2 Comments, Comments, Comments

To all of our readers,

Since we currently have only one super fan who makes all of the comments, the one and only Ed. F., we at Jamie Dixon Cider feel it is necessary, in the words of the great 90's rap duo Tag Team,¹ to say "Party on party people let me hear some noise.  There's a party over here.  A party over there. Wave your hands in the air.  Shake your derriere.  These three words when you're gettin' busy.  Whoomp there it is!"  aka in non-Tag Team-speak, MAKE COMMENTS.  Make them early, often and late.  The comments don't have to be insightful or long or valuable or even positive.  Heck, they don't even have to be in English if you are one our readers from Germany or Russia or Belarus.² You could say "oh that post sucks how could you be so wrong" and we couldn't care less.³  But if you say we are wrong, just be ready to defend yourself in a spirited way, because who doesn't like a good argument every now and then?  Seriously though, we will appreciate any and all comments 'cause we think they can lead to good discussions to all the random nonsense we post.

Sincerely,
DC the Brain Supreme (Marty) and my man Steve Roll'n (Sean)

¹ Tag Team Whoomp! (There It Is) was the first CD that I ever got, way back in the early 90's.  Talk about a classic 90s one-hit-wonder.
² Thanks to Blogger and Google for the really useful Audience Stats that show where all of our views are from.
³ Notice the correct use of couldn't care less.  People mess this up all the time, which drives me crazy as a pseudo grammar nerd.  If I had said we could care less, then that means that we care some and that some amount of caring could actually be reduced.

1 The 14 Days of Christmas Songs... The Epic Conclusion

As I mentioned in a previous countdown day, having a daily countdown proved to be harder than I thought.  All the Christmas hustle and bustle with errands and shopping and all that jazz didn't make it any easier.  All excuses I know.  But it's time to finish off the countdown with one huge flurry of Christmas Songs!

Starting off the top 5, we have a tie at numbers 5 and 4 for Santa Claus is Coming to Town by the Jackson 5 and Bruce Springsteen. Both versions are so awesome that each gets a spot.  You have the awesome Motown sound of Jackson 5 and the incomparable all-American rock song of the Boss.  All I know is you better be good for goodness sake...

With the bronze medal at number 3 is All I want for Christmas is You by Mariah Carey... great song that is part of a great scene in Love Actually...

At number 2 is Christmas in Hollis by RUN-DMC.  Such an awesome modern aka, post my birthday, Christmas Song...

And at number one *drum roll* we have the 12 Days of Christmas by the Muppets and John Denver.  I remember always having my Dad play the Muppets record when I was growing up.  Playing Christmas records and being with family around the Christmas tree in Christmas morning.   It doesn't get much better than that...

Bonus... Jimmy Fallon, the best late night host and chronic sketch laugher, did a great version too...
http://gawker.com/5433562/jimmy-fallon-and-the-muppets-sing-the-12-days-of-christmas

I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe Christmas.  Merry Christmas to All!!!

0 Top 10 Twitter Accounts

I am a big fan of Twitter. It is an extremely useful tool, a great way to stay on top of things and a good place for aggregation of information. Additionally, you dont have the same annoying things that you by now have come to expect with facebook. It's simple, streamlined and a great conduit. I follow about 350 accounts on Twitter which are all over the map. News services, fantasy baseball information, fake parody accounts; it runs the gamut. So without further ado, here are my 10 twitter accounts to follow, in no particular order, with some included rationale.

10: @Dadboner

I can't say enough about Karl Welzein from Grand Blanc Michigan. He can't wait for the weekend and he loves a good celebraish. This joke account is written in character and is basically a daily or semi-weekly comedy strip following Karl and his roommate Dave's ridiculous antics. Worth a follow and if you find yourself truly bored, read his tweets from the beginning, chronicling his slow descent.


9: @sbnation

A sports website which doesn't take itself too seriously. They have a blog for any team you could think of, the writers are funny, and they love a good gif. Andrew Sharp is one of my personal favorites for his embracing of the ridiculousness as well as his Troll Tuesday columns

8: @JPosnanski

For my money, Joe Posnanski is one of the best sportswriters out there. He writes often and on many topics and is an extremely easy writer to read. He was pilloried for his book on Paterno, and rightfully so for its lack of depth and insight on the Sandusky allegations, but he is an excellent writer with many opinions which are worth considering.

7: @BobbyBigWheel
A Brooklyn based attorney, he writes for sbnation but is worth following for his puns and jokes as well as for his knowledge and insight into the NYC food scene. He actively interacts with his followers, which is an important aspect of Twitter; the ability to have a conversation with a complete stranger. If you are coming to visit New York, he is a good source for places to eat.

6: @keithlaw
A baseball writer for ESPN who used to work in the front office of the Blue Jays, Keith Law is worth a follow for his sarcasm alone. Incredibly knowledgeable about baseball, but also provides insight through his meadowparty blog on cooking, restaurants, board games, music and movies, among other things. He doesn't take himself too seriously and is a good follow if you like baseball.

5: @bruce_arthur
A Canadian sports journalist, Bruce Arthur is a great follow. He opines frequently on "American" issues such as gun control and the presidential election, and interacts with many followers on Twitter. Provides an interesting look at America through the eyes of a neighborly Canadian.  Additionally, I love it when he tweets on a NFL Sunday about the CFL, just throwing me for a loop. I still don't know what a rouge is.

4:@robdelaney
Incredibly crude but incredibly hilarious basically sums up Rob Delaney. A comedian, he tweets often and almost no subject is taboo. He had an ongoing series during the 2012 election hectoring Mitt Romney for various things. If you want to laugh but also feel sick to your stomach at times, give Rob a follow.

3: @smartfootball
Another NYC based lawyer, Chris Brown, writing under the name smart football gives his nuanced and thoughtful take on all levels of football. He looks at the X's and O's but boils it down so that a layman or relative newcomer could understand what he talks about. A good follow if you like football.

2: @Filmdrunk
A comedian who writes movie reviews, Vince Mancini aka Filmdrunk posts entertaining links, funny film reviews and humorous social commentary. I feel like me writing this review comes straight from the pages of Readers Digest. The point is, he's funny and links to funny shit.

1: @OldHossRadbourn
A parody baseball account of a long dead pitcher, Charles "Old Hoss" Radbourn won 60 games in 1884. This account mocks and derides anything and everything around baseball and also addresses other ridiculous cultural phenomena.

0 The 14 Days of Christmas Songs... Number 6

I've realized daily countdowns are harder than you think they would be.  It can be hard coming up with witty descriptions for Christmas songs day after day.  But the show must go on.  Every countdown deserves to be fully completed.  Hopefully the Mayans don't try to interfere with ending the world.  That would probably be a bummer right?

