By Request: The Fall

I didn't much like The Cell, except that it was pretty. And I do love pretty movies. This new movie by the same director looks very, very pretty. Plus, Charles Darwin is in it.

A Little Something By The Ladies

I'm always on the lookout for female vocalists. Not that I have anything against male vocalists, but as I believe I've mentioned before on this blog, a lot of the dudes in the bands I like just can't sing all that well. It generally doesn't stop me from listening or liking the music, but it's nice to hear a pleasant voice sometimes.

Not to say that all female vocalists are pleasant (cough, Joanna Newsom, cough), but at least they're different. I've had a bumper crop of female vocalists on my CD pile the past few months, so I figured I'd throw them out there for anyone who might be interested.

I'm also using this post to introduce my tentative new rating system. Letter grades and number grades have all been done, and I feel obligated to be a bit geekier, so I'm going with the 1984 Newspeak rating system. This system will range from doubleplusungood to doubleplusgood. I'm thinking of making the lowest rating "My Head Is In A Cage Full Of Rats," but I haven't thought of an equivalent highest rating yet (suggestions are welcome). Here we go...

• Jesca Hoop -Kismet :
  Besides having one of the cooler names out there, this album is probably the most accessible of any on this list. It's kind of a hodgepodge of genres--mostly poppy, dancey stuff. Sometimes Hoop's vocals are electronically enhanced, which I generally loathe, but for whatever reason I didn't mind it so much on this album. I'd even go so far as to give it a : plusgood

• Bat For Lashes -Fur & Gold : Natasha Khan is sort of a harsher version of Jesca Hoop. The vocals aren't all that different (including the occasional enhancement), but the music itself is more experimental. That can be good or bad, depending on one's taste. I can't say I love this album from beginning to end, but some songs (namely "Trophy", "Tahiti", and "Prescilla") are exceptional. I'd give this one a good with a few plusgood songs.

• St. Vincent -Marry Me : Probably my favorite album being reviewed in this post, St. Vincent has gotten plenty of publicity in the past year. The best word to describe Annie Clark's vocals might be "haunting", but that doesn't mean all her songs are spooky or sad. Some songs are rather amusing, like "Jesus Saves, I Spend," and some are strangely sweet, like the title track. "Paris is Burning" is almost angry, and "Landmines" is incredibly haunting. Clark is also a multi-instrumentalist, and from what I've hard, she can tear it up on the guitar at her live shows. I'd recommend this album, and give it a strong plusgood.

• The Bird & The Bee -The Bird & The Bee : Certainly my least favorite album on this list, Inara George's voice is just too overproduced on most of these songs. "F-cking Boyfriend" isn't bad, but for the most part I was pretty disappointed with this album. Fans of electronic music (I mean really electronic) might appreciate it more than I did, but for the most part they just didn't live up to what little hype they'd garnered. This one gets an ungood.

• Nellie McKay - Obligatory Villagers: Of all the women I'm covering in this post, Nellie McKay probably has the best voice; it's how she uses it that can be troublesome. This album, like her two previous albums, is a potpourri of musical styles: songs that sounds like show tunes, novelty songs, pop songs, ballads, and the occasional rap (note to Ms. McKay: Please stop rapping). Her songs are often very political, sometimes jarringly so. The opening track on this album, "Mother of Pearl" has a jaunty little tone to it, but it's a scathing feminist manifesto in just over 2 minutes. I like the song, but I can see it pissing some people off. Indeed, she's already been dropped from one label. I'd recommend her first album, "Get Away From Me," before this one--but honestly, I have yet to meet anyone who enjoys her stuff like I do. I wouldn't call her one of my favorite artists, but her music is incredibly creative, which always scores points with me. This album gets a straight up good.

