Leaving tomorrow morning for Las Vegas by way of Philadelphia and New York City with Rachel Wiener. I can't be more excited. I renewed my license today, and I passed the vision test (I was a little nervous, ha) and then I got a new picture taken, but they had me take my glasses off - weird, because I wear them when I drive - and it's going to be weird to look at my pic every time I take out my license for the next 5 years and I don't have my glasses on. Anyways, I digress...
Miss Alison Hay and I took in designer-cum-filmmaker Tom Ford's rookie effort, A Serious Man starring Colin Firth and Julianne Moore. Unfortunately, it was all style and not a whole lot of substance. Firth was incredible was George Falconer, a college English professor in 1960's Los Angeles dealing with the recent death of his longtime partner - but the rest of the film was just one gorgeous screen picture after another where not a whole lot happened or was said. Julianne Moore didn't really have a whole lot to do as his blousy neighbor/wannabe lover, but she made the best of a pretty thankless role. Expect Oscar nominations for both, as well as a possible adapted Screenplay nod for Ford and David Scearce. I was disappointed, I was expecting much more.
Grade: B- (Miss Alison Hay gives it a solid B)ˆ
Speaking of which, apologies for not giving Miss Alison Hay props for the Glee flash mob I posted in a previous update. PROPS TO YOU!
Viva Las Vegas!
Monday, December 28, 2009
Saturday, December 26, 2009
The Most Wonderful Time of the Year
I hope that you all had a wonderful Holiday, blog readers! Mine certainly was, even if it was a bit non-traditional. I naturally waited until last minute to have all of my presents delivered and wrapped, so that's what I spent most of the day doing. We spent Christmas Eve at the Johnson's - it was good to be among great friends.
Christmas day we went to my aunt's in Westminster. It's always a little ridiculous when the whole family gets together, and yesterday was no different. We do an Italian Christmas, which consists of homemade pasta, raviolis, meatballs and sauce. It's probably my favorite meal of the year. Of course. the liquor was flowing as well, so we did get a little loud and raucous.
Christmas night brought a first for me - I went to the movies! I always wondered why films were released on Christmas day (and not the day after), and if people actually went to the movies on Christmas. Well, a lot of people go to the movies on Christmas. Miss Alison Hay and I ventured to Cinemaworld in the 'burg to see Sherlock Holmes. It was quite good - Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law made a great duo as Holmes/Watson, and Rachel McAdams spiced things up as Holmes muse Irene. This time out, Holmes and Watson were out to thwart the evil Lord Blackwood from "altering the course of history". It was pretty slick, and the soundtrack by Hans Zimmer was excellent. The story was a little convoluted in the beginning and it took a little while for me to figure out what was happening, but once I was finally able to figure it out, I really enjoyed it. It was really cool the way you thought one thing was happening when it really was something totally different. Guy Richie did a really great job updating the Sherlock Holmes characters for the 21st Century but was still able to remain faithful to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's original characters. RDJ was wonderful as Holmes. He is nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actor, and if this year's Best Actor field wasn't so crowded, I feel like he could easily pull of a nomination. Same goes for Law as Watson - he was so good that he almost stole the show from Downey. I was a little disappointed with Rachel McAdams, she didn't really have a whole lot to do, and could have played up the sexuality a bit more. One question I had after watching it though - was it always raining in 19th century London? Every movie I've seen lately that's been set there, it's been rainy and dreary. When I went a couple years ago, it was beautiful! Over all though, this is a great film to end the year with, and I encourage all of you to catch it in the theater - the camera work and cinematography were quite good and should be appreciated on the big screen. Grade: A-
Santa didn't arrive at 39 Winnecowett Drive until this morning, but it was worth the wait! I got some new running clothes, a couple of dvds, and....drum roll please....a new camera! After I got back from Disney and uploaded my pictures to my computer, the quality was terrible, and there were spots on the lenses even after I kept cleaning them, so I asked for a new camera from Santa. And he delivered! I got a Canon PowerShot SX120 with 10x zoom and 10 mega pixels - hooray!
I'm excited to use it next week when I go to....LAS VEGAS! That's right friends, less then a week til my maiden voyage to Sin City and I couldn't be more excited. We're taking a day trip to the Grand Canyon, so I'm sure it will get all kinds of use. I also found out today that there are quite a few In-N-Out Burgers in the greater Las Vegas area, so you can be sure that I'll make multiple visits there. There is the potential of staying at Bellagio the last night we're there, in a room with a view of the fountains. This trip is going to be epic, I cannot wait. And even better? I'm spending Tues-Thurs with Rachel Weiner in Philly/NYC - huzzah!
Readers will know how much I enjoy Glee, so you can bet how excited I was when I saw this:
I want to be part of a flash mob, but a Glee flash mob?! A dream come true!
Christmas day we went to my aunt's in Westminster. It's always a little ridiculous when the whole family gets together, and yesterday was no different. We do an Italian Christmas, which consists of homemade pasta, raviolis, meatballs and sauce. It's probably my favorite meal of the year. Of course. the liquor was flowing as well, so we did get a little loud and raucous.
Christmas night brought a first for me - I went to the movies! I always wondered why films were released on Christmas day (and not the day after), and if people actually went to the movies on Christmas. Well, a lot of people go to the movies on Christmas. Miss Alison Hay and I ventured to Cinemaworld in the 'burg to see Sherlock Holmes. It was quite good - Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law made a great duo as Holmes/Watson, and Rachel McAdams spiced things up as Holmes muse Irene. This time out, Holmes and Watson were out to thwart the evil Lord Blackwood from "altering the course of history". It was pretty slick, and the soundtrack by Hans Zimmer was excellent. The story was a little convoluted in the beginning and it took a little while for me to figure out what was happening, but once I was finally able to figure it out, I really enjoyed it. It was really cool the way you thought one thing was happening when it really was something totally different. Guy Richie did a really great job updating the Sherlock Holmes characters for the 21st Century but was still able to remain faithful to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's original characters. RDJ was wonderful as Holmes. He is nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actor, and if this year's Best Actor field wasn't so crowded, I feel like he could easily pull of a nomination. Same goes for Law as Watson - he was so good that he almost stole the show from Downey. I was a little disappointed with Rachel McAdams, she didn't really have a whole lot to do, and could have played up the sexuality a bit more. One question I had after watching it though - was it always raining in 19th century London? Every movie I've seen lately that's been set there, it's been rainy and dreary. When I went a couple years ago, it was beautiful! Over all though, this is a great film to end the year with, and I encourage all of you to catch it in the theater - the camera work and cinematography were quite good and should be appreciated on the big screen. Grade: A-Santa didn't arrive at 39 Winnecowett Drive until this morning, but it was worth the wait! I got some new running clothes, a couple of dvds, and....drum roll please....a new camera! After I got back from Disney and uploaded my pictures to my computer, the quality was terrible, and there were spots on the lenses even after I kept cleaning them, so I asked for a new camera from Santa. And he delivered! I got a Canon PowerShot SX120 with 10x zoom and 10 mega pixels - hooray!
I'm excited to use it next week when I go to....LAS VEGAS! That's right friends, less then a week til my maiden voyage to Sin City and I couldn't be more excited. We're taking a day trip to the Grand Canyon, so I'm sure it will get all kinds of use. I also found out today that there are quite a few In-N-Out Burgers in the greater Las Vegas area, so you can be sure that I'll make multiple visits there. There is the potential of staying at Bellagio the last night we're there, in a room with a view of the fountains. This trip is going to be epic, I cannot wait. And even better? I'm spending Tues-Thurs with Rachel Weiner in Philly/NYC - huzzah!Readers will know how much I enjoy Glee, so you can bet how excited I was when I saw this:
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Greetings readers!
I've finally recovered from the visually spectacular Avatar screening last week, only to behold yet another incredible sight this morning! I got to the Museum at about 7 to do my daily run, and I timed it just right to see the sunrise over the Boston skyline as I ran along Memorial Drive. It was spectacular. The sun gleaming off the Hancock Tower and the Prudential, the snow covered Charles River - amazing. I wish I had had my camera to take a couple of pictures, but alas, I like to run carrying as little as possible. Maybe I'll do it again next week, and this time bring my camera.
I'll get my quick movie news out of the way - saw Up in the Air and Invictus last week, and both were good.
Ryan Bingham (George Clooney), is a corporate hatchet man who loves his life on the road but is forced to fight for his job when his company downsizes its travel budget. He is required to spend more time at home, just as he is on the cusp of a goal he's worked toward for years—reaching ten million frequent flyer miles—and just after he's met the frequent-traveler woman of his dreams (Vera Farmiga).
There is tremendous buzz around this film, especially for the performances of George Clooney and Anna Kendrick. Jason Reitman is quickly becoming one of my favorite directors (even though I didn't particularly care for his last effort, Juno, I adored Thank You for Smoking), he has a knack for writing intelligent, realistic dialogue and characters that audiences can identify with. This was an extremely well made and put together film. I think that it has particular resonance now because of it's subject matter (people losing their jobs) and how people cope with the loss.
As for the performances, Clooney was as good as all the reviews have said, but I personally felt that he was just George Clooney being George Clooney, a wryly charming playboy who has women eating out of the palm of his hand. The real breakout in the film though is Anna Kendrick as Natalie, the young executive that Clooney takes under his wing. She's a relative newcomer to Hollywood (I hear she's in those Twilight films) and she announces herself as a force to be reckoned with. Her performance is remarkable, especially as she starts to show vulnerability and that she really may not be as tough as she thinks she is. Vera Farmiga completes the trifecta, although she is the least developed of the three leads in what turns out to be, IMHO, a mostly thankless role.
This movie is probably like porn for travel agents, with American Airlines and Hilton Hotels, and their respective loyalty programs being advertised like whoa. There is a great scene in the beginning of the movie where Ryan and Alex compare their elite traveler status within various airlines and hotel chains. I expect this movie to do quite well at the Oscars, easily scoring nominations for Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actress (could be x2), Screenplay and Editing.
Grade: A
Also saw Invictus last weekend. Don't really have the energy or inclination to write a lot about it. It was good, and if I had to describe it in one sentence: Rugby cured all of South Africa's racial tensions in the mid 90's. Ok, so it's a little more complicated than that, but that's pretty much what I walked away thinking. Morgan Freeman is in the role he was born to play as Mandella, and Matt Damon gives a fantastic performance as rugby team captain. Can someone PLEASE give him an Oscar already? Clint has the uncanny ability to make films meander when they don't really need to, but I think that it works for him here. The last 25 minutes or so is the climactic ruby match, which is expertly shot and, even though we know (or can probably guess) the outcome, it's still pretty thrilling.
Grade: B+
I spent 5 days at the beginning of the month with the Marching Spartans at Walt Disney World in Orlando. It was a really great time (even though it rained the first 2 days we were there) but it was nice to be on vacation for a little while. The kids performed really well, and they had a great performance in the Magic Kingdom before the afternoon parade. I love seeing the parks all decorated for Christmas - here's what the train station looks like right when you enter the Magic Kingdom:
Pretty nice, huh? And the holiday edition of Illuminations was also pretty great: Disney sure does know how to put on a show! I had this great idea of trying to post pictures of myself at all of the countries in Epcot, and it worked for about half, then it got dark. Beth was grateful, because she was getting pretty annoyed at playing photographer.
And for a Christmas treat, my roommate sent me this video this morning, it's pretty outrageous.
Happy Holidays!
I've finally recovered from the visually spectacular Avatar screening last week, only to behold yet another incredible sight this morning! I got to the Museum at about 7 to do my daily run, and I timed it just right to see the sunrise over the Boston skyline as I ran along Memorial Drive. It was spectacular. The sun gleaming off the Hancock Tower and the Prudential, the snow covered Charles River - amazing. I wish I had had my camera to take a couple of pictures, but alas, I like to run carrying as little as possible. Maybe I'll do it again next week, and this time bring my camera.
I'll get my quick movie news out of the way - saw Up in the Air and Invictus last week, and both were good.
Ryan Bingham (George Clooney), is a corporate hatchet man who loves his life on the road but is forced to fight for his job when his company downsizes its travel budget. He is required to spend more time at home, just as he is on the cusp of a goal he's worked toward for years—reaching ten million frequent flyer miles—and just after he's met the frequent-traveler woman of his dreams (Vera Farmiga).There is tremendous buzz around this film, especially for the performances of George Clooney and Anna Kendrick. Jason Reitman is quickly becoming one of my favorite directors (even though I didn't particularly care for his last effort, Juno, I adored Thank You for Smoking), he has a knack for writing intelligent, realistic dialogue and characters that audiences can identify with. This was an extremely well made and put together film. I think that it has particular resonance now because of it's subject matter (people losing their jobs) and how people cope with the loss.
