Some love for "Big Love"

I've been watching the first few episodes of Big Love, trying to figure out if it was a show worth investing an hour on every week. With a pretty full Sunday of TV watching, adding a new show to the routine seemed like a bit much, but since the third episode, the show has hooked me.

The premise seemed a bit one note at first and indeed, the first episode seemed like a chore to watch (when you have three wives, seven kids, two grandparents, an old codger with a child bride, co-workers, neighbors and other characters, it can be a bit overwhelming), but once the third episode (the birthday party episode), its hit its stride. This week especially showed its ability to have several great storylines all interweaving in and out of the main storyline and ending in a different place than where they began. I especially like the scene with Barb and Nikki where its revealed how Nikki really came into their family. I had really hated her character up till then (which is intentional) and i'm not a Chloe Sevigny proponent by any stretch of the imagination, no matter how many bjs she gives in movies.

So if you haven't watched it, try to track down the last few episodes and start watching it. This season, it's better than the Sopranos.

Reality Bites

The fact that I'm turning thirty in little over a month has gone from being something I ignored to something I dreaded to something I've sort of accepted as just another day in my life. Still, it has left me somewhat reflective over the past and one thing I realized is that in the grand scheme of things, 10 years is like a lifetime ago. So when I look even further past that to high school and the early 90s, my mind can tend to go a bit fuzzy.

That happenned Saturday afternoon. I had just parted company with Shira and her mom for a few minutes so as to allow them to shop for shoes and to allow me to go to the Virgin Megastore next door. Even though it's ridiculously over priced, as retail stores go, it's always a place I can spend hours upon hours at. And occasionally, as was the case Saturday, they do have storewide deals that allow for primo mass buying. This deal, in particular, was a $10 DVD sale on a whole bunch of titles, many of which were actually watchable ones. I ended up grabbing four: Glengary Glenn Ross, Blazing Saddles, the original Austin Powers and Reality Bites.

The first three were easy pickups: I either already owned them on VHS or had them on tapes I made from recording off cable. But the last one was more of a crap shoot, as it had been at least five years (when I would frequently watch Seth's VHS copy) since I'd seen the film. Having enjoyed it then, I assumed it has simply fallen off the radar and this would be a neat pickup on my part. So when I got done with some work and watching the Sopranos last night, I decided to watch it.

And sadly, it doesn't really hold up today. If anything, it felt ancient, almost like watching a disco era flick. Although the themese are somewhat timeless (entering the real world, finding love in less than obvious places, etc.), the approach and the characters had clearly not aged very well. Most notably, Ethan Hawke's Troy, who when I first saw it came across as a funnier more loveable version of Matt Dillon in Singles, annoyed the piss out of me when I watched it. Where his smartass comments seemed funny back then, they seemed tired and forced these days. The fact that Lani ends up with him at the end just makes lose what sympathy I had for her as a character (which wasn't very much).

The remainder of the cast doesn't do much better and every time Janeane Garafolo appears on the screen, I want to shriek in pain. The one part I did enjoy was when Garafolo is sitting in bed being interviewed and Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum (who was dating Winona Ryder at that time) is just lying lazily behind her.

That pretty much sums up why this movie feels so dated to me.

Back from Chi-town

Having spent the better part of last week in Chicago visiting Shira's family (as Shira's father said, they had three visitors: me, Shira and her ring), it's good to be back in good old New York City. I got a chance to take a quick stroll through the park yesterday and was happy to see it so full. Always a sign that spring is finally here. It was quite remarkable, though, to see a great deal of Orthodox and Hassidic Jews enjoying themselves in the pond adjacent to the Boathouse. See all the black hatted frum folks paddling around made me feel like I was in a Mel Brooks movie or something.

Anyway, some highlights from my trip to the windy city:

-Got to walk around the loop and Michigan Avenue once I got there, which allowed for my first real wandering time in Chicago. It's definitely a great city to stroll through and the many shops, parks and buildings made for good wandering scenery.