• Carla Bruni -No Promises : Does Carla Bruni's name ring a bell for you? Congratulations, you read the news! She is indeed the brand spanking new wife of the France's president, Nicolas Sarkozy. Holy crap does that guy have good taste. Please don't let her ex-super model, First Lady of France status deter you from trying out her music--this isn't just an ego album. The album, which just came out a few weeks ago, is a series of poems by the likes of William Butler Yeats, Dorothy Parker, and Emily Dickinson, all put to music by Bruni herself. She has a smoky, and yes, sexy, voice that is very easy to listen to. I will say that I actually like her first album, Quelqu'un M'a Dit, a bit better, though I can't understand a word of it. The songs on that album (which I'd almost rate a doubleplusgood and highly recommend) are a little more upbeat and generally a joy to listen to. This album is a bit more low-key, but still thoroughly enjoyable. A great CD to put on while having a quiet dinner at home with a nice bottle of wine. I'll unabashedly give this one a plusgood.

And that's it for the reviews. I'll tack on a few more notable female artists or groups with female vocalists, just to show off a bit:

• Women who can't really sing, but still produce some great music: Laura Veirs, Joanna Newsom, Kimya Dawson

• Excellent bands with female lead vocalists: The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Sleater Kinney, Dressy Bessy, The Heartless Bastards, Victory At Sea, Rilo Kiley

• Great bands where girls and boys share lead vocals: Mosquitos, The New Pornographers, The Arcade Fire

• Girl/Boy duet groups: The Rosebuds, The Weepies, The Brunettes

And there are far, far more artists and bands I don't have time to mention. Feel free to mention some of your favorites in the comments section.

I Drink Your Milkshake

I'm happy that Daniel Day-Lewis was recognized for his amazing acting in There Will Be Blood not only with an Oscar but by the SNL crew. Nice.

Good SNL video if you haven't seen it. (Warning: If you haven't seen the movie, this video contains spoilers, and it won't make any sense.)

Nipsy Daisers, With or Without the Scooter Stick

My sister's boyfriend lent me a DVD to watch some months ago. It's a DVD of his favorite movie, or at least one of his favorite movies. That movie is Joe Dirt.

Well, Johnny, since I had insomnia last night, I finally got around to watching your movie. Truly, it was David Spade's opus. I mean, this movie has everything: romance, adventure, Joe Don Baker, comedy, poop, costumes, crime, drama, poop, sex, intrigue, animals, music, and also poop!

Warning: Spoilers ahead! When the airline pilot mooned Joe when he was caught in the giant molar hot air balloon, I laughed. When Joe helped Charlie the dog get his balls unfrozen from the porch, I got a real warm feeling inside. When Joe realized that his parents are jerks and he breaks his momma's porcelain clown collection, I felt angry right along with Joe. I could go on, but I don't want to spoil all the good parts for everyone.

If I ever see this movie again, it better be with Johnny, and I better have at least 5 Natty Lights in me. Cuz that's the only thing that could make this movie better.

Aliens, Slugs, Queers, And Zombies

While visiting my I'd Offer You Some friends this weekend, I found on some premium channel's on demand list one of my favorite 80's horror movies ever: Night of the Creeps. Predating shiny hot Nathan Fillion's Slither by 2 decades, this movie broke every rule of the genre and came out winning. It's a funny, campy, gross-out "evil renegade alien releases slugs that turn college kids into zombies" flick that is too fucking fun to believe. Add a gay sidekick (who actually outs himself in his suicide tape), characters whose last names are all horror director legends', and the greatest slug effects before CGI: it becomes a true cult classic. And I'm not the only gay who thinks so.

Sadly, you probably won't see it anytime soon: it's never been released on DVD. But since director Fred Dekker's brilliant, underrated The Monster Squad (which I LOVED as a kid) has just been released on a special DVD, maybe this one will eventually make it out with the respect it deserves.

Los Campesinos!

My rendition of an album review. Los Campesinos! Hold on Now, Youngster...

Short. I'm not the word-smith I always hoped to be.

