Happy Friday!

Three great things happened today. Had an OUTSTANDING lunch at Abe & Louie's, normally not a burger fan, but had the most amazing cheeseburger ever (or at least that I can remember). Also thought that it was time for some new kicks, so I stopped at Marathon Sports on the way back to the Museum and picked up these sweet sneaks -
Not quite the same as what I had before, but pretty close. I had a pair of the GT-2140's, before, but these are the 2130 model. Tried them out today at the gym, did 3.5 miles on the treadmill and felt great! And, to top it off, Dad came to visit with an air conditioner! HOORAY!

Sox made some noise today: sent Justin Masterson and some minor leaguers to Cleveland for Victor Martinez, and Adam LaRoche went to Atlanta (he was in Boston for about a week) in exchange for Casey Kotchman. Could be exciting. And, lo and behold, Smoltz got the win tonight, barely, as the Sox beat the Orioles in Baltimore 6-5.

Hopefully getting a good night sleep with the air conditioner, helping James move into his new place in Uxbridge tomorrow and seeing Funny People (I hope I'm not disappointed) and then beach Sunday! Excellent weekend, and then 1 week of work before vacation. HUZZAH!

sweetness - November 13th release....I'm excited

Surprised? No, not really...Disappointed? Yes

When I was growing up, I was always devastated when I would ask my parents "Are you mad at me" and they'd say "no, not mad, disappointed." It was like a knife in the heart or a slap in the face. Sometimes I would have much rather had them say "yes, I'm furious."

Just after noon, The New York Times broke this headline Report: Ortiz and Ramirez said to be on 2003 doping list. You knew immediately who they were talking about, Manny Ramirez, Boston's social parriah of last summer, and David Ortiz, one of the most loved and respected players in the Red Sox organization. Here's the story.

It's not really shocking, but it is disappointing, especially since Ortiz vehemently denied ever using steroids and even made the auspicious remark at spring training that

"I think you clean up the game by the testing. I test you, you test positive, you're going to be out. Period,If I test positive using any kind of banned substance I'm going to disrespect the game, my family, my fans and everybody. And I don't want to face the situation so I won't use it. I'm sure everybody is on the same page."

Be careful what you wish for....on another note, why don't we just get it over with and release the entire list of 104 names, be disgusted about it, and move on? It sucks that it's coming out in drips and droves over a long period of time.

Oh, and per status quo as of late, the Sox are losing to Oakland, one of the worst teams in the league, for the 3rd straight day. Maybe this year I'll start to get into football...

Sweet Disposition

A relatively new phenomenon in Hollywood is the indie/hipster rom-com where the guy is the one who is unlucky in love, the role that's usually reserved for the girl. The film's tag line even proclaims "This is not a love story. This is a story about love." While I don't disagree, I can't say that I 100% agree either.

Basic long and short, Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is an architect by education but works as a greeting card writer to pay the bills. Summer (Zooey Daschanel) is the object of Tom's affection who moves to L.A. from the mid-west and takes a job as secretary at the same greeting card company. The story is non-linear, and we learn in bits and pieces (how novel and new!) what led to the rise and eventual demise of Tom and Summer's relationship. They bond over the requisite obscure Brit-pop groups of the 70's and play house while wondering through Ikea. Surprise, their relationship hits it's rocky patches, and they both want different things. Blahblahblahblah...haven't I seen this somewhere before? Oh wait, I have, Annie Hall, which I'd be inclined to argue was much better. The supporting cast is filled the the standard sympathetic friends who both love and hate Summer, to support their best friends. It's interesting that we never see Summer's friends, only Tom's.

