Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Intermission hijinks

I've been in something of a tizzy over the NHL playoffs, mostly because my beloved Flyers have been playing Washington in the first round, so I've had the chance to actually see the games televised on channels here in DC. A rare treat, to be sure, as DC is typically not a hockey lovin', hockey watchin' kind of town.

Anyway, last night, while watching one of the most exciting games I've seen in recent memory (you gotta love when a series--nay, an entire season--is decided by whichever team scores first in game 7 in overtime), I needed to find something to entertain myself during the first and second intermissions. Normally I'd listen to the commentary, but I hate the voice of one of the local sportscasters. And, with nothing else really worth watching, I popped in a DVD of a concert I attended last year--the Who in DC.

And what a concert! I never, ever thought I'd get to see my favorite band in the world--they've held that title since I was six years old--from the vantage point of a front row seat, but the concert gods were smiling on me when I won a pair of tickets from a local radio station. I had seen the Who twice on last year's tour, and I just couldn't justify spending the cash on what would undoubtedly be a bad seat in an arena--DC's Verizon Center--notorious for horrible acoustics. But it costs nothing to sign up online for the mailing list of a newly-created local rock station. "What's your favorite band?" the questionnaire inquired. I typed in "the Who" and the rest of my vital stats... and several days later I received a call from the promotions guy, telling me that I had tix waiting for me for the DC show if I wanted them. The next thing I knew (well, this was a couple of days later), my friend Leslie and I were being escorted down down down the stairs to the floor of the arena and up up up to the first row of seats. At that point, I'm quite convinced my soul left my body for at least a few seconds. I also remember thinking--seriously--that I was now comfortable with dying, for having this ticket, this vantage point, meant that I had Truly Lived. Yes, I am a jackass, but I do love my little band just that much.

Right, so long story short, I was able to see myself on the concert footage! I have proof I was there! Here are some framegrabs:


This one is much better:

It's plain as day, I tell ya! But one thing this show did for me is spoil pretty much any other Who concert I ever attend. Whatever. It was worth it. (Incidentally, the acoustics in the front row were just fine. Either that, or they stunk, and I was too delirious to care.)

Oh, and go Flyers! Beat Montreal! Woo!!!

Friday, April 18, 2008

Movie reviews!

One good thing about my change in student status has been a wealth of new-found free time. Thus far I haven't done much with it--I find that I'm still recovering for now, more than anything else--but I have caught more movies in the past four months than I've probably seen in three years. And, I'm happy to say, many were seriously good. (Of course, that statistic is helped by the fact that I finally got off my ass and saw the Godfather I and II for the first time ever.) Below please find some select reviews:

1) Sweeney Todd
Johnny Depp sings! And he has a decent voice, too! Kick-ass costuming, a nice/twisted little love story, and interesting cinematography. At least, I think so: I spent about one-third of the movie with my eyes covered. The slicing! The blood and gore! The horrid meat pies! It was a bit too much for my delicate disposition, and I ended up--seriously--a shade of pale green by the end. (An aside to those who live in the DC area: the movie theater in Tysons Corner has a super cheap pre-noon matinee price. Catch a movie at 10am, and then grab lunch, unless you're still nauseated from the throat-slicing scenes. We had to postpone lunch by a full hour to give me time to recover.)

Rating: three hockey pucks out of four--forgive me, but I'm all fired up about the NHL playoffs (the Flyers are rocking the house!!), and the usual star rating system seemed so uninspired.

2) Eastern Promises
Holy moly. I saw this movie at a friend's house two weeks ago, and when it ended, we all sat up straight and stared at each other, slack-jawed. Amazing gangster flick that sticks with you--and I got to practice my horrible, non-existent Russian skills! Viggo Mortensen cuts a dramatic figure with the multiple tattoos and the greasy hair. I'm shocked that this movie didn't have more of a presence in American theaters. Or maybe it did, and I was just enough of a flake that I never noticed.

Rating: four pucks

3) The Departed
I love love love Marky Mark, even though I strongly suspect he hates being remembered as--and still called--Marky Mark. That said, his character was about as physically unattractive as I've ever seen him. Leonardo DiCaprio, of whom I'm not the biggest fan, was fantastic, and his character made me come around to liking him. So, yay.

