POP

I watched "Music and Lyrics" the other night. While I've forgotten already what the plot was (or was there one?), I can't seem to get the song from the movie out of my head. Every person I've talked to that has seen the movie has said the same thing. Hugh Grant's performance in this video almost rivals his great performance in "About a Boy," which I would argue is one of the most underrated movies out there.

Ugly

Well, I know that my favorite time of year has finally arrived because the winner of the "Ugliest Dog" competition was announced again. The top picture is the winner from 2006, and the one below is the winner from this year.

I'm not a dog person. My family never owned a dog and I would seriously doubt that we will ever own a dog. I would much rather own a cat. It's less work and they don't smell or poop all over the yard. However, if I could own one of these dogs, I would do it in a heartbeat. Think of how much better owning one of these dogs would make you feel about yourself. You know, sometimes you look in the mirror and think "Hey, I'm fat" or "My hair is falling out" or "How did you ever get married?" or something like that, but having the world's ugliest dog for a pet would always give you a different perspective on attractiveness. To make yourself feel better, you could always look at the dog and say "At least I don't look as ugly as you."

Quickly

Have any of you tried out redbox yet (redbox.com)? They are little video machines inside of Albertson's (and possibly other supermarkets) where you swipe your credit card and get a movie...for $1.08. It's awesome. The selection is limited, but they are all new movies and for those of us who really never go to the theater anymore, it's a godsend. Each day that the movie is late, it will cost you another $1.08 until you hit $25 and then you keep the movie. What a great idea.

I wrote a couple weeks ago about the absence of hair metal bands. Well, I came across this article recently:

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1562329/20070612/taking_back_sunday.jhtml

The title of this article is "Is Emo-Punk Just Hair Metal's Second Coming?" Are you kidding me? Total blasphemy. That's like trying to argue that the Smashing Pumpkins are a better band than INXS (in the Michael Hutchence days). No way, broseph.

I watched the first half hour of "Team America: World Police" last weekend. I'm pretty sure that the theme song from the movie is the second funniest song I have ever heard, next to "Pool Party" by the Aquabats.

No thanks

There are probably thousands of Mormons around the US that are thrilled that Mitt Romney is running for president. I'm not one of them.

A buddy of mine at school has probably sent me over 200 articles on Mitt Romney, both positive and negative. What common theme is found in every article? Mitt's religion. I'm not one to be ashamed of what I believe in, but when I read articles written by people who argue that Mitt's religion will prevent him from every being president, I want to crawl under a rock and hide out until he either fails to get the nomination or is not elected president.

My buddy, aware of my feelings about a Mormon candidate, sent me an article today about other Mormons who are weary of their religion being discussed so much in the media. What's worse than reading these articles is reading the comments written by people responding to the article. It's incredible how angry someone can get about another person's religion. Here's a great example of some loser on Bill O'Reilly arguing that "A vote for Mitt Romney is a vote for Satan." Incredible.



I love how Bill O'Reilly ends the interview. If you ever want to see a great BOR interview, check out the one he did with Dr. Laura and watch his face when she uses the term "sweaty embrace."

A popular topic among Mormon critics is polygamy. It's precisely this doctrine which makes me think that those early members of the church who practiced polygamy were men of God. Not to knock my wife (who I love very much), but one wife is plenty. To get me to take on another wife, it really would have to be a commandment from God and even then I would really have to think about it. I already suck bad enough as a husband to one wife, I don't need to suck as a husband to multiple wives. Plus, I don't need anyone else in the house telling me that I need to empty the kitchen garbage can.

Back to Mitt: I'm sure I'll end up voting for the guy if he gets the nomination (which I don't think will happen, or maybe I just don't want it to happen). I would just be happy if I could read an article about him without hearing anything about how his religion is the biggest obstacle he needs to overcome.

Moving on...

Did any of you catch the MTV movie awards? Neither did I, but I did read about this gem from Sarah Silverman:

“That movie 300? Turns out how they got that title was they measured how gay it was. On a scale of one to 10.”

