München

Went to see Munich last night with my Simpsons Insanity buddy. I enjoyed it - it kind of went into the moral territory I expected, but that is a good thing. Ah. .Eric "Chopper" Bana - I enjoyed his performance except for a slightly goofy, sweaty, strobey "tortured" sex scene. Good supporting cast: Daniel "new bond" Craig, Mathieu "amelie" Kassowitz, Geoffrey Rush, and the guy who plays Caesar in HBO's Rome. Ironically, no Jews. Spielberg also plays off on modern events, dropping in an obligatory twin towers shot at the end. I wish all directors could put out two good movies per year like he has.
Also, I've noticed that Spielberg, in all of his most serious work shows boobs (a la Embeth Davidtz in the showers in Schindler's List which for me threw the tone of the moment off a bit- yeah, i'm a little lecherous). Tonight, Jesus Is Magic!

Derek Bailey RIP

Derek Bailey, the great British improviser and guitarist, passed away yesterday. His music really changed my tastes in music in college, and even inspired my band, Howard's Hair on Fire, in my senior year. Whether it be his improvised solo work, his album of drum and bass music, or his collaborations with musicians like John Zorn, Evan Parker, Henry Kaiser, or Ruins, his stuff was amazing to listen to. I wish I had a chance to see him in person ):.

Favorite TV of 2005 (TIVO rankings)

Battlestar Galactica
possibly my favorite sci-fi show ever?!!?!











Weeds
Finally something to watch on Showtime.










How I Met Your Mother
"Suit Up!" - Doogie, Willow, and Nick from Freaks and Geeks - I hate sitcoms, but I like this show a lot.




24
This year was it's best season ever. Plus Mary Lynn Rajskub kicks ass in it.










The Wire
I am so glad this is returning next year. This last season was great.







House
Hugh Laurie is great.










Deadwood
cocksucker!







South Park
has not jumped the shark yet- amazing.







Tony Bourdain No Reservations
New Jersey, Uzbekistan, Vegas, France, Yum












Curb Your Enthusiasm
"The Ski Lift" episode with the "big vagina"! Classic.






Veronica Mars
Season 1 was great - I hope the new season improves ):






Lost Guilty Pleasures: The Inside, Threshold

Favorite Reality Shows: Project Runway, Beauty and the Geek, Amazing Race (no families), Survivor, Apprentice (I love Rebecca Jarvis), American Idol.

Shows Pissing me off: Lost, Desperate Housewives, Rome

My Top Ten Movies of 2005 (no particular order)

History of Violence
I hear the screenwriter spits.






Broken Flowers
They kept playing the Ethiopiques album Rob Francis recommended to me years ago.






Kung Fu Hustle
I love Steven Chow - this is what Matrix 2 and 3 should have been - slapstick comedy.







Murderball
damn, quadriplegic guys get hot chicks.






The 40 Year Old Virgin
Hit close to home (close). Steve Carell is great. Paul Rudd is underrated.






2046
Some people didn't like the new Wong Kar-Wai, but I really dug it even though it was not his best film.






Old Boy
Saw this movie on video last year, but it deserves a mention. Jumpstarted my obsession with Korean cinema.





Me and You and Everyone We Know
))=((







The Squid and the Whale
Noah Baumbach really impressed me with this hilarious film. Also, Anna Paquin is hot.





Wallace and Gromit and the Curse of the Were-Rabbit







Guilty Pleasures: War of the Worlds, Serenity,

Movies I should have seen but missed (hello DVD): Grizzly Man, The Weather Man, The Lord of War, North Country, Capote,

Movies yet to see: Munich, Brokeback Mountain, The Chronic- What?-cles of Narnia, Match Point, Jesus is Magic

Worst Movies I'm ashamed to have seen: Elektra, Ring Two, Cursed, The Island, Last Days, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Chewbacca Xmas

You're the man now dog! There are several sites devoted to this phrase from Finding Forrester. At one, I found this holiday song by Chewbacca. Enjoy.

I Miss Connery

We need more Connery films. Where is he? I don't care that LXG sucked. LINK to this!

Nerd Shopping Day

This morning, I woke up at 7am and instead of loafing around for a few hours before going to work, I got up, showered and headed to Best Buy because it was Nerd-vana for DVDs! My shopping list: Battlestar Galactica Season 2.0, Serenity, and The Brothers Grimm. Sad and true.

I Took a Nerd, Geek or Dork test and I am a . . .

