Results tagged “Film_TV_Video” from CrabAppleLane Blog II

This Whitest Kids U'Know skit made me laugh last week. Some, maybe most, of their shtick is crude for crude's sake and gets old rather quickly and some, like the one linked, are too long and don't finish well. It's like they needed to fill some air time. If they'd do less, they'd do better.

I offer two from the CrabAppleLane yard this morning. The two bushes below were the same size when I bought them. One thrived, the other not so much. I transplanted the one not doing so well. I'm hoping that a change of scenery is all it needed.

CrabAppleLane - August 22, 2010

CrabAppleLane - August 22, 2010

Still only preseason but I think most Saints fans are a little more upbeat after last night's game with the Texans than they were after last week's game with the Patriots. A few thoughts:

I have to wonder what the Saints are going to do with Adrian Arrington. I doubt they can trade him but he's too good to release. I hope they can keep him as insurance if one of the other four (Colston, Meachem, Henderson, Moore) in front of him gets hurt.

Ladell Betts had better get his butt on the field. Chris Ivory and P.J. Hill both look like they can run the ball. Don't know if I trust either of them to protect Drew in the passing game, though.

About today's QOTD: The Redskins are stuck with Haynesworth. That much is pretty clear. If they release him, they eat his ridiculous contract and he plays somewhere else. A trade is unlikely because no one wants to assume that contract.

Mario Williams is Julius Peppers. He plays a monster game two or three times a year and then disappears the rest of the time. There's money in that. I don't think his name was called once last night. I'm glad the Texans chose him and passed on Reggie Bush. Reggie's name was called quite a few times last night.

18 days until football season ...

5 song iTune shuffle from the CrabAppleLane Mark Knopfler playlist:

1. So Far From The Clyde - Mark Knopfler - Get Lucky
2. Golden Heart - Mark Knopfler - Golden Heart
3. Whistle Theme - Mark Knopfler & Alan Clark - Local Hero
4. Whoop De Doo - Mark Knopfler - Shangri-La
5. In The Sky - Mark Knopfler - Kill To Get Crimson

Quote of the Day

I don't know. I guess make yourself look good, I don't know. Make me look bad for not going to their offseason conditioning program. But, I mean, next year I'm not coming either. I'll be on my trainer again, and I'll get back in the same shape I'm in, and feel good about myself.

Albert Haynesworth, Washington Redskins

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "The Texans kicked the Saints' butts on kickoff returns. They averaged 32.8 yards on six returns. The Saints averaged 21 yards on five returns."

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With apologies to Neil Diamond, the title here refers to last night. Even though I had been out running errands in the morning and for a bike ride in the afternoon, I still found myself with a case of cabin fever last night. We decided to hit the Tap Room for dinner and head out somewhere and tinker with night photography. I'm still fairly awful at it but these didn't turn out too bad. There was an outdoor movie playing last night in Abita Springs. I've never seen any of them so I can't be sure but I'm guessing it was one of the Toy Story movies. I suppose this is about the closest thing you can have to a true, old time drive-in movie experience these days ... except there weren't any cars. It had to be 85º last night with nearly 100% humidity. I remember nights in the station wagon just like that. The heat, humidity, and the bugs didn't seem to be bothering anyone, though. These free events are a nice novelty, a curiosity for the kids, maybe some nostalgia for some of the older parents and grandparents, or just something to do on a Saturday night. Nice turnout. More below the jump if you're interested.

Abita Springs - August 7, 2010

The first preseason (Don't call it an exhibition) game is tonight. Why on Earth the NFL or NBC wants to broadcast this game in Primetime is beyond me. Bengals v Cowboys would be a good match except that most of the guys you'll see in the game tonight won't be Bengals or Cowboys in a few weeks.

The Saints are heading to New England tomorrow to work out with the Patriots for a few days before their game Thursday night. They'll stop at the White House along the way. Would love to be in on the meetings the two head coaches are having with their teams leading up to this. Both teams fancy themselves as contenders and I think it's fair to say they are. "This is what you can talk about with them and this is what you can't". I expect both teams will be holding back a lot. The game Thursday night will be nothing like that Monday night game they played last November, which the Boston Globe's Adam Kilgore described like this:

The Saints attacked the Patriots defense in every manner. They scored on long drives. They scored on a 75-yard strike. They scored on screen passes, on long post patterns, on a dump to their third tight end. They emptied both barrels.

32 days until football season ...

5 song iTune shuffle:

1. Angel - Fleetwood Mac - Tusk
2. Boulder To Birmingham - Mark Knopfler & Emmylou Harris - Real Live Roadrunning
3. Changin' Times - Nazareth - Hair Of The Dog
4. Photograph - Def Leppard - Pyromania
5. Romeo and Juliet - Mark Knopfler - Live From The Ryman

About today's QOTD: Ricky Jackson is maybe the worst public speaker of all time but there is nothing phony about him. You'll find profound nuggets in what he says if you can bear the rest of it.