So onto the countdown, at number 6 Wonderful Christmas Time by Paul McCartney...

8 Best Movies of 2001

Here's the much anticipated best movies of 2001 showdown...

Sean:

Good lord. Talk about your dregs. This was a bad year for film. Many of the movies that were nominated for or won Academy Awards I did not see or I did not think were noteworthy. I was never going to see Gosford Park or Moulin Rouge, and I thoughts the Lord of the Rings movies were idealized fluff that were far too long. With the benefit of hindsight, Lord of the Rings would have made a great miniseries in the same vein as Game of Thrones. But perhaps you needed a Lord of the Ring to make a Game of Thrones (and GOT is way too violent and sexualized for a major cinema release). 

However, there were a couple of films that stood out, with my nomination for best movie of the year at the end.

Enemy at the Gates- A pretty standard action flick. The fact this is even listed here shows the lack of depth of quality film making as well as my general ignorance of the movies that came out this year.

Zoolander- A movie that I remember seeing previews for and thinking it would be awful. However, this was in reality a very funny movie to watch. This film developed a cult following which quickly bloomed into a full on cultural sensation, which sadly ruined many of the funny lines of the movie. 

Mulholland Drive- David Lynch. He sucks. Stupid movie that went nowhere.

Spy Game- This was an even better action flick than enemy at the gates, adding the element of spycraft and espionage, and casting Brad Pitt and Robert Redford in the two leading roles. A very enjoyable movie to watch. Blackhawk Down also falls under this heading.

I would write about Vanilla Sky here, but I think you will have enough to say about that movie for the both of us.

Oceans Eleven was the start of the ensemble cast movies, at least in my recent memory. Clearly they have been going on for a while before this, but this movie kicked off a flood of movies that followed it. 

I think the best movie of 2001 was Training Day. Denzel Washington up until this point had mostly if not always played the upstanding black character in a movie. However, in Training Day, he turned heel, playing the role of a dirty cop who would do whatever it took to get the results he wanted. He won an Oscar for his acting and the film did an excellent job, at least to my uninformed eyes and brain, conveying a little of what it was like to be a cop in an inner city.

Marty:

Wow, you are right.  2001 was a horrible year for film. Trash on trash on trash.  

Quick overview of the nominees...

Gosford Park: the token English film that is always nominated

Moulin Rouge: well made musical  but is still a musical.  The right way to see a musical is go to the actual show.¹

Lord of the Rings movies I don't think I have ever been able to stay awake for any of the trilogy.² Game of Thrones is so much better than Lord of the rings.  

A Beautiful Mind: the best of the nominees.  A solid and entertaining movie. Just not the best of the year.  

In the Bedroom: don't remember anything about this movie. I'd imagine it is depressing cause that's what the Oscars do.  

Other movie wise, you left out Ali.  Very solid biopic and Will Smith is awesome as Ali. He should have won over Denzel in Training Day.  

Speaking of Training Day, movie is really sweet to watch. Denzel is awesome in the heel role. I'd say it is the second best movie of the year. However, as you alluded to, Vanilla Sky was the best movie of 2001.  I'm sure this will be my lowest rated film of the year choice but haters always gonna hate.³  Vanilla Sky is an intense, thriller  with great performances that really makes you think about life and what makes life worth living. I've seriously thought about what I would do if I was given the option of either living out my life or instead entering into a lucid dream where I could relive my life over and over.  Would I always make the same choices in life? Or would my life by vastly different due to random events that I have no control over? Or would I end up exactly where I am because my choices will always be my choice? Or if I relived part of my life that had less heartache would I be better off?  I'm not sure how everything would end up, but I''m sure that it would be interesting to have the option to find out. Like the tech support dude says, "There are no guarantees, but remember: Even in the future, the sweet is never as sweet without the sour."  

So at the end of the day Vanilla Sky beats out Training Day because the film had something bigger to say than just a classic good cop vs. bad cop story.  

Sean:

You are right that "A Beautiful Mind" is the best of those nominees, and I didn't even see it. British period pieces can all go hang, if you ask me. You are spot on with Vanilla Sky. I think the acting in Training Day was better than the acting in Vanilla Sky, but the underlying message of the movie in Vanilla Sky was the best of all the movies made in 2001. Training Day isn't a movie that you would walk out of and discuss what things meant and what they did not. Vanilla Sky was. VS had you pondering existential questions and I wonder how much better it would have been with a better actor than Tom Cruise⁴ in the main role. That's interesting that you think Ali should have won. I saw it in theaters and I walked away unimpressed. I thought ALI was too long, boring, and just not an enjoyable movie to watch. Will Smith is made for a big budget action movie⁵ or a helpful black man role.⁶ Him in a biopic just doesn't work for me. 

Don't get me started on Peter Jackson. How do you make 3 movies out of a 333 page kids book? I guess the Twilight people know a thing or two about that. I would imagine people rated VS low because they were either confused about it or they did not like the ending, which is not really a happy one. I think this wraps up 2001, so it's onto 2002.

Marty:

By the way there was literally no chance that I would give you the last word on a discussion that involves the greatness that is Will Smith.  Will Smith transformed himself in Ali.  The film itself was so-so but Will Smith's performance as Ali was top-notch, which is why he should have won.  He's the biggest movie star in the world and almost every movie he makes is entertaining as hell because of him, which in my opinion is underrated.  Take I am Legend for example.  The entire film is basically him talking to himself or his dog.  There are only a few other actors who could have pulled that off.  Tom Hanks does that in Castaway and he gets an Oscar nomination, but Will Smith gets nothing.  Should he push himself more? Yes.  Was he wrong in turning down the role in Django? Maybe, but if he doesn't want to say the n-word over and over then that's his call.   But seriously, you know exactly what you are going to get when you go to a Will Smith movie: charm, charisma and entertainment.  

¹  Peter Jackson is such a 1 trick pony.  His other movies like King Kong have been unspectacular at best. And his newest trilogy is a poor man's Lord of the Rings.  Seriously, 3 movies for the Hobbit.  That is insane.  I think Peter Jackson would make Green Ham and Eggs a trilogy if he had a chance.

²   Yes a bit pretentious, but of course I'm going to say since I just ordered season tickets for Broadway musicals.  Who is fancy now?

³  The film is 40% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and a 6.8 on IMDB.

⁴  At this point, Tom Cruise had just finished his divorce from Nicole Kidman phase, so he was throwing himself into his work, with little to no attention to his craft; See also Liam Neeson after the late passing of his wife.

