I have been in a serious battle with my netflix queue all year and have been getting my ass kicked pretty severely. I have finally figured out the main reason of my thrashing and have been fighting back and starting to get the upper hand.
My netflix strategy is to hit up rotten tomatoes and check out new rentals with high ratings and add as I go. Well my Freakonomics fanaticism has finally paid off and I am using my knowledge to pump myself up to take my queue down into the single digits. Every week I would find myself adding as many movies as I had watched. The stagnant queue was quite frustrating, but recently my list has been shrinking down. An example from Freakonomics is their connection of a falling crime rate to the legalization of abortion. The idea is obviously controversial, but they point out that the lack of unwanted babies contributed to an unexpected decline after the ruthless 80's. I am making the connection that the reason why I was being battered by netflix was because of the oscars. My thinking goes that the end of year oscar push ended or always end up with a ton of good movies being released on dvd in the first few months of the year and now I am in the January/February theatrical releases, which isnt pretty but its good for me and bad for my queue. I know its not quite Freakonomics but its good to know.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Music You Should Know: Bon Iver
Bon Iver has a guitar and a voice and an impromptu backing band of thuds and hand claps. Bon Iver got my attention after I heard Skinny Love on his myspace page, and proceeded to list that as my favorite song that I had heard this year. A couple months later, I have listened to the album quite a few times and am always blown away. If you are a fan of singer/songwriters, this is one not to miss. I guess you could say he is a folk artist with a heavy dose of soul thrown into the mix. His voice is simply amazing, and it is even better with the great layering that is on the record.
The record For Emma, Forever Ago is one that just makes you sit, lose focus of your current task, and just listen. The length is somewhat short, but that is because none of the songs are any longer than they need to be. Each song leads to another adventure, and you are let down gently with the great final track re:Stacks. Time will tell whether or not this is a truly great album in my mind, but for now, it the album of the year.
http://www.myspace.com/boniver
The record For Emma, Forever Ago is one that just makes you sit, lose focus of your current task, and just listen. The length is somewhat short, but that is because none of the songs are any longer than they need to be. Each song leads to another adventure, and you are let down gently with the great final track re:Stacks. Time will tell whether or not this is a truly great album in my mind, but for now, it the album of the year.
http://www.myspace.com/boniver
Not good with signs
Well I hung out with the girl last night and kind of got shot down, but apparently all was not lost. She was talking about how she never goes to the rooftop of her building because she never has anybody to go with her. So I said I would bring the beer and the snacks if she wanted to hang out up there and she replied with a weak ok. I kind of took that as a sign that she just wanted to be friends, which was fine with me because I like having attractive female friends.
Well today I was gchatting it up and at the end of our conversation she says(types):
i should go do my study hours
Well today I was gchatting it up and at the end of our conversation she says(types):
i should go do my study hours
actually wait
should i take it personally that you still haven't asked me for my number?
im kinda on the blunt side...
I look at that as good and bad. Its good because she is a cool girl but its bad because that type of thing has been the kiss of death in the past. I mean I could do multiple blog series from past incidences. We will see....
I look at that as good and bad. Its good because she is a cool girl but its bad because that type of thing has been the kiss of death in the past. I mean I could do multiple blog series from past incidences. We will see....
Monday, May 26, 2008
A little nervous
In my last actual post I mentioned something about how I blew an opportunity with this girl when I was at work. Things have changed quickly and now I am meeting her later for a drink. I of course never would have had the guts to actually ask her to hang out, so the fact that she came up with the idea is pretty crazy to me given how attractive she is. I am sure it will be casual, but there is always that little voice saying maybe she is into me.
Depending on how things turn out, I might post a little more about how things have come to fruition the past couple of days.
Depending on how things turn out, I might post a little more about how things have come to fruition the past couple of days.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
At somewhat of a standstill
I've been definitely feeling down-and-out the last few days, by which I mean a sort-of depression, but not neccessarily about much. I finished a semester of grad school and that was very tough and I'm very proud of myself for finishing that with a higher GPA, since then I've just been pretty lazy, and maybe a little depressed or empty but i'm not entirely sure about what, so maybe i can try to figure that out here.
I haven't had much social motivation lately to try to find people to hang out with or dates or hook-up opportunities. It could be described as something like a lower sex-drive but it's kind of across the board.
This weekend, for example, I just dreaded. I think I dread the weekends in the sense that the weekends is a time of pressure. It's a time where your schedule is blank.
During the weekdays, you go about your life and you try and find time for the fun and the social in between what it is you have to do and there's no pressure to have fun, or to write or to pursue your hobbies or to be social. The weekends, you feel pressure to make something out of your day, whether social or whether it is experiencing the world, and you want to feel like you did something come Sunday night.
