187 is an amazing movie. It’s a movie that illustrates a lot of the lives of Southern California youth. It is a story that I recognize as something that I could have easily fell into, and something that no one recognized when they are on their high horse.

This movie made me once again realize that I am a rose that grew out of concrete.

I grew up in and around many different gangs. Most notably the Culver City gang that tried to recruit me at an age when I had no friends. I chose to stay inside and just play video games instead. However, I went to public school and many of my classmates are archetypes for the characters found in this film. I went to Santa Monica High School and because of my name and being expelled from a private school I was placed into classes with thugs. Those thugs began to respect me greatly, but not because I did something to join them, but what I did is I stood up and just did my work, and never messed around. I was called a fag, a coconut, and a mama’s boy, but when i told them where i worked, they backed down.

I worked at California Casket Company.

It’s funny, gangsters gave me respect for working in death care, something they said they would never do. They respected me after that…but always tried to push me into gangs, never too hard. I did my job, and I graduated regardless.

Here is a trailer for the movie 187:

This movie chronicles the lives of my classmates and others of Latino, Poverty, and bad social backgrounds. They say the system let them down, they blame so many things, and no one takes responsibility for heir own actions. This movie is an amazing piece of work, and mainly because I can see where people are wrong and where I lived and what I saw growing up.

187 is a movie that centers around Samuel L. Jackson as Mr. Garfield. He is a teacher that has an altercation with a student leaving him stabbed and hurt. He moves to Southern California, and finds Latino gangsters that rise up and try to take his life. Slowly it builds and slowly this film gets better and better, a definite piece of Americana that no one really talks about unless they live it.

The best part of this film is amazing, the teacher sits across from a gang member playing Russian Roulette. Before this film reaches its boiling point and ultimate demise Mr. Garfield yells out, and screams what I have been screaming for years….”What, you’re a victim now?”.

It’s funny to me how people marginalize these stories as fiction. As if it never happens. This story is real life, and I saw it happen many times growing up. I might be a coconut to my own people, but I’d rather be that than to be a gangster or a wannabe. I keep it real…real depressed.

187 is a very interesting, gritty, real life film with lots of power. Power, sex, respect, teaching and so much more is presented here in this film.

The environment does not create who we are and what we are made of. You can place yourself and your children in a bubble, you can home school and make them scared of any family members with beards or with brown skin, you can jump to cover their eyes when cartoons are on television, or you can let them know that this life is more than you’re lead to believe. I grew up in the ghetto, and I made it out and got a college degree.

That piece of paper is useless to me now, as I am unemployed…but the memories and stories like that shown in the movie 187, remind me of where I came from and where I will never be again. I highly recommend 187 to anyone that needs a good film to check out. It might have a piece of pretentious ideology, but I tell you right now I have seen people live this and I went to a school district that had the same people that are placed in this film, with teachers the same way. This is fiction that reflects true life…I recommend it. However, if you’re just going to trash it as unrealistic, don’t watch it. Stay in your bubble, blame the government and yet ask for their hand outs. This movie made me think, it made me reflect, and it made me understand things a little better, maybe it will help you too.

For the record, my time line and history isn’t exactly the greatest here, so just take it with the honesty that it’s intended.

The Good Life is an independent film that was directed by professional skateboarder Steve Berra. I had heard about this film for a while, but finally sat down to watch it. It’s an interesting film, with a lot of motion and beauty mixed with sound. Sound is a perfect thing to mix with such emotional stability, and this movie does that so well. The sounds mixed with the deep empathy that you feel for the characters as they reveal themselves to you, is definitely something worth looking at. I liked that.

The story revolves around a guy that has a dead end job. Two dead end jobs, and has a hard time coping with how things have turned out. His father has just died, he’s taking care of his mom, he has no future in Nebraska. He’s poor, and he has no bright spots, until Zooey Deschanel shows up and makes life seem different.

