Record Breaker?

So there's a lot of talk going on right now about this film. Some have even gone so far as to mention nominations for Oscars. I have little desire to see the film for several reasons, none of which I will delve into at this moment. The news sources have been proclaiming the box office records that it has broken (for a film of it "type"). That is what I would like to post on right now - the film's "type".

It is being marketed as a documentary. It is being promoted as such. It is being sold as such. It is being hyped as such. But is it a documentary?

Merriam-Webster defines a documentary as being factual, objective.

That being accepted as my definition of a documentary, I must therefore refuse to even call this film as such. If I wish to refer to the events of September 11th in the form of a documentary, I will cite the amazing film 9/11, which aired twice on public television and is available on DVD/VHS.

It is truly a documentary. It presents the events as they happened, from a very real perspective (as it was happening). There is no bias towards politics or war, just incredible images captured on film as they were transpiring. A true documentary attemps to show history as it happened - as completely as possible. Without bias and without alterior motive.

This new film may break records and may be controversial and may cause people to question things, but it is not a historical view of the events as they happened. It is one man's crusade to further impact an upcoming election. It is also my opinion that Michael Moore is an opportunist in almost every way. While overseas, he has made comments that are severely critical of Americans. And there's nothing wrong with that, until you also attempt to pander to them while you are among them. Which Moore does without hesitation. This movie will be successful without a doubt. Moore already has made more than his investment back, and the hype he has helped create is priceless free advertising. Perhaps he should turn around and quickly donate all of the proceeds to John Kerry's campaign - thus assisisting further his desire to see President Bush removed from office. If it means so much to him, let's see him put his money where his mouth is. He won't, because he wants his money. And he will get it...

But it won't be due to the success of a moment of history he helped document.
It will be due to the success of his biased, one-sided, politically motivated diatribe of a film.
And that is fine - it's the American way.

I just refuse to call the film a documentary...

Huh?

I get tons of junk mail sent to my Hotmail account, most of which (thankfully!) gets grabbed by the Junk Mail filter and placed in the appropriate dumping grounds. However, occasionally I will get messages that I am not sure are actually junk mail. Today i found the following message waiting for me in my Inbox:

"Hi,##########
how would you feel if you were troubling wit desease and nobody think about you?it is no my fault that i have fallen so low.As sick person i could nt work so hard to earn my living and my family is very poor.Far beyond my reach to remidy.If you can help me please !can you sit a com fortable arm chair beside warm fire and enyoy peace of mind when you know some body poor and very sick is deprived of every thing in life worth having in Tanzania.I think you cannot ,though your not your problem but pity on me!Any donation will com as God send to prvide relife in this mesery and your assistance will be highly appreciated with many thanks-Kenny

P.s if you have nothing for me please pass to those who can afford to help me and sympathiitic people."

So now I am trying to figure out how I want to respond to this. The e-mail address appears to be a valid account. Any suggestions?

Reporter/Cartoon

Everytime I see Melanie Streeper from Fox2, I am instantly reminded of a certain cartoon character. Her head seems a bit too large for her body, or else her neck is just too small. The fact that she has some fairly large eyes and always seems to move with stiff unnatural movements probably just adds to this perception.


Does anyone else ever find themselves reminded of a cartoon character by someone they have seen on television or in person? If so, who was it and what character did they remind you of?

"My Life"

Bill Clinton's book is selling like hotcakes evidently in stores nationwide. This naturally leads to people wanting to make a buck off of it. If you've got over $500 and want to spend it on a book written and signed by the former President, then go here. If you are like me and can't afford that price and don't want to read the whole book, just make your way over to Kofuzi's place, where the quotes from the book keep rolling for free.

