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November 27, 2003

It Takes Two Baby

Say you had to create a second you, from an alternate deminsion, in
order to defeat an evil creature that threatens us all. That would be
cool. But then once the defeation was over I'm sure you'd have to
destroy either you or the alternate you in order to protect space-time
from colasping in on itself. Could you do it, and how do you decide
which one to destroy? For me that's easy. I'd kill my alternate self,
becuase everyone knows that alternate selves are always evil. And who
wants an evil version of themselves running around ruining space-time,
not to mention soiling their good name?

November 21, 2003

Pieces of April

So yet another movie review...

I saw Pieces of April one night while I was home in Rochester. I got
pretty much what I expected out of the movie. It wasn't anything
overally spectacular, but was an entertaining movie about an outcast
daughter trying to make up with her family (a little) one last time
before her mother passes away. It's basically two movies that come
together at the end as the daughter cooks thanksgiving dinner in her NYC
apartment while her family makes the long drive in.

The only thing in the movie that stood out to me was the nice camera
work, especially on the family's journey. It has a very gritty
home-movie feel to it that helps give the sense of the family trying to
capture their last moments together.

Though I'm not sure about the cornucopia of people who seemed to reside
in the apartment building in what does not appear to be the best part of
town, I can over look that. I can also look past a lot of the corny
everyone coming together to help the poor girl out during her
thanksgiving troubles. I guess I can look past that cause it's not laid
on too thick. A couple people start to help and change their minds,
some are hesitant at first and swayed, etc. So it gives a
semi-realistic touch to the whole thing.

Katie Holmes also did a decent job in her part. She didn't stand out
with some stellar performance, but still proved that she can do more
than insipid teen movies. She is a real actress who can be a leading
lady.

Personally I would have liked to have seen the movie end a little sooner
(like most films) and cut out some of the old cliched happy endings
where the family has a change of heart, but what can you do.

Overall it's a solid movie, but nothing to rush out to see.

RATING: Worth a Full Price Ticket, Worth a Rental

November 12, 2003

Oh No!! It's a Horde of Carsons!!!

Dan's new site may be named after a song no one has heard of, but it
brings up a more disturbing point as well. It's something that
frightens me, as I'm sure it frigthens many of you as well. I am of
course talking about a real VJ Army. Imagine, hordes of Carson Dailys
marching throughtout the land. What would be extremely terrifying would
be a platoon of that freak Jesse the viewers eleceted a while back, but
I think we're safe from him, he's faded well into obscurity. What all
of you may not realize though is that this army of VJs already exists.
In fact, the army as been around for years. My sources say it stems
from the Kenedy era of MTV, but it may go back even further. In fact,
the majority of cloning research was done at MTV. How else could they
amass such a powerful force? A couple VJs, while quite frigthening on
their own, would not be enough to take control of the music airwaves.
No, the generals at MTV commissioned a team of geneticists to develope a
cloning procedure to increase their numbers exponentially. But why do
all this? That too is simple. MTV wants total control of the video
airwaves. They want their 5 videos they play a week to be all that the
viewing public sees. The generals at MTV have even been capturing other
stations, and crushing those that will not follow along with their
master plan. A prime example is SpikeTV. How do you think they got
this way? Ages ago, before most of you kiddies were around, Spike was
known as TNN (The Nashville Network) and was a country music video
channel. But unlike VH1 (which is a pussy station that caves under
pressure faster than France during war time), TNN would not give in to
the demands of MTV's army of VJs. Insted they were forced to become The
National Network, and stop playing videos (True MTV no longer plays
videos either, but that's different cause they still have semi-musical
content, sort of). Eventually TNN could no longer stand the shame of
being forced out as they had been, so they revamped completely the form
SpikeTV and start a new life, free from the musical tyranny of MTV. But
old memories die hard, and the executive generals at SpikeTV cannot and
will not forget what happened to them. I believe that they are secretly
forming an underground army of their own, preparing for the day that
they will battle MTV, in hopes of freeing music, and bringing back the
music video to music video channels! Why else would SpikeTV be a
"Network For Men"? It's because they need a large base of strong male
supporters in order to take out the juggernaut that is Music Television,
for the VJ Army grows in numbers everyday as more and more Carson clones
are made. And may God have mercy on our souls when SpikeTV and the VJ
Army finally go head to head in real life clone wars...

November 9, 2003

Quarry Reunion/Cag Slumber Party

Ok people, so this is why I sleep so much and don't like getting out of
bed, well besides the fact that I'm just lazy and all. I have the most
freaked out dreams, and they are way more entertaining than most things
that happen to me during the day. Here is the latest dream I had last
night. It's a bit disconnected and has some hazy parts to it, but
that's just how these things work out.

So the dream opened innocently enough. I was working at Wegmans, but it
was the weekend of the big reunion of the crew from Quarry St. I guess
everyone missed Wegmans too, cause they all decided to go there and
started to meet up. Most of the people were nomral enough (Gil, Dan,
Katie, Steinberg, Friedland, Alissa, Neil, Rachel), but then Nidhi
showed up, and for some reason she was in a stroller, not a wheelchair,
a stroller. in her arms was her infant child, Collin, and pushing her
was her husband, Trevor (I have no idea who he is or where he came from)
who was walking with Nidhi's 3 year old daughter, name unkown. Well
everyone met up in Wegmans, the back of the produce department to be
exact. Everyone was chatting and catching up, ignoring me, cause I was
working. Eventually I got in on the conversation too, and everyone was
happy to see me, which was nice. All of a sudden though Wegmans became
the inside of a cargo seaplane (a rather large one at that). Apparently
the plane was broken, and the pilot, who desperately needed to take off
for some very important reason. Nidhi, who had become the group leader,
took charge and found the problem, the fuse had blown. She quickly
fixed that up and they were off (at this point I was no where to be
found, just an outside observer). The plane jetted off, just in time
too, cause the seaplane pirates had just arrived. Unfortunately the
plane didn't have an abundance of feul, so they had to make another lake
landing. Once the plane landed they opened the back hatch, and Nidhi
and her followers looked out to see how far they still had to go. a
reporter from the evening news came up to Nidhi and began to question
her.