-Made my first strip to Wrigley to see the Reds vs. Cubs game. As a side note, I chose not to wear my Yankees hat as I feared a Chicago style repeat of my experiences in the Yankee Stadium bleechers. Seeings as Shira's father and brother are Reds' fans, I figured I'd pick up a Reds hat at the game. No dice, as apparently the sale of non-Cubs related merchandise was prohibited. Once we got inside, I discovered two important facts. One was that Bucky Dent, my first baseball idol, is now a coah for Cincinatti. This instantally propelled them to my number 2 favorite team. The other thing I discovered is that due to the construction of the upper deck at Wrigley, from where we were sitting, any high pop was not visible. This posed a problem pretty quickly as Adam Dunn smacked a solo shot early on in the game. Overall, a great experience, though baseball sans beer and hotdogs (it was still passove) just doesn't feel right.

-Spent the second seder at the house of the rabbi who will be marrying Shira and I. It was a unique experience for quite a few reasons. One was that the rabbi's daughter, who herself is a rabbinical student, led us through a rather liberal hagadah she had printed out. Not that it was bad, just very different than the fire and brimstone filled one my family and I have used my whole life. Second, the rabbi's wife, Patti, helped keep the seder moving by using a wide variety of props including various musical instruments. Finally, Patti, her sister and mother, all of whom were present, were the first Southern Jews I've ever met. Her mother had one of the coolest accents I've ever heard and overall, it was very cool to meet people who similar but very different backgrounds from me. A unique seder to say the least.

-Spent much of Saturday "pre-registering" for the wedding. What this means is that we went to the stores and figured out what we would be registering for when we actually register. Which means we will need to go back and actually register later on. Which means I will be subjected to the soul sucking new age music these stores tend to play. At one point on Saturday, while looking through different china patterns, I began listening to one of these songs and coulda sworn it was a woman chanting "Ooga-Booga" over and over almost forcing my to grab a plate and smash it over my head to make it stop. This may seem like a bit of an overreaction to crappy music, but it was rather annoying.

-After nearly a year of having it talked up by Shira, I finally got to see Mel Brooks' "The Twelve Chairs." While not Brooks' best film, it was very funny and should be seen, if for nothing else, Dom Deluise's wonderful performance. What ever happenned to him? He was so good in Brooks' films and now, he seems to have disappeared. Sad.

Overall, the week was a great time and I certainly look forward to future trips back to Chicago. It's my kind of town :)

Life Adjustments

As someone who always approaches change with a certain amount of trepidation, any major life change always brings with it some amount of anxiety. Getting engaged is no different and clearly, there are many things that Shira and I will be working on in the months and years to come in determining how we want to solidify our personal relationship, incorporating our other relationships with our family and friends into our lives and how we want our family to exist once we decide to add children to the mix. It will take work from both of us and I am as confident in her as I am in myself that we can find a way to have a happy life together. The old saying goes that nothing worth having comes easily and I guess that's really true. Shira is so special and such an amazing person and there isn't a day that goes by that I don't thank god (and Amy) for bringing her into my life. And I know all the work we put into building our lives together will reap amazing benefits in the end.

But as our president would say "It's hard work."

An extra special picture

Occasionally, chance allows your already undeniable happiness to be made even more special. The day Shira and I got engaged, we were approached by a person who had taken a digital photo of my proposal to her. Specifically, he caught me on my knee and Shira bawling. Obviously, this is a picture you don't always have the good fortune of getting, so we naturally were thrilled when he offerred to email it to us. After a week's wait, I assumed he wasn't gonna come through, but as you can see above, our new Danish friend was most helpful. His name is Frank Hansen and wherever you are Frank, thank you for being a special part of our special day.

Apprentice meets American Idol meets Jaws?

