13 posts from 2008

So the question that has been bothering me for the last few weeks has been the trade for one life for another.  Not delving into the death penelty, but I wonder when a human adult has a child and decides to pour their entire life into their child, does society better itself by this trade? Parent for Child?

We all know people that have made sacrifices for their children, and my question is when a person abandons their dreams to provide for their child - is that a selfish and, dare I say, a cowardly decision?  Isn't it easier to focus one's efforts simply  on making money for your children than exploring what you truly want to do?  I argue that it is. 

This may tie into the great self discovery that one does throughout their life, but I posit that the search for yourself is much harder than grinding out a salary.  That being said, which one benefits society more in a utilitarian sense? I don't know.

Not to say that own personal philosphy is completely utilitarian, but the process of reproduction in modern times kind of facinates me.  Personally,  I can't wait to have children, but I imagine that when I do, I will more focused on my children's growth than my own.  And as a continually evolving being, will this leave with regrets?  Will I be able to reconcile, this fact?  Will I resent the child? I hope I don't, but I feel that the majority of people in this life make their living by other means than what they truly want to do. 

What did Langston Hughes remark on a dream deferred?  Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?  The only thing that gives me comfort from quoting Langston Hughes in my blog (which I acknowledge is pretty ridiculous) is that Puffy played the lead role in a made for TV movie only a few weeks ago...

Sports

It's been a few days since Free Agency has begun in the NFL and we've (and by we I mean the fans) already since ridiculous contracts been thrown around by teams.  ESPN calls the G-Men one of the losers from FA, because they lost Mitchell, Gibril Wilson, and Reggie Tobor.  I welcome this - I am glad that the Giants haven't given the deals to those players they lost and I struggle to find a contract that was given in free agency that comes away as a good deal for the team that landed the player (Randy Moss - the exception). 

In support of Gang Green, I do like the moves that they have made on their offensive line, but they have to boost their skill positions through the draft.  I think their siging of Calvin Pace could have better served chasing down Michael "the burner" Turner, but apparently they feel that Calvin Pace is the Adailius Thomas player that will make the difference. Here's a clue - he's not - at least not at 6 yrs @ 42M with 22M guaranteed. The only more ridiculous contract were all Raiders contracts 

The Arizona Cardinals have yet to produce talent that the league can sign: the exceptions are Thomas Jones (who kind of finally panned out but prob not worth the high draft pick that they spent on him) and the greatest Card of them all - Aeneas Williams.  Aeneas also holds the distinction for ending Steve Youngs career. There's a youtube clip package I can't wait for - hits in the NFL that ended other player's career - from Chuck Cecil/Al Toon, LT/Theisman, Leaping Lavar Arrington/ Aikman, Williams/Young, Tim Huack/ Michael Irivin, this list could go forever....

As for the Jets, they also swapped one dissappointing NT for another and lost Jonathan Vilma who I thought was one of their shining stars.  But again - who cares about the Jets.

One more sports note, as I write, my team, the Houston Rockets are on their way to their 17 straight victory (4 or 5 without Chairman Yao).  This could be the year that they finally get out of the first round...doubtful.  I think if they draw the Hornets or Nuggets they can win - if not - I see them folding like some sort of folding chair.

Film

Recent Films that I have seen:

1. Dragon Wars - Never before in the history of cinema has their been a more misleading title to a film.  It would be as if you went to see a film called Predator vs Aliens and it was 2 hours of the Predator sitting down with Wallace Shawn doing a "My Dinner with Andre".  The only Dragon War (Dragon v Dragon) that occurs in the film happens at the 75 minute mark of the film and lasts approx 12 minutes.  I (and my friend that I saw this with) was flabbergasted. 
• The only thing that made this better was that we threw on Boondock Saints after which provided a nice sorbet-like palate cleanser.  Does it get better than Dafoe in that film?  He's better in this than Platoon.
2. In Bruges - This was a film that wasn't sure what it exactly was.  It has the elements of drama and comedy - both of which are effectively dramatic and comedic. The tone of the film can't make up its mind and the viewer is a bit frustrated.  I would reccomend this as a rental because Farrell, Gleason, and Fiennes are all highly watchable.  The message of the film might have been don't kill, but I can't convince myself that it's more complicated than that....I offer this review by one of my recent favorite reviewers which savages the film: http://filmfreakcentral.net/screenreviews/inbruges.htm
3. Hamburger Hill - 1987 film made about a battle in Vietnam that wasn't a critical misson to the war but eventually drew news coverage from the US media due to the loss (or perceived loss of life) for such a non-crucial target. The acutal battle came towards the end of the war: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hamburger_Hill.   The film wasn't great but did feature decent performances by young Leo Fish (Dylan McDermott), Cheadle, Steven Weber, and Courtney Vance.  The film suffers from the fact that they try to make you care about all 14 soldiers that are storming the hill and what your left with is caring about none of them.  As I saw this on basic cable with commercials, I believe that certain films (war films included), don't benefit from the interrupption by an animated Spanish bee hawking Nasonex or the numerous erectile disfunction adds that seem to dominate the airwaves - maybe that's just me....
4. Do the Right Thing - Another film that I had to catch on basic cable (which is a mistake), but I had never seen it start to finish.  If you haven't seen it (which is akin to have you never had to suffer through Steve Harvey's comedy), you should.  It's really good (which again, I don't think I'm going out on a limb here - I just really enjoyed it).
5. Boogie Nights - Not much to said for this except its a joy to watch for all the individual performances like most PTA films.  Highly enjoyable - my favorite part (besides Molina playing Eddie Nash) is the conversation between William H Macy and Ricky Jay in the parking lot following Macy catching his wife getting plowed by some dude in the middle of a party with a group of people looking on.

What I'm Listening To:

• Handsome Boy Modeling School - The Projects
• Oasis - Don't Believe The Truth - The Importance of Being Idle
• The Who - A Quick One - So Sad About Us
• Donovan - Greatest Hits - Sunshine Superman
• Queens of the Stone Age - Rated R - Lost Art of Keeping a Secret

So there has already been significant moves, by many teams in the early hours of free agency. And the only moves I kind of care about happen in the NFC East:  Asante Samuel to the birds, Flowzell Adams stays with the Boys, Todd Collins (totally worth 3m a year) resigns with the Skins,

But the largest signing to me was Kavicka Mitchell, former NY Giant and super bowl champ signed with the Bills for a longterm deal for 5 years.  As a Giants fan, I shed no tears over his loss - he really wasn't that good but did win a regular season game for Big Blue.

Here is a link to bloggs of friends of mine which are pure gold:

http://coggblogger.blogspot.com/

http://metroville.blogspot.com/

Pure gold...

I actually sat through the entireity of Enemy of the State for must have been the 4th or 5th time.  Is there a chemical imbalance in my head that I was unable to tuen away from this schlock?  Or was the dazzling array of stars to be that were encompassed by Voights posse: Loren Dean, J Busey, J Black, S Green, Barry Pepper, Scott Caan?  Either way - I watched the whole damn film on basic cable and felt flithy afterwards.  Let me be clear - this is no John Carpenters Vampires where you at least enjoy the pleasure of James Woods assualting a priest for no (including a presesence of a Baldwin - no the, but one), this was worse with much more Bruckheimerian spin....

I guess my defense for Enemy of the State is that there are a few movies that find myself watching over and over again - other films that are terrible but fall in to the same camp:  

• The Recruit (i have no excuse),
• the Hunted (only excuse is the 10 minutes that they spend at the end of the film devoted to T Lee Jones manufacturing a knife out of stone),
• Boondock Saints (mainly for Dafoe and Rocco's character), Tombstone (no explanation needed-actually a pretty good flic),
• Forces of Nature (I know that this is complete guilt pleasure, but it's a beautifully shot film much better than the acutal story),
• Fear & Deep Blue Sea (nothing need be mentioned on how spectaculary bad these films is)

I am sure there are many others that would make this list but none coming to me now this second.  Obviously Segal and Van Damme are excluded from this because they rep a completely different type of cinema.

After some extremely hasty due diligence, I found the following population stats:

The question remains if you were part of this 4 million people, would you celebrate your b-day properly when it came around on the 29th or on the 28th of every year?  If I was blessed to be born a handful of monthes and days earlier, I would be celebrating my 7th birthday.  I can only assume that most modern governments have addressed this, but still it would make each birthday count.

Birthdays now for people in their 20s and 30s seem incredibly insignificant as if it just an inevitability.  I think that any birthday demands at a bare minimum a toast for that person surviving the previous 364 (or 5 for leap years - heck yeah).  Although I do believe that Cake wrote a song that's main purpose is to push the fact that: Some people like to make life a little tougher than it is".

What is the age where people in your life begin worring more about themselves instead of you? I don't think it's 21, but roughly in mid-twenties (this obvious changes due to the mental stability of each person - I'm pumped when a club-footed monogloid with down syndrome make 45 - I think they are already considered for the Estonia congress, although i could be wrong....)