Here is a trailer for the film The Good Life:

The movie is interesting, I admit that it has a lot of emotional layers. It is a worthwhile watch if you’re a fan of independent dramas, because it works so well. The pieces fit, and the movie is interesting, but it makes me upset. I empathize with these characters because it’s how I feel and while there is such a drastic ending, I feel that maybe there’s others that are just like me. Until I realize that these images and stories are nothing more than the imagination of someone else, someone that is rich…and is living the good life themselves. I guess I liked The Good Life because right now I don’t really feel so joyous.

It’s almost a bitter experience.

There is such deep sadness in this film, and maybe that’s why I like it.

I’ve spent ten years working in technology.

I started as a janitor at a casket retailer in Los Angeles, California and moved up there to the tech guy. I’ve always done tech.

I’ve hated my jobs for 10 years.

I loved college and I hated college. I loved the creativity that I was allowed to have on projects. However, upon graduating no one wanted creative work. Everyone wanted simple programming until they fired…no wait…laid me off because of their financial reasons.

Oh of course it was always the same, they always say, “this is so hard for us…etc…” I’m supposed to feel bad for them, and sometimes I see their point, but I’ve never been in their shoes.

Every job I’ve had, I’ve hated.

No.

I take that back.

Being a video store clerk was the one job I actually looked forward to daily. I didn’t get paid anything worthwhile, but I loved the job. I loved it so much, but I had finished college and I had to move forward.

It’s true, I’ve had miserable job experiences.

They don’t start that way. Every new opportunity starts with optimism. But the jobs they wear on you, the more mistakes the employer makes at your future, you learn to just hate the job and do enough to get by. You find joy in a lot of different things, and eventually you lose it all. I’ve lost it all so many times.

I remember when I was laid off the first time, I was unemployed for six months straight. I was in college, it didn’t really matter too much. However, I eventually got a job at a call center. I hated it. However, it was that job that paid me the most overtime, but it was that same job that ruined me so much. The job was outsourced…I felt the sting of the tech world.

I’ve been feeling the sting of technology ever since.

I have this degree, I’m trying to be optimistic, but I hate tech. I’ve learned to hate it so much that every time I see a job I realize that I’m starting over. If I do not work in tech not only has my experience gone dull, I have to earn less than 1/3 of what i used to make.

What’s the price of happiness?

Could I be happy at minimum wage?

YES!

However, my student loans are more than a minimum wage job could cover. Oh how lame it was to go to college…if all I can find is entry level retail jobs and fast food….i guess i’m depressed.

I’m sorry.

Nintendo Wii is now dirt cheap, that’s right. In just three days the new Nintendo Wii system will be fifty dollars off! That’s right, Nintendo Wii is now cheap and if you have been holding out, here is your time shine! Click here to pick up the new Nintendo Wii!

After watching Microsoft and Sony drop the prices on the Xbox 360 and the PS3, Nintendo has decided to jump in with a price cut as well. Starting September 27th, the Wii will cost $199 in North America, a $50 drop from the previous price. Japan will be getting a slightly smaller price cut, but Europe seems to be left out of this change. Nintendo is hoping this reduction and the release of New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Wii Fit Plus in the coming months will boost slipping sales rates.

Unforgivable Blackness The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson is my favorite documentary. It’s a three hour epic about the life and times of the first African American Heavyweight Boxing Champion.

Rising from small time life, he became a poster child for those that would fight the system decades after him. This fascinating documentary by Ken Burns talks about so much in the three plus hours and it’s an amazing thing. For those that think that there were simpler times back then, need to really wake up. Being a colored person in the 20th century wasn’t that great. Jack Johnson was an interesting person because he spit in the idea of being what some might call an “Uncle Tom”. He pushed the limits at a time when you couldn’t push the limits.

For instance, Jack Johnson lived in a time when if a Black man was even caught talking to a white woman, he would be lynched and killed. That’s right, they would kill the black man no matter what. It was such a sad thing, but it was the America that many people (like those that think this America is sad) long for.