If you like pop-punk or pseudo-Broken Social Scene-esque like qualities, then this shit is good. For once I agree with the review put up on Pitchfork. Read it here. The lyrics are playfully witty and the instrumentation layered (good for multiple listenings). I can't help but want to jump around and sing-a-long. Hope these guys make it across the pond to Nashvegas.

I can't say for sure, but I believe their back-catalog is good too.

Video: You! Me! Dancing!

Meet Coraline

I highly encourage you to follow this link to view the teaser trailer for Coraline.

Why should you be excited about this movie? Two reasons:

1) It is based on one of the creepiest "children's" books I have ever read. Neil Gaiman's Coraline flat out gave me the willies, and I read it last year. I don't know what kind of kid could read this book and not get a bit freaked out. I'd recommend pretty much anything by Gaiman, but this was a particularly fun read.

2) The movie is written and directed by Henry Selick. Tim Burton often gets all the credit for The Nightmare Before Christmas, and he did create the story and the character design, but it was Selick who actually directed. He also directed the underrated James and the Giant Peach. In other words, no one can top this guy when it comes to this form of stop-motion animation.

So yeah. It should be a good flick.

DVD Review

3:10 To Yuma:

Mostly uninteresting , save Ben Foster's performance as the unhinged (gay?) follower of Russell Crowe. Disappointing Western that shouldn't have been...

Eastern Promises:

Cronenberg is still a genius. And he found his new niche. Brilliant gross-out drama!

Beer Review: Smuttynose Hanami Ale

I'm a big fan of the Smuttynose Brewery, and not just because it's based out of my home state and named after an island with which I'm pretty familiar. As far as New England breweries go, I would say Smuttynose is actually better than Sam Adams, though perhaps not quite as good as Magic Hat. Their Old Brown Dog Ale and Shoals Pale Ale are among the best I've had of their type, and their sporadically released Big Beers are generally excellent.

I was surprised to discover that this is the second year they've put the Hanami Ale, a spring seasonal. I'm usually on top of these things. In any case, I decided I better check it out. Here's the brewery's description (sorry for the crappy color--I couldn't figure out how to change it. If you highlight it, you can read it):

Smuttynose Hanami Ale, our spring seasonal, is inspired by the ancient
Japanese tradition of hanami- cherry blossom viewing - when people throughout Japan gather in parks to contemplate the luminous, ethereal sakura blossoms, while consuming copious amounts of food and beer in a joyous, nationwide picnic.

Made with a generous amount of natural cherry juice, Hanami Ale is crisp and refreshing, a well-balanced, medium-bodied ale offering subtle, tart cherry flavors - the perfect way to bid farewell to winter's icy grip and toast the arrival of spring with your own hanami celebration.

VITAL STATISTICS
OG: 1052 ABV: 5.7%
Grain Bill: Pilsener, Carahell, Aromatic & Carafa malts
Hops: Styrian Golding, Sterling
Color/Number: Rosy-hued Amber

I am generally wary of "fruity" beers. Sam Adams simply can't do them. I used to drink their Cheery Wheat in college, but that was before I knew what good beer was supposed to taste like. I can't stomach the stuff now. Their Cranberry Lambic isn't much better. Magic Hat has the "hint of apricot" in their #9, but I've consumed so much of that over the years that I don't even notice the apricotness anymore. There are a few blueberry ales that don't make me cringe, but by and large, I think the berry-enhanced beer is difficult to pull off.

The Hunami Ale caught me by surprise. I would not describe the cherry flavor as "subtle", but it's certainly tart. The beer was a lot hoppier than I thought it would be, so it starts out with the tartness of the cherry and finishes with a hoppy bitterness that clashes with the initial flavor a bit. It's certainly unlike anything I've tasted before, so I'll give them points for showing me something new.

That said, I can't quite imagine sitting down and having a bunch of these (which is slightly unfortunate since I have five more left in my six-pack). I suspect this beer would be better in a different context. Not so much in my kitchen in the winter, but out on the porch when the weather warms up a bit. The other problem is that because of the unique flavor, I have no idea what kind of food might complement it. Something from the grill, I imagine, which I'm not quite ready to fire up yet.

