Trytophantastic!

What's better than halloween candy? Thanksgiving turkey with all the fixins. I will report on the glorious day of gluttony afterwards. In the meantime go check out this new webcomic I discovered. strindbergandhelium.com

Halloween!

Wow, the day before Halloween. I look forward to Halloween. I love fall and the cool temperatures it brings with it, so of course what holiday could be better. Plus there is all the candy. What ever is left over I get to eat.

I saw two movies this week. First, "The Last King of Scotland" this movie is a well crafted fictional account of Idi Amin's personal physician during his reign. Apparently he had several, but they are condensed into one for the movie. I loved and think that Forest Whitaker should be a shoe for an oscar. He commands the screen and terrifies as the ruthless dictator. A great movie. Also saw "Running with Scissors" not that great. It was okay, but the actual memoirs by Augusten Burroughs are much better. Not sure why everyone is crazy about Annette Benings role as his mother. Wait for Dvd on this one.

Enjoy the ghosts and goblins and hopefully some fall rainy weather...

Oy Mates!

School has kept me so busy these last few weeks. 7 more until the end the of quarter. Writing and reading seem to be taking up my whole life. Blah Balh, I know, but well its what I enjoy doing. I did manage to squeeze in two movies. "The Girl Next Door" was okay. Not great by any means, but enjoyable especially becuase of the main characters two best friends. A great movie is "La Mala Educacion" or Bad Education by Almoldavar. It has Gael Garcia Bernal and it is awesomely creepy. The whole last part of the movie cast the story in a completely light. Check it out. Maybe next time I will post about something other than movies....

Run Chickens!

Alright, a week gone by and nothing posted...Well school is back and I am busy. Just after the first week. And TV shows have been premiering. I really like the new show "Heroes", but I am just waiting til LOST comes back this coming wednesday. I did see "Chicken Run" which was pretty good, and am hoping to the Michel Gondry's "The Science of Sleep" this weekend. Well, just have to see how long my reading and assignments take up. Ahhhh, school.

The Office of Dorian Gray

Well, I finished "The Picture of Dorian Gray". It was alright. Not sure which book will come down from the Barnes and Noble Classics Shelf yet, maybe Beowolf. It's nice and short. School starts back up next week, so fiction will probably be put aside for awhile. There is always time for movies however, and I watched Season 1 of the NBC version of The Office. I had only seen a few pieces of episodes before, but it is good. I still think the BBC version is better, but Carrell and the rest of the cast are awesome.

This Post Has Not Yet Been Rated

Folks, go see the new movie "This Film Has Not Yet Been Rated". It is a great behind the curtain view of how the MPAA rates movies and how f***ed up the system is. He even hires a private detective to track down who the secret movie raters and appeals board members are. A very revealing film that highlights important facts we should be aware of. Such as, why is the MPAA the only film ratings board in the world that finds sexuality instead of violence as the aspect most in need of restriction.

In literature I read another Neal Stephenson book, "Snow Crash." A great novel that provides a glimpse of a possible near future. Over commercialized, technologically advanced and intriguing. "The Picture of Dorian Gray" is taking some time, but it's okay. The fiction reading will be ending soon, as classes start again. But as I get to read stuff I will note it.

I hope this finds more readers, or at least more hits, as it still does not come up when searching through Google, Yahoo or even the Blogger search tool. Oh, well.

Currency

Alright, I saw Crank on friday and the movie was so bad that I need to rant about something completely entertainment related. Currency!

Yes, I hate pennies and believe them to be worthless. Actually they are worthless now that the government announced they cost more to produce than their monetary value. Every penny made hurts our economy. I also dislike dollar bills. Now they are fun to enter into wheresgeorge.com, but in reality we are one of the few high power economy nations that still uses one dollar bills, instead of coins. Now we have one dollar coins, but for some reason people are fearful of them. Now back to pennies, one of the big reasons we still have them is due to the influence of the copper mining industry. Here is my solution. Stop making pennies and stop making dollar bills. Instead, make dollar coins that have a high percentage of copper in them. Thus making mining interests happy, and me happy because we have switched to dollar coins. To start I think everyone reading this should go to the bank and get some dollar coins from a teller, they do have them there. And go out and spend them. Get people really used to the idea of them.

Books!!!