It's not all bad, if that's what you're thinking, in fact, there were some parts of it that I really did enjoy. First and foremost, Joseph Gordon-Levitt gave an outstanding performance as Tom, the love-sick kid who transcends the cliched writing to give a layered performance of a guy who slowly comes to realize who he loves doesn't love him in return. I'm glad that he's taken mostly low-key roles and has been able to successfully shed his 3rd Rock from the Sun skin and is becoming quite the actor on the indie circuit. Los Angeles has never been photographed so romantically, and it took me about half the movie to figure out that it did indeed take place in the City of Angels, so kudos go to cinematographer Eric Steelberg. And, as usually is the case with indie films, the soundtrack is also quite good, most notably the two montages that use a tune from the Aussie band "The Temper Trap". Not a huge Zooey Daschanel fan, but she does have some of the most blue eyes this side of Frank Sinatra (apparently the blue color scheme in the film was done to purposely bring out her eyes).

Overall, not a terrible movie by any stretch of the imagination, but it wasn't near as exciting as I was anticipating based on early word of mouth. Also rolled my eyes at the line of the film - how fitting. How kind of lame to take the easy way out. Grade: C

I'll admit, this makes me nervous for Funny People, as I'm going in expecting to be knocked-out with that line-up of talent. Seeing it Saturday, will report back.

Hot in Here...

Summer has finally arrived in Boston, and of course, it goes from 60 and raining to 90 and humid, in a span of about 48 hours. No transition from one extreme to the other (it was 72 and the dew point was at 70 when I got up at 6:15 this morning) - gotta love New England.

Took a trip to the Cape last weekend to visit the Grandparents as well as some old friends, namely Matt Miceli who has currently relocated to Minot, ND for some crazy work in the Air Force or something. Anyways, Grandparents are good, and friends are even better. Cel's family had a welcome home (for 2 weeks) party for him on Sunday and I learned that I can make pretty good margaritas. Katie, Cel Meg and I went mini-golfing after the cook out, which started out fun, lasted about 10 minutes, and then we decided how obnoxious we could be without getting kicked out, and then went sailing on Monday! CB, Cel and I went out for the afternoon, we sailed about a mile out, dropped anchor and went swimming and laid on the deck in the sun, and then came back. It was pretty cool, got a crash course in raising/lowering sails, tacking, and all kinds of other fun stuff (see above for proof). The weekend was capped off by an fantastic dinner with half-priced sushi at a restaurant in Plymouth on the way back to Boston Monday night.

I've started the roomate search on Craigslist (was a little nervous about it), and I had a couple people stop by this weekend to check it out, and one of the guys has already committed to moving in. Hooray! There are a couple more showings this week. Stay tuned...

Colleen is back in MA from AZ for a week or so, and she came to visit the 'ville on Saturday. We went to the Aquarium (which was kinda meh - I remember it being a lot bigger when I was 10 years old), had a fantastic dinner at 5 North Square in the North End (then again, I don't think I've ever had a bad meal in the North End), wandered around the street fair-it was the Feast of St. Joseph!-and stopped and got a couple of canolli, and checked out the new fountains on the greenway. All and all, a great Saturday.

The Sox were in a free-fall last week, going 1-5 on their road trip that included stops in Tornoto (their sole win) and getting swept out of Arlington, Texas by the Rangers. Things seemed to be looking up on Friday and Saturday when the beat the Orioles (I took dad to the game on Friday night for a late Fathers Day present, he didn't wear his O's hat), but then John Smoltz had a meltdown yesterday (seems to be a trend) in the 3rd inning allowing 3 runs to score with 2 outs. Hopefully they'll rebound against the A's tonight before heading back to Baltimore on Friday.

Ok friends, big movie week on tap, (500)Days of Summer (finally) one night this week, and Funny People, which I've been looking forward to for a while - I don't usually like Adam Sandler but this one looks extremely promising.

Hurts So Good

After a week of thinking, I'm ready to comment on The Hurt Locker.