The bottom line is that I've had much worse berry beers, but I can't really heartily recommend this one. It's far superior to the Sam Adams Cherry Wheat, so I guess if you simply must have cherry in your beer, go with the Hunami. I would suggest giving it a shot if you find it on tap somewhere (pretty unlikely if you're outside New England), but I wouldn't bother with a full six pack.

Dodos video 'Winter'

Just a link to a Dodos video. Thanks EJP for turning me onto these guys. A full article as well as more videos are at MP3.com.

I Love Layton

I have just finished playing Professor Layton and the Curious Village, a game I cannot recommend highly enough to anyone who has ever enjoyed thinking. The combination of straight-up puzzle solving and adventure game, charmingly presented in 2D, will leave you wanting more and wondering why nobody did this before. Brain game shovelware may well be doomed. The Professor puts that genre to shame and begs the question: "Why didn't anyone do this before?"

The premise of the game is simple enough—well-known puzzle-solver Professor Layton is summoned to a village to solve the riddle of a hidden inheritance. With his assistant Luke in tow, he heads off to the town of St. Mystere (sigh), where it rapidly becomes obvious that the missing "Golden Apple" is the least of the mysteries confronting him. The townspeople have a strange penchant for posing puzzles and riddles (which can get annoying), and soon enough crimes ranging from a murder to a "doze-and-dash" are plaguing St. Mystere, demanding Layton's attention. The story is pretty entertaining, even though you'll probably figure out most of the mystery about the time you finish the easiest of the bonus puzzles.

Resolving most of these mysteries, and sometimes even moving around the town, requires you to solve several riddles. I have seen some complaints about the difficulty, and I cannot entirely give them credit. The puzzles of the game generally don't require any more knowledge than typically possessed by a fifth grader. The difficulty comes from a requirement for creativity and mental discipline. A child playing this game may need assistance from adults in spots, but then again, an adult playing this game may need a childlike outlook to achieve some of the necessary lateral thinking. In short, if you have kids, play this game with them. You will all have a great time. And don't worry; if you don't have a 10 year old to help you, a limited number of hints are available.

The tale of Professor Layton is conveyed through 2D animations and drawn backgrounds. The character design is excellent, with endearingly wacky villagers that are full of personality. The game features a substantial amount of voice acting, which actually works out quite well, though I suspect it cut down on the amount of music available. The soundtrack is passable, and works to help set the tone, though having some more variety would have been nice.

The game isn't perfect. Although the touch control is essentially seamless, the movement system seems unnecessarily elaborate. The village mostly runs out of puzzles before the game runs out of story. As I mentioned the mystery itself is a little easy to get (though it requires a little leap), and also more or less solves itself. A little more involvement from the player in solving the larger riddles would have been great. The game is also a little short—the 15 bonus puzzles and additional downloadable content should provide your fix until Level 5 delivers the sequel that the bonuses page promises is coming. There are already 3 Professor Layton games out in Japan so this will mostly be a matter of localization. A longer story might also have helped get the player a little more emotionally involved; as it is, the story ends just as you're really starting to fall in love with the characters.

Professor Layton and the Curious Village is a pleasant little game with a story and characters just wacky enough to make the numerous brain-teasers seem a natural part of the world. The puzzles themselves aren't crushingly difficult, though a few can get a little frustrating. The story and presentation makes it much more engaging than the standard brain-game shovelware. Cute enough to engage a child, smart enough to stump an adult, Professor Layton is charming fun anyone who loves thinking can enjoy.

Geriatric Jones

Yeah, Harrison Ford is ancient, but this trailer still turned me into a 12-year-old faster than you can say "No time for love, Dr. Jones!"

In Dishonor of This "Holiday"...

