Last year I was pretty impressed by DJ Earworm's "United State of Pop" in which he mashed up the top 25 songs from 2008. Well, Earworm slapped together another version for the top 25 of 2009. I recognized more artists and songs this year than I did last year, but (much like 2008 vs. 2009 in general) I don't think it's as good as last year. Still pretty neat to see how he blended all of them together though. Pretty heavy on the "electronica" sound. I like Kings of Leon and Black Eyed Peas, this was the first time I've heard any Miley Ray Cyrus in any way, shape or form, I thought Beyonce looked hilarious at 2:15 and 2:38, and Taylor Swift is frickin' adorable.
That's all I really wanted to post, but while I'm blogging I might as well post a few thoughts from the last year. I don't have any resolutions, in case you were wondering. My favorite movie of 2009 was District 9 (I'm set to see Avatar later today, so regardless of how good it actually is it'll take the early lead as favorite movie for 2010). My favorite sports moments of 2009 were Mike Redmond's triple, establishing Denard's Retards, and the Twins winning Game 163. Most disappointing sports moment of 2009 was game 2 of the playoffs vs. the Yankees. I'm excited to see the new ballpark and another division championship for the Twins in 2010.
My favorite moment of 2009 was in March when I took a vacation with friends to Puerto Rico, during which my new favorite nickname for a friend (Thomas "Crapper") was created. I also received a great new nickname this year playing Ultimate for Plowed ("Crazy Ivan"). I was given a few nicknames with Plowed, but "Crazy Ivan" was my favorite, and this summer was the first time I played Frisbee with a nickname other than "Little B". "El Muro" didn't pan out, but the team's "Cra-zy I-van!" chants at Sectionals and the end-of-year Plowed party still bring a smile to my face.
I hope your 2009 was a good one and that 2010 will be even better. As always, thanks to anyone who reads my stuff. Happy new year!
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Movie Review: Sherlock Holmes
If you haven't watched Sherlock Holmes yet and want to without anything being spoiled, stop reading now. You have been given your due warning. On to the review.
First the positives: I am a fan of Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law. RDJ may be type-cast as a brilliant drunk (Iron Man, Holmes), but stick with your strengths I guess. I liked how Watson scolded him for drinking eye medicine. Overall I thought the Holmes/Watson interactions were great. They didn't give much background as to why they were partners in crime, but you could believe that they have each others' back. My favorite part was when they were at dinner with Mary and Holmes was showing off his powers of deduction. I think she overreacted with the wine in the face bit, but the "I know your life story by looking at you" was fun and I wanted to see more of that in the movie. Holmes did it when catching a glimpse at Professor Moriarty, but those were the only personal analyses. I also enjoyed his smoke screen against Blackwood's right-hand man (I forget his name).
Jude Law makes for a good Watson. I think they gave Holmes a little too much medicinal knowledge, and wish Watson picked up a few of the clues himself. They set him up to be a badass fighter with Holmes talking about his gambling and brawling days. I expected a little more when Watson was fighting the big giant guy at the end, instead of just taking him down with a long sleeper hold. That's a fine finisher, but I expected him to throw in some punches or something. I'm surprised he never got mad or really gave much thought about losing the first engagement ring with the fight against "meat and potatoes." I know it set up the BIG ring at the end, but for as big a fuss as they made about him buying Mary the ring, they sure didn't notice it when he lost it.
I liked the London Bridge setting. Plenty of movies end with the top-of-the-tower battle scene, but the under-construction landmark was a good spot to finally hang Blackwood for his crimes of practicing the dark arts and murder. I thought having Blackwood as the villain and having him also be Professor Moriarty's pawn was a good idea. They could bring in Moriarty right away for a sequel, or they could just continue to do these movies and always just have Moriarty behind the scenes to slowly build on his long-term evil plans.
I think Guy Ritchie was a great choice for director. I admit I haven't seen anything he's done besides Lock, Stock and Snatch, but looking at those two films and how he's pretty talented at tying up all the loose ends and the end of a film, an absolute necessity for a Sherlock Holmes story, I completely agree with the directing choice. I'll comment later on the "how I solved it" rundown, which was good I guess, but I wish it was phenomenal like the ending of Snatch (which might be in my top-20 movies of all time. I'd have to think about that). Who knows, maybe I would've liked Holmes better had I not seen anything from Guy Ritchie before. Credit to him for setting that expectation, even if he only mostly pulled it off.
