Welcome to the final Snippet Wednesday of 2010!
Monae
The worst thing about creating "Best Of" lists is when you forget something you didn't want to forget. A year or two ago (I don't remember when it came out), I left off The White Stripes' Icky Thump from my albums of the year list.
This year, I forgot Janelle Monae's brilliant The ArchAndroid. I freakin' loved that album, but forgot it because I didn't see it listed in the 2010 album release list on Wikipedia. And, yet, there it is under May 18. I don't know how I missed it. Suffice it to say, The ArchAndroid would've fared very well on my list. Easily top 5, maybe even as high as number 3. So if you are looking for something funky, check her out. Worth it. Trust me.
It's that time of the year! Time for my annual Best Of lists.
Actually, it's been that time for several days now and my lazy butt is finally getting around to typing things up. I just hope I get through all three lists before the new year starts. I really don't have a whole heckuva lot of time, do I?
Well, I'm starting things off with the Kapgar Top 10 Albums of 2010. In reverse order from 10 to 1, we have:
10. School of Seven Bells - Disconnect From Desire
I have a thing for ethereal, almost haunted sounds in my music. I think it all stems back to a longtime love of Bjork and it was downhill from there. I'm not saying that School of Seven Bells is Bjork-like, but they are both kinda "out there" as it were and I sometimes find myself struggling to find the proper mood to be in to fully enjoy this album. But when I'm there, look out. I just love how refined their sound is and then the one-two attack of twin sisters, Claudia and Alehandra Deheza on vocals add something you rarely hear in any band. Definitely worth a listen.
Track It - "Camarilla" and "Dust Devil"
9. LCD Soundsystem - This is Happening
James Murphy, the mastermind behind LCD Soundsystem, proves that even the most unhip guy can surprise you. Seriously, check the dude out some time. You may not believe he's responsible for the electronic beats that have been released on the four albums that mark this career. I've been into LCD for a few albums now, thanks to my buddy Eric, and my love only gets deeper with this latest album.
Track It - "Drunk Girls" and "You Wanted a Hit"
8. Gord Downie and the Country of Miracles - The Grand Bounce
Nat was sending me lyrics for the Kapgar Photo Scavenger Hunt and she had a line from a song on this album to which she added the note "my album of the summer." I replied back saying that I'd never heard of him. She was shocked. And thus began my education. Gord Downie is the frontman of The Tragically Hip, a band I do know (I swear!), that is currently on hiatus. Although this is basically the same lineup as his regular solo band, Coke Machine Glow (a fantastic band name, BTW), he is now using the name The Country of Miracles. Dunno why. But what I do know is that this album is NOT available in either the iTunes Store or the Amazon MP3 Store and that is both tragic and unhip. I had to resort to alternative means to obtain it and I'm glad I did. To miss out on this album is wrong.
Track It - "Gone" and "Moon Over Glenora"
7. Big Boi - Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty
Big Boi, one half of OutKast, releases his first full solo effort under one heckuvan interesting title. But, despite any headscratching you may do over the title, it's worth it. He spins a fantastic rhyme and proves that he's just as good without Andre 3000 as he is with him. Bear in mind, this is not the sort of album you want to spin around your parents. Me thinks this is the sort of album that Tipper Gore had in mind when she conceived of those God-forsaken Parental Advisory labels. Many people are raving about Eminem or Kanye West having the hip-hop album of the year. Clearly these people have not listened to Big Boi.
Track It - "Back Up Plan" and "Tangerine"
6. The National - High Violet
The first time I heard the deeply resonant vocals of Matt Berninger, I was sold. I went out and got both High Violet and The Boxer and both have been on heavy rotation ever since. When mixed with the master musicianship of the rest of the band, you've got a fantastic collection of songs that will shake you to the core.
Track It - "Bloodbuzz Ohio" and "Anyone's Ghost"
5. Spoon - Transference
One of the things I've learned about music from my friend Eric is that I should just trust him. Sometimes, he'll share an album or band with me that just doesn't catch right away, but, eventually, I will find something about them that just "takes" and I'll suddenly develop a love that I can't shake. Such is the case with Spoon. I've listened to albums from this band for years and, not to say I didn't like them, but I just never really cared much. And I really cannot explain why I felt this way. Then came Transference and my entire opinion of the band changed entirely. Now I'm listening to their library with a renewed appreciation that sadly should have happened some time ago. Oh well, better late than never.
Track It - "The Mystery Zone" and "I Saw the Light"
4. Matt & Kim - Sidewalks
And on the flip side of the coin are those bands that are recommended to you by a friend that you just take to like a moth to a flame. Matt & Kim were recommended to me in early 2009 by Dave of Blogography around the release of Grand. Damn. With Kim Schifino providing the power thump behind Matt Johnson's keyboards and vocals, we, the listeners, are blessed with seemingly simple indie power pop sounds that are catchy as hell and will wind up played over and over again.
Track It - "Block After Block" and "Where You're Coming From"
3. Robyn - Body Talk, pts. 1-3
Yes, that Robyn. The same Swedish pop princess that released "Do You Know (What it Takes)" and "Show Me Love" is back with a three-part album released throughout 2010 that, while maintaining a strong pop foundation, has greater edge and is much more risque lyrically. I knew of Robyn back in the day and can't say I cared too much when Eric said she had new music coming out and would be playing at the Pitchfork Music Festival. Then I listened to Body Talk, pt. 1 and saw her live and now I'm in lust. Fantastic rhythms and well crafted beat that you can't help but dance to.
Track It - "Don't Fucking Tell Me What To Do" and "Dancehall Queen"
2. Mumford & Sons - Sign No More
I've developed a great love for folksy, bluegrassy sounds lately. I'm not sure where or how the interest developed, but it did. So when Marty wrote his review of this album a couple months ago, my interest was piqued. Great stuff. And, honestly, I think I'll let his review do the talking.
Track It - "Little Lion Man" and "Dust Bowl Dance"
1. Sufjan Stevens - The Age of Adz
You remember what I said way back when in my recap of Spoon's Transference about just trusting what Eric says? Yeah, here's another one of those bands. He's been sharing Sufjan Stevens' music with me for years, including the popularly and critically lauded Come On Feel the Illinoise, and I just wasn't interested. Not in the slightest. Then I listened, with heightened trepidation, when he sent me The Age of Adz. Guess what? It clicked. And in a big way. And I'm going back and listening to his old stuff and enjoying it like I never could have before. Why? Who really knows. But this album is just rocking my iPod and iPhone of late and I couldn't be happier.
Track It - "Futile Devices" and "I Walked"
And you?
Welcome to Snippet Wednesday: The Christmas Edition! Does this mean all Snippets will be Christmas themed? Well, er, no. Oh well.
Holes
I'm not entirely sure where I came across this article. Knowing me, it likely came from Twitter. But, anyway, Wired's Geekdad wrote about the top 10 movie plot holes you probably never noticed before. Pretty interesting. Although I'm not necessarily sure I would agree with #1. As Yoda points out in The Return of the Jedi, "there is another." So clearly he has thought it through contrary to what the author of this article claims.
Cab
How many of you are fans of the TV game show Cash Cab? So am I when I actually get to watch it. But, ideally, I now have a better chance of actually participating. How? They're starting a Chicago edition! And, thanks to the fine folks at Chicagoist, I now know what I should be looking for if I want to play. For anyone interested, you'll be looking for a Toyota Sienna that is marked as part of the Yellow Cab fleet. The number on the minivan is 4472TX and the license plate is L53 5925. As a note, if you and I happen to converge on the cab at the same time on the streets of Chicago, I will take you down. Happy holidays!
Ryan
A judge has denied former Illinois Governor George Ryan's request to be allowed out of prison to be at the bedside of his ailing wife. And, you know what? I totally agree with the judge. I feel bad that his wife is dying, but he chose to make the mistakes that led to him serving time in prison. I'm sorry, but you have to pay the piper. There are plenty of inmates, past and present, that have ailing spouses and other relatives. Should we just let them all out? No. U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer, you're my hero. Thank you for not caving to sentimentality and for sticking to the letter of the law.
FilmsMy boss asked me to bring in some Christmas-related DVDs to work. Being the movie nut I am, I was more than happy to oblige. What films did I bring in? Let's see... National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, Elf, Love Actually, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Grumpy Old Men, and, one of the finest Christmas films ever, Die Hard! My coworkers thought I was nuts to consider Die Hard a Christmas movie, but it so totally is! I was told that it is only tangentially Christmas because it happened to be set in the holiday season. But it's a very festive flick! As some of my Tweeps pointed out, it's got holiday music, it's main setting is a holiday party in the Nakatomi Towers, it's very family oriented in that John McClain is trying to protect his family from terrorists and reporters, and he even places a very holiday-centric Santa hat on the head of a dead terrorist before sending him off in an elevator. How much more festive can you get?
Mix
My blogger/Twitter buddy @amanda234 sent me a copy of her Wintry Mix 2010 CD. Damn, she's got some great taste in music! Katie and I have to work on our mix CDs for a Christmas exchange this weekend, but I'm almost tempted to just steal Amanda's and claim it's mine. Wait... damn! So much for that idea.
Adios peeps. Got the Lillymonster here for a few days and I think she needs to pee.
Welcome to another edition of Snippet Wednesday... a question edition!
Cheers
This past Saturday, after the 5K, the four of us came back to our house to cool off and change clothes and all that jazz. While flipping through the channels on the TV, we found a pair of episodes of Cheers! And, to boot, both were episodes featuring Coach! As much as I liked Woody, nothing could quite compare to Coach. He was awesome. He made the show. I forgot how much I missed both him and this show. The problem is that I don't really want to bother with the DVDs. Too many sets to purchase. What I would love is a network that airs nothing but Cheers episodes back to back to back. Oh, and another that plays episodes of Quantum Leap! Yeah! My two heaven networks.
