So I made to the east coast. I didn't really think that I wouldn't but hey...one should never count their chickens before they hatch...or so I am told. And so...here are a few of the random thoughts and conclusions that I came up with on my journey.
My sister's wedding went off fairly uneventful for which I am grateful. So far I have very few pictures but here is one of the few that has been sent to me...which oddly enough doesn't not actually contain my sister or her new husband. So enjoy this random pic of my step mom Marti, my dad, MC, me, Dino, and my aunt Crackie.
- Tmobile's coverage levels are total shit. I am strongly considering paying the damn termination fee as a result of nearly two days that I lacked cell phone coverage....including that scary night in the hotel that was the splitting image of the one in Vacancy.
- Rubbermaid's on top roof storage system is the worst thing EVER invented and I urge everyone reading this to never waste your money on it. Your items that would have been stored in it will thank you. More importantly...you will thank yourself because it sucks when you are driving and it is raining outside of and inside of the damn car!
- I still don't quite get the whole Wall Drug thing but I think it is totally awesome nonetheless! If you haven't been there, you really should visit at least once. Who doesn't want a free cup of ice water when driving through South Dakota? They have the weirdest shit there...as shown in the above photo.
- Illinois has officially won my vote for the WORST state in the nation. Every time I go there I am reminded why I hate it so much and vow to never return. The roads suck, a lot of the people there are assholes, and it is the most driver unfriendly state that I have ever been on. Seriously...I hate that state so very much...and understand why my paternal grandparents are so comfortable there.
- The iPod is the greatest invention of all times and made the road trip pretty damn awesome!
Moving on....a lot of strange stuff has been happening in the world of pop culture...which it made it a pretty bad time for me to be on hiatus. I don't want to spend a lot of time recapping stuff since most of it is old news but I cannot help but comment on a few of the events that really got me all worked up.
- Brett Favre vs. The Packers. Bloody hell is this situation pretty fucked up. I love and admire Brett...always have but he is testing the limits of that admiration with each day that he continues this nonsense. First of all...I hate that everyone is calling it a come back. The man hasn't even been out for a full season! That would be like me heading into the office on Monday morning expecting attention for my comeback from the damn weekend. It is asinine. The other part of it that bothers me is that Brett seems to behaving like a selfish, entitled child and that is not how I want to remember one of the greatest QBs to play the game. Brett retired by choice. The Pack wished him well and started to prepare for life after Favre. By all accounts, they seem to be on track and suddenly here comes Brett wanting to insert himself back into the mix with no concern for the impact that it could on the new dynamic of the team. In my opinion....Brett needs to humbly back down on this one and realize that there is life after football.
- The whole controversy of if it is OK to sell pictures of newborn babies. Quite frankly...I think it is a little odd but what is more concerning are the people who are paying for it. I just think of all of the more important things that the money could be spent on and I find it slightly disgusting. I totally respect Jolie/Pitt for giving the money to charity but I still think it might one of the reason that "the world is burning to the ground". Whatever...I am amused by how passionate a lot of the nightly news shows are about the whole thing.
Finally...the one that you have been waiting for...
-The Madonna/A-Rod scandal. Quite honestly...at first I thought that I must have read the subtitles on the TV wrong as I sat in my hotel room when the news broke. For all of the press that I have read on the subject...I still just don't see it. It is too odd of a pairing in my mind but whatever...stranger things have happened. But moving on...it has only made me pity A-Rod, which is strange because the man should be the happiest guy on the planet. He has an insane amount of money, two kids, plays for the great baseball organization, and gets to see Derek Jeter on a daily basis. What more could one ask for? Yet...this is just one more example of the fact that A-Rod has no backbone or mind of his own and as a result has found himself manipulated once again. He seems to allow himself to be controlled by the people around him and I just don't get why he allows it. I hate that I feel badly for him...but I do...so much in fact that I actually wanted to give him a hug. I don't know if the thing is for real...though there are a lot of reasons to believe that it is...but I can guarantee that these two will not have a fairy tale ending. That being said...it is highly entertaining.
I have missed blogging and vow to do it more regularly.