I went out tonight much against my better judgement and discovered the following:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESvYRR1Fyug&feature=related
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRrzPwmIW1c
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej8S0r6Jz8o (one of the best songs of all time)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJDsm1Y4kUk
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKDZ6yubitM

All gold  - hope you all had happy valentines' days....

I recently (last few monthes) got obsessed with music videos and that particular art medium - I feel that once MTV realized that they would get more ratings with reality TV - they forgot the one reason why they existed in the first place.  Without further ado, here are my favorite videos that are real pieces of art:

1. Dan Le Sac VS scroobius pip - "Thou Shalt always Kill"   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoN6XfyQsr4
2. Justice - "D.A.N.C.E (Version Finale)"  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fo_QVq2lGMs
3. Queens of the stone age - "Go with the Flow" (favorite video ever)  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGyZ5P4JlAc
4. OK Go - "Here It Goes Again" (i hope you've seen this)  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pv5zWaTEVkI
5. Fatboy Slim - "Weapon Of Choice"  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMZwZiU0kKs
6. Arcade Fire - "Wake Up" (not a cool video - just looks like a memorable time)  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8QYnxIjHWg 

What I'm listening to:

• Paul Simon - Concert in the Park - Obvious Child
• Buffalo Sprinfield - Greatest Hits - Kind Woman
• 50 Cent - Curtis - Curtis 187
• Beatles - White Album - Back in the USSR

Another complete non-sequiter, but I happen to be watching one of my favorite scenes from one of my favorite actors - the scene in Lost Highway where Robert Loggia freaks out and almost beats a guy to death for following him to closely....gold 

A scene that is analogous to that is where JT Walsh consoles Will H Macy in the Bowling Alley after Macy's dinner wasn't waiting for him in Pleasantville - a highly underrated film in my eyes - good Maguire, good, Witherspoon, good, Bridges, great Walsh, and one of the only movies that Paul Walker is good in (in fact the only one that comes to mind now - feel free to prove me wrong...)

Another strange theory that I have has to do with two actors - Ashley Judd and Peter Saarsgard.  The theory is simply that Peter Saarsgard has never acted poorly in a film and Ashley Judd has never acted well.  I hear that Flightplan might be a chink in this arguments armor, but after hearing the ending from my brother I decided not to watch it (although I totally will probably catch it on TNT some sunday afternoon...)

Although on the subject,is there a better doughy faced Italian that you would rather be sexually assaulted by than Bruno Kirby in the BBall Diaries?  I can't come up with anyone better - either him or a young clemeza... Also I completely forgot that Christopher plays Jim's young friend with cancer earlier in the flic - all in all a decent flic - kind of a Hoosiers meets Blue Chips meets Requiem for a Dream....

As I have recently downloaded Norman Greenbaums' 1 hit wonder that plays in most babtist churchs in the southwest, I am curious (not how effective the 50 cent remix that involves JPJ 2 murder suicide ala the end of the natural born killers music video with Dre and Cube), about the effectiveness of religious music.

There happens to a cable channel that is exculsively dedicated to christian rock - this on one hand delights me but at the same time terrifys me.  I can only imagine that there has been marketing data on the effect of mass media on the populace, but I have not seen the related numbers.  In 1988, Pat Robinson ran for president and one can only guess that his influence came from his distribution of his sermons and his public figure as a pastor.

I guess my question is that will money always win?  It seems to dominate the consversation of eveything and seems to be the one thing that everyone measures themselves against (these days).

But what of history - what has man or ancestors of others experienced to this point and what would they say of the culture that pervades the modern US? Would they be pleaseed, repulsed, and does it matter?

How have we changed and are we learning the lessons of the past?  One of my favorite and thought provoking speechs from film came from 2001's amistad (hopkins speech to the supreme court):

The other night I was talking with my friend, Cinque. He was over at my place, and we were out in the greenhouse together. And he was explaining to me how when a member of the Mende -- that's his people --  how when a member of the Mende encounters a situation where there appears no hope at all, he invokes his ancestors. It's a tradition. See, the Mende believe that if one can summon the spirits of one's ancestors, then they have never left, and the wisdom and strength they fathered and inspired will come to his aid.

So, if what he claims, are we the culimination of our ancestors who came before us?  Can they direct us in the right direction? And what is that direction?  Step in line or not....