So my question to you is, if you could have a network program nothing but episodes of a show of your choosing, what show would it be?
Vacation
In one of the episodes I watched of Cheers, Norm (George Wendt) received news that a medical test he underwent turned out negative, or is it positive? Well, whichever meant he didn't have a problem. After receiving the news, he decided to leave his life behind and set sail to Bora Bora. It was always a dream of his to sail the South Pacific and now, after gaining another lease on life, he decided to just do it. I think I would work the vineyards of Italy. Hmm.
Question #2: If you could drop everything and leave it all behind to start a new life anywhere in the world, where would it be?
Hammer
I was just flipping through headlines on my news homepage and saw something about a new Leonardo DiCaprio film in which his love interest will be played by a guy named Armie Hammer. Really? That's his name? And his parents thought that it would be a good thing to call their child Armie Hammer? I feel like I should pry open his mouth and stuff him in my fridge to keep things fresh.
What's the most unfortunate name you've heard, whether an IRL ("In Real Life") person or someone in the news or a celebrity, etc?
Sports
I'm torn about this new movie The Fighter with Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, and Amy Adams. It's about a guy chasing his dream of being a professional boxer. Or, at least, that's what I get from the trailer. I kinda want to see it and I kinda don't. It might wind up being a game time decision if Katie and I see it or not. I never wanted to be a boxer, but I wouldn't have minded being another type of athlete. I think being a speed skater or even a hockey player. Something about cruising along at ridiculously high speeds and the wind blowing past you and the world becoming a blur.
You?
Welcome to another fine (albeit snowy) Snippet Wednesday. I'd also like to wish a Happy Hanukkah to all my Jewish friends out there! Shalom!
Celebrations
On the topic of holidays, I have to apologize to some of my family. My recent spate of non-posting led to me not wishing some happiness to my family members. Back on November 21 was my parents' 40th wedding anniversary. Happy anniversary, Mom and Dad! And Monday was my brother's 32 birthday. Happy birthday, old man. I love you all and am sorry.
Run
Yesterday morning, due to bad planning, I didn't get to work out. I was dragging all day long. I could've worked out in the afternoon, but I just didn't feel like it. Wow, I've become a total morning workout person. I need to do it to stay awake. Anyway, so I made up for it this morning by running. Took a completely new route through the neighborhood and kept at it despite the dusting of snow we received overnight and the biting cold outside. I ran 3.09 miles total and that final 1.09 felt incredible. If I'd had more time, I think I could've kept going another couple miles without a problem. Of course, when I actually do have the time, I never feel like keeping going. Know what I mean? Oh, and in case you're wondering why the oddball distance, that's when I happened to get back to my driveway and it also balances my total run distance in the Nike+ GPS app at 26 miles even. Yep! I've almost run a full marathon (never mind that it took 9 or 10 individual runs to get there; we won't mention that).
Tweets
I Tweeted something today about some topic or other, blah, blah, blah. But it seemingly resonated with a few people as I got replies back from a couple friends that, when viewed in the mentions column of Tweetdeck, looked like this...
Yeah. I totally am. ;-) (no ego there, eh?)
Egypt
In response to the retiring of both the Indiana Jones and Prince of Persia lines of LEGO sets, the company has released a whole new series called Pharaoh's Quest. Sure, they may not be 100% faithful to Egyptology, but they're pretty darn cool. You can never have too many mummies!
And for those of you who watch The Walking Dead, there is a figure in one of the sets that I think is a total brick doppelgänger for Shane. Uncanny, ain't it? Well, yanno, for being non-contoured and yellow and really small and all that.
Slider
Someone at work brought in some White Castle Sliders for their lunch. We had been talking about it before he got them and I mentioned that I haven't eaten a Slider since I was about five years old. Considering I turn 36 on Sunday, that's a helluva long time. He thought it necessary that I try one again.
Well, that box arrived and I took one whiff and realized exactly why it's been 31 years since I've had one. I call it Gag-Reflex-Inducing-Scent or Eau de Crap. My sense of smell is still struggling to recover.
You know what? I'm not going to call this a Snippet Thursday: The Reckoning. Nope, not this time. I'll just call it a Belated Snippet Wednesday. Does that work for you?
Takeover
There are groups of people out there who fear that the United States is being overrun with immigrants or people of different races, religions, creeds, whatnot. Obviously these people are all kinds of whack in the head. They are fearing the wrong thing entirely. You wanna know what I'm afraid is going to take over our fair country? THE DUGGARS! Damn, the kids are having kids now. Another pregnancy was announced this morning on the Today Show. The growth of the family is going to be exponential from this point forward. It's only a matter of time before EVERYBODY in the USA is a minority to the Duggar clan. I can see it now... The United States of Duggar... I pledge allegiance to the Duggars...
Help.
Uno
Yesterday, my Tweep kimt205 Tweeted about an e-mail she received that asked the following...
I agree, that's a good question. And it's one that can expand to more than just Twitter users. For those of you who are Facebook junkies or blog readers... what if you could only follow one person on those platforms as well? Who would it be?
No, I'm not fishing for you all to say, "You Kevin! Of course it's you!" I'm genuinely curious how all of you would answer. And, yet, it's a question I'm unable to repond to personally. I really don't know if I could do it. You?
Nooooooo
I love my wife. She's so cute. Take last night, for example. We went upstairs to see what recorded on the TiVo. Being Wednesday, she was expecting to find recordings of the latest Modern Family and Cougar Town. Imagine her dismay when there was nothing.
Me: Sorry hon. Nothing new.
Her: Noooooooooooooo!!!!
Me: Obviously they're on a break week.
Her: Noooooooooooooo!!!!
But you have to imagine her whining that word with a little kid's petulence and an oversize frown stretching across her face.
I do love her.
Ponzi
I've decided that the only way I'm going to survive in this economy and make my millions so I can retire by my desired age of 40 is to start my own Ponzi Scheme. Does anybody know how to initiate an effective Ponzi Scheme? Would you like in at the ground level? I'll share my profits. Just sign your name to all the associated start-up documents and we'll be rich in no time. Deal? Anybody?
Challenge
I'm thinking about starting up another Kapgar Photo Scavenger Hunt (No, this has nothing to do with my Ponzi Scheming). It's actually been a good six months now since the start of the last one and my initial plan was to do it every six. So much for that. But I can still get it close enough for government work.
My question to you, though, is should I run it in December or wait until the new year? On the one hand, we can get some pretty cool holiday photos. But on the flip side of that, you'll be contending with holidays and vacations and may have difficulty posting photos by the given deadlines. So, what say you? December Holiday Edition of the Kapgar Photo Scavenger Hunt or kick it off in 2011? Majority rules on this one.
Oh, and if it helps with the decision process, I plan to allow people to just post links to their photos on Flickr or other photo sharing sites instead of having to write it up as a blog post. So those of you with cameras in your phones can just post on the go, too. Does this affect your decision at all?
Snippets
Do you now see why I love Snippet posts? Absolutely no relation between the items I'm talking about whatsoever. Just completely random thoughts floating through my nogging now shared with the world via the wonder of the World Wide Web.
Sure, it's a train wreck of ideas, but I don't care. Do you?
I've been doing this blogging thing for a little more than five years now and if there's one thing I have not figured out, it's how to determine what's going to constitute a good post.
I come up with a post idea in my head and it sounds great. I type it up and I read through it and it comes off as the kind of extreme that I'm aiming to achieve be it highly humorous or rage inciting or emotionally edgy. Whatever.
Then I hit "submit" and zilch.
However, there are many posts that I consider to be not so great. Topics I want to write about and feel the need to post about, but, when I finally write it up, I hate how it sounds. And yet, it is so well received, you'd swear I was gunning for the webby equivalent of a Pulitzer.
This happened with my anniversary dedication to my wife. I really wanted to write something because, well, it was our ninth anniversary and I love my wife and I wanted to let the world know how I felt. But I just could not find the words to express it. In the end, I typed something right off the top of my head and I hated it. I really thought I could do better.
And everyone loved it. Commenters on the blog, commenters on Facebook... hell, my mother-in-law told me it made her cry.
So, um, what gives?
Has anyone figured out this crazy little thing called blogging?
When someone tells you that something is not one way, the assumption is that it's the other way, right?
For example, if someone says that something is not good and doesn't specify any further, then it's bad, isn't it?
I was listening to the radio on the way home from work tonight when a new song by the Old 97s called "Champaign, Illinois" came on. The chorus of the song is "You will not go to Heaven; you'll go to Champaign, Illinois."
In my mind, that means that so far as Rhett Miller is concerned, Champaign is the equivalent of Hell. It seems like a totally viable assumption to me.
So I guess I can add Champaign to a growing list of places I should stay away from in order to protect my mortal soul. This list also includes the entire state of Iowa if Kevin Costner's response to Ray Liotta in Field of Dreams follows the same logic.
Liotta: "Is this Heaven?"
Costner: "No, it's Iowa."
Think of it in mathematical terms if you must... Iowa does not equal Heaven, ergo Iowa equals Hell.
Hey, I'm just the messenger here.
Oh, and somehow I doubt this little TUA will wind up as one of my more well-received posts. Heh.
Happy Snippet Wednesday and Happy @kapgar Day!
Cobaxl
Steven Hyden of The Onion's A/V Club wrote a fantastic piece on the long-running feud between Axl Rose of Guns 'n' Roses and Kurt Cobain of Nirvana during the transition period from the metal era to grunge. I knew there was animosity between the two of them, but I had no idea how deep its roots were. If you like music history, check this piece out. Thanks to @petcobra for the tip.