Everything that is wrong about racism is captured in this documentary. Everything that is wrong with society is in this documentary. Everything that is wrong with prejudice and others is captured in the story of this champion of rights.

Oh and it’s not all about race. There are countless references to sex, society, government and so much more. It’s such a well put together story and fascinating look at not only boxing but how America has seriously changed in many ways.

This story, once you peel away all racism and sexual notes, you realize that boxing and life is seen here in such vivid pictures. Jack Johnson rose to fame, lived an amazing life, and then fell out of grace much to the delight of white people. I’m a huge history buff, and this is amazing, another reason why I wish someday I could be a teacher. Anyone who has not seen or read about this era, should definitely check it out. Stop longing for the past, because the past is worst than our present or future, and this proves it yet again.

I can not recommend a documentary any higher. Unforgivable Blackness is the best documentary that you probably haven’t seen yet. It’s an interesting look at life, America, and our world view of not only ethnicity but what is still seen today by many people. This thing is loaded, and is amazing, I kid you not

Z Channel was the first ever pay-cable station. The channel was revolutionary not only for being the first pay channel on cable, but the first to really be run with the love of movies in mind. That’s right, a true love of cinema, not just paying lip service. The channel would find ways of playing films, new, foreign and mainstream in a lot of different ways. They would play what others wouldn’t and broaden the horizons of so many people.

Z Channel is a great documentary. It talks about the founder, the family, and those that were there working with the channel for the channel, and those that grew up watching the amazing work of film.

The documentary is quite cool, for all film buffs. Deep down this documentary is about loving film so much it kills you.

The story of Z Channel and this documentary can’t really be reviewed by me or you in writing. You have to see this and you have to realize that you’re not alone in loving film. I might not be able to pay the bills with my love of film (as proven by the fact that I’m unemployed still), but it’s nice to see that there was others and are others that love film so much. This is a love story of film in many ways, and a tragic loss.

It’s sad to see such cult icons die…this is a big one…I liked it a lot. I highly recommend Z Channel for anyone that loves film, and loves culture at the same time. This is an amazing piece of work, and definitely a true gem for all film fans.

This slice of life comes at you fast, but really slows down and doesn’t offer much in a lot of different ways. It’s just another look at New York City residents that don’t seem to be able to cope with what life is really like at age thirty.

That’s right, there is an interesting view on New York, and this isn’t one of them. Well, it is interesting, but these folks don’t really make sense to me. On one hand I see their plight, but for some reason I don’t really care. I really don’t care about these 29 year olds or thirty year olds making a lot of money and hating their life.

Oh what? Now they are hitting a crisis of life? They are realize that they are not happy at all? Stupid.

Here is a trailer for the film The New Twenty:

The people in this film aren’t typical to me, but it’s in these non-typical voices that you find a sense of worth. Stories like the ones presented here are great to some, but to me, just make me more upset at the medium of film. Film tries to portray real life with a sense of balance and though beauty of images, but this film sucks at doing that.

You have iconic characters of race, sex, and financial status yet they all weave a spell of depression at reaching thirty years old.

I lke the way the movie is filmed, and I like the musical choices. However, these people need to grow up. Maybe we all need to grow up…

Or maybe I’m sick of seeing yuppies from New York paraded around film as if they are the only thing that matters. Screw them! Oh so what if you’re 30 and you’re having doubts about life, THAT’S LIFE!

This movie is upsetting. The New Twenty is a pretentious piece of work that made me hate being in my mid twenties and is going to make me hate being thirty.

This film smells like independent film, with all its artistic camera work, and musical choices, and really pushes the envelope towards meaning something, then drops off a cliff when the viewer realizes that life is not like that. There’s more to it then one dimensional pieces of work, but then again, what are you going to do with 90 minutes? I don’t recommend The New Twenty, but hey, I’m the idiot that watched this, not you.

Small Town Gay Bar is an interesting movie about two small gay bars in the Deep South. The movie was produced by View Askew (Kevin Smith’s Production Company), and it’s a documentary about the world of gay bars. It follows through the ideas of Gay marriage, and of course small southern communities and how they deal with things.