Obviously, this is just one weekend at a time, but you don't want to look aruond and think my friends are all married, engaged, doing this or that, and i'm hardly ever getting a date, or I'm still living at home without health insurance whereas my friends have solid jobs. There is pressure to pursue some of my larger goals that I have more time to ponder why they're not coming true over the weekend. Obviously, the solution is to disown my current friends and find a set of friends who are losers so i feel good by association. No, I'm just kidding.
I think I don't feel like exerting the energy any more to call my friends and other people over the weekend and be like "what are you doing?" because I'm a little tired of looking desperate. I'm clearly one of those people who needs to reach out to others rather than someone who people naturally seek out in their plans. I'm clearly also an extrovert which means I need a social element in my life as well.
But seriously, I'm definitely slowing down lately on even trying on the weekend. Anyway, thanks for letting me share
I haven't had much social motivation lately to try to find people to hang out with or dates or hook-up opportunities. It could be described as something like a lower sex-drive but it's kind of across the board.
This weekend, for example, I just dreaded. I think I dread the weekends in the sense that the weekends is a time of pressure. It's a time where your schedule is blank.
During the weekdays, you go about your life and you try and find time for the fun and the social in between what it is you have to do and there's no pressure to have fun, or to write or to pursue your hobbies or to be social. The weekends, you feel pressure to make something out of your day, whether social or whether it is experiencing the world, and you want to feel like you did something come Sunday night.
Obviously, this is just one weekend at a time, but you don't want to look aruond and think my friends are all married, engaged, doing this or that, and i'm hardly ever getting a date, or I'm still living at home without health insurance whereas my friends have solid jobs. There is pressure to pursue some of my larger goals that I have more time to ponder why they're not coming true over the weekend. Obviously, the solution is to disown my current friends and find a set of friends who are losers so i feel good by association. No, I'm just kidding.
I think I don't feel like exerting the energy any more to call my friends and other people over the weekend and be like "what are you doing?" because I'm a little tired of looking desperate. I'm clearly one of those people who needs to reach out to others rather than someone who people naturally seek out in their plans. I'm clearly also an extrovert which means I need a social element in my life as well.
But seriously, I'm definitely slowing down lately on even trying on the weekend. Anyway, thanks for letting me share
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Tired
I have been tired lately and havent really posted all that much. There have definitely been some post worthy days/nights, but I think I will let them live in the past and hopefully post some more in the future. I already have the next couple weekends planned out, so I am sure more events will unfold in a typical fashion.
I will say today that I had a chance to get a phone number at work and blew it. I fortunately have a backup plan, but am not too worried about it. I am finally more focused towards running, so I dont have to stress too much about lack of a social life with the opposite sex. I will say though that this girl is very very attractive.
As tired as I am, I still made it through Episode 4 of the 4th Season of Nip/Tuck and was really impressed. I was kind of a fan, enough to rent the dvd, but now I am hooked. All the characters are really contrived(the ladies man and the nerdy other half), but the show is scripted extremely well and brings out the best of all the characters.
I was disappointed with the new Radiohead album that I finally picked up. The first listen was a real letdown, but listening a little louder through my new headphones has made up for some of the initial listening.
I will say today that I had a chance to get a phone number at work and blew it. I fortunately have a backup plan, but am not too worried about it. I am finally more focused towards running, so I dont have to stress too much about lack of a social life with the opposite sex. I will say though that this girl is very very attractive.
As tired as I am, I still made it through Episode 4 of the 4th Season of Nip/Tuck and was really impressed. I was kind of a fan, enough to rent the dvd, but now I am hooked. All the characters are really contrived(the ladies man and the nerdy other half), but the show is scripted extremely well and brings out the best of all the characters.
I was disappointed with the new Radiohead album that I finally picked up. The first listen was a real letdown, but listening a little louder through my new headphones has made up for some of the initial listening.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Being repetitive here, but here's a radical sports concept
First of all: Way to go Celtics! I like James and the Cleveland Cavs (especially West and Szerbiak) but they've recently made the finals and James is still a baby. He'll probably win it soon. Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett aren't going to be around forever.
But, here's a revolutionary concept I'd like to introduce to the press/fans: Just because one team wins, that doesn't mean the other team did poorly.
Logically, you could have 4 options: One team plays poorly and one team plays well (2 out of 4 options), both teams play well, or both teams play poorly. I've already seen sports commentators discussing what went wrong with the Cavs or what their weaknesses are. How about the simple explanation: They played well but the other team played better.
