2006 in review

I know that it is now almost an entire month into 2007 and I also know that most people when they do a year in review they do it in December but I am doing mine now because I recently read a 2006 in review article in Entertainment Weekly and I disagreed with a lot of what they had to say. So here it is my 2006 in review.

Movie of the year: Rocky Balboa, the sequel that was 21 years in the making (you ask, Sean, Rocky V came out in 1990? That isn't 21 years.) This is true; the best thing about Rocky Balboa was that they acted like Rocky V didn't even happen. It stayed true to the first four movies which were the best ones. An inspirational story about an underdog who fights his way to the top with a kick ass 80's soundtrack (including "Hearts on fire" by John Cafferty, which is played during the best training scene in any sports movie.) Rocky Balboa gave everyone exactly what they were looking for and that was a happy ending. Rocky V ended on a down note and that isn't what Rocky is about, it is about hope and triumph over even the toughest obstacles. Now if you haven't seen it I bet you are asking yourself right now, does he win? See the movie and you'll find out!

Honorable mention:Little Miss Sunshine! I don't know what to say it just made me really happy!

Most disappointing movie of the year: X-Men 3, talk about a steaming pile of summer blockbuster crap. There were a lot of sequels that came out this summer, M:I:3 probably being the worst but I had high expectations for the third and apparent final installment of X-Men. My biggest problem was they tried to fit 2 and a half hours of plot into 90 minutes of movie. It was rushed and because of that it was poorly written. I am a huge X-Men fan and this left me under whelmed and leaving the theater saying "what the fuck?" Here is the kicker, the first two films in the franchise were fantastic and then Bryan Singer left to do Superman Returns which was one of the best movies of the year (in my opinion) Overall I was disappointed, they debuted a few great characters with Beast and Angel but did nothing with them. Hopefully the Wolverine movie will be much, much better.

Best album of the year: This one goes to The Killers new album "Sam's Town". This follow up to "Hot Fuss" did not disappoint, it out did "Hot Fuss"! There weren't as many catchy songs on this one; there wasn't a "Mr. Brightside" but the album as a whole works so well. Every song compliments the others so well; it is pleasing to listen too. Even the Intro and Outro are good! Chris Daughtry debut album was a very close second. He delivered his "fuck you" to American Idol with a good ol' fashioned Rock n' Roll album (take that Taylor Hicks) The album is full of hard hitting rock and even a ballad or two.

Most disappointing album of the year: Guster's fifth studio album "Ganging up on the sun" made me sad because it just wasn't very good. Guster is one of my favorite bands but this album didn't do it for me. It was the lack of Adam Gardner on the album; he just adds a little something extra that makes Guster great. I hate saying it but it wasn't there best.
Best Television show: This is the hardest category to narrow down because there has been some good TV this year but my vote has to go to the fifth day of 24. This season had the most ups, downs, twists, and turns of any show on TV. Jack Bauer had to fight his toughest villain, the president of the United States of America! That's right Jack brought down his own government! This season they killed a bunch of people and had a cliffhanger ending that left everyone counting down the days until January 2007. It had more "Oh my God!" and "What the fuck just happened?" moments than any of the previous seasons. What words can you use to describe Jack Bauer? Samuel L. Jackson said it best in Pulp Fiction "Bad mother fucker", the man almost brought down a plane with his belt! In Jack we trust (see my blog titled WWJD? for more on Jack Bauer)

Most Disappointing show on TV: "Lost", Forever Lost", a Million times "Lost"! Watching the second season of "Lost" left me with a feeling similar to when you clean out your ears and you shove the Q-tip a little too deep. "Lost" is, I think, the most poorly written show on TV. It leaves so much unanswered and gives me a headache to watch but for some reason I CAN'T STOP WATCHING. It's like I am taking heroine but I want to kick the habit but I keep relapsing. The whole flashback thing was cool when it seemed relevant to the story now all I think it is filler. I am sure everything has a hidden meaning but I am getting to the point where I don't care I just want to know what the hell is going on.

That was 2006 in review. I hope you enjoyed yourself and I will see you with my 2007 in review most likely in 2008

Unemployment

Today all the Blockbuster franchise stores in Pittsburgh closed! Without warning the doors were closed to the public. This means that I am unemployed! This is fucking bull shit! Without warning me, my sister, and my friends were thrown out onto the street to fend for ourselves. The only thing that I got out of that place was a free copy of Hoodwinked and Curb Your Enthusiasm season 4 Vol. 1. Now I have to say I may have hated that place more than dogs hate Bob Barker for the whole neutering campaign but I thought I had job security. I worked with some pretty cool people, I just got a raise (a whole quarter), and there was a good chance I was going to get a promotion in September because people were leaving. Now I have to put equity into a new job which is just going to be a bitch. The great thing about Blockbuster is that I had some sort of seniority but now where ever I go I am going to be on the bottom of the totem pole again. I had a reputation amongst my co-workers; I was the asshole who was rude to all the customers. Now where ever I go I am going to have to re-establish myself as the company douche bag and you don't know how hard it was to get into that position. I know that I always wished that there would be a fire at 6300 Forbes Ave....but I never actually wanted it to burn down...or I wanted to at least have a job lined up before it did burn to the ground. They didn't even have the decency to keep the security codes the same for a few days so the employees can loot the place (What the fuck am I going to do with a copy of Hoodwinked but no cover box?). I now have all this free time on my hands until I find a new job, which in some peoples eyes is great, but I can't be left alone with my own devices...in less then three days there is a good chance that my dog will be shaved because I am so damn bored. Tomorrow I guess I will start hitting the pavement for some other crappy minimum wage paying job. I got to look on the brighter side of things though....at least they raised minimum wage!