As for the performances, Clooney was as good as all the reviews have said, but I personally felt that he was just George Clooney being George Clooney, a wryly charming playboy who has women eating out of the palm of his hand. The real breakout in the film though is Anna Kendrick as Natalie, the young executive that Clooney takes under his wing. She's a relative newcomer to Hollywood (I hear she's in those Twilight films) and she announces herself as a force to be reckoned with. Her performance is remarkable, especially as she starts to show vulnerability and that she really may not be as tough as she thinks she is. Vera Farmiga completes the trifecta, although she is the least developed of the three leads in what turns out to be, IMHO, a mostly thankless role.
This movie is probably like porn for travel agents, with American Airlines and Hilton Hotels, and their respective loyalty programs being advertised like whoa. There is a great scene in the beginning of the movie where Ryan and Alex compare their elite traveler status within various airlines and hotel chains. I expect this movie to do quite well at the Oscars, easily scoring nominations for Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actress (could be x2), Screenplay and Editing.
Grade: A
Also saw Invictus last weekend. Don't really have the energy or inclination to write a lot about it. It was good, and if I had to describe it in one sentence: Rugby cured all of South Africa's racial tensions in the mid 90's. Ok, so it's a little more complicated than that, but that's pretty much what I walked away thinking. Morgan Freeman is in the role he was born to play as Mandella, and Matt Damon gives a fantastic performance as rugby team captain. Can someone PLEASE give him an Oscar already? Clint has the uncanny ability to make films meander when they don't really need to, but I think that it works for him here. The last 25 minutes or so is the climactic ruby match, which is expertly shot and, even though we know (or can probably guess) the outcome, it's still pretty thrilling.
Grade: B+
I spent 5 days at the beginning of the month with the Marching Spartans at Walt Disney World in Orlando. It was a really great time (even though it rained the first 2 days we were there) but it was nice to be on vacation for a little while. The kids performed really well, and they had a great performance in the Magic Kingdom before the afternoon parade. I love seeing the parks all decorated for Christmas - here's what the train station looks like right when you enter the Magic Kingdom:
Pretty nice, huh? And the holiday edition of Illuminations was also pretty great: Disney sure does know how to put on a show! I had this great idea of trying to post pictures of myself at all of the countries in Epcot, and it worked for about half, then it got dark. Beth was grateful, because she was getting pretty annoyed at playing photographer.
And for a Christmas treat, my roommate sent me this video this morning, it's pretty outrageous.
Happy Holidays!
Friday, December 18, 2009
Welcome to Pandora
So I know that I have been MIA for about 2 weeks, and I promise, I'll be back tomorrow with a full update, but I need to blog about this tonight before I go to bed. Tonight, I saw one of the most anticipated movies of the year (if not the decade), James Cameron's follow-up to his ubersmash Titanic (almost 12 years to the day), Avatar. I was skeptical about it, being all CGI and sci-fi, two things I'm not a huge fan of, but I bought my tickets to an opening day screening in Imax.
Avatar take us to a spectacular world beyond imagination, where a reluctant hero embarks on a journey of redemption and discovery as he leads an epic battle to save a civilization. The story's hero is Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a former Marine confined to a wheelchair. Bitter and disillusioned, he's still a warrior at heart. All Jake ever wanted was something worth fighting for, and he finds it in the place he least expected: on a distant world. Jake has been recruited to join an expedition to the moon Pandora, which corporate interests are strip-mining for a mineral worth $20 million per kilogram on Earth. To facilitate their work, the humans use a link system that projects a person's consciousness into a hybrid of humans and Pandora's indigenous humanoids, the Na'vi. This human-Na'vi hybrid—a fully living, breathing body that resembles the Na'vi but possesses the individual humans thoughts, feelings and personality—is known as an "avatar." In his new avatar form, Jake can once again walk. His mission is to interact with and infiltrate the Na'vi with the hope of enlisting their help—or at least their acquiescence—in mining the ore. Complications arise when Jake falls in love with a beautiful Na'vi female (Zoe Saldana) who saves his life, leading to an epic conflict that will decide nothing less than the fate of an entire world.
It was one of the most incredible things I've ever seen. Visually stunning doesn't even begin to describe this film. And let's get this out of the way first, a nomination for Best Original Screenplay was not among Titanic's record 15 Oscar nominations, and Avatar is not different, the script and dialogue is atrocious. But let's be honest, this isn't supposed to be about the writing. It's about the visual spectacle, and on that level, Avatar is astounding. The actual story is fascinating; humans having avatars to infiltrate an alien culture to learn and interact with them, so if some of the plot points are a little ludicrous, you can look beyond it because Cameron keeps you occupied with sumptuous visuals. The world that he created is visual eye-candy, with almost every color in the spectrum represented, in locales that range from mountain tops to rain forests to the desert. And it's inhabitants are equally as exciting. The Na'vi are incredibly lifelike (albeit a little cat people-esque), and when they interact with the humans, the lines between live action and CGI become extremely blurred - what's created and what's real?
There was more than one scene that legitimately left me breathless; the creativity of this film and Cameron and his associates is astounding. No wonder it took him almost 15 years to make this, the attention to detail is incredible. I had a few minor quibbles in addition to the horrendous script, but overall, this is one of the most enjoyable and satisfying films I've ever seen. It has gotten across the board rave reviews, and is doing fairly well early in the awards season. In a year that will have 10 Best Picture nominees, this will easily make the cut (I'd guess it'd even make it if there were only 5 slots), and Cameron is almost assured a nod for direction and a truckload of visual nominations.
I've never seen anything like this, such a life like and seamless melding of live-action and CGI. For months, this has been billed as a game changer in the world of film, and if this is the future of the American cinema, I can't wait to see what comes next. See this, and see it in Imax. Avatar is why films are shown in Imax.
Grade: A
It would have received an A+ if the script was better.
Avatar take us to a spectacular world beyond imagination, where a reluctant hero embarks on a journey of redemption and discovery as he leads an epic battle to save a civilization. The story's hero is Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a former Marine confined to a wheelchair. Bitter and disillusioned, he's still a warrior at heart. All Jake ever wanted was something worth fighting for, and he finds it in the place he least expected: on a distant world. Jake has been recruited to join an expedition to the moon Pandora, which corporate interests are strip-mining for a mineral worth $20 million per kilogram on Earth. To facilitate their work, the humans use a link system that projects a person's consciousness into a hybrid of humans and Pandora's indigenous humanoids, the Na'vi. This human-Na'vi hybrid—a fully living, breathing body that resembles the Na'vi but possesses the individual humans thoughts, feelings and personality—is known as an "avatar." In his new avatar form, Jake can once again walk. His mission is to interact with and infiltrate the Na'vi with the hope of enlisting their help—or at least their acquiescence—in mining the ore. Complications arise when Jake falls in love with a beautiful Na'vi female (Zoe Saldana) who saves his life, leading to an epic conflict that will decide nothing less than the fate of an entire world.It was one of the most incredible things I've ever seen. Visually stunning doesn't even begin to describe this film. And let's get this out of the way first, a nomination for Best Original Screenplay was not among Titanic's record 15 Oscar nominations, and Avatar is not different, the script and dialogue is atrocious. But let's be honest, this isn't supposed to be about the writing. It's about the visual spectacle, and on that level, Avatar is astounding. The actual story is fascinating; humans having avatars to infiltrate an alien culture to learn and interact with them, so if some of the plot points are a little ludicrous, you can look beyond it because Cameron keeps you occupied with sumptuous visuals. The world that he created is visual eye-candy, with almost every color in the spectrum represented, in locales that range from mountain tops to rain forests to the desert. And it's inhabitants are equally as exciting. The Na'vi are incredibly lifelike (albeit a little cat people-esque), and when they interact with the humans, the lines between live action and CGI become extremely blurred - what's created and what's real?
There was more than one scene that legitimately left me breathless; the creativity of this film and Cameron and his associates is astounding. No wonder it took him almost 15 years to make this, the attention to detail is incredible. I had a few minor quibbles in addition to the horrendous script, but overall, this is one of the most enjoyable and satisfying films I've ever seen. It has gotten across the board rave reviews, and is doing fairly well early in the awards season. In a year that will have 10 Best Picture nominees, this will easily make the cut (I'd guess it'd even make it if there were only 5 slots), and Cameron is almost assured a nod for direction and a truckload of visual nominations.
I've never seen anything like this, such a life like and seamless melding of live-action and CGI. For months, this has been billed as a game changer in the world of film, and if this is the future of the American cinema, I can't wait to see what comes next. See this, and see it in Imax. Avatar is why films are shown in Imax.
Grade: A
It would have received an A+ if the script was better.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
NBR Winners
Since I'm at Logan waiting to leave, might as well update you on the happenings with the NBR
Best Film: Up in the Air
Best Director: Clint Eastwood, Invictus
Best Actor: Morgan Freeman, Invctus and George Clooney, Up in the Air
Best Actress: Carey Mulligan, An Education
Supporting Actor: Woody Harrelson, The Messenger
Supporting Actress: Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Foreign Film: A Prophet
Doc: The Cove
Animated: Up
Ensemble: It’s Complicated
Best Film: Up in the Air
Best Director: Clint Eastwood, Invictus
Best Actor: Morgan Freeman, Invctus and George Clooney, Up in the Air
Best Actress: Carey Mulligan, An Education
Supporting Actor: Woody Harrelson, The Messenger
Supporting Actress: Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Foreign Film: A Prophet
Doc: The Cove
Animated: Up
Ensemble: It’s Complicated
Best Ten Pics:
An Education
500 Days of Summer
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Invictus
The Messenger
A Serious Man
Star Trek
Up
Where the Wild Things Are
Breakthrough Performance by an Actor: Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker
Breakthrough Performance by an Actress: Gabourey Sidibe, Precious
So what'd I miss? The last three. I didn't count on Up, and had actually written off WTWTA, but an PUMPED for Star Trek, could this mean that it could find its way to the Oscars? Maybe, and I hope so, the Academy needs a fun, well reviewed blockbuster since they instituted this 10 best picture nominees nonsense. I'd also venture to guess the acting winners could very well become Oscar winners, with Morgan Freeman just barely eeking out Clooney.
Surprises? Minimal love for Precious and zero for Nine...ouch.
Check out IndieWire for a complete list of nominees.
Leaving on a jet plane...
Greetings readers!
Today is going to be a long day (well, long morning anyways), I'm leaving at 2pm for the airport because - I'm going to Disney World! Seriously! I am! Oakmont is going down to participate in the Magic Music Days program, and since they need staff members to go, I naturally volunteered. I'm excited to go, and relax in some sun and heat. I'm ready to get away from work for a few days, dealing with the stuff here, the craziness of Harry Potter, the Marathon headaches. And of course, seeing Mickey Mouse is always kind of cool too.
Keen readers will notice I mentioned the Marathon above. I'm of course talking about the 2010 Boston Marathon, of which the Museum has 15 charity numbers and, hold onto your butts readers, I'll be running. Yes, you read that right, I'm running the 2010 Boston Marathon. 26.2 miles from Hopkinton to Copley Square. With the encouragement and support from family, friends, and co-workers, I've decided to take on the biggest challenge of my life so far. I've run 2 half marathons successfully, and I think those are the building blocks for Boston. I know that a half marathon is completely different than a whole, but I feel that I have the strong base, and Coach Rick has put together an incredible training program that will prepare our entire team to run and successfully finish Boston. Here's where you come in--since I'm running for a chairty, I have a fundraising goal.
In the first year the Museum of Science has charity numbers, all of our funds raised will go towards Traveling Programs, a unique part of Museum outreach. For over 15 Years, Traveling Programs has helped bring science programs to more than 81,000 students annually in schools, community centers, and libraries. These programs provide a special learning opportunity for schools that simply do not have the resources, financial or otherwise, for a field trip to the Museum. Our team fundraising goal for 2010 is $80,000. Monies raised will go towards purchasing a new van and designing new programs to take to schools across New England. It's a lofty goal no doubt, but I'm sure that we can acheive it.
In addition to reading about my progress here on ...this is home..., you can also donate to to the team and help me reach my individual goal of $7,000 by visiting the 2010 Museum of Science team website and clicking on my name to sponsor me. All sponsors will get a shout out here on the blog, as well as a hand written thank you note - hooray! Thanks to my first few donors, my boss Pam, Uncle Paul and Sloanfish!
Also be on the look out for fundraisers during the Winter in the 'burg, Boston and mayhaps Amherst. I'd also like to welcome all the new readers to ...this is home... who are here to track my progress. Mark your calendars, April 19, 2010. Be there.
It sucks to be Tiger Woods these days - it always amazes me when celebs get into trouble like this...do they really think that no one is going to find out? Dennis and Callahan (who I normally disagree with on almost everything) posed an interesting question on the radio this morning, it was something like if you could have an affair that may or may not be discovered for a billion dollars, would you do it? I don't think I would.
