What's this I hear about your TPS reports?

This caused me immense hilarity (click to biggify):



So meta.

Video Thursday

Here's a short documentary about Louie, the guy who rides his tricycle around Boston making what sounds like a siren noise. Most people who have been around Boston will recognize this guy:


Louie from Brian Moore on Vimeo.


Thanks to Scottobike Pedalsabunch for the link.

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An effective visualization of 'Bama's stated budget cuts. People do have trouble with putting these numbers in the proper perspective:




Via the stridently Republican h0tƒøöt.

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A hilarious mashup of Snatch and Star Wars, with Brick Top as Vader. If you don't know Snatch it won't be as funny (and if you don't know SW then you need to KY, frankly), but still amusing to hear the wacky, bawdy, cockney Brick Top. Dialogue is rather profane, if you're skittish about such things:



Via 'Otfoot.

The Final Countdown

The much-rumored and anticipated Arrested Development film is apparently a go!

Late to the Party

Slumdog - great film. See it.

I Can't Believe We Made It!

A somewhat belated post-New Year's "Happy New Year!" post to my fellow blogospherians. Some highlights from spending the final night of '08 and early days of '09 in the Empire and Garden states:

• Driving down during the Great Blizzard of '08 in Dunndee's Trans Am, AKA the Car with No Traction, Wiper Fluid, Functioning Wiper Blades, Rear Windshield Heating Element, or Headlights. At one point I thought we were going to be stuck in a rest area parking lot on 84 until 2009.
  
• Great New Year's Eve party "in the village," as they say, replete with bottomless Strong Islands, lots of A-side peeps, and vaulting bartenders
• 24 hours on Dunndee's couch on Jan 1st. Quite literally.
• Seeing the outside of an old law school building at Rutgers Law, Newark, AKA "City Law University," the law school Mike McD attends in Rounders, a film I watched approximately 146 times in college. Damon, Norton, Malkovich, and Turturro at their absolute peaks.
  
• Getting serenaded a cappella by five cheerful gentlemen in the wee hours of 2009 on the PATH train from World Trade Center back to Penn Station, Newark, NJ. A brief but comical Hall & Oates stint - "Hey, what you wanna listen to? White people music? What do white people listen to? Hall and Oates!" - was followed up by a little Sam Cooke at my request. A few bars of "A Change Is Gonna Come" were all too appropriate at that point.
• Calamari pizza. Don't knock it 'til you try it.
• Sauerbraten, AKA the "best thing on the menu" over at Cafe Steinhof in Crooklyn, NY. Nothing but steins, schnitzels, and spaetzle over there.
  

"Say what you want about the tenets of National Socialism, at least it was an ethos."

Lebo as political commentary. Awesome.

(When are we having a viewing again, Benoc? You've got the biggest TV and the sweetest pad. And Rock Band. And a well-appointed bar.)

The Great Escape

This film is amazing. I've seen it several times and it draws me in whenever it's on AMC. Fantastic - yes, it takes a few liberties with the true story (including Steve McQueen's motorcycle scene, which was an entirely self-aggrandizing act - but tremendously awesome nonetheless) but it is a great film. Allied chutzpah, sticking it to the Nazis, lots of comic relief, a fantastic cast with Attenborough, McQueen, Garner, and Bronson - just fantastic.

I first saw this when I was probably ten or so, when it came on TV and my Dad told me that it was a great movie. I listened and watched - as should you*.

*If you happen to like awesome '60's WWII movies packed with huge stars that are more or less factually accurate but contain some Hollywood glitz yet are tremendously patriotic and uplifting and if you don't shed a few tears at the end of which you are a soulless shell of a human being.

This was back in the glory days, when they made legitimate epics which spanned 3+ hrs. of film with nary a wasted scene.

Also - the music!

"I'm a businessman, Tom. Blood is a big expense."

An interesting article in the National Interest using The Godfather film as a metaphor for the status of the United States in a dangerous post-Cold War world. I found it thoughtful and well done. Perhaps you might as well.