Moon
I saw the first Transformers movie and enjoyed it. Never saw the second and never wanted to. Only want to see the third because of how much of the filming was done in Chicago and the fact that I actually saw it as it was happening. But, let me tell you, if film titles were the sole determiner when deciding if I was seeing a movie or not, Transformers: Dark of the Moon certainly would have me running for the hills.
I must offer my sincerest apologies to George Lucas. The Phantom Menace is no longer the dumbest movie title of all time.
Netflix
I received an e-mail from Netflix informing me that they were sending me the next available film in my queue. It was the second film in the list since the first was on a short wait. Then, a day later, I got another e-mail telling me my first choice was available at a downstate distribution center and they were sending it to me as well. So my three-disc subscription was going to temporarily become a four-disc subscription. A way to keep users happy? Has this happened to anyone else?
iPhone
I've been using my iPhone 4 for two months now and I really need to get cracking on a review of what I think. There's just so much I want to say. I may have to spread it out over a couple posts or run the risk of having a post that reads like a novel. Yikes!
Typepad
This is the second time I wrote this post. The first time, I forgot to give it an interim save and the browser froze up. What I don't get is that Typepad has an autosave feature kinda like Microschlock Word and it constantly annoys me by telling me that it has a saved copy of a post that I already published a few days prior. Of course, the time that my browser freezes is the one time that the autosave feature kicks in only to save the title and nothing in the post. This makes no sense since I came up with the title after I wrote two and a half snippets. What gives?
Shows
So what shows have all of you given up on this new television season? There are a couple that we're thinking of ditching and wondering if any of you may have the same opinion. Please share!
Okay, I'm outta here. Time to catch up on the season finale of Mad Men.
It's kinda funny how many people seem to agree with the idea that my dad and Rob Reiner are the same person.
Friends, family, the whole shebang.
But the ultimate confirmation came yesterday from my dad himself when I told him that I had put a picture of him next to one of Reiner on my blog. His response? "I saw it... those weren't both of me?"
Um, no.
Heh.
I like Goodwill.
You can find some cool stuff at Goodwill.
Stuff that you might not even be looking for.
For example, this past week I stopped in to look just for kicks and what did I find?
Low-priced porn!
Hey, at least Goodwill is acknowledging the sexual needs of the low income'd. Right nice of them, don'cha think?
Since yesterday was our ninth anniversary, I couldn't quite make a Snippet Wednesday work properly. So, to make up for it, I'm bringing you a Snippet Thursday: The Reckoning!
Stool
Katie and I desperately need a new bar stool or two for the table in our kitchen. But, for some reason, we have not been able to find one we like to save our lives.
Huh?
Was that snippet just completely random? Yeah, I agree. It's actually a teaser I've been asked to place on my blog in anticipation of a future product review for a company called CSN. I put the word "bar stool" with that link on there and then they will send me a product of my choosing to review. I just felt the need to try to work "bar stool" into some semblance of context. And we would really like some barstools. But that's not what I'm planning to review. The good thing is that, soon after I do my review, I will be giving away a gift certificate to their online store to some lucky reader. Don't worry, this sort of thing won't become commonplace by any stretch. I just wanted to try doing another product review as it's been quite a while. We'll see how it goes. Plus, I have a pretty cool idea for the product I want to review and how I'm going to do it. But it's kinda time sensitive, so here's hoping I get it in time.
Brittany
But if there is one thing you may see a lot of around here, it's me avowing my love of Brittany on Glee. I did it a couple weeks ago and, after this week's episode, I'm going to do it again. The girl kills me and her scene with the meatball in Breadsticks a la Lady and the Tramp was absolutely adorable and heartbreaking all at the same time.
Museum
Speaking of cool girls, there's one named Kate McGroarty who recently won a Month at the Museum contest through the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. Basically this means that she will be living in an exhibit and blog, video, and Tweet her interactions and experiences. How cool is that? She's going to eat there, sleep there, do some other stuff there. I'm hoping she gets a little privacy for the bathroom. Oh yeah, and did I mention she gets $10,000 for the month? Would you do it?
Reiner
For as long as I've been cognizant, my dad has had a full beard on his face. Until this last half year or so, that is. Lately, he's become a little more experimental. First, he shaved it down to a goatee and now it's just a moustache. Yes, of course we've been giving him crap about his "porn star" 'stache - we just couldn't help ourselves. However, this past week, Katie and I were watching 30 Rock with guest star Rob Reiner when she chimed in with, "that's what I miss... having Rob Reiner as my father-in-law." And it finally clicked... ohmigod, Rob Reiner is my dad! My dad is Rob Reiner! Finkel is Einhorn!
Well, yanno, minus the directing and acting credits, of course. And the huge bank accounts. And the Hollywood contacts. And... *sigh*
Welcome to Snippet Wednesday. Just barely making the cut (again), but I'm here!
ALDI
Katie was out trying to use our bank card to buy something today when it was declined. We theorized that it was just a communication error with the scanner, but then it happened at a second place. She called the bank and found out that both of our bank cards had been canceled and new ones issued due to a data compromise on the part of a vendor. While at work, Katie had two customers come in paying by check because their bank cards had also been canceled by their respective banks. They told Katie it was due to ALDI Grocery Stores.
We had seen something on a news teaser last week, but never saw the actual story, so I Googled it and wound up with a bunch of stories about a debit card/PIN number swiping scam that had been occuring at several Chicagoland ALDIs (ours in St. Charles included) as well as some in Indianapolis. Oh yay! As a preventative measure, most banks canceled the cards of customers that had been used at potentially effected stores. Nothing had happened to our account, but it did make us wonder if this was how my bank card got spoofed last year. Hmmm...
So a tip to all you ALDI shoppers, USE CASH!
Brittany
Recently, Katie and I started watching Glee. We're pretty much all caught up on season 1 (missed a couple episodes, unfortunately) and we're up to date on season 2. It's an interesting show. Very well done and the actors are pretty good (even though I want to bitchslap Rachel Barry nearly every episode). I can understand why people are Gleeks over it.
But if there's any one aspect of the show that Katie and I love more than anything, it's Brittany. For those of you who haven't watched, she's one of the Cheerios (the school's cheerleaders) that is actually part of the New Directions (the glee club) and she is to this show what Ralphie Wiggum is to The Simpsons. Both are minor characters that usually meld into the background save for an occasional one liner that is typically more memorable than anything else in the show. She's got some true gems like...
"Sometimes I forget my middle name."
"I was pretty sure Dr. Pepper was a dentist."
"Does he mean like a burglar alarm?" (when told to use protection during sex)
"This room looks like that room on that spaceship when I got probed."
"It's a male duck." (when asked what a ballad is)
This week's episode, though, was Brittany's time to shine as it was all about Britney Spears. When all done up in terms of costume, hair, and makeup, I often couldn't tell the difference between Brittany and Britney. Eerily uncanny. But, dayamn! Brittany was rockin' the episode. The actress who plays her, Heather Morris, is a former dancer for Beyonce and it shows. She's got serious moves. I've seen her dance in previous episodes, but this was an entirely different ball of wax. All Brittany, all the time. I liked it.
Kevin
I got an e-mail the other day from a guy who shares my last name. I opened and read it and he detailed for me a family vacation they had taken, how his family was doing, that his dog had died and how he was feeling as a result.
Then he wished me a happy 62nd birthday.
Woah. Hold the phone. My birthday's not until December. And, while I know I'm getting up there in age, I'm certainly no 62.
Turns out he was trying to contact a different Kevin Apgar. One whose name I've seen many times when I've Googled myself and he even used to return higher results than me. Not anymore. I've kinda become cooler than him.
I explained this all in a reply e-mail to my mystery sender.
And I offered condolences on the loss of Gus. Sounded like a good dog.
WWF
Now that Katie and I both have iPhones, we've taken to playing a few games here and there. Our latest addiction is Words With Friends, which is basically a spin on Scrabble. Just a little looser in terms of useable words.
If you're a WWF fiend, look us up and challenge us. I'm "kapgar" and Katie is "ktkat216."
Okay, I'm outta here. Talk to you soon. Hopefully sooner rather than later.
Yesterday, Katie and I did a massively thorough cleaning of the house. Thorough to the point where I was up on a ladder cleaning the Golden Gate picture frames and the high windows and soffet in our living room as well as the arced window and chandelier lamp in our entryway. I was taking care of dust and grime that hadn't been touched in a while.
That's about the only thing I can think of that we did that might have caused this deep-chest cough that I now have. It's a cough that I was able to control relatively decently during the day with liquids. It seemed entirely manageable when we went to see Easy A with my brother and SiL. I think I may have only coughed once or twice during the entire movie.
That evening was a different matter altogether. Katie and I were watching football and reading books in bed and my cough came back full force. So I took some allergy meds, a swig of Delsym (a cough suppressant), and located a blister pack of Chloraseptic. Again, I seemed to get it under control.
Then came 3 a.m., and one of my worst coughing fits ever. It wasn't even coughing that woke me up. I'd had another one of my ridiculously vivid dreams. It was very cool and one whose storyline continued in my head even as I lay in bed awake. I had to get this thing written down, I had absolutely no desire to forget it whatsoever. So I made the damn-fool mistake of getting up and heading to the bathroom where I could sit and jot down what I remembered from my dream without waking Katie.
Smooth move, Ex-Lax.
The shift from prone to upright position clearly knocked everything loose in my lungs and throat and the coughing began again in full force.
Now, not only was I unable to get back to sleep because of my coughing (and the fact that my brain was continuing to mentally write the dream I had), but it was also keeping Katie awake.
And thus the story of why I'm in the living room posting to my blog at 4 a.m.
This should make for a fine day of work, don'cha think?
