Oscar Preview

Ok, so I admit, I deserve a kick in the balls for not posting a blog since the baseball playoffs were ongoing, but hey, whatever, it's my blog, well at least partly my blog...as it's a Foundation. Anyway, I'm going to give you a weak ass Oscar Preview blog, because to be honest, I've only seen one of the movies that has a major nomination. That would be The Wrestler, starring Mickey Rourke who gets a well deserved Oscar Nom for his portrayal of Randy 'The Ram' Robinson, an aged, broken down wrestler, who is struggling to regain his past glories. This film also stars Marisa Tomei's breasts, which really gave a stand out performance as an aging, broken down, stripper who is struggling to regain past glories. That's it, that's all I've seen. I am going to try and see Slumdog Millionaire and Milk before the ceremony, but it may be tough. So this year, may be the MOST unprepared I have ever been for an Oscars. My tops was 1997 when I'd seen every nominated Best Picture, as well as others, but I was in college then, and winter break was pretty boring, and a matinee was pretty cheap.

Will this stop me from doing an Oscar Blog A Thon? NO FREAKIN' WAY!

In fact, there is a very good chance that I will be more drunk at this years blog party...because i am not sick this year, knock on wood, also, I'm seeing Norm MacDonald the night before, so I may have some extra funny kicking around...finally, I think going in totally blind may be worth it, I think part of the fun is randomly picking a winner, before hand, and then rooting for that person, regardless of why you picked them. So that's what I'm going to do this year. Go in blind, but then argue for my picks vehemently. I figure this will make for better reading and for better viewing if you are lucky enough to be invited to the Foundation Compound for the viewing of the Oscars.

I of course will study up on all the nominees, and pick them based on my tried and true Oscar Pool selection process. Remember, never vote against a holocaust documentary. And I just want you all to be on the lookout for the Oscar Blogtacular sometime before March 7th, when I go out to Las Vegas...again.

Finally, a few notes

Friday Night Lights is back again on NBC (it was originally shown to direct tv viewers, but I waited until it came on my tv thank you very much) It's still NOT as good as it was in the first year (which I still say is right up there in the top 10 of all time tv Seasons...of course the Wire is pretty much 1/2 of that list)...but it seems damn good...story lines have been cut, and interconnected to save time and space, it's just good.

Secondly...Dead Like Me has Been added to my can't miss show's list...They only made two seasons on showtime, but like Firefly the producers made a movie to wrap everything up and it just came out on DVD, and I bought the entire collection...Like the "Two Bobs" in office space, I celebrate it's entire catalogue.

Thirdly...Instant Netflix on xbox360 is tremendous...It's better than through the pc, because I can watch it through my wonderful plasma screen without having to hook anything else up! It almost makes not returning the first disc of The Shield for the past year worth the money.

Finally One Oscar Question/Comment. What are the odds that the Oscars double up on Heath Ledger in the Oscar's Parade Of Dead Celebrities this year? Because I think they already bent the rules by including him as the headliner last year, but I don't remember anyone else dying that would supplant him, so I could totally see a double dip...of Costanzian Proportions.

I promise to write more blogs, but I am good at breaking promises.

A little bit creepy.

I watch a lot of sports, a lot of tv in general really, but specifically, I watch a LOT of sports. And with Baseball and Football sharing a very similar demographic it's not entirely surprising to see that the same advertisers are featured in the broadcast, but one particular advert (in there for our British readers) that has really been bothering me recently is one for Direct TV. You may know the history of the ad campaign, basically actors/actresses are hired to recreate characters that made them famous, only this time, they talk about Directtv and it's superiority to cable. Some examples of the ad campaign include Charlie Sheen recreating his role of Ricky "Wild Thing" Vaughn in Major League, and The guy that played the liquid metal Terminator in Terminator 2, recreating the liquid metal Terminator in Terminator 2.

The newest version of these ads has got me a little bothered though...The ad, features footage from the movie Poltergeist, in which the little girl is in her parents bedroom, looking at the tv, she then turns around and says: THEY'RE HERE!. Pretty much the most famous scene from the movie, and it was used in all the ads, and posters and whatnot for the movie.

The next shot is one of Mr. Craig T. Nelson, recreating the scene from the movie, but instead talks about how it isn't a poltergeist, it's just that they forgot to switch from Cable to DirectTV, and all the HD options they have and what not. The fact that Craig T. Nelson is recreating his most famous role this side of Minnesota State University, doesn't bother me so much, what bothers me is that he is basically starring in the commercial with his former costar, who died tragically during a hiatus from filming the Awful sequel Poltergeist III, apparently there was some misdiagnosing of illnesses, and she eventually had a cardiac arrest and died. I mean, isn't it a little bit creepy, that this guy is getting paid to recreate a scene in which he's acting with co star who died like 20 years ago. He didn't find this the least little bit creepy?