⁵  I Am Legend, ID4, Hancock, Wild Wild West, MIB, Bad Boy, Bad Boys 2

⁶  Legend of Bagger Vance, Hitch, Pursuit of Happyness

0 Star Trek Into Darkness Trailer Breakdown

Oh man, I was just looking at recent posts on the blog and if you just took a causal glance you'd think we were a Christmas song blog.  But, that's far from the truth.  We have lots of other random and less than useful things to rant about, which you can see in the flurry of posts today.  So now onto the first in a never ending series of trailer breakdowns because who doesn't love a good trailer.  

The Star Trek reboot or rewhatever from 2009 was beyond big time.¹  *Spoiler Alert* it might just end up my pick for film of 2009, if we ever get to that point. But here is a breakdown of the recent teaser-trailer.²

1. Bad Robot logo... now this is going to be sick³
2. Patrick Stewart's voice? He's the bad guy? Wait what?... 5 minute internet search... Oh not that cool it's the voice of some other British actor.  Those Brits all sound the same to me.
3. British guy says he is returning for vengeance. Classic bad-guy motivation.  Love it.
4. Captain Kirk, he's looking pretty intense.  Don't mess with the Captain ever.
5. Red city with red plants and then a cliff jump OMG!
6. New blonde chick.  Can't go wrong with that casting.
7. Inception like BBRAAAAAAAAA, BRAAAAAAAAA, BRAAAAAAAA.  Thanks Chris Nolan for creating that trend.
8. Spock with a gun.  Dude is all business.
9. Spaceship in water. Wait is this a Star Trek reboot sequel and a Hunt For Red October sequel in one?  I see it going like this Spock is actually related to Sean Connery's character and he's out for revenge.  Is your mind blown?
10.  Sparks in the cockpit of the Enterprise.  You'd think a billion dollar spaceship would be better constructed. But it is always blowing up and sparking.  Maybe it was caused by Harold from smoking up too much weakening the strength of the hull.
11. Spock running a lot like Tom Cruise.  Maybe Tom Cruise was hired as a running consultant on the movie.  He does have the best run in the biz.
12. Cities blowing up.  This British guy isn't messing around at all.
13.  Closing logo.  Very nifty.

Conclusion... This film is going to be awesome.  Thanks J.J.!

¹ I don't care that there are inconsistencies with the Star Trek universe in the 2009 film.  Trek nerds have way too much free time on their hands.  It's a film not a bible.
² I was planning on breaking down the just released trailer, but it isn't blog friendly and requires you to view it on iTunes, so I'll stick with the older teaser, which isn't much different anyways.
³ Insert random comment here about how I am a J.J. Abrams fan boy. J.J. Abrams is the man.  He always will be. I will always write about how he is the man.

0 The Best Movie (Album) of 2012

For the last 5 or 6 years, the popular trend has been to write a year in review column or column(s), talking about the best of every category that the writer has experienced that year. That is way too ambitious for me, but I think I can nibble a little bit at the edges and talk about some of the best things I have experienced during 2012. So without further ado, here is my best movie suggestion for 2012.

Author's Note: I had to go back and look and see what movies were actually released in 2012. Due to my failure to see many movies in the theater combined with the paltry showing from earlier in the year, this post is going to be about music.

The best album, for my money for 2012 was the Lumineer's self titled album "The Lumineers". This album was playing basically from August until now for me. Every track on the album is catchy but every track is different and unique in it's own way. I first found myself listening to Big Parade over and over, but then I started playing Dead Sea and that morphed into Ho Hey, and currently Stubborn Love is my favorite. The lyrics are simple and the music has a gospel/indie rock/Mumford and Sons like sound. If you have not yet listened to it, go check it out on spotify or youtube.

You may recognize Stubborn Love from a Dick's Sporting Goods commercial (which made Siobhan cry) of two brothers playing baseball. Good shit.

0 Fantasy football

Fuck fantasy football. It's the worst. Arbitrary bullshit where only a modicum of skill is required. Sundays are ruined. I don't root for the Vikings anymore, I root for the players on my fantasy team. What the fuck is that? What's the point of having a tribalistic attachment to a team based on a geographic boundary if I don't even follow through on it? So I am throwing in the towel and quitting fantasy football. Fantasy baseball enhances a sport which can be boring at times to watch whereas fantasy football only takes away from the actual sport. You can make the argument that fantasy football means that tonight's dog shit Jets-Titans game is important, but that is spurious to me. If you aren't a Jets or Titans fan, why watch what surely will be an un-enjoyable boring game. One more week of setting my lineup and then I will be throwing in the towel.

0 The 14 Days of Christmas Songs... Number 7

The Christmas song countdown is starting to get into the heavy hitters.  At number 7, we have the Christmas Song by Nat King Cole.  I'm not sure there has been anyone quite as cool, as classy or as smooth as Nat King Cole.  Although it's been said many times and many ways, Merry Christmas to you...

By the way Chappelle's Show had an awesome clip with Nat King Cole...

Comedy Central

Completely unrelated to Christmas, but Chappelle's Show was beyond big time.  So many classic skits and so many references that are still used today.  Sure, that might make me sound old but the show is still really funny and is a great take on race in society.  Skits like the Black White Supremacist, the entire Wayne Brady episode, the Mad Real World and Fear Factor with Tyrone Biggums are all classics.

0 The 14 Days of Christmas Songs... Number 9 and Number 8

Just a quick weekend update for the Christmas song countdown...

At number 9, we have the best version of Jingle Bells out there by the one and only Mr. Frank Sinatra.  Who doesn't love those J I N G L E bells?

At number 8, another all time classic White Christmas by Bing Crosby.  No explanation needed...

 

0 The 14 Days of Christmas Songs... Number 11 and Number 10

Many apologies for missing the countdown on Thursday.  I'm sure my many devoted readers or reader if they exist were heart broken yesterday.  Sadly, the real world of actual work¹ and a pointless continuing legal education class² meant I was very short on time to blog.  But don't worry!  I'm back today with a double header to make up for missing yesterday.

Coming in at Number 11 is Happy Xmas (War is Over) by John Lennon.  Obviously a classic...

Next at number 10 is Little Drummer Boy by Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band.  This is by far the best and definitive version of Little Drummer Boy by an American legend.  A Christmas song so good that it almost made the definitive Summer 123 song countdown twice! Just think a song about Christmas was almost in a summer song list.  That is cray. Pa rum pum pum pum...

¹ Contrary to popular belief held by my roommate, my friends and my family, I actually have a job that requires actual work by an actual lawyer.  I can't maintain my above 100% efficiency by doing nothing all the time.  I think they are all hatin' cause they wish they had my job.  As always haters always gonna hate.  