I dislike how at the end of games they march out the losing coach in the press conference like he's a middle schooler who just got sent to the principal's office for after-school detention: "So what did you do wrong today??"
The worst case of this was at the Memphis-Kansas NCAA final last March where the commentators for ESPN or CBS or whichever channel the game was being broadcast on thought that Memphis had it in the bag so they were talking about how Memphis had this great season and was the better team all along and started dissecting why Kansas was the wrong team. But as my track coach used to say, "Balls bounce certain ways" (the whole quote was about how running is less open to upsets than most sports because a 5:00 miler would never be able to beat a 4:30 miler, but a basketball team could score an upset because balls bounce certain ways). Anyway, Kansas had a couple very lucky breaks and scored an upset and all of a sudden the same statistics that revealed upon examination by the experts that Kansas was the inferior team were magically reexamined to reveal that in fact, Kansas was the superior team after all.
The stat sheet had changed in one very minor way: Kansas had one more field goal than it had a moment before when Kansas was the losing team.
Of course that's all Kansas needs to win a game, but my point again is that we try to fit square pegs into round holes in sports commentary.
But, here's a revolutionary concept I'd like to introduce to the press/fans: Just because one team wins, that doesn't mean the other team did poorly.
Logically, you could have 4 options: One team plays poorly and one team plays well (2 out of 4 options), both teams play well, or both teams play poorly. I've already seen sports commentators discussing what went wrong with the Cavs or what their weaknesses are. How about the simple explanation: They played well but the other team played better.
I dislike how at the end of games they march out the losing coach in the press conference like he's a middle schooler who just got sent to the principal's office for after-school detention: "So what did you do wrong today??"
The worst case of this was at the Memphis-Kansas NCAA final last March where the commentators for ESPN or CBS or whichever channel the game was being broadcast on thought that Memphis had it in the bag so they were talking about how Memphis had this great season and was the better team all along and started dissecting why Kansas was the wrong team. But as my track coach used to say, "Balls bounce certain ways" (the whole quote was about how running is less open to upsets than most sports because a 5:00 miler would never be able to beat a 4:30 miler, but a basketball team could score an upset because balls bounce certain ways). Anyway, Kansas had a couple very lucky breaks and scored an upset and all of a sudden the same statistics that revealed upon examination by the experts that Kansas was the inferior team were magically reexamined to reveal that in fact, Kansas was the superior team after all.
The stat sheet had changed in one very minor way: Kansas had one more field goal than it had a moment before when Kansas was the losing team.
Of course that's all Kansas needs to win a game, but my point again is that we try to fit square pegs into round holes in sports commentary.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
We Are Scientists - After Hours
Different sound... but I like it... just not as much as the old sound
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Cell Phone History Part 1: Green Screen
Nokia 5110 (757)870-3412Circa Spring 2002 I was given the control of a Nokia 5110 with no idea of how significant an effect this mobile device and others like it would change my life. The numerous arguments with the first girlfriend, the abundant drunk dials, the similar drunk texts(not available with this particular phone), the receiving of numbers from girls that never worked out, and everything in between.
The picture doesnt really do the phone justice as it turned off in it. When on the phone exudes a pleasant green glow that could be compared to the grass on a clear summer day(grass from Oregon Trail that is). Seeing this phone after so many years takes me to a time of innocence, a time when I had not yet even had a sip of alcohol. It takes me back to argument after argument and a period I would definitely not want to go back to. I will say the phone was around for a few months while I was single during my second year of college, which would also mean that it was around during my first time ever being drunk. I cant remember if I was drunk or just buzzed as I only had 3 beers that night, but I remember leaving a couple of messages on my dorm room phone as I walked back to campus.
After some time with the phone I became a little tired of the boring exterior. As I was walking through the mall back at home, I noticed a stand in the middle that was selling replaceable face plates for my phone. I will say that I avoid those random stands in the middle of the mall like mink in the summertime, but on this particular occasion I ended up picking up a sweet blue/black carbon fiber faceplate that didnt really fit correctly but still made my phone look sincere.
One final awesomeness that must be discussed is the snake game. If you have no idea what came I am referring to then you didnt have a cell phone around this time but fortunately you can check the game out here.
The unfortunate day came when I had to part ways with my beloved green screen. I received a new phone as my 20th birthday present. This phone would not be nearly as unscathed as the Nokia 5110....
Black Kids - I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend (Official)
Anybody want to see these guys tomorrow night? Thursday that is.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Potential Future Post: Cell Phone History
How many people do you know who have only owned a single cell phone during their cell phone owning history? Probably not many given the number of I-lost/broke-my-cell-phone-now-I-need -your-number groups on facebook or the slightly more original I-know-you-hate-those-I-lost/broke-my-cell-phone-groups-but-I-did-and-I-need-your-number.
