Monthly Archives: January 2006

Live-Blogging the Globes

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I’m going to try something I’ve never done before. I’m going to try a live blog.

Alli and I love us some awards show action. Tonight’s Golden Globes are usually some of the most fun to watch. The stars seem more lax and I really enjoy the combination of TV and movies together in one show.

So I’m going to check in periodically this evening with my thoughts on the show and who wins, who is wearing what, etc. Enjoy!

OK, so since we pre-recorded everything so we could fast-forward through commercials (ha ha, stupid advertisers!), we are watching the pre-show on E! right now and Natalie Portman was just on. Amazing how she can pull off that short haircut quite well, even with very little makeup.

Scrubs on a different channel…Huh? What channel? Isaac Mizrahi asks another uncomfortable question. Paul Giamatti is scruffy. Does anyone else think it’s weird that Felicity Huffman and William H. Macy are married? Keira Knightly is way taller than I thought.

Joaquin Phoenix looks HORRIBLE. Gwyneth really is GLOWING as an expecting mom. Sarah Jessica Parker is not someone that I have liked very much, but she looks pretty good tonight. It’s nice to see her with her HUSBAND.

Unbelievable. Isaac Mizrahi just felt. up. Scarlett. Johanssen. What is going on here? Just because he’s gay, he can assault the celebrities? How is he better than Kathy Griffin? Evangeline Lilly is talking about Lost (aka The Best Show on TV). Renee Zellweger…your smile is so strange. Isaac just called Charlize Theron a “scary dyke with no teeth”. Wow.

Seriously. Kathy Griffin was NEVER as bad as Mizrahi was on the red carpet. To finish out the night, he said to Hilary Swank, “now that you’re single” and she graciously said, “no, I’m not single…I’m trying to work out my marriage.” She handled it extremely well, but you felt so bad for her.

Boring opening to the show. Nancy O’Dell is pretty lame…”Don’tcha” remake for the opening…lame. Nice tribute by Queen Latifah to Martin Luther King, Jr. Adrien Brody has an ascot on. Is this George Clooney’s night? I thought Paul Giamatti was going to win, but Clooney wins for his great performance in Syriana. He keeps referring to “tough questions”. Yeah, yeah…you’re political. We get it. Rachel Weisz wins! Haven’t seen The Constant Gardener but I hear it’s good. I’ll have to see it before the Oscars.

I want Jeremy Piven to win this category (Best Supporting Actor)…but Paul Newman wins and he can’t even be troubled to be there. The new Superman is a dead ringer for Christopher Reeve. Sandra Oh…here’s your makeup award for not being nominated for Sideways last year. I didn’t care a lot about this award. Grey’s Anatomy looks like a great show, but I just don’t have time to watch it, particularly with the addition of new shows this mid-season (Love Monkey and Scrubs). Good speech by Sandra Though. I like when people at least SEEM genuine.

What’s the point of the guy from the HFPA coming out? Is that a benefit of them putting it on? I hate it when they do it for every awards show. Emmy Rossum looks like (a little, Alli) Brittany Murphy. Geena Davis wins for playing the President. Blah. She looks REALLY TALL. Nice story about the little girl…feels contrived…oh wait, it is…ha ha blah. She is tanking. I bet the HFPA is regretting their choice right now. The first person to refer to their cast and crew as having “the biggest hearts”. I wonder how many times we’ll hear that. Hugh Laurie wins. Again. Funny how the Hollywood FOREIGN Press always picks foreign people. Wanted Matthew Fox to win because Lost is so awesome, but oh well.

Steve Carell wins for the Office. There are 3 people that could have won in the Best Actor in a TV Comedy and Carell is one of the (Zach Braff and Jason Lee were the other two). Funny speech.

OK…some catching up to do. Mary-Louise Parker wins for Weeds. I am glad about that because I think that the Desperate Housewives have gotten arrogant with the success of their show (especially Teri Hatcher). Jonathan Rhys-Myers is Irish? Loved S. Epatha Markerson’s speech for Lackawanna Blues. I don’t think that Larry McMurty and Diana Ossana should have won Best Screenplay…they didn’t even write the original story and it was just not that great of a movie (I don’t care what the critics say…it was not good). “Greasy” wins (unsurprisingly) Best Actress in a Musical/Comedy…she deserved it. Wish Desperate Housewives would not have won Best Comedy…I really wanted Entourage to win (even if it was a longshot).

