movie about this experiences in Hollywood.

I decided not to embed the video on my blog because I wanted to give props(yes I'm a white boy and I just said props) to the site that I found it on which was Comic Foundry.

Be prepared, this video is almost 20minutes long, but worth it. So go microwave some popcorn and sit back and enjoy.
Kevin Smith Q&A video

Props: Hip-Hop terminology for respect or credit due to a person.

How to eat cereal

Step 1: Get a bowl and spoon
Step 2: Get some cereal and pour some in the bowl making sure not to overfill the bowl you have chosen.
Step 3: Go to the refrigerator and get some milk.
Step 4: Open up the milk and take a sniff to make sure its not sour. If your sure it's not sour skip Step 5 and proceed to Step 6.
Step 5: If your unsure if the milk is sour have some one else sniff it and possibly get them to taste it too.
Step 6: Pour the milk into the cereal filled bowl making sure not to spill any milk.
Step 7: Insert spoon into cereal and lift out a spoonful of cereal and place in mouth.
Step 8: Chew thoroughly and than swallow.
Step 9: Repeat steps 7-9 until no more cereal is left and than drink the remaining milk.

This has been a public service announcement brought to you from me.

Munich(2005, Steven Spielberg)

I just finished watching this movie last night. I had to watch it in two parts since it was so long and real life wouldn't let me finish it in one sitting. I was spell bound by this thriller, which is based on the 1972 Munich massacre of eleven Israeli athletes, by a Palestinian terrorist group known as Black September. The majority of the movie follows an Israeli hit squad lead by Eric Bana(who gives a tremendous preformance in this film and is worth watching the film alone for), Daniel Craig, Mathieu Kassovitz, Hanns Zischler and Ciaran Hinds and their hunt for the terrorist who were responsible for the Munich massacre.

I think Spielberg did a great job in not taking sides in this film, he just shows the toll of what vengeance can take on a mans' soul and how violence begets more violence. Even though this film was inspired by real events that took place well over 30 years ago. It is shocking at how relevant the movie is today and what is going on in the world, from the escalating violence in Lebanon & Israel to the US's war on terror.

The final scene of the film ends on the Brooklyn waterfront with the World Trade Center in the background. Which made me think of our own war on terror and our retaliation against the people who were responsible for that horrific human loss(Al-qaeda & Bin Laden). Should a country be able to defend its self and go after and bring people to justice for the wrongs and atrocities that they have committed against its citizens. I say yes, but at what point do we become no better than the terrorists that we are fighting and is it worth losing our soul in the process? In this film, I think Spielberg is asking those questions and also where should it stop and are we just perpetuating a cycle of violence and revenge with no end in site.

If you haven't watched this film I urge you to do so, You'll find yourself glued to the screen and maybe just maybe you'll come up with some answers to the many questions this film poses

Who do you look like?

So I just found this website the other day and I feel I must tell you about it because you might like it too and its a pretty good time waster. The website is called myheritage.com. On this site you can upload a photo of yourself and then the website will scan your photo. They will then tell you what celebrity you most resemble. I uploaded a few photos of myself and the 2 celebrities that kept popping up as to who I most resemble were Debra Winger and Joaquin Phoenix. You know I can't vouch for the accuracy of this site but I can vouch for the fun it can offer you. So give it a try and find out what celebrity you most resemble.

Also feel free to drop me a comment to let me know who you look like.

On a side note, if you view the website on a Mac you'll have to use the free Firefox web browser, the site isn't supported for Safari just yet.

The end of Rocketboom?

So as like many of you I went to Rocketboom to see my daily fix of Amanda Congdon only to find that she is no longer doing Rocketboom and that they are looking for a replacement! There was a little notice that did say that there would be a video today with an interim host, but no video, is this the end of Rocketboom?

Also, if you would like to be the next host of Rocketboom feel free to email them your audition, although filling Amanda's place is going to be extremely hard, because she put the Boom in Rocketboom.

To get your daily dose of Amanda filled though check out her blog!
Amanda Unboomed

The Ringer

The other day I was in the mood for a stupid gross out comedy so, I figured I'd rent The Ringer featuring Johnny Knoxville, the star of the now cancelled MTV show Jackass. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that this movie wasn't the stupid gross out comedy that I was expecting. Yes it was a comedy about a guy acting like he's mental challenged in order to participate in a fix the Special Olympics, but it was a comedy with heart, filled with cute little laughs and a message of don't judge a book by its cover. Who would of thought that the star of a show called Jackass could do a comedy with heart. This is a movie that the whole family can enjoy. So, if your not sure what movie to watch with the kids on Saturday night, why don't you give The Ringer a try, you just might be pleasantly surprised.


Also be on the look out latter on today for a new episode of The Ordinary Adventures of Tomas!