I know I do a terrible job at explaining this, but it’s hard to really quantify this movie as more than just a documentary about rural gay communities. Right, it’s not, there are no rural gay communities they are small time bars in odd locations that are shunned by society in an over bearing religious society.

If you’re being opressed so much, and you talk about how you hate it, why not move? That’s all I could think about when the people in this documentary discuss life in the hard places that are known for being touted as America’s Bible Belt.

I found this documentary interesting. It really is pro-gay marriage and really not so much on the tolerance level. It’s not so much about tolerance because many of the interviewed have this attitude about how everyone must like them and if not then “fuck them”. Wow, way to be tolerant right?

On the flipside, the churches interviewed for this film are so adamant that gay people are going to hell that they miss the grace, mercy, and forgiveness found in the Bible.

This is not a long documentary, but it featured a topic that is as relevant today as when it was filmed in 2006. Small Town Gay Bar is an ok documentary, and not for everyone. It’s not completely groundbreaking or anything but it held my attention for a short time. I still say that if these people hate living in the south so much, just move to San Francisco or Los Angeles or even Seattle, where gay people and straight people coexist all the time with little to no hate.

Ok, so I’m really simplifying this film, but come on, if you hate something so much leave. I did, I hated los angeles and i left, now i hate seattle so i’m leaving.

Maybe I need to make a documentary too.

Here’s a little intro from the director and producer of Small Town Gay bar:

I’ve written about losing jobs, getting fired, and hating life on many occasions. Seriously, I have done it so many times. It’s the same kind of story for me yet again. Before I got let go from my last tech job, I had been working at a video store for almost a year. That job was my favorite job of all time. I left that job, nobody let me go, nobody fired me, I left to come to Seattle and try my hand at using my degree that I had spend four years earning. Four years of education to get a job, and what did I land?

I landed on a job for a small company that sold snowboards and skateboards. I thought I had finally made it, I thought it was the greatest thing ever. I finally got a tech job and in a field I liked. However, it was not a tech job, it was a photography job. I got paid nine dollars an hour to take photos. However, I stuck it out and rose to the tops of that company for a position that no one knew how to comprehend, and it ultimately cost me when they wanted. Although, I still think there were social issues involved, I will tread lightly on that until I am in a new job where I won’t need their references at all.

I have looked at many jobs and applied at a few in my new city, Moscow Idaho. I am qualified for tech work, development, design, and a lot of other things. However, those jobs are few and far between. Oh and if you think I’m exaggerating simply go see for yourself. In Seattle (where I was) or Los Angeles (where I moved from originally) there are a plethora of job listings on sites like craigslist.org and others. These sites have TONS of jobs for all categories on a daily basis. However, this new city on a good day there will be 5 new jobs. That’s for ALL categories combined! Yes, I kid you not.

Out of those jobs, 1 will be somewhat tech and it will be paying right above minimum wage.

I have fought myself and was even depressed for a while, but I had freelance work to do. So I tried really hard to do freelance gigs and it was going ok. That is until I got a client that insulted me and my work so I quit. Plus fourteen hour days and less than minimum wage payments were not very good at all. In fact it sucked, freelancing is not the lucrative job that I thought it was. In college I could make some serious cash doing freelance work, but now? Everyone does what I do and many of them do it better and for less.

Tech has left me behind some.

So what now?

I thought about my options and had no one to talk to, so I called my mom. She was mad at me after I made the following comment:

“I don’t even know why I went to college, because my job offers are for minimum wage clerk positions and nothing higher

She seems to think that my education should make me proud, instead of sad. Well she’s not the one paying 41,000 in student loans, I am! Not only that, for all the pushing she gave me to go to college, I’ve lost my job six times in the last few years. My better half has worked steadily for the last 4 years! Not only that, she’s making more money than I am and she didn’t go to college! That hurts a little.

