Unguarded optimism

My personal outlook on life has always fluctuated depending on the circumstances that have surrounded me. This, of course, is hardly surprising and it's likely most of you (and most of the mentally fit world) have had the same experience. But, every now and then, I choose to stick to a particular outlook irrespective of my current circumstances. For example, as a child, I was naively optimistic. This was despite the fact that I was teased consistently throughout my youth and lacked a proper mechanism to respond (my responses usually involved a) crying; b)smacking my antagonist's head into the floor; or c) responding with anger in vastly innappropriate situations (those who've read Red, White and Blue are aware of examples of at least two of the three of these)). As I entered my adolescence, a wave of extreme pessimism dominated my life. And to a certain extent, it was justified as it was probably the most difficult time of my life. I had an extremely limited amount of social outlets, I was extremely confused as to who I was and it seemed like I was in an unending tunnel with no light at the end of it. Again, to those who know me, this is about as revealing a statement as my acknowledging that I am a stocky red headed Jew.

So what about today? Well, as the run-up to my big 3-0 began in earnest last fall, I was certainly feeling less than optimistic. After all, every birthday that ends in zero is obviously a major turning point just like every year ending in zero is. Of course, this is completely arbitrary and really should not affect people like it does. So naturally, I, like many others, let it completely affect me. But recently, as the inevitability of that fateful day has approached, I've been feeling extremely optimistic. This is a relatively recent turn of events and doesn't mean I haven't had my moments now and again. But for once, I've chosen to go with it and ride that wave until reality catches up and knocks me for a loop. Or doesn't. Who knows? Maybe from here on out I will never have another bad experience and life will be perfect. Why not? If GW can be president, why can't I have this?

Now if you'll excuse me, I think a piano is descending towards me at an alarming rate of speed. I think I might need to move...

Spooked by shuffle play

So as I was finalizing my fantasy baseball team (verdict? power heavy, may be screwed on average), I've been listening to my Real Player library. As I finished the draft, "Mother" by Pink Floyd came on. Cool tune, always a good listen. But strangely, it was followed by "Mother" by Danzig. Ok, that's weird. Next up, "Mother and Child Reunion" by Paul Simon. Now, I was freaking out. Was my Real Player reaching out to me and screaming for me to call my mom?

Um, no. I didn't have it on shuffle. Just was going through the library by alphabetical order.

As always, the most logical answer is usually the correct one.

V for Vendetta

Having yet to see a 2006 release this year (and honestly, not feeling too bad about it), I went into seeing this movie with a mixture of trepidation and excitement. I was excited since the ad campaign for this film was one of the best i've seen in quite some time. I was trepadatious because very few films over the last six months to a year have done much for me. So it was great to walk out of the theater and feeling like I saw something special.

For starters, those who know me know my affinity for Natalie Portman. She did not dissappoint and served as emotional catalyst for most of the film. She also pulled over the shaved head look quite well, though excuse me if I stick to long maned women, thank you very much. The best part, however, was Hugo Weaving as the titular "V." His performance was excellent, all the moreso when you realize that he was behind a mask the whole time. The story itself was quite good, a much better more realistic look at a horribly dystopic reality than the Matrix series (which I found hugely overrated).

As with most films these days, it was about a half and hour too long. But, I can't really figure out which pieces could have been cut and allowed it to retain its full impact. Nevertheless, this is a minor complaint and overall, the film is definitely worth trekking to theater to see.

Blech!

Ever get sick to the point where you sort of feel like crap, but you're still fully functional and feel wrong taking off from work? well, that's the paradise I'm living in today. My nose feels like someone is holding a feather up to it trying to make me sneeze, my throat is aching and my head feels like a gnome came in at night and filled it with the filling they put in twinkies. Ugh. On a positive note, it's Thursday, my boss is leaving for the weekend at 11 and I've completed the biggest projects I had to take care of for the week. It is for that reason that i call on today to be the day when my office institutes our first office wide rest hour.

Anyone else have a rest hour in camp? It was usually after lunch and generally, was the most boring hour of the day until I turned 14 and then it became an essential one hour power nap time (this may seem weird to those who know my inability to nap prowess or lack thereof). Anyway, who wouldn't function better with an hours of zs? Granted, I had a friend who used to sneak to his company's lounge and do just that, but I want a legit hour to relax, sleep and think of a time when my head didn't feel like a blimp.