There is no question in my mind that the Chicago Bears lost the season opener to the Detroit Lions. It may be marked down as a Bears' win in the record books, but it just wasn't. Calvin Johnson's last-second reception in the endzone, I don't care what the rulebook says, was a touchdown. That rule is bunk and I can't believe the refs enforced it in good conscience.
However, this week, the Bears beat the Dallas Cowboys fair and square and it felt sooooo good. (Sorry Ren!)
I don't much like the Cowboys. And, although I can say the feeling of "hate" that I once felt for them has abated to the point where I believe I can actually respect them as a team and I do like several individual players, it still feels nice to have that one team that I can think of as "the enemy." Someone to point at and snarl as though I were the evil monkey in Chris' closet in The Family Guy.
Why the animosity? I don't really know why. It's not like they did something to me personally. I cannot nail it down to a certain event. Not like when Duke's Christian Laettner dropped in that buzzer beater against my Kentucky Wildcats in the 1992 NCAA Tournament (I won't even get into his stepping habits).
Perhaps it's less an event and more of an attitude that disgusted me about the Cowboys. I just didn't like the triumvirate of evil that was Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, and, especially, Michael Irvin. I couldn't stand the arrogance of that team. Yes, they won. They were a great team. They were, supposedly, "America's Team" (clearly not my America), but I hated them all the same.
I have my "evil" teams in most sports leagues. Obviously the Duke Blue Devils in NCAA Basketball. The Iowa Hawkeyes in NCAA Football. The Atlanta Braves in the MLB. The Detroit Pistons in the NBA. The Philadelphia Flyers in the NHL. Some with reason, some without.
But there is no team I hated more during their heyday than the Cowboys.
So yesterday's win felt good. Very good.
Again... sorry, Ren.
Since the fall television season is about to begin in earnest, howsabout a TV-themed Snippet Wednesday?
Hawaii
I can't say that I'm really looking very forward to any of the new shows coming up on the boob tube, however, Katie and I will be giving a shot to a couple newbies. One of these shows is the revamped Hawaii Five-0. I'm tentatively optimistic about it. The good? It's got a pretty decent cast in Scott Caan (Ocean's Eleven), Alex O'Loughlin (Moonlight), Grace Park (Battlestar Galactica), and Daniel Dae Kim (Lost). The bad? It's a used idea. Hell, it's not just a used idea, it's used everything down to the title, setting, and cast of characters. But it still looks like it could be
kinda decent. We're also going to try Blue Bloods primarily because we get to
see the 'stache return in the form of Tom Selleck. Sure, he's no longer Thomas
Magnum, but at least he's got the facial hair back. I'm not expecting much else
from it, though. I think one of the only other new shows we're trying out is
Running Wilde simply because Katie and I are junkies for Keri Russell.
Glee
Since we borrowed the first half of season one DVDs from the SiL, Katie and I love Glee. Yes, we're Gleeks and proud of it. we've been trying to catch up on the second half via TiVo recordings, but FOX isn't reairing all of them. Only select few. But we've got the basic gist of what's happening and will continue to watch into season two. However, last night, we watched the reairing of the Lady Gaga/KISS episode and, being a longtime KISS fan, I must take issue with something... Gene "The Demon" Simmons DOES NOT play drums and his kabuki'd image DOES NOT appear on the drumheads for the band. Finn should have donned the makeup for Peter "Catman" Criss or Eric "The Fox" Carr. Yes, I'm anal retentive like that. I could get really into the actual makeup design, but I won't. And my friend, Mike, would be proud of my attention to detail.
Summer
One of the things I don't like is that the start of fall television marks the end of my summer season of shows. Stuff like Psych, White Collar, Burn Notice, The Closer, Royal Pains, Rizzoli & Isles, and Flashpoint (currently one of our favorite dramas) make for some of the best TV viewing around. And I also really like the 8-12 episode seasons that off-season dramas employ. If a show has a season-long story arc, having this abbreviated season tends to cut out a lot of the crap and make the episodes tighter and more exciting. I feel like most of the 22-24 episode network dramas have too much fluff or strained writing that takes away from the shows. I can use NBC's Chuck as an example of before and after. While I enjoyed the first season of the show, having a full 24 episodes got a little dull. The following two seasons were both mid-season
replacements at 12 episodes each and the show got so much better. There's little to
no downtime and anything that might otherwise be unexciting either never gets taped or winds up on the cutting room floor. Plus, if networks were to cut many of their dramas to 12 episode seasons, they'd have time to give other shows a chance. They could technically have three seasons each year... fall, winter, and summer.
Boys
I just found out yesterday that TBS's My Boys, also a summertime favorite of ours, has been canceled. While I'm upset, I have to admit that the last couple seasons have been less than thrilling. Still enjoyable, but not up to the bar set by seasons one and two. Plus, if you watched the season four finale, you've gotta agree that it wrapped things up pretty nicely. No real loose ends left unresolved. It was well planned. I'll miss you, P.J., but you bowed out on a high note.
Criminal
There is one show that Katie and I have loved for a while now, the return of which frightens us a bit... Criminal Minds. Why? Because it was announced over the summer that A.J. Cook (J.J. Jareau) was unexpectedly let go from the cast. In addition to that, Paget Brewster (Emily Prentiss) is supposed to now have a significantly reduced role. What the what?!?! It had been announced that Kirsten Vangsness' (Penelope Garcia) role was being reduced as well, but this is solely because she will be playing the same character on the spinoff show Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior, starring Forrest Whitaker and Janeane Garofalo.
Okay, time to go. Adieu!
I'm going to hit you with a Snippet Thursday: The Reckoning with a theme today. It's going to be all about the show True Blood and my current disappointment in season 2.
Yes, you read that correctly. I loved season 1, but, seven episodes into season 2, I'm left with a pretty hollow feeling so far. Maybe the final five episodes will right that, but I just don't know.
Oh, and if you haven't watched season 2 yet and plan to, you might want to skip this post. It will be full of spoilers. So consider that your **SPOILER ALERT**
Bill
I'll be honest with you, Bill Compton is really starting to wear on me. He's become very whiny lately always bitching about Jessica or his relationship with Sookie, or the fact that Eric is "using" Sookie "inappropriately." Dude, you're a vampire... stop that now. You're becoming worse for the image of vampires than Edward from Twilight.
Sucky
Speaking of Sookie, another thing that annoys me to tears is Bill's constant hissing of her name and making it sound like "Sssuckeeee." Dude, I get it, you're a Brit playing a southern gentleman. But take a cue from Sam Trammell who plays Sam Merlotte. He's a native N'awlins boy and, when he says her name, it sounds like "Sookie" with a twang, the way it should be.
It has actually become a bit of a joke between Katie and me and anytime we hear Bill say her name, we bust out in a chorus of the "Suck It" product jingle that David Wallace and his son wrote in The Office. One of us will say "Sssuckeee" and the other chimes in with "Yeah!"
This was all Katie's idea.
Sex
Speaking of Sucky, I get that Bill and Sookie are enjoying the sexual aspect of their relationship. Very much, apparently. And I hate to sound like a prude when I say this, but do we have to see it all the time? And all these freaking orgies that Maryann keeps holding in the woods near Bon Temps? Really? I'm not easily offended, but I'm getting a little tired of this. It's like they're doing it just because they can and they need something to fill the 54 minutes in each episode. Also, as a heterosexual male, I can't believe I'm going to say this, but I'm really getting sick of seeing Anna Paquin's boobs in nearly every episode. I'm guessing the embarrassment comes more from the fact that I so highly hyped this series to my wife and now here we are watching this and she's clearly uncomfortable so, by association, I am too.
Grams
I think what this show is desperately lacking right now is a moral center. In the first season, this role was assumed by Sookie and Jason's grandmother. As anyone who watched season 1 knows, she's dead now. And Katie and I both miss her terribly. When Andy Bellefleur is the closest thing you have to a moral compass in Bon Temps in season 2, you know something's wrong.
Jessica
This is one area where I have actually shifted my view. When Bill created her last season and when she returned to live with Bill initially this season, I couldn't stand Jessica. Just a bratty teen. However, once she was introduced to Hoyt and the two of them started seeing each other, I really began to like her. In fact, the burgeoning love story with Jessica and Hoyt is one of the best things going in the season, IMHO. I really want those two crazy kids to work out. Something tells me they won't, but a guy can hope!
Jason
Just when I was beginning to enjoy the story with Jason and the Light of Day Institute, they had to go and discover who his sister was, didn't they? Man! And Sarah shoots him in this last episode we just finished watching? Even I know it was the paint gun that Jason and Steve were using for target practice on the course a few episodes before. Did the writers really think I'd forget that soon? That is what happens, right? Well, I guess we do get a bit of a change of pace for once... instead of a woman that Jason messes around with being found dead as per season 1, this time she at least gets to think she killed him.
Godric
I get that Godric is a 2,000-year-old vampire and the creator of Eric and I understand why saving him is important, but this hunt and the trip to Dallas and all that jazz has been just completely underwhelming in terms of excitement level. I enjoyed seeing the history sequences between Eric and Godric, but even that isn't making up for my overall boredom with the storyline. Tell me it gets better.
Funny thing I'm noticing, I seem to prefer vampire stories that explain how certain vampires are created more than the rest of the story being told. I like the creation sequences in the Twilight books, particularly Jasper and Rosalie. I liked the creation of Louis by Lestat in Interview with the Vampire. And I liked the creations of Eric and Bill in this series. But anything that happens after that kinda pales by comparison. Am I weird in that regard? Anyone? Anyone?
Good?
Not all of this season is entirely bad. As I said, I like where the Jessica storyline is going, so long as it doesn't take a 180-degree turn.
I was briefly enjoying the Daphne and Sam bit. Until she was revealed to be a Maryann minion. Very disappointing.