W.W.J.D.?

"Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me" Pslam 23. When whoever said this said this, they weren't talking about God or Jesus, They were talking about Jack Bauer. He wanted a guy who could kill another man with a wet towel to have his back in the valley of the shadow of death. Do you blame him? Jack Bauer kicks ass! Jesus was crucified, died on the cross on good Friday, and was resurrected on Easter Sunday. Jack Bauer died and was brought back to life...Twice. Granted Jack had adrenaline and a defibrillator to help him but it is still an amazing feat. I am not saying anything bad about Jesus, I think he's a good guy and one that I would like on my side but If I am walking down a dark alley I would rather have someone who could bring down an airplane with his belt then a guy who can walk on water. Next time when you are in a situation in which someone else is getting robbed at gun point and you don't know what to do, don't ask yourself "What would Jesus do?", ask yourself "What would Jack do?" cause he would break the guys wrist, take the gun, and pistol whip him with it.

ABC and their damn recap shows!!!

In the past two years, ABC network has finally gotten some On-air cred with a few of their television shows. Ever since the end of TGIF they have kinda been off of the map. They still had shows like NYPD blue but otherwise nothing really worth turning the TV on for. Last year ABC introduced 3 new shows to the world. Lost, the intense drama that follows the forever changed life of survivors of a plane crash who end up on a deserted and mysterious island. Desperate housewives, an hour long drama-dy that tells the story of 4 sexy suburban women and the scandalous going-on's in their neighborhood. Last but not least is Grey's anatomy, a television show about 5 surgical interns and their personal lives. These three shows have gained such a huge following in such a short time. It has been so long for ABC that I don't think they know how to handle such a fan base. I think they are more concerned with gaining more viewers than they are with keeping the viewers they have. I am an avid Lost fan, I watched the entire first season on DVD in the span of three days. I was in my big comfortable chair the night the second season started and every I was there every Wednesday after that. Two or three months into the season the television show had a month long period in which it wasn't on, I thought "oh, sweeps is right around the corner." Than the show came back on for a week or so and than wasn't on for two or three more weeks. This really bothered me, the first new episode to follow was a recap episode called "Lost:reckoning". I had seen every episode up to date so I didn't need to watch a recap show. It then became clear to me that the ABC executives were just trying to pull in more viewers which was a fair objective. After the recap episode there was a good run of new episodes. Then after about 3 weeks instead of a new episode of Lost they aired a repeat! Not a repeat from the second season, a repeat from the middle of the first! I have ever since been irritated about the show but I still watch it every week (well when it's on anyways). I started to notice this wasn't just happening to Lost in was happening to Desperate housewives as well. In a few weeks Grey's anatomy will also be airing a pointless recap show to bring in viewers that it doesn't need. It's one thing to want new viewers and a bigger following for a TV show (especially when it's in its sophomore season) but when you are pissing off all of your regular viewers who have pretty much been with you from the beginning, its time to stop playing with fire and air new episodes!

Employee restrooms are employees only for a reason

A few days ago I was at work and a woman came into blockbuster. A very young woman maybe mid-twenties at most. She came into to blockbuster with who I was guessing was her daughter (she couldn't have been more than 3 or 4 years old). Her little daughter needed to use the restroom. The woman politly asks "where is your bathroom?", I politly say "We don't have a restroom for her to use" and then I suggested she go to the neighboring Starbucks coffee shop to use the restroom. This is where the bitch came out (when I say this I mean her, not me, my bitch comes out later in the story) she begins to argue that the little girl has to go to the bathroom now, I say that "We don't have a bathroom for her to use" (Note: I am still being polite). She proceeds to say "You don't have one bathroom in this entire place" and I say "We do but its for employees only". Then the evil shrew decides to make one final plea to use the bathroom but she makes the wrong plea. She decides the best way to get her way is to say and I quote "Jesus, It's a little girl", although I was flattered by her calling me "Jesus" I sadly could not let the little girl use the bathroom. The infuriated woman then trys to leave the store in a huff but she sadly makes herself look like an ass by trying to go out the entrance door. I tell her, in a polite fashion that she has to go around to the exit. She proceeds to the exit but sadly the little girl could not hold "it" any longer and she goes to the bathroom in her pants. I am unsure if she went number 1 or number 2 but that is a minor detail. Now before you go saying "wow this guy is an asshole" or "You should've let her use the bathroom" let me just make my argument. I am not at fault for the little girls wetting and/or pooping of her pants. Employee only bathrooms are employee only bathrooms for a reason, it is a health code violation to let her use the bathroom if it is not maintained for public use. Also the woman said "she has to go now", well obviously she did not because she held it for the 2 minute argument that her mother had gotten herself into. Had this woman just gone over to Starbucks the little girl would not have been put in this embarassing situation. The thing that I am most confused about the whole ordeal is that the woman had no intention of renting videos, so when she was strolling up the parking lot that Blockbuster and Starbucks shares, why didn't she think "Well one of these places rents videos, the other sells beverages, which one is most likely to have a restroom?" It wasn't like she was defusing a bomb and had to pick between the red wire and blue wire.