Shane Life

So I’ve been thinking about this post for the past week. I’ve been doing my best to hold off on writing this until I saw a couple more movies, particularly Up in the Air, which I saw today as part of a double-feature with my parents (the other movie was NINE). I’ve yet to see The Hurt Locker or Where the Wild Things Are, and frankly, the only other movie that felt really came close was State of Play. Here are the movies that I enjoyed the most this year:

Up

Pixar is easily one of the best studios on the planet. The worst movie that they’ve ever made (in my opinion) was Cars, and even that was considered a success by many. But this year, they really outdid themselves with this amazingly charming and heartfelt story of Carl Fredericksen, a boy named Russell and a dog named Dug: Up.

Avatar

One of the most visually stunning films of the last decade. I want to see it like three more times. Such a huge accomplishment for James Cameron. Fascinating on so many levels.

The Hangover

Call it overrated or crude. I don’t agree, nor do I care. I thought that Zach Galifianakis’ performance as Alan in The Hangover was one of the most entertaining of the year. Galifianakis and The Office‘s Ed Helms totally steal the majority of the scenes in this debauchery-filled romp through Las Vegas. I haven’t laughed this hard in a very long time.

Away We Go and (500) Days of Summer

Independent movies have really come into their own over the past few years. Juno and other films have set the bar extremely high, but there were two independents that came out this year that I really loved: Away We Go, starring John “Big Tuna” Krasinski and Maya Rudolph, (which I reviewed already) and (500) Days of Summer, starring Joseph-Gordon Levitt and Zooey Deschanel (which I also reviewed). Away We Go is just a lovely movie with some amazing chemistry between Krasinski and Rudolph. And (500) Days of Summer really did some amazing work redefining the romantic comedy genre. Both movies had great performances and completely phenomenal soundtracks (which always is helpful).

Star Trek

There was a lot of speculation as to whether J.J. Abrams (Alias, LOST, Cloverfield) could pull off a reboot of one of Hollywood’s most storied franchises. He did so and he did it amazingly. Essentially, he took the traditional Star Trek story with a new cast of characters and made it into an exciting action movie that just happened to be set in space. Star Trek was everything that you could ask for a summer blockbuster to be: it was exciting and funny and (most importantly for the summer blockbuster) it set the stage for many more sequels.

So my list is probably a lot different than most, but this is what I thought was great in 2009. I’m looking forward to 2010 (especially Iron Man 2).

What did you love in 2009? What are you looking forward to seeing in 2010?

I’m still Brian Fellow!

Five years ago, I started this blog with a simple Blogspot account and an innocuous post titled “I’m Brian Fellow!” At the time, I was working at Perceptive Software and my buddy Kevin and I used to laugh constantly at this skit. It always makes me laugh.

In that post, I stated the following, in an attempt to introduce myself to the blogodome:

Things I like:

• hanging with my wife and dog
• movies
• music (I really really like my iPod + iTunes)
• Chipotle burritos
• the TV show “Alias” – the best show EVER
• Apple computers
• most EA Sports video games for PS2
• poker (only recently really, but I like it a lot)
• reading (but only sometimes)
• cheeseburgers
• Mountain Dew (most forms, though I have yet to try the new black kind)
• The Chiefs

Things I dislike:

• ignorance
• people who drive with their lights on during the day
• temperatures over 85 degrees
• people who don’t vote because “one vote doesn’t make a difference”
• pants other than jeans
• old navy t-shirts (they are too short for my long torso)
• the general refusal of PC users to accept the Firewire interface, favoring USB (for some god-forsaken reason) over it

I’m a generally happy guy. But I’m opinionated and when I think a certain way…I’ll tell you. Just FYI.

Most of this is still true.

Sure, “Alias” isn’t on the air anymore. And it definitely went downhill in its later years. I rarely play my PS2 anymore (although I might play a Wii if I had one with Beatles Rock Band. I still dislike ignorance and temperatures above 85 degrees (which makes the glorious weather in KC all the more…um…glorious). And while I would prefer to wear jeans everyday, I don’t, since I can’t really. At least not currently. Old Navy did something to their T-shirts and they fit better now. And I’m totally over the Firewire/USB thing.

But not really.

So it’s been five years since I started blogging. Not much has changed about me. I’ve always treated this blog as an extension of my real life and I hope that it is reflected in my writing and when people meet me.

I can’t believe it. 863 posts in 38 categories with 1,164 tags and 2,182 comments. Thanks for reading. I will keep writing and I don’t intend to stop anytime soon.