Awards season shifts into high gear today - the NBR (that's National Board of Review for those of you not in the know) announces their picks sometime today. They name a Best Picture and then a top 10. Here's how I think it will shake out:
Best Picture
The Hurt Locker
Top 10
(500) Days of Summer
An Education
Inglorious Basterds
Invictus
The Lovely Bones
The Messenger
Nine
Precious
A Single Man
Up in the Air
I think a real wild-card could be The Hangover, they normally nominate a box-office success, and it has a real shot here, I also suspect that it will pop up again in a couple weeks during the Golden Globe noms. Other potentials for their list; Avatar, The Blind Side, District 9, It's Complicated, A Single Man, and Where the Wild Things Are. I'll post their choices later this afternoon.
And finally, the Nine website has the entire soundtrack online. Check out #3, Penelope Cruz sining "A Call from the Vatican"...I almost wet myself. I think I might actually have to go to the movies on Christmas to see this. I don't think I can wait.
My upcoming screening schedule constists of: December 9 - Brothers, December 11 - Up in the Air, December 17 - midnight showing of Avatar and December 25 - Nine and Sherlock Holmes. I need to fit Invictus, The Lovely Bones and maybe It's Complicated (although I hated Nancy Meyers previous effort, Something's Gotta Give) somewhere in there too. And 2 foreign films, Broken Embraces and The White Ribbon will open in Boston sometime in January.
See you all when I get back next week!
Today is going to be a long day (well, long morning anyways), I'm leaving at 2pm for the airport because - I'm going to Disney World! Seriously! I am! Oakmont is going down to participate in the Magic Music Days program, and since they need staff members to go, I naturally volunteered. I'm excited to go, and relax in some sun and heat. I'm ready to get away from work for a few days, dealing with the stuff here, the craziness of Harry Potter, the Marathon headaches. And of course, seeing Mickey Mouse is always kind of cool too.
Keen readers will notice I mentioned the Marathon above. I'm of course talking about the 2010 Boston Marathon, of which the Museum has 15 charity numbers and, hold onto your butts readers, I'll be running. Yes, you read that right, I'm running the 2010 Boston Marathon. 26.2 miles from Hopkinton to Copley Square. With the encouragement and support from family, friends, and co-workers, I've decided to take on the biggest challenge of my life so far. I've run 2 half marathons successfully, and I think those are the building blocks for Boston. I know that a half marathon is completely different than a whole, but I feel that I have the strong base, and Coach Rick has put together an incredible training program that will prepare our entire team to run and successfully finish Boston. Here's where you come in--since I'm running for a chairty, I have a fundraising goal.
In the first year the Museum of Science has charity numbers, all of our funds raised will go towards Traveling Programs, a unique part of Museum outreach. For over 15 Years, Traveling Programs has helped bring science programs to more than 81,000 students annually in schools, community centers, and libraries. These programs provide a special learning opportunity for schools that simply do not have the resources, financial or otherwise, for a field trip to the Museum. Our team fundraising goal for 2010 is $80,000. Monies raised will go towards purchasing a new van and designing new programs to take to schools across New England. It's a lofty goal no doubt, but I'm sure that we can acheive it.
In addition to reading about my progress here on ...this is home..., you can also donate to to the team and help me reach my individual goal of $7,000 by visiting the 2010 Museum of Science team website and clicking on my name to sponsor me. All sponsors will get a shout out here on the blog, as well as a hand written thank you note - hooray! Thanks to my first few donors, my boss Pam, Uncle Paul and Sloanfish!
Also be on the look out for fundraisers during the Winter in the 'burg, Boston and mayhaps Amherst. I'd also like to welcome all the new readers to ...this is home... who are here to track my progress. Mark your calendars, April 19, 2010. Be there.
It sucks to be Tiger Woods these days - it always amazes me when celebs get into trouble like this...do they really think that no one is going to find out? Dennis and Callahan (who I normally disagree with on almost everything) posed an interesting question on the radio this morning, it was something like if you could have an affair that may or may not be discovered for a billion dollars, would you do it? I don't think I would.
Awards season shifts into high gear today - the NBR (that's National Board of Review for those of you not in the know) announces their picks sometime today. They name a Best Picture and then a top 10. Here's how I think it will shake out:
Best Picture
The Hurt Locker
Top 10
(500) Days of Summer
An Education
Inglorious Basterds
Invictus
The Lovely Bones
The Messenger
Nine
Precious
A Single Man
Up in the Air
I think a real wild-card could be The Hangover, they normally nominate a box-office success, and it has a real shot here, I also suspect that it will pop up again in a couple weeks during the Golden Globe noms. Other potentials for their list; Avatar, The Blind Side, District 9, It's Complicated, A Single Man, and Where the Wild Things Are. I'll post their choices later this afternoon.
And finally, the Nine website has the entire soundtrack online. Check out #3, Penelope Cruz sining "A Call from the Vatican"...I almost wet myself. I think I might actually have to go to the movies on Christmas to see this. I don't think I can wait.
My upcoming screening schedule constists of: December 9 - Brothers, December 11 - Up in the Air, December 17 - midnight showing of Avatar and December 25 - Nine and Sherlock Holmes. I need to fit Invictus, The Lovely Bones and maybe It's Complicated (although I hated Nancy Meyers previous effort, Something's Gotta Give) somewhere in there too. And 2 foreign films, Broken Embraces and The White Ribbon will open in Boston sometime in January.
See you all when I get back next week!
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Cinema Italiano
I'll be back later with a full post - but I needed to post this ASAP. What an incredible thing to wake up to.
have I said how much I want to see this?
have I said how much I want to see this?
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
New York, I Love You
You know, I really do need to move to New York. I go there enough, I love it, and there is always something to do. People have always said "why don't you just move there", and I've always given the "oh, I don't know...it's so expensive" when I really think that the reason I haven't moved there is that I don't want to "ruin" what New York, in my mind, is. I think that it's kinda like how I felt about Southwest when I was at UMass...a nice place to visit, but I'd think long and hard about living there. Plus, it's ridiculously expensive. Anyways, as you may have surmised, I did spend the weekend in said city. Checked out an exhibit at AMNH on Friday afternoon and then saw the revival of Ragtime that night.
The original production opened in 1998 and ran for about two years. It was a massive physical production, that cost somewhere around $750,000 (yes, 3/4 of a million) to run each week. It was nominated for 12 Tony Awards, including Best Musical. Another show opened that year, The Lion King, maybe you've heard of it. Anyways, there was always debate about which was better (Ragtime won book, score and orchestrations (the musical award) and Lion King won all the technical awards) and that Ragtime was robbed of Best Musical, blahblahblah. I didn't see the original production, but read the book in high school and listened to the cd quite a bit. This production played the Kennedy Center last spring and significantly paired down the production design. A unit 3 level Gothic-looking set replaced the opulent (and no doubt expensive) original set pieces, and the focus was shifted to the music and characters. Overall, it worked really well for me, but I kept having this nagging in the back of my mind "wow, that must have looked incredible in the original production". The cast was uniformly excellent, but (and this is a major but) the two weakest characters were two of the most important ones, Coalhouse Walker and Sarah. While the both had decent voices, their overall performance was just kinda meh, and they're pretty essential to the story. The major highlights? the opening number, "New Music", the guy who played Mother's Younger Brother, and "Back to Before". I would definitely recommend this, the music is excellent, as are most of the performances. Try and get tickets on discount though, and sit in the first few rows of the center mezzanine. sidenote: I HATE the logo for the show. Gross.
Saturday afternoon we saw Hamlet with Jude Law, and it was exhilarating. I feel like it's the one Shakespeare play that everyone reads in high school, has the most quoted lines ("something is rotten in the state of Denmark", "Get thee to a nunnery"), and everyone is familiar with. The Lion King is even loosely based on it! I'll be honest though, after the first 15 minutes, I didn't think that I was going to like it. Shakespeare can be difficult to follow, and it takes some time to get into his rhythm. However, once I became accustom to it, the production was thrilling. Law was nothing short of sensational, and when ever he wasn't on stage, you wanted him to come back. Two things (besides Law's performance) stuck out to me; the incredible design elements (phenomenal lighting, the massive unit set, and the interesting costume choices) and two actors who played Rosencranz and Guildenstern, Hamlet's bffs. Another thing I enjoyed? Tickets were $25. This particular production came over from the Donmar Warehouse in London, and they're big on accessibility. For every performance of the 12 week run, every seat in the last 3 rows of the mezzanine is $25. I got our tickets the day they went on sale in July, and a week or so later, every $25 seat was sold out. And they were actually pretty good seats, right in the center, and had a really good view of the stage. Two things I didn't care for, Ophelia (she was beyond awful) and the guy who played the ghost of Hamlet's father and doubled as another character later on. He made no difference between the two. I hope that this is remembered come Tony award time, I could easily see this scoring Best Revival of Play, Best Actor and design nominations. Hamlet was some of the quickest 3.5 hours of my life.
I was able to score seats on TDF (Theater Development Fund) for $33 to on Saturday night. TDF is a non-profit that you pay a yearly membership fee ($30) to, and you're able to buy EXTREMELY discounted tickets to shows. The catch? You pay $33-$37 per ticket, but you don't know where they are. They could be great, or they could be awful. Our tickets to Finian's Rainbow turned out to be excellent. They were in the 3rd or 4th row of the mezzanine, right on the aisle. Unfortunately, that was pretty much the only good thing about the show. I can't really give you a rundown of what it was about, because there were about 6 different storylines, only 2 of which actually got resolved. The book was beyond hokey, but the score was pretty good, so that made up for it. The cast also did the best that they could with the weak material that they were given, so that's also a plus. We were definitely the youngest in our section, and it was probably only half-full. I can't really see this show surviving much beyond the New Year, is there really an audience for it? I don't really think so, and especially not at $120 a pop for tickets. The geriatric crew that was around us seemed to love it, so maybe they knew something about it we didn't...
Also caught two movies this past week, Precious and The Men Who Stare at Goats. I had heard a lot about both, and was anxious to see them both, Precious more so than Goats as it's being touted as a major awards contender and has tremendous buzz.
Precious, based on the novel Push by the poet Sapphire, is is a vibrant, honest and resoundingly hopeful film about the human capacity to grow and overcome. Set in 1987 Harlem, Claireece "Precious" Jones (Gabourey Sidibe) is a 16-year-old African-American girl born into a life no one would want. She's pregnant for the second time by her absent father; at home, she must wait hand and foot on her mother (Mo'Nique), a poisonously angry woman who abuses her emotionally and physically. School is a place of chaos, and Precious has reached the ninth grade with good marks and an awful secret: she can neither read nor write. Precious may sometimes be down, but she is never out. Beneath her impassive expression is a watchful, curious young woman with an inchoate but unshakeable sense that other possibilities exist for her. Threatened with expulsion, Precious is offered the chance to transfer to an alternative school, Each One/Teach One. In the literacy workshop taught by the patient yet firm Ms. Rain (Paula Patton), Precious begins a journey that will lead her from darkness, pain and powerlessness to light, love and self-determination. Yeah, tough stuff. There were more than a few times during the film that I felt like I had been punched in the gut, but, as difficult as it was to sit through at times, it was an extremely powerful and satisfying film. Sibide is sensational as Precious - you cannot take your eyes off her whenever she's on screen. And that's really difficult to do, considering the absolutely jaw dropping performance Mo'Nique turns in as her horrible mother. The buzz around her performance was insane, and I'll admit I wasn't 100% ready to believe it. Believe it. She really is that good. She comes in from the streets and brings the grit and grime with her. Her scenes with Sibide are incredible and heartbreaking, both of them deserve acting nominations. The supporting players are excellent too, notably a severely de-glammed Mariah Carey as a social worker - who'd of thought that the girl had it in her after the beating she took for her performance in Glitter. I will be anxious to see how this film plays outside of major cities, even though it ultimately is an uplifting story, it's a long, graphic road to get there. Even more heartbreaking? Knowing that this really isn't that much of a work of fiction...
GRADE: A
The Men Who Stare at Goats on the on the other hand, completely different type of, um, animal. ha. A somewhat hard-to-believe-this-is-really-based-on-actual-events story, Reporter Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) is in search of his next big story when he encounters Lyn Cassady (George Clooney), a shadowy figure who claims to be part of an experimental U.S. military unit. According to Cassady, the New Earth Army is changing the way wars are fought. A legion of "Warrior Monks" with unparalleled psychic powers can read the enemy's thoughts, pass through solid walls, and even kill a goat simply by staring at it. Now, the program's founder, Bill Django (Jeff Bridges), has gone missing and Cassady's mission is to find him. Intrigued by his new acquaintance's far-fetched stories, Bob impulsively decides to accompany him on the search. When the pair tracks Django to a clandestine training camp run by renegade psychic Larry Hooper (Kevin Spacey), the reporter is trapped in the middle of a grudge match between the forces of Django's New Earth Army and Hooper's personal militia of super soldiers. Confusing and convoluted? Yes. Entertaining? You bet. I was a little surprised at how terrible some of the reviews were (Entertainment Weekly gave it an F), I think it was meant nothing more than to be a fun, nice piece of fluff film. Clooney and McGregor were excellent, they had a really great on-screen chemistry, and I thought most of the dialog was pretty sharp. It came and left from theaters pretty quickly, but definitely worth a spot in your NextFlix queue.