Reporter: "So what are you gonna do now?"

Nidhi: "Well it's not too far to go and I'll just carry Collin and hold
my daughters hand, so we should be able to make it. And if I get too
tired flying I'll let Trevor take Collin."

R: "You seem pretty close to the child."

N: "Yeah, we're inseperateable." (At this point Nidhi has collin in a
sling like harness across her chest) "But isn't he so cute with my
husband, it's darling." (Now the harness is magically around Trevor's
neck)

R: "It is a very touching picture."

N: "Well we better get going. Come on guys!"

At this time everyone comes to the end of the ramp and flies off into
the air Dragonball Z style. The reporter waves from the rear of the
plane and the pilot waves as he leans out the cockpit window. The scene
cuts out reallt fast to me sitting in a college appartment style living
room. It's a dark room with some orange light and it's dark and raining
outside. I'm soaked and talking to some older asian lady.

Old Asian Lady: "So Tom, you can stay here tonight, I insist."

ME: "If you insist. It is rather wet out there."

OAL: "You can change in here and then meet us in the other room." (We're
suddenly in a small den-type room).

ME: "Thanks."

I change into a pair of running shorts and a dry white t-shirt (which
have magically appeared out of nowhere, there's lots of magical
occurances like this in my dreams). I head into the other room to see
the cag (Cute Asian Girl from some of my old ORIE classes for those of
you who dont' know of her) sitting in a chair with a blanket on a
glasses. I sti down on the floor against the couch. I start watching
TV and she talks to me about a bunch of stuff. We really hit it off and
keep talking for a while (I can't remmeber the conversation
unfortunatly, but it was a good one). Eventually I was about to ask her
out to dinner too, but I woke up, can couldn't get back to sleep (I
blame my housemates for turning up the heat, damn you two!). This
however was a big step because the last time I dreamt about cag I
couldn't even talk to her no matter how hard I tried. It was kind of
like being cock-blocked, but from my parents and another couple they
knew. So is this a sign? Is my time with cag finally come? Somehow I
doubt it, but I can dream...

November 7, 2003

Matrix Revolutions

So, yes I saw it. I figured I had to see it eventually and I had the
day off, so I caught the cheap show. The movie wasn't all that bad, but
then again I was expecting the worst. But after letting it all sink in,
it was better than the 2nd film, but still, it wasn't even close to the
first.

So first, the problems...There wasn't a whole lot of action in the
Matrix this time; there was a bit too much pointless dialogue (there is
no need to rant on about how much you love someone for 10 mins while you
are impaled on 6 metal rods. Just shut up and die!); things weren't
totally wrapped up or explained; The machines are a little funky and
pointless at times. If useless programs get deleted cause they serve no
purpose, why would you have a bunch of little robot spiders that serve
no function other than looking like little robot spiders?

And the good things...There was a good amount of action in the real
world; the matrix action was decent looking (very little crappy
animation like the 100-Smith battle); they didn't explain everything, so
people were left to actually think for once in a mainstream movie! Also
the final battle brought me back to the good old Dragonball Z days with
those battles. And last but not least, we can now say it's over with
and move on.

I think the biggest problem with 3 is that it's in that middle area. It
wasn't full of great action like the 1st, and it didn't have anything
all too creative to add to the story like the 2nd (although the 2nd
movie failed rather badly in its attempt with the story). What it comes
down to is that it was a semi-respectable movie, but it lost it's way.
The makers forgot that the appeal of the matrix was that it was a good
sci-fi action movie with a clever twist. With 2 and 3 they tried to
force too much other shit down our throats at the expense of the good
sci-fi action. I'm not saying it didn't need a story, I'm just saying
they didn't need so much pointless dialogue and the stupid love story in
there.

So remember, when future generations ask, there are only 3 Star Wars
movies (4-6, pending on how Episode 3 turns out) and only one Matrix
movie.

RATING: Worth a Cheap Ticket (if you feel the need for some closer to it
all)

November 6, 2003

My Life Without Me

So I don't really feel like writing a full review about this last movie
I saw, but I do feel like I should at least let you guys know about it.
As a quick idea of what you'd be getting into if you do decide to watch
the movie it is a semi-depressing film about a young mother who finds
out shes gonna die in a month. She makes a list of things to do before
she dies, and goes about her daily life wihtout telling anyone else
about her situation. With the sadness there is a funny side to it too,
not necessarily like Life Is Beautiful, but more of a quirky personality
type humor. The main character is played by Sarah Polley (the non-Katie
Holmes girl from Go) and her character seems to have a lot of the same
personality traits as her Go character. It is a small film from what
I've seen (I didn't even see any mention of it playing at the Little
back in Rochester, but I could have just missed it), but it is
definitely worth a viewing in my opinion.

RATING: Definite Rental or Full Price Admission