Quote of the Day

We need to keep football going. Can't let football get away. I mean you can get where the product can be so good, you can lose sight and let it get away.

Ricky Jackson, Saints Hall-of-Famer

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "Riders making their way through the mist, across the hay field. I am well behind this pack....somewhere...."

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I've been watching The Gates because there isn't much else on TV on Sunday nights when I'm winding down the weekend. We dropped HBO a few months ago and the only thing I really miss is their original programming, which mostly aired on Sunday nights. I just couldn't see paying premium prices (HBO is the priciest of all of the pay channels on DirecTV) for a few shows that air 10-12 episodes and then go on an 18-month hiatus (Talking about you, Sopranos). Anyway, The Gates qualifies as CME even though it's not particularly entertaining. It's sort of like Buffy the Vampire Slayer without the camp or the humor.

"The Gates" refers to the gated community where the show is set. Everyone in The Gates has a secret and there are all sorts of supernatural beings. There are vampires, werewolves, something called a succubus, and a police officer with a secret we don't even know yet. The vampires walk about in broad daylight sometimes but also sometimes singe when sunlight hits them. The police chief knows enough about vampires that he knows one vampire suspect was trying to "turn" a victim but he doesn't know that pointing a gun at her is rather futile. He doesn't know about the succubus, the werewolves, or his junior police officer yet. He's in way over his head. So am I but I'm just marking time on Sundays until next month.

About Brett Favre: The Minneapolis Star Tribune's Jim Souhan has a point in his article but he didn't really have to take a cheap shot at Mississippi.

He's been in Hattiesburg since January, he'll be back by February, and if and when he does retire, he'll be there for the rest of his life, and there isn't much to do in central Mississippi, anyway, other than sweat and wish you lived someplace else.

I've been all over Mississippi. There is plenty to do in Central Mississippi.

38 days until football season ...

About today's QOTD: Swizz Beatz?

5 song iTune shuffle:

1. River Of Tears - Eric Clapton - Pilgrim
2. A Song Simply Remixed - Elijah Bossenbroek - Carpe Lumen
3. Cornucopia - Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath Vol. 4 (Remaster)
4. Loves Me Like A Rock - Paul Simon - Negotiations And Love Songs 1971-1986
5. The Lonely Shepherd - Gheorghe Zamfir - Kill Bill, Vol. 1

Quote of the Day

Alicia Keys has wed Swizz Beatz, her rep confirms to UsMagazine.com.

MSNBC.com

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "This is the continuing story of the Succubi called Storm Clouds…"

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I started watching The Last Waltz last night. I've never been a great fan of The Band. I like some of their songs but that's about it. I have seen this film before and I didn't think much of it but I kinda got hooked on watching it again last night while waiting for something better to come on. Seeing it again after all these years and on a better TV with a better stereo has made a world of difference. Could be also that I'm a little older and more mature than I was the first time I saw it and it could also be the sound quality has been dramatically improved. The second part is certain. The film I'm watching now is fantastic in both sound and picture quality.

The film is not just about their music and that may have also contributed to why I didn't think much of it the first time. I didn't care about the interviews then. Just get on with the music. I appreciate what Martin Scorsese was doing now. The film is more about the guys being a band and being on tour for 16 years. I can't wait to finish watching it this afternoon. Just fantastic. Didn't even mind the 70s leisure suits. I still only like a handful of their songs but I have a new appreciation for The Band this morning and much greater appreciation for the film. Enjoy the little taste below and see The Last Waltz when you can, particularly if you have a good TV and stereo.

I usually don't care for tight-fitting clothes. Unfortunately, a lot of my clothes fit tightly these days (Be nice). Anyway, I do wear tight clothes while doing yardwork. Too many spinning objects and too many sharp blades can grab. After 2½ hours in the heat here, though, you pretty much have to cut them off of me. I offer a few today in the order I took them from around the CrabAppleLane backyard, where I spent 2½ hours ... yesterday and today.

The garden is resting

The fairway - Water trap on the left - Par 2

The view

The branch had turned and followed the sun until it was brushing against the bluebird house

CrabAppleLane Hummingbird - August 1, 2010

Enough with the NFL training camp injuries already ... and stay the hell away from here. There are still ...

39 days until football season ...

5 song iTune shuffle from the CrabAppleLane Five Star playlist:

1. Already Gone - The Eagles - On The Border
2. Kryptonite - 3 Doors Down - The Better Life
3. Madame Geneva's - Mark Knopfler - Kill To Get Crimson
4. Mississippi Queen - Mountain - Hard N' Heavy: 70's Greatest Rock Hits, Vol. 1
5. '39 - Queen - A Night At The Opera

Quote of the Day

In the winter of '65
We were hungry
Just barely alive
By May the tenth, Richmond had fell
It's a time I remember, oh so well

The Band, The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "One of the reasons that I hadn't ever seen The Last Waltz, was because I wasn't a fan of The Band."