Don't piss Trey & Matt off

Well, you knew that South Park would address Isaac Hayes leaving the show and certainly poke fun at the reasons for it. But holy crap, did they ever rip him a new one tonight? Really brutal hysterical episode and wrong on so many levels.

And if there was controversy over the Scientology episode, I can't imagine what to expect now.

Why not us?

That's the theme for tonight's Albany vs. UConn game. To which, the answers are numerous:
-no number 16 seed has ever beaten a number 1 seed...ever!
-UConn has several players destined to play in the NBA while this is the first appearance of any SUNY school in the big dance.
-USA Today gave Albany less than a "septillion to one" chance of winning the tournament. I'd love to actually see that as a line; it would be worth a dollar bet, don't you think?

So, the odds are indeed stacked against the Great Danes, but you never know.

I will be heading down to Philly later with Mike, Nat and Phil and hope to have a recap of our trip here sometime this weekend. Till then, GO ALBANY!!

The World's Worst School

While watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire again last night, I came to the conclusion that if Hogwarts existed in real life, it would possibly be the worst school ever. Let's look at this objectively. Over the course of the last four years, the students have been subjected to the following:
-an attack by a fully grown Mountain Troll
-conversations with ghosts and inanimate objects like paintings (clearly someone is spiking the pumpkin juice)
-Professors who literally torture their children
-Quidditch, which makes Rugby look like curling.
-A professor hiding a dark wizard in his skull.
-Gigantic snakes scaring the crap out of people.
-Giant man eating spiders.
-a dueling club? sure, some high schools have fencing teams, but they used plastic tipped dueling swords.
-more hallucinations hiding in diaries. Honestly, is there a mushroom patch on the school's grounds?
-lax security replaced with soul eating guards. And people are worried about a UAE company guarding our ports? Try Death Eaters out for size.
-a werewolf for a teacher.
-A headmaster who encourages teenagers fight potential murderers.
-A tournament consisting of 1) fighting fire breathing dragons, 2) holding students underwater and possibly drowning them and 3) an evil bewitched maze that a student died in.

Surely, such a school would be closed, especially in a large Jewish community (Oy!). And yet, in the English countryside, it still prospers.

For shame, England. FOR SHAME!

Random thoughts for a Thursday

These are the things I think about while sitting at my desk and I realize I've tried taking a sip from an empty coffee mug three times:

-I think it would be incredibly fun to own a monkey. Any animal with zero problem picking up and tossing its own poo must be alot of fun.

-I think that we should sue Hanna Barbara for giving us such a distorted view of the future with The Jetsons. I mean, it's 2006 and we have no flying cars, no robot maids and no freaking tubes that take you everywhere. I mean, I want one fricking tube already!

-Do people in China consider unique people "one in a billion" rather than "one in a million"?

-Who do you think would have had a more depressing career at this point, John Belushi or Chris Farley? And suppose Akroyd died instead of Belushi: would a Blues Brothers sequel have been such a schanda without him?

-Is it me or does Reese Witherspoon have a sort of spacey, cult-like look to her? Like you wouldn't be surprised to hear her chant "The Leader is good, the Leader is great, we surrender our will as of this date?"

-Do you think Phillip Seymour Hoffman is more relieved than happy he won an Oscar so he won't be remembered as (a) the guy who tried to kiss Marky Mark; (b) the teacher who hooked up with his student; or (c) the guy who invented the term "sharting"?

-when will the first "Battle of the reality show competitions" type show come out? Like have veterans of the MTV challenges face the veterans of battle of the network reality stars?

-Would you ever date a person who was on Next, Blind Date and/or Flavor of Love?

-Have we peaked as far as television stations are concerned or can there be even more growth? Will you eventually have a channel for every show?

Bonds being on Juice vs. Kirby Puckett dying

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=wojciechowski_gene&id=2358771

Hey, I understand the need to use hyperbole when writing. Things are only as interesting as you present them to be. But, let's be honest here: Sportswriters hate Bonds, as do many fans, teammates and people actually know him. To give this book automatic credence is a bit presumptive. And to compare this revelation to the death of a great player/person is just pathetic.

Hypocrites? In the Nation of Islam? Nooooooooooooo

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-0603080227mar08,1,3114615.story?coll=chi-newslocalchicago-hed

Of course, Farrakhan was only talking about "some Jews." So I guess its ok to discuss "Terrorist Muslims" generally now, right?