Now I start to get in to the negatives. Holmes has to pick up clues to solve the crimes, and I'm fine with Holmes having a bunch of things to solve, but some solutions were more satisfying than others. I knew Blackwood would stop/slow his pulse with a toxin of some sort before they even hung him, so that wasn't too special. The copper/bathwater murder was better, but a little lame that all the clues just happen to be on the midget's workbench. Here we have the dried flower, next to the copper pot of dead frogs, which is next to the poisoned dead rat. Good thing they found that workbench!
How did Holmes solve the burn victim one? I liked the "rain" chemical that ignited when the guy shot his pistol, but did Holmes even inspect that body? I don't recall that happening.
The worst parts for me where the ends to the action sequences. The first was the boat giant hammer fight, that ended with Watson diving to cover Holmes. I would've been more satisfied if the boat rolled over him, Watson would gasp with a "Oh my gosh, has my pal just been run over?" look, and Holmes would then sit up with a, "good golly, it's lucky these trenches are 28 1/2 inches deep, allowing me to lie unscathed" shrug. Holmes being okay, sitting up, looking confused like a sleepy drunk, then Watson diving and covering them both up at the last second... meh. It just didn't fit in well for me. It was like they tried to cram one last piece of action in that action segment, which somehow made it dumber instead of more awesome.
Even worse though was when they were saving Irene from the slaughter. The fire and the saw were perfectly fine. They covered up to get through the fire, Watson helped with the valves, they jammed the saw temporarily and then started to try and break the conveyer, but the ending was again unsatisfying. I don't mind that Holmes gets his hat sawed, but did it get sawed off and then as they broke the conveyer, Holmes twisted in order to push Irene closer to the saw blades? It was crazy monkey physics, and you didn't need multiple close calls with the saw. They should've broken the conveyer, fell to the ground, and THEN have Holmes' hat split in two, ending the scene with a "Phew, that was a close call, I almost died saving you" moment, instead of the "phew, I almost died and then saved you and you almost died again anyway" moment. Again, they just seemed to tack a bit much to that action sequence.
Not sure if I'd put this last action sequence in as a "dislike", more just confusing, but when everything was blowing up after Watson hit the tripwire and Holmes is running around, I thought "Where the hell is he trying to go?" He ran towards Watson, then towards Irene, then kinda forward, then back towards Watson, then back again. I like the crate-shield he used to protect himself, but as methodical as Holmes is I found the back and forth running around in the explosions odd. Maybe that was the point- your buddy and your gal and you are trapped in explosions, and even the most analytical mind would panic... but he still had presence of mind to shield himself with the crate, so I don't think that was it. It just looked weird. Plus, you'd think Watson would've learned to watch his step after the opening scene where he nearly stabbed his face going after Blackwood, or at least you'd think Holmes would've jokingly said (in a way that suggests, "I almost lost you, buddy!") "I told you to keep your eyes open" when he was visiting Watson dressed up as a doctor.
The run-down at the end by Holmes on how he solved everything was good, but it was pretty much just him bragging, wasn't it? No one ever asked him, "Holmes, how on Earth did you deduce all that?" A minor quibble, but why not have him explain it all to Lestrade or Watson, or better yet, have Watson AND Holmes explain it, with Watson providing some of the medical insight, instead of Holmes solving everything himself.
My biggest sore point is the fact that the murders drew out a frickin' map. I don't mind Blackwood murdering people to make it look like he's a badass magician. Kill the girl in a pagan sacrifice, kill your dad and steal his power ring and take his chair, kill the officer who opposes you with fire to scare and awe your followers- I'm cool with all of that. But to have the murders draw out an "X marks the spot!" on a map was just stupid from the otherwise brilliant Blackwood. Holmes figured out who Blackwood's right-hand man was by his shoes, he could've gotten to him with the "Lestrade's arresting me!" ruse, and gotten the location of Blackwood's final theatrical mass-murder plot during the smoke-screen scene. Drawing the location out on a map? Dumb.
Ending with the long list of negatives after the long list of positives probably makes it sound like I hated the movie, but I didn't. I thought Sherlock Holmes was an okay movie. I didn't dislike it, but I didn't love it. I thought it was fine for an after-Christmas movie activity, and in the future if it was on TV or something, I could watch it again. I probably wouldn't buy it on DVD for my movie collection though until it was marked down to $3, or if they keep going with the Sherlock Holmes movies and the sequel(s) turn out to be amazing (which, building on the strong characters, they very well could be).