Seriously. Gwyneth Paltrow looks absolutely radiant. Anthony Hopkins filmography…he played Hitler? and Nixon. Hopkins’ Hannibal Lecter…one of the greatest antagonists in a film EVER. Up there with Darth Vader.

“A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.”
-Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs

Alli just pointed out that Sir Hopkins was in TWO movies with Brad Pitt…both were good. Meet Joe Black and Legends of the Fall…both good movies.

Ang Lee wins Best Director for Brokeback Mountain. I didn’t like the movie that much and I didn’t think that the directing was all that great (it was seriously lacking in cinematography, IMHO), BUT, that being said, Ang Lee is a sweet man. He seems like a nice guy, but I would have really rather have seen Peter Jackson win…directing-wise, he did more with King Kong than the others.

Joaquin Phoenix! Totally deserved for Walk the Line. He was Johnny Cash. He seems very out of it tonight. Like he lost a family member tonight or something. He and Reese sweep the Best Actors in the Musical/Comedy category…will they win Best Picture too? I think so. And I was right. Yesssss! Lost. Awesome. Felicity Huffman. Predictable. I think that every year, you just pick the person who transforms themself the most from their normal self and that’s who wins Best Actress. I’m not saying that she shouldn’t have won (I haven’t seen it)…I’m just saying.

I’m so glad that Philip Seymour Hoffman won Best Actor. Even though I haven’t yet seen Capote, I think that he is definitely one of the greatest actors on the planet. I’m happy that he finally got some recognition.

Brokeback Mountain wins Best Picture. Of course. Isn’t it funny how the most critically acclaimed movies almost always win despite whether anyone likes the movies or even sees them. I just want one year for a movie like Wedding Crashers to win a Best Picture Award. But comedies never win.

So another awards show is over and I think we got a pretty good insight into what is going to happen next month at the Oscars. Lots and lots of cowboy-on-cowboy action. I expect Joaquin and Reese to win again (barring a possible upset by Philip Seymour) and then Brokeback will win a lot of the rest of the awards.

We shall see…

Top Five of 2005

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I LOVE making top five lists. You might be able to tell considering the main URL of this web site. Jake and I created a design company under the name topFIVEdesign because both of us love to make top 5 lists. I don’t know what it is, but I really enjoy it. Alli and I even made an entire book with our friends, Rich and Sarah, that contained a list of our favorite EVERYTHING.

Anyway, this is my list of top five stuff for the last year. Let me know what you think.

Top 5 Movies:

  1. Crash
  2. King Kong
  3. Wedding Crashers
  4. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
  5. Rent

I have to have some special honorable mentions here. Proof, Elizabethtown, Walk the Line, Domino, Kingdom of Heaven, and Batman Begins.

Top 5 Albums:

  1. Iron & Wine | Calexico – In the Reins
  2. Imogen Heap – Speak For Yourself
  3. The Perishers – Let There Be Morning
  4. Coldplay – X&Y
  5. Liz Phair – Somebody’s Miracle

Top 5 Songs:

  1. He Lays in the Reins by Iron & Wine with Calexico
  2. Fix You by Coldplay
  3. You’re Beautiful by James Blunt
  4. Landed by Ben Folds
  5. Sugar, We’re Going Down by Fall Out Boy

Top 5 News Events:

  1. Hurricane Katrina & Rita
  2. London Bombings
  3. Death of Pope John Paul II
  4. Deep Throat Revealed
  5. Supreme Court Shakeup

Top 5 Biggest Movie Disappointments:

These movies were so disappointing that it they don’t even merit linking them to their listings. They just were either really, REALLY bad or did not even come close to living up to my expectations.

  1. Lord of War
  2. Fun With Dick and Jane
  3. Munich
  4. Brokeback Mountain
  5. The Dukes of Hazzard

Top 5 Books

  1. Fletch Won by Gregory McDonald
  2. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
  3. My Legendary Girlfriend by Mike Gayle
  4. Angels & Demons by Dan Brown
  5. A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby

Top 5 TV Shows:

  1. How I Met Your Mother
  2. LOST
  3. The Office
  4. Alias
  5. Scrubs

That’s all I can think of right now. Let me know what you think of my list and let me know if you have anything else that I should rank.

