I know I had some stuff to link to, but I can't remember what it was. The FJM blog had a couple of good posts the other day, so you can check that out at http://www.firejoemorgan.com/.
There's this Slate article on carding and telling people's ages.
There's this article talking about how Neifi Perez was suspended 25 games for violating Major League Baseball's drug program.
Friday, July 06, 2007
July 4th
Wednesday I went to the baseball game at RFK and watched the Nats beat the Cubs 6-0. It didn't happen for my team, but Dmitri Young hitting a grand slam on July 4th for the team that plays in Washington, DC has got to feel pretty special. I thought the Cubs looked tired and just didn't have any energy. I couldn't figure out why. It's not like they're not used to playing day games.
I wandered over to the Folklife Festival afterwards and sat in the Northern Ireland music tent. After an hour or so a police officer told us to leave the Mall and head to the nearest large building until the incoming severe weather was gone. Instead, I walked up to Sign of the Whale for dinner. I started doing a crossword that turned out to be pretty hard, and when I looked to see what paper it was in, it turned out to be The Onion. I got about 75-80 percent done. A Crown & Diet and a shot of Wild Turkey American Honey, and I was on the way home.
So I thought. The fireworks started right when I walked out the door, and I had a very good view of them walking down 18th Street. So I took some pictures and video and went home. Happy Birthday, America.
I wandered over to the Folklife Festival afterwards and sat in the Northern Ireland music tent. After an hour or so a police officer told us to leave the Mall and head to the nearest large building until the incoming severe weather was gone. Instead, I walked up to Sign of the Whale for dinner. I started doing a crossword that turned out to be pretty hard, and when I looked to see what paper it was in, it turned out to be The Onion. I got about 75-80 percent done. A Crown & Diet and a shot of Wild Turkey American Honey, and I was on the way home.
So I thought. The fireworks started right when I walked out the door, and I had a very good view of them walking down 18th Street. So I took some pictures and video and went home. Happy Birthday, America.
Stranger Than Fiction
I really liked it. It's a very clever concept, and easy to lose control of if you're not careful. For those of you not familiar with the story, here's an overview in 25 words or less:
Harold hears writer Karen's voice narrating his life. She says he's going to die. He tries finding her to convince her not to kill him.
25 words, and it was tough.
Will Ferrell is quite good, and not because he's funny, but because he acts the part very well. A little subdued (very subdued, by his standards), very under control. Not really any physical comedy, which can be a crutch for a comic actor who tries to play it straight without cracking jokes verbally. I know I said this about Montgomery Clift, and I certainly don't want to seem like I'm putting Ferrell at Clift's level, but his success comes from how well he uses his face. Saying an actor uses his face well is like saying a soccer player has good feet. It should be obvious, but it often goes unmentioned.
Emma Thompson plays the writer who is knowingly/unknowingly writing Harold Crick towards his death. She's great. The moment when she sees Harold in person for the first time is wonderful.
I'm not sure why Queen Latifah was playing her assistant. It's a bit of an underwhelming role for an actress who was nominated for an Oscar in Chicago a few years ago. Maybe her best stuff ended up on the cutting room floor (if they have that anymore).
Maggie Gyllenhaal is the love interest, and I thought she did a good job with a good character. She was better than attractive, she was appealing.
Digression: I think the desire that comes from appeal is stronger than what comes from attractiveness. It's a lot rarer, for one thing. And I think it's more individualistic, whereas the other is more general. A girl who can appeal to a man (and vice versa of course, ladies) is so much more special to him, though she may not appear so to others.
So Ana Pascal appeals to Harold in a very special way. She bakes cookies. She helps people. She's smart. And she's not bad lookin', either. She's a special thing in Harold's world, which is mostly lacking in anything that's not dull. Very nice.
I'm sort of wondering why Dustin Hoffman played the role of the lit professor who Harold goes to for help, but he was good. He takes sort of a twisted interest in Harold's "plight", though I can't tell if he believes him at the beginning or not.
"It's a very clever concept, and easy to lose control of if you're not careful." Quoting oneself? Ach, the last refuge of the scoundrel.
I thought that was patriotism?
Shut up.
Okay, so you've got this idea that a character can actually hear the narrator's voice in his head. And not just the narrator, but the writer herself. It would be very easy to overuse the device and ruin it by hammering the viewer with it at every opportunity, trying to get as many laughs as possible. A great quality of the film is that this does not happen. It happens here and there, but we're hardly beaten over the head with it. I think the writers' management of the "voice in the head" factor was excellent.
A really good movie all around. Not too many characters, not a quirky and complicated plot that tries to be too clever, and solid acting from all players. Good stuff.
Bah, the Cubs are losing and the Brewers winning. Could be back to a 5.5 game deficit at the end of the night for the Cubs.
