Sashaisms

"Ah! Four wheels driving!"
-Sasha, not on a tricyle.

"What are you talking about? Hasta la vista?"
-Sasha just after ignoring the conversation about Jeremy's sub par tour guide skills. 

"My phone is my cell phone. No wait. My watch is my cell phone."
-Sasha on the finer points of Chilean technology.

"Be Sigmund or Freud."
-Sasha on dancing/tiger training.

"Nadav and I have the complexion of gymnasts."
- Sasha who always has his Clarisil handy in case of an unexpected Olympic tryout.

Top 10 minus 3

Nate D's tweet got me thinking about my favorite albums of the year. I must say the cupboard is a little bit barren so far. In no particular order*, here are the albums I like enough to think about putting on a top 10 list. Is it a bad sign that there are only 7 of them?

We Were Promised Jetpacks - These Four Walls
Volcano Choir - Unmap
The Thermals - Now We Can See
Sunset Rubdown - Dragon Slayer
Passion Pit - Manners
Florence and the Machines - Lungs
Discovery - LP

* - Actually it's reverse alphabetical order, but you know what I mean. 

Knowing - 4.0

I'd never heard of "Knowing", a Nicolas Cage science fiction movie from earlier this year, when I read Ebert's 4 star review last week. Ebert led off his review by saying, "'Knowing' is among the best science-fiction films I've seen" and I generally agree with his opinion, so I thought I would watch. After finishing the movie (somewhat confused by Ebert's quote), I checked Rotten Tomatoes and discovered why I had never heard of the movie. It was roundly panned, and only had 33% positive reviews.

While I see what Ebert liked about the movie, I'm going to have to go with the consensus on this one. The problem was that, even though there were some interesting ideas and some really cool scenes (the final sequence in particular), the movie as a whole was just such a mess of ideas and themes that I was fairly bewildered by the end. The first 3rd of the movie (horror-tinged mystery) is completely different from the middle section (paranoid detective story) which, in turn, is completely different from the final third (hard-core scifi). Put it all together and the movie is a mess. A sometimes interesting mess, but a mess.

Oh and Nicolas Cage plays an MIT astrophysics professor. A drunk MIT astrophysics professor, but still ... really?

Schools you want to make sure you include.

If you ever need to rekindle the fire of Duke hatred that lives in side of you ... I present, this.

The Duke people are so much fun. There’s just some schools you want to make sure you include.

I just threw up in my mouth. Oh wait ...

“I have high standards. I’ve met people who are really smart but don’t have it together socially, and people who are fun but may not offer more mentally.” The total package, he explained, is tough to find.

(Via Anisa)

The Lost Symbol - Wrap Up

So, I zipped through the last 100 chapters of the Lost Symbol last weekend. My final spoiler-rific thoughts are below the fold.

Top Movies of the 2000s - The Contenders

I've been thinking a little bit about my favorite movies of the decade, but after the top 2, the list blurs in to a bunch of stuff I really really like, but don't necessarily love. At any rate, here is a list of movies that I am considering for the top 10 (or 20 or whatever). Let me know if you think I left anything obvious off.

Almost Famous (2000)
Amores Perros (2000)
LOTR Trilogy (2001-2003)
Amelie (2001)
Memento (2001)
Pianist (2002)
City of God (2003)
Finding Nemo (2003)
Lost in Translation (2003)
Sideways (2004)
Aviator (2004)
Hotel Rwanda (2004)
Man Push Cart (2005)
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Crash (2005)
40 Year Old Virgin (2005)
Children of Men (2006)
United 93 (2006)
Lives of Others (2006)
Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
Knocked up (2007)
Diving Bell and Butterfly (2007)
Ratatouille (2007)
Michael Clayton (2007)
Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
Wall-E (2008)
Iron Man (2008)
Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
District 9 (2009)
Hurt Locker (2009)