INSPIRATIONS


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Comfy Wall

As a nice gesture, my apartment complex gives out a 'free traffic area carpet cleaning' when you renew your lease. Somehow, I didn't get around to using this until today and the worst part of it is I'm not supposed to put any furniture back in the area for 24 hours. And if you've seen the size of my apartment you can guess at the annoyance I am experiencing right now. (i.e. my television and table don't make for good kitchen furniture and the recliner in my bedroom really destroys the ole Feung-Shui.)

posted by Jason | 8:26 PM
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Fear no evil, John Buck

Unfortunately, my Kansas City Royals only travel to Seattle for one series this year. Luckily, that series happens to fall on a weekend and that weekend happens to be this weekend. And to pile on the good cheer, the Mariners have decided to give gifts away for each game as well! (Ichiro Bobblehead, Mariners Rally Towel (see 'instant paintcloth'), and Mariners knit cap)

This, obviously, calls for an all-out three-day baseball binge at Safeco for yours truly.

The most interesting matchup will obviously be Saturday when our brand-new $55 million Ace, Gil Meche (former Mariner), takes on whatever crappy pitcher the Mariners throw out there. I'll also hopefully run into the half-cocked decked-out crazy old Royals fan who, at the game of our meeting last year, let me in on his brilliant slogan for this year's team:

Fear No Evil! Fear No Factor! ROYALS!!!

posted by Jason | 6:32 PM
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Badass Bobbies

For anyone who enjoys their comedy witty, somewhat ridiculous and with a good deal of cheek, get yourself some Hot Fuzz. It's a brilliantly funny film from a pair of Brits (Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright) that juxtaposes the quiet British village lifestyle with over-the-top American action films with Pegg and Nick Frost as a pitch-perfect pair of "Laurel & Hardy"-esque buddy cops. A genuinely enjoyable satire that's sure to give ya a smile.

Addendum:

From an Onion interview with the filmmakers:

EW: Wouldn't it be great with Dunston Checks In, if in China the film was called My Butler, The Monkey?

NF: It really is. You knew that, right?

EW: Yes.

posted by Jason | 1:56 PM
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Bring Back Balboni

It's kind of depressing to think that A-Rod might hit more home runs in April than any Royals player will all year...

posted by Jason | 11:02 AM
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Rah Rah Rah!

As an epilogue to the yearly end of collegiate sports (or the only two enjoyable ones), I give you this gem of a list I stumbled upon this afternoon. Fight on, Blue Blob, fight on...

posted by Jason | 2:02 AM
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Pushing Back

Living in a city without a set of wheels is a pretty enjoyable experience if you ask me. As long as there's some decent public transportation in place, you can get around to everything you need quite easily (and can usually find friends with cars when necessary.) One of the flaws with this simple plan is having to wait on traffic to cross the street. 'But wait,' you ask, 'can't you just press those handy buttons to let the robotic lights give you time to pass?' You would think so, but have you ever really witnessed this process at work? I run into these dubious little placebos about every day and no matter how many times us duped citizens press them, they seem to have no effect. Does the little red hand wave a few more seconds to allow you to pass? Nay! Does the green light quickly change to yellow to allow you to carry your melting ice cream to the safety of 'other side'? Pshaw! I usually bang the little faker three or four times in hopes that there's some secret number that emergency medics use when wheeling gurnies madly down the sidewalk. I've even taken to kicking them to see if extra force helps out. But alas, like a deaf and blind doorman, it stands there polite and worthless.

(Though I'll probably continue to press them in hopes that one day it works and then I will walk triumphantly across the street and get hit by a car...)

posted by Jason | 11:51 PM
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Boo, Huggy Bear, Booooo

I thought you were our coach, not some sick selfish carpetbagger!

I'm just gonna accept my loneliness. And now I'm gonna go to an even darker place of nothingness, from an even farther, more extreme nothingness on my own! Go State!

posted by Jason | 10:08 PM
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Abraca- wait, let me do that again

After my flight was mysteriously cancelled on Sunday (My guess:global warming) I spent the evening watching The Prestige for a second time with Jules. I found it interesting that she had an almost identical viewing experience as me and wanted to see if anyone else felt the same frustrations.

(Spoilers Ahoy!)

I'll preface all of this with saying I enjoyed the film but was definitively disappointed by various aspects and baffled by the conclusion. Not baffled as in confused, but as in 'That's it? I knew that forty minutes in!?' My first frustration centered around Fallon, the 'mysterious' ingenieur of Borden (Christian Bale's character). Would anyone in their right mind be fooled by that laugh of a disguise? The first instant I saw him it was obvious he was someone else. And that was only constantly reinforced by having him mumble bits of dialogue, hide under his hat brim, and walk out whenever in scene. It seems that it would have been more effective to 'hide' him in the background, instead of focusing the camera on him, and eliminate his dialogue, since it wasn't really necessary anyways. And to further preemptively point out his conclusion, he had Borden telling Fallon things like 'I need you to convince her I love her tonight.' A better line might have been 'Nice chops bro. Sorry I had to cut your fingers off.'

The second frustration comes with the revealing of Tesla's Machine's true power. By showing the duplicated cats and hats a good half hour before the conclusion, it's plainly obvious that the machine has some supernatural way of cloning whatever is put in it. So, by the time Angier's (Hugh Jackman) final Hoo-rah is put on, the only mystery left is 'Where's he putting his clones?' Why not excise the scene with the cats/hats completely? If included at all, it could be concluded in the entire flashback montage at the end. Which, I'll also note, was laboriously long for someone having just been shot in the chest.

I think by fixing these two particular lapses in judgment, the film would've worked a lot better, but maybe, as the film points out, people like being fooled and don't notice the gigantic elephant in the room that is wearing fake sideburns and a hat pulled too low.

posted by Jason | 11:20 PM
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