Just like me except with a better reason. They weren't before my time. -Rob

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Watched the free five-minute preview of New Moon yesterday because my nephew trashed the Twilight series of books and movies and I just had to see if it could be as bad as all that. Craig Ferguson trashes them relentlessly on his show but I thought he was just being funny. The only thing I can tell you, for sure, after five minutes is that I did not want to see five more. One user at IMDb said the acting was "so wooden I got splinters". That pretty much sums up what I saw, too. The rest of the film may be Citizen Kane but I'll never know because what I saw was MST3K bad. Read a few of what IMDb calls "Memorable Quotes".

52 days until football season ...

5 song iTune shuffle from the CrabAppleLane Five Star playlist starting with "M" :

1. Madame Geneva's - Mark Knopfler - Kill To Get Crimson
2. The Mighty Quinn (Quinn The Eskimo) - Manfred Mann - Rock 'n Roll Relix 1968-1969
3. Maybe Not - Cat Power - You Are Free
4. Misty Mountain Hop - Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV
5. Mr. Bojangles - The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band - Uncle Charlie & His Dog Teddy

Quote of the Day

You can't really run with vampires. They're very fast.

Bella Swan, New Moon

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse has officially hit the quarter billion dollar mark in domestic sales and it will soon be making half a billion dollars worldwide!"

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Patsy had a gift coupon or certificate for two free movie passes and I talked her into Inception last night. I owe her the next 8 or 10 movies now. Inception was much more my type of movie than hers. Director Christopher Nolan also did Memento. The two films share two traits. The first one is that they are both utterly bewildering for the first half and Nolan never slows down. Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) leads a team of dream invaders. They insert themselves into peoples' dreams to discover secrets or intentions and there are all sorts of rules and techniques that are explained throughout. Once the rules have been established for the audience, the team embarks on a mission of "inception", thought to be impossible and dangerous. They plan to plant an idea into someone's head without that person's knowledge or consent. Check your ethics at the door, please.

The rest of the film is about that mission. It is very well done and here is where I started to catch up but Nolan still has a few twists up his sleeve. The subject has built up defenses against people doing what Cobb and his team wants to do and Cobb has demons of his own that only Ariadne (Ellen Page), the newest member of the team, has discovered. The other trait Inception shares with Memento is that its worth your time. It's a whale of a ride. Loved the ending.

I offer the only relevant image from the CrabAppleLane Backyard, where the yardwork was canceled this week due to rain. The mirlitons are loving it, though.

CrabAppleLane Backyard - July 18, 2010

Some other tidbits for a CrabAppleLane Sunday:

So far, the oil cap is still holding but no one is calling it a success yet. A delightful and heartbreaking series from the Times Picayune told from a Brown Pelican's point of view. I cannot look at any more real pictures or video of Brown Pelicans covered in oil. It kills me.

Joe Montana's son was arrested for underage drinking and, somehow, that passes for news. Nate Montana is 20. I'm shocked, shocked to learn that underage drinking occurs amongst college students. Come on. Besides the kid and his parents, who else should care about this?

The Saints finally signed a draft pick this past week. Training camp starts next week. What's the hurry?

53 days until football season ...

5 song iTune shuffle from the CrabAppleLane Five Star playlist starting with "L" :

1. Long Distance Runaround - Yes - Fragile
2. Love To Love - UFO - Essential UFO
3. Locomotive Breath - Jethro Tull - Aqualung
4. Love, Reign O'er Me - The Who - Quadrophenia [Disc 2]
5. The Load-Out - Jackson Browne - Running On Empty

Quote of the Day

Long distance runaround
Long time waiting to feel the sound
I still remember the dream there
I still remember the time you said goodbye

Yes, Long Distance Runaround

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "Christopher Nolan's 'Inception' hits theaters today, and with glowing reviews it's poised to become this summer's intellectual blockbuster -- a mind-bending experience that will dazzle you as much as it will make you scratch your head. (In its review, Entertainment Weekly called the film "brainiacally engaging.")"

"Brainiacally engaging"? See, this is why I can't review movies professionally. I don't have the necessary vocabulary. -Rob

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I watched Green Zone last night on DirecTV "On Demand" Pay-Per-View. "On Demand" is really cool. You click on it any time you want (No waiting for a scheduled time) and the movie starts. You get a five minute free preview before you decide whether you want to pay to see the rest. Unfortunately, I think it will change how movies are made. I think studios will pressure filmmakers to hook an audience in the first five minutes for its Pay-Per-View market. Anyway, Green Zone is a film about the various agendas on the ground in Iraq immediately after Saddam's government was toppled. If you focus on the politics, one way or the other, you'll be missing a great movie.

Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller (Matt Damon): I thought we were all on the same side.
Martin Brown (Brendan Gleeson): Don't be naive.

