February 28, 2010

Aquarius (1/20-2/18)

You never know what the universe will toss your way today, but it’s definitely not going to be a routine, run-of-the-mill afternoon. Instead of worrying about coulds, woulds and shoulds, help those changes along. When surprising news arrives, jump right in, get on board and go with the flow. It’s time to expand those horizons and see what’s out there waiting beyond the expected.

I’m standing here! Bring it on!

My new favorite Food Network Show is Chopped. I think it’s actually a true challenge—blows away Iron Chef as a competition of chef versus chef. I would rather see Iron Chef work the same way.

Basically, Mano y Mano everyone gets the same ingredients, no Sous Chef—20 minutes, make it happen! One show, three elimination  rounds, one winner! Appetizer round, Entree round and then finally dessert round. My understanding is that at the end all the winners of the individual shows will then compete against each other—fantastic concept!

Also, the judges are much sassier than in other chef competitions. The judges are welcomed—I enjoy their commentary! They might even be a little, dare I say, IRASCIBLE… They all give compliments and if anyone is happy about their compliment they quickly follow up with something negative to wipe the smile off their face—classic!

Do you have what it takes or will you be chopped? I think the humble iChef would do well in this competition…

You can watch Chopped episodes free online!

Technorati Tags: Chopped, cooking competition, food network show, iChef, Irascible, Iron Chef

We couldn’t have done it without you—had a party senior year without your Thriller album…

I grew up with Micheal Jackson on the radio, live on TV, as well as the cartoon version. He helped us get our groove on when we were children, made us cringe when we were too cool to be a public supporter, but came back and turned our world upside down when we were in HS when it became cool again to love his talent.

You couldn’t have a party when I was in HS unless you had a copy of Thriller.

He did change before our eyes many times over the years, but I like to remember him making us smile inside with his music. A fond memory of Michael Jackson while in College was his Jackson Family Tour back in 1984 (I’m pretty sure that was the year.) He toured the world with his family. It seemed like a way for him to give back to them some glory, success, and money that he was lucky enough to have had over the years.

My friend got like 20 tickets on the floor and I’m not ashamed to admit that it is still one of the best concerts I’ve ever been to. We had our hands in the air, singing ABC with Michael Jackson and his family! Our girls were dancing on the tops of the wooden floor chairs as we held on to prevent them from flying off.

When the several hour concert ended we continued the party in the Meadowlands parking lot waiting for the traffic to clear, the drinks to be finished, the girls and guys to finish whatever it is they were doing in those cars, and the vibe that Michael Jackson brought us to settle down…

Thank you Michael! I don’t care what anybody says when you were good you were sooooo good!

**************

Remembering Michael Jackson By Michelle Malkin

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Michael Jackson suffers massive heart attack, in critical condition; TMZ: Jackson dead Jun 25, 2009 5:25 PM by Allahpundit

Technorati Tags: Jackson family world tour, Meadowlands, Michael Jackson, Obituary

Farrah you meant more to us than could be expressed in words—we grew up with you… Thanks for going out there and being part of our lives…

Farrah Fawcett Dead at 62...

Technorati Tags: Farrah Fawcett, Obituary

Space.

These are the voyages of the Star Ship Enterprise.

Full Disclosure:

I’m a fan of Star Trek, the original series from the late 60’s. I used to watch the reruns on channel 11 WPIX when I got home from long nights of work and the inability to go to sleep from the dinner rush when I got home. I can do the Vulcan peace sign and raise either eyebrow to signal a myriad of different emotions, questions, or expressions. I own the original series on VHS tape that I recorded with and without commercials. I believe the creator of the series, Gene Roddenberry, is a genius for his vision, his predictions of the future, and dealing with ground breaking (at the time to deal with) subject matter: interracial relations, political opinion, space travel and meddling in other cultures and civilizations, etc.

I’m an original Trekkie, not a costumed fanatic, but a fan who knows and cares a lot about the original series. I couldn’t wait for the Next Generation to come out when it was on the horizon and as I affectionately refer to it as The Degeneration, you know how I feel. I couldn’t have been more disappointed by an old man (french no less) Captain Jean Luc Picard, replacing the coolest, baddest, green girl getting—Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner.