When I read this, it was one of those times where I was reminded why I shouldn't be surfing the internet at work. It's hard to pretend like you are laughing at a trial notebook you are supposed to be working on.

I lamented the death of 80's hair metal in my last journal entry, but afterwards I remembered that there is one part of one song that reminds me of a great 80's hit. The song is "Welcome to the Black Parade" by My Chemical Romance, and really the only part of the song that sounds like it should be played in an arena comes at the very end. I'm not a huge MCR fan, but their last album was pretty good. I can't ever watch any videos by these guys because the singer looks like Billy Corgan and there is no band that I dislike more than the Smashing Pumpkins.

The end.

Random Thoughts

I haven't really had time lately to do the kind of update that I would like, so here are a few random thoughts for a Sunday night.

1. Few things in this life are worth paying extra money for, but a good pair of comfortable tennis shoes are priceless. By far, Nike wins in this department. I tried spending $20 on a pair of Avias (or something like that) from Big 5, but they were totally uncomfortable and I ended up spending $60 on a pair of Nikes six months later.

2. Brie cheese is a gift from heaven. True brie cheese cannot be imported into this country from France (I think I read that the FDA, with respect to cheeses, requires that cheeses must be made from pasteurized milk and aged 60 days) because it is not made from pasteurized milk and is not aged very long in order to keep a soft texture. When you buy a brie in the supermarket, it will have French flags on it and look like it's nice and imported, but chances are it was made in the USA. That being said, it is still delicious and is worth the extra expense.

3. Kobe announced his demand for a trade this week (which he later recanted, then reaffirmed, then recanted, then reaffirmed, etc) while I was getting some documents recorded in a certain city in LA county. When I arrived back at the office and turned on my computer, I had an instant message from my wife with the story and a couple of my friends had emailed me the same article. Anyone who knows me knows how I feel about Laker basketball. When Shaq was run out of town, I vowed not to watch any more Laker games until Kobe was gone. I have seen a few minutes here and there, but basically I have been avoiding Laker games for the past three years (my favorite team to watch is the Bobcats). Although I don't see Kobe leaving the Lakers anything soon, contrary to what he is saying, the best deal I have heard so far would involve Kobe going to the Bobcats in exchange for Emeka Okafur and the number 8 pick in the draft. Right now Okafur is probably my favorite player to watch and I would gladly start watching Laker games again if he were on the team.

4. Pinkberry. This place is THE frozen yogurt place to the "stars," or something like that. One just opened up in Victoria Gardens and we decided to check it out. We walked in, and walked right back out. I'm not paying $5+ for mediocre frozen yogurt just so I can be "seen." They even had a sign that said "No Photography in Store." Heaven forbid someone might want to take a picture of your overpriced menu.

5. Why aren't there any hair metal bands out there? When it comes to 80's butt-rock bands, no doubt Poison was the greatest of them all. The makeup, the big hair, the tight leather pants, the huge stadium rock shows with pyrotechnics, cheesy lyrics and unnecessary, over-the-top guitar solos...I mean, isn't it about time this music was popular again? I know some of these bands still tour, and I would see them, but they are all fat now and basically just shells of their former selves. These were the guys who used to get drugged and boozed up, sleep with tons of people, and basically just destroy their livers before age 25. These were the guys I wanted to be like when I was in elementary school. Now we are subjected to the exploits of Lindsey Lohan and Paris Hilton. Whatever happened to the male rockstar? Where is the Axl Rose type? Kids need these role models.

6. Perhaps the greatest sentence ever to come out of anyone's mouth is "I could eat a knob at night." If you have no idea what I am talking about, check out the podcasts that Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, and Karl Pilkington did. If you have no idea who any of the aforementioned men are, there is something seriously lacking in your life. Speaking of Stephen Merchant, I know Ricky Gervais gets all of the attention, but Stephen Merchant deserves more credit than he gets. Without his humor and writing ability, "The Office" would never have been what it was.

