Crazy Heart - 7.0

I liked Crazy Heart and would watch it again (mainly because I am a sucker for this formula), but honestly the movie is all Jeff Bridges. As such, in lieu of a real review, here are 5 Reasons this movie wins The Dude an Oscar.

1. First and foremost, he made a relationship between an old drunk and a Maggie Gyllenhaal seem believable. Hell, that alone gets him a nomination. This is the rough equivalent of me picking up Halle Berry at a bar, and he pulled it off. I am impressed. 
2. He can sing! Who knew?
3. Biographies (Fictional or non) win Oscars these days (2004 - Ray, 2005 - Capote, 2006 - Last King of Scotland, 2007 - There will Be Blood, 2008 - Milk), and this is most definitely a biography. 
4. Just like last year, it's a mediocre crop of Best Actor nominees and Bridges has to be the sentimental favorite. He did give us The Dude after all.
5. Bridges carried this movie in a way the other nominee's didn't have to. I thought Clooney was excellent, but the actresses and script in Up In The Air were top notch as well. Renner was great too, but Hurt Locker was the best movie of the year.  Invictus sucked (and I didn't think Freeman was that great in it). Haven't seen Single Man, but then again, neither has anyone else, so that knocks that one out. Without Bridges, Crazy Heart would've been a complete disaster - with him it was pretty damn good. That puts him over the top.

Alexa Links

One and Two. G'night all. More substantial post tomorrow. Promise.

LWOTB

Alexa's buddy Fritz has a new band called "Long Walks on the Beach". And I can confidently say that I like their entire catalog. Of course that is currently only 2 songs and a ringtone, but still, it's a pretty awesome start. Check out the music here or befriend them on Facebook.

5 Good Things

1. This restaurant. Order ceviche and whatever whole fish they're offering.
2. This book, American Gods by Niel Gaiman
3. This Roger Ebert profile in Esquire
4. This Vampire Weekend album which I finally listened to.
5. This Pitchfork recommendation, which reminds me of a more upbeat Grizzly Bear album.

Random Youtubing

Music for Thursday - Cow Name edition

One of my favorite songs.

Lost Season 6 - Episode 4

Lets see if this episode can step it up from last week.

• Is it the case that the first 5 minutes of this episode are 1000 times more awesome than last week simply by being about Locke instead of Kate? Yes. That is the case. 
• Creepy dead bleeding kid alert!
• Apropos of nothing: Smokie-Locke meeting Super Monk guy is going to be epic. 
• Is it the case that the drunk Sawter is 1000 times more awesome than weepy wuss Sawyer of last week? Yes. That too is the case.
• Sun-Jin reunion this week? Solid!
• I really like happy Hugo. It's nice to see Garcia play something a little bit different - he's a pretty good actor. 
• Who the hell is this creepy kid?? I am intrigued. And a return of the "Don't tell me what I can't do!" line. I like it. This episode is off to a solid start. Complete 180 from last week.
• Speaking of great acting, Terry O'Quinn's is absolutely amazing. He's really embracing being the smoke monster - honestly, it's something no one else in this cast could pull off - excellent stuff. If there was any logic in that process (and there isn't) this would put him right in the hunt for an Emmy next year.
• O'Quinn's awesome acting aside, I'm still not completely sold on the flash-sideways concept. I still think it's going to play prominently in to the end game, I just hope it's worth the time and effort. 
• And this is why you don't climb cliff-side rope ladder mazes after drinking. 
• Uh, they're there because of cave grafitti? That was a tad anticlimactic (and very Lost-y) answer. 
• Alright, so I guess that explains the numbers. I feel empty inside.
• And that is that. More next week.

Music for Wednesday - Award Shows Edition

Two pretty spectacular award show videos:


This one is from last night and is great for 2 reasons. 1) The mash-up and performance are both really good and 2) The crowd is *terrible* event for an award show. Maybe they were econmizing by using acardboard cut out of a crowd.


This one just is great and sad and now I am going to go put on XO and sit on the balcony.

Come on down

Anyone want to come visit?

Posty post post

Oops, just about broke my post-a-day resolution today. Actually, I think I've already broken it with post-midnight posts in Chile. It's still Tuesday in the US though, so I'm going to count it.

So, uhm, content. Here's a song. While I certainly agree with the central sentiment, I can't decide if I like the song ... Anyone have an informed opinion I can steal?

Maps redefined

Rapture

Not that rapture, this one:

Promoted on the Web as "the next best thing to pet salvation in a Post Rapture World," the service has attracted more than 100 clients, who pay $110 for a 10-year contract ($15 for each additional pet.) If the Rapture happens in that time, the pets left behind will have homes—with atheists. Centre has set up a national network of godless humans to carry out the mission. "If you love your pets, I can't understand how you could not consider this," he says.

