Downtime

Somebody once said, "Everybody needs some downtime...y'know, time to relax, reflect, and turn off the engines for a bit to rest the batteries". I also once saw on a truck, "Behind a bouncing ball is a running child, please drive safely", which I thought was brilliant.

Anyway, between the holidays, the end of the year push at work, getting sick, and just general busy-ness, I've been putting updates on the blog here on hold. Things will stay like that for a little while longer but I'd figure I'd reflect on recent pop culture media I've seen the last few weeks.

Movies:

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of The Crystal Skulls (2008)



The title of this movie has to go along with some of the dumbest titles ever ("Hello God? It's me Mary Margaret" comes to mind). The movie itself was a LOT better than I thought it was going to be with the exception of the final 5-10 minutes which really made no sense. Let's just say Indiana Jones was never meant to be onscreen with a flying saucer. Shai LaBeouf or whatever his name is grew on me as the movie went along and Harrison Ford really didn't change much at all. I guarantee you this though...no way would he marry that woman at the end of the movie...she had more lines on her face than a piece of graph paper.

The Thing (1982)



Oh baby, this movie shot up towards my top 10 list movies of all time. Yes its 25 years old but it has everything a great horror movie should have. Gruesome but very inventive special effects, a great plot, and a constant fear that not everything is what it seems. There was a so-so remake of this movie called "The Faculty" not too long ago but the original is the best. The cast is very random too...it has Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, T.K. Carter, who was the black guy from the TV show 'Designing Women', the black Dad from the first scene of "There's Something About Mary" when Ben Stiller zips up his nut, and Richard Masur who played Stan in the movie "It". If you haven't seen this movie yet, trust me and seek it out.

The Incredible Hulk (2008)



I really enjoyed this movie. I love Ed Norton ever since his debut in Primal Fear and I read the comic book growing up so it seemed like a win/win. The effects hold up although I have no idea what they did with the bad guy/monster at the end. The bad guy had just finished demolishing all of Harlem, nothing could stop him, and the Hulk nearly died beating him....and now they're going to contain him somewhere? I'd love to see what happened 5 minutes later after they threw him in a cell.

TV Shows

Law and Order



I started getting into this show again. I like the cast which now includes the black recruit from "Old School" who's concrete block falls through the sewer grate and pulls him off the roof by his balls. Its interesting seeing him play a cop now.

Heroes



I'm really trying hard to like this show but it really is all over the place. The episode last Monday was the worst. Characters literally are acting like different people in the same episode. I don't understand why Sylar killed Elle when he already had her powers. I'll hang on to this show until the very end but it looks like the magic of season 1 is long gone.

Saturday Night Live



Welcome back old friend, you've been missed.

King Of The Hill



A shame this is being cancelled...no show consistently makes me laugh harder today and it almost ranks in the "makes me laugh the hardest" of all time which includes seasons 5-8 seasons of the Simpsons, Robot Chicken, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, the McGruber and TV Funhouse skits on SNL, and the Best of Triumph The Insult Comic Dog DVD.

Music:

Led Zeppelin bootlegs



If you were in a car with me from 1995-2000 I pretty much subjected you to poorly recorded Led Zeppelin concerts from 1970-1980. Thanks to the beauty of the Internet and an Ipod, I've been revisiting the best moments of their career in all their "this sounds like it was recorded from the bathroom" glory. Unfortunately for my wife, that means about 50 hours of Zep including 20 versions of forty minute versions of "Dazed and Confused"....God bless her.

80's on 8 (Satellite Radio) - When I'm tired of Zeppelin, I've been listening to this station more and more...they have a lot of golden nugget type songs that I love.