Still For Sale

Now cheaper and with pictures. Happy Vultures?

Todo Sobre Mi Madre - 8.5

Hey look, I can write movie titles in Spanish now. That is to say, I can remember it for long enough to write it down. Maybe I should try a spanish review at some point. It would be short though. (Todo Sobre Mi Madre es muy bueno. El fin.) So, I'm trying to watch a bunch of Spanish movies before I had to Chile (any suggestions would be good by the way, I'm running out of ideas). I didn't understand a damn word of this one, but it was pretty incredible none the less, and it's easily my favorite of the four Almovodar movies I've seen.

So sometimes Senor Pedro is just too dense for me ("Bad Education"). Sometimes, just too damn weird ("Talk to Her") but when the shock-value is toned down and and the story and characters are really emphasized without too much distraction he makes some incredible movies (here and to a lesser extent "Volver"). The acting clearly made this movie what it was. Like all of his stories, this one is a stretch when it comes to realism, but spectacular performances all around absolutely made it work. I'm not sure why Penelope Cruz only gets crap roles in American movies, because she is amazing in both this and Volver. Anyway, this movie is a crappy educational tool, but it's still awesome and well worth watching.

Oh, and credit where it is due, Ted has been saying all of this for years, and I've ignored him till tonight. Yep, I'm an idiot.

Ga...

Lots of pretty good albums that I haven't listened to enough, start with Ga or Ge.

Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

Roots - Game Theory

White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan

Mountain Goats - Get Lonely

50 Cent is coming on now, but I think it's time for bed. 

In other music news, both the new Hold Steady and the new Notwist albums have made good first impressions, but mostly I spend my time listening to Pimsleur's "Speak and Read Essential Spanish II". Hasta luego, el internet. 

Devil's Backbone - 7.5

So, it's not Pan's Labyrinth, but it's kind of like that movie exactly like Desperado that came before Desperado. Well, not exactly, Desperado was a remake, and Pan's Labyrinth wasn't, but just consider that opening my obscure film-reviewer way of saying that this movie shares a whole bunch of traits with Del Toro's subsequent masterpiece. It has lots of the same themes, the same focus on children, the same perfect pacing, the great direction and acting. Most importantly, it has the same wonderful other-worldly feel that PL has in such abundance.

Sadly, even though it had a lot in common with its successor, this was nowhere close to as good as Pan's Labyrinth. The main difference was in the visuals. The movie still looks pretty damn good for a relatively low budget film (the undetonated bomb is a wonderful centerpiece), but the special effects in Devil's Backbone are average at best, and the incredible cinematography that tied everything together in Pan's Labyrinth is no where to be found.

So, it's not as good as my favorite movie of the last 10+ years, but that is certainly no crime. The fact that it holds it's own in so many ways is a major accomplishment. All told, I'd say this falls just a little short of "must see", but is definitely well worth your time if you're a Del Toro fan.

For Sale

Anyone need a car?

David Sedaris - When You Are Engulfed in Flames - 7.5

This book seems a lot more introspective, serious, and dare I say, mature than his previous books, but it's still pretty great. I laughed out loud at least once our twice and was smiling most of the time. So, maybe not his best work, but still well worth a read if you like Sedaris.

OJ Simpson Clue

So, everyone remembers the board game Clue where you try to solve a murder mystery, right? So as my get-the-hell-out-of-the-country present my friends at work make me a slightly modified version of clue, with a much easier murder mystery at it's core. Check it out!

Donkey Wrestling

Best. Youtube. Ever.

And it has Mr. Rosso from Freaks and Geeks hadn't noticed that before.

Jarjar's Labyrinth

My first Spore creation is a cross between the scary-ass monster in Pan's Labyrinth and the debatably scarier monster in Star Wars episode 1.

Wow

Ty, Wayne, and Danny returning?  Hell yes...

The Netherlands (Euro 2008)

Good lord have the Oranje been impressive so far in the Euro.  After demolishing Italy 3-0 in their first match, they did the same to France today 4-1.  Before the tournament, it could have easily been argued that France and Italy had the two strongest defenses in the entire tournament (they combined to concede all of 5 goals in 14 matches in the last World Cup) and the Dutch score 7 freaking goals against them?  Incroyable.  