I mean, I'd like to think that even though Craig T. wasn't involved in the filming of Poltergeist 3 he would have had some sort of a bond with his costar, in fact reading IMDB it says that "The Poltergeist Girl" (Heather O'Rourke for those of you checking) was a calming presence on the set, so you'd assume that he at least would be friendly with this girl...And you'd think he'd be more than a little freaked out to know that he'd be seeing himself on tv recreating a scene through special effects, with his screen daughter from 25 plus years ago, who died at a very young age. I mean, maybe he thinks its a tribute like Natalie Cole singing backup to her father's famous songs and winning tons of grammies for them left and right. Although that was a little f'n creepy too if you asked me. But this just bothers me every time I see it...I mean, he can't be that poor that he needs to take any role that comes his way, he couldn't have suggested another scene that didn't contain so much of "The Poltergeist Girl"?

I don't know, maybe I'm making too much of it, but it just really kinda freaks me out every time I see it, which like I said, during the baseball playoffs and football season is quite often.

Segway Abe

Today I was driving home from work and saw a guy on Mass Ave on a Segway, in full Abe Lincoln gear, including beard. On his back it said Segway Abe. Being a menace on the road I managed to snap a photo while driving. It didn't come out so hot but I found a closer up one on google which I put below.

I don't know who this guy is, or what he's doing but it is fantastic!! Despite the never ending winters these are the kind of things that keep me loving Boston. The creative weirdo factor is so high, especially around Somerville and Cambridge. From the Morris Dancers I posted about a few years ago, to the SKUL bicycle "gang" and now Segway Abe - I love it!

Too bad Sarah Vowell isn't for another 2 weeks, I feel like she'd be a person who'd appreciate the awesomeness that is Segway Abe. For some weird reason comedians and quirkly misfits (think Conan O'Brien) love our pal Abe.

I found several sites with people trying to figure out who/what he is. I found his myspace page, which could be the only thing left worth checking out on myspace, for the sheer fact that he's listed as being from Vinyl Sidingsburg , plus his only friends seem to be other Abe Lincoln's. Have I mentioned this is fantastic?

http://www.myspace.com/famousfartzone

I think I just threw up

I love romantic movies. Particularly I like romantic comedies, your average pos crappy romance movies are a wonderful guilty pleasure treat. However, I simply cannot stomach Nicholas Sparks movies. The ladies at work are always going on about crap like The Notebook and how much they love the book and movie. I like some REALLY REALLY bad romance movies but even I have a standard, and Nicolas Sparks is well below my that line.

The last few days I've begun to see commercials for a movie called Nights in Rodanthe. Weird title I know. Anyway, at very first glance it looked like just another Diana Lane middle aged woman finding herself Under the Tuscan Sun type of thing. That was until they revealed a little bit of dialogue that had me almost literally recycle my dinner.

So let me set the scene, based on the limited information in the commercial, Diane Lane is going through a potential divorce. She is also is some sort of innkeeper at some ridiculously nice summer mansion seemingly on the beach. It's off season and Richard Gere is her only guest and he's dealing with some drama of his own. They have some dinner, yadda yadda yadda, and she shows him some wooden box that she's made (yes, I giggle that she showed him her box, I'm a child, but I digress) anyway upon showing him her box she says:

"I made that, it's to keep special things safe."

he replies:

"Who keeps you safe?"

to which I reply:

vomit

REALLY!?! WHO KEEPS YOU SAFE?

are you freaking kidding me, this has to be one of the worst lines in film/literature history.

Pass me a gun.

Do yourself a favor and don't watch this:

Still Better than Dean Koontz

Earlier today I was informed that All Star Sandwich Bar in Inman Square, Cambridge MA serves poutine. Obviously, I left my house in a matter of seconds. I've been meaning to check this place out for ages, it was good and my belly was sated, but little did I know that I was going to be in for the surprise of the year when I found a youngster reading an Ann Coulter book, IN PUBLIC!

All Star Sandwich Bar is one of those hipster friendly places, in hipster friendly Inman Square. Sure, all sorts of people go there, but boutique sandwich shops in the Republic of Cambridge are the least likely place you'd expect to see someone rocking out with conservative pablum.

I was so surprised I had to surreptitiously take a photo, please excuse the upskirtcam-esque quality from my shitty cellphone. I had to make it look like I was taking a picture of my food, which is all very common among the hipster foodie crowd, lest she think me some sort of weirdo.

I spent time while enjoying my lunch trying to figure out the state of today's youth. Why would someone be reading anything coming out of Anne Coulter's brain, let alone in public? If I had tried that shit at Umass when I was her age they'd have taken my bongs and frisbees away! This young women didn't seem to be the"fuck you world I do what I want" type and I think she's a bit too young to have been overly influenced by Alex P. Keaton, but there she was - sitting there, eating her lunch, doing her thing. I guess I am glad to see people thinking freely and doing what they want, but aside from hurting my soul, seeing someone reading this kind of material in Cambridge is tantamount to wearing a Yankee's hat in Southie.