Grade: B
The other recent exciting news, which I posted briefly about last week, is that I'm going to Las Vegas for New Years! It was a little weird the way it happened, I had already made plans to go to Philly/NYC to visit one Rachel Weiner, and before I knew it, I was on the phone with Southwest changing my flight from Philly to Manchester to Philly to Vegas. I'm really excited to go, and it should be a really good time. Making a list of things that I want to do; debating about taking one of those bus day trips to the Grand Canyon (readers who have been, care to comment?), a Cirque du Soleil show, maybe see the Vegas production of Phantom (yes, it's no longer The Phantom of the Opera, it's been shortened for Vegas in both time (95 minutes) and title) and see some topless show because, I mean, what trip to Sin City would be complete without boobies? Also might stay a night in a hotel, either Bellagio or Palazzo. I got a guidebook (I know, I'm a loser) from lonely planet that I started reading last night, and I'm super excited.
Finally, after seeing Precious, the two movies left in 2009 I'm really looking forward to released some really cool stuff this week. First, the French theatrical poster for Avatar (yeah, I know, it's in French, but I'll bet the US poster will look identical)
and, the new trailer for Nine. I'm pretty sure that I might explode when I see this...
The original production opened in 1998 and ran for about two years. It was a massive physical production, that cost somewhere around $750,000 (yes, 3/4 of a million) to run each week. It was nominated for 12 Tony Awards, including Best Musical. Another show opened that year, The Lion King, maybe you've heard of it. Anyways, there was always debate about which was better (Ragtime won book, score and orchestrations (the musical award) and Lion King won all the technical awards) and that Ragtime was robbed of Best Musical, blahblahblah. I didn't see the original production, but read the book in high school and listened to the cd quite a bit. This production played the Kennedy Center last spring and significantly paired down the production design. A unit 3 level Gothic-looking set replaced the opulent (and no doubt expensive) original set pieces, and the focus was shifted to the music and characters. Overall, it worked really well for me, but I kept having this nagging in the back of my mind "wow, that must have looked incredible in the original production". The cast was uniformly excellent, but (and this is a major but) the two weakest characters were two of the most important ones, Coalhouse Walker and Sarah. While the both had decent voices, their overall performance was just kinda meh, and they're pretty essential to the story. The major highlights? the opening number, "New Music", the guy who played Mother's Younger Brother, and "Back to Before". I would definitely recommend this, the music is excellent, as are most of the performances. Try and get tickets on discount though, and sit in the first few rows of the center mezzanine. sidenote: I HATE the logo for the show. Gross.
Saturday afternoon we saw Hamlet with Jude Law, and it was exhilarating. I feel like it's the one Shakespeare play that everyone reads in high school, has the most quoted lines ("something is rotten in the state of Denmark", "Get thee to a nunnery"), and everyone is familiar with. The Lion King is even loosely based on it! I'll be honest though, after the first 15 minutes, I didn't think that I was going to like it. Shakespeare can be difficult to follow, and it takes some time to get into his rhythm. However, once I became accustom to it, the production was thrilling. Law was nothing short of sensational, and when ever he wasn't on stage, you wanted him to come back. Two things (besides Law's performance) stuck out to me; the incredible design elements (phenomenal lighting, the massive unit set, and the interesting costume choices) and two actors who played Rosencranz and Guildenstern, Hamlet's bffs. Another thing I enjoyed? Tickets were $25. This particular production came over from the Donmar Warehouse in London, and they're big on accessibility. For every performance of the 12 week run, every seat in the last 3 rows of the mezzanine is $25. I got our tickets the day they went on sale in July, and a week or so later, every $25 seat was sold out. And they were actually pretty good seats, right in the center, and had a really good view of the stage. Two things I didn't care for, Ophelia (she was beyond awful) and the guy who played the ghost of Hamlet's father and doubled as another character later on. He made no difference between the two. I hope that this is remembered come Tony award time, I could easily see this scoring Best Revival of Play, Best Actor and design nominations. Hamlet was some of the quickest 3.5 hours of my life.
I was able to score seats on TDF (Theater Development Fund) for $33 to on Saturday night. TDF is a non-profit that you pay a yearly membership fee ($30) to, and you're able to buy EXTREMELY discounted tickets to shows. The catch? You pay $33-$37 per ticket, but you don't know where they are. They could be great, or they could be awful. Our tickets to Finian's Rainbow turned out to be excellent. They were in the 3rd or 4th row of the mezzanine, right on the aisle. Unfortunately, that was pretty much the only good thing about the show. I can't really give you a rundown of what it was about, because there were about 6 different storylines, only 2 of which actually got resolved. The book was beyond hokey, but the score was pretty good, so that made up for it. The cast also did the best that they could with the weak material that they were given, so that's also a plus. We were definitely the youngest in our section, and it was probably only half-full. I can't really see this show surviving much beyond the New Year, is there really an audience for it? I don't really think so, and especially not at $120 a pop for tickets. The geriatric crew that was around us seemed to love it, so maybe they knew something about it we didn't...Also caught two movies this past week, Precious and The Men Who Stare at Goats. I had heard a lot about both, and was anxious to see them both, Precious more so than Goats as it's being touted as a major awards contender and has tremendous buzz.
Precious, based on the novel Push by the poet Sapphire, is is a vibrant, honest and resoundingly hopeful film about the human capacity to grow and overcome. Set in 1987 Harlem, Claireece "Precious" Jones (Gabourey Sidibe) is a 16-year-old African-American girl born into a life no one would want. She's pregnant for the second time by her absent father; at home, she must wait hand and foot on her mother (Mo'Nique), a poisonously angry woman who abuses her emotionally and physically. School is a place of chaos, and Precious has reached the ninth grade with good marks and an awful secret: she can neither read nor write. Precious may sometimes be down, but she is never out. Beneath her impassive expression is a watchful, curious young woman with an inchoate but unshakeable sense that other possibilities exist for her. Threatened with expulsion, Precious is offered the chance to transfer to an alternative school, Each One/Teach One. In the literacy workshop taught by the patient yet firm Ms. Rain (Paula Patton), Precious begins a journey that will lead her from darkness, pain and powerlessness to light, love and self-determination. Yeah, tough stuff. There were more than a few times during the film that I felt like I had been punched in the gut, but, as difficult as it was to sit through at times, it was an extremely powerful and satisfying film. Sibide is sensational as Precious - you cannot take your eyes off her whenever she's on screen. And that's really difficult to do, considering the absolutely jaw dropping performance Mo'Nique turns in as her horrible mother. The buzz around her performance was insane, and I'll admit I wasn't 100% ready to believe it. Believe it. She really is that good. She comes in from the streets and brings the grit and grime with her. Her scenes with Sibide are incredible and heartbreaking, both of them deserve acting nominations. The supporting players are excellent too, notably a severely de-glammed Mariah Carey as a social worker - who'd of thought that the girl had it in her after the beating she took for her performance in Glitter. I will be anxious to see how this film plays outside of major cities, even though it ultimately is an uplifting story, it's a long, graphic road to get there. Even more heartbreaking? Knowing that this really isn't that much of a work of fiction...GRADE: A
The Men Who Stare at Goats on the on the other hand, completely different type of, um, animal. ha. A somewhat hard-to-believe-this-is-really-based-on-actual-events story, Reporter Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) is in search of his next big story when he encounters Lyn Cassady (George Clooney), a shadowy figure who claims to be part of an experimental U.S. military unit. According to Cassady, the New Earth Army is changing the way wars are fought. A legion of "Warrior Monks" with unparalleled psychic powers can read the enemy's thoughts, pass through solid walls, and even kill a goat simply by staring at it. Now, the program's founder, Bill Django (Jeff Bridges), has gone missing and Cassady's mission is to find him. Intrigued by his new acquaintance's far-fetched stories, Bob impulsively decides to accompany him on the search. When the pair tracks Django to a clandestine training camp run by renegade psychic Larry Hooper (Kevin Spacey), the reporter is trapped in the middle of a grudge match between the forces of Django's New Earth Army and Hooper's personal militia of super soldiers. Confusing and convoluted? Yes. Entertaining? You bet. I was a little surprised at how terrible some of the reviews were (Entertainment Weekly gave it an F), I think it was meant nothing more than to be a fun, nice piece of fluff film. Clooney and McGregor were excellent, they had a really great on-screen chemistry, and I thought most of the dialog was pretty sharp. It came and left from theaters pretty quickly, but definitely worth a spot in your NextFlix queue.Grade: B
The other recent exciting news, which I posted briefly about last week, is that I'm going to Las Vegas for New Years! It was a little weird the way it happened, I had already made plans to go to Philly/NYC to visit one Rachel Weiner, and before I knew it, I was on the phone with Southwest changing my flight from Philly to Manchester to Philly to Vegas. I'm really excited to go, and it should be a really good time. Making a list of things that I want to do; debating about taking one of those bus day trips to the Grand Canyon (readers who have been, care to comment?), a Cirque du Soleil show, maybe see the Vegas production of Phantom (yes, it's no longer The Phantom of the Opera, it's been shortened for Vegas in both time (95 minutes) and title) and see some topless show because, I mean, what trip to Sin City would be complete without boobies? Also might stay a night in a hotel, either Bellagio or Palazzo. I got a guidebook (I know, I'm a loser) from lonely planet that I started reading last night, and I'm super excited.
Finally, after seeing Precious, the two movies left in 2009 I'm really looking forward to released some really cool stuff this week. First, the French theatrical poster for Avatar (yeah, I know, it's in French, but I'll bet the US poster will look identical)
and, the new trailer for Nine. I'm pretty sure that I might explode when I see this...
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Waking up in Vegas...
That's right! I'M GOING TO LAS VEGAS FOR NEW YEARS! HUZZAH!
Longer update tomorrow with more details...
Longer update tomorrow with more details...
Thursday, October 29, 2009
'tis the season....
It's late October, and Oscar season is ramping up. How can I tell? My viewing schedule (don't judge) is finally starting to fall into place, release dates are being solidified, trailers are being released, and I'm going to be spending the last few weeks of the year at Kendall Square and Lowes Boston Common - hooray! Two huge trailers hit the internet the past two days, Invictus and Avatar.
The Avatar teaser came out a month ago and I'll admit, I was less than impressed. It's James Cameron's follow up to Titanic (seriously that came out 12 years ago, James Cameron where have you been?!). Plot rundown - on an alien planet, an ex-marine falls in love with a blue-skinned warrior and sides with her people against mankinds encroachment on their planet. I know, sounds like something that I totally wouldn't be interested in (I thought that about Star Trek...look how that turned out, I've already pre-ordered the 2 disc set), but after seeing the full trailer, I'm very much intrigued, almost giddy:
Yeah, the dialogue sounds ridiculous (a screenplay nomination wasn't among Titanic's 14 nominations), but it "looks" incredible, and could be a really fun action adventure. I think I want to see this one in IMAX. Release Date: December 18
Invictus is the latest directorial effort from Clint Eastwood. Set in South Africa in the mid 90's, President Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman, natch) knows his nation remains racially and economically divided in the wake of apartheid. Believing he can bring his people together through the universal language of sport, Mandela rallies South Africa’s underdog rugby team (headed by Matt Damon) as they make an unlikely run to the 1995 World Cup Championship match:
The Avatar teaser came out a month ago and I'll admit, I was less than impressed. It's James Cameron's follow up to Titanic (seriously that came out 12 years ago, James Cameron where have you been?!). Plot rundown - on an alien planet, an ex-marine falls in love with a blue-skinned warrior and sides with her people against mankinds encroachment on their planet. I know, sounds like something that I totally wouldn't be interested in (I thought that about Star Trek...look how that turned out, I've already pre-ordered the 2 disc set), but after seeing the full trailer, I'm very much intrigued, almost giddy:
Yeah, the dialogue sounds ridiculous (a screenplay nomination wasn't among Titanic's 14 nominations), but it "looks" incredible, and could be a really fun action adventure. I think I want to see this one in IMAX. Release Date: December 18
Invictus is the latest directorial effort from Clint Eastwood. Set in South Africa in the mid 90's, President Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman, natch) knows his nation remains racially and economically divided in the wake of apartheid. Believing he can bring his people together through the universal language of sport, Mandela rallies South Africa’s underdog rugby team (headed by Matt Damon) as they make an unlikely run to the 1995 World Cup Championship match:
IMO, Clint is either really great (Unforgiven is a masterpiece, and Million Dollar Baby is quite good too) or really terrible (I wanted to scratch my eyes out Gran Torino was so predictable) and I think this one might be somewhere in between. Morgan Freeman looks and sounds great (let's face it, this is the role the man was born to play) but I don't know if I can handle Matt Damon and that accent. This doesn't really excite me as much as some of the other films being released around then, so it's not very high on the priority list, I doubt I'll rush to see it. Oscar season is a Marathon, not a sprint, so I need to pace myself. Release Date: December 11
The handful of other films that I am looking forward to, and you should be too, however:
November 6
Men Who Stare at Goats
Precious
November 13
The Messenger
November 20
Broken Embraces
November 25
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Road
December 11
The Lovely Bones
A Single Man
December 18
Avatar
December 25
Nine
Sherlock Holmes
Up in the Air
On the TV front, this could quite possibly be the best season of Mad Men yet (see last weeks episode for proof), I'm anxious to see how this season wraps up. I've also been watching Modern Family on ABC which has taken me by complete surprise. I usually don't like network sit-coms (save for 30 Rock, which is off to a rough start this year) but I really like the quasi-docu style of it. The cast is outstanding (Ty Burrell especially, he gives a fantastic, Emmy worthy performance as Phil Dunphy), and the dialogue is razor sharp. My liking a new series on ABC or NBC seems to be its death knell though (see: Eli Stone, Dirty Sexy Money, and Southland), but I think that Modern Family will be an exception, it was well received by critics and has pretty good word of mouth/viewership. Best episode yet? "Come Fly with Me", the scene where Mitchell "discovers" Costco is hilarious - watch it on abc.com
The Phillies took game 1 last night and made a statement with their 6-1 win, and Cliff Lee also made a statement, pitching a complete game and allowing only 1 unearned run. Game 2 is tonight in NY, and then the action shifts to Philly for the weekend. Jay-Z is giving a pregame performance tonight, and the cast of Glee is singing the Star-Spangled Banner Saturday night in PA. GO PHILLIES! BEAT NY! (shout out to Rachel Weiner - feel better! The Phillies knew you were sick, they won for you!)