I really like Terry Bellefleur and am happy he's playing a much larger part this season even if it involves dating Arlene. But the scene where he defended Lafayette against Andy was great and has quickly become one of my favorite scenes of the series.
And I still get to see where the Jason vs. LODI storyline will go. I'm looking forward to that quite a bit. I wanna see Stackhouse go postal on a bunch of born-again Christians.
Tell me it's worth it. That I won't be regretting seeing this season through to the end. Is season 3 better?
Just a quick one today.
Katie decided to have some fun and made me into a Minion.
Of course I had to have a little return fun.
That is all.
It's been a week and a half since I last blogged.
Wow. I'm pretty sure that's the longest I've been neglectful around these parts.
You know it's bad when both your wife and your mom have taken notice of the fact that you haven't blogged in a long time and are actually a little mournful about it.
I know it's a very off-day, but I hope you don't mind some snippets. Given I've missed the last two Snippet Wednesdays -- and even the last two potential Snippet Thursday: The Reckonings -- I don't see it being a big deal that I do it now, right?
Rest
And on the 14th day, they rested.
This past Sunday marked 13 consecutive days of exercise for Katie and me. As you know, we've been working out weekday mornings for quite some time. Well, a couple weekends ago, we started exercising on weekends as well. Two really long walks in a row now that the heat has calmed down a bit and a 20-mile bike ride this past Saturday. That one caused us to be a bit sore, so we took Sunday off. And we're back at it again this week. All five weekdays so far. Not sure what will happen this weekend. We'll have to wait and see.
Camera
I guess it was a good thing I distracted myself with exercise this past weekend. I was feeling a bit naked without my trusty Sony D-SLR. My friend Eric was shooting a wedding and asked if he could borrow it. This is the first time my Sony has not been with me or at least somewhere I knew he should be. I felt a bit "off," if you get my meaning. Nothing was quite right until Monday when I got my camera back -- in perfect working order -- from Eric. Gah!
Beans
But not having my Sony around gave me time to play a bit more with the camera in my new iPhone 4. It's a nice camera. Not perfect by any stretch, but nice... and far more portable. And what's really nice is the automatic geotagging I get in my iPhone photos when they're uploaded to Flickr.
Of course, even this isn't perfect as the geotag of this Jelly Bean photo would indicate. Apparently, I found myself some jelly beans to photograph in "a mysterious place with no name" in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean near the western coast of Africa.
Guess it's a good thing my passport finally came in the mail, eh?
Bloody
Katie and I are tearing through True Blood seasons 1 and 2 on DVD right now. We got free video-on-demand of all episodes of season 1 from Amazon and season 2 came in from the library but is due back soon. Funny thing was a conversation between Katie and I as Bill and Sookie were having sex and he bit her, drawing blood down her neck...
Katie: [jokingly] "Edward would never do that to Bella!"
Me: "That's because Edward is not a real vampire. He has no fangs. He couldn't if he tried."
Heh.
Chiro
Speaking of conversations, this happened at the chiropractor's office the other day. We finally discovered how old he was.
Me: "You're not even in your thirties!?!?"
Him: "You were born in the Seventies!?!?"
I get it, I'm old.
Lamb
The other day, a coworker and I were coming in to work together and she told me about a book she just started reading. She wasn't sure if I'd ever heard of it because it was, to her, a pretty unknown author. Turns out it was Christopher Moore's Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal. Only like my favorite book of all time. It took some work to not hug her right on the spot.
Hunger
Speaking of books, on the very strong recommendation of @DownWithPants and @Amanda234, I began reading The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. It's the first in a three-book series and, so far, it reminds me a lot of Takami's Battle Royale (loved the book, hated the movie) and Bachman/King's The Running Man (loved the movie, haven't read the story). And I don't have to wait between books as the final book in the series (Mockingjay) came out this week. I hate waiting. I'm not a patient person at all.
Okay, I'm outta here. Have a great weekend!
Just a handful of quick snippets for you today. Sorry it's so rushed.
Vote
Only a month left until CBS2Chicago finalizes the choices for this year's Capture My Chicago book. If you haven't done so already and you have a free moment, can you please check out my profile, create a quick on for yourself, and vote on some of my photos? I hate whoring myself out like this, but I'd appreciate it.
Music
I've been checking out some really great music this week. Stuff from the library and stuff from friends. I've really taken a shine to Hot Chip's albums One Life Stand and The Warning as well as Kelis' Flesh Tone and Jonsi's Go. If you want to check out some new stuff, there you go!
Dune
My buddy Whall Tweeted this earlier today and it cracked me up to no end.
If you don't get it, I'm not even going to try to explain it.
Tweets
Speaking of Tweets, Avitable posed an interesting question today on his blog -- "has Twitter killed blogging?" I've seen this question asked before but finally decided to comment. As I said on his blog, I can't speak for everyone, but it has certainly diminished my desire to blog as much. And I think being able to distill your thoughts into 140 characters or less is a great skill to have. Don't use as many words and save some time. Maybe it's just me. Head on over there and share your thoughts if you're so inclined.
Well, it's time to get ready for a nice dinner with Katie. Talk atcha soon.
Welcome to a special Blogher edition of Snippet Wednesday. Am I at Blogher? No. I just thought it might get the attention of all the people there and actually drive a few readers here. Am I evil for doing this? Yeah, probably. Will it work? I dunno, I'll tell you in a couple days when I check my stats.
40
I don't really know why, but I TiVo'd 40 Days and 40 Nights and just finished watching it now. It really was a pretty bad movie, but, for some reason, I enjoyed watching it. Me and my bad movies.
Plants
This year, Katie and I pared back all the veggies that we planted. Last year, we just tried growing too much stuff and it got a little out of control. Some of it worked while some of it did not. So, this year, we're growing serrano peppers, tomatoes, squash, and zucchini. The peppers? Great! I've picked six so far and have at least 30 more sprouting. Squash and zucchini? Well, not much in terms of fruit yet, but damn if the plants are huge. Tomatoes? As a result of the squash and zucchini, the tomatoes aren't doing so hot. They're being crowded out. And it's the tomatoes that I really want. Check out the stuff that is growing...
Keychains
As I told you the other day, while in Chicago, I picked up a couple of those LEGO keychains. One was the alien from Toy Story and the other was a recreation of the original spaceman minifig that debuted in 1978. I was asked for some pictures, so here they are...
My only problem with the spaceman keychain is that he's not an exacting recreation of the original. The difference is minor, but enough to mean something to a purist like me. It's all in the helmet. Check it out...
The original helmet (right) is flush from the forehead down through the chin guard. The revised helmet (left) has a chin guard that sticks out further than the forehead of the helmet. This was done to provide a way for a visor to stop when pulled down over the face and appear flush with the helmet itself. Plus it looks more realistic.
Fine, I'm picky.
Truck
Speaking of LEGO, when Katie and I were at my parents' house, my dad gave me back an old set I had built years ago and that has been sitting on his desk all this time. It is the 5580 Highway Rig and it's apparently somewhat valuable on eBay. It's also gotten a bit grungy from grime, but I plan to disassemble, wash, and rebuild it. Should be fun. It's a pretty intense set. And I got a chance to try out photographing it with a nice background display.
Photos
I've been bad about this whole Photo365 challenge. The other day, I looked at the set and realized I was a month behind in tagging pictures. Well, I'm all caught up. Through today, even! It took a while to find them all, but I'm good again. And I've passed the 200 day mark. This has been anything but easy. I really can't wait for it to end, but I know I'll miss it. Is that weird?
It's time for bed. Yeah, it's only 9:15. I'm pathetic. I admit it.
With just a couple hours to spare, here I am! With Snippet Wednesday! Huzzah! Huzzah!
Reminder
There are so many bloggers that have kinda sorta given up on blogging in recent months. Several of them, I'd like to just reach out and say, "what gives? C'mon! Just write a couple blog posts!" But wouldn't that be hypocritical considering I haven't blogged in a week and, even when I do blog, it's infrequent at best. So I'll just shut up, okay?
Fantasy
As I was logging in to write this blog post, an e-mail came in from Brandon informing me that he's starting back up his Blogger Fantasy Football League. Now this is something worth celebrating! YES! It means we're that much closer to the real NFL season. Oh happy day!
Drives
Yes, my replacement Time Capsule arrived and is hooked up (within two days, mind you). And we bought a Western Digital My Book as a secondary drive and it is hooked up. Our WiFi network is up and running. The TiVos have refreshed their recording queues. The hard drive on the iMac is backed up. And...
Works
I finally got around to downloading one of those pieces of software that will allow me to transfer my music from my iPod back to my computer. I went along with Juliette's suggestion and purchased the full version of PodWorks. And it works! It's currently transferring all the music back from my iPod to my iTunes account and it's copying right where it is supposed to go on one of the external hard drives. I was considering PodManager, but discovered that it pulls the music from my iPod and places it on my desktop for me to then copy into iTunes. PodWorks cut out that extra step and is uber easy to use.
Juliette, you are a goddess amongst mere girls! I love you! I love you! I love you! I love you so much right now that, I tell you what, I'm going to buy a copy of your book, Morning Neurosis, and attend one of your signings so you can throw your John Hancock on it! Oh wait, I already did that. I guess you're just going to have to take my word for it, okay?
Runaways
One of the movies I've most been looking forward to this year is The Runaways. It's the biography of the all-girl rock band from the 70s featuring Joan Jett and Cherie Currie. I figured that if there was any one movie that Kristen Stewart would excel in, it would be one in which her regular drugged-out appearance would be a natch fit. Basically, I was just waiting to find out it was in theaters. Then, a few weeks back, I opened up my Rolling Stone magazine and saw a big two-page spread for the movie. This is it, I thought. Um, not exactly. It was an ad for the DVD/Blu-Ray release of the movie the following Tuesday. Huh? Did it never make it to theaters? How did I miss it? Well, whatever, it is now coming in from Netflix. So I'm a happy camper.