Lets talk about JJ Abrams and his Star Trek. Lets just say JJ has issues with time and space. Okay I already hate his use of time and space in LOST (and when I say “hate,” I mean I hate it so much I can’t wait for each and every episode to come on so I can try to figure SOMETHING out!) Dude—you have issues with the past, present, and the future!

Things I liked: the characters—they did the original cast proud! James T. Kirk scruffy scrapper with balls of titanium, Spock nicely done and he gets a smoken hot Lieutenant Uhura, Scotty by Simon Peg a surprise to me and I liked it, surprise of surprises was Bones—excellent job with dialog, mannerisms, and swagger. I also liked the more-than-just-a-cameo by Leonard Nimoy. Honorable mention goes to Chekov!

Things I didn’t care for: The story line. What’s with fucking with the original story? This was supposed to be the backstory, not the revised story! Not to mention a very much a convoluted revised story. Overall, I enjoyed the movie for it’s concept, characters, and future potential.

Things I look forward to: the future of the new (old) Star Trek movies series with the (new) original crew. I liked the characters so much and potential future of story lines.

I enjoyed the movie and recommend it!

Alone in first place in May!

Yankees Team Report

Yankees Team Report May 30, 2009 from Yahoo.

A quartet of holdovers from the dynastic Yankees helped return the franchise to its familiar perch atop the AL East on Friday.

Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada had two hits apiece, and Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera combined on the win and the save for the record-setting 58th time as the Yankees edged the Indians 3-1 in the opener of a four-game series in Cleveland. The win, coupled with the Red Sox’ 6-3 loss to the Blue Jays, put the Yankees in first place by a half-game, the first time they have held sole possession of the AL East lead since the final day of the 2006 season.

MLB Standings

Wolverine…

I have to say after the first X-Men movie I wasn’t really thrilled. I had no prior knowledge of the comic book series or the storyline which is okay. My belief is that a movie needs to be able to stand on it’s own regardless of the series number or sequel. INDEPENDENT. That being said I watched the second and third and I think my favorite is either number 2 or 3—I liked the blue hairy guy Dr. Henry ‘Hank’ McCoy / Beast played by Kelsey Grammer. The X-Men franchise has been growing on me steadily with each sequel.

Not knowing the back story, personally, I needed more information to give the movie more umph! Or just start the series in a logical order—which, in a sense, breaks my belief of the need to stand on it’s own.

Well, this latest iteration—the BACKSTORY on Logan / Wolverine let’s us in on all that background I’ve been jonsing and I really enjoyed it! Hugh Jackman is Wolverine/Logan and again rocks the part!

I liked the storyline, I liked the characters, I liked the violence, and I liked the girl… Kayla Silverfox

I’m wondering if they could make any of the other characters origin story as interesting (I know they’ll try!)—after all they did introduce a bunch of the other characters from the previous X-Men movies which made this movie fun and interesting.

Hugh Jackman is hot, Lynn Collins is hot in the movie (having trouble finding her hot off screen though), the story is hot, how can you go wrong…

******

Other Voices:

‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ Press Conference – The Cast and Director Gavin Hood

Technorati Tags: Beast, Dr. Henry 'Hank' McCoy, Hugh Jackman, logan, Lynn Collins, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, XMen

Bronx Bummers!

HOW IS IT POSSIBLE? TO LOSE TO ANOTHER TEAM (EVEN if they were THE BEST TEAM which they certainly were not!) 22-4?

Bronx Bummer: Indians’ 14-run second dooms Yankees

The last place (I know it’s only April) Indians DESTROYED the (at home in the new stadium) Yankees on April 17th, 2009 by a score of 22-4… This is not the house that Ruth built—no way!

Forget about the highest payroll in Baseball let alone all professional sports. Forget about the caliber of players. Forget about it all except that it’s the NEW YORK YANKEES, the most winningest, storied franchises in professional sports…

Don’t give me EXCUSES! I’m not interested in injuries—everyone struggles through them. Don’t give me a bad day—everybody has them!

I can’t fathom that any professional baseball team can have that many runs against them. Let a lone my beloved Yankees. Even the worst teams don’t lose to the best teams by so many runs—Yet it happens at least once a year to the Yankees!

Full disclosure: I myself am not a fan of paying ridiculous salaries to unproven (in New York) players—It really is a crap shoot—some people can excel and some bomb! That’s reality!