Harold hears writer Karen's voice narrating his life. She says he's going to die. He tries finding her to convince her not to kill him.
25 words, and it was tough.
Will Ferrell is quite good, and not because he's funny, but because he acts the part very well. A little subdued (very subdued, by his standards), very under control. Not really any physical comedy, which can be a crutch for a comic actor who tries to play it straight without cracking jokes verbally. I know I said this about Montgomery Clift, and I certainly don't want to seem like I'm putting Ferrell at Clift's level, but his success comes from how well he uses his face. Saying an actor uses his face well is like saying a soccer player has good feet. It should be obvious, but it often goes unmentioned.
Emma Thompson plays the writer who is knowingly/unknowingly writing Harold Crick towards his death. She's great. The moment when she sees Harold in person for the first time is wonderful.
I'm not sure why Queen Latifah was playing her assistant. It's a bit of an underwhelming role for an actress who was nominated for an Oscar in Chicago a few years ago. Maybe her best stuff ended up on the cutting room floor (if they have that anymore).
Maggie Gyllenhaal is the love interest, and I thought she did a good job with a good character. She was better than attractive, she was appealing.
Digression: I think the desire that comes from appeal is stronger than what comes from attractiveness. It's a lot rarer, for one thing. And I think it's more individualistic, whereas the other is more general. A girl who can appeal to a man (and vice versa of course, ladies) is so much more special to him, though she may not appear so to others.
So Ana Pascal appeals to Harold in a very special way. She bakes cookies. She helps people. She's smart. And she's not bad lookin', either. She's a special thing in Harold's world, which is mostly lacking in anything that's not dull. Very nice.
I'm sort of wondering why Dustin Hoffman played the role of the lit professor who Harold goes to for help, but he was good. He takes sort of a twisted interest in Harold's "plight", though I can't tell if he believes him at the beginning or not.
"It's a very clever concept, and easy to lose control of if you're not careful." Quoting oneself? Ach, the last refuge of the scoundrel.
I thought that was patriotism?
Shut up.
Okay, so you've got this idea that a character can actually hear the narrator's voice in his head. And not just the narrator, but the writer herself. It would be very easy to overuse the device and ruin it by hammering the viewer with it at every opportunity, trying to get as many laughs as possible. A great quality of the film is that this does not happen. It happens here and there, but we're hardly beaten over the head with it. I think the writers' management of the "voice in the head" factor was excellent.
A really good movie all around. Not too many characters, not a quirky and complicated plot that tries to be too clever, and solid acting from all players. Good stuff.
Bah, the Cubs are losing and the Brewers winning. Could be back to a 5.5 game deficit at the end of the night for the Cubs.
"...it's root, root, root...
...for the CUBBIES!..."
was heard loud and clear the last four days at RFK. The Cubs were in town for a series against the Nationals, taking three out of four. I went to the first three, including having seats six rows behind the Nats dugout on July 4th. "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" wasn't written about or for the Cubs, but Cubs fans feel that it's still our song because Harry Caray sang it at Wrigley Field for so many years. So when the line comes around, we drown out whoever the home team is. It helps that the Cubs have fans pretty much everywhere.
Devil Wears Prada was good, but I can't say I liked it too much. Meryl Streep was very good, Stanley Tucci good, but Anne Hathaway's acting didn't match the quality of the part. I thought the part of the assistant was well thought out and well written, but I just couldn't get attached to her. Whatshisface from "Entourage" plays the boyfriend. I've seen a couple of episodes, and everybody on it annoys me, so I don't watch.
My Neighbor Totoro is an animated movie from Japan about a big furry thing that makes friends with two young girls. It's nice. It's pleasant. It's very well put together. And of course, it's got a great Japanese title, "Tonari no Totoro". I liked it.
Over the weekend I watched The Last King of Scotland, which got Forest Whitaker an Oscar. He was very, very good. Jovial, cunning, wild, intelligent, all over the place. He did a great job of being a presence on screen whenever he was on. Somewhat jokingly, I sometimes tell people that one of my life's goals is to avoid going to Africa. So I really liked this quote:
Is there anything that you have done that is good, Nicholas? You came to Africa to play the white man. But we aren't a game. We're real. This room is real. Your death will be the first real thing that has happened to you.
If I went to Africa, that's all I'd be doing, playing the white man. I wouldn't do any real good. They're much better off without me sticking my nose in.
I didn't remember seeing James McAvoy before, but IMDB says he was Mr. Tumnus, and now it rings a bell. He was good.
Smokin' Aces. "Oh, that's such a good movie!" someone said to me the other day. "No it isn't." I don't think it's actually bad, though. I thought it would be good for three or four minutes, then bad for five, and it just went on like that the whole way through.
