Paranormal Activity: Encouraging?

            The big story in movies of the last few weeks and perhaps year so far is Paranormal Activity.  You know all about it, but to review, it’s this small movie from 2006 from first time filmmakers done on close to zero budget.  It takes a nod from The Blair Witch Project by going with the first person POV camera and pretending like it’s all real.  This time around they didn’t really try to convince us that this was legit, and instead just sold the idea of the truly indie underdog combined with a legitimately scary movie.

            There are probably 50 Paranormal Activity’s made a year.  I saw a few of them, one shitty one coming to mind being The Ceremony, which I saw at SXSW because I was in the mood for some delicious Alamo Drafthouse popcorn and a Guinness milkshake (wow, do I miss that place.  I really want a shake right now), and one decent, if not modestly funded Grace, directed by Emerson grad Paul Solet, which I saw at Sundance but was also at SXSW.  Grace got a release from Anchor Bay, and The Ceremony is probably on Youtube in 10-minute sequences.  Neither got any attention, even while Grace was infinitely better than Paranormal.

Joe Girardi's Napoleon Complex, Missing Joe Torre and the Most Depressing Night in My Yankee Life

I'm very upset.  Last night's Yankees game was probably my worst Yankee Stadium experience ever.  I don't mean the new Yankee Stadium, I mean any Yankee Stadium.  It was awful.

I've been going to games since birth basically.  My Dad's had season tickets since I was two I think and I know I missed one opening day along the way for a school trip or something, but that's it.  This season I went to something like 1/3 of the home games.  Until I went to college, I didn't miss a playoff game in my lifetime, and then I usually went home for games, learning my lesson when I had to watch from my dorm room as Posada and Aaron Boone beat Pedro and the Sox in 2003.  Sadly, there wasn't much to watch since then.

Now we're back.  We have the best lineup we've had in years.  The staff is nowhere near what it's been in the past, even pre-major free agent spending, but we have things lined up well with not having to use a 4th starter.  Sidenote: anyone saying our staff is so good is an idiot.  Sorry.  Burnett is inconsistent in ways that should relegate him to a number 4 starter on a Yankees squad like this.  CC's been much better than I even expected him to be, and obviously Pettitte is pitching far beyond expectations at this point in his career, but that's because he's Andy Pettitte and he steps up.  Core four.  This bullpen is crap though, as last night proved once again.  I don't understand the disappearance of Hughes and Joba, but of course the rest of the bullpen sucks.

Michael Jackson's This Is It

            I couldn’t wait on this and had to write it immediately.  I’m not even proof reading until tomorrow because I actually stayed up until 7am to finish it, but posting right now.  Expect a much shorter version later, but this has everything, including a song-by-song breakdown.  Please excuse rambling.

I was lucky enough to go to the New York premiere tonight of Michael Jackson’s This Is It.  They took up the entire Regal E-Walk theater in Times Square for this.  The security was intense and surprisingly all white guys.   The tickets were not only specially made and hand delivered, but they had this subtle imprint of “MJ” strategically placed over a black spot on it.  Security guards made sure to touch every ticket to make sure it was consistent to avoid fakes.  Why they were so crazy about a movie that is released to the public two hours after the “premiere” I cannot tell you.  And since when can white guys do security like black guys.  Nobody’s scared of the white security guys, come on.

Some Funny or Die Videos I Recommend

Rap Translated - watch more funny videos

Nick Kroll went to my summer camp, the prestigious Camp Wildwood.  He's going to be on "The League" on FX premiering soon.  Looks good.

Rich Dicks from Jon Daly

The Ed Hardy Boyz: The Case of the Missing Sick Belt Buckle from Jon Daly

Entourage Season Six Finale...Actually Not So Bad

I mean this in the least offensive and most complimentary way possible. The Entourage season six finale was just gay enough to be perfect. I've long ago dismissed this show as one of the worst ever, so I do not hold it to normal standards.

Last season was one of the worst I've ever watched of any show. Let's be real here. Even with an improved season six, the show settled into a format of seven or eight spec script standalone episodes (the shroom trip at Joshua Tree episode that all you fucking miscreants loved, I hate you), a prem and finale, then one or two actual long term plot oriented episodes (probably written by Weiss and/or Ellin themselves) sprinkled in here and there when Plepler had boxing to draw attention to.



(See the original poster, and then the New York city subway version of it)