I'm just jealous I didn't come up with it first.

(h/t Anisa)

The Wildfire Plan

Nate Silver reported that the Obama White House may actually establish a firm position on Health Care ahead of the summit that he announced just before the Super Bowl. They've been hesitant to do this in the past, but I think it's a good idea here. I thought I'd cross-post my idea for how to move forward with Health Care reform that I wrote up in Google Reader and Buzzzzz. So, here it is, in 2 steps, The Wildfire Plan:

1. Embrace the Senate Bill - Make the final goal passing the Senate Bill. There are lots of procedural reasons for doing this, but it also shows some backbone, which is something the Democrats need to do. You then proceed to force this through without the 60th vote. If you can't manage to do this in the house, then Health Care isn't going to pass regardless and the Democrats deserve the massacre that will surely occur in November.
2. Create a 2nd "Conservative Principals" Bill - This should include significant Tort Reform and maybe one or two other small to medium conservative ideas that got left out of the original bill. It should have the word "Conservative" in the title and should be genuinely right-of-center and conciliatory. Say that you will not sign the Senate Bill until this is sitting on your desk next to it, ready to be signed.

Spin as "We're willing to embrace conservative ideas that we should have looking at from the start, but we're not going to give up our core principals." If the Republican's want to bring down health care, make them publicly slap away your out-stretched hand and vote against their own ideas to do it.

"What is Jackass?"

So, our basketball season is, to put it gently, subpar, but at least this exists:



Honestly, I thought the exact same thing the first time I saw the video, and even if I knew the answer, I would happily sacrifice $800 to be the star of this video. Oh, and in the spirit if full 20-year-old-Jeremy-would-beat-the-crap-out-of-current-old-man-Jeremy disclosure, I fell asleep 30 minutes in first half of the UNC-Duke game on Wednesday. I have excuses ... Really, I do ... but honestly, there is no excuse for that.

Invictus - 4.0

Work to do, so this is going to be short. Luckily this was a movie that doesn't deserve much more than a sentence or two anyways. So here goes nothing:

Sure, the production values were fine, but it takes a special skill to take the excitement out of an event that was as exciting as this must've been, but Eastwood manages to do just that in Invictus. You'll get as much out of looking at the above poster for 2 hours as you will watching the movie.

Lost Season 6 - Episode 3

 Random Thoughts as I watch Lost:

• Looks like Claire gained some weight in Plane world, no?
• If Sawyer wanted to leave, would just walking away might've been easier than firing a gun to get everyone's attention and then walking away ...
• Not really loving the idea of a Kate-centric flashes. Damn Kate.
• Speaking of the flashes ... What direction are we flashing? Flash-back? Flash-forward?  Flash-sideways?
• Oh, right! Claire is pregnant (and hence fat). Duh. 
• Jack is a remarkably consistent douche, isn't he? I'd say he bats 0.800 or so. 
• Jesus, master monk-dude is COLD-BLOODED. And he really doesn't like Sayid much. So far he's known him for like an hour and has already drowned, shocked and branded his ass.
• Some advice, if an escaped convict asks you  "So, do you want a ride or what?" You say, "No".
• OK, half way though and no visit to Smokey-Locke's side of the mountain. I thought we were pretty much past the days of a split cast.
• So, Sayid is "infected." Maybe, we're going to get an explanation of the "sickness" from back in the day ... but I thought that just effected pregnant women.
• This whole, "I'll take the pill for you, Jack" nonsense is pretty damn silly.
• Not feeling the Kate/Claire plot line at all. 
• "Talk-y Talk-y emotion blah blah blah." - Sawyer. "Ohhh, I'm a sad crying crybaby" - Kate. At least this kills the love triangle (or at least I hope to god it does).
• Jack is such a damn jackass even when people are being nice to him. It's infuriating.
• Is it bad that the guys who have only been in the show for 2 episodes are already among my favorites?
• Oh shit! Claire got Msongamethroughed?! And she is looking r-o-u-g-h. 
• Well, that was a step back from a top-notch premier. The flash was reminiscent of a standard boring season 2 story, and the island action ignored Locke completely. It was still enterntaining, but definitely not top-notch Lost.

Music for Tuesday - Digital Brits edition

I realize this blog has become youtube repost central lately,  but alas, work is still crazy and marathon training is getting more intense (17 miles coming up this weekend --- shudder), so that may continue for a while. For today, we have a couple of longish electronic songs from England. The first is amongst my favorite songs from the 2000s and the second is one of my favorite songs (so far) from the 2010s.


