You might not have ever watched David Fincher's Fight Club movie or read the book by Chuck Paulhinuk. But I bet you've seen Ferris Bueller's Day Off, perhaps Matthew Broderick's best movie ever and certainly in the top three best John Hughes movie lists.
But are you aware of the Ferris Bueller Fight Club Theory?
(Aww, who am I kidding? Most anyone who answers that question is probably going to say yes. If I just heard about it today, then it was probably old news a year ago.)
Still . . . as a public service to you, I am offering up these nice bits of Internet-y goodness for your edification and enjoyment.
First, read the post.
Then, enjoy the video.
And if you haven't seen Fight Club, don't say I didn't warn you.
Over twenty-one (!?!) years of obviousness and nonsense.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Boxers or briefs? Or other?
As a kid . . . briefs.
In college . . . boxers.
These days . . . boxer-briefs.
The lesson?
Never forget who you were, but always be ready to embrace the new.
That's my answer.
Thanks for asking.
In college . . . boxers.
These days . . . boxer-briefs.
The lesson?
Never forget who you were, but always be ready to embrace the new.
That's my answer.
Thanks for asking.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
What is the most delicious thing you've ever eaten?
I once said during lunch at the office cafeteria that I didn't care that much about how food tasted. What I meant was that I didn't find myself able to distinguish the finer naunces about whether something had paprika in it or cardomom or too much cayenne and not enough all spice. In short, I'm not a "foodie." I can and do care if food is palatable or disgusting and I can tell if something has too much salt for my liking. Well . . . I think you get the idea.
But, how then do I answer this question?
I guess I go back to food that have been memorable to me, for whatever reason. And the first one that comes to mind in that regard is a random series of memories I have from childhood about a restaurant that we sometimes went to in Albany, Georgia.
Albany is about 45 minutes west of Tifton, where I grew up. Mostly I visited Albany to a.) experience a real Mall with lots of stores and restaurants inside the Mall (something Tifton never could provide, even in the best of years) b.) visit my orthopedic doctor/surgeon on a semi-regular basis. But I can remember a few times when we went to eat at this restaurant. I wish I could remember its name, but it registered as a fancy place. (It had white tablecloths on the tables and cushiony, leathery type chairs to sit in.) We probably only went there a few times in my childhood because my Dad had gotten a salary bonus or something kind of unexpected and he was treating us to something special . . . not that I would have known that at the time or even paid much attention to it if it was said out loud. But that was likely the circumstances for it.
ANYWAY . . . what made this restaurant special to me was the salads they served before the meal. It was something about the dishes the salads came on, or the way that the different dressings came not in bottles but in smal individual bowls all carried in a metal caddy. (I distinctly reember the caddy.) But above all of that was . . . bacon. I remember crumbled up bacon on the salads. Honest-to-goodness bacon that had just recently been cooked crumbled and put on my salad just before it came out to my seat. It was still warm and slightly chewy. It wasn't Bac'n Bits from a bottle. It was warm, REAL bacon.
I still carry a faint trace of that culinary surprise, even if I can't piece together much more than that.
*****
What since childhood? Well, there were many good restaurant experiences during our honeymoon in Charleston, South Carolina. I remember the red beans and rice that I ate our first night after driving into town from Savannah. I remember the she crab soup I ate during a lunch stop one day at a small restaruant tucked away in a neighborhood of Charlestonian row houses. I remember the fancy pasta that we at at the only restaurant I remember by name (The Library at Vendue) and especially the salads we ate that night . . . because it consisted mostly of greens--funkily shaped leaves the likes of which I wasn't used to in my salads from childhood or salad bars or college. But mostly I remember that we consciously spent more on food during our honeymoon than most anything else. We ate well (for recently being in college) and we really liked it.
*****
When I was in Hawaii many years ago, I remember eating a piece of pork tenderloin that had been marinated in soy sauce for a long time and it was tender and flavorful and really, really good.
*****
I remember the first dinner entree I made for Lynda in our first aparatment, when she came home from her first day of professional work. (Skillet fried chicken fingers I cut myself from chicken breasts, accompanied by a homemade honey mustard dip)
*****
Come to that, I remember one of the first meals we ever ate at a couple after the honeymoon, lving in the Town Terrace in Tifton, eating early morning cereal and drinking coffee from our newly washed wedding china.