² Yesterday's CLE class was about the Landlord Tenant relationship, which you would think would have been a very good topic for me since I'm constantly thinking about becoming a slum...er landlord.  But, you never know when you get a roomful of lawyers involved.  And in the case of last night, it was not good.  The presenter basically copied meaningless lists from the internet about and one lawyer kept on talking about her problems as a tenant and a buyer in NYC.  Seriously, I could not care less that you had an awesome apartment in NYC and that your neighbor was paying $800 in rent control for an apartment that should have been $3,500. Blah, blah, blah.  End Rant. 

0 The 14 Days of Christmas Songs... Number 12

Coming in at number 12 in the countdown is Little Saint Nick by the Beach Boys.  Classic song by a classic American rock band. Doesn't get much better than that...

0 The 14 Days of Christmas Songs... Number 13

Even though my fellow blogger hates Christmas music and has a long standing feud against Christmas for valid reasons, I'm not going to let his negativity seep into my positivity. Although, he better watch out Fox News might declare him to be a head terrorist in the war against Christmas.  Christmas music might be cheesy, sentimental and over-the-top at times, but it is still awesome because any song can instantly make you think of fun time you had in the past when it was playing.

So coming in at number 13 is an oldie but a goodie, Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree by Brenda Lee with a bonus Christmas light show...

By the way I can only imagine the amount of work that goes into making one of the Christmas light shows. I can't wait to try to make one.  It is the perfect way to spread Holiday cheer to all of your neighbors and maybe cause a few seizures on the way.

0 Christmas Music

I hate it. Can't stand the stuff. With two exceptions. The two best Christmas songs EVER are Alvin and the Chipmunks "Christmas Don't Be Late"

and Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You

I dare you to name a better song. Your only argument that might sway me would be something from the Home Alone soundtrack.

0 The 14 Days of Christmas Songs... Number 14

After watching DMX sing perhaps the finest version of Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, I've become inspired to have my own countdown of the best Christmas songs.

I'm only limiting the countdown to Christmas songs, sorry Adam Sandler, but his Hanukkah song is still awesome with classic lines like, "You dont need Deck the Halls or Jingle Bell Rock
Cause you can spin a dreidel with Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock--both Jewish!" and "O.J. Simpson--not a Jew!"

So coming in at number 14 is Last Christmas by Wham! Words can't describe how big time this video is... The 80s at its finest...

 

0 The Best Movies of 2000

Because we have a wealth of movie knowledge, love talking about movies and the Academy Awards are horrible, we have decided to go year-by-year discussing what we each thought were the best movie or movies of the year.  No point system or some arbitrary ranking system, just two dudes B.S.'ing and making random arguments   If you think we messed up, are completely insane or left a movie out, comment and add to the conversation... 

Marty:

Wow, 2000 was a weird year for movies.  The top grossing movie was that horrible Grinch movie staring Jim Carrey and Scary Movie finished in the top 10.  However, 2000 is one of the rare years that I actually agree with the Oscars choice for best picture.¹ Gladiator was the best picture.  An epic film, with epic battles and epic speeches   Russell Crowe is at his best as Maximus, Joaquin Phoenix is great as the creepy Commodus and Ridley Scott is solid as ever directing.  The movie holds up pretty well with great rewatchability 2 years later. Ugh, I'm getting old. Plus, I'm a sucker for anything that deals with the Roman Empire.  Add it all up and Gladiator was the top movie of 2000.

Sean:

You are starting out with a bang here, and it really is tough to disagree with your Gladiator suggestion. I agree with your Gladiator nomination, and thought it was the movie of the year for 2000. It is an epic movie, one of the few that I would put in the epic movie pantheon and a movie you can rewatch over and over. The acting is fantastic, and it was the movie that really put Russell Crowe on the world's stage. The action scenes are many and varied, from a Roman legionary army battling barbarians in modern-day Germany to a fight in the Colosseum.  But I think the argument could also be made for several other movies that came out in 2000 and are deserving of praise.

Boondock Saints came out in early 2000 and is a cult classic when it comes to movies. The Irish brothers who turn into modern day Robin Hoods with more than a dash of vigilantism is a very well known movie and a solid action flick. 

American Psycho also came out in 2000 and this satirically dark take on 1980's Wall Street and the culture that rose up around it is a very interesting movie with a very interesting approach. You never know by the end of the movie if it was all just a series of dreams or actual events, but the tale is a lurid and sordid one. 

Billy Elliot was a movie I saw in college, following a young English boy who just loved dancing and whose family sacrificed everything for him. A bit of a tear-jerker but a very well made movie and it held your attention.

Traffic was well acclaimed and I think it won an Oscar for something. It was well made but nothing I would call the best picture of 2000.²

Marty:

I have a feeling this will be one of the few years that we will actually agree. I thought for sure you'd pick Requiem for a Dream, which I never liked as much as a lot of other people.  

Spot on with Boondock Saints and Traffic. Traffic is typical Soderbergh very well done but missing something.  

American Psycho is pretty big time, Patrick Bateman is one of the best movie characters you will find. Plus, you can't go wrong with the constant barrage of 80's references such as Genesis and the awesome excuse of having to leave in order to return a videotape. Although, I think it is too over-the-top to be the best movie of the year.  

Speaking of other movies from 2000, my second best movie for the year was probably Memento, which is one of Nolan's finest. What took it down a notch for me was that as soon as you see the ending there isn't any reason to watch the movie again, sort of like the Sixth Sense.

Sean:

I knew I glossed over something. I meant to mention Memento. You are right and 6th sense is an apt comparison. Maybe you watch the movie one more time after you know the secret, just to spot the glitches and the continuities that you missed the first time. 

Requiem for a Dream was an eh movie. It was almost like a car crash in movie form, following these 5 people and watching their lives being destroyed. People liked it because it was an edgy movie. 

That is spot-on analysis about American Psycho. Patrick Bateman is a top 5 movie character because he is 80's yuppies excess to a T. And the music is somewhat nostalgic but believable at the same time.

¹Most of the years the Oscars are horribly off e.g., Shakespeare in Love, Million Dollar Baby and anything that involves English period pieces

²Almost Famous was also critically acclaimed and I wish I could opine further on it, but I never actually saw it.

1 Revenge is a dish best served on TV

A couple days ago, I was looking for something to watch on my streaming Netflix and in my very random  recommended section was the TV series Revenge.¹ I heard some things (not sure if the things were good or not) about the show and I clicked on it figuring worst-case I stop watching after 5 minutes and best case it is good enough to distract my roommate Emily and it causes her to lose to me in Scrabble. However, I soon realized I was wrong because the show is so amazingly ridiculous and over-the-top that it is great to watch. 8 episodes later it continues to be so over-the-top.