Jeremy Piven, I hear, is very good in "Entourage". I believe it. I didn't like him much here, though. I can see him being good in a role where he engages other people energetically on a consistent basis, but that doesn't happen here. He may have been miscast or just misused.
Andy Garcia's a good actor, but his character (and his phoney-baloney accent, wherever it was supposed to be from) was terrible.
Apparently there's a rapper named Common who I've never heard of. He was okay as the target's bodyguard. Alicia Keys (who I have heard of) was better.
I was very happy to see the guy who played Buliwyf in The Thirteenth Warrior cast as the Swede. I like that guy. Which brings us to my favorite and least favorite performances in the movie:
Jason Bateman (favorite) and Ryan Reynolds (not favorite). Bateman's character is sort of a pathetic loser, and he just oozed losing patheticness the entire time he was on screen. I loved him. On the other hand, Reynolds is supposed to be the tough guy hero. I don't think he can play tough. Yeah, he's got muscles. Maybe he's tough in real life. But on screen, I just can't buy it. And if you don't let him drop an f-bomb, then he may as well not say anything at all. I think he'd have been better as one of the killers, rather than an FBI agent. It's like they got his role mixed up with Ben Affleck's. They'd have been better off reversed, though Affleck wasn't bad as the bondsman.
I really liked Stranger Than Fiction, so I'll give it its own post.
was heard loud and clear the last four days at RFK. The Cubs were in town for a series against the Nationals, taking three out of four. I went to the first three, including having seats six rows behind the Nats dugout on July 4th. "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" wasn't written about or for the Cubs, but Cubs fans feel that it's still our song because Harry Caray sang it at Wrigley Field for so many years. So when the line comes around, we drown out whoever the home team is. It helps that the Cubs have fans pretty much everywhere.
Devil Wears Prada was good, but I can't say I liked it too much. Meryl Streep was very good, Stanley Tucci good, but Anne Hathaway's acting didn't match the quality of the part. I thought the part of the assistant was well thought out and well written, but I just couldn't get attached to her. Whatshisface from "Entourage" plays the boyfriend. I've seen a couple of episodes, and everybody on it annoys me, so I don't watch.
My Neighbor Totoro is an animated movie from Japan about a big furry thing that makes friends with two young girls. It's nice. It's pleasant. It's very well put together. And of course, it's got a great Japanese title, "Tonari no Totoro". I liked it.
Over the weekend I watched The Last King of Scotland, which got Forest Whitaker an Oscar. He was very, very good. Jovial, cunning, wild, intelligent, all over the place. He did a great job of being a presence on screen whenever he was on. Somewhat jokingly, I sometimes tell people that one of my life's goals is to avoid going to Africa. So I really liked this quote:
Is there anything that you have done that is good, Nicholas? You came to Africa to play the white man. But we aren't a game. We're real. This room is real. Your death will be the first real thing that has happened to you.
If I went to Africa, that's all I'd be doing, playing the white man. I wouldn't do any real good. They're much better off without me sticking my nose in.
I didn't remember seeing James McAvoy before, but IMDB says he was Mr. Tumnus, and now it rings a bell. He was good.
Smokin' Aces. "Oh, that's such a good movie!" someone said to me the other day. "No it isn't." I don't think it's actually bad, though. I thought it would be good for three or four minutes, then bad for five, and it just went on like that the whole way through.
Jeremy Piven, I hear, is very good in "Entourage". I believe it. I didn't like him much here, though. I can see him being good in a role where he engages other people energetically on a consistent basis, but that doesn't happen here. He may have been miscast or just misused.
Andy Garcia's a good actor, but his character (and his phoney-baloney accent, wherever it was supposed to be from) was terrible.
Apparently there's a rapper named Common who I've never heard of. He was okay as the target's bodyguard. Alicia Keys (who I have heard of) was better.
I was very happy to see the guy who played Buliwyf in The Thirteenth Warrior cast as the Swede. I like that guy. Which brings us to my favorite and least favorite performances in the movie:
Jason Bateman (favorite) and Ryan Reynolds (not favorite). Bateman's character is sort of a pathetic loser, and he just oozed losing patheticness the entire time he was on screen. I loved him. On the other hand, Reynolds is supposed to be the tough guy hero. I don't think he can play tough. Yeah, he's got muscles. Maybe he's tough in real life. But on screen, I just can't buy it. And if you don't let him drop an f-bomb, then he may as well not say anything at all. I think he'd have been better as one of the killers, rather than an FBI agent. It's like they got his role mixed up with Ben Affleck's. They'd have been better off reversed, though Affleck wasn't bad as the bondsman.
I really liked Stranger Than Fiction, so I'll give it its own post.
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