An enthusiastic review of the new Andy Barker, P.I. The reviewer sadly predicts a demise like the dearly departed Arrested Development.
Monthly Archive for March, 2007
JibJab, makers of several funny videos, has come out with a new one called "What We Call the News". Its pretty funny/clever, certainly worth a look.
(via a ton of people, including Jason Calacanis, Oliver Willis, etc.)
Dare I say it but this might be the best Friday Random Ten evah! Certainly its one of the most elecetic ones put together (thank you shuffle technology). Featured are my new current favorite artist (Amy Winehouse), a great classic song (Gangsta's Paradise), one of my favorite country songs (Ten Rounds With Jose Cuervo), one of my all time favorite artists (Citizen Cope, who I'm seeing Sunday sucka!) and, of course, Eminem (and some how Nickelback got slipped in there. I'm ashamed).
1. T.I., What You Know
2. Eminem feat. Obie Trice, Spend Sometime
3. The Cure, Six Different Ways
4. Eminem feat. 50 Cent & Dr. Dre
5. Nickelback, Far Away
6. Bill Murray, Dalai Lama Speech
7. Coolio, Gangsta's Paradise
8. Tracy Byrd, Ten Rounds With Jose Cuervo
9. Citizen Cope, Penitentry
10. Amy Winehouse, Rehab
You can't tell me that wasn't pretty good. Thats a great playlist right there.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLQRv0RjBBM[/youtube]
This is kind of an amazing story:
A 2-year-old golden retriever named Toby is credited with saving his owner's life.
Toby saw his owner choking on a piece of fruit and began jumping up and down on the woman's chest.
The dog's owner, Debbie Parkhurst, believes the dog was trying to perform the Heimlich maneuver and saved her life.Parkhurst, 45, of Calvert told the Cecil Whig she was eating an apple at her home Friday when a piece lodged in her throat. She attempted to perform the Heimlich maneuver on herself but it didn't work. After she began beating on her chest, she said Toby noticed and got involved."The next thing I know, Toby's up on his hind feet and he's got his front paws on my shoulders," she recalled. "He pushed me to the ground, and once I was on my back, he began jumping up and down on my chest."Moments later, the apple dislodged and Toby started licking her face to keep her from passing out, she said."I literally have pawprint-shaped bruises on my chest. I'm still a little hoarse, but otherwise, I'm OK," Parkhurst said."The doctor said I probably wouldn't be here without Toby," said Parkhurst, a jewelry artist. "I keep looking at him and saying 'You're amazing.'"
I think I can safely say that Amber the Beagle would not have been able to do this. She probably would have just howled or something.
An update on the Sam Fox ambassadorship nomination discussed earlier, the AP is reporting that President Bush is withdrawing Fox's nomination. Remember people, don't give thousands of dollars to slander a Presidential candidate, it could come back to haunt you.
The odds of me buying these sandals is close to 100%.
Regarding my earlier post concerning Reign On Me it should be noted that Peter Travers, movie critic for Rolling Stone and some one who's opinion does shape my perception of movies, tears Reign on Me apart. To wit:
The improbability pileup hits maximum alert when the reclusive Charlie literally bumps into Alan Johnson (Don Cheadle), his roommate at dental school. Ah, we in the audience whisper, a catalyst for change. Alan is inspired to help his friend, no matter how much Charlie doesn't want help. Cheadle's role is a plot function, nothing more, saddling a fine actor with a potpourri of conflicting clichŽs. Get this: Alan's own problems include a nagging wife (Jada Pinkett Smith) he keeps at a distance and a patient (gorgeous Saffron Burrows) who keeps trying to give him blow jobs at the office. Binder sees all these characters as walking wounded, saving his needling wit for the parents (Robert Klein and Melinda Dillon) of Charlie's dead wife. They want Charlie committed so they can grab the 9/11 insurance settlement.
Talk about biting off more than any reasonable movie would dare to chew. Binder's pushy style irritated many viewers of HBO's short-lived The Mind of the Married Man. But he did an outstanding job of dramatizing the explosion of repressed rage in 2005's The Upside of Anger with a sparring Joan Allen and Kevin Costner. Reign Over Me (the title is derived from the Who song "Love, Reign O'er Me") doesn't know from boundaries. It overdoes everything, from Charlie repeating "You're too young" to his improb-able shrink (Liv Tyler) to a risible courtroom scene, with Donald Sutherland as a judge deserving of his own loony bin. Binder himself shows up as a crass lawyer with an unexpected touch of class.
This would probably fall in the category of some of the bad reviews I mentioned in the previous post.
This is both some what old and some what unfair but it still made me laugh. Via Isaac Chotiner at the Plank:
Mitt Romney and his wife were on 'Larry King Live' last week, and the former governor discussed his Mormon mission overseas:
Oh, it is a fabulous experience. Look, I was sort of having fun going to college and not worrying about the future. And then I went to a different country and saw how different life could be if we didn't have the values and the kinds of opportunities that exist in America.
It is indeed tragic that so much of the world doesn't have the same freedoms and conveniences that America does. Whole continents are filled with the scourges of disease and poverty. I'm just glad that Romney got a small taste of how so much of humanity actually lives.
Anyhow, where exactly was he?
I was in France. Bordeaux, Paris, all over France. A great learning experience to live overseas.
Saw the new Don Cheadle/Adam Sandler movie last night, Reign Over Me. Wasn't half bad. Cheadle is, as expected, fairly great and Sandler does solid work. Its a pretty sad movie mixed in with some truly funny bits, certainly worth seeing. Two things that stood out though:
1) the music throughout the movie is pretty great and the Pearl Jam cover of The Who's Love Reign Over Me is next on my downloading list and
2) there are times in the movie when Sandler is doing his little weird "depressed/weirdo" voice in a manner which is supposed to sound serious but sounds EXACTLY like the voice he uses in Happy Gilmore/Billy Madison. This totally hampers serious parts of the movie. Its not Sandler's fault he brings those other, drastically less serious movies, to mind but he's got to be aware that his weird "non-normal" voice needs to be a little different from movie to movie.
Also, and I haven't thought about this extensively so I'll just through it out there, its kind of weird how 9/11 is used in the plot. Its used more as a plot device rather then a focus of the movie. Charlie Fineman, Sandler's character, loses his family in the 9/11 attacks but they just as easily could have been killed in some other tragic incident. Its almost as if the director/writer decided that since this movie is set in New York City that 9/11 would be the logical tie in. Again I haven't thought about this enough but I thought I'd mention it.
Here's what Rotten Tomatoes has to say about the movie (its not very positive) and, as always, here's a link to my movie review section featured right here on this very own site.