The basic plot for Revenge is that the Amanda Clarke's father, when she was young, was screwed by over by rich people from the Hamptons and was framed as a terrorist. Amanda grows up as a troubled youth because of course people hate daughter's of terrorists. Amanda hates her father until learning that her father was framed for a crime he didn't commit. Amanda's father doesn't tell her by normal communication but instead leaves her a locked wooden box full of information showing his innocence. Sadly, Amanda didn't learn of her father's innocence until after he died. Happily, Amanda's father invested in a multi-billionaire dollar tech company when it fist started, so Amanda becomes an instant billionaire. However, she also becomes obsessed with getting revenge for her father's incarceration and death. In order to obtain revenge, Amanda changes her name to Emily Thorne, becomes an expert on everything that rich white people do and befriends the same people who framed her father. Emily then uses the befriending to ruin the rich person's life.² Some of the methods used by Emily have been tame while others have been pretty ridiculous. Along the way we get to see how insanely messed up everyone in the Hamptons is, except of course for the good guy who of course happens to be poor and hard working. See pretty ridiculous set-up for a show. Trust me you need to watch to find out.

The trailer from the first season is a perfect illustration to the ridiculousness of the show:

Let's break the trailer down:
1. Slow motion scene with dramatic music and a voice-over from Emily. A go to move for the show. Voice-overs and dramatic music make everything seem so much more important. Just like the movie trailer voice guy can make any move look like an Oscar contender.  

2. Flashbacks illustrating important plot ideas. Never bad to rip off the best TV show ever, Lost.³
3. Close ups on characters face showing how intense their thoughts are at any given time.
4. Rich white people having #richwhitepeopleproblems.⁴

5. Shocking secretes aka the basis of the whole show.
6. Statements from Emily that have double meanings, which is basically the only way she talks.
7. Dramatic confrontations between two characters.
8. Violence. You aren't getting revenge properly, if you aren't spilling some blood along the way.

Revenge is so awesome that it's big time, which means it gets the first ever *Certified Big Time* stamp of approval on Jamie Dixon Cider. *Certified Big Time* means whatever is certified is awesome and you'd be crazy not to check it out.  

¹ One of the best things about streaming video is the ability to go on TV watching marathons. There is nothing better than rapidly watching a full season of a show like Game of Thrones because you don't have to spend an entire week wondering what is going to happen the cliffhanger.
² If I was a billionaire I'm pretty sure that I could come up with better and easier ways to ruin people's lives than becoming friends with them. Heck, I think you could pay to have them all killed if you really wanted to.
³ I don't care what the haters say, Lost is the best television show ever. The ending might have pissed some people off, but the journey to then ending was amazing. The pilot is one of the greatest pilots ever, Jack is a great troubled hero, Ben is one of the most devious villains, amazing musical scores, tons of draw dropping moments and the cliffhanger when Jack says "We have to go back, Kate" is the best season cliffhanger ever.  One day I will have a 20,000 word Lost entry.
⁴ I love any tweet that is #"fill-in-the-blank"problems like #firstworldproblems.

0 The Hunt

I have been looking for a new job since I knew I was moving to New York. With a brief 4 month hiatus for bar exam preparation and taking, I have been combing the electronic streets of the internet, looking for a job that I am qualified for. At the least, I have been looking for something to get me out of the house. It has been nice to have the luxury of working remotely/from home for the past 10 months, but the allure has worn off. I miss human contact (quite the revelation for an anti-social agoraphobe like me) and I miss the sense of purpose that comes with working. I also would not mind getting paid the going rate for NYC versus Pittsburgh. The cost of living difference is substantial.

I have had a number of interviews, on the phone and in person, but the result has been either silence or the "thanks, but..." that HR types seem to have memorized or at least permanently stashed on their clipboard. When I apply to a job and get a interview, I talk up the job in my head and think of how great it would be to get said job. This invariably leads to a certain level of disappointment when I don't get the job. As part of the job application process, I have been spreading a wide net. If I meet the qualifications for a job, I figure I can apply. It can't hurt, and with the arbitrary nature of my job it's a good idea to have options.

This has led to the following situation, that has led me to write this post. I have a phone interview tomorrow with a non-profit in lower Manhattan. This non-profit does a lot of advocacy work for juveniles and is an interested party, as compared to my current employer, basically a branch of the Federal government. I am not by any stretch of the imagination a passionate person prone to emotional outbursts or someone touched by emotional things. A cynic would call me a emotionless negative person. They would probably be right. How do I get excited for working at an advocacy place? How do you work at a job that is 180 degrees from what you are comfortable doing. I applied to this job because I had the credentials to get in the door, but I was reluctant to apply because advocacy work is something that you have to feel passionately about to do it well, and I knew I did not. At the same time, I needed a new job. My current job was stagnating and job security was not assured, especially with the impending election (I applied before Obama won) which could have resulted in drastic funding cuts.

So the phone interview is tomorrow. Who knows what will happen, but I'll have to see how that goes and what kind of vibe I get as well. I hate looking for jobs. It's exhausting and depressing as well.

0 Happy Holidays

I feel like it's been forever since I have written anything, and looking at the post timeline it has been quite some time. It's hard around the holidays, especially if you are travelling, to keep up to date with blogging. I would feel like a bum or like I was ignoring family if I was sitting there typing away about the weather, about Black Friday or about how the best part of thanksgiving dinner is stuffing (which it is). But now that I have a 3 week hiatus from vacation, I would like to opine about worthless stuff such as books, movies, food, sports, and pop culture tidbits like Taylor Swift's new bf de jour.

0 Thanksgiving Hiatus

Thanksgiving ended up being a difficult time for the Jamie Dixon Cider.  All my homemade apple sauce making and random family activities really cut into my rant making and random thought writing.  I'll be back soon with some nonsense...

And to get everyone into the Holiday spirit, a clip from the best man in late night Jimmy Fallon...

0 The Greatest Elimination ever...

This past week on the Challenge, there was the greatest elimination showdown ever. Undersized, love note writing CJ vs. arena football player, HGH using, Thor looking Zach, in a simple game that involved running through each other in a narrow corridor.  You would think that the huge football player would have won easily, but not so fast.  CJ did the impossible and won three straight times and came so close to pulling off the greatest upset ever.  It really needs to be watched to be appreciated.  Now would be the perfect time to include a clip, but it is basically impossible to find any good highlights of the Challenge online.  Thanks MTV.  This also made me realize that a recap of the Challenge without any clips is pretty lame.  So sadly, there will be no ongoing recaps.  Seriously though, watch the Challenge or CT will come for you...  