I was thinking about the phones I had and the stories surrounding those phones, and realized they probably lead to a pretty entertaining blog post. I could just as easily give up as the sheer turnover in the cell phone industry makes it extremely difficult to even find out the style of a phone from just a couple years back. But I will give my best effort to track back to 2001...
Some of highlights that will hopefully be more detailed in a full post:
-7578703412
-The original green screen
-Carbon Fiber faceplate upgrade
-7578713789
-Your Body is a Wonderland ringtone
-Phone Thrown (by Dena)
-Phone ends up in pocket with egg
-Phone ends up in toilet
-A little craigslist
-5402461528
So thats most of all the major occurrences but I hope to expand later with pictures and more details about the aforementioned highlights.
Addition: I was doing some research for pictures and remembered that at some point my parents paid full price for a replacement phone but I couldnt remember what led to that and then it came to there was an incident when a phone was stolen. I may have to break the post up into multiple posts to tell the stories in greater detail.
I was thinking about the phones I had and the stories surrounding those phones, and realized they probably lead to a pretty entertaining blog post. I could just as easily give up as the sheer turnover in the cell phone industry makes it extremely difficult to even find out the style of a phone from just a couple years back. But I will give my best effort to track back to 2001...
Some of highlights that will hopefully be more detailed in a full post:
-7578703412
-The original green screen
-Carbon Fiber faceplate upgrade
-7578713789
-Your Body is a Wonderland ringtone
-Phone Thrown (by Dena)
-Phone ends up in pocket with egg
-Phone ends up in toilet
-A little craigslist
-5402461528
So thats most of all the major occurrences but I hope to expand later with pictures and more details about the aforementioned highlights.
Addition: I was doing some research for pictures and remembered that at some point my parents paid full price for a replacement phone but I couldnt remember what led to that and then it came to there was an incident when a phone was stolen. I may have to break the post up into multiple posts to tell the stories in greater detail.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Saturday Night Live still keeps chugging
It seems like the theme of the blog is generally centered around weekends. We write about weekends which gets me thinking of Saturday Night Live, the show that has been part of our pop culture for 30+ years at fluctuating levels. If you had to make a list of shows that have influenced pop culture the most or better yet, a tv show that people can name or quote lines of off the top of their head, Saturday Night Live might be near the top, and it's ironically, on the worst night of the week to have a show.
It probably had survived so long because Nielsen Ratings measure a show's performance by your share of the TV audience and there is no one else who feels its of any use to put on a show on a Saturday Night. I used to think that Saturday Night Live's audience is primarily composed of people too young or too old to go out on a Saturday Night but there is a significant portion of people our age who are watching the show too.
I think that what's interesting about Saturday Night Live is that while it's not as popular as it was in the Rock/Farley/Spade/Hartman days (I'm not going to include Adam Sandler in that era because he has taken his talent and squandered with sooo many bad movies since his SNL days), it still manages to poke its head into pop culture when you're ready to call it down and out. I would've actually thought that Saturday Night Live stood a good chance of being killed when youtube started becoming popular since both youtube and saturday night live both cater to the audience who wants their comedy in 5-minute sketches but SNL found a way to jump on board the trend with the digital shorts produced by Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaeffer and Jorma Takome (Andy is the one on camera). "Dick in a Box" and "Lazy Sundae" are two that have gone viral on youtube, but there's also "Iran so Far," Adam Samberg's love song to the President of Iran with Adam Levine providing some of the vocals, and a hillarious one with Tom Hanks singing "Don't Touch my Testicles." The "Iran So Far" is probably the funniest thing Andy Samberg has done in my opinion and it's possibly the best thing Saturday Night Live has done all season.
The other smart thing Saturday Night Live is doing that nothing else on NBC is doing is its not giving away all its content for free on the internet. You can't watch an entire episode of Saturday Night Live online like you can for many shows on hulu or their respective network sites. They usually post about 2 or 3 sketches a week but I recently discovered that the people in charge of posting the sketches online aren't picking the best ones. I think this is smart because SNL isn't like a TV show. It does basically the same stuff as youtube. A lot of the funnier material (the stuff that isn't recycled from past skits) is usually in the show and it's that five-minute stuff that you're dying to see over and over again.