...here are 15 songs about doomed relationships and breaking up. The list is by no means comprehensive, but these are some good'uns. Please let it be noted that this post does not reflect on bitterness about my own relationship--my marriage is very healthy, thank you very much. I just think Valentine's Day is ridiculous. I don't have time to put up links (again), but I highly encourage anyone to check these artists out if you've never heard of them. If the original album is not listed here, I probably have the song on a Greatest Hits and can't be bothered to look up anything beyond that. Otherwise, these songs all come from highly recommended albums.

• "Pet Name" by They Might Be Giants (from Factory Showroom). This song always reminds me of my first real girlfriend, who was very mean and really not pet name material.

• "Operator (That's Not the Way It Feels)" by Jim Croce. I confess that it's only recently that this song no longer made me tear up a bit when I heard it.

• "I'm Like Yeah, But She's All No" by Mr. T Experience (from Love is Dead). I think the title says it all, right?

• "Weary Memory" by Iron & Wine (from The Creek Drank the Cradle). One of my favorite I&O songs, and perhaps one of the saddest.

• "Bird Feet Feeling" by Trailer Bride (from High Seas). The sadness in Melissa Swingle's voice on this one almost makes my tummy ache.

• "Marching Band" by Evil Wiener (from Billy Sugarfix's Lost Gumdrop Kingdom). This song pretty much sums up my entire high school lack-of-a-relationship experience.
  

• "The Cactus Where Your Heart Should Be" by The Magnetic Fields (from 69 Love Songs). The title of Stephin Merritt's magnum opus is kind of a misnomer, since there are plenty of anti-love songs on this concept album, too.

• "What Happens When the Heart Just Stops" by The Frames (from For the Birds). Probably the most depressing song on this list.

• "Wish You Were Dead" by Lincoln (from Lincoln). This song is a lot more amusing than the title would suggest.

• "Lost Cause" by Beck (from Sea Change). This entire album is a downer, break-up song compilation. Lots of good songs, but this is one of my favorites.

• "Game Shows Touch Our Lives" by The Mountain Goats (from Tallahassee). From a concept album that tells the story of a couple who move down south, where their marriage subsequently falls apart. Arguably the best Mountain Goats album.

• "Everything Hits At Once" by Spoon (from Girls Can Tell). One of the more accurate descriptions of how a break-up can affect a person.

• "Why Can't He Be You?" by Patsy Cline. Pretty much all of Cline's hits were about breaking up or being in a terrible relationship. Can anyone name a happy song that she made famous?

• "Tornado" by Damien Jurado (from Rehearsals for Departure). Another song about a bad relationship that borders on too realistic. Who doesn't know a couple like this one?

• "Good Woman" by Cat Power, with a little help from Eddie Vedder (from You Are Free). I saved the best for last, as far as I'm concerned. A very simple song that encompasses the best and worst parts of ending a relationship. Sad as it is, it's one of my favorite songs of the past decade.
  

Seven Things

Nat over at "...and sometimes why" tagged me for this, but due to the nature of this blog I'm changing it slightly to reveal 7 weird/strange culture-related things about myself.

The rules are as follows:
# Link to the person who tagged you
# Post the rules on your blog.
# Share seven random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog.
# Tag seven random people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs.
# Leave a comment on their blogs so that they know they have been tagged.

1.) I've always enjoyed the Muppets. That's not so strange. A lot of people my age grew up with The Muppet Show, Sesame Street, The Dark Crystal, and so on. No, the strange thing is that I once watched a puppet porno movie. It was not in any way affiliated with Jim Henson, but there were definitely some Muppet-type beings and they were definitely involved in some soft-core porn with real people. And I saw it in a theater. With my sister. It was supposed to be a funny experience, but it turned out to be very awkward and we kind of agreed to never mention it again. But hey, you asked for weird.