More Stats on the AFI List

Because I am a stats geek at heart, here are some facts about the previously mentioned list:

Number of Movies Listed
91

Average Year of Song
1964

Number of Songs By Decade
1930s - 11
1940s - 14
1950s - 17
1960s - 20
1970s - 16
1980s - 13
1990s - 6
2000s - 3

Most Songs Listed From A Movie
1952 Singin' In The Rain - 3
1961 West Side Story - 3
1965 Sound Of Music - 3
1939 Wizard Of Oz - 2
1944 Meet Me In St. Louis - 2
1968 Funny Girl - 2

It's interesting to note the classic bell curve distribution of movies songs by decade. The multiple songs from several movies in the 60s (8 songs) really helped pad the middle. It should also be noted that the average year of the song fits right into that section. I wish Hollywood would go back to making big musical productions, but I understand why they don't - it's too much money invested on something that has a high probability of little return in this current age.

Oh, and "From Justin to Kelly" is not a musical film. It's a piece of crap that the American Idol folks tried to push on us.

AFI's 100 YEARS...100 SONGS

So the list was released last night. You can find the complete listing here. I agree with a lot of the songs, but I question a few of them and wonder how they ranked as high as they did. I find myself also wondering what exactly the criteria were used to rank these songs. I'll assume it was by a vote of the AFI members or something...

A quick glance and I discovered that the highest ranked most recent song is "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic at number 14. I guess I can understand that. "Gonna Fly Now" from Rocky comes in at #58. I'm not sure how I feel about that one. And for those of you who were curious, Eminem's "Lose Yourself" from 8 Mile came in at #93, just slightly ahead of "Hakuna Matata" from the Lion King(#99).

Does anyone have a song they think should have made the list, or perhaps one that should have come in higher?

Headline News?

How does this make it as one of the top headlines on CNN.com? Do that many people really care? I don't. I'm sure there is something more important that could be shared with the world...

Who's to Blame?

Here's how I see this. If he stayed in your parish, helped in your school and conducted some services, then he is under your control and watch. If he victimized people while staying in your parish, then I think it is also your problem. Perhaps the most troubling part of all this is the fact that three bishops appear to be attempting to pass the blame. Blame the man, and then take some sort of responsibility and help the victim(s). I think the thing I am most tired of with all of this "scandal" is the way the Catholic church seems to play politics when it comes to accepting responsibility and taking initiative to resolve situations liek these.

In a Mood

This past weekend (Saturday to be precise), I was in a mood. It wasn't your typical everyday adjective mood. Such words as tense, angry, argumentative, aggressive and crabby come to mind, but they fail to suffice the extent of my mood. Therefore I simply say "a mood". Now you have an idea of what I am talking about.

The day started normal enough. I slept in a bit, then proceeded to do some dishes and clean up the apartment a little. It was the normal Saturday morning routine. Then I prepared to make my way to over to mi amante's abode.

The entire drive over I was stuck behind drivers who were going at least 5 mph under the speed limit. So i would get into another lane, only to get stuck there as well. For 35 minutes I was literally stuck behind drivers who were not driving the speed limit. I only reached the speed limit one time for about 25 seconds, and that was towards the end of my drive. I arrived and then we proceeded to head back out for a wedding we were attending.

It was a nice wedding. Afterwards we had about an hour to kill before heading over to the reception. We went to Sonic to grab a Cherry Limeade. Mi amanta also wanted something to nibble on. She wanted either fries or onion rings and I didn't want anything. So I wanted her to choose what she wanted so we could order. After about two minutes of back and forth banter I found myself saying "Your going to make me crazy today."

Bad move. I knew it the instant the words slipped through my lips. There's nothing you can do at that point but admit to being the ignorant, selfish, rude idiot that you are. So I did exactly that. Within seconds the tears stared rolling down her cheaks and she tried not to look at me. If ever there is a time to want to rewind and change what has been done, it was exactly at this point.

Here's the woman I love crying because I was uspet that she wouldn't choose what to order. And it's not like we had anywhere to go or anythign that needed our prompt attention. I was just in a hurry all over. I don't know if it was due to all of the slow drivers adding to my frustration level or not, but I was completely on edge.

Now, I am not offering this as an excuse, but I think it may have been an instigator in this particular situation. Or it may just have been a little of this left over.

All that being said, I know that at the core of all of this is the fact that I am a male. Males are stupid. And when you add women to the mix, we are just plain idiots. Sprinkle in a little road rage, and perhaps some hormonal inbalance and you have all the necessary ingredients for an impending disaster.