That exchange pretty much sums up the film's premise. I don't really know how accurate the depictions of the various agendas are and it's not important to me. This is a movie and, as such, it works ... big time. Green Zone is a first-rate thriller. There are two main factions at work throughout the film. One who wants to know the truth and the other who knows it. They are both racing to find the one person who can verify what one faction knows and the other suspects. One wants to talk to him and the other wants to silence him. There's a third main faction that appears toward the end and I will not spoil it. Green Zone doesn't have the same buzz about it as The Hurt Locker did last year and it surely doesn't have as cool a title but it's every bit as good a film. I loved it. Highly recommended.

5 song iTune shuffle from the CrabAppleLane Five Star playlist:

1. The Weight - The Band - Music from Big Pink
2. Black Betty - Ram Jam - Ram Jam
3. Jane - Jefferson Starship - Freedom at Point Zero
4. Fall Down - Toad the Wet Sprocket - Dulcinea
5. Happy Home - Garbage - Bleed Like Me

Quote of the Day

Genetic engineers, move over: the latest scheme for creating children to a parent’s specifications requires no DNA tinkering, but merely giving mom a steroid while she’s pregnant, and presto—no chance that her daughters will be lesbians or (worse?) ‘uppity.’

Sharon Begley, Newsweek

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "So the Falcon Club endures the suspicions of Iraqi soldiers at Mosul’s innumerable checkpoints who have never heard of a paraglider, have never seen a hot air balloon outside of an American movie and who believe — reasonably — that Iraq is dangerous enough without courting death."

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When in Rome was the movie choice last night. We both liked the trailers we saw of this film when it came out but it didn't thrill us enough to pay theater prices. When in Rome is a romantic comedy that thrives almost exclusively on the strength and likability of the two leads, Kristen Bell and Josh Duhamel. They are both up to the task and I should say that's a bit unusual for me. Typically, it's the leads' best friends or siblings that makes these movies for me. Anjelica Huston and Danny DeVito are on hand to lend adult supervision, I suppose. I wonder how they were approached for this. They're both a bit overqualified for their roles. When in Rome has a lot of good moments and not too many syrupy ones. Worth your time.

Another draw for the US team in the World Cup? I can feel soccer's popularity soaring in the hearts and minds of all sport-loving Americans ... maybe 30-40-50 years from now.

5 song iTune shuffle from the CrabAppleLane Five Star playlist starting with "B":

1. Blowin' Free - Wishbone Ash - Argus
2. Burn - Deep Purple - Burn
3. Big Yellow Taxi - Joni Mitchell - Ladies Of The Canyon (Remastered)
4. Bron-Y-Aur Stomp - Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin III
5. Burnin' For You - Blue Oyster Cult - Fire of Unknown Origin

Quote of the Day

We knew going into the game that we would give ourselves a great chance to advance with a win. Our goal was to win; our mentality was to win. But it was still a situation where we couldn't lose, and … at the end of the day, the tie keeps us alive, and that's the most important thing.

Bob Bradley, US Team Manager

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "She appears in the café
like a Spanish exclamation mark
softened by a panama hat."

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Put me on board for having Commissioner Bud Selig overturn this horrible call. I'm not normally a fan of selective intervention but baseball did overturn the call against George Brett and the Royals in the pine tar game. Precedent is there. That decision changed a result, wasn't the end of the world, and didn't lead baseball down the slippery slope to whatever is at the bottom of that slippery slope. This one would only change a box score and would have zero impact on the standings or anything else except that which only matters to baseball's purists. Perfect games just don't come along all that often ... except for this year. Took over a hundred years to record the first 18. Took two months, actually just three weeks since the first one came on Mother's Day, to record the last 3 this season. This error is fixable. Give the perfect game to Armando Galarraga because he earned it and fix the scoring on the last two batters. It's really not as big a deal to do as you'll make it out to be so don't wait months or years to do it. Get it done before his next start.

I think maybe the Sex and the City franchise may have finally run its course. I never really got it but that's another story. Most of the reviews I've seen are like this one, only not as funny.

98 days until football season ...

5 song iTune shuffle:

1. Make It Last - Montrose - Montrose
2. Sorrow [Live] - Pink Floyd - Delicate Sound Of Thunder [Disc 1]
3. Solid Rock - Dire Straits - Making Movies
4. Never Forget - Fleetwood Mac - Tusk
5. Heaven Is In Your Mind - Three Dog Night - Captured Live At The Forum

Quote of the Day

I just cost the kid a perfect game.

Jim Joyce, MLB Umpire

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "This should be a proud moment for baseball."

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I've now seen two trailers for the movie, Killers. This is the latest one. It looks a little like a remake of True Lies with the innocent wife drawn into the unbeknown to her spy world of her husband. True Lies occupies a special place on my CME list. It is the first movie I ever watched in surround sound at home. I digress. My concern these days with ALL movies is that the trailer probably gives up every good moment in the film. Hope that's not the case here. I'm in need of a CME fix.

I ran across today's BOTD at Disarranging Mine. Awesome.

