Good News, T. Furrows!

Check out this news article.

One of the guys who lost his retirement funds when Enron tanked just won the lottery.

How bad ass is that?

Like a Virgin

As you may or may not know, the greatest TV show of all time is Freaks and Geeks. No, there isn’t even a debate. It is just that good. Anyway, in one of the later episodes, Lindsey Weir (the main character played by Linda Cardellini) is given a Grateful Dead record from the school’s guidance counselor. While Lindsey is walking through the cafeteria one Deadhead tells here that the album is, “so good that I wished I hadn’t heard it, just so I could hear for the first time again.” I always thought this line was a little bit hokey, but upon further reflection it makes sense.

The question then arises, what things are so good you wish you could experience them for the first time all over again?

Here’s a list of a few of the things that make my list (I’m including music, movies, TV shows, food, theme parks, sports, and anything else that can be thought of):

1) The Office - US Version

This show was the one that made the whole statement above click. I was laying around one night and the thought popped into my head, “I wish I could go back and see this show for the first time again.” As it stands right now, I know all the little idiosyncracities about each character. I think part of the appeal of the series is the getting to know the characters.

2) Muffaletta – The Naretta Italian Sub

Now, I’ve been eating this meal since I can remember. So, I can’t reflect on what it was like the first time I had it (except the fact that it was too big for my mouth). But, now a days, I am bringing the Muffaletta to a whole new audience (seeing as though I have learned to make it). This gives me a little glimpse as people get to taste it for the first time… and then have garlic breath for the next 24 hours.

3) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

A movie completely different from any other I’ve seen. I recall the first time I watched it, it was kind of confusing. But the true joy was reflecting on it afterwards and figuring it all out. Truly a great experience.

4) Van Morrison ”Sweet Thing”

I’m not one who sits down and listens to albums cover-to-cover. So, I pretty much just get the greatest hits CDs and listen to the songs that I know. One exception was Van Morrison’s Greatest Hits. I was listen to the songs one day and on came “Sweet Thing.” Though I had not heard of it at the time, I dug the hell out of the song. It has since taken a stranglehold on my favorite songs list.

5) Tower of Terror – MGM Studios

Arguably the best ride at Disney. I came into it not knowing what to expect (well besides what I saw in the Steve Guttenberg film and from what I could see heading up to the ride [i.e. I knew it was a big drop ride]). Walking up to the ride I got to take in all the ambiance of the 30’s era hotel that had been closed for many years. Once inside, we get the spooky little Twilight Zone clip. Walking through the boiler room. The initial seating. The whole wtf moment when the elevator starts moving forward. Then the huge drop and shooting back up. I would love to go through that all again with out knowing how it was going to play out.

I could continue this list for days, but I’ll cut it off here.

Now it is you turn to list some of the things that you would like to experience to the first time again.

Return to Red Dwarf

I was introduced to a TV series called Red Dwarf (based on the books by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor) at a pretty young age. I remember it was a Christmas and my sister had received a VHS (yeah, it was a long time ago) of three episodes from my dad. I had never heard of the show or the books, but I decided to give it view and see what I thought of it. After the first few minutes of the first episode, I knew I liked the show. I liked the characters (who doesn’t love Lister or The Cat? Kryten and Rimmer are also well defined and are a good counter to Lister/The Cat. Holly also tends to steal any scene he/she is in [I preferred the male Holly].)  and the humor.

From that point on, I always held Red Dwarf in high regards. I eventually found that the show aired on the local PBS station occasionally. All the while I enjoyed every minute I was able to see. My love of the show led me to my first conversation(s) with the guy who eventually became the best man at my wedding.

As the years went by, I still got to see an occasional episode on TV but my interests started to turn to other things. I still held a special place for Red Dwarf, but when it came out on DVD, I never could rationalize paying the price for it (if I remember correctly, it was like $40 for 6 episodes). So, that was just about the end of the Mikey-Red Dwarf saga.

Then, Netflix comes into the picture. I put all the seasons of Red Dwarf on the queue. Eventually I get the first season. I sit down and watch it. While, I enjoy it, I do feel that it is missing a bit (maybe it’s because Kryten doesn’t show up at all). So, after that, I decide to take all the later seasons off my queue. Deciding that the show just didn’t hold up over time.

Then, Netflix comes into the picture…um…again. As I posteda while back, Netflix is now offering video that you can watch directly from your computer. I checked it out, but the list of titles available to watch now was limited. I did, however, notice that all the seasons of Red Dwarf were on there.

A couple of weeks go by, I go to the watch it now screen and see the Red Dwarf sitting there. But I am still hesitant to hit play. Is it better to leave it a great memory or should I revisit it and maybe ruin the memory?