First the positives: I am a fan of Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law. RDJ may be type-cast as a brilliant drunk (Iron Man, Holmes), but stick with your strengths I guess. I liked how Watson scolded him for drinking eye medicine. Overall I thought the Holmes/Watson interactions were great. They didn't give much background as to why they were partners in crime, but you could believe that they have each others' back. My favorite part was when they were at dinner with Mary and Holmes was showing off his powers of deduction. I think she overreacted with the wine in the face bit, but the "I know your life story by looking at you" was fun and I wanted to see more of that in the movie. Holmes did it when catching a glimpse at Professor Moriarty, but those were the only personal analyses. I also enjoyed his smoke screen against Blackwood's right-hand man (I forget his name).
Jude Law makes for a good Watson. I think they gave Holmes a little too much medicinal knowledge, and wish Watson picked up a few of the clues himself. They set him up to be a badass fighter with Holmes talking about his gambling and brawling days. I expected a little more when Watson was fighting the big giant guy at the end, instead of just taking him down with a long sleeper hold. That's a fine finisher, but I expected him to throw in some punches or something. I'm surprised he never got mad or really gave much thought about losing the first engagement ring with the fight against "meat and potatoes." I know it set up the BIG ring at the end, but for as big a fuss as they made about him buying Mary the ring, they sure didn't notice it when he lost it.
I liked the London Bridge setting. Plenty of movies end with the top-of-the-tower battle scene, but the under-construction landmark was a good spot to finally hang Blackwood for his crimes of practicing the dark arts and murder. I thought having Blackwood as the villain and having him also be Professor Moriarty's pawn was a good idea. They could bring in Moriarty right away for a sequel, or they could just continue to do these movies and always just have Moriarty behind the scenes to slowly build on his long-term evil plans.
I think Guy Ritchie was a great choice for director. I admit I haven't seen anything he's done besides Lock, Stock and Snatch, but looking at those two films and how he's pretty talented at tying up all the loose ends and the end of a film, an absolute necessity for a Sherlock Holmes story, I completely agree with the directing choice. I'll comment later on the "how I solved it" rundown, which was good I guess, but I wish it was phenomenal like the ending of Snatch (which might be in my top-20 movies of all time. I'd have to think about that). Who knows, maybe I would've liked Holmes better had I not seen anything from Guy Ritchie before. Credit to him for setting that expectation, even if he only mostly pulled it off.
Now I start to get in to the negatives. Holmes has to pick up clues to solve the crimes, and I'm fine with Holmes having a bunch of things to solve, but some solutions were more satisfying than others. I knew Blackwood would stop/slow his pulse with a toxin of some sort before they even hung him, so that wasn't too special. The copper/bathwater murder was better, but a little lame that all the clues just happen to be on the midget's workbench. Here we have the dried flower, next to the copper pot of dead frogs, which is next to the poisoned dead rat. Good thing they found that workbench!
How did Holmes solve the burn victim one? I liked the "rain" chemical that ignited when the guy shot his pistol, but did Holmes even inspect that body? I don't recall that happening.
The worst parts for me where the ends to the action sequences. The first was the boat giant hammer fight, that ended with Watson diving to cover Holmes. I would've been more satisfied if the boat rolled over him, Watson would gasp with a "Oh my gosh, has my pal just been run over?" look, and Holmes would then sit up with a, "good golly, it's lucky these trenches are 28 1/2 inches deep, allowing me to lie unscathed" shrug. Holmes being okay, sitting up, looking confused like a sleepy drunk, then Watson diving and covering them both up at the last second... meh. It just didn't fit in well for me. It was like they tried to cram one last piece of action in that action segment, which somehow made it dumber instead of more awesome.
Even worse though was when they were saving Irene from the slaughter. The fire and the saw were perfectly fine. They covered up to get through the fire, Watson helped with the valves, they jammed the saw temporarily and then started to try and break the conveyer, but the ending was again unsatisfying. I don't mind that Holmes gets his hat sawed, but did it get sawed off and then as they broke the conveyer, Holmes twisted in order to push Irene closer to the saw blades? It was crazy monkey physics, and you didn't need multiple close calls with the saw. They should've broken the conveyer, fell to the ground, and THEN have Holmes' hat split in two, ending the scene with a "Phew, that was a close call, I almost died saving you" moment, instead of the "phew, I almost died and then saved you and you almost died again anyway" moment. Again, they just seemed to tack a bit much to that action sequence.