The handful of other films that I am looking forward to, and you should be too, however:
November 6
Men Who Stare at Goats
Precious
November 13
The Messenger
November 20
Broken Embraces
November 25
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Road
December 11
The Lovely Bones
A Single Man
December 18
Avatar
December 25
Nine
Sherlock Holmes
Up in the Air
On the TV front, this could quite possibly be the best season of Mad Men yet (see last weeks episode for proof), I'm anxious to see how this season wraps up. I've also been watching Modern Family on ABC which has taken me by complete surprise. I usually don't like network sit-coms (save for 30 Rock, which is off to a rough start this year) but I really like the quasi-docu style of it. The cast is outstanding (Ty Burrell especially, he gives a fantastic, Emmy worthy performance as Phil Dunphy), and the dialogue is razor sharp. My liking a new series on ABC or NBC seems to be its death knell though (see: Eli Stone, Dirty Sexy Money, and Southland), but I think that Modern Family will be an exception, it was well received by critics and has pretty good word of mouth/viewership. Best episode yet? "Come Fly with Me", the scene where Mitchell "discovers" Costco is hilarious - watch it on abc.com
The Phillies took game 1 last night and made a statement with their 6-1 win, and Cliff Lee also made a statement, pitching a complete game and allowing only 1 unearned run. Game 2 is tonight in NY, and then the action shifts to Philly for the weekend. Jay-Z is giving a pregame performance tonight, and the cast of Glee is singing the Star-Spangled Banner Saturday night in PA. GO PHILLIES! BEAT NY! (shout out to Rachel Weiner - feel better! The Phillies knew you were sick, they won for you!)
Friday, October 23, 2009
Addendum
I forgot to mention in yesterday's post -
After our HP viewing, we went to the Similans for dinner. As we were sitting there talking, whatever, Anthony happened to notice the guy sitting alone at the table next to us had the jacket of the company that he worked for, so we invited him to sit with us. He was pretty cool, from North Carolina, worked for the company for a long time, and was in Boston on business. I learned all about Pegasus stock options (the company he and Anthony worked for), and he told us that he has a photo book at home with all of the drinks that he makes, so that when he has parties, he pulls out the book, people pick out which picture they like, and then he makes the drink...never even thought to do that, so smart!
After our HP viewing, we went to the Similans for dinner. As we were sitting there talking, whatever, Anthony happened to notice the guy sitting alone at the table next to us had the jacket of the company that he worked for, so we invited him to sit with us. He was pretty cool, from North Carolina, worked for the company for a long time, and was in Boston on business. I learned all about Pegasus stock options (the company he and Anthony worked for), and he told us that he has a photo book at home with all of the drinks that he makes, so that when he has parties, he pulls out the book, people pick out which picture they like, and then he makes the drink...never even thought to do that, so smart!
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Food, Glorious Food
I decided to experiment on Tuesday night for dinner. I had pasta the night before and didn't want to make it again. I asked my favorite culinary queen, Meggin Elizabeth, if she had any suggestions to make. My condition was it needed to be easy. Without hesitation she proclaimed taco salad. I stopped at Shaws on the way home to get the necessary ingredients and lo and behold, this is what came out:
I'm pretty pleased with myself, and the presentation also gets an A+. Apologies for the poor quality, I took it with the blackberry. Other good news? It tasted pretty damn good too! Next time you come to the College Ave Mansion, maybe I'll make it.
Last night was the MOS staff preview for Harry Potter: The Exhibition. Miss Alison Hay, Quack and Anthony joined me for the sneak peek. I'd probably classify myself as a casual HP fan, I've read the books, seen most of the movies, but that's pretty much it. The exhibit focused solely on the films, and is a collection of costumes, props, and sets (yes, I know, no science whatsoever). It's a visually stunning exhibit, and the design and layout are excellent, and it was cool to see some of the props and costumes up close. The most fascinating thing? Seeing how Ron, Harry and Hermione grew up during the course of shooting the 5 films. There are some costumes that look like they're from the kids section at Old Navy, and then Harry's quiddich uniform which looked like it could fit me. If you're a huge Harry Potter fan, this is a must-see exhibit. It opens on Sunday and runs through February.
Today I went to the Garment District in Cambridge with a co-worker, he was looking for something "unusual" to wear to the event tomorrow night. I'd never been there before, seen it advertised on tv, and it was essentially the Salvation Army for hipsters. I did, however, score a new winter coat for $20.
Tomorrow is the first annual Museum signature event, entitled The Science Behind..., even though we really wanted to call it we have the East Coast premiere of Harry Potter so come pay $500 to party and see the exhibit. Everyone has been really busy, so we'll be glad once it's over and we can relax a little.
Last band competition this weekend (hooray!) and then a little over a month until Disney (double hooray!).
I'm pretty pleased with myself, and the presentation also gets an A+. Apologies for the poor quality, I took it with the blackberry. Other good news? It tasted pretty damn good too! Next time you come to the College Ave Mansion, maybe I'll make it.Last night was the MOS staff preview for Harry Potter: The Exhibition. Miss Alison Hay, Quack and Anthony joined me for the sneak peek. I'd probably classify myself as a casual HP fan, I've read the books, seen most of the movies, but that's pretty much it. The exhibit focused solely on the films, and is a collection of costumes, props, and sets (yes, I know, no science whatsoever). It's a visually stunning exhibit, and the design and layout are excellent, and it was cool to see some of the props and costumes up close. The most fascinating thing? Seeing how Ron, Harry and Hermione grew up during the course of shooting the 5 films. There are some costumes that look like they're from the kids section at Old Navy, and then Harry's quiddich uniform which looked like it could fit me. If you're a huge Harry Potter fan, this is a must-see exhibit. It opens on Sunday and runs through February.
Today I went to the Garment District in Cambridge with a co-worker, he was looking for something "unusual" to wear to the event tomorrow night. I'd never been there before, seen it advertised on tv, and it was essentially the Salvation Army for hipsters. I did, however, score a new winter coat for $20.
Tomorrow is the first annual Museum signature event, entitled The Science Behind..., even though we really wanted to call it we have the East Coast premiere of Harry Potter so come pay $500 to party and see the exhibit. Everyone has been really busy, so we'll be glad once it's over and we can relax a little.
Last band competition this weekend (hooray!) and then a little over a month until Disney (double hooray!).
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
A Week at the Movies
I saw three films last week, and they were meh, huh and excellent, in that order.
First up, Bright Star, Jane Campion's new film that chronicles the three year romance of 19th century British poet John Keats, and his muse, Fanny Brawne. It was a return to form for Campion (Oscar-winner for her screenplay of The Piano in 1994) after her last main stream film, In the Cut, was, despite Meg Ryan showing her boobies, cut up by the critics. There were a lot of lingering shots that were beautifully composed (the cinematography and set design were incredible) - there was a particularly lovely shot of Fanny's younger brother and sister in a field catching butterflies...if only the world was really that quaint. Well, maybe it was in Britain in the 1820's, but I digress. The real reason to see this film, however, is because it announces the arrival of Abbie Cornish (yes, that Abbie Cornish, the tart who allegedly broke up the seemingly perfect marriage of Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe) as a serious, and damn good actress. Her Fanny Brawne is excellent, a layered performance. She has that perfect balance of vulnerability and smarts, her love and affection for Keats is genuine and heart wrenching. Too bad their chemistry is almost non-existent. Ben Whishaw plays the doomed poet, but he doesn't have nearly the same spark that Cornish does...he just kind of mopes around and doesn't do much else. The supporting cast is also great, with a fantastic turn from Paul Schneider as Mr. Brown, Keat's best friend. I wouldn't rush to see this in theaters, but it's definitely worthy of a spot in the netflix queue. I also wouldn't discount Cornish for some notices come awards time. Grade: B
Wednesday brought the Cohen Bros new film, A Serious Man. Set in 1960's Minnesota, the film follows thirtysomething physics professor Larry Gopnick as his life seems to crumble around him. His wife leaves him for another man, his son is about to celebrate his bar-mitzvah, his daughter is a kleptomaniac and raging bitch, and his brother has taken up residence on his couch. To complicate matters, his attractive neighbor enjoys sunbathing topless. As his life spirals out of control, Larry seeks the advice of three Rabbi's, all of whom give him, of course, different takes on his situation. I was not into this movie at all, and it seemed a little "too Jewish" for me...there were points in film where audiences were laughing, but I wasn't quite sure why - was it something I didn't get? I felt like I wasn't really in on the whole thing. The saving grace, however, was Michael Stuhlbarg's tour-de-force as Larry. I saw him a couple of years ago on Broadway in The Pillowman, and he was excellent, I'm glad that he's finding success on screen. His slow breakdown is mesmerizing, and he most certainly deserves a Best Actor nomination for his work in this. I've decided that the Cohen's are hit or miss with me (hits: The Big Lebowski, Fargo, No Country for Old Men, misses: Burn After Reading, Intolerable Cruelty, The Man Who Wasn't There), and the critics are raving about this, but honestly, I don't get it. Was it entertaining? Yeah, I guess...was it one of the best of the year? I don't think so. GRADE: C
One of my most anticipated movies of the year is An Education. I've been reading about it for months, the buzz around it was deafening, and I jumped at the chance to see it the day that it came out in the Boston area. Set in 1960's London, An Education is the story of 16 year old Jenny (played by the magnificent Carey Mulligan) who is at a crossroads in her life. All of the authority figures in her life want her to continue with her studies at Oxford. She meets and gets swept away by the mysterious David, and older man who loves art, culture, music and has fabulous friends, and takes her to Paris for her birthday. Thing of course are not what they seem, and the title has multiple meanings. The performances in this film are nothing short of incredible, most notably the already mentioned Carey Mulligan and Peter Sarsgaard as David, who finally gets a chance to shine and show was a truly great actor he is. Director Lone Scherfig has handled her cast with great care and expert direction (sidenote: what a year for female directors! at least two of five nominees have the potential to be women!) and has crafted one of the best films of the year. Mulligan and Sarsgaard have incredible chemistry, watching the two of them together is great, and their side trip to Paris is wonderful. The supporting cast is also quite good, with stand out turns from Alfred Molina as Carey's uptight father and Emma Thomas as the headmistress of Jenny's school. My only problem with the film (and keeping it from being perfect) is the pacing. We are voyeurs on all of Jenny and David's adventures and witness their blossoming romance, but the film takes a sudden and abrupt turn, and ends, almost as if someone was watching a clock and said "oh, it's been an hour and half, we need to wrap it up". The ending comes a little too quickly, but it doesn't make it that less satisfying. Everything about this worked, the performances, the writing, the fantastic period designs, the soundtrack. I think that I need to see it again to appreciate it even more. GRADE: A
The Harry Potter preview is tomorrow at the Museum, and then the last big weekend for band stuff (hooray) with the last USSBA and MICCA shows. Might go to the NME retreat with the bros on Saturday night since I'll already be in Connecticut.