0 "The Passage"

I just finished The Passage, a post-apocalyptic novel by Justin Cronin. I am not exactly sure how I got turned onto it but I had just finished Cloud Atlas and I was looking for a new fiction book to read. The book is a lengthy read, clocking in at a little under 900 pages, but it went by pretty fast and I finished it in a little over a week. The plot focuses around a virus that the U.S. Army is developing and modifying to create a new super-soldier. Predictably, things go horribly wrong and the test subjects (death row inmates with nothing to lose) are turned into vampire like creatures with enhanced physical and mental powers who infect other humans, creating more vampires and destroying the country as we know it. Much of the early part of the book is focused on the two FBI agents responsible for collecting the death row inmates and their interactions with a young girl who they are responsible for collecting and bringing to the Army compound.

The book is full of biblical imagery and references. There are 12 test subjects and one, called Zero/Fanning that came before them. One of the main characters of the early part of the book is a nun in a convent. Much of the writing and the language that characters use has biblical overtones. The young girl, whose name is Amy is called an Ark by a nun. The vampires are created by a bite and a transmission of blood. The book is titled the passage, referencing (at least to me) the Israelite's passage out of Egypt, wandering in the desert and all of the trials and tribulations that happened before ending up in Israel. Presumably, the 12 test subjects are a reference to the 12 disciples. One of the protagonists is named Peter,  a character in the Bible who is called the rock that Jesus was to found his church on.  

The Passage is part of a trilogy, but much of the book provides a background on just a few of the main characters. Wolgast, Amy, and a few of the members in the 1st Colony are given much attention. I was hesitant reading the book at first, as things moved somewhat slowly, but it rapidly pulled me in and I was reading it whenever I had a free moment. An interesting picture is painted of the dystopian world that the characters live in AV (after the virus/virals), and much of the bulk of the book is a description of the lives of the people in the 1st colony. The eponymous Passage also describes the travels of 8 members of the colony who leave in search for answers, knowing that because of the failure of the lights that keep the virals away, their lives are about to change.

I liked this book a lot and it was hard for me to put down. I found myself staying up late and reading the book in  bed, curious to see what would happen to the characters. I wouldn't say I became invested, but I wanted to find out more of the back story and hear more about the world that the characters lived in; I was curious to see what relics still survived from the time before the virus (for example, calling pants "gaps", presumably after the store) and what had changed or adapted. The world that Cronin constructed became fleshed out, with gaps still in place left to tantalize the reader. I would recommend this book, but its a significant time suck.

0 Pitt is it

So I'm following my label-mate, and writing a post about Pitt basketball because I can't think of anything clever or unique. I am going to do a game by game prediction, but not venture into any post-season prognostications. So without further ado, here are my predictions. I am going to start with the first Big East game, since its hard to guess for the early season tournaments and most if not all of the non-conference games are cupcakes.


Monday, Dec. 31 *CINCINNATI (ESPN2) Petersen Events Center Noon  WIN (Cincy is a team to watch and Cronin is doing good things. However, the home court advantage, even with Pitt on winter break will carry them to victory)
Saturday, Jan. 5 at *Rutgers (ESPN2) Piscataway, N.J./RAC 11 a.m. WIN (Rutgers stinks. End of story)
Tuesday, Jan. 8 at *Georgetown (ESPNU)  Washington, D.C./Verizon Center 9 p.m. (A tough game, away late at night) LOSS
Saturday, Jan. 12 *MARQUETTE (ESPNU) Petersen Events Center Noon (Marquette always plays Pitt tough, but home court advantage can not be discounted) WIN
Wednesday, Jan. 16 at *Villanova (ESPNU) Villanova, Pa./The Pavilion 7 p.m.  (Villanova used to be an elite team in the Big East, but Jay Wright has fallen on hard times as of late. This used to be a guard-centric program, but no one has stepped up since Scottie Reynolds was still lacing them up) WIN
Saturday, Jan. 19 *CONNECTICUT (ESPN2) Petersen Events Center Noon (An interesting game and the first one without Jim Calhoun, either in person or his presence looming, coaching the team.) WIN
Tuesday, Jan. 22 at *Providence (ESPN2) Providence, R.I./Dunkin Donuts Center 7 p.m. WIN
Saturday, Jan. 26 *DEPAUL (ESPN-R/ROOT) Petersen Events Center 4 p.m. (You have to feel for Depaul. So much basketball talent comes out of Chicago, but it either heads down state to Champaign-Urbana or leaves the state entirely) WIN
Monday, Jan. 28 at *Louisville (ESPN) Louisville, Ky./KFC Yum! Center 7 p.m. (Louisville always plays Pitt tough. Pitt has trouble breaking the press and Rick Pitino teams are so well coached and generally very well disciplined. A nationally televised game on the road in front of an extremely hostile crowd, this will be the first big test for the Pitt Panthers. Beat Louisville and the sky is the limit) WIN!!
Saturday, Feb. 2 *SYRACUSE (ESPN)  Petersen Events Center Noon  (A tough game against an always tough team. Home court advantage, which has been my theme wins out) WIN
Monday, Feb. 4 *SETON HALL (ESPNU) Petersen Events Center 9 p.m. WIN
Saturday, Feb. 9 at *Cincinnati (ESPN2/ESPN) Cincinnati, Ohio/Fifth Third Arena 6/9 p.m. LOSS
Saturday, Feb. 16 at *Marquette (CBS) Milwaukee, Wis./Bradley Center 1 p.m.  WIN
Monday, Feb. 18 *NOTRE DAME (ESPN) Petersen Events Center 7 p.m. (Notre Dame always plays Pitt tough. Always. Mike Brey is an awesome coach and his players buy into whichever system he institutes.) LOSS
Sunday, Feb. 24 at *St. John’s (ESPN-R/ROOT)  New York, N.Y./Madison Square Garden Noon WIN
Wednesday, Feb. 27 *SOUTH FLORIDA (ESPN-R/ROOT) Petersen Events Center 7 p.m. WIN
Sunday, March 3 *VILLANOVA (ESPN-R/ROOT) Petersen Events Center Noon WIN
Saturday, March 9 at *DePaul (ESPN-R/WTAE) WIN

The final tally: Pitt finishes 13-3 in the Big East and earns a 2 or 3 seed in the NCAA Tourney

0 Pitt Basketball, I wish I knew how to quit you.

I am the eternal optimist when it comes to Pitt Basketball.  No matter how heart breaking of a loss, I always come back for more. Of the few times that my tear ducts have worked in my adult life, one was caused by the ending of this Pitt game:

Ugh. Then there was Pitt vs. Butler in the NCAA tournament, which had probably the dumbest foul in the history of basketball. Ugh. Then last year a CBI-Zebra Pen Championship. Ugh.  

