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.