My favorite thing about the Dutch, other than 6 out of 7 of their goals thus far coming from open play and the majority of them following beautiful passing sequences (see Sneijder with goal #2 vs. Italy) is that they never stop attacking.  It's actually a bit insane but today with a 1-0 lead over France at halftime, the Dutch coach/legend, Marco van Basten, subs out a defensive midfielder and puts in Arjen Robben, an attacking force who can't play a lick of defense.  And since that wasn't enough, 10 minutes into the 2nd half, he takes out Dirk Kuyt who is decent enough going forward but also solid defensively on the wing, and puts in another out and out attacker in Arsenal man Robin van Persie (who is a brilliant player but I honestly can't remember him ever making a tackle).  I don't think I'm going out on a limb by saying that every other team in the tournament would be making defensive substitutions and trying to hold on to a 1-0 win that would insure advancement to the quarterfinals.  But the Dutch put in a couple of freaking forwards and invite the French to attack them ... and it worked.  Van Basten said that he needed players who could stretch the field since the French had gained control of the match towards the end of the 1st half, and his 2 subs combined on the Dutch's 2nd goal (Robben to van Persie with a little help from a ridiculous touch from van Nistelrooy) before Robben put the game away with the 3rd goal.  Marco van Basten, you sir are a genius.

Anyways, I was rooting for France today and will be pulling hard for them to beat Italy and qualify for the quarters but Holland have easily been the most impressive and entertaining team of the tournament thus far (though Spain might have something to say about this with their 2nd game coming tomorrow).  A potential semifinal against the Spanish (or a rematch against France or Italy) is mouth-watering and really any Holland game is must-see at this point (that is unless it is being played at the same time as a do or die rematch of the last World Cup final between two teams who legitimately hate each other ... see Tuesday June 16th around 2:30 in the afternoon, thank god I don't have a job).

Team America: World Police - 2.0

I half watched this while playing poker because my roommates had it on. Some of the songs were kind of catchy but I didn't laugh a single time. Much like South Park, this movie blows.

Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - 3.0

I'm really not quite sure how so many intelligent people (even those with whom I share DNA) can say this movie is "good". I can see how people enjoyed it - In a perverse way, I enjoyed it, but I was laughing at it not with it. It was bad. Really bad. The dialog. The action scenes. The CGI. The dialog. The acting. The monkeys. The sword fights. The dialog. The jokes. The cinematography. The story. The ending, oh god, the ending. The dialog. The freaking gophers. The dialog. All bad. It was not good. You cannot possibly think it was good. It is not thinkable.

Now, I will say I had fun at the movie. Watching Susheel's reactions was amusing. Imagining the writers discuss the symbolism of various CGI animals was funny. Trying to think of things I liked about the movie was a nice challenge (Indy's dean did a nice job in his 3 minutes of screen time). Wondering if the gophers were going to come up again was fun. The fact that it took 19 years or whatever to make the movie stretches the imagination. I liked the opening sequence ... until I realized it wasn't a parody. Oh, yeah, the preview for the Brad Pitt movie coming this Christmas was kind of surreal and fascinating. So, yeah, it was kind of fun and unique in it's horribleness, but it was not, I repeat not, a good movie.

Dream Ticket

Screw Obama-Clinton, Obama-Gore has my vote. It makes perfect sense, and I'm not sure why it hadn't been seriously considered until James Carville brought it up yesterday.

More China Pics

Shanghai - Part 2

One more batch to go ...

Iron Man - 8.5

Uhm, wow.

Can somebody please tell me what the Vegas odds of Iron Man being the best movie of the first half of 2008 were 3 months ago. We're talking about a movie that:

1) is about a 2nd tier superhero. We're talking somewhere above Catwoman, but not quite to the Fantastic Four level. Think Daredevil territory here.
2) stars Robert Downey freaking Jr.
3) is directed by the guy who had Zathura: A Space Adventure and Elf as the his closest claim to experience with super hero movies. (Actually, He did play an "assistant" in the truly atrocious Batman Forever).
4) casts post-Coldplay borderline batshit crazy Gweneth Paltrow, as a pseudo love interest
5) has The Dude from Big Lebowski as the villian.

1,000:1? 10,000:1? I would've bet on Britney Spears running for Senate first, or a shocking revelation that George Bush actually got a 1600 on his SATs. This movie was guaranteed to fail. It *had* to fail. But it didn't. At all. Un-be-freaking-leavable.

I saw this after all of the immaculate reviews had come out, but I couldn't believe that it was actually good until the final credits rolled. Well, it's actually good. In fact, it's really good, for lots of reasons. Downey, Paltrow, Bridges - all gave great performances. Terrance Howard too. The dialog - absolutely passable, which means it approaches Shakespeare on the action movie scale. The action scenes - very good. I don't think the CGI was markedly better than Spiderman or X-men, but not having people say stupid stuff during those action scenes goes a very long way in my book.