I'm currently rooting for the Phillies to go and win it all and be the first back-to-back World Series winners of the new century (isn't it weird to think about it that way?). Wish the Sox could have gone further, but it wasn't their time. There's rumblings that Theo is going to move some major folks (Lowell, Varitek, etc), which could prove to be interesting. I've already got Opening Day 2010 circled on my calendar vs. the Yankees. I'm hoping they're not the "world champion" Yankees, but the way they've been playing lately, the just might be....
First up, Bright Star, Jane Campion's new film that chronicles the three year romance of 19th century British poet John Keats, and his muse, Fanny Brawne. It was a return to form for Campion (Oscar-winner for her screenplay of The Piano in 1994) after her last main stream film, In the Cut, was, despite Meg Ryan showing her boobies, cut up by the critics. There were a lot of lingering shots that were beautifully composed (the cinematography and set design were incredible) - there was a particularly lovely shot of Fanny's younger brother and sister in a field catching butterflies...if only the world was really that quaint. Well, maybe it was in Britain in the 1820's, but I digress. The real reason to see this film, however, is because it announces the arrival of Abbie Cornish (yes, that Abbie Cornish, the tart who allegedly broke up the seemingly perfect marriage of Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe) as a serious, and damn good actress. Her Fanny Brawne is excellent, a layered performance. She has that perfect balance of vulnerability and smarts, her love and affection for Keats is genuine and heart wrenching. Too bad their chemistry is almost non-existent. Ben Whishaw plays the doomed poet, but he doesn't have nearly the same spark that Cornish does...he just kind of mopes around and doesn't do much else. The supporting cast is also great, with a fantastic turn from Paul Schneider as Mr. Brown, Keat's best friend. I wouldn't rush to see this in theaters, but it's definitely worthy of a spot in the netflix queue. I also wouldn't discount Cornish for some notices come awards time. Grade: B
Wednesday brought the Cohen Bros new film, A Serious Man. Set in 1960's Minnesota, the film follows thirtysomething physics professor Larry Gopnick as his life seems to crumble around him. His wife leaves him for another man, his son is about to celebrate his bar-mitzvah, his daughter is a kleptomaniac and raging bitch, and his brother has taken up residence on his couch. To complicate matters, his attractive neighbor enjoys sunbathing topless. As his life spirals out of control, Larry seeks the advice of three Rabbi's, all of whom give him, of course, different takes on his situation. I was not into this movie at all, and it seemed a little "too Jewish" for me...there were points in film where audiences were laughing, but I wasn't quite sure why - was it something I didn't get? I felt like I wasn't really in on the whole thing. The saving grace, however, was Michael Stuhlbarg's tour-de-force as Larry. I saw him a couple of years ago on Broadway in The Pillowman, and he was excellent, I'm glad that he's finding success on screen. His slow breakdown is mesmerizing, and he most certainly deserves a Best Actor nomination for his work in this. I've decided that the Cohen's are hit or miss with me (hits: The Big Lebowski, Fargo, No Country for Old Men, misses: Burn After Reading, Intolerable Cruelty, The Man Who Wasn't There), and the critics are raving about this, but honestly, I don't get it. Was it entertaining? Yeah, I guess...was it one of the best of the year? I don't think so. GRADE: C
One of my most anticipated movies of the year is An Education. I've been reading about it for months, the buzz around it was deafening, and I jumped at the chance to see it the day that it came out in the Boston area. Set in 1960's London, An Education is the story of 16 year old Jenny (played by the magnificent Carey Mulligan) who is at a crossroads in her life. All of the authority figures in her life want her to continue with her studies at Oxford. She meets and gets swept away by the mysterious David, and older man who loves art, culture, music and has fabulous friends, and takes her to Paris for her birthday. Thing of course are not what they seem, and the title has multiple meanings. The performances in this film are nothing short of incredible, most notably the already mentioned Carey Mulligan and Peter Sarsgaard as David, who finally gets a chance to shine and show was a truly great actor he is. Director Lone Scherfig has handled her cast with great care and expert direction (sidenote: what a year for female directors! at least two of five nominees have the potential to be women!) and has crafted one of the best films of the year. Mulligan and Sarsgaard have incredible chemistry, watching the two of them together is great, and their side trip to Paris is wonderful. The supporting cast is also quite good, with stand out turns from Alfred Molina as Carey's uptight father and Emma Thomas as the headmistress of Jenny's school. My only problem with the film (and keeping it from being perfect) is the pacing. We are voyeurs on all of Jenny and David's adventures and witness their blossoming romance, but the film takes a sudden and abrupt turn, and ends, almost as if someone was watching a clock and said "oh, it's been an hour and half, we need to wrap it up". The ending comes a little too quickly, but it doesn't make it that less satisfying. Everything about this worked, the performances, the writing, the fantastic period designs, the soundtrack. I think that I need to see it again to appreciate it even more. GRADE: AThe Harry Potter preview is tomorrow at the Museum, and then the last big weekend for band stuff (hooray) with the last USSBA and MICCA shows. Might go to the NME retreat with the bros on Saturday night since I'll already be in Connecticut.
I'm currently rooting for the Phillies to go and win it all and be the first back-to-back World Series winners of the new century (isn't it weird to think about it that way?). Wish the Sox could have gone further, but it wasn't their time. There's rumblings that Theo is going to move some major folks (Lowell, Varitek, etc), which could prove to be interesting. I've already got Opening Day 2010 circled on my calendar vs. the Yankees. I'm hoping they're not the "world champion" Yankees, but the way they've been playing lately, the just might be....
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Where are We Running?!
Through the Emerald Necklace, that's where! That's right, dear readers, today was the 9th Annual B.A.A. Half Marathon, my second half marathon this year - I told you, they're addicting. I know, putting your body through an insane amount of pain, but the few seconds of glory crossing the finish line knowing that you just ran 13.1 miles is pretty awesome (not quite as awesome as running a full marathon, but awesome none the less).
Loyal readers will know I was fairly nervous about this one - I hadn't been training as hard as my first, and I was dealing with a bout of shin splints this past week. Good news to report, the race went very well!
Kim, Nick and I were at the course bright and early (7am), started in the Back Bay Fens and ran along the Riverway, Jamaicaway and Arborway. It was an out and back course and the turn around was in the Franklin Park zoo - so that was pretty cool. I cruised for the first 10 miles (there was this one hill that I'm pretty sure was a mile long, gross, and I had to stop in Franklin Park for a pee break, so I can probs take off a minute or 2) and then started to get tired. I got to mile 11 and hit a wall, so I walked a fairly good amount between mile 11 and 12, and then picked it back up at mile 12 and finished strong. The last mile was kind of a tease, because we ran the perimeter of the Fens, and even though I could see the end of the race, it was still a mile away. Awful. Here's a map of the course (disregard "October 2008", haha)
It was a really good run, and an absolutely beautiful course. So on to what you're all wondering, my unofficial time is 2:22, official times will be posted later on today. (Breaking news: Official time: 2:21.06 - 2 minutes slower than my first race, but with the lackadaisical training and my shin splints, I'll take that)
Thanks to everyone that came out - Katie, Druface, Rusty, Andy and Molly - it was great to see you along the way and give me the support.
Speaking of which - the race is over, but you can still donate! I'm almost at my goal, and thanks to all of you that have helped out so far!
So the Sox had the game with 2 outs in the 9th, and Papelbon blows the save, Angels score 3 runs in the 9th with 2 out. Good for the Angels, they simply played better. I hope the beat the Yankees in the ALCS...
Loyal readers will know I was fairly nervous about this one - I hadn't been training as hard as my first, and I was dealing with a bout of shin splints this past week. Good news to report, the race went very well!
Kim, Nick and I were at the course bright and early (7am), started in the Back Bay Fens and ran along the Riverway, Jamaicaway and Arborway. It was an out and back course and the turn around was in the Franklin Park zoo - so that was pretty cool. I cruised for the first 10 miles (there was this one hill that I'm pretty sure was a mile long, gross, and I had to stop in Franklin Park for a pee break, so I can probs take off a minute or 2) and then started to get tired. I got to mile 11 and hit a wall, so I walked a fairly good amount between mile 11 and 12, and then picked it back up at mile 12 and finished strong. The last mile was kind of a tease, because we ran the perimeter of the Fens, and even though I could see the end of the race, it was still a mile away. Awful. Here's a map of the course (disregard "October 2008", haha)
It was a really good run, and an absolutely beautiful course. So on to what you're all wondering, my unofficial time is 2:22, official times will be posted later on today. (Breaking news: Official time: 2:21.06 - 2 minutes slower than my first race, but with the lackadaisical training and my shin splints, I'll take that)
Thanks to everyone that came out - Katie, Druface, Rusty, Andy and Molly - it was great to see you along the way and give me the support.
Speaking of which - the race is over, but you can still donate! I'm almost at my goal, and thanks to all of you that have helped out so far!
So the Sox had the game with 2 outs in the 9th, and Papelbon blows the save, Angels score 3 runs in the 9th with 2 out. Good for the Angels, they simply played better. I hope the beat the Yankees in the ALCS...
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Where the Wild Things Are
Monday night I was lucky enough to go to an advance benefit screening of Where the Wild Things Are. It was for an organization in Roxbury, 826 Boston, a tutoring center for kids in Boston. It is a great cause, and the organization was founded by Dave Eggers, the co-screenwriter of Where the Wild Things Are, thus the screening. I'm giving serious thought to volunteering there, it seems like it would be a really great experience.
Everyone has to be familiar with the story - Max is sent to bed without supper and his room magically becomes a forest inhabited by the "wild things". Max is able to tame them and becomes their ruler. Soon, however, he becomes homesick and returns home. Yep, that's pretty much it. The book is 9 sentences spread over 20 pages, and is often considered a masterpiece of American children's literature. I know what you're thinking - a 20 page picture book stretched out into a 90 minute movie? It will never work. Well, I'm glad to report that for the most part, it did, and it worked extremely well.
Spike Jonze has created a world that is dense forest, sprawling beaches and massive desert all in one place. The story hasn't really been expanded, just more fleshed out. Each of the Wild Things is given more of a personality and individual characteristics. Most of the film revolves around Max and the Wild Things making a gigantic fort on the island where they'll all live and "sleep in a great big pile". Jonze and Eggers have created a magnificent fantasy world, and offer an interesting social commentary on what it means to be a leader and a follower, how people deal with loneliness, and the pratfalls of a perceived utopian society. Heavy stuff for a supposed kid's movie, but it really gives the audience a lot to think and talk about. I appreciated their effort to reach out and make a bold statement and sort of make the audience think a little bit.
The Wild Things are exactly as I imagined them, their design, emotions and expressions are all perfect. The actors who provide the voices are great, and match the personality of each Wild Thing. James Gandolfini voices "Carol", the leader of the Wild Things, and you can hear shades of Tony Soprano in some of his delivery. Props go out to Paul Dano, who lends his voice to Alexander, the Wild Thing who is often in the background and no one really pays attention to - ironic (or maybe intentional) that he makes some of the most astute observations of all the Wild Things. Max Records give a phenomenal breakthrough performance as Max, the king of the Wild Things, this kid is going to go places.
I had ridiculously high hopes for this film, and most of them were met, but there was of course, a little bit of disappointment. My one issue - the movie takes a abrupt turn about an hour in and gets sidetracked for almost 20 minutes with a subplot that's never actually resolved, and isn't really integral to the overall story. Some of the Wild Things say and do things that are out of the character they had been built up as over the first hour, and it took me right out of the moment. Jonze could have left this part out and still made his voice heard - it just acted as filler and fluff that took away (for me at least) from the overall feel of the film. It had this kind of, dark underscoring that didn't really need to be there.
Highly recommend this, and it will easily make many critics top 10 lists at year and, and I wouldn't be surprised to see it make the cut for Best Picture, and rake in a slew of technical nominations. This was only the 4th time the film had been screened in North America, so that was pretty cool. Opens a week from tomorrow, October 16. Grade: A
Andrew Lloyd Webber's follow up to the ubersmash The Phantom of the Opera, Love Never Dies had its big press announcement this morning in London. Originally, the production was supposed to open simultaniously in London, New York and Australlia. Because that seemed like the ultimate logistical nightmare (but an interesting concept none the less), now it's going to open in London on March 9, 2010, New York on November 11, 2010 and sometime in 2011 in Australia. Check out the video from the announcement - Ramin Karimloo sounds like an excellent Phantom, hopefully he'll open the show in New York too...if not, maybe a trip to London next spring is in order?
Half Marathon this weekend, a little nervous, but I think that I will do fine. I'm only $100 away from my goal, and you can still donate! Excited to collapse and have nothing to think about on Monday, probably going to finally see Bright Star.