Modern, Cool Nerd 69 % Nerd, 56% Geek, 21% Dork

For The Record: A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia. A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one. A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions. You scored better than half in Nerd and Geek, earning you the title of: Modern, Cool Nerd. Nerds didn't use to be cool, but in the 90's that all changed. It used to be that, if you were a computer expert, you had to wear plaid or a pocket protector or suspenders or something that announced to the world that you couldn't quite fit in. Not anymore. Now, the intelligent and geeky have eked out for themselves a modicum of respect at the very least, and "geek is chic." The Modern, Cool Nerd is intelligent, knowledgable and always the person to call in a crisis (needing computer advice/an arcane bit of trivia knowledge). They are the one you want as your lifeline in Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (or the one up there, winning the million bucks)! Congratulations! Thanks Again! -- THE NERD? GEEK? OR DORK? TEST

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 76% on nerdiness You scored higher than 77% on geekosity You scored higher than 27% on dork points

Link: The Nerd? Geek? or Dork? Test written by donathos on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

The Burberry Scarf

So this past weekend whilst in NYC, my friends and I noticed the ubiquitous Burberry scarf that exists now in the world. Everyone in the cold seemed to be wearing one - we counted off about a dozen of them in a few minutes of walking in midtown. What up? This was a big trend a few years ago - my cousin speculated the second wave of men wearing the scarf probably explains why it has lingered on so long. Time to put this away. Me, I believe the long scarf tied Asian style is the way to fashion up the cold.
Addendum, the next day, my mom was wearing a burberry pattern scarf.

More Weeds

So, my favorite new show in the last 4 months was Showtimes's Weeds starring Mary Louise Parker, Elizabeth Perkins, and Kevin Nealon. It also has the black guy from The 40 Year Old Virgin. It's about a recently widowed woman living in a large housing association in SoCal who has to deal weed to support her family. There is an aspect of dark humor to the show as she is trying to raise her sons as well as carving out her "turf" in the community with the help of her flaky brother, her suppliers' son, and her customers. I am really glad they announced today that it is renewed for a second season. The three Golden globe nominations may have helped, too.
It is so much better than the most recent crap on HBO, Rome, which I basically gave up on early and only watched for T&A and gore for the rest of their predictable season (omigosh, Caesar gets killed). Also, not so full of itself as Arrested Development- cancel it already for god's sake.

The Santa Claus Pubcrawl

Drunken Santas stumbling around and smoking - I love the holidays! Saw about 100 inebriated Santa Clauses outside the Continental on St. Marks Place. I wish I had a costume, too.

This Ain't Cup O'Noodle

Saturday night, we went to Minca Noodle Factory, an authentic ramen place in the Lower East Side. The food was the shezznay - perfect noodles, great hearty broth, and the fatty pork (charsu) - fatty and delicious!! Perfect for the cold night.

Xmas in Midtown Manhattan

I became one of the throngs of bridge and tunnel (Lincoln) people to brave the drive into midtown with my cousin and her beau to see the wonderful Rockefeller center tree. It really gives you the feeling of the holidays on the east coast - I even got shoved by large presents whilst circling the tree. New for me was this gloriously bright star around 54th ave. I was hypnotized by its brilliance. There was unfortunately no way to get into FAO Schwartz or Toys R Us.

Berocca!

One item I brought back from Australia, at the urging of my friend Nick, was Berocca, a vitamin and energy drink that is used mainly as a hangover remedy. Nick swears by the stuff. Looking at the label, it consists mostly of Vitamins B and C- the stuff smells like strong vitamin ass. It's an effervescent tablet that dissolves in water and you drink it down. I had tropical flavour (Aussie spelling), Nick had original, and Sue had orange. Since we weren't hungover- the stuff was just ok - no real difference was noted. Later though, my urine was tropical coloured - yum!

Auf Wiedersehen

Alas, the 2nd degree of separation to Project Runway 2 was eliminated on the very first night! All because the lawyer chick liked her stupid "heirloom" scarf too much and decided to make an ugly meaningless t-shirt number that she stated she wouldn't wear. Bye Melissa. I'm rooting for the nerd girl designer.

From my Window

New Order in Versailles

Check out the Marie Antoinette trailer, the new Sofia Coppola film with Kirsten Dunst, Jason Schwartzman, Steve Coogan, Rip Torn, Judy Davis, and Asia Argento. Cool cool.

My Commute Home (Baltimore)

So one huge plus about moving back to Baltimore is that I get to walk to and from work. This evening, aside from the usual homeless person in a giant parka, schoolkids, and early happy hour folk, I encountered some cool items that really put me in a "Baltimore is Charm City" mood, Hon!

I was near a bar called Mum's on Hanover St. when this sign was laying on the sidewalk. Not sure if they meant "Parking" as in for Ravens home games, but I like "Porking" as a possible warning to people stumbling by.




As I entered to the alley behind my house, I came upon this rat- it was huge - about 9 inches long - I occasionally see them scurry in the alley when I am parking my car at night. Ah, the city. . .




Then, I had to take out the garbage and next to the can, I saw this. That's hot. I love B'more!