The internet is abuzz with the story of Rosemary Port, the blogger behind the “Skanks of NYC” blog. Google was sued by one of the targets of her vitriol (a model named Liskula Cohen) and was forced by courts reveal her real life identity.

Port, a 29-year-old student at FIT, is unapologetic. In fact, you could argue that she’s even more outraged than Cohen, who initially brought the defamation suit against her, considering that Port is now suing Google for $15 million dollars. Nevermind the fact that Google was only abiding by a court’s ruling…

What bothers me most about this story is what bothers me a lot about blogs and internet commentary. People like to hide behind the First Amendment and believe they should be allowed to spout hateful, libelous comments without the consequence of actually having to own up to their comments.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

But there’s nothing in the First Amendment that guarantees anonymity in your free speech. See, that’s the difference and where the internet can be a dangerous place. People can hide behind aliases and while many would argue that anonymity allows for a more free exchange of ideas (as has been upheld by a 1995 Supreme Court ruling), the truth is that it has very little to do with the First Amendment.

There are organizations that will try to tell you that you are entitled to your anonymity. There has even been precedent set by previous rulings, but frankly, the court’s ruling that Google must release Port’s identity is going to set a whole new standard.

I’ve long thought that the anonymity afforded bloggers and commenters on the Web allowed people to expose their hatred and racism (just a quick reading of the comments — comments that I would reject — on Tony’s Kansas City will show you that). But those things are actually truths that people just normally don’t share in real life. More dangerous is the flat out fallacies and untruths that people write, hiding behind their veiled “online persona.” I know there are people that do it for the protection of their job or their family or whatever, but I guess that’s just not the kind of blogger I want to be.

I’ve always tried to be myself online. I would hope that my readers will always hold me to that, especially the ones that know me in real life.

What do you think? Is anonymity a part of what the Web is about or does it afford authors and commenters too much leeway?

I’m not sure how many of you know, but my 31st birthday is a short NINE days away. Christmas is only 2 days after that. I know that my readers are wanting to buy me stuff. In order to help facilitate the gift-buying process, I’m going to provide you with this handy-dandy gift-buying guide as well as a nice fat link to my Amazon.com wish list.

Highlights of the things I want this year include (but are not reserved to):

The Old Standbys

• DVDs (TV Shows like Alias, Arrested Development, 30 Rock, and The Office)
• Comic Books (there are tons on my list, especially Pearls Before Swine collections – great “library” material!)
• Regular Books (I’m especially interested in the one called “The 4-hour Work Week” – who wouldn’t want that?)

Big Ticket Items

• Macbook
• Bose QC2 Noise Cancelling Headphones
• Complete Harry Potter Set
• Complete Calvin and Hobbes

I’m not very imaginative when it comes to gifts, although there’s plenty to choose from. Please feel free to buy me a present! I also like Starbucks gift cards and will be more than willing to accept gift cards to any major retailer. You also can just send me money on PayPal if you’d like. If you’re looking to buy a gift for someone else, might I suggest my Cafe Press store? That way, everyone wins.

I’m not talking about the abysmal-looking Dane Cook / Jessica Alba vehicle Good Luck Chuck.

No, I’m talking about the upcoming new NBC show of a similar (albeit shorter) name, CHUCK.

A big internet-head-nod to Brian, who pointed out that Amazon Unbox was offering the pilot of NBC’s new show for free. While I certainly am not a huge fan of Amazon.com’s new video download service (particularly the part where their player doesn’t work on a Mac), but I thought this presented a perfect opportunity to try it out. Free TV show that I want to watch that I won’t be able to record on Monday because it airs at the same time as the Dancing with the Stars premiere and the How I Met Your Mother premiere. Since we only have 1 DVR…you get the idea.

Anyway, I checked out the show, which (as I described earlier) is about a guy who works at a Best Buy-type store as a member of the “Nerd Herd” and he unwittingly is sent an e-mail from an old college buddy who happens to be working for the CIA, putting him in the middle of an espionage mess.

One thing that I didn’t realize before was that it is executive produced by McG, most famous for directing music videos and both Charlie’s Angels movies. Not only that, but Chuck’s sister Ellie is played by an Overland Park, KS native named Sarah Lancaster (who was previously known mostly as Gift Shop Girl on Scrubs). So it has that going for it.

I don’t want to give away too much because I thought the show was pretty good (and it has a decent twist at the end), but it is one that I am certainly going to attempt to make room for in my fall TV-watching schedule. Since it is on NBC, I expect that Zucker & Co. will manage to screw it up by episode 6 and rumors of its cancellation will begin to surface, ending all interest in what seems to be a decent show (and perhaps a slightly more comedic version of Alias). If you think I’m kidding, please see: Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

I know my readership isn’t many, but it’s powerful. I am asking you to give it a shot at least. It airs this Monday night NBC isn’t promoting it nearly as much as Bionic Woman and my guess is that they are putting both up in the hope that one catches on with the intent of the other getting canceled. My hope is that both end up being good and both stay on the schedule. But alas, it’s NBC. They’re bound to mess it up.