Nonetheless, I'm back again this year.  But will this year be any different? This year's team is loaded with what you need to be successful in the NCAA tournament. A veteran point guard with no fear? Check. Tray Woodall knows scared money don't make money. Top freshman ready to come in and back an impact? Yep. Steven Adams and James Robinson are ready to go. Elite NBA talent? Oh yeah. Steven Adams is projected to be a lottery pick next year. Plenty of depth off the bench? They got that. J.J. Moore, Dante Taylor, Trey Zeigler and others all say hello. A coach who knows how to win? For sure. Jamie Dixon is one of the best coaches in the country.  Put this all together and this team will be ready to make a huge showing in March and hopefully April.  

So hot off my pretty successful election predictions, I am going out on a limb and predicting the Pitt 2012-2013 basketball team will finally make the NCAA Final Four. Hail to Pitt!

1 2012 Election

The showdown that has been years in the making, Obama vs. Romney, is finally upon us. Billions of dollars have been spent in order to convince the few undecided and independent voters in a few states that Obama or Romney is the right man for the job.

At first, I was going to go into a discussion of Obama and Romney, their differences, their similarities, why Obama is good and why Romney is evil alien robot sent to study and destroy humanity. However, I kept on thinking about how much money has been spent in this election. Both campaigns have raised and spent so much.  In Ohio, there was something along the lines of 26 straight political commercials. In fact, the Romney campaign started advertising in my state, Pennsylvania, because they had no where else to spend. Outside groups have flooded the airways with messages. And a man in Vegas spent 100 million of his own dollars to try to defeat Obama.

I honestly believe that the current campaign system is a complete and utter travesty. This vast amount of money is sickening, especially when this country needs jobs and new infrastructure for the 21st century.  Basically, the country needs campaign finance reform in the worst way. In my idea world, the Presidential campaign would be limited to six weeks in which any candidate who met a certain level of support would be entitled to the same amount of campaign funds and would get the same amount of time on television. This would give 3rd party candidates a fighting chance. The candidates would be required to participate in weekly debates where substantive issues would be discussed and talking points would be banned. This would prevent a foreign policy debate from turning into a discussion about taxes and the economy, which happened this year. Finally, outside spending would be banned. The less money in politics the better. I know there is absolutely no chance that this will occur but a man can always dream of a country in which ideas, and not money, matters the most.  

Without further ado here is my map:

Popular Vote Obama 51% Romney 48%, 54-45-1 Democrats in the Senate and a 22 seat majority for Republicans in the House.  

Obama is my president, and he will your president for FOUR MORE YEARS! 

  

1 The election

So the Presidential election is tomorrow if you have been living in a cave for the last 18 months. It comes down to a couple of states. This is my biggest problem with the American system. I live in New York right now. My vote does not matter in the grand presidential scheme of things. New York is a blue state and it will vote for Obama. The 29 electoral votes are his. Basically, President Obama and Private Citizen Romney (Quick segue: I hate when people are called by titles they used to have. If you are no longer coaching football, you should not be called coach. If you are a ex-senator you are not Senator Smith. The only office I could see applying it to is the Presidency, since it is such an esteemed office) have to compete over 10 or so states, and these 10 states will decide the election. That is not democracy at it's finest. The end result is catering to the interests of those 10 states demographics. Presidential candidates should have to go to Montana and North Dakota and Alabama and California and Alaska to show why they would be a great President for all 50 states. Furthermore, there should be a national holiday on election day. If the franchise truly is so important, this should be recognized. Banks should be closed, as should most branches of government. The more people who vote, the more representative democracy is.

So all that being said, here is a link to my map. I predict a Obama win by 288 Electoral votes to 250 for Romney.

0 Getting old

I tweaked my back a week ago Friday. I am not sure what exactly happened, but I went to the gym on Friday and I was carrying around groceries and a new speaker system and the combination caused my back to start hurting on Friday. This was only exacerbated on Saturday by sitting on our extremely uncomfortable couch. On Sunday morning I woke up and I could barely walk. It felt like a pinched nerve in my back with pain shooting up and down the right side of my body from my lower back to my toes. It slowly got better over the course of the week, thanks to the application of a heating pad and walking around, which seemed to help things.

Things like that never used to happen to me. I never got hurt, never got injured and was never down and out for a long period of time. However, as I have aged, I notice my body slowly falling apart. I am not trying to be a naysayer or a person prophesying doom and gloom, but I wake up in the morning with a lot more aches and pains and creaking bones and joints than I used to. Playing a contact sport is pretty much out of the question at this point. I can't even imagine the misery of rehabilitation from a torn ligament. I need to save my body for when I have children so I can wrestle with them like my dad did with me. Even typing that makes me feel old.

0 America's next great sport... The Challenge

There is some reality television that is entertaining in a oh look at that crazy person, who thinks she is allergic to electromagnetic waves living in a cave of France, I'll watch for a little bit way, and then there is the Challenge on MTV. For the uninitiated, the Challenge is a competition pitting former cast members of Real World seasons against each other in random and often ridiculous events (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Challenge_(TV_series). Now you might be thinking, oh what's the big deal just your standard reality TV nonsense but the Challenge takes it to a different level.  Since I really enjoy lists here are just some of the many reasons why:

1. Drunken fights."What else do you have to say? You have fake boobs. You are anorexic. You can't get a f*cking husband.  You don't have kids.  You are ugly. Shut the f*ck up!"  

2. T.J. Lavin. The best host on television aka "You killed it."

3. CT.

4. Ridiculous events.  Last weeks episode involved pulling teammates in a cart while wearing a horse mask, catching eggs with a cone around your head and hitting the other team with a huge fish.  It doesn't get much better than that.

With my love of the Challenge, I'm going to be posting recaps of every episode. However, the Challenge the past week was interrupted by the Friday the 13th remake for Halloween, which means you will have to patiently wait one more week for debut of "America's 4th Sport." Sorry hockey fans, it's over. Too many lost games. The Challenge and T.J. are gunning for you.  

0 First of many more...

I thought that writing a blog would be a great way to put some of my random thoughts from pen to paper or in this case from keyboard to screen.  There are always tons of ideas, rants and suggestions floating around in my brain.  So why not type them out and see how they look?