American Idol Season 6 -Okay so the idea behind American Idol is still heart-warming...bright kid with big dreams and big voice wins over judges and America and wins show and takes over the world. Sadly...America seems to have run out of a great talent. Not only that but it seems that the non-winners are better than the people that actually end up winning the show i.e Chris Daughtry, Clay Aiken, Elliot Yamin...etc. This season was incredibly terrible...and disappointing. How is that the thing that everyone remembers is that damn Sanjaya dude? That of course spawned the phrase...Sanjaya-Gate...WTF? The show is clearly past its prime.
Cavemen - I still can't believe that this was a real show. The damn Geico commercials were bad enough...but to give them a damn show?!?!?!?!? I hope whatever creative dumbass behind this one is now working at WalMart.
FrankTV - So I don't know if this show has started yet and I honestly don't care. You know why I don't care...because I saw so many damn commercials for it while watching the MLB playoffs that I never wanted to hear about it again.
Apple iPod Video Nano Commercial - Dear Apple...please for the love of BobCat Bob...please stop playing this damn commercial. It is wonderful that Feist can count to 4...and it is wonderful that she can dance in bright blue spandex and not feel like a dumbass. It as also wonderful that you have given the opportunity for the world to watch this on a two inch screen. Yes yes...everything that Apple does is wonderful. What is not wonderful is that I have seen this bloody commercial a zillion times and it makes me want to do very bad things...such as throw things at the TV. I am so haunted by the overplaying of this commercial...and consequently the song...that when I hear it in the car I have to fight the urge to start ramming the car in front of me. So for me and for the well being of those around me...please make the madness stop.
Pushing Daisies - It is funny and romantic...and it has dead people. What more could you ask for in a TV show? Did I mention that it is actually well-written...or at least it was until the whole writers strike. More people need to watch this show...because it is awesome!
How I Met Your Mother - No it is not just because Neil is on the show. It is funny as hell. Neil being on the show is just a bonus. It is one of the few decent shows on these days.
Bon Jovi Hosting SNL - Need I say more.
Smallville - Sure it has lost hundreds of viewers...but it still a decent show. The reason it makes my best of list is because they finally escalated Lana from damsel in distress to vicious bitch and it is awesome. She has become ruthless and she accepts Clark's secret which is about damn time. I am no longer wishing that someone bad guy would come along and kill off her character so she'll stop whining. She killed off her own character and came back twice the Luthor that Lex is. (I rejoiced when I saw her whack Lionel with a shovel.) No one is going to mess with her again...Girl Power indeed.
Rock of Love - So this was my guilty pleasure over the summer. The girls on this show were CRAZY. Thousands of Bret Michaels fans bonded on Facebook over their hatred of Lacy. Not only that but we were all able to fall back in love with Bret. We all pulled for Jess to win, mainly because we all wanted Heather to lose because she was dumb enough to get a guy's name tattooed on her after a week. Ahh..celebrity reality...what gems will you bring us next year.
Robert Goulet's Emerald Nuts Commercial - This is my second favorite commercial of the year. How totally random yet funny was it to see Robert Goulet crawling around the office sabotaging everyone stuff?? In my opinion...it was his finest performance. I am sad that Mr. Goulet is no longer with us...and I am sorry for the whole rice crispy incident.
Every Commercial by Peyton Manning - This guy makes the best commercials on TV. Visit YouTube if you don't know what I am talking about.
Finally...the best of TV in 2007 was...VH1's World Series of Pop Culture Tournament - This should not surprise anyone as my #1 pick as clearly these are my kind of people. But the best part of this years tournament was not the many tie-breakers or the fact that while playing severely medicated at home I still only missed three questions...the best part was The Twisted Misters. Never before has a group of geeks and inspired and rocked my world as much as these young lads from NYC. They are the pop culture geeks that I aspire to be. Victor won me over with his adorable arrogance (never knew that there was a such a thing) which was shocking for a geek. Andrew was brilliant and charming...also unusual for a geek. These young men showed everyone that geeks can be sexy and have inspired me to let my inner geek break through for more than just a few passing moments. Here's hoping that they take the title again next year... unless of course I manage to make it on the show in which case I plan to destroy them in the nicest possible way. Seriously...I love these guys.