2.) I have read The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens at least three times. A lot of people have reread Dickens, but not this particular novel. That's because it's generally considered to be one of his worst. I ended up reading it so many times because I did my English thesis on it, and I would say that it is certainly not his worst novel (that would be Hard Times, as far as I'm concerned). Not only have I read the book itself several times, but I've read most of the original manuscript (on microfiche) in Chuckie D.'s handwriting. Luckily it was one of his earlier works, before his handwriting went from mere chicken scratch to complete illegibility. For the record, I only have 1.5 Dickens novels to go before I've read all of them. The ".5" is there because he never finished his last novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood. I am also one of a handful of people to have seen a performance of the unfinished opera Dickens attempted to write. That went unfinished because Chuck realized it was really, really awful and he wasn't at all cut out for opera writing.

3.) I have read Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, seen the movie, and seen a play based on the novel. The first two aren't so strange, and both are quite good. The play, I believe, has not been performed all that much, and certainly not the way I saw it. It was performed at my alma mater, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and it was an "experimental" production between the drama department and the computer science department. I mostly remember some guy running in place with a big screen behind him showing what looked like one of those old school screen savers depicting a walk through a labyrinth. I also remember thinking it was terrible and that I probably should have gotten drunk before viewing it.

4.) When the original Star Wars trilogy was re-released in the theaters well over ten years ago now (yikes!), I happened to be in Germany when Jedi came out. I went to see it with some fellow Americans--they spoke very little German and I didn't speak a word (this was a decade before meeting meine Frau). Shockingly, one of my friends had never seen the movie before, and it was dubbed into German, so she was lost. Luckily, I pretty much had it memorized by that point in my life, so I was able to quietly "translate" most of the dialog for her so she knew what was happening. I also learned what a lazy/clever writer George Lucas was during this particular viewing. When Yoda dies, he tells Luke "Luke, Vader ist dein Vater." How very redundant. "Vader" and "Vater" are pronounced pretty much identically in German, so this big revelation couldn't have been all that surprising to the Germans, who must have had their suspicions about "Darth Father" from the beginning of the series.

5.) The very first concert I ever saw was Arlo Guthrie, in a field under a starry summer night sky in very rural Ossippee, NH. To this day, after many, many other shows and concerts, it's still one of my favorites. Not only did Arlo sing "Alice's Restaurant", which he very rarely performed live at that point, but he added another 8 minutes or so to the already 20-minute song. The extra "verse" of the song was about the Nixon tapes, and what a strange coincidence it was that the missing minutes from the tapes were nearly equal to the number of minutes in "Alice's Restaurant." Awesome.

6.) My best friend's great aunt is Ann B. Davis, who played Alice on The Brady Bunch. She had a lobster dinner at our house once. She was a very nice, down-to-earth woman, and I really wish I could find the picture I have of myself with her. If I ever find it, I'll stick it up here. She's the closest thing I have to an acquaintance in the biz.

7.) I have seen many famous pieces of art in person, at the MFA here in Boston, at the Met and MoMA in New York, at all of the big London museums, and all over Florence. Yet of all the famous pieces I've seen, my favorite is probably still Grant Wood's American Gothic, which I saw at a special Wood exhibit in the tiny art museum in Worcester, MA. I guess I find this strange for a couple reasons. First, though Wood is considered fairly famous by American standards (his name is on the Iowa quarter!), he's hardly in league with Picasso or Monet or a number of other artists who's work I've seen first hand. Then there's the fact that this particular painting has become so iconic that I don't think most people even think of it as art anymore. It's kind of become a caricature of itself, kind of like Munch's The Scream. Finally, I don't like to think about how my enjoyment of this picture reflects on my taste in art. I mean, it's really not that good, is it? I can't even say why I like it exactly, other than that I come from a long line of farmers, so maybe I feel some kind of vague agricultural link to the simple folk depicted here. Whatever. My deal with art is that I know what I like and I know what I don't like. For reasons I can't quite explain, I really like American Gothic.


As for tagging other people...well, rules are made to be broken, right? The other contributors to this blog are welcome to to do the 7 things on this blog or their other blogs, as is Dr. Potatohead and the folks over at Clyde Squid's other blog. That's at least 7 people. Links to those blogs are easily accessible from this blog. After this long-ass post, I'm feeling too lazy/tired to do up links and commenting.