A Few Entirely Unimportant Things

-A bottle of Number One, acquired at the Goose last night for $7.99. It's a Tempranillo from Spain (as all good Tempranillos are) and it's remarkably drinkable for its price and bargain bin status.



With wine, as with people, I rarely discriminate. Each has it's downsides (and merits!) but on the whole things work out pretty well.

-Discouraging loss for the Celts last night. Took a 10-point lead into the 4th and pissed it away. They played their A-side game in spurts last night, but again, let the Hawks back in. Now it's anybody's series. Good thing is they're coming home to the Jungle tomorrow night. Bad thing is...they have to come home. But it's time to play, and I'm all up ons this Celtics 2008 Bandwagon, so let's keep on truckin'. I'll be disappointed when there's no more b-ball to watch (never thought I'd write that).

-I had an amazing "European" dinner tonight consisting of daecent wine, freshly baked bread, gouda and brie cheeses, and a salami ensconced in ground pepper. Simple yet amazingly delicious. And it only cost me a quarter of a bajillion dollars at my friendly neighborhood gourmet grocery store!

-The "Rounders" soundtrack is awesome. Christopher Young just killin' it on the smooth jazz. You know the tracks: "Ode to Johnny Chan," "Brass Brazilians," "Worm," "Finger Up Your Spine," "Belly Buster," and everybody's favorite, "Alligator Blood." Or maybe you don't. I'm probably one of 12 people who actually purchased this.

And a happy dozen are we.

Is the Apocalypse Inevitable?

No Country for Old Men, by Cormac McCarthy. This is a fast-paced, bloody thriller set in the modern Southwest. It's a very quick read - McCarthy's novel makes for a compelling page-turner - and it's a gritty, violent tale that contains several broad themes.

Llewelyn Moss is a Texan nobody out hunting antelope when he comes across several shot-up trucks out in the middle of nowhere, deserted except for numerous bodies, a big pile of heroin and several million dollars. Moss takes the money and runs; he knows someone will be coming after the lost drugs and money but he doesn't know who, and he doesn't want to find out the hard way.

Anton Chigurh is the ruthless, efficient, psychopathic killer who hunts Moss and leaves countless bodies in his wake. Guilty and innocent alike are dispatched as Chigurh pursues Moss, who while resourceful and determined, is in way over his head.

Sheriff Bell is tasked with finding the man producing all the bodies, the man he knows is after Moss. He is an aging lawman and a genuine good soul - a good husband who praises his own wife and looks out for Moss's, who is in denial about what awaits her and her renegade husband.

It's extremely violent, bloody, disturbing and there is a thematic element throughout of the moral degradation of the present day - Bell constantly reflects on how things used to be in the "good old days," on how he simply cannot cope with the new unrepentant violence and moral corruption that threaten to overrun decent society - there is a thematic trend toward an inevitable approach to apocalypse that goes beyond the plot of the novel.

It's a great read, and I look forward to seeing the new Cohen brothers film version of the book. My only complaint is that McCarthy doesn't use quotation marks. I find this extremely annoying, as I find it adds nothing from either a structural or artistic perspective, actively detracts from the aesthetics of the work, and occasionally causes confusion. I'm sure many will disagree, but I just don't get it. Feels sloppy and affected.

A relatively minor complaint and a matter of personal preference, I suppose. I definitely recommend No Country for Old Men.

Atheist Theology

I'm excited about the upcoming release of The Golden Compass, the first installment in a trilogy of films based on Philip Pullman's excellent His Dark Materials series. It's "young adult" fiction only in its accessibility; the themes are serious, mature, and of a deeply philosophical nature.

Evidently there has been a bit of a hue and cry from the Catholic League calling upon members of the Catholic Church to boycott the film for its alleged anti-Christian message. This article in this Sunday's Boston Globe caught my eye this evening. It talks about the condemnation the film has received (even before its release) and does an excellent job of summarizing the story and the true message in Pullman's work.

For anyone who hasn't read it, I highly recommend the trilogy. It's one of the most positive works of religious-themed fiction I've read - written by an atheist.