Playlist
I had fun today asking all my Tweeps to set my musical playlist for the day. I challenged them to just name any artist or band and, if available on my iPod, I would add a pair of songs from them to an On-the-Go playlist to set my musical mood for the day. Damn, it was fun! I got some great suggestions, a vast majority of which I had available, but several I did not. I should do this more often. It was even more fun than setting my iPod to shuffle.
Well, I'm out of here. Adios.
I'll be darned if I'm not on time with Snippet Wednesday this week!
Red
I
still stand behind the whole red-light camera program, in theory.
However, in recent weeks, as I've driven near some intersections with
these cameras in place, I have noticed issues. I saw one the other day
that snapped a picture of a guy who was 100% still at a red light that
he was going straight ahead through. These cameras are supposed to catch
violators of the right-on-red turns. So, I guess it's a lot like my
view of the death penalty - I support it, but it needs to be
re-evaluated before it's implemented. Even my hometown of Naperville is
re-evaluating.
Red
I am sooooo looking forward to the new movie Red (based on
the graphic novel by Warren Ellis) about retired CIA black-ops agents
coming back to help their leader when his identity is compromised. It
stars Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, and Helen Mirren as
the retired team. It also stars Mary Louise Parker, Julian McMahon,
Ernest Borgnine, Richard Dreyfuss, Brian Cox, and Karl Urban. That's one
helluva cast! But the key for me is seeing Mirren and Freeman kicking
ass and taking names! That would be wicked cool!
Red
I just read an article that some of those RedBox DVD rental
units may start popping up in front of public libraries. Check that, for
now it will just be popping up in front of a single library for a
six-month trial period, but still. Interesting. I can see this being
good for libraries that charge a minimal amount for rentals. Some of
them do. And having a RedBox to distribute the latest movies at a
similar price is good for those people trying to find the latest and
greatest as well as libraries attempting to cut back on what they spend
on materials. However, if you're talking my library, which charges zero
for rentals, then I might have a problem. Well, maybe not. I don't want
to see my library dip into the red with overspending on some materials.
Oh hell, let's just say it's a pretty cool collaboration and leave it at
that, eh?
Red
Speaking of RedBox, it seems they're going to experiment with an online
distribution model in addition to their kiosk machines. No one is quite
sure if this just means online video streaming or online sign up with
mailbox delivery. Only time will tell. But it could mean viable
competition for Netflix. Lord knows Blockbuster wasn't a viable
competitor. Heh.
Red
I'll bet after being on this flight, the passengers are seeing red
indeed. Holy cow! People sitting in their seats being tossed in the air,
hitting the ceiling of the plane and then winding up in other seats???
I'm thankful every day that Katie isn't on a flight that is nearly that
bad. She's nervous enough about flying. Experiencing this would push her
over the edge and she'd never fly again. I can guarantee that. Me? I'd
recover, but suddenly be a bit timid about flying, I'm sure. Otherwise, I
love it too much.
That's enough red for now.
Sadly, the Pitchfork Music Festival has wrapped up for 2010 with a pretty little bow on it.
Granted I only went to a single day of the festival, I still feel compelled to write about it.
I missed out on the earliest act of the day, Sharon Von Etten, because I mistimed the train I was taking to get into the city. Bummer. I was kinda looking forward to hearing her.
As I entered the park, though, I was greeted with the acoustic stylings of The Tallest Man on Earth. I really dug on his sound and am looking forward to checking out more of his music.
There was a pretty rough transition next from TTMOE to the next act, hip-hopper El-P. I didn't really dig on his first few tracks, but I finally started to get into it after that and enjoy his music.
Next up was one of the bands I was most looking forward to, Liars. However, what I wasn't expecting was how noisy and uneven they sounded. It left me happy that I spent the time wandering the booths instead of sitting in one place and listening to them. It just didn't fit the mood that was set by all the acts up to this point.
The disappointment of Liars was made up for by Robyn. I wasn't sure what to think about a former pop starlet at an indie music festival, but, DAMN, she tore it up. Just a high-paced pop and electronic set which left me wondering how she could've had that much energy considering the heat.
Next up was Broken Social Scene. The only bad thing I can say about them is that the sound system for their stage was a bit wonky. While I've experienced worse, the sound did go in and out a little on a couple of tracks. But I think that's a combination of the stage crew and the heat. Otherwise, Broken Social Scene was fantastic and the end of their show left me wanting to hear a lot more of their music. Good thing my iPod had some.
The final act of the night was Modest Mouse. This was the band I most wanted to see going into the festival and the reason I chose Friday over any of the other nights. The verdict? I was left a bit empty. While the songs that Isaac Brock and company chose to play were decent enough and ones that I recognized, they weren't ones that I truly knew well enough to be able to sing along with. I am not a diehard Mouser like so many other people that were in attendance, and I hate to sound mainstream with this request, but it would've been nice to hear "Float On" or "Ocean Breathes Salty" or even "King Rat." They left after a little more than an hour and came back about 10 minutes later for an encore which lasted a single song. Still nothing of those three tracks.
If I had known that this might have been a possibility, I probably would've opted for Saturday, instead, so I could've seen LCD Soundsystem. The downside of that would've been missing Robyn and Broken Social Scene, of course. But seeing as Modest Mouse was my number one reason for choosing that night, I think Saturday might have made for a better overall evening.
Oh well.
The festival grounds themselves, including the vendors, were great. I had a lot of fun wandering from tent to tent and just perusing what was available. I did buy a few smallish items and loved that Shawnimals was present for me to get a little bit of a Ninjatown fix.
Will I go again next year? Damn right. I'm not sure if it will be one, two, or three days. We'll have to wait and see. But I always seem to have fun at Pitchfork. So why the heck not?
Here are some pictures I took at the festival.
I think it's pretty obvious that I'm a junkie for Pixar animated films. They're always great. However, when it comes to other studios and their digitally animated feature films, I'm a bit more hesitant.
They always seem rushed, unfinished, poorly written, poorly acted... you name it.
So, yes, I was a bit wary of Despicable Me based on the trailers. I just didn't see it being any good save for a few moments of potential levity here and there.
Katie and I went to see it on Sunday and I would like to say, here and now, that I was wholly wrong in my pre-judgment of the film. It was hilarious and heartwarming and thoroughly enjoyable. The voice acting was good, the characters were a lot of fun, and damn if those minions don't steal the movie.
But the biggest surprise was that this was actually a movie where 3D paid off!
Katie and I have been to a few films in 3D since the craze came back full bore. And, honestly, none of them needed it. It was merely a gimmick to make you pay more to see the film and, thus, rake in more bucks and thrust the film higher up the all-time grossing list (I still wonder how Avatar would've really fared if it wasn't in 3D).
Despicable Me, though, used 3D like films that came out in a past era. Items on screen came out at you making you jump or laugh or whatnot. But, unlike old 3D films, it wasn't done intentionally like when an actor is swinging a sword and makes it a point to stick it out at the audience for maximum 3D effect. These scenes fit into the movie and flowed well with everything going on around it.
All-in-all, I was very pleasantly surprised.
I actually wasn't going to do any snippets this week. I had nothing yesterday. And I was pretty sure I'd come up with zilch today. However, Katie, in an attempt to make her brother feel like he actually has something worthwhile to live for during his day, helped me come up with enough crap to populate a Snippet Thursday entry. Day late, but not a dollar short!
Pitchfork
Yes, tomorrow is my live music day to end all days! The Pitchfork Music Festival is here and I will be there all day long boiling in what is predicted to be high 80s/low 90s temperatures with about 80% humidity. Oh joy. I love music, but that's brutal. The final day of Pitchfork last year found me wearing jeans, and doing so quite comfortably. Help. Me.
But for anyone interested, I will take some photos and upload them over the weekend to my Flickr account and I'm sure I'll be Tweeting throughout the event so long as there is a reliable AT&T connection at Union Park. It was, at best, spotty last year.
Strippers
My brother-in-law and future sister-in-law are going to a sports card show this weekend at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Chicago. Pretty much the same one I went to with them earlier this year. However, this one got pretty interesting in that the Stephens Center will also be hosting an adult entertainment show called Exxxtacy 2010. So, basically what we're talking about here is a bunch of strippers in their red-light best walking around amongst families with children. And I thought Hooters was family friendly.
I'm trying to talk Scott (the BiL) into writing a guest post about this experience complete with photos from Becca (the FSiL). Anybody else want to see him do it? Votes?
Steinbrenner
No, I'm not wearing a black armband in memory of George Steinbrenner. Sure I was a huge Yankees fan back in the day. I worshipped them during the 80s and early 90s, an era that his iron hand ruled over unquestioningly. And he was responsible for bringing in my favorite baseball player of all time, Don Mattingly. And I do respect the hell out of him for many reasons. And, well, considering all that, maybe I should've been wearing a black armband. R.I.P. George.
TV
This has been a great week for TV. Psych is back. White Collar is back. The new Covert Affairs debuted. The Closer is back. Rizzoli & Isles premiered. Geez. Who needs the regular television season when you've got quality fare like this?
Katie and I bummed around our hometown of Geneva this past weekend. It was great just doing our own thing the entire day and we discovered a few new things that made it even more fun. Like Steak Sliders at Wildwood. Yummy! And a bike race that is new to our town but, hopefully, will be back next year when I have my good camera on me (I didn't want to carry it that day only to discover this race was going on after it was too late to do anything about it). So I got a couple photos with my Blackberry. Oh well.
I think I'm going to skip the final snippet we came up with. This should be more than enough for you all, right?
Time to head to Predators!