War is a drug. At least that's what the first frames of The Hurt Locker, the sensational new movie from Kathryn Bigelow, tell us. The Hurt Locker is an intense portrayal of elite soldiers who have one of the most dangerous jobs in the world: disarming bombs in the heat of combat. When a new sergeant, James, takes over a highly trained bomb disposal team amidst violent conflict, he surprises his two subordinates, Sanborn and Eldridge, by recklessly plunging them into a deadly game of urban combat during the final month of their tour of duty in Iraq. It gives the audience an inside look at what it's like to be on the front lines of battle, before the reinforcement troops come in. There are life and death decisions that have to be made in a split second, and you never know who you can trust and who might turn out to be a suicide bomber or trigger man.

Jeremy Renner gives an incredible performance as the outlaw sergeant James, ready to stare death down any chance he can get. You get the sense that he was born to do this work, and that he couldn't have his life any other way. He also shares a few surpringly tender moments with his crew and also a young boy trying to sell him DVD's. His cocky attitude compliments Sanborn (Anthony Mackie, who is also exceptional) and Eldridge (Brian Geraghty, outstanding as well), two young recruits that want nothing more than to survive their last 30 days and go home. Bigelow (former wife of James Cameron and one of the few female action directors working today) gives us a gritty, taut thriller, and one of the most realistic and (surprisingly) apolitical films about the war to be produced this decade. She and her actors and creative team let the story speak for itself. The US Government didn't cooperate with filming, and most of the film was shot in Jordan, sometimes just miles from the Iraqi border.

Sitting in the theater I became totally involved with the characters, and kept constantly thinking that this is a legit occupation, and there are people out there every day putting their lives on the line to detonate these bombs. It was amazing to me the lifestyle that these men lead, and the fact that they chose to put their lives in danger every day. It was refreshing, as I said earlier, to see that there was no strong opinion on the war one way or the other. Bigelow and screen-writer Mark Boal laid all their cards on the table, almost making the statement "this is what happens. YOU decide." Readers will know I'm a HUGE fan of films that make you think that let you draw your own conclusions, and this is definetly the case with The Hurt Locker.

I sincerely hope that this movie is remembered come the end of the year (I think it will be, it has a 98 rating on rotten tomatoes), and can easily pick up nods in major categories; Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Jeremy Renner - so far he's my choice for the win), 2 Supporting Actor, Original Screenplay and a few technical nods too - the cinematography was fantastic. The Hurt Locker is currently in limited release, but as it rolls out, see it. You won't be disappointed. Grade: A

Here's a defensive driving question - after getting coffee this morning, I was backing out of the space, and when I initially looked before backing up, there was no one behind me. As I was backing up, this car pulls into the lot and beeps at me - who had the right of way? I feel like I did since I was backing up, but I'm not sure. Feel free to comment.

This years All-Star festivities were a bust, the HR Derby was a snoozefest, as was the game, and Wakefield and Beckett didn't even get to pitch. LAME.

In other news, I just finished reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and was stoked to find out that this might become a series, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters is getting released on September 15th. Awesome! If you haven't read Pride, Prejudice and Zombies, it's a must read.

(500)Days of Summer opens tomorrow and I've been hearing really good things about it. Probs check it out tomorrow night, before volunteering at Fenway for the Jimmy Fund on Saturday.

And, finally, the NHL Winter Classic is coming to Fenway January 1, 2010. The Bruins will play the Flyers on the infield.
Anyone want to go in on Bruins season tickets??

No iPhone, at least not today...first place we went didn't have them, so we went to Worcester, and all they had was the 32G white, and I want the 16G black. I guess I have to wait til next week to get one. sigh...I did, however, pick up the new Rob Thomas, Brad Paisley and Theory of a Deadman cd's and will give them a listen tonight.

Success!

Got the Steady Rain tickets, took about 45 minutes to get through, and saw The Hurt Locker last night. It was magnificent. I'm still thinking about it, and haven't really been able to form a complete opinion, other than it was excellent. iPhone purchase today, HUZZAH!

TGIF

The Newsies find from youtube on Wednesday was gold - I think that I’ve probably watched it about 10 times (ok, that might be an exaggeration), it’s just THAT good. I also realized that I have yet to post my review of Public Enemies, which I saw a week ago.