Dude, I am so there:

http://entertainment.tv.yahoo.com/entnews/eo/20060406/114437982000.html

Duped by my own sense of importance

These days, when I am home before 8 PM, I usually avoid answering my land line. Simply put, most people who know me know I use my land line sporadically and anyone who calls me there is usually someone I don't want to talk to. But, sometimes I forget about this and get inudated by telemarketers. Last week, with my head in the clouds due to my impending engagement, I forgot about this and actually spoke to a telemarketer. They said they were doing market research related to a new sitcom pilot and offered to send me a free copy of the pilot if I agreed to watch it and answer some questions the next day. Being a pop culture lover and having watched preview versions of other shows before, I agreed.

The tape ended up arriving Friday while I was at my parents' house and I hadn't opened the package until last night. When I did, I found a video tape and a booklet of various products I was to select from to determine my "prize." This all seemed weird, but I figured what the hell? I threw the tape into my VCR (this should have been my first warning sign. I mean really, who uses VHS anymore?) and was greeted with a warning that this tape erased as it played and I should not fastforward or rewind it.

What then laid before me was one of the worst shows I've ever seen. It was called "Dads" and was essentially a Full House rip off. The name actors were C. Thomas Howell, Rue McLanahan and Ross's lesbian ex-wife from friends. After a few minutes with zero laughs, I got restless and went to google this. Turns out, this was a marketing scam concocted not by a tv studio but an advertising agency and there were embedded commercials in the show. Worse than that, it wasn't a new show; the show was filmed in 1997. Needless to say, I grabbed the tape and tossed it right then and there, twenty minutes of my life wasted then and there.

For those interested in this show, here's some more info:

http://www.greghoward.net/index.php/weblog/market_research/
http://joelavin.com/surveys.html

The Sports Guy steals one from me

So, I was reading Bill Simmons' most recent column, a running diary of yesterday's opening day Red Sox and Yankees' games. When lo and behold, I came across this nugget:

"8:39 -- One more question: Who's representing the Napoleon Dynamite guy? Shouldn't another 5-6 years have passed before he was stuck starring in a movie with Rob Schneider and David Spade? What an outrage."

Now, normally, this would be nothing of note. Simmons rips on pop culture targets pretty normally, but I found it quite amusing since I wrote this on January 31:

"saw the poster for "Benchwarmers" with David Spade, Rob Schneider and the guy from Napoleon Dynamite. I have to ask: who's this kid's agent? Schneider & Spade, together in one film? I mean, wow, talk about your HIGH LEVEL star power."

So what's up Simmons? Think you can rip off a guy because he's some no name blogger who occasionally mispells words and no one reads beyond a few close friends? Think I'm gonna ignore this? Hell no YOU PUNK, IT'S ON!

I believe the going SGA writing fee is about $500 bucks per joke. Make mine out to cash, please.

Shira Miriam Kohn

Those who've been reading this blog since I started it last August and those who've read the earliest posts here know my original intention was to keep this blog as impersonal as possible. This was done mostly so I didn't offend anyone I cared about, but also to keep those close to me from becoming targets from any readers who disagreed with my many opinions. This assumed two things: 1) that people other than my friends and family cared about what I was saying and 2) that strangers would be so bothered by my sharp criticisms of culturally important things like The Benchwarmers so as to take their anger out on me and my loved ones. In reality, both these were ridiculous beliefs, but I've never been averse to being ridiculous.

One person in particular was always quite offended by her exclusion from my blog beyond unnamed comments. "Blogs are supposed to be personal, fucker!," was her particularly specific criticism. Well, in the spirit of my original post, where I said I reserved the right to completely disobey my original standards, I give you probably the most personal post on this blog. It is about my new fiancee, Shira Miriam Kohn.

My first exposure to Shira came in January 2005. I'd just returned to JDate after giving up on it after my last date from the site expressed her excitement at working the Republican National Convention in New York. Normally, I'm tolerant of other people's beliefs, but with people I date, I tend to look for similarly minded people (at least politically). So I was a bit hesistant to return to the site, but figured since it was a new year, I'd try for at least a few months.

On January 5, I received my first contact from Shira on the JDate mail system. Her cousin and then roommate Amy told her to contact me and Shira, a bit gunshy about Jdate after some bad experiences, relented. It should be noted that Amy is a fellow redhead and is very much our own personal Cupid. Without her, there likely wouldn't be an us. I am forever indebted to her and am just glad a fellow redhead is looking out for the rest of us.