Because of the holiday-shortened week, I almost forgot today was Wednesday and, therefore, SNIPPET WEDNESDAY!!!
Faith
Marty nearly blew my mind the other day when he Tweeted about Faith No More playing a gig in NYC the other night. Faith No More? They broke up more than a decade ago! Well, apparently it didn't stick and they got back together last year (minus guitarist Jeff Martin) and have been on tour for a bit and I had no idea. Sure, the U.S. leg of the tour is/was lacking more than just a bit, but how cool would it be to see them play? I loved these guys and never got to see them live back in the day.
Attic
I gave the attic one more shot. Lo and behold, in one container that I thought contained old board games, I found them! My Speed Racer LEGO sets, my robo-monkey, and my Octan Racer. Just some all-around cool stuff. I was stoked. But also in the container were a couple of my old stuffed animals that I loved from back in the day, including...
Opus
I had no idea how old this guy was. This Penguin Lust Opus from Bloom County dates back to 1984! So hard to believe. But he's in pretty darn good shape, don'cha think?
And I also found...
Woody
That kid Andy from the Toy Story movies had his Woody in the form of a Old West sheriff. My Woody was Woody Woodpecker. I have no idea how old I was when I got this, but he's still around. Pretty beat up but I would think that's an indication of the degree to which I loved this guy.
However, being as young as I was, I could not, for the life of me, pronounce "Woody Woodpecker." So I wound up saying — and, yes, this has found a place of prominence in the annals of Apgar history — "ooo-nee cock-er." Well, "woody," "pecker," "cocker"... not that I was too far out in left field with that one.
Cubs
Speaking of funny stuff, I was driving behind a car on the way home today with the license plate "CUBS BY 2." I had to laugh.
Cubs? By 2? What? Lost by two? Only won two in the month of June? Missed being in last place in the NL Central by two?
You become rather cynical as a Cubs fan.
If you saw someone reading a book with this title and cover, what would your first reaction be?
Well, this is what I was reading for the last week and I got my fair share of comments. At the gym, at work, at the coffee shop, at the DMV... yes, the DMV.
Let me say one thing first... I wasn't reading this for the title or what it could potentially contain. I actually read it because of the author. I was a big fan of Joshua Braff's first book, The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green, and as soon as I saw his name on this book, I grabbed it off the shelf. He could've been rewriting a volume of Encyclopaedia Britannica, I wouldn't have cared.
So, yes, I was very excited to read Peep Show and it was everything I could've hoped for.
But, like I said, it did elicit some reactions based solely on the title and the image of the guy with a camera on the cover. Don't worry, all were good natured, but it was just weird seeing how people reacted. Mostly it's some variation of "so that's the kind of book you read" or "I had no idea you were into porn." I think one guy at the gym jokingly call me a "smut peddler." Then I explain what the book is all about and every single one of them walks away wanting to read it. So, either it's that good a concept or I'm just great at promoting, I'm not sure which.
If you are looking for a really good book, though, I do highly recommend this.
Happy Snippet Wednesday. It's a late one. Sorry about that. Just been a little busy lately, but I didn't forget ya!
Ke$ha
It has been 19 hours and I still have Ke$ha's "Tik Tok" stuck in my head. It's been there since my iPod Shuffle came across it yesterday morning during my workout. The worst part is that I don't know the song that well so all I've got going back and forth in my skull is her signing the words "Tik Tok" and then the "oh-e-oh-e-oh-oh" part. Painful, I tells ya.
Shutter
Katie and I finally got around to watching Shutter Island last night. I had read the book by Dennis Lehane several years ago and
remember liking it, although I don't remember much of what it was about. The movie was interesting. Not Scorsese's or DiCaprio's best by far. It comes off as very convoluted and overwrought. However, I will say that Michelle Williams was fantastic in it. If you need a reason to see it, then do so for her. I'm not a big fan of hers, but this was a career maker for her.
Jaws
Speaking of movies, the library got in a copy of Jaws that I've gotta pick up for Katie and I to watch. This past weekend, I saw a Bio Channel feature on the making of Jaws and it was way cool. Katie didn't watch it as she's never even seen the movie. Oh, she must be introduced to the greatness that is Jaws and STAT!
Capture
Guess what! Capture My Chicago is back and I'm all signed up and have submitted something like 70 photos for potential inclusion in the book. As you know, my photos didn't garner enough votes last year to be included in the printed coffee table book, although they were part of the DVD that came packaged with it. This year, though, I'm planning to submit a ton to increase my chances. The 70 I've already submitted constitute about four or five times my total submissions from last year. So I'm off to what I hope is a good start. Ideally, by sending in more, my name becomes more visible on the site and people click through to see the rest of what I've offered up. If you're willing and able, please check it out and sign up to vote. You don't have to be Chicago residents to vote so far as I know.
Shame
There are times when I naively think that our society cannot possibly be one in which hate groups such as the KKK can ever survive. Then I read stories like this, about a guy who thinks that the Blackhawks and Cubs are giving off the wrong idea by taking part in the Chicago Gay Pride Parade, and realize that some elements of our world truly are still living in the Dark Ages. Just. So. Wrong.
Tat
I now know what my next tattoo will be. Well, Norman anyway, not Boba. No offense, Boba, but I'm a Stormtrooper kinda guy. Yes, I know your father was responsible for their ultimate creation, but still. Do you think Katie would fly with this one?
Okay, now I've gotta go and take care of some stuff around the house. w00t!
I hate you, Pixar.
You are a terrible, horrible, malevolent, vicious, and cruel company.
(Yes, I realize those are all synonyms and the use of just one could have sufficed, but I didn't feel it was strong enough relying on a single word in this instance.)
My problem with you lies in the fact that in the span of an hour and a half, you are able to make me laugh hysterically, jump with excitement, swoon with joy and then, ultimately, reduce me to a blubbering 35-year-old mass of tears.
And with nothing more than a bunch of freakin' animated TOYS!
How? How do you do that, I ask you? How do you manage to do with mere computer-generated images something that real-life actors can almost never do? Why do I feel such a connection with your creations? Why do they evoke such emotion from me?
Worst of all, why do I feel this need to go to my parents' house, root through the attic, and find some of my old toys so I can just be with them again after all these years? I don't have to play with them, necessarily, just spend some time with them like an old friend. Run my fingers over their eternally familiar nooks and crannies. Reminisce about how this scratch or that crack developed while acting out some adventure. Replay those mental recordings about "that time when..."
This is all your fault, Pixar. I hold you entirely responsible.
It's a TOY!! It's a child's PLAY THING!!
Stupid Toy Story 3.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to curl up in the fetal position in the corner and think about what is easily one of the best movies of the year.
Holy crap! Wait, is it? Can it be? It is! Kapgar is getting Snippet Wednesday posted early in the day for our reading (dis)pleasure!
Blogiversary
I was scanning down my page yesterday and happened to notice that little widget reminding me that I was one day away from my blogiversary. Wow! I almost missed it again. Five years this time. It's a biggie! Yay me!
Oil
The estimates on oil spillage into the Gulf of Mexico has been increased dramatically. Honestly, I don't even want to know how much is spilling. It's just too depressing. The only thing more depressing is the belief I have that it will never truly end or, at the very least, never be completely cleaned up.
Fallon
Speaking of Mexico, Jimmy Fallon did a segment on his late night show last night called "Pro/Con: Watching the World Cup." One of them that made me laugh out loud was, "Pro - several players from Team Mexico have already received yellow cards and red cards; Con - they were hoping for green cards." Sorry, but it made me laugh.
Bells
If you want a pretty good album to check out, give a listen to Treats by Sleigh Bells (iTunes | Amazon
Shatner
William Shatner is creating a
documentary based on his life. One of the things you learn in media
school is that documentaries are, by their very nature, skewed to the
creator's beliefs. God only knows how skewed an autobiographical
documentary will be. Think it will be sponsored by Priceline?
Well, I'm off to the gym. Have a good one.
It's been a wild couple of days in terms of sports and photography.
Thursday, Katie and I went to the Cubs v. Brewers game at Miller Park in Milwaukee. It was fun to get out and see a game, although Katie and I discovered we're still in too much of a fast-paced hockey state of mind to fully enjoy the slow pacing of baseball. But we're working on it. Other than World Cup Soccer (football, whatever), we don't have much else going on athletically until our football starts.
However, baseball does offer lots of opportunities for Katie and I to just chill out and for me to take photos.
My other photo op came yesterday when I went to the Chicago Blackhawks parade and rally. Actually, I should clarify that I didn't really go to the rally as I couldn't get within a quarter mile of the staging area. But I was in the front row against the police barriers at Wells and Washington for the parade. A-MAZ-ING! Worth the crowds on the streets. Worth the heat. Worth the time waiting.
God I love Blackhawks hockey.
In my attempts to recover from the heat and exhaustion of the last couple days, I'm laying low this morning at home and scaring the hell out of myself watching M. Night Shyamalan's Signs.
I'm not a huge fan of Shyamalan. His movies either hold up decently on a single viewing or a majority of the film holds up well to multiple viewings minus a portion of it or (yes, a third option) it's just crap overall.
What I mean is a movie like The Sixth Sense is truly fantastic in my opinion. Beginning to ending. But you can't watch it more than once. Ever. Just doesn't have the same effect.
Then there's Signs which is great for the first hour and a half. Fantastic suspense builder, great acting by all five of the major cast members (Mel Gibson, Joaquin Phoenix, Rory Culkin, Abigail Breslin, and Cherry Jones), and great use of mood and emotion as a secondary character. But the last 20 minutes are crap. He needed to take a page from Spielberg and Jaws and realize that less is more. The less we see of the aliens (or in Spielberg's case, the shark), the more frightened we are by them. When they come into full view, the movie goes to hell in a handbasket.