I saw the Departed a couple of weeks ago at my sister's house. For some reason, they had several dozen free movie channels one weekend, and at 10pm we (she, my brother-in-law, and I) decided to sit down to watch it on one of the many HBOs at our disposal that night. It's a long movie, though, and by 11:45 I was wiped out and went to bed with about an hour of it remaining. Sis and b-in-law were right behind me; we were Tivo-ing it and would watch the rest the next day. Except... while I went to bed, they decided to continue to watch it in their bedroom. Fast forward to the next morning. Sis volunteers to free up the big tv in the living room for me to watch the rest of the movie, which I happily do. So I'm sitting there, completely engrossed, when b-in-law walks into the living room and asks, "So, is [character] really an FBI informant?" I spit out whatever was in my mouth at the time and shake my head in disbelief. Sis looks at him incredulously and gasps, laughing, "Oh. My. God." "Whah?" he replied defensively/cluelessly. And in an instant, the suspense vanished. Actually, it was pretty funny, and the ending still kept me gasping with every twist and turn. Awesome, awesome flick.

Rating: four brand-spanking-new NHL regulation pucks

4) The Kingdom
A major rah-rah-USA! sort of movie, which is fine for mindless fare, but the inaccuracies and the requisite ability to suspend one's understanding of how the real world actually works started to wear on me. Why why why was Jennifer Garner traipsing around Saudi Arabia in a form-fitting t-shirt? Tell me! Never mind how annoying Jason Bateman's character was. Sigh.

Rating: two pucks (hey, it was still entertaining)

4) No Country for Old Men
This was my most recent viewing, as the movie of choice for the latest Classy Evening In at Tiberius and Fluffy's house. I fought hard to watch this one over Gone Baby Gone, and while I'm glad that I got to see it, I wasn't as spellbound as I'd expected, mostly because of the "wait, that's it?" ending. But Javier Bardem? Super creepy. It's amazing that someone who looked so handsome and dashing at the Oscars could look like he did in this movie. Josh Brolin? His best role since the Goonies! The Milk Duds that were left over from our last Classy Evening In (featuing a viewing of Borat)? Delectable, and not at all stale! God bless the humble Milk Dud. And God bless the Coen brothers for the idea to put Bardem in that hideous haircut--it honestly made the movie.

Rating: three pucks and a roll of tape (it would have been four pucks but for the ending)

So there you go. I don't expect much in the way of movie-viewing as long as the Flyers are still in the playoffs, but as the summer blockbusters are released, I will be sure to inform you of my opinions, loyal reader.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

All things papal

So the pope is in Washington this week, and the whole town is a-twitter. And that's great, not least because it meant that the road crews that had been paving Massachusetts Avenue worked overtime to get the work done in time for his visit (the Vatican's embassy is on Mass Ave). It's like driving on glass! No more debilitating potholes! Awesome!

Anyway, all of the pomp and circumstance reminds me of the time that my friend Brad and I were driving back from a basketball game last year. It was mid afternoon in downtown DC, and traffic had been moving along just fine until a parade of speeding shopping carts exploded onto the scene. It was evidently some sort of race, with the shopping carts decorated for the occasion (imagine pirate ships, race car themes, etc). And then came the pope himself, except it was a dude of about 22 years old, almost certainly drunk, standing up in the shopping cart that was being pushed by another dude, almost certainly drunk, wearing running shoes and a red cardinal's robe. As the "pope" was blessing the crowd, his "cardinal" was sprinting through traffic--with the shopping cart careening out of control as it cut a diagonal along the intersection of Massachusetts and 17th Street--and screaming, "GET OUT OF MY [BLEEPING] WAY!! WE'RE NOT STOPPING!!"

As I sat in the passenger seat, mouth agape, Brad had the presence of mind to scream back, "THAT'S NOT VERY PAPAL!!!"

I know I'm not doing it justice, but it was hilarious, I assure you.

Monday, April 7, 2008

Bleaugh

If I've owed you an email for the last week, I'm really sorry. I've had what can only be described as the plague for the better part of four days, and it kicked me square in the ass. To wit: I slept probably 75% of the weekend away, and the times that I was awake I was hunched over a barf bucket. Talking makes me nauseated, and typing makes me dizzy. Awesome.

I'm at work, although I don't know why, because I still feel like I got hit by a freight train. More later, maybe....