Fortunately, mi amante is quick to forgive and is very understanding.
Take heed boys: When a girl doesn't care what she wants, just pick one and order it. Or cover all your bases and order one of each.

Either way, it's easier to swallow your pride with a Route44 cherry limeade.

Sick

This is horrible, terrible and many other disgusting words all combined into one. We've seen it once already, and now it has happened again.
I'm sure I will write more later...

The Answer Is...

Holy mackeral! This man is officially brilliant! I love Jeopardy, and pride myself on usually doing marginally well at trying to answer the questions correctly, but this man is phenomenal! Maybe we can get him to start a blog and post questions like nobody does. Can you imagine what he could come up with off the top of his head? Wow!

License Plate

I saw this plate for the first time today:


Huh? "The Stars Fell On Alabama"? What does that mean?
Can anyone explain this to me?

Also, I would rather have the old style Missouri plates. They were different, and you knew when you saw them that it was Missouri. There are too many plates with the same color scheme and style now. "Show Me" individuality!

Similarities

Sometimes I find myself feeling a lot like the character of Howard Roark in Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead". Intelligent, educated and not credited with some of my finest work (when it is allowed to stand of it's own merit) and ashamed of my work (when it has been bastardized by others). I wish I could blow it up in those latter moments and never have it associated with me.

Carrying out this comparison to Mr. Roark, I must then ask myself "Would I ever just walk into a beautiful women's room, have sex with her, then leave without a word uttered?". If the woman is crazy about you and wanted to have sex with you anyway, is it a rape or an unexpected tryst? If she doesn't object to the action as it is happening, can it be illegal? If she finds satisfaction through the encounter, is it consensual?

Have any of you ever thought, "That guy/girl really likes me and wants me and I think he/she is very sexy. I wonder what would happen if I just walked up an kissed/grabbed/had sex with him/her?"

The things you think about when you compare yourself to a literary character can be quite frightening...

What Up?

Go over to fellow StlBlogger UrbanGuy's blog, Urbanisms, where I have been chosen to be one of four people to discuss WhatUp? this week. Go give it a read!

Mr. No Personality

I actually watched Jay Leno last night, which is a rarity. He had some members from the Stanley Cup Champion Tampa Bay Lightning on (how weird is that?) at the beginning, and then had Nicole Ritchie on later in the show to talk up "The Simple Life 2". And guess who was brought out in between? Vin Diesel.

He's out making the rounds promoting his new movie "Riddick", which is his typical role of big bad muscle man, saving the girl and the planet from total annihilation. If he ever tries to do anything else, I'm pretty sure it will flop.

Perhaps what I found most shocking about the whole interview and time he spent on stage was the entire lack of presence that the man has. He has no apparent, up-front personality to speak of. His answers to simple questions made it look like he was trying to remember a scripted answer, and he looked like a deer in the headlights several times. I don't know much about the man, but he doesn't come across as being a very outgoing person. Jay tried to get him to breakdance (which he had confessed to doing), but Vin would have none of it. You could sense Jay's frustration with him by the end.

Oh, and when he did talk at any length, his body language seemed all wrong for the characters he plays. I don't know anything about the man, but from what was displayed last night, I'd say he's a closet homosexual or at least bi.

Pop Top Can Problem

I just pulled a can of Coca Cola Classic out and proceeded to place it on my desk as normal. I then grabbed the can with one hand (as I am prone to do) and proceeded to attempt to open the tab top. All of a sudden I am holding the tab in my hand with no evidence that the can was even tampered with. ???

So now I have just finished struggling to try and open the can without spraying or spilling the contents all over my workspace. Has anyone else ever had this happen? It's an incredibly frustrating twist to a usually uneventful procedure. On the bright side - I think I may have already burned off all of the calories that I am about to consume.

Miss Me

I desperately hope and pray (and am confident) that I am missed when I die.
This man evidently died over 20 years ago and was never missed. That's sad.
My next question is this: How on earth did a building get built, finished and never occupied for that entire time (30 years)? That's ridiculous! And it's in Tokyo, so it's not like they have a ton of space just waiting to be used. Very bizarre...