There was a lot of buzz about this, not only for Johnny Depp’s performance, but because long-time Michael Mann cinematographer Dante Spinotti shot the entire film in HD - meaning that there were some absolutely beautiful wide shots, one in particular was at the beginning jail break, but when it came to indoor/dark close-ups, it was a little too pixilated, but that’s the trade-off with HD. It did have a really slick look to it, and the period costumes and set design were also pretty awesome. My biggest problem/disappointment, was the story…it was just so blah. I didn’t really care for the characters (created from a script by director Mann, and Anne Bidderman; writer/creator of my favorite new drama from last season, Southland), there was never really any explanation or set up for Dillinger, or why he did what he did. The shoot-out scenes were intense and beautifully shot (it was much more violent than I anticipated), but the characters didn’t really have too much to say between the gunfire. And from what I’ve read, the writers also took some liberties with rewriting history, but I can look past that. The performances were just ok, though Marion Cotillard lit up the screen in every scene she was in as Dillinger’s love interest Billie Frechette., and there were cameos galore; Billy Crudup, Channing Tatum, Leelee Sobieskee (where have you been hiding?!). Bale and Depp were just ok - although I’m somewhat fascinated that Johnny Depp can, for the most part, completely transform from one character into another--to bad the same can’t be said for Christian Bale--but overall I was a little disappointed with this. Public Enemies was supposed to be the summer movie that would go onto Oscar gold, and that still might happen with 10 Best Picture slots, but I was expecting a much more interesting and engaging film. Grade: B -

Wednesday I went to the gym (the PF) with Meredith from work, and we did speed intervals. At first, I was really hesitant about doing them, but I want to work on my time (I’d love to break 2 hours, but I don’t think that’s a realistic goal quite yet), and Meredith said this was a really good way to do it. She printed out this sheet with the 30 minute session, and we were off. You basically alternated speeds for a minute at a time. It was a little tough, but I did ok - I was super tired at the end and sweating like whoa, but it was a good work out.

Glad that the Michael Jackson hoopla is starting to die down (pun intended) - it’s sad that he died, but seriously? Does it warrant as much coverage it’s gotten? I don’t think so. Shep Smith apparently said on Fox News Wednesday that the LAPD and the city of Los Angeles closed the free way at rush hour for the procession…seriously?! I'm over it, yeah, he was a legend, but do we need to be inundated with coverage for 2+ weeks? I don't think so.

Finally got around to seeing Role Models last night (I know, I'm about 6 months behind) and really liked it, even if it was totally predictable. Paul Rudd and Sean William Scott had great chemistry, and the two kids were great too. There were a couple of great one-liners, my favorite being, of course, the whispering eye. Not quite as funny as I Love You Man, but better than The Hangover. Wish I had seen this in theaters, I'm sure I would have laughed more than I did sitting on the couch. Grade: B+

The MOS got some really exciting news yesterday, but I sadly can't share til the end of the summer, but you can bet that at the first possible minute I can, I will.

Going to see The Hurt Locker tonight, which I've heard marvelous things about (like it's the current Best Picture front-runner), so expect a full report on that over the weekend.

Getting tickets to A Steady Rain, a new drama starring Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig and an iPhone tomorrow. You know, no big deal.

Extra! Extra!

Stumbled across this today on youtube, it's the UC Irvine ΠΚΑ chapter's entry to their Greek Week songfest from 2006. It. is. awesome. amazing. incredible. fantastic. Seriously, this is un-FREAKING-believable...





Boys from Theta Mu - I think this is a challenge for Greek Week 2010....

For those of you unfamiliar with Newsies, you need to rent it, like, yesterday, and here's some background on it.

