Melissa

Julia makes the case to Steve for naming their child Melissa, after the influencial Melissa Rivers.

Mammogram

A scene from last night's Salute Jive show. Julia does stand-up and shares something a little personal...

Panang Curry: Satay

Went to Satay for some Panang and I have to say it looks a lot better than it tasted. The curry at the very least had some peanut flavor and another veggie besides peppers(peas!) but it was lacking in many ways. There was no spice and the consistency was incredibly thick almost gelatinous. Anytime I get Panang and the waitress doesn't ask me how spicy I'd like it that's usually an indicator that it's not going to be very good. Also, Satay is a Thai/Sushi place which I feel like always means their Thai cuisine is lacking. Punam also got the Panang.

Punam:(dramatic frown) This is the worst Panang I've ever had.

It wasn't the worst I've had but certainly up there. Maybe I shouldn't be too hard on them because it's not exclusively Thai but still...For the second week in a row the highlight of the meal was the Thai iced coffee. Time to break out of this streak and find some good Panang. Would I go again?

No.

'Drive' A Review

'Drive' starts out as a good film. A strong complicated protagonist, nice action, quiet moments, a compelling love interest. Gosling is a stuntman who moonlights as a getaway driver who has aspirations of stock car racing. He meets Carey Mulligan and her kid and finds out what a real family life could be like.

The movie takes a turn about forty minutes in with pointless violence, unrealistic character motivations, and plot lines that make no sense and others which are abandoned. It feels like the studio took over about half way through the movie with no consideration to telling an interesting story or making a cohesive narrative.

The score of the film as well as the titles have a distinctive 80's feel which doesn't mesh well with any part of the film. The acting is OK, certainly not bad, but the film doesn't really make sense. It's not clear what the film is suppose to be or how we're suppose to feel about any of the characters.

Rent It.

A Song of Ice and Fire

I just finished 'A Dance With Dragons' the most recent in George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series. The fifth of seven. The fantasy series seemed to take the improv world by storm last winter before the HBO series premiered. A lot of people got hooked on it, including myself. As I progressed through the series however I became slightly turned off because it seemed George didn't really know where to go with the story. The fourth book in the series is set in the same time frame as the third but with a whole new collection of different characters. Not that the characters aren't interesting or their stories compelling but to me it seemed a delaying tactic. He's set up this really compelling interesting story where you want to know what happens and he's drawing it out to a painful length.

'A Dance With Dragons' came out this past July and I didn't really hear much about it after the initial release date. I just finished it and I realized why. No real action takes place. Don't get me wrong it's well written, interesting, and a page turner but it never gets anywhere. Every storyline is just a work in progress with no resolution and no end in site. At this point Geroge has written so many chapters from the perspective of so many characters we only get to hear from any given character two or three times in a thousand page book.

I enjoy the story, I can't wait to see how it ends but this most recent book left me wanting in every way. We got hints and glimpses of possible revelations to come but after a thousand pages I want and deserve more. Also there was a six year gap between the 4th and 5th book in the series so who knows when the next one will come out.

Talk about literary blue balls.

'50/50' A Review

'50/50' is a film about a young man who gets cancer and how he deals with it. It's funny, light, touching, and rings both true and false at points. Adam(Joseph Gordon-Levitt) has a flaky girlfriend who he doesn't know how to deal with, an over anxious mother, and a best friend Kyle(Seth Rogen) who takes nothing seriously. The movie plays out through his relationships with these three and their reactions to his cancer diagnosis.

A big part of the film is his frequent chemo treatments and his subsequent visits to his therapist Katie(Anna Kendrick). The most touching truthful parts of the film Adam's scenes with his fellow patients. The scenes are brief but you get a palpable genuineness from them, a playfulness.

The friendship between Adam and Kyle is great. It brings a lightness to the serious situation without making light of it. Just because you have cancer doesn't make you lose your sense of humor. Some people don't know exactly what to say to someone in that situation and the movie addresses that. There are two big black spots on the film for me. First is the doctor who gives Adam the news. He's so obtuse and distant he almost doesn't tell Adam he has cancer. A doctor with the worst bedside manner of all time would have been clearer and more compassionate. The second is Adam's girlfriend Rachel(Bryce Dallas Howard). She was played like a mustache twirling villain when they could have made her a real person and added a dimension to the film.

The movie was funny and (for the most part) felt true.

See It.

Graffiti 37

I can't decide if this is a mohawk or a Spartan helmet.

"We bow down before no man." -Spartan Saying

"I think punk rock, especially for me, was a big middle finger to this whole talent thing." -Mike Watt