5 song iTune shuffle:

1. A Song Simply Remixed - Elijah Bossenbroek - Carpe Lumen
2. Black Dog - Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV
3. Melissa - The Allman Brothers Band - Eat A Peach
4. All The Roadrunning - Mark Knopfler & Emmylou Harris - Real Live Roadrunning
5. Terminal Frost - Pink Floyd - A Momentary Lapse Of Reason

About today's QOTD: With apologies to my Viking fan friends and relatives, I just couldn't resist that line from the "NFL Expert". I wouldn't have expressed that sentiment that way but I'm no expert.

Quote of the Day

You can find so much to like about the Vikings that you would be hard-pressed not to call Minnesota the prettiest girl in the NFC.

Dan Pompei, MSNBC NFL Expert

Blog of the day via Marie is here.

Quote from said blog: "And at breakfast this morning we discovered that they’re good friends with the family of one of my high school buddies!"

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I was sad to hear about Dennis Hopper yesterday. He had an enormous body of work. There is a little something there for everyone, I suppose. I liked him in most of the movies I saw that had him in it. Like a few other excellent actors, though, I just wish he had done more movies I cared to see. His signature film, Easy Rider, seemed a bit amateurish to me when I finally saw it and I thought one of his other famous movies, Blue Velvet, was awful. He was easily the best thing in both of them so there's that. He was fantastic in Waterworld, True Romance, and Speed ... all CME that I liked. Yes, I liked Waterworld. R.I.P., Dennis.

The LSU Tigers, who stumbled played their way into the SEC Tournament on the last weekend of the regular season, have turned in three excellent games and are playing for the SEC Championship today. Because they're playing in Alabama against Alabama and because both teams have great fans, there figures to be a very large crowd. GEAUX Tigers.

I offer a few from around the house on this hot and muggy CrabAppleLane Sunday and then we're off to a barbecue.

CrabAppleLane - Sunday, May 30, 2010

CrabAppleLane - Sunday, May 30, 2010

CrabAppleLane - Sunday, May 30, 2010

CrabAppleLane - Sunday, May 30, 2010

5 song iTune shuffle:

1. Hide In Your Shell - Supertramp - The Autobiography Of Supertramp
2. 20th Century Boy - Placebo - Velvet Goldmine
3. Gotta Get To Know You - Foghat - Foghat
4. Heartbreaker [Live] - Grand Funk Railroad - Caught In The Act
5. Never Before - Deep Purple - Machine Head (Roger Glover Remixes) [Disc 2]

About today's QOTD: Welcome to the NFL, rookie.

Quote of the Day

The first-round pick, Florida State cornerback Patrick Robinson, got torched on the first route he defended Thursday

James Varney, The Times-Picayune

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "Dennis Hopper, whose portrayals of drug-addled, often deranged misfits in the landmark films “Easy Rider,” “Apocalypse Now” and “Blue Velvet” drew on his early out-of-control experiences as part of a new generation of Hollywood rebel, died at his home in Venice, Calif., on Saturday. He was 74."

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If you've been watching ABC's Flash Forward, you have to think either 1) they have the most elaborate story plan in television history or 2) they didn't think they were going to have to go beyond a few episodes. After looking back at what I thought of the first episode back in September, an element Lana mentioned and that I had forgotten about, the kangaroo(s), seems to have been abandoned but who knows if they might bring it back next year? Another element I hadn't seen in a while, the blue hand groups, made a reappearance in last night's episode. The show's first episode in March after a lengthy hiatus was entirely devoted to bringing their audience back up to speed with the story. That's typically done with a short segment at the beginning of each episode. I don't really mind that they're veering away from CME into headier territory but they'd better slow down a tad. I know I'm not the only fan who is swimming just a little.

In another development, someone left a spam comment here overnight using the following email address:

no-spam@gmail.com

Is that cool or what? A spammer who doesn't like spam?

5 song iTune shuffle:

1. The British Arrival - Randy Edelman - The Last Of The Mohicans
2. One Way Out - The Allman Brothers Band - Eat A Peach
3. Stormbringer - Deep Purple - Stormbringer
4. Robot Man - Scorpions - In Trance
5. Delilah - The Cranberries - Bury The Hatchet

Quote of the Day

Look ... professionally, if the Bureau's violating someone's due process, that's uncool. But personally, if that woman has anything to do with the blackout, I really hope you're getting all Dick Cheney on her ass to find out what she knows.

Zoey, Flash Forward

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "Demetri and Agent Banks (Alex Kingston) attempt to track down a killer as questions arise about the universe course-correcting itself, when people who thought they’d escaped their fates are found dead"

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I've now seen two movies that have no relation to each other except their identical titles and that they are both excruciating to watch. The name of the film is Crash. The one I watched yesterday is the 2004 film. The title refers to the overriding theme that one of its characters states this way:

"In L.A., nobody touches you. We're always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something."

I suppose that sums it up. People in the film are put into a lot of difficult situations and just about all of them have quite a bit of personal baggage. It has some light moments but it's not a light movie at all. Good film but kind of a downer. Not what I was looking for yesterday.