Working Out Sucks

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Me and 3 of my buddies are currently competing in our own little version of The Biggest Loser. We have until March 11 to lose as much weight as possible. The person who has lost the largest percentage of their body weight wins a round of golf from the other 3.

It’s a nice little piece of motivation that I have, considering I was planning on losing weight anyway. Right now, I’m tipping the scales considerably higher than I was, well…ANYTIME IN MY LIFE…and I’m really looking forward to getting rid of this excess poundage that I’ve been carrying around for God knows too long. I’ll probably complain about it plenty on here, but for now, I’m just frustrated.

I thought that the last two days were probably my best day of eating & working out all around, but I didn’t lose a single pound. Why is that? What’s up with that?

I guess if it were easy, EVERYONE would be at their ideal weight.

Must press on though.

I’m shooting for 10% body weight loss. That would likely put me in front and well on my way to the 20% that I need to lose.

IMAGINE THAT. 20% of body weight…GONE. That’s one-fifth of me. Crazy. So if you see me reaching for a candy or drinking a soda or doing anything that wouldn’t be considered “HEALTHY”, please, SMACK ME and tell me to suck it up.

Now, where did I put my water?

Silent Bob Speaks

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Silent Bob Speaks : The Collected Writings of Kevin Smith

Silent Bob Speaks: The Collected Writings of Kevin Smith
by Kevin Smith
Rating: 9 out of 10

A lot of people call Kevin Smith vulgar. Some call him a “hack”. Some call him really really lucky (even he himself believes this). And some just call him Silent Bob. I call him one of the greatest storytellers alive.

“Indie Filmmaker Kevin Smith”, who has directed 6 films (Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, and Jersey Girl), tell stories. Silent Bob Speaks is a collection of writing that Smith did over the past several years for different magazines, newspapers and internet sites. He talks about everything from his homoerotic infatuation with Ben Affleck to his despise for Greasy Reese Witherspoon. He tackles his diagnosis as a morbidly obese man and his love for all things Jersey.

What first must be said about this book is that it is NOT A MEMIOR. It is a collection of articles and columns…some go together (the story of the making of Jersey Girl) and some don’t (his love letters…errr…interviews with two of the biggest movie stars on the planet, Affleck and Tom Cruise).

One thing remains constant: Smith can weave a story so well that you feel like you are a part of his life, hanging out on his shoulder and witnessing what it is like to be him. His ability to make his stories feel personal, despite their sometimes vulgar (the final “story” about ComiCon) and ridiculous (the aforementioned story about Ms. Witherspoon) content. I’ve read some of the articles before (particularly the ones that were published in the British magazine, Arena, as they were posted on Smith’s View Askew web site. That didn’t matter to me. His stories were just as funny the second time around.

My favorite of the stories is a long diatribe on why he loved the “train-wreck” that was Star Wars – Episode II, Attack of the Clones. In fact, his sentiments echoed my own thoughts on the movie a lot (I really did like it).

This book is a REALLY fast read. It took me a total of maybe 8 hours tops to get through it and I loved all of it. I even found myself laughing out loud to myself at the gym while I read it riding the bike. People would look at me and I’d just hold the book up and they’d look at me with this quizzical look.

I guess they don’t really get it.

But I did. And I loved it.

My Year in Cities Meme

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I got this idea from Kottke (who has been to way more cities than I have). Anywho…here’s the deal:

One or more nights spent in each place. Those cities marked with an * were visited multiple times on non-consecutive days.

Santa Fe, NM
Chicago, IL
Colby, KS
Council Bluffs, IA*
Troy, MI*
Olathe, KS (does where you live count?)*

Not exactly a stellar list of cities, but I already have trips to Vegas, Seattle and Islamorada, Florida on the docket for this year and we would like to get out to see my family in California. And I know that Alli would like to get up to see her grandparents in Ohio this year too.

Anyway, that’s my list.

Blog your list of cities and get your friends to do the same. It’ll be fun.

How to Lose Friends and Alienate People

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How to Lose Friends & Alienate People

How to Lose Friends & Alienate People
by Toby Young
Rating: 7 out of 10

I was recommended this book by Amazon.com because of my affinity for all things Nick Hornby (and all things British for that matter). I’ve had it for quite a while (I even started it about 8 months ago, but only got about 4 pages in) and I decided that with the book project, I would have to just read it.