After a few emails, we exchanged phone numbers and I called her. We had a pleasant if uneventful phone call and set up a date towards the end of the month. The day of the date came and I was having a shitty day at work. I knew if I went out in the mood I was in, I'd certainly would not get a second date. So I called her, plead sickness and rescheduled for the following week. I assumed I'd be in a much better place the following week. Little did I know what condition I'd be in then.

The date of the rescheduled date came and I had developed quite a tooth ache. I went to a dentist who informed me I'd need a root canal. No problem I said, when would it be? Well, it turned out to be right then. I called in sick to work and went home to recover, wondering the whole time how the hell I would go on a date later that night. I knew if I cancelled on her, there'd be no shot of a second rescheduling. Shira has since confirmed that, thus making me very happy I sucked it up and went.

The date started off like many other dates I had. Small talk, drinks and a general sense of nervousness. A few minutes in, the nervousness disappeared and it became clear to me that Shira was much more intelligent and confident than any girl I'd previously dated. An hour and half in, I couldn't take the pain anymore, so I explained my predicament and asked if we could end the date early. I walked her halfway home and before parting company, asked her for a second date. She accepted and later told me how impressed she was with my confidence. It may have been just the painkillers.

Our next date came and we met for dinner near NYU. Having attributed the good time I had on the last date to the fact I was just happy I didn't fall over writhing in pain, I was really nervous. Again, once we started talking over dinner, all the nervousness disappeared. It was during this dinner where I (apparently) claimed I loved high school. I still contend that there is no earthly way I'd ever say that, but as most men know, your girlfriends/wives/daughters/any female in a five mile radius is usually right and you're usually wrong. But I digress.

Following dinner, we decided to go bowling at Bowlmore Lanes. A rather uneventful time became eventful as we shared our first kiss there. It was at this point I started to realize I was falling for her. We left Bowlmor and began walking and talking. It was amazing and I could have walked for miles. Except, there was one problem. By the time we'd walked ten blocks, Shira's shoes began to hurt to the point of her feet bleeding. She hadn't want to end the date and was suffering in silence. This, to this day, is equally one of the sweetest and one of the silliest things she's done while we were dating.

Things snowballed from there. Our dates increased in frequency, I introduced her to my friends and she met my family over Passover. In May, we took our first trip together to her friend Cori's wedding. With every new first, we grew closer and it was becoming quite apparent that this was not just a casual fling.

Things were not always perfect. As we got closer and closer, each of us became more comfortable expressing both our own personal issues and our issues with the other. There were many times where we were not always so happy with how things were going. Fortunately, Shira and I are both quite adept at expressing our feelings. Short term, this has often caused conflict. In the long run, it has strengthened our bonds and made us appreciate the good times even more.

By year's end, it was clear that Shira was itching to move on to the next level. Following New Year's, she left for Chicago for two weeks, leaving me with a lot of time to think about things and realize that many of my preconceived notions about when and why I would get engaged were based on my unrealistic beliefs on things. It also gave me time to realize she was the only woman I'd ever want to be with again.

We began discussing our thoughts as to what we'd want both from the immediate future and distant future. Though our views didn't always synch up, we found a common ground that we could build on. By the beginning of March, I knew that I wanted to propose to Shira before we visited her family for Passover.

As with the rest of our relationship, there were many twists and turns and bumps in the road on the way to yesterday, the day Shira agreed to marry me. Never being one to want to wait, Shira became frustrated when she realized she had no control over when we'd be engaged. All I could do was assure her that the day would come and she would be extremely happy.

Which she was. We got engaged at the Top of the Rock observation deck yesterday at approximately 12:20 in the afternoon. The moment when she realized what was happening and the moments that followed are a bit of a blur, but her reaction made everything we've been through to get here well worth it.

And now, before us, lies a future together. One which I know will be a wonderful one.

I love you Shira. Now and always.