I'm actually having trouble thinking of complaints, so I'm not going to bother. Iron Man immediately moves close to the top of my favorite Superhero movies. I think I like the original Batman more, but it's certainly the best in recent years. In fact, I'm actually looking forward to the inevitable sequel. Wow.

Spain 1, USA 0

Here's my player ratings for the US's much better performance vs. Spain on Wednesday.

Tim Howard - 7.0 - he made I think 2 good saves, one on a header from Silva maybe and the other on a quick shot from Torres.  He did make one horrible play on a cross that he got away with that actually made me utter, "that's the worst play Tim Howard has ever made playing for the US."  The worst mistake Howard's ever made not even resulting in a goal shows how lucky we are in terms of keepers.  Contrast that to England - I can think of several high profile keeper blunders off the top of my head - Robinson missing a back-pass, letting it go in the goal, Seaman letting Ronaldinho's shot float over his head in WC02, Carson letting Kranjcar's shot directly at him deflect in (resulting in England missing the Euro) - and I don't even watch England that much.

Steve Cherundolo - 7.0 - like Howard, only played the first half where we pretty much played Spain's first team even.  He hardly got forward at all but he did a fine job defensively, reinforcing my theory that he can play at a high level against technical teams but will struggle against more physical ones.

Oguchi Onyewu - 6.0 - was one of at least four people partially at fault for the goal (Bocanegra, Heyduk, and Bradley are the others) but played pretty well otherwise.  

Carlos Bocanegra - 6.0 - same thing as Onyewu.  The two combined to not give Spain many clear chances despite lots of good buildup and possession.  But I can't give our central defenders too high a rating when the one goal scored was a guy literally waltzing through the center of our defense, past both centerbacks with neither even making a challenge.  Horrendous defending on that play (though nice run by Xavi).

Heath Pearce - 7.0 - I'm starting to like Pearce.  He played very well against Brazil last year, was solid in a horrible team performance against England, and again held his own against Spain.  He doesn't stand out much but that isn't necessarily a bad thing for a defender.  He also seems comfortable going forward.

Maurice Edu - 5.0 - he seemed nervous in the first 15 minutes, making several bad passes, but managed to settle down after that.  We really need either him or Clark to step up and take over as the ball-winning midfielder.  I like them both but neither have really grabbed that position.  I would also feel better about their development if they made the move to Europe from the MLS sooner rather than later, though I honestly have no idea if there's any interest in them abroad.

Michael Bradley - 4.0 - he made one great saving tackle in the box after my boy Cesc (man of the match) sent Torres through which is counteracted in my book by the dumb slide tackle from behind that was an obvious foul on the edge of our box and allowed Xavi to hit the crossbar on a freekick.  I'm still waiting to see this goal-scoring prowess he's shown for his club because for these two friendlies, he has been relatively invisible offensively.

Eddie Lewis - 3.0 - I've liked what he's done lately for the national team but he was pretty invisible this game.  He did send in one great cross that Johnson was unable to convert, which was one of our best scoring opportunities of the game

Clint Dempsey - 2.0 - horrible, lazy performance by Clint.  What the hell is wrong with him lately?  Hopefully he's just worn out from a long club season, where he was one of the few Americans to actually play regularly in one of the top leagues in Europe.  His performance against Spain was typified by the play where EJ worked hard and made a nice turn before having the ball knocked loose backwards towards Dempsey; Dempsey had the chance to either play a quick ball to his left to Adu where he could run at the defense and potentially cause problems or screw the pass and run at the defense himself.  What does he do?  He freaking acts like he has all the time in the world, lazily jogs towards the ball before chipping it in the general direction of Freddy, forcing him to run backwards at least 15 yards to retrieve the ball.  Way to go Clint.  Bad, bad game for him.

Freddy Adu - 9.0 - I thought he was brilliant, close to faultless.  Every time he had the ball at his feet, I was excited like no other US player has ever had me excited before.  He was effective both quickly finding the key pass to potentially lead to goal-scoring opportunities and when a quick pass wasn't on, running at the Spanish defense in an attempt to create an opening .  

He made several nice small plays, but there were three 'big' plays that had me drooling.  First was his turn in the box after a throw-in that left his defender in the dust; I wish he would've gone for goal here but instead he opted to unselfishly find a teammate (and came close to connecting).  Next, he made the type of defense-splitting ball that no other US player could ever see, slotting it perfectly through to EJ, who cooly finished but was unfortunately half a step offside (I particularly liked this play because this is the type of ball Cesc regularly pulls off for Arsenal).  And finally he made an inch-perfect 40 yard through ball on his first touch that allowed EJ to do what he does best - run.  This play was particularly impressive because we went from defense to offense (and an actual goal-scoring opportunity as Johnson got a decent shot off after beating Puyol, forcing a corner) in one pass and about 5 seconds.  