Despite the absolute vanity and sophomoric behavior of the author, Toby Young, I really liked this book.

Young is a freelance journalist who worked for a stint during the late 1990′s for the prestigious glossy magazine, Vanity Fair for the famous editor, Graydon Carter. How Young ever got his invitation to work at the magazine is beyond me, but I’ve never read any of his stuff besides his book, so I’m not really one to judge.

Anyway, despite his boorish behavior and absolute disregard for normal social mores (I believe that if I were English, I would call him a “tosser”), Young manages to come across as intelligent and well-spoken, even if his actions would suggest otherwise. What I liked about this book was how Young (who was, in a way, a gossip columnist, in a really swanky magazine) managed to maintain his integrity to an era of journalism that he admired (the Roaring ’20s) in an era of journalism that shunned everything that he held dear to that time in history.

There really no doubt that at the end of the day, Toby Young is a cad. However, you can’t help but sympathize with him…it seems like he can’t really change that.

I really thought he was a pretty good storyteller and I enjoyed the book.

I’m jumping over Sacred Marriage right now and I’m going to start on Silent Bob Speaks. I want to get somewhat ahead of the game this month and I know that it will be a pretty quick read. Plus, we are thinking about reading Sacred Marriage for our Young Adult class at church. I’m still going to read it even if we don’t, but just in case we do, I’m going to wait.

A Long Way Down

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A Long Way Down

A Long Way Down
by Nick Hornby
Rating: 7 out of 10

The first book of my new year-long book project is finished. I read A Long Way Down in about 4 days during my break from work (I took off the whole week between Christmas and New Year’s, including my birthday). It was a pretty quick read, moving along at a nice quick pace with interesting (although almost completely unlikable) characters who were all connected by a common theme.

They had all 4 met on the top of a building on New Year’s Eve with the intent to kill themselves. These strangers form an unlikely friendship and give each other motivation to NOT off themselves.

I don’t know what it is, but Nick Hornby’s last two efforts haven’t been that great, in my opinion. Perhaps it’s because the stuff that I connected with in High Fidelity and About a Boy is just missing from his latest efforts. I think that he has tried to stretch himself and write about characters that he didn’t really have much personal experience with (in his previous effort, How to be Good, the main character was a woman), and I just haven’t felt the same connection to the characters.

That being said, I liked the book (albeit not as much as the aforementioned two) and I will continue to look forward to his novels when they come out. We will see what I think of the other Hornby book that I have scheduled to read this year…Songbook. But the plan is not to read that until much later this year, so we’ll see.

I’m going to rank my books that I read this year on a scale of 1 to 10 (and I may include halves too, but I haven’t decided yet.

So I give my first book of the year, A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby: 7 out of 10

My Reading List

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In order (sorta), these are the books that I am planning on reading before next Christmas. I’ll try to do a write-up about each one.

  1. A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby
  2. How to Lose Friends and Alienate People by Toby Young
  3. Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy
  4. Sacred Marriage by Gary L. Thomas
  5. Silent Bob Speaks by Kevin Smith
  6. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
  7. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
  8. Shopaholic Ties the Knot by Sophie Kinsella
  9. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
  10. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
  11. Son of Fletch by Gregory McDonald
  12. Fletch Reflected by Gregory McDonald
  13. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
  14. The Power of the Praying Husband by Stormie Omartian
  15. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
  16. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
  17. The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
  18. Dinner for Two by Mike Gayle
  19. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
  20. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
  21. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
  22. Skylar in Yankeeland by Gregory McDonald
  23. Songbook by Nick Hornby
  24. Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
  25. Alli’s Choice – Since Alli and I are both doing reading lists this year, we agreed to each read a book that the other chose. We haven’t yet chosen for each other, but this is a placeholder for when we do.

OK, so I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get through all of them, but I’m going to try. Of note is that I have scheduled all 6 of the Harry Potter books that have been released so far. That’s a lot of pages, but I’ve been told by a lot of people that I will like them a lot (you’d better be right, JULIE). If someone can come up with any alternatives in case I don’t feel like reading some of these, they are welcome.