I would have thought that the show would have suffered because about 2 years ago they had some serious budget cuts and had to cut 5 or 6 people, and now their cast is much smaller and less experienced. Then again, an astoundingly high number of the members of the current cast are capable of doing a Christopher Walken impression. Check out this skit where you will see 8 seperate members of the current Saturday Night Live cast impersonate Christopher Walken:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/16389/saturday-night-live-meet-the-family#x-4,cClips,1
After watching this, I can reach two conclusions: 1) It's very easy to impersonate Christopher Walken or 2) The cast is, in fact, a talented group of comedic actors
All I can say is I tried seeing if I could talk like Christopher Walken for a few minutes by playing this skit and trying to mimic the way they talk. It's harder than it looks.
*By the way, the Deer Hunter, mentioned in the skit, is a movie about the Vietnam War that is incredibly disturbing. It's the last thing someone would find "hillarious"
Also, just for the heck of it, because as Allen says, lists are popular, i'll give you a quick rundown of my opinion of the best cast members SNL has ever had. I'm not going to include Adam Sandler even though he's clearly one of the ten most successful and popular characters because I just personally am not a fan of him. I think he was incredibly lucky to do as well as he did. He doesn't just have the boyish charm of a 12-year old, I think he has the IQ of a 12-year old, too. From what I've seen of the very first 10 years, I'm not convinced that John Belushi or Chevy Chase were particularly funny either. I'll say that Dan Akroyd is a pretty good straight man. Ok, anyway:
1. Phil Hartman-So versatile and also incredibly edgey. Did anyone know that the Sinatra family (Frank Sinatra was still alive and in fairly decent health) was up on arms about that Sinatra skit he did? He had so much potential post-SNL too.
2. Mike Meyers-The hyper-active kid was a favorite of mine
3. Chris Farley-I think obviously everyone got to know how talented he was on SNL and after SNL. Tragic story as well.
4. Dana Carvey-Chopping Broccoli is a pretty good skit of his
5. John Lovitz-Pretty underrated in my opinion. Not too good of a fit post-SNL, but at sketch comedy, he was as good as they get and Lorne Michaels thought so too
6. Norm McDonald-I loved his deadpan style
7. Will Ferrell-Well, pretty much everyone knows how talented he is
8. Chris Rock-They say he was underused but I really wouldn't have been able to think up a whole lot of uses for Chris Rock if I was a writer
9. David Spade-He's a little twirp, but, seriously, he's kind of like my hero too. He's the little kid in gym class who gets beaten up by the jock, but at least he gets a witty verbal jab off on the process
10. Amy Poehler-Affirmative action dictates we have to put a female in, but there were a lot of talented ones to chose from. The hard question was who to put first, since by putting her at #10 i'm saying she's the most talented female ever on the show, and i don't know about that
11. Jimmy Fallon-I don't care if he laughed at the camera, he seemed like a cool guy and I loved his music parodies.
12. Tim Meadows-Mainly a straight guy but a very good one at that
13. Jan Hooks-She was on in the late 80s, later did 3rd Rock from the Sun
14. Tracy Morgan-He's probably kind of dumb in real life, but used it to full effect on the show. Brian Fellows, Astronaut Jones, the homeless guy who lived in a sewer
15 Terry Sweeny-The only gay cast member ever in the history of Saturdy Night Live and a fairly funny guy at that
16 Chris Kattan-Not so much for Mango but some of the other stuff he did
17. Mark McKinney-Was on Kids in the Hall before SNL, joined the cast for a year in the mid-90s.
18. Ellen Cleighorne-The token black woman on the cast during the early 90's, interesting fact: according to Jay Mohr's tell-all memoir of his time there, she was a bitch who never talked to anyone
19. Julia Sweeny-She was the sexually ambigous "It's Pat" character, but she was fairly versatile and lasted quite a while during the show's golden age
20. Kristen Wiig-You should have to earn your place on one of these lists by being on the show for a few years, but she's just too good. The Target Lady, Penelope, Nancy Pelosi, she was hillarious in the film Knocked Up as the assistant on the E! network
You know, what I could easily exchange the last 10 for 10 others, I forgot to add Darrell Hammond, Dan Akroyd, Colin Quinn...., so whatever
It probably had survived so long because Nielsen Ratings measure a show's performance by your share of the TV audience and there is no one else who feels its of any use to put on a show on a Saturday Night. I used to think that Saturday Night Live's audience is primarily composed of people too young or too old to go out on a Saturday Night but there is a significant portion of people our age who are watching the show too.