MLB post season began last night, Yanks, Phillies and Dodgers won - Sox open their series tonight with the Angels in Anehim. The Sox/Angels match up has been played 5 times, with the Sox advancing every time (winning 12 out of 15 games) - can they make it 6 in a row? Probably, BUT, the Angles do have a lot riding on their season, some calling it their destiny, because of the untimely death of Nick Adenhart in April. It would be pretty intense if the Angels went all the way, but I'm not 100% sure...And! The Bruins season started last week too! I'm going on November 12th with dad - we have premium seats! woo!
Everyone has to be familiar with the story - Max is sent to bed without supper and his room magically becomes a forest inhabited by the "wild things". Max is able to tame them and becomes their ruler. Soon, however, he becomes homesick and returns home. Yep, that's pretty much it. The book is 9 sentences spread over 20 pages, and is often considered a masterpiece of American children's literature. I know what you're thinking - a 20 page picture book stretched out into a 90 minute movie? It will never work. Well, I'm glad to report that for the most part, it did, and it worked extremely well.
Spike Jonze has created a world that is dense forest, sprawling beaches and massive desert all in one place. The story hasn't really been expanded, just more fleshed out. Each of the Wild Things is given more of a personality and individual characteristics. Most of the film revolves around Max and the Wild Things making a gigantic fort on the island where they'll all live and "sleep in a great big pile". Jonze and Eggers have created a magnificent fantasy world, and offer an interesting social commentary on what it means to be a leader and a follower, how people deal with loneliness, and the pratfalls of a perceived utopian society. Heavy stuff for a supposed kid's movie, but it really gives the audience a lot to think and talk about. I appreciated their effort to reach out and make a bold statement and sort of make the audience think a little bit.The Wild Things are exactly as I imagined them, their design, emotions and expressions are all perfect. The actors who provide the voices are great, and match the personality of each Wild Thing. James Gandolfini voices "Carol", the leader of the Wild Things, and you can hear shades of Tony Soprano in some of his delivery. Props go out to Paul Dano, who lends his voice to Alexander, the Wild Thing who is often in the background and no one really pays attention to - ironic (or maybe intentional) that he makes some of the most astute observations of all the Wild Things. Max Records give a phenomenal breakthrough performance as Max, the king of the Wild Things, this kid is going to go places.
I had ridiculously high hopes for this film, and most of them were met, but there was of course, a little bit of disappointment. My one issue - the movie takes a abrupt turn about an hour in and gets sidetracked for almost 20 minutes with a subplot that's never actually resolved, and isn't really integral to the overall story. Some of the Wild Things say and do things that are out of the character they had been built up as over the first hour, and it took me right out of the moment. Jonze could have left this part out and still made his voice heard - it just acted as filler and fluff that took away (for me at least) from the overall feel of the film. It had this kind of, dark underscoring that didn't really need to be there.
Highly recommend this, and it will easily make many critics top 10 lists at year and, and I wouldn't be surprised to see it make the cut for Best Picture, and rake in a slew of technical nominations. This was only the 4th time the film had been screened in North America, so that was pretty cool. Opens a week from tomorrow, October 16. Grade: A
Andrew Lloyd Webber's follow up to the ubersmash The Phantom of the Opera, Love Never Dies had its big press announcement this morning in London. Originally, the production was supposed to open simultaniously in London, New York and Australlia. Because that seemed like the ultimate logistical nightmare (but an interesting concept none the less), now it's going to open in London on March 9, 2010, New York on November 11, 2010 and sometime in 2011 in Australia. Check out the video from the announcement - Ramin Karimloo sounds like an excellent Phantom, hopefully he'll open the show in New York too...if not, maybe a trip to London next spring is in order?
Half Marathon this weekend, a little nervous, but I think that I will do fine. I'm only $100 away from my goal, and you can still donate! Excited to collapse and have nothing to think about on Monday, probably going to finally see Bright Star.
MLB post season began last night, Yanks, Phillies and Dodgers won - Sox open their series tonight with the Angels in Anehim. The Sox/Angels match up has been played 5 times, with the Sox advancing every time (winning 12 out of 15 games) - can they make it 6 in a row? Probably, BUT, the Angles do have a lot riding on their season, some calling it their destiny, because of the untimely death of Nick Adenhart in April. It would be pretty intense if the Angels went all the way, but I'm not 100% sure...And! The Bruins season started last week too! I'm going on November 12th with dad - we have premium seats! woo!
Friday, October 2, 2009
100th POST!
That's right readers, ...this is home... has hit its 100th entry! Thanks to those of you who've read some, a few or all 100 posts. Who knew my life would be interesting enough to warrant writing about it that much?! Ok, so that was a little self absorbed, but I think that this is an anniversary worth celebrating. Pop the champagne!....and now to our regularly scheduled update...
First, the roommate search is over! HOORAY! A guy came by on Tuesday to check out the place, really liked it, and is moving in over the weekend/next week. I feel like a huge weight has been lifted, and even though it took a lot longer than anticipated, I'm glad that it's finally over. He seems like a really great guy too.
Went to Manhattan this weekend with mom and caught a couple of shows, had two AMAZING meals - one at Bond 45 (even though the service was atrocious), and the other at Tavern on the Green. That's pretty much my favorite thing to do in the city, see shows and have good food. I really wanted to go running in Central Park on Sunday morning, but the weather had other plans, and I ended up not running at all, because the gym at the hotel was $10 - lame. On to the shows.
Caught the matinee of A Steady Rain - the event (yes, event) of the fall- starring Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig. I would say 90% of the audience was there solely to see the two of them. I'd say I was 60/40, I saw Jackman in The Boy From Oz 5 years ago and met him at Cannes, so he's old news (ha), but I was excited to see Daniel Craig. Long and short, they're two Chicago cops who have opposing views/remembrances of a domestic disturbance call that happened during, you guessed it, a week of steady rain. The play itself was basically 6 episodes of Law & Order crammed into 90 minutes (rape! hookers! drugs! domestic violence! murder! gangs! cannibalism(that's not a typo)! ), with Jackman and Craig on stage reciting monologues, that occasionally overlap. It's a masterclass in acting, both of them do wonderful things with fairly weak and predictable material. Of the two, I thought Craig was the standout, his performance was sublime, he brought the right amount of slow burning intensity to make his characters resolutions absolutely cathartic. Jackman has the showier of the two roles, and he, on occasion, over reaches, but turns in a great performance none the less. In the end, it seemed like it was a whole lot about a real little, and I thought about how the two of them would have done with better material.
After an outstanding dinner at the aforementioned Bond 45, we had tickets to the new musical Memphis. It started previews a few days before, so I was a little nervous, and had read some not so encouraging things online about some of the early performances/incarnations of it (it played at Northshore Music Theater (about 4 years ago), San Diego and Seattle before coming to New York). While it wasn't a groundbreaking piece of theater, it was quite enjoyable, and hands down the best of the three shows we saw last weekend. Billed as "the birth of the blues in Memphis" the story centers around white DJ Huey Calhoun and black chanteuse Felicia Farrell and their relationship. Racial tensions no doubt ensue. It works mostly because of the immense talent on the stage, starting with Chad Kimball who plays Huey and Montego Glover who plays Felicia. The two have excellent chemistry and outstanding voices to boot. There were some structural problems (act I was a little clunky and the resolutions in act II were a little too quick and tidy), hopefully those will be worked out, but the physical production is in great shape. While I doubt that this is going to be a runaway hit, there is serious potential, with good word of mouth and decent reviews. I'm crossing my fingers...
My grandiose running plans for Sunday were axed because of the stupid rain. I was really looking forward to running in Central Park, but when I got down to the lobby, the rain was coming down in sheets. If it was just a mist, I would have braved the elements and gone out, but not this. I then attempted to go to the gym at the hotel, but since it was a branch of the NYSC, and seperate from the hotel, there was a $10 fee. No thanks, I'm not paying $10 to use the treadmill for 4 miles. New York City in the rain is no fun, so we hung around the hotel until we went to brunch at Tavern on the Green. I read in the NYTimes a couple weeks ago that it was filing for bankrupcy, so mom wanted to go again in case it was actually closed next time we're in town. Food was excellent, the bloody mary I had was even better.
Final show of the weekend was the revival of Bye Bye Birdie with John Stamos and Gina Gershon. This is the second time I've seen a production of Birdie, saw it last summer at NSMT, and I thought that I'd like it better the second time around. I did not. It felt flat and just plain old blah. Stamos and Gershon didn't really do a whole lot for me. Stamos was worlds better in Cabaret, and the role of Rosie required much more dancing and singing than Gershon could handle. The supporting charters were great (Bill Irwin, in particular), but when your supporting cast is stronger than your "name" stars, that's a problem. There was a cool moving sidewalk type thing built into the stage, which was used for some clever set changes, and a cool entrance for John Stamos, and the train that went in/out of Sweet Apple junction was neat, but that's about all that kept my interest. The set and costumes were so bright, it gave me a headache after a while. My favorite part of the show? Seeing the inside of the complete overhaul of the Henry Miller's theater. Roundabout basically rebuilt the entire theater from the ground up, but kept some of the old parts of it intact (most notably the proscenium of the stage) which was kind of cool to see the juxtaposition of old and new.
My Where the Wild Things Are premier tickets came on Tuesday, I'm really looking forward to it on Monday. It's definitely one of my most anticipated movies of the fall, and even cooler that screenwriter Dave Eggers is going to be giving a q&a after. It will be interesting to see what he did to stretch out 10 sentences from the book into a 90 minute movie.
First band show of the season is tomorrow, but it looks like it's going to be indoors because of the rain, which, for us, anyways, isn't a bad thing. Just finished the show last night, so it might have been a little difficult to get it into show shape during the AM tomorrow.
The B.A.A. Half Marathon is next weekend and I still need help making my goal, I'm at just over 50%, so let's see if you folks can help me raise $250 in the next week. It's an achievable goal!
Check out the 2nd trailer for George Clooney's new movie, Up in the Air, directed by Jason Reitman. Speaking of movies, since I'm going to Where the Wild Things Are Monday, that frees me up on October 16 to see An Education. Crisis averted! I'm going to try and catch Bright Star on Sunday (I hear the performance Abbie Cornish gives is incredible), and hopefully the Cohen bros new flick A Serious Man next week. Movie season is heating up!
First, the roommate search is over! HOORAY! A guy came by on Tuesday to check out the place, really liked it, and is moving in over the weekend/next week. I feel like a huge weight has been lifted, and even though it took a lot longer than anticipated, I'm glad that it's finally over. He seems like a really great guy too.
Went to Manhattan this weekend with mom and caught a couple of shows, had two AMAZING meals - one at Bond 45 (even though the service was atrocious), and the other at Tavern on the Green. That's pretty much my favorite thing to do in the city, see shows and have good food. I really wanted to go running in Central Park on Sunday morning, but the weather had other plans, and I ended up not running at all, because the gym at the hotel was $10 - lame. On to the shows.
Caught the matinee of A Steady Rain - the event (yes, event) of the fall- starring Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig. I would say 90% of the audience was there solely to see the two of them. I'd say I was 60/40, I saw Jackman in The Boy From Oz 5 years ago and met him at Cannes, so he's old news (ha), but I was excited to see Daniel Craig. Long and short, they're two Chicago cops who have opposing views/remembrances of a domestic disturbance call that happened during, you guessed it, a week of steady rain. The play itself was basically 6 episodes of Law & Order crammed into 90 minutes (rape! hookers! drugs! domestic violence! murder! gangs! cannibalism(that's not a typo)! ), with Jackman and Craig on stage reciting monologues, that occasionally overlap. It's a masterclass in acting, both of them do wonderful things with fairly weak and predictable material. Of the two, I thought Craig was the standout, his performance was sublime, he brought the right amount of slow burning intensity to make his characters resolutions absolutely cathartic. Jackman has the showier of the two roles, and he, on occasion, over reaches, but turns in a great performance none the less. In the end, it seemed like it was a whole lot about a real little, and I thought about how the two of them would have done with better material.