This sums it all up pretty well:

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/patriots_season_perfect_for_rest

One of my life's great pleasures is film and I was struck the other day about the lack of decent action sequences in the last few years (mostly due to quick cuts by the director - haven't seen Rambo yet) - Here is my list of top action sequences of all time (please let me caveat this by admitting I am a complete hypocrite as I hate all lists (film, books, sports) as I believe they are all subjective;  sort of a beauty in the eye of the beholder belief, but I understand their place in terms of illiciting conversation and debate).  However, if you like action, I suggest that you check these out if you haven't yet:

• Matrix Reloaded - from the point when the keymaker scurries off after seeing the Frenchie up till the scene on the freeway - this blew me away - I still think this is the best of alltime
• Hard Boiled - Hospital Escape by Tequila (might be cheating since it's so long, but it has my favorite line by any screen villan "there is no room for error now - the innocent must die" - In fact John Woo should have a separate section - this is the director that felt that Wilford Brimley should kill people with a Bow and Arrow in Hard Target
• T2 - from the mall to the aqueduct - my favorite action film (favorite drama - godfather)
• Kiss of the Dragon - Jet Li escaping the hotel & End fight (btw the school of black belts and the twins)
• Matrix - Springing Morpheus
• Opening Sequence to Rundown - I'm Biased

Now there are other sequences that bare mention but, I don't know if I would put them in the same catagory as the others due to the scale of the scenes:

• Storming of Normandy in Saving Private Ryan - Speilberg really captured the theme of whismy that I think they all must of felt
• A lot from When We Soliders - It's a solid flick which only pays off when (spoilers) Chris Klein dies (hilarious)
• All major battles from the LOTR's movies
• The majority of Black Hawk Down (I wonder why we have no more peace keeping missions in Africa anymore?)

Other Recent flics that I think one might have missed:

• You Can Count on Me - v good - good linney and ruffalo
• Nobody's Fool - Newman should have won the oscar
• Defending Your Life - my favorite romantic comedy of all time
• The Pianist - another flic that I can watch anytime of day - its doubtful that you missed this though...
• Big Fish - Good father son flick without all of the incest that permeates the 21st century - damn you Dick Gephardt

Comedies that need to watched soon:

1. Beerfest - some people didn't see this after being dissappointed by Club Dred (a pretty good flic in its own right), but this in many ways better than Super Troopers
2. Wet Hot American Summer - pure gold
3. Daniel Tosh - DVD special - its' not as good as his live standup, but pretty decent - his album, "True Stories I Made Up" is one of the funniest comedy albums to come out since David Cross' last one

Recent Films I had to sit through:

1. The Number 23 - instead of watching this film, go down to your local butcher and pay him roughly 6 and half bucks to kick you in the balls for 2 hrs.  While not the best anology, you might have have more self awareness after the butcher. 
2. Cloverfield - the fact that the ticket to this film cost me 12 bucks for a matinee, started us out on the wrong foot.  After the necessary popcorn and soda, my tab for the experience had already reached $22.  For a 2:10 PM start time, the film started at 2:45 PM (most of the commericials focused on anti-Huckabee ads placed by Romney's campaign - also another strike against the film - who knew that Huckabee fed on the blood and bone marrow of the elderly? not i).  I guess that I had higher hopes for this (why?) flic, because I found my self a bit dissappointed at the end of the feature.  As I was trying to grasp on how I would change the film for the better, I drew a blank, so what does that say about me?  I guess the one thing that they could have improved, is that none of the characters are sympathic.  I could have cared less about any of them which is always a bad sign for a horror movie when most of the movie turns on the death of the next character.
• A perfect example of this is the film 28 days later, where Danny Boyle almost forces you to like each character (BTW the sequel - 28 weeks later - worth renting)
3. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - I go back and forth on this film, simply because, I thought it would be impossible to capture the sentiment in the book and translate it to film, but after a bit of time - I like the film - the first 20 minutes work well
4. Bully & Alpha Dog - 2 movies I lump together, but still kind of like, not sure why as there are great performances in both by different actors but, the larry frank "young, fucked up, and lacking any consequence" films entertain me - they aren't great but I'm glad they exist
5. Lars and the Real Girl - my bro and I suffered through this - if you have a chance to see this, don't - same thing for Dan in Real Life...

what am I listening to:

• Web - the roots - the tipping point
• Tour is War - Josh Martinez - midriff music
• Colours - Donovan - Donovan's Grst Hits
• Hang on Sloopy - McCoys - Best of 60s party hits
• Playboy mansion - U2 - Pop