I think that what's interesting about Saturday Night Live is that while it's not as popular as it was in the Rock/Farley/Spade/Hartman days (I'm not going to include Adam Sandler in that era because he has taken his talent and squandered with sooo many bad movies since his SNL days), it still manages to poke its head into pop culture when you're ready to call it down and out. I would've actually thought that Saturday Night Live stood a good chance of being killed when youtube started becoming popular since both youtube and saturday night live both cater to the audience who wants their comedy in 5-minute sketches but SNL found a way to jump on board the trend with the digital shorts produced by Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaeffer and Jorma Takome (Andy is the one on camera). "Dick in a Box" and "Lazy Sundae" are two that have gone viral on youtube, but there's also "Iran so Far," Adam Samberg's love song to the President of Iran with Adam Levine providing some of the vocals, and a hillarious one with Tom Hanks singing "Don't Touch my Testicles." The "Iran So Far" is probably the funniest thing Andy Samberg has done in my opinion and it's possibly the best thing Saturday Night Live has done all season.
The other smart thing Saturday Night Live is doing that nothing else on NBC is doing is its not giving away all its content for free on the internet. You can't watch an entire episode of Saturday Night Live online like you can for many shows on hulu or their respective network sites. They usually post about 2 or 3 sketches a week but I recently discovered that the people in charge of posting the sketches online aren't picking the best ones. I think this is smart because SNL isn't like a TV show. It does basically the same stuff as youtube. A lot of the funnier material (the stuff that isn't recycled from past skits) is usually in the show and it's that five-minute stuff that you're dying to see over and over again.
I would have thought that the show would have suffered because about 2 years ago they had some serious budget cuts and had to cut 5 or 6 people, and now their cast is much smaller and less experienced. Then again, an astoundingly high number of the members of the current cast are capable of doing a Christopher Walken impression. Check out this skit where you will see 8 seperate members of the current Saturday Night Live cast impersonate Christopher Walken:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/16389/saturday-night-live-meet-the-family#x-4,cClips,1
After watching this, I can reach two conclusions: 1) It's very easy to impersonate Christopher Walken or 2) The cast is, in fact, a talented group of comedic actors
All I can say is I tried seeing if I could talk like Christopher Walken for a few minutes by playing this skit and trying to mimic the way they talk. It's harder than it looks.
*By the way, the Deer Hunter, mentioned in the skit, is a movie about the Vietnam War that is incredibly disturbing. It's the last thing someone would find "hillarious"
Also, just for the heck of it, because as Allen says, lists are popular, i'll give you a quick rundown of my opinion of the best cast members SNL has ever had. I'm not going to include Adam Sandler even though he's clearly one of the ten most successful and popular characters because I just personally am not a fan of him. I think he was incredibly lucky to do as well as he did. He doesn't just have the boyish charm of a 12-year old, I think he has the IQ of a 12-year old, too. From what I've seen of the very first 10 years, I'm not convinced that John Belushi or Chevy Chase were particularly funny either. I'll say that Dan Akroyd is a pretty good straight man. Ok, anyway:
1. Phil Hartman-So versatile and also incredibly edgey. Did anyone know that the Sinatra family (Frank Sinatra was still alive and in fairly decent health) was up on arms about that Sinatra skit he did? He had so much potential post-SNL too.
2. Mike Meyers-The hyper-active kid was a favorite of mine
3. Chris Farley-I think obviously everyone got to know how talented he was on SNL and after SNL. Tragic story as well.
4. Dana Carvey-Chopping Broccoli is a pretty good skit of his
5. John Lovitz-Pretty underrated in my opinion. Not too good of a fit post-SNL, but at sketch comedy, he was as good as they get and Lorne Michaels thought so too
6. Norm McDonald-I loved his deadpan style
7. Will Ferrell-Well, pretty much everyone knows how talented he is
8. Chris Rock-They say he was underused but I really wouldn't have been able to think up a whole lot of uses for Chris Rock if I was a writer
9. David Spade-He's a little twirp, but, seriously, he's kind of like my hero too. He's the little kid in gym class who gets beaten up by the jock, but at least he gets a witty verbal jab off on the process
10. Amy Poehler-Affirmative action dictates we have to put a female in, but there were a lot of talented ones to chose from. The hard question was who to put first, since by putting her at #10 i'm saying she's the most talented female ever on the show, and i don't know about that
11. Jimmy Fallon-I don't care if he laughed at the camera, he seemed like a cool guy and I loved his music parodies.
12. Tim Meadows-Mainly a straight guy but a very good one at that
13. Jan Hooks-She was on in the late 80s, later did 3rd Rock from the Sun
14. Tracy Morgan-He's probably kind of dumb in real life, but used it to full effect on the show. Brian Fellows, Astronaut Jones, the homeless guy who lived in a sewer