This brings us up to last week (or so, I don’t remember the exact day). I finally decided to check out the second season. After the first episode, I realized exactly why I loved the Red Dwarf series. It still holds up today (except, the first season was kind of weak, apparently). I rip through the second series with in a couple of days. The love I knew as a boy has been rekindled.

As of the time I am writing this, I have watched the entire second and third seasons. It turns out that the VHS my sis had gotten was from the third season. Growing up, I thoguht that those episodes on VHS were the best episodes of the entire series. Now that I have gone back, I realize that while a couple of the episode are really good (SDRAWKCAB and Polymorph) they are not the best.

Here is my top two episodes as of 3/21/2007:

1) Queeg – Season 2

This episode started up and there wasn’t any huge jokes. The episode continues and still not much. I start thinking that it is one of the worst episodes. Then out of no where, a huge twist and big laughs. I love it because it breaks the mold of the other episodes.

So, if you were to watch one episode, I’d suggest going to my number two episode. If you are a Red Dwarf connoisseur, Queeg is an absolute must see.

2) Better Than Life – Season 2

This episode was eventually spun off into a book and a second episode. So, you know there is something to it.

The basic premise is that there is a video game that is “Better than Life.” In the game, you can get anything you can dream of. This leads to fun and amusement as we get to see what type things each character desires.

The humor comes quick and often throughout the episode.

If you are new to Red Dwarf and you only want to watch one episode to try it out, this is the one I’d suggest.

Oooh YEAH!

For those of you who are into NBA basketball AND Professional Wrestling from the 80’s or 90’s, you absolutely have to check out this site.

An Onion quality spoof of a current topic. I loved every minute of it. Enjoy!

New Species of Feline found!

A new species of feline has been found.

The animal was found in Borneo. It is called the Bornean Clouded Leopard.

Here is a picture of this amazing cat:

Oh wait, that’s little Evie. My house cat.

Here’s a picture of the actual Bornean Clouded Leopard:

If you go to THIS website, you can watch footage of the cat in action (The Leopard, not my kitty).

How does a cat this big go for so long with out being identified?

It’s truly amazing.

An Evening of Superman

I had this crazy idea for a movie night; watch both Superman: the movie (with Christopher Reeve) and Superman Returns. Last night was the Superman night. Here’s my take on the action.

After opening the mail, I took a glance at the Netflix envelope and found out that Superman: the movie is 151 minutes long (2 hours and 31 minutes). Then I looked at the Superman Returns envelope and found out it runs 2 hours and 34 minutes. I was in for 5 hours of Superman. This night was going to shatter my previous record of about 30 minutes of Supes (I watched a Superman heavy episode of Justice Leauge once).

Despite the long running time, I was already committed. So, we popped in the original Superman Movie first. I was pretty interested to check this out because A) I had never seen it and B) it’s the movie that started the whole superhero craze (I think).

So, the movie is playing and the plot is telling the backstory of Krypton and Jor-El and so forth. It is a story that everyone knows and doesn’t need to be told. So, 15 minutes pass, and their still on Krypton. We pass the half hour mark, still a bunch of Kryptonians. 45 mintues, the planet blows up (finally). Next we get to see a naked child (how did this make it into the movie? Full frontal nudity for a kid? I’m no conservative, but still, this is ridiculous). Next, Clark Kent is in high school (I guess no one wanted to see an hour of Clark growing up instead of an hour on Krypton). Next Dad dies, and Clark is in the city. At this point, we are about an hour in and there has yet to be any action scenes (unless you count the death star blowing up [wait, I'm being told that that was Krypton, looks pretty much the same to me] or Clark running super fast, but looking like a complete retard [sorry, mentally handicapable] in doing so).

Now in the city, Clark starts to use his powers to help people out and to hit on Lois Lane. Then, all of the sudden the movie stops. Well, at least the copy we had came to a stop (as in the picture wasn’t movie, not as in the plot sucked). So, we took the disc out and cleaned it. Still it wouldn’t work. So, we got to watch the first hour and 15 minutes before being cut off. To tell you the truth, I’m pretty glad it did stop. Right before the stop, I was booting up the laptop to keep myself entertained. I’m not sure if I just hate the Superman character (like a nerdier, more powerful Spiderman [is the nerdier part possible?]) or if the movie was just long drawn out scenes that nobody needed to watch, but either way I was bored.

So, with the first movie ended due to technical difficulties, we put on Supes Returns. This movie started off a bit better than the original (mostly because they didn’t have to rehash the whole creation story). I didn’t really like the Marlon Brando voice over in the new movie. I couldn’t understand what he was saying half the time, the other half I thought was out of place with the plot line. Plus it kept reminding me about the original Superman movie. Actually this whole movie was pretty much a replay of the original (a lot of the same lines, moments, actions, etc.). Seeing as though I wasn’t into the original, that definitely effected the value of Returns. Also hurting Returns was the overuse of Slow Motion effects. You should know by now, that I really dislike slow motion effects and feel that they hardly ever work. This movie could have been under 2 hours if they just got rid of all the slow motion. I did, however, enjoy the Kevin Spacey/Parker Posey/Kumar (from Harold & Kumar) storyline. It was a little hard to follow at first, but it provided some of the best moments and it featured the best acting. I also enjoyed watching Superman gets his ass beat down. Maybe it is because that is the first time he showed anything that humans can relate to. but I dug the heck out of that scene.