After an outstanding dinner at the aforementioned Bond 45, we had tickets to the new musical Memphis. It started previews a few days before, so I was a little nervous, and had read some not so encouraging things online about some of the early performances/incarnations of it (it played at Northshore Music Theater (about 4 years ago), San Diego and Seattle before coming to New York). While it wasn't a groundbreaking piece of theater, it was quite enjoyable, and hands down the best of the three shows we saw last weekend. Billed as "the birth of the blues in Memphis" the story centers around white DJ Huey Calhoun and black chanteuse Felicia Farrell and their relationship. Racial tensions no doubt ensue. It works mostly because of the immense talent on the stage, starting with Chad Kimball who plays Huey and Montego Glover who plays Felicia. The two have excellent chemistry and outstanding voices to boot. There were some structural problems (act I was a little clunky and the resolutions in act II were a little too quick and tidy), hopefully those will be worked out, but the physical production is in great shape. While I doubt that this is going to be a runaway hit, there is serious potential, with good word of mouth and decent reviews. I'm crossing my fingers...My grandiose running plans for Sunday were axed because of the stupid rain. I was really looking forward to running in Central Park, but when I got down to the lobby, the rain was coming down in sheets. If it was just a mist, I would have braved the elements and gone out, but not this. I then attempted to go to the gym at the hotel, but since it was a branch of the NYSC, and seperate from the hotel, there was a $10 fee. No thanks, I'm not paying $10 to use the treadmill for 4 miles. New York City in the rain is no fun, so we hung around the hotel until we went to brunch at Tavern on the Green. I read in the NYTimes a couple weeks ago that it was filing for bankrupcy, so mom wanted to go again in case it was actually closed next time we're in town. Food was excellent, the bloody mary I had was even better.
Final show of the weekend was the revival of Bye Bye Birdie with John Stamos and Gina Gershon. This is the second time I've seen a production of Birdie, saw it last summer at NSMT, and I thought that I'd like it better the second time around. I did not. It felt flat and just plain old blah. Stamos and Gershon didn't really do a whole lot for me. Stamos was worlds better in Cabaret, and the role of Rosie required much more dancing and singing than Gershon could handle. The supporting charters were great (Bill Irwin, in particular), but when your supporting cast is stronger than your "name" stars, that's a problem. There was a cool moving sidewalk type thing built into the stage, which was used for some clever set changes, and a cool entrance for John Stamos, and the train that went in/out of Sweet Apple junction was neat, but that's about all that kept my interest. The set and costumes were so bright, it gave me a headache after a while. My favorite part of the show? Seeing the inside of the complete overhaul of the Henry Miller's theater. Roundabout basically rebuilt the entire theater from the ground up, but kept some of the old parts of it intact (most notably the proscenium of the stage) which was kind of cool to see the juxtaposition of old and new.My Where the Wild Things Are premier tickets came on Tuesday, I'm really looking forward to it on Monday. It's definitely one of my most anticipated movies of the fall, and even cooler that screenwriter Dave Eggers is going to be giving a q&a after. It will be interesting to see what he did to stretch out 10 sentences from the book into a 90 minute movie.
First band show of the season is tomorrow, but it looks like it's going to be indoors because of the rain, which, for us, anyways, isn't a bad thing. Just finished the show last night, so it might have been a little difficult to get it into show shape during the AM tomorrow.
The B.A.A. Half Marathon is next weekend and I still need help making my goal, I'm at just over 50%, so let's see if you folks can help me raise $250 in the next week. It's an achievable goal!
Check out the 2nd trailer for George Clooney's new movie, Up in the Air, directed by Jason Reitman. Speaking of movies, since I'm going to Where the Wild Things Are Monday, that frees me up on October 16 to see An Education. Crisis averted! I'm going to try and catch Bright Star on Sunday (I hear the performance Abbie Cornish gives is incredible), and hopefully the Cohen bros new flick A Serious Man next week. Movie season is heating up!
Friday, September 25, 2009
BREAKING NEWS
Just bought tickets to the Boston premiere of Where the Wild Things Are on October 5th! HUZZAH! It also includes a Q&A with director Dave Eggers...awesome! Here's the link:
Where the Wild Things Are premiere
Also, watched In the Loop today. Not a whole lot happened, but the script was unbelievable. I need some time to digest and thing about it, but my initial reaction is - awesome. It's on IFC onDemand until October 27, check it out.
Just bought tickets to the Boston premiere of Where the Wild Things Are on October 5th! HUZZAH! It also includes a Q&A with director Dave Eggers...awesome! Here's the link:
Where the Wild Things Are premiere
Also, watched In the Loop today. Not a whole lot happened, but the script was unbelievable. I need some time to digest and thing about it, but my initial reaction is - awesome. It's on IFC onDemand until October 27, check it out.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Taking Chances
I've decided, the best new show of the 2009/10 season is Glee. Something about it (the musical numbers sure do help) has me hooked. The writing is a little uneven, but I think it's just because the show is trying to find it's voice; there are parts that are totally cliche - but then also parts that are incredibly real. See last nights episode (1.4, "Preggers") as a case and point. The guest stars are outstanding (Mike O'Malley was heartbreaking in last nights ep, and I cannot wait for Kristin Chenowith next week), the writing is (usually) razor sharp, especially Cheering coach Sue's rants, and the performances from the members of the glee club are spot on - Lea Michele is giving a career-making performance, even though she's had fairly good success on Broadway in the original casts of Ragtime, Spring Awakening and the revival of Fiddler on the Roof - and the musical numbers are fantastic.
My biggest complaint? The lip syncing is terrible. Seriously, you know it's the cast actually singing, but the sound designers and director need to figure it out and fix this ASAP. It's horrendous.
I've been a nerd and downloaded all of the songs from iTunes, they're all excellent. Current favorite is a cover of Queen's "Somebody to Love", from next weeks episode. Seriously, if you haven't seen it yet, check it out. Previous episodes are on iTunes (and maybe hulu) and it airs Wednesday nights at 9 on Fox (this will become a problem when Lost comes back in January/February). Does this make me a gleek?
My biggest complaint? The lip syncing is terrible. Seriously, you know it's the cast actually singing, but the sound designers and director need to figure it out and fix this ASAP. It's horrendous.
I've been a nerd and downloaded all of the songs from iTunes, they're all excellent. Current favorite is a cover of Queen's "Somebody to Love", from next weeks episode. Seriously, if you haven't seen it yet, check it out. Previous episodes are on iTunes (and maybe hulu) and it airs Wednesday nights at 9 on Fox (this will become a problem when Lost comes back in January/February). Does this make me a gleek?
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Magnificent
U2 Sunday night. Incredible. I'd never seen them live before, and I'd been wanting to see them for quite some time. Everything about the afternoon/evening was excellent. Miss Alison Hay, Katie, Nick and I had a great tailgate session in the parking lot (even if it did cost $40), and had great seats for a great show. The set was crazy, it was like this giant spaceship thing, with tons of lights and a crazy video screen that moved around and expanded and contracted. The set was ridiculously high energy, with Bono, the Edge and Adam Clayton running all over the stage and the bridge/catwalk thing that went out over the audience. Larry Mullen got to move around a little bit too, but the drum set was on a rotating platform, so that was kind of cool. Here's the set list:
09/20/2009 Gillette Stadium - Foxboro, Massachusetts, USA
Breathe, No Line On The Horizon, Get On Your Boots, Magnificent, Mysterious Ways, Beautiful Day / Blackbird (snippet), Elevation, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For / Stand By Me (snippet), Unknown Caller, New Year's Day, Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of, The Unforgettable Fire, City Of Blinding Lights, Vertigo / She Loves You (snippet), I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight, Sunday Bloody Sunday / Rock The Casbah (snippet), MLK, Walk On, One / Amazing Grace (snippet), Where The Streets Have No Name / All You Need Is Love (snippet)
encores: Ultra Violet (Light My Way), With Or Without You, Moment of Surrender
Was super excited they played "City of Blinding Lights", which is probs my favorite U2 song. It was a great mix, especially for a relative U2 newcomer like me who is familiar with most of their new stuff and their hits, and there were some of their other, older songs in there too. All in all, a great experience. I hear they're much better at indoor venues rather than stadiums, and if that's true, I can't imagine what they'd be like at the fleetcenter, because this was pretty awesome.
Not awesome, however, was trying to leave after. I figured that we'd wait an hour or so to get out of the parking lot...we got in the car at 11:45 and pulled into the hotel parking lot in Norwood at 2:45...yep. 3 hours to get out of the parking lot and 7 miles up rt 1. I can't believe that people do that every weekend for Pats games. The traffic I guess was much worse Monday night, 95/128 was backed up for 27 miles trying to get to the show. G-ROSS.
Saturday night Miss Alison Hay and I went and saw The Informant!, the new Steven Soderbergh/Matt Damon flick. I had initially heard mixed reviews, saying that Matt Damon was excellent but the movie itself was kind of blah. I concur with that sentiment. Matt Damon was indeed sensational, possibly giving the 2nd best performance of his career (his best? Good Will Hunting, he should have won an Oscar for that role...but that's another post for another day) as Mark Whitacre the pudgy, executive at the Illinois based Archer Daniels Midland(ADM) in the early 1990s who wound up blowing the whistle on the company’s price-fixing tactics, only after his wife forced him to. For the first 1/2, the movie is fairly straightforward and is basically The Insider meets Erin Brockovich, and has these great inner-monologue voices overs by Damon. The best one by far is about Polar Bears. Just as he's about to bring down ADM, Witacre and the film go in a completely different direction, becoming more and more convoluted, and, quite frankly, difficult to follow, thus making me lose interest. The one saving grace? Marvin Hamlish's great score, harkening back to the cheesy game-show themes of the 60's and 70's. The film had a slick look to it, and it looks like they had a great time making it. Too bad it didn't translate that well on screen. Grade: C
NYC this weekend to see A Steady Rain, Bye Bye Birdie and Memphis. Sox/Yankees series in the Bronx this weekend too, maybe I'll see some players? That would be awesome. Speaking of baseball, New York, and the Yankees, they're the first team to clinch a playoff spot...the NYTimes twitter feed said "Yankees headed back to the post season" as if they were there last year...uh, they weren't. They're probs going to play Detroit in the ALDS, and the Sox will probs play the Angels. They lost their 2nd straight to Kansas last night, hopefully they can bounce back today and tomorrow.
Came across this last night online:
Have I said how excited I am for this?
09/20/2009 Gillette Stadium - Foxboro, Massachusetts, USA
Breathe, No Line On The Horizon, Get On Your Boots, Magnificent, Mysterious Ways, Beautiful Day / Blackbird (snippet), Elevation, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For / Stand By Me (snippet), Unknown Caller, New Year's Day, Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of, The Unforgettable Fire, City Of Blinding Lights, Vertigo / She Loves You (snippet), I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight, Sunday Bloody Sunday / Rock The Casbah (snippet), MLK, Walk On, One / Amazing Grace (snippet), Where The Streets Have No Name / All You Need Is Love (snippet)
encores: Ultra Violet (Light My Way), With Or Without You, Moment of Surrender
Was super excited they played "City of Blinding Lights", which is probs my favorite U2 song. It was a great mix, especially for a relative U2 newcomer like me who is familiar with most of their new stuff and their hits, and there were some of their other, older songs in there too. All in all, a great experience. I hear they're much better at indoor venues rather than stadiums, and if that's true, I can't imagine what they'd be like at the fleetcenter, because this was pretty awesome.
Not awesome, however, was trying to leave after. I figured that we'd wait an hour or so to get out of the parking lot...we got in the car at 11:45 and pulled into the hotel parking lot in Norwood at 2:45...yep. 3 hours to get out of the parking lot and 7 miles up rt 1. I can't believe that people do that every weekend for Pats games. The traffic I guess was much worse Monday night, 95/128 was backed up for 27 miles trying to get to the show. G-ROSS.
Saturday night Miss Alison Hay and I went and saw The Informant!, the new Steven Soderbergh/Matt Damon flick. I had initially heard mixed reviews, saying that Matt Damon was excellent but the movie itself was kind of blah. I concur with that sentiment. Matt Damon was indeed sensational, possibly giving the 2nd best performance of his career (his best? Good Will Hunting, he should have won an Oscar for that role...but that's another post for another day) as Mark Whitacre the pudgy, executive at the Illinois based Archer Daniels Midland(ADM) in the early 1990s who wound up blowing the whistle on the company’s price-fixing tactics, only after his wife forced him to. For the first 1/2, the movie is fairly straightforward and is basically The Insider meets Erin Brockovich, and has these great inner-monologue voices overs by Damon. The best one by far is about Polar Bears. Just as he's about to bring down ADM, Witacre and the film go in a completely different direction, becoming more and more convoluted, and, quite frankly, difficult to follow, thus making me lose interest. The one saving grace? Marvin Hamlish's great score, harkening back to the cheesy game-show themes of the 60's and 70's. The film had a slick look to it, and it looks like they had a great time making it. Too bad it didn't translate that well on screen. Grade: CNYC this weekend to see A Steady Rain, Bye Bye Birdie and Memphis. Sox/Yankees series in the Bronx this weekend too, maybe I'll see some players? That would be awesome. Speaking of baseball, New York, and the Yankees, they're the first team to clinch a playoff spot...the NYTimes twitter feed said "Yankees headed back to the post season" as if they were there last year...uh, they weren't. They're probs going to play Detroit in the ALDS, and the Sox will probs play the Angels. They lost their 2nd straight to Kansas last night, hopefully they can bounce back today and tomorrow.
Came across this last night online:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