Edlers of Zion Reunion

From the Israeli anti-semitic cartoon contest.

In defense of: Pro Wrestling

For many, the following diatribe will be considered old hat; for others, it might be less so. But continuing with the theme of my post last week on music, I will now state unequivocally that I am today a fan of professional wrestling and have been for more than 2/3 of my lifetime.

It's not a particularly cool or hip thing to admit, especially now that wrestling is considered to have cooled significantly since reaching new peaks during the late 90s. Even during that time, when wrestlers like Steve Austin and the Rock and groups like the NWO and DX were making it cool to be a wrestling fan again, I still was subject to abuse from those who just didn't get it. Quite amazing that one form of entertainment could be considered of a "lesser" quality than all the others. But why? Take two recent storylines, one wrestling, one not:

a) an long sufferring team overcomes their past to finally accomplish what was considered impossible, beating their hated rivals in the process.

b) a long sufferring individual overcomes his past to finally accomplish what was considered impossible, beating the company's favorite in the process.

Actually, I cheated a bit since the second scenario is really the storyline for two separate wrestlers, Eddie Guererro and Chris Benoit. The first storyline is obviously the Red Sox. Very similar stories, different responses. For the former, books, movies and an endless stream print/tv/internet media has been used to retell this story. For the latter, little to nothing was made of either accomplishment outside the wrestling community. Why? Because wrestling is not considered a sport. Not only that, it's not even considered decent entertainment.

The reasons for this come down to these points:

1) It's predetermined: Now that wrestling openly admits this, it's become the chief knock against it. How can anyone enjoy something that has no real competition in it?

Well, baseball has 30 teams. At most, ten of them have a legitimate chance of winning a title any given season. Realistically, the number is closer to five. So basically, those teams have a 20% shot of winning a title. Sure, they have to actually play a whole season (which is twice as long as any other season and is full of a mind-numbing amount of boring games). But is that REALLY competition? Or is it more exhibition, like wrestling?

2) It's fake: Even the admittance of the predetermined reality of wrestling didn't stop the haters from attacking the "fakeness" of wrestling. This despite the many legitimate injuries ranging from loss of ears to permanent paralysis to various leg/arm/joint/hip problems wrestlers inevitably face. Sure, the violence and the physicality is controlled. And would anyone really want it otherwise? Do we really need to have 6 foot guys bashing each other full strength with chairs?

3) It's stupid: At times, it's beyond stupid. But so is alot of TV, movies, music, sports, writing, George Bush, etc. And frankly, I'll take Mick Foley, Ric Flair and others over the Carl Everetts, the Rickey Hendersons and the Jose Cansecos every day, thank you very much.

4) It's sleazy: No argument here. Vince McMahon, the only real promoter left, is a scumbag personified. He's not above using the death of his wrestlers in storylines and runs a billion dollar business and doesn't provide his workers with healthcare. Appalling? Absolutely. Then again, one need only look at guys like George Steinbrenner, various movie studio chiefs, the people in our government and elsewhere to find people who make McMahon look like a saint.

5) It's homoerotic: So was Brokeback Mountain. It got nominated for a bunch of Oscars.

I think you get my point. Wrestling isn't brain surgery and wrestling fans know this. Aside from some children and mental midgets, we all get the problems wrestling has and choose to watch it anyway. I don't expect anyone to like wrestling because of this, but I'd like to think people could accept that some intelligent, mature adults can choose to watch grown men beating the crap out of each other while wearing nothing but underwear.

Or at least, you could keep your laughing and catcalling to yourself.

Score one for the Underdog!

I don't recall ever having a such a pleasantly shocked reaction to an awards show as I did when Phillip Seymour Hoffman won Best Actor last night. Having first seen him in Boogie Nights, I've come to really take his inclusion in a film as a good reason to go see it. He's done quite well in all sorts of roles from smarmy (Talented Mr. Ripley) to whacked out (embodying Lester Bangs in Almost Famous) to creepy (Happiness) to flat out funny (Along Came Polly-for which he was the ONLY good thing in the whole movie. But, after seeing favorites of mine like Bill Murray, Don Cheadle, Paul Giamatti and other less "glamorous" actors fail to grab Oscars, I really wasn't expecting him to win, even after all the other awards he's won. Well, great job for once on the part of the Actor award nominees.