Split Personality

I was flipping throught the channels last night on tv and was suddenly greeted by Garth Brooks singing. It turns out he was a guest performer in a Don McLean concert that is being used by PBS to try and lure new members and grab their money. I watched as Garth sang a slow guitar ballad , being accompanied on the guitar by McLean. I loved the way it sounded, and unfortunately I do not know the name of the song. (If anyone saw this performance and knows the name, please share it with me.) Then the show ended with Mclean, Brooks and Nancy Griffith performing the classic "American Pie".
The verse that Griffith sang was quite possibly one of the most frightening things I have ever seen or heard. Yikes!

Anyways, I found myself wondering aloud "What is Garth up to these days?" I had heard he was taking some time off to spend with his children, which is admirable, but I wonder if there were any plans for a comeback tour or anything. So today I perused his website, but found nothing of substance. Anyone heard anything regarding Garth?

I also remember when Garth began performing as the person of Chris Gaines. He sang rock songs and contemporary AC style music, all in promotion of the upcoming album "In the Life of Chris Gaines - Greatest Hits". The concept was that this musician had previously released and toured extensively, with many hits under his belt. This would all lead up to the release of a movie, which would follow the life of Chris Gaines and tell his story. I remember thinking that I would be interested to see that movie when it released, but also remember never hearing anything more about it.

So today I looked it up. "The Lamb" has, to the best of my knowledge, never been released. It was suppose to release in late 2001 or 2002. I wonder what happened to it? It had this huge media build up, with all the weird concerts of Garth in character singing untraditional "Garth-style" songs. I think I even recall seeing Chris Gaines on Saturday Night Live. Yep, here is the summary. I also seem to recollect an actual television appearance with multiple songs being performed.

All this to say that I wonder a lot about weird stuff. I guess this fascinates me so, because at the time it made me pause and contemplate either the genius or insanity of Garth for doing what he was doing. I understood what he was trying to do, but I also knew that some country music fans would never follow him to that place and might even castigate him for it.

In the end, I suppose it adds up to a bunch of nothing. However, I will say that I enjoy many of the songs off of the Chris Gaines album. Having performed a bit myself, I will say that the range of music performed by Garth on this album is quite amazing. He stepped well beyond his comfortable, country voice to assume a raspy, gutteral and sometimes falsetto laden sound that upon first hearing will remind you nothign of Garth Brooks. Occasionally, you might hear him on certain notes or words, but all in all, he does sound like a completely different person. Vocally, that is incredibly hard to successfully do.

So today I have pondered a lot of things about Garth Brooks. Why?
All because I saw Garth on television for 7 minutes last night.
And that's the power of an image children.
And the power of a recognizable voice singing recognizable songs.
And the power of a memory of a unrecognizable face and voice singing "different" songs.

I like Garth's music, and I think he is one of the most talented stage performers in recent memory. He did things in a huge way. He took big risks. He sang big hits. And now he's all sorts of in my head.

Thanks Garth/Chris.

Hot Hot Hot

It's already too hot for June. Now I recognize that children all over the St. Louis metro are are thrilled to death with the weather. This is the type of stuff that allows you the opportunity to stay in the swimming pool all day and get horrifically sunburned. It always amazes me how children can get fried and then two days later they are brown and ready for some more UV rays. I get an hour too much of sun and I am sore for days, avoid the sun at all costs until the skin cools down, peel for a week and then lose all evidence that I was ever in the sun. What happens to our skin cells that causes this phenomenon?

Anyways, go out and have some amazing fun in the sun.
Or, if you are like me, enjoy the rest of your day from the great, cool indoors.

In Memoriam

Ronald Wilson Reagan
February 6, 1911 - June 5, 2004
40th President of the United States of America
"No arsenal or no weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women."

Little Miss

There's a girl here at work that desperately wishes that other people would treat her as an adult. This is not a bad desire. She's worked here for quite a while and she is in her early twenties. She talks about how people don't give her the respect she deserves and she feels like people still see her as a teenager. She just wants people to respect her as an adult and treat her as such. It's a natural desire, and probably a reasonable one.