Weekend Update

Happy Birthday America! I'm proud to deem this weekend wonderfully successful. It started out Friday with a morning trip to the gym (where I saw a woman working out in crocs...yes, CROCS), followed by a screening of Public Enemies (full review coming soon) at the Somerville Theater with Katie Weinmann and Miss Alison Hay, followed by a wonderful dinner at Grendel's Den in Harvard Square and a walk through Harvard Yard (where I did NOT pahk my cah, thanks) also with Miss Hay.

Yesterday was a day of baseball and drinking - the celebration commenced at 11am at the Baseball Tavern for a roof deck all-you-can eat/drink pre-game party with Jess, her boyfriend Matt, Molly, Czabaj, his girlfriend Diana and his friend Dan (where I had quite a few Stella's), followed by the Sox/Mariners 4th of July matinee which was ridiculously fun (the parts that I remember), even though the Sox lost (2nd game in a row lost by the bull pen). After the game, we headed to the Pour House to refuel, and then headed to Faniuel Hall to meet up with James, Katie, Dev, Greg, Andrew, Katie and Barrett - we tried to go to the Esplanade, but it was incredibly crowded, so we split up - Jess, Matt and I ended up at my uncle's place (the 37th floor of the Ritz-Carlton, facing the river) to watch the fireworks - it was spectacular, and absolutely incredible view.


Today was the announcement of the 2009 MLB All-Star rosters, 66 players will represent the 30 MLB teams, with each team having at least 1 representative, even the Nationals. The game is July 14th in Busch Stadium in St. Louis, with home field advantage for the World Series at stake. The Sox will have the most representatives, with six.

AMERICAN LEAGUE


Starters
C Joe Mauer - MIN
1B Mark Teixiera - NNY
2B Dustin Pedroia - BOS
SS Derek Jeter - NNY
3B Evan Longoria - TB
OF Jason Bay - BOS
OF Ichiro Suzuki - SEA
OF Josh Hamilton - TEX


Pitchers
Andrew Bailey - OAK, Josh Beckett – BOS, Mark Buehrle – CWS, Brian Fuentes – LAA, Zack Greinke – KC (probable starter), Roy Halladay – TOR, Felix Hernandez – SEA, Edwin Jackson – DET, Joe Nathan – MIN, Jonathan Papelbon – BOS, Mariano Rivera – NYY, Justin Verlander – DET, Tim Wakefield – BOS

Reserves
C Victor Martinez - CLE, 1B Justin Morneau - MIN, 1B Kevin Youkilis - BOS, 2B Aaron Hill - TOR, SS Jason Bartlett - TB, 3B Michael Young - TEX, OF Carl Crawford - TB, OF Curtis Granderson - DET, OF Torii Hunter - LAA, OF Adam Jones - BAL, OF Ben Zobrist - TB

NATIONAL LEAGUE


Starters
C Yadier Molina - STL
1B Albert Pujols - STL
2B Chase Utley - PHI
SS Hanley Ramirez - FLA
3B David Wright - NYM
OF Carlos Beltran - NYM
OF Ryan Braun - MIL
OF Raul Ibanez - PHI

Pitchers
Heath Bell - SD, Chad Billingsley - LAD, Jonathan Broxton - LAD, Matt Cain - SF, Francisco Cordero - CIN, Ryan Franklin - STL, Dan Haren - ARI, Josh Johnson - FLA, Ted Lilly - CHC, Tim Lincecum - SF (probable starter), Jason Marquis - COL, Francisco Rodriguez - NYM, Johan Santana - NYM

Reserves
C Brian McCann - ATL, 1B Prince Fielder - MIL, 1B Adrian Gonzalez - SD, 1B Ryan Howard - PHI, 2B Orlando Hudson - LAD, 2B Freddy Sanchez - PIT, SS Miguel Tejada - HOU, 3B Ryan Zimmerman - WSH, OF Brad Hawpe - COL, OF Hunter Pence - HOU, OF Justin Upton - ARI