More Reason To Get Sirius

They'll have a Discovery Channel...channel...soon. I now listen to Sirius more than I watch cable TV, and two months of my cable would pay for a year of Sirius. And the programming is 50x better. Think about it...

Best Science Fiction Movie Since Serenity...And Then Some

Sunshine. As my friend put it, "Science and Reason vs. sentimentality and superstition."

A brilliant character-based, high-tension, "sci-fi for sci-fi fans" movie. Why didn't critics like this? Do I read to much?

VW album

I thought maybe Evelyn Is Not Real would post on this, but since he isn't, I'll throw it up here (especially since there's been a dearth of posts lately). EINR posted about Vampire Weekend months ago, but they finally came out with their self-titled debut LP a few weeks ago. There was so much internet buzz about the band, you'd think it would be hard for them to live up to it, but it's actually a pretty fun album. The closest thing I could compare it to is if you took the catchy hooks of The Shins and threw in some of Paul Simon's Graceland (in other words, African rhythms). The result isn't mind-blowing, but it's very, very easy to listen to.

The only odd thing I found was that there are two songs about Cape Cod, which sounds kind of strange if you listen to the album from beginning to end. It's kind of like the faculty candidate who gave a seminar here at Harvard a few weeks ago and used the word "precociously" three times during her talk. Using that word once in a scientific talk is strange enough (especially since the word was being applied to yeast behavior), but using it three times is just distracting. Likewise, all this Cape Cod talk on an album that barely clears the half hour mark is just weird, especially since the band apparently hails from NY. Find something new to write about, guys.

But that's a quibble. I'd certainly call this my favorite new release from January, and I recommend it to anyone who's up for some addictive ear candy. Also, my almost-one-year-old likes to boogie down to this album, so apparently it has cross-generational appeal.

... and the Loins

This should probably be a comment to EJP's drunken post, but whatever. Sorry about your Pats, OK, not really, I was one of the people hoping that the Giants made Belichick cry all over his cut-off hoody. In all honesty I really didn't give a roundhouse-flying-donkey-punch about the game much other than the commercials.

I believe the Jackie Moon Bud Light commercial was my favorite. Anyone else care to comment?



BTW, with Lawson injured, I'm afraid that UNC is going to suck one against Dook on Wed.

That's Actually Pretty Creepy

After The Village I was pretty much ready to write M. Night Shyamalan off. I found that movie fairly predictable, and considering it pretty much only existed to set up the "twist" at the end, being predictable was a pretty huge flaw.

That said, the trailer for his next movie, The Happening, did manage to give me the willies. I honestly think this guy can make good movies if he can keep his ego in check. Let's hope this one pans out.

Wow. Didn't see that coming.

Just a little over three years ago, I was in downtown Boston when the Red Sox "reversed the curse". It was an exciting time. I was happy to be there.

I just returned from downtown Boston this evening, where I'd planned on watching the Patriots make NFL history. As pretty much everyone reading this knows by now, that didn't happen. Well, it sorta did, but not in a good way.

Here's what greeted me as I walked from the bar from which I watched the game in Kenmore Square to the closest functional T-station:

• About 5 BU frat boys out in the street, hoopin' and hollerin'. I kind of hope their "brothers" beat the living crap out of them 5 minutes later.

• About 80 police in full riot gear, looking very silly, because there were approximately 30 people out on the sidewalks. I am currently too drunk and too tired to really describe how sad it is to watch countless cops slowly strip off their bullet-proof vests, take down their barriers, and lay down their batons. I can't say for certain whether Boston's finest were so sad because the Pats lost, or because they were sincerely hoping to beat down some belligerent BU students tonight.

• Several news helicopters, presumably with their cameras pointed down on the aforementioned empty sidewalks of Beacon St. Those of us they could see were very mopey.

Go Celtics!