*****
There are lots of random food memories over the years. But what is the most delicious thing out of these memories and many, many more?
I guess I don't have a very good (or completely satisfactory) answer to that question. Because I remember more about the people and some of the circumstances of the eating than I do the food itself. Maybe that means I just haven't eaten anything truly exceptional. Maybe that will come later in life. Or maybe I'm back to where I started this post. Maybe I just don't care enough to come up with the correct answer.
But anyway, that IS my answer.
Thanks for asking.
But, how then do I answer this question?
I guess I go back to food that have been memorable to me, for whatever reason. And the first one that comes to mind in that regard is a random series of memories I have from childhood about a restaurant that we sometimes went to in Albany, Georgia.
Albany is about 45 minutes west of Tifton, where I grew up. Mostly I visited Albany to a.) experience a real Mall with lots of stores and restaurants inside the Mall (something Tifton never could provide, even in the best of years) b.) visit my orthopedic doctor/surgeon on a semi-regular basis. But I can remember a few times when we went to eat at this restaurant. I wish I could remember its name, but it registered as a fancy place. (It had white tablecloths on the tables and cushiony, leathery type chairs to sit in.) We probably only went there a few times in my childhood because my Dad had gotten a salary bonus or something kind of unexpected and he was treating us to something special . . . not that I would have known that at the time or even paid much attention to it if it was said out loud. But that was likely the circumstances for it.
ANYWAY . . . what made this restaurant special to me was the salads they served before the meal. It was something about the dishes the salads came on, or the way that the different dressings came not in bottles but in smal individual bowls all carried in a metal caddy. (I distinctly reember the caddy.) But above all of that was . . . bacon. I remember crumbled up bacon on the salads. Honest-to-goodness bacon that had just recently been cooked crumbled and put on my salad just before it came out to my seat. It was still warm and slightly chewy. It wasn't Bac'n Bits from a bottle. It was warm, REAL bacon.
I still carry a faint trace of that culinary surprise, even if I can't piece together much more than that.
*****
What since childhood? Well, there were many good restaurant experiences during our honeymoon in Charleston, South Carolina. I remember the red beans and rice that I ate our first night after driving into town from Savannah. I remember the she crab soup I ate during a lunch stop one day at a small restaruant tucked away in a neighborhood of Charlestonian row houses. I remember the fancy pasta that we at at the only restaurant I remember by name (The Library at Vendue) and especially the salads we ate that night . . . because it consisted mostly of greens--funkily shaped leaves the likes of which I wasn't used to in my salads from childhood or salad bars or college. But mostly I remember that we consciously spent more on food during our honeymoon than most anything else. We ate well (for recently being in college) and we really liked it.
*****
When I was in Hawaii many years ago, I remember eating a piece of pork tenderloin that had been marinated in soy sauce for a long time and it was tender and flavorful and really, really good.
*****
I remember the first dinner entree I made for Lynda in our first aparatment, when she came home from her first day of professional work. (Skillet fried chicken fingers I cut myself from chicken breasts, accompanied by a homemade honey mustard dip)
*****
Come to that, I remember one of the first meals we ever ate at a couple after the honeymoon, lving in the Town Terrace in Tifton, eating early morning cereal and drinking coffee from our newly washed wedding china.
*****
There are lots of random food memories over the years. But what is the most delicious thing out of these memories and many, many more?
I guess I don't have a very good (or completely satisfactory) answer to that question. Because I remember more about the people and some of the circumstances of the eating than I do the food itself. Maybe that means I just haven't eaten anything truly exceptional. Maybe that will come later in life. Or maybe I'm back to where I started this post. Maybe I just don't care enough to come up with the correct answer.
But anyway, that IS my answer.
Thanks for asking.
Thursday, July 08, 2010
Go vote for Coastal Plains CASA
Learn more about CASA via: www.casaforchildren.org.
Go vote for Coastal Plain CASA in the Chase Community Giving competition via this link.