As for the rest of the show, I thought Jon Stewart brought very different yet very wonderful vibe to the proceedings and his monologue was legitimately hysterical. The rest of the show and awards were hit or miss. I didn't see alot of the winning films, but I'd say both Clooney and Witherspoon were locks to win purely on the Julia Roberts test: Wildly popular actor/actress + Oscar nod-any similarly situated actors/actresses=Oscar gold. Hey, I like em both, but they are both the types of people that Hollywood wants winning these awards, whereas Hoffman is the type of person who wins in spite of the Hollywood machine.

And Crash winning best picture pretty much epitomizes how awful this year was in movies. Put Crash in another year, and it doesn't even get a nominated.

Lastly, Jon Stewart said it best: "Martin Scorsese zero Oscars, Three 6 Mafia one."

Pretty much says it all, doesn't it?

Musical interlude: What I'm listening to

I read an excellent post on my buddy Riley's blog today about music and what's considered cool and not cool. The fact that he posted the cover to a Poison album at the top of this post only increases his awesomeness (of which he possesses quite a great amount of. See above^). Here's what he had to say:

http://bfr.blogspot.com/2006_01_29_bfr_archive.html

Well, I'm in complete agreement with his assessment. I don't care if people think what I like is cool. I like Poison. I like pro wrestling. I even saw Good Burger in the movies. I probably like Mean Girls more than a guy really should (YOU GO GLENN COCO). Hey, with my big 3-0 now a mere 79 days away, who has time for such worries?

So anyway, here's a few songs I'm listening to now. Feel free to check em out at your leisure:

1. Polyphonic Spree-"Light and Day"-You may also know this as the Volkswagon I-Pod song. No way you can listen to this and not feel at least 25% better. And it may or may not lead you to join a cult.

2. The Bens-"Wicked Little Town"-This is a cover from Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Ben Kweller does the vocal work and puts his own stamp on one of the best songs from that soundtrack.

3. Polyphonic Spree-"Wig in a Box"-From the same album as the last song. The best known song about the joys of cross-dressing. Not that I personally enjoy that or have a problem with it. But, a good song is a good song and the Spree do a great job covering it.

4. ELO-"Mr. Blue Sky"-ELO is definitely one of the most underrated bands from the 70s. Jeff Lynne was a Travelling Willbury and has done work with Tom Petty and Paul McCartney (on his great "Flaming Pie" album")

5. Supergrass-"Pumping on your stereo"-another underrated group. Great tune, though their last album "Life on other Planets" is my personal favorite.

6. Trey Anastasio-"Shine"- Phish fans will likely be shocked at how pop oriented this song is. I mean, it's not a Britney Spears song, but there's literally nothing Phish like about this song. And that's not necessarily a bad thing.

7. Raveonnettes-"That Great Love Sound"-Hard to even explain, just good straight forward rock music with a slight nod to Phil Spector type music. Almost sounds like a modern "Leader of the Pack".

8. Adam Green-"Emily"-A tall, gawky, Jewish weirdo. How can you go wrong? Plus, he was half of the Moldy Peaches.

9. Scissor Sisters-"Take your mamma"-Just fun pop music. Remember when that was enough?

10. Franz Ferdinand-"Take me out"-A year of hearing this damn song everywhere finally broke me down and the Star Wars inspired Video Mod finally pinned me.

11. My Chemical Romance-"I'm not okay (I promise")-This was the first song I ever saw on Video Mods and I thought it was the greatest gimmick for a band ever. Then I figured out it was not a band hook but a show hook. Song still rocks.

12. System of a Down-"Hypnotize"-Not really sure what they think of the people at Tiannamen Square, but the song is great. And the explanation of the chorus is priceless.

13. The Band-"Bessie Smith"-This song's on Dylan's basement tapes and is probably my favorite song on the whole album.

14. Audioslave-"Like a stone"-Chris Cornell rocks.

15. Jane's Addiction-"Superhero"-Downloaded this just because it's such a great opening song for "Entourage".

16. The Killers-"Somebody told me"-Wait, you have a girlfriend who has a boyfriend, but heaven isn't close in a place like this. WTF?

17. Ben Folds-"Philosophy"-The live version trumps the album version, but any Ben Folds is good by me. Except for that one song.