Overall, I’d say that if you are going to watch one Superman Movie, I’d recommend Returns. That’s not to say it’s a great movie, it just has better pacing and keeps you into the story.

I give Superman Returns 3 out of 5 Netflix stars, I give Superman: the Movie 2 out of 5 Netflix stars.

John Hughes

For no real reason at all, I wanted to make a decision on what the best John Hughes movie is. Not a top 5 or top 10, a top 1. I am including every movie he wrote (he only directed a handful). Here’s the list of John Hughes movies (courtesy of Wikipedia):

Mr. Mom (1983)

National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983)

Sixteen Candles (1984)

The Breakfast Club (1985)

National Lampoon’s European Vacation (1985)

Weird Science (1985)

Pretty in Pink (1986)

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)

Some Kind of Wonderful (1987)

Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987)

She’s Having a Baby (1988)

The Great Outdoors (1988)

Uncle Buck (1989)

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)

Home Alone (1990)

Career Opportunities (1991)

Dutch (1991)

Curly Sue (1991)

Beethoven (1992)

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)

Dennis the Menace (1993)

Beethoven’s 2nd (1993)

Baby’s Day Out (1994)

Miracle on 34th Street (1994)

101 Dalmatians (1996)

Flubber (1997)

Home Alone 3 (1997)

Maid in Manhattan (2002)

I’ll start by taking off everything done after 1991 (Post Dutch). Those are mediocre movies at best. Definitely not worthy of the best of John Hughes movie title.

Mr. Mom (1983)

National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983)

Sixteen Candles (1984)

The Breakfast Club (1985)

National Lampoon’s European Vacation (1985)

Weird Science (1985)

Pretty in Pink (1986)

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)

Some Kind of Wonderful (1987)

Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987)

She’s Having a Baby (1988)

The Great Outdoors (1988)

Uncle Buck (1989)

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)

Home Alone (1990)

Career Opportunities (1991)

Dutch (1991)

Next I’ll remove the movies that I’ve never heard of before: Career Opportunities, She’s Having a Baby, and Some Kind of Wonderful.

Mr. Mom (1983)

National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983)

Sixteen Candles (1984)

The Breakfast Club (1985)

National Lampoon’s European Vacation (1985)

Weird Science (1985)

Pretty in Pink (1986)

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)

Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987)

The Great Outdoors (1988)

Uncle Buck (1989)

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)

Home Alone (1990)

Dutch (1991)

Now things get a little dicey. Looking at the Vacation movies, which one is the best? I’d have to go for Vacation. No one is going to argue for European Vacation. So, no reason to continue talking about it. Christmas Vacation is very good and almost a toss up with the original, but the original is superior.

Also, let’s look at the John Candy as a star movies: Great Outdoors, P, T, and A, and Uncle Buck. Out of those three we can write off Uncle Buck. It has a few funny moments, but is far from a classic (unless your idea of a classic is a movie that you get for free with a pizza). P, T, and A is a bit more funny than the Great Outdoors. It really comes down to the co-star. On one hand you have Steve Martin on the other Dan Akroyd. I could be wrong, but Steve Martin at the top of his game is better than Akroyd. So, I’ll take P, T, and A from this group.

Now let’s tackle the really big debate; the best high school movie. In this grouping we find the following: Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, Pretty in Pink, and Ferris. We have to eliminate Pretty in Pink immediately because it only really speaks to the female audience. Likewise, Weird Science is mostly a guy type movie, so we have to drop it from the list. Between the remaining three; Sixteen Candles is the most romantic, The Breakfast Club has the most drama, and Ferris Bueller is the funniest. Naturally, the funniest wins. So, FBDO advances to the next round.

The last category is covers all the movies left over. This list includes Mr. Mom, Home Alone, and Dutch. I personally don’t remember much about Mr. Mom, so I’ll have to knock it off the list. That leaves Home Alone and Dutch. As much as I like Ethan Embry and Dutch, it is just too dramatic for my tastes. Thus, I will take Home Alone as the top dog of this group.