Tim Wakefield got a loud, sustained ovation today when it was announced that at age 42 and after 17 years in the major leagues, he had been elected to his first All-Star game. I let out a little cheer as I was watching the selection when his name was revealed, and the hosts of the show, Eck, Cal Ripken, David Wells and some other guy from TBS, were all genuinely excited for Wakefield. It should be an exciting game, the AL has an 11 game win streak dating back to 1997. The 2010 All Star game will be hosted by the LA Angels, 2011 by the Arizona Diamondbacks, and, rumor has it, Fenway Park will host the 2012 All-Star Game to celebrate Fenway's 100th anniversary. That would be sick - I can't imagine what tickets would go for, but you can bet that I've already started saving, haha.

Back to the grind in the AM, but I think that it's only supposed to rain 3 days this week! Hooray!

The 2009-2010 Forecast

There are currently three major musicals scheduled to open in New York between now and May 1, 2010, and they're all really exciting, for very different reasons. I already have tickets to one of them, and am anxiously awaiting to get tickets to the others.

Courtesy 5th Avenue Theatre

Currently rehearsing in Seattle for a July 23rd opening, Catch Me If You Can is indeed based on the 2002 Spielberg film of the same name. The creative team behind this is what excites me the most, music and lyrics are by Marc Shaiman and Scott Whitman, choreography is from Jerry Mitchell and Jack O'Brien directs - this is the team that brought the sensational Hairspray to Broadway (also by way of Seattle) in 2002. There are clips on youtube of a press preview in Seattle from last week; the score sounds interesting, and the three leads Aaron Tveit, Norbert Leo Butz and Tom Wopat (I know those names probably mean nothing to most of you) sounded great. Once reviews come out of Seattle (early August), expect a spring arrival in a theater to be named.

Based on Charles Addams classic comics from The New Yorker, Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuworh will star as Gomez and Morticia, respectively, in this new musical. The plot revloves around Wednesday, now 18, and her "normal" boyfriend and his family. Hillarity will no doubt ensue. A Chicago try-out is planned November - January, with an April 8, 2010 opening at the (rumored) Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. Get your tickets now (well, as soon as they go on sale), the starry casting leads me to believe that The Addams Family has the potential to be the next Producers, an audience and critic super-smash that you'll have to wait a year to get tickets. A show like this comes along about once every 5/6 years (think Rent, The Lion King, The Producers) and with Billy Elliot still needing to prove itself, The Addams Family seems like a sure bet.

courtesy Marvel Comics

Bono. The Edge. Julie Taymor. An epic something is in the making, disaster or success. Manhattan has been abuzz with Spider-Man since it was announced in 2001. This was supposed to be Taymor's follow-up to her sensational production of The Lion King, and once Bono and the Edge were attached, it got that much more awesome. It's now a reality. The budget is soaring close to $50 million. Previews have already been pushed back a month from the originallay announced Janaury 16th 2010 at the Hilton Theatre to February 25th, 2010. I had tickets for February 20th (the Saturday after opening) but had to exchange them for April 3rd. Alan Cumming has been cast as The Green Goblin, Evan Rachel Wood will play Mary Jane, and the hope is that Jim Sturgess (from Taymor's Across the Universe) will play the titular hero. The title is a bit much for me, turn off the dark...really? I think that this will have success a la Wicked, where it recieves mixed-to-negative reviews but will have mass audience appeal. Either way, I'm excited for it. Tickets are currently on sale to AmEx card holders via ticketmaster, and the general public on sale date is September 1.

There are other exciting shows too - revivals of A Little Night Music, Bye Bye Birdie (with Uncle Jessie!), Finnian's Rainbow and Ragtime--that one I'm most excited about--as well as some other new musicals that are while not as high profile, they're exciting, Memphis, about the birth of rock and roll in, you guess it, Memphis, and Fela!...I'm not sure what the latter is about, but it got extremely positive buzz off-broadway last year.