7. The funniest episode of the American "Office" will never be one-tenth as funny as the least funny episode of the British version. One day I will make my pilgramage to Slough, just so I can see that round-a-bout and the sign that says "Slough Trading Estate" from the opening credits. Anyone want to go with me?

The end.

The Most Anticipated Movie of 2008

Here is a recently-leaked image from the best movie of 2008. Looks awesome.

Lovely

Well, after a being gone for a week or so on a "family outing" (it doesn't count as a vacation when you travel with little kids and you visit relatives along the way) I am back with a book review of sorts. Since school ended a little over a week ago, I have been reading like crazy. I started reading three books at once, including "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold, "The World of Karl Pilkington" by Karl Pilkington, and "It Must've Been Something I Ate" by Jeffrey Steingaren. I've finished the first two and am now working on the Steingarten book (which is an incredible book).

Anyway, "The Lovely Bones" was a book that I had been meaning to read for quite a while, but since I don't buy books, I had to wait until it wasn't popular at the library anymore so I could check it out (I'm also in the same situation with "Atonement" by Ian McEwan, not a church book, by the way). I've also heard a rumor that Peter Jackson bought the rights to TLB, wrote a script, and is going to direct a movie version of the book. I can honestly say that I don't think I will be seeing the movie. Too often I am disappointed by the movie and it sort of ruins the book for me. The best example of this was "The Bourne Identity." I loved the three books, and went and saw the movie on opening day only to be sorely disappointed since it really didn't follow the book at at all, aside from there being a character named Jason Bourne who suffers from amnesia. However "The Bourne Supremacy" was easier to swallow because I knew ahead of time it wasn't going to follow the books. Actually, I thought it was a great movie, even with the overacting on the part of the main female character and my strong dislike of Julia Stiles.

Back to TLB...when I was living in Utah a few years ago, it seemed like child kidnapping/murders were in vogue in the news. At that time, Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped (by the way she now looks like Elisha Cuthbert) and it seemed like every few weeks or so another little girl was being kidnapped or found murdered. Sadly, it happens all the time, but it seemed like at that particular time it was being covered more frequently than it is now.

There are a lot of things in this world that I find disturbing, but child abductions/murders/rape tops the list, probably even more so now that I have children of my own. I just can't seem to grasp what could ever make someone do something harmful to a child. I bought a cd a few years ago, and as I always do with new cds, I read the lyrics along the first time I listen to it. In this particular cd, the singer who had written the lyrics included his thoughts about each song and what made him write the song. Anyway, the song he had written that stuck out the most to me was about the recent "wave" of child abductions and it included lyrics that have always stuck out in my mind. Normally, I don't post lyrics or poems or anything like that, but here's what stuck out:

And as the day fades, no one investigates.
Nobody answers when she calls their names.
Another victim somewhere in a shallow grave.
I want to hold her and tell her: "It's not your fault."

So, keeping this in mind, I started reading TLB, which is a story about a 14-year old girl who is kidnapped, raped, and murdered. This all happens in the first chapter, and the rest of the story is her narration from heaven of what follows, i.e. her family's, friends' and even the killer's response to what happened.

Since I would like any of you who read this (which I think is only person) I won't go into detail about the plot, but just know that it is an excellent book. Some of the parts dealing with her family's reaction is hard to read because I could see how that would easily happen to any family. I've often wondered how couples can stay together after the loss of a child. When my wife miscarried at about 19 weeks, it was a terrible experience and this was a child that we hadn't even met yet.

If you do read the book, there is one chapter at the end that is totally unnecessary. I wish I would've known ahead of time and just skipped it (I think it's chapter 22, or the next to last chapter). Anyway, if you feel like reading a semi-depressing story, this is one that I would highly recommend.

After reading TLB, it was definitely nice to read "The World of Karl Pilkington" which I will discuss in another entry.