What hurts the most is that my education is nearly wasted. If I don’t get a job in an office doing tech, or doing anything on a computer, why did I go to school? My main prospects in the job market right now are Taco Bell, McDonalds, and maybe Blockbuster Video. Outside of those, I have no major leads, nothing to look forward to.

I’m going from getting paid to getting minimum wage.

Oh and it is NOT the economy! I got let go from a company that I warned so many times about the way they ran things. I even recall a rain filled meeting where I drafted a plan that they never followed. I continually was the smartest person in the company and now what? What did my education gain me? Nothing so far.

Oh yes, Experience is a good teacher right? Well my experience can be summed up in some terrible ways. I worked for companies that made me feel bad for NOT giving my soul to them. I was not thanked for walking in the snow, rain and so much more. I was also given few chances to excel, and you know what? Some companies are still using all my design work without credit.

But that’s ok right? I see it with the tables and roles reversed, but it still doesn’t negate the fact that I’m the one struggling to find work that will pay me more than minimum wage while they are living their dreams! I hate how companies try to make workers feel bad when they aren’t investing all they have into the business. Hey, if you own and run a business that’s YOUR DREAM! My dream is not to run a business or your business it’s to simply pay the bills and get by for now. I mean I owe a college a lot of money for an education that I can not even used right now! So excuse me if I’m a little bit biter about it.

So I’m not living in the lap of luxury, and I still say that my education has garnered me a roller coaster ride of ups and downs and each time I get laid off, fired, or simply quit as they accuse me of stealing, I feel the sting of my education while those around me without a degree still plug away making money and enjoying life. I don’t get it.

I asked once why the wicked prosper and got chewed out by some comments, but I’m stilling wondering.

The job market looks bleak to me. I have this useless degree and when I’m asking for your order at the drive-thru you won’t even know that I spent all my money and sacred honor learning a trade that is now obsolete.

Someone told me that I should be flexible, and it’s true. However, how can I go from making nearly twenty an hour to go down to five or seven dollars an hour? Tell me that’s not justice? I hate how my brain is mush now, and the only employers that are giving me a chance want me to do mindless work. Sure I can stock shelves at a super market again, sure I can work fast food, sure I can start at the bottom of a part time retail job, and lose a piece of my pride.

Maybe it’s wrong to have pride, but understand me when I tell you that I have this pride because I went to college and I have been paid a lot for a while. I guess that I need to stop whining, grow up, and just accept that I’m not wanted in the job market right now and just suck up the minimum wage hell and be another zombie…with a dream of grandeur that is never going to happen.

Why?

Because you need income to save, and if you can’t make more than a certain amount then you’re another working poor person.

My dad for instance, has been working 20 years in the U.S and he has two kids. He lives in the Ghetto, and has no major house, no savings, and is married. He didn’t have a great education. I talked to him recently and he told me to look on the bright side. He said at least I have this education….yeah well he’s the one that has been employed for 20 years and I’m the one that has had 6 jobs in 4 years and has been laid off constantly by tech companies that do not trust my word and then see it unfold as I have stated.

I guess that’s life. We all struggle. We all pray for dollars but we work for change.

I still think it’s a shame, that all that money will be paid to sallie mae, and that piece of paper that took me 4 years to get will garner me nothing more than the successes of a minimum wage life…however…

My favorite song by Rise Against says something so emphatic that I think about it all the time.

I don’t want to be rich. I don’t want much. I want a simple life, and that is important far beyond status and symbols. So while I whine through some thoughts, believe me when I say and believe what some rich rock band wrote:

“we get by just fine on minimum wage”

I guess the dreams that my parents had by moving to America are shattered because their baby boy, the college grad is making minimum wage…and doing just fine….

I could reflect on so much more, but it’s a pride issue. It’s an issue of the heart that I’m working out. So yes, I know there are people starving, dying, and really poor, but hey…they aren’t me…and while I know things can be worse, it’s hard to quantify when you’re sad, lonely, and have no friends.