Breach - So any movie with Chris Cooper is going to be good. He quickly became one of my favorite actors after seeing him in American Beauty. He has a very captivating persona on screen so that even if he is playing a total asshole you still feel for him. This was incredibly evident in Breach. Even though I knew that he engaged in some pretty bad acts, there was still a part of me that really hoped that it would all be a misunderstanding or 
Knocked Up - Okay...so how funny was this movie??? Honestly...I haven't laughed so hard in a movie since Jackass 2. Unlike Jackass 2, this movie also had heart which took it from average comedy to funny movie of the year. Every movie that I see Seth Rogen even makes me like him more. (The fact that he reminds me of Grant has little to do with it.) Everyone in this movie was on their "A" game. While many of the scenes were pretty damn funny...I have to admit that my favorite scene was the one with Ryan Seacrest. His tirade about Hollywood crybabies was truthful and hysterical. This scene inspired me to ask anyone who was pissed off around me if they would like a cookie for about a month after seeing this movie. I don't know if they got it but it made me laugh. The point is...in spite of the fact that the movie is about a pretty miserable situation yet it still manages to be realistic and funny...which is a rare combination. God I wish that I would have watched Freaks and Geeks when it was around....oh well.
Stardust - So I think that I might have been the only person to see this movie but that doesn't make it any less of great flick. The movie was narrated by Sir Ian McKellen for God's Sake! Surely that should have been enough to get people into the seats. Sadly it was not. I think that it seemed a little fairytale like for most adults to go see it, which explains the box office flop in spite of the fact that big named actors such as Michelle Pheiffer, Robert De Niro, Claire Danes, Peter O'Toole, and Ricky Gervais were all in it. Most adults do not want to watch a movie with a unicorn...at least they won't admit to it. I am comfortable in admitting that while I no longer believe in a land with unicorns I still long for the time when I did. I miss believing in fantasy...as the reality of life is that it pretty much sucks.
A Mighty Heart - Once again...I was one of the few people to actually see this movie and all I can say is that it was everyone else's loss. There was only about five other people in the theater when I saw it which made it less embarrassing to have cried in the movie as much as I did. When Angelina let out a movie defining scream upon hearing about her character's husband's fate, I sobbed along with the five other strangers in the theater. Angelina was the perfect choice for the role of Marianne Pearl. Yet the best part of the movie was that in spite of the tragic storyline, I left the movie theater feeling hopeful. Faced covered with mascara streaks from crying but hopeful.
The Simpson Movie - So this movie makes the list for one reason...it didn't let me down as a longtime Simpsons fan. What other movie could live up to over a decade's worth of anticipation?? Not only that...but what other movie sparked such overuse and abuse of it's lines? (Other than that damn 300 movie which completely sucked no matter what the drunken frat boys who love it say!!) I am so damn sick of hearing "Spider-Pig. Spider-Pig. Does whatever a Spider-Pig does." I am sick of hearing about "Bart's Doodle". Yet I recognize that this is actually what makes the movie great. It inspired people to make Spider Pig the ring tone on their phone. It also made Marge Simpson swear. So here's to The Simpsons family (cast and creators) for not letting us series-long fans down.
Superbad - This officially proves it...Judd Apatow is a genius. He is to movies what Timbaland is to music. Okay so he didn't write this one...but there is no denying that the funniest movies of the past few years have had Judd's name attached to it in some form. Now I cannot relate to the main characters in this movie...but it kind of makes me wish that I could. If I had known back than that geeks were the way to go...I would have probably laughed more in high school. I wouldn't have been as popular but looking back I see that popularity was seriously overrated. So back to the movie...I pretty much laughed the ENTIRE time. This movie also spawned another pop culture gem..."McLovin". How awesome was McLovin???? Sure he wasn't one of the main characters but he certain broke out as the star. Seth Rogen was also pretty damn funny in the flick. I think that I will go see any movie that he is in just because I find him amusing.
30 Days of Night - This movie makes the list because it scared more than any other movie that came out this year. I kid you not...I did not sleep the entire night after I saw it. I actually ran to my car as I left the theater because I scared that something was going to get me. I did not sleep with the light off for 4 days after seeing it. I even saw it a second time because I thought that it would be funny and I would get over my fear by confronting it. Well guess what...it didn't work. So I spend another 3 days with the light one and with NO desire to ever to go to Alaska. It also made me laugh a little bit...especially when Josh Hartnett's character was running down the street trying to distract the vampires. I don't know what was so funny about it but it made me laugh. And it made me cry. The love story was pretty damn good...I believed that he loved her. This movie hit the jackpot...it made me laugh, cry, and scream. Not bad.