15 Terry Sweeny-The only gay cast member ever in the history of Saturdy Night Live and a fairly funny guy at that
16 Chris Kattan-Not so much for Mango but some of the other stuff he did
17. Mark McKinney-Was on Kids in the Hall before SNL, joined the cast for a year in the mid-90s.
18. Ellen Cleighorne-The token black woman on the cast during the early 90's, interesting fact: according to Jay Mohr's tell-all memoir of his time there, she was a bitch who never talked to anyone
19. Julia Sweeny-She was the sexually ambigous "It's Pat" character, but she was fairly versatile and lasted quite a while during the show's golden age
20. Kristen Wiig-You should have to earn your place on one of these lists by being on the show for a few years, but she's just too good. The Target Lady, Penelope, Nancy Pelosi, she was hillarious in the film Knocked Up as the assistant on the E! network
You know, what I could easily exchange the last 10 for 10 others, I forgot to add Darrell Hammond, Dan Akroyd, Colin Quinn...., so whatever
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Monday, May 5, 2008
Short Recap
I guess before I get into the weekend I should link to the new details that Jessica Cutler(from a couple posts ago) was recently connected to Spitzers prostitution ring. I would like to go on the record saying that I am a fan of prostitution. I think sex is a healthy part of our society and shouldnt be repressed. If you need to pay for sex, than I am all for it. I will openly to admit to being open to the possibility later on down the road.
Now for the quick weekend recap..
I went to be early friday to rest up for saturday and byt relaunch party. All my roommates were attending and I was also bringing a guy from my stores running group along for the fun. I headed to my friends place right next to where I work with a couple 6 packs and we had some really good thai food to go along with the beers. I will say Bells porter is out of this world....easily one of my top 3 favorite beers ever. It was porter that tasted more like a chocolate stout.
We rode the metro over to new york ave and arrived into a dark bottom floor room of an unfinished high rise. There were some pictures and paintings here and there and a band on stage. We got there late, so we missed most of the bands, but I was more into checking out the DJ's that were closing out the night. I started to get a little buzz as the first DJ started, and it took a little while for me to get into him but the second guy(Chris Burns) was on fire from the start. He started off with a nice bongo beat mixed with another track that just wouldnt let me stand still. Fortunately everybody else I was with had the same reaction and we were all moving faster and faster as the tempo increased. Not long into the set, I felt a little perspiration which later turned into feeling like I just stepped out of the shower. I always used to see the ads saying you would dance until you were soaking wet, but I didnt believe them until Saturday night.
I guess that was the extent of my weekend really. I have surgery coming up in the middle of week so I will not have any good weekend stories but I am sure I will have some post-op tales.
Saturday in pictures
Now for the quick weekend recap..
I went to be early friday to rest up for saturday and byt relaunch party. All my roommates were attending and I was also bringing a guy from my stores running group along for the fun. I headed to my friends place right next to where I work with a couple 6 packs and we had some really good thai food to go along with the beers. I will say Bells porter is out of this world....easily one of my top 3 favorite beers ever. It was porter that tasted more like a chocolate stout.
We rode the metro over to new york ave and arrived into a dark bottom floor room of an unfinished high rise. There were some pictures and paintings here and there and a band on stage. We got there late, so we missed most of the bands, but I was more into checking out the DJ's that were closing out the night. I started to get a little buzz as the first DJ started, and it took a little while for me to get into him but the second guy(Chris Burns) was on fire from the start. He started off with a nice bongo beat mixed with another track that just wouldnt let me stand still. Fortunately everybody else I was with had the same reaction and we were all moving faster and faster as the tempo increased. Not long into the set, I felt a little perspiration which later turned into feeling like I just stepped out of the shower. I always used to see the ads saying you would dance until you were soaking wet, but I didnt believe them until Saturday night.
I guess that was the extent of my weekend really. I have surgery coming up in the middle of week so I will not have any good weekend stories but I am sure I will have some post-op tales.
Saturday in pictures
Sunday, May 4, 2008
How will Obama pull his way out?
I voted for Obama and I think Obama's really smart and I like his plan, but I think Obama might have no way out of this Jeremiah Wright scandal. Of course, I still am hoping he wins, but it's hard for Obama to rationalize to voters how he thinks his pastor is crazy, yet went to him for 20 years. I am still rooting for him, because:
-Hillary Clinton has much less experience than him anyway. She's only been a senator for four years longer than him. Why do people think that's such a big deal? (more on this at this fascinating article: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/19767182/hillarys_flimsy_case)It also just seems like a sneaky way to go around the constitution to have Bill in office again
-John McCain supported the war and still thinks it's a good idea. He's an improvement over Bush but the conservative party really has little legitimacy at this point. Also, John McCain was a prisoner of war: Have you seen the Manchurian Candidate?
I just think it will be interesting to see him find his way out of this mess.