There are quite a few exciting plays too, the most anticipated is the all-but announced A Steady Rain, a two-hander starring Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig (Telecharge better prep their servers now, they crashed in 2005 when Julia Roberts in Three Days of Rain went on sale), Tracy Lett's follow-up to his award-winning August: Osage County, Superior Donuts, and the Donmar Warehouse's production of Hamlet, with Jude Law as the tourmented prince (I got tickets for $25, I'm going November 14th). And that's just the fall!

Want to take a field trip to see any and or all of these?

Love That Dirty Water...

photo courtesy of the AP
Rocco Baldelli drives in Jacoby Ellsbury and Jeff Bailey to tie the game in the 9th

The Sox showed signs of life during the 9th and come back to win in dramatic fashion to beat the Baltimore Orioles in the 11th inning at Camden Yards. Sox wins, gain a game in the AL East, and all is right with the world. I watched the last inning at the gym, and there was a giant cheer when the final out was made, it was pretty cool. Did 3.5 miles today, felt pretty good. And I think the sun came out on the way home....

SOX TIE IT IN THE 9TH WITH TWO MEN ON AND TWO OUTS!

Put Me In Coach....

I'm ready to play. Seriously. I am. After watching last night's EPIC loss to Baltimore, loss isn't even the right word...epic COLLAPSE to Baltimore, I can't help but wonder about all the woulda, coulda, shoulda's about the game. The rain delay, why was Masterson left in after the HR, the super short leash Francona had on Delcarmen, the general lack of energy on the Sox part....I guess these kinds of things happen, even that disasterous, to every team, and at least it happened in June and not, say, October....but I digress...

I just signed up for this great volunteer opportunity at Fenway on July 18th, it's with the Jimmy Fund. Each year they have a Fantasy Day at Fenway, usually during the All-Star break, that is billed as such:

Want an insider's view of Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox? Enjoy activities, contests, Sox expert panel discussions, tours, and much more during this fun-filled day.

Hit one out of the park! Catch a fly ball in Fenway's famed left field! Run the bases like your Red Sox heroes! Watch all of the action from the stands like the Fenway faithful!

It should be fun, I get a free t-shirt out of it, didn't have plans that day, and get to help the Jimmy Fund! Everybody wins!

Today was the rubber game for the Sox/Orioles series, and it seems like they're picking up right where they left off last night - sucking. a lot. Beckett had a horrendous 1st, 2nd and 3rd inning and the O's took advantage to currently make it 5-1 Baltimore in the top of the 8th. Oh well, at least they have tomorrow off. Hopefully this won't come back to bite them later in the season...

Monday night (after a great dinner with Andrew, Dev and Rachel) I ventured to see Chéri at the Kendall. I had heard pretty good things about Michelle Pfeiffer as an aging courtesan during the Belle Époque in Paris. She takes a young man, Chéri under her wing to teach him how to be a man, and how to treat a woman. Kathy Bates gives an excellent supporting turn as Chéri's mother, a retired madame living well off her earnings from her younger days. Stephen Frears, director of The Queen and Frost/Nixon has a knack for these kinds of period(ish) films and makes them shine even if the script is somewhat lack-luster. Penned by Christopher Hampton (who adapted Les Liasons Dangereuses in the early 90's and translated Yazmina Reza's Art and God of Carnage), Chéri was quite interesting in that gender roles are completely reversed, he is the one that is being used, wears silk pajamas, and is portrayed as weaker, while she is clearly the domanant force in their relationship. It was also different that there were quite a few close-ups on Pfeiffer where she clearly was not afraid to show her age. The actual dialog however, was a little too dry. I also appreciated, and liked a lot, Alexandre Desplat's score - he has a very destinct style, and I can immediatley tell after hearing only a few notes/bars, It's awesome. The sets and costumes were quite beautiful, as was the stunning beachside retreat Pfeiffer escaped to for the middle 3rd of the film. Somtimes (only sometimes) I wish i lived back then. It was a nice, quick movie to see on a week night, nothing substantial, but nice to look at. Grade: B