I think there are a few possible explanations:

1. She actually likes Anne Coulter - sad really, but possible I suppose
2. She's working up the courage to kill herself, and isn't a tasty sandwich a nice last meal?
3. Some sort of leftist experiment
4. She's an idiot savant and this is the last book left in recorded history she's yet to read
5. Some sort of sandwich related dare
6. She is desperately lonely and hoping that the opposites attract thing might really work - if so, sign me up!
7. Catering didn't show up at the the Hitler Youth meeting
8. She's Gov. Palin's knocked up daughter (eating for two obviously) hiding out from the media in liberal town (Republic of Cambridge)

If you have any other possible explanations as to how this could have happened, or insights into today's youth, I'd love to hear them.

IPOD Etiquette

I'm putting this out there, because I'm not sure of the answer. And I hope any Foundation readers may be able to help me out. I know that we haven't posted in a while, so I know that may be asking a lot, but whatever, I feel like our faithful readers will forgive us.

I take public transportation to work...I love it, well most of the time I love it, I hate the redline and it's 10MPH rule on the Longfellow bridge, but whatever, I haven't put gas in my car for like 4 weeks. But what this means is I often have 45 minutes to an hour of time to kill in the morning and again in the afternoon. So I have taken to doing many things to pass the time, sometimes I read a book, sometimes I read any variation of free newspaper or magazine available at the stops I am frequenting. Sometimes I'll read a book, sometimes I'll play Solitaire on the IPOD...and sometimes, I'll watch movies/tv shows on the ipod that I downloaded from the interwebs.

The question I have, is this, the screen on my ipod is pretty small...and in certain lights very difficult to see, but still I worry, because sometimes, not often, but sometimes an image that may not be suitable for all ages comes upon the screen. A random boobie here, a simulated sex act there, you know basic Pay cable type of stuff, but not Skinemax stuff. For example, I watched Beer Fest on the Ipod, and like 10 seconds into the movie, there's a LOT of Boobs. Like dozens of them...I embarrasedly covered up the ipod and waited out the boobs (I went back later, don't you worry I don't turn down the opportunity to see boobs very often). But what's the rule of thumb here?

Do I assume that the screen will be unviewable by anyone else? Do I care? Do I not watch The Wire when children are present on the bus? Do I not watch Weeds, during rush hour on the red line? Please, all opinions are welcome, but I want to know, should only Network aired programming and G Movies be allowed to be seen on busses and trains? I mean obviously, I'm not going to download the Hustler Real College Girls series and watch them on the bus, but is there a line I shouldn't cross?

Thanks in advance for your comments in opinions!

HD Snob

I've been so lazy, and haven't posted anything in far too long, but I feel like I need to post SOMETHING...ANYTHING...so I figure I'll post an excuse, as to why I haven't been posting. After my trip to LA/Vegas (I promised a blog, you never got one, I can't find the cord to my camera, so haven't uploaded the pictures yet) I happened to find myself with a few extra paper dollars. I had a few car repairs that I needed to tend to, but I did the more responsible thing. I bought a new TV and accompanying Surround sound system.

The TV I got was a Panasonic Viera 42 inch plasma. It looks very similar to this one, I can honestly say, that this is the best money I've EVER...EVER spent.

Well, except for that 10 bucks I spent to see Prince that time, That is still the best money I've ever spent. I mean, I got to see Prince for 10 bucks...what can top that outside of a stripjoint?

Anyway, tying this back to the title, I never really believed people who said they refused to watch stuff that wasn't in HD. I thought it was hogwash, I mean, they've lived without it for decades, and its not like they are forced watch non HDtv on a 13 inch black and white zenith....It took me all of a day and a half to see what they were talking about. Again, this goes back a bit, but I was watching Game 5 of the NHL playoffs between the Bruins and Canadiens. The first four games had been played on NESN HD, but with the Yankees in town, The bigwigs at NESN decided that the Red Sox would be played in HD, while the Bruins would be relegated to the Non HD channel for the night. I was completely outraged, compared to the crisp clear picture that only my 1080P set could bring me (I still don't know what it means, but I like saying 1080P), non HD looked like you were watching the game through a glass of murky tap water. It was bullshit! Bullshit I say!

I actually got a call from two of my friends who also have HD, and both were exactly the same. Why the fuck is this not in HD? I was very new to the HD world, but for the first time, I understood why people are HD Snobs. And I became one myself.

One thing this TV has done, is that it has actually SAVED me money.

How is this possible you ask? Let me explain: Before HD, I'd spend at least one, if not multiple school nights at the local bar in order to watch the game. Whatever game that may be. Now, instead of spending 30 bucks on a burger and some beer, I just head to the packy, make some dinner, and bam, everything for 10 bucks or less. I'd say I have been to the bar at least 66% less than I was before the tv. Throw in how awesome Xbox is on the big screen, and I've become a homebody.

I'm heading back to vegas next weekend...if my fortunes are like the last time, I will buy a PS3, and it will be official, you will NEVER EVER see me again, unless you want to watch a movie on BluRay, or watch me play Grand Theft Auto 4.

Here's a short list of things I've grown to love since HD.

Golf. I have always watched golf, but seeing the Masters in HD was something completely different...almost indescribable
Nat. Geographic TV (particularly my new favorite show Locked Up Abroad)
HGTV...I don't give a shit about home improvement, but you put it on a channel in the 800's and I'll watch