The other Crash I refer to is a 1996 film. Although I have this film on VHS, I haven't seen it since it came out. It's been in my dusty VHS collection collecting its share until the day I have to throw them all away because I won't have a VHS player any more. This one is about a group of people who are sexually aroused when they're involved in a car crash. There's also an element of the group that gets off on recreating famous car crashes like the ones that killed James Dean and Jayne Mansfield. This film is quite disturbing if it has any basis in fact and I would bet almost anything that it does. Not light fare at all. It's a good film, too, but seeing it once was enough.

5 song iTune shuffle:

1. In The Gallery - Dire Straits - Dire Straits
2. Rose In The Heather - Nazareth - Hair Of The Dog
3. Bad Apples - Guns N' Roses - Use Your Illusion I
4. Think About Me - Fleetwood Mac - Tusk
5. The Cure - The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band - Uncle Charlie & His Dog Teddy

Quote of the Day

What did God say? Go forth, my son, and leave big slobbery suction rings on every dashboard you find?

Anthony, Crash (2004)

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "That night before my show in San Francisco we brought our cameras to the bar and he taught me how to shoot a bit while hitting on women. Okay, while we both hit on women. After having said goodbye and walking our separate ways, I turned around and asked him to give me the “Johnny Cash” and he obliged."

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The Young Americans looked like my kind of movie. It figured to be a gritty crime drama set in London's tough neighborhoods and I suppose it was. I recorded it off of the Independent Film Channel. I don't know if I was watching a bad print, if the darkness and soft focus were intentional, or if it was just a poor production. A lot of the films shown on that channel are artsy or low budget so I may be thinking too much. The film had enough problems without that, though. For instance, unless you consider Viggo Mortensen a "young American", there are no young Americans in this so I don't know what that's about. A bad guy comes to London and uses young, disaffected, directionless kids to do his bidding and the main law enforcement character, played by Harvey Keitel, uses a young, disaffected, directionless kid to do his bidding to catch the bad guy. I guess the film was trying to show that the good guys aren't much better than the bad guys but the movie was such a mess that I'm not sure. On the bright side, this film features a very young, almost unrecognizable Thandie Newton.

Day 3 of CrabAppleLane PC recovery ...

5 song iTune shuffle:

1. Lightning Crashes - Throwing Copper - Live
2. Drowned - Quadrophenia [Disc 2] - The Who
3. Paranoid - Live Album - Grand Funk Railroad
4. Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2) - The Wall [Disc 1] - Pink Floyd
5. Fairytale of New York - If I Should Fall from Grace with God - The Pogues Featuring Kirsty MacColl

Quote of the Day

If you don't eat yer meat
You can't have any pudding
How can you have any pudding if you don't eat yer meat
You ... Yes, you behind the bike sheds
Stand still laddy

Pink Floyd, Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "Over the last three years, I have predicted that Medicare reform would pave the way for health care reform, and this bill makes that possible. Under the legislation, Congress will no longer be in a position to thwart Medicare’s efforts to rein in spending by eliminating waste. Not everyone is happy about this. Over at Politico.com former Republican Senator Bill Frist and former Democratic Senator John Breaux register their protest in a column titled "Keep Medicare in Congress' Hands.""

The Hurt Locker is pretty much everything I thought it would be. It's a glimpse into the everyday lives of soldiers doing their jobs in combat. The film follows a team whose job is disarming IEDs in Iraq. One guy disarms the bombs while the other two keep people away and watch for bad guys. Since this is urban warfare, the enemy, including the bomber, himself, could be anywhere ... watching from a window, an alley, or a rooftop. The opening scenes shows the audience what that's about. How those guys function day to day, both on the job and away from the job, when the job demands sharp focus that's fueled by danger, anxiety, fear, and adrenalin, is what this film is about. I don't know how accurate the portrayal is because I can't know. The film, itself, is flawless. Kathryn Bigelow's Academy Awards are well-deserved. This is a great film.

I offer one from the CrabAppleLane Backyard this gorgeous almost spring Sunday. The Bradford Pear trees are in full bloom and are covered with honeybees. Everyone has watched a honeybee go about her business from flower to flower. Ever wonder who is going to harvest the honey she's working on? I wondered that this morning. Not sure why. I must get out in that sunshine and mild temps this afternoon. Enjoy.

CrabAppleLane Bradford Pear and blue sky - March 14, 2010

CrabAppleLane is trying Twitter again but it is already frustrating me.

5 song iTune shuffle:

1. Hoedown - Béla Fleck & The Flecktones - Live At The Quick
2. I Wanna Go To The Sun - Peter Frampton - Frampton Comes Alive! [Disc 1]
3. Somebody To Roll (Edit) - Nazareth - Play 'N' The Game
4. White Lightning & Wine - Heart - Dreamboat Annie
5. Lady Double Dealer - Deep Purple - Stormbringer

Quote of the Day

Well, the uh, guy over there with the red thing on his head, he threw it at someone.