American Swing is an interesting documentary about an icon in American sexuality, Plato’s Retreat. Plato’s Retreat was a very interesting place in New York. It was the first and only heterosexual swingers club. This documentary talks about the founder, the rise and the inevitable fall of the place. It starts out really cool, but then goes nuts and shows you more muff than um..the Porn section that I used to have to clean up weekly. I hated doing that, yet I loved being a video store clerk.

Anyways, American Swing is a cool documentary that cements my personal studies of the 1970’s and 1980’s sexual revolution…if you can call it that. I’ve read several books by pornographic stars of the 1980’s and all sorts of in between articles and this movie really seals the deal into a greater understanding of sex in the past decades. It showcases how moral this country is whenever you raise the question of free sex.

On the flip side, there are those that remember this place as nothing more than a festering germ pile. It was too, and the people that were interviewed talk about the sickest thing. For instance, there were hot tubs where sperm was constantly flowing, and there were huge rooms with mats everywhere, wet, stained, and smelling of bodily fluids…yet the idea of free sex and swinging was enough to have this place bumping, with footage! The footage ranges from sickening to not so bad. I admit, I love women with natural elements, not these porno chicks with no curves that every girl seems aspiring too these days. Just look around you and you will see that women don’t have the appeal that they once had…I’m just saying.

The movie turns out kind of sad towards the end, as AIDS started to spread like crazy. The club closed and it has never come back in any way shape or form.

This documentary is NOT for everyone. American Swing is a great historical document about sex in America. HOWEVER, it ranges on pornographic many times and a lot of people are going to hate it. That’s right, people are going to hate it because there’s so much genitalia, there’s so much honesty, and there’s just something real here that people hate. People hate the real thing, they love fantasy, this breaks the fantasy, it’s impressive. I loved it.

Definitely check out American Swing, but if you’re not sure, you should check out this great interview with the guys that made this film:

That’s all I could imagine as I went to see this movie. Horror? Juno’s writer? Megan Fox? Alright, I’m in. Well, I got no such luck. This movie is rated R but not for very much though. There’s no major gore that I could tell, there’s no nudity, although they tease the crap out of you, and while there are some swear words, nothing worth noting.

This movie is actually quite time and is more of a coming of age movie than anything else…and for that it sucked.

In fact, the movie didn’t show much of anything.

Except for the things that I hate:

slow motion action scenes

CG barf

CG mouth/vampirism

oh and the Megan Fox lesbian sex scene didn’t help.

All in all this movie sucked, another waste of money.

It had a few redeeming qualities, mainly nothing to write home about. Amanda Seyfried is wonderful, lovely, and cool. She wins my approval..the rest? Nothing. No nudity, No sex, no Megan Fox Nude Scene…sorry gents. Don’t waste your time.

Another slow moving cannibal/vampire yarn set in high school. Lame. Not even Twilight fans will like it…or should like it. Even the previews sucked.

What a terrible movie.

If you have been following my site you know that I love skateboarding and dream of owning a skateboarding store. I’ve witnessed one of the worst snowboarding/skateboarding stores operate, and I grew up seeing many skate shops open and close in many different locations, so I try to keep the dream alive. Seriously, I try to keep the dream alive, even though I have no money, no job, and no way of even starting a shop. However, there are people and shops out there that are doing it! This is just another one…gnarled is the name of the shop and these images for from their site gnarled.com

Maybe someday the dream will come true, in the mean time I’m debating whether to get a minimum wage job or getting a minimum wage job because NO ONE wants to hire me for my skills and pay me more than that. Awesome…just awesome.

I don’t hold anything against my former employer, other than the fact that I saw the ship falling, and well…I got booted. A great thing on a personal level, a terrible thing on a professional level. Maybe one day I’ll get them back for making me delete six years of my life on my personal blog…oh yeah, I didn’t forget about that.