One of the things that is always fun to do is to figure out what shows I’m going to try out as some of my favorites are inevitably canceled (Studio 60) or put on hold until February (Lost). I’m excited for fall TV because How I Met Your Mother did not get canceled as it was reported it might. Overall, though, the fall TV season isn’t looking all that promising. There aren’t a ton of shows that I’m clamoring to see, but a couple have caught my eye and I’ll take a look at them.

Bionic Woman

Ever since we lost Alias, Alli and I have been a bit morose. That filled a certain void that we didn’t want to fill with 24. NBC has been promoting the heck out of Bionic Woman, which was helmed by one of the co-creators of the new Battlestar Gallactica. I haven’t watched much Gallactica, but the idea of a super-awesome bionic woman is intriguing and I’m going to give it a shot.

Carpoolers

Jerry “Mr. Rebecca Romjin” O’Connell stars in what looks like a funny look at the daily commute to work. I’ve been pretty patient with ‘Til Death (which turned out to be better toward the end of the season than it started out), but I don’t know how much patience I’ll have for this show. It looks funny though. There aren’t a lot of sitcoms out there that get into dude relationships all that much. This could be funny.

Big Shots

Touted as “Sex and the City for Dudes” (isn’t that what Entourage is?), this show brings back Dylan McDermott from The Practice and pairs him with Michael Vartan, formerly Michael Vaughn on the aforementioned Alias. Vartan, McDermott and two other guys (that look familiar but I can’t place them) play best friends and powerful businessmen at the top of their game, but somehow hampered by the women in their life. This has the potential to be a good show based on the actors it contains, but shows that are heavily geared towards dudes (see Carpoolers above) are traditionally canceled by mid-season.

Samantha Who?

Christina Applegate is a good TV actress. Most famous for portraying Kelly Bundy on Married With Children, she’s managed a pretty good career. Her portrayal of Rachel Green’s even brattier sister Amy on Friends was terrific (she won the Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in 2003). Even her pretty terrible show, Jesse, managed 42 episodes. Samantha Who? sounds like a good show in concept. Applegate plays the main character who wakes up from a coma to find that she doesn’t remember a thing from her former life. She eventually discovers that she wasn’t a nice person at all and goes to make good on her previous mistakes. Think of it as a spin on My Name is Earl.

Chuck

I don’t know a lot about this show, but the previews I’ve seen for it make it look kind of funny. Chuck accidentally becomes a government agent. That’s about all I know. Sounds good. I’ll give it a shot.

There are also some new shows that I don’t have any interest in at all, particularly Back to You (starring Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton on Fox) and Cavemen (Prediction: the idiot that green-lighted this show will be fired by the second show).

What shows are you excited for this fall?

If I’m being totally honest, I’ll say that I will watch ANYTHING that JJ Abrams puts his name behind. It could be a TV show about a sensitive garbage man who gets sucked into the world of mobsters and has to save the planet starring Greg Grunberg and I’d still watch it.

JJ Abrams is the man.

Even Felicity was a decent show. ALIAS was one of my all-time favorites and made Jennifer Garner a star (for a while…she has returned to obscurity now). Mission Impossible: III was the best of the franchise. But let’s be honest. LOST is what made him famous.

Rightfully so. The first season of Lost was genius. It was just strange enough to keep people completely rapt, but the characters were so strong that they were drawn in to the island completely.

Season Two carried on the tradition pretty well, but as the season went on, it faded. That loss of sheen has been more prevalent during this 3rd season, particularly since none of the writers seem to want to answer any questions. The early rumors were that JJ originally pitched Lost as an 8-season arc. If the ratings don’t improve over this season, I imagine they’ll have to figure out a way to wrap it up sooner than that.

That being said, last night’s episode of Lost was probably the best of Season 3. The reason? The writers finally abandoned the Jake/Kate/Sawyer forced love triangle (see Ross/Rachel/Joey) and got back to the basics…answering some questions and focusing on the most interesting characters, namely Sayid.

Naveen Andrews portrayal of the former Iraqi Republican Guard Interrogator (read: torturer) has always been terrifically spot-on. In this episode, we get more of his backstory when he and Locke and Kate (and that crazy French lady) discover another Dharma station called The Flame that is manned by the mysterious man in the eye patch.