Hairspray - I LOVED this movie. I am a sucker for musicals to begin with but that is wasn't what made the movie good. It is a good story and had a great cast. Nikki Blonksy was a perfect Tracy! She took control of the movie in the opening scenes when she belted out Good Morning Baltimore. She had you rooting for her from note one. Every one of the singers sung the classic songs well which made me want to get up and sing with them. Queen Latifah was excellent as usual...as were fellow veteran actors Christopher Walken, John Travolta, and Michelle Pheiffer. James Marsden was pleasantly surprising as Corny Collins (oh that smile was something) and Elijah Kelly showed some serious star potential. As far as Zac Efron...he was good but I just don't see what all the fuss is about. Anyway...it is a feel good movie and I truly enjoyed. Damn it, I wish my life was a musical.
The Nightmare Before Christmas in 3D - It might not be fair to have this one the list since it was first released 1993 but this year it was released in 3D! This movie is sheer magic and I love it and therefore it is on my list for the year.
Eastern Promises - So the plot for this movie is a little hard to follow...but it is worth it in the end if you can stick with it. Naomi Watts gave a stunning performance as midwife trying to find the family of the newborn in her care. Her persistence to uncover the truth is commendable as she is dealing with the Russian Mob and therefore spends the rest of the movie in danger. As wonderful as her performance is (it is wonderful, the best I have seen from her so far) the real reason to see this movie is Viggo Mortensen. My God...is there no role that this man cannot make wonderful? There is scene in which Viggo's character is fighting for his life and it was almost too much to watch because is so intense and he looks incredibly sexy. It is actually an intense but entertaining film from start to finish. Oh...and you get to see Viggo without a shirt which is always a bonus.
I am pleased to say that the movie that I was holding out for was worth it...so the final movie to make the list...
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street - This there no project that Tim Burton cannot turn into gold? Is there no role that Johnny Depp cannot master and makes his own? As a loyal fan of both men...I truly hope not. Neither has ever disappointed me and Sweeney Todd was no exception. Johnny Depp had never appeared so evil as he did in this role...and that made him even sexier than usual. Even covered in blood he was appealing. In true Tim Burton fashion...the film was visibly appealing in a dark way that made me want to venture into the macabre. AND IT IS A MUSICAL!!! Who knew that Johnny Depp could sing? He is no Jon Bon Jovi but he sang well. It was worth the wait. Sure the killing was a little over the top...but did anyone really want it to be life-like? The sheer foolishness of the blood spurting out of the victims and the cracking of the bones as the bodies tumbled to the floor added comical relief. It helped get me through a movie where once again...the storyline is incredibly sad. As I said...Tim and Johnny always deliver movie magic and here's hoping that they continue to put out wonderful movies together. 
Hannibal Rising - In life...you have to know when to say when. Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs were excellent books and movies...and that is where it should have stopped. Hannibal and Hannibal Rising were forced and terrible and everyone knows it. I was actually kind of pissed off after having saw Hannibal Rising. At least Hannibal had Anthony Hopkins to make the time pass. Gaspard 
I Know Who Killed Me - I didn't even see this movie and I know that it was one of the worst of the year. The damn preview was enough to keep me away from the screen. Short of the pervs who wanted to see Lindsay 
Because I Said So - I went to see this with my sister because it was supposed to be a feel good, women empowering movie about family. It was none of these things. It was a lame movie that reminded me of why I will never live in the same city with any of the women in my family except my sister.
300 - So I know that everyone in the world liked this movie but me and I don't care. I just don't get what all the fuss is about. A female friend from work said that it was the greatest movie she had ever seen so I figured that I was mislead by the previews and decided to go against my instinct and see the damn thing. I should have trusted my instincts on this one. Is it just me or did the movie just keep repeating itself over and over. Dude gets shot with an arrow, dude jumps off cliff, dude loses his head, dude gets impaled with spear...repeat for 90 minutes of total crap. Worst of all...this movie inspired every jackass on the Internet to announce that yes...THIS IS SPARTA. No...this is you sounding like the jackass.
License to Wed - Mandy Moore is in two of the movies on this worst of list...coincidence? I think not. Mandy Moore was decent in American 
Every single 3rd part of trilogy that was released this year...except maybe the 
1408 - It pains me to say this because I love John 
Gimme More by Britney Spears -