As an example of the third option, we have The Village. The movie was severely lacking, utterly predictable, and just plain dull. Period pieces and Shyamalan don't work so well.
Yet, despite all this, I can still go back and watch the first hour and a half of Signs over and over and over again and love it each and every time. So I do. And I am. And I'm still just as freaked out by it as the first time.
Welcome to yet another late-in-the-day Snippet Wednesday.
Cubs
I’m actually going to a Cubs game tomorrow with Katie. Been a while since either of us has been, but we were given tickets by a really fantastic person and you bet your sweet bippie we’re gonna go. Oh, and it’s in Milwaukee which has become about the only place we can go to see Cubs games since games at Wrigley Field are too packed and too expensive and too difficult to get to and, in my opinion, just not worth the headache. Go Miller Park!
Blackhawks
Tonight is game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals (actually, we just wrapped the first period) and I’m really not gonna say much more about it other than that. I really don’t want to jinx anything. But I will let my new Twitter friend @niemisays
say it all for me. He's got plenty to say.
NASA
I was completely confused and intrigued by a series of window stickers I saw on the back of a vehicle in front of me this morning. I’m guessing that was the point of them, make you wonder and actually pay attention and I certainly did. Check it out…
Of course, I saw another sticker on his bumper that made me realize what it is. Not that my complete and utter misunderstanding of their use of NASA helped.
I did like it better when I thought it was some cool puzzle.
Books
I’ve been on a bit of tear in recent months on books that I’ve been reading. It’s about time, too! Now I’m finally going back and finishing up a handful of partial reads that were left behind in the last year or two. They were books I enjoyed, but since my zeal for reading was dead, they kinda went by the wayside. Time to play catch up.
Gotta get back to the game. GO BLACKHAWKS!
This conversation actually happened in the locker room of my gym this morning...
Gary: Hey Kev. Have you seen Iron Man 2 yet?
Me: Yep!
Gary: Chaz [his son] and I have decided it is the perfect movie for four reasons.
Me: Oh? And they are?
Gary: 1) It has lots of Air Force stuff. 2) It has an Audi.
Me: You like Audis?
Gary: I love them. I own a TT convertible, but you've probably never seen it since I always walk or ride my bike to the gym.
Me: You must show me.
Gary: Will do. 3) It has cool engineering stuff and, 4) cool physics stuff.
Me: You forgot #5.
Gary: What's that?
Me: It has Scarlett Johansson in a leather catsuit.
Random Other Guy in the Locker Room: YEAH! Now you're talkin'!
Gary: Who? I don't know who that is. But she can't be as cool as my reasons.
Me: We all have our entertainment needs.
ROGitLR: Yes, we do.
One of my reviews was given "Review of the Day
for the Chicago Burbs Area" status today on Yelp.
And I never would have known if it weren't for the sudden onslaught of comments and kudos from people I've never met.
Hmmm... maybe I should write some more reviews. This particular one was nearly a year and a half old. Whoops.
I've got my jersey and my playoff beard ready to go. Sure, the beard has been trimmed a couple times during the playoff run, but it's still there.
Norman's got his support showing.
I've got the support of fellow bloggers and Tweeters from all different areas such as Dave from Washington State, Sybil Law from Cincinnati, @hellohahanarf from Pittsburgh, and LeSombre from Ottawa, among many others. Chicagoist blogged that the Lincoln Park Zoo has weighed in. Dave even drew up a DaveToon showing support.
Yeah, I'm ready for those Stanley Cup Finals to begin tonight with my Chicago Blackhawks squaring off against the Philadelphia Flyers.
GO 'HAWKS!
But I want to admit that while I've been a Blackhawks fan since moving to Chicago in 1987, something feels weird about it.
Throughout middle school and high school, I wore my fandom on my sleeve, literally, by wearing an old Blackhawks jersey to school every so often. I lived and loved Blackhawks hockey.
But I stopped following it for a while. Don't get me wrong, I never stopped liking the 'Hawks and being proud that they were my home team, but from the mid-90s until 2007, it was very difficult to be an active Blackhawks fan... a true and ardent supporter.
What a lot of you may not realize is that former Blackhawks owner Bill Wirtz jacked up ticket prices and blacked out home games in the Chicago area. We couldn't watch our Hawks without dishing out a veritable fortune. And, considering they were playing like crap with some horrible personnel decisions being made, nobody was willing to dish out that small fortune.
I did go to a few games here and there, but they weren't nearly enough to whet my hockey whistle, as it were. And I wound up attending more games of our local AHL franchise, the Chicago Wolves, who, let's face it, were not only a much cheaper ticket, but a much more exciting and winning team.
I still longed for my Blackhawks to return to relevance or at least return to a place where I could watch them again on TV.
This moment came in 2007 when Bill Wirtz died and ownership of the team was taken over by his son, Rocky. The Rock experimented with a few home games being broadcast during the 2007-2008 season and he then went full bore having pretty much every home game broadcast on Comcast SportsNet or WGN or Versus. Combine this with some very intelligent personnel decisions and a very high degree of marketing and we finally saw real NHL-level hockey in Chicago again.
And my fandom returned to full-frenzy status.
Of course, that first full year of televised coverage saw the 'Hawks make it to the Western Conference Finals where they lost to the Detroit Red Wings (thank you, Pittsburgh, for beating up on them in the Stanley Cup for me). And, to me, I almost felt dirty because I once again began to be a fan during a season where they did really well. I felt almost like a bandwagoner, a fair-weather fan.
Is this feeling legit? Should I worry about this? It's not my fault I couldn't be a hardcore fan, right? I fully blame Bill Wirtz for taking that from me and yet I still feel like I should've been a better fan during those lean years. But how could I? I was either in college, or grad school, or newly married, or a recent homebuyer. I just couldn't afford to regularly attend 'Hawks games and I certainly couldn't watch them. I did attend a game every season or two. But the only other coverage I had was minimal at best in newspapers or on the evening news, and we all know how scant the reporting is on a team that plays like crap.
I'm not really fair-weather, am I? I'm simply a victim of circumstance, right? Please say no to the first and yes to the second.
Well, whatever.
GO 'HAWKS!!
This morning, after Katie left for work, I fell back in bed and watched The Empire Strikes Back. It's the first time in far too many years since I've seen the film. The first time I've watched it on an HDTV.
No, it's not the official DVD version that Lucas released with all the new footage added to it.
An old friend of mine took the THX-remastered laser discs and committed them to DVD several years ago and gave me copies of the entire original trilogy. I treasure these DVDs as they never have been and likely never will be available to the public. They're not perfect, sure, but I was pretty damned surprised at how good they looked on an HDTV, all things considered.
I love The Empire Strikes Back.
Yesterday, I read a great review of the film Sex and the City 2 from Cinematical's Jenni Miller that confirmed all the fears I have regarding this movie.
Please note that both Katie and I were huge fans of the original series on HBO, but hated the first movie and have no desire to see the second. Another review I read (but cannot find now) said that the show and characters are perfect for a half-hour serial, but too much for anyone to handle in a movie format.
Read below for one of my favorite paragraphs from Jenni's review to see why I fear this film or click through to the entire review.
Sex and the City 2 not only panders to the worst stereotypes of Americans abroad but also to the Middle East. Watch as Charlotte stumbles in high heeled sandals in the desert and tries to get iPhone reception while riding a camel. Stare in horror as Samantha fellates a hookah pipe in public. Check out Carrie as she wanders the beach forlornly followed by her handsome manservant holding an umbrella to shield her from the sun. Look on aghast while the four of them perform "I Am Woman" in the middle of a giant karaoke club, complete with belly dancers. At least Miranda has enough sense to try and get Samantha to observe local custom and wear a little more clothing than usual, despite Samantha's menopausal hot flashes.
Considering my confirmed fears, I would like to offer up four alternative versions of the movie, one focused on each main character, that should've been made instead.
Sex and the City: Carrie's Cackling
In a scene reminiscent of A Christmas Carol, three ghosts
visit Carrie to reveal the truth to her about her relationship failures past,
present, and future. Although finally confronted with all the details as to why
she's been dumped, cheated on, abandoned via Post-It Note, and otherwise
loathed, she still doesn't see that it's her own annoying character traits that
have caused it all. This movie bombs because Carrie was everyone's least
favorite character on the show anyway.
Sex and the City: Miranda's Mullings
Miranda decides to quit her job as a lawyer after one final case... defending a big NYC mafioso against charges of battery, first degree murder, coercion, and anything else you can think of. When her defense fails, his family plants her in cement shoes in the Hudson River. Considering how much she has always preferred her career over family, her husband Steve never realizes she's gone.
Sex and the City: Samantha's Sluttery
Samantha spends the entire movie in quarantine as the CDC examines her and attempts to name the many mutated strains of sexually transmitted diseases and various bodily rashes she has collected during her sexual escapades.
Sex and the City: Charlotte's Shenanigans
My favorite of the bunch... Charlotte cracks under the strain of her "perfect life" facade and tracks down her first husband (Kyle McLaughlin) and goes Rambo on his family. The FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit is called out to help explain her mental snap.
I can guarantee a couple of these I'd be interested in watching.
I like that Norman is already showing his allegiance for the 2010 Stanley Cup Finals.
I shall show mine tomorrow.
All the text and opinions and most of the photos and design elements on kapgar.com are © 2005-2012, Kevin Apgar, unless otherwise stated. If there's something on here you'd like to borrow, please ask. 9 times out of 10, I'll say yes. I just want to know that you're using it and where. Plus, you'll feel better about yourself knowing that you didn't steal it. Warm, fuzzy goodness. I should also say I'm not responsible for content on nor continued existence of the websites linked off my blog. I'd like to wield influence over them, but I don't. Sad.
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