The difference between having Wolff against England and Freddy out there against Spain was startling.  As Jeremy put it, it would probably be about the same as the difference between having me come out of retirement to play or let Josh Wolff play (Josh Wolff is about the same amount better than me as Freddy is than him, get it?).  Bottom line, Freddy needs to be a regular starter for the national team, effective immediately.  

Eddie Johnson - 7.0 - Johnson again gave a hard-working, energetic performance.  He showed off his finishing ability on that one offside play and also did well to force Casillas into saves on two half-chances.  He did blow a good chance when he missed a point-blank header on a great cross from Eddie Lewis.  He still isn't a game-changing striker but given good service, he can be solid.  I am confident he'll be able to get goals in WC qualifying against weak Concacaf competition but against the big boys, we might need the $10 million Villarreal man, Jozy Altidore to come through ... and how about Jozy?  He's still only 18 and has now shattered the MLS transfer record and is going to a club that finished 2nd in Spain last year, 10 points ahead of Barcelona...not bad at all.

Subs

Brad Guzan - 6.0 - he did fine, couldn't do anything about the goal and handled everything else.

Frankie Heyduk - 3.0 - the Josh Wolff of the defense didn't have his best game.  He was the last man to challenge Xavi on his goal-scoring run and Xavi literally shrugged him off like he was a rag-doll.  This is particularly disconcerting because it's not like Xavi is some big powerful man, he's 5-7 and probably doesn't weigh more than 160 pounds.  Other than not making a goal-saving tackle, Frankie did manage to not clear the first defender with a cross (shocking! though this one did at least result in a corner).  Not Frankie's best day.

Josh Wolff - 5.0 - now on to the real Josh Wolff.  He came on for the last 20 minutes and I was watching him intently waiting for him to screw up, but surprisingly he never did.  He actually did an ok job which reinforces my opinion that if he must be used (though I obviously don't think he must be used) it should be as a late-game sub to bring energy to a tired team.  I think he could be particularly effective (effective being a relative term in this case) in this role when we're already leading since he is admittedly a good defensive forward.

DaMarcus Beasley - 2.0 - DaMarcus came on for Freddy and boy the difference was striking.  I'm still confident that Beasley poor performances in the last two games have more to do with his long injury layoff than anything else...

Pablo Mastroeni - no rating - courtesy cap for Mastro.  I don't watch the MLS so I don't know what the hell has happened to him.  As recently as a year ago, I would've considered Mastroeni a first-team player for the US and now he is at best 4th in the center midfield depth chart.  I guess his run is over; if Edu or Clark can do a reasonable impression of him over the next 2 years, (minus the rash tackles please) I'll be happy.

In all, the US's performance against Spain was probably 10 times better than our performance against England.  For the first half, without Donovan, Altidore, or Beasley, we held our own against one of the most talented teams in the world and even looked dangerous on several occasions, mostly thanks to Freddy Adu.  Honestly, if this game does nothing else, I hope it proves to Bob Bradley that Adu is ready and he becomes an automatic first-team choice over the next few months.   In my opinion, the key to setting ourselves up for any type of run in 2010 will be successfully incorporating Adu and Altidore into our attack, finding the right combination of Bradley, Clark, and Edu (or Feilhaber?) in central midfield, and praying our defense holds up (since we don't really have any promising new blood coming up here).  Adu's performance was so obviously brilliant against Spain that I don't see how Bradley could ignore it, so he should be forced to give him more chances.

Up next Argentina on Sunday (who just spanked Mexico 4-1...I'll be happy if we can at least score a goal in this one) and then qualifying begins with what should be a walkover home and home series with Barbados.

Oy.

Dumbass.

Legacies

Hah!

Hillary Clinton is an ungracious little ...

... person. Just watching her speech on Tivo. I didn't think anyone could have a worse speech than McCain, but this is just ridiculous.

Shanghai Pictures - Part 1

Shanghai - Day 1

Pictures and captions from our first few days in Shanghai.

Peru Pictures

My mom has a bunch of pictures from their trip from Peru up at Picasa. She even followed in her son's footsteps and wrote some captions. I skipped this trip in order to go to China, but there are still some nice pictures. Check them out.