The Streets - Empty Cans


Hot Chip - Thieves in the Night

Better off Ted - 7.5

In the last month or so, I've worked my way through Better off Ted, and its a pretty damn funny show. It got less than no press (and even lower ratings), and as a result it's almost definitely getting canceled, but if anyone is interested in a very funny, easy to watch, show where you can turn your brain off and laugh, it's worth grabbing the DVDs or checking out online. Oh, and there is also the outtake embedded below --- which really makes me wish HBO or Showtime would make a decent sitcom.

Good Idea/Bad Idea

Possible subject lines for an email about viral load in asthmatics:

Good idea - Viral Summary for Steering Committee Meeting
Bad idea - Virus

Guess which one I picked ...

Music for Thursday - "The French are weird" Edition

Lost Season 6 Premiere

I think I'll faux-twitter as I watch the Season 6 premiere(s) of LOST.

• First things first, as long as all 3 stories converge by the end of the year (and I think they will), I like the new non-crash timeline a lot! 
• That said, the underwater tracking shot at the end of the opening scene was Cheeeeeeeeeee...eeeesy. Weak sauce. 
• Apropos of nothing, Hurley talking to dead Jacob is pretty sweet!
• A nice job introducing Charlie by hiding his face for the first 5 seconds and making me think they couldn't sign him to be in the episode.
• Kind of wishing Juliet was dead right now honestly. Angry Sawyer is a lot more fun.
• Hey, wish granted! For an episode or 2 at least, I bet!
• OK, done with the first half ... Maybe episode 2 will head to the back half of the plane and we can get some good Paolo and Ana Lucia action in. Seriously though, I'm a little bummed we didn't get to see Claire, Michael and Walt on the plane, but other than that, episode 1 was pretty sweet - definitely hope they continue following that timeline in LA. Interested to see what is next. So far the time lines rank: 1) Plane 2) Lock/Smokie 3) Post-Nuke
• Nice. More with the plane folks in the 2nd half.
• Crazy monk clan anyone?! What the what?
• I do believe Miles has a little bit of a muffin top. Also, I think the term muffin top is great.
• I know we've seen him before, but I can't for the life of me remember who the translator with the Monks is. Lostepidia after the show ...
• Heh, the head monk just bitched Jack. Also Post-Nuke world just got one whole hell of a lot cooler. Then again crazy monk tribes that apparently like to drown people for shits and giggles make everything one whole hell of a lot cooler. I'm pleased. 
• Nice to see, Claire. 
• "You're the monster." - "Lets not resort to name calling." - heh. 
• Dude, if they restart the damned love triangle now that Juliet is dead I am going to be pissed the hell off.
• Not sure why it took me this long to realize Post-Nuke and Smokie Locke were on the island at the same time, but obviously they are. Duh. Jacob saying "I died an hour ago" was pretty clear (although you never know with times in this show).  Anyway, that's cool I guess. 
• Jack remains an obstinate bitch. Oy. And Sayid is alive. No big shock there I guess. 
• So, all told, that was a pretty bad ass set up for what should be a very interesting final season. I'll go read all the write-ups now, but I am fully in the "That was great" camp - Not quite a top 10 caliber episode, but it got the ball rolling towards a few of those - that's for sure.

Groundhog Day - 9.5

Real life is busy today, Alexa is flying off to Mexico (we think) and then to Paris. I've got piles of work to do. We're trying to figure out wedding stuff and plan a trip for when my parents are in Chile. We've got an episode of Chuck to watch and two hours of LOST coming. All of that, however, does not excuse me from my most important commitment of the day, which is playing in the background as I type. I really do love this movie.

"Go to Hell, St-uke"

This video (via Duba) made me feel old ... no, screw old - it made me feed downright elderly, and since that is the case, I will now proceed to tap my cane and complain cantankerously.

The end of the video demonstrates that there is still confusion at the end of UNC's school song. Can we please agree once and for all that it is Duke, not State, that needs to be told to go to hell? This is not all that difficult. Telling State to go to hell is a little bit like kicking a homeless person. In fact, since they are basically already in hell, it's really just telling them to go home and have a nice evening. I mean, really, why legitimize State with a mention in our song? Can one of you ex-politicos arrange a student body president candidacy with this as it's goal? Really, this has gone on long enough.

Music for Monday - Indie Twang Edition

Switching Pictures (Monday) and Music (Thursday) this week in hopes of having a project done later in the week. Here's some country/indie hybrid action from my newest favorite band:


The Avett Brothers - Murder in the City and Ten Thousand Words

The camera work on this next one is, uh, not great. So I wouldn't recommended watching it fullscreen if you have a weak stomach (CoughAlexaCough). But I still wanted to post it because a) I love this song, b) it's from School Kids in Chapel Hill and c) they have such great energy live.