Not sure if I'd put this last action sequence in as a "dislike", more just confusing, but when everything was blowing up after Watson hit the tripwire and Holmes is running around, I thought "Where the hell is he trying to go?" He ran towards Watson, then towards Irene, then kinda forward, then back towards Watson, then back again. I like the crate-shield he used to protect himself, but as methodical as Holmes is I found the back and forth running around in the explosions odd. Maybe that was the point- your buddy and your gal and you are trapped in explosions, and even the most analytical mind would panic... but he still had presence of mind to shield himself with the crate, so I don't think that was it. It just looked weird. Plus, you'd think Watson would've learned to watch his step after the opening scene where he nearly stabbed his face going after Blackwood, or at least you'd think Holmes would've jokingly said (in a way that suggests, "I almost lost you, buddy!") "I told you to keep your eyes open" when he was visiting Watson dressed up as a doctor.
The run-down at the end by Holmes on how he solved everything was good, but it was pretty much just him bragging, wasn't it? No one ever asked him, "Holmes, how on Earth did you deduce all that?" A minor quibble, but why not have him explain it all to Lestrade or Watson, or better yet, have Watson AND Holmes explain it, with Watson providing some of the medical insight, instead of Holmes solving everything himself.
My biggest sore point is the fact that the murders drew out a frickin' map. I don't mind Blackwood murdering people to make it look like he's a badass magician. Kill the girl in a pagan sacrifice, kill your dad and steal his power ring and take his chair, kill the officer who opposes you with fire to scare and awe your followers- I'm cool with all of that. But to have the murders draw out an "X marks the spot!" on a map was just stupid from the otherwise brilliant Blackwood. Holmes figured out who Blackwood's right-hand man was by his shoes, he could've gotten to him with the "Lestrade's arresting me!" ruse, and gotten the location of Blackwood's final theatrical mass-murder plot during the smoke-screen scene. Drawing the location out on a map? Dumb.
Ending with the long list of negatives after the long list of positives probably makes it sound like I hated the movie, but I didn't. I thought Sherlock Holmes was an okay movie. I didn't dislike it, but I didn't love it. I thought it was fine for an after-Christmas movie activity, and in the future if it was on TV or something, I could watch it again. I probably wouldn't buy it on DVD for my movie collection though until it was marked down to $3, or if they keep going with the Sherlock Holmes movies and the sequel(s) turn out to be amazing (which, building on the strong characters, they very well could be).
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Christmas wrap-up
Since the last post I have eaten lots of beef and chocolate and cookies and pie and drank beer and got presents. Christmas was good again this year. I highly recommend Rise & Fall, Rage & Grace by The Offspring. I had been thinking of picking it up for awhile, got it for Christmas, and really enjoy it. By far one of the best Offspring albums ever.
I also got a Transformers toy from my pal Dave. Even if the new Transformers movies are terrible, I'm happy to report that Hasbro still makes good Transformers toys. Far less dangerous than the ones I had growing up (fewer sharp edges, no guns that shoot small missiles, fewer accessories to choke on, etc.), but still fun to transform from car to robot and back again.
The day after Christmas was my 10-yr high school reunion (a.k.a. high "shool", per this page in my 1999 year book). There were the people who I still see and hang out with today, a few people I haven't seen in ages and was glad to catch up with, people who I knew but didn't care about but had to feign interest and excitement in seeing, and a great big group of people I had no recollection of ever meeting in my life. Name tags were sometimes helpful, but other times I still had no idea who I was talking to.
One example: one fellow stoppped me and was all excited, "Ben! What's happening? Fill me in on what you've been up to since high school!" His name tag was sort of curled and I couldn't even read it. I told him my life story, he happily clapped me on the back and as he strode away I was finally able to catch the name tag: Eric Simmons. Eric Simmons... Eric Simmons... Hmmm. Nope, no idea. Was he the guy who I went to school with who also lived directly across the street from me? I think so. That's probably why he was talking to me.
Much later in the eveing I ran into Kevin Simmons. Ah! Kevin is the one who lived across the street from me! ... So, who the heck is Eric Simmons? No idea, but we're probably bestest buddies now, and I'm looking forward to the 2019 reunion already.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Weekly round-up; the attempt continues
Lucky Charms announced that they'll be cutting down on the sugar in their cereal and Spaghetti Os will be lowering the amount of sodium. As Lucky Charms and Spaghetti Os make up 95% of my meals, I can keep my 2010 resolution to eat healthier without doing anything different!
