Golden Globe Observations.

1.) Prestigious award ceremonies hate comic book movies.
I guess it's a time honored understanding that the order in which these ceremonies are held throughout the yearly season go from bottom to top on prestige scale. First, you have the Critics Choice Awards which is aired on the same channel as "Rock of Love", giving you the perfect indication of it's loftiness, then you have the Golden Globes, and then the Oscars. Well on the second level, they manage to weed out the action category, infuse "musical" with comedy (and fail to nominate any of the latter), and give the SHAFT to Comic book movies. I mean, it's bad enough that Step Brothers or Pineapple Express, with the exception of the oddball nomination of James Franco, weren't even acknowledged in the Comedy category, but no Chris Nolan for director of the Dark Knight? No Robert Downey Jr. for his little comeback as Tony Starks? No Dark Knight for best picture? Horseshit. The Reader was all over the nominations and is still in limited release! The implication of what separates "film" and movie is nothing more than a series carefully designed marketing strategies to make something stand out as more of an art form than its contemporaries. What makes these "Best Picture" films is just as cliche and cheap as what makes a token action movie or a family comedy about zaney pets. Over two hours? Check. Foreign country setting and/or foreign language(s)? Check. "Heavy" topics including but not limited to: poverty, war, adoption, or tragic love affairs? Check. It's nonsense. The Dark Knight was the best movie of the year. Not because I grew up on Batman, but because it made me think about it days after my initial viewing, and want to go back and see it three times in the theatre. It was one of the highlights of my entire summer.

2.) Anne Hathaway is way too young for her roles.
If you're a young actress in Hollywood working in tween movies and looking to be shoved into adult roles, take a nod from Anne Hathaway. Apparently all you have to do is date a bad ass foreign tax evader. Maybe I'm growing up and don't realize it, but this broad is the same age as me, give or take a few years, and it's an unspoken understanding that actors/actresses in movies are always way older than the characters they're playing...NOT YOUNGER. I don't place this chick much above Miley Cyrus and already she's in an upcoming movie about getting married and bickering with ugly mugged Kate Hudson? Nobody 23-26 is getting married, back to Disney with you.

3.) Steven Spielberg kicks ass and self-employed movie snobs can suck on it.
Spielberg was awarded some sort of recognition award by Marty S last night. The montage delivered the brutal reality that this dude has made some seriously awesome movies in the past 30 years and has had a profound impact on where film making is now. Nevermind the movies he's directed...ET - so awesome, Jaws - so awesome, Indiana Jones - never got into them but looked awesome, Jurassic Park, Saving Private Ryan. What about the movies he's produced? Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Back To The Future, Catch Me If You Can. Anyone that scoffs at this sort've thing can have their Wes Anderson "I'm so different" bullshit served in a bagged lunch.

4.) The Golden Globes seemed like a pretty close knit party.
This observation could be largely attributed to the fact that I haven't watched one of these things in their entirety since I was like 12, but I got the overwhelming vibe that everyone knew each other at this thing and that it was one social event. People were drunk, the background noise was WAY up (don't know if this is due to watching it in HD or not), and the casual jokes flowed almost as easily as the expensive liquor. Seemed more like a smaller venue style celebration of like a dozen peoples' work rather than a walk-down-the-isle-and-speak-in-front-of-thousands-style ceremony.

5.) Sacha Baron Cohen is still the coolest dude in the "biz."
In an unexpected surprise, my boy came out to present and dropped some funny ass jokes to boot. Who knew Madonna was so sacred? "Madonna has had to relinquish some of her personal assistants...we wish Guy Ritchie the best." Received by "oohs" and "ahhs." Funnier than the joke was his response of "c'mon." I love this guy. And even better than his short performance was that they officially acknowledged "Bruno" coming out this year while introducing him. Tight!

2008 Top 10.

1.) Work

I'm really surprising myself with the way this list turned out. It's a good exercise in assessing your year and how you've grown since years past. This is probably the biggest surprise. I could devote an entire blog and them some to everything that's whack when it comes to my job and the place I work, best believe. But aside from what I do and how we operate, having a steady and serious job with significant responsibility is good for my soul and occasionally leaves me feeling rewarded and self fulfilled at the end of the day. I've sort've realized that it's not whether or not you have a the job you went to college for RIGHT AWAY out of the gate but whether or not it enriches your core. Plus the salary is a nice upgrade from last year. We'll see what 2009 has in store for my "career."

2.) It's Alive

For all intents and purposes, this should have the number one slot. It's what keeps me looking for light at the end of the road. Without this band I would have next to no creative outlet, and nothing to really strive for from the heart. We've spent the year writing music I'm really proud. We'll be saying goodbye to '08 with a tribute set to one of our all time favorite's Integrity, and at the beginning of this new year, we'll be laying the new tracks down on wax to share our best with the masses. The icing on the cake is working with Reaper Records, the realest and hottest label on the rise in hardcore today. It's a big push forward from there.

