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Dec. 10th, 2006 10:24 pm
recommendations
I saw Borat today. It is really fucking funny, but I would not recommend a second viewing. A lot of the humor is dependent on the element of surprise. The Rolling Stone magazine I bought actually had as the main feature a lengthy interview with Sasha Baron Cohen (as himself), and it's pretty fascinating. He claims that the ideas for his characters came to fruition when he realized how upper-class, white people would often just keep being polite instead of telling him to shove off or something.
I think I am, however, traumatized by the two naked hairy men scene...
30 Rock is also really fucking funny. I kept bugging Mark to TiVo it, but it conflicted with one of his shows. Good thing the show switched their timeslot, because now we can watch it. I love Tina Fey and I actually would occasionally watch SNL when she did Weekend Update. It's not really comparable to Studio 60 (which, even though I like it, is the preachiest of the preachy liberal shows I watch, including Boston Legal. Boston Legal survives not being most preachy because of the power of James Spader's charisma. ^_^) But I love the humor of the show - weird and nonsensical and yet utterly relatable. "I am a robot. I am a stabbing robot." - had us both rolling on the floor.
Aisha Tyler is my favorite guest reviewer for the Ebert & Roeper show. (Note to all male movie critics: PLEASE STOP TELLING US HOW YOU MASTURBATE.) She has almost the same taste as mine in movies - a tendency to like the violent action, good comedy, and occasionally fall for the chick flick. And plus she recommended Infernal Affairs right before The Departed came out. I also liked Kevin Smith, who I think should actually be a full time movie critic - it's obvious that he absolutely loves movies, and he's a great analyst, and he judges movies the Ebert way - on what a movie is trying to be - whether it's an action flick or period piece or kid's movie, and not whether each movie is The Greatest Movie Ever. I liked A.O. Scott, too - he seemed pretty laidback.
Mark's been getting way into Six Feet Under - Bravo is re-running it a lot, so he just TiVos the episodes. I haven't really been watching it - and have been skimming off and on. But dude, full on gay characters acting like real people! I like it so far, and I like all the characters a lot. If I could remember their names I'd say a lot more about them.
We walked into Savvy Cellar after watching the movie. Redwood City is undergoing some gentrification, and their new downtown is still quiet, but attracting more people these days. The place is a wine shop/wine bar that's been open for about a year where you can do wine tastings or bring a bottle home. The cool thing about it is that all the wines are priced reasonably at $39 or less, and they are all rated 90 points or more by leading wine critics. Now, even though I like wine, and have only started to seriously learn about it in the past year or two, I still know next to nothing. I had a great Riesling - the owner was working at the time and she poured me a full glass that I didn't even finish halfway. Mark had a Cabernet Sauvignon. They also had a little snack menu, but we'd just eaten popcorn at the movies, so we didn't get anything. They also had memberships - for $49.95 you would get two bottles a month, discounts on wines, wine classes, 75% off private party events, etc. There was one Asian gentleman who kept pushing us to buy - he was a realtor, and he wasn't even working for the place but he was giving us the hard sell - every ten minutes he would say, "So, you getting a membership? Buy today!" He was actually getting on the owner's nerves and she told him to stop bugging us and to let us drink in peace. It was surreal because every single salesperson in China was like that. We also chatted with a really drunk indie girl who went on and on about blood diamonds, so much so that I almost turned my own ring around.
We didn't get a membership, but we'll probably go back or bring some friends to kick it there. (Note to our nerd friends: free wireless!) I'm really wary of getting sucked in to things like that. We still don't have a Netflix account, even though we've been meaning to get one for like the past two years. I actually really like our local video store - they have a good selection (good bit of Asian movies, which I like), and reasonable prices and late fees, and they don't censor stuff like Blockbuster does.
I think I am, however, traumatized by the two naked hairy men scene...
30 Rock is also really fucking funny. I kept bugging Mark to TiVo it, but it conflicted with one of his shows. Good thing the show switched their timeslot, because now we can watch it. I love Tina Fey and I actually would occasionally watch SNL when she did Weekend Update. It's not really comparable to Studio 60 (which, even though I like it, is the preachiest of the preachy liberal shows I watch, including Boston Legal. Boston Legal survives not being most preachy because of the power of James Spader's charisma. ^_^) But I love the humor of the show - weird and nonsensical and yet utterly relatable. "I am a robot. I am a stabbing robot." - had us both rolling on the floor.
Aisha Tyler is my favorite guest reviewer for the Ebert & Roeper show. (Note to all male movie critics: PLEASE STOP TELLING US HOW YOU MASTURBATE.) She has almost the same taste as mine in movies - a tendency to like the violent action, good comedy, and occasionally fall for the chick flick. And plus she recommended Infernal Affairs right before The Departed came out. I also liked Kevin Smith, who I think should actually be a full time movie critic - it's obvious that he absolutely loves movies, and he's a great analyst, and he judges movies the Ebert way - on what a movie is trying to be - whether it's an action flick or period piece or kid's movie, and not whether each movie is The Greatest Movie Ever. I liked A.O. Scott, too - he seemed pretty laidback.
Mark's been getting way into Six Feet Under - Bravo is re-running it a lot, so he just TiVos the episodes. I haven't really been watching it - and have been skimming off and on. But dude, full on gay characters acting like real people! I like it so far, and I like all the characters a lot. If I could remember their names I'd say a lot more about them.
We walked into Savvy Cellar after watching the movie. Redwood City is undergoing some gentrification, and their new downtown is still quiet, but attracting more people these days. The place is a wine shop/wine bar that's been open for about a year where you can do wine tastings or bring a bottle home. The cool thing about it is that all the wines are priced reasonably at $39 or less, and they are all rated 90 points or more by leading wine critics. Now, even though I like wine, and have only started to seriously learn about it in the past year or two, I still know next to nothing. I had a great Riesling - the owner was working at the time and she poured me a full glass that I didn't even finish halfway. Mark had a Cabernet Sauvignon. They also had a little snack menu, but we'd just eaten popcorn at the movies, so we didn't get anything. They also had memberships - for $49.95 you would get two bottles a month, discounts on wines, wine classes, 75% off private party events, etc. There was one Asian gentleman who kept pushing us to buy - he was a realtor, and he wasn't even working for the place but he was giving us the hard sell - every ten minutes he would say, "So, you getting a membership? Buy today!" He was actually getting on the owner's nerves and she told him to stop bugging us and to let us drink in peace. It was surreal because every single salesperson in China was like that. We also chatted with a really drunk indie girl who went on and on about blood diamonds, so much so that I almost turned my own ring around.
We didn't get a membership, but we'll probably go back or bring some friends to kick it there. (Note to our nerd friends: free wireless!) I'm really wary of getting sucked in to things like that. We still don't have a Netflix account, even though we've been meaning to get one for like the past two years. I actually really like our local video store - they have a good selection (good bit of Asian movies, which I like), and reasonable prices and late fees, and they don't censor stuff like Blockbuster does.