With that being said, there is a terrible frozen yogurt store or fro-yo as they called it in the early 90s.*  What can be terrible about a fro-yo store?  It is a pretty simple concept, random flavors of yogurt + toppings including candy + trendy location = win.  However, when you go into this fro-yo store they have about 3 machines working with your standard flavors and then pieces of paper that say "Ask for Raspberry," "Ask for Cake Batter," etc.   So the one day, I was in a fro-yo mood, which is common because I love fro-yo and ice cream, and I asked for Raspberry.  The worker in the store then walks into a the back and brings out a tray of pre-made fro-yo that was super frozen and no longer in the super delicious soft-serve form that fro-yo is intended to be.  Of course I still took some because I didn't want to appear rude and of course it tasted horrible.  If I had wanted some super frozen fro-yo, I would have just walked to the grocery store and gotten a sorbet.  Needless to say, I haven't been back even though it is a 5 minute walk from my place.  Now that is a fro-yo fail.

I'll be back with hopefully much more insightful posts...


*I tried to figure out if there was a way to have footnotes, but I failed, which means this will have to do.  My father was way ahead of the times in may things and fro-yo was definitely one of those things.  He was an addict of TCBY in the early 90's because it was healthier than ice cream.  Now everywhere you look there is a frozen yogurt store.

0 Exercise

I hate running. I hate running with a passion. It is miserable, soul-sucking exercise that holds no joy for me. The worst part about running is that it bores me; with other forms of exercise there is non-stop action or something to hold your attention like a TV  Running is mindless and not in a good way. Given my choice in a gym, I would ride an exercise bike or hop on an elliptical trainer before jumping on the treadmill. At least with those, I could read a book or magazine while exercising or watch television. For the longest time, those were my choices when doing cardio at the gym. I hated running outside, dealing with traffic lights, cars, random pedestrians, and who knows what on the sidewalk so that was a no-go.

Yet, slowly but surely, I have been forcing myself to run. It started out with running intervals on the treadmill at the gym. Intervals helped to reduce my boredom. I barely had time to think about how much I disliked running before I had to start sprinting again. There wasn't time or energy to complain. I then moved to running on the river walk by my apartment. I take the dog with me so I can kill three birds with one stone. I can tire him out, take him for his "walk" and get some exercise for myself. The river-walk extends up at least 3 miles north so if I felt like being really ambitious (hint: I don't) I could run a 10k with him. Right now we have been doing about 2 or 3 miles at lunch time and it feels great to get out and get some air and have a great view of Roosevelt Island and the East River. I also feel less guilty about the dog as well, knowing that he is getting some exercise instead of laying around, as he is wont to do.

I feel like running is the best exercise I can do, I feel and see the tangible effects that running has, and it gives me a new appreciation for the activity. I try to run 3 or 4 times a week for at least 20 minutes and I feel better and healthier for it.

1 Agoraphobia

Agoraphobia is the Greek word for fear of a public place. An agora was a marketplace in ancient Greece where goods were sold and business was transacted. It was a combination shopping mall, courthouse, and grocery store. An agoraphobe was literally someone afraid of the market.

When I lived in Pittsburgh, I did not like going out and doing things. My common refrain or excuse was that I didn't want to wait in line. I was an impatient person and I hated the idea of waiting. I would admit to a mild agoraphobia. I did not like to go to public events because I did not like being surrounded by people. I would avoid things like the Strip and I hated going to the grocery store. Pirates games were an ideal event. There was plenty of room on all 4 sides.

Moving to New York has changed things. Going to the grocery store means waiting in line. Going anywhere means being surrounded by people on a bus or in the subway. Privacy and seclusion are not options for me. I have become used to the idea of being around a large group or groups of people. I don't mind going to the grocery store or riding the subway or getting on a bus. The enormous masses of people has been a boon. Anonymity is readily available and I think that is crucial to what motivates agoraphobia; a fear of being noticed. This is a truncated post since it was written over a weekend, when my motivation to write was low, but I would like to address this moving forward.

0 Television (SOA)

I don't have cable television currently. This is the first time since I was in high school that has been the case. I am not, contrary to popular belief, some new age hipster trumpeting my coolness by my ignorance of television. I am cheap. I get free internet currently through my apartment building and I see no reason to pay for a cable TV package.

In place of sports and reality television, I stream shows and movies on Netflix or get them on disc. I also bought an HD antenna to watch shows playing on the major networks. I always meant to watch television shows like Breaking Bad and Mad Men before, but invariably I would turn on some sports program or some sit-com and watch them instead. Since moving to New York, I have watched Arrested Development, Parks and Rec, Sons of Anarchy, Mad Men and Breaking Bad, and I am currently in the process of watching Game of Thrones and The Wire (again). I think that if I had cable, I would not have even scratched the surface of these shows. It is a real time commitment to sit down and watch a show and if you are an easily distracted person such as myself, borderline impossible.

So without further ado, I am going to use this space to write my thoughts about one of those TV shows. As you can tell by the title of this post, the current subject is Sons of Anarchy (SOA). SOA was a show that I was at first wary about watching. I wasn't exactly sure why, but a show ostensibly about a motorcycle gang didn't really interest me. A good friend of mine from college persuaded me to watch it, and it was streaming on Netflix, so I figured it wouldn't hurt for me to watch an episode or two to see what I thought. Wow. I was dead wrong. The show has some Shakespearean overtones, specifically Hamlet. You have a son's father dying and the mother remarrying albeit under suspicious circumstances. You have a very interesting cast of characters and a setting, the Central Valley of California which is largely unknown to your casual television watcher. I also like the subtle touches, such as naming towns in the show after CCR songs. You also have underlying themes, like the encroachment of development on small towns, law and order and it's usurpation and imposition by outlaws, and the concepts of family (both literally through blood ties and figuratively through the bonds of brotherhood that the gang fosters) that are brought up and showcased, but ultimately left up to the viewer to decide their thoughts about them. The law and order motif fascinates me; The local police are in bed with the Sons of Anarchy and the Sons are the real source of authority in the town. They keep the town clean of drugs and violence and in exchange they are not bothered. The sheriff is at their beck and call and with the exception of one officer in the police department, the rest of the town is as well. The show uses episode arcs to tell a story, introducing new characters as well as introducing the viewer into what seems a semi-realistic world, that of an outlaw motorcycle gang.

My only complaint is that the show seems somewhat limited by being on FX. If it were on a platform like HBO or Showtime, I think it would be more believable. These people are in a biker gang. Sex, drug and alcohol abuse and violence should be endemic. Colorful language should flow out of their mouths like a spigot. This is hinted at but not directly shown throughout the seasons. Being on a more flexible network would make this show even better.

I'll have more thoughts on this later. I haven't seen the show in 3 or 4 months and I have to start Season 4 when I clear up my queue.