Contractor Team Leader, The Hurt Locker

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "I figure they did that to please the masses, whatever the reason I feel it was a huge mistake."

Says here that Avatar will win more awards than it should. It will win because of its box office more than its worthiness. Up In The Air is getting lost in all of the hoopla. Patsy and I both thought this was the best movie we saw last year. George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, and Anna Kendrick were all fantastic. On another Oscar-related note, I am dying to see The Hurt Locker.

Pissing matches between networks and cable/satellite carriers are becoming a little too common. Yet another one. I'll bet there is a resolution of sorts before the broadcast.

The Saints lost linebacker Scott Fujita to the Cleveland Browns today. Scott is a good guy who has strong ties in the New Orleans community and was a great ambassador for the city and the team. He was an unrestricted free agent. I'm not surprised that it happened so much but I am surprised that it happened so quickly. He scheduled his visit for today and signed today. Terms haven't been released yet but I'm guessing the Browns threw a lot of money at him. This makes next years Saints-Browns game in the SuperDome a little more interesting. Good Luck, Scott.

I doubt I'll upgrade to Movable Type 5.0+ any time soon or ever. It looks like a major pain. I'm coming up on the 7th anniversary of the CrabAppleLane Blog in a about 3½ weeks and my activities haven't changed much over the years. Growth is not important to me. What I'm using now is fine and will probably serve me until I decide to move on to something else ... hopefully, more productive.

I offer one from the backyard. Spring is almost here.

CrabAppleLane Backyard - March 7, 2010

5 song iTune shuffle:

1. Homeward Bound [Live] - Simon & Garfunkel - Simon & Garfunkel's Greatest Hits
2. Polk Salad Annie - Tony Joe White - Unknown Album (5/7/2005 4:20:15 PM)
3. Heavy Fuel - Dire Straits - On The Night (LIVE)
4. Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In - The 5th Dimension - AM Gold: The '60s Generation
5. Rudiger - Mark Knopfler - Live From The Ryman

Quote of the Day

When the moon
Is in the 7th house
And Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then Peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars
This is the dawning of The Age of Aquarius

The Fifth Dimension, Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "Or maybe it's because of the one I saw the other day wearing a men's suit two sizes too big for her and bad flat hair that made her look like she was trying to look like a man. Or maybe it's the opposite, the ones who look all sexy and pretty and I gotta wonder if men watching and listening to them are watching or listening to them. I don't know, I just have disharmony with the whole women sportscaster thing and then I have shame and disharmony for feeling that way."

We started Irma LaDouce yesterday. I have never seen it but I have known about it forever. We're about halfway through this 2 hour 37 minute film and I don't know if I want to plow through to the end or cut my losses and delete it. I'm sure I have some profound defect when it comes to movies because I have never been a fan of Billy Wilder or Jack Lemmon. They've done a few together but they just don't do much for me. I'm about 100 minutes into Irma and it had better get better soon.. There has been about 15 minutes worth of interesting or funny stuff and the rest has been repetitious filler. Disappointing.

Off to watch some hockey now.

5 song iTune shuffle:

1. 30 Days In The Hole - Humble Pie - A&M Records Classics Vol. 14
2. Hannah - Robin Trower - Essential
3. The Show Must Go On - Queen - Classic Queen
4. Cajun Song - Gin Blossoms - New Miserable Experience
5. Word On A Wing - David Bowie - Station To Station [Bonus Tracks]

I offer a few on this lovely CrabAppleLane Sunday. Not wild about still needing heat here on the last day of February but our cats don't seem to mind.

Priscilla enjoying the stove - February 28, 2010

CrabAppleLane End of Winter Textures - February 28, 2010

The Clearing Project - February 28, 2010

The Clearing Project - February 28, 2010

Quote of the Day

If you live on the road
Well there's a new highway code
You take the urban noise with some Durban Poison
It's gonna lessen your load
30 days in the hole
That's what they give you now
30 days in the hole
Oh, yeah

Humble Pie, 30 Days In The Hole

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "When the debate about great leaders in sports comes about, Mark Messier's name is almost always given. His glare, as seen on the cover to the left, is legendary, and the stories of his leadership make him sound more like a Greek god than a mortal hockey player."

No, not the dreadful last Roger Waters Pink Floyd effort. This is 2004's The Final Cut with Robin Williams. I had recorded it a few weeks ago off of the Independent Film Channel. This is a surprisingly intriguing film. Imagine being implanted with a device that will record everything you see and hear for your entire life. Your parents do this if they can afford it and then they tell you about it at some point in your life when they think you can handle it. When you die, a person called a "cutter" removes the implant and reduces the footage to a few select good memories that your loved ones want to see and they present them in a "rememory" ceremony, which is basically a movie of your life with all of the bad stuff edited out. Robin Williams plays a cutter. The film briefly explores some of the moral and ethical dilemmas of that technology (See QOTD) while also telling his story, which includes a very dark episode in his past. This isn't normally my kind of film and the "science fiction" description in its listing almost kept me away from it but I'm glad it didn't. I liked it a lot.