Although, on the flip side, I'll play devil's advocate here: They talk about how Obama has the ability to bring people together, but can't that be given and taken away very easily by a fickle public and isn't it less a matter of a politician's personal quality than how people respond to him? For example, if I wanted to praise American Idol, I could say it has the power to bring people together because it's the #1 television program, but wouldn't it just be easier to talk about what makes American Idol great? My point: Whoever wins, will by definition have brought enough people together by them all voting for him.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
The DC Madam case
I don't know of any feasible reason why there's a need to waste a federal court's time on a prostitution case like that. I felt a certain sense of disgust when I read the articles in the Washington Post this past week about how women were once prostitutes had to be bought before a court to be mulled over by federal prosecutors who needed to know intimate details about their past lives. In one case, it might potentially end the career of a woman who was once a prostitute but is now in the navy. And when I heard about the D.C. madam hanging herself, I thought that was equally awful and sad.
I understand the idea of outlawing prostitution. If you don't outlaw it, people might be forced to do it who don't want to do it because economic conditions necessitate it. But if people want to do it badly enough that they are willing to circumvent the law, than I really don't see any problem with it. I also just think there's just a sexual hypocrisy with which we view prostitution: As if that's any more sinful than any of the legal means by which we go about pursuing sex. I actually feel that prostitution is a more moral way of going about getting a one-night stand than going to a bar and trying to pick up someone there. It's entirely consensual (one person's not drink) and there's no deception or lying about it. I'm not sure if I believe that entirely, but it's just food for thought. Either way, I don't think we should be so quick to label a scarlett letter on public officials who have used this call service or anything like that. I thought the political pressure of the governor of New York to resign was kind of dumb. It made a little more sense to hate him for the fact that he busted prostitution rings and then used a prostitute himself, but it was still dumb to pretend it was anything other than the prostitution (they said it was racketeering charges).
I think Holland has a better way of doing it. That's just me.
I understand the idea of outlawing prostitution. If you don't outlaw it, people might be forced to do it who don't want to do it because economic conditions necessitate it. But if people want to do it badly enough that they are willing to circumvent the law, than I really don't see any problem with it. I also just think there's just a sexual hypocrisy with which we view prostitution: As if that's any more sinful than any of the legal means by which we go about pursuing sex. I actually feel that prostitution is a more moral way of going about getting a one-night stand than going to a bar and trying to pick up someone there. It's entirely consensual (one person's not drink) and there's no deception or lying about it. I'm not sure if I believe that entirely, but it's just food for thought. Either way, I don't think we should be so quick to label a scarlett letter on public officials who have used this call service or anything like that. I thought the political pressure of the governor of New York to resign was kind of dumb. It made a little more sense to hate him for the fact that he busted prostitution rings and then used a prostitute himself, but it was still dumb to pretend it was anything other than the prostitution (they said it was racketeering charges).
I think Holland has a better way of doing it. That's just me.
Friday, May 2, 2008
Lebron vs. Deshawn vs. Jay-Z vs. Soulja Boy vs. Pro'verb
So not long ago, one of the lesser known Wizards called Lebron overrated. Lebron replied with something along the lines of "Me paying attention to that is like Jay-Z worrying about something Soulja Boy said. Thursday(a couple days later), Soulja Boy slyly makes an appearance to the game and is focused on during a number of timeouts. Friday night Lebron hosts a party at DC club and Jay Z sends down this song which is a diss on Deshawn Stevenson. Not long after an unknown DC rapper Pro'verb replies to Jay-Z with this cut.
Clearly the reply is much better than Jay-Z's but I think Deshawn was actually just happy to have a song done directed towards him from Jay-Z. Even Gilbert got into the fun and stated that there were three people he would want to write a song about him "Jay-Z, Michael Jackson, and Prince"
Clearly the reply is much better than Jay-Z's but I think Deshawn was actually just happy to have a song done directed towards him from Jay-Z. Even Gilbert got into the fun and stated that there were three people he would want to write a song about him "Jay-Z, Michael Jackson, and Prince"
DC Legend: Jessica Cutler
I just recently came across a story from a couple years back. A mail staffer for a Senator who made 25k a year(which is not much in DC) ended up with a number of "boyfriends" from the office and detailed this in a blog which has been archived for future generations here.
Its really entertaining and if you are really curious pictures are here and playboy pictures exist with a little searching. She's not super attractive but I think there needs to be a new categorization in the vein of speed goggles that deals with this phenomenon.
http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/more_on_jessica_cutler/
Its really entertaining and if you are really curious pictures are here and playboy pictures exist with a little searching. She's not super attractive but I think there needs to be a new categorization in the vein of speed goggles that deals with this phenomenon.
http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/more_on_jessica_cutler/
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