Without giving too much away, I’ll say this: if they can manage a couple more solid episodes like this one before the end of the season, I’ll watch Season 4. If not…well…you might find yourself permanently deleted from my DVR schedule. I watch too much TV as it is.

Six Degrees is JJ Abrams’ (the creator of Lost, Alias, Mission Impossible: III) newest television venture an it appears Thursday nights at 9 p.m.

As I was watching last night’s episode (which you can view for free on the ABC web site), I was thinking to myself, ‘You know, there’s not a ton to this show. It’s all about good characters and interesting relationships. But it’s still really good.’ It’s a relatively simple concept for a show, but it’s executed so well. The real twists come in the nature of how everyone is connected.

A lot of the people I’ve talked to (do you hear me, Jason?) find the show “boring” or “depressing”, but to me, it’s just about perfect. The characters aren’t ridiculous caricatures of life – they’re real people who we can relate to. There’s nothing particularly remarkable about them or their story lines; they’ve all made mistakes and are trying to live their lives the best they can.
That’s what makes me appreciate this show even more – the show is about normal people and it is still interesting because the writing captures real life so well. The more that went wrong in Steven’s life last night (he’s the aging photographer), the more believable it became because sometimes it just feels like life’s pitfalls snowball on us and there’s no end in sight.
I hope that this show stays on the air. I haven’t heard a ton about its ratings, but I also haven’t heard anything about its struggles either. I can’t imagine it is a cheap show, considering it is shot on location in Manhattan and contains some really big actors (Hope Davis, Bridget Moynahan, Jay Hernandez, Erika Christiansen, Zoe Saldana). I hope that ABC gives it time to develop an audience…they likely will since it’s a JJ show, but you never know with the morons they have in TV these days.

I’ve been looking forward to the fall TV season since Entourage went off the air back in early August. All of the television pundits claim that this is a banner year for TV with many great new shows coming out this fall. I’ve had my eye on a few, but I don’t know if I’ll find a way to watch all of them…I can’t imagine that one won’t be cancelled soon.

We’ve checked out a few shows so far, with a few more to come. Here are my initial thoughts:

‘Til Death – I had high hopes for this show starring Everybody Loves Raymond star Brad Garrett and Eddie Kaye Thomas (Finch from American Pie). We’re two episodes in and there’s not much good to say. The show has some funny moments, but for the most part, it’s just another sitcom with a lousy view of marriage. The premise of the show is that some newlyweds move next door to a couple that has been married for a long time. The older couple does everything they can to undermine the enthusiasm of the newlyweds with their pessimism and crankiness. If the show doesn’t get better quickly, it’s getting cancelled from the DVR season recorder.

the class – An ensemble sitcom from the creators of Friends? Count me in. The first episode was last night and I think it kind of served to set up some storylines, but it could be interesting. The only people even remotely recognizable (could be said for any of the Friends cast too, initially) are Andrea Anders (who co-starred with Matt LeBlanc on the oft-maligned Joey) and Jason Ritter (son of the late John Ritter). If the writing is smart, it could be a good show. I’ll give it 4 or 5 episodes to wow me, but not more than that. It has the benefit of being on Monday before How I Met Your Mother (which also started last night…YES!), so it might get a little more leniency.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip – This has to be one of the most anticipated shows of the new season. Giant cast (Matthew Perry, Amanda Peet, Bradley Whitford, Steven Weber, Sara Paulson), high-profile writer (Aaron Sorkin of The West Wing fame), and a decent time slot (it only really has to compete against the juggernaut, Miami-flavored, awful David Caruso starring CSI. I really was looking forward to this show, especially to see what Matthew Perry would do in a more serious role. The show is centered around two guys who have taken over a Saturday-Night-Live-esque show on the fictional network NBC…errrr….NBS. I never really was able to get into The West Wing, but I LOVE this show. Alli and I are really excited because we finally have another hour-long show to replace Alias. The first episode was fast-paced, riveting, and well-acted. I thought Amanda Peet was terrific and I’m really excited for this show over most of the others that will likely get cancelled. By the way, they are showing the entire first episode on nbc.com.

So that’s it for now. There are others coming up that I’ll be recording, particularly Twenty Good Years with John Lithgow and Jeffrey Tambor, which looks good, although I don’t know if there will be enough scenes for each of these guys to chew. I also am anticipating Tina Fey’s first foray into sitcom writing with 30 Rock, although I can’t assume that NBC will put THAT many good shows on TV. Let’s hope though. I’m also looking forward to JJ Abrams’ new show Six Degrees. Could be interesting.

I’m a TV freak, I know, but hey…that’s me.