Thursday, July 01, 2010
Movie review: The Last Airbender
Let's start with Sarah's opinions on the movie.
So, let's break it down, shall we?
1. Upsetting: The cartoon was bright, vibrant, joyous--even though it was also about a group of kids setting out to save the world from tyranny. But along the way, there was always time for penguin-sledding, koi fish surfing, and many, many soothing cups of tea.
2. Out-of-character: Their names might have been the same (but see point #3 before you make a final judgement on that), but otherwise . . . hard to identify in some cases. Especially Uncle Ihro's portrayal in the film, who only barely got to do anything that resembled the character that was a steady, moral presence in a world spinning out of balance. Shyamalan's "Ihro" was mostly a cypher. You occasionally got the feeling that he had principles but he wasn't funny, wasn't relaxed, wasn't helpful.
Also . . . Sokka was pretty well wasted in this film. The cartoon allowed him to be comic relief, interjecting much needed humor and levity at every turn. But he never had anything witty to say in this film. (Let's let Jackson Rathbone go back to whatever he was trying to do in the Twilight movies. If The Last Airbender Book 2 ever gets greenlighted--a pretty large if, despite how the movie tried to set things up in the final moments, Sokka needs to be recast . . . immediately.)
3. Not funny: There were no opportunities for childishness in this film. Despite his age and his responsibilities as The Avatar, Aang is a ten-year-old kid who grew up in the happy-go-lucky confines of the Air Nomads temples. Aang LOVES a good joke and always wants to have fun. Noah Ringer's Aang is conflicted and mostly silent, except for when he's discussing how conflicted he is. I completely blame the script writers for this problem. And I suppose I should blame the casting directors. And sure, I'll throw blame on M. Night as well. And . . . sadly, I thing I'll also place some blame on Executive Producers Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Koneitzko.
DiMartino and Koneitzko created the original Nickelodeon cartoon that began running in 2005 and has become a beloved property. Without the popularity and goodwill generated by their creation, this movie would never have been made. They should have done more than take a paycheck and put their names in the credits. (And if they did work mightily to improve earlier versions to get to this version of the movie, then Hollywood movie-making is irreparably broken.)
This movie was dark and muddy--and that was not just a result of the inadequate 3D effects that were mistakenly placed on a 2D movie. (NOTE: I wisely didn't pay extra for the 3D version.) It lacked charm and life. Sad.
4. Mispronunciations: On top of all of those problems, every time a character spoke another character's name . . . they pronounced it wrong. This is mysterious and inexcusable.
In the cartoon, which is the source materials and acts as the Canon, Aang's name rhymes with "bang," not "gong."
You pronounce Sokka similarly to "sock-a," NOT "soak-a!"
Uncle Ihro should sound like "eye-ro," not "ear-ro."
Honestly . . . step up DiMartino and Koneitzko. You KNOW how these characters talk! Fix it.
So . . . given all of that . . . what grade can I give this?
I'm going to agree with Sarah and say C-. And I think that is being generous.
I give them credit for getting a lot of the actual canon into the movie, but they did it in a ham-fisted and inelegant way. I recognize that they had to condense 22 30-minute episodes (10+ hours of story and character development) into a 100 minute movie . . . but the journey simply felt terribly rushed. We never had any time to learn anything about the characters and the actors weren't skilled enough to make us really want to. The situations were forced and rapid. The editing was choppy.
It reminded me of
a.) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, in which the movie was so slavish to the content of the book that there was a forced quality to it--a sense of joyless obligation to the dialogue and the situation . . . a distinct lack of imagination; and
b.) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, in which the movie so heavily edited the content to fit it into the time slot that it felt horribly uneven and rushed.
The only thing that came as a surprise to me was the presence of The Daily Show's Asif Mandvi. I had no idea that he was in the movie and he played a prominent part to boot. (Oddly, I felt he also gave one of the better acting performances . . . though if I had to hear him mention "his important discovery in The Great Library" one more time, I was going to walk out. (Again, bad editing . . . )
M. Night Shymalan's The Last Airbender was distinctly disappointing. Any potential sequel needs to learn MANY things from the failure of this movie. And because of that, the likelihood that such a sequel will ever be made it highly dubious.