5 song iTune shuffle:

1. Walking Towards Paradise - Robert Plant - Now And Zen
2. Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye - Steam - Rock 'n Roll Relix 1968-1969
3. Massacre/Canoes - Trevor Jones - The Last Of The Mohicans Soundtrack
4. Stormtroopin' - Ted Nugent - Ted Nugent
5. Hymn 43 - Jethro Tull - Aqualung

Quote of the Day

This girl was a complete wreck - drinking, drugs, in and out of schools. Then she turns 21... and she finds out about her Zoe implant. Complete 180. She's born again. Her knowing that someone would one day watch... transforms her into this kind, gentle, loving person.

Hasan, The Final Cut

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "It was about 2-3 minutes into this film, that I realized that I am not the target audience for this film."

I know that experience well. -Rob

I know I'm not the only person who thought Dollhouse descended into confusing weirdness. It could be that some, like me, just don't have the required background to enjoy it. My initial thoughts on Dollhouse were that it was confusing but showed promise. I'm not a big fan of sci-fi or pondering "alternate realities" so I'm not sure I had much chance here. I'm also not sure whose decision it was to wrap the series up after two seasons but that could have contributed to the less-than-satisfactory, to me, direction it took. I think it needed more time to develop and reach its conclusion. Another review has a totally different take than mine. I liked the first season better than the second. In the first season, it looked like the show was going to develop characters and a storyline for a 4 or 5 year run. I think the second season was rushed to cram a lot of information into its final few episodes and that just added to the confusion. I'm a fan of Joss Whedon but I don't think Dollhouse was a great effort.

A thought about something else: I don't think anyone was particularly worried that Peyton Manning was going to get a pretty good deal with his next contract. He looks like he's got 4 or 5 great years left and maybe more. If he were to hit the free agent market, 28 teams would have representatives camping out on his lawn. Good for him. He's earned it.

5 song iTune shuffle:

1. Paranoid 2:53 Black Sabbath Paranoid
2. Cabaret (Single Version) 2:48 Louis Armstrong & All His Stars Sings - Back Through The Years/A Centennial Celebration (Disc 1)
3. Without You 4:41 Badfinger The Very Best Of Badfinger
4. Where Have You Been All My Life 44 Ted Nugent Ted Nugent
5. Bright As Yellow 3:34 The Innocence Mission Empire Records Soundtrack

Quote of the Day

I peek outside the curtains toward the intracoastal waterway. There is a curious yellow orb in the sky. After a few months of Indiana winter, I'm not quite sure what it is, but it looks inviting.

Bob Kravitz, Indianapolis Star

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "This past weekend I was at a grocery store and they had Saints and Colts logos plastered all over the checkout lanes. Keep in mind that I live in Pennsylvania. It was almost surreal."

We went to see Avatar 3D yesterday. Patsy didn't want to see it at first. She finally relented probably only because I said I wanted to see it so many times. The 3D part is pretty cool and 3D glasses have come a long way since those cheesy cardboard versions of the 50s and 60s. Avatar 3D is glorious CME. It is a special effects extravaganza and all James Cameron fans will recognize the Aliens influence. There's a standard Cameron didn't follow, though. In films that have heroes and villains, the quality of the film is always directly proportionate to the quality of the villain. There was no villain here that compared to the creatures in Aliens. That's its only shortcoming. See it on the big screen or in IMAX, if you can.

The only thing any football fan can say about the Cardinals-Packers playoff game yesterday is WOW. Those two teams put on a great show. Looking forward to a great game this Saturday in the SuperDome, too. The Cards are a tough opponent for the Saints. Both defenses will be tested. If either team can play any, that will be the difference.

5 song iTune shuffle:

1. I Can't Believe That You're In Love With Me (1983 Satchmo Version) 3:31 Louis Armstrong Sings - Back Through The Years/A Centennial Celebration (Disc 1)
2. You Know Who You Are 4:50 Survivor Greatest Hits
3. Oh Well 92 Fleetwood Mac Then Play On
4. Bomb 3:23 Bush Sixteen Stone
5. My Sharona 43 The Knack Rock Of The 70's

I don't agree with today's QOTD. The Packers have a terrific offense with Aaron Rodgers.

Quote of the Day

Now, the saint of Arizona football must face a team of Saints. The New Orleans offense makes the Packers look dull. Buckle up, folks. The fun has just begun.

Dan Bickley, The Arizona Republic

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "One of the most exciting games in recent memory ended amid controversy Sunday evening. Karlos Dansby's fumble return for a touchdown gave the Cardinals a 51-45 victory over the Packers, but Packer Nation is up in arms with two specific no-calls."

I'm usually a fan of letting the players play but I think there were way too many non-calls in that game. Larry Fitzgerald should have been called for offensive pass interference on both of his touchdowns. he knocked his defenders down to the ground. -Rob