18. Modest Mouse-"Float on"-I probably would enjoy this song 10X more if I was living like I did ten years ago.

19. Damien Rice-"Blowers Daughter"-He's an Irish singer/songwriter and this song is one of only two good things in the movie "Closer". If you read this blog religiously, you should know the other one.

20. Public Enemy-"Fight the Power"-Just because Flavor Flav is my new idol.

Cat fight on the Flavor of love!

God bless Flavor Flav. YEAH, BOY!:

http://www.break.com/index/flavorcatfight.html

An inspiring athlete

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fw1CcxCUgg&search=Jason%20McElwain

I swear, there is no theme in today's posts despite the similarity of the content. By the way, they were showing highlights of Jason on Sportscenter and the idiots have already dubbed him J-Mac.

Come on, give the kid his props, but let's leave the usual horseshit alone.

Strange days at the Village Voice

I was thumbing through the Voice on my way to work today and was completely wrapped up in the cover story about The Game, a manual on how to pickup women at bars. Aside from wondering where this book was during my prime bar-hopping years (and also wondering about if I'd have the cajones/lack of respect for women/absolute lack of self consciousness to actually use them), I was struck by the way that many women were holding this book in contempt. I mean, sure, such a book is a bit, shall we say, sleazy, but is it really that much worse than all the female self help books like The Rules and whatnot? Isn't it the same thing, one about catching/tricking a man into a relationship, the other about picking up/tricking a woman into casual sex?

But, before my righteous indignation crested, I sought the online article from the Voice's website, and lo and behold, found this:

http://http://villagevoice.com/news/0610,news,72372,2.html

It's amazing how far down that paper has gone, even for a free periodical. Anyway, it's a good read regardless of whether its true or not (and its seems that it isn't). It's still in the trusty red Voice boxes on a street corner near you.

Oh, and for the picking-up impaired, the book:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060554738/sr=8-1/qid=1141329201/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-0075750-1218357?%5Fencoding=UTF8

Murderball

Over the last few months, I've had two competing thoughts about seeing the above named movie. On the one hand, it's been getting great reviews from well respected film critics and has generated the type of "buzz" that indie films and documentaries do when they're something worth seeing. On the other hand, the topic of disabilities and people having to struggle with them is clearly tough subject to deal with in reality, much less when you're hoping to be entertained. Still, when I saw that A & E was showing it, I DVRed it and ended up checking it out last not.

For those unaware, "Murderball" is the slang name for wheelchair rugby. Much like its standard cousin, it involves an immense amount of contact and is extremely grueling. The only difference is that those playing are quadro-palegics of varying function. The game is quickly explained and then the film focuses in on the main story: the end of the US domination of the sport, the defection of longtime US star Joe Soares to coach the Canadian team and the showdown between the two. In addition to focussing on the sport, the film gives the personal stories of several of the players, many of whom have not been in wheelchairs their whole lives. The film also features a recently paralyzed guy named Keith and shows his struggles as he adjusts to his new life.

What I liked best about the film is that it doesn't try to sugarcoat these people and force you to like them out of an instinctive sympathy due to their condition. Most of the players are people who, prior to their accidents, were not necessarily the nicest of people. Soares, who is one of the main subjects, is downright unlikeable for most of the film. Taking away the sympathy card really allows the story to play out and make the viewer recognize the players for who they are, not what their condition is.

There are plenty of scenes which deal specifically with the struggles many of the athletes go through and many of them are hard to watch. But, the end message is a positive one and one which can be appreciated by anyone who's ever had to struggle against adversity in life to any degree.

I think its showing multiple times on A&E this week, but it's worth renting if you miss it.

I didn't realized Mother Teresa was a spoiled, rich attention whore?

Considering her eating history, I think Nicole Richie would have been a more suitable choice:

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/article/ds29594.html

Attrocious NBA GMs

pretty much says it all:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/060224

Sitcoms should "NEVER" be "to be continued..."

The impetus for the above assertion is last night's Scrubs double pak. They were rolling off their usual hour of hilarity when they decided to get serious (or at least lead us to believe they're getting serious) on us. Why? I mean, between JD's interaction with the interns, the Janitor's bird and the unholy alliance of Cox and the janitor, there was more than enough Scrubs goodness to go around.

NBC already has one medical drama; it doesn't need two.