So, let's break it down, shall we?
1. Upsetting: The cartoon was bright, vibrant, joyous--even though it was also about a group of kids setting out to save the world from tyranny. But along the way, there was always time for penguin-sledding, koi fish surfing, and many, many soothing cups of tea.
2. Out-of-character: Their names might have been the same (but see point #3 before you make a final judgement on that), but otherwise . . . hard to identify in some cases. Especially Uncle Ihro's portrayal in the film, who only barely got to do anything that resembled the character that was a steady, moral presence in a world spinning out of balance. Shyamalan's "Ihro" was mostly a cypher. You occasionally got the feeling that he had principles but he wasn't funny, wasn't relaxed, wasn't helpful.
Also . . . Sokka was pretty well wasted in this film. The cartoon allowed him to be comic relief, interjecting much needed humor and levity at every turn. But he never had anything witty to say in this film. (Let's let Jackson Rathbone go back to whatever he was trying to do in the Twilight movies. If The Last Airbender Book 2 ever gets greenlighted--a pretty large if, despite how the movie tried to set things up in the final moments, Sokka needs to be recast . . . immediately.)
3. Not funny: There were no opportunities for childishness in this film. Despite his age and his responsibilities as The Avatar, Aang is a ten-year-old kid who grew up in the happy-go-lucky confines of the Air Nomads temples. Aang LOVES a good joke and always wants to have fun. Noah Ringer's Aang is conflicted and mostly silent, except for when he's discussing how conflicted he is. I completely blame the script writers for this problem. And I suppose I should blame the casting directors. And sure, I'll throw blame on M. Night as well. And . . . sadly, I thing I'll also place some blame on Executive Producers Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Koneitzko.
DiMartino and Koneitzko created the original Nickelodeon cartoon that began running in 2005 and has become a beloved property. Without the popularity and goodwill generated by their creation, this movie would never have been made. They should have done more than take a paycheck and put their names in the credits. (And if they did work mightily to improve earlier versions to get to this version of the movie, then Hollywood movie-making is irreparably broken.)
This movie was dark and muddy--and that was not just a result of the inadequate 3D effects that were mistakenly placed on a 2D movie. (NOTE: I wisely didn't pay extra for the 3D version.) It lacked charm and life. Sad.
4. Mispronunciations: On top of all of those problems, every time a character spoke another character's name . . . they pronounced it wrong. This is mysterious and inexcusable.
In the cartoon, which is the source materials and acts as the Canon, Aang's name rhymes with "bang," not "gong."
You pronounce Sokka similarly to "sock-a," NOT "soak-a!"
Uncle Ihro should sound like "eye-ro," not "ear-ro."
Honestly . . . step up DiMartino and Koneitzko. You KNOW how these characters talk! Fix it.
So . . . given all of that . . . what grade can I give this?
I'm going to agree with Sarah and say C-. And I think that is being generous.
I give them credit for getting a lot of the actual canon into the movie, but they did it in a ham-fisted and inelegant way. I recognize that they had to condense 22 30-minute episodes (10+ hours of story and character development) into a 100 minute movie . . . but the journey simply felt terribly rushed. We never had any time to learn anything about the characters and the actors weren't skilled enough to make us really want to. The situations were forced and rapid. The editing was choppy.
It reminded me of
a.) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, in which the movie was so slavish to the content of the book that there was a forced quality to it--a sense of joyless obligation to the dialogue and the situation . . . a distinct lack of imagination; and
b.) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, in which the movie so heavily edited the content to fit it into the time slot that it felt horribly uneven and rushed.
The only thing that came as a surprise to me was the presence of The Daily Show's Asif Mandvi. I had no idea that he was in the movie and he played a prominent part to boot. (Oddly, I felt he also gave one of the better acting performances . . . though if I had to hear him mention "his important discovery in The Great Library" one more time, I was going to walk out. (Again, bad editing . . . )
M. Night Shymalan's The Last Airbender was distinctly disappointing. Any potential sequel needs to learn MANY things from the failure of this movie. And because of that, the likelihood that such a sequel will ever be made it highly dubious.
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