I went to the grocery store the other day to pick up a few things, and got some great coupons from the register. Normally the coupons that print out in some way represent the food that you just purchased; when you buy bread you'll get a coupon for bread, when you buy pizza, you'll get a coupon for pizza, etc. I bought milk, cereal, Sprite, 2 cheap frozen dinners, and pudding. The register printed out coupons for Excedrin, Prevacid, and adult Depends. Okay, I bought Sprite and pudding, so maybe they printed up the Prevacid thinking I had an upset tummy or something. $5.00 off Depends? Uh, great, thanks!
A coworker of mine came back from vacationing in Mexico and showed us her jellyfish stings (GROSS). When I was living in Belgium, my class took a trip to the beaches of Normandy for a few days. On the beach were a whole bunch of jellyfish that just got stuck there when the tide went down. I remember it was pretty cold, so no one went swimming, but we did have time to just play on the beach. We built some sandcastles and then took our pails and shovels and walked around scooping up jellyfish. They were pretty small, but they were everywhere, and we'd just scoop 'em up and throw them in the bucket until it was full of a couple dozen blobs, and then we'd take the bucket and fling them back towards the water. I have no idea if they were alive, dead or poisonous. I just remember them being goopy and gross... so I had to play with them.
I went to the grocery store the other day to pick up a few things, and got some great coupons from the register. Normally the coupons that print out in some way represent the food that you just purchased; when you buy bread you'll get a coupon for bread, when you buy pizza, you'll get a coupon for pizza, etc. I bought milk, cereal, Sprite, 2 cheap frozen dinners, and pudding. The register printed out coupons for Excedrin, Prevacid, and adult Depends. Okay, I bought Sprite and pudding, so maybe they printed up the Prevacid thinking I had an upset tummy or something. $5.00 off Depends? Uh, great, thanks!
A coworker of mine came back from vacationing in Mexico and showed us her jellyfish stings (GROSS). When I was living in Belgium, my class took a trip to the beaches of Normandy for a few days. On the beach were a whole bunch of jellyfish that just got stuck there when the tide went down. I remember it was pretty cold, so no one went swimming, but we did have time to just play on the beach. We built some sandcastles and then took our pails and shovels and walked around scooping up jellyfish. They were pretty small, but they were everywhere, and we'd just scoop 'em up and throw them in the bucket until it was full of a couple dozen blobs, and then we'd take the bucket and fling them back towards the water. I have no idea if they were alive, dead or poisonous. I just remember them being goopy and gross... so I had to play with them.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Weekly round-up
I haven't blogged in a few weeks, and don't have anything exceptional to share. I think I might try to do a weekly round-up of quick random thoughts and stories, and if anyone comments on them it might spawn a longer post or two. So, here goes:
1- I had lunch with two coworkers today, and found out that neither of them had ever been in a ball pit. I felt sorry for them.
2- I think December is the only month in the year where I don't have regulalry scheduled Frisbee games. So it's probably my least favorite month of the year.
3- Boof Bonser got traded from the Twins to the Red Sox. A friend and I have sent several emails back and forth about how the Red Sox are going to make him a star or he's somehow working undercover for the Twins. We turned the idea into a TV series, and have the plot lines for at least 6 episodes so far.
4- I watched about 15 minutes of SNL this week. I thought they did some good UPS whiteboard commercials. Hulu!
5- Finally, I'm often too preoccupied to really get into any sort of "holiday spirit" until around Christmas Eve. This video of the Christmas tree going up in the Great Hall at SJU is pretty uplifting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rd-XigVFVTY
1- I had lunch with two coworkers today, and found out that neither of them had ever been in a ball pit. I felt sorry for them.
2- I think December is the only month in the year where I don't have regulalry scheduled Frisbee games. So it's probably my least favorite month of the year.
3- Boof Bonser got traded from the Twins to the Red Sox. A friend and I have sent several emails back and forth about how the Red Sox are going to make him a star or he's somehow working undercover for the Twins. We turned the idea into a TV series, and have the plot lines for at least 6 episodes so far.
4- I watched about 15 minutes of SNL this week. I thought they did some good UPS whiteboard commercials. Hulu!
5- Finally, I'm often too preoccupied to really get into any sort of "holiday spirit" until around Christmas Eve. This video of the Christmas tree going up in the Great Hall at SJU is pretty uplifting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rd-XigVFVTY
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