There are a lot of films that get a lot of credit, then there are films that no one seems to talk about anymore. This is a case of that. When considering good movies, no one mentions this amazing piece of film. Clint Eastwood’s swan song for western’s breaks the complete mold that can ever be made in regards to western genre films. It’s more than just a period piece, it is an epic movie. Unforgiven is my favorite western of all time. Have you seen this thing? It’s impressive, beyond reproach it’s impressive.

Unforgiven is a movie that is simple at first. A bad man changes his ways, and he is simply raising his kids on a farm. Meanwhile a hooker’s face is sliced up completely and her friends want revenge. The Sheriff doesn’t make the criminals pay as much as they should be, and we see a good amount of little things portrayed in such a fast motion through the plot set up.

I liked how the wild west is portrayed. With simple lines, a wealth of knowledge is stated. The bartender at one point states, “now she’s no good (referring to the victim), no one is going to want to mount her, she’s no good for business”. That’s right folks, with one line the feminist’s back is broken. Sex saturated the wild west, and it was amazing to hear such a fast notion in such a fast amount of time.

I know, I’m over analyzing things.

I guess this is where I mention that I’m fascinated by the wild west. I’ve read six books this year on the wild west, and lots of different histories about religion, sex, and native Americans. Some make it to reviews here, some don’t ever see the light of day.

Unforgiven is impressive, here’s a trailer for the Clint Eastwood film Unforgiven:

The movie is impressive. The scenes are put together so well, and the stories don’t intersect in a cliche fashion, it creates an overall interesting scope of things. That’s right, you need to look for subtle edits, which will make things very interesting to say the least.

As the story progresses, we start to see an overall prowess to acting and cinema in general. The tension is made so good, that you start to feeling your heart pound, the way things move, the way revenge seeps into your pores. Eastwood is masterful in his progression, and you start to see the pain in his eyes when he has to kill two guys.

The movie’s antagonist is an odd one. It’s not just the two criminals that slice a woman’s face, it’s the Sheriff of the town that is played be Gene Hackman. You might remember Gene Hackman played a masterpiece villain in the Sam Raimi film “The Quick and the Dead” and he brings that sort of attitude to this role. It’s impressive, and you’ll love the way Eastwood and Hackman change the role of hero and villain in such an easy scope.

This dramatic piece of film has the best foreshadowing ever. Hackman tells a biographer a story, his story is about how you can’t shoot straight when you’re nervous, or in a gun battle. This piece of foreshadowing is completed and showcased in the most amazing fight scene ever seen in western history. You’ll be shocked, and you’ll immediately say that it is not possible…or is it?

Unforgiven is an amazing film. It won countless awards, and it’s nearly flawless in a lot of ways. The western lives and dies with films like this, McCabe and Mrs. Miller and even The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and others. This film is classic, it’s my favorite western and holds up really well. It’s a beautiful ode to the western era, and if you’re not interested in the genre, you won’t like this one. It ranks high for me in terms of Eastwood’s directing skills.

Well, I didn’t really say anything. I fixed the blog and didn’t say a whole lot.

It turns out that after losing my job and looking through a lot of different places, and thinking, and looking at the money I had and didn’t have, my wife and I have decided to leave Seattle in pursuit of something else. Seattle sucks.

I’ll be moving to Moscow, Idaho.

I have a place to live, and will begin the moving process. In the mean time I have nothing major to report. The site will be slow at times, but it’ll get a few updates here and there. If you would like to help out, you should definitely check out the amazon links, cause i need anything extra.

That’s about it for this update. In the mean time I’m looking at the job market, if you can even call it that, and it’s pretty depressing. I don’t even know why I went to school.

I admit, I don’t like how life is turning out for me right now. But that’s no excuse to not post a review on my newly discovered website…well it’s not new. It’s old but I managed to work some magic and it’s back to life. So I guess that’s always nice.

Adventureland is a film that I wanted to see last year. It is a film that is directed by the dude that made Superbad and it looks that way. The scope of the film is not bad, I liked teh visuals, but it was the story that made me hate this piece of junk.

Here’s a trailer for Adventureland:

Adventureland starts out ok, a kid gets into a nice college but his parents have spent the money dedicated for his schooling on other crap and now he must get a job.