Gone Baby Gone

I saw this a couple weekends ago. It was a tense, suspenseful crime drama - not the most uplifting film in the world, but well done with some neat plot twists and excellent performances. Casey Affleck turned in a great leading performance as the private investigator hired to find the missing daughter of Helene McCready, played brilliantly by Amy Ryan (recognizable as Beattie Russell from The Wire).

The film dragged a bit but on the whole it was another gritty Denis Lehane novel brought to the silver screen in the style of Mystic River. Boston doesn't come off very well in this film, although the Southie characters are shockingly true to life. The film captured the essence of Boston without the more blatant scenery and at times overwrought accents of The Departed.

Props to the Affleck brothers. Ben directed a winner in Gone Baby Gone - perhaps he needs to stay behind the camera in the future?

333-FILK

This weekend I watched Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World for the umpteenth time. Great, great film.

Huzzah for Lucky Jack!

Jason Bourne Is an Animal

I saw The Bourne Ultimatum today. It was good; nonstop action from beginning to end. Bourne is amazing - he takes an insane amount of punishment and keeps on ticking. Paris, Moscow, Tangier, Madrid, New York - he chases and is chased all over the world by CIA agents who want to clean up the mess of the Treadstone project. Some great action scenes, including some ridiculous car stunts and an epic showdown in a Tangier apartment. All in all a great, fun third installment in the Bourne series. And Moby's "Extreme Ways" is one of the coolest finale songs ever.

Superbad = Supergood!

I went with the Deb to check out a free advance screening of Superbad last night at the Boston Common Loews. It's the latest from Judd Apatow of 40 Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up. It was hilarious - I didn't stop laughing the entire time. Arrestingly vulgar right off the bat, and the crude jokes don't stop for the entirety of the film. Fairly standard plotline - a few high school geeks trying to get laid before graduation - but a lot of funny lines.

I think it gets officially released in mid-August. Peep it.

A Killer Comedy

I went to a free screening of You Kill Me at Kendall Cinema last night with The Deb. It's a comedy about a hit man, Frank Falenczyk, who works for the Polish mob in Buffalo, NY. Frank's an alcoholic, and after botching one too many jobs, he is forced by his boss to go to San Francisco, join Alcoholics Anonymous, and fix his drinking problem. What follows is a pretty funny mishmash of antics and characters, played by an excellent cast: Téa Leoni as Frank's sarcastic love interest; Bill Pullman in a hilarious turn as a shady San Fran real estate agent; Dennis Farina doing what he does best as the head of the Buffalo Irish mob; Philip Baker Hall as Frank's boss; and Luke Wilson as Frank's sponsor.

It's pretty entertaining, with a lot of deadpan one-liners - most of which hit the mark, but sometimes the delivery felt forced. On the whole though I recommend it. The cast is great, it's kind of goofy, but it's an amusing film.

Here's what Rotten Tomatoes has to say.

Big Night

You know what's a decent movie? Big Night. Stanley Tucci, Tony Shalhoub, Minnie Driver, Ian Holm, Isabella Rossellini. I watched it over the weekend while I was spending time in Exciting Milton, MA! It's funny and it makes me want to cook Italian food, drink red wine, and serve it up. I love watching people cook food. I am obsessed.

Films

I saw a few movies recently. To wit:

Blades of Glory: Amusing. I really didn't want to particularly see it, despite my being a big Will Ferrell fan. I thought Talladega Nights was kind of eh. But this did provide me with a few chuckles. Incredibly stupid, but Ferrell's character has some great lines. He's actually somewhat Ron Burgundyesque. Heder looks like a girl in this film. And Jenna Fischer is just too cute for words.

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The Prestige: Good. Felt a tad draggy in parts but pretty cool twists and turns, plus an outstanding cameo by David Bowie. Very entertaining.

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Babel: Decent, dare I say daecent perhaps, but too long and depressing. The connected storylines is a device I always enjoy, but I felt like I spent 5 hours watching this on Sunday afternoon. I think the performances were good. Some weird, slightly disturbing stuff going on in this one.

"It's beer o'clock and I'm buying."

A point to whomever names the film, speaker and scene. Either character or actor name is acceptable.

Also

I might purchase a DVD for the first time in a very, very long while.