Repeat after me:

It’s only April. It’s only April. It’s only April. It’s only April. It’s only April. It’s only April.

Ohemmmm…

Technorati Tags: NEW YORK YANKEES, News, Op / Ed, Sports

I mentioned the other day that if I’m flipping through the channels and certain movies are on I will watch them to completion regardless of the time…

Scarface was on the other night—no brainer (it was already 11 pm—Scarface is a long movie…) I MUST WATCH!

Needless to say I wasn’t in bed before 2 am. The Big Lebowski would also fall into that category—Love The Big Lebowski!

Well, thanks to a few Time Savers out there (thanks Brian for the Scarface time saver) (and thanks to Jacki in Malibu/ Lebowski DC) we can all save a lot of time in our busy schedule (even if the time we are saving is well needed bedtime…) by taking a look at the shortened versions. Think of it as the condensed version, the Readers Digest version, well you can watch both movies in under 5 minutes…

Warning

*This is not meant to be a substitute for the richness only earned by a full viewing, but as a substitute like, sweet and low—pretty good, but with an odd aftertaste, but it will get the job done. (It’s not Splenda for godsake!)

Scarface:

The Big Lebowski:

Technorati Tags: Lebowski DC, Scarface, Sweet and low, The Big Lebowski, Time Saver

UPDATED March 8, 2009:

After a couple of days of thought about the movie Watchmen I have a couple of additions that I didn’t have when I wrote the original review. Two issues: costume /makeup and casting.

Malin Akerman: whom had the perfect look—hot! Her rendition of Silk Spectre II kicked ass, (don’t forget that!) except for a couple of scenes (which were not really in her control.) When they took her bangs away and parted her hair over her forehead—It happened only briefly, but it did interrupt the fantasy…

They used the wrong colors on her crime fighting uniform for her shoulder area or they should have given the uniform shoulder pads to build out her frame. As it was she looked small, petite, like she didn’t have a neckline—again the scenes were brief, but I’m updating my thoughts and that’s what I think.

Those were the cosmetic thoughts and now there is an issue with casting—Patrick Wilson as Nite Owl II. I really wanted to believe and like this actor in this role I immediately thought about him being in  Hard Candy. Part of the reason I wanted him to well was because his performance was chilling as a predator/pedophile/killer! But I can’t get that character out of my head. So I ask why was he chosen to be a superhero? His acting skills are right on but… Maybe he looked good in the Nite Owl suit… He did have the cleft chin that looked cool with his mask.

Also, the villain Ozymandias played by Matthew Goode was just eh… Didn’t really have the look which would have been ok if he brought the attitude, but he didn’t. So, I’m not sure why he was selected… This could be because I don’t know the graphic novel version of Watchmen and it might be explained there.

Original post starts here:

Wowie Kazoo! Watchmen rocks!

I had no expectations, didn’t really know the story going in. I did know that it was based on comic books so I loosely knew it would be an action superhero type thing.

Lots of buzz on the street. I liked it! I liked it very much!

It was a long movie and I didn’t mind a bit. It wasn’t trite in the sense that it wasn’t a made for kids sensibilities—It was a comic book for adults! Ultra violence, strong language, sex—it had it all! —Including what I consider a solid plot, some really good acting especially Rorschach played by Kelly Leak from The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training days—Jackie Earle Haley, great costumes and special effects. I really liked the small details like the characters names for instance. The music also kicked a lot of ass!

I don’t know where you go from here with sequels because this was really good and my favorite character dies in the end… No spoiler because you don’t know which character was my favorite.

Billy Crudup: was solid as Dr. Manhattan. Malin Akerman: kicked ass as Silk Spectre II. Patrick Wilson as Nite Owl II did a good job making me forget his chilling character Jeff Kohlver from Hard Candy. Jeffrey Dean Morgan: as The Comedian was really a good character! Zack Snyder did and awesome job of directing—this was better that 300 !

Technorati Tags: Billy Crudup, Dr. Manhattan, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Kelly Leak, Malin Akerman, Minutemen, Nite Owl II, Patrick Wilson, Rorschach, Silk Spectre II, The Bad News Bears, The Comedian, Watchmen, Zack Snyder