OH BOOOHOOO! The first thing I thought was who gives a crap! You got into an IVY League school and can’t pay for it? GROW UP! I went to an Art College and couldn’t pay for it so I continued to work a 60 hour a week job, go to school and continue to pay for it to this day!

But I will digress, we get into the film and things were looking interesting. Our main character ends up getting a summer job at an amusement park and all sorts of tomfoolery begins.

The film starts to get a little funny with the interactions before something of the dramatic joins into the fray. Kristen Stewart is in this film and her character ends up hooking up with a maintanence guy who is played by Ryan Reynolds! What the heck? I can’t escape this guy.

The film then moves forward to a more traditional romantic comedy role, until our hero finds out his girl is messing around doing “naked push ups” as it is called in the film in the parking lot with Ryan freakin Reynolds!

Long story short and way to ruin the film the summer ends and the two former lovers meet up again to rekindle their love on a rainy night.

This standard piece of comedic romantic movie making is boring. It made me more upset than anything else. It also made me think Kristen Stewart was kind of hot, but only for a moment. No I’m not a Twilight fan, but when the chips were down this movie felt like it was on rails. I knew exactly where it was going and where it went, and when it was over, I had to be reminded that it’s just a movie…and this doesn’t happen in real life.

Trust me, It doesn’t.

Adventureland has a few moments, but overall it’s a stupid movie with good music. Yeah, I liked the soundtrack, so sue me. Check out Adventureland if you like Kristen Stewart, Ryan Reynolds, a slew of idiots from Freaks and Geeks and a pretty good soundtrack including Yo La Tengo.

Well, somewhere along the way I realized that Wordpress is database driven.

So I opened up the trunk, and BOOOM!

All my schooling came shooting back to me. After realizing there were 17 tables located inside of an sql account I connected things together and the site is back.

Well…within a certain frame. I’m going to be working on this site more and more, to get back to the place it once was.

We’ll see how it all works out.

Well, not only did I lose my job this week, my site took a major hit.

There’s a virus going around and during the upgrade process this site decided to implode.

I have all new broken links, and all sorts of tomfoolery.

Don’t mind them, they’ll just have to drag my page rank down.

Everything seems broken.

I’m not sure where to start to fix things.

I’m sorry.

Megan Fox bares it all, yep, she bares her thoughts on the comic book world.

Well folks, Snowboard Connection in Seattle made a decision to let me go.

I’m now not employed.

I’m now another one of the millions that can blame Obama, the Econnomy, or something for my losses.

I am having a hard time.

HBO once again pushes my buttons and makes something awesome to laugh at. I love this series and it recently got picked up for a second season, so I’m not the only one that is interested in this awesome television show.

The HBO series Eastbound & Down Season 1 tells the story of former professional baseball pitcher Kenny Powers and his fall from grace in a small town. Along the way he acts like a complete and utter asshole to everyone.However, the shining light here is his love interest and former flame, which gets him to start to realize that there is a better life out there, away from the drugs, women, and fame that comes with being a professional athlete.

The humor is amazing. Danny McBride doesn’t look like he’s acting, he simply is being himself. What makes it better for me personally is that I had a high school friend that looked and acted like McBride’s character. The raunchy humor and bad guy attitude really makes sense and is hilarious to see unfold.

This season has only 6 episodes, but they are hilarious. You see cameos from other television stars and even Will Ferrell shows up as a sleezy used car lot owner. It was so great to see him here in such a hilarious role, without working the over the top as a “manchild” of sorts.

The story punches you in the mouth with comedy up front, but then sizzles out to a more romantic comedy angle, before leaving you with a complete asshole of a move…..you’ll see if you watch this show.

Eastbound and Down is an amazing piece of work. It is raw, it is untamed, and it hits home for me and many other idiots out there. Check out this dvd set, and enjoy the comedy that has been highlighted in other movies and shows but never in one package. HBO does it again!