However, she doesn't always act like an adult. In fact, more often than not she comes across as being a glorified teenager. She talks about things with that sort of careless attitude that most teens adopt. When she wants someone to do something for her, she tries to play the childish, helpless role. In her dealings with men, she uses her "young teen" voice and does the whole eye-batting, chest out routine. She shows up to work dressed inappropriately at times and thouroughly enjoys flaunting her breasts to any male that will give her a second glance. She talks incessantly about partying and going out, and relays all of her misguided escapades to those who will listen without regard to her business setting.

It's enough to make you want to slap her at times. Sometimes you just want to grab her, shake her and scream "If you want to be treated like an adult, quit acting like a whining, sniveling, pathetic, helpless, sex-symbol-status-seeking teenager!"

Does anyone else have people that they work with like this?

So Help Me God

In a lot of ways, this ties directly to the post I made earlier today. It's interesting to watch how each candidate tries to cator to the people of faith and not alienate those outside of it. At this point, I think Bush has an easier road to walk down in that regard. Kerry has a lot of people within the Catholic church wavering (due to his stance on certain "key" issues).

(Saint) Louis Politics

Without meaning to blow off what I believe is an important issue to many people, things like this just wear me out.
I live in a town that is historically Catholic and named as such.
Maybe that's why issues like this make me want to scream sometimes.

What Do You Call It?

Check out the results of this study regarding what people called soft drinks.

What I find most intriguing of the whole thing is how the St. Louis based area leans more heavily towards the same terminology as California and the New England area. Meanwhile, my experiences in the Upper Midwest, South and East are depicted accurately.

Hopefull-time

One of my favorite romantic movies is "You've Got Mail" featuring Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks. The on screen chemistry between the two is amazing, and the story is very well written. Today I am reminded of one particular scene in the movie. It is the scene where Meg Ryan's character meets up with her then boyfriend (Greg Kinnear) and they come to the realization that they both do not love each other. Kinnear's character admits to desiring the news reporter lady, and then he asks Ryan's character if she has any prospective gentlemen worth pursuing. I think her response is one of the best lines in the whole movie. She states "No. No, I don't. But I have the hope of someone out there somewhere."

And that is where I am at today. Only my feeling isn't involving a possible woman to love (I remember having that same feeling for so many years, but now I have that someone and she is amazing.) Today my feeling of hope is more for something in the future. Something more. Specifically, a job that I enjoy, find fulfillment with and feel appreciated in.

Right now none of these statements apply. So I hope. I hope for what I cannot know. I hope for what I want to do. I hope for where I want to be. I hope for a better time in the near future.

Sometimes all you can hang onto is hope...

Unqualified Destructors

About six months ago I had a project at work that I poured myself into for about 4 weeks. Everyday I worked on it. I thought about it at night while at home. Every ounce of energy was dedicated to problem solving and implementing this new business application. I succeeded in every way, and the app has been a great success.

On Thursday of last week, my manager asked me to make some updates to the data and layout of the application. Not a problem. Then she tells me she needs it done by Wednesday morning. Not a huge problem - it will just consume me for a few days. And then I get into the guts of the database and realize that this is gonna be terrible. Data that should have been there wasn't and data that should've been in one place was sometimes there and sometimes it was either missing or misplaced. So now I have a really huge mess on my hands.

This is what happens when untrained, uneducated people get their hands on things they shouldn't be granted access to. The problem isn't just that these people add or change stuff which can really destroy everything. It's also that they honestly think they know what they are doing, and that they are "helping" the situation. So they don't realize that they are screwing it all up and they don't undertsnad how much time fixing it can take.

I'm frustrated with managers and supervisors who think they understand or know how everything works, and thus feel free to change or modify them at will. Don't do it! Unless you have been to school to learn programming, don't try it. Oh, and a two day "training course" at the local corporate sponsored off-site training zoo doesn't count. So back off before you ruin something else!

I'm hoping to fix this thing and get it off of my desk by the end of today.
I'm hoping I don't walk down the hall and strangle two of the people who I know screwed this up first.
It's a sunny Tuesday, but it feels oh so much like a rainy Monday.