3.) s.Bo

If and when she reads this she'll ask why she isn't no. 1. Which is what's great about her haha. So here's a nod and a wink on the personal, livejournal tip to SEB, her cat with three legs, and all the fun we've had in '08.xo

4.) Trapped Under Ice - Stay Cold

What can I say about this 7" that hasn't already been said? Hard? Check. Heavy? Check. Catchy and attitude filled? Check. It's the complete package and the most promising hardcore release I've heard since American Nightmare's debut EP. This band cannot be stopped and I'm siked to be label mates with Baltimore City's golden goose egg.

5.) iPhone (and going all Apple in '08)
This summer I bit the bullet and made the monetary plunge into getting an iMac. I haven't looked back since. iMac, iPod, and lastly the iPhone make the trifecta complete. I was doing alright with the Sidekick (still love it, would be my no. 2 choice), but everything flows so well in the iWorld I had to round everything out. Believe the hype, the iPhone will be the phone in which all others are compared to for YEARS. Blackberry, Trio, Google G1, none come close.

6.) The Dark Knight

I've never went so nerd over a new movie as I did for the Dark Knight. I think I followed sneak peaks, news, rumors, set photos, and just about everything else from the first time I saw the teaser trailer to the midnight showing I hit up in the less than awesome local theatres to ensure a ticket. Best movie of '08.

7.) Ghostface Killah
If there was any dispute that Ghostface was not only the most consistent member of Wu, but one of the best emcee's in the rap game right now, the man himself put it to rest in '08. He managed to release another great album (The Big Doe Rehab), a hilarious and entertaining spoken word CD/coffee table book, and brought the house down at Skidmore College (of all places) in the best live hip hop performance I've seen yet.

8.) Step Brothers

This is my runner up to the Dark Knight. High re watch value on easily one of Will Ferrell's best performances to date. This one was worthy of purchase on the day of release.

9.) The Cheesecake Factory
See the previous post for added proof. This may be why I'm carrying a little extra around with me this year.

10.) Metallica - Death Magnetic

You can refer to my whole tirade on this album and the critical responses surrounding it a few posts back. All critiques, hate, and love aside, personally, I think it's great to get some material from one of the greatest metal band's of all that isn't immediately worth discarding. Save your nostalgic claims of it being a tribute to what the band once was, I'm tired of hearing it.

Peace, love, and Reincarnage

K.

"Notorious."

Anyone else put their hip-hop snobbery on the shelf to be really pumped for this? I haven't really come across much speculation on it one way or another so that's a good sign. Another thing this movie has going for it if your a skeptic is a relatively unknown cast (at least to me) save for Angela Basset as Voletta Wallce. You don't have to worry about Will Smith, even though I love the guy, playing Diddy or anything like that.

Based on the trailers it seems to span Biggie's entire life, making it more interesting to me. Mainstream biopic's on deceased musicians have turned out pretty well in my opinion thus far, as I've enjoyed Ray and Walk the Line immensly. The story should be pretty accurate if the filmakers have done their job, at least more accuarate than Walk the Line, considering they have a short and more recent history on their side.

I'm sure they'll be plenty of criticsm on this being "too soon," or "lame" for stupid reasons, from both reputable sources as well as hardcore kids looking to be seen as hip hop heads, but I'll be going opening night.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0472198/

Pineapple Letdown.

So last night Derrick and I went to the screening of Pineapple Express, which is the newest cut in the growing and increasingly awesome Seth Rogan anthology. Having been drawn into discussion on a local message board and given the day to think about the movie, I have to say that it's largely a letdown and mediocre at best.

It's strong points lie in the casting and supporting/almost cameo roles. My favorite characters were the black hit man who dressed and acted like he was out the 80's. And Dale's (Seth Rogen) girlfriend's father, who might have blurted out the best line of the movie, something along the lines of "If you don't move your ass I'm gonna fuck you in the street." However, both of these characters were sorely underused. There were a lot of lines given to the opposing hit man (played by Kevin Corrigan, the party host in Superbad, who was also pretty funny with his continuity of wanting to go home to see his wife for dinner), and the father could have easily been used more when the girl's family was held up in a motel room.

Some other little nuances I also found fairly amusing (enough to comment on) was Saul's shirt for the majority of the movie (A shark eating a kitten), and Red's haircut.

My main gripe with the movie was that the plot was just super unoriginal and weak, (underachieving stoners get in too deep with serious drug dealers/the authorties). I mean, edge aside, do we really need another burnout movie based on weed starring up and coming comedians? My generation was well suited early on with Friday (the best movie ever), and then Half Baked (also DVD owning caliber). Before my time was Cheech and Chong... and I'm sure there was others.

Also, the movie was too long (2 solid hours) for it's genre. The only benefit allotted by the length was that I was starting to pick up on some of the stereotypical humor from people who have serious weed habits that probably otherwise would have gone over my head. Apparently stoners get wicked sensitive in crucial and dire situations? Tell me if I'm off mark and that's just something put in the movie to make it quirky and weird. Either way, it was a little funny, but not funny enough given the example after example.

Bottom line, take your ten dollars and go see Step Brothers or wait and check out the Rocker to see how that compares. Or, you can just go see the Dark Knight again (duh)