So, here’s the remaining four movies:

National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983)

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)

Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987)

Home Alone (1990)

It’s obvious that one of these movies does not belong. So, we knock Home Alone off the list. That leaves us with:

National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983)

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)

Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987)

From these three movies, I have to go with Ferris. It has tons of humor, a solid B story (Ed Rooney), character development (look at Cameron), a great soundtrack (even though it was never put on tape/CD), a bunch of memorable images (all the Chicago locations), a high quotability factor (every time I get a glass of water I have to say, “and you thought we wouldn’t have any fun today. Shame on you.”), a high rewatchability factor (see my other blog for more information on this), and everything you wanted to do/be in high school. There was a period when I seemed to watch this movie at least once a week.

Now it’s your turn. How would you sort things out? Which movie is the best in your opinion? How terrible is my logic? Even worse, how bad is my writing technique (you know, with all the tangential thoughts in parenthesis [just like that one, and I guess this one])?

Dinner For Five

Have you watched any episodes of Dinner For Five (Yes, I know you have Chris)?

If you haven’t, it is a show on IFC (independent film channel). The premise is really simple; Jon Favreau hosts a dinner at a restaurant with four people who are in show business. While the dinner goes on, they talk about their experiences, the business, how they got their break, random thoughts, and so on. For anyone interested in show business in any sense, it is a must see. Even if you just like movies and TV shows, it’s a good view.

I just watched a rerun episode last night off the DVR. The four guests were Harry Shearer (Spinal Tap, The Simpsons), Fred Willard (All the Christopher Guest movies [most memorable in Best In Show]), Alan Cumming (X-Men 2, Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion, Spy Kids), and Frank Darabont (writer of many movies; most notably writer/director of Shawshank Redemption). I had seen this episode a while back and kind of wrote it off. So, coming back to it, I realized that I had forgotten all the jokes and insight. There were plenty of laugh out loud jokes through out the episode (as you would imagine there would be with Willard and Shearer) but, in my opinion, the episode was dominated by Darabont. He discussed what he does when writing, his takes on hollywood, and his experiences with the likes of Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg. This guy should really have his own special about all this stuff (ala An Evening with Kevin Smith [minus the dick and fart jokes]). The people on Dinner for Five usually come off as real (if someone is just putting on a show, you can usually tell). That’s part of the greatness of the show.

This episode got me to think of all the people in show business who take the time to show a real side (not the fake TV/Newpaper/Magazine interview side). Here’s a list of some of the best, in my opinion again, at showing the population their real life:

1) Kevin Smith – I like his writing style, but no one will claim he is a good director (including himself). But the one thing Kevin Smith does exceptionally well is let his fans know as much about his life as they want (see: Evening with Kevin Smith and his website).

2) Sylvester Stallone – I’ve always enjoyed Stallone’s movies, but he usually came off as a slow witted meathead. Then, last fall, Stallone did his series of reader Q and A’s over on Aint it Cool news (you can check them all out HERE). From that point on, you have to respect that Stallone is an intelligent, witty, and insightful guy. He completely changed the readers’ view of him with that.

3) Jane Espenson - If you are unfamiliar with the name, she is a TV writer. You may know some of the shows she has worked on: Buffy, Battlestar Galactica, and Andy Barker, P.I. (season premiere this Thursday on NBC at 9:30 PM). She operates a blog in which she goes into details as to what is going on with her writing and how you can improve your writing. This also helps you recognize when you are watching a well written show/movie or a piece of junk. Definitely a website you should check out.

4) John August - You may or may not know his name. He is a movie writer that has written such movies as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Corpse Bride, and Big Fish (just recently he announced that he is writing a Captain Marvel script). He also wrote and directed Go. He answers questions on IMDB’s Ask a writer section each week (if you haven’t read any of these, go over and check out the archives. It is a must read). John also operates his own website where he answers questions (in more detail than on IMDB), talks about projects, and shares his thoughts on other issues (the Hollywood Parade articles are usually hilarious). The only downside is that lately his posts have been only about one per week (probably do to the work he is doing on the aforementioned Captain Marvel as well as The Nines [which recently premiered at Sundance to great reviews]).

I highly recommend checking out each of their websites/Q and A’s whenever you have the chance.

Are there any other people in show business that have as open a relationship with the public that I missed (most of mine are geared toward the writing side because that’s what I relate to the most)?

Pirates

For those of you out there that are huge Pirates of the Carribbean fans, you will probably want to check THIS website on March 19th.

I am pretty indifferent about the upcoming movie because of the issues with the second (i.e. what was the point of the whole cannibal island thing? It was completely out of place and pointless. A waste of 30 minutes of film time.).

The Office Reruns

“What’s a rerun?”

According to E! Online, NBC is going to do a little something different with reruns of The Office.

According to the report, The Office’s reruns will be aired with deleted scenes or additional content to the episodes. Thus giving you a reason to rewatch the episodes (like you really need a reason to rewatch the episodes).

I don’t have the details to when this will start/end, but that is the report from what I’ve heard (I read about it on USA Today’s Pop Candy section).