I just finished reading two great books. "The System of the World" is the final book in Neal Stephenson's The Baroque Cycle. The series covers about 50 years of war, invention, and politics from the late 1600's through 1700's. Even better is that the main characters are the ancestors of the characters in his other great book, "Cryptonomicon." He has a great writing style that I love.

The other book I just finished was "The Dante Club" which chronicles a series of fictional murders from Dante's Inferno being reenacted in the late 19th Century Boston. And who must solve the murders but Longfellow and friends who comprised the actual "Dante Club" whom aided Longfellow in his first American translation of Dante's work. It is a great mystery that holds the readers attention.

I also now must blaim Barnes and Noble for the following. They recently made their classics half-priced, which means that I have bought a ton of these things. My goal is to read them as they are actually classics. I will start Dante soon given I just read the Dante Club, but am starting with Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Grey." I have about twenty others that I will report on as I read them. As classes are starting up again soon, I will just have to see how much time I have to read.

One quick note on movies: RV was okay, but predictable. Robot Chicken from Adult Swim is absolutely hilarious! Claymation and 1980's action figures in comic sketches! Awesome!

Ripoff Movie

Alright, I saw this at Blockbuster today and could not believe this existed. I kid you not..."Snakes on a Train" Here is a link to the IMDB site for the movie. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0843873/

Why does crap like this get made? Snakes On A Plane I can get behind. Samuel L. Jackson, Theatre Release, ect. But this??? NO!

An update on books, that's right not movies, will be coming soon.

Brick

I took away the SFgate link and replaced it with The Onion, a much funnier source of news. I just saw the film "Brick". Excellent film. Period. A film noir set in a high school, with the characters speaking in noir language from the 40's and 50's. The characters, the mood of the film, the setting, everything was perfect. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is great as the main lead. This is a new favorite.

As for news that is bugging me...What is up with Great Britain editing old Tom and Jerry cartoons to remove smoking scenes??? Those are classics that should not be messed with. I don't understand why people instantly turn to censorship rather than teaching their children that TV is not REAL and that smoking is bad. Just don't see this as a solution.

Netflix

Yeah the subtitle comes from "Coffee and Cigarettes." A great compilation film of skits that I personally love. Worth checking out. Which brings me to my next subject...Is it possible to be addicted to Netflix??? I keep adding movies to my queue, things I have never thought of watching before and things probably not worth watching. It does make watching movies easy though. "Robot Chicken" from Adult Swim is hilarious and "Inside Man" was pretty good.

As you can tell...I like movies.

Disappointment of the Snakes

With the opening weekend of "Snakes on a Plane" I really thought we would see with all of the mass online support for the movie payoff with a big opening weekend. It's too bad. I will see it eventually, but I think the experiment of having the fans effectively advertising a film here again, just like it did last fall with "Serenity".

Squid vs. Whale

Watched the movie, The Squid and the Whale, the other day. It was good, but was not the nature film one would expect from the title. In fact the only animal involved in the film is the family cat. I really liked the film, it was surprisingly short, but the acting was excellent. I recommend people check it out.

I have another link for everyone as well. www.wheresgeorge.com Enter the the serial number on your money and track its movement around the country as other people enter the bills as well. It is fun and interesting to see how fast money moves around. I will add some more comics soon.

UPDATE:
Okay I added the comics I mentioned earlier. Dino Comics are cool, even though the pictures never change, just new text everyday. Secondly is Patches. I am new to it but it has bears, something we should all be afraid of, and several mentions to coffee. Some may say I am addicted to it, but I just really really like it. Here is one sample: http://www.hingos.com/patches/index.php?pt=031225 Enjoy!

All right here is a picture of me and my pinata friend, Tigger. Updated the links, everyone should be reading webcomics and these are two of the best. I will add more eventually. If you go to "Toothpaste for Dinner" click on the link that takes you to the author's other comic, "Married to the Sea." As for the other two links, well we all need news and the SF Chronicle is trustworthy and who doesn't like TV and Movie news/reviews?

First Post

Just started this, deciding that I needed to expand my presence on the internet. I never learned HTML, so a blog is the next best thing. Right? Well we will see. Guess the first thing I want to say is that everyone should go see "Little Miss Sunshine." Easily the best film out so far this year, and instantly within my top 5 of all time. And I love movies.